Island Grove Township

Island Grove Township

Island Grove is one of the western tier of townships, and is bounded on the east by Curran township, on the west by Morgan county, on the north by Cartwright, and on the south by New Berlin. It has twenty-seven square miles of land in the township. It is mostly prairie and quite level. Island grove, which gives the name to the township, is an irregular shaped grove, about eight miles long, and averaging one mile in width, extending along one branch of Spring creek in the northwestern part of the township. There is also some timber along Skillet fork of Spring creek, in the eastern part, otherwise it is all prairie.

Early Settlers

John Roberts, from Tennessee, first settled here in 1818, at the foot of the grove, in the northeastern part. He was followed, about a year afterwards, by his son, Jerry Roberts, and by David Troxell, Fred. Troxell, Thomas Evans, Andrew Scott, William Hart and Josiah Hedges. At this time there were two Indian villages in the township - one on Skillet fork, and the other at the head of the grove, near the west line. There were about three hundred Indians in each village. They were of the Pottowatamie and Delaware tribes, but were peaceable, and soon moved west. Among other early settlers may be mentioned the names of McCoy, Douglass, Rhea, Foutch, Smith, Brown, Hursley, Gibson, Yates, Ellis, Campbell, Harmon, Weger, Wyekoff, and others, whose descendants and relatives now form a large proportion of the present inhabitants. The first whites here were mostly of a wandering character, and soon moved away. Those mentioned came a few years later and made permanent homes here.

Simon Hensley was born February 26, 1785, in Washington county, Virginia. He was married February 2, 1820, near Dayton, Montgomery county, Ohio, to Mary Arnold, who was born August 24, 1792, in Ohio. They moved to Sangamon county, Illinois, arriving in the fall of 1823, in what is now Island Grove township, north of Spring creek.

Josiah Hedges was born about 1788, in Maryland, and was taken to Virginia, and from there to Grayson county, Kentucky, when he was about twelve years old. Anna Brown was born December 25, 1798, in Davis county, Kentucky. Josiah Hedges and Anna Brown were there married, and made Grayson county their home until they moved to Sangamon county, Illinois, arriving in the fall of 1826, at the north side of Island Grove, two and a half miles noi'thwest of the present town of Berlin.

Mr. Hedges moved from Kentucky with an ox team. One of his oxen was trained to work in shafts. He made a light wagon, all of wood, and with that ox did all his marketing after coming to the county. When he came, he brought money to enter forty acres of land. By industry aud economy, he became the owner of nine hundred acres of the richest land in the county. He died in 1872.

Henry ElHsi, was born November 17, 1786, near Lexington, Kentucky. His father, John Ellis, was born January 20, 1749, and married October 2, 1770, to Sarah Parrish, who was born April 20, 1757. They moved from Virginia to Kentucky. The family is of Welch extraction. The father of John Ellis is said to have been with the second supply of emigrants from England to America. Martha Marshall Yates was born (after the death of her father) in Woodford county, Kentucky, September 13, 1791, and was a sister of Henry Yates, Sr. Henry Ellis and Martha Yates were married January 29, 1807, in Warsaw Kentucky, and had ten children, two of whom died in infancy. The family moved to Sangamon county, Illinois, arriving in September, 1825, in Island Grove, two miles northeast of Bei'lin.

John Foutch was born May, I'/VG, in Loudon county, Virginia. Three brothers by the name of Foutch came from France and settled in Loudon county, Virginia, before the American Kevolution. Two of them were soldiers in that war, and one of them was Abraham, the father of John, whose name heads this sketch. John Foutch WQnt to Fayette county, Kentucky, when he was a young man, and was there married, in 1796, to Nancy A. Wherrett, w'ho was born March 8, 1778, in St. Mary's county, Maryland. They lived in Fayette county, near Lexington, and the family moved to Dearborn county, near Harrison, Indiana; they then moved to Franklin county, thence to Sangamon county, Illinois, arriving in the fall of 1825, at the south side of Richland creek, east of where Pleasant Plains now stands, and in the spring of 1826, moved to Island Grove, Sangamon county.

James Rhea, was born in 1780, in Greenbrier county, Virginia, and when a young man, went to Barren county, Kentucky, where he was married November 20, 1801, to Rachel Joliff, who was born October 16, 1783. They had ten children in Kentucky, and the family moved to Jefferson county, Illinois, where one child was born, and moved to Sangamon county, arriving in 1827, in what is now Island Grove township.

James Rhea died February 12, 1843, and his widow died October 28, 1851, both in Sangamon county. He was a soldier in the War of 1812, from Kentucky, under General Harrison; was on Lake Erie, and saw the British vessels brought in after Perry's victory.

Mrs. Catharine Harmon, whose maiden name was Sears, was born about 1775, in North Carolina. She was married to George W. Harmon and had three children in North Carolina; and then they moved to Simpson county, Kentucky. Mr. Harmon died there about 1825. Mrs. Harmon, with eight of her children, moved to Sangamon county, Illinois, arriving in the fall of 1827, in Island Grove.

David McGinnis, w<^s born in 1798, in Mercer county, Kentucky. He Avas married December 24, 1820, in Boone county, to Eliza Gibson, a native of that county. Mr. McGinnis visited Sangamon county in the fall of 1826, selected a location for a home, returned to Kentucky, and brought his family, accompanied by his brother, G. Dawson, arriving November 18, 1827, in what is now Island Grove township. David and William McGinnis were the inventors of a device for guiding prairie plows by wheels and a lever. They put it in operation in the summer of 1829. It was adopted throughout the prairie country, and might have made them a large amount of money, but it was never patented.

Henry Yates was born October 29, 1786, in Caroline county, Virginia. Dr. Michael Yates, a native of England, emigrated to America before the Revolution, and settled in Caroline county, Virginia. He there married Martha Marshall, a sister of John Marshall, afterwards Chief Justice of the United States. Their son, Abner, born in Caroline county, married Mollie Hawes, daughter of Thomas Hawes and Elizabeth Fisher, his wife. They had two children, Henry, whose name heads this sketch, and Martha, who married Henry Ellis. Henry Yates was taken by his parents, in 1788, from Caroline county, Virginia, to Fayette county, Kentucky, where his father died. The family moved to Woodford, thence to Scott, and from there to Gallatin county, in the same State, in ] 804. Henry Yates, Henry Ellis, and Colonel Robert Johnson laid out a town on the Ohio river, and Colonel Johnson named it Fredericksburg, in honor of his native city of that name in Virginia. It was at a later period changed to Warsaw, and is the county seat of Gallatin county. Henry Yates returned to Caroline county, Virginia, and was there married, July 11, 1809, to his cousin, Millicent Yates, who was born May 15, 1791. They went to Gallatin county, Kentucky; Mrs. Millicent Yates died April 19, 1830. Henry Yates married Mary A. Shuff, and moved to Sangamon county, Illinois, arriving in May, 1831, at Springfield. In November, 1832, they moved to Island Grove, where Berlin now stands. Mrs. Mary A. Yates died May 11, 1835. Henry Yates was married September 28, 1835, to Elizabeth McMillan.

Joel Maxcy was born about 1759, in Rockingham county, Virginia. He was a soldier in a Virginia regiment in time of the Revolution, and was in the battle of Guilford Court House. He remembered having seen Generals Marion, Morgan, DeKalb, and Gates. He was married after the war, in Prince Edward county, to Mrs. Susan Hill, whose maiden name was Davis. She had five children by her first marriage. Mr. and Mrs. Maxcy had three children in Virginia, and in 1798 moved to Warren county, near Bowling Green, Kentucky, where one child was born. Mrs. Susan Maxcy died there August 27, 1812. Of her four children, one only ever came to Sangamon county.

Mr. Maxcy was again mairied to Mrs. Betsy A. Howard, whose maiden name was Brown. They came to Sangamon county in 1827, and settled in Island Grove, where Mr. Maxcy died December 27, of the same year.

Fiest Events

The first couple married were Nelson Roberts and Miss Tabor, at the house of Rev. Andrew Scott, the first and, for many years, the only res» ideiit minister in the township.

The first services held in this township by a regular minister of any of the religious denominations are unknown. As early as 1825, the Methodists had appointments in the settlements of the present township, and Andrew Scott, a minister of the Christian Church was here prior to the deep snow. The religious welfare of the people of the township was never neglected by any of the religious teachers, and the township has ever been noted for the quiet and orderlyhabits of the people. There are now six churches in the township, three in the village and three in the country - one on section eleven, township fifteen, range eight west, and another on section eleven, township fifteen, range seven west, the third on section one, township fifteen, range seven west.

Abner Ellis taught the first school in the township in 1826. Since that day the improvement made in the means of obtaining an education has been great indeed. There are now six good school houses in the township outside of the village of Berlin, and school is held in each district an average of eight months in the year.

Island Grove was organized in 1861, by the Board of Justices and then contained all its present territory and that of New Berlin township. The first election was held in April, 1861.