Piatt County, Illinois - Chapter 1: Early History - 1820-1840, 1903

One of the richest agricultural districts in the world is the small county of Piatt, situated near the middle of the great state of Illinois. It lies in the great prairie region of the United States, and is a part of the rich alluvial plain of the Mississippi valley, which is noted all over the world for its wonderful fertility. The soil is a rich warm loam, particularly adapted to the raising of corn, and large quantities of it are produced each year. Oats is also a staple crop, and wheat is raised successfully along the timber. Foctl for stock is produced in abundance, and large number of cattle, horses, hogs and sheep, are raised each year. The county is distinctly an agricultural one, at least ten thousand of its seventeen thousand people living in the country. There are no large cities, Monticello, the largest having a population of some two thousand.

In pcint of size, Piatt county is a little less than the average of the state.* Its area is 440 square miles. Its greatest length is thirty- four miles, and its greatest width fifteen miles.

The surface generally is level, sloping slightly to the southwest. The' principal river of the county is the Sangamon, which crosses near the center of the county, flowing in a southwesterly' direction. This river has no very large branches, the principal ones on the north being Madden's Run, Goose Creek, Wild Cat Creek, and on the south Camp Creek and Willow Branch. Some of the land in the south part of the county slopes southeast and drains into the Kaskas- of the Secretary of State. The population of Piatt county in 1900 was 17,706. At that time, twenty-eight counties of the state had a less population, as follows: " Bond, Boone, Brown, Calhoun, Cass, Cumberland, Edwards, Gallatin, Hardin, Henderson, Jersey, Johnson, Kendall, I,awrence. Marshall, Mason. Massac, Menard, Monroe, Moultrie, Pope, Pulaski, Putnam Richland, Schuyler, Scott, Stark, Wabash.

kia, a branch of the Mississippi through the Lake Fork of the Okaw River. The "divide" between the Sangamon and Kaskaskia basins is a ridge extending in a northeasterly direction between Bement and Monticello.

Piatt County was not settled as early as those in the southern part of the state. When Illinois was admitted as a state in 1818, it claimed a population of some 45,000 souls, not one of which lived within the present limits of our county.

The settlement of the southern part of the state first came from two causes. In the first place, the early settlers of Illinois, came generally from the south, from Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, etc., and would naturally settle the southern part of the state first. Then, too, the Indians in the northern part of the state were very hostile to the English settlers. They were in sympathy with the French and cherished resentment towards all the English for many years. The Ft. Dearborn massacre in 1812 helped to delay the settlement of the northern part of the state for some time.

Up to 1822, what is now Piatt County was uninhabited save by wanderng tribes of the Kickapoo and Pottawatomie Indians, and by the animals of the prairie and the forest. Along the river and creeks was the timber, and back from these waterways were the prairies covered over in summer and fall with the tall prairie grass waving backward and forward in the breeze, making it look at a distance much like a rolling sea. The deer, the wolf, and the fox were very much in evidence. During the rainy season much of the land was under water, and the country looked like one vast lake.

the same year that witnessed the first great contest in our state over slavery, came George Hayworth into our county from Tennessee and built the first cabin ever erected within the limits of what is now Piatt county. The cabin was built in Monticello on the Lodge place. . Soon after this he built another cabin, having some friendly Indians to help him. He lived in the county three years and then moved to Danville. In the fall of the same year, James Martin came to the county from Ohio. He built a cabin north of Monticello on what is now the Rhoades place. Mr. Martin's wife died within the first year, so he sold out his place to Mr. Daggott and went back to Indiana. The next spring he persuaded his nephew, John Martin and his niece, Mrs. Furnace, to accompany him back to Illinois and he returned and built a cabin near White Heath. Mr. Daggott lived on the place he purchased from Mr. Martin for about two years and then moved into Champaign county.

About 1824, Mr. Holliday came to the county and built a cabin near Mr. Hayworth's on what is now a part of Monticello. He sold his cabin to Mr.- Solomon Carver, who sold it to Mr. Cordell. In 1829 Mr. Cordell moved into the cabin.

In April, 1824, Mr. Abraham Hanline and his four sons, (Abraham, Jacob, James and Nathan), his wife having just died, took a claim of one hundred and sixty acres near the Coon Spring north of Monticello and commenced at once the task of clearing the ground and building the cabin. The same year Mr. York built a cabin where Mr. Geo. Varner now lives which was the first house ever built within the limits of what is now Goose Creek township. In 1830 Mr. Cordell built a cabin on the Woolington place north of Monticello. In 1830 the York and

In the spring of 1829, Mr. James A. Piatt. from whom the county is named, bought the Hay worth claim paying $150 for it, and giving all but $18 of it in tinware. He moved to the county that spring from Indiana, and bought in all 600 acres of land, on part of which the city of Monticello is now located.

In 1830 Mr. Frye put a cabin at the mouth of Goose Creek. The same year. Mr. Terry came to the county and built two cabins, one for himself, and the other for his mother-in-law, Mrs. Randolph. In 1831 Mr. Olney, a captain in the Revolutionary war, built a cabin on what is now the Mr. Ezra Marquiss place. His son-in-law, Mr. Lawrence, built a cabin near him. One of his sons took possession of the Frye cabin, and the other built a cabin where Mr. William Piatt now lives. Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence both died here. Their sons became dissatisfied with the place and moved away. In 1833, Mr. Abraham Marquiss came to the county and took possession of the cabin where Wm. Piatt's residence now is. In 1832, Peter and Mary Souders settled in what is known aS the Argo settlement in the northeastern part of what is now Sangamon township.

Between 1830 and 1840 the settlers came into Piatt county rapidly. Among those who came about this time may be mentioned the following : Abraham Marquiss, Ezra Marquiss, William Barnes, John and Richard Madden, Samuel Oulrey, Joseph Mailory, Isaac Williams, Samuel Sever, Cyrus Widick, Michael Billow, Mr. Ater, Mr. Bailey, James Hart, Jesse, Richard and William Monroe, James LTtterback. Joseph and

Luther Moore, Ezra Fay, Daniel and Samuel Harshbarger, Simon and Nathaniel Harshbarger, Samuel Havely, Abraham Collins, John Tenbrook, Samuel West, A. J. Wiley, A. Rizeor, John Argo, John Welch, William Smock, Peter Adams, George and Silas Evans, the Armsworths and the Coons.

Such in brief is the history of the county up to 1840. We who live in Piatt county at the present time and enjoy all the comforts of civilized life can have no adequate conception of the privations of the early settlers,

The first settlements were always made in or near the timber because their houses were made of logs and they would build the house were the logs were. Then, too, they must have fuel for the winter, and if they lived in the timber, it did not have to be hauled very far.

When they first came, they must bring with them enough bread and similar provisions to last until a crop could be raised. Corn furnished a large part of the diet. Johnny-cake for breakfast and dinner, and mush and milk for supper were things nearly always on the "bill of fare." There was a great deal of wild fruit, plenty of wild game, including turkeys and deer, and an abundance of fish in the rivers. They would find a "bee tree" occasionally and rob the faithful workers of their sweets. Afterwards the "truck patch" furnished an abundance of garden vegetables for the tables. In some .places they made a great deal of maple sugar.

The first task of the settler was the erection of his cabin. These were usually sixteen feet square. They would get large logs for sills and on these lay the "sleepers" for the puncheon boards which constituted the floor of the cabin. The house was then built up with logs until about seven and a half feet high, then the "butting pole sleepers" were laid on the ends. These were logs that projected about 1 8 inches over the others, on the projecting ends of which were placed the "butting poles" which gave line for the first row of clapboards, which formed the roof of the cabin. These clapboards were made to lap about a third of the way, and were sometimes kept in place by heavy poles laid along the roof. The cracks were then daubed with mud, the door made of rough boards with large wooden hinges and a wooden latch, the string of which always hung out as a sign of welcome, put in place. One or more small windows containing a few pains of glass, the fireplace occupying nearly one whole end of the room, large enough to contain a back log heavy as any man would care to carry, and the cabin was ready for occupancy. The furniture was of the most primitive kind. In one corner the bed or beds, sometimes made by driving sticks in the wall and supporting the other end from the floor and covering the slats with straw ticks ; the table - a puncheon slab supported by four legs made by boring large auger holes in the lower part of the slab and inserting the sticks used for legs. The chairs were made much like the tables only they had but three legs. Occasionally, split bottomed chairs would be found. The old fashioned spinning wheel stood in a corner, perhaps in another the cumbersome loom, while over the door hung the rifle and powder horn always ready for instant use. A rude cupboard to hold the dishes was all else needed. But few "store goods" were used. The settlers were so far from market, and the cost of transportation was so great that they could buy but few articles for every day use.

for the crop. They had not yet learned that the prairie soil could be cultivated. The prairies were covered over with luxuriant crops of prairie grass, which, on the low places, grew from six to eight feet in height. The roots were very tough and fibrous, and it was very hard to plow with the implements they then had. The early settlers thought it never would be settled.

In the meantime, the women of the household were not idle. Nearly every farmer kept a few sheep. From these, enough wool was secured for home use. The "linsey-woolsey" made of equal parts of cotton and wool was a very important article for the clothing of the early settlers. The spinning wheel was found in nearly every home, and frequently the loom, and the women made all the clothes for the entire family. The children were given some work to do as soon as they were old enough and they were early inured to labor.

In early times the nearest mills were on the Sangamon and Wabash Rivers, and the people would go to Danville for their "store goods" and for their flour.

Some of the early settlers had a homemade arrangement, for mashing the corn, called a "hominy-block." This was made by making a hole about a foot and a half deep in a block of wood. Corn was placed in the hole and pounded with another block sometimes supported on a sweep fastened to the side of the house. The finer part of the corn was made into bread and the coarse part was used for hominy. The first large mill in the county was made in 1838, and was on the Sangamon River about two miles north of Monticello.

to twenty-five cents, and could be paid at either end of line, but was usually paid by the receiver. When the stage routes were established through the country in 1839, the mail was carried by stage.

The ague season commenced usually in August and lasted several months. Sometimes whole families would be "shaking" at once. Typhoid fever was very common.

One of the greatest difficulties was the prairie fire. In the fall the people would protect their farms by ploughing furrows around them, and sometimes by ploughing furrows wide apart and burning the grass between them. Fires sometimes came, burned the stacks of hay and wheat and sometimes fields of corn. Fires moved very rapidly. Prairie fires prevented growth of timber, except on highlands or in broken country near streams.

Green head flies were very bad.' For about six weeks in late summer, travelers had to go at night. These flies sometimes killed horses, goading them to death with pain, loss of blood and incessant kicking to become rid of them.

This part of the history would not be complete without a brief account of the "deep snow," and "sudden freeze." The "deep snow" came in the winter of 1830 and 1831. The snow commenced to fall on the 2Qth of December and continued falling for three days and nights. The snow was about four feet deep on a level, and in some places was drifted 18 and 20 feet deep. The snow lasted the rest of the winter, not all melting off until alxwt the first of April. It was a winter of great hardships for the settlers. They depended a great deal on the wild game for their winter meat, and upon the corn for the other diet. When the snow fell but little of the corn was gathered and game could not be had. It literally starved to death. Before snow fell, deer were fat as could be, but before the snow passed away they were so poor they were not fit to eat. It was almost impossible to travel. In the spring the snow melted, the ground was flooded and it was almost as difficult to get around as it had been in the winter.

The "sudden freeze" occurred in January 1836. It had been raining in the morning and was not very cold. The storm came from the northwest, and reached our county a little afternoon, perhaps two o'clock. The temperature fell suddenly from about 40 degrees above zero to twenty below and much suffering followed. The face of the country was changed almost instantly from water to ice. The roads were left sharp and it was sometime before horses could be taken from barns. Jacob and Samuel Deeds were frozen to death while on their way to West Okaw. Such are some of the privations . of the early settlers, yet we must not think that their life was altogether a bitter one. They had their "bright spots," just as we do now. Human nature is pretty much the same now, as it always has been, and it demands a period of relaxation occasionally. These were obtained at the "quilting bee," the "corn shucking," and the "apple bee." At the "quilting bee," ladies for miles around would assemble some afternoon. Busy hands then worked hard and fast for the work must be gotten out of the way for the fun in the evening. In the evening the gentlemen came, and the time was spent in some boisterous games or in a dance.

The corn husking usually took place in large barns, and both the men and women participated. One of the features of the evening was to find the red ears of corn. When a ladv found one, she was entitled to a kiss from every gentleman present; and when a gentleman found one he was allowed to kiss every lady present. This feature was always a source of unlimited fun and frolic. When the husking was done the the old violin was brought out and the merry dance began, which lasted until day light.

In those days the people were noted for their hospitality, and their interest, the one in the other. They would go miles to help at a "raising" or to nurse a sick neighbor. The following incident illustrates the spirit of the times. A new settler borrowed a plough of an old settler and when he returned it he thanked him, and asked him how much he should pay him for the use of it. "Pay," he said, "look here, my friend, you don't know me do you ? Now sir, I want you to understand that whenever I have anything you wish, all you have to do is to come after it; and when through with it, if it suits your convenience, to return it, do so ; if not, I will come after it when I need it. I want you to understand farther sir, that whenever you have anything I want, I shall come and get it, and if it suits my convenience to return it, I shall do so ; if not you can come and get it."