Cass County, Illinois - Chapter with an unread heading (no. 2 of those read), 1915

Birds And Animals Song Birds

Many song birds are to be found in Cass County during the year. The great diversity of its typographical structure furnishes a large variety of birds with nesting and feeding places. The wide, expansive prairies, the forests in the uplands, the dense underbrush and tangle of vines along the creeks and rivulets, the broad grassy bottom lands, and tall timber along the miles of river banks, are inviting places for the summer homes of a great number of birds as will be seen by the following list of summer birds found here. We have the mourning dove, black and yellow bill cuckoo, a number of varieties of the woodpecker, flicker, night hawk, king bird, several species of the fly catchers, wood pewee, phoebe bird, bobolink, red-winged black bird. cow bird, grackle or crow black bird, orchard oriole, Baltimore oriole, blue jay, a large variety of sparrows, among which is the very early, beautiful singing song sparrow, the rose breasted grossbeak, Indigo bird, scarlet tanager, the warblers in great numbers and varieties, the several species of vireos, the wrens, the wood thrushes, whose songs are considered the most beautiful of all the thrushes, the hermit and several other thrushes, the meadow lark, prairie horned lark, chickadee, chewink or ground robin, the common robin, gold finch, cardinal, shrike, cat bird and a few mocking birds, a variety of swallows, and whippoorwill and blue bird. Along the rivers and larger creeks are to be seen numerous kingfishers. A number of these, though they are properly classified as migratory birds, remain with us the entire season, such as the cardinal grossbeak, the blue jay, the flicker or yellowhammer, and even the robin will not infrequently be found winter residents. The robin is commonly supposed to be the harbinger of spring, but it is not always a true harbinger, and those persons who so frequently claim the distinction of having seen the "first robin," are not perhaps aware that the robin they have seen is one that preferred to linger in some sheltered place in the north where it has found sufficient food to maintain it, rather than make a long journey and return again.

Winteb Birds

The cardinal is a permanent resident and may be heard any bright morning in winter, singing a beautiful song in the top of some tall tree where it delights to perch. The blue jay, the most beautiful plumaged of all our familiar birds, may be seen at any time in winter, flitting about its usual haunts, although rather quietly. It is not nearly as noisy then as in the good old summer-time.

Water Fowl

Cass County, with its numerous small lakes along the Sangamon and Illinois rivers, has always been a great feeding place for water fowl, including ducks, geese, brants, herons, cranes and many smaller birds not of the varieties sought for food. Before the sloughs and ponds were tiled and drained from the prairies, large flocks of geese and ducks came annually to feed upon the grain in adjoining fields. Hundreds were killed daily for the market and table by hunters and sportsmen. So great became the slaughter that it aroused the interest of many persons who feared that these birds would be exterminated. Influence was brought to bear upon the legislature, and a very effective game law, with subsequent modifications, has been in force for a number of years. Recently the federal government has taken up the matter of conservation of game, and congress has passed laws protecting the breeding of water fowl. A great part of the submerged lands which it is believed could not profitably be reclaimed, have been purchased by wealthy persons, and hunting clubs have been organized, many being incorporated. These holdings of large game preserves have not been very popular with local hunters and fishermen, and the practice has given rise to a great deal of litigation, but numerous decisions of the supreme court have settled many of the mooted

Almost Extinct Species

Pheasants, grouse and prairie chickens were found by the pioneers in all parts of Cass County, and continued to breed here as long as there were open prairies and shelter, and their feeding and nesting places were unmolested. It is doubtful if they will ever be propagated in great numbers again, even with the protection of the game laws, and the assistance of the game wardens of the state, who have, for several years, been distributing game birds to such points as are deemed best for breeding and propagating the various species that are the delight of the sportsman for hunting, and the epicure for the table. Wild turkeys were also found in great numbers until recent years. They are now almost if not entirely extinct in Cass County. The loss of the sport of hunting and fishing, and of the wild game which supplied the larder with necessary food in earlier days, is but the result of the ever changing conditions of advancing civilization, and we must all yield to the inevitable.

Wild Animals

Over the prairies of Cass County and through its timber and bottom lands once roamed countless numbers of buffalo, roebuck, fallow deer, hind and stag. Bears, panthers, wild cats. big prairie wolves and the grey timber wolves. foxes, raccoons, opossums, numerous varieties of squirrels, including the fox and grey, otters. beavers, muskrats, minks, weasels, skunks, rabbits, moles, ground hogs, ground squirrels and gophers, were also to be found. Many of these which once supplied with food the larder of the early settler, have disappeared. There still remains evidence of the former existence of great herds of buffalo, but they passed over the Mississippi River and disappeared from their early haunts long before the Indian disposed of his last foot of land and moyed on westward. The deer have not been seen in a wild state in Cass County for many years, nor hare any of the fiercer animals of prey. The wolf and fox in small numbers may yet be found, but it is a rare occurrence for any of the present generation to see a fox or wolf skulking through the prairies or forests. Rabbits and squirrels are yet found in great abundance. The game law of the state has for a number of years protected the squirrel. Muskrats, skunks and minks are yet to be found and trapped, in fur season, but they are not caught in any great numbers. Coon hunting and fox hunting were favorite pastimes for the men in earlier times, and they have not altogether fallen into disuse, for there are those, whose blood can yet be quickened and stirred by the baying of the fox hound, though the latter is almost as scarce and infrequently seen as the fox itself.

Indian History The State Of Illinois

INDIAN OWNERSHIP - EARLY TROUBLES WITH THE INDIANS - INDIANS IN| CASS *COENTY - _THE WwW iNNEBAGO WAR - THE BLACK HAWK WAR - ABRAHAM LINCOLN ELECTED CAPTAIN OF THE SALEM COMPANY - CLOSE OF THE LAST INDIAN WAR IN THE STATE OF ILLINOIS.

Indian Ownership

In the light of present day American ideas of civilization and brotherhood of man, it is easily recognized that the original owners of all the lands of the present United States met with unfair treatment at the hands of their white conquerors. At the time, however. when the yarious Indian treaties were made. it was impossible for the government to look upon the Red Man as equal to his white brother. Indian atrocities had so inflamed those in authority that it was finally deemed wisest and most expedient, by the leading men of the country, to segregate the Indians, separate them from the white settlers. The Indians were nomadic. roying about, with no settled place of location. In their hands the lands lay practically fallow. Except for scanty crops to keep them alive, they did no farming, and their development was of little moment.

With the advent of the white man into any section of the country, came instant improvement. He felled the forest, tilled the land, built mills, erected schoolhouses and churches, and in time gathered about his own claim others until a settlement of some size was formed. In bringing about these changes, it was but natural that there should be a clash between the original owners and those who had might on their side. The Indians, brooding upon what they considered their wrongs, retaliated, sometimes in shocking manner, and their various outbreaks only resulted in harsher measures for their restraint on the part of the government.

Early Troubles With Indians

Most of the early settlers encountered trouble with the Indians who had not yet given up full titles to their lands, but the permanent settlements in present Cass County, which later were developed into villages and cities, made their best and most rapid progress after the settlement by the government with the remaining Indians, and they were removed to reservations west of the Mississippi River. Temporary treaties had been made with the various tribes but they were unsatisfactory and indefinite in results. Prior to the organization of the state in 1818, the general government issued an order addressed to William Clark, Indian superintendent at St. Louis, Mo., and to Governor Ninian Edwards, territorial governor of the Illinois territory, as follows:

"T haye the honor to enclose you a commilssion, for the purpose of treating with the IIlinois, the WKickapoos, the Pottawattomies and other tribes of Indians within the Illinois territory. The object of this negotiation is to obtain a cession from the tribes who may have a claim to it, of all that tract of land which lies between the most northeastern point of boundary of the lands deeded by the Kaskaskias in August, 1808, the Sangamon and Illinois rivers; and which tract of land completely divided the settled parts of the Illinois territory from that part which lies between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers, and which has been lately surveyed for the purpose of satisfying the military land bounties, a circumstance which makes

"If either of the tribes. who have claim to the land is desirous of exchanging their claim for lands on the west of the Mississippi River, you are authorized to make the exchange, and your extensive knowledge of the country will enable you to designate that part of it where it would be most desirable to locate the lands given as an equivalent. To other tribes who may not wish to remove, you will allow such annuity, for a fixed period, as you may deem an adequate compensation for the relinquishment of their respective claims. To enable you to give the usual presents on such occasions, you are authorized to draw on this department for $6,000.

"The contractor will furnish, on the request of either of you, the rations that may be necessary for the supply of the Indians while attending the treaty. Your compensation will be at the rate of eight dollars per day for the time actually engaged in treating with the Indians; and that of the secretary whom you are authorized to appoint, will be at the rate of five dollars per day.

Under these instructions, negotiations were had with the Kickapoos, and on July 30, 1819, they ceded to the United States all their claim to the tract mentioned in the above order.

Few Indians remained within the present limits of Cass County at the time it was separated from Morgan County. During the early French explorations the "Illinois Country' was occupied by numerous tribes of Indians, the most powerful being the "Illinois," from which tribe the Illinois River and the state itself, derive their names. The word Illinois is from "TInnini" of Algonquin origin, signifying "the men," which was changed by the French into '"J]lini," with the suffix, signifying 'tribe.' The Illinois appear to have consisted of several bands or a confederation, including the Kaskaskias, Peorias, Cakokias, Tamaroas and Michigamies. The Mascoutens, though classed by some Indian historians as a band of the Illinois confederacy, seem to have been a sep-

626 HISTORY OF arate tribe which had their early habitation around Green Bay, Wisconsin, and later were either forced out by other warring tribes, or voluntarily moved south inte the Illinois country. From the fact that the government made a treaty with the Kickapoos and Pottawatomies in 1819 whereby the United States obtained title to the lands in the Illinois country, these tribes, whose former homes had been about the shores of Lake Michigan, must have drifted southward at a very early date. The Mascoutens were established in a village of considerable size on the banks of the Illinois River at the present site of Beardstown, and tradition at least says, that they were driven away from that locality by the Miamies and Iroquois, fierce tribes from the east, who waged a relentless war of extermination. Later these tribes, also, must either have withdrawn from central Illinois, or have been in turn driven out by the Kickapoos and Pottawatomies, who were in possession of the Sangamo and Illinois country, claiming ownership when the first white settlers appeared in this part of the state. Much of the so-called Indian history is merely legendary, and, though interesting as a story of a vanishing race, has little value as real history.

The treaty of July 19, 1819, between the government and the Kickapoos ended the ownership and every claim held by that tribe to lands now within the limits of Cass County. From that date the Indians began, though reluctantly, to move out, some to the north to old Fort Clark, now Peoria, and to various places, but the Majority went to the western shores of the Mississippi River to lands traded to them by the government for their holdings here. By 1822 there were remaining in Illinois about 400 of this broken and dispirited tribe; quite a number being yet in Cass County. A few scattering families lingered within our border for several years, and were on very friendly terms with the white settlers who were rapidly putting into cultivation the Indians' former hunting grounds.

On the Sangamon bottom in Richmond Precinet, where Philip Hash settled in 1826, there were at that time a number of families of the Pottawatomies living in the valley under a chief of that tribe named Shick Shack. Zachariah Hash, a son of Philip, who was yet a small boy when brought to that spot by his father, became well acquainted with the Indians, and learned considerable of their language. Mr. Hash lived to the advanced age of ninety-five years, and in later life told many interesting stories of the early times, and especially of his Indian neighbors. He relates that once an Indian and his squaw came to the cabin to beg a bushel of corn. The corn was given them, but being in the ear, and the weather quite cold, the Indians were invited into the house to sit by the fire and shell the corn. They came in and both sat down on the floor before the open fireplace and began shelling the corn, but after the man had shelled an ear, he stopped and pointing to the palm of his hand said to Mr. Hash: "Och! Hurt Indian, no hurt squaw," and with that he permitted the squaw to finish the task, which she did in silence. She then shouldered the sack of corn and followed her master, the "brave," in a dog trot towards their wigwam.

Chief Shick Shack had a summer home on the top of one of the highest bluffs overlooking the valley, and being asked one day why he went up there to live in summer, said: "Skeeter no bother." Again when asked how he carried water up that high hill, said:. '"'Humph, squaw do that.'"' Shick Shack and his small tribe were very friendly and sociable with the Hash family, and when they left the valley for Fort Clark, on the Illinois River, the chief came to the house and bid his white friends a fond farewell. The high bluff, the scene of his former summer home, still bears the name Shick Shack Knob. It is a part of the piace now

The Winnebago War

The disturbance known in history as the Winnebago war, occurred in the summer of 1827. A treaty of 1804, between the Sacs and Foxes, and the United States Government, and another of 1816 between the Ottawas, Chippewas and Pottawatomies, dispossessed the Winnebagos of the lead mines and other territory about Galena. In response to remonstrances on the part of the Winnebagos, in 1825, commissioners of the United States, decided in favor of the Winnebagos. The rich lead deposits in the vicinity of Galena, had, in the meanwhile, attracted white settlers, and many serious disturbances arose between them and the Indians. In order to drive out the white intruders, the Winnebagos formed an alliance with the Sioux, but their purpose was divined, and Governor Edwards, in

July, 1827, authorized Colonel Thomas N. Neale, of Springfield, to raise a detachment of not over 600 volunteers who were willing to equip and feed themselves for a period of thirty days. A most interesting account of the campaign was given by the late Hon. William Thomas, of Jacksonville, who volunteered from this section: "When the volunteers reached Peoria, the place of rendezvous, I was appointed quartermaster sergeant. [ accompanied the regiment to White Oak Springs, some ten or twelve miles from Galena, where I remained several days, when the colonel, being satisfied that the further service of the regiment was not required, ordered the return home. The regiment, composed of independent farmers and mechanics, was raised, organized, marched to White Oak Springs, and returned home in not exceeding thirty days. Two men were drowned in a branch of Crooked Creek returning home. We had no baggage wagon from this county. My mess had a very good tent, which very few of the other messes had. Having no baggage wagons, and having to carry our provisions, arms and equipments on horseback, we had but little room for tents even if they had been supplied. We slept on saddle blankets, with our heads on the saddles, and for covering had overcoats and blankets; but during that season of the year we had but little use for coverings other than overcoats. "The question of pay was not considered of much consequence; it was well understood that this depended upon the action of Congress, and no fears were entertained of the success of General Duncan, our representative in Congress, in obtaining the necessary appropriation. We were not disappointed, for appropriations were made by the Congress of 1827-8, and we were paid in the spring of 1828, the following rates: Each sergeant-major and quartermaster sergeant received $9 per month; each drum and fife major, $8.33 per month; sergeants, $8 per month; each corporal, drummer, fifer and teamster, $7.33 per month; each farier, saddler and artificer, included as a private, $8 per month; each gunner, bombardier and private, $6.66 per month. In addition to which we were paid for the use of horses, arms and accouterments, and for the risk thereof, except for horses killed in action, ten cents per day. For rations, twentyfive cents per day, and one day's pay for fifteen miles' travel to the place of rendezvous and returning home. "On the arrival of Colonel Neale with his command on the scene of danger, he found the war virtually at an end. General Atkinson with 600 regulars and the Galena militia under General Dodge had penetrated the enemy's country and compelled the hostile savages to sue for peace."

The Black Hawk War

A general account of the Black Hawk war is given in the first volume of this publication and very little need be said about it in this connection, but there are some incidents connected with the war that are of local and perhaps of general interest, that should be referred to. This famous war drama was produced in two acts. The first occurred as a result of persistent rumors of Indian depredations under Black Hawk, chief of the Sacs, who, with his tribe had been removed across the Mississippi River into Iowa, where they spent the winter of 18380. It was the year of the deep snow and the Indians, not being provided with sufficient food at their temporary camp, suffered greatly during the long, cold months, so were in an angry mood when the snows melted and spring opened up with prospects of a fruitful year had they owned suitable lands to put in crops. They had not searched out, nor even cared to make investigation of their reservation to which they had been exiled, but longed for their old villages and fertile soil in which their squaws had so often planted maize, and the valleys and uplands of Illinois over which they had for so many years chased the deer and buffalo and other game which kept them abundantly supplied with food. Thus on the verge of starvation, and nursing their deep seated anger at what they deemed an injustice in depriving them of their lands, wholly disregarding the treaty made with the government, they recrossed the Mississippi and sought their old homes, about three miles below Fort Armstrong (the present city of Rock Island), only to find their villages partly destroyed and their fields in possession of the white settlers. They immediately set about to oust the intruders. In order to accomplish this, the Indians threw down the fences of the whites, tore off the roofs of the houses, killed the stock and made a general havoc of the white settlements. So frequent and annoying were their depredations and so ferocious their threats that the settlers became greatly alarmed and sent a hasty re-

Governor Reynolds responded promptly to the appeal and issued a call for 700 volunteers, directing them to rendezvous at Beardstown, on the Illinois River. He also notified General Gaines at Jefferson Barracks, and General Clark, superintendent of Indian affairs at St. Louis, requesting aid in driving the Sacs back across the Mississippi. In response to the governor's call for volunteers nearly 2,000 frontiersmen gathered at Beardstown and Rush- Ville, in the latter part of May, 1831, and were soon organized into two regiments and a spy battalion. 'Those who had not brought their own rifles were armed with guns purchased from Francis A. Arenz, a merchant of Beardstown, who had recently come from Germany. The guns were a light, brass-barreled fowling piece, made in the East, for the use of one of the South American governments, and not proving satisfactory, were shipped to the West, and a number of them were purchased by Mr. Arenz with a view of selling them to hunters for shooting birds and water fowl.

By .this time Governor Reynolds had joined the martial forces in person, and placing himself at their head, crossed the Illinois River and gathered up the recruits stationed at Rushville. They then proceeded northward, arriving on June 1, 1831, in the enemy's country. At Rock River they were joined by General Gaines who had come up from St. Louis by boat. The combined armies of the whites comprised about 2,500 men, while Black Hawk's forces numbered only 800 warriors. Black Hawk, who had kept himself informed of the movements of the whites, finding himself so overwhelmingly outnumbered, slipped away in the night, and recrossed to the Iowa side of the Mississippi River. General Gaines learning that what the army had come to accomplish, was achieved without their assistance, and bent on doing something warlike, ordered the Indian village burned, which order was carried out. He then sent word to Black Hawk that he would pursue him across the river, which brought the erring chief to the general's headquarters, where another treaty was made, to the effect that Black Hawk and his band would remain west of the Mississippi River unless permitted by the federal government to return. This treaty was executed June 20, 1831. All hostilities being ended, the victorious

The second act was a more serious matter. Black Hawk and his band of Sacs, with their women and children, had spent the winter of 1831-2, on the site of old Fort Madison in the present state of Iowa. They still clung to the idea that they had been wronged in the purchase of their lands by the government, and believing, or pretending to believe, that there could be no actual sale of land, Black Hawk consequently, in the spring of 1832, again made preparations to cross the Mississippi into Iilinois. In a writing relative to the sale of lands, Black Hawk had declared that lands were given by the Great Spirit to his children to live upon and cultivate as far as necessary for their subsistence; and so long as they cultivated the land and occupied it, they had a right to the soil, but when they left it voluntarily, other people had a right to settle upon it; that nothing could be actually sold but such things as could be carried away.

On April 6, 1832, Black Hawk crossed the Mississippi River, this time about fifty miles below Fort Armstrong, at the present site of Oquakwa, hoping thus to escape the vigilant eye of General Atkinson, who had taken charge of the troops at Fort Armstrong. He claimed that if he were not permitted peaceably to occupy his old village, that he then only desired to pass through the country to join the Winnebagos on Rock River, near the Wisconsin line, there to raise crops. The settlers were on the outlook, and Black Hawk had no sooner crossed with his band, than the event was reported to General Atkinson, who immediately notified Governor Reynolds of the Indian invasion, and asked for assistance to repel the hostile savages. The governor again responded promptly with a call for "a strong detachment of militia" to rendezvous at Beardstown. The call was issued April 16, 18382, and the meeting was set for April 22, 1882. A large force responded to the call, and was soon organized into four regiments, and also a spy battalion, and an odd battalion. The promptness of this action will be appreciated when it is recalled that but sixteen days elapsed between Black Hawk's crossing of the Mississippi and the organization of the regiments. All the messages had to be carried on foot or on horseback, over hun-

It was a motley crew that gathered at Beardstown. No government uniforms were furnished them. Each man was dressed as he appeared every day, some appearing in homespun jeans, some in leather leggins and jacket, and a few in store clothes, or in the rough cloth that had just begun to make its way westward. A number wore coonskin caps. Their arms consisted of the squirrel rifles or the larger bored ones used for shooting game, while some had double barreled shot guns. It is quite probable that some came with the guns furnished by the government for the previous campaign which had been purchased from Mr. Arenz. Each man had his powder horn and shot pouch slung over his shoulder. They were a brave, hardy set of men, used to their own way of handling arms, though very awkward in any sort of regular drill. However, they had had some little experience in drill, as the then admirable law of the state made every able bodied man subject to militia call, and required that at certain times each year he should practice drilling under penalty of the payment of one dollar for failure to respond. As one person speaking of this requirement said: "Dollars were hard to get hold of so drilling was cheaper."

In that group of patriots appeared one who subsequently proved to be the most interesting figure of his times, Abraham Lincoln, who had been at Salem, in Sangamon County, now a part of Menard County, for about a year, and was a clerk in Denton Offett's store. When the messenger appeared in Salem with the governor's call to arms, Mr. Lincoln, with a number of other young men, responded imniediately, and soon a company from Salem appeared at Beardstown. There each company elected its own officers, and Mr. Lincoln was made captain of the Salem company. The election was held in an open field, and at a given command, the troops surrounded their candidate.

Travis Elmore, of Cass County, was a private in Captain Lincoln's company, and served fortyeight days when he was honorably discharged. The certificate of discharge is signed by A. Lincoln, and shows that Elmore was enrolled in "Lincoln's company of mounted volunteers, in the regiment commanded by Col. Samuel M. Thompson, in the brigade under Generals S. Whiteside and H. Atkinson, called for the pro-

A number of men who subsequently became prominent in the affairs of this state and the nation, were soldiers in the Black Hawk war, either as privates or officers, one of whom was Hon. Adam W. Snyder, the father of Dr. John I. Snyder, of Virginia, Cass County. Adam W. Snyder was a state senator, from St. Clair County, but the legislature being adjourned when the Indian outbreak occurred, he responded to the call of the governor by enlisting as a private in Captain John Winstanley's company, where he served in that capacity and as adjutant of the regiment until mustered out in May, Several companies were mustered out and a number of the members, who were dissatisfied from one cause and another, or frightened at the prospect of having their scalps dangling at the belt of some redskin, went home. The regiments were re-organized, and Dr. Snyder was elected captain of a company made up almost exclusively of men from his own county of St. Clair, and the adjoining county of Madison. Adam W. Snyder was born in Connellsville, Pa., October 6, 1799. He came to Illinois in 1817 and settled at Cahokia, where he formed the acquaintance of Jesse B. Thomas, who was the president of the first Constitutional Convention of this state, and was also one of the first two United States senators from TIllinois. Before the organization of the state, Mr. Thomas was one of the territorial judges. Through the persuasion of Judge Thomas, Mr. Snyder was induced to study law, which profession he followed during the remainder of his life, though he devoted a great deal of his time to the state and general government as a state senator and as a member of Congress. He was the nominee of the Democratic party in 1841, for governor of I[llinois, and would without doubt have been elected had not a serious illness overtaken him from which he died May 14, 1842, three months before the election. The following is quoted from General Usher F. Linder's "Early Bench and Bar of Illinois." Writing of Mr. Snyder, he, in part, says: "He was a most elegant gentleman, and was the only man that ever beat old Governor Reynolds for Congress. I never knew a man _ possessing higher colloquial and conversational powers. He was never at a loss for a word or idea. I never enjoyed a richer treat than the society and conversation of Adam W. Snyder. Had he lived he certainly would have been governor beyond all doubt for he was decidedly the most popular Democrat in the state of Illinois."

Captain Snyder served his country well and bravely until the close of the Black Hawk war, through all the dangers attendant upon conflict with a cunning, merciless and brutish savage. Careful historians of that war give Captain Snyder a prominent place in the story of the last Indian war in the state of Illinois.

To resume the history of the war, Captain Lincoln, by the muster out of his company in May, 1832, was reduced to the ranks, but not by any fault of his own. He, together with General Whiteside, re-enlisted as privates, Mr. Lincoln in Captain Iles' company, and was finally discharged at Whitewater, in the present state of Wisconsin. From there, he and a comrade started home, but having their horses stolen the first night, they were obiiged to make the rest of the journey as far as Peoria on foot. There they secured a canoe and paddled down the Illinois River to Havana, where they sold the canoe and went on foot across the country to Salem, where Mr. Lincoln immediately engaged in the more hazardous occupation of running for the legislature.

Governor Reynolds, who had placed himself at the head of the army, collected at Beardstown and other points, surrounded himself with a full staff of officers, including a chaplain, the latter officer secured in the person of Rev. Reddick Horn, a Methodist preacher of Cass County. He came to Beardstown in 1828, settled there, and afterwards entered land in township 18 north, range 11. Rev. Horn was evidently the first minister of the gospel to invade and preach the word in the wilderness of Cass County. The Captain Iles above mentioned, who afterward became Major Iles, came to Cass County by way of Beardstown, in 1819, and made his way across the woods and prairies to Calhoun, on the present site of Springfield, where he became a permanent settler. The volunteers not already discharged on August 15, 1832, were mustered out, at Dixon's Ferry, whence they returned to their homes, feeling safe from any more Indian invasions or depredations.

From that time on the early settlers of Cass County devoted their time to improving their farms, building schools and churches and laying out roads, erecting bridges over streams to