Jersey County, Illinois - Chapter 38: Otter Creek Township, 1919

Chapter 38: Otter Creek Township

Otter Creek Township is bounded on the north by English Township ; on the east by Mississippi Township ; on the south by Quarry and Elsah townships; and on the west by Rosedale Township. It is a square town¬ ship, and is numbered township 7, range 12. It is located in the basin formed by Otter Creek, which forks in section 8. This fork, which is called North Fork, bears to the northeast, from whence it runs eastward, forming two branches, one of which is called Sandy Branch and runs to Hickory Grove, now Jerseyville; and the other which runs to the north to Gillham's Mound in Mississippi Township. The South Fork, which runs through Otter Creek Township in a southeasterly direction, enters Elsah and Quarry townships. Between these forks of Otter Creek, lie what are known as Lofton's Prairie and Otter Creek Prairie. The basin formed by these streams is ten to twelve miles from its extreme limits, north, south, east and west, running from a southeasterly direction from Gillham's Mound to within one and one-half miles of the Mississippi River, wdiere George Noble and Isaac Terry settled on its headwaters ; and running thence in a northwesterly direction to Jerseyville, along the divide between the waters running into the Macoupin and those flowing into Otter Creek. Within this basin are several other mounds, notably the McDow Mound at Otterville ; one further east known as McGill 's Mound ; one further south known at Utt 's Mound ; and two further west, known as Gillham's Mound and McClusky's Mound, the latter being near Dow.

Earliest Settlements

On the high land at Jersey ville, first known as Hickory Grove, the soil was extremely fertile; as was that of Lofton's Prairie, and settle¬ ments were made here in 1818 and 1819. The English Settlements were made in 1818 and 1819. When Dr. Silas Hamilton made his first entry of land in Otter Creek Settlement, in April, 1830, there were but 320 acres of land entered in this township. Dr. Hamilton entered and pur¬ chased a seetion of land which was the east half of section 11, and the west half of section 12, in this township. He located his relatives on land immediately adjoining his section. On the east was his sister, Mrs. Polly (Hamilton) Hurd, her husband, Ezra Hurd, and their family; on the west was his sister, Mrs. Elizabeth (Hamilton) Douglas, her husband Gilbert Douglas and their family, and Aaron Hamilton, Dr. Hamilton's brother. On the south were Daniel H. Hamilton and Thomas M. Hamil¬ ton, sons of his brother, Nathaniel Hamilton, and another brother of Dr. Hamilton, William Hamilton. Adjoining these settlements of his relatives were located: William Dougherty, Henry Noble and James Dougherty. Henry Noble's wife was a sister of William and James Dougherty. These three were old friends and neighbors of Dr. Hamilton in Mississippi, and it was through his influence that they came to Otter Creek Township. The settlers adjoining the Doughertys and Nobles were: Jasper Terry and Jasper N. Terry, his son, Tarlton F. Brock, John AY. Slaten, John J. Lamb, a son-in-law of Henry Noble, and George, Caleb and Sidney Noble, who were sons of Henry Noble, all of whom entered land in this neighborhood. In addition to them, Joab AVhite, Ormond Beeman, Hiram AVhite, Ira White, Samuel Dabbs, father of W. AY. Dabbs, and Jesse Dabbs, father of Joshua Dabbs, settled on the west of the creek. George D. Sidway, a son-in-law of Gilbert Douglas, settled on the west of Dr. Hamilton, and opened a tannery on the latter's land.

At the time he located there in 1830, Dr. Silas Hamilton was the only physician in Jersey County. He had come here with the intention of retiring from active practice, with the exception of ministering to his immediate family and friends who had come with him, but it was impos¬ sible for him to carry out his intention in this respect because of his nature, he was impelled to do his utmost to relieve the suffering about him, and the result was that he was called upon as a physician to attend all persons needing his services in English, Otter Creek, Mississippi, Elsah and Quarry townships. In the summer of 1834 there was a great amount of sickness throughout this territory, and his labors were exces¬ sive. Hon. Stephen Y. White, in his address at Piasa, July 19, 1900, says :

''I remember Dr. Silas Hamilton coming to our fever-stricken home in the summer of 1834, and a few weeks or months afterwards I remem¬ ber being told that the good doctor who had come to save our lives yielded up his own."

The labors of Dr. Hamilton were so excessive that year that his health was broken, and, being conscious that his life was nearing its close, during his last sickness, on October 28, 1834, he made his last will and testament, in which he uses the following language :

"Believing in the very great importance of primary schools, and de¬ siring that my friends and relatives in this neighborhood should receive the benefit of them, I give and bequeath $4,000.00 for the establishment of a primary school, viz., $2,000.00 to be appropriated to the erection of a building suitable for the school and a place of public worship, and $2,000.00 to constitute a fund for the support of a teacher, said house to be erected not to exceed one mile south of this my residence ; nor one mile west ; nor one mile north, nor a quarter of a mile east, but at or near the point called the Four Corners, and I desire my executors to oversee the erection of such a building.

"I desire that all the remainder of my estate and property be jointly and properly settled, according to the law, and I hereby constitute and appoint Thomas M. Hamilton and Gilbert Douglas, executors of this my last will and testament."

This will was duly probated on December 4, 1834, in the county court of Greene County, by order of Jehu Brown, judge of probate. In 1835 the executors erected the building provided for in Dr. Hamil¬ ton's will, and opened a school in the fall of that year. The fund of $2,000.00 was loaned, the rate of interest at that time being twelve per cent per annum, which furnished $240.00 per year income from the fund. It may seem that this was a heavy interest rate, but it should be remembered that at that time land could be entered at $1.25 per acre, so that an eighty acre tract would only cost $100.00, and interest on that sum at twelve per cent would not be excessive. Money was scarce, and wages were low, and therefore the executors were able to secure the best talent in the country for the operation of the school. The first principal of the school was Prof. James Osgood, who taught several years, and gave this school a very advanced standing as an educational institution. He was followed by Professor Burnap, and he by Prof. Delavan D. Wil- cox. Prof. Willard F. Guernsey, Dr. J. W. Buffington, Miles Chandler and Jacob Terry, a son of Isaac Terry, were next in order, and all were highly educated men and able preceptors. Linus Humiston followed Jacob Terry, and he was a young man just out of school himself, and a very enthusiastic preceptor. He taught for ten years in this school, and he, and those who had preceded him established this community's repu¬ tation as the leading educational and moral center of the county. At the time that the stone schoolhouse was erected, there was no place exclu¬ sively dedicated to public worship within the limits of Jersey County; and the second story of this school building was dedicated to the use of all religious denominations who chose to occupy it for religious purposes. It was so used by all the religious denominations that were then in the county, the Methodists and Baptists then being the strongest denomina¬ tions in the community.

The members of these denominations were about equally divided, the Hamiltons, Terrys, Whites and Dabbs being Baptists; and the Doug¬ lases, Sidways, Doughertys, Nobles and later the Sissons, Belts, Slatens and Brocks were Methodists. They were all equally welcomed to this house dedicated to these services, without charge. The first preachers of of the Baptists were: James and Moses Lemmon, John M. Peek, Elijah Dodson, John Brown, Elihu Palmer, Justus Buckley, Benjamin B. Ham¬ ilton and others.

Gilbert Douglas, one of the executors, died June 30, 1837, and from that time until 1840, Thomas M. Hamilton, the surviving executor of Dr. Silas Hamilton's will, had the control and management of the school. By the act of incorporation of the Hamilton School, under the act named, J. M. Hurd, Henry Noble, Tarlton F. Brock, George D. Sidway and Dr. James C. Perry were named as the first trustees, and they had the charge and direction of the school from that time. Thomas M. Hamilton died December 9, 1844.

Dr. James C. Perry, one of the trustees named, was a highly edu¬ cated, efficient gentleman, who had been educated at the College of Edin¬ burgh, and spent seven years in the British navy in the East India service, before coming to America. He came to Otter Creek Township to take the place of Dr. Silas Hamilton, deceased, in 1835, and remained there until 1842, when he removed to Jerseyville, and continued in prac¬ tice until 1854, when he went on a farm in Fidelity Township, where he died later on.

stead of Dr. Silas Hamilton, and occupied it from that time until his death in 1846. He also purchased a large amount of land throughout Jersey County, and at his death left his son, Aaron, as his legatee, an estate valued at more than $100,000.00.

For more than forty years this free school established by Dr. Hamilton at Otterville had been not only the leading school of the county, but had graduated most of the teachers and prominent persons who occupied later high positions in the community. Among those who were graduates of this school were : Hon. Stephen Y. White of Brooklyn, N. Y. ; his sister, Mrs. Jane (AVhite) Allen, of St. Louis, Mo. ; Mrs. Eliza (Chandler) White and her sister, Mrs. Mary A. (Chandler) Hamilton; Mrs. Amy (Chandler) Shaw; Mrs. Virginia (Chandler) Whitcomb; Miles Chandler; Judge Reuben Noble, and his wife, Mrs. Harriet (Doug¬ las) Noble; Caleb and William Noble; Jacob, William P. and John W. Terry; Leveret B. and Gilbert D. Sidway; John G., Dr. Charles and Henry E. Dougherty; Balfour Cowen; John W. Utt; Benjamin Wed¬ ding; Edwin Van Horne; Judge Leander Stilwell; Dr. John G. Curtis; Robert T. Brock; Milton J. Hull; Jesse K. Cadwallader; Thomas A. Case; Dr. Joseph O. Hamilton; Rev. Benjamin B. Hamilton, and his son, Surgeon-General Dr. John B. Hamilton; Mrs. Harriet (Ripson) Buckles; and George, William and John Dougherty, Jr. These were but a few of the graduates of this early school, and its students and graduates are scattered throughout the length and breadth of the United States, and many of them went into foreign lands.

Harriet (Ripson) Buckles is still living at the age of ninety-three years, and informs the writer that she holds a certificate given her by Professor Guernsey of the Hamilton Primary school, under which she taught her first schools in the early forties, and which she cherishes as one of her dearest possessions, as a reminder of her early schooldays at the old stone schoolhouse. She is a daughter of Mrs. Caroline Ripson, who taught the first school in this township in 1832, in the log cabin of her father and mother, Ezra and Polly Hurd, who had died there the year previously. She is a niece of Dr. Silas Hamilton.

It will be noticed that under the will of Dr. Silas Hamilton, there are no prescribed limits for the students to be educated in this institution, and they came from all parts of the country to attend this advanced school. Verily it was a beacon light of education in this western pioneer country, and the old stone schoolhouse was known and recognized not only in Illinois, but in Indiana and Ohio. Many people removed to and settled in Otter Creek Township and its vicinity, from eastern states, coming by the Overland Route, and they had no difficulty in finding it, as the people living on it were well acquainted with their destination, the stone schoolhouse, and could give to these emigrants any information necessary to keep them on their way.

The teachers who later conducted schools throughout the county, were mostly educated at this institution, and until the establishment and build¬ ing of the graded school at Jersey ville, and the beginning of the admin¬ istration of Prof. Joshua Pike, this school was the most noted and ad¬ vanced one in Jersey County. It wras erected two years before the Ylonticello Seminary wras established by Dr. Benjamin Godfrey, which has had such a wonderful career as a seminary for young ladies. By an act approved February 1, 1840, by the General Assembly of Illinois, the Hamilton Primary School was incorporated, with the trustees herein¬ before named, and at one time the boundaries of the Hamilton Primary School district were fixed at two miles north, west, south and east from the center of section 14, town 7, range 12, where the schoolhouse wTas located, making a district of four miles square. Section 7 of that act provides :

' ' Section 7 : - The said school shall be open for all classes of people and denominations of Christians, and the profession of any particular religious faith shall not be necessary by those who became students. All persons, however, may be suspended or expelled from said school by the trustees thereof, whose habits are idle or vicious."

"Section 8: - Real estate owmed by said corporation at one time shall not exceed 300 acres, nor shall this act be construed so as to pre¬ vent such school from receiving its just proportion of the towmship and state fund, as other schools do, and said trustees shall perform the same duties in regard to said school for the purpose of obtaining their proportion of said school fund as is, or may be required of trustees of schools in other townships."

The trustees of the new corporation took charge of the new school in the summer of 1840, and it wras conducted by them and their suc¬ cessors in the old stone schoolhouse until 1875, when the old house wras removed and the present stone building was erected on the site thereof, which has been occupied for school purposes since that time. There was some difference of opinion among the residents of this district in regard to the removal of the old stone schoolhouse, and the location of the newr one, which led to litigation with reference thereto, and the Supreme Court, in the course of that litigation, held that the Hamilton Primary School wms a private corporation, and could not levy and collect taxes upon the property in the district for its support. This led to the establishment of a common school district in the four mile square territory, formerly occupied by the Hamilton Primary School, and its purchase by the common school district of the new stone schoolhouse in the said district as the site and school for the new common school district established there, and since that time the directors of the common school district have had the charge and management of all schools within said district. The fund of $2,000.00 left by Dr. Silas Hamilton, is still held by the trustees of the Hamilton Primary School, and the income from that fund is annually appropriated for its benefit, and for the employ¬ ment of teachers, and for the maintenance of the school in that district, and will so continue as long as schools are maintained therein. The present efficient principal of this school is Prof. Edwin S. Terry, who is a nephew of Jacob and William P. Terry, mentioned as students of the Hamilton Primary School, and it may be noted that both Jacob Terry and William P. Terry, his brother, had been former teachers in this school. They were sons of Isaac Terry, who settled on section 6 of Elsah Township, in 1834.

Roster Hamilton Primary School

The following is the roster for the Hamilton Primary School for the session of 1852-53, which was taught by Linus Humiston. Mr. Humiston died December 2, 1911, aged eighty-six years. The pupils on this roster are : lion. Steven V. White, in his address at the Chautauqua in July, 1900, on Reminiscences of Jersey County from 1835 to 1850, referring to the Hamilton Primary School and its founder, says:

"In commenting on important events shaping the destiny of Jersey County, and its early settlers, I shall refer first to educational events, one of which occurred in this county, and the other occurred in the adjoining county of Aladison, not half a dozen miles east of our line, the influence of which overlapped our county line, and shed a most benign influence upon it. I refer to the establishment of the Hamilton

Primary School in Jersey County, and the Monticello Seminary at Godfrey, Ill. The Hamilton Primary School was unique in the history of new countries at that time. Dr. Silas Hamilton, a Vermonter by birth, at the mention of whose name my head shall always be bared and my eyes turn in profound reverence for the love and wisdom of that good man, Dr. Silas Hamilton, who had come to this county from the state of Mississippi, where he had amassed a fortune, demon¬ strating his love in this manner for this western country in that new period of its existence. He died in November, 1834. He left a will in which was this provision :

" 'Believing in the very great importance of primary schools, and desiring that my friends and relations in this neighborhood should re¬ ceive the benefit of them, I give and bequeath $4,000.00 for the estab¬ lishment of a primary school, namely : $2,000.00 shall be appropriated for the erection of a building suitable for a school and for a place of public worship, and $2,000.00 to constitute a fund for the support of the teachers. '

"That house was built of limestone, quarried in the sight of my father's cabin, and there were but few charges of powder exploded, I think, to which I did not listen, and it was the excitement of my life at that period, and in the year 1835, I was four years old. The school was established at what is now Otterville. It provided for the free tuition for the inhabitants of sixteen square miles, embracing all the children of residents coming within the square bounded by the lines running two miles north, two miles south, two miles east and two miles west of the school. It was my fortune to live within that charmed square. I, with very many others, who turned the school to the highest advan¬ tage, got the first footing by which to climb for an education. The $2,000.00 endowment fund was invested at twelve percent per annum, or $240.00 per year, and with that $240.00 per year the best talent in pedagogy at that time not only could be obtained, but was obtained, and while men were doubtless far short of the standards of the teachers of the present day, Osgood, Burnap, Guernsey and Wilcox, and later B. B. Hamilton, sent their impress down the ages, in moulding the minds of the children that were placed in their charge, and sent them down with every prediction of a better life. I should mention the name of Linus Humiston, were he dead, as the others are, but, as he is at present, looking at me, I spare his blushes.

He then proceeded with his reference to Monticello Seminary. In the above extracts, we have the mature and well considered opinion of Hon. S. V. (Deacon) White, who, for a generation, had been one of the leading characters of Wall Street, a staunch supporter of Henry Ward Beecher, Plymouth Church, of Brooklyn, who had been a mem¬ ber of Congress from New York, several times a multi-millionaire, whose fame and reputation as a financier was recognized throughout the nation ; whose wife, Eliza Chandler was his schoolmate in the old stone schoolhouse. At the age of three score years and ten, he had journeyed from his home in Brooklyn, N. Y., to the Piasa Chautauqua Assembly on the day set apart in its regular program as Jersey County Day, to meet his old acquaintances, and boyhood friends and associates, and to deliver this address. He later had this address printed, and copies of it are on file in the State Historical Library, the Jersey County Historical Library and the Jersey ville City Library, and no additional comment is necessary to show his estimate of the importance and value of the found¬ ing of the Hamilton Primary School.

Among his first recollections as a child was the blasting of the stone for the construction of the old stone schoolhouse. His primary education was received there ; he had gone into the world and had been an important actor in the affairs of the nation, and at the mature age of seventy years, he returned to the scene of his boyhood, and the asso¬ ciations of his youth to give expression to the statement that the found¬ ing of this school, in his estimation, wras of more importance in his own life than any other incident of environment that had ever befallen him.

The George Washington Educational Fund

Arising from an incident of the settlement of Otter Creek Township by Dr. Hamilton, which shows another phase of his character, and develops more fujlv his purpose in the establishment of this settle¬ ment, was the founding of the George Washington Educational Fund.

In 1829, when Dr. Hamilton took his twenty-eight slaves from his Mississippi plantation to Cincinnati, Ohio, and manumitted them, three of those former slaves of his, did not leave him, and he brought them with him to the Otter Creek Settlement, namely: Henry Walker, usually known as "Uncle" Harry, and his wife, Venus, whom he brought for the purpose of taking care of his household and doing the neces- sary work about his plantation; and George Washington, a colored boy whom he had purchased in Virginia, when an infant, and taken to his plantation in Mississippi. It was his intention to educate George and send him as a missionary to his own people in Liberia, but this plan was put off by the early death of Dr. Hamilton, and George was left among Dr. Hamilton's relatives and old neighbors, to make his own way in the world.

He lived in this neighborhood all his life. During his boyhood, he attended the Hamilton Primary School established by Dr. Hamilton. When he came to mature years, he adopted the calling of a farmer. He was a careful, frugal, very religious and very conscientious man. For the character of Dr. Silas Hamilton, his former master, he had a most profound respect and admiration, and with regard to the old stone schoolhouse, founded by him, he felt a similar interest. He had no rela¬ tives, never having married. He was recognized in this community as the equal of any and all other men therein, but he never sought to press his claims. He was modest in all his actions and demeanor, and wherever there was sickness or distress, George was to be found assisting in any way that he could, even in wintertime hauling wood. In cases of death, he acted as sexton, digging the grave, and performing the last obsequies, without charge, fee or reward. He was the janitor of the Baptist Church, of which he was a devout member, which worshipped in the stone schoolhouse. Like so many of his race, he was an excellent singer, and fre¬ quently led the singing in the church services, prayer meetings and the Sunday school. He was a teacher in the latter, and the writer, who was a member of his Sunday school class, is moved to say that he was one of the best Sunday school teachers under whose administrations he ever sat. George was a vice president of the Debating Society held in the old stone schoolhouse, and, on one occasion, when parties from Jerseyville were expected to address the society, the president being absent, George, as vice president, was called upon to preside, which was no uncommon occurrence in the society, but the parties from Jerseyville were very much surprised and felt humiliated at the necessity of address¬ ing a club presided over by a colored man, and in the next week's issue of one of the Jerseyville papers, there was a column article reg¬ istering their protest and disgust at the proceeding. However, this had no influence upon the Otter Creek community, the home of George, or upon his character. He pursued the even tenor of his life as a farmer until his death in 1864, at which time he had accumulated con¬ siderable property. Dr. J. 0. Hamilton attended him during his long final illness, as lie had always done when he was sick, the two having attended the old stone schoolhouse as boys together. Dr. Hamilton after having been graduated as a physician, was practicing his profession at that time at Jerseyville. The day before his death, George expressed his wishes as to what, should be done with his property to Dr. Hamilton and John A. Campbell. He died on the next day, and, after his death, this verbal or non-cupative will of George was reduced to writing by Dr. J. 0. Hamilton and John A. Campbell, witnessed by Henry Johnson and William Keith, and filed in the probate court of Jersey County, in April 21, 1864. John G. Dougherty was administrator to collect, and Dr. J. 0. Hamilton was appointed the regular administrator of George's estate. The probate of this non-cupative will did not affect the real estate owned by the deceased. At the session of the legislature in 1865, Dr. J. 0. Hamilton as administrator of George's estate, secured the passage of the act of the General Assembly of the legislature, authorizing him to tile a petition in the circuit court of Jersey County, alleging, among other things, that George Washington, a colored man without any heirs, had died, leaving this non-cupative will, which had been established in court, and had been proven in court, and provided therein that after the payment of his debts, and the expending of $1,500.00 for the erec¬ tion of a. monument to Dr. Silas Hamilton, his former master, at or near the old stone schoolhouse, that the residue of his estate should be used in the education of colored persons, or Americans of African descent, which were the terms of his will ; that upon proof of these facts made in the circuit court, the court should be authorized to enter a decree for the sale of the real estate owned by the said George Washington, the proceeds of which, after paying the necessary expenses, together with the personal funds, should be used for the purpose mentioned in the non-cupative will; that the funds should be invested in United States government bonds, and held in trust for that purpose.

In November of that year, that land that belonged to George Wash¬ ington was sold, and at the April term, 1866, the report of that sale and the expenses incident thereto, was reported to the court, leaving a balance of $3,371.53, as the net proceeds of the sale of the real estate; and this amount together with the personal estate, was invested in gov¬ ernment bonds by Dr. Hamilton, and kept separately from his individual property. In 1875 at the October term, John Cisco, et al, through Hon. Theodore S. Chapman as solicitor, filed a bill in chancery in the circuit court of Jersey County, calling upon Dr. Hamilton for a report of the funds in his hands as trustee of the estate of George Washington, and, pending that suit, before its determination, Dr. J. 0. Hamilton had a stroke of paralysis which unfitted him to attend to his business or any other, and, at his own request, he was relieved as trustee, and Linus Humiston, an old friend and teacher of George Washington, was appointed his successor. On October 25, 1875, Dr. J. 0. Hamilton made a report, which was approved by the court, and made settlement with Linus Humiston, the new trustee, as his successor. From that time Dr. Hamilton had no connection whatever with the George Wash¬ ington estate. Dr. Hamilton died in 1883, without having recovered from his paralytic disability. At the time of settlement with the new trustee, the balance of the net amount of the estate was $9,491.39. There being no provision in the non-cupative will as to how and where the funds should he used for the purposes mentioned in the will, at the April term, 1880, Linus Humiston, as trustee, made a report that the fund then amounted to $11,332.22, after the payment of all expenses to that time, and the erection of the monument provided for in the will to the mem¬ ory of Dr. Silas Hamilton, and asked the court to give him authority to use $2,500.00 of the fund for the erection of a schoolbuilding in the city of Jerseyville, the employment and the inauguration of a school for the education of colored children, the reason being given that there were no colored people in the Otter Creek community, and that there were a number of colored families in Jerseyville. A decree was entered giving this authority, but later, before the adjournment of the term, a cross petition was filed by Theodore S. Chapman, as solicitor for P. S. Breeden, et ah, asking the court to set aside the decree for the building of a schoolhouse at. Jerseyville, and that the income of the George Wash¬ ington fund should be used for the education of colored persons in insti¬ tutions already established. At the September term of the circuit court. Judge Burr presiding, the original petition of Linus Humiston, as trustee, and the decree at the April term, were set aside and a decree entered as prayed for by the intervening petitioner, and a new decree entered with the intervening petition, providing for five trustees, con¬ sisting of the county superintendent of schools, the principal of the Jerseyville high school, George E. Warren, Leonard M. Cutting and Marcus E. Bagley, as trustees, they to appoint a treasurer who should be clerk of the board of trustees, and providing that when the income of the fund should amount to the sum of $1,075.00, that an examination should be had and students selected for a collegiate education, after a due examination as to their moral and educational qualifications, and sent to some establishlished collegiate institution. These trustees ap- pointed Theodore S. Chapman as treasurer and clerk of the board, and Linus Humiston settled with and turned the fund over to Theodore S. Chapman as treasurer. Mr. Chapman acted as treasurer until 1890, when he resigned and was elected a member of the board of trustees. Daniel J. Murphy, then county clerk, was elected and acted as treasurer and clerk of the board until 1906, when he resigned, and Judge Charles S. AVhite was elected his successor, and continues as the treasurer of the fund, and clerk of the board. After the election of Mr. Chapman as a member of the board, he was named as president of the board and acted in that capacity to the time of his death, December 14, 1914. In the meanwhile the original trustees had died. L. M. Cutting was succeeded by Judge A. M. Slaten as trustee, and George E. Warren by 0. E. Hamilton, and Marcus E. Bagley by Dr. A. M. Cheney, and Henry L. Chapman, son of Theodore S. Chapman, succeeded his father, and is now president of the board. During the years of operation of this fund, many colored people have been assisted to a collegiate education, and have gone forth into the world as leaders of their own race, as teachers, lawyers and physicians, so that the fund has had a wide and extended influence on the uplifting and betterment of the colored people.

The monument erected to Dr. Silas Hamilton, under the provisions of George Washington's will, is at Otterville, and a cut of it will be found in this work, as will also a cut of the original stone schoolhouse, and the new schoolhouse more recently erected. George Washington was buried in the old cemetery north of the Presbyterian Church in Otter¬ ville, in a grave on the south side of his former master, Dr. Silas Ham¬ ilton, the grave of Gilbert Douglas being on the north side of Dr. Hamilton, and a stone tomb has been thereon erected, enclosing these three graves, its location being about 300 or 400 feet from the site of the old schoolhouse, and a like distance from the monument erected in memory of his former master, from the bequest of $1,500.00, left by George for that purpose.

Tribute To George Washington

In his address at Piasa Chautauqua Assembly, heretofore referred to, Hon. Stephen V. White made this reference to George Washington, to wit :

''I have spoken of Dr. Hamilton as having amassed a fortune in Mississippi. When he came north he liberated his slaves, twenty-eight in number, twenty-seven of them being set free in Ohio. Among others, he liberated a boy named George Washington, 'Black George,' we called him. He used to go to school with us and he sat at the same forms with us. He recited the same lessons with us, and, without being bril¬ liant, he was thorough.

"With humility I confess, that although Dr. Hamilton's gift was available far more for me than it was to 'Black George,' yet 'Black George' left a provision in his will for the erection of a monument to his benefactor, and I never did anything.

It will be noted that Dr. Hamilton's first entry of land in the Otter Creek Settlement was only eleven years after the admission of Illinois as a state into the Union, and now in the Centennial year, 1918, eightynine years after that entry, and the foundation of the Otter Creek Settle¬ ment, his memory is cherished, and the benefits conferred by him on that community are as pronounced as they were half a century ago. The memory of George Washington, one of the slaves manumitted by him, is also perpetuated in the monument erected by the former slave to his former master, and the benefits arising from his establishment of the George Washington Educational Fund for the higher education and elevation of his own race.

Survival Of Original Settlers

There are few representatives of the original settlers in Otter Creek Township now residing there, but among them may be mentioned Charles H. Terry, son of Jasper M. Terry; several of the children of Caleb Noble; George, William and John Dougherty, Jr., sons of John G. Dougherty; Josephine Green, daughter of William McDow; Mrs. Mary (Deming) Flautt, granddaughter of Daniel H. Hamilton; the sons and daughters of W. W. Dabbs; the children and grandchildren of Jesse Dabbs and Fred McDaniel ; the Whites ; Hendersons ; Spangles ; Sissons ; Montgomerys; Bartletts; the sons of Linus Humiston, and Mrs. Alberta Chase, a granddaughter of John W. Slaten, and daughter of Judge A. M. Slaten, who, for many years, resided at Otterville. If there are any other representatives of the original settlers now living in that com¬ munity, they have escaped the memory of the writer, there being no intention on his part to ignore or omit a reference to any of the original settlers of that community, he having himself been born in a log cabin erected by his father on land and entered by him, adjoining the present limits of Otterville on the west. In this connection, it may be said that in a letter received by the writer from Hon. Stephen V. White in 1910. Mr. White remarked that when a boy, returning from the old stone schoolhouse to his home, while passing the log cabin of Nathaniel Ham¬ ilton, where the writer was lying as an infant at that time, in August, 1839, he distinctly remembers hearing the reports of the cannon which was fired at Jerseyville in celebration of the victory in the election, August 5, of that year which separated Jersey from Greene County.

In 1918, the writer had the pleasure, by invitation of Prof. Edwin A. Terry, principal of the Otterville school, of visiting that school, and delivering an address commemorative of the establishment of the Ham¬ ilton Primary School, and of Dr. Silas Hamilton, its founder.

Village Board Business Interests

Merchants- - William II. Lehmkuhl, Mrs. Elizabeth Ford. Black¬ smith - Frederick Kirchner. Justice of the Peace, Thomas A. Case; supervisor, Charles H. Terry. Hamilton Primary School Fund, trustees: $2,000.00, William Dougherty, president; Thomas A. Case, secretary: Charles LI. Terry, treasurer; George W. Noble, A. J. Humiston. Churches - Methodist, Baptist, Cumberland Presbyterian.