Stonington Township

Stonington Township

HIS township is bounded on the north by Mosquito, east by Macon county and Prairieton township, south by May aud west by Buckhart township ; it comprises the Congressional town 14, range 1 W., is six miles square - and contains a fine body of land - its farmers are among the most enterprising in the county. This towu.ship entered into one of the four original precincts formed on the organization of the county. It then embraced the whole south-western portion of the county. And when curtailed in its boundaries, it has continued to retain its original name. At the first election held August 5, 1839, Peter R. Ketcham and David Simons were elected Justices of the Peace, and William L. Hammer Constable. For the other constable there was a tie between Frederick Fitch and Nicholas Sanders. The latter drew the prize by lot. The Judges of election were Elijah Palmer, David Simons and Peter R. Ketcham. As this returning Board adjudicated in their own cases, it is presumable there was more honesty in "counting" in tho.se days than now. The area of the precinct was then 195 square miles, and cast 48 vtites. The same territory at the election in 1876 cast a vote of 2,400. At the first election there was not a single vote cast in what is now Rosemond, Pana am! Assumjition, then included in Stonington Precinct.

Pioneer Settlers

The pioueer settlers in Stonington township, were Peter R. Ketcham, Christopher Ketcham, John Biggs, Elijah Palmer, Nicholas Sanders, Deacon Peabody, Thos. P. Chapman, Samuel N. Peabody, William S. Peabody, Frederick Fitch, Allen B. Peabody, Leonard G. Lillie, Andrew B. Chapman ; later came Asa Bowman, J. G. Armstrong. C. Tyler Chapman came in 1849. John T. Slaughter came in 1845. Matilda Compton, 1840. W. S. Spingate, 1834.

The first steam saw and grist mill was erected a short distance above "Sandersville, " in 1842, by Leonard G. Lillie, who operated it sucessfully for several years. Next to the one at Mt. Auburn it was the second steam mill built in the county. After a few years, Mr. Lillie emigrated to California, and the mill was sold aud moved away.

The annual prairie fires were a great annoyance to the early settlers. Many years ago, some emigrant wagons passed where Stonington is now located, going towards Mt. Auburn. The emigrants at night camped in the tall wild grass that grows so luxuriantly in the low land, of that vast prairie. During the night the prairie was set on fire ; it came sweeping toward them with almost the velocity of the wind, and not knowing how to avoid it they nearly all perished in the flames. Had they burned the grass for some distance around their camp - they would most probably have passed through the danger unscathed. Greeu B. Ketcham, a citizen of Stonington township, was elected as one of the early Coroners of the county. He could neither read or write. There was a time in the country's history, when this seemed to be a necessary qualification. A writ was placed in his hands to be served on the sheriff'. As he could not read it, but was informed as to the nature of its contents, a wag, comprehending the situation, informed him that in order to make a legal service, where the officers could not read it, he was to communicate the nature of it, and at the same time place his hand on the person named in the writ. The sheriff humored the joke; both officers had their horses saddled ; each made for his horse, when 2.40 time was made, sheriff' H. in the lead and the Coroner close in the rear. Round and round the public square, at the county seat, first up one street and down another. At length the writ was served, and the green Coroner made for his cabin well nigh exhausted.

was by James Ketcham, January 6, 1836, the S. E. 3 of the S. E. h of section 34, 40 acres. Other entries were made on the same day by Richard F. Barrett - S. "W. ] section 35, 160 acres, S. E. 1 section 35, 160 acres, S. W. section 36, 160 acres and S. E. section 36, 160 acres. September 27, 1836, Thomas H Hewitt and Robert Allen, each entered land on section 25.

was an old trading point iu the south-east corner of this township, on the old county road from Taylorville to Moweaqua. Goods were sold there for nearly a quarter of a century, by Nicholas Sanders, John Catherwood, Charles F. Moody and others. It had a Post-office, and near by was the <)V\ Baptist church and the district school-house.

A number of New Englanders de.siriug to emigrate to the westward, organized an association, in North Stoningtou, Connecticut ; and as early as 1836, sent out Rev. Gideon B. Perry and Thomas H. Hewitt, as special agents, to prospect, locate and enter a large compact body of land in some desired portion of Illinois. These agents, after traveling over most of the northern part of the state, came to Springfield, where they met Dr R. F. Barrett and Robert Allen, two prominent and well-known citizens, and it was there determined, to locate on the west side of Flat Branch on lands then in Shelby and Sangamon counties. They entered 10,000 acres of land, whK,'h was divided, and allotted by auctiou among the members of the colony, in North Covington, Connecticut. The names of the principal colonists, who came to the county, were Thomas P. Chapman, Nicholas Sanders, William S. Friuk, Benj. F. Chapman, Gideon Wilbor, Elijah Palmer, Allen P. Peabody, Frederick Fitch, William S. Peabody, Rev. A. Ackley, Elias S. Peabody, Amos Peabody, Thomas Skiff, Thomas Millard, and probably others in 1837. In the following year, Samuel Peabody, Samuel N. Peabody, Paris Pray, Horace Jlorgau, John D. Brown, Deacon Smith, John P. Williams, Andrew B. Chapman and C. Tyler Chapman, joined them.

The county, at that time, was very sparsely settled, and the settlers lo(jked with a jealous eye upon all bodies of new comers, and on none more than those from the New England states. In 1834, William Kinney, of Bellville, then a candidate for Lieutenant Ciovernor, said much in his speeches to engender this sectional hate.

The arrangements of the colonists were projected on a grand scale. It was determined that a tract of 160 acres of land should be appropriated, before division, to the founding of a city. This was done. The name was to be " Stonington City."

The tract was situated on the W. 2 of S. E. \ , and the E. i of S. W. 4, of section 25, T. 14 N., R. 1 W. It was surveyed into lots and blocks, and platted May 11, 1837, by John B. Watson, surveyor of Sangamon county, under the direction of Gideon B, Perry, chairman of the executive committee of the " Stonington colony." It contained a public square, park, forty-two blocks and five hundred and four lots. The streets were seventy- two feet wide, with high-sounding names.

The enterprising colony, imbued with the laudable spirit which actuated their Puritan ancestors, determined on having early educational facilities. Schools being provided for, they procured the passage of a liberal charter for the founding of a school, to be known as " Brush College," which lives only in memory.

Supervisors. - Asa Bowman, elected 1806, re-elected 1867, and continued in office up to 1874 ; Joshua Barrich, elected 1874 ; R. W. Covington, 1875, and by re-election continued to hold the office until 1879 ; Charles A. Peabody, 1880.

Justices of the Peace. - James Ferguson, elected 1866 ; N. B. Chapman, 1866 ; James Ferguson resigned, and P. P. Dough removed 1870. John W. Farrow, 1872, re-elected 1873 ; James Miller, 1873; Joseph H. Foltz and James Ferguson, 1874; John SniitJi, J. II. Meyers, and J. H. Foltz, 1877.

Is a small town and station on the Wabash, St. Louis and Pacific railway, about nine miles north-east of Taylorville, in the heart of a farm and stock-growing country. At first it was called Covington, in honor of one of its proprietors. But the removal of the old Stonington post-ofiice from Sandersville, carried the name with it ; and from the expressed wishes of many of the older inhabitants, the name Stonington was substituted for that of Covington, by which name it has since been known.

The town was surveyed and platted by Richard M. Puwel, county surveyor, June 14, 1870, for E. O. Smith, of Decatur, and R. W. Covington, of Stonington township. It is located in the north-west corner of section twenty-seven of this township.

The next building was moved down the railroad from about three miles, by John Downey, in which he kept a saloon. This was in the spring of 1870

Dr. J. B. Maple, Wm. Slaughter, John W. Slaughter and John Stumpffalso built their residences in 1870. John W. Tarrow built a hotel in 1870.

John W. Slaughter erected a store-house and opened a general stock of goods in the spring of 1871. The town was nearly all built during 1870 and 1871. It now has a population upward of one hundred and fifty.

The post-office was established in 1870, and John Catherwood was the first post-master. R. B. Temple and A. J. Palmer are the succeeding ones.

The elevator, .iwued by S. S. Spragiie & Co., was erected in the winter of l'^7S. It is constructed for handling all kinds of grain, and has a capacity of 2tl,00(t busliels small grain

Biographical Sketches Asa Bowman

One of the most prominent farmers in Stonington township is the subject of the following sketch. He was born in Warren county, Ohio, June 9th, 1818, and was the sou of Samuel and Emily Bowman, and is of German ancestry. His grandfather emigrated from Gernjany in au early day. He first settled in Virginia, where he married a German wife, and subsequently emigrated into Kentucky, and settled near where Lexiugtou now is; he raised quite a large family, Mr. Bowman's father being the youngest sou. He remembers hearing his father tell how they, in early days, protected themselves from attacks by the Indians, in the block-house they were compelled to erect for defence. Bold and daring deeds, as w-ell as hair-breadth escapes, were the prominent characteristics of those hardy pioneers who first emigrated to Kentucky to eftect settlements. At that time nature wore her undisputed livery of dark and thick forest-trees, and grasses indigenous to the soil, inhabited only by wild beasts and still wilder men. It was here on the frontier that Samuel Bowman was brought up. He assisted his father to improve a farm.and made himself generally useful until he became of age, when he started out for himself, and, not being satisfied with his native state, went into Indiana, where he remained about two years. He subsequently changed Jiis location to Ohio, stopping near Lebanon, in Warren county, where he afterwards married !Miss Emily Skinner, a native of Virginia. Here he improved a farm, where he lived until his death ; he rai.sed a family of ten children, the subject of our sketch being the eldest. His aged wife still survives him, and lives on the old homestead, in Ohio, at the advanced age of eighty- four years. ]\Ir. Bowman was raised in the above-named county, on a farm ; he attentled the common schools of his neighborhood, where he received a fair education. From the time he arrived at the age of maturity until he was twenty-six years of age he taught school, and during this time conceived the idea to follow a professional life ; for four or five years he read medical works, with a determination to fit himself for the practice, and in 1844 he came to Illinois and began the study in earnest, under a cousin. Dr. Daniel Bowman, located near Greenfield, in Greene county, where he applied himself about two years, and in the meantime was united in marriage to Miss Mary Bowman, November 9th, 1844. In 184G Mr. Bowman moved to

Ottumwa, Iowa, where he established (juite a lucrative practice, and bought two town lots, with a residence thereon, with the intention of making this place his future home. After two years' practicing here lie became dissatisfied with the country, as his health was failing him rapidly ; he was not only dissatisfied with the country, but also became dissatisfied with his chosen profession, as his constitution would not bear the constant strain incident to a doctor's life, being called at all times in the night, and being compelled to go in all kinds of weather. He determined to return to his native land in Ohio ; he sold his library, medicines, and practice to a Dr. Rush. His residence and some real estate that he had purchased in that vicinity could not be realized upon at the time, but were disposed of in after years. He returned to Warren county, C)hio, in 1848, where he soon recovered his health, and in 1853 he returned to Greene county, Illinois, where he rented a farm. After putting in a crop he determined to find a location in Illinois and make himself a permanent home. He went to Springfield, and after investigating the facilities of ditterent parts of the state, through the laud office, he made up his mind to cast his lot in the prairies of Christian county. He had a plat made of town fourteen, range one, west, in this office, showing all lands not entered in what is now Stonington township. It was in May, 185.S, he came into this county, where he entered the north half of section twenty-nine. He then returned to Greene county, where he lived three years ; then went to ^lorgan county, where he lived one year, near Jacksonville, and in 1857 came to Christian county to improve his land, a raw prairie three and a-half miles from timber. A great many of the older settlers thought Bowman could never make a farm so far out on the prairie, and so addressed him, but his experience in Iowa, the prairie state, had taught him that the prairie lands were much more preferable when once under a state of cultivation. In 1858 he turned the first furrow on the farm where he now resides ; he has near forty-five acres in orchard, forty acres bearing ; he has also put out about ten acres of timber, making a beautiful grove. He has in this grove a great many different varieties of timber growing: black and white walnut, wild-cherry, white, green, and blue ash, poplar, linn or bass-wood, dog-wood, iron-wood, hard and soft maple, red and white elm, European larch, several kinds of oak and hickory, pecan, cotton-wood, willow, box-elder, two kinds of catalpa, cedar, and several kinds of [liue. He has fifty-four chestnut trees, prett}- much all bearing ; he has persimmons bearing that he planted from the seed. Some three miles north-east he has a farm of one hundred and sixty acres, where he has twenty acres of orchard. He is now making fruit-growing a specialty, shipping his apples mostly in the spring, thereby always realizing a good price; he has taken great pains with his orchards in planting, selecting nothing but the best trees, and in consequence his fruit is a choice article, and always brings the highest price in market. Mr. Bowman started farming the three hundred and twenty acres, his first entry, but, by adding tract after tract, he now owns, in the vicinity in which he lives, one thousand one hundred and ten acres, mostly beautiful farming land. We show an elaborate engraving in another part of this book of scenes on his farms. He is now among the oldest settlers in Stonington township. In every respect he is a self-made man, one who has won his way to his present position among the wealthy and substantial farmers of Central Illinois, by his own industry and energy, and the rising generation would do well to imitate his industrious example, if in like manner they would rise to positions among the large and thrifty farmers of this part of the state. He would never allow himself to go into debt, and to this he greatly attributes his success in life ; his plan was to realize on his stock, year after year ; this money he would loan, and he can say that he never took more than ten per cent, from anyone, although many times he has been offered twenty-five per cent- by good men, and when he got money enough together he would invest it in a farm. He has aimed to make his way in the world by industry, not by trickery, and by the slow but sure gains of patient labor, rather than by the brilliant schemes of speculation, by which fortunes are often rapidly amassed, and by which they are perhaps as often swiftly lost. He has an onl}' son, John A., now living at home. Mr. Bowman in politics was originally a whig, and then a republican, until 1873, he cast his old party aside, and has since been a firm and unconditional greenbacker, working for the supremacy of his party and the grand results he believes it to be its mission to achieve. In 1876 the greenback party nominated him for the Legislature to represent the thirty-fourth district; he made a very creditable canvas, considering the strength of the party in the district. When the county went into township organization he was elected to represent his township in the county board, a position he held for eight years ; for four years he was chairman of the board. Mrs. Bowman is a lady of high social standing and business tact so essential to a mother and wife in the government of a household. She takes a pleasure in assisting her husband to dispense a generous hospitality.

R. W. COVINGTON W.Y9 born in Albemarle county, Virginia, July 23, 1822. He was the sou of William W., and Loucy Covingt(jn, who was a Miss Slaughter. The Covington family have lived in the vicinity where Mr. Covington was born, for several generations. His forefathers on both sides were soldiers in the Revolutionary war. Mr. Covington grew to manhood in that state, on a farm. At the age of twenty-four he went to Mississippi, and lived near Holly Springs for about ten years. He then came to Christian county, and settled in Stonington township, this being in the year 1857. He here married Miss Martha V. Van Deren, April 19, 1865 ; she is a native of Illinois. They have two children, William W. and Loucy May. Mr. Covington's life occupation has been that of a farmer and stock raiser. He has a fine farm of five hundred acres, lying north and east of the village of Stonington. lu politics he is of the green- back persuasion. lie was the first assessor of the township, after it was organized, and filled the office for four years. For five years he represented his township in the County Board.

B. F. Young

B. F. YOUNG Was born in Stark county, Ohio, December 22, 1843. His father, Samuel Young, was a native of Pennsylvania, and of German descent. His ancestors settled in Pennsylvania in the early days of that colony. When Samuel Y'oung grew to manhood he married a Miss Susan Fouser, also of German descent. They raised a family often children, five boys and the same number of girls. Samuel Young is now living in Stark county, Ohio. The subject of our sketch w'as raised on a farm in that county ; he attended the common schools of his neighborhood until he was eighteen years of age. lie then entered the high school of Greensburg, Ohio, where he finished a thorough English education. From the time he arrived at the age of twenty-one until he was twenty-five, he followed clerking and teaching. August 15, 1867, he was united in marriage to Miss Sybilla F. Schrantz, daughter of Ephraim Schrantz, a prominent farmer of Stonington township. ]SIrs. Young is a native of Stark county, Ohio. They have a family of two sons, viz., Orres E., and Clyde C. After Mr. Young's marriage he began farming in Stonington township, near where he now lives. In politics he is a republican, but often for county offices he votes for what he considers the best njan, regardless of political ties. For twelve years he has been living in Stonington township ; six years of that time he has filled the office of collector of his township. For three years he was commissioner. Mr. Young teaches school every winter. He has taught eleven terms in the state, and in only three diflierent districts. He is known in the community in which he lives, to be an enterprising young man, and good eitizeu.

Sylvester Schrantz

SYLVESTER SCHRANTZ W.vs born in Stark county, Ohio, February 28th, 1847. He is the sou of Ephraim and Nancy Schrantz ; he is of Swiss ancestry ; he was raised on a farm and educated to farm life. He attended the common schools iu the neighborhood where he was born, whereby he received a good business education. At the age of seventeen he enlisted in the late war ; he was in company A, 19th Ohio, under Captain Firestone, Col. Manderson having command of the regiment. At the battle of Dallas he was captured, with nineteen comrades ; they were taken to Andersonville prison, where Mr. Schrantz was detained six and a half months ; he and three others were all that survived out of the nineteen captured. When he was paroled he was iii such a low condition that he could not walk, speak or hear. He was taken to the Federal hospital, where he partially recovered, and then came home, where he remained five months; he then returned to Camp Chase, Ohio, and was mustered out of the service June 19th, 1865. In 1866, he came to Illinois and .settled in Christian county, where he has since resided, and followed the avocation of a farmer. He has one hundred and sixty acres in his farm under a fine state of cultivation. He takes pride in beautifying his home. The beauty of the arrangement of the grounds, and . variety of trees, plants and shrubs, shows that the love of the beautiful may exist in the mind of the most practical farmer. We show a view of this place iu another part of our work. This farm was made from the raw prairie, since 1870. September loth, 1873, he was united in marriage to Miss Lovina Waltz, a daughter of David Waltz, a native of Ohio, and also of Swiss descent; they have two children, a boj'and girl, viz. :

Brace and Jessie. In politics Mr. Schrantz is liberal, and always votes for his man regardless of political ties. He is known as a good citizen and an industrions young raan.

HP]NRY LIVERGOOD, (Deceased.) Mr. Livergood, whose death occurred Nov. 29, 1878, was one of the snbstantial ftirmers of Stonington township. He was born in York, Pa., in Ivowcr Windsor township, Oct. 8th, 1825. His father was Henry Livergood, and his mother's name before marriage, Salome Ruby. He was the third of a large family of children. When he was a child his father moved to Lancaster county. Pa., and bought the mill known as Livergood's Mill, two miles from Lancaster, on the Columbia pike. His father was a man of considerable wealth, and gave his children a good education. Henry Livergood was principally raised in Lancaster county. He attended school at Litiz, Pa., and afterwards attended an academy at Abbeyville. He learned the carpenter's trade, but never followed it. When about twenty-one he left home and opened up a flour and feed store in tlie city of Lancaster. He carried on a wholesale and retail business, and had a large trade. He was married in the city of Lancaster on the nineteenth day of September, 1848, to Miss Margaret Ober, who was born in Lancaster, July 18, 1825, and was a daughter of Benjamin Ober. After his marriage, Mr. Livergood lived in Lancaster one year. He had been somewhat unfortunate in his business at Lancaster, and so determined to remove to the west. Accordingly, in the spring of 1850 he came to Sangamon county, and engaged in farming in the neighborhood of Pleasant Plains on rented land. In 1863 he bought one hundred and twenty acres of prairie land in Stonington township, without any improvements. He moved on this tract and went to improving it. At the time of his death he owned two hundred acres of land. Mr. and Mrs. Livergood have eight children, all living : Francis Salome, wife of Richard Stone ; Daniel Webster, Peter, Henry O. (farming in Kansas), Ann Margaret, John Wesley, Phebe C. and Edmund. Mr. Livergood was a republican in polities. He was a man of industry, and was known as an honest and good citizen.

S situated in the northern part of the county, bounded on the north by the Sangamon river, east by Mosquito, south by Buckhart, and west by Sangamon county. It comprises in area all that portion of townships 15, ranges 2 and 3, and town. 16, range 1, lying within the boundary of Christian county. It is well drained by the Sangamon river, Mosquito and Buckhart creeks, and their tributaries.

This was among the early settled portions of the county. The Coopers and Gigers entering it as pioneers in 1820, other emigrants soon after followed, dotting the North Fork with settlements. Its interests began to demand a town, and Bolivar was laid out by Joseph Bondurant, on the 5th of June, 1833, on the S. E. (juarter of section 18, township 15, range 2 west. It contained eight blocks and one hundred and twenty-three lots, and for a time bid fair to become a flourishing village ; eventually the town languished and died out entirely.

On the organization of the count}', in dividing it into justice districts, the one on the north part of the county was called the Third, or " North Fork Precinct," and the place selected for voting was at the house of Forgus Milligan. It then embraced within its boundary a large part of Buckhart, Mt. Auburn, Mosquito and the north part of Stonington townships.

Early .Settlers

Among the early settlers may be mentioned the names of Ephraim Cooper and Benjamin Giger, who with their families settled here in 1820. They were accompanied by John Cooper and family and Mr. Cooper, the father of Ephraim and John, and Henry Giger and William Bragg. All emigrated from Tennessee in the year 1820, and settled on the Buckhart. These were the pioneers and first settlers on the North Fork ; they came to this county in a keel-boat by descending the Tennessee and Ohio rivers, and then ascending the Mississipi, Illinois and Sangamon rivers. They were industrious citizens. Ephraim Cooper planted an orchard, and it was in bearing in 1827. Benj. Giger and Ephraim Cooper built the first frame dwelling-houses in the county. They sawed the lumber with a whip-saw. John Cooper was a Methodist preacher and also a justice of the peace for many years. William Bragg lived for a long time at a place since known as "Campbell's Point." Miss Fannie, a sister of Ephraim Cooper, married George Dickinson in 1828, and his daughter married David Cagle.

Other settlers were: Martin Hinkle, who came in 1821 ; Moses Archer, in 1827 ; James Baker, in 1828. In 1831 came Henry Davis, Sr., Dial Davis, Sr., and John Davis, the father of Henry and Dial Davis, and Forgus Milligan. The Wadkins family and Phillip and John Locker came in 1836 ; Col. Peter Porter, in 1830, and Robert and William Hazlett, in 1831 ; Thomas Elliott, in 1834 ; Isaac Virden, the same year ; John Crumptou, in 1835. In 1836 Overton Williams, Henry S. Luckett, John McKinne}', T. E. V. Farris and Gustavus Kilburn. Then follows William Robbius, 1838 ; H. G. Lindley, 1839, and Samuel J. Sadler.

Robert Hazlett relates that William and Robert Hazlett, Sr., came to Christian county and settled on the Buckhart, in the western part of this precinct, before the " deep snow." He tells many interesting incidents in connection with that memorable period. He states that his father had a cotton gin and cleaned over 3,000 pounds of cotton a year. During the winter of the " deep snow " the family all lived in one cabin twenty feet square. They kept a barrel of pickled pork in the chimney corner, outside of the cabin, covered and weighted down to protect it from the wolves ; he states that they butchered a lot of hogs the day the " deep snow " commenced falling, and they froze stiff hanging on the pole out-doors, and there they remained for six weeks; that one desperately cold night, his only cow became fresh, and to save her and the calf, they drove them in the cabin and kept them over night. They had uo stable or outhouse.

Land Entries

Moses Archer entered the first tract of land in the township - the N. W. half S. W. quarter section 13, township 15, range 3 - on the 27th November, 1827, - his mill seat. Ephraim Cooper entered the N. W. half S. W. quarter section 24, township 15, range 3, April 4, 1829. The I'. S. land survey was made in July, 1821. Benj. Giger entered May 9, 1829, the S. \V. quarter of section 22.

The first marriage within the bounds of this township was George Dickson to Francis Cooper, a sister of Ephraim Cooper, on the 13th of September, 1823. The license was issued by Charles K. Matheney, Clerk of Sangamon county, and the marriage ceremony was performed by Rev. Rivers McCormick of the !M. E. Church.

Sometimes in the olden time it was difficult to get the marriage ceremony performed even after the license had been procured. In one of these emergencies Samuel Lee, a member of the county commissioners' court, " hitched up " a couple in 1824, and, it is said, proved a succe.ss.

The first school taught in the new settlement was in a rude cabin on the farm east of Martin Hinkle's place, in 1831. The teacher " boarded around," and was considered well qualified, but had one bad trait - he would occasionally take his dram, which at times would overpower him, and he would fall into a profound sleep. " At one time," says our informant, when he was asleep, all the scholars lefl the school-room and went home, failing to close the door after them. A herd of sheep grazing on the premises took shelter in the school-room, and when the "master" awoke from his slumbers, he was astonished at the character and appearance of his pupils.

" Archie's Mill " was built at a very early day, on the banks of the Sangamon River. It was a saw and grist mill, and propelled by the waters of that stream. It was largely patronized by the surrounding country liefore the " deep snow," and long after it served well its day. " Baker's Mill " was also one of the early mills located on the Sangamon river, about five miles above Archie's Mill. It was commenced by Dial Davis, Sr., and completed by James Baker. It was noted at one time for its many proprietors ; it was largely patronized ; was a saw and grist mill. After the " deep snow " in 1831 there was a poor crop of corn. The weather was cold, and early frost seriously injured it. It is said there was a slight frost in almost every month during the season. Good " seedcorn " in the spring of 1832 was very scarce. It was this same spring that Capt. Bougue's steamboat ascended the Sangamon river to the " Portland landing." It was principally freighted with corn. A writer to the Sprini/fiekl Journal, from White Hall, under date of October, 1847, says: Forty-three years ago there was a frost on the morning of September 12th that was more .«evere than any that we have yet experienced."

This date would make it September 12, 1831, the fall after the deep snow, which was so destructive to the corn crop, and the next spring, 1832, experienced so much difficulty in procuring seed corn. Tlie steamboat cargo helped to supply that deficiency. It was just the thing the country wanted, and the captain sold it out for 82.50 per bushel. There was a still further demand, when the captain advertised to make a second trip with his boat, and deliver at the landing 10,000 bushels in April of that year, if subscribed for in advance, but the boat never returned.

Justices of the Peace. - T. P. Kipper, Asa Montgomer}', Wm. E. Pettis, F. Heushie, A. W. Broadess, H. Bloxam, P. P. Daigh, John H. Lawrence, and P. P. Daigh.