Madison County, Illinois - Chapter 19: Advance Guard of Civilization, 1912

First Land Owners in the County - First Permanent Farm in Alton Township - Permanent Pioneers - Meeting of South and North - Samuel Judy, First Permanent Settler Tile Gillhams, Whitesides and Preuitts - Other Pioneers - First Settlers by Townships - Governor Reynolds' Century-Old Picture - Joseph Gillespie on Early Times - Samuel P. Gillham's Recollection - George Churchill and George Cadwell.

Madison county was first seen by white men in 1673, when seven Frenchmen floated down the Mississippi in canoes, as stated in a pre¬ vious chapter, with the Jesuit missionary Father Marquette and his companion Joliet as leaders, to find a water route from the great lakes "to the western ocean and a short north¬ west passage to China." But it is some eighty years later before we find any authentic rec¬ ord of actual settlements within the present bounds of Madison county. About 1750 set¬ tlements were made by the French on Chou¬ teau and Cabaret islands in the Mississippi river, probably with the intention of being permanent; for an apple orchard and pear trees were found there about 1800 by the earliest American pioneers. The statement is made by Governor Reynolds that "the French had resided upon the Big Island in the Missis¬ sippi below the mouth of the Missouri at in¬ tervals for fifty or sixty years before (1804). Squire LeCroix, who died in Cahokia an old man a few years since, was born on that island (Chouteau)."

Early in the nineteenth century, congress appointed a commission to examine the land titles of this region, and many portions of their reports are of interest, as showing who the first settlers were and where they located their homes. Such portions of the Kaskaskia reports as are of interest in the present sketch are quoted below, as found in the second vol¬ ume of the American State papers :

"Claim 1865; O. C.,* Alexis Buvatte; P. C.,f Nicholas Jarrot; 400 acres situated on the river l'Abbe nine miles above Cahokia." The river l'Abbe here spoken of is Cahokia creek, so-called from the monastery, on Monk's Mound, which was once called "Abbey Hill." The claim, however, is some distance from the Cahokia creek, being on the bank of the Mis¬ sissippi in township 3-10.

"Claim 519: O. C., Alexander Denis; P. C., William Bolin Whitesides ; 400 acres, on Winn's run," etc. This was in township 4-8, section 20, on the bluffs, in what appears to have been the most attractive part of the county, in the "Goshen" settlement, explained later.

"Claim 561: O. C., Clement Drury; P. C., heirs of Samuel Worley, 400 acres." This is mostly in section 6 of township 3-9, and in¬ cludes the farm of Samuel Squires, upon which, in 1865, were pear trees seventy-five years old.

"Claim 133: O. C., Jean Baptiste Gonville, alias Rappellay; P. C., Nicholas Jar rot; 400 acres. Affirmed to Jarrot. Situated at Can¬ teen, about ten miles above Cahokia." This claim includes "l'Abbe" itself, the monastery of the monks of LaTrappe, who from 1810 to 1813 resided there. The claim lies mostly in sections 35 and 36 of 3-9.

"Claim 338: O. C., Louis Bibo; P. C., Sam¬ uel Judy, 100 acres. Affirmed." Four claims were located together, mostly in sections 32 and 33 of 4-8, by Samuel Judy. On this farm an orchard was set out in 1802 or 1803.

"Claim 1258: O. C., Jean B. Girand, alias Pierre; P. C., John Rice Jones; 100 acres. Affirmed and conveyed by Jones to Thomas Gillham and located in Goshen adjoining Sam¬ uel Judy and Isham (Isom) Gillham.'' This is in sections 4 and 5 of 3-8.

"Claim 991: O. C., Pierre Lejoy; P. C., Thomas Kirkpatrick; 100 acres. Affirmed." Located on Cahokia creek. This lies mostly in sections 2 and 3 of 4-8, and includes the northwestern part of Edwardsville.

Of the sixty-nine claims passed upon by the commissioners between 1809 and 1813 twentyone were located in Nameoki township, eigh¬ teen in Collinsville, eight in Edwardsville eight in Chouteau, and the remainder were scattered.

"four arpents in front by forty in depth at Piasa, so called, in virtue of an improvement made by Jean Baptiste Cardinal." Edgar showed a deed from Cardinal, dated 17 Sep¬ tember, 1795, witnessed by LaViolette - and acknowledged in April, 1795, five months be¬ fore its execution. And while Cardinal had made his mark in signing this deed, Edgar presented, as proof of the fairness of the transaction, a letter from Cardinal, offering Edgar this land and signed in a very fair hand by Cardinal himself !

From a perusal of claim 2056, as described above, it is seen that as early as 1783 the Frenchman Jean Baptiste Cardinal was living at "Piasa," "five or six leagues above Caho¬ kia ;" this was doubtless on the present site of Alton. Also we have the corroborative evi¬ dence of Maj. Solomon Preuitt who found, in 1806, when he immigrated to Madison county, "a French trading house near the site (sixty years later) of the Alton House, a little looserock house roofed with elm bark." This oc¬ cupation was not permanent.

But the French seem not to have come into Madison county in any considerable numbers as they did in the two older counties of St. Clair and Randolph, and those of that nation¬ ality who did come did not remain long. To one Ephraim O'Conner belongs the honor of being the first American settler within this county ; he settled on claim 338, in section 5 of the present Collinsville township in 1800, and there built a log cabin, about six miles south¬ west of Edwardsville. This immediate neigh¬ borhood was known as the "Goshen" settle¬ ment. O'Conner soon sold his claim to Colonel Samuel Judy, who in 1801 became the first per¬ manent early settler of Madison county. Al¬ most coincident with the coming of the Judy family, there appear, in the list of early set¬ tlers, the well known family names Whiteside,

Speaking in a general way, the first perma¬ nent residents of this county came from the southern states, Kentucky, Virginia, Tennes¬ see, and the Carolinas, and they found their first homes in the southwestern portion of the county. The reasons for their emigration from the older states to this Illinois territory were probably the same which still impel man to leave his home ties - the desire for more prosperous surroundings, the love of adven¬ ture, the hope of securing for himself and his children good homes in a new land; and they were encouraged in their hopes by the mar¬ velous tales brought back by travelers who had seen something of the then socalled "West."

With this first wave of immigration from the southern states came traces of that mon¬ strous problem which was later to shake this nation to its foundations, negro slavery; for many of these immigrants brought slaves with them, with full permission of the authorities. While the ordinance of 1787 prohibited the in¬ troduction of slavery here, under the provis¬ ions of the statute passed after the organiza¬ tion of Indian territory (of which Illinois was a part from 1800 to 1809) any slave-owner was allowed to bring his slaves provided he appeared with them, within thirty days after their entry into the territory, before the clerk of the court of common pleas and there filed an agreement between owner and slave that, after serving his master a prescribed number of years, the negro should be free. Col. Sam¬ uel Judy brought two slaves with him, and no doubt many early settlers from the south took advantage of the above provision of law to keep their slaves in Illinois for at least a few years.

states, about 1817. The Yankee found that he, as well as his southern brother, could get to the Ohio river, float down on its current and reach the fertile lands of the western country; and his desire for bettering his condition was equally as strong. As soon as the two classes, easterners and southerners, came to under¬ stand one another, they blended fairly well and worked for the common purpose of bettering themselves and their communities, but it is said that at first there was much prejudice against the New Englanders. The question of slavery seems to have caused the chief clash between the two classes of immigrants, and it was but a few years - 1822 to 1824 - that a miniature Civil war was fought at the ballot box, when the proslavery leaders attempted to call a con¬ vention to frame a new state constitution in which it should be expressly stipulated that Illinois should be a slave state. In that elec¬ tion the vote of Madison county was : Pro¬ slavery, 351 ; antislavery, 553.

Returning to the earlier days, Col. Samuel Judy is deserving of special mention as the first pei manent settler of the county. He was of Swiss parentage, and was a resident of Kentucky before immigrating to Illinois. With his father, Jacob Judy, he lived at Kaskaskia from 1788 to 1792; then moved to the present Monroe county, where the father died in 1807. Samuel Judy, the only son, was born in 1773 and died in 1838. He was prominent in both the civil and military history of Madi¬ son county, being captain of a company of rangers in 1812, and being elected the same year as the first member to represent this county in the first territorial legislature at Kaskaskia. On his claim, No. 338, he manu¬ factured brick, and in 1808 began the erection of a brick house, which is still standing a short distance northwest of Peters station. A photograph of this century-old house, taken in 1908, appears with this text. The stone tablet, seen in the photograph in the east gable, shows date 1811, and was inserted in the wall about twenty-five years ago when the wall was repaired. It is said, with good au¬ thority, that during a severe thunder storm, in 1811, a bolt of lightning entered this east chimney and killed one of Colonel Judy s slaves, who was roasting corn by the fire¬ place. Colonel Judy's oldest son, Jacob Judy, was register of the land office at Edwardsin Madison county coming soon after Col¬ onel Judy, and he induced his brothers John and William to come later, and still later an¬ other brother, Isaac. The sad and thrilling search which James Gillham conducted for five years, hunting for his wife and children who had been stolen by the Indians in Ken¬ tucky, would form an intensely interesting chapter in itself. After living near Harrisonville, Illinois, from 1797 to 1802, James Gillham came to Chouteau township, section one, ville from 1845 to ^49, and another son, Col. Thomas Judy, represented the county of Mad¬ ison in the legislature in 1852. Many direct descendants of the Judy family are still resi¬ dents in Madison county.

An early census of this county would show a vast preponderance of Gillhams. In Hair's Gazetteer is found an exhaustive biographi¬ cal sketch of this family, tracing the lineage back through the Carolinas to Ireland. It is said that 500 anti-slavery votes were cast, in the 1824 convention fight before mentioned, by the Gillhams throughout Illinois. James Gillham was the first of the family to settle

The Whiteside brothers, Samuel and Joel, came to the county from North Carolina in 1803 and settled in the Goshen neighborhood in the northeast part of Collinsville township. They were sons of John Whiteside who had come to Monroe county in 1793. The son Samuel was in command of a company of rangers in 1812, and was commissioned a brigadier general in the Black Hawk war by Gov. Reynolds. In 1818, he was Madison county's first representative in the state legislature.

of this large family, which comprised six sons and four daughters. He had served in the Revolutionary war, later moved to Virginia, then to Tennessee and in 1806 to Madison county, where he settled on the Sand Ridge prairie three miles east of Alton. From his youngest son, Solomon Preuitt, who was born in 1790, much of the early history and remi¬ niscences of this county has been obtainable, through interviews with him before his death in 1875.

An early resident of the Goshen settlement was John T. Lusk, a South Carolinian who immigrated in 1805 and entered land two and a half miles southwest of Edwardsville. He married Lucretia Gillham and soon moved to a tract of land later included in the Fair Ground property west of and adjoining Ed¬ wardsville. Mr. Lusk was a member of the 1812 rangers and was a lieutenant in the Black Hawk war.

William Jones, a Virginian and a Baptist minister, was a resident of this county as early as 1806, and was the head of a large family, many of the descendants being now scattered over the county. He was a mem¬ ber of both the territorial and state legisla¬ tures, and also was captain of a company of rangers in 1812. He settled on the sand ridge in Wood river township and soon afterward moved to Fort Russell township.

Leaving now the consideration of these pio¬ neer families whose names have ever been familiar to nearly all the households of the county, it will be profitable to mention briefly others of the earliest settlers in each of the twenty-three townships of Madison county, according to the best information obtainable.

Helvetia. - Joseph Duncan settled in the extreme southeast part of this township in 1804, and was soon followed by the Higgins, Hobbs, and Howard families. The influx of

Saline. - In 1809 the widow Howard, with her sons Abraham and Joseph, came from Tennessee and made their home in section 31. John Giger came later and settled north¬ west of the present Highland.

Leef. - James Pearce, a native of North Carolina, in 1818 made a permanent home in section 34, on the east side of Silver creek. The Allison brothers and Thomas Johnson came later to section 33.

New Douglas. - Daniel Funderburk, immi¬ grating from South Carolina, was the first set¬ tler, in 1819, in section 7, followed by John Carlock, in 1831, in section 19.

St. Jacob. - The Lindly and Chilton fami¬ lies came here in 1810. John Lindly, a Ken¬ tuckian, was probably the first settler, and lived first in the southwest quarter of section 18, but moved later to the prairie farther east.

Marine - Maj. Isaac Ferguson and John Warwick came to section 33 in 1813. In 1817 Capt. Rowland P. Allen chose this township as a home, and a large company of his friends, several of them sea-captains, followed him, the Blakemans, Breaths, Ellisons, Masons, and others.

Alhambra. - William Hinch, a Kentuckian, settled on the west bank of Silver creek in section 19 in 1817, and William Hoxcey came to section 18 in the same year. James Farris and Andrew Keown were other early settlers.

Olive. - In 1817, Abram Carlock made his home near the south line of this township, in section 34, and in the same year John Her¬ rington, Jr., came to section 7. The Street, Keown, and McKittrick families were also pioneers in Olive township.

Jarvis - In 1803, the Seybold family came from Virginia and the Gregg family from Kentucky. Robert Seybold settled in section 8. Other early arrivals in Jarvis township

Pin Oak. - Joseph Bartlett, a Virginian by birth, was Pin Oak's earliest resident, coming in 1809 to section 9, and the well-known Barnsback family came very soon afterward to section 31. Paul Beck, George Coventry and Jacob Gonterman made their homes here, also, at a very early date.

Hamel. - In 1811, a Mr. Ferguson came to section 7, just below the crossing of Cahokia creek by the Alton-Greenville road, but moved away the next year. Henry Keley and the Aldrich brothers, Robert and Anson, built a cabin in section 29 in 1817, and in that year Thomas Barnett made a home in the south¬ west quarter of section 32.

Omph Ghent. - David Swett settled in sec¬ tion 31, in 1820, near the old Ornph Ghent church. Other immigrants of early date were M. Handlon, Charles Tindall, and Samuel H. Denton.

Collinsville. - Aside from the Judy and Whiteside families already mentioned above, the Casterlines were among the first to move into this township, in section 32. Abner Kelly and John Turner were other early arrivals.

Edwardsville. - John Gillham, who came from South Carolina with his five sons in 1802, was probably the first permanent settler in this township, in section 19- Thomas Kirk¬ patrick came in 1805, erecting a cabin in the extreme northwest part of the city of Ed¬ wardsville, and his house was chosen as the seat of justice when, in 1812, the county was organized. Abraham Prickett came in 1808; and in the year previous Robert Reynolds of Tennessee, and later of Randolph county, Illi¬ nois, bought a farm a few miles southwest of Edwardsville, bringing with him a nineteenyear-old son, John Reynolds, to be known in later history as Governor Reynolds.

Newman of Pennsylvania settled in section 34, and in 1806 Major Isaac Ferguson came to section 18, but soon sold out to Rev. William Jones and went to the Marine settlement, as noted above. John Springer and William Montgomery were other early arrivals not previously named.

Moro. - The first settler here was Zenas Webster, in section 34, where, in 1820, he built a cabin, on the east side of the "Springfield road." Thomas Luman and Thomas Wood came soon after, followed in 1831 by Louis D. Palmer, who settled in section 28 with his family, among them the future Gov¬ ernor John M. Palmer.

Nameoki. - Patrick Hanniberry and the Wiggins family came to Six-Mile prairie in 1801. Nathan Carpenter settled in section 16 in 1804; in 1805 came Isaac Gillham and Thomas Cummings, and in 1808 Amos Squire. Many of the earliest land claims, recorded in Kaskaskia largely by French pioneers, were situated in this township.

Chouteau. - In addition to the French es¬ tates on the islands in the river and the immi¬ gration of the Gillhams already noted, Andrew Emmert, in section 33, was a pioneer, coming to this township in 1807.

Wood River. - Thomas Rattan came from Ohio in 1804 to section 13 of Wood River township, giving the name "Rattan's Prairie" to that neighborhood. Toliver Wright, a Vir¬ ginian and a captain of rangers in 1812, came to the western part of this township in 1806 and in 1808 Abel Moore, born in North Caro¬ lina and later a resident of Kentucky, settled in the northern part of the township, followed a year later by his brothers William and George. The Davidson brothers, natives of North Carolina, settled in 1806 near the Wanda corner. The Preuitt and Jones pi¬ oneers have already been named.

V enice. - This township was settled as early as 1804, but by whom is uncertain. The ear¬ lier inhabitants have stated that one Daniel Lockhart was living in this township as early as 1812, and that John Atkins lived in section 1 about that date, or possibly as early as 1807. George Cadwell was a resident of section 13 at a very early date.

Alton. - Barring the Frenchman Cardinal, this township had no permanent settlers until 1810 when a log cabin was built by two men, named Price and Colter, on the hill above Hunter's spring (northeast corner of Second and Spring streets.) Few permanent homes were established here until Col. Rufus Easton, the first postmaster of St. Louis, realizing the natural advantages of the location, platted a town site and induced immigration. James Shields and Maj. Charles W. Hunter were among the pioneers, Shields' branch and Hunterstown receiving their names from them.

Godfrey. - Nathan Scarritt and Joseph Rey¬ nolds came to this township in 1826. The former was a brickmaker and built a brickhouse on his farm, adjoining Godfrey village; he was a Yankee by birth and had resided in Edwardsville five years before settling in this township. The Mason, Gillman, and Ingham families were other pioneers. Capt. Benjamin Godfrey came in 1834.

In reviewing the life and customs of the early settlers, it is well to bear in mind that the pioneers of a century ago were in no wise different from the people of today, ex¬ cept in so far as the material conditions and circumstances of life may have affected them. The pioneer of the early nineteenth century was possessed of as much human nature as the citizen of the twentieth century, and hu¬ man nature changes little, if any, with the passing of the years. One hundred years ago the average man was possessed of the same vices and virtues as the man of today, was actuated by the same impulses and motives, and cherished the same love of home and family. Ambition and indifference, laziness and industry, common sense and its opposite, were human attributes then as now. How¬ ever, if human nature is capable of elevation, let us hope that a century of marvelous ma¬ terial progress has wrought some improve¬ ment among us.

Gov. John Reynolds, himself a resident of Madison county in 1807 and subsequent years, gives, in his "My Own Times," a very accurate and interesting picture of the condi¬ tions of life in this county a century ago. He had come with his parents to Illinois from Tennessee in 1800, first living at Kaskaskia; in the spring of 1807, at the age of nineteen, he moved with his parents to what he de¬ scribes as a "plantation in the Goshen settle¬ ment, situated at the foot of the Mississippi bluff, three or four miles southwest of Ed¬ wardsville ; and there part of the family made a crop of corn before the rest moved up."

In speaking of the immigrants from the Carolinas, Virginia, Tennessee, and Ken¬ tucky, Gov. Reynolds says: "Although the pioneers knew little and cared less about lit¬ erature, yet they entertained just and sound principles of liberty. No people delighted in the full enjoyment of a free government more than they did. This idea of liberty gave them a personal independence and confidence in themselves that marked their actions through life. This notion of excessive independence frequently brought them into conflicts and personal combats with each other. It also gave them a trait of character that made them believe they were adequate and competent to any emergency, and frequently commenced enterprises above their power to accomplish.

forced on the pioneers intelligence and enter¬ prise. It enabled them to withstand the pri¬ vations and hardships of the settlement of a new country, and the shocks of war itself.

"The necessities of the occasion often forced the backwoods people into singularand different employments and conditions of life. Sometimes they were compelled to act as mechanics, to make their ploughs, harness, and other farming implements; also to tan leather. At times they were forced to hunt game to sustain their families. In war, when they were called on to defend the frontiers, they frequently unhitched their horses from the plough, mounted them and appeared with their guns, ready and willing to march to any part of the globe to chastise the Indians. When they needed meal and the mills were dry, they pounded the corn in mortars into meal, or ate potatoes, if they were grown, without bread. The pioneers were exceed¬ ingly kind and friendly when a log cabin was to be raised. Asked or not, they gathered together and enjoyed a backwoods frolic in putting it up. In many settlements it re¬ quired every man in it to be present at a 'house raising,' or otherwise the labor was too heavy. The hands on the ground handed up the logs, and the cabin was generally covered before night. The clapboards to cover the house were split out of large trees, and placed on round poles called 'ribs,' and weight poles were laid on the boards to secure them to their places. Not a nail or iron of any sort, hinge or anything of iron, was seen about the house.

"Often the emigrant and family lived in a camp until his house was up and covered. Old and young indulged in much sport and amuse¬ ment at these house raisings. The amuse¬ ments occurred generally when the axemen were notching down the corners. The young ones were jumping, wrestling, or running foot-races. Leap-frog was often indulged in

"Home-made wool hats were the common wear. Fur hats were not common, and scarcely a boot was seen. The covering of the feet in winter was mostly moccasins made of deer skin, and shoe packs of tanned leather. In the summer the greater portion of the young people, and many of the old, went bare¬ footed. The substantial and universal out¬ side wear was the blue linsey hunting shirt, made with wide sleeves, open before, with ample size, so as to envelop the body with its folds, almost twice around. A belt was mostly used, to keep the garment close and neat around the person. Many pioneers wore white blanket coats in winter. They are made loose, and a cap or cape to turn over the head in extreme cold weather. The shirts worn by the Americans were generally home¬ made, of flax and cotton material. Looms and flax breaks were at that day quite com¬ mon, and cotton gins made of wooden rollers. The pantaloons of the masses were generally made of deer skins and linsey. Coarse blue cloth was at times made into pantaloons. The factory goods from New England and Kentucky reached Illinois about 1818, and then looms, cotton, etc., disappeared - spin¬ ning also ceased then. Almost every pioneer had a rifle and carried it almost wherever he went. Linsey, neat and fine, manufactured at home, composed generally the outside gar¬ ments of the females. The ladies had the lin¬ sey colored and wove it to suit their fancy. A bonnet, composed of calico or some gaily checked goods (how little human nature changes!) was worn on the head when in the open air. Jewelry was uncommon. A gold ring was an ornament not often seen. . . .

"The improvements of farms kept about equal pace with the increase and extension of the settlements. Almost every inhabitant was a farmer, and made some improvements, mostly on the public domain. . . .

"The whole country commenced, in a slow degree, to change its character. The extreme backwoods habits of hunting, sporting, gam¬ ing, and idleness, were gradually laid aside, and more industry, more cultivation of the earth and more ambition to accumulate wealth, commenced ; the rifle and bee-bate were ex¬ changed for the plough and the jack-plane; cabins were sometimes adorned with stone chimneys, and the dogs for hunting were dis¬ missed ; band mills, propelled by horse power, took the place of the old hand mill and mor¬ tars; schoolhouses were, to a small extent, erected, and the Gospel preached in some sec¬ tions of the country; the Bibles and spellingbooks took the place of the rifles and the steel traps, and a savage wilderness commenced to yield to Christianity and civilization.

"All species of gaming were indulged in by the original inhabitants of Illinois. It was considered at that day both fashionable and honorable to game for money; but as gentle¬ men, for amusement and high and chivalrous sports. Shooting matches, with the Ameri¬ cans, were great sport. Almost every Satur¬ day in the summer, a beef or some other arti¬ cle would be shot for in 'the rural districts,' and the beef killed and parceled out the same night. In the early days of Illinois horse¬ racing was a kind of mania with almost all people. The level and beautiful prairies seemed to persuade this class of amusements. Foot racing, jumping and wrestling were prac¬ tised by the Americans, and many bets were made on foot-races as well as on the horse races. Working frolics in pioneer times were also common. The whole neighborhood as¬ sembled and split rails, cleared land, plowed up whole fields, and the like. In the evenings of these meetings, the sports of throwing the mall, pitching quoits, and the like, closed the happy day. The females assembled also and were engaged in quilting, carding wool, and talking. Female gossiping was conducted at these gatherings in the same spirit as they are all over the world. At these places these ex¬ pressions were common : 'Do not repeat this,' 'It may not be true,' 'This is a secret between you and me.'

"In early days, Sunday was observed by the Americans only as a day of rest from work. They were employed in hunting, fish¬ ing, getting up their stock, hunting bees, breaking young horses, shooting, racing, and the like. ... In many settlements there were no clergymen or houses of worship. The older the settlement was, generally, the more religious worship was observed on it. The aged people everywhere remained in their houses on the Sabbath, and read the Bible and other books."

While addressing the Old Settlers' Reunion of Madison county, at the county fair in 1875, Judge Joseph Gillespie gave the follow¬ ing excellent ideas of early life in this county: "They tanned their own leather and made their own shoes. Every article of a man's clothing was made at home. Cotton, flax, and wool were all grown in the country, and the women picked, carded, spun and wove it into garments for themselves and families. Every house was a miniature manufactory. Such a thing as a silk dress was unknown, and I think the girls were as becomingly dressed then as now. These were the women who made modest wives and mothers, and, with half a chance, comfortable homes. They knew nothing of trashy writings, but care¬ fully read their Bibles and were posted in the history of their own and kindred nations. In my early days small grain was all harvested with a sickle, when to cut a fourth of an acre was a good day's work. Then the grain was threshed with a flail or tramped out by horses and winnowed in a sheet. They had no cook¬ ing stoves nor ranges, and no sewing ma¬ chines. The old settlers were thoroughly im¬ bued with the correct principles upon which

Republican government is based. No matter how lawless a man might be in his practice, his theory was right. He never claimed a right to break the law because he did not ap¬ prove of it. If he did not approve of the Sunday or the liquor law, for instance, he would say that he would do all in his power to have them repealed or modified, but never did it enter his head that he had a right to disregard them while they were on the statute books.

"The old settlers were remarkably tolerant on the subject of religion. They were a highly sociable people and diligently attended all the log-rollings, house-raisings, harvest¬ ings, corn-shuckings, weddings, musters, horse races, and so on. This they did partly to pick up whatever news was afloat, but principally because they were fond of the ex¬ citement. They were remarkably hospitable, would importune travelers to stop with them, and would take offense if offered pay.

"The old settlers did not generally work continuously. They recreated a good deal. The houses were generally indifferent, and the stock were without shelter in the winter, as a rule. Horses, hogs, and cattle were the principal commodities, from the sale of which money was raised to pay the taxes, doctor s bills, blacksmith work, etc. Store goods and groceries were paid for with butter, beeswax, eggs and peltries. The people had great dif¬ ficulty to make ends meet. Money was in¬ tensely scarce. Every dollar that could be raked or scraped together was placed in the land office and expended on the seaboard. Corn was frequently as low as 5 cents, wheat 3 714 cents, cows and calves $5-00, beef and pork 1 1/2 cents per pound.

"We did not suffer from the long droughts in the fall then, as now, and we had fewer frosts. Nearly all the hay was cut from the wild prairies. Cotton, tobacco and castor beans were cultivated. Paroquets were com¬ mon; also gophers abounded everywhere."

From the reminiscences of Samuel P. Gillham (born in 1809 in Chouteau township) are taken the following extracts : "The facili¬ ties for getting produce to market in early times were mainly a yoke of oxen and a wooden cart. There were a few large fourhorse wagons in the country, which the peo¬ ple moved to the country in. Later a few of the well-to-do farmers got what was then called a Dearborn wagon, drawn by one horse. These were their pleasure carriages; they were without springs, but were considered wonderful institutions. As to provisions, they had meat, cornbread, very coarse flour, milk, butter, honey, and vegetables. The re¬ ligious privileges were much better than the educational The Methodist itinerants had a preaching place in almost all the settlements of the territory; ever after the fall of 1830 they came around about once in four weeks. And yearly they had the great camp meeting, and nearly everybody attended. They were often seasons of great spiritual power, strong men falling to the ground, and occasionally some would be exercised by what was then known as the jerks."

No account of pioneer life in Madison county is complete without mention of the struggles which the early settlers underwent with the "ague." It became a matter of com¬ mon belief, founded on the teaching of ex¬ perience, that each immigrant must endure a term of "seasoning" to this climate, as a siege of chills and fever was sure to visit him either the first or second year of his life here. In fact the settlement of Illinois was some¬ what retarded by the prevalent idea that Illi¬ nois was an unhealthy region. According to Governor Reynolds' sketches, Illinois was once termed a graveyard ! He ascribes the prevalence of ague to the strong vegetation, so abundant in the uncultivated fields and swamps.

In addition to those early settlers already mentioned, there were other distinguished residents of Madison county in her earlier days, who played an important part in the history of the state and whose prominence and strong personality cause them to stand out in bold relief in the county's early history.

George Churchill and Dr. George Cadwell deserve especial mention, and should be named together, because of their faithful and effective opposition, as members of the state legislature from this county, to the pro-slavery plan to hold a constitutional convention in 1824. George Churchill was a Vermonter by birth and a printer by profession. His career is spoken of in a previous chapter.

Dr. George Cadwell was born in Connecti¬ cut in 1773, and acquired his medical educa¬ tion in Rutland, Vermont. He removed to Kentucky in 1799 with his father-in-law, the celebrated congressman from Vermont, and later from Kentucky, Col. Matthew Lyon, but remained in Kentucky only three years. The institution of slavery was so distasteful to Dr. Cadwell and to his brother-in-law, John Mes¬ senger (the pioneer surveyor of St. Clair and Madison counties), that in 1802 they came to Illinois. After a very hard journey across country in wagons encountering furious storms, in one of which the wagon in which Mrs. Cadwell and two small children were riding was completely overturned, Dr. Cadwell finally reached the banks of the Mississippi, where in the present Venice township, a short distance north of the Merchants' Bridge site, he purchased 200 acres of the south end of the Nicholas Jarrot survey. Here he built a cabin and practiced his profession in connec¬ tion with farming. St. Louis was then a thriv¬ ing village of 1,200 people, mostly French. The first record we have of the Doctor's public services is that of his appointment as a justice of the peace, on July 9, 1809, which appoint¬ ment was continued by Gov. Ninian Edwards when Madison county was established in 1812. In 1813 he was appointed judge of the court of common pleas of Madison county, and on December 24, 1814, he received a Christmas gift from the governor of the territory in the shape of an appointment as judge of the county court.

Shortly after this promotion, Dr. Cadwell removed to Edwardsville, purchasing from Thomas Kirkpatrick on July 1, 1815, two lots containing the dwelling which was by the proclamation of Governor Edwards made the seat of justice of Madison county. This prop¬ erty is described as "lots 27 and 28 in the town of Edwardsville, lying on the west side of Alain sti eet and on the north side Cross street No. 5, containing one-quarter acre each." On Januaiy 11, 1816, Dr. Cadwell was appointed county judge "during good behavior for three years, and in September, 1818, he was chosen Madison county's first representative in the state senate, convening at Kaskaskia. In drawing lots at the first session for two or four-year terms, the Doctor drew a two-year term, but in 1820 the voters of Madison county returned him to the senate for a full four-year term. Prior to the close of his second term, Dr. Cadwell removed to the present Morgan county, a part of the then Madison county.

We are proud to note that the names of George Churchill and Dr. George Cadwell are among the fifteen legislators who, in the mem¬ orable struggle in 1822 to 1824 to exclude slav¬ ery from this state, signed the brave and im¬ passioned appeal to the voters of the state, pleading for justice for the colored man.

While eight governors of Illinois have, at various periods of their lives, lived within the confines of Madison county, namely, Gover¬ nors Coles, Edwards, Reynolds, Duncan, Car- lin. Ford, Palmer and Deneen, special mention should be made, in any account of pioneer days in Madison county, of the three first named. Of Governor Reynolds some mention has been made in this chapter. A sketch of Governor Edwards and his administration is contained in chapter VI, and of Governor Coles in chapter VII.