Effingham County, Illinois - Chapter 3, 1883

THE act of the Illinois Legislature creating aud defining the boundary' lines of Effingham and Jasper Counties bears date February 15, 1831. The two counties were organized in the same act, in which there is not a word iu reference to what other county or counties the territorj' is taken from. The Legislature proceeded to designate bj' township lines the boundaries of the two counties. The county of Jasper is first defined, and then it proceeds to describe Effingham County as " beginning at the northwest corner of Jasper County."

The territorj- comprising Effingham Count}- was taken from Fa3-ette County-. Faj-ette was taken from Bond, and Bond from the good old mother county of all the counties in Illinois - St. Clair.) In the royal train of daughters of St. Clair County this would, properly speaking, be a great-grand- daughter.

This county is just thirty days the junior of Cook County. Chicago was then a small, outlying precinct of Crawford Count}', that so worried the Tax Collector when he had to go there to collect the taxes, as it would cost him always more than the entire tax to defray expenses.

" Beginning at the northwest corner of Jasper County, running south with the line thereof to the southeast corner of Township No. 6, thence with the line dividing Townships 5 and 6 to the northwest corner of Township 5 north, in Range 4 east, thence north with the township lines to the northwest corner of Section 19 of Township 9 north, Range 4 east, thence east with the section line to the northeast corner of Section 24, Range 6 east, thence 'South with the township line to the southeast corner of Township 9 north, thence east to the northeast corner of Township S north, iu Range 7 east, and thence south with the range line to the place of beginning."

It then recites that '-the said Commissioners, or a majority of them, are hereby required to proceed to examine the said Commissioners (sic?) respectively, at any time they may agree upon previous to the 1st day of November nextj'and, xcith an eye to the best interests of said counties, shall select a suitable place for the seat of justice."

" The Commissioners respectively are hereby empowered to receive from the owner of such land as they may select for the purpose aforesaid, a donation of not less than twenty acres. Or they may receive donations In money, which shall be applied to the purchase of lands for such purpose, and. in either case, they shall take good and sufficient deeds therefor, granting the land in fee simple for the use and ben- efit of said counties. The Commissioners, if tliej' stiall select lauds belonging to the Government, shall purchase a half quarter-section for the use and benefit of such county, provided they shall receive donations in money sufficient to make such purchase or purchases."

The act proceeds to state that " when the Commissioners shall have made the selections of land for the countj' seats of the two counties, the}' shall report their proceedings to the Recorder of Crawford Count}- for Jasper and to the Recorder of Fa3'ette County for Effingham." It then requires the Recorders of these counties to keep the same in their respective offices until the said counties shall be organized, when they shall transmit the same to the Clerks of the County Commissioners' Court of the aforesaid new counties respectivelj'."

If the Commissioners for this countj', Messrs. Haley, Galloway and Hall, ever made a report of their proceedings in selecting a seat of justice for this count}' to the Recorder of Fayette County, as the law required, it cannot now be found in the records. There is no doubt but they did. They selected Ewington, and named it in honor of Gen. W. L. D. Ewing, then a leading lawj-er and afterward a prominent politician of the State, who resided at Vandalia.

Why the county was named Effingham is not known. The bill to incorporate the county was the work of Gen. Ewing, William Linn and Joseph Duncan, and it is said the name was the suggestion of Gen. Ewing. James and Joseph Duncan had donated the twenty acres mentioned in the legislative act when they instruct the Commissioners, all three of them, to act " loith an eye to the best interests of the count}'." How they expected three men to go about the business with " an eye " we cannot imagine.

the Legislature passed an act authorizing p]ffingham County to hold an election " to elect three County Commissioners, a Sheriff and a Coroner." The designated places of election were Ewington, and the house of Thomas I. Brockett, and further designating Jacob Slover, John Loy aud Levi Gorden as the Judges of the election at Ewington, and William Tbomasson, M. Brockett and Jonathan Parkhurst the Judges at Brockett's. This election was held January 1, 1833. No record of it can be found.- Theophilus W. Short, Isaac Fancher and William J. Hankins were elected the first County Commissioners, aud they proceeded to organize the County Commissioners' Court in Ewington on the 21st day of January, 1833, by the appointment, first temporary and then permanent County Clerk, of Joseph H. Gillespie, who at once entered upon the discharge of his duties.

Henry P. Bailey had been elected Sheriff at the above-named election. John C. Sprigg had been appointed February 15, 1833, Circuit Clerk of the ci lunty by Judge Wilson. Sprigg's commission bore date, Vandalia, February 15, 1833.

Here then, February 15, 1833, the whole county legal machinery was put in motion, and Effingham became in fact as well as in name a live, active, absolute county. The County Court at this term merely organized and adjourned, no county business being transacted. The court met in session again February 4. Its first official act was to divide the county into two voting and election precincts. The voting place of one being Ewington, and Levi Jordan, John Loy and Jacob Slover were appointed Judges. The other precinct voted at T. I. Brockett's, and John Martin, William Brockett and William Thomasson were the Judges. Court adjourned. It met again the next month, March, and its first act at this session was the first time in the life of the county that it made an order on the Treasurer, as follows :

" Ordered, that thirty cents be paid the County' Clerk for postage and one dollar for services, and also one dollar to each of the Commissioners, and one dollar to John Broom for services as Constable at this term of court."

In May, 1833, the first Circuit Court convened in Ewington. Theophilus W. Smith, Presiding Judge, and John C. Sprigg, Clerk of the Court. Henry P. Bailey, Sherifl". The grand jurors were Seymour R. Powell, foreman, Martin Davenport, John Trapp, John Ganaway, Hickman Lankford, John P. Fairleigh, Kinton Adams, James Levitt, Alfred Warren, James Hudson, James Martin, Newton E. Tarrant, James Neal, Stephen Austin, Harrison Higgs, John Martin, Charles Gilkie, Levi Jordan, Levi Self, Thomas I. Brockett, James White, Robert Moore, Samuel L. Reed.

There were four cases on the docket, namely : John Beasley vs. Robert Moore, trespass on the case ; Andrew Bratton vs. Simeon Perkins, appeal ; John MaxQeld vs. John W. Robinson, ditto ; William 31. McConnell vs. Jacob Slover, set fa to foreclose. There were three lawyers at this court, namely : A. P. Field, Levi Davis, W. L. D. Ewing. Of these Levi Davis, of Alton, is the only survivor. The grand jury returned three indictments into court : T. W. Short, for selling liq-

*The flret Constables in the county, John 0. Scott and John Broom, attended upon this court. A license to sell goods was granted tii John Fuiikhouser, and at the next June term Eli Cook was granted a similar license.

"That J. H. Gillespie be allowed for clerking on day of sale of lots, 1.50, ordering bonds, .50. 2 quoirs of paper for to make record books, 50 cts. Rent of house for holding court in, 1.50."

These record books, for which -- 2 quoirs of paper " were purchased, " for to make," are lost. A fact much to be regretted. At this term of the court, James Turner succeeds Fancher as Commissioner, but there is no explanation how this came about. The County Court appointed John Loy Countj^ Treasurer, and William J. Hankins County Surveyor. In 1833, there was a public auction of lots in the donated twenty-acre part of the town of Ewington, S. R. Powell, auctioneer, and J. H. Gillespie, clerk. Twenty-two lots were sold. The highest price paid was ^(34, by Hankins, and the lowest wis $8.12^. The average price per lot was $24.46. About ten times their value now.

The county court made an order to T. W. Short for $1.87 J, "for whiskey furnished on the da\^ the lots were sold." The county was divided into three road distriot-i, and Rnad Supervisors appointed, Andrew Bratton for District No. 1, Jonathan Parkhurst, No. 2",- and John Broom, No. 3. The subjects of count}' and cart roads was of the first importance to the people. Among the first acts of the Commissioners was to order N. B. Tarranv and Joseph Rentfro to la}' out a cart road from Ewington to the county line, in the direction of Witherspoon's mill, in Shelby Count}'. Another road was made, a count}' road, aud ordered worked, namely, a road from Fairfield, via Ewington, to Shelbyville.

tlie National road in 1820 in this county, and a considerable force was stationed at the Little Wabash, engaged in building a bridge across this stream. Workiueu's shanties had been constructed, and this fact, no doubt, caused Ewington to be selected as the county town. They were very rude, miserable pens and sheds, and yet tlie first people there, as well as the first Circuit Courts, utilized them as temporary resting places.

Tlic work on tlie National road in this county stopped ill 1?.>3, a little west of Ewington. The bridge across the Little Wabash, although expensive, was a tumble-down affair. It was soon washed awaj', and the stone abutments were carried ofl' by the people to wall their wells and for foundations for their buildings.

The new county was thus left much as nature had made it in regai'd to roads. A pony mail, at first weeldy, was carried from Terre Haute to St. Louis. Anotlier mail route, of the same kind, was from Fairfield to Shelbyville. When the streams raged the mails stopped. But as there were few people here, and still fewer that could read and write, and as letter postage was 25 cents, and not prepaid at that, it was probably a blessing that tlie people were not smothered with our modern avalanche of mail matter. Nevertheless, a crying want of the people - a want not yet wholly satisfied, although many thousands of dollars have been washed toward the Gulf in the form of bridges^was roads, and passable bridges across the streams. The Commissioners made commendable efforts to supply this want. But the^' were not skilled civil engineers, nor were their contractors, apparently, that did the work. But they had this great advantage of the present. They built cheap structures, and when thej' floated away upon the muddy torrent, they left at least the consolation that they had not bankrupted tlie unborn generations to come.

their bids for a number of contemplated bridges in the county. James Cartwright and T. W. Short, John Funkhouser and Gillenwaters, among others, seem to have been the principal builders. There were neither pens, paper nor circumlocution wasted in these important business papers. For instance : " I will build the bridge across the Wabash at Brockett's for S588. (Signed) John Trapp." Or this : I will dam the work agreeable to the present contract for one hundred and fiffteeu dolls if high water dont prevent. T. J. Gillenwaters."

" JouN Funkhouser." These papers were not addressed to any person or tiling. They were without date or flourish of any kind. E plurihus unum.

The next pressing, public necessity afterroads and bridges, seems to have been a county jail, induced probably by the following : On the 30lh July, 1833, John Cooper was arraigned before Esquires Gillespie and Hankins for larceny. The preliminary examination resulted in the following commitment : " it was adjudged by us that thar was probable ground for his guilt and hes failed to give security for his appearance at the next cir court he was committed to the jail of Shelby county as there was no iail being provided in this county." To this incentive was soon after added the circumstance that one Charles Lewis was arrested for a horse-thief. And during 1834-35, Sheriff Bailey certifies that nearly every able-bodied man in the county was paid in county orders for at one time or another guarding Lewis. The fact is, the expense of holding this man a prisoner for more than a year cost the county double all other county expenses except bridges. In 1833, a jail was built, made of logs, and was locked with a very fair padlock. There was not money enough, it seems, to bii}- the lock for some time, but as the door swung outside the Sheriff propped it good and fast with leaning poles and rails. We will do the court the justice to mention that this was intended onl}' as a temporary structure. It answered very well to hold men while they wore sleeping off their drunks. In fact, it did in its time keep safe sober criminals when it was constantly surrounded by well-armed, vigilant guards. The architect and superintendent of this public structure was T. W. Short. The county paid him $10 for his services. Levi Jordan and James Krai were paid $496 for building the jail.

At the March term, 1834, appears the following order : " Ordered that the coart proceede to a point a county treasurer for the present Year. What a pon it a peared that John Loy and T. J. Gilenwaters was aplicants it apears that John Loj' is apointed."

The election of a Treasurer being so suecessfally completed, the following county legislation was had : -' Ordered, That no Taveru- Keeper or Grocery Keeper in this County shall charge more than twenty five cents for a meals vituels and Twenty Five Cents for a Horse feed Lodging 12^ Cents. Twent}- five Cents for a quart of Whiskey and twelve and a half Cents for a pint of Whiskey, not exceed- I ing fifty cents a quart for Brand}-, Wine and j Gin and not exceeding eighteen and three fourths Cents per half pint for Brandy Wine and Gin Rum at the same as Brandy Wine and Gin."

The jail being ofl' the hands of the court, and a secure place provided for the surplus part of the communit}-, the following proceedings were had with a view to restraining the running at large of other stock : " Ordered, that the letting of the bilding of an Estraij Pon be let to lowes and mos responcible bider on the 13 day March in the town of Ewington to be sitawated on the north west corner of the Publick sqare of the following description to Wit Sixty fete Sqare the ponnells ten fete long the posts to be of Mulberry hewen eight inches sqare two feet in the groun and seven fete and ahalf above the two fete in the to Scorched the Railing to be of White Oak timber such as will not spring either heweu Sawed or Split to be not over six inches wide nor under three thick oil of which shal be in complyance with Law regulatin the building of Bstray Pons and that the Clerk Advertise the sam b}' pasting written notices."

December 11, 1829, Robert Moore purchased at the Land Office in Vandalia the east half of the southeast quarter of Section 7, Township 8 north, Range 5 east - the first land entr}- ever made within our county limits.

July 9, 1830, Riley Howard entered the west half of the southwest quarter of Section 11, Township 7, Range 4. September 30 of the year, Robert Moore entered the east half of the northeast quarter of Section 18, Township 8, Range 5.

In 1831, there were four land entries - -R. Peebles and W. H. Brown in Section 7, Township 5 ; Alfred McDaniel the northeast quarter of the northeast quarter of Section 2, Township 6, Range 5, and some Polanders entered a half quarter-section in the northwest part of the county. There were no entries in 1835. Several small tracts in 1833, then there were a verj* few scattering entries until 1838. This year and 1839, the land market was active for this count}-, due to some extent that it was these two 3-ears that marked the advent of the Germans that have built up Teutopolis

Tlie first deed recorded in the county bears date February 27, 1833, Isaac Fancher and Amy Fancher, his wife (her mark), to T. J. Gilleuwaters; consideration $500, and conveys by quit claim east half of northwest quarter of Section 36, Townsliip 8 north, llangc 5 east. The officer vouches that he " examined the wife separtely," etc. Then follows a number of deeds by ditferent men and their wives in which there is nothing of special interest until one is reached that is signed by T. W. and Sally Short. Sally was the first woman that ever in an instrument of record in the Circuit Clerk's office who did not make " her mark." The land market continued esceediuglj- dull, and entries few and scattering over the county until 1852-53. Then people began to realize that a railroad was coming - coming like a rajof light and hope. To this stimulant of tlie land market was added the enactment by Congress of what was known as the "Swamp Land Act," by which, upon proof by the counties that certain land were -' swamp and overflowed lands," the Government would give all such lands to the respective counties (reallj' first to the State and the State to the counties) that were not entered, and if entered, then the Government would refund the entry money in kind.

In 1856, Congress had passed the " Bit Act." In other words, it said that all lands that had been a certain number of }-ears in the market could be entered for 12^ cents per acre, provided the applicant therefor made oath tliat he was buying for his own use and for actual settlement and cultivation. It is astonishing what a spontaneous uprising of actual and intended farmers this act made in a night, in and around Vandalia, of all classes of men, women and even school children. The act was a wise one, and it closed the Vandalia and all other land offices in Illinois, except Springfield, where the others were taken to. Thus all the lands became corporate and private property, and in one way or another have been made to contribute their share to the wealth of the country.

In 1835, the Countj' Court removed Loy from the Treasurer's office and elected Sam Huston, and at the same time appointed Huston a Commissioner to take the county census. The enumeration of the people was carefully made and, from the best data now to be found (Huston's books being lost), the entire population was about one thousand or one thousand and eight in the year 1835. These settlements still were Blue Point, Ewington, on the Lower Wabash, on Fulfer and Second Creeks and in Union Township.

Loy was County Treasurer in 1833 and 1834, and his 2 per cent for the funds for two years amounted to $8.S7A^. Or in other words, the entire funds the county possessed for two years was $443.75.

From the organization of the county until some time in the " forties" the entire tax upon all property was five mills on the dollar. The whole revenue from taxes in the count}" the first year was $50. The next year it rose to $58 The increase upon tliese figures was verjgradual. Indeed, so much so, that in 1837 tlie total revenue collected in the county was $122.27.

The heaviest taxpayer in 1837 in the county was John Funkhouser, $5. The next heaviest, Robert Moore, $3.25; John Martin, $3. Then - followed Joim McCoy, Presley Funkhouser, Riley Howard, W. J. Ilankins, Bartholomew McCann, William Freeman, C. Duncan and John Trapp, $2 each. T. J. Gillenwaters paid $1.75. There were 142 names on the tax book, and they averaged 86^ cents each.

If there were any tax-record books before the year 1837 kept, which is very doubtful, they are lost now. The tax record of 1837 is a little book of ten pages, made for a school copy book; has a paper back, on which is a wood-cut intended, probably, to represent a school room exhibition day. Tlie audience is represented by four or five grown people, all sitting straight as arrows and as flat against the paper as if they had been just taken out of a hydraulic tobacco press ; a like number of similar looking children are perched in a row on benches, and a putty-faced little Henry Clay is on the rostrum. His left hand and arm is pasted flat and tight to his leg, his right arm is stiff and straight at an angle of forty-five, and vou can almost hear his piping treble as he exclaims;

" How large was Alexander's ^raio!" The cost of this record book could not have been less than five cents, because that was the smallest money they had in those days, and for the further reason that then it cost money to indulge in the decorative arts. It is said that the purchase of this book made a profound sensation throughout the county and became the ruling question in politics for some time, some contending it was too pretty a book to spoil by writing in it, others holding that such extravagance would be ruinous to all, and still others saying that they believed in the county keeping in the lead in the fine arts, even if it did cost money. This public discussion evidently taught the offleial a lesson, because the book for the next year was made at home, and consisted of foolscap paper cut and stitched.

Marrying and Giving in Marringe. - There were weddings here when th^ parties had to go to Vandalia to get the license, among the earliest of which was the marriage of Burgess Pugh to Pamelia Jenkins, 1829. BIrs. John 0. Scott infosms us she attended this wedding as a young girl. She remembers the bride had on some kind of a white dress and store shoes ; that there was chicken pie and honey for dinner. John Trapp performed the ceremonj-, and when it was over the groom told him he would bring him his pay in a short time in " real strained beeswax." About the same time Mike Robinson and Delilah Pugh, and Enoch Neavills and Laura Pugh, Jesse White and Katie Neavills, Mary Parkhurst and James Porter were all married.

The first marriage license issued from the county was January 21, 18.3o, to James C. Haden and Nancy Nesbitt. The next w\as March 28 of the same year, to John 0. Scott and Patsy B. Parkhur.st. The Countv Clerk was very cautious about issuing marriage licenses without first having the parents' or guardians' consent, as the following will show:

It is certified in the records that on 27th April, 1835, was '- Laufley joined to gether a.s husban and Wife Jackson finer, and Sin they Land."

This document clears up all doubts as to whether Pat was willing to act as the agent for Lizzie in the matter of marrying or not. He evidently was not. But when he was for the last time appealed to to do something, his ruddy face glowed a little more than usual, and he stormed and raved and called for pen, ink and paper, and fixed himself at the table to fire at the County Clerk the above formidable State paper. The imagination can almost see him as examines carefullj- his pen, dipping it into the ink, sucking it clean, and again closely examining it, before spreading himself all over the table and biting his tongue; the old goose-quill fivirly creaks and sputters as he puts upon the virgin paper the truth about his daughter being " her own agent." He boldl}' " asertes " that she is, and holds himself ready to pummel all who doubt it or say one woid to the contrary.

The different officials who performed the different marriages in those days seem to have all dropped into the same style of writing their returns upon the back of the licenses. They each apparently thought it highly proper to sa}- that they had " solemnized the rites of matrimony," etc. Thev must have met with great difficulties iu spelling the word '' solemnized," as in the different returns it is spelled incorrectl}- as manv as fourteen or fifteen times. For instance: Sollemise, solemize, solemise, soloise, solemside, solemsided, solamis, solmnis, sollomondise. solimsis, solimize, sollumise, sol imnize, soUemis, etc.

Among the first of preachers to marrj- a couple was one who made the following poetical and rather neat return: "According to law and injunction of Heaven,

In searching among these "quaint an curious volumes of forgotten lore," the following document was dug up in the rubl)ish. It is a bill rendered by James B. Hamilton, and as near as the types can give it, it is in the following facts and figures:

" I dowe sertyfy to the Corns Cort of Ktlhigham an State 111 That Mr Henry BouUs Fell Sick at my hous on 16 July 1840 and was beried the 25 of the same instant.

It is onl)- by inference that the world will ever know whether Boulls died at all or not. We are informed that he "Fell Sick" on the 16th and was "Beried the 25 of the same instant," and that Gillinwaters furnished the " Srawdin " (shroud). Who was the damsel that the bill tells us, at the end of the line " Nersin an Nersment," was the " maid out " ? Whj- did she go out? What was she doing there, anj'how? The account saj-s distinctly and unmistakably that " He fell " sick " at my house," not ui my house. If the " maid " was helping with the " nersin an nersment " she could not have been in the house to have authorized the announcement that there was a " maid out."

Schools. - Mrs. John 0. Scott reports the first school ever taught here was in 1831, by her brother, Elisha Parkhurst, who at that time was a mere lad, not over twelve years of age. Thomas I. Brockett, realizing the pressing necessities in this line, set about it and cleaned up and fixed a stable on his premises, and hired Elisha, whom he overlooked and superintended and assisted in all emergencies. The neighbors, John Allen, John McCo}-, Lilly, Stephen Austin, Widow Dagner (two grandchildren), sent their children and made a school of fifteen or twenty pupils. Elisha apparently was a successful teacher, although a boy, and for years he taught in various parts of the countr}-. The next school was taught by Dr. John GiUenwaters (a cousin of the Jud^e), in Ewington, in 1833. A room was rented for this in some private residence. The next in order was Samuel White, who taught in the garret of Judge Gillenwater's house.

These were pioneer schools, and, considering all the circumstances, were very good indeed. The onl}' Latin they ev^er taught was to make their pupils pronounce the letter z " izzard." The people of those days, compared with the present generation, had some very healthy ideas about schools. They believed a school was a place of training in the " three R's," and that its usefulness stopped at the " rule of three."

A picture of Elisha Parkhurst's school in Brockett's stable, more than half a century ago, would be an appropriate as well as suggestive scene to hang upon the walls of every school room in our' county.

It was a long time before the rudest log schoolhouses were erected. The people were sparsely scattered in the sparse neighborhoods. They were poor in this world's goods as a rule. Teachers were scarce, and so were books. There were a large portion of the grown people that could neither read nor write, and some of these had lived where there was no use to be made of these accomplishments, and thc^' had no realizing sense of the importance of teaching their children to read and write, in order to prepare them for what was soon coming, namely, mail facilities by the hour, cheap postage, and abundant and cheap literature ; a people transformed from trappers and hunters into an eager commercial and trading community, where a ceaseless activity is combined with that rapid, broad comprehension, that could every morning look over the movements of the commercial world of the preceding twenty-four iiours, and form his conclusions and put into instant execution his plans and purposes for the next twelve hours.

In 1838, John Funkhouser, the School Commissioner for the county, made a report to the court of his official acts and doings for the years 1837-38. The report is addressed to the " Onorable Commrs. Cort, June, 1838."

The inference is that there was $38.21 of the money of 1837 that had not been called for by orders, and this swelled the total fund to $184.67.

This shows that for the year 1838 there was paid to the four teachers that taught the schools of the county, $103.10. The number of school children in the county, from the best obtainable estimates of that time, was four hundred. Foiir schools were taught, and one hundred and twenty-five pupils would be a fair estimate of tlie number that were in attendance upon the schools in the county, and 82^ cents per capita was the total expense.

The assessment for the present year in the city of Effingham school district is $6,000. The school attendance is about five hundred. The difference in then and now is as 82^ cents is to $12 per pupil. Those were in part pay schools - these are free schools

Those were managed by the people - these by the State. There are no statistics, unfortunately, b}- which the comparative illiteracy of then and now of the rising generation can be shown. This is much to be regretted.

The fundamental idea of all schools is to talie care of the mind and morals of children and train them up in the wa}' they should go assisted in the moral work by religion and the church. This i)eing admitted, we have this light thrown upi.)n the subject of progress made in intelligence and morals in the lifty years just past. There has been as marked improvement in tlie number and qualitj^ of our present splendid and expensive church buildings as there has been in the schoolhouses in that time. So has the improvement in numbers and superiority of ministers of the Gospel kept equal pace with the race of school teachers of thea and now. It has cost many thousands of dollars to erect the numerous school buildings in the county. Prom Elisha Parkhurst's pioneer school room in Brockett's stable to the elegant and elaborately furnished high school room of to-day is a long stride in educating mankind. This was onlj' paralleled by the places of worship then and now, and to complete the picture in a ministerial line let Boleyjack and Beecher stand forth. The advance all round has been marked and great, especiall}- in the matter of expense and show.

Are these finger boards lining the highways back fifty years, that point out an equall}- great improvement in public manners, morals, or intelligence ? Illiteracy is a crime, but so is pinehuig poverty'. Illiteracy and ignorance are not. S3'non3'mous terms. But neither are education and expense synonymous terms. Is outward change in teacher or preacher, or great extravagance in the schoolhouses, an}- proof that morals or education is improved?

they are told and believe that the S3'Stem is about perfect, and the onlj- possible cause of its failure to perfect mankind is the absence of a sufficient quantity- of it, and its universal application to all children. Docs this fifty years' experience and practice in this count}- prove this or the contrary ? We have plenty of men near the age of fifty years who were reared here, and some of them learned to read and write after they were thirty years old. Tiie}- had not the benefit of those primitive schools, as there are many here now and suc'h there always will be, who reap none of the benefits of the modern school. Compare the average man and woman, natives of this State, who were reared under the poor, meager pay schools of the olden time, with the average man and woman from different States, reared under the benign influences of the most liberal free schools. Is illiteracy banished? Do crimes cease and immorality flee to the mountains before the mighty tread of this grand army of free schools ? Is there a proportionate disappearance of the one with the appearance of the other ? The multitudinous mass of mankind will say yes ! The figures of statistics will alone tell the true story.

This is no place to discuss the question of how to make better the common school, even if it is one of supreme importance. We pass to other parts of the subject, content with this statement. The schools are based upon the idea that all can and should become i)hilosophers, with no difference among men, except in degree of advancement. Whereas the truth is that the best and most difficult thing for societj- to do is to produce gentlemen. True, it is that the home influence and training is where this precious commodit}- to societj- is mostlv to come from, yet if the schools ever arrive at the point where they can, even in the smallest degree, supply this to the children of homes that have it not, then will there be the commencement of the real school. Then ma}- the

Men have interested themselves in education since recorded, and even before recorded time. The earliest traditions present only grown men, seeking to educate themselves. Children then were left to grow, with only the restraints or training that society and home forced upon them, their education being left to their own exertions after they became men and women. Remember that silch schooling advanced all mankind - made civilization out of barbarism.

A little book entitled " Ten Days in Athens," gives us some account of a school, taught in the porches and the gardens by Epicurus. This little book tells the .secret of the intellectual greatness and glory of Athens, that immortal citj' - the mistress and nourishing mother of civilization - ^whose grand work has for 3,000 years stood as a beacon light upon tiie troubled waters. The school of Epicurus had no aid from the State, it had little, if any more, elegance or paraphernalia than did the boy teacher - Elisha Parkhurst's school in Brockett's stable. It was without books. Yet it was a fountain of profound philosophy, from which his followers might drink, and drink long and deeply. The routine of his school-room were his conversations in which he gave them the ripened wisdom of his mind. He gave them true knowledge - that knowledge that lifts truth from error; the great doctrine that the highest and most enduring pleasure in life is the acquisition of new truths that come of the better understanding and comprehension of the mental and physical laws; that this alone destroyed ignorance, and that ignorance is the fruitful source of the evils that afflict mankind. In discussing the gods, he bluntly told his pagan school that their dieties no more caused rain to come to make the grain grow than did they send the rain to rot in the field the gathered l)ut ungarnered products of the farm; that to worship these gods in the hope that the worship would be pro-rated and paid in future great favors was not the most ennobling religious idea of which a great and pure soul could contemplate or have.

What, think you, would this old pagan scliool teacher say, could he now pay us a visit, and be taken to Oxford Universit}', and in solemn soberness shown the exact and priceless facsimne, that is there so carefully preserved, of the horn that blew down the walls of Jericho?

Epicurus had been reared in paganism; he had been cradled in its lap, had taken it with his food from his mother's breast, and, like all men, had adopted the religion of his fathers. Yet he grew to be intellectually almost a demigod. He did not grow to think in the old groves of formulated ideas where " to dally was to be a dastard - to doubt was to be damned.'' He was nominally a pagan, but he worshiped truth alone, and with " an eastern devotion he knelt at the shiine of his idolatry." He was illiterate, but who in the ages since he was upon earth has been great enougli to take his master's seat in the school-room ?

Another great man, but not his peer, was the Swiss, Pestolozzi, the school teacher who lived and taught school a hundred years ago. He believed and taught that there was much error in the fundamental idea and system of the schools. He contended that mere memorizing from books was not education, was not the source of knowledge; that knowledge came not by being told so and so, either by the books or the teacher, but bj- experimental lessons where not only the brain, but the heart the eye, the touch, in fact, all the avenues to the brain were not only partakers but become part and parcel of the lesson.

Pestolozzi took issue with the schools as the system and science of teaching had been the accepted practice for sixteen hundred years before his day. He established a school and attempted to put in practice his theories. His school was a failure, not because of the defects of his discoveries in the system, but because he tauglit in advance of his day - a cause of as much loss to manlvind probablj- as all other causes combined. It is true that, in the institutes and conventions of teachers we are told and re-told, as often as these bodies meet, that all schools arc now taught strictly upon the " Pestilozzian plan," as they term it. Go study what the great Swiss saj-s, and 3'ou will be amazed at the wide misunderstanding that exists between his ideas and the practices of the school room.

The profound thinker, Locke, has slapped the faces of the first schools of Europe, with the "learned ignorance" thej' annually pour upon the world, labeled " Education." He tells them illiterate intelligence is infinitely preferable to " learned ignorance." And yet a United States Senator, in Congress two years ago, in discussing some school subject, announced that " every illiterate person in our country is a menace to our free institutions," and from the fact that he did not say that he had any fears of ignorance, it is a fair presumption tiiat the Senator, in common with most men who think v^aguely and talk loosely, confounding words with a shocking recklessness, used the word " illiterate " when he meant ignorance.

Richard Grant White discussed very ably recently, in the North American Review, the question -' The Public Schools a Failure," in whicli he arrays the statistics of lUiterac}' and crime of a certain number of States north of the Potomac with an equal number south of that river. They were States of free public schools and States without them, classified and compared.

In the United States Census of 1870, Dr. Earle discussed at much length the question of public schools and insanitj-, and basing his conclusions upon the Government statistics, he draws some frightful conclusions.

interested in the schools, who had Iicen appointed to investigate the subject in tiiat city, reported unanimously that the}' could arrive at no other conclusion but that the whole system had been so pressed and pushed by the cr}- for improvement that they were now almost valueless as a means of education.

A prominent school man of California sums up his investigations, and he has no hesitation in putting down as his best judgment that the whole system is so full of faults that it is of doubtful value. These men may, and it is to be hoped they are, in error upon this vital question; yet they start a discussion that cannot but prove wholesome. It is the waters that are stirred that are pure and liealthy.

Educate! Educate! Teach all men, though what is true education first; then you cannot provide too much of this, nor is the necessary cost a question for a moment's consideration. Because it is the inestimable boon to man - the basis of civilization and man's welfare.

The young State of Illinois manifested a deep interest in this important subject. On the 13th of April, 1818, it was admitted as a State in the Union, and Congress in tiie act of admission offered for the State's " free acceptance or rejection " the following among other propositions :

1. "That section numbered sixteen in every township, and when such section has been sold or otherwise disposed of, other lands equivalent thereto, and as contiguous as may be, shall be granted to the State for the use of schools.

3. " That five per cent of the net proceeds of the lands lying within such State, and which shall be sold b}' Congress from and after the 1st daj- of Januar}', 1819, after deducting all expenses incident to the same, shall be reserved for the purposes tbllowing, viz.: Twofifths to be disbursed under the direction of Congress in making roads leading to the State, the residue to be appropriated by the Legislature of the State for the encouragement of

January 15, 1825, the Legislature passed an act for the " establishment of free schools and other purposes." An amendment to this act was passed February 17, 1827, providing, among other things, as follows:

" The legal voters of any school distuict, at their regular meetings, shall have power in their discretion to cause either the whole or one-half of the sum required to support a school in such district to be raised by taxation. And if only one-half be raised by taxation, the remainder may be required to be paid by parents, masters and guardians, in proportion to the number of pupils which each of them shall send to such school.

"Sec. 4. No person shall hereafter be taxed for the support of any free school in this State unless by his or her own free will and consent, first had and obtained in writing. Any person so agreeing and consenthig shall be taxed in the manner prescribed in the act to which this is an amendment. Provided. That no person shall be permitted to send any scholar or scholars to such school unless such person shall have consented as above to be taxed for the support of such school, or by the permission of the trustees of said school. And provided, That all persons residing within the limits of a school district shall at all times have the privilege of subscribing for the support and establishment any such schools."

In May, 1827, a general act relating to the school lands was passed by the Legislature providing for the appointing by the County Commissioners' Court of three Trustees in " each township where they may deem it expedient, and where the population tiiereof will admit, to be called the Trustees of the School Land," making the Trustees a body corporate, requiring them within six months after their appointment to survej' section sixteen, or such other land as ma3- be selected in lieu thereof, in tracts not less than forty nor more than one hundred and sixty acres, make a plat thereof for the Commissioners' Court, authorizing it to reserve from sale certain timber or stone or coal lands, and to lease said lands, etc., etc." These Trustees were required to la}' off school districts, so that each district should not have less than eighteen scholars subscribed or going to school." The State then levied an annual two-mill tax on the property of the State for the maintenance of schools, and thus step by step laid the foundation for our free schools upon a broad and liberal and wise financial plan. The State put the means in the school men's hands. It did all it could do in this way in the cause of education, and if there is any failure in the system, it is the fault, not of its financial provisions, but of the organizers and the workmen in the schoolroom.

From the little beginning in Brockett's stable has grown the public free schools of the county, of which there are seventy -seven school districts, that have three log, sixty-three frame and ten brick schoolhouses, with an enrollment of pupils of 4,238, a daily attendance this school year (1882) of 327,659, the average school term of six and five-tenths months, with the schools classed as graded, and an attendance upon these graded schools of 1,449. There were ninety-five teachers employed. The total expenditure for 1882 was $30,685.79; the amount paid teachers, $19,416.51; the highest monthly salary paid was $75, and the lowest $15, an average of $31.58. We have a school indebtedness of $13,650. There are other than the free schools - ten schools with an enrollment of 520. The number of children under twentj'-one 3'ears of age in the county is 9,443, and the number of school age - that is, between six and twenty-one - is 6,218. The number of illiterate persons in the county is placed at six-

The schools of Effingham Count}' rank well with those of other counties in the State, and this evidences a commendal)le spirit of enterprise and liberality of the people. They are deeply interested in this important work, and the money they freely paj- in such large sums demands of our school men a wise discharge of their duties. It demands of them that thej- shall educate, to the best, the rising generation; that they shall neither waste the lives of their children nor their monej- by false education. There is nothing in this life of more importance than the school-room. There is no class of people that are surrounded with such important responsibilities as the educator. A mistake here is a crime. To teach the young a falsehood is to poison the mind and pollute the soul. The evils of such an act are well-nigh incurable. Here is the" paved highwaj' to ignorance and meutal sterility that is a menace indeed to civilization itself.

Let it be remembered that these pioneers had to begin at the foundation and from there build. To create our possessions and belongings. Did the}' build only upon the eternal rocks !

William J. Hanlcins. - Of the early legal and official life of this county, we know of no man who stands out in the picture more prominently than Judge William J. Hankins. He came here just when he was most needed and his finger marks are everj'where, telling the story of his handiwork, and writing his epitaph in the hearts, not only of his descendants, but of the thousands who are reaping, and who will in the future enjoy the fruits of his labors and his foresight.

He came here in 1832, with a wife and several j'oung children - impelled, doubtless, by the Napoleonic impulse of destiny. A new county had been incorporated by the Legislature, and its people were few, and there was a demand for men competent to do the work of placing the infant municipality upon its feet. An unorganized communitj- of people were placed by law to themselves, and society and fellowship was to be created, their own police and local laws to be made and executed, the wheels and machinery of a little government were to be constructed and adjusted, and the whole to be so ad.apted that it would work harmoniously and without friction.

It is the men of the strong intellects and force of character that come to the front when important work, especially work that is not routine, is to be done. Judge Hankins, in his small way - smaller because his field of operations was, in the nature of things, circumscrilied within the smallest limits - is as much an expression of this truth as was the Little Corporal, whose " frown terrifi(^d the glance its magnificence attracted."

In the first elections ever held in the count}-, Hankins was elected County Commissioner, and he organized the County Commissioners' Court and was the central figure in all the official acts and doings of that body. He was, at the same time, County Survej'or, Justice of the Peace, Postmaster, and in nearl}' every important special commission, or supervision, or agent for tiie people or county, he was invariably the master, mover and leader. At one time or another he held about every position of public trust in the county, and in each and all was he ever honest, faithful and competent. His education in the school books had been limited and meager. His chirography was good; his spelling bad and his grammar fault}', and yet he wrote many legal and other documents and papers that are models of terseness, completeness and perspicacity. He evidently had been his own schoolmaster mostly, and he had wrought out for himself a practical education of great value to himself and the people of the county. He probably, if alive and in his prime, could not pass a successful examination for a fourtli grade teaclier's certificate, yet it is a question if tliere has ever been a school teacher in the county but that could have gone to Hankins to learn - and there have learned much of incomparable value. He helped the helpless, aided the weak, fed the hungry and was a generous and warm-hearted friend to all mankind, as were all men who knew him, a friend to him.

Among the simple rustic pioneers he lived a useful and busy life. If he had amliition, it was not made of that "sterner stuff" that protects its friends by crushing to death all opponents. He must have felt lie was superior to the majority of his surroundings, yet he was never officious or offensively dictatorial.

When the county's record of social life, its legal and official growth and existence, the people's prosperity, happiness and joy, together with their griefs and pains are rendered and the accounts closed, the great book completed, bound and ready to put away, let it be inscribed " The work of William J. Hankins and others."

Among the earliest elections in the county was a memorable race made l)y William Freeman for Justice of the Peace. In those good days, that official was most commonlj- called " Squire," not Esquire, but Squire, and some pronounced it Square. Freeman was ambitious to serve his country, and to his ear the title Squire was a long step in the line of honorable promotion. There was another man who coveted the prize, and so the two became candidates. The contest was spirited, and on the day of election it was, to put it mildly, red hot. The candidates and their friends, in looking for the official worm, literalh" left no stone unturned. As election day waned, the contest raged onlj- the fiercer. It was hurrah! for one side, and hurray! for the other. Living witnesses testifj' that before the middle of the afternoon some of the ablest " blowers and strikers " at the polls had grown so wearj- and exhausted, at Freeman's expense, that they could not walk straight. This and some other unfavorable sj'mptoms so discouraged Freeman that he went home before the polls closed, convinced that he was defeated. He had, in slang parlance, " thrown up the sponge." He lived two or three miles out of Ewington.

To ihe surprise of every one, when the polls were closed. Freeman was elected by two votes. A few of his friends mounted their horses and rode to his house to inform and surprise him with this good fortune. He was in bed, sound asleep. They roused him, called him out and told him he was elected Justice of the Peace. At this he raved and swore, as did the army in Flanders, and bid his friends go back and tell the election that he was not, and had not been, a candidate for Justice of the Peace, and that he would either have squire or nothing; that was what he ran for, and he would not be fooled with by anybody.

He changed his mind in time to qualifj- as Justice of the Peace, and made an efficient officer, discharging his duties not only honestl}'. but with ability.

Of the earlj' comers here, the man first licensed and authorized to vend goods in our county was John Funkhouser. His line of work lay in a different avenue from that of Judge Hankins, but it was parallel and equally important to the young commonwealth. He was a merchant, miller, farmer, trader in stock, and a buyer and seller in everything that the people wanted to buy and sell. When there was no trade or commerce, no stores nor money before for the convenience of the people, he organized and made the way for these. He opened the avenues for money to come and circulate among tlie people, as well as for industries that furnished imployment to men that, without him, would have, of necessity, been idle, and perhaps dissolute. In this w.a}- his dependants outnumbered those of anj- man who has ever been iu the coimU', and his strong, clear jiulginent, quick foresight and nerve iu those broad fields of commerce that brought him profits and the commuuit}' gains aud the means of many comforts, are bright examples of how ranch better it is to give in that which encourages men to help themselves b}' their own exertions than that old and mistaken charity that do'es out its stinted aids and fosters by it the idleness and want of thrift that first produced it. His executive abilities must have been of no common order. He not only had to direct and plan his multiform business, but he had to create it where there was none before, as well as think and provide for his little armj- of dependants, and so wise and just did he manage this that what made him a rich man, contributed to the wealth and comfort of the entire commuuit}'. His liberalitj- and generosity toward his dependants and neighbors is well told in a little anecdote. He advised one of his men to plant a little piece of ground in corn, and he would furnish seed, teams, etc., necessary for him to work it. It was a little out-ofthe-way patch of ground of three or four acres. This man did as advised, and the season proved not tlie best for corn. In the fall, he got Funkhouser's wagon and gathered it, and took it all. When asked about the one-third for rent, he replied : Why, you see there was no third. There was only two loads in the field. That was ray two-thirds, and I reckon as how you don't want your third, when it didn't grow."

John Funkhouser was born in Green County, Ky., in the year 1778. He died in this count}-, in 1857. He came to Illinois in 1814, and located in Gallatin Countj-. He moved to Wayne County in 1819, and to Effingham in 1833, and improved the fiirm now the property' and possession of C. F. Lill}^ in Jackson Township; here he opened a store and built a horsemill, and commenced those extensive business

When his strong, generous and busy hands fell nerveless at his side in death, his life-work was taken up, where he had stopped, by his son, Presley Funkhouser, who proved a worthy sou of a worthy sire. He not only carried on successfully the extended operations inaugurated b}' his father, but increased and enlarged them in every vfny. A willing tribute that is paid to his memory b}- all who knew him in life, was, that he was the most generous and liberal of men. He helped all with a free and liberal hand. A man of strong head, warm heart, aud a plethoric purse made him a citizen that was a boon to the people of the county, whose like we may never look upon agairj.

The oldest living persons born in the county are two - -a man and woman, born the same night, in the same house, and not twins. These two persons are Thomas Austin and Martha Tucker, mie Brockett, born 1-tth of November, 1828. Stephen Austin and family arrived in this count}-, and that night, in the house of Thomas I. Brockett, with whom Austin stopped, was born Thomas Austin aud Martha, the daughter of Thomas I. Brockett. Martha married Jonathan Tucker. So far as can be ascertained, these were the first births in the county. These two oldest children of the county were born in what is now Jackson Township, where they are both still residing.

For a new border settlement, where the pressing want was people, these two little squalling pioneers were a most encouraging beginning, and truly great must have been the sensation of the day to the half-dozen or so of families that then occupied all the territor} that now constitutes Effingham County. Henry Turner was born December 28, 1830.

Birtiis aud deaths follow each other in nature's order. The first death that we have any account of was that of Isaac Fulfer, who was killed in the year 1829 or 1830. He had found a bee-tree, and the hive was in a limb of the tree, to where he climbed, in order to cut off the limb. As he stood by the body of the tree and cut the large limb, it commenced to fall, and, instead of breaking directly, split, and that part uncut held it to the main tree, while the other part caught the body of Fulfer against the main body of the tree and pushed it up a considerable distance, with such force that he was crushed to death almost instantly. When the outer part of the limb had come to the roots of the tree, the body of poor Fulfer was released, aild life wholly extinct, it fell and lodged upon the limb, and the friends of the dead man had . some difficulty in getting his body down to the ground.

In 1830, a negro who had been a laborer at work on the National road, during the winter, started to go to Vandalia on foot, and was frozen to death on the way, a '- Dacotah blizzard" meeting him in a short time after he left the cabin on the Little Waliash. His name is not mentioned. It is a curious accident that the first two births should have happened as they did, and as is related above, as well as it is remarkable that the first two deaths known were violent ones.

In September, 1835, the Commissioners' Court was called upon to provide homes for the two infant children of Phillip Backer, who had suffered death from exposure, caused by an attack of mental aberation. This sad duty was the first of the kind the court was called upon to perform, as well as was the death that left these poor orphans the first of the kind in the county.

In 1832, the Black Hawk war was in progress, and this young county sent out its first warriors. The little battalion was not very strong in numbers, yet it was a large proportion of the able-bodied men to go to war. Fourteen names are all that can now be recalled of these Indian fighters, to wit: Alexander McWhorter, John Griffy, Henry P. Bailey, John Trapp, Mike Brockett, John Allen, James Porter, Eli. Parkhurst, John Beasley, Isaac Fancher, Alexander Fancher, James Patton, Gideon Louder, and John Meeks.

Of this little army of our county's first heroes that started to the front, keeping step to the spirited fife and drum, all are now sleeping in their graves except Alexander McWhorter, to whose green old age are we indebted for the brief story that tells of all the county's heroes in a very important war. Not a great war, great in its many battles and innumeral)le slain, but great in its fruits, and its good to all the millions of people in the Mississippi Valley and their descendants. It was not in a war tainted with invasion or conquest, those unholy purposes that stain mankind and make their battles so shocking in brutalism and barbarism; it was to protect their homes, and their wives, and little ones from the tomahawk, the scalping knife, and the fire and faggot of the monster red devils in their cruel and bloody course, that the noble little band went forth. The country has not very graciously remembered these, its true heroes and benefactors. The politicians have had no occasion to spill over the living or the dead of these heroes any of their ocean of crockadile tears in order to catch votes. It has not been fashionable to do so, and there are no fashion-followers that can equal the politicians.

There are but few of the soldiers of the Black Hawk war now left among us. In a very few short years there will be none. May their names and their fames be Intrusted to the gentle and just hands of that future historian, who will, with tears in his eyes and divine anger in his heart, exterminate false gods and idols, and resurrect from unmerited forgetfulness and oblivion, the world's true and modest heroes.