Jefferson County, Illinois - Chapter 20: The First Balloon in Jefferson County, 1909

Chapter 20: The First Balloon in Jefferson County

Two Jefferson County Children up in it all Night - Rome Township Furnishes two Thrilling Incidents of Lost and Found Children - Fifty and Eighty-six Years Ago.

When our first settlers came to Jefferson county they came with ox-carts, gigs, or horseback and on foot, and after leaving the old Goshen road, had to clear a way for their travel. Since then, we have seen all the modern modes and implements of travel coming to us - the two-horse-wagon, the old stage coach, the carriage or buggy, the railroad, the bicycle, and automobile, and even the air-ship and the balloon. Our people have patronized them all. Our present story is about a couple of Jefferson county children traveling through Jefferson county in a balloon and were we not personally cognizant of the facts as we write them we would doubt the statement being strictly true, but we do not tell the tale as it was told to us, but as we vividly remember the facts. We give them as they were impressed on our mind over fifty years ago, and here they are :

In September, 1 858, the state fair was held at Centralia. Each evening Professor Wilson went up in his big balloon for the edification of the people, sailing away a few miles and being back for a like performance next day. On the last evening he sailed away in the direction of Jefferson county until lost sight of. He came down at the farm house of a Mr. Harvey in Rome (now Dix) neighborhood, and was talking with Mr. Harvey abount hauling himself and balloon back to Centralia ; meanwhile he had fastened the grab-hook of his balloon to a rail in an old worm fence. Mr. Harvey's two children, aged six and four years, respectively, asked to be placed in the basket and the professor picked up one and the father the other and seated them therein, and resumed their conversation,

A sudden gust of wind swayed the balloon and up it went, sailing away to the southwest, leaving the parents frantic with fright and the professor utterly dismayed. Imagine, if you can, the wild excitement as the news spread throughout the neighborhood and down to Mount Vernon. It was nearly dark when the monster broke its moorings and sailed away, but that did not prevent the people from scanning the upper darkness and searching the woods in hopes of finding some trace of the children; but the night passed without a ray of hope and its darkness was not to be compared with the darkness that filled the hearts of the parents and friends, and everybody.

Not a word came until 8 o'clock next morning, when a horseman came speedily from the southeast, bringing the joyful tidings that the children were safe and sound. Shout after shout rent the air as the wagon came up the road bearing not only the little ones but also their parents, who had hastened out to meet them. "Home Again" was struck up by the old original Mount Vernon brass band and was heartily joined in by the multitude, and Mount Vernon had a glorious "home-coming" never to be forgotten by those present.

The wonderful voyage as recited by the six-year old girl, she being the older, was simple but thrilling. She said they cried for papa and mamma in the dark till brother fell asleep, and she took her apron and covered him up. She remembered of hearing dogs bark, but could see or hear nothing else, excepting occasionally a star peeped through the clouds. Becoming numb with cold she, too, fell asleep and only remembered feeling a jolt sometime in the night.

Just before day the next morning, 'Squire Atchison, living in the lower edge of Moore's Prairie, went early to his barn to feed his horses, and seeing some monstrous thing in a big tree standing near, he raised the alarm and soon the people gathered to behold the miracle of two children nestled in the basket of Professor Wilson's big balloon. They were soon brought safely to earth again and after a thorough warming and partaking of a good breakfast, they were brought to Mount Vernon - and their parents.

The writer has passed through many army experiences, night raids and mid-night marches, but never one more wild and exciting than that night's search for the lost children in the "jungles and upper air of old Jefferson." And he believes now, as he did then, that Providence managed the balloon, after the carelessness of man permitted it to carry off the heart treasures of the parents; showing plainly that "Man's extremity is God's opportunity."

Another Child Lost

As a campanion piece to this thrilling incident, we deem it appropriate to give another Rome township incident of a lost child and the poignant grief of the parents. We give this incident as it was written by one of the neighbors shortly after it happened :

"In the fall of 1822, Thomas Howell resided in the edge of Jordan's Prairie, near where Ignatius Bruce lived. This is the same Howell that succeeded Watkins, the first Sheriff of Jefferson county. It was Sabbath and Zadok Casey had just read an openwall's history of JEFFERSON CO., ILL. 211 ing chapter when a man on horseback came galloping up, announcing that Howell's little boy, Erasmus, aged six or seven years, was lost m the woods. Rev. Casey closed the services at once, advising everybody to help find the lost child and a vigorous search was at once begun. The forests contained wild beasts and the settlements few. The parents were frantic. The search was kept up day and night until the following Wednesday night without finding a trace of the child and despair settled upon the minds of all. On Thursday morning, Green P. Casey was up early feeding his horse near his old place on the Vandalia, afterwards Centralia road, when in the southeast direction he heard a wail, but whether it came from a child or a panther, he could not tell, but was impelled to go and see, at the risk of his own safety. So bridling his horse and without hat, he rode in the direction of the noise. Finally he came to a clump of high grass from which the voice seemed to come. He called "Erasmus, is that you? " No answer. He called again, but no answer. Finally as he rode around in the high grass, he espied Erasmus in a recumbent position with his eyes wildly staring at him. He addressed the child kindly and gradually the boy seemed to recover from his wildness and said: "The reason I did not answer was, I was afraid you was Ingen." Casey took the child to his home and they fed him what bread and milk they thought it safe to give him. The little fellow had starved five days. As soon as possible, Mr. Casey took the child on the horse before him and hastened to Howell's to let the grief-stricken mother know that her Erasmus was safe. He met men on the hunt and they fired off guns to notify other hunters that the lost was found. By the time they reached Howell's, quite a procession had formed, and when the dazed mother saw her child and clasped him to her bosom with joy, there was not a dry eye among that throng of backwoodsmen - 'twas like the shepherd finding the lost sheep) - and joy reigned supreme.

When Casey found the httle fellow, he had a large hickory nut with the hull on it, which he had bitten with his little teeth in his extreme hunger. His clothes were almost torn from his body by the briars and bushes."

Other Jefferson county townships may have tales to tell, but Rome carries the banner for "lost and found" children. Green P. Casey died December 23, 1857.

Other balloon incidents and accidents have happened in the county since the feat recorded above and of course the end is not yet. About fifteen years ago, a young man went up at the old fair ground on a trapeze and sailed away to the northeast. He was seen to fall and his lifeless body was found in David Warren's field. Another man named Jones made ascensions here every day for a week, coming down without mishap, but the very next week he fell from his balloon at Du Quoin and was killed. Recently a big balloon called the "Yankee" went up at St. Louis to win the world's prize for making the greatest distance before lighting, but it was forced to come down near Cravat in this county for repairs, much to the edification of the Jeffersonians in that vicinity. It went up again, sailed all night and landed in Georgia, but the Cravat incident made it lose the sought-for prize. It has often been demonstrated that the balloon is not a reliable mode of air locomotion. It enables the crowd on terra firma an opportunity to test the rubber in their necks, but it is always dangerous to the parties "up in the balloon." But the air-ship promises to be a very different thing. It can be and will be so constructed that it can be managed so as to make it a vehicle of travel from one given point to another and our prediction is that the next Jefferson county historian will be allowed to record the literal fulfillment of this prophecy.

Another Historical Incident

There seems to be no doubt that Andrew Moore was the first white man to settle in Moore's Prairie - or in Jefferson county, as to that matter. He erected a double cabin on the Goshen road and there he resided with his family when there were none to molest or make afraid, except occasional bands of roving Indians. He must have settled there as early as 1810 and Crusoe on his lonely island was not more alone than Moore and his family. He seemed to be a pioneer of true mould - yearning for freedom in its rawest sense. He was self-exiled from civilization, seeking the solitudes of the pathless woods. He did not burn the bridges behind him, simply because there were none to burn. He fished, hunted, cut bee trees and raised a truck garden, strictly for home consumption, seemed to have no fear of wild beasts or Indians and felt as secure in his cabin as he would in a fortified castle. Moore and his ten-year-old boy one day went to the Jordan settlement many miles away to have some corn made into meal, expecting to get back that night. But they never came. Mrs. Moore, after waiting all next day in vain, took the other children and set out for the Jordan mill to learn what had happened to her loved ones. She never learned. They had got their grinding and started home on time and that was the last seen of them. The woods were scoured, but no trace could be found. Mrs. Moore-heart-broken and desolate, returned to her cabin but could not stand it - she removed with her little ones to the Saline Salt Works settlement, but a few years later returned and occupied the old cabin, together with others who came to locate. A few years later a hunting party found a human skull, which Mrs. Moore recognized as her husband by a missing tooth. She took it to her home and cherished it as long as she lived. No other intelligence of Moore and son was ever received by the family and there seemed to be no doubt that they were killed by Indians and devoured by wild beasts. Tradition gives us the sequel to this horrible tragedy. It has been said that Moore and some of his friends from the Saline settlement were out in the woods splitting some board timber, when a couple of painted red-skins came upon them and it looked like something must be done to get rid of them. Moore was driving a wooden wedge into the log, which they expected to make into boards. By signs, Moore showed his apparent anxiety to get the log open by pulling while his friend mauled. Finally the Indians showed signs of wanting to help. They took a good grip on either side of the log with their fingers well down in the apperture, when Moore, by a dexterous stroke of the maul, hit the wooden wedge, causing it to fly out - catching the fingers of the red-skins so as to hold them fast in the closed fissure of the log. As soon as possible, Moore and his friends relieved them but they went away with revenge (the Indian characteristic) depicted on their faces, and it is believed that they waited for a chance to "get even" with Moore and over-did the thing by killing him.

Maxey Wilkey was a soldier of 1812, and claimed to have been at the death of Tecumseh, who was killed at the battle of Thames. At the close of the war, Mr. Wilkey married a Miss Caldwell, came to Jefferson county and settled in Moore's Prairie in 1816. After the Moore tragedy, the Wilkeys, Crenshaws, the Cooks, Atchisons, were the first settlers of the Moore's Prairie section. In Atchison's big tree near his residence is where Professor Wilson's ballon settled with the Harvey children in it, on the fearful night recorded above. So it will be seen that Moore's Prairie has a good share in the early tragedies with Rome township.

Lewis Watkins, Jefferson county's first Sheriff, finally moved back to Moore's Prairie, while Howell, the next Sheriff, located in Rome township and was the father of the lost child, Erasmus.