Cheney's Grove Township

Cheney'S Grove Township

Jonathan Chenejr was born September 13, 1785, in Freeman's Fort, on Booth's Creek, in Virginia, in what was then called New Virginia. His parents were born in New York, and were Americans as far as can be ascertained.

Jonathan Cheney married, March 22, 1805, Catherine Owen. They were raised together. She was born October 16, 1787, in Edward's Fort, (she thinks). She is of Welch descent. The people in those days, (1787) were obliged to live in forts nearly all the time, and go out to work protected by a company of men as a guard. They were oftentimes short of provisions, and Mrs. Chenev, who gives these items, remembers when thev were obliged to live two weeks on boiled nettles, as no bread could be obtained. The Indians were a constant source of annoyance and trouble, and oftentimes lay in wait for the settlers, as they left the forts in the morning and went to work. Mrs. Cheney's great uncle was killed by Indians while on his way to work.

Mr. and Mrs. Cheney, after their marriage, moved about fifteen miles away to some land, which they owned, and remained there eighteen months, when they moved (in the fall of 1806) on horseback to Champaign County, about ten miles from where Urbana now stands, and thirty miles from Columbus. Ohio. Mary Cheney, afterwards Mrs. Stansberry, was born two days after their arrival. They lived there until the fall of 1817, when Mr. Cheney moved to Southern Illinois. He crossed the Wabash and went out on the main road from Vincennes to St. Louis. When they came out on the prairie, where nothing could be seen but the level earth and the blue sky, Mary Cheney remarked that she had " never been so far from land before." The country was soft and quicksandy, and sometimes the horses would sink in up to. their fetlocks. The Cheney family was obliged to get provisions some miles away across a swamp called Purgatory. This swamp was impassable except by a bridge. But a high water came and washed the bridge away, and they were left for three weeks with very little to eat, as it was impossible during that time to get provisions. They then started back to Ohio. There were at that time f»*"e chil- dren in the family. They crossed the Wabash River when it was very dangerous, and the water plashed in. The weather was then very cold, so cold that the horses were whitened with the frost of their own breath. Mr. Cheney walked and drove the horses while the family rode in the wagon on a feather bed with a feather tick over them as a cover. One child, Keturah, was very troublesome, and had to be tied down. They made good time in traveling, and returned to their old place in Ohio. There Mr. Cheney bought seven hundred acres of land of General McArthur, and put up a saw mill and grist mill, and seemed to be in a flourishing condition, so far as his worldly prospects were concerned. But he was unsatisfied, and he determined to come to Illinois. The family started September 21, 1825, and arrived October 16, at Blooming Grove, at John W. Dawson's place. The family had by this time grown to eight children. They lived two weeks with Mr. Dawson. On the fourth of November they came to Cheney's Grove. Their cattle were grazed for a while at the head of Old Town timber upon blue grass, but soon a fire came and burned it off, and the cattle were brought to Cheney's Grove.

During that winter Mr. Cheney went back to Ohio to settle up his business and sell that part of his land which he had not previously disposed of. While there he suddenly changed his mind and determined to bring his family back to Ohio. He wrote to them to come back; but fortunately his letter never reached them. During that winter Mrs. Cheney remained alone with her family, and saw, during the whole time, four white people, two men and two women. This was from January 1 until April. The family lived in a cabin, which Mr. Cheney had put up before he left, and their cattle lived on the twigs of trees, principally Linn brush ; but the milch cows received a little corn in addition. Tne stock went through the winter and came out in good condition in the spring, without the loss of a single animal. The family ground their wheat in a coffee-mill and their corn at a horse-mill, twenty-five miles distant. AVhen the boys made arrangements to go to mill, they calculated how much provision would be necessary to support the family until their return, and they usually started in time to prevent the supply from being exhausted. But at one time they met with delay and Mrs. Cheney had to bring down her coffee-mill and grind wheat to support the family until the boys returned. . She first ground the wheat with the coffee-mill set coarse, and then ground it again with the mill set fine. The flour made the best of bread. The family raised their first corn on the south side of the timber without any fence, while the stock was kept with the family on the north side. On the south side of the grove some Indians were camped with a hundred head of horses, and they ran and capered over the ground, which Mr. Cheney had plowed and planted. He ordered them to leave, and at last told them that if they did not make themselves scarce by a certain time, he would bring the white men down on them. Then he pointed a fire-brand at their wigwams in a significant manner, and they left in haste.

During the winter of the deep snow the Cheney family numbered seventeen persons in all, and they were obliged to be lively in pounding corn in order to have something to eat. Mr. Cheney picked the corn from the crib and prepared it for pounding. Ebenezer Cheney, Jonathan's nephew, who had been a blacksmith, pounded corn ; Thomas Cheney, (Jonathan's son,) Elijah Britton and George Spore, cut and drew the wood and fed the cattle shocked corn ; Henry Ball fed the horses and calves ; Owen Cheney went to school at Blooming Grove, and Mrs. Cheney, Mary, Keturah and Emilia did the housework and spun the tow. Everyone had plenty of work. The snow came and covered up the pigs, and they had to be spaded out. They could be found by little holes in the snow, where their breath had thawed up through. The family all had good health and were not made sick by rich fare or over-eating.

Mary Cheney, who was born September 13, 1806, in Ohio, was married to Abraham Stansberry, and died in 1867. She had five children (two of whom lived to be grown) and five grand children.

Owen Cheney, born September 2, 1810, in Ohio, married Maria Dawson, and had five children, three of whom lived to be grown and have families. He has four grand-children. He died at the age of thirty-eight.

Emilia Cheney was born January 29, 1817, in Ohio, was married to Ashley D. Horr and had five children, three of whom are living. She has had seven grand-children. She died June 12, 1862.

George Cheney was born February 18, 1819, and died August 17, 1866. He married Cynthia Ann Hall, had eight children and four grand-children.

Return Jonathan Cheney was born August 24, 1828, at Cheney's Grove. He married Margaret Green and had four children. She died, and he afterwards married Maria Rice and had three chilldren.

Rebecca Cheney was born December 7, 1831, was married to Benjamin Prothero in May, 1848, and has had several children, four of whom are living.

It will be seen then that Jonathan and Catharine Cheney have had thirteen children, of whom four are living. Their grand-children are fifty-nine, and great grand-children are fifty.

Jonathan Cheney died March 21, 1862. He was about five feet and ten inches in height, was straight and muscular, had a large forehead, was a very determined man, and his appearance would show that when he undertook anything he tried very hard to carry it through. He was a pleasant, cheerful man, and loved practical jokes. He was the first settler at Cheney's Grove, which took its name from him.

The information necessary for this sketch of Jonathan Cheney has been furnished by his widow, Catherine Cheney, who lives at the house of her daughter, Mrs. Benjamin Prothero. The old lady is now in the eighty-seventh year of her age. She complained that her faculties had failed her, but from the information furnished, she will be seen to have remembered the incidents of her husband's eventful life remarkably well. She was quietly attending to her knitting as she talked, for her old habits of industry clung to her. She is a very kind old lady and receives all the care and attention possible to make her life pleasant.

William Haines Cheney was born February 18, 1822, in Champaign Count}', Ohio. In 1825 the family came to Cheney's Grove, in what is now McLean County, Illinois, as is seen by the sketch of his father, Jonathan Cheney. Here Haines Cheney received his limited education. He attended school for some time under the instruction of his sister, afterwards Mrs. Stansberry. She kept her school at Cheney's Grove during the winter of the deep snow. He attended school during the winter seasons until the age of nineteen, and studied the old Dillingworth spelling-book. It was the custom in the early schools to study aloud, so that the master could be certain that the scholars were really at their lessons. The result was a noisy, distracting hubbub of voices. But it is pretty clear that such scholars could never be sick with the consumption. This noisy system was broken up at Cheney's Grove by a certain Mr. Ilarberson, who introduced the quiet system. He was a very fine teacher and would be so considered even at the present time. He kept a subscription school.

The little Indian boys often came to see young Haines and taught him to use the bow and arrow, and he became quite skillful and could bring down the little birds out of the trees.

Mr. Cheney acquired a taste for hunting and killed deer, wolves and turkeys. The deer are by far the gamiest animals to be hunted, particularly when hunted with dogs and horses. When they are caught, they never give up and put their heads on the ground, as the wolves do, but fight to the last. Mr. Cheney speaks of a buck, which was wounded and brought down by the dogs, but which would, nevertheless, have whipped the dogs and escaped, had it not been shot again.

Mr. Cheney was obliged in early days to go a long distance to mill ; was at first compelled to go to the Big Wabash and afterwards to Green's mill near Ottawa, seventy-five miles distant. When Jonathan Cheney broke the first prairie he was obliged to go to Eugene on horseback with his plough-irons to get them sharpened. This was about eighty miles distant.

In early days the doctors were scarce, from which it might be inferred, that the health of the people was good and the number of deaths few ; but the hardships of the settlers, the turning up of much raw prairie soil, and various other things, were the causes of much sickness, even in the absence of doctors.

In the early days boys were obliged to work. Haines Cheney plowed corn, when he was seven years old, and it did not hurt his constitution at all. He wore the simplest clothing, for the old settlers made all of their articles of wear. He never wore anything but home-spun, until he was eighteen years of age. In 1840 he won a suit of clothes on a wager that General Harrison would be elected president. The wager was paid and the suit was cut by the tailor in the latest fashion of that day. The material was mixed jeans, Mrs. Cheney's own make. After he had this suit, Haines Cheney was for some time a popular man among the ladies.

Haines Cheney was married November 10, 1842, to Miss Mary Jane Orendorff, daughter of William and Lavina Orendorff, by B. H. Coffey, the Clerk of the County Court and ex-ofiicio Justice of the Peace. Mrs. Cheney was a lady very much respected and admired by a large circle of friends. Mr. ancl Mrs. Cheney have had a family of nine children, seven of whom are living. The children are :

Wiley Cheney, born August 8, 1857, died August 1, 1860. Harry Chenej-, born December 13, 1858, Mary Belle Cheney, born February 1, 1862, and Minnie Estelle Cheney, born December 30, 1865, all live at home.

In 1867 Haines Cheney was elected to the State Senate to succeed Hon. Isaac Funk. The session was noted for the passage of the State House appropriation, the location of the Industrial College at Champaign, and for improving the Illinois canal and the building of the southern prison.

Haines Cheney married, May 28, 1873, Miss Caroline Brown, daughter of Demas and Mary Brown of Medina, Ohio. She is a very amiable and pleasant lady and possesses much tact and judgment.

Mr. Cheney is of medium height, is rather slim, though a man of good development of muscle. He has dark hair and gray eyes. He seems a gentleman of good taste and correct judgment, and is very much respected, not only in the community where he resides, but wherever he is known and his influence is felt.

George Cheney, son of Jonathan and Catherine Cheney, was born February 18, 1819, in Champaign County, Ohio. When in the sixth year of his age his parents came to Illinois. He received his common school education at Cheney's Grove. He was very little of a hunter, but could chase wolves, as this was really part of the business of the settlers. At the age of twentytwo he married Miss Cynthia Ann Hall, daughter of Prior and Mary Hall, of Old Town timber. Prior Hall was an old settler, but in 1850 he went to Sacramento, California, where he died in the fall. When George Cheney was married he settled on a farm, now known as the Harpster farm and occupied at present by Amos Bay. But George Cheney's family afterwards went to live on the Cheney homestead, which was afterwards divided, William Haines Cheney taking one-half and George Cheney the other. In the spring of 1866, George Cheney's house was burned, and he immediately began to build anew ; but when he had only commenced the work, he died. His death occurred August 17,1866, after a three weeks illness with typhoid fever. He had eight children, of whom six are living. They are :

George Cheney was of medium stature and rather slim, but was rather fleshy a few years previous to his death. His eyes were dark brown and expressive. He was very quick in his movements, but was quickly exhausted. His constitution was never rugged, as he had the typhoid fever, when fourteen years of age and never fully recovered from the effects of the disease. He was a very kind husband and a very indulgent father. He believed in universal salvation, but did not belong to any particular church. He was buried in the old cemetery, but removed to the new cemetery, which forms a part of his farm.

James Vanscoyoc was born February 20, 1798, in Monongehela County, Pennsylvania. His father's name was Jonathan Vanscoyoc and his mother's maiden name was Hannah "Wall ; but at the time of her marriage to Mr. Vanscoyoc she was a widow, and her name was Mrs. Ketchum. When James Vanscoyoc was five or six years old, his parents moved to Columbiana County, Ohio, where they remained seven or eight years, and there James received such education as could be had in those early days. The family then went to the Mad River country, but it was so sickly that after one year's time they returned to Columbiana County. Shortly afterwards they went to Wayne

County, where the family lived until they were grown up and scattered. There James Vanscoyoc married in April, 1819, Drusilla Lewis. During the following year he moved to Fountain County, Indiana, where he experienced hard work and very little else. In 1829 he moved to Old Town timber in McLean County, Illinois. There he went to farming, which has been his occupation ever since. He lived there about twenty years and then moved to the old Means place at Cheney's Grove, where he has resided ever since.

Mr. Vanscoyoc has been something of a traveler in the West. He first made a trip to the Red Banks in Illinois on the Mississippi River, six or seven years after he came to the country, but had no particular adventure. His next trip was to Texas in about the year 1853. He went with a party of men first to St. Louis, and from there to the little town of Napoleon at the mouth of the Arkansas River. This little place looked as if it were always in danger of being overflowed. They went by water up the Arkansas River about seven hundred miles to Fort Smith. This was then an enterprising little town of whites, Indians and half-breeds, the latter predominating. The Indians were the Cherokees, a very smart tribe. In conversation he found many Cherokees as smart as any white men he ever saw. He found a white man named Geary, who had married a squaw. She was pretty dark colored, but was dressed in silks that rattled and shone. Many of the Cherokees were farmers and seemed half like Indians and half like white men. The most of the Cherokees, wrho were in business, owned slaves. They held court and tried cases as white men do. Many of them were rich and owned large herds of cattle. Mr. Vanscoyoc went from Fort Smith to the Red River couutry, where he visited the Chickasaws on the north bank. He thought them more civilized than the Cherokees. When they first went to the Indian Territory, they had large cotton plantations, which had been cultivated by negroes. He saw there the finest field of corn he ever beheld. It covered about one hundred acres, was dark green in color and rank in growth, and the blades were long and wide. He crossed the Red River and went on to Texas, but saw nothing of much importance except some very fine wheat. On the return of his party they crossed the Arkansas River a little below Fort Gibson.

The White River empties into the Arkansas a few miles above, and its waters, which are very pure, run for a long distance before they mingle with those of the larger stream. After crossing the Arkansas River the party were obliged to send over to the White River side for pure water. Nothing else of importance occurred on the way home. In May, 1873, Mr. Vanscoyoc took a trip to Colorado. He went to Kansas city and there saw buffalo hides by acres hanging on poles, and large squares of them were piled up ten feet high. He went up the Kansas River and says the land there was the prettiest he ever beheld. The bottom lands were from a half a mile to six or seven miles wide, but very little timber grew on them. He says that Russell County was a particularly fine country. The buffaloes were plenty there and the buffalo "wallows" were plentier. The latter were places where the buffaloes rooted in the ground and wallowed as the pigs do. He went to Denver, Colorado, and to Cheyenne, and from there started home. On his return he stopped on Grand Island, Nebraska, and was most favorably impressed with the appearance of the land, as it was very level. But after all his travels, Mr. Vanscoyoc still clings to old Mc- Lean County.

Mr. Vanscoyoc is about five feet seven and one-half inches in height, has a fair development of muscle and a sanguine temperament. His hair is only partly gray, notwithstanding his adm'lean county. 893 vanced age. He can work yet if he chooses. He seems to be a decided and firm man, and must have been a man of good abilities and very accurate perceptions. He is honest, kind and pleasant, but firm and resolute.

Thomas Cunningham was born November 18, 1818, in Clark County, Indiana. (For ancestry of the family see sketch of King S. Cunningham.) The parents of Thomas Cunningham were good people and very kind to their children, but were careful to enfore strict obedience and always set a good example. They are both buried in Saybrook Cemetery.

The Cunningham family settled at Cheney's Grove in October, 1829. There Robert Cunningham entered four hundred acres of land. The old gentleman lived to see his family of fifteen children grow up to manhood and womanhood. All of them were married and settled in life; twelve of these children are yet living and six are in McLean County. Thomas Cunningham, the subject of this sketch, was the sixth child. His education was necessarily limited. He attended school in Cheney's Grove every winter after the family moved there, until he was twenty-one years of age. During his last year's schooling he went to Old Town timber. This school was conducted with as much noise as possible. The teacher walked across the floor and whistled and sang, and the scholars exercised their vocal powers in a similar way. The books used were few. Mr. Cunningham only remembers McArthur's History of the United States. Thomas only obtained the rudiments of an education.

Mr. Cunningham was never much of a hunter, and only killed one deer, and that was one which came up near his door. But he often chased wolves, and when he came near one he would jump from his horse, catch the vicious wolf by the hindquarters and thrash it on the ground, before it could curl up to bite.

Thomas Cunningham married, February 21, 1841, Miss Minerva Ann Spencer, daughter of James and Susannah Spencer, of Livingston County, Illinois. Mrs. Cunningham is an exceedingly kind lady and her pleasant manner makes the stranger feel easy in her presence. She wears spectacles now, as women

Phoebe Ann, born December 10, 1841, was married to Henry "Warrick of Livingston County, and some time after his death to Granville Michaels.

Mr. Cunningham is about five feet ten inches in height, weighs one hundred and eighty pounds and is broad shouldered. His beard is gray and his hair is turning, but is heavy, showing ing great vitality. His eyes are hazel, and he seems to be a quiet, good-natured gentleman, a man who never does things in a hurrv, but always takes time to think.

King- Solomon Cunningham was born December 26, 1823, in Clark County, Indiana. His father's name was Robert Cunningham, and his mother's name was Aphia Cleveland. His father, who was born about the year 1780, was of Irish descent, and his mother was a Yankee. Robert Cunningham was a soldier of the war of 1812, and fought under Harrison at Tippecanoe.

In 1829 the Cunningham family came to Cheney's Grove from Clark County, Indiana, where Robert Cunningham had lived for twenty years. At Cheney's Grove the family went to farming, and a few years afterwards Robert Cunningham built a water mill on Sangamon Creek. The stones for grinding were the nigger-heads from the prairie, but they did very good work. The water at that time was usually high enough to run the mill

Mr. King Solomon Cunningham is particularly eloquent concerning the sudden change in the weather, which took place in December, 1836, and says that as the cold wind rolled on, it froze the air so rapidly that the frost seemed a moving cloud of smoke. He speaks of the two rainy seasons, when the water in the creeks and rivers rose to enormous heights. In 1844 the Mackinaw was higher than it had ever been known before or since. The Sangamon Creek was too high for Cunningham's mill to run. The year 1858 was another rainy season, and Sangamon Creek was higher than in 1844.

King Solomon Cunningham married February 29, 1849, Cyrena J. Thompson, who lived on the Mackinaw, five miles from Lexington. Her father, John B. Thompson, was one of the oldest settlers of McLean County. They have had six children, three of whom are living. They are :

King Solomon Cunningham is five feet ten inches in height, is rather slim in build, is bald-headed, has a bright, clear eye and straight features. He is very kind in his manner, has been obliged to work hard, but has been successful in life, and is a settler who does credit to McLean County.

James Rumsey Means was born March 22, 1825, in Louis County, Kentucky. His father's name was Robert Means, and his mother's maiden name was Sarah Rumsey. His father and mother were both born in Virginia, and were both of English descent. The former was born in 1785 and the latter in 1795. Robert Means was a soldier in the war of 1812, and after his death his family obtained a forty-acre land warrant on his ac- count. In the fall of 1829 the Means family moved to the head waters of the Little Vermilion River in Illinois. In the following spring they came to Cheney's Grove, where they arrived March 9, 1830, and located on the north side within one mile of the west end. They went to farming, and during the first spring broke forty acres and fenced it, and put up a log-cabin.

During the winter of the deep snow the family pounded their corn with a wedge. This was attached to the lower end of a pole, which reached to the roof of the cabin and was fastened to a spring and was easily managed. The children pounded the corn and were kept at it for hours at a time.

In the spring of 1832 Robert Means went to the Black Hawk war, but stayed only a few days. While he was gone Mrs. Means made the children plant corn between the hills of the preceding year without ploughing. Mr. Means came back before planting time was over, and put in his entire corn crop in the same way and afterwards ploughed between the rows. He raised an excellent crop.

Robert Means died August 1, 1835, and James Means, then ten years of age, was the oldest bo}*, who could work, in a family of ten children. One feeble brother, two years older, died shortly afterwards. The following are the children of Robert Means' family :

James Means became the man of the family after his father's death, and they worked the whole of the farm without assistance. Mr. Means, sr., had been a skillful hand to stack wheat, and James learned to do it when only fourteen years of age. The Means family made all their own clothing, both linen and woolen, and raised everything they wore.

James Means was raised a moral young man and remembers with what horror he once saw one of his companions steal three nails. He was taught not to swear or use bad language ; but on one occasion he broke away from his early training. He was bitten by a hound belonging to David Ball, and the latter beat the hound and swore at it, and James got the idea that it was the swearing which effectually controlled the dog. Some time afterwards, while going to the house of Mr. Ball, the hounds again came out, and James thought they meant to kill him, and concluded that it was better to swear than to die ; so he cursed them with all his might, in every shape and form. Two girls, who belonged to the family, were not far distant and they heard the fracas and called off the hounds.

Mr. Means was an expert swimmer and remembers one little incident, which shows what men will do in case of necessity. John M. Stansberry, who had never learned to swim, was carried by the current of Sangamon Creek down into a deep hole. He hallooed as he went under, and James Means went to his assistance ; but Stansberry rose and swam out without help, though Means followed behind ready to assist him if necessary.

James Means was obliged to do a man's work and attend to a man's business while he was still quite young. He once went to Eugene, near the Wabash, to mill, lost a horse, and was obliged to travel a hundred miles to recover it.

Mr. Means has had his experience in going to market to Chicago. He went at one time with three yoke of oxen to his wagon, and those, who accompanied him with horse teams, were careful not to get far ahead, as they might need his oxen to pull them out of the sloughs. But on their return the unloaded horse teams went more rapidly, and as they carried the provisions; Mr. Means was left for twenty-five hours with nothing

Mr. Means tells a good story of Ephraim Myers. He says that on one Sunday Abraham Stansberry's house caught fire, and the alarm was given at the church. All who had teams brought them out, and the wagons were immediately filled with persons who wished to assist in putting out the fire. Among those who jumped into James Means' wagon were Ephraim Myers and a Methodist preacher. Means drove so fast over the stumps that the preacher was frightened and jumped out at the first opportunity; but Myers was cool, and gave directions quietly, saying: " Go steady, Jimmy," "Put them through, Jimmy," and when they came to a smooth road, Myers remarked that he would tell the preacher that he did not love his Jesus.

Mr. Means has done some hunting and enjoyed the excitement of the chase, though it has sometimes been attended with danger. He once killed a horse while chasing a wolf. The horse stepped into a badger's hole and fell and broke its neck. The last wolf chase in which Mr. Means took part was very exciting. The wolf was a half-breed between the gray and the prairie varieties. Mr. Means broke down two horses in chasing it, but came up to it on the third horse and ran it into a den. But the den was drifted partly full of snow, and the wolf was pulled out by the tail and killed.

Mr. Means is a man of steady nerve and sees clearly when matters appear exciting. The following incident shows his steady nerve, and also the remarkable coolness of one of his daughters. Once, while coming home from church, Mr. Means and two of his children were riding one horse, and one of his daughters was riding another. The latter horse became frightened and ran for home, and Mr. Means feared that when it would come to the bars it would stop suddenly and throw his daughter off and perhaps kill her. He dropped the two children who were with him, and rode up near his daughter's frightened horse, but could not catch it or reach the child. The girl, under his directions, slipped down on the side of the saddle, holding to the pommel, and when her father gave the word, loosened her hold and dropped to the ground with very little injury.

Mr. Means is five feet and ten inches in height, weighs over two hundred pounds, is strong and heavy set, and has done a great deal of hard work. He has brown hair, sandy whiskers and brown eyes. He is a strictly honest man, has the best of judgment, seems to be prosperous, and is a first-class business man. He thinks a great deal of children, and remembers clearly the incidents of his own childhood. During the Black Hawk war his father once went up to the Mackinaw to learn the condition of affairs, and Mrs. Means took her children to Robert Cunningham's mill for protection. There the little Means children began building a small fort, but soon gave up their childish arrangement, and Mrs. Means went back to her home.

Ephraim S. Myers was born December 9, 1801, in Louis County, Kentucky. His father's name was Jacob Myers, and his mother's maiden name was Nancy Means. Jacob Myers was of German descent and Nancy Means was of Dutch and Irish stock. He lived in Kentucky, where he was born, for twenty-five years and then came to Illinois. In the fall of 1826 he came to the Little Vermilion River, to that part of Edgar County which now forms the county of Vermilion. Pie and his cousin, James Dixon, came out together with a horse, which they took turns in riding. Mr. Myers frst chopped wood for ten dollars per month for the Salt Works at Danville, and afterwards went to breaking prairie and farming on the Little Vermilion River. He married, December 21, 1828, Eliza Childers, and in April, 1830, he came to Cheney's Grove.

when the deep snow fell no wagon was to be seen ; it was completely covered. A day or two before the heavy fall of snow Mr. Myers came from mill with enough corn meal to last his family through the winter, but he divided with his neighbbors, and before long was obliged to pound corn as the rest did. He killed deer when the snow first fell, but they soon became poor and not worth killing. A day or two after the heavy fall of snow he went out hunting and followed a deer for some distance, when it went to a place where a dozen or more deer had tramped a space around them about twenty feet across with the snow drifted on all sides in high walls. For once in his life he became excited and fired three or four times while they were charging around and jumping about, but missed them. At last they broke from their pen and he shot two of them when they had run a short distance away. During that terrible winter the deer came up, after night-fall, and ate hay with his cattle.

Mr. Myers commenced hunting on the Vermilion River, when he first came to Illinois, and was very successful. He has had many adventures after game, and knows the country around for many miles. He has killed a deer or a wolf in every hollow and by every creek or spring. The largest deer he killed was up on the Mackinaw, and it was indeed a most enormous buck. It weighed two hundred and forty pounds dressed, and the skin weighed twenty-one pounds without the ears or lower part of the legs, and twelve pounds after it was dried. After Mr. Myers had killed his game, it sometimes required ingenuity to bring it home. At one time, when he killed two deer, he put one on his horse's back and tied the other to its tail and made it bring them both in. Mr. Myers and Thomas Cheney were once down to a grove near Gibson, about nine miles east of Cheney's Grove. They had with them a dog called Drummer. They started a deer and Drummer drove it away, and Cheney said that when the dog came back he would kill it. It soon returned and Cheney shot it. Mr. Myers said immediately that the grove should be called Drummer's Grove, and it has borne that name ever since.

Mr. Myers has often hunted wolves. He used to set pens for them, and once caught two wolves at one time. He has often chased wolves with horses and dogs. He says that the wolves run a great deal faster than they formerly did, and that in early days any little cur could catch one. When the settlers chased them on horseback, it was very seldom that the wolves escaped ; but now it is next to impossible to catch a wolf with dogs or horses. Mr. Myers formerly kept seven hounds to hunt wolves and gave them plenty of business. But, notwithstanding all of the precautions of the settlers and all of their hunting with dogs and horses, the wolves continued thick and every day some farmer's pigs or sheep would suffer. But in the year 1850 the people all turned out for a grand hunt, and went after the wolves in their dens, before the little wolf puppies were large enough to come out, and killed thirty in two days, and after that they were never so troublesome.

Mr. Myers thinks that in all of his experience with wild animals the badger is the* worst to kill and hardest to tight. A badger is a bluish colored animal with whitish stripes. It is shaped much like a woodchuck, and is about the size of a raccoon. Its teeth and nails are very long and sharp, the latter measuring nearly an inch. The animal is exceedingly strong, and really loves to fight. Mr. Myers says that while his dogs were once barking at a badger's hole it came out for fight, and it required five dogs to whip it. A badger will usually run when a strong force of dogs is after it, and when an attempt is made to dig it out of its hole it will sometimes dig down nearly as fast as it is dug after, and the dirt Hies in all directions. Mr. Myers once dug out a hole in which he found two young badgers and a bull snake. This was in the spring of the year. He thinks they must have passed the winter together.

During the Black Hawk war Mr. Myers took his wife down to the Little Vermilion River for safety and came back and lived for nearly two months alone. The people were badly frightened, but not badly enough to keep Abraham Stansberry and Mary Cheney from getting married. The farther away the people lived, the more they became frightened at the danger, which they could not understand, or about which they could not obtain reliable information. Some soldiers who came up from Paris, in Edgar County, about seventy-five miles south of Cheney's Grove, said that the people there were too much frightened to raise a wedding.

The old settlers tell very few snake stories, but Mr. Myers tells one which may be relied upon. In 1871, in harvest time, his sons killed thirty-two rattlesnakes in a meadow within one

Mr. Myers' first wife died, and he married Mrs. Louisa Ann Stansberry, a widow, August, 14, 1848. The following are the children and members of Mr. Myers' family :

Jacob Myers was born January 12, 1832. He enlisted during the rebellion in the 116th Illinois Volunteers, and died of sickness on his way home from Yicksburg in May, 1863.

Thomas Myers was born January 11, 1834. He was a soldier in the army under Colonel McCullough. He was at the battle of Shiloh. He afterwards became sick and was sent back to Quincy, Illinois. He lives about five miles east of his father's.

' John Myers was born April 1,1836. He was a soldier in the 116th Illinois Volunteers. He was at Vicksburg and Arkansas Post, but was sick during a part of his term of service. He lives at his father's home.

Fielden Myers was born April 25, 1840. He volunteered to o-o into the army, but was taken sick and never mustered in. He lives at home with his father.

Andrew H. Stansberry, a son of Mrs. Louisa Ann Myers by her first marriage, was born February 15, 1842, was a soldier in the 70th Illinors Volunteers, under Colonel Reeves. He lives iu Howard County Kansas.

Daniel Ham, a boy who lived with Mr. Myers, and was for a while a member of his family, enlisted in the 4th Illinois Cavalry. Mr. Myers wishes the boy's name put in this record to show how many went from his house into the army.

Ephraim S. Myers is about five feet and eleven inches in height and appears rugged and tough. He has a sanguine complexion, blue eyes and perfectly white hair and whiskers. lie is a man of very independent character and great courage. He takes his own course, and, if people do not like it, they can go their own way. His favorite expression is that he can " hoe his own row," and lie has done so very successfully, although it seemed a rough one sometimes. He does not ask unnecessaryfavors. He has a great deal of humor about him sometimes, and loves a good joke as well as any old settler.

William Riggs was born [September 7, 1808, in Washington County, Maryland. His father's name was Samuel Kiggs, and his mother's maiden name was Priseiila Marshall. Both were of English descent. Samuel Riggs was a plain farmer and a worthy man. When William was only one year old the Riggs family came to Bourbon County, Kentucky, where they remained about three years and then went to Bluebank Creek, Fleming County, same State. There he bought land and was obliged to sacrifice his stock to do so, but after live years he had the misfortune to lose his land, as he was obliged to pay a security debt.

In 1824 William Riggs made a trip to South Carolina with a drove of hogs, which he sold there. He was delayed there for some time, as the weather continued warm in December, and he could not sell his pork until the season grew cooler. While he was delayed he saw something of slavery, and it was far from pleasant. The cotton planters there had usually from one to three hundred negroes on a farm. The planter with whom they stayed, Mr. Hyder Davy, had on his plantation a square of ten acres, in the center of which was his house, a little higher than the remainder. Around this square and facing inwards were the negro quarters. One evening Mr. Davy told Mr. Riggs and the drovers, that he would show them a sight, and he blew a little bone whistle, giving various signals, and immediately about one hundred little colored children, between the ages of three and six years, as naked as the day they were born, came out of their quarters into the square and began dancing and capering about. After they had danced and capered for half an hour, Mr. Davy gave another signal, and they ran for their quarters as fast as squirrels. The field-hands were treated by the overseers in the most brutal manner. The former were allowed one peck of meal to eat per week and absolutely nothing else. Every Saturday night the field-hands were obliged to deliver up their shoes, which were locked up carefully until Monday morning. At that time the negroes came and received their shoes and their weekly ration of meal and were set at work. The shoes were taken from them on Saturday to prevent them from running about, for, as the country was flinty, they would cut their feet if they walked without shoes. The field-hands were required to pick a certain quantity of cotton per day, and in the evening their pickings were separately weighed, and whoever failed to produce the required amount was whipped. A woman was whipped by being thrown on her face and having the lashes applied to her bare back. When a man was whipped he was made to grasp a post and put his wrists through an iron ring, which was made to spring down on them and hold them fast. His shirt was then drawn over his head and the lashes were applied to his bare back. While the hands were in the field, the overseer was always on horseback with his cat-o'-nine-tails, and some one was whipped every day. The cotton-field was picked over three times. At the first two pickings the pods would split open and the cotton hang out and be easily picked, but the third time the pods would split only partially open and the cotton was then difficult to gather. The negroes would often come in from the field with their thumbs and fingers bleeding and torn by the cotton-pods. The nursing infants belonging to the women, who worked in the field, were placed in charge of a negress too old to work. At nine o'clock every day she placed these infants in a mule cart in which was a bed of straw and blankets, and took them to their mothers in the field to be nursed. This was repeated at twelve o'clock and again at three o'clock in the afternoon. The hands never left the field until they stopped work at night. Such was slavery.

When Mr. Riggs sold his pork he came back to Kentucky onfoot. He walked in fair weather one hundred miles in three days, but he was somewhat delayed by high water and required fifteen days for his journey.

Mr. Riggs married, December 28, 1826, Nancy Pitts, and rented a small place for four years. In the fall of 1830 he moved to Illinois with his brother-in-law, Henry Pitts. In December of that year the heavy snow began falling. On the day that the heavy snow fell, Henry Pitts was driving a lot of pigs to Eugene, Indiana, on the Wabash, and was caught in the storm. Mr. Riggs went with a horse to assist him, and they took their pigs through. On their return they walked with their horse through the snow, which was up to their thighs. First one would lead the horse and break the way, while the other would whip the animal from behind. A crust was beginning to form on the snow and traveling was exceedingly hard. On the last day of their journey, they came from Newcom's Ford to Cheney's Grove, a distance of fifteen miles, and took turns in leading the horse. They shaped their course by the wind, which blew over the prairie very cold. When they came near Cheney's Grove they found that they had missed the course by two miles, and they changed their direction and tried again. After going about two miles Pitts stopped and wanted to rest and said he would feel better if he could sleep. Mr. Riggs then whipped him with the hickory gad until he was ready to fight, and at last they started ahead with the horse and arrived safe. Mr. Riggs thinks that if Pitts had been left to sleep he would have frozen to death in twenty minutes. Mr. Riggs' feet were badly frozen and the toe-nails and thick skin on the heels came off. The toes and heels were frozen so stiff that they thumped on the floor like potatoes. Mr. Pitts was frozen in the same way. One of Mr. Riggs' ears was also frozen. He was unable to do much work for some time, but could pound meal, as all were obliged to do during that desperate winter. He made for himself a pair of moccasins of deer hides, and turned the hair inward and by bundling up his feet he could get out and feed his stock. On the tenth of the following March he went to Blooming Grove on horseback, and on his return carried a spinning-wheel and led his horse, which carried two and a half bushels of meal ; but the animal was obliged to carry Mr. Riggs and the meal, spinning-wheel and all across the Kickapoo. The slush from the melting of the deep snow was then from ankle deep to three feet.

During the winter of the deep snow some of the settlers gathered the deer together in parks and fed them. Mr. Jonathan Cheney collected about fifteen deer in a park and kept them six or seven years, when a high wind blew down a part of the fence and they escaped.

During the spring of 1832, while the Black Hawk war was carried on, the women collected at the house of the widow Ball while the men stood guard.

In the fall of 1837 the Riggs family made a visit to Kentucky, traveling on horseback. They traveled four hundred miles there and four hundred miles to return. Mrs. Riggs carried her one-year old child in her arms during the whole journey. She was a fine horse-woman, having been raised on the Kentucky hills where it required ingenuity to manage an animal and stick to it. They traveled on an average thirty-five miles per day.

Mr. and Mrs. Riggs have raised six children, four sons and two daughters, and have seen them all grow up and become settled in life. They have all been converted and made members of the Methodist Church. They are :

Henry M. Riggs was born September 6, 1829. He was a soldier in the Thirty-seventh Illinois Volunteers, and on becoming a veteran was made a captain in the United States Colored Infantry. He was at Pea Ridge, the siege of Vicksburg, and in many other battles. He lives in Bloomington.

"William H. Riggs was born February 13, 1834. He has had a wide-awake life, has been to California and seen something of the world. He is now president of the Saybrook Bank, owned by Riggs and Brother.

Samuel R. Riggs was born February 13, 1838, was a soldier in the One Hundred and Sixteenth Illinois Infantry, was at Vicksburg and Atlanta, and in many other engagements. He was severely wounded at the siege of Atlanta while relieving a picket guard. He was then commanding a company. He is now cashier of the Saybrook Bank owned b};- Riggs and Brother.

Mr. William Riggs is five feet and eleven inches in height, has gray hair and beard, has a Roman nose and bright, expressive, humorous eyes. He is a man of large mind and sound judgment, and is very conscientious. He is a man of clear ideas and talks clearly and to the point with very little effort. He is as modest as he is worthy. He seems to be in good health and circumstances, and enjoys a happy old age. Mrs. Riggs still lives, happy and contented, and it will not be long before she and her husband can celebrate their golden wedding.

Snowden Ball was born August 4, 1814, in Louis County, Kentucky. His father's name was Richard C. Ball, and his mother's maiden name was Catherine Cleary. Snowden Ball lived in Louis County, Kentucky, where he was raised, for seventeen years. There he went to school and received his limited education. When he was seventeen years of age he came to Cheney's Grove and went to farming, as all the early settlers did. He was married October 29, 1835, to Miss America Pentegrass Means, daughter of Robert and Sarah Means, of Cheney's Grove. Their domestic life was remarkably happy. His constitution was never very rugged, but he usually enjoyed good health, with the exception of a sickness occasioned by an accident, which happened to his knee. He died of consumption March 1, 1873. He left a family of eight children, all of whom are living. They are :

Snowden Ball was about five feet and eleven inches in height and slenderly built. His hair and whiskers at the time of his death were nearly gray. His eyes were dark brown. He was a very resolute man, but cautious in his dealings and temperate in his habits. He thought much of his family, and worked hard for them.

Hilleary Ball was born March 8,1817, in Louis County, Kentucky. His father's name was Richard C. Ball, and his mother's maiden name was Catherine Cleary. He does not know the descent of his parents, but the name would indicate an English ancestry. The father of Hilleary Ball died when the latter was only eight months old. Hilleary Ball lived in Louis County, Kentucky, where he was born, for thirteen or fourteen years. There he went to school and received some little education to prepare him for the work of life. In the fall of 1831, he came with his uncle Joseph Cleary Ball to Cheney's Grove, where he arrived November 10. The journey was very pleasant, requiring one month, which, however, included some delay in visiting friends on the way. Previous to their arrival Henry Ball had made arrangements for building a cabin, but when they came they found the work scarcely commenced. But all parties immediately began work, and the log cabin went up speedily. The puncheon floor was made of green wood, which froze every night, and the old carpet or quilt which was laid on it, was frozen fast. The family went to farming on their arrival, and experienced the usual vicissitudes of a pioneer life. Hilleary Ball went to school for a while at Cheney's Grove, and remembers one curious incident of his school days. The settlers at

Cheney's Grove turned out to hunt two wolves, one a black wolf and the other a gray. After being chased all over the timber, the black wolf was caught and killed near the school house. Hilleary Ball saw it coming with the hunters in full chase, and spoke out quickly, and came near getting punished for his excitement. But the school was in such an uproar that the master let out the scholars, and they saw the wolf killed and the hide raffled oft' among the hunters.

Mr. Ball never became much of a sportsman, though he often chased wolves and killed them with a stirrup. He some- ' times poisoned them with strichnine, and sometimes, when one of his domestic animals happened to die he would set it out as a bait for wolves and shoot them when they came near. Mr. Ball has had the usual contests with the fires which came sweeping over the prairie, and at one time had his farm burned up, with the exception of the house and barn.

Mr. Ball married in November, 1838, Calista Hildreth, who was born in New York and came to McLean County at an early day. He has had six children, three boys and three girls, five of whom are living. They are :

Mr. Ball is about five feet and ten inches in height, and is what would be called a good-looking man. His hair and whiskers are beginning to turn a little gray. He has a well shaped head and eyes that are expressive of fun and good humor. He is sometimes a little eccentric in his manner, but is a man of good feeling. He takes care of his property, and is thrifty and prosperous. When he was asked to give some information of his early life he was out attending to his property, but he sat down

William Kendrick Stansberry was born August 29, 1820, in Washington County, East Tennessee. His father's name was Edward Stansberry and his mother's was Polly Ann Graham. Edward Stansberry and his wife were both almost entirely of English descent. Mr. W. K. Stansberry once saw his great grandmother Graham, who lived to reach the advanced age of one hundred and ten years. Edward Stansberry was born near the close of the eighteenth century. He had eleven brothers and four sisters, enough to keep him company in his youth. He moved to Tennessee and there was married, and in Washington County his son William K. was born. In 1833 Edward Stansberry moved with his family to Cheney's Grove, where he remained until the time of his death, which occurred in 1861. The Stansberry family was the fifth to come to the grove.

The journey to Cheney's Grove was long and tedious, requiring six weeks to accomplish it. They were one week on the Cumberland Mountains, and while there, lived on corn-bread and pumpkins. They arrived at Cheney's Grove on the last day of October, and when they came, the neighbors all turned out and helped them build a cabin, which they succeeded in finishing within three days. It was made of logs, of course, with a puncheon floor. They made their bedsteads by inserting poles in auger holes bored in the wall. The bedstead had only one leg out in the room. They made a table by splitting two broad puncheons and putting legs to them. They had stools made of little puncheons, and during the following year they indulged in the luxury of a loft made of Linn bark.

During the fall after they came to Cheney's Grove, Edward Stansberry went with a party of men after wild hogs, and they killed twenty-five or thirty, and Mr. Stansberry 's share of the pork amounted to five or six hundred pounds. They went to Perrysville, Indiana, for their grinding. In 1834 the family suffered severely ; they all had the ague except Kendrick, and

When William Kendrick Stansberry became sixteen years of age, he was a great hunter, and from that time until the age of twenty-five he scarcely ever killed less than fifty deer per annum, and great numbers of turkeys. He killed one turkey which weighed twent}^-five pounds dressed. He once shot a doe and knocked both eyes out, but when he took hold of her she nearly kicked the clothes off of him. On the day that Polk was elected president he went to see the voting, and on the way killed two bucks at one shot. At one time he shot a buck sixty or seventy yards distant through the heart, and it ran towards him and fell about ten feet awa}?-. He also hunted wolves and caught a great many in traps, on horseback and by running them down.

Mr. Stansberry occasionally did a little trapping. In February, 1842, he caught in the Sangamon River, in a steel-trap, the largest otter he ever heard of. He discovered its track in the snow on the ice and found its habitation. It had cut a hole in the ice between the forks of a tree in the water. Mr. Stansberry watched the hole and tried to shoot the otter, but it was too sharp for him. He at last went to Farmer City and bought a steel-trap, which he set by its hole and caught the animal by the fore-legs, and its tail was frozen fast in the ice. It measured nine feet from the tip of its tail to its nose. The skin was sold for ten dollars.

Mr. Stansberry has some lively recollections of Ephraim Myers, one of the greatest hunters in the West. Mr. Myers is a humorous man and has a great many queer traits of character. At one time Ephraim Myers, Edward Stansberry and Fielding Lloyd were taking up a bee tree and the little Stansberry boys were looking on and eating honey. Old Ephraim thought the little chaps should have something to do, so he pretended to be afflicted with the colic and made them rub him down. If they stopped rubbing for a moment he would groan and make them work ae;ain.

W. K. Stansberry has many recollections of old times and the fashions of early days. He particularly remembers the Methodist preacher, who could be recognised as far as seen, by his horse and saddle-bags. The preacher's salary was a hundred dollars a year. The one, who had Cheney's Grove in his circuit, traveled from Big Grove (Champaign) to Middletown, (now called Mahomet,) then to Cheney's Grove, then to Indian Grove (near Fairbury), then to Mackinaw timber (where Lexington now is), then to Blooming Grove, Randolph's Grove and Hurley's Grove (where Farmer City now is), in succession, and finally back to Big Grove the starting point. It required four weeks to make the round trip. He wore a white cravat and a plain, round-breasted, jeans coat. But afterwards the fashion changed, and he wore his coat straight-breasted. No person was allowed in the meeting-house, who wore ornaments of any kind. Mr. Stansberry was once careless enough to wear a shirt which had the pleats on the bosom running crosswise instead of up and down, and he was not allowed to enter the meeting-house or attend divine service at all. The meeting at Old Town timber was held in an old barn, which is standing yet. In early days people yoked up their oxen to go to church, and the smart young men took their sweethearts on horseback behind them. Mr. Stansberry sometimes went as far as Farmer City, a distance of eighteen miles, to take his lady to church. After church he would go back, stay all the night with the family and return home the next day. He has frequently seen half a dozen young men riding to church with their sweethearts on behind them and has often seen a lady riding on horseback to church and her husband walking before.

Mr. Stansberry has had the experience peculiar to the early settlers; he has driven pigs to Chicago and sold them for $1.25 per hundred weight, has chopped wood for twenty-five cents per day, has harvested for fifty cents and hauled wheat to Chicago for thirty cents per bushel.

Mr. Stansberry's hunting days came to an end at the age of twenty-five, when he was married. This important event occurred January 8, 1846. His bride was Miss Sarah Jane Yazel. He has had five children, all of whom are living. They are:

After Mr. W. K. Stansberry was married he stopped his hunting, except occasionally for bee-trees. Year before last he found thirty bee-trees from which he took three hundred pounds of honey. Last year he found twenty-one bee-trees. He has in the house honey which is three years old. He is about five feet and six inches in height, is heavy set, and weighs one hundred and eighty pounds. He is a good-natured man and would seem to be on good terms with all of his neighbors. He has dark eyes and heavy black hair, which has hardly }^et begun to show the effects of time. He is somewhat stout in appearance, has a clear and rather heavy voice and a heavy, black moustache, and would be called a good-looking man if he would dress himself up. He is now the postmaster at Saybrook. He has been a very temperate man and has never drank whisky. He says that if he had his life to live over he would be a preacher !

Otha Owen was born October 5, 1823, in Mechanicsburg, Champaign County, Ohio. His father's name was Uriah Owen, and his mother's maiden name was Kesiah Jaco. His father was partly of Welch descent and was born in Virginia. He was a soldier in the war of 1812. He died in 1832 or '33, and his wife followed him two years afterwards.

Otha Owen lived in Champaign County until he was ten years of age, when he was sent to Green County to live with his uncle Elias Owen. He came with his uncle Elias to Cheney's Grove, where he arrived September 6, 1834. The journey was pleasant and uneventful. They immediate!}7 went to farming. Otha Owen was obliged to work hard, but found some time for school, though not as much as he would have liked. He was often sent with the grist to mill in his younger days, and sometimes made the grand journey to Chicago, camping out at night. He speaks very warmly of the manners and customs of early days, when everybody was acquainted with everybody, and people made it their duty to visit the sick and see that they all received attention.

During the greater part of the years 1844 and '45, Mr. Owen lived in Sangamon County, where he worked for eight and onethird dollars per month.

Otha Owen married, November 20, 1845, in Sangamon County, Susannah Cline, and came immediately to Cheney's Grove. It was then bitterly cold weather, and their journey was a hard one. Mr. Owen says it was the coldest weather he ever experienced, and has since often wondered why he did not freeze to death. The chickens fell from their roosts and died of cold. It did not thaw for nearly three weeks. During that winter Mr. Owen bought his meat for five dollars per hundred; but during the following year he had pork for sale and received for it only one dollar or a dollar and a quarter per hundred. The pigs, which the farmers raised, were little long-nosed fellows that could put their snouts through a fence and eat up a potato hill.

Mr. Owen has had his experience with fires on the prairie, and has had some fencing burned by them. He says the worst prairie fire he ever saw was on the farm of a certain Mr. Wentworth, who lived within eighteen miles of Chicago. Six teams, including Mr. Owen's, were passing at the time, and the teamsters took off their horses, put them in the barn and began fighting fire. They succeeded in saving the house and barn, but the remainder of the farm was simply a waste of cinders.

Mr. Owen never hunted much, but has chased wolves, which were the farmer's greatest pest. lie chased them on horseback and says that there was a great deal of difference in their speed, so much so that he could tell at almost the first jump whether or not he could catch the wolf he was after. If it was a fast wolf it would run slowly at first and look over its shoulder in an impudent, suspicious way, and when pressed more closely would show speed, but would never take the trouble to do more than keep out of the hunter's way. But if the wolf was a slow one it seemed to know that it must do its best and get down to its greatest speed immediately. When Mr. Owen saw a wolf of this kind he always felt sure of catching it in a short race. He says the slow wolves have all been caught off, and those which are now left can scarcely be caught at all. The breed has been improved and made a faster running breed by a process of

" natural selection." A wolf was recently started in Belleflower township and chased ten miles before being caught. Such a chase never was formerly made after a prairie wolf. Occasionally the early settlers chased the timber wolves more than ten miles, but never the prairie wolves. The early settlers would sometimes run their horses to death or break their wind, or run into an ant-hill or a badger's hole in chasing the wolves, and it was not always a safe business. Mr. Elias Owen had a severe fall by his horse running into a hole, and Mr. James R. Means killed a horse on one of these fast chases.

Otha Owen is five feet and five inches in height, has a sanguine complexion, but is somewhat slim in build. He is like the most of the old settlers, cordial and friendly, and his manner is warm and pleasant and honest. His hair is nearly gray and his whiskers likewise. He has a good, kind expression, and will be remembered as one of the best of the old settlers.

Joseph Newcom was born August 25, 1814, in Clark County, Ohio. His father, whose name was Ethan Newcom, was a Jersey Yankee, and his grandfather, whose name was also Ethan Newcom, was a Jersey Yankee and a Revolutionary soldier. Ethan Newcom, jr., the father of Joseph, married a widow, Mrs. Mary Woods, whose maiden name was Mary Marsh, and she was a Jersey Yankee, too.

Joseph Newcom says that nothing of importance occurred during the first fourteen years of his life, and thinks that children did not know' as much and were not as smart as the children are at present with all the advantages that schools can now give.

In the fall of 1828 the Newcom family came to Sangamon timber, Illinois, to what was afterwards called Newcom's Ford. There they arrived one evening tired and hungry, and the next morning: Ethan Newcom found a bee tree before breakfast. The family went on to Blooming Grove, but after staying there for two weeks, went back to Newcom's Ford, which took its name from them. During their first winter at the ford they hauled corn, from Blooming Grove, forty miles distant. Newcom's Ford was a stopping place for travelers, and the Newcom's kept a house of entertainment. Sometimes, in the fall of the year, twenty-five or thirty teams would stop there at once. The price of entertainment was eighteen and three-fourths cents per meal and fifty cents for keeping a man and horse over night, They went to Eugene, on the Big Vermilion River, near the Wabash, for their flour and groceries. But, notwithstanding some little inconveniences, the Newcoms lived well and happily. At one time Joseph Newcom went with his sister on horseback to Big Grove, fifteen miles east of the ford, to a wedding. While there the weather turned cold and everything was frozen up. On their return they found the sloughs all easy to cross, except one, which the horses refused to touch. It had frozen over and had fallen and the crust of ice on top was held up by the grass, and the horses refused to cross it. Joseph Newcom was obliged to go into the water up to the waist to break the ice while his sister followed on horseback.

People often had great difficulty in crossing at Newcom's Ford, and were frequently obliged to swim the creek with their teams. A man named Henry Pitts had a horse drowned in crossing the creek, as it did not swim well, but went to plunging when it struck the deep water.

The hogs belonging to the settlers would run wild when turned loose for any length of time, and were sometimes very dangerous. On one Sunday Ethan ISTewcom went out to hunt bees, when he saw a hog in the distance coming towards him. He thought he would let it come up to within a short distance of him and then frighten it, but when the hog approached it began to bristle up its hair and walk sideways,' and Mr. Newcom saw that he must "get out of that" very quickly. The timber was about fifty steps distant, and he broke for it on the keen run with the hog after him. He reached the timber in quick time and sprang up a tree, and the disappointed hog could do nothing but walk around and raise its bristles. Such was Ethan Newcom's attempt to frighten a wild hog !

While the Newcoms lived at Newcom's Ford the flies were very bad on the horses and cattle. For about six weeks in the year the large green-head flies prevented all travel by day.

Everybody was obliged to travel by night, and even then they were troubled with the flies at moonlight. The flies were so thick and so bad that they would kill a young horse if it were turned loose. The}T would drive it nearly crazy and suck its blood ; but now they are comparatively rare even in the worst part of fly time. The long prairie grass on which they used to breed has been eaten off and has become almost a rarity. Joseph ISTewcom says he has many times been obliged to travel by night, and would bend forward and sleep with his arms around his horse's neck.

During the winter of the deep snow Joseph ISTewcom was sent to Cheney's Grove to school. lie boarded at the house of Benjamin Thomas, and went to school to Mary Cheney. He rode to school on a blind horse with two of Mr. Thomas' little ffirls, one on behind and one on before. He was obliged to break the road a great many times, but always succeeded in keeping it clear. On the last day of February, when the snow was about to melt, he walked home to IsTewcom's Ford on the crust. Had he delayed another day he could not have gone home for a month, as the melting of the deep snow kept everything swimming. A year or two afterwards Mr. Newcom went to school at Blooming Grove, to old Billy Hodge.

The Newcoms were great bee hunters and found many trees. The bees were very different in their dispositions. Some would allow their honey to be taken very easily, and would make no trouble ; some would fight, but would be cowed by smoke, and some would fight and pay no attention to smoke. At one time Ethan ISTewcom and Joseph each found a bee tree, and as they were in the vicinity of other bee hunters, decided to cut the trees immediately, although the day was a warm one in September. They cut Ethan ISTewcom's tree first, and when it fell the hollow burst open and the bees fought desperately all the time the honey was being taken out. Joseph Newcom was stung again and again. He was in his shirt sleeves, and wore shoes without stockings. As the day was warm the perspiration made the sleeves of his shirt cling to his arms, and the bees stung through it again and again. They lit on his legs and crawled up his trowsers and lit on his face and nearly stung him crazy. At one time he ran off, whipping bees with his hat, and acci- dentally threw it in some high grass, but kept on running and whipping at the bees. "When he became free from them he hunted for his hat, but never found it, and was obliged to go bareheaded for two weeks. They took twelve gallons of honey from the bees and a great deal more was wasted, as the gum had split open in falling. The next tree they cut yielded about eight gallons of honey, and the bees fought harder than the first swarm. Joseph was obliged to cut it and take out the honey alone, as the flies were very bad, and his father had to attend to the oxen. He was sore for several weeks after this bee hunt. Honey was the most abundant article raised. Mr. Newcom once took a thousand pounds of honey and sixty pounds of beeswax to Chicago in one load. He received six cents per pound for the honey and twenty-five cents per pound for the beeswax.

In October, 1835, the ISTewcoms came to Cheney's Grove, to the north side, and settled where John Nevvcom now lives, and went to farming. They bought their place of Henry Pitts.

Mr. Newcom was a great hunter after wolves and coons. During one fall he and his father killed twenty-five wolves and twenty-eight coons. Ethan Newcom killed the wolves, and Joseph and his dog, Ring, killed the coons. During the spring of the year, when Harrison was elected President, a snow came two feet deep and stayed on for eight days, and during that time everybody hunted for wolves. Every grove in the country was alive with hunters, but Cheney's Grove beat them all, for the hunters there killed sixty-eight wolves.

The Kewcoms were in the habit of making maple sugar, as that was the only sugar used. During one spring they made two thousand pounds of sugar and a barrel of syrup. They made eleven hundred pounds in seven days and nights with eight kettles, and could have made a third more if all the sap had been saved. The Cheneys made about fifteen hundred pounds. The sugar sold for ten cents per pound.

Isaac Luther and Owen are dead. The latter died in infancy. All who are living reside at home, except Nancy Jane, who is married to Richard Ball, and lives in Howard County, Kansas.

Joseph Newcom is five feet and eleven inches in height, is rather slender in form and has bright, humorous eyes. He believes in getting up early in the morning and going to work. He is honest himself, and will not deal with any one who is not also honest and truthful. At one time a person who was known to be a good workman and an industrious man, and had formerly worked for Mr. Newcom, wished to come back again. But although no fault could be found with the young man's work, he was not permitted to come back, as Mr. Newcom would not allow anyone around his premises who could not be relied upon to tell the truth.

Isaac Stansberry was born July 13, 1805, in Greene County, East Tennessee, within twelve miles of Greenville. His father's name was Ezekiel Stansberry, and his mother's name before her marriage was Esther Neil. His ancestors were of German and Welch descent. Ezekiel Stansberry died when Isaac was about nine years of age. Isaac Stansberry remembers very clearly the war of 1812, as several of his elder brothers served in it and were at the battle of Horse Shoe, under Jackson. Before this the family had moved to Washington County, and there Isaac lived until September 29, 1825, when he married Ruth Lacy. He then moved to Greene County, where he went to farming. In about the year 1832 Isaac Stansberry went on a ilat-boat with a load of produce down the Noulachuckee River into the Holston River and thence into the Tennessee and down over the Muscle Shoals at Florence. They sold out their load at Tuscumbia and returned home. He made several such trips and saw something of slavery there. At one time he saw forty mule teams abreast ploughing cotton. The teams were driven by negroes who were followed up by an overseer with a whip, which had a lash six feet in length. The whip was made for business, too, and not for ornament. The overseers sometimes' combined generosity with brutality. An overseer once brought some negroes on board of a steamboat and gave them each a drink of whisky. Then, at a nod of his head, they ran oft' to work ; but one of them was a little slow about starting and the overseer shoved him overboard into the water.

In 1836 Mr. Stansberry came to Cheney's Grove, McLean County, Illinois. He came with a party of about thirty-six persons. They had a pleasant journey, though rather a long one. Mr. Stansberry immediately went to farming on his brother Abraham's place. He found the times very hard and would have gone back to Tennessee immediately, but could not get away. He arrived late Saturday night, and on Sunday morning went to mill bright and early. The people at Cheney's Grove were very sociable and welcomed all new comers. Mrs. Stansberry says they were all "big bugs" together.

During the winter after his arrival Mr. Stansberry went to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with Thomas Cheney. They took with them a drove of pigs. They had no very dangerous adventure, except that once while camping out they became very cold and were afraid of freezing to death, and went six miles farther on to a house where they found shelter and a warm fire. On their return they had difficulty in crossing some of the streams, which were about to break up in the spring. The water along the shores of the Mazon was rising above the ice. They threw pieces of wood on the ice along the shore in order to make a bridge for the wagons to cross. At that early day Milwaukee was not half as large as Saybrook. The buildings were rough, "ornery" looking things and gave little promise of the present city.

Ezekiel F. Stansberry was born May 22, 1830. He lives about three-quarters of a mile from the south side of Cheney's Grove with his aunt McMackin.

Isaac N. Stansberry was born December 2, 1839, enlisted in the One Hundred and Sixteenth Illinois Volunteers during the late war, and died of sickness at Milliken's Bend near Vicksburg.

Isaac Stansberry is about five feet and ten inches in height, has gray hair and dark eyes, is a kind-hearted, pleasant man and a gentleman. He seems to have succeeded pretty well in life, and lives about a mile and a half southwest of Cheney's Grove.