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W«MTOi(«M*W»toW**:'f^Wi*t*' :^yl(nwwwi^Wl*»»wa^ "?<.^«^'^M- and \icimtj Early History of Washington, Illinois and Vicinity Published by the Tazewell County Reporter Washington, Illinois Bronze tablet embedded on the band stand in Commercial Square park, Washington, in memory of William Holland, Washington's first settler in 1825. Designed and made by the Brass Foundry Company of Peoria. It was through the activities of Miss Emma J. Scott that the city and township of Washington appropriated money to ipay the ex- pense of installing the tablet. I LIBRARY OF TH£ UNIVERSITY or ^\ LlNOiS 1 ^<'U J^^ METHODIST CHURCH WASHINGTON. ILLINOIS 1828 CIRCUIT RIDERS 1837 JtSSE B.WALKEII- PETER CARTWRICHT- WILLIAM S. CRISSEY- NATHAN W.J CURTISS STEPHEN R. BECCS-S. L. ROBINSON - JAMES LATTA - WILLIAM SEE i\DOC HALL - J. McHENRY - JOEL ARRINCTON - L. S. WALKER - A. E. PHELPS PASTORS 18J7 RICHARD BIRD IdSI H. RITCHIE 1875-76 W. E. STEVENS 18)7 CHARLES ATKINSON 1852 W C. CUMMINC '«'*''? S' )*• 2*SIL''^^u lft3« R. H. MOFFETT 1852 H. M. P. BROWN 1877-78 C. W. MEREDITH 181» JOHN H.WILSON 1853 A.WOLISCROFT 1878-81 U.Z.GILMER 1839 ZADOC HALL 1854 R. N. MORSE 1881-83 J. J. WALTERS IB 10 J.C.PINCKARD 1855 A.M.EARLY 1883-65 WM. McPHEETERS Irttl R.H. MOFFETT 1856 SUPPLIED 1885-88 RICHARD (REWES ENOCH G. FLACONER 1857 J.C. RVBOLT 1H.12 R. H. .'10FFETT ial2 J. B. HOUTS 18-11 GEORGE WHITMAN la-U ZADOC HALL IBIS S, HALL 1S15 C. BABCOCK 1(147 STEPHEN R. BECCS 1M8 R. H. BRENT 1849 A.R. SHINN 1819 i. RIACH IHoO T. F. ROYAL !n50 KM. CADDIS IH'il W. r, c UMMING 1858 ZADOC HALL 1859 L.B.KENT 1860-62 B. APPLEBEE 1862-64 J. BORLAND 1864 W. P. CRAVEi 1865 A. P. HALL 1866 J. G. EVANS 1867-68 E. D. HALL 1868-70 R. C. PEARCE 1870-71 C. C. KNOWLTON 1871-72 L.B.KENT 16/2-73 R.A.COWEN 1873-75 G. W HAVEIiMALF 1875-76 W. E. STEVENS 1876-77 C.W. MARTIN 1877-78 C. W. MEREDITH 1878-81 U.Z.GILMER 1881-83 J. J. WALTERS 1883-65 WM. McPHEETERS 1885-88 RICHARD (REWES 1888-89 L. D. KING 1889-93 O.T. DWINELL 1893-97 W. B. SNOOP 1897-99 R. W. AMES 1899-00 D. C. MURRAY 1900-02 JOHN WILKINSON 1902-03 WM. WOOLLEY 1903-06 W. R. WATSON 1906-10 J. W. PRUEN 1910-12 J. E. MERCER 1912-15 J. L. MILLER 1915-21 J. D. CALHOUN 1921-23 R.W. AMES 1923 S. L. MYERS Bronze tablet hung on the walls of the new Methodist church in Washington giving a list of circuit riders and pastors of the church for one hundred years. Designed and made by the Brass Foundry •Company of iPeoria. Miss Emma J. Scott raised the funds by public subscription for the tablet. Rev. John J. Ryan, historian of the Methodist Conference, pays Miss Scott the following tribute: "The tablet is a beautiful piece of work and you are to be commended for your part in it. There are only a few who have sentiment and the historic instinct combined in one person, and to such we are indebted for the valuaJble phases of history. A good deal of history consists of guesses, but one who reveals the real character of action renders the substantial service. If the Wash- ington church should ever be destroyed by fire the tablet should be saved ftrst, for it has cost iplenty of research and careful discrimination." Story of the Settlement of Washington, One of the Oldest Towns. The "History of Washington, 111., and Its Early Set- tlers", as compiled and read by one of the city's early promi- nent citizens, John W. Doug-herty, attorney at law, at the Centennial celebration held in Washington, July 4, 1876. Responding to the request and recommendation of the Congress of the United States, made on the 6th day oi Sep- tember, A. D. 1780, the state of Virginia did, on the 2nd day of Januaiy, A. D. 1781, yield to the Congress of the United States, for the benefit of the said states, all right, title and claim which the latter had to the territory northwest of the Ohio I'iver, and on the 1st of March, A. D. 1784, by deed of cession, conveyed the property of Virginia in said territory to the United States — being a little more than ninety-two years tgo. On the 13th of July, A. D. 1787, the Congress of the United States passed an Act for the government of the ceded territory, known as the Ordinance of 1778; by which ordinance it was provided, among other things, that said ter- ritory should in the future be erected into not less than three noi more tlian five free and independent states, with all the rights, powers and immunities of the original states; in con- formity to wliich provision the Congress of the United States divided the territory thus ceded into the five states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin. On the 3rd day of February, A. D. 1809, the Congress of the United States enacted a territorial government for the territory of Illinois, and provided for the first meeting of the territorial legislature at Kaskaskia, and subsequently, on the 18th day of April, A. D. 1818, passed an enabling Act, which provided for the election, by the qualified voters of said ter- ritory, of thirty-three representatives to form a convention to determine whether it be, or be not, expedient to form a constitution and state government for the people within the said territory ; which convention, on the 26th day of August, A. D, 1818, framed the first constitution of the state of Illi- nois, which constitution was adopted and remained in force until the 1st day of April, A. D. 1848; the people having in convention, on the 31st day of August, A. D. 1847, framed a new constitution, which was ratified at an election held on the 6th day of March, A. D. 1848. This continued in force until the 8th day of August, A. D.1870, when it was super- ceded by our present constitution. 4 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. The county of Tazewell was organized A. D. 1827, prior to which time it was a part of Peoria county, and was not one of the original twenty-two counties that furnished dele- gates to the convention that framed the' state constitution of 1818. Among the earliest settlements of the state was a French settlement at or near the present site of Wesley City, which was also one of the earliest permament settlements in Tazewell county. The first settlement in the town of Washington,_ or its vicinity, of which we have any account, was made in the spring of 1825, by William Holland, Sr., who came here from Peoria — then Fort Cark. He was formerly from North Caro- lina, and was employed by the United States government as a blacksmith for the Indians, who then inhabited this part of Illinois, and for several years after settling here he con- tinued to work for the Indians. Prior to his removal here, he had built a log house near the present site of A. G. Dan- forth's residence. It was the only house and his the only family in or near Washington until 1826. At the time of his location here, Holland's nearest neighbor was Thomas Cam- lin who lived on Farm Creek, some three miles east of Peoria. Camlin was a pleasant gentleman and a good neighbor, al- ways ready to entertain his guests with spicy stories and thrilling incidents of his personal adventures with the In- dians, whom he used to shoot at a distance of one-half to three-quarters of a mile, and Holland whiled away many a pleasant evening in his society. William Holland, Sr., was born in the county of Lincoln, North Carolina, in 1780. In the year 1815 he removed to Illinois Territory and settled at Edwards ville, in Madison county, where he remained three years; then removed xMe- nard county, where he remained two years, and from thence to Peoria in 1820. During his long and eventful life he was married three times, and was the father of twenty-one chil- dren — fourteen by his first wife and seven by his second wife. He had eighty-two grandchildren, most of whom are still living, and fifty great grandchildren. He died at his late residence in this town on the 27th day of November, A. D. 1871, at the advanced age of ninety-one years. Up to within a few years of his death he was vigorous in body and in full possession of his mental faculties. His son, Lawson Holland, was born in North Carolina, and came here with his parents. In the spring of 1826 Holland commnced improving a farm in the northwest quarter of section No. 24, town 26, range 3 west of the third principal meridian, just east of the original town of Washington, and embracing a part of Hoi- EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 5 land, Dorsey, Walthan and Robinson's addition to the town. In 1826 William Thompson came from Ohio and settled on the farm now occupied by John Johnson, and made some improvement on it. The same year William Weeks came from Indiana and located on the farm now occupied by Peter Portman, and built a house on it. The same year John Redman, also of Indiana, settled on the old Portman place, near Squire Baker's farm. These four families were the only white inhabitants un- til 1827, when Ira Crosby of New York came and located on the place now occupied by James R. Crane, wehre he made some improvements. He left two sons, Uriah, now of Mor- ton township, and Nelson. The same year George Burrow of Tennessee located on the Peter P. Scott farm, and commenced to improve it, and William Birkett of Lancaster, England, came and located on and improved the farm south of town, where lie now resides. He is one of the few remaining old settlers. James Holland, a brother of William Holland, Sr., also from North Carolina, located here, remained for three of four years, and then removed to Macoupin county. The little community now numbered eight families. In 1828 James Harvey came from Ohio and located on what is known as the Benjamin Kindig farm, one and a-half miles northwest, of town. He made some improvements on the land and remainect there until 1834, when he removed to Deer Creek and improved a farm there, and afterwards removed to Groveland, where he died in 1859. He left a large family, of whom only Wesley B. remains here. In 1829 Peter P. Scott came from Ohio and bought out the claim of George Burrow, and setted and remained there until his death in June, 1869. He left a large family, few, if any, of whom remain in the county. Scott was the only addition to the little community in that year. "" Some time in 1880 William Heath came from Ohio and located in Wrenn's grove, near the present site of Wade T. Wrenn's residence. He left a family of daughters, of w^hom Mrs. Adam M. Switzer only resides here. The same year Henson Thomas, a son-in-law of Heath's, came from Ohio and located on the farm now occupied by Mrs. George W. Woodcock, formerly Thomas' wife. He left two sons, William and Simon H., who still reside in Wash- ington township. The same year James McClure, from Indiana, came and located, and made improvements upon the farm now occu- 6 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. pied by Orin Castle. He remained in the neighbcrhood until his death. His son, Hamilton, and perhaps others of his family, still reside in this vicinity. There were now thirteen families besides those stopping temporarily. There were several other settlements in the county at this time, the nearest being in Deer Creek at'id Morton townships. Settlements were made in Deer Creek as early as 1828. The winter of 1830 and 1831 is memorable on account of its great snow storm. The snow fell to the depth of three feet, and was drifted and banked up in many places to the height of six or eight feet. Most of the wild game perished, either by being smothered under the snow, or by being cut off from their base of supplies ; and many of the inhabitants, scattered over this sparsely settled country, suffered in con- sequence of this loss of game, upon w'hich they confidently relied for the animal element of their food — many of them not having made other provision for this part of their sus- tenance. But energetic, determined men cannot be foiled, even by great difficulties. They overcame the obstruction by the use of snowshoes, which carried them safely over the top of the drifts to the homes of their more fortunate neighbors who had a small supply, which they glady divided with the unfortunates. This exercise of benevolence and sympathy prevented any great or protracted suffering, Reuben Bandy came from Kentucky in 1831. and bought out the claim of Ira Crosby, and settled there. One of the early marriages in Washington was celebrated at his home in October, 1833, between Lawson Holland and Elizabeth Bandy, both still living. The knot matrimonial was tied by the Rev, Nathan Curtiss, and must have been exceedingly well done, seeing it has held fast for almost forty-three years, while many recently tied matrimonial knots have slipped in a few months, from which we infer they were not well tied. There may have been other causes, but if so they are too deep for our comprehension. Be that, as it may, seven more years will entitle Lawson and Elizabeth to a golden wedding, wlien and where Lawson will be prepared to entertain his guests with a much fuller history of the early times of Washington that we can give, and also to accept such golden tokens of appreciation as his numerous friends may feel dis- posed to contribute. In 1831 Abraham Van Meter came from Kentucky, and located on the farm now occupied by Adam M. Switzer. He remained here until his death, in 1868,_ He left a large fam- ily, some of whom still live in this vicinity. EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 7 During this year the Rev, Nathan Curtiss, a Methodist minister, located on the farm now occupied by W. T. Higgins, biult a house, and made other improvements. He hved here for several years. Three of his daughters, Mrs. Peter Filer, Mrs. Charles Kern and Mrs. Wheaton, still live in this vicinity. In the fall of 1831 Col. Benjamin Mitchell came from Louden county, Virginia, and built a house on the farm now occupied by Wade T. Wrenn, near the south ine of Wrenn's grove. He was an active, energetic citizen. He was elected to the legislature in 1834, where he served with distinction, and was elected to the state senate in 1836. He died in 1840. He was succeeded in the senate by Major R. N. Cullom. The next year added quite a number of immigrants, among who was John Durham from Baltimore, Maryland. He occupied the dwelling in which William Witte now^ resides, and was, for a long time, proprietor of the firs t saw mill operated here. He now lives in Peoria. About this time Phihp Varble and Elias Slaughter from Hardin county, Kentucky, and Jonathan and Thomas Reed from Indiana, and Walter and Thomas Birkett from Lanca- shire, England, located here and improved farms south of town. John Johnson also came in this year. He came here from Schuyler county, in this state, to which place he had emi- grated from Ohio while Illinois was yet a territory. He is one of the oldest settlers of Illinois now living here. He located upon the farm on which he now' resides. The Rev. Richard B. McCorkle, from North Carolina, was one of the immigrants of this year. He located on the Huguet farm, nortliwst of town. The country now began to fill up rapidly by immigration from the older states and other parts of this state, but the addition of their names would unnecessarily prolong this narrative. As abeady stated, William Holland, Sr., built the first house and improved the first farm in the vicinity of Wash- ington, The second house in the town was build by William Weeks, on the farm now occupied by Peter Portman. It was built in the southeast corner of the orchard. The third house was built by Charles S, Dorsey, who emigrated here from Kentucky in 1831, on the site of the Corwin place, south of Peoria street. It was occupied by Dorsey as a dwelling and store. In it was exhibited the first stock of goods offered for sale in Washington, consisting of 8 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. dry goods, groceries, boots and shoes, etc., etc. The goods were purchased by Dorsey in St. Louis. The above were all log houses. The fourth house was also built by Dorsey, on the pres- ent site of Dr. Allen s block. It was a one story frame house, the first frame house ever erected in Washington. It was covered and sided with clap-boards, and occupied 16 by 36 or 40 feet of ground. It was doubtless a marvel of architec- ture in its time, and was used as a dwelhng, tavern and bar. The fifth building erected was built by Jehu Linley, and used by him as a store room, he having purchased the stock of goods brought to town by Dorsey. That building still stands and is now used by Thomas Handsaker as the office of the Washington Herald. The carpenter work was done by Robert Smith, one of Washington's first carpenters. The sixth building was a log house, built by Mr. Straight, near the present site of Kingsbury & Snyder's grocery store. The seventh building was a one and a-half story log house, built by Samuel Hawkins, on the north end of H. L. Price's lot, used as a dwelling. The eighth building was a two story frame, built by Dorsey, on the present site of Anthony & Denhart's bank. It was used by August Whipple as a dry goods store. This was the second store opened in Washington. Dorsey was one of the active business men connected with Washington's early history. We fi.id his name figuring in all its earlier enterprises, and connected with one of its largest additions. All of the above mentioned buildings were erected prior to 1835. In 1834 William Holland, Sr., laid out the original town of Washington— being a part of that part of town lying east of Main street. The first building erected in the original town plat was put up by Joseph Kelso, Sr., in April, 1834, shortly after his arrival here from Indiana. It was built upon the lot now occupied bv Mrs. Catherine McGinnis. Kelso and a Mr. Wagoner had purchased three lots of Holland for one dollar and fifty cents each, upon a year's credit. That part of the town was heavily timbered, and much valuable timber grew in the street in front of those lots, which, by agreement, the person building the first house would be entitled to use, so Kelso and Wagoner settle^ the question of who should build first, by lot. Fortune, as usual, favored Uncle Joe, and he built first. EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 9 Kelso not only built the first house in the original town, but also opened one of the first farms wholly in the prairie, the other settlers having clung to the timber. No doubt they regarded him as a radical innovator, if not a hero. Present experience, however, approves his judgment. The same season. Styles and Titus Hungerford built the house now occupied by Elias Benford, known as the Sherman House. This brings our narrative down to 1835, where we will leave this branch of it for the present. We have already shown that William Holland, Sr., was the first settler, the first to build a house and improve a farm, and we find him also the first mechanic. As such he carried on a blacksmith shop from liis first induction into the coun- try for several years. He did a general blacksmith business, and also repaired guns not only for the white inhabitants, but also for the Indians, who were then numerous in this part of the state. His was the only shop in town prior to 1835, when Brazilla Allee built the large two-story frame building on Main street, in which his widow, Mrs. Sarah Allee, resides. Allee used part of the building for a black- smith shop, and William Spencer used a part of it as a wagon shop. This was the first shop in town in which wagons were manufactured. Prior to this time, the few wagons used here were imported. In those early days wagons were a luxury not enjoyed by every one, and the owner of a wagon was considered particularly fortunate. Traveling was done on foot or on horseback, and hauling principally on sleds. Some, however, of the more ingenious citizens, constructed a home- m.ade substitute for a wagon by sawing wheels out of a log of v/ood and adjusting them to a rude gearing made with an ordinary chopping ax. Shortly after his arrival here Peter P. Scott opened a blacksmith shop near his residence, which he carried on for several years. The manufacture of tinware was first commenced here in 1848, by Charles S. N. Anthony. Before that time tin- ware, stoves and stove pipe were brought hei'e and sold by the merchants. The first grist mill was built by William Holland, Sr., in 1827. It was on the Holland homestead, west of his dwelling. It was run by horse-power, and was called a band mill. It was the only one in the neighborhood — its nearest competitor being located at Elkhart Grove, 60 miles distant. It consisted of one run of burrs; they were procured in Peo- ria for $60, and oui- informant thinks they were manufac- 10 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. tured there. These band mills were an institution in "those days." They were a cheap, simple contrivance in fact, but stil quite expensive when we consider the small amount of money possessed by those pioneers. The mill consisted of one large wheel, the hub or nave of which was a log of wood eight or ten feet long, hewed eight square, set in a perpen- dicular position, and supported with numerous arms or spokes. The lower end was secured by a pivot, on which it turned, to another timber fastened in the ground, the upper end being secured in like manner to a timber above. The arms or spokes were each supplied with several movable pins and constituted an adjustabe rim upon which the band, made of untanned cow hides cut into strips one and a-half to two inches wide and rolled into a rope, was stretched. The band was attached directly to the trundle-head by being wound three times around it — this latter precaution was taken to prevent loss of power by the slipping of the band. The numerous pins in the arms were used to take up the slack caused by the stretching quality of the band. The horse or horses used were attached to levers framed into the hub. They worked under the arms, which were several feet from the ground. The wheel, when ready for use, resembled an enormous clothes reel about forty feet in diameter. The bolting was done by hand. The flour produced by this pro- cess was a cross betwen the Extra-Quadruple X flour of to- day and ordinary graham flour, and no doubt was healthy and nutritious. The owner of the mill did not supply the power — the person using it had to furnish the horses. Many persons came fifty miles to this mill, and sometimes had to wait two weeks for their grinding. The first flour, however, made in Washington was made by Lawson Holland, Esq., in 1826 or 1827. It was produced by breaking the wheat with a pestle in a mortar and sifting through a hand sieve. The mortar was made by excavating or hollowing out one end of a log of wood, resembling a butcher's block, the other end of which rested firmly on the ground. The pestle was a heavy piece of round timber, the lower end of which was shaped to fit the excavation in the mortar, the upper end being fastened to a spring-pole, which aided in raising the weight of the pestle. Near the lower end of this pestle were four cross pins or handles for the use of the operators. This pestle seems to have been designed on the principle of a perpendicular battering ram. The idea was, perhaps, borrowed from the ancients. The hand seive spoken of was not the ordinary wire seive of these times. It was peculiar to those early days. It M^as made by draw- EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON. ILL. 11 ing a fawn skin tightly across a wooden hoop Uke a drum head, and perforating the skin with a hot iron rod the size desired. Through these holes in the skin the finer particles of the broken grain escaped during the shaking process. What remained in the seive was returned to the mortar and repounded, and then sifted again until all the flour was sepa- rated from the bran. By this tedious process Lawson pro- duced the flour mentioned. The band mill spoken of was the only kind of mill in this part of the country until 1836 or 1837, when William Kern built a flouring mill near the site of Jacquin's brewery. As a financial venture this first mill proved a failure. The next flouring mill was built by A. H. Danforth & Co. in 1845. It was the first brick building erected in Washing- ton. The bricks used in its structure were made by Danforth, near the site of the mill. The building still stands and is operated by Wells and John Asa Andrews. This mill, unlike its immediate predecessor, seems to have been a financial success. Although this was the first brick building in the town, bricks had been manufactured here by Hamilton Riddle as early as 1837, They were used for building chimneys, cel- lars, etc. The first school taught in Washington was a subscription school. It was taught by George H. Shaw, now of Shaw's Grove, who was traveling through the country prospecting and stopped for the night with William Holland, Sr., where, owing to the severity of the weather — it being winter — he remained till spring. Holland soon discovered Shaw's fitness to teach, and engaged him to teach, and gave him, as com- pensation, his board, washing, and horse feed. Rather slen- der compensation, as it made no provision for clothing. Af- ter engaging the teacher, the next thing was a school house, which wasjiuilt by Holland and his few neighbors in a day or two. It was a log house, such as was called in those days a single cabin, 16x18 feet. They seated it with split logs, the writing desks being constructed of similar material, and lighted it by sawing out part of one log at each end and pasting greased paper over the aperture or opening. This greased paper, while not highly transparent, admitted some light, and kept the wind out. This school was taught in the winter of 1827 ^nd 1828. The house was afterwards used by Lawson Holland as a dwelling. Holland subsequently em- ployed Shaw as surveyor whe nhe laid out the original town. The second school in this vicinity was taught by Eli Red- man, a brother of John Redman, before mentioned. The 12 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. house in which it was taught was built by Wilham Weeks, as a residence, on the Portman farm. Like its predecessor, it was a subscription school, and was only kept during the win- ter of 1828 and 1829. It numbered among its pupils W. B. Harvey, Esq., Lawson Holland, Mrs. H. Riddle and Matthew Holland. In 1830, John Berry taught a school in a log house on the farm now occupied by Squire Baker, near the burying ground on Baker's farm. This was the first house built and used for a school house longer than one term. It was suc- ceeded by the district school house, built in 1837 or 1838, on the site of the west school house in Washington, and was the only school house in the neighborhood up to that time. The first religious society here was organized by Jesse Walker, a Methodist preacher, in 1828 or 1829. Their first meeting was held at William Holland's, whose family and the family of James Harvey constituted most of the society at that time. Holland and Harvey were the ony male members. Their meetings were held in Holland's house for the first few years, then at other private houses until the public school house was built, in which they held their meetings until 1840 or 1841, when they built the old church near the corner of Main and Jefferson streets, now used by Sickler & Zaneis as a carpenter shop. This society now owns the most valuable church building in town, but those first members have all passed away. In 1832 the Christian church was organized here by the Rev. Richard B. McCorkle, in the school house on the Squire Baker farni. Of its first members we find the names of Rev. R. B. McCorkle and wife, James McClure and wife and John Johnson and wife. It was the second church organization in Washington. Up to this* time the Methodist had enjoyed full control in religious matters. From this time forward the two seem to have kept even pace, and are still among our most numerous and influential religious societies, showing, as we think, that in spiritual matters as well as temporal, much is gained by a good start. This denomination erected the old brick church now used by the German Lutherans, and is still the only brick church building in the town. Of these first members only John Johnson and wife remain. The Presbyterian church of Washington was organized on the 16th day of November, 1834, by Rev. Flavel Bascum and Leonard Foster, a committee of the Presbytery of Sanga- mon, appointed for the purpose, at the request of sundry in- dividuals residing at Holland's Grove. The meeting for the organization was held at Dorsey's store. Among the articles EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 13 kept for sale by Dorsey were various kinds of liquors, which, during the organization of the church, were concealed from view by suspending a tablecloth from the upper shelf in front of the bottles. The following named persons united in the organization: Henry Kice, Mary Kice, John J. Tool, Eliza- beth Tool, Horace Blair, Rebecca L. Blair, EHzabeth Ried, Charlotte Berrghet, David Gibson and Mary Gibson, of whom David Gibson and Horace Blair were elected ruling elders. From this germ has grown the present Presbyterian church of Washington. The seats of all these members of the first organization are now vacant. There were some Baptists here as early as 1831, but their church was not formally organized until 1835. Prior to that time they attended church at Tremont, where they had a church organization, and a Baptist minister named Babcock preached here occasionally. Mr. Abraham Van Meter and wife and their son, William C., now extensively and popularly known throughout this country, Matthew and Martha Crane, and Mr. Sherman and wife were of its first members. The minister officiatmg at its organization was the Rev. Thomas Brown, and of these first members the name of Mrs. Martha Crane only appears on its church roll. These four were the only churches organized here up to 1838, and are, therefore, the only ones that come within the purview of our narrative. In addition to these four, we now have two Lutheran, one German Methodist or Evangelical Protestant, and one Catholic church. The first marriage in the neighborhood was Mr. James Hendricks and Miss Sallie Redm.an, a daughter of John Red- man. It was solemnized sometime in 1829 or 1830, but whether by a minister of the Gospel or a justice of the peace we are not informed. The first funeral was that of a child of Henson Thomas. It was buried in the graveyard on the Squire Baker farm. The funeral services were performed by Rev. Zaddock Hail, now residing in Woodford county, and well known to this community. The first adult buried here was a Mr. Pembrock, a stranger who had stopped on account of illness at the resi- dence of William Heath, where he died. He was buried in the burying ground above mentioned. The first physician that located here was Dr. R. T. Good- win. He came from Vermont in 1832, where he had studied medicine with Dr. G. P. Wood. He was a successful physi- cian, and also a good business man. He and Dr. G. P. Wood were for several years partners in business, and were the 14 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. proprietors of Goodwin & Wood's addition to Washington. Goodwin is still living and practicing his profession at Dun- dee, Kendall county, Illinois. Previous to Goodwin's location here each man was his own doctor, and the principle medicine used was white wal- nut bark. It was peeled upward if desired as an emetic, and downward if its cathartic effect was required. Boneset, also, was used as a remedy for "fever and ager". In 1833 James Pfuggins came from North Carolina. He had learned wagon-making in the same shop in which Hol- land worked at blacksmithing. He Hved here for many years and practiced medicine. In 1860 he removed to Peoria, and died til ere in 1870. He and Holland both lived to be old m.en without any break in their early friendship. Dr. G. P. W^ood removed here from Vermont in 1835, and formed a business partnership with Dr. Goodwin. They prac- ticed their profession with marked success, but the history and services of Dr. Wood are too well and favorably known here to require more than the mention of his name. He died here in 1871. He left a large family, all living in this vicinity. Dr. R. W. Burton came from Kentucky and settled here in 1838. He practiced his profession, and also kept a stock of drugs and medicines. His was the first regular drug store opened in Washington. He was a spirited citizen, and took an active part in all of the enterprises undertaken by the citi- zens. He died here in 1859, leaving a large family, many of whom still reside here. The first lawyer to gain a foothold in this new commun- ity was Thornton Walker, from Virginia. At what precise time he came, or how long he remained, our informant does not know ; nor have we any farther reliable information in re- gard to him. We therefore deem it fail- to presume he was a fair representative of the profession, and that in his fre- quent tussels with justice he dealt it many staggering blows, from which it will probably never recover. Of course, like lawyers in all ages of the world, he sympathized with villiany and defended wrong from choice, but could be hired to do right for a money consideration. Upon what community he inflicted his baneful practices after leaving this one, we can not say. So rejoiced were the people to be rid of him that they kept no reckoning of his future course. Peace be to his In 1829 William Holland and William Thompson were elected to the oflice of justice of the peace for this precinct. They were among the first elected in this county. Their ter- ritorial jurisdiction were co-extensive with the boundaries of EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 15 the county, which then embraced a broad expanse of terri- tory east of the IlUnois river and extended northward to Chicago and southward to Jacksonville. The first constable elected was Jonathan Hodge of Stout's Grove. The first member of the board of county commissioners from this place was James Harvey. He was succeeded by Benjamin Mitchell, to whom we shall have occasion to refer hereafter. Prior to this time, however, and while this was part of Peoria county, William Holland was a member of the board of county commissioners. The first land sales for this district were held in Spring- field in 1830 or 1831. Prior to that date no title could be ac- quired to any land in the district. The settlers, however, recognized the justice of securing to each of their number the benefit of his labor, and gave effect to this idea by ap- pointing one of their number, Col. Benjamin Mitchell, agent or registrar of claims. By this arrangement, and the paying of twenty-five cents to the registrar, each applicant secured the registration of his claim, and the right to buy the land he had improved w^hen it came into market. This gave the lands a commercial value in the hands of the holder, and also enabled the person making the cUiim to sell and transfer it, if he so desired. These claims soon became an important item in the limited commerce of these early times — the other items of which were grain, beef and pork. The principle purchasers were immigrants, most of whom had little if any money, but labor and good promises passed current at par, the latter be- ing secured by the honor of the promissor. They were usual- ly religiously observed. Indeed, men usually make much of their honor when it is their only stock in trade. Still, we are inclined to think that the p^) rata of iionesty was really greater in those days than now, and for the following reasons: These men were not speculators or fortune huntei's, but earn- est men, seeking homes in the virgin soil of the Great West, and, actuated by this generous impulse, honesty was the natural sequence. The trade in those da>s consisted chiefly in the direct ex- change of commodities. There being but little money the community had no use for middle-men, of whom so much compaint is now made. They found no place among these eary settlers, and perhaps the surest way to rid the country of them would be to abandon money and commerce, and roll the tide of human progress back half a century, adopt the primitive habits of the early settlers, and thus elfectually squelch them. 16 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. We know but little of the social habits of the people in those days, except what may be inferred from the facts and circumstances above stated. Their appreciation of education is shown in their efforts to establish schools, temporary at first, but finally permanent. Their religious zeal is shown by their successful efforts in establishing churches, and their Christian liberality by the number and variety of them. Nor are we informed in regard to the amusements indulged in by the young folks; but, being young folks, we have no doubt they found many ways of robbing Old Time of loneHness. It would be unfair to suppose them, especially the ladies, desti- tute of fashionable aspirations, but the means for gaudy dis- play were very much circumscribed in those days. The male attire consisted chiefly of buckskin, or home-spun cloth, — we might add home-woven, the loom being far more common in or near their rude huts than the piano or organ They were not, however, destitute of musical taste, and many of their vocal performances would compare favorably with our pres- ent choirs. We may safely say they sang with the spirit. Most of the ladies, also, wore home-spun, which they manu- factured from wool, flax, cotton and the bark or lint of the nettle, colored with such ingredients as nature provided, with- out the aid of art ; a few adopted buckskin. How many yards of the latter article were required for a fashionable dress in those times, or in what particular style they were cut and trimmed, we are not informed, and must leave the ladies to draw their own conclusions. These dresses certainly were durable, and shielded the wearer in outdoor exercises incident to the planting, attending and gathering of the crops — in which pursuits the ladies in all new countries assist. Another of the prevailing fashions was that of carrying firearms, made necessary by the presence ig the neighborhood of roving bands of Indians, most of whom were ostensibly friendly, but like Indians in all times, treacherous and unreliable. These tribes were principally Pottawattamies. There w^ere, also, in the north part of the state, several tribes of hostile Indians, ready at any time to make a murderous, thieving raid upon the white settlers, and an Indian war at any time was an ac- cepted probability, and these old settlers today have a vivid i-ecoflection of the Black Hawk and other Indian wars. And, while target practice was much induged in as an amusement, it was also necessary for a proper self-defense, the settlers finding it necessary, at times, to carry their guns with them when they went to hoe their corn. In some instances their guns were stacked around them, and then moved the guns to a certain position and again proceeded with their work. EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 17 These were only a few of the hardships incident to pioneer life, which was largely made up of privations, inconveniences and dangers. They had few labor-saving machines, and no reliable market. Each communication by letter with their distant friends and relatives was rendered difficult for the want of proper mail facilities, and sometimes for the want of money to pay the postage on the letters sent to them — the postage then being twenty-five cents for one single letter, many of which remained in the office for weeks on account of the inability of the persons to whom they were addressed to pay the demanded postage. But time has changed all these things, and in the short pace of fifty years we have grown from a handful of hardy pioneers to be a populous, thriving, energetic community, with all the improvements and ad- vantages of an old settled country, and a town unsurpassed for business, considering the capital invested, by any in the country, while our surplus products are enough to supply some of the petty kingdoms of the old world. Early History Biographical Sketch of David Kindig Written by Himself Benjamin Kindig, born 1783, married Hester Witmer, born 1785. (Parents of David Kindig born in Lancaster county, Pa.), married in 1807, moved to Va. in 1811. My mother died in Va, in 1824. My father married again in Va. to Abigail Patterson. In 1833 moved to Illinois. My step-mother died in 1835. My father again married, Betsy Page, of Metamoi-a, 111. My father died in 1856 and my second step-mother died in 1871. My own mother had four daughters and three sons: Ben- jamin, Esther, Mary, Matta, David, Leah and Henry, David and Leah yet living. My step-mother had three daughters and two sons: Betsy, Anna, Samuel, Susan and Emanuel. Samuel, Susan and Emanuel yet survive. Benjamin Kindig had eight brothers: Emanuel, Joseph, Isaac, Martin, Samuel, John, Abraham, Henry, and two sis- ters: Mary, Leah. All deceased. David Kindig, born in Augusta country, Va., Sept. 12, 1816. Home, Washington, Tazewell county. 111. The follow- ing are the sisters and brothers living: Leah Grove in Wash- ington, (state), Samuel Kindig in Mo., Susan Kindig in Neb,, Emanuel Kindig in Iowa. 18 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. A little remarkable, each one in a different state. (David Kindig was married twice; his first wife was a McCord and his second a Conn. The following were the chil- dren, all by his first wife: Virginia, who became the wife of John Wilson of Washington; Liza Zane, who married a Mc- Murtrey and lived in Missouri; Zura, who lives in Kansas City and never married ; Laura, who married Gila Mapes and lived in Kansas City, son of a former Christian minister who lived in Washington; Marion, who married a Nesmith, sister of Chas. L. Nesmith, and lives in Kansas. Miss Zura and Marion are the surviving children). David Kindig, with his parents, also Andrew Cress, moved to 111. with one four-horse wagon, one three-horse wagon, one one-horse carry-all. (But it failed to carry all). We started for Holland's Grove, Tazewell county. 111. TraveHng west, we passed through the Warm and White Sulphur Springs, crossed the Alleghany Mountains to the Ohio river 255 miles. Crossing the Big Sandy river at its mouth over into Kentucky, passing through Lexington, Frankford, and on to Louisville, on the Ohio river. Crossed the river into New Albany, Indiana, thence to Vincennes, on the Wabash, thence to Vandalia, 111., thence to Springfield, 111., then a small village, it being the last one we saw until we saw Peoria. We inquired for the Fort Clark road and as we came on we inquired for Holland's Grove. We landed on the farm where Christian Engle now fives, (near the Union cemetery) , on the 22d of Oct. 1833, distance of 800 miles, being on the road seven weeks, or 49 days, camp- ing one tent and wagons. When we came here we found William Holland and John Linley. Linley had a twin cabin, lived in one, had store and postolfice in the other. Dorsey Van Meter on the Switzer place. North where Peter Portman now lives ; Heath and Cur- tis in the grove, the Higgins and Wrenn places. The Banta's, Peter P. Scott, John Johnson, McCorkle, Henson Thomas, Mitchel. Dr. Goodwin and Wood, (Dr. Wood's father), James Harvey, (Squire Harvey's father). My father purchased of James Harvey the farm which A. J. Cress and loeger now occupy. 160 acres deeded land, 160 acres timlier claim three miles west of that, also 80 acres where the cabin stood. Compensation, 900 dollars. Other settlers were John Bromfield, (they being the only family we knew here). Peter Chne, now Andrew Gongloff farm. Zea- dock Hall, also William Hester, in what was then called Rag- ged Grove, now John Weeks. Looking back 56 years we find but three of those old EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 19 settlers living, namely: Mr. Z. Hall, now of Kansas, and Mrs. John Johnson of Iowa Also Mrs. Adam Switzer of Washing- ton. When we came here we got a cabin on the Huguet place, stayed three weeks; then William Berry came from south part of the state and occupied it. We built a shanty by roll- ing two lo|?^s together, ten feet distance, covering with clap- boards. Besides this shanty we had a tent and wagon. We moved in, living in those three weeks, until we built a log house, now standing in A. J. Cress's yard. We hauled lum- ber from Camlen's water mill on Farm creek east of Peoria. John Lowman's father made the shingles. Later we laid the upper floor with hnn plank procured from J. J. Banta's saw mill, run by hand, being the only saw mill in this part of the country in those days. Our next lumber was made at a st#m saw mill that Dunham built on Farm creek just south oflJie R. R. bridge west of Washington. The first mill I went to, and all the mill here, was in the grove where John Weeks now lives. Hester had a corn cracker. The mill was a novel- ty. It stood in a scoket, a shaft twelve feet long with a truck wheel run on the ground by means of a shaft, turning the stone, and, when the horses went around the mill, the hopper and all went around on its own axis. Our nearest flour mill was at Pleasant Grove ; that, too, was a horse mill — eight horse power. Father bought some timothy hay and sheaf oats in stack near the mill. A. Cress and myself would go f ^r hay, take a grist and giind at night, return with our hay next day. We got along very well so long as the ground was frozen, but we left our load until the ground thawed out. What then? We went for the balance of the oats. On one occasion Cress sent me ahead to find a good place to cross a slough. As I was not posted on sloughs, I said here is a dry place — where there had been no travel. He started on a run, but when he came to the opposite bank he was thei'e, hub deep. We unloaded our oats, and four horses could scarcely pull out the empty wagon. That was our first introduction to a slough. We always knew what a slough was after that. Well, about the first of Feb. 1834, we commenced mak- ing maple sugar, and continued for six weeks. On one occa- sion my neighbor, John Bromfield, and myself was left to at- tend the camp one night. One kettle would boil over in spite of all we could do. He said to me, get a bacon rind and he would stop it running over. (All right 1 said). He greased the kettle near the top, then he sent me for some assafoedita. He said he was sick, and wanted to make a pill. By the time I 20 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. came back he said we will have to stir this sugar off; it was burning-. We commenced dipping it out. Ycu better believe it stuck to every vessel, black as tar. Kettle was red hot. We dashed a bucket of cold water in, then we heard a racket. That was my first sugar making. Well, we had plows that would shove the ground around — wooden mould boards. Father would stalk his and some of his neighbors' plows. At one time father and I were plowing — he said we would try an experiment. At noon lie cleaned off his plow; said he would bring a bacon rind and grease it. We went about six feet and it stuck; he cleaned and greased again, started — stuck again. Said I, a little more grease. On the 20th of June, 1834, Andrew Cress married my sister, Mary, and commenced housekeeping on the farm where his son, Calvin Cress, now lives. He and wife lived and died on the same farm they first settled on. Well, we lived a frontier life for 20 years, raised tiax and wool to make out clothing. The land was not in market then. Came into market in the fall of 1838. Then the rub. We had no money and money was hard to get. No sale for stock. The best horse would not bring $30; best cow not $5 in cash. I had raised some wheat and oats. I took wheat to the river mill, then took the flour and peddled it out in Peoria. I sold some oats there and received a little money I borrowed some from John Linley, paying 60 per cent interest. (Some paid 100 per cent). I bought eighty acres where I now live and a piece of timber. My home is the only piece of land that has not changed hands to my knoweldge. The neighbors all went together to Springfield with their teams, taking feed and provision; was at Springfield three days. We employed Stephen A. Douglas to call off our lands as they were put up for sale. In some cases speculators would bid against settlers. We all plotted together to prevent it. Mr. Henry Kice (father of John Kice, in Washington) was a large man, weighing 330 lbs. He was standing in the crowd with a large club or cane. He remarked if any man bid on his claim they would feel the weight of that stick. I heard a number remark, you see that large man with that stick. I would not like for him to give me a lick with it. But we all got our land in peace — those that had the money. In sell- ing land they would commence in section one ne section, in town 26, range 3, w of the third principal meridian, offer the e Vz neqr sec 1, etc., etc. How much I hear for it, bid $1,25 — who will give more? If no bid, would be sold. Pass on to the next w y^, same qr., and so on until the section was sold. EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 21 Then to the next, etc. We all v/ere happy when we got our lands, came home rejoicing and have been happy ever since. In 1845 the brick mill at Washington was built. In 1846 I assisted in hauling the pine lumber from Chicago to com- plete the inside work. Asa Danforth & Co. hired teams to go to Chicago for lumber. Load with wheat and reload with lumber. The round trip would cost fifteen dollars. Board yourself and team. A trip would occupy from 10 to 12 days. I hauled a load of my own wheat there and sold it for 621^ cents per bushel. I loaded back with lumber at $1.00 per hun- dred feet. Could buy best clear lumber for $10 per thousand. The first Christian church built in Washington was a brick, built in 1851, now occupied by the German Lutherans. William Holland laid out the town of Washington in 1834. On Nov. 28, 1869, the second Christian church was dedi- cated. This house burned Feb. 17, 1870, by defective flue. Another and third building was erected which was dedicated Aug. 28, 1870, and Oct. 29, 1876, was also burned; this time by lightning. But the congregation, not disheartened, erected another, and on eluly 29, 1877, it was dedicated. Whole ex- pense on the several houses was near $32,000.00. I will state here that in the fall of 1834 there were several accidents happened. One was a stranger, came to 111. He got work at Jonathan Reed's, living on the Brown farm now owned by Witmer Kern. He went to the timber to haul rails out onto the prairie, and in coming down a short hill, by some means the team became frightened and ran away. When found he was lying in the road dead, the wagon having passed over him. The team w^as found not far ofi:' tangled up, there being four horses. The stranger was buried in the grave yard on Squire Baker's farm. The other accident was a daughter of Mr. Heath, (sister of Mrs. Adam Switzer) then living in the grove now^ occupied by Mr. Wrenn. It happened thus: There was a long school house built near the grave yard on the land now owned by Squire Baker. This girl, with others, was seated at the desk facing a window east. The Banta family lived some thi'ee hundred yards due east from school house. Cornelius Banta had been having typhoid fever and ague. One day he took the gun and went out to kill a squirrel. He found one sitting on a tree 200 yards from the school house. He shot direct north, the school house be- ing west of him. When he shot the ball struck a limb or something and glanced, going direct through the window and striking this girl in The head. Old Drs. Wood and Goodwin were called. They i-emoved the ball (as supposed) from under the scalp, believing the trouble was all over, but not so; the 22 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. patient grew worse. They summoned a doctor from Pekin in company with the doctors here, returned, made another ex- amination, and found that part of the ball had passed through the skull. Found it between the skull and Hning of the brain. After removing the remainder of ball and piece of bone, the patient got well. Some thought the ball was spHt passing through the glass; others when it struck the skull bone. I should judge the latter. This young lady afterwards became the wife of George Gipson of El Paso. Sorry to say this ac- cident broke up the school. The teacher, (being a stranger), left for parts unknown. When we came to this state in 1833 there were no In- dians here, but there were many signs of where they had had their wigwams; also many ladders sitting up against trees where they had cut holes in trees to catch coons and get honey. Their ladders were made thus: They would cut a sapling and leave the natural limbs about one and one-half feet long for handholds, resting one end on the ground and the other against the tree. In speak- ing of Indians, when we came to Illinois I never saw any heie, nor was I in the Black Hawk war, but I saw the old Indian chief. Black Hawk, in Richmond, Va., when they were on their way to Washington, D. C. That was in the summer of 1833. He was tall with a sharp, keen eye; had rings in his ears and one in his nose, and had a blanket around his shouldeis, and was a fair representation of his picture. There was plenty of small game here of all kinds, but nothing larger than a deer. I have killed some of all kinds except a wild goose; I never could get one although I have shot at them flying, standing, far and near, with ball and shot, and in every instance I would make the feathers fly. I remember of my brother-in-law, J. Grove, and I going into the timber deer-hunting and we did not go very far until we got sight of one. It came up the hollow and when within one hundred and fifty years Grove shot and missed it. It ran direct to- ward us and Grove said, "Dave, shoot!" Snap. "Dave, shoot!" Snap. By this time it was within fifteen yards of me, "Dave, shoot!" Bang. It ran 125 yds. and fell. Grove got to it and caught it by the horns to hold it down ; when I got there I jumped on it. No sooner on than off. It just sent me kiting; naturally stripped my overcoat and powder horn off of me. That was my first introduction, but we got it all the same; weighed 125 pounds. I had an old flint-lock rifle that came from Blue Ridge, Va., was at least fifty years old, but had killed more deer and bear than it was years old. I EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 23 must relate a trip that J. B. McCorkle and myself made to Washington, Washington county, Towa, in 1839, eighteen miles from the Indian Territory. We went horse-back. We stopped with his uncle, John Berry, twelve miles west of the Mississippi river. Berry, wishing to entertain his company, concluded he must have some fresh meat, so he went out among his stock hogs saying he was fond of lean meat. Af- ter dressing it, said he, "this is the first hog-hide I ever salted down." Well, if you believe me, you could hold it up to the sun and read a newspaper through it, providing there had been a hole. When we came to Washington, Iowa, we met a friend from Illinois. He invited us home with him, saying if you can fare as we do you are welcome. I answered I could put up with what any one else could. When we came to the house, it reminded me of a story about the traveler traveling west: He came to a Hoosier's nest, Or, in other words a buckide cabin; Just large enough to hold queen madron. He took the stranger's horse aside. And to a sturdy sapling tied. And in stripping the saddle off He fed him in a sugar-trough. The stranger stooped to enter in The entrance closing with a pin. It being his heart's desire To seat himself by a log heap fire. There he saw a half-dozen Hoosierons With mush and milk, tea cup and spoons, ^ White heads, bare feet, and dirty faces, All desired to keep their places. One side was lined with linen garments, On the othe:- side hung skins of var-nents; Over head pumpkins were strung Where venison ham in plenty hung. Two rifles were placed above the door, Two big dogs stretching on the floor. And so forth and so on. This cabin was not laden with venison, but like all new- commers just commencing a good big fire and the old lady spinning rolls on a little wheel. The family consisted of two • old people, two young ladies, two young men, two children, my friend and 1. There was only one bed in the house. I did not know how we could all sleep. Only one room and that so small, had to move the table out doors after each 24 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. meal. For supper we had no coffee, but instead we had po- tato soup in tin cups with spoons in each. My friend sipped his, found no coffee and pushed it back. I was all right for I was fond of potato soup. Presently the old gentleman came in with gun, prairie chicken and a wallet of corn meal ; had been to a hand mill. That evening passed off by the old man telling hunting stories. He said one time he shot a squirrel in the head; it fell from the tree, jumped up and lan up the tree (quack quack) ; he shot again when lo! and behold he had shot its brains out the first shot. I told him I did not dispute his word, but that was a big story to tell. At another time he killed an oppossum, stripped the hide off and threw it away. It jumped up and ran off. I again told him that I did not dispute his word, but that was a big story to tell. Finally it came bed time. They had a knack of stow- ing them away; first, two children in the foot of the bed, then two old folks occupied the rest of that bed. What next ? The girls made a pallet on the floor for my friend and I. There was about four feet of my friend run out at the foot. I, being short, was all right. I got between him and the fire. The girls drew out a trundle bed and occupied that. The young men went up a ladder, near the comb; two poles were laid across one end of the cabin with clapboards laid on; had a bunk there. Next morning we had horse-mint tea for breakfast. My friend let his tea stand; we then struck for home. He said he would rather pay $2.50 for lodging than to have that for nothing. In the spring of 1842 Mr. John Brady and myself made a trip to Augusta county, Va., on horse-back. We were on the road three weeks, and it cost us only $15, and we did not steal either, but we sponged off our friends. We imagined we could not travel unless we carried a weapon of defense, so I traded a load of corn for a brace of pistols about six inches long, (you may know they were dangerous). We car- ried them loaded until we reached Indianapolis, Indiana, with- out any occasion to use them. We concluded to shoot them off, fearing they might I'ust. We made a mark on a large gum tree from five to six feet through, went five paces back, fired two shots, missed the gum. Brady said we might as well throw them away; if we could not hit as large a mark we could not hit a man. We never reloaded them. I re- mained in Virginia until fall, returning with brother, Benja- min, when he moved to Illinois in 1842. I was married January 13, 1844, to Elizabeth McCord. Five children, Virginia, Eliza Jane, Missouri, Laura and Marian. In April, 1856, my wafe died, leaving me with five EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 25 small children. In the year 1857 I was again married to Miss Ellen Conn of Fayette county, Penn. Before I was first mar- ried I broke prairie four summers with four yoke of oxen to one plow, improving my farm and breaking for others. Those days we would steal our timber for rails from Uncle Sam; every one would steal in Illinois. I have even known preachers to steal, and after we had our land bought we would chop off of congress land and save our own. I built a log house, 14x16, of split logs. We had one room on the ground and one-half room above. I daubed it with black mud. When the winds would blow and rains descend, the mud would come out on the floor dab, dab. Sometimes we would have a lot to carry out and daub again. We lived in that house six years, and in 1851 1 built the house I now live in. That was the season the cholera was so fatal. There were over forty deaths in Worth township that season. In 1853 I bought 80 acres of prairie land which cost $3.00 per acre. That was cheaper than the $1.25 land. Late in 1860 I bought 160 acres for $12.50 per acre. I paid that easier than the $3.00 land. Then in 1866 I bought 80 acres for $26.00 per acre, being still cheaper. Broke and sowed in spring wheat 50 acres; raised 730 bushels, which sold in 1867 at $3.12 </2 per bushel, just paying for the land. In the fall of 1866 I went to Kansas and bought 800 acres, paying $500. Late, I traded for 640 acres in Green- wood county, Kan., costing me 35 cents per acre; also four acres in the city of Fort Scott, Kan., for $550. Later, I bought a farm one and one-half miles from Fort Scott for $4,000, just as rich land as where I live, and as level. Now I have 160 acres in Hayes county. Neb. Have all the land I want, and more than my children can keep the weeds down. I will relate another incident. A. Cress, Jacob Grove and myself went to the rope ferry, four miles north of Peoria, fishing. Willy Parker was attending the ferry, so Grove and Cress attended the ferry while Parker gigged fish for us. We got a fine lot of fish, among them being a white perch. When we took them out of the skiff, John Lowman happened there. He'^remarked that we had a sheep head among the lot. Said I: Are they better than buffalo? He said not so good. When we came to divide the fish I proposed each man pick his fish. Said I: Cress, you are the oldest man; you take your choice. Well, he lit on that sheep head like a duck on a June bug. He took his fish home and said: Now, wife, I want you to cook that white fish when we are all alone. She did so. He took one bite. Chew, chew; wife, why did you not cook that good fish ? Said she : Is that 26 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. not good? He said no; the more I chew it the bigger it gets. Ever after that he knew what a sheep head was. At one time Jacob Wilson gigged us fifty fish, weighing twelve lbs. a piece, for $1.25. He was the best fish spearer on the river. In the fall of 1855-6 A, Cress, Dr. Wenger and myself made a trip to Iowa with a two-horse wagon and a one-horse buggy, to buy land. We went as far as Ringold county which was very thinly settled. We were on the frontier. One night we camped in the timber within one-half mile of the Indian village. The majority of them had gone further west on their fall hunt, but had left a few of their people to look after their village and traps. We did not know how many were left, or should they molest us or not. After we were in camp two hours, we heard a noise as if something walk- ing. Limbs would snap, and our dog made considerable fuss. Cress said : Boys, Indians. Said he, boys you think we can stand them a fight if attacked? Dr. Wenger said: I think we had better beg. Cress said each one must take a weapon. We slept in the wagon. Cress took his pop-gun and butcher knife, Dr. Wenger the axe, and I the shot gun. Cress told it when we came home that Kindig and Wenger just slept and snored, and he had to keep awake to stand guard. Wen- ger said we were not as afraid to die (as you.) We were out of provision, so next morning we drove to the village all vacated by Indians, but they left a more numerous popula- tion in the shape of fleas. We stopped at the door of a hut. The fleas commenced crawling up our boots. Was so frosty and cold they could not jump, and we could easily outrun them. I must tell you how they built their wigwams. Placed ploes in the ground, as making a prairie stable, and put poles through the center. The sides are six feet high. They cov- ered the sides with bark from elm trees; also the roof by placing the rough side of the bark to the sun. They cut holes in the Wrk, tying it to the poles. Cut the bark five or six feet high, some two, four and six feet wide. Cover like shingles, lap over each other. I saw where they had just one bark for the door, six feet high and five feet wide, all in one piece. They would put a pole (on the inside) all along one side of their wigwams, about six feet wide, lay sticks and brush across, then they would lie crosswise. One house was 15x20 feet, with a hole in the top and a fire in the cen- ter. They never put their feet to the fire, but sit down on them like a goose. Make a small fire that they may get close to it. When they leave they sweep all trash away from EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 27 the village and burn the grass several rods away to prevent the prairie fire from burning up their town. We found some com in their truck patch. The way they enclose their lots is by cutting poles, tying them to trees and posts with bark. They cultivate the timber land, as it is much easier to dig with the hoe. The women have all that kind of work to do. When they leave to go on a hunting expedition they hide their cooking utensils where a white man can not find them. Some say they hide them in the mud in the bottom of the creek. We found where they had buried their com. We also found some vacant land. We entered fourteen eighties. The land office was a Clarinden, Iowa. I will relate a little incident happening on our return home. As we were coming down a hill, Wenger and Cress were in the buggy. There was a crab-apple bush under the horse, and he was about to run. Cress said, "hold him," and 1 will jump out and catch him. He had the gun when he jumped. He said his foot caught and he fell with his head under the buggy. Wenger got the horse stopped just in time to stop the wheel square on Cress' head. "Hello," the buggy wheel is on my head. If he had not drove off he would be there yet. Another incident happened Cress, We were washing sheep. My brother, Henry, was on his way to mill. Cress said, "Henry, help us. I do not like to go into the water, as I have sore eyes. I will give you my clothes." So he agreed. We had the sheep penned between the creek and the fence. Cress would catch the sheep and throw them in the creek. We had dammed the water about four feet, so the sheep had the bank wet and slippery. We were replacing the rails on the fence. Cress was carrying a large rail up the bank when his hind foot slipped back and he went back- wards, "souse," into the creek with rail across his breast, holding his head under the water, where it was more "green" than clear. We heard a terrible splashing, looked and saw him kicking for life, but he lived to get home. Then his wife went for him for going into the water. Those days were pleasant days. In the year 1852 there was a man by the name of Rhodes living on the farm owned of late by William Gale, north of where Simon Thomas lives. He was sick with a fever. On one Tuesday night he got up, stole out and ran off. They hunted three days for him and found him one-half mile south of Germantown, 111. A boy was hunting cows and found him. He was alive, but had on no clothing and the sun had bhs- 28 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. tered his hide. This was on Friday about an hour after sun- set. And, remarkable to state, he got well. I will relate a trip made by Jacob Grove and myself, in the fall of '39 or '40, to Chicago with two ox teams, seven yoke of oxen. Our loads consisted of wheat, apples, onions, etc. We deppled among the Irish along the railroad at Peru and the canal. Some of their houses were a novelty, some covered with long slough grass and others with troughs — trees cut and split, then dug out similar to sheep troughs. Two troughs were laid with the bark down and one laid over (where the troughs met) with the bark up. Very few have seen such. They made a good roof. At one time an Irish lady wanted a nice fat "foul" for a sick "mon." Grove got a nice fat hen. "Now and I won't hove 'him.' I want a big 'won.' " Then he got the oldest crower he had. She said, "that is a big fat 'won' for a sick 'men.' " In paying she kept back part of the money. I tell you they are hard hands to deal with. I had a large wagon, one we moved in from Vir- ginia, called prairie steamboat. One Irishman went behind and spoke through his hands, saying: "Ha-hoo steamboat! Where you bound for? Captain, are you the mate? What will ye charge a single 'mon,' his wife and 'sax' children pas- sage to Chicago, and give him twice a day of the 'swate crature' that nourishes the 'sowl' of an Irishman?" They would agree to take three or four bushels of meal to get it cheaper. Then when you would deliver it they would only take one bushel. Well, we got twenty miles north of Ottawa. We always unyoked the cattle at night and let them graze until morn- ing. One morning we were minus ten head. We hunted three days. "Nix coom arouse." Well, we went on to Chi- cago with two yoke of oxen and two wagons. Grove said we would go or die trying. Grove took the ague and had it every day until we reached home, that being three weeks. I had both teams to drive. We took two wagons as we could not load all on one. We would hitch one wagon behind the other and sometimes have one yoke to each wagon. First day we reached ten miles. When we got to Joliet it rained. We only drove one mile that day. When we got to hills we would have to pull one wagon up, then the other, and one ox was balky. But when we had to depend on him he never flinched. When we got within twelve miles of Chicago we met Jona- than Reed, who lived then on Asa Brown's farm now owned by Witmer Kern, Washington and Morely. They were haul- ing lumber from Chicago to Ottawa. They had two four- horse teams. Reed took a part of our load and we left one EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINC/l ON". ILL. 29 wagon. We then glided into Chicago. We grazed our cattle at the north and south forks of the Chicago river, now the heart of the city. When we left the city we loaded seven barrels of salt at $4.50 per barrel, worth $7 here, and two sacks of coffee. By the time we arrived at our other wagon, twelve miles from the city, one ox gave out. Reed took one barrel of salt on his load of lumber ; said they would meet us at Holderman's grove to camp, but they failed to get there that night on account of being sloughed. We all camped at Ottawa. They returned to Chicago. Grove had an old jackscrew to grease wagons and to help out of sloughs. Reed wanted to borrow it, but Grove told him that it was a borrowed one and he could not loan it. So that night Reed stole it. We could not find it next morning. Morely said: "Look in R-e-e-d's w-a-g-o-n ; look in R-e-e-d's w-a-g-o-n." But Grove said: "I can not look in a man's wagon who has befriended us." Then we separated. They went to Chicago and we towards home. We had to ford the Illinois river two miles south of Ottawa. When we got to the river Grove was so sick that he laid down on the grass. I thought he would die. There w^as a very steep bank to go down into the river, the water being four feet deep. We had one team to each wagon, so we lashed one wagon to the axle of the other with a log chain. Grove said when you get down in the river whip up your oxen to give room for mine, so we went down in a rush, but when they checked the other team came down in a rush also. They tried to run past, but the chain hook caught on the hind wheel (being high wheels) and carried the oxen up so high they w^ere hanging by their necks, with tongues out and nearly choking. I jumped out in the water and ran back. Grove crawled out on the tongue with the ax to cut the keys. Just then one of the oxen, being unruly, drew his head through the bow that let the other end dovm. We straightened out, drove him under, yoked him in the river and then went on rejoicing and glad we were alive. We returned home after being gone twenty-one days. In a reasonable time we returned on a hunt for our cattle. We went up the Illinois river, Fox river, all over the prairie, to LaSalle and Peru. At one time we met a darkey. He says, "Massa, if you get on a hos' and peruse de bottoms all ober guess you'll fine 'em." The same night we returned home one ox was at home in father's stock yard. We then con- cluded the others were not stolen. In a short time Benjamin Ayers, an old settler, was on a hunt of some cattle he lost driving to Chicago. He found and brought all of our cattle home. We lost more than we 30 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. made that trip, but were glad to get our oxen. We intended hauling goods from Chicago to Lacon at $4.00 per hundred. There was where we intended making our money. Those were happy days. I sold my wheat at 45 cents per bushel. Later, I took a load of wheat and got 621/2 cents per bushel. I returned with a load of lumber to build the inside of the brick mill at Washington, now owned by the Andrews Bros. There was not much change in the program until the canal was finished, then corn raised to 20 cents per bushel at Spring Bay. We then thought we were making money like dirt. Could then sell a three-year-old steer for $10, but we have got nearly back to those days in prices. Oh, yes ; Reed made a few more trips with the jackscrew, when Grove went after it. He said "he found it." Two Irishmen were greasing their wagon. He told them that was "his" jack. They would not give it up, so he knocked one down with a stone and the other run, and "he" got it, but afterwards gave it to Grove. I will now tell you a fish story. In 1854 a company of us went to Spring Bay fishing with a seine, or rather to as- sist Seers, a Peoria fisherman. The seine was seven hundred and thirty yards long. We made a draw, caught 1,300 buffalo weighing from ten to fifteen pounds each. Next day we made another draw, and lo! we caught 2,200; that filled his live boat and we had all the fish we wanted. A. Cress said to the boy: "Bub," what do you feed your fish when you get to Peoria? (M-o-l-a-s-s-e-s). Cress had no more to say. The first prairie D. Kindig had broke on his homestead cost him $3.00 per acre. That seems high breaking the soil, when land only cost him $1.25 per acre. His homestead to- day, 1890, would sell for about $100.00 per acre. In the spring of 1867 my wife and I made a visit to her birthplace in Fayette county, Pa. Spent some time with friends, thence took passage in a steamboat on the Monon- gehela river, ninety miles, to Pittsburg, Pa. Our fare, board and lodging to Pittsburg only cost $5.00 for both of us. Thence to Lancaster county. Pa., arriving at Lancaster coun- ty on the 2nd of July. Harvest ripe for the sickle, (as I thought) , but they let it stand two weeks before cutting, un- til the heads hung down, and the grains would snap in your teeth, for the reason they hauled it in the bam the same day they cut it, and it had to be ripe. One day, as we were pass- ing through the country where they were harvesting, I saw a boy, with a horse and sulky rake, in the standing wheat, raking. Said I to my uncle : "What is that boy doing in the wheat?" "Said he was just raking the lodged grain up so the EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 31 reaper could catch it. That was a new idea to me. Thought I would try it when I got home. So I did try it in oats, but would not work. At one time I went into the field where they were reaping wheat. The old gentleman was driving, cutting, gee around; when he got to the end I noticed he got off the reaper, took the horses by the bridles and squared them around, then went back on the reaper; also at the next corner, and so one until he came around where we were. I remarked to him, you take it tedious to get off and turn your horses. Oh, yes, but if I had my other horse, he would turn. I told him "that" was a good horse. All you lacked was double lines. He had been driving with one line and (what they call) a jockey stick tied to the off horse. He said he was all right with his other horse. I said I could go to the timber, get some hickory bark and make a pair of checks in a few minutes, then you could yank them around. Well, he remarked, we do not have check lines. The boy said, "Father, go with these men to the house, we will cut the grain." At another time I was at one of my uncles. He had 50 acres of land, five head of horses and two wagons. His four- horse wagon weighed 2,200 empty, harness weighed 200 pounds apiece. I said: "Uncle, you have no use for so many horses, such harness and wagons. Now, if you had one of our Yankee wagons and harness you would hitch on the small wagon nine times out of ten, and the tenth time you would hitch on the small wagon. Land was selling then at $300, $400 and $600 per acre. I saw one farm sell at $600 per acre, but the farms are not so large as in Illinois, although their buildings are three times as large. All stone and brick houses and bams; all bank barns. I could put four bams like mine in one of theirs and then not be full. My uncle said he was offered $300 per acre for his farm. I advised him to sell and come west. I told him I could buy him 160 acres prairie and 20 acres timber for $10,000 and then have $5,000 left. He said he could make more money there on 50 acres than I could in Illinois on 160 acres. I said, Uncle, how much do you sell your wheat for? $3.25 per bushel. How much for com? $1.00 per bushel. This was in 1867. I told him I sold my wheat at $3,121/9 cents per bushel, com at 90 cents and your market is not much better. He could not see it, of course. Said this would make two nice farms, 25 acres each. The country is one vast village. The most beautiful country I ever saw, but they are, or was then, 50 years behind the times. ^ When we left there we were enroute to Washington, D. 32 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON. ILL. C. We were there during the time Surrat had his trial. I saw him. He was a young man about 25 years of age, medium size, rather pale looking. I heard one witness give his testimony. The lawyer asked him if he could give as correct a statement as he had two years past. He said he could, but failed to do so, as the lawyer had his former evi- dence in writing. We visited the patent office, postoffice ; also at the White House, but not in. Went to the senate chamber. Congress was in session. On going to the capitol we met a man. I in- quired if we were on the right street; he said, yes, just fol- low me. We kept close to him when the man opened the door to let him in, (I was right at his heels, but he shut the door — would not let me in) said pass on. (How did he know but what I was a member of the senate) ? We only knew two congressmen, namely, Logan and Butler. We heard Butler spout. We left there and went to the navy yard. Were on two torpedo boats, also on the Monitor; saw the hole that the Merrimac shot through the side of the boat, just above the water, passing through four-inch iron and sixteen-inch tim- ber. The turret was sixteen feet in diameter with two large cannons inside. The turret was lined with six one-inch iron plating, riveted together to protect the guns. There were great furrows plowed out of the iron, the size of your arm. I undertook to count the spots that had been struck with can- non balls. I counted 400, got tired and quit. I saw them making anchors. It took six men to handle one. There were many cannons in the yard, captured in the army. We departed from there to Augusta county, Va., my birthplace. There they were one hundred years behind the times. They used the wooden scoop-shovel yet. Well do I remember when I was a boy, I had all the milling to do on horseback. Father run a one-horse distillery. Every morn- ing I had to take a sack of corn to mill and return then a sack of rye and return before breakfast. Sometimes I would take wheat. The mill was one mile distant; had the South river to ford across. Many were the sacks that fell off in the river. If they had all been lying on the road at one time I think I could have walked on them to the mill. Many times I wished the mill was forty miles away, then they would have taken the wagon. But those days are past. While on my visit there in '67 one of my cousins hitched up four horses to go to mill. I asked how much of a grist have you ? Said ten bushels. They had no two-horse wagons and when they \ EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 33 went to church they all went horseback. If there were eight girls and four boys in one family, each had a saddle. On one occasion the^^ were threshing wheat and the machine left the wheat in the chaff. They had wooden scoops to shovel the wheat in the fan. Said I, "Have you no iron scoops?" "Yes, that man has one." "Well, send and get it." "He don't like to loan it." I answered, "If a man refused to loan a shovel with us we would 'drum' him out of the country." He did not send for the shovel. Thei'e has be^vn a change since the war. When I was a boy we had to haul our wheat and whiskey to Scottsville, 45 tniles, or to Richmond, 110 miles. We crossed the Blue Ridge Mountains — 3 miles across, now % of ^ ^^^ through, seven years being spent in tunneling. We would sell whiskey for 3 cents per gallon. We also drove hogs to Richmond. Very frequently they would drive hogs from Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio to Richmond, Va. The climate in Vir- ginia is mild, winters are something like oui winter in Illi- nois in 1890. There we could go into the mountains, gather- ing whortleberries, plenty of chestnuts, persimmons, wild grapes and fruits of all kinds in abundance. Deer, foxes, opossums, fish and eels. The lond is not so good there as in Pennsylvania or Illinois. In the year 1876 myself and wife attended the Centennial at Philadelphia. We were there five days; from 75,000 to 100,000 people there each day, yet not much crowded only in places. During the whole time I was on the grounds and in the city, I never saw a fuss nor any man arrested ; no pick- pockets, no trouble of any kind; the utmost harmony and good feeling among friends and strangers prevailed. On our return home we stopped to view the Niagara Fails, that wonderful cataract. I will only relate a little concern- ing it as seen by the writer. The extension of the falls is about three-quarters of a mile around; on the American side the water is ten feet deep as it pours over the rock, while on the Horse Shoe side it is over 100 feet deep. Fifteen hun- derd million cubic feet of water passes over the falls every hour, covering a surface three-fourths of a mile in width. This immense column of water pours through this passage, which is the narrowest portion of the river, at a rate of 25 miles per hour, and having a depth of 400 feet. The suspension wagon bridge, just below the foils, is 300 feet across the river. Seventy-five feet above the water pours over the dam a distance of 15 feet from the bank, leav- ing a passway for footmen between the rock and the sheet 34 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. of water. That is a beautiful scene. You pay tifty cents to cross that bridge, while one mile below you can cross the railroad bridge for five cents. After leaving the falls we passed tlirough Canada, Michigan and on to Chicago, thence nome to Washington. A very melancholy affair occurred in Spring Bay town- ship in the winter of 1836-7. It is the time then known and yet talked of among old setlers as the cold snap. A man by the name of Butler and his daughter, a young lady, it being- rumored she was engaged to be married, froze to death in the woods near their own home. The circumstance was thus: Butler and daughter had gone after some cows which had either strayed away or to get some they had purchased. When they left home in the forenoon it was warm, though there w^as some snow on the ground. It had rained some in the forenoon, and the snow became very wet and slushy. In the afternoon, seemingly in the twinkling of an eye, it turned as cold as Greenland, as many old settlers can testify. He and his daughter were enroute for home with their cattle, but abandoned them as the intense cold overtook them, and endeavored to reach home. The most plausable theory seems to be, the girl froze first. Her father seemed to have stayed with her until she was entirely dead. He had cov- ered her face with his handkerchief. It is said that her clothes and lower limbs were covered very thickly with ice which had congealed from the slush that had splashed up from the soft snow ,until they had become so heavy she could not carry them, and no doubt this was the cause of her freezing before reaching home. When her father found she was dead it seems he had started to reach home, and succeeded in getting within a few hundred yards when he, too, succumbed. It seemed he had crawled some distance after he got down on the ground, past walking. Many think the vast amount of ice frozen to the girl caused her to give up first. If he had hurried home instead of staying witii her, as it semed he did, and returned with assistance, both might have been saved. It is not easy to say just what one would do placed under similar circumstances. It was several days before the corpses were found, and then in the condi- tion described, doubled up and frozen stiff. All that could be done w^as to put them in large boxes, and remain there until the weather would permit to bury them decently and right. Doubtless there are some who may remember the circumstance when they read this notice. I think the mer- cury fell forty degrees in thirty minutes. John McCune and EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 35 I went in the timber a few rods from father's house, and in three minutes after the wind changed to the northwest it froze our overcoats stiff. Here I will relate a snipe story which occurred in the year 1853. Two friends from Virginia came to Illinois pros- pecting and visiting friends and relatives. Before returning, A. Cress and myself proposed having some sport catching snipes. They were at A. Cress' house. I was there also. In the evening Cress proposed to me that we go snipping to- night. Said I: "Boys, would you like to go and catch some snipes?" They said: "Oh, yes. How do you catch them?" Cress said, we take a sack and hold it in the slough (or ditch) and the balance of the company goes up the slough and drives them down into the sack. I then said I would go home and do my chores and come back, then we will all go. The moon was shining brightly. As we were about to start Cress said, "boys get a sack." One of them answered, "you had better take two sacks. What will you do wlien you get one full?" Cress replied: "Perhaps we would not get more than one full." Finally we started, and as we passed through the apple orchard I cut a sprout to make a loop in order to hold the mouth of the sack open. There were ten or twelve in the company. After we had gone one-half mile we stopped. I took the sack and got down in the ditch to show them how to hold the sack. One of them said he would hold the sack if it took all the hair off. So he got down to work, but the sack laid too flat and one observed the "snipes" could not run in. Thomas Fauber remarked when they got started they (the snipes) would raise it up. Cress told the boys to go on the north and we would go on the south side of the slough, then meet about one-quarter of a mile from where they were holding the sack and drive them down the slough. One said he would hold the sack and the other would sit on the bank and watch them run in. The one on the bank said to the other: "Stand back a little. They will see you." Next the boys went home, but Cress and I went up the slough a quarter of a mile. I said we must go back or our friends will get lost. We followed down the slough. "Shew, shew," oen said, "be still, I hear one hollowing; they are coming." When we got back to them lo! and behold! there they were just as we had left them, holding the sack just the same. Of course they smelt a snipe then. At one time while breaking prairie I noticed a joint snake on the land I was breaking. Thought I, Mr. Snake I'll catch you when you undertake to pass over the broken ground. Sure enough I came on to him. He could make no 36 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. headway unless he would strike a root or grass. Well, I caught it, tied a string around its neck and staked it to the ground until I was through with the land. Then I took my snake in my arm, led my horse and drove and ox team. As I was walking along the snake slipped out and down and the horse stepped on it and killed it. I will here describe the joint snake. They are about eighten inches long, resembling a garter snake, only more green and very solid. I have struck them one blov/ and it would break in three pieces. The head and body would crawl away. The body would not bieak — only the tail. They seem to come apart without any blood. I have heard some say the head would come back and gather up the pieces. I doubt the truth of that, for I have found the body afterwards all healed over as thick as the end of my finger. They are very harm- less, making no attempt to bite a person. In the early settlement of the country we would have frequent wolf and deer hunts. We would arrange it thus: We would notify the people, far and near, that on a certain day we were to hunt; would hoist a pole and put a flag on it; select some elevated place on the prairie for the pole. We would go on horseback, armed with clubs and dogs (guns were prohibited). In those days people mostly lived along borders of the timber. They would form a circle and drive direct to the pole, chasing the game ahead of us. They would run north, meeting men and dogs, turn and run south, see men and dogs coming, would run back and forth until they would get tired. By the time the game were all chased up, they were fatigued and easily captured. I was at a chase in Tazewell county. The place of meeting was near Tremont. Our company caught two deer. On our way down there Thomas Cress rode up to one and knocked it down with an axe handle. When we got to the ring we had chased up five deer and one wolf. The deer all got away, but we captured the wolf. At another time we had a hunt in Woodford county. We had enclosed seven deer and after we got them enclosed in one-fourth mile, two of the parties broke ranks and were go- ing to claim and take them. Two deer ran out where they made an opening in the ranks and we lost all of them, but had the sport just the same. The dogs chased them some time after they were enclosed. While chasing wolves, many a nian would get thrown from his horse. Snow on the gi-ound and the sloughs were EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 37 not frozen. Riding in a gallop, "down" would go the horse, but the rider would go on until he struck the ground. The wolves were cute. They would run in swamps where you could not reach them with a hoi'sc. If you would start a prairie wolf near tlie timber, in every instance he would make for the prairie. They were numerous then, but all gone now. There are some grey timber wolves yet in the timber. Very fortunately when on the prairie, if you would lun down a wolf and have nothing to kill it with, we would take our stir- rup off the saddle and kill it ; also snakes and badgers. I have done that a number of times. Just here 1 will relate a circumstance that occurred in our immediate neighborhood in Woodford county in the spring of 1857. An old man by the name of Coins was sick. Old Dr. Wood of Washington was attending his case. He was able to be up and around the house. He and his wife got into a quarrel. She struck him over the head with a stick of stove wood and opened the scalp to the skull. The doctor was sent for and dressed the wound, continuing to make visits for several days. Finally the old gentleman died and was buried. The people were not satisfied. The coroner had the body taken up and two doctors examined the head by re- moving the scalp and sawing off the skull. They found the skull cracked about five inches long and immediately under the skull where it was l^roken the brains were mortified, I was as a witness and one of the jury in the case. Of course Mrs. Coins was arrested, and kept in jail at Metamora from April until the August term of court. When her case was called one lawyer said to another there was a little matter he wanted attended to before he would try that case. During the time they were getting ready the old lady got up and walked out of the court room. No one said anything. She got into a vehicle which was in readiness there for her and the driver drove away in speed. In the space of one-half hour her case was called, but the "prisoner" was gone. The sheriff hustled around, sent out parties in pursuit and offered $50 reward, but they could not, or did not find her. (Did not try very hard). Of course, it was plain to be seen that it was understood between the lawyers and sheriff to let her get away. Her two sons agreed with the lawyers to give them $200, providing they would clear their mother. Lawyers Henry Crove of Peoria and Col. Robert Ingersoll were the men employed to clear her. Afterwards the Coins refused to pay the lawyers and the}' sued them. Their plea was they had no trial and they did not clear her. We did not only 38 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. clear her, but we cleared her out of the country. They had to pay. I will give here a little memoranda of the weather during the following years I have kept an account of: 1877, coldest day. Nov. 28, 10 degrees above zero. 1878, coldest day, Dec. 22, 15 degrees below zero. 1879, coldest day, Jan. 3, 27 degrees below zero. 1880, coldest day, Dec. 29, 15 degrees below zero. 1S80, warmest dav, July 14, 89 degrees above zero. 1881, wai-mest day, Aug. 4, 102 degrees above zero. 1881, warmest day, Aug. 10, 106 degrees above zero. 1881, coldest day, Jan. 11, 12 degrees below zero. 1882, coldest day, Dec. 7, 12 degrees below zero. 1883, coldest day, Jan. 4, 6 degrees below zero. 1884, coldest day, Jan. 6, 24 degrees below zero. 1886, coldest day, Jan. 10, 12 degrees below zero. 1886, coldest day, Jan. 11, 15 degrees below zero. 1886, coldest day, Jan. 19, 10 degrees below zero. 1886, coldest day, Jan. 23, 18 degrees below zero. 1886, coldest day, P'eb. 2, 14 degrees below zero. 1886, coldest day, Feb. 8, 14 degrees belo^^■ zero. 1886, coldest day, Feb. 6, 20 degrees below zero. 1887, coldest dav, Jan. 2, 24 degrees below zero. 1888, coldest day, Jan. 10, 10 degrees below zero. 1888, coldest day, Jan. 7, to zero. 1888, coldest day, Jan. 15, 14 degrees below zero. 1888, coldest dav, Feb. 10, 22 degrees below zero. 1889 and '90, just to zero. Anvone wishing to observe it, they will find two and not to exceed three Satujdays in the year but what you can see the sun some in the day, morning, noon or night I have noted this for tlie last thirty years. Before bringing my autograph to a close, I will finally remark, not as boasting, that I never sued a man, never was sued, never chew tobacco,, never was drunk, never smoked a cigar, never carried or owned a watch, never took the Lord's name in vain, to my knowledge, not withstanding all, I feel that I am an un worth \- servant. DAVID KINDIG. EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 39 "7/1 the Early Days/' a Historical Sketch Written by Miss Belle Harlan INIiss Belle Harlan, who came of one of the prominent early families of Illinois who were residents of Tazewell and Woodford counties, wrote a little pamphlet entitled, "In the Early Days", whicli is one of the very best "true to actual conditions" of the early history of this locality. Miss Har- lan spent her last years in Washington, 111., living- at the home of her niece, Mrs. L, J, Danforth. She died on Nov. 30, 1917, at the ripe old age of 85 years. ■k ^ ;;< ;;< ^ :^ My father moved from Christian county, Kentucky, in the fall of 1833. Coming here at that early day the country was little better than a wilderness. In recounting some of the privations and hardships in- cident to fi'ontier life, the younger members of the family have evinced so much interest, and been so anxious to hear moi-e of those early days of trial and self-denial, that I de- cided to commit some of them to writing that they might be preserved for their perusal, after those who participated have passed from earth and earthly scenes. I write from memory alone, and cannot be exact in re- gard to dates. Indeed, in many things I cannot give dates at all. It will be a plain, simple story of the early settle- ment of the country. I do not know as I should have un- dertaken it, but that several have said to me when talking of those early days, "You ought to write those things down; there are so few living now who know anything about them". Father (James Harlan) with his family, which con- sisted of himself, my mothei' and seven chidren: Elijah, Charles, Nancy, Caroline, Newton, Margaret and Isabelle or Belle, the writer of these lines, spent the winter of 1833-31 in Sangamon county.. 111., with his brother (Uncle Silas Har- lan). In March of '34 we moved to Tazewel county and rented a log cabin on the Mackinaw river. In those days thei-e were nothing but cabins to rent, so we moved into it and proceeded to erect a home to live in, which was built on his own land just in the edge of the timber. Said house con- sisted of hewn logs, clapboard roof and puncheon floor. This was before my recollection, but I have heard mother and my older sister tell how they moved in without window, doors or chimney. Cooked outdoors, put boards across one corner of the house and piled the bacon on them — 40 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. a novel meat house. My earliest recollection of our old home is a large room of hewn logs with north and south doors and south windows. This was biult just in the edge of the forest. Wooden hinges, wooden latch, with a string hanging outside to lift the latch. The whole door was a rough wooden frame, with clapboards nailed on. A stick chimney at one end of the room with a wide open fireplace, wide enough to take in a backlog three feet long and two in diameter with smaller sticks in proportion piled on in front of the andiron. No exaggeration, those fireplaces would take in enor- mous quantities of wood. Their capacity seemed almost limitless. Our houses were cold. We sit by a blazing fire, with our face almost blistered, while our backs felt as if en- cased in frost. This is a digression. An opening left in the upper floor in the back end of the room to be reached by a ladder. This upper room served as sleeping room for vari- ous members of the family. The room beow contained two beds, one on either side of the ladder. Father and mother always occupied one and if a stranger came to spend the night, w^hich was a frequent occurrence, the other bed served as a "guest chamber". Mother always hung up curtains to insure some privacy. Those who slept upstairs had to as- cend the ladder if the President occupied the guest cham- ber. I have often heard sister Carrie give one night's ex- perience in connection with having company, and her sister Nancy's trials in avoiding scaling the ladder. She always had a hearty laugh whenever she referred to it. Major Cullom, father of Senator Shelby M. Cullom, came to spend the night; no unusual thing for a neighbor man to go several miles to spend the night with a neighbor. Nancy was bashful and sensitive, and declared she would not go up the ladder to sleep. Accordingly they carried bedding to the kitchen. We had a kitchen by this time, and they made their bed and retired. The kitchen had a wide fireplace and clapboard door. Said door did not fit very close and shut from the outside. Wolves were so numerous every one had to keep several hounds to protect their flocks. We had four. 'Twas the fall season and they had got in the kitchen to lie by the fire. Whenever they heard a noise on the outside they dashed pell-mell over my sisters, sprung the door out at the bottom, passed out barking and howling as only hounds can. Pretty soon they would want to return to their comfortable quarters. They could not push the door in so as to enter, but stood outside scratching and whining until EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 41 my sisters would have to let them in or bid adieu to sleep for that night. This was repeated off and on all through the night, Carrie said she told Nancy after that time she could sleep with the hounds if she wished, but she, Carrie, would scale the ladder. This all transpird before my recollection. But this is digression number two. I will return to the house. The roof was clapboards laid on small logs reaching from gable to gable. The boards over-lapped each other. I think they were about three feet long, and were held by means of long poles or small logs laid on each lap, called weight poles. The chimney was built on the outside, com- posed of split sticks laid up and filled between with wet clay. A pole was inserted some distance above the fireplace to hang the pot-rack on. Woe betide the housewife if the pot- rack took fire, which it frequently did, and burned in to, letting pots and kettles with all their contents down into the fire, upsetting the family dinner and drowning the fire — not mentioning the temper of the cook. Oh those were the days that tried men's — no, women's souls. Digression num- ber three. I want to say something about how those clap- boards were made, but I fear I cannot make it pain. A log was selected with a straight grain, and sawed in able length. The boards were split by means of an instru- ment called a frow, which I shall not attempt to describe, and a wooden bench so constructed it would hold the boards while they were being shaved with a drawing knife. The bench was called a shaving horse. Shingles were made in the same way. Puncheons were logs split, and the undersides at the ends hewn off so they wold lie on a sill, making is possible to walk across the floor without falling. The opening be- tween the logs were chinked and daubed. That is, as large a piece of wood as possible be fit in and the remainder of the opening was filled with mud. In time, and not so long a time either, rain and wind would loosen the filling and it would all fall out, and had to be replaced, or the inm.ates had to take the weather. We sometimes got out of bed in a good-sized snowdrift. Sometimes had to cover our heads to keep the snow from our faces, W"e had veiy heavy snows in those early days, and it laid on the ground a long time; much longer than it does now, and more of it. I once went with father and mother to spend the day at a neighbor's. The only window the cabin could boast of was a clapboard hung on leather hinges to let down over a large opening between two logs. Being a cold day and the window at one side the fireplace, 42 EARLY HISTORY OP^ WASHINGTON, ILL. of necessity, the board had to be let down, consequently all the light that was admitted in the room came down the ca- pacious chimney. As the chimney was not very high, but broad, it let in more light than one w^ould suppose. I never have seen greased paper used for window glasses as I have often heard of, and read about, neither in dwellings nor school houses. The cooking had to be done outdoors. Mother was fre- quently sick, therefore the brunt of it fell on sister, Nancy, who was young and coming from a slave state had never had many responsibilities resting on her. I realize now how trying a time she must have had. I have heard her and Carrie laugh years afterward of how bashful Nancy was, and coming from an older settled state was not used to the primitive ways persons had to resort to here. The young men who broke the prairie were tired when evening came, and as soon as they ate their supper went to bed. They slept in the lower room, and the family slept above. The supper dishes were washed just outside the door. Nancy would take a hght in to see to put them away, and one niglit she missed the shelf and dropped the wliole stack of plates on the floor. How they must have felt the loss of those plates, for money and dishes were both hard to obtain at that time. Cooking outdoors was no pleasure job. Just please bear in mind we had no stoves in those days. The bread had to be baked in iron skillets with iron lids. Coals of fire un- derneath and on top. As for boiling, that was accomplished whenever a pot or kettle could be made to set over the fire without upsetting and putting the fire out. When it rained, and I have heard them say thunder storms were quite frequent during the summer, they had to turn an iron kettle over the fire to keep the rain from put- ting the fire out. Matches were unknown at that time; at least they were not obtainable where we were. No doubt sorae who read this will think it was a hard way to have a family live as they first moved in. It was hard, coming from an older and improved section as they had, but they could do no better. Spring was upon them and they were compelled to raise a crop so as to have some- thing to live on the ensuing year. Their own land had to be broken so they could till it the next year. Father rented land ten miles from home to raise his first crop. No tillable land nearer. By tillable land I mean prairie that had been broken. The first breaking of the soil it raised nothing but sod corn. The farm he rented was EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 43 what is now known as the Chastine Major farm, a mile and a-half southwest of Danvers, McLean county. He and my two eldest brothers, Elijah and Charles, took their provisions Monday morning and started for their work. Mother cooked everything she could for them. The middle of the week father came home for a fresh supply. There was a cabin on the land, and the family who lived in it al- lowed them to make their coffee at their fire. During the time of their absence, mother was left at home alone with five children, the eldest, sister Nancy, thirteen years of age. The country was a wilderness. The prairie had to be broken. Father secured the services of two young men named Crow to come from Sangamon county, fourteen miles south of Springfield, with their ox team and break up the ground. Father was an inveterate smoker, and carried fire from Kentucky to Illinois, a journey of over two weeks' duration, by means of two pieces of thick bark, so as to have fire to light his pipe. He watched his bark, and when tlie under piece was near being burned through, he replaced it with a fresh one. He never neglected his fire. When he went to work on the farm he carried a fire and gathered bark and fuel and kept it burning all day, usually against a stump or log. The matter of keeping fire was a very important one. I have known a neighbor to come a mile of a morning to get fire to cook their breakfast. My brothers had a flint and steel by means of which they could take a bunch of tow and strike fire from the flint which would ignite as readily as powder, without the danger. They seldom had to I'esort to that, as they always tried to guard against losing the seed of fire. However careless they may have been in other things, in that they were always careful. 'Twas a common jest if a neighbor came in and seemed in a hurry, to ask if he had come for fire? The privations and inconveniences endured by the fron- tier settlers of this state would make some of our young- women's and men's ears tingle, could they but hear them re- cited. No railroad or telegraph service in .the United States. The mails were carried by stage or on horseback — in some places on foot, save where they could be carried by water. Letters that will reach their destination now in two days would have taken two weeks or more then. Postage was an item to be considered, as not every one felt able to keep up an extensive correspondence. A letter cost 25 cents, instead of 2 cents postage, and 25 cents was not always forth com- ing. Postage was paid at the end of the route instead of 44 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. the start. I have known persons to come and borrow a quarter to get a letter from the office. The merchants had no way of getting their goods ex- cept by boat. Should winter set in early, and the river freeze before they got their goods, we had to do without many things which were absolute necessities. Shoes were one of the chief items. I remember having to stay out of school two winters on account of not being able to get shoes, the river having closed so early. Of course I had some kind of shoes to wear at home, but nothing fit to walk two miles through the snow, ice and mud. Goods of all kinds were exceedingly high priced, and money hard to get. Common calico sold for 20 and 25 to 50 cents per yard, and other goods were high in proportion. Money being so scarce we had to resort to various expedients to live and be comfortable without incurring debt, which was a hopeless abyss to fall into those daj^s. Father brought sheep from Kentucky when he moved here. He took the wool from the sheep's back and converted it into wearing apparel without the aid of machinery, save getting it carded into rolls for spinning. We first washed it, and when dry picked it. That means we tore it all open and loose, picking out all trash and burs, ready for carding it into rolls. Many housekeepers prepared a dinner and invited their neighbors for miles aiound to come and help them pick their wool. This was a social treat and alas, too often, a day of gossip with some. When carded into rolls we spun it into thread, then colored and wove it into cloth, and cut and made the garments at home. They were very warm and comfort- abe, and when everyone dressed in homespun we thought nothing of it. All were on an equality. I have worn my homespun flannel dress to church and felt just as comfort- able as I did years afterward dressed in silk. A neat calico dress was something extra, and one of silk was a height in grandeur but few could reach. We also raised flax. Took it through the various pro- cesses (which was tedious and laborious) from sowing the seed to weaving the cloth, and made our table linen, towels, sheets and men's wear. This, no doubt, reads very strange, but the reader must bear in mind we had very little money to spend. Although the ground yielded abundantly, there was no market for grain. Father and brothers raised five crops of wheat before there was any market for it. They engaged to EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 45 sell it for 37 '/i cents pei- bushel in Washington. It had to be threshed with a beater, a machine that threshed it and left it in the chaff. It was then cleaned with a fanning mill, and delivered. The men who bought it went into bankruptcy, and they never received a cent for their wheat. A few years later, in 1840 or '41, brother Elijah in com- pany with Abel Hingman, who lived on what is now the Eri Bogardus farm near Deer Creek, and Thaddeus Smith of Buckeye hauled wheat to Chicago, where he bought our first cook stove and various articles for the famiy. They each took a man and four yoke of oxen with a large wagon, and a two-horse team with a lumber wagon. They turned their oxen out to graze at night. An ox is rather a cunning animal. It will eat all night and steal away to the brush early in the morning and lie hidden all day. They had only been out a day or two before their oxen hid, and they came back home hunting them. Although they were belled the hunt lasted several days. However, they finally found them in sight of their encamp- ment, eary one moi'ning before they got to the brush. I think the trip occupied almost three weeks. The praries were a vast uninhabited plain. The first set- tlers thought and said anyone would freeze to death who ventured to build and live on those prairies. Father located just in the edge of the forest, near ten miles from Washing- ton, then known as Holland's Grove, so named for William Holland, the first settler, whose house stood where Almon G. Danforth's now stands. (Peoria was known at Fort Dear- born), There was not a house or fence from our home to Washington, and we just took a straight line across the wide open expanse of country. The grass in places was as high as a man's head, and all stock could live well from spring until late fall. The settlers raised cattle, and drovers came from the region of Chicago and bought the young stock. I have known my father and brothers to sell young steers two or three years old for $7 to $9 per head . In that way they got money to buy what they could not do without. A milk cow with a young calf sold for from $7 to $9, and a good horse for $50. But $50 would buy 40 acres of the best land there was anywhere on these praries, which now sells for over $300 per acre. As for fruit, we had none only what grew wild — black- berries, raspberries, strawberries, gooseberries, wild crabap- ples, wild plums and grapes — all pretty sour fruit. Sugar sold high, but mother always put by some, so we were not 46 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON. ILL. entirely destitute of fruit. We knew nothing of canning. Our fruit was all either dried or preserved. Father kept bees, and we had an abundance of honey. Wild flowers grew in great profusion, so the bees could easily make honey. William Holland of Washington had the first bearing orchard in reach of us. Sometimes father would bring ap- ples home with him when he went to Washington — and with what joy we hailed them. A lump of gold of equal size would not afford me half the pleasure now that an apple did then. Father sent to Tennessee for trees and planted out an orchard among the first of his improvements. How we did watch those trees when they bloomed and bore the first apples. I almost wonder we did not look the fruit off the trees before 'twas ripe. However, w^e all lived to enjoy the fruit from them in great abundance. I have often thought it was the best fruit, take it all through, I have ever eaten. Maybe 'tis a childish prejudice, lingering with me yet, but I think not. But the old orchard had shared the fate of all old orchards. I visited the old homestead a short time since and only six of the old trees remain. Alas, the old home so changed had I been set down there blindfolded I would not have known I had ever seen the place. The ground yielded rich crops. We were sure of a plenti- ful harvest if the seed were put in the ground. No smut, rust, chinch bug, or any of the modern plagues to disappoint the tiller of the soil. Some one has said Illinois was the gar- den spot of the United States, and Tazewell county the flower bed. I have often thought it was not an exaggeration. The prairies were one vast sea of luxuriant grass and flowers, and did indeed present the appearance of flower gardens. Bitt, alas, with the march of civilization, nature's fair face be- comes sadly marred. The flowers have, the greater part, been destroyed, and our forests are fast disappearing before the woodman's axe. The wild animals, most of them, have be- come extinct. Comparatively but few of any species remain. Our birds of all kinds, songsters along with all others, have served so long as a target for the cruel sportsman's gun that a large proportion of the species have become en- tirely extinct — not one bird now where there used to be a hundred. 'Tis a sad commentary on man; progressiveness. The prairies seemed boundless. Stock of all kinds ran at large, feeding on the prairie grass. During the summer the farmers would set fire to the grass and make what they called a late burn. When the grass grew up in it the stock would gather for miles to feed on the tender grass. After the settlers began to spread out on the prairies EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 47 (the first settlements were all on the water courses) care and watchfulness were required to keep the fire from spread- ing and destroying- fences — and sometimes stock yards and houses. Hunters from the little towns and villages would sometimes slip in and start a fire for the purpose of hunting. Game was plentiful. The whole community for miles would have to turn out and fight fire — sometimes all night. They would be scorched and blackened, and nearly exhausted when they got through. Woe betide the man or men who started che fire had they fallen into the hands of the settlers at such times. 'Twas a mean thing to do, endangering property for miles. The grass was so luxuriant it required hard work to stop a fire when once started. Deer were plenty. 'Twas no uncommon sight to see eight and ten cantering over the prairies or through the barrens. Henry Meek of Walnut Grove, near the present town of Eureka, was one day at our house, and saw a deer and fawn standing a short distance off in the barrens. He drew up his gun and shot and killed tiie fawn, standing in our dooryard. Brother Charles caught a fawn, brought it home and raised it. What a pet it was. Whenever the table was laid for a meal, watch close as we might, Billy would slip in and get a slice of bread. He lifted it so carefully none of the other slices were disturbed. Poor Billy, he failed to come home one evening, and that night a neighbor's dogs got after him and killed him. We mourned him sorely. Wild turkeys, prairie chickens and quails were abundant. Brother Newton trapped the last named two in such numbers we grew tired of them. I have known mother to give some to tlie neighbors. Wolves, too, were numerous, and bold — so bold they would come within a few yards of the house in the full glare of day and catch a chicken. Sheep had to be penned at night or some of them paid for the omission with their lives Several years elapsed before we had either school or church. I think it was not earlier than 1836 the first school house was built in what is now called the Hardscrable bury- ing ground. The school house was built first — the cemetery started afterward. Mrs. Perry, an old lady, was the first one buried there. It filled rapidly, however. The teacher al- ways had the school pass out and attend a burial. I may not be quite correct in regard to date. The house was a rude structure, built of hewn logs, a stick chimney without jams (I doubt if you who read this will know what jams mean). Said chimney rested on an immense oak beam 48 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. stretching from one side of the house to the other. A dirt hearth extended entirely across the room. Puncheons f ornied the floor. The windows were a log sawed out on either side of the room, almost the length of the room, filled with six by eight glass, two panes deep. We did have glass, not greased paper, as some tell about. The writing accommodations were a broad shelf fastened to the wall the length of the windows, made to slant slightly from the wall out. Oui" seats were slabs with holes bored in each end and wooden legs inserted. Sometimes, if the slab was thought to be too long, a middle hole was bored and another pin in- serted to strengthen it. If the middle peg happened to not be sawed off" quite as short as the others 'tis easy to imagine the occupants of the bench in perpetual motion. One end would wriggle around to the middle of the room. The other end would be almost in the fire. We were kept constantly readjusting our seats. There were six or seven of those benches. Their height was such (I think about a foot and a half maybe two feet) that the smallest children's feet did not reach the floor by several inches. I wonder we did not every one have spinal disease, or become humpbacked. When we wanted to write we gathered our skirts around us and by a dexterous movement whirled our feet over the bench and landed them beneath our writing desks. We had no steel pens. The teacher made our pens from goose quills. Sometimes we had shocking to write with. I forgot to mention the capacity of that school house fireplace. It was wonderful. I believe a half a wagon load of wood could be, and was, piled in it many times. A huge back-log six or eight feet in length, with any amount of smaller wood in front, made a hot fire, yet notwithstanding we shivered with cold sitting so near it our faces were in danger of being blistered. And, reader, we walked two miles through snow, and ice, and rain, and mud to school — some- times taught by a teacher who did not have as good an edu- cation as some of her pupils. Miss Nancy Parker, whose father lived near where the Buckeye church now stands, was the first incumbent. The last years of my attending school there I went alone. 'Twas a lonely road, through timber, thick with underbrush of a species of oak that does not shed its leaves until spring. I was afraid to look either to tlie right or left of me, for fear I might see a wolf or some other horrible thing that could do me harm. Snakes abounded, and some of them were very poisonous. Sister Margaret and I were on our way to school one morning when we saw two EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 49 snakes. It was a point with us to kill every one we saw. I stood to watch them that they did not get away, while she went in search of a stick. Before she returned I glancd to one side of the road in a little ravine exposed to the sun ('twas eaiy spring) and saw a pile of them. I can call it nothing else, as I remember it now, for it was as large as a bushel basket. You may think this is a pretty big snake story, but it is a true one nevertheless. We did not kill any snakes that morning, but hurried on to school. They were of the garter snake species, but they are all snakes to me. When I think of it now I almost wonder anyone would send a child so far alone, but that was a part of our pioneer edu- cation — to overcome difficuties and conquer obstacles. Our motto was to go ahead. The school house burned down one night, and as other neighbors had moved in, who thought the school was too far from them, it was rebuilt a half-mile nearer to us. However, the new neighbors would not patronize the school, so brought up a dissention in the neighborhood and started another school. The first settlers hung together. They had passed through too many trials and hardships to desert each other then, so they tore the school house down, after having one term taught in it, and rebuilt on the old site. We gained what knowledge we could with such teachers and equipments as we had. There were no pubic funds. Schools were made up by subscription, each patron subscribing so many pupils. Father always subscribed two or three more than he could send in order to raise the teacher's salary and to insure a school. Sometimes he took in the children of others who lived too far away to make the trip daliy, and boarded them in his family so they could have the advantages of school. The teachers "boarded round." That is, they spent — or were to spend — a week with each patron of the school. Some got more than a week of the teacher's society, while some did not get their full week. It depended on whether the teacher was favorably impressed with her or his surround- ings when they went to a new place how long they stayed. And yet they had to be fertile in giving excuses, so as not to give ofl:'ense. After the first school house was built a short time the neighbors began to think about having preaching. In the course of time two young Methodist circuit riders as they were then called, sent an appointment to preach at the school house during the week. Father aways wanted to en- 50 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. courage anything that was for the good of the community, and moreover he had a high regard for rehgion and rehgious services. He stopped the plows to attend the service. One of the ministers read the parable of the rich man and Laza- rus. The other got up when he was through and said the brother had read an interesting portion of Scripture, but really he had not known before it was between the lids of the Bible. Fther was indignant at such ignorance traveling over the country attempting to teach the way of life to others. This is only a specimen of the church privileges the first settler had for a number of years. The church always found a friend in my parents. Their house was a home for ministers, or teachers, or any one who came to the neighborhood and was homeless. Indeed, their hospitality knew no bounds. No beggar or applicant for charity was ever turned from their door unaided. More than one destitute orphan child was taken into their family, fed and clothed and schooled, or cared for through a long lin- gering fit of sickness — without compensation other than the approval of conscience. Indeed, I have thought since reaching a more mature age that my parents were too hospitable. I think, sometimes, they almost wronged their own family in caring for those who had no claims upon them — only the common ties of hu- manity. Their aid was sought far and near in sickness and trouble, mother being sent for often times before the physi- cian. I remember in connection with one famiy in particu- lar, who lived on the Mackinaw river, with what dread we children would see their old gray mare emerge from the for- est coming to the house — fearing mother was sent for, which was ofter the case. She always went and remained minis- tering to their needs until she became so exhausted and sick that she was compelled to return home. How anxiously we watched for her coming, and as soon as she appeared we pro- ceeded with all haste to prepare something palatable for her to eat, knowing well that rough corn bread, fat bacon and poor coffee, or maybe sage tea, had been her fare while there. And, indeed, there were many other place where she was called to go and she went to all, aiding in every way she could. Then, when all was over, and the sufferer slept the sleep of death, she furnished whatever was necessary to fit them for the grave, for we had some neighbors who were very poor. Vegetation was very rank, and consequently there was a great deal of malaria, and much suffering from malignant attacks of fever. Fever and ague were expected each fall EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 51 (especially by the dwellers along the water course) with as much confidence as the seasons were expected to roll round in due course. Physicians were a long way apart. Calomel was thought to be the sovereign remedy for an attack of either fever or ague, and the neighbors from all around came to father for calomel. In my mind's eye I can see the phial, as it hung against the wall, and see him portion it out on the point of a penknife. He always gave careful directions, and I do not remember of any bad results ever following his prescriptions. Happily for the human system the calomel age is past. Calomel, bleeding and blistering were resorted to for every ailment. I have no doubt many a life was sac- rificed on account of physicians not knowing better how to treat the diseases of the country, A fever patient was not allowed a drop of cold drink of any kind, but must slake his thirst with wai'm teas. We would think it cruel now. Tlie climate was very changeable, and more subject to extreme changes than now. I will mention one incident to show something of their severity. Nearly all the milling was done on horseback, with one or sometimes two sacks of grain across the horse's back. Rain had been falling for some time, and father feared the Mackinaw river would be so swollen it could not be crossed. He and brother Charles, accompan- ied by Parry Stephens, a neighbor lad, took their grain on their horses and crossed over to Ashburn's mill, traded their gram for flour and started home. The river had risen so fast the horses could get over only by swimming. Father told the boys to hold fast to their horses, even if they had to let the flour go. He wore an overcoat with a large cape, which was d)"enched with rain. When about midway in the stream the wind changed to the north, turned the cape straight up at the side of his head and froze it stiff before they reached the bank. Their mittens were frozen fast to the bridle reins. They got safely to land with their flour, but had to stop at Mr. Stephen's, a distance of one and one-half miles, to warm and thaw out. Chickens froze fast to the ground. That was always spoken of as the sudden change. Farming utensils of all kinds were crude and primitive — plows with wooden mold boards and harrows with wooden teeth. Reapers and threshing machines were unknown. Grain was cradled, each cradle being followed by a man to rake and another one to bind. A good cradler could cut about three acres per day. In very early times the grain was threshed on a hard floor by horses tramping it out, and then separated from the chaff with a fanning mill. Com planters 52 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHIXGTON, ILL. had not been heard of. One person followed the plow and dropped the corn, which was usually covered with hoes — great heavy crude things, a load to hft. Many of the uten- sils were made at home, such as rakes, pitchforks and har- rows. The plows and every-day harness all were. Every one traveled on horseback. Frequently two on one horse, and occasionally three when a mother would take a child behind her and one in her lap. If a family was large — as ours was — some were elected to stay at home, as there were not enough riding bridles and saddles for all to go at one time. I well remember with what joy we children hailed the purchase of a two-horse lumber wagon (we had a four- horse wagon), and how grand we felt that we could all go to church together. Society was as crude and primitive as the utensils for labor. My eldest brothers and sister Nancy were invited to the house of Mr. Hughes, who lived on the Mackinaw river, to be present at the marriage of his only daughter. The house contained but one room, and that had to serve as kitchen, dining and sitting room. The weather was warm, and the neighbor women who were preparing the supper ad- vised the intended bride and her friends to sit out in the yard in the shade. The gentlemen guests and the groom were already there, so the rest repaired to the yard. The bride's father passed along and said to her, "Betsey, the place for you is in the house". Just imagine, if you can, in this age a bride sitting out in the yard with the gentlemen guests and prospective bridegroom. (Not so far out of the way now, however. Written in afterwards). If our surroundings were crude, and savored strongly of the backwoods, there was any amount of sociability and friendship existing between neighbors, and we were neigh- bors even when living eight and ten miles apart. "The latch- string is always out" was a common expression — the expres- sion of hospitable intent and readiness to welcome all who came. It was no unusual occurrence for a sleigh load to irive several miles to spend the evening with a neighbor. No sooner did they arrive than we repaired to the kitchen and proceeded to get supper. After partaking of a bountiful supper, or the best tht hostess could provide, they would start for home, but never earlier than midnight. It was a troublesome custom, but we did not so regard it at the time, really enjoying having our acquaintances come. The stranger who n^oved in, to cast his lot wifh those already here, was sure of a hearty welcome. All turned out EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 53 with teams and axes to help him get a home for his family to shelter in; also giving them shelter in their own crowded homes until the newcomers' cabin was completed. I will say in conclusion that I have written only bare facts. Have not exaggerated; indeed, I think I have kept a little on the other side of the line, not wanting to overdraw the picture or color it too highly. My parents felt keenly the disadvantages they labored under in raising their children, ana always endeavored to in- still in our minds the principles of true manhood and woman- hood. In justice to their memory I must add that their teaching was not in vain. My brothers and sisters were noble, honorable men and women. I will, right here, say my mother was one of the noblest of women. She had few equals and no superiors, so far as true worth and nobility of soul is required to constitute a true woman — for such she was, her children ever having cause to revere and bless her memory. And a more honorable, upright man than my father never lived. He was the soul of honor. "They rest from thier labors, and their works follow them". March 21st, 1901. BELLE HARLAN. S. H. Thomas, Born in Washington, Tells of Early History in This Vicinity Simon H. Thomas was born on a farm near Washing- ton and has lived in this vicinity all his life. His father, Henson Thomas, w'as one of the very earliest settlers in Washington, coming here in 1830 with a brother, Simon, from near Zanesville, Ohio. The two brothers returned to Ohio soon after they came here, but Henson soon returned alone. His first wife was a Heath, a sister of the wife of Adam Switzer. A Heath monument is the oldest one in our old cemetery. From Henson's first marriage two children were born. Both died and are buried in the Union church cemetery, northwest of Washington. Henson's first wife died and he married later as his second wife a Miss Stevens, who came here from Ohio to visit a sister. This was about 1837. From this union three sons and one daughter were bom, William, Elizabeth, Richard and Simon. Those surviv- ing are Elizabeth Kraeger who is 86 years of age and lives in Ohio, and Simon of this city. 54 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. Henson Thomas in 1837 entered 160 acres of govern- ment land near the Union cemetery. Simon was raised on the farm and hved there until he was 25 years of age, when he was married. For five years he lived in Washington in the house now owned by Charles Norris, which was located where the George Hagenstoz residence now stands in the west part of town. When a boy Simon went to school in the winter time and worked on the farm in the summer. Mr. Thomas got his first schooling in a log school house which stood near the corner road south of the Union church. Be- sides Mr. Thomas those now hving who attended that school are his sister, Mrs. F. Rickman, and Mrs. Maggie Trimmer Baker of Peoria. He says they did a good deal of hunting in those days. There were plenty of deer, wild turkeys, prairie chicken and quail. He has seen an old rail fence strinig with prairie chickens for nearly half a mile. The farm boys did not get a chance to come to town very often. He remembers when the boys used to play marbles on the corner where the Denhart bank now stands. Later on they had a ten-pin al- ley on the lot. He remembers when Lincoln and Douglas spoke at Meta- mora and attended the Lincoln meeting. There was a big crowd present and a good deal of excitement. Simon's mother made the trip back to Ohio five times in a covered wagon. In early days that was the extent of their rapid transit vehicles. He remembers when Andrew Cress had the first single buggy in this vicinity and it caused a good deal of comment John Johnson, one of the early farmers who lived on the present Stephen Muller place, had a family carriage quite early and it was a great luxury. Johnson raised a good sized family, but they all left here years ago. One daughter, Mary Holland, lives in California and a son, George, did live in Kansas. Mr. Thomas remembers the early days in Washington when there were no brick stores around the square. Dr. Burton ran the postoffice in a frame store building on the north side of the square, and Tom Birkett ran a big wagon shop on the old Zinser drug store corner. The first brick store building erected now standing is the building occupied by W. E. Petri. Sanford Gorin ran a dry goods store in the building. He was the grandfather of Harry and the Misses Gorin. Among some of the old times Mr. Thomas remembers EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 55 grain, Tliey raised considerable spring wheat, mostly the Italian kind. They raised some corn. They hauled their grain to Spring Bay and Peoria, and sometimes to Wesley City. Corn sold as high as 25 cents a bushel in early days. Amony some of the old timers Mr. Thomas remembers the following: The Portman and Jacquin families came here about 1848. Portman purchased the McCorkle farm which was af- terwards known as the Portman farm. These families used to attend the Catholic church at Black Partridge. These old settlers raised large families which were well known in this vicinity. Nicholas Huguet came here about the same time as the Portmans and v/as a fine old man. He bought the Fauber farm noi-thwest of Washington from Andrew^ Cress. Raised a large family well known in this vicinity. Dave Stock came overland from Ohio and first went to Lacon, later coming here. Lived on a farm north of to\\Ti. Was a good citizen. Knew Henry Kice, grandfather of Charles Kice. Think he came from Vermont about 1848. Lived north of town. One of our well liked early settlers. John Burkey was one of my early friends. He was a brother-in-law of John Taylor of Peoria. Burkey moved to Nebraska a good many years ago. His father used to make cider vinegar on lot where Ed McManus' place stands. The Slagle family lived on the bluff west of Washington. He used to say he settled in the timber there because the prairie land east of Washington was full of sloughs and the green head flies were so bad the stock could not stand it. Mr. Hartman, who settled northwest of Washington, was an early settler, but he died in the early cholera epidemic. He left four sons and one daughter and Mrs. Hartman brought up a fine family, among them being Rev. Hartman who died a few years ago. Rev. Zedick Hall was an early methodist minister. He lived on a farm five miles north of town, now owned bv Jos. Belsly. 56 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. On the ''Western Trair in 1851, by Rev. J. W. Ferner First Letter Three families, the Jacob Zinser, Lewis Tobias and George Ferner famihes, moved together in "prairie schoon- ers" from Circleville, Ohio, to Washington, Ilhnois. This took place in 1851, before there were anj^ railroads to speak of. It was a pioneer venture to better conditions. Chiefly the move was made to get away from a thickly timbered country to the prairies, where farms could be started and made to yield at much less expense of time, labor and cash than in a country where trees and stumps stubbornly dis- puted every inch of progress. There was no "race suicide" in any of these three fam- ilies. There were twelve children in the Zinser family, four in the Tobias family and six in the Ferner family. A few of these, however, did not report early enough for this "West- ern Trail", and were later born in Washington, while one or two of the older Zinser boys were left at school in Ohio. There were no doubt many memorable events on this westward journey of three weeks, but I being only four years of age was not old enough to appreciate them. Some of these events made a deep im.pression upon me; the fording of streams for example, where the water flooded the wagon boxes — the houses we lived in. These "schooners" were not "water tight". Another event was wl.'en the first prairie chicken was shot, and the entire caravan stopped to inspect the new bird. One boy, Israel Zinser, six years of age, lost his dog, a small black dog named "Penny". It seems as if today that call of "Penny! Penny"! sad and plaintive note must still be ringing in the woods of Indiana. That was one "bad Penny" which never came back. At Marshall, 111., we all stopped over Sunday with rela- tives. Harry Tobias and family lived there then, but moved to Washington later. At Marshall, while the older people at- tended church, we youngsters were left home chaperoned by one of the older girls of the resident families. She took us to a spring house and divided a fresh current pie between us. The memory of that spring house and the taste of that pie have haunted me all these 75 years. I EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 57 The children of these three famihes have proved them- selves worthy citizens. Of the ten sons seven did service in the U. S. army in the Civil war. There were eleven girls and, if they then had been honored with citizenship, as girls now are, they no doubt would have put the men in the shade in patriotic services. SECOND LETTER I was 4 years of age when my parents brought me to Washington, 111. My father's family for the first year in "Black Hawk ', which, for all I know, was then the leading suburb of Washington. It was located just west of town on the west banks of Farm Creek. Farm Creek witnessed my first fishing experience when I was 4 years old. My brother, George, 5 years my senior, looked after me and "bossed the job". We fished with hooks of our own manufacture. I dare not tell how many fish we caught; that is dangerous ground. It was in 1851 when my people moved into this "Black Hawk"suburb, and one of my early recollections was a train of "gold seekers", with ox teams, headed for Cahfornia. When I was 15 years old 1 was passing down the streets of Washington and saw a group of men standing about Dr. Wood's office. Upon inquiry I learned that a foot was being amputated. The foot belonged to a Mr. Applegate. Mr. Ap- plegate was one of the 1851 "gold seekers" carivan, who on that "Go west, young man", expedition had his ankle sprained and now the foot was taken off to prevent blood- poison. This "Black Hawk" suburb had but few buildings. One of these buildings was the old saw mill, just west of Farm Creek and opposite the old brick flouring mill, which I believe still stands. One night in midwinter every resident of Black Hawk was aroused by the alarm of fire, and the old saw mill burned down. For us children that was a sensation which deserved a place on the first page in our dailies. One of the leading characters in "Black Hawk" was a Mr. Walker. He impressed us children by his profanity. The old mill fire was nothing aloneside of his blasphemous utter- ances. He operated a ditching machine with from 3 to 5 yoke of oxen. He used to say that swearing did the oxen more good than grass or hay. These are some of the recollections of a four-year-old who is now four score. These things all happened in one year, in 1851, in the flourishing "Black Hawk" suburb of Washington, Illinois. 58 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. THIRD LETTER The Cyclone Experience The most exciting time we ever had on the farm was the cyclone which struck us in 1860. Father had bought his first farm, 3 miles cast of Washington. This farm had no improvements, except that some sod was bi'oken. In the early days in Ohio father maintained his family by his voca- tion as a carpenter; this fitted him for constructing the buildings on the farm. Father built his own house and barn, with all the improvements which are necessary with such buildings. The house had just been completed and we moved into it the first of year. The sills for the house were made of heavy oak, which father prepared with the ax and broad- ax. The garden fence was built of strong oak posts and oak palings which he split out himself. Everything w^as well built. On the 1st of June, 1860, while father was in Washing- ton doing some Saturday shopping, my brother George and I were plowing corn one-half mile north on the Wm. Holland place. About 4 o'clock we saw a storm gathering in the west, so we unhitched and rode our horses home. When we came into the house we learned that mother was away call- ing on one of the neighbors, and looking out of the window we saw her coming about 80 rods away. I immediately took an umbrella and rushed to meet her for the rain had begun. We had harvested ten acresof rye several days before this; we cut it with the Green's reaper, a large and very heavy ma- chine, a machine people will not now look at except out of curiosity. This machine was still standing in the field of rye shocks. Mother and I had just reached the house when a funnel-shaped cloud in the direction of Washington attracted our attention, but we had time but for one or two surveys of the cloud when we saw our rye-field litterally in the air and the storm was moving toward our house with mad violence. My mother, one sister and I started for the cellar door and my brother and two other sisters for the front door, but be- fore any .of us could reach the doors the house went. The heavy oak foundation was moved five feet off its base. The gable ends of the house were torn to pieces and some of these fragments, as well as some house furnishings, were carried miles away. Tlie two sides of the house were thrown together in the shape of a roof. My mother was caught under the lower edge of one of these sidewalls. I was then 13 years of age and brother was 5 years my senior. EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 59 He, my oldest sister Sarah and I raised the side of that house and released mother. How we did it no one will ever know, except that in such emergencies extra strength is given. "As thy day is so shall thy strength be". Mother never entirely recovered from the injuries she received in her shoulder. But what seemed a miracle happened in our garden, where we had four colonies of bees under a very temporary shelter. The strong new oak posts of the garden fence on both sides of the bees were snapped off, but the bees and their frail shelter were not disturbed. The old Green's reaper in the rye field was lifted up and carried some distance and then set carefully down as if to take it along was too much of an incumbrance. Our district school library, consisting of two cases of books, was in our house; these were scattered to the "four winds". An old leather- covered family Bible was found a quarter of a mile away with the cover mutilated, but the inside of the book was left intact. "It's an ill wind that blows no one any good". We had learned all our lives to prize our good neighbors, but never before had we seen the whole region of country, including the town of Washington, pour itself out in kindness and helpfulness as w^e did on the following Sunday, when thousands of people came to see the wreck. Our family never forgot the vision of this community-heart of kindness. Mrs. Geo. W. Bayler Tells of Old Times in Washington and Vicinity Mrs. Isadore Trimble Bayler is one of Washington's oldest native-born residents, and her life has been spent in this locality. Her grandfather, Thomas Trimble, emigrated teachers. When she was 15 years of age she taught a school from Cincinnati, 0., in 1834. He came by boat down the Ohio river to St. Louis and then up the Illinois river to Pekin. At Pekin he was met by Mr. Varble, who brought him up to Washington and he settled on a farm two miles north and a half mile west of Washington (now the George Bowen farm). He paid $1.25 an acre for the land to the government. Mr. Trimble with other settlers had to walk to Springfield to pay entrance money for their land. It was sold to the highest bidder. It occasioned a good deal of ex- citement for the settlers from the vicinity of Washington as they were afraid some one would bid up on the land. How- ever, our early settlers on that occasion got their lands for 60 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. the $1.25 per acre, and started home happy. It was a weary trip walking to Springfield and back. The Indians were bad and they had to hide and dodge around a good deal to miss them. On the trip home the weather turned cold, and Mr. Trimble froze his feet and in walking in that condition he was in a bad way when he reached home. They pulled off his boots and when they were turned up the blood ran out of them. Reece Trimble, father of Mrs. Bayler, was born in 1827 in Ohio, and came to Washington when 7 years of age. There were eight brothers and sisters in his family. One brother went to California in the forty-nine gold rush. He came back in 1854 and married a Bloomington girl and then returned to California. James Trimble, another brother, ran a wagon shop, and made wagons where the Danforth bank now stands. A man named Hittle ran one of the first stores in Washington, and Dr. Burton was one of the early postmas- ters. He was a father to the whole community and a kind- hearted man. In those days they sent a letter with the post- age to be collected. It cost 25 cents to get a letter from Ohio, and they had to wait in the postoffice at times until the receiver could get the money to pay for them. Mrs. Bayler's father and mother lived in a house on lots upon which is located the J. P. Wrenn residence. The frame house they lived in is now built over into the Jacob Rich garage. Reece Trimble and family moved out on his father's farm northwest of Washington m 1854. His father died two years later. He now lies buried with his wife and two of the children in the Union church cemetery northwest of Wash- ington. Mrs. Bayler was born June 24, 1850. In 1854 they had a frost on July 3 which froze down the corn four or five inches high and did a lot of damage. Mrs. Bayler remembers their talking about the event in after years. They used to hold M. E. camp meetings at Spring Bay. Mrs. Bayler remembers one of the prominent early circuit- riding preachers, Rev. Peter P. Cartwright. When a little girl with her chum Vida Eldridge they attended one of his meetings and the preacher took them both on his knees. There used to be a flour mill in an early day over north- west of Washington on Ten Mile creek, known as the Hor- shaw mill. They used to drive over there to take their grist to mill. EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 61 When the T., P. & W. raih^oad was completed through Washington in 1856 or '57, Mrs. Bayler was among the many to go down to the station and see the first trains go through. May 13, 1858, they had a terrible storm. Her mother had given birth to twins (Emma, now Mrs. Casper Reynolds, and William) ten days before and her father had a hard time to keep the wind from blowing in the door and letting in the hail and rain. After the storm her father went out and found that Mr. Kice and wife (grandparents of Chas. Kice) had been blown over while driving along the road in their wagon. They were unconscious and one was thrown under the wagon box. Mr. Bayler took them home, kept them over night and they revived all right. They used to tell big snake stories in the early days and they had good reasons as there were lots of rattlers, bull, black and other snakes. She remembers seeing a big black snake down by Cooper that was long enough to stretch across the road. Her grandfather Trimble used to haul wheat to Chicago along in the fifties. It took three weeks and they would cook up food to last him most of the trip. Prairie chickens were plentiful in those days, and were easily trapped. Deer were also plentiful, and Mrs. Bayler would often see them come down by the dozen to drink at their pond. The morals of the young people in Washington were pretty good in those days. The boys had quite a time see- ing the old yeai- out by going around to the houses and shoot- ing off their guns. The housewives baked up a lot of dough- nuts and cakes to treat them when they called. Mrs. Bayler remembers the Civil war times in Washing- ton. Her father used to walk to town in the evening to get the news. When he heard of the death of Col. Dan Miles and President Lincoln he came home and actually cried. Gilbert Jenoway and John Holsinger, two boys who lived at the home of Mrs. Bayler's parents, went to war and both were killed and buried on Island No. 10. Mrs. Bayler remembers the Lincoln-Douglas campaign. Thos. Fish with fife, 01 Hungerford with snare drum and Mr. Trimble with bass drum furnished the music for the occa- sions in Washington. When Lincoln spoke at Metamora Hattie Fish, daughter of Thos. Fish, got up a hay rack load of little girls, all dolled up, and took them to Metamora. This was about 1859. I w^ent in the load and I remembered see- ing Lincoln and hurrahing. We did not know he was to be- 62 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILIft come such a great man or we would have tried to remember more of the details. Mrs. Bayler still remembers the following little verse they all were shouting: Lincoln was a gentleman, Douglas was a fool; Lincoln rides a white horse, Douglas rides a mule. Lincoln also spoke in Washington in a wigwam tent, back of where the Community Building stands. I remember they had torch light parades. They put a candle on a stick and tied paper around it. I was in the parade and the paper caught fire on my candle stick and caused some excitement. When Mrs. Bayler was young the folks had no place to go, so they all went to church and that was their social event. About the most exciting game they had in those times was to pitch horse shoes. The war came on and Mrs. Bayler had to help her father on the farm. She drove the horses while her father and mother did the work. Mrs. Bayler was one of the early under her aunt at Sparland. She also taught school one year in the country. She went to school in Washington and her teacher was Herman Snow, wlio married a Danforth, and was afterwards congressman from Kankakee. In the fall of '67 Mrs. Bayler taught school in Washing- ton in a school house on the southwest corner of where the school park is now located. Miss Mary Italin went to school to Mrs. Bayler and Miss Itahn has now bee n a teacher in Washington's primary school for 52 years. Mrs. Bayler taught school in the old Washington brick seminary which was located on the lots back of the Geo. M. Stimson residence. She taught there for seven years, until she married Geo. W. Bayler in November, 1837. Mrs. Bayler also taught a select school in summer for several years for $1.00 per month per pupil. Mrs. Mostoller, Will Aubrey, James and Frank Wrenn were among her pu- pils. Mrs. Bayler after her marriage lived in the attractive home on the bayler stock farm, which adjoins the city on the northwest. She was noted for her hospitality and they used to come from near and far to visit the Baylers. Of late years Mrs. Mrs. Bayler has had a severe sick spell and is not able to get out very much. She still retains her keen intellect EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 63 and can vividly recount the scenes of long ago. She has rooms in the Tobias building and runs a little notion store to help while her time away, and her old friends are glad to call. The above incidents were secured in a recent talk with Mrs. Bayler. Some History of the Zinser Family, Who Were Old Settlers Mrs. Lizzie Zinser Brown of Harlan, la., and Rev. J. W. Ferner of Washington, D. C, are the only remaining mem- bers of the Zinser, Tobias, Ferner caravan of early settlers who emigrated from Ohio to Washington in 1851. Mrs. Brown in some recent letters to Miss Emma Scott tells of some of the early history of her family and of the country. The following are extracts: "There were four families of us in company when we moved from Ohio, coming by team and in covered wagons. Father, Jacob Zinser's, family was the largest. There were 11 children, but only 9, 5 girls and 4 boys, came with the family. The oldest brother, John, came previous to father and got work at his trade as a wagon maker. Father came to Illinois to get a better chance to farm, as his boys were old enough to help with the woi'k. Brother S. L. attended college at Delaware, Ohio, and when the war broke out he enlisted and raised a company and was made lieutenant. He was in the army 3 years, was wounded at Chattanooga and was discharged. He went into the drug business. He mar- ried Sarah Grad}^ Brothers Sam and George were the first to hear the call and enlist in the Civil war. They went through four years, were in many battles, and were honorably discharged at the close without a wound. Brother Israel enlisted when they called for recruits. He was not in battle, but was in camp when the war closed. Brother William looked after the farming while the other boys were helping Uncle Sam. They all went into busi- ness after the war, Sam and George in the hardware busi- ness for some time, and Israel in the drug business. William was a farmer all his life. He lived in northern Iowa until he died and his family still live there. Ben, the youngest of the family, was bom in Washing- ton. He was a banker as long as he lived and died in 1925. 64 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. The girls in the family from oldest down were Mary, Catherine, Susan, Lizzie and Rebecca. They were all mar- ried but Rebecca. Catherine died in 1862 and was the first break in the family. I think it took our family a month to make the trip from Ohio to Illinois. It was rough traveling over corduroy bridges. The country was swampy in places and the roads were made of logs, which did not make a smooth roadbed. I remember when I was young a string of saloons they had in Washington across the north side of the square. I do not know who patronized them as I was afraid to pass by them, I was so afraid of a drunken man. I can recall when I was a child and sick with a diseased knee, which left me a cripple for life, the folks raised me up to the door to see the first train go through Washington on the T., P. & W. railroad. It was in 1857. I am past my 80th birthday. I have not had my usual health this summer. Recently I have been laid up with a spell of rheumatism. John W. Wilson is one of W^ashington's oldest native born citizen. Mr. Wilson is still active and in very good health, and he has an especially keen and vivid mind. He had an extended farming experience in Woodford and Taze- well counties and is well qualified to tell of early conditions. The following are some facts gathered from an interview with him: WiUiam Wilson, father of J. W. Wilson, was one of the very early settlers in Central Illinois. He came here in 1829 from Ohio. His widowed sister, Jane, accompanied him. (Jane afterwards was the second wife of William Holland, the first settler in Washington, and was the mother of six of Mr. Holland's family of twenty-one children. One of her children, Mrs. John Weeks, is still living in Washington, the only surviving child of Washington's first settler). Mr. Wilson and sister, Jane, came to Illinois overland in a one-horse wagon. They started with a cow owned by Jane. They traveled four days with the cow tied behind the wagon and the animal caused so much trouble to lead that being mightily provoked one day Mr. Wilson asked his sis- ter Jane what she would take for the cow. She set the price at $10, and although the brother was not very flush he pulled out his purse and paid her $10, and not waiting to un- tie the cow he took out his knife, slashed the rope and turned the cow loose. In a week of two the cow wandered back to its original home in Ohio. And in six months or a year some EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 65 of the folks who had picked up the cow sent Mr. Wilson $10, the amount he had paid his sister. Wm. Wilson and his sister came alone on their journey with their one-horse wagon as far as the Wabash river. There they fell in with the Heaths and Henson Thomas, who were also on their way to Illinois and were early settlers who located in Washington. The early Wilson had a tough experience in making the long trip with his single horse and wagon through the timber and across streams and swampy land. Upon his arrival in Washington Mr. Wilson purchased a claim of 164 acres of land just west of Washington, now owned by George Muller. There was a log cabin on the place. Mr. Wilson hved there until his death in 1857. When lie came here he thought the prairie land east of Washington never w-ould be settled, so he went into the timber and grubbed out trees. He was only able to clear about 50 acres of the land while he ow^ned it. Wiliam Wilson married Sarah McClure. The McClures lived on the farm where Willhardt used to live, northwest of Washington. He was the father of six children, one dying in infancy. Of the five children Mary Jane married H. K. Swisher, Nancy married George Bon Durant, Maria married W. T. Smith, Sarah Ann unmarried and John W. married Virginia Ann Kindig, who died in January, 1912. Three children were born to Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Wilson. One died in infancy, one son died at the age of 21, soon after gradu- ating from high school. The daughter, Gertrude, lives with her father and keeps house for him. John W. Wilson lived with his folks until he was 18 years of age. He then hired out to work on a farm during the summer at $12 a month. That winter he went to school in the old seminary, taught by Joe Wood. The next year he farmed for Henry Kindig at $14 a month. The next iwo years he farmed for himself and boarded at Emanuel Kin- dig's two miles northwest of Washington. He raised mostly corn, one year some wheat. He sold his com that year in the ear for 80 cents,. 80 pounds to the bushel. He received a good price on account of the war. In the spring of 1866 he married and moved on a farm in the east part of Woodford county, 5 miles southeast of Minonk. He farmed there for fifteen years. A good deal of the prairie land around there was wet and had sloughs upon it. They had no tiling then. He raised com and oats, most- ly com. They hauled their corn to market at IVIinonk. That 66 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. was considered a great corn country. SoT.e days they would have to wait all day and over to the next aay to get unloaded. The streets would be full of wagons. The poUce would have to help keep order and get the wagons lined up. They had no dumps in those days and the corn was all scooped off the load. The elevator would furnish one extra man to help the farmer scoop off his load. They hauled some of their corn in an early day to Chi- cago, not very big loads, and received as low as 614 cents a bushel. That was about the only way to get money some- times. Most of the country was raw prairie land. When Mr. Wilson started farming in 1866 about one-fourth was in cul- tivation. Raw land then sold for $10 an acre and cultivated land for $25 to $40 per acre. Wild game was plentiful. There were lots of prairie chickens, geese and ducks. Mr. Wilson could shoot a good deal of game from his front yard. Mr. Wilson moved onto several different farms in Wood- ford and Tazewell counties up until 1893, when he gave up farming and moved to Washington. FaiTning was not very profitable in those days. The highest price paid for corn w^as 45 cents a bushel, after the war. When he was a boy he remembers one time of carrying 18 dozen eggs to town for his brother-in-law to the Tobias & Hittle store in Washington and receiving 3 cents a dozen for them. In the old days they used to have some pretty cold winters. When Mr. Wilson was a boy, living at home, in the winter of 1854-55 they had a butchering at their place and the neighbors were all in to help. It was so cold a spell at that time that the snow had not thawed in the wagon tracks for seven weeks. The roads were pretty bad in the early days. In Febru- ary, 1866, he went to Peoria to get his wedding suit. The mud was so deep he went on horseback and had to get off the horse three times to let him wallow out of the mud. There was timber all along the Peoria road in the sixties, some of the trees being three feet through. In 1859 Stephen A. Douglas held a big political meeting in Locust Grove near Metamora (now the McGuire farm). Over 100 wagons went up from Washington. Tlie towns around vied with each other in sending the biggest delega- tion. Mr. Wlison remembers that Jaser Sickler's father was a drummer for the occasion. He marched about twenty-five EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 67 feet back of Doulgas in the parade. He had a deep voice and he created a big sensation by shouting, "Hurrah for Douglas", every few steps along the way. In those days the political parties would try and see which one could raise the highest flag pole. There was a good deal of drinking at tTie political meetings and thei'^ was quite a littte fighting. One of the early events in Washington which occurred when Mr. Wilson was a boy was the wrecking of the store and saloon kept by a man named Pearl on the top of the hill in the west part of Washington (afterwards the Wells Andrews homestead). It seems that Pearl sold some whis- key to David Kelso, one of the early settlers. Kelso went to Peoria and died after drinking the whiskey and it was sup- posed to have been poisoned. It created a sensation and a crowd was formed and went out and completely wrecked the Pearl place. Several of Kelso's brothers were in the crowd. One of the boys had driven into town with a team of oxen, and when he heard they were going out to Pearl's he jumped off his wagon on the square and let the oxen run loose and joined the crowd. Pearl sat by while they wrecked his place, but he afterwards had quite a number of the wrecking paiiy arrested. Abraham Lincoln was hired to defend the arrested parties and secured their acquittal in a trial which was held at Pekin. Pearl's first wife was a sister of Dr. Wood. She sepa- rated from him and lived across the road from his place. Af- ter they wreclx'ed his place Pearl went to Peoria where he led a dissolute life and finally died in the poor house. Mr. Wilson has a number of relics of the early days and is sorry he did not preserve more of them, especially the early crude farming implements used by his father. He has three or four chairs made in 1839 by Asa Danforth and his brother when they ran a furniture store and factory here in an early day. The chairs are still solid and are good for many more years of service. He also has an old side-saddle used by his mother, made in an early day. He thinks the oldest brick building in Washington is the Petri store building which was operated in an early day by Mr. Gorin. The Roehm shoe store is the oldest frame build- ing. The room above the store was known as temperance hall and Mv. Wilson remembers when his church, the Chris- tian, held services in the room. 68 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. Mr. Wilson's father used to haul goods from Wesley City for the stores in Washington. It took three days to make the round trip, some 25 miles, and he was paid $1.50 for a trip. When his father landed in Washington in 1829 there were only four or five families living here. Old Time Account Book Mr. Wilson has a valuable old relic which consists of an old account book of his father, WilHam Wilson. The date of the accounts were from 1838 to 1845. The penmanship of the elder Mr. Wilson was very good and although the paper is faded with age the writing still stands out plainly. This account book shows most vividly and accurately the prices that were paid for produce and work in those early days. It also shows the names of some of our very early settlers. In those early days evidently not much cash changed hands. Mr. Wilson's accounts showed that he kept a debtor and credit account with most of the people with whom he did business. The accounts would run for a year or more and they would have a settlement and carry the balance over in the next account. The following are just a few of the many entries in the account book: Oct. 16, 1839. Adam Switzer, Cr. for the making of a coat and pocket stuff, $8.25. Jan. 11, 1840. A. Switzer, Cr. for making a coat and vest, $2.00, and for trimmings, 4334c. May 31, 1841. J. Wheeler, half cord of wood, 75 cents. June 31, 1841. J. Wheeler, Dr., to 4 doz. eggs, 25c. July 12, 1841. J. Wheeler, Dr., to 9 lbs. lard at 6i^c, 561/4C. Dec. 8, 1838. Mr. Goold, Dr., to % cord of wood, $l.34l^. July 13, 1841. J. Wheeler, Cr. for one day's work, $1.00. Oct. 11, 1844. Dr. Wood, Dr. to 40 lbs. pickled pork, $2.00. Oct. 15, 1845. Dr. Wood, Dr. to 23 lbs. pork at 21/2C per lb., 57c. April 27, 1849. Mr. Our, Dr. to 12 bushels com at 25c per bushel, $3.00. March 26, 1841. Snell and Tiney, Dr. to hauling one load to Wesley City, $2.00. EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL, 69 Dec. 27, 1841. Samuel Hampton, Dr. to 73 lbs. of pork, $1,091/2. Dec. 2, 1844. Mr. Waggoner, Cr. for one day's work, 50c. Nov. 22, 1838. Mr. Pearl, Dr. to 1 day's work with two horses and wagon, $2.00. Feb. 6, 1839. Mr. Pearl, Dr. to 25 lbs. flour, $1.00. Dec. 6, 1841. David Gibson, Dr. to one load of wood, 621/2C. Dec. 5, 1840. Squire Baker, Cr. for one day's work done by George Thomas, $1.00. Feb. 8, 1839. Doct. Goodwin, Dr. to one cord wood, $2.00. June 1, 1841. Richard Wab, Dr. to 15 lbs. of wool at 371/2C per lb., which is to be paid in work at 50c per day by Shiderick when called on. Oct. 1841. Jacob Kern, Dr. to 94 ft. of lynn lumber at 2c per foot. Oct. 19, 1839. Lawson Holland, Dr. to timber to make 8200 feet of lumber at 87V2C per hundred, $28.00. June 15, 1840. Lawson Holland, Cr. for a wheat fan re- ceived of Parsons, $28.00. Oct. 4, 1843. J. Belle, Dr. to 118 lbs. of beef at 2c, $2.36. Nov. 16, 1843. J. Belle, Cr. for two days' work done by the boys, 50c. Jan. 25, 1839. Wm. Kern, Dr. to 180 feet of frame tim- ber at 2 cents per foot, Dr. to hauling 2 loads at 50c per load. March 10, 1838. Wm. Kern, Cr. for one side saddle, $18.00. Feb. 11. Wm. Kern, Cr. for the grinding of 10 bushels and a half of spring wheat, $1.68. April 13, 1839. Wm. Kern, Cr. for a hat got Jacob Kern's shop, $5.00. July 8, 1839. Wm. Kern, Cr. for the carding of 20 lbs. and thre-fourths of rolls at 7c per lb., $1.46. May 10, 1842. Sephas Wood, Cr. for 2 days' work done by John Baracas' boys, $1.25. Oct. 4, 1843. David Gibson, Cr. for half a day at butch- ering beef, 50c. Nov. 9, 1845. David Gibson, Cr. for one day at husking, 50c. June 15, 1844. Sephas Wood, Dr. to I14 lbs. of butter, 10c. 70 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON. ILL. Nov. 4, 1845. George Higgins, Cr. for one day's work, 50c. April 12, 1839. J. Phillips, Dr. to 2 walnut trees, $7.00. Aug. 6, 1839. J. Phillips, Dr. to 24 lbs. pork at 7c per lb., $1.68. Jan. 8, 1840. J. Phillips, Dr. to a stack of hay, $6.00 to be cash, $4.00 to be work. June 29, 1840. Due me from J. PhilUps on settlement to be paid in trade, $25.46. Oct. 25, 1841. Mr. Rue, Dr. to one steer weighing 403 lbs., $10,071/2; to one cow weighing 525 lbs., $12,121/2. June 3, 1840. Mr. Allee, Cr. for sharpening plow, 25c. Jan. 23, 1840. Mr. Allee, Cr. for setting 4 pair of shoes, $1.25. Oct. 12, 1841. Thomas Fish, Cr. by one pair of shoes, $1.75. Cr. for pair of boots, $4.50. Nov. 10, 1842. Mr. Willard, Dr. to one hide, 63 lbs. at 3c, $1.89. Dec. 16, 1839. S. P. Gorin, Dr. to 14 yards flannel at 75c, $10.50. Cr. for goods of Rodes Van Meter, $10.50. Oct. 28, 1841. Wm. Holland, Cr. for 2 bushels of ap- ples and 9 bushels of bran. Feb. 17, 1842. Wm. Holland, Cr. for 2 days work, $1.50. Jan. 18, 1841. Asa Danforth, Cr. for sharpening a cross cut saw, 50c. Mch. 23, 1841. Mr. Danforth, to lumber marked on re- ceipt of $52.50, to be paid in furniture. Jan. 22, 1841. Mr. Danforth, Dr. to 2 loads of hickory timber delivered at the shop, $3.00. Mav 5, 1843. Wm. C. Spencer, Dr. to 2 bushels of oats, 24c. Oct. 7, 1844. Robert Celso (Kelso), Cr. for one day's work, 50c. Julv 5, 1845. R. Celso, Dr. to 2 trees in the pasture, $4.00. March, 1846. A. Switzer, Cr. for on cloth vest, $3.50. Jan. 27, 1844. Dr. Wood, Dr to eight bushels of oats at 20c, $1.60. March 22, 1842. Mr. Runnels, Cr. for sharpening a plow, I21/2C. May 26, 1842. Mr. Runnels, Cr. for sharpening plow, mending log chain, making bell clapper, sharpening mattock, amounting to 621/2C. Dec. 18, 1846. L. Reynolds, Dr. to 3 loads of wood, 75c. EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 71 Dec. 10, 1844. J. S. Bell, Dr. to 183 lbs. beef at li/oo. per lb., $2.45. Oct. 20, 1845. J. S. Bell, Cr. with 1 day's work donp by Thomas, 37i/2C. Nov. 19, 1841. S. P. Gorin, Dr. to half cord of wood de- livered at the female school house, 75c. A number of entries given below were made which would seem to indicate that Mr. Wilson had taken some of uie early private bank money or script on account: Five dollars on the Bank of Illinois, marked letter A No. 1710, payable at their branch bank at Pekin to the or- der of C. C. Wilcox, cashier thereof, Shawneetown, 1st of May, 1840, got of J. Johnson. Ten dollars the State Bank of Illinois, marked letter A No. 43240, payable at their branch bank in Danville to the order of i\Ir. ]\Iobley, cashier, Springfield, June the 1st, 1837, got of James IMcClure. Five dollars on the State Bank of Illinois, marked letter G No. 8613, payable at Springfield to anyone or bearer, dat^ Sept. 1, 1835, got of Crasly. Mrs. Esther Ann Weeks Mrs. Esther Ann Weeks was born in Washington on March 16, 1842, a daughter of William Holland, the first settler and founder of Washington. J\Ir. Holland was the father of twenty-one children and Mrs. Weeks is the only known living child. It is quite appropriate that in compiling the early history of this locahty that we should nave an in- terview with j\Jrs. Weeks. The following interesting facts were gathered by Miss Emma Scott in a recent talk with her : William Holland was born in Lincoln county. North Caro- hna, Oct. 14, 1786. He was married on May 24, 1811, to Levycy Bess. In 1815 they moved to Illinois territory and settled at Edwardsville, IVIadison county, where they re- mained three years. They then removed to Menard county where they lived two years, and from there to Fort Clark (Peoria) in 1820. Mr. Holland had a gunsmith shop in Peoria and also raised corn on the Illinois river bottom on the Tazewell side of the river. In cultivating his crop he crossed the stream in a birch bark canoe. After Mr. Holland settled in Washington he continued to conduct his shop as gunsmith for the Indians at Fort Clark. In doing so he rode his gray horse, "Turk", to the 72 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON. ILL. river bank and let him loose to go home, and he swam the river both going and coming, and ran home to Washington. Turk was a great horse. The neighborhood children used his back to support their teeter board. Mr. Holland used to put Esther Ann and her little brother on his back and let Turk trot off to the barn. The children fell off, but the horse kept on his way and on reaching the barn looked back to see their predicament, and if a horse could laugh he sure- ly did. Wm. Holland's first cabin in Washingtn was at a spring, still flowing, just south of the Dickinson canning factory, in the northeast quarter of section 23, township 26, north range 2 west of the 3d principal meridian in Tazewell county, Illinois. He later built on the present site of the A. G. Dan- forth residence, and continued to live there to the close of his life Nov. 27, 1<S71. In the spring of 1826 Mr. Holland started to improve a farm in the northwest quarter of section 24, township 26, range 3 west of the 3d P. M., just east of the original town of Washington and embracing a part of the Holland, Dorsey, Wathen and Robinson addition to the town. Mr. Holland had three wives and was the father of twenty-one children, fourteen by his first wife, Levycy Bess Holland, and seven by his second wife, Mrs. Jane Wilson Cowen Holland. Bv this third wife, Mrs. Meadows Holland, there were no children. Mrs. Meadows was a sister of Ezra Miles and Mrs. Borland. Mr. Holland had a family of ten children when he set- tled in Washington. He soon had a school conducted in his own hom.e. He took a deep interest in helping his children with their studies. One of the family pastimes was to have a "spelling bee" with the father as the pronouncer. The first religious meeting in Washington was held in Mr. Holland's log cabin. It was conducted by Pvev. Jesse Walker, a Methodist preacher. James Harvey, one of the first settlers, was present and the two families. Before his death Mr. Holland had all his children come home and he preached them a sermon he had pre]»ared. This sermon was delivered at his funeral by Rev. Howe of the Christian church. It has been preserved and is in print. It shows that Mr. Holland was a man of learning and was well posted on the Bible. It also proves that he was a firm be- liever in the Christian faith. Miss Emma Scott furnishes the following information: "Mr. Ruble, who lived northeast of Washington, told me that EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 73 V. hen he was a boy 14 years of age he came to town and did not know that i\Ir. Holland had died until he saw the funeral procession move from the Frank Tobias furniture store, W'hich was located on the lot back of the old Danforth hotel. They were carrying a casket through the middle of the muddy street, followed by neighbors and friends, among whom were j\Irs. Asa Danforth and her daughter Hattie, all walking to the old cemetery. Wilham Holland gave a 4th of July dinner in the year 1850 in a fine grove where the Henry Denhart home now stands. He erected long tables and bought muslin for table cloths. The citizens did not wish for him to bear all of the expense, and they formed a procession in the square and marched to the gi-ounds. As they passed his shop, w^hich was south of the grove, they passed through a gate. Air. Holland's little daughter, Esther Ann, about 10 years old, held her little apron to catch the coins of a free will offering from the dinner guests. ISIrs. Holland, son William and Hamilton Riddle, a son-in-law, did all of the cooking for the big dinner. Tlie day after the Fourth, Esther Ann, who later be- came Mrs. John Weeks, and Susan Burton (later Mrs. Almon G. Danforth), climbed on the long tables and ran from one end to the other. In her glee Susan pushed Esther off, and she gathered her hands full of dust and put it down the back of Susan's neck. Susan reciprocated by putting an equal amount of dirt in Esther's hair, etc. A Frenchman and a German came to the Holland shop in an early day. The Frenchman asked, "Is the Smith's smith in?" The German said, "Get away, let me talk," and he said, "Is the black smith's shop in der rouse?" In 1829 a band of Indians camped one and one-half miles west of Washington. The w^hite women were afraid of them and Mr. Holland asked their chief to have them move farther away. They complied with the request and located near Foi't Clark on the Tazewell side of the river. The Indians were harsh at times and would walk into the homes. They one time broke open Mrs. Jane Holland's trunk, but did not take any of the contents. They were af- ter money. Mr. Holland was a quick tempered man and spoke to them about their act. They said they would not do harm to the "pale face." 74 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. The primary school property in Washington was a gift by Mr. Holland and could never be used except for school purposes. Mr. Holland's first wife was buried on the Benj. Tobias homestead in 1833, as were later on two of the children. William Holland Family History- Father of Twenty-One Children Holland Family Record The following very interesting facts in regard to the family of William Holland, the first settler and founder of Washington, has been copied from the "family records" and on information furnished by Mrs. Thomas Holland: William Holland, born in Lincoln county. North Caro- lina, Oct. 14, 1786; married May 24, 1811, to Levycy Bess, by Isaac Holland; died Nov. 27, 1871, Washington, age 85 years, 1 month, 13 days. Levycy Bess, born Lincoln county, N. C, Jan. 26, 1794; died Jan. 27, 1833, Washington, age 39 years, 1 day. The Children Lawson Holland, born Lincoln county, N. C, Feb. 24, 1812; married Elizabeth Bandy, by Rev. W. J. Curtis, in 1833; children James, Reuben, Thomas, Lewis, Sarah, George, Isaac and Charles. Elizabeth Holland, born Lincoln county, N. C, May 20, 1813; further history unknown. Metilda Holland, born Hopkins county, Kentucky, Nov. 30, 1814; further history unknown. Senath Holland, born territory Illinois, Ocoaw river, Nov. 3, 1815 ; further history unknown. William H. Holland, born Madison county, 111., Oct. 6, 1818; married Elizabeth Holland, a cousin, of Sangamon county, 111.; children Nellie, John, Leva, Oliver. Nancy Carline Holland, born Sangamon county, 111., June 28, 1820; married Hamilton Riddle; children Hamilton, Jane, Ellen, Lavycy and Lavina twins, Lynn ; Hiawatha, Kan. Mary Holland, born Sangamon county. 111., Feb. 6, 1821 ; married Lewis Beal; children Moses, Narcissy. Matthew Holland, bom Sangamon county, 111., Aug. 6, 1822; married Ellen Pierce. EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 75 Levicy Holland, born Peoria county, 111., Nov. 16, 1924; married Pascal Bandy. Sarah Jane Holland, born March 6, 1826, Peoria county, 111.; married Dud Couzier; his second wife Elizabeth; chil- dren Esther, Daniel, Edgar. George Washington Holland, born Tazewell county. III., Feb. 18, 1828; never married; was a California gold seeker; died in Washington. Alviry Holland, born Tazewell county May 15, 1829; died March 15, 1833, age 3 years, 10 months. Narcissy Holland, born Tazewell county July 7, 1831; married George Bandy; children Olivia, Martha, Mary, Al- bert. Katharine Holland, born Tazewell county Jan, 18, 1833; 9 days old at death of mother; further history unknown. Second Wife and Children Mrs. Jane Wilson Cowden, born Feb. 25, 1804, Fayette, Penn. ; married to William Holland March 31, 1833, by Dan- iel Meek; died Nov. 10, 1856, Washington. Came to Wash- ington in 1829 with her brother, William Wilson, from Perry county, Ohio. Maria Holland, born Tazewell county Nov. 1, 1835; died Jan. 1, 1836, ae 2 months. Philura Holland, born Tazewell county May 12, 1837; married Frank Wright of Missouri; no knowledge of family except two sons killed by lightning. Jane Susanna Holland, bom Tazewell county July 23, 1838; married Henry Cook; children Lucy, Lillie, Sadie, Fred, WilKam. James Harrison Holland, born Aug. 11, 1840, Washing- ton; married Mary Johnson; children WiUiam, Anna, resi- dence Los Angeles, Calif. Esther Ann Holland, bora March 16, 1842, Washington : married John Weeks; children Albert, Lyda (now Mrs. Ed McManus) ; grandson Carlos. John Allen Holland, born Oct.l 0, 1843, Washington; further history unknown. Isaac Holland, bora July 24, 1845, Washington ; married Mary Lewis ; children May (now Mrs. Dr. Bell) ; grandchild James Holland Bell. 76 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. Washington's Centennial Celebration The city of Washington held a Centennial celebration on August 11, 12 and 13, 1925. It was estimated 16,000 people attended the different events during the three days. The first day's event was a pageant given in honor of Miss Mary Italin, a teacher in the Washington primary school for nearly fifty years, and who up to that time had passed over 1500 pupils through her room. Following the play in three episodes which did great honor to Miss Italin, she was escorted to the Commercial square where a beauti- ful terra cotta flower urn was presented to her as a memor- ial, a gift of her students. After Hon. David McCluggage had presented the memorial to her in a most flattering ad- dress she was given personal letters and telegrams from President Calvin Coolidge, Senator Wm. McKinley, Governor Len Small, Congressman W. E. Hull and State Senator Ben L. Smith. The rest of the celebration consisted of addresses by Congressman Rathbone and State Senator Kessinger, plays on two evenings by the Kiwanis club, band concerts, grand barbecue, parade, ball game and other sport events. Mayor Rinkenberger, ably assisted by various commit- tees, planned and carried out most successfully the big event. Memorial to William Holland On Friday, Oct. 15, 1926, there was dedicated a bronze memorial to William Holland, the first settler of Washing- ton, 111. Miss Emma Scott, whose parents were among Washington's first settlers, was responsible for the agitation which resulted in the raising of the necessary funds to pur- chase the memorial. The bronze tablet is imbedded in the brick work on the west side of the band stand located in Commercial square and is impressive in appearance. The following is the wording on the tablet: In Honor of WILLIAM HOLLAND First Settler Washington, Illinois 1825 The following are the addresses in full of some of the speakers at the dedicatory service: EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. . 77 Mayor Geo. Rinkenberger I consider it a very great honor to have the opportunity of presiding at this meeting and being Mayor of our city 100 years after its foundation was laid by the man in whose memory we meet here this afternoon. This is an occasion that few people are able to witness, and to have the honor of presiding is only to remind me of my inability to do jus- tice and my great desire will be able to do better because the memories that are brought back to us not only who was the founder of our city, but they shov/ us what men of those times did for the future generations. I wonder if^the men of today are sacrificing as much as the people 100 or a 1,000 years ago sacrificed so that you and I might be happy and prosperous today, and I wonder if you and I are appreciat- ing the things that these people did for us. Of the many instances that we can recall we can start back 20 centuries ago when Christ gave his life for us; then we go through the many wars and through the suff'erings and hardships that were endured by the men who discovered and first set- tled in our great free country in the 14th century and down to our own William Holland, who, 100 years ago, witliout any of the luxuries and the privileges and happiness that we have today, sacrificed his life and his fortune to make this spot a happy home for you and I. In looking over some of the records it seems to me that this man was a cheerful giver, and got his pleasure out of giving rather than out of the honor that was derived from it. He gave to us our cemetery so that we might have a resting place for those who passed beyond; he gave to us both the primary and the grade school grounds and the school play grounds, having in mind the welfare and the development of the younger generation that would continue the activities of our city after he had passed on. He also gave to this city, as a gift, the Public Square where we are now meeting in his honor. So he started here the develop- ment of the laying out and the building of our beautiful lit- tle city. H did it in honor of the "Father of Our Country" and named it after Washington rather than after himself, which he no doubt would have had an opportunity to do; but in his modest way it seems that we can read in his his- tory that his mind was only for you and I that live today, and the things he did were not for his own glory. I am wondering if a 100 years from now the same thing could be said about any of us, and I am sure that this afternoon will be well spent in placing in the City Park a suitable memorial 78 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. of our founder and I am sure that the speakers of this af- ternoon will bring us some very interesting messages appro- priate for the occasion. As the Mayor of our city I feel it my duty and it is with great honor that I accept it as a privilege to exercise the authority invested in me as Mayor of the city to express to Mrs. Esther Weeks and the descendants of William Holland a sincere appreciation for the beautiful memories that we have of your father and our "father". It is certainly remarkable to be able to realize that 100 years after our city was founded we can celebrate in honor of our founder and have with us his daughter who happens to be Mrs. Esther Weeks, who passed the 84th year of her life on March 16, last. She is the youngest of the 21 chil- dren of William Holland, and if I might pause from serious- ness for a moment I might add here that William Holland not only started our city by the gifts of the cemetery, the school grounds and the City Park and by the establishment of a solid foundation for a prosperous city, but he also with- in his own children gave us a mighty army of men and women who were able to do more than their part in keeping in operation the city he started for 100 years. We are not all unmindful of the things that your ancestors have done; the only reason that we are unable at this time to express to you the proper appreciation that this city might have for that foundation which was laid by William Holland in 1826 is because I do not have the words and the ability to express it in a proper manner. I therefore again, on behalf of the citizens of Washing- ton and the community which I represent as Mayor, express to you, Mrs. Weeks, and the other descendants of William Holland, an assurance of our sincere appreciation of your own efforts and those of your families who have left us be- fore you in the great part which you have had in the build- ing of this city and community, and the liberal spirit in which you have made this a happy home for all of us, and we are sure that you will be rewarded again for the splendid spirit you have shown on earth when it becomes your op- portunity to meet William Holland again inside the pearly gates at the right hand of God. Mayor George Rinkenberger. Prof. B. J. Radford of Eureka In the winter of 1860-61 I taught school out here at what they call Central school house. Two of the pupils that attended that school are with us today, Mrs. Cal Cress and EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 79 Mr. John Wilson. I boarded that winter in the family of John Johnson, who lived in that neighborhood. One of his youngest children by the name of JMary was thirteen years old; she afterwards became the wife of Jimmie Holland, a son of William Holland whom we celebrate today. William Holland was born in North Carolina. It is the native state of old "Hickory" Jackson. It was the state from which Daniel Boone went forth and blazed the way of pion- eers and of civilization throughout the wilderness country ly- ing to the west and from what I saw of William Holland' think that he had imbibed the spirit of his fellow citizens and imbibed the pioneer spirit of Daniel Boone and the steel determination of old "Hickory" Jackson. He was a man of that fibre and character, as I remember him, and he came with those rugged characteristics of the old north state that made him the fine pioneer that he was. When he settled here it was then called Holland's Grove, in 1825. He had been living in this part of the state since 1820. In 1820 he came to Fort Clark, afterwards called Peoria, and while he lived over on the west side of the river at Fort Clark he built a cabin on the east side and opened a little farm there, and would cross back and forth to his work in a canoe that he had constructed. Then, in 1825, he came here and built his cabin on the place where now Mr. Danforth's fine residence is, and it would not be necessary nor would it be profitable for me to relate on the circumstances, the hardships, the la- bor, the trials and the dangers through which that pioneer family went, for you have heard some of that this afternoon from the other speakers No doubt all of you have read about those early days and the hardships of those early times, but when William Holland built his cabin here his nearest neighbors were ten miles away, where East Peoria is now. How would you like to go off and take your family, and put them in a log cabin ten miles away from your nearest white neighbor, surround- ed by Indians sometimes sober and peaceful, sometimes drunken and dangerous? Nobody but a heroic man and no family but a heroic family would undertake such an enter- prise as that. Think of it a little while. Think what it would mean in the way of labor; in the way of hardships; what danger in the way of the lack of everything that we rely upon today in the times of trouble. There was no one to whom they could appeal; they had to care for themselves in every way. Think about it ; but now honest thinking leads us along to what it all meant, and what it is all about and 80 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON. ILL. what for. Why did he come here? Why did other sturdy men gather around him in hardships and deprivation and in danger make their homes? They came to establish homes, but not for themselves. They were looking to posterity; they were looking to our welfare today: they were looking to the opportunities that we have today of which they denied themselves. If it had been simply for themselves, if it had been only for their own gratification they would have been better off to stay in their ow^n community ; so they came to make homes for the future — for their children and their children's children and for us today. One of the noblest threads of humanity is to have a care and to take pains and toil for posterity. You high livers, you aristocrats who live for pleasure and luxury do not think of posterity. When the French nobility that gathered like butterflies around the Bourbons were spending the revenues of the canton and the revenues that could be gathered from conquests, while they were living high and reveling, some wise man said to them, "Well, what is the outcome of this; what is to come after this?" "Oh!" they sneeringly said, "after us the devil's case ;" and there was a deluge of dread and doubt that spread over France and over the boundaries of Europe, a deluge that nearly w^recked civilization. These men that settled Washington I knew personally. I know what kind of fibre those men had. They came here and denied themselves of 'comforts, they endured hardships, they faced danger that their children and their children's children and the children of those that should come after them might have the opportunities and safeguards that we have now, and as has been said very aptly this afternoon they not only came to build the home, but the school and the church and to gather about the home all of those effec- tive and helpful influences that should make home what it ought to be. Now I would like you to think pretty seriously of the things that grow out of these conditions. In the city where I was preaching once I was visiting a family on the Avenue. On one side they called it the "Bobs" side, it being inhabited by people of moderate means who lived by labor and by mutual helpfulness in the family. On the other side was the palaces of rich men; this was the "Nabob" side. As we were sitting on the porch I said to my friend, pointing to a house that cost $150,000, "That family must enjoy life and have a good time with that sumptuous home, luxury everywhere and plenty of money". "Well", he said, "that man and his wife have not met for many years; EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 81 he has his abode in one of the hotels down town and they never meet". "There is another fine house", I said; "they certainly have a good happy life". And he told me about the scandal that had broken up that house and in four houses which I pointed out there was a skeleton in the closet of each house. What is it that binds the bonds of the household to- gether ? What is it that binds neighbor to neighbor ? What is it that makes the most congenial companions and neigh- bors? We have our own ideas about these things. The old Greeks called their carousals and picnicking a Cymbosian; that means a drunken get-together — have a great revelry and all get gloriously drunk. That was the great social am- bition of men; it was the symbol of Greek high life. Some of the Romans said, "We understand it better", and when they had their drunken revelries they called it a Convivial, a living together. Hurrah, drink and carouse and call it a living together. We live together and there are a great many people today who have the idea that social functions, that high living, that picnics where delicacies are consumed voraciously are the real ties of civilization, but not so. It isn't so. I served four years during the Civil war, and I notice year after year when the old soldiers get together about the campfire and in the gatherings that they do not brag about the fun that they had, but they talk about the hard- ships, the long marches, the tough battles they had. These are the things that make men comrades, working together, unselfishness and helpfulness where help is needed. These are the things that make home ties and community ties. These are the things that make neighborhoods. There are lots of things that I would like to say, but one of the things I am going to say is that what we need is a little honor. I have said now that the family ties can be more firmly knit and the good fellowship can be more firmly tightened by a condition that requires mutual helpfulness that brings them together in unselfishness and mutual self-denial. There was one thing about the old households that we do not have today. The family lived together in those days of William Holland with great families of children, and they would gather around the old fireplace and in the glare of the cheerful fire the sentiment and the heart strings were knit and they Hved happily. We don't do it now. We talk about the old hearth stone; we don't have it now. When I 82 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. was a boy two rooms would do for a family of 12 and guests could always be provided for, but now it takes a house of 10 or 12 rooms for two or three people, and they hardly see each other day or night. That's a hard thing for family life; that's a difficult position in family life. My experience as a city pastor has been this, that it is a most difficult thing for family ties to keep sweet and free where great wealth permits those to live in separate rooms and be set off alone. It is a terrible strain on family ties. Well, those are the conditions as I remember them, as I lived through them, as I can imagine them in the family of William Holland and other pioneer families. These fam- ilies that were real families had domestic ties that were su- preme in the best happiness that the world can ever know. You may think I am getting old and cranky, but if I can make you think along these lines I will be satisfied whether you like it or not. Another danger that besets the home idea is that idea that a home or a residence ought to be an expression of mag- nificence and wealth. Well, what of it? Whose business is it if it is? Well, it means this: In the accounts of the re- cent great storm in Florida I read about a residence of a multimillionaire that was partly wrecked and the papers said it cost $9,000,000 to build that palatial residence, to beautify the grounds and for the expensive life carried on there. Think about it. If he has the money whose business is it? The maintanence of that palace and the expensive social life that goes with it would tax the revenue of Taze- well county. Well, what of it? Look at Europe. What ig at the bottom of the World war, national hostilities? Well, yes, it came to that finally, but this is true that there has been what wei^e called homes and what were originally homes that have grown into palaces and grown into chateaus and pleasure parks all over Europe, the maintainence of which could not be afforded by the nations such as England, France and Germany, and so they had to rob the backward people of the world to sustain those palaces and residences, and I tell you today there will be no peace in the world un- til more people quit putting millions into domestic palaces and spending the revenues of provinces for the high social life that may make revolution and there may be National Leagues and World Courts, but I tell you now, having studied and taught history in college for thirty years, that the foundation of the World war and all wars, the main- spring of it all, has been to get revenues for sumptuous do- EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 83 mestic life in palaces and chateaus. I don't know whether you believe it or not, but if I can get you to think along this I will be satisfied. I remember very well when the Duke of Marlborough could not find resources to keep all his palaces and the high life of his ancestors, and all his resources had been used and he came over to New York and got $5,000,000 and a wife thrown in. That would make Bleihem castle over several times. That was soon gone and there was a family quarrel and divorce. It was this upkeep of palaces and ex- pensive high life during the reign of Charles V and those other French kings, the robbing of peasants so they could have Versailles that was the real cause of the French Revo- lution. The peasants had to be robbed and when they could not afford it the king robbed Europe and invaded it. It was the lack of home life which had sent them drifting in that direction. There can be no peace nor cessation of robbing of the outlying nations of the world for revenues until men come to live soberly and home life is what it ought to be, comfort- able and beautiful, yes, but I think you can recall that the great peril of the world and to civilization is the grasping of millions by individuals and nations that they may live sumptuousfy every day, and so I see men trying to organize so that these great discoveries of science and the great ad- vance that we have made will be used soberly and in such a way that every man can feel that he is not enjoying some- thing that belongs to another. Prof. B. J. Radford. Address of E. Garber It is an honor, indeed, to be asked to participate in this program; but, since the occasion requires a study of events dating back 100 years, I cannot yet understand why your committee selected me. I believe I am on the program for rem^arks — Then and Now. Since I cannot tell you much about then, I will not have to say much about now, so my remarks should be brief. It is fitting that we pay homage to the founder of our city and community. It is also wise that we pause for a moment in commemoration of our earlier history and re- count some of the struggles and hardships necessary to bring forth the social, religious, educational and political environment which we have inherited. I shall not attempt anything like a detailed history of 84 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. our township. There are in existence several httle volumes which contain much of the early history of Washington; they are "Picturesque Washington", "A History of Wash- ington Township" by John W. Dougherty, "Life Experience of Isabelle Harlan" and "The Story of David Kindig". These should be published in one volume and made available to all who are interested in our earlier history. Almost in the center of the North American Continent, five great rivers converge into one, and into these flow in- numerable smaller streams and through these arteries flows the life blood of nature. Here she planted her choicest gar- den consisting of virgin oak forests, beautiful walnut and maple groves, verdant prairies; all of it dotted with count- less varieties of wild flowers and peopled with myriad winged songsters, whistling quail, cackHng prairie chickens, chatter- ing squirrel, and chipmunk, deer and antelope. These were wont to congregate upon the banks of one of these little laughing streams and pour out their devotion to her with their melodies of praise. Then one morning when they were so gathered in the year 1825, there arose a wreath of smoke from a camp-fire in the edge of the forest — rising like in- cense on an altar, marking the dawn of human civilization in this part of the world. I have a faint suspicion they may have watched it with some concern, especially if they knew that the Indian had killed for meat only, while the white man kills for sport. However that may be, this camp-fire was built by the founder of our city and as he observed the bountiful surroundings of his camp site decided to make this paradise his home. In good time with a longing for companionship (and perhaps with the ambition of a realtor) he began to write others about his wonderful grove. Had he been possessed of modern advertising facilities, he might easily have created a rush that would have rivaled all real estate booms. Even then it was not so long until Holland's Grove became a sort of a goal for the Easterner who treked his immigration van across the boundless plains toward the setting sun. In a little while enough settlers were established along the little creek to give it the name Farm Creek, and the set- tlement in Holland's Grove grew into the town of Washing- ton. That these hardy pioneers suflFered hardships is evi- dent by the fact that many came and returned to their na- tive land or went elsewhere. The prairie held many ponds where water became stag- nant and produced malarial conditions. Cattle became in- EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 85 fected with snake root and other obnoxious weeds so that their milk produced sickness. The average historian wishes to prove that the world is growing better or worse. If he belongs to the former class he exaggerates the sins of his fathers; if he is of the latter class he glosses over their sins and paints them all as saints. The truth may be that we are very much alike, both in our virtues and in our short-comings. As a matter of fact we know that these old forefathers of ours lived the lives of frontiersmen. They took their religion, their poli- tics and their whiskey straight. They fought back the In- dians and built a school house and a church. On election day they fought it out at the polls, often with fists and clubs as each party attempted to vote their side in. Neither were they above buying a vote for their party or kidnapping a vote from the opposition, but they did this for the same reason that they fought the Indians, or fought the devil or the wolf or the rattlesnake — from the standpoint of a firm conviction that they were doing the right thing for poster- ity. They believed that their party stood for the best in- terests of the country and therefore should win, even if they had to cheat and fight to make it win. And out of that environment Illinois gave to the world the "Great Emancipator" Lincoln, and also Grant and Logan and Stephen A. Douglas and many others who played a heroic part in the development of our country. While I did not come to Washington until fifty years after our founder came and never had the pleasure of his acquaintance, my memory cherishes the friendships I have had with many of the old-time sterling citizens of Washing- ton whose characters were fashioned by this early environ- ment; all of them possessed of that rare quality we refer to as common sense, which is the main stay of our republic. You couldn't stampede these ^Id fellows with false propa- ganda. The old-time families were large, ranging off times from ten to twenty children in one family. The founder of our town was the father of twenty-one children, but if the families were large Nature was also bountiful with her sup- plies and they were thrifty in storing their foods, making their clothing and shoes and securing their home comforts. I wonder how many of you remember how a cellar or store room on the farm looked about this time of the year fifty years ago. On one side of the basement there were built a series of shelves or bins. In the lower one of these there 86 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. . was from 50 to 100 bushels of potatoes. In the next one there were cabbage, turnips, sweet potatoes and other veg- etables In the next one was a choice variety of apples. Then there were some canned fruits, dried fruits, pickles, sauerkraut, pumpkins, endive, one or two barrels of cider and maybe some grape wine, walnuts, butter nuts, hazel nuts, hickory nuts, dried pennyroyal leaves, jars of apple butter and a little later there was added a barrel of salt pork, ten or twenty smoked hams and shoulders, jars of lard and sausage, maybe a quarter of beef to say nothing of game. Then there was home-made hominy and mince meat, cornmeal and buckwheat flour, sorghum molasses, maple syrup and honey. Say, boy, did I say those were hard times ? Contrast this, if you will, with the struggle of the aver- age fellow of today to keep his bank account ahead of his checks, or to make his salary meet the demands of the in- stallment collector as he munches a cold dinner from the delicatessen while his wife is at the club. Their sports consisted of horse racing, rooster fighting, dog fights, horseshoe pitching and wrestling. Their social events were husking bees, wool pickings, apple parings and weddings. Styles? Sure they followed the styles just as religious- ly as they do now, although the men saw less of their women than we do today. For educational purposes they had their spelling bees and debating societies, and I believe that these had a tend- ency to develop more individual thinkers than we have in these times. In our modern system of hurry, hurry, hurry men really haven't time to think, and this is a dangerous condition, especially in a Republican form of government. Republics cannot long endure under mob psychology, neither can our republic long endure when more than fifty per cent of the voters do not think enough of their sovereign right of franchise to vote for their president. We must have the individual thinker or we will have the mob which can be led by any political trickster who has the ability to sway it. You cannot stampede a crowd of people who think for themselves. One thing is certain, while our forefathers would go far to win an election, they firmly believed in the idea that an office was a pubhc trust, and the instances were rare indeed where any officer sold a public trust for private gain, a thing that is becoming too common in our modern method of machine politics. EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 87 With tlie fear and trust of God in their hearts our fore- fathers were devout in their religious worship. Some of the noblest characters in molding the destiny of American citizenship were the early circuit riders who found a ready welcome in any home of our pioneers as they traveled from place to place to preach the Gospel. I would not have you go back, neither would I speak of their day as being a Paradise lost to us, for we have many blessings and many privileges that were denied them; but, if we take thought of their lives and what they did for us, it should give us the spirit and the will to fulfill our obliga- tions to our posterity as faithfully as they did for theirs. And in the words of the great Lincoln I would say in closing; ''Five score years ago and one this community was brought into being by one, William Holland, and we have met today to dedicate a tablet to his memory, but we can not dedicate because the memory of him and his followers and what they did for us here is already hallowed memory. Let us, therefore, resolve anew to consecrate our_ Hves to the task of preserving the great principles of Life they builded for us, that we may go forward as they did in our efforts for righteous government, constant in our duty to- ward God and Humanity. E. Garber. (To the Tune of Illinois) Where old Farm Creek's gently flowing, Washington, Washington, Where the maple trees are growing, Washington, Washington, Come the trav'lers far and near To pay homage to that seer. Who foresaw thy beauty here, Washington, Washington. Where the cardinal's sweet singing, Washington, Washington, Where thy church bells gaily ringing, Washington, Washington, Where each cooling shaded street Offers happiness complete In thy homes with comforts sweet, Washington, Washington. Where the hollyhocks are blooming, Washington, Washington, 88 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL, Where the folks are unassuming, Washington, Washington, From Key West to Frozen Nome We may wander, we may roam, Still we love to call you home, Washington, Washington. Recollections of Washington as Written by Mrs. Hattie Tobias Foster Mrs. Foster, a daughter of one of the pioneer families of Washington, who lives near Calma, Calif., writes the fol- lowing reminiscenses of early times in Washington: Father and mother, James and Caroline Tobias, moved from Circleville, Ohio, about 1841 and settled on what was then known as Greenridge farm, with their two little boys, Ezra about 8 years old and Cyrus two years younger. Ro- zella was born on this farm in 1857. They suffered serious loss of property by fire and moved to town, Washington, where father went into business with R. D. Smith in a gen- eral dry goods and grocery store, soon afterwards being joined by William Hittell, mother's brother, and continued in business till after the war, perhaps the latter part of 1865. In the fall of 1859 Sadie B. was born, and I was born in 1862 in what my parents designated as the Roehm's place. During the Civil war our store was a rendezvous for men to hear the paper read about the news from the front, and Ezra, about 14 years old, read aloud for the benefit of all. He used to take httle Sadie, then about 3 years old, to the store and stand her on the counter to sing the popular war songs, for she very early possessed quite a marked talent in voice and memory. Growing up in later years she was a very popular vocalist throughout Illinois, having completed her studies in the Boston Conservatory of Music. Washing- ton people never forgot her and always accorded a heart}' welcome. This is, of course, outside of the story of Wash- ington. I have often heard mother tell of the stirring and exciting times and scenes at the times of recruiting, and the big dinners for the soldiers prepared by trie women of Washington. Uncle Lewis Tobias, father's orother, had two boys, George and Frank, enlisted, but although Ezra wished to go with Major Jo Miles as drummer boy he was not old enough. After the war father purchased the beautiful white EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 89 proud-stepping horse belonging to Major Miles during his service, and we always called him Major Jo. Father and mother attended the Evangelical church, where his cousin, the Rev. Simon Tobias, was at one time pastor. Bro. Ezra with George and Frank were playing about the new school house when Ezra fell from the top to the ground through the scaffolding, breaking his arm. (This was before the war). My own earliest recollections are of the campaign rallies when the Democratic and Re- publican parties paraded with bands, returned soldiers, funny clowns, etc. We used to sit on the roof of the store and watch the parades. Uncle Lewis Tobias and Uncle Ben Tobias ran for mayor on opposite tickets and Ben won on the Democratic ticket over his brother Lewis. Father and Lewis were strong temperance advocates and Lewis attended a big meeting at Metamora (I think it was a presidential campaign), was chased by a drunken mob and narrowly escaped by driving into a livery stable and running through the alley to his home. He was accompanied by his daugh- ter, Bessie, afterwards Mrs. B. C. Millington. There are other events of which I have too dim a recollection to un- dertake to relate. Some Interesting History of the Scott Family, Who Were Early Settlers (By Miss Emma Scott) "There are deeds which should not pass away; And names that must not wither, tho the earth Forget her empire with a just decay. The enslavers and enslaved, their death and birth." My father, J. Randolph Scott, was born Dec. 8, 1812. He was the fourth son of John and Martha-Patterson Scott of Washington, Washington county, Pennsylvania. His an- cestors came from Scotland and Ireland, the Scotts in 1670, Agnews in 1717 and Pattersons in 1724 to Chester county, Pa., and secured large tracts of land in the "Manor of Mark," from William Penn's sons, in what is now Lancaster county. Pa., the richest agricultural county in the United States. They were Scotch covenanters. My mother, Asenath Hicks, was born April 8, 1820. She was the second daughter of Asa and Anna Cox-Hicks of Bamesville, Belmont county, Ohio. Her ancesters, the 90 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. Stubbs, Maddocks, Stantons, Bailys and Cox, came from England and Wales in the early years of 1700, to Chester county, Pa. Sir Robert Hicks came from England to Plymouth, Mass., in 1621, in the ship, "Fortune," the first ship to follow the Mayflower. Elizabeth Clement, a widow with four children, came from. England to Jamestown, Va., in 1609. Mother's people were Orthodox Friends or Quakers. They, too, figured conspicuously as leaders and builders in the land of their adoption. The Norsemen, the ancestors of the Anglo-Saxon people, dwelt on the rugged coast of Norway, Their sons went to distant lands, conquered and settled. Out of this social in- heritance came three characteristics — self-reliance, aggres- siveness and love of individual freedom. The Anglo-Saxon inheritance has deeply influenced Christianity. Father came of a long line of adventurers, those who blazed the trail, each in his day, towards the world's pro- gress. The Agnews were heroes in Hindu literature; then Greek pioneers around the Aegean Sea, from which region they traveled westward in a spirit of adventure, to become feudal chiefs in Normandy; thence in 1066 with William the Conqueror to Britain, where Andrew Agnew became holder of the offlce of hereditary sheriff of Galloway in county Wig- town, Scotland, Nov. 10, 1426, A. D. He also in this same year married Lady Mary Kennedy, the gr.unddaughter of Robert HI, a niece of James I of Scotland. The hereditary sheriff was the most powerful individual in the land, save the king. He was paid 4000 pounds per year by the British government. Twelve of the Agnews were honored as hold- ers of this office and they have owned Lochnaw Castle, Stran- rear, Scotland, more than 500 years. In 1650 Oliver Cromwell completely routed the Coven- anters and abolished all heritable rule. Thus Galloway may be fairly called the cradle of the Covenant as well as of the Reformation. Later, when those in power sought to teach Galloway descendants in Ulster "better manners" they emi- grated to the American colonies, which became the cradle of Presbyterianism in the Province of Pennsylvania. Their contentions under British rule fitted the Agnews, Scotts and Pattersons to fill colonial offices in Pennsylvania and to take official rank in the Revolutionary war. Father's grandfather, Lieutenant James Patterson, was with General George Washington when he crossed the Delaware river and captured 1000 Hessians and British at Trenton, N. J., Dec. 26, 1776. He was put in charge of these captives and took EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 91 them to prison at Lancaster, Pa., his home town. His grand- father, Hugh Scott, was a major in this war. He had moved from Gettysburg, Pa., in 1763, to Washington, Pa., when his son John was one year old. Whoever serves his country well has no need of ancestors. Men are equal — it is not birth, it is virtue that makes them differ. Father's parents and a brother died in 1834. In the spring of 1836, he, in company with his brother, James Pat- terson, came to Illinois in quest of land. They visited Chi- cago, then a village. They each bought land at Geneseo; visited Peoria, also a small place; viewed the country over and selected land; went to Sprigfield to attend the govern- ment "land sale" and secured 560 acres of land — 80 acres of timber, uncle 160 and father 320 prairie land in section 31, township 26, range 3 W, at $1.25 per acre. Their land patents were signed by President Martin Van Buren. They returned to Pennsylvania and moved out in the spring of IgBT via the Ohio and Illinois rivers to Pekin, 111. Uncle Patterson and family set up housekeeping in Washington, and father made his home in the family of Abraham Van Meter, whose son William became widely known through his activities in Five Point and Howard Missions in New York City, N. Y., and as a Baptist missionary to Rome, Italy, in 1875, where he died in 1888. The Scott brothers were well educated in the common schools in Washington and Jefferson college of their home town. J. Patterson was an evangelist, teacher and farmer; father a hatter by trade, tanner, surveyor and farmer. Uncle taught schools in Washington and Morton, having among his pupils Prof. Josiah and Dr. E. F. Wood, and the children of Thomas Roberts of Morton, by all of whom he was much beloved as a teacher as well as a man. Father broke the prairie with an ox team for himself and for many of the early settlers. One Saturday he left his ox yokes, or bows, with his plow in the field, as was his custom, and Monday morning found that a mischevious young man had undone them. There had been a rain and the sun had been hot, thus they were quite out of commission and it was no small task to get them in order. They had the first improved prairie farms here, four miles from timber. Anthony Field said, "Away out to Scott's — they will freeze to death out there in winter." They did suffer many great hardships, but this was better than clear- ing off timber land to make a farm. They had learned that lesson in Pennsylvania. They built a cabin on their 80 acres 92 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. of timber land and spent the winter of 1838 there getting out material to improve their farms. Uncle ercted a house and made rails for fencing. Father made stake and rider or worm fences, also post and rail fence around his yards and feed lots. A part of one of these posts is now in the Lincoln court house museum at Metamora, 111. Father built a rail pen on his farm and covered it with slough grass as a shelter in the time of storm, and he also made provision for his comfort if ,^ perchance, he were de- tained there over night. Wolves were then numerous and one night quite a pack of these marauders gathered at his pen. They picked the bones that he had thrown out, but were ravenously hungry and made several concerted at- tem.pts to get into his crib., so for safety he climbed up into the loft They kept up a great howl all night, but when morning dawned they went their way. Fear was not in his nature, but he confessed uneasiness for his personal safety on that occasion. Venomous snakes were very plentiful, too, and one day while at work in his timber, he could not tell why he stop- ped work and looked up, but just above him was hanging a very large black snake, evidently ready to drop on him and coil its powerful body around him. On another occasion, during wheat harvest, the days were very hot, too hot to work except early and late. As there was a full moon he thought he would shock wheat in the evening just near the house. He had not worked long when a rattler said, "I am here," so father left the field. Father's first farming in IlHnois was in partnership with William Sample at Walnut Grove. Mrs. Sample was a cousin of father's and they lived in the house now the home of Mrs. John Watson and daughters on Jefferson street. The Samples were from "Little Washington," Pa., too, as it was then called to distinguish it from the capital of the nation. We now designate our pretty little city by Washington, T. C, to differentiate it, too, from Washington, D. C. He had been to Walnut Grove on horseback and on his way home a terrific blizzard set in; the prairie soon became trackless, and his horse did not wish to keep to his guiding which he thought was because of it not wanting to face the storm. The storm grew in intensity and they failed to find their way. Utterly lost, he gave the horse the rein and im- mediately it took up a more rapid pace, but in the direction it had been inclined to want to go. After some time they EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 93 arrived at home. He said, "I believe that we traveled in a circle only when we were lost." From that time forth he trusted "Skipp" to act as pilot — his first horse in Illinois, and her mate was Uncas, both faithful and true. Grandfather, John Scott, established the stage coach line from Brownsville to Washington and Pittsburgh and on to Steubenville, Ohio, and owned a great many horses. His "four not" motto was observed by father: "Up hill push them not, down hill shove thera not, on the level spare them not, and in the stable forget them not." There were many swampy places and swails that drew currents of air, which in cold weather came in such force that they cut like a Damascus blade. Both the swamp and the sweep of air were as bad as could be found just south of the Josiah Moore corner, now Frank Birkett's farm. Father built, for a granery, a room 16x20 feet, but lived in it, about 20 rods east of where he moved it later to the site of the home, because of the awful sweep of air where he built it. He farmed his own land from 1839, which was very productive. At first he plowed a furrow of the virgin soil and in that he dropped potatoes, corn, watermelon or pumpkin seed. The next furrow plowed covered up what he had planted, and everything grew luxuriantly and pro- duced bountifully. Ground squirrels, moles and crows were their first agricultural pests. In breaking up his land he plowed a strip southwest of his house in June and soon there sprang up a grove of cotton- woods. A few of those trees are still living (November, 1927), now about 90 years old. When he came from Penn- sylvania he brought black locust seed from his father's farm, which was known as "Locust Grove," and planted them in his yard and in a grove to shelter his fruit orchard. This orchard was one of the chocest in this locality, which excelled in quality and variety of its fruits. The hand of "Providence" had placed everythng here for the needs of the pioneer — springs, timber, nuts, honey, grapes, plums, blackberries, crabapples, mayapples, goose- berries, wild cherries, herbs of every kind to cure their ail- ments, deer, turkey, geese, ducks, quail, prairie chicken, squirrel, etc., and pasture for their stock. The ambition to gather and preserve these supplies in their season only was necessary. Many of the pioneers were quite resource- ful and successful, too, in their methods of laying up stores for their sustenance, viz: They dried corn, apples, pumpkin, beef and deer meat, kept plums under water, wild grapes 94 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON. ILL. in molasses, had burrow-holes in which they kept apples, potatoes and cabbage from the frost, which they could dig into and help themselves when necessary. There were a vast variety of nuts and the "bee trees" supplied an abund- ance of honey. They gathered herbs for teas in illness, made sassafras tea as a supposed blood purifier, slippery elm bark to take medicines in; also cut the bark of some trees up as an emetic and down as a cathartic. Doctors were few and they had to prepare for emergencies. Were they not brave ? Now a doctor is called when we feel we have pains, when if we were to "think" it is but mind over matter, with little mind it doesn't matter, does it? All stock roamed the prairies at will, while grain and hay stacks were for the most part at their mercy. As a safeguard against prairie fires they would plow several furrows around their properties, and even such precaution often failed to fully protect. In the fall of 1844 father was critically ill. Dr. G. P. Wood was his attending physician. (Both he and his son, Dr. E. F. Wood, were his doctors as long as he and they lived). His wheat threshing was not done and the stock on the prairie destroyed his stacks. The pioneer had his losses and crosses, but kept his courage up and tried again and again. Pioneer hospitality was boundless; new-comers were cordially received and assisted without stint. When a house or a barn was to be raised everybody was there to lend a helping hand, including the women to prepare the "eats." These were their get-acquainted jollifications. When the buildings were completed they were frequently dedicated by a "husking bee,'" refreshments and not infrequently a social dance. The campfires, the Dutch-ovens and the fireplaces were well suited for preparing their sumptuous feasts from na- ture's bounteous stores. When snow was on the ground and the mornings were cold, father said he could gather all the prairie chickns he wished in short order, using a stick to stun them, and a bevy of quail would rush unsuspectingly into coops, or traps, in quest of food. The hunter and trap- per were richly rewarded for their efforts. There was never any scarcity of eats if one had ambition enough to go after them. The farm implements were crude; the wooden mould- board plow to break the land, the cradle to cut the wheat and a flail with which to thresh it. I can well remember EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 95 these implements in our barn when others of a more pro- gressive type had supplanted them. Father did good mow- ing with a scythe, and was equally able to swing a cradle. One season there were five men cradling together. They would cut a swath five cradles wide across the field, then hang their cradles over their shoulders and bind the sheeves back to the other end of the field, then cradle though again and thus cut the whole field. Father had an iron mortar and pestle with which he crushed both corn and wheat for bread and porridge. Grist mills were few and much time and energy spent, sometimes being gone for a whole week, but boarded by the miller, for those in waiting helped in the mill to get jobs ahead of their's out so that their grists could be ground. They had to take their grist to mill before they were out of supplies at home, to be sure the family at home did not come to want. They raised good crops, but there was neither a handy nor a ready market for them ; money was too scarce. Father sold good wheat frequently for 25 to 37 cents per bushel, and good pork from $1,00 to $1.25 per hundred, and could get only about one-half cash. He also hauled wheat to Chi- cago, and with a week's trip and a low price he found tliat the cost overran the profit. On one trip he brought back a load of lumber on which he had several stoves for Hinkle and Danforth. This trip was a very anxious as well as a labori- ous one, for this firm had entrusted him with a bag of gold to purchase the stoves, and to guard it both night and day for several days was no pleasant task, for there were human sharks even in those early times. There were many swamps and stretches of bad roads enroute, causing his load to be hard to manage, but with his grit nothing daunted. Letters were written on large double sheets of paper and folded so that the sheet furnished the space for the ad- dress. This was closed with a wax seal. Letter postage in those days was twenty-five cents, and paid by the recipient. With cash so scarce, his sisters in Pennsylvania, when writ- ing to him, would enclose that sum to be sure that he m.ight be able to pay for their next letter. "Mans inhumanity to man makes countless millions mourn". The Mayflower carried the Pilgrim Fathers to religious liberty in Anierica,and went on her next trip for a load of slaves. This ship was in the slave trade for our fathers. Is it to be wondered at that race and color prejudice still 96 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. exists in this country in spite of Christianity? It came with it. The question of slavery has always been a mixed one, from the time the first slave was imported into our country until, by the emancipation proclamation of Abraham Lin- coln, all men were made free and equal in the eyes of the law. A strong anti-slavery party had long existed in the country. The framers of our constitution upon the organi- zation of the government had to deal with the question of slavery; the successive administrations from Washington to Lincoln had to grapple with it. Various compromises were adopted which it was thought would quiet its spiiit, but like Banquo's ghost it would not down at the bidding of any man or party. The death of Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy at Alton, 111., in 1837, a martyr to the anti-slavery cause, gave an impetus to the agitation of the question which never ceased until the final act was consummated in 1863, v^hich broke in pieces the shackles that bound four million slaves. Growing out of the agitation of the slavery question was the organization of the so-called "Under Ground Rail- road". There may be few who have not heard of this fam- ous "railroad", but there are not many who know of its sys- tem of work. The secrecy of its workings justified it name. Notwithstanding the system was an organized one, those en- gaged in it had no signs or passwords by which they might be known, save now and then preconcerted rap at a door when a cargo of freight was to be delivered. Each relied upon the honor of the other, and, as the work was an extra hazardous one, few cowards ever engaged in it. A very singular circumstance in connection with this road was the fact that, although people well knew who were engaged in it, and where the depots were located, freight could seldom be found, search as carefully as they might. A consignment would be forwarded over the line, notice of which would reach the ears of slave-hunters and when ready to place their hands on the fugitives, like the Irishman's flea — they wouldn't be there. Washington, Pa., father's home town, was on the Na- tional Pike and on this thoroughfare he saw the "chain gangs" of slaves (a dozen or more chained together and hand-cuffed) and noted the inhuman treatment accorded them. He, then a small boy, determined to do all he could to alleviate the suft'erings of the colored race. He came to Illinois in the most exciting days of the Under Ground Railroad, and it was not long before he was EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 97 associated with that daring organization as one of its con- ductors. He was ver^'' firm in his anti-slavery position, and had an uncompromising antagonism against the institution of slavery, and although it was an age when to ventilate anti-slavey opinions was to invite social ostracism and even jeopardize life and ]>roperty, he boldly denounced what he believed to be a great national iniquity. Fleeing fugitives found a friend in him, and he not seldom risked his own life and was cited before magistrates. On one occasion, when he and George Kern wei'e arrested and tried, they were honored by having Abraham Lincoln, then a rising young lawyer, to defend them. He lived to see slavery put away and his convictions on this question justified by an almost universal revolution of public sentiment. In those exciting days of the Under Ground Railroad, Elder Dickey, a Baptist minister, and Owen Love joy, strong anti-slavery men, made an appointment to speak in Wash- ington. On the date announced for their meeting the pro- sjavery men, Rev. Reuben H. Moffatt, the M. E. minister, and Mr. Chase, an M. D. and also an M. E. minister, linked arms and led the mobocrats in taking forcible and armed possession of the church to be occupied by these speakers, determined at all hazard to prevent the meeting from being held there. Elder Dickey was to deliver an address on "The Bible View of Slavery". The pro-slavery people were not willing that he should speak, saying that "if anyone could expound the Bible with convincing argument it was Elder Dickey". With violence and throwing rotten eggs they aispersed the anti-slavery meeting. Mrs. James Robison of Tremont said, "I never climbed mto my wagon so quick in my life as when those mobo- crats broke loose with their determination to break up the meeting. Anthony Field, then a class-leader in the Wash- mgton M. E. church, was pursued to the creek on South Main street and given a veritable shower of the decomposed product. He was turned from the church because of the unchristian spirit of its leaders. A prominent man of conservative views on the slavery question advised the anti-slavery men not to hold the meet- ing, as they were detemined to do, as the mob, he said, was frenzied with hquor and he feared the consequences So they concluded to go to the Pleasant Grove church at Groveland, where they addressed one of the most enthusiastic anti- slavery meetings ever held in this part of the state. Owen 98 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. Love joy was the orator of the day. The mob was deter- mined to follow and break up that meeting also, but were deterred by being told that as the anti-slavery men were on their own ground they would fight, and doubtless blood would be shed. The following letter written by Uncle Patterson Scott and addressed to his sisters, Mrs. Margaret Officer and Miss Jane Scott, Washington, Pa., gives an insight of early times and the slavery controversy in Washington, 111. The letter was written on both sides of one large sheet and folded so no envelope was required. It is yellow with age. The figures "25" is marked where the stamp goes on a letter, which no doubt meant tlie cost of sending: Washington, Tazewell County, 111., Nov. 12, 1838. Dear Sisters: Having, through the kind and gracious province of my heavenly father, been spared until now, I take up my pen to address a few lines to you both. In the first place I would inform you that we are all well at present. William and Mary arrived here in safety, in good health and spirits, this day 2 weeks since. They are still living with us and will almost certainly settle here. I have made a proposal to sell Wm; some of my land, very low, which he ^vill prob- ably accede to. He has not yet (owing to a variety of cir- cumstances) had an opportunity of examining my prairie, but with ray timber land he is well pleased. We expect to remove to our timber shortly, and will continue there dur- ing the winter, as we will be more convenient to our work. We have all come to the determination to spend the winter in making and hauling rails for fencing, and in getting out timber for a dwelling, so that we may be prepared when sprmg returns to improve our lands. Wm, has been to Iowa territory and is well pleased with the country, but thinks our advantages are superior to those that would be afforded there — and upon the whole he appears to be better pleased with this section of country than with that. We were truly grieved to hear of the death of James, and I hope, dear sis- ter Margaret, that you and brother Robert, although you have been called to face the rod of affliction, in this rending of the most tender ties — yet you recognize the hand of Him who hath in His hand the issues of life and death, and I trust that vou have experienced the consolation of His grace, and are prepared to say in a spirit of humble resignation: EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 99 It is our Father's hand — that gave this heavy blow, That took our loved one from our sight And caused our tears to flow; Yet still we would not fret, but to His mandate bow, Trusting that we shall yet know w^hat we know not now. Yes. my dear brother and sister, I believe that you will know hereafter why your Father's hand was thus laid upon you, and I trust that you will make a suitable . im- provement of this afilictive dispensation, and that it will be one among the number of those things that will work out for you a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Although I have been afflicted and tried in various ways, principally on account of my anti-slavery principles, yet the Lord has helped me thus far, and I trust that whatever may become of me He will carry on this holy cause, in the midst and despite of all the opposition that earth and hell combined can rain against it, until the accursed system that is frauglit with the groans, tears, wailings and degradation of 214 millions of our fellow men shall forever cease from our land, and that the negro shall stand forth "a. man acknowl- edged" by our nation and our nation's laws, and clothed with all the rights that belong to him as such; when he shall be put in possession of himself, his wife, his children and all those tilings that man holds dear liere on earth, and sliall be permitted for himself to search the volume of Eternal Truth, and find what God would have him know and do, that he may become a free man in Christ Jesus, and in that liberty rejoice, and worship God as to him seemeth right. We formed a County Anti-Slavery Society about four weeks since and now number nearly 100 members, some of whom are the flower and sinew of this county. We have also commenced observing the monthly concert of prayer for the abolition of slavery throughout the United States — and the world. Notice was given to the congregation assem- bled for public worship in our public school house, on yes- terday 3 weeks, that a meeting of the aforementioned kind would be held on the last ]\Ionday in October (which was 3 weeKs since this day) in the school house, but the trustees of the school, who are violently opposed to Abolitionists, refused to let us have the use of the house, and one of them, who was formerly a slave-holder and removed to this place from Kentucky about a year ago since, a ad professes to be a gentleman, together with some others in this place, grew very much enraged aud threatened us very hard. They 100 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. swore that we should not hold such a meeting in the place and that if we attempted it, scenes worse than that at Alton (in which the Rev. E. H. Lovejoy was murdered) should be enacted here. But we felt that even though we were very- few in number, we were engaged in the cause of God and Humanity and we were not in the least bit intimidated by their threats. When we were refused the use of the school house I told the brethren that my house was at their ser- vice for the meeting and that here we would meet on the evening of the day appointed for the meeting. Wm. and Mary (Sample), Hugh Hughes and 2 other young men from Wash- mgton (Mr. Jeffrey and Mr. Graham) arrived here and some of the citizens who were not Abolitionists, but in favor of the discussion, came in about the time the meeting com- menced. This Kentuckian, with an axe hardle upon his shoulder, together with some more of the devil's emmis- saries from one of his principal outposts (a grocery), well- primed with the elixir of hell (as an old Methodist here calls it) came to the door and some of them began to peep in at the windows. Upon seeing them I went out and re- spectfully invited them to come in, but could not prevail upon them to do so then. But in short time 4 of them came m and stood with their backs against the door and remained there for some time, but did not attempt to interrupt us. I have since been informed that they came in to find out wnat we were doing and then to go out and report to the rest, and if anything like a lecture was delivered or any resolutions passed, they were determined to destroy my house, but notwithstanding considerable was read on the subject of slavery and many remarks made by the pastor of our church, also a young man (a member of the Baptist church), who is a native of Kentucky and who was converted by reading Channing on Slavery, and the Constitution of Am. A. I. Soc, which I loaned him about 18 months since), the mobocrats did not attack us, although they came pre- pared with clubs and dirks, determined to do it. While all this was in progress several of the citizens, who are not Abolitionists, were collected in the back ground, a few rods from the house, to see what was going on, and if any attack had been made they were prepared to resist it. You see from this that we were called upon to contend with the power of darkness in attempting to promote the cause. We felt so and we also felt that it was a solemn crisis, and that we were called upon to meet it then. The Lord preserved us, so to Him be all the praise. We expect EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 101 to form a society in this place 'ere long. Then we expect we shall be mobbed. We may be disappointed in our expec- tations, but we are determined not to give up our principle but with our lives, and we shall make them known, also, if we do meet with opposition. The Kentuckian, the leader of this mob, is a physician and also a merchant of this place, but he has gained to himself no honour by this. Margaret and Randolph join me in love to you all, and vou will remember us to grandfather and mother Workman and all other enquiring friends. No more at present, but re- main your affectionate brother, P. J. Scott. May 5, 1921. Miss Scott, Washington, 111. Dear Friend: I have just this morning read the en- closed letter the second time. It certainly is very interest- mg. I have from childhood days admired the anti-slavery pioneers, who, with fortitude and courage, stood firmly by their principals — when it cost life itself. The monument, marking the John Brown fort at Har- per's Ferry, was one of my "shrines" in my young man- hood. Of course, he led an insurrection, but in the provi- dence of God, that seemed necessary to wake up the country. We shall never know in this life how our noble heroes, such as the writer of this letter, served and how much they contributed to the overthrow of slavery. 1 thank you for the privilege of reading this bit of "ancient history" relative to the very community in which we now live. Yours respectfully, (Rev.) J. D. Calhoun. The early settlers of this county, although mainly from the southern or slave states, entertained a deep-seated preju- dice against the Negro, for which it is hard for us to ac- count at the present day. The depot masters and conductors on the "under ground railroad" from Elm Grove to Crow Creek were Josiah Matthews, Lawyer Briggs, Absalom Dillon, Johnson Som- mers, William Woodrow, Anthony Field, Deacon and Willard Gray, Uriah H. Crosby, Daniel Roberts and sons John M., Ambrose, Darius and Walter, Seth Billings and Elijah Lewis, George, Channey and Charles Crandle; Orin M. Bartlett, James Patterson and J. Randolph Scott, Parker, Mark and Levi ]\Iorse; George Kern and sons John, George and An- drew; Norman Dutton, the Work brothers and Wilham 102 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. Lewis. Nathaniel Smith and Moses Pettingill of Peoria proved their faith by their works. The main depot of the "under ground railroad" in Elm Grove township was at Josiah Matthews' on section 24. Mr. Matthews was an earnest anti-slavery man, and helped gain freedom for many slaves. He prepared himself with a cov- ered wagon especially to carry black freight from his sta- tion on to the next. One day there arrived a box of freight at Mr. Matthews' and was hurriedly consigned to the cellar. On the freight contained in this box there was a reward of $1500 offered, and the pursuers were but half an hour behind. The wagon in which the box containing the Negro was brought, was immediately taken apart and hid under the barn. The horses which had been driven very hard were rubbed off, and thus all indications of a late arrival were covered up. The pursuers came up in hot haste, and suspecting that Mr. Matthews' house contained the fugitive, gave the place a verv thorough search, but failed to look into the innocent- looking box in the cellar. Thus, by such stratagem, the slave hunters were foiled and the fugitive saved. Tlie house was so closely watched, however, that Mr. Matthews had to keep the Negro a week before it was safe to conduct him north. Uriah H. Crosby, who came from New York to Morton in 1832, was one of those men who in danger, wath a destiny to fulfill, never faltered. It was at his home on section 9 in Morton township that there was an U. G. R. R. station. A company of fugitives had just passed his station when a young man hastily came up. He had invented a cotton- gin, and was in haste to overtake the others of the party as they had the model of his invention. He was separated from them through fright. John M. Roberts found this young man in the morning hid away in his hay stack, fed him and sent his son Junius with him in haste to Mr. Cros- by's. On his arrival. Conductor Crosby put him in his wagon, covered him with a buffalo robe and drove through Washington and delivered him to Georg Kern, who took him in an open buggy to the next station at William Lewis'. John M. Roberts of Morton was quite an artist and on the walls of his living room he painted scenes. There was a blind door at the side of the fire place and back of that was a space in w4iich he secreted Negroes. A master came searching for his slaves. Mr. Robert's mother, an elderly lady, sat in a rocking chair in front of this door knitting. He said, "I will not ask grandmother to get up". He went EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 103 away without finding his slaves, but later swore he could smell his niggers, but could not find them. John M. Roberts and Orin M. Bartlett took three Ne- goes to (now) East Peoria. They were to have been taken across the river in a skiff, but just before they reached the river, Negro hunters overtook him. The fugitives rushed into the swampy thicket and one only of them reached the boat. Strange to relate when Mr. Roberts was in Chicago attending the National Republican convention that nomin- ated Abraham Lincoln for president of the United States, a Negro spoke to him on tlie street and called him Mr. Rob- erts, who said "J do not know you". He replied you will when I relate a circumstance. His co-travelers had never found him. Excitement ran very high and the anti-slavery people were closely watched. I have heard my father say, "I never )3rought a colored person to my house, but I have fed many of them and helped them on their way to freedom". At one time there were five brought to him, three men and two women; he had them lie down in the wagon bed and then threw hay over them. He warned them before start- ing, as he did all others whom, he assisted, that if he were stopped, they must look out for themselves as he would nave to take care of his team. He had not driven two miles wnen two men on horesback came riing rapidly to meet him. They separated, one passing on either side of his vehicle, but rode right on. In a few minutes they turned about and overtook him, again one riding on either side of his wagon for some distance. Finally one of them, punctuating his language with an oath, said: "This is not what we are look- ing for", and turned and went their way. He knew the riders — and it was just what they were looking for. His cargo was delivered at George Kern's about dawn, when he turned around in his feed lot and returned home via another route. The anti-slavery people were constantly on the alert. Father came into Washington one day and at the postoffice saw a poster describing a runaway slave on which a reward of one thousand dollars was offered. He went to the store of John Gaunt, who took him aside and said: "Mr. Scott, 1 am with you on the anti-slavery question, but I dare not let it be known: do not come this way tonight or you will be killed, for this "master" threatens vengence on any one assisting his slave; he owns several hundred and this is the first one that ever ran away and he proposes to make 104 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. an example of him". Father saw the master, who looked the desperate character his threats would indicate him to be. Father went to Uncle Patterson's, but the Negro was not there. He rode on to Anthony Field's ; he found that he and his wife had gone to Morton and left a neighbor girl with their children. He wrote a note and placed it under a bowl on top of a cupboard, instructing the young miss to tell Mr. Field of it on his return. After starting home he rjecame uneasv and turned back to wait for them to come home. When they came the advertised Negro was with them. Father told him that his master was ahead of him, the reward offered and why offered. With the Anglo-Saxon m his nature calling for recognition, this powerful Negro gave vent to his feeling and suited his actions to his words Dy drawing a dirk and saying, "I will never be taken". Mr. Field kept him for a week and piloted him safely north. Parker Morse of Metamora said eight-tenths of all the Negroes who came under my observation were of white mixture. Canada, the northern termination of the "under ground railroad, received these refugees from "freedom's (?) soil" and administered to their wants. Queen Victoria having is- sued a proclamation that every fugitive from the United States slavery should be recognized and protected as British subjects the moment his or her feet touched the soil of her domain. Billings Lewis of Morton rapped at the door at one o'clock a. m. and said, "I have a Negro in a buggy at the bars". Father said, "go back, we are watched; I will be with you in a minute". He dressed, but carried his boots, fear- ing his steps on the porch might be heard. Mr. Lewis re- mained with his brother, who lived nearby. The watchers were two neighbors. One of whom confessed, in after years, that they heard the bars, but waited for some activity. He also expressed shame that he had been guilty of such de- meanor. Some colts belonging to Mr. Briggs, a lawyer of Tre- mont, had wandered away on the open prairie, and he was out hunting them. Meeting a man, living in the vicinity of father's place, he made enquiry for his property, which had not been seen. He then asked where Randolph Scott lived; he was given direction, with the added information that Scott stole niggers and no doubt had stolen his colts, too. Mr. Briggs said, "I will go over and see". He came chuck- EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 105 ling to tell father of his reputation among the pro-slavery neighbors. Mr, Briggs was one of father's staunchest friends in the anti-slavery cause. While conditions were really quite serious at times, there was also a wave of mirth that would bubble over in a joke on the pro-slavery people. A covered wagon load of young people from Morton (Lewis, Ewings, Crandles and Grays) had spent the evening at "Uncle Tom Castle's cabin" and on their way home they called at Alfred Phillips', and some one opened a window and enquired what was M^anted. The questioner said, "We would like to learn the way to Randolph Scott's". After they had aroused the curiosity of this family they went on home. Mr. Phillips and his son Hiram set out for Scott's, thinking the enquirer was some one with a load of Negroes. They aroused Louis Beal from his slumbers, and asked him to accompany them, but he de- clined. As they crossed a stream, enruote, the ice failed to Dear the son's weight and he fell in the water — returning riome to reflect on his folly. Father had a trap door in the floor, just inside of the out door, which he opened at night. If his door was forced open, the culprit would find himself in a pit and he would nave a chance to overpower him. Although he had been threatened with vengence, he was never molested. These things occurred when he was a bachelor. Sand Prairie Township Slaves Stolen Mr. Shipman came here from Kentucky in 1826, but did not live in this township a great while. He moved into Elm Grove township where he spent the remainder of his Hfe. He brought with him to this township a Negro man, his wife and children. He treated them kindly, and they in turn loved him. They all lived here in peace and freedom, carving new homes in the wilderness and preparing for fu- ture prosperity and pleasure. The quietude of the httle set- tlement was disturbed one dark night by the appearance of some slave hunters. There were some men from Kentucky came up the river, left their boats at the mouth of the Mack- inaw, quietly came over and carried off the Negro family. They were all tied and hastily run to the river. It appears that Mose, the name of the Negro man, was a singularly constructed Negro, and it would almost seem, as an old set- tler said, that "he was part aligator". He had a double row of large sharp teeth. His hands were tied and with a rope he was led along. He pulled l^ack considerable, and lagged 106 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. behind as much as he dare do, all the while chewing on the rope by which he was led. Finally he succeeded in severing it, when with all is might he ran back to the settlement and informed the neighbors of the theft of his family. This aroused the ire of those sturdy pioneers and, being equal to any emergency, three of them saddled up their horses that gloomy night and set out for St. Louis, Mo., anticipating the destination of the thieves. These resolute men were Johnson Sommers, William Woodrow and Absalom Dillon. They pushed on towards that city and fortunately rode off the ferry boat just as the Kentucky would-be slave traders landed with the family of Mose. This was a singular co- incidence, but true, and with determination that plainly snowed he meant what he said Sommers jumped from his norse, gathered up a stone and swore he would crush the first one who attempted to leave the boat, and the men, who could steal the liberty of their fellow men, were passive be- fore the stalwart pioneers. One of the pioneers hurried up to the city and procured the arrest of the men. We do not know the penalty inflicted, but most likely it was nothing, or, at least, light, for in those days it was regarded as^ a legitimate business to traffic in human beings. The family was secured, however, and carried back to this county where most of them lived and died. All honor to the daring hu- mane pioneers. The following incident came to Peter Logan, whom I nave seen and my parents knew well. He was owned by a man in Arkansas, who gave him a chance to buy his own freedom and also that of his sister Charlott and her daugh- ter Nancy. When on their way north they were captured in Missouri and taken back. Their master said, "They are free and shall be privileged to go unmolested". They came and located near Tremont, where he was for many years in tne employ of the Dillons and was known for miles around as Uncle Peter Logan. He could neither read nor write, but he could sing. Once at our home he asked father to read the Bible to him, which he did. He then sang "Jerusalem My Happy Home" and "The Year of Jubilee Am a Comin' " in plaintive tone that only the "bond-man" can express. Charlott's services were in great demand at all home and neighborhood feasts, for she was an excellent cook. Nancy was bright in school, and would get on a stump and preach a sermon to her white schoolmates. These colored people were honorable and were highly respected citizens through- out their long lives. EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 107 Sanford P. Gorin's brought "Black Jack" with them when they moved here from Kentucky, where he hved dur- ing his lifetime and was laid to rest in their family lot in in the old cemetery in October, 1869, aged 52 years. When the slaves were emancipated he refused to leave the Gorins. He owned a team, farmed for himself and did some hauling. He was sexton of the Christians when they held services in their brick church. I first learned who he was when he drove past "Greenridge" school house with a wagon load of women and children (Gorins, Burtons, Wells, Eccles, Cranes, An- drews and Danforths (who were going out to their Uncle John and Aunt Ann McClintock's for a picnic in their grove on a balmy day in June. The children of the whole town found a friend in him, and he was respected by all who knew him, Calvin Dunnington says my father worked for Sanford P. Gorin when a small boy. Something went wrong with the norses, Mr. Gorin came into the barn and took down a har- ness tug and began beating father. Black Jack was there and said: "Mars Gorin, you hit that boy one more lick and you will have me to lick, too". Mr. Gorin began on father, and Jack did his part and whipped Mr. Gorin. At Jack's death John Dunnington bought his old gray horses. "Principles have achieved more victories than horsemen and chariots". Mention has been made of the "Underground Railway" m connection with the work of anti-slavery. The origin of the railway name came about when the slave owners, in pur- suit of slaves, found that they had mysterious^' disappeared. So the baffled southern men asserted that an "Underground Railway" must have been used to spirit the slaves away. The Hicks Family Mother's parents, with their ten children, came from Barnesville, Ohio, to Tremont, Illinois, in the fall of 1837. Grandfather, Asa Hicks, Sr., came to Illinois on horseback during the summer and rented the Dillon farm one and one- half miles west of Tremont, in Tazewell county, for a term of five years, and paid one year's rent in advance. He re- turned to Ohio via the Ohio and Illinois rivers. A committee of tlie Tremont colony of 35 families from New York City, throe Harris brothers, selected this site in 1834 and the colony came out in 1835. Tliey made some good improvements — a school house, church and postoffice — which made Tremont a center of influence and of good so- ciety. The county court site was also located here in 1836. 108 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON. ILL. Laban Hicks and Joseph Hicks, brothers Df my grandfather, were here, too, as was their sister, Mrs. Rachel Parsons. Laban built a hotel in this new town, Joseph was construc- tion boss on the grading for the I. B. & W. railroad, and their sister was assisting in the hotel, for they were board- ing these workmen. Grandfather's shipped their household goods and barrels of dried fruit to Pekin, the family coming overland with a five-horse team, one a saddle-horse from which the rider drove the team with one line. Israel, the oldest son, had been driving, and being tired of riding he got down to walk, when a dog from a home nearby ran out and started the colts they had with them. They ran past the team, frightening the horses into a run. Israel could not catch the line and his father got out of the wagon to try and check the team, but slipped from the wagon tongue and was thrown under the wheels. He expired in a few minutes. The whole country-side poured out its sympathy and assisted this grief-stricken family to bury their dead in the Friends cemetery near Bloomingdale, Parks county, Indiana. They resumed their journey the following day and ix young man acted as guide to the Wabash river, which they crossed at Campbell's ferry. Then on via Danville, Bloom- ington and Stout's Grove. They crossed the Mackinaw river on a ferry boat, spent the night with relatives in Tremont and went to the Dillon farm the next day. It took a cour- ageous mother to battle with the trial of life and rear her large family, tlie half of them under ten years of age. Is- rael , in his 22d year, shouldered the bread-winning task. Tliey were dutiful children and by constant labor and untir- ing industrv in a few years the dark clouds of adversity were scattered. They lived at Tremont five years and one year at Pleasant Grove. There were many good people in that locality who became their life-long friends, among them the Harris, Lovejoy^, Nichols, Fishers, Buckleys, Morses, Robi- sons, (Jreeleys Kelloggs, Matthews, Leonards, Dillons and Lacklands. In 1843 they bought 160 acres in section 30, Washing- ton township, and moved to the house on the site of Miss Kate Unsicker's home on Walnut street while they improved their farm. Pioneering brought one hardship after another, and re- quired great determination to succeed, as well as lending the helping hand. They paid for this land with corn. The mother and her younger brothers shelled this corn on a hand-sheller, sacked EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 10'9 it and Uncle Israel hauled it with a four-horse team to Wes- ley City, getting but 10 cents per bushel. On one of these trips he came very near perishing in a blinding blizzard. Israel Hicks married Susan M. Humphrey, a daughter of Luke and Eliza Humphrey, Feb. 24, 1848. One day grandmother and some of her children had Deen blackberrying and stopped at William Wilson's, the present home of Will Miller. Mrs. Wilson had died, leaving tive children. Mary, the eldest, twelve (later Mrs. Swisher of Eureka) was trying to make bread, her brother, John, (now in his 85th year) not two years old, was quite sick and their father away. She doctored the little fellow until he was quite better, looked after the bread, did other help- ful turns and gave them of the berries. A friend in need. When Uncle Asa, Jr., was yet in his teens he went out huntmg and shot a deer. With great pride he brought it nome. He was a good marksman and an untiring hunter. In later years he had many colonies of bees and sold honey in ton quantities. He was an efficient supervisor of Little IVIackinaw township for many years. Robert Kimble of Peoria (his wife and son James ac- companying him) made his third overland trip to California in 1859 v^ith a drove of cattle. Uncle Elwood Hicks was a member of his caravan. Uncle returned in December, 1862, via Panama and New York City, N. Y. Elwood Hicks and Eliza A. Shoemaker, daughter of Elmore and Nancy Shoe- maker, were married March 5, 1863. Uncles Harrison and Milton were grain and lumber merchants, respectively. Grandmother, Anna Cox-Hicks, was a beautiful christian character and much beloved for her many virtues. Her life was a benediction. She died March 18, 1853, and rests in Washington's old cemetery. When the Danforth mill was erected in 1845 they wanted good seamstresses to sew the "bolting cloth". Mrs. James Marsh and mother did this task at 25 cents per day, this being the customary price per day for sewing. The mill was dedicated with a "home talent" play in which Dr. E. F. Wood most graciously acted the lady. Mother learned to make men's clothing after she came to Tremont. The workmen on the I. B. & W. railroad were m need of garments and there were no "ready-to-wear" to buy. Her uncle got some garments cut from which she took patterns and in this way earned much toward the support of this fatherless family. After they moved to Washington sne assisted Lot White, the tailor, who had her make all 110 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. button-holes and do much of the most particular finishing on garments. It was a help financially, too, that she could make all clothing for her brothers as well as for her mother and sisters. Mother, too, had learned to spin well, both cross- banded and twisted yarns, and to knit these threads into comfortable garments. She assisted Robert Kelso in preparing the threads and m weaving coverlets, and she returned the compliment by helping mother to make eight coverlets for her mother's family. Such relics are now much in demand by antique hunters. The all-day social gatherings of the pioneer ladies were wool pickings, spinning contests and quilting bees. Their "cards" made wool into rolls and bats; the spinning wheel, with the "wheelfinger" deftly used, brought these into threads to be woven into coverlets, blankets and cloth, for at that time "home-spun" garments were extensively used. Miss Harriett Kingsbury, later Mrs. Laughlin; the Kice sisters, later Mrs. Bryan McCorkle and Mrs, John Kaufman, and my mother Asenath Hicks, later Mrs. J. Randolph Scott, could spin more hanks of yarn in a day than any of their rivals. In winding the thread from the spindle onto the reel for a certain number of threads the reel would click, thus tieing a loop around this group of threads, and so on until there were tied in groups 80 threads 54 inches long, making a skein; 17 skeins made a hank and 18 hanks a spindle. When I was quite a little girl mother tauglit me to make rolls, to spin and to knit. She could also spin flax and showed me how to use the "heckel" in preparing flax to be spun. Father had lived in Illinois ten years, and had gone through many trials and hardships. He had boarded, kept bachelor's hall and at times had families in his house who boarded him. Mother, too, had carried many cares after her father's death, helping to provide for those dependent. Father was a member of the Presbyterian church of Washington, 111., having united with this organization in its earliest infancy, and made great sacrifices to establish and maintain it. Uncle Patterson was a member of the church building committee and mortgaged his farm as surety. A financial crisis came and father borrowed money at 12 V2 per cent and lifted his brother's mortgage to hold the site on which the church now stands. He was then a single man, but his brother had a family and father could not forbear making this self-sacrifice for them. EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. Ill Father and mother were married November 25, 1847, by Rev. George Elliott, pastor of the Presbyterian church. (Rev. ElHott had earlier, that same evening, married Andrew Gerbrick, whose daughter, Mrs. Frances Brubaker, resides in Eureka, 111.) They lived happily together for nearly 47 years. He died April 16, 1894, and she October 28, 1901. Mother was complained of having married out of unity with Friends, and was disowned by their meeting. This is a method no longer practiced by the Friends or Quakers. Father had a four-room house with a porch 18x8 on his farm and there they went to housekeeping December 9, 1847. In the new home the same spirit of energy and faithfulness pervaded her life; she was truly a helpmate. They began with small financial means, but made a success and were al- ways comfortable and good livers, ever sheltering and help- ing those less fortunate. Mother lived on this farm 49 years, which was in the Scott name 68 years. When father enlarged his home, before his marriage, Mathew Crane, the father of James R., Thomas, Joseph, George, Charles, Wilham and Jane, (later Mrs. Benjamin Miles, mother of the Miles brothers of Peoria) made the built-in cupboards and clothes closets, and Thomas Whitten built the stone wall for the cellar under the living room, which was 16 feet square. Father procured these stones and those used in the foundations of all his farm buildings from a ravine on his timber land. There were two fireplaces, with a mantle piece over each. In the living room there was a grate, in which coal was the fuel used, it being hauled from a coal bank near the Illinois river. The one in the kitchen was deep, and large back-logs were rolled into it; the and- irons held up the long fireplace wood. There was a crane in this on which the bright copper tea-kettle and the cooking vessels were hung in preparing the meals. Here they also rendered lard, etc. They had a "Rotary" cook stove and did not use this primative method of cooking. Mother, also, had a Dutch oven which her mother's people had brought from Georgia to Ohio in 1805 and from thence to Illinois in 1837. (This was an iron vessel about 6 inches in depth and 12 inches in diameter, having short legs and an iron lid). It was used to roast meats, bake bread, pies, cake, corn-pone, etc., by placing it on a bed of hot coals and covering it with the same. Father had one, too, in which he roasted meat and potatoes for himself and for men who helped with farm labor when he kept bachelor's-hall. 112 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. There were not even matches, and fires were lighted by the sp^rk from a flint is:niting tinder in a tinder bcx. They were careful to keep fires aHve and not, as it sometimes happened, have to go to their neighbor's for hve coals. Father had a half-dozen split-bottomed chairs and mother two rocking chairs, of the same kind (made by the Asa H. Danforth Furniture Co., and now owned by their children). A walnut drop-leaves dining table, a walnut stand with a drawer, a large mahogany chest of drawers and look- ing glass, with frame of same wood, a nice clock on the mantle, high-posted bedsteads corded with rope and with canopy tops and valences, brass and glass candle sticks, a perforated tin lantern, in all of which were used "home- made" tallow candles. On the living room floor was an all- wool rag carpet with a braided rag rug before the fireplace. Good books and papers, viz: The Herold of Truth, Water- cure Journal, The Messenger of Peace, Phrenological Journal, New York Independent, Louisville Courier- Journal, Christian Era (in the latter Uncle Tom's Cabin, by Harriett Beecher Stowe, was run as a serial), a dasher churn, a wash board and tub, clothes rung by hand. This is the picture of my parents' home set up 80 years ago, in which a housewife did all of her own work of every kind, even to browning the family's supply of coffee and grinding it in a mill upon the side wall near the cupboard in the kitchen. James Smith, Sr., was the contractor with his son, James Jr., as boss when our home was enlarged in 1862 by adding five rooms, two halls and a portico. Of the carpenters and workmen on that addition which included George Blackwell, Levi Stumbugh, Mr. McFarlane the plasterer, George E. Lee wno put in the stairway, Mr. Walters who did the graining and varnishing, William Jones is the only man now hving, to my Knowledge, who assisted there. The west half of our bank-barn was built in 1850 an set on very large log piers. The east half was built in 1875 when these piers and the full foundation was made of stone. Mr. Pierce was the boss on the west half and Peter Dorward on the east part. Josiah Moore was a "waterwitch" and with forked peach-tree limbs, one branch in each hand, he located a spot for our stock well, by the limbs turning down in his hands as if drawn by a magnet. It has proven to be a never-failing well. Father had a stock well on the east 80 acres of the farm where he put up a watering trough in the road for the convenience of the public. This was the route most people EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 113 took in hauling their grain or going to Washington, which was the "trading post" for the surrounding country, and it was much appreciated by all in their long drives. James i^ane carried the mail between Deer Creek and Washington tor many years before the former town was served by the Lake Erie railroad. George Duncan was living with father when he was married and continued to make his home there for some years, when he married (a sister of Mrs. Joseph Kidd and Mrs. William Monroe) and moved to Deer Creek township. Robert Anderson also farmed with father and later built a large square house three miles south from ours which he sold to John Voorhees. Rodger Jenkins did his first farming here on father's farm, bought land nearby and made life a success. Father was always among the first to buy the most ap- proved farm and home conveniences. He owned the first McCormick reaper in our neighborhood ; used four horses on It, a man to drive and one to rake the grain from the plat- lorm. With this he not only cut his own grain, but did reaping for many of his neighbors. Among them was Mr. Naffziger, Sr., the father of Valentine, Christian and Peter. They v/ere then single men. The next machine was a self-rake, then the Walter A. Wood self-binder, now the "combine". The first ha\ rake was an all-wooden one that revolved, making winrows; the next a sulky rake with metal teeth, the driver being provided with a seat on which to ride; then the loader. l:*ather and Uncle Joe Kelso had the first portable hay stackers, with a fork to be used either on the stacker or in tne barn, operated by horse power with ropes and pulleys. Driving a horse to elevate the hay to the stack or barn loft was one way of getting outdoor fife and exercise that gave me strength. The evolution of the plow has been as great a marvel as that of almost any other piece of farm machinery. The woden-tooth "A" harrow was offer used with a weight on it. Breaking corn stalks on a frosty morning, using a long neavy pole with a team at each end was an early way of clearing a field, after which the stalks were raked into wind- rows with a ponderous revolving wooden rake. They were often burned in the evenings. Next came the stalk-cutter and from that time on the stalks were not burned, but plowed under. 114 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. Tliere were few carriages or buggies, and wagons were seated by placing iron pieces over the top of the wagon-box on both sides, near the front and the back of the box, and a hickory strip laid in the fold of the irons to allow of son\e spring for the seats placed on them. In October of 1848 father, mother, Anna Hicks who was mother's sister, William Sample, his wife and two sons Hugh and Theodore v.^i\de an overland trip to Barnesville, Ohio, and Washingtori, Pa., in a covered M^agon fitted up with springs. Their travels were of six weeks' duration over miles and miles of corduroy roads and bridges. There were many stretches of swamps filled in so as to make travel possible. This was their first visit east, after coming to Illinois eleven years earlier. The Sample family had located, some years prior to that date, on a farm known as "Sample's Corners" near Mie Bucl:eye church. On their return in December thev stopped Saturday night at Sam Stumbaugh's, north of Deer Creek, 111., where Theodore, about two years old, was severe- ly scalded by causing a cup of hot coffee to be spilled on him. He bore this scar through life, as he did others that came to him. At the age of sixteen years he enhsted in the l-ltli 111., cavalry as buglar, but threw his bugle away when cross- ing the Ohio river. When asked why he did it he said, "I took that method of getting into the army; now I am in and that is all I want". He was a messenger and after sev- eral almost miraculous escapes was captured and was in An- dersonville prison, Ga., five months and twelve days. He came from that "pen" a skeleton of his former self, was ex- changed and honorably m.ustered out of the service of the Civil war. He served the T. P. & W. railroad, beginning as brakeman, and held all the positions — baggageman, freight and passenger conductor, yardmaster and depotmaster at Logansport, Ind., and retired as a pensioner several years be- fore his death. The family moved from "Sample's Corners" to their Washington home, the house now owned by Miss Kate Wohlgemuth, when Hugh, Theodore and Sarah attend- ed school in the seminary. While WilHam and Theodore Sample were in the Civil war the family moved to El Paso. Hugh w^as a very capable man and was assessor and sheriff of Woodford county, and Sarah was an efficient teacher there until her death in 1875, Hugh having died in 1871. Father in hauling farm produce to Peoria, crossed over the Illinois river on the ice, if was frozen over, as was cus- tomary. In those days Peoria had no bridge over the Illi- nois river, and crossing was by ferry at the foot of Walnut EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 115 Street, near where the McKinley bridge now stands. Peoria's bridge was a "toll-gate" with James Tart as gatekeeper for many years. Father's sister and her husband, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Officer, came from Pennsylvania on a visit, and they had to cross the river from Peoria in a skiff and land far into what is now East Peoria. For years there was a long levee from the river bridge some distance into East Peoria, but that has disappeared by "made land" filling the swamp. Father would let a lot of ear corn roll out of the cribs onto the barn floor, bring in a number of loose horses, then go into the loft above them and by using a long whip drive tnem around and around. Thus they tramped the corn from the cobs. This shelled corn was for stock feed. When on our way from school we children stopped at Jesse Cooper's to see the corn sheller that was being used by Elias Wood — two horses traveling on an inclined moving bridge, called a "treadmill". Father had been the "Shepherd boy" on his father's larm and knew the sheep business well. He was successful m raising them and at one time he sold over a thousand head, but kept fewer thereafter. It is truthfully said that "where one sheep goes the rest will follow", be that Wherever it may be. I have seen father try to stop the hock from crossing the pasture bridge, when the leader w^ould come with a bold defiant jump and leap past him — then there was no hope of stopping the rest. They are most interesting animals, especially the lambs at play. Sheep- snearmg time was an interesting time, too. There were al- ways a number of shearers, George Woodcock, Henry Bliss and Thomas (Tom) Seaman being on the force for many years. "As a sheep before her shearer is dumb" it was rare tor one to offer resistance in the hands of the shearer. Father folded the fleeces, one at a time, in the wool press. He frequently sold this crop to Sol Bennett of Peoria, de- livering it in great hay rack loads. 1 remember of mother attending a wool-picking at Mrs. Elmore Shoemaker's, three miles west of our home. There were many ladies at this party. They dined on their spa- cious porch, having picked the wool on the lawn. Father took me with him when he went to bring mother and the ladies living near us home at the close of the day. it was a full day's task to take a load of farm produce to Peoria. On one occasion father took a load of wheat over and did not return at the usual hour. His wagon had sus- tained a broken wheel, and he had to transfer his load and 116 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. have the wheel repaired. We children were quite young, but we knew that mother was anxious. She said, "Something has detained father, but w^hen he comes he will be him.self". We never had any occasion, throughout his long life, to have the confidence mother instilled in us shaken in the least. He had no more prominent characteristic than his strong con- victions and his fearless expression of them. Among these convictions were his temperance principles. These he im- bibed in his youth and which continued steadfast in his character. Much of this world's want and woe has come through intemperance. Until 1907, when the local option law was passed, Illinois was under a dram shop law which provided for the licensing of dram shops. The use of hquor was quite common in early days. Men sometimes used it when in the field and not infrequently they became incapacitated for work. The common "grog shops" were numerous. There were, ai one time, six saloons, a brewery and a calaboose in our little town, with drunken brawls on many occasions; fam- ilies abused and destitute of the necessities of life, except wnen fed and clothed by people who did not indulge their appetites in that which is not bread. Hiram Bunn, a policeman, was equal to quelling almost any such disturbance of the peace, for the drinkers all feared his shillalah which they knew he would use with persuasive force if his commands were not obeyed. He was called to a nome where there was a daughter three days old; the father had been up town and came home drunk. The children had prepared dinner. He overturned the table, breaking -the dishes, and picking up a chair ordered his wife to prepare dinner for him. Two of the children succeeded in warding off the blow intended for their mother, while the third one ran for Mr. Bunn, who summarily put him in the "cooler". This man had been opposed to intoxicating drink, but fell a victim to it through the social glass. There have been a number of very sad cases here through this demon rum. Some men have tried hard to re- form and have succeeded, but there were others whose com- panions have held them and forced them to drink. Among these were some of our brightest minds and our best busi- ness men. There have always been some very active tem- perance people here. The Good Templar lodge was a strong organization. Lewis Tobias was one of the leading members and entertained John B. Gough, Rev. Afflect (the Mark Twain EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON. ILL. 117 of England), Ross, Mason Long and others. He was threat- ened with violence for his activities in the cause and the trees in his orchard were girdled in retaliation by his op- posers. The "Crusaders" were a band of our purest and best christian women, and their methods proved effectual. In answer to their prayers has come the victory song, "Carry. On Illinois", The Woman's Christian Temperance Union is called of God for a specific purpose, and has been built around total abstinence — the major in law observance and law en- forcement. Nothing takes peace out of life more surely and more quickly than the curse of drink. The greatest good of llie greatest number demands its social control. in 1883 Miss Florence Kingsbury, later Mrs. A. H. Heiple, and I were delegated by oui* local W. C. T. U. to circulate a petition, asking that the screens be removed from ine saloon windows. We succeeded, and the city council passed an ordinance granting this request. Tlie saloons were closed in 1907 when we passed the local option law. Tlius, step by step, our efforts have banished every sa- loon from our city, and it has improved in every way. Tliere can be no argument on this subject when the finished pro- ducts of the "imbiber" and the "abstainer" are compared. We know that prohibition is the best method. We have stout Hearts and great courage and will "Hold Fast and Go For- ward". in September, 1855, the people of Washington and vicin- ity gaye a dinner, over the west side drug store, to the offi- cials of the Toledo, Peoria and Warsaw railroad, and were in- vited by them to take the first trip over the road to Cruger. Flat cars used in building the track were converted into open- air passenger cars by the simple means of building benches cross-wise of the cars and a short distance apart. In that way they carried a great many pasengers. Mother declined to go, as did others, because it was said "they will not bring you back", but father took me on his arm and with sister Martha and brother Quincy were of that initial group of pas- sengers who were greeted by the people of Cruger and those of her country-side with loud acclaim, for a new day of pro- gress had dawned in this vicinity in the opening of the rail- road. The grade for the Petersburg and Tonica railroad was completed through Washington, but the track was not laid 118 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. and the shareholders lost their investments. The right of way here was later purchased by the Chicago and Alton rail- road. Birth of the Republican Party Prof. B. J. Radford, the beloved prominent old settler of Eureka, recently wrote an interesting account of the birth of the Republican party. I take pleasure in quoting the same, as follows, in my historical sketch as it relates to my father's activities at that time: "The Republican party became seventy years old on the 29th of May, 1927. It was born in Major's Hall in Blooming- ton, May 29, 1856. Leading men throughout the state, aroused by Lincoln's two years' campaign against the plans of Senator Douglas and his Southern backers to throw the new territories of the United States open to slavery, gath- ered in Bloomington that day to see what could be done to avert the calamity. It was a large and representative body, men from all parts of the state and of both parties — Whigs and Democrats. After others had spoken, Lincoln was called out for the climax, and he climaxed. It was half-past five o'clock when he began speaking. Pretty soon everybody for- got about time, or supper; reporters forgot their pencils, and no one took a long breath till half-past seven when Lincoln ended that famous "lost speech". But, in fact, it was lost. It inspired the great gathering to inaugurate the movement which crystalized into the Republican party, nominated Gen. Frement for President and, four years later, elected Lincoln to the Chief Magistracy. "Other times and places have laid claims for the honor of giving birth to the Repubhcan party. There were several conventions that year of patriotic citizens which denounced the old parties and called for a new alinement, but none of them had the prestige to give momentum to a nation-wide current of reform. Illinois was the only state in which the public mind had been prepared for such a movement, and Lincoln had done the preparing by setting forth during two years the need, the principles and purpose of it, and how it might be accompHshed ultimately. In New York, Horace Greeley and Seward were not yet fully emancipated from the Henry Clay policy of compromise; while in New England Sumner and his fellow abolitionists thought only of the im- mediate destruction of slavery, without any practical plans as to how it could be done. Bloomington, 111., and May 29, 1856, were the the place and time of the birth of the Repub- lican party. EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 119 "By the way, the public hall in which that convention was held was owned by Wm. T. Major, a brother of Ben Ma- >< J or, who settled at Eureka in 1835, and became the leader of the founders of Eureka college". May 29, 1918, Centennial year celebration in Illinois, there was dedicated a tablet of bronze upon the walls of lamous Major's hall at Bloomington. The tablet had been prepared by the Daughters of the American Revolution. The dedication was attended by many prominent Republicans of the nation, Frank 0. Lowden, who was then governor, headed a delegation from Springfield. Washington People at Notable Meeting Father attended this convention at Wm. T. Major's Hall in Bloomington, 111., and took five delegates with him, viz: Thomas Fish, John H. Anthony, William A. Ross, John M. Roberts and George Crandle. A call was issued for 226 dele- gates, but so great was the interest that more than twice tnat many were present. Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A Douglas, in their de- oates, aroused all the people and they went far to hear them. Mother, brother Charlie and I were visiting with mother's sister, Mrs. 0. B. Judson of Galesburg, 111., and father came to attend their joint debate October 7, 1858, on the east side of "Old Main" on Knox college campus. I well. remember the day and the delegations with their flags and bands and the speakers, too, but not their speeches. My aunt who was with us later on writing me said, "Mr. Douglas spoke one hour and when Mr. Lincoln arose to speak Douglas said, 'How long, Lord' how long', to which Lincoln replied, 'The days and the years of the wicked are short'." Lincoln was tall and lean, Douglas was short and fat, thus each poked fun at the per- sonal appearance of the other. Cowper said that "A man re- nowned for repartee will seldom scruple to make free with friendship's finest feelings". Lincoln spoke one and a-half hours and Douglas followed with a half hour which closed their three-hour debate. The crowd was estimated at 15,000. A great day never to be for- gotten by those who were privileged to be present. We came nome the following day, and enroute the coach that we were riding in ran off of the track and rolled over, but no one was seriously hurt. We waited a long time and were brought on our way to Peoria in a grain car, with improvised seats — nail kegs with boards laid across them. The first national Republican convention was held in Chicago, May 16, 1860, when Abraham Lincoln was nomin- / 120i EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. ated for the presidency. Father was there and on the stand next to John M. Roberts of Morton, 111., who was a teller. It was an intensely exciting experience, for they all realized that the destiny of the repubhc was changed. On one occasion during this exciting campaign Lincoln's opponents asserted that they had completely flayed him. He arose and pointed aptitudinally to their assured political death : "Hark from the tomb, the mournful sound, Mine ear attend the cry, Ye living men come view the ground Where you shall shortly lie". Lincoln was vindicated in this assertion by being elected to the presidency. Tlie Washington Republican wigwam, on the lot east of our Community building, was dedicated by Judge Sweat of Chicago on the afternoon of June 23, 1860. The "Wide- awakes", wearing black oil cloth capes and black caps of the same material, with this word in white letters across the front, carried torches and paraded in the evening, accompan- ied by a fife and drum corps. In September, 1860, delegations from Morton, Eureka and Washington met at Charles Kinnear's corner, Cruger, enroute to Metamora for a campaign rall^, and a vast throng was present. There was an improvised large wagon decor- ated with red, white and blue in which were small girls who met at Cruger dressed in pink calico dresses, white aprons bound with pink, a blue strip across their waists on which was the name of a state in white letters. A large fla^: was on the wagon and each of the girls carried a small one. There were several troops of ladies, mounted, viz: Elm- wood, Metamora and Eureka and Washington as one. They also represented the states of the Union. The latter wore blue velvet hats, pink shambry waists, white skirts, blue sasnes and brown debeige riding skirts. They made quite an impressive showing. The other troops were each dressed dif- ferent, but were as attractively attired as were ours. A prize was offered for the best and most graceful rider m these troops and it was awarded to cousin Elizabeth Gertrude Scott, who rode a beautiful, spirited, dapple-gray horse that pranced and danced to the lively martial music. He and his rider attracted much attention and she received many com- pliments on her graceful riding and equestrianism. Both Morton and Washington were represented by splen- did drum corps. The former was composed of John M. EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 121 Roberts fifer, Luke Humphrey snare drum and George Cran- dle the bass drum. In the latter's was Thomas Fish fifer, Oliver Hungerford snare drum and Morris Reece Trimble bass drum. Oliver Hungerford was later band major of the 47th 111. Infantry. Stephan Douglas' Visit to Washington The Metamora Herald a number of years ago contained an extended write-up of tl';e Lincoln-Douglas debates. Among other things, it had the following with reference to Douglas' visit to Washington in 1858. They were unable to discover an account of Lincoln's visit: The visits of Lincoln and Douglas do not appear in the history of the debates of 1858 between the two statesmen by reason of the fact that Metamora was not on the scheduled hst of speaking places advertised at the outset of the cam- paign. The two candidates for United States senator were on their way to Galesburg for one of their great debates and were traveling by easy stages through the country, speaking in all the counties traversed. As seen from the dates of the speeches here, Lincoln was two days' travel behind Douglas. Unfortunately no printed description of Lincoln's visit has yet been found, but Douglas' trip from Peoria to Metamora and his stops in Washington and Metamora are tersely re- lated in the following dispatch taken from the Chicago Times of October 6, 1858: "Metamora, 111., Sept. 30, 1858.— The demonstration here today was never equalled before, and can hardly be equalled aq-ain. Senator Douglas, accompanied by a large number of friends, left this morning by the eastern extension of the Peoria and Oquawkya railroad and on arriving in Washing- ton, a thriving town in Tazewell county, near the Woodford county line, was met by an immense delegation and escorted to the town square by Dr. R. B. M. Wilson, the Democratic candidate for the legislature in Tazewell county." The correspondent then gives a synopsis of the address of Dr. Wilson, and relates the trip from Washington to Meta- mora in the following: "After a short reply from Senator Douglas the delega- ton set out for Metamora, seven miles distant. On leaving Washington there were 108 wagons in the procession, aver- aging eight persons to the wagon and some 25 or 30 car- riages and buggies, and this long line of vehicles received ac- cessions at every cross road and farm house along the route. When within three miles of Metamora we were received by the Young Men's Democratic club of Woodford and delega- 122 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON. ILL. tions from Minonk, Eureka, Spring Bay, Metamora and other places. The Minonk delegation had eight four-horse teams in their line, and turned out strong. The procession must have been over four miles long, so great was the number of w^agons, carriages, buggies and horsemen in it. Such a scene I never witnessed before. The air was full of flags, banners, music and the shouts of the multitude, while ever and anon the thunder of cannon came in to swell the general jubilee. It was indeed a glorious sight, far beyond my descriptive powers to convey to you an idea of. About noon a heavy shower liassed over the town, which served to lay the dust (a terri- ble quantity of which had been kicked up) , but not to dampen the ardor and enthusiasm of the people." About October 19, 1860, the people of this community gave a supper to the "Wide-awakes", in the wigwam, with Mrs. Thomas Fish as chairman, after which there was a great parade, people having come to town from every direc- tion. When Abraham Lincoln's call "to arms" came, many from Washington and vicinity volunteered to sacrifice their lives to preserve the Union. Our boys went, for the most part, in the 47th, 86th and 132nd Illinois Infantry and the 14th Illinois Cavalry. We, among their relatives and friends, went to the camp in Peoria to bid the boys of the 47th good- bye. They were brave and composed, Tliose were stirring times, and the loyal people here could not have done more for the boys in the "war zone" nor for their dependants at home than they did do. There was a high flag pole set up in our public square which was dedicated with appropriate ceremonies. The men of our neighborhood went to father's timber and made_ a flag pole, which was set on our land in the corner opposite the South Mennonite church, that being a high point on a much traveled highway. The women met at Uncle Patterson Scott's and made a large flag wliich was flung to the breeze by Joseph Culbertson, who then lived in our tenant house. 1 well recall the pall that fell over this community when Captain Daniel Miles fell out of the ranks. His funeral caused people to more fully realize the conflict that'was then being waged. He stood for principle, and did his duty as he saw It. He was fearless in his denunciation of those who were not loyal to this government — some of whom sought hiding in Canada and elsewhere until the smoke of battle Cleared awav and then had the audacity to return to the pro- tection of our "flag" that had been preserved, but not through - EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 123 any of their efforts. The Knights of the Golden Circle were quite active here, too, for a time, but they were silenced. There were fifteen who went from our road, less than four miles in length, viz: Stephen Decatur and William Henry Humphrey, Russell, Newton, Albert and Rodney Shoe- maker, Robej't Lewis, Jacob, Sebastian, Henry and George Minch, Ebenezer Wood, William and Sanford Van Meter and William Culbertson. They came off victorius in battle, and all were honorably discharged from the service in the Civil war except Stephen Decatur Humphrey, whose head was severed from his body by a cannon ball at the battle of Corinth, Miss., Oct. 3, 1862, while Charles Crane and Theo- aore Amsbary were on either side of him. Phelix Monroe, Captain William Bogardus, Captain B. F. Biser and David Smith also were of those who made the supreme sacrifice on their country's altar. When the soldiers came home they and their friends were given a supper in the old seminary. Al- though there were many sad hearts because their dear ones had not been spared to return, it was nevertehless, in many ways, a time for great rejoicing. Sebastian Minch was the first one to "pass on". All are now (Jan. 2, 1928,) gone and their wives, too, except Albert Shoemaker and his wife, Lavina Riddle, who live at 800 Pacific avenue. Long Beach, Calif. He is 86 years of age, without a gray hair and appears but 60; she is 82. They and Jacob Minch and wife, Ann Eliza Birkett, lived in our tenant house and farmed our land the first year they were m.arried, 1866. May a grateful nation every pay tribute to their valor and our government long endure, which it will if we are true to our flag. No Red— Without the White and Blue There's no other land hke my land, Beneath the shining sun; There's no other flag like my flag. In all the world — not one; One land, one tongue, and one people, To one flag loyal, true — No red shall wave o'er my fair land Without the white and blue. There's grandeur in my land's mountains, Contentment in her vales ; There's wealth in her broad prairies, There's freedom in her gales. In my land all men are equal. 124 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON. ILL. Her flag proclaims it, too — No red shall wave o'er my fair land Without the white and blue. There's majesty in Old Glory, Hope in each stripe and star; It heralds freedom, liberty, To nations, near and far; Unsullied and triumphant, Glorified, she floats anew — No red shall wave o'er my fair land Without the white and blue. — Ernest E. Cole. The Methodists built their first church on the corner of Main and Jefl'erson streets in 1839, during the pastorate of Rev. Zadoc Hall. This site was exchanged for the corner of Walnut and Elm streets on which their second edifice was dedicated December 8, 1867, when Rev. E. D. Hall was the minister and Rev, J. Borland the presiding elder. This was then the most commodious church building in Washington, Illinois. The Presbyterian church is their second on the original site. In the fall of 1876 the Christian church was struck by lightning and entirely destroyed. They soon built their third church, for the brick church, now the home of the Telephone Co., was their first edifice. The Baptists, too, were quite numerous in the early life of Washington, but lack of strength caused them to disband some years since. The total eclipse of the sun in August, 1869, made ani- mal life believe that night had come. The cattle and sheep came to their pens and lay down, the chickens went to their roosts and when it passed off they crowed as though morn- ing had dawned. During the Chicago fire, which was ignited October 9, 1871, the heat and smoke from it produced here, 150 miles, distant, a glowing haze in the atmosphere of those balmy autumn days. Professor Kellogg was superintendent of schools in the old seminary, and with his family resided on the corner of Main and Holland streets, later known as the Rev. I. A. Cor- nelison home. Sister Martha attended school there and she later took me with her when Prof. James Brady and Miss Isadore Trimble were conducting an oral examination for teachers. The Misses Anna and Victoria Triplet (later Mrs. EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 125 Whitmer Kern and Mrs. Jacob Ray), Misses Mary R. and Rebecca V. Scott (the latter later Mrs. John Guthrie) were among the applicants for certificates. The school gave a play in which Silas Eccles had the leading part, and Monroe Webster was also in the cast. The orchestra attracted me most. Miss Molhe Wood was the ac- companist, George and Charles Bayler and Dr. E. F. and Prof. Josiah Wood were violinists. We were two miles from either Jefferson or Greenridge schools, but belonged in the latter district. Our parents were much interested in education, and have sent us to Jef- ferson when their teacher was superior to ours. Prof. Cyrus Parker, at Jefferson, was an excellent instructor. My first teacher was Miss Josephine Sickler, daughter of Jaser Sick- ler, Sr., and the first wife of liUther North, Miss Tyaura Parker, daughter of Prof, Cyrus Parker and wife of Charles Crane, came next. I was tutored by many, for we often had a new teacher three times in a school year. Moses Yoker stands out most prominent of those at Greenridge. He made study attractive by setting a goal and an incentive to attain it. He was a fine elocutionist and there were none better as a, grammar teacher. There is but one person now residing in Greenridge district who attended school there when I did; that is Mrs. Julia White Callahan, and comparatively few of our schoolmates are now living. Boyhood Days at Greenridge School I can see the doors and windows In the school house far away, Where in youth I played and frolicked With my schoolmates — ever gay. Moi'e than thirty years have fleeted Since the time on Greenridge ground, Where we played all games at noontime. And at recess frolicked round. But all scenes are quite familiar. Desks and blackboards, hooks and all. Where we sat and learned our lessons — Hung our hats on each side wall. Teachers with an eye for business Called the roll and rang the bell, But we boys were full of mischief — Stories Oft times did tell. Still we toiled — recited — figured Many a problem with a will. 126 i!JARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. Hoping thus to be the master of Each book and learn to spell. In we came and took our places In the desks all made of pine, Where with penknife notches gathered — Made they were in broad day time. All the masters were good fellows; Lady teachers very kind, Excepting one who flailed the writer To the tune of dancing time. And to her Fm still revengeful; Perhaps she's dead — I can not say. But if she is — I can not help it — Man was bom to go that way. — Lincoln R. Scott. We attended Jefferson school under Prof. Josiah Wood. He was a real schoolmaster and a grammar king. His methods were somewhat in advance of those of the old Scothman's division of his subject into four parts, viz: or-tho-gra-phy, et-i-me-lo-gy, swyn-tax and per-so-da. Re- capitulation was a hobby of his. Often when we became restless he would tune up his vioHn, and tell us what he would play or ask us what we wished him to play. Tell us who the composer was and of his compositions. He then expected us to work. Nothing escaped his eyes or ears. We could never see eyes in the back of his head, but he could tell just what we were doing, even with his back toward us. There was a cannon stove; he would riddle, then poke the fire, fill the stove with coal, bang the door, throw the poker into the coal-hod with a slam, then brush his clothes and hands in a' way all his own, but this activity of his still lingers with me. He was very approachable, and someone asked him why he snrugged his shoulders and he rephed, "When I was a little fellow I had to wear a coat much too large for me an it was always slipping off, thus I acquired this habit of lifting it on my shoulders". We also attended his private school in his school house and in the west school house, now called the primary school building, in the fall of 1876. The new brick school house was opened December 1, 1876, with Prof. James A. Kelley as su- perintendent. Miss Mary Italin began her teaching career then, too. I entered the high school January 1, 1877, with 84 pupils in that room, and my brothers entered the grades. Prior to this date I had been a student in the Morris-classic EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 127 Institute under Prof. Newton C. Dougherty, who later be- came the superintendent of Peoria's school and the embez- zler of her school funds. Uur get-together events during our school days were in literary societies, singing schools, temperance meetings, Sun- day school conventions, spelling schools and picnics. Additional Incidents The following are a few incidents that I have over- looked in my historical sketch that may be of interest: The mail was first carried on horseback and later by four-horse stage coaches. In 1838 Funk and Trobridge (headquarters in Chicago) took contracts on all the country ]-outes to carry mail between Chicago and Peoria, 150 miles. The schedule called for a daily mail between these points. The green flies and mosquitoes that were in the high grasses of the sloughs and swams on the prairies in early days made life for man and beast almost unbearable. I can remember in early times when two bushels of wheat was given in exchange for a day's work. Butter was 4 cents per pound, and all farm products were priced on this basis. Father on one of his early trips to Chicago, where he hauled produce to market, brought back lumber, stoves and salt which he sold at good prices, the latter bringing $5.00 per barrel. In the pioneer times tlie custoni was for open fields, as the farmers found it cheaper to herd their stock than fence their farms. I remember Col. Dan Miles as a splendid bass singer. He belonged to the Washington quartette, the other members being Sam Biser, Chatty Smith Price and Laura Potter Crane. Prof. B. J. Radford in the Eureka Journal : The Col. Dan Miles Grand Army Post of Eureka was named in honor of a man raised in the neighboring town of Washington, his fath- er being one of the pioneer settlers in that village. When I first knew Dan Miles he was clerking in Danforth's general store, called by the settlers "the big store." It was a one- story frame building with limestone-walled basement, and stood on the corner near the northwest corner of the public square, now occupied by a garage. Dan was a tall handsome fellow and along in the fifties organized a crack military com- pany, which was a peculiar pride of the town. Dan was a fine drill-master and it seemed to me that his company com- pared favorably in appearance and action with Bryner's 128 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON. ILL. famous Blues. In 1861 Dan helped to organzie the 47th Illi- nois Infantry of which he became Colonel, and was killed while leading his regiment at the battle of Shiloh, April 7, 1862. "Our fathers find their graves in our short memories, and sadly tell us how we may be buried in those of our survivors". He has not served who gathers gold, Nor has he served whose life is told In selfish battles he has won. Or deeds of skill that he has done — But he has served who now and then has helped along his fellow men. Strong men to stand beside the weak, Kind men to hear what others speak, True men to keep our country's laws, And guard its honor and it cause; Men who will bravely play life's game Nor ask rewards of gold or fame. Washington and vicinity has reached the age when the "old settlers" are now mostly the children and grandchildren of the original old settlers. Much of the history of those early days has already been lost because it was never written down and because those who knew it are dead. The younger generation may not understand the prob- lems and situations with which the early settlers had to deal, but nevertheless it is under obligation to give the builders all possible recogniton and consideration. All about us are the landmarks of the yesterdays. And it is good that it is this way, for we must never forget that we have what we have because of the courageous lives and sacrifices of thousands who have played their parts and re- tired behind the curtains. We are in happiness, in success and in hope because of the yesterdays. "We are only remembered by what we have done." When God made the star He did not say, "Earn praise." He said, "Give light." It is to bring to "light" the deeds of the pioneers and to show our appreciation of the background which they made that we contribute this memento of the past. The copy was furnished the newspaper and I did not have an opportunity to read or revise the proofs, so I hope some of the mistakes and grammatical errors will be excused. Emma Julia Scott. EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 129 The James Smith Family Which Came to Washington in Year 18S5 The following is an account of one of the early families that settled in Washington and descendants of the family have continued to live in the city and take a prominent part in the welfare of the community: James and Ann Cargill Smith came to New York from Aberdeen, Scotland, in 1834, Later on they came around the coast to the Mississippi river, then to Ft. Clark, now Peoria. In 1835 the Hollands, who came to Ft. Clark to trade, learning that Mr. Smith was a carpenter contractor, per- suaded him to come to Washington, as they were in need of that kind of a man. Mr. Smith's first home was at the corner of High and Jefferson streets, a one-room house. In 1837 he took his family, which consisted of his wife, two sons and himself, to a new home at the north end of Spruce street. Here they carried on farming and carpentering as well. This was the only home they had, Mrs. Smith living there .until her death in i898. Mr. Smith built many homes, schools and churches and later on, by the aid of his sons, he had the furniture busi- ness, making all the furniture they sold. He also had a large saw mill and employed many people. For some time the firm acted as the undertaker for Washington. Mr. Smith built all of the depots on the T., P. & W. railroad from Bushnell to Effner. To the Smith union there were born six sons, James, John, William, David, Fred and George, and two daughters, Ellen and Susan. Mrs. J. M. Murray (Ellen) of Riverside, Calif., is the only one of the family now living. Some Early History of Washing- ton From the Official Records "Picturesque Washington, Illinois," pubhshed in 1906 by Paul R. Goddard and Theo. Roehm, contained the following historical facts: The only ofhcial records of the town of Washington ex- 130 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON. ILL. tant today date back to 1839, When E. E. Heiple was elected clerk of the city of Washington in 1878 he received a letter from a relative of an early settler, Dr. Carr, who stated that he had one of the books containing the early proceedings of the town and would send it to him upon request. Mr. Heiple wrote for the document and has since had it in his posses- sion. While the book of proceedings only contained a few years of the early history of the town it throws a light on the first organization. The first date in the book is Monday, August 20, 1838. Washington at that time had a town or- ganization and was governed by a Town Board of four Trus- tees. The first members of the board, as shown by this record, consisted of E. A. Whipple, J. Kern, B. Allen and A. H. Danforth. May 4, 1839, occurred an election at which James Brown was elected president and Wm. G. Spencer, George W. Danforth, Peter Shelly and Thomas Fish, trus- tees. Thomas Fish was appointed clerk, Jacob Kern asses- sor, A. H. Danforth collector, Haven Pierce treasurer and E. A. Whipple street commissioner. At the first meeting of this board the following resolution was passed: "Resolved, That the corporation line be extended a half-mile each way from the center of Commercial Square so as to contain one mile square. All laws in relation to the corporation boundary passed Mav 5, 1838, are hereby repealed." At a meeting held Mav 11, 1840, it was ordered that a public well be dug in the Public Square and that it be walled with rock and a pump put in the same. May 7, 1840, R. M. Burton was ap- pointed clerk of the town board. The last entry in this book of proceedings was on September 4, 1841. It was or- dered that a fine be imposed on Sample and others for dis- charging fire arms in the Public Square. This record was signed by Wilham Holland as president. That closes the records of Washington until the town was incorporated under a special act of the Legislature of the State of Illinois, passed February 10, 1857. On March 25, 1857, the Board of Trustees met and organized. All mem- bers were present and were qualified by David Kyes. The first trustees were: John L. Marsh, R. B. M. Wilson, James Smith, Dan L. Miles and Jacob Sonneman. John L. Marsh was elected first president of the board, R. C. Dement clerk, Thomas Cress constable, Asa H. Danforth treasurer and Thomas Fish street commissioner. James Smith ofi:ered the first resolution: "Resolved, That any person riding or driving on any sidewalk inside of EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 131 the corporation of the town of Washington shall pay a fine of $5.00, to be collected before any Justice of the Peace for the use of the inhabitants of the said town." The board of trustees elected in 1858 was Elias Wenger, Ben Tobias, Dan L. Miles, Jazer Sickler and Jacob Sonneman; W. P. Springate, clerk. The board elected March 7, 1859, was Ben Tobias, John A. Andrews, Jazer Sickler, S. Y. Weiser and T. 0. Brown. T. 0. Brown was elected president, Wm. Springate clerk and Asa H. Danforth treasurer. The first dram shop ordinance was passed April 19, 1859, and the first licenses were granted to George Jacquin, A. Vetterhiefer and Henry Bartlette, May 3, 1859. September 16, 1859, Ben Tobias and Jazer Sickler were appointed a committee to receive propositions to build a jail. They reported they could buy a lot for $175 and get a jail built for $125. Report received. November 1, 1859, the lot on Jefferson street was bought for $175 and a contract to build the jail or calaboose was awarded to James Smith & Sons for $136. The city of Washington was organized and the first election held April 16, 1878. Peter Fifer was elected first mayor and E. E. Heiple clerk. The following are the mayors who have since been elected: Second, Ben Tobias, 1879-80 third, L. S. North, 1881-82; fourth, J. G. Gorin, 1883-84 fifth, W. B. Harvev, 1885-86; sixth, W. B. Harvey, 1887-88 seventh. H. R. Danforth, 1889-90; eighth, G. W. Cress, 1891- 92; ninth, J. H. Anthony, 1893-94; tenth, Ben Tobias, 1895- 96; eleventh, Ben Frederick, 1897-98; twelveth, H. L. Price, 1899-1900; thirteenth, H. L. Price, 1901-02; fourteenth, D. J. Chaffer, 1903-04; fifteenth, C. P. Cress, 1905-06. (Sixteenth, Ed L. Meyers, 1907-08; seventeenth, R. F. Tanton, 1909-10; eighteenth, I. W. Miller, 1911-12; nine- teenth and twentieth, D. J. Chaffer, 1913-16; twenty-first and twenty-second, E. H. Roberts, 1917-20; twenty-third, F. S.Harvey, 1921-22; twenty-fourth, Chris Ebert, 1923-24; twentv-fifth and twenty-sixth, Geo. H. Rinkenberger.) The first council on April 18, 1878, was Peter Fifer, mayor; E. E. Heiple, clerk; John Dougherty, attorney; T. C. Sonneman, treasurer; aldermen, Henry Mahle, Henry Den- hart, James Cameron, short term, one year; D. J. Chaffer, Lawson Holland, E. Rapp, long term, two years. A contract was made with G. C. Morgan to install the water works December 22, 1887. W. B. Harvey was the mayor of the city. 132 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. A contract was made with the Sun Electric Light Co. and signed February 3, 1891. The incandescent hghts boiler blew up and destroyed the plant February 4, 1895. The plant was then moved near the depot and arc light installed. The Eagle Electric Co. was installed in 1900 with arc Hghts. Today Washington is the model little residence city. It has all the modern conveniences which go to make a happy and contented lot of people. It has a wealthy and progressive class of citizens. As has been truthfully stated there are more wealthy people residing here than in cities many times larger. Not only is this true, but the people as a whole are all in moderate circumstances. The business square of Washington was paved with brick in 1903 and one year later South Main street was paved to the corporation line. A contract has now been let for the paving of the street to the city limits on the north. It will not be long until the streets are also paved to the city limits east and west. Gravel roads connect at the city limits and run in the four directions, the gravel road being nearly com- pleted on the west all the way to Peoria. Complete List of Graduates of the Washington High School From 1876 The following is a list of the graduates of the Washing- ton High School: Class of 1876— Charlotte Wells, Belle Cameron, Clara Crane, Mary Italin. Class of 1880— Mary Cameron. Class of 1881— Angle Benford, Lizzie Gorin, Mate Maffit. Class of 1882— Carrie McDonald, Frank Neitz. Class of 1883— Lizzie Rickman, Frances Crow, Lizzie Van Meter, Anna Voorhees, Bertha Nafzinger, Mary Jane Hill, Lou Cameron. Class of 1884 — Ida Pierce, Carrie Voorhees, Mam.ie Bratt, Ida Parsons, Kate Harms, Nellie Gorin, Carrie Gibson, Lulu Gove. Class of 1885— Cassie Danforth, Leva A. Crane, Telva B. Andrews, NelHe Crane, Hattie Zinser, Tina Van Meter, Harry L. Zinser. Class of 1886— John A. Andrews, Louisa Portman, Theo- dore Roehm, Hattie Sheppard, Kate Miles, Robert Comelison, Marv McDonell. EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 133 Class of 1887 — Mary Hartwell, Hattie Frederick, Cora Huddleston, Julia W. Smith, Clara Alphonso, Bertha Small. Class of 1888 — Edith Dougherty, Asa H. Danforth, Josie North, Eugene Fuesslej Louis Kelso. Class of 1890 — Lillie Long, Edgar Bon Durant, Herman Danforth, George Wehner, Plutella Chaffer, Laura Cress, Orestes Ferner, Frank Rickman. Class of 1891 — Martha Dougherty, Luella Cress, William Van Meter. Class of 1892 — Jessie Enos, Violet Crane, Christie Wohl- gemuth, Susie McDonell, Nina Magarity, Prudence Schmuck, Fannie Watson, Laura Rickman, Harriet Heiple. Class of 1893 — Paul W. Busse, Amy Shaffer, Maona Cress, Pearl Long, Clara Neitz, Harry Graham, Viola Cress, Lulu Hornish, Dora Weber, Clara Stormer, Hattie Rickman, Mary Smith, Josephine Witte. Class of 1894 — Avis Price, Mary Stormer, Fannie Price, Jessie Waring, Josephine Chaffer, Anna Andrews, Mary Dan- forth, Edith Welch, Rae Crane, Fred Kehr, Ralph Weirick, Etta Habben, Frank Thomas, Emma Voorhees, Eloise Allen. Class of 1895— Emma Miller, Samuel McCluggage, Ollie Berney, Charlie Wehner, Susie Allen, Ida Birkett, William A. Gott, Mary Bullock, Susie Wagner, Sadie Glabe, Bessie Minch. Class of 1896— Etta Smith, Grace Corbin, Mary Hayes Watson, Laura Dougherty, Dora Holland, Celia Bayler, May Cassell, Lynn Kent, Marion Wilson. Class of 1897— Caroline Price, Roy Smith, Maude Hugill, Ethel Keene, Edna Hoover, Pearl Rapp, John McCluggage, Roy Zinser, Blanche Stoll, Clara Schaeber, Elizabeth Weirick, Harold Jones, Harry Mason, Ethel Cress. Class of 1898 — Carrie Harms, Florence Bayler, Dean Cassel, Louisa Miller, Effie Downing, Dave McCluggage, Jes- sie Holland, Thomas E. Holland, Frank Stormer, Nellie E. Watson, Frank Cramer, Anna Haas. Class of 1899 — Eva Lonnecker, Bessie Rapp, Katherine Witte, Anna M. Stahl, Mary Weiser, Clyde Smith, Edith Yale, Marie Wrenn, Mabel Armstrong, Gertrude Heiple, Ada Zinser, William Blumenshine. Class of 1900 — Jennie Holland, Laura Devine, Bessie Bir- kett, Callie Eddy, Clyde Strubhar, Gertrude Wilson, Mabel Whitehill, Ella F. Harms, Clara Keil, Mary Rapp, Gertrude Carlson, Mae Reynolds, Beatrice Cockbill, Viola Bamber. 134 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. Class of 1901— Maude Heiple, Hulda Minch, Harry Bir- kett, Dolly Birkett, May Heiple, Roy Miller, Martha Birkett, Bertha Kraus, Nellie Wilkinson. Class of 1903 — Beulah Hornish, Elsie Wrenn, Maude An- drews, Alice Pifer, Elna Stolt, Hattie Carlson, Eunice Zaneis, Laura Kice, Regie Sencenbaugh, Gusta Blumenshine. Class of 1904 — Hattie Holland, Theresa Jacquin, Elsie Heyl, Ruby Rapp, George Danforth. Class of 1905— Mabel Tobias, Robert F. Wrenn, Bessie Tervene, Frank Heiple, Barbara Strubhar, Grace Alvord, Daniel Vaubel. Class of 1906— Mildred Husser, Pauline Pfeiffer, Mabel Jones, Ernest Rich. Class of 1907 — Fred Sweitzer, Walter Goddard, Arthur Specht, Stacy Merchant, William A. Pfeiifer, Blanche Lowry, Frieda Streid, Sylvia Holland, Annie Smith, Frances Dough- erty. Class of 1908 — Edna Burkey, Alvin Brunnenmeyer, Ma- bel Bontz, Horace Dougherty, Florence Ebert, Edward Heiple, William Holtzman, Louise Miller. Class of 1909 — Eleanor Pruen, Isadore Engel, Ethel Cooper, Caroline Heiple, Harold Geason, Forrest Moyer, Anna Frederick, Ida Bellows, Elsie Danforth, William Vau- bel, Meinhardt Ryf , Chester Birkett. Class of 1910 — Roy Risser, Lloyd Sampson, Emma Vaubel, Hattie Stolt, Hayes Ferner, Elsie Pfeiffer, Harold Heiple, Mary Holtzman, Arthur Vogelgesand, Esther Wolge- muth, Bernard Volz, Josephine Sullivan, William Sullivan. Class of 1911 — Harry Blumenshine, Ochel Haines, Wil- liam Buck, Oliver Enselman, Donald Heiple, lona Heyl, Cul- lom Long, Beulah Manshardt, Jack Waltmire, Sadie Vaubel, Prudence Trowbridge, Steele Zinser, Milton Rich, Inez Samp- son, Clayton Roehm, Ray Sencenbaugh, Irene Wehner, Max Webster, Glenn Weeks, Martha Waltmire, Aldred Waltmire, Fred Vogelgesang, Sarah Vaubel. Class of 1912 — Imogene Goddard, Trella Valentine, Clara Theilbar, Grace Hornish, Marguerite Bennett, Dorothy Holt- greve, Isabelle Danforth, Grace Belsly, Matilda Schuck, Elva White, Helen Hungerford, Hazel Wagner, Ella Best, Bessie Lowry, Esther Strubhar, George Willhardt, Robert Stormer, Glenwood Tanton, John Glabe, Paul Holtgreve, Clyde Petri, Herbert Keil, Robert Zinser, Charles Strathman, Robert Dougherty, Donald Hops. Class of 1913 — Patience Pennewill, Clifford Stivers, Lawrence Smith, George Moehl, Lester Spring, Ralph Swal- EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 135 low, Henry Wiese, Robert Sullivan, Ruth Sencenbaugh, Caro- lyne Phillipi, Phillips Goddard, John Brunnenmeyer, Denver P'rederick. Class of 1914 — Vera Manshardt, Vera Valentine, Bessie Martini, Bessie Belsly, Opal Petri, Marguerite Geason, Flor- ence Berney, Helen Miller, Eleanor Jenkins, George Zehr, Wendell Trower, Clifford Manshardt, Frank Stivers, William Engel, John Blumenshine. Class of 1915 — William Scharp, Nellie Ropp, Josephine Myers, Luella Brunnenmeyer, Josephine Pennewill, Ruth Strubhar, Telva Roehm, Barbara Imhoff, Clarence Roehm, Gertrude Holtgreve, Louise Ryf, Rufus Rich, Agnes Ensel- man, Florence Danforth, Lester Ebert. Class of 1916— Alice Birkett, Wayne Bennett, Verna Belsly, Charles McVey, Frances Childress, Knoble Roe^im, Mildred Garber, Ernest Pfeiffer, Bernice Weeks, Robert Mil- ler, Helen Weeks, Harold Ebert, Helen Holtzman, Susan Simpson, Paul Schmidt, Harold Sampson. Class of 1917 — Augusta iMoehl, Katherine Jenkins, Na- thaniel White, Bessie Morris, Katherine Schmidt, Bell Cock- bill, Clee Roth, Ross Huguet, Maurice Thomas, Berl Bride, Irma Minch, Frances Mahle, Lee Blumenshine, John Norris, Bernice McClintock, Robert Schroen, Florence Thielbar. Class of 1918— Josephine Belsly, Amy WilUams, Edward Koenig, Iva Naffziger, Elizabeth Schuck, Thomas Waughop, Silas Crocker, Harold Muller, Lloyd Risses, Raymond Ebert, Kenneth Petri, Robert Ryf, Harold Jenkins, Gladys Horn- beck, Mabel Risser, Lena Deatherage, Mary Burroughs, Eber- hardt Schoon, Harold Blumenshine. Class of 1919 — Margaret Belsly, Pearl Hagenstoz, Viola Hoeflin, Orva Kera, Ruth Schaefer, Erma Stormer, Gladys Weeks, Olga Winkler, Fay Chase, Harlan Danforth, Kem Homish, Floyd Muller, Jesse Orth, Clifford Roehm, Lyle Strubhar, Edward Sullivan, Samuel Zinser. Class of 1920 — Chauncey Blumenshine, Miriam Roehm, Nealie Hawbecker, Ethel Spring, Keith Wehner, Marie Fer- ner, Grace Huddleston, Christian Sommer, Ralph Sullivan. Class of 1921— Russell Decker, Evalyn Camp, Thelma Ebert, Esther Hoefln, Mars Homish, Josephine Miller, James Morris, Charlotte Norris, Raymond Pfeiffer, Ethel Shaffer, Lois Thewlis, Homer Thomas, Harold White, Ruby Williams. Class of 1922— Margaret Burgi, Maud Danforth, Helen Garber, Dorothy Fichl:, Esther Glabe, Walter Guth, Charles Heiple, Elenora Hexamer, Lucy Horabeck, Raymond Jones, 136 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. Anna Hulse, August Martini, Clifford Menz, Thurman Muller, Paul Mahle, Susan Belsly, Edward Schabinger, Mae Scharp, Beatrice Snell, Viola Sommer, Earl Summer, Lloyd Vercler, Myrvan Weeks, Esther Willhardt, Eugene Wehner. Class of 1923 — Alice Risser, Helen Mahle, Isadore Bay- ler, Meredith Mosley, Mary Evelyn Hoeilin, Lyle Spring, Clarence Blumenshine, Orva Wistehuff, Christian Blumen- shine, Donald Muller, Clara Frederick, Harvey Summer, Alice Esch, Ervin Wagner, Mary Stormer, Alvin Menz, Margaret Ebert, Luella Guth. Class of 1924— Helen Birkett, Anna Bridt, Gladys Bra- die, Lorraine Decker, Elsie Ekena, George Femer, Gerdon Gundy, Harold Heitzman, Ethel Kehl, Maurice Marshall, Car- line Ortwein, Harper Roehm, Lura Springer, Marietta Storey, Edna Snell, Mildred Wurmnest, Carolyne Zinser, Adrian Brook, Clarence Brunnenmeyer, Arthur Berck, Marion Deck- er, Mabel Esch, Florence Guth, WelHngton Heyl, Agnes Hunkler, Ralph Muller, Susan Mahle, Ralph Rinkenberger, Lillian Rich, Ira Summer, Ida Shaffer, Lois Tilton, Helen Thomas. Class of 1925— NeUie Belsly, Margaret Birkett, Alice Chellberg, Carl Diebel, Ralph Esch, Viola Guth, Gertruc^e Heiple, Pauline Hucckins, Glenwood Imhoff, Mary Jenkins, Marcia McClung, Viola Newman, Margaret Orth, Doris Ropp, George Storey, Orva Vogelgesang, Carl Wood, Glenn Wag- ner, Frank Belsly, Esther Bradle, Carroll Imhoff, Miles Dun- nington, Catherine Fish, Rhoda Hornish, Cecil Huguet, Vic- toria Hoeflin, Gilbert Kyes, Louise Myer, Fred Nash, Ben- jamin Pfefhnger, Eunice Schertz, Ralph Vercler, Ethel Wind, Walter Williams. Class of 1926— Clyde Nutty, Bernice Bradle, Ruth Hol- land, Henry Kehl, Lucile Vaubel, Walter Muller, Josephine Mahle, Eva Stock, Mildred Heyl, Angie Thomas, Milton Wagner, Harold Boley, Catherine Stormer, Ernest Hurst, Frances Decker, Homer Muller, Lois Brown, Verna Summer, Nellie Hartman, Robert Roehm, Raymond Blumenshine,, Or- ville Guth, Richard Payne, Cecilia Brown, Sybil Ficht, Mae Muller, Beula Attig, Irvin Slonneger, Esther Kinsinger, Les- ter Vohland, Floy Crabtree. Class of 1927— Frances Birkett, Thelma Deatherage, Kenneth Naffziger, Jessie Oberlander, Orvel Schroen, Mel- vin Sommer, Stephen Smetana, Margaret Handschu, Sarah Gerken, Frances Miller, Maona Nafziger, Clara Thomas, Helen Tilton, Carl Vaubel, Homer Stormer, Margaret Stein, EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 137 Ii-vin Vogelgesang-, Donald Willhardt, Josephine Vohland, Minerva Robbins, David Snell, Harry Williams, Orville Kamp, Joseph Deatherage, Gertrude Decker, Fayette Draher, Helen Ebert, Dorothy Imhoff. Class of 1928 — Glen Slonneger, Orville Thomas, Stanley Weppler, Frances Mahle, Willis Brown, Clara Davison, Glad- den Esch, Louise Murray, Willis Sullivan, Walter Koppen- hoefer, Edith Kinsinger, John Roehm, Wilson Kimmell, An- drew Hoeflin, Henry Esser, Ernest Miller, George Funk, Martha Stock, Irvin Nofsinger, Irvin Kopp, Vernon Nof- singer, Eugene Zinser, Clarence Slonneger, Paul Sullivan, Erma Blumenshine, Russell Leighton, Edward Diebel, Mil- dred Garber, Alma Shaffer, Frieda Minch, Donald White, Tilman Theobald, Elmo Muller. Class of 1929 — John Blumenshine, Clarence Brown, Blanche Dingledine, Gilbert Gross, Bessie Heiser, Catherine Imhoff, Milton Kamp, Gertrude Ochenrider, Elda Spring, Catherine Schabinger, Vera Vogelgesang, Virginia Busse, Mildred Brown, Arta June Dixon, Lyle Hartman, Anna Randschu, Alice Kimmell, Clyde Belsly, Clara Perrine, Dorothy Small, Catherine Spring, Ruth Wehner, Robert Bradle, Nellie Christ, Florence DuBois, Willis Hett, Dorothy Holtzman, Robert Kern, Clare McClung, Dorothy Sullivan, Clayton Summer, Elizabeth Storey. Celebration of the 105th Anni- versary of the Methodist Church The Centennial of the establishment of the Methodist church in Washington was celebrated on April 19, 20 and 21, 1928. The event was planned by Rev. S. L. Myers, pastor, and the members of the congregation. On Thursday evening, April 19, the pageant, "A Century of Methodism," written by Mrs. Esther Myers, was presented at the church. There were three scenes in the pageant, "The Founding of the Methodist Society at Holland's Grove in 1828," "The Departure of Rev. and Mrs. Stephen Beggs in 1830," and "The Building of the First Methodist Church in 1839." The cast of characters was as follows: William Holland E. Garber Mrs. William Holland Mrs. P. A. Birkett Senath Holland - Roberta Burkey 138 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. William Heath L. E. Wood Mrs. William Heath - Mrs. W. E. Petri James Harvey George Muller Mrs. James Harvey Cora Hill Lawson Holland Howard Hughes Rev. Jesse Walker J. M. Cooper Elizabeth Heath Lois Tilton Harriett Heath Lois Birkett Rev. Stephen Beggs Lucien Wise Matilda Holland Elizabeth Wood Rev. Zadok Hall Ralph Muller Henson Thomas Kenneth Naffziger . Mrs. Henson Thomas Iris Tilton Abraham Van Meter Davd Snell William Birkett Chester Birkett William Thompson Wilson Kimmell Thomas Trimble Gilbert Muller William Holland, Jr James Small Mary Holland Ruble Casper Hannah Harvey Marion Birkett Wesley Harvey .— - James Roehm William Harvey William Roehm Levicy Holland Audrey Seaton The pageant was coached by Mrs. Pauline Hughes and Mrs. Rita Marshall. Friday evening, April 20, was Fellowship evening. At 6:30 a pot-luck supper, and at 7:30 a program of music and speaking in the auditorium. Mrs. W. A. Pinckney, Rev. R. W. Ames and Rev. W. B. Shoop recalled memories of former days. Sunday, April 22, at 11 a. m., sermon by Dr. Guy Z. Moore, and at 7:30 p. m. an address by Dr. John H. Ryan, the conference historian. Historical List of Many of Our Old Settlers Compiled for Record Those Whose Birth Antedate 1800, Thomas Birkett, Sr. A. D. Henry Bogardus James Allison of Eureka Rev. John Bowen Rev. Wells Andrews, Sr. George Burrow- Nicholas Baker William Birkett Sam Beck Reuben Bandy John Birkett. Sr. Walter Birkett EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 139 Thomas Birkett Thomas Brady Garret Burns Dr. Robert Burton Thomas Bullock of Eureka Willoughby Capes Rev. Nathan W. J. Curtiss Mathew Crane, Sr. "Pap" Coon Thomas Camlin Archie Crobb Ira Crosby Dr. Carr Peter P. Cartwright Rev. Jason Corwin Richard N. Cullom Thomas Castle George Cradle, Sr. Mr. Davidson of Eureka John Durham George Duncan, Sr. Rev. John Evans Rev. George Elliott Ira Fish Samuel G. Franklin William Farrow, Sr. Abraham Grove Henry Grove Emanuel Hartman William Holland, Sr. William Heath Joshua N. Harlan Martin B. Hornish William Houshaw Samuel Hawkins Titus Hungerford Jonathan Hodge Janes Harvey Rev. Zadock Hall Luke Humphrey Richard Higgins George Hill Amhurst Kingsbury George Kern Laban Kyes, Sr. Abram Rice Joseph Kilso, Sr. William Kern Henry Kice Jacob Lindley John Lindley John L. Marsh Joseph Buckingham Miles James McClure Benjamin Mitchell Rev. Reuben H. Maffett Parker Morse Morgan McCockhill Benj. Majors of Eureka Phillip Nicholai Rufus North Cyrus Parker Jacob E. Parsons Haven "Dad' Pierce Joseph Planck Alden Ranney William Ricketts John Redman Eli Redman Milton Shurtleff Joshua Staples George H. Shaw Wm. G. Spencer Robert Smith Lyman Smith John Sunderland. Peter Tobias William Thompson William Trimmer Thomas Trimble Abram Van Me.>;r Thomas L. Wathan William Wilson James West James Wright Levi Walkei- William Weeks August Whipple James Waughop Theodore Walker E. A. Whipple Mr. Wagner James F. Waughop Dr. G. P. Wood James Wathen Those WTiose Births Were From 1800 To 1835 John H. Anthony Dr. R. G. Allen Rev. William Adams 140 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. Brazilla Allee Dr. J. Quincy Adams Chas. N. Anthony, Sr. Elijah M. Applegate Robert Anderson Benjamin Allen George Applegate John Brown Phillip Brown John M. Bush Lewis Beal Peter Brubaker Robert Barnard George Bayler, Sr. Asa Brown William Burroughs Benjan-in Beddow George Bon Durant Mr. Baird, Eureka, 9 8 years James S. Bell Thomas Baird, Sr. William B. Bogardus David Brubaker Thomas Baker William Buckley John Bayler Thomas Baird, Jr. Rev. Romulus Barnes Squire D. Baker Ira Castle Dr. 3. W. D. Chase David Cargill Henry Cress, Sr. Rev. I. A. Cornelison, D. D. Thomas Cress Abram Chaffer Thomas Cooper Vivian Cloud William Criswell Mr. Capes George Cashman, 1805 James R. Crane John Cargill Orin Castle A. A. Couch Mathew Craig John Cassels James Cogswell Joseph Culbertson Andrew Cress Chauncv C. Crandle William Cunningham George Crandle, Jr. Shelby M. CuUom Thomas Crane Joel Cloud Henry Dimmott Asa Danforth Samuel Davis Henry Danforth, Sr. John Dunlary George Deibert John Dingeldine John W. Dougherty Andrew Denhart Joshua Dunnington Isaac P. Dayhoff James H. Elworthy Wm. Eiramett Isaac Eversoll Joseph Eccles Mr. Eggleston H. Slem Eckhart Rev. George Elliott Roland Ellis, Sr. John Enrest Joseph Ellis, Sr Benjamin Egley Mr. Eichelberger Mr. Engle Phillip G. Ferree Thomas Fish George Ferner, Sr. Anthony Field Rev. George W. Freese Andrew Frazer Peter Fleming Jonas Farlin John Frederick Nicholas Fries George Fish Frederick Fries Geo. L. Gibson John Gaunt Jiles Greenman Sanford P. Gorin Christian Garber, Sr. Wm. C. George George Gipp Mr. Gillura Hiram Gove Samuel Gove EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 141 Heuiy Grove Abrani Grove Henry Geason George Gerard Andrew Gerbrick Thomas Gaunt Jack Gorin (colored) Emanuel Garber, Sr. Dr. Goodman Rev. Dr. Green Noah Graves Charles Greenman Henry Heiple, Sr. Michael Herbert David Hill Wesley B. Harvey Alathew Holland Rev. Hughes William Higgins Milton Hicks William Huxtable, Sr. Martin Huddlesion Mr. Hawbaker Berry Huddleston, 1835 Richard Higgins James Huddleston Henry Hops, Sr. Frederick Hill Lev. Heriford Rev. Daniel R. Howe J. Hadley William Hittle Lawson Holland William Holmes Israel Hicks Richard Hartley J. Hadley Rev. Dr. S. W. Harkey Thomas Huxtable William Hepperly William Holland, Jr. Thomas Holland, Sr. Andrew Hoeflin, Sr. Conrad Italin John Johnson J. Roger Jenkins Daniel Jones, Sr. Joseph Kelso William Kelso Benjamin P Kelly David Kindig Joseph Kindig Francis A. Kellogg Nathaniel Kellogg Ji cob Kern John Kyd Mathew Kingman James Kyes David Kyes George Kinnear Emanuel Kindig John Kice John Kopp Robert Kelso Aaron Kelso Prof. Kellogg Benjamin Kindig Henry Kopp Thomas Kirk John Kern Edwin Kingsbury Adam Koker, Sr. Joseph Kidd Jacob Kennel Charles L. Kyes William Lockwood John Lowman Billings Lewis Watson Lockwood Ezra Lee George Lewln George Lewis Wilson Lane James Lane Rev. F. Sanford Martin Rev. John Maris Mr. Milligan Solomon Myers, Sr. Benjamin Miles John McClintock James Marsh William Mooberrj William Murphy William Merchant Peter Myers John McClintook Benjamin Miles Jonathan Mills Joe Majors Will Major Joe Meek Henrv Meek 142 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. Jack Mitchell George McCuUough Geo. L. Myer Rev. R. B. McCorkle Milas McCorkle John Minch, Sr. Josiah Moore Alex Mooberry William Monroe Jack McGinnis James McCloud Hamilton McClure Timothy McCarty Valentine Naffziger, Sr. Cyrus Nyles Dr. Benjamin Nichols Thomas Norvell, 1825 George P. Nicolai Thomas Nelson Benjamin O'Brien Dennis Osborn Phillip Orth, Sr. David Osborn Mr. Ott Mr. Pearl Allen Patrick Peter Portman, Sr. John Plum, Sr. Andrew Pinkham Joseph Portman Jesse Petty Eli Patrick Andrew Pinkhani Alfred Phillips James Plum, Sr. John Phillips Hiram Parker William Reed George Reubsam William A. Ross William Ricketts James Ramsey George Rogers Thomas Roberts Joseph Rich, Sr. Andrew Roads, 1810 Mr. Rubles James Robinson Prof. B. J. Radford David Riegel Thomas Reed Hamilton Riddle Mortimore Robinson Mr. Ratleff Christian Risser Joe Reed Mr. Richardson A. Stockwell J. Randolph Scott William Sample L. J. Smith Jaser Sickler, Sr. John Stock (father of George) Christian Shaffer Thomas Scott Samuel Stumbaugh Auric Smith Thomas Strickland William Sang Mr. Sutton, S.-. Emil Schaeber James Smith, Jr George Shafer Nicholas Slagle James Slagle James Slack, Sr. Peter T. Strubhar, Sr. John Sampson Jacob Stevens James Patterson Scott Peter P. Scott James Smith, Sr R. D. Smith Adam Switzei John Seitzei, Sr. William Smith, Sr. Horace Sill Elmore Shoemaker Jacob Sonneman Robert Small John Small, Sr. Alex Small Josiah Snyder Jethrow Sumler Reuben Skinner Lorin Trowbridge, Sr. Lewis Tobias Andrew Thomas Morris Reece Trimble Mr. Timberman Henry Tobias James Thomas EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON. ILL. 14:5 Frank L. Tobias Tunas Ten Eyck Hensen Thomas George Thomas Mr. Truett Jolin Unsicker Jolin Vining Rhodes Van Meter William Van Camp Jacob Vining John Van Camp, Sr. Nathan W. Van Meter Real D. Van Meter William Van Meter Phillip Vauble John Vauble George Woodcock' Dr. Elias Wenger Richard Waughop, Sr. James J. Waughop Dr. R. B. M. Wilson Jacob Wilsoi: Phillip Wareham Richard White, Sr. Mr. Webster (father of A. M.) John E. Waughop George Woodcock James Wright Warren Willard Dr. Elias Wenger James J. Waughop Levi Walker • Ja:ob Wilson Richard White, Sr. Dr. E. F. Wood Prof. Josiah P. Wood William Wallace James Wathan William Witte Silas Willard Richard Waughop, Sr. John Weeks Samuel Y. Weiser Nesbert Young Prof. Moses Yoder George C. Yale William B. Yale Solomon Zinser, Sr. Mr. Zaneis (father of Nicholas) Frederick Aubrey Those Whose Births Were After 1835 Frank Aubertine, Sr. Wells Andrews, Jr. John Augustine Dr. A. Alphonso J. C. Ashmon George Andrews John Asa Andrews Ernest Augustine Hamlet Amsbary A. Abrahams Charles Anthony, Jr. Henry Bliss Chas. L. Birkett Herman Bunn William Barnes John Baetty Robert Bamber Elias Benford Benjamin Bratt T. O. Brown John Bassett R. S. Burnham Obed Brown R. Bingham R. B. Brandon J. W. Blumenschein P. A. Brubaker George Bayler, Jr. Frank Risser Valentine Burkey James Baughman Wesley Beauchamp Joseph Birkett Thomas Barrett James Burns Adam Burke, Sr. Sol Betz James Berney Milton Berry, Sr. Thornton L. Benford George Burchard John Bloodworth W,m. A. Birkett John Brown J. C. Bowman John Blumenshine Wm. G. Bontz 144 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. B. F. Biser Charles Bayler, Jr. G-eorge Blackwell G. C. Bradford James F. Brady Lafayette B'rkett W. S. Bowen George Botham Joe Bassett John Burkey John Crandle Thomas Cooper Milton Cloud Thomas Crane John Chaffer Dr. Willia^m Crane Samuel Cushmaa James Cams James Cameron J. P. Oullen G. G. Curtiss Walter H. Crow Jack Cress Dan J. Chaffer Elijah Chaffer Johnson Cornwell Jesse B. Cooper Fred Chaffer Mathew Craig Isaac Cams Mr. Corzelius H. A. Criswold George M. Cullen George Crance Charles Crane George W. Cress George Cline Dr. Crawford Calvin Cress Thomas Cress Andrew Cress Peyton Cress Peter Dorward Henry Deffenbaugh John Dunnington James Duncan Henry R. Danforth Henry Denhart K. C. Dement James M. Drummard Reuben Dunnington James Davis James Darnell Wm. A. Davidson Henry Danforth, Jr. John Dorward Salem Deffenbaugh George Duncan A. G. Danforth Lemuel Danforth Edward Dameroll M. Diebel M. S. Davidson Robert Davis William Drury Benjamin Egley John Eggman Oliver P. Eaton Eli Enos Silas Eccles Mr. Eggleson William Edwards John B. Ewing Josiah Ernest Joseph Ellis, Sr. Dr. Eldridge Lewis Freese George Floyd John Wesley Ferner Benjamin Field Charles Fish Peter Fifer Jonathan Frazer D. Fairchild Mike Foster Nicholas Fries, Sr. Nicholas Fries, Jr. Zethan Freepe George Ferner, Jr. Frank Field Benjamin Frederich George Fish Henry Frilman Phillip Fishburn J. F. Panchaiers Edward Fish Fred P'ries Henry Field Rev. Green - . John Garber Isaac Graves John G. Gorin EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. ^^l Cyruii Gibsou Dr. W. T. Griffith Harvey W. Gove Henry Glabe Levi Glabe Martin Greenman Joseph Garber James Gullett Alex Graham James Gott George Guyver F. A. Geason Henry Gieselman Mr. Ganzhorn Mr. Garrison (father of Job) Miles Humphrey William Henry Humphrey George Horner Noah Heiple Levi Hanford Gideon Hornish Alex Heiple Herman Habben Jacksin Hukill Frank Harrington Wm. C. Harding William Hadley Lewis Holland Richard Helwig Chas. C. Holland Almond Holland George Holland Conrad Italin, Miss Mary's father Andrew Heflin Stephen Decatur Humphrey John Haines Henry Heiple, Jr. Eli E. Heiple James Huddleston Henry Hornish Cyrus Hornish Henry Hops Oliver Hungerford Newton Harlan George Huxtable, Sr. Thomas Handsaker John Hopkins, Sr. Joseph Hostettler, Sr. Henry Harms, Sr. Nicholas Huguet John Hagensto/ George Hagenstoz George Johnson Daniel Jones, jr. George Jacquiu William Jones Clark Kelso Phillip King Joseph Kidd John Rupp Christuf Kui>p Phillip Kimb.e William Kirk Adam Koker, Jr. James Kimbie David Kern Martin Kern Charles Kern John C. Kyes Fred Kerr, Sr. Rev. G. G. Know] (III James S. Kelly George Kent Perry Kyes, Si Oscar Kelso Isaac King Robert Kelso, Jr. Ferdinand Kupp Jacob Kennel Samuel Kirk Charles Koker John Kern Isaac Kerii Whitmore Kern Charles L. Kyes John Kice George W. Kingsbury Benjamin Kelley Mr. Ketchum Jrof. James A. Kelley Adam Keil Robert Lockwood Bostwick Lane J. W. Lisle Mr. Lichtendeller John Larimcre Lansing Lockwood Willia;m Leeper James Lane Ezra Lee 146 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. Lamar Hadley William Long Daniel Lawson Sajmuel Lawson Mr. McGinn is Peter Myers Hamilton McClure William McCloud Martin Minick Henry Minch Jacob Minch Patrick (Paddy) Malone Edward McTaggart E. Mason Ezra Miles John McNutt Wm. G. Huddleston A. J. Minkler Daniel Miles William McFarlin I. W. Miller Mr. Mahafy Mr. Moulton Robert McOluggage Joseph Miles Benjamin Miles Isaac McDonald Lewis H. Myers Henry Myers Joseph Miles George Minch Sebastian Mincn Felix Monroe Washington McClo:,a Charles Moore Deacon Moffitt E. T. Messinger Robert McNutt Henry Mickling S. R. McBride Dan M. Moore Philo Mile, Charles Miles John B. MuUer Dr. Martin Simon Miller Andrew McDonell Peter Naffziger, Sr. Mr. Newport John Norris, Sr. George Lyon Christian Naffziger, Sr. Luther North Henry Nuding Thomas Nelson Phillip Orth D. Peters Samuel Plum Hiram Phillips William Phillips Newton Phillips Levi Parsons, Sr. Ira Parker Benjamin Pfeffinger Jacob Paull John W. Palmer G. N. Portman Mr. Powell, Sr. Marion Patrick Orvil Patrick Dougles Patrick James Petty John Petty Edward Phillips James Phillips David Parsons John Potts Williaiji Parker M. T. Powell William A. Patton H. L. Price Dr. Z. Patrick Joseph Petty Jesse Pitman Dr. Frank Rosenburg Erastus Roberts William Riegel Wm. F. Roehm Jacob Rapp John Ruble AVilliam Ricketts August Ross Albert Rich Jacob Rorp Ernest Rapp Chas. Rapp Edmand John Koich Dr. Rosenburg, Sr. Solomon Riegel Christian Risser EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. 147 Jesse A. Nolen Valentine Naffziger, Jr. William Ruble Frederick Rickman Albert Rodinius Henry Reynolds Louis Rein John Slonneger Louis Shaffer Peter Sweitzer, Sr. Albinus Sill Hugh Sample Walker Sutton Alford Sutton Dan Sullivan Russell Shoemaker Newton Shoemaker Elias Cornelius Scott Wesley Scott Ne'son Scott William Smith John Stong Jacob Stong Casper Stormer John Stumbaugh James Shores Conrad Stormer Chris Stormer G. S. Soliday Edwin Selleck Austin Strong H. W. Snow Josiah Snyder Thomas Seaman John C. Smith David Smith George Summers Mr. Simpsoa (father of George) George Stock David Stock James Strickland Alike Schmaltz John Schoon William Shaffer John Sweitzer, Jr. Peter Sweitzer, Jr. Levi Stumbaugh Theodore Sample Phillip Sutton Edward Sullivan Joe Roberts Andrew Rouvenac Elias Slaughter John W. Scott Clay Scott Edwin Smith Newton Smith Samuel Smith George Stumbaugh Ellwood Stumbaugh Prof. Skidmore Andrew Stormer Nicholas Slagle H. W. Stewart J. Sheppard, Sr. William Stormer John Simmons George Small Fred Smith Henry Story Dennis Sheppard, Sr. Israel Schiottfelton Theodore Sonneman Jacob Stahl Henry Thamer James Trimble William Trimmer, Sr. Geo. W. Tobias James Trowbridge William Triplett Jiimes Triplett George Taylor Samuel H. Tobias Simon Tobias Nicholas Thomas Wesley Tobias B. Frank Tobias Ike Tobias Benjamin Tobias Milton Triplett John Taylor W. K. Tobias John C. Tobias Andrev>' Thomas Wm. L. Trimmer Thomas Thompson Heui-y Tervene Mr. Trewett John "Van Camp Rev. E. von Freeden 148 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILL. Peter Sullivan Albert Shoemaker Sanford Van Meter Phillip Vauble William Voelker M. Voelker Orris Vogelgesang Di. E. F. Wood Phillip Wareham Layton Woodcock Miletus West Hampton Wrenn Samuel Wright Dr. Wenger Phillip Wolgemuth Balzar Wenk John Wehner George Waughop William Warren Ebanezer Wood Cephas Wood Josiah P. Wood Samuel Wareham David R. Van Meter Christian Vogelgesang Rodney Shoemaker Wade T. Wrenn Louis Wehner, Sr. John Wilson Abrani Wenger John Wolgemuth Dr. Wm. H. Weirick Frank Waughop, Ji . Netus Wood John Watson Charles Wistehuff Daniel Waters Fred Yeck, Sr. Mr. Zaneis, Sr. Samuel C. Zinser Israel Zinser Frank Zinser Solomon L. Zinsei George W. Zinser John Zinser UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 977.354T21E C001 EARLY HISTORY OF WASHINGTON, ILLINOIS AN 3 0112 025393015