Effingham County, Illinois - Chapter 24, 1883

War Record And Experience, Etc

TT^HIS is a beautiful section of the county. -'- Fancy yourself standing upon yonder swell of the ground fifty years ago. It is June, say; your senses are regaled with the beauty of the landscape, the singing of the birds, the fragrance of the air, wafting grateful odors from myriads of flowers of every imaginable variety of size, shape and hue, blushing in the sunbeam and opening their petals to drink in ils vivifying rays, while gazing, enraptured, you descry in the distance a something moving slowly over the prairies, and through the forest and among the gorgeous flowers. As the object nears you, it proves to be a wagon, a " prairie schooner," drawn by a team of oxen, contain- ing a family and their earthly all. They are moving to the " far West" (now almost the center of civilization), in quest of a home. At length they stop, and, on the margin of a grove, rear their lone cabin, amid the chattering of birds, the bounding of deer, the hissing of serpents and the barking of wolves. For all the natives of these wilds look upon the intruders with a jealous eye, and each in his own way forbids any encroachments upon his fondly-cherished home and his long undisputed domain. From the same point look again in midsummer, in autumn and in winter. Audio! fields are inclosed, waving with grain and ripening for the harvest. Look yet again, and after the lapse of fifty years, and what do you see ? The waste has become a fruitful field, adorned with ornamental trees, enveloping in beauty commodious and even elegant dwellings. In short, you behold a land, whose

And where abound spacious churches, schools, etc., and other temples of learning; a land of industry and wealth, checkered with railroads and public thoroughfares. A land teeming with life and annually sending off Burijlus fruits, with hundreds, notUo say thousands, of its sons to people newer regions beyond. A land whose resources and improvements are so wonderful as to stagger belief and surpass the power of description. When the first whites came here it was the great West, just as we now call the country beyond the Mississippi the great West. To the emigrant from Kentucky, Tennessee and Ohio, with their wagons and ox teanls, it was a tjreat imdertakincr to move out West - to Illinois. Fifty years ago, to load up all one's worldly goods in a wagon, hitch four horses to it, or three yoke of oxen, and start on a journey of two or three hundred miles over bad roads, and often where there were no roads at all,- was a trip that most of us would shrink from now. It was a greater undertaking than it is at the present day to cross the continent, or even to go to Europe. Yet that is the way the pioneers came to Illinois half a century ago.

West Township is situated in the southwest part of the county, and is an unexceptionally fine farming country, being mostly prairie. The western part of the township is very level, but the eastern portion is more rolling and drains well without artificial means. There is considerable timber in places and along Fulfer Creek, which runs through the entire township, there was originally a great deal of tine white oak timl er, most of which has been cut away. The other growths are walnut, hickory, cottonwood, several kinds of oak, hackberry, buckeye, sugar maple, etc. The principal water-course is Fulfer Creek, which traverses the entire township from east to west, or vice versa. A few other small streams flow in different directions, but are without names. West has Mound Township on the north, Mason Township on the east, Fayette County on the south and west, and taken all in all is one of the finest agricultm-al regions in the county. According to the Congressional survey of the State, it comprises Township 6 north, in Range 4 east, of the Third Principal Meridian. It is intersected by the Springfield Division of the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad, to which it contributed liberally and aided materially in constructing. Gillmore Station, as a shipping point, amply repays the people for the money they invested iu building the road.

Settlements were not made in West Township as early as in many other portions of the county, owing to the fact that the land was principally prairie and the pioneers did not believe in attemjiting a settlement on the open prairies. They believed these vast plains would never be fit for anything but pa^tui-es, and hence shunned them as wholly unfit for farming pui'poses. Thus it was that not until nearly IS-tO that a settlement was made in what now forms West Township. "When IVIr. Gillmore came here, in 1845, there were then living in the township the following families, viz., Nelson Simons, Abraham Riddle, Jesse Newman, Jacob Nelson, Jack Houchin, Jerry and Abraham Hammonds and Morgan Kavanaugh. These were mostly Tennesseans. Simons settled near the present Gillmore Station, about a mile from the east line of the township. He was a live, energetic man, full of fun and fond of his " toddy." His motto was, " drink plenty of whisky and keep the ager ofif." He finally sold out and moved away, probably to Missom-i. Riddle settled about a mile west of Simons. He was a quiet, easy-going man, possessing but little energy; ho died in the township several years ago.

Newman settled on Fulfer Greek, and was a fine business man and a useful man in the community. He kept a store, the first in the township, and bought the surplus produce of the settlers. This he hauled in wagons to St. Louis, and in retium brought back goods which, he supplied to the neighborhood, thereby creating a market at home. He finally sold out and moved into Mason Township, where later he died, much respected. The Hammonds set+lod near Newman. Abraham still lives in the township, but Jerry died a few years ago. Mr. Kavanaugh settled in the same neighborhood, on the creek. He is dead, but has a son living in the township and other descendants in the county.

Jacob Nelson and Houchin have been accredited by some as the first actual settlers in the township, but this is not known of a certainty at this time. They are said to have moved in about 1829 or 1830. Nelson afterward moved into Jackson and died there. Houchin was from Kentucky and settled there soon after Nelson. Later, he moved up into Shelby County, where he built a mill, and some years afterward moved into Coles County, near the village of Paradise, and died there at a good old age.

These families above mentioned were the eai'liest settlers in the township. If there were others here as early their names are now forgotten. A number of families, however, came in shortly after, beginning about 184:4- 45. From this time a continual stream of immigration was kept up until all the available lancl was occupied. Among the first of those later emigrants were the Gillmores, Isham Mahon, Judge Jonathan Hook and Jeff Hankins. J. L. and William .Gillmore, both of whom are still living in the township, came originally from Kentucky with their father, when quite small, and settled in Fayette County. From thence the boys came here, as above, in 1845. Mahon came a year or two after the Gillmores. He is from Virginia and is still a resident of the township.

Judge Hook was from Ohio, and settled about the same time. He was a man highly respected in the community in which he lived. For many years he served as a Justice of the Peace, and was elected County Judge, which office ho filled acceptably for one term. When he died, Jie was followed to the grave by the largest funeral procession ever seen in the township. He was buried in Edgewood Cemetery. Hankins settled near Mahon. He was a relative of the Hankinses, who settled in the county at an early day, in Summit and Jackson Townships. He came here from Fayette County, and after remaining a few years returned whence he came.

were moving in from Indiana and Ohio. These did not assimilate readily with the Southern people, who formed by far the larger portion of the early settlers. The Kentuckians and Tennesseans looked upon everybody born and bred north of the Ohio River as Yankees, and the very word Yankee to them implied all that was bad and wicked. But a home in the wilderness, a life on the frontier, is a grand leveler of hviman prejudice; so, as they were made better acquainted with each other by constant intercourse, their old antipathies were swept away, and they became the best of fi'iends.

West Township possesses little of historical interest beyond its settlement and occupation by white people. There is not a town - except Gillmore Station, which can scarcely be called a town - in the township; there is not a mill, and never has been, save a saw-mill or two; nor is there a church building. This leaves but little to say, beyond the fact that the people are moral, industrious, energetic and intelligent, attending strictly to their own business and cultivating and improving their lands.

That there is no church building in the township, it does not follow that the people are all Bob Ingersolls. They are not of that class by any means. The schoolhouses are used for church as well as for school purposes, and with the towns of Altamont, Mason and Edgewood in close proximity, the people have no lack of spiritual consolation and teaching. Many of them attend religious services at these places, and are members of the churches there located. One of the first things our Pilcjrim Fathers did after crossins: " the stormy seas," was to assemble upon the barren rocks of Plymouth, in the great temple, whose majestic dome was the over-arching skies, and offer prayers of thanksgiving for their safe voyage and successful landing.

So it was with the first settlers of Illinois, and the pioneers of West Township were no exception. Whenever a few families were near enough to each other to be called a neighborhood, they often assembled, either in the open air, or within the narrow confines of some pioneer cabin, blending their hymns of praise with the moan of the winds, and amid the scream of the panther and the howl of wolves, returning thanks to the Giver of all good. In all their trials and sufferings, their early privations and hardships, the pioneers never once forgot that God was the great source of blessing and would not forsake them in their time of need. With all the churches surrounding them that there are, the good people of the township are well supplied with the Gospel.

The first schoolhouse in the township was built on Section 10, on Fulter Creek, near where Jim Beck now lives. The uame of the first teacher is not remembered, nor the date of the school taught. At the present time there are five good, substantial schoolhouses in the township. They are all neat fi-ame buildings, in which schools are taucrht each year for the usual term by competent teachers.

Jesse Newman, as we have said, kept the first store in the township:). He was one of the most useful men in the sparsely settled community, and bought everything the farmer had to sell, giving him the necessaries of life in return. He bought wheat and hauled it to St. Louis at 60 cents a biishel, and our farmers now grumble at having to sell for $1 a bushel and haul it a few miles to the railroad. But then some people would grumble if thev were going to be hung. Mr. Newman had a large peach orchard, and manufactured peach brandy. He always kept a large supply of this exhilarating beverage in his cellar, and fiu'nished his custom- ers liberally with it, particularly when he wanted to make a good bargain with them. Everything was then hauled to St. Louis in wagons. Mr. Gillmore says he has hauled many a load of wheat to St. Louis for 60 cents a bushel and was very glad to get even that. The old National road was a great thoroughfare in those daj's, and fully as many wagon trains went over it as trains of cars now go over the Vandalia Railroad.

By reference to the chapter on township organization, it will be seen that the county was previously divided into districts, or precincts, for election purposes, and that when the county adopted township organization, Township 6, in the foiu'th range, was called West Township, being the first designated on the west side of the county. Mr. J. L. Gillmore was the first Supervisor, and has served in that capacity for fourteen years, which proves conclusively that he is the " right man in the right place." Since him other Supervisors have been N. T. Wharton, Augustus Wolf, Willett, then Gillmore again and William Velter. The present officers are William Velter, Supervisor; N. T. Wharton, School Treasurer; Bobert Mahon, Township Clerk, and William Donnelly and Augustus Wolf, Justices of the Peace.

Like all of Effingham County - except Lucas Township - West is largely Democratic upon the political issues of the day. In the late war, it was patriotic, and furnished more than its full quota of men. A large number of them, however, enlisted at Effingham and other places, for whom the township did not get credit. This resulted in one draft being imposed, for two men only. The first time, we are told, two Republicans were drafted. They reported at Olney, then the military headquai'ters for this section, and by some sleight-of-hand work, got off and came home as " unfit for service." A new draft was ordered, and this time the lightning struck two Democrats - Nick T. Wharton and John W. Wilson. They got off too - by paying the moderate sum of $1,600 for substitutes. The dealer in substitutes who furnished these two to West Township made a little fortune in this rather questionable business. But as a proof that it was questionable, he eventually lost it, and at the last accounts of him he was peddling sewing-machines in the southern part of the State. Verily, " the way of the transgressor is hard."

There is bvtt one small village or hamlet in the township, viz , Gillmore or Welton. The place was established as a station on the rail- I'oad when it was built and was called Gillmore. The post office still goes by that name. Recently, however, the place has been sm-veyed and laid out as a town and called Welton, after the proprietor of the land - H. S. Welton. It was platted August 2, 1882, and is situated on the northeast quarter of Section 11, of this township. The post office was established in 1872, and John Furneaux appointed Postmaster. The first store was also kept by Furneaus, who is still in the business and who still keeps the post office. A. Carlston had a small store here some time ago, but has quit the business. Mr. Randall keeps a good store at the present time. He also buys grain for Welton, who lives in Springfield and does a large business in that line. A blacksmith shop is kept by Cole. There is no church, but a good school building, which is used both for church and school. These with some half dozen or more residences comprise the little town.