Jersey County, Illinois - Chapter 28: The Old Settlers' Association, 1919

Chapter 28: The Old Settlers' Association

OF OLD SETTLERS - OTHERS WORTHY OF A PLACE IN THESE RECORDS - REMINISCENCES - CHARACTER AND CUSTOMS OF EARLY SETTLERS - PIO¬ NEER APPLIANCES - HOME INDUSTRIES - PRIMITIVE SCHOOLHOUSES - LACK OF MILLS - PIONEER AMUSEMENTS - MANNERS AND EQUIPMENTUNUSUAL POEM.

Organization

The survivors of the early settlers of Jersey County long felt the need of an organization whose object would he the preservation of the recollections connected with their first coining to the county. To supply this want, The Old Settlers' Association was organized October 7, 1871, and was known as The Old Settlers' Society of Jersey County, Ill.

The object of the society was declared to he the perpetuation of the memory of the pioneers and old settlers of the county; to collect and preserve the history of the settlement and progress, and of interest¬ ing events connected with the same ; to revise and keep alive by annual meetings, old friendships, and the memory of bygone days; and to obtain and record, as far as practicable, the names and ages of the early settlers in the state and county, the place of their nativity, the date of their location in the county, the record of their deaths, and other matters of similar interest.

Requisites For Membership

By the provisions of the original constitution adopted, all persons residing in the State of Illinois in 1840, who were then twenty-one years of age, and who have resided in the counties of Greene and Jersey for twenty-five years, were entitled to become members by enrolling their names on the rolls of the society. The constitution has since been amended in this respect, so that the persons entitled to become members include all ' ' who were residents of the state of Illinois in 1840, who were then of lawful age, and who have resided in Jersey County for twenty-five years, and all persons from within the limits of the state prior to January 1, 1831, and have had a like residence of twentyfive years in the county."

The officers of this society consist of a president, thirteen vice presi¬ dents, one elected as far as possible from each township, and a secretary.

The first officers elected were as follows: Cyrus Tolman, president; Benjamin F. Slaten, Brook Stafford, George Stafford, William Hackney, Thomas McDow, John M. Hull, Thomas Wedding, Jeremiah Bell, J. E. Cooper, John Brown, Z. Reddish, D. P. Pritchett, and William Waddle, vice presidents; and George H. Jackson, secretary.

Mr. Tolman continued the president until 1876, when Jonathan E. Cooper was elected and filled that position. In addition to the gentle¬ men named above, Samuel Erwin, William McDow, William Kellar, Moses Cockrell, William Chappie and J. N. English acted as vice presi¬ dents. George H. Jackson has continued the efficient secretary.

An annual meeting and picnic are held, and the society has been the means of reviving no little interest in matters relating to the early settlement of Jersey County. Since the organization of the society in 1871, all original members have died; and the rapid inroad of the hand of death in the ranks of those who took part in the first settling of this portion of the state, suggests that the time has arrived when the events connected with the pioneer times of Jersey County are matters of tra¬ dition only, and the eye witnesses and participants in the doings of a century ago are gathered to their fathers.

Below we append a list of the old settlers who have been connected with the Old Settlers' Society, when born, and where, the year in which they came to Illinois, and also the year in which they came to Jersey County.

Waddle, William C., born South Carolina; came to Jersey County, 1808. Wyckoff, Ambrose S., born Schoharie Co., Ohio, 1806 ; came to Illinois, 1832; came to Jersey County, 1832.

In addition we subjoin, from a list compiled by Capt. J. E. Cooper, the names of some old residents of Jersey County, who do not appear on the records of the Old Settlers' Society. These persons, in 1870, had resided for at least forty years in the state of Illinois, were at that time fifty years of age or over, and residents of Jersey County. Where Greene County is mentioned as the place of settlement on coming to Illinois, it refers in many instances to what in 1839 became Jersey County.

Allen, Mrs. Wm. H., born in Illinois; settled in Madison Co., 1820. Allen, Mrs. Joshua, born in North Carolina; settled in Union Co., 1819. Beeman, John, born in Illinois; settled in Madison Co., 1817.

Bell, Mrs. Jeremiah, born in Kentucky; settled in St. Clair Co., 1812. Bridges, Mrs. Hiram, born in Tennessee; settled in Gallatin Co., 1814. Bradshaw, Mrs. Jonas, born in South Carolina; settled in Wayne Co., 1818.

Brock, Mrs. Tarlton F., born in Georgia; settled in St. Clair Co., 1817. Brown, Mrs. Joseph, born in South Carolina; settled in Wayne Co., 1818. Belt, Mrs. H. N., born in Virginia; settled in St. Clair Co., 1817. Cope, Joseph, born in North Carolina; settled in Union Co., 1819.

Chance, Ezehiel, born in North Carolina ; settled in Madison Co., 1828. Collins, Mrs. Job, born in New York ; settled in Greene Co., 1820. Cartwright, Mrs. John, born in Ohio ; settled in Pike County, 1826. Calhoun, Mrs. J. W., born in New York; settled in Greene Co., 1831. Corey, Mrs. Joel, born in New Jersey; settled in Greene Co., 1834. Chance, Mrs. Ezekiel, born in Tennessee ; settled in Madison Co., 1816. Cooper, Mrs. J. E., born in New Hampshire ; settled in Greene Co., 1831. Campbell, William, born in North Carolina ; settled in Greene Co., 1830. Carrico, John C., born in Missouri; settled in Greene Co., 1830.

Cartwright, John, born in Pennsylvania ; settled in Madison Co., 1812. Cummings, Mrs. Thomas, born in New Jersey; settled in Greene County, 1820.

Carroll, Mrs. Thomas, born in New York; settled in Madison Co., 1820. Davis, Mrs. Samuel, born in North Carolina ; settled in Greene Co., 1826. D'Arcy, Mrs. E. A., born in New Jersey; settled in Greene Co., 1834. Davis, Samuel, born in North Carolina; settled in Greene Co., 1826. Dodson, Aaron, born in Missouri ; settled in Greene Co., 1824.

Gunterman, Mrs. John, born in Virginia; settled in Madison Co., 1817. Grimes, Mrs. Jarrett T., born in Missouri; settled in Greene Co., 1826. Hull, John M., born in Illinois; settled in Monroe Co., 1823.

Henderson, Mrs. Richmond, born in Vermont; settled in Greene Co., 1831. Henson, Mrs. James, born in Virginia; settled in Greene Co., 1823. James, Mrs. Joseph, bom in Ireland; settled in Greene Co., 1831. Johnisee, N. P., born in North Carolina; settled in Greene Co., 1827. Jackson, Mrs. Geo. H., born in Missouri ; settled in Greene Co., 1820. Kellar, Mrs. William, born in North Carolina; settled in Greene Co., 1825. Lurton, Mrs. N. R., born in Tennessee ; settled in Greene Co., 1830. Lofton, Mrs. Katherine, born in Ohio ; settled in Greene Co., 1818. Lurton, Mrs. Jacob, born in Illinois; settled in Madison Co., 1810.

Marshall, Thomas, born in Delaware ; settled in Madison Co., 1830. McKinney, Mrs. James, Sr., born in Tennessee; settled in St. Clair Co., 1811.

McDow, Mrs. William, born in Virginia; settled in Greene Co., 1828. Myers, Mrs. Emeline, born in Kentucky; settled in Greene Co., 1817. McGill, Mrs. T. L., born in Massachusetts ; settled in Greene Co., 1817. Neely, Joshua, born in North Carolina; settled in Greene Co., 1830.

Reddish, John H., born in Kentucky, settled in Greene Co., 1828. Reddish, Stephen, born in Kentucky; settled in Greene Co., 1828. Rowden, James S., born Illinois; settled in Madison Co., 1818.

Randle, Mrs. J. G., born in Illinois; settled in Madison Co., 1809. Rowden, Mrs. James S., born in Illinois; settled in Madison Co., 1818. Reddish, Mrs. Zaddock, born in Illinois ; settled in Madison Co., 1818. Richard, Guy C., born in New York; settled in Morgan Co., 1823.

The following, also taken from Captain Cooper's list, comprises per¬ sons residents of Jersey County, who in 1870 had resided thirty-five years in the state.

Landon, Norman E., born in Vermont ; settled in Greene Co., 1834. Landon, William D., born in Vermont; settled in Greene Co., 1834. McQuire, James, born in Pennsylvania; settled in Greene Co., 1832. McCann, George, born in Illinois ; settled in St. Clair Co., 1827.

Stillwell, Jeremiah, born in North Carolina ; settled in Greene Co., 1834. Thompson, George, born in North Carolina ; settled in Greene Co., 1831. Wedding, Benjamin, born in Ohio; settled in Greene Co., 1834.

At the various meetings held by the Old Settlers' Society, delightful reminiscences were exchanged by the members, and from some of them are culled the following brief statements regarding some of the manners and customs of those early days now so far in the past. These reminis¬ cences are worthy of preservation for they give a picture of times now historical and permit the descendants of the pioneers to contrast those days with the present, and to realize the debt this generation owes to the one now gone.

The early settlers of Jersey County, in common with the pioneers of the western country, were a free-hearted, generous and hospitable people. Each man was willing to render every assistance possible to his neighbor without hope or expectation of pecuniary reward. It was not an unusual circumstance to go fifteen miles to help raise the log house of a newcomer. Friendship wras something more than a name, and manifested itself by kindly acts which bound whole settlements to¬ gether in close and neighborly relations.

Pioneer Appliances

The teams were mostly oxen. The modern wagon was a thing almost unknown in the early pioneer days. Ox carts were used instead. Very little wheat was raised, and the small quantity which was produced was cut with the sickle or the cradle, tramped out on the ground with horses, in a yard prepared for that purpose, and winnowed by means of a sheet, held by a man at each end, while another poured out the wheat from a vessel held at some distance overhead in order to give it a suf¬ ficient fall. There were few, if any, fan-mills in the county at that time. The plows used were called the barshare, with a wooden moldboard, and sometimes a single shovel plow was used. There were but poor implements as compared with the plows and cultivators of the present day. With the present farming tools one man can cultivate three times the quantity of land that it was possible to cultivate then, with the crude agricultural implements, and this one man can do it better too.

Home Industries

The people in those days were all on an equality, and were proverb¬ ially honest. They manufactured cloth from cotton, flax and wrool, and the clothing for men, women and children was made up by hand. The women attended to the making of the cloth and the clothing, and the men to the farming, the tanning of leather, and the making of shoes. They had hogs and cattle for home use, but there was no cash market for the overplus of product. The country abounded in wild game, such as deer, turkeys, prairie chicken, quail and rabbits, which were suitable for food; and panthers, catamounts, wild cats, the fox, coon, opossum, groundhog, and numerous wolves. The otter, beaver and muskrat were also found. Swarms of wild bees made honey plentiful.

Primitive Schoolhouses

The early settlers of Jersey County were mostly from southern states, and the majority of them favored education. The schools were held in log houses. On one side of the building a log was usually left out, and this space was pasted over with greased paper, thus making the only window of which the schoolhouse could boast. Inside the building, under this window, a large puncheon board was placed entirely across the room, and this served as a writing desk for the entire school. The floor was composed, even in the most pretentious of these schoolliouses, of hewed puncheon boards, and the only door was made of long clap¬ boards got out for that purpose.

The room was heated by means of a large, wooden fireplace at one end of the room. The teacher frequently had a hard time of it to judge from the accounts handed down from early times. It was the usual custom for the ''scholars" to turn the teacher out at Christmas, and thus compel him to give a vacation through the holidays. The schools were, of course, subscription, or pay, schools ; free schools were the out¬ growth of a later period. Dil worth's speller was the most common book used; though some had Webster's; and the New Testament was used as a reading book. The teachers themselves commonly made no very great pretentions to having any thorough education. A great many knew nothing of the correct sounds of the vowels, and in going through the reading lesson each word was given a long, short, sharp or flat sound, just as it happened, mixing things up not a little, and thus the teachers' instructions proved of no great value in the way of giving the pupils an idea of correct pronunciation.

Lack Of Mills

The need most seriously felt in the community was for mills. Up to 1829, the people in the southern part of the county were accustomed to go to Woodriver, in Madison County, where there was a mill, the motive power of which was an incline wheel trod by oxen. At this mill there was no means of bolting, and the flour was very coarse and dark. The old settlers say that the meal was so coarse that it could be heard to rattle in the sack, but even flour such as this could not always be ob¬ tained, and the settlers would do without bread for weeks, except what was made from flour or meal grated on a grater, made of an old piece of tin bucket or a pan, with holes punched in it, fastened on a board. There was also what is known as a stump mortar, which, on a pinch, could he used to crack corn, but only corn. This was formed by balanc¬ ing a heavy log or beam on a stump, and the up and down motions of this log caused it to fall like a crude pestle on the corn, placed in a hole scooped in another underneath stump.

Pioneer Amusements

The people in those days seemed to enjoy life. House raisings, quiltings and corn pickings were of frequent occurrence. These gath¬ erings were invariably succeeded in the evenings by what were called "frolics," in which the young people would heartily engage. The dances consisted of a "French four," an eight-handed reel or jig. They knew nothing of waltzing, the cotillion, quadrille or lancers, or the modern innovations. What is now known as a saloon or coffee house was then called a "doggery." Lamps were unheard of. A teacup partly filled with cornmeal dough, in which was stuck a stick, around which a rag was wrapped, was filled with coon or opossum oil, or hog lard, and this lighted gave a tolerably good light, but would undoubtedly be considered very unsatisfactory in these days of gas and electric lights. In the fall season, a scooped out turnip was used instead of the teacup, as being more economical, many families possessing so few teacups that one could scarcely be spared from the table.

Manners And Equipment

During the early years of the settlement of Jersey County, it had no buggies. An ox cart carried the family to meeting, or else the settlers walked or rode on horseback, if there were any horses. The horse collars were made of corn husks or bark ; rawhide tugs or chains were used for traces, and were fastened by hooks to large wooden hames. The har¬ rows and rakes were made with wooden teeth. The manners of the people were plain and simple, but kind and courteous. A majority had but a limited education. There were but few old bachelors and old maids in the community. When a girl was about to marry, she did not take into consideration how well off was her expected husband, nor his ability to support a wife, but her question was whether he was honest and industrious, and she expected to work and help support herself. Hired girls and female servants were not known. Every woman did her own work, or in the case of sickness, she was assisted for the time being by her kind-hearted neighbors. There were no lawyers in the county until about 1840, and no doctors until about 1830.

Unusual Poem

In conjunction with this chapter on the Jersey County Old Settlers' Society, and the manners and customs which prevailed during the period when they were bringing this locality into the ranks of civilization, it is appropriate to give in full a poem read by the author, Hon. Ed. Miner, at the anniversary meeting at the courthouse in Jerseyville, in 1895, which is so unique as to command universal attention and bring forth praise from all who either read it or hear it read.

On one end of the ridge pole, a hen and her brood Roosted safe from the varmints 'round hunting for food, While a gobbler, whose mate on Christmas eve died,

"From the rafters o'head there hung in festoons Long skins of dried apples and dried skins of raccoons ; While over the fireplace, from pegs in the logs,

In one corner a barrel, with cover weighted with chunks, To keep the meat under brine and secure from skunks, Held in pickle the pork for next summer's use,

And suspended near by, to be ready in case A big buck glided by, to get out and give chase - Embraced about all the household effects Save a few ancient dishes little better than wrecks.

And that's the cradle of boards, shy of satin or silk, Where your speaker got started, dealing wholly in milk; At which avocation he throve well for a time,

Until there came to the cabin, one dark night in June, Another toothless young scamp with lungs all atune, Who got red in the face, yelled and kicked with such vim, That he turned the milk business straight over to him.

Your speaker began, and would now have you know That milk rations cut off, his chances to win Were, to put it quite mildly, most deucedly thin,

Drove the hogs from their beds and there warmed his bare feet ; Brought the cows from the pasture and on errands ran, Until but one thing was lacking to make him a man.

Sallied out in the mornings when his father with team Went out to break prairie, and bore down on the beam To keep the plow in the ground, and thus, hour by hour, Rode the old mould board that never did scour.

And, with tramping done, then to gather the wheat Helped to rake off the straw and toss chaff from a sheet. Another threshing device in vogue at that day,

Then the neighbors arrive, old butcher-knives ground; New gambrels are cut because the old ones not found, Then a bustle, a hustle, and cry 'water hot,'

And the slaughter is on, and no rest is found Till with heels in the air and noses to the ground, Hanging suspended in rows, looking comely and neat,

When we scan o'er the list, tho' we've not named them all, Our feelings are stirred, as we sadty recall That two-thirds of the number, if not many more,

For they're not dead, but sleeping, then why do we weep. Among those whom your speaker has many times met Are those whose names follow - these he cannot forget :

" ( In conclusion to those of my early associates who began life on a Jersey farm about the same time as your speaker, let me leave with you the following queries:)

How you showed them to your uncles and your cousins and your aunts, How your mother, Heaven bless her, when she 's got the things complete Wondered how'd e'er distinguish 'twixt the front part and the seat? How you sallied forth in limbs encased in this new rig unique,

How you soon returned, your face awry, your spirits crushed and torn, Likewise your pants, and the eggs as well you 'd in your pocket borne ?

That went surging through the rafters when your mother cut your hair ? When she'd seize you by the foretop, clamp your head between her knees, And threaten dire disaster did you even dare to sneeze?

Hog killing, harvest and threshing, and the gay husking bee in the barn ; When the golden fruit hung in the orchard, or the turkey stole off for her 'set,'

Do you frequently sit in the gloaming and sigh for a sight of old Tige, That faithful old dog, and so aged that he had but few hairs in his hide ? In short, how well would it please you - how much would it act as a charm,