Shipman Township

Shipman Township

The town of Shipman was named in honor of John H. Shipman, one of the original proprietors, who laid out the town. John L. Roberts was the other proprietor, and the surveyor was George H. Holliday, who surveyed it in 1852. It lies on section 24.

The first dwelling in the town was erected by a Mr. Phillips, while Leonard Loveland, Jr., built the first store and stocked it with groceries. In 1853 Messrs. Denny and Meatyard engaged in the mercantile business here, having erected a store building for the purpose. In 1855 a third store was opened by I. & E. Green.

The town of Shipman was larger twenty years ago, when there were 410 people. At this time there are but 392, which shows things have been practically at a standstill.

The Shipman Banking Company was organized in 1895, and has a cash capital of $15,000. S. P. Saner is president; A. Dehl, vice president; James B. Metcalf, cashier.

The town of Piasa took its name from the creek which bears the name. It is located on the line of the Rock Island division of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railroad, where the corners of sections 19, 20, and 29 and 30 join.

The first person to locate in the town was George Parker, who built a log cabin in the spring of 1836. The following year, 1837, R. Meatyard came and located in tlie town.

In 1849 a schoolhouse was erected at a cost of $250. The first postoffice was established in 1850, with Charles Talley as postmaster. The same year H. G. Talley opened a blacksmith ship.

Reminiscent

A TALE WELL TOLD BY J. 1!. ANDREWS OF EARLY DAYS IN SHIPMAN TOWNSHIP - HE TELLS OF THE FIRST BAPTIST SOCIETY THE PRIMITIVE SCHOOLS MANUMITTED SLAVES AND THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD LACK OF MEDICAL ATTENDANCE.

At the time of the beginning of our story there were 150,000 inhabitants in the state of Illinois. Probably nine-tenths of these were south of the 40° parallel of latitude, and perhaps not an incorporated city in the state. Chicago was a hamlet, included in an area of three-eighths of a square mile. There were two or three cabins among the hills at Alton. Hostile Indians had all been driven out except in the Rock river region, in the northwestern part of the state, where there was a desultory war against predatory Indians who came across the Mississippi river, whence they had been driven in 1827. After the battle of the Bad Axe in 1832, which closed the Black Hawk war, the people of the state of Illinois were not molested by hostile Indians.

The history of a country or a locality begins with its occupation by those who are capable of transmitting the story of their achievements in some durable form. It is hardly proper to say the aborigines of America really possessed the land. They did not so much as drive a stake in the ground as a symbol of their possession.

Before the busy hand of man changed the face of nature by reducing it to his uses and purposes, the timber lines stood out in bold relief like promontories extending far out into the ocean, and they served the weary traveler as landmarks to guide him to his goal. In those old days, the hunters, rangers and Indians burned the prairies in the fall of the year, but the permanent settlers soon put a stop to that. It appears that the channels of the larger streams checked the progress of the fires and protected the forests along their courses, so that the timber along the creeks was good, there being white oak, black oak, red oak, post oak, hickory, elm, ash and some walnut. One of the attractions to the first -settlers in this region was the abundance of limestone which cropped out in the streams in five places, first in the Piasa creek on the Jersey county line, one and a fourth miles west of Piasa, thence appearing on four branches nearly on a line south by west for a distance of about two and one-half miles in the same direction.

The fauna of the Piasa were in part deer and wolves in abundance, a few panthers, wild cats, and one Canada lynx was seen by a young man named Andrews, who was driving an ox wagon on a road near a rail fence, when he saw

There was in those days always a thin line pf hunters, adventurers and rangers who preceded the earliest permanent settlers, and, generally when a settlement was started within ten or twenty miles of them, they moved on. They had their mission in that they removed some of the obstructions in the way of a permanent occupation of the country.

According to the custom of the time the region between the Piasa creek and Wood river was called Brown's prairie, its first settler being a man named Oliver Brown, who built his cabin in the edge of the woods, where the village of Brighton now stands, in 1829. He was a near relative of the late Michael Brown, an honored citizen of Brighton for about seventy years. In the spring of 1830 Mr. Brown broke a patch of ground and planted corn and raised a good crop.

On the I2th of October, 1830, Joseph Andrews arrived from Todd county, Kentucky, and pitched his tent on the brow of a hill of one of the larger branches of the Piasa creek. There were four young men and three boys in the family. Andrews and his eldest sons were pioneers in western Kentucky and knew how to take care of themselves in a new country. They built a large double log cabin of hewed logs. At the foot of the hill on which the cabin stood was a deep hole of pure water, from which they had an abundant supply. By the time they had got pretty well fixed, the big snow came. They had bought a dozen hogs from a man living north of the Macoupin creek, near, where Rockbridge now is, and several wagon loads of corn from Mr. Brown of Brighton. The meat and corn were all the food they had while the big snow lasted. The corn was boiled until soft, then beaten in a trough, dug out of a section of a log. So much has been said and written about the big snow that it seems unnecessary to give the details of the experience of any particular settler, for they were all very much alike.

The Simmons family had built a cabin on the north bank of Piasa creek, about three miles west of where the village of Piasa now stands, in the spring' of 1830. There were four grown young men in this family, named Richard, Samuel, Thomas and John. They each built for themselves homes, near together, and formed the nucleus for a settlement. Shortly after, the Bells, Davidsons and Chapmans and one or two other families moved in. The locality occupied by the above named settlers was called Simmons prairie, and included the region between Piasa creek and Phills creek to the north in Greene, now Jersey county. (Jersey county was organized in 1839.)

A family named Rhoads had built a cabin in or near where Medora now is, in the year 1829. Shortly after, about 1831 and 1832, three or four other families settled there and the place was called Rhoads Point.

In 1832 the first Baptist society, in all the region of which we write, was organized. The seventy-fifth anniversary of this society was recently celebrated in the Baptist church in Medora.

In the fall of the year 1830, the Browns of Brighton, the Simmons and Andrews of Piasa, and the Rhoads of Medora were all the inhabitants between a small settlement near Godfrey, or where the village of Godfrey now is. and

The first settlers of this region did not live long in their mud-daubed and stick-chimney cabin's before they began building better homes. The Andrews' young men set up a primitive lime kiln at one of the rock quarries and' made good lime and mortar, with which they plastered the spaces between the logs of their cabins, and a brother-in-law made a kiln of brick, with which they built their chimneys on the outside of their houses, with large fire places opening on the inside. They made shingles from white oak trees, which were split from sections sawed from the logs, eighteen inches long, and shaved with a drawing knife to a uniform thickness and width, with a thick and thin end as shingles are now made. Nails were procured in St. Louis. Oak boards were obtained from a sawmill on Macoupin creek. These boards were planed on one side and straightened, with which smooth floors were laid. The shingled roofs lasted about twenty-five years.

Joseph Andrews, the first settler between the Piasa and the Little Piasa creeks, built his permanent home near the northeast corner of section 6, in township 7 north, range 9 west, about a half mile from the timber, on what was then called a state road which had been located from Jacksonville to Alton. This road was sixty feet wide and ran diagonally across the prairie from Piasa to Brighton. This road has been relocated on section lines and their parallels, and reduced to forty feet width.

In the years 1831 and 1832 several families moved into the neighborhood. Among them were Alexander Miles, Colonel Miles' father, Robert Hargrave, George Settlemire, the father of D. O. Settlemire, who recently retired from the banking business in Litchfield, and one or two other families. Soon after these families came they built a log schoolhouse about a half mile west of the present residence of John E. Andrews, which was his father's home. This temple of learning was the first educational institution between Godfrey and Macoupin creek. School was held in this building until the year 1842, when it was abandoned and a frame building was erected for school, about a mile south of the old log schoolhouse. This new schoolhouse was called the Jefferson school.

Little Piasa creek is the largest branch of the main creek and runs parallel with the larger creek. Between these two streams the prairie extended like an estuary of the sea with many inlets. The Jefferson schoolhouse stood in the edge of the woods, and forty acres of open prairie on the other side, which seemed to be space enough for a playground. South of this, across the creek, and alongside of another extension of the prairie, stood the Washington schoolhouse, which was built about the same time. About half the pupils of the Jefferson school lived in Jersey county and half in Macoupin county.

A spirit of intense patriotism and loyalty to our civil institutions was inculcated by the teachers of these, schools and this was generally done throughout the country. When the Civil war came, nearly all the boys who had attended the old Jefferson school went into the army, and more than half of them lost their lives in the service of their country.

In the year 1844 a slaveholder in the state of Missouri manumitted his slaves and sent alxiut fifteen of them to Illinois. They came to Alton on a boat but the citizens would not permit them to land. They were taken up the river to the mouth of Piasa creek and put ashore in the woods. They made their way to the vicinity of the present village of Piasa and secured a right to some land in some manner and built several cabins, forming a community to themselves, where they lived for many years. They have all died or moved away except two families, with only one who came out of bondage, he being John Arbuckle, who is a patriarch among his people.

At the -time of the first settlement orr the Piasa there seems to have been no improvement in the methods of farming since the days of the Pharaohs of Egypt. It is said that the ancient Greeks invented a machine to cut small 'grain, which was drawn by animals, but the knowledge of its structure was lost. The farmers on the prairies as late as the fourth decade of the nineteenth century plowed, their ground with a wooden plow, with an iron share made by a common blacksmith. This plow was generally drawn by oxen. The ground was harrowed with a wooden harrow - not a particle of iron about it. The seed was sown broadcast by hand, then again harrowed. The wheat and other small grain were cut with a cradle, - a scythe with a broad blade and a wooden frame attached to gather the grain as the implement was swung through the grain, which was thrown in a swath by the cradler. These things may seem trivial but our existence depended upon a vigorous use of these rude implements. The prairie was broken with a heavy plow, cutting a furrow two feet wide from eight to ten inches deep. The beam of this plow was fastened at the front end to a pair of trucks made of sections sawed from the end of a log. From four to five yoke of oxen were required to pull this plow through the strong sod. The wheat was threshed by horses upon a cleared circular space, on which the grain was stood up in a circle, with an open space in the center. The horses were ridden upon the wheat by boys until the grain was threshed out. then the straw was raked off and the grain in the chaff was piled in the middle of the tramping ground. In the evening of each day the wheat was fanned and put in shelter.

When the Andrews came to this section, a deep, narrow valley of a large branch, a mile and a half southwest of Piasa. was covered with buffalo bones. How these bones got there was a mystery. It does not seem probable that a large herd of buffaloes could have been caught in such a place by a prairie fire or a blizzard. In a few years these bones all disappeared.

In the years 1835 and 1836 several families came, among whom was Howard Clark, from Kentucky. He came first to Edwardsville in 1831. Mr. Clark had five sons who attended the Jefferson school. These boys all made their homes in Macoupin county, in and near the village of Brighton. They were studious and orderly boys in school and made excellent citizens. None of them are now living George H. Clark, who is in the mercantile business in Piasa. is a son of Edward 15., the eldest son of Howard Clark.

Several English families came about the same time - the Tribles, the Wilsons, the Meatyards and a little later, the Beebys and the James. They were industrious and thrifty people and an important acquisition to the settlement.

George Parker and one of the Trible families were the first settlers in what is now the village of Piasa. The place was first known as Mt. Pleasant, a name

About the year -1851 Samuel Stratton, now of Los Angeles, California, then a boy about seventeen years old, built a twelve by fourteen feet store, on the corner. of the cross roads now belonging to Mrs. Mary Bateman, of St. Louis, in which the boy began business. Mr. Stratton is now a wealthy man. Piasa, not having the advantages of a suitable location for business, except to a very limited extent, is yet a hamlet with a population of 116 and thirty-nine dwelling houses.

A man named John Hart came from Kentucky in the year 1836, or near that time, and made a home two miles northwest of Brighton, between the two Piasa creeks. His home was a station on the underground railroad, where many runaway negroes found a hiding place and transportation to the next station at Carlinville. Mr. Hart was a very peculiar man. He professed to be a disciple of Voltaire and Tom Paine. His life and property were in constant peril. Several attempts were made to assassinate him, but failed. He was a most innocent appearing man but his neighbors knew he was a dangerous man to assault. He never talked to his neighbors about being connected with the business of helping slaves to freedom. He had for his associates Messrs. Griggs, Burbank and one or two others. But one fugitive was arrested during the many years Mr. Hart was engaged in the business of assisting runaway slaves. This one was taken before a justice of the peace in Brighton for trial. During the progress of the investigation, Hart and his associates by a ruse got the accused away from the constable and safely started on the way to Canada. Mr. Hart lived ten or twelve years after the close of the Civil war.

The pioneers of the Piasa did the best they could to provide facilities for giving their children the rudiments of an education. While the manner of conducting the schools and imparting instruction was antiquated, there was opportunity for the children, who could be induced to study, to develop well informed minds and a sturdy intelligence. Emerson said he needed some one to make him do what he could.

After the settlers were supposed to have had time to accumulate a little money, along came the ubiquitous Yankee clock peddler, whose disquisitions upon the horological qualities of his clocks completely fascinated the old pioneer, and with the air of one bestowing a great favor, the peddler asked forty dollars for a six dollar clock. Afterwards came the pump peddler and the lightning rod man, and with them all, the poor farmer was scarcely permitted to retain enough of his hard earnings to supply his family with corn bread and succotash.

Many people commiserate the old settler for the privations he had to endure. His manner of living had its compensations. He was free from the many annoyances of social relations obtaining in densely populated communities. There was little real destitution, and a beggar was seldom seen. When one did come along, he was taken in and treated as a prince of the royal blood. Their diversions were of a character that appealed to their ideas of recreation as strongly as can be realized in the most esthetic form of amusement. Questions of governmental polity were discussed around many cabin firesides in the long winter evenings in a manner that would have been creditable in a coterie of statesmen.

The greatest privation they were called upon to endure was the lack of sufficient medical attendance. Malaria was prevalent in the fall of the year. Many people had a spell of the ague or bilidus fever every fall. This fever was often fatal. The doctors prepared their medicines in the nastiest manner they could, apparently believing that the chief virtue of the remedy was in its nauseous quality. There was one doctor located in Upper Alton. There was no town there in 1830.

J. E. Andrews, whose home is two miles north of Brighton, has one of the best private collection of fossils, curios and relics of a former race who occupied the region of the Piasa ages ago. Many of these were dug out of 'small mounds found in a number of places. All we know of these ancient people is what is indicated by the contents of these mounds, and stone implements found scattered about in many places.

The legend of the Piasa bird appears to be a very fair illustration of the growth and development of a tale through many repetitions of its telling. This story has, no doubt, lost every semblance of the incident upon which the legend got a start on its growth to its ludicrous maturity.

When the first settlers came to the Piasa they found a rough outline drawing of the bird on the bluff, where the Alton quarries now are. This drawing was made with red keel, a soft stone, by Indians. The figure was scarred and dotted with bullets and arrows supposed to have been fired against it by Indians passing in their canoes.