Jefferson County, Illinois - Chapter with an unread heading (no. 3 of those read), 1883

Trials, Privations, Manners, Customs, Etc., Etc

The mountain barriers to this unknown clime, To change the wilderness and barren waste. Where savage and the deer in turn were chased. And there to found in this broad valley home A richer, vaster empire than was ruled by ancient Rome." - Byera.

T"^HB first white people, according to authentic history, who ever traversed the plains of Illinois or navigated its streams were the French. The importance which attaches to all that is connected with the explorations and discoveries of the earlj' French travelers in the Northwest, but increases in interest as time rolls on. Two hundred years or more ago, settlements were made by the French in what is now the State of Illinois, among which were Fort Chartres, Kaskaskia, Cahokia and other places; also at Vincennes on the east side of the Wabash River. Marquette, Lasalle, De Frontenac, Joliet, Hennepin and Tonti were Frenchmen whose names are familiar in the earl}- history of Illinois. From the 3-ear 1680 until the close of the - Old French and Indian war" between France and England, Illinois was under French dominion. At the treaty of

Paris, February 16, 1763, France relinquished to England all the territory she claimed east of the Mississippi River, from its source to Bayou Iberville. Less than a quarter of a century passed, and it was wrested from Great Britain by her American colonies. In 1778, Gen. George Rogers Clark, with a handful of the ragged soldiers of freedom, under commission from the Governor of Virginia, conquered the country, and the banner of the thirteen colonies floated in the breeze for the first time on the banks of the Mississippi. The conquest of Clark made Illinois a county of Virginia, as noticed in a subsequent chapter. This acquisition of territory brought many adventurous individuals hither, and Southern Illinois at once became the center of attraction.

There is but little doubt that Andrew Moore was the first white man to make a settlement within the present confines of Jefferson County. Mr. Johnson, in his pioneer sketches of the county, notices a settlement made in 1808-09 in what is now Franklin County, b\- Thomas and Francis Jordan. They settled some eight or nine miles from the present towu of Frankfort, and with the assistance of a company of soldiers from the saltworks, erected two forts or block-houses there for their protection. This settlement was some fifteen or twenty miles from the south line of Jefferson County. In 1810, Andrew Moore came from the Goshen settlement, and located in what is now Moore's Prairie Township, in this count}-. The nearest settlement to him was the Jordan settlement, and that was distant, as we have said, some fifteen or twenty miles. At the edge of a hickory grove, on the old Goshen road, he reared his lone cabin. It was a double cabin, and composed of round hickory poles, with a chimney and fire-place in the middle. Here he lived with his family for several years - Gov. Reynolds says until 1812 ; other authorities until 1814 - 15. All the while they were alone, except an occasional adventurous traveler who chanced to pass, or a company on their waj' to the Saline for salt. With these exceptions, they saw none of their kind. Crusoe on his desert island was not more alone than this first family of Jefferson County - these lone mariners of the desert.

Andrew Moore, from all that is known of him, was a pioneer of the true tj'pe. He was a self-exile from civilization, as it were, and bjchoice a roving nomad, who sought the solitudes of the pathless woods, the dreariness of the desert waste, in exchange for the trammels of civilized societj-. Of the latter he could not endure its restraints, and he despised its comforts and pleasures. He yearned for freedom - freedom in its fullest sense, applied to all property, life and everj-thing, here and hereafter. He had branched out into the wilderness, cut loose from his kind, and he did not burn the bridges behind him, because there were none to burn. He hunted, fished, cut bee trees, and cultivated a small patch in the waj' of a farm. He lived and moved without fear of the Indians, and felt as secure in his cabin as though it had been a fortified castle ; but in everything - every perilous act, every

Mr. Johnson thus tells the story of his tragic death : " Moore and his son, a boj- some eight or ten years of age, went one da}- on horseback to Jordan's settlement, to mill, expecting to return the same evening or the next day. But the nest day passed without bringing the absent ones, and after a night of fear and apprehension, Mrs. Moore took her children and set off down the path to meet her husband. They plodded along until they finally reached the mill, when, to their great grief, thej' learned from Jordan that Moore and his boj- had got their grinding, and had started home in due time. The anguish of the poor woman at this dismal news was most distressing. She begged for help to look for her husband and child, and as many as dared leave the settlement at once turned out and engaged in the search. For several days they scoured the woods along the trail, but found no trace of the missing, and finally the search was reluctantl}- abandoned. Mrs. Moore, desolate and heart-broken, returned to her cabin, gathered together her few possessions, and removed down into the neighborhood of the Saline. A few years later, a brother of Mrs. Moore, named Bales, his son-in-law, a Mr. Fannin, and a Mr. Fipps. a son-in law of Mrs. Moore, moved up to the prairie, and Mrs. Moore returned with them. A hunting part}- some years afterward found a human skull stuck upon a snag or broken limb of au elm tree, near the creek, and but a mile or two south of where Moore had lived. When Mrs. Moore heard of this, she said that if it was her husband's, it would be known by his having lost a certain tooth from his upper jaw. Upon examination it was found that that tooth, and no other, was lacking. Fully persuaded now that it was the scull of her poor, unfortunate husband, she took it to her home, and kept it sacredly as long as she lived." There is a com- fort and a blessing in the sweet recollection of having once been all the world to auotber, and with a love such as only a true woman knows, Mrs. Moore preserved the ghastly reliu, cherished it and wept over it, and to her last da^-s seemed to take a sad and mournful pleasure in showing it to her friends. She fiuall_y returned to the old town of Equality, and died there.

No other intelligence of Moore's fate or that of his son was ever received by his family or friends. It was the generally accepted theory that the Indians surprised them, killed the father, and to satisfy their fiendish cruelty, cut oS his head, placed it where it was found, and carried the boy away into captivity, taking the horses and meal with them. The body of the murdered man, no doubt, was devoured by wild animals.

Such was the first attempt at a settlement in the county, and its tragic and melanchol}' termination. The next attempt, and what may perhaps, be termed the first permanent settlement, was in 1816, by Carter Wilkey. About the same time or very soon after, Daniel Crenshaw and Robert Cook came to the country. All these settled in Moore's Prairie, which received its name from Andrew Moore, whose settlement is above noticed. Crenshaw moved into Moore's deserted cabin, and Wilkey, who was single, boarded at Crenshaw's. Cook settled in the lower end of the prairie, where Mr. Brookins afterward lived. Wilkey was a native of (Georgia, but removed from that State to Tennessee, where he enlisted in the war of 1812. Being under age, his mother succeeded in getting him out of the armj' after a few months' service. Both he and Robert Cook were connected with a surveying party, engaged in surveying the lands in this part of the State. A Mr. Bcrr)- was the surveyor, and Cook was attached to his part}' as " baggage master," having in charge the tent, camp equipage, etc. Carter Wilkey was the "commissary" - the huntsman, who furnished the game for the use of the party. This surveying was done in 1815, and the next spring Wilkey came back to stay, as already noted. Crenshaw repaired Moore's cabin, and cultivated his improvement, while Wilkey raised a crop during the summer of 1816, in the prairie about a quarter of a mile west of Crenshaw's. In the foil. Barton Atchison came and bought Wilkey 's crop, and settled near Cook's. Next came Mrs. Wilkey - the mother of Carter - and her famil}', Maxey Wilkey - an older brother of Carter's - and his wife and child. They all arrived at Crenshaw's on the 22d of October, 1816, and spent the winter in one of his cabins - Crenshaw's wife was Mrs. Wilkcy's niece. Thus, at the close of the year 1816, the population of the region of country now embraced within the limits of Jefferson Couuty consisted of five families - the Wilkeys, Crenshaws, Cook and Atchison and Carter Wilkey, who, though single, was not " his own man" - probably less than twenty souls.

A modern writer refers to the first inhabitants of the Great West as men and women of that " hardy race of pioneers to whom the perils of the wilderness are as nothing, if only that wilderness be free." The eulogium is scarcely less creditable to the writer than to the subjects of it. Wliile like produces like, heroic men and women will spring fi'om heroic ancestors. And the people of the West, the pioneers wh6 peopled this broad domain, were as much heroes as though they had swayed the destinies of an empire, or commanded the armies of the world. Of the first settlers of the county, whom we have already mentioned, a few words additional are not out of place.

Maxey Wilkey was a soldier of the war of 1812, and served in the armies of the North until peace was made. He claimed to have been at the death of Tecumseh, who was killed at the battle of the Thames. This is not unlike the story of Washington's servant, inasmuch as the men who saw the great warrior pass to the happy hunting-grounds are about as numerous as Washington's bodj- servants. Though it is not improbable that Mr. Wilke}- witnessed it, as he claims to have been in the battle of the Thames. The following upon the subject is from Johnson's sketches : '- He says the Indian was wounded in the thigh, fell from his horse, and was surrounded aud taken. It was believed that the prisoner was Tecumseh, but he refused to speak. Gen. Harrison was called to the spot, recognized the chief, but could get no answer from him, aud left him to his fate. The soldiers took charge of him, and he soon after died. The old man tells me that he saw two razor strops taken off the dead Indian's back, and a third from his thigh, that is, strips of skin about two by twelve inches in size." This story is not only a little " wild," but contradictory of i-ecognized histor}-. That the old soldier witnessed the circumstance he relates maj- not be at all untrue, but that the Indian was Tecumseli is most improbable.

After the close of the war and his discharge from the army, Masey "V\'^ilke3- married a Miss Caldwell, and came to Illinois, as already stated, In the fall of 1816. He was a great hunter, and thought far more of the excitement of the chase than of the accumulation of worldly wealth, hence he remained comparativelj* poor. He was an extraordinary man in many respects, and his wife was an extraordinarj' woman. She was the mother of eighteen children, and in that respect she was more extraordinary than many of her pioneer lady friends. Mr. Johnson relates the following of an interview he had with Wilkey a short time before his death : " His present homestead adjoins the lauds on which he settled, aud he and his aged wife live nearl)- alone, both, however, are stout and vigorous for people of their age. The old man is as erect as a General, and looks about filtj' years of age, though upward of eighty. His wife, at the time of my visit, was just recovering from a severe illness. In the course of our conversation, he remarked, in his characteristic style, ' That woman, sir, that you see lying upon her bunk, is the mother of eighteen children, twelve sons and six daughters, and six of the sons are still living.' He also stated that he was one of the little party that opened out the old 'Goshen Trail,' and made it a wagon-road.' Carter AViikey, the younger of the two Wilkeys, and the first one to come to the county, after a few years returned to Tennessee, where he learned the carpenter's trade. When he came back to Illinois, he still made his home with Crenshaw. A great emigration had now sprung up from Kentuck}- and Tennessee to the " Sangamo country." Emigrations to the middle or northern part of the State were termed going to the "Sangamo," and it was no uncommon sight to see a hundred wagons in a single compan\- going north. Crenshaw's was the great camping-place for emigrants on their way to the new promised land. Carter Wilkej- long followed the business of going to Carmi, a distance of fortj' miles, with two or three packhorses, and bringing back meal to sell to these " movers.'' This would seem a small business in this dav of railroads, as he could only bring two or three sacks of meal at a time, but as he sold it at $2 a bushel, it was a lucrative business for that early day. In the meantime. Dempsey Wood had moved into the settlement with four stalwart sons - John, Ben, Lawson and Aleck. Ben was a carpenter, and he and Carter Wilkey at once began to work at the business in partnership. They built manj of the first houses (we do not mean cabins) in the countr}-. They built the first house on Jordan's Prairie ; the}' built the Clerk's office in Mc- Leansboro, the first house erected in that town ; they built or helped to build the first bridge over Casey's Fork of Muddy Creek. They agreed to furnish the lumber for the bridge floor by a certain Saturday-, and it was Monday morning when they went to work. The amount required was 1,660 feet, 2x10 inch-stuli', and

Wilkej- afterward went to Burlington, Iowa, where he was engaged for some time in the provision and grocery business, then as a druggist, and finally studied medicine under Dr. Hasbrook of that city. He practiced medicine for many }'ears, and was a ver}- active and energetic business man. He used to trade in horses and cattle, and bought up and took many hundred of them to the southern markets. He was married in 1821 to Miss Brunetta Casey, a daughter of Isaac Casey. Of the others of the Wilkej' family, a daughter married Abel Allen, another one married Jacob Weldon, and another a Mr. Robinson. Dick Wilkey, as he was called, married a Kirkendale.

Crenshaw sold out in 1822, and went to Adams County, where he afterward died. He was a good man and got along well. iS^ot strictly religious, but honest and upright, free and liberal in his views, and believed in the young people enjoying themselves, on the principle that '- all work and no play makes Jack a dull boj'." His cabin was always open to the wandering minister of Christ, the frontier missionar}-, who received a warm welcome when he called, and was pressed to stay and preach to the neighbors, who were hastily- summoned from the highways and by-ways of the wilderness. The young people always found equally as warm a welcome when they met there for a backwoods frolic and dance. Crenshaw's trade was the making of "saddle-trees," and he used to make saddles, bringing his materials from Carmi.

Barton Atchison was also in the war of 1812, and was a character in his wa}'. He was a man who moved ever^'thiug by his own promptings ; he knew little or nothing of the rules of society and he cared less. He was an honest man, and as rough of speech as rough could be - a genuine rough diamond. He was long a

County Commissioner, and held other offices to the satisftiction of the people. He was a great story-teller, and delighted to relate his adventures in the arm3' and elsewhere. Mr. Johnson tells the following as one of his arm3' stories : " The army was encamped for some time at a certain point, and during their stay there, he and a companion went out one evening to take a hunt. It soon began to snow, and as they wandered in the pathless woods they became bewildered, and night overtook them before thej- reached camp. To lie down was to freeze, and to walk on was to risk getting farther away, of rushing into unknown dangers, and of finally perishing in the snow. At length, to their great joy, they came to an old unoccupied cabin, and they hastened to take shelter beneath its friendly roof Thej' shook off the snow, and were about to wrap their mantles around them and lie down to pleasant dreams, otherwise roll up in their army blankets, prepare to pass the night, when Atchison bethought him that, perchance, the inclemency of the weather miglit bring other company, either wild beast or Indian, to the cabin, and it prove, after all, a dangerous resting place. So finding a part of a loft, two courses of boards laid on poles, thej* climbed up and made their beds. The wisdom of his suggestion \\a.s soon apparent, as in a little while a band of Indians came in and took possession of the cabin, one of whom was the tallest Indian they had ever seen. The new-comers kindled a fire, roasted a little meat and began a night carousal, After some time Atchison shifted his position in order to see a little better, wlieu the boards tipped up, and he and his companion and the loft all came clattering down on the Indians' heads. This was too much for a people both cowardly and superstitious, and they fled in terror and confusion."

Atchison, as wc have said, was an active man, and took considerable interest in county affiiirs. He raised a large family, and still has many living descendants in tiie county, of whom mucli will be said in other chapters of this work. He died a few years ago at an advanced age, leaving many warm friends to mourn his deatli. At one time and another he held many county otBces, and in each and all he was ever honest and faithful. His learning, so far as the schoolbooks go, was limited and meager, but his practical education was good, and was gained by daily experience with men and things. Such were the men and the families who made the first settlement in this county. We deem no excuse necessar}- for the extended sketch given of these, the first settlers - the advance guard, as it were, of the grand army of emigrants who have followed, and in the years that have come and gone, have given to Jeflerson Country a population not surpassed by any count}- in the State.

The next settlement made after those already described was made in the fall of 1816 by a man named Thompson. He did not remain long, however, and of him very little is known. In the winter following (1816-17), several families moved into the new settlement. Of these were Theophilus Cook, the Widow Hicks and a few others. Cook settled near Sloo's Point.*

He had served in the war of 1812, and was a man whom everybody that knew him loved and honored him. His Christian character was pure, and so far as man can judge, without spot or blemish. As a husband, father, neighbor, friend, he lived above reproach. He left a familj' of five sons and six daughters, several of whom are still living.

* Regarding the name of Sloo's Point, Mr. Johnson, in his sketches, says: "Almost as soon as this county was surveyed, Thomas Sloo of Shawneetown, came in and entered about one hundred quarter-sections of land in diflerent parts of what is now Jeffereon County. John T. Johnson lives on one of these quarter-sections ; on the southenstern part of Moore's Prairie was a long point of timl)er, lying on the waters of Uchshire's Creek; and Sloo had entered a good deal of the land in this vicinity - iienco the name. Among other entries, I believe, was the laud on which William Scrivner standing by the side of Theophilus Cook when he received his death wound. He left three children, Stephen G. and two daughters. After the war was over. Carter Wilkey, who was a brother of Mrs. Hicks, visited her in Georgia, where she lived, and induced her to remove with her family to Illinois. It was a terrible journey to be made in winter in that early day, and rendered doubly so by the hostile demonstrations frequently' made by the faithless Indians. They finally arrived, however, in safety. It was about this time that a man named Hodge moved in and settled on the place where Abraham Irvin afterward lived for many years. Mrs. Robinson came about the same time, as also Fannin, Fipps, Bales and Mrs. Moore, widow of Andrew Moore (whose murder by the Indians has alreadj' been noticed), moved back to Moore's Prairje.

The settlements so far described were made in that portion of Jefferson County originally belonging to White Count}-. The northern line of White Count}' then ran about four miles south of the present city of Mount Vernon, dividing Township 3 south, and extending west to the Third Principal Meridian, and all north of that line was in Edwards County. Moore's Prairie, where the first settlement of the county began, was in the northwest part of White County. The next settlement we shall notice sprang up in what was then the southwestern part of Edwards County, and was in the immediate vicinity of Mount Vernon.

The circumstances which led to the second settlement were somewhat as follows : Some time about the spring of 1816, a man of the name of Black came up from Pope County, on a hunt, and upon his return told fabulous stories of the country he had seen, and especially of a beautiful prairie where perennial flowers seemed to bloom, and the richest luxuriance gave token of an earthly paradise. His "description of the fruitful lands ho had visited excited in his neighbors and friends a burning desire to see and learn for themselves. Among others to whom he related his wonderful stories were the Caseys, who lived near Cave-in-Rock, and thev at once determined to visit this fabled land. In the fall following the trip of Black to this section, the Caseys came on a tour inspection. This was the first sight any of the Caseys had of what is now Jefferson County.

Isaac Casey and two sons, William and Thomas, in the autumn of 1816, started out to visit Black's Prairie, of which he had given so glowing an account. They missed it, however, nor did the}- strike any prairie until they came to the small one in which Mount Vernon was afterward built. They stopped at Crenshaw's, and he, glad to meet new-comers, as all pioneers were, accompanied them in their search of locations. They went a few miles beyond where Mount Vernon is situated, and then returned to Crenshaw's and finally home. The following spring, Isaac Casey came back, and his son William, his daughter Katy, and his son-in-law, Isaac Hicks, came with him for the purpose of founding a settlement. They built a cabin or camp in the open prairie, and cultivated a small patch of ground near where the Methodist Church now stands. While thus encamped in the prairie, they had no trouble in procuring meat, as game was abundant; honey, too, was more abundant still. But bread was a serious matter, and to procure it Mr. Casejand his daughter would go on horseback to the Wabash bottoms beyond Carmi for meal. He would ride one horse and lead one, while his daughter would ride another, and thus three " turns " of meal would be brought back. In the fall, they all returned to the Ohio River, where they had come from, and brought out tJie rest of their families, their stock and such other property as they possessed. William Casey moved into the camp or cabin above referred to, Isaac Casey erected his cabin near by and Isaac Hicks located near the place where he died ; other families followed soon after. Kellj' settled on the hill and remained there until the capital of the State was moved to Vandalia. He then moved to that place and became an officer in the first bank ever established there. An old man named H}-nes settled a little west of Kelly, out on the Goshen road, where for some years he kept a public house; afterward he moved up North, where he died. Further up the Goshen road, William Goings settled. He was considered a bad man ; he made millstones, and it was believed that he made counterfeit money, too. He was finally, after the settlement had increased a little more, given warning to leave the countr}-, a warning he obeyed with alacrit}', and in his vacant house many relics of the counterfeiting business, it is said, were found. James and John Abbott. John Utesler, Mr. StuU and Archibald Harris came in during the latter part of the year 1817. They were from Orange County, Ind., and upon their arrival here they settled in the neighborhood above noticed.

Zadok Casey, of whom we shall have more to say hereafter, came in the spring of 1817 and settled on the place where Mr. J. R. Moss now lives. He reared his cabin on a slight elevation of land, which he called Red Bud Hill. Abraham Casey, his brother, came the next year, and settled near where Joseph Pace lives. A son, Clark Casej', came with him and settled on what is called the ' Mulberry Hill." Lewis Watkins settled about a mile south of the Atchison place, where he sold goods for a time. Thomas Jordan located in the edge of the prairie which was named for him. The place is now known as the McConnell place, and his brother William settled in the edge of Moore's Prairie. William Jordan, Jr., settled on Seven Mile Creek, and Oliver Morris settled near Joseph Jordan's first location.

nessee colony of six families, consisting of William Maxey, James E. Davis, James Johnson, Nathaniel Parker, John Wilkerson and H. B. Maxey. They organized themselves into a colony, and all started from William Maxey's, in Tennessee, and quite a lively trip they had of it. Fipps, who lived in Knight's Prairie, was the only man they found between the Saline and Crenshaw's, where they stopped. They arrived May 9, 1818, and camped in the edge of Moore's Prairie. Here they raised a small crop in the edge of the prairie, inclosed with a brush fence, and in the fall they moved up to the other settlement - all except Parker, who did not relish the gloomy aspect of the country, and moved back to Allen County, Ky. James Johnson settled near the place where he died ; Wilkerson, where Simon King afterward lived ; William Maxey, at the old Maxey place, and II. B. Maxey in the little prairie where Ward now lives. James E. Davis settled where Sam Edwards afterward lived. In September following the arrival of this colony, Edward Maxej- moved into the settlement. He came from Allen County, Ky., and settled on the branch, northeast of what is now Judge Satterfield's farm, on the present Richview road. About the same time, Fleming Greenwood came ; his son-in-law lived near what is now Thomas McMeen's place. James and William Hicks also came during the fall or winter. James bought Clark Casey's place on Mulberrj' Hill ; William was single, but afterward married the Widow Dodds.

According to the historical sketches of Mr. Johnson, from which we have so often quoted, and which are considered bj- the old citizens generallj- to be substantially correct, the foregoing is believed to comprise a very full and complete list of the families who settled within the present limits of the territory of Jefferson prior to its organization as a distinct and independent county. There may have been a few who came and remained but a short time,

Illinois was still a Territor}- when the first white people came to Jefferson County. These early settlers were men inured to toil and danger. They had been reared, manj' of them, amid scenes of peril and savage warfare, where the howl of the wolf, the scream of the panther, and the yell of the Indian were familiar music to their ears. Some of them had not reached life's meridian, but they were hopeful, courageous and determined. They were poor in actual worth, but rich in possibilities, and were read}' to face danger and endure cold and hunger, if a home stood at the end of their journey beckoning them on. For the grand simplicity of their lives and their sturd}' virtue, these early settlers achieved recognition and fame, as Enoch Arden did - after death. It was their lot to plant civilization here, and in doing it they displayed virtues which render modern civilization a boast and a blessing. In their little space of time they made greater progress than ten centuries had witnessed before. The work thirtj' generations had left undone they performed, and the abyss between us of to-day and the pioneers of Jetferson County is wider and more profound than the chasm between 1815 and the battle of Hastings. They did so much that it is hard to recognize the doers. " They builded wiser than they knew," and the monuments to their energy and industry still stand in perpetuation of their memory.

The first settlements of the' county were made under difficulties, and amid hardships and dangers. As we have said, the people were poor. The}' had come here with a meager outfit of this world's goods, expecting to increase their stores and provide homes for their children. Some of their experiences in their new homes are thus detailed by Mr. Johnson, the faithful chronicler of the early history of the countj' : mere patches, inclosed with rails or brush, and sometimes not inclosed at all. The houses were round-pole cabins, but in rare cases made of small logs - '- skelped down," or very slightly hewn, sometimes of split logs smoothed a little on the face. Some of the cracks in the wall were chinked and daubed, while some were left open to admit light and serve as windows. Some of the cabins had cracks all around that a dog could jump through. If the floor was anything else than the bare ground, it was made of puncheons or slabs, fastened down with wooden pins, or not fastened at all. * * * * * Shelves resting on long pins in the walls answered for cupboard, pantry, bureau and wardrobe. There were but few bedsteads in the county. Bed scaffolds were made on two rails or pieces driven into the walls, one for the side and one for the end, in the corner of the cabin, the other end of these rails being let into a post - the entire structure frequently having but one bed-post. Boards were laid across from the long rail to the wall, and on these the bed, if the happy family had any, was laid. The table was either made of boards nailed to a rough, unwieldy frame, or it was made on stakes driven into the (ground) floor. The wellto-do had a pot and a skillet ; some broiled their meat on the coals, and cooked their " Johnnj'-cake " on a board. The cook-stove is a modern invention, and was then unknown in the West.

" Isaac and William Casej' constructed a little hand-mill that would grind a bushel or two a day, and the}- did well. But many of the first settlers had to beat their meal in a mortar, which was generally a stump with a basin burnt out in the top of it. The meal thus made was sifted through a sieve made by punching a piece of deer-skin full of holes with a hot wheel-spindle, and stretching it (the deer-skin, not the spindle) over a hoop. In the early autumn, meal vpas grated, and the bread made

Most of the hats and caps were made of skins, often of the most fantastic shape. After the original supply of clothing was exhausted, the first resource was to make clothing of deerskins. These in the hands of the Indians made excellent clothing; but our first settlers were not such good tanners, and the clothes did not do so well. The breeches soon got a tremendous knee, that was a permanent thing. When '' Aunt Pranky " Johnson was coming out, she saw a boy in Moore's Prairie dressed in buckskin, and she exclaimed in the .sincerity of her kind heart : " Why, la me, honey, just look at that poor crippled boy ! " When the men or boys, in their buckskin suits, went out in the dewy grass, their breeches' legs would soon be dangling around their feet, nearly a foot too long ; and then about ten o'clock, when they became dry again, they crackled and rustled about their legs nearly a foot too short. After the first year or two, however, when people had time to raise cotton, buckskin gave way to cotton goods, the latter being died with copperas, the copperas being mingled with white when variety was desired. People made their own indigo. The plant they used was bruised and kept in soak for some time, then wrung out ; the fluid was churned with a basket to cut the indigo, then left to settle, and afterward dried in the sun. The article to " set " the dye was such as to make it an unpleasant process, and such as to sometimes draw the buffiilo gnats around one's Sunday clothes in a most provoking manner." * * » * *

Such was the life, and such the trials of the first settlers of Jefl'erson County - men who wrought for their successors the richest and most enduring legacy in all the world. Most of them have served out tiieir day and generation, and have passed away. Their graves, many of them, are unmarked and unknown, and their fast receding memories are unhonored and unsung. They deserve better than this. Justice demands that a meed of praise be awarded those great lives whose works will ripen, and are ripening into the noblest civilization the world has ever known.

In a subsequent chapter we shall give extended sketches of these pioneer families, whose settlements have been here noticed. Man}- of the men who came here in that early day were giants, and it is meet that they should receive their deserts from the pen of the historian. Their country's historj- demands that their names, their acts and their deeds shall be

It has been said that the American people take as natural!}- to self-government as a babe turns to the maternal fount for nourishment. The truthfulness of the remark is evidenced in the fact that new counties are formed when their area contain but a few hundred inhabitants. Thus far we have shown the number of families locating in Jefferson Count}- prior to its organization, and with which we will close this chapter. In a new chapter we will give the formation of the county, and the circumstances which led to the same.