Elsah Township

First Settlers

Josiah Cummings, John Carroll and William Bates were the first set¬ tlers of Elsah Township. John Carroll located on section 15, township 6, range 11, and his brother, Edward Carroll, who came to the country in

1820, was the first white man to die in this precinct, he passing away in 1823. Josiah Cummings and John Carroll made their settlements in 1818. Thomas Carroll, another member of the Carroll family was a tanner by calling, and for three years served Jersey County as one of the three county commissioners. His death occurred in 1870.

Josiah Cummings was born in Connecticut, and took pride in the fact that he had been present at the battle of Bennington, Vt., when the historic Green Mountain boys whipped the seasoned British soldiers. His son, Thomas Cummings, was married to a sister of Thomas Carroll.

William Bates was born in North Carolina, and when he arrived in Illinois, he stopped first in Madison County, later coming to Jersey County, and locating at the mouth of the Piasa. His daughter, Hannah Bates became the wife of Josiah T. Askew, a man of considerable prom¬ inence in the settlement. With William Bates came his son, James Bates, a married man with a family. James Thompson was an early settler in this part of the country. James Basey was the first justice of the peace, and he was elected to this office in 1822.

Baling The Threshed Straw

was from Tennessee. He had served for five years in the regular army, and was a person of fine military bearing. For a number of years he was colonel of the militia. At the annual musters, Colonel Askew's spare but erect stature, was one of the features of the occasions, he being well mounted on his favorite horse, and he never failed to make due impres¬ sion on the bystanders. He was a man of considerable learning and ability, and was prominently connected with the early Baptist Societies, of which he was accustomed to act as clerk. His large tract of land was located on sections 5 and 6, township 6, range 11. He died in 1845, his death, so it is said, having been caused from over-exertion in putting out a fire which was in his fences. Colonel Askew left behind him a diary, which contained many interesting facts in relation to the early settle¬ ment of the county, but unfortunately no traces of it, at the date of this writing, can be discovered. The child born in 1823, to Josiah T. Askew and his wife, formerly Hannah Bates, was the first birth of a white child in Jersey Landing precinct.

Other Early Settlers

Joseph Piggott settled on section 6, township 6, range 11. He was of French extraction, and was born in either St. Louis, Mo., or in Illinois just across the river from that city, where his father had a Spanish claim. For over thirty years he maintained the reputation, in the neighborhood where he lived, of being a kind hearted man and good citizen.

Just below the present site of Elsah, James Mason, an officer in the land office at Edwardsville, in April, 1828, entered thirty-five acres in section 20, township 6, range 11, and also land in section 21. The same month, Joseph Klunk entered the northeast fraction of section 25, border¬ ing on the Piasa Creek, where it enters into the Mississippi, east of where the town of Randolph was afterwards projected. Mr. Mason entered additional land in this part of the country the succeeding year, and also made purchases from others who had made entries.

Eminence

The first store ever established within the region of country which now constitutes Jersey County, was opened by Henry Mills at the foot of the bluff, on the summit of which the town of Eminence was after¬ wards laid out. This store was established either in 1829 or 1830, and here the first ferry to be run across the Mississippi River, was estab- lished. Mr. Mills had previously kept a store at Portage des Sioux, imme¬ diately across the river in St. Charles County, Mo. Before this store was established, the people of the southern part of the county were obliged to go to St. Louis. Eminence was founded by Joseph and Isaac N. Piggott, and was very appropriately named, for it was on top of the bluff, 175 feet above the waters of the Mississippi. In the very zenith of its pros¬ perity the town only comprised a couple of log houses of no striking architectural pretensions. A post office was once kept at Eminence, and Isaac N. Piggott was postmaster. Like a number of other early Illinois towns, it has vanished from the face of the map.

Randolph

Another forsaken and vanished town of Jersey County was Randolph, which was on the Mississippi River, half a mile above the mouth of Piasa Creek, and was laid out by a man named Bostwick about the same time as Eminence, in either 1836 or 1837. This was the site of the location of one of the earliest settlers of Elsah Township, William Bates. A sawTmill had been established there, and also a store, while there were about a half a dozen dwellings. The prosperity of Randolph declined, and two houses now occupy the site of the former town, the remaining lots having been converted into a farm.

In 1851-52 James Semple purchased from William H. Allen and wife, Addison Greene and other parties, a large body of land in sec¬ tions 17, 18, 19 and 20, township 6, range 11, the three last named being fractional sections along the Mississippi River. On April 7, 1855, he platted the village of Elsah, on the fractional northwest quarter of section 20, extending north from the river up what was then known as "Askew Hollow," named for Col. Josiah T. Askew, who, during his life¬ time, owned a sugar camp there. James Mason had entered this tract in 1820.

General Semple was born in Greene County, Ky., January 5, 1798, and there attended school. He studied law, and was admitted to the bar at Louisville, Ky., and in 1828 came to Edwardsville, Ill., where for a time he was engaged in the practice of his profession, meeting writh consider¬ able success. He was a brigadier general during the Black Hawk War, and in 1832 was elected to the State Assembly on the Democratic ticket.

General Semple was married to Mrs. Mary C. Mizner, a daughter of Dr. Cairns of Monroe County, 111., who was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention under which the state of Illinois was admitted to the Union. In 1837, General Semple was appointed minister to Bogota by President Van Buren, but resigned and returned to Edwardsville in 1842, and in that year was elected judge of the circuit court, and soon thereafter, judge of the supreme court. He was later appointed United States sen¬ ator by Governor Ford to fill a vacancy, and then elected for the full term of six years. He invented the first steam traction engine for road travel, and drove it from Alton to Carlinville, on a trip to Springfield, bi t on account of bad roads it mired down, and had to be abandoned there. He was a courtly gentleman of the old school, and as has been shown, took an active and leading part among the prominent men of the state and nation. His daughter, Lucy C. was married to Edgar Ames, one of the leading merchants and property owners of St. Louis, Mo., on June 5, 1860, and he died December 9, 1867, and was buried in Belief ontaine Cemetery of St. Louis, leaving a ver}r large estate to his widow and family. Later, Mrs. Lucy V. (Semple) Ames built a large, stone mansion east of Elsah, on top of the bluff, which she named "Notch Cliff e." It was 300 feet above the river level and commanded a mag¬ nificent view of the counties of St. Charles and St. Louis in Missouri, and the counties of Calhoun, Jersey and Madison in Illinois, and also of the Missouri, Illinois and Mississippi rivers, the latter being in view for twenty miles.

While living at Alton, General Semple laid out an addition to that city called Semple Town, but he concluded to close out his interests and remove from there. He went to Grafton and endeavored to effect an arrangement with the Mason and Allen interests there to join with them and push Grafton to the front as a competitor of Alton, for the business of Jersey and Greene counties, but meeting with no encouragement, he purchased the Elsah site, as stated, removed his residence to Elsah, and continued to reside there until his death in 1866.

A post office was established at Elsah in 1853, and General Semple was the first postmaster. He made a road up Askew Hollow from the river to the higher lands, extending it on to connections with Otterville, Newbern and Jerseyville. In every way he exercised all of his skill and influence to secure business for the new town, the result being that most of the produce from the counties of Jersey and Greene was brought to Elsah for shipment. A large distillery and grist-mill and a paper mill were erected within a few years after the founding of Elsah, by business men of Jerseyville, who made Elsah their main point of shipment by river. The population increased, stores, shops, schools, churches and other accessories of the new village were brought in through the inde¬ fatigable energy and influence of its chief promotor.

General Semple died at his home "Trevue," December 20, 1866, and was buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery, St. Louis. It may be truly said that the building of Elsah, and its business enterprise and prosperity during its early years, were almost wholly due to the industry, care and influence of General Semple, and we are left to conjecture what the result might have been, if he had been able to join his interest and efforts with the Allen and Mason forces at Grafton, and used the same energy and skill in pressing the claims of the latter town, that he did later at Elsah.

On account of the destruction by fire of the main manufacturing in¬ dustries of Elsah, and of the palatial mansion of Notch Cliffe, and also on account of the building of railroads through the county, the river transportation and business interests of Elsah have largely deteriorated from what they were formerly. The main industry there now is the Whiting Works, th'e object of which is the converting of the bluff stone into whiting.

Business Interests

The Western Whiting Manufacturing Co. employs twenty, product, one car load per day ; merchants - William II. McDow, J. K. Keller, Spetz Bros. ; postmaster - Mr. C. A. Bates and J. P. Henry Worthey.

Lock Haven

Lock Haven, another station on the Chicago, Peoria & St. Louis Rail¬ road, was named after the original proprietor, John Locke, who settled there in 1870. He was a native of Lancashire, England, where he was born April 6, 1818, eldest son of William and Grace Locke, also natives of England. John Locke received his early educational training in the schools of Devonshire, England, and was well grounded in a solid manner. He came to the United States in 1839, and reached Alton, Ill., in November of that year, becoming employed soon thereafter as a clerk in a store, and held that position for several years. In the fall of 1843, he returned to England on a visit, and returned to Alton the next year, embarking then in business for himself, taking as his first partner, J. Quarton, and later was in partnership with his brother, Thomas Locke. The brothers enlarged the business, and branched out, including the burning and shipping of lime in their operations, securing their lime from the Alton bluffs. This line proved to be very profitable, and Mr. Locke did a very large business, extending it throughout the length of the Mississippi River and its tributaries. In the meanwdiile he had purchased about 1,600 acres of land in the vicinity of the present site of Lock Haven, and in 1870 he closed out his Alton interests, and moved to his farm in Jersey County, where he lived until his death. The farm is now owned and occupied by his son, Charles E. Locke. John Locke wTas married to Elizabeth Challacombe in 1847. He was a republi¬ can in politics, and in his religious belief, was an Episcopalian.