Effingham County, Illinois - Chapter 26, 1883

MOCCASIN TOWNSHIP - CONFIGURATION AND BOUNDARIES - STREAMS, TIMBER, ETC. - PIONEER SETTLEMENT - EARLY LIFE OF THE PEOPLE - AN INCIDENT - CHURCHES AND PREACHERS- THE FIRST SCHOOLHOUSE - SCHOOLS OF THE PRESENTMOCCASIN VILLAGE - PL.\TTED - GENERAL BUSINESS OF THE PLACE.

"Once upon a time life lay before me, Fresh as a story untold, Now so many years have traveled o'er-me, I and the story are old." - Bushnell.

~r ONG ago, one morning in May, a young -L- ^ man rode across the Illinois prairies with a friend. They passed on over the boundless expanse, far out of sight of any human habitation. Thousands of flowers bloomed around them everywhere, their beauty and fragrance surpassing all that they had ever dreamed of floral loveliness and perfume. It seemed as if the whole world had been converted into green grass, blue sky, blooming flowers and glorious sunshine. The

With odors blown from isle and coast, From fragrant shores we felt the breeze That whispered of the Eden lost. " We dranli the balm of hidden flowers, Whose breath was nectar to the heart, Nor thought we then the rosy hours With life's May dawn would soon depart."

Many people, bubbling over with poetical sentiment, have tried to describe the great prairies of the West, and to portray their feelings when first beholding them. No doubt they were "grand and gorgeous " (the prairies, not the people who tried to describe them) in their pristine beauty before the set- tier came to rocar and destroy their beauty and loveliaess, by turning things (literally) " upside down." Whether or not the little scene noted at the begining of this chapter occurred in Moccasin Township " long ago," when its territory was the undisputed possession of the gopher and prairie wolf, it matters not. We have the authority, however, of a gushing wi-iter of the period, that it occun-ed somewhere in Illinois, and so we apply it to this section, on the strength of its adaptability. Nearly all of the township is prairie, and generally level, but sufficiently undulating as to require no artificial drainage. The woodland is contiguous to the water-courses, of which the principal are Moccasin and Wolf Creeks. These streams were named by the old pioneer, Grifidn Tipsword. When he first came to Moccasin Creek, he discovered a great many moccasin tracks, or human tracks, wearing moccasins, in the sand along its banks, hence, he called it Moccasin Creek. He named Wolf Creek in consequence of the great number of wolves that lived in the timber along the stream. Moccasin Creek Hows east and west nearly through the center of the township. Little Moccasin flows in the same direction, but a mile or two farther north, passing near the village. Wolf Creek is in the northwest corner, while Beech Creek, a mile or two south of Moccasin, runs parallel with it. There are several other small and nameless streams laid down on the map. These water courses afford an excellent system of irrigation and drainage, together with an abundance of stock water.

The timber of Moccasin, which is inconsiderable in quantity, is that common in this portion of the county, and consists princi pally of white oak, hickory, walnut, cottonwood, sugar tree, elm, etc. , etc. Moccasin is bounded north by Liberty Township, east by

Summit Township, south by Mound Township, west by Fayette County, and is designated as the Congressional Township 8 north, in Range 4 east, of the Third Principal Meridian.

The settlement of Moccasin Township is of a more modern date than many other portions of the county. Being mostly prairie, the people did not venture out upon the vast plains, until crowded out by the increase of population. Even then, it was with many misgivings as to what the final result would be. But as the great army of pioneers continued to come in, and the timber land was all taken up, they were forced to spread out on the prairies for want of room. As soon as their virtues were discovered, the prairies were then settled as rapidly as the timber had been before them.

Although not settled as early as some of the other townships, yet it is not possible to say who was the first actual settler in what now forms Moccasin Township. The Tipswords figiu'ed in this section, and Griffin, the pioneer and patriarch of the tribe, was, doubtless, the first white man who ever saw it, but from the best of our information he lived over in the present township of Liberty. When Moses Doty, still a respected citizen of the township, came here, in IS-tO, he found already here the following settlers and their families, viz. : S. R. Powell, Thomas Perry, John Scully, J. P. and Hiram Doty, Samuel Cunningham, Edward and Samiiel Mahon, Jesse and Daniel Troxell, Lyman Pratt and Thomas Doty. All these came between 1830 and 1840, most of them toward the end of the decade.

Powell came from Tennessee, and settled on Moccasin Creek. He lived to be quite an old man, and died near the village of Dexter. He has two sons and thi-ee daughters still living in the county. Perry came from Ken- tucky, and settled in the west part of the township. He is dead, but has a daughter living here. He had several sons, but all of them, we believe, have moved further west. Scully was an Irishman, born and reared in Ohio - that is, he was a native of Ireland, but brought iip principally in Ohio - from which State he emigrated to Illinois, and settled in this township. He was an energetic, money-making man, and was fast growing rich when he died. He was buried on Wolf Creek, in the Tipsword graveyard. Cunningham also came from Ohio. After living here some years, he moved to the southern part of the State, where he died. The Troxells were likewise from Ohio. Jesse died on Wolf Greek many years ago. Daniel came here in 1839, and settled on Wolf Creek where he died about 1853-54. The Dotys, Pratt and Mahons, were all from the Buckeye State - prolific land of " Ohio statesmen." J. P. and Hiram Doty both entered land on Moccasin Creek, and are both still living - J. P. in Missouri, and Hiram in Texas. They are brothers to Moses Doty. Thomas, a cousin, came out in 1839, and after remaining a few yeai's returned to Ohio, where he died. Pratt settled on Moccasin, and afterward moved back to Ohio, with Tom Doty. The Mahons came about 1838. Edward was a single man, and married Powell's eldest daughter after he came here. He moved to Iowa, and died there, when the family came back, and are now living in the township; Samuel died here, and his family moved back to Ohio.

Moses Doty, to whose intelligence and vivid recollection of early times we are indebted for much of the history of this neighborhood, came to Illinois in 1840, and settled in the present township of Moccasin. There were but few people then in Effingham County, and, indeed, the county itself had not completed its first decade as an organized and independent community. Mr. Doty says he stopped and fed his team where the city of Effingham now stands, and all around it was apparently a wilderness. An old man, of the name of Slover, had a cabin there, a few rods east of the railroad depot. His son-in-law, Jim Cartwright, lived with him, and there was not another habitation in sight. Mr. Doty has been a resident of the county for over forty years, and has seen -it grow up, as it were, from a handful of struggling pioneers to a rich and prosperous county. He knew old Ewington in its palmy days; was well acquainted with old Freemanton when it was known, far and wide, as the hardest hole in Southern Illinois, when it could get away with more "rot-gut" whisky and scare up more fights than any other place of its size in the wide world. He knew Tipsword well, has heard Boleyjack preach, and was with Ben Campbell the day he died; and of the early history of the county, few now living know more of it, or can tell it better.

Among other early settlers who came in 1840, were Joshua and Jonathan Bodkins and Joseph Doty, all from Ohio. The first two mentioned were cousins, and after remaining a few years, they, with Joseph Doty, moved back to Ohio. Prom this time on, the settlements grew rapidly, and settlers came in such numbers as to render it impossible to keep track of them. Their eiforts in reducing a wilderness, and subjecting it to the uses and benefits of man, are seen to-day in the elegant homes and prodiictive farms of the township.

This state of wealth and prosperity was not attained without labor and toil. The forests bad to be felled (for the first settlers all located in the timber), the gi-ound cleared, fenced and planted, and crops raised upon which to sustain life; clothing had to be manufactured, and this was no small job, as there were no stores in the country. And if there had been, there was no money to buy clothing or other hixuries of life. The clothing was coarse, and was manufactured by the good wife and her daughters at home. The cloth from which it was made was also manufactured at home, and the material from which the cloth was made likewise of home production, and was either flax or wool or both. This seems to us, who can step into a a store, and for a few dollars, buy an entire wardrobe for either male or female, a hard life, and had the majority of oxiv young ladies of the present day to depend upon their own exertions in the matter of dress, as did their grandmothers, no doubt many of them would have to fall back to mother Eve's system of millinery. But the passing years have brought ample remuneration for the dangers and hardships borne in the early times.

Many incidents and anecdotes of the early times might be related of every portion of the county, but space will not permit. We will give one, however, which occiu-red in Moccasin, and shows how the people of the township are disposed to deal out justice to evil-doers. It is related of a couple of citizens, who, after partaking rather freely of rifle whisky, finally got into a drunken row. In the melee one of them caught the other, pushed him down in a chair, and taking hold of his whiskers, pulled his head over the back of the chair, and seizing a throat. He drew the knife across the man's neck, and the only reason that he did not cut his throat from ear to ear was becai^se the knife was too dull. His intention was good to do a first-class job in that line. In the meantime, the wife of one of the combatants interfered and succeeded in preventing perhaps a murder. AVhen the facts became known, the would-be murderer was arrested and taken before a magistrate for trial. That dignitary was not thoroughly read up in criminal law, and instead of making out a case of "assault with intent to kill," he impaneled a jury of tweWe men, and tried the fellow for murder. After hearing the evidence, the jury brought in a verdict of guilfi/, but set no punishment. The question then arose as to what to do with the prisoner, when a happy thought entered the head of some one, to take him to Efiiugham. This was done, and the legal snarl was straightened out.

The pioneers of Moccasin Township took an early interest in education, and established schools as soon as there were children enough to sujiport them. It is not known now who taught the fii-st school in the township. The first schoolhouse was built in the edge of the timber on Moccasin Creek, and was a, small log cabin. Samuel Mahon was one of the first teachers to occupy it, but it is not thought that he was the first teacher in the settlement. The township is well suj^plied with schools and schoolhouses at the preseht day.

The first preacher remembered in this section was Boleyjack. Mr. Doty says that the first time he attended church after he came here, as he approached the meeting he saw Boleyjack sitting on an old log by the roadside tieing on his shoes with hickorybark. He was bare-headed, and his hair, which was unkempt and uncombed, was full of feathers and down, and upon the whole, the old fellow looked as little like a preacher as possible. The first meetings were held at the people's cabins, and in warm weather in the groves.

The Methodist Episcopal Church standing on Section 17 was tlie first church built in the township. It was erected about the year 1854-55, at a cost of some $800, and is a plain frame building. It is a rather strong

The Methodist Episcopal Church South, on Section 8, about a half mile west of the village, was built in 1868-69. It is a neat frame building, and its society is floimshing. Rev. Ml'. Lee is the present pastor. A good Sunday school is maintained.

The German Methodist Chui-ch is located on Section 24, near the railroad. It is a handsome and substantial frame building, and was erected about 1871-72. It is strong numerically, and keeps up a good Sunday school.

There is a station or shipping point on the Wabash Railroad at this church, but nothing like a towQ or village; it is merely a shipping point, and no other business is carried on than the shipping of grain and stock.

The village of Moccasin, embracing thirty acres of ground, is situated on the southwest quarter of the southeast quarter, and the southeast quarter of the southwest quarter of Section 9; and the northeast quarter of the northwest quarter of Section 16, of Moccasin Township. It was surveyed by John Maguire, April 26, 1S72, for Benjamin Jones, Joseph Yarnall and J. H. Miller, proprietors of the land. It was called Moccasin, which name the township bears, and which was bestowed on the latter in memory of Moccasin Creek, the largest stream in this part of the county.

Snook & Ross opened the tii-st store in the village. Snook now lives in Altamont. J. P. Condo succeeded them in the mercantile business. Mr. Condo operates the only store now in the place. He is also Postmaster. A store was carried on awhile by J. W. Hotz, but has been discontinued. Mr. Hotz buys grain here for Minor & Jennings, of Effingham, and does a large business in that line.

The importance of the place may be thus summarized: One general store, one grain establishment, two blacksmith shops, one post office, one schoolhouse, and probably a population of twenty families.