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Old Settler's Stories

The following articles (in chronological order, and totaling 245 pages in my Word document), taken mostly from the Alton Telegraph, were transcribed over many years of research. The dates of the articles range from 1853 to 1949, and more may be added as they are found. These old settlers' stories are priceless, in that they are in the words of those who were in Madison County in its early founding, and tell of the hardships and way of life they experienced. I hope when you read them you will learn more of Madison County’s fascinating history.
Beverly Bauser
Madison County ILGenWeb Coordinator

 

NEW MADRID EARTHQUAKE
By Professor P. S. Ruter, Virginia Physician
Source: Alton Telegraph, April 27, 1849
From the Chronicle of Western Literature
A comparatively small number of persons now living can remember the great earthquake of 1811. Few were in such part of the country, as from their proximity to the scene of terror, to realize in their own experience even the general accounts of the phenomenon, now found in geographies and histories of the West.

Though the noise and agitation of the ground was heard and felt as far northward as St. Louis, eastward to Cincinnati, southward to Natchez, and further westward than the white man ever lived, yet, as the violence and fury of the convulsion were concentrated near one particular part of the Mississippi Valley, some thirty or forty miles West of the village of New Madrid, Missouri, and as that whole region of country was but thinly settled; moreover, as most of the inhabitants around New Madrid were French immigrants, a great portion of whom, having lost cattle, houses, and even families by the earthquake, returned in despair to Canada – for all these reasons, it is rarely that you can meet at this day, even among the old men of the Western country, one who can give you any personal recollection of the terrible night of December 24, 1811.

Geographies, histories, travelers’ notes, &c., tell of the strange and dreadful changes wrought in the whole face of the country on that most fearful night – of the huge chasms, still remaining and to be seen in the southeastern Missouri, running northeast and southwest, at right angles to the apparent path of the earthquake. They describe how, for many miles, the banks of the Mississippi caved and fell in, while the bed of the river rose so high at one place that for six hours, the great Father of Waters flowed northward toward his sources. How, at another place, near New Madrid, a fall or cajaract [sic] of six or eight feet was created, which remained for several days, till the current washed it level. How, in northwestern Tennessee, what was once the bed of a lake, level with and supplied from the channel of the Mississippi, became what it now is, an elevated and beautiful prairie. How, for miles, the channel of the St. Francis River was utterly and permanently changed. How the islands in the Mississippi River did not escape the general convulsion – some sinking, others and new ones rising; some being split in two, as for instance Island No. 10, of which the middle sank so deep, that for years the main channel of the river ran through the gap. How Island No. 3 experienced a complete _________ - the largest trees being found roots upward, in which position they remained to the terror and destruction of steamboats, until recently the most dangerous of them have been removed by Captain Shreve, with the U.S. snag boats.

But nothing I have ever yet seen in print has equaled my own recollection of the occurrences of that dreadful night. It is possible that the exciting circumstances under which I was witness to the scenes of the earthquake, added both to its peculiar terrors and to the effect they would naturally produce upon anyone; but of this the readers can judge, for I am going to describe them.

Graduating in the Spring of 1811 at the Medical University of ________, and returning home, I was during some months hesitating in what part of the country to locate, for the practice of my profession. The East was already tolerably stocked with physicians, but the West, even at that early day, was opening its “El Durado stores of promised wealth to the adventurer in almost any profession or occupation. And though the privations and self-denial of frontier life were little to my taste, I determined at least to visit before fixing my choice elsewhere, this new land of promise, which, if not like the fabled Pactolus, washing golden sands, was still believed to be almost literally flowing with milk and honey.

 

OLD TIME STORIES
By One Who Was There
Source: Alton Daily Telegraph, April 6, 1853
"I find that the early history of Madison County is becoming lost in oblivion. The first paper published in Madison County was the Edwardsville Spectator, established in 1810 by Mr. Hooper Warren, and conducted by him with considerable ability for six years, when it passed into other hands, and at the close of its seventh year, was discontinued – not from want of patronage, but because its owner did not choose, and its printer was not able, for want of capital, to continue it.

In 1821(?), Mr. Edward Breath, now in Perrin, Illinois, commenced the publication of a paper at Upper Alton, from which it was removed, as soon as an office could be procured, to Lower Alton, now the city of Alton. That office was in the upper story of the first warehouse built west of Piasa Creek, by James S. Lane, and which Messrs. Bruner tore down last summer to put up their fine warehouse. Having acquired his trade in the office of the Edwardsville Spectator, and admiring the principles on which that paper had been conducted, as well as the integrity of his former “boss” (Mr. Hooper Warren), Mr. Breath gave his paper the name of the Alton Spectator, under which name it gained quite a reputation, both for editorial and mechanical ability. For a short time, at first, Mr. O. M. Adams was connected with the enterprise. I do not remember how long Mr. Breath continued the Spectator, but although its prospects were good, the want of present capital was so embarrassing that he sold the establishment, and from a Whig it became a Democratic paper under the editorial conduct for a while of Mr. Hudson, and then of Dr. Hart. It was, I think, while the latter gentleman conducted it – and it was then ably edited – that Messrs. Treadway & Parks started the Alton Telegraph, which the present senior not long after purchased, and has continued ever since to conduct with his well-known ability.

I know but little of subsequent attempts – more than that such attempts have been made – to get up papers in Alton, but there is another old time that which ought not to be omitted. During the “convention struggle,” which commenced in the session of 1822-1823, and continued to the election in August 1824; and which was an attempt to get up a Convention for the purpose of introduction slavery into our State, another paper – I forget its title [editor’s note: the name of the paper was the Star of the West] – was started in Edwardsville, and edited by the late Judge Theophilus W. Smith. The contest between the prominent lawyer and the unpretending printer was quite interesting. There were several other papers to the State engaged on both sides of the question, but none perhaps with more vigor and talent than these. The National Intelligencer said at the close that “the question of Convention or no Convention in Illinois is decided in the negative, after as thorough a discussion as any subject ever had.” In fact, both parties gained their object – slavery was kept out, and its advocates got all the offices.
Signed by One Who Was there,Up the River, March 23, 1853."

 

REPLY TO “OLD TIME STORIES”
Written by “O”
Source: Alton Daily Telegraph, April 16, 1853
“One who was there” very justly remarks that “the early history of Madison County is becoming lost in oblivion.” This may, however, be prevented if those early settlers of the county who still remain among us will at once communicate to the newspaper press their recollections of events which happened in the infancy of our county.

I came to this county in 1817, the year before Illinois became a State. Of course, there are many who can relate much earlier events in our history than I can. In regards to the early newspaper establishments in the county:

1. The “Edwardsville Spectator” was established in the summer of 1819 at Edwardsville, by Mr. Hooper Warren, who conducted it five or six years, and transferred it to Messrs. Lippincott & Abbott. It was a few years afterwards discontinued. Mr. Warren was recently, and probably still is, a resident of Marshall County, Illinois.

2. The “Star of the West” was established at Edwardsville by Messrs. Miller & Stine, in 1822.

3. In 1823, the last-named establishment passed into the hands of Messrs. Thomas J. McGuire and Co.; the name of the paper was changed to the Illinois Republican; it was edited by the late Judge Smith, and devoted to the support of the Convention question, which was warmly agitated in 1823-24.

4. In 1830, a paper called “the Crisis,” was published in Edwardsville by S. S. Brooks, Esq.

5. In 1832, the “Illinois Advocate” was published in Edwardsville by John York Sawyer, Esq. This paper was afterwards published at Vandalia, where Judge Sawyer departed this life.

6. A paper was afterwards published at Edwardsville by the late James Ruggles, called, if I rightly recollect, the “Weekly Western Mirror.”

7. After an interregnum of some duration, the “Madison County Record” was established by Messrs. Smith & Ruggles – being the seventh and last establishment of the kind at our venerable county seat. This paper has recently become merged in the Alton Telegraph.

At Alton, the first paper established was the “Alton Spectator,” commenced at Upper Alton in 1831 by Mr. Edward Breath, now in Perrin. It was afterwards removed to Alton city, and after Mr. Breath disposed of it, it passed through a variety of hands, and finally died out.

The second paper at Upper Alton was the “Western Pioneer,” published in 1836, 1837, and 1838 by Ashford Smith & Co.

The second paper established in Alton city was the “Alton Telegraph.” In 1836, by Messrs. Treadway & Parks. In 1837, Mr. Treadway having deceased, the present Senior Editor became connected with the establishment. The Telegraph has been continued more than 17 years, and is, I believe, the oldest paper in the State.

Several other papers, I believe, have been started at Alton and continued but a short time. Their names, and those of their publishers, have escaped my memory. Some historian of Alton will doubtless interfere to prevent them from being lost in oblivion.

The last paper is the “Alton Courier,” established about the beginning of 1852 by G. T. Brown & Co. This promises to be more permanent than its predecessors of the same party have been.

Somewhat over two years ago, I read in some paper (I think the Madison County Record – a kind of supplement to the Census of Madison County) in which an attempt was made to state who were the “first settlers” in each of the towns in the county. The name of Colonel Rufus Easton was given as the first settler of Alton; that of William Collins as the first settler of Collinsville; and Messrs. David Hendershot and James Riggin were named as the first settlers of Troy. In all these cases, the statement was incorrect, unless a very unusual definition is given to the word settler.

Alton - Colonel Easton was the founder and proprietor of Alton, but he never resided there. St. Louis was the place of his residence, though I believe he removed to St. Charles before he died. Who was the first settler – that is, the first man who resided on the land now occupied by the city of Alton – is more than I can tell.

Collinsville – Section 34, township 3 north, range 8 west (the land on which the old part of Collinsville was located) was entered at the Land Office by Messrs. Augustus and Anson Collins, on January 9(?), 1818. They soon commenced improvements thereon; and were joined by two of their brothers, Messrs. Michael and William B. Collins. A town was laid out and named “Unionville.” In the fall of 1822, Deacon William Collins, the father of the gentlemen already named, with his wife, one son, and three daughters, emigrated to Unionville, the name of which was then, or soon afterwards, changed to Collinsville. Who was the first settler of Collinsville I am unable to say with certainty. I have understood, however, that the late John Cook resided upon the townsite before it was purchased from the United States, and that the Messrs. Collins paid him for his improvements.

Troy – Messrs. Hendershot and Riggin were the founders and proprietors of Troy. They gave it that name, it having previously been called Columbia. Mr. Riggin resided in Troy, and was therefore a settler, but if my memory serves me, other persons settled upon the townsite before he did, and therefore he could not properly be styled the first settler. Probably he was one of the men who were settled upon the townsite when it received the name of Troy. Mr. Hendershot once resided in the vicinity of Troy, but never in the town. He was, therefore, not a settler of Troy, in the usual acceptation of the term. The northeast quarter of Section 9, township 8 north, range 7 west (on a part of which stands the town of Troy) was entered at the Land Office by the late John Jarvis on September 10, 1814. Signed “O.”

 

OLD SETTLER
By Moses Lemen
Source: Alton Weekly Courier, December 6, 1855
To the editor of the Courier: “I do not know that I have ever had a personal introduction to you, a thing that would please me much, but I have seen and read several numbers of the Alton Weekly Courier, and can say that I am well pleased with its spirit, matter, and politics, and hope it may find a wide circulation and substantial patronage. I wish to become a subscriber.

I am an old man, an old settler, and an old hunter. I am a genuine sucker [native of Illinois], born in Illinois in the days of butcher knives, moccasins, and leather hunting shirts, and have trod on the snows of near three score winters, and the flowers of as many summers. I have seen Illinois pass through her various grades of government, until she took her proud stand as a sovereign and independent State. I was a lobby member at old Kaskaskia, at the forming of the first State Constitution, and heard Jesse B. Thomas deliver his inaugural address as president of the Constitutional Convention body. I have seen the widespread prairie of Illinois, where the wild deer, elk, and buffalo were wont to gambol, converted into rich fields of waving grain, orchards, and flowery gardens, and where the war dance was once held and the pole stood that supported the scalps dripping with human blood, now stand houses of worship of the living God.

If you wish, I will furnish for your paper some sketches of Indian eloquence and oratory, savage cruelty, exploits of backwoods huntsmen, in pursuit of the wild stag, bear, and wolf, and now and then an anecdote on marriage customs in Illinois.

You are fully aware of the responsibility of that man who fills the editorial chair. That the world is letting go of books and taking hold of newspapers as a medium of information, is manifest to every observer. Newspaper reading is bound to mould the character of the rising generation to a great extent, and its influence for weal or for woe is yet untold. How important, then, that an editor should be a man of integrity, veracity, and talent. Many of those who have conducted the press, heretofore, have done so to promote the interest of some political party or demagogue, and by so doing have traduced and aspersed the characters of many worthy citizens, the public peace destroyed, and the cause of truth injured. Many of those who profess the religion of the meek and lowly Savior have dipped their pen so deep in gall, and have exhibited such a spirit of war, that a savage from the wilderness has been induced to send them a battle axe. Think it not flattery sir, when I say the Courier is a sheet of truth.

'Truth crushed to earth, will rise again;
The eternal years of God are hers;
While error wounded, writhes in pain,
And dies amid her worshippers.'

My place of address is Walshville, Montgomery County, Illinois. Signed, Rev. Moses Dodge Lemen."

 

EDITOR’S NOTE:

The following 43 articles, titled "Early Days in Madison County," were written by Reverend Thomas Lippincott from August 26, 1864 to July 28, 1865. Reverend Lippincott (1791-1869) settled in Edwardsville in 1818, and was a strong foe of slavery. He was active in opposing the adoption of a pro-slavery constitution for Illinois in 1824. In 1825-26 he edited, in association with Hooper Warren, the Edwardsville Spectator. He then became a minister of the Presbyterian Church and associated himself with its activities throughout Illinois. When he first came to Madison County, Illinois,  he operated a general store in the town of Milton, between present-day Alton and East Alton. Reverend Lippincott wrote these articles at the request of Willard C. Flagg, Secretary of the Madison County Historical Society.

Annotations by George Churchill
George Churchill’s career paralleled Thomas Lippincott's, who assisted Hooper Warren in editing the Edwardsville Spectator, 1819-25. Churchill actively opposed the pro-slavery movement in Illinois, and served in the Illinois General Assembly, 1822-32, and 1844. Because he voted against the resolution for a convention to revise the constitution in favor of slavery, he was burned in effigy at Troy by pro-slavery constituents. Included below are some of his annotations concerning Reverend Thomas Lippincott's “Early Days in Madison County.”

 

EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 1
By Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, August 26, 1864
"I was very imprudent to allow myself to be beguiled into a sort of a promise to call up the memories of the years that are long past. I am in the predicament of him who boasted to Hotspur that he could “call spirits from the vastly deep,” when the spicy gentleman significantly asked, “But will they come, when you do call them?” I am afraid not, very readily, and not very regularly, yet I will try.

I came to Madison County in the Autumn of 1818. In fact, it was the first day of winter when I arrived with my family to reside. But it may not be intolerable in an old man’s story to go back a little and tell how it happened.

The trip down the Ohio River from Pittsburg to Shawneetown would be more interesting to hear about than to perform, as we did. But I neither can nor desire to enter into particulars. We started ('we' may be understood to designate my wife, my child, and myself, together with all my worldly goods – but on the boat “we” included another family, consisting of a man, his wife, two children, and a young lady, who united ….. [missing]). Well, we started, as I was going to say, on December 01, 1817, and on the 30th day of the same month, landed at Shawneetown. The most notable event of the voyage is thus written in my diary, under date December 18: “Was passed by the steamboat (about two o’clock) built by Evans, Steckhouse & Rogers, of Pittsburg. She moved majestically along at a rapid rate.” This was the first steamboat we saw on the Ohio, and the only one we saw on our twenty-nine days trip.

I feel inclined to copy the minute made by me in regard to one place. We had descended the Falls in an oar boat during a heavy rain and fog, and our women and children and beds were very wet. In consequence, we went ashore to obtain lodging for the folks while we could dry the bedding, and were hospitably and kindly entertained by Mr. Nathaniel Scribner, one of the proprietors of the town, with whom my wife had been formerly acquainted. After leaving, I wrote thus: “New Albany is pleasantly situated on the right bank of the Ohio River in Indiana, and in my opinion, bids fair to become a place of great business. Enterprise is a characteristic of the proprietors, and many lots have been sold. There are at present, ninety families (Mr. N. Scribner informed me) in the place, some good frame houses, a number of log dwellings, an elegant brick house and store, owned by Mr. Paxson, late of the house of Lloyd, Smith, and Paxson of Philadelphia, and a steam mill, driving two saws and one run of stones. Two steamboats are on the stocks, and three more are to be shortly put up. A ferry, having a great run of business, is established here.” Such was New Albany, and such its prospects, as they appeared to me on Christmas Day, 1817. I have never stepped on its shore since, and cannot, therefore, describe its present or foretell its future, except from the current history.

On landing at Shawneetown, we found a village not very prepossessing, the houses, with one exception, being set up on posts several feet above the earth. The periodical overflow of the river accounted for this, and I imagine the exception, a brick house, was hardly as agreeable residence when the inhabitants went from house to house in boats (an annual occurrence) as the less pretentious log dwellings.

After a detention of several weeks at Shawneetown – while we were told the roads were impassable on account of mud – a hard freeze and storm covered the face of the earth with solid ice, and procuring a horse, I set out with my family and my “plunder,” as the people along the road would call it, in a little Dearborn wagon, to cross the country to St. Louis, leaving my companions at Shawneetown. The _____ on which we started became slow, as we advanced, and we waded through it slowly, wearily, from the 6th to the 17th of February 1818, except two days spent in the kind and hospitable family of Judge Lemen, at New Design, near where Waterloo now is, when we saw and crossed the majestic Mississippi, and for a few _____ are residents of St. Louis.

Such was traveling in the Territory of Illinois. The road a mere path, and thro the woods indicated by “three back” trees. The only towns or villages that we saw were Kaskaskia, the seat of the Territorial government, and Prairie de Rocher, a few miles from St. Louis. It will take another paper to get me over to Alton.

I arrived at Louisville, Kentucky, February 15, 1817, and left for St. Louis, June 5, on the keelboat Dolphia, Captain Billings. During my stay at Louisville, I worked at the printing business, a part of the time in the office of the Louisville Courier, published by N. Clarke, and another part of the time in the office of the Correspondent, published by Elijah Berry, afterwards well known as the Auditor of Public Accounts of the State of Illinois."

Annotation by George Churchill:
"Mr. Lippincott’s mention of Mr. Paxson reminds me that during my stay at Louisville, a Mr. Paxsen was drowned in a creek a few miles from New Albany, Indiana, while attempting to swim his horse across the same, when the water had been swelled by a sudden freshet. Such disasters were of frequent occurrence in the “early days” of the West, when bridges were few and far between. Our own Birkbeck lost his life in a similar manner."

Continuation by Rev. Lippincott: "When the Dolhin arrived at Shawneetown, June 11, my fellow traveler, Mr. Kersey Jones – a tanner from Pennsylvania - and myself, concluded to leave the boat and walk across the country to Kaskaskia. Shawneetown is described in my diary as “a village of about forty houses; no fields, gardens or orchards are to be seen here.” We left Shawneetown on June 11, and reached Kaskaskia on the 16th, tired and footsore. We put up at the hotel of Mr. William Bennett. Mr. Bennett was a Pennsylvanian. He has since resided in Madison County and in Galena, and was the father-in-law of the late Guy Morrison of this county. This hotel appeared to be the rallying point of most of the Territorial officers, such as Governor Edwards, Secretary Phillips, Delegate Pope, and Colonel Michael Jones of the Land Office. The latter took a fancy to my fellow-traveler, claimed him as his nephew, and offered to set him up in business if he would stay. But Kersey Jones disliked the country, would go and look at Saint Louis, and then return to Pennsylvania. We stayed six days at Kaskaskia, then proceeded to Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, where we learned that the Dolphin had left the landing only an hour before. We walked up the riverbank about two miles, overtook the boat, got on board, and arrived at Saint Louis on June 27, 1817. We put up at the Green Tree Inn, kept by Daniel Freeman, formerly of Dover, New Hampshire. Travelers by steam at the present day will look with wonder on the record of journeys made forty-eight years ago."

 

EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO 2
By Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, September 02, 1864
"In a few days after my arrival in Saint Louis, I was employed for a little while to do some writing for Rufus Easton, Esq., a lawyer of wealth and prominence in the Territory of Missouri, of which he had been the delegate in Congress. One of the jobs executed by me for him was making a fair copy of a plat or map of Alton, a town which he had laid out the previous year on the banks of the Mississippi in Illinois. This map was designed for exhibition at the East, in order to effect the sales of lots. I took some pains to make it look well, and I believe, gave satisfaction.

After a few months spent by me as clerk in a store, Colonel Easton proposed to me that I should take a stock of goods, in partnership with him, and keep a store at Alton or neighborhood, and accordingly I became a resident as before said in Illinois – now became a State – on December 01, 1818. It was not in Alton that my store was opened. Alton was in embryo. When Colonel Easton brought me first in his gig to see the place, there was a cabin not far, I should think, from the southeast corner of the penitentiary wall, or corner of State and Short Street, occupied by the family of a man whom the Colonel had induced to establish a ferry in competition with Smeltzer’s ferry, a few miles above. I forgot the name of this ferryman, and indeed the names of almost everybody else then extant (which is the reason why I said it was imprudent in me to attempt these sketches), but his habitation was about as primitive and unsightly as I had seen anywhere. I do not think he was overworked by the business of his ferry at that time, for the old road passed north and out of sight, and it was not easy to persuade travelers to try the new one, even if they ever heard of it, which was probably rather seldom.

Let me tell a few things about the origin and early years of Alton. In the first place, Colonel Easton laid out in 1817 or before the town fronting on the Mississippi River, consisting of the streets between and including, I believe, Henry Street on the East, and Piasa Street on the West. I do not remember how far north it extended, but think not further than Tenth Street. This may not be correct, and if the original plat, or boundaries, can be found, which is doubtful, it might be interesting to the curious to ascertain the facts. I know the valley, now the east part of town, was not in the first map. The town immediately had a rival. Mr. Joseph Meacham laid out Upper Alton, and published it abroad as if it were part of Alton, but on the hill. I believe purchasers discovering that it was 2 miles away from the landing expressed dissatisfaction; whereupon Mr. Meacham purchased what was called the Bates farm, laid it out, and advertised it as Alton On the River. This last enterprise was purchased by Major Charles W. Hunter, perhaps in 1818, and has since been popularly known as Hunterstown, and has very properly been incorporated into the city of Alton. I did not, in those days, expect to see the three separate enterprises united as they now substantially are, into one thriving business and commercial place.

Litigation kept Alton from improving some ten or twelve years. Several of the leading lawyers of Illinois purchased or possessed a title adverse to that of Colonel Easton, to the land on which he had laid out his town. Such men as Ninian Edwards, the Territorial Governor, Nathaniel Pope, so long the able District Judge, and others, would bring wealth, legal talent, and perseverance into the conflict, and Colonel Easton had them all to contend against. Of course, no permanent improvements, nor extensive purchases would be made while this contest was going on. I know not who had the right, or the law in the case, nor do I believe anybody else ever knew, and when the parties got tired of their unprofitable contest, they compromised by dividing the land. Of this division, I only know that Edwards, Pope, and Co. got some of the northern portion, and laid out some beautiful lots which are now occupied by the elegant houses of Mr. Bowman and others, on a line with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. This difficulty being removed, improvements began to be made, and the village of Alton began to be. But I must go back and tell a little – all that I can remember – of the day of a small thing."

Annotations on Lippincott’s No. 2 by George Churchill
"It was either in 1818 or 1819 that I attended at Colonel Easton’s Alton, where the proprietor was to offer some of his city lots for sale, and for that purpose, displayed a beautiful map, which had been prepared in accordance with this advice of one of the posts of that day:

The most important point, perhaps lies in the drawing of the maps,
The painter there must try, By mingling yellow, red and green,
To make the most delightful scene, That ever met the eye.

There were Gospel Lots, an Observatory Square, College Lots, and I know not how many other reservations for public and charitable purposes, delineated on the map. The company was not numerous, yet two gentlemen from the State of New York were there, viz: Mr. Reuben Hyde Walworth, afterwards Chancellor of the State of New York ___ ____ ____ [unreadable] think no lots were sold. There were three or four buildings east of Little Piasa, but no improvements west of that stream.

In the latter part of 1819 and the forepart of 1820, John Pitcher advertised that he kept the Fountain Ferry. His advertisement was succeeded in the Edwardsville Spectator, on the February 22, 1820, by that of Mr. Eneas Pembrook who added that he also kept a tavern. Both the ferrymen advertised that the road from Milton, by Fountain Ferry, to Madame Griffith’s near Portage des Sioux, is three miles shorter than any other road now traveled between said places, and that at Fountain Ferry a boat could cross three times in less time than it could cross once at any other ferry on the same river in this State. I know not at what ferry the immigrant for Boone’s Lick, mentioned by Parson Flint, crossed the Mississippi, but when he got into the Point Prairie, St. Charles County, Missouri, where the soil is as rich as fresh soil can be, he dug up some of the black soil and exclaimed: 'If the land is so rich here, what must it be at Boone’s Lick!'

The Bates farm was afterwards called 'Hunterstown.'

Joseph Meacham laid out the town now called Upper Alton in 1817 or before, upon land on which only one-fourth of the price had been paid. He disposed of as many lots as he could by lottery. Each ticket drew one lot, or a larger tract – say thirty acres, more or less. These last were considered high prizes. In 1817, Meacham’s Alton was far ahead of all the other Altons in population and improvements. The people of the adjacent country were in the habit of lumping them all together, and calling them 'Yankee All-town.'

At length, the owners of lots in Meacham’s Alton discovered that they were in danger of having said lots forfeited to the United States. To prevent this, they raised the necessary funds, cleared the land out of the Land Office, and appointed Messrs. Ebenezer Hodes, James W. Whitney, Erastus Brown, and Augustus Langworthy to execute new deeds to those who held deeds from Mr. Meacham, on their coming forward and exchanging their old deeds for new ones from the above-named gentlemen. This was accordingly done, and one danger was avoided."

 

EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 3
By Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, September 9, 1864
[Note: This article was extremely hard to read – there are omissions, and possibly errors.]
"The stock of goods which Colonel Easton prepared to put in my hands, and which ______ into Madison County, was to be ________ not of a larger stock that he had ______ on point on the Missouri River, which ______, and I hoped to make valuable as a ferry (called Fountain Ferry), and perhaps a town. The Colonel had purchased a large stock of merchandise and place it in the hands of Ebenezer Huntington, a young man who had made extensive tours in the South as a lecturer and de_____, with no little applause, and in the winter of 1817-18, was starring it in St. Louis on the stage. It was soon found that _____ and dollars’ worth of goods was too much to hold in a place where there was nobody to buy – at least I saw no one _____ near there, and so the Colonel sent a part of it by me to be offered for sale on the east side of the Mississippi.

Hawley’s store was not opened in Alton, ______ _____ there. Sometime in November 1818, I stepped out of a keel boat on to the shore of the Mississippi, and found _____ and my goods under a magnificent grove of Sycamore or Cottonwood trees, _____ from the mouth of what the _____ had named Fountain Creek, but which was, and is better known as Little Piasa, _____ point where the bluff jutted on the river, on which the old Penitentiary was afterwards built. I think there was no house there then but the ferry house, and perhaps a cabin on or near Second Street [Broadway], somewhere south of Alby Street. The hills were crowned with lofty oaks, and formed, as they do now, a splendid outlook over to Missouri and up and down the river. Nature was in her own dress then.

There was a busy, active village even then in the neighborhood. A firm, consisting of John Wallace and Mr. Seely, owned a mill site three miles below on the Wood River, where they had three mills – two saw mills and a grist or flour mill – and they were in full, active operation. Messrs. Wallace and Seely had laid out a town and called it Milton, and were doing a fine business. A distillery a few rods up the Wood River was equally active. A. W. Donohue, a merchant of St. Louis, had put up a building and opened a store at the bridge in Milton, under the charge of Richard T. McKenney, but whether from want of patronage or society, Mr. McKenney ____ before _____ ______ the store in St. Louis. He was afterwards teller and then cashier of the Bank of Edwardsville, and was highly esteemed for his social qualities and strict integrity. To this storehouse, by direction of Colonel Easton, I brought the goods, and the farmers and travelers (for there was a road there, and some travelers) could read the sign, “Lippincott & Co.,” and if they chose, purchase dry goods and groceries as cheap and as good, perhaps, as they can be had now in these war times. I remember I sold coffee at fifty cents a pound, and salt at three dollars a bushel.

A contract had been entered into by Colonel Easton with Daniel Crume and William G. Pinckard for the erection of four log houses. I believe hewn logs, on different parts of the town site. He afterwards changed the plan so far as to unite two of these in one, which was put up on the block between Market and Piasa and Second [Broadway] and Third Streets. I believe that house (which was so long occupied by Mr. Thomas G. Hawley) is still standing, though surrounded by other buildings at least it was there until the brick stores were put up in front of those I have mentioned the name of a gentleman who has always been a resident of Alton, knows its history much more perfecting, and would remember vastly better than I, and I would suggest that one of the proprietors of the Alton Telegraph could probably have access to him and to his more valuable reminiscences. At any rate, I hope my old friend, William G. Pinckard, will look over, correct, and complete the rambling recollections of one whose memory is not only defective, but who is so far away from the place and people of Alton as to have no means of correcting errors, or help in recalling facts.

I have a very indistinct recollect, or imagination, of a row of several small tenements strung along under the sycamores, sometime in the winter of 1819-20, occupied by several families, whose names I cannot recall (unless one of them was named Ward), who did not remain long in the place or neighborhood. It was an ephemeral as humble. But I seem to remember yard and garden fences in a small way. It seems to me these cabins must have been under the first bank, which was where Second Street [Broadway] is, west of Piasa."

Annotations on Lippincott’s No. 3 by George Churchill
"Walter J. Seely moved to Edwardsville, where he kept a public house. He died January 13, 1823. The Star of the West said he was a native of Goshen County, New York, probably meaning Orange County, in which the town of Goshen is situated."

 

EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 4
By Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, September 16, 1864
"I do not get along fast. Three numbers only bring us to the winter of 1818-19, and well little of that. No matter. When the reader gets tired of the early days, or its old writer, he can skip the rest. Or the editors can just cry 'hold, enough,' and the fountain will dry up.

In order to draw travel, a road was necessary to Alton from Milton, and to cross Shield’s Branch, a bridge was indispensable. Accordingly, Colonel Easton made a contract with Joel Finch to build a frame bridge, for which he was to be paid at my store, the sum of two hundred dollars. The bridge was built about or very near the site of the present covered bridge. One or two of the same kind succeeded the original at almost the same price, before the present structure was erected, the road wound somewhat through the Bottom, but was soon run as now along the bluff. There were two families residing between Milton and Alton – or more properly between the Wood River and the Bates’ farm. The first, near Wood River, was owned and occupied by a widow Meacham, who had been there during the late war time – the War of 1812 – and as she told me, was visited by Indians on the same night, I think, on which the Wood River Massacre occurred. The old lady was highly esteemed, and I use to enjoy her conversation much. She had two sons, men grown, and two or three daughters, if I am not mistaken – one of whom was married to Mr. Whitehead, afterwards a thriving and wealthy citizen of St. Louis, and a L____ First Presbyterian Church. If I could talk awhile with Squire Pinckard, I know I could tell a good deal more, and a good deal better about some of the first families of that part of Madison County. The other family on the road was that of Mr. James Smith, nearer Alton. I only know of this family that Mr. Jubilee Posey married a daughter, and that I often enjoyed their hospitality in later years in the neighborhood of Troy, where Mr. Posey was a thrifty and respected farmer.

I can now, familiar as they were to me and long remembered, call to mind but few of the old settlers round Alton at that time. There were besides others, two families scattered along the American Bottom for some miles below Milton - the Gillhams and the Preuitts. Gillham was the last Sheriff of Madison County under the Territorial Government. He owned a fine farm and a ferry on the banks of the Mississippi, opposite the mouth of the Missouri, most of, or at least much of which farm I believe has gone down the river, perhaps to the Gulf of Mexico. In the summer of 1818 or 1819 (I forgot which), I saw several steamboats lying at the bank of Mr. Gillham’s farm – more than I had seen at one time at St. Louis. They were boats employed by Colonel James Johnson, brother to Richard M Johnson, to carry supplies for up the Missouri to Fort Osage, on a contract with the U. S. Government. I suppose such boats would be considered small affairs now, but to me, and many who went to see them, they were rather magnificent. The other Gillhams were settled along near the Long Lake.

The Preuitts occupied farms along the bluff from the Wood River to where the Edwardsville Road ascended the bluff at W. T. Davidson’s. Abraham, William, and Isaac dwelt on the side of the bluff facing the American Bottom, and Solomon somewhere on the table land above. They have all been gone many years to Greene County, I believe. One of them, Isaac, was distinguished as having been the only one who killed one of the Indians who had massacred several of the Moore family in the forks of the Wood River. The pursuit of the Rangers was so hot, however, that it was believed none of the gang ever got back to their tribe alive.

There was a farm and horse mill adjoining Milton, and several fine farms strung along on the west side of the prairie some three or four miles – some of them quite large and all productive. I have since been passed over the same ground, and found it clear prairie. The only indication of settlement being rows of cottonwoods forming a hollow square, and showing where the fences of one of the farms had been. These latter years have filled up this space with farms again.

Above the bluffs, on the table land, I remember several farms which were old settlements when I came to the country. In the forks of the Wood River were three brothers by the name of Moore – George, William, and Abel. The two latter had built them each a brick house, but George still occupied the old log, considerably enlarged, and near him still stood the blockhouse to which the inhabitants resorted to in times of danger, and the powder mill in which they were wont to provide themselves with ammunition."

 

Early Days in Madison County, No. 5
By Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Source: The Alton Telegraph, September 23, 1864
"The inhabitant of the settlement between the two branches of the Wood River, if we may judge from a specimen, increased apace. I was called in 1819, I believe, to marry a couple (for I received a commission as Justice of the Peace within a few months of my arrival at Milton) which was duly performed under the shade of one of the monarchs of the primeval forest. Some years afterwards, I called to see this married pair at their residence on the Woodburn Road, and found them a well-to-do family, the parents in the vigor of life, with sixteen children. I do not know that all the families were equally prosperous, but the population and the farms multiplied in that region.

I had occasion in that year to make a journey into the 'Sangamon Country' (it was not yet in existence at that time). Starting from Milton and ascending the bluffs a short distance from it, the road skirted the Wood River timber on the south side, passing through what was known as Rattan's Prairie [near Bethalto], and continuing entirely in the prairie, after passing the head and timber of that stream a mile to two, perhaps more united with a road that ran from Edwardsville, and so passed North. The farm and house of Jesse Starkey was the last we passed, as I remember, in that region.

Of the inhabitants of that prairie settlement, I can only remember to name William Montgomery, Richard Rattan, Thomas Rattan, Rev. William Jones and Jesse Starkey, aforesaid. There were others, one especially, whose house I often passed in after years on the way to Edwardsville, as well if not better known to me, but whose names I cannot recall. These were all men citizens. I believe their descendants are of substance, and have been prominent people of note in this county or elsewhere at the present day.

In the journey I spoke of, we made many points. There were, after leaving Wood River and launching out into the open sea (prairie) as landmarks, first Dry Point, the head of the southern branch of the Macoupin; then Honey Point, of the Middle Fork; then Slab Point, a little off the road to the left; and next Lake Fork, at the head of the northern branch. From this last the road struck across to Brush Creek, and then to Sugar Creek, waters of the Sangamon River. We staid all night at Honey Point at Mr. Robinson's (father-in-law to George Debaun) and the only house between Jesse Starkey's in Rattan's Prairie and a house on the waters of Sugar Creek, now in Sangamon, but then in Madison County. Soon after (that same season perhaps), Dry Point was occupied, I think by a Mr. Hammer, and Lake Fork was improved by Mr. Henderson. As Mr. Henderson kept a very comfortable and pleasant house of entertainment, at a point where the roads from Edwardsville and Hillsborough (where that was built) to the Sangamon Country, and afterwards Springfield, it became a place of great resort and of course quite noted; but it seems to have been known as Macoupin Point in those after years. The roads being subsequently changed, Mr. Henderson removed his establishment some years afterwards to the prairie where the roads from Madison County to Springfield were crossed by the road from Hillsborough to Jacksonville. After his death, this house was kept by his widow, and then by his son-in-law, Mr. Virden; who, when the railroad (Alton & Springfield) was located removed a few miles in sight of the old place, and gave name to the flourishing village now well known as a point on the St. Louis, Alton & Chicago railroad. But, I am getting ahead of my story.

When I came to Milton there was a public house kept by Joel Bacon, in a cabin near the bridge. In the summer of 1819, he erected a frame house a little higher up, to which he removed his family and tavern (it was not a drinking house) and entertained travelers as comfortably as the circumstances of the country allowed. His wife was a notable and very excellent woman, and his daughters and hers all afterwards married, some in Greene and one in Pike counties, aided in keeping a cleanly and respectable house. I boarded with them in the cabin some weeks or months, until ready to occupy the little room in the rear of my store.

I think it must have been in the summer (or spring) of 1819, that Mr. Robert Collet, a merchant of St. Louis, bought out the interest of Mr. Seely in Milton, and henceforth Wallace and Collett became the proprietors of the village, the mill and the business of Milton. Mr. Collett, however, kept the store - a rather extensive one for the time. My store was separated from the rest of the house simply by lathing. My residence was then in a little cabin near Mr. Bacon's. That big house, after Mr. Bacon's death, being still in its unfinished state, was taken down and taken up to Upper Alton, where it was the residence of George Smith. Perhaps I ought not to omit so trifling a circumstance as the gathering of about a dozen or twenty children - all there were - into our house on Sabbath mornings for religious instruction. My wife, who had had much experience and success in teaching, could not be easy without the effort, and it was made; - and thus, got the name of the first Sabbath School in Illinois."

 

EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 6
By Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, October 7, 1864
"Dr. Langworthy was a man of some note in those days. My memory fails me here again, not only with respect to his name, which I well knew, but with regard to some other persons more or less connected with him. Though I knew and respected them, I find it impossible to recall enough about them to venture any mention of them. One man, of a different class, must not be omitted on account of his after history. A young man by the name of Robert Sinclair (so he wrote it) was well known. He kept a “grocery,” i.e., grog shop, and was one of the boys who could run horses, drink whisky, play cards, and generally and particularly carry out the practices of rowdyism as well as anybody. Being Deputy Sheriff, he was placed in positions of no little responsibility, and I am not aware that in his official or business transactions he failed to discharge his duties acceptably. He was certainly rather illiterate, but shrewd and active, and in person he might be considered a model of manly beauty. That which was the chief incident of his history (in our county) belongs to a later day, and comes more properly in connection with another. He is introduced here simply as one of the early settlers of Upper Alton.

There was another, and very different person on whom my mind loves to dwell. Whether he was among us so soon as this, I am not sure. Perhaps one of the editors of the Telegraph could ascertain and tell. Rev. Nathaniel Pinckard, having preached the gospel as a Methodist minister, in the traveling connection many years, settled down at the late evening of life in the new and crude village of Upper Alton. He had made the accumulations common to the calling: experience, wisdom, the love of God, and his fellow men, the usual infirmities of age, and _____ to toil for a living. His cheerful, genial spirit and kindness of heart, rendered him very attractive to me, and I believe to others. There was one tie that bound us together even more than others – a strong sympathy and agreement on the subject of slavery. My hatred of it was inherited, or at least drawn with my mother’s milk. His was caused or intensified by actual contact and experience. In the course of his ministerial service, he was at one time sent as a missionary to one of the islands of the West Indies, and there he saw it, and having human sympathies, felt it. One illustration, which I had from his own lips, I will give. At one of his stations among the members of his church was a young and beautiful girl – if my recollection is not at fault, intelligent and accomplished, too, whose character and sorrows deeply interested him. Of her piety and good conduct, he seemed to have no doubt. After the relation of minister and member had continued along enough to inspire mutual confidence, she sought his counsel on the most momentous question that can arise in human experience and action. She was a slave. Although the pretext of color was obliterated, she was subject to the will, the caprice of one who wore the garb of a fellow man. This was enough to grind the intelligent and sensitive soul, but this was not all. Her master was her father and her grandfather. With the quick sense of purity and morality awakened by Christian experience and feeling, how keen must have been the emotions of wrong and shame that stung the young disciple, the offspring of lust and incest. But there was a deeper depth of grief and degradation for her. Whether from advances actually made, or from the known character of her brutal master-father I know not, but her soul was harrowed by the fear that he would compel her to submit to his doubly incestuous lust, and her anxious and agonized and repeated inquiry of her pastor was, whether it was not her duty to commit suicide to preserve her chastity. And he confessed to me that it was a question, too awful for him to decide. He could only weep with her, and bid her trust in God and pray for deliverance.

I could add more from his West Indies experience to show the moral horrors of slavery, but choose rather to give a characteristic anecdote of him which may provoke a smile. His residence in Upper Alton (Salu) was at a point where Smeltzer’s ferry road – leading into Missouri – branched off from that which was traveled towards northern Illinois. Of course, the immigrants into Missouri took slaves with them, and it was easy to distinguish them from those intending to settle in our State. One day a moving train came to this point with the usual assortment of colors marking our western neighbors, and either hesitated or were taking the wrong road. Mr. Pinckard ran out and called to them, “Here, you must take the left hand, you with the darkies,” and he added, “I am afraid you will always have to take the left.” He was a good man, and when afterwards I tried to sound the gospel trumpet, although of a different denomination, his sympathies and his prayers helped me.

[The editor of the Telegraph added: Rev. Nathaniel Pinckard was the father of William G. Pinckard, and came to Alton in 1818.]

Dr. Langworthy’s Christian name was Augustus. When I last heard from him, he was living at Tiskilwa, Bureau County, Illinois. I find the following in the Edwardsville Spectator, August 28, 1819:

'Post offices have been established at Alton, Gibraltar, and Carlyle. Dr. Augustus Langworthy is appointed postmaster at the former place, and Thomas F. Herbert, Esq., at the latter.'

I will add that Daniel D. Smith was appointed postmaster at Gibraltar."

 

EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 7
By Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, October 14, 1864
"I hope Mr. Flagg, or whoever may be employed as the historiographer of the Historical Society, has a good planning mill to winnow out the few grains of wheat there may chance to be among the mass of chaff in these rambling sketches, by the old-fashioned hand process would hardly pay, but improvements are the order of the day, and who knows, but some patent separator may soon, or already be discovered by which all that is worth saving may be got out and put away by steam?

Sometime in the winter of 1819-20, perhaps in February, a family arrived in Milton which had a more important relation to myself than to Madison County. And yet the State of Illinois and county of Madison, and even the city of Alton have since felt its influence. I had known Elijah Slater from my first coming to the State. Indeed, we had met on the Ohio River, which we were descending at the same time – he on a raft of lumber, which he had purchased at Olean, and I in the cockle boat previously described. Both stopped a while at St. Louis, and then came to Milton, where a friendship was formed which was cemented by religious sympathies and efforts. After a few months, he returned to his former home, Ithaca, New York, and in the winter aforesaid, arrived in Milton with his family. It may amuse my readers, especially the descendants of that good man, to see an account of his reception in those primitive times.

I had become a widower with a child of some two years. Unwilling to part with the little one, and indeed knowing no one to whom I could entrust her, I prevailed on a kind friend, the daughter of the good Deacon Crocker, at whose house in St. Clair County my wife died, to come home with me and keep house. We were sitting one evening by a bright cabin fire, when a knock was heard and Mr. Slater entered. He informed me that he had brought his whole family along, and expected them to tarry in Milton awhile until he could get a house built on the farm he designed to make. “Well bring them in,” I said. “I don’t know, but it will make too much trouble, and take too much room for them all to come. I guess part of us, at least, had better go to Mr. Seely’s.” Mr. William Seely had come to the West with Mr. Slater, and afterwards settled on the Vermillion River. “Well, bring them in for the present anyhow.” It was amusing to see the blank astonishment and alarm in the countenance of Miss Crocker, when she said to me after Mr. Slater went out. 'Why, what in the world are you going to do with them?' 'Do with them? Give them a place to stay,' I said. 'They have beds.'

In order to feel the force of her question, it may be necessary to describe the mansion of which the hospitalities were thus offered. It was a log cabin, say 16 by 18 feet, with a shanty closet perhaps six feet square, and a loft above in which I could possibly stand erect, under the ridge pale. Mr. Slater’s family, then with him, consisted of himself and wife, and three daughters. And the driver of the team must have a place, of course. I do not think his son, Samuel, was with them then.

The result was that a part of the family took up their temporary abode with us, and a part with Mr. Seely, until in early spring, there were houses built for both families on farms which they opened (or rather enclosed) on the prairie north of Sugar Creek, some six miles from where Springfield was, a couple of years afterwards, located by commissioners as the county seat of the newly erected county of Sangamon, of which county seat they were among the very first inhabitants. In inviting them all into my little cabin, I did just as we were all accustomed to do in those days, and without any apologies.

On my return from the trip to Sugar Creek mentioned in a previous number, I was bringing my bride home. At Honey Point, where we stayed all night, there were travelers already provided for, and I and my wife slept on a buffalo robe, spread on the floor. There was no other way.

The second of Mr. Slater’s daughters came with them a married woman. Her husband, Mr. Joseph Torry, soon followed, and joined in the farm enterprise. A few months afterwards, I was married to the eldest daughter, and in the autumn, Mrs. Torry and my wife both died, within a week of each other. Though not perhaps exactly within the scope of my sketches, it may not be uninteresting to the present generation of Madison County to add that the third daughter was a year or two afterwards married to Dr. Gershom Jayne, to whom Alton is indebted, in part, for what was deemed an important improvement, and that their eldest daughter is the wife of the Hon. Lyman Trumbull. As he and his family have somewhat been intimately associated with the fortunes of Alton and the county, it seemed proper to mention these facts.

Of Mr. Slater I have to say, that he was a man of more than ordinary worth. Though somewhat visionary in business matters, he was in other respects a man of sound sense and good information, a devoted Christian and peculiarly amiable. And his wife was one whom to know was to love. Their evening of life was rendered happy by filial love and care in the pleasant home of their surviving daughter."

[EDITOR’S NOTE: The first wife of Thomas Lippincott was Patience (Patty) Swift, a teacher, 7 years older than Thomas. She had lost her parents at the age of 22 years, and took up teaching as a livelihood. They had one daughter, Abia Swift Lippincott, who would marry in 1834 to Winthrop Sargent Gilman, a friend of Elijah P. Lovejoy and Captain Benjamin Godfrey. Thomas and Patty established at Milton the first Sabbath School in the State of Illinois. After one summer at Milton, Patty became so sick that Thomas became alarmed. He would place her in a buggy and drive ten or twelve miles a day into the country, away from the unhealthy, stagnant Wood River. At first, she improved, but when they reached a friend’s house in St. Clair County near Shiloh, she became very ill, and died October 14, 1819, nine days after giving birth to a son, who did not survive. She was buried in the old cemetery at Shiloh, but no gravestone marks her resting place. Since then, the cemetery itself was cut in two by a road to Belleville. Thomas married again on March 25, 1820, to Henrietta Maria Slater, daughter of Elijah Slater. She died September 1820 of the same malarial fever his previous wife had died from. Lippincott then moved to Edwardsville to get away from the unhealthy climate of Milton. He remarried again on October 21, 1821 at Edwardsville, to Catherine Wyley Leggett, daughter of Captain Abraham Leggett of Edwardsville.]

 

EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO 8
By Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Number 8 was not found in the newspapers.

 

EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 9
By Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Source: October 21, 1864
"My family suffered much with sickness while we resided in Milton. The dam on the edge of the ledge of rocks across the Wood River, just below the bridge, was supposed to create malaria. I know I have often, of a summer evening, held my breath or my nose while passing over the bridge. Dr. John Todd of Edwardsville was our physician. But as he was ten miles off, and had a most extensive practice, we had occasionally called in Dr. Clayton Tiffin, who resided at St. Mary's, only three miles off. Perhaps my readers will wonder where St. Mary's was, within that distance. A year or so afterwards, I was called from Edwardsville to marry my friend, Ebenezer Huntington, to the sister of Dr. Tiffin, the ceremony to be performed at his house in St. Mary's. I went, and found a level plain at or near the mouth of Wood River, on the lower side, with a two-story framed house on it, in which Dr. Tiffin resided. That was St. Mary's. Whether the town of Chippewa, of which I heard some years ago, occupied the same spot, I do not know, but doubt whether it was as well built, if as populous.

The town of Edwardsville was in those years an important place. It was the residence of Ninian Edwards, who had been the only Governor of the Territory of Illinois, and was now a Senator in the Congress of the United States. Jesse B. Thomas, his colleague in the Senate, was also a resident of Edwardsville, and the two distinguished citizens, with their accomplished families, formed a nucleus round which the intelligent naturally gathered. We know that the young ladies shone as brilliant gems in the gay and polite circles of the city of Washington.

These two men have filled places in the political history of not only the State (as well as Territory) of Illinois, but of the United States, too important and prominent to be soon forgotten. If this were the place, or I the person, to give the political history of the times and the actors in them, it would be easy to find many materials, and pleasant to gather them. But, though I might collect many facts of interest, there would be so many more left out for want of documents and memory, that I shall not attempt it. Of Judge Thomas I will only say that he was a man of gentlemanly and pleasant manners, and without any remarkable powers of mind (of which he was sensible) could and did exert a great influence over the people. It was he who in 1820 presented to Congress the celebrated compromise on slavery, by which Missouri was received into the Union. No one at home supposed him the author, nor would they if they had not known from the current reports of the day that it emanated from Henry Clay. Fully convinced as I was, and am, of the good intentions of the movers in this measure, it seemed to me an unfortunate attempt to mingle iron and clay, wrong with right, and likely to prove disastrous, only postponing and greatly aggravating the catastrophe. With a number of others among us, I was, therefore, opposed to it. Whether our judgment has been vindicated by the present rebellion [Civil War], which cannot but be traced to that compromise as one of its causes, may be left to the candid judgment of the present and future generations.

Of Ninian Edwards I could find it in my heart to say much more. Besides the fact that his abilities were superior – that he stood in the councils of the Nation as a power, and filled, I may say, the first place in the political history of Illinois - I might be influenced by motives of personal friendship to fill a large space with my reminiscences. But I forbear. His government of the Territory, his subsequent election as one of the first chosen Senators, his career there, his fearful conflict with W. H. Crawford in which both parties may be said to have been destroyed, his appointment as ambassador and resignation of it, and finally his election of Governor of the State to succeed Edward Coles, are matters of history and need not be dwelt upon in these sketches. I cannot forbear, however, to mention one thing which was known to me more fully perhaps than to the public of that day. It is that: When he found it advisable on account of some of the unpleasant consequences of his contest with Mr. Crawford to resign his foreign mission, he had received a large sum – I think nine thousand dollars – from the United States Treasury for his outfit, and had actually expended it. There was no legal claim on him for it, and many thought no moral obligation to repay it, for he had expended it in the legitimate objects of, and as a necessary preparation for his mission. He, however, from his private fortune, returned the money into the treasury.

Few more genial, pleasant, and interesting men are to be found in the walks of private life, few could attract more strongly in the social circle than Ninian Edwards, and a vein of egotism always discernable rather enhanced than diminished the zest of social intercourse. Of Edwardsville and its men of that day, I may have much to say in the future numbers."

 

EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 10
By Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, October 28, 1864
"The town of Edwardsville had been laid out before I was acquainted with the county, and was the seat of justice. It occupied a ridge jutting out from the Cahokia River, having on each side a somewhat deep and abrupt ravine separating it from the level land adjacent. Thus, it had but one street, or scarcely more, and in this respect, as well as in its position, I believe is pretty much the same yet. The court house was a log building on the edge, next to the street of the square, which was a remarkably contracted opening not far from the lower end of the town. The jail on the same piece of ground was no more remarkable for beauty or strength. It was composed of logs, and perhaps lined with plank. Nor could the brick court house and jail built a few years afterwards be called a great improvement. I remember when Lorenzo Dow came to Edwardsville and preached, some years after this, when he was shown the court house as the place of meeting, refused to preach in it, saying it was only fit for a hog pen. It had not yet a floor, except a narrow staging for the court and bar.

About this time (I mean 1819), some gentlemen purchased a farm at the south – rather southeast end – and laid it out in blocks and streets, with an open square of reasonable size in the center. It was designed not only to rival, but supersede and swallow up the old town, and probably to this end (for I can conceive no other) it was laid out in such a way as not to connect by streets with the street already established. While the form of the ridge controlled the course of the main street, there was no reason, but the caprice of the proprietors, why the streets of the addition should not correspond with it, or else with the cardinal points of the compass. But it agrees with neither, and moreover, the old street was made to butt against a solid road at the junction.

The proprietor of the old town was James Mason, who had purchased it before I knew it. He had built a brick house on the rear of the square, in part of which an inn, or as it would now be called, a hotel, was kept by William C. Wiggins, afterwards so well-known at Wiggins Ferry, St. Louis. At this hotel might have been seen during the years of its occupancy by Mr. Wiggins a number of men of no small note – the elite of that day, both of our own citizens who had not yet made homes, and especially of those who came to spy the land with a view to future settlement. For comfort, for good living in a plain way, such as was then thought genteel enough for the best, and for neatness, the public house of Mr. Wiggins furnished a resting place which the intelligent and refined traveler was well prepared to appreciate, after a horseback ride across the State, over the new roads, and stopping at the log farm houses on the way.

Edwardsville was at that time the most noted town, perhaps, in Illinois. Though the old capital was at Kaskaskia, and the new prospectively at Vandalia, neither was as much a point of attraction as Edwardsville – not merely for the reason that as I said the chief men of the young State resided there, but more, and perhaps mainly, as the point, to which people came as a center from which they were accustomed to go out prospecting. For I think the west side of the State at that time invited immigration much more than the east. The land district had been opened, and the land office established at Edwardsville a few years, and consequently all who wished to settle anywhere north of the Kaskaskia district must enter their land at our county town. The lands were sold by the government on a credit at two dollars (the minimum) per acre. On paying one-fourth of the purchase money down, the remainder might be delayed. This was doubtless in order to enable the settler to make the balance by labor on the land; which was doubtless often done. But unfortunately, the spirit of speculation was aroused. Thousands upon thousands of acres were purchased by non-residents on more speculation. And the actual settler was deluded with the hope of making money to pay the balance, and so entered three or four times as much as he had money to pay for. And, as if to excite speculation still more, a person might by depositing sixteen dollars on a tract (80 acres), one-tenth of the purchase money, secure a pre-emption for a certain length of time, and then, if I do not forget, transfer it to another tract, if he preferred it. Such was the state of things at that time, and consequently, there were many congregated at Mr. Wiggins’ house from time to time, and at all times, whose object and business it was to enter many or large tracts of land, to be kept until the price of land should rise. These were, of course, men of property, and many of them men of intelligence and standing, and added to the residents, made a lively and pleasant society."

 

EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 11
By Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, November 18, 1864
"At the establishment of the Land Office at Edwardsville, Mr. McKee was appointed Register, and Benjamin Stephenson, Receiver. The former died, and Edward Coles had been appointed his successor before I became acquainted there. It was the wish of the friends that William Paton McKee, a son of the deceased, who had in fact conducted the office from the beginning, should be appointed to the place, and interest was made for him, but he was a minor, and the Government declined. As the next best thing, it was understood that one should be appointed to hold it until young McKee came of age. The estimation in which he was held may be inferred from this, and I will only add that this estimation was general, and that it continued to the end of his life. A close and intimate acquaintance with his private, as well as his official character, enables me to say that he was in all respects worthy of the very high regard which all entertained for him.

Of Colonel Stephenson, I have to say that he was a plain, unassuming man, not highly educated, but of practical, good sense, and amiable and pleasant in the circles of social life. His position, and especially the elegant and high-toned manners of his beautiful and attractive wife and daughter, the latter just budding into womanhood, together with their close association with the accomplished family of Governor Edwards, placed him and his among those who were at the head of society, alongside of the family of Judge Thomas, whose step-daughter, Miss Rebecca Hamtramck, shone as a brilliant star in the fashionable circles of Washington city. Indeed, we had evidence that Edwardsville, in the persons of Miss Julia Edwards, afterwards Mrs. Daniel P. Cook, as heretofore intimated, and Miss Hamtramck furnished society in the National Capital with some of the most perfect specimens, in one case of charming, modest beauty, and grace, and in the other, of dashing, elegant manner and splendid appearance, that it could boast during a session of Congress, within the Presidential term of John Quincy Adams. With these, and others fully competent to associate with them, and the stranger heretofore mentioned, it may not be too much to say that there was an intelligent and refined, if not a fashionable society in Edwardsville, as early as 1819 and 1820.

In a former number I have spoken of Governor Edwards. The name of Edward Coles cannot be passed over without remark. He was of one of the leading families of Virginia – a genuine F. F. V. – but his course was so eccentric in the view of his kindred, that he well-nigh lost caste among them; and it may be that he deemed a sort of honorable banishment to the wild prairies of Illinois, a relief from what would almost perhaps be considered a social ostracism at home. His brother, Colonel Isaac Coles (whom I remember to have heard in my youthful days called the most perfect gentleman in America), was then private secretary to President Jefferson. His brother-in-law, Andrew Stevenson, was, I think, in Monroe’s term, Speaker of the House of Representatives in the U. S. Congress, and himself occupied the position of Private Secretary to Mr. Madison in his Presidency, as well as special messenger or enjoy to the Government of Russia. He was wealthy, and so far as I could discover – with some favorable opportunities for knowing – did not value office for its emoluments. Yet, he accepted the office of Register of the Land Office in the Edwardsville district, and came to Illinois before it had become a State. Whether he came as a friend and substitute of Mr. McKee I know not, but he resigned when McKee came of age, and said he was deemed eccentric, and no wonder, for when upon the death of his father, he fell heir to a parcel of negro slaves, he determined to set them free, and not all the expostulations or persuasions of his friends and family, nor their offers to exchange other property for them, could induce him to change his determination. He would emancipate them, and did! And trusting to the binding force of the Virginia act of cession, he brought them to the Territory of Illinois, bought lands a few miles from Edwardsville, and settled them on the prairie, where with his help, they made themselves farmers, and some of them, at least, whom I knew years afterwards, lived comfortably and respected. His subsequent election as the second Governor of the State of Illinois, and some part of his course during that time, will come under the head of events occurring in following years.

There were three brothers in Edwardsville at this time, and for some years afterwards, who occupied conspicuous positions, though not much in the official line. James, Paris, and Hail Mason. The first of these, James Mason, was as I have said, proprietor of the old town plot [Edwardsville]. He was a genial, pleasant man, seeking mainly the acquisition of wealth, and having no political ambition. His home and family were ever a place of delightful resort, not only from his own cheerful, good fellowship, but especially rendered so by the cordial, sprightly, and lady-like manners and interesting conversation of his wife. Paris Mason was an industrious man, and carried on a mill at the foot of the street, where the Cahokia was dammed for that purpose. The third, Hail Mason, was for a number of years a Justice of the Peace, and a useful, worthy citizen, well known and enjoying the confidence of all. He afterwards became _______ in the Methodist connection for a few years. But they all died years ago.

The first Register of the Land office at Edwardsville was John McKee. His son, who was deputy or chief clerk under his father in the register’s office, held the same place under Edward Coles, who was appointed to fill the vacancy occasioned by the death of John McKee. The son’s name was William Patton McKee. “He resigned when McKee became of age.” I do not know when Mr. McKee came of age, nor the exact time when Mr. Coles resigned the office of Register, but I presume he resigned previous to his inauguration as Governor of Illinois, which took place December 5, 1822. Colonel Benjamin Stephenson, Receiver of Public Moneys, died on October 16, 1822. His death caused the postponement of the Land Sales, which, by the President’s proclamation, were appointed to be held about that time at Edwardsville. In giving his readers notice of this postponement, the editor of the Edwardsville Spectator assigned two causes for it, to wit:

1st, the death of the Receiver, and 2nd, the absence of the Register – Mr. Coles having taken the liberty, between his election and inauguration, of visiting his aged mother in Virginia. Mr. McKee tried to convince the editor that the absence of Mr. Coles had nothing whatever to do with the postponement of the sales, that he, William P. McKee, was fully authorized to act in the place of the Register, that as the office of Receiver was vacant, no sales could take place, even if the Register were personally present. I do not know whether the editor was ever convinced of his error or not. To other people, it was a very clear case. The Star of the West of March 8, 1823, announced the appointment of Samuel D. Lockwood as Receiver of Public Moneys in place of Colonel Stephenson, deceased, and I suppose the appointment of William P. McKee as Register was made about the same time."

 

EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 12
By Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, November 18, 1864
"The bar at that early day was more respectable than might be expected 'in a new country.' How often have we old settlers smiled with a kind of good-natured contempt at the utterance of this qualifying phrase. We so often heard it applied where it was utterly ridiculous. Newcomers would always speak depreciatingly of the accommodations with which they had to put up, and the great privations they had to suffer, and do so still, and we sometimes happened to know and often suspect that they had been deprived of a good many discomforts by their removal. But when they spoke of the climate and the people, the lawyers and doctors as inferior, and even the soil and the crops, we sometimes lost patience, but oftener our gravity.

I had had some opportunities to discover the standing and qualifications of the lawyers in Pennsylvania and in New York – mostly in the 'rural districts' – yet not so exclusively there, but that having been reared in the city, I could see and guess a little about the acumen, so celebrated of even the “Philadelphia lawyer.” It might seem extravagant boasting of our western pleaders of that day, who came to court on their own horses, who had to “put up” at the unplastered taverns from two to four in a room (if not in a bed), whose consultations with clients were perforce held in a barroom, or out on the porch or prairie, and whose law libraries were carried in their saddlebags, re-enforced, it may be, by an odd volume borrowed from some lawyer resident at the place, there being no public library anywhere on the circuit. It might, I say, seem boasting to say of men so circumstanced, that they evinced as much shrewdness, talent, and learning, and managed their cases as well as their learned brethren on the eastern slope of the mountains. They might not be so well dressed – their woolen wrappings round their legs as they dismounted from their tired horses on arrival after a hard day’s ride might not be so genteel, especially in muddy weather, and their personal appointments generally might not be so neat and pretty. Nay, there might be an appearance of coarseness in manners, as they were seen sometimes in the streets, or joking and laughing at the public table, which was public literally. Yet, after all, I must affirm that many of the lawyers of that day who usually practiced in the Circuit Court of Madison County, would have stood side by side with the gentlemen of the bar in the Atlantic States, would without fear of failure or mortification have met them before a court of jury anywhere.

True, there were of the inferior sort, mere half-read, pretentious pettifoggers. And there were others who might have done better than they did, kept at the bottom of the class by idleness, and perhaps intemperance, but the names only of several of our lawyers in the early days would show an array of which Illinois might be proud, even now.

The first Judge of the Circuit, including Madison County, under the State, was John Reynolds. Of him I need not speak. He still lives, and his standing, character, and idiosyncrasies are well known. If he did not stand at the head of his profession within his Circuit, it is no more than often happens. I believe he was considered a competent lawyer. Of the stories told of him, a portion, perhaps, were like Sargent’s Temperance Tales, 'founded on fact,' though the foundation was sometimes rather small for the superstructure. He was certainly not a martinet in his professional or judicial department, and I believe does not affect etiquette to this day. What I consider the mistake of his life, was indicated by a single remark of his. We happened to be looking at a mechanic at work on the foundation wall of a jail. “Ah,” said he, “These are what will keep society in order, rather than your Sunday Schools.” I do not repeat his words, for they were spoken thirty years ago; but this was the precise idea. Little does he know of human nature, and little weight does he give to the testimony of human history, who considers jails and courthouses more efficient as reformatory or regulating institutions of society, than the Bible, the Pulpit, or the Sunday School. It is only where these have failed of their full influence for want of the proper use of them, that those become necessary and indispensable as they are, after all, only necessary evils. Let us hope that in the last days of his prolonged life (Governor Reynolds may know the worth of that Bible which he then considered less valuable to society than the jail).

The oldest member of the bar was William Mears. I think he was an Irishman, and his idiom was, as is usual, quite expressive. He was treated with great respect by the court and bar, and had the reputation of being a good lawyer, but his advanced age precluded somewhat the energy, and it may be the acuteness by which the younger ones, at least some of them, were characterized. I think he did not continue long. Another of the earliest was James Whitney, long known since then, at the seat of Government as Lord Coke, and standing chairman of the lobby. His talents, whatever may have been his law learning, did not place him in a high position. But as I knew him in those days, he was an amiable, well-meaning man. Neither of these resided in Edwardsville. Whitney (at that time) dwelt in Upper Alton, but afterwards, I think, in Pike or Calhoun County. Mears I know not where."

Annotations on Lippincott’s No. 12 by George Churchill
"Lord Coke???, alias James W. Whitney – the first time I saw this character was August 24, 1817, at Belleville, Illinois. I find the following entry in my diary under the above date: 'Whitney is a Yankee from the vicinity of Boston, and came to this country in 1800. He has been 2,500 miles up the Missouri, and was taken prisoner by the Indians.”

 

EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 13
By Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, November 25, 1864
"Other non-resident lawyers who practiced in our court, now recollected by me, where David Blackwell, Alfred Cowles, Daniel P. Cook, Elias K. Kane, and perhaps, at that time, Samuel D. Lockwood.

Alfred Cowles would have been a respectable lawyer in one of our eastern cities. I am not sure that he would not have taken a higher grade, relatively, there than here. He was a scholar, a gentleman and a Christian. In the investigation of legal points, and in calm argument, he could maintain a position, I believe, with the best. And he could successfully present a case to an intelligent jury. But he had none of that slap-dash oratory, or that easy fluency which captivates the common mind. He was a thinker and a lawyer, as well as a man of integrity and good feeling; was held in high personal respect; and on the whole, successful in his profession.

A good deal of the same language might be used in describing David Blackwell, and yet there was a wide difference, especially in manner, and probably in acquirements. Mr. Blackwell was respectable as a lawyer, though not eminent; was far from being brilliant, limited, as I suppose, in his literary education; and more rustic in his personal deportment. He would not have appeared as well in a city court, but I think his standing was about or nearly the same among us as Mr. Cowles. Not more graceful, nor more eloquent, he could, I think, adapt himself better to ordinary juries, perhaps for the very reason that he was less polished and precise. My recollection of both these gentlemen is very pleasant.

Among the magnates of that day – not titular, but real – were ranked Elias Kent Kane and Daniel Pope Cook. They were rivals, both at the bar and in political life. I will not promise a perfectly fiar, though I mean an entirely candid estimate of these gentlemen. I had much more acquaintance with Mr. Cook, I esteemed him as a personal friend, and was on the same side in the political questions – especially the great question – of the day. It is hardly likely that I should steer entirely clear of partiality. I shall not try. Yet I hope to be honest, and to have the eyes of memory open while I give a “charcoal sketch” of men who deservedly filled a large space in public regard at the commencement of the history of our State.

Mr. Kane did not visit our county, or circuit, perhaps, very often. His residence was at Kaskaskia, and his usual circuit in that direction. But it was easy to perceive that he stood in the first rank when he did come. And this is about all that I can say of him as a lawyer. My acquaintance with him was mainly as a politician. And here he took a position among the leaders, and although Shadrach Bond was our first State Governor, I believe it was conceded that Mr. Kane was chief ruler at the opening of our history. I do not know how long he was in the Territory before the adoption of the Constitution, but he was one of these who composed the Convention, and as I have understood, not one to whom we are indebted for the provisions to which we owe our prosperity as a State, and our present immunity from insurrectionary and guerrilla raids – I mean the prohibition of slavery. At any rate, I know that he was a leader, and an able one, in the subsequent effort to destroy or remove that cornerstone of liberty. Mr. Kane was a keen, shrewd, talented politician.

Daniel Pope Cook was a candidate for Congress when I first heard of him, in competition with John McLean of Shawneetown. This last-named gentleman did not, so far as I remember, practice in our court, so that my acquaintance with him was only in his political character, and mostly of later years and contests, but the subject matter of the contests was the same. The first, and all I knew or heard of the candidates in their first canvass was, that Mr. McLean was in favor of slavery, and Mr. Cook opposed to it. I do not recollect whether the proposed admission of Missouri entered into the question before the people or not. In fact, I knew nothing of the men, or of their claims or merits at that time, only on the slavery question. That was enough for me.

I may say, in passing, that Mr. McLean was as I afterwards discovered, a man of more than ordinary talents as able debater, and as ________ eloquent orator. His fine, legendary, noble, firm, melodious voice, and easy manners (naturally graceful) added to a strong mind, gave him more than ordinary _____ on the _____ in the Legislative Hall, and I suggest, at the bar. He was an able opponent.

Of Mr. Cook, I shall have more to say than can be included in this paper, and it may as well be deferred awhile until he became a resident among us."

 

EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 14
By Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, November 25, 1864
"There were two gentlemen of the bar, resident at Edwardsville, when I first knew anything about the courts, who were quite prominent men, if not at the head. They could hardly be called rivals in any sense, for their aims and spheres of action were almost entirely different and never interfered. Yet both were men of marked ability, and exerted no small influence. They were Henry Starr and Theophilus W. Smith. While memory brings them together, it presents them almost wholly in contrast.

Mr. Starr was a lawyer, Mr. Smith a politician. The former had his life in the investigation of the deep questions and foundation principles of the law, and their bearing on the causes committed to him. The latter, while a lawyer of acknowledged ability, seemed more intent on the question of immediate success, acute in finding flaws, and taking unexpected turns. He practiced law for a living, but his life was in political struggles, and this chosen field of action called forth certain habits and methods of doing things which were naturally introduced into his professional career. While Mr. Starr was absorbed in the business of his profession, so that mere party strife had no interest for him, Mr. Smith seemed mainly interested in the promotion of some political scheme or party question. Mr. Starr was strong. Mr. Smith keen. Mr. Starr was clear and convincing. Mr. Smith ingeniously dark and mystifying. Mr. Starr able in establishing and showing the truth, Mr. Smith equally able in hiding it, or – as we of the cloth would say – “darkening counsel.” I do not know that Mr. Starr ever made a political speech. Mr. Smith was somewhat famous for those performances. And yet my opinion is that Mr. Starr could have succeeded, so far as oratory was concerned – real eloquence – in being an abler debater, even on the stump, than Mr. Smith. And though indifferent to party strife where vital principles were at stake, Mr. Starr was neither indifferent nor idle. During the winter of 1822 and 1823, while the pro-slavery party was manipulating the Legislature in order to get the Convention question started, Mr. Starr wrote one or two of the ablest and most caustic articles on the subject that appeared.

They differed in other respects. Mr. Starr was genial, but hardly social. Mr. Smith was social, but hardly genial – at least often otherwise. So engrossed was Mr. Starr with his profession, that often in hours of relaxation among his friends, in the midst of lively converse he would all of a sudden spring some unexpected legal question upon them, as far as possible from the theme or thoughts of the moment. He raised many a laugh at himself by this.

Mr. Smith, on the contrary, while his opponents thought him always scheming, gave himself up in his social and convivial hours to the spirit of the occasion, and when entertaining guests in the midst of his interesting family circle, he could throw no little charm over the scene by his lively and entertaining manners. He became a Judge of the Supreme Court, which honorable and responsible position he filled, I believe, to the satisfaction of those who were conversant with the courts at that time. But that was for the greater part at a later period than belongs to the Early Days. I may have occasion to introduce him in another connection.

Mr. Starr, after practicing law in our courts honorably and successfully for several years, removed to Cincinnati, and having maintained his character and reputation as a lawyer, a man, and a Christian, and acquired a handsome property, died a few years ago much respected. Judge Smith has also been dead some years. Their toils of earth are ended, and all of earth which they acquired is nothing now to them. Let us hope that they did not neglect to secure more durable treasure. Of Mr. Starr, I have heard that he was several years a member and officer of a Christian church. Of Mr. Smith’s religious hopes I know nothing, only that he once evinced a strong desire and even hope of Divine mercy. That was in the early days.

I find memory at fault – as I expected. There were others of that day whom I perhaps ought to recall, but of whom only two or three can be brought up. Polemon H. Winchester was a young lawyer of fair promise and prospects. But the hopes of his friends were blighted as the result of convivial habits then too common, and still the bane of society. Habits that formed clung to him through life, and though of a leading family in Tennessee, allied by marriage to that of Colonel Stephenson, possessed of fair, but abused talents, and qualities that drew one to him in spite of his habits, he sunk rather than rose, and dragged through a life of poverty until a few years past, when he sunk into the grave. A painful incident of his life that shook society to its center can only be alluded to, and that only because it belongs to the history of the times. I refer to his trial for the murder of Daniel D. Smith. This man was a waif thrown upon society we know not how. I never knew whence he came, nor of his kindred. He was, I think, a land agent, and was considered as an Ishmaelite, nobody’s friend and nobody his friend. He was stabbed one day in a quarrel, and died immediately. A small company was present, including Mr. Winchester, who was quarreling and disputing with him. No one saw him stabbed, but all saw him fall, and it was evidently from a wound inflicted by a dirk or knife, opening the jugular vein. But the only dirk or knife found in the company (not on the person of Winchester) was entirely clean, not a drop or stain of blood upon it. Such were the facts I believe correctly stated. As far as I recollect, no one saw Winchester, or anybody else, aim a blow at Smith, but Winchester was nearest him when he fell. Of course there was excitement. Although no favorite in Edwardsville, the people were not willing to have Mr. Smith murdered with impunity. Prejudice set in strongly against Winchester, and there were many warm friends of his wife and family, of whom I was one, whose sympathy with them inclined them to secure to the accused at least a fair trial. Able counsel was, of course, employed, and in addition to what talent could be procured at home, the friends of Winchester sent to Tennessee for the famous Felix Grundy, who was not only celebrated as an advocate, but a friend of the family. It was a time of intense interest. The trial was perhaps the most solemn event in the history of Madison Circuit Court. And when the jury rendered a verdict of “Not guilty,” I know not whether relief or surprise predominated. I confess that, for myself, the emotions were about equal. I will explain. There were few, I suppose, who did not believe that Smith died by the hand of Winchester, but many, of whom I was one, had strong doubts, or positive disbelief, of its being a deliberate act of murder. It appeared rather a sudden burst of anger, excited by the terrible taunts of which the deceased was capable. We expected, therefore, a verdict of manslaughter. But the powerful and personal appeals of the great Tennessee orator carried the jury away on a tide of feeling.

Nicholas Hanson and John York Sawyer, though they figured afterwards, one as a legislator and the other as circuit judge, were well known in Edwardsville in those days, but not as lawyers. They did not practice much at the bar."

 

EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 15
By Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, December 9, 1864
"I am not an analyst, but an angler, throwing my line back into a former generation, in the hope of catching and bringing to the present a few of the men and things of forty years ago. No matter therefore, whether I group those years together or bring them forward more regularly in the order of time. But in my mind, the two men – Hooper Warren and George Churchill – are coupled together, not merely because they worked together in the same office in Edwardsville, and labored together afterwards in the same noble cause, but especially because they thought and felt in sympathy, and thought and felt unknown to the politicians around them, if not to each other, while both were employed in the mechanical labor of the printing offices in St. Louis. I do not know that the pen – or types – were needed by Mr. Warren to attack slavery in the St. Louis papers, but Churchill, while a journeyman printer, having with some hesitation on the part of Mr. Charless, obtained leave, wrote and published in the columns of the paper on which he worked, a series of articles which caused no small stir in the public mind. He took the character of “A farmer of St. Charles County,” and in a style purposely plain, presented argument in favor of excluding slavery by the Constitution about to be adopted so strong and so clear as to startle the readers and alarm the advocates of slavery. No less than three of the ablest lawyers in Missouri were called out by them. These, if I was not misinformed, were Judge Beverly Tucker, Henry S. Goyer, Esq., and Colonel Thomas H. Benton. It was acknowledged that whoever the writer was, for he was a myth, he held a powerful pen. It was, I believe, not until he had left St. Louis and was quietly at work on the Edwardsville Spectator that the discovery of the authorship was made. And there was some chagrin evinced by one at least of his doughty opponents, when it was known that they had been put to their mettle by a journeyman printer, as if this were a singular fact.

Mr. Churchill has rendered important service to the county and State since then, which ought to be known, but which probably will not be to the present generation, though he still lives in the county and is able to wield a vigorous pen. I was amused, on looking at the circular from the Historical Society requesting these reminiscences, to see the name of George Churchill occupying a prominent place among the signatures. Of all men living, I know not one who could tell so much of the early history of the county or State, and tell it so well. I hope he was one of those to whom the circular was sent, and that he will respond to it as fully and publicly as I have done, and am doing. Let him remember the pious quotation of a clerical member of the Senate in those days – 'As the scripter says, The bird that can sing and won’t sing must be made to sing.’

I must mention one fact before I leave him (Mr. Churchill) to his seclusion. While he was a member of the Legislature – where I heard him classed as second (if to any) only to one, Thomas Mather – he prepared and procured the passage of the best and only good road law the State ever had. Instead of a poll tax as the present law is, throwing the burden of road mending on the poor, it was a tax on the property and persons that would be benefitted by the good roads. There was a marked improvement in the roads, while this law was in force, and the tax on the community, and especially on the poor laborer, was much lighter than before (or since). But it was an innovation, and would not be tolerated. Its unfortunate author had done too good a thing, and could not be re-elected, and the next session saw it repealed and the old poll tax revived. Governor Edwards laughingly remarked to me one day of the road law, that he had no road tax to pay, while a farmer in ____ate circumstances with several sons above eighteen was taxed fifteen or twenty dollars a year. So it is now. I use the road every day, and am not taxed. My neighbor has not a wheel nor the means to have one, and is taxed for himself and son some four to six days work. Had not Mr. Churchill better be put in again?

Some things in this and the preceding number were mentioned more fully in a series of papers published in the Alton Courier in 1858, on the history of the Convention struggle, entitled 'the Conflict of the Century.' But I apprehend not many of the present vendors will remember, if they have seen, those articles. Besides they are told now in relation to the county history, as they were included in the great moral struggle of the State.

It is but a short time since I saw in the papers the announcement of the death of my old and valued friend, Hopper Warren. It fell sadly on my heart. A few years ago, a correspondence growing out of my Convention narrative revived the acquaintance, after long years and many of ignorance of each other’s whereabouts, and awakened afresh the strong sympathetic regard which I had felt for the good, honest, faithful man nearly half a century before. Churchill and I are left. Which shall heave a sigh over the other’s grave? No matter, we hope to meet in Heaven."

Annotations on Lippincott’s No. 15 by George Churchill
"Hooper Warren – In the forepart of the year 1810, while in working the office of the Missouri Gazette, published by Joseph Charless Sr., I became acquainted with a printer named Hooper Warren. He was a native of New Hampshire, and had learned his trade in my native county of Rutland, Vermont (it is a remarkable coincidence that Horace Greeley, also, was born in New Hampshire, and learned his trade in the same county of Rutland, though in a different village). Mr. Warren showed me a prospectus, which he had just issued, of a paper to be called the “Edwardsville Spectator.” Finding that he upheld what I considered correct principles, and desiring to see a good paper flourishing in the county which I had selected for my permanent home, I was easily induced to assist in giving a start to the Spectator. The first number was issued May 29, 1819, and the paper proved a success. Mr. Warren never faltered in his attachment to the cause of universal freedom. He was the author – not always the writer – of his editorials, for some of them flowed immediately from his brain to his composing stick. A very correct outline of the biography of Mr. Warren appeared in the Alton Telegraph of September 9, 1864, copied from the Chicago Tribune. It should be known that the world is indebted to the worthy Secretary of the Chicago Historical Society for the facts contained in that article. Says the Secretary in a letter to me, “Although our lamented fellow citizen and worthy friend has been for some years my correspondent, I had never the privilege of seeing him, until about the 9th or 10th of this last August, when he visited our rooms a few times. His last call was on the 12th, when I found him feeble, complaining of diarrhea, which obliged him, as he thought, prematurely to close his visit at Chicago. I seized the opportunity, fearing it might be the last, to obtain in writing some memoranda of his life and labors, &c. I little thought, however, my fears would so soon be verified. It seemed he went only to Mendots, where he breathed his last.” He died on August 22, 1864.

The Edwardsville Spectator was the main organ of the Anti-Convention Party in the campaign of 1823-24. The Illinois Intelligencer came over to the side of freedom about three months before the election of 1824, and the Illinois Gazette, conducted by Henry Eddy, though in favor of a Convention, had the liberality to publish Morris Birkheck’s 'Letters of Jonathan Freeman,' in opposition to the Convention. At the election of 1824, Madison County gave 563 votes against the Convention, and 351 votes for it. Majority, 212. Whole vote, 914. The whole State gave 6,640 votes against Convention, and 4,972 for a Convention. Majority, 1,668. Whole number of votes, 11,612."

 

EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 16
By Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, December 16, 1864
"Marine Settlement was an institution of the early day. In the year 1817, I suppose – the same year that I came – Rowland P. Allen, father of Dr. G. T. Allen, came out as a pioneer to explore for himself and some sea-faring friends, with a view to settlement in the West. He made choice of the prairie, or point or bay of the prairie, lying between Silver Creek and the middle fork, or Peck’s branch, of Silver Creek. It was certainly a well-chosen spot. In the next year, a colony, so it might be called, of those who had long traversed the ocean, settled on this prairie. Captain Curtiss Blakeman, Captain George C. Allen, with one or two others of the same vocation, and the original discover, Rowland P. Allen, settled in the lower part; and the following year, Captain James Breath came out in company with another group, yet in connection with the former, and pitched his tent for a few years on Silver Creek, in the same prairie, some eight or ten miles north of them, and then removed to the immediate neighborhood of his brother mariners. And so, the place took the name of Marine Settlement. Colonel John Shinn, whom I had known in Philadelphia as a practical manufacturing chemist doing an extensive business, bought a farm in the same place, and afterwards William C. Wiggins, getting tired of keeping tavern in Edwardsville, built and dwelt in the prairie a little while, until the long and well-known enterprise started by his brother, Samuel Wiggins, and called Wiggins’ Ferry, called him to busy life again. Mr. D. Ground (father of the present Samuel Ground) and Jacob Balster were well known, early settlers also, and Isaac Ferguson had preceded them all. The settlement soon became widely known as an intelligent, enterprising and prosperous society, and many of the comforts and even refinements of social life were enjoyed in advance of most others.

Captain Blakeman was early elected to the Legislature, and always enjoyed the confidence and respect of the people at home and abroad. He had, as he told me, “crossed the line” (the equator) forty-four times, having made eleven voyages to China. His house – ever open to hospitality – and several articles of furniture, both curious and useful, and I may add, ornamental – showed the neat handiwork of the artisans of the celestial empire [China]. It was an entertainment of no trifling character to hear the intelligent “old salt” tell of his experiences and the sights he had seen during more than a quarter century of busy sailing from hemisphere to hemisphere. His memory, as well as his name, still lives.

Captain George C. Allen was another specimen of the retired seaman. His genial spirit and manners strongly attracted people to his house, and the ever-cheerful and abundant hospitality and conversation of his congenial wife made it a resort for a large circle of old and of new-made friends. I believe he was always a special favorite, as I know his wife was. The last several years of his life were spent alone – at least in lonely widowhood – and he showed it. But it is satisfying to the heart of friendship to know that they were spent in the family of his worthy daughter and son-in-law, ever watchful of his comfort, and in the enjoyment of a bright and joyous hope of better things beyond the grave.

It is fit that their long-time friend and fellow seaman, Captain James Breath, should be spoken of in this connection, for though not at first in the immediate neighborhood, the friendly association was kept up – ten miles was not far off in those days – and many years did not elapse before he was found along side of them. Of him I might be tempted to speak at length, for he was not only a particular friend, but we were affiliated by marriage, and our children closely allied by blood. But I will forbear, and only talk of him or of his congenial neighbors. Captain Breath had an advantage of his friends in having received a liberal education, though I have forgotten what college was his alma mater, for he was not apt to allude much to it, and I consequently had it not impressed on my mind. His nautical neighbors used to say of him that he was as good a seaman and commander as sailed out of New York harbor, and that his one eye (he had but one) saw everything, and everything was kept shipshape. He had been injured by a fit of sickness soon after his arrival in the West, so that his under jaw was stiffened, and his utterance greatly impeded. In consequence of this, he could speak but a few words at a time, and he acquired the habit of giving immense emphasis to his words. I heard a gentleman say once that he had never dreamed that so much could be said in so few words. His house, like that of his brother sailors, was the home of hospitality. He had a high sense of honor and integrity, and for a number of his later years was a consistent and humble Christian. His death was sudden – instant – but we felt that all was ready. His wife, a beloved sister-in-law, survived him some years, and then followed him to the presence of her long-loved Savior.

Rowland P. Allen, the founder of Marine Settlement, though not a sailor, cannot be omitted in this connection. He brought them together, dwelt in the midst of them, was related to one of the families, and might be said almost to have been at once the connecting rod and the vivifying spirit of the whole. And he survived them all. His last days were spent in the indulgence of a cheerful hope, with his only son, and he was not unknown to the present generation in Madison County. I love to think of him as a friend and brother, gone not long before me to the better land."

 

EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 17
By Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, December 16, 1864
"There was a time when Gaius Paddock and his farm were considered an institution of our county, and I suppose he is remembered by all the old settlers and many of our juniors still. His residence, seven miles north of Edwardsville, was as well known to travelers to the Sangamo or Mauvais terre countries – so the districts now comprising Sangamo, Morgan, and the whole group of counties around them were then called – as Edwardsville itself. It became a favorite stopping place very early, and continued to be so as long as I frequented the road. He was a Revolutionary soldier, and drew a pension, for which I, as clerk of Vanzant and Rockwell drew up his papers. When I came to St. Louis early in 1818, Mrs. Paddock kept the boarding house, and all the bachelor lawyers and other big men boarded there, while the old gentleman was at the farm, preparing it for the residence of the family. So it continued several years, some of the daughters (perhaps all by turns) living with the father and some with the mother, thus working into each other’s hands, and at length the family came together, a new frame house was built, and the establishment carried on by as efficient a household as is often found. It was, and is, a charming place, and was a resort for those who loved to associate with intelligent, energetic women, mother, and daughters, and see the results of their economical and tasteful labors.

I knew a bachelor in those days who had a farm adjacent. He did not remain a bachelor, but took one of those daughters to wife, and lived and prospered there, but lives no longer. Gershom Flagg was well known, and even distinguished as an intelligent, prosperous, but unambitious farmer, and it was always rather a mystery why he was not known in the councils of our State, if not our nation. That he was competent to fill a respectable and even a high station was well known, and there were those who doubted whether his brother, then Secretary of State in New York, possessed any more solid qualifications. I have had some suspicion that the declination by his son of the nomination at the recent election tended somewhat to explain. Is the disinclination to office hereditary?

There was another son-in-law of Mr. Paddock’s living near there in those days – Pascal P. Enos, Eq. He was a lawyer, but did not, so far as I know, practice in our courts. Perhaps it was owing to his deafness, which of course would be much in the way of success. When John Quincy Adams was elected President, he was appointed Register of the Land Office at Springfield – a confessedly good appointment. He did not live many years afterwards, but his family occupies a position there among the most respectable of the early inhabitants of the now State capitol.

I should mention John Estabrook as another of those whose early and long residence in that neighborhood helped to give it character. In the evening of his days, he has retired from the active life of the farmer to the beautiful village of Bunker Hill, where I had the pleasure to spend a most agreeable hour a few years since, in lively old times chat with him and his estimable companion.

I have spoken of Robert Collet in a former number as having purchased the part of Mr. Seely in the village and mills of Milton. In 1820, he sold out his store, and made a farm a mile or two west of Mr. Estabrook’s, which he stocked with choice fruit trees from New Jersey. Both he and his wife loved to indulge in an elegant and refined taste, and his house and surroundings soon showed the results in a superabundance of fine shrubbery out of doors, and (for those days) gentility within. Formed for society, I doubt it either Mr. and Mrs. Collet could long enjoy the seclusions of their place, beautiful as it was, and my impression is that they left it in a few years and died in St. Louis, where their sons now reside. However, there are those who can correct this, if in error. Mr. Collet’s mother, a grand old lady, resided with them. She was a native of the Isle of Man, and as she informed me, a descendant of that Edward Christian (or his brother), who was a prominent character in one of Scott’s novels.

In those days there came one to the county who figured much more largely, at least in political life. Emanuel J. West had in his youth gone out to the island of Tenerife, where he became a clerk to a wise merchant, and after the death of his employer, married his widow. He was a smart, shrewd man, of elegant address and uncommonly pleasing manners, and no wonder he won the affections of the amiable Spanish widow, for he easily attracted people to him in this region. He purchased the farm of Thomas Rattan near Mr. Collet’s which he called Glorietta, and settled on it. I suppose the place is well known now, on the new road (new, that is, about twenty years ago), but as that road is on the north side of the house, and when he purchased it in the early day, when I knew it, was on the south front. I cannot say that I recognize it at all. In after years, Mr. West was elected to the Legislature, became prominent and active as an advocate of the convention, and finally was appointed ambassador to, I forget what South American Government, for which he was supposed to be peculiarly qualified, speaking the Spanish language as well as his own. He died, however, on the passage to his embassy. I believe some of his descendants and of his wife still reside in the county.

Have I mentioned Rattan’s Prairie before? It is the lower point of what is now called (I think) Dorsey’s Prairie. Among the early settlers were Richard Rattan, Thomas Rattan, William Montgomery, Rev. William Jones, Jesse Starkey, and others, perhaps, whom I do not call to mind."

 

EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 18
By Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, December 23, 1864
"It seems a natural transition – my readers may not see it as I do – from these chief names of Marine Settlement to one who never figured largely in our county, but had an important influence on my own life.

At the close of 1819, a group of families, all connected together, yet independent, arrived at Edwardsville from the city of New York. They were the families of Abraham Leggett; his son, Abraham A. Leggett; and his four sons-in-law, Captain Breath (already mentioned), Thomas Slocum, Cornelius W. Oakley, and Edwin E. Weed. They first stopped in Edwardsville, and there purchased or settled farms on the east side of Silver Creek, on the line of what was afterwards the road from Edwardsville to Hillsborough, when the latter place began to be. Already, however, travelers from Edwardsville passed by or through these farms in going to McCord’s Settlement in Bond County, and to some settlement higher up on Shoal Creek. It must have been in February 1820, that Dennis Rockwell and myself passed this neighborhood and lodged on Shoal Creek at Rev. Jesse Townsend’s, about eight miles southwest of where Hillsborough was subsequently located. The next morning we called at a gregarious bachelor establishment, of which John Tillson and Benjamin Shurtleff were chief proprietors, and then passing on eastward to the prairie, lost ourselves or our way, and after wandering all day, bivouacked [camped] on the banks of a small stream, an affluent of the Kaskaskia, and did not reach Vandalia, then our destination, the next day. We were glad when, in the middle of the afternoon, we found a cabin where we could get some fried bacon, corn bread, coffee, and a bed – of all which we thankfully partook before we essayed the remaining twelve miles. It was the first house we saw from the morning before. I wonder how that prairie, east of Hillsborough, would look to us now. But the reader will think I have lost my way again. I will return to the families above mentioned.

Of Captain Breath, I have already spoken in another connection. Of the remainder, Mrs. Weed, Mr. Leggett’s youngest married daughter, died in Edwardsville before they could get to the farm selected, and Mr. Weed very soon returned to New York. Mr. Oakley, the husband of another daughter, did not, I believe, come out at all. Having got into business, he sent for his wife and children, who returned to him. All this was before I became acquainted with the family. Abraham A. Leggett, the son, and Thomas Slocum, the remaining son-in-law, settled on their farms on Silver Creek, but soon got tired of the arrangement and followed the others on the back track. The old folks were thus left alone by their married children, except their oldest, and did not remove to their farm at all, but remained in Edwardsville until the Spring of 1822, when they also returned to New York.

But of Mr. Leggett, I have somewhat more to say. He was a Revolutionary soldier, and for his courage and coolness at the retreat of our troops from Long Island received a commission, and was at the close of the war ranked as Captain. He was a hearty, hale old man, and I believe had, with one exception, always been so. Being industrious, skillful and energetic, was prosperous as a blacksmith, and besides his own, was employed by the Government to superintend its shops in the city of New York. He had thus acquired a handsome competency, when by some sudden reverse he lost all, and was induced to try the West with a view to farming. He carried on a little shop while here, but did not extend it.

In the Spring, or rather Winter of 1821, he undertook a journey with his youngest son (for he had a son and daughter still unmarried, and hardly arrived at maturity), to see the Mauvais terre country, which had just come into notice, especially the famous Diamond Grove, that was supposed to shine as a gem of the prairies, and in the neighborhood of which Thomas G. Hawley had made the first farm and plowed the first furrow the preceding season. Mr. Leggett and his son went in a wagon, and having explored the country as designed, started on their return to Edwardsville. I do not know what it was that induced them, but they struck out for a new, and I believe untraveled route, which led them across the waters of Apple Creek and the Macoupins. A snow storm set in, the clouds obscured their sky-marks, and they lost the points of the compass. In consequence, they wandered five days without food or fire, were compelled to leave the wagon, mounted the exhausted horses, and thus riding and walking, dragged their slow way along. At length, they descried a wagon in the distance, and making their way to it, learned their whereabouts, some six or seven miles from Mr. Paddock’s. It was still a weary struggle to traverse the smooth prairie – they had a road now – to the house, which they reached at twilight, and were soon partaking of refreshments, and not long after, occupying a comfortable bed. It is not wonderful that they were both visited by severe sickness during the summer.

I was married to the daughter in the following Autumn, and in the Spring of 1822, as I said, the old folks returned to New York, when Mr. Leggett procured remunerating and appropriate employment from the corporation, and lived to a good old age (89), retaining his active energy and cheerful, genial spirits to the last.

Of his son, it may be proper to say more, though perhaps unnecessary. William Leggett was yet a minor when he came with his parents to Illinois. Talented and ardent, and with strong predilections for literary employments, his young spirit rather chafed under the comparative, and perhaps apparent rather than real, idleness of his days, for it was not easy for him to obtain such employment as was most suitable. At length, by the aid of Governor Edwards, who discovered and appreciated his abilities, he obtained a midshipman’s warrant, and entered the Navy. One long cruise in the Mediterranean was, in the time of peace, sufficient. Resigning, he undertook to conduct a literary periodical, which though marked by both talents and industry, and received with favor, he was compelled for want of the necessary capital to relinquish. He then became an editor, associated with William C. Bryant of the New York Evening Post. It was in this position (in which, owing to a voyage to Europe in pursuit of health, which took Mr. Bryant away for perhaps a year) Mr. Leggett became the responsible editor. He was brought prominently before the public, as the bold advocate of freedom, and the propounder of a broader and nobler democracy than the party had known or was prepared to receive. It is gratifying to know that Mr. Bryant has fully justified by ever maintaining the principles so boldly enunciated by his associate and friend.

The Plaindealer was afterwards established by Leggett for the advocacy of the same great principles, but sickness and death soon put an end to his labors. He died in 1839, having received a mission in Central America, afterwards performed by John L. Stevens. He was admired by multitudes for his powerful vindication of the right and the truth. By me he was beloved as a brother."

 

EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 19
By Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, January 6, 1865
"I presume it will not be supposed that we were without sickness in those days, or without physicians. Such a supposition would be wild enough. In fact, the experiences of the first few years of our State history in Madison County, and I believe all the counties, was a pretty severe one. There was in some of the years much, and very sore disease. I think that cases of violent bilious fever of various types – which might be called malignant – were more frequent than since, taking the amount of population into the account.

Of physicians, I have spoken of Doctor Tiffin of St. Mary’s, who afterward removed to Edwardsville and then to St. Louis, and incidentally alluded to Dr. Langworthy of Upper Alton. Dr. Brown also was, as mentioned, a resident in Upper Alton, but was engaged in other business. Our chief physician, the main dependence of the county, was Doctor John Todd. He was thoroughly educated, skillful, attentive, and kind, and I believe was universally relied on as the doctor. He had successively several associates in the practice, some of them good physicians and well liked, but he was the standard. Dr. Bowers, one of them, was a proud Southern man, and boastful. He was, I believe, able professionally, but very loose in his principles. He did not remain. Dr. DeCamp was respected, and perhaps would have been a valuable aid or associate, but he received an appointment as surgeon in the army. I have seen his name among leading surgeons since the commencement of the Rebellion, and think he is still living. But whoever also practiced, and however successful, the public mind depended on Dr. Todd as the leading and ablest practitioner of the healing art. He was not only sympathetic and kind by the bedside, but genial and cheerful to a remarkable degree. His pleasant face shone on the sick one with hope and comfort, as it was want to irradiate and enliven the social circle, especially at his own home. He might have been a man of wealth without changing his field or taking office, if he had been as careful to charge and collect fees as he was indefatigable and attentive in earning them. To their old, old friends, it is at once pleasant and mournful to see Dr. Todd and his life-long companion, worthy and beloved as they ever have been, while laboring under the infirmities of age and ill health, yet surrounded by loving ones at their home in Springfield, and serenely waiting until their change come. The generation extant in Madison County in 1824 and previously must be all gone before Dr. Todd will be forgotten there.

Old settlers remember Joseph Conway, a bachelor, who was long clerk of the circuit court, an amiable and accommodating gentleman, without any remarkable characteristics or history. I do not know to what place he went.

William L. May was a citizen of Edwardsville, who was not then considered remarkable for talents or popular arts. He removed to Springfield, and in future years was elected to Congress, beating Benjamin Mills of Galena, who was a man of talents not only, but superior education and most attractive oratory.

Abraham Prickett was a merchant in Edwardsville, and two of his brothers, one, Isaac, as a merchant there, and one, David, as a lawyer, &c., in Springfield, as well as some of the succeeding generation, kept of the name and remembrance. But the big store was kept by Robert Pogue, who with his brothers, did a large business for a few years, and then left the country. Joshua Atwater was there, and I believe is there yet. I suppose his old age is cheered by a competence of this world’s goods, and a good hope for the next.

I should do wrong to omit a name which in the earliest days of the State of Illinois was well known and highly respected in Madison County. I refer to Josias Randle, who was the Recorder of Deeds, &c., at a time when Madison County reached over a large territory. I believe the business of the office was very great, and yet the incumbent, though plain and frugal in his domestic arrangements, seemed not to have accumulated any considerable wealth. I never saw a more venerable, patriarchal looking man, and his character was correspondent. As a Methodist preacher, without eloquence, he possessed unbounded confidence and respect. Two of his sons, Barton and Richard, have been well known as preachers since. His office was kept at his dwelling on the west side of the ravine that skirts the village on the west. I do not know whether he ever laid off town lots on his hill, but there were several families located there, of whom I remember Nathan Scarritt and Don Alonzo Spaulding. Mr. Scarritt had a brother, Isaac Scarritt, a preacher of more than average ability, but he had lost his wife before my acquaintances with him, and I think did not keep house. He afterwards removed to the North, within a day’s ride of Chicago. Nathan Scarritt sojourned at Edwardsville a year or two, and then removed to the prairie which bears his name [now part of Godfrey]. He had some sons, as well as daughters. I recall two little boys, who used to do errands, had sometimes come to my residence, perhaps my readers have heard of Russell and Isaac Scarritt. I say nothing of younger ones – Jotham, &c. Few men, so unpretentious, have left so favorable and so deep an impression on the public mind as Isaac and Nathan Scarritt on the generation of forty years ago. My Spaulding is still a citizen of the county, both well-known and respected."

[Editor’s note: Dr. John Todd was born on April 27, 1787, in Fayette County, Kentucky. He was the son of General Levi Todd (1756-1807) and Jane Briggs Todd (1761-1800). Dr. Todd’s brother, Robert Todd, was the father of Mrs. Abraham Lincoln. Dr. Todd married Elizabeth F. B. Smith (1793-1865), and they had the following children: John Blair Smith Todd (1814-1872); Francis Walton Todd (1816-1898); Lockwood Marcus Todd (1823-1894); Elizabeth J. Todd Brown (1825-1895); and Frances Stuart Todd Shelby (1832-1851). Dr. Todd died on January 7, 1865, at the age of 77 years. He is buried in the Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield, Sangamon County, Illinois.]

 

EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO, 20
The Collins Brothers
By Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, January 13, 1865
"I think it was in the winter of 1820-21 that I went in company with Major William H. Hopkins (have I spoken of him before? I ought, for he and his family occupied an important position in Edwardsville) to the southern part of the county, and visited a place of business enterprise that even then had begun to attract attention. These were mills – sawmill and flour mill – driven by horses or oxen, a distillery, a store, a tan yard, and a shoemaking shop, all carried on by five brothers, who had come from Litchfield, Connecticut, and were united in the enterprise. I do not know if they had then laid out a village, which they called Unionville, but they did so then or afterwards. At the time of this visit, I only saw one of the brothers, who was at work on a large frame house – large even now – which they were erecting preparatory to the coming of their venerable parents and sisters. The names of these brothers were Augustus, Anson, Michael, William B., and Frederick Collins. A noble band of brothers. While actively and energetically driving their business in the most economical and profitable way, and rapidly accumulating wealth, they were far from being unmindful of the higher interests, social and spiritual, of themselves and those around them. One of their first cares was the erection of a commodious – for those days – and well-arranged place of worship, which also served the purpose of a schoolhouse. Only one of the brothers – Augustus – was then married. In due time, three others became so. William B. Collins married a daughter of Mr. Hortzog of St. Louis, then running a mill in the American Bottom; Michael married a daughter of Captain Blakeman; and Frederick married a daughter of Captain Allen – both of Marine Settlement, and already introduced to the reader.

I said they were growing wealthy. Each attended to a special department, and all worked in unison. It was their aim and boast to have the products of their labor of the best quality. Their whisky was considered first-rate, and their inclined wheel ox mill flour commanded an extra price in eastern markets. Not only had they a store at their own establishment on the Canteen Creek, but opened a depot at St. Louis for their commodities. They obtained a post office, but inasmuch as there was already one by the name of Unionville in the State, the Postmaster General changed the name of this, which being accepted by them, thenceforth was known as Collinsville. There they went on and prospered, but, although it will take me beyond, or rather bring me within, the date at which I propose to close my sketches, I must tell of a change that subsequently occurred – a change remarkable as not only involving the entire breaking up of the partnership and scattering the family, but as the result of an idea, a notion, or more properly, a principle.

One of the chief sources of revenue to them, working in, as it did, with all the other branches, particularly the mill, was the distillery. It was planned with a view of making the greatest possible amount of good whisky, with the least possible amount of labor, and I believe it was considered a superior establishment. At that time, no scruples prevailed about it. It was regarded a legitimate business everywhere, except among the very scrupulous Quakers, who always deemed it wrong to do their neighbors wrong, even in the way of business. So, it was carried on with great energy and profit. But in after years – later, as I said, than I intended to bring these articles – there came a doubt on the public mind as to the lawfulness (in a moral point of view) of making or vending that which had no other effect, and no other aim almost, than to injure and destroy domestic peace, public welfare, good morals and manhood, and produce poverty, crime, and wretchedness. On this subject, the Collins brothers – and their father too – agreed with the public, and saw no moral wrong in the business until their eyes were opened by investigation and reflection. It so happened that the doubt was first thundered forth – it may have been whispered before – by the pastor whose teachings they had enjoyed in their Connecticut home, whom they had felt with tears, and who was beginning even then to wake a continent by his eloquence and truth. “The six sermons on Temperance” of Lyman Beecher, which waked the whole Christian people of America, could not fail to elicit the attention of his former parishioners, and followed up by the argument and appeals of Christian friends, were taken into serious consideration, which after much consultation among the partners, and I may add, prayer, resulted in the determination to close the business entirely and forever. I happened to know something of the workings of their mind – the reasons which weighed for and against – and the thoroughness of the work of reform. Several thousand dollars had been recently invested in the buildings and apparatus. So much capital, they argued, to be lost, and so much of their ability to contribute to benevolent enterprise diminished. They were convinced at length that the business was wrong, was unchristian, and should cease, and instead of selling the machinery, as they might have done for a round sum, they totally demolished the building, broke up the generators, took the huge tanks to their dwellings for cisterns, and sold the washtubs to farmers for granaries. I have seen these double bogsheads or tubs at different farm houses, full of wheat or other small grain, while yet there were few or no barns in the country. The partners then separated – Augustus soon died – several went to the Illinois River and established mills, &c., at Naples, and William B. Collins remained alone at Collinsville, carrying on the business – minus the distillery – until his death. His widow and children (except the son in the army) still residing there. All are now gone, including the oldest son, Amos M. Collins of Hartford, the well-known philanthropist and Christian, but the youngest brother, Frederick, who resides in Quincy, and a sister, the widow of him who has been ever known among Presbyterians as the Apostle to the great West, the venerated Salmon Giddings. I hardly know or can conceive a lot or memory more favored, more to be desired than that of the venerable William Collins, to leave such a name and such a progeny as he did to shed blessing on the generations following. And I have introduced the facts above told as a bright example of the power of religious principle applied to the conduct of life. What untold calamity and crime would have been spared to our country – themselves especially – if the holders of slaves could have been so convinced and induced so to act.

Many years ago, I met Dr. Beecher at Northampton, Massachusetts. He talked of this family with deep affection. 'It was a sad day,' said he, 'when Deacon Collins and family left Litchfield. We thought they were going out of the world. We cried and they cried. It was hard to part. But see how time orders. Deacon Collins makes the first considerable subscription for Illinois College, that set it a going. Edward is made its President, and finally I am called to Laue Seminary!'"

 

EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 21
By Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, January 13, 1865
"In speaking of the venerable Josias Randle of Edwardsville, I might with propriety have introduced others of the name and kindred. My readers will, I trust, allow me to ramble, and to forget, as much as may happen, and accept what they can get from my dilapidated memory.

There was a brother of Josias Randle, whose name I cannot recall, but he was the father of Josiah, who lived many years in Scarritt’s Prairie. George, who was at a mill on the Macoupin, and Irvin B. Long, and still well-known at Alton. A cousin, Parham Randle, was and continued long to be a very interesting preacher, and Thomas Randle began his ministry (still continued I believe) in those days. In the same neighborhood lived William Otwell, a respectable and estimable man, who at one time was a representative in the State Legislature. His son, Stith Otwell, began to preach about that time and big fair for a life of usefulness, but he was early cut off by death. Matthew Torrance and Joseph Robinson, though well-known and highly respected, as was David Robinson, whose residence was on the other side of the Cahokia, were never in public business or otherwise conspicuous. But I may be permitted to remark that these and such like men contributed greatly by their Christian character and good example to preserve and bless the community of which, in the early day, they formed an important and influential part.

South of Edwardsville, in the edge of Ridge Prairie, there were several persons, who for several reasons, ought perhaps to be mentioned. William Gillham, a substantial farmer (connected with the Gillhams of the American Bottom, some of whom I have spoken of) had been, I believe, a member of the Territorial Legislature. Adjoining his farm was that of the widow Robinson, whose son, Benniah Robinson, was known as a well-educated man, who, if he had possessed popular talents or chosen to employ the abilities he had to win popular favor, might have occupied stations of trust that would have made him conspicuous. But he seemed to choose a quiet and recluse life, while he remained among us, and some years since went to California or Oregon, I forget which. Robert McKee was a neighbor and good man, but unpretentious. Near him was a man who, however quiet and unambitious, could not be unknown. This was John Barber, a farmer and teacher, whose influence as a religious, able and consistent man, preceded by many years his official character as a preacher of the gospel. His position in this respect was the result many years after this, and not the cause of the high regard in which he was held by the community. A long life of usefulness was given, and he and the satisfaction to his son, John Barber Jr., occupying a prominent position as an uncommonly, able minister of the gospel, who was felt for the few years of his life as a vivifying power in the branch of the church, with which he was connected. The son was soon called home, the father lived long – if indeed he is not yet in the land of the living. Much I loved and honored them both.

It ought, perhaps, to have been mentioned that among and connected with the families of the Leggetts, Breaths, &c., were two Irish families, who, however unpretending then, have left their mark upon our State. I speak of David Gillespie and Robert Gordon. They and their wives have been gone many years, but the present generation knows and feels the names they have left behind them.

The survivors of that early day in Edwardsville will remember well, especially the mother of Matthew and Joseph Gillespie. She was an extraordinary woman – strong, athletic, and hardworking. She was held in such estimation by the better class, that according to my recollection, no one was more welcome as a visitor or occasional inmate in the families than Mrs. Gillespie. I know it was so in mine, and my wife considered it a favor to spend a few hours in her company. The reason was, not that she had, or pretended to have any special refinement of manners, but in addition to her good character and deportment, she had a strong, nervous mind, stored more, I thought, than any other known by me, with a vast amount of scriptural truth. I never durst encounter her in argument, or hardly attempt to quote scripture to her, for she was more than my match. Her sons, both occupying – one indeed now only in the past – important positions in public life, doubtless received the impress of their mother’s mind, who did not live long enough to see them in the fullness of their prosperity. But the Judge, while occupying his seat on the bench of justice, and filling a large space in the public eye, may, and doubtless does, look back to his noble mother with pride, as well as veneration and love.

While Mathew Gillespie is freshly remembered still, and Joseph Gillespie and Joseph Gordon are happily known in their several spheres as powers in the State by the present generation, they belong, in my recollection – though in their youth time – to the past, and hence have a place in these desultory memories."

 

EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 22
By Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, January 20, 1865
"I alluded to Major William H. Hopkins, and wish to say something of him, because at the early day, his house was for a season my home, and an important resort for many persons who were more or less conspicuous in our social circle, if not in political life.

Major Hopkins was a native of Orange County, New York, in which county his father was for many years clerk of the Circuit Court. Having married in Cincinnati, Major Hopkins removed to Edwardsville, I believe in 1819. After keeping boarders in the vicinity of the courthouse a while, he removed to a commodious building in the “new town” (as the addition was popularly called), which he had erected for a hotel. His house was for several years the most respectable and well-kept in the region, and was patronized by the elite. It was, indeed, a desirable home for quiet bachelors, and pleasant stopping place for travelers, combining (such is my recollection of it, having been a boarder for a year) the entertainment of the better class of inns with the comforts of a home. The Major, his sprightly, energetic sister, and his interesting and amiable wife, seemed peculiarly qualified and calculated for the position. I doubt whether their genial influence were or could be so well felt in the more extensive hotel which they afterwards kept in St. Louis. And the home-likeness was enhanced by the presence of his venerable parents, General Reuben Hopkins and his excellent and life-long companion. I believe they were revered and beloved by all the inhabitants of the house. There were several of those who hold a place in my memory, no longer among us, at least in these parts.

I believe I mentioned Richard T. McKenney as having preceded me in keeping a store at Milton. He returned from that place to St. Louis before I came to Milton. Afterwards he came to Edwardsville and resided there several years. He was a clerk or teller in the Bank of Edwardsville, and on the resignation of Mr. Seward, of whom I will speak directly, was appointed cashier. He was not only a good accountant, but a most worthy and highly esteemed gentleman. He went to Springfield, and afterwards to St. Louis, where he died early.

Dennis Rockwell was at Edwardsville when I went thither from Milton in the Fall of 1820. He had established a land agency office in connection with a Mr. Van Zandt of Washington City, by the firm name of Van Zandt & Rockwell. There was considerable business done in that line in those years, and when I had sufficiently recovered my health, which at the death of my second wife, and as the result of long watching, had broken down, Mr. Rockwell employed me as an assistant. Few men have won more friends or retained them longer than Mr. Rockwell. As a business man, he was much more than ordinarily expert and correct. He not only wrote a very neat hand, but wrote it with a rapidity not excelled by those whose manuscript is hardly legible. Removing, with his father-in-law, Mr. Austin, to the Mauvaisterra country, he became one of the first citizens of Jacksonville and of Morgan County, and was appointed by Judge Lockwood, who knew his competency, clerk of the Circuit Court. In this office, and that of Postmaster, he spent many years to the satisfaction of those who had business with either office. Never, I think, was eminent ability and urbanity more beautifully united. It is pleasant to know that, although he will never probably see these lines, he is still in the land of the living, and enjoying a serene life-evening, in the place ever most dear to him – the home.

Another interesting reminiscence of the Hopkins House is Chester Ashley. He came from the East – I do not remember the State – and engaged in the practice of law. He was a man of talents, educated and well-read in the law. Moreover, he was a man of elegant manners, frank, genial, and sociable, and seemed well situated to attain at once to popularity and eminence. I think he had a high sense of honor and rectitude of character. His health failed, and after recovering, he married and removed to Little Rock, Arkansas. I was not surprised when he was elected to the Senate of the United States, from that State, but rather wondered that his political advancement did not occur sooner. In the pleasant recollections of that House, the persons of Mr. Ashley, his amiable wife, and her lovely sister (relatives of the Hopkins family) constitute an important element. His career and death are known as part of the Nation’s history.

Alexander Miller is not to be forgotten by me as long as memory retains its hold. He was not only one of those who formed the pleasant circle at Hopkins,’ but an endeared friend before and after. His father, John Miller, came to Milton in 1810 with a son and two daughters, and built and set up a hat manufactory. His coming was remarkable for one thing – they landed in Milton from a keel boat, directly at the mills, close by the dam – the only instance, I suppose, in which the Wood River was navigated by a keel boat. Mr. Miller, the father, died soon. The son was employed by me as a clerk while I continued in business. The daughters married, and from that time Alexander Miller and myself dwelt together, mostly in my family, until I removed from Edwardsville. In this place he became an assistant in the land office, and then cashier of the Edwardsville branch of the State Bank, whose accounts he settled up for the State Government. After which he was employed by Dr. Edwards in the land office until his last sickness. He died in Dr. Edwards’ house. Mr. Miller was a man of singular rectitude and symmetry of character. In every business undertaken by him, he evinced a clear understanding of it, and most faithfully performed it. No man was more respected and confided in by all, and I may be permitted to add – none was more beloved by me.

Benjamin J. Seward, whose name is introduced above, came to this State (Territory rather) in the Fall of 1817. He preceded me at Shawneetown about a month, but left it immediately so that I did not see him until I met him in Edwardsville or Saint Louis. On the erection of the Bank of Edwardsville, he was made its cashier, and Benjamin Stephenson, President. He did not remain long, however, but went, I believe, to St. Louis, and afterwards returned East. He was an active and energetic business man, but my acquaintance with him was of a later date, when he was laboring as the Agent in Illinois for the American Sunday School Union. From this State he was promoted to the General Agency for the Valley of the Mississippi, and stationed at Cincinnati. He was called away from this important post by his brother, William H. Seward (I think at the time he was elected Governor of New York) to attend to his extensive lands and the business connected with them. A few years, however, closed his busy life on earth. Ardent, enthusiastic, and sanguine, he pushed his efforts, in whatever line, to their utmost practicability, and from my own experience, I should judge his friendships were of an equally strong character.

On the road from Edwardsville to Ripley (which was once expected to be a town on Shoal Creek), the family of Mr. Hoxsey lived, and some of them live there still, being known as respectable citizens of the county. It was a common remark among bachelors – and widowers – for many years, that there was always a beautiful daughter there, and so it became the nearest way to several places. At least four gentlemen with whom I am or have been acquainted besides, others, have successively drawn upon the bank of Silver Creek for their best treasure – viz: Beneniah Robinson, Dr. Weir of Edwardsville, Daniel Anderson, and Anderson M. Blackburn. I trust the issues have been equally valuable. There is a cluster of male descendants of the old gentleman – sons of this son Tristram, in Perry County, in which I write, who are worthy to bear and transmit the name. One of them has given his young life to his country."

 

EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 23
Source: Alton Telegraph, February 03, 1865
The Methodist and Baptist churches were early planted in Illinois, and there were many preachers of those denominations who labored more or less in Madison County. The Baptists were mostly of the old school, or what we call hyper-Calvinistic class. They were then popularly called Ironside, but since have obtained the nickname Hardshell. I do not approve such nicknames, and only mention them because I do not know, or at least remember, their own distinctive name. About the time I came over from St. Louis to reside in Illinois, only maybe in 1819, John M. Peck, who had come to St. Louis before me, came also to itinerate among them. He was an able man, as many can testify, and urged his new school, missionary, Sunday school, Bible, and Temperance efforts with great zeal, power, and success. But he was not received with cordiality by the brethren of the old churches. They considered him an innovator, and after a few years declared non-fellowship with him. I shall have more to say of him hereafter. Of the good brethren of the old side, I need not add any more.

The Methodist Church furnished many specimens of able ministry and devotion to the work. The principal resort – or meeting place – in Madison County, so far as I recollect, was not in Edwardsville, but some two miles westward, where they had a meeting house and camping ground called Ebenezer. Besides these already mentioned (who were with one exception local preachers), the most conspicuous, or at least the best remembered by me, were John Dew and Samuel H. Thompson. These were noble men. Mr. Dew was a man of unusual intellectual power. Not very eloquent, or at least oratorical, his strong arguments and vigorous appeals – to the judgment rather than the parsions – were felt, especially by thinkers. His personal character had great weight. He was believed to be all he pretended. Samuel H. Thompson was a different style of man. His intellectual power could not be esteemed equal – not do I suppose his mind was so well stored with study, nor do I remember any instances of remarkable eloquence or oratory, yet he could command an audience and produce more effect upon the public mind than Mr. Dew, or any other of the men of his day. He was frequently impassioned, but this did not seem to be the secret of his power. I was led to attribute it to his strong common sense, combined with a knowledge of mankind, and warm affections. Governor Edwards said of him that he was the most powerful man with the people he knew, and if he had made politics his business, would be wonderfully successful. But he was devoted to higher work, and though he allowed himself in after years to be used as a candidate for the office of Lieutenant Governor, he abstained from personal effort, and it was thought, lost his election by it. He, however, thought he did better in laboring without remission to save souls. He is in a condition to judge now, looking on both worlds of the wisdom of his choice.

Of Presbyterians, in those days there were few, if we except the Cumberland Presbyterians, who were active, efficient, and successful. I have mentioned the John Burbers, father and son, as, though not the first as ministers, among the most efficient laborers of them.

In 1819, two ministers came into Illinois as Presbyterian missionaries. Their names were _____ Lowe and _____ Graham (I have not their Christian names), and were educated at Princeton. As their field included Illinois and Missouri, and their time a year or less, we, of course, saw but little of them. Perhaps the same year, or the next, Nicholas Patterson passed through part of the county, and then disappeared. The next I remember were Edward Hollister and Daniel Gould. They were here in 1821. Mr. Gould taught school in Edwardsville six months, while Mr. Hollister itinerated mostly, I believe, in Missouri, occasionally visiting Edwardsville. The people of this village were so well pleased with Mr. Hollister, that they invited him to return and settle. But the way was not open, and they were disappointed. After laboring some years in the South, he came to Illinois again, perhaps in 1834. He now resides in Griggsville, I believe, but your mayor can tell. Mr. Gould went to North Carolina, married, and died.

Subsequently, I think in 1822, two other missionaries came from New England – Messrs. Orin Carlin and I. N. Sprague. They labored mostly in Madison and adjacent counties, and their influence was consequently more felt among us. There was another missionary or two about this time, whose name or names I cannot now recall, though with one of them, at least, who came from Princeton (was his name Williamson?) I was about as well acquainted as with any of those early missionaries. I remember him as a devoted and devotional young man, and an impressive preacher. He settled in New Jersey, as in after years did Mr. Sprague, who is there now.

Before all these, the Reverend Salmon Giddings, who arrived in St. Louis in 1816 or early in 1817, came over occasionally and preached. It was he who formed the churches of Edwardsville and Collinsville – the first of the denomination in Madison County."

 

EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 24
By Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, February 17, 1865
It remains that I tell what I can of the Convention struggle of 1823-4. By the Constitution adopted on assuming the position of a State, Illinois had declared herself a free State, and we fondly deemed the matter settled. But we had hardly entered upon the new responsibilities of sovereignty, before the nation was agitated afresh by this subject of slavery. Missouri having as a territory held slaves – whether in accordance with the treaty of purchase has been latterly doubted – on offering herself to the United States as one of them, insisted on entering with the fell system of slavery fastened and fixed upon her. In vain was every effort to convince her of its danger or its sin. Her great men were determined, and so fixed were they in the determination to be a slave State, that they bound the curse upon her by bands of iron, never to be broken. And the slave-power of the Union, seizing the opportunity to spread the system, rallied round her, and by threats of disunion and violence, obtained their end so far as to admit her with her chosen calamity, by yielding so far as to provide that it should be the last slave State north of the Maryland line. That in this unhappy compromise, bearing in it the seeds of the present rebellion, they were deceptions, intending to break the compact on the first favorable opportunity, subsequent events have amply proved. But they triumphed. They laid the foundation of a great slave State, and laid it so securely – as they hoped – it could never be shaken, and that it would be a point d’appue from which the citadel of freedom might be successfully assailed. But “the triumphing of the wicked is short.” The young giant has snapped the chains. Sampson has awaked from his sleep on the lap of his Delilah, and burst the new cords with which she supposed she had effectually bound him. How glorious is free Missouri! Welcome – a thousand welcomes – to the fraternity of free sovereign States!

But Illinois had other reason than sympathy with her younger sister for sorrow at this result. The slave power was encouraged. It had won a victory. The mighty Mississippi would on one side be colored by the dark blood of the slave, even up to the mouth of the Des Moines. It had conquered the spirit of freedom by compromise. It had wrung the admission of its right to live beyond its original boundaries. Now let the principle be established that freedom and not slavery is limited within certain bounds. Let us leap across the Great River, raise the black standard in the young State which, though it had the impudence to exclude slavery, yet is known to certain many who look back to the flesh pots of Egypt with longing eyes. Thus, shall the entire breadth of the river, almost throughout its whole length, be tinged with the same dark blood, and the ears of the despot be regaled by the melancholy mirth, the sad, hopeless song of the slave.

There was an enterprise worthy of the efforts of the arch enemy who delights in the misery, and more in the wickedness of man. To poison and wear out the fertile prairies of Illinois by the sure process of deterioration always the result of enforced and therefore superficial tilth, to confer them with myriads of wretched human beings, who should have no rights, no homes, no wives or husbands, no children, no power to resist outrage, no chastity or claims of right to protect it, no hope, no Bible; and yet with living souls, accountable to God, and with other myriads whose wont and basest passions should be cherished and fostered by the consciousness and exercise of irresponsible despotic power! Oh, how the malignant field rejoiced and gloried in the anticipated triumph! And there were these all over the land who willingly lent themselves to the accomplishment of his fell purpose. Many of them indeed were blindfolded by him before they could be led captive by him at his pleasure. They were made to believe that it might be in accordance with the Divine will. He had permitted slavery. He had some wise purpose in it. It could not, therefore, be wrong in us to fulfill His purpose. Slavery existed in the time of the Savior, and he did not preach against it, nor did his servants, the Apostles, at least in direct terms. Paul exhorted slaves to be obedient – therefore masters might enforce obedience. Moses recognized slavery, and the patriarchs were slaveholders – therefore we may. Nay, the abominable, slanderous He was believed and often repeated, that the young relative or protégé of the good Philemon, who in sowing his wild oats had wandered off from his good home and protector, and afterwards repented his wicked wandering and by the advice of Paul, the instrument of his conversion, who knew him and Philemon, determined to return like the prodigal, who, when he returned, bore the credentials of a minister of the gospel, and in company with others, a special messenger of the church to sister churches – that he was a thief and runaway slave. Nay more! That Paul, in sending Onesimus on this mission, or approving the action of the church in doing it, merely meant to return a fugitive slave to his master! And all this tissue of falsehood and absurdity, not supported by a word of proof, but inconsistent with the whole tenor of Paul’s beautiful letter to Philemon, was received by intelligent and honest men, and argued by learned commentators, in the interest of slavery. Such indeed was the blinding influence of slavery – sin always blinds – that, as I happen to know by frequent experience, a denial that the word of God ever sanctions slavery was considered equivalent to a denial of the Bible. The time has come when anti-slavery is not heresy, and the time is fast approaching in which it will be deemed amazing that it was even thought that the recognition of an existing fact constituted approval, that a code limiting an existing system both in extent and duration – and, in its utmost severity commuting the death penalty of criminals to imprisonment for life – was made for the purpose of giving divine sanction and perpetuity to the oppression of the innocent.

Such were some of the delusions under which many good people defended or apologized for the enormous wrong. But there were others, prominent, active, leading men, who had not the poor apology of delusion. They cared not for the wrongs and sufferings of slaves – they hoped to make money. Some of them had come from slavedom poor, ignorant, oppressed, ground down by the proud lords of large domains and gangs of negroes; and, rescued from poverty and contempt by the enjoyment of equal rights, had accumulated wealth enough to awake ambition, and now longed and sought to become the lord and exercise the authority of the master. What did they care who was harmed so they were benefitted? I was once applied to by an acquaintance to know if a friend of mine would take charge of a liquor shop at a good salary. I not only promptly replied no, but expostulated on the iniquity of the thing and the great evil which would be done by such an establishment. He rejoined that “he did not care; his object was to make money.” So was it with many, if not most of the leaders in the effort to enslave Illinois. That man died a poor wretch. So slavery is ruining its advocates.

Coming down to the time of our great struggle for freedom, I have been led to moralize somewhat on entering upon it. My readers must bear with me. The anxieties, the conflicts, the hopes, the fears, the fond expectations, the disappointments of half a century have not tended to produce indifference. The old soldier’s heart will quiver as he rides over the field of blood, thought it may be of victory."

 

EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 25
By Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, February 17, 1865
"There are several persons, more or less, conspicuous in the early days, whom I have neglected hitherto to introduce, not intentionally, but from a vagrant memory. Let me bring them in now, and then proceed to the closing chapters of my long-winded sketches.

Among these, Nathaniel Buckmaster occupied the public mind as much and as long as almost anyone. He was here probably before I became a citizen of the county. At least my first recollections of Edwardsville include two brick houses which he had put up – one for James Mason, in the rear of the old courthouse square, and one for Governor Edwards on the corner of the public square in the new town. Once a selected candidate for the Legislature, he next turned his attention to the Sheriffalty, not only with a success, but with a success unparalleled by any other man. How often he was elected, and how long he held the office I cannot tell, but it became a question whether he had not secured a life ______ in it. And I am not sure, but it was allowing himself to work another position instead of the sheriffalty that finally left him out. Although his intellectual powers were not great, though respectable and practical, and his education quite limited, Colonel Buckmaster has certainly great influence with the people, or he could not have had such remarkable and long continued success. He was shrewd, if not able, and after his first effort and failure, never committed himself through the press, relying on personal intercourse with the voters. He obtained wealth, and I am not aware that the public complained or had any cause to complain of unfair means or oppression on his part. His descendants deservedly occupy positions of respectability and influence.

George Barnsback and Jacob Gonterman, living in or near the edge of Ridge Prairie, southerly from Edwardsville, were respectable and respected farmers. The latter, I believe, never occupied a public position, but by his well-known character and descendants has left an excellent reputation. Mr. Barnsback was not much in public either, yet was known as a man of more than ordinary intelligence and character. He was an educated German gentleman, choosing, I believe, to live a retired life on his farm in the edge of the woods. He had in those days a nephew, whom I recall as a bright, good looking, intelligent, young German, just learning to speak our language. He married a daughter of Mr. Gonterman, and settled in the county. The people of Madison County know him as a man of business, and public man, of the right character, by the name of Julius Louis Barnsback, now, if I forget not, a representative of the county in the Legislature.

There was a family living in Edwardsville awhile, whose name I have endeavored in vain to recall. They lived in a house (the only one at that time) nearly midway between the old town and the new – I speak now of the built portions. Perhaps it may be remembered as an old frame house, nearly opposite where the Catholic Church was afterwards built. I introduce them now for the reason that Charles Slade married one of this family. Mr. Slade was a public man, and more so, perhaps, than I can now tell. He went out eastwardly and laid off a town on the Kaskaskia River, where the Vergennes Road crossed it, which he called Carlyle. He was particular about the orthography of this name, wishing to distinguish it from the Carlisles in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, because it was a family name. He told me it was the name of his grandmother. The name had not then become famous as since. Mr. Slade was an active, gentlemanly and handsome young man, which is nearly all that I knew of him personally. But he was afterwards elected to Congress, and it now seems like a dream or memory glimmering that he had a diplomatic appointment. Mr. Churchill can set this – and a hundred other things – right, if he chooses.

I cannot recollect the date of the advent to Edwardsville of John Adams, but it must have been somewhere in those days. He set up a carding machine and fulling mill – at one time essaying the manufacture of woolen cloth. It appears to me that the latter business did not succeed on account of the nature of the water, but he carried on the carding, and was the first to introduce in the county, and so far as I know in the State, at least on the West side, the manufacture of castor oil. In this he did an extensive business, giving quite an impetus to industrial pursuits in Edwardsville, and was the means of causing the manufacture to be much enlarged in the State and in the neighboring city of St. Louis. Mr. Adams was a modest, unpretending man, very energetic in business, well known for integrity and trustworthiness, and much beloved for his amiable and excellent deportment in domestic and social life. He was at one time Sheriff of the county."

 

EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 26
By Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, February 24, 1865
[This article was hard to read, and has some omissions.]
"I am hardly prepared for the task which I have imposed on myself. Having seen by the papers that an old friend – William H. Brown, Esq., of Chicago – had prepared and delivered an address before the Chicago Historical Society, on the history of the Convention struggle of 1823-4. I hoped to obtain a copy before it should become necessary to enter upon it. Whether it is published or not, I have received no copy, and must either depend again on my defective memory, or wait in the hope of still receiving it.

A few years ago, I attempted to give a brief history or sketch of the history of the struggle to introduce slavery in Illinois. It was published in the Alton Courier, and afterwards republished in the Egyptian Republic at Centralia, and again (in 1860) in the Henry Weekly Courier at Henry, Marshall County, under the title of The Conflict of the Century. This title was chosen, not as intending to intimate that that “conflict” was fought only in Illinois, but simply as an account of one campaign of the great struggle between Freedom and Slavery: between Light and Darkness, which has been going on through all this century so fiercely; and which was at the time of writing, about to culminate in the present hideous rebellion. Although it is not my plan to copy the account thus alluded to, nor even to revise it for the present notes, I expect to make use of it, and whatever other means I may have at command, to make my present statements correct and reliable.

It has been already hinted that the success of slaveholders in their efforts to plant the institution in Missouri emboldened them to try again, and that circumstances was supposed to be favorable for a campaign in Illinois. Accordingly, the subject was not allowed to sleep. The fact that the anti-slavery article in our Constitution had been adopted only after opposition and discussion, perhaps gave encouragement for an effort to tear out what we had deemed the cornerstone of our Temple of Liberty. I may be permitted to advert to my former account in order to set this matter of the original State constitution more clearly before the reader, and perhaps more correctly than I had the means to do then. The following paragraph is copied from that account:

'When in 1818, Illinois adopted a Constitution and became a sovereign State, the subject of slavery, it is believed, formed not a very prominent element in the discussions of the occasion. The convention was not unanimous in the passage of the article forbidding slavery or involuntary servitude except in punishment for crime, but the Ordinance of 1787 was too plainly applicable, and too stringent to allow any hope of success in an attempt to fasten slavery upon the infant giant. So, the State was born free.'

A valuable and interesting letter, which I received from the venerable ex-Governor, Edward Coles, a few years since, enables me to give a more specific representation of the facts on this point. He says:

'You are mistaken in supposing the subject of slavery had not formed a prominent topic in the political discussions of Illinois previous to it becoming a State. On the contrary, in a very early period in the settlement of Illinois, the question was warmly agitated by pro-slavery advocates and opponents of slavery. This state of things was increased by the ordinary _____ ____ made the abode of the ___ _____ ____, in the relation of masters and slaves, ______ its first settlement by Christians by ____, when slavery was prohibited by law, but tolerated by custom, aided by ignorance. Before the separation of Illinois from Indiana, Congress was petitioned by the Territory Legislature to repeal the ordinance of ____. It _____ a petition of this kind that the celebrated John Randolph, as eloquent of a committee of Congress, made his ______ report adverse to their prayer for _____ of the ordinance and the question of slavery. This report was adopted by Congress with little or no opposition. _____ on this and other indi_______ _____ ______ no prospect of Congress repealing the_____ fundamental law (the ordinance, the advocates of slavery had to _____ _____ themselves in retaining in ______ in violation of the ordinance, what was called “French Slaves,” and extending bondage to a limited extent to other negroes, under the denomination of indentures.

During the existence of this state of things, the slavery agitation was lulled, but not extinguished, as was seen by its mingling itself so actively but in the election and conduct of the members of the Convention, which made the Constitution in 1818. I am the more conversant with the character of that Convention from having attended it during my first visit to Illinois, and made the acquaintance and learned the opinions, views, and wishes of many of its prominent members.'

Whether this quotation corrects any material error of mine or not, I am happy to have an opportunity to give so valuable, though brief, a statement from Governor Coles to the public. The venerable writer still lives in Philadelphia, and from his letters, he may be seen by the above specimen, although suffering from physical causes, seems to possess much of the vigor, if not sprightliness of earlier life. I wish he might have strength to fill up the outline of a movement no one knows so well as he."

 

EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 27
By Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, March 03, 1865
"In the 'Conflict of the Century,' I spoke of the origin of the direct attempt to change the Constitution in the interests of slavery as having been in 1822, though with reservation for errors in memory. I was aware that the Edwardsville Spectator had given warning previously to this, and Mr. Warren seemed to think, not without some reason, I had hardly done him justice by the general statement I had given.

Let me indulge in an explanatory episode. When I began to send the numbers of the Conflict of the Century [attempt to introduce slavery in Illinois] to the Alton Courier, I requested Mr. Brown, the editor, to forward a copy to each of five or six of my old friends, who were co-laborers in the contest, but have reason to believe it was forgotten, or imperfectly attended to. It was in the hope of obtaining corrections and amendations from those who could make them, but none appeared. There were two men to whom I more especially desired to send them, because from them I could have stronger hope of receiving the much-wished annotations. These were Edward Coles and Hooper Warren, but unfortunately, I knew not their whereabouts. Afterwards, I learned the residence of Mr. Warren, and immediately wrote to inform him of the matter. He expressed anxiety to have the papers, and proposed if I could procure no other, that I should send him my only copy and he would have it again printed. Having access to the office of a paper printed at Henry, he would himself set up the matter, and forward me a number of copies in return. In carrying out this arrangement, Mr. Warren printed the articles in the Henry Weekly Courier, condensing, with my consent, the ten numbers into three, and added a few notes correcting some real and some supposed errors, but otherwise adding very little the information conveyed. In the correspondence between us, Mr. Warren informed me of several things he had written on this and co-relative matters in several newspaper, which I should be rejoiced, but do not hope to see. His account would be of great interest and ought to be put in a publication form and placed before the public. He is now gone, and I fear there is little hope of seeing anything from his able and truthful pen, except those fugitive pieces ____ the _____ papers of the day.

In one, the notes appended by him, Mr. Warren says, in reference to the date 1822:

'Nearly three years previous to the time here mentioned, the Spectator warned the people of Illinois of a plot to call a convention for the purpose of introducing slavery into this State. It did not cease its warnings, not its denunciations of the actors in the plot until it exploded.'

This witness is true, and it was to this fact I alluded in speaking of intimations in the papers on the matter. But I have to acknowledge that an incorrect impression was made by my statement. My memory – thus assisted – sustain Mr. Warren in his assertion of having anticipated and given warning of the open effort. Yet the public were taken by surprise. My remark, in the “conflict” was literally true. “But when this was intimated in the papers, it was vehemently denied as unkind and ungenerous suspicion, entirely without cause.” And I know I am not in error when I say, that some of the friends of Mr. Warren, his co-adjutators in the conflict, thought him premature and probably unjust. They had abundant evidence at length of the correctness of his foresight. As he became better known as an editor, his political friends learned to place more confidence in his _______.

While on the subject of Mr. Warren and his correspondence, I wish to say more about his writings. In answer to the expression of a strong ______ on my part that he would write fully on that convention struggle, he says:

'Three or four years ago, I was requested by Mr. Eastman, editor of the Chicago Magazine, to write for that periodical a history of the Convention Question in this State, and I agreed to comply on the condition that I could procure a file of the Edwardsville Spectator – mine having been lost in Cincinnati. I have not been able to procure another. Mr. Churchill declined to lend his copy. During the Fremont campaign in 1856(?), the same request was made by Dr. Ray, one of the editors of the Chicago Tribune for that paper, which I was obliged to decline for the same reason.'

It seems sad, that Mr. Warren should thus have been compelled to decline a task which he was so well able to perform, by the loss of the file of his own paper. He had better do as I did – write from memory and risk mistakes for others to correct. Mr. Churchill possesses probably the only copy of the Edwardsville Spectator during the six years of Mr. Warren’s editorship now in existence, for the bound copy of Governor Coles, left by him in the hands of Rev. John M. Peck to be presented to the Illinois Historical Society, and which saw in Mr. Peck’s library some years before his death, was unhappily destroyed (I suppose) by fire in the burning of his seminary building. I suggest that Mr. Churchill is the most, if not the only man who can give a full and correct history of events having so vital an influence on the State and such close connection with – or rather forming so important a part of the history of the Slavery conflict in these United States. It is hardly possible that Mr. Brown could give more than the merest outline in the limits of an address delivered at a sitting. But I long to see that address.

But I wish to make some further extracts from Mr. Warren’s letter, to show somewhat of things that he has written. He says:

'Since the publication of Ford’s History, I have on several occasions written articles for the newspapers, concerning the early agitation of the Slavery Question in this State, the most of which was a review in the Chicago Freewest of that part of Ford’s book, which gives an account of the press during the convention period. That article brought forth three numbers from the Rev. J. M. Peck, on the subject of the convention, which was published in the same paper. He was associate editor of the Freewest. These were followed by some editorial ________, which, very much to my regret, ___ __ moral offence, not so much _______ in his own account, as _____ sympathy with Gov. Coles. I have since written and published in the paper printed to _____, a letter to the Hon. John Reynolds, reviewing that part of his “Own Times,” which relates to the press and his disingenuous notice of Messrs. Edwards and Cook.'

How I have longed to see such documents as these from any of my old friends or forty years ago! And how much nearer perfect could I have made my own half-remembered account. But this is all now beyond my reach. If I had the means at my command, I would make the journey to Chicago, just to search the archives of the Chicago Historical Society, where I suppose they and a multitude of other priceless papers are buried – to experience no resurrection in my time. I hope that flourishing and valuable institution will not let these and such like papers remain buried always."

 

EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 28
Governor Coles vs. Hooper Warren
By Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, March 10, 1865
"It may be interesting, if not important, to trace the proceedings of the parties of the day through the channels, as well as to the source. I have already indicated the source, but, in all political transactions the channel may be not only devious, but ramified, and so it was in this.

It has been shown that Governor Coles was an ardent hater of slavery. By the [Illinois] constitution, the existence of slavery to a limited extent was recognized and allowed, in the persons of what was called, “French Slaves.” That is, some who had been introduced by the old French or Canadian settlers, prior to the occupancy by Americans of the country bordering on the Mississippi. A few of these having been retained under the territorial rule, still remained in bondage, and the constitution did not strike off the chain, at least of that generation. The inconsistency of this with the principles of the constitution itself, and its intrinsic injustice, impressed the Governor so strongly, that in his inaugural, he recommended the emancipation of the French Slaves.

Here was a wedge readily furnished to the hands of the party. Mr. Warren, who was equally opposed to slavery with the Governor, but not equally friendly to him, as he says in a note to the 'Conflict' – 'depreciated a recommendation in the Governor’s inaugural, as calculated to precipitate the question of a convention; and it so actually happened.' Governor Ford says, 'This served as the spark to kindle into activity all the elements in favor of slavery.'

It may be worthwhile to consider how far we are bound, on all occasions, to put forth what we believe to be right principles. Whether we may consult expediency, not instead of right, but for its ultimate recesses. Mr. Coles and Mr. Warren were equally opposed to slavery, and equally conscientious. The one desired and labored for the utter extinction of the wrong, as earnestly as the other. One struck immediately on his official responsibility, at what remained in our institutions of the barbarous iniquity. The other deemed it an error to do so, on the ground of inexpediency. Which was right? It should be observed that Mr. Warren’s reason was, that the recommendation was “calculated to precipitate the question of a Convention;” and Governor Ford says, it had that effect. However, we may approve Mr. Warren’s reasoning and motives, it is impossible not to admire governor Coles’ principles and frankness.

Mr. Ford represents the proslavery leaders as reasoning thus – or at least acting on such reasoning: 'Slavery could not be introduced, nor was it believed that the French slaves could be emancipated, without an amendment to the Constitution.'

If so, and I see no reason to doubt it, the Governor furnished a strong – one of the strongest – arguments for a convention. I know it was considered an unfortunate move at the time by some of their friends, who cordially agreed with him.

One of the unpleasant memories of the struggle of that day is that there was division among the leading anti-slavery men, which hindered them, not from aiding in concert on the main question, but from combining and mutually consulting on specific movements. Ford says:

'Mr. Coles was a Virginian, had been private Secretary to Mr. Madison, had traveled in Europe, was well informed, well bred, valuable in conversation, had emancipated his slaves in Virginia, was appointed to a land office in Illinois, through the influence of Mr. Crawford, the Secretary of the Treasury, had brought his slaves with him to Illinois and settled them on farms, and was a thorough opponent of slavery. At that early day, Mr. Crawford and John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, and others, were looking forward as candidates for the Presidency. Ninian Edwards, one of our Senators, favored Mr. Calhoun, and Jesse B. Thomas, our other Senator, was in favor of Mr. Crawford. To counteract the influence of Edwards, Mr. Coles was sent out to Illinois.'

The point of the foregoing extract touching my present topic is, that 'through the influence of Edwards, Mr. Coles was sent out to Illinois.' However correct or otherwise this may be, in reference to the maneuvers at Washington, Mr. Edwards and Mr. Coles were not cordial, political friends. They did not work together. While their relations to public questions ought to have made them one in public life, they were not only two, but antagonistic. This I felt rather than saw (being friendly to both), and at this I often wondered – what local questions divided them I think I never saw, for neither ever spoke disparagingly of the other in my presence. I could act both freely and openly, yet could never see them act together. The solution must therefore be found in something like the facts presented by Governor Ford. The opposition must have begun or been inspired at Washington. They were not rivals; and even if prospectively – with a distant view to the Senate or otherwise – there was no need of appearing unfriendly or looking askance at each other, at that time. Mr. Crawford and Mr. Calhoun – I wonder if those men ever did good enough to their country to counteract the evils of their machinations – reached their long arms to Illinois, and played their men, like the pieces on the chess board, against each other. And they had men to play. I know that Governor Edwards was in favor of Mr. Calhoun, it was long before secession – but about the preferences of Governor Coles I have not any clear recollections.

The most disastrous effect of this antagonism, in my opinion (and I think other mutual friends agreed with me) was that Mr. Coles and Mr. Warren became irreconcilably separated. The particular occurrence that divided them I do not know, and think I never did, but I had abundant and frequent evidence of the fact. The Spectator, so far as my memory goes, never spoke in commendation of any act of Governor Coles’ administration, and I think never encouraged him so far as to couple his name, unless officially, with any measure which it approved. Thus, in a journal which exerted perhaps more than any other in the State, an influence on the public mind, was certainly discouraging to an executive whose administration was during the most trying epoch of our State’s history, excepting that just closed of Governor Yates. There will be further occasion to advert to this."

 

EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 29
By Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, March 10, 1865
[This article was so damaged and unreadable that I could not transcribe it. I could see, however, that the article was discussing slavery and the State Convention.]

 

EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 30
By Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, March 17, 1865
"Such was the state of things in the ranks of the leading anti-slavery men of that day. Governor Edwards was not active in the canvass. He, as well as Judge Thomas, had, in the U. S. Senate, favored the reception of Missouri as a slave State. In fact, he was a slaveholder, so far, at least, as to have two or three French slaves in his family, and probably more elsewhere. He did not pretend to be scrupulous in the matter, or even anti-slavery, yet he expressed himself strongly opposed to the introduction of slavery into Illinois, because it would be a curse to the State. I do not know that he made any public demonstration on the subject. The most of his time was spent in Washington during the canvass. One fact, however, may be suggestive: all his warmest friends were leading men in the anti-convention struggle. His son-in-law, the noble Daniel P. Cook, residing, when at home, in his family, was certainly not influenced in favor of the Convention movement. A series of powerful articles, written by him at Governor Edwards’ house, was published in the Edwardsville Spectator during the summer, and the Governor’s radiant face, when they were alluded to, showed the depth of his appreciation. For myself, although no assistance or offer of assistance or direct word of encouragement, so far as I remember, ever came from him to me, yet I felt strengthened and cheered by the evidence I had of his approbation of my course. Whether the want of cordiality between himself and Governor Coles had any tendency to hinder him from open and active effort in the cause, I do not know, but certainly at the time I had my thoughts, and deplored the effect. How far Mr. Cook was influenced by this want of cordiality on the part of his father-in-law and Mr. Coles (and indeed, if the latter was an advocate of Crowford, which is not within my knowledge, he was as far from agreeing with Mr. Cook as Mr. Edwards), I am not able to say, but the difference did not keep him back from direct and energetic effort in the same cause. Not only the essays mentioned above, but his whole activities to keep out, and to keep down slavery, were used without ____. And, as will be seen, there was ample room without the necessity of any formal coalition.

I believe I have already said that on the meeting of the Legislature, it was soon found that the enemy was at work to fasten the shackles of slavery on the young State. There was a majority – a strong working majority, who had come prepared to vote for a Convention – a majority, but in the lower house, not a constitutional or two-thirds majority. What is to be done? The Senate is ready at once to pass the requisite resolution to submit the question of Convention or No Convention to the people, but there lacks the addition of a few votes, one or two, of that majority below; and without them, it cannot be done. A vote or two of hesitating ones can perhaps be procured by careful manipulation, but still on counting noses, there are not enough. The difficulty is in one man. Fortunately for them, his seat is contested. We can oust him. We have a majority, and settle can side questions to suit ourselves. Let us then put out the recusant, and fill his place with one who is willing to do our bidding. Aye, but there is often an obstinate little ‘but’ in the way – but there is another question on which the men and their positions are reversed. He who will vote for one Convention will not vote for our man. We have a Senator to elect, and cannot afford to lose the man of our party. Of course, it is to the leaders of the Convention party this language, or reasons, is attributed.

Governor Ford does injustice to the leaders of the movement. It was by no means so clumsily done. They were too able, too shrewd to be caught in such a trap of their own setting. The process was a bold one, and violated every principle of justice, as well as the elective franchise; was contrary doubtless to the meaning of their oaths as legislators; but it was not quite so barefaced. If I am not mistaken, the thing was done in accordance with parliamentary forms.

Nicholas Hansen, as I have elsewhere said, was a young lawyer residing for a time in Edwardsville. He removed to the 'Bounty Lands' or 'Military Tract,' as the region north of the Illinois River was then called, and which, as Governor Ford says, was erected into the county of Pike. John Shaw was a farmer and trader, I believe on the banks of the Mississippi River, in the same tract, where he laid off a town and did business. Hansen was from New York, of Dutch descent, if I am not wrong, well-educated and well disposed, but not, I think, of strong or far-reaching mind. Shaw was a shrewd, but not educated man, and I have the impression not especially scrupulous, particularly in political matters. But it is seen, both might be serviceable as members, and each had his knotty point. I have, perhaps, said as much before, but no matter.

Hansen was the returned member – Shaw the contestant. Which had the right to the seat was the question. Until that question is decided, of course Hansen sits. The regular committee is appointed to examine the evidence and report. While they are at work, every inducement which can be offered to influence Hansen’s vote in favor of the Convention is urged. Days, weeks are consumed in this effort. How much evidence the committee examined I do not know, but it did not seem to lookers on that the right to the seat depended on this. Promises and persuasions failing, threats were resorted to. But these had no effect. Next to the honors of the seat, the honors of martyrdom floated before the eyes of the young legislator. 'They are determined to make a great man of me,' said he one day, or words to that effect, in my hearing.

At length, the committee reported a resolution “that Nicholas Hansen is entitled to a seat as representative from Pike County.” Instantly, a member, Mr. West of Madison, rose and moved 'that the report be recommitted to a select committee,' and the report was so committed. Mr. West was appointed chairman, of course, no matter who were the others, and quietly put the report in his pocket. There was a good deal yet to be done. It would seem that Mr. Hansen’s claim was considered decidedly the better one, and if he could be worked over for their use, they would somewhat prefer to let him remain. And so renewed efforts were made, one after another tried to prevail on him to change his position on the Convention question, but he was 'an obstinate Dutchman,' and could not be moved. There was no other way, or but the one, they must turn him out. The time was passing, the Senator chosen, the session drawing to a close, the vote must be had without further delay. How can it be done? The easiest thing in the world. Nothing, only to swallow conscience, bury the right, ignore the people, defy or bamboozle constituents. So, the committee reported the identical paper, with 'Nicholas Hansen' stricken out and 'John Shaw' inserted in its place. And so, the report being adopted, John Shaw became the sitting member."

 

EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 31
The State Capital of Vandalia
By Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, March 17, 1865
"It would be strange if no repetitions and no incoherencies should mark these numbers. Written as they are with little help to memory, and with the one or two immediately preceding numbers always gone to press, and no copy before me (for if copying were required, they would never be written), it can hardly be expected that I should pursue a regular, unbroken line of narrative, even if each had been my original plan. I wish to give a true account as far as I go, whether complete and connected or not. The reader may skip when tired of the old man, and the editor shut down at any time.

Would it be interesting to the present generation to have some idea of the State Capital in the winter of 1822-1823? An inside view of political maneuvers might entertain the reader, but there are others who knew much more of them than I did. Perhaps an outside view of the place, a personal sketch or two, or may be an anecdote, may supply the place in part.

The town of Vandalia was altogether an experiment. The Legislators of 1818 wished to get the State House and appendages above highwater mark. So, a commission was appointed who ranged the Kaskaskia River from mouth to – not its source, but – beyond existing settlements. They found hills – whether three or seven, I have never counted – but hills enough to rescue the place from the flat sameness of the Territorial seat of government at Kaskaskia; and fixing their stakes, laid off the town (they did not call it city, I believe) and named it Vandalia. It was said, it may be with some truth, that this was a mistake - that they intended to give it the name of an early discover, but somehow got Vandal in their heads instead of LaSalle. However that may be, they found a name which in spite of its association is euphonious as well as sonorous, and a site which may be ranked for beauty among the finest in the State, in both respects as well as in originality far superior to the present State Capital, yet Springfield is the more proper place for the seat of government, and I am inclined to the opinion, no better, take it all in all, can be found in the State. Chicago and East St. Louis have been named, perhaps in irony, for either would be preposterous. Alton might be somewhat more sensible, at least, the capital would have a place to stand on, out of the mud. Bloomington or Peoria would have been well enough if it had been placed in either. But to remove it, ces bona!

But I forgot – I belong to another generation, and have somehow impertinently stuck my nose into the present. Let Young America forgive me. 'Old men for counsel' is an antiquated adage. I withdraw to the past.

A square of reasonable dimensions, quite as respectable, certainly, as that on which the present State House stands, was retained in the center, designed, eventually, to be occupied by the State House, and one was afterwards built on it, and around this square the buildings needed for officers were scattered. These were temporary, of course. At the next and lower side of the square and facing it, a wooden building had been put up, two stories high – not very high, though – sufficient to accommodate the Senate on the upper, and the House of Representatives on the lower floor. At one end of the building, passage was partitioned off, some eight or ten feet wide, with a stairway. This afforded entrance to both Halls of Legislature. The style of the building was primitive and plain as a quaker meeting house. But it answered the purposes of legislation, or most of them, for I do not remember any committee rooms, unless there was one room of moderate size partitioned off from the Senate chamber. On the opposite and upper side of the square was a structure then considered large, built by Mr. Erast, a German gentleman, and occupied for a hotel. Some members were accommodated there, and others where they could find a room about town. I wish the members of the Legislature recently adjourned, who grumbled so much about their fare, could have had a bird’s eye view of Vandalia that winter, especially if a double bateaux were their cicerone to open the roofs for them. I fared well. Four of us, clerks, &c., found board at a private house, good enough, and lodging in a room together, where we had a good fire. Colonel Henry S. Dodge, engrossing and enrolling clerk of the Senate, was my bedfellow, as well as associate in the clerical department. David J. Baker, who was acting as assistant clerk of the lower house, and sometimes Henry Starr, occupied the other bed. We had a very pleasant company. Two of us are long gone – the other two waiting for our call away. May we meet in a higher sphere!

The furniture of the State House was as plain and primitive as the structure. No cushioned chairs, but long, hard benches were the seats of the members. The speaker, I think, sat on an arm chair on a platform, hardly large enough to contain it, and a few inches high, with a board before him for a desk supported by several sticks called balusters, and a table before it for the clerk. I have described the Hall of Representatives. The Senate chamber was “like unto it,” only smaller. The governor, Secretary of State, and other high officers who did not happen to reside at Vandalia had lodgings and board, little, if any, better than the rest. Where their offices for business were that winter, I cannot say. The auditor’s was in a brick building, if I remember.

It should be borne in mind, that Vandalia was only about three years old at this time, and that it had no railroad in existence or expectancy to push it forward; no settlements older than itself around it; and no extraordinary soil or peculiar natural advantages. It had to make itself. The Cumberland Road was an afterthought, so far as this place was concerned, and though the Kaskaskia which passed by it had been, as I heard, declared a navigable river by law, there seemed to be a “higher law” which utterly ignored or forbade its navigation. A great state of forwardness in improvement could hardly have been expected."

 

EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 32
The State Capital in Vandalia
By Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, March 24, 1865
"Do my readers think I have strayed off from Madison County? Let them be patient. They will find the old county mixed up with my story, and by and by, when the scene of action shall be brought within its limits again, they will probably find, as Sterne, or some other writer has proved, that 'a discussion is no digression.'

I have already brought out the catastrophe, and some readers may think I have come to the end of the story, at least as far as Vandalia and the Legislature are concerned. Yet it may not be amiss to linger awhile at our primitive seat of government, and observe the doings of that winter there. One thing worthy of remark is that there was a large proportion of recognized ministers of the gospel in the two houses. These, or several of them, were disposed to magnify their office, and accordingly, there was preaching in the hall of Representatives twice every Sabbath. And there was a variety – Baptist, Methodist, and Unitarian – followed each other, each with no small zeal maintaining his views, and some of them combating the views of each other right manfully. Perhaps this controversial divinity was mainly conducted by two individuals – perfect antipodes in theological views, and almost equally dissimilar in manners and other characteristics, yet both worthy men.

Mr. Kincaid was a man of some culture, a great reader, if not more properly a student, and ingenious in argument. His views were peculiar. Not only was he a Unitarian, but I should say humanitarian in his views of the Divine Person. I heard him preach an elaborate discourse to show that God was endowed with a human body, hands, eyes, &c., and of course occupied a specific place, from which, being very high, He could look down and see and control the world. He was an amiable man, possessing the confidence of those who knew him, and so honest, that though by no means dull of apprehension, he could be and was deceived by pretenders.

Daniel Parker was the opposite. Illiterate, uncultivated, rude in manners, he was a man of no small power. His theological position was Trinitarian, ultra-Calvinistic, strict Baptist. I never met with another person who held his views, though he had followers and churches on his side of the State, of whom he was the recognized leader. His peculiarity was in holding to what was called the two seed doctrine. That is, as I understood him, every person born into the world was by his birth fixed in a class, on one side or the other of the line of character and destiny; was, in short, either a child of God or a child of the devil. As God’s purposes never change, so the matter was settled from everlasting to everlasting. And so we had it. Mr. Kincaid would spend an hour in his calm, though by no means tame, persuasion to a good life drawn from his point of view, and at his close, Mr. Parker would announce with entire confidence his intention to demolish his argument in the afternoon or evening. And then, he would spend his hour or more with vest unbuttoned, and cravat taken off (both while speaking), laboring and sweating vehemently, tearing the English language, if not his opponent’s, of course, to pieces. And there was mental vigor, power of thought, if no elegance of language, in his preaching. I do not say that this or these, comprised all the kinds of preaching we had, or the best, but certainly the most remarkable. And they had hearers – the hall full. Some of us went hoping, not always in vain, to hear the gospel. Some, to hear the controversies. Others seem to hear the preacher, whoever he might be.

The clerk of the House was a candidate for the highest office in the gift of the Legislature. He was known to be a gambler, profane and immoral. Every Sabbath – every sermon – found him sitting on the desk at which he usually wrote, facing the preacher, looking earnestly and listening devoutly. It was frequently remarked that he was not seen at gaming tables, publicly, though I heard it more than once said that there were more private places of resort at which he might solace himself. At length, the election came off – he was successful. That same night, as I went into the somewhat public room of the Senator from Madison, I saw him seated at cards. Laying my hand upon his shoulder, I said, 'What’s this?' He looked up over his should at me and replied, 'I _____ _____ - the election’s over.' His desk did not groan under his weight on the Sabbath, I think after that. He has been a Governor (of another State) since, and though himself dead, his name seems perpetuated not in honor, even until now, as rebel claimant of the same position.

Another prominent man was candidate for a high office – the highest below the bench. He had certainly some eminent qualifications for electioneering. I never understood that he was at the head of the profession, though he sought the highest place. He was a very attentive hearer – or seemed to be – if whatever preacher (member of either house) held forth. His position, as a hearer, was much more humble than that of the Clerk, yet equally conspicuous to the preacher. He uniformly planted himself upon the edge of the little platform on which the preacher stood, and on which the speaker sat during session. This seat had special advantages. Not only was he always in sight of the preacher, but looking up with earnest attention, gave the impression of deep interest, if not devotion. Moreover, tobacco shewing was common, and preachers did not all eschew the weed – they preferred to chew it. Some of them scattered their bountiful benefactions with profuse liberality, on every side, so that the humble hearer at their feet partook largely of the benefit. A waggish lawyer said that T- was sitting under the droppings of the sanctuary.

It was strange that a man of common understanding and self-respect did not see how he was despised for his barefaced hypocrisy. And it is still more strange that good men, of fair capacity for discernment, could be, and were, deceived by him. They did not see him at the gambling halls, for they did not go there, and he was careful to avoid or prevent them from seeing whatever he thought would discredit him in their eyes. Yet it was a wonder to some of us, that the thin and partial disguise with which he and some others were clothed, could blind so many as it did. Some gentlemen were conversing one evening about the man of whom these remarks are made, when Mr. Kincaid said, 'I acknowledge that I was completely deceived by him. He spoke with tears in his eyes of his sins, and asked me so earnestly and repeatedly for my prayers, that my sympathies were excited, and I took him into my heart as a sinner turning from his ways, and was willing to do anything for him in my power. A gentleman present replied, 'Yes! And he will deceive you again, if he has any occasion.' 'Well, I confess,' replied Mr. Kincaid, 'that he almost succeeded in deceiving me the second time.' I will not pretend to give the precise language of Mr. Kincaid, but am persuaded of its substantial correctness.

Both these men were successful candidates. They are now no more on earth, and now know how far their success was success. And they were both zealous advocates of the Convention, though not members of the Legislature. Mr. Parker and Mr. Kincaid voted against the measure."

 

EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 33
By Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, March 31, 1865
Although my business was in the Senate chamber, and my place at the desk to record all the proceedings of the body, and although I do not remember or believe that I was ever absent from my place half an hour during the sessions, I have no distinct recollection of more than one or two of the leaders or active members of the Senate in the struggle. As before said, the Senate was safe, nothing needed to be done for the cause [anti-slavery] there. It was in the House the effort was required to work over, or work in, the requisite two-thirds. Consequently, the interest centered in the House. There was a good deal of maneuvering, indeed, carried on in the Senate chamber, but it was mostly or entirely on other matters. In the matter of divorces, a large business was done. One of the Senators had a sister, unfortunately married, and wished her released. In order to secure success to his bill – the merits of which I do not know – he favored other applications. Other members of each house probably had their pet cases, and so divorces became the order of the day. I think there were more than forty couples divorced that winter by act of the Legislature. A lawyer, being employed to write a petition for a divorce, disgusted with the whole thing and hoping to stop it by ridicule, prepared the paper in such a manner and gave such absurd reasons for asking it – such for instance as this – 'One of us is Irish and the other Dutch, and we can’t quarrel in comfort' – as raised peals of laughter when it was read. Yet the divorce was enacted.

Among the Senators, the most remarkable, perhaps, was the Reverend William Kinney of St. Clair County. With very limited education and opportunities for self-improvement equally limited, he had acquired and held among educated and able lawyers, by no means unambitious, the position of a leader. Doubtless he held this in the Senate by reason of the powerful influence he exerted in the State among the people. It is true this influence, so far as direct, was mainly over the denomination of Christians, among whom he was recognized as a preacher, but that was a power which he knew how to work to his advantage. Illiterate as he avowedly was, he possessed talents of a commanding order or degree. It will not do to call it simply shrewdness or cunning. The man who is unable to write a correct sentence in plain English, who writes the personal pronoun “I,” and who yet can stand beside the highest, the ablest, the most learned, and the most practical politicians of the State as their peer, and maintain his standing there for years, must have higher qualifications than usually come under the denomination of shrewdness. In his own denomination, he was all powerful. I do not remember that I ever heard him preach, and there were no occasions in the Senate during the winter I was there, to call out eloquence. His speeches were short, inelegant, rude, but to the point. His acquaintance with the scriptures was by no means extraordinary for a preacher of long standing, either in extent or accuracy. As an instance, I heard him one day in the Senate say, 'I had the satisfaction to do (with work hands on the road) as the scripture says, :The bird that can sing, and won’t sing, must be made to sing." Yet he could seldom be caught, or if caught, held in a trap. When asked for the chapter in which his text was to be found, he said, 'Well, if it ain’t there, it ought to be.'

I have been told that his preaching was noted for ingenuous argument or sophistry, and homely but apt illustrations. Such as – to show how much easier it is to discover faults, than to correct them, or to ridicule some criticism. 'A hog may find a hole in the fence, but he can’t mend it.' To describe a denomination of Christians who were very zealous and very noisy in their devotions, he said, 'They were like an empty wagon moving downhill.'

I doubt whether there was a man more industrious or more efficient in labors for the Convention than Mr. Kirney. Others could write better, of course, for there were able and accomplished men associated with him; but he was everywhere among the people, talking of the benefits to be derived to the State, and the great improvement in the condition of the negro, which would be produced by the change sought for. That he was not over scrupulous on the moral aspects of the subject, or the means used to secure the end, we had evidence enough, but in this respect, he was held in countenance, if not quite equaled, by his associates, the leaders, in the contest. If is sad to remember that in the last years of his life, his religious character, his standing, his hopes, were wrecked by intemperance, and his course characterized by the most awful profanity. In his creed, he acknowledged a Supreme Being, who was the efficient cause of all things, each individual sin included, and who it would seem, had no rule or reason for his judgments, but his own unchangeable will. It was the doctrine of Fate, in its most absolute form. And he gloried in it. A son of his died at West Point. A fellow student wrote the father saying he died in the full belief that his fate was fixed by the absolute and eternal decrees of God, which nothing could modify, and the father showed me the letter, printed in gold letters on black satin, to be framed and hung up in his house."

 

EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 34
By Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, March 31, 1865
"I find Mr. Churchill – I am glad I have called him out, for I mean to take the credit of it – thinks “brevity is the soul of sit,” and rather obliquely hints that his old friend has forgotten the adage, old folks, like the Hou______, need a flapper to wake them up occasionally. My apology for stretching out this series, which, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along, is, that it is not a continued narrative, but a string of sketches, which like beads, may be slipped off the string anywhere. Some sea captains have described the sea serpent as resembling a long row of barrels, following each other. So these articles come in succession, but if connected at all, the connection is frequently out of sight.

I think I will not attempt any more personal sketches, except to say a few words of our presiding officer, the Lieutenant Governor, and this I do because I think he has had hardly fair dealing from the hands of others. Governor Ford has caricatured him, or perhaps it was more correct to say, embalmed in history, a caricature which he received by tradition, both in the wolf speech and his general character. It is very certain that Adolphus Frederick Hubbard was not a man of strong intellect or well-furnished mind, and that the lawyers associated with him loved to place him in laughable, or it may be, ridiculous positions. I saw a good deal of this practical joking among them. They were delighted to find a subject, especially a newcomer on the circuit, and if a green Yankee, so much the better, whom they would lampoon unmercifully until he would bear it no longer. But, indeed, they were all accustomed to “give and take” in this matter. It made their circuits more cheerful, took off the drudgery, thus to alternate their hard travel and hard work with mirth inspiring wit.

Knowing this habit of the lawyers of that day, I have always supposed the representations of Gov. Hubbard’s speeches greatly exaggerated, and some of them probably pure inventions. Nor do I believe that the men of high character and generous spirit whom I have heard repeat them, ever gave, or would have given, consent to their perpetuation in a professing to be grave and truthful history.

Whatever were Mr. Hubbard’s eccentricities or deficiencies, it must be admitted that in his intercourse with others, either official or social, his demeanor was that of a gentleman. I considered him a good-natured egotist, whose self-esteem was manifested rather amusingly than offensively. His manners – I have that session only on my mind – seemed a combination of the easy, good natured, amusing arrogance which I have often observed in young gentlemen from the South, and dignified condescension, or if you like it better, condescending dignity. As presiding officer of the Senate, my opinion was, and is, that he aimed to be impartial as well as uniformly polite, nor do I recollect to it any complaint was made by the Senators. To myself, his deportment was always pleasant and respectful, and I think the relations between the presiding officer and Secretary could not have been more free from friction. He was in favor of the Convention; but I am not aware of his ever having swerved from the line of duty to promote it. On the whole, while there was little in common between us – nothing, I may almost say, but our common humanity – my recollections of Lt. Gov. Hubbard are far more agreeable than those relating to some others, who occupy more conspicuous places in the history or memories of those days. I think he was measurably, if not entirely, free from inebriety and profaneness, vices which prove far too prevalent among us.

I believe I have already intimated that the Convention question was connected with others, with any that could help it. On the other hand, there were others which required the help of this. One of these was the construction of a canal to unite Lake Michigan with the Mississippi River, through the Illinois River. They were tacked together, therefore, for mutual support, and if my memory is not at fault again, were passed, on the same day and hour. The canal measure was indeed brought up in various ways. One effort caused no little amusement to observers by a scene now brought up before me. A Senator, Mr. Kinney, who was opposed to the canal, but who probably had no reference to that measure in his present proposition, offered a resolution that a committee should be appointed to inquire into the expediency of appropriating funds for the purpose of draining certain lakes in the American Bottom. Another Senator immediately proposed to amend by adding, 'and also ------ Bottom' (I do not remember the order, nor even the name of the 'Bottoms' proposed to drain). Then another amendment, '_______ ------Bottom;' then another, and so ____ _____, as Mr. ____ ____ _____ inconsiderable pond in what would now be called Southern Illinois. At this point, a Senator arose and gravely proposed another amendment to these words, 'and also the Bottom of Lake Michigan.' This, our course, was a quietus to the whole thing, and I am the more disposed to think that the first proposition was made without reference to the canal from the chagrin manifested by the mover at the ludicrous result."

 

EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 35
The Slavery Convention Struggle
By Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, April 7, 1865
"The work was done. Nicholas Hanson, having secured the election of Judge Thomas, who was not responsible so far as I know for the maneuvering to accomplish it, now was 'stricken out,' and John Shaw 'inserted' in the report, and so John Shaw took his seat, the Convention Resolution passed, and the party triumphed. Their 'triumph' was characteristic. When the shades of night prevailed, a crowd was gathered, candles were lighted, horns were blown, tin pans were pounded, clapboards were rattled, and a crowd of men, without order, but with wild halloos, savage shouts and as savage groans, paraded – no, rambled without order – through the streets of Vandalia, “making night hideous,” and aiming to strike terror fate the feeble minority of one-third whom they had circumvented. It was a noisy, and to a considerable extent, drunken mob. It was designed to show that they were determined to win, and thus intimidate the anti-slavery men and render them hopelessly inactive, thereby insuring them an easy victory in the final vote of the people.

In this, they were doomed to disappointment. The opponents of the introduction of slavery into our State were alarmed, but not disheartened. They saw danger, but felt resolved to meet it. There would be a fearful struggle – perhaps defeat – but they would address themselves to the conflict with energy and courage. They knew they had the right, and would “quit themselves like men” to maintain it, and preserve the State, if possible, from the blighting curse of slavery, that their children and children’s children might enjoy the benefit of free institutions.

In this spirit a meeting was held in a room of a private house, in which some of the anti-slavery members boarded, and to which the invitations were given personally – and not publicly – to such as were known to be true to liberty. Here the matter was discussed, not formally, I think, but conversationally, and the great question was, 'How shall we proceed to defeat the ruinous measure now thrown before the people?'

After all, there was little of organization. No society was formed that I know of, no leaders chosen, no particular plan of operations – only that all should do their best, especially in their own localities. It was deemed important – indispensable – that we should have at least one paper which should not only be accessible to us, but wholly and heartily on our side, pledged, not by promises, but by principle, well established and well known, so that undoubting confidence could be placed in its conductors. Accordingly, the question was put with deep anxiety. Have we such a paper now in existence? It was answered in the affirmative. The Edwardsville Spectator was named as an uncompromising foe to the establishment of slavery. There were those on the east side of the State who did not know the Spectator or its editor. They asked, 'Is he safe? Will he be true to the cause? May we fully rely on him?' Various questions were put of this character, which showed not only the anxiety, but the alarm, or uneasiness which prevailed. To all these questions, there was one answer. The fullest assurances were given that Mr. Hooper Warren would, at all hazards and under all circumstances, oppose the attempt to introduce slavery with all his power. To make assurance doubly sure, I was requested and promised to call on Mr. Warren on my return to Edwardsville, and sound him without any intimation of advantage whatever. I did so, and after telling something of the proceedings at Vandalia of the slave party, and the anxiety of the anti-slavery men, asked him incidentally, as it were, what course the Spectator would take. 'Against it, of course.' Of course, I needed no more, nor even that, but to fulfill my mission, suggested that the Convention party was strong and determined, and would bid high. “They can’t buy me,” was his emphatic ultimatum. I have been told in late years by Judge Lockwood that he also was requested to do the same thing, and performed it with similar results. It was to satisfy those who had not the same acquaintance with the man that we had. A subscription was gotten up to increase the circulation, and intended not only to diffuse information more, but to benefit the conductor of the paper. I understood then that the amount subscribed was two thousand dollars in State bank paper, valued at that time at fifty percent of its face, but am sorry to learn that the amount subscribed was much less, that not near all was ever paid, and that the paper – bank paper I mean – depreciated so much that it is doubtful if the subscription did not eventuate in pecuniary loss to Mr. Warren. At any rate, he knew nothing of the subscription or any intention of the party to remunerate him, until after he was fully and spontaneously committed on the subject. I have now to allude to a more painful aspect of the case. In one of the notes which Mr. Warren appended (according to my request) to his edition of 'the Conflict of the Century,' he says:

'The doubts of its (the Spectator’s) future course in relation to that question, by anti-slavery members, as mentioned by Mr. Lippincott, were superlatively preposterous. I will just point to their source:

The late Rev. John M. Peck of St. Clair County, in the letter to Hooper Warren, published in the Free West of May 3, 1865, relates an interview, after the adjournment of the Legislature, between himself and Governor Coles, sought by the latter, in which the Governor made known to Mr. Peck confidentially, a project he had in view of purchasing an interest in the Vandalia paper. That he (Governor Coles) was about to appoint a new Secretary of State in the place of Mr. Lockwood, resigned, and that his object in requesting the interview was to consult Mr. Peck as to a person who was not only capable of performing the duties of Secretary, but those of an editor also. Does not this plainly solve the misgivings about the future course of the Spectator?'

To which I answer (and cannot avoid the wish that my old and valued friend were still here to see the answer). It does not 'solve the misgivings about the future course of the Spectator.'

In the first place, the questions were not put nor prompted by Governor Coles. I feel perfectly assured that he had no part in proposing them, nor do I believe he expressed a doubt about the future course of the Spectator. Whether he was present at that meeting at all is by no means settled in my mind, but whether or not I am very certain that Mr. Warren is entirely mistaken in attributing the questionings to him, for in the second place, the questions did not imply doubt, but ignorance of the paper and the man. They came from members who resided on the east side of the State, were not readers of the Spectator, and had very little, if any, knowledge of its course or principles. To us who knew him, they were “preposterous,” not so to those who knew him not. I may have occasion to speak of the remainder of his note, of which I have only given part, in another connection. Here I wish both Mr. Warren and Governor Coles to be put right before my readers. They were both thorough going, honest opponents of slavery, and ought to have been friends. I have the greater confidence in my statements because the queries were put to and answered by myself."

 

EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 36
By Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, April 21, 1865
"The way now seems clear to return to Madison County. In the remaining portion of what I have to say, the field of operations, so far as it was under my eye, was mainly at home in our own county. My unassisted memory will not enable me to distinguish between the years 1823 and 1824, in regard to the labors of the anti-Conventionists. Nor can I remember when the Convention Organ – whose name, as usual, I forget – published by Thomas J. McGuire, and edited by Theophilus W. Smith, was commenced at Edwardsville, but suppose it must have been in the former year, for the contest between it and the Spectator waxed hot, long before the election of 1824.

There was a meeting held at the old log courthouse of anti-slavery men, at which something of organization was attempted. I was chosen Secretary, to correspond with other friends, but did very little as such; nothing, indeed, unless it was to receive and answer a few letters, and some small sums of money to defray expenses. If there was any president or other officer, I have utterly forgotten it. It seems to have been understood, or taken for granted, that Edwardsville was a sort of center of operations on our behalf, and hence a few communications were received from other parts of the State. But as it was not attempted or designed to assume that position, the few laborers in the cause satisfied themselves with individual instead of organized efforts; and most of them with what could be done through the Spectator. I say, “most of them.” There was one of the little band – a band drawn together by affinity, and not bound by organized association – whose labors were far more extensive; and as in a former series I may have failed to do him justice, it affords me pleasure to embrace the opportunity afforded by these numbers to bring the facts more fully before the public.

In the Conflict of the Century [against holding a State convention to add slavery to the constitution of Illinois], when speaking of a few only of those who had engaged in the effort, such as were supposed to be gone beyond the reach of any word of commendation of mine, the following words occur:

'There were those who wrote more, but there was no one more indefatigably, nor more disinterestedly engaged in the effort to keep out the curse of slavery than Edward Coles, then Governor of the State. His chief efficacy was, perhaps, in procuring and circulating at his own expense, in pamphlet form, mainly, any popular works on slavery that could be got by an extensive correspondence. His daily counsels and hints, however, to a little band of men in Edwardsville, suggested many an article which he saw not and knew not of until he saw it in print.'

In another connection, speaking of a pamphlet circulated by him, entitled, 'Information Concerning the Present State of the Slave Trade,' a marginal note is appended, saying 'One of Governor Coles’ correspondents on the occasion was the late Robert Vaux of Philadelphia. I have an idea that this came from him.'

At the time of writing the Conflict, and for some years after, I knew not the address of Governor Coles. But as the edition of Mr. Warren came out, I saw a notice of a serenade to him in Philadelphia. Without delay, I wrote to him, and afterwards sent him a copy of the series, accompanied by another letter. In reply, I had the great pleasure to receive two letters from him. The first in answer to mine, informing him of what I was doing, or had done, and requesting corrections and additions; the second, written after he had received my publication, with some remarks on it. I have long felt that it would be a favor to the public to publish both these interesting letters entire, but at present I shall give only some extracts bearing on the facts in question. In reference to the amount written by him, he says:

'I gladly avail myself of this occasion to express my obligations to you for the kind and gratifying notice you take of me in your publication. At the same time, allow me to add, if you had been aware of the extent of the labors of my pen, you would not have said I had not written much. The hostility imbibed by Mr. Warren against me prevented my contributing to his paper (the Spectator), but I contributed to other papers over various signatures, and published several pamphlets, and caused many to be published, several of which I assisted in circulating, particularly those you allude to from the enlightened and philanthropic pen of my friend, Robert Vaux of this city. My labor in the cause was so great, that during the several months which passed between my purchasing the Illinois Intelligencer and the election, there were but few numbers of that paper which did not contain something from my pen – either original essays, the most methodical and lengthy of which were contained in nine numbers published over the signature of ‘One of Many” – or numerous extracts from the speeches and writings of the most celebrated men of American and Europe – many of which were published under the title of The Voice of Virtue, Wisdom and Experience on the Subject of Negro Slavery.’

Of the manifold labors of Governor Coles, in other respects I was aware, and have endeavored to do him justice in regard to them. Probably there is but one person now living (Judge Samuel D. Lockwood) who knew so much of those efforts as myself. Every day for months we were together, and the correspondence and the pamphlets alluded to were before us. But I confess I was not aware of the amount of writing for the papers on the subject, which was performed by him. In addition to what I did know, it must be called immense. And I can hardly feel otherwise than glad that my omission has called out the eloquent correction.

The fact that Governor Coles did not write for the Spectator, and the reason of it (the misunderstanding between them) was known, and as the Intelligencer did not pass into the hands of David Blackwell until the second year of the conflict, I was under the impression that the labors of the Governor, except the daily consultations, consisted mainly in procuring and circulating the essays and other productions above mentioned. Besides the expense incurred by him in doing this, it is evident that there must have been a large correspondence, as well as extensive researches."

 

EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 37
By Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, May 5, 1865
"Mr. Warren, in his note, already referred to more than once, after relating the circumstance given by Mr. Peck in relation to the appointment of a Secretary of State, the wrong inference from which I have noticed in a previous number, adds the following as facts:

'The Governor, in pursuance of Mr. Peck’s recommendation, appointed David Blackwell to be Secretary of State, and about one year thereafter, just three months before the termination of the canvass, he succeeded in renting the establishment of the Illinois Intelligencer, for the time being, and placed Mr. Blackwell in it as editor.'

Doubtless Mr. Warren, if he were still living, would desire to have justice done to Mr. Coles, and I am sure that if in the eternal world he has cognizance of the affairs of this, he wishes the truth to be known. On the note above, Mr. Coles, in his letter, says:

'I will correct your mistake in saying I rented the establishment of the Illinois Intelligencer and placed David Blackwell in it as Editor. I did not rent, but virtually purchased it. The facts were these: The Illinois Intelligencer was owned and edited by Berry and Blackwell. The former having become very much in debt, his half of it had to be sold to pay his debts. I proposed to David Blackwell that if he would buy the establishment and would become the Editor, I would loan him the money to pay for it, on the condition that his brother (the partner of Berry) would consent to give him, and he give me, the control of the paper during the great political contest then pending, and as he had no property, that he would give me a lien on the establishment to secure the payment of the money loaned him. Being poor, and receiving but a small income from his profession of lawyer, his older brother (the Editor) being anxious to befriend and assist him, consented to my proposition. The purchase was made, the money paid, and the agreement and lien between David Blackwell and myself were all duly committed to paper. To the great surprise of all, the delight of one party, and the consternation and displeasure of the other, the first knowledge the public had of it was the annunciation in the paper, that it had changed owners, and with it would change its principles, and in future would oppose the convention, and the making Illinois a slave State.

Nearly all of the subscribers to the paper being advocates of making Illinois a slave-holding State, and thinking it probable in the gust of passion produced by the change that they would withdraw their names as subscribers, I directed that no attention should be paid to such notices, but that the paper should be continued to be sent to all the old subscribers until after the election should be over, when, if they still continued to refuse to take it, I would pay their subscription from the change of the paper until the election. I did not lose much by this, as few persisted in refusing to pay after the election was over and we had carried it. I lost, however, after waiting several years with the hope of collecting it, a good portion of what was still due me, on the plea of poverty set up by Mrs. Blackwell after the death of her husband, which induced me to exempt her from the debt.'

Mr. Coles errs in attaching to me the statement that he rented the Intelligencer establishment. It was Mr. Warren, and not myself, whose misinformation on the subject led to his note. My understanding at the time agreed with what Governor Oglesby now says. And I may add, that I was much more likely to know the truth of the matter, having daily interviews with the Governor in reference to this very subject, than Mr. Warren, between whom and Governor Coles there was no intercourse. I presume Judge Lockwood has full knowledge of the facts, and I feel no small pleasure in being able by the foregoing extract to contribute to the truth of history in reference to that momentous struggle.

I cannot resist the temptation to add further extracts from letters received from Governor Coles in reference to that eventful period. In his letter of June 15, 1860, after speaking of severe chronic neuralgia which made it exceedingly difficult and painful for him to write, he continues:

'This inability I regret the more, and will exert myself the more – yes, to the utmost extent of my diseased powers, to aid you, as I still feel, and the longer I live, and the more I witness the revolting and disgraceful scenes of the present times, in upholding and extending slavery, the greater the interest, and the more hearty satisfaction I feel at the part I acted, and the gratification I desire from reflection on the course I pursued, and the agency I had in preserving the Prairies of Illinois from the curse of slavery. I assure you this is to me a source of great consolation as I approach the termination of my earthly existence, and calmly review the past, and anticipate the future. Whether I get credit as helmsman for steering the Illinois ship of state through the conflicting tempest which raged so violently between the extremes of Freedom and Slavery, I certainly review my conduct on that tempestuous occasion with approbation and indescribable satisfaction.'

Can those who strove to fasten chains on the infant Illinois enjoy this reflection as well? I propose to give other extracts."

 

EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 38
By Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, May 12, 1865
"I am indebted to the kindness of my friend, Mr. George Churchill, for a copy of the Journal of the House of Representatives of our State, for the session in which the famous convention resolution, of which I have been writing, was passed, and sent forth for the decision of the people. I thank him for it. It revives in my memory men and scenes and things which must always be of deep interest to me – almost making me live a winter of my life of forty years ago over again. If only I could get a copy of the Journal of the Senate, which I wrote myself, I would then have other men living before me, who have for the most part been long dead. But that, I fear, is beyond my reach.

What is of more importance, the Journal received enables me to correct an egregious blunder or two, one of which I more than half suspected while perpetrating it. It is in reference to the representation of Madison County in the House during that winter, and especially to Mr. Churchill’s membership. The fact is, I was in a perfect bewilderment on the subject when writing about it, and strove hard, but having no aid to memory, strove in vain to get it right. The difficulty was, I had forgotten, and could not convince myself that our old county loomed so large at that time as to send four men to represent her in the Legislature – one in the Senate and three in the Lower House. Yet so it was, and four men of ability and power in the body.

I have already spoken of Theophilus W. Smith as the Senator from Madison County. In the House of Representatives, the county was represented by George Churchill, Emanuel J. West, and Curtiss Blakeman. That I should have ignored Captain Blakeman in telling of the men and doing of that day appears to me now almost ridiculously strange. The old Salt, full of the practical wisdom, gained by life-long voyaging from land to land. In most responsible trusts, and firm as a rock in the maintenance of right, was an object of contemplation then, and a living memory now. Yet, as good old Dominee Sampson says, 'I was oblivious.'

Mr. West has been, perhaps, sufficiently mentioned. I do not know as well as Mr. Churchill, of course, how efficient he was as a member, but from the knowledge I possess of him, should judge that he had considerably more than average ability in management, and at least a respectable position as a speaker. Probably he made no pretension to oratory, or effort at long speeches.

My readers are wondering how in recalling the events of that day I could leave out George Churchill, and so am I. The only explanation that occurs to me is that I very well knew Mr. Churchill’s legislative career, having been deeply interested in it always, and I may say always 'accessory before the fact,' and had when writing as lively a recollection of his standing and usefulness in that capacity as now. But I could not fix it in my mind whether he was elected for that particular session or not. Nor could I be certain whether the frequent sight and hearing of him I had in his place as a member was then or at other session, when I was in the habit of attending every year at Vandalia the meetings of our State benevolent societies. At any rate, he was there, and was there as a living man, seen, felt, and even heard – though only in short speeches – with as much respect, attention, and effect as any other man in the body. In the classification of members (on our side especially, but not exclusively), it was, I believe, usual to place Thomas Mather at the lead, and George Churchill next. And yet both were modest, unassuming men.

The other blunder I leave for Mr. Churchill to correct when he comes to annotate on No. 32, I gave the history as I was told it at or near that time. The Journal does not sustain me in my statement. Perhaps even Governor Ford may be more correct than I. Let Mr. Churchill give a full and graphic account – as we know he is able – of the turning out of Nicholas Hansen, from his own memory aided by the Journal aforesaid. It deserves to be told fully and truly.

I will not now notice the names of men in Upper Alton, whom I had omitted, as revived by Mr. Churchill – perhaps never, though the recollection is interesting – except as to one, and that, to speak of an incident in the canvass of the Convention question.

Benjamin Spencer was a mechanic of good intelligence and unblemished character, and so well and generally liked that he was elected one of the County Commissions at the election of 1822. In the fall or winter afterwards, he died, and the court, of course, had a vacancy to fill, which an election was held early in 1823. The anti-convention men were of opinion that our county was on the right side, and felt anxious to test the question by this …… [unreadable] …. was pretty well known, they importuned me to allow myself to be set up as a candidate opposed to the Convention, and at length, overcome by the solicitations of men as Lockwood, McKee, Miller, and others I consented. Accordingly, I was the anti-convention candidate and was elected as such, over – I know not whom. It was an anticipatory triumph of the free State party, which was the whole aim in the measure.

The result was curious. The regular members of the court were John Barber, an elder in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, Hail Mason, an elder in the Presbyterian Church in Edwardsville, and I, elected to fill the vacancy, was an elder in the same church with him. We had but one term of the Court after I was elected, but that was enough to “turn the world upside down” in Madison County. In short, we had the effrontery to refuse licenses to sell liquors – remember this was before the temperance movement, before we ever heard of the 'Six sermons' even – not absolutely, nor to all, but to every applicant who we believed designed to keep a mere grog shop, however he might parade his band, 'to provide lodgings for poor travelers and stabling and provider for their horses,' according to the letter of the law. They stormed and threatened, but we calmly persisted and prevailed. No harm ever came of it. The election in Edwardsville in the ensuing August was as quiet as if no interest were left in the result.

It may be wondered – it was then – how we three men, not learned in the law, durst assume the responsibility to refuse licenses to such as produced exactly the bond the law required, when the universal belief was that the granting of such license was imperative on us. So, the applicants and their friends insisted, but we persisted. Not to claim too much honor for the court, I will reveal the fact that we acted under the best legal advice. It was Samuel D. Lockwood who, as I was going to take my seat in the court, informed me that it was my duty and the duty of the court to guard the public interests on that point, and that we had the legal power to refuse all applications, when we judged the public interests demanded it. To him, then, belongs the honor of the first temperance movement I know of in the State. Armed with his advice, we were invincible.

It may not be altogether impertinent to add, that all three of the then county Commissioners afterwards became preachers of the gospel in three different denominations – Cumberland, Methodist, and Presbyterian. The whole number may be an episode. Well, I have authority for saying as in a quotation in a former number, the wit of which was spoiled by the printer, 'a digression is no digression' – at least sometimes."

 

EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 39
By Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, June 16, 1865
"Governor Ford, in his somewhat incorrect list of names, has mentioned two of whom I have not spoken, who ought to be remembered with respect among the opposers of the slavery constitution, and in connection with the early history of the State: Morris Birkback and George Forquer, and though not of our county, I must be permitted to say a word of them.

Morris Birkback was an Englishman – a farmer – and a man of extensive acquirements, unblemished character, and amiable as well as gentlemanly deportment. He first visited America, extending his tour of observation to Illinois, before it became a State. On his return to England, he wrote and published a book, which was so well done, so interesting, and so reliable, that it brought a number of the reading _______ to the newborn State in its earliest infancy. Himself, with some associates, founded an important settlement in Edwards County. The name of George Flown has been long well known as one. A Mr. Gilbert T. Pell from New York or Long Island, and son-in-law, if I remember right, of Mr. Birkbeck, was a young man of noble appearance, and was a good member of the Legislature during that important session. He went back afterwards, and I have often wondered if the Mr. Pell, whose name I see among the members and speakers of the Farmer’s Club, reported in the New York Tribune, is not the same man. On the resignation of Mr. Lockwood, Governor Coles offered the post of Secretary of State to Mr. Birkbeck, who officiated in it I think but a short time. Mr. Churchill says he was drowned in crossing one of the swollen streams of our yet unimproved State. I had lost the fact, as I have many others, but am aware that the State was early deprived of his valuable services and influence. My recollections of him are among the pleasant ones of the early days.

George Forquer was the older brother, by a different father, of Governor Ford. I think, when I was passing through to St. Louis in 1818, or if not then, a few years after, their mother was spoken of as a widow residing at or near the present site of Waterloo. At any rate, she must have been a woman of character to rear two such boys as George Forquer and Thomas Ford at that early day in the Territory of Illinois. Mr. Ford was yet a youth when the battle of freedom was fought, and we can only judge from subsequent events what would have been his course in the contest, had he been an actor. But his brother (I remember with pleasure that each habitually spoke of the other as brother, without the qualifying “half”) was a man, though quite a young one at the time. He was a member of the Legislature, I forgot what session, and without so far as I know, any appearance of arrogance, soon took a prominent position in the House. His cheerful, frank and pleasant manners, combined with real talent, rendered him a favorite. I think, indeed, he was rather a pet of the party, who loved to call him out. Of one thing I am sure, they had entire confidence in his integrity, and I believe never had occasion to regret it. On the retirement of Mr. Birkback from the office, he was appointed Secretary of State, and still subsequently was a candidate for Congress, to which he was not elected. His early death was deeply mourned.

I may be allowed, in passing, to remark on the striking contrast in many things between the brothers, Forquer and Ford. The former, open, genial, eloquent, social; the latter (I speak of him at recollected on his coming to Edwardsville in early manhood to complete his law studies, and, perhaps, be admitted to the bar) with down look, unsocial, though not really unpleasant in manner, with shrinking – it seemed to me – from, or avoiding general society, and inclined rather to descend in the social scale than to aspire to the more refined. In those days, his moral habits, so far as I know, were good. It was said of him, I know not with what truth, that he was a more profound lawyer than his brother, though less capable of expressing his views. I never heard him address the public. But in the great conflict, Mr. Forquer was a bold and faithful champion of the right, and was really one among the leaders of the contest.

Elsewhere I have spoken of Thomas Mather as the acknowledged leader of the anti-slavery party in the House. He was an able man, not given to long speeches, but watchful and far-seeing, and his business habits, for he was a merchant and afterwards banker, made him more than a match for the shrewd and able lawyers and others on the opposite side. His perusal character gave him great influence, for it inspired confidence. I do not know whether we had much aid from his pen, nor do I remember that he traveled extensively, if at all, during the canvass, but I know he stood among the highest throughout, as a moving spirit to inspire confidence and incite to action.

I think now I have, in one place or another, introduced the names of nearly all of those who were active on our side of the great question, unless there may have been some on the other side of the State, and have probably confirmed the classification of Governor Ford, excepting the omission of a name or two, and the inversion of Governor Edwards and Henry Eddy. I confess that to find my own name among such a group as Coles, Cook, Lockwood, Birkbeck, Churchill, Peck, Blackwell, Warren, Mather, and Forquer, as one with them, is anything but mortifying or unpleasant, and I should leave to be inferred what my feelings are on seeing it there, if nothing more had been said on the subject. But I dare not silently admit the truth of a certain extravagant report, which in after years, met the ear of a ministerial friend, was made public by him. To be coupled with John M. Peck in the matter was no small honor, but it were unjust and untrue to attribute so much to either of us, as was done in that case. Mr. Peck was active, ardent, industrious, more than many, in propagating right sentiments, yet by no means more than all, and I wrote many a squib for the Spectator, mostly under the eye and at the instigation of Coles and Lockwood and McKee, and sometimes others perhaps, but in all cases as a subordinate worker, and never a leader. I am willing to be known as one of those who labored to defeat the effort to curse our State with slavery, but dare not accept of honors which I never earned."

 

EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 40
Rev. John M. Peck – Founder of Shurtleff College
By Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, July 7, 1865
"My sketches, rambling and fragmentary as they are, would be unpardonably defective if they were to contain nothing more than already contained in them of one whom I long knew and esteemed as friend, and who after a life of extraordinary activity, energy, and usefulness, in part, at least, recognized by collegiate honors, departed this life a few years ago at a ripe age, it is true, yet sooner than his strong constitution indicated in the earlier years of our acquaintance. I speak of him who was long known among us as the Rev. John M. Peck, and late with the literary title of D. D.

Mr. Peck came to the West in 1817 – a few months before me. When I arrived at St. Louis in February 1818, he had, in company with Rev. Mr. Welsh, been laboring several months at that place and the towns and neighborhoods surrounding it, as a missionary of the Baptist Church. I believe the labors of these young men were efficient then, and laid the foundation of the great prosperity which afterwards crowned the efforts of the denomination. Among their enterprises was a Sabbath School for Africans, which called down upon them the curses of slaveholders. I heard a Major L----, a prominent man connected with and one of the “first families,” threaten some violence, I do not remember what, to Peck, if he should undertake to teach his “n-----.” From the natural fearlessness of the man, I do not suppose this threat, if he ever heard of it, had so much influence in closing the school as the frequent absence and early removal of Mr. Peck from St. Louis, but I believe it was soon discontinued. One occurrence which affected them somewhat may be mentioned:

The missionaries, of course, reported to the society which sent them. In the ardor of their zeal, they used strong language (as missionaries have sometimes done) in depicting the moral wants of the people. One, at least, of their reports came back on the pages of a periodical, and being circulated, gave great offense. The leaders of society did not like to have their drinking, gambling, and swearing habits published to the outside world, though by no means careful to avoid or even conceal them at home. Gentlemen, who considered themselves, and were considered by others at the head of society, did not scruple in those days to gather at “Hull’s Grocery,” and take their glasses at the counter, and sit and smoke and chat with the same indifference to appearance that is seen at the saloons of the present day by regular plebian topers. And indeed, there was less attempt at concealment, for Hull had no painted screen to hide his customers from the street. Still, it did not look well in print, and maledictions were poured on the Yankee missionaries.

This is not of Madison County, nor did Mr. Peck ever reside in it. Yet his labors and his influence were felt so much by the inhabitants of Madison at the early day, and he was so well known, that he may well be considered part and parcel of its history.

I do not know the year in which Mr. Peck removed to Illinois, but it was after laboring with great energy in both our State and Missouri - visiting various points, preaching the gospel, and gathering or trying to gather churches. I wish I knew more regarding these incipient efforts, yet the importance and value of the labors could not be known from the amount of immediate and apparent success. “The day of small things” was the precursor and the preparation, necessary to all subsequent growth. Mr. Peck, after a few years, settled in St. Clair County, and named the spot “Rock Spring.” I need not say that this spot has become historical, and that its memory should be regarded by Alton with peculiar reverence as the parent of Shurtleff College, in giving birth to which it gave its life. Rock Spring Seminary, however, was founded, or at least built, a few years after the time to which I had proposed to limit this series of papers. No matter, it belongs to the early day, and I will not be particular about dates, which are always rather indefinite with me anyhow.

Mr. Peck began his labors in the hope, I believe, of drawing the existing Baptist Churches into a closer union with those with which he was connected at the east. These were popularly known as missionary Baptists, while the old, and as they call themselves Regular Baptists, were anti-missionary. I may be wrong, but am inclined to believe that he might have met with considerable success if it had not been for one man, who, as an acknowledged leader, had almost unbounded influence over the denomination. What his motive was I need not say. Mr. Peck manifested not only ardent zeal and untiring industry, but a grade of talent and intelligence which such a man as Mr. Kinney might well apprehend dangerous to his supremacy. I heard Mr. Peck once – it was in the earliest of the early days – preach to a congregation in the early days – preach to a congregation in the woods near the Wood River, in which the ministers – not Mr. Kinney, however – formed no small portion of his hearers, and in his discourse, he spoke very pointedly to ministers who were devoted to secular employments – going, as he quoted, “one to his farm and another to his merchandise.” This, from a mere youth – for he was apparently quite youthful – was not likely to be well received by men who were much his seniors in reality and more in appearance, and it was not.

I think injustice has been done to the class of ministers here spoken of. They were illiterate men, necessarily, for they had grown up on the frontier, where schools were scarce and poor, and the people had neither time nor money to spend in getting an education; the very class from which our lamented late President [Lincoln] sprung by almost superhuman effort, as represented in Mr. Thayer’s “Pioneer Boy.” These uneducated men had the love of Christ and the love of souls in their hearts, and thought themselves called of God – as I have no doubt many of them were – to preach the gospel which they felt so precious. Not asking for, they received no compensation or support. So, they had to support themselves, and this must be done mainly by hard work. Cheerfully preaching the gospel gratuitously, it became their pleasure, and eventually their pride, to 'make the gospel of Christ without charge,' making Paul’s exception of himself from the law he had just laid down and proved by argument, the rule of action for themselves and others.

Such were the teachers whom Mr. Peck sought to win to a higher, more intelligent, more expansive, and more aggressive course of action. Perhaps he was too hopeful at first, and too hasty; did not make sufficient allowance for life habits, or begin with sufficient caution and gentleness, for there was much simplicity for life habits, or begin with sufficient caution and gentleness, for there was much simplicity of faith and child-like docility in this primitive people, which it always seemed to me might have been used as an open door to the heart. An appearance of assumption, a show of superior ability on the part of the new preacher – especially a young one – would naturally repel, rather than attract. Without intimating that Mr. Peck intended or attempted to assume authority, it may yet be confessed that his manner was not always as gentle and persuasive, nor as free from a conscious superiority, as might have been desirable. Yet I fall back upon the thought that the influence of one man was probably the chief power – at least in the first few years – that kept the old Baptist churches, as a body, entirely aloof from Mr. Peck, and those who affiliated with him. But I have more to say of Mr. Peck in a future number."

'

EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 41
Rev. John M. Peck – Founder of Shurtleff College
By Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, July 14, 1865
"I have seldom seen a specimen of physical and moral vigor combined in one person equal to John M. Peck. For years, his labors were more than two ordinary men could do. It took a long time to wear out or break down his constitution, but it was done at last. Several of the latter years of his life were years of weariness and weakness. He seemed but the wreck of himself when I saw him occasionally, seldom indeed, in those years. I wondered and felt sad to see him, whose fearless, energetic step I had been wont, 'in weakness and in fear and in much trembling,' to follow as best I could, when all things were new and crude in our young State; now, though but a few years my elder, bowed with age and infirmities, while I enjoyed uninterrupted and almost robust health. It was the consequence and the index of our comparative activity in the earlier day.

I believe the first years of Mr. Peck’s labors were as a missionary of the Baptist Church. Afterwards, he labored in the Bible cause, whether an agent of the American Bible Society or not, I am not able to tell. But afterwards for several years he was the agent of the American Sunday School Union for the State of Illinois, succeeding Benjamin J. Sewald in that service. But whatever might be his specialty at the time, he was a bold, untiring champion of Christian effort in all its departments. It was by his enterprise mainly, that the several State Benevolent Societies were early organized, and for several years carried on with no little energy. The Bible Society – the Sunday School Union, and the Temperance Society of the State of Illinois – and was there not a Tract Society also? – which held their meetings without fail at the seat of Government annually in the first week of December, owed more of their efficiency to John M. Peck than to any, if not all others. He was indefatigable in her efforts to awake and keep up an interest among leading men at the capital, and among ministers and Christians over the State, and I may add, his cheerful, hopeful – nay confident – courage was quite efficient in inspiring zeal and hopefulness in others. He seemed to know no such word as fail, as he said he knew no such emotion as fear.

But, whatever other things he attempted, he did not fail to magnify his office as a preacher. He was always ready, and I believe sought all proper occasions to preach the gospel. Nor was his preaching crude and rambling, but clear, terse, consecutive, and at once evangelical and instructive.

Such was his manner of preaching in those days, and I loved to listen to him, for I was always fed. By our common interest in the several benevolent enterprises, we were much together, and I may say, labored together years before I engaged in the ministry as well as afterwards. So that my acquaintance with him then was intimate, and I am happy to feel and say that the friendship, the “brotherly kindness,” awakened by our intercourse and union, never knew abatement, though for a number of later years, our respective fields of labor allowed us to meet but at long intervals.

One of the last – if not the very last – interview I enjoyed with him was at his home at Rock Spring. He took me over to the old building, which originally held the Rock Spring Seminary, and which, after that institution was merged in Shurtleff College, he appropriated to his use as a library. I confess I was surprised to see a large room, and more, on the second floor, entirely surrounded by book shelves and entirely filled with books, which he had collected in his years of labor and travel. Many of them were rare, some very valuable, and a few at least such as were contained probably in no other collection. Among this latter class were bound volumes of some of the newspapers, which had been published in our State. I remember particularly a volume of the Edwardsville Spectator, which Mr. Peck told me, as Governor Coles has since written, was preserved and had bound by the latter gentleman, and placed in the hands of Mr. Peck to be used by him in preparing a history of Illinois, and then handed over to the Illinois Historical Society for preservation in its archives. I fear the intentions of both Mr. Coles and Mr. Peck were defeated. The history has never appeared, if written, and a fire, which destroyed the building, probably consumed with the large collection of rare, old works, the only file of the Edwardsville Spectator, except that of Mr. Churchill, which was in existence.

In the grand struggle to preserve liberty in Illinois, Mr. Peck was among the most active and efficient. I cannot now tell how much he wrote, though it is impossible to suppose that his ever-active pen was idle, but he traversed the State, over and over, and everywhere scattered publications, talked and preached, and argued with his forcible logic, spreading light and influence everywhere, exposing the schemes of political adventurers and the horror of slavery. Nor did he think his labor against the Convention desecrated the pulpit, or were incongruous with the calling which he esteemed the highest and holiest. He was pleading against oppression. Illinois has reaped vast blessings from his labor.

It was at a later period that Mr. Peck commenced the enterprise of a Seminary, designed for general benefit, and especially to aid the education of those who should become ministers of the gospel, I think, was several years before, that he had projected it.

Rev. John M. Ellis came to Illinois as a missionary in 1825. He came full of the importance of education, and of plans for its accomplishment. He was on a journey from Kaskaskia, probably in 1825, and passing Rock Spring, saw Mr. Peck (I have the anecdote from Mr. Peck), busy at work among some timbers, and rode up to speak with him. 'What are you about here?' he inquired. 'Building a college,' was the reply. In the conversation, Mr. Peck observed to Mr. Ellis, 'You Presbyterians ought to be getting up a college, too.' Mr. Ellis replied thoughtfully, 'I don’t know, but we ought,' and rode away apparently thinking of it.

Mr. Peck, from this circumstance, supposed he had thus originated in the mind of Mr. Ellis the enterprise in which he was afterwards so successfully engaged. And he deserves all the credit of the suggestion. It was the offspring of a large heart, as well as an expanded mind. I know not that Mr. Ellis ever explained the fact, but at that moment, he was on his way to a settlement in Bond County to see some friends with whom he had had some correspondence, and with a view to perfecting a plan of an institution which had already been projected, and which, after several years of arduous exertion on his part, and various modifications, resulted in the establishment of Illinois College at Jacksonville.

It is pleasant to think of these two pioneer men, both now departed from earth. John M. Peck began early – his cautious friends thought too early – to found an institution which should aid the youth in acquiring an education, and especially to raise the qualifications of those who should preach for the Baptist Church; and John M. Ellis, at the same time, and not without similar discouragements, projected an enterprise in connection with the Presbyterian Church. Both were modest in their first plans, yet far-reaching, intending to rise higher and higher as the way might be opened, and both resulted in the founding of colleges which have prospered in spite of difficulties, and are this day living monuments of Christian enterprise in the early day. Long may Illinois College and Shurtleff College flourish, side by side, and so long may they bear the names respectively of John M. Ellis and John M. Peck on their foundation stones, and the remembrance of them fresh and warm in the hearts of the multitude who receive the benefit of their self-denying labors.

It is a matter of painful regret that when Elijah P. Lovejoy was doing what Mr. Peck had so nobly begun in years ago, the latter, instead of joining in the noble work, threw his influence against Lovejoy, and when popular fury was rising against the faithful witness, Mr. Peck - unintentionally and unconsciously, I am sure - pursued such a course as tended to fan the flame. And it is believed that ever after that event, he was on the conservative side rather than the progressive. Yet, let not any of us condemn him for this. He was doubtless honest and sincere as ever. Let the good he has done for the State and the world be had in everlasting remembrance."

 

EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 42
Rev. John M. Peck – Founder of Shurtleff College
By Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, July 21, 1865
"I have devoted two numbers to a brief and imperfect sketch of my long and highly valued friend, Dr. John M. Peck, and yet am hardly prepared to pass on without adverting to him again. In truth, I feel that the State and the people in it are under obligations to him, so great and so important, that his name should be had in perpetual remembrance. And I am happy to add the testimony of one who knew him well, and who was himself one of the workers in that day of trial, when Illinois was in imminent danger of having the curse of slavery fastened upon her free limbs. I refer to the Hon. William H. Brown of Chicago, of whom I have previously made mention, and who by request of the Chicago Historical Society, prepared and delivered in December last, a historical address on the Convention struggle, which was published by the Society. I take the liberty to extract a paragraph from the address bearing upon my present subject:

'Governor Coles,' says Mr. Brown, 'was the admitted leader of the Anti-Convention party. With him were associated men of intellect and character, but they were unused to the conflicts of party, and were but indifferent leaders. The great man of the day, it may now be said, was the Rev. John M. Peck. D.D., a Baptist minister who came to the West in 1816. He was a man of diversified talent, and like many others of his eastern brethren, could turn them to a good account in more ways than one. His plan of organizing the counties by a central committee, with branches in every neighborhood, was carried out by his own exertions and personal supervision, and was greatly instrumental in saving the State. Being an agent of the American Bible Society, his duties frequently led him to Egypt and elsewhere – and he doubtless performed the double duty of disseminating the Holy Scriptures and correct principles at one and the same time. Though he was ardent in the advocacy of every question, in the correct decision of which he considered the people had a deep interest, and placed himself in the forefront of all the moral reforms of his day, he yet retained a strong hold upon the affections of all classes. As a preacher, he had no superior, and his piety was never questioned. He died a few years ago, lamented by all who knew him.'

According to this, there was more of organizations than I have represented in these papers. I supposed that the central point was Edwardsville, where there was a kind of society or committee of which I was Secretary. And I remember some sort of a correspondence of official character, relating to our movements, and some small sums of money, as already mentioned, but the whole amount of both, so far as my recollection goes, was so small as to leave the impression that there was little of organized effort in the State. There may have been more of centralization at Vandalia, the seat of government, than I was aware of, and Mr. Brown, residing there, and a leading one among the active anti-convention men, was in a position to know. In fact, I was, as I have elsewhere said, merely a subaltern [lower status], and had but a partial knowledge of the great points of strategy in the campaign. But Mr. Peck’s active mind was just the one to originate, and as far as practicable, work out such a plan.

I may be excused for prolonging my memories of this remarkable man. Among other things, he established, and for some years conducted, a religious newspaper – 'The Pioneer,' – in the interest of religion generally, and the Baptist Church in particular. It was ably conducted, of course, and ought to be (whether it is or not) preserved in the archives of the Illinois Historical Society, both as a record and specimen of the early days. It was published, at least part, it not most of the time, in Upper Alton.

Mr. Brown says, 'He was a man of diversified talents.' True, and the enterprises in which he was engaged were as diversified. Besides agencies for the Bible and Tract and Sunday School and Temperance Societies, successively; and agencies of various sorts for his own denomination; and editing and publishing a weekly paper; and all the while preaching grand, and for the most part, unsectarian (but whether sectarian or not) noble sermons, full of light; he was ever gathering facts and preparing statements for a map, or for a history, or for the use of some editor or author or benevolent association. His Emigrant’s Guide and Map of Illinois, afforded more than any or all which had preceded them, of each of these were two editions, and each was a standard work as long as in the transition state of our young west, any geographical work could be. The map was constructed by him in conjunction with the late John Messinger of St. Clair County, a large and beautiful sheet, showing not only the township, but the section lines, in a clear, perspicuous form. Mr. Peck had been long gathering materials for a history of Illinois, most of which, probably, were consumed in the fire which destroyed the old building of the Rock Spring Seminary. We cannot avoid regret that so noble a project was never carried to completion. It might have been somewhat crude, necessarily so, from the multifarious employments and consequent irregular habits of the author, but nevertheless, his love of truth, his clear conceptions, and his indefatigable industry would have made it a work, the like, or the value of which we can scarcely hope to realize.

I have heard it objected to Dr. Peck by brethren of his own order, that he attempted more than he accomplished. That a great many projects were begun, but never finished. His plans were larger than his means or his time. Doubtless, there is truth in this. And we, who were his co-workers in the early day, were well aware of it. Many a noble scheme was proposed and started by him, which resulted in little or nothing. Nevertheless, we were never unwilling to listen, nor afraid to undertake, when he proposed, for if there was more go-ahead in him than others, there was at the same time a fund of practical sense, a clear perception of 'how to do it,' that galvanized us into co-operation.

Let his brethren, who, having come from the methodical schools of the East, and worked in the grooves of order and precision (after he had long wandered over the prairies and labored alone), felt rather shocked at his more desultory, perhaps certainly more daring course, and who have felt disappointed at some of his failures, consider more attentively what he accomplished. Look at the Bible – the Sunday School – the Temperance cause as they are or were when he left them. Look at the Baptist Church here in the West, spreading its branches over the vast valley. Who will dare to say that these are not all a quarter of a century in advance of what they would have been without the activities which he put in motion? And who of them all would, or could have done what he did? To whom is the State indebted for Shurtleff College? However we may honor others for the zeal and public spirit which had given it such prosperity, it is to John M. Peck we must attribute the conception, the incipient movement, and the transfer to Alton, of that valuable institution. I know of the zeal and energy shown in the first movement, and I was a witness of the earnest desire he had to have his darling enterprise transferred to Upper Alton, and his joy at the success which crowned his efforts. I fear the present generation does not appreciate its indebtedness to the arduous and successful labors of that noble pioneer."

 

EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 43
By Rev. Thomas Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, July 28, 1865
"It seems that Governor Ford, Mr. Brown (perhaps), and myself were all and equally in error in regard to the time of the “Saturnalis” (as Mr. Churchill calls it), that was got up by the conventionists to celebrate their victory. The mistake can easily be accounted for. Governor Ford was not there, and told it on hearsay. Mr. Brown puts it rather indefinitely, though a reader would understand it to mean the night after the passage of the Convention resolution, and as for myself, I don’t pretend to accuracy in dates, except in certain cases. I confess, I now wholly rely on Mr. Churchill’s correctness, in admitting that the rowdy demonstration was on the night before the _____ passage, when it would seem to have been rather premature. It should be remembered, however, that the ________ had made the thing sure, and the ______ _______ _______ practice might tend ____ ______ by making the im_____ ____ _____ to go the whole than shrink.

I feel very much indebted, as no doubt the readers generally do, to Mr. Churchill, for the very full and correct account he has given of the maneuvers of the Convention party in reference to the Shaw and Hansen contest. He has not left it to depend on the veracity of any or all of the writers who have told the story, nor rectified our errors by his own assertion, but has given the testimony of the journals of the two Houses of the Legislature. Whatever credit or discredit may belong to the transactions, is thus effectually attached to those who achieved the enterprise. And, while I would wish to have given a true and correct account of everything I undertook to tell, I can hardly regret the imperfect statements or even blunders that have called forth a history, which, though too brief (I mean his own narrative of it), is yet so complete. I can only wish that Mr. Churchill may yet undertake, instead of mere “Annotations,” a connected history of that Convention struggle, from first to last (and as much more of the history of our forty years life as he can find time to prepare), more ample than Mr. Brown, and myself, and all others, have hitherto accomplished. And I add the wish, that instead of the columns of a newspaper, such a work as he could make might appear in a well printed and well bound volume. It would be a standard work, read and received and relied on, when those of the two ex-Governors, Ford and Reynolds (whatever their merits) were forgotten. The annotations suggest, though, for a portly duodecimo.

 

ALTON IN 1812
By Colonel John Utt
Source: Alton Telegraph, March 15, 1872
We had the pleasure of a call this morning from Colonel John Utt of Jersey County, a veteran soldier of the War of 1812. He states that he was on the site of Alton soon after the close of that war with a surveying party. The whole country was then a wilderness. A single log cabin had been erected in what is now Alton. It faced the river on the ground now occupied by Blair & Atwood’s wholesale grocery store. Colonel Utt is now 85 years old, but is still hale and hearty – a fine specimen of the old-time pioneer.

 

FIRST OLD SETTLERS MEETING OF MADISON COUNTY
Source: Alton Telegraph, October 8, 1874
"We, the undersigned, give our names to this writing with a view to holding an Old Settlers Meeting at the courthouse in Edwardsville, on Friday, October 16, 1874, for the purpose of collecting together some of the early history and incidents of Madison County, Illinois, and it is hoped and desired by all that as many as can conveniently attend upon that occasion will give us their presence." Signed:

Alfred Dow, born May 1, 1798, Maine.
George Wendt, born May 10, 1808, Pennsylvania.
John Hart, born January 10, 1798, Germany.
Lewis Kellenberger, born March 4, 1804, D. C.
Elizabeth Doan, born January 01, 1795, England.
Walter Stewart, born 1803, Ireland.
John Chaney, born March 7, 1810.
James Morgan, born July 11, 1808, Baltimore.
Leonard Flachenecker, born August 29, 1804, Germany.
Beal Howard, born November 5, 1790, Virginia.
Revel Wharton English, born October 13, 1810, Kentucky.
William Hayden, born November 4, 1802, Massachusetts.
Isham Hardy, born January 5, 1805, Virginia.
Charles Phinney, born August 25, 1810, Massachusetts.
John Park, born April 6, 1796, Ireland.
John F. Hoffmeister, born 1813, Germany.
George T. Brown, born January 23, 1820, Scotland.
Samuel Wade, born April 18, 1806, Massachusetts.
William Hall, born September 10, 1809, England.
Samuel Lee Miller, born March 7, 1803, Baltimore.
Robert DeBow, born April 10, 1815.
Pardon Tabor Tuthill, born March 4, 1801 or 1802, Long Island.
Adolph Kortcamp, born 1797, Germany
Richard J. Simmons, born March 30, 1808.
George Quigley, born January 10, 1805, Pennsylvania.
T. W. Lowe, born September 21, 1802, Virginia.
Albert Galatin Wolford, born February 23, 1812, Philadelphia.
Abraham Breath, born December 01, 1805, New York.
Simeon Ryder, born July 24, 1795, Massachusetts.
Don Alonzo Spaulding, born January 02, 1797, Vermont.
Isaac Cox, born 1800, South Carolina.
Thomas Judy, born 1804, Madison County, Illinois.
Shadrach Bond Gillham Sr., born 1812, Madison County.
William Eaves, born July 01, 1804, Kentucky.
Dr. John Stanley Dewey, born May 29, 1819, Madison County.
William M. Gonterman, born 1813, Kentucky.
Charles Sebastian, born 1809, Kentucky.
Volney P. Richmond, born 1818, Vermont.
John Woods, born 1804, Pennsylvania.
Edward M. West, born 1815, Virginia.
Solomon Pruitt, born 1790, Virginia.
Henry C. Bull, born 1812, Connecticut.
Samuel A. Buckmaster, born 1817, Virginia.
John J. Scott, born 1811, Tennessee.
Shadrach Bond Gillham Jr., born 1831, Madison County.
John Atkins, born 1822, Madison County.
Lewis W. Moore, born 1827, Monroe County.
Thomas Barnsback, born 1817, Madison County.
Troy Moore, born 1818, Monroe County.
William Cook, born 1818, Madison County.
Bennet Posey, born Madison County.
Calvin Kinder, born 1804, Pennsylvania.
John Barnsback, born 1815, Madison County.
Joseph Gillespie, born 1809, New York.
John L. Ferguson, born 1807, Madison County.
Stephen Wilder Gaskill, born 1813, Madison County.
Samuel Seybold, born 1790, Madison County.
John Ellison, born 1814, New York.
Curtis Blakeman, born 1807, Connecticut.
Joseph Chapman, born 1813, North Carolina.
Jacob Ellison, born 1816, New York.
James Gillham, born 1827, Madison County.
Thomas O. Springer, born 1827, Madison County.
Willis R. Reeves, born 1830.
Zephaniah B. Job, born 1826, Virginia
J. R. Newman, born Madison County.
George A. Smith, born 1831, Upper Alton.
William M. T. Springer, born 1828, Madison County.
George H. Weigler, born 1818, Prussia.
William E. Wheeler, born 1826, Madison County.
Samuel Parker Gillham, born 1809, Madison County.
Hugh Kerr, born 1803, Scotland.
Alfred Patterson Barnett, born 1833, Madison County.
William Hutchins, born 1802.
Joshua Ensminger, born 1821, Virginia.
William McKitrick, born 1826, Madison County.
John Fruit, born 1810, Kentucky.
Milo Hovey, born 1822, Massachusetts.
O. C. Huggins, born 1814.
S. S. Stapt, born 1816, Pennsylvania.
Parham Randle Floyd, born 1821, North Carolina.
Nelson Montgomery, born 1815, Madison County.
John W. Coventry, born 1809, Kentucky.

 

TALKS WITH OLD SETTLERS
Milton, Lower Alton, Upper Alton
Written by Samuel Slater
Source: Alton Telegraph, October 15, 1874
"It was in the Fall of 1818 that I came to the town of Milton on the Wood River, where there was a mill, quite a number of log houses, and a store kept by Mr. Thomas Lippincott. I was with him a short time, when I met with Major Charles W. Hunter, a merchant of St. Louis, who employed me as a clerk to go to Lower Alton, or rather to Hunter’s Alton (as it was then called), for there was no Lower Alton at that time, only a ferry house, which was kept by George Smith and Thomas G. Hawley.

I put my goods into a little log house, I think about 12x16. There were also two other log houses in the town, this and nothing more. We came up with our goods from St. Louis in a keel boat, for there were only a few steamboats anywhere then. I think none had ever attempted to go up the Missouri River. I heard them say the current was too strong for steamboats, but in the Spring of 1819, I think Lewis and Clark did ascend the Missouri to Council Bluffs, and I saw the smoke of the first steamboat that ever entered the mouth of the Missouri River. St. Louis was then only comparatively a little French village, built only on about three streets, with mostly one-story houses.

Edwardsville was then about the best and most important town in the State of Illinois, and where all the great men of those days resided. I was taken sick, like everybody else that summer. Major Charles Hunter had his first residence built by Mr. Finch, at the spring [Hunter’s Spring] in his town [Alton], and moved his family there, consisting of his wife, who was one of the best of women, and two children, a son and a daughter. The latter afterwards became the wife of Mr. Robert DeBow.

Some of my friends had gone up to what they called the Sangamon Country, and taken up (or squatted, as I think they called it) on land on Sugar Creek. My father, Elijah Slater, took up a place. The land was not yet surveyed in that country, and no counties laid off north of Madison. So, Madison County could not then be considered a very small county, for its jurisdiction extended north to the [Great] lakes. I went up to that country in the Fall for my health. When I came back to Alton, I told Major Hunter there was an opening to sell his goods, and he sent me there at once with two loaded wagons. This must have been in December 1810. I well recollect that we camped out one night. A great snowstorm came on, and when morning came, we found ourselves covered up with our buffalo robes and about six inches of snow on top. We slept quite comfortable without any fire, but if I ever came nearer freezing than on that trip, I did not know of it. I sold goods there on Sugar Creek in 1820 and 1821, when Major Hunter closed up business there. After this I purchased his steam distillery and horse mill in Lower Alton, with about (as I think) twenty-five acres of land, which is now all built up in residences. But in trying to make whisky, I broke up, did not pay for the property, and it reverted to the real owner. How strange it seems that we did not then know that manufacturing whisky was a disreputable business. I am now very glad it broke me and I quit it.

But I will tell you who I knew at Upper Alton – which had not been laid out very long. Mr. Meacham was the founder of the Upper Town, and Colonel Easton of St. Louis of Lower Alton, with whom I had some acquaintance. It was him who furnished Mr. Lippincott with the goods while at Milton. I think Milton was then a place of more business than even Upper Alton. Mr. George Smith afterwards sold goods at Milton, then he went to Upper Alton, and his brother, David, was with him in business. There was a mill in Upper Alton. It was not a steam mill, but an ox mill run by Jonathan Brown, who had also a store.

Doctor Brown, I remember, who laid out Salu, an addition to Upper Alton. Mr. Marsh kept the tavern. Squire Spencer was living there then. I remember the family of Gillhams who lived in the American Bottom, the Pruetts and Stouts, I think under the bluff, as they called it. The Moore’s on the Wood River, but as I settled on Sugar Creek, now in Sangamon County, I lost sight of many improvements going on in Alton.

I want to tell you what happened to me at Springfield last month. A picnic of the old settlers was announced to come off on Sugar Creek, at the very place where my store was. I concluded to go thinking to find someone there who could remember me, but strange to say no man would know me, and I came away a sadder and wiser man. I suppose it would be the same, were I at Edwardsville on the 16th.

This is my excuse for writing to you. Mr. Thomas Lippincott married on March 25, 1820, to my own sister, Henrietta Maria Slater, who died of malarial fever at Milton the first summer. I married in Alton in 1831, went to New Orleans, raised a family of nine children in the South, but by the blessing of the Lord, brought them all back to Illinois in 1860. Three of my sons were in the [Civil] War for the Union."

 

OLD SETTLER’S MEETING
From the Alton Weekly Telegraph, October 22, 1874
Today, October 16, 1874, the old settlers of Madison County held a meeting at the courthouse in Edwardsville. The weather was unfavorable. The bad roads and threatening rain prevented many from attending, who purposed to be there. Still, some sixty gentlemen and one lady (all honor to her name) braved the storm and came to the meeting. At 12 o'clock an organization was effected with Samuel Seybold of Troy, for President, and O. L. Barler of Upper Alton for Secretary. The meeting then adjourned for dinner, and again came together at 2 o'clock.

President Seybold, who called the meeting to order, has passed his eightieth birthday, and is the oldest man living, born in the State of Illinois. He has lived in Madison County 73 years. When he came to this county, there was not a white man living north of Edwardsville (there was no Edwardsville even) on to the Great Lakes. With one exception, his nearest neighbor was five miles away. He fought in the War of 1812, and lived, I think he said, among the Indians in block houses. Old settlers know better than I, what block houses are.

Among those present, I name John L. Ferguson, Esq., born in Madison County nearly 70 years ago. Also, Shadrach Bond Gillham, born in this county in 1812. Thomas Judy, is also a young man of 71 years, a native of this county. Besides these, I happen to know Messrs. Spaulding, Mills, Preuitt, Eaves, Ellison, Chapman, Kerr, and Coventry. The Hon. Joseph and David Gillespie, the Hon. Daniel B. Gillham, Shed [Shadrach] and James Gillham, Randle, Kinder, Dr. Dewey and many others equally worthy of honorable mentioning.

Judge Joseph Gillespie stated that the object of the meeting was to organize an Old Settlers' Association for the purpose of gathering up and putting together the facts and personal reminiscences pertaining to the early history of the county, for the benefit of those who come after us. It was emphatically an Old Settlers' Meeting, but it was readily granted that young settlers could, by their presence and otherwise, contribute largely to the success of these meetings, and it was agreed that the only condition of membership should be the payment of 50 cents per annum, so that all, young and old, ladies and gentlemen, are invited to give their approbation and presence to these meetings.

The President, Samuel Seybold, called the meeting to order. On motion of Hon. Daniel Gillham, Orson L. Barler was elected phonographic reporter for the society - full reports of the talks and doings of the meeting being desired. The weather was unfavorable, and the rain and bad roads kept many away who desired to attend the meeting. Yet in the face of the storm more than sixty persons pressed their way to the gathering and made it a success.

Among those present, I happen to know John L. Ferguson, Thomas Judy, Samuel Seybold and others, all born in Madison (except Mr. Seybold, who is eighty years old having lived in this county seventy-three years), and having already outlived the allotted time of threescore years and ten. There were present also, Joseph and David Gillespie; John Bonner; John Ellison; George Campbell Lusk; Joseph Chapman; George Howard; Lyman Barber; Shed [Shadrach] Gillham; James Gillham; Hon. David Gillham; Andrew Mills; Don Alonzo Spaulding; T. P. Moore; M. T. Barnett; L. W. Moore; Amos Atkins; Isaac Pruitt; Samuel P. Gillham; Hugh Kerr; Thomas Barnett; Judge Stocker; Thomas Dunnagan; Irwin B. Randle; William Eves; Chris. Smith; Larkin Keown; Cyrus Leverett; Cyrus Cook; Hon. W. H. Krome; Capt. J. T. Cooper; P. Floyd; Nathaniel Kinder; John Tart; Dr. John H. Weir; Dan. Gruner; A. S. Smart; John Coventry; Charles Mackett; K. N. Snodgrass; and others whose names were unknown to the secretary.

Don Alonzo Spaulding of Alton was first called upon the stand to tell what he knew about the early history of Madison County. He said he would first tell the story of how he got here. "It was on May 4, 1818, that I left my home in New York for the purpose of coming to Edwardsville (I had studied surveying, and my object in coming West was to survey the public lands). I took a pack on my back, after the manner of our soldiers, carrying nothing but clothes, compass and a Jacob-like staff, and traveled 370 miles on foot to Olean, in New York. Here I met with four other young men who were going West, but not so far West as I contemplated. We clubbed together and bought a flatboat, which cost us five dollars - just one dollar apiece. You can judge about what kind of a boat it was. In this little boat we floated and paddled our way down the river to Pittsburg, reaching that place in twenty-one days, a distance of a little more than 350 miles. Soon, one of my companions left, and then another, and I found that I was about to be left alone. It was then I came across a family that were going in my direction. They had a better boat than mine, and I made arrangements to travel and board with this family. We came on to Massac, Illinois, and I was soon engaged to survey the town, which became the county seat of Johnson County, Illinois. When I finished this, I came to Edwardsville, Illinois. I had a letter to Dr. Caldwell. I knew Hale Mason, who lived in Edwardsville, and this fact was the reason I happened to come here, and here it was I was taken with the ague [malarial fever], and in no light form. I made a regular business of shaking. I had fourteen fits in fifteen days. I went back to Massac, and finally down to Kaskaskia, where I attended the first governmental convention in the State. I was present at the meeting of the first Legislature of the State, which met at Kaskaskia. But I afterwards made Edwardsville my home, and went out surveying in Greene and other counties. I was constable awhile, and did a little of all sorts of work. I have surveyed about 7,000 miles for the United States."

Mr. Kerr - "What was Madison County like at that time? What were the number and condition of the settlers then?"

Mr. Spaulding - "The settlers were very scattered. There was not, in 1818, a good building in Edwardsville, and north of this, with few exceptions, there was nothing to the lakes. I was, while constable, sent to Diamond Grove, near where Jacksonville now stands, to persuade one man who lived there to pay his debts. It could hardly be said there was a settlement there."

Mr. Moore - "What was the fee paid to constables at that day? How much per mile?"

Mr. Spaulding - "I believe it was 5 cents per mile. I wish to mention but two incidents that will indicate to you the character of the people and the spirit of those early times. All the old settlers remember well Beniah Robinson, who for many years lived within three miles of Edwardsville. He afterwards moved to California, and died about three years ago. Some years before his death I received a letter from Mr. Robinson in which there occurred a sentence like this: 'When I came,' said he, 'for the first time, to think of sines, tangents and secants (I think, said the speaker, that is the word), I found myself in want of something to make figures (Mr. Robinson was a surveyor), so I took my ax and went to the woods and split out a block of walnut wood, and smoothed off the same and used it as a blackboard.' The other incident is this: You see constantly in the papers advice given to travelers going West, stating that via St. Louis is the shortest route. The incident I have to relate will illustrate how this was regarded in that early day. About the time Wiggins established his ferry at St. Louis, say in 1822, there was a large emigration crossing here, and going to the Salt River country and elsewhere in the West. There was a ferry at Alton, with quite a contest between the ferries which should have the business, which was growing to some importance. The travel was from the districts about Carlyle, Illinois, through Alton to St. Charles, or from Carlyle through St. Louis to St. Charles. In order to divert the trade from the Alton ferry to the St. Louis ferry, Wiggins had the routes surveyed, and published the results of this survey all over the country, and secured the business. I had reason to question the results of this survey, and made (myself) a measurement of the distance on correct data from Carlyle to St. Charles, by the way of St. Louis, and I found that the Wiggins survey had made the distance some miles shorter than a straight line between Carlyle and St. Charles."

Voice - "Did you measure both routes so as to compare the distances and learn which was the shortest route?"

Spaulding - "No, sir, that was not the question. There was really but little difference in the distance of the two routes. I called attention to the fact that this roundabout way by St. Louis was published as shorter than a straight line between the two points. But really, I did not come here to make a long talk. Have said already more than I intended."

John L. Ferguson was next called upon to tell what he knew of the early settlement of Illinois. Mr. Ferguson said: "My history reaches a little further back than that of my friend, Mr. Spaulding. I was born four miles from Edwardsville, on November 20, 1807, in a blockhouse. Any of these old settlers here know well what a blockhouse is. They served the use of forts in the Indian wars and troubles that occasionally arose. My father was an officer in the army, and he was an Indian fighter of some renown. He knew almost everybody in the country. Mr. Seybold here knew him. His duties called him from place to place over the country. His custom was to take his wife and children with him. He considered them safer with him. I lived in blockhouses and forts until 1814. There was a fort about three miles west of this town called Jones' Fort, in which I spent a part of my life. In 1813, my father built the first house ever erected on Marine Prairie, but after building it, he did not dare to live in it for fear of the Indians. At this period, we had little protection. All the protection we had came from the Kaskaskia Indians, with a very few soldiers. After my father built, five other persons put up houses, but neither did they dare to live in them, and the entire settlement did not comprise more than a dozen families. I can name them, if desired." A voice - "Please name them." Mr. Ferguson - "There were John Warwick, John Woods, George Newcome, Isaac Ferguson, John Ferguson, William Ferguson, Joseph Ferguson, Absalom Ferguson, Aquilla Dolahide, Abram Howard and Joshua Dean. All these made permanent settlements in 1813 and 1814. In 1815 there were added Chester Pain, Thomas Breeze, Richard Winsor, John Campbell, John Giger. In 1816, there came John Scott, John Lord, James Simmons, Henry Peck, Andrew Matthews Sr., and Andrew Matthews Jr., James Matthews, Lefford French, James French and Abram Carlock. All these settled in Marine. In 1817, I do not recollect that any new settlements were made. In 1818, there were so many newcomers that I failed to keep trace of them. I remember there were seventy-two families who came in one crowd, and ever since that time, the strangers have been so numerous that I have kept no account of them."

Hon. Joseph Gillespie - "Will you tell us how the country and village took the name of Marine?"

Mr. Ferguson - "It was from the character, or rather previous calling, of the people. There were some half dozen old sea captains who settled in this district, and the name came from them."

Judge Gillespie - "Did you know anything about a widow Carlock?"

Mr. Ferguson - "I knew Abram Carlock and other members of the family. If there was a widow among them, I did not know it."

Judge Gillespie - "I make this inquiry because I was told that there was such a person, and that she could use her rifle equal to any man in shooting game or killing an Indian, as the case required."

Mr. Ferguson - "It was common in those days for the women to practice gunning. My mother could shoot a deer or Indian just as well as my father could, and thought no more of it. Such exploits among them were frequent."

Judge Gillespie - "I want that fact stated."

Mr. Ferguson - "I remember the first school I ever attended, and the first ever taught in Marine was either in the summer or winter (I forgot which) of 1814. It was taught in my father's smokehouse. There were ten or twelve scholars. Arthur Travis was the teacher. The first sermon preached in Marine was about this time by Peter Cartwright, 'the fighting preacher.' And by the way, I may say, in those days it was not considered anything out of the way for the preacher, when insulted, to whole his antagonist." He told a laughable story about Mr. Judy and an anecdote about the Hon. Joseph Gillespie, that had lost nothing because of their antiquity. He closed with a eulogy on the Marine country that won assent and applause. Today it contained as fine improvements and as good society, social and educational privileges as any other district in the State.

Voice - "Tell us about the price of corn and other products."

Mr. Ferguson - "Corn was worth six and quarter cents per bushel; wheat thirty, forty and fifty cents. Cows were worth six to ten dollars; horses twenty-five to fifty dollars."

The question was asked in regard to the productiveness of corn and wheat then and now, to which Mr. Ferguson answered, corn crops then averaged heavier than now, but wheat crops are heavier now than then, owing, he supposed, to the better culture and better varieties. Other questions and answers on subjects of minor importance were given, not here recorded.

Shadrach Gillham, Esq., was next called upon, as an old settler born and raised in Madison County, to state some of his recollections and incidents pertaining to the early history of the county. He said that in the spring of 1819, Colonel Johnson of Kentucky came to this county with three steamboats loaded with United States soldiers and army supplies, such as pork, flour, salt, &c. He landed at his father's place, just below the mouth of the Missouri River. Colonel Johnson had a contract with the general government to transport soldiers and supplies to two points, one to St. Peters (now St. Paul) on the Mississippi River, and the other to Council Bluffs on the Missouri River. They had little difficulty in ascending the Mississippi and reaching St. Peters, delivering soldiers and supplies. But when they attempted to ascend the Missouri River, they found trouble. The river was low, pilots were not acquainted with it, and after three weeks of fruitless toil they found themselves at St. Charles, only twenty miles from the mouth. They gave up the expedition and dropped back to my father's, where these wonderful steamboats lay in state, exciting the marvel of all beholders. The people came in from the country and all the region round about, to behold and wonder at these steamboats. Here, large warehouses were built, and in them were stored the provisions and here the soldiers quartered. After a time, a number of keel boats of light draft were purchased, and in these the provisions were stored - each boat carrying about 200 soldiers (the soldiers, however, walked most of the way), and in this way they reached in due time Council Bluffs and delivered soldiers and provisions, and returned before the winter set in. Colonel Johnson's steamboats were the first boats of the kind that ascended the river above St. Louis. And now, as I look around me, and inquire for the multitudes that flocked there in that early day, of men, women and children, I know of but two or three besides myself now living in this county, and a very few living anywhere else. I remember old General Ranoy, now of St. Louis, as one of the steamboat agents.

Mr. Gillham then proceeded to give us some idea of the large extent of territory embraced in Madison County at this early day. He referred to Governor Reynolds' History of Illinois, which gives the boundaries of Madison County in the Governor's own way, thus: Madison County is bounded on the south by St. Clair County, on the west by the Mississippi River, on the east by the Wabash, and on the north by the North Pole [laughter]. "My father being the first Sheriff of the county of Madison, had authority over a very large extent of country. I well recollect in 1820, a man in the county, who had given bonds for his appearance at court, fled the country. He went up among the Indian tribes around Green Bay or Lake Michigan. It became my father's duty to send after him, and bring him to court. So, accompanied by the security (Samuel Gillham, an early settler), he went to Cahokia, or Illinoistown (now East St. Louis), and employed and deputized a Frenchman, Peter Pecia, to go after the man. They put him on a French pony and sent him through by the way of Peoria and Chicago, away up Lake Michigan, to Green Bay, and there, among the Indian tribes, found him, arrested him, and brought him back, and delivered him to the proper officers, and released his security. I recollect the man very well, both before he fled and after his return. Others here remember him. It was old Joseph Meacham, one of the founders or proprietors of Upper Alton. I recollect going to school to him after his return. He was an Eastern man, and well educated. The old man being somewhat broken down, my father and the neighbors employed him through the winter season to 'keep school.' This circumstance is mentioned to show the large extent of territory of Madison County at that early day."


Mr. Gillham then read an interesting letter in commemoration of the olden time from Michael Brown, whose father moved to this county in 1817. He now lives at Brighton, in Macoupin County:

“Brighton, October 12, 1874. To Shadrach Bond Gillham, Esq., Alton, Illinois:
Yours of October 8, is received, and I regret very much that on account of previous engagements it will be out of my power to attend the Old Settlers' meeting at Edwardsville, on the 16th. I thank you for the cordial invitation you have given me, and it would afford me much pleasure to be with you on that occasion, and shake hands again with the few of my old friends who still survive in old Madison County. Very many have passed away. My father moved to this county in October 1817. It was then Illinois Territory. St. Louis was then a small town, mostly settled by French. The ferry was owned by a Mr. Vanarsdale. A small flat boat, rowed by two men, was the only boat to cross over the great Mississippi, and two horses and a wagon was a full load. Wiggins afterwards put on a horse boat, which was a great improvement. Steam was not then in use, and the great river was navigated by keel and flat boats. It was about (3) three months’ journey to New Orleans and back. The keel boats were pulled up the river by 'cordells,' (ropes) men walking on the shore to pull the rope. The flat boats never returned, but were disposed of for a trifle after the contents were sold, or turned adrift, as best suited the owner. It was very sickly in the American Bottom, and especially so opposite St. Louis, and that fact prevented my father and my uncle, Oliver Brown, from taking the ferry at St. Louis, and they moved up the river the winter of 1817, and 1818, to Upper Alton. There was no other Alton then. A Mr. Fountain lived in a log cabin and kept a ferry where Alton now is, but the most of the travel crossed at Smeltzer's ferry, about three miles above Alton. Milton was then in its most prosperous days. There were both grist and saw mills run by water power. But sickness and death soon blighted the prospect of a town at that place. The grist mill soon went down and the settlers that did not die moved away, with very few exceptions. The saw mill was run several years by Hawley & Smith, but it was abandoned about the year 1830, when Alton began to show signs of life on the river. On March 9 of that year, I commenced work on the place where I now reside, since which time I have been a citizen of Macoupin County. But I left many valued friends in Alton, where I spent the days of my childhood and youth, and where I received what little education I got in school. I also had pleasant acquaintances with persons in other parts of Madison County. I might name a score of Gillhams, and Randles, and many others, by whom it will ever be a pleasure to me to be remembered. But I fear you will be wearied by this long epistle, and I will close by expressing the hope that at the next meeting of the old settlers of Madison County, I may be able to attend. Very respectfully and truly yours, Michael Brown.”

The following gentlemen became members of this society by the payment of 50 cents: Judge Joseph Gillespie, Andrew Mills, Shadrach Gillham Sr., John L. Ferguson, S. P. Gillham, L. W. Moore, T. G. Dunnagan, Lyman Barker, Samuel Seybold, J. W. Coventry, and Colonel Kinder. Hon. David Gillespie paid $1, which makes his wife a member. Judge Gillespie moved that a committee be appointed with the Secretary as chairman, to prepare questions for the members of this Society to answer. The object of these questions is not to curtail any man's freedom to tell anything he may think worthy of our attention, but to give directness and definiteness to our labors. Motion carried, and Messrs. James Gillespie and Shad. Gillham Sr., were appointed to co-operate with the Secretary in getting up this list of questions. Many others would have joined the Society, if proper notice and efforts had been made to that end. It is hoped that this list will be swelled to one hundred names between this and our next meeting. If the citizens of this county, and especially the old settlers, will give us their countenance and support, we shall collect a volume of information worthy of the county and the men who first settled it.

The time of adjournment having come, there was not opportunity to hear from others, many of whom were full of talk, and would have interested us. This meeting throughout was informal, and only preliminary and a forerunner of a real live meeting, to be held on the third Saturday of next month, at 10 o'clock, in the Court House at Edwardsville. Old settlers, remember that, and give us your countenance on that occasion. It was unanimously agreed that new settlers, young and old, male and female - everybody - not only could come to these meetings, but that they were invited to come and help on the good cause. Those who cannot give information can receive information, and sharpen by their presence the countenance of their brothers. The only condition of membership to this society is the payment annually of the sum of fifty cents, and only $6.50 was handed in to the Secretary, who was also made Treasurer. At 4 o'clock the meeting adjourned, under the influence of the best of feeling, and with the determination to make the next meeting a large one, and a grand succes.

 

TALKS WITH OLD SETTLERS
A Visit with Hon. Cyrus Edwards
Source: Alton Telegraph, November 5, 1874
It is in my mind, Messrs. Editors, to drop and visit the Hon. Cyrus Edwards of Upper Alton. I found him at home, seated in his easy arm chair. He gave me a hearty welcome, and seemed right glad to see me. But seeing his enfeebled state of health, I feared I should fail in the object of my mission. He said he was waiting the summons to “come up higher.” He was not only ready, but even anxious for the time of his departure to come, which he was so sure was near at hand. His disease was steadily growing upon him, and forbade more than five minutes sleep at any one time, day or night. When I told him the object of my visit, his countenance brightened up, his voice grew strong, and the fluency of his speech surprised me. He answered the following questions:

How old art thou? He answered, “I am eight-two years old. A native of Maryland.” His father moved to the wilds of Kentucky in 1800, where he was educated, studied law, and was admitted to the bar. Fifty-nine years ago, he arrived in St. Louis just one hour after the arrival of the Hon. Thomas H. Benton. They put up at the same hotel, and Mr. Benton invited Mr. Edwards to share his bed with him, which invitation he accepted. St. Louis was then a French village of a few hundred inhabitants.

It was in 1829 that he came to Madison County, Illinois, and two years later he settled on his farm, two miles east of Upper Alton. Here he bought 200 acres of land for $4 per acre, to which he afterwards added 200 acres more at $2 per acre. He now values his 400-acre farm at $40,000. At this point, I requested him to relate his experience on the farm. I wished him to tell me “how to make the farm pay,” as I had, myself, a weakness in that direction. Mr. Edwards laughed heartily, and so did his good wife laugh (no others were present), and I laughed. The idea of making money on the farm seemed, for a moment, ridiculous.

“I was,” said Mr. Edwards, “very fond of farm life. I enjoyed it very much – all but the working part, and as for that, I had a wonderful faculty of putting all the work upon the shoulders of others. Still, I made properly, and I have reason to be a little vain of my achievement in this direction” “Yes,” interposed his wife (who up to this time had remained a silent listener), “but you did not make it on the farm.” And again, we all laughed. “You know,” the lady continued, “we had every year to sell off a town lot to meet the farm expenses.” (Laughter) Whereupon Mr. Edwards remarked that he did not mean to convey the idea that his farming paid him. “I farmed largely,” said he, “with the pocketbook. I made my living by my wits.”

The facts are, he made judicious and profitable investments in Alton city lots and other real estate. Upon which he realized handsomely. He was not carried away on the tide of wild speculation that prevailed in 1836-37. He, in fact, foresaw the coming disaster that was to break up almost every man in business and bankrupt the State, and he prepared for it. True, he voted in the Legislature for the appropriation scheme of ten million dollars that was an auxiliary to the downfall, but he voted under protest. He was so instructed by his constituents, against his own judgment. The results show the correctness of his views. And after the great offense was committed, he tried to mend the matter by introducing the classification act, but they would have none of his counsel, and when the crash came, it swept almost every business man from the board. He remembered but one man in Alton who was not caught in the wreck – Dr. Marsh, now President of the Alton National Bank.

Mr. Edwards gave an account of his visit to Kaskaskia in 1815, when it was the most important and flourishing town of the State. Here he found the most refined society, and here lived and prospered the great men of the State – Governor Bond, Senator Kane, Judges Pope, Thomas, Griswold, Breese, Baker, and others equally distinguished.

The Wood River district was once a name of reproach, and the character of the settlements not very creditable. “But I said at the time,” continued Mr. Edwards, “that the day would come when the Wood River district would become one of the most flourishing and beautiful farming districts in the State, and it is so. Where can you go to find finer farms and farm buildings than here?” Mrs. Edwards here called his attention to the fact that some of his neighbors on the Wood River, in those early days, were opposed to him politically because he advocated Sunday Schools. “Yes,” said he, “there were four men only who voted against me for the Legislature, because I sent my children to Sunday School. These people looked upon missionary and Sunday School operations as having a tendency to unite church and State. They regarded them at best as the engines and machinations of the ‘blue-bellied Yankees.’”

“The preachers of that day were,” he said, “illiterate and proclaimed against education. I recall the words used, in an eloquent burst, by one of these divines. ‘Of what conceivable use,’ said the preacher, ‘would it be to me to know the amazing distance between this earth and that grand luminary ball that bespangles yon arch of heaven!’ “And yet,” said Edwards, “some of the most eloquent and powerful preachers I ever heard were among these illiterate men. I mention as one of them preacher Vardeman, the great Kentucky revivalist.”

The Black Hawk War cost him a march to Rock Island. He gave an account of the vast waste of country through which they passed, with scarce an inhabitant. But in no part of his account of reminiscences did he manifest more enthusiasm and interest than in the story of the beginning and growings to present developments of Shurtleff College. He was one of the original trustees in 1832, contributing largely of his own means (he did not speak of this) and having watched over its interest with anxious solicitude during all this time – he was highly gratified with the present prospects and management of the institution. He seemed to think that the days of great trial was passed, and that nothing was left the college now but to go on and prosper. He would not long survive to see the brighter days dawning on all these interests – cherished objects of his life. He says his work is done. He referred feelingly to the late Hermon C. Cole, who but a week before his death called on him, in the full vigor of health. Mr. Cole said he never felt better in his life. “How strange it seems to me,” Mr. Edwards added, “that he should be taken and I left. Even so Father, for so it seemeth good in the sight.”

I have not reported the whole of our conversation, which would extend this report beyond the proper length of a newspaper article.
Signed Orson L. Barler, Upper Alton.

 

TALKS WITH THE OLD SETTLERS
By the Hon. Joseph Gillespie
Source: Alton Weekly Telegraph, November 12, 1874
“My age is 65 years. I live in Edwardsville. I came to this State in 1819, and have resided in it ever since. I am a lawyer by profession, but was raised at farm work. At that time, Shadrach Bond was Governor and lived at Kaskaskia. He was succeeded by Edward Coles, who resided in Edwardsville. He was a thorough-going abolitionist, and brought the slaves he had in Virginia here and emancipated them, and gave them farms to live upon in this neighborhood. Madison County contained, in 1820, I should think (at a guess), some 5,000 inhabitants. They were generally from the Southern States, and had great respect for, and were tolerant in regard to, the religious feelings of others. I never heard of a quarrel upon the subject of religion among them, although they had very decided and dissimilar views on that question. The Methodists and Baptists were the leading denominations. The camp meetings of the former were powerful instrumentalities, and were numerously attended. There were but few drunkards in the country, although most of the people drank occasionally. It was generally admitted that the drinking of spirituous liquors in any form, was an evil that it would be well to get rid of at some convenient season. We had not then, as now, a large class who worship at the shrine of Bacchus and glory in the same. The old settlers did not generally work continuously. They recreated a good deal. They were capital hands to attend gatherings, such as musters, the Fourth of July celebrations, political speaking, the courts, horse racing, and the like. The houses were generally indifferent, and the stock was without shelter in the winter, as a rule. The hospitality of the old settlers knew no bounds. You could scarcely get away from a house if you called, during a journey, towards evening, on account of the importunities to stay overnight, which, if you did, you were always treated to the best the house afforded, and never allowed to pay a cent for it. Orchards and melon patches were looked upon as common property, and the man who would charge for apples, melons, and the like, would be denounced throughout the land. The men never charged for assisting their neighbors, in house raisings, log rollings, or harvesting. At the approach of wheat harvest, some leading man would send word for the neighbors to assemble at a particular time at the house of A. to cut and shock his wheat. As soon as they were through there, they would go to B.'s house, and so on around, according to the ripeness of the grain. The crops of widows and sick persons were attended to, along with the rest, and if any partiality was shown it would be to them.

I lived some years under the bluff, and old Samuel Judy was our patriarch, and his directions were as implicitly obeyed as were the commands of Napoleon Bonaparte. The youngsters frolicked and danced of evenings all through harvest, and I think there was more enjoyment then than now, but I may be mistaken, in that, as old folks don't know how young people feel except from recollection. The old settlers had a great reverence for the law - the worst characters professed to be law-abiding citizens. No man then (as too many do now) claimed the right, if they did not like a law, to set it at defiance. They would use their efforts to have it repealed, or modified, but none were so stupid or wicked as to claim a right to ignore the laws. They all seemed to know, that if the practice of setting the laws at defiance once became prevalent, it would overthrow all good government, and destroy society. The most ignorant and debased, in old times, were too well informed, and patriotic to harbor such ideas for a moment, and it is much to be regretted such ideas should find a lodgement anywhere.

Although the old settlers did not oppose education, they were not sufficiently zealous in encouraging it. Indifferentism on that subject was their fault. Their fine intellects, and superior advantages for self-instruction, enabled them to figure in the world, and led them to regard scholastic training as not very essential. They were great sticklers for high moral standing, and would fight to the death anyone who impugned their honor, or respectability.

Horses, cattle and hogs were the principal commodities, from the sale of which money was raised to pay the taxes, doctor's bills, blacksmith work, etc. Store goods and groceries were generally paid for with butter, eggs, beeswax and peltries. The people had great difficulty to make ends meet. There was little or no export of grain, some few horses and cattle were shipped South or driven North, but the export trade was insignificant, and the home demand trifling.

St. Louis, in 1820, contained about 2,000 inhabitants, each of whom would winter on handful of hazel nuts. Money was intensely scarce. Every dollar that could be raked or scraped together was placed in the land office, and expended on the seaboard. We tried to get some of it back in the shape of appropriations for the improvement of our rivers and lake harbors, but the doctrine was established that no appropriation would be constitutionally made for an improvement, above a port of entry, which were all on the sea coast. This constant outgoing and no incoming of money made times intolerably hard; corn was frequently as low as 5 cents per bushel, wheat 37 1/2 cents per bushel (just 30 years ago when a boy, I, in company with others, wagoned a load of wheat all the way from Washington, Tazewell county, to Chicago, a distance of 150 miles and sold it for 36 cents per bushel, and reached home after an absence of two weeks, with a barrel of salt and one dollar in pocket - Secretary), cows and calves $5, beef and pork 1 1/2 cents per pound, and other things in proportion. This continued drain lasted till Mr. Clay's Land Bill went into operation. It was intended to meet the difficulty arising from the veto of the Maysville Road Bill, which it did by giving to the States in which the land lay, 12 per cent of the proceeds of the sale and their proportion of the residue according to the population. My recollection is that the seasons were more favorable for the growth of crops then than now. We did not suffer from the long drouths in the Fall as we do now, and we had fewer frosts. In 1824, however, the weevil destroyed the wheat after it was harvested. And in 1831-32, I believe it was, that early frosts so injured the corn as to entirely destroy its germinating properties, and render it almost worthless for any purpose. All the seed corn, immediately after those years, had to be procured from the South. Nearly all the hay was cut from the wild prairies, and answered a very good purpose. Cotton, tobacco, and castor beans were frequently cultivated. In these early days we were dreadfully annoyed with the green headed flies, which made it impossible (in their season) to travel in the day time through the prairies. They have often killed horses in going a distance of ten miles. Travelers were accustomed to lay by in the timber in the day time, and cross the prairies at night. Paroquets [parakeets] were common. Also, ghophers [gophers] abounded everywhere. Now, these with the wolves, deer, panthers, and other wild animals, have disappeared. The mound on which Bunker Hill, Macoupin County, is now situated, was formerly known as Wolves Hill, and its top was honeycombed with their dens, or burrows. The Kickapoo Indians came until 1827 or 1828 to Edwardsville to get their annuities from Governor Ninian Edwards, who at this time resided there. Their camps and other traces which they left behind them, and the peculiar marks they made in stripping the bark from trees were visible ten years afterward.”

 

TALKS WITH THE OLD SETTLERS
A Visit with Solomon Preuitt, Esq.
Source: Alton Telegraph, November 19, 1874
I called upon this old patriarch of Madison County, and had a long and interesting talk. Solomon Pruitt [also spelled Preuitt], Esq., is eighty-five years old. I found him resting upon his bed, and in usual health. He talked for two hours in this inclined position. His voice was strong, and his animation great, as he fought anew the battle of life. I directed the conversation by questioning him, but will give the account of it, not in that form, but in a straightforward and connected story.

Martin Pruitt, the father of Solomon, came with his family to Madison County in 1806, and settled on the farm which Solomon now occupies! The same house that accommodated him then, accommodates him now, and the same trusty rifle hangs in the same old crotches that held it then. At that time there was no Alton and no Edwardsville, nothing much but Indians and wild deer and other animals of the wood. The Gillhams, of course, were here, neighbors, some six, eight or ten miles off. And then he named them: “There was Isaac and Billy and Jimmy and Johnny and Tommy,” all good and true men. There were a few others at that time whose names will be introduced as we get along.

Martin Pruitt came from Tennessee, and was a hunter by profession, and companion of the noted Daniel Boone of Kentucky. He died in the house now occupied by his son, Solomon, about the year 1820 (could not tell exact date) [Editor’s Note: Find A Grave has Martin Pruitt’s death as February 4, 1841, and burial in the Pruett Cemetery in Bethalto], at the advanced age of 92 years. He died without sickness or pain. The clock stopped, when the weights ran down.

Solomon would occasionally get out of Madison County, and follow up the story of Daniel Boone, who was “hired to blaze a road through from Tennessee to Louisville.” Or he would be off in the Indian wars, building forts at Peoria or elsewhere. I told him I wished to hear particularly about the early times in Madison County. “Well, sir,” said Solomon, “they were hard times. We had to pound our grain in a mortar, or go 15 miles to a horse mill, and run our chances of being massacred by the Indians.” “Many a time,” said he, “have I sat on the fence with my gun in hand, while my neighbor was plowing corn, to prevent some skulking Indian from taking the plowman’s life.” And here he gave a somewhat minute account of the Wood River Massacre, in which Mrs. Reagan and six children were tomahawked and scalped. Two of these children were Mrs. Reagan’s; two others were children of Abel Moore’s; and two were William Moore’s; from 7 to 10 years old. The husband of Mrs. Reagan had gone to church; it was Sunday, July 10, 1814. The children were left at Abel Moore’s, who lived about 2 miles east of Upper Alton, on the place now occupied by Mr. Cartwright. William Moore lived where Mrs. Bailey now lives, and George Moore lived where Mr. Gill now lives (he gave a horse for the improvements on this place, and afterward entered the land). Mrs. Reagan lived a few miles west of Abel Moore’s. She and the children had started to her house for some purpose, and were waylaid and massacred on the way. Night came, and no children or Mrs. Reagan appeared. The first thought was, when it became certain that they had been murdered by the Indians, to flee to the block house, which was near George Moore’s (Gill place); William and Abel Moore lived in brick houses (Badley and Cartwright places). After further search, and the discovery of dead bodies by Mrs. William Moore, which in the darkness could not be recognized (but were believed to be the missing ones), all retired to the fort till morning, knowing it would hazard their own lives to attempt that night to take up the murdered and mangled remains of their friends, though they lay in the woods not far away. Mr. Pruitt said that he was present, and helped gather up the mangled remains of the slain. But what was their horror to find in the morning the youngest child of Mrs. Reagan yet alive, and sitting by its dead mother, scalped and with a deep gash on each side of its face, and so badly wounded that it could not live. The blood had clotted in the hair and staunched the wound. The doctor said when the wound was washed the child would bleed to death, and so it was. All were buried as decently as the circumstances would allow, and pursuit made after the Indians by Colonel Samuel Whiteside and Company. Three of the Indians were overtaken near the Sangamon River, and Isaac Pruitt, brother to Solomon, shot one of the Indians and broke his leg, and he was soon captured and scalped. The scalp of Mrs. Reagan was found in the Indian’s knapsack. I inquired what object the Indians had in view of this massacre. He replied that it was in the time of the War of 1812, and that the English offered rewards for scalps. “If true, ‘tis pity. And pity ‘tis, ‘tis true.”

Solomon then gave some account of his soldier life. He was the first officer commissioned by Governor Edwards under the Territorial government. He held the rank of Captain at nineteen years of age, and served to the end of the war. In the Black Hawk War, he held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, and served about three years. I inquired if he knew Ebenezer Huntington. “Knew him! Yes, I knew him well. He was an actor on the stage, and was smart. He sold goods for a time for Colonel Easton, who ultimately founded the city of Alton. But Huntington’s fort was on the stage, and in the winter of 1817-18, he was ‘starring’ it in St. Louis.”

I asked Solomon if he knew George Churchill. “Lord yes! I knew George Churchill – I knew him well. I tell you, he continued, he was smart. He could not make a speech, but oh how he could write! I knew George Churchill well.”

Mr. Pruitt is looking forward with great hope and expectation of being able to attend the Old Settlers Meeting to be held at Edwardsville on next Saturday. He says he is fully prepared for that meeting, and that he will certainly be there if the weather is favorable, and he continues in his usual health.

 

TALKS WITH OLD SETTLERS
by Thomas Stanton Pinckard
From the Alton Weekly Telegraph, November 26, 1874
Mr. Thomas S. Pinckard is at this time a resident of Springfield, Illinois, and kindly sends us the following: “Being a native Sucker [born in Illinois] and also a native of Madison County, I have been naturally much interested in the articles from you detailing early events of the settlement of Illinois, and especially in those relating to the county of Madison. Doubtless there are some living who came to Illinois previous to the time of which I may write. There may occur errors in dates and names, as much of what I shall say is taken from the lips of my aged mother, now in her eightieth year, and for many years an invalid.

William Green Pinckard (my father), wife and one child; William Heath, wife and one child; and Daniel Crume, a brother-in-law of the two first mentioned, emigrated from Springfield, Ohio, and arrived at what is now known as Bozzatown, on Shields' Branch, on October 15, 1818. Four long and wearisome weeks they had spent in the westward trip in ox wagons, through an almost uninhabited wilderness. Before arriving at their destination, they occasionally met emigrants on their way eastward, who declared if they (our party) went to Alton they would all die, as it was a very unhealthy country, and the ‘graveyard of the West.’

Passing through Milton on the Wood River, then a thriving village of a half dozen small houses, one store, kept by Rev. Thos. Lippincott, and a small house with the sign ‘Entertainment for Man and Beast,’ they arrived at Shields' Branch in the night. They stopped at the house of one Crisswell, who kept a small boarding house, about half way between Milton and what is now Bozzatown. They there met with a gentle man named Colonel John Scott, afterwards familiar to old settlers in the vicinity of Carrollton, Greene County. A Mr. Spencer, afterwards known as ‘Squire’ Spencer in Alton, was a boarder at the same place.

Daniel Crume, father of Daniel Crume, now a resident of Alton, preceded the party with the intention of securing a house to begin housekeeping, and succeeded in his object so far as to obtain the promise of one, but when the families arrived the occupant would not give it up. They, at that time, met Joseph Brown, a brother of Shadrach Brown, of Wood River. Failing to secure a house, they took possession of a "half-faced" camp, so called, which stood near, to which the whole party lived for nearly two months. The room had a clapboard roof with a hole in it through which the smoke of the fire escaped, and the floor was about one half covered with puncheons [a heavy slab of timber, roughly dressed, for use as a floorboard], while the balance served as a kitchen, fireplace, etc. The entire dimensions of the room were about 16x16 feet. Here they spent some of the coldest and most disagreeable weather of the winter.

Soon after their arrival, my father met Major Charles W. Hunter, proprietor of what has since been known as Hunterstown. He made an offer of town lots to them if they would build and establish a pottery on his land. This proposition they partially agreed to, and built a cabin of round logs on Shields' Branch, about one hundred yards above where the covered bridge now stands. The one room was 16 by 16 feet, with hewed puncheon floor, clapboard roof, and chinked and ‘dabbed.’ Into this comfortable cabin they removed one week before Christmas, 1818. The weather had been very cold for days previous, but on Christmas Day the men found a fine ‘bee tree’ on the branch, and they had a feast of honey.

In this cabin the party of eight persons comfortably lived, and would not have exchanged their humble house for a palace without the love and content that they felt and enjoyed. During the winter my father and Uncle Daniel Crume made a contract to build a house for Colonel Rufus Easton, proprietor of the site of what is called Lower Alton. This house was built of hewed oak logs, two large rooms with an open space between them over which a roof was thrown. This house was long the stopping place or hotel of the village of Alton. For many years, Thomas G. Hawley, well known to old settlers, occupied the house, and until the year 1868, the house stood on the original site - near the corner of Piasa and Second [Broadway] Streets. When torn down in 1868, the logs were found as sound as when placed in position. Mr. Henry G. McPike, with commendable spirit, secured the logs and built a cabin upon his premises in which to deposit his cabinet of curiosities, etc. This was the first house built upon the site of the city of Alton, although small cabins had been erected at several points, one of which a few years since stood, on Market Street between Second [Broadway] and Third Streets.

My father, William Green Pinckard, soon after contracted to build a frame house for Major Hunter in Hunterstown, and did so, with the aid of Crume and Heath. This house, I think, is still standing and was the first frame house built in what is known as Alton city or Hunterstown. The house was located on Second Street [Broadway], and was finished in 1819.

About 400 yards above the bridge over Shields' Branch, they built a large log cabin intending to start a pottery, but it was never finished. For many years, in fact as late as 1831 and 31, this cabin was used in an unfinished condition for a meeting house for the Methodists, in warm weather. Uncle Heath built a cabin for himself on Shields' Branch, just below where the covered bridge stands, in which he lived until the death of his wife in August 1829. Rev. Nathaniel P. Heath, since well-known to Methodists of Illinois and Indiana, was the only surviving child of William and Milly Heath. He commenced preaching in the year 1830, and has continuously been in the traveling connection since that time.

In 1819, Joel Finch came to Alton and began building houses. He boarded at father's house while building a house at Milton for Mr. Bacon. He also built a house for Major Hunter in 1819, into which the Major moved in the same year. The wife of Major Hunter died in 1819 or 20.

In the Fall of 1819, grandfather, Nathaniel Pinckard, came out from Ohio with his family and found the families of William G. Pinckard, Crume and Heath all sick, and one of them dead. He at once determined to remove them from the lowlands of Hunterstown, and rented a log house of two rooms, the chimney in the center, where he removed his family, father's family, Crume's family, and William Heath and his little boy, making fifteen persons. Here they spent the winter of 1819 and 1820. Dr. Brown and Bennett Maxey, proprietors of the town of Salu, gave them lots on which to erect buildings for a pottery and tannery. They built a pottery the same winter and were all ready to manufacture ware in the spring of 1820. The demand for ware, such as they made, was very good and they drove a thriving business, persons coming from far and near to procure dishes, cups, crocks, and in fact all kinds of vessels necessary to the early settlers. They soon built themselves comfortable and roomy residences and placed themselves in easy pe_______ circumstances.

From the time they removed to Upper Alton, or Salu, father's and grandfather's houses were homes for the early pioneer preachers of the west, and preaching was often held at their houses and at the house of Jonathan Brown. In 1821, the Methodist Conference, embracing the States of Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Kentucky, met at the Padfield settlement below Belleville, and a camp meeting was held at the same time. Father's family and nearly all the relatives camped on the grounds and remained during the meeting. The conference was divided at that time into four different conferences, one for each of the States named. Illinois was previous to that time one circuit, being sparsely settled. From the time of the creation of the Illinois Conference, Methodism seemed to gain a strong impulse and spread rapidly in the sparse settlements of the State. Revs. Thomas Randle and John Dew, Rev. Jesse Walker, the Presiding Elder, visited Alton at stated times.

In 1817, the first Methodist class was formed in Upper Alton by Rev. Samuel Thompson. This class consisted of six members up to the time of the arrival of our family. The names of the persons were Ebenezer Hodges, at whose house the class met; Mary Hodges, his wife; John Seely, a brother of Mrs. Hodges; Jonathan Brown, and Delilah, his wife; and Oliver Brown. My mother was the seventh member of the class, joining in 1818, soon after her arrival there.

In 1819, grandfather Nathaniel Pinckard and family were added to the class. This is a brief statement on the beginning of Methodism in Upper Alton. In the fall of 1829, a revival of religion began at the house of grandfather Nathaniel Pinckard, while a prayer meeting was in progress. Rev. Simon Peter, now living in Brighton, labored faithfully and successfully, assisted by Revs. Thompson, Phelps, Dew, Randle and others, and the revival continued nearly twelve months. There were a large number of conversions and the strength of the society was greatly increased. Simon Peter, we believe, is the only one of those faithful old preachers who yet lives. The people of all denominations took part in the revival. There was no other organized church. When the question of baptizing the converts came up, some wished to be immersed, and Ephraim Marsh sent off and brought to the place Rev. John Stacy, a Baptist clergyman, and a society of that faith was formed. William Kissler and wife; George Smith and wife; Ephraim Marsh and wife and son, James; and Mr. Wright and wife were among the first members of that society. The Methodists joined heartily in the revival in the Baptist Church, and all labored earnestly and faithfully in a spirit of Christian love. Mr. Stacy was a very liberal man, as will be seen by the following incident: On one occasion, while baptizing a number of converts, and a large crowd of all denominations was standing by the water, he stood up and said that, in view of the importance and saving virtue of baptism by immersion, he would instantly baptize any and all who would allow him so to do, and allow them to choose any church for their abiding places. All were apparently satisfied as none answered his call. Mr. Stacy did a noble Christian work and should have the credit of organizing the Baptist society in Upper Alton.

The writer (Thomas Stanton Pinckard) was born in Salu [area north of Upper Alton] in the year 1833, and may claim to be an ‘early’ settler, if not an old settler. When I was about one year old my father (William Green Pinckard) removed to Lower Alton, and in 1837 to Middle Alton, where he resided until 1846, when we again removed to Lower Alton. I have a vivid recollection of several of the old settlers who were living when I was a boy. Abel Moore, in his Dearborn wagon, with his wooden leg; Tommy Nichols, with his favorite byword ‘dad burn it.’ Old Macauley or MacAuley; old George Bell - all old ‘Rangers’ in the Indian troubles. Often the men named visited father's house when I was a boy, and by a bright, glowing fireplace, seated on father's knee, I listened to the hair-breath escapes and thrilling incidents of border life, related as only those who have been actors therein can tell them. The murder of the Regan family in the forks of the Wood River in 1814, I think, was often spoken of by these old ‘rangers,’ some of them having participated in the pursuit and killing of the savage murderers. In the year 1811, a man was killed by the Indians near the big spring in Hunterstown while working in his field.

Where Alton now stands there was an unbroken wilderness of timber covering the hills and valleys, and the early settler had no difficulty in procuring game of all kinds to supply the wants of his family. The actual necessities of his family were procured at the stores at Milton, one of them kept by the Rev. Thomas Lippincott, father of our present State Auditor. In 1826, the tide of emigration seemed to increase rapidly and the town of Alton soon reached much prominence. Edwardsville became the political center in and around which revolved the principal events of those early days. The principal politicians of those days made their headquarters at Edwardsville. It is in the recollection of most old settlers that Alton, at one time and for some years, bid fair to eclipse St. Louis as a great city. I remember indistinctly the Lovejoy murder and subsequent events. It was a common occurrence for us children to pick up Indian arrowheads in the timber and fields in Middle Alton up to 1840. The noise made by the early steamboats - the high pressure - could be heard for many miles on the river, and very plainly of a clear morning, to Scarritt's Prairie [Godfrey]. The ‘Boreas No. 1’ and ‘Boreas No. 2’ were two steamboats I recollect - one of them high pressure - the ‘chow’ ‘chow’ of which could be plainly heard to Upper Alton whenever she passed up or down the river by Alton.

I would be pleased to be with you at your coming meeting, but it is out of my power. Please put the names of Elizabeth Warner Pinckard and Thomas Stanton Pinckard upon your roll of members."

 

TALKS WITH THE OLD SETTLERS
By Hon. Edward Mitchell West
Source: Alton Telegraph, December 03, 1874
The “Old Settlers” of Madison County held a rousing meeting November 21, in the courthouse at Edwardsville. Hon. Edward M. West of Edwardsville was called to the chair. He accepted gracefully. He said, “I came from the State of South Carolina – a very good State to be born in and to come from, if you don’t stay there too long. Our people left that State in 1817 to get rid of slavery. My father freed all his slaves, and came to this State when I was a mere boy, and put me to work. To be sure, I was very little in 1817, but we all went to work, and have kept at it ever since – very much in the same old fashion way, so far as ‘keeping at it’ goes.

I have never regretted that my father came to this country at an early day. A new country is just the place for boys. It was not so pleasant for my mother. She felt the hardships, but when as a boy, I could entrap half a dozen prairie chickens at once catch, or as I remember, did take at one time thirteen quails, the trap being so full that one little fellow had not room to stand, and contented himself by perching upon the backs of the dozen! This sport was fun for boys. So, we did not feel the hardships of a new country as the older folks did – we rather enjoyed it.

It fell to my task upon the farm to take care of the sheep. The great pests of the flocks were the wolves. They were very troublesome, and a shepherd was necessary to protect them. I used to shield myself from the cold by creeping into a straw pile and lay there with my gun, and shoot the wolves when they came for the sheep.

In 1829, when I was a man grown, I went to Springfield, Illinois, which was at that time a very new place. I have many a time gathered strawberries and hunted rabbits on the spot where now stands the old State House.

In 1833, I came to Edwardsville. I was here employed at $12 per month, and paying for my washing and mending, and that, gentlemen, is just about what I am now doing – making $12 per month, and paying for washing and mending (laughter). I have been acquainted with almost every family that has lived in Edwardsville for the last forty years. Not one-half dozen persons are now living in this town that were here when I came. And I wish to say here, gentlemen, that I attribute my present fair health to two circumstances or habits of life that I have adopted. The one is I would not drink liquor, and the other is I stayed at home at night. I do not mean, to be fair and honest, that I advocated or practiced teetotalism. I believed the good Lord had given me sense enough to enable me to control myself in what I should eat and drink, and when and how much I should sleep, and I have used, and so intend to use, my very best judgment in all these matters. I do not give this as the best way for all others to do. It is the course I have adopted for myself. I have no objections to absolute temperance. I think a well man has no need of alcoholic liquors, and a sick man needs a very little, if any.”

With this brief address, the meeting was opened. The following were present: Major Solomon Pruitt, Colonel Thomas Judy, Dr. Benjamin F. Edwards, Dr. J. H. Weir, Shadrach B. Gillham Sr., Judge Joseph Gillespie, Michael Brown, H. C. Sweetser, Dr. Frederick Humbert, Hon. David Gillespie, Thomas O. Springer, Joseph W. Brutton, James D. Hutchins, P. R. Sawyer, G. P. Gillham, James Sackett Sr., John Fruit, W. E. Lehr, Samuel P. Gillham, Hon. John M. Pearson, W. Lanterman, C. G. Vaughn, Thomas Dunnigan, John A. Miller, William Bivins, Rev. H. L. Field, Rev. E. M. West, Judge J. G. Irwin, John Bonner, Daniel Grover, John Tart, William Floyd, J. J. Kinder, S. O. Bonner, J. C. Lusk, S. V. Crossman, L. C. Keown, George Leverett, E. B. Glass, Captain Cooper, Robert L. Friday, C. L. Benedict, and Lawson A. Parks.

The first speaker was Dr. Benjamin F. Edwards, now 77 years old. He said: “I came to Edwardsville in 1827, when it was a very small place, and yet it was at that time the most promising town in the State. It was for several years the place of residence of the chief men of the State, and the society was first class. When I came here, Dr. Todd was the only regular physician in the county. I bought Dr. Todd’s house, and he removed to another place, and for two years after there was no other physician in the county.” The doctor practiced not only in this county, but in all the neighboring counties, and for fifty miles round. He kept four or five horses, and frequently rode one hundred miles in twenty-four hours, and practiced medicine. ‘When my horses broke down in any long trips,’ he said, ‘I would capture a fresh horse on the way, leave mine and push forward, and again take my horse on the return. For months together, in the sickly season, I have not averaged four hours sleep in the twenty-four. This hard practice came near killing me, and yet I never, in those days, quite made support for my family by my practice.’

There were no houses of worship in Edwardsville at this time. In 1828, the organization of a Baptist Church took place in my house. Previous to this, there had been an organization of a Presbyterian Church, but it had gone down, and was revived about this time. Divine service was held in the schoolhouse.

The character of the people was of that pain and simple sort that you always find in a new country. They were honest and liberal as the day is long. There was some dissipation among the people, and two grog shops in the town. I remember on one occasion, one of these groggeries caught fire, and when the alarm was given, I was on hand, and the first thing I rolled out was a barrel of whisky (laughter). I profess to be a little more of a temperance man than my friend West here, but on this occasion, I was instrumental in saving a barrel of whisky (laughter). I was for saving anything that I could lay my hands on.

The educational privileges were limited, but in 1829-30, the first seminary in Edwardsville was opened with Miss Chapin as principal, and Miss Hitchcock assistant. The Rock Spring Seminary, of which Shurtleff College is the outcome, was started at Rock Spring by the Rev. John M. Peck, in 1827, of which I was one of the original trustees.”

In answer to the question, “What were considered the necessaries of Life,” the answer was, “hog and hominy.”

He told a panther story, in which he acted a principal part, that left no very pleasant sensations. To have this wild beast scream at you in the midst of black darkness is not pleasant, the doctor himself being witness. President West then told a panther story that he held distinctly in memory. It was in 1833. He was enroute for Dr. Edward’s office in behalf of the sick. He lost his way, and while wandering around in midnight darkness, he heard and recognized the familiar scream, and became conscious of the terrible forward bounds towards him of this ferocious animal. Dark as it was, he saw his way clear from that moment. But one thing could save him, and that was his horse’s heels. To say the least, he did not like “present company,” and he dashed through the wood at “horserace” speed, preferring to die in any other way than at the paws of a beast like that!

Whereupon S. P. Gillham was reminded of a panther story which “took the socks” from anything yet told. He was not himself the party defendant in this suit, else he had not been here to tell it. It was his neighbor, riding through the timber at night, when a panther screamed and leaped upon the rider’s back, and raking with his cat-like paws from his head, his hat, slitting in twain his garments behind and ripping open the rump of his horse, but slipping his hold altogether. This so frightened both rider and horse, that a race for life was extemporized. The terrified animal, in the course, leaped a stake-and-rider fence, and reached home, when or how the man never knew, for when he came to his senses, he was gallantly galloping around the house. The man died two days afterward from his terrible fright.

Colonel Thomas Judy, who was born in Madison County, December 19, 1804, made a few statements, but expressed a wish to give his reminiscences in writing. His father came to Kaskaskia, Illinois, in the year 1777, and moved to Madison County in 1800.

Mr. Lawson A. Parks, editor of the Alton Telegraph said, “I came from North Carolina in 1833 to St. Louis, and went to work in the office of the St. Louis Republican for one year. I then became connected with Mr. Elijah Lovejoy, in the publication of his paper, and in 1836 I came to Alton and started the Alton Telegraph in connection with Mr. Richard M. Treadway, who died after the first year. I then sold one-half interest to Judge John Bailhache, and I have been connected with the paper ever since in one way or another. I am, perhaps, the oldest editor and printer in Illinois, and the Alton Telegraph is the oldest newspaper kept in the same hands. The Springfield Journal, Galena Gazette, and Quincy Whit are older papers, but these papers have often changed hands. I am probably the only one now in connection with the press in Illinois, that was in connection with it in 1836. So that, if I am not a pioneer, my paper is.

I will only relate one or two incidents that have occurred since I came to Alton. A few months after I came to Alton, I had occasion to be in St. Louis one afternoon. There had been a difficulty among the colored people, and the officers were taking the disturbers of the peace to the calaboose. On the way, the officers exaggerated the degree of punishment that would fall upon the guilty. The negroes broke and ran, and tried to make their escape. Pursuit was made, when one of the negroes by the name of McIntosh turned upon the officer and killed him. That night, the negro was taken out of jail and tied to a locust tree near the corner of Seventh and Chestnut Streets. Around him were piled dry rails and shavings, to which the mob set fire, and burned the negro, in that city of civilization.” There were others who said, “I was there. I saw the corpse – the mangled corpse.” Dr. Frederick Humbert of Upper Alton said he saw the burning. More than forty men guarded the fire, till it could consume the man who was bound there, and singing Methodist hymns till he died. Rude boys were there on the morning of the next day, with their vulgarity and profanity, stamping their heels into the body (it had no arms, no legs), saying, “It is nothing but a ------ ------- n------.” I have been told by an eyewitness that the words he sung were there: “Hark! From the tombs the doleful sound, Mine ears, attend the cry!” And such a doleful sound, said my informant, he never heard before. Methinks it was the only occasion fitting these doleful words that has occurred since the world has stood.”

Mr. Parks continued and said, “The next incident I wish to relate is this. In the winter of 1836, I went to St. Louis. I had been sick and went for my health. I went down on the boat. Soon it commenced snowing. On the next morning, there were six inches of snow. This was Saturday. In the afternoon, the weather moderated. Sunday all day it was very warm. Monday morning it was worse, and the streets were a perfect slush. I went into dinner on Fourth Street at noon. I was not in more than an hour, and when I came out all the slush was hard frozen, and that afternoon we crossed the river. H. G. McClintock and a stranger were in company with me. In East St. Louis the next morning, we met a man who was coming to Alton with four horses. We made arrangements to ride each a horse. But in going three miles, the horses not being shod, fell several times, and we came to the conclusion it would be safer to walk. The horses were put up, and we started on foot for Alton. It was one solid sheet of ice all the way up to Milton. We reached Milton at 9 o’clock at night. Here, the flood had washed away the bridge. The water was high, and we could not cross, nor was there any house where we could stop for the night. There was one small house where we applied for lodging, but they said no, they could not keep us. They had already sixteen persons in the house. We started out to go two miles to a man by the name of Fruit or Pruitt, I don’t recollect which, and there we found lodging. We ate our supper and lay down and slept. I never felt so rich and well satisfied before or since in my life. I had all I wanted and was content. Before reaching this place, however, I was frequently temped to stop and lie down and sleep. My companion urged me along. When I grew stupid and stubborn, he would swear a perfect blue streak, and threatened to whip me up if I attempted to lie down. And today I attribute the saving of my life to this man. But for him, I should have lain down and died on that journey.”

Mr. Sweetser of Alton said that in 1836-6 and 1837, he was engaged in the business of pork packing, and in those days, pork sold at good prices - $4.50 to $6.00 per 100 pounds. It was in 1841-42 that prices reached the very low figures.

William Bivens said, “I am a native of Madison County. I was born July 31, 1820, within two miles of where Venice now is. I lived there until I was eight years old, when my mother moved to Monroe County. Afterward I returned to this county, and commenced farming at Moro. I will relate a circumstance that happened to me while in Monroe County. We had not been in our new home for more than eight or ten days, when some of the neighbor’s boys wished me to go with them to an old settler’s house and stay all night. I went with them. This old farmer was considered rich in those days. He had two or three hundred hogs, plenty of horses, sheep, and cows, and 30 acres in cultivation. True, he lived in a log house, and in not very many rooms. We boys romped and played till late in the evening, and I began to get sleepy. There was no spare room, and I began to wonder where we were going to sleep. Presently the mother came in and said, ‘Boys, it is time to go to bed,’ There was a pile of deer skins in the corner of the room. These were hauled out on the floor and piled six inches deep. Upon and under these skins we slept till morning. But I am too fast, I wanted to tell about the supper. The old lady before bedtime brought in a pot of hominy. I think there was about a peck measure of boiled corn (whole grains). To each boy was given a spoon, and we went in. It was not a bad dish. I like it yet. It was seasoned with salt meat grease. Supper over, we all slipped in among the deer skins, which was all the bed the children of this wealthy old settler had. There was but one bed in the house, and that was for the old folks. In those days, there was enough of green grass and mast to fatten the hogs. It was not unusual to have hogs that would weigh two and three hundred pounds that had not fed on an ear of corn. Another thing about this family struck me as novel. Now, my parents always managed to provide their children with shoes in the winter, but the children in this family had no shoes. And in the morning (I forgot to say we had hominy for breakfast [laughter]), it was proposed to go after hackberries, some distance from the house. It was so agreed. But I said to the boys, ‘You are not going without shoes?’ ‘Yes, we are,’ they said. ‘You will freeze before you get back.’ ‘No, we won’t,’ they replied. We started for the hackberries, these boys running through the snow barefoot, but they carried, I noticed, a board under their arm. When we reached the hackberry trees, the boys put down their boards, and stood upon them while they chopped down the trees. I asked them if their feet were not cold, ‘No,’ said they, ‘they are getting hot and beginning to burn.’ Such was frontier life in those early days.

At 18 years of age, I commenced farming near Moro. I grew every year 100 acres of corn, and sold it for 8 and 10 cents per bushel. The crops were sure if the Spring was not too wet. Oftentimes the long, wet Spring delayed planting, so as materially to diminish the crop. We had not the trouble from insects that we now have. One season I remember I started out with the determination to make money. Castor beans had been a good price, and so I put in a large crop of castor beans. I also planted largely of the common white bean. I had a good crop of castor beans, but the price was low. I sold them for 37 cents per bushel. The rains ruined my crop of white beans, and I lost them all.”

James Sacket said that he came from the land of steady habits. He came out with Captain Blakeman in the year 1819, and located in the Marine settlement. He is 71 years old. For ten years after he came to this country, they were never troubled with drouth, and they never thought of losing a corn crop. It was even reported that all a man had to do in those days was to put corn in his pocket and walk over a 40-acre field, and he could count on 40 bushels to the acre. I think our wheat crops now are better than they were then, due doubtless to better varieties and better cultivation.”

The deep snow of 1830-31 was distinctly held in the memory of many of the old settlers. The depth was from two and a half to three feet on the level. In 1831-32, the farmers had to send South for seed corn. The frosts had injured the germinating quality of all the corn in this region.

Joseph Chapman said “he came to this country in 1818.” His father came from North Carolina to this State in a one-horse cart. He stopped first at what is called Turkey Hill in St. Clair County. “In 1828, we removed from Turkey Hill, or the Lemen settlement as it was sometimes called, to Staunton, then in Madison County, now in Macoupin. In 1834, I came into this county. In 1837, I went to Upper Alton, where I lived for 25 years or more. In 1818, there were but few Indians in the country, and these were peaceable and engaged chiefly in making baskets and selling them for their full of shelled corn. We suffered great inconvenience from the want of mills to grind corn. I remember one winter, the weather was such that we could not go to the mill (the distance being so great), and we beat hominy and used it for bread. We had in those days no wagons. There was, I believe, one cart in the neighborhood. Blacksmith shops were sadly wanted.”

Mr. Chapman spoke of the great snow of 1831-32, and of other matter already referred to.

Mr. Michael Brown of Brighton stated that his age was 64 years on June 4. His father came from Ohio, Champaign County, in the Fall of 1817. He first settled in St. Clair County on Silver Creek, and in 1818 came to Upper Alton. There was than no Lower Alton. In Upper Alton there was a little store kept by a man by the name of Shad Brown. He made further statements, but said that he would present a more careful statement in writing.

Brown stated, “In 1827, Olive Brown was living where I am now living in Brighton. The house then was a log cabin, and stick chimney. One night it rained and put out the fire. We had no matches in those days, and no old hunters with flint lock guns, so we had to post off a messenger, 7 miles away, to a farmer by the name of Nathan Scarritt [who settled near Humbert Road in Godfrey], and we had to wait till his return for fire and our breakfast. This was in the good old times, to which I have no desire to return.”

 

TALKS WITH THE OLD SETTLERS
By Governor Edward Coles
Source: Alton Telegraph, December 10, 1874
“I was born in Albemarle County, Virginia, on December 15, 1786. While at William and Mary College, I imbibed the belief that man could not of right hold property in his fellow man, and under this conviction, I determined to remove the chains of slavery and emigrate to and reside with my colored people in one of the new States or Territories. The war with England, then brewing, depressed matters to such a degree, that I could not effect a sale of the land I inherited. While thus striving to effect my object, President Madison, soon after entering upon the duties of his office, very unexpectedly to me made me his Secretary. The existence of the war, and the difficulty of selling land, and when sold of collecting the money, made me remain in this situation for six years. On peace being made, I resigned the Secretaryship, and set out for the Western country to seek a permanent home in Ohio, Indiana, or Illinois. Although peace had been declared for months with England, it had not been made with the Indians on my first visit to Illinois in October 1815. To show you the state of things when I entered Illinois, I was assured at Vincennes that there were no houses of accommodation on the way, and moreover, that it was not safe from Indian massacre to go from there directly west to St. Louis, but that I would have to go by way of Shawneetown and Kaskaskia. This I did, and passed up from the latter town, through the comparatively old and thick French and American settlements up to Madison, then a pioneer county, which had but recently been laid out, and its point of justice (Edwardsville), located on Thomas Kirkpatrick’s farm. There was but one small log cabin on the site of the old town of Edwardsville, and that had no person in it when I passed. Seeing no marks showing the town had been laid out, I passed on the road over the site, without knowing I had done so. At the creek, at the north end of the intended county town was a small mill, which together with its dam, was in such a dilapidated state as not to admit of its then being used. I passed on through Rattan’s Prairie, where there resided several families, to the bank of the Mississippi River, where there was a very small improvement made at the outlet of a rivlet on the south of where Alton was afterwards located. I was told there were then but four or five families residing to the north of that. From this point I descended through the American Bottom to St. Louis. After examining the surrounding country, and making a purchase of land, I yielded to a desire I had to see the descent and outlet to the ocean, of the country. I intended to make my permanent home, and I went to New Orleans, and from thence passed through the seaboard country to my mother’s, who resided on my native spot in Virginia. Soon after I reached Virginia, President Madison prevailed on me to go to Russia in a ship of war, on special business for the government. I was absent more than a year in Europe. On my return to American, I paid a visit to my relatives, and then proceeded to Illinois, where I occupied myself in exploring the country, and several times extending my tours to a considerable distance beyond the settlements. The next winter, I went eastward, and when I returned in the Spring, having at last collected my debt, I was enabled to bring with me my colored people, whose expenses I paid, and gave each family a quarter section of land as compensation for the delay in bringing them from Virginia. I hired some of them to work a farm I owned near Edwardsville. The others hired themselves in Illinois and St. Louis.

About this time, a vacancy occurred in the place of Receiver of the Land Office at Edwardsville, to which President Monroe appointed me. This office I held from 1819 until elected Governor in 1822. While serving as Governor, and residing at the seat of Government (Vandalia), a tempestuous prairie fire consumed the houses and all the improvements on my farm near Edwardsville. This, with my marriage and consequent removal from Illinois, terminated my favorite life of a farmer.”

 

TALKS WITH THE OLD SETTLERS
By Shadrach Bond Gillham Sr.
Source: Alton Telegraph, December 17, 1874
The late Shadrach Bond Gillham [Mr. Gillham died December 9, 1874, and is buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery in Edwardsville] was mainly instrumental in getting up the organization of the Old Settlers. He spent considerable time in circulating a paper for signatures calling the first meeting for organization, and used his influence to make the society a success. The following paper was prepared by him, to be read at the last meeting, but was crowed out for want of time to hear it:

“I was born in Madison County, Illinois, on the farm adjoining that of the late Colonel Samuel Judy, one of the early pioneers of this county, in November 1812, during the time of the campaign of Governor Edwards against the Indians. My occupation through life has been farming and stock raising. My present residence is in the American Bottom, six miles south of Alton, within one mile of the Mississippi River, on the Alton and St. Louis Road.

My father removed from his residence near Colonel Judy, and settled on the bank of the river, nearly opposite the mouth of the Missouri River, in April 1817. I was at that time between four and five years of age, and I yet recollect very distinctly the first sight I had of the Mississippi River. I had a good opportunity in early life to witness the pioneer modes of navigating that stream. The vessels employed were mostly keelboats, flatboats, mackinaw boats or bateaux, and Indian canoes. The Indians came down the river in large companies or bands, sometimes to the number of one hundred and fifty canoes, and each canoe would contain three or four men, women and children. They would sometimes pass on to St. Louis to see Governor Clarke, one of the Indian agents at that time, and sometimes would land and halt at my father’s place, leave their canoes moored to the shore, and then proceed on foot to Edwardsville to see Governor Ninian Edwards, who held frequent councils and made treaties with them. I have seen the men marching along the road in single file for a mile in length, on their way to see Governor Edwards. The women and papooses were generally left at the river to guard their canoes and baggage until their return. They were of the Sacs, Foxes, Potawatomie’s, and Winnebago tribes, who then inhabited the country about Rock Island, Illinois and Davenport, Iowa, the Galena lead mining country, and also along the Illinois River at Peoria and other points in the northern portion of Illinois. At that time, these tribes were perfectly friendly to the whites.

When a boy, I have often traded with the women. They usually wanted to barter strings of beads for green corn, and I would trade with them, although I had no earthly use for the beads. The men, however, always showed a great fondness for whisky, an article I did not wish to sell them. Before their return homeward, they would often encamp near us for several days at a time, and the men would hunt deer and other wild games, and that, with boiled corn, would constitute their stock of provisions for the voyage.

The keelboats were used for conveying merchandise up the rivers to the various trading points, and returned laden with peltry, honey, beeswax, &c. The mackinaw boats [similar to sailboats] were used for carrying furs, &c., from the mountains, and upriver posts, downstream, but were never used in going against the current. Flatboats were built and used in floating the stock and produce of the farmers to the New Orleans market, and they, like the mackinaw boats, were sold or left where the cargo was disposed of. This flatboating to New Orleans was rather a risky business, as the distance was so great, and accidents and casualties were so numerous that fully one-third of all that started on the trip were wrecked or lost in some way before reaching their destination.

I recollect having seen my father cut lumber with a whipsaw for the purpose of building a flatboat to convey his produce to New Orleans. I have known him to sell his pork in St. Louis for $1.50 per hundred pounds net. As late as 1826-7, my mother, in partnership with a man from Ohio, purchased a flatboat load of live hogs, slaughtered them on the riverbank, and shipped them to market. The price paid for the hogs was $2 per hundred for all weighing over 200 pounds, and for all under that weight, $1.50 per hundred was paid.

In 1819, steamboats commenced to navigate the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers, above the mouth of the Missouri, and a few years afterwards they were able to ascend the Missouri River. In 1821, Colonel James Johnson and son, of Great Crossings near Georgetown, Kentucky, came out with three or four keelboats from the Ohio River, loaded with provisions and men, on his way to the Galena lead mines, where he spent the season mining and smelting lead. He was the first to smelt lead in that region. He worked about one hundred men, one half of whom were negro slaves of his own. He returned in the Fall with two boats loaded with lead in bars. After disposing of the lead in St. Louis, he purchased horses, and he and his party traveled across the country on horseback, through Illinois and Indiana to Louisville, and from thence to their home near Georgetown, Kentucky. At that time, this was the cheapest and most expeditious route they could take.

Just opposite and immediately below the mouth of the Missouri River, the eastern bank of the Mississippi has, within my recollection, washed away to such an extent that hundreds of acres have been swallowed up. If the exact locality where my father’s old house stood on the riverbank could now be ascertained, it would certainly be from three-fourths to one mile from the present boundary of the river. In early times, my father and Isaac Gillham purchased a tract of land of Jacob Whitesides, containing two hundred and fifty acres, being a military claim. Since that time, this whole tract, except about five acres, has been washed away by the force of the annual floods sweeping through the Missouri River. Another tract of four hundred acres, adjoining the one above mentioned on the north, has been abraded to such an extent that there now only remains thirty to forty acres. All the land for a distance of a mile or more above and below these tracts has been worn away to a greater or less extent, from the same cause.

I very well recollect the boat landing at our farm, and remember the first steamboat I ever saw. It was a steamboat with a serpent painted upon it, and the steam escaped through the snake’s mouth. Soon afterwards came Colonel James Johnson’s three boats, loaded with soldiers and provisions for the army. These boats were the ‘Johnson,’ ‘Calhoun,’ and ‘Expedition.’”

 

TALKS WITH OLD SETTLERS
By George Townsend Allen, M. D.
From the Alton Telegraph, December 31, 1874
Dr. Allen, surgeon in the United States Marine Hospital in St. Louis, sends the following:

“I certainly am one of the ‘Old Settlers of Madison County,’ for my father, Rowland Pearsall Allen, with my mother and myself, and a negro boy named Henry, aged 18 years, and a negro girl named Jane, 8 years old, both given to my mother by her father, arrived at this very town of Edwardsville on the evening or afternoon of December 23, 1817, when Illinois was only a Territory. Had I been consulted, our arrival would have been delayed until Christmas Eve to make it more notable. Henry, the negro boy, cried most bitterly all Christmas Eve, however, because he wasn't in Old Master's kitchen in New York to fill himself with cider and apples and New Year's cakes and ginger bread. The older folks were, however, anxious to end a tedious journey of more than three months, from New York to Edwardsville.

Who composed our party? Rowland P. Allen, wife, child, and the two servants, who had been among my grandfather's slaves in New York; my uncle, Paris Mason, wife and child, and two negro servants, Alrum and Resia, given by my grandfather to my aunt, Mrs. Mason; James Mason and family, Hale Mason and family; Elijah Ellison and family; Richard Ellison; and Theophilus W. Smith and family (an able lawyer who became an eminent judge early in the history of Illinois). There were others in the company, whose names I do not remember. The Masons had visited the Illinois Territory a year or more before, and reported favorably of Edwardsville and its vicinity.

On our journey from New York, at Pittsburgh, we purchased an immense flatboat. We took the wheels off and lashed our wagon beds, with covers on, crosswise over the cabin, and in these beds we slept at night. We divided the cabin into kitchen, eating room and stable, by partitions. The river was very low at first and we were on a sand bar aground about half of the time. Then the rains poured down, the floods came, and the river overflowed from bluff to bluff. Then, often, running at night, we would get out of the channel and even far out of the river.

Permit me to read a few extracts from my father's [Rowland P. Allen] diary of the journey from New York City to Edwardsville. He says:

‘We left New York on Friday, September 19, 1817, and arrived at Edwardsville, in the Illinois Territory, on December 23 of the same year, having been three months and some days on our journey. Friday, December 5, we camped before sunset, about six miles in Moore's Prairie, at a bushy branch, that fuel might be got to keep up fires to frighten away the wolves during the night; notwithstanding the remonstrance of a Mr. Granger, a farmer who lives near the edge of the last timber, and whose nearest neighbor is 25 miles from him. He feared the wolves would devour our horses if not ourselves, if we camped away from a house. The men kept guard during the entire night and kept up the fires in a constant glow and flame, while the women and children tried to sleep in the wagons. The wolves seemed to have assembled in thousands around us, in all directions and were only intimidated by the bright fires, constantly replenished. They certainly did howl in awful concert, from dusk until dawn, making night most hideous to the women and the younger members of the party, at least.’
I distinctly remember that night, although I was only five years old. What my father calls Moore's Prairie, was, I believe, a part of the Grand Prairie, and I fancy that the place of that night's dreadful encampment was a point of wood, even then dwindled to an elm or two here and there, very near where the pleasant town of Centralia now is, on the Illinois Central Railroad.

During the journey from Shawneetown to Edwardsville, we averaged only from three to five miles per day because of water and mud. The wheels would freeze fast at night and had to be thawed loose in the morning. Let us draw a contract: On the morning of May 10, 1855, being then a Representative in the Illinois Legislature from this (Madison) county, it was my duty to aid in inspecting the then completed part of the Illinois Central Railroad, extending from Cairo, in the extreme south, to Galena, in the extreme north, of this glorious State - the noblest, and naturally, agriculturally, and in many other ways the most desirable and the richest in the Union or the world. On that day we ate our breakfast at Cairo, our dinner at Centralia, our supper - an excellent one - the Lord knows where, and our breakfast the next morning at the DeSoto House in Galena. In place of the wagon tent, or rather, the wagon cover, the snow that was deep on the ground where the wolves were besieging us in 1817, and in place of the wolves and the wide waste of wilderness, uninhabited for many miles in every direction, we found an elegant hotel with all the modern improvements and appliances for comfort and convenience, at the then embryo city of Centralia, abundantly supplied for the occasion with fruits from everywhere, and especially, from the tropics of both the eastern and western continents; ices from the north; wines from Europe and Illinois; confections and oysters from the East, and venison, turkey, grouse and quail in abundance, with ample supplies of all other desired substantials, grown in the immediate vicinity. In the places of the howling wolves, we listened to eloquent extemporaneous addresses from statesmen - some of whom now ‘sleep the sleep that knows no waking,’ others, having fought for the salvation of our country during the late rebellion, either fill honored graves or stand high in the heart of the nation. Ah! how many of these now sleep the sleep of the patriot - an honored slumber, in the memory of a grateful people. The tomb of every patriot who has died a martyr to the cause of his country is in every living patriotic heart; his monument is his redeemed country, and his spirit is the daily companion of every one who loves his country. My father, in his diary, continues:

‘On Monday, December 22, to our astonishment we drove seventeen and a half miles this day. Put up at night at Troy, with a Mr. Jarvis, a very fine man, where we saw the first real marks of civilization since we left Shawneetown. Previous to retiring for the night, Mr. Jarvis gathered his family and the strangers around the family altar, read a chapter from the Bible, sang a hymn and offered up to Almighty God a most feeling, excellent and appropriate prayer.’

Mr. Jarvis lived at Troy, in Madison County, and died there some years ago, a consistent and warm-hearted Christian, a faithful husband, father and friend - honored and lamented by all. There, I know he now has some worthy and respected descendants.

How much evidence there was of civilization in Shawneetown at that early day, my good father does not say. I think that it must, however, have been very thoroughly diluted; for water was everywhere, and covered everything but one little patch of earth where we had to land our horses, our wagons, our traps and ourselves, and there wait from day to day - how long I know not - for the subsiding of the waters. The Ohio River filled all the streets, flooded every yard, surrounded every house and overwhelmed the whole vicinity, and all communication from house to house and from street to street was by boat.

‘Tuesday, December 23,’ my father writes, ‘we arrived at Edwardsville, the land of promise to us and the place of our destination, at 2 o'clock p.m., and found a very comfortable log house provided for our reception. It was the second-best house in the place. All the houses here are made of logs. This is a flourishing little town and has an abundance of good land around it in all directions, as far as I have been able to examine, and this is being taken up with great eagerness.’

I remember distinctly, that when we arrived at Edwardsville, one half of the people there then were Indians - principally Delawares, there assembled to receive their annuities. An Indian agent then resided here, and, there being an abundance of game in all the country around, these Indians, during several consecutive years, passed the winter here. Their wigwams covered much of the space from the old courthouse in the middle of the town to the creek. These Indians desired to be very friendly and thought they must enter every house and shake hands with every white man, woman and child. To us, this was a dreaded ordeal; for, besides our many prejudices, and their condition of the next thing to nakedness, the most cleanly of our Indian neighbors were plainly and palpably very lousy [infected with lice]. These Indians were expert hunters and ever ready to trade a fat, full-grown turkey or a saddle of venison, for a loaf of wheat bread.

During the winter of 1817-18, sugar and coffee were worth fifty cents each, per pound; nor could we then buy corn for less than one dollar and fifty cents per bushel. There were yet but few farmers here who could raise more than enough grain of any kind for the necessities of their own families, and there was then an unusual rush of emigrants to the rich prairies of Illinois, and, especially, to this most desirable vicinity.

Great changes have taken place in our social condition since 1817. Strong sectional prejudices then existed and were perpetuated many years, through jealousy and ignorance - a man then was either a damned Yankee, or a Tuckeyhoe, a Sucker, a Puke, or something else not more desirable or esteemed by his neighbors. Every man who hailed from the east of the Alleghanies was a Yankee, and the eastern man had before 1817 only been known to the western in the character of the genus homo who had cheated them in dealings with wooden nutmegs, wooden clocks, wooden hams and tin ware. Under the circumstances, the western man could not be justly censured for his deep and bitter prejudices. In western parlance there were then ironically declared to be three classes in society in the democratic Territory of Illinois, viz: first, the white man (the real western) born in a slave State; second, the Negro (generally a slave); and third, the Yankee, from over the mountains! The everlasting Yankee is now better known, better located and better understood; while, from the very first, he and his sister have managed to marry the very best western man and woman that could be found. Ask my brother-in-law, John L. Ferguson, a native-born Illinoisian and the son of a noted Kentucky Indian fighter, how this is.

At the Old Settlers' Meeting held here about a month ago, Mr. Don Alonzo Spaulding was called out and he made some very interesting remarks; but why Mr. Spaulding did not then state that he was about the first person who had taught a school in this town, I don't know. In education and ability to teach, Mr. Spaulding was the superior of all our other early teachers, and, perhaps, his acquaintance with many of the other teachers of that time may explain his reticence. Mr. Spaulding did, however, teach the first school I attended in Edwardsville when I was a small boy. At that time, however, my education had been considerably advanced! for I had already enjoyed the advantages afforded by a literary institution in Marine - now long ago passed away. The conductor of this was a little, effete, old codger, whose name, if he had any, faded from my memory an age ago; but his literary merits and good deeds follow him, and I intend now to embalm them for the admiration and emulation of posterity.

First, the college, academy, school house, or what you please, was made of logs and consisted of two departments, separated by a log partition. The first department - perhaps those not educated there would call it an a-partment - was the stable, and accommodated a class of several horses; the second was the crib, or granary, and this was the literary department of the institution! The only entrance to this classic room was through the stable, and then a climb for teacher and pupils, girls and boys, over the six feet of log partition! This old teacher was the most ignorant, illiterate creature I ever knew as a teacher of the ‘youthful mind.’ We were instructed always to call the letter ‘Z’ ‘Izzard,’ and in spelling ‘Aaron,’ to say ‘big A, little a, r-o-n, Aaron!’

At that early day the march of civilization had already established a whisky distillery in the woods, not more than two miles from our noted scholastic institution, and our beloved pedagogue would, sometimes, rest at this point, on his early morning literary peregrination to his morning duty, and imbibe too freely of hot ‘corn-juice,’ for the successful advancement of education; although, in one way or another, he did, successfully, ‘teach the young idea how to shoot.’ A true politician, however, he even then stumbled along to his tasks, his duties, and his school, with a junk bottle well filled with the spirit that ‘steals away the brains,’ to treat, fill and flatter the older boys, and thus win them to his praise!

The next teacher who attempted to illuminate Marine was a Mr. Giles Churchill, the most bashful and awkward of men. He had ‘studied English Grammar in Webster's Spelling Book,’ and ‘lowed he could teach it if anybody wanted to larn.’

My esteemed brother-in-law, John L. Ferguson, Esq., of Marine, was called to the stand, after Mr. Spaulding, and, in responding, related many interesting items of history that must soon pass away unless treasured through his instrumentality. My brother's memory reaches back to 1816; but he seems to have forgotten that my father, Rowland P. Allen, and Elijah Ellison, and their families, arrived in Edwardsville in 1817, and settled in Marine 1818, and that Captain George C. Allen, Captain Curtis Blakeman, Captain James Breath, Captain DeSelhorst, Captain David Mead, and other seamen, with their families, and the Judd family, arrived in Marine (from New York and New England and New Jersey), and there located in 1819, and the Gillespies at Edwardsville, although he remembers they gave the name to the place.

Captain Curtis Blakeman gave John L. Ferguson a wife - as good a wife as ever God gave a man. Captain Blakeman was a wealthy man when he came to the West, and nearly the only eastern one who was not either driven there by his poverty or to retrieve a fortune lost by commercial reverse.

The Kiles were in Marine when my father and his excellent and venerated friend, Elijah Ellison, settled there; but Major Isaac Ferguson and all the older settlers, being from heavily timbered counties in Kentucky and Tennessee, all made clearings in the forest, and there built and lived. This was so general, throughout Illinois, until about 1820, and you may, this day, find the old clearings in the thick timber made by the primitive white colonists. My father, first of all men I know of, built in the prairie, but adjoining the timber, and was laughed at for his willingness to haul building material, fencing and axe wood so far (a half mile). Within two or three years, however, all the pioneers realized the wisdom of his innovation and then soon crawled out into prairie sunshine.

To your gums! In the early day it cost something more than now to clothe a family, and parents then were very prolific. Fortunately then, no one was expected to wear ‘purple and fine linen, and to fare sumptuously every day.’ Yet every intelligent farmer felt a pride in having his wife and children appear well, to intelligent visitors. We had our candidates and our elections in those days as now, and the leading politicians could easily visit every family, when there were so few, and such a visit was anticipated. The household was therefore on the watch and the sudden approach of well-dressed strangers often let to the maternal command: ‘To your gums! to your gums!! to your gums!!!’ In warm weather, large boys of 12 or 14 years wore little more than a long shirt at home and in plowing and planting. I really forget how the girls were dressed. Every western farmer had his immense sycamore gums, to be finally used for ash-hoppers and to hold grain; but when empty, a full-grown man could readily and easily hide in one. Hence the order to the rude children: ‘To your gums!’

Major Isaac Ferguson, the father of our friend, J. L. F., was the first, bravest and noblest pioneer of Madison County, in my memory and regard. As brave as Julius Caesar: a man of fine native talent, he fought the Indian race out and away from here and ended his life in fighting under General Winfield Scott, as an officer in our army, the Mexicans on the plains of that far off land.

I regret to report that gambling, drinking, fighting and lawlessness prevailed almost unrestricted here in the early day. The courts were regularly held and would pass the most stringent sentences against gambling, but the noble judge and the ablest lawyers would hire a room, station a paid sentinel at the door and pass nearly the entire night in gambling with cards for money.

There were many noted fighting men about in those days. Does anyone remember James Henry? He was a shoemaker; but a stalwart, six-footer, who ‘neither feared God nor regarded man,’ when in his cups. Eventually he reformed and, for a time, was a leading man in the State, I have been told. Henry was a Kentuckian and a very bitter pro-slavery man. During one of his quarterly sprees, he fancied that Jarret, the slave of a lawyer named Conway, had insulted him. Henry demanded of Conway permission to punish Jarret. Conway's cowardice led him to grant the favor. Informed of this, Jarret hid away in the hay in my father's stable. I knew this and secretly fed and watered the poor negro; but a drunken hostler, yet living, and whose name I can give, accidentally found Jarret, and to flatter Jim Henry, reported the fact to the desperate son of Southern chivalry. Jim Henry then provided himself with five hickory whips, fresh from the timber, a rope, his sword, his dagger - a regular bowie knife - and a pistol. He then sought and found Jarret, tied him, brought him out, stripped him of all clothing excepting his pants, and fastened him to the end of a horse-rack, on the public street, so as to compel him to stand on his toes. Henry laid his sword and pistol on the horse-block some three feet from his victim, and with the dagger in his left hand and a hickory in his right, commenced the castigation. It was ‘court week’ and there seemed to me - a little boy then - five hundred men in town and all present and looking on! Henry wore out two or three, I think three, hickory gads on Jarret's bare back. With nearly every blow the blood ran. The poor negro would sometimes draw up and hang upon the rope and beg for mercy. Then Henry - the white brute - would draw the keen edge of his immense knife over the prisoner's naked abdomen and threaten to let out his bowels if he failed to stand it all, most manfully. Henry was a man of wonderful size and strength, and all knew him to be fearless and reckless. He dared any man to interfere and intimidated the Sheriff and constables and all the men present, with his sword, his dagger and his pistol. In that day and that community, little sympathy was felt for a negro. If the man had been white, Henry would not have struck him the second blow and lived. The negro then had no rights the white man even pretended to regard. Just when the second or third whip had been used up, my mother first heard the poor negro's cry and she went immediately to his rescue. She appealed to all the men present, but unheeded. Then she retired to her kitchen, armed herself with a formidable carving knife and immediately advanced upon the enemy. Henry did not see her until she had nearly touched the negro; when he suspended his blow, in astonishment, but with still a threatening gesture. She raised the knife, cut the rope and ordered the sufferer into her own kitchen, where she dressed his wounds most carefully, with her own hands. Henry, watching her as she retired, raised his hand with the dagger in it, as she disappeared, and, turning to the crowd, said: ‘A woman might tie my hands, but let a man thus try to oppose my will,’ swinging his dagger threateningly at the men. I may be like some of the men who were there that day, but my mother was a true heroine! [See also the article dated February 4, 1875.]

I don't know how it was elsewhere in Illinois, but in Marine, in the early day, ‘old settlers’ lived, as far as people could, as one family. We all turned in and united in planting the neighbor's ground who was first ready to plant, and we all united in harvesting first the field that was first ripe. If a stranger came, we all united and built him a log house in a day, and thus we did all things. During the early days in Illinois, every man's house was open and free to every visitor, night or day. There were then many hunters, who, like the Indian, lived by the gun. Such men felt free to visit you at any hour. These were all very early risers. If overtaken by night, they would lodge with you; but they would be up and awake and stir up the entire family, looking out for the ‘first streak of day.’ Then, very likely, very often, others of the same class would come in about that time and make themselves entirely at home. They thought it strange that anybody in health could lay abed after the ‘first streak of daylight.’ May Sol, the great luminary, ever be permitted to rise and warm the earth before I put my presumptive foot upon it!"

 

TALKS WITH THE OLD SETTLERS
By Samuel Parker Gillham, Esq.
Source: Alton Telegraph, January 28, 1875
“I was born in Madison County, December 26, 1809, in the American Bottom, in the bounds of Edwardsville precinct. I purchased and settled on a farm one-half mile distant from where I was born. I moved onto my farm in February 1834, and have resided on it ever since. I have lived on and worked a farm all my life.

In my earliest recollection, the immediate neighborhood I lived in was near a little stockade fort, built on Section 1, Township 4, Range 9, 3rd principal meridian [Chouteau Township]. Mr. Lemuel Southard now lives on the site of the old fort. The names of parties who then lived in and near the fort were as follows: the old man John Gillham and five sons; three brothers Browns; three Davidsons; three Kirkpatricks; also, Dunnagan, Sanders, Ferguson, Dodd, Revis, Beeman, Winsor, Celver, Green, Smith, and perhaps others not recollected.

The people were generally social, and many of the occupants of our little fort were professors of religion, but there were some who were anything but religious. John Kirkpatrick was a local preacher. But there were those in the country that would get drunk and fight. Especially was this the case when they assembled on high days, at elections or musters. Camp Russell was a place of frequent rendezvous, where scenes of drunkenness and riot often occurred.

The male population did not work as they do now. They raised a corn crop sufficient for home consumption, also a little wheat, cotton, flax, and tobacco, and sometimes an indigo patch and a madder bed, and garden vegetables for family use, and then spent the balance of their time in hunting deer, turkeys, and bees.

I never heard in my early recollection of a greater crime than getting drunk and fighting. The first punishment of crime by law, of my recollection, took place, I think, in 1819. A negro man stole some coffee from a boat on the river. They took him up and tried him before Squire T. G. Davidson, found him guilty, and whipped him for the offense. But when men began to multiply, and courts were established, men began to break the law, and I, while yet in my boyhood, witnessed the whipping at the post of five men, the punishment of two by fastening them in the stocks, and the hanging of one man for murder.

The women worked much more then than now, or at least they worked very differently from what they do now. Besides doing their house work as they do now, they did carding, spinning, weaving, cutting, and making all the wearing apparel for the family.

Educational privileges were truly limited. The first school ever taught in the neighborhood where I was raised was taught by Vaitch Clark, in the summer of 1813, in a block house in our little fort. M. C. Cox also taught a three-months school in the same place in the summer of 1814. Then in the last day of 1817, a man by the name of Campbell took a school in the same old block house. He continued his school at intervals for 21 months. These were all the opportunities the children of those days ever had for education.

The religious privileges were much better than the educational. The Methodist itinerants had a preaching place in almost all the settlements of the Territory. After the Fall of 1803, they came round about once in four weeks. They had also their two days’ meetings and quarterly meetings. And yearly, they had the great camp meeting, and nearly everybody attended these meetings. They were often seasons of great spiritual power, strong men often falling to the ground, utterly powerless under the influence of the spirit manifested on these occasions. And occasionally some would be exercised by what was then known as the jerks.

I will here relate the singular phenomenon that took place in the latter part of 1811, and fore part of 1812. A succession of earthquakes visited our country of great severity, and alarmed the people to the greatest extent possible, and very many persons that had never thought of being religious before, joined the church and began to pray, thinking that the end of all things was at hand. Some became truly religious, but many, after the danger seemed to be over, gave up their religion.

The products of the country were corn, oats, wheat, Irish and sweet potatoes, cotton, melons, flax, tobacco, and garden vegetables generally. Raised principally for home consumption. There was scarcely any demand for produce, and if sold at all, it was at very low figures. But there were several distilleries erected in the county at an early day, and the larger farmers, some of them, hauled their corn to them and had it manufactured on the shares.

Cattle and hogs were the chief reliance for money. They were sometimes taken to St. Louis and sold. There was a packing house for beef and pork established at the mouth of the Wood River at an early day by D. E. Tiffin, and a great deal of packing was done there, and afterwards there was an establishment set up in Edwardsville by Robert Poag, and a good deal of business was done there, but I cannot report the prices paid at either point. Deer skins, fur skins, beeswax and honey were articles of barter, and were traded for salt, sugar and coffee, and other indispensable articles such as knives, sickles, cotton, cards, &c. At a later date, castor beans were extensively cultivated and sold to Mr. John Adams of Edwardsville, at one dollar per bushel.

The facilities for getting produce to market in early times were mainly a yoke of oxen and a wooden cart. There were a few large four-horse wagons in the country, which the people moved to the country in. Later in time, a few of the well-to-do farmers got what was then called a Dearborn wagon drawn by one horse. These were their pleasure carriages. They were without springs, but were considered wonderful institutions. I think it was as late as 1837 before I ever heard the name of buggy, and about the same date, two-horse wagons began to come in use.

As to provisions, they were supplied at home – meat, corn bread, and very coarse flour. Butter, milk, honey, and vegetables were supplied from the woods and from the farm. Coffee and sugar were but little used, and salt was obtained from St. Louis. At one time, a man landed a boat and left a few barrels of salt with Isaac Gillham to sell to the farmers. I went with my father to get some of the salt. He bought two barrels, one for himself and one for his brother, for which he paid $18. This was the first time I ever saw the Mississippi River.

The indispensable articles for labor were with the men the axe, hoe, barshear, and sometimes the shovel, plow, and the inevitable rifle gun. These were all manufactured by smiths in the country. How and where they obtained their stock I do not certainly know, but I suppose from St. Louis. George and William Moore [brothers of Abel Moore of the Wood River Massacre fame] manufactured rifle guns. They lived in the fork of the Wood River. Philip Creamer manufactured locks and stocked guns. He was an expert workman, and other smiths manufactured plows, hoes, axes, mattocks, and other articles as called for.

For the ladies, the cotton cards and flax wheel, and the big wheel, so called, and the loom were their indispensables. These were all manufactured in the country, with the exception of the cards. They were among the first articles brought into the country for sale by the early merchants.

The tan-trough graced nearly every farm. The men tanned their own leather, and manufactured their own shoes. What would the young ladies of this day think of wearing a pair of home-made shoes, made of leather uncured and unblacked? Or our young Americans think of wearing a pair of buckskin pants and a leather hunting shirt?

There have been wonderful changes in the manner of cultivating the soil, and the implements used in its cultivation. They Barshear plow was almost the entire tool used in cultivating the soil. Sometimes a wooden harrow would be employed, and the hand hoe was inevitably used to cover the corn in planting. I think yet that the old Barshear plow beat any plow I have ever seen in turning prairie sod, but for plowing up and pulverizing the soil, they were poor indeed. The order of seeding wheat in early days was to scatter the seed broadcast in corn, and plow it in with a one-horse plow, but under all these disadvantages, the virgin soil produced abundant crops. The wheat was then reaped with sickles. There were then no such things known as the chinch bug, Hessian fly, nor weevil. I never heard of wheat winter killing in early times. The rust sometimes killed the wheat. Our varieties then sown were much later than those now used. I think the seasons were much better than now – not near so much excessive drouth and no insect pests. There was scarcely any hindrance to the cultivation of any crop planted, but the tobacco plant. It had to be carefully watched to keep the horn worms from eating it up. There were no vine bugs, lice, potato bugs, or bee moth to annoy the farmer, nor any insect to bore or sting the fruit. Horticulture was only carried on for home consumption, as was everything else. The house garden of early times contained, besides the common essentials, the medicines for the family. The senna plant was cultivated for a cathartic, garlics for vermifuge, saffron for soothing syrup, wormwood, rose, and tansy were used for strengthening bitters. All the mints for sodorifice, sage, sweet basil, and summer savory for essences and flavorings in cooking.

My earliest recollection began in troublesome times. In June 1811, the Indians killed a man by the name of Price, and shot and wounded another man, his name not recollected, at or near Hunter’s Spring [on Spring Street], now in the city of Alton. The excitement occasioned by this tragedy caused the building of our little fort, the same season. We lived in constant alarm from that time till the close of the war of Twelve – so called – and the treaty of peace with all the northwestern tribes of Indians, which took place in the Fall of 1815. In July 1814, the Indians murdered Mrs. Reagan and six children in the forks of the Wood River, which produced another dreadful alarm. The Rangers pursued the offenders and overtook and killed one of their number. The rest made their escape. These two massacres were all that were committed in the bounds of our county in the time of the War of Twelve [1812]. But there were two men killed by the Indians at what is called Nix’s Ford on Cahokia Creek, in July 24, 1802. These three are all that ever occurred in the bounds of our county. Out east on Shoal Creek, and at other points, there was more trouble than with us. In that part of the country, they murdered old man Cox and his son, and captured his daughter. The Indians were pursued and overtaken. The young lady was riding on horseback, and when the Indians spied the pursuers, one of them made a dash at the young lady with his tomahawk and wounded her severely on the head, but she at the same moment observed the pursuers and leaped from her horse and ran with superhuman agility and escaped with her life.

The Indians made an attack on some scouts near another fort, somewhere out east of us, one morning as they started out for a tramp. The Indians were lying in ambush, and fired on the party as they were riding leisurely along, and killed several of them I believe. They also wounded one Tom Higgings, and he either fell off his horse or got off to fight them. They surrounded him, and got hold of him, but he clubbed his gun after discharging it and fought them with the desperation of despair. The unequal contest was carried on for some time in full sight of the fort, and no man had the courage to go to his assistance. At length, a Mrs. Persley declared that Tom was too good a fellow to be massacred thus, and she mounted a horse and ran to his assistance and brought him in, and saved his life.

Our Rangers frequently fell in with Indians in the country between here and Peoria. They overtook one Indian one day on horseback. They gave chase. When they got near enough, Captain Sam Judy fired on him and knocked him off his horse, and while he was lying helpless and dying, he discharged his gun and mortally wounded a man by the name of Tolwar Wright. At another time, the scouts sighted several Indians with their women and boys with them. They gave chase, and the first man up with them was a young man by the name of Hewit. The Indians threw down their guns and surrendered. Hewit dismounted and was standing guarding the prisoners. The men, as they came up, halted, till one man in the entire rear, as he came up, fired off his gun. The Indians thought it was a signal for a general massacre. One of the Indians in a moment clinched Hewit and forced him back till he (the Indian) came to where his own gun lay and picked it up and killed Hewit. Another Indian jumped at a man on his horse, seized his gun, and was trying to wrench it from him, when one of his comrades saw the situation and fired and killed the Indian, and then they massacred the whole party.

At another time, a young man started with the troops to scout north somewhere. He took sick and concluded to return home, but he never came. His gun and bones were afterwards found at Honey Point, Macoupin County, and he was supposed to have been murdered. His name was Josiah Bradshaw. The greater part of the Indian fighting was done by the troops that were sent up the river in boats from time to time. I knew several men that were wounded, and heard of several that were killed.

The people in early times did a great deal of their work by public gatherings. When a man wanted a lot of rails made, he would set a day and notify all his neighbors. They were sure to be on hand at the appointed time. The task (self-imposed) of each man was one hundred rails. They generally worked together, and it was always a race who should halloo, ‘done first!’ I was in such a race once, and I and my brother made our hundred rails in a little over two hours, and got beat at that.

The ladies were not a whit behind the men in their social gatherings. The quilting, the carding, and even the spinning gatherings were common, and the ladies would think nothing of mounting their horses, taking their wheels in their laps, and traveling five or six miles to attend them. And then, as with the men, it was always a race who should excel in spinning. Often, also, in the carding matches, racing would be indulged in, and at the quiltings they would often have two on hand, and then they were sure to divide hands and have a race. The harvest season was the greatest season of social gatherings. The ladies nearly always had prepared some one of the many kinds of gatherings at the same time. And while the men cut down each neighbor’s wheat in turn, the ladies would prepare for and have their gathering also. But the greatest of all social gatherings was the wedding celebration. When a wedding was to come off, after the day was set, everybody in reach was invited. The bride’s guests would assemble at her house, and the groom’s guests would assemble at his house. At an appointed hour, the bride’s party would mount their horses and start to meet the groom, and in many neighborhoods, they would prepare a bottle of liquor and sweeten and spice the liquor to the taste, and decorate the bottle with many colored ribbons. When they met the groom a general halt was ordered, and preparations made to run a horse race for the bottle. The parties were always divided – the groom’s party ran for the groom, and the bride’s party ran for her. The bottle was then taken by the judges to the far end of the course, while the crowd remained at the starting point. When the race was over, the winner would return holding up his trophy and shaking it in triumph. After the wedding and dinner were over, it became the duty of the groomsman to give a general invitation to all the bride’s party to attend the young couple home next day and take dinner with them. On this occasion, as on the first day, the race would be re-enacted, and in many neighborhoods, fiddling and dancing were indulged in to a great extent.

These old-time customs have long since passed away, and we hardly know how to form a comparison of former times with present usages. If a young couple get married now, they are entirely out of style unless they start, immediately after the ceremony is ended and dinner over, to California, New York, or Niagara, or some other selected spot, to spend a month’s time, and any amount of money, on a wedding tour, and the wardrobes of the young pair must be exquisite and costly. In early times, I have known young men to be married in buckskin pantaloons, and almost without a dollar in the world, and get immensely rich. Now, a young man must have almost a fortune before he dares to think of getting married.”

 

TALKS WITH THE EARLY SETTLERS
Dr. Allen’s Further Statement About James D. Henry
Judge Alfred Hinton Confirms Dr. Allen’s Statement
Source: Alton Weekly Telegraph, February 4, 1875
Dr. Allen sends a letter which he has received from Judge Hinton of Kane, Illinois. The Judge fully corroborates all that Dr. Allen had written respecting Jim Henry, and he tells more, for he knows the man well, and before he was known to Dr. Allen. We learn from the Judge that after the noted Jim Henry went to Springfield, he reformed and was elected Sheriff of the county, achieved fame in the war, and became very popular. Mrs. Latty Scarritt, who with her husband, Nathan Scarritt, was living in Edwardsville at the time, and she knew of the circumstances of Henry’s whipping the negro, and said that Dr. Allen’s statement was correct.

Dr. George T. Allen’s letter:
“First, in answer to you, I will say that Mr. Ellis and I must refer to the same man, although I did not know that James Henry had a D. in his name. When I knew James Henry, my father, Rowland P. Allen, lived in Edwardsville. I being a mere child, Henry may have loomed up to me through his courage and his wonderful fighting qualities, but even now, my recollection of him is of one who yet seems gigantic. Henry may have been a Pennsylvanian, but I always heard him called a Kentuckian. This matters not, for we find many noble, grand men from each of these glorious States.

I met General Edwards, United States Treasurer, here at the post office a few days ago, and he thank me for my letter to the Old Settlers Meeting. He declared that he had never read another article that had called back the past so vividly to his mind, and that he not only remembered the correctness of all I had stated about the whipping of Jarret by Henry, but that he could state to me other outrages of the said Jim Henry. The General spoke especially about a row among negroes in which Henry stripped a negro woman nearly naked one day at Edwardsville. General Edwards will also remember the mulatto mistress, Milly, of Henry, at Edwardsville, by whom he was reputed to have had at least one child. Everybody in Edwardsville in that day knew about this.

It can also be proved that James Henry left the town of Delaware, Ohio, on the Scioto River, where he was a journeyman shoemaker, in 1816. He had raised a war in the shop and had there whipped three or four brother shoemakers. Henry left in haste on a keelboat, bound down the Ohio, and up the Mississippi River to the mouth of the Wood River in Madison County, Illinois. In leaving Delaware, Ohio, Henry enticed away with him a beautiful orphan girl named Rachel. Two years after this in 1818, a fellow passenger of Henry’s on the keelboat, as far as Cincinnati, found him at Milton, near Alton, making shoes. This man asked Henry what had become of Rachel. His answer was, ‘Soon after I got here I was taken sick in the American Bottom, and I laid abed, sick, some four months. During all that time, Rachel stayed with me and nursed me like a sister. But after I recovered, instead of marrying her, I managed to get her off to Missouri into a convent, and that was the last I ever heard of her.’

Now, you have the character of James Henry as long as I knew him. When fourteen years old, I was placed in school in New York City, and I remained in New York until I had graduated in medicine and surgery, say, 1838, when I returned to Marine, Madison County, Illinois.

Whatever reformation Henry made was effected during my absence, for he was the same drinking, fighting, lecherous man when I lost sight of him that I had ever known him to be, if I had been correctly informed of his character. When I returned West, James Henry had died.

In conclusion, I will say that I am rejoiced by Mr. Ellis’ statement of Henry’s reformation, and that I regret never having heard anything reliable in relation to it before. If I had been posted about the changes in James Henry’s conduct in time, I would not have written a word of him in his praise.

General Edwards of St. Louis is a son of Governor Ninian Edwards, and brother of Hon. Ninian Edwards and Judge Benjamin Edwards of Springfield, Illinois. These gentlemen know all about Jim Henry, and as much about the early days in Madison County, Illinois, as any living men.”

Statement from Joseph Chapman, Edwardsville:
“The James D. Henry, of whom Dr. Allen speaks, is the same gallant General James D. Henry of Black Hawk War fame. He was Democratic candidate for Governor in 1842 when he died. And Governor Ford was then brought out and elected.”

Mr. Chapman also notes a mistake that was made in the obituary of Major Solomon Pruitt. “The deep snow was in 1830-31, and not as there stated in 1827. And it was the summer of 1831 that we had frost every month, save, perhaps, one – July.”

“Also,” Mr. Chapman writes, “Major Preuitt served in the Black Hawk War of 1831 and 1832 as Captain, and was elected Major of the Militia after his return. My first acquaintance with him was in 1832, when he was elected Captain of the company from the west end of the county, at Milton, over John Leer of Alton. At Bairdstown he was elected Major of the Regiment, and John Tomas of St. Clair was elected Colonel. Major Preuitt served through the campaign as Major of the Regiment, and that was where and how he came by the cognomen of ‘Major.’ I was a high private in the company, of which the Major was first made Captain, and which was afterwards commanded by the late Captain Josiah Little of Upper Alton, then of Wood River. I have had a tolerably intimate acquaintance with Major Preuitt since 1832, and can add my mead of praise as to his excellence and worth as a citizen, as well as a good militia officer. One, in the last capacity, who always looked to the interests and welfare of his men, and was appreciated and respected for it by them. The Major was in the ranging service of 1811-15, and I obtained his bounty land warrants for that service.”

 

TALKS WITH THE EARLY SETTLERS
Mrs. Latty Scarritt, widow of Nathan Scarritt
Source: Alton Telegraph, February 25, 1875
Latty Scarritt, the widow of Nathan Scarritt, is in her eighty-second year. She moved with her husband, four children, and one other inmate of the family – seven in all – from Liman, on the Connecticut River, New Hampshire, in 1820, and reached Edwardsville, which seemed to be the haven of all emigrants to this country in that early day, in November of the same year. They came all the way in wagons, and were ten weeks and four days on the journey. The weather was favorable, and they were able to travel every weekday but one. They always rested on the Sabbath, never traveling on that day.

“When we reached Edwardsville, we found it difficult to get a house. Finally, we moved into a log house, stick chimney, mud hearth, and puncheon floor. There were but one or two buildings in Edwardsville, but what were built of logs. We had no chairs to sit on. The house but poorly accommodated our family. There were no conveniences, not even a feed trough for the horses on the place. The worst privation was, perhaps, the want of pure water. The reason of this, however, my husband soon discovered. The wells were not dug sufficiently deep, and were not walled up. Tis trouble was soon remedied. That winter, Mr. Scarritt built a house of clapboards of his own manufacture. There was then no lumber in the country. I helped to raise this building, carrying up my corner, while the men carried up theirs. We went into this house in March, and felt quite comfortably fixed. It had on a good clapboard roof that protected us from the storms.

We lived in Edwardsville five years, and then moved to what was called Scarritt’s Prairie, Monticello [Godfrey], Madison County. There my husband built a brick house, first making the brick. He made the first farm on this prairie. There was then no Alton, and but a small village at Upper Alton. Here my husband died 27 years ago. I remained upon the farm 17 years, until my family of boys were grown up and were in business.

Captain Godfrey, who had made a good deal of property in the South, and having become a Christian, was moved to devote a considerable part to educational purposes. His attention was particularly turned to providing a school for the education of females. There was in that early day a great lack in that direction. Mr. Godfrey thought he could do the most good with his property by building a female seminary, and so he and Mr. Gilman came out to our house and proposed to look up a site for the seminary on Scarritt’s Prairie. This was about the year 1834. My husband went out with them to select the land. When they returned, I had dinner prepared. The school matter was talked up. Mr. Godfrey bought land and built him a house [Editor’s note: Captain Godfrey purchased the Calvin Riley stone home, and made additions], and moved into it. The place selected for the seminary was about three-fourths of a mile from where it is now located. But afterward, the present location was agreed upon, and about forty acres were then bought for the seminary grounds. More land was added afterward. The building was soon commenced, and in two years the school opened. I think the building commenced in 1836, and opened in 1838.

Mr. Scarritt was made one of the directors in the building. The Rev. Mr. Baldwin and wife were the first superintendents of the school. Misses Alice Cone and Long were teachers. Previous to opening the seminary, the Rev. Mr. Baldwin held divine service in the sheds erected for the workmen. The school opened encouragingly, and has had a prosperous history. A great many young ladies have been educated at Monticello, and have made the name of Captain Godfrey blessed. (Mrs. Scarritt then spoke in the highest terms of Captain Godfrey’s nobility as a man and as a Christian.) Mr. Abijah W. Corey soon after came to the place, and assumed the position of financial agent, which he still holds with honor to himself, and credit to the institution.

For two or three years after our removal to this place, religious services were held in our house, and until our schoolhouse was built. The Rev. John Hogan was the first preacher among us. My eldest daughter taught the first school in the place, which was kept in our barn. She had about sixteen scholars. The first Sunday school was also taught in this barn, and my son, Isaac, then a boy about ten years old, made a little box for the library, about two feet square.”

Mrs. Scarritt then gave a full account of the whipping of the negro, Jarritt, by James D. Henry, which was, in substance, Dr. Allen’s account. She also gave an account of the murder of Smith by Winchester, the character and standing of the parties, with many particulars.

One of the terrors of that early day was the prairie fires. She had fought fire on more than one occasion, and on one occasion she and her daughter saved their crop of corn, and possibly their buildings from being devoured by the flames. She saw in the distant woods the smoke, and knew what was coming, and she and her daughter started for the fields. A bucket of water and a leather apron were their only weapons of defense. There was a cow path around the field, and at this, they commenced to back fire. If the flame crossed the path, the water was applied to put it out, and thus they made the circle of the field just in time, for the red-tongued monster marched fearfully along, and lapped up everything around. She and her neighbors had fought these prairie fires till 12 o’clock at night. In the case mentioned above, the men were all away, and only her experience and quick action saved them from the prairie flames. In those days, there was not stock enough to eat down the grass, and it grew very high, and in the Fall of the year, the fires made fearful destruction.

There was a man in Edwardsville by the name of John Adams, father of the late Captain Dewitt Clinton Adams of Alton, who according to Mrs. Scarritt, was a great blessing to that town in his enterprise in carrying on manufacturing business, which gave work to a great many persons, who otherwise would have had nothing to do. He had an oil mill, for the manufacture of castor beans into oil. He carried on also a carding machine, and also a fulling mill. He was public spirited in doing this.

In regard to the winters in the early times as compared with now, she was positive they were much more pleasant. We seldom had then more than three days cold together. Her recollection was that the winter of 1831 was the deep snow. It lay on the ground for six weeks. We used to have tremendous rains in the winter, which we do not now have.

She spoke of Mrs. Betsy Pinckard with a good deal of affection, she was long a neighbor, and they shared the privations of a new country together, and were not unhappy. Life was a reality, and not a fiction. ‘When,’ she said, ‘I had sunshine, I tried to enjoy it. When clouds were in the sky, I did the best I could. I never regretted coming to this country.’

She had often met Dr. John Mason Peck, and she told some anecdotes about his Rock Spring Seminary. ‘Do you know,’ she said, ‘what kind of seats the students sat upon in Rock Spring Seminary? They had no chair, not even benches. They sawed off logs of suitable size and heights, and put them on end in the schoolroom and sat upon them. The dunce block was a little taller than the rest, and was put in the corner, and was brought into use as occasion required.’

It may be well for the students of Shurtleff College to paste the above item in their scrapbook, to know whence they are descended, and that they be not vain.

Some of the particulars of the crime and hanging of Mr. Eliphalet Green were given, which left the impression that Green was an inoffensive man, at work at Abel Moore’s, and that he was imposed upon and provoked by a rowdy, and in a fit of anger, when dared to shoot, did shoot his man. He had no money and no friends, and was sentenced to be hung, and was hung. He owned the justness of his sentence, and asked on the scaffold the forgiveness of the wife and children of the man he killed. Dr. Peck visited the doomed man in his cell often. He professed religion, and wished to be baptized, and Dr. Peck baptized him. His conduct in prison and on the scaffold gained the sympathies of the people, and they determined that he should have a decent burial. But in the night, some Belleville medical students, who were watching for their prey, came and stole Mr. Green’s body away. Mr. Hale Mason and others gave pursuit and followed them to the dissecting room, where they had just deposited the body, and of which they intended to make use. Mr. Mason demanded the remains and brought them back and buried them in his own dooryard.

The first schools taught in Edwardsville were what were called ‘Loud Schools.’ All the pupils studied their lessons aloud, so loud that the noise could be heard for some distance away. And the schools were all taught by men. Mr. Scarritt tried to persuade the directors to hire a lady teacher who had come from the East. No, they said, a lady could never teach the boys. He told them that lady teachers succeeded as well in the East, and finally they were persuaded to try Miss Hastings, but with no hope that she would succeed in managing the boys. But she had no trouble in managing the school, and it was not long before everybody was delighted. And it was not a ‘Loud School,’ that she taught. ‘Why,’ said Mrs. Scarritt, ‘you might go by that schoolhouse and all was silence. There was no noise.’
The next year everybody wanted Miss Hastings. She was sister to Deacon Long’s wife.”

NOTES:
Latty Allds Scarritt was born on December 6, 1793, in Grafton County, New Hampshire. She married Nathan Scarritt on April 2, 1812, and moved with her family in 1820 to Illinois, first settling in Edwardsville. In 1826 the family moved to the prairie in what would become Godfrey. Their homestead was just south of Seiler Road, on both sides of Humbert Road. The area took on the name of Scarritt’s Prairie. Latty’s husband, Nathan Scarritt, died on December 12, 1847, at the age of about 55 years. Latty died at the age of 82 years in December 1875, at the home of her son, Rev. Nathan Scarritt Jr., in Kansas City Missouri.

 

TALKS WITH OLD SETTLERS
By Hon. Edward Mitchell West
From the Alton Telegraph, March 4, 1875
The "Old Settlers" of Madison County held a rousing meeting November 21, at the courthouse at Edwardsville, Illinois. In the absence of the venerable president, Mr. Samuel Seybold of Troy, Hon. Edward M. West of Edwardsville was called to the chair. He accepted the compliment gracefully. He said that he came from the State of South Carolina - a very good State to be born in, and to come from, if you don't stay there too long.

"Our people left that State to get rid of slavery in the year 1817. My father freed all his slaves and came to this State when I was a mere boy, and put me to work. To be sure, I was very little in 1817, but we all went to work and have kept at it ever since - very much in the same old-fashioned way, so far as "keeping at it" goes. I have never regretted that my father came to this country at an early day. A new country is just the place for boys. It was not so pleasant for my mother. She felt the hardships, but when as a boy I could entrap half a dozen prairie chickens at one catch, or, as I remember, did take at one time thirteen quails, the trap being so full that one little fellow had not room to stand, and contented himself by perching upon the backs of the dozen! This sport was fun for boys. So, we did not feel the hardships of a new country as the older folks did - we rather enjoyed it. It fell to my task upon the farm to take care of the sheep. The great pests of the flocks were the wolves. They were very troublesome, and a shepherd was necessary to protect them. I used to shield myself from the cold by creeping into a straw pile and lay there with my gun and shoot the wolves when they came for the sheep.

In 1829, when I was a man grown, I went to Springfield, Illinois, which was at that time a very new place. I have many a time gathered strawberries and hunted rabbits on the spot where now stands the old State House.

In 1833 I came to Edwardsville. I was here employed at $12 per month and paying for my washing and mending, and that, gentlemen, is just about what I am now doing - making $12 per month and paying for washing and mending [laughter]. I have been acquainted with almost every family that has lived in Edwardsville for the last forty years. Not one-half dozen persons are now living in this town that were here when I came. And I wish to say here, gentlemen, that I attribute my present fair health to two circumstances, or habits of life that I have adopted. The one is, I would not drink liquor, and the other is I stayed at home at night. I do not mean, to be fair and honest, that I advocated or practiced teetotalism. I believed the good Lord had given me sense enough to enable me to control myself in what I should eat and drink, and when and how much I should sleep - - and I have need, and so intent to use, my very best judgment in all these matters. I do not give this as the best way for all others to do. It is the course I have adopted for myself. I have no objections to absolute temperance. I think a well man has no need of alcoholic liquors, and a sick man needs a very little, if any."

With this brief address the meeting was opened at 11 o'clock for business. There was a good attendance, and I recognized the following persons present: Major Solomon Pruitt, Colonel Thomas Judy, Dr. Benjamin Franklin Edwards, Dr. John H. Weir, Shadrach Bond Gillham Sr., Judge Joseph Gillespie, Michael Brown, Henry C. Sweetser, Dr. Frederick Humbert, Hon. David Gillespie, Thomas O. Springer, Joseph W. Bratton, James Hutchins, P. R. Sawyer, G. P. Gillham, James Sackett Sr., John Fruit, W. E. Lehr, Samuel P. Gillham, Hon. John M. Pearson, W. Lanterman, C. G. Vaughn, Thomas Dunnigan, John A. Miller, William Bivins, Rev. B. L. Field, Rev. E. M. West, Judge J. G. Irwin, John Boyner, Daniel Grover, John Tart, William Floyd, J. J. Kinder, S. O. Bonner, J. C. Lusk, Samuel V. Crossman, L. C. Keown, George Leverett, E. B. Glass, Captain Cooper, Robert L. Friday, C. L. Benedict, and L. A. Parks. There were others whose names I did not secure."

The Secretary, O. L. Barler, made a report upon the minutes (which were too long to be read) of last meeting, and stated that he had planned a winter's campaign upon the "Old Settlers," and that not only the results of this meeting, but that of personal visits and talk with the early settlers will be given in a weekly communication to the Alton Telegraph for months to come - possibly to the time of our meeting next summer, as for the last four weeks he had done. President West said that since the appearance of these "old settlers' papers" by looks for his Alton Telegraph with increased interest, and he had heard many others express themselves in the same manner.

The following communications were handed in, but not read, for the reason that the time was needed for talks. These communications will be published in due time and order. Reminiscences from Thomas Stanton Pinckard, now of Springfield, Illinois; John Ferguson of Marine; S. P. Gillham of Upper Alton; John Wright of Edwardsville; Michael Brown of Brighton; George Allen, M. D. now Surgeon U. S. Marine Hospital, St. Louis, Missouri.

The time of the meeting was chiefly occupied in familiar talks on the older times. The first speaker called out was Dr. Benjamin Franklin Edwards, now 77 years old. He said: "I came to Edwardsville in 1827, when it was a very small place, and yet it was at that time the most promising town in the State. It was for several years the place of residence of the chief men of the State and the society was first class. When I came here, Dr. Todd was the only regular physician in the county. I bought Dr. Todd's home, and he removed to another place, and for two years after there was no other physician in the county." The doctor practiced not only in this county, but in all the neighboring counties, and for fifty miles round. He kept four or five horses and frequently rode one hundred miles in twenty-four hours and practiced medicine. "When my horses broke down in any long trips," he said, "I would capture a fresh horse on the way, leave mine, and push forward, and again take my horse on the return. For months together, in the sickly season, I have not averaged four hours sleep in the twenty-four. This hard practice came near killing me, and yet I never, in those days, quite made support for my family by my practice.

There were no houses of worship in Edwardsville at this time. In 1828 the organization of a Baptist church took place in my house. Previous to this, there had been an organization of a Presbyterian church, but it had gone down, and was revived about this time. Divine service was held in the school house. The character of the people was of that plain and simple sort that you always find in a new country. They were honest and liberal as the day is long. There was some dissipation among the people, and two grog shops in the town. I remember on one occasion, one of these groggeries caught fire, and when the alarm was given, I was on hand and the first thing I rolled out was a barrel of whisky [laughter]. I profess to be a little more of a temperance man than my friend West here, but on this occasion, I was instrumental in saving a barrel of whisky [laughter]. I was for saving anything that I could lay my hands on.

The educational privileges were limited, but in 1829-30 the first seminary in Edwardsville was opened, with Miss Chapin as principal and Miss Hitchcock, assistant. The Rock Spring Seminary, of which Shurtleff College is the outcome, was started at Rock Spring by the Rev. John M. Peck, in 1827, of which I was one of original trustees.”

The question was asked, “What were considered the necessaries of life?” The answer was, “hog and hominy.”

He told a panther story, in which he acted a principal part, that left no very pleasant sensations. To have this wild beast scream at your heels in the midst of black darkness is not pleasant, the doctor himself being witness. President West then told a panther story that he held distinctly in memory. It was in 1833. He was enroute for Dr. Edwards' office, in behalf of the sick. He lost his way, and while wandering around in midnight darkness, he heard and recognized the familiar scream and became conscious of the terrible forward bounds towards him of this ferocious animal. Dark as it was, he saw his way clear from that moment. But one thing could save him, and that was his Acrse's (sp?) heel. To say the least, he did not like "present company," and he dashed through the wood at "horse race" speed, preferring to die in any other way than at the paws of a beast like that! Whereupon S. P. Gillham was reminded of a panther story which "took the socks" from anything yet told. He was not himself the party defendant in this suit, else he had not been here to tell it. It was his neighbor, riding through the timber at night, when a panther screamed and leaped upon the rider's back, and raking with his cat-like paws from his head his hat, slitting in two in his garments behind and ripping open the rump of his horse, but slipping his hold altogether. This so frightened both rider and horse, that a race for life was extemporized. The terrified animal in the course leaped a stake-and-ridered fence and reached home, when or how the man never knew; for when he came to his senses he was gallantly galloping around the house. The man died two days afterward from his terrible fright.

We were all disappointed, on coming together in the afternoon, to learn that Major Solomon Pruitt had returned home, owing probably to the bad roads, and his feeble health. In the absence of President West, the meeting was called to order, and Shed Gillham Sr. elected temporary chairman. Colonel Thomas Judy, who was born in Madison County, December 19, 1804, made a few statements, but expressed a wish to give his reminiscences in writing. His father came to Kaskaskia in this State, in the year 1777, and moved to Madison County in 1800.

Dr. Frederick Humbert, of Upper Alton, spoke at some length, stating what he conceived to be the objects sought in these Old Settler's meetings, and how they could be best attained. The objects sought are to ascertain and collect the facts pertaining to the early history of Madison County, together with reminiscences and anecdotes that will illustrate the habits and sort of life that belonged to our fathers, and the pioneers of this country. There is a great want in the lack of reliable history pertaining to the humbler walks in life. We have voluminous history and accounts of the doings and exploits of the noble and great, but little is said of the lower and working classes. The poor we have always with us, but who writes their history? We wish here to give, in proper shape, our recollections of the past, and by a comparison of views to compile a reliable history of the pioneers of Madison County. Let us organize this society upon a firm basis, and I would suggest, that we hold our meeting sometime in June, July or August, at a time when it may be convenient, and when the weather is pleasant, so that the old men of the county can get out. At this season of the year, it is not convenient for the old settlers to come out. Let us have a mass meeting of two or three days, a place to which we can bring our wives and children. In Adams County there was such a gathering. They held a meeting of three days' continuance, and 5,000 men, women and children came together. Not the men alone are interested to these old settlers' gatherings. Our women have figured even more largely in hardships of early times. On them fell the heaviest burdens of the pioneer life. The man, when his day's work is done, sits in the corner and smokes his pipe at his ease. He has some rest and enjoyment, but the wife has neither. Her work and toil are never over! Let us organize our society upon a basis so large and liberal that it will include and attract our women and our children, and then let us come together at a session, when it will be possible together such a crowd. Judge Gillespie - "This is an unfavorable time of the year for our old people to come out."

Lawson A. Parks – “I think, gentlemen, you have done well in organizing this Society. It ought to have been organized fifteen years ago. Let us go forward and do what we can now, and devise more liberal things as we are able and see the way. Let us now hear from these old men present, and through the press give to the public whatever is of interest, so that all may read and know the life and labors of the early settlers of this county. If this Society does justice to itself, and to the pioneers it represents, it will eventually gather these old settlers' papers into a bound volume. It would be very proper, I think, as Dr. Humbert suggests, that we have our meeting in the summer season. But at present, let us hear what these early settlers have to say.”

After further brief remarks from Messrs. Judy, West, and others, Mr. Lawson A. Parks, editor of the Alton Telegraph, was called out: He said, "I came from North Carolina in 1833, to St. Louis, and west to work in the office of the St. Louis Republican for one year. I then became connected with Mr. Elijah Lovejoy in the publication of his paper, and in 1836 I came to Alton and started the Alton Telegraph, in connection with Mr. R. M. Treadway, who died after the first year. I then sold one-half interest to Judge Bailhache, and I have been connected with the paper ever since, in one way or another. I am, perhaps, the oldest editor and printer in Illinois, and the Alton Telegraph is the oldest newspaper kept in the same hands. The Springfield Journal, Galena Gazette, and Quincy Whig are older papers, but these papers have often changed hands. I am probably the only one now in connection with the press of Illinois that was in connection with it in 1836. So that, if I am not a pioneer, my paper is. I will only relate one or two incidents that have occurred since I came to Alton:

A few months after I came to Alton, I had occasion to be in St. Louis one afternoon. There had been a difficulty among the colored people, and the officers were taking the disturbers of the peace to the calaboose. On the way, the officers exaggerated the degree of punishment that would fall upon the guilty. The negroes broke and ran, and tried to make their escape. Pursuit was made, when one of the negroes by the name of McIntesh turned upon the officer and killed him. That night the negro was taken out of jail and tied to a locust tree, near the corner of Seventh and Chestnut Streets. Around him were piled dry rails and shavings, to which the mob set fire, and burned the negro, in that city of civilization." There were others who said, "I was there. I saw the corpse - the mangled corpse." Dr. Frederick Humbert, of Upper Alton, said he saw the burning. More than forty men guarded the fire, till it could consume the man, who was bound there, and singing Methodist hymns till he died. Rude boys were there, on the morning of the next day, with their vulgarity and profanity, stamping their heels into the body (it had no arms, no legs), saying, ‘It is nothing but a ____ _____ n----.’ (I have been told, by an eyewitness, that the words he sung were these: Hark! from the tombs the doleful sound, Mine ears, attend the cry!) And such a doleful sound, said my informant, he never heard before. Methinks it was the only occasion fitting these doleful words that has occurred since the world has stood - Secretary.)

Mr. Parks continued and said: "The next incident I wish to relate is this: In the winter of 1836 I went to St. Louis. I had been sick, and went for my health. I went down on the boat. Soon it commenced snowing. On the next morning there were six inches of snow. This was Saturday. In the afternoon the weather moderated. Sunday all day it was very warm. Monday morning it was worse, and the streets were a perfect slush. I went into dinner on Fourth Street, at noon. Was not in more than an hour, and when I came out all the slush was hard frozen, and that afternoon we crossed the river. H. G. McClintock and a stranger were in company with me in East St. Louis. The next morning we met a man who was coming to Alton with four horses. We made arrangements to ride each a horse. But, in going three miles the horses not being shod, fell several times, and we came to the conclusion it would be safer to walk. The horses were put up and we started on foot for Alton. It was one solid sheet of ice all the way up to Milton. We reached Milton at 9 o'clock at night. Here the flood had washed away the bridge, the water was high and we could not cross, nor was there any house where we could stop for the night. There was one small house, where we applied for lodging, but they said, no, they could not keep us. They had already sixteen persons in the house. We started out to go two miles to a man by the name of Fruit or Pruitt, I don't recollect which, there we found lodging, ate our supper and lay down and slept. I never felt so rich and well satisfied before or since in my life. I had all I wanted and was content. Before reaching this place, however, I was frequently tempted to stop and lie down and sleep. My companion urged me along. And when I grew stupid and stubborn, he would swear a perfect blue streak, and threatened to whip me up if I attempted to lie down. And today I attribute the saving of my life to this man. But for him, I should have lain down and died on that journey." All the old settlers remembered that sudden change, and had many comical as well as sad stories to relate.

Reference was made by several of the speakers to the low price of meats and produce. Pork sold of 1 1/2 cents per pound, and corn for 6, 8, and 10 cents per bushel, and wheat as low as 25 cents per bushel. Mr. Sweetser, of Alton, said that in 1835-6 and 1837, he was engaged in the business of pork packing, and in those days pork sold at good prices - $4.50 to $6.00 per 100 pounds. It was in 1841-42 that prices reached the very low figures named.

William Bivens said, "I am a native of Madison County. I was born in 1820, within two miles of where Venice now is. I lived there until I was eight years old, when my mother moved to Monroe County. Afterward I returned to this county and commenced farming at Moro. I will relate a circumstance that happened to me while in Monroe County. We had not been in our new home for more than eight or ten days, when some of the neighbor's boys wished me to go with them to an old settler's house and stay all night. I went with them. This old farmer was considered rich in those days. He had two or three hundred hogs, plenty of horses, sheep and cows, and 30 acres to cultivation. True, he lived in a log house and in not very many rooms. We boys romped and played till late in the evening, and I began to get sleepy. There was no spare room, and I began to wonder where we were going to sleep. Presently the mother came in and said, 'Boys, it is time to go to bed.' There was a pile of deer skins in the corner of the room. These were hauled out on the floor and piled six inches deep. Upon and under these skins we slept till morning. But I am too fast, I wanted to tell about the supper. The old lady before bedtime brought in a pot of hominy. I think there was about a peck measure of boiled corn (whole grains). To each boy was given a spoon, and we went in. It was not a bad dish. I like it yet. It was seasoned with salt meat grease. Supper over, we all slipped in among the deer skins, which was all the bed the children of this wealthy old settler had. There was but one bed in the house, and that was for the old folks. In those days, there was enough of green grass and mast to fatten the hogs. It was not unusual to have hogs that would weigh two and three hundred pounds that had not fed on an ear of corn. Another thing about this family struck me as novel. Now, my parents always managed to provide their children with shoes in the winter, but the children in this family had no shoes. And in the morning (I forgot to say we had hominy for breakfast [laughter]), it was proposed to go after hack berries, some distance from the house. It was so agreed. But, I said to the boys, 'You are not going without shoes?' 'Yes, we are,' they said. 'You will freeze before you get back.' 'No, we won't,' they replied. We started for the hackberries, these boys running through the snow barefoot, but they carried, I noticed, a board under their arm. When we reached the hackberry trees, the boys put down their boards, and stood upon them while they chopped down the trees. I asked them if their feet were not cold. 'No,' said they, 'they are getting hot and beginning to burn.' such was frontier life in those early days. About that sudden change in the weather, of which mention has been made, I have occasion to remember it well. I recollect it as if it were yesterday. I had started to ride to a neighbor's. It was warm and raining. The change came in an instant, and I soon found that my horse traveled with difficulty. I did not know what was the matter. At the end of my journey, I discovered that my horse's tail was absolutely as big as a barrel, and that his legs were like my body. I now wondered how he was able to travel at all. Immediate efforts were made to relieve the horse of his foy tail and legs. At 13 years of age I commenced farming near Moro. I grew every year 100 acres of corn, and sold it for 8 and 10 cents per bushel.” Judge Gillespie asked – “Wherein did the seasons differ then from now, as to the yield and certainty of the crops?” “The crops were sure if the spring was not too wet. Oftentimes the long, wet spring delayed planting, so as materially to diminish the crop. We had not the trouble from insects that we now have. One season I remember I started out with the determination to make money. Castor beans had been a good price, and so I put in a large crop of castor beans. Also, I planted largely of the common white bean. I had a good crop of castor beans, but the price was low. I sold them for 37 cents per bushel. The rains ruined my crop of white beans, and I lost them all."

Mr. Bivens then gave an account of his pecuniary struggles, and with what sacrifice he was enabled to meet his indebtedness. Considerable talk was had upon the subject of wet and dry seasons. Usually the seasons were wet (a few very dry seasons were reported). It was the opinion of some that more rain fell in those days than now. The creeks were seldom dry, and fish were usually plenty. Some, however, recognized the fact that the settlement of the country and the clearing away of the timber tended to drain the land, so that with the normal rainfall the fields could be worked earlier in the spring than could be done 40 and 50 years ago.

James Sacket said that he came from the land of steady habits. He came out with Captain Blakeman in the year 1819, and located in the Marine Settlement. He is 71 years old. For ten years after he came to this country, they were never troubled with drought, and they never thought of losing a corn crop. It was even reported that all a man had to do in those days was to put corn in his pocket and walk over a 40-acre field, and he could count on 40 bushels to the acre. I think our wheat crops now are better than they were then - better varieties and better cultivation.

The deep snow of 1830-31 was distinctly held in the memory of many of the old settlers. The depth was from 2 1/2 to 3 feet on the level. In 1831-32, the farmers had to send south for seed corn. The frosts had injured the germinating quality of all the corn in this region.

Joseph Chapman said he came to this country in 1818. His father came from North Carolina to this State in a one-horse cart. Stopped first at what is called Turkey Hill, in St. Clair County. Question – “Did your cart have any iron about it?” Chapman - "I think not. I know my father made a great many of these carts after he came to this country. In 1828 we removed from Turkey Hill, or the Lemen settlement, as it was sometimes called, to Staunton, then in Madison County, now in Macoupin. In 1834, I came into this county. In 1837 I went to Upper Alton, where I lived for 25 years or more. In 1818 there were but few Indians in the country, and these were peaceable and engaged chiefly in making baskets and selling them for their full of shelled corn. We suffered great inconvenience from the want of mills to grind corn. I remember one winter, the weather was such that we could not go to the mill (the distance being so great), and we beat hominy and used it for bread. We had in those days no wagons. There was, I believe, one cart in the neighborhood. Blacksmith shops were sadly wanted." Mr. C. spoke of the great snow of 1831-32, and of other matters already referred to, but his testimony was not different from that already reported.

Mr. Michael Brown, of Brighton, stated that his age was 64 years on the 4th day of last June. His father came from Ohio, Champaign County, in the fall of 1817. He first settled in St. Clair County, on Silver Creek, and in 1818 came to Upper Alton. There was then no Lower Alton. In Upper Alton there was a little store kept by a man by the name of Shad Brown. He made further statements, but said, that he would present a more careful statement in writing. He told "a turkey story," and a "panther story," and other anecdotes (we shall hear from him again) one of which I will here relate: “In 1827 Olive Brown was living where I am now living, in Brighton. The house then was a log cabin, and brick chimney. One night it rained and put out the fire. We had no matches in those days, and no old hunters with flintlock guns, so we had to post off a messenger, 7 miles away to a farmer by the name of Nathan Searrill, and we had to wait till his return for fire and our breakfast. This was in ‘the good old times,’ to which I have no desire to return. There were, he said, serpents in those days, that were troublesome, and with some discussion upon the snake weed, considered, at that time, an infalli--, no cure for the poisonous bite of these serpents.

The hour of adjournment was reached. On motion, Judge Gillespie, three Vice Presidents, were appointed, viz: B. M. West, Edwardsville; Judge Joseph Gillespie, Edwardsville; J. J. Kinder, Edwardsville. On motion of Lawson A. Parks, a committee of six were appointed to arrange as to the place, time and plan of the next meeting, to be held sometime next summer, between the 1st of July and 1st of September. The following was the committee appointed: Judge Joseph Gillespie; Rev. P. M. West; William Hayden; S. B. Gillham; Dr. Frederick Humbert, and O. L. Barler.

 

TALKS WITH EARLY SETTLERS
By Daniel A. Lanterman
From the Alton Telegraph: March 4, 1875
The following reminiscences of Daniel A. Lanterman are from notes taken from his own dictation about 1861:

"I came into the State in 1818 from Kentucky. My father, brothers and sisters came also, and after remaining in St. Clair about a year, removed to Sangamon County. I was born December 24, 1786 in Pennsylvania, of a ‘Pennsylvania Dutch’ family. When I was a year and a half old, my father moved to Fayette County, Kentucky, and when I was ten years old, to Fleming County, where I was married in 1812 to Sally Lumun (died in June 1849) whose family came from Maryland. Our family consisted of:

William A., born November 26, 1815, in Kentucky. Married Eliza Lumun, and settled on northeast quarter, sec. 16, township 8; five children.

A second child, that lived but a short time.

Peter, born December 9, 1820.

Sally Ann, born August 1826 (married John Lynch and left five children).

I married as a second wife in December 1850, Elizabeth Irwin, formerly of Baltimore, Maryland, by whom I had Elizabeth Aleita, born November 29, 1852. When I came into the State, I lived and taught school for two years (1818-20) near where the Bethlehem Baptist Church stands (sec. 18 of township 8). In 1820 I bought the southeast quarter of section 19, and moved on it January 4, 1821. I have lived there ever since. At that time there lived in the same neighborhood, John Springer, Ephraim Wood, Lowe Jackson, William Montgomery, John Drum and Solomon Preuitt. Jacob Linder, of whom I bought my place, had been there six or seven years. He moved to Greene County. A corn crib, which he said had been built six years, is still standing. Wood, the father of Ephraim Wood, was living where Margaret Jones now lives (southwest quarter, section 20). William Jones lived a little north of where James Jones now lives, on the south half of section 18. He was a Baptist preacher and a member of the Legislature. Another William Jones, called Tolemy Jones, lived near where Turner and Frazier now live in section 20. William Green lived where Sherman now does (northeast quarter, section 20). He moved up into Greene County soon after I came, and a Kentuckian by the name of Norman came upon his place, but did not remain long. John Rattan lived on what is now the Montgomery place (section 13, township 5, range 3). Thomas and Richard Rattan were his sons. Rattan's Prairie was named after them. Several Preuitts lived along the bluff above Kendall's. William, James and Abraham Preuitt.

Of wild animals, gray wolves were plenty, and I have seen black and prairie wolves. Wildcats were abundant. I saw one panther back of Springer's, but never saw a bear here. Deer, turkeys, cranes and prairie chickens were plenty. I never saw a wild elk, but used to see their horns. I never saw a badger, but my brother killed one on the road between here and Springfield. Skunks and coons were plenty. I once killed a muskrat on my place. Of squirrels, I have seen the fox, grey, ground and flying squirrels. The bald eagle used to be here, but I have seen none for ten years. We had the large horned owls and the screech owls, or whinnying owls as we used to call them. Paroquets used to be plenty along Indian Creek, but have disappeared for at least ten years. They used to stay on the creek, except occasionally, and when they came up, we looked out for a storm. Of the woodpecker tribe, we had woodcock, the redheaded, the yellow-hammer and the sap-sucker, but the first were scarce. I have seen in all but three or four partridges. Wild ducks and geese were plenty, and blue cranes or herons and swans were found about the lakes. I have seen pelicans flying over. Small catfish were very plenty in Indian Creek, and some sunfish.

The greatest storm I remember was a hail storm in June 1821, that destroyed gardens and corn crops, and killed chickens. It came from the northwest, was three or four miles wide, and heaviest where Kendall and Vaughn now live. The hail was from the size of a musket ball to that of a hen's egg, and broke all the glass windows next the storm in Edwardsville.

I have seen Indians traveling through and camping near Edwardsville - the Kickapoos, among others. Their young men were full of fun. I have seen them when the Cahokia was full, wallowing in the mud of the road and then jumping into the creek. I have seen them playing cards.

I think I have been told that John Rattan was the first settler in this township. The first road in the township was one leading from Edwardsville to Carrollton through my land, Montgomery's and Moore's, and on through Brown or Scarritt's Prairie. It crossed Indian creek near where Frazier lives (Sec. 20) and a bridge was built there soon after I came. There was a ‘trace’ from the block house at Mr. Jones' to Camp Russell. There was a block house known as Jones' block house on what is now James Jones' farm, on southwest of Sec. 18, and one on the Clark place, with perhaps a quarter or half an acre picketed in, of which I have seen remains. I have seen the remains also of Camp Russell where there were pieces of burst cannon that the neighbors carried off and used for fire dogs.

The first mill I went to was a ‘hand’ mill (wheels working to one another by friction of raw hide instead of cogs) of a Mr. Finley, for grinding corn, near the present site of Bethalto. George Moore [Abel Moore’s brother] had one on his place (Northwest of Sec. 10, 5-9) brought out from Kentucky. Newman's sawmill was built in 1818-19, and put in operation in 1819. Isaac and Upton Smith built one below Springer's.

When we came, Edwardsville had two stores when we came through there on December 19, 1818. We wanted to buy some whisky, but could not find any bottles. A good many used to go through inquiring for Alton. I asked a neighbor what kind of place Alton was, and he said ‘About fifteen sink-holes to the acre.’ When I was in Lower Alton in 1822, there were no women in the place, and only three men. Of the two stores in Edwardsville, one was kept by John T. Lusk, and one by a man named Sulton. There were two stores in Milton when I used to go there. One of the store houses fell down last summer. I used also to go there to mill. It was very sickly. I remember going there once for some cotton yarn. Lippincott, who lived this side of the bridge and kept the store on the other side, said he would not walk across the bridge for all there was in the store. The streets were full of Jamestown weed.

The early inhabitants raised a little corn and sometimes wheat, and hunted. Solomen Preuitt and Ephraim Wood raised wheat the year I came. Harvest wages were a bushel of wheat or six bits a day. But some would have a frolic and a dance at night, and perhaps get harvesting done cheaper.

The women wore moccasins. I made a great many shoes for them out of deer skin. I brought some leather with me, from which I made wedding shoes for the neighborhood. A good many men wore shoes. Pants were generally made of buckskin. A blanket coat was considered fine attire. Many were hunting shirts. Caps were made of fox and wildcat skins. A cap made of a fox skin with the tail turned over the top was reckoned very fine. The women wore homemade flax, cotton and linsey stuffs. Nearly every farmer had a patch of flax, which was used because it was stronger than cotton. My wife carded and spun cotton at a shilling a yard to pay for a sheep worth $3.25.

Solomon Preuitt once got out 42 bushels of wheat to the acre from a small field, but the common yield was 10 or 15 bushels. The best crop of corn I ever had was on the prairie, with one plowing I had 85 bushels to the acre. Oats were not much raised. In 1822, I had 10 acres that were said to have 50 bushels to the acre. There were few potatoes, either Irish or sweet. Cotton and flax were universally raised. So were watermelons, which were planted among cotton. Corn was worth 50 cents, and wheat $1 per bushel.

There were no apples here when I came. Linder, of whom I bought, planted a hundred trees in 1819. They had been planted two years when I came, without being fenced. They were all seedlings but one, which was a Lady's Blush or Lady's apple, and that is still living. There were plenty of peaches, but the quality was not very good. Linder had some large white clings when I bought, for which I got one dollar a bushel.

The first coal digging I know of was about 1833 or 1834, at the Rocky Branch. About 1828 or 1830, the Harrisons started their potteries in Upper Alton. They had also a tan yard (others say the Pinckards first owned these). The first lime I knew of James Tunnell made at Rocky Branch. The first lime kiln was in Hop Hollow. John Drum was a blacksmith and Moses Parker a journeyman with him. Blacksmiths used charcoal. Isaac Prickett was a shoemaker in Edwardsville.

The first church in the neighborhood was a Baptist church, between William Montgomery's and the bluff. The first school was kept by William Jones. A man named Wyatt taught the winter before I did. I had thirty-three children to their primers when I began. The highest number I had was forty to fifty. I was paid $12 a year for each scholar. I taught six months in the warm months, and one year nine. The books used were Webster's spelling book, New England primer, and Pike's arithmetic. To reach the rule of three was getting well-educated. I had scholars from three miles distant. The schoolhouse was situated between Bethlehem Church and Clark's fence. It was 20 or 24 feet long. Half a log was cut out for a window on one side and a square one for me to sit by. We put greased paper over the long window and built a fence to keep cattle from licking it out. There was not much glass in the country.

Among the early preachers were William Jones and John Mason Peck, and an old Mr. Ray from Ridge Prairie came and preached sometimes. All these were Baptists. Of lawyers, the first I remember was Theophillus W. Smith. There was a Doctor Kamp in Edwardsville. Daniel D. Smith caricatured him as being blown high by the trump of fame.

Among the criminals, I remember Eliphalet Green, who was hung for killing a man at Abel Moore's distillery. Both had to go to the same well for water. Green came past the well with a bucket of corn, and the other man pushed him. Green went on to the distillery, got his gun and came out. The other said ‘Shoot and be d--d.’ Green shot him, fled to the woods, and stayed part of the night, and then gave himself up, and was tried, condemned and hung. John M. Peck published his confession. Two men of the name of Lampkin were put in jail for kidnapping. I saw one stand in the stocks. The stocks were near where the public square was, in front of the jail. The first jail was a log building, where the old Clerk's office is. The old log courthouse was near the same place.

Flat boats went down the river laden with corn, etc. William Head engaged in that business. I saw a flat boat even loading just below the mouth of the Wood River. Wood River was known among the French as Riviere du Bois."

 

TALKS WITH OLD SETTLERS
By Hon. Robert Aldrich
From the Alton Weekly Telegraph, March 11, 1875
I have received a very interesting paper from Henry King Eaton, Esq., Edwardsville, containing the reminiscences of Mr. Robert Aldrich. In sending this paper, he writes:

"Mr. Aldrich was 81 years old on February 4, and has been sick, and for four or five months has been very feeble. Fearing that he would drop off before you could visit him, I commenced, more than a month ago, going to his house, and kept it up day after day and at intervals of two or three days, as he was able to stand it, until I have got what I send you. It is a little long, but I could not see where I could cut it short. His many friends about Edwardsville will be glad to read what the good old man has to say. Mr. Aldrich's neighbors have a high regard for him, and will be glad to have his reminiscences in print. He labored hard to call to mind these old-time scenes."

Robert Aldrich, Esq.: "I was born in Worcester County, Massachusetts, January 4, 1794. Mendon was our township. September 20, 1816, my brother Anson and I left our paternal roof, and made a start afoot for the Illinois Territory. We had been bewitched by accounts we had heard and read of, respecting the great American Bottom, and though we found the soil to be all and even more than we had been told, yet we feared it would be unhealthy, otherwise, we should undoubtedly have located on it. On our way westward we found, in the vicinity of Xenia, Ohio, some Massachusetts friends, who had preceded us; with them we stayed and worked until the Fall of 1817. About September of that year, we resumed our journey, and fell in with Henry and George Keley, two brothers, who, with the family of Henry Keley, were on their way to Edwardsville, Illinois. The Keley's had what was called a family boat. We decided to go with them. We floated on down the Ohio River until we reached Shawneetown, October 16, 1817. Here, the Keleys decided they would follow the river no farther, and here they disembarked. They had brought three horses and a wagon on the boat. We all decided to go first to Kaskaskia. The horses were hitched to the wagon, the women, children and household stuff placed in it, and on we moved as best we could on bad roads, and no roads, and no bridges, ferrying swollen streams in the wagon box, swimming the horses over, through swampy lands and deep mud holes. Oftentimes the men had to wade into the mud holes and lift the wagon out of deep difficulties. On one occasion we had to remain encamped on the bank of a considerable stream which was greatly swollen, four days, in hopes it would run down so that we could ford it, but finally we had to take off the wagon body, make a flat boat of it, and ferry the women, children, household goods and running gear of the wagon over in it. We made the horses swim across. However, after a tedious and laborious trip of many days, we arrived at Kaskaskia, November 01, 1817. Our party consisted of the two Keleys, Mrs. Ann Young, her two grandchildren (viz. Henry T. Bartling and his sister, Harriet Bartling), Mrs. Henry Keley, my brother Anson, and myself, eight of us. I must here state that this - Mrs. Young was a lady of very superior abilities, education and intelligence. She was a daughter of Colonel Durkee, a distinguished officer in the Revolutionary War. He was severely wounded at the battle of Monmouth. He co-operated with General Israel Putnam during that war, was constantly with him, shared in his dangers, risks and exploits. When Putnam was elevated in rank, Durkee followed right after, stepping into the position made vacant by Putnam's promotion, and so on through the war. Mrs. Young was mother of two daughters, one of whom married a man named Bartling, the other, a Mr. Anderson. Both these daughters, and their husbands died east. Her grandson, Henry T. Bartling, was long a resident of Edwardsville, but spent the last few years of his life in St. Louis, where he died of cholera nearly twenty years ago. His sister, Harriett, became the wife of the late Colonel Nathaniel Buckmaster, who was an early settler of Madison County from Virginia, a man of decided talents, and who became quite a distinguished public man. Mrs. Young was not related to the Keleys, but they, being neighbors of hers in Norwich, Connecticut, whom, with Mrs. Henry Keley, she highly esteemed, and having lost her husband and two daughters, she concluded to come out west with her two grandchildren, and having means, she assisted the Keleys in removing and locating some lands.

After resting a few days at Kaskaskia, Henry Keley, my brother and I, each mounted a horse and rode up to Edwardsville, leaving George Keley, the women and children in a house temporarily rented. We crossed over and took a look at the French village of St. Louis as we came up. We reached Edwardsville about the 6th or 7th of November, A. D., 1817, and put up at a public house, just built of logs by the late Colonel John T. Lusk. It stood where Colonel Lusk afterwards built a large frame for a store. His new log hotel was not quite finished when we arrived. Some chinking and daubling were still to be done. The cracks between the logs were wide, and during our first night quite a blustering storm arose, and so furious was the blast that our bed clothing was swept off us. After looking round for a day or two, Mr. Keley employed a man named Coventry (the father of the John W. Coventry, Esq., now Postmaster at Edwardsville), an early settler, to go with us and show us the country about the vicinity of Edwardsville, and especially to point out to us the sectional corners of land surveys. After inspecting that portion northeast of town a few miles, Mr. Keley decided to locate on section 29, town 5, range 7, the north line of which township was the limit of the government surveys that had been made up to this time. On this section, assisted by my brother and myself, Mr. Henry Keley built a log cabin; and on January 4, 1818, the family having arrived from Kaskaskia, they began their cabin life. I had been employed several weeks in assisting to build this cabin, and on that day, being 24 years of age, commenced boarding with Captain Keley. With the exception of a small improvement made in the year 1811 by a man named Ferguson (who abandoned it at the commencement of the last British war, 1812 to 1815, and to which he never returned) on section seven, just below the crossing of Cahokia Creek by the Alton and Greeneville Road, this house of Captain Keley's was the first dwelling erected in town 5, range 7. The government survey of this township was made in the year 1818, being the last of the U.S. surveys projected at that time; but steps were taken to recommence in township six north, the following year, 1819. The Kaskaskia and Peoria Trace, an old track made before the commencement of this century, passed along the center of the Ridge Prairie (called by the French, Prairie Du L___ [Long??]), through this township, and a ‘trail,’ made by rangers from the Wood River to Bond County, were our only roads. An old log cabin, called Beck's blockhouse, was standing on section 5, town 4, range 7, whose occupant bore the fame of ‘guarding the frontier of civilization,’ in this section during the eventful period, viz.: the War of 1812 to 1815. Bennet Jones occupied a cabin at Lamb's Point, on section 3, township 5, range 7, during the early part of 1818. Allen and Keltner, two brothers-in-law, made small improvements on section 5, the same year, but sold out directly and left. Archibald Lamb commenced his improvements in 1818 at Lamb's Point, township 5, range 7, on which he has resided ever since, a period now of nearly 57 years. The venerable Francis Roach [born in April 1739; died in July 1845; buried in the Worden Lutheran Cemetery in Madison County], a Revolutionary soldier and an Indian fighter in Kentucky, moved into the Territory in 1807, but not into this township until the year 1827, and on section 3 in the year 1845, made his departure to the ‘eternal state,’ at the extraordinary age of one hundred and six (106). He was a native of Fairfax County, Virginia.

William Hoxsey erected a cabin on section 18, township 5, range 6, in the year 1818. He had a numerous family, five (5) sons and eight (8) daughters. He enclosed more acres in cultivation than any other in this vicinity, and died on this last adopted home on October 18, 1832. He was a native of Rhode Island, born November 30, 1766; migrated into Greenbrier County, Virginia, where he married, and where his first children were born; his second location was Christian County, Kentucky; third and last as above stated.

James Gray, a brother-in-law of Mr. Hoxsey, settled the same year near Hoxsey's; was the father of fifteen (15) children; tarried some ten or twelve years and moved into Montgomery County. Smith Farris and William Hinch made small improvements the same year, 1818, on section 19, township 5, range 6, where they spent the residue of their lives. One David Aikman made a small improvement in the Silver Creek timber, near the fork of the Wood River and Bond County trace, remained but a few years, sold out and moved to ‘other parts.’ Same year, 1818, the late Thomas Barnel settled on section 32, township 5, range 7, where he terminated his pilgrimage on April 21, A. D. 1852, aged 78 years. Elder Thomas Ray, a Baptist clergyman, commenced his last home, the same year, on section 11, township 4, range 7. He died October 21, 1854 in the 81st year of his age.

The first schoolhouse in township 5, range 7, was built on my land near my residence, in 1826. It was but a flimsy, temporary structure, and used but a short time. There were not families enough in the neighborhood to make up a school of sufficient number to justify a competent teacher to engage at teaching. A Mr. Carver and a Mr. Joseph Thompson each taught a short time in it. Not far from the same time, a log schoolhouse was built at Lamb's Point, and what is more, it was dignified with a stone chimney. This schoolhouse was used a good deal, and served a valuable purpose. I may add just here, that our old log schoolhouses in the early day were used as preaching places. The few members of Christian churches were so scattered and poor that meeting houses could not be built, and the schoolhouses were quite roomy enough for the small congregations of that period, and answered a valuable and highly beneficial purpose in that respect.

Buffaloes or bison became extinct in this region sixty odd years ago. My brother, Ansen, met with Nelson Rector, a brother of the Surveyor General Rector, in the year 1818 in Kentucky, who told him that the last buffalo he saw was while surveying public lands for the government in Illinois in the year 1811. He didn't think any were seen or to be found in Illinois after that year. There were no resident Indians in the county when I came to it. Indeed, I knew of no Indian towns south of the Sangamon River. At all events it did not appear that they ever had permanent habitations in Madison County. There was a temporary encampment of Kickapoo Indians before my time, near the mouth of Indian Creek, and I have been informed that mounds erected over their dead may still be seen. About the year 1824, some Delaware Indians, originally from Pennsylvania, but then from Indiana, used to camp along up and down the timber bordering Cahokia Creek in this county. I saw and conversed with some of them frequently. Some of their chiefs were agreeable, intelligent men. They, in a year or so, moved westward to the Indian Reservation. A large body of Pottawattamie passed through the county nearly 40 years ago, on their way to said reservation. They encamped one night on my place. I knew of but very few colored people in a state of servitude under the old Indenture system about Edwardsville. There may have been a half dozen or so. As late a period as that was when I came, the old settlers often had their difficulties to get breadstuffs. Hence a number of men who had a turn and passion for machinery and mills were tempted and encouraged to try their skill at building cheap, rough, horse or ox mills, to grind corn and wheat. And many a one made a failure; many were broken up at it. Many of these mills, however, did good - people would have been worse put to it a great deal but for them. The men who built and ran them deserved credit and praise. I am reminded here of a saying of the late Colonel Isaac Prickett, which was that, ‘However great a falling out he might have with an old settler, if he undertook to build a water mill, he made it a point to always forgive him the grudge.’

About 1820, Henry Kelly built on section 29, township 5, range 7, what was called a ‘band mill,’ a kind about which rawhides were extensively used for bands instead of cogs, to grind corn and wheat. He had a good bolting cloth and chest; it was used for a short time, but it didn't pay, and it went down. Prior to the year, 1817, such a mill was put up on Governor Cole's land, three or four miles east of Edwardsville. When I first knew it, old Mr. Coventry was running it. After that, William L. May got hold of and ran it, and he, and I think Albert H. Judd, removed it to Edwardsville and put it up on or near the ground now occupied by Mr. Martin Gerber's or Mrs. Grable's residences. George W. Farris built such a mill near west Silver Creek, near the line between townships 5-6 and 3-7. Robert Collet built a good mill and did good work with it about the year 1826 in Rattan's Prairie, two or three miles southeast of Bethalto. It served a most valuable purpose for many years, until about 1842 or 1843, which, unfortunately, it burned down. Mr. Collet was one of our most ingenious, useful and enterprising men. Old Joseph Newman came to the county as early, I think, as A. D. 18_7 [unreadable]. He built a water mill on Cahokia Creek at Edwardsville; ran it several years before my time, and then sold it to a Mr. Lockhart (I presume Samuel Lockhart). He afterwards sold it to Paris Mason. All these men kept up this mill the best they could, and it was of very great advantage in the people over a wide extent of country, but so treacherous was ‘old Coke,’ and so difficult and expensive was it to preserve the mill dam that Mr. Mason concluded finally to abandon and give it up. Old Jacob Gonterman was an early settler and built a mill on his place some three or four miles southeast of Edwardsville, in township 4, range 7, that did a good deal of service for some years. George Barnsback, in township 4, range 8, and Calvin McCray, in township 3, range 7, built good cog wheel horse mills, and did excellent work with them grinding both wheat and corn.

Josias Randle built a good cogwheel horse mill at Edwardsville at an early period; John Messenger was the machinist and millwright who did the work. Allow me to say, just here, that this Messenger was a great surveyor, and he it was who ran the north boundary line of our State. After running his mill a few years, Mr. Randle, being furnished with means by Winthrop S. Gillman of Alton, applied a steam engine to his mill, and then did capital work. Unfortunately, however, for him and the people of the town and surrounding country, in a year or so it burned down. I do not know but that this was the first steam grain mill started in the county. William Manning, not far from the same period, built a steam flour mill in Alton. Whether it got to work before Mr. Randle's did or not, I do not now recollect. Abel Moore [famed by the Wood River Massacre] built a good cogwheel mill on his place in the forks of the Wood River, 2 or 3 miles east of Upper Alton, about 1823 or 1824, that did very good work. Robert Harrison built a water mill on Cahokia Creek, in northwest part of section 25, township 5, range 8, at quite an early period, I don't remember the year. Here, for a great many years, much corn and wheat were ground, and a great deal of lumber was sawed. It had finally to be abandoned many years ago. Mr. Harrison was quite a public-spirited, enterprising and valuable citizen. His great usefulness was afterwards developed in the pottery business, which he carried on for many years in Upper Alton. Logs were sawed at Newman's mill at Edwardsville long prior to 1817. Lumber was also sawed at Randle's mill. About 1829 or 1830, John Estabrook and Oliver Livermore built a water mill on Cahokia Creek in northwest part of township 5, range 7, which did a great amount of sawing and some grinding of grain for many years. John Newman had built, years before I came to Illinois, a saw mill on Indian Creek in township 5, range 8. He and others after him ran it to good purpose for many years. About 1840 to 1843 there were several steam grain and saw mills at work in the county. Besides those I have mentioned, there were other horse or ox mills built in the early days, particularly in the south and southeast portions of the county. There was an excellent mill built very near the southeast corner of the county in the territorial days, as I understood. The proprietor was from the south, and was wealthy, and went to the expense of shipping millwrights and machinists from the Eastern States, in order to have a good mill and contribute towards furnishing breadstuffs for the scattered settlers. I do not remember his name. The mill was east, I think, of Sugar Creek. Old Mr. Coventry built a mill near to and west of Edwardsville on Delaplaine's branch at a very early day.

There was not an apple, pear, peach or cherry tree or anything of the sort, except such as were in the wild state, in township 5, range 7, when I reached it in November 1817. It was a wilderness. In 1819, Henry Keley and my brother Anson, went to Griffith's nursery at Portage des Sioux in St. Charles County, Missouri, and got apple grafts, wrapped deerskins around the middle of their packages so they could lay them before them on their horses, and thus brought them to our settlement. That was the start of my old orchard, fifty-six years ago now. Half of those old trees are still alive and bore fruit last year, 1874. Not far from the same period, Archibald Lamb and Thomas Barnet set out apple orchards in this township. The oldest orchard I knew of was that of old Major Cook, who told me himself that he sold the last cow he had to get money to buy his apple grafts with. His orchard was on his farm which lay at the foot of the bluff on the old St. Louis and Edwardsville Road, perhaps in township 3, range 8. The late David Gillespie, an early settler, and father of Matthew and Judge Joseph Gillespie, afterwards owned the place and lived there. I know not how early Major Cook put out this orchard, but I know the apple trees were large in 1817. I am of opinion that Samuel Judy, Ambrose Nix, some of the Whitesides, Gillhams and others, put out orchards not far from the time Major Cook put out his. The best and largest apple orchard set out as early as 1819 or 1820, was that of the late Gershom Flagg. He soon spread apple grafts over 25 acres of ground and continued to enlarge his orchard as long as he lived. He was an indefatigable orchardist. William Hoxsey put out an apple orchard as early as 1819 and 1820, and the late Robert McKee devoted a large space to a choice selection of apples on his farm, through which the Troy and Edwardsville Road passes, some three miles from the latter place. The early settlers had but little money. They needed but little, save to pay a little tax, but few bought lands, the most lived on government land unbought, unpatented. The little silver coin that did find its way here had to be cut up into small pieces to make it go as far as possible and for convenience of change. The bank of Edwardsville went into operation, I think, in 1819, and made money quite lush for a short time, but the swindling concern soon went under. Times (commercially speaking) were hard, produce was low, and but little encouragement or stimulus was given to farming or any business until the United States Bank began to afford relief about 1825 or 1826. Things then went on some better. There soon began to be buyers of pork and beef and a little was done with grain. True, prices were low, dressed hogs were often sold for __ cents a pound, beef 2 to 2 1/2 and 3 cents a pound. Corn for 6 to 10 and 12 cents a bushel, wheat at 25 to 37 1/2 cents per bushel, but then those who had such things to spare could get a little money to pay taxes, to buy salt and powder and lead. Their lands were so fresh and fertile that the crops yielded heavy, compared to the yield at this day, particularly as it respects corn. And then the natural growth of grass was so luxuriant and so superabundant, that if we had had good roads and bridges to market, we could have undersold almost any other people in the world. Our habits of living were of the most economical character.

Paroquets and woodcock abounded in this region until about 40 years ago. Swans were formerly seen. Badgers were occasionally found prior to the year 1830. Elks had become extinct before I came into the country, but I have the horn of one, I found about the year 1823. Buffalo horns were found scattered about the prairie for 15 or 20 years, before being totally decomposed. Bears were rarely found - have not heard of but one being killed in the county since 1830. Panthers were occasionally seen, and some few were killed prior to the year 1840. Wolves were very destructive to hogs and sheep, occasionally to colts and calves; but for the last 30 years they have ceased to greet us with their howls. Wild cats were never numerous or destructive on domestic animals, some few linger with us yet. Wolves were distinguished as 'black wolf,' 'grey wolf,' 'prairie wolf,' and a mongrel between the grey and prairie wolves. Of insects in the early period, the 'green-headed fly' was the most annoying and destructive. The early settlers used to make smoke around which their cattle and horses would gather in the day time. Travelers crossed the wide prairies in the night time, when these pests were quiet, and corn raisers used to appropriate a part of the ‘dark hours’ in tending corn. The season of 1818 was the most remarkable I ever experienced for thunder. Many a day, distant rumblings were frequent, and not a cloud in sight. The first death in township 5, range 7, was that of a Mrs. Harber, at Lamb's Point, she, with her husband, being on a visit to an old acquaintance there. Wheat that I sowed in the fall of 1818 proved to be a good crop. It was the first harvested in this township. Many of the wheat fields in 1820 were affected with what was termed 'sick wheat.' Persons who ate bread made from it would be sickened and forced to vomit, but instinct taught the brave creation to reject it. A dog might snatch a piece of bread thrown to him, but would immediately drop it. Neither cattle or swine would eat it, and some farmers burned their stacks, deeming it utterly worthless. The spring of 1820 was remarkable for heavy rainfalls. All plashy places were filled with water. Evaporation only drained them. A sickly, disagreeable effluvin(?) filled the atmosphere during the hot months, and in the fall following there was considerable sickness. On May 20, 1822, heavy frost. September 21, 1823, a severe frost cut all green corn blades; was followed by dry weather, so that the corn ripened well and was good for the following year's planting. The year 1824 was a remarkably wet year. Water could not stagnate for the reason that 'pure from the heavens' fell so frequently, kept all in motion. Corn on flat lands this year was a total failure. In August of this year, Convention or No Convention was voted on. The year 1825 was noted for a remarkable growth of 'thistles' on branch bottoms. The winter of 1830 and 1831 was that of the deep snow; much drifted, and was very destructive to peach trees, intensely cold. In olden times, as I learned from Samuel Seybold, Esq., a lynx would be occasionally seen, but very rarely. When I first came to Illinois, and for a good many years after, the barshare plow for breaking prairie, and for turning up corn land, was the only kind in use that I saw or heard of. This sort of plow had a wood mold board. For cultivating corn, the shovel plow was much and mostly used. The early immigrants, or such of them as were well enough off to have horses or oxen and wagons to move in, brought these plows with them. The most of the first settlers were from the States of Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Kentucky, and came mostly in wagons, drawn principally by oxen. Such as had no teams would come with beds, wives, children, _____, skillets and most on one pack horse, the lords of creation themselves taking it afoot. Some men that removed into Southern Illinois after the latter fashion subsequently became distinguished members of Congress, State Senators and Representatives, and abundance of them became Generals, Colonels, Major and Constables. After some years the Carey plow and another called the east iron plow were introduced. The latter was used in breaking prairie, and the former in preparing the ground for corn and wheat, and for cultivating corn. These plows were improvements and served an excellent purpose.

The late John Adams came to Edwardsville a short time after my arrival in Illinois, and set to work making castor oil. He greatly encouraged the culture of the castor bean amongst the farmers, and this was a great help to them, the new prairie soil being well adapted to the growth of the article. Mr. Adams continued the business quite extensively until his death in the early part of the year 1840. He also established a wool carding machine in Edwardsville. This proved a great convenience and advantage to the people who depended mainly on home-made stuffs for clothing. Thereby the raising of sheep was greatly encouraged. The late George W. Putnam bought this carding machine and ran it a great many years. I do not know of any other being started in this county until many years after Mr. Adams' death. Mr. Adams also established a Fulling mill in connection with Mr. Mason's saw and grist mill in Edwardsville, using the water of Mason's mill dam for running it. This would have been a very successful and useful enterprise if the mill dam could have been kept up. But few men have been, or are, more enterprising, more public spirited, high-minded, good and honorable, than was old John Adams.

There was considerable cotton raised in Madison County for many years after I came to Illinois. Some kept it up until as late as 1835. Thomas Good built and ran a very good cotton gin about two miles south of Edwardsville, and did a great deal of work with it for many years. I think there was another one or two in the county, but I can't be certain. The first I knew of chinchbugs was in 1847, when considerable damage was done to corn and wheat in my neighborhood. These pests have rapidly increased in the past 27 years.

I think there was not a bridge over Cahokia Creek or either of the Silver Creeks when I came. My impression is there was a bridge across the Wood River at Milton when I came, but of even this I am not sure. The first bridge built across Cahokia was at the point of the ridge at the north end of Main Street, Edwardsville. This was built by Paris Mason, assisted by contributions of money and labor by some others about the year 1820.

There was more of fighting according to the number of people in old settler days than in modern times. But it seems that the early settlers were not as much given to this sort of pastime as people were in some other States. In 1827, I met and was introduced to Parham Wall on election day in Edwardsville. He had but a day or two before arrived in this country. I asked him how he liked the way we conducted things in this new country. ‘Don't like your elections at all,’ he said, ‘I've been here now five or six hours and the day is drawing to a close, and yet I haven't seen a single fight. In Tennessee where I came from, we would have had eighteen or twenty respectable fights by this time. That was something to amuse a man. I see no fun in your elections here, if they're all like this.’

There was no newspaper published in Madison County when I came to it in the latter end of 1817, and but two were published in the State, one – ‘The Shawneetown ‘Gazette’ - at Shawneetown, and the other called the ‘Illinois Intelligencer’ at Kaskaskia. In 1819, Hooper Warren started the ‘Spectator’ in Edwardsville. Books were very scarce in those days. I don't think there was any bookstore in St. Louis in 1817, and but few, if any, on sale were kept by the storekeepers. What few were brought from Philadelphia, and other places, for sale, were kept and sold by the dry goods merchants for many years after I came. I found, or heard of, only two churches in the county in 1817. One was near where ‘Goshen Schoolhouse,’ in township 4, range 8, some three miles southeast of Edwardsville now stands. It was called ‘Bethel.’ The other was a good-sized frame church, a mile or so southwest of Edwardsville, near the St. Louis Road, and was called ‘Ebenezer.’ Both were built and used by the Methodists, and both, in after years, took fire by accident and were burned down. After the burning of Ebenezer Church, the Methodists built a meeting house in Edwardsville, on the site their church now occupies. I am inclined to think there was a log church, erected by the Baptists, near Indian Creek, in township 6, range 8, before I came, but am not sure of it. Of the eight of us who came here together in 1817, George Keley and I only remain. In 1820 and in 1832 I made visits to my native place in Massachusetts, footing it there and back. Excepting the few months thus absent, I have lived where I now reside and write fifty-seven years and a quarter. I could fill many more pages with various incidents peculiar to a frontier and early settler life if my health and strength would permit. I am in my 83d years, and recent sickness has greatly enfeebled me.

Some of my acquaintances have expressed a desire that I would reduce to writing some of my recollections respecting two very exciting circumstances that occurred shortly after my arrival in Illinois. These were the killing of a man named William Wright by Eliphalet Green on Abel Moore's place on the Wood River, in 1823, and the other was the killing by stabbing of Daniel D. Smith at the hotel in Edwardsville, about the month of March 1824. The first case is a matter of history, as may be seen in the County Gazeteer, hence I need not say anything about it further than that it was a very exciting affair among the old settlers. I remember incidents about it well. The other was far more thrilling and agitated the whole population of the county. As some desire has been expressed to know something about the history of Daniel D. Smith, I will briefly state all that I learned or can call to mind about him. I was not personally acquainted with him, though I saw him a great many times from the year 1819 to the time of his death, and knew him well when I saw him. I learned from Paris Mason that Smith was a native of Grafton, Grafton County, New Hampshire; that when quite a young man he went to a place called Downington, a few miles east of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he engaged in mercantile pursuits. After a time, his store, with his stock of goods, was burned down. He shortly after that event left Pennsylvania and got down into Ohio, and being of quite an enterprising spirit, he united with some others in an attempt to rarify air in a furnace, which they built for the purpose, hoping to be able to impel machinery therewith, and make a very useful and profitable affair of it. At this project he spent some considerable time and hard labor, but it proved an entire failure. After a time, he wended his way to Illinois. I think he came in 1818. I saw him first in Edwardsville in 1819. He could turn his hand to almost anything. I knew of his selling a parcel of wooden clocks, that somebody had brought there, at public sale, as the auctioneer in 1819. He had no family that I knew of. Mr. Mason informed me that he had none. He was not, according to my recollection, a permanent resident of Edwardsville. At the time of his death his home was in Pike County, of which he held the office of Recorder then. After coming to Illinois, he engaged largely in the purchase of, and dealing in, military bounty land warrants, and, as Pike County was in the military district (so called), I conjecture that he located there in order to look after his land patent interests. But he was passing back and forth from Pike to Madison a great deal, owing partly to the fact of being Recorder of Pike County (which was but recently included in Madison County) and deeds, etc., for lands in the former had been recorded in the Recorder's office of the latter county. The late Hon. George Churchill had the information that Smith held and owned at one time two hundred or more of those bounty land warrants. At the time he was killed, he was down to Edwardsville on business relating to land, land records, and bounty land warrant matters. My recollection of Mr. Smith's personal appearance is that he was rather tall and somewhat slender, though stoutly enough built for strength, and I judged him to be a very active man. From what I saw of him in company myself, and from what I heard others say, I can report him to have been a very mirthful sort of man, given to fun and raillery; was keen, witty and smart. I heard he had a ready facility at writing satirical poetry; he had considerable musical talent, could sing a song well; carried a cane with a flute in it and played on it. He made a good deal of sport for folks by his mimicry which he was famous at, especially when he was in his cups, for I learned that he sometime indulged a little freely in drink. On such occasions if he had a joke on a man, and especially if there was something scurrilous about it, his powers for ridicule would be brought into full play and he could be terribly severe. I did not understand that he was quarrelsome. He always seemed to me to be the very opposite. When entirely sober, he appeared a mild, pleasant, and very gentlemanly man to me. His sudden and untimely death and the manner in which it was brought about, were the themes of conversation all over the county for many months; and I doubt not, were matters of profound regret to every man and woman in the county. I was a member of the Coroner's jury that held the inquest on the body of Smith immediately after his decease, and can recall the names of most of the persons that were in the barroom and about the hotel at the moment when he received the fatal thrust that terminated his existence - they were James Wilder, Joel Neff, James D. Henry, James S. Stephenson, Pierre Menard Jr., Panerson H. Winchester, Myron Patterson, the hotel keeper, Mrs. Patterson, Emanuel J. Lee, Samuel McKinney, William Cummings, and Philip B. Pemberton and old Holliday. There were probably others, but if so, I cannot now recall them to mind. I well recollect the terrible excitement of the occasion, and the great stir that arose a few months afterwards, caused by a trial before the Circuit Court, Judge Samuel McRoberts presiding, growing out of this memorable tragedy. The very resolute and masterly exertion of Alfred Cowles, Esq., in conducting the prosecution, aided by Benjamin Mills, Esq. and the insulous, persistent and powerful defense, made by the Hon. Felix Grundy of Tennessee, assisted by Henry Starr, Esq. The person charged with having committed the crime, and who underwent a trial conducted with marked ability by the court and the attorneys concerned, was acquitted by the jury. Allow an old man to repeat the last words of Mr. Cowles' very able speech. They referred to Mr. Grundy, and were as follows: ‘Furthermore gentlemen, I will call your attention to the character, to the national reputation of the honorable gentleman who has so lately thundered in our ears that his name has become almost a proverb for skill in exculpating malefactors from justice.’ More than half a century has passed away since those occurrences. How few are left to tell the tale.”

 

TALKS WITH THE EARLY SETTLERS
By Samuel Seybold, Esq., of Troy, Illinois
Source: Alton Telegraph, March 18, 1875
“In 1790, the ferry to St. Louis was at Cahokia, and landed on the other side where the arsenal now is. The crafts used were Indian canoes. When wagons were to be crossed, two canoes were lashed together, a platform made on them, the wagons taken apart, and the teams made to swim beside the canoes, or on their own hook. The causes of this location of the ferry were first, to avoid crossing the muddy and unbridged Cahokia which emptied into the Mississippi River at this place then; and second, the heavy timber between these streams was the favorite camping ground of the hostile Indians in their summer expeditions to trade at Pan Cove, now St. Louis.

The Cahokia Creek was about 150 feet wide, and impassable from its loose, muddy bottom or quicksand, and was called by the French, the River Jabby.

In 1790, General St. Clair was appointed governor of our Northwestern Territory, and appointed Captain Piggot Judge. He recommended the Judge to bridge the River Jabby on his private speculation. This could only be done in winter, on account of the soft mud, and also on account of the hostile Indians. In the year 1794, Judge Piggot established his ferry very near its present location, on a grant of 400 acres of land, awarded him by the United States through the influence of Governor St. Clair. On the west side of the river, he obtained a grant for ferry privileges from the Spanish government, through the influence of Zeo Tradeau, Commander of the Spanish forces at Pan Cove (St. Louis). In 1795, Judge Piggot moved to his possessions on the west side of the river, and soon after built two log cabins, just below where Market Street is [in St. Louis], and superintended the ferry. These cabins I remember to have seen.

In the year 1799, Judge Piggot died, and was the first corpse I ever saw. His widow was executrix of his will. She rented the ferry to one Dr. Wallace for two years, then to one Mr. Adams for two years. Then there was no Bloody Island to intercept the passage from bank to bank. Soon after this, the widow Piggot married one Jacob Collard, and moved to the west side of the river, but previously had rented the ferry for ten years to John Campbell. He proved treacherous, and managed to get a license to run the ferry on his own account. The heirs of Piggot, however, brought suit and regained the ferry. It was then operated by Sol. Blonda and Thomas Porter, until McNight & Brady bought out some of the heirs. During the time that Campbell, McNight, & Brady claimed the ferry, it was ran by Lockhart, Day, Vandostal, and others. When Samuel Wiggins bought an interest in it, it was run by him in opposition with McNight & Brady, and in the strife, the old flat and skiff soon gave way for the triumph of the horse boat. With Wiggins it came in the hands of an honorable, enterprising company of men, who have managed it for their own interest as well as for the accommodation of the public at large, until its interest and usefulness are superseded by the bridge.

Since my recollection, Bloody Island has risen from the bottom of the Mississippi River. About 1810, a sandbar appeared. It was soon covered with a growth of willows, and this gradually increased in size from the deposits from the turbid waters of the Missouri. This island has been the scene of many a bloody personal conflict – hence its name. Its sands first drank the blood of Charles Lucas, who fell by the hand of Thomas B. Benton. Second, of Joseph Barton, who fell by the hand of Rector. Third of Major Biddle and Pettis, both killed. Fourth of Waddle, by the hand of Mitchell. I remember to have heard of two negroes who complied with the ‘code of honor,’ and met on this blood-stained island. After the shots were exchanged, no blood could be found and nobody hurt. The code was satisfied, and so were the parties.

In April 1803, my father moved to Ridge Prairie, two miles west of Troy, at the edge of Cantine timber. All settlers in that day located their claims near timber, that they might conveniently haul their firewood on primitive carts made exclusively of wood, or ‘tote’ it on their shoulders, if the oxen were not up. On the same day that we located our claim, Jacob Gragg located half a mile south of Troy. At that time, there was scarcely a preacher in the Territory. I had never heard but one sermon, but a moral and just man was considered pious. There were no drunkards, while it was the custom to keep spirits in every house, and when it could be afforded, it was kept by the barrel with a faucet in it and a tin cup on it.

Avarice [desire for wealth] prompted little industry, as there was no market for surplus products, but the most industrious families had the most comforts. We raised cotton, flax, and wool, and spun and wove it ourselves. A loom house was almost as essential to a family as a cabin, and I have spun and woven many yards of cloth. Thus, every industrious family was comfortably clothed and fed.

The abundance of game supplied our moccasins, some of our clothes, and much of our meat. Often has my mother said at supper, ‘Boys, you must get a turkey or some venison in the morning,’ and it seldom failed to come, or if we failed in these, we would bring home as a substitute a few prairie chickens. So, there was no want for food or clothes. Some of the very best families, whom I could name, have sprung from parents who did their courting in homespun and leather breeches. Peltry was the currency, always at par.

In the culture of the soil, the wooden mold-board plow has given way to the polished steel of the Moline manufacturer, and with it a corresponding improvement in the production of the soil. Our orchards of apples, peaches, and pears were all seedlings, but it was cheering to look across the vast unoccupied prairies, waving with rank grass, and see the colored blossoms of the trees at some distant neighbors.”

NOTES:
Jasper Seybold was born on the Rhein in Germany in the year 1718. He came to the United States in 1732, in a small ship that sailed from Amsterdam crowded with emigrants. A pestilence carried off many of the passengers on the voyage. Landing in the Chesapeake Bay, the Captain of the ship bound young Jasper Seybold to a planter for seven years to pay for his passage. Becoming free, he married Alcey Clendenning, a Scotch girl, who had, in like manner, been bound to a tailor for her passage money across the ocean. In 1740, they settled at the foot of the Blue Ridge, now in London County, Virginia, and baked their first hoe-cake on a flat stone, for want of other domestic conveniences. They had twelve sons, and two daughters. Robert Seybold was the youngest of these sons. Nine of the sons drew pensions for their services during the Revolutionary War. A member of the family was accustomed to say that he never knew one of them to be disloyal, to be convicted of a crime, or to get rich.

In 1785, Robert Seybold, a former soldier in the Revolutionary War and son of Jasper Seybold, came down the Ohio River in a flat boat, and walked from Fort Massac, Illinois, across to Kaskaskia, Illinois. In 1787, he married Mrs. Jacob Gratz, whose husband a short time previous had been killed by the Indians at Piggott’s Fort in Monroe County, Illinois. Her maiden name was Mary Bull, and she was born in Pennsylvania in 1775, and came to Monroe County, Illinois in 1778. Robert Seybold made a settlement in 1803 on Section 8 of Jarvis Township, Madison County, near the head of Cantine Creek, two and a half miles west of Troy, not far from John Gregg, another former soldier in the Revolutionary War. He also entered 100 acres, part of the northwest quarter of Section 7, Jarvis Township, on October 20, 1814.

Samuel Seybold, author of the article above, was born at Piggott’s Fort in the year 1795. He was the son of Robert Seybold. Samuel was elected County Commissioner in August 1826. He, along with William Montgomery and Emanuel J. Leigh, were elected to serve on the 8th County Board (1826-27). Samuel was elected Justice of the Peace in 1827, and served until 1843. Samuel Seybold was a veteran of the War of 1812 and the Black Hawk War (1831-1832), and received a pension for his service. He died sometime after March 18, 1875, and was buried in the Troy Cemetery, Troy, Madison County, Illinois. Samuel’s son, Samuel Seybold Jr., served in the Civil War, and is also buried in the Troy Cemetery. He was discharged from the service as Sergeant, on May 28, 1865.

 

TALKS WITH THE OLD SETTLERS
By Major George Washington Long
Source: Alton Telegraph, March 25, 1875
“In the Spring of 1829, being then a Lieutenant in the U.S. Army, on military duty at West Point, I learned that a body of troops were to be forwarded from New York Harbor to the West for distribution to the military posts at Green Bay, Fort Winnebago, Prairie du Chien and Fort Snelling. I applied for orders to join them, which was granted. The officers assigned in charge were Lieutenant Loring, Chief, assisted by myself with Lieutenants Brown, Collins, and Garnier, and Dr. Tripler, surgeon. We reached Buffalo through the New York canal, and embarked on board the steamer Henry Clay, about May 20, 1829, with a command – after receiving an acquisition of 100 men at Rochester of 300 men. After nearly a week’s voyage, we reached Green Bay, and left at Fort Howard a portion of the command, and from there, Lieutenant Loring took half of the remainder, and by Mackinac boats, proceeded up Wolf and Fox Rivers to Fort Winnebago, and assigned to myself, with one assistant, to march by land through the Black Hawk country; the remainder to the same post. I was furnished with one pack pony to carry cooking utensils for the command, and a sub-Indian Chief named Four Legs for a guide. The first day the divisions kept company, which brought us to the crossing of Fox River at the Grand Butte de Mort. From there, Lieutenant Loring, following the meanderings of the Fox River, was eight days in reaching his journey’s end; while I reached there in two and one-half days across the country, with no other incident of note than the surprise of meeting a large drove of beef cattle on their way from Clay County, Missouri to Green Bay – the only evidence of civilization witnessed on that tramp. After parting with another portion of the command at Fort Winnebago, we proceeded with the remainder of it by Mackinac boats, down the Wisconsin River to its mouth, and thence up the Mississippi to Prairie du Chien, where another division was left, and from there we proceeded with the rest to Fort Snelling, at the mouth of St. Peters River, which terminated the journey, and the duties assigned to the general officers of this trust. It may be of interest to some to learn the names of the officers, since of great note, met on this tour. At Ft. Winnebago, Colonel Meigs commanded, Lieutenants Harney (now General) and Jefferson Davis were then stationed there. At Prairie du Chien, Colonel Kearney, who commanded the expedition to New Mexico and California, during the Mexican War, was in command. At Fort Snelling, General Zachary Taylor commanded.

From Fort Snelling, Lieutenants Brown, Collins, Dr. Tripler, and myself had to find our way back to our several posts of the East as best we could. A company of infantry was about to change stations from Fort Snelling to Prairie du Chien, by which we were accommodated to the latter post. From thence we hired a man to voyage us in his skiff down the river to St. Louis. In the meantime, I was desirous of visiting my brother, Enoch Long, then of Alton, but temporarily at Mineral Point. Luckily, three men with two horses arrived at the Prairie at this time, on their way to the Point, with whom I made arrangements to travel, making a party of four with two horses, by which we rode and walked alternately. The distance, as near as I can remember, was about sixty miles. After spending a day with my brother, he accompanied me to Galena, where I joined our party again for our voyage down the river.

This brought us into August 1829, about the middle of which month, I was landed upon a rocky bank at a point near midway between the city Alton and the river’s edge – in front of the only habitable building then in sight – which was a log house of two parts and a passage, to which I made my way through a narrow path with a thick growth of hazel on either side. The proprietor of this dwelling I found in the passage, to whom I made known my wants, to be transported to my brother’s house in Upper Alton. It being then about sunrise, he could only engage to transport my baggage sometime in the forenoon, as soon as he could get the horse from the range, to which I agree, and took my leave on being put upon the line of direction to Upper Alton, through woods and brush, at one time thinking I was lost, till a cock’s crowing, and the sound of an axe gave notice that a settlement was near, and soon I was at my journey’s end for the time.

I have taken you a long route and much time to get at the little circumstance of my first setting foot in Madison County. The latter part of the journey had some romance in it, interesting to recall, if not you to read. We met but one steamboat on the river from Fort Snelling to Alton, and that about the size of a common ferry boat, bearing some commissioners to hold a council with some northern Indian tribes. We saw not half a dozen settlements, beside the military posts of Prairie du Chien and Rock Island, and the small villages of Quincy, Hannibal, and Portage des Sioux. Our night lodgings were on sandbars or on the river bank, near to the water’s edge, and so accustomed to this had our party become, that we declined opportunities for better shelter, which were more than once presented. If the foregoing condensed narrative has no other interest to the general reader than to enable him to draw a contrast between the country then, forty-five years ago, and now, it will pay for perusal.

The day following my arrival at Upper Alton, I obtained the aid of Mr. McNeil, Land Surveyor, to show me the country about the Altons, who took me to the tailor’s shop of Mr. Rundle, near Mr. B. Delaplain’s farm, and from thence through what is known as Scarritt’s Prairie [Godfrey] to the residence of Hale Mason, Esq., near Clifton, to which place we were escorted by him, and then shown the site of the government land which I afterwards entered, and commenced the establishment of my farm where I am now writing. The day following this excursion, I engaged Mr. McNeil to take me to St. Louis, then but a village. My journey was then prolonged at Jefferson Barracks, and there, joining a detachment of the 6th Regiment of Infantry, to Washington City, then on to New Hampshire and back to New York – all included, nearly 8,000 miles of travel for the Spring, Summer, and Fall seasons – and pretty busy moving at that – a distance that now would require less than three weeks to accomplish.

For a period of ten years after my first visit, I knew little, or nothing, of the progress of the settlement of Madison County, being on engineering service at Fort Jackson, Louisiana, various Southern rivers and harbors, and Civil Engineer in Louisiana, when I retired to the farm I now occupy.”

 

TALKS WITH THE EARLY SETTLERS
By Michael Brown, Esq.
Source: Alton Telegraph, April 01, 1875
“I was born in Champaign County, Ohio, June 4, 1810, and my father moved to Madison County in October 1817. He first settled on Silver Creek, but sold the land he had entered, together with the improvements he had made, and moved to Upper Alton in the winter of the same year. We came by the way of St. Louis, and stayed one night at a hotel on the bank of the Mississippi, opposite the city. I was very anxious to see the river, and before going to bed my mother consented that I might go near enough to see, provided I would keep at a safe distance. I cannot describe my feelings as I stood on the bank of the great Mississippi, looking across at the lights, then plainly to be seen in the city. The sight was beautiful, but there was a deathlike stillness – not a voice or sound could be heard, and a solemnity almost oppressive rested upon me as I looked through the darkness to lights in the distance. When suddenly, the most hideous and discordant sounds broke the stillness. Some of the people blew trumpets and horns, others shouted, yelled and screamed, rattled bells, beat drums and tin pans. The dogs barked and howled, and all seemed ambitious to make the greatest discord. I stood to listen but a moment, and then with all possible speed, I ran to the house and asked my mother what on earth could be the matter over the river, and the company all had a good, hearty laugh at my expense, when someone remarked that it was a charivari, a French custom, or kind of jollification, at the marriage of a widower to young lady, or the marriage of a widow to a young gentleman.

When we got to Alton, we found a little village of log cabins. There was one store, kept by Shadrach Brown, in a little log house in the extreme southern part of town. It was a variety store, but a very poor and small assortment of goods. There was a double log cabin (or two rooms with a hall between); in one room whisky was kept for sale, in the other, the only hotel in the place was kept. William Morris and Mattie, his wife, were proprietors. The whisky had the same effect on men and women that it does now, and many a row occurred, and many a poor fellow left the place with black eyes and bloody nose, and although there was a law against profane language, a fine was often collected for a violation of that law. When men get drunk, they care but little for law or decency. On one occasion, ‘Nute,’ a junior Morris, got his father by the hair and dragged him out into the street. Complaint was entered against ‘Nute,’ and he was sentenced to receive six stripes on his bare back, to be well laid on by the Constable. The sentence was well executed, and ‘Nute’ shouted glory every lick. The instrument used was a cowhide. The same kind of punishment was executed by Colonel Buckmaster Sr. upon a man who had kidnaped some negroes and took them south to market. The criminal was sentenced to stand in the stocks and to receive stripes (I do not remember the extent of the punishment) by the Sheriff in the town of Edwardsville. There was one small frame house in Alton, built by Benjamin Spencer for a shop, he being a mechanic. But as the houses were all full, he very kindly allowed us to take shelter in his shop until we could build, which we did early in the Spring.

Mr. Spencer was very much of a gentleman, he was Justice of the Peace for several years, and highly esteemed by all good men who knew him, and though there was bad whisky and some bad men, there were many of another class – some of them I will here name: John Seely, Ebenezer Hodge, Ephraim Marsh, Levi McNeil, Dr. Erastus Brown, Isaac Woodburn, Rev. Bennet Maxey, Rev. Nathaniel Pinckard, Thomas and Zachery Allen, Enoch Long, Joel Finch, and Rev. Samuel Delaplain. There were our neighbors, all of them good citizens, and many of them good Christians. If we had no worse men than those last named, we would have no need of any law to punish crime.

The first schoolhouse in Alton was a little log cabin, I supposed about 14 feet square. The floor was made of split timber, roughhewed, and laid down in a very rough manner, but it was not used long – it was in the south part of town. A better house was built more central, and near the other street or road running to Milton. This house, though built of logs, was comfortable, and was used for several years. The seats were not so comfortable. They were made of slabs, hauled from the sawmill at Milton. The small scholars were required to sit on those miserable benches without backs during school hours and be very quiet, though some of the smallest of them could not reach the floor with their feet. The larger scholars were better provided for, as their seats were next to the wall, and a board was placed in front of them for a writing desk. Our school books were Webster’s speller, Walker’s dictionary, Pike’s arithmetic, Murray’s English reader, and Murray’s English grammar. Our school teachers were Mr. Rose, Nelson Aldrich, H. H. Snow, Enoch Long, Rowland Maxey, and Levi McNeil, and for a short time, we had a Mr. Jinks, but he was soon discharged for lying and sleeping on the benches during school hours. Bad whiskey put him to sleep. When he was not under the influence of liquor, he was an excellent teacher. The scholars have been scattered in every direction – many of them have died. I wish only to name a few of them: Misses Eleanor and Permelia Woodburn (now Mrs. Wells of Upper Alton); John C. and P. M. Pinckard (somewhat extensively known as Methodist preachers); William T. and Edward Brown (sons of Dr. Brown). William T. Brown was familiarly called Tyler, and was a very amiable boy. His excellent mother died, leaving him and Edward orphans when they were quite young, and before they were grown, their father also died. After the death of their father, I knew but little of them until they were grown, when they became generally known throughout Madison County, and Tyler became very popular. But his end was a sad one. Can we learn any good lesson from his life and his death? He was found drowned in a well!”

 

TALKS WITH THE EARLY SETTLERS
By Edward M. West and General Nathan Ranney of St. Louis
Source: Alton Telegraph, April 8, 1875
“On my first visit to St. Louis, then a small boy, I distinctly remember to have seen General Rammey, then a tall, straight, fine-looking young man, dressed in ‘store clothes,’ which to a country boy rarely seeing anything worn but homespun, looked fine. He was then a clerk in Shackford’s Store, at the foot of ______ [left blank] Street, which was considered the best stand for a retail store in the town of St. Louis. The blind-horse ferryboat landed there, and Shackford’s Store was well known to all the Illinois marketers, who supplied St. Louis with four-fifths of the marketing and provisions consumed there.” Signed Edward M. West.

“I was with the “Yellow Stone Expedition” in 1819, when the large boats of Colonel James Johnsom, contractor, were stopped for want of water in the Missouri. I, however, went forward on the Steamers Expedition, Captain Craig and Western Engineer, Captain Swift, or rather Lieutenant Swift, U. S. Engineer. The other boats, drawing six feet light, were changed for keelboats to be cordelled. These boats made 10 or 12 miles a day, and laid up at night. When I returned from Council Bluffs, I was appointed U. S. Sutler at Bellfountaine, opposite the mouth of the Missouri, or rather four miles up that river. I credited troops to go up to St. Paul and also to go up the Missouri. When these troops were paid off, it was in the notes of the Edwardsville and St. Louis banks. I collected very dollar the army owned me, but before my boat reached St. Louis, these banks failed and their notes were only worth fifty cents on the dollar. I owed to Scott and Reele, J. & P. Lindell, and Tracy & Wahoendorf, just half the amount of my notes I owned at par value, but I gave them up, paying my creditors who accepted them at fifty cents on the dollar, when I was free from debt and free also from cash. I have a valid claim on the government for this illegal act. I presume the paymasters put this discount in their pockets. The principal and interest and personal injury are more than $100,000. Since then, I have never had much money, but have never since seen the want of a dollar and could not get it.

The Lord has been merciful and gracious to me. I have looked upon the rolling prairies and green hills of Illinois, over the great river, with a joyous feeling for 55 years. I was once in the forests of Madison County, hunting oak timber, and slept in a smoky log cabin with a ground floor, where I had a pone of corn bread and a glass of milk for supper.” Signed General Nathan Ranney, St. Louis.

 

TALKS WITH THE EARLY SETTLERS
By Michael Brown, Esq., of Brighton
Source: Alton Telegraph, April 22, 1875
“You ask what were the essentials of living among the early settlers? I would say, just the same that we consider essential now: a comfortable home, comfortable clothing, and healthy food. There was plenty of wheat and corn for bread as far back as 1817. The greatest difficulty was the want of good mills to grind the grain. I have known farmers to come from Sangamon County to Alton, 80 miles, to mill, and then have to wait several days to get their grist ground. Their expenses were but little, if any more than to stay at home, as it was lawful to cut timber by the wayside for the campfire, and the covered wagon afforded lodging. Provision and feed were carried or hauled from home, or bought at cheap rates on the way. But as there were no bridges, and but very little, if any, work done on the road, heavy teams and light loads were the order, and ox teams were best and most commonly used. They could live on the grass and do good work. But many persons preferred the horse teams, and they were sometimes used.

During the summer months, all travel across the prairies had to be performed at night. The green-headed flies were bad on horses or cattle, and for that reason it was not considered safe to cross a large prairie in daytime. Horses were sometimes killed by the flies. And because of the scarcity of mills, and the many difficulties in traveling, hominy, green corn, beans, and potatoes were often used as a substitute for bread.

In the fall of the year, what was known as ‘Armstrong’s mill’ was used. Any family that wished to do so could own such a mill, if not too lazy to shave a clapboard, three feet long, six inches wide, and punch small holes in a suitable piece of tin, bend the tin in a half circle, and tack on to the clapboard, the rough side of the tin out, and the mill was completed. To use it, take an ear of corn, just out of the milk, place it on the tin, and with the strength of the arm, grind off the corn to the cob, and when you have in this way ground or grated enough meal for dinner for a dozen persons, you will conclude that ‘Armstrong’ is an appropriate name for the mill.

Other articles of food were not so difficult to obtain. Vegetables of various kinds were raised in sufficient quantities to supply the demand. Fruit was scarce, except wild. Crabapples, plums, blackberries, strawberries, and grapes were plenty in some neighborhoods. Wild game was also plenty, such as deer, turkey, and prairie chickens. Beef and pork were abundant after 1820. Salt was very hard to get. I believe my father paid $7.00 for the first half bushel of salt he bought in this country. Sugar and coffee were also expensive, and were luxuries not to be indulged in every day, but old people and visitors were generally supplied with the tempting beverage. Wild honey was fifty cents per gallon, and was more commonly used than sugar.

So far as food is concerned, I have never seen any great destitution anywhere in Illinois, and as for clothing, I believe people were as comfortably clothed then as now. Every house in the country was a manufacturing establishment, and each female member of the family was a skilled operator in the factory, and evenings, rainy days, and at times when women were overburdened with work (which was often the case), many a boy, under the instruction of mother or sister, learned to spin, weave, sew, and knit, and also to dye. Deer skins were much used for clothing, and coon, fox, wildcat, and sometimes wolf skins were used for caps during cold weather. In warm weather, the straw hat was in common use, and these were real comforts in those days. The most beautiful young ladies appeared in dresses completely the product of their own handy work. But women were often overburdened with work, so much that a traveler passing through this country remarked that it was ‘heaven for men and horses, but hell on women and oxen.’ But I believe the women were as cheerful and happy as they are now.

I also believe that men and women were more active, and had greater power of endurance then, than now. There was anxiety on the part of parents and teachers then, as there is now, for the physical condition of the children. But the moral and skillful education of the youth of the day is more cared for now than then, and the physical education is too emphasized. The plain way of living was promotive of the health and physical force of our women. But as our people became more wealthy, there was greater indulgence, and the tendency was to effeminacy, but not to the real wellbeing of our people, and I think it probably that many of the descendants of our hardy pioneers will be crowded out, and have to give place to a more vigorous and better-developed people, who are now fast filling up the country.

There have been great changes in the last fifty-eight years in the manner of cultivating the soil, and very great improvements in agricultural implements. Then the clumsy wooden moldboard plow was used. Now we have the cast steel plow, and cultivators too numerous to mention. Then all small grain was cut with the reap hook or sickle. A good hand could cut half an acre per day. Now we have machines that cut from eight to thirty acres per day. Then grain was threshed with the flail or trampled out on the ground with horses or oxen, and then cleaned by letting it fall through a breeze created by the motion of a sheet in the hands of two persons. Now we have machines that will thresh and clean, ready for market, from two hundred to one thousand bushels of grain in a day. But the enemies to our success in agriculture have greatly increased since the early settlement of this country. The prairie grass was set on fire annually by hunters, and all the country was burned over so that but very little dry trash was left as a hiding place for insects, and the land being new and very fertile, vegetation grew very rapidly, and if there were any insects left to prey upon the growing crops, the damage done was so small that it was not much noticed until the crops were matured. I have noticed the chinch bugs and potato bugs have been troublesome, that the greatest damage done was on poor land, where the growth of the crops was the slowest, or in very dry seasons, when vegetation would scarcely grow at all. The richer the land and the more rapid the growth of the crop, the less damage would be done by these pests. The remedy, then, is to increase the fertility of the land.

The Indian troubles were over before our family came to this country, but there were enemies called serpents. Two little children that were bitten while picking strawberries in my neighborhood died of the bite. The bite of a snake was not always fatal, but it was much dreaded and was very dangerous. For the benefit, any that may be disposed to play or parley with a snake, I will tell a true story. About 40 years ago while breaking prairie on the farm where I now live, I discovered a snake coiled up on an ant hill. Its peculiar appearance attracted my attention. I stopped my team, and with whip in hand took what I considered a safe position. I stooped so as to put my hands on my knees and looked at the snake, and the snake looked at me right into my eyes. It ran out its forked tongue. I stood still until it spread it great mouth and leaped at my face. I straightened, and my face was too high for its aim, and it fell at my feet. I used the whip in my hand to thrash it to death. I then made up my mind never to give a snake the chance to strike first. And my advice to all is, in combat with snakes, strike the first blow.

During the last forty-five years, I have used no intoxicating drink, no patent medicines, and have had very little use for a doctor.”

 

TALKS WITH THE EARLY SETTLERS
By Hon. Alfred Hinton
Source: Alton Telegraph, April 29, 1875
Mr. Hinton of Kane, one of the very early settlers of Madison County, and now an octogenarian, contributes the following account of a murder, of which I have never seen an account, and will be new to many:

“I send you the particulars of a murder that was committed in Madison County in the winter of 1820, on the farm then owned by Emanuel J. West, immediately north of and adjoining Major Solomon Preuitt’s land, about one and a quarter mile east of Bethalto. Immediately after we came to that place, Mr. West purchased a negro woman, an indentured slave of James Preuitt, who purchased her from a Mr. Gillham. I am not certain whether his Christian name was Isaac or Isom, but he lived on the Mississippi River, and had a large portion of his farm washed into the river. This woman had a husband by the name of George Udine, who was free. After Mr. West purchased his wife, not wishing to separate them, he proposed to George that if he wished to live with his wife, he would make them comfortable and pay him good wages for his services, and he fixed a good bedroom for them in the upper story of the kitchen, after which things went on very well for a few months. George worked well, and poor Bettie was one of the best house servants I ever saw. But at last, George began to neglect his work and run about, get drunk, come home of a night and abuse his wife, and sometimes whip her. At last, I told him that if I ever heard of his whipping his wife anymore, I would tie him to one of the trees in the yard, and wear out two or three hickories upon him. I was a very stout young man, and he was afraid of me, but Mr. West, being a slender, delicate man, was afraid of George, and afraid he would do him a private injury. As I was one of the family, having come to the country with him, he trusted me to see after the negro, and I made him leave the place. Still, he would slip in once in a while and steal some bacon or something else to sell and get whisky. Once, in a drunken spree, he got one of his arms broken, and came within a few hundred yards of the house, in a point of timber, and took shelter in a large hollow tree, and got word somehow to his wife. In the evening, I saw Bettie go into the timber and come back, but thought nothing of it. Just after dark I saw her going in the same direction with a bundle under her arm, which excited my curiosity, and I followed and watched to see where she went. When she got to the tree, I was pretty close, and I heard her talking to George. So, I went on to the tree, and Bettie seemed to be frightened that I had found her out. I said, ‘George, what are you doing here?’ He replied, ‘I have hurt my arm and am suffering very much.’ I told him to let me examine his arm. It was dark and I could not see, but go hold of his arm and found that the bone was broken between the elbow and the shoulder. My sympathy was excited for the poor wretch. I told Bettie to stay with him, and I would go to the house and see Mr. West. I went and told him the condition of the fellow, and we concluded that, perhaps, if we took care of him, the pain he suffered and the kind treatment of the family might reform him. Mr. West said, ‘Go and get him to the house, and I will send one of the boys for Dr. Todd.’ I went back and told George what the conclusion was, and he was thankful and promised me that he would never drink any more. So, Bettie and I took him to her room. When the doctor came and examined his arm, he thought it doubtful whether he could set it, for it had swollen so much. But with my help to pull for him, he succeeded in setting it. George was well taken care of until he got about again, and then he became saucy, got to drinking, and was so bad that we could not stand it any longer, and had to drive him off again. When he went, he said to Mr. West that Bettie should never do him any good. We had no fears that he would murder her, but would try to steal her.

In the course of a few weeks, I got up early one morning, went into the kitchen to see about the breakfast, found no fire, and concluded that Bettie had overslept herself. I went to her bedroom to wake her, and she was not there, nor had the bed been slept in. The conclusion was that George had taken her away. I mounted a horse, went down to the river to Mr. Gillham’s where she had lived, but found they had not been there. I scoured the country all around, and came home in the afternoon. About this time a young man came to a stock well with a horse and sled to get some water. When he got to the well, he found the bucket gone, which was fastened to a grapevine, and the vine to a sweep. The bucket being broken from the vine, the young man came to the house to find out what had become of the bucket, and I went with him to the well, looked down, and saw a sunbonnet floating on the water. I got a grappling iron, let it down, and soon hitched it to the clothes of a woman, raised her to the surface, and found the body was that of poor Bettie. Her miserable husband had murdered her. It seems that he had enticed her there in the fore part of the night, for a snow fell in the after part of the night and there were no tracks. The vile wretch must have had a severe struggle to get her in, for the bucket was broken off the vine and her clothes were torn all to pieces. She had several bad bruises and scratches on her person. We let her hang by the tope till a Justice was summoned, and a jury impaneled. We then drew her out and held an inquest. The body was decently interred. Search was made for the villain, but he was never found, and we never heard of him afterwards.”

 

TALKS WITH THE EARLY SETTLERS
By John W. Wright, Esq.
Source: Alton Telegraph, May 13, 1875
“I was born in North Carolina, July 7, 1791. In the Spring of 1798, my parents moved to Warren County, Georgia, and on September 3, 1811, we started for Illinois. There were three families in company with us, viz: Josias Randle, Thomas Randle, and Jesse Bell. We arrived at Turkey Hill on October 17, and secured house room from old Father Scott, where we stopped for a few days. My father bought what is now known as the Shaffer farm, about two and a half miles southwest of Edwardsville, where he spent the remainder of his life. We found very kind neighbors here. There was great friendship among the people of those early days. The men would help each other in harvest free of charge. They would join together and commence cutting on the ripest wheat, and keep on till all was done, and then all accounts were square. They cut their wheat mostly with sickles in those days. Farmers raised from thirty to sixty bushels per acre. Wheat was cheap then, often as low as 20 or 30 cents per bushel. Corn was also plenty and cheap. We were glad to get 10 cents per bushel for it. It was easier to raise 100 bushels per acre then, than it is to raise 50 now.

St. Louis was our nearest market, and it was a very poor one for the first few years. I have seen wagons miring down in the mud in the streets of St. Louis. On the night of December 15, 1811, the earth shook and rocked to and fro [New Madrid earthquakes], and frightened a great many people, and it was said that the top of every chimney in the State was shaken off except one. The shakes lasted for several weeks, coming on occasionally.

In the Spring of 1812, the Indian troubles began, and it became necessary to build forts. There was one built about half a mile northwest of my father’s house, called James Kirkpatrick’s fort, which I helped to build. The next fort was built where Edwardsville now is. It was called Thomas Kirkpatrick’s fort. There was another built near where Joseph N. McKee now lives called Frank Kirkpatrick’s fort. My three older brothers were in the ranging service, and belonged to Captain Bollen Whiteside’s Company. I alone was left at home to assist my father on the farm.

In the Spring of 1813, Governor Edwards found it necessary to raise a volunteer militia company to station in detachments at the outside forts. I served in that company. William Jones was our Captain, and Benjamin Steadman our Lieutenant. Several of us were stationed at Thomas Kirkpatrick’s fort. There was John Loften, John Kirkpatrick, William Davison, Henry B. Ragor, James Good, and Thomas Waddle. I am the only one now living who was stationed at Thomas Kirkpatrick’s fort.

The old settlers lived in log houses with no windows. James Kirkpatrick had one window made of a deer skin stretched over a frame and greased. Churches were few when we came here. There was an old log church called Bethal, west of the Bizer place. In 1817, the Methodist Annual Conference was held at my father’s house and in my room. Bishop Robert R. Robberts was our Bishop, and Samuel H. Thompson our presiding elder.

We had no good schools till 1818, when Hiram Rountree came among us. He taught two years at old Ebenezer Schoolhouse, and had over 80 scholars.”

 

TALKS WITH THE EARLY SETTLERS
By Benjamin F. Long, M. D. (1805-1889)
Source: Alton Telegraph, May 20, 1875
“The following may be interesting to the old people of Madison County. Lewis and Clark [Captain Meriwether Lewis and Captain William Clark] commenced their expedition to discover the sources of the Missouri River, and after crossing the mountains by the most direct route, going west to the Pacific Ocean, arrived in St. Louis in December 1803, and came to the mouth of the Wood River on the eastern side of the Mississippi, where they passed the winter in disciplining the men and making the necessary preparations for setting out early in the Spring. The party consisted of nine young men from Kentucky, fourteen soldiers of the U. S. Army who volunteered their services, two French watermen, an interpreter and hunter, and a black servant belonging to Captain Clark. In addition to these were engaged a corporal and six soldiers, and nine watermen to accompany the expedition as far as the Mandan Nation [Plains Indians], in order to assist in carrying the stores or repelling an attack, which was most to be apprehended between the Wood River and that tribe.

The transports consisted of one keelboat, fifty-five feet long, carrying one large square sail and twenty-two oars, and two postognes – one of six and the other of seven oars. This encampment was opposite the mouth of the Missouri River.

All of the preparations being completed, the expedition left their encampment on Monday, May 14, 1804, at 4 o’clock p.m., and ascended the Missouri River about four miles and encamped for the first night on the first island opposite a small creek called Cold Water.”

 

TALKS WITH THE EARLY SETTLERS
By Mr. John B. Judd (1791-1879)
Source: Alton Telegraph, June 03, 1875
Hon. D. A. Spaulding, of Alton, has received the following reminiscences from an early settler of this county, now living at Pecatonica, in the northern part of this State, and sends the same to the Alton Telegraph for publication. The Indian story is new and characteristic of those early days:

“I left Pittsford, Rutland County, Vermont, May 28, 1818, in company with Levi Warner, for Illinois, with two horses and a wagon. Came to Cincinnati, took a flat bottom, put all aboard, and floated down the Ohio to Shawneetown, arriving July 13, 1818. Started for St. Louis, came to John Messinger's in St. Clair County, about three miles from Belleville; stayed a few days, then went to St. Louis, then back to Mr. Messinger's, then up to the Sangamon Country. No house after we left Edwardsville, and nothing but an old Indian trail, and but one woman in all that region; but a fine country this was.

August 10, 1818, came back, went to Pepe's Bluff on the Kaskaskia, fifteen miles above Carlyle, and wintered there. The next Spring, I started for Vermont on horseback. I was thirty-eight days making the trip. Twelve days sick and under the doctor's care. Twenty-six in riding what was called thirteen hundred miles. My weight generally is 165. I fed my mare but twice in twenty-four hours, at night one half bushel of oats, at noon one half of a bushel. She was fat and lively when I got through, in as good order as when I started. I went some days sixty-five miles.

I came back to Illinois in the Fall of 1819, spent the winter in Carlyle with my friend and partner, C. F. Hammond. In the Fall of 1820 we went to Vandalia, and Hammond and Judd had a little grocery store, a good span of horses and wagon to get our supplies with from St. Louis and other places, and do what came to hand. In March 1821, a surveyor came from Edwardsville to Vandalia and wanted to hire a team to carry a load of provision fifty miles east and thirty miles north from Vandalia. I agreed to go. The rivers were full. It was thought I could make the trip in six days, but we had two rivers to swim and so many delays, I was six days in getting out. Killed one bear and a few turkeys in going out, and then I must get back. I thought it not best to undertake to swim the little Wabash alone, so I had to go south between the little Wabash and Muddy, sixty miles to the Vincennes and the St. Louis Road. I struck the road all right, and then the horses straightened up the lines and pulled for dear life, and the dug cut up all manner of pranks, and we were soon at the Tavern, and horses fed a little. You may be sure they were hungry, ten days with 21 bushels of corn and what they could get of nights by grazing in the month of March. And so, the twelfth day, I got back to Vandalia and found Hammond on the bluff. Some thought I was lost or sick, or the horses sick. If I had not got home that day, they were going to start after me.

In April, three Indians were brought to Vandalia, two were tried for murder and sentenced to be hung in July. The Marshal lived at Kaskaskia and wished to hire a team to carry the three Indians there. I agreed to go and carry the Indians and one guard in my wagon. We started and went to Carlyle the first day, put the Indians in the barroom, and made up a bed in the hall opposite the barroom door for the guards, two in number. He told them but one must sleep at a time, and we all retired, but just at the break of day one of the Indians took up his ball and smashed one of the windows all to pieces, and leaped out, and one of the others followed. Such a screaming and hollowing you never heard, and such a rattling of glass it seemed as though all the glass in the house was broken. I was upstairs near a window. I looked out and saw them running. I slipped on my pants and boots and ran for my dog in the wagon house. I ran the way I saw them go, a half mile or so, and hissed on my dog, but I could see nothing nor could the dog. I then went back to the tavern and the Marshal warned out all the men in the village to help look them up. The guard said they went into the woods. I did not think so. I thought they went north, for that was the way they were headed as I looked out of the window. The Marshal and myself went north, and after we got about a mile up the river we parted. He made out into the prairie covered with hazel brush. I went over the bluff. It was agreed that if he found them, he was to halloo, and if I found them, I was to do so. I went right over the bluff, and there, at the foot of the hill, were the Indians. I hallooed with all my might, and started my horse on a quick motion, as one of the Indians started on a run, and I put after him and thought I would ride over him, but he tried to strike me with his ball, and I passed by, turned round, and drew my pistol, and then he went backwards. By this time the Marshal came, and I told him to shoot him down, as he showed so much fight. He was a big athletic Indian. The Marshal got off his horse and leaned up against a tree, and took aim at the Indian, but could not get his gun to go off; that gave more time to reflect and we concluded to try and take him. We got each of us a good club about two feet long, and the Indian got him one, and laid down his ball near the foot of a tree. I told the Marshal we would go up one on this side and the other on that side, and knock him down. He was to give the first blow. He struck but did not hit him. I rushed up and aimed my blow at his head, the Indian threw up his right arm to save his head. His arm was broken short off and hung down. Then he made motion for me to shoot him. I made motion for him to throw away his club, by throwing away mine, and he did so, and I walked up to him, pealed a basswood limb and laid his arm in it, took my silk pocket handkerchief, and slung it to his neck, took his ball and walked with him to town. The Marshal took my horse and got the other Indian. He was sick and did not offer to get away. Got a doctor to set the Indian's arm, and then went on, and I landed them in Kaskaskia, but this Indian died the third day after and the other was hung. Now these things took place from 54 to 57 years ago, and I do not know as there is one individual that will remember Hammond and Judd, or any of these circumstances that I have related.”

 

OLD SETTLERS REUNION AT MADISON COUNTY FAIR
September 30, 1875
Speech by Hon. Joseph Gillespie
From the Alton Weekly Telegraph, October 7, 1875
“Ladies and gentlemen, we are convened here as old settlers of Illinois, and I am expected to address you, but I have never, in the whole course of my life, been called upon to deal with a subject of so much difficulty. In the first place, it is difficult to determine what constitutes an old settler. If it signifies one who has been called upon to encounter the hardships and vicissitudes incident to the settlement of a new country, the period at which he arrived should be advanced as he settled farther north, for the northern portion of the State was a wilderness when St. Clair, Randolph and Madison counties were enjoying to some extent, the comforts of a fixed state of society and a comparatively advanced stage of civilization. Some have arbitrarily adopted the year 1830 as the criterion. Perhaps no better point of time could be selected although it might not be critically right to exclude those from the fellowship of old settlers who arrived here after 1830, notwithstanding they may not have passed through the tribulations of frontier life. I would, for myself, prefer not to fix upon any period the coming into the State before or at which should entitle the party to be considered an old settler.

We should carefully distinguish, however, between old settlers and the genuine pioneers - the old Indian fighters - the men who encountered not only the privations of frontier life, but braved the danger of the tomahawk and scalping knife. None of us, perhaps, who are here today, can claim the honor and glory of these avant couriers of civilization. There never was a class of men who combined the same degree of perfection, the qualities of hunter, farmer, soldier, and patriot, as did our Indian fighters. Many persons can brave the dangers of the battlefield, when they know of its approach, with serenity, whose minds would give way under the influence of constantly impending danger. The Indian fighter lived on, year in and year out, with the apprehension perpetually resting upon his mind that at any moment the terrible war-whoop of the savage might be ringing in his ears, and his wife and little ones be mercilessly butchered or carried away into captivity, a thousand times worse than death. He carries his gun in one hand while he holds the plow with the other. He never leaves his house except with his trusty rifle on his shoulder. The breaking of a twig or the rustling of a leaf may admonish him of the presence of his wily foe and of instant, deadly peril.

Your genuine pioneer does not merely stand to his post, but he seeks these places of danger. He is not in his element if he is not constantly menaced with these imminent perils, and subjected to the privation of a home in the wilderness. His resolution is like steel; he never flinches and never yields except it be for the moment, that he may return again to the theatre of the strife with a force more nearly commensurate to the emergency, when his indomitable will and unyielding courage finally and invariably give him the victory, and he destroys or drives the savage before him, and thus opens up and clears the way for those who come after him to enjoy the full fruits of his labors. How few of us ever think of the perils and privations of those who preceded us in these wilds, much less to honor them as they deserve. We are all in the habit of worshipping at the shrine of an Alexander, a Caesar, and a Napoleon, without taking into account the fact that in our neighborhood may repose the ashes of the equals, if not superiors, of those distinguished characters in all that goes to make up the hero and the benefactor. For unyielding courage, for skill, for being equal to every emergency, I believe that George Rogers Clark (although he operated in a humble sphere) was the compeer of the greatest soldiers of the world. But we, the men who came in next after these rugged pioneers, claim no credit for, and make no pretensions to, superiority over those who followed us in the settlement of the country, and the difficulty of speaking on this occasion is preferable to this predicament.

Ours is, unfortunately for our fame, not the heroic age. The process of the settlement of this western country after the expulsion of the aborigines, partook but little of the romantic, and was essentially of a prosaic character; but still it is not without interest to our fellow citizens and we may be pardoned for assembling together as we are doing today, and reviewing the incidents of bygone times. In thus doing, we may be furnishing some interesting information for our contemporaries as well as material for history, for the benefit of those who come after us. It is of immense importance that the historian should have accurate and unbiased sources of information if it is desirable that the truth should be communicated.

One event which happened in the early days of Illinois has almost destroyed my faith in the truth of history. Every man who lived in this State in 1832 knows that General James D. Henry was the prominent figure in the Black Hawk war of that year, that he fought the only battles of any note that took place, and gained the only victories that were won, and that there was no other name known amongst our people but that of Henry as the hero of the war; and yet strange to say, in the histories of that war compiled from materials in the war office, at Washington city, the name of General James D. Henry [1797-1834] is never mentioned, either as officer or private. He is as completely ignored as if he had never existed. Governors Reynolds and Ford, in their sketches of the history of Illinois, have endeavored to snatch the name of General Henry from the oblivion to which those who made the reports to the war department have consigned him, but as falsehood travels farther and faster than the truth, their efforts to have justice done have been unavailing. Peons(?) will be chanted to the name of Atkinson, who commanded the regulars, but who had no opportunity of participating in the battles, and fame will carry him down to posterity as the champion of the war, while the name of Henry, its real hero, will remain unhonored and unsung. Such is history in the full blaze of the nineteenth century and under our own eyes and observation. If we old settlers cannot boast of battles fought and victories won, we may without undue self-adulation claim some credit for enterprise and a spirit of adventure."

[Editor's Notes: James D. Henry was born in Pennsylvania in 1797. By the time he reached adulthood, Henry was barely able to read or write, having spent much of his time working in trades. In 1822, he arrived in Edwardsville, Illinois and began working as a mechanic (laborer) by day, while attending school at night. On January 29, 1825, while at the Benjamin Stephenson house for a party, Daniel D. Smith was stabbed to death. Apparently, an argument occurred and Smith was later found in the dining room with a stab wound. As the group was picking him up, he uttered "Winchester," and died. News reports in The Spectator (Edwardsville, Illinois) indicated that Smith was "killed in an affray" at the Stephenson House. Henry, James W. Stephenson, and Palemon Winchester were indicted for the murder. Though all three men were charged with the crime, Stephenson and Henry were released on bond. Winchester was the only defendant who wound up facing trial in the murder. Winchester's lawyer argued that Smith was guilty of verbal assault against the defendant and Winchester was found not guilty. The verdict was reported in The Spectator on March 22, 1825. In 1826, Henry moved to Springfield, Illinois, where he worked as a merchant. Soon after arriving in Springfield, Henry was elected Sheriff of Sangamon County. When the Winnebago War broke out in 1827, Henry acted as adjutant for four companies of volunteers. In 1831, in response to Black Hawk’s incursion into Illinois, he was put in command of a regiment. Black Hawk left Illinois without bloodshed, but returned in 1832, which ignited the war. Henry played a major role in the Battle of Wisconsin Heights, leading four mounted Illinois regiments in combat against Black Hawk’s warriors. After the war, sick with disease of the lungs, Henry sought respite in New Orleans, where he died at the age of 37 years on March 5, 1834. A memorial service for Henry was held at the Sangamon County Courthouse in Springfield, Illinois, on April 20, 1834. It was attended by Abraham Lincoln and other State dignitaries. The city of Henry, Marshall County, Illinois, established the year he died, was named for him.]

"I set out by remarking that the subject of addressing you on this occasion seemed to me to be barren and fruitless, and I much regret that an address was imposed on me or expected by you. If I speak in terms of high commendation of the old settlers, people will think that we belong to the mutual admiration society, and that these assemblages are for the purpose of gratifying our inordinate vanity. There are some things which may, however, I think, be said of the old settlers without doing violence to the most fastidious taste. One of these things is that we all came to this country poor and needy. Every cent of money which we could scrape up was put in the land offices and expended upon the seaboard; and the country was as destitute of currency as was Sparta of gold in the days of Lycurgus. To give an instance of the scarcity of money in the old times, I will mention an adventure of my own, which was not exceptional by any means.

In the fall of 1829, I started from Phillips' Ferry, on the Illinois River, to foot it to my father's house in the American Bottom, in Madison County; and one dollar was the whole of my cash capital. Of course, I did not expect to be able to get through on that sum. I intended when my money ran out to go to work for whatever I could get and thus replenish my exchequer until I could pay my way through. But, owing to the hard times, although I offered my dollar to every person from whom I obtained food and lodging, I was unable to find anyone who could change it until I reached Carrollton, in Greene County; and thus, I traveled for the distance of nearly one hundred miles without finding a person who could give change for a single dollar. This was owing to the fact that the money brought into the country went immediately into the land offices; also, that we had no facilities for trade; very few steamboats had been built and the commerce of the country by our rivers was carried on in flat boats. A few farmers who lived in the neighborhood of navigable waters would club together and build a flat boat and load it with the products of their farms, and take it to New Orleans where they would sell the cargo and give the boat away, and trudge home afoot with the proceeds of their adventure. These were the only men who could realize anything but a bare subsistence from the products of their farmers. Persons living at a distance from the rivers were dependent for the little money that passed through their hands upon beeswax and peltries; with these commodities they realized by dint of great effort and the most rigid economy, money enough to buy their salt and iron, pay their doctor's bills and taxes, and provide a little sugar and coffee and tea for the entertainment of visitors and in time of sickness. These were the ‘times that tried men's soles’ for they generally went barefooted during the summer season. They tanned their own leather and made their own shoes for winter. Every article of a man's clothing was made at home. Cotton, flax and wool were all grown in the country, and the women picked, carded, spun and wove it into garments for themselves, their husbands, children and families. Every house was a miniature manufactory, in which there was a spinning wheel and a loom. Then you would hear the click of the loom and the hum of the spinning wheel all over the land, and I confess it was sweeter music to my uncultivated taste than the strains of the piano, which we hear on all occasions now-a-days. Everything worn was of home manufacture. Our girls dressed in homespun - such a thing as a silk dress was unknown, and I think they were as prettily and becomingly dressed then as now; at least a pretty girl in a well-fitting dress, which was the work of her own hands and head, appeared as engaging to me and as charming in my eyes as can the modern belle, who is arrayed in costly silks and laces, wrought in the manufactories of Marseilles and Brussels, and made up by some eminent Parisian milliner at a cost which would buy a good sized farm, appear to the gaze of the dainty and fortune-hunting admirer. These were the women who made modest wives and mothers, and, with half a chance, comfortable homes. Their condition in life and the circumstances by which they were surrounded endowed them with sterling good sense and good nature, and they were fit to train up sons to become the honored and accepted rulers of nations.

They knew nothing of the trashy writings of Dickens and Paul DeKoch, but they had carefully read their Bibles and were posted in the history of their own and other kindred nations. These honored mothers have almost entirely passed away, and if their daughters shall set their parts as well and leave as precious memories behind them, I shall be delighted.

I was speaking of the poverty in money of the old settlers of this country. How they came here poor and put every cent they could get into the land offices, from whence it went to be expended by the government in the consummation of costly, and, as we sometimes thought, of useless public works on the seaboard. We had no railroads to facilitate the transportation of our products to the places where they would find a market. I have known where I live, in the immediate neighborhood of St. Louis, corn to sell for five cents a bushel, wheat 37 1/4 cents; beef and pork 1 1/c per pound; good cows and calves, $5.

Thinking men, not able to foresee that railroads would be invented and introduced, and would so facilitate and cheaper transportation as to give to our farmers living remote from navigable streams the same opportunities of reaching a market that others enjoyed, concluded that this constant drain without any return would place this country in the same sad condition that Ireland was in, whose landlords all live and spent the rents of their estates abroad; and so they were exceedingly anxious to care appropriations made for the improvement of our rivers, so that we might get back a portion of the money that had been drained from us through the land offices. But for many years, Congress turned a deaf ear to our entreaties, and when it began to look with more favor on our claims and the might of our adversity appeared to be passing away, we were startled by the announcement in the message vetoing the Maysville road bill, that no appropriations could be constitutionally made for improvements above a port of entry which were then all on the sea board. This dashed our hopes and we were again driven almost to despair until Mr. Clay's land bill appeared, which treated the proceeds of the sales of the public land not as revenue (after the debt of the revolution had been paid) but as a fund for the common benefit of all the States, according to the language of the deed of cession of Virginia to the United States. The bill proposed to give to the States in which the land lay, twelve percent of the proceeds and also their share of the residue according to population with the whole United States. This bill passed and became a law in spite of the most determined opposition and from it the first relief from pecuniary pressure was derived by the new States. New England, which, like the other old States, was unmindful of the wants and interests of the young west, was won over to this measure from a consideration of the fact that if the proceeds of the sales of the public lands were not to be treated as revenue and go into the treasury, there would be a necessity for the continuance of the duties that would afford protection to her infant manufactories. This was a grand piece of statesmanship which broke the ligament that held the new States in the condition of hewers of wood and drawers of water to the old ones. Things gradually commenced to mend and the necessity for a system of internal improvements began to force itself upon our people. The utility of railroads for a country like this, of wonderful natural agricultural resources, became strikingly apparent, and in 1836 a system was adopted which was intended to embrace the whole State. Sections of the country not provided with railroads or canals were to be compensated for the worth of them in money. The State was to have a board of public works who were to direct operations. Politicians composed the board, of course, and improvements were commenced all over the State at the same time. Instead of concentrating their energies on one road and finishing it before proceeding with another, a little work was done here and a little there, without any connection or continuity, and after the expenditure of $16,000,000 there was not a mile of railroad in the State of any practical utility. There was at that time an inordinate prejudice against corporations and they were sedulously excluded from all participation in the works of internal improvement then contemplated - the glory of the achievement was to be reserved, exclusively, for the politicians of the day, who knew no more of railroad building than did a Digger Indian. The Hon. Cyrus Edwards, who was then in the Legislature from Madison county, made strenuous exertion, to combine the shrewdness and energy of capital with the efforts and credit of the State in carrying on the enterprise, but he was unsuccessful. Corporations were to have no part or lot in the matter. This was afterwards universally admitted to have been a great blunder, as private affairs are universally better managed than those of the public. If these roads had been subject to the check of companies, the roads would have been constructed one at a time, and the States would have had something for its money. As it was the system broke down leaving a debt of $16,000,000 resting upon the State which we have been straining every nerve to pay ever since. Now, thank Heaven, we are nearly through with the consequences of this folly.

The next great step in the progress of internal improvements was the chartering of the Central Railroad and authorizing the completion of the Illinois and Michigan canal. These two enterprises served the purpose of inviting an intelligent, enterprising and industrious population to settle and build up the country along the backbone of the State, which, perhaps, without this inducement would scarcely have been done to this day. These two enterprises were accomplished through the instrumentality of private incorporations and without costing the State or nation one cent. It is true that 2,600,000 acres of land were donated by the nation to the State and by the State to the company for constructing the road; but the United States doubled the price of the alternate sections and thus received in less than twelve months, after the construction of the road was begun, as much money for their public land in that region as they would probably have realized in fifteen years if the road had not been projected. The State also allowed a private corporation to advance the money necessary to complete the canal and gave it a lien upon its tolls and charges until they were repaid; under this arrangement the canal was completed, the money advanced refunded out of its earnings and the work delivered over to the State. This railroad and canal not only expedited the settlement and prosperity of a section of country which would, without them, have been backward in its settlement, but they stimulated in a marvelous degree the development of the greatest interior city on this continent - a city, which for the rapidity of its growth, the energy of its people, the magnificence of its structures and the extent of its business is without a parallel in the world's history. In addition to the accommodations this road has afforded to the trade and travel of the country, it has paid, besides what was expended in its construction among our people, about $7,000,000 into our State treasury, and it will continue to pay into our coffers at least half a million a year. This has been a great relief to us; it is a sum which equals nearly half the debt entailed upon us by the old internal improvement system.

Illinois has prospered greatly and has risen from having a population of 40,000, since I came to the State in 1819, to at least 3,000,000. She has more miles of railroad than any State in the Union, and we want more still. We want railroads increased until the competition between them will reduce their charges to the lowest figures, at which they can operate without loss - lower than that it would be folly and criminality in us to desire. Since I have let the cat out, I will make a clean breast of it, and say boldly that I have ever been and expect to be an advocate of the policy of operating through companies in the construction of works of internal improvement. The companies are composed of such individuals as you and I. whenever an enterprise cannot be accomplished by the efforts and means of one man, it is, if desirable, effected by an association of individuals. If it is a scheme of doubtful expediency, one man may not be willing to risk his all in it, but a hundred men may each put in as much as he thinks he can put at hazard and accomplish the desired object. This is all that an incorporation means. It is an association of individuals (good or bad, as the case may). All that I ask for them is that they be treated just as you treat others - no better and no worse. If they act badly, punish them; if they act properly commend them. What I desire to condemn is the indiscriminate warfare which some are disposed to wage upon them. One thing is certain, that without corporations we should have had no railroads, no costly bridges, no mining or manufacturing establishments, no steamboats, and the prosperity of the country would be far behind its present state. The use of capital in its aggregated form is as much an evidence of high civilization as is the government under which we live. On the whole we are a prosperous community, although just at the present we are suffering from what I believe to be a highly injurious and unnecessary contraction of the currency.

Of one thing we must, as dispassionate observers, take note, and that is that we are inhabitants of a new country, but aspire to the enjoyment of all the accessories of the most advanced civilization. We are unwilling to be behind the oldest communities; we are having erected at our capitol the finest State House in the Union; we have built jails, poor houses and court houses, which would do credit to the most advanced society; in almost every district in the State you will find one or more elegant and costly school houses; our charitable institutions are erected on the grandest scale. In many of the counties substantial and expensive bridges have been provided. All this has been the work of the first and second generations, whereas in older communities similar improvements would have occupied several ages. We have been greatly benefitted in modern times by mechanical contrivances calculated to save labor and increase production. In my early days small grain was all harvested with the sickle, when to cut a fourth of an acre was a good day's work. Now, with a good reaper and a pair of horses, a dozen acres may be disposed of in the same time. Then the grain was threshed with a flail or tramped out by horses and winnowed by two men with a sheet; this was a slow process. Now a threshing machine, driven by a portable steam engine, will thresh and clean six or eight hundred bushels per day; mowing was then done by hand as well as the winnowing, cocking, stacking or loading. Now, you cut by horse power; you rake and stack or load by the same means, and with much greater ease and rapidity. Then the plowman trudged over every inch of ground that he turned up; now while he is breaking up or cultivating his land he can be snugly seated with an umbrella over his head if he so desires. In these respects, you, gentlemen, have greatly the advantage of the old settlers; and you, ladies, are much more eligibly situated than your mothers were. They had no cooking stoves or ranges to diminish their labor, to preserve their complexion, as you have; they had no sewing machines by which ten times the work could be done in a given time that could be accomplished by hand. Now, if you wish to travel, you can go as far in one hour as you could have gone in old times in a day, and be as comfortable all the time as if by your own fireside. Before the day of railroads the only marts of commerce were on the navigable streams - St. Louis was pretty much the only one for this whole section of country; now every railroad station is a place at which you can sell and from which can be shipped in all conditions of weather your produce. We are indebted to the inventor for these grand accommodations which have added so much to the ease, comfort and wealth of our people. One man now can cultivate twice as much land as he could formerly. Language is incapable of expressing a tithe of the gratitude we ought to feel towards our mechanical benefactors, and yet we never bestow upon them a thought. But should a strolling singer or violin player land upon our shores wealth in countless thousands would be heaped upon him or her, and we would go beside ourselves in man worship, and pretend to be in ecstasies about something we would no more understand than we would a lecture in Pottowattomie.

Perhaps the greatest weakness in the American character is its penchant for apeing the follies of foreign nations. We hear of some distinguished Italian prima donna, who delights an audience in her own country and receives as her only reward their plaudits; and she comes to this land to get some more substantial recompense in the shape of thousands for an evening's entertainment, by singing in a language of which we understand not one word and in a style peculiarly un-American and to which we are utter strangers, and of which we must, in the nature of things, be incapable of appreciating.

Providence has not only been bountiful to this State in the way of agricultural resources, but has furnished us with a coal field co-extensive with nearly the whole area of the commonwealth. We are caught by this fact, taken in connection with the vast deposits of iron in Missouri, that we must combine manufacturing and mining industry with our agricultural pursuits. When we consider that in England they dig a thousand feet deep to obtain iron ore that only yields forty per cent of metal, and import the most of the food for the operatives and ship the iron 8,500 miles across the Atlantic and 1,300 miles up the Mississippi, and that we have ore of 70 per cent purity piled up in mountains with the coal in its immediate neighborhood, with a superabundance of food and a demand for the articles when made, we must conclude either that we should make our own iron or that Providence made a great mistake in the location of the food, the demand, and the raw material. No country, I maintain, can be wealthy that it is dependent alone upon any one branch of industry. That is, there will not be wealth enough to enable all the people to live, as we think every American citizen ought to live, on the profits or agricultural industry, under the most favorable circumstances. Take for instance Egypt, the soil of which is like a garden spot; there is a great show of wealth there, but it is all in the hands of the Khedive; the people are allowed scarcely food enough to keep soul and body together. One American family would consume as much of the means of subsistence as a whole village. Look at India, rich in agricultural resources, yet there is not in all her wealth enough to render her whole population comfortable, her riches make a great show because they are all in the hands of her British masters or her native rulers. Neither Egypt nor India has had the benefits arising from mining, manufacturing or commercial pursuits, and hence their actual poverty. We should do everything in our power to develop and promote all the industries of which the country is capable. The old settlers were thoroughly imbued with the correct principles upon which Republican government is based. No matter how lawless a man might be in his practice, his theory was right. He never claimed a right to break the law because he did not approve of it. If he did not approve of the Sunday or the liquor law, for instance, he would say that he would do all in his power to have them repealed or modified, but never did it enter into his head that he had a right to disregard them while they were on the statute books - he had too much intelligence not to know that it would be destructive of all government to claim and exercise the right of violating them. He knew that if he had the right to set one law at naught another man might do the same with another, and so on until we would have a state of complete anarchy. A people who claim and exercise the right of disregarding a law because they don't approve of it are as unfit for self-government as Fiji Islanders. It was the constant boast of the old settler that he was a law abiding man; he knew the inestimable value of government and laws, as he had sometimes stood in need of, and been without their protecting influence. No thoughtful man who had lived without government would ever be willing to do so again, such men knew that the worst government is better than none.

One characteristic of the American pioneer, and which distinguishes him from all others, is the manner in which he makes his location for a residence: he selects a piece of ground remote from his neighbors, without regard to danger from Indians, and on it builds his house and settles his family in it. A French or other European colony will have a common field, which will be laid off into narrow strips, a few rods wide and miles long, each colonist has his strip, and they can all be abreast of each other while cultivating their land. The village is built on some part of the common field, and the houses are erected close together, so the inmates can assist each other and be familiar. If a fiddle is sounded in one house it can be heard throughout the village. Whoever has seen a plat of the common fields and village of Cahokia, Prairie du Rocher, or Kaskaskia, can understand the European system of colonization. These people never extended their possessions, except like the bees, by giving out another colony which locates like the parent hive did. The Americans spread by individual efforts. They cover as much territory as will satisfy the desires of the community, and when a new member comes in, he selects a location for himself and does not, like the European, have a subdivision of the common field until there are enough newcomers or children of the old stock to form a new colony and have a new allotment. The American system is the most aggressive and it is impossible, in the nature of things, for the Americans and the aborigines to avoid hostilities for any considerable length of time. The American will encroach, and the Indian will repel, and war inevitably ensues, which is only another way of describing the extermination of the Indians. Notwithstanding this aggressive and domineering disposition of the Western American in his dealings with Indians, he assimilates with other races and nationalities with greater facility than any other people. England conquered Ireland more then 600 years ago, and yet she has never succeeded in anglicizing the Irish people. Austria, Prussia, and Russia partitioned Poland nearly 100 years since, and yet the feeling of Polish nationality is as strong today in what was Poland as it was in the days of Kosciusko. France conquered Algeria about 40 years ago, and not an Algerian has been won over to the side of the conquerors; these conquered nations are all kept in subjection by the bayonet. We obtained Louisiana in 1802; Florida in 1812; Texas, New Mexico, and California about 1846. The former inhabitants of the acquisitions and the American population that went in immediately fraternized and here has not been the least discord or jar between the races. Everything has gone on swimmingly, and there has never been the least complaint of hostility or undue extortion having been committed by the American part of the population.

The old settlers were remarkably tolerant on the subject of religion; although they had very decided opinions on points of faith, they considered it highly dishonorable to question a man's right to worship according to the dictates of his own conscience. They were a highly sociable people, and diligently attended all the log-fellings, house-raisings, harvestings, corn-shuckings, weddings, Fourth of July celebrations, musters, horse races, pitched battles, shooting-matches, elections, and political gatherings. This they did partly for the purpose of picking up whatever news was afloat, but principally because they were fond of the excitement of the occasion. They were remarkable hospitable, and would generally importune travelers to stop with them and treat them to the best the house afforded, and would take offense if you offered to pay them (I speak now of the settlers of southern extraction). They were not generally very industrious and seemed to be satisfied with raising a patch of corn and cotton, tobacco, watermelons, some horses, cattle, sheep, and hogs, and, although they manifested in some respects a high sense of gallantry, they never performed any part of what was considered a women's work, they did not, like many who have come in recently, require her to do their work, nor did they perform hers. The husband or son never raised the cow if there was a woman about the house. No pains were taken to make their work lighter, rather than dig a well, most of the old settlers would allow their women to bring water from a spring a quarter of a mile off. Sometimes a man would haul a load of water to the house on a cricket, but then he was more obliging and considerate than the common run.

I believe I have sketched the prominent events in the early history of Illinois, and delineated the leading traits in the character of her early settlers. If I have done so acceptably and with profit to you, it will afford me very great pleasure; if I have failed, all I can say is that you were unfortunate in the choice of a speaker, and must do better next time. It will not do to allow the spirit of keeping the forefathers in view to brag. I commend our New England brethren for holding up to the public gaze the noble greatness of the Pilgrim Fathers, and I have no doubt that that has had its influence and stamped its impress upon New England character, and has given to the New England family the qualities which entitles it to be considered the most intellectual and predominant family in the world.

I wish to say to our young friends that there are certain cardinal principles by which I think they ought to be governed. They should maintain the integrity of the Union above all things, and make all men equal before the laws. You are not thereby required to concede the social equality of men. They should accord to every man the most thorough religious liberty, but eschew everything that would tend to bring about a union of church and State; observe all laws constitutionally enacted, whether they approve of them or not, until they can be repealed or modified; preserve as you would the apple of your eye, non-sectarian common schools for the children of all, and at the public expense; allow no property, except that which belongs to the whole public, to be exempt for uniform taxation. In political affairs, prefer good men and good measures to the behests of party.”

 

A SERIES OF SKETCHES RELATING TO EVENTS THAT OCCURRED PREVIOUS TO 1813 IN ILLINOIS
By Nehemiah Matson of Bureau County, Illinois; 1882
British Take Possession of Illinois
"In the summer of 1764, Major Loftus, with three hundred British soldiers, ascended the Mississippi River in boats from Bayou Manchea, to take possession of Illinois, as France had ceded it to England a short time before. While these troops were on their way up the river, and before reaching their destination, they were attacked and defeated by a body of Indians, which compelled them to abandon the enterprise and return to the fort at Bayou Manchea.

In the Spring of 1765, an expedition under Captain Croghan left Fort Pitt to take possession of Illinois, but on reaching the mouth of the Wabash, they were taken prisoners by the Shawnee Indians, and carried to a village near Vincennes. In the following Fall, the third expedition against Illinois left Fort Pitt, under the command of Captain Stirling, who took possession of the country without opposition, and from that time the British flag waved over Fort Chartres.

The British rule was very unpopular with the French, and many of them went west of the Mississippi so they could be under the laws of their native country. This change of government displeased the Indians, and they would have attacked the British for the purpose of driving them out of the country, if their friends among the French had not counseled otherwise. When the British took possession of Illinois, Captain Pitman, by the authority of his government, visited all the French villages except Peoria, and gave a description of them, including population, trade, public buildings, etc. The French inhabitants were living in six villages, all except one on the American Bottom, and estimates the inhabitants at three thousand, the most of whom were engaged in agricultural pursuits.

The American Bottom
This section of country, so ofttimes referred to by the early western historian, lies on the east side of the Mississippi, extending from Alton to the mouth of the Kaskaskia River, a distance of about seventy miles in length, and from three to eight miles in width. This tract of land consisted of timber and prairie, about equally divided, and much of it subject to inundation, but for fertility of soil, it probably is unequaled in the western country. During the first century of the French occupation of Illinois, the only permanent settlement (except Peoria) was made on this Bottom, and here the descendants of the early pioneers continued to live. The old towns on this Bottom still remain French in language (in 1882), customs, and habits, and the people have but little intercourse with those speaking the English language.

The name American Bottom began at the time Illinois came under U.S. jurisdiction, from the following circumstance: The west side of the river being known as Louisiana, or New Spain, while on the east, in the river bottom, was called American – hence American Bottom, which name it continued to bear. In the early settlement of the country, the valley of the Mississippi, from the Gulf of Mexico to the Great Lakes, was known as Louisiana, designated as upper and lower country. Later, the settlements on both sides of the Mississippi were known as the Illinois Country, and the same laws were in force, it being one country. After the west side was ceded to Spain, it became known as Louisiana, and the territory assumed the name of Missouri in about 1810. Five years after, it was ceded to the United States.

Captivity of Amanda Wolsey
In the Spring of 1813, a man by the name of Joab Wolsey emigrated from Kentucky, and made a claim in the Wood River settlement, about 30 miles northeast of Cahokia. The family consisted of a wife and four children, the eldest named Amanda, a girl of fifteen years of age, and of a beautiful appearance. Mr. Wolsey had built a cabin on his claim, in which his family were quartered, and was about to commence breaking prairie ground. His cabin occupied an exposed situation, being on the outskirts of the Wood River settlement, two or three miles from neighbors. No one anticipated the great calamity which was about to overtake that little settlement on the Wood River. On the afternoon of a bright Spring day, while Wolsey was fixing his plow and training his oxen, a half-breed, dressed in citizen’s clothing, called at the cabin and inquired about some horses which he said had strayed away. It was noticed that the stranger carried a large knife and heavy pistol in his belt, and his manner of looking around the premises caused Mrs. Wolsey to think that the visit of this stranger was for some evil purpose. On the night after the half-breed’s visit, while all the family was sleeping, the cabin was surrounded by Indians. Wolsey, his wife, and three children were killed, and the house set on fire. Amanda was made a prisoner, and held in the arms of a strong savage while she witnessed the murder of her parents, brothers, and sisters, and their dwelling in flames. On the following day, the mutilated remains of the victims were found, one of the children having been consumed in the cabin. On the same night, three other families in the same settlement were attacked by Indians, many of the inmates slain, houses burned, and horses killed or stolen. Amanda Wolsey, on becoming a prisoner, was placed on an Indian pony, guarded by two warriors, and carried off a captive into the Indian country. The party having charge of the captive belonged to Waba band, who had a village on the south side of the Illinois River, almost opposite the outlet of Lake DePue [in Bureau County, Illinois, adjacent to the town of Depue]. The Indians treated their prisoner with respect, supplying her with a dress, and painting her face in accordance to Indian custom, and she associated with young maidens of her own age. She frequently accompanied the youths of both sexes to Starved Rock and neighboring villages, where they had dances and parties. A young chief fell in love with her, and proposed to make her his wife, but she repulsed his advances, looking forward to a time when she would be liberated and restored to friends and civilization. She had ofttimes thought of mounting a pony during the night when all were asleep, and leaving for the settlement, but the great distance to be traveled, nearly two hundred miles, deterred her from this hazardous undertaking.

The summer had now passed, and the Indians were making preparations to leave their village for their annual hunt, when a messenger arrived in great haste, bringing the startling tidings that a large army had reached Peoria. This caused great excitement among the Indians, as their village was liable to be attacked at any moment. That night, during the bustle and excitement, Amanda escaped from the village, mounted a pony, and put it at the top of speed down the river in the direction of Peoria. Unfortunately, her flight was discovered, and a number of warriors started in pursuit. The fugitive was overtaken in her flight, captured, carried back, and placed in close confinement. In December following, a treaty of peace was made with the Indians, its conditions providing that all captives were to be liberated and returned to their friends. Under this treaty, Amanda Wolsey was carried back to the settlement and set free."

 

ALTON IN 1845
Written by Benjamin Franklin Barry of St. Louis
Source: Alton Telegraph, March 22, 1883
"I arrived in Alton March 29, 1845, having been seventeen days on my journey from Boston, my native city, having come to New York by steamer, thence to Philadelphia and Cumberland by cars and stage over the mountains, thence by boat to St. Louis, where I took a stage for Alton, for in those days the U.S. mail was carried by stages. As I entered Alton, it appeared like a quaint old town. The buildings in the business portion being built largely of limestone, with a few brick or frame buildings sandwiched between. The principal hotels were the Alton House, A. L. Corson, landlord; Franklin House, G. W. Fox; the Piasa Hotel, J. W. Hart. I was taken to the Franklin Hotel, where I was received by Mr. Fox in his usual smiling, urbane manner. I spent my first day in strolling over the city. Second [Broadway] and State Streets were the only business streets of any importance. The stores were mostly retail, where a general stock was displayed for sale, and one or two were dignified with the title of jobbers. There were a few exceptions, E. L. Dimmock kept an exclusive boot and shoe stock; C. Phinney kept the “Boston Grocery,” and I think Bowman & Johnson and Isaac Scarritt dealt exclusively in dry goods. On the corner of Second and State Streets, Hurlbut, Watson & Co. kept a general store, where Egbert Dodge was a clerk. They lived near General Semple’s in Sempletown, and remained in the city but a short time.

The millers were Sebastian and Peter Wise, who occupied the stone building on the south side of Short Street [West end of Broadway], west of State Street, formerly occupied by Godfrey and Gilman, where Sparks’ mill now stands. In those days, wheat sold for 37 ½ cents per bushel, and flour sold from $3 to $3.50 per barrel, and during those days, fortunes were made in a year. I remember hearing “Boston” Wise say, when asked how business was at his mill, “Well, we are doing very well, we are making a ‘picayune a puff,’ which ought to satisfy any reasonable man.” Lamb & Lea had a stone mill on the corner of Second and Piasa Streets. It was a happy year for all millers.

The post office was in a two-story stone building on the north side of Second, near Piasa. I have forgotten who was postmaster, but next door, west, was uncle John Hatch’s jewelry store, in which W. W. Cary was chief clerk, and who succeeded him in business when he went to California. Just west of Mr. Hatch was a job mill, which the Bruner brothers, John, James, and William, carried on, and supplied Alton and vicinity with corn meal. John Hatch had a lively son, Johnny. He was up to all sorts of capers, and was a noted swimmer for his age (twelve), and one Sunday morning he and another boy attempted to, and did, swim across the river to the island. One of the Deacons of the Presbyterian Church, a good man now at rest, felt impelled to speak to Mr. Hatch and expostulate with the father upon his son’s thus desecrating the Sabbath. On presenting the case, Mr. Hatch, in his dry, quaint manner, replied, “Is that so? Well, he is just the boy that can do it.” The Deacon left feeling that both father and son were incorrigible.

In those days, Samuel Pitts Sr. kept a coffee house on the south side of Second Street, where he dispensed liquids stronger than coffee. I honor him by saying that he was a man possessing strong moral principles of duty in conducting his business, for the writer, then a mere boy, visited his place asking for port wine, which he refused to sell me, but in place of wine gave me a good old-fashioned temperance lecture upon the sin of young boys drinking. I never visited him after that rebuke, but have never forgotten the lecture.

The legal talent in Alton was of a high order in those days. Such men as George T. M. Davis, David J. Baker, Newton D. Strong, L. B. Parsons, E. Keating, Judges Webb and Martin, John Waldo Lincoln (son of Ex. Governor Lincoln of Massachusetts), and Nelson G. Edwards and others supplied the talent. Few cities of the size of Alton could boast of greater legal acumen than was possessed by the names given. All lived and died (who have passed away) with the laurel leaf of victory entwined about them. Nelson G. Edwards was a young man of brilliant intellect, who was taken from earth in the very prime of life. He was beloved by all, not only for his talents, but his rare social qualities, and had he been permitted to live, might have attained to the highest position of honor upon the bench or in the hall of Congress.

One place the boys of 1845 will remember was the “little Cubby” in the rear of Amasa Stetson Barry’s drugstore, on State Street, kept by John Frederick Hoffmeister. “Hoff” sold ginger pop, cakes, pies, etc., and many a picayune have I expended there (after the lecture given me by Mr. Pitts) in quaffing the nectar ginger pop. Everybody drank it, and “Hoff” was a most wonderful man in depleting the boys of their small change, for he treated them all kindly and kept articles children enjoyed.

Third Street in those days was a residence Street, but few small stores there. Judge Martin had his residence on the north side. A frame building occupied the lot where the Alton Bank building stands, and on the corner where Professor Marsh has his drugstore, was the residence of Mrs. Wood, who also taught school, and further north on Belle Street was the brick residence of Mack Pierson.

Piasa Creek in those days was an open stream, and at times of heavy rains would pour its floods bank full. There was a bridge crossing the creek at Second Street, but north, it had to be forded. The old Piasa House was kept by J. W. Hart, and was a favorite resort for farmers and teamsters, for Uncle John always gave his patrons clean beds, good meals, and took excellent care of the teams, and was, withal, a pleasant social man, so that all who stopped at the Piasa while he was the landlord felt as much at home as if in their own house.

One thing that interested me in those days was the large painting on the face of the rocky bluff, above the old mill, of the Piasa Bird. I used to gaze upon it and wonder how the artist did the work, for it was fully one hundred feet above the bed of the river, and many feet below the top of the bluff, and was immense in size. It was at that early day, badly scarified by the marks of bullets which had sped with unerring aim from the rifles of the Indians as they passed up and down the river, for they never failed to fire upon it in passing, and oft times when I could not see any steamboat, I knew by the crack of the rifles that a steamboat was coming down with Indians on board. It has been long since obliterated by the ruthless hand of man in quarrying stone for building purposes, but it ought to have been preserved as a legend of centuries ago.

The old Telegraph was then a young paper under the editorial management of John Bailhache. It was a newsy sheet, though but a weekly. S. R. Dolbee, William Souther, and W. H. Bailhache were connected with it as compositors, pressmen, etc.

The penitentiary was then in its prime, Colonel Buckmaster was at that time warden. M. H. Filley was one of the guards, so also was Mr. Carhart. Mr. Fleming was either guard or in the office, also young Stephen Pierson was in the office. Colonel Samuel Buckmaster was a noble specimen in those days of a chivalrous gentleman. He was a true friend and courteous enemy, though of enemies he had but few, for he was high-minded and honorable in all dealings.

There were, as far as I can remember, five churches. The old Methodist on Belle Street, which, standing in the street where Belle Street now runs, made a curve in the street. The Presbyterian Church, corner of Second and Market, and the church on the corner of Third and Market. The Baptist Church was on the corner of Second and Easton Streets. The Catholic Church was built at that time on the ground where the Unitarian Church now stands, which was burned about 1850, and the walls sold to the Unitarian Society.

The old citizens, many of them have passed away. W. A. Holton kept a drugstore on Second Street, and John Dill was an assistant compounder of prescriptions. For over thirty years he has been a resident of St. Louis, and for many years he has been connected with the editorial staff of the Missouri Republican, and he often speaks of Alton, showing it still holds a warm place in his heart. The butchers were J. H. and Albert Smith and Peter Goff. The latter was a stalwart, weighting 260 pounds, and a Hercules in strength. He was a terror to the disturbing element of Alton, for many have felt the power of his blows as they were rained upon them by his scientific hands, even in an unequal contest of three or four upon one. My mind reverts to the boys of my own age: Joseph Quigley, Frank Edwards, Andrew T. Hawley, George E. Hawley, D. C. Adams, D. D. Ryrie, Dr. I. E. Hardy, and many others, some are still living, but many have departed, I trust, to a happier world.

The Luella was the favorite packet, owned and run by that gentlemanly officer, Captain W. P. Lamothe. The Governor Briggs was the opposition boat. The Luella was the fastest boat running above St. Louis. Mike Ohlman was at the wheel, and his brother, Lawrence, was in the cabin, and in after years became one of the most skillful pilots on the river.

I could continue to spin out my thoughts upon paper, for new themes come up before me, but I must stop, lest I weary your readers in perusing it. Success to the Telegraph.” Signed Benjamin F. Barry

NOTES:
Benjamin F. Barry was a brother of Amasa Stetson Barry. Benjamin went into the drug business in Alton with Amasa until 1862, when he moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. After the Civil War, he moved to St. Louis, where he remained until his death in 1889.

 

EARLY DAYS IN ALTON
By an Old Resident - J. H. S.
Source: Alton Telegraph, May 3, 1883
“The name of the first Alton school teacher was Abijah Davis. Among his scholars were Matthew Gillespie, Eleazar Hayden, Mary Imes, Thomas Hayden, Gerder Evans, Nathan Howard, Martha and Harriet Tomlinson, James and Jefferson Denton, James Miller, S. B. Catts, W. C. Quigley, Austin Seely, A. G. Smith, John H. Smith, Sam Howard, two daughters of Beal Howard, Hamilton Hunter, John Slaten, the late Robert DeBow’s wife, James Easton, Hezekiah Hopkinson, and John and Nathaniel Pinckard.

The next teacher, C. Howard, was also a lawyer and preacher. At that time, W. G. Pinckard and Nathaniel Gillespie were butchers, and supplied our citizens with meat.

The third teacher was John M. Krum, afterwards Mayor of Alton, since a resident of St. Louis. Mr. Krum’s list of pupils included Mary Hull, I. Bruner, James and William Bruner, J. H. and A. G. Smith, Thomas Pinckard, and others. I cannot recall the name of the next school teacher, who was a lady.

The first hotel of any prominence stood on Second Street [Broadway], a few doors east of Piasa. The next, kept by Mr. Tomlinson, was located on State Street on the site afterwards occupied by the St. Charles Hotel (previously called the Franklin House).

The first newspaper was the Spectator, published by Hudson, a lawyer.

Among the first physicians were Drs. Glass and Emerson; merchants were J. S. Lane, C. Manning, Stephen Griggs, Richard Flagg, Neff & Johnson (afterwards Bowman & Johnson), Strong, Dr. Wolf, E. Keating, and A. Nelson.

The first pork packers were Godfrey & Gilman, followed by Thomas Fay, D. J. Baker, O. M. Adams, and A. C. Hankerson.

The pioneer tailor was William Post; livery stable keeper Battice Dio.; C. W. Hunter and William Russell bought out the first distillery. Joseph Says, T. G. Hawley, and Robert Dunlap came to Alton about the same time in the 1830s. Mr. Hawley kept the Easton Tavern.

W. Bruner was the first postmaster in Alton. The first in Upper Alton was David Smith.

The first Presbyterian preacher was Rev. Thomas Lippincott. The late C. A. Murray, in early times kept a notion store on the south side of Second Street.

The following we4re first in the occupations mentioned: Justice of the Peace, C. Howard; saddler, M. Carroll; liquor seller, John Johns; flouring mill, Stephen Griggs & Co.; saw mill, J. S. Lane; blacksmith, William Evans, who made the cells of the old penitentiary; First Warden of the penitentiary was Ewin; soap and candle maker, Barney O’Hara, followed by John Rose; tinners, Quigley & George; hatter, William S. Gaskins; the sub-contractor of the penitentiary was Levi Lawrence. One of the builders died with cholera.

The pioneer Catholic priest was Father Carroll. At the time of the Lovejoy riot, the writer loaned a number one rifle and 50 bullets to Royal Weller, one of the defenders of the stone warehouse where Lovejoy’s press was stored, and never saw the gun afterwards. Weller was shot in the heel during the riot. Weller afterwards married Lovejoy’s widow. My idea is that a man named James Francis killed Lovejoy, and that James Rock shot Royal Weller. Signed by J. H. S.”

 

REMINISCENCES OF 1838
By an "Old Un"
From the Alton Daily Telegraph, May 11 & 12, 1883
“As T. D. and B. F. B. have been giving some of their recollections of Alton in 1845, perhaps it would be interesting to those of your readers who are of the older inhabitants to have their memories refreshed by the earlier history of the city. When I landed upon the levee in March 1838, it was so much lower than now that I could not get up State or Piasa Streets, but came through the storehouse now used by Topping Bros. as an iron warehouse, ascending one story to Second Street [Broadway]. The Legislature had ‘grid ironed’ the State with railroads, and soon after my arrival Richard McDonald had the contract and cut down Second Street from Market eastward, and filled up the levee until some of the stores had a cellar under the cellar, or two stories underground. Upon the business houses on Second Street from the old frame mill to Piasa Street could be seen the names of Godfrey, Gilman & Co.; Henry Tanner, successor to A. Roff; A. G. Sloss; Jerry Townsend, who did business in a large, rough frame building on State and Second Street; G. L. Ward; Negus & Robbins; T. S. Fay & Co.; Simeon Ryder; A. Alexander & Co.; Methodist Book Concern, I. Warnock, agent. This was, I think, in Tontine row. H. G. Wannagenen; Hungerford & Livingston; Taylor & McAfee; T. M. Hope & Co.; Whipple & Forbes; Stevens & Trenchery; Hawley, Page & Dunlap; Clawson & Cock; Cock & Fifield; and others. Dr. Marsh's store was on the corner of Second and State Street, A. S. Barry was his clerk; Parks & Breath had their printing office on the corner of the alley in the same block. A. Clifford, father of our Mr. Clifford, the merchant, had a grocery store where G. W. Oldham is now doing business; and upon the southeast corner of State and Third was a little frame house where B. Gabrilliac did business at one time. On the opposite corner and running up State Street was a row of one-story frames where T. & T. L. Waples had their tailoring establishment; and John Buffum, I think, dry goods &c. Those buildings were burned down, as was also a frame building on Third Street, then occupied by an Italian, I think. He afterwards built the house now the lower mill near Shields' branch. On the corner, going still east, was a small one room house; across the street a stone house, next a frame carriage and blacksmith shop. Then the Judge Martin house, a brick, stood where J. W. Cary's store is now, and a stone one where A. Neerman's is. Somewhere in the rear of Neerman's store was a frame house occupied by Wash. Carroll and sisters as a residence, near which was the remains of an old saw mill, called, I believe, Spaulding mill. As we could not get to Third Street by Piasa, there was an alley to the west of the stone buildings coming out on Third at Belle, which was used as a walk.

Going up Belle on the west side was a small house occupied by the mother of Mrs. Filley. Then came J. R. Batterton's paint shop, then the buildings belonging to Mr. Hart; next a carpenter shop, and then a small frame dwelling on the corner. Upon the opposite side, between Third and Fourth, was the brick dwelling of G. L. Ward. Coming back to Second Street, east of Piasa, was the Hawley house, then a house which J. and G. Quigley used at one time as a stove store; then a frame house on the corner. Where the City Hall now stands was a small frame, the only one on that side. Where the church is was a row of frames extending toward the river; near the corner, but on Front Street, was a log cabin, another on the other corner below. Where the Union Depot stands was a two-story frame of N. Buckmaster's called Eagle Tavern. On the east corner of Market and Third was the Pioneer Engine House. Opposite were those brick buildings now there, and the residence of Dr. Gibson, which was a bank; then the double brick next the Engine House. In the street between the Pioneer House and Mrs. E. D. Topping's was the Market House, a shed concern about forty feet long. On Second Street east was Capt. Ryder's house. The frame next to it where Dr. Williams' building is, was a stone house built by Capt. Bruner's father and used by municipal court; then a large frame occupied by William Gamble, a stone mason. It was moved, I think, to Seventh Street. Where Stanford's buildings are was a two-story house with a one-story wing running east. Then Langdon's, then Bruner's, then a widow's house.

Across the street from the [Madison] hotel were the two houses now standing, the Schweppe residence and Middleton's house. The building on the corner of Second and Easton streets was the first Odd Fellows' Hall; next above was a small house occupied by a mulatto woman, then a two-story frame of McFarland, and then J. D. Burns' shop and dwelling. The row of brick houses on the north side of Third, going west, was there, as was also the brick below Market, the old frame, and the stone on Alby. The jail was where Dow's auction room now is. The "Kimball ditch" extended from Second up to Fourth street, to a log bridge that spanned it. All up Piasa Street to Eighth and down to the river was low flat ground, as is seen back of Pitts & Hamill's store, where the water from Cave Spring ran, and this Kimball ditch was designed to keep it in bounds. The walls extended up to Fourth Street, but were never completed by the city.

The hotels of the city were the ‘Mansion House’ on State Street; the ‘Central’ on Third, near State; ‘Alton House,’ Alby and Front; ‘Piasa House,’ Fourth and Piasa Streets; and the ‘Red Lion,’ kept by Mr. Booth, near Shields' Branch. A hotel had been commenced on Belle, running on Fourth to State Street. The stone basement was up and the second tier and joists on, but there it stood for three or four years, and finally the material was sold. The ‘Virginia House’ was on the southeast corner of Market and Second Street, where the church now is.

The Presbyterian Church was on the corner of Third and Market; Baptist on the corner of Second and Easton; the Methodist, northeast corner of Third and Alby; the Reformed Methodist had a small stone church upon the property now occupied by the residence of Mrs. Farber. My impression is that the Catholics went to Upper Alton to worship.

John M. Krum, now of St. Louis, was Mayor of Alton. William Martin, Judge of the Municipal Court; John R. Woods, Warden of the Penitentiary. There are still living here Lewis J. Clawson of the firm of Clawson & Cock; Perley B. Whipple of Whipple & Forbes; E. Trenchery of Stevens & Trenchery; and Richard Flagg of Flagg & North; and Dr. Thomas M. Hope of T. M. Hope & Co.

The newspapers were the Alton Telegraph, John Bailhache, Editor; The Altonian, Parks & Breath; and the Temperance Herald, A. W. Corey, Editor. There was also William Hessin, a printer, but I don't know if he published a paper or not. He built the house now owned by Mrs. T. P. Wooldridge on State Street.

The only mill that I can recall is the old frame that stood about where the Water Works are, and close under the bluffs.

I know I shall refresh the memory of some of the ‘old uns’ when I name among the conspicuous men of the city: Governor Tice, Louis Choquette, and, as he called himself, ‘The delicate Constitution pup’ or ‘French Louie,’ Major Morgan, Snort Smith, Burnt Eye Bill, and Fred Livers, the last two were colored men. We had at a later date a visitor every Saturday from Piasa Creek known as ‘Old Hutch,’ ‘Betsy's Son.’ ‘Hominy Tom’ was also a notable of a later date. I might go on and speak of many things and places of those days, but may weary you, if not your readers. Signed, Old Un."

 

EARLY DAYS IN ALTON – 1834
By W. T. H.
Source: Alton Telegraph, July 19, 1883
“My first acquaintance with Upper Alton was in the Fall of 1834, while it may be truly termed a passing acquaintance, as our family tarried there only one night while on the overland route from the old North State to Griggsville, Illinois. Being at that time only six years of age, and in the face of an inhospitable snowstorm, the writer failed to make a sufficiently thorough inspection of the embryo city, worthy the attention of the historian of the present day, however, the journey throughout is still fresh in his memory. The crossing of the Blue Ridge (to us) was huge. We crossed the Ohio River at the notoriously drowned out Shawneetown, and the Illinois River at what was then Phillips ferry, four miles below Naples. My first introduction to Lower Alton was in the Spring of 1837, and again in 1841. On this second visit, via stage from St. Louis, a change of horses was made at the Alton House. It was then and there that I first beheld the portly form of the landlord, Amos L. Corson. My life as a citizen of Alton, however, only dates back to May 22, 1845. Consequently, in recounting some incidents of early times will naturally cover about the same period reported by your correspondent, Benjamin F. Barry, which, although mainly correct as far as it goes, needs, as I think, some ventilation. Of course, I grant that B. F. B. does not engage to give through your paper a biographical sketch of every business man then in Alton, or to pose as a living gazetteer or encyclopedia to be adopted by the future historian.

In recounting business interests of early days in Alton, I think precedence should be given to the old frame flouring mill, located just below the present waterworks, then under the management of Griggs, Libby & Co., and afterwards run by Mitchell & Garnier. The old mill was a famous landmark and a terror to steamboats of limited power headed upstream, as generally the passage though slow was nevertheless exciting, and at times doubtful whether they would succeed in passing that point. The steamer, however, succeeded ultimately in ‘making the riffle,’ whilst the old mill ground worried the lifetime out of several generations of steamboats. Possibly the fact that the writer had accepted the position of retail salesman in this mill, may have some bearing in the matter of refreshing the memory of B. F. B. True enough, the Messrs. Sebastian and Peter Wise were good and true men, and ran a good mill successfully, and the ‘go it old mill, every puff is a picayune,’ by uncle Peter Wise is all correct, and in connection with this mill, I am pleased to make mention of my old-time friend, their head miller, Frank Grota, ‘dot is sure and certainly.’ I may add, that while engaged in the frame mill, I had a light attack of bilious fever. Dr. Thomas M. Hope made me a professional visit, while sitting on the stone doorsill of the stone building, corner of State and Second Streets, owned by Lewis J. Clawson. This building was occupied by Hulbert, Watson & Co., afterwards by Messrs. H. P. Hulbert & Co., and was next door to Bowman & Johnson, and later still by Charles Trumbull. The upper story was used as a printing office by Bailhache & Parks. I think Lewis J. Clawson next did business in the same store for several years. Probably Dr. Hope has long since forgotten this incident, as well as his patient, however, in his skillful hands I was soon all right. The fact of the Doctor being one of the F. F. V.’s may have had some bearing in the case, simply on the ground that we both claim the ‘Old Dominion’ as our natal State [Virginia], and to a certain extent, both share in sustaining the State motto, ‘Sic Semper Tyrannis.’ At all events, neither of us especially desires to be imposed upon.

My second situation was in the store of Chapman & Briggs, in the stone building, corner of Second [Broadway] and Piasa Streets, which had previously been occupied by Colonel E. C. March, afterwards the rear portion next to the levee was used as a flouring mill, as well as the store, and was under the control of Lea, Brown, & Co., both of these locations now have modern brick buildings on them. I think the firm was composed of Henry Lea, Joseph Brown, and J. H. Lea.

After having made rather a lengthy report in my behalf, it is but just to mention a few of my boyhood’s acquaintances who have passed on before. Robert DeBow, a co-laborer for a year or two in the store of Messrs. C. & B. was certainly a pleasant comrade and a man of sound business principles. He was a son-in-law of Major Charles Hunter, the founder of Hunterstown. Prominent among the few that I mention, the late Charles A. Murray stands fresh in my memory. He was a dutiful son and a pleasant, life-long acquaintance. Of his brother, John Murray, I knew but little, while with his youngest brother, Hugh Murray, I was quite well acquainted, but as he left in 1849 for California, I partially lost sight of him. When speaking of the genial Hugh Murray, I call to mind his boon companion and friend, Lansing B. Mizner, who with H. P. Hulbert and many others, also left Alton for the Golden State.

Among the early business enterprises may be mentioned the overland transportation car, invented by the late General James Semple, then of your Sempletown suburb, and some years later of Jersey Landing [Elsah]. This invention, though not brought to a favorable fruition, was nevertheless an effort in the way of improvement of those early times, though in the hands of a somewhat visionary projector. All honor to his memory. I will not weary your readers by attempting any lengthy recital of the location of business houses, or the old time-honored residents, leaving that field to others, albeit the truth forces itself upon me more and more, I reflect how few of the older citizens of 1845, who were then heads of families and actively engaged in life’s battles, are now seen in your midst.

This is all the more forcibly brought to mind as in our case, though not yet having attained three score years, we have passed the half century mile post, and only claim a discount of five, from the allotted three score. Before abandoning the, to me, ever pleasant recollections of early days in Alton, I must claim the further indulgence of your readers, in allowing me to pay my respects to B. F. B. and his wonderful Piasa Bird.

It so happens, though strange yet ‘tis true, that while our mutual friend, Benjamin F. Barry, was pounding drugs, corner of Second and State Streets, the writer lived just across the street, and moreover, had some knowledge of approaching Mississippi River steamboats from New Orleans to the falls of St. Anthony, and moreover was quite intimately connected in business with the early steamboat men of the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers, having held the position of the first wharf master at Alton for a number of years, as well as transacted business as agent for most of the boats then navigating the Father of Waters and tributaries. It seems to me that B. F. B., in his method of knowing of the approach of an upriver steamer by the fusillade of musketry in the hands of indignant or frightened Indians, blazing away at the picture of the fearful Piasa Bird, is in a measure, at least, drawing on his somewhat fertile imagination. Truly my hearing is now bad enough, but in those days I had nothing to complain of as my ears seldom played me false. No doubt there were some few random shots fired at the harmless representations by enthusiastic tourists, whose imagination had been wrought to a welding heat by the pleasant and verbose Captains of boats, desirous of entertaining the hurricane deck brigade as they emerge from a good meal, for the morning promenade and social chat with the pilot on watch, and doubtless occasionally a disappointed Nimrod (returning half-starved and with empty game bag from the environs of Smith’s Lake or the tortuous windings of the placid Quivre) would discharge his farewell shot at this Badly Frightened Bird. This sketch, having extended itself over a space of forty-nine years, and this being the 38th anniversary of my landing in Alton, I will subside. Signed, W. T. H., Louisiana, Missouri."

 

REMINISCENCES
By Hon. Irwin Blackman Randle
From the Alton Weekly Telegraph, January 17, 1884
At the last meeting of the Fort Russell Old Settlers' Social Union, held at the residence of Mr. John R. Newman, William A. Lanterman, the oldest settler present, was called to the chair. Hon. Irwin Blackman Randle, of Alton, read the following address:

“My dear old settlers and all others: Nothing of an earthly character could afford me more pleasure than to meet you here today and shake hands with you, for it is said to be one of the fallings of old men that they have to talk, and I feel grateful to the members of this association that you have honored me with this privilege today. Perhaps I have been in this county longer than anyone here today, and if in early life I had supposed it would ever be my privilege to occupy the place now assigned to me, I think I should have made notes of circumstances, &c., connected with the early history of the settlement of this county, which would doubtless have made what I now have to say of much more interest to you than to speak, as I shall have to, mostly from recollections, and if in thus speaking, I should make mistakes, you will please attribute it to a failure of memory rather than otherwise.

In the Fall of the year 1814, my widowed mother came from Stewart County, Tennessee, to this country, bringing with her eight sons and one daughter, and settled on a farm about one and one-half miles southeast of Edwardsville, leaving one married daughter in Tennessee, who, together with her husband, the late Rev. Thornton Peoples, came to Edwardsville, I think, sometime in the year 1817 or 1818, and who afterwards settled near Lebanon, in St. Clair County, where they lived and died, leaving a family of children, some of whom I think now live near the same place.

Our Randle family consisted of the mother, Elizabeth Randle, and her sons, Edmond, John H., Peyton, Josiah, Parham, Henry D., George D, (and myself, I. B.); also, daughters Temperance Peoples (above spoken of) and Lucy, who afterwards became the wife of the Rev. John Dew, who was a Methodist minister of some note, being one of the pioneer traveling preachers of that church in this State; they also settled, lived and died near Lebanon in St. Clair County, also having a family of children, and I know not whether any of them live there now. I am the youngest child of my mother's family, and I believe that my brother, George D. and myself are the only survivors of all my mother's children. And now I must ask your pardon for having said so much of myself and the Randle family, for which I have two reasons: One is I know more about them than others, and the other is that in looking over all the histories of early times in this county, but little is said of our family, and I could not see why it was so. It could not be because we were small in number for it has always been remarkable of the Randles that they have all been blessed with large families of children and nearly all members of the Methodist Church, and I remember very well when politicians said if they could only secure the support of the Gillhams and Randles they were sure to be elected. And although we might not have been quite so brilliant in intellect as some others, yet so far as I know, we have not been wanting in interest in common with others, in all public matters both in church and State, pertaining to the growth, improvement and prosperity of the county. And yet, perhaps, we have had all the respect to which we were entitled.

When we came here there were but few inhabitants in these parts. It was the year after the town of Edwardsville was laid out and designated as the county seat of Madison County. Of the principal men then here, I remember the names of Thomas Kirkpatrick, at whose house it was said the first county court was held, and who kept the first public house in Edwardsville, also the names of John G. Lofton and Jacob Whiteside, who it is said, held said County Court on July 13th, 1813. I also remember the names of Jessie Waddle, William Gillham, Joseph Newman, Anthony Cox, John Kirkpatrick, Abraham Prickett, John T. Lusk, Isham Gillham, Samuel Judy, Thomas, John, William, James and Isaac Gillham, Samuel and William B. Whitehead, also Joel Whiteside, John McKinney, James Kirkpatrick, Henry Bonser, Josias Wright, Thomas Randle, William Otwell, R. Gillham, George and Abel Moore, Thomas Ratton, William Montgomery and Josias Randle, who I believe was appointed by Governor Edwards to be the first clerk of the County Court of this county, and who afterwards was Recorder of Deeds, up to the time of his death, which I think was some time in 1823. And also, many others who I cannot now call to mind, and, in after years, I became intimately acquainted with most of the above-named persons. But, alas - they are gone - how true Isaac Watts said when he sang:

‘Our wasting lives grew shorter still, As days and months increase, And every beating pulse we tell, Leaves but the number less.’

Afterwards when I grew up to riper years and manhood, I became acquainted with many more of the settlers of later times, who are now numbered among the Old Settlers, among whom I remember the names of Isaac Prickett, William E. Starr, John Gibson, James Wilson, Paris and Hail Mason, John Y. Sawyer, Emanuel J. West, Daniel Lanterman, Gaius Paddock, John Newman and Zadock Newman, who I believe was the father of our kind friend at whose house we are now. Also, Gershom Flagg, John Esterbrook, Joseph and David Robinson, and also many more, among whom I must not forget to mention my much loved and highly honored old friend, Hon. Cyrus Edwards, and also my highly esteemed and honored friend Judge Joseph Gillespie and his father and his family, and here I must relate a little incident which occurred the first time I saw the Judge and his brother, Matthew (I hope the Judge won't think it out of place to tell it).:

Well, at that time I was going from our place into Edwardsville, along a small foot path, upon which I had supposed I had the exclusive right of way. And at that time, Matthew and the Judge were digging a ditch directly across my path, and I pitched into them pretty roughly for trespassing upon what I had supposed to be my rights. And Matthew, being somewhat impulsive, was about to thrash me for my impudence, when the Judge very calmly interfered and proposed to compromise the matter by making steps by which I could very conveniently cross the ditch, and thus the whole matter was peacefully settled and ever afterwards we were the best of friends. And right here I want to say of the Judge, that although he has been one of our best lawyers and an able Judge, he has always been somewhat famous on the compromise; which I think is a very commendable trait of character in any one.

Well, perhaps I have said enough about the people. It is true I might go on and speak of the Judys, Burnsbacks, Gontermans, Robinsons, McKees, Montgomerys, Jones, Hoxeys, and a host of others, who were noble, good citizens, but time would not permit me to speak of all the worthy old settlers of my acquaintance.

In those days this was thought to be a wild county, and so it was, for most of our land was uncultivated, we had plenty of wild game and some wild Indians. But the white citizens, though perhaps not so far advanced in science and literature as at present, yet I think it safe to say that in point of honest dealing and peaceful and quiet deportment towards each other, and noble, generous good feeling as neighbors and friends, they would compare favorably with the citizens at any period from that to the present time. It is true we had our troubles, for about the time we came here, those wild Indians did not love us very much, and I remember even after Governor Edwards supposed the Indian troubles were over, yet sometimes we had to go into old Fort Russell to save our heads from being scalped by scouting bands of Indians, but after a while those troubles ceased and the Indians became friendly and moved away, and only came down to see us once or twice a year, when Colonel Stephenson would pay them what the Government owed them from time to time, and so we did not have much more Indian trouble until the Black Hawk war in 1831 and 1832, when the word came from Rock Island that they were killing and scalping the whites up there, and old General Whiteside and Captain Wheeler and others said it must be stopped, and then Judge Semple, Judge Gillespie, John T. Lusk and myself and lots of other brave boys, turned out to fight Black Hawk and his red men, and we suffered a good deal, but didn't do much fighting, but we got lots of glory and very little else, and I doubt whether we ever do get anything else. True, Congress has talked some about giving us pensions, but as yet they don't do it. I reckon they are waiting until we all die and then they will pass the law, and all our glory will pass over to our members of Congress and perhaps no money to our children.

And now, after saying so much in a rambling, scattering manner, I want to say in conclusion that in those older times I think we were in many respects a much happier people than we are now. I think as neighbors and friends there was more true love and affection for each other than now; and generally, men, women and children were more social and took more real comfort in each other's society than now, and we had more time for social enjoyment. The Christian Sabbath was more respected and observed, and notwithstanding some of the people were irreligious, yet there were amongst us some as truly devoted Christians and Christian ministers as ever lived, amongst whom the names of Samuel H. Thompson, John Dew, Josias Randle, John M. Peck, Jesse Hale, John Barber Sr., and John Barber Jr., Thomas Lippincott, and a host of others will long be precious in the memories of those who knew and loved them, but they are all gone to rest from their labors while their works are following them. And, perhaps, I had better stop talking for the present and bid you goodbye, and if I never meet you again on such an occasion remember, I loved you all. Irwin B. Randle."

 

RECOLLECTION OF ALTON AND VICINITY
By Thomas Alexander Eaton
Source: Alton Telegraph, March 6, 1884
“I was a lad when I first saw Alton. My father’s family landed there from the steamboat Tiskilwa, one beautiful afternoon in 1836. The busy little city was at the mouth of a large ravine, in the midst of big hills. The stream that ran from this ravine into the river was called the ‘Little Piasa.’ There was a frame bridge across the Little Piasa on Second Street [Broadway]. The Chicago & Alton Railroad now runs above the spot. The lowest part of Second Street was west of this bridge. It was at that time the commercial center of the city. It had no sidewalks. It was in a state of nature; if not in a state of total depravity. The Winter’s thaw, the Spring rains, and immense ox teams had rendered it almost, or quite impassable. Sunshine, however, had improved it somewhat before I first picked my way through it. Soon after it was graded, McAdamized, and furnished with sidewalks. The hills were covered with tall trees. My recollection is that the timber was fine, principally white oak. The woods extended some miles back from the river, and up the river to the Illinois, and so on, and down the river on the hill, probably to Cairo. The long brown prairie grass, the growth of the previous year, mantled the hills, and extended down to the sides of the roads and paths. This prairie grass was one of the features of Illinois at that time. It was so luxuriant and so prevalent that it was nearly impossible for a farmer to get to his work of a Spring morning without getting his feet nearly as wet as if he had waded in a stream of water.

An undulating Illinois prairie, 40 years ago, with its clean carpet of pure green, and its myriads of flowers, and its margin of green woods, was beautiful beyond description. A prairie on fire was sometimes a grand sight. A prairie burnt off was black, bleak, and dismal looking. That was the condition in which Charles Dickens saw the Looking Glass Prairie in the northeast corner of St. Clair County. He was, of course, unfavorably impressed with it. In the days of which I write, there were Alton, commonly called Lower Alton or Lower Town; Upper Alton; Middletown; Sempletown; and Hunterstown. A spring flowed from a hill and ran across the road in Hunterstown. It seemed to say:

Stop now, traveler, slake thy thirst
And drive away dull care,
You need not broach your little purse,
For I am free as air.
My source is in the brown hillside,
My course is towards the sea;
Come drink till you are satisfied,
For I am always free.

A mile or so below the spring was the town of Milton on the Wood River. A covered bridge spanned the Wood River at that place. The bridge is still standing, I understand. Does any man know how old it is? Is there another such bridge in Illinois?

At a Sunday School gathering in Upper Alton, in the Spring of 1837, one of the speakers said that the first Sunday School ever taught in Illinois was organized in Milton. The people of Alton and vicinity were giving special attention to Sunday School, church, and educational matters in those days. Shurtleff College and Monticello Seminary were just starting, each on its career of usefulness. Mr. Samuel R. Allard took charge of an academy in Edwardsville in 1836, which was well patronized by Altonians.

I often saw the Indian painting of the Piasa Bird. It was on the bluff, facing the river, a few rods above the city. The stone was smoothly polished, and the reddish-brown color was quite distinct. I was never artist enough to see the likeness of a bird about it. I did not see it at the right angle, or was deficient in art education, or was too obtuse – like enough all these, and more, for history says it was a bird. But utilitarianism quarried down the rocks and destroyed the Bird of the Piasa; the tread of the millions stamped out the Illinois prairie grass; before the woodsman’s keen axe the forests have fallen; the Hunterstown spring creeps quietly under the graded streets, and slips into the river. Our fathers, where are they? Their children have grown old or gone to the grave. Teachers in those days used to write for a copy in the primitive copy books, ‘Time and tide wait for no man.’ They might have added, ‘Eternity waits for all men.’ Signed Thomas Alexander Eaton, Summerfield, Illinois, February 1884.”

NOTES:
Thomas Alexander Eaton Jr. was born in October 1822 in Kentucky. He came to Alton in 1836 with his parents, Thomas Alexander Eaton Sr. (1780-1849), a native of Pennsylvania; and Sarah King Eaton (1787-1836), a native of Mississippi. The family bought land, and settled in Edwardsville, where Sarah Eaton died in 1836 and was buried in the Lusk Cemetery. Four children survived her. Thomas Eaton Sr. remarried in 1839 to Margaret Martha Wallace (1798-1886). She died on June 4, 1886, and was buried in the Zion Methodist Cemetery in Carbondale, Illinois.

Thomas Eaton Jr. became a Methodist preacher, riding the Southern Illinois circuit to minister to many churches. He married in 1844 to Louisa Maria Dougharty (1822-1845), who died the following year, after giving birth to one daughter, Sarah Emma Eaton, who also died in 1845. Thomas Jr. married again in 1854 to Joanna W. Webster (1833-1905). They had four children. In about 1893, the Eaton family moved to Kansas City, Kansas, where he died in October 1907 at the age of 85 years. He was buried in Kansas City.

 

OLD TIMES IN ALTON
By L. B., Upper Alton
Source: Alton Telegraph, March 20, 1884
“I noticed in your paper of March 16, ‘Recollections of Alton and Vicinity,’ by Thomas A. Eaton, who landed at Alton in the year of 1836. I landed in the following year, just ten days after the murder of the lamented Lovejoy. I was a young man then, like Thomas A. Eaton, and know whereof he speaks in regard to the Piasa Creek. I helped cover that creek with logs, the first bridge it ever had. The mud on Second Street [Broadway] at times was very deep. I remember of hearing the late William Hayden tell of a circumstance that happened there. One morning, after a sudden change of weather, a citizen walking along Second Street, saw a hat, right side up, in the road. He made a closer observation, and to his astonishment, found its owner under it, frozen tight in the mud. I saw the so-called Piasa Bird, but it looked more like the image of a devil than a bird.

Thomas A. Eaton also spoke of the old Milton bridge, and asks ‘if anyone knows how old it is, and if there is another such bridge in Illinois.’ I think the bridge at Bozzatown an exact pattern, only not so long. Both of these bridges were first built by a man named Grubbs, in the year 1838. They are over forty-five years old. I was at that time working for Pettingill, Gale & Co., at their saw mill on Shields Branch. I sawed some of the small timbers and flooring plank of both bridges. Respectfully, L. B. of Upper Alton, March 10, 1884."

 

INFAMOUS ALTONIANS
Written by Albert Galatin Wolford
Source: Alton Telegraph, July 8, 1886
“It has been suggested to me that I refresh the memories of the few old citizens in regard to notable eccentric characters who were among us forty-five years ago. The first is Hiram Hutchcraft, better known as ‘Old Hutch.’ He was the terror of the Piasa. It was his regular custom to come to town with his boy on Saturdays, get drunk, and not leave without a fight. When full, he would say, ‘I’m Betsy Hutchcraft’s boy, I am,’ and then strike perhaps the nearest person to him. I have seen him knock a man down with a blow of his fist, and then declare with an oath, ‘Old Hutch is in town,’ and go off satisfied.

Another one, though not so belligerent, was Major Morgan. He had one eye put out by a piece of gingerbread thrown at him by one of the citizens. He was a good story teller, and would entertain a company by yarns that seemed so plausible and truthful that he always gained the object desired to ‘come and take a little more red eye.’ He often spoke of the good qualities of ‘My son, Daniel,’ when really the whole family was vile and worthless.

Governor Tice was a more aged and quiet man. He cobbled shoes, and had his room at the corner of Second [Broadway] and State Streets. He made himself most prominent on elections by voting early for his candidate, and then until night, trade his vote with every candidate for his drinks. He was somewhat of a recluse, and filthy in his habits.

Louis Chouquette, or ‘French Louis,’ was from Canada, and having no family, made a business or raising what he called his ‘Delicate Constitution Pigs,’ which he sold at prices far above the price of the ordinary lot of those days. His right-hand man was a colored man, who was only known as ‘Burnt Eye Bill.’ The two were cronies in the pig trade.

‘Short Smith’ was a tinner by trade, and kept a saloon on the levee at one time. The Second Street entrance [Broadway] was through the cellar door. The levee, not having been filled up to its present grade, was one story lower than Second Street. He was a rough, vulgar man in all his ways, and died, I think, in the Piasa House, and as I was told, with an oath on his lips.

In later years there was a man who carried molasses candy on a waiter, and sold it. He was known by his cry, ‘Candy boys, candy!’ Also, a young man who was brought from the East by one of our business men, and known among us as ‘Lazarus.’ He would not reform, but left and went rapidly down to a drunkard’s death.

Ike Mann, a colored barber, was bright and intelligent. He attended the sessions of the Legislature, and won, as he said, all the money ‘from dem annatto breeches fellers from de Wabash.’ There were others, but these are the most prominent ones. Signed A. G. Wolford."

NOTES:
Albert Galatin Wolford, the author of the above article, was born in 1811 in Kentucky. He settled in Alton in 1837, right before Lovejoy was killed by a mob. He married a woman named Julia, and they had four daughters: Leonora Amelia Wolford (1837-1841); Emily Fletcher Wolford (1839-1841); Margaret “Maggie” Elizabeth Wolford Ritter; and Helen Wolford Nutz (1841-1897). Albert’s first wife, Julia, died in 1854, and he then married Sarah Ann Calvin (1817-1886).

Wolford was a painter by trade, and was highly respected in the community. He was a member of the Republican Party, and a fervent supporter of the abolition of slavery. There was no man in Alton who fully knew its history more than Wolford. He wrote articles for the Alton Telegraph many times concerning the history of Alton and its people. Later in life, Wolford moved to Topeka, Kansas, and died there in 1894. His body was brought to Alton, and buried in the Alton City Cemetery.

 

FIRST OLD SETTLER’S MEETING
The Snow of 1830-31
How “Little Egypt” Got Its Name
Source: Alton Daily Telegraph, September 22, 1887
From Edwardsville, September 21 – A call was made several weeks ago by Mr. Volney P. Richmond of Madison County, on all old settlers, especially those who remembered the deep snow of 1830-31, to meet in Edwardsville on Wednesday, September 21, to exchange reminiscences of that memorable event and to form a permanent old settlers’ association. The meeting was held at St. John’s Methodist Episcopal Church, and was opened in prayer by the Rev. William Hadley of Collinsville. The meeting was well attended, and a great many communications were received from those who could not be present.

A number of reminiscences were related. Rev. William Hadley stated that he came to Madison County in 1817, and he had a distinct recollection that the deep snow fell on December 16, 1830, continuing one day and night, being on an average 20 inches deep, which subsequent snows increased to the depth of 6 feet in some places. It covered the ground continuously until March 01, 1831. Other recollections of that date were given. Mr. John J. Barnsback, who had been a resident of this county, but was at that time living in Missouri, stated that no snow of any consequence fell there. During the entire winter, sleighs were used exclusively between Vandalia, then the capital of Illinois, and St. Louis. The weather was intensely cold, and the early frosts had so injured the corn in the north, that the people there were compelled to go to Southern Illinois for corn, hence the soubriquet Egypt for that portion of the State. This remarkable phenomenon in temperature extended throughout the summer of 1831, there being frost in every month except July.

The meeting adjourned subject to a call of Mr. V. P. Richmond, permanent president, who will reconvene the association when committees appointed to collect data are ready to report. The future meetings of this association give promise of being very entertaining and instructive.

 

OLD SETTLERS REUNION
Source: Alton Daily Telegraph, November 7, 1887
From Edwardsville – The Madison County Old Settlers Reunion took place in Edwardsville Saturday. Members are required to have been residents of the county for at least fifty years. The society has a membership of seventy-five, and most of them were present. Among the most interesting things mentioned was the fact that cotton was a common crop in this section of country until about 1830. The earliest tornado of which there was any record occurred in 1814. Mr. John W. Coventry, a resident of Edwardsville, is probably the earliest settler now living in the county, having come here in 1813.

Nine members recollected the deep snow of the winter of 1831-32. There were two particular falls of snow mentioned – the first being December 26 and 27, 1831, being about 15 inches deep upon a level, and the second snow fell in January 1832, about 24 inches, and both lasting until March 31, 1832, followed by a very rainy Spring.

Several members recollected the meteoric showers, or falling stars, which happened in 1833, and also the sudden change in temperature, which occurred in the latter part of 1837, when a fall of from 50 to 60 degrees took place within ten minutes, changing running water into ice within that space of time.

 

SECOND ANNUAL MEETING OF THE MADISON COUNTY OLD SETTLERS
Source: Alton Daily Telegraph, June 12, 1888
From Edwardsville, June 9, 1888
The second annual meeting of the Madison County Old Settlers’ Union was held in the courthouse in Edwardsville on June 6, and was a very pleasant affair throughout. The weather was fine, and the attendance was good. Several persons who formerly lived in old Madison, but now living elsewhere, were in attendance, and contributed largely to the object of the Union. Notably among them were Leroy and Scott Palmer and Mrs. Mayo, brothers and sister of ex-Governor John M. Palmer; also, Mrs. Sloss (nee Lusk), wife of Hon. J. H. Sloss of Alabama. The meeting was called to order by Volney P. Richmond, President, and opened with prayer by Rev. J. B. Thompson. Mr. W. P. Bradshaw, in behalf of the citizens of Edwardsville, delivered an address of welcome, and very appropriately eulogized the Old Settlers’ Union, and the members who had been instrumental in effecting the organization. His address was responded to by President Richmond in his inimitable manner.

The committee on the death of Amos Atkins, late Vice-President for Chouteau Township, owing to the absence of the chairman were given further time in which to report.

At request of the President, Mr. Scott Palmer came forward and entertained the audience with reminiscences of early days in this county. Numerous relics and specimens of household and domestic articles made at and in use at an early day were placed on exhibition, and were much admired by everyone. Grandma Welsh, in the 96th year of her age, was introduced in a very happy and felicitous manner by Rev. J. B. Thompson, and made a few remarks which clearly indicated that in both mind and body, she was remarkably well preserved for one of her age. Leroy Palmer than made a very pleasant offhand talk about Edwardsville society, old-time customs, etc.

A general good time was had by all present, and though this meeting was much larger in point of numbers in attendance, it is confidently expected that the next one will excel it in every respect.

 

THE ROAD TO ALTON IN PIONEER DAYS
By Volney P. Richmond
Source: Alton Telegraph, September 5, 1889
"Along in the 1820s, I used to go to Alton, or where Alton now is, and I thought to see points of interest to me in my young days, and their history might be interesting to others at this time.

The first was Collet’s Mill, situated on Section 9, Town 5, Range 8, now township of Fort Russell. The mill was an inclined wheel moved by the weight of eight oxen, and ground wheat and corn. It was built by Robert Collet, and was later run by John W. Collet, the father of D. W. Collet, Esq., of Upper Alton. Flour was made at this mill and exported to New Orleans and other points. Robert Collet attempted to run other machinery in connection with the mill by the same power. One was a comb and button factory, using cattle horns. Another was a threshing machine. I did not take much interest in the comb and button business, but the threshing machine was my fancy. It was a wooden concave, five or six feet, with iron teeth and a wooden cylinder of equal length to fit into it, also fitted with iron teeth, and to run by a belt from the mill. The cylinder and concave, except in material and workmanship, much resembled those now in use in our threshing machines. As the boys in early days did most of the milling, carrying the grain on horseback and waiting for it to be ground, there was plenty of time to look around, and as one of the mill boys, I had frequent opportunity to examine mill and machinery, and about all of it is fresh in my memory today.

The next points of interests were the mounds, scattered all over the prairie, southwest from Bethalto. Who can account for them? There was some difference in size though, but little in height, being about two feet above the level of the prairie, and a seeming regularity in their arrangement, appearing to run in lines towards a central point. The plow has leveled most of them, but a few can be located now on the roadsides. The next point was immediately after crossing East Wood River, on the farm of George Moore [brother of Captain Abel Moore], lately owned by William Gill. There on a knoll stood a low log schoolhouse, built of rough logs, twenty feet or more long. One log left out the whole length for light, and a log and clay chimney at each end, wide enough to take in six- or eight-foot wood. This, I think, was the first schoolhouse in the north half of Madison County. A little farther on was a powder mill on the south side of the road. The old settlers of Wood River Township knew how to make their own powder. A little farther west was the Wood River blockhouse, and near was a large, white elm tree, full of bullet holes where the pioneers tried their rifles. As lead could not be made, they were careful of it, and their marks to shoot at were usually on a soft wood where the balls could be picked out with a knife or tomahawk. Further on was a horse mill run by sweep and band. We next came to the farm of Captain Abel Moore. When near the house, a road turned to the left leading to the farm of William Moore [brother of Captain Abel Moore], who was a gunsmith, or repaired guns for the settlers. Captain Moore’s farm is now owned by George Cartwright, and William Moore’s by Mrs. Badley. Captain Moore’s name occurs in connection with the Wood River Massacre. The Moores were brothers, and settled their farms about 1812.

Crossing West Wood River, we came to Upper Alton, a town with about a dozen log houses. There being good timber in plenty, the logs were well hewed and looked very respectable for many years. I can locate the sites of many of them now. The one where I first met Thomas G. Hawley is now replaced by a large brick, occupied by Charles Rodemeyer. A short distance north was the first cluster of houses, known as Salu Addition, and there was a tannery and the first pottery in Madison County there. I cannot recall the name of the tanner, but the pottery belonged to W. G. Pinckard, once a city marshal of Alton. The road to Alton [Brown Street] turned to the right near Dr. Yerkes’, and crossed Shields’ Branch about the same point where the present bridge now is. Before coming to Shields’ Branch, to the left was another tannery on a piece of level land, and supplied with water from the Branch. The road, on the present traveled road, passed George H. Weigler’s, and avoiding the hills as much as possible, came into Second Street [Broadway] at the hospital [Hunter’s Tavern was used as a hospital before St. Joseph’s was founded.].

The foregoing is something of one of the roads to Alton I remember along in the 1820s. There are many points of our early history that can only be arrived at by calling up the memories of the old settlers. If I make any mistakes, I hope someone who has a better memory will correct me. I was quite young when I first visited Alton, but boys were taught to notice roads when passing, so they could go over them again alone. Help out old settlers. Respectfully, Volney P. Richmond."

 

OLD SETTLERS’ MEETING
By Volney P. Richmond
Source: Alton Telegraph, May 22, 1890
“Springtime of year is coming, coming
Insects bright are humming, humming.
Birds are blythe and gay,
And all the world is May, love.
All the world is May.”

“I heard Dick Whetstone sing this old song more than fifty years ago at the crossing of Second [Broadway] and State Streets in Alton, one bright morning in May. Bright spring days ever remind me of the old son and the Alton friends. Perhaps there are other old timers still in Alton who remember Dick Whetstone and his splendid voice. Would you not like to hear him again? But that cannot be. Dick has long since passed away, and his errors in life should be forgotten and all that was good in him remembered.

And, remembering other old friends who have passed from among us, why not remember those who are still with us? Judging others by myself, I think it must be a real pleasure to all to meet again. And why not do so when opportunity offers? Such a time is coming. The Old Snow Birds will meet in Edwardsville on Wednesday, June 4, 1890. Hoping so many will be present this year, it was thought best to hold the Old Settlers meeting as a picnic, with room enough for all who come. We find every month some of our old friends have been called home, and we all regret that we did not have one more meeting with them. If we attend the next Old Settlers’ Reunion, we will not have any such regrets. We will enjoy the day by giving and receiving pleasure. Let everyone consider themselves invited and the invitation accepted, and having accepted the invitation, they are honorably bound to attend. It is time to begin to look up the old relics, and every old settler’s family has some of them. Bring them all in. Everything old is interesting, even the old boys and girls. Our antiquary, John R. Seittor, will care for and return in good order all the relics, and the old boys and girls will care for each other, and return themselves far happier for a pleasant and well spent day. Come and let us all meet again. Very Respectfully, Your Old Friend of 1819, Volney P. Richmond.”

 

OLD SETTLERS’ MEETING
Source: Alton Telegraph, June 12, 1890
A very large number of the Old Settlers of Madison County held their annual reunion at Edwardsville, Wednesday, in the basement of St. John’s M. E. Church. The oldest person present was Rev. William Hadley of Collinsville, 84 years of age. Mrs. Mary A. Jarvis of Troy had resided in this county longer than anyone else who was at the meeting, having come here seventy-five years ago. John Weaver of Hamel was elected President, and L. Keown of Edwardsville, Secretary for the ensuing year. The next meeting will be held at Edwardsville the first Wednesday in June next year. Justice Irwin B. Randle of Alton attended the meeting.

 

OLD SETTLERS MEETING
Source: Alton Daily Telegraph, June 03, 1892
Madison County held their annual meeting in St. John’s Methodist Episcopal Church in Edwardsville. A large number of visitors were present, but owing to the inclement weather, not so many of the old settlers were in attendance as at former meetings. The oldest one present was Mrs. Polly Denton of Fort Russell Township, aged 90 years, and to whom the first prize was awarded. Mr. J. W. Coventry was the next in age, being 83 years of age. Mr. John R. Sutter, the antiquarian of the society, had on exhibition a very large and interesting collection of mound builders’ relics found in this county, together with Indian relics, including a peace pipe obtained from a Winnebago Chief in 1827 by an old settler in the neighborhood of Galena, Illinois. Mr. John Weaver of Carpenter, Illinois, was re-elected President for the ensuing year. Volney P. Richmond of Fort Russell, Illinois, was elected Secretary, and Vice-Presidents were elected for the following townships: New Douglas, Alhambra, Foster, Wood River, Olive, Alton, Moro, and Godfrey; and the vice-presidents from the other townships were re-elected. “Explanatory Talks” by John W. Coventry, Richard McDonald, and others gave younger persons present an idea of the complete change in manner of living, etc., of the present generation as compared with those who settled in this country when it was a wilderness. The next meeting will be held on June 1, 1893.

 

REMINISCENCE BACK EAST
By Alton’s Oldest Inhabitant
Source: Alton Telegraph, January 11, 1894
The oldest inhabitant has caught his second breath, and said last night that this weather was as cold as an artificial ice factory, compared with the weather of January 1830, back East. Folks, he said, picked strawberries right along that month, but mosquitoes were so troublesome that masks had to be worn over the face whenever you went out of the house. Hog killing time had to be postponed, as ice was not to be had, and the weather was so hot that fresh meat would resolve itself into a decomposed mass inside of an hour.

 

THEN (1834) AND NOW (1894)
By Volney P. Richmond
Source: Alton Telegraph, February 8, 1894
When Samuel H. Denton, the first warden of the Illinois Penitentiary, was living in Alton in a log house, on what we then called Penitentiary Hill, with his one or two prisoners who he boarded in his own house and worked them during the day in preparing to build the penitentiary, I went first to see the picture of the "Piasa Bird" painted on the face of the rock that fronted the river from the top of the Penitentiary Hill, and then up the hill to see my old friend Denton. Though he was a man and I a boy, we were always warm friends. Leaving friend Denton, I went to the highest point of the bluff and this is a part of what I saw. Looking south was a few miles of river and a wooded island; to the west over the river was a dense forest, so dense that it was no unusual thing for hunters to lose themselves and spend a night in the woods. Sometimes in clear days the smoke from the blacksmith shops in St. Louis and St. Charles could be seen. There were no steam works in that day. To the left and southeast of the bluffs, the north end of the great American Bottom, with miles of prairie grass often as high as a man's head, and no house or farm in sight and more of the river. There was a high mound on the bluff a few miles northerly from Collinsville in plain sight. Milltown (Milton) was at that time quite as large as Alton, but could not be seen over the woods that were between the two. East and almost under me was the little Piasa valley, with a little muddy stream winding its way through to the river. A few houses on what is now Second Street [Broadway] in the valley and a log tavern north of where the Town Hall now stands. I could look over the rock on which was the representation of the Piasa Bird. Shame to the citizens who allowed that rock to be destroyed. It ought to be there now as a relic of the Indians who held it in reverence. North and northeast there was nothing but trees on hills and trees in hollows and valleys. Then as a boy, I thought I should see from where I then stood a great town equal, if not large than St. Louis. We did not have many cities then. I was an Illinois boy, and wanted everything in Illinois to be the greatest and best.

Alton stopped in its growth for a good many years, for reasons which are not necessary to mention [murder of Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy], because there is a great difference in opinion as to the reasons, but still it grew a little each year; it never went back. All these years I have watched it, hoping a start would come in my day, and the hope that a great city would be in my sight. It has taken a start. The great city is coming and rapidly, too. It cannot now be stopped. If I am in health in the spring or early summer, I want to stand as near the point as I stood when a boy and see what I shall see. Looking over the Piasa Rock I shall see a great block of mill buildings, and a long line of mills and business down the river, and a great railroad bridge spanning the Mississippi River, and railroads leading to the bridge and trains almost constantly crossing; boats coming and going, instead of the imperfect roads will be seen perfect, well-paved streets, and the American Bottoms will show farms, towns and railroads with trains nearly all the time in eight, but no tall grass. West, over the river, in place of the heavy timber will be seen good farms and farm buildings, railroads and soon there will be towns at each end of the railroad crossing the point between the two rivers, and St. Charles, Missouri, and Bellefontaine, with the high bridge over the Missouri River.

North and northeast, will be seen beautiful residences that have crowded out the native trees and smaller growth, and replaced them with ornamental trees and shrubs, both evergreen and deciduous. A few of the natives are retained. The Piasa hollow is full of machine shops, woolen mill and the great roundhouse of the Chicago & Alton Railroad, which runs down the little Piasa Creek, which for some distance is arched over and the railroad immediately over it. The Chicago & Alton Railroad was the first real road in Illinois, and when I see it I am often reminded of Captain Benjamin Godfrey, to whom we are indebted for its early completion. North Alton, Middletown and Upper Alton are all in sight and three street roads are soon to be electric roads.

The change is great from then to now, almost more than one can imagine. Who can say what will be the difference in sixty years to come? It is near about sixty years since I stood on that high hill and made the observations I have written and thought what Alton would be and what it should be. Alton has never stood still, but the growth was slow until the last few years. It is growing so fast now that nothing can stop it.

The time is not distant when another bridge [Clark Bridge] will cross the river at Alton, and it will not be a drawbridge, and there will be a wagon bridge with it. Illinois is a great State, and Alton has got to be one of the great cities of Illinois. When I stood on that hill, I only wanted to see Alton with as many houses as St. Louis then had; now it has more than doubled. Comparing "then and now" sixty years more and the difference will be that Alton is on the east bank of the Mississippi River and St. Louis on the west bank. Alton has increased in both population and business in proportion to what they both were sixty years ago, faster than St. Louis. If my health permits, I want to make the trip to that Penitentiary Hill when the weather is settled in the spring, and if I do, I will report what I have seen from its height.

NOTES:
Volney Paddock Richmond, the author of the above article, was born in Vermont in 1818. He moved with his parents to St. Louis the same year, and then to Fort Russell Township in Madison County, Illinois. Some of his first recollections were the passing of immigrants to northern parts of Illinois, and many bands of Indians going to and from St. Louis. His grandfather persuaded the Indians to perform their harvest dance, and about 100 men and women engaged in the dance. Richmond received part of his education under Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy, whom he considered the poorest teacher. Richmond became postmaster of Paddock’s Grove in 1838 [south of Moro]. His first vote was for William H. Harrison for president. He was one of the founders of the Old Settler’s organization. He married Victoria West, and they settled in Fort Russell Township near Highway 140 and 159, and built up a prosperous farm. Richmond died in January 1901.

 

EARLY DAYS
By Volney P. Richmond
Source: Alton Telegraph, January 03, 1896
When farms were farm apart, and country all new, the mills were either inclined wheels, which were moved by from six to ten oxen on one side, and that with oxen on it was heavier than the other, and as the oxen were walking up the incline, the wheels pulled to them furnishing the motive power. There were water mills on some of the creeks, but on account of the drouth, seldome run more than three or four months during the year. There were few wagons or carts, and therefore milling was usually done by the boys on horses. A sack containing from one to two bushels of grain was as evenly divided as possible, and put on a horse, and as boys were lighter then men, a boy was lifted on top and started to mill. Sometimes, the sack was not well balanced, and then the boy had an interesting time moving from one side to the other, to keep the sack on the horse. We often had to leave the grain, as there was too much on hand to grind before the regular turn came, and go again for it. There was one boy I knew (I was the boy) who had an unusual and rather exciting experience as a mill boy. He was rather small to send to mill, but was full of grit, and knew the road well, and he was rather remarkable for his fondness for dogs, especially small dogs, and generally made friends of them, but was beaten on this trip. He had to leave his grist, and ride home bareback, as saddles are not good for carrying sacks of grain, and boys did not have many saddles at that day. At that time, there were many little animals resembling dogs, with soft long black and white hair and a large bushy tail, sometimes striped b lack and white, although very pretty, they were best admired from a distance. Now, this boy met one of these little fellows, and thought he had found a nice little dog, and whistle to him to stop, but he would not do it. The boy had a very determined spirit, and wouldn’t give up while there was any chance of accomplishing his object. He wanted that little dog, and he wanted it bad, and was going to have him, too. So he rode after him, and as he came close up, there was all at once a most powerful perfume all around, and not very pleasant either. The boy did not like this, and was still more determined to have that dog, and as he could not catch it with his horse, he dismounted, pulled off the bridle, and went for the little dog. There was more and stronger perfumery, and finally the boy’s old Adam began to rise, and he went for the dog with the bridle bits, and soon had it so that he could carry him. The horse went home without the boy, and the family were all in wonder to know what had become of the boy, and started out to find him. They did not go far before he came in sight, and when he got nearer, they did not have to be told of the kind of game he carried.

 

JOURNEY TO THE FAR WEST
By James Gamble
Founder of the Alton Daily Courier
Source: Alton Telegraph, April 09, 1896
“Forty-three years ago today [March 26, 1853], I left my old home in Alton, Illinois, with a party of gold seekers, the majority of whom were citizens of Alton. The good steamer Kate Swinney took us with our teams from Alton up the Missouri River to St. Joseph, then a frontier town. Here, we camped for a short time, waiting for the grass to start on the plains, as we had to depend upon that for our animals.

The outfit of the party consisted of thirteen wagons drawn by four mules each. Our start was an early one, so that we were about the first to cross the Missouri River. We moved with our teams up the river early in April, and on April 22, crossed at Old Fort Kearney, into what was then called the Indian Country. We had organized a guard system of a double watch, which changed about midnight, and guard duty commenced as soon as we reached the Indian Country, and was kept up vigorously until we reached civilization on the western side of the continent.

My own outfit consisted of a Mexican pony, a gun, fishing tackle, blankets, etc., and upon this tough little animal I made the trip through to the foot of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, where he gave out. I found there an old friend who had a trading post, with whom I left the animal to recruit upon good grass on the Carson River bottom, and he was afterwards brought to me in good condition at Sacramento.

What wonderful changes have taken place in these forty-three years. From the time we crossed the Missouri, until we reached Salt Lake, there was no sign of civilization, except at the government forts at new Fort Kearney and Fort Laramie, and now that vast country is covered with cities, towns, and farms, grid-ironed with railroads and webbed with telegraph wires.

Ours was a rough trip, but I always look back to it with pleasure, for I started for my health, which was poor at the time, and gained it through outdoor life and being hardened to exposure. It may seem hard to travel all day through sleet and rain on horseback, and camp at night on the wet ground, but we thought nothing of it after we got used to it. We often felt weary upon such occasions, but a day of sunshine brightened us all up again, and we pushed forward with renewed spirits towards the Golden West, where we all expected to pick up golden nuggets enough in a few years and be able to return to our old homes and enjoy the result of our toil and hardships.

We had several Indian scares, but only one of which appeared at the time to be very serious. Our route was up the south side of the Platte River, and we had to cross that stream about fifty miles west of Fort Laramie, where a Canadian Frenchman, who with other trappers and traders among the Indians had built a bridge the previous winter. Rubedeau was his name, and he had considerable influence with the Crow Indians, who occupied this part of the country. During the winter, the smallpox had broken out among the Indians, and many of them died from the disease. These Indians usually placed the dead in trees, or upon scaffolding above ground, but as trees were scarce, they piled the bodies of their dead in an abandoned cabin, formerly used by the trappers a few miles below the bridge. Fearing that the emigrants learning of this would take another route, and they would lose the big tolls on their bridge, the trappers burned the cabin and its contents of dead Indians, and the result was that the Indians got fighting mad, and declared that no emigrants should pass over the bridge. The only party ahead of ours was a Kentuckian with a large band of fine horses for California. He had about twenty men, well-armed, and they crossed the bridge the day before and had a little skirmish with the Indians, but with no more serious results than an Indian being knocked down by one of the horsemen. The Indians, about one hundred in number, were mostly armed with bows and arrows, and the Kentuckians being well armed, overcame them.

We were the next to run the gauntlet. We camped below the bridge the night before we were to cross, and having heard of the row, put out a double guard, and the evening was spent in cleaning our firearms in readiness for the next day, for it was fight or go ahead, and we were out too far to think of backing out. We moved up to the bridge the next morning. Rubedeau told us he thought he could arrange matters so that there would be no trouble. The old chief and several of his lieutenants came over and met Rubedean, and after a long parley, they agreed to let us pass if we would contribute a large amount of provisions and clothing. As we had to pay $5 a wagon, and $1 for each horse to cross that bridge, we declined this proposition, when the Indians recrossed to their camp. By this time it was noon, and we had a good luncheon of buffalo meat stew gotten up by the Frenchmen. Rubedeau seemed confident that he could amicably arrange the matter, and went over to the Indian camp after luncheon. He returned about three o’clock, and said that he had fixed the matter by making a present to the Chief of one of his fine white mares, with which he had driven out from the States that Spring. He said he would go over ahead of us when we were ready to start. We hitched up our teams, placed the women and children in the wagons, and several of us who were on horseback, well-armed with shotguns, rifles, and revolvers, took the lead. Every driver and extra man was also well armed. I remember counting up 135 shots in the party. When Rubedeau got about half way across the bridge in the lead, he turned back and said it was all right. We did not like this, and thought he had gotten us into a scrape, but we pushed ahead. When we reached the end of the bridge, we found the “bucks” kept well back on the hillside, but the women were disposed to push forward and beg. We motioned them back and kept moving, which was the order given to each driver, and we did not stop until we got about three miles above the Indian camp, where we found a good camping place on the river bottom. But one Indian followed us, and he was doubtless a spy, for he hung around camp for some time, and then returned. We were all pretty nervous that night, but put out a strong guard. The Indians evidently found we were too well-armed for them, and let us alone.

Two days after, we crossed a small party with show wagons. The Indians run off their stock and took about all they had. A company of soldiers were finally sent from Fort Laramie, and run the Indians off. This was our only Indian scare, and we were glad to get away from it, for we were not hunting a fight.

The great plains were then covered with buffalo. I saw thousands in a herd, and now they have all disappeared, and I was very ambitious to kill one, but it was not my good fortune to do so. I went on a chase of a small herd with a friend a few days before we reached the South Pass. After a long chase, I came close enough to fire, and I wanted to kill a bull. The herd went on but he turned on me. I was tired out, and my horse was in a foam and my companion had not come up. I never saw such glaring eyes as that animal had, and we glared at each other, being about fifty yards apart. The buffalo finally turned and trotted after the herd, and I concluded I had enough buffalo hunting. I was carried away so much by the exciting chase, that when it was over I was lost. I could not tell the direction of our train, which was moving when we left it. The country was rolling, and we could not agree upon the direction. My companion insisting that I was wrong and he was right, but finally he gave in to me, and I was convinced by a range of mountains that I noticed before starting that I was really right, and fortunately we reached our camp that night, having struck the trail of our wagons.

We had a great deal of trouble on account of high water in all the streams, for it was an unusually stormy Spring. Every stream had to be bridged or ferried, and we frequently had to take our wagon beds and make boats of them. In other cases, we had to pay heavy tolls to Mormons and others who built bridges or had ferry boats. Few people can realize what hardships the early immigrants to California had to go through. With me, it was very hard at first, so that before reaching Salt Lake City, I was laid up with serious illness, and had to be carried for over two weeks on a bed on one of the wagons. After reaching Salt Lake City and recruiting on fresh meats and vegetables, I began to pick up, so that I arrived at the end of my journey 16 pounds more in weight than when I started. Many times we had to cook our meals with buffalo chips, which were gathered during the day, as there was no wood to be had for many miles. Alas! The buffalo are gone, never to return, but their chips are no longer required. We now travel across these great plains in palace cars in four days, whereas it took us four months, and ours was considered a lightning train. The bull teams were much slower.

I started in to write only a few lines of early reminiscences, but there seems to be no end to what I might say of those early days, so I will conclude this rough sketch by giving you a list of names of our party, some of whom I hope may be living yet, to read what I have written. The following are the names of the party that left Alton on March 26, 1853:

William Shattuck and family; William DeLaney; Thomas S. Pinckard; M. Davis; J. Gamble; R. M. Gaff; W. W. Smith and wife; D. Hanson; M. L. Henry; John C. Ryan; John Wagoner; James DeLaney; William White and family; Seth L. Carpenter; E. White; J. Freeman; M. Maguire; R. C. Lawson; Dan Underwood; H. Gutt; J. R. Milnor; J. W. Smith and wife; Philip Clark; John Craddock; John E. Broughton; J. W. Blanchard; S. R. Perry and family; Henry Mason and wife; M. D. Davis; W. W. Amos; L. J. Easton; G. B. Manley; W. Banks; J. F. Smith; N. P. Perkins; C. C. Tomlinson; B. F. Batterton; D. S. Dutro; Mary E. Stack; Miss Margaret Ray; and Mrs. DeLaney.

Forty-three years have passed, and where are they all now – scattered and gone – many dead and buried, probably a few among the living.

We arrived in Sacramento City in August, and here our party broke up and scattered, principally to the mining districts. I tried the diggings myself, but hard work with the pick and shovel did not agree with me, so I sought more congenial employment, and circumstance threw me into the business I was following for some years before I left the “States,” that of the electric telegraph, of which I soon took the management and retained the position of General Manager of all the lines on this coast for a quarter of a century. I still have an affection for the old Alton Telegraph, as I graduated as a printer in that office, where I was employed for about seven years. I started the Alton Daily Courier as a partner with George T. Brown, but concluded after a year’s experience that there was no fortune in it for me, so concluded to seek it in the far west, and I have no reason to regret the change.”

Signed, James Gamble
Piedmont, California
March 26, 1896

NOTES:
James Gamble was born April 26, 1826, in Ellicott City, Howard County, Maryland. He came west, and for a time lived in Quincy, Illinois. He moved to Alton, Illinois, where for seven years he worked as a printer with the Alton Telegraph. James founded the Alton Daily Courier in about 1852, in partnership with George T. Brown, but after a year he dissolved his partnership. James left Alton with a group of mostly Altonians on March 26, 1853 for California, to seek his fortune in the gold mines. James was not successful in finding gold in California, and sought employment in the telegraph business. In 1856, he was appointed Superintendent and one of the Directors of the Alta Telegraph Company, and was also the Superintendent of the State Telegraph Line. He was in charge of building the first telegraph lines in California, from Sacramento to Marysville.

James died June 18, 1905, at his daughter’s home in Santa Barbara, California. His remains were buried in the Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California. Surviving were two daughters and three sons – one of whom was Thomas L. Gamble of Spokane, Washington.

 

OLD SETTLERS MEETING
Source: Alton Telegraph, June 10, 1897
The old settlers of Madison County held their annual reunion Wednesday at Edwardsville, in the M. E. Church. This was the eleventh annual reunion, and notwithstanding the threatening weather, the attendance was good. President W. P. Eaton called the meeting to order, and an address of welcome was made by Mayor Stolze of Edwardsville. Rev. J. A. Scarritt responded on behalf of the union. Short talks were also made by J. W. Bratton of Liberty Prairie; John Weaver of Carpenter; and William A. Wilson of Collinsville; each relating reminiscences of former days. At the afternoon session, the old officers were re-elected – W. P. Eaton of Hamel, President; L. C. Keown of Edwardsville, Secretary; and John R. Sutter of Edwardsville, Antiquarian. The memorial convention reported the deaths of fifty old settlers during the year.

 

RECOLLECTIONS
By Samuel Handsaker
Arrived in Madison County in 1843
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, January 15, 1900
To the Editor: In compliance with a request, I am in receipt of a copy of the Alton Weekly Telegraph. Please accept thanks for same. I assure you it was like taking a long, absent friend by the hand to get it. I am an entire stranger to the editor, but not so with the good old Telegraph, whose columns years ago were perused by our entire family, and by none with more pleasure than yours truly.

“In the Spring of 1843 (fifty-six years ago) my widowed mother and a number of boys and girls, all just arrived from England, located at the crossing on Indian Creek, on the road leading from Alton to Vandalia, ten miles east of Alton. Perhaps in a future letter to your columns, if this is not at once consigned to your wastebasket, I may speak more of our family. I have scanned the copy of your paper now before me to see the names of my old friends of half a century or more ago, and ____ but two, Henry Guest McPike, whom I met on your streets when on a visit to Illinois seventeen years ago is one, and Mrs. Anna Rowe Colby, lately deceased, is the other. If not in error, Mrs. Colby was a little girl when the writer was acquainted with her father's family in the early 1850s. Mr. Rowe was a tallow chandler, and acquired a competence in making soap and candles, each of them very necessary articles in their time, but electricity has in a part measure superseded the latter, with many other things. Robert Kelsy of Bethalto, a brother-in-law of the writer, was a trusted employee of Mr. Rowe for a number of years, and no doubt that ‘Bob’ laid the foundation of his present wealth. When we settled in Illinois, the writer, the youngest of the children, was not yet in his teens, but now he is nearing the three score and ten mark, and the change in that time is truly wonderful. I am not sure if Judge John Bailhache was the founder of the Alton Telegraph, but recollect that he was the proprietor in the early 1850s, and when his son, William H., had acquired an education, he assisted his father in its management, but subsequently went to California, where he engaged in journalism. On this beautiful Spring-like day, when the earth in these parts of our glorious State is covered with a green carpet of fresh vegetation, when the sun is shining with the splendor of summer, and the warmth of spring, the birds are singing and we have to consult the almanac to be sure it is New Year's day, nineteen hundred, that just makes a fellow feel like making complimentary remarks in regard to the usual topic of conversation. We have had plenty of rain, no snow, and but little frost. Many flowers are in bloom, and as I write loads of green grass, cut with a scythe, is passing my window. Oregon is not famous for reptiles, but a snake was observed on our streets a few days ago. On March 22, 1854, the writer, with a number of other young men, all citizens of ‘Old Madison,’ with the family of Beniah Robinson, started from Edwardsville for Oregon, the journey at that time requiring all the spring, summer and part of the fall. Mr. Robinson was a pioneer to Illinois in 1813, and was county surveyor in Madison County for many years. With the permission of the editor, I will give some account of our journey the plains across, in my next. With the compliments of the season to your many readers. Samuel Handsaker." [Note from Mr. Handsaker: Lawson A. Parks and Richard M. Treadway were the founders of the Telegraph. The first issue was January 14, 1836. Mr. Bailhache became editor shortly after the death of Mr. Treadway.]

 

RECOLLECTIONS
By Volney Paddock Richmond
Written in Abt. 1899
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, January 15, 1901
Volney P. Richmond, one of Madison County's oldest residents, died at his home at Paddock's Grove on Monday, in his 82d year. Of all the old residents of the county, Mr. Richmond was probably the best known. Below is a short biography of Mr. Richmond, written for the Telegraph some two years ago by Mr. Richmond:

"On the earnest solicitation of friend Cousley, I have written a short history of a rather long life, the first of it passed when Illinois had few inhabitants, and I have grown older with the growth of our good State, and witnessed many changes. I have no personal desire to make myself conspicuous, and hope none will think I am forcing myself on the public from any motive of self-esteem.

I was born in Woodstock, Windsor County, Vermont, on April 25, 1818, and left there in September following and spent the next winter in St. Louis, coming with my mother and grandfather Paddock to Fort Russell Township, Madison County, Illinois, in March 1819. My first recollections were the frequent passing of emigrants to the northern parts of Illinois, and many companies of Indians going to and from St. Louis. I have seen and remember well Blackhawk, Keokuk the Prophet, and one who used to call himself 'Silversmith' (he must have been a relation of W. J. Bryan). One time my grandfather persuaded the Indians to give us a 'harvest dance.' There were about a hundred bucks and women engaged. At another time a war dance, where only braves were engaged, was performed. When in my sixth year I went to Springfield to school and passed four cabins, all there were in a distance of seventy miles. That was the beginning of my school education. I had about two years of school work in log cabins and school houses, scattering along from six to seventeen years of age, completed my education, a part of the time with Elijah P. Lovejoy, which I have always considered the poorest part of my education. I like, and think John Brown a much better man in every respect than Elijah P. Lovejoy, and more deserving of a monument to liberty.

I was born a farmer, but my people made a mistake and sent me when seventeen years old to St. Louis to make a poor merchant of me. In about four years’ time in selling goods and covering another's debts, I found myself about $3,000 in debt and nothing to pay it with, and went to work on the farm again in opposition to all advices of kindred, and for fifty cents per day. In the Fall of 1844, I made a trip up in what was then called the 'Military track' between the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers, in search of what would make me a farm, and spent three weeks in travel and came home thinking Madison County was good enough for me, and bought the land on which is now my home within four miles of where my people first made their home in Illinois, and of the sixteen members of the family who came from Vermont, only two are now living.

What I may have done for the good of the community amounts to but little, but as you call for a biography of my life I suppose some mention should be made. My first public work was getting up and being made postmaster of Paddock's Grove post office in May 1838, when just past my 20th birthday. I began very leisurely getting up the necessary petition, when one morning when the thermometer was several degrees below zero, I learned that an older man was at work for another place. The snow was about a foot deep, but I started out with my petition and tramped through the snow, got the required number of names, and next morning started on foot (too cold to ride) for Edwardsville, and got the postmaster to endorse and forward my paper to Postmaster General Amos Kendall.

Isaac Prickett, then postmaster at Edwardsville, was one of my first friends there, and seemed to care for me, and when it came to giving my bond as postmaster, I thought it would be correct to call on an old friend who was just old enough. When all was completed, Mr. Prickett said to me, 'My young friend, when you want anyone to go your security, always ask an old man, for it is not probably he will ever ask you to return the favor, and a young may.' It was good and useful advice, which I remembered and made use of.

I have held several minor offices, county and township, but never asked anyone to vote for me. Under the county system I was road supervisor two or three times, was deputy assessor in 1857, census enumerator in 1890, and town clerk for Fort Russell ten years, and filled a vacancy, and had health permitted, would probably have continued longer. Was secretary of the Illinois Wool Growers Association for several years, director and secretary of Madison County Agricultural and Mechanical Association, a school director, etc., a Master Mason. Have done considerable work for Sunday Schools, and for the temperance cause. Worked hard in 1840 for 'Tippecanoe' and gave my first vote for President to William Henry Harrison and for Whig and Republican principles straight along. Have been for many years a member of the Presbyterian Church, and since 1857 a Master Mason. My best work for the county was working up the Old Settlers Union of Madison County. It was hard and met with opposition from all the county papers. I saw where others failed, making the residence in the county too short a time, the result was that many young men sought to make themselves popular and took the business out of the hands of the old settlers. I called for those who remembered the deep snow of 1830, and after three calls through the papers got about a dozen together, and we worked up the organization. When I meet so many old friends I cannot but feel proud of my work.

In 1847 I married Victoria E. West, daughter of Emanuel J. West. She passed away from me in 1856, leaving me with five children, two of whom soon followed her. My oldest died in her twentieth year. I was married the second time in 1858 to Harriet A. Anthony from Vermont. She died in 1880. If I were to write all I have passed through, nothing of any great importance, and all the changes in the face of the country and agricultural methods and machinery, the old time Telegraph would have to print many numbers to hold it. By the way, when the first paper was started in Alton, Illinois, which afterwards became the Alton Telegraph, I went through prairie and woods, Upper Alton and Bozzatown, which were all woods then, and a few houses (one of them a part of the St. Joseph's hospital now) to pay the subscription price, and have been a reader of that paper most of the time since. About five years of my eighty years of life, I have passed outside of Fort Russell Township, all of the time I have considered it my home. Hoping this will find favor with your readers and wishing all a happy and
long life. I am yours respectfully, Volney P. Richmond."

 

RECOLLECTIONS
By Thomas A. Easton of Kansas City, Kansas
The Gillhams and the Louisiana Purchase
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, February 10, 1902
“May 13, 1803, Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States, through Messrs. Monroe and Livingston, purchased of Napoleon Bonaparte the great fertile Louisiana country, west of the Mississippi River. In the Fall of the same year, 1803, Mr. Jefferson sent his private secretary, Captain Lewis and Captain Clarke, with troops to the mouth of the Wood River, now just outside of Alton, but not then; then opposite the Missouri River, but not now.

That same year, 1803, ninety-nine years ago, the Methodist Church sent a lone young man, Rev. Benjamin Young, from the State of Ohio, to the Illinois Country to preach the gospel to the Gillhams in the Gillham Settlement at the head of the American Bottoms, just beyond the Wood River from Alton. While Lewis and Clarke were in their camp getting matters ready for their journey of exploration to the Pacific ocean, Mr. Young was preaching a pacific gospel outside their camp and getting a people ready for a journey to the land of pure delight, where saints immortal reign. Each party was engaged in a grand work, and the work of each long ago went into history.

Since the time Mr. Young came and planted a church there, that is to say, from 1803 to 1902, ninety-nine years, that church has never been without a pastor. The same statement is true of two other churches that he planted, one in what is now Monroe County and the other in St. Clair County. The three originally were called ‘The Illinois Circuit.’ From them Methodism spread over Illinois.

In 1803, there were no steamboats, no telegraphs, no Alton in the world - without roads or bridges or hotels or churches or school houses. With thousands of Indians racing over these western wilds, or paddling on its rivers, wolves as numerous as Indians, bottom grass ten feet high, to say nothing of mosquitos. What a country to travel in, and what a country to live in. It is true there were deer, turkeys, prairie chickens, wild geese, ducks, pigeons and cranes by the thousands, and fish in abundance, and the richest of soils. That year the Gillhams were the only Americans within the present bounds of Madison County, Illinois, and none north of them. They must have been a brave, hardy race. From one of them, who was an honor to the name, I learned a dozen years ago that there was a time in the past century when the Gillham family polled 300 votes. How many are there now? Rev. Benjamin Young not only planted three churches and put his name prominently in history that year, but had the good fortune and good taste to win and marry a Miss Gillham. The Gillham Church (known as Salem) is not much more than a half dozen miles from Alton. Lewis and Clarke's old campgrounds is just out (if it is out) of the corporation of Alton, and the Louisiana Purchase is just across the river. Just think of Alton on the borders of a foreign country! When God compelled Napoleon Bonaparte to sell that land across the river to the United States, he was working for the good of Alton.”

 

RECOLLECTIONS
By William Hayden
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, March 06, 1903
Below is an article written by William Hayden of Springfield, brother of George D. Hayden of Alton, and who is well known here. The letter is one of a number written by old residents concerning the early days in Alton, which the Telegraph hopes to publish in the near future:

Springfield, Illinois, February 24, 1903
“Yours of February 17 was received, and I would be glad to aid in the preservation of facts connected with the early history of Alton, especially as I am one of the very few now living whose knowledge of such facts dates back more than seventy years. Of course, the memories of times so long ago are the memories of early childhood, yet some of them are very distinct, though of course relating to trifling circumstances. I have a distinct recollection of the first night in Alton and the succeeding days. It was on May 23, 1831, about 10 p.m., when the steamer ‘Triton’ landed us after a six hours trip from St. Louis, at a point just below (east of) what is now Easton Street, the river shore lined with a growth of willows, which wholly obscured the view from the road which is now Front Street. At the late hour of our arrival, the only house in the vicinity was an unfinished frame, built by Mr. J. C. Bruner, into which the family bedding of my parents, and that of some other families, was dumped, affording tolerably comfortable lodging for the rest of the night. The next morning a skirmish for food led to the discovery of a ‘hotel’ built of logs, one and a half stories in height, and perhaps twenty feet square. It was located on the north side of Second Street [Broadway], on the block now occupied in part by the Odd Fellows Temple. The house was kept by Andrew Miller, who some years later became sheriff of the county and keeper of the more pretentious ‘Alton House,’ corner of Alby and Front Streets. This latter house entertained Martin Van Buren sometime during his campaign for the Presidency. On the night of May 24, 1831, an addition to the number of lodgers in the Bruner House came in the person of Mr. Samuel Avis, later known as the active helper in the dry goods house of William Manning & Co., the largest business concern in its line in the West.

On May 26, 1831, failing to secure accommodations in the village, which contained only three frame houses and a few log cabins, we went to Upper Alton, then a more considerable village, where we remained till the Spring of 1832, and then removed to a frame house just erected on the bluff near its eastern termination, and perhaps a hundred yards west of the later penitentiary wall. At that time the bluff so nearly approached the river that a plank bridge connected it with the fifth story of the flour mill, whose southern foundation was laid quite deep in the water. The first brick house which sheltered our family, and apparently good condition on the east side of Market Street, third door north of the corner of Second Street. It was built and owned by Beal Howard, a double tenement, quite pretentious in its early days. Our family moved into it in the Fall of 1832, remaining there about a year, and until the completion of our more permanent dwelling on the northwest corner of Third and Alby Streets. This house still stands as one of a row, the next west long occupied by Mr. William McCorkle, and the third by Mr. Samuel Wade, my father's partner in the lumber trade. Later, Mr. Dimmock, father of my boyhood companion, Thomas Dimmock, long lived in it while engaged in an extensive shoe trade. It was here that my boyhood was spent, and it was to this place that day after day I carried our only supply of pure water from that unfailing source, ‘Hawley's well,’ which for many years was the most frequented well in the region. The place it occupied must be that on which the Citizens National Bank now stands. It was scarcely more than a rod from the considerable stream known as ‘Little Piasa Creek,’ which divided the town, and was in 1831 crossed by pedestrians only in a ‘dug out’ canoe connected with each shore with a rope, constituting a primitive public improvement. The stream is now out of sight, and was first diverted into what was long known as ‘Kimball's Ditch,’ and now runs beneath the Piasa Street track of the Chicago and Alton Railway. On the banks of this creek, at its crossing of Fourth Street, there was erected a hotel of some pretension, the Eagle Tavern - later the Piasa House, its site now occupied by the manufacturing plant of Beall Brothers. The first school I attended was on the south side of Second Street, between Market and Alby. This was later transferred to the northeast corner of Second and Alby, and long conducted by one Hezekiah Davis. Later, for five days, John M. Krum, afterwards Mayor of the city and still later Mayor of St. Louis, undertook its management, but became discouraged and entered upon a career which brought him honor at the bar and upon the bench.

Among the earliest church services which I remember were those long held in the building, above mentioned, on the corner of Second and Alby Streets, and known as ‘Lyceum Hall.’ It was here that I heard the first public address of Winthrop S. Gilman after his conversion. It was here, that for a long time, most public assemblies gathered for lectures, concerts and political movements.

During my boyhood days the business of the town was mostly confined to the block bounded by the creek on the east, State Street on the west, and included Second Street [Broadway] and the levee. Within this territory an immense traffic was carried on and the largest stocks of merchandise west of the Allegheny mountains were gathered. Often was Second Street in these limits, so crowded with vehicles as to become gorged and impassable. The post office has occupied tenements in the ‘Bruner building’ (our first shelter) in a two-story frame about where the Union Station now stands, and in a one-story frame structure where the present city hall stands, with other forgotten localities.

The first church edifice was upon the ground now occupied by St. Paul's Episcopal Church, and was a manifestation of the public spirit of Captain Benjamin Godfrey, who intended that it should be occupied jointly by the Baptist and Presbyterian Churches, they being at the time the only ecclesiastical organization existing. Its bell was the gift to the Presbyterian church by the mother of Winthrop S. Gilman. It arrived in time to be placed in the steeple of the church on its completion. It is distinctly remembered that it came suspended under the boiler deck of a steamer and gave its first peal to the town from that position. It was probably the first church bell west of the Allegheny mountains of any considerable size.

It may interest some to know of the distinction due to Alton in another particular. In ‘Gould's History of Churches in America,’ there is this statement: ‘The first organ that sounded west of the Allegheny Mountains was placed in the Second Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati in 1837.’ In the latter part of 1836. an organ from the factory of Henry Erben was brought to Alton by the Baptist congregation and was intended for use in the then unfinished edifice, corner of Second and Easton Streets. Waiting the completion of this building, it was erected in the frame church building, northeast corner of Third and Alby Streets, where it was used for several months prior to the occupancy of the basement of the new building early in 1837. The instrument was a wonder in its day. It was destroyed by the fire that demolished the building many years later, but the writer still preserves, as a cherished relic, one of its pipes, an armful of them having been carried out at the first alarm of fire. The boy organist, who for several years attempted the manipulation of its keys, now pens these facts, and many years later was called from the organ bench of the old Central Presbyterian Church of St. Louis to ‘open’ the organ now in use in the beautiful Presbyterian Church in Alton, to which it was removed from the old edifice facing the city hall.

But lest I weary you by personal recollections, I will only add that the explosion of the powder magazine, the murder of Lovejoy, the person of the martyr, the advent of the first fire engine, and the imposing funeral of the Alton officers slain in the Mexican War, are incidents well remembered by others, as well as by myself, and I will not dwell upon them or add at this time other ‘personal recollections.’”

 

RECOLLECTIONS
By Thomas Stanton Pinckard
Born in Alton in 1833
Alton Evening Telegraph, March 17, 1903
Springfield, Ill., March 10, 1903. Editor Telegraph:
“In compliance with your request that I write for the Telegraph an article containing such facts as to the early history of the city of Alton as may be in my knowledge, I submit the following. Of course, it will be understood by your readers that much herein written is hearsay evidence given me by older persons who were actors and actual witnesses of facts and events narrated:

In the year 1818, the present site of what is known as Alton was a most unattractive and unsuitable site for a city of the size to which it has grown. The high cliffs on the west side of the Piasa Creek sloped steeply down to the bank of the stream, while the high hills on the east side also frowned steep and rugged to the water's edge. The creek bed or bottom was spread out nearly as far west as the east side of what is now Belle Street, and the eastern bank was near the center of Piasa Street. The creek was then a more pretentious stream than now, and at the mouth or entrance into the river was a low, flat, marshy quagmire extending east from a rocky point west of Piasa Street to a similar point of solid rock at the foot of what is now Market Street. As I have stated, it was not a very attractive site upon which to lay out and build up a city.

Before the admission of the State of Illinois into the Union in 1818, the efforts of Mr. Rufus Easton and others, the promoters of the town site, made but little progress in inducing settlers to stop permanently there. There was a village at the Wood River crossing named Milton, in which Rev. Thomas Lippincott, a noted Presbyterian minister in early times, kept a store, and quite a number of log and frame houses had been erected before Alton excited much attention as a future town site. Home seekers arriving at Milton in their wagons usually procured necessary supplies there and pushed on westward, not going up the river to Alton, but keeping the main traveled road up the hill west of Milton and through the town of Salu, as Upper Alton was then called, and on westward and north through Scarritt's Prairie (now Godfrey). Thus Salu, or Upper Alton, grew quite fast, many stopping there permanently. For a time Salu had a boom and increased faster in population than did lower Alton, but only for a short time.

In September 1818, my father, William Greene Pinckard, and family, arrived in Milton in a wagon, after a long overland trip from London, Ohio, and while purchasing supplies from Rev. Lippincott was informed of the location of the town of Alton. Delaying but a short time in Milton, they proceeded west up the river to what has since been known as Shield's Branch or Creek (now Bozzatown). Here the home seeker and family, together with his brother-in-law, Daniel Crume, decided to remain during the winter. A temporary cabin was built north of the road on the east side of the creek, and in this, eight or ten persons spent the winter. The next year my grandfather and his family joined the colony, and all secured homes in Salu, as the town of Upper Alton was then named, and there resided several years. Grandfather was a Justice of the Peace of the village. The chair which he used as a combined desk and chair, and which my father used after him for many years in his office as Justice of the Peace in lower Alton, I have as a cherished relic of those early days. The entire range of hills from Milton west to Piasa Creek was densely covered with timber, and settlers found ready at hand choice material of which to make log houses and clapboards with which to roof them.

Major Charles W. Hunter came later to lower Alton and laid out lots in the east part and called it Hunterstown. Father and Crume built several log houses for Major Hunter on his lots, and also others in Alton for Mr. Easton. They also erected for the last-named gentleman the first frame house on the site of lower Alton. Until 1866 a double log house stood a few yards from the corner of Second and Piasa Streets, called the Hawley House. This was built by Pinckard & Crum for Thomas G. Hawley, and was known as a hotel and the ferry house in those days. In 1866 the Hawley House was torn down to make room for improvements. I understand Hon. Henry G. McPike secured logs from the old structure and built at his home, ‘Mt. Lookout,’ a small room in which he keeps a number of curios and relics of early days in Alton. Before the filling in of the levee and improvements at the mouth of the creek, a kind of ferry was maintained and landed near where the public weighing scales were later located. The west part of the business portion of the city - in fact the only part where much business was transacted for many years - from the west bank of the creek to the foot of the bluffs, was filled in from the keep cuts in the native hills to make street grades suitable for vehicles.”

[Continued on March 18, 1903]
“The filling up of the levee at the mouth of the creek was done by a man named McDonald. A culvert was first built of stone walls which were roofed over by hewn timbers, thus making a waterway for the stream, and then thousands of yards of stone and earth from the keep cuts in the vicinity were dumped in the mud until the proper level was obtained. The culvert began at the north side of Second Street [Broadway] and extended to the river at a point of solid rock at the foot of Market Street. When the city hall was built, a stone arched roof was substituted for the logs and otherwise strengthened because of the foundations of the hall being over it or very near it.

When the Alton and Sangamon Railroad Company began arrangements for building that road (now the Chicago and Alton Railroad) in 1850-1, the creek bed was open from Second Street north to the gas works, and several large forest trees stood on Piasa Street north of Fourth Street. After contracts were let for cutting through the wall of rock, which then stood in the proposed track on Piasa Street north, a stone culvert was built connecting with the one from Second Street to the river, and the entire creek basin was soon brought to the present level; and the first passenger depot was for many years in the present stone freight house.

I believe the first manufactories of any kind in the Altons was the pottery of William Harrison and my father in Upper Alton, or Salu as it was then known, and a tannery also owned by them on an adjoining lot. Dr. Thomas Stanton, father of Captain Tom Stanton of Alton post office, built the first brick house in Upper Middletown. The brick was made by Thomas Wallace, who came there from Louisiana and opened the first brickyard in the Altons.

When the agitation regarding removing the State Capital of Illinois from Vandalia began, Alton was a strong candidate for the location, and Hon. Cyrus Edwards and his brother, Dr. Benjamin Franklin Edwards, each built a handsome brick residence near our home in Middletown, which father had bought of William Manning in 1836. The Wallace brickyard furnished the brick for the Edwards' homes. The village grew quite fast, and O. M. Adams, Judge Bailey, Dr. Marsh, Moses G. Atwood, John Atwood, Samuel Wade and many others built houses and resided in Middle Alton.

It was many years before the densely timbered land between Middle and Lower Alton was cleared off, and when Francis Marion Johnson and the writer attended school No. 2 in 1847, giant oaks were standing among the younger trees in every direction. From the earliest days of which we have record, a path or trail led over the hills from Lower to Upper Alton through the timber and on beyond to the Wood River. This shortcut was used almost altogether by pedestrians in the early days. Where this path crossed the ravine or hollow south of school No. 2, at the corner of William Hayden's lots, an excellent spring of cold water was located in the rocks from which the school obtained the refreshing drink. On the very pinnacle of the hill which towered high just north of where Mr. Watson's beautiful residence stands on Alby Street, a small grove of red haw trees stood, which in proper season was always full of fruit. The trail led near this little cluster of trees, and girls and boys on their way to Sunday School in Lower Alton were often late in arriving at their destination.

Perhaps the most noted hotel of the early history of Alton was the Eagle Tavern, later named Piasa House. It stood on the northeast corner of Piasa and Fourth Streets. A wagon bridge over the creek on Fourth Street led to a trestle walk connected with higher ground west. Going south on the east side of Piasa Street, a long walk or trestle work with hand rail, to the corner of Third Street, was used by pedestrians. Thence to Second Street another trestle walk enabled the walker to enter Second Street, thence west still on trestles for sixty feet or more to solid walks. In those days it was a model hotel. In later years came the Alton House, a large brick hotel on the riverfront at foot of Alby Street. Mr. Andrew Miller was one of the first landlords of that house, but for many years Amos L. Corson was proprietor, and many noted men of the State and nation partook of his good cheer. Still later the Franklin House on State Street was conducted by Mr. B. F. Fox. Now you have the Hotel Madison on Second Street, which stands where a bank of earth perhaps thirty or forty feet high was and had to be removed to attain the present level.

One can scarcely realize now, while viewing your streets, what immense quantities of earth have been removed to place them on the present grade. Originally, nearly the whole length of Second Street between Market and Henry Streets was a steep side hill. The wagon road ran close under the hillside near the river over a somewhat softer roadbed. The citizens of Alton today can scarcely realize the great changes which were made by those who led in the great task of reducing the unattractive wilderness, and building up so beautiful a city as Alton now is. Located so near a great city like St. Louis, and handicapped by the natural obstacles to be overcome, citizens of Alton deserve great praise and credit for their energy and enterprise in the past and I hope their continued efforts may meet with success in the future.

I have been repeatedly asked as to what I know of the original location of the picture of the Piasa Bird. I can only say that as late as 1850, a picture of the bird-animal called the Piasa bird was plainly visible about a quarter of a mile from the ‘old mill’ up the river, on a smooth-faced rock which was located fifty or sixty feet from the base of the cliff. The picture faced east and was painted in two colors, black and a reddish brown. The weather had destroyed the outlines previously, and local painters had repainted the outlines. C. G. Mauzy, a local painter, and A. G. Wolford, another artist of talent, each painted it over once, I have been informed. Doubtless, hundreds visited the location and viewed the bird as I did. Whether that was the original picture referred to in legendary lore, I know not. Some accounts have it above the mouth of the Illinois. It is hardly possible that story is true, as the legend places it on the Mississippi River. An artist named Blair resided in Alton about 1848 or 1849, and painted his conception of the death scene of the Piasa Bird as described in the legend. It was adjudged a very creditable work of art and was secured by Mr. William Holton, and for years was placed in public view in his drug store. The same artist also painted a picture of Alton which was a very accurate one of the city at that day. I last saw it in John Buckmaster's cigar store, a year before his death. I hope it is in good hands and will be well preserved.

The industrial interests of the Altons were largely influenced in early years by the packing of pork and beef, vast number of animals being slaughtered there. The making of barrels and casks was necessary to the packing business, and several large shops, employing many coopers, were operated both in Upper and lower Alton. The late General John M. Palmer informed me a few years before his death that he worked as a cooper for a man named Miller in Upper Alton when a young man, that being his trade. Mr. Samuel Wade was one of the largest pork packers in lower Alton.

The question of who was the first child born in the Altons has been lately asked me. I frankly state I do not know, and do not remember ever to have heard the question or inquiry before.

The recent destruction of the Military Academy in Upper Alton by fire has reminded me of the man who built the original structure in which the academy was located. John Bostwick, then a man of wealth, began there the construction of a palatial residence, and had almost completed the main building when the great financial crisis of 1836-7 so affected his bank account that he was compelled to abandon the whole scheme. It was long spoken of by citizens as ‘Bostwick's Folly.’

To keep within reasonable limits in this article, I have been as brief as possible, and I may, if the spirit moves me and it is the editor's wish, notice more of the interesting events of the past in another letter.” Thomas Stanton Pinckard

 

RECOLLECTIONS
By Rufus Putnam Robbins
Bandmaster in Alton
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, April 24, 1903
“There are many older people and still more descendants of older people in your city [Alton] and vicinity who would like to know something of Alton life as it was sixty years ago. I send you a few reminiscences of actual occurrences, which I have condensed as much as possible. I realize that a personal history is not always desired by the public, but in this instance, I am compelled to give a very short sketch of my own, by way of introduction to what may follow of more interest perhaps.

A little over eighty years ago, it fell to my lot to be a great-grandson to General Putnam - of Colonial and Revolutionary fame - whose name I bear, also a cousin to the late Winthrop S. Gilman of the old Alton firm of Godfrey & Gilman later on. From early boyhood I had evinced a strong predilection for music. At the age of twelve years, I was considered quite an adept with the flute and concluding to devote my spare time to the Orphean [musician] art, I joined a band in my native town of Marietta, Ohio. Being possessed of a natural talent for music, as also with a determined will to study and learn, I was within a very few years, prepared to write, compose, and arrange pieces for the organization I had previously joined. When nineteen years old I entered into my first engagement as instructor of the Charleston City Band of West Virginia. Being successful and consequently further encouraged, I determined to accept Horace Greeley's advice and ‘go west,’ and I did so, only a few months afterwards, landing in the city of Alton from the steamer Potosi, about 1 o'clock on the morning of July 4, 1843. I was escorted by a willing messenger to ‘City Hotel,’ then kept by Amos L. Carson. Very soon, in taking a view of my surroundings, I discovered several large posters on the walls announcing (prematurely of course) that I had arrived and would take an active and prominent part in a grand concert to be given at Upper Alton the evening before, for which I was unfortunately too late. Nevertheless, I concluded to go to Upper Alton early that morning. I found two bands and scores of private citizens preparing to celebrate the glorious Fourth in Bunker Hill. I met with a hearty welcome from the band boys after they found out who I was, and had a very good time on the trip.

The Alton City Band - but recently organized at that time - were not offering their services to the public, but soon after I was instructing them to the best of my ability. They became quite noted for their fine performances afterward ‘covering themselves with glory’ at parades and celebrations, also serenades when the weather did not prove too unfavorable. The boys were ‘ever ready when duty called.’ My headquarters were usually in Upper Alton, where I was also teaching another band. The progress of each was about equal, but the City Band members took pride in their instruments, kept them well polished, and themselves in like condition.

I am not possessed of any list of members of the City Band, but they were all from among the best citizens of the city. Such as I can now call to mind were Messrs. Amasa S. Barry, Truman Beall, William H. Bailhache Jr., James D. Bruner, William A. Holton, John Morrison, J. Wesley Beall, Z. Guild, and others. Mr. Barry was a wholesale druggist, located on the northeast corner of State and Second Streets. He was a young, unmarried man, but like many others, had a ‘best girl’ living on Market Street (to whom, in due time, he was married). After his rehearsal he was often quietly excused from the band room to visit her. Both parents have already passed to their final rest, but the children, two of whom are residing in Cairo, grandchildren and several great-grandchildren, are at this time in the flesh, prominent in our best society. Mr. Holton was also in the wholesale drug business, his store adjoining Mr. Barry's on the east side. He passed away several years ago, but his estimable wife is still living in Upper Alton with her mother, Mrs. E. M. Hastings - a lovely character who has just entered her 90th year of this life. J. Wesley Beall was the father of Charles Beall, who was recently removed by death, and of course related to the other Beall brothers. Billy Bailhache, the piccolo player, was the son of William H. Bailhache Sr., who, with Shadrach Rodney Dolbee, conducted the Alton Telegraph in the early days of its life. James D. Bruner, with his brothers John A. and William H., were proprietors of a grocery and general feed store on the north side of Second Street, just east of Schweppe's Bakery. Winthrop S. Gilman's residence was in Upper Alton. His wife was still living at last accounts in New York City [She died nearly a year ago - Editor of the Telegraph].

I will make no reference this time to our memorable trip of both band and citizens on the brand-new packet, ‘Luella,’ Captain William P. Lamothe, master, to the Peoria convention in June 1844, while the flood was at its best and even Second Street was some three feet under water, nor to the numerous serenades from time to time at select points (usually including Monticello Seminary) by the band, for I have already written too much I fear, and with due respect to your readers I will subside. Please ask my friends to write to me.” Very truly yours, Rufus P. Robbins, 329 Seventh St., Cairo, Illinois.

NOTES:
Rufus Putnam Robbins was born in February 1823, in Marietta, Ohio. He was the son of Samuel Prince Robbins (1776-1823) and Martha Burlingame Robbins (1792-1872), and great-grandson of General Putnam of the Revolutionary War. He was also a cousin to Winthrop S. Gilman, who with Captain Benjamin Godfrey, was in the shipping business and owned the warehouse where Elijah P. Lovejoy was killed in Alton in 1837. Mr. Robbins died in January 1911, in Cairo, Illinois. He is buried in the Beech Grove Cemetery in Mounds, Illinois.

 

ALTON IN THE EARLY 1830s
By Hon. Henry Leavitt Ellsworth
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, December 31, 1904
Below is a sketch of Alton, written in 1837 by Hon. H. L. Ellsworth and published by S. Augustus Mitchell in Philadelphia, in a book entitled "Illinois in 1837." This book is the property of Charles Holden, who kindly loaned it to the Telegraph:

"The City of Alton is situated on the east bank of the Mississippi River, two miles above the Missouri, 18 miles below the Illinois River, and about 1200 from New Orleans. This place was laid out in 1818, but it is only within the last three or four years that public attention has been turned to it as an emporium of trade. Up to the year 1832, it contained only two or three dozen houses and a steam mill. In that year the State penitentiary was located here. The population is now estimated at 2,500, and the number of houses is 300. Since the spirit of improvement began, it has met with nothing to retard it; but employment has been given to every building mechanic that could be produced. A large proportion of the buildings are of the most substantial kind - massive stone warehouses. Many of the private residences are of finely wrought stone or brick, and highly ornamental, though the larger portion of both business and dwelling houses are temporary frames of one story. The streets are generally 40 and 60 feet wide, and State Street (the principal one running at right angles from the river) is 80. The rates of buildings are as high, probably, as in any part of the Union; yet rents are much higher in proportion; every house bringing from 15 to 30 percent, upon its cost, including the price of the lot.

The following enumeration will give some idea of the business of the place: There are 20 wholesale stores, one of which imports directly from Europe, besides 32 retail stores, some of which sell also at wholesale. The various branches of the mechanic arts, also carried on, though the greater portion of the articles used is brought from abroad. There are eight attorneys, seven physicians, and eight clergymen, attached to the following denominations, viz: three Protestant Methodist, two Presbyterian, one Baptist, one Episcopal and one Episcopal Methodist. These have a church for each denomination, some of which, in their appearance, would do credit to the oldest towns in the West. There are four hotels and two others .... of stone, will be 60 .... nine boarding-houses, all of which are crowded with sojourners, either temporary or permanent. The public institutions are a bank (branch of the State Bank of Illinois), insurance office, lyceum, Masonic lodge, lodge of Independent Odd Fellows, and two schools. The lyceum attracts the greater portion of the young men of the town, who engage in the public discussion of questions and hear lectures from gentlemen of science, who are also its members. There are two temperance societies, one of the total abstinence plan, which is the most popular and is daily becoming more so. There are four newspapers, viz: The Alton Spectator, Alton Telegraph, Alton Observer, Temperance Herald.

The Legislature of Illinois has memorialized Congress repeatedly to have the great National Road now constructing through Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, cross the Mississippi at this place, and sanguine hopes are entertained that the wishes of Illinois in this particular will be duly regarded. Building mechanics of all kinds are constantly wanted. The following wages are paid: Bricklayers $2.50 to $3 per day; stone masons, $2 to $2.50; laborers $1.50. Where the men are boarded by the employer, a deduction of 50 cents per day is made from these rates. Board at the hotels is $3 to $4 per week, without lodging; for lodging, $1 to $1.50 additional, at the boarding houses $2.50 to $3, lodging included.

Brick at the kiln sell for 7 to 9 dollars per 1000, pine boards, 25 to 40 per 1000 (they are brought from the Ohio river); wood for fuel, $3 per cord; coal 20 cents per bushel. The latter is obtained from the hills, one mile in the rear of the town; and both wood and coal can be got for very little more than the cost of cutting, digging and hauling. The comparatively high price at which both sell will furnish another evidence of the high price of labor, and I assure eastern laborers who are working at this season of the year for 40 cents a day, that here they may soon realize a little fortune.

This city is surrounded for several miles in extent with one of the finest bodies of timber in the State, from which vast quantities of lumber may be procured. Bituminous coal exists in great abundance at only a short distance from the town. Inexhaustible beds of limestone for building purposes, and easily quarried, are within its precincts. A species of freestone, easily dressed and used for monuments and architectural purposes, and that peculiar species of lime used for water cement, are found in great abundance in the vicinity. The corporate bounds extend two miles along the river and a half a mile back. The city plat is laid out by the proprietors upon a liberal scale. There are five squares reserved for public purposes; and a large reservation is made on the river for a public landing and promenade.

The prices of lots in Alton depend upon their location. But business stands command $400 a front foot; lots more retired, for private dwellings, from $100 to $50, and $25. Stores rent from $1500 to $400; dwelling houses from $600 to $200. Some of the stores do a very large business, their transactions amounting to half a million dollars a year; others sell to the amount of $200,000 dollars. Clerks and professional men only are not wanted. Of all these there seems to be a scarcity in any part of the of the West.

Eight steamboats are owned here in whole or in part, and some of them are heavily freighted at each departure with the exports of the town alone. These exports must increase as the back country continues to fill up. To add to its resources, two railroads will shortly be made, one leading to Springfield, 70 miles, the stock of which has been subscribed; the other leading to Mount Carmel, on the Wabash, the stock of which has been taken in part. Land, five miles back of the town, sells at from $10 to $40 per acre, according to the improvements. At a greater distance, it is much cheaper and settling rapidly. The productions are wheat, corn, beef, pork, horses and cattle. Real estate has risen in Alton more than 1000 per cent within two years.

The inhabitants are principally from New York and New England; and this may be said of all the business men, with two or three exceptions. Next to these in number are Virginians. The natural surface of much of the town site of Alton is broken by bluffs and ravines; but the enterprise of its citizens and the corporation is fast removing these inconveniences by grading down the hills, and filling up its ravines. A contract of $60,000 has recently been entered upon to construct a culvert over the Little Piasa Creek that passes through the center of the town over which will soon be built one of the most capacious and pleasant streets. Since its settlement, the citizens of Alton have enjoyed as good health as those of any river town in the West. The market is well supplied with provisions from the back country; prices, those of St. Louis. The meats and vegetables are excellent, and cultivated fruit is pretty abundant. The wild fruits are plums, crabapples, persimmons, paw paws, hickory nuts and pecans. Wild game is also abundant, viz: deer, pheasants, prairie hens, partridges, with the various kinds of water fowl. The fish are cat, perch, and buffalo.

Such is a hasty view of Alton as it now is. Its rapid growth is an evidence of what enterprise can effect in contending against Nature herself. Scarcely a town site could have been selected on the Mississippi originally more unpromising in its appearance; and yet in five years, probably, it will attract the admiration of every beholder. Already the ‘little hills have fallen on every side;’ the valleys have been raised; and within the time mentioned, the city will present to the spectator from the river the idea of a vast amphitheater, the streets ranging above each other in exact uniformity, while from each mountain top in the distance will glitter the abodes of wealth and independence. The foundations of its prosperity are laid on the broad basis of public morals and Christian benevolence. Its churches are its most prominent and costly edifices, and claim the tribute of praise from every beholder. 'These temples of His grace, How beautiful they stand! The honours of our native place, And bulwarks of our land.' No people cherish the sentiment conveyed in these lines more than do those of Alton; not a town in the Union, of its population, has been so liberal in its contributions to every measure of Christian benevolence. The amount subscribed the present year probably exceeds 10,000 dollars; one item in which is the subscription, by two gentlemen, of 1000 dollars each, to employ a temperance lecturer for this portion of the state. In addition to this, one of the same gentlemen has given 10,000 dollars towards the erection and endowment of a female seminary at Monticello, five miles north of the town, to the superintendence of which a most accomplished lady has been called from the celebrated institute at Ipswich, Massachusetts."

NOTES:
Henry Leavitt Ellsworth was born November 10, 1791, in Windsor, Connecticut. He was a Yale-educated attorney, who became the first Commissioner of the U.S. Patent Office, where he encouraged innovation by inventors Samuel F.B. Morse and Samuel Colt. He was also a commissioner to Indian tribes on the western frontier, and founder of what became the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In 1811, when he was 19 years old and a freshly minted Yale graduate, Ellsworth undertook the first of several western trips. He traveled by horseback to the Connecticut Western Reserve in present-day Ohio. He wrote a small book about his experiences, titled "A Tour to New Connecticut in 1811." Over twenty years later, in 1832, Ellsworth traveled west again as U.S. Commissioner of Indian Tribes in Arkansas and Oklahoma. He was appointed by President Andrew Jackson to study the country, mark the boundaries, pacify the warring Indians, and establish order and justice after Congress passed the 1830 Indian Removal Act. Along the way, Ellsworth made stops in Cincinnati and Louisville, then traveled on to St. Louis, Missouri, where he met with explorer William Clark, and saw the recently captured Native American leader, Black Hawk. He was charged with trying to mediate between the conflicting claims of several Indian tribes, who were being forced into an ever-smaller area. Ellsworth was accompanied by three companions: Washington Irving (author of "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"), Charles La Trobe (an Englishman, mountaineer and travel writer), and Swiss Count Albert-Alexandre Pourtales. Washington Irving later wrote Ellsworth was a "worthy leader of our little band." It was on this trip to St. Louis that Ellsworth and his friends passed through Alton, Madison County, Illinois, and wrote of what he saw and learned. He died at the age of 67 on December 27, 1858, in Fair Haven, Connecticut. His writings were later published. Washington Irving also made copius notes during the journey, and in 1835 published "A Tour on the Prairies," which provided readers with a description of land that eventually became Oklahoma.

 

REMINISCENCE OF MADISON COUNTY DOCTORS
By Dr. James A. Egan
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, September 14, 1906
Dr. James A. Egan, secretary of the Illinois State Board of Health, delivered an address last evening before the Alton Medical Society on the subject of medical examinations and licenses and the enforcement of the laws relating thereto. He was accompanied by his assistant, Dr. George T. Palmer, who has given Dr. Egan very able assistance throughout the state in the investigation of complaints and the enforcement of the health laws, and in the study of interesting cases. Dr. Egan gave a very interesting reminiscence of the first medical practice law in Illinois, which has not been as fully set forth heretofore as Dr. Egan gave it and which is interesting especially to Madison County doctors. Dr. Egan Said in part:

"The physicians of Madison County, on account of historic association, if for no other reason, should be, it seems to me, especially interested in the medical practice laws of Illinois, for it will be recalled that the first State law regulating the practice of medicine was passed at the session of the General Assembly in 1819 at Kaskaskia, through the vigorous championship of the Senator from Madison, Dr. George Cadwell. To say that Dr. Cadwell was at that time a resident of Madison County does not necessarily imply close association with that territory which constitutes Madison County today, for the county then extended from St. Clair County to the Wisconsin State line, including practically the entire western half of the state. But Dr. Cadwell was a resident of your present county, living on the banks of the Mississippi opposite Gaboret Island, just west of where Granite City now stands. He was, if I am not mistaken, not only one of the earliest settlers of the county, but its first physician, its first Justice of the Peace, and its first county judge. It may be said that Dr. Cadwell did not migrate to Madison County, but rather that Madison County came to him. He had been a prominent figure in St. Clair, but in 1812, after the proclamation by Governor Ninian Edwards creating the county of Madison, Dr. Cadwell found that without moving his home he was a resident of the new county, which, incidentally included all of Illinois north of East St. Louis, or Cahokia, all of the State of Wisconsin, and all of Minnesota, lying east of the Mississippi. It may be remarked, as we view the wonderful growth and prosperity of that great section of the West, that the taxes for the large part of these three great States, assessed by Dr. Cadwell as Judge of the Court of Common Pleas of the County of Madison, amounted to $426.84. But we are more interested tonight in the Medical Practice Act of 1819, passed through the efforts of the Senator from Madison. The Act provided for a division of the State into four parts, and for the corporate existence of medical organizations in each section, each empowered to examine and license applicants for the right to practice medicine. It prohibited the practice of unlicensed persons, and it went further in making compulsory the recording of all births and deaths. The Act includes with a provision, which even in this day when the cry for medical legislation is to be heard with more or less distinctness in all sections of the country, I have never heard advocated for re-enactment. It provided for a Board which should pass upon bills for medical services regarded exorbitant by the patient, and empowered the Board to reduce such bills and provided penalties for physicians who charged or collected higher fees than had been regarded reasonable by the Board. It was a provision, it would seem, of a fee bill on a sliding scale with the State law, rather than the ethics of the profession, to insure its enforcement."

 

OLD TIMERS HOLD A REUNION
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, October 07, 1908
There was an interesting gathering of Alton citizens this morning of Piasa Street at the Citizens National Bank corner. The gathering was not a large one, but it was none the less a notable one, as each of the men was 84 years of age, and there were three of them. They were Lawrence Stoehr, Rudolph Maeridan and Christian Wuerker. Each confessed to being 84 years of age.

"Who do you think is the oldest?" the reporter was asked. Mr. Wuerker, with his white hair and beard, was picked out as the one probably the longest on earth. "He is the youngest in the party," one of the old men said, but Mr. Wuerker claimed that he had one distinction over the others - he was in Alton the longest. He came here in 1848. Mr. Stoehr came here in 1851, and Mr. Maeridan came here in 1850. All of them are in good health, notwithstanding their great ages, and all of them are good friends. They have been friends ever since they came to this country and settled in Alton, and they are also members of Piasa Lodge, A. F. & A. M. As an illustration of how spry the old men are, Mr. Stoehr told a story of a recent feat of his. He went to Lockhaven on the train last week, and in the course of making some calls on people with whom he had business relations, he walked a distance of seven miles, going from house to house and taking a rest and eating his dinner at one place. After he had completed his business transactions, Mr. Stoehr set out on foot from Lockhaven to North Alton and made the seven miles from there in two hours and fifteen minutes, making a 14-mile walk. There are few young men in Alton who would care to make an attempt to duplicate this eighty-four-year-old youngster's achievement. Mr. Stoehr did not suffer any ill effects from the trip. None of the others could tell of any achievements of that kind, but they appeared to be able to do it.

 

BORN A CENTURY AGO
George Washington Prickett – First child born in Edwardsville
Source: Edwardsville Intelligencer, October 6, 1916
Submitted by Denise Evans
Just one hundred years ago today, George Washington Prickett, one of the famous residents of Edwardsville, was born in this city, the first child to own Edwardsville as the place of its nativity. His son, Edward P. Prickett, now residing at Evanston, is a Chicago business man and a member of the Illinois Historical Society. From him the Intelligencer secured the following interesting sketch of his father:

“George Washington Prickett was the first child born in Edwardsville. The date of his birth was October 6, 1816. Just one hundred years ago. His father, Abraham Prickett, came to Madison County in 1806, and in 1813 he opened a store in Edwardsville and received a license to retain merchandise, from the first county court of Madison County. His mother, Sarah “Sally” Kirkpatrick Prickett, was the daughter of Thomas Kirkpatrick, the first settler in Edwardsville. Thomas Kirkpatrick’s house was the seat of justice for Madison County, as laid off in 1812 when it included the northern two-thirds of the State.

When George W. Prickett was two years old, his father, Abraham Prickett, was appointed one of a committee o three to represent Madison County in the ‘Illinois Constitutional Convention of 1813,’ held at Kaskaskia, and at that convention offered the following resolution:

‘Whereas, it appears from the census directed to be taken of the inhabitants of the Illinois Territory by the Legislature thereof, that there are upwards of 40,000 inhabitants within it, therefore: Resolved that it is expedient to form constitution and State government.’

This motion was carried, so he had the honor of offering the resolution that put the State of Illinois on the map. At an election held in Edwardsville on the 17, 18, and 19 of September, he was elected representative to the first State legislature.

During his young manhood, George W. Prickett clerked for his uncle, Isaac Prickett. He was an expert at detecting spurious or ‘bogus’ money, and on this account received the sobriquet, ‘Bogy’ Prickett, under which name he was known all over the county.

On September 12, 1842, he was elected Judge Probate, which office he filled until he resigned in 1846 to go to the Mexican War. He helped raise a company in Edwardsville, and was elected First Lieutenant. He served all through the Mexican-American War.

When he arrived home in Edwardsville, the ‘gold fever’ of 1849 had broken out, and he and a few of his friends started almost immediately across the plains for California, where they arrived in the second wagon train to pull into Sacramento City.

On his return from California in April 1852, George was married to Julia Ann McKee, daughter of William Patten McKee, who had charge of the distribution of government lands in the early days of Madison County. After his marriage, he moved immediately to Chicago, and bought a home on State and Jackson Boulevard, which is now in the heart of the business district. Mr. Prickett was an honorary member of the Chicago Historical Society, to whom he contributed many articles. He died February 15, 1893, after a long and honorable career, respected by everyone who knew him.” [Burial was in the Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois.]

NOTES:
The children of George Washington Prickett and Julia Ann McKee Pricket were: Mary Ethelinda Prickett Rich (1853-1931); Sue D. Prickett (1856-1942); George W. Prickett (1858-1928); and Edward Patton Prickett (1862-1936).

 

REMINISCENCE
By Gaius Paddock
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, March 26, 1917
Gaius Paddock of Moro Township lives in a house that will be 100 years old when the State of Illinois and the city of Alton are, next year. Mr. Paddock, who is past eighty, is writing a book taking up a record that was begun far back, and is using a blank book, well bound, that was bought perhaps 75 years ago and was started as a family record. The most voluminous records made in it are the recollections of a long life by Mr. Paddock himself. In his own hand, Mr. Paddock is inscribing his story, and it will be an interesting volume when he has finished. Reflections, as well as historical facts, are included in the book. We are permitted to print a page from the manuscript recently written by Mr. Gaius Paddock of his family, whose grandfather located the old farm in Fort Russell Township, upon which he resides, when it was a Territory that extended into the far north and the county of Madison embraced the country north of where Chicago now stands and St. Clair and Madison constituted the State of Illinois. Contrasting the conditions, habits, and the customs then prevailing with the present, it surely looks like we have made great progress in many ways, but have fallen lamentably low in the vital requisites that make the character they possess. The disregard of law, order and morality are stubborn facts that face us and require our united efforts to overcome. The degrading influences that are fast undermining the commonwealth and endangering the life of our country, dramshop effects so degrading and our own undesirable citizens. The blighting influence of the foreign emigration, ideals of upright living which are both false in theory and practice is now being felt throughout the country. The article under the title, "Recollections of the Old Fireplace," now nearly 100 years old, in the homestead, is as follows:

"How very well I remember that cheerful and so valuable member of the family, that contributed to the pleasure and comfort of all that came within its friendly reach. Besides furnishing a most enjoyable heat, it lighted up the room with a bright and cheerful light with its ever-changing shadows that filled the room with reflected visions that send pleasant thought of what it had done in times past, and might come later to all again. The old iron crane that held the cooking utensils, pots, kettles, the Dutch oven and the bright tin reflecting ever a most valuable and lightly prized of all the household kitchen furnishings for many good reasons, as it prepared the meats, turkey, venison, prairie chicken and all kinds of appetizing food that gave notice in advance by the odors that filled the room that oven could be ready to furnish and satisfy their hunger to all present.

In those early days with plenty of hand work, they were all blessed with good appetites, and quantity and not quality, was what was required, but they had both at all times, for themselves and all that chanced to drop in were the welcome guest, and they had in abundance. The old crane was an important factor, was fastened to the side of the fireplace which was four feet wide and nearly ten feet deep. It held the principal utensils when in use, and could be swung out at right angles, which permitted the filling and emptying of them. A good, big fire was kept burning day and night in the winter months. It was a very enjoyable sight to see them doing their full duty nearly fourscore years ago.

The pleasant memories of the days long past are as fresh in my mind as of yesterday. It was before the days of cook stoves in the country, which have made slow progress to displace this most valuable household necessity. Very few, if any, of the family failed to appear at meal time, all had their duties to perform to which they promptly responded.

At the closing of the day, when the shadows of the twilight were fast marking the time for a rest of the toilers who had surely earned their daily bread by the sweat of their brows, they gathered around the table that was covered with the bounties of which they partook with a relish that was pleasing to notice, and most enjoyable to partake of. As the evening passed away, its closing was observed by the assembling of the family and others who happened to be present. The scriptures were read, and after a hymn was sung to some familiar air and they retired to rest with a tranquil mind. _____ conscience, at peace, with all m______ and faith in their God.

All those to whom I have referred have long ago been laid to rest and their bodies have moulded into dust, but the impress of their lives they led is here yet on the vicinity to a certain extent. Character was most highly prized, more than wealth and a firm determination to do unto others as you would have them do unto you was the golden rule of their lives.

In this day and generation, how very few families assemble at the opening and closing of the day for religious devotion, to render thanks for the providential care of the past night and for blessing of the coming day. The mad rush for wealth and the allurements for pleasure and the seductive and debasing arts that are employed, no wonder the courts are crowded with divorces and crimes of the most revolting nature occur - for ‘as you sow, so shall you reap,’ is as true today as it was when first spoken."

 

REMINISCENCE
By Joshua Dixon
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, August 29, 1922
One time, Joshua Dixon, former street commissioner of Alton, former Mayor of North Alton, and a prominent stone contractor of the city, lived on water for six months, and possibly Volsteaders will claim that is what has enabled him to live to be 82 years young, and come through, as he has, hale and hearty. The six months living on water was done when he came to Alton from Liverpool, England in 1855, in a sailing vessel. Sailing vessels were not speed maniacs. It will be sixty-seven years September 02, Saturday next, since Mr. Dixon landed in Alton, a boy of between 14 and 15 years of age, and with the exception of a few years has lived here since. On the same ship with him were the late Charles Henderson and wife, and Samuel Stanton, the 94 years old veteran, now living in Delmar Heights with his grandson, Henry Giles. Mr. Stanton was married aboard ship on the way over.

Mr. Dixon went to work, shortly after arriving in Alton, in a blacksmith horseshoeing establishment, and learned how to shoe horses and mules, etc., and can do that yet, young as he is. In 1862 he joined others in a trip to the far West, and then from Alton to Omaha by way of the Missouri River. At Omaha, he outfitted for the West, and he helped drive an ox team, shoe oxen, and share the other hardships of a trip across the plains in those days. It took two months steady traveling to reach Salt Lake City, and there the expedition broke up. Mr. Dixon and a few others went farther, but did not remain long, and buying another outfit, ox team and all, they drove back to Omaha, sold the outfit and came to Alton on a boat. He has been here since.

In 1858, Joshua did his first stone cutting work for his brother, the late A. Dixon, who with a man named Howarth, had the subcontract of cutting stone for the present Alton city hall building. After returning from the West, he resumed the stone cutting and stone mason business, and became one of the leading contractors and best stone workers in this part of the country. He filled many offices of trust and responsibility, and filled them well, and still discharges whatever duty is at hand with promptness and near-perfection as possible to get. He will be 82 years of age, January 22 next, and is feeling fine after recovering from an illness that attacked him during the summer. Up to the time of the illness, he was working every day, and will be back at work in a short time, the bookworm not being one of his possessions. He may count as firm friends all who knew him personally, and these together with the many others who know him by reputation, will sincerely hope he may make a century run of it, and enjoy every minute of the time between now and then. He has a fine home in North Alton, and the daughters who live with him leave nothing undone to add to his own comfort and pleasure. He built the house of stone as a monument to himself and to perpetuate his home. [Note: Joshua Dixon died May 6, 1926, and is buried in the Upper Alton Oakwood Cemetery.]

 

REMINISCENCE
By Gaius Paddock
From Alton Evening Telegraph, May 21, 1923
On the event of his 87th birthday anniversary Saturday, Gaius Paddock was host to the members of the Madison County Historical Society, at his beautiful and historic old home in Fort Russell Township. Mr. Paddock entertained his guests in a summer pavilion, covered with wisteria vines and with the beautiful purple flowers just in their prime. The Paddock home has been there for over a hundred years. It is filled with old books and valuable heirlooms that tell of another day. Paddock pointed out to his guests an apple tree which his father planted one hundred years ago, and it had during all of the life time of Mr. Paddock, borne fruit, and is now starting into its second century. The guests came with basket lunches, and on a spacious lawn and among the blooming spirea ate their lunches and enjoyed the hospitable atmosphere of the old historic Paddock home. W. D. Armstrong, President of the society, presided, and first called upon the host, Gaius Paddock. Mr. Paddock, in a short but fitting talk, welcomed his guests to his home. He said,

"I count myself most happy for the pleasure it gives me to welcome you to this old homestead which has given shelter to many during the past century, and this occasion is rendered doubly enjoyable by the event which has brought us together, the laudable object of this historical society, that is endeavoring to record important events of the early state history and of this county of Madison, which was particularly prominent in the formation of the state, and led the way to make it one of the most important in this country. These men of Madison County, who were noted for their wisdom and vision of the future, were not blinded by existing conditions, prejudice and party passions, and who believed that a difference of opinion was not a difference of principal. I refer especially to Governor Cole and his associates, who kept alive, developed and put into practice the great fundamental principles of a government for the people, by the people, as taught and put into practice effectively by the immortal Abraham Lincoln, which resulted in fixing the destiny of this government for many generations to come, and which has given the great blessings to all mankind which the world has ever known."

Mr. Paddock then talked of the Paddock Cemetery, where his ancestors are buried. The cemetery was in sight of the pavilion where the visitors were sitting. Mr. Paddock's grandfather and his father are buried in this little cemetery. Mr. Paddock said, "We are now sitting in sight of these monuments beneath which rest the dust of these ancestors whose earthly lives are an inspiration to their descendants, these grandsons and granddaughters, who are here today to welcome you."

Mr. Paddock concluded by saying that here within sight were the dearest associations of his life, and ended with the words of the post:

"How dear to my heart, are the scenes of my childhood,
When fond recollection, presents them to view.
The orchard, the meadow, the deep tangled wildwood,
And every loved spot which my infancy knew."

With this, Mr. Paddock bid his guests welcome to this old historic home and thanked them for coming. President W. D. Armstrong told of the Illinois Centennial held in Alton and of the interest of Madison County in it. Mrs. C. H. Burton of Edwardsville, the historian of the Madison County Hospital Society, read a paper which told of the organization of the society in Edwardsville in October 1921. Dr. Trovillion of the State Hospital at Alton, told of old Fort Massac at Metropolis, Illinois. Dr. Trovillion lived there as a boy and told an interesting story of what the fort was and the part it played in the settlement of the great northwest. A massacre by the Indians caused the fort to get its name, Fort Massac.

Henry Philip S. Smith of Fort Russell told of the fort at that point in Madison County, and told how his father saw the remaining timbers of the stockade when he was a boy. Mr. Smith said the Alton Telegraph had been in his home for almost the life of the paper, and that he lately found a copy of the Telegraph of 1865 telling the story of Lincoln's assassination. The house Mr. Smith lives in was built of bricks made by the Whyers brickyard at Fosterburg, and the sand, 176 loads of it, came from Paddock's Creek.

Mrs. Henry M. Needles of Granite City, President of the Women's Federated Clubs of this congressional district, made a most interesting talk of the early history of this and St. Clair County, and told of a massacre in which only a little red-haired girl was saved, because the Indians would not kill a person with red hair. The child, taken away by the Indians, lived with them for three years when French hunters took her away from the Indians to Quebec, and she was later returned to Virginia to her relatives, six years after her capture by the Indians.

Senator Giberson talked on Lovejoy, Hon. Norman Gershom Flagg talked on legislation affecting historical matters, Rev. S. D. McKenney talked on Alton and its splendid democratic spirit, J. D. McAdams talked on Monk’s Mound and why we should keep the mounds. W. T. Norton talked on "The Old Home We Are Visiting," telling of the Paddock home and reciting that besides Mr. Paddock's ancestors, other noted men, among them Willard Flagg and his wife, the parents of Hon. N. G. Flagg, are buried in the little cemetery that is in the Paddock yard. Gilson Brown told of the establishment of the First Methodist Church in this county in Upper Alton in 1818.

The visitors then walked back into the Paddock pasture and viewed "the deep tangled wildwood" which is still so dear to the heart of the master of the old Paddock farm. It was agreed at the meeting yesterday that a movement shall be attempted to get the State Superintendent of Instruction to have county history be a part of the school curriculum one month of the year in the State schools, each vicinity to study its own county history. Miss Lanterman reported that a room has been set apart for the use of the Madison County Historical Society in the County courthouse and that the Probate Judge has been made custodian of properties put there. Many rare old books and other valuable records are in homes where they are liable to destruction and which the owners want the county to own.

 

REFLECTIONS
By William Richmond Pinckard
Source: Alton Evening Telegraph, July 8, 1949
“I may be the oldest native attending here, and as such, I thought some data and recollections of 80 or more years ago might be interesting to the older ones, and especially those from Alton, where I was born on October 9, 1858. That date was just 6 days before, and the place, just three blocks from where the seventh and last of the famous Lincoln-Douglass political debates was held.

My great-grandfather, Nathaniel Pinckard, a Methodist minister, lived in Culpepper County, Virginia, whereby grandfather, William G. Pinckard was born on July 13, 1793. His wife was Elizabeth Warner, born June 15, 1795, in Fairfax County, Virginia. They met and were married in London, Madison County, Ohio, December 15, 1814. From there, the entire family migrated westward by covered wagons, arriving at or near the new townsite of Alton on about December 1818. Enroute, they evidently stopped at the general store of Thomas Lippincott in the town of Milton, which then existed on the east side of the Wood River, but disappeared long, long ago.

There, probably by appointment, they met Rufus Easton, owner of the Alton townsite, and executed a contract signed by him, William G. Pinckard, and Daniel Crume, his brother-in-law, to build in Alton on a site located by him, 4 log cabins, each 16 feet square and 15 feet in height, for $50 each, payment to half in cash and half in goods. I own the original copy of this document.

Both my father and his brother, Thomas, 4 years older, were each apprenticed to the Alton Telegraph at the age of 15, for 3 years. In a letter from my Uncle Tom, dated June 8, 1898, at Springfield, Illinois, and published in the Alton Telegraph, he said that the contract provided for payments to his father of $80 the first year, $180 the second, and $160 the third and last year.

My father, William G. Pinckard Jr., was a law student in the office of Senator Lyman Trumbull at Alton, and during the political campaign of 1860, he published a paper in Edwardsville supporting Lincoln and Trumbull. He was a delegate to the Republican convention in the Wigwam at Chicago, May 16, 1860, and helped to nominate Lincoln and Hamlin. He joined the army at the first call for troops [Civil War], was mustered into service August 21, 1861 as a Lieutenant. He was appointed Captain and A. Q. M. by President Lincoln, and his commission is dated July 03, 1862. He was serving on the staff of General Scammon with headquarters at Charleston, West Virginia. While returning home from a trip with the General and others, the steamboat and all on board were captured at night while the boat was tied up, on February 03, 1864, at Redhouse on the Kanawha River. Captain Pinckard was killed while in custody of the Rebels on February 16, 1864, and his military funeral was held in Alton on March 03, 1864.

I graduated from the Alton High School in June 1875, in a class of 15 girls, and me the only boy. After a business college education and a trip to the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia in 1876, I entered the hardware and farm machinery firm of Milnor, Auten & Co. in Alton.

I married Mary Pates of Alton in 1880, and with my family, moved to Chicago in 1888, where I entered the electrical business, retiring in 1932 and moving to Santa Monica.”

NOTES:
William Richmond Pinckard was born October 9, 1858, in Illinois. He was the son of Captain William Green Pinckard Jr. (1837-1864) and Em__ Henderson Pinckard. Captain Pinckard was killed by friendly fire at the Battle of Murder Hollow during the Civil War.

William Richmond Pinckard died on July 28, 1950, in Los Angeles, California. He was buried in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California. Surviving him were two sons, William H. of New York City and Thomas P. of Hamilton, Ontario, and one daughter, Kathryn Lewis Pinckard Forbes of Chicago.

 

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