Jefferson County, Illinois - Chapter 3, 1883

First Churches Outside Of Town, Etc., Etc

"TTTE now go back to the fall of 1819. VV The only buildings in the town at this time are the court house, Burchett Maxey's, Lewis Watkins' and Clark Casey's. The place was overgrown with rank weeds and grass; and not a road led into it or out, except trails and foot-paths. William Casey's house, where the Commercial Hotel stands, was quite oat of town. He now built out on the hill west of town, and Lewis Watkins left his half-finished shanty on the corner and moved into Casey's house. W. L. Howell came to town in 1820, and located in Watkins' house till he could put up some kind of a house on Lot 41, east of the court house. This man, William Lasater Howell, was the son of a wealthy farmer in Tennessee. The old gentleman lived in a large brick house on the turnpike, not many miles from Gallatin. We think no relatives of his came to this county except Mrs. Alexander, and she was not much honor to him. She said herself she had had eleven husbands, had no childi-en to bind her to any of them, and was going to have another man or more if she saw any she liked. Howell taught a school at Union in 1822. He was Sheriff after Watkins. He was a nice man, but a bad manager; and was kept in oflice till he could not five security or file the necessary bond.

He lived awhile in Jordan's Prairie, at the Whitesides place. While living here, his little boy of four years (Erasmus) was lost. Mrs. Howell started to the branch for water, and the little fellow undertook to follow. There were only paths - one to the branch, some to the neighbors, some cow-paths, etc. - and Erasmus took the wrong path. On her return, the mother missed him. She soon raised the alarm, but it was so near night that little could be done. Howell was at town with his horse and wagon; and he was so excited, on hearing the news, that he drove the horse home at full speed, and did not notice a large tree that had fallen across the road - horse and wagon jumping it together. For two nights and a day, the search was kept up. Green Casey then lived at the Maj. Frank Casey place; he went out to feed in the dusk of evening, and heard a child crying and calling in the woods, but fearing it might be a panther, he would not go. near. Next morning, taking his gun, he went out, and there on the ground sat the child, quite exhausted and in despair. He looked as if he had given up and sat down to die. He was soon restored to his parents, and great was the joy among the friends. Howell, not long after, went back to Tennessee, then to Arkansas, and died in Scott County.

The same year, 1820, in the spring, Felix McBride came, took Clark Casey's lot - now the corner west of Nieman's - off his hands, and set up a grocery. We think McBride came with the Whitesides. He married Nellie Hensley, a sister to John and Leftridge Hensley, near Walnut Hill. She was the second woman buried at Union, "Aunt Milly " Tyler being the first. Her grave is close beside "Roaring Billy" Woods', and was covered with a bricfi arch of pretty neat workmanship. Their only child was soon after buried in the same grave. McBride enlarged the Clark Casey house to a double log building, with open passage, and nearly two stories high. On the death of his wife, he left here and married again, went to Galena, and was at length killed by a miner.

The next man was Elisha Plummer. Watkins returned to Tennessee, vacating the William Casey house; Plummer moved into it, and put up a rough blacksmith shop, just east of where the Methodist Episcopal Church stands. He did not stay long. His wife was a daughter of James Tally, and he and Tally went to the American bottom. At last accounts. Tally was keeping a boarding house in St. Louis. Next, Thomas Tunstall came, in 1821, and bought the " Kirby Tavern," as it was afterward called, and put up a log storehouse, where Herdman lives. Thomas came first, then the old peojile and his brothers. William Tunstall, the father, had his second wife, the first having died childless. They were familiarly called " the old Colonel" and "Aunt Sally." Aunt Sally was a Mrs. Whorl, of the Todd family; and, as we are told, was an aunt to Mrs. Lincoln. Tom's name was Thomas Todd. They were all Kentuekians. The old lady died in 1825, and the old Colonel went back to Kentucky, where he died a few years later. The Colonel drank, and was found dead in bed one morning. Their children wei'e Thomas T., Edmund, George and Jane Webb. Thomas kept tavern and sold goods and groceries. He bought and sent South a great deal of stock. He could buy a good yearling for a set of plates, or a set of knives and forks, or a pair of shoes. While here ho sent ofl:' no less than 1,500 head of cattle, and a good many horses. He gave Nolin forty cows and calves for a race-horse called Moneymolder. He had the treadmill erected, which stood just north of where Judge Pollock lives, bring- ing John Summers up from Shawneetown to superintend it. Not long after this, he went to Vicksbui-g, then to Little Kock, and among other adventures, won a steamboat at the card table. He bought a large b^dy of land on White Eiver, and laid out the town of Jacksonport. James and William were his oldest sons; one of his daughters was married to John Boyer, one to McHenry. etc. He died at Memphis during the war. Edmund married Miss Baugh at Vandalia, came to Mount Vernon in 1823, lived a while at the Howell House, east of the court house, and succeeded Burchett Maxey as tavern keeper at the H T. Pace corner in 1824. He nest went South, and died, and John Baugh went down - spring of 1828 - and brought his widow back. She had two sons, Edmund and James. About thirty years ago, the boys went South; James became Captain of a steamboat on White River, fell overboard at Buffalo Shoals, and was never found. Mrs. Tiinstall married a Hart. George, son of the old Colonel, went Souths and Jane W. was married in 1824 to Dr. W. Adams. William Rearden came about this time, and put up two cabins on Lot No. 16, south and west of where TJrry lives. He was a cabinetmaker, perhaps the first in the county, and his wife was a sister to Jarvis Pierce. His house was not only out of town, but entirely out of sight of town. He did not remain long. The preacher, better known as Col. Rearden, was his son.

This brings us up to the fall of 1823, with Plummer at the Casey house, Burchett Maxey at the H. T. Pace corner, Thomas Tunstall at the Kirby tavern, Edmund Tunstall east of the court house, McBride at the corner west of Nieman's, and Rearden away out in the brush southwest of town. All the rest of the town was in the brush, and these lots are only partly fenced, and that with crooked rail fences. The Clerk's office, too, on the north side of the public square, and Joel Pace living in it from the spring of 1822 to 1823, ought not to be forgotten.

But Joel Pace built a cabin about a hundred yards east of where Gen. Pavey lives; a new court house was built, and the old Clerk's office was left tenantless. This new court house was first determined on at the December term, 1821, William Casey, then one of the County Commissioners, being the ambitious man who ventured to propose it, and this was to be the fashion of it: " The wall to be built of brick, twenty-foiu- by thirty feet, two stories high; the first story nine feet, the ^second seven and a half, two sets of joists to be put in, nine sixteen-light window-frames the lights eight by ten below, and eight twelve- light window-frames, lio-hts same size above, two door-frames to be put in, four fire-places above, the house to have a good, firm, brick floor; the house to be well covered with good oak shingles witliout sap, the brick and timber to be of the best quality; the house completed * * * by next December term." McBride undertook the job, and handed it over the next summer to Thomas Jordan. McBride got $300, Jordan 8202, and Edward Tunstall SllO, when it was paid for. But it was not finished till the summer of 1823 - nor even then. For, in 1829, an order was made tor finishing the house - laying the upper floor, enlarging the hearth-boxes, putting stairs in the southeast corner, dividing the upper part into four rooms with dressed gum planks, ceiling the room with good shaved oak boards (fourfoot boards split by hand, of course), putting in bricks that had fallen out. and painting the outside with three good coats of Spanish brown. John Wilkerson bid off the job of inside work at $89, which was done bv Cannon Maxey and

Stephen Hicks, and the painting at $79.93|, this part of the work being mostly done by Jarvis Pierce. The same year, 1829, the jail was moved to a place just east of the conrt house, and about fifteen feet from it, by Green Depriest.

Mount Vernon from 1824 to 1830. - In 1824, William Casey sold ninety rods off the west side of the southwest quarter of Section 29, to James Gray for SI, 000. The conveyance ignores the existence of Mount Vernon right in the heart of the tract. This is what was laid oiit and added to the town in 1840, the whole forming "Storm's Survey." About the same tme, 1824, John Cooper, another blacksmith, came, and moved into one of Rearden's houses. He afterward went to the Henry Wilkerson place - of late, Jacob Stitch's - where Jonathan Wells had lived awhile and had built a shop. Another noted arrival abont this time was a medical firm - Drs. Adams & Glover. They hoarded awhile at Edward Tunstall's, the H. T. Pace corner, and when Tunstall left they bought the property. They soon after sold to Pace. Glover went to McLeansboro - then a bran new town - married a Miss Locke, and went to Missouri. Dr. Adams was from Alabama. When Glover left, or sooner, he man'ied Jane Tunstall, October, 1824, and lived many years about town, part of the time two or three miles west of town; then went to the place in an arm of Moore's Prairie, where he died in January, 1873. Downing Baugh was also here, remained a year or two, married Milly Pace, went to Vandalia, and thence to Collinsville; then concluded to locate in Mount Vernon. He sold goods, and was for several years a Justice of the Peace. He built a store about where Seimer & Klinker now keep, in 1832; and he built the two-story frame on the north side of the square, that was burned before the Phoenix

Block arose. He has ever been a zealous Methodist. He was appointed Judge of the Circuit Coiu-t, Twelfth Circuit, August 11, 1854, vice S. S. Marshall, resigned, and held the office till the election of Edwin Beecher, in 1855. He was pronounced one of the best judges of statute law in the State. He now lives in McGregor, Iowa, at the age of eighty-four years. His wife died here in May, 1846, and he married a Miss Sophronia Davis. His daughters were Mrs. H. H. Wilkerson, Mrs. J. J. Ely, Mrs. W. W. Thurston; his sons, Thomas J., John W. and Joel V. T. J. and Mrs. W. are dead. Jack and Moses Baugh were brothers to the Judge; Mrs. Edmund Tunstall, two Mrs. Foleys, of Galena, and Mrs. Buck Pace, of Salem, his sisters.

In the spring of 1825, William Flint built on Lot No. 19, and set up another gi'ocery. The house is still standing, the first residence south of the Crews building. Perhaps Flint sold to D. Baugh. Baugh owned the place when H. T. Pace lived there. It was also in 1825 that Simon McClenden built a small frame house west of the court house. McClenden first settled in Moore's Prairie, then moved up to the Samuel Bullock place west of town, then to town. One of his daughters, Jane, married a Gilbert, and Polly Ann Billardy was the name of the other. Riley married a Quinn, then a Daniels, and is in Texas. Joseph Wilbanks came to town this season, and in the fall he went into the Thomas Tunstall or Kirby tavern, and kept it for about a year. The Wilbaukses began to come in 1824, as will be seen in other chapters. Joseph Wilbanks bought Lot No. 9, the^Thorn lot, from Pace, who transferred title bond from Edward Masey, for $40, moved the Rearden house up here for a residence, and bought McClenden's house for a store room. He soon after went to South Carolina on business, and died there, leaving John, Luke, Quincy and Margaret, his childi-en. Dr. Adams followed Joseph Wilbanks at the Tunstall House. But before Wilbanks bought McClenden's house, he, in partnership with a Mr. Hancock, sold goods at the corner - now east of Porter & Bond's drug store.

We will now finish the stoiy of some of those first houses of the olden time. The log court house was sold to some man - perhaps William Hamblin, - who moved and rebuilt east of Hansackers. Capt. Newby bought the lot, and moved the logs down to his residence (now Capt. Gibson's), where, after various uses, they went into a " shuck " pen, a few remains of which were to be found there only a few years back. We don't know what became of the old Clerk's office; some tell us it was burned - catching fire from the burning prairie; and some that it was moved down to the lot where Wlecke's Hotel stands. A log house stood for years on that lot. Harvey Pace worked in it the first year that he lived in town. Dr. Adams lived there for a while. Mrs. Keller was born there, and it was in this house, or one erected on the corner north of it, that Daniel Anderson kept his first grocery. Of Thomas Tunstall's old tavern stand, perhaps enough has been said. After Wilbanks & Adams, E. D. Anderson kept there. 1830 to 1836, and James Kirby came in and bought it, and occupied it from 1836 till his death in 1844. The house that Watkins built at N. C. Pace & Co.'s corner, was used as a stable by John M. Pace - Jack Pace, as he was generally called, who kept a blooded animal there one spring and summer. It was then occupied as a stable by a Mr. Black. This man (James Black), had married Joseph Wilbanks' sister, and was carrying the mail from Shawneetown to St. Louis on horseback. Black was killed in the Black Hawk war ; his widow married Comp - ton, and died, and Compton married Miss Sarah Hawkins; then at Compton's death his widow married a Combs, father of Samuel. In 1828. this old house was moved to the corner where Porter & Bond's drug store stands, the first house on that corner, but was still used as a stable. No trace of it remains. Joel Pace bought the lot of James Gray in

1829, for $45, and built on it in 1831. The log house that Burchett Masey built on the H. T. Pace corner, stood there till after H. T. Pace bought the lot. Indeed, Burchett had reared a two-story house just south of it, about 15x30 feet, longest from east to west, and had it inclosed and floored, a stairway up, etc. ; and he sold the whole, houses and lot, to Pace, for $250, in 1827. Pace then, in

1830, built a store room in front, east of the log house, doing nearly all the work himself: rented it awhile to D. Baugh, then to E. H. Eidgeway, and began business in it himself in 1832. The log house was occupied for a time by W. W. Pace in 1829. From that he went to the Tunstall tavern, where he lived one year, then he went to the Wilbanks house west of the square, then to the Howell house east of the square, and then to Salem in 1834. But the old log house, after he left it, was bought by John Scott, and moved to the country. This last location was about south of the William Baugh house, where Cherry lives. Scott sold out to James Bowman, and Bowman was bui'ned out in 1835. He had commenced a house in town in 1834, east of the square, and before it was nearly finished, sold to John Johnson, the wi-iter's father, and now having no house instead of two. He rebuilt out east, and this second house stood within the memory of many of us. AVesley Johnson now lives in the house Bowman started east of the square. Joseph Wilbanks, as stated, bought the Eearden house, and moved it up to the lot where Mrs. Thorn lives - Lot No. 9. Then in 1826, Harvey Pace built an addition for Wilbanks south of the old house, and Stinson Anderson m 1831; after he married Mrs. Wilbanks, built the part Thorn used for a shop. Thorn added the upper stories to these about 1855. The old Rearden house was moved back long before that for a kitchen, and is now "gone back " entirely. At Wilbanks' death, 1829, one-third of his north lot was sold to pay debts, and was used for a residence by various persons. In 1828, Uncle Isaac Casey and Joel Pace went into business in the Wilbanks storehouse, and continued there till Joel built at his comer lot in 1831. W. W. Pace bought part of the Wilbanks lot, including the residence; sold it to W. D. Isbell in 1832, for $125. Dr. Simmons lived there one summer; Dr. Moore got it, Lewis Moore got it, and at last Harvey Pace got it, bought the rest of the lot from Abner Melcher a few years later; and in the fall of 1844 moved the store to where it now stands, performing the office of milliner's shop, late dining-room. The old original William Casey house stood many years. After Plummer, Samuel Hirons occupied it, and many others succeeded him. Old Cesar lived there in 1834, and we know .not how long before or after; and finally, L. C. Moss bought it, and moved it out to a place he had bought this side of where Mr. Tankersly lived. The Clark Casey house, west of Nieman's, was considerably enlarged by Felix McBride; but in 1824 Mrs. McBride died, and he left. He was followed by William Thacker, he by old Mr. Davenport, he by Samuel McConnell; he by old Mr. Boswell, father of Felix; he by Noah Johnston, and he by William Hickman, from Kentucky. Hickman came in 1836, built the large frame now occupied by W. E. Jackson, and sold to Witherspoon & Barker in 1837. W.

B. Scates moved it to where it now stands. Thomas Cunningham bought the old houses and rebuilt them where Charles J. Pool lives. Witherspoon staid a few years, married Lewis Johnson's youngest daughter, Susan, and went back to Kentucky. Barker, Wesley Barker, was a brother to William Casey's wife, and his wife was a sister to Robert Wingate. Wesley went to Louisville. We just now referred to W. W. Pace's having bought the Howell house; he built an additional room, and sold to Dr. Moore in 1835. Moore did not tarry long; went to Carlyle, then to Franklin or Columbus in Tennessee, then to St. Louis, where he became eminent. The Doctor sold out to John M. Pace late in

1835. Next year Pace went back to his farm, then came to the Joseph Wilbanks houses; returned to his farm, rented the old Howell house for awhile to Bowman, and finally, in

1836, sold it to Eli D. Anderson. Eli was succeeded by William Gibberson, a tailor, after whom a great number lived there, until Strattan demolished the house to " build greater," in 1859. We have dwelt on these details, because, if the record is not preserved here and now, the whole story is gone forever.

In 1S19, October 5, the third wedding in the county occurred at William Maxey's, in Shiloh Township, and three couples were married at once. And two of the couples, Ahiaham T. Casey and wife and Bennett N. Maxey and wife, with Elihu Maxey and his wife, newly married, and just back from Tennessee, all settled in Sections 6 and 7 of Mount Vernon Township. A. T. Casey's wife was Yylinda Maxey. Bennett Maxey's wife was Sally Overbay. raised by Edward Maxey. but a daughter of James Overbay, and sister to Carroll Overbay ; Coleman Smith's wife, Joel Hai-low's, Fountain Jai-- rell's, Garland H. Jarrell's, James Mclntire's,

Green Duncan's, Thomas Blaloch's, and - we believe that's all. Elihu Maxey's wife was Evaline Taylor. Well, A. T. Casey settled jnst north of where Windsor Pettit lives, and remained there till his death in 1834, and his family remained till old Mr. Lane bought the place. Elihu Maxey settled north of Casey, and south of where George Smith lives, and lived there till he was killed in October, 1853. Bennett Maxey settled a mile east of Pleasant Grove, and lived there till 184:6, when he died. These young people, and Thomas Casey, just married to Harriet Maxey, and settled over the Shiloh line, made a good start in the world. They had cabins, some had floors in their cabins, some had pole bedsteads, and some slept on board pens, filled with leaves, on the floor ; but all had plenty, and were happy. Deer, turkeys, bears, wolves and wild cats were always handy ; and if there was no meat for breakfast, the man would bid his wife wait a few minutes, take do^n his gun, and directly bring in the game.

Dr. John W. Watson came to Illinois in 1821, arriving November 21. He lived on the Mulben-y Hill until the next spring, when he, or rather John and Asa, built a large crib on the place a mile north of town, where he afterward lived. The crib had two or three apartments, one for gi'ain, one for a toolhouse, etc., and into one of these they came and lived till a hickory log house coviild be raised, the same that Thomas Hunt tore down about twelve years ago. This year (1822), the Doctor rented ground from John Wilkerson near Union, and by the next he had opened land of his own. He was the first physician that was located in the county, and in that day he paid well for his drugs. An ounce of quinine that he got of Atwood, in St. Louis, cost him $10.50, and an ounce of veratrum that he got from Philadelphia,

$40. He was County Assessor in 1822 and 1823, when his fees amounted to $17, and the whole revenue to $70. The homedressed fawn-skin cover that he or his boys made for his Assessor's book is still preserved in the Clerk's office. Mi's. Watson died March 3, and the Doctor June 3, 1845. His childi-en were John, who died in Virginia in 1803 ; Virginia, who was married to John Summers in 1824; John H., who married Betsy Rankin in 1827 ; William B. , who married Margaret and afterward Sarah Leonard ; Asa B., who married Diana Ham in 1833 ; Joel F. , who is among us and well known; Amelia, who died single, and Horry M. , who married Minerva Cummins. Joel Pace located on his farm adjoining Dr. Watson's in 1823, as before stated, and there reared a large family, lost his venerable companion in 1877, and himself died, in 1879, at the age of eighty- eight years.

In 1822, William Hix - as he spelt it, and Hicks as nearly everybody else spelt it - located and made an improvement four miles north of town. A man by the name of Lee came aboat the same time, and they had a little mill. Hix was related to Mrs. William Casey ; what relation we cannot say, but she called him " Cousin Billy." He and William Casey and Joseph Jordan comjjosed the second Board of County Commissioners. He sold his improvement to Azariah Bruce in the fall of 1823, and went to the " Western District " in Tennessee. Aboat the same time (1823), Jarvis Pierce, Sr. , formerly of New York, came up from White County, and moved into a cabin that stood south of the Hinman or Strattan place, a mile west of town. He was the father of Jarvis, Joseph and Henry, Mrs. Eearden, Mi's. Tolle, Mrs. Charles Mills; Mrs. Hick, afterward Mrs. John Storms; Mrs. Summers and Mi's. Martin Gillett. He did not stay long. Azariah

Bruce came in 1823, and succeeded William ' His on the Salem road, four miles north of town. He was a native o^ Halifax County, Ya. He went to Tennessee, and married a Keelin in Wilson County. He served two terms as County Commissioner, lost his wife in July, 1853, and died himself in March, 1854. Of his children, Sally was married to Hardy Maxey; Nancy, to Harvey Pace ; Polly, to Jehu Maxey ; Betsy, to John Baiigh now in Texas ; Armstead W. lives in Wayne County ; Marquis, north of Rome, in this county ; John, in Gallatin ; Leonard W., in Webber, and Savanner in this township ; Melissa died in youth ; Harmon died in Wayne County in 1868. Next year, 1824, John Summers, the Englishman whom Tunstall had brought from Shawneetown to ; superintend his mill, and who had just married Virginia Watson, bought Abram Casey nut, and moved to the place two miles east of town, where he lived so long. Here he built a tread mill, and continued to improve it till at last he had a very good steam mill. He went to Texas, and died there. Of his descendants, only William's family and Jackson's family are here now. William and Jackson are dead, and Jackson's widow is the wife of James Brown, of Field.

Aaron Yearwood came in December, 18'26. He was accompanied by his mother, with her two sons, Joseph and Robert, and by his brother William. With William came his wife's sister Betsy, now Mrs. Watson. The father of these ladies, Robert Rankin, Sr., came a year or so later, and after a short stay, went to Shelby County, but left here his son Robert and Mrs. Robert Yearwood. Old Mrs. Yearwood' B husband's name was Frederic ; she herself died in 1847. The next fall after Aaron's arrival, 1827, James SiU'sa, whose wife was sister to his wife and to Ward Webber, came out with his brother Jack Sursa. These men and one daughter were the children of Richard Sursa, who died in the war of 1812. Benjamin Webber came with the Yearwoods, married a Wilkerson, and settled at the Jordan or Coley Smith place on Seven Mile Creek. Ward Webber and John came three years later, 1829, the latter settling in the edge of Wayne County, while Ward located where Daniel Barfield afterward lived. Daniel was step sou to James Sursa. About the same time, 1829, William Byers came to the place still known as the " Old Byers place." Mrs. Byers - "Aunt Nancy" - was sister to old Mr. Yearwood. Byers had a daughter already married to Joseph Brown. Pete Bruce, or Armstead W. and Moses Baugh, took one each, and the last girl (we suppose, not finding a B. to suit her) was married to Fountain Garrison. He and James Garrison came in 1827, and James died of small -pox a few years ago. James married a Wimberley ; in two or three years after coming out, F. died.