Money Creek Township (part 2 of 3)

Daniel Jackson was born in Fauquier County, Virginia, January 16, 1808. His parents were not in good circumstances, and his opportunities for obtaining an education were limited. His time was required for work to assist in supporting the family. AVhen he was twenty years of age he came to Champaign County, Ohio. There he worked for two years, for eight dollars per month. He came to McLean County, Illinois, in October, 1830. He made a claim of one hundred and sixty acres of land in the present township of Empire, in the present county of McLean. During the winter of the deep snow he lived with John W. Dawson. They pounded their corn as the settlers all did, and sometimes parched it, by way of a change, until the snow was gone and the roads were clear. Mr. Jackson built a cabin on his claim, and soon broke ground. AVith a little help he attended to fifty acres of corn. His grinding was done at Baker's horse-mill, at Blooming Grove, and at Cunningham's mill, at Cheney's Grove. He volunteered, during the Black Hawk war, but was sent back to his home, as he wTas not needed.

On the 12th of February, 1832, he married Margaret "Walden, of Springfield. They worked carefully and well, and succeeded in their labor. Mr. Jackson hauled all his grain to Chicago, returning with groceries and lumber. He dealt a good deal in cattle, always keeping a drove on hand. Chicago was his market for cattle until the railroads were built, bringing the market to his door. He acquired, by his care and industry, five hundred acres of land. He did not take much interest in political mat- ters, but was, for some years, supervisor of highways. He was a good citizen, and was one of those who worked hard for the development of the county of McLean. He died March 20, 1861.

Jeremiah Greenman was born August 8, 1794, in Providence, Rhode Island. He was of Welch descent. His father, Jeremiah Greenman, sr., served in the Revolutionary war for eight years, and during that time kept a journal of bis life, and his sufferings and adventures. The mother of Jeremiah Greenman was Mary Eddy, Ml a was born and raised in Providence. When Jeremiah Greenmu - >as twelve years of age, the family moved to "Washington Cou&cv, Diio. This course was taken at the earnest solicitation of Mrs. Greenman, - who did not wish her children brought up to a seafaring life, as their father had been. The parents of Jeremiah Greenman were not members of any church, but were remarkable for their integrity and correct principle. His father drew a pension for his services in the Revolutionary war until the day of his death. The son, Jeremiah, of whom this sketch is written, received a fair education. He married Letitia McCoy, November 26, 1818. She was born in Washingtoil Countv, Ohio.

On the first of June, 1830, the Greenman family started for the West. They floated down the Ohio River in a family boat, until they came to its mouth. From there they came to Pekin, by steamboat. From there they came by ox-team to where Waynesville now is. There they spent the winter of the great deep snow, but were not subjected to as many privations as many others, for they lived near a mill where their corn could be easily ground. In the fall of 1831, they came to Old Town timber, to John W. Dawson's place, and in the following spring came to the place where they now live, in the present township of Padua. He entered two hundred and twenty acres of land, engaged in farming and stock-raising, and was quite successful. His health was

Mr. Greenman had nine children, of whom eight lived to be grown. Thomas McCoy Greenman and Sarah Ada, wife of William Moran, are dead; Emaline, wife of Alvah B. Dimon, lives at Thompsonville, Marion County, Iowa; Henry Clay Greenman served in the Ninety-fourth Illinois Volunteers, and was killed at the battle of Prairie Grove ; George Washington Greenman lives in Dixon, Kansas ; Sarah Jane, wife of Solomon Gregg, lives in the southern part of Old Town; Jeremiah Greenman, jr., lives at the homestead with his mother. He served in the army during the rebellion, beint>; fourteen months in the Eighth Illinois and twelve months in the One Hundred and Fiftieth Illinois. He was at the battles of Fort Henry, Fort Donelson and Shiloli. He was wounded at Fort Donelson. Mary L., wife nrr Mr. Van Gundy, is now dead. One child died in infancy.

Mr. Greenman was about five feet and te v inclicj ; n heigiit. His son Jerry appears much as his father did, though the latter had rather darker hair. Mr. Greenman was a kind husband and a good father. He paid great attention to the education of his children. He was not a member of anv church, but was a man of strict integrity, and his word was sufficient without any bond. His widow, Mrs. Greenman, still lives on the homestead. She is a very kind lady, and thinks much of the " good old times." She possesses much natural shrewdness.

John Bishop was born February 9, 1799, in Fleming County, Kentucky. His father's name was James Bishop, and his mother's name, before her marriage, was Chloe Lake. Both were of English and Welch descent. In 1804 the Bishop family moved to Ohio, to what is now Clark County, but was then Green County, and had formerly been included in the county of Champaign. During the war of 1812, James Bishop entered the army, and had charge of some teams belonging to the wagon train of Hull's army. When the war opened, General Hull was governor of Michigan. He went to Urbana, Ohio, and took command of the army, which was passed over to him by Governor Meigs. John Bishop, then a lad of thirteen, was present at the time, and re- members General Hull as a gray haired, heavy set man. James Bishop served under General Hull, and was at the surrender of Detroit. Tbe captured soldiers were carried on shiphoardto Cleveland, and there paroled and sent home. James Bishop afterwards served as quartermaster under General Tupper, in General Harrison's command.

John Bishop lived in Ohio until the fall of 1830, and then went to Fancy Creek, Sangamon County, Illinois, where he arrived October 22. Tbe first winter after his arrival was the one of the deep snow. It fell there as deep as in McLean County. Mr. Bishop had then a wife, tbree children, three cows and four horses, which all needed care and attention : nevertheless, he looks back to those days as the happiest of his life. During the winter of the deep snow the wheat and corn was carried to mill from four to eight miles on horseback. Before the snow was packed, Mr. Bishop and three others went three miles to mill across a neck of prairie. They took two horses to carry tbe corn, and eight horses to break the way. The horses walked in single file, and when the foremost was tired, it was placed in the rear and another took the lead. It required all day to go tbree miles and return. After the snow became packed men could walk over it anywhere, and even horses were borne on the drifts.

In March, 1832, Mr. Bishop came to Old Town timber, Mc- Lean County. In May of the same year be entered his land at th( office at Danville, and commenced an improvement on the northwest point of Old Town timber. But as he did not learn precisely the boundaries, he unfortunately built bis bouse and barn on unentered government land, which was next adjoining. Tliis land was afterwards entered by another party, and be lost the bouse and barn, He built another bouse on bis own land, lived on it fifteen years, and then moved to the south side of the timber.

-lames Bishop is a carriage trimmer in Hay's carriage shop, in Bloomington. During the rebellion, he was in the Ninetyfourth Illinois Volunteers, under Colonel McNulta.

John Bishop, jr., was in the One Hundred and Thirty-fifth Illinois. He was discharged from the army because of sickness, and died eight days after arriving home.

Mr. Bishop is rather less than the medium height, is rather light in build, has a sanguine complexion, seems a very honest man, and perfectly straightforward in his business transactions. He now lives at Mrs. Ireland's place, near Stumptown, in Old Town timber, in the township of Padua. He seems to lead a very contented life after so many storms and changes of fortune. Mrs. Bishop died in the fall of 1865.

Adolptms Dimmick was born in Tolland County, Connecticut, January 13, 1791. In the year 1810, he came to kipley County, Indiana. There he set out a nursery, the first in that part of the country, and raised a great many apple and peach trees. On the 9th of October, 1832, he married Esther Livingston. On the first of November following, he started for Illinois, traveling in a wagon drawn by a yoke of oxen and a horse. On the 25th of that month he arrived at Old Town timber, made a claim and commenced farming. He bought a cow and calf, and from this beginning raised a herd of forty or more cattle, besides selling a great many. The cabin was one of the little log huts of the early days, with a pounded clay fireplace, a stick chimney and a floor of linn puncheons. These puncheons were made of rails split thin and shaved with a drawing knife. The windo were of greased paper, and the table was made of a large puncheon. The land, where they lived, did not come into market until 1836. They had very little company. The wild animals came around them and kept them company. The raccoons came up under the window at night; the wolves ate the bones thrown from the house, and the wild turkeys picked up the crumbs near the door. The deer often came around them, and their society was principally that of the wild animals.

Mr. Dimmick died on Christmas day, 1845. He had three children, all of whom are now dead. His stature was somewhat less than medium. He was stoutly built, had a light complexion, was careful and attentive to business and succeeded well. He had a common school education, and taught school in Ohio and Illinois. He was always hospitable to strangers and willing and ready to entertain them. He had always good fortune in life and prospered well. His lady afterwards married Mr. Stephen Ireland, but has been a widow for the last sixteen years. She is a pleasant old lady, and her house is a stopping place for a number of elderly people and seems almost an old folks asylum.

Josiah Horr was born October 9, 1807, in Lewis County, New York. His father's name was Jacob Horr, and his mother's name, before her marriage, was Hannah Pierce. Jacob Horr was descended from the Puritans who landed on Plymouth Rock. He was a farmer, and died in Ohio in about the year 1850 or 51. His wife Hannah was born in America, but was of English- Irish descent. She died in 1889, while on a visit to Cheney's Grove. Jacob Horr had eleven children, of whom ten lived to be grown, but only three are now alive. They are, William Horr, of Mechanicsburg, Champaign County, Ohio; Elijah Horr, of Carthage, Jefferson County, N". Y., and Josiah Horr, the subject of the present sketch. William Horr was the youngest son.

Josiah Horr received his education in Lewis County, N". Y., where he attended a common school during the winter months until the age of twenty. In the summer time he worked on his father's farm. While only a boy, he resolved to come to the West. At the age of twenty-one he moved to Champaign County, Ohio, where he remained nearly eight years. He worked on a farm and in a woolen factory. In 183(3, he came to the West, arriving at John W. Dawson's place in Old Town timber on the first of October. He had made three previous trips to visit the country, enter land and make a few improvements. The family passed through Cheney's Grove, visiting a few days with Jonathan Cheney, an uncle of Mrs. Horr. They lived two months in a house belonging to John Dawson, by which time they made a cabin on the place where they now live, in the present townm'lean county. 751 ship of Padua. The first experience which the Horrs had of an Illinois winter, was with the sudden change of December, 1836. This was indeed a frightful experience and they were much terrified, but it never came again.

Mr. Ilorr was chosen justice of the peace and held this office with some interval for about fifteen years. He married William Harrison and Nancy Jane Dawson, and many years afterwards he married their daughter to C. H. Hobart. Mr. Horr always tried to settle amicably the cases which were brought before him, and often guaranteed the constable's costs in order to do so. He has been township trustee and school director, and for ten or twelve years he was supervisor. He is a member of the Methodist Church. Mr. Horr employed Abraham Lincoln to manage the first and only case the former ever had in McLean County Circuit Court, and Lincoln carried it through successfully. Mr. Horr belonged first to the Whig party, and afterwards to the Republican. He voted against Jackson, and after the latter retired from political life voted against Jackson's friends.

On the 28th of October, 1830, Josiah Horr married Temperance Cheney, who was born in Virginia, but left that State while she was very young. They have had eight children, four of whom were born in Illinois. Six lived to be grown. They are :

Mr. Horr is six feet in height in his stocking feet. His hair is thick on his head and perfectly white. He has a Roman nose and blue eyes. He is very straight and is stil) very active. His appearance is impressive, and he possesses great energy and power of endurance. He had a postoffice for some years in his house, but it was discontinued a year ago last April.

Randolph'S Grove

Mr. Stringfield says that his life has three separate sides to it - the adventurous side, the religious side, and the political side, and he wishes the distinction preserved in writing this sketch. The adventurous part of his life he calls his "rough and ready," and this part is given first. This sketch then begins with

Alfred Moore Stringfield was born October 14, 1809, on a farm near Murfreesboro, Tennessee. This is the village which gave the name of the celebrated battle fought there during the rebellion. He is of English descent, his ancestors having come to America from England at an early day, "When he was very young his parents moved to Huntsville, Alabama, and from there to the Tennessee River, after the war of 1812. There his father kept a farm and a ferryboat, and Alfred, being an active lad, helped to manage it. His father kept two boats, one was large for the purpose of carrying wagons, and one was small for carrying men and horses. The small ferryboat was once crowded with horses and passengers, and some of the latter were careless and would not pay attention to Alfred, and the boat upset in ten feet of water. All were fortunately saved after their involuntary baptism ; and it is to be hoped that they were made wiser for the future.

In 1819 Mr. Stringfield, sr., moved his family to White County, Illinois. In the spring of 1820 he made a visit to Sangamon County, and moved his family there in the fall to a farm within a few miles of Springfield. There he died shortly after his settlement.

In the spring of 1823 Alfred Stringfield came with his brother, Severe Stringfield, and his brother-in-law, Gardner Randolph, to what is now called Blooming Grove. But they located at Randolph's Grove, and there the brothers Stringfield claimed land for their mother. They were the first to break sod at Randolph's Grove. They put up what is called a half-faced camp, that is, a camp made of poles slanting upwards and covered with clapboards, which had been split or rived out. They were often visited by the Indians and wolves, but never suffered much damage from either. During the next year their mother, Mrs. Stringfield, came to the grove. From that time until 1827 they worked during summers and rested winters.

In the spring of 1827 Mr. Stringfield went to Galena with teams to draw mineral. In some places the roads were very bad. In crossing the Inlet Swamps, which extended for some miles, they were obliged to carry their goods and draw their wagons over with ropes. By the time they arrived at Rock River the company had increased to seventeen teams and fifty or sixty persons. There they saw many Indians, and Mr. Stringfield being very fleet of foot was induced to try some of the fleetest redskins in a race, He beat them- without difficulty, and was the hero of an hour with the squaws. They clustered around him and talked in their strange dialect and pointed their fingers at him, called him captain, and considered him the most wonderful of the Long Knives (white men). He was so popular with them that he made the bargain for the transportation of the wagons across the river for seventy-five cents apiece. When it is considered that the wagons were taken across by placing the wheels in canoes, this will be seen to have been a very advantageous bargain.

They followed the Indian trail to Galena, and there Mr. Stringfield was engaged in teaming, wood-chopping, and whatever his hands could find to do. In April, 1828, he returned on horseback, and in May he moved five families to Galena, and worked there as before. During the following fall his mother died, and he came back to Randolph's Grove.

In 1829 Mr. Stringfield made two trips to Chicago with droves of hogs. During their second trip the weather was mild and the rivers were cleared of ice. They forded the Illinois River at the rapids, three miles above Ottawa, but on their return from Chicago with a load of salt, they found it frozen over by a cold snap, and crossed it on the ice just above the mouth of Fox River. They took across the unloaded wagon and unyoked oxen separately, and then rolled over the barrels of salt. The ice was so thin that it cracked under their weight, and in some places the water spurted up. Mr. Stringfield carried the next to the last barrel of salt across on his back, as he declared he could do, but was very tired, and would have been very glad to have laid down his load ; but the ice cracked under him, and he saw clearly that if he dropped the barrel the ice would break and Mr. Stringfield and his salt would both go under. So he plucked up his resolution and carried over the salt. He made another trip to Chicago in January, 1830, to move a family there. During his trip he camped out, even in the severest weather, and slept on his shoes to prevent them from freezing too stiff to wear in the morning.

During the fall before the deep snow, Mr. Stringfield went on a trip to Chicago, and lost two yoke of oxen in a prairie fire. He hunted for them on horseback, but did not find them during that fall. The only result of his exertions was the loss of his palmetto hat, which his horse tore to pieces during one night when Air. Stringfield was asleep. He did not find his oxen until the March following the deep snow, when he came across them near the head of the Iroquois River, where they had been driven by the fire. They had lived during the winter on brushwood and the stems of trees where some woodmen had been cutting. During the winter of the deep snow, Mr. Stringfield did very little except attend to his stock. He hunted occasionally and caught a few wolves and a great many deer. He caught four deer in one day out of a single pack, within a circuit of five miles, and killed them without shooting. During this winter, Mr. Stringfield, Dr. Wheeler and Jesse Funk, started a deer about one and a-half miles southwest of Dr. Stewart's. It ran into a deep hollow, where Mr. Stringfield followed it and cut its throat with a pocket knife. But it was seen to be a difficult matter to get the deer out of the hollow on to the bank. Mr. Stringfield settled the matter by taking hold of the deer with one hand and twisting the other hand in the horse's tail. The horse then went up the side of the hollow, dragging out with its tail both the hunter and the game. He caught a few wolves, but the crust of snow soon became so hard that they could run around on it and, as Mr. Stringfield says, " make fun of you to your face."

The season following the deep snow was a short one, and the frost came so early in the fall that the corn crop was ruined. During that fall he went with Jesse Funk to Galena with a drove of beef cattle, and returned during the latter part of October^ when it was bitterly cold. The road had then been marked out by stakes or poles placed in the ground upright, and as far apart as they could be easily seen from one to the other. During the same fall he collected a drove of hogs, and went to Galena with Absalom and Robert Funk, and Robert Stubbletield and a hired hand. The cold was intense and the snow deep. It fell on them at Hennepin and increased until they arrived at Apple River. All of the party returned home except Mr. Stringlield, who remained until February. He was at that time a very muscular man, and could shoulder a sack of wheat holding live bushels and five pounds.

Mr. Stringlield does not claim to have been a great hunter, but he was sometimes pretty lively in chasing wolves. He caught four wolves by jumping from his horse and running after them on foot, lor he could beat both the Indians and the wolves in foot races. The first wolf was caught in the year 1826. He chased the wolf a mile and a-half on horseback, then jumped oil* quickly, let his horse go and took after the wolf on foot. After chasing it a hundred yards he made a grab for it, but it turned short around and they ran the same hundred yards back, and just as the animal was going out of a snow drift Mr. Stringlield grabbed it. But it settled its teeth in his arm and he carries the scars to-day. He choked the wolf loose, and the brute grabbed his thumb. He loosened his thumb, tied the wolf, brought it home, and a week afterwards it was killed by dogs at his mother's quilting bee. He afterwards caught wolves with his hands, but always grabbed them by their hindquarters and quickly threshed them on the ground and avoided their teeth. The settlers usually killed them by striking them with a stirrup, or a pole. The wolves were pretty saucy and came prowling around the house at all hours of the night. Mr. Stringlield threw his shoe hammer through the window at one particularly impudent wolf that followed a sheep to the house during a moonlight evening. He never hunted deer much although they were very plenty. He has seen gangs of seventy or eighty deer going out from the timber to the prairie.

In December, 1834, Mr. Stringfield, Jesse and Absalom and Isaac Funk, collected a drove of pigs, and Mr. Stringfield and James Funk drove them to Chicago. The snow was six or eight inches deep, and in order to make a track in which the pigs could travel, they dragged a forked tree ahead of the drove for fifty or sixty miles, from Money Creek to the Mazon river beyond Pontiac, and there they came to a beaten track.

Mr. Stringfield was always on friendly terms with the Indians. They often came to his house, and if they wanted lodging he took them in and treated them well. He never considered them any more dangerous than white men, and thinks that so far as honesty is concerned there is very little choice between them. He frequently trusted them and always got his pay. He once lent an Indian a meal sack, which was returned after being kept two months. He had a high opinion of the honesty of the Kickapoos and Delawares, but thought the Pottawotomies not so trusty.

The early settlers went first to Sangamon County to do their milling and blacksmithing, and to Springfield for their trading. But after 1830, the course of trade turned to Pekin, Peoria and Chicago. Wheat was drawn to Chicago by oxen until the Illinois Central Railroad was built. The loads of wheat taken there were sometimes enormous. Mr. Stringfield has known one hundred and sixty bushels to be carried there in two loads, and one enormous load of a hundred bushels was taken through to Chicago by oxen,

Religious Life

Mr. Stringfield's father was an Episcopalian, and his mother was a Baptist; but the old gentleman once listened to a Methodist preacher, and was so pleased with the doctrine and spirit of the Methodist Church that he joined it. He became a strong and earnest member and brought up his family strictly. Mr. A. M. Stringfield followed the example of his father and in his eleventh year became associated with the church, and has re* mained an active, working member ever since. He has taken a great interest in the events connected with the church and rem'lean county. 757 members them very correctly ; so much is this the case that he has the reputation of never forgetting anything. The West seemed to be the ground most congenial to Methodism. It came with an irresistible force and gained a foothold which it has never since relinquished. The largest camp-meeting which Mr. Stringfield ever attended was held at Huntsville, Alabama. Bishop Paine, Elder Porter and many other great lights of the church were there. Thomas Stringfield, the brother of A. M. Stringfield, was there and preached to the negroes. The excitement among the people rose to a wonderful pitch, and the entire multitude became so moved by the spirit that it was thrown prostrate as if a hurricane had passed over it. The people jumped about and jerked as if they would throw themselves to pieces, and Mr. Stringfield thinks that this can only be explained by the fact that they were moved by the spirit of the Most High. When he came to White County, Illinois, he attended camp-meetings which were conducted by the Methodists and Cumberland Presbyterians, and there also he saw great manifestations of feeling, but in a less degree than iu Alabama. He also saw some indications of this feeling in camp-meetings in this part of the country, but they were not to be compared to the tremendous manifestations which he witnessed in Alabama and in White County, Illinois.

Political Life

Mr. Stringfield, sr., the father of Alfred, was a Revolutionary soldier, who participated in some contests which have become historic. He was at the battle of King's Mountain, and assisted in the capture of Ferguson. In politics the old gentleman called himself a Washingtonian Whig and a Jeffersonian Democrat, and Mr. Stringfield, jr., learned his politics from the school of Jefferson. He formed his opinions after careful thought and patient study, and tried to hold himself independent of all special influences. He believes in a tariff for revenue and not a tariff for protection. In the great contest between Adams and Jefferson, Mr. Stringfield believed in the doctrine of an ad valorem tariff, and that a duty should be paid on everything upon which a duty was laid according to the market value of the article. So far as the doctrine of protection is concerned, he thinks that the great purchasing interest of the country demands its abolition. He has remained a Democrat ever since he could vote, but in forming his opinions, he has not been bound very closely by the ties of party. So far as any distinction between men is concerned, he is in favor of considerino; men according to their ability, intelli^ence and virtue, regardless of race or color. This is his doctrine, and always has been.

Mr. Stringfield, when he grew to manhood, became married, of course, as a good American citizen should. In 1832 he married Miss Emily Hand, and his later years has been blessed with a fine family of eight children. He has had ten children, but only eisrht are living. These are :

Alfred M. Stringfield is a man of fine presence. Although advanced in years, he is the picture of health and strength, and seems still possessed of youthful activity and courage. His voice is clear and distinct, and impresses one with his deeision and firmness. He usually takes the name of Squire, as he has several times been elected justice of the peace. His powers of conversation are remarkable, and command the attention and respect of the listener. He is of medium stature, and has fine, regular features. He has in him the spirit of the genuine old settlers, and thinks that none of the pleasures of cultivated society can be compared to the manly sports of the pioneers. He thinks that human ingenuity cannot devise a sport equal to that of the early settlers, when they put up a pole in some central locality, and hunted towards it from all sides, and cornered the wolves and deer. He thinks that people who live in a town or city know nothing about real life and enjoyment. " The way to obtain healthy exercise is to get up in the morning and catch a deer or a wolf - not shoot it, hut catch it. That is real natural life, and gives a healthy appetite for breakfast."

Thomas O. Rutledge was horn September 17, 1806, near Charleston, a little town not far from Augusta, Georgia. His father was Robert Rutledge, and his mother's name before her marriage was Margaret Officer. In about the year 1811, the Rutledge family came to Henderson County, Kentucky, where they remained until the year 1820. His father and his uncle, William Rutledge, were both soldiers in the war of 1812. Robert Rutledge died in 1819, and during the following year his brother William moved the family to White County, Illinois. Mrs. Rutledge had then a great responsibility, for she was obliged to care for a family of eight children. In the fall of 1823, Thomas 0. Rutledge made a wagon of wood, without a nail or any piece of iron in it, and obtained a yoke of two-year old steers. With this team he moved the household goods of the family to Sangamon County. There they planted and gathered one crop, and with the little steers and wooden wagon came to Randolph's Grove, in what is now McLean County. Here he cultivated two crops of corn with the steers, using them singly for ploughing it. Mr. Rutledge celebrated the first day of January, 1829, by his marriage to Cynthia Rutledge. He obtained his license from Mackinawtown. Everybody in the grove attended the wedding ; even a lot of Indians came to see how the white men managed these interesting matters. Mrs. Rutledge has been his good wife ever since. She can make the best bread of any woman in McLean County.

Thomas O. Rutledge was a hard worker, and this was the reason of his success. In 1830 he went to Waynesville, and made rails for Timothy Hoblitt, and his wages for one week's work were three chairs, which he carried home on horseback. The next week he made rails for the same man, and his wages for that and axiart of the week following were a spinning-wheel, which lie alsi'- arried home on his horse. He worked occasionally for Jesse (ink for fifty cents per day, from 1827 to 1832, and earned about five hundred dollars. The wooden wagon, which lie made in White County, did him good service in his work, and lasted for fifteen years.

During the winter of the deep snow, Mr. Rutledge had great difficulty in getting wood, and trees were cut by persons who stood on a crust of snow four feet from the ground. When the snow melted away, the stumps appeared six feet high. During that winter the starving deer came up to the stacks of the settlers and were mixed with the cattle. They frequently came up to the house, driven almost crazy with hunger. At one time Mrs. Rutledge picked up a maul and knocked a deer in the head, and killed it right before her door, and she could easily have killed others, but she said they appeared so pitiful that she had not the heart to do it. The deer could be caught anywhere, and they were often found frozen to death while standing. The wild turkeys, too, suffered severely, and some of them came into Mr. Rutledge 's yard, and ate with his chickens.

In 1832 the Black Hawk war broke out, and Mr. Rutledge enlisted in the company commanded first by Merritt Covel. They went first to Pekin, where they were organized, and then marched to Fort Clark, (Peoria,) where they drew two days rations, and marched to Dixon. There they were mustered into the regular service, and spent five or six days in training. Then they drew five days rations, and were sent out as a scouting party under the command of Major Stillman, (afterwards General,) who commanded a battalion of about two hundred and fifty men. They started up Rock River to find the Indians, and probably not one in the party thought of the possibility of a fight. They wished to find the Indians, and in this they certainly succeeded. During the second day in the afternoon they came to a halt, and knocked in the head of the barrel of whisky which they had brought with them, and all filled their canteens with the precious fluid. Then they moved forward, from three to five miles, and crossed Old Man's Creek. Since the fight which occurred that day, the creek has usually been called Stillman's Run. It was about thirty-five miles from Dixon, and at the point where the volunteers crossed it, was a bend, concave towards the north. ' In that bend the}- stacked their baggage and expected to go into camp. The guards had been posted, and the men had, most of them, unsaddled their horses, when orders caine to fall into line. The guards in front had eauffht sisrht of some Indians who were on the look out, and gave them chase. They killed one, captured two or three, and chased the remainder into Black Hawk's camp on the Kishwaukee River, (called by some Sycamore Creek,) about five miles from Stillman's Run. When the guards returned, the men fell into line, but even then they hardly expected a fight. They moved forward to the top of a hill on the prairie, where they halted and raised a white fiag. Immediately an Indian appeared about three-quarters of a distant bearing an enormous red flag. Then the whites advanced a short distance and faced to the right, which made them four men deep, and dismounted to see that their guns were in good condition. Here a parley occurred between the Indians and whites, each party sending out a man to hold a consultation, and in the meanwhile the Indians took down their red flag. But the parley soon ceased and Mr. Rutledge never knew what took place or what was said between the two parties who talked the matter over. But when it ended the volunteers were told to be ready for fight. They then awaited the attack and before long the Indians began to fire and yell at them directly in front. It seems that while the whites had been halting and holding a parley and losing time the Indians had been preparing for an attack, and this was the cause of the willingness of the savages to talk and display their red fiag and attract their attention. When the Indians began firing and whooping in front, the first line of volunteers fired and wheeled to reload. Then the Indians appeared on each side almost in the rear on their ponies and came down on the volunteers, whooping and firing their guns. Major Stillman ordered the volunteers to mount and retreat, and as soon as they were mounted he ordered them to break the line of the Indians On the left. "Then," said Mr. Rutledge, "right there was a confusion." The two Indian prisoners began to whoop in answer to those making the attack, and the guards shot them down. The volunteers paid no attention to the order to break the line of the Indians on the left, but went, as Mr. Rutledge says, "right square for home." Joe Draper, a private, was shot, and Mr. Rutledge saw him fall. It was there, too, Mr. Rutledge says, that William McCullough caught the gun of an Indian who was pointing it at him and dropped his own. The whites rushed on to Stillman's Run with the Indians after them, but as the former were better mounted they distanced their pursuers. The creek was crossed in confusion ; some jumped their horses while some were obliged to dismount and climb the bank. Mr. Rntledge was not obliged to dismount as his horse jumped the creek in fine style. A few of the Indians followed the volunteers across the creek, but the most of them stopped to plunder the baggage which had been piled up convenient for them. The whites ran every man for himself to Dixon's Ferry. They lost but few men in the affair. Joe Draper was shot in the retreat, but in the dusk of the evening he crawled away and lived some days afterward, and when his body was found he had marked his adventures and wanderings on his canteen. Andrew Dickey was shot at the creek through the thigh, but crawled under the bank and escaped. Mr. Hackelton, who was also wounded, crawled under the bank. Captain Adams had his horse shot from under him before the retreat commenced, but he ran back, crossed the creek, and went three-quarters of a mile from it towards Dixon's Ferry when he was overtaken by Indians and killed ; but he sold his life for something, and killed one or two of the Indians who followed him. Major Perkins was overtaken and killed about a mile and a half from the creek ; he was probably delayed in crossing it. Seven or eight of the Indians were killed and buried ; this Mr. Rntledge knows positively. It was in the twilight of the evening when the fight at Stillman's Run took place. That night the volunteers made quick time for Dixon's Ferry, thirty-five miles distant, but became badly scattered. When Mr. Rutledo-e was within eight or ten miles of Dixon he found himself with a little squad of five men. They halted until daylight ; then calculated their course and came into Dixon's Ferry at about ten o'clock. There they found something to eat and by eleven o'clock (Mr. Rntledge thinks,) started back to the battle-field with the remainder of the army and the reinforcements, which had been coming in while they were gone. They buried the dead. While on the field of Stillman's Run they received the news of the massacre of three families on Indian Greek ; those of Davis, Hall and Pettigrew, he thinks, and the capture of the two young ladies, Sylvia and Rachel Hall. They went to Indian Creek and buried those who were massacred, and tried to follow the trail of the Indians in order to recapture the voune; ladies. They found where the Indians had tied their horses in the woods and where they had retreated to the creek, but there the trail was lost. The Indians had walked down the creek for a long distance and their track was lost. The evening after they buried the families at Indian Creek they marched to Ottawa and built a block-house ; then went to Chicago and built another which required a week ; then went to Milwaukee where they stayed three days and then marched back to Ottawa and were discharged. Mr. Rutledge re-enlisted for sixty days, but remained at Ottawa until his time was nearly expired. When the Black Hawk war was nearly closed the company to which he belonged marched up to Prairie Du Chien on the Mississippi River. They arrived there shortly after the battle of Bad Axe, the closing fight. From there his company returned to Ottawa where they remained until their discharge. In his discharge Mr. Rutledge was directed to visit the Kickapoos at Old Town timber to see that they kept their arms stacked and manifested no hostile disposition. He found them as quiet and peaceable as if they had never heard of wars or rumors of wars.

Such was Mr. Rutledge's experience in the Black Hawk war. No very accurate account of the famous right at Stillman's Run has ever been published, because unfortunately, the most of the gentlemen who were engaged in it had taken too much spirits from the barrel which was broken open in the afternoon of the last day of the expedition.

"When Mr. Rutledge was discharged from the service he returned to his plow. He had all the adventures of a pioneer and all the sharp experiences which were common to the early settlers. His experience with the sudden change in the weather in December, 1836, was the same which has been so often described Mrs. Rutledge says, her chickens and geese were frozen to the ground by the sudden cold.

Mr. Rutledge has never been much of a hunter. He has sometimes shot deer and turkey and often hunted wolves. He has oftentimes pulled off the harness from his horse while ploughing and ridden after wolves, when they troubled him too much. This was a common occurrence. The prairie fires sometimes came after them and then it seemed that the whole earth was on fire. He thinks the great conflagration at Chicago is nothing compared to a prairie fire, which blackens everything in its track. It moves slowly at first, but gathers speed as it goes so that it soon moves faster than a horse can travel.

Mr. Rutledge is a very humorous gentleman and appreciates a rich joke as well as any of the old settlers. He tells many humorous things of the Buckles family, particularly. At one time while on the way to Pekin, with a load of wood, he saw Mr. William Buckles at Gaylord's tavern in Bloomington. The landlord was exceedingly polite and wished to do everything to please his guests. As Mr. Buckles was about to retire for the night the landlord offered him a pair of slippers to wear to his chamber ; but he could not understand the meaning of such a favor. At last an idea seemed to strike him, and he told the landlord that "he'd be dog goned if he'd trade his boots for them slippers."

When William Buckles was young he followed the example of other young men, and occasionally " went sparking." Atone time, while he was making a visit to a young lady, the family treated him with great politeness, and at dinner offered him some white sugar for his coffee. But he had never seen white sugar before, and replied very promptly, " No, sir, he didn't take salt in his coffee."

Mr. Peter Buckles, a brother to William, was a great hunter, and sometimes he could not resist the temptation to go after game on the Sabbath day. But after a while, when a revival was in progress, he made a profession of religion, and promised never again to hunt on Sunday, unless, he cautiously added, a wolf should take some of his pigs, or his sheep, or his chickens, or some of his other stock. With these exceptions, he promised the brethren and sisters faithfully never again to hunt on Sunday.

Mr. Abraham Buckles, another member of this celebrated family, now lives at Buckles' Groye. In early days he had never seen a railroad and never expected to ; but in course of time a railroad came working its way through to Bloomington, and although Mr. Buckles lived out at the grove, which bears his family name, he at last came across it, and his experience was most interesting. Shortly afterwards he was taking a young lady some distance in his buggy ; but when he came within two miles of the railroad he told her she would have to walk the remainder of the journey, as he would not, under any circumm'lean county. 765 been, but a short time before, on the track with his horse and buggy, and the engine came after him like a threshing machine and whooping like an Indian, and his old- mare went faster and faster, and when she left the track, she nearly upset the buggy.

Mr. Rutledge has paid very little attention to politics, and never held any office except school director and overseer of the poor. Since coming to Randolph's Grove, he has always lived where he first settled, on the land pre-empted, about two miles east of the present town of Heyworth. He has had twelve children, nine of whom are living. They are :

Mr. Rutledge is about five feet and ten inches in height ; his hair is gray, what there is of it, and his head is bald. His eyes are bright and pleasant, and the lines on his face ^seem laid out for the purpose of making an honest, pleasant smile. The dimples still come in his cheeks, and he is full of the best of humor, and, like all of the old settlers, wishes to be a good friend to all of his neighbors, and indeed to the whole world. He is in very good health, and seems inclined to work more than he should in the later years of his life. He is always glad to see his children and his friends.

Robert H. Rutledge was born March 21, 1810, in Henderson County, Kentucky, near the Red Banks. His father, Thomas Rutledge, was born October 17, 1768, in South Carolina. He lived for a while in Georgia, and there married Sallie Smith. He also lived near Nashville, Tennessee, and moved from there to Henderson County, Kentucky, where his son Robert was born. The Rutledge family c.ame to Illinois in December, 1814. They came to Shawneetown, and afterwards moved out in the country about thirty-five miles. The countv was then called Gallatin. Thomas Rutledge was there chosen justice of the peace in 1813, and held his office for ten years. In 1826 the family came to Randolph Grove. On the twentieth of August, 1830, old Thomas Rutledge died, in the sixty-second year of his age. His wife, Sallie Rutledge, was born August 20, 1778, and died December 12, 1843.

Robert Rutledge says that when he came to Randolph Grove in 1826, the country was an uninhabited wilderness from Pekin to the eastern state line, and from La Salle to Decatur. The county was then called Tazewell, with the seat of justice at Mackinawtown. William 11. Hodge was then sheriff. Since that time Macon County has been taken off on the south, and Champaign, Vermilion, and onr own county of McLean, have been taken from the east.

Mr. Rutledge, like many other settlers, has had a hard milling experience. The family first did without a mill, and Mr. Rutledge, sr., made a hominy mortar and a pestle attached to a springpole, by means of which the hominy was beaten. But when the little " nigger head" horse-mills came in use, young Robert was obliged to take his sack of corn, go to mill on horseback one day and return with meal the next.

Mr. Rutledge was a lively hunter, and he had plenty of opportunities for exercising his skill, for deer were as " plenty as blackberries." In 1826 he saw from the door of his cabin more than a hundred deer walking one after the other. At one time, during the fall of this year, Mr. Rutledge, sr., killed three deer in the morning before breakfast.

The wolves were then very numerous. Mr. Rutledge, at one time during the fall of 1826, was traveling in an ox-cart a short distance west of where Heyworth now is, and there saw within forty yards of him twenty-eight large gray wolves and one prairie wolf. He often went on the " ring" hunts, as they were called, and was in the great hunt described by John Price, which appears in the latter's sketch. Mr. liutledge also says that the great wolf, which was for a long time the terror of the whole neighborhood for a great many miles around, once got into his traps and lost its toes in getting out. This was the wolf which was afterwards killed by John Price. Mr. Rutledge's last wolf hunt was in the month of June in about the year 1838. He started out one rainy morning with John "Weedman. They went not more than a mile and a-half before starting three large black wolves. Weedman shot one through the shoulder, and Rutledge, while riding at full speed, shot another.

McLean County was organized in 1830. The first couple married in the county after its organization were Robert H. Rutledge and Charity Weedman. They were married June 9, 1831, by Father T. Brittain, who lived at the head of Old Town. The first license granted in McLean County after its formation was given to them by Isaac Baker, the first county clerk. Charity Weedman was born July 21, 1812, in Perry County, Ohio. Her father came to McLean County in 1830. He was an active man of considerable influence, and was for some time a county commissioner. He was a great hunter, was wide awake, arose early in the morning and at one time killed two deer before breakfast in order to have a good appetite. His daughter Charity was a lively young woman ; she was up and doing and at one time walked four miles to weave in order to earn some chickens to get a start and raise a flock. Robert and Charity built their first cabin in the fall of 1831, on the ground where they now live. Their little cabin had neither floor nor door until the following spring. Their bedstead was made by boring holes in the side of the house and driving in poles for rails and using clapboards for bedchords. Robert Rutledge and his brother-in-law, Jacob Bishop, thought they must have the luxury of tables, so they cut a log and each of them split out a table from it. The first prairie which Mr. Rutledge broke was in the spring of 1832. He then worked under some difficulties. Mrs. Rutledge had one child, which she would lay on the bed and go out and drive the oxen, while Mr. Rutledge held the plow.

make the round trip. While they were gone, their unprotected families were obliged to be on their guard against Indians and wild animals. The three men went with ox teams to where Pontiac now stands, thence to Sulphur Springs and the Kankakee River, where they forded, thence to Hickory Creek, north of Joliet, and from there to Chicago. They were loaded with corn and oats, and sold the corn for $1.50 per bushel and the oats for $1.00. They found in Chicago only one family of white folks, that of William Clybourne. They did their trading with two Frenchmen by the name of Beaubean. They loaded their teams with salt and started on their return to their anxious families. After going twelve miles they came to the river Desplaines and were there water bound three days. At last their fifteen teams were taken over by half-breed Indians for $1.50 a piece. They were water-bound two days at the Dupage River, and amused themselves during their enforced idleness by going to hear a Methodist preacher, who was exhorting to the Indians. They crossed the Dupage in canoes and the Desplaines in the same way. From there they went to Sugar Grove on Fox River, and thence to Ottawa, where they crossed the Illinois. From there they went to Panther Creek, thence to Crow Creek, then on to Havens' Grove across the Mackinaw, thence to where Bloomington now is, and on home to Randolph's Grove.

When Mr. Rutledge came to Randolph's Grove, there were Gardner Randolph, Captain Stringfield and his mother's family, James Burleson and family, Jesse Funk, Mr. Dickerson and W. Games. Isaac Funk, Robert Stubblefield and William Brock lived at Funk's Grove. John Hendrix, William and Thomas OrendorfT, William Walker, Ebenezer Rhodes, John Rhodes and John Benson, lived at Blooming Grove.

The changes which have taken place are of every kind and description. The face of the country is changed by the fields and houses and roads, by the timber which has been cut down, and by the timber which has grown up. Mr. Rutledge has cut timber, grown since his settlement here, that squared eight inches.

Mr. Rutledge has had few misfortunes, but one has been something of a difficulty for him. Mr. Rutledge's house burned down on the sixteenth of October, 1872, but it is now replaced by a new and substantial building which will be his homestead for the remainder of his life. But notwithstanding this misfortune, Mr. Rutledge has usually been very successful. He has acquired a competence of this world's goods ; he has been blessed with good health, a splendid wife and a magnificent crop of children. He has had twelve children, seven of whom are living.

Mr. Rutledge is of medium stature. He is as good and honest a man as ever lived. He appreciates a funny story, but would rather not have too many practical jokes played on himself.

Jesse Funk was born December 15, 1803, in Clark County, Kentucky. His father was Adam Funk and his mother's maiden name was Nancy Moore. Nancy Moore was the daughter of Mr. Philip Moore, who came from Germany. Adam Funk, the father of Jesse, was the son of Adam Funk, who, while only six years of age, was brought by his father Adam Funk, from Germany. The child Adam was left by his father in Philadelphia in charge of a friend, while the father went to seek a place of business, but never returned and was never again heard of. The child Adam grew to manhood and married Miss Sarah Long, and their children were Adam, Margaret and Jacob. Adam married Miss Nancy Moore, as above stated. Their children were Absalom, John, Jacob, Sarah, Isaac, Dorothy, Tabitha, Jesse and Eobert.

In 1808 the Funk family moved to Fayette County, Ohio. Jesse Funk remembered the war of 1812, although but a very small lad. Two of his elder brothers were soldiers in that war and served under General Cass. At the close of the war General Cass came home with them and made a visit of several days.

Jesse Funk's business while a boy was the herding of pigs on the White Oak Plains, where they were taken to feed on mast. This occupation and hunting kept him busy. He hunted bees, bear, wolves and panther. In addition to his gun he carried, on his hunting excursions, a butcher knife and a three-pound axe for a tomahawk. His hunting companions were frequently the Indians, with whom he was on terms of friendship. He often had shooting matches with them. Mr. Wesley Funk tells of a bear fio-ht, in which his father and Isaac Funk and a Mr. Pancake were eno-au-ed in Ohio, and which he has often heard his father relate. They started out one morning on horseback with the hounds and went to a little stream called Deer Creek. Before going a great way they started an enormous bear. Isaac and Mr. Pancake beingsomewhat excited, gave it a hard chase and drove it to its nest. This was made of grass piled on the ground five feet high, and underneath was the bear with her cubs. Isaac, who was then a reckless youth, rode his horse over the nest, bear, cubs and all. This brought out the beast and a general fight took place. It was tackled by nineteen hounds, but the bear came off first best and nearly killed three of the hounds, before they could be called off. The animal was then furious ; the hunters tried to drive it towards their shantv before shooting it. But Isaac became impatient and wanted more sport and again he charged on the bear and and rode his horse over it. But the brute was a little too quick this time ; it caught the horse in the edge of the hair on its left fore foot and tore the ancle and hoof on the front side.

The horse fell, and Isaac was thrown. The horse ran for home while the bear took after Isaac and would undoubtedly have killed him, had not Jesse rushed on with the dogs and drawn off the attention of the brute, until the reckless Isaac could escape. The bear climbed a low tree and Jesse tried to shoot it, but the flint in his gun would not make fire. The powder was lit with a splinter, and when the gun tired the bear came down, and Isaacpicked up Jesse's tomahawk and went for the brute again and struck it. But the bear reared up for another tight and again Jesse rushed on with the dogs to save Isaac from the results of his recklessness. Jesse rushed his horse on the bear's heels and when it turned on him he rammed the gun barrel down its throat and stabbed it with his knife behind the left shoulder. Between Jesse and the dogs they succeeded in killing it.

But Jesse Funk was not always successful in securing his bear meat, when he had killed it. At one time he killed a bear's cub and started for home, but was delayed, and the wolves came howling after him. They came thicker and thicker and closer and closer, and at last he was obliged to drop his bear, and while the wolves were eating it he and his dog went home,

During the last year before he came to Illinois he worked for a Mr. Rankin and received as his pay one hundred and twenty dollars in American half dollars.

( hi the fifteenth of December, 1824, Jesse Funk came to Randolph's Grove in what was then Fayette, but is now McLean County Illinois. During the first year after his arrival in Illinois he lived with his brother Isaac at Funk's Grove. On the fifteenth of September, 1825, he married Miss Fannie U. Stringfield.

Rev. John S. Barger, while writing of Jesse Funk's marriage, says: " The writer remembers to have heard him say in regard to the marriage fee, that he asked the preacher his charge for his services, who replied : 'I am not in the habit of making charges on such occasions, but usually accept what the parties are disposed to give.' He said: ' I was much relieved by his answer, and ran my hand into my pocket and gave him $2.50. If he had made a charge and had charged me more than that small sum I could not then have paid the fee !' " On the 11th of March, 1826, the newly married couple moved into their log cabin, twelve by fourteen feet, with only one side of the roof covered, a blanket for a shutter to the door, having no chimney and no floor but the earth. Into this humble dwelling they introduced an ox-cart load of household furniture, and a light load at that. He sold his wedding hat for some pigs and split rails for some of his neighbors for twenty-five cents per hundred. Mr Thomas 0. Rutledge, in describing the shanty says, that Mr. Funk had a little salt meat in one corner and slept in the other, he had a little board table, a dirt floor, a hole in the logs for a window, a quilt for a door, no chimney, the roof only half on, no chair and only two puncheon stools. One would hardly think that this pioneer, who began life under such difficulties, would at his death leave an estate worth half a million dollars or more.

In 1827, Jesse Funk and his wife went to Galena. They moved to the Illinois River in an ox-wagon. There they took a keel-boat and went down to its mouth and up the Mississippi. They poled it up by having a plank walk on each side, where those who handled the poles, could walk backward and forward. Mrs. Funk steered the boat. When they came to the rapids, they unloaded the boat and carried the household goods around while the empty boat was poled and drawn up with ropes. ' When they arrived at Galena, Mr. Funk commenced digging for mineral the fore part of the season ; then he bought a team and hauled mineral during the latter part of the season ; then he went home and drove hogs to Galena, butchered them, and sold meat to the miners. These were the first hogs taken to Galena. In the spring of 1828 he returned to Galena, but in the fall he came home again, and took a second lot of hogs to Galena, butchered them, and returned in February, 1829. In the fall of 1829 he took some oxen to Galena, butchered them, sold them to the teamsters, and returned shortly afterwards. He always camped out in the woods. When he and his men ran out of meat, thev killed a hog and scalded it by a curious process. They dug a hole in the ground, put in some stones, built a log fire in it, and after a while scraped away the ashes, poured in water, which was immediately heated by the stones, and instantly plunged in the hog, which never failed to become effectually scalded.

During the winter of the deep snow, Jesse Funk started to Galena with a drove of hogs. The men who accompanied him were James Burleson, Severe Stringfield, Robert Funk and Marm'lean county. 773 tin Ruth. The last named was severely frozen on the expedition and wished to he left to die ; hut Jesse Funk took his whip and threshed the man severely, and made him run, and hv this means saved his life. On this trip the men were overtaken by the deep snow, and for a while their swine were buried beneath it. When they took out the pigs, the latter were found by the holes, which their breath melted up through the snow. Some of the pigs had been killed by the wolves. While driving the pigs, Jesse Funk followed behind and brought up those which were tired and disabled. The wolves followed close after him. The cold was most intense, and niairy of the pigs were frozen. They would put their snouts in the snow and squeal, and freeze, and die. The snowdrifts were very deep, particularly in the hollows. They were sometimes so deep that only the tops of trees could be seen. At last the party arrived at Galena with a remnant of starved and frozen swine. Provisions of all kinds were scarce at Galena, or Mr. Funk could not have disposed of his poor, sorry-looking pigs. He only made one hundred and thirty dollars by that trip.

In the meantime, Mrs. Funk was at home at Randolph's Grove pounding her corn into meal, and managing as best she could. The deer and wolves came into her yard very often. Mr. Thomas Rutledge assisted her in attending to the stock, cut and hauled her wood. During this winter the deer and wild turkeys ate with the cattle and chickens.

Mr. Funk was a tireless man and could endure everything. He used many novel expedients to succeed, and seldom failed to take advantage of any fortunate circumstance. At one time he killed a wild hog at Buckles' Grove, tied it to the tail of his horse and dragged it twelve miles home. On his various excursions to Galena, Chicago and elsewhere, with droves of stock, he camped out at night and made fire with Hint and steel and t'ow. He often ran much risk from robbers and lawless men, who are always plenty in a new country, but he was a man of powerful frame, and was not exposed to so much danger as many others would be. At one time he Avas followed by a robber from Chicago to the Mazon River, but there the thief lost the camp of Mr. Funk, and was foiled in his design. Mr. Funk had then several thousand dollars on his person. He made a great deal of money at times in his business, and occasionally he had corresponding losses.

During the hard times of 1837, he was brought to the verge of bankruptcy; but he saved himself in a fortunate transaction. He sold a lot of pork at Pekin, and took his pay in depreciated bills of the State Bank of Illinois, and received more money according to its depreciation. With this he paid the debts, which Isaac Funk and others owed to the bank, and he afterwards received his own pay in good money, dollar for dollar.

Mr. Funk was a man of great humor, and had a habit of giving1 nicknames. Once, while driving swine to Ohio, he had a man named Troxell to help him. Troxell could not read or write ; nevertheless, he was anxious to be called by some title to indicate that he was not a common hog drover. Jesse Funk, therefore, called him Squire. While on the route, Mr. Funk had occasion to buy some pigs, and had difficulty as to the amount ' of money they were all worth, after an agreement had been made as to the price of each pig. The amount in controversy was seven dollars. At last the party selling the pigs offered to leave it to Squire Troxell, and have him look over the figures to see if they were correct. Mr. Funk would not at first agree to this, as he did not wish to expose Troxell's ignorance, but at last he consented, being anxious to see how Troxell would get out of the s.-rape. The latter took the paper of figures and looked at it upside down for a long while. His eye meandered around every crook and turn of those characters, of which he was as ignorant as a new-born babe. At last he said he had discovered the mistake, and that the difference amounted to three dollars and a half, instead of seven dollars, and this settled it, "Didn't I get out of that pretty well ?" said Troxell. " Yes," said Funk, " but you don't want to figure me out of three dollars and a half again !"

Jesse Funk was a pretty good-sized man, well formed, had dark eves and' black hair. He was a kind and generous man, and his humor was of the best quality. But he was a terrible man when enraged : his passion was like a thunder cloud. He was a member of the Methodist Church : but lie always thought it religious to take his own part by physical force, if necessary. Senator Cusey says Mr. Funk would pray like a congressman, (do congressmen usually pray?) but, if neceesary, he would fight like a pugilist. At one time, while Mr. Funk was engaged in devotional exercises at a camp-meeting, some one pricked him with a pin. He bore the torture patiently until the exercises were ended, and then he proceeded to " clean out" the parties, who were causing the trouble. Mr. Funk died February 6, 1865.

The following items concerning the life of Mr. Hand, were given by his daughter, Mrs. A. M. String-field, of Randolph's Grove: Mr. Hand was born in 1790. Mrs. Strius-field cannot tell the place of his birth or give any information concerning his early life. He was a soldier in the war of 1812, and for his services a land warrant was given to his family after his death. In the spring of 1819, he left Ohio where he was living, and came with his family to Shawnectown, Illinois. The journey was hard and adventurous. The family started on a flatboat, but it ran against a sawyer and sank, and the Hand family saved only their lives and the clothing which they happened to wear at the time of the accident. A small steamboat took them from the wreck and landed them on shore. They found shelter in a little cabin near a grog-shop, where they came in contact with the worst element of western society. The men in the grog-shop made the night terrible with their drunken revels. At one time they became so noisy that the proprietor turned them out, and shortly afterwards a storm came up and blew off the roof of the grogery. The party took refuge in Mr. Hand's cabin, and during the whole night kept up their drunken revelry. After waiting three or four days, Mr. Hand's family Avere taken in a boat to Shaw- neetown. They went out into the country about eighteen miles, and tli ere Mr. Hand supported his family all summer with his labor and his gun. He built a little round log cabin which, as Mrs. String-field says, had cracks in it large enough to sling a cut through. He stayed there four years and then went to Sangamon County. Here he raised two crops. Mr. Hand hauled his hay from the Sangamon bottom. He had ten girls in his family, and they sometimes helped him in his work. In 1825 he came to Randolph's Grove, and there built a cabin and broke prairie. No young man could be found for help, so Amelia drove the oxen to break the prairie. When the land came into market he entered his farm. The country was then very wild, as may be imagined, and the wolves came around the house and made so much noise, that, as Mrs. Stringfield savs, " vou could not hear it thunder." Mr. Hand opened his house for a preaching place until school-houses were built. Their cabin was also the preachers' stopping place. Mr. Hand died in 1845, in the fifty-fifth year of his age. He had a family of ten girls and four boys, and all, except one girl, grew to be men and women. Six of the girls and two of the boys are yet living. Mr. Hand was rather a tall man, fair-haired, fair-complexioned, with very expressive blue eyes, and with heavy shoulders. He was a bold, energetic lookins* man, and was strong and active. He was an exhorter in the Methodist Church, and brought up his children in the way they should o-o.

Nathan Low was born on a farm called Eingold's Manor, in Greenbrier County, Maryland, near Williamsport, January 6, 1791. His father's name was Nathan Low, and his mother's Nancy Wright, before her marriage. Nathan Low, jr., at the age of fourteen, came to Licking Town, Licking County, Ohio. Here he finished his education, which was very limited, as his chances for learning were uot good. He followed the river for some time between the Kanawha Salt Works and Zanesville, Ohio. He married, February 12, 1814, Miss Sarah Brooks, a lady of fine sense and decision of character. She is still living, although Nathan Low has long since passed over the river.

drove cattle over the mountains to Harrisburg, Pa., and worked hard to carry on the farm. In 1829, he came with his family to Blooming Grove, starting in June and arriving in July. He brought a carriage with him, but this was too novel for the West, and was sold and taken back to Tennessee. It was the first in McLean County. The Indians were then plenty, and called on the Low family very often, but never disturbed them in any way. Mrs. Low, who observes matters pretty sharply, says that some of the Indians in these parts ran away from their tribe and joined the forces of Black Hawk during the great war, which the latter carried on. One of them came all painted to Mr. Low's cabin and took dinner with the family and piously asked a blessing at the table; but notwithstanding all his apparent piety, Mrs. Low was convinced that he was bound for Black Hawk's band, and that his paint was put on for war, though Mr. Low thought it was only the Indian's mode of dressing. He had a horse and a gun, which went through the Black Hawk war. The horse was ridden by Isaac Murphy. Mr. Low followed farming and stock raising until 1844, the time of his death. He had some property in 1829, when he came to the grove, but most of it he afterwards acquired by hard and patient toil. At the age of thirty-five, he was much broken down in consequence of hard work. During the winter of the deep snow he had thirty hogs to feed, and was obliged to pack corn for them on horseback for a distance of three miles. He made the trip through the timber every other day. During this severe winter it was impossible for farmers to go to mill, and they pounded their corn and wheat in blocks and sometimes ground it in a coffee mill.

Nathan Low's home would not now be called luxurious. It was a shanty with a single room twelve by fourteen feet, and this was the home of a family of ten persons ! When the children came home from school, they were obliged to put the chairs and tables out of doors in order to make beds on the floor. A second bed was made under the large one. But these little difficulties amounted to nothing, when compared to the vexations they sometimes endured. For instance, on one occasion during this same winter, there came a storm, which carried off the roof of the little shanty and lifted it over the horses, which were tied to a wagon near by. Then they tried to fix the roof and the snow blew over them and melted like rain. "We tell this incident without any further comment; it is as hard a condition as we have heard of for some time.

The early settlers visited each other oftener than people do at present, particularly from a distance. They had no neighborhood quarrels or neighborhood jealousies. People were always glad to see each other, and all stood on the same footing. But after a while the country became prosperous and thickly settled, and the old warmth of feeling gradually died out. The prosperity of later days has destroyed, in some measure, the good feeling of the early times. But the kind feeling of the early settlers has had a good effect, which still remains The hospitality of the pioneers who are now living is of the same generous kind as that for which they were first distinguished, and its effects are felt b}^ the whole community. We are inclined to think that people are now naturally as well disposed towards each other as in early days ; the difficulty is that if they exercise charity and hospitality and keep the " latch string always out," some disagreeable and shiftless folks will take advantage of good nature. During the early settlement of the country, this latter class of people was very small. Everybody was welcome everywhere, and all people who lived within twenty miles of each other were neighbors.

The early settlers made their own furniture. The}r had ovens of clay in which they baked their bread. Across the fire place was stretched a chain, and sometimes two or three, on which the pots and kettles were hung.

During the sudden change in the weather in December, 1836, so often described in this volume, Mr. Low was at Bloomington, in the office of the County Clerk. The cape of his coat was wet, and when he stepped out of doors the wind flared it out and immediately it was frozen in that shape.

Mr. Low brought the first sheep to Blooming Grove and sold them to farmers. His business as long as he lived was working with stock. He drove and sold cattle to the laborers on the Illinois and Michigan canal, and was shrewd enough always to see where he could find a market. He took rather a discourag. ing view of the western country and thought that, notwithstanding its fine land, it would never have the advantages of so good

Nathan Low was one of the best of the old settlers. He worked hard, and in the decline of lile saw the fruits of his labor in the prosperity which surrounded him. At the time of his death, which occurred April 17, 1844, he was possessed of nine hundred acres of land. He had seven children, of whom five are now living. They are :

Shrewd observers give usually a great deal of the credit of a man's success to his wife, and this seems to have been the case with Nathan Low. Mrs. Low now lives at Heyworth, and leads a very pleasant, independent life. She complains that her memory has failed, but the information she has given of the old settlers has been very accurate. She has raised a family of remarkably intelligent children, in whom she has a right to take a motherly pride.

Nathan Low was a heavily set and rather fleshy man, of medium height, with blue eyes and not very heavy, dark hair. He weighed perhaps one hundred and eighty pounds. His eyes were sharp and expressive, and in his later years were shaded by spectacles. lie was rather stoop shouldered, on account of an injury received by the falling of a tree in 1832. He worked hard for his family, was always anxious for their comfort, and happy while in their presence. At his death, he was buried at Blooming Grove, in Scoggin's cemetery.

The Pass Waters Family

Purnel Passwaters was born in 1782, in Sussex County, Delaware. His father, Richard Passwaters, was an Englishman, and his mother was of Dutch descent. He was a man of limited edu- cation and a farmer. In about the year 1806, lie married Comfort Short, a lady who was partly of Welch descent. In 1811 he moved to Monongehela County, Virginia. During the war of 1812 he enlisted as a soldier, but never was called into the field. In about the year 1814, Mr. Passwaters went back to the State of Delaware on business, traveling on horseback. "While crossing the Allegheny Mountains, he was once traveling in the night, and was followed by a panther for seven miles. The animal often came close to him and seemed inclined to spring, but Mr. Passwaters would jump from his horse and throw stones at it. It followed him until he came near a tavern, and then it disappeared in the woods.

In 1816, Mr. Passwaters emigrated to Hamilton County, Ohio, where he followed farming. In the fall of 1829, he started with his family from Hamilton County, Ohio, for Illinois. When he reached Hamilton County, Indiana, the cold weather set in, and he was obliged to stop. In the following spring he came to what was then Tazewell, but is now McLean, County, Illinois. He came,. during a part of his journey, in company with Lieutenant Governor Moore. When he arrived here he rented a small piece of land, and lived in a little cabin on the place now occupied by his son, Enoch Passwaters. He commenced farming, and steadily followed it until the day of his death, which occurred in February. 1852. He and his wife were both consistent members of the Methodist Church. Mrs. Passwaters died in 1844.

family to Hamilton Count}', Ohio. They moved in a Hatboat from Wheeling, Virginia, to the landing at JSTorth Bend, in sight of General Harrison's house. There young Richard was put to work as soon as he became possessed of muscle sufficient to make his work of any value. He worked during summers and went to school winters. He started for Illinois with his father's family in the fall of 1829, but did not arrive at his destination until the spring of 1830. He worked for his father on a farm until his marriage, which important event occurred February 4, 1836. His bride was Miss Sina Misner, a step-daughter of Governor Moore. They were married by Cheney Thomas, a justice of the peace. Mr. Passwaters then began farming on the place where he now lives, at Randolph's Grove. When the Black Hawk war broke out, Mr. Passwaters volunteered as a soldier, but on his march to the Rock River country was taken sick near where Lexington now is, and was unable to continue his march. He returned home, but afterwards volunteered as a ranger for sixty days to guard the frontier. During the fall after the war he made a visit to Ohio with his companions, Elias Gibbs and Garrett Misner, but had no particular adventure. Mr. Passwaters has been much of a hunter. He once had a run of fifteen miles after a gray wolf, which had been eating Jesse Funk's pigs, and he killed it with a stirrup. The wolf died game and showed fight to the last.

Mr. Passwaters had a severe experience during the sudden change of December, 1836. He was returning home on horsehack from his father's house; he had come to the spring branch which empties into the Kickapoo, and there, as his horse refused to take the water, he was obliged to wade up to his waist; but in doing so his horse broke loose, and Mr. Passwaters was obliged to proceed home on foot, a distance of a mile. When he had gone a short distance from the creek the sudden change came on, the cold wind from the west struck him, and before he had proceeded a hundred yards farther, his clothes were frozen on him stiff. He succeded in reaching home, but was sick for a long time afterwards.

of the pioneers. lie lias raised a family and supported it well by his labor and foresight. He has had twelve children, of which five have lived to be grown.

Mr. Passwaters is about five feet and eight inches in height, is not heavily built, is a very pleasant gentleman, is very kindhearted, and must have many friends. He has lately been afflicted with a stroke of paralysis in the left leg, but remains as cheerful as ever. His wife is a lady of fine sense, and their pioneer life lias doubtless been a happy one.

Purnel Passwaters, jr., was born September 12, 1815, in Monongehela County, Virginia. When he was only one year old his father moved to Hamilton County, Ohio. In the fall of 1820 the Passwaters family started for Illinois, but on account of cold weather they wintered over in Indiana. There young Purnel killed his first deer. The Passwaters family reached Randolph's Grove on the sixteenth of May, 1830. In 1833, Purnel began to hunt " right smart." His first excursion was to the Mazon River and to the sandridges between that and the Kankakee. Three hunters went with him, but theypbund little game, as other hunters had recently preceded them. Mr. Passwaters shot at a badger and broke its fore leg. The animal ran into its hole and was caught, but two men could not pull it out, although they pulled until it seemed that the animal must be torn asunder. They were obliged to kill it or it never could have been taken out.

In 1856, Mr. Passwaters went to Kansas, but had no particular adventure. He saw a great many Indians, and did some trading with them. One Indian was pointed out to him as the son of the celebrated Black Hawk ; but if this was the case, old Black Hawk neglected to train up his son in the way he should go, for the young man was drunk.

Mr. Passwaters is about five feet and eight or nine inches high, has a careful, considerate, honest expression on his countenance, has nearly always been successful in hunting, has killed great numbers of deer and turkeys, is a very kind-hearted man and much respected.

Enoch Jones Passwaters was born September 15, 1822, in Hamilton County, Ohio. He came with his father's family to Illinois in 1830, as stated in his father's sketch. He has not led a very adventurous life, has hunted deer and wolves as nearly all of the old settlers did. He used to keep greyhounds and fast horses to chase the game. He has often caught two deer out of a gang during a single chase. Only once did he know a deer to show fight, but he killed it with a stirrup while the dogs held it. He remembers an exciting wolf chase when he rode an unshod horse on slippery ground, and came up with the wolf after chasingit for seven miles. After his horse had made many turns, and the wolf had made many dodges, Mr. Passwaters crippled it by running over it, and the dogs came up and finished it.

Mr. Passwaters married, May 19, 1812, Almeda Savage, who died February 12, 1865. He married, September 7, 1871, Mrs. Ann Eliza Atchison. He has been very happy in his domestic life. He is about five feet and six or seven inches in height, has a bright expressive eye, is a pleasant, companionable man, and is industrious and hard working.

Irvin Purnel, Lucy Alice, Sarah Elizabeth, Mary Lovina, Enoch Halleck and George William Passwaters, live at home. Sarah Gertrude Atchison and Charles Xewton Atchison, the children of Mrs. Passwaters by her first marriage, also live in the same household.

Clement Passwaters is the youngest living son of the Passwaters, sr. He was born in Hamilton County, Ohio, March 17, 1825. He is of medium height, and has rather a dark complexion, and is one of the most honored members of the Passwaters family. He was married, June 1, 1848, to Miss Rebecca Yocum, daughter of Jacob Yocum, of Sangamon County, Blinois. He has had a family of seven children, of whom six are living. They are :

Jacob Bishop was born June 25, 1797, in Maryland. His father, John Bishop, was of English descent, and his mother, whose maiden name was Hannah Cooper, was of German. "When Jacob was only four years of age, he came with his parents to Fayette County, Pennsylvania. In about the year 1812 or 13, the Bishop family came tc Perry County, Ohio, near the line between that and Licking County. Their journey was not remarkably adventurous. "While crossing the Ohio, the waves rolled so high that their boat came near capsizing. The family was passed on its way by armies going westward to fight the British and Indians. Every regiment was accompanied by women, who were resolved to follow their husbands even to the battlefield. Mr. Bishop's elder brother was drafted into the army. When the Bishop family arrived in Ohio, they took a seven years lease of land in the woods. Jacob Bishop worked hard until he was twenty-one years of age aad then hired out to John Strawn, for whom he worked one year for one hundred dollars. Then he farmed Mr. Strawn's place for one year. Jacob Bishop married Mary Ann Weedman, and commenced keeping house in 1820. He started for Illinois, August 15, 1830, and came to Blooming Grove, where he arrived on the 15th of September. He had then very little property, and his father-inlaw, George Weedman, had only a few hundred dollars with which to bring the settlers here. Deer, turkey and bee trees were then plenty ; he found the richest bee trees and largest quantities of honey in Old Town. He worked hard and had good weather until the great fall of snow between Christinas and New Years. During the latter part of the winter, people could go through the woods anywhere and find the carcasses of deer which had died because of the severe weather. The first heavy fall of snow came waist deep, and shortly afterwards a crust formed on it, which prevented cattle from traveling, for it was not hard enough to bear them up. The settlers broke roada from one house to another, but the wind filled up the tracks with snow; the roads were broken again and again until they gradually became packed and rose higher than the snow on either side. Mr. Bishop's family had enough breadstuff's to last until the tenth of February. On that day, Mr. Bishop started with four others to Scott's mill on Kickapoo creek, about fourteen miles distant. They traveled from one house to another, where tracks had been broken and packed. At one place they walked over bars six feet high. They traveled with horses and took with them an additional packhorse. If they stepped from the track, they went down into the deep snow. They succeeded in getting their meal ground, and returned the following day. Just before the snow fell, Mr. Bishop and his father went to the edge of Old Town to get some pork and a cow. They brought home the pork, but the cow remained until late in February. When they went for it, they counted the carcasses of nine deer that had perished in the snow. Some were lying untouched and some had been partly eaten by wolves. The pigs had a hard time of it ; they were accustomed to run wild and live on mast, but the snow prevented them from finding acorns. Jesse Funk's pigs ate the bark from the elm trees, as high as they could reach. The wolves were the only animated creatures which really seemed to enjoy themselves. They could run around on the crust of snow and could kill all the deer they wished, and were not afraid of anything, for they seemed to know that nothing could catch them.

Mr. Bishop had at first nothing with which to support his wife and six children. He borrowed $100, and entered eighty acres of timber land and went to work. But notwithstanding these difficulties, be lived a happy life. In the evening he sat and made shoes, while his wife worked her spinning wheel, and all the money they could earn by their united efforts was used to enter land. It was then very easy to raise stock. Cattle were fattened by turning them loose and allowing them to eat grass.

Mr. Bishop has been something of a hunter. He often chased wolves. At one time he dug out a den and found five little wolf puppies. The old ones were looking on in the distance, but did not dare to come up. He has hunted deer, but had no dangerous adventure; he never had a buck turn on him for fight. Mr. Bishop was always cautious about hunting deer, after an adventure which happened to Asa Weedrnan. Mr. Weedrnan was a great hunter, and on one of his expeditions he creased a buck, that is, shot it on the top of its neck and stunned it. He quickly ran up to cut its throat, but his knife was dull, and soon the deer arose and the hunter dropped his knife to hold it. The struggle was a very long one. Mr. Weedrnan held to the horns of the buck and could do nothing else. At last his strength failed him, and he concluded to quit if the deer was willing; so he let go of the buck and lay down and "played 'possum." The deer pawed him and looked at him suspiciously, then ran off a short distance and looked back, then went a little farther and looked back again, and finally went away entirely. Mr. Weedrnan lacerated his hands badly in trying to hold the buck, and his clothes were almost torn off of him.

Just before the Black Hawk war, Mr. Bishop, Robert Rutledge and William G. Wright, went to Chicago, and were interrupted by the extraordinarily high water. They crossed the Calumet swamps by putting eight yoke of oxen on each wagon and drawing it through. On their return they crossed the Desplaines River by unloading and taking their wagons across in pieces in canoes, which they had lashed together. They took across their salt, a small part at a time. They crossed the Dupage River with the assistance of only one canoe. At the Illinois River, they were fortunate enough to find a boat large enough to bring their wagons over, but they swam their oxen.

Mrs. Charlotte Stringfield, lives with her father at the homestead. Her husband, A. J. Stringfield, died of sickness contracted while in the army.

Mr. Jacob Bishop was, before he became bent with age, five feet and six inches in height. He is one of the most tender hearted of men, is exceedingly kind to his family, has worked hard for them and is anxious to see them prosper. He has the most fine and delicate feelings, is exceedingly hospitable, and feels grieved to think people are not as hearty and kind as the old settlers were. He has worked hard himself and always taught his children to be busy. He would like very much to see the old camp-meetings revived, and thinks they are much pleasanter than churches. All except two of his children are members of churches. His wife, Mrs. Mary Ann Bishop, died in January, 1873. She was a most excellent lady, and in all of the hardships of pioneer life she bore her part bravely.