Madison County, Illinois - Chapter 15: Early Days in Madison County, 1912

One of the most interesting characters in the early history of the state was Rev. Thomas Lippincott. He was an associate and co¬ worker of Governor Coles, Daniel P. Cook, Hooper Warren, George Churchill, George Forquer, Thomas Mather, Morris Birbeck, Rev. John M. Peck and other apostles of free¬ dom in resisting the attempt to make Illinois a slave state, as related in Chapter VII of this volume. He was secretary of the state sen¬ ate of the Third general assembly which passed the convention resolution, and was ac¬ quainted with all the leading public men of the day. He subsequently became a minister of the Presbyterian denomination and labored as such during the remainder of his life. He was born in Salem, New Jersey, February 6, 1791, of Quaker parentage. His mother died when he was eight years old and the family was scattered. In 1802 he went to Philadel¬ phia to reside with his uncle, Charles Ellet, and remained there until 1814, meantime serv¬ ing in the War of 1812. In 1814 he removed to Lumberland, New York, where he was mar¬ ried in 1816 to Miss Patty Swift and in 1817, with his wife and infant daughter, he removed

Mr. Lippincott was an early resident of Milton, a town on Wood river, now extinct. He was next a resident of Edwardsville, hold¬ ing various official positions. After Hooper Warren removed to Cincinnati he was, for a year, editor of the Edwardsville Spectator. It is not intended to follow his long and active career, but merely to introduce him to the reader. He was a voluminous writer and his contributions to the early history of the state are invaluable. In 1858 he contributed a series of papers to the Alton Courier entitled "The Conflict of the Century," relating the history of the anti-slavery contest of 1824. These papers were annotated by his friend George Churchill, who was a member of the legislature when Mr. Lippincott was secretary of the senate and who served longer in the senate and house than any other man ever elected from Madison county.

In 1864, at the request of Hon. W. C. Flagg, Mr. Lippincott prepared a series of papers for the State Historical Society on "Early Days in Madison County." These were published serially in the Alton Telegraph and the editor of this work has had access to them. They are invaluable as records of pioneer days and of the men who laid the foundations of the state. These were also annotated by Mr. Churchill. Mr. Lippincott acted an important part in the political and religious history of Illinois from the time it was a state until his death. He died April 13, 1869, at the residence of his son, Thomas W., at Pana, Illinois, and was buried in Oakwood cemetery, Upper Alton. His fu¬ neral was conducted by Revs. Albert Hale, A. T. Norton and W. P. Gibson, the first two his contemporaries for many years. He left a distinguished family. Three of his sons served in the Civil war, one of them dying from wounds received at Vicksburg. His eldest son, Gen. Chas. E. Lippincott, was for¬ merly auditor of the state. His eldest daugh¬ ter married Winthrop S. Gilman, then of Al¬ ton, but later a wealthy banker of New York city.

Mr. Lippincott's papers on "Early Days in Madison County," with Mr. Churchill's anno¬ tations would make a small volume. They cover the decade from 1818 to 1828. I have gone through them carefully and prepared a running narrative therefrom, omitting what was not essential and often condensing a para¬ graph into a sentence, but preserving a con¬ nected history, as given below :

"I came to Madison county," writes Mr. Lippincott, "in 1818. My family and I started from Pittsburgh December 1, 1817, on a Monongahela flatboat which I had chartered with another family, and on December 30th landed at Shawneetown. After a detention of several weeks we set out from that place for St. Louis, in a wagon across the country. The road was a mere path through the woods, the trail indicated by 'three-hack trees.' It was almost impassable and we waded through it wearily. We started on the first of February, 1818, and arrived at St. Louis on the 17th, traveling all the time except two days spent at the hospitable home of Judge Lernen at New Design.

"The only other towns we saw on the route were Kaskaskia, Prairie du Rocher and Cahokia. In a few days after my arrival in St. Louis I was employed to do some writing for Col. Rufus Easton, who had been the delegate in congress from Missouri. He had, during the previous year (1817), laid out a new town in Illinois, which he called Alton after one of his sons. One of the first jobs I did for him was to make a copy of a map of this place, de¬ signed for exhibition at the east in order to ef¬ fect the sale of lots. After a few months spent by me clerking in his store Colonel Eas¬ ton proposed that I take a stock of goods to the neighborhood of Alton and start a store.

But it was not in Alton that I located (Alton was in embryo) but at Milton, four miles east on Wood river. When Colonel Easton brought me first in his gig to see Alton, there was a cabin not far from what is now the southeast corner of State and Short streets, occupied by a man whom the Colonel had in¬ duced to start a ferry in opposition to Smeltzer's ferry, a few miles further up. Colonel Easton's plat fronted on the river, extended north as far as Ninth street and was bounded by Piasa street on the west and Henry on the east.

"Alton had a rival in Upper Alton, laid out in 1816 by Joseph Meacham. There was some dissatisfaction with this place, on account of it being two miles from the river, whereupon Meacham purchased the Bates farm, east of Henry street and advertised it as 'Alton on the river.' This last enterprise was purchased by Maj. C. W. Hunter in 1819 and became known as Hunterstown. Vexatious litigation kept Easton's Alton from improving for ten or twelve years. Ninian Edwards, Nathaniel Pope and others possessed titles adverse to Colonel Easton's claim, but after a long legal warfare the contestants compromised by divid¬ ing the disputed territory. Edwards, Pope & Company got the northern portion, which afterwards became known as Middletown be¬ cause it lay between Upper Alton and Alton on the river (hence Edwards' addition, Pope's addition, etc., on our city maps). Litigation being settled by about 1829-30 improvements commenced and the village of Alton began to be. In commenting on the above Mr. Church¬ ill made the following annotation : 'It was either in 1818 or 1819 that I attended at Colonel Easton's Alton, where the proprietor was to offer some city lots for sale and for that purpose displayed a beautiful map which had been prepared in accordance with the ad¬ vice of the poets of the day

"There were Gospel lots, an Observatory Square, College lots and I know not what other reservations for public and charitable purposes delineated on the map. The com¬ pany attending at the sale was not numerous but included two gentlemen from Albany, N. Y., Reuben Hyde Walworth, afterwards Chan¬ cellor of that state, and E. S. Baldwin. I think no lots were sold. There were then three or four buildings east of Little Piasa, but no improvements west of that stream.'

"In the latter part of 1819 and forepart of 1820 John Pitcher advertised that he kept the Fountain ferry at Alton. His advertisement was succeeded February 22, 1819, by that of Enos Pembroke, who advertised that he also kept a tavern. Both ferrymen announced that the road by Fountain ferry was three miles shorter to Madame Griffiths, near Portage des Sioux, than any other road now traveled be¬ tween those points. I know not by which ferry emigrants for Boone's Lick, mentioned by Parson Flint, crossed the Mississippi to St. Charles county.

"I said my store was not opened at Alton but my goods were landed there. Some time in November, 1818, I stepped out of a keel boat on the shore of the Mississippi and found myself and my goods under a magnificent grove of sycamore trees reaching from what the proprietor called Fountain creek (better known as Little Piasa) to the point where the bluff jutted out to the river, on the side of which the old penitentiary was afterwards built. I think there was no house there then but the ferry house and a cabin somewhere about the corner of what is now Second and Alby streets.

"There was a busy, active village, even then, at Milton. A firm consisting of John Wallace and Walter J. Seely had laid out the town, called it Milton, and had there three mills, two saw mills and a grist or flour mill. A distill¬ ery, a few rods up the river, was equally active. Mr. Seely afterward moved to Edwardsville where he kept a public house. He died there January 13, 1823. The Star of the West said he was a native of Orange county, New York. A W. Donohue had put up a store building at the bridge in Milton and placed it in charge of R. T. McHenry, but be¬ fore I came he had closed up and gone to St. Louis. McHenry was later cashier of the bank at Edwardsville and was highly es¬ teemed. It was to this vacant building, by di¬ rection of Colonel Easton, that I brought my dry goods and groceries and put up the sign of Lippincott & Company. I remember I sold coffee at fifty cents a pound and salt at three dollars a bushel.

"To return to Alton: A contract was entered into by Colonel Easton with Daniel Crume and William G. Pinckard for the erec¬ tion of four log houses on the town site. Two of these were afterwards combined in one. It stood on the square afterwards bounded by Second, Third, Piasa and Market streets. It was long occupied by Thomas G. Hawley. (This building was taken down, some thirty years ago, and rebuilt on the premises of Hon. H. G. McPike at Mt. Lookout, and stood until 1910 when it was destroyed.)

"I have an indistinct recollection," contin¬ ues Mr. Lippincott, "of some small tene¬ ment in 1820, under the sycamores along what is now Second street west of Piasa, oc¬ cupied by several families. It was as ephem¬ eral as it was humble. I seem to remember a yard and garden fences in a small way. In order to draw travel a road was necessary from Alton to Milton and a bridge over

Shields' branch was indispensable, and Col¬ onel Easton made a contract with Joel Finch to build it. It was built very near the present crossing of Second street over the branch.

"There were two families then living be¬ tween Milton and the Bates farm or Alton. The first was owned by the widow Meacham who had lived there during the War of 1812, and she told me her place was visited by In¬ dians on the same night as the Wood river massacre, in July, 1814. She had two grown sons and two or three daughters, one of whom married a Mr. Whitehead of St. Louis, after¬ wards a wealthy citizen and an elder in the First Presbyterian church of that city. The other family on the road was that of James Smith. One of his daughters married Jubilee Posey, afterwards a prosperous farmer of Troy. There were besides two families, the Gillhams and the Pruitts on the American Bottom below Milton. Isom Gillham was the last sheriff of Madison county under the terri¬ torial government. He owned a fine farm and a ferry on the bank of the Mississippi opposite the mouth of the Missouri, most if not all of which farm has gone down the river. In the summer of 1818 or 1819 I saw several steam¬ boats lying at Mr. Gillham's farm, more than I had seen at one time at St. Louis. They were small boats employed by Col. James Johnson, brother of Vice President Richard M. Johnson, to carry government supplies to Fort Osage on the Missouri river. (It is a curious coincidence that Crawford Fairbanks, a brother of another vice president, is now one of the proprietors of a great strawboard fac¬ tory within two miles of this Gillham ship¬ ping point. - Ed.) Mr. Gillham died April 2, 1824. His successor as sheriff was William B. Whiteside. The other Gillhams were settled near Long Lake.

"The Pruitts occupied farms along the bluff from Wood river to where the Edwardsville road ascends the bluff at W. T. Davidson's. There was a farm and a horse mill adjoining

Wood river, and several fine farms strung along the prairie for three or four miles. Above the bluffs on the table lands were sev¬ eral farms which were old settlements when I came to the state. In the forks of Wood river were three brothers, George, William and Abel Moore. The last two had each built a brick house, but George still occupied the . old log house considerably enlarged, and near it still stood the old block house to which the inhabitants resorted in time of danger, and the powder mill in which the settlers prepared their ammunition. (Not over two miles from this point now stands the great plant of the Equitable Powder Manufacturing Company, showing the progress of a hundred years - Editor.)

"The inhabitants between the forks of Wood river grew apace if I may judge from the following incident: In 1819, being then a justice of the peace, I was called upon to marry a couple from that settlement. The ceremony was performed under the shade of a primeval forest tree. Some years afterward I called to see this couple at their home on the Woodburn road and found them a pros¬ perous family with sixteen children. I had occasion to travel that year to the Sangamon country. Starting from Milton and ascend¬ ing the bluffs and skirting the Wood river timber I passed through Rattan's prairie, socalled, to the road running north from Edwardsville. The farm of Jesse Starkey was the last passed in that region. Of the dwellers on the prairie I recall William Montgomery, Richard Rattan, Thomas Rattan and Rev. William Jones.

"When I first came to Milton there was a public house kept by Joel Bacon in a cabin near the bridge. In the summer of 1819 he built a frame house a little higher up to which he removed his tavern. It was not a drinking house, and entertained travelers comfortably. His wife was a notable and excellent woman.

I think it was in the summer of 1819 that Robert Collet, of St. Louis, bought out the in¬ terest of Mr. Seeley in Milton and thencefor¬ ward Wallace & Collet became the proprietors of the mill and other business interests of Milton. Mr. Joel Bacon dying, the big frame house, still unfinished, was taken down and removed to Upper Alton where it was the residence of George Smith (afterwards state senator).

"Perhaps I ought not to omit so trifling a circumstance as the gathering of about a dozen or twenty children in our house every Sabbath morning for religious instruction. My wife who had had much experience in teaching, could not be satisfied without this effort - and it was made. It got the name of the first Sabbath school in Illinois. But there was a Sabbath school organized the next sum¬ mer which deserved the name. It was in Upper Alton and was the enterprise of Enoch Long and Henry H. Snow.

"Upper Alton soon began to grow into a village. While Milton, with its saw mills, grist mill, work shops, distillery and store (part of the time two) was bustling and busy for a little season, Upper Alton was quietly gaining accessions of industrious inhabitants and as¬ suming quite a village air. But some of its people were more busy than industrious, and if Milton manufactured whisky Upper Alton was no less busy in selling and drinking it. Yet a good proportion of the people of both places were sober and industrious. Both set¬ tlements were stopping places for immigrants. Many came but did not long remain. From Milton there went out Thomas Beard to found Beardstown; O. M. Ross to found Ha¬ vana ; Charles Gregory to open a farm and, in part, to locate White Hall, and David Marks to build Manchester. From Upper Alton went Zachariah and John Allen to become original settlers of what was later Greene county.

"In the immediate neighborhood of Milton, on the Mississippi, at a place afterwards known as Gibraltar, dwelt Thomas Carlin, who subsequently also migrated to Greene county and had the county commissioners lo¬ cate the county seat on his land. The inten¬ tion was to name the new town after him, but for some reason it was changed, or twisted, to Carrollton. I do not think any one in Milton then expected to see him governor of Illinois.

"One of the early settlers of Upper Alton was Enoch Long whose influence was always for good. His usefulness was duplicated by his excellent wife. They must have settled in Upper Alton in 1819. Dr. Erastus Brown and wife settled in Upper Alton about the time I came to Milton. Dr. Brown was a brother-in-law of Colonel Easton. He built a good hewed log house facing the road from Milton near where it turned into the main (afterwards Long) street. It was the best house for a while in the village. Dr. Brown died in 1831 or 1832. There were other Browns there: Jonathan Brown carried on business there until 1831 when he removed to 'Brown's prairie' where his brother had lo¬ cated a large farm. The farms owned by the two brothers are now the site of the town of Brighton. Then there was Chad Brown, a rather eccentric character. Mr. Churchill adds to this that Chad Brown was a member of the firm of Meacham, Day & Brown, mer¬ chants. I also recall the names of Elisha Dodge, Benjamin Spencer, Hezekiah H. Gear, Charles Gear, Isaac Woodburn, Benjamin Steadman, David and George Smith as early settlers of Upper Alton.

"Dr. Augustus Langworthy was a man of some note in those days. He was Alton's first postmaster. The Edwardsville Specta¬ tor of August 28, 1819, has the following record : 'Postoffices have been established at Alton and Gibraltar. Dr. Augustus Lang¬

"There was another and a very different person on whom my mind loves to dwell, Rev. Nathaniel Pinckard, who, having preached the gospel for many years as a traveling minister in the Methodist connec¬ tion, had settled down to spend the evening of his days in the new and crude village of Upper Alton. (He was the father of Wil¬ liam G. Pinckard, Sr.)

"Sometime in the winter of 1819-20 a family arrived in Milton that had an impor¬ tant relation to my life. It was that of Elijah Slater, whose acquaintance I had first formed when descending the Ohio river, he on a raft and I on a keel boat. He was from Ithaca, New York. The family consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Slater and three daughters. They removed later to what is now Sanga¬ mon county, near Springfield. My wife hav¬ ing died, I subsequently married the second daughter. A third daughter married Dr. Gershom Jayne of Springfield. A daughter of this marriage became the mother of Mrs. Lyman Trumbull. Mr. and Mrs. Slater passed the evening of their days in the home of Mrs. Dr. Jayne. My family suffered much from sickness while we resided at Milton. The dam across Wood river, just below the bridge, was supposed to create malaria. Dr. John Todd of Edwardsville was our physician, but as he was ten miles off and had an extended practice we sometimes called in Dr. Clayton Tiffin, who resided at St. Mary's some three miles distant. A year or so after arriving at Milton I was called on to marry my friend, Ebenezer Huntington, to a sister of Dr. Tiffin, the ceremony to be performed at his house at St. Mary's. I went and found a level plain at, or near, the mouth of Wood river, on the lower side, with a two-story frame house upon it in which Dr. Tiffin resided. That was St.

"The town of Edwardsville was, in those days, an important place. It was the resi¬ dence of the two United States Senators, Ninian Edwards and Jesse B. Thomas, and these two distinguished citizens and their ac¬ complished families formed the nucleus around which the intelligent naturally gath¬ ered. We know that the young ladies shone as brilliant gems in the gay and polite circles of the city of Washington. The town of Edwardsville had been laid out before I was acquainted with the county and was the seat of justice. It occupied a ridge jutting out from the Cahokia creek, and had on each side a somewhat deep ravine, separating it from the level land adjacent. Thus it had but one street, or scarcely more. The court house was a log building on the edge of the square next the street, not far from the lower end of town. The jail, on the same square, was not more remarkable for beauty or strength. It was built of logs and perhaps lined with plank. Nor could the brick court house and jail, built a few years later, be called a great improvement. I remember when Lorenzo Dow came to Edwardsville to preach, some years afterwards. When he was shown the court house as the place for the meeting he refused to hold service there - saying it was not fit for a hog pen. It had not yet a floor, except a narrow staging for the court and bar. About 1819 some gentlemen purchased a farm at the southeast end of town and laid it out in blocks and streets, with an open square of reasonable size in the center. It was designed to supersede the old town and, probably for this end (for I can conceive no other) it was laid out in such a way as not to connect by streets with the street already established. There was no reason, except the caprice of the proprietors, why the streets of the addition should not have been made to correspond with it, or with the points of the compass, but they agree with neither.

"The proprietor of the old town was James Mason, who had purchased it before I knew it. He had built a brick house on the rear of the square in part of which an inn was kept by William Wiggins - afterwards so well known at Wiggins ferry, St. Louis. At this hotel might have been seen, during the years of its occupancy by Mr. Wiggins, a number of men of no small note, the elite of the day, both of our own citizens who had not yet made homes and for those who came to spy out the land. For comfort, for good living in a plain way, Mr. Wiggins furnished a resting place which the intelligent and re¬ fined traveler was well prepared to appre¬ ciate after a horseback ride across the state and rude entertainment at log farm houses along the way. Edwardsville was, at that time, the most noted town in Illinois.

"While the old capital was at Kaskaskia and the new one prospectively at Vandalia, neither was as much a point of attraction as Edwardsville, not merely for the reason that the chief men of the state resided there, but the people gathered there as a center from which to go out prospecting. The land dis¬ trict had been opened and the office estab¬ lished at Edwardsville, and consequently all who wished to settle north of the Kaskaskia district must make their land entries at our county town. The lands were sold by the government on credit at two dollars an acre (the minimum). On paying one-fourth of the purchase money down, the remainder might be delayed. This was done in order to enable the settler to earn the balance by labor on the land, which was doubtless often done. But unfortunately the spirit of speculation was aroused. Thousands and thousands of acres were purchased by non-residents on mere speculation, and actual settlers entered three or four times as much as they had money to pay for. Mr. Churchill writes in regard to this: 'Under the old credit system of selling the public lands, you might select a quarter section (160 acres) and pay sixteen dollars which would secure it for forty days. If, within that time, you paid the additional sum of sixty-four dollars you would have completed the first instalment of eighty dol¬ lars and three more such instalments, paid at the end of one, two and three years, made the land your own. But if you failed to com¬ plete the first; instalment within the forty days, another person might enter the land and your sixteen dollars would be forfeited. But when the credit system was abolished and relief laws were the order of the day, I believe a way was provided to use these six¬ teen dollars forfeitures in paying up old land debts.' Such was the state of things at that time and consequently many congregated at Mr. Wiggins' house at all times whose object was to enter many tracts to be kept until the price of land advanced. These were men of property and intelligence, and, added to the residents, made a lively and pleasant society.

"At the establishment of the land office in Edwardsville, John McKee was appointed register and Benjamin Stephenson, receiver. The former died, presumably in 1819, and Edward Coles was appointed to take his place. Colonel Stephenson, says Mr. Church¬ ill, died on the 10th of October, 1822. He was succeeded by Samuel D. Lockwood, while William P. McKee, son of the first register, succeeded Mr. Coles when the latter was elected governor.

"Of Colonel Stephenson I have to say that he was a plain, unassuming man, not highly educated, but of good sense, and amiable and pleasant in the circles of social life. His position, and especially the elegant and hightoned manners of his beautiful wife and daughter, together with their close associa¬ tion with the accomplished family of Gov¬ ernor Edwards, place him and his among those at the head of society, alongside of that of Senator Thomas, whose step-daughter, Miss Rebecca Hamtramck, shone as a brilliant star in the social circles of Washington. Indeed we had evidence that Edwardsville, in the person of Miss Julia Edwards, afterwards Mrs. Daniel P. Cook, and Miss Hamtramck, furnished society in Washington with some of the most perfect specimens, in one case of charming, modest beauty and grace, and in the other of dashing elegant manner and splendid appearance, that it could boast dur¬ ing a session of congress within the presi¬ dential term of John Quincy Adams. With these and others fully competent to associate with them, and the strangers heretofore men¬ tioned, it may not be too much to say that there was an intelligent and refined if not a fashionable society in Edwardsville as early as 1819 and 1820.

"The name of Governor Edward Coles can¬ not be passed over without remark. He was of one of the leading families of Virginia - a genuine F. F. V., but his course was so eccen¬ tric in the view of his kindred that he well nigh lost caste among them ; and it may be that he deemed a sort of honorable banish¬ ment to the wild prairies of Illinois a relief from what would almost be considered social ostracism at home. He was wealthy and did not value office for its emoluments. I said he was deemed eccentric, and no wonder, for when, upon the death of his father, he fell heir to a parcel of slaves he determined to set them free; and not all the expostulations of his friends and family, nor their offers to ex¬ change other property for them, could induce him to change his determination. He would emancipate them and he did. He brought them to Illinois, bought land a few miles from Edwardsville, where with his help they be¬ came farmers, and some of them, whom I knew years afterwards, lived comfortably and respected.

"There were three brothers then in Ed¬ wardsville, and for some years afterwards, who occupied conspicuous positions - James, Paris and Hail Mason. The first of these, Janies Mason, was, as I have said, proprietor of the old town plot. He was a genial, pleas¬ ant man, seeking mainly the acquisition of wealth and having no political ambition. His household was ever a place of delightful re¬ sort, not only from his own cordial good fel¬ lowship, but especially rendered so by the cor¬ dial, interesting conversation of his wife. Paris Mason was an industrious man and car¬ ried on a mill at the foot of the street, where the Cahokia was dammed for that purpose. The third, Hail Mason, was for a number of years a justice of the peace and a worthy citi¬ zen. He afterwards became a preacher in the Methodist connection."

[The next three numbers of Mr. Lippincott's papers are devoted to the bar of Madison county, and are of exceeding interest. They are referred to under the head of Bench and Bar. His following paper is devoted to sketches of and tributes to Hooper Warren and George Churchill, both of whom are spoken of elsewhere as the pioneer editors of the county - Editor.]

"There was a time," continues Mr. Lippincott, "when Gaius Paddock and his farm were considered an institution of our county. His residence, seven miles north of Edwardsville, on the Springfield road, was as well known to travelers to the Sangamo and Mauvais Terre country (all central Illinois) as Edwardsville itself. He was a Revolutionary soldier and drew a pension for services. When I first came to St. Louis in 1818 Mrs. Paddock kept a boarding house, and all the bachelor law¬ yers and other big men boarded there while the old gentleman was at the farm preparing it for the residence of the family. So it con¬ tinued several years, some of the daughters living by turns with the father and some with the mother until a new house was built and the family came together. It was and is a charming place, and a resort for those who loved to mingle with intelligent, energetic women, mother and daughters, and see the re¬ sults of their economical and tasteful labors.* "I knew a bachelor in those days who lived on a farm adjacent. He did not remain a bachelor long, but took one of those daughters to wife and lived and prospered there; but lives no longer. Gershom Flagg was well known as an intelligent, prosperous but unam¬ bitious farmer, and it was always a mystery why he was not known in the councils of our state if not our nation. That he was com¬ petent to fill a respectable if not a high station was well known, and there were those who doubted whether his brother, then secretary of the state of New York, possessed any more solid qualifications. I have some suspicion that the declination of his son at the late elec¬ tion, tended somewhat to explain. Is the dis¬ inclination to office hereditary? There was an¬ other son-in-law of Mr. Paddock's living near there in those days, Pascal P. Enos, Esq. He was a lawyer but did not, so far as I know, practice in our courts. When J. Q. Adams was elected president he was appointed regis¬ ter of the land office at Springfield - a con¬ fessedly good appointment. He did not live many years afterwards, but his family occu¬ pies a deservedly high position among the early inhabitants of the state capital. I should also mention John Estabrook as an¬ other of those whose early and long residence in that neighborhood helped to give it charac¬ ter. Robert Collet, in 1820, sold out his store at Milton, and improved a farm a mile or two west of Air. Estabrook which he stocked with choice fruit trees from New Jersey. Formed for society, Mr. and Mrs. Collet could not long enjoy the seclusion of their beautiful place and removed to St. Louis, where their son now resides. Mr. Collet's mother, a grand old lady, resided with them. She was a native of the Isle of Man and, as she has in¬ formed me, a descendant of that Edward Christian (or his brother) who was a promi¬ nent character in one of Scott's novels. In those days there came to the county a man who figured much more largely in political life, Emanuel J. West. He purchased the farm of Thomas Rattan, near Mr. Collet's, which he named Glorietta." [Mr. West's im¬ portant career is spoken of elsewhere and is therefore omitted from Mr. Lippincott's narrative - Editor. ]

At the close of 1819 a group of families all connected together, yet independent, arrived in Edwardsville from New York. They were the families of Abraham Leggett, his son, Abraham A. Leggett, and his four sons-inlaw, Captain Breath, Thomas Slocum, Cor¬ nelius Oakley and Edwin E. Weed. They first stopped in Edwardsville and then pur¬ chased farms on the east side of Silver creek. Mrs. Weed, Mr. Leggett's youngest married daughter, died in Edwardsville before they could get to the farm selected and her husband soon returned to New York. The son and sons-in-law of Mr. Leggett soon got tired of farming and also returned to New York, but the old folks remained in Edwardsville until 1822, when they likewise returned. Their then minor son, William Leggett, was a man of great talent, and was subsequently distin¬ guished as an editor of the New York Even¬ ing Post in association with William Cullen Bryant, the poet.

William L. May was a citizen of Edwards¬ ville who was not then considered remarkable for talents or popular arts. He removed to Springfield and, in later years, was elected to congress over Benjamin Mills of Galena. Mr.

Lippincott speaks of the brothers, Abraham, Isaac and David Prickett, and Mr. Churchill adds this annotation : "Abraham Prickett was a delegate to our constitutional convention of 1818 and a member of our first house of rep¬ resentatives in 1818-19. He was postmaster at Edwardsville and at one time judge of pro¬ bate. He died at Natchitoches, Louisiana, June 12, 1836, aged forty-seven years. His brother, Isaac Prickett, was a merchant and a very worthy man. The third brother, David, was a lawyer, was once elected to the legisla¬ ture and was at one time judge of probate of this county.

"But the big store at Edwardsville was kept by Robert Pogue, who, with his brothers, did a large business for a few years and then left the country. Joshua Atwater was there - and I believe is there yet (written in 1864). I be¬ lieve his old age is cheered by a competence of this world's goods and a good hope for the next. I should do wrong to omit a name that in the earliest days of Illinois was well known and respected in Madison county. He was a recorder of deeds when the county covered a large territory. As a Methodist preacher he possessed unbounded confidence and respect. His two sons, Barton and Richard, have be¬ come well known preachers since. Josias Randle kept his office on a hill which skirts a ravine on the west side of the village. There were several families located there, of whom I remember Nathan Scarritt and Don Alonzo Spaulding. Nathan Scarritt resided at Ed¬ wardsville, a year or two, and then removed to what became known as Scarritt's prairie, now in Godfrey. He had a brother, Isaac Scarritt, a preacher of more than ordinary ability. I recall two little boys who used to do errands and sometimes came to my residence. Perhaps my readers may have heard since of Isaac and Russell Scarritt. I say nothing of the younger ones, Jotham and others. (The Jotham referred to is the Rev. J. A.

"In speaking of the venerable Josias Randle I might, with propriety, have introduced others of the same name and kindred. He had a brother whose name I cannot now re¬ call, but he was the father of Josiah, who lived many years in Scarritt's prairie ; George, who was at a mill on the Macoupin, and Ir¬ win B., long well known at Alton (spoken of in Biographical section). A cousin, Parham Randle, was long a very interesting preacher, and Thomas Randle began his ministry in those days. In the same neighborhood lived William Otwell who served in the Legislature in 1820 and 1824. His son, Stith Otwell, be¬ gan to preach about that time, but his use¬ fulness was early cut short by death. Mathew Torrance, Joseph and David Robinson, though well known and highly respected, were never in public life, but I may remark that these, and such like them contributed greatly to preserve and bless the community of which they formed an influential part.

"South of Edwardsville, on the edge of Ridge Prairie, were several persons who ought to be mentioned : William Gillham, a substantial farmer, connected with the Gillhams of the American Bottom, had been, I be¬ lieve, a member of the territorial legislature. Adjoining his farm was that of the widow Robinson, whose son, Benaiah Robinson, a well educated man, who, if he had chosen to employ his abilities to win popular favor would have been conspicuous. He was twice a candidate for the legislature, but was unsuc¬ cessful. Mr. Churchill says he was chosen county surveyor as often as he desired the of¬ fice. He was elected a delegate to the consti¬ tutional convention of 1847.

"Robert McKee was a neighbor and a good man, but unpretentious. Near him was John Barber, a farmer and teacher, who, however quiet and unambitious, could not be unknown.

His influence as an able and religious man preceded by many years his official character as a preacher. His son, John Barber, Jr., be¬ came an uncommonly able minister of the Gospel.

"Among those connected with the Leggetts and Breaths were two Irish families who have left their mark upon the State, David Gilles¬ pie and Robert Gordon. The survivors of that early day in Edwardsville will remember well the mother of Mathew and Joseph Gilles¬ pie. Strong, athletic and hard-working, she was held in such estimation by the better class that no one was more welcome as a visitor in their families than Mrs. Gillespie. She had a strong, nervous mind, stored more than any other, I thought, with a vast amount of Script¬ ure truth. I never durst encounter her in argument, or hardly attempt to quote Script¬ ure to her, for she was more than my match. Her sons, later occupying important positions in public life, doubtless received the impress of their mother's mind, who did not live long enough to see them in the fullness of their prosperity, but the judge upon the bench doubtless looks back with pride to his noble mother, as well as with love and veneration. In reference to the other family I need only point to Rev. Joseph Gordon, who lives to occupy no small place as a minister of the Gospel, respected and beloved as he is, by all the brethren associated with him in the Alton Presbytery.

"I have alluded to Maj. William H. Hop¬ kins and wish to say something of him, be¬ cause at the early day his house was for a season my home and the resort of many per¬ sons in social and political life. Major Hop¬ kins was a native of Orange county, New York, and came to Edwardsville in 1819. After keeping boarders for some time he re¬ moved to a new and commodious house he had erected in the new town. His house was for several years the best-kept and most re¬ spectable in the region and was patronized by the elite. The homelikeness of the place was enhanced by the presence of his venerable parents, General Reuben Hopkins and wife. The family later removed to St. Louis where the Major kept an excellent hotel on Main street which was the resort of Madisonians visiting that city.

"Dennis Rockwell was in Edwardsville when I went there in the fall of 1820. He had established a land office agency there in con¬ nection with a Mr. Van Zandt of Washington. He employed me as an assistant. Few men have won more friends or retained them longer than Mr. Rockwell. He subsequently removed to Jacksonville where he became cir¬ cuit clerk and postmaster. Another interest¬ ing reminiscence of the Hopkins House is that of Chester Ashley. He came from the east and engaged in the practice of law. He was a man of talent and education ; possessed of ele¬ gant manners, frank, genial and sociable. I think he had a high sense of honor and recti¬ tude. He married a relative of the Hopkins family and removed to Little Rock, Arkansas.

I was not surprised when he was elected to the senate of the United States from Arkansas, but rather wondered that his political advance¬ ment did not occur sooner. His career and death are known as a part of the nation's his¬ tory.

"Andrew Miller is a man not to be forgot¬ ten by me while memory lasts. He was not only one of those who formed the pleasant cir¬ cle at the Hopkins House, but an endeared friend before and after. His father, John Miller, came to Milton in 1819, with a son and two daughters. He built and set up a hat fac¬ tory. Their coming was remarkable for one thing: they landed in Milton from a keel boat directly at the mills, the only instance, perhaps, in which Wood river was navigated by a keel boat. Mr. Miller, the father, soon died. The son was employed by me as a clerk while I continued in business. The daughters mar¬ ried and from that time Andrew Miller and I dwelt together, mostly in my family, until I removed from Edwardsville. In this place he became cashier of the Edwardsville branch of the State Bank, and settled up its accounts for the state government. After this he was em¬ ployed by Dr. Edwards in the land office until his last sickness. He died in Dr. Edwards' home. No man was more respected and con¬ fided in by all - and, I may be permitted to add, none was more beloved by me.

"Benjamin J. Seward came to the State - or Territory rather - in 1817. He preceded me about a month at Shawneetown, but left immediately, and I did not meet him until I came to Edwardsville where he was cashier of the bank of Edwardsville, of which Benjamin Stephenson was president. My acquaintance with him was really of a later date when he was agent in Illinois for the American Sunday School Union. From this state he was pro¬ moted to the general agency for the Mississippi valley with headquarters at Cincinnati. He was called from this post by his brother, Wil¬ liam H. Seward, at the time the latter was elected governor of New York, to attend to his extensive land business.

"On the road from Edwardsville to Ripley, which was once expected to be a town, lived the family of Mr. Hoxsey, and some of them are there still (1864) being known as respect¬ able citizens. It was a common remark - among bachelors and widowers that there was always a beautiful daughter there, and so it became the nearest way to several places. At least four gentlemen with whom I have been acquainted, have drawn upon the bank of Sil¬ ver creek for their best treasure, viz : Benaiah Robinson, Dr. Weir of Edwardsville, Daniel Anderson and A. M. Blackburn. There is a cluster of descendants of the old gentleman, sons of his son, Tristam, in Perry county, in

"The Methodist and Baptist churches were early planted in Illinois and there were many preachers of these denominations who labored more or less in Madison county. The Bap¬ tists were mainly of the old school, or what we called the hyper-Calvinistic class. They were then popularly called Ironsides, but have since obtained the name of Hardshell. I do not approve of such nicknames and only men¬ tion them because I do not recall their own distinctive name.

"About 1819 Rev. John M. Peck, who had come to St. Louis before me, came also to itin¬ erate among them. He was an able man, as many can testify, and urged his missionary, Bible, Sunday school and temperance efforts with great success. But he was not received cordially by the brethren of the old churches. They considered him an innovator, and, after a few years he declared non-fellowship with them. Of the good brethren of the old side I need not add any more.

"The Methodist church furnished many specimens of able ministry and devotion to the work. Besides those already mentioned by me, who were, with one exception, local preachers, the best remembered by me were John Dew and Samuel H. Thompson. They were noble men. Mr. Dew was a man of great intellectual power. His strong appeals to the judgment, rather than to passions, were felt especially by thinkers. Samuel H. Thomp¬ son was a different style of man. His intel¬ lectual powers could not be esteemed equal, yet he could command an audience and produce more effect upon the public mind than any other man of his day. Governor Edwards said of him that he was the most powerful man with the people he knew, and that if he made politics a profession he would be wonderfully successful. But he was devoted to a higher work, and though, in later years, he allowed his name to be used as a candidate for lieuten¬ ant governor, he abstained from personal ef¬ fort and thus, it was thought, lost his election.

"Of Presbyterians, in those days, there were few, if we except the Cumberland Presby¬ terians who were active, efficient and success¬ ful. I have mentioned the John Barbers, father and son, as among the most efficient laborers in the denomination, though not the first in point of time. Three early Presbyterian ministers whom I recall were Benjamin Lowe who came to Illinois in 1817, and Mr. Graham, both edu¬ cated at Princeton. About the same time came Nicholas Patterson. All three labored in Madison county, but not for a long period. Other Presbyterian ministers of the county were Rev. Salmon Giddings, Daniel Gould, Edward Hollister, Orin Catlin, Daniel Green Sprague and Abraham Williamson, all men of note in this county between the years 1818 and 1822, and the first named until 1828, although his home was in St. Louis. He married Miss Almira Collins of Collinsville, Among the conspicuous persons in the early day was Na¬ thaniel Buckmaster. He was here, probably, before I became a citizen. My first recollec¬ tions of Edwardsville include two brick houses which he had put up, one for James Mason, in the rear of the old courthouse square, and one for Governor Edwards on the corner of the public square in the new town.''

Mr. Churchill supplements Mr. Lippincott's recollections with the following sketch of Col¬ onel Buckmaster, who, he says, was a success¬ ful candidate for the legislature in 1820: "His vote helped to charter the state bank in 1821. He turned his attention to the shrievalty in 1822, and was elected and regularly reelected every other year until 1834, when he ran for state senator and was defeated by Cyrus Ed¬ wards. In 1835, at a special election, he was chosen to fill a vacancy in the house of repre¬ sentatives occasioned by the resignation of Jesse B. Thomas, Jr. In 1836 he again turned his attention to the shrievalty and was elected by a plurality of 35 votes over Isaac Cox. In 1838 John Adams was elected by 85 majority over N. Buckmaster. In 1840 Andrew Miller was elected by 71 majority over Samuel A. Buckmaster (nephew of N. Buckmaster) and was several times reelected to the same office. Nathaniel Buckmaster was, sometime, post¬ master at Alton and, at another time, warden of the State Penitentiary, a position filled later by his nephew. In 1854 N. Buckmaster tried his luck, unsuccessfully, for congress.

"George Barnsback and Jacob Gonterman were respected farmers living south of Edwardsville. The latter, I believe, never occu¬ pied a public position, but by his high char¬ acter and the record of his descendants has left an excellent reputation." Mr. Churchill says of him: "In 1826 Jacob Gonterman came within, six votes of being elected county com¬ missioner, being defeated by his neighbor, Emanuel J. Leigh."

George Barnsback was an educated Ger¬ man gentleman, choosing to live a retired life on a large farm on the edge of Ridge prairie. Mr. Churchill says of him : "George Barns¬ back has never been an office seeker, but in 1819 he, Col. Sam. Judy and Rev. William Jones constituted the first county commis¬ sioners' court under the state government. In 1844-45 Mr. Barnsback, Newton D. Strong and myself had the honor of representing the county in the Legislature. My acquaintance with him commenced in November, 1817. I was traveling through the county in search of land whereon to make a home. A shower coming up I stopped at Capt. George Kinder's, but he said that his family were sick and he could not entertain me, but if I went on to his brother-in-law's (Barns) I could un¬ doubtedly be accommodated. Of course I went and found an industrious, intelligent

Hanoverian busily engaged in hammering shoe leather. He informed me of a vacant quarter section of land adjoining that of William F. Purviance. The latter politely rode with me out on the prairie and pointed out the land. The next day I went to Edwardsville and entered the land. I learned the 'Barns' was an abbreviation for Barns¬ back. Julius L. Barnsback, a nephew of the preceding, has been dead several years. Of course he was not our representative, but Julius A. Barnsback, youngest son of the venerable George Barnsback, has attained to that honor. He was sheriff of Madison county two years, commencing November, i860, and last year (1864) was captain of a company of 100-days men in his country's service. The Gonterman and Barnsback families are related by marriage.

"There was a man living in Edwardsville for a time named John Kain. His family resided in an old frame house nearly oppo¬ site where the Catholic church was after¬ wards built. Charles Slade married one of the daughters of John Kain. Slade moved eastwardly and laid out the town of Carlyle, at the point where the old Vincennes road crossed the Kaskaskia river. He named it after his grandmother. Mr. Slade was an active, handsome, gentlemanly young man. He held the office of United States marshal for the district of Illinois. In 1832 he was elected to congress, receiving a plurality of 389 votes over Governor Edwards, the next highest candidate. He was a candidate for reelection, but when on his way home from Washington he died of cholera near Vin¬ cennes, July 11, 1834.

"I cannot recollect the exact date of the advent of John Adams to this county but it was in the spring of 1823, or before, as his card in relation to wool carding and cloth dressing first appeared in the Edzvardsville Spectator of May 3, 1823. At one time he essayed the manufacture of woolen cloth, but it appears to me the latter venture did not succeed owing to the nature of the water. He was the first to introduce into this county, and, as far as I know into the state, the manu¬ facture of castor oil. In this he did an ex¬ tensive business, giving quite an impetus to industrial pursuits in Edwardsville. He was elected sheriff of Madison county in 1838."

"The election for delegates to the consti¬ tutional convention of 1818 took place at Ed¬ wardsville on the 6th, 7th and 8th of July of that year," writes Mr. Churchill. ''The votes were given viva voce. The candidates all professed to be opposed to slavery. At the close of the poll the vote stood : Abraham Pricket, 468; Joseph Borough, 392; Ben¬ jamin Stephenson, 324; George Cadwell, 171 ; William Jones, 158; Joseph Meacham, 38. The three first named were elected. The elec¬ tion under the new constitution took place September 17th, 18th and 19th at Edwards¬ ville.

"Representatives - Abraham Pricket, 552 ; Samuel Whiteside, 362; John Howard, 217; William Otwell, 199; John Y. Sawyer, 150; Thomas G. Davidson, 141 ; A. Baker, 4. The three first named were elected.

Concerning the first temperance move¬ ment in Madison county Mr. Lippincott makes the following mention: "Benjamin Spencer of Upper Alton, a mechanic and a man of unblemished character, was elected one of the county commissioners in 1822, but died soon after and an election was held early in 1823 to fill the vacancy. The anti¬ convention men were of opinion that our county was on the right side and were anxious to test the question at this special election. Thinking my position as an anti¬ slavery man was well known, they impor¬ tuned me to become a candidate as opposed to the convention, and at length, overcome by the solicitations of such men as Lockwood, McKee, Miller and others, I consented. Ac¬ cordingly I was the anti-convention candidate and was elected as such. It was an antici¬ patory triumph of the Free State party which was the whole aim in the campaign. The re¬ sult was curious. The regular members of the court were John Barber, an elder in the Cumberland Presbyterian church ; Hail Ma¬ son, an elder in the Presbyterian church in Edwardsville, and I, elected to fill the va¬ cancy, was an elder in the same church with him. We had but one term of court after I was elected, but that was enough to turn the world upside down in Madison county. In short, we had the effrontery to refuse licenses to sell liquors - remember this was before the temperance movement - not absolutely, nor to all, but to every applicant who, we be¬ lieved intended to keep a mere grog shop, however he might parade his bond to pro¬ vide lodging for travelers and stabling and provender for their horses, according to the letter of the law. They stormed and threat¬ ened, but we calmly persisted and prevailed. No harm ever came of it. It may be won¬ dered how we three men, not learned in the law, durst assume the responsibility to refuse licenses to such as produced exactly the bond the law required, when the universal belief was that the granting of such license was im¬ perative on us. So the applicants and their friends insisted, but we persisted. Not to claim too much honor for the court I will reveal that we acted under the best legal ad¬ vice. It was Samuel D. Lockwood (later judge of the supreme court), who, as I was going to take my seat in the court, informed me that it was my duty and the duty of the court to guard the public interest on that point, and that we had the legal power to re¬ fuse all applications when we judged the pub¬ lic interest demanded it. To him belongs the honor of the first temperance movement I know of, in the state. It may not be imperti¬ nent to add that all of the three then county commissioners afterwards became preachers of the Gospel in three different denomina¬ tions, Cumberland, Methodist and Presby¬ terian."