Cass County, Illinois - Chapter 10: Early Industries of Cass County, 1915

Chapter 10: Early Industries of Cass County

FIRST GRIST MILLS - FIRST SAWMILLS - FIRST STEAM OPERATED FLOUR MILL IN COUNTY - FIRST STEAMBOAT - FERRY ESTABLISHED BY THOMAS BEARD IN 1S82G - EARLY SETTLERS - -NEW RICH- \OND - ROBINSON'S MILLS - JAMES M. ROBINSON - VIRGINIA STEAM MILLS - INTERESTING OLD DOCUMENTS - OTHER MILLS - EARLIEST TANNERY - ANDREW CUNNINGHAM - HIS NOTES OF TRAVEL PICTURE THE TIMES - CHICAGO AS A CITY ONLY AS OLD AS CASS COUNTY - EARLY MANUFACTURES - WAaAGONS - CHAIRS - FARM MACHINERY -

An Extensive Early Industry First Grist Mills

The earliest industries requiring the use of machinery in Cass County were the grist mills. The primitive way of preparing the corn, the principal cereal used for food by the early settlers, by grating or pounding the grain on a hominy block until reduced to a coarse meal, was entirely too slow and laborious to be continued when a better way was afforded. Enterprising men early began to arrive in the county looking for a suitable place to locate a mill along the streams. where they could, by a little effort, dam the water so as to give additional power and thereby turn their simple mill wheels.

The first of these mills to be erected in Cass County, or in that part of Morgan afterwards made a part of Cass County. was in section 31, on Indian Creek. in township 17, range 11, a short distance south of where the steam flour mills of Arenzville now stand. It was built and on which the mill stood, and in 1882 sold out to Bennet Smart, who conducted the mill for a year and then sold both land and mill to Francis Arenz, who gave additional water power by making a new dam at the bend of Indian Creek, about a half mile north. Mr. Arenz conducted the mill for several years without much financial success, and then sold to Herman Engelbach and Peter Arenz. Although the mill was a small affair simple in its construction, it was of great benefit to the needy settlers here, when it was established, for it was the nearest mill within a radius of 100 miles, the next nearer being at Cahokia Creek, on the south. On the ditch cut where the new dam was built, John Savage, who some years later was elected and served eight years as sheriff of Cass County, built a sawmill. After the best of the board timber in the immediate neighborhood was converted into lumber, Mr. Savage turned his mill into a flour mill, but made little success of it until steam power was introduced. A few years later it was abandoned and the machinery moved to a new locality up in Monroe Precinct.

In 1829 the firm of Knapp & Pogue built a steam mill near the Illinois River on land bought of March & Beard, proprietors of the town of Beardstown, which they laid out later that same year. The mill proved a success from the very first, and by 1830 its capacity was from fifty to seventy-five barrels of flour per day. About that time a distillery and sawmill were attached to the plant. A great part of the products of the plant were shipped to other markets by river boats which had, by this time, begun to ply in great numbers upon the Illinois River. The steamer Mechanic, with John S. Clark as captain, was the first steamboat ever up the Illinois, and came in the summer of 1827. There were no railroads in the state, and no mode of shipping merchandise other than by the river traffic. Beardstown soon became a noted shipping point for all the central interior portion of Illinois, west as well as east of the river. Thomas Beard had established a ferry across the Illinois River on June 5, 1826, from the Mound Village (on the present site of Beardstown) to Schuyler County, obtaining a license from the commissioners of Schuyler County, for which he paid the sum of $6 per year. The propelling power of the boat was a long pole by means of which it was pushed across the river. In 1836, when the boats began to make regular trips from St. Louis, connecting with the Ohio

By 1830 emigrants were pouring into Cass County by river steamers, movers' wagons drawn by horses or oxen, on horseback and on foot. In 1833 James M. Robinson came from the state of New York, and unloaded his family and household goods in the town of New Richmond, to be. There was then nothing but the tall prairie or slough grass, and possibly a few stakes in the ground driven by the enthusiastic promoter, who had seen the Talisman steam up the Sangamon River in 1832. Mr. Robinson had thought a New Richmond would be a good seaport town for the east end of Cass County, or, as it was then, Morgan County. If he was disappointed he concluded to stop there for a while at any rate, so built him a rude log cabin and made a shelter for his stock. There, in a few weeks after their arrival, was born the first son to Mr. and Mrs. Robinson, and they named him Charles Chandler Robinson, in honor of Dr. Chandler, who was the attending physician when the child was born. Dr. Chandler had but the year previously settled at the mouth of Panther Creek, now the site of Chandlerville. In 1835 Mr. Robinson entered a 40-acre tract on the edge of Menard County, about three miles east of New Richmond, with Clary's Creek running through it. Believing the locality an excellent place in which to erect and maintain a grist mill, Mr. Robinson, in 1886, erected what soon became the famous Robinson Mills. A sawuiill was attached, and people came for many miles to have their grain ground, to purchase lumber or to have their saw logs worked up. Mr. Robinson was a practical miller, having learned bis trade and worked at it several years before emigrating from New York to Illinois. A short distance from his mill he built a substantial double log house, and there resided for many years, giving strict attention to the milling business. In 1846 he was elected to represent Menard County in the lower house of the state legislature, and had served one term when the constitution of 1848 made a change in the manner of representation. He died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Emily Burton, at Lincoln, Ill., February 22, 1871. His son Charles, who was born at New Richmond, Ill., married a daughter of Dr. Pothicary, so long a resident of Virginia, and for many years lived on a splendid farm about five miles east of Virginia. This farm was owned for a number of years by

George Cosner, and is now owned and operated by John Williamson, one of the best agriculturalists in Illinois. The old Robinson Mills have long since disappeared. Only one very familiar with the locality in an early day could point out the site. New Richmond, or whatever little there grew to be of it, is also gone. Few people now living have even heard that there was a New Richmond in Cass County.

About 1833 several mills were erected along the various water courses in the present territory of Cass County. One was built by William Carver on the north fork of Little Indian Creek, or as it was called by some in that day 'Nigger Creek." The town of Princeton had just been laid out and a number of settlers were gathering at that point. The mill was about two miles north of east of Princeton. The old mill dam remained for many years. In 1838 Dr. Henry Hall, the founder of Virginia, built a mill on Job's Creek, about two miles north of his new town. It was a small affair and of very limited capacity. but a great convenience to the settlers, it saving them many miles of riding and driving over difficult roads. Some time about 1845, the exact date is not ascertainable, a steam grist mill was built and operated at Virginia. It stood on the east side of the branch which crosses Beardstown street, two blocks east of the public or Court House Square, and back about 200 yards from the street or road as it was then, on the north side. It was the experiment of Dr. M. H. Schooley and Nelson B. Beers, who had entered into a partnership for the purpose of conducting a milling business. Mr. Beers was a brother-in-law of William Holmes and had come from New York state, where he had been a practical miller. Dr. Schooley had been a resident physician of Virginia for several years. A short time after erecting the mill an equipment was attached for sawing lumber. The business was continued with more or less success for a number of years, but Dr. Schooley, becoming infected with the California gold fever, which had become epidemic at that time, sold out his interest to N. B. Newman. In the Illinois Observer, a paper published at Virginia, by A. S. Tilden, bearing date of April 13, 1849, appears the following notice :

"Virginia Mills are now in operation, and we are prepared to grind wheat and corn on accommodating terms. Flour and meal constantly on hand. Sawing done for 6214 cents per hundred cash, or one-half of the lumber to be retained. 600 cords of oak and hickory wood wanted. between this and the first of May next.

Just how long this partnership continued is not known, but Mr. Beers kept an interest in the mill until 1853, when the plant was consunmied by fire. Virginia was without a mill for a number of years. In 1862, Armstrong & Beasley built a mill on the west side of the same branch. and a little further north, where the remains of a later mill now stand. That mill and its business was successively traded around and operated by indifferent millers until late in the sixties, when Jacob Dunaway, an enterprising citizen, bought it, but in 1871 sold it to Martin Cosgro, an expert miller. Mr. Cosgro was a native of New York state, where he learned the millers' trade, and worked at the business in Albany, Oswego. and other New York state towns, until 1860, when he came to Peoria, Ill. There he worked in the Fort Clark and City Mills until 1871, when he came to Virginia and purchased the Virginia Steam Mills from Mr. Dunaway. He operated the plant successfully until the spring of 1885, when it was burned to the ground, nothing whatever being saved from the flames. The loss was heavy and yery little insurance was carried, but the people of Virginia, realizing that the loss of the flouring mill meant a more serious loss to the town in other directions, soon generously subscribed to a fund for rebuilding the mill and by the beginning of the next year a substantial roller mill, with all modern improvements, was in operation. Mr. Cosgro continued in control and managed the mill until 1893, when he sold out to H. A. Hueffner, a practical miller and excellent man of business. Mr. Hueffner began improving the process and extending his trade until he worked up a very profitable business. He resided at Virginia with his family for about ten years, then having an opportunity to purchase a milling plant at Petersburg, Ill., did so, and for a time conducted both plants. Later he sold the Virginia plant and moved to Petersburg. The business of the Virginia mill soon began to decline and it was not long after he sold, until the mill and lot on which it stood fell into the hands of real estate agents, and it became simply a trading proposition, went from bad to worse, until it stands today idle and vacant, the smokestack fallen and flattened out over the roof of the engine room, the machinery rusted and useless, the upper storerooms with the windows broken, a veritable roost for pigeons, owls and bats; grim and gaunt in the darkening shadows of the night. Haunted by the censorious spirits of the dusty millers of long ago. who ground the daily bread for the toiling villagers, but who now sleep beneath the moss-grown slabs of marble in the distant graveyard, it gives material for reflection. Virginia has been without a flouring mill for several years and there is no present prospect of supplying the want in the near future,

One of the earliest and most important industries in Cass County, outside that of milling, was a tanyard, constructed and operated by Andrew Cunningham, a Scotchman. He came from Edinburgh in 1834 to Canada, and the next year to Cass County. His voyage over the sea and his journeys overland were interesting experiences to a person closely observant and appreciative of the conditions under which they were made. Mr. Cunningham did not erect his tanyard immediately upon his arrival in Cass County. It took some time for him to locate a convenient place where he could obtain a sufficient supply of water, and be near the oak groves where he could more readily get the necessary bark for tanning. Acting upon the advice of William Holmes, who had settled in and entered land in township 17, range 9, about five miles east of the present site of Virginia, Mr. Cunningham finally located on section 6. township 17, range 9. Of this early tanyard, James A. Cunningham, a son of Andrew W. Cunningham, gives the following account and description : bled and fitted together and put into operation. It was built on section 6, township 17, range 9, and as I first saw it, consisted in part of a frame building of six rooms on the ground floor and two upstairs rooms; and an outside room for footwear, and harness, whips and saddles. Then there was the old lime house at the hill point, under the crabapple and plum trees, just set into the hill far enough to leave a driveway between it and the tanyard. Oh yes, and then there was the bark shed and bark mill. The bark shed was about 40x50 feet, with the same slope roof as the slope of the hillside, and the bark mill was round and about 20 feet in diameter. The ground floors contained in part twenty-four pits 4x4%4 feet. Some were larger and called the 'water hole,' where the hides were soaked and softened. The flesh was then scraped off; next put into the 'lime pit,' where the hair was loosened, and when the hair was scraped off the hides were passed on to the 'bates,' to remove all surplus. The 'bates,' oh my, it was a test of valor to stand a minute or two and sniff at the 'bates.' The skins and heavy hides when cleaned were now ready for the tanning proper. The sheep and calf and deer skins would soon (in a month or two) be ready for use, by fall or winter. Other hides according to weight would be finished out in the winter or maybe would remain a part of the next summer in the tan liquor. (Hides are tanned by a quicker process now.) The upstairs rooms are worthy of mention. The north room, covered with clapboards not much used, might be a storeroom for hides, and I remember now, two old ox collars, open at the bottom, and the big elk or deer horns and a few other old relics dimly remembered. The main room had a shingle roof aud was lathed and plastered. It was used for the finishing room and for the storeroom, and where 'Tamas' Russell did his most artistic work. - When he got done with a side of upper and harness leather it looked good. Most of the leather was sold at home, but often a lot would go to Beardstown to Chase, or Rich & Parker, or others of the long ago merchants of that town. It was quite common for buyers to come from Bath, Jacksonville and oceasionally from Petersburg or Springfield. Much of the travel to Petersburg from Virginia passed here. I have heard it said that the line of travel from St. Louis and Alton, up to Fort Clark (Peoria) was by here. The Indian trail lay between the hill country to the west and the flat prairie to the east, and 'tis easy to believe how across Sugar Grove at the headwaters of Job's Creek would offer less resistance to travel than the stand near Beardstown or the high grass and boggy ponds of the prairie on the east. And that such ideal camping grounds as the big old trees and running water, and undulating prairie would furnish, should attract travelers if no other advantages should offer. 'Uncle Billy' Holmes happened to be one of the hospitable settlers who entertained father, Andrew Cunningham, and said: 'Down there in that branch is always water, put your tanyard there, and there it was put and stayed until its course was run, and its usefulness was a question. The old men grew older, the young men preferred other lines, in fact the young men are gone, most of them. 'Bobby' Russell lives in the West near the water; Im here; the others are gone, the buildings too. The lines of travel are changed from the line of least resistance to the lines of the owner's fields."

Andrew Cunningham was born December 17. 1806, in Bonnington, a suburb of Edinburgh, Scotland. He was a son of a well-to-do land owner of that city, and had received a fairly good education. He learned the tanner's trade, and along with it learned industrious habits and business ways. He was a close observer and frequently made notes of anything of interest that particularly attracted his attention. An excellent and interesting account of his voyage to America and of his travels through Canada and some of the states, including Illinois, is now in the hands of his son, James Cunningham, and from it we learn that he. in company with his brother George, William Blair, Charles Sheriff and others, sailed from Grenoch on March 17, 1834, for New York in the Camillus, a sailing vessel. After encountering a severe storm which washed overboard the cook house with the cook; assisting to quell a mutiny on board, and enduring an eight-weeks turbulent voyage, they landed at New York. May 8, 1834. Mr. Cunningham traveled up the Hudson River and over the Erie Canal, which was just then completed, and then into Canada. There he visited many of the towns and Niagara Falls. and finally returned to the United States, and at Rochester, N. Y., worked at his trade for some months. He then took to the road again, and in company with Charles Sheriff, concluded to visit Illinois. They took a lake steamer for Cleveland, and from there walked across to Pitts- burgh, Pa., from there going by river steamer down the Ohio a short distance, then on foot across to Dayton and Springfield in Ohio. Still walking, then went back again towards the Ohio River until they reached Cincinnati. From that point they took a steamboat down the Ohio River to its mouth and up the Mississippi River to St. Louis. They had, as might be expected from such a trip, a unique experience, and Mr. Cunningham found many things of interest to write into his account of their long journey. From St. Louis they crossed into Illinois and tramped over to Edwardsville, an uninviting little village at that time, but they found a castor oil press at work there, and a wool carding machine operated by oxen on the inclined treadmill principle. Next they visited Alton on the Mississippi River, and noted that a penitentiary was being built there, and also that "it expected to become the seat of government for the state."' That is, the town of Alton, not the penitentiary. The town or city of Alton was, in fact, an applicant for the location of the state capital and three years later, when the vote upon the question of removal of the capital from Vandalia was before the legislature, Alton received sixteen votes as the place for the new seat of government. From Alton the wanderers turned their steps northward and walked up to Carrolton, but reathed it on Sunday, and found the town exceedingly "dry." They concluded that the people were mostly Methodists and temperance people. The weather was extremely hot and they thought walking at night would be a relief from the day travel in the hot sun, so they started for Jacksonville at dark, or rather after supper time, as it was not dark owing to a bright shining moon. They had not gone far when they encountered a rattlesnake crossing the road. They had the courage to kill it, but this incident so frightened them that they abandoned the night walk at the first house which offered them shelter. Through all their travels in the West they were struck with the picturesque scenery and great variety of landscape, and in Illinois especially they were attracted by the myriads of beautiful flowers growing in the pastures and fields and along the roadsides. They reached Jacksonville early the next morning, but not being much pleased with its appearance did not remain long, but pusbed on through the prairie towards Springfield. No comment whatever is made on Springfield by Mr. Cunningham in his notes of travel, but no won- der, for it was then a sorry looking place, although it too had ambitions towards securing the seat of the state government, which were realized in 1887. The travelers had started for Peoria, but when they reached the Sangamon River, north of Springfield, they found no ferry, but Mr. Sheriff discovering a canoe on the opposite side, undertook to wade across after it. He soon found himself up to his arms in the water, and concluding that this was an excellent opportunity to wash his trousers, continued on across and returned with the canoe to paddle Mr. Cunningham across. After getting across the Sangamon without being drowned, they took a bath and then again started northward. It was not long, however, until they were overtaken by a "return chaise' going to Chicago. They took passage, and the next day arrived at Peoria, which is described by Mr. Cunningham as "a very young but thriving place." There they discovered they had been for several days, and were yet, in a district infected with cholera. The driver of the chaise became yery much frightened. Mr. Cunningham speaks of a physician without giving his name, who had gained a great reputation for treating cholera, having lost only three cases out of thirty. While being delighted with the situation and beauty of scenery around Peoria, they did not deem it wise to remain, and soon resumed their journey towards Chicago. They were two days in reaching Ottawa, passing through prairies and barrens. From Ottawa to Chicago it seems they went nearly an easterly course a great portion of the way, as he says, "we were on the borders of the Grand prairie," but near Chicago they found it low and wet. Chicago was, at that time, but two years old, that is, there was a town organization in 1832, but it was not incorporated as a city until 1837, so that Chicago as a city is only as old as Cass County. Myr. Cunningham did not know its age, but records a prophecy. He says: "Chicago is a considerable of a place and has arisen entirely in these few late years. It promises well."

Mr. Cunningham made many comments on the people, their habits, the appearance of the towns and the farm lands over which he and his companion passed, the apparent fertility of the ditfferent soils, and the general prospects of the country for the future. He picked up somewhere on his trip. probably at Springfield, 111, a copy of the Sangamon Journal, from which he copies into his book the following which he

"The people of Illinois have often been accused by those who have never visited the state, with exaggeration in describing its advantages. -The inhabitants of New England can hardly be induced to believe that a farmer can make 500 bushels of corn with twelve days' work - that the labor required on an acre of wheat when 'ready for the sickle and which will produce twenty to thirty-six bushels, will not exceed one Gaye

Mr. Cunningham spent the winter in Canada and northern New York, and the next summer, in company with his brother, George Cunningham, came back to Illinois. This time they came by way of Chicago, from whence they walked to Ottawa, and then, by riding in a stage coach when they could, and by walking when they could not ride, they went on to Hennepin, where they took a steamboat on the Illinois River for Beardstown, at which place they landed on July 3, 1835. He says in passing down the river a great many eagles were seen hovering over the water and frequently they caught ducks; that they passed a place where evidently a tornado had swept through and across the river. "The trees were twisted and smashed like nettles struck down with a stick; it had destroyed several houses and killed a woman and a child." Beardstown "presented a most desolate appearance in consequence of the cholera being at that time prevalent." The two strangers had to walk some distance out of town before they could induce anyone to permit them to stay over night on account of their having come through the town infested with the cholera. On his first trip to Illinois Mr. Cunningham did not pass through any part of the territory comprising the present Cass County, but it appears that on his second trip he had a definite point in view, the home of John De Weber, and to that place, thirteen and one-half miles in an easterly direction from Beardstown, they made their way. Virginia had not yet been laid out. One small store building on the north side of the road, which is now East Springfield street; and a story and a half dwelling house on the south side, opposite the store, which building is still standing and used as a residence, with a few others, constituted the place. The De Weber home was but a short distance east of Virginia. Mr. Cunningham and his brother George soon located suitable land which they purchased from an earlier settler; and that same year they also entered several tracts from the government in the same neighborhood, on section 6, township 17, range 9. They were not yet through, however, with their journeys afoot. It appears they left some of their baggage at Chicago to be shipped to them, but as it had not yet arrived late in the summer, they concluded to return to Chicago to look after it. Walking being the only means of travel, except when they could catch an occasional stage coach, it made little difference to them which way they went, so taking the sensible course, they started in a direct line northeast for Chicago, where they arrived within a few weeks, only to find that their baggage had been sent on as directed. Returning to Cass County, the future home and the tannery were soon erected, and there Mr. Cunningham spent the remainder of his life. He named his home "Allendale" in honor of his wife, whose maiden name was Allen; and for more than half a century it was known by that name, and the older inhabitants still speak of the Cunningham farm as Allendale. Mr. Cunningham was a man of exemplary habits, a good citizen, well liked by his neighbors. He had abundant faith in himself, and what is equally as well for success in life, he had faith in his fellow man. On one occasion when he was about to make a trip to Cincinnati in the interest of his tannery, his neighbors requested him to purchase a grist mill and erect it upon his premises near the yard. He did so, and when the customers came for their grinding he told them to go to the mill and grind what they wished, and to leave the toll, as he did not have time to attend to it. Speaking of the matter long after the mill was in disuse, he said: 'In all the years I owned the mill, only one man went away without leaying the toll. I never asked him for the pay." This incident exhibits a pleasing characteristic of the early settlers, for honesty and integrity. Mr. Cunningham spent fifty-nine years of his life in his tannery and on his farm where the yard was built. He died April 7, 1895, at his home, and was buried in the Robinson gravreyard about a mile east of his farm. At that time he was eighty-eight years three months and twenty days old, honored and respected by all who knew him. His son, James A. Cunningham, who gave the description of the tannery incorporated in this article, was born on the farm near the tannery, and is still living there,

Early Manufactures

All kinds of necessary articles of farm machinery, household goods, wearing apparel and even the caskets for the dead, were manufactured in the early days in Cass County. The day of trusts and combinations had not yet arrived to smother out the small factory, and hence, scattered over the county in the various villages and towns were to be found many factories, most of them of very limited capacity, but some turning out large orders. At Beardstown, as early as 1848, Thomas Eyre had a large wagon shop. He was manufacturing wagons of all sorts used at that time, and especially was he supplying the farmers with diamond plows. In 1849. when the gold fever prevailed, and many persons were preparing for an overland trip, Mr. Eyre in a few weeks completed six Wagons as a special order for those overland emigrants. He employed fourteen hands, and in the one season made and sold 200 of his diamond plows, as well as making many buggies and carriages. On the west side of the "Old Court House Square" in Virginia, about the same time, Kenneth Conover had a chair factory where he made chairs of all descriptions, common and faney, and had a splendid trade throughout the surrounding country. Even steamboats and other vessels were built at Beardstown, when the river traffic was at its height. Captain Ebaugh had a boat yard, and Thomas Chalfant was his foreman. They constructed the first steamboat built at Beardstown. It was named the Farragut.

Princeton Woolen Mills

Although most families had spinning wheels and many had hand looms in their houses that spun the yarn and thread, and wove the cloth out of which the family wearing apparel was made. yet, in a very early day a few carding machines. or woolen mills, found their way into the West. One such was brought to Old Princeton when that town was staked out in northern Morgan. or a little north of the present south line of Cass County. It was introduced by Harvey Beggs. a son of Captain Charles Beggs, previously mentioned, and Charles Brady, who, not being wearers or expert mechanics, needed

As there was no one in the West likely to be found suitable for the position, they advertised in a Boston (Mass.) newspaper for a foreman to operate the mill. This notice chanced to meet the eye of John E. Haskell, and after a short correspondence with Beggs and Brady, Mr. Haskell, then a young man twenty-two years of age, came from the far-away old Pine Tree state to the Illinois wilds and began work in the Princeton Woolen Mills. This was in the spring of 1835, and the following year he bought the interest of Mr. Beggs in the business, and returned to Maine to get the necessary money. He returned to Illinois in 1837, traveling all the long distance on a pony with a faithful Newfoundland dog as his only companion. When Mr. Haskell got back he found a new county had been created out of the north end of Morgan, but Princeton was still in the old county. He continued running the mill until 1840, when the town of Virginia had become the county seat of the new county of Cass, and as it appeared to have a bright future, Mr. Haskell moved his machinery to Virginia. There he purchased of Dr. Hall, the proprietor of the new town, lot 117, in the original town, an unusually large lot. being 180 feet square. William Clifford's ice house now stands upon this lot. <A twostory building 44 feet square and an ell, was erected on the lot in which the machinery was placed: the upper floor was used for storage. The power used for propelling the machinery was a treadmill upon which oxen, cows or horses were placed to tramp on their never ending and never progressing journey, the most eruel and inhuman work ever demanded of animals, as it was an uphill walk all the time, really an endless chain of heavy cleats upon which the animals walked. Such power went out of use long ago, like many other primitive methods, the genius of man in his inventions tending to alleviate the burden of labor of both man and beast.

Mr. Haskell was an energetic man, closely attentive to business, and in 1842 had saved of his earnings enough to purchase the interest of Charles Brady in the mill. thus becoming its sole proprietor. He successfully conducted the business for many years. when, on account of newer and better methods coming into use, and being rapidly established in other nearby localities. he finally abandoned the mill. As late as 1867, it stood as a wind-blown, decaying relic of a bygone age, when it was finally demolished and its old hardwood timbers used for other purposes. It was then that Mr. Haskell turned his attention to other business and was elected a justice of the peace for Virginia Precinct, which office he held for thirty years. His decisions were often unique, but generally conceded to be just and equitable. At thirty years of age he married Eliline Brady, the daughter of his former partner, and continued to reside at Virginia, where his family of seven children was born, four of these children dying in infancy. Charles I., the eldest of the three to grow to maturity, a former postmaster of Virginia, who was for several terms deputy sheriff of Cass County, was born in September, 1845, and still remains a resident of the county seat. John E. Haskell died at Virginia, I1l]., September 30, 1876, aged sixty-four years and eight months.

A Church Organ

One article manufactured at Beardstown in a very early day is especially worthy of mention. In 1833 William H. Hemminghouse, a jeweler, came from the Province of Hanover, Germany, to Beardstown, in company with George and John Nolte, and John Pappmeyer, and Henry F. Kors. They all settled in Beardstown, and remained to help build up the new town. As most Germans who came to this country in that day, they were fairly well educated, and nearly all had learned some trade of handicraft. Mr. Hemminghouse soon purchased a lot and erected a building whereon he established his jewelry shop. There was no such thing as an organ in any of the churches with which to lead the singing, and the Germans being also of a religious turn of mind, had erected a church building and were doing their best to conduct public worship in the way they had been taught in their own country. Mr. Hemminghouse conceived the idea of building an organ. His musical education and his genius and proficiency as a mechanie enabled him to make a complete reed organ of which he constructed every constituent part himself. He, however. made a mistake in the material used for the bellows. He thought pigskin would be excellent material out of which to form the air generator, but when put to the test it was found to he entirely too porous. Substituting a bellows of calfskin, he had his organ ready for use, and, in fact, it was used for a number of years as the church organ of the German chureh to which Mr. Hemminghouse belonged. PORK PACKING AN EXTENSIVE EARLY INDUSTRY. The most noted industries of Beardstown, and in fact of Cass County, were the extensive pork packing establishments. Prior to the era of railroads, when the rivers were the main channels of the carrying trade, Beardstown had the largest pork trade of any western town, colmpeting even with Cincinnati. From 40,000 to 75,000 hogs were slaughtered annually between the months of November and February. A nuinber of firms from the East established houses at Beardstown, among them being: Houston & Company of Cincinnati, Ohio; Gano, Thomas & Talbot and Colonel Mckee, of Wheeling, W. Va.; and Sydam, Sage & Company, of New York City. Among the leading business firms of Beardstown in the earlier days may be mentioned the following: Nolte & McClure, S. M. Tinsley & Company, H. F. Foster, Horace Billings, D. Kreigh & Company, John McDonald, H. Chadsey & Company, Knapp & Pogue, Bassett & Taylor, George Kuhl, Chase. Rich & Parker, George Valkmar & Company, E. J. Dutch & Bro., Thompson & Ames, J. W. Thompson & Company, and H. T. Foster & Company.