Jefferson County, Illinois - Chapter 10 (2 of 2 so headed), 1883

ROME TOWNSHIP - TOPOGRAPHICAL AND PHYSICAL FEATURES - OCCUPATION BV WHITE PEOPLE - WHO THE PIONEERS WERE - THE MAXWELLS AND OTHERS - HARDSHIPS AND TRIALSMILLS AND OTHER IMPROVE.MENTS - TOWNSHIP OFFICERS - SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES - VILLAGE OF ROME - GROWTH, IMPROVEMENT, ETC.

NIGH upon sixty years have been gathered into the Great Cemetery of the ages, since the first pioneers came to this division of the county. Thirty years are a generation's lifetime, and thus the period alloted to two generations have passed. A few of the " old guard " remain, but they are fast hastening to the solemn valley where "Death sits robed in his all-sweeping shadow." The life of man upon the earth is short. Even his "threescore and ten years " are but a swing of the pendulum of the clock of Time. Were it not for the duty which, acted upon, becomes a part of our moral nature, it would be hardly worth while to undertake any gi-eat labors, to harbor any wearing anxieties AVe would be as children building play-houses of sand upon the shore, and little caring how we build, for the driving wave, pulsating to the heart throbs of old ocean, would soon erase all results of our task and toil. But while life is short, society is long. ' ' Men may come and men may go, '' but society remains forever - an edifice whose foundations were laid when it was found " not good for man to be alone." Each generation adds a story, solid and beautiful, polished in the similitude of a palace; or, unsteady and shapeless, daubed with untempered mortar.

The advent of the pioneers is now but a dream of the past - it is a book, the pages of which are turned. Few now remember when the first cabin was erected in Home Township, and when the first man came to its territory. Rome, it is said, was not built in a day, neither was Rome Township settled in a day. Its occupation by white people extends over a period of several years, from the time the first adventurous pioneer wandered into the section now embraced in Rome until the land was all taken up. The first comers were people who sought homes here because land was cheap and game plenty. Many of them wei'e hunters, and spent miich time in their favorite pastincie.

County, east by Field Township, south by Shiloh, west by Grand Prairie, and is known and designated in the Congressional survey as Township 1 soath, and Range 2 east. The surface is generally level, or slightly undulating, and divided between prairie and woodland, the latter predominating, and covered originally with oak, hickory, walnut, sasbafras, wild cherry, etc. The principal stream is a branch of Big Muddy, which has its source in the north part of the township. No railroads intersect it, but the country is thoroughly a farming one, and is occupied by a set of thrifty and industrious farmers. Corn, wheat, oats, hay, etc., are the principal crops. But little attention is paid to stockraising, except horses.

The first settlers in what is now Rome Township are supposed to have been the Maxwells. Mr. Johnson says t'lero were three brothers, viz., Robert, William and Archibald Maxwell. Another authority, however, says that Robert and Archibald were the sons of William Maxwell, and that the latter came about 1816-17, locating on Section 7. He was from Bourbon County, Ky., and sold out and left here about 1824. He is ^^escribed as a man somewhat wild, dissipated and reckless, and when under the influence of whisky, a little dangerous. His boys would have choked him to death on one occasion, for some of his devilment, but for the interference of the neighbors. He was a good kind of man when sober, but, like hundreds of others, even at the present day, he let whisky steal his senses and then he was almost ungovernable. His sons, Robert and Archibald Maxwell, came soon after him, and Robert Maxwell entered the first tract of land in Jefi'erson County, and paid the full price in cash for it. He lived in Section 11, nortliwest of where Mr. Bruce now lives. Archibald Maxwell died in the county, and had quite a large family; Robert had no family but a wife. He left his property with M. D. Bruce, and went back to Kentucky about 1848-50. where both he and his wife died. Mr. Bruce settled up his estate by order of the court, and after paying Maxwell's debts, turned over the residue to the Count}- Treasury.

William Goins was an early settler here, and kept a tavern, one of the first kept in the county. He had a bad i-eputation, and was accused of being connected with horsethieves, counterfeiters, and all sorts of lawless characters. He finally left, for the good of the community, as detailed in a preceding chapter. His tavern was the head- quarters of a band who committed, as was supposed, many dark deeds. Even murders were attributed to them. But as the country settled up, a better class of people came in, and the lawless band who frequented Goins' tavern were cleaned out, and, like their kingbee, Goins, were forced to leave for the good of the country.

Davis and Philip Whitesides, brothers-inlaw of Thomas Jordan, settled in Jordan's Prairie very early. They were noted fighters, and considered the bullies of the lieighborhood. Billington Taylor, originally from South Carolina, was also an early settler in this township, as well as his son-in-law. Nelson. The latter, however, finally went to Salt Lake and joined the Mormons. A Mr. McDaniel settled in the South end of Jordan's Prairie, and died there. Mr. M. D. Bruce came in 1838, with his father, and were from Tennessee. The elder Bruce was known as one of the best farmers in the county. James Lewty settled early, but sold out and went to Texas. He afterward returned to this county and died. Ai'ba Andi-ews located in this township, and built the first horse mill in this part of the county.

Thus the township was settled, and the wilderness reclaimed from its wild and natural state, and converted into a fine agricultural region. But the labor required to do this was great, and required many years to accomplish. When we consider the rude simplicity of the times, and the few and inferior implements the people had to work with, we find ourselves wondering that they, succeeded in their great work. Their mill facilities were meager, and as rude as the implements they had to work their farms with. The latter consisted of bull-tongue and shovel-plows, and the old " Gary," with the wooden mold-board These were made by Ai-ba Andrews, who was the first blacksmith, as well as the proprietor of the first horse mill. He is said to have been quite a "mechanical genius." He made plows and stocked them for the farmers. He built a horse mill, the first mill in the township, an institution largely patronized for miles around, and a great accommodation to the people. He also made all sorts of agricultural implements, such as plows and harrows, and even essayed horse-power threshing-machines. He put up the first steam mill in the township, but previously o])erated a horse-power circular saw mill, and earlier had a wind-power mill for grinding corn, and earlier still, a common horse mill. This steam mill stood a little south of Rome Village, and Squire Carpenter now has the original engine in his mill. Several other horse mills were put up in the township in early times, but the history of one is the history of all. / The educational history of Eome is similar to that of other portions of the county. So much has already been said upon the subject, that but little can be added here. The first schoolhouse in the township was a log cabin, 18x18 feet, on the land of M. D. Bruce, and is still standing. The first school in it was taught by Mahulda Martin, who came here with her parents from Kentucky. Other early teachers were William Dill, S. Andrews, now a merchant in Centralia, and C. Andrews. The township now has eight good, substantial schoolhouses, and supports good schools.

The township is well supplied with churches, and if the people are not religious it is their own fault. Among the churches are Pleasant Hill Baptist Church, Ebenezer Methodist Episcopal Church South, and the Methodist Episcopal Church at Rome Village. Pleasant Hill Baptist Church was organized about 1850-52, and among the original members were Freemen and Mary Walker, B. B. Harvey and wife, James Ward and wife, Levi Williams and wife, and R. Whitlock and wife. It was formed in a log cabin, and the first preacher was Elder James Keel, now dead. The present church was built in 1867, is a frame 34x40 feet, and cost $1,375. It has 122 members, under the pastorate of Elder W. W. Hay, of Mount Vernon. It has a good Sunday school, with an attendance of eight)- to ninety, of which Andrew Riley is Superintendent.

The Methodist Episcopal Church South was organized in 1863. Among the first members were Elijah Wimberly and wife, S. W. Carpenter and family. The present membership is about ninety, under the pastorate of Rev. C. M. Whitson. A Sunday school is kept up, under the present superintendence of J. M. McCormick. The churchis an excellent brick edifice, built about 1865-66, and is 34x50 feet in dimension.

The Methodist Episcopal Church in Rome Village was built about 1867, is 36x40 feet, and cost about 13,000. It has some fifty members, and Rev. Mr. Boyer is pastor. A

Originally, this portion of the county was embraced in Grand Prairie Precinct, but when the county, in 1869, adopted township organization, it became Kome Township, and received the name from the village. Since township organization, the following is a complete list of township officers:

Politically, the township is pretty evenly divided between Democrats and Republicans, while the Greenbackers hold the balance of power. In old times, this section was largely Democratic. The first voting place was at James Bates' house, but was afterward moved to Rome; the vote polled was small - from 130 to 140 - and the precinct was a good deal larger in extent than Rome Township now is. The township has always been patriotic, and turned out soldiers in the Black Hawk, Mexican and late civil war. M. D. Bruce and S. ^\'. Carpenter are old Black Hawk soldiers. Indians were plenty in this section when the fijst whites came, and there are those living who still remember the noble red men, and saw them often as they hunted the wild game of the woods, without the benefit of soap and breeches. Mr. Bruce well remembers the noted chief Whitefeather. He was a rather intelligent Indian, and spoke very good English.

Village of Rome. - Rome, not the mistress of the world, seated upon her seven hills, bi;t the little, unpretentious village in this township, was laid out March 14, 1849, by Arba Andrews, and the survey made by L. F. Casey. It is situated on the east part of the southwest quarter of the northwest quarter of Section' 13, and comprised four blocks of five lots each. Andrews afterward made an addition (December 15, 1857) on the west, nearly equal in extent to the original town. The first house was put up by or for .'ohu

Bostwick for a grocery, as saloons were then called. He occupied it about three years, and then went to Mount Vernon, and while absent from Rome John Caldwell sold goods in his house. He afterward returned and occupied it again himself. Since his day, Dr. Hart, Lakin & Branson, Swain, Thomas Pace, Harlow and others have used it as a business house, b\it it is now the reception parlor of a stable. The nest house erected was a hotel, built by Andrew Harmon, and the third was put up by J. R. Brown, a mechanic. "William Parker was the village blacksmith. Hiram Milburn built a storehouse in 1853, and the next year built a hotel. It is related of this house, or the frame of it, that it blew down with two men on the joists, and fell all m a pile, but nobody was hurt. Milburn and West bought Lewty's Mill, which stood about a mile from Bome, and moved it into the town. Isaac Pierson added a carding machine to it. James Sursa opened a grocery store, and in 1854- 55, Henry Blalock built a house at the south end of town, and opened a stock of goods, but in a few years later sold out to Dr. Jones. A Bchoolhouse was built in 1854, and Bome years later (during the war) a church, and in 1869 the brick church was built, and thus the village became quite a moral little place. The Doctors of Rome have been Jones, Booth, Murphy, Darter & Burns, Bui-ns & Ayres, Ayres & Darter, Skillings, Young, Nichols, Mabry, Clark, Bradford, et al.

The town was named for Rome, N. Y., and not for the capital of the Roman Empire. Mr. Andrews, the father of the place, came from near Rome, N. Y., and named it in honor of that place. When the post office was established at Andrews" house in 1830, it was called Jordan's Prairie Post Office. But when Rome was laid out, it was moved to town, and it was then found that there was oanther Rome in the State, and some other name must be selected. Dr. Jones, who believed in " shooting on the spot " any man who would " haul down the American flag,"' named the post office for Gen. Dis, the author of that patriotic injunction, and Dix Post Office it has since remained. Rome became the voting place of Jordan's Prairie in 1852, and when the township was formed in 1869, it remained the polling place.

Rome was incorporated in 1866, and S. W. Carpenter, Hiram Milburn, Hayworth, J. J. Maxey and Dr. Nichols were the Trustees. An Odd Fellows Lodge was instituted June 12, 1869, and the following were the first officers: James Robinson, N. G. ; L. Leffingwell, Y. G. ; J. N. Maxey, Secretary, and C. Douchet, Treasurer. The membership at present is twenty-three, and the officers are George Watson, N. G. ; S.

The present business of Rome is: R. F. Casey, dry goods; Dr. W. E. Bradford, drugs and dry goods; H. Williams, groceries; S. W. Carpenter & Son, grist mill: David Thompson, wood-shop; Miller & Shinning, blacksmith shop; Rachel Bruce and daughter, millinery store; William Kyser. furniture store; James Fields, boot and shoe shop ; one schoolhouse, in which two teachers are employed; two churches, and Drs. Tucker, Bogan and Bradford, physicians. The town, though old in years, has never grown to very large proportions, and never will, but it is quite a business little place.