Morgan County, Illinois - The whole text, 1878 (part 8 of 21)

" The army encamped that night in the Indian village, using all the wigwams that could be made available, and using the bark which had been detached from the wigwams to sleep on. The rain, which had ceased a few hours before night, long enough for the making of fires, cooking and eating supper, commenced again during the night, and continued to pour in torrents until after day. My mess had a good tent, under which we slept ; but to keep as dry as possible, I procured a wide piece of bark, curved at the sides like a trough with a round bottom, to sleep on. It was warm weather, and the rain was warm ; when I awoke in the morning, I found my bark filled with water one or more inches deep, and to that depth the water was under me, so that, but for having a change of clothes kept in a dry place, I should have been compelled to go on duty with nearly half my clothing as wet as water could make them. The next day we marched to Rock Island, and encamped on the east bank of the slough, opposite the fort, where we remained until mustered out of service and discharged. Whilst encamped on the river, and before it was known what the Indians might be willing to do upon the question of remaining out of the State and keeping the peace, our horses, 1,500 or 1,800, grazing below the encampment, were frightened by the approach of a steamboat, and forthwith stampeded, making a noise almost equal to distant, heavy thunder. The army was called to arms, and formed in line in quick time, no one knowing but that the Indians were upon us. The first direction of the horses was toward the encampment, but the sentinels were able to turn them toward the bluff on the east, and they were soon out of hearing, when the near approach of the boat told the story of the alarm. Most of the horses were found the next

" Returning home, my mess encamped one night on a branch of Crooked Creek, near the residence of a Mr. Pennington, where we found the encampment of parts of several companies building fires and preparing supper. Here I was informed that a volunteer from Sangamon County, called by the name of General Jackson, had in his possession four Indian ponies, brought from the vicinity of Rock Island. I sent for him to ascertain how he came by the ponies, fearing that they had been stolen. To my inquiries, he said that he had purchased them from a stranger below Rock Island. I proposed that he should surrender them to me to be kept until the question of ownership could be investigated (expressing a fear that the stranger had stolen them), to which he readily assented. I placed the ponies in charge of Mr. Pennington, and upon reaching home wrote to the Indian agent at Rock Island, requesting him to send for them, and return them to the Indians. The agent complied with my request, and upon restoring them, required the Indians to restore any of our horses that they might have found after the stampede. The result was that eighteen horses belonging to volunteers were returned to the agent, and all of them, I believe, were restored to the owners. I saw the General Jackson afterward, and learned that he had paid nothing for the ponies, and that he had never since seen or heard of the man of whom he had purchased them."

Black Hawk failed to keep the terms of the treaty, and as soon as the military retired he returned to the Illinois side of the river. A large force was at once raised and marched against him. Morgan County furnished her full quota of men the second time,. Many of the same officers and men enumerated in the article of Judge Thomas, returned to the conflict. This time severe fighting followed, resulting in the total defeat of Black Hawk and his followers. His capture by the troops, his confinement as a prisoner of war, his release, and the closing days of his life, are all narrated in this volume, and to it the reader is referred.

This war practically closed the Indian troubles in Illinois. The return of the militia to their homes, was followed by years of prosperity and peace. The county had become thickly settled for that day, in some parts, and its county seat was earning a name, as a place of learning and influence.

The earliest days of a country, the pioneer customs and habits, the privations endured, the successes achieved, form interesting chapters of history, and deserve a place in its annals. The early settlers were a brave and hardy people, the brightest side of their life shown out at all times, and though their labors were severe, their love of sport was just as strong, and indulged in whenever occasion presented.

The daily life of the pioneer was one of simplicity and frugality. His wants were few, easily supplied, and of a simple nature. Our narrative would be incomplete, did we not give in detail, something of this pioneer life, as seen by many yet living, and as days which to them will always be pleasantly recollected. We will narrate the scenes of these days, as they have been told us, and as we have gathered them from others who have placed them on record. The festal days of the pioneers were, when a cabin was to be raised ; when a shooting match occurred ; when a "husking bee" was held ; a wedding took place ; a general muster day came ; or any similar day of rest and recreation would occur. As they were held in Morgan County, the same as in other parts of the State, one .description will apply to all portions of the great West. Those were the " good old days " and though we of to-day, honor these memories, we believe our days are as good as any, and that we in our old age, will look back to them with memories as tender and as cherished as these in the decline of life delight to remember theirs.

We have noted the raising of the cabin as one of the days of enjoyment, among the early settlers. The usual way of erecting these primitive habitations, was in the following manner : On an appointed day the pioneers gathered about a spot selected for the erection of the cabin home. A party of choppers was toled off, whose business it was to fell the trees, and cut them into proper lengths; a man with a team next hauled or dragged the logs to the place, and arranged them, properly assorted, at the ends and sides of the proposed building. Some one was selected to search the woods for a suitable tree, from which to make the clapboards for the roof. The tree for this purpose must be straight grained, and from three to four feet in diameter. The boards were split four feet long, with a large frow, and as wide as the timber would allow. They were used without planing or shaving. Another party of men was employed in getting puncheons for the floor of the cabin ; this was done by splitting trees, about eighteen inches in diameter, and hewing the faces of them with a broadax. They were half the length of the floor they were intended to make. The materials for the cabin were mostly prepared on the first day, and sometimes the foundation laid in the evening. The second day was allotted for the raising. On the morning of that day, the neighbors collected for the raising. The first thing to be done was the election of the four corner men, whose business it was to notch and place the logs, which were furnished them by the rest of the workmen. In the meantime the boards and puncheons were collected for the floor and roof, so that by the time the cabin was a few logs high, the sleepers and floor began to be laid. The door was made by sawing or cutting out the logs in one side of the cabin, so as to make an opening about thres feet wide. The logs on each side of this opening, were kept in place by upright pieces of timber, about three inches thick, through which holes were bored, for the purpose of driving through them wooden pins, into the ends of the logs. A similar opening, but wider, was made at the end, for the chimney. This was built of logs, and made large to admit of a back and jambs of stone. At each corner of the building the two end logs projected a foot or two beyond the wall, to receive the bunting poles, as they were called, against which the ends of the first rows of clapboards were supported. The roof was formed by making the end logs shorter until a single log formed the comb of the roof ; on these logs the clapboards were placed, the ranges of them laying some distance over those next below them, and kept in their places by logs placed at proper distances upon them.

The roof, and sometimes the floor, were finished on the same day of the raising. A third day was commonly spent by a few carpenters in leveling off the floor, making a clapboard door, and a table. This last was made of a split slab, and supported by four round sticks, set in auger- holes. A few three-legged stools were made in the same manner. Pins stuck in the logs, at the back of the house, served to support clapboard shelves, on which the table-furniture was kept, when not in use. The bedstead was made by fastening a forked post in the floor, and in the ceiling. A pole was placed in the fork of the post, from there it projected through the wall of the cabin. This front pole was crossed by a shorter one within the fork, with its outer end through another crack. From the front pole, through a crack between the logs, of the end of the house, the boards were put on which formed the bottom of the bed. A few pegs around the walls, for the display of the dresses of the women, and hunting-shirts of the men, and two small forks, or buck's horns, to a joist for the rifle and shot-pouch, completed the carpenter work.

In the meantime masons were at work. With the heart pieces of the timber of which the clapboards were made, they made billets for chinking up the cracks between the logs of the cabin and chimney - a large bed of mud mortar was made for daubing up those cracks ; a few stonesformed the back and sides of the chimney.

The house being finished, the ceremony of house-warming took place, which usually consisted of a dance, lasting all night. At houseraisings, log-rollings, and harvest-parties, every one was expected to do his duty faithfully. A person who did not perform his share of labor, on these occasions, was designated by the epithet of " Laurence," or some title still more opprobrious ; and when it came to his turn to require the like aid from his neighbors, the idler soon felt his punishment, in their refusal to attend to his calls.

" The marriage ceremony, in those days, was a very unceremonious affair," says John McConnell, whose excellent description in his "Western Sketches " we quote in full. " The parents never made a 'parade' about any thing - marriage, least of all. They usually gave the bride - not the ' blushing ' bride - a bed, a lean horse, and some good advice ; and, having thus discharged their duty in the premises, returned to their work, and the business was done. The parade and drill which now attend it, would have been as ridiculous as a Chinese dance ; and the finery and ornament, at present understood to be indispensable on such occasions, then bore no sway in fashion. Bridal wreaths and dresses were not known, and white kid gloves and satin slippers never heard of. Orange blossoms - natural and artificial - were as pretty then as now ; but the people were more occupied with substance than with emblem.

" The ancients decked their victims for the sacrifice with gaudy colors^ flags, and streamers ; the moderns do the same, and the offerings are sometimes made to quite as barbarous deities. But the bride of the pioneer was clothed in linsey-wolsey, with hose of woolen yarn ; and moccasins of deer-skin - or, as an extra piece of finery, high-quartered shoes of calf-skin - preceded satin slippers. The bridegroom came in copperas-colored jeans - domestic manufacture - as a holiday suit ; or, perhaps, a hunting-shirt of buck-skin, all fringed around the skirt and cape, and a ' coon-skin ' cap, with moccasins. Instead of a dainty walking-stick, with an opera-dancer's leg, in ivory, for a head, he always brought his rifle, with a solid maple stock ; and often, during the whole ceremony, he did not divest himself of powder-horn and bullet-pouch.

of form were usually spoken by a missionary. Or, if the pioneer had objections to Catholicism - as many had - his place was supplied by some justice of the peace, of doubtful powers and mythical appointment. If neither of these could be procured, the father of the bride, himself, sometimes assumed the functions, pro hdc vice, or pro ternpore, of minister or justice. It was always understood, however, that such left-handed marriages were to be confirmed by the first minister who wandered to the frontier ; and, even when the opportunity did not offer for many months, no scandal ever arose - the marriage vow was never broken. The pioneers were simple people ; the refinements of high cultivation had not yet penetrated the forests or crossed the prairies, and good faith and virtue were as common as courage and sagacity.

" When the brief, but all-sufficient ceremony was over, the bridegroom resumed his rifle, helped the bride into the saddle - or, more frequently, to the pillion behind him - and they calmly rode away together.

" On some pleasant spot - surrounded by a shady grove, or point of timber - a new log cabin has been built ; its rough logs notched across sach other at the corners, a roof of oaken clapboards, held firmly down ry long poles along each course, its floor of heavy ' puncheons,' its broad, cheerful fireplace, large as a modern bed-room - all are in the highest style of frontier architecture. Within - excepting some anomalies, such as putting the skillet and teakettle in the little cupboard, along with the ilue-edged plates and yellow-figured tea-cups - for the whole has been arranged by the hands of the bridegroom himself - every thing is neatly md properly disposed. The oaken bedstead, with low, square posts, stands in one corner, and the bed is covered by a pure white counterpane, with fringe - an heir-loom in the family of the bride. At the foot of this is seen a large, heavy chest - like a camp-chest - to serve for bureau, safe, and dressing-case.

" In the middle of the floor - directly above the trap-door which leads to a ' potato-hole ' beneath - stands a ponderous walnut table, and on it sits a nest of wooden trays ; while, flanking these, on one side, is a nicelyfolded tablecloth, and, on the other, a wooden-handled butcher-knife and a well worn Bible. Around the room are ranged a few ' split-bottomed ' chairs, exclusively for use, not ornament. In the chimney-corners, or under the table, are several three-legged stools, made for the children, who - as the bridegroom laughingly insinuates, while he points to the uncouth specimens of his handiwork - ' will be coming in due time.' The wife laughs in her turn - replies 'no doubt' - and, taking one of the graceful tripods in her hand, carries it forth to sit upon while she milks the cow - for she understands what she is expected to do, and does it without delay. In one corner, near the fireplace, the aforesaid cupboard is erected - being a few oaken shelves neatly pinned to the logs with hickory forks - and in this are arranged the plates and cups ; not as the honest pride of the housewife would arrange them, to display them to the best advantage, but piled away one within another, without reference to show. As yet there is no sign of female taste or presence.

" But now the house receives its mistress. The ' happy couple ' ride up to the low rail fence in front, the bride springs off without assistance, affectation, or delay. The husband leads away the horse, or horses, and the wife enters the dominion where, thenceforward, she is queen. There is no coyness, no blushing, no pretence of fright or nervousness - if you will, no romance - for which the husband has reason to be thankful ! The wife knows what her duties are, and resolutely goes about performing them. She never dreamed, nor twaddled about ' love in a cottage,' or * the sweet communion of congenial souls ' (whenever eat anything); and she is, therefore, not disappointed on discovering that life is actually a serious thing. She never whines about 'making her husband happy,' but sets firmly and sensibly about making him comfortable. She never complains of having too much work to do, she does not desert her home to make endless visits ; she borrows no misfortunes, has no imaginary ailings. Milliners and mantua-makers she ignores, ' shopping ' she never heard of, scandal she never invents or listens to. She never wishes for fine carriages, professes no inability to walk five hundred }'ards, and does not think it a 'vulgar accomplishment' to know how to make butter. She has no groundless anxieties, she is not nervous about her children taking cold ; a doctor is a visionary potentate to her - a drug shop is a depot of abominations. She never forgets whose wife she is, there is no ' sweet confidante ' without whom she ' can not live,' she never writes endless letters about nothing. She is in short, a faithful, honest wife ; and, in ' due time,' the husband must make more ' three-legged stools,' for the ' tow heads ' have now covered them all !

" Such is the wife and mother of the pioneer, and, with such influences about him, how could he be otherwise than honest, straightforward, and manly ? "

Rev. Joseph Doddridge, D.D., whose early life was spent amid the scenes and habits of the West, especially in Kentucky, has well described the manners and customs. He says: " For a long time after the first settlement of this country, the inhabitants in general married young. There was no distinction of rank, and very little of fortune. On these accounts the first impression of love resulted in marriage ; and a family establishment cost but a little labor, and nothing else.

" In the first years in the settlement of this country, a wedding engaged the attention of a whole neighborhood, and the frolic was anticipated by old and young with eager expectation. This is not to be wondered at, when it is told that a wedding was almost the only gathering which was not accompanied by the labor of reaping, log-rolling, building a cabin, or planning some scout or campaign.

"- On the morning of the wedding-day, the groom and his attendants assembled at the house of his father, for the purpose of reaching the mansion of his bride by noon, which was the usual time for celebrating the nuptials ; which for certain must take place before dinner.

" Let the reader imagine an assemblage of people, without a store, tailor, or mantua-maker within a hundred miles ; and an assemblage of horses, without a blacksmith or saddler within an equal distance. The gentlemen dressed in shoepacks, moccasins, leather breeches, leggings, linsey hunting shirts, and all home-made.

" The ladies dressed in linsey petticoats and linsey or linen bed gowns, coarse shoes, stockings, handkerchiefs, and buckskin gloves, if any. If there were any buckles, rings, buttons, or ruffles, they were the relics of olden times - family pieces from parents or grandparents.

" The march, in double file, was often interrupted by the narrowness and obstruction of our horse-paths, as they were called, for we had no roads, and these difficulties were often increased, sometimes by the good, and sometimes by the ill-will of neighbors, by falling trees and tying grapevines across the way. Sometimes an ambuscade was formed by the way-side, and an unexpected discharge of several guns took place, so as to cover the wedding party with smoke.

" Let the reader imagine the scene which followed this discharge : the sudden spring of the horses, the shrieks of the girls, and the chivalric bustle of their partners to save them from falling. Sometimes, in spite of all that could be done to prevent it, some were thrown to the ground. If a wrist, elbow, or ankle happened to be sprained, it was tied with a handkerchief, and little more was thought or said about it.

" Another ceremony commonly took place before the party reached the house of the bride, after the practice of making whisky began, which was at an early period ; when the party were about a mile from the place of their destination, two young men would single out to run for the bottle ; the worse the path, the more logs, brush, and deep hollows, the better, as these obstacles afforded an opportunity for the greater display of intrepidity and horsemanship.

" The English fox chase, in point of danger to the riders and their horses, is nothing to this race for the bottle. The start was announced by an Indian yell ; logs, brush, muddy hollows, hill, and glen, were speedily passed by the rival ponies. The bottle was always filled for the occasion, so that there was no use for judges, for the first that reached the door was presented with the prize, with which he returned in triumph to the company.

" On approaching them he announced his victory over his rival by a shrill whoop. At the head of the troop, he gave the bottle first to the groom and his attendants, and then to each pair in succession to the rear of the line, giving each a dram ; and then, putting the bottle in the bosom of his hunting-shirt, took his station in the company.

" The ceremony of the marriage preceded the dinner, which was a ibstantial backwoods feast of beef, pork, fowls, sometimes venison and bear meat, roasted and boiled, with plenty of potato, cabbage, and other vegetables. During the dinner the greatest hilarity always prevailed ; although the table might be a large slab of timber, hewed out with a broadax, supported by four sticks set in auger holes, and the furniture some old pewter dishes and plates, the rest wooden bowls and trenchers ; a few pewter spoons, much battered about the edges, were to be seen at some tables, the rest were made of horns. If the knives were scarce, the deficiency was made up by the scalping knives, which were carried in sheaths suspended to the belt of the hunting shirt.

" After dinner the dancing commenced, and generally lasted until the next morning. The figures of the dances were three and four-handed reels, or square sets, and jigs. The commencement was always a square four, which was followed by what is called jigging it off; that is, two of the four would single out for a jig, and were followed by the remaining -couple. The jigs were often accompanied with what was called cutting F out; that is, when either of the parties became tired of the dance, on intimation the place was supplied by some one of the company, without any interruption of the dance.

" In this way a dance was often continued till the musician was heartily tired of his situation. Toward the latter part of the night, if any of the company, through weariness, attempted to conceal themselves for the purpose of sleeping, they were hunted up, paraded on the floor, and the fiddler ordered to ' Hang on till to-morrow morning.'

" About nine or ten o'clock a deputation of the young ladies stole off the bride, and put her to bed. In doing this, it frequently happened that they had to ascend a ladder instead of a pair of stairs, leading from the dining and ball room to the loft, the floor of which was made of clapboards lying loose and without nails. This ascent, one might think, would put the bride and her attendants to the blush, but as the foot of the ladder was commonly behind the door, which was purposely opened for the occasion, and its rounds at the inner ends were well hung with hunting shirts, petticoats, and other articles of clothing, the candles being on the opposite side of the house, the exit of the bride was noticed but by few. Sometimes the ladder was on the outside of the house, and these precautions were unnecessary.

" This done, a deputation of young men in like manner stole off the groom, and placed him snugly by the side of his bride. The dance still continued ; and if seats happened to be scarce, which was often the case, every young man, when not engaged in the dance, was obliged to offer his lap as a seat for one of the girls ; and the offer was sure to be accepted.

" In the midst of this hilarity, the bride and groom were not forgotten. Pretty late in the night, some orie would remind the company that the new couple must stand in need of some refreshments ; black Betty, which was the name of the bottle, was called for, and sent up the ladder ; but sometimes black Betty did not go alone. I have many times seen as much bread, beef, pork, and cabbage, sent along with her as would afford a good meal for half a dozen hungry men. The young couple were compelled to eat and drink, more or less, of whatever was offered them.

" It often happened that some neighbors or relations, not being asked to the wedding, took offense ; and the mode of revenge adopted by them on such occasions, was that of cutting off the manes, foretops, and tails of the horses of the wedding company.

" The custom of serenading newly married couples, or giving them a charivari, as it was called, prevailed to some extent in the pioneer days of Illinois. This custom originated among the French, who introduced it among the early American settlers in the Mississippi Valley. The old French charivaris were innocent. ' It was,' says ' Governor Reynolds,' in his ' Pioneer History of Illinois,' ' a merry, rural serenade, sustained by all sorts of loud and discordant noises.' The charivari party was composed of old and young, and generally conducted by some orderly and aged man. They enlisted into their service all sorts of things that could by any means be forced to make a noise. -They used bells, horns, drums, pans, tin kettles, whistles, and all such articles as would make loud, harsh sounds. This French organized charivari was such a merry, noisy uproar, that it would make a monk laugh if he heard it.

condition, there was no charivari ; but when discordant materials were tied together with that delicious silken cord, which is so dazzling to the t'emale eye, then a similar discordant noise attended the celebration. For example, when neither of the parties ever before tasted the delicacies of matrimony, there was no grounds for a serenade ; but when a widower,' who had before worshiped at the shrine of Venus, married a lady who was never before bound in wedlock, then in such cases the charivari was invoked with all its merriment. And the same with a widow, who had before feasted on the sweet viands of love, and married a man whose lot had heretofore been celibacy, in such cases the charivari was in order."

Generally among the French the married parties were as willing as the others for the sport, and were prepared to extend some civilities ta the good-humored crowd. Thus frequently the case ended in the best of feeling. But when the married folks were refractory, the charivari waskept up for a succession of nights, until they yielded to the custom. Asthe farce proceeded, if the married parties were sowr, the serenading crowd had the privilege to hint, in a mild manner, first at the character of the bride, and then at that of the bridegroom. These hints generallyclosed the scene in good humor. When the noise was made in the crowd,, some one would cry out at the top of voice, " Charivari ! charivari ! " and some other in the party would sing out, "per qui?" - "for whom?" The answer to this question gave rise to hint at the female and her character. At times the bridegroom, also, was charged with things hewould not like. This was the dernier resort. When this, or other means,, produced some kindness or civility, then the whole farce ended in the best of feelings, among the French. But with the Americans this charivari is sometimes attended with disagreeable consequences. And, in fact, the serenading party is sometimes indicted for a " breach of the peace." The charivari were common affairs in the early days of Morgan County, and have been continued to some extent to the present day.

In pure pioneer times the crops of corn were never husked on the stalk, as is done at the present day; but were hauled home in the husk, and thrown in a heap, generally by the side of the crib, so that the ears when husked could be thrown directly into the crib. This practice was commonly followed by the early settlers of Morgan County, and was the occasion of the frolics known as -' shuckings," or " husking bees."

The whole neighborhood, male and female - says an old writer - were invited to these " shuckings." The girls, and many of the married ladies, generally engaged in this amusing work. In the first place, twoleading, expert huskers were chosen as captains, and the heap of corn, divided as nearly equal as possible. Rails were laid across the pile, so as to designate the division ; and then each captain chose, alternately, hiscorps of huskers, male and female. The whole number of working hands present were selected on one side or the other, and then each party commenced a contest to beat the other, which was, in many instances,, truly exciting. One other rule was, that whenever a gentleman husked a red ear of corn, he was entitled to a kiss from the ladies. This frequently excited much fuss and scuffling, intended by both parties to end in a kiss.

In some parts of the West it was the practice to use taffia, or Monongahela whisky, which they drank out of a bottle, each one, male and female, taking the bottle and drinking out of it, and then handing it to his or her next neighbor, without using any glass or cup whatever. This custom was common, and not considered rude. The bread used at these frolics was baked generally on jonny, or journey-cake boards, and is the best corn bread ever made. A board is made smooth, about two feet long, and eight inches wide - the ends are generally rounded. The -dough is spread out on this board, and placed leaning before the fire. One ;side is baked, and then the dough is changed on the board, so the other side is presented, in its turn, to the fire. This is jonny-cake, and is good, if the proper materials are put in the dough, and it is properly baked. Almost always these corn shuckings ended in a dance. To prepare for this amusement, fiddles and fiddlers were in great demand, and it often required much fast riding to obtain them. One violin, and a performer, were all that was contemplated, at these innocent rural dances.

Toward dark, and the supper half over ; then it was that a bustle .and confusion began, which fully equalled the confusion of tongues at Babel. The young folks hurriedly cleared the table, while the old folks -contended for time and order. It was the case, nine times out of ten, that but one dwelling house was on the premises, and that used for eating as well as dancing. But when the fiddler commenced tuning his instrument, the music always gained the victory for the younger side. Then, the dishes, victuals, tables, and all, disappeared in a few minutes, -and the room was cleared, the dogs driven out, and the floor swept off, ready for action. The floors of these houses were sometimes the natural earth beaten solid, sometimes the earth with puncheons in the middle, over the potato hole, and at times, the whole floor was made of puncheons. Sawed plank, or boards, were not at all common in curly times.

The music at these country dances excited the young folks to immediate activity, and the dance which followed was similar in character to that which followed the wedding festivities. The pioneers of Morgan -County, who are yet living, doubtless remember these early frolics, and it was at these, that "many a sweet love story was told over in a laughing manner, by the young hunters, or farmers, to their sweet-hearts, during these nights of innocent amusements. The young man of . -eighteen, would choke, cough, and spit, look pale, and sweat when he was about to tell his girl the secret movements of his heart in her favor, while his heart thumped with almost as loud a noise as a pheasant beating on a log. The girl received these outpourings of her lover's heart, with such sparkling eyes and such a bright countenance, that spoke volumes of love to her beau. These love contracts, that ended in marriage, were frequently made at these dances. In the morning, all went home on horse-back, or on foot. No carriages, wagons, or other wheeled vehicles, were used on these occasions, for the best of reasons - they had none."

ticipated in by all the men old enough to hold a rifle. The prize shot for, was generally a fat beef, although a rifle, a turkey, or some other piece of property would be contended for. When the owner of a fat beef, proposed to dispose of it that way, he sent word of the coining " match," over the settlement, fixing the day and place. The hunters would gather in, at the time appointed, with their rifles and hunting accoutrements. Being provided with the inevitable jug of whisky,, they would select a shaded spot, under the trees, and prepare for the match. The beef was valued at an amount agreed upon, which had to be made up at a certain sum per shot, generally fifty cents, each one investing in as many as he liked until the amount was made up.

Two judges were then chosen to decide the match, one of them to attend to setting up the targets, and the other to check off the shots as they were fired. The marksmen provided themselves with targets, which tney made by blackening one side of a clapboard, over the fire. A small cross was then made, by drawing a knife-blade up and down through the blackened spot, and at the center of the cross a small piece of white paper was fastened, and the target was ready. Each one shot at his own target, and when all the shots were fired, the targets were examined by the judges, and the winners announced. The distance was usually forty yards off hand, or sixty yards with a rest ; the latter mode being considered the best way of testing the accuracy of a gun's shooting. By established custom, the beef was divided into five choices, each quarter of the animal being a choice, and the hide and tallow the fifth choice. Thus the five best shots took the choices in their order* and the sixth best shot was entitled to cut the bullets out of the tree, against which the targets had been placed, and retain them. If a turkey, a rifle, or any like article, was the prize, the mode of disposing of it, was the same as the beef, save that the best shot secured the prize, undivided. The frontiersman was generally very skillful in the use of the rifle. Sometimes a nail would be driven about two-thirds its length into a board, which was placed at a proper distance from the marksman, whose object it was to " drive the nail " fully into the board by hitting the nail squarely on the head. This mode of shooting, gave rise to a familiar expression, and any one who could not successfully perform this feat was considered an inferior marksman.

" Barking squirrels " is delightful sport, and in the opinion of many, required a greater degree of accuracy than any mode used to kill them. It was done by the ball striking the bark immediately underneath the squirrel, as he paused in his flight up or down the side of a tree. The concussion would instantly kill the little animal, and sometimes throw him several feet from the tree.

The snuffing of a candle with a ball, was another feat indulged in by the frontiersmen, as a mark of skill. Still another feat, which was sometimes performed by the most skillful, was to fill a tin cup with water, and place it on the head of some one, and shoot a ball through it. The prize was generally a bottle of whisky, and it required nearly as much nerve on the part of the target holder, as it did for the marks-

-carefully studied by the pioneer, and it was often a test of skill on his part to be able to successfully thwart this wily game. In the pioneer days of Morgan County, large herds of this animal became a common sight to the settler. Old residents relate wonderful stories about their -deer-hunts, as they gather with their children about their fireside in the long winter evenings.

The hunter, did he decide on a day's hunt, arose early on the morning of the appointed day, and accompanied by his dogs - several of which he kept - would set forth for a day's sport. The deer possesses an exceedingly keen power of scent, and can detect the hunter at a great distance, hence it was necessary on the part of the latter, to decide first the direction of the wind before leaving his house or camp. Various devices were used by him to determine this, should the wind be at rest ; the common one was to place one of his fingers in his mouth until it became warm, raising this hand above his head, he noted carefully which side of the finger became cold first, and this decided the question. As soon as a deer was seen, the hunter slyly approached until within gun-shot ; almost always the first shot proved effectual, and the prize was secured. The carcass was at once hung on a sapling out of the reach of the wolves, and the chase continued.

At the time of the " deep snow," deer perished by hundreds. They could not escape the voracious wolves, nor run from the dogs. Many persons, with a reckless regard for the future, destroyed them out of sheer cruelty. Among the earliest-settlers, venison was a common article of food, and full of nutrition. It was prepared in various ways ; was often "jerked " - that is, cut into long strips, which were hung in the sun to dry, and being prepared in this manner, would keep many days in an excellent condition. It was commonly prepared in this manner by emigrants. As the deer became scarce by the encroachments of the white man, their places were supplied by wild hogs. These fed on the mast found in the woods, and often became very fat. The meat, when properly cured and cooked, was quite palatable, and supplied very well, the place of the venison.

We left the thread of the histor}' with the close of the Black Hawk war. Reverting to it and continuing the narrative, we find the next event worthy of notice was the scourge of the cholera in 1833. Of its ravages in the South and West, the reader is no doubt, well aware. It was probably brought to Jacksonville by two men named Conn and Coddington. The former recovered from the attack, but the latter died in a house on the west side of the Public Square. One of these men being a relative of Mrs. Ellis, wife of Rev. Ellis, made her house his home, and from him Mrs. Ellis and her family were stricken with the dreadful disease and all died.

The citizens of the town and country became thoroughly alarmed, and many left for other places. The plague stopped all business for a time, and prevented intercourse between the town and country people, the latter fearing to come to town, or to receive town people into their houses. About one hundred persons died from this disease. Many from only a few hours sickness. It checked emigration, however, but a short time. The next year all traces of it had disappeared, and people came pouring into the county at a rapid rate.

This was occasioned by a remarkable current of cold air passing from the northwest to the southeast, directly over Morgan County. Its width extended over the entire central portion of the State. Its velocity was, as near as can now be determined, about thirty miles per hour. It was felt in Jacksonville about noon, and was in Lebanon, Ohio, just above Cincinnati, at nine o'clock that evening. Mr. Washington Crowder, a resident of Sangamon County, was married on the 21st of December, 1836, and distinctly remembers going for his license the day before. This event fixes the date beyond a doubt. He was on his way to Springfield on the afternoon of the 20th, and when a few miles below the city had a fair view of the landscape for several miles in every direction. He saw in the northwest a heavy black cloud rapidly approaching him, accompanied with a terrific, deep, bellowing sound. Closing the umbrella he was carrying over him to protect himself from the falling rain, he was in the act of drawing his reins taut, when the wave came over him. At that instant the snow and slush under his horse's feet turned to ice, while his coat, wet with the rain, became instantly as stiff as a board. He went on to Springfield, where he found his clothing frozen to the saddle, and was unable to dismount, and he was compelled to call help, who carried man and saddle to the fire to thaw them apart. He obtained his license, returned the same day, and was married the next.

The wave passed over Morgan County between one and two o'clock, and came so suddenly that chickens and small animals were frozen in their tracks. Several inches of snow had fallen a short time before and on that day it was quite warm, with light spring-like showers, and the whole earth was covered with slush and water.

The change was so sudden and the wind so strong that the water in the ponds in the road froze in waves, sharp-edged and pointed, as the gale had blown it. Judge Samuel Woods says he was nearly a mile from home, in the prairie, when the wave struck him. The slush and water were several inches thick, and before he could get home he could walk upon the top, as they had frozen hard.

Huram Reeve remembers the day as a warm and showery one during the forenoon. Near two o'clock in the afternoon it grew dark, like a rain storm was coming, and, in an instant, the strong wind, with the icy blast, came and all was frozen. Hurrying around to save some stock that he was fattening, he was able to get a part of it under shelter, but most of the stock suffered severely. The creek was about bank full of water, and, as his horses, wagons, etc., were on the north side, and his house on the south side, he was anxious to get all near the house, that he might take better care of them. The next morning early, with his brother and some other help, he went to the creek to get the animals across, but, the horses not being shod, and the ice smooth, they cut the ice in pieces to get a track wide enough for the wagon, and with poles pushed the ice under the other to get it away, and then drove through the water. The ice had frozen in the short time between two o'clock, p. m., arid nine o'clock the next a. m., fully six inches thick. He also found raccoons, opossums, and other

Mr. Timothy Chamberlain says he remembers the day distinctly, as his father and uncle were making a four-spoked wagon at the time, and he was working around home, sometimes helping them and part of the time working about the barn lot, and being warm he was in his shirt sleeves most of the time. It rained several times during the forenoon, and about dinner time Doctor Daniel Pierson, a near neighbor, sent for him to assist in driving his hogs up to the stock yard and weigh them. As was the custom in those days, when there was no public scales, where a number of hogs could be weighed at once, the neighbors assisted in catching the hogs, and tying their feet, and using the old-fashioned steelyards to weigh them. They had just driven the hogs to the stock yard but had not commenced weighing., any, when, without any warning other than a dark sky, the cold wind from the northwest suddenly struck them with force. Mr. Chamberlain jumped behind a stack of wheat for protection. The cold was so intense that the overcoat he had put on as he started, for fear of rain, was frozen like a board. The weight of the hogs was guessed at without weighing, and they drove them across the Pulliam Run, about one hundred and fifty yards from the stock yard, and, in that short time, ice had formed on the branch and the road was frozen hard.

Colonel George M. Chambers thinks that his date is as good as that of any other person./ He says, " I was here, at that time, making arrangements to move to Jacksonville the following spring. Sometime about the 10th of December we had heavy rains, swelling the streams and destroying the bridges, turning colder and freezing the ground. It then commenced snowing, and continued several days until it was about a foot in depth. On or about the 20th it became mild, the snow melting rapidly and the atmosphere becoming hazy. I left the south side of the square about half-past eleven o'clock, wading in the slush and water, turned up West State street to the tavern kept by William O. Scott, on the lot now owned and occupied by James Berdan, but then known as the 'Heslep House.' We dined, in those days, at twelve, and when the boarders came in they were rubbing their ears and complaining of being very cold. I thought that they did not know what cold was.

"After dinner I remained by a comfortable fire about half an hour. On coming out the front door I found the snow and ice frozen so that I went down the street upon it. Passing by the lot on which the residence of Dr. King now stands, I saw some chickens standing by the fence with their legs frozen in the slush. In the lot on the north side, being part of the ground now occupied by the court house, there were also some pigs frozen fast in the ice.

" On the evening following, there arrived from Beardstown, a stage load of passengers from a steamboat that met the ' Northwester ' there. They, as well as myself, were anxious to get to St. Louis. Friend Scott exerted himself to secure us a conveyance, and on the following evening, after a number of failures, told us that he had got the right man. The next morning up drove George Richards, with a large, strong sled, and in piled eight or ten of us, and off we started. After a variety of adventures we arrived safely in St. Louis. Left there on a small steamboat, on the first day of January, 1837. When we arrived at Cairo we found our boat too small for the ice on the Ohio. We made two other changes in boats, and when a few miles below Shawneetown, left the boat and 4 took 'to the woods,' and hired horses to ride, and a man to bring the horses back, and on the 20th of January, 1837, arrived at the ' Gait House,' in Louisville, in the unexampled time of twenty days. They beat that time now, but I doubt if they are more thankful now than we were on arriving at our destination."

Daniel Clarke says : " The change occurred in the afternoon about two o'clock. There was snow on the ground, saturated with a slow, rain, so that it had commenced running in the low places. I was on the north side of Indian Creek, just entering the timber with a drove of ho^s. I was assisted by two men on foot ; I was on horseback. One of the men was Uriah Houston, the other, Isaac Drinkwater. At the house of the father of the latter I had stayed the night before. The hogs belonged to Ralph H. Hurlbut, who lived at the time at La Grange Point, and was packing some hogs at La Grange landing. He had a boat for ferrying, and a lot to keep hogs in on the east side of the river. We reached the river about dark, and penned the hogs ; the wind was high, and the slush, loaded on the boat so much that we could not cross with my horse. Mr. Drinkwater went home, his father's house being the first one on the east side of the river, distant about seven miles. My home was at Mr. Hurlbut's from which I had been absent several days. It was a good home and I was hungry and at about nine o'clock p. m. there came a clear place in the river ; I hitched my horse in the shelter of a pecan tree that had been felled with the leaves on, and got into a canoe with two paddles and an ax to reach my home. The ice formed fast on the canoe, and I had frequently to clear it off with the ax, until I got under the lee of the west bank ; then it went free, in which free water I froze my left hand seriously. In the morning following I went to feed iny horse, and found the river so solidly frozen that I rode him across, and had him in the stable before sunrise ; and immediately after got some teams and hauled sawdust from Hinman's mill, and made a path to the opposite bank, and drove the hogs across and had them in the lots on the opposite side. There were about three hundred of them ; they had been purchased from Peter Taylor, Isaac Houston, George Newman, Wingate Newman, and others. I landed from the open water after ten o'clock p. m.. and my recollection would make the ice the next morning one foot thick."

This remarkable event fixes the date of many occurrences in the history of the county. It is yet vividly remembered by the residents of that date, who relate many interesting reminiscences of that time.

The great Internal Improvement System was now agitating the citizens of the Prairie State, and railroads were beginning to be the common and the all-absorbing topic of the day. Vague ideas existed then concerning their construction and use. To many, they were only the introduction of a labor-saving scheme that would throw the common laborer out of work and the means of earning his daih" bread. Especially did they argue this to the class of persons who were engaged in driving stages or employed on canal-boats. But the paper money, then just coming- into use, blinded the masses, and the legislators, dazzled by its apparent success, built accordingly, only to see the final crash of 1837, and the fall of the entire improvement system. The State was checkered with lines of

The Northern Cross Railroad and the canal were all of the grand system perfected at the time. The railroad was the first in the West. It passed through Morgan County, and thereby became part of its history. We will therefore digress in our narrative, and give a short sketch of this enterprise which, in its day, was a State affair, and watched with anxious eyes by all her citizens. Iri examining the files of the papers of that day, glowing allusions are made to the scheme, and great expectations anticipated. Men were brought from all parts of the West to labor on the road. Advertisements like the following were seen in nearly every issue of the Illinoisan, then the leading paper in Jacksonville :

\\ RANTED, .500 HANDS. We wish to employ 500 good graders, to finish grading the rail- ^ * road from Meredosia, on the river, to Jacksonville, and from Jacksonville to Springfield. We pay our hands on the first of every month. We also wish a few good superintendents, for grading, who must come well recommended. Also stone masons, superintendents, and other hands, to lay superstructure, which will commence at Meredosia on the first of May next. \Ve have 57 miles of roa_l to contract, and will be able to give employment to a large number of hands, for a considerably time. The country through which this line passes is high and healthy. The work has now been under rapid progress since the first of August last.

The above advertisement appeared in the Illinoisan of that date, and from it the reader will learn something of the extent of railroads then, and the stir created by their construction. There was then not a railway car in the Mississippi valley, and only a few miles of road in operation in the East. The great wave of " internal improvement " was passing over the State at the time, and if the reader of these pages will obtain a copy of the legislative acts of that, and a few succeeding sessions, he will see scarce any thing recorded save railroad, canal, or State road acts.

Agitation of the great " Internal Improvement System " of the State began as early as 1835. Governor Duncan, in his message to the legislature, at the special session begun on December 7, 1835, said : " When we look abroad and see the extensive lines of intercommunication penetrating almost every section of our sister States - when we see the canal boat and the locomotive bearing, with seeming triumph, the rich productions of the interior to the river, lakes, and ocean, almost annihilating time, burthen, and space, what patriotic bosom does not beat high with a laudable ambition to give to Illinois her share of those advantages which are adorning her sister States, and which a munificent Providence seems to invite by the wonderful adaptation of our whole country to such improvements."

Pennsylvania and other States were at this time engaged in extensive systems of improvements, and as the sequel showed, Illinois did not lag in the race. Subsequent legislatures appropriated immense sums of mone*y to aid in the erection of these works, and almost checkered the State with a net-work of railroads. The progress of the work on the canal was not arrested by the subsequent failures, but the remainder of the works of the grand system, with the exception of a part of the

Northern Cross Railroad, the advertisement of which heads this article, simultaneously began in various parts of the State, nothing ever was done, except in detached parcels on every road, where excavations and embankments may even yet be seen, memorials of supreme legislative folly. That portion of the Northern Cross Railroad, from Meredosia to Jacksonville, thence to Springfield, was afterward finished at a cost of -$1,000,000 to the State ; its income proving insufficient to keep it in repair, it was subsequently sold for $1'00,000 in State indebtedness.

This railroad, the first in Morgan County, the first in Illinois, the -first in the Mississippi valley, was chartered February 5, 1835. After various delays, work was begun in August, 1837, so says the advertisement quoted, and on May 9, 1838, the first rail was laid. Some eight miles were laid during the summer, and on November 8th the first locomotive - the Rogers - that ever turned a wheel in the Mississippi valley, was put on the track at Meredosia. It had been brought from the East by way of the rivers to St. Louis, thence up the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers to its destination. On the day it was put on the track it ran over the old flat bar track eight miles and back, carrying George W. Plant, afterward a prominent business man of St. Louis, Governor Duncan, Murray McConnell, one of the commissioners of the public works, James Dunlap and Thomas T. January, the contractors, whose names are already noted, Charles Collins, and Myron Leslie, of St. Louis, the chief engineer, Mr. Plant, and Jonathan Neely, the first conductor. The eager desire in the race of empire now gave Illinois a check for twelve years before another railroad was built. This was the Chicago and Galena, finished as far as Elgin, in 1850. This short railroad, in its incomplete condition, its small cars, and meager equipment, would indeed be a curiosity now. Yet it was a beginning, and as such was greater than any of its successors.

It has been supposed that the first railroad in the United States, was built in 1826, connecting Schenectady and Albany, in New York. This was one of the first railroads on which a locomotive engine was used in the United States, but the records o*f the town of Quincy, Massachusetts, the home of the Adams family, show that about the year 1825 a railway was built from that place to the Bay on the Atlantic Coast, about five miles distant. It is believed that no steam power was used on this road, the power used being that of horses or mules. Many suppose that the old Northern Cross Railroad, now the Wabash, is the oldest road west of the Alleghany Mountains. This is also an error. We have noted that the first rail was laid on this road in the Spring of 1838. Colonel J. B. Moulton, a civil engineer of St. Louis, states that he went to Kentucky in 1836, and found a road in operation from Lexington -to Frankfort. This road was built in 1833, and at the time of Colonel Moulton's visit, horses and mules were used to draw the cars. Strap rails were used, part of the ties being made of stone and part of wood. The former were found to be useless owing to their pulverization underneath the rails, and their use was soon abandoned. Charles F. Taylor, Esq., a civil engineer, was engaged to remove the stone and put in wood. Colonel Moulton finished this road from Frankfort to Louisville in 1836, when the State foreclosed the mortgage it held, and leased the road to Swaggert & Co., who equipped it in 1841 or '42, and placed thereon a locomotive. This locomotive weighed fourteen tons, and cost fourteen thousand dollars. This road is now known as the Lexington and Ohio. From the above statement of Colonel Moulton, whose memory is accurate, it will be seen that the road in Kentucky was in operation four or five years before the one of which we are writing.

From the advertisement heading this article, we see that work was begun on the Northern Cross Railroad in the Autumn of 1837. The associate editor of the Quincy Whig, who visited Meredosia with a view of learning something of the early history of the first railroad in Illinois, writes to his paper as follows :

" It was surveyed by James Bucklin, assisted by George W. Plant and John Van Horn. The profile of the work was drawn by a Pole named Edward Malowginowskie, a noble by birth, who had left Poland on account of some of the rebellions or persecutions there. He was a man of fine attainments and high character. After this survey and location, the division of the road beginning at the Illinois River, at this place, and extending to Van Gundy's, the first station east of here - about a mile east of where Bluff City now stands - was sub-contracted to J. C. & S. P. Thompson, D. & J. E. Waldo and Harvey Duncan.

" When everything was ready to begin work, it naturally appeared that so important an enterprise should be inaugurated with some formal ceremony. The day for beginning arrived late in the Autumn of 1837, and the sub-contractors took their men, accompanied by a large number of citizens, to a point whence the road was to start, on the bank of the river. There Mr. J. E. Waldo, now living in New Orleans, and Dr. Owen M. Long, now consul at Panama, were chosen speakers for the occasion.

" The toast-master of the day was Samuel Talmage, a noted character of that period. The day was given up to speech-making, jollification and hilarity, and it would be very interesting at this distance if one could report some of the wonderful orations delivered. One of the toasts is distinctly recalled thus : " Our friend, T. T. January - a man with a cold name but a warm heart." Mr. January is still living, and is a wholesale trader in St. Louis. Mr. D. Waldo, now the postmaster here, beingthen the oldest man as well as the oldest citizen of the place, was designated to dig the first spadeful of dirt. The labor he performed was all the work done on the road that day.

" The work of grading went on all winter and was finished in April. The track was laid by putting down a piece of square timber called a mudsill, on the top of which cross-ties were laid. On these a wooden rail was laid and flat bars were spiked on top of the rail. The bars were two and a half inches wide and one inch thick. It is not now distinctly remembered whether this iron was of foreign or domestic manufacture, but it was brought by way of New Orleans to St. Louis, and there delivered from the steamer Vandalia to the steamer Quincy, then run by J. H. and E. Lusk, between St. Louis and this place.

" The first locomotive that ever turned a wheel in the Mississippi valley was brought here in pieces and set up to operate this earliest Illinois railroad. It was made by Rogers, Grosvenor & Ketchum, of Newark, N. J., and was landed here from the steamer Quincy in the Autumn of 1838, soon after the iron had been laid on the road. It was a curious little contrivance, and, as compared with the more moJern construction of locomotives, was a consummate piece of clumsiness. The drivingwheels were about two and a half feet in diameter, and, in every other respect, it compared equally well with the locomotives of the present day.

"A man by the name of Fields came out with the engine to set it up, and, on the day he got it on its feet, the jollification ran so high that he got off his, and had to be carried to the hotel for repairs. On the way he protested that they were heaping undeserved honor upon him and begged to be laid down and treated as a man of no distinction or eminence. He was the first engineer on the road, and he ran the little engine - the Rogers - for about a month. Afterward a man by the name of Higgins run it ; but he melted out some of the flues, and at last got discharged for dissipation. Finally two young men by the name of Gregory were put in charge of it, and after a while they succeeded in running the engine off the track between New Berlin and Springfield.

" They seem to have been unable to replace it on the track, for it lay out on the prairie for a year, or a year and a half, and was then sold to General Sample, who practically bankrupted himself in various futile efforts to reconstruct it into some sort of road engine for hauling freight across the country from Alton to Springfield in competition with the railroad.

Mr. James Harkness, a civil engineer of St. Louis, in a correspondence concerning the early railroads of Illinois, writes to the Railway Age, of Chicago, as follows :

" The writer arrived in Springfield on the 4th of July, 1837, in search of work. I heard of the road that was going to be built and thought I might get a job on it. I saw J. M. Bucklin, the chief engineer, and some of the contractors, and was engaged to build their bridges.

" There was a great scarcity of men, more particularly those that could use the pick and shovel, etc., and I agreed to find some. I returned to Louisville, Ky., and sent word out that I would give nineteen dollars per month, and eight jiggers of good whisky per day. That soon procured some two hundred and fifty ; I also got Robert Me Reynolds and Joseph Williams, who were expert whip-sawyers, to come and saw the bridge timber for me. The corps of engineers was J. M. Bucklin (who surveyed Chicago and the Illinois and Michigan Canal, when about twenty years old), chief ; Edward Harkness, assistant (who resigned in a short time), Mr. Hawn succeeding him ; John VanHorn, Edward Malowginowskie, George P. Plant, and others, not now recollected. Thompson, from Pennsylvania, was master mason, and the writer master carpenter.

" I went into the timber, cut the trees, rough-hewed them, hauled them close to the bridge, and counter-hewed and sawed them into the proper dimensions.

for eighteen years, with very little repairs, when it was burned through the neglect of a temporary watchman. After I had all the timber in the yard, and one bent completed, one of the journeymen told the contractors that he could finish the bridge at less wages than I was getting, sixty dollars per month. He finally got it done on the ground, but utterly failed to raise it, and ran off in disgust. I finally told the master mason how to do it.

" The want of locomotives necessitated the use of horses for some time. The road was first located where it now is, at Jacksonville, but the people on the south side of the square said it would make property worth a great deal more there and they must move it across the square, or they would not pay their taxes, and it had to be run that way ; but they soon found that it caused a great many runaways, and set some houses on fire (there were no spark arresters then), when it was changed back to its proper location. When the very poor iron would draw the equally poor spikes, the ends would turn up and we called them snake heads, and very troublesome snakes they were, as they often ran up through a cur and ripped up things generally.

" The work began at Meredosia, on the Illinois River. There were two passes in the bluff, called Taylor's and Van Gundy's. That by Taylor's was the cheapest and best, but it w.ould not touch several tracts of wild land that belonged to some of the magnates, and it was located up Van Gundy's Run, and thus improved two large tracts, one called " Duncan's big field" (in which the writer has killed several deer), of one thousand acres. We ran a straight line of several miles up this prairie and struck the only house, or cabin rather, on it. It belonged to' Mr. Lazenby, an Englishman, whose wife had such good use of her tongue that we went back several miles and ran a line that left the cabin a few yards to the north, and this gave great satisfaction to the settlement at large.

" At my suggestion, Mrs. L. got another cow and furnished us with frequent lunches, which we highly appreciated. By the time the "boys " got near her she had learned to make " milk-punch " and " egg-nog " out of good new juice of the corn, at a "bit" (12|c) per gallon, and by the time the track was laid, she had made the price of a good two-story frame house, and the cabin was given to some choice young " Irish Graziers."

" Verien Daniels took charge of the first locomotive on the road after his predecessors had succeeded in burning out its flues, and running it off the track. Daniels repaired the flues and began to run it. On one of his first trips, he found Lazenby's cattle on the track, and the bull showed fight. He shouted and threw sticks of wood at him, but that did no good. So he backed a short distance and came up a second time, but that only made the bull madder ; again he backed and the bull after him. But by this time Daniels was getting mad also. He said to me, "by dadds, I will try who has the hardest head, so here goes." The meeting came near being fatal to both, but Taurus came to grief by rolling down the bank and never troubling the engine again. There was neither bell, whistle, nor cow-catcher, in those days. The first snow that fell, after the road was completed to Jacksonville, was some six or eight inches deep, and caught the train a few miles from Bethel,.

but by hard work she got within one and one-half miles of there and stuck. The passengers walked to Bethel, rather disgusted with the " pleasure car," as it was then called. Some hired wagons and came to Jacksonville, where the agent hired men and sent them down to shovel the snow off the track in advance of the train. Joseph E. Ware, editor of Mines, Metals and Arts, of this city, was a passenger on that trip, and remembers it well.

" We had the usual amount of strikes and fights, which would not be interesting. Under the old constitution nearly every one could vote, and the consequence was that between five and six hundred of the boys came to town to vote the " Dimmecratic " ticket, their candidate being "Jackson." When told there was no such candidate, they were about to bake the town, and could have done it, but John J. Hardin, John Henry, Wm. Thomas, and others, suggested to the judge to open a poll for Jackson. This was done, and it prevented a bloody fight."

In reference to the "Road Wagon," as it was called, which General Sample attempted to operate on the prairies, and to which reference has already been made, Mr. Harkness writes :

" If the State of Illinois is not entitled to claim the first railroad in the West, I think she is clearly entitled to the first attempt to use steam as a motor without even a graded road. Judge Sample, who was one of the early settlers, and one of the many enterprising men who have made Illinois the great State of this valley, after seeing a locomotive, conceived the idea of using one to haul goods and passengers from Alton to Chicago. He laid out an addition north of the penitentiary, where he built a large hotel, machine shops, etc. It was called Sampleton. At this time you could travel on prairie from there to Chicago and not touch either timber or farm. He had wheels about three feet wide, if I recollect right, attached to his engine. Every thing was new to the mechanics, and it was after many trials and disappointments that it made a successful trip to Springfield, where it remained for years on the prairie."

" Two farmers who were out looking at the country, as was the custom at that time, were crossing from Lick Creek to the Mauvaisterre and Jacksonville. About half way across they struck the track of Sample's road engine, where the grass was fully three feet high.

" Both horses wheeled in terror and ran. After getting them back, the farmers examined the trail and concluded it was a big snake, and that they would follow it carefully and get a sight of the thing if possible. They followed it up to Springfield where they found the ' thing ' resting very quietly.

" An ' early day ' reminiscence, not strictly pertaining to railroads, but illustrating the perils of travel before railroad times, occurs to me. Several years after this occurrence above noted, I was crossing at the same points, and had my wife, child, and Judge Berdan, who is still living in Jacksonville, in a spring wagon, when a fire came down the prairie at race-horse speed, and nothing but my knowledge of the country saved us. I put on the whip for life and made for a mound where the cattle had eaten off the grass, but before reaching it the fire was all around us and it was the third attempt before I got through to the short grass and saved our lives. The horses and wagon were badly scorched. Two men on horseback about a mile from us were both burned to death. Such in early times was life in what is long since the richest portion of the best State in the Union."

The original survey was on the line of the present Wabash railway. When the work of laying the old flat bar track had reached nearly to the city of Jacksonville, the line of construction was changed, for various reasons, and brought up West State street to the center of the public square. Here a stopping place was made and here the cars were unloaded for some time. The track was afterward extended through East State street, making a bend about where the railroad tracks are now laid, passing northeasterly through the grounds of the Blind Asylum until it reached the original survey. In making the excavation for the foundation of the large chimney at the Blind Asylum, some of the old oak ties were unearthed. These were in good condition and were, by the pupils of the Blind Asylum, made into boxes and trinkets, which are now in the possession of many of the citizens of Jacksonville. Colonel C. M. Morse, the division superintendent of the Chicago and Alton Railroad, has in his possession a box made from one of these ties, and in it one of the spikes used in fastening the old strap rail to the sill. Ties have also been found in excavating for the fountain in the public square, and in digging for gas and water mains.

The old road gradually wore out, the strap rails were stolen to use as shoes for sled runners and other purposes. For stealing these, one man was arrested and imprisoned in the penitentiary. When the engine was abandoned and sold to General Sample, mules were used to haul the cars in which freight was mostly carried, passengers generally preferring to travel in stages. Three mules, driven tandem, were usually attached to each car, their speed being accelerated by any movable article in reach of the driver.

The road proved a source of expense to the State. It had cost a million of dollars, and was bringing no revenue ; individuals, enthusiastic in this system of improvements, stood ready to buy the road and it was deemed best to sell it. In 1847, it was sold at public auction at the State House, in Springfield, to a company composed of Colonel Mathers, H. N. Ridgley, James Dunlap, and Governor Mattison. The price paid was 8100,000 in State bonds, then below par. These gentlemen went immediately to work, changing the tract from State street, in Jacksonville, to its original survey in the northern part of the city. A better track was laid, repairs made wherever necessar}-, the route being changed at Bluff City to run to Naples, a point on the Illinois River four miles below Meredosia. The road received a new charter, purchased new equipments, and made preparations to continue its route from Springfield, eastward, to the State line on the old survey. Three locomotives, the Morgan, Sangamon, and Frontier, were procured and placed on the road, Mr. Jonathan Neely, of Jacksonville, was appointed station agent, freight agent, ticket agent, conductor, etc. Soon after, the strap rails were discarded, and the "U" rail was adopted, this was, however, soon replaced by the " T " rail, now in use. The road was in operation in the Fall of '49 as far as Springfield. Work was continued on the road, which, by 1853, had progressed as far as Decatur. In 1851, the first railroad crossing in the State was made at Springfield, being that now known as the Chicago and Alton, over the road of which we are now writing. The old Northern Cross Railroad, afterward the Great Western, and now the Toledo, Wabash and Western, after the change in 1847, has maintained a steady, continuous growth, and is now one of the best operated railways in the West.

The Chicago, Alton and St. Louis Railroad received its charter February 27, 1847, under the name of the "Alton and Sangamon Railroad Company." The incorporators were, Robert Furgeson, Simeon Ryder, Benjamin Godfrey, Thomas Clifford, Robert Dunlap, and William Martin. The route was to be " from the City of Alton, on the Mississippi River, in Madison County, by the way of Carlinville, in Macoupin County, New Berlin, in Sangamon County, to the City of Springfield, in Sangamon County."

Work was commenced in the Spring of 1851. On the 9th of September, 1852, the first train reached Springfield. The rails and ties for this end of the road were brought from Naples, over the Great Western Railroad. The junction of these two roads was the first railroad crossing made in the State of Illinois. At the special session of the General Assembly in 1852, the charter was amended, extending the line to Joliet, and changing the name to the " Chicago and Mississippi." On the 18th of October, 1853, the track was finished to Bloomington, and conveyed passengers to Chicago by way of the Illinois Central and Rock Island Railroads. On the 4th of August, 1854, the road was finished to Joliet, and the cars run over the Chicago and Rock Island Road to Chicago. After the Joliet " cut off" was made, the trains run to Chicago over that road by way of " Matteson." After the " Joliet and Chicago Road " was built, it was leased by the Chicago and Alton Road, the name having been changed in February, 1854.

What is now the Jacksonville branch of the Chicago and Alton Railroad was commenced at Jacksonville in 1858, and opened to Manchester, south, and Petersburg, north, in 1860. It was extended to Whitehall, probably in 1862, and to Godfrey, January 1, 1865. The line was extended north to Mason City, in June 1867, and completed to Bloomington, September 23, 1868. This road, known as the St. Louis, Jacksonville and Chicago Railroad, was leased to the Chicago and Alton Company in April, and taken possession of June 1, 1868. By this lease, the Chicago and Alton Railroad Company obtained a direct line from Alton to St. Louis, in connection with the line from Chicago to Alton, this gives them direct communion between the two greatest cities in the West.

Desiring a direct connection with the great railways west of the Father of Waters, the company, in 1871, under the charter granted to the St. Louis, Jacksonville and Chicago Railroad, constructed a line from Roodhouse, to Louisiana, Missouri, crossing the Mississippi River on a bridge 2052 feet in length. This bridge cost $800,000, and is leased by the company. The line was extended from Louisiana to Mexico, Mo., the same year. The next spring it was opened to Fulton, and in July to Cedar, on the Missouri River, opposite Jefferson City. All the line in

The company are building a line from Mexico to Kansas City, a distance of 160 miles, crossing the Missouri River at Glasgow. ' The entire length of this road, including its branches and extension, is 837.2 miles. The length of the Jacksonville Division is 150.6 miles. It affords the citizens of Jacksonville and Morgan County a direct and easy communication with the cities of Chicago and St. Louis. The division is under the supervision of Colonel C. M. Morse, and to his efforts and experience the success of this division is largely due.

The Peoria, Pekin and Jacksonville Railroad was built first from Peoria to Virginia. In 1869, it was extended to Jacksonville. This gives a direct route from Jacksonville to Peoria, at which city it connects with the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, thereby forming a competing line wi^h the Chicago and Alton to Chicago and the Eastern cities.

The Jacksonville, Northwestern and Southeastern Railroad was constructed during the Summer and Fall of 1870, from Jacksonville to Waverly. It was afterward extended to Virden, a distance of thirty-three miles, where it connects with the main line of the Chicago and Alton. It is the intention to extend this road to Mt. Vernon, there to connect with the St. Louis and Southeastern road. The road runs through a 'good farming country and enjoys a good local traffic. The officers are, M. P. Ayers, President ; W. S. Hook, Secretary and Treasurer ; Ed. S. Greenleaf, Superintendent.

The Rockford, Rock Island and St. Louis Railroad was completed in the Summer of 1870. It passes through the western part of the county, the only towns on its route therein, being Concord and Chapin, the latter place being at the junction of this road with the Wabash. The road gives direct communication for this part of the county with St. Louis, and does chiefly a local business.

The railroads solved an important problem in the history of the West. By them, transportation and communication between the two great portions of the country, were made easy, and emigration by rail instead of the slow wagon road, was the consequence. Morgan County in common .with all counties in Illinois, was benefited by the change. Towns had grown up in her midst, along these public thoroughfares, and her people were beginning to enjoy the fruits of their labors. Schools had been established, churches founded, mills erected, post-offices created, and the busy tide of industry supplanted the former condition of the county. A retrospective view of the increase of the population, shows pretty accurately the growth of the county.

In 1820, the population of Morgan County was probably little more than one hundred persons. By the United States census in 1830, it was 12,714. It then included Cass and Scott Counties. During the following decade, these were created, and the census of 1840, notwithstanding this diminution of territory, shows a population of 19,547. The census of 1850, shows a population of 16,064 ; that of 1860, 22,112 ; and that of 1870, 28,463.

The old plan of subscription schools had been supplanted by the present admirable common school system. No man in Illinois has done more to bring about this change than Judge William Thomas. He early advocated a system of popular education, and ably seconded every effort made by the friends of education. In fact nearly every plan which has had for its aim the advancement of the masses, has been vigorously aided by the venerable Judge, and but few bills in the early days of legislation but emanated from his mind, or bear the marks of his hand, where the object was the advancement of civilization.

Judge Thomas, to whom reference is so often made in these pages, and who is so intimately connected with the history, is a native of Warren - now Allen - County, Kentucky. He was born November 22, 1802. He began the study of his profession in the law-office of Governor James T. Morehead, continuing at Bowling Green with Hon. J. R. Underwood. July 5, 1823, when twenty-one years of age, he obtained his license to practice law, remaining with Mr. Underwood until September, 182rL That fall, with a horse, a little money, and an abundance of energy, he started for the Sangamon country. He describes his trip, his arrival at Jacksonville, and what he saw there, elsewhere in these pages, and repetition here is unnecessary. From the date of his arrival, he has been always prominently before the people of the county, and has been one of the foremost citizens in every good work. To him may be attributed the founding of many of the State institutions, the establishment of the common schools, the act of incorporation of colleges in 183'" - the first act of the kind in the State - the public city institutions, and, in fact, every beneficent object. Everything tending to the welfare of town, county,, and State, bears the impress of Judge Thomas' hand.

He has been a faithful chronicler of events during his life here,, and to him, more than to any citizen of Morgan County, are the publishers of this volume, and its readers, under lasting obligations for the accuracy and detail of its statements. He has freely given every aid in his power, every fact in his possession, and deserves from his fellow-citizens a lasting place in their memories.

Morgan County contained at first all that country now comprised in Scott and Cass Counties. By reference to the Political History preceding this narrative, the reader will learn the causes leading to these divisions, and the time they were made. The division left the county with its present limits, save that portion on the north side, which, in 1843,. was set off to Cass County.

The Old Settlers' Association

The following history of the Association, with -its list of members,, was prepared by the Secretary, Mr. Timothy Chamberlain. The society is one of the best organized in the Western States. Mr. Chamberlain hastaken great pains in keeping the records of its meetings, and the list of its members, in an exceedingly neat and systematic manner in a book prepared by him expressly for this purpose :

At a Fourth of July celebration at Arcadia in 1869, there were found to be a large number of the early settlers of the county, and the conversation naturally turning to things and events of the past, and a desire having been expressed by many of the aged persons present to meet their friends of early days, it was decided among them that a call should be issued in the papers, and all invited to be present at a picnic.

" OLD SETTLERS' MEETING. - A meeting of the old settlers of Morgan County will be held at Arcadia, Thursday, September 9th, in D. G. Henderson's grove, at which time Judge William Thomas, J. T. Jones, and M. P. Ayres, will speak. Other speakers are expected, and without doubt the picnic, for such it is to be, will be an occasion of great interest. It is desired that all those residing in the territory, which in 1830 was embraced in Morgan County, should be present and participate in the exercises. Old settlers are particulaily invited."

The first regular meeting of the old settlers of Morgan, Cass, and Scott, was held in the grove near Arcadia, on Thursday, September 9th, 1869. Pioneers from all parts of these counties were on hand at an early hour. The exercises were opened with prayer, by Rev. Joel Goodrick. Hon. Joseph Morton, Capt. Yaples, Judge Whitlake, Bradley Thompson, M. P. Ayres, and others, made remarks appropriate to the occasion. A letter was read from Judge William Thomas, apologizing for and explaining his absence. Mr. Charles Cox was First Marshal of the day, and Mr. John M. Wilson assistant. Dr. John Craig was Secretary. Not less than 500 persons were present. An ode was sung, composed by Major George M. McConnel, of Jacksonville. The following resolution, offered by Mr. M. P. Ayres, was unanimously adopted :

" Resolved, That we cherish tenderly the recollection of the names of our honored dead, the early pioneers of our county, and we realize that though dead, yet through their works they still speak, and we trust we may imitate their virtues, and show by our works our appreciation of the toils and trials endured in our behalf."

It was intended that a regular association should be organized, so that hereafter annual meetings might be held, and every valuable act concerning the history of the county be preserved. However, the time was so fully occupied with other matters, that such an organization could not be effected, and a meeting was called for August 25, 1870, which met in Henderson's grove, near Arcadia, and after listening to speeches from Hon. Newton Cloud, Rev. N. P. Heath, Major G. M. McConnel, Senator Richard Yates, and others, a society was organized. A constitution was presented and read by Judge Wm. Thomas, and after being slightly amended, was adopted. According to its provisions all can become members who were in this region previous to the deep snow of 1830 and 1831.

Constitution

On this 25th day of August, A. D. 1870, the old settlers residing in the counties of Morgan, Cass, and Scott, composed of the territory originally included in the County of Morgan, being assembled in Henderson's grove, near Arcadia, in order to secure annual meetings with each other, and to perpetuate the acquaintance and friendship which existed among them during the first years of their residence, agree to organize a society to continue without limit of time, and that the following shall be the constitution :

Third. For the present, the society shall be composed of those who settled within the limits of the county previous to the deep snow of 1830 and 1831. . Subsequent settlers may hereafter be admitted.

Fourth. The officers of the society shall be a president, to preside at the annual meetings, three vice presidents, six directors, a secretary, a treasurer, a chaplain, and a marshal, all to be elected or appointed annually.

Fifth. The general business of the society shall be superintended and directed by the president and directors, four of whom shall constitute a quorum.

Sixth. The secretary shall make and keep a roll of the members, and record of the proceedings and action of the president and directors, and of the society.

Seventh. The treasurer shall safely keep the funds of the society, and pay them out on orders of the president and directors of the society.

Ninth. The marshal shall have the general superintendence of the grounds, or place of meeting, and act under orders of the presiding officer.

Tenth. Each member of the society shall sign his or her name to this constitution, or cause the same to be signed, adding thereto the date of settlement and nativity.

An ode was sung, composed by Mrs. J. R. Bailey, entitled the " Pioneer," tune of " E. Pluribus Unum." Some slight amendments have since been made to the constitution, one of which admits members to the society who settled here previous to 1840.

The present officers of the society are: President, Wm. Thomas; Vice-Presidents, Elliott Stevenson, William Lindsey, and Jesse Henry; Secretary, Timothy Chamberlain ; Treasurer, John Robertson; Chaplain, Rev. William Gallaher: Marshal, Charles Sample ; Finance Committee, Bazzill Davenport, John A. Wright, John Tureman ; Executive Committee, Huram Reeve, John Bergen, Joseph Morton, Keeling Berry, Samuel Brockman.

There is no charge made, and all who have been in the limits of old Morgan previous to 1840, have frequently been invited to sign the constitution, or send their names to the secretary. Yet there are a great many persons who have neglected to attend to this matter, and their names therefore do not appear in the following list of members :

Bennett, Isaac R., born Ky., 1802 ; settled Morgan co. September, 1829. Bridgeman, Hezekiah, born Va., 1797 ; settled Morgan co. Dec. 9, 1830. Beggs, Wm. Harvey, born Ind., 1817 ; settled Morgan co. Sept. 1829. Buckley, Mary E., born N. Y., 1813 ; settled in American bottom, 1819. Bedwell, Rachel, born Ohio, 1799. Was in Morgan before Jacksonville

The Common Schools

The first attempts at popular education in Morgan County, were made in the Winter of 1820-21. That winter a school was taught in a cabin of one of the settlers. But few scholars attended - there were few to attend - and the term lasted but a short time. The teacher received his pay in the currency of the time - coonskins and beeswax - and probably, as in after years, " boarded 'round/' The next year another similar school was taught in the new settlements, and so continued until the settlement of the country justified the erection of a house for educational purposes. This was, like all buildings of its day, made of logs ; had no window glass, no stove, and a puncheon floor. The door was hung on a wooden hinge, a huge fire-place supplied heat, and on one side a log was left out, the interstice covered with greased paper to admit light.

The teachers of that day were generally of an itinerant class of pedagogues, often with little learning. Among them, however, were some excellent teachers, who are yet kindly remembered by their pupils, nowr old men and old women.