Coles County, Illinois - The whole text, 1879 (part 11 of 21)

Thomas and Hezekiah Balch were the first two Justices of the Peace elected in this part of the county. William Jeffries was the second County Sheriff, serving from 1834 to 1838. The first incumbent of this ofiice was Ambrose Yocum. elected at the first election of the county in February, 1831. He died before the expiration of his term of office, and Mr. Jeffries was elected to the vacancy and to another term. The voting-place in Febi'uary, 1831, was at the house of James Ashmore, situated where Parker Clark now lives, in La Fayette Township. Every one in the county entitled to a vote came here, and, as the county then included Douglas and Cumberland Counties, many of the voters came a considerable distance to discharge the duties of citizenship. When Pleasant Grove was made a precinct, the voting-place Avas fixed at Beni White's house, in the south part of the precinct. It afterward was made at Tully's still, now in Cumberland County. It then went to Thomas Jeffries, where it remained a few years, and was then taken to a log schoolhouse on Indian Point, near where the Presbtterian Church now is. The next move was not till after the organization of the township, when it was moved to the Balch Schoolhouse, where it stayed thirteen years. About two years ago, it was taken to the Nicholson Schoolhouse, where it will probably abide some time. The still house, mentioned as one of its abiding-places, might be more fully noticed. It was built by Dillard Tulley as a horse-mill in 1832, and was the first enterprise of the kind in this part -of the county. It was afterward converted into a still, and as such was a pioneer. In those days every one drank whisky ; no Avedding, no house-raising, no harvesting, no election, was carried on without plenty of that animating beverage being used. It was considered essential, and looked upon as one of the necessities of life. Maybe, to save carrying Avhisky to elections, was one reason why they were held here. Anyway, it was a place of popular resort, and was certain to call out all the voters ; that was one consideration. When Cumberland County was set off from Coles, there Avas left a strip of land a mile or two wide, on the north, which has since been attached. In this strip the still was located. A very common Avay to get the Avhisky was to take a bushel of corn and a coffee-pot, and go to the still, exchange the corn for a gallon of Avhisky and bring it home in the coffee-pot. That was before the era of jugs. Capt. Adams says he was often sent to Tulley's still in that way Avhen a boy. He tells a story on himself, which is worth preserving here, as illustrative of the customs in the "good old days." He says he was once sent Avith the^bushel of corn and a ncAv jug - they having just been introduced - for the customary gallon of whisky. He used a fresh cob for a cork in the jug, and, on his return, kept pulling out the cob and sucking the whisky it absorbed. By the time he reached home, he was, to use his own expression, " as full as a goose I " His mother quickly noticed his condition, and, turning to her husband, remarked, emphatically : " There, Jefferson, that's the last time that boy goes to the still I " And it was the last time. Good men, one after another, saw the evil tendency of the habit, and, one after another, banished it from their tables, firesides and harvest-fields.

The same summer of 1831, Theron Balch established a Sunday school in his own cabin. He was aided by the first minister in this part of the county - Rev. Isaac Bennett, who came here under the care of the Philadelphia Presbytery, to look after this field. He preached the first sermons heard in this part of Illinois, coming all the way from Philadelphia on horse-back. Further mention will be made of him in the chapter devoted to churches in this township. The summer this pioneer Sunday school vras established, Julia Balch, a daughter of Theron, taught a day school in the little pole cabin where her father had wielded the birch the winter before.

We have mentioned the fact of the settlers going to Slover's Mill and to George M. Hanson's post office, at the Wabash Point timber. This summer, however, they came to the county seat, just then established, for mail, and as Thomas Travis, one of the pioneers of this year, erected a horse-mill, thev could get grinding nearer home. In addition to the one at the Wabash Point, they had gone, in some instances, to a mill where Greenup, in Cumberland County, is, on the Embarrass. The mill of Mr. Travis, and the blacksmithshop of Mr. Campbell, brought commodities nearer their doors, and made many of the inconveniences heretofore experienced things of the past. Already a brighter day was coming.

The season of 1832 brought still more persons seeking homes in the West. Now they began to come in so rapidly that it is impossible to name all. We will, however, give the names of some, as far as we could gather them. It is not necessary to get all, nor to attempt to follow their fortunes. The story of one is the story of all. The biographical portion of this work shows more fully than we can hope to show the lives of many of the pioneers and their deeds in the land of their choice. Among those who came in 1832, we will mention James and Lyda Glenn, with two or three children. They came from Lawrence County, and both are long since dead. Another member of this family was William, an older brother than either the others. He was a o-reat hunter in his time, a veritable Daniel Boone, as it were. There were, also, Daniel and Rachel Edson, with one or two children. They settled the farm where the widow Landers now lives. Then there were Wells Needham and his wife, and others of that company. All the old settlers will doubtless remember John Harvey, an old teacher of the old school. He was a great fiddler, and, in that capacity, was in constant demand for the old-time dances. He was, withal, a little superstitious, and believed in witches. Possibly he read the story of the witches so often he became imbued with their reality. His greatest delight was to hunt squirrels, and in this he became a veritable Nimrod. One of his oddities was a habit of pulling his nose when eating. It in some way seemed to assist him in swallowing his food.

The readers of these narratives will doubtless observe the absence of roads at this period in the history of the county or that of the townships. Until this year, there were no organized efforts in this direction. For several reasons, no roads, save bridle-paths, were to be seen in any place. The settlers were too much occupied in preparing their homes so they could live in comfort ; in getting crops sown and gathered, so they might have something aside from wild meat and "johnny-cake" to eat, and in various enterprises, all necessary to their life here The roads were part of the economy of pioneer life that could be allowed to wait other developments.

The season of 18'32 is made memorable by the breaking-out of the Black Hawk war. The causes of this war, and its history in a general way, are fully given in the history of the Northwest, in this volume, and for this purpose we omit any mention save locally. Col. Adams, who seems to have always possessed a combative spirit, and was always foremost in defending the frontiers, raised a portion of a company, with which he repaired to Shelbyville, where the full number was obtained, and where they were properly enlisted. Col. Adams' companions from Pleasant Grove were Obadiah Vincent and Harry Wilson, both of whom are yet living. They furnished their own horses, provisions and ammunition. From Shelbyville they went to Fort Dixon, on Rock River, thence to the Four Lakes, where Madison, Wis., now stauds, and followed the retreating Indians till the capture of Black Hawk and the termination of the war. After their return home, they resumed their former avocations, and were never afterward called upon to assist in subduing the red men.

The fall of that year is made memorable by the brilliant meteoric shower. As that event is, however, fully described in the history of Mattoon Township^ and as it, like the "deep snow" and " sudden freeze," occurred over all the country, one description applies to all.

Following on down through the coming years we can note no events out o^ the usual order of frontier life. Improvements were constantly going on ; new homes were being built ; more emigrants came yearly, until the country in 1827, when the first settlers came, was changed from a wilderness to one occupied by many busy, happy homes, full of enterprise, and all realizing the hopes entertained when they came.

The financial crisis of 1840, incident on the failure of the grand system of internal improvements, effected all the residents of the State. True, no lines of roads had been projected through Pleasant Grove, but the proposed construction of two railroads in the county, the hopes excited by their building and their failure in common with all the rest, made times hard in every township in the county. The country was, however, full of resources, and in ten years' time had provided for the payment of its enormous indebtedness, and was again on the road to prosperity. The citizens of Pleasant Grove had partaken of this general improvement in various ways. These were exemplified in better habitations, now built of brick and frame. Schoolhouses were getting plenty, school terms were longer, and were more efficient. Other denominations, such as the Methodists and Cumberland Presbyterians, were pi-eparing to build houses of worship, and more of the luxuries of life were apparent. The era of log cabins, and their accompanying discomforts, was passing away.

A good story it told of two aspiring youthful Ninirods in this township, which is certainly worth a place in its annals. A certain fanner had a field of corn, where the grass had been allowed to grow after it was planted until a good growth had been gathered. Deer and all kinds of game abounded then in great numbers. The deer would come to this field at night, soon after the corn was cut, and eat the leaves from the stalks around the shocks. By this means they had destroyed a good deal of fodder. This the owner did not relish much but could see no way to help himself The two youthful hunters determined securing some of the deer, and secretly made arrangements therefor. Going into the field in question after dusk, they had not long to wait till they heard a rustling in the leaves, and waited with beating hearts the approach of the game. Soon a dark object came near enough and one of them raised his gun and fired. The object fell. "Now," said the other, " havn't we done it?" " We!" replied his comrade, contemptuously, " haven't /done it? " By this time they had reached the object, which gave a pitiable bleat, and they found - a calf. " Now," said the one who had fired the shot, " haven't we done it ? " " Yes," said the other, "haven't yow done it? " To the boys' credit, it must be said, they skinned the calf, took the hide to the owner, and paiii him for the damage. They could have gone off and no one known who had killed the calf. But for many a day they heard not the last of " that calf story ! "

The young men learned to enjoy it with all the rest, and will, if they are liv ing and see this description, enjoy a laugh over their exploit.

Of the remaining history of Pleasant Grove Township, little can be said. That of the churches and schools will appear in separate chapters, and will add to the value of these annals. On down through the Mexican war, in which Col. Adams and a few of her citizens took a part ; through the era of the rebuilding of railroads, in 1854, 1855 and 1856, to the time the Grayville and Mattoon Road was begun and until it was completed, we find no incidents of consequence. The G. & M. Railroad brought a market near the township and affords an easy outlet for its products. There is, in the history of this township, the narrative of one family, who produced a man whose name and deeds will live while the world shall endure, which must not be omitted. We have reserved mention of them until this time, as we desired giving what could be gleaned concerning them in an unbroken account. We refer to the Lincoln family.

They were from Kentucky, and traced their lineage to an ancient family on Atlantic Coast. The parents of the President, who lived during their declining years in this township, are the only ones of the name who dwelt in this county or even, we believe, in this State. Thomas Lincoln was, all his life, one of those easy, honest, commonplace men, who take life as they find it, and, as a consequence, generally find it a life of poverty. He left Kentucky, where he had in vain essayed to prosper, about the year 1816, and located on the north shore of the Ohio River, in Spencer County, Ind., where he and his son, then a lad of about eight years old, kept a ferry. He remained here a few years, when he removed to a farm which he purchased, a few miles north of the county seat, in Spencer County. Here Abraham's mother died, and here, in a little country church-yard, unmarked by any stone, and shaded by a few straggling foresttrees, she is quietly sleeping. Two years after, his father married again. In 1830, the family removed from Spencer County to Macon County, 111., settling about ten miles southwest of Decatur. Here Abe Lincoln, then just of age, aided the family in their start on the prairies, and here he split the rails, which, in after years, cut the important figure in politics almost akin to the log cabin and hard cider in Harrison's day. The next spring, the young man went into life for himself, earning, it is said, his first money on a flatboat. The parents, left to themselves, made a poor living, and, a little over a year after, removed to the southwest part of Coles County, near the line between Paradise and Pleasant Grove, and essayed to begin life anew. They arrived here in the fall of 1831, having been in Macon County since the spring of 1830. They settled near Buck Grove, where they built a cabin, and remained a few months, probably till the following spring, when they moved to Goose-Nest Prairie, obtained some land, erected a cabin and settled down to life. Mr. Lincoln, though an excellent man, and a much-esteemed citizen, possessed no faculty whatever of preserving his money, when he made any, hence he always remained poor. He was easily contented, had few wants, and those of a primitive nature. He was a foe to intemperance, strictly honest, and, supposing others the same, often suffered pecuniary losses. He left the active management of his affairs gradually to his stepson, John Johnston, and, erecting himself a cabin on a knoll, on the western part of his land, passed his declining days in comparative ease, measured by his own estimate. He lived to see his son an excellent lawyer, and, when Abe was on his circuits, practicing law, he always came out to the old cabin to visit his parents. It was his custom, on such occasions, to load his buggy with provisions and take them with him. Thomas Lincoln lived on the farm until January 9, 1851, when he died, from an attack of fever. Abraham Lincoln had come to see him in response to his wish through a lettei" from Mr. A. H. Chapman, and spent some time Avitli him. He left word to send ftr him in case the disease assumed a malignant form. A severe attack soon followed his departure, proving fatal, and before Abe could be notified, his father was gone. In his early life, he joined the Baptists ; afterward, the " Presbyterian-Baptists," as they were called, and finally, owing to a disaffection in the church, the Christians, in whose communion he died. He had learned to read and write, after his marriage ; but as far as any further education was concerned, he had none. He was noted for his peaceable qualities ; for settling, arbitrarily, disputes among his neighbors, and was, in that respect, universally respected. While in the old cabin, where he lived and died, we were shown the family record, copied by Mr. Hall from a leaf of the family Bible. It is well worth recording, and we give it entire. It reads :

" John D. Johnston, son of Daniel and Sarah Johnston, was born May 10, 1810, and married to Mary Barker Oct. 13, 1834, who was born July 22, 1816."

When Mr. Lincoln died, the estate came into Mr. Johnston's hands, who, not then realizing the value attached to many of the family records, allowed them to be carelessly carried off by idle curiosity-hunters and become lost. Mr. Lincoln now lies buried in the little Gordon church-yard, no monument marking his grave save " a hillock and bowlder." Mr. George B. Balch has embalmed the spot in poetry, which we present our readers in preceding pages. After Abraham Lincoln was elected to the Presidency, he visited the grave of his father in company with A. H. Chapman and John Hall. It was on a rather cold day in February, just preceding his inauguration, and after viewing the spot, the party returned to Farmington, where a sumptuous dinner had been prepared for the distinguished man. When Mr. Lincoln returned to Charleston, he asked one of the younger members of the Hanks family to find out the probable cost of a tombstone for his father's grave. During the conversation on the subject, Mr. Lincoln asked Mr. Chapman what he thought the expense would be. Mr. Chapman answered not less than |40, or more than $60, he thought. " Well," said the President, " see what it will cost and let me know at- Washington, and I will send you an inscription I Avant put on." The war came on, and he could not attend to it. It has been erroneously supposed that he left money, and it was not appropriately used. This, Mr. Chapman says, is untrue, and that the only ai-rangement made was the one already given. Further proof is givon in a letter from Mrs. Lincoln after her husband's untimely death, wherein she refers to the thought often expressed by the President that as soon as his term of office expired, he would return here and see to the erec- tion of the monument. As his estate is ample now to put such a monument as will perpetuate the memory of Thomas Lincoln, when properly presented before the heirs, they will no doubt attend to it. Another rumor is prevalent in the community where Thomas Lincoln died. It is supposed that Avhen the President visited the grave at the time mentioned, he cut the letters " T. L." on a walnut board and drove it into the ground at the head of the grave. This the writer of these pages endeavored to find, but could not. Mr. Chapman says he did not cut the letters and place the board at the grave as represented. He was with him all the time, and he says no such thing happened. The board in question was found by the writer to be the end of a fence rail, with the letters " T. E." cut in it, and standing at the foot of the grave. Rumors of all kinds are easily started ; but no one could be found who knew the board was there, or who kneiv the money was left. "Nathan had told Nathan's son," and that was all there was about it. After the death of Thomas Lincoln, " Grandmother Lincoln," as she was always called, lived on the old farm or with her relatives in Charleston and Farmington. She was a kind, good woman, and died universally respected. She lies buried in the same church-yard with her husband, and like him has no stone to mark her restingplace. During her life, she was allowed the benefits of the farm, which after her death passed into the hands of her son, John Johnston. Mr. John Hall purchased it from him and now resides there.

As has been noticed, Theron E. Balch taught a school in a small pole cabin in the winter of 1829-30. Some place it the next winter ; but the weight of opinion favors the time given. School was continued here with commendable regularity each winter, and sometimes in the summer. All were supported by subscription. Each patron subscribed as many pupils as he could send at $2.50 each per quarter - three months, and paid the tuition in various articles of barter, coonskins, beeswax, hides, honey, or whatever the dominie could exchange for board or clothing. As the different parts of the precinct settled, other schools were built, and as these settlements grew, better houses appeared. But little if any change occurred in the modes of instruction, length of term, and mode of paying the teacher until a revenue was derived from the State Treasury from the sale of school lands. Again, in 1844, 1845 and 1846, the revenue was farther augmented by the gradual adoption of free schools, ^. e., supported by a general tax. These, in time, superseded the old subscription schools. Now. the law compels each district to conduct a school a certain number of months in the year to derive any benefit from the general fund. In addition to this, the Directors of each district may levy such a tax as they deem sufficient to carry on the school a month or two in excess of the time required by law. This gives in many districts, school from six to nine months in each year. The old log school with its puncheon floor, slab seats, paper window, long writing- desk, broad, open fire-place, cross teacher, Smiley's Arithmetic, American Speller, and other primitive appliances, is now a thing of the past. Since 1860, better houses and higher grades of instruction are required, and a consequent advantage and advancement the result. Frame houses began to appeal in 1858, 1859 and 1860 ; and, in 1853, a brick one arose on the site of Farmington. It Avas, however, intended as a seminary, but after serving a while in that capacity, became a common schoolhouse, and finally a store.

Incidental mention has been made throughout the preceding pages of churches and schools in Pleasant Grove Township, reserving a more extended notice of these subjects in a separate chapter. The first church in this part of the county was built on the Little Indian Creek in 1832. Two years before, on August 30, 1830, the Presbyterian Church of Pleasant Prairie, so say the records, was organized by the Rev. B. F. Spillman, connected with, and under the care of, the General Assembly. The organization was effected with fourteen members. They were Thomas Mayes, Agnes Mayes, Theron Balch, Ann Boyd, Thomas McCracken, Nancy McCracken, James Ashmore, Cassandra Ashmore, Rachel Ashmore, Margaret Ashmore, William Wayne, Mary Wayne, James Logan and Elizabeth Logan. Of these persons none are now living. They met for organization at the house of Theron Balch, it is supposed, or, if the pole cabin schoolhouse was erected, there. Whether Mr. Spillman remained long preaching here, is not known. Probably not, as it is thought he was over this part of Illinois looking after scattering members of the Presbyterian congregations, and organizing them into churches. Hence, he would be here but a little. Their earliest minister was Rev. Isaac Bennett, a rather eccentric character, w;ho, it will be observed, is noticed elsewhere in this work. He was here some three or four years. This church was the first Presbyterian Church established in the county, and was, for a number of years, the only place of worship in the township. The Church records show no additions until the next summer. On July 24, 1831, fourteen more members are received, eleven on certificate, and three on profession. These are the members of the colony whose history is given on previous pages. They came the fall after the or^nization of the Church, but, being principally members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, waited a while hoping to found a church of their own. As the settlement was young, however, they gave up such plans for awhile, and joined with the Indian Point Church.

The next summer - 1832 - on June 1, the members met and ascreed to donate so many days of work each, in building a church. It 'was to be of logs. 24x30 feet in size. The original list of [subscriptions show from two to twelve days' labor subscribed by each one, while Mr. Barnett subscribed twenty-six spikes, and William Wayne thirty ^bushels of lime. In all, eighty days were subscribed, and, that fall, the church was raised and covered. It could be used only in the warm weather, as no floor or windows were yet made. The flooring was afterward sawn out by a whip-saw, an exceedingly long and tiresome process, while the siding and roof were made from slabs split out with a maul and wedges, and dressed with a frow. The church, made in this manner, was considered quite an aflair, for the times, and, considering the appliances at hand, and the labor necessary to build a frame house in that manner, it is certainly creditable. It had two doors in front, between which the pulpit was placed. The latter was one of those high, old-fashioned, box-like aff'airs, behind which the minister was pretty eff"ectually screened. It is said that, when Mr. Bennett sat down in it, the top of his head only was visible to the congregation. The seats in this church were made by placing long slabs on trestles. They were without backs, and placed rather closely together. If any one became sleepy then, as now, and wanted to lean his head forward on the seat in front, he had a poor chance, surely. May be they did not get sleepy then, as they do now ; the room was always well ventilated, and the sermon more of a rarity than now. The church remained in its unfinished condition about two years. The one who subscribed the lime failed to produce it, and, as Rev. John McDonald, now the Pastor, possessed energy in worldly matters, as well as in spiritual, he, with the aid of Mr. Nicholson, yet living in the neighborhood, prepared to remedy the deficiency, and make the house comfortable in cold as well as in warm weather. Rev. McDonald found a lime-rock in the Indian Creek, and it was determined to upe it to plaster the church. Logs were hauled by the members and piled around and on it, and, being set on fire, burned it to a pulverized condition. By the aid of sand, also found here, Mr. McDonald and his parishioners made an excellent plaster, and, having put split lath on the inner side of the house, the worthy minister plastered the church with his own hands. As the weather was cold at the time, he took up ^ the floor of the church, made a bed of sand in the center of the inclosure, and therein kept a great fire burning until the plastering was thoroughly dried.

In 1834, the congregation employed Rev. James H. Shields, of Indiana, onehalf his time. He, however, sent them word, afterward, that he could not attend. The congregation was growing very well at this date, the main losses being those who left to unite with other churches of their own particular creed, which they could not find when they came first to the country. Rev. Bennett remained here, at different times, several years. He had been in the county when it was first settled ; had made three trips on horse-back between Philadelphia and his charges in the West, and had seen the infant congregations expand into self-supporting charges. His old, faithful horse passed its declining days in this part of the State, dying at last in Lawrence County, where, out of respect to its master and its own good service, it was given a decent interment by some young men.

In examining old records of the Church, and, indeed, of all churches of that date, we find many phases of human life exemplified. Then the church assumed more of the functions of a court than now, and tried persons who comm'itted acts unworthy their profession. The records of Indian Point Church show that a certain member was found " guilty of making cheese on the Sabbath Day," and was suspended. Others are, at times, "admonished." The church grew alt the while, and, where any took offense at such proceedings, they were at liberty to withdraw.

This part of the West was too remote in the wilderness to note the transactions of important events when they transpired. It took several weeks for the news to reach the inland settlement of Illinois at that day. Hence, when the dismemberment of the great Presbyterian Church occurred, we find no note is taken of it in Pleasant Prairie until a year or two after it had occurred. On August 9, 1839, the members of the Pleasant Prairie Church met to consider that question, and after a discussion and explanation of the division, a ballot was taken to decide to which of the two great bodies - technically called Old and New School - they should annex themselves. They seemed to be pretty evenly divided, as a majority of 3 votes was cast to remain with the " Old School." The dissenters to this view numbered thirty-one, and drawing off" formed a new Church, and from this date down to the re-union in 1871, we find two congregations. They were so amicably situated that by an outsider, however, the difference could not have been detected. Both congregations used the same house, though each employed their own Pastor and managed their own aff"airs. The old Church was left with twenty-five members, whose first minister was Rev. John McDonald, who had come from Ohio to the north part of the State, and who had attended the first meeting of a Presbyterian Presbytery in Illinois, at the house of Rev. Stephen Bliss, in Wabash County. When he came to Pleasant Prairie, he lived in a split-log or pole cabin, near the church, that had heretofore been used for a schoolhouse. He lived in this until he could erect a house for himself and his family, into which they moved when it Avas completed. He died about twelve years ago. The family still reside on the old homestead. He remained in charge of the Church until his health failed, even then preaching occasionally. He was succeeded by the Rev. Joseph Adams, who came from Philadelphia, and remained about two years. He, in turn, by Rev. R. A. Mitchell, who lived in Charleston ; he, by Rev. Elliott ; he, by James W. Allison ; he, by A. Kemper, of Mattoon ; he, by Nathaniel Williams ; he, by Ellis Howell, under whose ministry the re-union occurred ; he, by Robert Ash ; he, by George W. Davis, and he, by the present Pastor, R. G. Ross.

The New-School branch first employed Rev. John C. Campbell. His successors were C. H. Palmer, Joseph Wilson, who remained here a number of years, and E. Kingsbury. When the congregation re-united with the other and original one, they came under the care of the minister there.

The old church, built by contribution of labor, spikes and lime, and plastered by Rev. McDonald, remained in use until 1852, when the Old-School branch built the house standing just^back of the present church. This, like its prede- cessor, was used by both congregations until 1857, when the New-School branch built a neat frame church in the village of Farmington. They were assisted in the effort by the Methodists in that vicinity, who were allowed to use the house in consequence. This was done till 1866, when they completed their own church. The Old-School congregation used the church built in 1852 till 186G, when, becoming too small and worn out, it was replaced by the present one; dedicated when Rev. Howell was Pastor.

On the 14th of October. 1871, the Mattoon Presbyterv united the two Churches as one congregation again, employing one minister, still keeping both houses of worship, holding services alternately in each.

As has been incidentally mentioned, the Cumberland Presbyterians and the Methodists began organizing Churches about the year 1850 or 1852 - possibly, earlier. The strongest Methodist community was in INIattoon Township, then Paradise Precinct, at the head of the Wabash Point timber. Its history will be found in the history of that settlement, and there, it will be observed, it antedates the Indian Creek Presbyterian Church a year or two in point of organization. The denomination began holding meetings in Pleasant Prairie early in the life of that settlement. They united with the Cumberland Presl)yterians in the west side of the township in erecting a house of worship, about 1852 or 1853, and -with them occupied it, alternately, until 1866, the centennial year of American Methodism, when they completed their present house of worship, situated near the southwestern part of the township. It was dedicated April 29, 1866, when Rev. J. H. Aldrich was Pastor. The dedicatory sermon was preached by Rev. Dr. Phillips. The Church is known as the Muddy Point M. E. Church, from its location in the vicinity of that stream, and can trace its origin to the time the original Methodist Church at Wabash Point divided into three congregations, to suit the members, who were too widely scattered to attend there, and organized churches in their own neighborhoods. Almost cotemporary Avith the organization of the Muddy Point Church, one was formed in the "Goose-Nest Prairie." They, like all other infantile congregations, held meetings at first in each other's cabins. When the brick schoolhouse was built in Farmington, in 1853, they, with the Presbyterians, occupied that. Then, when this latter denomination built their church in the village, the Methodists aided them, and were, in consequence, allowed the use of their house of worship. This arrangement was continued until they built their own church, in 1866. They have a good congregation at present.

The Cumberland Presbyterians organized their first Church at Muddy Point in 1833. It is known as the Good Prospect Church, and was organized by Rev. Isaac Hill. They met in dwellings and schoolhouses, at first, continuing the practice till 1864, when they completed their present house of worship. For several years prior to this time, they occupied a large schoolhouse, which answered every purpose. Their principal pastors have been Revs. Isaac Hill, Daniel Campbell, James Ashmore and J. W. Woods. The latter is now living

The second church of this denomination is the outgrowth of a great revival, occurring in 1837. Those who are now living and attended that revival will, doubtless, remember the powerful sermon preached by Rev. Mitchell, of Charleston, then expecting to go to China as a missionary. As the result of this revival, a large accession accrued to the Church ; and, in 1843, the second congregation, known as Pleasant Grove Church, was organized by Rev. J. W. Woods. Their first meetings were held in the houses of William -Gammill (who will be remembered as one of the early members in the Indian Point Presbyterian Church) and John Whetstone, and in a schoolhouse in the neighborhood. The principal members were those named and the families of Alfred Alexander, Michael Whetstone and C. J. Dexter. Their pastors have been Revs. Woods, Isaac Hill, James Ashmore and others. The membership is now about seventy, and the attendance at Sunday school about the same. Their house of worship was erected in 1856, and was used, occasionally, by the Methodists, who assisted in its erection. These two Churches and the Methodist Church are all in this part of the township. They evince a people religious in feeling.

This village, the only one in the township, is situated on Section 16. It was laid out April 25, 1852, by Thomas Lytle, a surveyor, for John J. Adams, owner of the land on which it is situated. A post ofiice had existed for some time before this in this community, known as Campbell Post Office, as it was started by Frank Campbell, the first Postmaster here. ^I'he office at Farmington is yet known by that name. The village received its name from Mrs. Adams, who named it for Farmington, Tenn. There being one post office of that name in the State, when the village started, the Post Office Department refused to change the office name to correspond, hence it is yet known as Campbell's Post Office. Soon after the village was platted, Leander Burlingame built a house and store and opened a stock of goods. About the same time. Dr. Halbrooks and Samuel A. Reel erected a store and began business. Which of these two stores was first is hard to determine. It is probable they were erected at the same time and opened within a few days of each other. The post office was soon after moved into the village, a blacksmith named Gr. F. Biddle came, and the life of the village assumed tangibility. The next year the residents in this community, desirous of better educational advantages, erected a very good and substantial brick schoolhouse, intending it for seminary purposes. It was named Farmington Seminary, and, for a time, a very creditable school was maintained here. It also served as a place of public worship for the Methodists, who were numerous in this part of the township. It answered the double purpose of school and church until 1857, when the Presbyterians erected, with the aid of the Methodists, a neat frame house of worship in the western part of town, and public religious services were thereafter held there. The advent of the free schools brought a better system of education, and the Seminary was abandoned, the building turned over to the school authorities of the township, and common school held therein. After the village grew so that the building became too small, it was sold, changed into a store, and the present two-roomed house erected.

The foregoing narrative shows the earliest attempts to found a church in the village : As early as 1835, the Methodist ministers were in this part of the county, organizing classes and laying the foundations for churches. Rev. McKee was one of the earliest remembered. Rev. Ryan, another early circuitrider, organized a class of ten or twelve members in Goose-Nest Prairie, at George Rogers' house, not long after the settlement was made. They used each other's cabins at first, then the log schoolhouses, next the brick seminary, then the Presbyterian Church they assisted in building, which they occupied until they completed their own house of worship in 1866. It is a comfortable, neat frame church and accommodates a good congregation. The history of the Presbyterian Church in the village need not be repeated here, as it is sufficiently given in the sketch of the churches in the township history. The Pastor of both charges - practically one congregation - resides in the village, preaching alternately in each church.

The village is yet small, containing, perhaps, one hundred inhabitants. The tiouring-mill of Adams & Freeman, erected in 1866, by Harris & Crow, does a very fair business. It has only a local trade ; but it is constant and self-supporting. They can readily find a market for all they can grind above the wants of their customers.

The post office, Larna, is kept by Mr. George B, Balch, who aided the railroad in this section, and who makes a stopping-place at his house for the trains. It is a very convenient place for the neighborhood, and should be maintained, and a depot erected. Another stopping-place is made a few miles north, on the farm of Mr. Miller, from whom the place takes its name. No depot, office or platform is made here, however.

We have now given in outline the history of Pleasant Grove Township. Its details would fill a volume. There would, however, be much repetition, Avhich we have found difficult to avoid, and which we trust we have accomplished. The biographies of many of her citizens given elsewhere in these pages show much of the history which this volume perpetuates, and in away it only can be perpetuated. Had a similar work been published in the counties wherein we were raised, who would not prize it ?

The township of Hutton forms an important part of the history of Coles County, inasmuch as the first settlement within its present limits by civilized white men was made in this township more than half a century ago. How

-many pages have been added to the history of the world in that period of time ! Empires, kingdoms, nations and principalities have been blotted out, and the remembrance of their glory has almost faded from the minds of men as the " waves of dark oblivion's sea sweep o'er them," scarcely leaving a trace to tell how, or when, or where they sunk. "Thrones tottering have fallen; crowns crumbling have disappeared;" ancient palaces, in whose spacious halls the " mightiest monarchs proudly trod,'' have been, as it were, swept from the very face of the earth. The storm of war has raged through our own fair land, convulsing the Republic from its " center to its circumference," and threatening for a time its total destruction. The tempest roared and howled with terrific force, then passed by, and the olive branch of peace bloomed over the nation fairer than ever. These are but a few of the mighty events that have transpired in the half-century gone by since the first settlement was made here by white people.

Hutton Township lies in the southeast part of Coles County, and is bounded on the south and east by Cumberland and Clark Counties, on the north by Ashmore Township, and on the west by the Embarrass River. It is well drained by the latter stream, and the small water-courses that meander through it. At the time of the early settlement of Hutton, it contained much fine timber-land, though about half of the town, perhaps, is prairie. It is considerably above the size of a Congressional township, embracing within its limits some fifty-four sections of land. No railroads intersect it, but the Indianapolis & St. Louis Railroad passes in a few miles of its north line, and the Vandalia line a little south of it, so that its railroad facilities are not at all restricted.

Settlement

As we stated above, the first settlement in the county was made in Hutton Township. In 1824, John Parker and his sons, Benjamin, Daniel, Silas and James Parker, and Samuel Kellogg and his wife, made a settlement here, and composed this first colony of pioneers in Hutton Township. But one of the little band of pilgrims is now alive - the widow of Samuel Kellogg, who lives at present in the city of Charleston. They settled on the Embarrass River, just opposite where the Blakeman Mills now stand. Some of the Parkers afterward settled in Charleston Township, where they are noticed among the early settlers of that section. Most of them moved to Texas years ago, as elsewhere mentioned, and where two or three members of the family suffered severely by the Indians, two of them, at least, losing their lives.* A daughter of James Parker was taken prisoner by the savages, and held for some time in captivity, subjected to all kinds of cruelty. She was married to a man named Plummer, who was killed at the fort where the Parkers were living at the time she was captured. During her captivity among the Indians, she gave birth to a child, which the savages killed before her eyes. Her father had a long search for her,

*Since the above was written, we have been informed liy Mr. Hutton that John Parlier, the old gentleman, and two of his SODS, were killed by the Indians in Texas. A mention of the .sons being killed is made in the general county history.

visiting many of the tribes then in Texas before lie found her, but finally did find her, and succeeded in obtaining her release. John Parker (High Johnny, his friends called him) was a Baptist preacher, and one of the first in Coles County. lie was of the old Predestinarian belief, and many humorous anecdotes are related at the old gentleman's expense. One or two of his sons were also preachers ; in fact, the Parkers seem to have been a family of preachers, and proclaimed the Word freely to perishing sinners. They ignored the doctrine, although of divine origin, that "the laborer is worthy of his hire," and would accept no pay for the promulgation of the Gospel, but zealously toiled in the cause of the Master, without money and without price. Taken all in all, they were a remarkable family, and rather above the mediocre in intellect and ability. Daniel Parker, one of the sons, was a preacher, and perhaps the most intelligent one of the name. He represented Crawford County (before their removal to this county) in the Legislature a term or two, and was an able representative as well as preacher. It is told of him, that, although a minister of the Gospel, he would work all the week on his farm, and then take his gun on Sunday, and kill deer enough to furnish his family in meat until the next Sunday. When some of the stricter people spoke to him in regard to such a questionable way of serving the Lord, he told them if he ever got able to live without having to work so hard, and to have time to kill his meat in the week, he would cheerfully do it, but then it was a case of the boy and the woodchuck, "he had to." Daniel Parker is mentioned, in another page, as preaching the first sermon in Hutton Township, and Benjamin Parker as building the first mill.

Another family of Parkers, and not related to those above mentioned, settled in this township in the winter of 1825-26, on what is called Parker Prairie, and from them the prairie received its name. George Parker and his sons, Samuel, Daniel, Jeptha and William Parker composed this settlement. They were originally from Butler County, Ohio, and removed to Crawford County, 111., in 1817, locating south of Palestine, where they remained until their settlement in this town, on Parker Prairie. Samuel Parker went back to Crawford Countv and died there, some of them died here, and Daniel and Jeptha are still living in the township, prominent farmers. George Parker is said to have entered the first land in Coles County.

John Hutton, one of the esteemed citizens of this township, has, probably, been acquainted with Coles County longer than any man now living. There are older residents of the county than he, but none who knew it so early. He assisted the Parkers in moving to this township, in 1824, and spent several days in bee-hunting in the heavy-timbered sections. Says that he was on the ground where Charleston now stands during that trip, and that there is not another man living that can truthfully make the same statement - a fact that is, perhaps, undisputed. While here at that time, he heard the first sermon preached in the present territory ol Coles County. It was in a small log cabin, and though every man, woman and child in the county were present, the house, he says, was by no means crowded.. Daniel Parker preached the sermon, and, at its close, old "Father High Johnny " made the quaint remark quoted in another page : " Brethren, we have wandered far into the wilderness, but even here death will find us."

When Mr. Hutton started back home (he then lived in Crawford County), he took a straight course through the forests and across the prairies to save distance, as around the trail was much further. He had an ox-team, with which he had hauled a load of " plunder " for the Parkers to their new home, and traveled very slowly ; consequently, was several days making the trip. When night came, he would tie up his cattle, and ''camp till morning." One night, a panther " squalled and screamed " around his lonely camp for an hour or two, frightening his oxen considerably, and himself somewhat ; but, as he kept up a bright fire, it finally retired without making an attack. Notwithstanding he traveled through the unbroken country, where no trail had been marked, he made the trip in safety, and without the least bewilderment. So well-skilled were the pioneers in woodcraft, that they read signs in the forest like a printed book, and the very bark of the trees was to them the points of the compass.

Mr. Hutton is a native of Montgomery County, Ky., and came to Illinois, with his parents, when quite young, and settled in Crawford County, in 1816, where he remained until 1834, when he removed to Hutton Township, where he has since lived. His mother came here with him, his father having died in. Crawford County. He was a soldier in the Black Hawk war, from the latternamed county, and went out in the company commanded by Capt. Alexander Huston, long a resident of Palestine. He was one of the few "pale-faces" who crossed the Mississippi after the Indians in that memorable campaign. He has always been a prominent and enterprising man in his neighborhood ; was one of the Commissioners to lay off the county into townships, and was the first Supervisor of Hutton Township, an office beheld three terms in succession, and from him the town received its name. He was a great fox-hunter, in his day, and many are the stories he can tell of his exciting chases after Reynard. He kept a pack of hounds for the purpose, and a fox-chase was his most enjoyable pastime. Though in his seventy-ninth year, Mr. Hutton has an excellent memory, and is enjoying fine health for his advanced age. To his vivid recollection we are indebted for many particulars that, but for him, would ere now have been lost.

Kentucky contributed the following early settlers to Hutton Township: The Conleys, the Rennelses, Richard 0. Wells, the Beavers, the Brandenburgs, George and John J. Cottingham, the Goodmans, the Evingers, William Stivers, and perhaps others. The Conleys emigrated to Indiana, and lived some time in Lawrence County before coming to Illinois. Joel Conley, the father of all the Conleys, was a North Carolinian, but removed to Kentucky, and from thence to Indiana, and in 1832, to this township. He died on the farm where his son, Edmond Conley, now lives. His son, Jack Conley, went to Texas, and William to California, where they died. Edmond, Elijah and Washington Conley still live in Hutton Township, and are among the prosperous and energetic men of the community. The Rennelses came from Madison County, and located in what is known as the Rennels Settlement, a mile or two from the little village of Salisbury. James Rennels was the first one to settle in the township, locating on Section 32, in 1832, where he has ever since resided. John Rennels, his father, came to the township in 1837, and settled near by, where he died in 1866, at the ripe old age of eighty-five years. He was a native of the State of Delaware, and emigrated to Kentucky at an early day, when the Indians were extremely hostile, and committing all sorts of depredations in the "dark and bloody ground." William Rennels, another son, moved here at the same time his father came, and settled on the place where he still lives. The Rennels family is a large one, and embraces some of the thrifty farmers of the country. Richard 0. Wells was from Bourbon County, and settled in Hutton Township in 1838. He remained here but a few years, when he returned to Kentucky, and resided there until 1853, and moved back to this township and settled where he now lives. F. M. Wells, a son of his, enlisted in Company H, Twenty-first Illinois Volunteers, and died in 1865, on his way home from the war. It is a melancholy reflection. He had served through the war and the banner of peace again waved over the country, but he died before reaching home, where loved ones anxiously awaited his coming. The Beavers are natives of the Old Dominion, but emigrated to Kentucky when it was in a wild state, and the hunting-grounds of hostile Indians. William Beaver came to Illinois in 1827, and settled in the Rich Woods, in the present bounds of Clark County, where he remained until 1830, when he came to this township and entered the land upon which he now lives. For forty-nine years he has been living on the same farm - a lifetime of itself. When he came to this State, the land was owned by the Kickapoo Indians, who were thick in the neighborhood. He remembers when cutting some "bee trees" at Long Point, of seeing the runners sent out by Black Hawk to summon the Indians to the grand powwow, of Avhich the Black Hawk or Sac war was the final result. Mr. Beaver is over eighty years old, is remarkably active, and seemingly good for another decade. Mathias Beaver came from Meade County, and settled in Hutton in 1833, where he still resides, an enterprising farmer. Albert Beaver was a soldier in the Fifty- fourth Illinois Volunteers in the late war, but was discharged on account of ill-health. Solomon Brandenburg, the progenitor of the Brandenburg family, came to this toAvnship in 1829, and settled on Section 14, where he died in 1861. He first settled at White Oak Point, on Grand Prairie, but did not remain there 'long until he removed to Hutton, as above noted. Among the worthy farmers and citizens of the town, are his sons, James, William, Solomon, Calvin and Charles Brandenburg. George Cottingham was originally from Maryland, but a\ nit to

Kentucky in the early times. In 1836, he, with his family, removed to Illinois and settled in this neighborhood, where he resided until 1859, when he came to Charleston to live with his son. He was a soldier of the Revolutionary war. and of the war of 1812. In the former he served under Uen. Washington, and professed to have been well acquainted with the Father of his country, and for years made Gen. Washington's shoes and boots. He had a strong desire to live to vote for Stephen A. Douglas, for President in 1860, and claimed to have voted for every President from Washington down. What a history. How many changes he had seen in the country he had fought to free it from British oppression. From the thirteen feeble colonies, he had seen it expand into nearly three times that number, of great and prosperous States. He died soon after the Presidential election of 1860, at the extreme age of one hundred years. John J. Cottingham, his son, came to Hutton Township in 1836, having first settled in Clark County, where he remained but a short time. He removed to the city of Charleston, in 1859, and died there in 1863. There are still many younger members of the family living in the township, and Mrs. Hutton, John Hutton's wife, is a daughter of the elder Cottingham, mentioned above. The Goodman family came from Putnam County, Ind., though originally they were from Kentucky. William Goodman died on the way here, and John and Thomas Goodman settled in the town very early. John Goodman is dead, but Thomas is still living. He is a minister and lives in Charleston. The Evingers were among the early settlers here, and came from the vicinity of Louisville. Of those who were prominent men in the township, were Daniel, Jacob, Henry and Frederick Evinger. There is a large family of them, and they are of the Very best men in the neighborhood. William Stivers came here about 1829-30. He had " run off from Kentucky and left his woman," is the way old friend Beaver put it, and she followed him to this country and took charge of him " whether or no." He was a si ey maker (we do not mean a vehicle on runners, but an "implement " used by our mothers and grandmothers for weaving cloth) and used to manufacture these useful articles, when the pioneer ladies were accustomed to make the cloth whereAvith their families were clothed. Forty or fifty years ago, the people in this country (male and female) wore few "store clothes," but were thankful to have sufficient, even of homespun, to keep them warm. As pertinent to the subject, and in illustration of the times of which we write, we give space to a little poem from the bard of Pleasant Grove :

" I have been charmed by the sweet-sounding lute, Oft been entranced by the organ and flute ; These things I heard, but the music I feel Is the far- oiF roar of my mother's wheel, As with midnight lamp by its side she stood. Still spinning the yarn to clotlie her dear brood.

And as down life's stream my little bark sails, Sweet sounds may often be borne on the gales ; But sweeter by far, on my soul will steal, My childhood's music - my dear mother's wheel."

There are many living in Coles County who will recognize the truth of these simple lines, and doubtless when they read them, memory will roll back over the years that have past, to kindred scenes in their own childhood homes.

John Ashby was a native of North Carolina, but had lived some time in Tennessee before emigrating to Illinois. When he came to this State, he settled in Crawford County, near Palestine, where he remained a few years, and then came to this township about 1828-29. He was a blacksmith, the first of that useful trade in the town ; he died here many years ago. Another old North Carolinian is Jeremiah Cooper. He came to the township in 1837, and is the oldest man now in it, and perhaps the oldest in the county, being in his ninety-fifth year. Nicholas Lemming is eighty-eight years old. He is a native of Pennsylvania, and in early days emigrated to Ohio, then to Indiana, and from thence to Crawford County, 111., where he remained a short time, and, in 1835, removed to Hutton Township, where he still lives, quite an active man of his age.

Grifiin Tipsoward was an early settler in this township, but after a residence of a few years, moved to the neighborhood of Kaskaskia. He was an old soldier of the Revolutionary war, and made application for a pension under a law of Congress passed in 1832, On the early records of the County Court we find the following declaration :

On the ir)th day of October, personally appeared in open court before Isaac Lewis and James S. Martin, County Commissioners for the County of Coles, in the State of Illinois, now sitting, and constituting said County Commissioners' Court, Griffin Tipsoward, a citizen of the United States of America, in the County of Coles and State of Illinois, aged 77 years, who, being first duly sworn according to law, doth on his oath make the following declaration, in order to obtain the benefit of the Act of Congress passed June 7th, 1832: That he entered the service of the United States as a Revolutionary soldier under the following-named officers, and served as herein stated, viz.: In General Rutherford's Brigade, Colonel McKatty's Regiment, Major Horn's Battalion and Captain Grimes' Company ; that he entered the service about the 18th of July, 1775, and was discharged by General Washington at the close of the war, which discharge was sunk in the Ohio River. That he was in the engagement at the battle of Eutaw Springs, under General Greene, Col. McKatty, Major Horn and Captain Grimes ; that he was in the battle of King's Mountain, under Col. Slielby ; that he was in the battle of Charleston, under Col. McKatty and Capt. McGwire; that he was iu the battle of Cross Creek, under General Gates, Col. McKatty and Capt. McGwire ; that he was in the battle of Hawe River, commanded by Genl. Greene, Col. Chamberlain, Major Peat and Capt. John Galloway. He states that he was here wounded by a musket-shot from the enemy's gun. That he marched first after leaving North Carolina into the State of Virginia; that he was at the surrender of Lord Cornwallis, under General Washington, Col. McKatty and Capt. McGwire. That he lived in the County of Roan and State of North Carolina, when he entered the service ; that he was first drafted for three months ; he then, at the end of the three months, volunteered, and was enlisted during the war. That he was born in the State of Pennsylvania, near the Susquehanna River, in the year of our Lord 176o ; that he has no record of his age that he knows of. That he moved to Kentucky the second year after the expiration of the war; that he settled in the neighborhood of Boonesborough, where he resided until he moved to the Territory of Illinois, in which Territory and State he has resided about twenty years. That he now resides in Coles County and State of Illinois ; that he supposes his name will be easily found on the Continental Rolls. He hereby relinquishes all claims what, ever to a pension or annuity, except the present, and declares that his name is not on the pension-roll of the agency of any State.

The truth of this declaration is attested to by John Parker and Joseph Painter, Revolutionary soldiers themselves, and who file similar declarations on their own behalf. The honesty and respectability of the petitioner is also attested by another certificate from John Parker, " a minister of the Gospel," and James Nees, after which is a certificate from the County Commissioners, stating that they believe the "foregoing declaration to be true, and that the said GriflSn Tipsoward was a Revolutionary soldier and served as therein stated," and recommended that the pension applied for be paid him.

Stephen Sargent was originally from New Hampshire, but removed to Kentucky when that State was in its infancy. He came to Illinois in 1836, to Hutton Township in 1838, and settled on Section 11, where he resided until his death in 1878. Stephen Stone was originally from Virginia, and was one of the very early settlers of this town. He died here many years ago. Reddick Cartwright, a relative of the famous pioneer preacher, Peter Cartwright, came to this section about 1827-28. He was from Tennessee, and is long since dead. John Wilkerson, John Walker and Hugh Doyle were among the early settlers. Where Wilkerson came from is not remembered ; he removed to Texas a good many years ago. Walker was from Indiana here, and died long ago. Doyle came here from Crawford County, and moved to Missouri, where he died. Andrew Endsley came from Ohio in 1838, and settled near the present village of Salisbury, where he died. A son, Andrew Endsley, Jr., is still living in the neighborhood, one of the prosperous farmers of the country. Charles Harris was one of the early settlers of Hutton Township. He was originally from Kentucky, but had been living in the south part of the State for some time before coming to this section. Charles R. Martin came to Hutton in 1837, and is from Kentucky. He has a clock, one of the old-timers, that extends from the floor to the ceiling, that has been keeping time for ninety years.

David Weaver, one of the pioneers of this township, and who has passed to his reward since we began our work of compiling the history of the county, was a native of North Carolina. In an early day, his father having determined to emigrate to the West, packed his earthly all into a wagon, crossed the Alleghanies and continued the journey until he reached Lawrence County, Ind. Here he located, and, in 1833, David and a brother came to Coles County. David Weaver settled in the eastern part of what is now Hutton Township. He is represented as an energetic and public-spirited man, joining heartily in whatever was calculated to promote the interests of the country. He appears to have been of a rather restless disposition, and not contented long in one place. He entered land, bought land, and would locate, plant an orchard, and, in a few years, remove to another location. At one time, he, with two others, owned a saw-mill in what was called " String Town," and, a few years later, he and George Oliver had a saw-mill on the west bank of the Embarrass River. The following story is told of his attempt to take a flatboat out of the Embarrass River : " During the winter, he built the boat, upon the bank of the river, loaded it with hoop-poles and waited for the spring rain to raise the river. Finally, the anxiously-expected freshet came, and his boat floated down the raging stream. All went well until it reached Newton, the county seat of Jasper County, when it became unmanageable, drifted from the main channel, struck a snag, and became a total wreck." The following extract is from an obituary notice in the Charleston Plaindealer : '' While it is true that he has gone to the land 'from whose bourn no traveler returns,' yet, he is, and will long be remembered, 'by the word he has spoken, the things he has done.' There has, perhaps, been none other of Coles County's pioneers, who did more for the benefit of the county, during its infancy, than Mr. Weaver. Beside furnishing the county with many orchards, he did many other things for its advancement. He aided in surveying and clearing out the Charleston and Westfield road, took an active part in the business of the county, and truly, made himself a necessity to the people in their time of need. By trade, he was a carpenter. As a neighbor, he was kind and generous, always ready to lend a helping hand. He died at his residence in Hutton Township, February 6, 1879, leaving his aged companion to mourn his loss."

William Waldruflf and Anthony Cox settled in the town in 1828, on the Parker Prairie. Anthony Cox, Jr., was a soldier in Company K, One Hundred and Twenty-third Illinois Volunteers, and was killed in the battle of Perryville, October 8, 1862. Jonathan Parker, of Company F, same regiment, was killed in same battle. James Nees, Charles Miller and William Cook settled in the southern part of the township, near the present village of " Dog Town." Joseph Painter* settled in the neighborhood soon after. He, too, was a Revolutionary soldier, and made application for a pension under act of Congress of 1832.

This concludes the early settlers of Hutton Township, together with the time of their settlement, so far as we have been able to learn them. There are, doubtless, many omissions, but, after tlie lapse of all these years, and with the fact that so few of the pioneers are still living, it is not at all strange that names are overlooked that are deserving of record in these pages.

Early History

When the first white people came to this township, the whole country, north and west, was an almost unbroken wilderness, in possession of the aborigines.

* Joseph Painter was a Revolutionary soldier, and filed a declaration in the. County Commissioners' Court, applying for a pension, similar to that of Tipsoward, given in this chapter.

Wild beasts, and men as wild and savage as they, roamed through it at will, its undisputed masters. There are a few still living in Hutton Township who knew it fifty years ago, who have known it ever since. They remember the "pole cabins " put up by the early settlers as temporary shelters from the fury of the elements ; they remember the cabins built of logs split open, " to make them go further ;" the puncheon floors, with cracks large enough for a child to fall through ; the yawning fire-place and the chimney built of sticks and " cats and clay." They, too, remember the old Gary and barshare plows, the slowgoing oxen, the " scythe and cradle " and the wooden-tooth harrow. And they remember the time when they went to the Sangamon and Wabash Rivers to mill, spending a week on the trip, and the time when they pounded their corn in a block, sifted it, made bread of the finest and hominy of the coarser meal. They have seen the wilderness they first knew develop into as fine and prosperous a country as the sun shines on.

The first mill in Hutton Township was built by Benjamin Parker in 1824-25, on the Embarrass River, opposite where the Blakeman Mills now stand. This was supposed to be, as it is, an excellent mill-site, and thus attracted attention at an early day. Before Parker built his mill here, which was completed and commenced operation in the latter part of 1825, the few people then in the community used to go to the Sangamon River to mill, and to the Wabash, near Vincennes. Parker sold this mill to a man named Shaw, and, after operating it for a time, Shaw sold it to Norfolk & Baker, of Charleston. They moved it across the river, to the spot where the Blakeman Mills stand, and where they, later, erected the elegant mills now owned by Blakeman. These famous mills consist of a large frame building, to which there has been added a large brick structure, making altogether quite a huge pile of buildings. Several runs of buhrs are kept pretty busily in motion to supply the trade. A circular-saw mill has been added, which does a large business in lumber.

The first blacksmith in Hutton was John Ashby, mentioned as one of the early settlers, who came here from North Carolina, and opened a shop about 1827-28, not far from the present village of Salisbury. He kept a shop here many years, and finally died in the neighborhood. The first orchard planted in the township was by David Weaver, about 1834-35, on what is now known as the Smoot farm. Previous to this effort at fruit-culture, the people had to content themselves with " sour grapes." Who sold the first goods in the settlement it is hard to say, at the present time, but a little store in " String Town" was perhaps the first. The first man who administered to the ills of the body was James Hite, long a resident of Ashmore Township. He was not a regular physician, but being a man of considerable intelligence and some knowledge of the science of medicine, he could handle the ague and bilious fever pretty successfully, and in such cases did a great deal of gratuitous practice. Dr. Ferguson, of Charleston, was the first regular physician who practiced in the community, and for many years visited the sick of Hutton Township.

The first bridge in this township was built across the Embarrass River at the Blakeman Mills, but just what year is not now remembered. It was a wooden structure, and served for a number of years, and becoming useless was replaced with another of its kind, which, in turn, was finally superseded by the splendid iron bridge now spanning the river at this point. Mr. Hutton was the first person who crossed this iron bridge. Going to Charleston on business one day, the workmen told him they would have the new bridge ready for him to cross on as he came back. As he returned home, the floor not being quite finished, they laid down loose plank so that he could cross over.

Joel Conley and James Gill (the latter now living in Cumberland County) were the first Justices of the Peace in Hutton Township. When the county adopted township organization, in 1859-60, John Hutton was the first Supervisor, and held the office for three terms, successively, and James Rennels was the first Town Clerk. At present, the township officers are as follows, viz. : W. R. Cox, Supervisor ; A. B. Tucker and W. D. Merritt, Justices of the Peace, and Frederick E. Cottingham, Town Clerk.

Religious And Educational

In our meanderings, we discovered nine church-buildings ; how many others are nestled among the hills of Hutton, we are unable to say. Since that first sermon was preached by Daniel Parker, on the banks of the Embarrass, fifty yearsago, the Gospel has spread in this region proportionately with everything else. The town has three Christian Churches, two United Brethren, two " Separate "' Baptist, one Missionary Baptist, and one Methodist Episcopal Church. The latter church was built in 1870, and is located within a few rods of Mr. Hutton's residence. It is a modern frame building, and has a large and flourishing congregation ; Rev. Mr. Burks is Pastor.

The first of the Christian Churches was built at " String Town," about 1836-37, and was a little log building. Before its erection, they held their religious services in the " Hickory " schoolhouse, so called from being built of hickory logs. After using their log church for a number of years, they replaced it with a substantial brick. We do not know if this house was built upon the sand, but were told that; the "winds blew and the floods came and beat upon that house, and it fell." In May, 1876, it was blown down to the floor, during a severe storm. Since then, a handsome frame structure has been built on the old brick foundation. This Church has a large membership, of which Rev. Mr. Young is the spiritual adviser. Northeast of Salisbury, is another Christian Church, a brick building, and, west of it, is also a Christian Church.

North of Salisbury, is a United Brethren Church, and southeast of the little village, three and a half miles, is another of the same denomination. Both of these churches are in the bounds of the same circuit, and Rev. Mr.

Collins is the Pastor of both. The first church erected in the township was by the United Brethren, just across the line from Westfield, and was a large frame. It is still standing, but, since the building of the church at Westfield, has been evacuated, and is not used now. There is quite an extensive burying-ground at it, where sleep many of the Hutton pioneers.

About three-fourths of a mile west of Mr. Button's is what is called a " Separate" Baptist Church, and was built in 1857 or 1858. It is a substantial frame building. Rev. Mr. Turner is Pastor of it. A very pretty little cemetery, studded with white marble slabs, is adjacent to this church. Two miles south of Hutton post office is the Missionary Baptist Church, of which Rev. Mr. Thornton is Pastor : and, a mile or two north of the Hutton post office, is another church of the " Separate" Baptists. One of the very early preachers of this town, and the first who ever preached on the " Hurricane" waters, was Rev. Stanley Walker. He was a Hardshell Baptist, but finally joined the "Separate" Baptists. In the village of Diona, just on the line between this county and Cumberland, is a church of the United Brethren and Cumberland Presbyterians.

As to who taught the first school in the township, there is some doubt. One of the first remembered, however, was taught by a man named Ellis ; but whether it was the first of all, cannot be ascertained now. The house in which it was taught was a small log cabin, of the style usually devoted to school purposes in the early times. The town, at the present day, is well supplied with good comfortable schoolhouses, and excellent schools are maintained during the school-term. No township in the county has more extensive school facilities than Hutton.

The first death in Hutton Township was a Mrs. Whitten, the wife of a millwright who was engaged on the Parker Mill, and was the first death in Coles County as well as in Hutton Township. Her death occurred in 1825, and she was buried on the bluff, a few hundred yards east of the mill. The first marriage in the town is lost in the mists of antiquity, and the first birth involved in some doubt. A birth occurred in the family of William Beaver, soon after his settlement here, but whether the first in the neighborhood is not known.

Hutton Township has always been a Democratic town. In the days when it was a voting precinct, and Whigs and Democrats the prevailing parties, it voted for Gen. Jackson. It is Democratic now by from fifty to one hundred votes. In patriotism, Hutton ranks with any town in the county. It has has always had its heroes in the way of old soldiers. There were John John Parker, Griffin Tipsoward, George Cottingham and Joseph Painter, who faced the legions of King George in our struggle for Independence. Among the heroes of 1812, are George Cottingham, John Scott and Nicholas Lemming, and John Hutton, of the Black Hawk war. In the late war, Hut- and, seizing their " target and claymore," marched for the front. Hutton kept ahead of all the calls of the Government, furnishing her full complement, even before called for. She never had a draft, and could have stood another call without being subjected to one. Several of her sons never returned ; their dust mingles with that of the far-oflf battle-fields where they fell, " victims to atone the war." Peace to their ashes, and lightly may the clods rest upon them.

The Villages

Salisbury or Hutton is located on Section 9, and has scarcely attained to the dignity of a village, being nothing more than a cluster of a dozen or two houses. It is, however, an old place, having been laid out as a village December 28, 1837, and, no doubt, at some remote period of its existence, entertained lofty aspirations of becoming a place of magnitude. But railroads passing within a dozen miles of it, have forever blasted these bright anticipations. It was laid out by George K. Harris and John Hulin. The place was first called Stewart, but when a post office was obtained, there was found " another Richmond in the field," otherwise a post ofiice already of that name, and this then was called Ashby. But this name being so similar to Ashley, the "wrong mail frequently went to the wrong place." The little town by this time had assumed so much importance that one name was found to be insufficient, and so matters were compromised by calling the post ofiice Hutton and the town Salisbury, for Salisbury, N. C, the native place of Mr. Hulin, one of the proprietors of the place. A man named Gilbert built the first house in Salisbury, or Saulsbury as the people call it, and he and a man named Bartness kept the first store. Who kept the post office first, is not now remembered, but it is supposed to have been kept by one of the last-named gentlemen. The present Postmaster is Dr. J. S. Garner, who was First Lieutenant of Company K, Forty-eighth Regiment Kentucky Volunteers, during the late war. Salisbury has no churches or schoolhouses within its corporate limits, but it is surrounded by both just outside of its "embattled walls." It has a Masonic Lodge - Hutton Lodge, No. 698 - which was organized in 1872. The first officers were: George Bidle, Worshipful Master; C. P. Rosencrans, Senior Warden ; John A. Stull, Junior Warden; C. Fuqua, Treasurer; Allen Hill, Secretary ; S. S. Bills, Senior Deacon ; F. E. Cottingham, Junior Deacon, and Owen Wiley Tiler. The present officers are : A. N. Rosencrans, Worshipful Master ; John A. Stull, Senior Warden ; J. B. Lee, Junior Warden ; T. A. Bensley, Treasurer, and F. E. Cottingham, Secretary, with between fifty and seventy members. The business of Hutton is as follows : One store, Endsley & Co. ; one millinery store, Mrs. Sarah McDonald ; three blacksmith-shops, two with wood-

The village of Diona, usually called by the poetic name of " Dog Town," in point of population is about the equal of Salisbury. Small as it is, however, one county is not large enough to hold it, and it is located about equally in Coles and Cumberland Counties. It is divided into four wards by the county line, and the Congressional township line, the latter running through it from north to south, and the county line from east to west. Diona has never been laid out as a village, but is merely an accidental collection of houses, as it were, with a store or two, a post office, shops, etc. Nicholas McMorris is Postmaster. He lives in Cumberland County, but his store and post office are in Coles County. Matthews & Fulkerson also have a store here, and there is a Church of the United Brethren and Cumberland Presbyterians, as elsewhere stated.

"String Town " is merely a nickname given to a rather thickly-settled neighborhood, on account of several mechanic-shops, a saw- mill, a church and a little store formerly kept here. Thomas Goodman kept a store here at one time, also a man of the name of Peppers. But all is past, and the glory of String Town has departed. There is nothing left but the church and one or two residences to tell where erst " String Town " stood.

In a country like ours, the department of history can claim to chronicle no mighty events, nor relate any of those local traditions that make many countries of the Old World so famous in story and song, yet they serve the purpose of directing attention to the rise, progress and present standing of places, which may fairly claim in the future what has made others great in the past. With these lines of preface, we will say a few words of the boundary and topography of one of the finest sections of Coles County.

Oakland Township, or East Oakland, as it is called, lies in the northeast corner of the county ; bounded on the north and east by Douglas and Edgar Counties on the south by Ashmore Township, and on the west by Embarrass River. It is a little more than a full Congressional township, being seven sections from north to south, and six full sections wide in the narrowest place, while in some of the bends of the river it extends in nearly a section deeper. Brush Creek is the principal stream aside from the Embarrass River, but the land does not need additional drainage. The town contained, originally, much fine timber, of all the different varieties common in this portion of the State, and, although a great deal of it has been consumed, there is still left enough for all practical purposes. The Illinois Midland Railway passes through the north part of the town, from east to west, and has added much to the importance of this section of the county. The village of Oakland is a thriving place of four or five hundred inhabitants, and will be more fully described further on.

The Settlement

The first white settler in this vicinity, is supposed to have been Samuel Ashmore. He came to this immediate neighborhood in 1829, though his first settlement was in what is now Douglas County, but included for years in Coles County. He settled on what was known as the Laughlin farm, and now owned ty Andrew Gwinn. Here he remained but a couple of years, when he removed to the present limits of Oakland Township. He was from the State of Tennessee, and was Captain under Gen. Jackson in the war against the Creek Indians, and in the battle of New Orleans, and always retained the warmest veneration for " Old Hickory. When he removed to this section, three of his sons - Clayborne, at the time married, and George W. and Madison, single - came with him. At the time of Mr. Ashmore's location here, Paris and Grand View were the nearest settlements to him. From the Oakland Herald we make the following extract : " Resolving to leave Tennessee, whose chattel-slavery he thoroughly detested, with his brothers William, James and Amos, and all their families, he came to the Wabash country. Here he soon fell into the chronic frontier style of life, common to-day as it was then. First to make an improvement and next to make a sale, and, when that is made, go to chopping upon another claim. If it be true that a rolling stone gathers no moss, it is apparent that the tramp-farmer is a failure. By the help of his sons, he opened a farm near Darwin, cleared oif one hundred acres of bottom timber, built a two-story house and several stables and out-houses; after that, he sold the whole ' caboodle ' to his son-in-law for $600, in order to get to the Embarrass country. * * * Having succeeded in selling his first location to Mr. Laughlin,

Mr. Ashmore moved down to Hoge's Branch, where most of his sons and sonsin-law had by this time settled; he commenced work on what is now known as the Barbour farm. Here, after filling the office of Justice of the Peace, he died in 1838 ; aged, as his tombstone states, sixty years." Mr. Ashmore, as stated, had several sons, who settled in this section at an early day. Some of them came with him, and others a few years later. In 1831, James and Hezekiah Ashmore settled in the neighborhood. These were his sons, and the latter, after remaining here a short time, removed to Ashmore Township, where he is more fully noticed. Samuel Hoge, a son-in-law of Samuel Ashmore, settled here also in 1831. James Black, another son-in-law, came at the same time. They are long since dead.

Stanton Pemberton came in the fall of 1831. He was from Washington County, Va. The Herald, which published some reminiscences* a year or two ago, says of the Pembertons : " Mr. Pemberton was not healthy, and lived but a few years. His widow continued with us till 1854, and lies buried in the upper grave-yard. She was remarkable for three things - her candor, her good cooking and her genuine hospitality. Her son, Alfred D. Pemberton, still lives

reminiscences were published during the summer of 1877, aud contain much pertaining to the early history of this section. Uence we shall make frequent extracts from them.

on the old place, and ' Uncle Jack,' as the children call him, continues with us in the village - a well-preserved specimen of the olden time." Two sons of Mr. Pemberton, A. D. and J. J. Pemberton, and two daughters, are still living in the neighborhood where they located nearly fifty years ago. John King came from Tennessee in 1832, and may be reckoned among the early settlers. He moved to Iowa, where he still lived at last accounts of him.

In 1830, James Reddin and Eli Sargent settled in Oakland Township. Reddin built a horse-mill, the first institution of its kind in the country, and one of great convenience to the scattered pioneers. His descendants still own the land upon which he settled so long ago. Sargent was from Ohio, and located adjoining Mr. Ashmore. He is said to have been a man of considerable wealth, and entered several hundred acres of land. " He, too, brought with him his sons and daughters. The latter made the journey on horse-back, and had a gay old time riding through the wilderness. The world was not so wide then as it is now, and he and Mr. Ashmore soon discovered an incompatibility of temperament, which the narrow bounds of the country aggravated exceedingly."* Mr. Sargent was not a healthy man, and suffered long and severely. He died in 1834, and, says the Herald^ referring to his death, " of his family there survive his daughter, Mrs. Guinn, and his stepdaughter, Mrs. Sargent, of this village, who have the honor, we believe, to be the only ones who remain with us of the immigration of 1830." We make no excuse for the following lengthy extracts from these reminiscences. Referring to a pioneer family, it is of interest as a part of the early history of the country. " After Mr. Sargent's death, his widow bought the Samuel Hoge farm, and with her son, John L. Berry, and her daughter Rachel, made her home there, where she died in April 1847, in her sixtieth year. Afflicted with asthma, she was an inveterate smoker, of course, but possessed uncommon business capacity. Mounted on ' Old Ned,' in rain or sunshine, day or night, she attended all calls upon her professional services, and in this particular alone was an exceedingly useful person. Ned was a favorite - a large, brown, pacing horse, which she had reared from a colt. Within the thirty years of his life, he had carried her everywhere that she went ; three times from the Embarrass to the Scioto. He survived his mistress a year. Reared in Kentucky, Mrs. Berry had been left a widow, with poverty and several young children for an inheritance. Her effects then consisted of twenty acres of ground, her horse, Ned, a slave woman and her children. Sickness came, bread became scarce and the wolf looked in at the door. The slave woman and the horse did the farming, and had it not been for the woman and the horse, her family would have come to absolute want. When she married Mr. Sargent (who was a rich man), she went with him to Ohio, taking Ned and two of the five children of the colored woman. To her she left the land, who, after a trial of eighteen months, left it and went as a cook to a hotel in Louisville. Here she died, and Mrs. Sargent had her other three chil- dren sent to Ohio, and ultimately brought them all to this country. Her most judicious advisers, including her husband, had urged her to sell them, to put them in her pocket, etc., and showed her the 'black laws ' of Illinois and all the difficulties of the situation. But no, the memory ot that woman and horse toiling in the sun, to raise bread for her and her children when she lay sick and prostrate, was not to be overcome. Worldly woman as she was, she possessed a determined will, and she decided never to sell them. * * * Mrs. Sargent was a woman of limited education, and knew nothing about the abstract doctrine of human rights. She was a Baptist, and neither knew nor cared, perhaps, for Wesley's opinion on the 'sum of all villainies,' and of Abolitionism, she concurred in the then common opinion, that its advocates were thieves of a hideous character. What was it that caused her to withstand the pressure of interest ? Was it gratitude, or was it instinct, or was it both ? Thirty years have passed away, but it seems to us as but yesterday that we saw her sitting by her great fire-place, indulging in her pipe, with death awaiting at her elbow ; a picture of stoical calm, which we have never seen equaled within our threescore years of time."