Effingham County, Illinois - Chapter 11, 1883

And The Birth Of Effingham, Etc., Etc

DOUGLAS TOWNSHIP - ITS BOUNDARIES AND TOPOGRAPHY - EARLY SETTLEMENT - AMERICAN AND GERMAN PIONEERS - THE BULL FLATTERS - PROGRESS AND ADVANCEMENTPIONEER INCIDENTS- CHURCH AND SCHOOL HISTORY - THE RAILROAD AND THE BIRTH OF EFFINGHAM, ETC., ETC.

/CHARLES DICKENS once said that the ^-^ typical American would hesitate about entering heaven unless assured that he could go West. Ever since, and even before the advice to young men to " go West " was promulgated by the sagacious editor of the New York Tribune, the phrase " going West " has been a potent one to stir the blood of the enterprising and adventurous. The mania for going West i-esulted in the discovery of America by Columbus, and since that day we have been told by spread-eagle orators that " Westward the star of empire takes its way." From the Atlantic coast, even from Plymouth Rock, our ancestors moved Westward with the star of empire. They crossed the Alleghanies, and, descending their western slope, burst into the rich valley of the Mississippi. But they paused not here. They poured a living flood across the continent, until the

But there is a page which should come before this history, and, like the prologue to a drama, be recited first - a page which records the Indian occupation of the land and his resistence to the whites. All this, however, may be found in preceding chapters of this work, and hence is recited first. The Indian - the burly warrior and the dusky maid - are long since gone, but their footprints are left in many portions of the county. Ruins, burying-grounds and mounds tell the story of another race - the red sons of the forest.

But we will leave them with the tribute already paid them, and take up the history of this division of the county until its settlement by the whites.

Originally, Douglas embraced all of Township 8, and a part of Township 9 north, in Kange 6 east, of the Third Princiisal Meridian. But at the December term of the Supervisors' Court, held in 1863, the east half of Township 8 was set off and created an independent township, which is known and designated as Teutopolis. This change leaves Douglas in much the shape of a carpenter's " square, " It is bounded north by Shelby County, east by Cumberland County and Teutopolis Township, south by Watson Township and west by Summit and Banner Townshijjs. It is drained by the Little Wabash and its tributaries, of which Salt and Green ' Creeks are the principal ones. Salt Creek flows nearly north and south, just touching its eastern line, while Green Creek passes through the northwest corner, and the Little Wabash curves into the west line a time or two in its tortuous course southward. The land is mostly rolling, and adjacent to the Little Wabash breaks into steep and abrupt bluffs. Indeed, some of the roughest land in the county is along the margin of the river in this township. There is but little prairie, the timber land largely predominating. Oak, ash, sycamore, hickory, white and black walnut, sugar maj^le, buckeye, Cottonwood, etc., comprise the timbei; growth, with numerous hazel thickets and other common shi'ubs. The township is well suj)plied with railroads - these modern allies of civilization.

The history of Douglas Township centers in the city of Effingham, the capital of the county, which is located in the south end of the township. Usually, the township containing the county seat affords few facts of interest to the historian beyond that of its settlement. It is specially so in Douglas, being principally an agricultural region, without towns or villages (except Effingham), manufactories, mills or anything else than its honest and energetic German farmers, which comprise by far the larger portion of the population. As will be seen in the following pages, the township was mostly settled by Germans, who still retain a strong foothold and are among the most highly respected citizens of the county. There were a few of our own people here, however, prior to the coming in of the Germans, and the settlement of these will be first noticed.

Of the early settlers we have the names of Isaac Slover, James Cartwright, James Leavitt, Jefferson Langford, John Gannaway, James and Nathan Ramsey, Aaron Williams, one Stewart, Richard Cohea, etc., etc. Slover and Cartwright lived on the National road, near the present railroad depot. Cartwright was Slover" s son-in-law, and both have long since gone the way of the earth. Gannaway came from Kentucky and settled east of Slover and just across Salt Creek. He afterward moved to Coles County and died there. Aaron Williams settled west of the city, where Henry Havener now lives. He moved West, perhaps to Missouri, and lived to the age of nearly one hundred years. Jeff' Langford lived about a mile west of Williams, and was from Tennessee. He has been dead several years. Leavitt, also a Tennessean, settled a little south of Effingham. He has two sons still living in the county, but he himself is dead. The Ramseys and Coheas settled in the northwestern part of the township, in the classic neighborhood of " Bull Flat." The old ones - the patriarchs of the tribes - are dead, but they have quite a number of descendants still living in the township and surrounding country.

banks of the Ehine, we may mention the following settlers, who came here as early as 1S40, and some of them several years earlier: Joseph, Bernard, Hem-y and George Koester, Ferdinand Braun, Joseph Feldhake, Matthias Moenuiug, Joseph Buessing, Gerhard Osthoflf, Fr. Hoffmann, Bernard Vogt, John Fochtrop, Bernard Deters, Fred Grimmeg, Arnold Kreke, Joseph Suer, Joseph Bloemer, Ferdinand Messmann, Hermann H. Nieman, Henry Best, Joseph Goldstein, Henry Gerdes, A. B. Jansen, Rudolph Dust, Hem-y Lohmann, H. M. Mette, Ferdinand Kaufmann, Gerhard Nuxoll, John B. Gruenloh, William Kabbes, Dick Coers, Bernard Reiman, Henry Schmer, Joseph Woermanu, William Aulenbrook, Peter Throele, John Rickelmann, Fred Cohorrtt, Henry Unla-aut, John Meyer, Casper Krueppe, George Scoles, Henry Herboth, Ferdinand Wintrup and perhaps others.

George Koester settled east of town; the other Koesters north and northwest of town, and all are living except Henry. Feldhake is a respected citizen of Effingham; Braun settled northwest of town, and is still living; Buessing lives near Effingham. Nieman was the father of Mi's. Kaufmann, who is still living and who is the widow of Ferdinand Kaufmann. Matthias Moenning died 1882; Osthoff lives in the southwest part of the township, and Fr. Hoffmann in the west part: Vogt settled near him, but is now dead. Feehti-op and Deters settled in the southern part, and Best in the northern part of the township, the latter living, but the other two are dead. Goldstein, Gerdes, Bloemer, Jansen, Messmann, Lohmanu, Joseph and Bernard Suer, Mette and Gruenloh, settled in th'? northern part and are all, we believe, still living. Nuxoll and Aulenbrook settled in the same neighhorhood, and are dead. Most of the others mentioned settled also in the north part, and are living or have descendants living still in the township. Of these German pioneers of Douglas Township, ^he Koesters, Dust and Feldhake were the first settlers from the old country. They were soon followed by friends and relatives to the " land of the free and the home of the brave," until at the present day there are but few farmers in the entire township except the thrifty Germans. They are honest and upright in their dealings, simple in their manners and customs, and industrious, quiet citizens. Their American neighbors and themselves have always gotten along together upon the best of terms - barring the " Dutchtown war, " graphically described elsewhere, and without any special clashing of personal interests.

At the time of settlement, the people depended almost entirely for meat upon the wild game, then so abundant in the country. Deer and wild turkeys and other game were plenty, and it was no great task for an expert hunter to go out early in the morning and kill a deer or two or three turkeys and return in time for the matutinal meal. An old settler says: " When I came here, game was plenty, and white men were scarce; but I ^ have lived to see matters reversed - white men are now plenty, and the game all gone." Then all the clothing was manufactured at home by the women. It was of the rudest material and of the rudest construction. Boots were seldom worn, except in the towns, and to see a man with boots on was indisputable evidence that he was a preacher, doctor, lawyer or some other " big-bug, " these favored individuals comprising by far the biggest ducks in the social puddle. The necessaries of life were scarce, and that they were is no matter of wonder. When we consider that St. Louis was the only market until small stores were opened in the larger settlements, everything had to be hauled in wagons to and from that point, and with the

The early history of this township cannot bo fully given without a brief mention of a community in the northwestern part of it. The name " Bull Flat" is coincident almost with the settlement of the country. How the place received the classic name it bears is a conundrum, and we give it up. It was settled by Tennesseans, who have not advanced a single degree in social progress since they settled here fifty years ago. The customs of their fathers they hang to with all the zeal that a -John Chinaman clings to his diet of rice and rats. They sing the old songs, dream the old dreams and dance the old dances their ancestors did before them. A waltz, or polka, or schottische, is as incomprehensible to the genuine "Bull Flatter" as would be Arabic or Sanscrit, but " Ole Dan Tucker," "Chicken Pie" and "Possum up the gum stump," is more familiar to him than household words. Their mode of " call ing " at their dances is peculiar to "Bull Flat " alone, and is sung out by the prompter to the " cow-bell " tune of a " hard-shell " preacher, somewhat after this fashion: "Bow to the gals;" "shake yer hoofs;" " swing yer honey, " " all chaw hay," etc. , etc. , the last expression when tn-^nslated into the United States language, means " all promenade. "

In years agone, the "Bull Flatters," like the denizens of the Wabash hills and " Fiddler's Ridge," were great enemies to whisky, and hence, strove to hide as much of it as they possibly could. Such was their reputation for this species of gaiete de camr, that a popular saloon keeper of EfBngham constantly kept a bottle labeled "Bull Flat Whisky," a tablespoonful of which was warranted to kill any human being except the native Bull Flatter, but a half pint of it only made him feel jubilant and a full pint of it put him in good lighting trim. On public days when these fellows turned put in force and filled themselves to the brim with Bull Flat whisky, what grand times they had! Such circuses could be gotten up by no other class of people.

This Bull Flat settlement is a tribe or community unto itself, and is a kind of city organization, governed by its own peculiar laws and ordinances. Of this noteworthy menagerie. Dr. Godell is Mayor, Billy Buckner. Lord High Constable, and Tobe Hennessey, Assistant. The care which these official dignitaries exercise over this frontier post shows a genuine interest of rulers for the mass of the people over whom they are called to reign.

Roads and mills were among the first improvements to which the pioneers turned their attention. The old Cumberland or National road was the first thoroughfare that was made through the township. It passed along within a few feet of where the Vandalia Railroad now runs, and was, for that day, a gigantic enterprise. But we will not repeat here what has already been said of this great work. Other roads were laid out and improved as the country settled up. The first mills w^re the little horse-power mills, built by the pioneers themselves, and were rude in the extreme. The buhrs were made of bowlders, and sometimes not more than fifteen to eighteen inches in diameter. It was not until the day of steam that the poople had the benefit of firstclass mills.

Previous to township organization the divisions of the county were known as precincts and the Congressional townships were designated by numbers and ranges. But when township organization was adopted, and a new system of county government entered into, it became necessary to give names to the Congressional divisions. This change or local organization took place when Stephen A. Douglas was in the zenith of his glory and popularity and the idol of the people, and it seemed but meet to the good " county fathers" that the " Little Giant " should be honored by having his name bestowed on this township. Hence, in the christening of townships, this one was called Douglas, a name with which the musses are well satisfied.

No better eulogium can be pronounced upon a community, or upon its individual members, than to point to the work they have accomplished. Theories look fine on paper, or sound well when proclaimed from the platform, but it is the plain work which tells on society. Thus, not only this township, but the entire county took an early interest in education. All the main settlements established schools as soon as they could support them. As the population increased, and in the natiu-al coarse of human events, the children also, schoolhouses were built, better teachers engaged and other improvements made in the facilities for education. Every neighborhood now has a good comfortable schoolhouse, and is supplied with from six to eight months of school each year.

Religious training was not neglected in the early days of the township. The few American settlers attended church in the other neighborhoods, while most of the Germans, being Catholics, were first visited by clergymen from Teutopolis. The second Catholic Church organized in the county was "Maria Help," or the Green Creek Church, as more familiarly known. It is situated on Green Creek in the north part of the township, and was organized in the fall of 1857 by Rev. Father Frauenhof er, a native of the Kingdom of Bavaria, and a regularly ordained priest. A little log church had been built previously by the settlers in this section, and various clergymen came from Teutopolis to attend funerals and otherwise administer to the spiritual wants of the people, but there was no regular pastor until Father Frauenhofer came in that capacity. He was desirous of being the first to plant a congregation here, and overlooked the poverty of the parishioners. He remained two years, and then the Franciscan Fathers took charge of the congregation. Under their auspices, the present handsome church was built and finished, at a cost of about $4,500, without steeple, which cost, with plastering and frescoing, $900 more. It is a brick structure, 67x40 feet in dimensions, with twenty feet additional in length for the sacristy. The original members of this congregation were H. H. Niemann, Jacob Dottmann, Bernard Tebbe, Henry Fischer and their families, and three bachelors, John Osterhause, Antony Dorenkamp and one other whose name is forgotten.

The church has now a membership of about fifty families, with over two hundred communicants. The present Trustees are Henry Osterhause and Francis Hoene, and Clemens Albers and Bernard Tebbe, Directors. The schoolhouse belonging to the congregation was built in 1870-71, and is a twostory brick, containing four rooms. A free school is maintained and well attended.

The building of the Illinois Central Railroad was an era in the history of this part of the StaDe, and Douglas Township came in for its share of the general prosperity, which followed the completion of this great internal improvement. It gave the people facilities hitherto unknown to them and fm-nished markets for their surplus stock and grain, such as they had never dreamed of. Their lands sprang up in value, their mode of cultivating the soil was wonderfully improved and their income thereby increased tenfold. This gale of prosperity which swept over the couutry, and this revolution in the agricultural, mechanical and mercantile world, led to the birth of numerous cities, towns and villages - particularly along this great highway. To the building of the Central Railroad - an enterprise described elsewhere - we may attribute the origin of the beaixtiful and now floiu'ishing city situated in the southern part of this township, and which might never have come into existence but for this grand culmination of railroad enterprise. With this allusion to events, which " cast their shadows before," we will close our sketch of Douglas Township, and in another chapter take up the history of Effingham, devoting a brief space to its birth, growth and material development.