Logan County, Illinois - Chapter 9: Land Entries, 1911

Chapter 9: Land Entries

It has already been noted that the first white settlements, in what is now Logan County, were made in the year 1819. The Indian titles to the lands, in this section of Illinois, were extinguished, that same year, by treaties entered into, between the United States Government and the occupying tribes, but the government land office was not established, in Springfield, until 1823. The first sale of public lands occurred in that year. Prior to that date, therefore, the earliest settlers held their claims by the right of "squatter sovereignty." The settler had no paper title, simply the right of possession, which he secured by occupation. This right of possession was called a claim and was regarded as a valid title by the settlers and often sold, in some instances, for large amounts. A better title could only be secured by purchasing the fee of the government, when the land was surveyed and brought into the market. Pre-emption laws were passed at different times, by Congress, giving to claimants who had made certain specified improvements, the exclusive right to purchase the premises, at the minimum price of $1.25 per acre; provided they would prove their pre-emption and pay for the same, before they were offered for sale by the government. The conditions required were possession and the raising of a crop, the amount of the crop not being specified. There was always an understanding, however, among the settlers, that each claimant should be protected in his claim, even if he had no pre-emption, provided he would attend the sale, when advertised, and bid and pay the minimum price. The settlers usually attended the sale in a body, and although any person had a legal right to bid on any claim not pre-empted, it was not considered a very wise thing to bid on a settler's claim and it was seldom done.

The first claim filed for an entry of public land in what is now Logan County was filed by James Latham, Nov. 18, 1824, on 240 acres, in what is now Elkhart township, the same being the north portion of Elkhart Hill. On Nov. 19, 1824, Robert Musick entered land on Sugar Creek and Robert McClure on Salt Creek. On Nov. 20, James Bracken entered land in what is now Corwin township; on Nov. 29, James Turley in the Lake Fork country and on Dec. 4, Henry Lantis on Sugar Creek, near the Musick settlement, and these comprised all the entries made in 1824. By a reference to the chapter on early settlement, it will be noticed that up to the time of "the deep snow," substantially all the settlements in the county were confined to territory that is now included in the townships of Mt. Pulaski, Elkhart, Corwin, Eminence, Atlanta, Broadwell, Chester and East and West Lincoln, and that in what are now these townships, the settlements were largely confined to the timber lands adjoining the creeks. Up to the year 1832, the records show that no patents were issued by the government to any claimant of lands located in what are now Orvil, Oran, Sheridan, Aetna, Laenna or Lake Fork townships and only two patents issued to lands in what is now Prairie Creek township. The first land entries made in the territory, now included in the respective townships of Logan 'County, were as follows: In what is now Elkhart township, James Latham, 1824; West Lincoln, Robert Musick, 1824; Corwin, James Bracken, 1824; Mt. Pulaski, James Turley, 1824; Broadwell, James Latham, 1825; East Lincoln, Levi Johnson, 1827; Eminence, Christopher Orendorff, 1827; Atlanta, John Barr, 1828; Chester, John Vandeventer, 1829; Prairie Creek, J. Williams and Hiram Watson, 1830; Sheridan, Samuel C. Hagans, 1832; Oran, Stephen Jones, 1834; Lake Fork, Hugh Collins, 1835; Laenna, Henry Dement, 1835; Orvil, John Reed, 1835; Aetna, Henry Dement, 1835; Hurlbut, Hiram Rayner, 1835.

The staking out of claims in the timber lands adjacent to the creeks, was one of the peculiarities of early settlement. The prairie lands were avoided by the first settlers and not until about fifteen years after the date of the first settlement, did the later comers venture to stake out claims in the open, away from the timber. George W. Edgar used to recall that, even as late as 1840, he heard a conversation, which occurred in Postville between Judge Stephen T. Logan and B. S. Edwards, of Springfield, both of whom were attending the first Logan County court, in which Judge Logan, as he looked across the prairies, said: "Edwards, have you any idea that the time will ever come when these prairies will be settled?" Most of the early settlers came from wooded localities, and the timber appealed to them, as the suitable location for homes. It had more the appearance of home, than the lonesome, eventless prairies and in addition, furnished protection in the winter from the chilling storms, which they had not experienced in Virginia, Kentucky and the warmer states, from which many of them came. John C. Powers, in his history of early settlement in Sangamon County, gives what he considers an account of the first attempt to cultivate the prairies of Central Illinois. He states that early in 1818, William

Drennan, his brother, his son-in-law and a George Cox, came from Alton and located on Sugar Creek, south of the present site of Springfield. They cleared the timber from about fifteen acres, fenced it, plowed it as well as they could among the roots and stumps, with a little, short, wooden plow, and planted it in corn and pumpkins. The timber soil was so light that they would almost sink in over their shoes. In fencing the land, they inclosed about three-quarters of an acre of prairie. After they had plowed and planted their crop, in the timber soil, one of the men suggested that they try a little of the prairie ground and see if they could do anything with it. They uncoupled one of their wagons, hitched four horses to the forward wheels and fastened their wooden mouldboard plow to the axle. They soon found this a failure, for the plow would not enter the sod. One of the boys, in a spirit of mischievousness, grabbed a hoe and began to shave off the grass, saying that he could break the prairie with a hoe. All then took a hand with a hoe, and before long, they had the inclosed piece of prairie all denuded of grass. Laughing at the idea, as a ridiculous one, they dug holes in the sod and planted corn and pumpkin seed therein. To their great surprise, in the spring, the prairie land produced twice as much, in proportion to area, as the timber land, and the next spring it broke up the nicest of any land they had ever seen. While settlers continued to arrive in the county, from 1824 on, the greatest influx of homeseekers came in the years 1835 and 1836, and the records show these to have been the banner years of land entries. Large quantities of land were entered these years by Nathan B. Sprague, for the Smithfield Emigration Association, of Providence, R. I., in connection with the Bloomingdale proposition already detailed. Nathaniel A, Ware also entered large tracts of land for another Eastern syndicate. It may also be of interest to note that three afterwards famous judges, Samuel H. Treat, David Davis and Stephen T. Logan, the first a United States District Judge, the second a United States Supreme Judge and the latter a Judge of the Illinois Supreme Court and a law partner of Abraham Lincoln, all entered land in Logan County in the thirties. The land of Treat and Davis was in what is now Atlanta township and Judge Logan's land was in Hurlbut township. It may also be of interest to note the record of a mortgage given to one George Gregory in 1840, by Newton Bateman, later State Superintendent of Public Instruction, father of the Free School Law in Illinois and of international reputation as an educator. This mortgage included "a lot in Postville, three horses, a cow and a calf, seven shoats, a wagon and harness, fifteen acres of standing corn, a stack of wheat, a few square rod of stone coal, two shovels, two pickaxes, a sledgehammer, a wheelbarrow and a rifle,' which was at that time, no doubt, Dr. Bateman's entire estate. One of the most extensive purchasers of government land in the forties and fifties, was John D. Gillett, who, at the time of his death in 1888, was rated the richest man in Logan County. Mr. Gillett was born in Connecticut, in 1819, and was descended from a family of French Huguenots. Both his grandfathers were Revolutionary soldiers. In the fall of 1838, he came to Illinois, by steamboat to St. Louis, by stage to Springfield and by foot to Bald Knob, in this county, where his uncle resided. With the first fifty dollars earned, he entered forty acres of land. In 1840, he improved a farm in Lake Fork township, residing there twenty-eight years. Then he moved to Elkhart Hill, where his home farm comprised over 9,000 acres. He entered some 12,000 acres of Logan County lands by himself and some 5,000 acres more in connection with Robert B. Latham. He was known the world over as a raiser of blooded stock, which he shipped to European markets. His annual shipments of stock averaged 1,500 head of cattle and 1,000 head of hogs. He married a daughter of Elisha Parke. Mr. Parke built Logan County's first jail at Postville. His daughter, Emma, married Gov. Richard J. Oglesby, and his grandson, John D. Gillett Oglesby is the present Lieutenant Governor of the state. John D. Gillett died August 25, 1888, and left an estate valued at a million and a half of dollars.

The Scully Lands

Probably the most extensive individual purchaser of Logan County lands, however, was William Scully, a well known Irish landlord, whose residence for many years was in London, England, and who owned at his death in 1906, some 30,000 acres of Logan County land. He was born in Ireland in 1821, and came to the United States in 1851, for the purpose of investing money in land. Landing in Philadelphia, he bought a horse and a spade and rode horseback from Philadelphia, through the states of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and Wisconsin, and personally inspected the soil, wherever he journeyed. How he came to purchase land in this section of the country is best told by himself in an interview in a Chicago paper in 1901. Hesaid: "Just fifty years ago, I landed in the United States. I had money to invest in my line, which was farming. People told me of the wonderful stretches of rich soil in the Central West and I determined to see them. I secured a horse and a spade and set out from Philadelphia. I personally inspected the soil of all sections of the West and in the Mississippi Valley. I learned what I wanted to know concerning the depth and quality of the soil. After two years of investigation, I settled upon Central Illinois as the place I sought. It seemed to me to be the richest soil in the world. The prairie was almost unbroken in those days and farm houses were few. I chose my land with great deliberation. I not only selected the richest soil I could find, but

I secured land on a straight line between the cities of St. Louis and Chicago. I knew there would be a railroad between these two cities and that rich prairie land close to that railroad would be valuable. I bought the land of the government for $1.25 an acre."

In 1853 Mr. Scully moved to Logan County intending to make it his home, and erected a dwelling house and large barns. He also brought with him several Irish families, but these did not remain long upon his land. The following year, he brought his wife from Ireland. He also commenced the draining of the land by large capstan ditches, following the system of draining lands by open ditches, as in Ireland. The first season in the low lands and the cold winter, brought with them that illness which is peculiar to a new country and he was forced to take his wife back to Europe. She subsequently died, and Mr. Scully determined to sell his holdings here, and gave orders to his agents to dispose of the same, on long term contracts. A considerable amount of the land was thus sold, but the year 1861 saw the beginning of the Civil War and the sale of lands ceased for a while. At the close of the Civil War, the return of the soldiers created a demand for lands to rent, and he ceased selling and began renting. In 1870, Mr. Scully began work on a great drainage system, a large portion of his land being low, and this system has been continuously improved upon, until today it is quite thorough and complete. About 1885, Mr. Scully was the subject of considerable criticism, both locally and in the metropolitan papers, on account of his inauguration of what was called "the Irish tenantry system" upon his Illinois lands. Also considerable 'objection was raised to his ownership of so much land, in view of the fact that he was an alien and had not become a naturalized American citizen. The criticism arose from the fact that Mr. Scully simply leased the lands to tenants and the tenants had to make all permanent improvements, such as houses, barns, fences and the like, at their own expense. At the expiration of their leases, if they left the place, they were ailowed nothing for their improvements, but took their chances of selling same to their successors. The tenants also paid the taxes on the land and the land was rented for money rent.

The answers to these criticisms were, that the leases could not be very onerous, for they seemed to be in great demand and that a number of the renters had been able to save enough, while on the Scully. farms, to buy farms of their own and that every year renters were leaving to become adjacent farm owners. It may be noted here that since that time, these leases have acquired a considerable value, the average price of a leasehold being about $2,500 and in some cases reaching twice that amount. William Fogarty, a well known wealthy old settler of the county, now deceased, in an interview in the Chicago Tribune, in 1886, said: "TI believe I was the first person to buy land from

Scully; and John Hickey, my brother-in-law, and I, were the first tenants Scully had. I bought land from him in 1857 and paid $19 per acre in gold. Later I bought of him again, paying $25 per acre. This was on the Delavan prairie. I sold back to Scully when I bought the 600 acre farm on which I now live. When I was on the Scully lands in 1863, I leased land for five years, on the following terms: For the first year, only the taxes; the second year, 12% cents per acre and the taxes ; the third year, twenty-five cents per acre and the taxes; the fourth year, fifty cents and the taxes, and the last year one dollar and the taxes. Those who made contracts in 1864 and 1865, had to pay as high as $2.50 per acre. Most of Scully's original tenants were Irish, but they went West and his present tenants are Germans and Hollanders."

As a result of the discussion of 1886, a bill was passed by the General Assembly of Illinois in 1889, providing that no alien should be allowed to own lands in Illinois, and that aliens owning lands at the time of the passage of the bill, were to be allowed six years in which to either become citizens or dispose of their lands, in default of which their lands were to escheat to the state. The law also provided that leases requiring tenants to pay taxes were null and void. Subsequently, the former provision was held unconstitutional, but the latter provision was reenacted in 1897. In 1895, however, Mr. Scully became a resident of Washington, D. C., and in 1900, he took out his final papers and became a citizen of the United States. He died in London, England, while on a visit there, October 17, 1906. His estate was said to include in addition to 30,000 acres of land in Logan County, 12,000 acres in Grundy and Livingston counties, 4,000 acres in Sangamon, 60,000 in Nebraska, 50,000 in Kansas and 40,000 in Missouri, nearly 200,000 acres in all. His estate in Logan County is still intact and the business control of the same is in the hands of Frederick W. Trapp, of Lincoln, who succeeded F. C. W. Keohnle, as agent for the estate, at the time of Mr. Keohnle's death.

Below will be found a complete list of individuals entering land in Logan County, from the time of first settlement, as shown by the government records, with the year when claim was filed and fee paid. Claimant's names are noted only in the year when first entry was made. Where claimants made successive entries in different subsequent years, the name is not duplicated. The various townships were not created until 1865, but the present township name is here used, for convenience sake, in place of the township and range number. The entries were as follows: