Sangamon County, Illinois - City of Springfield 563, 1881 (part 2 of 25)

Sixty-four years have now passed since the first settlement was made, and there is not living in all Sangamon county one who came during the years 1817 or 1818 who was a man or woman grown at that time. Evidence must now be taken second-hand, or from those who were very small when brought by their parents to this county. It cannot, then, be wondered at that there is a disagreement upon this and many other points. In the history of the township of Ball will be found all the evidence now attainable with reference to the claims of Fuiliam, and in the history of Cotton Hill township the Funderburk claim is set forth. The attention of the reader is called to these chapters.

Other Eakly Settlers

In the spring of 1818, William Drennan, Joseph Drennan, Joseph Dodds, Mr. Vancil and George Cox settled in township 14, north of range 5, west, in what is now Ball township.

James McCoy and Levi W. Goodin, in the fall of 1818, settled in township 14, range 4, but moved to township 15, range 4, what is now known as Rochester township. Mr. McCoy and Mr. Goodin brought their wives, who were the first white women to come to the county for the purpose of making it their home. It is said that but six women came that year, the other four being wives of William and Joseph Drennan, Mr. Vancil and Joseph Dodds.

In what is now Auburn township, Jacob Ellis, James Black, Samuel Vancil, and John Wallace settled in 1818. In other parts of the county were Zachariah Peter, Justice Hinkle, William Nelson, Mason Fowler, Joseph Dixon, Joseph Neeley, and others.

Sangamon county is centrally situated, north and south, in the State and is bounded on the north by Menard and Logan counties, on the south by Macoupin, Montgomery and Christian counties, on the east by Macon county and on the west by Morgan county. It contains an area of 875 square miles, or 550,000 acres of land.

Section 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That all that tract of country within the following boundaries, to-wit: Beginning at the aortheast corner of township twelve north, on the third principal meridian, thence north with said meridian to the Illinois river, thence down the middle of said river to llie mouth of Balance or Negro creek, thence up said creek to its head, thence through the middle of the prairie which divides the waters of the Sangamon and Mauves Terre to the northwest corner of township twelve north, range seven west, of the third principal meridian, thence east along the north boundary of township twelve to the place of beginning, shall constitute a separate county to be called iSangamon.

fc>K(;TiON 2. Be it further enacted. That so soon as the county commissioners of said county shall be elected and duly qualitied into office, they shall meet at some convenient place in said county as circumstances will admit, and such place where selected by said county commissioners, shall be the temporary seat of justice for said county, until otherwise provided by law: Provided, howecer, that if any settler or settlers, owner or owners, of the place so selected as aforesaid, shall refuse to have the temporary seat of justice fixed on his or her or their improvements, then the said commissioners may determine on such other place contiguous thereto as they may deem proper.

Section 3. Be it further enacted, That said county commissioners shall be allowed the same compensation for the time necessarily employed in fixing the temporary seat of justice as in other cases.

Section 4. Be it further enacted, That the citizens of Sangamon county are hereby declared in all respects entitled to the same rights and privileges as are allowed in general to other counties in this State.

Provided, always, That in all cases where freeholders only are capable of performing any duty, or are entitled to any privilege ; housekeepers shall for all such purposes, be considered as freeholders in the said Sangamon county, and shall and may do all duties appertaining to the difterent oflices in the county.

The following is the original boundary of the county as thus created : Commencing at the northeast corner of Locust township, in Christian county, thence north to a point on the Illinois river about two miles west of the city of Peru, thence down the middle of said river to what is now the boundary line between Cass and Morgan counties, thence west to the northeast corner of Morgan county, thence south on the line between Morgan and Sangamon counties to the northwest corner of Otter township in Macoupin county ; thence east to the place of beginning. It will be seen that the boundaries between this county and Morgan, Macoupin and Montgomery, are unchanged. The original metes and bounds of Sangamon county, as given, embraced the following counties and parts of counties as at present constituted : Part of Christian, a small part of Macon all of Logan part of McLean, all of Tazewell, ))art of Woodford, part of Marshall, part of Putnam, all of Mason, all of Menard and all of Cass,

The territory then constituting the county was thus set apart by law. An election for county officers was held Monday, April 2, 18:^1. At this election William Drennan, Zachariah Peter and Rivers Corniack were elected County Commissioners, met the next day and took the oath of office.

The first meeting of the County Commissioner's Court was held at the house of John Kelley, on Tuesday, April :], 1821 ; there being present all the members elect - William Drennan, Zachariah Peter and Rivers Cormack. After taking the oath of office prescribed by law, the lirst business was the appointment of a clerk, Cliarles R. Matheny being honored with the position. Mr. Matheny took the oath of office and entered into bond with James Latham as security for the faithful performance of his duties. ^ No further business was transacted at this time and the court adjourned.

John Linsey, Stephen Stillman and John Rol)inson were nominated to the Governor as proper persons to hll the office of Justices of the Peace.

" Whereas, The act of the General Assembly, entitled, 'an act establishini-- the County of Sanganio' requires of the County Connnissioners when elected and quahlied into office, to fix a temporary seat of justice for said county ; therefore, we, the undersigned. County Commissioners of said county, do certify that we, atter full examination of the situation of the population ol said county, have fixed and designated a certain point in tlie prairie near .John Kelley 's field on the waters of Snring creek, at a stake marked Z. D., as tlie temporary seat of justice for said county, and do turther agree that the said county-seat be called and known by the name of Springfield.

The next meeting of the board of County Commissioners was held at the court house in Springfield, June 4, 1821, all the members being present, with Charles R. Matheny, Clerk, and John Taylor, Sheriff,

"The court, pursuant to public notice given, proceeded to let out the building of a jail to the lowest bidder, which was cryed off to Robert Ilambleton, at ^84.7 5, who thereupon entered into an agreement with the aforesaid Commissioners to have the same completed by the first Monday in September next.

"- Ordered, that William Drennan be appointed guardian for George Cox, an infant under the age of fourteen years, and that he enter into bond in one hundred dollars, with Rivers Cormack as security."

James Simms refusing to qualify for the office of treasurer, George Haworth was appointed, and was duly (pialified, presenting Zachariah Peter and Robert Pulliam as security.

In order to defray the necessary expenses of the county, it was ordered by the County Commissioners that "the Assessor, in assessing the taxable property, assess the following property, to-wit : Horses, neat cattle, wheel-carriages, stock in trade and distillery.

A special term was next held July 16, 1821, the members of the court all being present. The only business transacted being the levying of one-half of one per cent, upon all taxable property "for the purpose of procuring public buildings and other necessary expenses for the year 18"21."

Andrew Orr, Matthew Higgins, Norris A, Thomas, Jacob A. Millei and Robert Hamilton were appointed constables, each of whom qualified in open court.

At a term held December 3, 1821, Robert Hamilton was allowed the sum of I84.V5 for the jail built by him for the use of the county. J hn Taylor, sheriff of the county, protested against receiving the jail as not suitable; but his protest was not heeded.

Charles R. Matheny was allowed $87.50 for salary as clerk o ' the Circuit Court, and for stationery furnished for the year 1821; Rivers Cor-< mack was allowed for seivices as C'onmiissioner; William Drennan and Zacbariah Peter each $30 for services as Commissioners; John Taylor was allowed $50 as salary for the year 1821.

The first tavern license granted by the board was at this term, Robert Pulliambeingjtermitted to engage in the business for the sum of $'3 per year. He was permitted to charge the following rates:

On the first Monday in March, 1822, the court licensed Elijah Slater to " keep a tavern or public house of entertainment in the town of Springfield." Whether provisions were scarce, or whatever the cause, he was permitted to charge a higher rate than Mr. Pulliam, the court fixing the following prices:

Tuesday, March 5, 1822, the board was again in session, at which time it was "ordered by the ( ourt that the treasurer, in assessing the property for taxation for the year 1822, take and include all personal property, goods and chattels of whatsoever kind or nature the same may be, including all the personal estate, in addition to the real estate made taxable by law."

Erastus Wright was authorized to keep a ferry on the Illinois river at Fort (-lark (Peoria), and was permitted to charge the following rates:

At the June term, 1822, Aaron and Gideon Hawley were authorized to keep a ferry across the south fork of the Sangamo river, at what was know^n as Jarvis' Ford. The following rates were established:

The sum of |12 was allowed Thomas Smith for a stray found in Springfield, for the use of the county, and Andrew Orr w^as appointed to take charge of the same.

At the annual election held in 1822, William Morgan and Samuel Lee were elected members of the board vice William Drennan and Rivers C'orraack.

The first session of the new board was held on the second day of September, 1822. No btisiness of any special importance was transacted, and the court adjourned till court in course.

A't the March term, 1824, the first allowance for paupers was made. John Orendorff was allowed §51.50 for keeping two paupers for six months, and Nathan llussey §20 for keeping one pauper six months.

In 1825, specie must have been scarce, judging from the fact that at the June term of that year all allowances were made "in specie or its equivalent."

At the July term, 1825, the board met to let the building of a new brick court house, but the records are" silent as to any action on the subject.

gaiuua river, a subscription being raised for that purpose. Subscribers to the fund were allowed to pay their subscription in labor at the rate of $1 per day.

The last meeting of the County Commissioners'Court was held November 5, 1849. But little business was transacted. Their term of office was about at an end, being succeeded by the board of justices.

County Commissioners Board Of Justices

In 1849, the county government was vested in a Board of Justices, consisting of a county judge and two asssociate justices, all the powers previously held by the County Commissioners being transferred to them. The tirst meeting of the Board of Justices was held at the court house in Springfield, Monday, December 8, 1849. There were present, Thomas Moffett, county judge; Cyrus W. Vanderen and William F. Elkin, associate justices. The unfinished business of the County Commissioners' court was first taken up, and then the new board proceeded to the transaction of all business brought before them.

A petition was presented to the Board of Justices June 5, 1860, praying the board to submit the question to a vote of the people for the adoption of township organization. The prayer of the petitioners was granted, and the subject was ordered submitted to the people at the next general election, held Tuesday, November 6, 1860. The vote was canvassed by the board in December following, when it w^as ascertained there was a majority of 859 votes in its favor, out of a total vote of 7,241. The board thereupon appointed John S. Biadford, Jolin Gardner, Sen., and Joseph Campbell, commissioners to divide the county into towns, in accordance with the general law relating to township organizations. At a meeting of the Board, held March 1, 1861, the commissioners submitted their report, by which the county was divided into twenty-two townships under the followingnames:

Auburn, embracing all of township 13, north of range 6 west of the third principal meridian, and part of township 18, north of range 5 west.

Spriyigjield. township 16 north of range 5 west, except the territory comprising the city of the same name, which is made a town under the name of Capital.

River And Crkeks

Sangamon county is well supplied with streams of living water, the most important of which is the Sangamon river, the north fork of which takes its rise in McLean county, and pursuing a tortuous course, forms the southern boundary line of Sangamon along lUiojtolis and part of Cooper township, entering the county on section 15 of the last named township, passing through it and Rochester into Clear Lake township, where it is joined, on section 27, with the south fork, which heads in Shelby county, entering Sangamon on section 12, Cotton Hill township, and passing througli Rochester into Clear Lake. The two forks uniting as stated, pass into and through Springfield, Gardner and Salisbury townships, from which it enters Menard county from section 22.

Navigation Of The Sanoamo River

The boys that play upon the banks of the Sangamo river in this year of our Lord one thousand, eight hundred and eighty-one little dream that it was ever thought by anyone that the river was a navigable stream, much less that an attempt was ever made to run a steamer on its sluggish waters. But such was the case.

Before the days of the iron horse, when railroads were comparatively unknown, many attempts were made at the navigation of insignificent streams, in order to cheapen transportation. Especially was this true in new countries.

"And last, not least, it is seriously projected by our fellow-citizen, V. A. Bogue, to introduce to the good people of Springfield, within a month or so, by way of the Sangamo river, a steaml)oat, which will be laden with goods for our merchants. We have strong confidence that the undertaking will succeed. We will not now undertake to state the results that would benefit to this village and county from the complete success of this experiment. It would be worth more to us than a dozen railroads - in the new^spapers. Wasn't our inimitable bard prophetic when he said: -

"I am well aware that the undertaking is dangerous, difficult and expensive - still I am willing to risk my all upon it. All I ask is the cheerful and hearty concurrence of those gentlemen who must be more interested in the success than I am or can be. If I am unfortunate, I will cheerfully bear the loss; if I am successful, which, God willing, I have little doubt every individual in that tine section of country must feel the beneficial effects of it. The concurrence I allude to is to advise me immediately on receipt, and keep me advised of the state of the river - what probable rise may be expected above low-water mark - that I should be met at the mouth of the river by ten or twelve men, having axes witii long handles, under the direction of some experienced man, and that one of the men should be one of those who has most often descended the river with fiatboats (to show the course of the stream). I shall deliver freight from St. Louis at the landing on Sangamo river, opposite the town of Springfield, for thirtyseven-and-a-half cents per hundred pounds

The Journal was an enthusiastic friend of the project of the navigation of the river, but tempers its enthusiasm by saying: "It would be folly, perha})s, ever to anticipate for our village advantages from steamboat navigation equal to those which St. Louis has derived from that source; yet such anticipation cannot be more chimerical than was the project of running steamboats from the mouth of the Ohio to St. Louis in 1817."

"We find the following advertisement in the Cincinnati Gazette of the 19th ult. We hope such notices w'lW soon cease to be such novelties. We seriously believe that the Sangamo river can be made navigable for steamboats for several months in the year. Here is the advertisement:

X^OIi SANGAMO RIVEK. ILLINOIS - The splendid upper- -^ cabin ateainer, TALISMAN, J M. Pollock, Master, will leave for Portl.ind, Springtield, on the Sangamo river, and all intermediate ports and landings, say Beardst'>wn, Naides, St. Loiii.s, Louisville, on Thursday, Feltniary 2. For freight or passage apply to Captain Viucent A. Bogue, at the Broadway Hotel, or to Allison Owi-n.

After the foregoing notices appeared in the Journal, a public meeting of citizens of Springfield was held February 14, 1832, to take into consideration what measures should be ado])ted to assist Mr. Bogue in his enterprise. Elijah lies was elected chairman, and William Porter secretary. On motion of Dr. Todd, the following preamble and resolution was adopted:

Resolced, That a committee of three citizens be appointed to meet him, with a suitable number of hands, and render him all the assistance we are capable of, or on the failure of Mr. Bogue, that assistance be afforded to any other boat wishing to engage in the enteri)rise.

E. I). Taylor, Washington lies and T. M. Neale were appointed that committee. T. Moffett, G. Jayne, and D, Dickerson were appointed a committee to solicit funds to carry out the foregoing resolution.

According to announcement the Talisman started on its journey from Cincinnati, and after various trials succeeded in accomplishing its object. The Journal of March 8, announces the arrival of the steamer at Meredosia, when its further progress was obstructed by ice. In its issue of March 29th, it says :

" On Saturday last the citizens of this place (Springfield) were gratified by the arrival of the steamboat Talisman, J. W. Pollock, master, of 15U tons burthens, at the Portland landing, opposite this town. (Portland was at the south side of the Sangamon river, between where the bridges of the Chicago &, Alton and the Gilman, Clinton & Springfield railroads now stand). The safe arrival of a boat the size of the Talisman, on a river never before navigated by steam, had created much solicitude, and the shores for miles were crowded by our citizens. Her arrival at her destined port was hailed with loud acclamations and full demonstrations of pleasure. When Capt. ])Ogue located his steam mill on Sangamo river, twelve months ago, and asserted his determination to land a steamboat there within a year, the idea was considered chimerical by some, and utterly impracticable by others. The experiment has been made, and the result has been as successful as the most enthusiastic could expect ; and this county owes a deep debt of gratitude to Captain Bogue for getting up the expedition, and his never tiring and unceasing efforts until the end was accomplished. Capt. Pollock, who is naturally warm and enthusiastic, entered fully into the feeling of our citizens, who visited the mouth of the river to render any and every assistance in their power; and much credit is due him for his perseverance and success. The boat experienced some difficulty from drifts, and leaning timber on shore, which made her trip somewhat tedious. The result has clearly demonstrated the practicability of navigating the river by steamboats of proper size ; and by the expenditure of |2,00U in remov- ing logs and drifts and standing timber, a steam boat of 80 tons burthen will make a trip in two days from Beardstown to this place. The citizens of Beardstown manifested great interest for the success of the enterprise, and some of them accompanied the boat until the I'esult was no longer doubtful. They proposed the cutting of a communication or canal from the bluffs to their landing - about five miles - whereby seventy-five miles of navigation may be saved, and offered one thousand dollars to assist in completing it. It is to be hoped that the next legislature will afford some aid in making the river safe and pleasant in its navigation. Springfield can no longer be considered an inland town. We have no doubt but within a few months a boat will be constructed for the special purpose of navigating the Sangamo river. The result which must follow the succesful termination of this enterprise to our county, and tw those counties lying in its neighborhood, it would be impossible to calculate. Here is now open a most promising field for the exercise of every branch of honest industry. We congratulate our farmers, our mechanics, our merchants and professional men, for the rich harvest in prospect, and we cordially invite emigrating citizens from other states, whether rich or poor, if so be they are industrious and honest, to come hither and partake of the good things of Sangamo."

The poets of the day immortalized the occasion in verse, while the ladies gave a grand ball in honor of the occasion. The Journal's poet, in speaking of the appearance of the steamer, says:

Notwithstanding all this general rejoicing the navigation of the Sangamon was a failure. The Talisman, on account of low water, was unable to turn around, and was compelled to back out of the stream. Her first trip was her last. She was burned to the water's edge opposite St. Louis, in the latter part of April, 18:52.

Even as late as 1853 a small steamer came up the river to Petersburg, which caused Simeon Francis, who felt bound to make the Sangamon river navigable, write as follows, under date of April 25, 1853:

"It has long been a conceded fact by those who have the best knowledge on the subject, that the Sangamon river can be made navigable for a small class of steamers five or six months in the year. Some days ago the steamer Wave, Captain Monroe, arrived at Petersburg. He found no difliculty in navigating the river for want of water. There was a depth of four feet, but there were obstructions from drifts and narrow turns that could readily be obviated. He supposes the distance by the Sangamon river to the Illinois from Petersburg is about ninety miles, thirty miles of which will need improvement. This improvement should be done, if not by the State, by a company, who should be authorized to receive tolls for boats. We believe the legislature has authorized a com])any to improve the Kaskaskia river, and to charge tolls. Captain Moore has navigated the last mentioned river, and he expresses himself decidedly of the opinion that the Sangamon is a better river for navigation than the Kaskaskia.

"We learn that so thoroughly satisfied are the property holders and business men of Petersburg of the feasibility of navigating the Sangamon by steamboats, and the great benefit that would result to that section of country from a steamboat connection with other navigable streams, that a subscription of some five thousand dollars has already been raised to biiild and ec^uip a steaml)oat for the especial navigation of the Sangamon. The attempts made years ago for the same purpose were not made in a way to secure success. The company will be able to avoid the obstacles which defeated the project on a former occasion. As one of the means for developing the rich resources of the country on the Sangamon, we most fervently desire that the enterprise may be successful."

Sangamon county is well watered by many living streams, after the Sangamon river the most important being Sugar creek, Lick creek, Horse creek. Brush creek, Clear creek. Fancy creek, Cantrall creek, Prairie creek, Richland creek. Wolf creek, and Spring creek, an account of each being found in the township history of the townships through which the flow.

The Sangamon river traverses the entire extent of the county from east to west, and with its tributaries furnishes a reasonable supply of water in ordinary seasons.

This stream, as well as its main affluents, are skirted with belts of excellent timber, which make this one of the best timbered counties in the central portion of the State. About onethird of the county was originally covered with timl>er, but much of the timbered land has been cleared up and brought under cultivation.

The principal varieties of timber observed in this county are the following; and it will be seen that the list embraces nearly every variety of forest tree that is to be found in the central portion of the State: sugar and white maple, buckeye, shellbark hickory, swamp hickory, mocher nut and thick shellbark hickory, hornbeam, serviceberry, backberry, red bud, dogwood, red thorn, black thorn, persimmon, waahoo, white, blue and black ash, coffee nut, white and black walnut, mulberry, sycamore, Cottonwood, wild plum, wild cherry, crab apple, white oak, scarlet oak, chestnut oak, laurel oak, red oak, pin oak, swamp white oak, bur oak, sumac, elder, sassafras, linden, willow, American elm, slippery elm, prickly ash, pawpaw, red birch, hazel, spiceberry, and honey locust.

The superficial deposits in this county comprise the three principal divisions of the Quattruary: alluvium, leoss and drift. Narrow belts of alluvial bottom skirt the Sangamon through a large part of its course in this county, but they are subject to be annually overflowed by the river floods, and are most valuable for the heavy growth of timber they sustain.

The leoss covers a large part of the uplands to the depth of from six to twenty feet, and is composed of the usual marly beds of buff and gray sands and sandy clays, Underneath the

Nos. 2 and 3 of the above section may properly be referred to the leoss, and at several points, in the vicinity of the city, it has been found to contain the characteristic shells usually found in it.

We are indebted to Mr. Joseph Mitchell, who has dug many wells in the northwest part of Sangamon county and in the adjoining portions of Menard, for the following sections of the beds usually passed through by him:

No. 3 of this section is undoubtedly leoss, and he affirms that this order of succession was invariably observed) at many different localities in that portion of the county, the black mucky soil always appearing immediately below the leoss, and varying from three to eight feet in thickness, and always overlaying the true drift or boulder clay. This old soil is probably the equivalent of a chocolate-colored band a foot or more in thickness, which lies at the base of the leoss in the bluffs at Quincy.

In my report on Adams county, pul)lishcd in Vol. IV, i)age 45, I suggested that the layers of chocolate colored soil at the base of the leoss might be the equivalent of the old post tertiary soil penetrated in the shaft at Coatsburg, and in consequence of the absence of true drift deposits at Quincy, it was difficult to iix the relation which this chocolate-colored soil might hold to the boulder clays, but the occurrence of a similar deposit at so many different localities in this county, and at the base of the leoss and always above the boulder clays seem to indicate {)retty conclusively that the stratum of Quincy also belongs above the true drift and to a more recent period than that penetrated at Coatsburg.

These two ancient soils, the one at the base of the leoss, and the other beloAV the boulder clay, belong to distinct and widely separated periods and indicates two distinct emergencies of the surfaces during the Quarternary period and the prevalence of conditions suitable for the growth of an arboreal vegetation.

The boulder clays, or true drift, consists for the most })art of brown, gravelly clay with small boulders. Occasionally a boulder, two feet or more in diameter, is met with in the beds of the ravines, but they are not common. In the vicinity of Springfield, this division of the quarternary ranges from twenty to forty feet in thickness, and this is probably not far from its average thickness throughout the county; but at some localities there is a blue clay or hard pan below the brown clays, which attains about the same thickness as the former, making the aggregate thickness of the drift where fully developed from fiftyto eighty feet. No fossils have as yet been obtained from the drift in this county, so far as I am aware, though the tooth of a mammoth was found some years ago in the bluff's of the Sangamon, and near the surface, and probably came from beds not older than leoss.

The discovery of the Niantic mastodon, some three years since, between Illiopolis and Niantic, and just over the Macon county line, excited considerable interest when the discovery Avas first announced, and I visited the locality, and was present when a part of the bones were taken out. The discovery was made on the farm of William F. Correll, in sinking a stock well in a wet, spongy piece of ground, located in a swale or depression of the surface that had evidently once been a pond of water, and had been filled up by the wash from the surrounding highland, until it formed a morass or quagmire "in dry weather.

The bones were about foiir feet below the surface and partly imbedded in a light, gray quicksand filled with fresh water shells, J^lassorbis, Oyclas, Physa, etc. Above this quicksand there was four feet of black, peaty soil, so soft that a common fence rail could be easily pushed down through it. The quicksand had evidently once formed the bottom of a fresh water pond, fed probably by springs and was the resort of the animals whose bones were found here. The first bone met with in sinking the well was one of the tusks, and supposing it to be a small tree it was cut in two with an axe before its true character was suspected. The other tusk was taken out whole, and measured nine feet in length around the curve, and about two feet in circumference where it "svas inserted in the skull. The lower jaw, with the teeth in place, and the teeth of the upper jaw" and some of the smaller bones were also found in a good state of preservation.

A fine pair of antlers of the elk, with some other bones of the same animal, and bones of the buffalo and deer were found in the position as the bones of the mastodon, but the bones of the smaller animals, although imbedded at the same depth, were lighter colored, less decayed, and appeared to have been buried at a more recent period.

Stratified Kocks

The stratified rocks, outcroj^ping at the surface in this county, all belong to the upper coal measures, and overline all the main coal seams worked in the State. The lowest beds exposed in the county, are found on the Sangamon river, near the Menard line, and on Richland creek, one of the southern affluents of the Sangamon, in the western part of the county.

They consist mainly of sandstones and shales, including the horizon of the Rock creek limestone, although w^e have not, as yet, seen any out-crop of this limestone in Sangamon county.

A vertical seciion of all the beds exposed on the Sangamon and its tributaries, in the central and western portions of the county, would show the following relative position and thickness of strata: -

The beds numbered from one to seven, inclusive, of the above section, are well exposed on Sugar creek, two miles north of Virden, and thence down the creek to the crossing of the St. Louis, Alton & Chicago Railroad, between whicli points all the beds included in these numbers outcrop in succession, the eastward dip of the strata being somewhat less than the fall of the stream.

The upper limestone No. 2, of the above section is well exposed near the bridge on the main road north of Virden, and has been quarried both for lime and building stone. The upper part of the bed is a nodular, unevenlybedded rock, partly brecciated, while the lower portion is more evenly bedded, affording a tolerably good building stone, iu layers from four inches to a foot or more in thickness.

A little farther up the creek the whole mass becomes brecciated and fragmentary, and quarries in pebbly fragments suitable for macadamizing material.

The brown ferruginous bed, No. 5, of the foregoing section is a hard, massive rock, resembling tlie limestone at Crow's mill, on Sugar creek, six miles south of Springlield, of which it is probably the equivalent.

The limestone No. 7, of the foregoing section is not fully exposed, but the upper layers outcrop in the bed of the creek just above the railroad bridge, in pebbly layers not unlike the upper layers of No. 2; as they appear above the bridge on the main road north of Virden. This out-crop is very similar in appearance to the upper layers of the Carlinville limestone, just below Carr's mill on Macoupin creek, northeast of Carlinville, and I have no doubt but this limestone on Sugar creek is the equivalent of that. Below the railroad bridge the shale underlying these limestones are the only beds exposed for some distance, but east of Auburn the limestones are again met witli, and are found in outcrops from this point to Crow's mill, seven miles south of Springfield, where the rock for the old State House was obtained. At Peddecord's quarries, on Sugar creek, the State House rock is well exposed, affording the following section :

The material for the old State House was obtained mainly from No. 2 of the foregoing section, and there is a nearly continuous outcrop of these beds from this point to Crow's mill, two miles below, where the old State-House quarries were located.

This rock is a coarse-grained, brownish-gray, crinoidal limestone, almost entirely composed of crinoidal joints and tlie calcareous remains of marine mollusca, cemented together by calcareous and ferruginous sediment.

In addition to the fossils already enumerated as occurring in this limestone at tlie locality north of Virden, the quarries here afford numerous specimens of syrinf/ojyora mtdtatJiennata, which seem to belong in the clay shale under the limestone No. 2 of the foregoing section, and, so far as I am aware, has been found nowhere else but in this shale in Sangamon and Macoupin counties.

Some of the masses obtained on Sugar creek are nearly a foot in diameter. Tliis limestone lias also afforded fine specimens of Cladodus mortifer, Petalodus destructor, and Cyathocrimts 'Sangamonensis. This rock possesses the same lith'ological characters, and affords exactly the same group of fossils as the upper division of the main limestone at La Salle, and I have no doubt they are stratigraphical equivalents. Below Crow's mill to the outlet of Sugar creek into the Sangamon river, the sandy shales and sandstones intervening between this limestone and the coal outcroppings at Howlett, are the only beds to be seen. This coal seam, numbered 11, in the general section, given on a preceding page, ranges in thickness from eighteen inches to two feet, and is coal No. 8, of our general section of the Coal Measures, given in Vol. Ill, page 5, of these reports. It outcrops in the bank of the Sangamon river at Howlett, and on Spring creek and its branches north and west of Springfield; and previous to the discovery of the heavy beds below this, it was extensively worked in strip banks, and by tunnels along its line of outcrop. It is overlaid by a calcareous shale, and argillaceous limestone, which are wonderfully rich in fossils, and have afforded more than sixty species of shells, corals and crinoidia characteristic of the upper coal measures. The coal is underlaid with a dark bluishgray fire-clay two or three feet in depth, below which an impure nodular limestone is sometimes found, but more frequently the fire-clay rests directly upon the sandy shales and sandstones below.

At Howlett, the argillaceous limestone overlaying this coal seam, is succeeded by sandy shales, passing upward into soft mucacous sandstones, which outcrop along the railroad grades just beyond Camp Butler, and contain an intercalaled seam of poor coal only a few inches thick.

The limestones of Sugar creek, which properly overlay this sandstone, are not found in the vicinity of Howlett, having been probably removed in the erasion of the Sangamon valley.

Below this coal, where it out-crops west of the city, we find a bed of sandy shale and sandstone, from thirty to forty feet thick, that locally furnishes some building stone of fair quality, the thickly bedded portions being partly concretionary in structure, the concretions often attaining a diameter of five or six feet or more. They are exceedingly hard, but may be split into blocks of suitable size, and made a very durable building stone.

At Carpenter's mill, five miles north of Springfield, a fine exposure of the sandstone underlaying this coal may be seen on the north bank of the Sangamon, where it forms a perpendicular cliff' more than fifty feet in height. The upper and lower portions of the formations are thin V)edded and shaly, but the middle pcjrliuus, nearly twenty-five feet in thickness, is in tolerably heavy and evenly stratified beds, ranging from six inches to two feet or more in thickness. These layers seem to harden on exposure, and afford a very good building stone.

In a ravine, a little to the west of the mill, on the north side of the road, the coal No. 11, of the foregoing section, and overlaying argillaceous limestone, Here found well up towards the top of the hill, and apparently above the sandstone exposure at the bridge. The limestone here contains the same species of fossils so abundant in the roof of this coal in the vicinity of Springfield.

The Rock creek limestone of Menard county, if it extends this far to the eastward, should outcrop on the Sangamon not very far below Carpenter's mill, as its place in the vertical section is between coals Nos. T and 8; but all these coal measure limestones are somewhat local in their development, and this bed has not been met with, so far as I know, in any of the coal shafts sunk in this vicinity.

The main coal No. 5, of the general section of the coal measures in the central and western portions of the State, lies about one hundred and seventy-five feet below coal No. 8, in the vicinity of Springfield, and two hundred to two hundred and ten below the general surface level. A boring for artesian water was made at Springfield in 1858, and was carried down to the depth of nearly twelve hundred feet without finding water that would rise to the surface, and the parties having the work in charge reported no coal below the small seam thirty or forty feet below the surface, though it was evident, from the character of the material brought up with the sand-pump, that they must have passed through from four or live hundred feet of coal measure strata. Subsequently, in a boring at Howlett, a six-foot seam of coal was found, at a depth of about two hundred feet. A shaft was immediately sunk, and extensive mining operations have been carried on there to the present time. The boring at Springfield not only passed through this seam, but all those underlaying it, of which two or three will probably be found of workable thickness, the men in charge of the work being apparently entirely unconscious of the true character of the strata through which their drill passed. If this work had been placed in the hands of competent men, and an accurate journal of the boring kept, we should now know exactly what our coal resources are, whereas nothing was known in regard to the development of the lower coals, except from the examinations of their outcrops along the Illinois river bluffs, until borings at Jacksonville and Chapin showed the existence of a seam at those points between three and four feet in thickness.

Pioneer Life

One of the most interesting phases of national or local history is that of the settlement of a new country. What was the original state in which the pioneer found the country, and how was it made to blossom as the rose ?

Pioneer life in Sangamon county finds its parallel in almost every county in the State, and throughout the entire West. When Robert Pulliam and others of that noble band of pioneers settled here, they found an unbroken wilderness. Wild beasts and but little less wild savages, roamed at will over the prairies, through the forests, and along the waters of the "Sain-queemon" and its numerovis tributaries. Forests were to be felled, cabins erected, mills built, and the river and creeks made to labor for the benefit of mankind. The beautiful prairies were to 1)6 robbed of their natural ornaments and the hand of art was to assist in their decoration. Who was to undertake this work '? Are they qualified for the task ? What will be the effect of their labors upon future generations ?

The Sangamon county pioneers had many difficulties to contend with, not the least of which was the journe}^ from civilization to their forest homes. The route lay for the most part through a rough country ; swamps and marshes were crossed with great exertion and fatigue ; rivers Avere forded with difficulty and danger ; nights were passed on open prairies, with the sod for a coucli and the heavens for a shelter; long, weary 'lays and weeks of travel were endured, biit finally " the promised land" was reached.

The young men and women of to-day have little conception of the mode of life among the early settlers of the country. One can hardly conceive how great a change has taken place in so short a time. In no respects are the habits and manners of the people similar to those of sixty years ago. The clothing, the dwellings, the diet, the social customs, have undergone a

In a new country, far removed from the conveniences of civilization, where all are compelled to build their own houses, make their own clothing and procure for themselves the means of subsistence, it is to be expected that their dwellings and garments will be rude. These Avere matters controlled by surrounding circumstances and the means at their disposal. The earliest settlers constructed what were termed "three-faced camps," or, in other words, three walls, leaving one side open. They are described as follows: The walls were built about seven feet high, when poles were laid across at a distance of about three feet apart, and on these a roof of clapboards was laid, which were kept in place by weight poles placed on them. The clapboards were about four feet in length and from eight inches to tw^elve inches in width, split out of white oak timber. No floor was laid in the "camp." The structure required neither door, window, or chimney. The one side left out of the cabin answered all these purposes. In front of the open side was built a large log heap, which served for warmth in cold weather and for cooking purposes in all seasons. Of course there was an abundance of light, and, on either side of the fire, space to enter in and out. These "three-faced camps" were probably more easily constructed than the ordinary cabin, and was not the usual style of dwelling house.

' The cabiii was considered a material advance for comfort and home life. This was, in almost every case, built of logs, the spaces between the logs being filled in with split sticks of wood, called " chinks," and then daubed over, both inside and outside, with mortar made of clay. The floor, sometimes, was nothing more than earth ti'amped hai'd and smooth, but commonly made of "i)uncheons," or split logs, with the split side turned upward. The roof was made by gradually drawing in the top to the ridgepole, and, on cross pieces, laying the "claphoards," which, being several feet in length, instead of being nailed, were held in place by poles laid on them, called ''weight poles," reaching the length of the cabin. For a lireplace, a space was cut out of the logs on one side *of the room, usually about six feet in length, and three sides were built up of logs, making an offset in the wall. This Avas lined with stone, if convenient; if not, then earth. The flue, or upper part of the chimney, was built of small split sticks, two and a half or three feet in length, carried a little space above the roof, and plastered over with clay, and when finished was called a "cat-and-clay" chimney. The door space was also made by cutting an aj^erture in one side of the room of the required size, the door itself being made of clapboai'ds secured by wooden pins to two crosspieces. The hinges were also of wood, while the fastening consisted of a wooden latch catching on a hook of the same material. To open the door from the outside, a strip of buckskin was tied to the latch and drawn through a hole a few inches above the latch-bar, so that on pulling the string the latch was lifted from the catch or hook, and the door was opened without further trouble. To lock the door, it was only necessary to pull the string through the hole to the inside. Here the family lived, and here the guest and wayfarer were made welcome. The living room was of good size, but to a large extent it Avas all - kitchen, bedroom, parlor and arsenal, with flitches of bacon and rings of dried pumpkin suspended from the rafters. In one corner were the loom and other implements used in the manufacture of clothing, and around the ample fireplace were collected the kitchen furniture. The clothing lined one side of the sleeping apartment, suspended from pegs driven in the logs. Hemp and flax were generally raised, and a few sheep kept. Out of these the clothing for the family and the sheets and coverlets Avere made by the females of the house. Over the door was placed the trusty rifle, and just back of it hung the powder horn and hunting pouch. In the wellto-do families, or when crowded on the ground floor, a loft was sometimes made to the cabin for a sleeping place and the storage of "traps" and articles not in common use. The loft was reached by a ladder secured to the Avall. (renerally the bedrooms were separated from the living-room by sheets and coverlets suspended from the rafters, but until the means of making these partition walls were ample, they lived and slept in the same room.

Familiarity with this mode of living did away with much of the discomfort, but as soon as the improvement could be made, there was added to the cabin an additional room, or a " double log cabin" being substantially a "three-faced camp," with a log room on each end and containing a loft. The furniture in the cabin corresponded with the house itself. The articles used in the kitchen were as few and simple as can be imagined A 'Dutch oven" or skillet, a long-handled frying pan, an iron pot or kettle, and sometimes a coffee-pot, constituted the utensils of the best furnished kitchen. A little later, when a stone wall formed the base of the chimney, a long iron '' crane " swung in the chimney place, Avliich on its "pot-hook" carried the boiling kettle or heavy iron pot. The cooking was all done on the fire-place and at the fire, and the style of cooking was as simple as the utensils. Indian, or corn meal, Avas the common flour, which Avas made into "pone" or "corn-dodger," or "hoecake," as the occasion or Aariety demanded. The "pone" and the "dodger" was baked in the Dutch oven, Avhich was first set on a bed of g'loAving coals. When the OA^en Avas filled Avith the dough, the lid, already heated on the fire, Avas placed on the oven and coAered with hot embers and ashes. When the bread Avas done it Avas taken from the OA'en and placed near the fire to keep Avarm Avhile some other food Avas being prepared in the same oven for the forthcoming meal. The "hoe-cake" was prepared in the same Avay as the dodger - that is, a stiff" dough Avas made of the meal and Avater, and, taking as much as could conveniently be held in both hands, it was molded into the desired shape by being tossed from band to hand, then laid on a board or flat stone placed at an angle before the fire and ]iatted down to the required thickness. In the fall and early Avinter, cooked pumpkin was added to the meal dough, giving a flavor and richness to the l)read not attained by the modern methods. In the oven from which the bread Avas taken, the venison or ham was then fried, and, in the Avinter, lye hominy, made from the unbroken grains of corn, added to the frugal meal. The woods abounded in honey, and of this the early settlers had an abundance the year round. For some years after settlements Avere made, the corn meal formed the .staple commodity for bread.

and true-hearted people. They were strangers to mock-modesty, and the traveler seeking h>dgings for tlie night, or desirous of spending a few days in the community, if willing to accept the rude offering, was always w^elcome, although how they were disposed of at night the reader may not easily imagine; for, as described, often a single room would be made to serve the purpose of kitchen, dining-room, sitting-room and parlor, and many families consisted of six or eight persons.

Chakactek Of The Pioneers

The character of the pioneers of Sangamon county falls properly within the range of the historian. They lived in a region of exuberance and fertility, where Nature had scattered her blessings with a liberal hand. The Sangamon river, with its numerous tributaries, the inexhaustible forest supply, the fertile prairie, and the many improvements constantly going forward, with the bright prospect for a glorious future in everything that renders life pleasant, combined to deeply impress their character, to give them a spirit of enterprise, an independence of feeling, and a joyousness of hope. They were a thorough admixture of many nations, characters, languages, conditions and opinions. There was scarcely a State in the Union that was not represented among the early settlers. All the various religious sects had their advocates. All now form one society. Says an early writer : " Men must cleave to their kind, and must be dependent upon each other. Pride and jealousy give way to the natural yearnings of the human heart for society. They begin to rub off the neutral prejudices ; one takes a step and then the other ; they meet half way and embrace ; and the society thus newly organized and constituted is more liberal, enlarged, unprejudiced, and of course more affectionate, than a societ}' of people of like birth and character, Avho bring all their early prejudices as a common stock, to be transmitted as an inheritance to jjosterity."

Clothing

The clothing of the early pioneers was as plain and simple as their houses. Necessity compelled it to be in conformity to the strictest economy. The clothing taken to the new country was made to render a vast deal of service until a crop of ffax or hemp could be grown, out of which to make the household apparel. The prairie wolves made it difficult to take sheep into the settlements, but after the sheep had been introduced and flax and hemp raised in sufficient quantities, it still remained an arduous task to spin, weave and make the wearing apparel for an entire family. In summer, nearly all persons, both male and female, went barefooted. Buckskin moccasins were much worn. Boys of twelve and fffteen years of age never thought of wearing anything on their feet, except during three or four months of the coldest weather in winter. Boots were unknown until a later generation. After flax was raised in sufficient quantities, and sheep could be protected from the wolves, a better and more comfortable style of clothing prevailed. Mannel and linsey were woven and made into garments for the women and children, and jeans for the men. The wool for the jeans was colored from the bark of the walnut, and from this came the term "butternut," still common throughout the West. The black and white wool mixed, varied the color, and gave the name "pepper-and-salt." As a matter of course every family did its own spinning, weaving and sewing, and for years all the wool had to be carded by hand on cards from four inches broad to eight and ten inches long. The picking of the wool and carding was work to which the little folks could help, and at the proper season all the little hands were enlisted in the business. Every household had its big and little spinning-wheels, winding-blades, reel, warping-bars and loom. The articles were iujdispensible in every family. In many of the households of Sangamon county, stowed away in empty garrets and out-of-the-way 2:)laces, may still be found some of these almost forgotten relics.

The preparations for the family clothing usually began in the early fall, and the work was continued on into the winter mouths, when the whirr of the wheels and the regular stroke of the loom could be heard until a late hour of the night. No scene can well be imagined so abounding in contentment and domestic happiness. Strips of bark, of the shell-bark hickory, thrown from time to time in the ample fireplace, cast a ruddy, flickering light over the room. In one corner, within range of the reflected light, the father is cobbling a well-worn pair of shoes, or trying his skill at making new ones. Hard by, the youngones are shellingcorn for the next grist. The oldest daughter whirls the large spinning-wheel, and with its hum and whirr trips to the far side of the room, drawing out the thread, while the mother, with the click of the shuttle and the measured thump of the loom, fills up the hours - the whole a scene of

It is well for '' Young America" to look back on those early days. It involved a life of toil, hardship, and the lack of many comforts, but it was the life that made men of character. Sangamon county to-day has no better men than the immetliate tlescendants of those who built their cabins in t e forest, and by patient endurance v» rought out of the wilderness the landmarks for a prosperous commonwealth. One of these writes that "the boys were required to do their share of the hard labor of clearing up the farm, for much of the country now under the plow was at one time heavily timbered, or was covered with a dense thicket of hazel and young timber. Our visits were made with ox teams, and we walked, or rode on horseback, or in wagons to 'meeting.' The boys 'pulled,' 'broke' and 'hackled' flax, wore tow shirts, and indulged aristocratic feelings in fringed 'hunting-shirts' and 'coon-skin caps, 'picked' and ' carded' wool by hand, and 'spooled' and 'quilled' yarn for the weaving till the back ached."

Industry such as this, supported by an economy and frugality from which there was then no escape, necessarily brought its own reward. The hard toil made men old before their time, but beneath their sturdy blo>*s they saw not only the forest pass away, but the fields white with the grain. Change and alterations were to be expected, but the reality has distanced the wildest conjecture; and, stranger still, multitudes are still living who witnessed not only the face of nature undergoing a change about them, but the manners, customs and industries of a whole people almost wholly changed. Many an old pioneer sets by his fireside in his easy chair, with closed eyes, dreams of the scenes of the long ago.

The wedding was an attractive feature of pioneer life. There was no distinction of life and very little of fortune. On these accounts the first impressions of love generally resulted in marriage. The family establishment cost but little labor - nothing more. The marriage was always celebrated at the house of the bride, and she was generally left to c'loose the officiating clergyman. A wedding, however, engaged the attention of the whole neighborhood. It was anticipated by both old and young with eager expectation. In the morning of the weddingday the groom and his intimate friends assembled at the house of his father, and after due preparation, departed, oi masse, for the "mansion" of his bride. The journey was sometimes made on horseback, sometimes on foot, and sometimes in farm wagons and carts. It was always a merry journey; and to insure merriment, the bottle was always taken along. On reaching the house of the bride, the marriage ceremony took place, and then dinner or supper was served. After the meal the dancing commenced, and generally lasted until the following morning. " The figures of the dances were three and four-handed reels, or square sets and jigs. The commencement was always a square tour, which was followed by what pioneers called "jigging;" 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 out," that is, when either of the parties be-ame tired of the dance, on intimation, the place was siipplied by some one of the company, without interruption of the dance. In this way the reel was often continued until the musician was exhausted. About nine or ten o'clock in the evening a deputation of young ladies stole off the bride and put her to bed. In doing this, they had to ascend a ladder from the kitchen to the upper fioor, which was composed of loose boai'ds. Here, in the pioneer bridal chamber, the young, simple-hearted girl was put to bed by her enthusiastic friends. This done, a deputation of young men escorted the groom to the same department, and placed him snugly by the side of his bride. The dance still continued, and if the seats were scarce, which was generally the case, says a local witness, 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. During the night's festivities spirits were freely used, but seldom to excess. The infair was held on the following evening, where the same order of exercises was observed.

Another feature of pioneer life which every old settler will vividly recall was the "chills and fever," "fever and ague," or "shakes," as it was variously called. It was a terror to new-C(»mers, for in the fall of the year almost everybody was afflicted with it. It was no respector of persons ; everybody looked pale and sallow as though frost-bitten. It was not contagious, but derived from impure water and air, which was always developed in the opening up of a new country of rank soil like that of Sangamon county. The impurities continued to absorb from day to day, and from week to week, until the whole corporate body becomes saturated with it as with electricity, an<i then the shock came ; and the shock was a regular shake, with a fixed beginning and ending, coming on in some cases each day, but generally on alternate days, with a regularity that was surprising. After the shakes came the fever, and this " last estate was worse than first ;" it was a burning hot fever and lasted for hours, When you had the chill you couldn't get wariA, and when you had the fever you couldn't get cool. It was exceedingly awkward in this respect - indeed it was. Nor would it stop for any contingency - not even a wedding in the family would stop it. It was imperative and tyranical. When the appointed time came around, everything else had to be stoj)ped to attend to its demands. It didn't even have any Sundays or holidays. After the fever went down you still didn't feel much better, you felt as though you had gone through some sort of a collision, threshing machine, or jarring machine, and came out not killed, but next thing to it. You felt weak, as thougb you had run too far after something, and then didn't catch it. You felt languid, stupid and sore, and was down in the mouth and heel and partially raveled out. Your back was out of fix, your head ached and your appetite crazy. Your eyes had too much white in them; your ears, especially after taking (piinine, had too much roar in them, and your Avhole body and soul were entirely woe-begone, disconsolate, sad, poor and good for nothing. You didn't think much of yourself and didn't believe that other people did either; and you didn't care. You didn't quite make up your mind to commit suicide, but sometimes wished some accident would happen to knock either the malady or yourself out of existence. You imagined even the dogs looked at you with a sort of self-complacency. You thought the sun had a sort of sickly shine about it. About this time you came to the conclusion that you would not take the whole State as a gift; and if you had the strength and means you would pick up Hannah and the baby, and your traps, and go back "yander" to "Old Virginny," the "Jarseys," Maryland, or "Pennsylvany."

The foregoing is not a mere picture of the imagination. It is simply recounting in quaint phrase what actually occurred in hundreds of cases. Whole families would sometimes be sick at one time, and not one member scarcely able to wait upon another. Labor or exercise always aggravated the malady, and it took Gen- eral Laziness a long time to thrash the enemy out. These were the days for swallowing all sorts of roots and "yaibs" and whisky straight, with some faint hope of relief. Finally, when the case wore out, the last remedy got the credit of the cure.

Wolf Hunting

In early days more mischief was done by wolves than by any other wild animal, and no small part of their mischief consisted in their almost constant barking at night, which always seemed menacing and frightful to the settlers. Like mosquitos, the noise they made appeared to be about as dreadful as the real depredations they committed. The most effectual, as well as the most exciting, method of ridding the country of these hateful i)ests, was that known as the "circular wolf hunt," by which all the men and boys would turn out on an appointed day, in a kind of circle comprising many square miles of territory, with horses and dogs, and then close up toward the center field of operation, gathering, not only wolves, but also deer and many smaller "varmint." Five, ten, or more wolves, by this means, would be killed in a single day. The men would be organized with as much system as a small army, everyone Ix'ing posted in the meaning of every signal and the application of every rule. Guns were scarcely ever allowed to be brought on such occasions, as their use would be unavoidably dangerous. Tlie dogs were depended upon for the final slaughter. The dogs, by the way, had all to be held in check by a cord in the hands of their keepers until the final signal was given to let them loose, when away they would all go to the center of battle, and a more exciting scene would follow than can easily be described.

Bee Hunting

This wild recreation was a peculiar one, and many sturdy backwoodsmen gloried in excelling in this art. He would carefully watch a bee as it filled itself with the product of some sweet fiower or leaf bud, and notice particularly the direction taken by it as it struck a "bee-line" for its home, which, when found, would generally be high up in the hollow of some tree. The tree would be marked, and in the fall a party would go and cut down the tree and capture the honey as cpiick as they could before it wasted away through the broken walls in Avliich it had been so carefully stowed by the busy little bee. Several oallons would often be taken from a single tree, and by a very little work, and pleasant at that, the early settlers could keep themselves in honey the year round. By the time the honey was a year old it would turn white and granulate, yet be as good and healthful as when fresh. This was called by some "candied" honey.

In pioneer times snakes were numerous, such as the rattlesnake, viper, adder, bloodsnake, and many varieties of large blue and green snakes, milksnake, garter and watersnakes, and others. If, on meeting one of these, you would retreat, they would chase you very fiercely; but if you would turn and give them battle, they would immediately turn and crawl away with all possible speed, hide in the grass and weeds and wait for a "greener " customer. These reall}' harmless snakes served to put people on their guard against the more dangerous and venomous kind. It was a common practice, in order to exterminate them, for the men to turn out in companies, with spades, mattocks and crowbars, attack the principal snake dens and slay large numbers of them. In early spring the snakes were somewhat torpid, and easily captured. Scores of rattlesnakes were sometimes frightened out of a single den, which, as soon as they showed their heads through the crevices of the rocks, were dispatched, and left to be devoured by the numerous wild hogs of that day. Some of the fattest of these snakes were taken to the house and oil extracted from them, and their glittering skins were saved as specific for rheumatism. Another method for the destruction was to fix a heavy stick over the door of their dens, with a long grapevine attached, so that one at a distance could plug the entrance to the den when the snakes were all out sunning themselves. Then a large company of citizens, on hand by appointment, could kill scores of the reptiles in a few minutes.

Agriculture

In tl.e earlier settlements of this section, ponds, marshes and swamps abounded where to-day are found cultivated and fertile fields. The low and flat places were avoided for the higher grounds, not only on account of the wetness, but for sanitary reasons. Agricultural implements were necessarily rude, and the agriculture of a corresponding character. The plow used was called a "bar-share" plow, the iron point of which consisted of a bar of iron about two feet long, and a broad share of iron welded to it. At the extreme point was a coulter that passed through abeam six or seven feet long, to which was attached handles of corresponding length. The mold-board was a wooden one split out of winding timber, or hewed into a winding shape, in order to turn the soil over. In the spring time, when the ground was to be prepared for the seed, the father would take his post at the plow, and the daughter possession of the reins. This is a grand scene - one full of grace and beauty. The pioneer girl thinks but little of fine dress; knows less of the fashions; has probably heard of the opera, but does not understand its meaning; has been told of the piano, but has never seen one ; wears a dress " buttoned up behind ;" has on " leather boots," and " drives plow " for father. In the planting of corn, which was always done by hand, the girls always took a part, usually dropping the corn^ but many of them covering it with the hand-hoe.

In the cultivation of wheat, the land was plowed the same as for corn, and harrowed with a wooden- toothed harrow, or smoothed by dragging over the ground a heavy brush, weighed down, if necessary, with a stick of timber. It was then sown broadcast by hand at the rate of about a bushel and a quarter to the acre, and harrowed in with the brush. The implement used to cut the wheat was either the sickle or the cradle. The sickle was almost identical with the "grass hook" in use, and the cradle was a scythe fastened to a frame of wood with long, bending teeth or strips of wood, for cutting and laying the grain in swaths. There were few farmers who did not know how to swing the scythe or cradle, and there was no more pleasant picture on a farm than a gang of workmen in the harvest field, nor a more hilarious crowed. Three cradlers would cut about ten acres a day. One binder was expected to keep up with the cradle. Barns for the storage of the unthreshed grain are comparatively a " modern invention," and as soon as the shock was supposed to be suflaciently cured, it was hauled to some place on the farm convenient for threshing, and there put in stack. The threshing was performed in one of two ways, by flail or tramping with horses, generally the latter. The flail was used in stormy weather, on the sheltered floor, or when the farm work was not pressing; the threshing by tramping commonly in clear weather, on a level and well tramped clay floor. The bundles were piled in a circle of about fifteen to twenty feet in diameter, and four to six horses ridden over the straw. One or two hands turned over and kept the straw in place. When sufliciently trampled, the straw was thrown into a rick or stack, and the wheat cleared by a "fanning-miil," or sometimes, before fanning-mills were introduced, by letting it fall from the height of ten or twelve feet, subjected to the action of the wind, when it was supposed to be ready for the mill or market.

Religion

The religious element in the life of the pioneer was such as to attract the attention of those living in more favored places. The pioneer was no hypocrite. If he believed in horse-racing, whisky-drinking, card-playing, or anything of like character, he practiced them openly and above board. If he was of a religious turn of mind he was not ashamed to own it. He could truthfully sing

But the pioneer clung to the faith of his fathers, for a time, at least. If he was a Presbyterian he was not ashamed of it, but rather prided himself on being one of the elect. If a Methodist, he was one to the fullest extent. He prayed long and loud if the spirit moved him, and cared nothing for the empty forms of religion.

A traveling Presbyterian minister, visiting this region of country at a very early day, thus speaks of the sectarian feeling which then existed :

"In these new religions, too, of the most absolute independence, you see all the wanderings of human thought, every shade of faith, every degree of the most persevering attachments to preconceived opinions. You see, too, all degrees of pretension in religion, followed by unhappy manifestations of the hollowness of such pretensions. You meet, it is true, with more cheering circumstances, and we sometimes are able to see that which we strongly wish to see. At one point you meet with a respectable Methodist and begin to feel an attachment to the profession. He next meets you with harmony and co-operation on his lips, and the next thing which you hear is you are being charged of being a fierce Calvinist, and that you have preached that "hell is paved with infants' skulls." While, perhaps, the society with which you are connected hear from an opposite quarter, and from a pretended friend, that in such a sermon you departed from the dicta of the Great Master and are leading the people to the gulf of Armenianism. The Baptists are as exclusive as in the older regions. Even among our own brethren, it is well known, that there is some feeling of a questionable nature, some rivalry between the pupils, the doctors and schools of Andoverand Princeton. The Cumberland Presbyterians, with all the freshness of a new sect, are not found lacking in this order of things. Lastly, there are the Catholics, abundantly more united in faith, in spirit, and in purpose than we are - who claim a kind of proscriptive right to the ground, on the pretext of prior possession. Add to these the followers of Elias Smith, and the multitudes of men who would be founders of new sects, and vou will have some idea of

But these sectarian feelings were not to last. Separated from the religious influences of the land of their birth, and seldom hearing the gospel message, they were literally starving for the "bread of life," and the worthy minister of whatever denomination that chanced to call received a cordial welcome. The best the early pioneers had to give was at their service. All they required was that the ministers be a true and faithful follower of Christ, and preach to them of a common salvation.

Judicial

When the Lord placed Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden he gave unto them a law, requiring implicit obedience, on pain of punishment for transgression. As the human race increased, other laws in addition to those given in the beginning became necessary. The formation of laws implies there shall be a judge and a place where justice shall be administered. In accordance with this fact our legislators, on the formation of the State Government, enacted certain laws, and ordained means by which those laws shoiild be executed.

The first Constitution of the State declared that the judicial powers of the State should be vested in one Supreme Court, and such inferior courts as the General Assembly should from time to time ordain and establish. This Supreme Court consisted of a chief justice and three associates. They were appointed by joint ballot in both branches of the General Assembly, and commissioned by the Governor, and held their offices during good behavior, until the ti)»st session of the legislature in 1824. They were required to hold the circuit courts in the several counties in each month, and at such times as the General Assembly should by law prescribe. The State was accoi-dingly divided into four districts, and by an act approved February 11, 1821, Sangamon County, together with St. Clair, Madison, Greene, Pike and Montgomery were constituted the First Judicial, Circuit, and John Reynolds, Associate .Justice, assigned to it.

The first terra of the Sangamon County Circuit Court was held at the house of John Kelly, on Monday, May 7, 1821. There were present John Reynolds, judge; Charles R. Matheny, clerk; John Taylor, sheriff; Henry Starr, prosecuting attorney, jtyro tern.

The following list of grand jurors were empanneled and sworn: Daniel Parkinson, foreman; Claybourn James, Henry Brown, John Darneille, Archibald Turner, William Davis, Abraham

Three indictments were found by the grand jury, two for assault and battery and one for riot, trials of which were deferred until the next term of court.

John Reynolds, who presided at this terra of court, and who was chief justice of the State at the time, was afterwards Governor of the State, and is farailiarly known as the "Old Ranger." He was a man of strong mind and strong will power, although inclined to yield somewhat to make himself popular with the people. In the history of the bar is given an anecdote showing to what extent he would go to keep the good will of another. Judge Reynolds was a scholarly man, understanding the Latin and Greek languages perfectly. He is the author of a history of Illinois.

An act of the legislature was passed and approved by the Governor February IV, 182o, by which Montgomery was detached from, and Morgan and Fulton added to, the First Judicial Circuit, and this was further changed December 29,. 1824, by which the district was formed of Sangamon, Pike, Fulton, Morgan, Greene and Montgomery counties. At this time the State was divided into five circuits. John York Saw-

John York Sawyer was a remarkable man, remarkable at least for weight, DaA'id Davis being a common sized man bj^ iiis side. He was an ill-tempered man, too, notwithstanding his size. While he was on the circuit the law provided for whipping men for petit larceny. Sawyer, says Linder, was a terror to all such offenders, and was fond of snapping up the lawyers who defended them. A fellow was once tried before him for petit larceny and convicted. He was defended by Alfred W. Cavarly, who moved an arrest of judgment and a ncAV trial, and begged his honor to allow him to go over to his office and get some authorities Avhich lie wished to read in support of his motion.

" Oh, certainly, certainly," said Sawyer to him, assuming one of the blandest looks i)0ssible, " The court vrill wait with the greatest pleasure on you, Mr. Cavarly."

" Mr. Sheriff, take the prisoner out to yonder white oak tree (pointing to one through a window which was back of him, and about fifty yards off), strip him to the skin, and give him thirty-nine lashes on his back, well laid on."

The sheriff executed the sentence of the court with great speed. Sawyer turned around and looked out of the window while it was being executed, and in a loud voice, while the blood was streaming down the culprit's back, counted the number of strokes on his fingers - one, two, three, and so on up to thirty-nine. The sheriff washed the back of the prisoner, reclothed him, and brought him into court.

" May it please your Honor, 1 am now prepared to show beyond a doubt that my client has been wrongfully convicted, and is entitled to a new trial."

"But I will inform you that your client has been whipped, and received thirty-nine lashes on his ba-e back, well laid on, for I saw and counted them."

''Oh, Mr. Cavarly, you have a right to protest. Clerk, enter Mr. Cavarly's protest on the record;" and turning to Mr. Cavarly, said: "Now, Mr. Cavarly, bring on your corn merchant (meaning a client of Cavarly's, who was charged with stealing corn), and we will dispose of him as we have with your hog merchant" - the man who had been whipped.

A change was again made in the circuit by an act approved January 12, 1827, it now embracing Peoria, Fulton, Schuyler, Adams, Pike, Calhoun, Greene, Morgan and Sangamon; Samuel D. Lockwood being Judge of the Circuit.

In January, 1829, Sangamon county still formed part of the first circuit, together with the counties of Pike, Calhoun, Greene, Macoupin, Morgan, Macon, and Tazewell. Two years later McLean was added to the circuit. No further change was then made until 18:35, when there was a general reorganization, this district remaining the same, with the exception that Pike county was taken from it. Stephen T. Logan was elected this year, and served with great credit to himself and the district for two years. On the 20th day of March, 18:^7, William Brown was commissioned, and served four months, when Jesse B. Thomas, Jr., was duly commissioned. Judge Thomas, of whom mention is made in the history of the Bar, resigned in 18:B9.

In 1839, a new Judicial Cii'cuit, numbered the eighth, was formed, comprising the counties of Sangamon, McLean, Macon, Tazewell, Menard, Logan, Dane (now Christian) and Livingston. This circuit was formed by act of the legislature approved February 23, 1839. Stephen T. Logan, a few days sul)sequently, received a commission as judge of the circuit, but resigned the office in about three months, and Samuel H. Tre;et was commissioned to fill the vacancy. Judge Treat was elected and recommissioned January 30, 1840, and held the office up to the time of the adoption of the new constitution in 1848. A sketch of Judge Treat will be found in (u)nnecti()n with the bar history.

By the constitution of ]S48, the State was divided into nine judi(?.ial circuits, in each of which a jiulge was elected September, 1848. The legislature was authorized to increase the number of cii'cuits as might be required. No change was made in the Eighth Circuit, of which Sangamon county was a part.

David Davis was the tirst judge elected in this circuit under the new constitution. Judge Davis is a native of Maryland. After graduating at a New England college, and having studied law with a noted barrister, he came to Illinois when quite a young man and settled in Pekin, where he remained about one year and then moved to Bloomington. Here he opened a law office, and by his sagacity, economy and industry, he soon won his way to respectable independence. In his Reminiscences of the Bar, General Linder has this to say of Judge Davis:

"For his promotion to the circuit judgeship, Mr. Davis was largely indebted to his old and tried friend, Abraham Lincoln, and to the eternal credit of Judge Davis, be it said, he never forgot it. When a member of the convention in 1860, that nominated the Republican candidate for President, Judge Davis had as large, if not a larger share in bringing about the nomination of Mr. Lincoln than any other member of that convention, and when Mr. Lincoln was elected, Davis was invited to accompany him to Washington as one of his suite. Mr. Davis is a large man - about six feet high, very corpulent, and weighing some three hundred and fifty pounds. He accepted Mr. Lincoln's invitation, and being somewhat conspicuous for his size, and for wearing a white silk hat, the aspirants for office perceived by the attentions paid him by Mr. Lincoln that he had no small iniiuence with the President-elect, and they paid about as much court to the man with the white hat as to Mr. Lincoln himself.

" But I wish to go back to the time when he was circuit judge of the State of Illinois, and Mr. Lincoln and myself both practiced in his circuit - Mr. Lincoln in the whole of it, and I in the counties of Vermilion, Edgar and Shelby, and occasionally in Champaign. Judge Davis was a very impartial judge, and though not intending to show a preference for one of his lawyers over another, such was the marked difference he showed to Mr. Lincoln, that Lincoln threw the rest of us in the shade. But as Mr. Lincoln could not take both sides of a case, Anthony Thornton, myself and other prominent lawyers, were employed on the opposite side of cases in which Mr. Lincoln was engaged on one side or the other. Judge Davis always treated me with great kindness and consideration, and I wish to state here, before going further, lest the reader should think that my practice was confined to cases in which I was opposed to Mr. Lincoln, that in weighty and hotly contested cases we were often associated together, so that I cannot say that I was at all damaged by the friendship shown for him by his Honor, Judge Davis. I think it quite likely that had I been placed in the same relation to Mr. Lincoln that Judge Davis was, I should have shown to him the same consideration as was shown him by his Honor, Judge Davis.

" Lincoln and myself generally put up at the same hotel, and frequently slept in the same room, and not unfrequently Lincoln and I occupied the same bed. Judge Davis was too large to take either of us for a bed-fellow.

"Among the most pleasant days of my life I recall those when we three traveled together from Danville to Paris, and from there to Shelbyville. The courts of those three places lasting on an average from two to three weeks each. Ah! what glorious fun we had sometimes!

" I will give a little incident here to show the eccentricity of Judge Davis, which occurred at the Paris Circuit Court. Judge Harlan, who was then judge on the circuit south of here, came up to Paris on some special business of his, and Judge Davis, observing him in the court house, invited him to come up and take a seat on the bench beside him, which Judge Harlan did; and while there a little appeal came up, in which there was only about three dollars in controversy, in which I was engaged. I read a decision of the Supreme Court which I thought, and which was decisive of the case. Judge Davis turned to Harlan and whispered in his ear, as I afterwards learned from Judge Harlan, 'Great God!' said he, ' for a lawyer of Linder's age and standing to read a decision of the Supreme Court in a little appeal case where there are only three dollars in dispute!' He nevertheless gave a decision in favor of my client.

"Another little circumstance I will relate, going further to show his eccentricity and his friendship for me. Some time in the year, I think of 1850, I went up to Springfield, either on a visit or on some business or other, when Judge Davis was holding his court there; and I had landed but about an hour when the prosecuting attorney, hearing that I was in town, came and employed me to assist him in the prosecution of a woman and her paramour for the murder of her husband by the administration of poison. As I entered the court room, Judge Davis being on the bench, and perceiving me to enter the room with my pipe in my mouth, said in an audible voice:

'' It created quite a laugh over the house, and you may rest assured I was not so modest or self-denying as to refuse to take advantage of the permission thus given me to smoke my pipe during the progress of the trial.

,"I have already stated that Davis, by invitation of Mr. Lincoln, went v/ith him to Washington, and was present fit his inauguration, and I was informed remained there for some considerable time. And although he held no cabinet office under Mr. Lincoln, yet it was pretty well known that Mr. Lincoln had great confidence in Judge Davis, and consulted him on public affairs frequently during those dark and perilous days just before and after the war commenced. I am inclined to think that Mr. Lincoln tendered him a place in his cabinet, but Judge Davis waited for a safer and more permanent place. His ambition was to reach the Supreme Bench of the United States, and after a while, a vacancy occurring. Judge Davis was appointed to fill the place, over the heads of such men as Salmon P. Chase and other formidable aspirants. His nomination was confirmed by the Senate of the United States. He has made a most excellent judge, and has delivered some opinions on constitutional questions which have given him a national reputation.

In 1877, Judge Davis was elected to the United States Senate for the term of six years. In the Senate he has occupied an independent position, though generally acting with the Democratic members of that body.

By an act approved February 3, 1853, the Eighth Circuit was composed of the following counties: Sangamon, Logan, McLean, Woodford,'Tazewell, DeWitt, Champaign and Vermilion. As thus constituted it remained unchanged until 1857. By an act approved February 11, 1857, Sangamon county was made part of the Eighteenth Circuit, together with the counties of Macoupin, Montgomery and Christian.

On the organization of this new circuit, Edward Y. Rice was elected and served as judge of the circuit until 1870. Judge Rice was elected to this office from Montgomerv county, and served acceptably during the continuance of the circuit. He is a man of clear mind, a good judge of law, his judgment rarely being reversed. He was appreciated by the entire bar, not only of Sangamon county, but of the circuit.

In 1869, Sangamon county, together, wutli Macoupin, embraced the Thirtieth Judicial Circuit. Benjamin S. Edwards was commissioned judge of the circuit, and held the office about fifteen months and then resigned. While on the bench he was quite popular with bar and people. (See sketch in connection with the history of the bar.)

John A. McClernand w^as elected to fill the vacancy, and was commissioned July 12,1870. He remained in the office until the expiration of the term. A sketch of Judge McClernand appears in connection with the bar history.

The General Assembly, by an act approved March 28, 1873, divided the State into twentysix judicial circuits, Sangamon county, together with the counties ol Macoupin, Shelby, Christian, Fayette and Montgomery, comprising the nineteenth. Charles S. Zane, of Springfield, was the first elected judge of this new circuit.

In 1877, the State was divided into thirteen judicial circuits, with three judges in each circuit. Horatio M. Vandeveer, of Taylorville, Charles S. Zane, of Springfield, and William R. Welch, of Carlinville, were the three elected for the Fifth Judicial Circuit, embracing the counties of Sangamon, Christian, Macoupin, Shelby, Montgomery.

Horatio M. Vandeveer was raised in Sangamon county, but removed to Christian county when a young man, and there studied law and was admitted to the bar. He was elected judge of the Twentieth Judicial Circuit in 1873, and retained as one of the three judges of the newly organized Fifth Circuit. Judge Vandeveer was highly esteemed by the bar, and made an excellent judge. Before being elected to this office he served a term in^he legislature very acceptably. He declined a re-election on the expiration of his term, and is now engaged in banking and in the practice of law in Taylorville.

Jesse J. Phillips was elected in 1879, and is a citizen of Ilillsboro. He has had but a short experience as judge, but has served very acceptably. During the war he was recognized as a brave and gallant officer, the Colonel in command of one of our Illinois regiments, and was wounded two or three times during the service.

Agreeable to an act of the legislature, approved February 10, 1821, aCourtof Probate was established in this county and James Latham was duly commissioned Probate Judge, and held the first terra of court June 4, 1881. Tlie only business transacted this day was to issue letters of alministration to Randolph Wills on the estate of Daniel Martin, deceased.

Court met and adjourned tiiree times, after its first meeting, without transacting any business, until August 26, 1821, when the filing and recording the will of Peter Lanterman occupied the attention of the court one entire day. The following is a copy of the first will given in the records of the court:

"Before the witnesses now present, Louis Bennett, in perfect memory, does give to the daughters of Kakau()(iui, Josett'Kakanoqui, and Lizett Kakanoqui, two thousand livres each, and six hundred livres for prayes for his father; also, six hundred livres for him, if for prayes, and thirty dollars for prayes promised, and one hundred dollars for Kakanoqui, the rest of his money to be given to his brothers and sisters of Louis Bennett. After duly hearing read over before the witnesses now present, and signing the same will, he does voluntarily appoint Joseph D. Portecherou and Louis Pencoune.iu, Sr., as exacquators of his will.

James Latham, the first Probate Judge of Sangamon county, was born in Loudon county, Virginia, October 25, 1*768. He emigrated when a young man to Kentucky, and was there married to Mary Briggs in 1792. In 1819, with his family, he removed to Illinois, and settled at Elkhart Grove, then a part of Sangamon, but now of Logan county. As already intimated, on the organization of the county he was appointed Probate Judge. He held the office but a few months and then resigned, having received the appointment of Superintendent of the Indians around Fort Clark. Soon after receiving this appointment he removed his family to that place, and died there December 4, 1826.

Zachariah Peter was appointed to fill the vacancy occasioned by Judge Latham's resignation, and served about one year. Zachariah Peter was a Virginian by birth, but was raised in Kentucky, where he was married to Nancy Spaulding. In September, 1818, Mr. Peter arrived in Sangamon county, and finding an empty cabin in what is now Ball township, he moved his family into it, remaining there until the following spring, when he erected a cabin for himself about three miles north. Mr. Peter was one of the three commissioners appointed to locate the temporary seat of justice for Sangamon county, and filled several important county offices, serving for several years as one of the board of County Commissioners. He died in Springfield, August 5, 1864.