St. Clair County, Illinois - Chapter 10 (2 of 2 so headed), 1928

Chapter 10

an odd shambling, low-roofed outhouse, half cow-shed and half kitchen, with a coarse brown canvas table cloth, and tin sconces stuck against the walls to hold candles at supper time. Our horseman had gone forward to have coffee and some eatables prepared, and they were by this time nearly ready. He had ordered 'wheat bread and chicken fixings' in preference to 'corn bread and common doings'. From Belleville we went on thru the same desolate kind of waste, and constantly attended, without the interval of a moment by the same music, namely the croaking of the frogs. At three o'clock in the afternoon we halted at a village called Lebanon to give the horses some needed refreshment. Pending this ceremony I walked into the village, where I met a tuU-sized dwelling house coming down hill at a round trot drawn by a score or more of oxen. The public house was so very clean and good a one that the managers of the jaunt resolved to return to it and put up there tor the night if possible. This course being decided on and the horses being well refreshed, we again pushed on and came to the prairie at sunset. It would be difficult to say why or how, but the effect upon me was dis' appointing. Looking toward the setting sun, there lay stretched out before my view, a vast expanse of level ground, unbroken save by one thin line of trees which scarcely amounted to a scratch upon the great blank, until it met the sky wherein it seemed to dip, mingling with its rich colors, and mellowing in its distant blue. There it lay a tranquil sea, or lake without water, if such a simile is permissible, with the day going down upon it. A few birds were wheeling here and there, and solitude and silence were reigning paramount around. But the grass was not yet high. There were bare black patches on the ground. And the few wild flowers that the eye could see were poor and scanty. Great as the picture was its very flatness and extent which left nothing to imagination, tamed down and cramped its interest. I felt little of that sense of freedom and exhilaration which a Scottish heath inspires, or even our English downs awaken. It was lonely and wild, but oppressive in its barren monotony. *** It is not a scene to be forgotten, but it is scarcely one I think to remember with much pleasure, or to covet the looking on again in after life. We encamped near a solitary log house, for the sake of its water, and dined upon the plain. The baskets contained roast fowls, buffalo's tongue (an exquisite dainty by the way), ham bread, cheese and butter; biscuits, champagne, sherry, lemons and sugar for punch, and abundance of rough ice. The meal was delicious and the entertainers were the soul of kindness and good humor. I have often recalled that cheerful party to my pleasant recollection since, and shall not easily forget my boon companions on the prairie. Returning to Lebanon that night we slept at the little inn at which we had halted in the afternoon. In point of cleanliness and comfort it would have suffered by no comparison with an English ale house of a homely kind in England".

This house is still standing, on St. Louis street in Lebanon, tho it is no longer used as a hotel, but is a private residence. The present proprietor points with pride to the room where Charles Dickens once slept. It seems that Lebanon has no complaint against him for the way he treated her in his writeup, but Belleville feels that he has brought her into undeserved ridicule among readers of his "American Notes". True he did not mention McKendree College, but probably no one told him there was a college there, and at that time there were tall forest trees between the "Mermaid Inn" and the college. The present chapel building with its tall spire had not yet been built and so Dickens did not discover the infant college in the west, or he would most likely have mentioned it and perhaps compared it with some of the English schools which he characterizes in some of his stories.

William Kinney, a former Lieutenant-Governor of Illinois, lived near Belleville at that time and he so resented Dickens" representations that he wrote a pamphlet in reply. Mr. Kinney died in 1843 soon after his book was written, but it was published in 1857 by Robert K. Fleming at Richview, Illinois. A copy of it may now be found in the library of the Illinois State Historical Society at Springfield.

Rev. John Clark

In 1910 Alfred Tennyson Dickens, son of Charles, visited St. Louis and was entertained by the Dickens Fellowship of that city. They took him on a trip to Looking-glass prairie; he visited McKendree College and made a talk to the students in the chapel; he was taken to Belleville and banqueted in royal style; and of course he smoothed over in large measure the errors of his father, which were made probably not because he had anything against this country, but he wanted to furnish entertainment for his English readers. REV. JOHN CLARK

Among the useful and successful pioneer preachers of Illinois and St. Clair County we must not overlook the Rev. John Clark. He was by birth a Scotchman, and was well educated. In his youth he followed the seaman's life for some years. He was impressed on board a British man-of-war which in 1 78 1 was lying for a few days off Charleston harbor. Being an intelligent and patriotic lover of liberty and conscientiously opposed to being compelled to fight the Americans, one night he jumped overboard at the risk of his life and with one of his comrades succeeded in swimming ashore. He made his way inland some distance and for a time engaged in teaching school. For about a year he was in much distress religiously because of his feeling that he was a guilty sinner. But at last by the exercise of saving faith he was dehvered from this state of mind and found peace in believing. From that time on he was a consistent Christian. An old Scotch divine being asked for the best evidence of a state of grace, replied, "Forty years of close walk with God". At the close of his life Clark could have born this testimony and made it fifty. While he was passing thru this special Christian experience he was living on Broad River and joined a Methodist class, under the preaching of John Major and Thomas Humphries who were among the first Methodist preachers in that part of South Carolina. Some time after this he made a voyage to his native country, visited one of his sisters, and received a small legacy left by his pious mother with her dying bene diction. It was the amount of his wages which, while at sea, he had ordered to be sent to her. He visited London, heard John Wesley preach and became more thoroughly confirmed in his peculiar doctrines. When he came back to South Carolina he entered the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was received on trial in 1791 and at once became a circuit rider.

In due time he was admitted to full connection and ordained. Some years later, being conscientiously opposed to slavery and not being entirely satisfied with the forms of government of the Methodist Church, he withdrew from the travelling connection in a perfectly orderly way, in 1796, and travelled on foot into Kentucky, where for several months he made his home with Elder Joliff, a Baptist preacher, who was the father of Colonel James Joliff, of Marion County, Illinois. All his pilgrimages were made on foot, as he travelled his circuits, and in this way he arrived in Illinois in 1797. Here he found abundant opportunity for the exercise of his gifts as a preacher, and he ministered acceptably to various communities, as New Design and others in the American Bottom. He not only preached, but formed some sort of school classes and taught the youth both science and literature. Among those who are indebted to him for the best part of their education are Robert, Joseph, and James Lemen, who were all influential men in their day. At that time Missouri was called Upper Louisiana and was under the dominion of Spam. And of course only the Roman Catholic rehi^ion was tolerated hy law. But the commandants and other officers were disposed to encourage mimigration to their territory, and therefore permitted Protestants, after a vague and formal examination, to settle in the country. A large number had thus expatriated themselves to obtain liberal grants of land. However it was the general opinion of the settlers ot that day that the country would some day be under the rule ot the United States, and they or their children would some day enjoy a fuller religious liberty. "Father Clark," as he was called, was the first preacher to cross the Mississippi and bring the Gospel to the Americans on the west of the great river. He first did this in 1798. After that his excursions were regular and frequent, each trip occupying two or three weeks. There were three settlements in the neighborhood of St. Louis that he regularly visited. He was a man of great simplicity of manners and disinterested piety. He made no effort to conceal the object of his visits in the Spanish country. Zeno Trudeau, the commandant at St. Louis, knew his character, his habits, and his purpose in crossing the river. He was friendly to the American residents and not disposed to molest them or their religion; but since he was responsible to authorities higher up in the Spanish government, he must make a show of enforcing the law. So about the time Clark's appointments were finished he would send a threatening letter warning Mr. Clark that he must leave the Spanish Territory or he would put him in the calabozo (the prison). However no personal molestation was ever offered. After the country passed into the hands of the United States, Mr. Clark made his home on that side of the river, but he continued to make visits to the Illinois churches up to the end of his life, which occurred in 1833, when he was seventyfive years of age.

Gen. Arthur St. Clair

GEN. ARTHUR ST. CLAIR Arthur St. Clair was born in Edinburgh in the year 173,4. He came to America as an officer in the British Army m 1755- He served as Lieutenant under General Wolfe m Canada during the French and Indian War. At the close of that war he came to Pennsylvania. It is not known when he left the British Army, but in December, 1775, he was married and some time after that it was noted that he held six offices under the government - Clerk of the Court, Prothonotary of a Court, Judge of Probate, Register of Wills, Recorder of Deeds, and surveyor of the largest county in the province. He became well known and at this period was quite popular. In January, 1776, without solicitation he was appointed colonel in the Continental Army, with orders to raise a regiment, which he did m six weeks" time. He was appointed Bngadier-Genend m August, 1776, and ordered to join General Washington's army. He rendered efficient service in the battles of Princeton and Trenton. In Febru.iry, 1777, Congress made him a Major-General, and m June sent him to take command of Fort Ticonderoga. He later abandoned this fort, and altho it was done after a consultation of the officers, yet the public disapproved it. A court martial sustained the movement, and Congress m 1778 confirmed it. But still the wound was not healed in the public estimation. Washington always retained his first confidence in Gen. St. Clair and considered him a faithful servant to the end of the war. After the peace he resided in Pennsylvania and was elected to Congress in 1786. The Northwest Territory was established in 1787 and he was appointed governor of it in 1788, and held the office till the state of Ohio was organized in 1802. He did not desire this appointment but acted on the principle recognized hy General Jackson that he would "neither ask for nor refuse office." St. Clair is reported to have said, "to accept the office of governor was the most imprudent act of my life."

Governor St. Clair and Winthrop Sargeant, his secretary, arrived in Kaskaskia in February, 1790, and organized the County of St. Clair, which was named after the governor. He also appointed the various officers necessary to the administration of justice in the new county. The original boundaries of the county were as follows: "Beginning at the mouth of the little Mackinaw Creek where it empties into the Illinois River and running a direct line to the mouth of a creek which empties into the Ohio not far above Fort Massacre (Wabash River), then down the Ohio to the Mississippi, then up that river and the Illinois to the place of beginning." St. Clair is the "Mother of counties" in Illinois, being the first organized of her one hundred and two counties. "Virginia had attempted to organize the Illinois country into a county in 1779, which continued a sort of obsolete existence down to 1790, when St. Clair County was organized.

About the year 1810 a colony of the Monks of La Trappe estiiblished themselves at the big mound in the American Bottom, now officially known as Cahokia Mound. This order is a branch of the Cistercian Monks and was first founded by Rotrou, Count of Perche, in the year 1140. After a time the order relaxed its severe discipline until Abba Ranee reinstated it in all its vigor in the year 1664. The order was situated at first in the most gloomy and wildest province of France, that of Perche. Its last founder, Ranee, got soured on the world, and particularly against his mistress, who dismissed him for another lover, and so he commenced a war against himself. He lay on a rock for his couch, lived on bread and water alone, and removed a handful of earth each day from his grave, in order to have it ready dug by the time he had need of it. And what is strange, he had followers. The main characteristic of the order was that the members carried on a crusade against nature in their own persons. We hear of the "bravest of the brave," but these were the most rigid of the rigid. They carried out the ne plus ultra of fanaticism. Two of their vows were celibacy and perpetual silence. One writer says it is strange they did not declare against eating also. And in fact they did, except just enough to keep body and soul together. Female persons were not permitted to enter their premises, and if by mistake some woman happened to traverse one of their walks, they took a broom and swept her tracks away. Their vow of silence was also rigidly kept except when there was absolute necessity for communication. Governor Reynolds says he has addressed many of them courteously and to him they were always silent as the grave. He claims that the New Testament teaches no such doctrine as that.

The revolution in France removed them from that nation, and public opinion, which is stronger than a revolution, removed them from the American Bottom about 1813. But the mound is still called "Monk's Mound."