Peoria County, Illinois - American Immigration, 1880

American Immigration

A Disease-Stricken Colony - Want of Mills - Increase of Population - Extent of Settlements - Pioneer Women - From New York to Kishwaukee - Clothing From Nettles - .Michiijan Seas - New Counties - From "Egypt" to Canada.

As already stated, two American settlements were commenced in Illinois in 1780, one near Bellefontaine, in Monroe county, and the other in the American Bottom. Another American settlement called New Design was commenced in 1782. American settlements, however, were slow, as will be shown by the following extracts from Reynolds' Pioneer History and The Western Annals. Reynolds says:

" By an act of Congress, 1791, four hundred acres of land were granted to all heads of families who made improvements in Illinois prior to 1788, except village improvements. These rights were commonly designated as ' head rights.' A list of names of heads of families who settled in Illinois previous to the year 1788, entitling them to these donations, which included, also, non-residents who should return in five years" time to occupy their claims, shows a total number of 244 claimants, 80 of whom were Americans. By allowing the usual number of five souls to the family, we have a population in that year of 1,220. This excluded negroes. Before 1791, under the militia law of the governor and judges, the muster roll gives about 300 men capable of bearing arms, of which number 65 only were Americans."

A Disease-Stricken Colony

The Annals says: "In 1797 a colony of one hundred and twenty-six persons, the largest which had yet arrived, were most fatally stricken with disease. They were from Virginia, had descended the Ohio in the Spring, and landed at Fort Massac, from which they had made their way across by land to the New Design. This place was in the present county of Monroe, and was established in 1782. It was located on an elevated and beautiful plateau of ground, barren of timber, which commanded a view of both the Kaskaskia and Mississippi rivers. The season was exceedingly wet, the weather extremely warm, and the roads heavy and muddy. The colonists toiled tiirough the woods and swamps of soutiiern Illinois for twenty-six days to travel a distance of one liiiudred and thirty-five miles. They were worn down, sick, and almost famished. Wlu-n they arrived at their (U'slinatimi, they found among the old settlers, long harassed iiy Indian warfare, but poor accommoilations. There was no lack of hospitality in feeling, but that did not enlarge the cabins, which usually contained but one room, into many of which three or four families were now crowded with their sick and well. Food was insufficient, salt was ver}' scarce, and medical aid was almost out of the ({uestion. A putrid and malignant fever broke out among tlie new comers, attended by such fatalit}' as to sweep half of them into the grave by the approach of Winter. No such fatal disease was ever before or since known in the country." " The old inhabitants," says another authority, " were not affected. The intelligence of this unwonted mortality produced abroad the wrongful impression that Illinois was a sickly country, which tended no little to retard immigration." It is now a well established fact that Illinois is among the healthiest States in the Union.

The Americans who settled at remote distances from the French settlements suffered great inconvenience and hardships for the want of mills. The French had their wind mills from an early period, but when they began to dwindle away, the mills went into decay, and for what few other mills there were, the water failed, and the Americans were compelled to have recourse to other means. Tin graters and hominy blocks, the last of which will l)e fully described hereafter, were made to supply, as far as possible, the absence of mills. These, in turn, were succeeded by hand mills, horse mills and water mills. The last named finally gave way to steam mills, until comparatively but few water mills now remain in use.

Increase Op Population

When Illinois was established as a separate dependency, the population was estimated at 9,000. The census of 1810 showed a population of 12,282. When the Territory was admitted as a State, under act of Congress, approved December 3, 1818, the population had increased to 40,000. The census of 1820 showed an increase of 15,211 in a little more than one year, or a total population of 55,211. The larger part of this population had come in after the close of the war of 1812, when it was supposed the country was freed from Indian molestation. Between two and three thousand of this population was made up of the descendants of the old Frencii settlers at Prairie du Rocher, Prairie du Pont, Cahokia, Peoria, and Chicago ; a great many of them being half and quarter breeds, their paternal ancestors having intermingled and intermarried with the Indian tribes native to the country. The remainder of the population were Americans, and with the exception of a small per ceutage of Pennsylvanians, nearly the whole of them were from the Southern States - Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Maryland, etc., and the habits, customs, manners, and hospitality peculiar to that people were so indelibly fixed upon the country, that tliey are retained to this day. Some of these pioneer people, says Mr. Ford, had been officers and soldiers under General Rogers Clark, who conquered the country from the British in 1778, and they, with others, who followed them, maintained tlieir position in the country during the Indian wars in Ohio and Indiana, in the times of Harmar, St. Clair, and Wayne. This whole people did not number more than 12,000 in 1812. but with the aid of one company of regular soldiers defended themselves and their settlements during the war of 1812, against the then numerous and powerful nations of Kickapoos, Sacs, Foxes, Pottawatomies, and Shawnees, and even made hostile exjieditions into the heart of their territories, burning their villages and defeating and driving them from the country.

When the State was admitted there were fifteen organized counties, of which Bond was the most northern. The settled portions of tiie country included in these fifteen counties extended a little north of Edwardsville and Alton, south along the Mississippi to the mouth of the Ohio, east in the direction of Carlyle, in Clinton county, to the Wabash, and down the Wabash and the Ohio to the mouth of the last named river. But within these boundaries there was a very large and unsettled wilderness tract of country between the Kaskaskia river and the Wabash, and between the Kaskaskia and the Ohio - the distance across it being equal to a three days' journey. All the country north of the district covered by these fifteen counties to the British possessions was an almost trackless wilderness whose primitive fastnesses had never been disturbed by the feet or voices of white men. But a countrv so ricli in soil and climate, already cleared and waitinc: to be stirred with the jilow and tickled with the hoe, to he made to 3'ield rich returns to industrious tillers, could not long remain in the idle possession of the Indian occupants. The fame of the Illinois prairies spread al)road and people soon began to flock here from almost every State of the Union. The immigration and settlement of these rich prairies and fertile river valleys was not so rapid as has been the settlement of Iowa, Nel>raska and Kansas, because the means of travel were neither so comfortable or rapid. In those days there were no railroads or fast steamboat.s, and immigrants depended on ox or horse wagons, with their schooner-like boxes, that would carry about as much as an ordinary canal boat, to convey their families and effects from the old States to the new El Dorado. Many of the first settlers of Illinois came the entire distance from New York, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Maryland, or other distant States, by this means of conveyance, never sleeping under roof from tlie time they left the old homes until they reached Illinois, selected their claims and built their cabins. Hundreds of them had no definite point of destination in view when they turned their backs upon their old homes, but with brave hearts and iron wills they traveled on and on, part of the time with no guide but the pocket compass or the north star, until thej' found a location that suited them. Then living in brush tents or wagons and cooking by camp fires until rude cabins were built, they commenced the foundations of that prosperity which secured for the country of their choice a crowning place in the union of States. (Others of the early first settlers, and notably those of the extreme southern part of the Territory, came by keelboats or flatboats till they reached the mouths of the Illinois water courses that empty into the great rivers - the Oiiio and the Mississippi - and then ascended inland until places for homes were found. While it is almost certain a majority of the pioneers to the southern part of the State came by that means of conveyance, it is a well established fact that the bulk of the first settlers in the central and northern part of the State came by wagon.

Pioneer Womek

As much credit as maybe awarded to the pioneer fathers and husbands for their bravery and courage in looking fate square in the face when they set out from their early homes to find and found new homes and fortunes in the country of the Illinois, there is an equal share of honor due to the pioneer mothers and wives. It is but the truth to write that, had the settlement and development of the Western States depended upon men alone, the progress of improvement and spread of civilization would have been much slower. Taking a last look at the surroundings of their girlhoods" homes, and bidding friends farewell, many of them forever, they climbed into wagons already loaded, and stowing away tiieir little ones as comfortably as circumstances would permit, they turned their backs upon all that was dear to their early youth, and witii their faces to the west, made journeys of thousands of miles. Many of them in addition to caring for children and preparing meals by camp fires on the way side, drove a team the entire distance. Few men would have iiiidortakiMi so arduous a task. Mi-s. Towner, one of the pioneer mothers of Boone county, and the first white woman to prepare a meal in that county, came there a weak, frail wife and mother of several small children. They made the entire trip froni New York arouiul through Canada, down through Michigan to Chicago, in a wagon fitted for the trip. From Chicago to the present site of Belvidere, Mrs. Towner took charge of their two-horse-wagon and children, and left her husband to the care of an ox team and supplies they juirchased there. Tiie last day of the journey, the 31st day of July, IHH.'), she took the course for the site of the new home her husband had previously selected, and boldly struck out for the country of the Kishwaukee. Part of the time she followed the trail made by General Scott's army from (Chicago to join the campaign against the Black Hawk Indians in 18;!'2, and part of the time she drove where no team had ever been driven before. About midnight of the hist day of July she reached the bank of the Kishwaukee, where she stopped, unhitched, unharnessed and turned the horses out to graze, built a camp fire and prepared the evening repast, by which time her husband came up. The next morning, when Aurora unbarred the gates of light and kissed the cheek of day, her eyes belield what the eyes of no white woman had ever beheld before - the transparent, softly murmuring water of the gently flowing Kishwaukee river, the Illinois tributary of the beautiful Rock river, the pride of two States.

Coming down through Michigan and along the lake shore, Mrs. Towner gathered several wooden pails full of what she called sandberries (whortleberries), and when they reached Cliicago she bought some earthern jars, washed the berries and turned them into the jars, covered them with molasses, and sealed tliem up. From that time to September, 1877, when she was visited by the writer, her larder liad never been witliout preserved fruits, either wild or domestic.

Another instance of the enterprise and determination of the pioneer mothers of Illinois was related at a gathering of tlie Old Folks at Belvidere in September, 1877. An Indiana family named Payne settled on the Fox and Du Page rivers in 183.S. They had several children of school age in 18'35, wlien the first sciiool in the neighborhood was to commence, but like Flora McFlimsey, the children had nothing to wear, and the parents liad nothing wherewith to buy them suitable raiment to attend school. The husband racked his brain for ways and means to no purpose, and gave up in despair. But the wife and mother was equal to the emergency. She had set her heart on sending her children to school, and to school tliey must go ; for

So Mrs. Payne set to work to accomplish her object, and clothe her children for school. The bottom land along the Fox and Du Page rivers furnished the raw material, and her industry and skill the means to utilize it. She went to the river bottom, and with her own hands mowed down a sufficient supply of nettles to supply' her purpose. TJiese she spread out and rotted in tlie same manner that flax is rotted. Then with her own hands she broke them, scutched them, hackeled tliem, spun the fibrous part into thread on an old-fashioned spinning-wheel, wove the thread into cloth, and cut and made the cloth into clothes for the little ones, and had them ready for school on the opening day. Wliat husband and father would have done as much '!

The first /ree school in Illinois was taught by one of these pioneer women - Lydia Lawrence, the mother of L. M. Lawrence, the present Probate Judge of Boone county. In 1838 there were a number of cliildreu in the Lawrence neighborhood, in what is now Bonus township, in that county, that Mrs. Lawrence tliought ought to be learning something instead of spending all the day idle. So she announced that if their parents would send them to her place she would spend a ceriain numlier of hours each d;ty in teaching their young ideas how to slioot. The shade of a wide-spreading tree that stood in the door-yard of the Lawrence cabin was improvised as a school-house. The children came on the appointed day and school commenced. Blocks or pieces of wood were used as seats by the children, while the teacher, knitting in hand, occupied an old splint-bottom rocking-chair. As the shade of the tree moved with the sun, the school-house moved. Thus ran the first /ree school ever taught in Illinois, or at least in that part of the State. A good many of the /?;-.«< young men and young women of that township, in Boone county, learned their a-b-c"s and a-b abs f.iom good old mother Lawrence beneath the shade of that old tree. Both the teacher and the tree were cut down long since - the one by the scythe o( the great reaper, and the otlier l)y the woodman's ax.

Tlie ILiikers came to Peoria county in 18"29. They left the old home in the town of SterliniT, Cayufja county. New York, on the 19th day of September of that year, when Seba H. Harker, now of the city of Peoria, was just two weeks old. and wlio was carried the entire distance on a pillow. From Buff.ilo to Cleveland, Mrs. Harker and the youncjer members of the family came by lake vessel. From Cleveland the entire family came by wagon. When coming down through Michigan they encountered heavy rains and swollen streams. At one place they had to unload their goods and pack them across a stream that was spread to the width of a small sea. Trees had been felled across tiie main channel for a footway, but to reach them they were forced to wade through sixty rods of water that, most of the distance, came above their knees. Nothing daunted liy the wide expanse of water, Mrs. Harker plunged in, baby Seba, pillow and all. and waded through, accomplisliing what few strong, muscular men, with a baby in their arms, would have attempted. Most men would liave shrunk from the undertaking, and waited for the flood to subside ; but not so with Mrs. Harker. She braved the flood and risked the life of heiself and youngest born to reach and help establish a home in Illinois. Of such stuff were the picnieer wivt-s and mothers to the *' Prairie State." Elaborately carved and costly shafts of granite and marble may l)e designed to perpetuate tlie memory of fallen warrior chieftains, wise statesmen and publicists, but none of them deserve richer honors than the brave women who came to endure the dangers and hardships of pioneer life and uphold the standard of civilization in the wilds of Illinois.

New Counties

Of the fifteen counties when Illinois was admitted as a State, the last three in the order of organization were Union, Wasiiingtou and Franklin. They weie organized in 1818. Immigration increased and settlements extended, as already shown, gradually from the south northward. The American immigrants, true to tiie restless nature and adventurous sjiirit of their race, kept pushing on and on until they had ]iassed tiie lines of settlements heretofore described, and were scattered here and there all through the southern half of the Territory. These settlements were often at remote distances from each other and were generally confined to the timi)er along the water courses; for, a-s strange as it may seem to many people of the present, it is nevertheless a fact, that the first farms were made in the timber. It was believed by many of the pioneer settlers that tinprairies were useless except for pasture, and that it would be impossible to live on them, that the soil in the timber was stronger, more productive, and that it would last longer than the soil of the prairies, even if they were susceptible of cultivation. As late as 1830 to '-iS the timber districts were preferred, and tiie men who began to make farms on the prairie land were considered wild and visionary. But it was not long until opinions changed. While the settlers among the limber weic toiling and delving, wasting their strength and vigor to subdue the fori'st around their caliins, tlie prairie farnuus were raising good crops and building beltei' houses. In some instances men came to Illinois and paid twelve dollai-s an acre for farms that had been commenced in the timber, when farms that nature made on the prairies near l)y were lying vacant and could lie purchased from the government atone dollar and twcuty-hvc cents an acre. Hut the minds of nuui have undergone a comiilete i:hange in tliis regard an<l the prairies of the VVestern Slates are now the chosen sites for homes and farms. It has l)ecn demonstrated that it is cheaper to raise timl)er for domestic purposes than it is to clear it away, aiul tiuit jirairie farms are more productive and the soil much more lasting than timbered ones.

in 1821 the State legislature organized seven new counties - Greene, Fayette, Montgomery, Lawrence, Hamilton, Sangamuu and Pike. Applications for authority to organize new counties were so numerous thai the legislature provided lor twelve weeks, l»ublii;iition of their intentions before petitions would be received and entertained in the future.

Pike county, orEjanized under an act approved January 31 (1831), embraced all the territory nortli of the Illinois river and its south fork, now Kankakee river. A Gazetteer of Illinois and Wisconsin, .Ipublished about 1822, says that the county " included a part of the lands appropriated by Conoress for the payment of military bounties. The lands constituting that tract, are included within the peninsula of the Illinois and Mississippi, and extend on the meridian line passing through the mouth of the Illinois, one hundred and sixty-two miles north. Pike county will no doubt be divided into several counties, some of which will become very wealthy and important. It is probable that the section about Fort Clark will he the most thickly settled. On the Mississippi river, above Rock river, lead ore is found in abundance. Pike county contains between 700 and 800 inhabitants. It is attached to the first judicial circuit, sends one member to the House of Representatives and, with Greene, one to the Senate. The county seat is Colesgi'ove, a post town. It was laid out in 1821, and is situated in township eleven south, in range two west of the fourth principal meridian. Very little improvement has yet been made in this place or the vicinity. The situation is high and healthy, and it bids fair to become a place of some importance." This is all that is known of the Town of Colesgrove, the county seat of all this region in 1821.

Fulton county was formed from Pike, January 28, 1823, and included all the territory north of the base line, and west of the fourth principal meridian, which had been in Pike. Peoria county was created from Fulton, January 13, 1825.