Madison County, Illinois - Chapter 62: Helvetia Township, 1912

The ancient history of the county, previous to the, settlement by white people, being noted elsewhere, this sketch of Helvetia township is made to begin with the era of white set¬ tlers, and in doing so, for the sake of avoid¬ ing unnecessary length, only the most essen¬ tial of interesting details, not already men¬ tioned elsewhere, will here be considered.

The township is situated in the southeast corner of Madison county, designated as No. 3 north, 5 west of the 3d principal meridian. From 1812 to 1817 it was part of Sugar Creek precinct, and upon the organization of Bond county made a part of old Silver Creek; from 1840 to 1876 it was called Highland precinct; and upon the adoption of township organiza¬ tion (1876) it received its present name - Helvetia. Official surveys record the area of the township at 22,998 26/100 acres.

It is claimed that the first settlers came from Kentucky and North Carolina in 1804, locat¬ ing in the southeast corner of the township, among them Joseph Duncan with his wife and first child (born during their trip to Illinois). At about the same time the Higgins and Hobbs families settled in Clinton county, about onehalf mile south of the Madison county line. The old lady Mrs. Hobbs, however, contra¬ dicted the 1804 date by having declared that the settlement only began in 1808, so that there appears to be an uncertainty regarding the year of first settlement. Like Jos. Duncan, James Good, Gilbert Watson, and Jonathan L. Harris also settled permanently on Sugar creek. Duncan had been a ranger during the war, and at the conclusion of peace in 1814 located in section 15, on the east side of the creek. He was appointed justice of the peace in 1817, and when in 1827 the office became elective, he was chosen by the citizens from term to term for almost forty years. For many years he also had a post office at his place, acting as postmaster. He died in 1852. He raised a family of five children, and his grandson, Joseph Duncan, is the present owner of the place, the fine Pleasant Hill farm, one of the best in that section. It has been in possession of the family to this day, and is the oldest farm in the township. Other settlers, who located', in the east side before the foreign settlers began to come in the thirties, were : Herbert and John Hobbs, George and Lee Cuddy, Alexander Forrister (who was a ranger during the Black Hawk war), James Gingles or Jingles, John L. Hearin, James and Norris W. Ramsay,*

* Norris W. Ramsay, father of Wm. S. Ramsay now living in Highland, was a great worker, who, as road supervisor, built the road from the east line of the township to Highland, and became the owner of 1,016 acres of land, improving it into an excellent farm around the heights just north of Sebastopol.

Robin Craig, John Gracey, Allen Bryant, B. Gullick, Thos. Savage, Adam Kile, Calvin Lee, Oliver Hoyt. The earliest of these settlers lived on their lands many years as squatters before they entered them. Wm. Morrison, a merchant and contractor of Randolph county, became the first bona fide land owner in the township, having entered section 36 on April 10, 1815, for speculation without locating on the land.

In those early days deer were abundant in herds, occasionally the elk was seen, and car¬ nivorous animals (such as panthers, bears and lynx) lived in the woods, while at night the howling of wolves could be heard in the fields and forests. The Carolina parrot was still seen on the trees, and every spring innumer¬ able aquatic birds were found on the streams and lakes. With such wilderness the first set¬ tlers had to content themselves and build their cabins. They cultivated only a few acres of land, depending for their subsistence mainly upon the game in forest and field. Their wants were few, and they were satisfied to live in peace, but had to be continually on guard against marauding Indians. Up to 1812 the Indians, usually Kickapoos, were friendly, but with the beginning of the war with Eng¬ land they became hostile, plundering, stealing horses and murdering, so that the settlers often had to take refuge in so-called forts, consist¬ ing of a number of log cabins enclosed by a row of strong posts. One of these forts (Chilton's) was on Silver creek, about two miles west of the present town of St. Jacob, and another (Cox's) near old Aviston. In this township Mrs. Jesse Bailes was shot and killed by Indians on Sugar creek in 1814.

The first white child born in the township was H. M. Duncan, Dec. 16, 1816. In 1824, Geo. Ramsay taught school in a private cabin on Sugar creek, followed by Jas. A. Ramsay

Up to 1830 not more than 25 families were in the township, cultivating about 500 seres, each family about 20 acres, 4° acres to culti¬ vate being deemed risky. Cotton was raised for home use up to 1830, each family about from one to two acres.

Settlements in the western part of the township began later and were not so numer¬ ous until the European immigrants began to come during the thirties and forties, who readily understood the advantages of the prairie lands, so that the greater part of new arrivals then settled there. The Koepflis and Suppigers, who started the colonization and development of Saline and Helvetia townships in 1831, but whose greater interests were on the Helvetia side, first looked for locations in Missouri, then came over to Illinois, go¬ ing as far as Vandalia, but upon returning decided to settle here, the Koepflis buying (Oct. 15, 1831) their first land (450 acres) from a book agent by name of Haugh. Solo¬ mon Koepflis, in his historical sketch of High¬ land (issued 1859) describes their decision of locating here very interestingly, as follows:

"The part of Looking Glass prairie we were now on, captivated all of us who took part in the expedition to Vandalia wonderfully at first sight. Here we did not find the endless for¬ ests of Missouri, nor the monotonous un¬ bounded prairies of Illinois. And yet our eyes rested here on a prairie landscape, but the green plains were decorated with very many pleasant hills and deep dales, so as to give the whole a park-like appearance. And this beautiful picture was enframed on the west by the woody heights of Silver creek and the luxuriant foliate forest of Sugar creek in the east. . . . The prairie, as far as the its magnificence. Small herds of deer and a few cattle were grazing in the high rich grass, which looked like a bright carpet, in its thousandfold flowers of all colors. There were but few signs of culture. At great distances, along the edges of timber, smoke would issue out of log houses. That the object of our six months of travel and search had been reached, was at once clear to all. A feeling of joy and satisfaction of having at last found what we had been look¬ ing for, found expression from the hearts of all in the exclamation : 'Here it's good to dwell, here let us build cabins, here is room for us all and thousands of others, though it is not a mountainous country, yet we will call it, in honor of our dear fatherland, New Switzerland.' "

From thereon, as already indicated else¬ where, the gradual and comparatively rapid settlement and development of the township began, the experienced farmers and agricul¬ turists of Europe bringing culture and civili¬ zation, converting this and neighboring town¬ ships from a wilderness into one of the rich¬ est and most prosperous parts of the great state of Illinois, if not the garden spot, as it is often called. Space forbids further de¬ tails, but the foundation of in the southeastern corner of Helvetia town¬ ship should not remain unnoticed. A socalled "French Settlement" was started by colonists from the French cantons of Switzeiland about 1848, but mostly promoted in 1856 by L. Trembley, a native of France, who lived on the border of Clinton county for years prior to the foundation of the settlement. This being a rich and beautiful agricultural sec¬ tion inhabited by industrious people, Tim¬ othy Gruaz saw the advantages in laying out the little town of Sebastopol in i860, after having previously, in 1858, opened a store on the north side of the settlement near the Ram¬ say farm. Eventually the village had about a dozen houses, and in addition to the general store two blacksmiths (J. C. Luchsinger and Elisha Demoulin), a cartwright (Rud. Kaufmann), and a shoemaker (Aug. Keiser). The store of Gruaz soon came into the hands of Wm. Hagnauer, Sr., then some years later to J. C. Steiner, and lastly to Elisha Demoulin, who closed the store about twelve years ago, the blacksmith, cartwright and shoemaker also having gone out of business about the same time, so that since then only dwelling houses remain. During the best years of this village Anthony Hoefli also conducted a small tavern.

Another well-known little crossroads "town," called St. Morgan, needs to be men¬ tioned. It is in the southwestern corner of the township, 5 miles south of Highland, on the Trenton road. E. M. Morgan, a good man, a pioneer of Clinton county, settled there in 1844. He was associate justice of Madison county from 1857 to 1861.' He opened a store and had a postoffice established there, with himself as postmaster. Nicholas Zopf opened a tavern, and Fred. ITanselmann started a blacksmith shop, which still exists. But the store and the tavern, which, after the death of the original owners, repeatedly had other proprietors, have been closed since a number of years.

In conclusion some of the more prominent farmers (not already mentioned elsewhere), who settled in the township previous to i860, deserve to be remembered, namely : Chr. Bau¬ mann, Jos. Blattner, Martin and Christian Branger, Chr. Bargaetzi, J. G. and son P. C. Chipron, Fred. Feutz, Martin Hug, Seb. Holzinger, Carl and Ant. Hammer, Gotti. Heinrich, Christian and Fritz Koch, Christian Kuhnen, Jacob and Albert Kleiner, Melchior Koehler, Val. Krenzer, Jacob and John Leder, Jacob

Leutwiler, Alois Latzer, Jacob Mueller, Arn¬ old Rietmann, Anton Schuler, Peter and Fred. Schrumpf, Xavier Voegele, Melchior Weber, Rudolph and son Joseph Widmer, and the brothers Rudolph, Jacob, John and Henry Zobrist. Those active in a business way and not mentioned elsewhere, were, among others. Louis and Frank Appel, Geo. Dumbeck, J. B. Edelmann, Martin Hahn, John Hiestant, Jacob Haeusli, Geo. Brawand, Caspar Kamm, John Mueller, Querin Mueller, J. U. Oehler, Geo.

Prader, Const. Rappenecker, Theo. Ruegger, Arnold Stoecklin, Peter Streiff, Geo. Schepperle, Anton Schwarz, Max Schmidt, John Spoerri, Michael Stamm, J. Sackett, Nic Voe¬ gele, Andreas and Peter Voegele, Jul. Wick, Lorenz Winter, Chas. Wurst, Nic. Witschi, Dr. Alois Wick, Dorn. Wiget. Very few of the above are still living, but nearly all the names are yet represented by their descend¬ ants.