Williamson County, Illinois - The whole text, 1876 (part 1 of 5)

Illinois Results, Etc., Etc

WITH AN ACCURATE ACCOUNT OF THE SECESSION MOVEMENT, ORDINANCES, RAIDS, ETC., ALSO, A COMPLETE HISTORY OF ITS " BLOODY VENDETTA," INCLUDDING ALL ITS RECONDITE CAUSES, RESULTS, ETC., ETC.,

Prefatory Address To The Young Men

I have now written you a history of your own county, to show you the advantages of civilization, and to give you contentment. It is a "home-spun" book, written by a " Ijomespun " author.

The state of society which I have depicted is fast fading from the memory of men, and will soon live only in history. You come upon the scenes of life at an eventful and glorious age of the world, when the opportunities for individual progress are so hopeful. We are the citizens of a common country, and share an undivided interest in her weal or woe; and it may be well for us to look back to the past, on . the bright side of misfortune ; but we must trust to the future,

We have lived in the shadow of the gray hairs of our fathers. They have battled long and well to give us a country to live in, and we are the rich inheritors of all the glorious results of their self-denial and patriotic devotion. Let us prove ourselves worthy of the high destiny for which they offered themselves a sacrifice to common dangers and privations, by living honorable lives, and showing to the world that with affection we cherish their acts and hallotv their memories.

Vi Prefatory Address

They have lived to see the forest converted into farms, and have nobly done their part, settling the county, and serving it in military and civil capacities. They have left us a great country, and now the duty of defense and preservation rests on us. As a slight repayment for the liberty we enjoy, let us ever stand ready to bear arms in defense of this grand country, in which we have the happiness to live, against external and internal foes.

The hope of the county is in its young men ; and the hope of the young men is in the strengh of their integrity. Live temperately, deal justly, and respond in every act to the demands of conscience, and you will have an even chance in the human race for worldly prosperity and recognition.

You owe the duty of education and moral culture to yourselves ; to your neighbors fair dealing and generosity. Our best friends are at home, those who would do most for us. They dwell by our sides, and if they are our best friends we should be theirs ; and if we are we should show it, for in this lies the power of friendship to bless or curse us. These cords of friendship should be treated delicately, and never be broken by fretful, surly and hateful means. Let it be your constant object to strengthen, build up and improve home folks, for this is the source of our sweetest pleasures and best life. Into this fountain let no bitter dregs of poison drop. Keep it clear and pure. The miseries of broken friendships plead with you to preserve a high respect for your neighbors at all price. Be true to them if you are false to all else on earth beside'. In this view the growth of our country becomes sublime and of surpassing interest.

Prefatory Address. Vii

While other countries have their traditions to excite them to patriotism, we have the inspiration coming from the names of illustrious men to summon us to' great trials and duties.

There is no reason why a community of as intelligent, honest and industrious a people as ours, should not live in peace and plenty. We must learn to denounce crime and punish criminals, and not stand ready to applaud them. Our criminals must lay down their arms, for there never can be peace as long as they sleep on them. The law must be enforced ; without this, life will be unsafe and property invaded. Young men, help build up a healthy public sentiment against crime.

I retain as much affection for my mother county as a common origin inspires ; yet I feel a painful revulsion when making a comparison between this county and some others in this State. And I appeal to you by every bond that will bind a good man to his social duty, by every consideration that will awaken a love of- county or stir your pride of race, to live true to the highest, purest and most lasting interest of your county.

In writing this bo^k I proposed to myself, as a maxim, that no man should be able from its pages to tell what political party I belong to; so impartially have I tried to write it. And I hope I will not assume the imputation of vanity when I say I believe I have done so. And if I have written a thought or expression calculated to sting the pride or wound the heart of any honest man, I stand in the way of his indulgence, for I have not intended to. No historical work has ever been written, or ever will be, but that some defects can be found in it, especially dealing with events so recent as our Vendetta must the historian lay himself o])en to these strictures. I have aimed to give as full and fair account of our history, with the more recondite causes of the Vendetta, as I was able. I was so happy as not to displease my friends with my first attempts at writing, hut I dare not raise my hopes so high now. I know that many irate and insulting critics will bugle about this book, and say that my learning is easily gleaned. I will admit that, and ask them to follow my example. The choice of subjects is not at my discretion, so that the grace and style of my composition is not such as I could wish. As I have not undertaken to invent facts, of course I had to draw from many sources, especially our old men and the members of the Vendetta. And I have tried to eliminate from the mass of facts such as would be most interesting to read and remember. I do not want to be accused of supposing that all heroism, humanity, generosity and chivalry is in this county, and that all cruelty, rapacity, cowardice and ferocity is among our neighbors. I believe it to be true, and shall try to show that while our Vendetta has been signalized by some deeds disgraceful to human nature, the general behavior of our people has been such as would do honor to mankind, and exalt the prestige of our name.

That Liberty, Progress, Knowledge, Virtue and Peace may be the lot and destiny of our people, is as much the fervent aspiration as it is the consoling faith of

Of The' Country

In 15 1 2, Juan Ponce de Leon discovered Florida, and the whole of our country was claimed by Spain, by virtue of this discovery, under the name of Florida. The earliest settlement was made in Illinois in 1680, and two years afterward, the Mississippi having been discovered by DeSoto, the French f ' formal possession of the valley of the Mississippi, and in honor of Louis, King of France, named in Louisiana. Soon after that event this country began to be called the Illinois country, after a powerful tribe of Indians by that name. In 1763, by a treaty between England and France, this country became an English province, and remained as such until it was surrendered to the United States by the John Jay treaty in 1796.

After the formal surrender of the Northwest Territory to the United States, it was divided into five counties. This portion of the Territory in which Williamson county is embraced belonged to St. Clair county, Avith Kaskaskia as the county seat, in which condition it remained until 1809, when Illinois was organized into a Territory proper. Congress appointed a Governor over this Territory who, in order to execute the laws, was authorized to lay out the Territory into counties, which he did ; and this portion of the Territory which had hitherto been part of St. Clair county, now fell into Gallatin county, where it belonged until Illinois was admitted into the Union in 1818, and Franklin county was taken off the west side of Gallatin. In 1839, Franklin county was divided by act of the Legislature, and the southern half called Williamson county. Under the Territorial Government the Governor appointed the magistrates and other officers, and they had to be freeholders; but since the admission of the State they have all been elected, and property qualification abolished.

Williamson County is twenty-four miles long from east to west, and eighteen from north to south. It contains 432 square miles, and 276,480 acres of land. At present it is divided into twelve town- ships and fifteen voting precincts. The surface of the county is level, with the exception of some rough land along its south side. It is traversed by a copious supply of large streams and their tributaries. The Saline and Crab Orchard run the whole length through the south side, and Big Muddy River cuts deeply into the northwest corner, while Pond and Lake Creeks wind and twist themselves along the northern portion until they come to what is known as the Scatters of Pond Creek, which is a swamp for two miles in extent, covered with tall grass, where the creek soaks lazily along among the tufts of grass, finally forming a stream again and emptying into Big Muddy.

There are ten separate and distinct veins of bituminous coal in this county, which spreads out and underlies three-fourths of its surface, and in dozens of places crops out where it can be cheaply and easily mined ; and the veins average nine feet in thickness. No country on the globe is better supplied with coal than this county.

When our fathers came here, they found these vast, silent, virgin plains unclaimed, untouched, untilled, hedgeless, free to all. Field-like in wastes, yet fertile, awaiting, full of charms and loveliness, the smiling face of man. On entering the county from the east side an immense floe stretched westward beyond the reach of vision ; the burning landscape was gashed with deep ravines, against whose rocky throats an old tree formed a pent house on this silent main for travelers against rain and tempest. No sound broke nature's solemn repose. The summer breeze rocked itself to sleep in the elm boughs, and only the waning moon seemed alive, as it climbed up a cloudless sky, passing starry sentinels, whose mighty challenge was lost in the vast vortexes of blue, as they paced their ceaseless rounds in the canopy of constellations. Many a beautiful little lake, without a ripple, lay hid in the tall grass, reflecting the birds that passed over them, and from their clear bosom gave back the polished beauty of the heavens above.

The northern and southern portions of the county were well timbered ; but the central was a vast barrens, without a shrub, except on the streams ; but is now heavily timbered. There are nine beautiful little prairies in the county, averaging about three square miles each, the edges of which were studded with low trees - crab apples, hawthorns, red buds, etc., which bloomed in the spring, making most romantic scenery. Many of these little groves remain to this day, with Nature's own rich festooning hung, and afford a splendid retreat for picnics. But there is^nothing in a tree alone to please ; it is the variety which Nature gives that makes the complex emotions and beautiful sensations in men. She has been profuse. She spreads blossoms over the face of the country. Flowers hang like jewels from boughs ; but she puts on no unnecessary paint. More sweetness would cloy the palate, more beauty would pale the sight. There is no room for a man to call up a more delightful theme. The trees had a gorgeous drapery 'of flowers and coniferous vines, and the horizontal limbs rose by regular stagings, one above the other, where the rural deities reveled in their own sylvan solitudes, wearing their wreaths twined by the rosy fingers of Romana, and the spicy odors swept up the drowsy upland all day from the forest and prairie meadows, while the air was lifting clustering rings of dark clouds above. This was a lovely home for the Red Man, where the dews of Egypt kindled roses and vines for him, and Nature, with her sweet influence, taught him to love and adore the Great Spirit in this fair haven of happiness and repose, too pure and stainless to be sullied by immorality. But Nature is not lavish : she spreads her white robes in the spring, and reserves her red until autumn.

When our fathers came here, they found the grass higher tha^ their heads, and for twenty years it was the best range that man ever saw, until the farmers stopped the hunters from burning the woods. When this was done, the leaves killed the grass, and up came the bushes. Some of this tall grass grows on the scatters of Pond Creek every year. They found a great deal of wet land, or swamps. On account of the vegetation growing so thick and rank, the water could not run off fast. Our fathers found herbs for medicine and beverage. There was savey and thyme for broth, sage for sausage, pink-root for worms, and wormwood for bruises, flowers for bouquets, and apples for friends. In these rude solitudes was the bright golden paw-paw apple, six inches long and three in diameter, mellow and sweet, but not very delicious. There were ferns and water-lilies with long> deep green, shiny leaves standing near the virgin poplar, with its cluster of leaves waving against the blue sky, which sent out its shady radiance like the borealis waves its ghastly banners over a midnight sky. These prairies ripple and glitter yet ; but wherever civilized man has put his foot, it has left its print, and now wild briars, thorns and thistles have grown up to choke out the sweet blossoms which once bloomed over this county.

The forests are cut down in many places, and rich mansions point their steeples and spires up to heaven. Rich exotic and trpoical plants mingle their patrician odors with the tints of our own native blue-bells and ladies' slippers.

But some of our fathers came here when the glad sound of waters was not heard ; when the streams were locked in the icy shackles of winter ; when the grass lay buried beneath autumnal snows; when the winds went wailing over the desolate brightness, and the cypress, with its countless, interlaced branches of hoary gray, stood up like a line of giant ghosts, an aspect of desolation and death. When they came here they found no monuments of past greatness ; no Coliseum lay in a pile of ruins ; no Obelisk of Sesostris pointed its alabaster finger to the eternal source of light ; no Pyramids frowned down upon them; no battlescars were seen. There were no towering evergreens, Oriental bowers, or statuary. It was a virgin land, with delightful nooks, shady retreats, creeping vines, wrestling amid the forest of perpetual green, and barren districts, with the stormbrand of ages on their breast. It was a new land. Her greatness was all in the future, - her history y,,?t to be made and written, except where it had jeen written by Nature's legible hand. It was a land of trees ; a land of flowers ; a land of plains and brooks and vales ; a land in whose dark, deep dells the garden of Memory lies embedded : in whose blessed retreats the aged pioneer can refresh and strengthen himself, and drink in anew the pearly streams of happiness that rippled along its sunlit banks ; a land where imagination can wing her proud flight from lofty realms to realms more lofty still, until fancy, with all her images, is fatigued and overwhelmed, and falls in silence and admiration at the feet of the majestic works of God.

Of Game

In an early day these prairies and woodlands were well filled with wild animals. The bufi"alo, which once roamed over this* county in unbroken herds of countless hundreds, were not seen here as late as 1810; but many of their trails remain to this day. They would feed on Phelps and Poor Prairies, and in the evenings go to the Crab Orchard for water ; and they wore out deep paths to the creek. One of these trails can be seen from G. L. Owen's, and one from A, B. Scurlock's to the creek. But deer were here in large droves as late as 1848, and even yet are sonr.^ wandering ones found. In an early day they were seen in great gangs, feeding on the rich and verdant herbage that carpeted our emerald meadows. Sometimes the breathless stillness of the forest would be broke by the crack of a rifle, and hundreds of wolves would hold their midnight carnival over the remains of one of these noble animals. Bears were found in great numbers in the bottoms. Elk left in a few years after the bison. Wildcats, raccoons, skunks, otters, minks, ground hogs, squirrels, opossums, rabbits, etc., are still found in abundance. Until within a few years the blood-shot eye of the catamount might be seen glaring in the foliage. Serpents were here in great profusion, - copperheads, black and blue racers, chicken, garter, green, and horn snakes, moccasins, adders, etc, ; and as an adjunct to this horrible scene were hundreds of rattlesnakes. Their huge scaly bodies could be seen shining, as they lay in folds upon hill-sides, and when approached would throw open their mouths in a daring and reckless manner, giving ample warning of their ability and disposition to defend themselves. But they are gone, and soon memory will lose all its wild deer. Thus will perish forever the game which was to our fathers objects of niutuni pleasures and danger"

Our fathers did not find those beautiful singingbirds here when they came that we now have. They are creatures of civilized countries, and follow the tide of emigration. But vultures were here, and would flop their broad wings and soar over head in great clouds when disturbed. Vast flocks of buzzards circled round and round far up in the blue ether, and made their home in the winds and clouds. Cranes, brants, wild geese, and eagles were seen, and the blue heron would stretch upward their long, skinny necks at the sight of man. The golden oriole, blue jay and the flaming red bird darted away among the shar.owy boughs, and the lark poured his sad sweet notes on the spicy air ; plovers, prairie 'hens, wrens, robins, ravens, crows, blackbirds, pewits, martins, thrush, quail, snipe, king fisher, mocking-bird, pigeons, doves, yellow hammers, blue birds are very plentiful.

There is a buzzard which sails gracefully over Northern Precinct to which tradition ascribes a mysterious history. It was caught in a wolf-trap over forty-five years ago, and one leg still hangs down as it flies. It has been kept sight of ever since. In the same locality lives a gray eagle whose mate was shot by Dr. S. M. Mitchell over twenty-five years ago. ^

That portion of the Territory lying between the Big Muddy on the west, and the Wabash on the east, was for over thirty years inhabited by the Shawnee tribe of Indians. And that west of Big Muddy, to the Mississippi, was occupied by the Kaskaskia Indians.

In the year 1802, a battle occurred between the two tribes. These tribes would occasionally trespass upon the hunting grounds of each other, from which quarrels ensued, and finally the battle above mentioned. It was fought by agreement on the half-way ground, in Town Mount Prairie, in the edge of Franklin county, about three miles south-west of Frankfort. The Kaskaskias were under the command of their chief John DuQuoin, then quite an old man, and a good friend to the whites. The Shawnees were commanded by a chief of a treacherous nature, which was probably the cause of the fight. As to the duration of this battle, we have no means of knowing ; but the battle-ground itself, though under a high state of cultivation, can yet be located by the marks. The farms occupied by L. D. Throop and the Dennings, are at the extremes of the battle-field, the main fight taking place a little south of Mr. Throop' s residence. A large number of the

Shawnees were slain, and the remainder driven to the Big Muddy River, at a point about a quarter of a mile below the bridge, on the Frankfort and DuQuoin road, where, in attempting to cross they were nearly all butchered, and the tribe annihilated. The Kaskaskias after that held undisputed sway, until the encroachments of the whites drove them beyond the Mississippi.

Since the year 1802 there were a few straggling bands of hunters and fishermen in this county, but no tribe ever again claimed it. In consequence of the hostile disposition of the Indians, no white settlements were made this side of Equality until 1804, when seven brothers by the name of Jordan, John and William Browning, Joseph Estes and a man by the name of Barbrey? a brother-in-law to the Jordans, came from Smith county Tennessee, and located in Franklin county, and built a fort and block-house on the ground now occupied by the residence of Alexander McCreery. .

Until 1815 little or no attempt was made by them to cultivate the soil, but they subsisted on the products of the woods. In the year 181 2, James Jordan and Barbrey went out to gather wood, and they were fired on by the Indians. Barbrey was killed dead and scalped ; Jordan was ' wounded in the legs, but was able to get to the fort. After obtaining re-inforcements from Frank Jordan's fort, they started in pursuit of the Indians and followed them as far as the Okaw River, but did not overtake them. Barbrey was buried at the fort, and his grave can be seen at this day. The murder of Barbrey was but a just and inexplicable epitome of that long catalogue of violent deaths, ushered in by the keen crack of the savage Indians' rifle, and ending with the hollow thud of the murderous shot-gun in this county.

A large portion of the Shawnee tribe lived in Indiana, and in 1811 were camped on the Tippecanoe, a tributary of the Wabash. The great Tecumseh was chief of the Shawnee Indians, and at that time was preparing for war against Governor Harrison ; and while our Government was fighting England, Tecumseh left his tribe in 181 1, and, taking twelve of his warriors with him, started south to enlist the Creek Indians to join him. He passed through this county, coming into it from the north-east to Marion, where he struck the Kaskaskia trail. He followed it to the Hill place and then on south. About a mile south of Marion he was met and talked to by John Phelps, who had been in the country but a short time and he was frightened very badly. But Tecumseh was a humane Indian and was never known to ill-treat or murder a prisoner, and denounced all who did, and employed all his authority and eloquence to protect the helpless. In the fall he returned north, and was greatly mortified over his brother's defeat at Tippecanoe. The next year he was killed at the battle of the Thames, in Canada.

But the Shawnee Indians were not all like Tecumseh. They were hated and dreaded by the whites, and were overwhelmed and obliterated by the relentless flow of the pale-faces, and live only in memory and history. They once claimed this county as their own, and the light bark canoe swam on the silver bosom of the Saline. As they wandered along its shores they passed forests whose sombre depths were veiled to them by a vast screen of drooping birch, and then they pushed their little craft through wide-spreading beds of water lilies, and then, entering one of Nature's sole^nn temples, what weird, wondrous visions greeted their thrilled senses ! As they glided slowly along, the heavens were almost shut out. Behind and before them rose up trunks of trees ; now and then they stooped as they passed under some monarch of the place. They pushed aside the thicklytrailing vines and then the canoe would disturb a perfect surface of the most marvelous mirror, re- fleeting countless forms of leaves and twigs. How intense was the silence, broken only by the splash of a single blue heron, who, wondering at the intrusion, gazed, and then spreading his great wings, rose and slowly disappeared. Such were the scenes of these dirty, greasy, filthy Indians.

Every valley of our beautiful county gives evidences of the existence of the race to which I refer. The delightful valley of the Crab-Orchard is replete with Indian history and reminiscence. But the Kaskaskias, who were friendly with the whites, continued to come to this county as late ^s 1828. They were sent out by Colonel Manair, a trader of Kaskaskia, to hunt for furs, etc. They would come in the fall and camp on Big Muddy, Hurricane, Crab-Orchard, Caplinger Ponds, and other streams. But these were Indians in whom the peculiar characteristics of the race had given place to some of the courtesies and confidences of civilized man. A very large number of them were camped at Bainbridge as late as 1813. James Maneece once visited this camp, and they had a large kettle of terrapins on boiling, making soup. They asked him to eat with them, but he declined. The Crain boys and others used to go to their camps on the Crab-Orchard, and have fun with them. They asked them why they did not go down on the Saline : that there was plenty of all kinds of game there ; but the Indian would shake his head, and say, " Griffee live there ; he kill Indians." Thos. Griffee had a character for killing every Indian he could catch in the woods, and they were afraid to go down there. When they camped on Big Muddy, the white folks would go down regularly every Sunday to see them. One old Indian who came here for several years had a white wife, by the name of Ellen, said to be very handsome. He would never leave her at the camp alone on Sunday, for fear the white boys would steal her. These hunters used to go quite often to farmers' houses for something to eat.

In Northern Precinct, they got so bad that the women were afraid to stay at home alone while they were loitering around through the woods. The men banded together, and gave the Indians ten days' notice to leave the country. They produced the Governor's permit to hunt, but it was not honored. They left before the ten days were out, and were never seen in Northern Precinct again. John Roberts, the Burns and Ratcliff were in the band. Wigwams were still standing on Carl. Grave's farm, in 1820; and on Hugh Park's, as late as 1829, were traces of camps. But after 1818, they never went into the eastern part of the county. They had a camp at a spring on the farm of J. S. Neely, in 1817. Also, on Indian Camp Creek, in the Burns settlement. A little south of the old station, near Pond Creek, are several Indian mounds ; they are piles of dirt thrown up two feet high and twenty feet across to set the wigwams on to keep them ' dry. Many relics of the Indians have been found in this county. On Wesley Park's farm are rocks cut and carved in curious style by the Indians.

Of Early Setti-Ers

The French settlers of Kaskaskia were m.ostly engaged in fur trading, and, in pursuing this business, would follow up the streams emptying into the Mississippi, near that place. As no stream run from this county to Kaskaskia, it is not probable that any of those people ever entered what is now Williamson County until 1720.

When Renault, an agent of the Mississippi Company, left France with two hundred miners to carry out the mining schemes of that Company in Illinois, he bought five hundred slaves at San Domingo, to work in the mines. He settled at §t. Phillip, and sent out exploring expeditions all over Illinois. Hs remained here twenty-four years, and spent seven millions of dollars. While there is no evidence of his search in this county, it is almost certain that he did so. Along the north side of Johnson County is found a shining kind of metal resembling silver, and many traces of extinct mines yet remain that at some day must have been the scene of much labor and expense. To reach these mines, he would necessarily pass through this county, and if so, was the first white man ever to break its solemn silence with the tread of his foot-steps. The next probable account of white men in this county was in 1766, when four men, who had been exploring with Col. James Smith in Kentucky, crossed into Illinois at the mouth of the Tennessee, and traveled fifty miles north, where they are lost sight of forever. It is likely they were killed by the Indians in this county.

The first white men known to have been in this county was in 1796. Col. George Rogers Clarke, with one hundred and fifty men, came down the Ohio en route for Kaskaskia. He left Fort Massac about the 14th day of June, and marched on foot to a point seven miles north-west of Golronda. Here he turned north-west, and came into our county at the south east corner, marched by Sarahville to Thomas Hill's place, then turned north, passed within one hundred and fifty yards of Marion on the west side, then through the east side of Phelps' Prairie to Herrein's Prairie, passing through where D. R. Harrison's fine brick mansion now stands, and crossing Big Muddy at the mouth of Pond Creek, or Odum Ford, and arrived at Kaskaskia on the 4th day of July. This has since been known as the Kaskaskia Trail, and in an early day was very muddy and hard to travel. So much so, that a new trail, known as the ''Worthen Trail," was made through the east side of the. county. It turned north near Sarahsville, and ran along the ridge through the Hendrickson Settlement, then into Town Mount Prairie, and joined the old trail south-east of Du Quoin. In Phelps' Prairie, Clarke, suspecting his Indian guides of treachery, put bayonets behind them and gave them one hour to find the right direction or die. They found it. Clarke spent twenty days crossing a country that at most would not have required more than four days for his sturdy back-woodsmen to cross. From this I conclude that he built what is known as " Stonefort," in Saline County, near the old trail. There are the remains of an old fort enclosing an acre of ground with dilapidated walls of stone on three sides, and a huge bluff on the north. A short distance from the fort up and down the stream is a block-house. That this was built about this time is evident from the growth of the trees in it. It is in the shape and style of those built by white men on the frontiers. The block-houses were built up and down the stream, the way the Indians traveled. It is built on a high bluff, where nearly all forts are built by white men. The Indians never built any rock forts, and never entrenched on open, high or conspicuous places. It was within a short distance of the Saline river, the regular camping ground of the Shawnee Indians for over thirty years, who, at this time, were at war with the whites, and moving eastward. I was unable to find any engraving or sculpturing on the rocks, but the trees have been blazed and the dates grown up. I give it as my opinion, based on the history of the past, that Clarke built this fort. It was occupied in 1813 by a family of Shultz's.

This brings me to the first settlement, which occurred in 1810. Frank Jordan built a fort in Northern Precinct. It was a stockade enclosing about one acre of land, and contained four log cabins and a well, and was about fifty yards from Pond Creek. It is now known by the name of the " Old Station," and in 1820 half the stockade was standing and the cabins were occupied by- James Howe and Mr. Parks. An old doctor by the name of John Dunlap was with the Jordans in this fort. He claimed to have been captured by the Indians when a boy and brought up by them to the practice of medicine. He lived a great many years and followed his profession, and always got his medicine out of the roots and herbs in the woods.

In this year three of the Dillinghams came to this county on a hunting expedition, and camped where Bazzel Holland now lives. For several years they continued to come here to hunt, and finally settled. They frequently met the Indians, but always got along friendly with them. In 181 1 John Phelps settled Phelp's Prairie. Jay and McClure settled at the Odum ford. Joseph and Thomas Griffee settled at Ward's Mill. William Donald settled the Hill place. John Maneeseand his son James settled in Phelp's Prairie. During this year these settlers and some from down on Cache, built a block-house on the John Davis place, west of Marion. It was built of hewed logs, was twenty feet square, covered with slabs, and had port-holes eight feet from the ground. They all went into this fort at night, and had

James Maneese was twenty-three years old before he knew what a doctor was. He was once sent with a note to one which he gave to a man who gave it to the Doctor. Maneese thought it was a machine he was going for. But lo, Mr. Doctor was a man ! A man by the name of Hibbins settled the west side of Herrein's Prairie during this year, but was compelled to leave it the next. 1 812 is memorable for the settlement of Flanery, at the Flanery Springs. Richard Bankston settled the Spiller farm north of Marion. An unknown hunter built his camp on what is now Benton Russell's farm, but had to leave on account of the Indians. A few more were added to Jordan's fort, and Richard Ratcliff settled the Roberts' farm in Northern. Charles Humphrey^ c^^ttled at the Stancil ford, and commenced to keep a ferry. He built him a small block-house, but the Indians sometimes got so bad he had to remove his family to Jordan's fort for safety. One night, James Herrein, who had come out here on a visit, stayed in the house with the ferryman. It thundered and lightened terribly, and they could see the Indians walking around when it lightened. But they were all gone before day. In 1815 Nathan Arnett settled the Hinchliff farm, and Abraham Piatt, William Doty and Nelson McDonald settled near him. Solomon Snider and James McDonald moved up from Johnson County and settled in Grassy. Dempsey Odum settled the F. C. Kirkham farm. Aaron Youngblood settled the Jake Sander's place. In 1816 there were but few settlers. Joshua Tyner settled on the Eight Mile; William Lindsey the Samuel Russell place ; Jasper Grain settled on the west side of the prairie, and the next year moved to Phelps' Prairie. 181 7 was more prolific, of settlers. Spencer Grain settled in Phelps' Prairie. John Phelps moved to Union county. Ragsdall Rollin settled the north side of the prairie. Isaac Herrein settled the Stotlar place in Herrein's Prairie. Capt. David Springs settled the Graves place. John Roberts bought Ratcliff's improvemento. John Hooker and James Howe settled near him and Mr. Worth'en. In 1818 there was a great influx of people. Phillip Russell and his three sons settled in the Eight Mile. Perkins in Herrein's Prairie. Elijah Spiller bought Bankston out. Bankston was a shrewd man, a great hunter, but a drunkard. William Burnes and five brothers settled in Northern.

Major Lockaleer the Burnes place. George Davis the Bell place. Dickenson Garrett a little south of James Edwards. Hezekiah Garrett, the Ben Eaton farm, William Norris on Phelps' Prairie. The settlers of 1819 were David Herring with his father-in-law, Isaac Herrein. The prairie was named after Isaac. Sion Mitchell, S. M. Mitchell and Moses Jones settle!! in Northern, S, M. Mitchell where he now lives. Conrad Baker in Herrein's Prairie. William and Ben Spiller in the Spiller settlement. Abraham Tippy and his son John, a little south of Bainbridge. Starling Hill at the Hill place, and the Simpkins brothers near Hill's. 1820 is signalized by the settlement of Wadkins and his negro - the first one in the county. Dowell Russell settled the Lewis Parks place. Mark Robinson, the Kidd place. Some of the Shultz's in Saline precinct. James Stewart and his sons, on the Pease farm. 1821, David Corder settled the Erwin farm on the east, and George Davis on the west. Major James Corder settled the Stilly farm. 1822, Hamilton Corder where he now lives. Charles Erwin settled the farm on which he lived and died, Hugh Parks on the Jack Thompson place, and seven years afterwards moved where he now lives. Daniel Mosley, the Furlong place. 1823, William Campbell settled Blairsville, and Sam. Stacks Southern Precinct.

I have now given all the settlers up to 1822. These I have denominated ''the early settlers," for three reasons : First, it gives us a settlennent in all the precincts of the county, and Second, they produced no change in the country - neither improving it nor destroying the game, but lived like the Indians, mostly in the woods. Third, the influx of immigration swelled into such a stream that it would be impossible to keep trace of individual settlers with anything like accuracy. The Bowles, Lewis, Wrights, Arnolds, Hunters, Phimesters, Bakers and Turners, all settled in an early day.

The settlement of Marion deserves a notice. Poor Prairie, by William Benson in 1826. He built a cabin where the Cox place is. Soon after this, Martin Spiller settled the Goddard place, and Tipo S. Williams the Aikman place, and Mr. Tyner built a cabin where the C. & S. R. R. depot now stands. In 1835, Benson Tjought Tyner's improvements, which extended over the present site of Marion, and he built a cabin where the widow of Col. James D. Pully now lives. At that time a cabin was standing where Young & Kern's store now stands, in a decayed condition, and no one knew anything of it. Benson kept hotel, and his house was used as a court-liouse for a while. He cultivated corn and wheat where the square was laid out. Silas Grattan settled the Barham place. James McCoy, the Stockton place. Jacob Goodall settled on the Goodall farm, southeast of Marion in 1828. I will now proceed to give a description of the character, manners, etc., of our fathers, and first, of

Their Character

I have tried, though with conscious imperfection, to describe the country our first settlers found when they came here. It was this lovely country, with its still past, and glorious future, that awakened a feeling of independence and spirit of enterprise among the settlers. They were generally the humbler class from Tennessee, Kentucky, North and South Carolina : but there is scarcely a State in the Union that has not furnished us some immigrants, and there is no country where more singular, more eccentric, more opposite characters were found. Here was the brave, the passionate, the generous, the sincere, the fickle, the bold, the modest, the devout and the wicked. Here were some devoid of treachery and malice, others vindictive and penurious. Some were promoters of education, and some were idlers. Here were the melancholy and the happy. They were very credulous and believed nearly everything they heard, no matter how exaggerated, and hence imposition and misfortune was often their lot. They came here big with enterprise, elated with hope, full of their own abilities. They trusted to themselves for life. They were poor, but of unmixed blood. There were no half-breeds, neither of Indians nor other obnoxious races. In private life they lived with republican austerity, and in society moved with chivalrous spirit. They settled on the margins of the little prairies, on the banks of streams, and near large springs. They built cabins out of round logs, which they chinked and daubed to keep out the winter's cold and summer's heat. The door was hung with cypress vines, and the yard was decorated with sun-flowers, hollyhocks and poseys, showing that woman, under all circumstances, has something sweet and noble in her life. Many of these cabins are still standing, and there are none of us, if our ancestors were traced back a few generations, but would find them in one of these cabins, where the midnight wolves howled their nightly serenade. It was inone of these rude structures, surrounded by an unbroken forest, that the author of this volume, still an humble boy, was cast out upon the cold charities of an unfeeling and inconstant world, to live in a sinful day and suffer the destinies of men. And these old woods are still eloquent with the remi. niscences of long ago ; - not the stuff that dreams are made of, but the rank charms and rich loves of the past, loading the vehicle of memory and oppressing the soul.

Two-thirds of the early settlers followed the occupation of hunting. They cultivated small patches of corn for bread. The other third followed farming. While eight acres was a large farm, they made good livings and had something to give their children. Besides these two classes, there was a vagrant class that sprung up in the last forty years, who roamed through the woods uninfluenced by attachment and unfettered by principle, stealing hogs and sheep. But they have all disappeared. The settlers lived calm, quiet lives, remote from the active bustle of more civilized life. Their surroundings imparted to them generous feelings, gentle manners and a language of liquid softness. Hospitality with them was a part of human nature, and not a religious rite. They were as generous as their soil was productive. Nature had bestowed food upon them with a liberal hand, and taught them to share it with the hungry. Social intercourse was more general than now, more hearty, less formal, and more valued. Friendships were warmer and deeper. When a man got sick, his neighbors would go breik his ground, plant his crop and cultivate it for him. And it was thought no hardship to ride fifteen miles for this purpose, or even visiting as friends. The world has not exhibited an example of a more happy race than our early settlers. Their kindness was bounded only by their capacity. Nothing that a neighbor wanted was too good for him to borrow. While some of them had the vices of savages, most of them had the virtues of men. They were true to their country, true to their friends, their homes and their God. They hardly ever forgave an insult or forgot a kind act ; and if their vengeance was terrible, their generosity was great. Their lives may seem to us hard, lonesome and wearied by lifeless monotony ; but they were passed happily. Some of our old men have told me their young days were the best and sweetest part of life. They heard the same song-birds that we hear. Their faces were fanned by the same breeze ; but they were surrounded by the rich influence of wild, untamed Nature. Cowardice was a foreigner. They were a thoughtful, grave-looking set of men, with long beards, and generally had but little to say. But the gravity of the Stock has been changed by grafts from without, and these early characteristics are observable now only in our oldest men. They live in the past, and only look to the future with gratitude and hope to see their children fairly gain wealth and honor in a day of culture and refinement. Some of these old men live in cabins with but little around them, and it is no index to the position they once held, or the influence they exerted, to see them living that way now. They might have been captains in the militia, or served as Judge, Sheriff, etc., in the county. Mr. O. West, once a captain in the Army, now lives in a humble cottage. General John Davis lived on a farm in a log house." These men never resorted to slander : when they spoke of a man their language clearly showed no malice. They were generous to faults, and honest in their dealings. The children of those who followed farming are our best livers. The Herrings, Parks, Russells, Davis, Roberts, Stewarts, Arnolds, were not hunters, and their children are our wealthiest farmers. Those who followed hunting are now generally poor.

But our fathers had many hardships to lessen the jo}'S of life. They were often without the necessaries of life. They had but few store goods, and had to go to Equality for salt, to Shawneetown for groceries and domestics. They had but few horses, and most of the traveling was done on foot. Even in a very late day, they would go to mill, carrying two bushels of corn on their shoulders. But, happily for our people, none need have such hardships now. Our mothers were among the border beauties of the Great West, They were very plain, untrammeled by stages and ceremonies. They did not have white hands, nor willow waists, and consequently had coarse, awkward, brawny health. Still, in this wilderness, they had much of the refinement belonging to their sex. They had something about them that was womanly and attractive. They did not swear, do, nor say anything that was suggestive of immorality.. They associated with men, and very coarse ones, and were intimately acquainted with all their affairs. They were accustomed to the woods and dangers, and learned to be strong of hand and nerve, and to keep cool. They would fight as quick as the men, and many of them were excellent shots and could shoot a deer or turkey as well as bake a hoe-cake. Their necks were sun-burnt, and their hair hung down or was twisted in a little knot on the back of the head. They wore no ruffles, bias stripes or flounces, but had a comeliness of their own. It was not the paltry prettiness of gait nor manners tliat lent beauty to their frontier charms, but it was stalwart, untrained grace that made them models of beauty. Their ringlets fell in troublesome abundance and would not be confined. Their cheeks, if they could but know the absence of sunbeam caresses and the boisterous kisses of the wind, would show the clearest marble- white and bonniest bloom. They shuffled their limbs slip-shod along trails in search of animals, and of whose sound strength the owner had but little thought. They had arms which split wood and carried water: whose whiteness and mould would fit them rather for the adornment of golden clasps and folds of ancient lace. Their houses were neat and tasty. They had no fine furniture, no bright, ba^ze carpet covered the floor, but in the yard a stump or box contained forest flowers ; luxuriant branches of evergreens hung in the corners, and festoons of oak leaves and cypress vines covered the whitewashed walls of the house ; and panseys, ferns and pinks fringed the walks.

Many of our old ladies look back with tears in their eyes on these fair dwellings. How bright are the scenes, and how sacred are the joys which surround them ! Memory wraps a halo of beauty, peace and glory around them, and binds anew their charms to the heart. Little did they care for the smiles of the gay world of fashion that glitter and gleam on the paths of modern belies. While our fathers preached, commanded, hunted and plowed, our mothers spun, wove, cultivated flowers, and exerted every gentle, womanly influence. If a woman wounded the feelings of her neighbor, and a reconciliation had to be eflected, some little chord, buried deep under the. accumulated debris of pride, indifference and wounded vanity, was struck by a sympathetic hand, and thrilled and quivered into perfect harmony. These little, impulsive acts were genuine inspirations. Many a man has been led to the fold of friendship, and many a woman's life been strengthened by the spontaneous infusion of sympathetic feelings. They loved their husbands, brothers and sons, and were as ready to join them in their sports and amusements, as to share their privations and dangers. They provided lolly-pops for school-girls, and ginger-cakes for boys, and flyingmares and swings for festive days. I have asked our old ladies what hardships they had to encounter in the early settlement of this county ; but . they gave so many and such varied accounts^ that it was hard to generalize their troubles. They were often left alone, surrounded by wild animals, and were subject to frequent hardships. I will relate one scene which I saw when a boy, illustrative of those early days. It was one of the hardest scenes that it is the allotment of men to meet. It was a handsome young woman, sitting on a plow-beam, nursing her baby. She had just been plowing, and had taken her babe up from its grassy bed, and sat down to rest. This was a hard sight. New feelijigs sprang up slowly in my heart, and I -could hardly keep my countenance from arguing humanity by sighs and sobs. This lovely woman met Fate's stern demand with a brave patience that was truly grand and heroic. The birds had learned to love her, and as the transparent clouds drifted like currents and waves of gauze athwart the sky, they whistled their cheerful lullabies of sympathy and encouragement to her. But she was a widow, and afterwards married happy, and Williamson County has not since been tarnished by a scene like this, which must wither the pride and bring a blush of shame to the cheek of every person who has the least spark of humanity in his bosom. If it is objected that this incident is not worthy of historic mention, I will answer that the hardships of our people are a part of my subject, and my heart is full of it.

Since we have parted from them, winter has come and gone, spring has gladdened us with beauty, blossoms and fruits. And the summer of life is now pouring in profusion into the lap of our destiny the highest privileges of civilized man, to be gathered and garnered for our comfort. Much of the real character of our people remains unchanged, and this county, to-day, contains a bold, brave, generous class of citizens, distinguished for intelligence, honesty and high moral culture. They are a people which will compare favorably, in those virtues and graces which ennoble character and render life happy, with those of any part of the Great West.

Of Dress

Among the men, there were two styles of dressing worn, - one by those who followed farming, and one by those who were hunters. The hunters, who were by far the largest class, wore a hunting-shirt, which was a large linsey or domestic gown, open before and fastened with a belt, and reached below the knees. Under this was a pair of domestic pants, a common vest, and deerskin moccasins on their feet, and a deer or coon skin cap on their heads. This was the dress, both winter and summer, and in this garb, the hunter might be seen wading the snow of winter, or crushing the flowers of summer. At church and public gatherings, the bloodiest man was generally considered the best dressed.

The dress of the farmers was a little different. In place of the hunting-shirt, they had a sackcoat, made of linsey. In place of domestic pants, they generally wore dressed buck skin, and in place of the cap, they had the palmetto hat. The dressing of the women was still more odd and singular. They raised their own cotton and flax, spun and wove them into such garments as they needed. Six yards was considered an extravagant amount to put into one dress, which was made plain, with two widths in the skirt, the front one cut gored. The waist was up under their arms, with a draw string between the shoulders behind. The sleeves were made very large, and tapered to the wrist, and the most fashionable had these sleeves filled with a kind of pad which made them look like a bolster, and were called "sheep shank sleeves." Those who could afford it, used feathers, which gave the sleeve the appearance of an inverted balloon from the elbow up, and were called ''pillow sleeves." Some of these were so large that they almost shut out the face from view, and extended up to the ears.

Paper was used in absence of pads and feathers. Graceless young rascals would speak of kissing the girls at parties as " squeezing the pillows." The bonnet was a tow bonnet, made for splits ; but the most fashionable wore Leghorn hats, with the brim about ten inches wide, tied up with a ribbon in a bow-knot on top. They wore a great many ribbons and bows, but no jewelry. If a girl could succeed in getting a little indigo blue in her tow dress, she was considered as " putting on airs."

The tow dress was superseded by the cotton dress. Their petticoats and bed gowns were made of linsey, and a small copperas handkerchief filled the place around the neck now occupied by a gorgeous ring of ruffles. They went barefooted in summer. In winter they wore moccasins and shoe packs. A very nice thing compared with the elegant Morocco slipper, embossed with bullion, worn now by their granddaughters. In going to church they would carry their shoes in sight, and then stop and put them on. The coats of the women and the hunting shirts of the men were hung upon wooden pegs around the walls of the cabin, and one could see their stock in this line at a glance. They had none of the ruffles, silk hats, curls, combs, rings and jewels that adorn and beautify our belles. Many of them were grown before they ever saw inside of a store, or even knew that there was such a thing. Instead of the toilet, they handled the wheel and shuttle. Instead of the piano and guitar, the sickle and weeding hoe. Instead of challis and silk, they were contented with their linsey and copperas-colored tow for dresses, and to cover their head with bonnets made with fivehundred cotton yarn. And in this severe simplicity they lived and were happy. Their hearts pulsed in responsive beats to each other's woes, and were borne on the same wave of joy. Reared in simplicity, surrounded by poverty, cared for by brave parents, their lives were one long dream of sunshine, unbroken by a single storm-cloud poured out as a shameful libation to dim the horizon of their happiness.

In 1840, the styles which I have described were nearly all gone, and those of the present day took their place. The gray moss-covered rocks, the aged oak, the green thicket, the emerald prairies are all unchanged. Nature's usual robes remain the same. Man is the only thing in Nature that changes the styles of its covering. Probably because originally made to live without clothes, and God placed them on him because of his sin.

Of Furniture

Coming here, as the early settlers did in wagons, over execrable roads, they could bring no furniture with them, and, consequently, they had nothing but what they made, which was rude enough. Their bedsteads consisted of a fork drove in the ground and poles laid in it ; then into the walls of the cabin. This was covered with boards, and these with straw, deer or bear skins. The tables were made of boards pegged on to a frame with four legs crossing each other in the centre like a saw-buck. The furniture for the table for several years consisted of a few pewter dishes, plates and spoons ; but mostly of wooden bowls, trenchers and noggins. If these were not to be had, gourds and hard-shelled squashes were used. Some few people used the delft ware, but it was considered of no account by many, as it was too easily broken, - and then it dulled their scalping and clasp knives. Tea ware was too small for men, but was good enough for women and children. Iron pots, knives and forks were brought here when the people came. Deer skins, stretched over a hoop, and perforated

But this rude and noisy furniture has given place to sewing machines, rose-wood pianos, organs, and marble tables, which are now frequently met with. All kinds of edge tools were scarce and very valuable in an early day. So, it v.'as a long time before the carpenters improved on the furniture. In 1840, at least two turning lathes were put up in the county, and they made some round bed posts, which were long enough for flag poles.

Of Diet

For a while after our fathers came here, they had some of the provisions which they brought with them ; but soon they were cut off from all supplies but those which Nature had placed within their reach, and such as they made by their own exertions. If the furniture for the table was rude, the articles of diet corresponded with it. Wild meats were plentiful. Small patches of corn were raised, which, being beaten in a mortar, made good bread, but they could not shut their teeth close on account of the grit in the bread. Hog and hoininy was a favorite disli, as was also hoe- cake and gravy. Johnny-cakes and pones were staples for breakfast and dinner ; - milk and mush were used for supper. Fish, of course, were abundant. All kinds of greens, such as dock, and polk, were eaten. Roasting-ears, pumpkins, beans, squashes and potatoes v/ere raised in "truck patches," and used by all. The pot-pie was the standard dish for log-rollings and houseraisings. Coffee and tea were not much used in an early day - they were thought to be slops that would not "stick to the ribs." The genuine back-woodsman would say that they were good for sick women and children. They were surrounded by all kinds of wild fruits, such as grapes, cherries, plums, paw-paws, persimmons, crabapples, red and black haws, and berries. These fruits still grow in great abundance in this county. They were both butchers and cooks, and had no ''Bridgets" or waiting-girls. With refinement and culture, came that knowledge which has produced that variety of diet which makes the Americans the most independent people on earth.

Of Morals

the place of law. Everybody understood what was right, and the man who did not do this was looked down upon. For instance, it was a duty for every man to help fight the Indians, or help raise houses ; if he refused, he need not ask men to help him. No man was allowed to. draw a deadly weapon in a fight, and if he did, everybody was against him. They had an innate or hereditary detestation of the crime of theft, and any person caught stealing was generally doomed to carry the "United States flag on his back," to-wit : thirteen stripes. Bastardy was an offense of rare occurrence ; the chivalrous temper of the people was so great that the guilty author was in great danger of personal violence from the brothers and father of the girl. Family honor was then esteemed very highly. People in those days had a great deal of veracity, and such a thing as perjury was unknown, until that unprincipled class of citizens which I mentioned elsewhere, sprang up in the county. Generally, they esteemed their word as good as their bond. The hunting class, as the game began to get scarce, were mostly idle and unoccupied, and that idleness tempted to dissipation, and hence whisky^shops gained a footing in the county as early as 1835, followed by shooting matches, gander pullings and horse races, which were the schools in which their appetites were trained and nursed into mischief. When intemperance had extended its ravages, profanity overspread the country, which before was unknown. Licentiousness was uncommon among the early settlers, but is now practiced to an alarming extent. This is caused by the countenance given by the public to those men who lave in the lecherous sea of prostitution. ^,

Of Hunting

From 1810 to 1835, tVvo-thirds of our fathers followed hunting for a living, and, consequently, they never made anything.; but those who stuck to the farm are the wealthy ones now. The hunters cared but little for worldly honors and distinction, and scarcely ever looked to the future. These rangers of the woods were a hardy race, accustomed to labor and privation. Their forms were developed to the fullest vigor ; many of them idled away their aimless lives on the fertile plains that lay untilled before them, following some phantom that glowed with a treacherous gleam into scenes that were as false as their pleasures were hollow.

characters assumed a cast of simplicity mingled with ferocity, taking their colorings from the scenery and objects around them, with no companion but Nature and the rifle. By natural instinct they were ever alive to guard against danger, and provide food. Great observers of nature, they rivaled the beast of prey in discovering the haunts of game and their habits. Callous to the feelings of danger, by constant exposure, they feared nothing. Of law they knew but little; their wish was law, and to obtain this, they did not scruple at the means or cost ; but these strong, active, honest backwoodsmen were firm friends and generous men. Some of them still live among us : the most prominent are, Hamilton Corder, James Maneece, Samuel Russell and William Chitty. But that bold race of which they are specimens, is fast passing away. If I was not a criminal I would go to them for relief, but if I was a criminal I would shun their eyes. These old men love to retreat to the forest and there relate their hunting scrapes. They were daring experts : not a hole in the county but has been ransacked by these hardy men.

They knew every rock, stream, lake, shoal and valley in the county. They have dropped their hooks into every stream, and set their traps in - every drift, and bayou. All kinds of game abounded in the woods, and all kinds of fish flashed their silver scales in the sun on the bosom of our waters. They were conversant with the character of every animal, fish and bird in the county. The regular hunter would start out -about an hour by sun, bending his course toward the setting sun, over undulating hills, under the shade of large forest trees, beautifully festooned with grape vines and dark deep moss ; wading through rank weeds and grass, now viewing some winding creek doubtful of its course, and of his own, his restless eye caught everything around. The guard of his own safety, relying on himself for protection, and at every step the strong passions of hope and fear called into exercise, he sought ominous presages of good or bad luck in everything around. The croakings of the raven and the howl of the wolf were signs. A turned leaf or a blade of grass pressed down, the uneasiness of Avild animals, flight of birds, were all paragraphs to him. These men needed fortitude to sustain their reflections. They felt the pangs which solitude gives, and had heaved the sigh which aff'ection prompted. Beset by dangers, despondency stood ready to seize their souls. Sometimes they would go where there was an island of foliage on the prairie, standing out of the low billows of prairie grass that surged away till the feathery tufts broke like foam against the circles of the horizon, and their eagle eyes swept around the country for game. Sometimes they would go to green thickets, whose solitary loneliness was awful ; here they would see the wolf, stealing through the gloom and snuffing the scent of the intruder ; and now and then the bloodshot-eye of the catamount glared through the foliage. Wolves were so common as to become a public nuisance, and after a reward of one dollar a scalp was offered for their scalps, several men followed the business of killing them for a living. They had dogs trained to jump the wolf and then run backward, the wolf following to where the hunter lay concealed. Among the most noted wolf hunters were Gideon Alexander, Parson Crouch, William Chitty and Jessee Childers. They averaged about fifteen wolves a day. In storms, the ravens were seen winging their way to cover ; the bench-legged coyote quickly trotted to his hole ; the piercing cry of the wolf was borne upon the winds, but the fearless hunter was not disturbed, for then he was sure of game. Deer licks and turkey pens were a common thing until a recent day. The hunting of wild bees.

which existed here in countless millions, was a daily business. Bear hunting was a dangerous but interesting amusement, and continued as late as 1845.

Of Sports

Our fathers indulged in many rude athletic sports, which have long since given place to the more refined amusements of our day. As long as a higher value -was set on physical endowments than on mental, these rude sports were continued. Prominent among them was horse-racing. This was carried on mostly in the west half of the county, and was often the scene of bloodshed and much confusion. Our people have not entirely outgrown it yet. From 1820 to 1830, and occasionally since, the barbarous practice of ganderpullings was carried on. It was regularly kept up at Josiah Dillard's and Solomon Snider's, at Christmas and at all large gatherings. The way they were conducted was shameful in the extreme. Plenty of whisky was first provided, then a ponypurse was made up, or a premium offered. A gander was next taken and his neck thoroughly soaped, when he was tied by the legs to a springing-pole, head downward, eight or nine feet from the ground ; the riders then mounted and went at full speed ; one man stood under the gander with a whip to keep the horses going. The first man who got hold of the gander generally turned the feathers the wrong way and made his neck sleeker than ever. The gander would flap his wings and squall for life, when an expert rider got hold of him, in such a manner as to make the blood grow cold. Sometimes a greedy fellovy would hold on until his horse ran from under him, and then he would generally strike the ground with that portion of his body which, in a stooping posture, is the fairest mark for an assault. Running, jumping and wrestling were the common amusements at neighborhood gatherings, and the best wrestler and fastest runner were men of notoriety. Every boy had his bow and arrow, and spent a great part of his time in the woods. Skill in shooting with the bow was a great virtue. The hunters learned to imitate the cry of all kinds of animals, and the whistle of all kinds of birds. To bleat like a fawn, howl like a wolf, or gobble like a turkey, were accomplishments common among all. They had learned it from the Indians. Dancing was a favorite amusement with the people of the west side of the county. Those on the east side were not noted for sports of any kind, but were better hunters. At all weddings and houserais- ings they had a dance, and people would come twenty-five miles to them. They knew nothing of the waltz, schottische or polka of our day ; but the "Irish Trot," three and four-handed reels and jigs were tramped out to perfection. Cottonpickings were common in an early day, and they were followed by a "play," where the boys would kiss the girls from "Julius Csesar" to the "Fourth of July." It was not dishonorable, because it brought no bashful blush to trip down the girls' cheeks in stipple dots ; but the sweet, love-pressed smile baptized her lips, and sent an eclectic radiation which caught up his heart and made it dance a polka in his mouth. Shooting-matches, the delight of our forefathers, have not been discontinued unto this day. Cards, dice, and other such gambling instruments, were wholly unknown among the early settlers; but from 1835 to 1870, were used by a large number of our people. Now there are but few gamblers in the county. Singings were of frequent occurrence until within a few years. Fox-chases, the pride of every sportsman, are still enjo)'ed in this county. General hunts, with fifty on a side, were practiced twenty-five years ago. They would march through the woods to a common rendezvous, and have' a barbecue.

The early inhabitants of this county generally married young. There was no distinction in rank or class, and hence, no fetters on alliances. The whole neighborhood was on hand at a wedding, for it was siire to be followed by a dance or frolic ; and that too, withowt the labor of building a cabin or planing a scout. The weddings in this county were conducted in other respects the same as at this day, with the exception of the time. They were then always celebrated just before dinner, and the parties were dressed in home-made clothes, and the bride wore buck skin gloves. The chase after "Black Betty," so common in the West in an early day, was never practiced here. After the wedding, the infare was celebrated, then a log cabin was erected by the neighbors for the young couple.

These young people went out, one by one, from the happy circles of their fathers, exchanging a place beneath the old roof for a new and untried one out in the wild world. To them it was the balmy time of life. Hope carpeted the future with flowers; all was bright by the anticipated joy of the future. They were our fathers and mothers. Some of them have realized their fondest hopes and brightest dreams, amid the storms that have swept along the tracks of life. Others who have battled long in winters' cold and summers' heat, have ever had the ghastly spectre of poverty at their sides, pointing to a destiny of wretchedness and despair, while the sunny side of life was in view. Divorce was never heard of among the first settlers of this county, but as the practice of marrying has been kept up in a more sinful day, the practice of obtaining divorces has also grown up, until now, it is spoken of as a small and unnoticeable event.

Workings were the result of the condition of the country, In countries where they build frame, brick or adobe houses^ no considerable number of hands are necessary, but in the forest, where they raise log houses, it requires a large number. So, on the prairies, where there are no logs to roll, . these workings are not known ; but where the farms are cut out of the wilderness, the farmer needs the aid of his neighbors to roll the heavy logs together. Then the first workings were those of planing scouts, campaigns, raising log cabins, which were followed by log-rollings, wood-choppings, rail-splittings and corn-shuckings. At these gatherings they always had a good time. Whiskey was provided, or no work done certain. These workings were attended by all the neighbors, and are kept up unto this day ; and have always been a source of fun, amusement and mutual benefit to our people.

Slavery

Illinois Territory was a slave Territory, and contained several hundred slaves ; but the Constitution of 1818 prohibited slavery within the State; and provided for the manumition of the slaves. Most of the citizens of this county were from the South; but few of them brought slaves with them. Wadkins brought a negro with him, which he always called free, and Frank Jordan had two negro slaves with him. These were all that were in this county. Franklin County had a great many slaves, and the excitement on the question of slavery ran very high until 181 8, The negroes were sometimes kidnapped and taken South, and sold, and sometimes taken East and freed. When the State was admitted, almost all the negroes were taken to Missouri and sold. When the que'=- tion of slavery was settled beyond controversy, some . of these negroes were brought back and freed, as provided by law. Alexander McCreery went to Missouri and brought back an old negress slave that his father had owned. He also bought her husband, Richard Inge, out of slavery for ^300, and settled them upon eighty acres of land which, by frugality, they finally paid for, and are now living on, in the northeast part of this county. Four miles southeast of Marion, the Ellis' settled in an early day. They lived quietly, and raised large families. These, and a few negroes in the northeast corner of the county, were all the negroes in the county until after the war, when a few families settled near Marion. It was a presumption of law that all negroes were slaves, and hence they could not settle in this county without proving their freedom. About the year 1857, a negro girl, living near Marion, was kidnapped by a band of ruffians, who started South with her to sell her into bondage ; but such a thing was to grating to the souls of our people. The hue and cry was levied, and she was rescued from the life of a helpless, toiling slave, and restored to that liberty and freedom which God gave to all nature.

The first church built in this county was called "Squat," and was located on what is now the farm of Thomas Sanders, in the year 1819. It is now greatly decayed, but enough remains to show that it was a house. The next church was "Rich Grove," built on Herrein's Prairie, in 1820. It was a regular Baptist church, and Isaac Herrein was its first and almost only preacher. In 1823, the Davis, Corders and Parks built a log church, a little north of where James Mayes now lives. They were Baptists, but had no minister, only as Charles Lee, the celebrated witch master, would ride down from Hamilton County. In 1824 the Methodists put up a church in Northern. The Burns boys were good hewers, and they did the principal part of the work. Six years afterward it was burned down. The first church on the Eight Mile was erected near Samuel Russell, in 1836. "Gum Spring" Church, in Saline, was built soon after. The " Old Sweet Gum" was built in Marion in 1847. ^^ was a Baptist church, and was soon followed by a Presbyterian church. There are now four large churches in Marion : A Baptist, a Christian, and two Methodist, and the county is well supplied with churches in every part. The churches in an early day had but few members, but they were very pious. Our fathers held their first meetings in their cabins, but as the county began to be settled up, and as early as 1835, they held campmeetings in the groves, the only temples built by God himself, and, therefore, the only ones worthy of Him; for there the beauties of nature taught them gratitude and adoration towards Him, whom the universe worships. The religion of those days was more practical than theoretical. They did not spend their time in cavilings about " isms" or ordinances, but went quietly along, accepting the doctrine as preached, adored their God, cherished their kind, served their friends and country, and lived in their lives that religion, engraven on the heart by the author of worlds. This was the religion of our first parents. It is yours. It is mine. It is the religion of all ages and all people. Sages have never ceased to worship in silence this religion. While fanatics and fools have tinged the earth with blood of men by discussions and religious disputes, they have laid aside systems and applied themselves to doing good, the only road to happiness. The preachers claimed to hold their commission to preach from God, who had given them tongues to adore Him, and hands to help their race, and hence they were listened to as men "having authority." The early piety and simple faith of our fathers have not been duplicated by our generation, partly because many ministers have sprung up who, if they were called to preach at all, either entered upon the work before the time, or are wholly unfit to preach, for the want of sense, education and other qualifications ; and partly on account of the change in our life which has unfettered the mind of many, and caused them to throw off the dogmas and superstitions of early days, such as witchcraft, etc., and assume a station above the vale of serfdom, far upon the plains of common sense.

Though those men were plain, unassuming and firm believers in religion, the keen crack of a rifle on Sunday was neither offensive or unusual. They generally went to church with their dogs and guns, and perhaps killed a deer on the way. And as I have said, the bloodiest man was the best dressed. They carried their guns to church partly for protection, and partly to provide food for dinner. The camp-meetings were held in the fall, and lasted from two to four weeks. The entire family took their beds and provisions, and moved into log camps erected near the "shed," which was a large roof set on high posts, and the floor was covered with straw. They always had a good time at these meetings, and could be heard for a great distance singing and praising God. Most every pious person shouted in those days; none were afraid to shout. It was a grand and a solemn scene ; away at midnight some one would get religion, and the shouting would break out anew, and hundreds of people might be seen in every conceivable stage of excitement, some down by saplings, some on their knees, some running, jumping and hallooing at the top of their voices, and all giving vent to sundry expletives of .praise and adoration. Such was the effect of this early pulpit oratory that none could long resist their stirring appeals, and the terrible doom which they pronounced against the ungodly. But these early hallucinations have rapidly passed away, and will soon be numbered among the things that were. The faith in Christ still remains firm and unalterable, but the more boisterous and noisy devotional exercises are heard and seen only in a few places. That religion which was the hope and consolation of our fathers is passing away, and cold, constrained, phlegmatic formalism taking its place too much. The churches of this county are many and prosperous, and have exerted an influence in subordinating wickedness, -encouraging educa- tion and morality. But I met some old men who told me that in an early day, when they neither had gospel nor meetings, that the people were peaceable, friendly and happy ; and as soon as preachers came into the country they got up "isms," "sects" and "systems," which ended in jars and feuds among the people, and that they have never seen any peace since. A diversity of opinion engenders strife and ill-will, and these destroy peace. A genuine system of religion ought not to produce a diversity of opinion.

The first machinery used by our fathers for making meal, was the hominy block or mortar. It was made of a large block of wood, three feet long, with an excavation burned in one end, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, so that the action of the pestle on the bottom threw the corn up the sides, from which it continually fell to the center. When the corn was soft, the mortar did very well for making meal, but was slow work when it was hard. They sometimes used a sweep of springing, elastic wood, thirty feet long, to lessen the toils of pounding the grain. Wh;,^n the corn was too soft to be beaten, a still more simple machine than the mortar was used. It was the grater, a half circular piece of tin, perforated with a punch from the concave side, and nailed by its edges to a block of wood, when the ear of corn was rubbed on the rough edges of the holes, and the meal fell through on a board and was discharged into a bowl. The mortar has not been used in this county since 1827 ; but the grater was in use as late as 1855. "Hand-mills came into use about 1820, and were better than the grater or mortar. They were made of two circular stones, placed in a hoop, and a staff was let into a hole in the upper runner, near the outer edge and the upper end, through a hole in a board fastened to the joist. Two persons could work at it at once. The grain was put in by hand. These, mills are still in use in Palestine. It was a mill of this kind that Jesus Christ alluded to when, in speaking of the destruction of Jerusalem, he said : " Two women shall be grinding at a mill : the one shall be taken and the other left. ' ' The first horsemill built in this county was built by Ragsdale Rollins, in 181 7, on the north side of Phelps' Prairie. It was a new thing, and people went a long way to see it. In 1S22, Solomoh Snider removed it to the west side of Eight Mile. William Burns built the next one in 1819, in the Burns' Settlement. He also, in the same year, put up the first cotton-gin in the county.

The next cotton gin was put up by Jonathan Herrin, on the Dilliard farm in 1825. At this time they used to go to "Harmony Town" Indiana, for carding. Delilah Harrison, mother of D. R. Harrison, remembers this occurrence well. About that time the Burnes put up their mill, Martin Duncan built one on the north edge of Phelps' Prairie. Burnes had impr£)ved his mill so that by 1830 he could grind twenty-five bushels of corn a day, and his boys would take meal on horseback to Equality, forty miles, and swap it for salt. In 1823 John Roberts put up a horse mill on his farm. In 1823 John Lamb built a mill on Herrin's Prairie, which was afterwards removed by Jasper Grain to Phelps' Prairie. About the year 1825, George Davis put up a mill on the Erwin farm, and in a few years Stephen Stilly built one at his residence. Soon after this, McDonald built the first water or tub mill, on the Saline in the Tanner settlement. The next was built by Geo. Davis. Seven years later, John Davis built the third, now known as the Sims mill. Still later, Stephen Blair put up a water-mill on Big Muddy. In 1838 William Ryburn built a good horse-mill on the Eight Mile, and Yost built one in Marion. The first steam-mill was built by Milton Mulkey in Marion in 1845. The next by Erwin and Furlong, in 1856, at Crab Orchard, ii. ^002 Herrins, Polk and Harrison built the Herrins Prairie mill. In 1870, Mann and Edward built a large woolen manufactory. Now the county is well supplied with both saw and flouring mills.

Of Pestilence

This county has suffered less from pestilence, failures and drouth than any county in the State. The seasons are good, and people generally healthy. The doctor bills for the entire county do not exceed ^40,000 a year. The cholera made its first appearance in July 1849, but caused only a few deaths. It re-appeared in 1866, and lasted for six weeks, during which over twenty-five persons were taken away, and the city of Marion vacated. Among the deceased were the three beautiful Ferguson girls, ladies without parallel in all the arena of beauty and refinement. The small-pox has visited this county on several occasions, but never resulting in many deaths until 1873, when a good many died in the ^outh side of the county. The mortality rate in this county, on a basis of a population of 23,000 is three per cent.

The belief in witchcraft prevailed to a great extent in the east side of this county in an early day. To the witch was ascribed the usual powers of inflicting strange diseases destroying cattle by shooting them with ball of hair, and inflicting curses and spells on guns. More ample powers for mischief can not well be imagined. The means by which the witch inflicted these diseases were one of the hidden mysteries which no one but the witch understood ; and no wonder, for there never existed any such power on earth. The way they got to be witches was by drawing their own blood, writing their own names in it, and giving it to the devil, thus making a league with him. From 1818 to 1835, there were a great many witches in this county. The most noted one was an old lady by the name of Eva Locker, who lived on Davis' prairie. She could do wonders, and inflict horrible spells on the young, such as fits, twitches, jerks and such like ; and many an old lady took the rickets at the mere sound of her name. When she inflicted a dangers spell, the parties had to send to Hamilton county for Charley Lee, the great witch-master to cure them. This he did by sooting her picture with a silver ball and some other foolery. It was a nice sight to see this old fool set up his board and then measure, point, and cypher around like an .artilleryman planting his buttery, while the whole family were standing around veiled with the solemnity and anxiety of a funeral.

None of the wizards of this county could do anything with Eva. They had to pale their ineffectual fires and sink into insignificance before the great wizard of Hamilton County. When a man concluded that his neighbor was killing too many deer around his field, he would spell his gun, which he did by going out early in the morning, and, on hearing the crack of his rifle he walked backward to a hickory wythe, which he tied in a knot in the name of the devil. This rendered the gun worthless until the knot was untied, or it might be taken off by putting nine new pins in the gun and filling it with a peculiar kind of lye, corking it up and setting it away for nine days. One old man told me he tried this, and it broke the spell. He had drawn right down on a deer just before that, not over twenty steps distant, and never cut a hair. Cows, when bewitched, would go into mud holes and no man :ould drive them out ; but the wizard, by laying he open Bible on their backs, could bring them out ; or cut the curls out of their forehead and their tails off, and put nine new pins in their tail and then burn the curls with a poker. This would bring the witch to the spot, and then the matter: was settled in the way our fathers always settled their business. Witches were said to milk the cows of the neighbors by means of a towel hung up over the door, when the milk was extracted from the fringe. If such deviltry was practiced now-a-days, the parties would be arrested for stealing. In place of having a herd of bob-tailed cows, we have laws against cruelty to animals. There was an idea, too, that if you read certain books used by the Hard-shell Baptists, that the devil would appear. Happily for the honor of human nature, the belief in those foolish and absurd pretensions has been discontinued, for forty years by an enlightened public. Medical science has revealed remedies for those strange diseases whose symptoms were so little understood. The spell has been broken from the gun forever by untieing the knot of ignorance, and letting the light of reason flood the mind. The practice of finding water by means of a forked switch flourished from 1850 to i86oi but was so palpably silly that it died without opposition.

The first schools were taught by subscription, for three months during the fall. The first schoolhouse was built in 1825, and others soon followed. Some of the first school houses were built out of gum logs, which sprouted and had to be cleared about once a year. The first teachers taught spelling, reading and writing; but in 1840, a few fine scholars came into the county who understood grammar and arithmetic. The free-school law met a heavy opposition from some of our old men, and, notwithstanding our school system has exerted a powerful influence in civilizing the county, yet it is still defective. We want better talent in our teachers and more of it. A. N. Lodge, the present Superintendent, has lifted up the sick form of our system, renovated and infused new life and destiny in it, until it is in abetter condition than ever before ; but it still needs talent.

Of Secret Orders

In 1833, Picayune Davis ran a clandestine Masonic lodge at his house, two miles west of Marion. He initiated everybody, and a gallon of whiskey was the fee. All the horse-thieves in the country belonged to this lodge, and in that day it was a powerful evil in shielding scoundrels and criminals.

In 1850, Fellowship Lodge of A. F. & A. Masons was chartered for Marion. Since then Chapter No. 100 has been chartered and a Council also. There are now five other lodges in the county. The Odd Fellows have five lodges in this county. In 1856 the Know-Nothings numbered about one hundred. In 1862 the Golden Circle reached a membership of over eight hundred, and in 1864 the Union League numbered over twelve hundred. In 1872, the Ku-Klux numbered one hundred and thirty members ; but that same year they were broken up, and did not meet again until 1874, when a few of them formed a Klan in the west side of the county. The Grange was introduced in 1874, and has since spread rapidly among our farmers.

Of Land Titles

Land was the object which brought our fathers into this wilderness, and they settled wherever they saw fit. Their first title to the land was the "Tomahawk Right," which was by blazing trees around the line, or cutting their name on a tree by a spring on the tract. Their lands lay in an irregular shape, but all disputes were settled amicably. After the Government survey, the Tomahawk title became worthless ; but the settler had the right of pre-emption.

Of The Products

The early settlers made no change in the county, and, consequently, there were no products. A people clothed in skins and depending on the products of the hunt and the spontaneous abundance of nature, could maintain existence and a rude social organization amid the forest, without manual labor. They lived rich in hope, but poor in worldly goods. Industry was consequently paralyzed by the absence of necessity. Agriculture was but little encouraged for a long time, either by the industry of the people or the policy of the times. It was limited to a few patches of corn and wheat, which were cultivated with wooden plows, and it was as late as 1830 before the farmers produced any- | thing for market. Money was very scarce. When , the few coins which the settlers brought with them hadbeen expended in the purchase of guns and ammunition from Kentucky, and other places, they 1 had nothing to buy the necessaries of life with, say ,: nothing of the luxuries. So, they by mutual con- | sent, established a custom of bartering articles of | property, either at " trade rates " or '* cash price." j Some articles were very valuable and others shock- 1 ingly low. A gun from Tennessee was current ; at $25.00 in trade; a sow and pigs at $2.00; a; cow, at from $4.00 to $8.00. Hamilton Corder once bartered horses with a man and got ten cows , and calves to boot. Pretty large boot, when wej consider that the cows would now be worth morei than both the horses. An ax was sold for $4-oo/! and a home made one at that.