Effingham County, Illinois - Chapter 19, 1883

UNION TOWNSHIP - INTRODUCTORY - BOUNDARIES AND TOPOGRAPHY - WHITE SETTLEMENTFREDERICK BROCKETT - OTHER PIONEERS - INCIDENTS OF EARLY LIFE - THE FIRST ROADS - EDUCATIONAL - SCHOOLHOUSES - CHURCHES, ETC. - FLEMSBURG VILLAGE - A TRAGEDY AND ITS RESULTS.

" The wolf and deer are seen no more Among the woods, along the shore ; And where was heard the panther's scream, The farmer drives his jocund team. Where once the Indian wigwam stood. Upon the border of some wood. The stately mansion now is seen, Amid broad fields and pastures green."

rr^HE history of this township dates back to -*- the advent of the first pioneers in Effingham County - not the very first solitary straggler who wandered into the wilds, as aimless in his movements as the Argonaut of old in his quest for gold over the face of the eai'th - but the first real pioneer, who came hunting game as well as the fabled mines of precious metal, game being the one supreme thing of life. This section of country is mostly heavily timbered, and its numerous streams supply it with abundance of water, as well as give it a most excellent drainage. It was these that, ages ago, made this point in the county the resort of many wild animals, and the rendezvous of Indian tribes. The hoary trunks of tall, majestic trees, the commingling of their variegated foliage, their deep and dense shades, the wild fruits, bubbling springs, with their cool and grateful water, the natm-al beauties aud the protection from storms and the elements, all combined to make 'this the home of birds, beasts and men. All this was sufficient evidence to the pioneer hunter that here he could find that which he sought - game; and when he beheld these, he stopped, kindled his camp-tires, sat down on his log seat, and, in hapjjy content, cooked his frugal meals. And as the blue smoke struggled up through the branches and leaves of the trees, and the fire threw its glaring light upon the weird, surrounding objects, the story was first told to the wild denizens of the woods that man, civilized man, with his death-dealing weapons, was come among them.

Union Township lies in the south central part of the county. It is considerably uneven and broken, and was originally about three-fourths heavily timbered, though of late years much of the timbered land has been cleared and brought into cultivation. There is a considerable tract of prairie in the southern and southeastern parts, and a very beautiful scope of level land extending into the timber in the northeast corner; but, aside from these portions, the township surface is very rolling and hilly, with numerous ra vines traversing it in various directions. The banks of the Little Wabash, the principal water-course, are very high, rugged and precipitous, and in places are composed almost wholly of large masses of shelving rock and huge bowlders. Back from the stream a short distance, the land stretches away into a broad, flat bottom, especially in the northern part, which are covered with a dense forest of the largest timber to be found any- where in the county, consisting mostly of elm, sycamore, ash, walnut, and a vai'iety of other growths, while the uplands are covered principally by forests of large oaks, the best timber in this section of the country. The Little Wabash enters the township near the northwest corner, in Section 7, and flows in an easterly course about two miles, when it makes an abrupt turn in a southward dii'ection, crossing the county line about two miles from the western boundary in Section 32. This is a running stream all the year, and, during certain seasons, it becomes a raging torrent, frequently overflowing its banks for considerable distances on either side, doing a great deal of damage to the country. The chief tributary of the Little Wabash is Bishop Creek, the second stream in size in the county. It flows through the township in a westerly direction, an,d empties in the former. Ramsey Creek, a stream of considerable size and importance, traverse? the eastern part of the township and empties into Bishop about one mile east of the place where the latter unites with the Wabash. The other water- courses worthy of mention are Coon Creek, in the southwestern part of the township, and Little Bishop, in the northern part. As an agricultural district, this division of the county is not so good as some of the sister townships more recently settled, as the soil is not so fertile as that of the prairie. By proper tillage, however, it yields very fair crops of corn, wheat and other cereals commonly raised in this part of the country, and produces the best varieties of fruits, to which the soil seems well adapted. The bottom lands that have been cleared and brought into cultivation are much more fertile than the higher wooded poi'tions, the soil in some places being several feet in depth, and of a rich vegetable mold. Union is bounded on the north, east and west by the townships of

The first white man who broke the solitude of nature within the present limits of Union was Frederick Brocket, one of the earliest pioneers of Effingham County. He settled in the northeastern part, on the Little Wabash, about the year 1829, and cleared forty acres of land in Section 18. A few years later, he erected a small " tub " mill on the river, the first piece of machinery of the kind ever operated in the county, and for several years the only flour and meal supply nearer than Vandalia or Terre Haute. Brocket operated it about eight years, when it was completely destroyed by fire. The life and character of this noted pioneer demand more than a mere passing notice. He was born in Tennessee, and his youth and early manhood were passed amid the genial, bracing airs of his mountain home, where he acquired, by following a life of constant exercise, a stock of that rugged vitality so necessary for a man who locates in a new and wild country. He came to this State when it was in the infancy of its existence, when there were but one or two sparse settlements within the present bounds of this county, and passed the vigor of his manhood in helping to build up and develop the country, in which he always took great pride. Unlike many of the first settlers on the frontier, he was a man of character, sterling integrity, a true Christian, and was widely and favorably known throughout the entire country during the eaHy days of its history. He was first to take an interest in the cause of education in the township, and, as soon as there were children sufficient to start a school, fitted up a part of his residence at his own expense, which he generously donated for that purpose. When the school was in readiness, no one could be found in the neighborhood sufficiently well qualified to act the part of instructor, so he took upon himself the labors of that position, also, and taught the first school in the southern part of the county.

At the first election held in the precinct of which Union was formerly a part, ho was elected Justice of the Peace, which office he discharged very creditably for several consecutive terms. He accumulated a very handsome property during the period of his residence here, and built one of the lu-st frame houses in the county. His death occurred in the year 1856, at a ripe old age. The old place where his first little cabin stood is now owned by Henry Bushue and the Robinson heirs, aud the mill site is in possession of William Bradley.

Martin K. Robinson, a son-in-law of Bi-ocket, was the next settler who came into this township. He arrived about one year later (1830), and the place where he settled is a short distance east of the Brocket farm, on the same section. He cleared forty acj-es of ground, and, some six years later, purchased the mill site of his father-in-law, rebuilt the mill, which he operated for eight or ten years, and made, while running it, considerable money. This he afterward invested in lands in the vicinity. His mill was destroyed by fire also, after having been in operation for some eleven years. It wa^ afterward rebuilt by a Mr. Bradley. At the time of Robinson's death, in 1857, he was in affluent circumstances, and one of the largest land-owners in the county. Two of his daughters are at this time living in the county - Mi-s. Bradbury and Mrs. MeManaway - the former in this township, and the latter in the village of Mason. About this time, a ninnber of transient settlers, or, as they are generally called, squatters, located in the timber along the Little Wabash and Bishop

Creeks, and built several cabins, around which small garden patches were cleared. They appear to have been a very thriftless, do-nothing set, and spent the greater part of their time hunting and trapping, and, when the lands were entered by the settlers who came in afterward, they left and moved on further West, all the time keeping just in the advance'of civilization.

From this time until the year 1835, there does not appear to have been any additional settlements made in the township, as far as we have been able to learn. The latter year was signalized by the advent of a family of five brothers by the name of Gordon, who settled temporarily on the Little Wabash, a short distance south of whereWilliamWilsonnow lives. Their names were William, Pleasant, Abraham, Joseph and Nelson, the last-named being the only one that made any permanent improvements. The others were rather careless, thriftless fellows, who spent most of their time in hunting and watching their large droves of wild hogs, which, at that time, required no feeding, as the abundance of mast found in the woods was their chief subsistence. In the fall of the year, these hogs would be hunted down and butchered, and the meat hauled to the nearest market place, or traded to the other settlers in the neighborhood. Nelson Gordon sold his land, in 1847, to William Wilson, ami, with his family, moved to Texas, where he was soon after joined by the rest of the brothers.

The fu-st legal entry of land in the township was made in the year 1836, by Isaac Gordon, near Flemsburg Mill, in Section 30. He was an uncle of those already named, but, unlike them, was a man of considerable public sj^irit and enterprise, and did as much, perhaps, toward developing his township as any other man in it. The farm was purchased about ten years later, by a man named Samilson, a Dane, who laid out the of Flemsbm-g and built the second mill in the township. Hastings Hughes, a colored man, was an eai-ly settler, having come to the county as early as the year 1836, and settled in the northern part of the township, where he entered and improved about eighty acres of land. He was the lirst blacksmith in the township, and worked at his trade in connection with his farm labor for several years. He afterward sold his land and moved to Flemsburg, where he built a shop which he operated for over twenty years.

William and Redding Blunt, two brothers, and Kitchie Robinson, located near the central partof the township, on Salt Creek, in the spring of 1838, and were followed a little later by William and Joshua Moody, who settled near the northeastern part of the township, where they entered and improved about forty acres apiece. They were young unmarried men, and, after having erected a couple of small cabins on their respective claims, and cleared a few acres of ground, seemed to realize the full force of that Scriptural injunction that " it is not good for man to be alone. " Their respect for this partic ular portion of Holy Writ having been induced by the presence in the neighborhood of two daughters of William Blunt, who found much favor in their eyes. A double marriage, in which the above parties were the chief actors, took place at the residence of the brides' father in the f aU of 1840, and was the first ceremony of the kind solemnized in Union Townshij). Squire Leith, of Mason, was the dignitary who gave legal sanction to the contract on that occasion, and it is to be presumed that another command of the Divine Word - to " multiply and fill the earth " - was obeyed by the two happy couples, as the younger editions of Moody's,

A list of Union's early settlers would be incomj)lete without the name of John TrapjJ. He came into the township about the year 1838, and located a farm in the eastern part, near the place where Marion settled. He moved near Ewington a few years later, and figured rather j)rominently in the early politics of the county, having been elected to the position of Olerk in one of the most hotly contested elections ever held in the county.

Josiah and Martin Hull settled in the township, near Salt Creek, in the year 1842, and found, in addition to those previously mentioned, a man named Evans, who had preceded them, but of him we could learn nothing further than that he was accounted a very worthy man and an exemplary citizen. The Hulls were among the substantial pioneers of Union, and cleared good farms, and were identified with every movement calculated to advance the township's prosperity. Martin was elected Justice of the Peace about ionr years after coming to the county, and filled the office one year, when he sold the farm to a Mr. Sperling ,and moved from the township. Josiah disposed of his place in 1849 and moved to Marion County, whore he is still living. In 1846, there were living in the township, in addition to the families enumerated, Warren Neal, William M. Wilson, Ahert Simmerman and Steishen A. Williams. Neal settled in the southeastern part of the township, where his widow, a very old woman, still lives. Wilson came to Illinois from Ohio in the fall of 1845, and located in Section 18, where he still resides, the oldest settler in the township. He served the people as Justice of the Peace from 1849 until 1872. Simmerman settled in the southern part of the township, whore Charles Wilson now lives. He came from Virtrinia, and was among the prominent citizens of the county. Williams was. the first preacher in the township, and organized the first religious society, at the residence of Simmerman, about the year 1S48. He was a man of superior intellectual attainments, a gifted orator and a thorough business man. At the breakingf-out of the late war, he entered the army as First Lieutenant, and participated in many of the hardest battles in the Southwestern cam paigns. He came home in the winter of 1862. on fui'lough, and died.

The names of other early settlers could be added to the list already given, but the dates of their settlement, and facts concerning their early life have been obscui'ed by the lapse of time. Many of the pioneers have passed away " as a tale that is told. " Others removed to distant lands, but by far the greater number have passed into the " windowless palace of the dead, whose doors open not outward." For many years during the early history of this section of the country, the lives of the pioneers were not 'enviable. Their trials were numerous, and the obstacles they were called upon to encounter would discourage the bravest-hearted of the present day; yet, hard as was their life in the wilderness, it had its seasons of recreation, if such could be called recreation. Kaisings, log-rollings, etc., when the settlers from far and near would meet, and, while working, would recount various incidents, talk over old times, and thus relieve the monotony of their isolated situation. Light hearts, strong constitutions and clear consciences made the toilsome hours pass pleasantly, and old men now living, whose youth was spent among the stirring scenes of those times, look back with pleasure to the old days as the most enjoyable period of their lives. Their first duty was to provide a shelter, and their rude cabins were hastily built, daubed with mud; the floors were often nothing but mother earth, made smooth and compact by constant usage, or of rough puncheon; and the bedsteads and tables, with a chair or two, were almost the sole furniture. Pewter plates and cups were common, and the huge, open-mouthed tireplace, suiTounded by pots, skillets, ovens, pans, etc., were used for cooking, as stoves at that time were not in vogue on the frontier. Corn-dodgers, baked in an oven or skillet, and johnny-cake, baked on a board before a fire, with venison prepared in various ways, were considered food fit for the gods.

The early roads through the woods and over the hills of this township were mere trails, that had originally been made by the Indians, and afterward improved by the people and made into highways. The first road that was surveyed and regularly established in the southern part of the county passed through the western part of this township, in a southerly direction, and known as the Louisville & Ewington road, as it connected those two places. The original route has been greatly changed during the last twenty years, and it is still one of the most extensively traveled highways in the county. Another early road was the one leading west from the Brocket Mill to Mason, where it connected with an important highway which ran to Vandalia. The Clay County & Mason road was established many years ago, and passed through the central part of the township, from east to west. When first laid out, there were no bridges where these roads crossed the streams, and hence, in time of high water, travel had to be suspended. Now there are several good bridges over the principal water-courses, so that overflows are no impediment to travel.

interest and pride in the public schools, which have been well sustained and patronized. The first school, as already stated, was taught by Frederick Brocket, at his residence, about the year 1846. The second term was taught at the same place, the following year, by William Ventis. Emeline Little taught about the same time, in a little log cabin that had formerly been occupied as a dwelling by John Trapp, and that stood a short distance east of the Brocket farm. A small hut, that had been abandoned by a squatter by the name of Johnson, was fitted up for school purposes, and occupied by Dempsey Hamilton, who taught a three - months subscription school in the winter of 1847-48. The first regular schoolhouse was built in the fall of 1848, and stood near Nelson Gordon's residence, in Section 18. It was a good house, made of hewed logs, well furnished, and was supplied with a stove - probably the first building of the kind in the country heated by such an appliance.

The first public school in the township was taught by David Phelps, in this building, about the year 1849. It was used for school purposes for a little more than twenty years, when it was purchased by Samuel Leith, who moved it to his farm, and at present occupies it as a residence. A frame school - house was erected near the same place in 1870, and is known as District No. 1. Among the early pedagogues who wielded the birch in Union were Minnie Anderson, John Anderson, James Anderson, Thomas Vauderver (now a prominent physician and druggist of Effingham), Vincent Wyth and Dr. Allen. The township is well supplied with good frame schoolhouses at proper intervals, in which schools are taught about eight months of the year.

the township, at the residence of A hart Simpson, as has already been stated, and njet for worship there for a number of years. A building was afterward erected near the southern limit of the township, known as Bethsaida Church, where a small congregation still meet. The building is frame, and cost about $000. Among the early pastors were Stephen A. Williams, to whose labors the church owes its existence; Andrew Hogaa, and a man by the name of Patterson. There have been religious services held in the schoolhouses throughout the township by ministers of several denominations at difi'erent times, but aside from the organization alluded to, no other church ever had an existence in Union.

Dr. James Long was the first person to practice the healing art among the pioneers of Southern Effingham, and moved into the township from Mason about the year 1846, and located near Flemsburg. His professional life in this part of the county extended over a period of five or six years. The second marriage in the township took place in about the year 1846, at the residence of John Trapp, when his daughter, Catharine, and John Gordon, took upon themselves the responsibilities of matrimony. Rev. Stephen Williams officiated at the ceremony. It was in the month of November when this important event transpired, and the smiling groom appeared before the guests gayly attired in his shirt sleeves, linen pants and a pair of cow-hide shoes. Another early marriage was that of Calvin Brockett and Miss Rowena Hall, this year. The ceremony was performed by Squire Martin Hull, at the residence of Joseph Hull, where the couple went for the purpose, the bride's father being kept in blissful ignorance, in the meantime, on account of his decided objection to the match. The first birth taking place in Union was a child of Martin K. Robinson, which was born shortly after the family moved to the township. The old Brocket Graveyard was the tirst place consecrated to the burial of the dead, and is at this time so overgrown with brush and weeds that it could not be distinguished, save for a slight paling around one little grave, where the child of some unknown stranger lies buried.

The Flemsburg Mill was built by Hartwig Samilson, in the year 1850, on the Little Wabash, from which it received the power that operated it. It stood in Section 30, and was in operation about four years, when it was torn down and rebuilt on a much more improved plan, and has been doing a very good business ever since. Mr. Samilson laid out a small village at this point in the year 1851, and a store was opened soon after by Messrs. Thole & Ruse, who conducted business for about two years. A few residences were erected and a blacksmith shop built, but the village was destined to be of short duration, as there were no inducements for business men or mechanics to locate here. The store was closed out by Mr. Ruse in the year 1854, and the dwellings gradually disappeared, until now there is nothing of the town except one blacksmith shop and the mill.

circumstances: A man by name of Shepherd, living about one mile east of the river, entered a piece of land adjoining his farm, on which a couple of squatters by name of "Shell" and "Dick" Russell had settled some time previous. They refused to leave the land, and the rights of property were tried before Squire Wilson, who returned a verdict in favor of Shepherd, whereupon the Russell brothers took an appeal from the decision to the court. Saturday before court convened, Shepherd went to the village of Mason to do some trading, where he remained till dark, and started home after night. He was met on the Flemsburg bridge by the Russell boys and two associates, Scott Howell and Jacob Booher, knocked off his horse with a heavy club, dragged down the stream a short distance and thrown over the bank into the water. The horse was found the following Monday by some neighbors, who went out to look for Shepherd. The saddle was covered with blood, which at once aroused suspicions of foul play. Upon further search, the body of Shepherd was found on a sand-bar, on which it had fallen when thrown over the bank. The murderers were arrested, tried, their guilt established, and they ware sentenced to be hanged. A short time before the day set for their execution, they broke jail and escaped, since which nothing has been heard of them.