Class. 5tS Rook TR ^ ^ }{cy^^^^ o^->C u(r^ THE EARLY PIONEERS PIONEER EVENTS OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS INCLUDING PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF THE WRITER; OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, ANDREW JACKSON, AND PETER CARTWRIGHT, TOGETHER WITH A BRIEF AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE WRITER. BY HARVEY LEE ROSS CHICAGO EASTMAN BROTHEKS 1899 7 a; DEDICATION. To the few surviving companions and friends of the times and scenes of which I have written, and who shared with me the trials and triumphs of those long past pioneer years, this book is respectfully dedicated. Harvey L. Ross. PREFACE. The author of this book being now a citizen of the City of Oakland, State of California, and in the eighty-first year of his age, having been an early pioneer of the State- of Illinois, having settled there with his parents in th<; year 1820, and having lived to witness the rise and progress and the development of that great State from its infancy, and having been familiar with many circumstances and events connected with the early history of that State, and having been well acquainted with Abraham Lincoln and Peter Cartwright from their first coming intothe State up to the time of their respective deaths, and having also had the privilege and the opportunity of learning much about the early life and adventures of Andrew Jackson, was solicited by friends who had been informed of these facts to Avrite for publication what he knew concerning pioneer times and those illustrious men. In compliance to such requests he wrote a number of articles which were published in the Fulton Democrat at Lewistown, Fulton County, Illinois, and which were copied into other newspapers, and since such publication he has been further solicited by many persons to have those ar- ticles compiled and published in book form, and they now here appear substantially as they were copied from those papers. Harvey Lee Ross. OAKL.\iVD, California, 1898. jSTote. — A few months ago, while on a business trip to San Francisco, California, I visited my uncle at his home VI PREFACE. near by Oakland, and was there shown many of the coni- mnnications here appearing. The writer of this memo- randum note was deeply impressed Avith the future value of these writings as representing an accurate and faithful narration of events of the early days of the now great State of IllinoiSj and as being replete with interesting remem- brances and unrecorded sayings and doings of three now historical characters. I urged upon my uncle the privilege and duty even that rested with and upon him, to ])ut his newspaper and fugi- tive writings into final form for book publication, so that they could pass into the permanent literature of the State and not perish. It was easily seen that the terse and oft- times quaint statements of facts and events had a j)eculiar attractiveness of expression of their own, and the honesty and candor that permeate every line of his ■\\T:'itings doubly assure a recognition of value. I found my uncle, although past the four-score years of the psalmist, hale in body, bright and cheerful, and in as full possession of his mental strength and vigor as in the noontime of his life. Indeed, jow could say of him as Sir Walter Scott has so beautifidly spoken of one of his char- acters of fiction, " that the snows of Winter have fallen upon, but chilled him not." I found to my gratification that my uncle had also thought of preserving his writings in book form, at least for his descendants and friends, and he then gave me permission immediately so to do. I have taken the liberty of adding a reproduction of his portrait as a frontispiece, taken in the SOth year of his age. (JilAKLES K. OfFTELD. 3Y9 Ashland Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois. December, 1898. CONTENTS. PIONEER TIMES. Chapter 1 1-5 Pioneer journey from New York to Illinois. — The pirogue of the early settler. — Dr. Davison, the " Hermit," the first settler. Chapter II 6-9 The first murder among early pioneers. — The first lawyers. — Some errors in Chapman's History of Fulton County. Chapter III 9-13 Tragical death of Peter White.— The Ross ferry.— A fight between pioneers and Indians. Chapter IV H^i? The ending of the Indian fight. — My boyhood ghost for an Indian scare. — My father's trade with the Indians. — Early religious customs of the Indians. — A war dance. Chapter V 18-21 An early pioneer dance. — Major Newton Walker and his fiddle. — A pioneer wagon ride. Chapter VI -21-25 The first log houses, their construction. — Old-fashioned fire- place; the latch-string; the hominy mortar; the reap-hook and flail. — The first horse-mill of the early settler. — " Squaw corn." — My mother's rescue of her kettle from the Indians, with her fire-shovel. Chapter VII 26-30 The Nimans. — First blacksmith shop opened by Jacob Ni- man. — Dr. Charles Newton, a celebrated pioneer physician. — Another error in Chapman's History. Chapter VIII 30-34 Pike County organized. — First election in Fulton County held at my father's house. — My father's vote the first cast in Fulton County. — ^John L. Bogardus, one of Peoria's early settlers. — First marriages in Fulton County. — My sister Lucinda the first white child born in this territory. Chapter IX S.S-SS The Wentworths and early Chicago. — The Kingstons. — Brother Lewis' visit to Chicago. Vlll CONTENTS. Chapter X 38.41 The Havana Hotel ; its construction. — Court held in bar-room of my hotel, where Abraham Lincoln attended. — Block- houses built. Chapter XI 41-45 Arrival of Judge Phelps and William Proctor.— Their kind- ness to the Indians. — ^Judge Phelps' sportsmanship. Chapter XII 45-50 How the fourteen pigeons were killed with a rifle-ball at one shot. — The first pioneer stores. — Method of shipping cargo to St. Louis. — The first penitentiary in the state. — Christian char- acter and benevolent deeds of Myron Phelps and William Proctor. Chapter XIII 50-55 The big snow of 1830-31 and terrible suffering therefrom. — Description of Indian wigwam. — Chief Raccoon and mv "good luck." Chapter XIV 55-58 Meeting of brother Lewis and Chief Raccoon in Indian Res- ervation. — Indian traits. — Tragedy in Dean's Settlement. Chapter XV 58-62 Captain John and his squaws. — The Indians' Paradise. — In- dian traffic in ginseng and wild potatoes, and their extermina- tion by wild hogs. Chapter XVI 62-66 Appearance of the country when early settlers arrived. — Ex- tensive and beautiful prairies. — My experience in hauling hay. — Discovery of coal by Mr. Gardiner. — First banking establishment in Fulton County. Chapter XVII 66-70 John Coleman, a remarkable pioneer. — Little Pike's first ride. Chapter XVIII 71-74 The Westerfield Indian scare. — Memorable cyclone of 1835. — Uprising of Canton's women against the saloons of that vil- lage. Chapter XIX 75-78 Pioneer hangings. — Early lawyers. Chapter XX 7S-81 Suicide of Edward Stapleford and its awful consequence. Chapter XXI 81-85 The pioneer doctor and his inethods of treatment. — -The In- dian doctor. — How he cured me. CONTENTS. IX Chapter XXII 85-88 Pioneer schools. — First steel pens. — How some joung ladies were punished for disobeying rules. — First schoolhouse and its construction. Chapter XXIII 89-92 Letter from Mr. John W. Proctor. — Mj reply thereto. ABRAHAM LINCOLN. Chapter 1 93-95 Conditions under which I first became acquainted with Abra- ham Lincoln. Chapter II 95 -98 Lincoln the grocery clerk. — How he qualified himself for sur- veyor. Chapter III 98-101 Some errors in Herndon's " Life of Lincoln." — Anne Rut- ledge, Lincoln's first sweetheart, and her untimely death. Chapter IV 102-109 Lincoln's second sweetheart, Mary Owens. — His letter in re- gard to the breaking of the engagement. — First circus of pioneer days. Chapter V 110-113 Lincoln's trip on a flatboat to New Orleans. — His visit to a slave market, and his avowed hatred and intention regarding the institution of slavery. Chapter VI 113-116 The first step to the White House. — The " shirt-sleeve court in the corn field." — Mr. Lincoln's refusal of a well-earned fee. Chapter VII 116-120 How Lincoln first earned the sobriquet of " Honest Abe." — His speech wins the debate. — Circumstances of his speech in 1858 when running for senator. Chapter VIII 120-122 Some facts in relation to Lincoln's storekeeping. — Error in Herndon's biography. — Mr. Lincoln a judge in horse-races. Chapter IX 123-1 :? Some incidents of W. H. Herndon's early life. — His further misstatements in regard to Lincoln. X CONTENTS. Chapter X 127-130 True storj of the Lincoln-Shields duel. Chapter XI i3o-i33 Mr. Lincoln's religious belief. Chapter XII 134-136 My visit to the grave of the martyred president. ANDREW JACKSON. Chapter 1 137-152 The Churchwell and Kirkpatrick families' personal acquaint- anceship with the old hero and statesman. — History of the tragedy in which Andrew Jackson participated. — Our visit to him at the Hermitage. — Story of Mrs. Jackson's death. — A little anecdote about Alexander Kirkpatrick. Chapter II 152-166 Brief history of Presidential election of 1828. — Some further incidents concerning Jackson. — Our delightful visit to the South. — How my son Frank finally came to partake of south- ern hospitality at the hands of " Aunt Moody." — Death of Andrew Jackson shortly after our return from the South. Chapter III 166-179 Circumstances surrounding Andrew Jackson's marriage. — My visit to the noted battle grounds at New Orleans. — Story of Jackson's great victory. — Some high offices to which he had been appointed.— A brief review of his childhood. PETER CARTWRIGHT. Chapter 1 180-183 Mr. Cartwright's successful efforts to defeat slavery. — His removal to Illinois in 1824. Chapter II 184-186 Mr. Cartwright as a great preacher and a great organizer. — The Jacksonville Ordinance and how Mr. Cartwright assisted in its enforcement. Chapter III 187-192 The name of Peter Cartwright familiar throughout the state. — His efforts to drive out the Mormons. — Grand ovation tendered him in 1869. — His labors at eighty-six years of age. — An incident of his last missionary tour. CONTENTS. XI A UTOBIOGRAPHY. My Autobiography Briefly Sketched 193-199 My ancestors, the Ross and Lee families. — Their descendants and some of their deeds. — The journey of my family from New York to Illinois. — Some of my early personal adven- tures. — My marriage to Jane R. Kirkpatrick, January ist, 1840. — My personal work in the early development of the country.- -The offices held and my work as a delegate to the National Prohibition convention in the year 1884. — The sixty years of my membership in the Presbyterian church. \ pioneer XTimee. LIFE IN FULTON COUNTY SEVENTY TO EIGHTY YEARS AGO.* CHAPTEK I. PIONEER JOURNEY FROM NEW YORK TO ILLINOIS, THE PIROGUE OF THE EARLY SETTLER. DR. DAVISON, THE "hermit," the FIRST SETTLER. Oakland, Gal., May 18, 1897. Mr. W. T. Davidson : I received your letter asking me to write for The Fulton Democrat a series of sketches on the early settlement of Fulton county. I have received similar requests from some of my relatives and old friends. There are no peo- ple in the wide world that I have as great a regard for as the people of Illinois, and no people for whom I -feel the love and affection that goes from my heart to the pioneer of Fulton county. It was there that I spent the greater part of my boyhood and manhood ; it was there where five of my children was born and raised, and where many of my relatives now live. There is such a warm place in my heart for the old settlers of Fulton county that it will be a pleasure for me to write these sketches. I hope they will add something to their knowledge and pleasure. But in going into the early history of the county I will be compelled to allude very often to some of my relatives who were prominent as early settlers. So I will commence with my father, Ossian M. Ross, * Fulton County then comprising nearly the entire northern half of Illinois; now divided into fifty counties. EAllLY i'lONEEKS AND EVENTS. who with my mother, my brother Lewis, my sister Har- riet and myself moved from Seneca county, New York, and set1,led on the quarter section of land just north of the present city of Lewistown in April, 1821. My father was an officer in the w^ar of 1812, and drew a half section of land ; he settled upon one of the quarters, and on the other quarter he laid out the present city of Lewistown. The family left l^ew York in the fall of 1819 and went to Pittsburg, Pa., where he bought a small keel boat on which he loaded his household goods and other properties, and went down the Ohio river to its conjunction with the Mississippi river where Cairo now stands. Here the boat was frozen up in the ice, and we remained prisoners there until the next spring. Then we went up the Mississippi river to where the city of Alton now stands. There we left the boat and went back into the country about ten miles, near the toAvn of EdA\'ardsville, where my father rented a farm. He bought some horses, cows and other stock, and during the summer of 1821 raised a good crop. After the crops had been secured we went back to Alton Avhere the keel boat had been left in charge of the ferry- man, and loaded upon the boat all our household goods and family, and started up the river to our future home. Our hired men drove the wagon and stock across the comitry. Before we started into the wilderness of Ful- ton countymy father went to St. Louis and laid in a supply of such articles as he thought we would need in our wilder- ness home. Among the other things was a good supplv of flour and salt, gims and ammunition. He also bouo-ht a surveyor's compass and chain. He went to the sur- veyor general's office in St. Louis and got a sectional map of the Military Tract, which embraced all the land lying between the Mississippi and Illinois rivers and extended as far north as to include Bureau and Henry counties. He also got from the surveyor's office a copy of the field notes of the survey of the Military Tract that was made about three years before. These field notes were of verv EARLY PIONEEES AND EVENTS. O great importance to hiin and to many other early settlers in the co\mty, as they enabled them to locate their lands by means of well established towiiship and section corners, all clearly described in these field notes. Without them it wonld have been impossible for the people to have ac- curately located their land. The little keel boat that we came up the river in was propelled by a sail when the wind was fair, and at other times by oars and poles. We were two weeks coming from Alton to the mouth of Spoon river at Havana, and the team and stock that were driven across the country ar- rived a few days later. We ran the boat up Spoon river to where John Eveland was living. He had settled there a year before. My father on examining his jnap found that his land was about six miles north of Mr. Eveland' s place. He took some of his men, and wath his compass, chain and field notes he had no trouble in locating his land. The family staid on the boat until the team and stock arrived, and then we all moved onto our land. Father selected the quarter section north of Lewistown for our home, and built a log house on the east side of a little creek that ran through the land and near to a fine, large spring of water. The location was some sixty rods northeast from Major W^alker's present residence. We lived there four years, and then built another log house where Major Walker now lives. We staid there until the fall of 1S28, and then moved to Havana. Three years after my father sold the farm to Mahlon Winans, my mother's brother, for $1000. The only white inhabitant in that part of the country at that time was John Eveland, wlio lived on the north side of Spoon river about a mile above where Waterford now stands, and Dr. W. T. Davison, who lived on the south side of the river, a little higher up. Mr. Eveland had a large family of nine or ten children, part of them grown. They had some twenty acres in cultivation, and were en- gaged in raising stock. They had come into this country from Calhoun county, making the trip up the Illinois and 4 EAKLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. Spoon rivers, partly by land and partly by water. Be- fore leaving Calhoun county they constructed a large pirogue (a large canoe). It was hewed out of a large Cot- tonwood tree. The length of the boat was forty feet, and was about four feet wide. It was run by sail and also by oars. On this craft they shipped their hogs and part of their goods. These were the first hogs that were ever brought to Fulton county and were all of a red color. This pirogue is entitled to more particular attention, because it was put to many uses of convenience and util- ity among the early settlers. It was the first craft used to carry people across the Illinois river at the mouth of Spoon river, and it was the craft that the Phelpses used in shipping their first stock of goods from St. Louis to Lewisto-svn, and this was the first stock of goods ever brought to Fulton county. This pirogue was also put in use by the early settlers to run down Spoon river to the Illinois river, and thence down the Illinois river to the mouth of the Sangamon river, and thence up the Sanga- mon to Sangamontown, where there was a water-mill to which our people took their grain to be ground into bread- stuff. A great skill had been used in digging out and constructing this pirogue. For years it took the place of the magnificent steamboat and railway trains that later generations employed. John Eveland built a mill run by horse power where he settled on Spoon river which was the first mill built and operated in the county of Fulton. Some four or five years after he came to the coimty he moved and settled five miles southeast of Canton, and there built another horse mill. Dr. Davison, who had settled on the south side of Spoon river a little west of the Eveland place, lived alone and was called "The Hermit." I could never learn where he came from nor w^hen he settled in Fulton county. He had a good, comfortable cabin and a bearing peach orchard, which showed he had lived there for several years. He was doubtless the first settler in this part of Illinois. The next settlers that settled in that country were two EAKLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. O brothers named Keuben and Koswell Tenner. They were both single men, and had come from Calhoun county upon the Illinois river in canoes and settled on the south side of Spoon river about two miles above Waterford. About a year after they settled there, Reuben, the oldest, was married to a Miss Eowley, whose father was a new- comer there. These two Eenners were the first persons ever incarcerated in the Lewistown jail, and it was for the crime of whipping to death of Reuben's wife, the par- ticulars of which I will give in my next communication. In 1822 a great many people began to move into Fulton county, but most of them came over from Sangamon county. They had come from eastern and southern states with the intention of settling in the Military Tract, but the country was full of Indians — indeed they could be counted by the thousands. The Sangamon river was about the dividing line between the white settlers and the In- dians ; so these men were afraid to venture over. But after Mr. Eveland and my father and a few other families had lived among the Indians a year or two and none of them had been butchered or scalped the people began to come to the county in great droves. The first settlements were made about Lewistown and Waterford. In my next letter I will give the names of some of the other pioneers and will also tell what the Fenner boys whipped Mrs. Reuben Fenner to death for, and how they broke jail and got away, and of the excitement that it caused throughout the county. EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. CHAPTEE II. THE FIRST MURDER AMONG EARLY PIONEERS. THE FIRST LAWYERS. SOME ERRORS IN CHAPMAn's HISTORY OF FULTON COUNTY. There had been no circumstance ever occurred before in Fulton county that caused so much excitement and indig- nation as the murder of Mrs. Reuben Fenner by her hus- band and his brother. It was the first murder that took place in the county after the white people had settled it, and the Fenners were the first prisoners that ever occupied the new log jail. Reuben and Roswell Fenner were both about six feet two inches tall, and were of such dark complexion as to suggest that they Avere part Indian. It was said by peo- ple in Calhoun county, where they came from, that there was Indian blood in them. They settled on the south side of Spoon river near the site of the celebrated Duncan Mills, afterwards erected four miles southwest of Lewis- to"wii. They built a log house and lived together alone. After they had lived there some eighteen months a man named Rowley came into the country and settled about a mile from the Fenners. The Rowleys had a daughter about twenty-two years old and a son aged ten or twelve. They had only lived there a few months when Reuben Fenner and Miss Rowley were married. He took her to their joint cabin. It turned out that Reuben was willing that his brother Roswell should share equally with him in his wife's affections, and that she rebelled with shame and indignation. Then the trouble commenced. She fought for her honor as any noble woman would do, but the poor girl was at the mercy of two heartless giants. Her mother heard that she was sick in bed and went to see her, and the girl told her mother how both the brothers had whipped her and how cruelly they had treated her. EARLY nONEEKS AND EVENTS. i The young wife continued to grow worse, and in a few days died. When the word came to Lewistown of her death a great many of the people, both men and women, went down to the Fenner place to attend the funeral. When the people assembled they discovered that the Fen- ners had made a rough box for a coffin and had put her in it ready for burial. But the men opened the box and took the body out and examined it. They found many black stripes on her limbs and bruises on her body, and they de- cided that she had come to her death from cruel treatment at the hands of the Fenners. The Fenners were arrested and taken to the Lewistown jail. They had been confined for a couple of months waiting for the circuit court to con- vene, when one night some of their friends came and as- sisted them to escape. The jail was built of hewed logs twelve inches square, and a crowbar had been used to pry out the end of one of the logs so that they could crawl out. The next morning an officer went in pursuit of them, but they had gone to their cabin and loaded their goods into canoes and gone down the river, and it was the last that was ever heard of them. It was thought that some of their friends in Calhoun county, where they came from, had come up and liberated them. If they had not escaped it is probable that they would have been hung. The new jail stood about ten rods south of the place where the old court house was located. At that time school was being taught in the old log court house by Peter Wood. I can rein ember how the school boys used to go and look through the grates of the jail to see the Fenners when they were there, and how we used to crawl in and out of the hole between the logs which they crept through in escaping. These public buildings in the '20s were very primitive buildings that would cause much derision in these days. Mr. Ixowley, the father of the murdered girl, must not be confounded with the Rowley who moved into the settle- ment some years after, and who also had some daughters. The first Rowley, whose daughter married Fenner, wa? about fifty years old, and had at some period in his life b EAKLY PIONEEKS AND EVENTS. met Avitli a misfortune that had given him a stiff neck. He could not turn his head in any direction any more than if his neck had been marble. He was at one time the guest of my father during a term of the court. While the Ten- ners were in jail they explained this circumstance by say- ing that Rowley had at one time been hung by the neck by a mob for horse-stealing, but they took him down before he was quite dead ; and that Avas what had injured his neck. Soon after the Fenners had escaped from jail, Rowley, with his wife and son, leftthis country. I heard that he had made a solemn vow when the Fenners got away that he would hunt them do^^Ti and that their lives should pay the penalty for the life of his daughter. Last week my brother Leonard, of Lewistown, sent me a copy of Chapman's History of Fulton County. In look- ing over it I find that the author makes mention of this Fenner case, and says that Judge Stephen Phelps of Lewis- town defended him and insisted that according to law and the Scriptures a man had the right to chastise his wife. The writer is evidently in error, for the Fenners escaped and were never tried for their crime ; while Judge Phelps was a merchant and did not practice law. The first lawyers that practiced law in Lewistown were Mr, Caverly of Yandalia, Pew of Springfield, John Bogardus of Peoria and Hugh R. Coulter of Lewistown. W. C. Osborn and William Elliott were the next laA\^^ers who came to I^ewistoAvn. Among the first settlers that came to LewistoA\Ti were my father's family, David W. Barnes, John Totten, John Wolcott, Stephen Chase, John Jewell, Peter White, A. M. Williams, Lyman Tracy, David Gallatine, Stephen Dewey, Elijah Wentworth, John Holcomb, Robert Grant, George Matthews, Thomas Covell, Peter Cook and William Higgins. Then came my father's mother, Abigail Ross, and his three brothers, Joseph, Thomas and John, and his two brothers-in-law, Simeon Xelsey (father to Capt. William Phelps' first wife) and Hugh R. Coulter. In looking over Chapman's History of Fulton County I find a great deal of very valuable information in it, and EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. 9 I think he is entitled to the thanks of the people of Fulton county for getting up so good a work. But I have found some errors in it, and some of these I may have occasion to mention as I proceed with my narrative, for what the people Avant are the real facts. A history that does not contain the truth is no history at all. There was another remarkable tragedy in the early set- tlement of the county that caused a great deal of talk and excitement among the people. It was the death of an old gentleman, Peter White. Tie is mentioned in Chapman's history as being one of the first petit jurymen chosen in the county. He was murdered, and his son, aged twenty- four, was arrested and charged with the murder. I will give the circumstances of this terrible tragedy in my next letter. CHAPTER III. TRAGICAL DEATH OF PETER WHITE. THE ROSS FERRY. A FIGHT BETWEEN PIONEERS AND INDIANS. In regard to the tragical death of Peter White, supposed to have been murdered by his son, I will have to make a ]3relirainary statement. When my father first came to the mouth of the Spoon river, in 1821, he determined, if pos- sible, that he would be the owner of a ferry across the Illi- nois river at that place as soon as possible. It was forty miles down the river to the first ferry at Beardstown, and fifty miles to Peoria, where the next ferry was kept. He believed that it would be but a few years until there would be a good deal of travel across the river at Havana, and that a ferry at that place would be a paying investment. He was on the alert, and as soon as a license for a ferry could be procured he got one. It proved to be a good enterprise. For a good many years the receipts from the ferry amounted to about $2,000 a year. Peter White came to Lewisto^vn among the early set- 10 EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. tiers. He was fifty years old, was a widower, and had one son, a large, stont young man twenty-three or twenty- four years old, and his name also was Peter. They had worked about Lewistown and the old gentleman had worked for my father on the farm. He was an eastern man of good information, and a reliable man to work. My father made a bargain with both of them to go down to the river and keep the ferry and to put up a house where Havana now stands, as there was no house there at that time. ]My father rigged them out with a horse to haul the logs together, with tools, and some provisions to live on, and they started for the river. He also secured from John Eveland the pirogue alluded to last week to be used until the ferry boat eould be built. The Whites first erected a little shanty to live in until they could cut the timber and make the clapboards for the house. So everything ap- peared to start off all right. After they had been do^vn about six weeks young Peter came up to Lewisto^^Ti one evening a little after dark, and staid at my father's all night. The next morning my father asked how he and his father were getting along with the house. " Is^ot very well," was his reply. " Has anything gone wrong ?" asked my father. " Yes, my father is dead," replied young Peter. On being asked what was the matter with his father, he coolly said that he and his father were working on the house and that his father had slipped and fallen off the house, and that his head struck a loo; lying near, and that it had broken his skull, resulting in his death. My father asked the boy what he had done with his father's body. He replied that he had dug a grave and wrapped him in a blanket, and put him on a sled and hauled him out and buried him. The remarkable story that Peter told and the manner in which he had conducted himself made my father suspi- cious ; so he went into Lewistown to confer with others as to what had lietter be done. It was not long until old John Eveland came up from Spoon river, and he reported that Peter had come to his house the day before, had taken dinner with them, had played ball, had run foot-races, and EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. 11 shot at a mark with his bojs, but had not said a word about his father's death. So my father and Mr. Eveland and three or four others concluded to go down to the river, and take Peter along, and investigate the matter. He took them to the grave where he had buried his father. They got a spade and dug open the grave, took up the body, and examined it. They found a spot on the side of the head where the skull had been broken from a blow by some blunt instrument. They then went to the house which Peter said his father had fallen from. There was no logs near the house on which he could have struck his head, and the house had only been raised six or seven feet, so that a fall from it was not likely to kill a man. Some ten feet away was a pile of logs, with a couple of handspikes lying upon them which had been used in handling the logs. All of the men were of the opinion that the old man had come to his death from a blow struck by Peter with one of those handspikes. They believed that Peter and his father had quarreled about something, and that Peter in a passion had struck his father with a handspike, but with no intention of killing him ; but that the blow had proved fatal. As the supposed murder had occurred in Sangamon county it was decided that the best thing to do was to send Peter to Springfield, and a couple of men agreed to take him there and deliver him to the sheriff. The other men returned to their homes. The next day the two men came back to Lewisto^\m and reported that Peter had gotten away from them. It was the general belief that they had given Peter a good w^hipping and let him go. But that was the last that was ever heard of him in that country. The next parties that my father got to take charge of the ferry were ISTorman and Ira Scoville, two brothers. They finished the house that the Whites had commenced to build, and also built another log house near by. These men staid two or three years, when ^Norman Scoville engaged to run a keel boat for the Phelpses, and then my father rented the ferry property to Samuel Mallory and Wm. jSTicholls. They were keeping the ferry and the tavern at the time the 12 EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. fight took place between the Indians and the whites as re- corded in Chapman's history, page 205. The author has made some mistakes in regard to material facts. He says the fight took place in 1828 at Mallory's ferry, and that the whites proved to be the victors. This is all wrong. The battle took place in 1826, and the ferry was never called Mallory's ferry, but was Ross' ferry. IsTo man named Mallory ever kept the ferry, and the Indians were the vic- tors in the fight. The true history of that fight is as fol- lows : As I have already stated, Samuel Mallory and his stepson, Wm. ISTichoUs, had rented the ferry of my father. They were both old settlers of Fulton county. Mallory was the father of Hirah Saunders' wife and the grandfather of Mrs. Judge H. L. Bryant. A few years later he and ISTich- olls settled some eight miles south of Canton on the Lewis- to"\ATi road. After they had been at the river a few weeks they re- ceived by keel boat a barrel of whisky from St. Louis. At that time all tavern keepers were expected to keep liquor for the accommodation of their guests. In fact, almost every merchant in the country kept whisky for sale as free- ly as any other kind of goods. A party of Indians were travelling up the Illinois river in their canoes and camped a half mile above the ferry. They came do^vn to the house to trade some furs for whisky, as they had been in the habit of doinjj with the Scovilles. But Mallory refused to let them have any whisky. As he was alone they drew their tomahawks over his head and compelled him to give them whisky. Wm. l^icholls, who had been out working in the woods, came home, and seeing the situation Mallory was in, slipped away and got into a canoe and slipped across the river to where the keel boat was lying. But part of the boat crew had started off for Lewistown. He hurried on and overtook them, and told them the situation that Mal- lory was in. So each one of them cut a stout hickory cane and went back with him to rescue Mallory. They foimd that some twenty-five Indians had Mallory completely un- der their control. Some of them were pretty drunk and all were having a jolly time except Mallory. The white EAELY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. 13 men ordered the Indians to leave, but they refused to go, and then the fight commenced, the white men using their hickory canes on the heads of the Indians. But the Ind- ians were about four to one, and they succeeded in getting the canes away from the white men. It was a pretty hot fight for about half an hour, and the whites would probably have whipped the Indians, but while they were in the fight they saw some squaws coming from the canoes with Indian spears and tomahawks for the use of the Indians. Then the whites thought it Avas about time to retreat and get more help. As they were hurrying to the ferry boat they discovered Simeon Kelsey and a couple of Indians having a hard fight near the river, and in attempting to capture the Indians one of the Indians ran into the river and they took after him with the ferry boat, and when they would get near him he would dive under the water and come up a rod or two behind the boat and would be making for the shore. The white men would then have to turn their boat and go after him again ; he would play the same game of dodging them ; they kept up this chase for about half an hour, when they came upon him where they could see his head two feet under the water. One of the men ran his arm down and caught him by the hair, and as he drew his head over the side of the boat another man drew his knife and cut the Indian's throat, leaving him to sink in the river. The men returned to the keel boat and Wm. ISTicholls started to Lewistown for more men to fight the Indians. He got there after dark, raised the alarm, and the next morning fifteen men on horseback started for the battle- field. I will give the result of their expedition in my next letter. 14 EAELY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. CHAPTER IV. THE ENDING OF THE INDIAN FIGHT. MY BOYHOOD GHOST FOE AN INDIAN SCAKE. MY FATHEk's TRADE WITH THE INDIANS. EARLY RELIGIOUS CUSTOMS OF THE INDIANS. A WAR DANCE. To continue the story of the Indian fight as described last week: The companj of men raised in Lewistown numbered fifteen, all on horseback and each with a gun. Among those in the company were Robert Grant, John Jewell, Wm. Johnson, John and Wm. ]S[icholls, Moses Freeman, Isaac Benson, O. M. Ross and Edward Plude, Freeman and Benson had come a few weeks before from the East, and were engaged at the time in putting the coun- ters and shelves in a store room for my father that stood on the Harris corner in Lewisto^vn. Plude was a French- man, and kept store in a frame house where Ewan's hard- ware store now stands. When the company got to the Illinois river at Havana Ihey were joined by the keel-boat crew that had had the fight with the Indians the day before, with the exception of Kelsey, who had been badly used up in the fight and was not able to go with them. The men all got on the ferry boat and took as many horses as they could crowd on the boat, and started across the river. Some squaws a little way doA^m the river saw the men coming ; they ran up the bank and told the Indians that a great company of white men were coming with guns. Plude understood the Indian language, and knew what the squaws said to the Indians. The Indians instantly took the alarm and started on the run. Some went to their canoes and poled off up the river, and some ran to the woods. The men followed the Indians that ran to the woods until they got into the swamps and marshes a few miles up the river, and then they had to give up the chase. The company came back to Mallory's house where the EAELY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. 15 fight had taken place the day before. They found some pools of blood, and a short distance away they found two new-made graves, showing that the fight had been a hard one and that at least two Indians had been killed with clubs besides the one whose throat was cut on the ferry boat. They also found that no more than eight or ten gallons of whisky had been taken from Mallory's barrel, and that his household goods had not been touched. So that ended the fight of Ross' ferry for that time. Mallory and Nicholls kept the ferry for about a year after that and never had any further trouble with the Indians. My father then moved to Havana and took charge of the ferry himself. The Indian that had his throat cut floated down the river and landed in some driftwood at the head of an island three miles below Havana. We had often heard the hunters tell of the Indian's bones lying in the driftwood there. At that time was living with my father John Ilerriford, who was so long a resident at Bernadotte, and he was wellknown to many of the pioneers of Fulton county. One Sunday John went down to the island and brought up the Indian's skull and jawbone. As soon as I saw them I decided to have a good deal of sport in frightening the Indians, who were very superstitious. I thoroughly cleaned the skull and jawbone, and fastened them on a jackstaff about four feet long, sharpened at the lower end to be stuck into the ground. I then fixed the skull so that I could put into it a lighted candle. When the scarecrow was set up of a dark night, with the candle lighted and shining out of the eye- sockets, ears, nose, and through the gleaming white teeth, it was certainly the most terrifying object mortal ever be- held. About a mile above Havana there were eighteen or twenty wig^vams of Indians, and they were in the habit of coming to to^^m every week to do some trading, and would frequently stay until after dark before starting home. I knew the path they traveled and Avould have the ghost set up a few rods from their path. When they Avould discover my hideous ghost they would start on the run as fast as their legs could carry them, frightened nearly into convul- 16 EARLY PIOXEEES AND EVENTS. sions. It made a great commotion among tlie Indians for awhile, but my father found out what was going on and put a sudden stop to all mj fun. One day a steamboat landed at the wharf and I went do^^'n to it with my scare- crow. The pilot paid me $2 for the outfit to put upon the bow of his boat at night to scare the natives along the river. Soon after my father went to Havana he built three warehouses, one on the east side of the river and two on the west side. One of these was north of Spoon river, and the other on the south side. They were built of hewed logs and were used to store the produce of farmers and the mer- chandise of the merchants who lived on both sides of the river. The upper part of the warehouse on the Havana side of the river he finished oft" for a store and opened there- in a stock of goods. The nearest stores to him was at Lew- istown, twelve miles away on the west, and Xew Salem, twenty-five miles east. The Phelpses had established a trading post, two years before, on Grand Island, nine miles below Havana; but when my father opened his store they closed out their business on the island and moved to Yellow- banks (now Oquawka) on the Mississippi river. 'My father had a large trade with the Indians, for they were scattered all over the country u]) and do^uTi the Illinois river and both sides of the Spoon river. Their wig-wams could be counted by the hundreds. x\bout the mouth of Spoon river was a great resort for their Indian ponies. Hundreds of them Avould be brought there every fall to feed on the grass that kept green all winter ; and if there was a deep snow the Indians would chop down small trees for their ponies to browse u]3on until the snow went off. My father would often sell them goods on a credit of six months, but would require a recommendation from some of their chiefs, which made them very punctual to pay their debts. The Indians were very numerous in all that coun- try until in 1S32 when the Black Hawk war broke out and they all went west. These Indians at a certain stage of the moon each fall held a great religious festival on the island just in front EARLY I'lONEEES AND EVENTS. 17 of Havana. It was then a very heavily tinihcred and picturesque spot. The Indians would congregate there in hundreds, and their religious rites and ceremonies would last four days. They had an abundance of good things to eat, and put in much of the time singing and dancing. One of their ceremonies was to burn a live dog to death. They would select a small white dog and make his feet fast with four wooden pins which they would drive in the ground, and then pile wood and brush over him imtil he was coA'ered four or five feet deep. They Avould set fire to the pile and then gather in a ring about it. When the dog would commence to burn he would set up the most terriffic and a^\^ul howling that was ever heard. His cries would ring through the woods for half a mile. When the dog would commence howling, the Indians would set up some doleful and dismal dirge and keep it up as long as the dog kept howling. Then fol- lowed a war-dance, and that would be the end of the fes- tival, ^[v brother Leonard was ])resent at one time when they made a sacrifice of a little dog. TTe was only about seven or eight years old. but when the little dog made such a terrible yelping he wanted to clean out the Avhole Indian tribe. There were many singular customs and tragic events relating to these Indians that I may detail as I proceed with my narrative. 18 EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. CHAPTER V. AN EAELY PIONEER DANCE. MAJOR NEWTON WALKER AND IIIS FIDDLE. A PIONEER WAGON RIDE. Correction — Hon. Inman Blackaby says Mr. Ross is in error in his statement in Chapter III, that "Samuel Mallory was the father of Hirah Saunders' Avife, and grandfather to Mrs. H. L. Bryant." The fact is that Mrs. Hirah Saunders was a step-daughter to Samuel Mallorj a full sister to Wm. K. Nicholls also alluded to by Mr. Ross. Mr. Blaci^aby lived with W. K. Nicholls in 1846, and Mr. Mallory and his wife were living with them at that time. Mr. Blackaby taught school in that district and boarded with these people part of the time. Mr. Ross' letters will doubtless go into a future history of Fulton county. He will join the editor of The Democrat in thanking pioneers for similar corrections as to any fact. In The Democrat of June 10 I find the story rehated by Major Newton Walker about his fiddling at our Havana ball sixty years ago. He has always been noted for his accurate memory, but in this case he has forgotten some of the incidents. It will interest young people to know about the pioneer manner of conducting parties. It was Dr. Price, and not Dr. Allen, who went with me to Lewistown to secure the services of Major Walker as our fiddler. Dr. Price then lived in Havana, but afterwards moved to Lewistown. Dr. Hillburt was also a Havana doctor. When the Major agreed to go with us we called for him at Truman Phelps' tavern in a common two-horse wagon. He was evidently expecting a carriage, but was too polite to say anything. The only seat was a board laid across the wagon bed. The Major came out with his violin in a beautiful case, and the case was wrapped up as carefully as if it had been a baby. We got on very well until we came to the bottom road beyond Waterford where hea^'y teaming had made deep ruts. The front wheels would occasionally drop into a deep rut, and dowai would go our seat with all three of us sprawling in the wagon bed. But we finally got to the ball-room, and the dance commenced much as the IMajor described it. The man who wanted EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. 19 liim to play faster was Dr. ITillburt. He was very portly, and weighed some 200 pounds. After Hillbiirt had danced about half an hour, he pulled off his coat ; a little later away went his vest ; and as he got warmer he kicked off his shoes and finished the "'French four" in his stocking feet. In regard to the Major's comments on my dancing I have only to say that he had not lived long enough in Illinois to know what good Sucker dancing was ! After the dance was over we took up a collection of about $10 to pay the fiddler, but Major Walker declined the money, and said he would only ask us to send him back to Lewistown. I can only say that if he had run for office he would have gotten every vote in Havana. But he is in error in saying that it was the first time we had ever met. I remember very well when Col. Simms and Major Walker passed through Havana with their car- avan from Virginia, They stayed with my father over night, and the next morning we ferried them over the Illi- nois river. They had the most splendid traveling outfit I had ever seen. Their horses were large and fine. They had several carriages and wagons, and one tremendous four- horse '^prairie schooner." The w^agon was about twenty feet long and eight feet high, and all heavily ironed off in old Virginia style. The ferryman said that it was the big- gest wagon that had ever crossed the river. About two months later I took a carriage and a light pair of horses to drive my mother over to Lewistown to visit her brother, ]\rahlon Winans, who then lived where Major Walker now lives. Three or four miles out of Lewistown one of our axletrees was broken. We then made our way afoot to the cabin of JSTathaniel Bordwine (still living in Lewistown), hoping to get a wagon from him, but it was in T-ewistown. I left mother at the cabin and with my horses went on to ]\rr. McGeehee's farm, but his wagon was not at home. Thence I went on to Minard Van Dyke's, then to Dr. Rice's, and then to George Bennett's, but their wagons were away or busily employed. Lastly I went to Hiram Wentworth's place (just east of Lewisto^vn), sure that I Avould get a wagon there. When I rode up to the house the 20 EAItLY PIONEEKS AND EVENTS. first thing tliat struck my attention was a strapping big negro at work in the yard, and in the lane stood the mighty '^prairie schooner" we had ferried across the river. Major Walker came to the door and told me that he had bought the Wentworth place. I told him of my predicament ; but (Jol. Simms had driven the carriage into town^ and there was not a wagon on the place except the huge four-horse one. I could not wait for the carriage, as a storm was brewing ; so with the negro's help I hitched my two little horses onto the big wagon. The stiff tongue stuck six feet out ahead of them, and when I climbed into the wagon the front end-gate came up to my chin. The big negro said to me : ''Young massa, what y'er goin' to do wid dat big wag- on ?" I told him that I was going to take a lady a riding. It tickled him tremendously, and as I drove away he stood with his mouth spread and nearly in convulsions of laugh- ter. He had doubtless seen many strange things, but to take a lady riding in a four-horse wagon was too much for him. , And so I drove back in state to get mother. Fortunate- ly, there was a high rail fence at Mr. Bordwine's ; so mother climbed the high fence and so got into the wagon. [Mrs. Ross was very fleshy. — Ed.] There was a huge chain on each side of the wagon, and at each hill I liad to climb out and lock the Avheels to keep the big wagon from running over my little horses. We fortunately arrived in Lewis- town after dark, and escaped the astonished gaze of the people. But when we got to Uncle Winans' there was no high fence, and no ladder. It was a profound problem as to how we would ever get mother out of her chariot. But finally a common wagon was run up close to the big one, and by the aid of a high chair we managed to get her safely to earth. The next day mother sent me back with the big wagon to Major Walker, and gave me a half dollar to pay for its use. But I said it was such a big wagon the price might be more. So she gave me another fifty cents. When I drove out, there stood that big negro in the same spot, his mouth wide open, laughing, just as I had left him, giving me the impression that my joke had paralyzed him the EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. 21 night before. But I gave him the dollar to pay Major Walker. He soon came out and said : " De folks say der ain't no charge, and you'm pufecly welcome to de wagin." CHAPTER VI. THE FIKST LOG HOUSES, THEIR CONSTRUCTION. OLD-FASH- IONED FIREI'LACE ; THE LATCH-STRING ; THE HOMINY mortar; THE REAP-HOOK AND FLAIL. THE FIRST HORSE MILL OF THE EARLY SETTLER. "sQUAW CORN." MY MOTHER^S RESCUE OF HER KETTLE FROM THE INDIANS, AVITH HER FIRE-SHOVEL. As stated in my first letter, my father moved his family from Xew York to Fulton county, Illinois, in 1821, locat- ing on his farm just north of the city of Lewistown. The country was at that time a vast wild wilderness, covered by majestic trees, and Indian wigwams were scattered thickly all over the wilderness. The only indications that white men had ever before penetrated the country were the marks and numbers on occasional trees, the handiwork of a com- pany of surveyors who had surveyed the land some two or three years earlier. Our nearest white neighbors were six miles away on Spoon river ; the next nearest at Rushville, thirty miles south ; and on the north the nearest white in- habitants were at Fort Clark, now Peoria, fifty miles dis- tant. The first thing to be done on our arrival at our wilder- ness liome, was to build a log house. The yomiger people will be interested to know how it was built, and how we commenced life in the wilderness. The first house my father built was 20 x 24 feet in size and one story high. We cut trees of uniform size for the logs, and the ends of each log Avere ''saddled," or notched, so as to bring the logs as near together as possible. The cracks between them were "chinked," or filled Avith small slabs, and then daubed Avith mud inside and out. It made as solid a Avail as brick 22 EAKLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. and mortar. The gables were made of logs gradually shortened to the comb. The roof was made of small logs laid from gable to gable ; on these were laid clapboards, and these were fastened do\vii by logs laid u23on each row, there being no nails. These outside logs were held in place by laying pieces of timber between them. A wide chimney-place was cut out of one end of the cabin, and the chimney built outside of the house. It was built of rived sticks put up cob-house fashion and plastered inside and out with clay mortar. The fire-place was made large enough to take in a four-foot back-log. The Hoors were made of puncheons hewed smooth on one side; the doors of split boards, shaved with a drawing-knife, and hung with wooden hinges. The door was opened by pulling a leather latch-string which raised a wooden latch inside the door. For security at night the latch-string was pulled in, then there was no way to open the door from the out- side. After the house was built the first thing that was done was to break up twenty acres of land, and fence it, and plant it in corn and vegetables, and in the fall we put in ten acres of wheat. As soon as the corn got hard enough to grate, a grater was prepared by taking a piece of tin and piercing it with a great number of holes, and then bending it over a piece of short board. With this simple instnmient the corn was rubbed into meal. It made very good bread and was most excellent for mush. As soon as the corn got hard enough to ]30und, a hominy mortar was made. This was done by burning a hole in one end of a log or in the top of a stump large enough to hold a peck of com. Then we had a wooden pestle which was suspended by a spring-pole to lessen the labor; and with this pestle and mortar the grains of corn were crushed into excellent meal. Another way we had of pre- paring our corn was by scalding it with strong lye made from wood ashes until the husk was eaten off by the alkali, and then washing the corn in clean water until all traces of the husk and taste of the lye were removed. This was the old-fashioned hominy, and made a very good substi- EAKIA' PIONEERS AND EVENTS. 23 tute for bread. When our wheat was ripe we cut it witli a sickle, or a reap-hook, and tlien thrashed it out with a flail or tramped it out with horses, wamiowed it with a sheet, ground it in a horse-mill, bolted it with a hand-bolt and then baked it in a Dutch oven. After we had lived in the county about a year, John Eveland, who lived on Spoon river six miles south of us, built a horse-mill, which was the first mill built in Fulton county. I remember very well of riding on a horse be- hind my brother Lewis when he took a grist of corn to Eveland's mill to be ground into meal. The fact of rid- ing twelve miles on a bare-back, hard-trotting horse made an impression not only on my mind, but also on my legs, that I did not soon forget, for I was so sore that I could scarcely walk for two days. So I am not mistaken about where the first mill was built, although Chapman's His- tory of Fulton County says the first mill was built in Fulton county by O. M. Ross at Lewistown. About a year after that time my father did build a horse-mill, which was the second mill built in the county. It was located about half way between my father's house and Lewistown. The county road from Lewistown to Canton at that time ran on the east side of Spudaway creek and a few rods west of w^here the C. B. & Q. railroad now runs, and ran by my father's house, located about eighty rods northeast of Major Walker's present residence. In about four years my father moved to the spot Avhere Major Walker's house now stands and the road (Main street) w^as changed to its present location. When my father built the mill he also erected a blacksmith shop under the same roof which was carried on by Jacob Ni- man, who came from Edwardsville, Illinois, with my father. I shall have more to say of him 'and his wife as I proceed with my story. As I have already said, the country was full of Indians. One could not travel in any direction Avithout coming across Indian wigwams. Six or eight families would congregate together near some creek or spring of water, 24 EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. and the squaws would fence three or four acres of land, and dig up the ground, and plant it in corn and beans. Those were the principal crops that they raised. The Indian men seldom did anything but hunt. The squaws did all the hard work. The corn they raised was of a dark blue color and the beans a dark red. The kernels were large and plump, and both corn and beans were of a very early variety. Our people procured some of the seed to plant in our garden for early use and raised both corn and beans for several years. We named the corn "Squaw Corn." The squaws fenced in their ground by setting small posts about ten feet apart and tying to them small poles with hickory bark or strings cut from deer- skin. They would have only two or three poles to the panel, for the Indian ponies were the only kind of stock they had to fear. But when the wdiite people came in with their cattle and hogs the Indians would either move further out in the wilderness or Avould build better fences. When we came and settled amongst them the Indians were very friendly, and I think they were pleased to have us come. When they were kindly treated they showed no disposition to molest or hurt the white people. They had a strong propensity to steal and pilfer, and would pick up any thing they could find and carry it a^vay, so we had to be constantly on our guard wdien they were around. About eighteen months after we moved on our farm an Indian and two squaws came to our house to trade some maple sugar for some flour. The Indians at that time made considerable maple sugar, and we were in the habit of getting our sugar from them. The men of our family were all out in the field at Avork, and there Avas no one at home but my mother and old Mrs. ]Ss"iman, my sister Har- riet, myself and our little sister Lucinda, who was then about a year old. While mother was ineasuring out the sugar and flour one of the Indian squaws stole her brass kettle and secreted it under the skirts of her dress. My mother brought the kettle from Xew York and prized it very liighly. She had been using it just before the Indians EAELY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. 25 came in, and as there had been no other person in the house, she knew very well that one of them had stolen it. So she told the Indians that they mnst give her back her kettle. They positively denied knowing anything about it, and were starting to go out of the house when my mother seized our long-handled iron shovel, sprang to the door and closed it, and told them they could not go until they gave up the kettle. They still denied having it. My mother then ordered them to take oft' their blankets, for they all wore blankets. The Indian took off his blanket and showed that he did not have the kettle ; then one of the squaws took off her blanket, and showed that she w^as innocent ; Avhen the other squaw took off her blanket mother could plainly see the outline of the kettle under her skirt. Mother pointed to it and told her to take it out, so the squaw unhooked the kettle from under her dress and gave it to mother, Avlien the Indians were permitted to depart. Mother very well knew that if they got out of the house with the kettle she would never see it again. Her intention was if the Indians did not give up the kettle to hold the Indians there with the big iron shovel until she could send one of the children to the field for the men. The pioneer fire-shovel was a very heavy and formidable weapon. The women had to do all their cooking in a fire-place, as cook- ing-stoves were then unknown ; and the iron shovel they used to stir up the log fire and to put coals of fire on their bake oven had an iron handle three feet long and the shovel part was maybe six inches square, weighing a ]iound or so. It would have been a serious thing coming in contact with an Indian's head. We had many other little conflicts with the Indians, arising usually out of their tendency to steal, and I may mention some of them as I proceed with my narrative. 26 EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. CHAPTER VII. THE NIMANS. FIRST BLACKSMITH SHOP OPENED BY JACOB ]sri:\rAN. — dr. charles newton, a celebrated pioneer PHYSICIAN. another ERROR IN CHAPMAn's HISTORY. When my father moved to Fuhon countv he brought with him a man and wife. His name was Jacob Ximan. He found them at Edwardsville, where we had spent a year in preparation for coming to our wiklerness home. They had walked all the way from Philadelphia, and wanted to go to the Military Tract. My father hired them, and they came with us wp the river on the keel boat. JSTiman was a large, stout Dutchman and a blacksmith by trade. His wife was an Englishwoman, a good cook, an excellent seamstress, and could cut and make any kind of a garment from a pair of buckskin breeches to a lady's fine dress. In addition to these accomplishments she was a professional midwife. It made her a valuable acquisi- tion to this new settlement, especially as there was not a doctor nearer than Springfield, fifty miles distant. Her services were frequently called for until I)r. K'e^vton came to the county. jSTiman was a man of rare courage. We had bought of John Eveland a sow and litter of pigs and placed them in a rail pen near our house. One night Niman heard a terrible racket in the pigpen, and seizing a handspike he ran out to find a huge panther in the pen trying to kill the pigs. As Tviman came up the panther tried to jump out of the pen, but he struck the animal on the head with the handspike and killed it. Mr. ^iman opened the first blacksmith shop in Fulton county. He died about in 1825, and was buried a few rods east of where the old Presbyterian church stood (now the little East school house. His bones are evidently ly- ing in the ground occupied by some of the residents of Eoss Place.) So Chapman's History has made a mistake of EARLY PIOWEEKS AND EVENTS. 27 ten years in saying that Eastman Call opened the lirst blacksmith shop in Lewistown. jSTiman had the first. The second was opened by Harrison Huling, who after- wards went to Canton and opened the first blacksmith shop in that to^^m. The third shop was opened by A. W. Williams, and Eastman Call may have come in fourth. Mrs. Ximan lived at my father's about five years. She was a faithful, good woman. She had left a son in Phila- delphia bound out to learn the shoemaker's trade. He came to see her in 1821, but claimed to be a maker of fine boots and shoes, and was afraid the people of Lewistown would not patronize him very well, so he located in Spring- field. Before my father went to Havana he deeded to Mrs. Niman a block of lots near where the C, B. & Q. depot now stands in Lewistown, and built her a house on the ground. The old inhabitants will remember the noble and kind-hearted old lady, Mrs. Jacob ISTiman, who was ever ready and willing to minister to the sick and sorrow- ful. My father also brought with him from Edwardsville a man named Zweltin, who was a shoemaker, and a carpenter by the name of Enos — both good and reliable men. One of the notable characters that settled in Lewistown in the early times was Dr. Charles jSTewton. He came from Green county, Illinois, and located in Lewistown in 1825. He was an Eastern man, had been well educated, and was considered a very good and skillful doctor. He was the only practicing physician in the county for about two years. He practiced all over the county where there was a settlement. He kept no regular office but made his home at my father's most of the time. He would occasion- ally take a drinking spree that would last a day or two, but aside from that he was as perfect a gentleman as any person could wish to have at their house. My father first met him at Vandalia and told him that he thought there was a good opening for a doctor in Lewistown ; so he closed up his bus- iness and moved to Lewistown. He was a good deal at- tached to my father, and often said that there was no place that seemed like home except at our house. A year after 28 EAKLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. we moved to Havana Dr. jSTewton came down to live with us. So he was the first doctor at Lewistown and the first at Havana. While the doctor was living at our house in Havana my mother started me off one day to hunt up a girl to do our housework. I crossed the river and struck off into South Fulton, and every house I came to I enquired for girls. Finally I Avas directed to an old gentleman who lived do\vn in the edge of Schuyler county^ by the name of Louder- back, who was said to have four girls. I found the place and told them my business, and the oldest one agreed to go with me. It was a long trip and we did not get home until late at night. The doctor had gone to bed, but he called me to his room and wanted to know what kind of a girl that was that I had brought home. I told him that she was a splendid, fine-looking girl. "Do you think," said he, "that she Avould make the doctor a good wife ?" I renlied that I thought she would make any man a good wife. So the doctor courted her, and in about three months they were married. Havana was at that time in Tazewell coimty, and Tremont was the county seat, fifty miles away. So the doctor had to get his license in Lewistown, and em- ployed Esq. J. P. Boice of LewistoA\Ti to come down and marry them. As the marriage had to be performed in the county where the license was issued a crowd of some twen- ty-five or thirty of us, with Esq. Boice and the bride and groom, rowed out in the Illinois river in a boat untilwewere past the channel, so as to be in Eulton county, and the cere- mony was performed on theboat. There was ayoungharness maker of Havana in the party Avho had been paying his at- tentions to "Miss Louderbaek, and in fact was very much smitten with her, for she Avas indeed a very handsome and attractive young lady. When Esq. Boice Avas repeating the marriage ceremony, and came to the place that if any person had any objections Avhy the said parties should not be bound in the holy bonds of matrimony to then let it be knoAvn or forever after to hold their peace, young Cook, who was sitting on the gunwale of the boat, rose up and said that he objected. The 'squire asked him Avhat Avas EARLY PIONEEKS AND EVENTS. 29 his objections. He replied tkat he wanted the young lady himself. Esq. Boice told him that he did not think that was a legal objection, so went on and performed the mar- riage ceremony. The ferry boat was then rowed back to town, and all went to the Havana Hotel, where a wedding infair was given by the host and hostess, and the table was, spread with the best that the country could afford. About three months later the doctor and his wife moved over into South Fulton where he practiced a couple of years, and then they moved up near the town of Cuba. Dr. ITewton was appointed surgeon in the Black Hawk war. He was entitled to two servants, and had the right to draw pay for them the same as for himself. When the pay roll was be- ing made out the officers asked the doctor what were the names of his two servants. He had no servants, but in or- der to draw pay for them he gave the names of George Baker and Truman Phelps. On being asked afterwards why he gave these two names, he said that they had served him more times than any other men he could think of. Each one kept a tavern and a bar, and it was at the bar that they had " served " him so faithfully. Truman Phelps was a very proud man and was terribly cut up at being officially rated as a servant. (Chapman's History says that Truman Phelps kejjt the first tavern in Fulton county. This is a mistake. George Baker kept a tavern in the brick house occupied by Will- iam Proctor (on the site of the Ewan hardware store), two years before Truman Phelps came to the countrv. While Dr. ITewton was still living with my father in Lewistown word came that the wife of Capt. David Haacke was very sick and for the doctor to come and see her. He lived about six miles north of Lewistown. Big Creek had to be crossed, and at that time the waters were high. The doctor had been drinking some that day, and fatlier was afraid for him to go alone; so he sent me along to see that the doctor got through all right. The doctor found his patient a very sick woman. He did the best he could for her, but in a few days she died. Some years after that Capt. Haacke became the owner of one of the finest farms be- 30 EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. tween Canton and Cuba. After the death of Dr. Newton Capt. Haacke married the doctor's widow, and soon rented out his farm and moved to Canton. The last time I was in Canton, some eighteen years ago, I visited Capt. and llrs. Haacke at their home, and I think they were the happiest conple I have ever met. So I think Capt. Haacke could agree with me in what I told Dr. l^ewton the even- ing that I brought the young lady to the hotel, that " she would make any man a good wife." CHAPTER VIII. PIKE COUNTY ORGANIZED. FIRST ELECTION IN FULTON COUNTY HELD AT MY FATHEr's HOUSE. MY FATHEr's vote the first cast in fulton county. john l. bogardus, one of Peoria's early settlers. — first marriages in fulton county. my sister lucinda the first avhite child born in this territory. The first county formed west of the Illinois and east of the Mississippi, and also embracing all ITorth Illinois, was Pike, organized in 1S21. The county seat was Cole's Grove, now in Calhoun county. In 1824 it w^as moved to Atlas, and in 1833 it went permanently to the fine little city of Pittsfield. The town of Atlas was laid out on a bluff three miles from the Mississippi river by the Ross brothers, who came to Illinois the year before my father came. They were John, William and Leonard ; they were enterprising and excellent citizens and owned a good deal of land in that part of the state. They not only located the county seat to their liking, but subsequently preempted about all the local offices in that county. They were dis- tant relatives of our family, having also come from Scot- land. My father was so friendly with them that he named my brother Leonard for the one of that name. Some of the descendants of these Pike county Rosses now own fine fruit ranches in Santa Clara Valley, Cal. EAKLY PIONEEES AND EVENTS. 31 The first probate court field in Pike county was in May, and tfie first circuit court in October, 1821, at Cole's Grove. Tfie first probate judge was Abrafiam Beck; tfie first cir- cuit judge, Jofin Keynolds; first representative, JSTicfiolas Hanson ; first senator, Tlios. Carlin. Carlin and Rey- nolds afterwards became, each, governor of Illinois, Tfie first election ever held near Lewistown was at my father's house Aug. 5, 1822, while we were still in Pike county. The judges of the election were Abner Eads, Stephen Chase and Reuben Fenner, and John Totten was the clerk. The candidates for governor at that election were Edward Coles, Joseph Phillips and Thomas C. Brown. (Joles got nineteen ; Phillips, seven ; Brown, six. I or congress, Daniel P. Cook got all the votes, thirty- three ; for representative, iSIicholas Hanson got thirteen votes : for sheriff, John Shaw eighteen, Leonard Ross twelve, and B. C. Penton twenty; for coroner, Daniel Whipple twelve, James Bacon fifteen. The first election ever held in Fulton county after its organization was also held at my father's house about three-quarters of a mile northeast of the Court House Square in Tewistown, on April 14, 1823. The boundaries of the county at that time extended from the Illinois river to the ]\rississippi and to the northern line of the state, in- cluding Galena, Chicago and all that country. The judges at that election were George Brown, Amos Eveland and Hazel Putnam; the clerks, Thos. Lee Ross and John Totten. There Avere no great national issues at that elec- tion, but it was run on local issues mainly. It was then — seventy-four years ago — just what it has ever been, "JSTorth Fulton vs. South Fulton ; and the fight was over the office of sheriff. The people of ISTorth Fulton had nominated for that office a man named Abner Eads of Peoria, and the people of South Fulton had nominated my father, Ossian M. Ross. The voters from the northern part of the county (all Northern Illinois) came down the Illinois river in canoes, then up Spoon river to Waterford, and then walked through the woods seven miles to my father's house where the election was held, for it was then the only voting pre- 32 EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. cinct in all that majestic portion of Illinois now containing fifty connties, many hnndreds of cities and towns, and peo- ple by the millions ! It was a big battle like some of the later \onnty seat fights in Fulton county. E ads and Eoss had marshalled all their forces from Knshville on the south to Fort Clark (Peoria) and Chicago on the north. The Xorth Fultonites had brought whiskey with them. In those days men could travel and hold elections without carrying much food, for they could live on game ; but they could not get on without plenty of whiskey. When the election Avas over it was found that thirty-five (35) votes had been cast, and that Eads had beaten Eoss by a majority of four votes ! But it afterwards was sllo^\^l that as Eads came down the river with his sixteen voters he stopped at " Town Site " (now Pekin) in Sangamon county, and brought with him two bachelors — fraudulent voters — and by this means won the election. I have in my possession the original poll books of the elections of 1822 and 1823, just as they came from the hands of the judges and clerks of those elections. So I can tell exactly how every vote was cast. The poll book for 1823 shows that my father cast the first vote that was ever cast in Fulton county (all i^^orthern Illinois), and it was cast for Abner Eads, his opponent for the office of sheriff. My uncle, Hugh E. Coulter, was the first county and circuit clerk, judge of probate and county recorder. My uncle, Thomas Lee Eoss, was the first assessor and county treasurer. My uncle, John N^. Eoss, was the first survevor. In 1824 my father was elected county treasurer and sheriff and was appointed the first postmaster in big Fulton county. In regard to the first settlements and first toA\ms built up in the territory I have described, Chicago had the start of the others, and Peoria was the next. But in 1830 they both fell behind some of the other towns. The towns of Atlas, Quincy, Columbus, Eushville, Lewistown, Peoria, Galena and Chicago Avould not, in 1830, have varied 200 in population, LewistoAvn being a little ahead of all the others. From the most reliable accounts to be had, Chi- EAKLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. 33 cago in lSf30 did not contain more than eighteen to twenty houses, and its population did not exceed 200. It was or- ganized in 1833, and incorporated as a city in 1837. One of the first settlers. at Ft. Clark (Peoria) was John L. Bogardns. He went /here in 1819. He was a lawyer, and he and Hugh R. Coulter were the first lawyers in Ful- ton county. j\lr. Bogardns attended the first court terms held in Lewisto^^al. He was a very energetic and success- ful business man. He owned most of the land that now constitutes Peoria and laid out the first town lots in that city. He also kept a ferry across the Illinois river at that place. One peculiar line of business he engaged in was the manufacture of fish oil, shipping it by boat to St. Louis. At the outlet of Peoria Lake in early times vast quantities of fish Avould congregate. He had them caught in vast quantities in seines, would throw them into huge hoppers holding several wagon loads, and leave them there to be tried out into oil under the fierce rays of the sun. He had to employ Creoles and Indians to do this work, as white men would at once go down with fever and ague, against which the Indians and Creoles were proof. This fish oil was about the first produce ever shipped out of the county, except furs. The first marriages in this territory, of which there is any record, were two that took place — one at Chicago and the other at Lewistown — on the same day, July 2, 1823, both then in Fulton county. One was the marriage of Thomas Lee Ross and Susan ^ye, who were married in Lewisto^^m by Hugh R. Coulter, J. P. The other was the marriage of Alexander Wolcott and Eleanor Kinzie, (doubtless the daughter of the founder of Chicago), at Chicago, by John Hamilton, J. P. Both marriage licenses were issued by Hugh R. Coulter, county clerk, at Lewis- to^^^l. The bride of Thomas Lee Ross was a niece to Mr. Bogardus above alluded to. My sister Lucinda was the first white child born in this immense territory above described. She was born in Lewistown Oct. 7, 1821. She became the wife of Judge William Kellogg of Canton, afterwards a member of Con- 34 EAIiLY PIOiSTEERS AND EVENTS. gress, and now resides at Ashtabula, Ohio. Her daughter, Mrs. Judge L. W. James, resides in Lewisto^vn. For two years after the organization of Fulton county the people of Chicago had to come to Jjewistown for their marriage licenses, tavern licenses, ferry licenses, etc., and to do all county business. When a couple wanted to get married they would generally postpone the matter until they found another couple of the same mind, or found some one who wanted a tavern license, and then they would send a man down to I^ewistown to do both jobs and thus save expense, as it took a man at least two weeks, horses- back, to make the trip, and he would have to camp out in the woods most of the nights because there were but few settlers along the route. It was a great relief to Chicago when Peoria county was organized in 1825, and the county seat located at Peoria. They could then get their tavern and marriage licenses at Peoria and save fifty miles of travel. So after 1825 Peoria took Chicago under its* wing, and took a kind of motherly care over the little thing until it got big enough to take care of itself.* * Mankato, Kas., July i2, 1897. Editoj- Democrat : — I have been reading with deep interest the pioneer sketches of Mr H. L. Ross, especially the last one relating to Dr. Newton. A great deal has been said about his drinking, etc., but no one has told the good story that he was finally converted and baptized while at the home of my grandfather, Joseph Geyer, near Cuba. My grandparents took care of him during his sickness and death. I have in my poses- sion one of his ancient medical books, and also a queer old forceps with which he pulled the teeth of the pioneers of Fulton county. Grace Geyer Purdum. The editor must also say that Dr. Newton was buried in the old cemetery. About three years ago, in company with the late Dr. Alex. Hull, the editor was shown the spot where Dr. Newton was buried, although the grave is not marked. It was Dr. Hull's purpose to urge the erection of a suitable monument to F^ulton county's first physician, but his death probably frustrated that kindly purpose. It seems to us that the physicians of Fulton county may yet desire to perform this prateful act. — Editor Democrat. EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. 35 CHAPTER IX. THE WENTWORTHS AND EARLY CHICAGO. THE KINGSTONS. BROTHER lewis' VISIT TO CHICAGO. In early times two families moved from Lewistown to Chicago — one helping to organize the first Methodist church in that city, and the other the first Presbyterian church there. Elijah Wentworth and family came from Maine and lo- cated first at Vandalia, 111. In 1823 they moved to Ful- ton county and settled on a piece of land half a mile north- east of Lewistown adjoining my father's farm. They had three sons — Hiram, Elijah and George; and four daugh- ters — Lucy, Eliza, Sophia and Susan. They were Metho- dists, and helped organize the first Methodist church in Eulton county. They were very industrious people. Mr. W. was a shoemaker, and his sons engaged in farming. The mother and her daughters carried on an extensive business in manufacturing buckskin gloves and mittens and buckeye and straw hats. The buckskins they bought of the Indians, who killed the deer and dressed the hides beautifully. The buckeye timber came from the river bottoms. The men prepared that very tough and elastic timber by working it into splits that were braided into very handsome and useful hats. They very much resem- bled the Panama hats afterwards so generally worn by gen- tlemen in hot weather. The straw used in making the straw hats was cut with a sickle or reap-hook about the time the grain began to form, because it would toughen better than at any other time. The straw was bound into sheafs and laid away for future use. These ladies not only supplied the Lewisto^\m market, but sold gloves and hats at Springfield, Peoria and other distant places. In 1S2T Mr. Wentworth and family (ex- cept Hiram and Eliza, who were married), moved to Chi- cago. Eliza married a Peoria merchant named Clark, 36 EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. and one of her daughters became the wife of Edward Say re, Fulton county's famous pioneer circuit clerk. The Wentworths started from Lewistown with two two-horse wagons. In 18^2 Mr, Wentworth nrade a trip back into Fulton county to visit his son Hiram. He stopped over night with my mother, then living in Canton, and there told me the story of his moving to Chicago fifteen years be- fore. He said that on his trip north, after he left Canton they did not see any white people until they reached Peoria ; and not one from Peoria to Ottawa ; and not one from Ottawa to Chicago. They camped out at night and slept in their wagons. With their flint-lock guns they killed all the game they needed, and with the provisions they carried with them they fared well on their journey. When they arrived at Chicago they found some fifty soldiers at Ft. Dearborn and some forty or fifty wigwams scattered down the Chicago river and some on the lake shore. There were five of six stores or trading posts, and their trade was chiefly with the Indians. There were not (in 1827) more than ten or twelve white families in Chi- cago. Some of the traders had married squaws and were raising big families of half-breeds. Mr. Wentworth said a great deal of the land in Chicago, along the river and lake, was low and marshy with numberless muskrat houses scattered about. Mr. Wentworth went back about four miles from the lake and located on a fair eighty-acre tract and improved. His daughters here bought buckskins from the Indians and resumed the manufacture of gloves and mittens. The improvement of Chicago was very slow imtil in 1830, when emigration began at a lively rate. It was about this time that Mr. Wentworth and family helped to organize the first Methodist church in that city. Perhaps some of the readers of The Democrat may re- member an article that appeared in this paper Feb. 7, 18 84-. It was an extract from the ISTorthwestern Chris- tian Advocate, stating that Mrs. Lucy Walker Wentworth had died in Chicago, aged eighty-four, and that she and her husband were the founders of Methodism in Chicago, and that they had formerly lived in Lewistown. The editor EAKLY PIONEEES AND EVENTS. 37 of The Democrat enquired if any of the pioneers remem- bered the family. I replied at once. It was the same Went worth family I am now writing about. I was never able to learn how much the old gentleman got for his eighty-acre farm, now almost in the heart of the city ; but he told me that if he had held to it a little longer it would have made him independently rich. Ilie other family that moved from Lewistown to Chi- cago, and helped to organize the first Presbyterian church there, were named Kingston. He was an old Scotch Presbyterian. He took an active part in church affairs in Fulton county, and I believe he was a ruling elder in Lewistown. His son John was about my own age. One of his daughters taught in the Sabbath school. Mr. Kingston kept store in a log building that stood on the site of the late Nathan Beadles' fine residence. The cabin was built by my uncle, Thos. Lee Koss, who carried on the hatters trade in it until he went to the lead mines in 1827, Avhen Mr. Kingston took the store. I think ]\Ir. K. went to Chicago about in 1830. In 1832 he came back to Lewistown to settle up some business and stopped at my father's house. He said he had come from Chicago to Ottawa in a stage, and from there to Havana by a steam- boat. He was very enthusiastic about Chicago's future, and told my father that good lots could then be bought there at from $400 to $G00 each, and he urged him to go up and make an investment. But father was then build- ing the Havana Hotel and had a large amount of busi- ness on hand, but said he would as soon as possible send Lewis to look at the place. Lewis was then in the Black Hawk war. When he was mustered out he went on to Chicago and spent several days looking over the place. When he came home his report was not favorable. He described the land as resembling that about the mouth of Spoon river and around Thompson's lake; he said Chi- cago river was about like the Spoon river and that it overflowed like the Spoon river; that it was a swampy country, and that his horse had almost mired down 38 EAELY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. as lie rode out to Mr. Wentwortli's ; he also told about the muskrat houses, and said (it was in 1S33) that there was not a house in Chicago that compared in size or finish with the Havana Hotel which my father had just com- pleted. I- believe it was the largest house in Illinois at that time. I shall have more to say about that hotel in a future letter. CHAPTER X. THE HAVANA HOTEL ; ITS CONSTRUCTION. COURT HELD IN BAR-ROOM OF MY HOTEL, WHERE ABRAHAM LINCOLN ATTENDED. BLOCK HOUSES BUILT. I will give a short history of the old Havana Hotel which my father built in Havana in the early pioneer times. 'It will interest the younger generation of today to know something about the hardships and difficulties the old pioneers had to encounter, and with what fortitude and determination they accomplished whatever they un- dertook to do. It was certainly a very great undertak- ing to build such a house at that time. There was no pine lumber to be had nearer than Cincinnati, and the few saAV- mills that were in the country at that time had been erfected on small streams in Fulton county. Therefore most of the sawed lumber used in the hotel was sawed by hand with a whip-saw. When the building was completed it was in all probability the largest building in Illinois and had cost more money than any other one erected at that time in the state. The building of the hotel was commenced late in 1831 and finished in 1833. It combined hotel and store, and both together Avas eighty feet long by thirty feet in width, with upper and lower porches ten feet wide on each side of the house. The main part of the hotel was four stories high, and the store part two and a half stories. The first story was built of a stone wall twelve EAliLY riONEEKS AND EVENTS. 39 inches thick, aud the grouud lioors were hiid with stone. The bah\nce of the building was of wood. There were two large chimneys, with three fireplaces opening into one and fonr into the other. All the lumber, stone and lime used in building the house were brought from Fulton county. The sills, posts, joists and all the other large tim- bers were cut and hewed in the woods. The stone was taken out of a hill in T.iverpool township north of Thomp- son's lake and carried by boat down the lake and by the Illinois river to Havana. The lime was burned in the same township and hauled by Zenos Herrington to Ha- vana in a truck-wheeled wagon with two yoke of oxen. The truck-wheeled wagon was built without one particle of iron being used in its construction. The wheels and every part were wholly of wood. Mr. Herrington had no need to halloo for the ferry boat when he came to the river at Havana, for the ferryman could hear the creak- ing of his wagon half a mile away. The timber used in building the hotel was white oak, ash, and black and white walnut. The weatherboarding and shingles w^ere split out of white oak timber and shaved to a proper thickness Avith a drawing knife. The weatherboarding was four feet long and the shingles twenty-eight inches. The lath w^as all split out in the woods, and all the doors, window- sashes and mouldings had to be made by hand. The weatherboarding and shingles were made near Lewistown by Jonathan Cadwallader and his sons Isaac and John. They then lived in Lewistown. They were Quakers, and did a good, honest, Quaker job. Ilie carpenter work was done by Moses, Lewis and Alexander Freeman and Isaac and Jesse Benson. The mason work was done by Ben- jamin Hartland, and the painting by Andrew Maxfield. I mention these names because they were old settlers and many of their descendants are still living there. About twenty-five years after the hotel and store were built the big house was destroyed by fire, and was uninsured. ]\ry father kept the store and ran the hotel up to the time of Ins death in 1S37. Mvmother and brother Lewis admin- 40 EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. istered on liis estate. His stock of goods and other per- sonal property were appraised at a little over $9,000, and the administrator's sale amonnted to a little over $10,000. The sale was made on twelve months' credit, the purchaser giving note drawing twelve per cent, interest. After my father's death the store house and hotel were rented out, and the family moved to Canton. In 1840, when I had taken a wife in Canton, I went hack to Havana and took charge of the ferry and of the hotel, and ran them for three years. It was during this time that the county of Mason was organized and the county seat located at Havana. There was no court house at that time, and so court was held in the har-room of my hotel, and some of the other rooms were used for jury-rooms. It was there that such men as Abraham Lincoln, John J. Harris, E. D. Baker, H. M. Wead, AV. C. Goudy and John P. Boice attended the courts and took part in the jDioneer law suits. I re- member at one of the court terms the afterwards famous Gen, Harding had a narrow escape from death. He was very fond of hunting, and went out one morning to try his luck for a deer. At that time they were very plenty along the Illinois river. He did not have to travel far until he saw a deer, and he drew up his gun and fired at it. But instead of killing the deer the breech-pin flew out of his gun and struck him in the face, making a terrible woiind. It was several days before he could be taken home, and he carried the scar until the time of his death. Mr. Lincoln never appeared to care very much about hunting and sel- dom engaged in that sport. His chief amusement and delight was in telling anecdotes and stories. In the role of story-telling I have never known his equal. His power of mimicry was very great. He could perfectly mimic the Dutchman, the Irishman, or the negro. In the even- ing after court had adjourned a gTeat crowd would gather around Lincoln in the bar-room to listen to Lincoln's stories, and he seemed to enjoy to the utmost the peals of laughter that would fill the house. I have heard men say that they have laughed at some of his stories until thev had EARLY I'lOXEERS AND EVENTS. 41 almost shaken their rihs loose. I heard of cases where men have been suffering for years with some bodily ailment and could get no relief, but who, having gone two or three evenings and listened to lincoln, had laughed all their ail- ments away and had become well and hearty men, and had given Lincoln the credit of being their healer. It was during the time that my father was building the Plavana Hotel that he had a 200-acre farm fenced and broken up a half mile east of Havana, the rails having been made on the banks of Spoon river and boated down that river and across the Illinois. In 1833, during the Black Hawk war, when so many people were leaving the Military Tract for fear of the Indians, he put his whole force of men to work and built a fort, or block house, at Havana, to be a refuge for the white settlers. The effect of this was to stop the ruinous stam- pede of people away from Fulton county. I only speak of these things to show what the old pio- neers could accomplish under difficulties when they had a mind to work and accomplish something.* CHAPTER XI. ARRIVAL OF JUDGE STEPHEN PHELPS AND WILLLOI PROC- TOR. THEIR KINDNESS TO THE INDIANS. JUDGE PIIELPS' SPORTSMANSHIP. Among the early settlers who came to Fulton county in the old pioneer times there Avere none who did more to de- velop all the avenues of prosperity and to exert an influence *Gen. L. F. Ross informs us that three block houses instead of one were built — one on each side of the hotel in Havana, and one on the "vvest bank of the Illinois river and north of Spoon river on the road to Lewistown. Gen. Ross says the people of Fulton county helped to build these houses. The mouth of Spoon river was then directly op- posite Havana, and the ferrry ran from Havana to the upper side of Spoon river. This large hotel stood on the south side of Market street on the edge of a high bluff overlooking the river. The bluff has been cut down and the site of the hotel is now vacant. 42 EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. for the good of society than Judge Stephen Phelps and his son-in-law, "William Proctor. They came from the state of ISTew York and stopped for a year or two in Sangamon county, and then moved to Fulton county, settling in Lewistown in 1825. Chapman's History of Fulton County says they came in 1827, but it is an error. I have in my possession a record of the fact that cannot be gain- said. It is the journal book kept by ISTorman and Ira Scovill when they ran the ferry over the Illinois river at Havana for my father in 1825 and 1826. It was the only ferry on that river between Peoria and Beardstown, and all the earlier pioneers in Fulton county came over the river at Havana. The Scovills kept the ferry on shares, paying my father one-half of all sums collected on ferriage. They kept a very accurate journal, with full particulars of all parties ferried, giving dates, names, articles ferried, etc. So it is that by referring to this ancient journal I can tell the exact date and year when many of the old settlers came to the county. I will copy a few items from this journal to show the reader how it was kept: 1825. Feb. 18. Judge Phelps, ferriage of 2 horses, and wagon, and 2 footmen $ 0.75 Feb. 23. Judge Phelps, 2 wagons, 4 horses, 2 cows and 1 footman 1.37^- July 27. William Proctor, horses, wagons and footman 2.62^ This shows beyond controversy, I think, Avhen Judge Phelps and Mr. Proctor landed in Fulton county. Then I find these items for the same vear, 1825 : " Feb. 5, Elijah Putman, ferriage, $2.00:"" "July 7, William Walters, ferriage, $2.00 ;" " Julv 22, Eeden Putman, $2.00 :" '' July 26, Jacob Ellis, $2.00 ;" " July 26, Levi Ellis, $2.50." And so the record goes on during 1825 and 1826. It would seem to be a thoroughly reliable — per- haps the only correct record of the dates on which so many famed pioneers came to Fulton county. EARIA' PIONEEES AND EVENTS. 43 When Judge Phelps and his family first came to Lewis- town they lived in a log house north of the present M. E. church and west of T. F. Stafford's store and residence. The log house was built by John Jewell. They lived there some six or eight months and then moved (in 1825)to the lots now occupied by the Phelps-Proctor store and Mrs. Mary Phelps' residence. When Judge Phelps bought that property there had been erected on it a two-story hewed log house by John Wolcott, who sold the jAace to him. Judge Phelps added a log kitchen and had the whole building lathed and plastered, and it was the first lathed and plas- tered house in Lewistown. Judge Phelps also bought a lot opposite on the west side of Main street and there built a hewed log house about 18x20 feet for a store house; but two or three years later they built a frame addition to their store, and then gave the log store-room exclusively for a camping place for the Indians who came long distances to trade with them. Sometimes the Indians came forty or fifty miles with their pack horses laden with deer skins and furs, and they often would remain three or four days to do their trading with the Phelpses, who had opened up the first store in Pulton county. They were very fair and honorable in all their dealings with the Indians and whites, and their trade increased rapidly. Judge Phelps had five sons and one daughter who were single when they came to Lewistowm, his oldest daughter having married William Proctor. The names of his sons were Alexis, Myron, Sumner, William and Charles. Judge Stephen Phelps was a man about five feet ten inches high, portly built, with light complexion, and weighed about 200 pounds. His son William at fifty years of age resembled his father very much. The judge had at some period of his life received an injury to his back which hindered him very materially in walking, and was obliged, as long as I kncAv him, to walk quite slowly and with a cane. But aside from that he had excellent health. He was kind and courteous and sometimes inclined to be a little mirth- ful. His wife was a tall, slender lady of dark complexion, weighing about 120 pounds, and a better or kinder-hearted 44 EAKLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. lady I do not believe ever lived upon the face of the earth. She was good and kind to all, and everybody loved and honored her. I have often heard it said that a poor man's child or an Indian papoose never went from Judge Phelps' door with a hungry stomach as long as his wife lived. The Phelpses owed a good deal of their success in their Indian trade to the kind and friendly treatment the In- dians received at the hands of Judge Phelps and his wife. There were trading posts at Peoria, but the Indians would come from the vicinity of that place all the way to Lewis- toA^^l to trade their skins and furs to the Phelpses, for they had confidence in them, and was afraid to trust the Peoria traders. The Phelpses erected a press for the purpose of compressing their pelts and skins into small packages, for more convenient shipment to St. Louis. This machine was something after the fashion of a cotton press, but instead of using screws, wooden wedges were employed to compress the pelts. The compressed package would be about 2x3 feet in size and would weigh from 100 to 150 pounds. The judge's youngest son, Charles, was near my o"svn age, and as boys were rather scarce at that time, we were a great deal together. We both had our shotguns and were both very fond of hunting and fishing ; and when Satvirday came around and there was no school, we would strike out for a hunt, both of us being about ten years of age. When Judge Phelps came to Lewistown he brought Avitli him a Dearborn carriage and a large broAvn horse Avhich they called "Prince." The judge was fond of driving, and would often take Charles and myself in his Dearborn and drive us to where we would find good hunting and fishing. One of our favorite resorts was the Spudaway creek empties into Spoon we would always find plenty of fish The judge was also fond of hunting, take liis gun when he went out, .often shoot at game while sitting in his carriage as lie drove through the Avoods. His horse was very gentle and would not scare at the firing of the gun. In those times there were a great many pigeons in the country, and the spot river. where There and and and game, would would EAIJLY PIONEEKS AND EVENTS. 45 judge delighted very much in killing them. One morning when I was at the judge's house he had just come in from a hunt with his horse and Dearborn, and had brought home fourteen pigeons and told Charles and me that he had killed all of those pigeons with a rifle ball and at one shot, and he wanted us boys to guess how he had done it. After we had made a good many guesses, and had finally given up the riddle, he then told us how the remarkable feat was accom- plished. There are some other things that I would like to men- tion in regard to the Phelps and Proctor families, but will continue the story in my next letter. I will also give the readers a week in which to guess how Judge Phelps killed fourteen pigeons with one shot of a rifle ball. In my next I will explain the miracle. CHAPTER XII. HOW THE FOURTEEN PIGEONS WERE KILLED WITH A RIFLE- BALL AT ONE SHOT. THE FIRST PIONEER STORES. METHOD OF SHIPPING CARGO TO ST. LOUIS. THE FIRST PENITENTIARY IN THE STATE. CHRISTIAN CHARACTER AND BENEVOLENT DEEDS OF MYRON PHELPS AND WIL- LIAM PROCTOR. In my last I promised to tell hoAV it happened that Judge Phelps killed fourteen pigeons with a rifle ball at one shot. It happened as follows: The judge had gone out one morning with his horse Prince and his Dearborn carriage for a ride, and had taken his shotgun with him as was his custom. After firing a few times at squirrels his shot-bag was empty ; but he found in his pocket a rifle ball. So he took his knife and cut the ball up into small fragments of lead and loaded his shotgun with them. He soon came to a threshing-floor on my father's farm, where we had been threshing wheat by having the horses trample it out on the ground. A large flock of pigeons had settled 46 EAKLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. down upon the threshing-floor tO' pick np the grains of wheat that had mingled with the dirt; and when these pigeons rose in a elond to fly away the judge fired at them on the wing, bringing down fourteen pigeons at one shot with a rifle ball — cut into fragments. The first year after the Phelpses came to Lewistown they rented twenty acres of my father's farm and put it in corn. Sumner plowed the corn, and my brother Lewis rode the plow-horse, while I rode the plow-horse for my father's hired man in the adjoining field. It is a singular fact that in the first settlement of the county the eastern men bad to have a boy to ride the horse when they plowed corn, while the southern men would ahvays drive their plow- hoTse Avith a single line. After the Phelpses had been in business about two years, in Lewistown, Alexis and Sumner established a trading- post at Yellow Banks (now Oquawka) on the Mississippi river, and had a large trade with the Indians of Iowa and Illinois. William Phelps in his youthful days was very fond of the chase. He kept a pack of hounds that were well trained, and during the summer months he would start out in the morning, as soon as it was daylight, with his horse and hounds and a tin horn for a fox-hunt. The deep baying of his dogs and the blare of his horn could in those times be heard for miles around the village. There were a great many woIa^cs, foxes and wildcats in the coun- try, and he would occasionally start up a lynx or a panther. These animals were very annoying to the farmers, as they would kill a great deal of the stock and carry off the poul- try, and AVilliam and his hounds contributed very materi- ally to their extermination. The first enterprise thar William engaged in after leaving home was to set up an Indian trading-post on Grand Island, ten miles below Ha- vana in the Illinois river. After carrying on this trade about one year he was married to Oaroline Kelsey and struck out for the wilds of Iowa where he was engaged for many years in trading with the Indians. He was sub- EAKLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. 47 sequently engaged in steaniboating on the Mississippi river for many years. The next store that was opened in Lewistown was that of Edward Plude, a Frenchman, and Patrick Hart, an Irishman. They built a frame storehouse on the lot where William Proctor lived for many years, on Main street. They kept the store for about two years, and then my father bought their goods and moved them to a store he had built on the Edwin Harris corner, south of the court house. After my father bought their goods, Plude clerked for my father, while Hart clerked for the Phelpses. A man named Taylor started the next store. He came from Philadelphia. He brought on a large stock of Indian goods and also brought with him from St. Louis two Frenchmen who were accomplished Indian interpre- ters, as clerks. Mv. Taylor's ambition was to seize upon the splendid Indian trade secured by the Phelpses. He sent his French clerks out among the Indians to secure their trade, but made a great failure of it. The Phelpses had dealt so honorably with the Indians and white people that no power could break the confidence that was reposed in them, and they held their magnificent Indian trade until the Indians were driven out of the country. Mr. Taylor was a very bright and enterprising man, and while he was in Lewistown he was married to Miss Ruth Cad- wallader, a daughter of Jonathan Cadwallader, who then lived in Lewistowm. She was a grand, noble and beauti- ful young Quaker lady. I happened to be going to school in Lewistown at the time and boarded with Mr. Taylor. The Phelpses had a keel boat built for their own trade to St. Louis which was run by IsTorman Scovill as its cap- tain. T was present at one time when they Avere loading this boat at Thompson's lake. The cargo consisted of barels of pork and honey, packages of deerskins and furs, barrels of dried venison, hams, beeswax and tallow, sacks of pecans, hickory nuts, , ginseng and feathers, and dry hides. In an ordinary stage of water it took about four days to run a keel boat to St. Louis, by poles, oars and 48 EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. sails, and from twenty tO' twenty-five days tO' return. 1 had gone to St. Louis one time with my father with a drove of horses, and came back with Xorman Scovill on his keel boat. The river was quite high, and we had to do a great deal of "cordeling" and "bushwhacking,"* and it took us twenty-five days to come to Havana. I remem- ber that we stopped at Alton as we came up the river, and all hands went up to^\^l to see the new penitentiary that had just been built. There were only two prisoners in the penitentiary, so we had the privilege of seeing the first prisoners ever sent to a penitentiary in the State of Illinois. Before that time the penalty for the commis- sion of a crime was whipping on the bare back. Mr. Proctor came to the county in 1825, some four months after the Phelpses had come, and lived in a house near to where the Phelpses had stopped, just north of present Methodist church. He lived there a short tune while building a two-story log house on the hill near the site of his tannery (the site of the present residence of T. B. Harben). He carried on the tan-yard for several years, and then engaged in the mercantile business, and by fair and honorable dealing he soon built up an exten- sive trade. There have been but few, if any, of the early settlers of Fulton county that have done as much to advance the true interests and prosperity of the country as Myron Phelps and William Proctor. Whenever a college, church, railroad, or factory, or any public improvement was wanting, they would generally head the list with the largest contribution. When the first railroad was built through Fulton county Myron Phelps gave more for its construction than any other citizen. I happened to be one of the directors and also treasurer of the road for tw^o years while it was being built, and therefore know * This "cordeling" and "bushwhacking" was the use of ropes by which the boat was pulled by men walking- along the shore, or by ropes tied to trees by the use of skiffs — the boat being pulled from tree to tree. EARLY PIOJfEEES AND EVENTS. 49 the facts that I am stating. Then the grand and noble Christian characters of these men were a blessing not only to the church of which they were honored members, but to the whole community where they lived. I remember some of the circumstances that attended the conversion of Myron Phelps. I was then living in Canton, and Rev. Robert Stewart was pastor of the Presbyterian church at that place. The Methodist brethren had been wonder- fully blest in some of the campmeetings they had been holding, so the Rev. Mr. Stewart and the officers of his church borrowed the Methodist camp ground and all its appurtenances, and concluded they would try it. So they sent off to Springfield and got Rev. John Hale, the pastor of the First Presbyterian church of that place, and also sent to Quincy and got the Rev. Dr. David Xel- son of that place to come and help run the meeting. They were two of the strongest and most powerful preachers in the state. The campmeeting lasted for eight days, and there were 150 or 200 conversions. A great many Lewistown people attended the campmeeting. My mother had tent on the ground, and I remember that old Dr. Rice and William Proctor were there during the entire eight days, and took a very active part in the meet- ings. When the meeting closed Mr. Proctor took Dr. Nelson home with him and he held several meetings at Lewistown. The spirit and influence of that campmeet- ing seemed to pervade all Fulton county. Dr. lielson visited Myron Phelps at his home, and it was through his mighty influence that he was converted and became a member of the Presbyterian church. T often heard it remarked that when Myron Phelps was converted that "he was converted soul, body, pocketbook and all," for he was always very liberal and benevolent in giving to all worthy objects. I have understood that Myron Phelps was in the habit of giving $1,000 and Mr. Proctor $500 every year for missionary purposes, besides other munifi- cent gifts. I again recall the time when at Vennont a few of us were struggling to build a small church how Mr. 50 EAKLY PIOIS^EEES AND EVENTS. Proctor came to our rescue and gave us $100 to buy the lot on which, that Presbyterian church still stands. These men carried their religion with them in all their business transactions. Their influence was felt for good all through this pioneer country. In the heavenly world alone will be revealed the good they accomplished. 1 have been informed that Myron Phelps was in the habit of always closing his store during the hour of Wednesday evening prayer meeting so that his hands could attend the meeting, and if there were any customers in the store at the time they were invited to go along. I am also told that he never went to the polls to vote that he did not take off his hat and cast his ballot with as much conscientious solemnitv as he would perform any other religious duty. CHAPTER XIII. THE BIC^ SNOW OF 1830-31 AND TERRIBLE SUFFERING THEREFROM. DESCRIPTION OF INDIAN AVIGWAM. CHIEF RACCOON AND MY "gOOD LUCK." One of the most remarkable and startling events that ever took place in the early history of Pulton county and Illinois was the big snow that fell in the winter of 1830- '31. Perhaps no event has ever happened in the history of this western country since its settlement by white men that has caused so much suffering among the people and animals as did the "deep snow." The old settlers will remember many things about it, but another generation has come on the stage of action since then, and they may be interested in the history of that event and some of the circumstances attending that dread- ful, long, cold winter. The snow commenced falling the latter part of December and continued off and on for about a month^ and when it ceased falling the snow in the timber, where it did not drift, was about three feet and six inches on the level, and EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. 51 in the prairies along the fences and in the hollows, where it had drifted, it was ten and fifteen feet deep. The snow lay on the ground about three months and during that time the weather was intensely cold. During many days the mercury ran from ten to twenty degrees below zero. Be- fore that time the winters had been so mild and with so lit- tle snow that stock seldom had to be fed more than from four to six weeks during the entire winter, and wild hogs kept in fairly good order from off the mast (acorns). Dur- ing the whole winter the farmers had been in the habit of gathering only what corn they needed to feed their stock in the fore part of the winter, and the consequence was that the greater part of the crop Avas in the field when the deep snoAV came. The farmers had made no provisions for such a catastrophe and there was great suffering among the peo- ple. A great deal of their stock died, while the wild hogs, deer and other wild animals in the forests were nearly swept out of existence. The Indians came in great numbers from the high lands and settled on the Illinois and Spoon river bottoms. They brought with them their droves of horses and ponies, and kept them from starving by chop- ping down small trees of soft wood, such as basswood, Cot- tonwood, elm and soft maple. Their ponies would not only browse upon the limbs and bark of the trees, but would frequently eat up the whole tree. So the Indians got their ponies through the winter with very little loss. The Avinter of the deep snow was in many ways favorable to the Indians. The snow storm drove great herds of deer from the prairies and hill country to the river bottoms, and the Indians killed great numbers of them. The deep snow was but little impediment to the Indians in travelling, for they liad snow phoes with which they could walk or run over the snow as well, almost, as the whites could go over the bare ground. The snow shoe was made by bending a hickory stick in very much the shape of an ox-yoke ; the bot- tom of the bow would be covered with strips of deer skin to be tied firmly onto the ankles and feet. These shoes were about as heavy as heavy boots. When an Indian in snow shoes s'ot after a deer that had to travel in snow three and 52 EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. one-half feet deep, the Indian was pretty sure to get the deer and cut his throat. The snow was also a great ad- vantage to the Indians in lumting the otter, mink and muskrat. These animals would come out of their dens and leave their tracks or trails in the snow, and the Indians could easily track them, when they could be caught. And it was the same with the fox and raccoon ; they could be tracked to their holes in the hills or in trees, when the In- dians would spear them out of their holes. I have heard my father say that he had a bigger trade with the Indians than in any winter before or after. I have no doubt that the same was true of the Phelpses. One of the prominent camping places selected by the In- dians during that winter was on Spoon river about two miles below old Waterford. They had there erected some twenty wigwams. The young readers of The Democrat may be interested in learning how these wigwams were built. A common sized wigwam for a family of eight or ten persons would be about 12x16 feet in size. Small saplino-s would be cut and set firmly in the ground, big ends down, in rows three feet apart, all round the plat (12x16 feet) to be en- closed. Then the limber tops of the poles would be brought together and fastened Avith hickory wyths or strips of leather. Then small poles would be tied lengthwise to the saplings, making a cross-barred and solid frame. The whole would then be covered with a heavy matting that had been woven by the squaws from the coarse swamp grass yet to be found on the bottom lands. This completed the wigwam, and it had the shape of a hay stack. An opening- was left as a door way and this was protected by a blanket. A pit 2x3 feet in size and eight or ten inches deep would be dug in the center under the wigwam for a fire-place, and there was an opening at the top for the smoke to pass through. The Indians were quite comfortable in these wigwams, with their blankets and furs, in the coldest weather. They never used bedsteads, tables or chairs. They usually sat on packages of skins or sacks of feathers. The whole family usually took their meals out of a wooden EARLY PIONKEES AND EVENTS. 53 tray, using laiives and wooden spoons, but no forks. In cold weather tliev kept their Hres burning night and day. Among the Indians that camped at this place was a chief named Osopin (in English, Raccoon). He had traded with my father when he kept store in Lewistown, and also after he started a store in Havana. He would often buy goods on credit, and was always punctual to pay for them at the time agreed upon. My father entered his name on the ledger, ''Raccoon Osopin," which was both his English and Indian names. He was a good friend to my father, and brought many Indians to trade with him. My father often made Raccoon handsome presents. I remember that he once brought him from St. Louis a tomahawk with the handle striped off in red, white and blue, with an iron pipe on the hammer part of the tomahawk, there being an open- ing through the handle, so the chief could use his beautiful tomahawk as a pipe in which to smoke his tobacco. Rac- coon was greatly pleased with this princely gift. I often helped my father in his Havana store while he was trading with the Indians, and so became very well ac- quainted with Raccoon and his boys. They took quite a liking to me and had often asked me to go to their wigwam and take a hunt with them. My father had brought a small Indian pony for me to ride when I went hunting. So when the deep snow had been sufficiently beaten down into a road between Lewistown and Havana, I started one day with my pony and gun for the Indian camp on Spoon river. When I got there I found that the young Indians had all gone hunting, and only Raccoon was left to take care of the wig-Avam. While I was warming at the fire he pro- duced a buckskin roll of sinews that had been taken out of the legs of deer. When an Indian kills a deer he always takes the sine\vs out of its legs to use in place of thread in sewing their moccasins, mittens, etc. ; and they also use these sinews about their persons as charms, or for "good luck," as they call it. So Raccoon tied a bit of sinew in the buttonhole of my vest. He said it would insure me good luck, and that I would become a brave hunter. After stay- ing a couple of hours I started back home on my pony. I 54 EAKLY PIONEEKS AND EVENTS. * had not gone over a mile when I saw a large deer standmg on the ice in a little lake near the road. He was browsing from bushes, and did not see me. There was a large tree about eighty yards from the deer. I tied my pony to a tree and with my gun in hand crept silently toward the tree, keeping it between me and the deer. Then I rested my gun against the tree, took good aim and fired. The deer fell, but immediately jumped up and conmienced to flounder around in the deep snow. I saw that I had only wounded him, and was terribly afraid that he would get away, I never thought of reloading my gun and shooting him again, as I should have done, but left my gim at the tree, and with my knife in my hand ran as fast as I could to the deer. It was jumping around in the deep snow, and I slipped up behind it and cut its ham-strings, which stop- ped its jumping. It then settled down in the snow, and I got it by the ears and cut its throat. It was soon dead. I little realized the great danger I had encountered in attacking a wounded deer, but found out, after I got older, from talks with old deer hunters, that a Avounded deer was the most dangerous animal that runs in the woods. I was then but a little past thirteen years old, and small of my age, and if the deer had turned upon me he would have stamped me to death. The next problem I had to solve was how to get my deer home, for if I left him there the wolves would eat him before morning. I was three miles from home, about north of what is called California Bend in Spoon river. It was about February 1st, and the weather was terribly cold. But I took my pony and gun to where the deer was lying. I took my saddle girth and placed it around the pony's breast instead of under his belly, and with the halter strap hitched the deer to the stirrups. It made a very good harness. I then got on my pony with my gun and started for Havana. It was a hard pull for my little pony to get the deer out of the deep snow, but when we got onto the beaten track it was easy sledding. I crossed the Illinois river on the ice and got home a little after dark. It was the first deer I ever killed, and I Avas very proud of my EAItLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. 55 success. When Kaccooii came in, a few days later, and I told him of my success, he was much pleased ; he patted me on the back and said I would be a great hunter. Then he pointed to the bit of sinew he had tied in my button-hole, saying it was the cause of my good luck. The Pottowatomie Indians that lived about LeAvistown and Havana were soon moved to an Indian reservation in Kansas by the government. During Johnson's adminis- tration, thirty years later, word was sent to Washington that some of those Indians were in a starving condition. ]\ry brother Lewis, then a member of Congress, was ap- pointed with two other members of Congress to go to the reservation to investigate the matter. Arrived there he found a good many Indians he had known in Fulton coun- ty, and among them our old friend Raccoon. There was great rejoicing among those Indians when they found out who my brother was, and they had a doleful story to tell him of the hard treatment they had received after they had been driven from their good hunting grounds on Spoon river. I shall have more to say of these Indians in a future letter. CHAPTER XIY. MEETING- OF BROTPIEK LEWIS AND CHIEF RACCOON IN IN- DIAN RESERVATION. INDIAN TRAITS. TRAGEDY IN DEAN^S SETTLEjNIENT. In my last letter I spoke of the visit made by a Con- gressional committee, including my brother Lewis, to the Indian reservation in Kansas, where it w^as reported that great suffering existed among the Indians. As there Avere no railroads, these members of CongTess had to make the trip on horseback. They passed through many Indian reservations and got all the information they could from the Indians, from their ao'ents, and from missionaries 56 EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. and school teachers who located among them. Thej found that some of the tribes were in a most deplorable condition and on the verge of starvation. The Pottowat- omie Indians that had been driven from the Lewisto^vn and Havana country had been placed npon an Indian reservation in Kansas and were drawing a small annuity from the government, as an alleged compensation for the lands that had been taken from them in Fulton county, but it was not half enough for their support. They had undertaken to farm the land in Kansas, but the locusts, grasshoppers and hot winds of that country had ruined their crops. To make it still worse for them, the govern- ment had taken away their guns, so they had to hunt ganie witli their bows and arrows. As I have said, my brother Lewis found many Indians that he had formerly known at Lewistown and Havana, and who had for years traded with my father and the Phelpses. These Indians were wild with delight to meet him, and could only express their joy by shaking his hands and hugging him. He had there met the old chief, Raccoon, who was delighted to see him. Raccoon in- quired about his father and Judge Phelps, and when Lewis told him that they were both dead the tears rolled down the swarthy face of the old chief, and he said, "They Avere good men to the Indians." The missionaries at the agency told Lewis that Raccoon had been converted and had joined the church with several of his family, and that he took an active part in carrying on the schools and in missionary work among the Indians. Judge Phelps and my father had always been good friends to the Indians. They believed that it was the safest and best policy to treat them as friends, although they would sometimes lose a little by their stealing, for it was as natural for the Indians to steal as it was for the smoke to go upwards. But all that they would steal amounted to but very little. In the early settlement of the county there came a good many settlers from the southern states, many of whom had had relatives and friends massa- cred bv the Indians of the South, and these southerners EAELY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. 57 as a rule looked upon these Indians as their natural enemy — that they had no rights that a white man was bound to respect. They believed that ''the only good Indian was a dead Indian," and they would often get into trouble with them. The hogs of the white men would run in the woods, and the Indian dogs would chase and worry them ; and then the white men would shoot their dogs, and then the Indians would shoot their dogs and sometimes their hogs to get even with them. Sometimes a white man would have something stolen from his place, and the Indians would always be accused of the theft ; and then the first Indians they could find would be most cruelly Avhi]3ped with hickory poles, when in all probability the Indians knew nothing about the stealing. The outraged Indians would then go to Judge Phelps or my father and tell them how they had been abused, and would always get their sympathy when they thought they were wrong- fully treated. These men would often remonstrate very seriously with these settlers for their inhuman treatment of these Indians. I can remember some of the circumstances of a tragedy that took place in the southeast part of the county in what was called " Dean's Settlement." Among the settlers there was a man named William Eichardson. He was a large, stout man, and was a bitter enemy to the Indians. He would often catch them and cruelly whip them with- out just cause, and would kill their dogs whenever he came across them. One day Avhen he was out in the woods hunting he came across one of his hogs that had just been killed in the woods. He told some of his neighbors he knew the Indians had killed his hog, and he was going to bave his revenge. A day or two later a dead Indian was found propped up, sitting on the dead hog. There were a good many Indians at the time living on Grand Island in the Illinios river, opposite the Dean Settlement, and they were informed about the dead Indian and came and took him away and buried him. Thev were terriblv incensed about the murder and 58 EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. claimed that the Indian was out hunting when he was shot do^\T3. in cold blood and that he had never killed a hog; and had never done the white people an injury. There w^as little doubt among the settlers that Richardson had brutally shot down the Indian from ambush and had brought his body and placed it on the hog to strike terror to them; that if they killed hogs their lives would have to pay the penalty. The Indians would have in all prob- ability taken vengeance on Kichardson but for another tragedy which soon took place. Richardson had a neighbor named Bassett who lived about a mile away who believed that Richardson was too friendly with his wife, lie went from home one time and came back unexpectedly very early in the morning; and as he came near his home he saw Richardson coming out and starting for his home. Bassett went into his house, took down his rifle, and took a near cut across the woods for Richardson's house, and got ahead of liim and secreted himself behind a tree, and as Richardson came along; he shot him dead in his tracks. CHAPTER XV. CAPTAIN JOHN AND IIIS SQUAWS. THE INDIANS^ PARADISE. INDIAN TRAFFIC IN GINSENG AND WILD POTATOES^ AND THEIR EXTERMINATION BY WILD HOGS. I will give a short sketch of one of the most remarkable Indian families that ever lived in Fulton county. I am sure no other family of Indians ever caused so much gossip and so much bitter denunciation from the female part of the community, both white women and squaws, as did the conduct of an Indian chief called "Captain John." He was a large, fine-looking Indian about six feet, four inches tall, and Avas one of the most prominent chiefs in the Pottowatomie tribe. It was told by some of the other Indians wlio had known him before he came EAKLY PIONEEES AND EVENTS. 59 to Fulton county that he had taken the side of the British against the Americans in the war of 1812, and that it was while he was amongst the British soldiers that he obtained the name of ''Captain John." He and his squaw had learned to speak some words in the English language. The first we knew about them they had their wignvam on Big Creek near the road that ran from Lewistown to Totten's Prairie (now Sniithfield). Their wigwam was about three miles northwest of Tewistown close by the dismantled little village of Milton. It appeared from what the Indians told that "Captain John" had at one time became jealous of his squaw, and in his wrath, while under the influence of bad whisky, had bitten off her nose. She wore a buckskin patch over it, and it gave her a most hideous appearance. To add insult to injury, "Captain John" took tO' himself two young wives. They were handsome young squaws about twenty-two and twenty-four years old, and he took a god deal of pride in dressing them up in the most gay and gorgeous style. ISTo squaws in all that part of the country Avere able to dress as fine as "Captain John's" young squaws. They had long black hair which they braided and left to hang gracefully over their shoulders, with the ends tied in bows of gay ribbon. They wore large silver earrings, and four or five strands of large glass beads around their necks. Their dresses were of a gay color with a row of silver brooches down the front. Their skirts were of the finest quality of blue cloth. They wore bands of silver clasped on their wrists, and their fingers were decorated with many rings. Their moccasins were ornamented with beads and fine needlework. "Captain John" appeared to be very proud of his young squaws. But the lot of the old squaw was a hard and bitter one. She went poorly dressed, much below the average of other squaws that came to town. "Captain John" and his three squaws were in the hal)it of coming to town about once every week to trade at Phelps' store, and they always passed by mv father's house. "Captain John" always appeared at the 60 EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. head of the procession, a fine and stately figure; next came his two young squaws in all their finery, and the poor old squaw brought up the rear with a package of peltry strapped across her shoulders and bending pitifully under its weight. She was compelled to do all the hard work. The white women and some of the squaws were so indignant at "Captain John" and his two young squaws for the way they treated the old squaw that they would have liked very much to have mobbed all three of them, but "Captain John" was a big chief, and they were afraid of him. But as the country began to settle up with white men the story became current among them that "Captain John" had been identified with the British army, and fought against the Americans in the war of 1812, and also that the British officers had paid a bounty to the Indians for American scalps ; and they were disposed to believe that all the money "Captain John" was spending in dressing his young wives so gorgeously had not been ob- tained by selling deer^skins and furs, but that it had been paid to him for his services against the Americans, and per- haps for some of the scalps of their white brethren. Add- ing these things to the cruel treatment of the old squaw, of which everybody was cognizant, a very bitter feeling was aroused against him among the men as Avell as amongst the women. It was very seldom that an Indian had more than one squaw. I have known one or two instances where an Indian had one or two squaws, but never before where they had as many as three. So bitter was the life of this poor old squaw that she often wished that she could leave this cruel world and go to the Indian's happy hunting ground where she would be no longer tormented with rival wives and a cruel husband. The only relief the poor old thing had from her sorrows was to drown them in whisky. She had no trouble to find some person who would let her have whisky, for it was the general impression that the only comfort she ever had was when she was hilariously drunk. In that condition she would tell in broken English the story of her hard lot — what a bad Indian "Captain John" was, EARLY PIONEEES AND EVENTS. 61 what a good squaw she had always been, how "Captain John" had got drunk and bit oil" her nose, that his two young squaws were no good, that they would not work, and that she had all the work to do, etc., etc. So it came about that "Captain John" found that it was not safe for him to stay in that j)art of the country any longer ; and he packed his goods on some ponies and with his three squaws moved up to the Rock river country among the Black Hawk tribe. I never heard from "Captain John" and his squaws after that time. It is probable that there is no other country in the United States in which the Indians so delighted to live and which they were so sorry to leave as the beautiful hunting groimds embraced in the counties of Fulton, Schuyler and Mason. It was a perfect paradise for them. They could find about everything that their hearts could desire, and it was about as good a place for the poor white man as it was for the Indian. The deer roamed through the country by the thousands. It is not an exaggeration to say that I have seen 500 deer in the woods and prairies in a single day. Every other kind of game and fowl was abundant, and the rivers and small streams were full of fish. The bee trees were so numerous that white settlers and Indians could get all the honey they wanted, and there were groves of sugar trees all over the country from which an abundance of maple sugar was made. The wild fruit was equally won- derful, there being no limit to the plums, crabapples, grapes, black and redhaws, gooseberries, blackberries, dew- berries and strawberries. Acres upon acres of wild onions could be found in the woods, and wild potatoes in great abundance. Potato creek, south of Spoon river, received its name from the great abundance of wild potatoes that grew on its bank. The hard freezing in the winter did not affect them and they were about as good to eat as Irish po- tatoes. There was another valuable plant that grew in the woods, called ginseng. The roots resembled very much the parsnips familiar in our gardens. Ginseng grew in the woods in the rich loam, and great quantities of it would be due; and sold to the merchants, who would sack it and send 62 EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. it to St. Louis. It was used for medical purposes and brought a good price. The Indians had a large traffic in digging ginseng and wild potatoes, which they sold to the merchants and settlers. But when the hogs became very numerous in the woods, they soon exterminated both the ginseng and the wild potatoes. CHAPTEE XVI. APPEARANCE OF THE COUNTRY WHEN EARLY SETTLERS ARRIVED. EXTENSIVE AND BEAUTIFUL PRAIRIES. MY EXPERIENCE IN HAULING HAY. DISCOVERY OF COAL BY MR. GARDINER. FIRST BANKING ESTABLISHMENT IN FULTON COUNTY. I have been asked by some of my old friends in Fulton county to tell something about how the country looked when the first settlers arrived in it, about the groves, the prairies, the watercourses and the kinds of wild animals found in rho country. So I will endeavor to answer some of these questions. The lace of the country has undergone a wonderful change in appearance, aside from the great improvements that have been made. The beautiful groves of timber then standing unmarred by the Avoodman's ax have been cleared away : and the handsome prairies, that Avere then covered with high grass and beautiful flowers, have been broken up, so it is hard to tell which was timber and which was prairie land. There is one thing that has altered the looks of the coimtry very much since it was first settled, and that is the extensiA'e groAvth of young timber and brush, unknoAvn in pioneer times. Before the county was settled by white peo- ple, prairie fires Avere permitted to SAveep through the coun- try cA^ery year, and they destroyed Avhat is noAV called "bar- rens" and underbrush. The smooth prairies came square up to the distinct groA^^es of large timber. In those days a man traA'eling through Table GroA^e, and many of the other EARLY PIONEEES AND EVENTS. 63 groves in the county, could see a deer 500 or 600 yards away in the prairie ; but twenty-five or thirty years later a deer could not be seen a distance of fifty yards because of the growth of the brush and young timber. There was no such land in the county as that now called '"'barrens." The gToves were very beautiful before any of the timber had been cut, and before there was any undergrowth. Table Grove was one of the great landmarks of the country. It could be seen from the bluli's of the Illinois river on the east, and from Macomb on the west, and from the north for twenty-five or thirty miles. Travelers across the unbroken and almost pathless prairie were guided in their course by Table Grove and other perspicuous groves. ]\lany of the streams of water, such as Big Creek, Sugar, Otter, Copperas, Cedar and Buckheart Creek, would run grist and lumber mills about two-thirds of the year. These streams and their valleys, covered by a thick growth of timber and full of wild game, were beautiful beyond words. The prairies were generally named after the men that first settled upon them. The prairie where Canton stands was called "Barnes' Prairie," for David W. Barnes, who wag the first settler there. The prairie west of Cuba was called "Totten's Prairie," in honor of William Totten, who was the first settler. The prairie in Pleasant toA\aiship was named "'Powland's Prairie," for William and Riley Row- land, the first settlers. The prairie on the Illinois bottom south of Spoon river was called "Gardiner's Prairie." An old Scotch Presbyterian settled there in 1828. He had two sons and three daughters. He was the father of James and Charles Gardiner, Mdiose names are frequently men- tioned in Chapman's History of Fulton County. But no allusion has been made to the old father. He was one of the most exemplary Christian men, as well as most enter- prising, among the early pioneers. He never failed of holding family worship morning and evening, and would always ask a blessing at the table, and after the meal was through no one was allowed to leave the table until he had returned thanks. Such devotion was remarkable amono- 64 EAKLY PIONEEES AND EVENTS. tlie early pioneers. He moved from Springfield, and brought with him nursery stock for the famous orchard that for a long time was known all over that country as "Gardiner's Orchard." Gardiner's Prairie extended south from Spoon river about three miles, and from the bluffs to a fringe of timber within half a mile of the Illinois river, also three miles. The land was very rich, but part of it was too wet for cultivation. The prairie that joined Thompson's lake, north of Spoon river, was about two miles square, and with the lake was named for j^athan Thompson. He and his son-in-law, Stephen Meeker, were the first settlers on that prairie. The prairie two miles east of Lewistown was about three miles long and from one to two miles wide, and it was called '' Smith's Prairie " after Jeremiah Smith, who first settled there on a place that was afterwards owned by Col. Reuben Simms. It was one of the most beautiful prairies mortal eyes ever beheld. It w^as covered wdth what was called blue-stemmed grass, a most excellent grass for hay. It grew from three to four feet high, and afforded hay enough for all the people of Lewistown and the settlers for many miles in all direc- tions. x\ll the people had to do was to cut the hay and haul it home. At that time hay w^as cut with a scythe and raked together Avith a wooden hand-rake and pitchfork. Among my recollections was of riding a horse to haul hay on Smith's Prairie. I was a little codger of seven or eight years. We had to haul the hay together for stacking on what w^as called a brush sled. A small, bushy tree w^ould be cut down and some of the limbs cut off so as to make a sort of flat surface : and the hay would then be piled on top ; a horse would be hitched to the contrivance by a chain or rope, and so the hay Avould be hauled to the place wdiere it was to be stacked. And that was what we called a " brush sled." Many a hot summer day I have rode the old horse to haul hay on the Smitli Prairie, where the Pices, W. W. Smith, Samuel Campbell, J. Wertmau, W. C. Harrison, the Lawses, Pileys and Chapins now live. One time the green-head flies attacked my old horse so bad that he ran away. My strength was not sufficient to EAKLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. 65 hold liim ; after he had run about half a mile I jumped off but did not jump far enough to miss the brush top that he was dragging, so I Avas caught under the brush sled, and was so badly bruised that I was laid up for repairs for sev- eral days. The old horse never stopped running until he got home. Smith's Prairie was celebrated for the numerous plum and crabapple orchards that grew round its borders. The large red and yellow plums grew there in such abundance that people would come from long distances and haul them away by the wagon-loads, and would preserve them with honey or maple sugar, which were the only sweetening we had in pioneer times. This fruit made a good substitute for domestic fruit. Fulton county was blessed abovi; other sections of the state in its great abundance of sugar- tree groves, Avhich enabled people to make their own sugar. There is one other thing that will appear very remark- able. When the first settlers came to the county there was no one that appeared to have the remotest idea that there was such a thing as bituminous coal all about them in the earth, or that it had any use. The only people who ]iad lived there were the Indians, and they never used it, and the people would as soon have thought of looking for gold or silver as looking for coal. It was about two years after the first settlement was made that coal was discovered. Meantime blacksmithing was one of the first things needed in the settlement, and a coal pit was built and charcoal burned and used until stone coal was discovered. The first coal found in the county was discovered by old Mr. Gardiner, whom I have referred to as having settled about ten miles south of Lewistown. He was out one day to look for stone to build a fireplace in his log house which he had just erected, and in digging for stone he found the coal bank which was situated at the foot of the bluff east of what is now known as Isabel church. Mr. Gardiner took a load of the coal to Lewis- town, and the people were highly delighted to learn that stone coal had been found in the countv. The next coal 66 EARLY PlOKIiEKS AXD EV'ENTS. bank that was discovered was on Big (Jreek about where the Narrow Gauge crosses it three miles north of Lewis- town. Another bank was discovered three miles south- west of Lewistown. But the Gardiner bank supplied all the people south of Spoon river and at Havana with all the coal they wanted free of charge. All they had to do was to go and dig and then haul it home. I remember that when I was living in Havana of going with Mr. East- man Call to the Gardiner bank to dig coal. JNlr. Call had just opened a blacksmith shop at Havana, which was before he opened a shop at Lewistown. It took but a short time to till our wagon with coal. So I could have it to tell that I had dug coal out of the first coal bank that was ever opened in Fulton count}'. May I also be permitted modestly to recall the fact that I opened the first banking establishment in Fulton county. It was a branch of a Jacksonville state bank, and was lo- cated in the town of Vermont in 1850, and was called the "Fultun Bank." The bank bills were issued and printed at Jacksonville, Illinois. I was appointed agent, and had the entire supervision and control of it. I can say that no depositor or ]")atron of that bank e\'er lost a dollar through his dealings with it. So I have had the honor of diffcino- coal out of the first bank ever discovered in Fulton county, and also of o])erating the first bank ever opened in Fulton county, and one occupation was as hon- orable as the other. CHAPTER XVII. JOHN COI.EMAX. A REMARKABLE PIOXEER. LITTLE PIKf/s FIRST RIDK. Amongst the early pioneers of Fulton county there was one man wdiose name the historians of the county have failed to mention, who, to my mind, was one of the most enterprising men in the county, and for the first fifteen EARLY PIOKEERS AKD EVE2^TS. 67 or tweuty years of the county's settlement did more to de- velop and improve its resources than any other citizen. His name was JoIih Coleman. He moved from Xew Jersey to Fulton county in 1S27, coming the entire dis- tance in two and four-horse wagons. He bought a half- section (:320 acres) of land a half mile north of the then hamlet of Canton. He was a large man, weighing some 200 pounds, and his wife was a large woman. They had five sons and three daughters. riiey were all industrious, good workers, and in a few years they had in cultiva- tion the largest and best farm in Fulton county. They planted out a good orchard, and located on the farm a blacksmith shop and a horse-mill, and also a dairy for the manufacture of butter and cheese. While living in New Jersey Mr. Coleman had carried on the business of manu- facturing axes, and when he got his shop started he con- tinued the business of making axes, and they were prob- ably the first axes that were manufactured in the state. His axes were all stamped with the name "J. Coleman,'' and were warranted that if an ax broke with proper usage he'd either mend it or replace it with a new one. He found a good sale for them. It Avas a good thing for the people that such a man had settled among them. He also brought Avith him a stock of dry goods, Avhich were the first goods brought to the vicinity of Canton, and the next stock brought to the county after the Phelpses had opened a store at Lewistown. There were some little circumstances that happened about the time that the Coleman family came to the county that I Avill mention. They crossed the Hlinois river at Havana and came up through Lewistown and camped near my father's house, Avho then lived north of LewistoAvu, where ]Major Walker now Ha^cs. Mr. Coleman came to the house to buy some corn and hay to feed their horses, and my father enquired Avhere they came from, and he replied from ISToav Jersey ; and Avhen my mother learned that they had come from ISTcav Jersey, she became inter- ested in them, as that Avas her uatiA'e state, having been 68 EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. born and raised there. And she invited him to bring his wife and stay in the house over night. He remarked that they had not slept inside of a house since they left New Jersey; that they camped ont and slept in their wagons. But they came over and spent the evening in talking over 'New Jersey with my mother, and stayed all night. The next morning Mr. Coleman, in looking over my father's stock of cattle, took quite a liking to a large yoke of oxen that he had and proposed bujdng them. My father told him he could have them for $40. He said he would take them if he could pay for them in goods ; thathehadbrought along a stock of goods ; that they were packed away in his wagons, and that he did not want to open them until he got some buildings put up, which he thought would take him five or six weeks. So my father let him have the oxen, agreeing to trade them out after he got his store opened. So in about" six or seven weeks my mother con- cluded that she would go up and trade out the price of the oxen, and as my father was engaged at the time, and could not go with her, he got a young man named Silas Chase, a son of old Esq. Stephen Chase who lived in Lewistown, to go with her and drive the horse and buggy. They got along all right until they got to the Big Creek hill, which was about a half mile long. The timber all the way down the hill had stood densely thick, and a narrow road had been cut out between the trees just wide enough for a wagon to pass. As there were but few people at that time to do road work, the trees had been cut to make the roadway and the stumps left standing in the road. My mother had taken my youngest brother. Pike, along with her. He was between two and three years old. Just as they started do^\Ti the hill some of the harness broke and let the single-tree strike the legs of the horse, which frightened him terribly, and he ran with all the speed that was in him doA\Ti the hill, mv mother expecting every moment that the buggy would strike a stump or a tree and dash them all to the earth. When they had got about half way down the hill she gathered little TMkeand lifted himoverthe hind end of the bugo'v, holdiuo' him by one arm until his feet EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. 69 touched the gTOund, and then dropped him, the horse run- ning all the way do"\vn the hill as hard as he could tear. The young man could not hold him, but endeavored to guide him so as to miss the stumps and trees. When they got to the foot of the hill the horse plunged across Big Creek just below Ellis' mill dam. The water was about three feet deep, which checked the speed of the horse, and as he ascended the op])osite bank the driver stopped him. Young Chase then got out, tied up the broken harness, and then turned around and drove across the creek to go and hunt up the boy. They met him coming toddling along down the hill, and all right. That was his first ride, and he probably thought that that was the way the thing had to be done. They took him in and crossed the creek again and started on their way to Coleman's. When they got there they found that he had put up two log houses, with a hall running between them, with a door opening from the hall into each of the houses. One of the houses was intended for a store and a bedroom, and the other for a dwelling. They had not had time to put up any counters and shelves, but had erected in the store- room three bedsteads, and the goods had been unloaded from the wagons and piled under the beds. They had one son called Jerry, who was lame, but could assist in the store ; and when my mother would call for an article of goods Jerry would be sent under the bed to hunt it up. She said that she thought that Jerry had been sent under the beds at least twenty times for goods by the time she got done trading. A short time after the Coleman family came to the county their oldest daughter, Joanna, was united in mar- riage to Thomas Wolf, and they settled about four miles east of Canton. They were all industrious, good farmers, and made number one good citizens. There were some things rather remarkable about John Coleman in regard to his financial operations. At that time there were no such institutions in the county as banks or banking houses, and Mr. Coleman answered very 70 EAKLY PI0NEP:KS AND EVENTS. well the need of such an institution, for if a man came into the county with money that he did not want to use, Mr. Coleman would always take it of him if he could get it at five or six per cent interest ; and if another man came along- that wanted to borrow some money, Mr. Coleman always accommodated him if he would pay ten to twelve per cent interest, and could give the requisite security. There was no doubt but that he saved many a man from having his land sold for taxes, or property sold for debt, by loaning him money. So he was certainly a benefactor to the community in which he lived. It was well known that he handled a good deal of money, and the great query was where he kept it, for atthat time there was no such thing in existence as an iron safe to keep money in. But it was told by some that had done business with him that he had made an iron box, as he was a blacksmith, and kept his money in that, and had it secreted under his bedroom floor; and when he wanted to have access to his money, all that he had to do was to pull U]i a ]unicheon of the floor and take out the iron box. Mr. Coleman was regarded by his neighbors as a very honorable and just man in all of his dealings, and his word was considered as good as his bond. But there came a time when he had to pass through one of the most tragical and awful ordeals that had ever hap- pened to him during all of his long and honorable and useful life. It was on the occasion of what was called "Westerfleld's Defeat," a terrible Indian scare that took place at Canton during the Blackhawk War. The cause of the terrible Indian fight, and the stampede of the peo- ple that followed it, and the prominent part that Mr. Cole- man took in the affair, I will have to leave for my next letter. ' *'" EARLY nOXEEES AXD EVENTS. 71 CHAPTEE XVIIl. THE WESTERFIELD IXDIAX SCARE. MEMORABLE CYCLONE OF 1835.^ UPEISIXCf OF CAXTOX'S WOMEX AGAIXST THE SALOOXS OF THAT VILLAGE. The ]3ioneer hamlet of Canton passed through three dreadful ordeals of horror and excitement : The first was " Westerfield's Defeat " in March, 1832, a dreadful Indian scare. The second was the memorable cyclone of June 18, 1835, in which live Canton people were killed, many houses blown to pieces, and goods and furniture scattered over the prairies and forests even into ^^Eason county. The third great event was the uprising of Canton's women against the saloons of that village in which men stood aghast while 100 valiant mothers, wives and sisters g-utted the saloons and routed the whisky sellers. But I have promised to tell the story of John Coleman's connection with Westerfield's defeat, as I witnessed part of the events. There were many reasons in 1832 why the people of Fulton county should be in apprehension of a raid and general massacre by Black JIawk and his great army of Indians. This county for ages had been their home. Here were their favorite hunting grounds and loved sugar groves unsurpassed on the whole continent. Here were the graves of their sires. The Indians ven- erated their dead as white people do not. They had holy burial places at Uuncan's, "Walters' graveyard (where there are Indian graves to this day), at [Mount Pleasant, and at hundreds of spots along the Spoon and Illinois rivers and all over the great Avoods of Fulton county. These Indians knew their lands had been wrongfully taken from them, and that the venerated graves of their dead had been ruth- lessly plowed and desecrated. They had only been driven out of the county about two years before. The great chief Black Hawk was at this time makino- his last heroic stand 72 EARLY I'lOXEEES A]VD EVENTS. on Rock river. Tlie memorable battle of " Stillman's De- feat " had just been fonght with victory to the Indians, and among the dead were Bird Ellis, TVus Childs, John Wal- ters and Joseph Farris of Fnlton county. Many others were wounded. Among these was Major Samuel Hackel- ton, who lived on Spoon river, four miles south of Lewis- town, a few rods west of the spot where the C. B. & Q. bridge now spans that stream. He had a single combat in that fight with a chief, both armed with knives. The chief was killed, but Hackelton received serious wounds that dis- abled him for a long time. This battle was followed by dreadful Indian massacres in the Bock river country in which men and women were killed and scalped and little children chopped to pieces by the savages. Then between Canton and Rock river was 100 miles of wilderness. The Indians could come unheralded to the cabins of the settlors. All these things were known to the ])ioneers, and there was general apprehension and alarm in the spring of 1S82. During March scouts were kept on the outskirts of the settlement to give warning if bands of Indians should appear. There was such gloom and alarm that many people loaded their household goods and moved over the Illinois ri^^er into Sangamon county, Avhere the settlements Avere larger, and where they would be safe. Among these were the wife and youn2:er members of the family of John Coleman. Meantime the people of Canton erected a fort or block-house to go into if necessary. One day Peter Westerfield, an old elder of the Presby- terian church of Canton, and a Frenchman, Charles Shane, went on an independent scouting expedition of their own. Some ten miles northwest of Canton they came upon a trail running throua;h the srrass which they were sure had been made by traveling Indians. In fact it was the path niade the day before by a band of soldiers en route from Beardstown to join their company on Rock river. Westerfield and Shane immediately hurried back to Canton to report their important and alarming dis- covery. As they neared Canton they heard shootino- and shouts of a party of fool young hunters who had treed a lot EAKLY PIOXEEES AND EVENTS. 73 of game. Of course they assumed that it was Indians massacreing white families who lived just there. They rode furiously into the hamlet of Canton, yelling wildly at every cabin they passed, '^ The Indians are on us ! The Indians are on us !" There was an immediate panic which no words will describe. People hastily gathered their wives and little ones and rushed either to Canton or to the brush, hoping to escape the scalping knives that seemed hanging over them. In Canton there was the wildest alarm. ]\Ir. ^'esterfield had the confidence of the people. They believed his report implicitly. The more timid started a-foot and by every means of conveyance toward Havana and Sangamon county. Others gathered at the Canton fort to make the best defense they could. The story of heroism and helplessness from fright would fill many columns. John Coleman and his son Jerry were at their store and residence a half-mile north of Canton. They quickly started to join Mrs. Coleman and children at Havana, and as they passed along south through the Wilcoxen neighbor- hood they gave the alarm at every cabin they passed. These people in turn gave the alarm to their neighbors in what is now Bucldieart, Liverpool and Waterford town- ships, as the road from Canton to Havana passed four or five miles east of Lewistown. Mr. Coleman and his son got to the ferry at Havana about 4 o'clock in the afternoon. My father was keeping the ferry at that time, and had two boats — one large one for heavy teams, and a smaller one for horsemen and buggies. As a lad I was then steersman for the smaller boat, and was an eye-witness to the stirring events of that time in Havana. We heard the frantic yells of Mr. Cole- man through the dense timber half-a-mile away from the ferry. As he came nearer Ave could hear " Indians !" " ]\rurder !" When they got to the boat Mr. Colenuin told us of the Indian raid at Canton, of the probable horrid massacre of many families, and that the people were com- ing to the river in swarms, and that we had better have both boats ready at once, as we would have all we could do to 74 EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. ferry them over. He was entirely correct, for we had only landed them on the Havana side when we again heard hallooing on the west side of the river, and the people poured in upon us in such a flood that both boats were kept busy until 11 o'clock at night. The people came a-foot, on horse-back and in all imaginable pioneer conveyances. As many as three of four members of a family would come riding on one horse. There was but one block-house in Havana at that time, and many of these people went right on into the Springfield country. x\fter the people had all been ferried over the river there were two men who determined to go back to the Canton country and see just what the situation was, and at Canton they learned that it Avas all a mistake, and that there had not been an Indian within maybe 100 miles of the settle- ment. So they hurried back to Havana to tell the good news, and the people with unbounded joy began at once to return to their homes. Mr. Coleman and his family had gone on to the Springiield country. But in a few days thev returntnl and were again ferried over into the Fulton county country and returned to their Canton home and store in a much pleasanter frame of mind than when they so suddenly left. But Mr. Coleman was not feeling very amiable toward his neighbor, Mr. Wcsterfield. But there is no doubt that the old elder was just as honest and sincere in warning his neighbors to flee from Black Hawk's toma- hawk and scalping knife as Avhen he was leading a prayer- meeting in the Canton Presbyterian church. But it was the greatest Indian scare that ever was kno^vn in that country. EAKLY PIONEEES AND EVENTS. 75 CIIAPTEE XIX. PIONEEK HANGINGS. EARLY LAWYERS. In all the seventy- five years of Fulton county's history there has never been a legal execution within its limits. In that time there have been scores of murders, , many of them meriting the death penalty, but owing to the tricks of lawyers and the weakness of juries, these criminals have all escaped serious punishment. However, I beg permission in this letter to discuss some of the pioneer hangings that I have witnessed, although it is not a very pleasant subject to write about. But there are valuable lessons connected with these tragedies that will not be lost upon the readers of The Fulton Democrat. The first execution that I ever witnessed was that of a father and his son who were hung in Rusliville, Illinois, in June, 1835. They were Elias McFadden and son David, who lived a mile south of J\iacomb. The sheriif came one day with an execution to levy on a crib of corn, and got a farmer named John Wilson, a quiet and much respected citizen of the neighborhood, to go with him with his horses and wagon to haul the corn away. When the two men ar- rived at McFadden's farm the older McFadden in great heat struck the horses with a stick and ordered them to leave the place. But they persisted in levying on the corn, when young ]\IcFadden fired from their cabin window and shot John Wilson so that he died within a couple of days. The McFaddens were arrested, but took a change of venue to Schuyler county. They were tried before Judge B. M. Young and prosecuted by Cyrus Walker, prosecuting at- torney for that district. The two men were convicted of murder and sentenced to be hung, l^otice was given in the newspapers that the execution would be public, and hun- dreds of people from Fulton, McDonough and Schuyler counties went to see the double hanging. I was then livins; at Havana, and with another young 76 EARLY PIONEEKS AND EVENTS. man started to see the execution. On the road we came up with Hugh Lamaster, Nathan Beadles and Robert Gamble, all from l>ewistown on their way to Rushville. Mr. I.amaster invited us to stop over night with their party at the home of one of his uncles, about three miles north of Eushville. Here we found a Christian and hos- pitable home in which no pay would be taken for our en- tertainment. The next day was the time of the execution, and we found 1000 to 1200 people gathered about the jail to see the prisoners as they were to march to their death. About twenty minutes before they were taken out, a couple of two-horse wagons were driven up to the jail, in each of which was a coffin in plain view. The prisoners were brought from the upper portion of the jail down a flight of stairs on the outside. They were both tall men, and were dressed in white shrouds, with white caps on their heads. They made a very ghostly appearance as they walked down the long stairs and climbed into the wagons and took their seats on the top of their coffins. I sliould here remind the readers tliat when a person was buried they were dressed in white cambric shrouds, similar to those the prisoners wore, which added so much to their horrible appearance. It was not until about in 1845 that the people commenced to bury their friends in their wearing aj)parel. The di?;tance from the jail to the place of execution was about a mile, and a long procession was formed, some in wagons, some on horseback, and others a-foot. One of the strangest things about this event was the fact that the Avife and mother of the two men was in the procession to go and see husband and son executed. The place of ex- ecution M'as a hollov\^ between two hills which afforded the people a good view of the hanging. It Avas estimated that from 2,000 to 3,000 people were present. The men both testified that they had both experienced religion Avhile confined in the jail and had received forgiveness for their awful crime. They talked for a few moments, then shook hands A^^th some of their friends, then shook hands EAltl.Y PIOA^EKKS AND EVENTS. 77 with each other, and then embraced and kissed each other, and then the white caps were drawn over their faces and the trap was sprung. As tliey were hiunched into eternity the old lady, the wife of one and mother of the other, was only a few rods away gazing intently upon the scene. As the drop fell with her beloved ones dangling at the end of the ropes, she gave one awful scream of anguish and ter- ror and then all was still. After they had hung about fifteen minutes they were taken down and laid in their coffins. It was all so tragical and dreadful to behold that it haunted my young mind by night and by day for many months. The next hanging that I had an opportunity of seeing was that of Peter McCaie, who hung himself in his hatter shop in Lewistown in about 1843. I happened to be in town that day. (His shop was on the spot where the Walter Belless building is now going up.) I was riding down Main street and observed a great crowd of men and hoys peeping through the windows to see the body. I got olf of my horse and took a peep at him myself. He had fastened a cord to a joist in his hatter shop, and was hang- ing with his toes just touching the floor. The only person that I can recall, now living, who was present was ]Maj. jSTewton Walker. I knew Peter J^LcCue very well, while he was carrying on the hatter's trade, for about nine years. He was single, about thirty-five years of age, an Irishman by birth and a Catholic in religion. Pie learned his trade in the old country and was a very good and successful hat- ter. When he put an end to his life he was in the habit of going to St. Louis once a year. His friends used to say it was for the purpose of confessing his sins to a priest. The last time he started on this annual trip he went as far as Havana, and while waiting for a steamboat the Illi- nois river froze up and he had to return to Lewistown. His friends observed that he was melancholy after his re- turn home, but did not dream that it was a serious matter. It was inferred that his failure to see the priest had some- thing to do with his suicide. I remember that Peter one 78 EARLY PIOXEEUS AND EV^ENTS. time made a fur hat for mj father for $8.50, and it was Avell worth the money, for it was one of the most beautiful hats I have ever seen. ISiy father had only worn it three or four times before his death, and my mother subse- quently gave it to the Rev. Dr. David ISTelson, a Presby- terian minister, who was conducting a camp meeting near Canton, in the fall of 1838, when some 150 or 200 people were converted and joined the church. I have had oc- casion once before to speak of Dr. Nelson, and will only add that he was one of the early pioneer Presbyterian ministers who traveled through the country between the Mississippi and Illinois rivers and organized very many churches and Sabbath schools. A year after Peter McGue went to Lewistown I also went there to attend school, and for a long time boarded with Peter with the family of W. C. Osborn. So we were a good deal together. He was kind and friendly disposed, and I had come to like him very much, and was very sad indeed to see the poor fellow hanging dead in his own shop. Mr. AY. C. Osborn, the man we boarded with, was the second lawyer that settled in Fulton county. Hugh R. Coulter was the first lawyer, and William Elliott the third. At that time jMr. Osborn owned the entire block west of the public square in Lewistown, and his dwelling- house stood on the south side of the block. He was one of the well-knoA\ai pioneers of that time. CHAPTER XX. SUICIDE OF EDWARD STAPLEFOED AND ITS AWFUL CONSEQUENCE. The suicide of Edward Stapleford in the town of Ver- mont, about 1857, had some unusual features. He was a native of ^Alaryland, had run a store in Beardstown, Illi- nois, and came to Vermont and opened a store in about EARLY PIONIiEKS AND EVE]\T«. 79 18-1:5. Ho Avas a shrewd business man and soon had worked up quite a trade. He had frequently engaged in speculations in pork and wheat and anything in which money could be made. Generally he was very successful. In those time we had no railways, and the only way ot shipping products to market was by steamboats on the Illi- nois river to St, Louis. We had no telegraphic communica- tions with the world, and but one mail a week ; so the most direct way of getting commercial news was from news- papers brought up on steamboats from St. Louis. During the progress of the Crimean war in lS54-'55 the price o± pork and wheat went up to a very much higher price than it had been for many years, and many country merchants in Illinois were ripe for speculation, and Mr. Stapleford was one of the most ambitious merchants among them. One Saturday evening he succeeded in getting a news- paper direct from St. Louis, and it brought the news that wheat and pork had taken a wonderful rise in price. It was later ncAvs than any of the other merchants had been able to get; so he started out early Sunday morning to scour the country and buy up all the wheat and pork he could iind. He was afraid to wait until Monday lest the other merchants should also iind out the good new^s and get ahead of him. I was also keeping store in ^"erinont at that time, and our stores were close together. The next morning he stopped at my store as he was passing. He was in his happiest mood. It was his trait to be happy when he was making money, but very gloomy if trade was against him. " Good morning," was Mr. Stapleford's salutation, " where '-three years old and had never applied himself to that diligent study wliich prepared him for the great duties that ho was afterwards called upon to perform. After his defeat he applied himself industriously to his books, so that in 1S34. when he was two years older and considerable wiser, his friends brought him out again for representa- tive. He was elected by a handsome majority and was re-elected in '3(), '3S and '40, serving four terms, in all eight years, and in 184G was elected to Congress. I will now go back a little and state a few facts in regard to Mr. Lincoln's store-kee])ing, and how he became involved in a debt that hung over him for many years, for there have been many misstatements regarding it. When Mr. Lincoln kept the postoSice, the profits of the office did not afford him a fair living, and it confined him indoors so that he could not pursue any other occupation. There was a young man by the name of William Berry, who lived four miles from town with his father. Rev. John Berrv, ABKAirA:^! LII^COLN. 121 who was a Cumberland Presbyterian minister and a man of considerable property. William had attended the Jack- sonville college and was a smart, intelligent young man, but inclined to be a little bit wild. His father, knowing the good habits of Mr. Lincoln, induced him to take Wil- liam into partnership, and they purchased a store, paying a small part down and giving their notes for the balance. They kept the store in the same building with the postoffice and had as fair a trade, I think, as any of the other mer- chants in the town. The story told in W. H. Herndon's life of Lincoln, that after they had bought the first store they bought a second and then a third store on credit, and that Mr. Lincoln tried to get Berry to borrow money from his father to buy a fourth store, is all a fabrication. Mr. Lincoln was careful in all his dealings and was disposed to have too much confidence in men ; being honest him- self, he wanted to believe that other men were the same. He finally sold out his interest to his partner, who was to pay the debts. But young Berry soon after took to drink- ing, made some bad debts and took sick and died before the debt on the store was paid. It was the opinion of many persons at l^ew Salem that the father of William Berry should have paid off the indebtedness and relin- quished Mr. Lincoln, for it was through his influence that the boy had been taken as a partner. Mr. Lincoln was too honest to let the debt go, and, keeping the interest up, the first money he could save from his salary, when he Avas elected to Congress in 1 846, he sent to his law partner, W. H. Herndon, to pay off the old debt. Mr. Lincoln was very popular in and around ISTew Salem, for in all his dealings he had been both honest and truthful, and had the respect of all who knew him, which was shoAATi in his race for the legislature in 1832, wdien he received all but seven or eight of the 300 votes in his pre- cinct. Xew Salem, at the time ^Iy. Lincoln lived there, was a great place of resort for the young men to gather on Sat- urdays. The Clary Grove boys, the Island Grove boys, the Sano-amon Biver bovs and the Sand Bidge boys, 122 EARLY PIONEEKS AND EVENTS. each designated by the part of the country from which they came, would gather there to indulge in horse racing, foot racing, wrestling, jumping, ball playing and shooting at a mark. ]Mr. Lincoln would generally take a lay-off for part of the day and join in the sport. He was very stout and active and was a match for any of them. I do not think he bet on any of the games or races, but they had so much confidence in his honesty, and that he would see fair play, that he was often chosen as a judge to determine the win- ner, and his decisions were always regarded as just. He would generally speak on the subject of internal improve- ment and of the great resources of the State of Illinois, of its advantages over other states, and of the wonderful opportunities that lay in store for the young men of Illi- nois if tliey would only improve them. In those speeches he very seldom touched on politics, so everyone was pleased and none offended, tlie meeting generally closing with three cheers for Lincoln and a general handshaking. The peo- ple would go home happy, and few of them would come in town again until the next Saturday. Mr. Lincoln was not only chosen as a judge in horse races, but was often the arbiter in disputes between his neighbors, and saved them many expensive law suits. A justice of the peace came into his office one day and com- plained that he had been cruelly wronged by him ; that he had deprived him of many fine fees by interfering with his business. Mr. Lincoln replied that he could not bear to see his neighbors spend their money in litigation and be- come enemies for life when he could prevent it. When these cases were brought before him he would generally give satisfaction to both parties, and when one was in the wrong he would point out to him his error and convince him of it before he left. ABKAHAil LIXCOLX. 123 CHAPTER IX. SOME IXCIDEXTS OF W. K. HERXDOX's EAELY LIFE. HIS FUIJTHER MISSTATEMEXTS IX BEGAED TO LIXCOLX. In writing of the early life of Abraham Lincoln, I think I had better give a sketch of the early life of William H. Hemdon, who was for twenty years a law partner of Mr. Lincoln, and who wrote " Hemdon's Life of Lincoln," contained in two volumes. There are but few persons now li^'ing who knew Mr. Hemdon as well as I did in the days of his youth. He was a son of Archer G. Hemdon, one of the early settlers of Springfield, who built and kept one of the first hotels ever erected in that city — the Hern- don House. He was a prominent politician and had been elected State Senator, besides holding several other offices at different times. He was a AYliig and a wann personal friend of Air. Lincoln. ^Miile I was carrying the mail I stopped two nights each week at the Herndon House, and there is where I became acquainted with Williain Herndon. We were about the same age, he being foui'teen years old, while I was fifteen, and as we Avere both of a lively disposition and fond of sport, we spent a great deal of time together, commenc- ing in the year 1832. He possessed one trait of character that many people objected to. and that was the delight he took in playing practical jokes. He did not seem to care how much misery and suffering he caused, so long as he had a little notoriety or fun out of it. In the fall of 1836 my father sent me to the Jacksonville college. A yoimg man named Porter from Chicago was my room mate, but after I had been there about a week Bill Hemdon came up to our room and told me that he had come to attend college and wanted to know if I Avould take him as a room- mate, remarking that I was the only student with whom he was acquainted. T told him I was T^-illing if Porter would consent, and Porter said he had no objections if I could furnish him beddino^. 124 EARLY PIONEEKS AND EVENTS. As I had a room to myself and a large bed, I took Hern- don in and we bunked together. I noticed he had not brought a trunk with him, and I asked him where his trunk was. He said he had come away from home in a hurry and did not bring it, but that his folks would send it by the next stage. Then he commenced laughing, and I suspected he had been up to some of his old tricks, so I said : ''ISTow, Bill, you have been in some devilment and you had to get away and you must tell us what it is." He said there had been an election for county officers up in Sangamon county and that one of the political parties had paid him $1.50 to take some tickets out to a precinct a few miles from Springfield and heel them among the voters. After he had gone a mile he was overtaken by a young man who had a package of tickets for the opposing party. The young man offered Herndon $1.50 to take his tickets and distrib- ute them among the voters Herndon accepted the offer and the first creek he came to he soused the tickets in, leaving the men who would have voted that ticket the alternative of writing their tickets or not voting. This act incited the wrath of the parties who had employed him first, so he had come away until the storm blew over. He told the story with such glee and merriment that it was evident he thought he had done something remarkably cute. Herndon had not been at the college long until it was evident that he was brim full of devilment, and there Avas scarcely a week during the time he stayed there that he was not cited to appear before the faculty for some mis- demeanor. It was not because there was anything bad about him that made him do as he did, but he wanted to gain notoriety and astonish somebody. After he left col- lege he clerked in a store in Springfield for a long time, and then commenced the study of law. He applied him- self to his studies, and was about twenty-five years old when he went in w"ith Mr. Lincoln, who Avas nine years his senior. It was thought a little strange at that time that Mr. Lincoln would take into partnership so young and inex- perienced a laAA^er as Bill Herndon. But he had his rea- sons and I think I can come very near giiessing some of ABRAHAM LINCOLjST. 125 thcin. Bill's father had been a friend to Lincoln for a great many years and was a very influential man in San- gamon connty. He had always helped Lincoln in every way, and it was in payment for this kindness that Lincoln took his son in his office. It was a parallel case with that of Bill Berry, who Lincoln took in as a partner in his ^ew Salem store, l^oih fathers wanted their sons in partner- shi]i with an honest man. Then there was another reason. Both of lincoln's jiarl- ners, John T. Stnart and Stephen T. Logan, were, like him- self, aspirants for political honors, and he had learned that a law 0;fic(; could not prosper when all the members of the firm wanted to be Congressmeit. As Bill was young and showed no disposition to run into politics, he thought it w.is safe to take him into partnership. And Bill did apply himself to business, and, so far as I can learn, gave perfect satisfaction to the firm and to the people for whom he transacted business, up to the time of Lincoln's death. But for some unaccoiuitable reason, after Mr. Lincoln died he commenced drinking. He had never drank before in his life, and moved out to his farm, seven miles east of Spring- field, to get away from the saloons and his drinking com- panions. I cannot but think that perhaps it was his ruling passion — to do something surprising — coupled Avith the habits of his later years, that induced him to make so many extrav- agant and untruthful statements in his "Life of Lincoln." I will mention a few of theiu. For instance, his state- ment that on his trip to [NTew Orleans Lincoln bored a hole in the bottom of the flat boat to let the water out of course is untrue. He says Lincoln tried to drive some hogs onto the flatboat and when they would not go he sewed up their eyes so that they couldn't see where they were going, when the fact is there were no hogs taken on the boat, it being loaded with produce. He also says that Lincoln weighed 240 pounds when he lived in New Salem and could lift 1,000 pounds, and had been known to lift a barrel of Mdiiskey by the chimes and drink out of the bung-hole ; that after he bought tlie store in N^ew Salem 126 EAKLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. he bought a second, then a third, and tried to borrow money to buy the fourth, when not a dollar had been paid on any of them. The facts are Lincoln never weighed over 175 pounds in his life ; was never known to take a drink of liquor out of anything, and never purchased but one store, and paid for that. Herndon also said that the mail was caried through ISTew Salem in a four-horse coach, and that the postage on letters was five, ten, fifteen, twenty and twenty-five cents. The mail was carried on horseback and I rode the horse, and the postage on letters was 6-]-, 12^, 18f and 25 cents, according to the distance thev were carried. He says the Rutledge tavern, where Lincoln boarded, was a one-story house with four rooms, when in fact it was a two-story eight-room house. I only make these statements to show that he knew nothing of what he was writing ; that it was all guess work, and very poor guess work at that. The crudest and most outrageous statement, however, in Herndon's book is the story of Lincoln breaking his en- gagement to Miss Mary Todd. He say that on the 1st day of January, 1841, careful preparations had been made at the Edwards mansion for the wedding. The house un- derwent the customary renovation, the furniture was prop- erly arranged, the rooms neatly decorated, the supper pre- j)ared and the guests invited. The latter assembled on the evening in question and waited in expectant pleasure the interesting ceremony of the marriage. The bride, bedecked in veil and silk gown, and nervously toying with the flowers in her hair, sat in the adjoining room. jSToth- ing was lacking but the groom. For some strange reason he had been delayed. An hour passed and the guests, as well as the bride, were becoming restless. But they were all doomed to disappointment. Another hour passed and messengers were sent out over town, each returning with the same report. It became apparent that Lincoln, one of the principals in the little drama, had purposely failed to appear. The bride in grief dispersed the guests, who quietly and wonderingly withdrew^ ; the lights in the Ed- wards mansion Avere blown out and darkness settled over all for the night. After daylight and after a persistent ABRAHAM LINCOL2s\ 127 search Lincoln's friends found liiui. Restless, gloomy, miserable, desperate, he seemed an object of pity. His friends, fearing a tragic termination, watched him closely in their rooms day and night. Knives, razors and every instrument that could be used for self destruction were re- moved from his reach. I^ow how any man can have the audacity to fabricate such a mass of falsehoods as the above story and put them in a book is beyond my comprehension. There is not a word of truth in it. Mr. Lincoln and Miss Todd were engaged at one time, but the wedding was put oif one year by mutual consent, as Mr. Lincoln wanted to get his finan- cial affairs in a little better condition before he took a wife. CHAPTER X. TRUE STORY OK THE Li:«I^COLX-SniELDS DUEL. In giving a short historical sketch of the Lincoln-Shields duel, as some of the historians saw proper to call it, 1 will state a few facts and circumstances, as I understood them at the time, that induced Mr. Shields to challenge Mr. Lin- coln to fight a duel. William H. Herndon, in his history of the life of Lin- coln, has appropriated some dozen pages in telling the story of that duel and has not told one-half of the difficulty that existed between Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Shields. He says the trouble grew out of an article that appeared in the San- gamon Journal, supposed to have been written by Mr. Lin- coln, and which Mr. Shields considered derogatory to his character and standing as a state officer. But from all I could learn the green-eyed monster jealousy had more to do with ]\Ir. Shields wanting to fight Mr. Lincoln than any thing elSe. Shields, Lincoln, Stephen A. Douglas and some other young lawyers about Springfield had been pay- ing considerable attention to Miss Mary Todd, and Shields liecame deeply enamored with her. He had served a term 128 EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. in the legislature with a great deal of credit and was then holding the office of state auditor, and besides being an able lawyer he was quite popular in the democratic party. Miss Mary was a handsome, brilliant and highlj'-educated young lady, and there is no doubt that Shields wanted her to become his wife, but Mr. Lincoln was his rival, so when that article appeared in the Journal it gave him an excuse to challenge Lincoln to mortal combat. According to the rules of dueling the person challenged chooses the weapons and fixes the distance the combatants are to stand apart. Mr. Lincoln took advantage of his rights as the challenged party and chose as the weapons broad swords of the largest size, precisely equal in every way, and such as were used by the cavalry at Jacksonville, A plank, ten feet long and from nine to twelve inches wide, was to be firmly fixed in the ground as the dividing line, over which neither Avas to pass his foot on forfeit of his life. IsText two lines were to be drawn on the ground parallel with the board and the full length of the sword from the board, and if either party stepped over this line during the contest he would be counted as having been defeated. This scheme placed the parties about six feet apart, and gave Mr. Lincoln a tremendous advantage with his long legs and arms, while Shields was a short man with short arms and legs. The result would be that Lincoln by stooping over with his long arms could tickle Shields very uncomfortably about his ribs with the point of his sword, while Shields could not reach Lincoln by twelve or fifteen inches. It would have placed Shields completely at the mercy of Lin- coln ; but in all the world he could not have been in kinder hands, for it was never in Lincoln's big and tender heart to hurt a human being, except in self-defense. But while the seconds and friends of the two parties were making preparations for the duel, John J. Hardin (one of the most influential men of the state, and a friend of both parties), having heard that they w^ere going to fight a duel, hastened to the scene of action and declared that the thing had to stop, that there was nothing to fight about except a miserable little misunderstanding between them. Mr. ABKAHAM LIIS'COLN. 129 Hardin told the seconds to go to Shields and have him with- draw the offensive and threatening letter he had written to Lincoln, and then he believed Lincoln would give him a satisfactory explanation of the whole matter. Mr. Hardin's advice was taken, and then Mr. Lincoln explained that he had only written a short paragraph in The Journal which was not intended to reflect on Mr. Shields' character, but was merely an unmalicious electioneering docimient. Mr. Shields was satisfied with the explanation Mr. Lincoln gave, and the fight was declared off. Xow it is probable that there was not another man in Sangamon county at that time who, if he had received such a challenge, would not at once have made up his mind that he had to back down and confess that he was afraid to fight, or stand up and be shot at. But not so with Lincoln. With his great mind and head full of hard common sense he was able to solve all such questions and come out victorious with nobody hurt. Mr. Lincoln afterwards told his friends that he did not want to hurt Shields — that he had nothing against him ; but if he had paid no attention to the chal- lenge that Shields would have said he was a coward and had shown the white feather, and would have crowed over it like a bantam rooster, and he wanted to teach him to behave himself. Herndon's Life of Lincoln says that Lincoln and Shields were to stand twelve feet apart in their duel ; it is certainly an absurd mistake. At least I always understood that the distance was twice the length of one of the swords that were to be used. So I have no doubt that Mr. Herndon missed the mark six feet ; but it was no uncommon thing for him to do. I find in his Life of Lincoln a great many instances in which he missed the mark more than six feet. For in- stance, he describes Mr. Shields at a hot-headed, blustering- Irishman of but little prominence, when he was really a man of very great ability. He served as associate justice of the supreme court, was commissioner of the general land ofiice, had the rare distinction of Ijeing at different times United States senator for three different states, and as a gallant officer of the Mexican War was advanced on his merits to the high place of major general. 130 EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. After Mr. Lincoln was elected president he remembered his old friend that was a rival for his sweetheart and would have fought a duel for her hand, and showed his kind and forgiving spirit by presenting Shields with a brigadier general's commission. So Gen. James Shields must have been a man of considerable ability to have held these po- sitions. He was a grand and patriotic man. How wonderful was the wisdom and tact and sweetness of Lincoln in averting with honor to himself the duel that miffht have robbed our countrv of two such men ! CHAPTER XI. MR. Lincoln's religious belief. Since I commenced writing these sketches of the earlier life of Mr. Lincoln I have sometimes been asked if I knew anything about his religious belief and how he stood with the orthodox world on that subject. I have never heard him express himself on that question, and I do not believe that he ever liiade a public profession of religion or con- nected himself with any church. But I know that he was looked upon as a moral and exemplary young man. I have understood that a minister remarked to him one day that he believed that he was a Christain man, and asked why it was that he did not join some church ; and Mr. Lincoln is said to have replied that if he could find a church whose creed and requirements could be simmered down to the Savior's condensed statement, '' Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself," that he Avould join that church with all his heart and soul. William H. Herndon in his Life of Lincoln has this to say of him : " In 1834, while he lived in Isew Salem, and before he became a lawyer, he was surrounded by a class of people exceedingly liberal in matters of religion. Volney's Ruins ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 131 and Paine's Age of Reason, and other infidel literature passed from hand to hand and furnished food for the even- ing in the tavern and village stores, and Lincoln read those books and thus assimilated them into his own being. He prepared an extensive essay, called by many a book, m vs^hich he made an argument against Christianity, striving to prove that the Bible was not inspired, and therefore not God's revelation, and that Jesus Christ was not the Son of God. The manuscript containing these audacious and oomprehensive propositions he intended to have published or given a wide circulation in some other way. He carried it to the store where it was read and freely discussed. His friend and employer, Samuel Hill, was among the listeners, and seriously questioning the propriety of a promising- young man like Lincoln fathering such unpopular notions, he snatched the manuscript from his hands and thrust it into the stove. The book went up in the flames, and Lin- coln's political future was secured." jSTow I have good reason to believe that Mr. Herndon drew largely on his imagination for this story. I believe it to be without foundation. As I have before stated, my business as mail carrier required me to be in Lincoln's store and postofhce a part of four days in each week to have the mail changed, and at the same time stopped at the same tavern with Mr. Lincoln. I generally kept my eyes and ears open and knew pretty well what was going on. If there had been any discussion or writing of the sort alluded to by Mr. Llerndon I certainly would have known it. Mr. Herndon was then sixteen years old and lived at Springfield, twenty miles away. His father kept the hotel where I put up two nights out of each w^eek, and I generally found Bill on hand either at the hotel or the stable. If he had been away from his business to visit ISTew Salem to look up Mr. Lincoln's religious record, I think that I would have known something about it. It will be noticed that Mr. Herndon says that Mr. Hill threw the infidel document into the stove. Now I know very well that in 1834 Mr. Hill never had a stove in his store. I remember that in the Rutledge tavern, where Mr. Lincoln boarded, they had 132 EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. a shelf put up in the sitting room, and on this shelf the library was kept. There were some twenty five or thirty books — law books, histories and miscellaneous works — but none of those books referred to by Mr. Herndon. I have always believed that from the first that I knew of Mr. Lincoln that he was a Christian and one of the best men that I ever knew. I think that all his acts, letters and pub- lic documents will show that Mr. Herndon was mistaken in regard to his infidelity. In 1851 Mr. Lincoln learned that his father was not ex- pected to live, and as he had sickness in his own family and could not go to see him, he wrote the following letter to his half-brother : " I sincerely hope that father may yet recover his health ; but at all events tell him to remember and call upon and confide in our great and good and merciful Maker who will not turn away from him in any extremity. He notices the fall of a sparrow, and numbers the hairs of our head, and he Avill not forget the dying man who puts his trust in him. Say to him that if we could meet now it is doubtful whether it would be more painful than pleasant ; but if it be his lot to go now he will soon have a joyful meeting with the many loved ones gone before, and where the rest of us, through the help of God, hope ere long to join them." It will be remembered that on his trip from Springfield to Washington to be inaugurated he addressed a multitude from the cars as he was leaving his old home and ttiat among other things he spoke as follows : " A duty devolves upon me which perhaps is greater than has devolved upon any other man since the days of Wash- ington. He would have never succeeded except for tlio aid of Divine Providence upon which he had at all times relied. I feel that I cannot succeed without the same divine aid which sustained him, and in the same Almighty be- ing I place my reliance for support, and I hope you, my friends, will all pray that I may receive that divine assistance without which I cannot succeed, but with which success is certain." ABKAHAM LINCOLN. 133 At another time when our armies were meeting reverses and the destiny of the nation seemed to be hanging in the balance, President Lincohi appointed a day for prayer for the success of the army in the following words : " And, whereas, when our beloved country, once by the blessing" of God united, prosperous and happy, is now afflicted with factions and civil wars, it is peculiarly fit for us to recognize the hand of God in this terrible visitation, and in sorrowful remembrance of our own faults and crimes as a nation and as individuals, to humble ourselves before Him and to pray for His mercy — to pray that we may be spared further punishment, though most justly de- served ; that our armies may be blessed and made effectual for the re-establishment of law and order and peace throughout the wide extent of our country, and that the in- estimable boon of civil and religious liberty, earned under His guidance and blessing by the labors and sufferings of our fathers, may be restored in all its original excellence. Therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, do appoint the last Thursday in September next as a day of humiliation, prayer and fasting for all the people of the nation. And I do earnestly recommend to all the people, and especially to all ministers and teachers of re- ligion of all denominations, and to all heads of families, to observe and keep that day according to their several creeds and modes of worship, in all humility, and with all re- ligious solemnity, to the end that united prayers of the nation may ascend to the throne of grace and bring down plentiful blessing upon our country." I^ow there is not much skeptical doctrines in these letters and utterances. So I think that we can claim that Mr. Lincoln was a pretty good orthodox Christian. 134 EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. CHAPTER XII. MY VISIT TO THE GRAVE OI' THE MARTYRED PRESIDENT. About three years after Mr. Lincoln bad been buried at Springfield I went to that city to visit his resting place and to see my old college chum, William II. Herndon. I hoped we could go together to visit Lincoln's grave. But I found that Mr. TIerndon had moved seven miles into the country, and that he had recently had a long and serious illness, so that he would probably not be able to come to the city at that time. I then learned for the first time of my old friend's dissipation, following Lincoln's death. At last his friends had to send him into the country to get him away from the saloons and his boon companions. No doubt, in his dissipated and mentally-wrecked condition, he had written the false and absurd things of Lincoln that marred his history of that great man — a history that con- tains much valuable truth and information. But his in- temperate habits and abnormal mental condition are doubt- less to blame for tlie absurd and silly stories that mar th.e history and wrong- the memory of the good Lincoln. It is strange that men of good sense will reproduce these out- rageous falsehoods in their papers and magazines as his- tory, when there is neither truth nor history in them. When I found that my unfortunate old school mate could not go with me, I went alone to Lincoln's grave. I was surprised to find that he was not buried in the old cemetery that I had often seen, but that his burial place was a long way north of town, and reached by street cars. When I got there I was again surprised to find his grave near the old stage road that ran in early times from Springfield to Peoria, and but a short distance from the old ferry Avhere the road crossed the Sangamon river. All this ground was familiar to me. It brought to my mind many incidents of an historical nature. The ferry was of great importance in the olden times. The high land on either ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 135 side came to the river, and it could therefore be crossed in any stage of water; but below this ferry for forty miles the river was difficult to cross, because of the low bottom lands that would overflow. Mr. Lincoln informed me of this fact, which he had discovered while navigating the river with flatboats and his steamboat. So it was that while I was carrying the mail in times of high water, in- stead of going from Athens to Sangamontown, and thus crossing deep sloughs and creeks, I kept up the river and crossed this ferry, two miles from Springfield, and so trav- eled up this old and familiar road that ran by Lincoln's grave. Tradition tells us that it was at this ferry where Mr. Lincoln landed his canoe when he first came down the Sangamon river to make that locality his home, he then being a mere lad, and that he walked up the same old road to the hamlet of Springfield. It was at this ferry landing, also, that he landed and tied up for a week the steamboat Talisman, and stood upon her upper deck, and from day to day addressed the great crowds of people who flocked to the river to see the wonderful steamboat. These were the speeches in which he told the people of the wonderful pos- sibilities of the great state, and of its opulent future, if these possibilities were improved. What a prophet he was ! And yet he Avas in full vicAv of the knoll on which was to stand his imperial monument of to-day, and never dreamed of the reverence and honor that would come to him. And I had often carried the mail over this ferry and higliAvay close by this to be forever sacred spot, little thinking of the wonderful things to come in the following thirty-three years. Mr. Lincoln's remains were then enclosed in a brick vault, the walls two feet thick and twelve feet high. Since then the great monument has been erected above his ashes. T sat down by my old friend's gTave while the old memo- ries crowded thick and fast about me. I recalled my flrst acquaintance with him in 1832 ; the many times I sat at the same table with him at the Rutledge tavern in I^ew Salem ; of the many times we had joined in changing the 136 EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. mail ; I renieiiiber the last time I traveled the road, carry- ing the pouch of letters his hands had touched ; of the time he took the long walk in the hot sun to get Judge Thomas to fix the title papers to my land, refusing to accept a fee, because, he said, I had done favors for him. All of these incidents and numberless acts of kindness on his part crowded my memory. And then came before me his splen- did future life with its mighty honors and mightier bur- dens ; his election to the presidency ; the long and terrible war in which he was the great commander of army and navy; that noble victory that under heaven he achieved, and his cruel death amidst the shouts for the union re- stored and peace assured forever. And sitting by his grave I paid the homage of tears to my boyhood friend, the best, and truest, and sweetest man I ever knew. I believe that Lincoln might have said, the day before his assassination, as truly as did the Apostle Paul before his martyrdom : " I have fought a good fight; I have finished my course ; I have kept the faith ; henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the Righteous Judge, shall give me at that dav." Hnbrew Jachson. PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF THE OLD HERO AND STATESMAN. CHAPTER I. THE CHUJRCHWELL, AND KIRKPATRICK FAMILIES' PERSONAL ACQUAINTANCESHIP WITH THE OLD HERO AND STATES- MAN. HISTORY OF THE TRAGEDY IN WHICH ANDREW JACKSON PARTICIPATED. OUR VISIT TO HIM AT THE HERMITAGE. STORY OF MRS. JACKSOn's DEATH. A LIT- TLE ANECDOTE ABOUT ALEXANDER KIRKPATRICK. Since I closed the several sketches that I have been \vriting for The Fulton Democrat containing- reminiscences of the lives of Abraham Lincoln and Peter Cartwright, I have received letters from Boston, Springfield and many other places requesting me to furnish them with copies of those letters. Some of the writers said they wished to write a history of the Life of Lincoln and wished to copy those letters into it. There have also been many requests that I should continue those sketches. But some of my children and grandchildren wish me to compile those let- ters in book form, and if I should do soi 1 would like to write also a few sketches of what I knew and have been able to reliably learn of the life and character of Andrew Jackson, and add these to those already written of Lincoln and Cartwright. I hope the readers will not think that I want to make myself conspicuous in writing up the history of great men, for I do not. But if 1 can tell some facts and give some new information that will be interesting and useful tO' my children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, of 137 138 EAKLY PIOiS'EERS AND EVENTS. which I have a pretty fair stock, and at the same time might interest other people, it would be all that I could de- sire. Peculiar circumstances have given me the privilege of knowing a good many incidents relating to that grand hero and statesman, Gen. J ackson, that are not generally known. 1 remember very well the time that he ran for president in 1828, and many of the events connected with that very exciting campaign ; and I visited him at the Hermitage and witnessed and enjoyed his kind and generous hospi- tality. I have also visited the memorable battle ground at "New Orleans where the great battle was fought and won by Jackson and his men on the 8th of January, 1815, and procured some of the relics and trophies of that wonderful battle. And now perhaps some of the readers may want to know how it happened that I, a resident of Illinois, ever came to know and learn very much about Andrew Jackson, who lived in Tennessee, and what led me to make him a visit at the Hermitage. So I will have to go into some family affairs to show how it happened. So I would say in the first place that all of my Avife's relations back of the pres- ent generation were Tennesseeans and were raised but a short distance from where Gen. Jackson lived, and they all knew him. My wife's father, Charles Kirkpatrick, who lived near Canton, HI., and was an elder in the Pres- byterian church of that place for many years, was a captain under Gen. Jackson in the war of 1812, and was with him in many expeditions against the Creek and Chickasaw Indians, and knew the old hero from his youth up. My wife's uncle (a brother to her mother). Col. George W. Churchwell, a prominent lawyer in that part of the country where General Jackson lived, had held the appointment of Indian agent under Jackson during a part of his presi- dential administration, and had practiced law at the bar with him, and had practiced law before the general when he was judge. Col. Churchwell's wife was also well ac- quainted with Jackson, and knew him at the time when he was converted and united with the Presbyterian churcli. ANDREW JACKSON. 139 and had sat at the communion table with him, herself be- ing a Presbyterian. Now it was from these persons I got a good deal of my information about Gen. Jackson. Gen. Churchwell was widely known throughout that part of the country. In addition to his large law practice he was a farmer and breeder of fine stock. He had a farm of 500 acres two miles north of Knoxville, Tenn. At the time I visited him in 1843 he was the owner of some forty slaves of both sexes and all ages. Col. C. and wife came to Fulton county about every two years to visit his sister and family and to look after some lands he had there. It was on the occasion of one of those visits that I met with him and bar- gained for some of his fine stock. So in the fall of 1848 i started from Havana, 111., with two horses and a carriage, in company with my wife's brother, Alexander Kirkpat- rick, and my brother. Pike C. Koss, to go to Knoxville to bring home the stock. But before we started Captain Kirkpatrick charged us very particularly if we traveled near to the Hermitage to be sure to stop and see Gen. Jack- son and to give to the old general his kind regards, and to tell him the number of his regiment and company, and what battles and expeditions they were in together. I stated in my last communication that with my brother Pike C. Poss and my wife's brother, A. C. Kirkpatrick, I had made arrangements to go to Knoxville, Tennessee, to bring home some fine stock that I had purchased of my wife's uncle, Col. George W. Churchwell, who lived on a farm near that place. My brother Pike at that time was about eighteen years, and my wife's brother was two years older. Both were full of life and were desirous of getting as much pleasure out of the trip as possible. We started from Havana, Mason county, about the first of October, 1843, with a span of fine traveling horses and a light carriage. Our route ran through a section of coun- try where I had traveled as early as in 1829 and 30, and T could point out to the boys some of the old landmarks of that early day and tell them of the wonderful changes that 140 EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. had taken place in the country since I first traveled through it. . In 1828 when my father settled at Havana there was not a house on the Springfield road between Havana and Miller's Terry on the Sangamon river, a distance of fifteen miles. And in all that section of country lying between the Sangamon river and the Mackinaw river and running east from the Illinois river for a distance of fifteen miles, containing at least 400 square miles, there was not a white inhabitant except three or four families at Havana. Great numbers of Indians lived along the water courses, and their Indian ponies by the thousands ranged over all that vast country. As we traveled on we stopped at the old town of New Salem, Mr. Lincoln's old home and stamping ground, where he kept store and the post office. I had not been there since I carried the mail some ten years before, and I wanted to see how the old town looked. I found some of the old buildings still standing, but most of them had been taken to Petersburg. Mr. Lincoln's house, where he kept store and the j)ost office, and Samuel Hill's store, where Mr. Lincoln had clerked, had been taken away. The old log tavern where Mr. Lincoln and I boarded was still there, and I wanted to patronize it for Auld Lang Syne's sake, but the old sign with " The 'New Salem Inn " on it had been taken down and we could get no accommodations. The frame of the water mill was still standins:, but there was no longer a mill there. There is a little history about that mill and the men who built it which I will relate: It was at this mill that Mr. Lincoln first got em])lovment when he came to jSTew Salem, and it was at this mill that Samuel Hill had 100 barrels of flour made which Mr. Lin- coln took to New Orleans on his flat boat. The mill was built by John Cameron and George Rutledge, who were also the proprietors of jSTew Salem. John Cameron sold his interest in the mill and moved to Fulton county and settled on the bluft"s half a mile south of where Bernadotte now stands. Lie was one of the proprietors of Bernadotte. He built a water mill at that place which was the first grist ANDKEW JACKSON. 141 mill ever built on Spoon river. He moved from Fulton County to Oregon, and from there to California. He died in Oakland, California, His grandson, W. W. Cameron, represented Oakland in the state legislature, and was also iriayor of Oakland. The next place we came to that is worth mentioning was old Sangamontown, lying on the Sangamon river, and about eight miles from Springfield. It was laid out about the same time that Springfield was. It was at this place that Mr. Lincoln built the flat boat which he took to ISTew Orleans, and it was at this place that Peter Cartwright or- ganized his first church and Sabbath school after coming to Illinois. His residence was on a farm two miles south of the town. We went on to Springfi.eld and there took the old stage road that ran from Springfield to Vandalia. I remember traveling that road in 1829 in company with my father and a hired man. We were taking a drove of horses from Havana to St. Louis for sale, as that place was at that time the principal market for all Illinois. There was not a house or habitation from Springfield to J\raeoupin, a dis- tance of eighteen miles. The whole country was covered witli high grass, in many places extending above the backs of our horses. And then there was another thing that happened to us that I will never forget. It was the terrible fight we had with the horseflies. It appeared as if that whole country was swarming with horseflies. There was the small fly that would cover the head and ears of the horses, the green-headed and large black fly. They would torment the poor horses so that they would run into the high grass and roll over to get rid of them. Sometimes a half dozen would be down at once. A\'e had hard work to keep the horses we rode from doing the same thing. When we got to Macoupin Point we were told that our trip across the prairie ought to have been made in the night, that during the summer season the stages and most all travelers crossed the prairie at night to avoid the flies. When we left Sangamon we struck tlirough for Van- dalia, where the capital of the state had been located for 142 EAKLY nOlN'EERS AND EVENTS. many years before it was removed to Springfield. I had a strong desire to visit the old town of Vandalia that I had heard so much talk about. For a number of years after the settlement of the country all the land in the state owned by individuals upon which the taxes had not been paid were sold for the taxes at Vandalia. I remember that my father and Joel Wright of Canton and a few other men of Tulton county were in the habit of going to Vandalia to attend these sales. My brother LcAvis lived at Vandalia at one time about a year. It was in 1828 or '29. He went there to learn the printer's trade. He held the po- sition I think of what that craft calls the " printer's devil." He worked for Judge James Hall, who was one of the first editors in the state. I think he moved out of the state and my brother gave up the trade. It was at Vandalia where Mr. Lincoln first went to the legislature, and Major Xewton Walker was a member at the same time from Ful- ton county. From Vandalia we traveled southeast to the Ohio river. We founfl the country from Vandalia to the river settled generally by people who emigrated from the slave-hold- ing states, and the improvements were much inferior to the country we- had passc'l between Springfield and Van- dalia. Where the country had been settled mostly by eastern people in the sonthern part of the state a great many people were still living in their log houses, and small farms in cultivation ; part of their land was planted in tobacco, cotton and flax. The southern counties had been settled much longer than the nortliern and middle counties, but were far behind in improvements. I will mention a little circumstance that happened as we were traveling through that part of the country, which was a little amusing to my young companions, and will demon- strate the amount of enterprise the people possessed : We stopped one day at a farm house to get a drink of water, and the lady of the house came out with a gourd that would hold a half gallon and told us that if wt- wanted a good cool drink that we had better go to the well, and pointed to where it was, and remarked that if we ANDREW JACKSON. 143 found any polliwigs in the water we were to pound the gourd against the side of the ladder that was in the well and they would all go to the bottom. So my brother Pike climbed down the well on the ladder and found the water alive with polliwigs, but he obeyed instructions and pounded the gourd against the side of the ladder and the polliwigs all disappeared and he brought up the gourd full of water without a polliwig or a tadpole in it. We went on the Ohio river and was informed that the best way to go Knoxville in Tennessee was to go through JSTashville. So when we got to JS^ashville we put up at the City Hotel, which we found afterwards was the very hotel where the wonderful tragedy had taken place be- tween General Jackson and the Bentons, where Jackson, in attempting to horsewhip Thomas H. Benton, was shot by Jesse Benton, a brother of Thomas, putting a ball through his arm and one in his shoulder. The particulars of the fight and the cause of it I will give further on. On our arrival at jSTashville, as stated last week, we put up at the City Hotel, where the terrible tragedy had taken place between General Jackson and the two Ben- tons. The landlord had kept the hotel for a good many years, and was M'ell acquainted with Gen. Jackson. Therf^ were also several men staying at the hotel who had been personally acquainted with Gen. Jackson for twenty oi' thirty years, and they gave us a good deal of information about him and the circumstances of the fight, as follows ; Thomas PL Benton, the old IFnited States senator, wIk., I believe, served longer in tlie senate than any other man, had a brother Jesse who lived in Nashville, and who had got into some trouble with another Nashville man named Wm. Carroll. Jesse Benton sent Carroll a challenge to fight, and he accepted the challenge. Carroll and Jack- son were warm friends, he having served under Jackson in the army as captain. So he went out to the Hermitage to see if Jackson would act as his second in the duel, but Jackson objected, saying that he was a friend of the Bentons and he did not want to do anything that would 144 EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. offend them. But he told Carroll that he would go to ^N^ashville and see Jesse Benton and try to have the mat- ter settled between them without any fighting, and he came to town and tried to have the matter settled between them. But Benton gave him to understand that Capi. Carroll would have to fight or show the Avhite feather, saying that he would run him out of town. Benton made use of some language that Jackson thought was rather insulting, and so he consented to act as Carroll's second in the duel, 'l-'hey went out and took a crack at each other. J>enton was wounded quite severely in the side, though not dangerously, and Capt. Carroll was slightly wounded in the left thumb. Benton was laid up twenty days with his wound. Thomas li. Benton, the brother of Jesse, was in ^^'ashington city at the time of the duel. When he received the news that his brother Jesse had fought a duel with Capt. (Carroll and was badly wounded, and tliat Carroll had but a slight wound in his left thumb, and that General Jackson had been a second to his brother's jmtagonist, his wrath and indignation knew no bonds, and not having the facts in the case^ he wrote Jack- son very insulting and abusive letters, accusing him of all kinds of treachery and dishonesty, and some of his letters were published in the K'ashville ])apers. These things aroused all the old tiger there was in Gen. Jackson, and while his wrath and high temper had the control of his better judgment he made a solemn voav in the presence of some of his friends that. "By the eternal, the first time I get my eyes on Tom Benton I will horsewhip him !" So in about a month after the duel was fouglit Thomas H. Benton came to Xashville and put U]) at the City Hotel. His brother Jesse by that time had recovered from his wound so that he was able to walk about the streets. In a few days after, Gen. Jackson rode to town to get his mail, left his horse at the Kashville Inn, but kept his horsewhip in his hand. After he got his mail he walked past the City Hotel and there observed Thomas H. Ben- ton and his brother Jesse standing in front of the hotel a-talking He walked up to Benton and told him that he ANDREW JACKSON. 145 had to take back those scandalous assertions that he had made about him or he would have to take a horsewhip- ping. At that Benton made some pretense as if he were going to draw a pistol. Then Jackson drew his revolver and told him that if he attempted to draw a weapon he would get the contents of his pistol. Jesse Benton, who was standing near, seeing the predicament that his brother was in and with little chance to defend himself, drew his pistol and blazed away at Jackson and brought him to the ground, pistol, horsewhip and all. His pistol was loaded with two balls, one of which went through Jackson's arm and the other lodged in his shoulder. Jack- son carried that ball in his shoulder for twenty years. The fight created a wonderful excitement in jSlashville. The news ran like wildfire, and in ten minutes after Jackson was shot a thousand men were at the hotel and many fights took place between the friends of the two parties. One of Jackson's friends knocked Jesse Ben- ton down and pounded him almost to death. Thos. H. Benton in the fight and skirmishing fell through an open doorway into the basement of the hotel, which saved him from getting a terrible whipping. Tlic landlord told us that Jackson was confined, at the hotel about three weeks before he could be removed to his home. Soon after this occurrence Thos. H. Benton left the state of Tennessee and moved to Missouri, and he and Jackson did not meet again until sixteen years after, when they met as senators in Washington and had selected seats, unknown to either of them, that were located side by side ; and they were both placed on some important committee, so that they had to come face to face. But they at once shook hands and were forever after good friends. The next morning we started on our way to the Her- mitage, which was some ten or eleven miles from ]!*^ash- ville. We traveled on a fine turnpike road which ran through a fertile country. On the road between !N^asli- ville and the Hermitage we passed the spot where there had been built at one time a fort or blockhouse, where the peo]')le gathered when the Indians were troublesome. 14() EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. This foi't, we were told, was afterwards purchased by Gen. Jackson and a man named Coffee and converted into a storehouse, and there they kept store for some years under the name of Jackson & Coffee. They bought hirge quantities of cotton and produce and shipped it down the Cumberland and Mississippi rivers in ilatboats to New Orleans. JSTear the fort was on© of the finest racetracks in the state, and there they also had a place erected for the exhibition of game cocks, where people came from hundreds of miles and from other states with their race horses and game cocks. Thousands of dollars would be bet on the races and cock fights. We found the Hermitage was located about a half a mile from the turnpike road that ran from Nashville to i^^noxville, but he had a private road that ran from the turnpike up to his house. Before we got to his house we passed a small brick Presbyterian church Avhich we were rold that Gen. Jackson had built on his own land for the accommodation of his wife after she united with that church ; and it was at this little church where he was con- verted and joined the Presbyterian church, of which I may have something more to say. We drove up to the house and hitched our horses, opened the little iron gate and went in. We found the general sitting on his front piazza reading a newspajier. We introduced ourselves to him as well as we could, and told him we were from Illinois and on our way to Knoxville to take home some fine stock that I had purchased from Col. George W, Churchwell of that place, and told him of our relationship to Capt. Charles Kirkpatrick, who had served under him, and gave him the number of the regiment and the company that he commanded. The general said he remembered him very well, and told us of several expeditions they had been on together, and ap- peared to be pleased that we had called to see him, and asked us to have our horses put up and stay to dinner with hijn. But I told him as it was early in the day we would rather drive a few miles further before dinner. He said he was alwavs fflad to hear from anv of the old comrades •ANDREW JACKSON. 147 who were with him in the army, and was glad to meet any of their relatives. He asked my brother-in-law a good many questions about his father ; wanted to know in what part of Illinois he lived, what his occupation was, and how many children he had. He said he knew his father very Avell, and also his two brothers then living in Tennessee. He also said he was very well acquainted with his uncle, George W. Churehwell, who had held the office of Indian agent when he was president, and had practiced law before him when he was judge. He also said that he knew his aunt, Col. Churchwell's wife ; that they were both Presby- terians. He asked us if we would take a walk with him out in his orchard, saying he had some pretty good eating- apples. But before we went to the orchard he took us through several rooms of his house. In one room he had a large library of books, with a number of fine pictures hanging around the walls. In another room he had a great lot of old war relics, such as old swords, pistols and old muskets, all with flint locks, and a great lot of old regimental clothing that was hanging around the walls. Some of it looked like it might have been worn in the times of the Revolutionary War. The Hermitage was a good, substantial building, but everything about it Avas very plain. Such a house could have been built in Illinois at that time for $4,000. He told me that his wife's nephew, Mr. Donelson and family, were living with him. He took us to his barn and showed us a span of carriage horses that he had, but they were not as good as the span I was driving. His barn was quite plain — no better than many Illinois farmers had at that time. We went from the barn to the orchard. He had a very fine orchard and a most excellent quality of fruit. He told us to tie up in our handkerchiefs and take all the apples we wanted to eat on our way. So we laid in a pretty fair supply which lasted till we got across the mountains. I told the general that he had some good eating apples and that I would like to take a half dozen home to my wife and boy ; that I had a boy sixteen months old, and I could tell them when I got home that the apples came from Gen. Jackson's orchard! So he took me 148 EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. to a tree of large red aj)ples which he called winesaps ; so I gathered the apples and stored them away carefully in my satchel and brought them home. As we were returning from the orchard to the house he took us through a lot that lay a few rods east of the house and there showed us the grave of his wife. It was a plat of ground about 8x10 feet, enclosed with a marble wall rising about three feet above the ground, and a partition wall in the middle ; on one side his wife was laid and was covered with a marble slab on which was engraved, '' Mrs. liachel Jackson, died 23rd December, 1828, aged sixty-one years." The general told us that when he died that he expected to be laid by his wife in the enclosed plat of ground. He spoke of his ]")oor health and said that he did not think it would be many months until he would be lying there. He was very thin in flesh and pale at that time. He had us come into the the house again and brought in a pitcher of cold water. I asked him if he had ever been in Illinois. He said he had not, but he had become acquainted with a good many Illinois men when he was in Congress and while he was president, and named over several that I knew. He also said that he had been acquainted with a Methodist preach- er who had been a delegate to the I^ashville conference by the name of Peter Cartwright, who was now living in Illi- nois, and asked me if I knew him. I told him that I knew him very well ; that he had often staid at my father's house and had preached in our log cabin in the early pioneer times, before there were any church buildings put up. He then went on and told the story that when Cartwright was preaching one time in I^^ashville he went to hear him, and as he was walking down the aisle the preacher in the pulpit by the side of Cart^vl•ig■ht gave his coat a jerk and told him that Gen. Jackson w^as coming in; at which Cartwright spoke out so loud that all the church could hear him: " Who is Gen. Jackson ? If he don't get his soul con- verted God will damn him as quick as He would a Guinea negro ! " I suppose the general thought I had never heard the story ; but I heard it some years before from the Cart- wright side, and was pleased to hear it from the other side. ANDREW JACKSON. 149 The general went down to the carriage with us to see our horses, and admired them very much, for they were splen- did animals. He told us to give his kind regards to Col. Churchwell and wife when we got to Knoxville, and also to Capt. Charles Kirkpatrick when we got home. There was one circumstance which I omitted to mention relating to my visit to the Hermitage, which was the splen- did arrangement which Jackson had made for the pleasure and good of his slaves. Each family had a one-story frame house that was painted either white or red, and with it about an acre of ground, all fenced in with palings or board fence and whitewashed ; and around each of these houses were a lot of fruit trees and shrubbery. We were told that the general was always good and kind to his slaves, and would never permit any of them to be sold to go to the southern states, and that his slaves were strongly attached to him, and that nothing would induce them to leave their old master. ISTotwithstanding the terrible temper that the general possessed, which made him like a Kansas cyclone when he was imposed upon and aroused, he still possessed a kind and tender heart. Many people told us, who had knoAvn the general and his good wife during all their thirty-seven years of married life, that she was a grand and noble Christian lady, and was honored and loved by everybody ; that their affection for each other was of the tenderest kind ; that the general al- ways treated her as if she was his pride and glory, and that words could faintly describe her devotion to him ; that it was seldom that a husband and wife lived as haDoily to- gether as they had done. We were tokVthat Avhen Mrs. Jackson died no such demonstration had ever been known at a funeral in that part of the country before; that the mayor of I^ashville issued a proclamation requesting busi- ness men to close their stores and asked that the bells of the city be tolled from 1 to 2 p. m.^ during the funeral. Every vehicle in the city was employed in taking people to the Hermitage, where the funeral was held. It was estimated that 10,000 people attended the funeral. The death of 150 EARLY PIONEEES AND EVENTS. Mrs. Jackson was a terrible shock to the general, and some of his slaves went almost frantic with grief and despair. Such weeping and wailing had never been heard at a fun- eral, nor so much affection shown by slaves on the death of a mistress. There was a little circmnstance that took place in connec- tion with the life of Gen. Jackson that I thought I would mention. I heard my father-in-law, Capt. Charles Kirk- patrick, speak of it, and also his brothers and some others that we met on onr visit to Tennessee. It was on one of Gen. Jackson's expeditions against the Cherokee Indians, and will show that he did possess a kind and tender heart. The general and his soldiers were pursuing a band of Indi- ans, and surrounded them ; and as the Indians were attempt- ing to escape every one waskilled. In going to their wig^vams they discovered a little boy papoose, and as the sol- diers were about to dispatch him, the general commanded them not to hurt the little boy. And he took the little Indian boy home with him, and raised him, and sent him to school, and became very much attached to him. The little Indian boy became very expert in the riding of race- horses. He could get more speed out of them than any rider in the coiuitry ; as the general was keeping some race- horses at the time, the boy made himself quite useful to the general. When the boy got to be fifteen years old the gen- eral thought he had better learn a trade; so he took him around among the artisans and mechanics in JSTashville to choose the trade that he would prefer ; so he chose the trade of saddlery and harness-maker, but after working at it a year he died. It was thought that if he had lived that the general would have made provisions for him in his will. In giving this story about Gen. Jackson and the little Indian boy I might with some propriety make use of a habit peculiar to Mr. Lincoln ; after listening to a story told by a friend, he would say : " N'ow, that puts me in mind of a little anecdote," and would go on and relate one of his quaint and humorous stories to match the one told him. So the circumstance about Gen. Jackson and the Indian boy has brought to my mind a similar circumstance ANDREW JACKSON. 151 that took place with Alexander Kirkpatriek, who was with me at the time we visited Gen. Jackson. Whether the story above told about Jackson and the Indian boy had any bearing on the story that I am about to tell I camiot say. Alexander Kirkpatriek, in 1847, went to study medicine with Dr. W. H. Nance, at Vermont, Illinois, and in 1850 went to California, and practiced medicine in San Fran- cisco and also in Eedwood City. He became very eminent in his profession, having at one time the largest practice in San Francisco. In 1861 there was or- dered out in California a regiment of soldiers to go into the northern border of the state to fight the Indians, who had been murdering a good many families. Dr. Kirkpatriek got the appointment of surgeon to go with the army. On that expedition they came upon the camp of the hostile Indians and surrounded them, and as they attempted to escajje everyone was killed. The soldiers went inside of the Avigwams and there found a little girl papoose. One of the soldiers was about to run his bayonet through her when Dr. Kirkpatriek jumped in before him and caught the little girl up in his arms and saved her life. Some of the soldiers who had lost relatives by the Indians were de- termined that she should share their fate ; but the doctor drew his revolver and said that he would protect the girl at the risk of his life. He brought the little Indian pa- poose home and raised and educated her the same as he did his own children. The doctor told me that the child had so many droll and quaint ways about her and was so differ- ent from other children that he gave her the name of " Topsy," after the girl spoken of by Harriet Beecher Stowe in " Uncle Tom's Cabin." So she always went by the name of Topsy Kirkpatriek up to the time of her mar- riage with a white man. I have asked the doctor if he thought that the stories we heard in Tennessee about Jack- son and the Indian boy had anything to do with his rescue of the Indian girl, and he said he thought that it had. Dr. Kirkpatriek died in San Francisco in 180-1, leaving a widow and two sons and three daughters and Topsy to mourn his loss. He was a kind-hearted, noble and iicnor- 152 EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. oiis man, and was loved and honored by all who knew him. He left a beautiful home to his family and life insurance to the amount of $20,000. CHAPTER II. BRIEF HISTORY OF PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1828. SOME FURTHER INCIDENTS CONCERNING- JACKSON. • OUR DELIGHTFUL VISIT IN THE SOUTH. HOW MY SON FRANK* FINALLY CAME TO PARTAKE OF SOUTHERN HOS- PITAIJTY AT THE HANDS OF " AUNT MOODY.^" DEATH OF ANDREW JACKSON SHORTLY AFTER OUR RETURN FROM THE SOUTH. I will give a little history of the presidential election of 1828, wdien Andrew Jackson ran against John Quincy Adams. At that time I was about twelve years old, and very distinctly remember the election held in Lewistown, Illinois. It was probably the most exciting election, and probably more bitter feeling indulged in, than at any elec- tion that has ever taken place in this country. For several months before the election almost every occupation was dropped and the men occupied their time electioneering. Almost every day long lines of men could be seen marching after the fife and drum and led by some officer that had served in the war of 1 81 2. The elackson party would erect their hickory poles and the Adams party their tall maple poles, and stands would be erected under their respective poles, and the best speakers in the country Avould be brought out, and each party would have a barbecue of a roast ox or half-a-dozen shec]:» about every Aveek. At that time a good many Avho belonged to their respective parties had been soldiers in the war of 1812, and on their march would wear *Now the Hon. Frank W. Ross, of Salt Lake City, Utah. He was the youngest elective officer — being a Lieutenant at the age of fifteen — in the P'ederal Army, and served with great bravery and distinction in all the battles of his regiment during the entire war, from '6i to '61;. — C. K. O. ANDREW JACKSON. 153 their soldier's uniform which they wore in the army. My father had served as major imder Gen. Brown, of New York. I can remember very well how he looked, dressed in his military suit, with his sword buckled on and hanging by his side, wearing his soldier hat decorated with a large cockade on one side of his hat and with two feather plumes extending eight or ten inches above the crown of his hat, decked off with the red, white and blue — all showing the rank he held in the army. He rode a large white horse, with a pistol holster swung across the pommel of his saddle, in which were two large horse-pistols Avith their flint-locks. So in marching in parade after the fife and drum he made a pretty fair military appearance. The election in Lewistown at that time was held at the log court house. They had no such thing in that part of the county at that time as saloons ; but the candidates and their friends had a different method of treating their friends and voters if they Avished to have something to drink. A platform was erected some thirty feet long in front of the court house, upon which was placed barrels, kegs, demijohns and jugs, and the names of the candidates Avritten on their respective vessels. I remember that the first vessel that was placed upon the platform was a thirty-gallon barrel of whisky, with the name of " Andkew Jackson " written upon it ; and in a short time another barrel of the same size was placed by its side, with the name of " John QuiNCY Adams '"' written upon it in large letters. Then came the ten and five-gallon kegs ; then the demijohns and jugs, with the names of the candidates who had bought the liquor, and everybody was welcome to all they wished to drink. At that time whisky was selling at thirty-five cents a gallon by the barrel, or fifty cents a gallon at retail ; and it was a marvelous fact that after the election was over scarcely any person had been intoxicated during the day. At that time ballots were not used as at the present time, but each voter, after his name was registered, would call out the names of the candidates, one at a time, that he Avished to A''ote for. There Avere no national issues at that time to diA'ide the tAvo parties, but each man ran on his oavu per- 154 EARLY PIONEEKS AND EVENTS. sonal popularity. The campaign was carried on with a great deal of severity and bitterness. Adams was accused of corruption and extravagance in his former administra- tion, and of being proud and selfish, and of being; no friend of the poor and of the laboring man. On the other side Jackson was accused of every crime and offense and impropriety that ever a man was known to be giTilty of. The most was made of his many duels, and hand-bills were issued and sent broad- cast over the country telling of his cruelty and bad character. An account was given of the six men he had ordered to be shot in the army for mutiny and desertion, and their coffins were pictured out on the handbills. But the most cruel and malicious stories that were told about him were that he and his wife had lived together in open adultery before they were married. This story aroused more anger and bitter feeling against the Adams party than any other thing that had been told, for it was a falsehood, and his friends sternly resented that slander. IMany a hard fist-fight took place between the friends of the two parties in consequence of that story. I was told at the time when I traveled throutili Tennes- see, in 1843, and by persons who had known Mrs. Kachel Jackson from the time that she was fifteen years old up to the time of her death, that there had never lived in the state of Tennessee a lady that stood higher or was more respected than Mrs. Jackson ; that she was a pure and kind-hearted Christian lady. Those infamous falsehoods published about Gen. Jackson and his wife did more to arouse the indigna- tion of the whole state of Tennessee against Adams and in support of Jackson than anything else. When the election came off there was less than 3,000 votes cast for Mr. xidams in that state. Some of the towns cast their entire vote for Jackson. I was told a story of how a stranger had come into one of the towns about election time and put up at the hotel and took a walk through the town. He found a great many women on the streets, but scarcely a man could be seen. He came back to the hotel and enquired of the land- lord whv it was that so manv women were seen on the ANDREW JACKSON. 155 streets and no men ; and the landlord told him that the men had gone out of town to hnnt a conple of criminals, and Avhen the stranger wanted to know what great crime these two men had committed that the whole to^\m had gone in pursuit of them, the landlord told him they had voted for Mr. Adams ! The people had been anxious to carry the place unanimously for Jackson, as many of the other towns had done, and the two rascals had spoiled the record, and the people were so indignant that they were hunting them so that they could tar and feather them, and the women were waiting on the streets anxious to see it done. But the men escaped to the woods and could not be found. It was a fact that Mrs. Rachel Jackson was married three times — once to Lewis Roberts and twice to Gen. Jackson, The peculiar circumstances of her marriage to Gen. Jack- son caused a good deal of gossip. But Avhen the circum- stances were understood there was nothing wrong about it, as I can show as I proceed with the narrative. I can remember the men who took an active part in the politics of Fulton county in the election of 1828, and will give the names of a few of the leaders. On the side of Mr. Adams there were Stephen Phelps and his sons Alexis, My- ron, Sumner and William ; also Wm. Proctor, Joel Wright, Stephen Dewey, Peter Wood, Ossian M. Ross and his brothers, Joseph, Thomas and John; Hugh R. Coulter, John McjSTeil and David W. Barnes. On the Jackson side were William Walters ( the hero of Rev, Wm. J. Rutledge's letters) and his brothers Daniel, Thomas and John, and an uncle, Abner Walters ; the Waughtels, John and Will- iam Totten, and John Barker. The Adams men were gen- erally from the East and the Jackson men from the South- ern states. There are only four of the men and boys I knew at that time who are now living, viz : Mason Eveland and Henry Warren, of Iowa, Henry Andrews, of Canton, and my brother, Leonard F. Ross, of Lewistown. In continuing my narrative of the trip I took through Tennessee at the time I visited Gen. Jackson I may allude to incidents that will not great! v interest the general 156 EAKLY PIONEEES AND EVENTS. reader. But it will be remembered that I am writing these sketches chiefly for the benefit of my children, grand- children and great-grandchildren, so the reader will par- don these departures from the main theme of these sketches. So I will take up our line of travel from the time we bade Gen. Jackson goodby at the Hermitage and turned our horses' heads towards Knoxville. The first place we stop- ped at was Lebanon. I have read somewhere in divine his- tory something about the cedars of Lebanon, and when we drove into town we began to think we had found that place. Lebanon contained about 1,000 inhabitants, and was built in the middle of a large cedar grove. Part of the houses were built of logs and part were frame. The logs were all cedar and the frame houses were all built of cedar ; the roofs were covered with cedar shingles and the fences and gates were all of cedar. So we concluded that Leb- anon was a very appropriate name for the town. We stopped over night at a hotel on the top of the Cum- berland mountains. I went out to the bam after supper to see how our horses had been cared for. This was my custom, as we had a long journey to make and a good deal depended upon the condition of our team. L asked the negro hostler how much corn he had fed the horses. He said he had given them six ears apiece. I told him that he should have fed them twice that amount, but he an- swered, " Massa, they are great big ears." I asked how large the ears were. He said that they were almost as long as his arm and as big around as his leg. Then I said I wanted to see some of that com ; so he took me to the crib and I saw that the negro was not far out of the way, for they were the most wonderful ears of corn in size that 1 had ever seen. There was about as much feed in one ear as in two ears of common com. I asked the landlord how it was that such large corn would grow on top of the Cum- berland mountains. He said that there was a dark sandy loam on the mountains — just the kind of soil to produce large corn. So I went to the crib and selected one of the largest ears I could find, and shelled it, and packed it away A]\"DREW JACKSON. 157 in my satchel, intending to bring it home and try it on our Illinois soil, as I was at that time carrying on a large farm a half mile east of Havana in Mason county, i planted the corn by itself so that it would not get mixed with the other corn, and from that planting I raised sev- eral bushels. The next year I planted part of it and distributed the balance among some of my neighbor farmers, as T wanted to have it introduced all over the county. They gave it the name of the " Tennessee Mam- moth Corn." I am sure that after I commenced raising that com that the yield to the acre was at least a third more than it had been with common corn. AfterAvards many Fulton county farmers came over to Mason county to get their seed corn. We finally arrived at Col. Churchwell's with everything in good trim. Our horses had stood the trip excellently. Col. ChurchAvell and wife and about half a dozen negro servants were ready to meet us as they had heard that we were coming. We still had on hand some of the apples that Gen. Jackson had given us and we distributed them among the colonel's family and the servants, as they all wanted to taste the apples because they had come from Gen. Jackson's orchard. We delivered the messages the general had sent to Col. Churchwell and wife, and that led them both to tell us some marvelous stories about the general, for they had known him most all their lives. The colonel told us of a time that he was attending court in a neighboring town and Gen. Jackson was the presiding judge. A certain man had committed a crime, and a warrant had been placed in the hands of the sheriff, and he had summoned a half dozen men to assist him in mak- ing the arrest, for the man was a desperate character and was armed with several pistols and a bowie knife. The sheriff came into court and reported to the judge that the man could not be taken — that he and his men could not afford to risk their lives with such a character. The judge then said to him, " Summons Andrew Jackson to assist in taking that man." The sheriff did so, and Jackson took his hat and walked out of the cotirt house and across the 158 EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. street to where the man was surrounded by many friends. Judge Jackson walked up to him, put his hand on his shoulder, and said to him, "You are my prisoner; you must go with me to the court house." The man made no resistance but walked deliberately to the court house where the judge took the pistols and knife from him and handed them to the sheriff. The man was asked afterwards why he did not resist Gen. Jackson as he had done the other men. He said he could see fight in the eyes of the judge, but could not see it in the eyes of the other men. Col. Churchwell's wife could also tell us of many cir- cumstances connected with the life of the general. She told us about what a time the minister had had with him to get him to agree to forgive his enemies when he was about to join the church. He told the minister that he was willing to forgive all his political enemies, but his enemies that had been guilty of defaming his private character and his mfe, and of lyiug about his mother, he did not H:hink he could forgive. But the minister told him that if he expected to have his sins forgiven he would have to forgive his enemies, and pointed him to many passages of scripture that treated on that subject. So the general finally agreed to forgive his enemies and was received as a member of the Presbyterian church. It took place at the little brick church near the Hermitage that he had built for his wife soon after they were married. I was told that Jackson and his wife were regular attend- ants at church while she was living, and that he was al- ways a friend to all religious institutions, and that all his ancestors, including his mother, were Presb;\i^erians. I will quote a few sentences from the biography of Peter Cartwright to show what the old pioneer Methodist preacher had to sa}^ about him, as follows : '' Gen. Jackson was certainly a very extraordinary man. He was no doubt in his prime of life a very wicked man, but he always showed a great respect for the Christian religion and the feelings of religious people, especially ministers of the gospel. I will here relate a little inci- dent that shows his respect for religion. I had preached ANDREW JACKSON. 159 one Sabbath near the Hermitage, and in company with several gentlemen and ladies went by special invitation to dine with the general. Among the company there was a yonng sprig of a la\A^er from Nashville, of very ordi- nary intellect, and was trying very hard to make an infidel of himself. As I was the only preacher present the yomig lawyer kept pushing his conversation on me in order to get'^into an argument. I tried to evade an argument, in the first place considering it a breach of good manners to interrupt the social conversation of the company, and, in the second place, I plainly saw that his head was much softer than his heart, and that there were no laurels to be won by vanquishing or demolishing such a combatant; I persisted in evading an argument. This seemed to in- spire the young man with more confidence in himself, for my evasiveness he construed into fear. I saw Gen, Jack- son's eyes strike fire as he sat by and heard the thrusts made at the Christian religion. At length the young lawyer asked me this question : " ' Mr. Cai-twright, do you believe there is any such place as hell V "'Yes, sir; I do.' " To which he responded : " ' Well, I thank God I have too much good sense to believe any such thing.' " I was pondering in my mind whether I would answer him or not when Gen. Jackson for the first time broke into the conversation, and, directing his words to the young man, said with great earnestness : " ' Well, sir, I thank God that there is such a place of torment as hell.' " This sudden answer, made with great earnestness, seemed to astonish the youngster, and he exclaimed : " ' ^Vliy, Gen. Jackson, what do you want of such a place of torment as hell V " To which the general replied, as quick as lightning : " ' To put such a rascal as you in that opposes and villifies the Christian religion !' " ^&^ After a cordial welcome to myself and my two yoimg 160 EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. comrades we had a delightful time going with Col. Church- well over his splendid farm of 500 acres, located two miles north of Knoxville, Tennessee. His negroes cultivated about 300 acres, and the balance was in timber and seeded do\\ai to blue grass. He was engaged in raising fine- blooded stock. He had a fine dwelling house and ten or twelve frame houses on his place that his slave families occupied. He had fine barns and stables, and all his buildings and improvements were very good. He had about forty slaves of both sexes and of all ages. He Avas good and humane to his slaves and would never permit any of them to be sold to go to the southern plantations. His nephew was his overseer, and he told me that he very seldom had to punish a slave. Col. Churchwell was a member of the Methodist church, and his wife was a Pres- byterian. It was his habit to hold family prayers morn- ing and evening and he asked a blessing at his table. He and his wife were regular attendants at church. Some- times both would go to the Methodist church and then to the Presbyterian church. Many of the slaves were church members, some belonging to one church and some to the other. Both Col. Churchwell and his wife believed that slavery w^as a divine institution, and that there was no harm in owning slaves, and the only harm there was about it was the abuse sometimes shown them by their masters. There was a very radical difference of opinion among my wife's relatives in regard to slavery, for on her father's side I have never known any of them to buy or sell a slave, although many of them were able to do so ; but on her mother's (Churchwell's) side I never knew any of them who would not buy slaves if they had the money to do so. The colonel and his good wife, " Aunt Moody," as we called her, did everything in their power to make us have a good and happy time. Their southern hospitality was manifested in many ways. As stated in my first letter, the colonel and his wife were in the habit of visiting relatives in Hlinois every two or three vears ; and I think the last time they came was ANDREW JACKSON. IGi in 1856, when they visited my family at Vermont, Fulton county. Mrs. Chueliwell was one of the kindest, best women I have ever known. She became very much at- tached to our oldest boy, Frank, who was then about half grown. She wanted Frank to promise her that when he was grown that he would go to Tennessee and visit his old Aunt Moody. She promised him that she would have the negToes dance for him, as she did when his father and uncles visited her, and would make him have a grand and good time. Well, as time rolled away the boy did go and visit his old aunt, but he did not go in just the way she expected him to come, and he took more company with him than his old aunt was in the habit of entertaining, and he did not wait until he was grown, as his aunt had told him to do. When the civil war came on and an appeal was made for volunteers, the boy caught the war fever and had it very badly. Because he was so young we did all in our power to persuade him from becoming a soldier ; but at last his parents gave their consent and he was enrolled as a member of the old 84th regiment Illinois volunteers, which was made up from men from Fulton and McDonough coun- ties under Col. Waters of Macomb. The regiment was at once ordered to go to east Tennessee, and singular as it may seem took up their headquarters right on Col. Churchwell's fine farm. They certainly could not have found a better lo- cality for a military post if thej had searched the state over, for the place was well watered with springs and creeks, with plenty of timber, and with an abundance of houses, barns and stables, and everything that a regiment of men could desire for their comfort and convenience. Col. Waters took possession of their fine old mansion for headquarters of himself and staff, though he was generous enough to let Mrs. Churchwell retain a few of the rooms. Col. Churchwell had died about the commencement of the war, and his only son, William, was an officer in the con- federate army, and was killed before the war closed. Mrs. C, with her nephew as overseer, and her negroes, were ran- 162 EARI.Y PIONEEBS AND EVENTS. ning her farm when the regiment came down upon them like a cloud of Kansas locusts would upon a fertile field, and wdth almost as great destruction. It was a terrible or- deal for the old lady to see her beautiful place desecrated, her fine house occupied by soldiers and the soldiers' tents spread over the fields, and her fine carriage horses taken for cavalry horses, and her large Nor- man horses, which her negroes needed so badly to w^ork the farm, taken to haul some old cannon around over the coun- try; and when she would remonstrate against such treat- ment the officers would tell her that it was a military neces- sity. And when her corn and hay would be taken from her barns, and her rails burned, and her dairy and chicken Jiouse looted, and her cows milked by the " Yankee blue- coats," then she v\^ould lay her grievances before Col. Waters, and he would try to appease her wrath and indig- nation by telling her that it was a military necessity. These indignities caused her at last to express her mind quite freely as to what she thought of them ; so they gave her the name of " old rebel," for she was very bitter against the whole union army. One day the old lady asked Col. Waters where those fel- lows came from that had settled down upon her premises, and he told her they were from Illinois. She then told him she had relatives in Illinois by the names of Kirkpat- rick and liosSj and w^anted to know of the colonel if he had any soldiers by either name. The colonel told her there was a young lad in the regiment whose name was Frank Ross. She said she would like to see him ; so the colonel sent one of his officers to hunt Frank up, and after a con- siderable search he was found in one of the camps frying chickens. He was told there was an old rebel woman up at headquarters who w^anted to see him. Frank knew noth- ing about whose farm it was they were camping on ; so he w^ent to the house without any idea as to whom he would meet. But when he came face to face with the " old rebel woman," lo and behold, it w^as his old Aunt Moody Church- well — the good old aunt that had invited him to come and visit her, and had promised that when he came she would ANDREW JACKSON. 163 have the negroes dance and sing for him ! But here he was, with a lot of companions, desecrating and wrecking her fine farm and frying her chickens ! But when she saw that he was really Frank, the kind and noble impulses of her heart came to her as in times past, and she showed him the utmost kindness, and told Col. Waters that if the boy should be wounded or get sick to send him to her house and that she would see that he was well taken care of. IS^ow I must go back and give a sketch of our visit at Col, Churchv/ell's, where we remained two weeks, visiting him and my wife's relatives in Tennessee. Before starting home the colonel wanted us to have a good time, so he gave us two grand diversions. The first was a negro corn-shuck- ing and the other was a negro dance, or, as they called it, a "negro shindig." If any JSTorthern man ever traveled in the South in slave days and missed a negro corn-shucking or a negro dance, he missed a good deal. The pile of corn was forty feet long, eight feet wide and four or five feet high. They divided it off into two piles and drove a stake in the middle, then chose sides and went at it with a rush. The side that came out last in shucking its pile had to furnish the egg-nogg to treat the whole company. As soon as the negroes commenced shucking the corn, working like beavers, they also commenced singing their plantation songs, and they sang with so much force and power that they could be heard about a mile. While the negroes were thus engaged their wives were preparing for them a bountiful supper. I do not think I ever saw a happier set of people than they were. The colonel had on his negro quarters one house with a large room in it that he said his negroes used to hold meet- ings in on Sundays, when some white or black preacher would come out from Knoxville and preach for them, and they used the same room to hold their dances in. His rule was to let them have a dance the last Saturday night in each month. He said it encouraged them and made them better servants. So one evening before we came away he gath- 164 EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. ered the negroes together, men, women, boys and girls, to show us how they could dance. He had one old negro, ISTed, who played the violin for them. He told ns that he was seventy years old, and had played on "de fiddle" since he was a boy, and seemed to be very proud of his skill. The music and the dancing were both grand, and we looked on with a great deal of delight. But the time had come for our departure homeward. I had sold the horses and carriage that we had taken with us, and we rode home some of the horses I bought of Col. Churchwell. We bought fourteen head — horses, mares, jacks and jennies. We traveled the first day thirty miles and stopped over night at Arthur Kirkpatrick's, .a brother of my wife's father. He was keeping a country store and running a farm. He had some negroes hired to worlv on the farm, but told ns that he would never buy or sell a slave. He had known Gen. Jackson for several 3'ears and told us many stories about him ; in fact, we could hardly meet an old settler in that state but who could tell us more or less about him. We came home a different route from the one we went out on. It was nearer, but not so good a road. We came back thi'ough Kentucky and through the grand prairies of eastern Illinois. Sometimes we found it twenty miles be- tween the houses. We struck the road we had gone out on at Springfield. On our way home we passed Major i^ewton Walker and Hugh Lamaster, who had been to Kentucky and bought a herd of Durham cattle. I think they were the first blooded cattle ever brought into Fulton county. When we reached home I found my wife and little boy, Ossian, anxiously awaiting our arrival, for we had been gone six weeks, and it was a time of joy and rejoicing when we got home, for I had never been away from home before to exceed a day since he was born. And when I opened my satchel and took out the six large apples that Gen. Jackson had given me to take home to my Avife and boy (as mentioned in my second letter), our little boy hardly knew whether they were to eat or play with, for he had never seen an apple be- ANDKEW JACKSON. 165 fore. At that time there was not a bearing orchard in Mason county. A few orchards had been planted out, but none of them had commenced to bear. But he soon found that they were good to eat, and his little teeth went for them with a vengeance. I told him that the apples came from Gen. Jackson's orchard — that Jackson had sent them to Ossian and his mother. He had just commenced to learn to talk, and he learned to prounoune the words "Jackson" and "apples " a little before any other words, and after the apples were gone he would often climb up in my lap and put his little arms around my neck and say, "Papa, go to Jackson and get more apples for Ossian." But the apples that came from the orchard of the old hero were the first and the last that he ever had the opportunity to put his little teeth into, for in six weeks after my return he was taken from us by that cruel disease, the croup. He was eighteen months old when he died. He was unusually smart and bright for one of his age, and his death was a terrible be- reavement to us, for our very hearts and lives were wrapped up in our little boy. He was our first child, and no tongue could express the grief and sorrow that filled our hearts when he was taken away. Another incident about the child : On the first visit of Col. Churchwell and wife to us in 1842, the little fellow was about six months old. Mrs. Churchwell had a bright, new half-dollar bearing the date "1842." So she got a hole drilled through the rim of it, put a ribbon through it, and hung it around little Ossian's neck, saying it would be a keepsake from her and would show the year the boy was born and the year of their first visit to us. After the. lad died his mother laid the coin away, intending to keep it as a sacred memorial as long as she lived, and did keep it for almost forty years. But it was stolen by a servant. His mother would have rather lost a $20 gold piece than that sacred coin. After we got back from our trip I called on Father Kirk- patrick to give him a few tales of our trip and to tell him about his brothers and sisters, and the great number of nephews and nieces we had met out there, and how anxious they were for him and his wife to go out and make them a 166 EAKLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. visit, and of the kind invitation Gen. Jackson had sent, that if he came to Tennessee again to come and see him. This produced a desire in the old gentleman's heart that he would like to go back to his native state where he had spent his boyhood. So a year after he secured a fine, large horse and carriage and he and his wife made the trip from Can- ton, 111., to Knoxville, Tenn., and back without any mishap or accident. lie went by the Hermitage, but learned be- fore he got there that the old General had died a few weeks before. But he stopped at the grave with reverence for the old hero with whom he had fought many battles against the Indians ; and we may be sure that he paid to his friend and leader the tribute of his tears. CKAPTER TIL CIRCUMSTANCES SURROUNDING ANDREW JACKSOn's MAR- RIAGE. MY VISIT TO THE NOTED BATTLE GROUNDS AT NEW ORLEANS. STORY OF JACKSOn's GREAT VICTORY. SOME HIGH OFFICES TO WHICH HE HAD BEEN APPOINTED. A BRIEF REVIEW OF HIS CHILDHOOD. Xow comes the story of how it happened that Jackson was married twice to the same lady. I will give the cir- cumstances surrounding this remai-kable case, as I learned them from the people of Tennessee when I was there in 1843 J and from his biographies. It was the one event in his long, noble and useful life that gave his enemies a chance to blast his good name and that of his pure and love- ly wdfe These slanders stirred the tiger in him until noth- ing but human blood would quench his hate. They were the cause of most of his many encounters and duels. It is said that for thirty years he kept his pistols ready for in- stant use in defense of his wife's good name. Jackson's wife was a daughter of John Donelson, an old Virginia farmer, who settled five miles from ISTashville in 1780, eight years before Jackson came to Tennessee. ANDKEW JACKSON. 167 Done] son had a family of sons and daughters, and was a man of considerable wealth. He was engaged in raising stock and horses. But one year there came a great drouth that destroyed crops and pastures, and he was compelled to move his family and stock to Mercer county, Ky., 200 miles away, where the drouth had been less severe. AVhile here his daughter Rachel (afterwards Mrs. Jackson) was married to Lewis Robards, who lived with his widowed mother, who at that time was keeping a boarding house; and he took his bride to live with his mother. Boarding with her were some young men, and it was not long until Eobards, being of a jealous disposition, and his bride being very handsome, sprightly and jovial, became very jealous of one of the young men and behaved in such an ungentle- manly manner that her indignation was aroused and she wrote to one of her brothers at ISTashville to come and take her home — her father and family having returned there. And so she left Robards ; but she had only been at home a few weeks when her father, while out surveying, was killed by tlie Indians. But Mrs. Robards continued to live with her mother, and in about six months her hus- band relented and made many apologies for his conduct and begged her to come back and live with him. This she consented to do on his promise that he would there- after treat her with the confidence and respect due a wife ; but she refused to return to Kentucky, as it was sparsely settled and the Indians were very troublesome. So in- stead of her going to Kentucky he came to live with her at I^ashville at her mother's house. While they were all living together Gen. Jackson made his first appearance at ISTashville. Mrs. Donelson occupied one of the largest houses in the place and was keeping boarders, and it so happened that Jackson became one of her boarders with another young lawyer from South Carolina. And here Gen. Jackson first met the charming bride who Avas to figure so prominently thereafter in his o^vn life. They could not very well help getting acquainted while they were living in the same house and eating at the same table. It was not long until the green-eyed monster again seized 168 EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. llobards, and this time it was Gen. J ackson who he thought was paying too much attention to his wife. The result was very scandalous actions on the part of Robards. It grieved the wife terribly, and Gen. Jackson seriously re- monstrated with liobards against his cruel and unjust conduct towards his wife and himself, and Jackson at once sought another boarding house. In great indignation the wife again left her husband and took up her abode with a married sister. Robards soon returned to his former home in Kentucky, and commenced proceedings to secure a divorce. The procedure in such cases at that time will interest the reader. I copy from one of Jack- son's biographies some of the details: " In Virginia iii the olden time if a man convinced of his wife's infidelity desired to be divorced from her he was required to procure from the legislature an act author- izing an investigation of the charge before a jury and pro- nouncing the marriage bond dissolved, providing the jury shall find her g-uilty. In the winter of 1790-91 Lewis Robards of Kentucky, originally part of Virginia, the husband of Rachel Donelson, appeared before the leisla- ture of Virginia with a declaration to the effect that his wife Rachel had deserted him and had lived and was living in adultery with another man, to wit, Andrew Jackson, an attorney at law, whereupon the legislature of Virginia passed an act entitled ' An act concerning the marriage of Lewis Robards,' of which the following is a copy : " ' Be it enacted by the general assembly that it shall and may be lawful for Lewis Robards to sue out of the office of the supreme coiirt of the district of Kentucky a writ against Rachel Robards, which writ shall be framed by the clerk and express the nature of the case, and shall be pu])lished for eight weeks in the Kentucky Gazette, whereujion the plaintiff may file his declaration in the same cause, and the defendant may appear and plead to issue, in which case, or if she does not appear Avithin two months after such publication, it shall be set for trial by the clerk on some dav in the succeeding court, but mav ANDREW JACKSON. 169 for good cause shown to the court be continued until the succeeding term.' " Now after the legislature had passed this act Lewis Ro- bards did go on with a suit against his wife for a divorce, and the charge alleged was of desertion and the living in adultery with Andrew Jackson. The legal notice was given in the Gazette, and Mrs. Robards had read it, but she did not attend court or make any defense as she wished him to get the divorce so she could get rid of him. She could have proven by scores of witnesses in IsTashville that his allegations were false, for all this time she was living with her mother or sister, while Jackson was living at a hotel. Some months after this a company of Kashville people Avas made up to take a trip down the river to ^NTatchez. Among these were Col. Stark and wife, friends of the Donelson family, and Mrs. Robards was asked to go with them, and she did so to visit some friends she had in N^atchez. While there she heard the news that Robards had secured a divorce from her. As soon as Jackson heard the news he took a steamboat for x^atchez and mar- ried Mrs. Robards and took her back to ISTashville. The marriage was on a license and in due form of law. After they had lived happily together for six months the aston- ishing word came to them that the divorce had just been granted, that the first report was a mistake. It was really about two years after Robards had commenced divorce proceedings before the divorce was granted. At that time there were no mails being carried between Hardin county, Kentucky, and jSTashville, and it was difficult to get news from one section to another. Gen. and Mrs. Jackson were greatly shocked when this news came to them. There was but one thing to do. All their friends agi'eed to that. They must procure another license and be married the second time according to the due forms of law. This was done at once. It did not affect their high social position in I^ashville, for all the people knew they had done no intentional wrong. Thereafter inside of six years Gen. Jackson was elected one of the trustees of the Davidson 170 EAKLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. University with the most eminent ministers and other citi- zens as his colleagues; then as a member of Tennessee's first constitutional convention ; then to the lower house of Congress; then to the United States Senate, and finally to be a judge of the Supreme Court of Tennessee. All these high honors and responsibilities came to him within six years after his marriage to Mrs. Kobards, and without protest or criticism as to that act. It was not until the opening of the vile presidential campaign of 1828 that politicians and the newspapers opened the vials of scandal and detraction upon the old hero and his pure and noble wife. The old records were searched and the worst possible construction put upon every act. As I have said in a former article, there were no great national issues in that campaign, but the men were voted for on their records, and this vile abuse was resorted to defeat the old hero of many wars. T will now tell of my visit to the battle-ground of New Orleans, where Gen. Jackson defeated Major Edward Packingham on the 8th of January, 1815, and will de- scribe its appearance, and give some of the circiunstances of the battle as I gleaned them from citizens who lived there in l^ew Orleans at the time. It was in the fall of 1856 that, with my wife and little boy Joseph, I took a trip by river to IN'ew Orleans, and thence by the gulf to Texas. We took a steamer at BroAvn- ing on the Illinois river to St. Louis, and there took an- other steamer for the long river trip down the Mississippi to T^ew Orleans. We stopped there a week, and put up at the Planters' Hotel. I found that the landlord was an old hotel keeper and well acquainted with the older residents of that country, and he found for me a man that was in the city when the battle was fought, to go with me and show me the battlefield, and explain the circumstances connected with it. The battlefield was then about five miles from the city, and hacks were running there every day at fifty cents for the trip. So under this guide we had a good view of the whole situation. A ditch had been dug and breast- ANDREW JACKSON. 171 works thrown up from the Mississippi river a distance of a mile to a low, swampy land. At the time of the battle the ditch contained five feet of water, and the breastworks were from five to six feet high, made from the dirt that was taken out of the ditch. There was also many cotton bales used in building the fortification. When I was there the greater part of the breastworks had been leveled off and the ditch filled up ; but still there was enough left to show its location and how it had been constructed. It appeared that Gen. Jackson had used a great deal of skill and ingenuity in constructing the fortifications to shield his men from the fire of their enemies. On the back side of the breastworks a platform of earth had been con- structed a foot high and five feet wide, upon which the men could step to fire over the works and then step down out of range of the enemies' bullets to reload their guns. From the best information I could get from old citizens and other sources, I have no doubt that in this battle the British forces numbered about 7,000 men, while Jackson's army numbered 5,000. Gen. Jackson had declared martial law at ISTew Orleans because of the many enemies in the city, and he had conscripted some thousand Frenchmen, Creoles, etc., that knew very little about military matters. One singular thing happened at this battle that is worth recording. Packingham had caused to be constructed a supply of ladders and plank platforms to be used in cross- ing the ditch and climbing the earthworks to Jackson's stronghold ; but when the battle commenced and Packing- ham made his assault and came to the ditch, they had for- gotten to bring along those platforms and ladders. So the only way they had of crossing the ditch was for one man to take another on his shoulders and wade through the water that was five feet deep. While they were crossing the ditch in this absurd manner hundreds of them were shot down, and the forces repulsed. A second assault was then made, but with no better success. Then Gen. Packingham made a third attempt to rally his men, leading them himself; but as he came near the ditch he was shot off his horse, one ball going through his arm and another piercing his thigh, and 172 EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. his horse was killed under him. The British army found it impossible to endure such a fire, that had slaughtered them by hundreds at a time, so they gave up the fight and fled. It was found after the battle that over 2,000 British soldiers lay prostrate on the battlefield — 500 dead and 1,500 wounded. Jackson's loss was six men killed and seven wounded. It was the greatest victory ever achieved in the United States, when we take into consideration the fact the battle was fought in less than an hour. I can remember away back in the year 1828, when Gen. Jackson ran for president, that one of the means resorted to to thrill and inspire the hearts of the people was the war songs. At that time they had no brass bands or French horns. The only martial music was the fife and drum, sup- plemented with patriotic songs. One of these was called "The Battle of New Orleans." It described the parts that the Kentucky and Tennessee boys had taken in the battle, and when sung by a dozen or more strong voices it had a most animating effect on the old soldiers and the crowds of people that would gather to listen to them. When I was on the battlefield I was anxious to get some relics to carry home with me. While trying to get a spade to hunt for bullets, etc., I was told that the ground had been dug over so often that I would find nothing. But I met a Dutchman who had many relics of the battle. He had three bullets which he called the "Packingham Balls," which he claimed to have found near the spot where Gen. Packingham was slain. One was a rifle ball, one a large musket ball and the other a grape shot about the size of a black walnut. His supposition was that the rifle ball was the one that had gone through Packingham's arm, that the musket ball was the one that had gone through his thigh and that the large ball had killed his horse. I believed that he was an honest Dutchman and did find the balls on the battlefield, though I did not take much stock in the tale about the balls killing Packingham, although it might have happened. But I thought it would be a good story to tell when I got home, so I paid $2 for the balls. After remaining a week at ISTew Orleans we took boat ANDREW JACKSON. 173 over the gulf for Galveston, Texas, where we remained for a few days, and then went down to Port Lavaca, where I bought a span of ponies and a light carriage, and spent the winter traveling over the country. If a storm, or what is called in Texas a "norther," came up, we would stop a few days at some town or farm house until it was over. It so happened that when we got to Austin, the capital of the state, on the 8th of January, we found the people were hold- ing a grand demonstration in honor of Jackson and the vic- tory of Isew Orleans. I learned that the 8th of January was celebrated as a regular holiday in most of the towns and cities in the state. Here in California the 8th of January has been observed as a public holiday since the state was settled. Here in the City of Oakland we had one of the grandest celebrations January 8th, 1897, that has ever taken place in the city, in honor of Gen. Jackson and his great victory. It was the occasion of the dedication of a fine school house that we had just completed at a cost of $200,000. We were not able to procure a hickory pole large enough to bear the national flag, as hickory timber does not grow wild here as it does in Illinois. But it happened that a family came out from Illinois several years ago and brought with them some hick- ory nuts, one of which was planted in her father's door yard by a little daughter, and it grew to be a fine tree. On the day of the dedication the young lady presented this tree to the school board, and they planted it on the school grounds in honor of "Old Hickory." Many eloquent speeches were made on this occasion, but one of the speakers, after a grand eulogy of Gen. Jackson, declared that after he was elected president he turned every whig out of office and put a democrat in his place, and that no whig could hold an office under his administration. It was a great mistake. I remember that my father, Avho was a strong whig, and did all he could for the election of Adams, soon after the election of 1828 moved to Havana, Illinois, when Jackson appointed him postmaster at that place. He also appointed Abraham Lincoln, another ar- dent whig, to be postmaster at New Salem, in the place of 174 EiVELY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. Samuel Hill, who was a democrat. I knew of many other cases in which Gen. Jackson had appointed whigs to office. The great question with him was, "Is he honest, and is he capable ? " which had more to do with his appointments than the question of politics. The many high and important offices that Gen. Jackson was elected to and appointed to, and some of them at a time when he was quite a young man, will show the confidence and the high regard in which he was held, not only by his own state, but by the whole nation, for he was elected State's Attorney, Judge of the Circuit Court, and also Judge of the Supreme Court of Tennessee, a member of Congress and a United States Senator, all before he was thirty-one years of age. In 1824 he ran for president, his opponents being John Quincy Adams, W. H. Crawford and Henry Clay, and out of 261 electoral votes cast he got 99, Adams 84, Crawford 47 and Clay 37, and in the popular vote he got a majority over Adams of 50,551 votes. JSTeith- er of the candidates having received a majority of all the votes, it "was carried into the House, and by some maneuv- ering Adams was counted in and Jackson counted out. In 1828 he ran again for president against John Quincy Adams, receiving 178 of the electoral votes to Adams 83, and a majority over Adams of the popular vote of 158,134. He ran again in 1832 against Henry Clay, Jackson receiv- ing 218 of the electoral votes and Clay 49, and a majority of the popular vote of 157,313. I must close these sketches of Gen. Jackson with a brief review of his childhood. I have taken great pains to get these interesting facts in a reliable form. Gen. Jackson's parents were Scotch-Irish, coming from the north of Ireland. His father's name was Andrew Jackson ; his mother's, Elizabeth Hutchinson. When they came to America they had two sons, Hugh and Robert. Mrs. J. had three sisters who came with them to America. They settled in the Waxhaw settlement on Waxhaw creek, named for an Indian tribe that occupied that country. It is now Union county, ISTorth Carolina. They settled on ANDKEW JACKSON, 175 a farm as a renter (this was in 1T65), and within two years the father died. The mother then moved in with her brother-in-law, George McCamis, and in a week after the father's death Andrew was born, March 15, 1767. In two months she went with her children to live with another brother-in-law, Thomas Crawford, who had married another sister of hers. This sister was an invalid, and Mrs. Jackson took charge of the family and lived there most of the time nntil her death fifteen years later. Her son Hugh worked for his uncle, McCamis, until the breaking out of the Revolutionary war, when he enlisted as a patriot and soon died of the hardships and privations of army life. Her remaining sons, Robert and Andrew, were not old enough to go into the army, but were called into the service, with many other boys of the settlement, to guard and protect their homes and property against the British soldiers who were making raids upon them, destroying property, stealing horses, etc. All the older men had gone to war, leaving the women and boys to stand guard about their homes. While Robert and Andrew and other boys were thus engaged a company of red-coats came upon them and took them prisoners and marched them oil" to Camden, a British garrison forty miles away. After they had been prisoners a few weeks, Mrs. Jackson, who was a brave and resolute woman, determined that she would go to Camden and try to get her sons released. So she set out for the British garrison on horseback and alone. When she got to the fort she found her two boys in a terri- ble predicament. They had had an encounter with one of the British officers and had been cruelly treated. The officer had ordered Andrew to clean and black his boots, which he refused to do, telling the officer that although he was a prisoner of war, he would not black his boots. The officer struck him on the head with his sword, when Andrew threw up his hands to guard off the blow he received a cut on his arm, and also on the side of his head, the scars of which he carried to his grave. The officer then ordered Robert to clean and black his boots ; he also refused to do it, and the officer knocked him down and beat him terribly. 176 EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. So when Mrs. Jackson found her boys in prison, she found that in addition to their wounds that both had taken the small-pox, which was raging at a terrible rate in the prison. She went to the chief officer and plead for their deliverance, and succeeded in getting them released. She then procured another horse, and they started home on their forty-mile ride. When they got within an hour's ride of their home there came up a dreadful rain that drenched them to the skin. It very greatly aggravated the small-pox, and Robert died a few days after she had gotten him home. Andrew barely escaped death by the kind and careful nursing of his mother. Two months after word came to the settlement from Charleston, S. C, which was then in possession of the Brit- ish army, that great distress and suffering and sickness were prevailing among the American prisoners there. A number of the prisoners were from the Waxhaw settlement, and among them were several of her nephews. Mrs. Jack- son was prevailed upon to go with two other ladies to Charleston with clothing, medicines, etc., for the prisoners, and also to secure, if possible, their release or exchange. So she started with her two friends on the long journey of 150 miles, on horseback; and when they got there they found that the prisoners were confined on a ship, and that the ship fever was prevailing among them. So after min- istering to the wants of the soldiers and doing what they could for their relief, they started on their journey home. They stopped one night at a farm house, when Mrs. Jack- son was taken down with the ship fever contracted while on the ship, and growing worse, died in a few days, and was buried in that locality. It was sad news to take back to An- drew and their friends. ^N^othing could be done about bring- ing back her remains, because it was a long distance, and the weather was hot, and besides that they were poor people. Andrew, at the time of her death, was fifteen years old, and his father, mother, brothers and sisters were all dead. But he continued to live with his uncle, Thomas Crawford, and attended the school in the log school house. The branches taught were reading, writing, geography and arithmetic. ANDKEW JACKSON. 177 His mother had often spoken of her wish to educate him for a Presbyterian minister, and would have tried to do so if she had lived. He often spoke of his good, Christian mother, and with much sorrow of her sad death and burial, for she sacrificed her life for others. When Gen. Jackson was a member of Congress the first time he emjjloyed two men to go and see if they could find his mother's grave, and if so, to remove her body to the place where his father was buried. But the men could not find her grave. There was no stone to mark the spot, and the country had undergone many changes, so that there was no clue to her burial place. It was all the loving and loyal son could do. When he was a candidate for the presidency in 1828, and every vile thing that could be hatched up was told about him, it was said that his wife came into his room one day when he was reading a newspaper, and found him in tears. On her inquiry about what the trouble was, he showed her a paragraj^h in the newspaper stating that his mother had been a washer-woman and filled a pauper's grave. He said to his wife : " I can defend your character and mine ; but when they assail my devoted mother, it almost breaks my heart." There was one grand and noble trait of character in the General that drew people to him with hooks of steel. I was told by men who had been with him in the army how kind and considerate he was to his soldiers. In one of their long marches from Natchez to ITashville, a distance of 500 miles through a wilderness country, the officers, of course, were on horseback, while the soldiers were afoot. Often the Gen- eral would fall back to the rear to look after the sick and disabled soldiers, and it was common for him to dismount and place some sick or lame soldier on his horse, while he trudged along on foot with the men day after day through the miry road, gay and cheerful, inspiring his men with his splendid courage and unselfishness. It was on this long and dreadful march that he got the name of "Hickory." In the first place one of the soldiers remarked : " The gen- eral is tough." Then another said: "He is as tough as ITS EARLY riONEEKS AND EVENTS. hickory.'" Then they commenced to call him " Hickory Jackson," and as he advanced in age, they applied to him the name " Old Hickory," and the honored name followed him to his death. In tracing the life of Gen. Jackson we find many things to admire. In the first place he was born into the world with a good, strong constitution, with good common-sense, and with a good back-bone, so that he was always ready to stand lip for the rights of the people. Bnt the great and crowning glory of his life was his grand and glorious vic- tory at New Orleans with his Kentucky and Tennessee militia, over the renowned Major-General Sir Edward Packingham of the British army with his chosen and well- drilled soldiers. No doubt the General, in looking over that battlefield, strewn with the bodies of 2,000 enemies slain and woTmded, while his loss w^as but five killed and seven wounded, must have felt something of exultation over the foe that had so cruelly treated him and his brothers and caused the death of his beloved mother. General Jackson's parents were Scotch-Irish Presbyteri- ans, and he inherited their reverence for religion and for ministers. He was always a generous contributor to the church and religious institutions. Previous to his wife's death he gave her a solemn promise that he would imite with the church and live a Christian's life. This promise he complied with about five years before his death. He united with the Presbyterian church, and was asked to ac- cept the office of ruling elder, but declined the office. He said : "' I am too young in the church for such an office. My countrymen," he said, '' have given me high honors, but I should esteem the office of ruling elder in the church of Jesus Christ a far higher honor than any I have ever re- ceived." He was strongly attached to his slaves, and in his will he distributed them among his wife's relatives, so that they should not be sold outside the family. But the time came for him to die. His faculties were clear and bright up to ANDREW JACKSON. 179 the hour of his death. He called his family and servants about his bed and said he wanted to meet them all in Heaven, black and white. He said he was ready and pre- pared to go, that death was only the dark pathway opening into a blessed and endless life. The funeral sermon was preached by Rev. Dr. Edgar, of ]N'ashville, from the text, " These are they which came out of great tribulation and washed their robes white in the blood of the Lamb." It was the largest funeral ever knov^oi in ISTashville, except that of his beloved wife. This country has had few men honored and beloved by the masses of the people as was Gen. Jackson. For many long years will his noble deeds and sacrifices and his sacred memory be cherished deep down in the hearts of a grateful country and a generous people. Ipeter Cattwdgbt CHAPTER I. MK. CARTWKIGHt's SUCCESSFUL EFFORTS TO DEFEAT SLAV- ERY. HIS REMOVAL TO ILLINOIS IN 1824. When Peter Cartwright came from Kentucky to Sanga- mon county in 1823 and bought a farm seven miles west of Springfield, he found the people greatly agitated (as I have said in a former letter) over the question whether Illinois should be a slave or free state. An election to settle the question was called for the first Monday in August, 1824. He had left Kentucky to get away from slavery, and it was natural, with his combative disposition, that he should go into the battle for freedom with all his soul and might. He thoroughly canvassed the counties of Sangamon and Morgan, making speeches against slavery in all the churches and schoolhouses, or wherever he could get an audience. At that time there were but thirty counties in the state, and Sangamon and Morgan were the two northern counties on the east side of the Illinois river. Pike and Fulton were the only counties on the west side of the river. Ful- ton was the extreme northern county, taking in Fort Clark (now Peoria) and Galena and Chicago. There was at that time in Fulton county a man who perhaps did as much to defeat slavery as did Mr. Cart- wright or any other man in Illinois. His name was Os- sian M. Ross. He thoroughly canvassed the counties of Fulton and Pike. He was a Quaker, and the Quakers were bitterly opposed to human slavery. He went into the conflict with all his might, and never ceased until the votes were counted and the battle of freedom won. I be- lieve there was more credit due him and Peter Cartwright PETER CARTWKIGHT. 181 for carrying the state against slavery than any other two men in Illinois. Following is the vote on that question. The vote of Morgan, Sangamon, Pike and Fulton will show how well they succeeded. THE VOTE ON SLAVERY. For. Against. Alexander 75 51 Bond 63 240 Clark 32 116 Crawford 134 262 Edgar 3 234 Edwards 186 371 Fayette 125 121 Franklin 170 113 Fulton 5 60 Gallatin 596 133 Greene 134 405 Hamilton 173 86 Jackson 180 93 Jefferson 90 43 Johnson 74 74 Lawrence 158 261 Madisou 351 58 Marion 45 53 Montgomery 74 99 Monroe 171 196 Morgan 43 555 Pike 23 261 Pope 275 124 Randolph 357 184 Sangamon 153 722 St. Clair 427 543 Union 213 240 Washington 112 173 Wayne 189 111 White 355 326 Total 4950 6822 Majority against slavery 1872 182 EA.RLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. After Mr. Cartwright had finished his fight against slavery he returned to Kentucky to finish his preparations for removal to Illinois. In the fall of 1824 he started with two wagons dra\^Ti by horses for his new home in the wilderness of Illinois. They met with some sad misfor- tunes on the road. At one time one of the wagons was overturned, seriously injuring one of his daughters. While encamped one night in the great forest a tree fell upon another daughter, crushing her to death. They had to carry the mangled body twenty miles before they could procure a coffin and give the child decent burial. When they arrived at their new home Mr. Cartwright found that the election had gone to his satisfaction. ]^ot- withstanding slavery had been voted down by the decisive majority of 1,872 votes, the slavery party was not anni- hilated. They pretended to believe that their vote had not all turned out, and hoped that they might win in another election. They had a large majority in both branches of the legislature, and were determined to secure another election. It was true that Edward Coles, an anti-slavery man, had been elected governor ; but there had been four candidates, and the slavery vote had been divided, causing Coles to be elected by a small majority. In the early settlement of Illinois the southern part of the state was settled first, and mainly by people from the slave states. These people brought with them their slave laws, slave prejudices, and many of them also brought their slaves. They found that many of the staple products of the South, such as hemp, tobacco and cotton, could be raised in southern Illinois, and they believed that these products could not be profitably raised without slave labor. There was another condition that influenced the people to favor slavery: About that time a tremendous emigration was pouring through southern Illinois into Missouri from Vir- ginia and Kentucky. In the fall of the year every great road was crowded with these movers in long trains of teams, and with their negroes, and with plenty of money. They were the wealthiest and best educated emigrants from the slave states. The early settlers of Illinois saw PETER CART WRIGHT. 183 it all and with gi'eat envy for Missouri's good fortune. The lordly emigrant as he passed along with his droves of negroes and piles of money took malicious delight in adding to the unrest by pretending to regret the short- sighted policy of Illinois which excluded him by declaring against the institution of slavery. This gave the people of southern Illinois a strong desire to hold another elec- tion, hoping that slavery might be voted in. And so the agitation w^as kept up from year to year. The same infamous old " black laws " were still on the statute book, and many negroes were held in slavery, espe- cially in the southern counties along the Ohio and Missis- sippi rivers. They were hemmed in by slave states, Ken- tucky on the southeast and Missouri on the west. So the sentiment w^as strong for slavery. There were but few men in the legislature who dared oppose these bad laws or slavery. 1{ would have been a very unpopular if not dangerous step. Then there was great fear of being called an '' abolitionist," the most odious epithet that in those times could be applied to a man. But in 1828 there was to be an election for representa- tives, and the friends of free territory prevailed upon Mr. Cartwright to become a candidate, and he was elected without much opposition from the northern counties. He believed that he could for a few^ months serve his God and his country as acceptably in the general assembly as in preaching the gospel. By this time the northern counties were settling up with people from the East, and the tide turned forever against the friends of slavery. Mr. Cartwright with the help of other members of the legislature was able to have some of the infamous " black laws " repealed and excellent laws enacted in their stead. It was a grand and noble work. I may have more to say on this subject in a later sketch. 184 EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS, CHAPTEE II. MK. CAKTWEIGHT AS A GREAT PREACHER AND A GREAT ORGANIZER. THE JACKSONVILE ORDINANCE AND HOW- MR. CARTWRIGHT ASSISTED IN ITS ENFORCEMENT. When Peter Cartwright came to Illinois in 1824, and settled seven miles east of Springfield, at what was after- wards known as Pleasant Plains, he found the country very sparsely settled. Sangamon county at that time extended north as far as the northern part of the state, the settle- ments were few and far between and there was not a church wdthin the boundaries of the county. Springfield was a small village, and the only place they had for public wor- ship was a small frame school house, but in about a year after Mr. Cartwright came to that place the Methodist and Presbyterian congregations joined in building a small brick church, which was the first brick building erected in Spring- field. The two congregations used this building alternate- ly for two years, when the Methodists sold out their interest in the property and built for themselves a frame church much larger in size. Mr. Cartwright possessed too much of a missionar}^ spir- it, however, to settle down in one place. He looked upon the whole state of Illinois as his field of labor, and would travel from place to place, organizing a church and Sunday school wherever he could find a few families gathered to- gether, and preaching in the homes of the people and in log school houses. But his great forte in carrying on his mis- sionary and evangelical work was his campmeetings. He would hold ten-day campmeetings in every part of the country, and ]:)eople would flock from miles around to at- tend them. My. Cartwright was not only a great preacher, but it might be said of him, as of Lincoln, that he was a born leader. He was a great organizer, and had held the office of ]iresiding elder ever since he was twenty-two years old. PETER CAET WEIGHT. 185 He had a most excellent control over his members, and would allow no drones in his camp. In those primitive times it was not considered necessary that a teacher of re- ligion should be a scholar. It was thought to be his busi- ness to preach from a knowledge of the Scriptures and the guiding and controlling influence of the Holy Spirit. Their wonderful success at those meetings might be attrib- uted to the earnestness and zeal with which they pictured the blessings of Heaven and the awful torments of the wick- ed in fire and brimstone. They believed with certainty that they saw the souls of wicked men rushing headlong to perdition, and they stepped forward to warn and to save Avith all the self-devotion of a generous man who risks his own life to save that of a drowning neighbor. And to these earnest, Christian people are we indebted for the spread of the protestant religion through Illinois at that early day. At many of those campmeetings there would be from 200 to 300 conversions. In 1832 the democratic party again brought out Peter Cartwright for the legislature. He was a farmer as well as a preacher, and Avas very popular with the fanners. He had also given good satisfaction in the legislature, to which he was elected in 1828, having been instrumental in repealing several of the obnoxious laws which had disgraced the state, and the people wanted to send him back. This time he defeated Abraham Lincoln. When he was in the legislature he had two prohibition laws enacted. One was that no saloon or drinking house should be permitted within one mile of Jacksonville, and was known as the " Jacksonville Ordinance." The Jacksonville college had been established, and was then the only college in the state. The other prohibitive law was that no saloon or drinking house should be erected or permitted to run within one mile of a eampmeeting. Mr. Cartwright had an oppor- tunity to assist in enacting this latter law in Fulton county in 1833. He had erected a eampmeeting on the west side of Canton, near where the old Methodist church stood. There was then a handsome .grove of timber standing there. They had got their shed and preacher's stand put up and 186 EARLY PIONEEES AND EVENTS. everything in order for the meeting when a man from Can- ton set lip a huckster's stand with cigars, tobacco, and all kinds of ardent spirits within a few rods of the camp- grounds. Mr. Cartwright went to him and told him he wonld have to move his drinking establishment, as it was against the law to sell liquor within a mile of a campmeet- ing. The man told him he had plenty of friends to back him and he would continue to sell, so Cartwright swore out a warrant for his arrest and had him taken before Esquire Stillman for trial. A young lawyer in Canton defended the prisoner, while Cartwright prosecuted the case. The court imposed a fine of $10, which the huckster said he would not pay, so the necessary papers were made out com- mitting him to the county jail. But the man defied the constable, telling him that he could not find men enough in Canton to take him. The constable was completely cowed, as he was afraid of the man's friends who had promised to protect him, but Mr. Cartwright told the constable to sum- mons him and two of his church members and they would take him. One of the churchmen went into the woods and cut a stout hickory cane for each of the three, and they hoisted the man on a horse and started for Lewistown. He believed that his friends would rescue him from the ofiicers and kept looking back every few miles to see if they were coming, but they never made their appearance, and when they got in sight of Lewistown the man gave up all hope and paid his fine. They all turned back for Canton, but that put a stop to setting up saloons near campmeetings in Fulton county. At the close of this campmeeting Mr. Cart- wright reported that ninety persons had been soundly con- verted and among them were some of the hard cases about Canton. PETER CARTWRIGHT. 187 CHAPTEK III. THE NAME OF PETER CARTWRIGHT EAMILIAR THROUGH- OUT THE STviTE. HIS EFFORTS TO DRIVE OUT THE MOR- MONS. GRAND OVATION TENDERED HIM JN 1869. HIS LABORS AT EIGHTY-SIX YEARS OF AGE. ^AN INCIDENT OF HIS LAST MISSIONARY'^ TOUR. The career of Peter Cartwi*iglit lias been one of the most remarkable and eventful known in the history of the great northwest. There was scarcely a town or village or city in Illinois where the name of Peter Cartwright was not familiar. He had been for sixty-five years an ef- fective itinerant Methodist preacher, not having lost six months' labor in that long period of time. During that period he served as presiding elder fifty years. He had wonderful powers of oratory, and often at his campmeet- ings there would be 200 to 300 conversions under his preaching. He first visited that section of country between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers in 1827. He crossed the Illinois river at Beardstown, and traveled across the coun- try to Atlas on the Mississippi river, that town then being the county seat of Pike county. He there found some ten or twelve families, and among them were three brothers, William, John and Leonard Ross. They had laid out the to^vn of Atlas. They came from the state of ]^ew York. They had bought up considerable land in that vicinity. Mr. Cartwright stopped with William Ross over night and attended a campmeeting that was held ten miles from Atlas, which was the first campmeet- ing held in Pike county. The same fall he held a camp- meeting in Schuyler county, near Rushville. He came into Fulton county, stayed at my father's house in Lewis- town over night, and preached that evening in the log courthouse at Lewistovni. He went from there to Canton, 188 EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. where he attended a campmeeting that was held in a beau- tiful grove of timber on the west side of Canton. That was the second campmeeting that was held in the county. After the campmeeting was over he took a trip up into the Rock riA^er country that was then settled with Indians. His great and sympathetic heart went out for the good and welfare of the poor Indians, as well as for the white people. He believed that civilizing and Christianizing them was far better than fighting them. He was instru- mental in having his church establish a mission among the Pottawattomie Indians, which was located on Rock river ; and it might truthfully be said that he was the first missionary that labored among those wild Indians. He was appointed superintendent of the mission and con- ducted it with much ability until the Indians were driven out of the country during the Black Hawk war. Mr. Cartwright was always in politics a democrat of the Andrew Jackson stamp. Pie was twice elected a mem- ber of the Illinois legislature, his opponent at one time being Abraham Pincoln, who ran on the Whig ticket. That party being in the majority in his district at the time, Mr. Lincoln was elected by a small majority. < Mr. Cartwright was a descendant of a loyal and patriotic ancestry, his father having served for two and one-half years in the War of the Revolution for American Inde- pendence ; and when the War of the Rebellion in the south took place, and Mr. Lincoln called for volunteers, Mr. Cartwright rushed to Springfield and hoisted the American flag on the top of the Methodist church in that city, and used all of his influence to put down the Rebel- lion. Mr. Cartwright, who had labored so heroically when he first came to Illinois to prevent the planting of the insti- tution of slavery on the soil of that state, found, after he had lived in the state about twenty years, that an effort was being made to plant another institution over the state which he regarded as being almost as pernicious and vile as that of slavery, and that was Mormonism, which in- cluded polygamy, and his righteous indignation was PETER CARTWBIGHT. 189 aroused to the highest pitch. For the Mormons, who had been driven out of Missouri for their bad conduct, had crossed the Mississippi and had spread themselves over several of the counties in Illinois, and their preachers and elders traveled through every town and neighborhood and were very zealous in propagating their doctrines and win- ning over converts to their religion ; and they also took an active part in the politics of the times, and at all elections they cast their votes as a unit ; and in some of the counties they had elected some of their elders to seats in the legis- lature and to fill county otfices. So Peter Cartwright got after the Mormons with all the power and might that he possessed, and did much to check their pernicious and mis- chievous conduct in many localities. After Mr. Cartwright had been elected the fiftieth time as a presiding elder, his church, which convened in con- ference at Quincy in 1868, passed a resolution that at their next conference, that was to be held at Lincoln in 1869, that a grand ovation, or a kind of jubilee, should be given him in honor of his fifty years' service as presid- ing elder. At that conference a very large number of ministers were present — the largest that had ever before assembled in Illinois. Also a number of ministers came from other states to pay their homage and respect to the gTand old veteran. Rev. I. P. ISTewman came all the way from Washington City to see him. Many eloquent speeches were made, many letters of congratulations were read, and many handsome and costly presents were given him. Among the letters read were notable ones from Ex- Governors Richard Yates and R. J. Oglesby. In Gov- ernor Yates' letter, among the many good things he had to say about the old elder, was the following : " During the war, when the governor of the state need- ed the support of all good men in the union cause, he felt cheered and strengthened by the earnest approval and strong influence of Peter Cartwright." 190 EARLY PIOiVEEES AND EVENTS. In Gov. Oglesby's letter he said : '' For as long as I can remember, the name of Peter Cart- Avrig'ht has been a household word in our western country. Bold, honest, earnest and untiring, he has stood on the frontier of advancing civilization to proclaim the truth of God and history. It is the completion of his semi-centen- nial eldership of your church. A jubilee such as this can come to few men. Few are favored with such length of life in which to do good for mankind.'' At the jubilee conference Gov. Oglesby sent to the com- mittee a beautiful and magnificent chair with his compli- ments, as follows: " I Avill thank you to present the chair sent to your care to Elder Cartwright, and request that he will accept it as a testimonial of friendship and respect, upon which, in the weary days of an honorable old age, he may occasionally be seated to rest from his labors. " R. J. Oglesby.'''' At the time of the jubilee conference Elder Cartwright was eighty-four years of age, though he lived to his eighty- seventh year, and his wife lived to the age of eighty-six. They lived together as husband and wife for sixty-four years. They had nine children (two sons and seven daugh- ters), fifty grandchildren, thirty-seven great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandson. Three of their daughters married traveling Methodist Episcopal ministers, two of whom had been presiding elders ; and all of their children, and many of their grandchildren and great-grandchildren, were members of the Methodist Episcopal church. After the jubilee conference was over, in 1869, Mr. Cart- wright concluded that he would retire from further labors and spend the balance of his days with his wife on their beautiful farm at Pleasant Plains where they had lived for forty years. The old elder stood it bravely for six months, and then he became restless and uneasy, and his old pro- pensity and desire for preaching and the distribution of PETEE CARTWKIGHT. 191 religions books and tracts came back npon him so that he conld stand leisure and idleness no longer. So he packed a carpet-sack with religious literature and started off on a missionary tour. He traveled through several of the states and territories, and on his return he said the fol- lowing : "• I will furnish a brief statement of my labors during this year. I have dedicated eight churches, preached at seventy-seven funerals, addressed eight schools, baptized twenty adults and fifty children, married five couples, re- ceived fifteen into the church on probation and twenty-five into full connection; have raised $25 missionary money; have donated $20 for new churches, written 112 letters, received in donations $50, and for my lectures and sermons $700 ; for traveling expenses $650, and sold $200 worth of books.'' ]^ow that was certainly a good account of stewardship for a year's labor by a man that was eighty-six years of age. Mr. Cartwright, on his return from his last year's mis- sionary tour, had many circumstances and incidents of very great interest to relate, and I will relate one of them : He had taken his seat in the cars one day when a lady came and introduced herself to him, stating that he had baptized her when she was a child, and that then she had a large family, who were with her in the cars ; that they were moving to a distant part of the country, away from church privileges, and she wanted him to baptize her family. When the con- ductor came into the car he told him that this lady desired him to baptize her children, and asked him if he would allow him the privilege. The conductor told him that there were a great many passengers on the cars who were in a hurry to get through, and he could not stop the train. He told the conductor that if he would grant him the priv- ilege he could baptize them if his train was running at lightning speed. The conductor told him to go ahead ; and when water was brought he baptized the family and sent- them on their way rejoicing ; and he would gladly have bap- 192 EARLY PIONEERS Al P EVENTS. tized the whole ear-load if they .d beei fit subjects for baptism. There are few ministers, if ai ", that . lived in the last century that can show such a 'record of long and faith- ful service in the Christian faith ; and for many long years will his noble deeds and sacrifices be remembered and his sacred memory be cherished deep down in the hearts of a grateful country and a generous people. It would be right and proper that a monument should be erected to his sacred memory, the same as has been done over the grave of the noble Lincoln. MY 4UT( JGRA HY BRIEFLY SKETCHED. MY ANCESTORS, THE ROSS AKD EEE FAMILIJC^S. — -TIIEIIi DE- SCENDANTS AND SOME OF THETK DEEDS. THE JOUKNEY OF MY FAMTI,Y FROM NEW YORK TO ILLINOIS. SOME OF MY EA.RLY PERSONAL ADVENTURES. MY MARRIAGE TO JANE R. KIRKPATRICK, JANUARY IST, 1840, MY PER- SONAL WORK IN THE EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF THE COUNTRY. T]IE OFFICES I[ELD AND MY WORK AS A DEL- EGATE TO THE NATIONAL PROHIBITION CONVENTION IN THE YEAR 1884. THE SIXTY YEARS OF MY MEMBERSHIP IN THE PRESBYTERIAN ClIURCH. In closing mv pioneer history of Fulton county, I thought that it would be proper and right for me to give a short biographical sketch of my own life and also of some of my ancestors, as some of my children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren might have the curiosity to know something about their genealogy, and where their ancestors came from, and I will therefore give such genealogy as far as I have been able to trace it back to the Ross and the Lee families. My_great-grandfatlier, Zebulon Ross, came from Scot- land to America, and settled in Dutchess county, ISTew York, in the year 1728, and died in the same county at the age of ninety years. He had a son, Joseph Ross, who was mar- ried to Abigail Lee, a daughter of Thomas Lee. Thomas Lee Avas a soldier in the Revolutionary War, and it was after him that the Lee part of my name was given me, which is Harvey Leo Ross. My grandmother, Abigail Lee Ross, came to Illinois in 1824, and died at my father's house in Havana, Hlinois, in 1834. T have often heard her tell of her father, Thomas Lee, being a soldier in the Revolutionary War. Thomas Lee's ancestors came from Enaland to America about the 194 EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. middle of the seventeenth century. There were two branches of the Lee family, one of which branches settled in the state of iSTew York and the other in the state of Vir- ginia. Both branches came from the same original stock. Their ancestors had held jDositions of honor and trust in the old coimtry, and some of those Avho settled in l^ew York and Virginia occupied prominent places in the col- onial history of America, in the state legislatures, and in the councils of the nation. Joshua Lee, brother of Thomas Lee, was for many years a member of the !N^ew York State Senate. One of the Virginia branch, Kichard Henry Lee, drew up and submitted to C^ongress the resolution of Jime 7th, 1776, declaring that the United Colonies of America are and ought to be free and independent states ; that they absolved themselves from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and Great Britain is and ought to be totally absolved, which resolution was adopted by the Continental Congress. Both Richard Llenrv Lee and his brother, Francis Lightfoot Lee, were members of the Continental Congress and sigiiers of the Declaration of Independence. Thomas Lee, the father of Abigail Lee, was born in Fishkill, Xew York, ^NTovember 15th, 1739, and died at Penn Yan, Xew York, January 22nd, 1814. His wife, ]\tattie Sherman, was born in 1743, and died October 14th, 1833. Thomas Lee and ]\[attie Sherman were married in 1760, and had ten children. Their oldest daughter, Abigail Lee, was born in 1760, and married Joseph Ross. Joseph Boss and Abigail Lee had born to them the fol- lowing children : Joseph, Ossian M., Matthias, Thomas I^., John ISr., Eliza, ]\raria and Sallie. Ossian ]\[. Boss was born in Dutchess county, Xew York, August 16th, 1790, and died at Havana, Illinois, in 1837. His wife, ^Fary Winans, was born in 'New Jersey, April 1st, 1793, and died at Peoria, Illinois, in 1875. Ossian ^r. Boss and Mary ^"^^inans were married in Seneca county. Xew York, July 7th, 1811. There was born to them the AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR. 195 following children : Lewis W., Harriet M., Harvey Lee, Leonard F., Lucinda C. and Pike C. Eoss. The services of Thomas Lee in assisting in the establish- ment of American independence during the war of the Revolution were as folloAvs : He was second lieutenant of Captain Jack Rosekrance's company, Col. Jack Holmes, fourth regiment, Xew York Continental line, 28th of June, 1775 ; promoted first lieutenant, August 3rd, 1775. He was captain of the eighth company, fifth regiment, I^ew York Continental line, commanded by Col. Louis Du Bois, November 21st, 1770 ; resigned May 19th, 1778. He was also captain in Col. Zepharriah Piatt's regiment of N^ew York Associated Exempts, October 19th, 1779. He was also captain in Col. Jjouis Du Bois' regiment of ]^ew l^ork militia, July 1st, 1780. (References, pages 140, 231, 257, 285 and 529 of Vol. 1, "'New York in the Revolution," or Vol. 15 of the published " Docu- ments Relating to the Colonial LEistory of the State of New- York," published by Reed, Parsons & Co., Albany, New York, 1887. Also page 261 of " Heitman's Register of Officers of the Continental Army," published by H. B. Heitman, at AVashington, D. C.) Captain Thomas Lee's services in the Continental army were equivalent to ser- vice in the regular army of to-day. In regard to my own life, I will say that I was born in Seneca county. New Y^'ork, October 10th, 1817, and came with my parents to wdiat is now known as Fulton county, Hlinois, in 1821. We came down the Ohio river and up the Mississippi and Illinois rivers in a keel boat. The country at that time was a vast wilderness, inhabited only by Indians and abounding ^vith wild animals. It was several years after we came to Illinois before the country became sufficiently settled to establish schools, and I had little opportunity in the years of myyouth to obtain an education. What education I did get was obtained at the little log schoolhouses, though in 1836, when I was nineteen years of age, my father sent me to Illinois College, at Jacksonville, Illinois. I had attended college scarcely a year when my father died. Lie had been engaged in extensive business 196 EARLY PIONEERS AND EVENTS. enterprises, and in conseqnence of liis deatli I was obliged to leave school and come home and take charge of my mother's bnsiness, which put an end to my college life. When I entered Illinois College I took in with me as college chum, William IL Herndon, who for many years was the law partner of Abraham Lincoln, and who was the author of the book entitled " Life of Abraham Lincoln, by W. 11. Hern- don." I have had something to say of this book in my sketch of the early life of Lincoln. My father was engaged for many years in farming, and in the mercantile business, and in trading with the Indians, and the early part of my life was spent on the farm, in the store, and in trading with the Indians. 1 would often take long trips into the country, far away from any white neighbors, in company wdth Indian traders, whom my father kept employed, and I then learned to speak the Indian language quite welL I at a very early age learned the use of firearms, and was very often out hunting and trapping, as the country in those times abounded in wild game. Great droves of deer and large flocks of wild tur- keys could be found everywhere. I have shot wild turkeys Avhen but seven years of age, and have killed deer when twelve years old. I can remember catching eight wolves in steel traps set around the carcass of one dead horse, when I was but twelve years of age. In 1832, when I was fifteen years of age, I carried the mail on horseback, once a week, from Springfield to INIonmouth, Illinois, the distance being about 135 miles. I frequently had to swim my horse over streams of water three or four times a day, there being no bridges, with the mailbag strapped across my shoulders to keep the mail from getting wet. I will mention one of my adventures. I was traveling from Monmouth to Knox- ville, the distance being twenty miles, and not a house was there between the two villages. A dark and rainy night came on, when I was ten niiles from Knoxville, and when I had reached the place where the city of Galesburg now stands the grass was very high in the road, and all of a sud- den I heard a hungry pack of wolves set up a tremendous howling right behind my horse, and from the noise AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR. 197 they made I supposed tliat the "whole country was alive with wolves, so I applied the whip to my horse, and was not long in getting to Knoxville, and I probably made as good time on horseback as the railroad trains are making at the present time. In the year 183o, wlien I was sixteen years of age, I took a trip from Havana, in ]\Iason county, Illi- nois, to what was called the '' Lead Mine Country " in the northwestern part of Illinois, a distance of about 2-5 miles. The gTeater part of the road ran through an unbroken wilderness. In many places the white settlers were from fifteen to twenty-five iniles apart. There were many deep and dangerous streams of w^ater to cross, and it was cer- tainly a long and dangerous trip for a boy to take alone and on horseback. I found numy Indians on the road, and sometimes stayed with them over night, and always found them kind and friendly. The cause of mv taking the trip at that time was this : My micle, Joseph Ross, had some three years before gone to the lead mines, taking with him his only child, my cousin Ossian, a boy about five years of age. ]\Ly uncle was taken sick and died, leaving this boy with strangers, and no one to look after him, and so I went there and brought him home with me. He at the time of this trip was only eiglit years of age. I was some twenty days in making the trip, and w^e got home all in good shape. One of the first business enterprises I engaged in after I became of age was to purchase an interest in a steamboat, called the ^N^avigator, which ran from St. Louis, Missouri, to La Salle on the Illinois river. I held the position on her of steamboat clerk. After running on her for a year, I sold out my interest, and then took a wife. I was married on the 1st day of January, IS-tO, to ffane R. Kirkpatrick at Canton, Illinois. Upon our marriage wo went to Havana, Illinois, and there kept the Havana Hotel, and also the ferry across the Illinois river, and we engaged in farming and stockraising. I Avas later appointed post- master at Havana, Illinois, by Presidgnt jNTartin Van Bureu. In 1844 I removed to and settled on a farm of forty acres adjoining the town of Vermont in Fulton county, Illinois, and as I had never learned a trade, nor 198 EARLY PIONEEKS AND EVENTS. Studied for auy profession, I had to rely on my hands and head for a living in the world. I settled down on my lit- tle farm and went to work, and planted out a fine orchard, which in after years yielded me from eight to ten thousand bushels of fruit a year. I added to my little farm from time to time, until I had a farm of 400 acres, all well im- proved. I also engaged in buying lands and improving them, and selling them to such emigrants as came to the country and wished to purchase improved farms. I con- tinued in that business until I had became the purchaser and had disposed of six farms in Fulton county and four- teen farms in McDonough county, Illinois, and those farms are at the present time among the very best in those two counties. T have good reason to believe that I have had a greater number of acres of land broken up and put in cultivation than any other man that has ever lived in McDonough county. I only mention these facts to show- that I have not been an idler or drone in the great hive of human progress, but have taken some part in helping to de- velop the great resources of the country. My principal occupation through life has been that of a farmer, although I engaged in the mercantile business in connection with my farming operations for about ten years. I have never been an office seeker, and have had but little desire to hold office, although I have held a few small offices. I have held the office of town councilman, town treasurer, supervisor, justice of the peace and postmaster. I was twice elected treasurer and director of a railroad. I have usually voted the Democratic ticket, but when I came to California, in 1881, I attended the Democratic State Con- vention, and found that a large majority of the delegates to the convention were saloonkeepers and wholesale liquor dealers, and that the prominent questions which came before the convention were the repeal of the Sunday law, which was then the law of the state of California, and the enactment of laws in the interests of liquor dealers, so I left the Democratic party and joined the Prohibition party. And at the State Prohibition Convention, in 188-1, I was selected as a delegate to the ISTational Prohibition Conven- AUTOBIOGKAPHY OF THE AUTHOR. 199 tioii that Avas held in the city of Pittsburgh in 1884, at which convention the Hon. John P. St. John was nom- inated foi- president. At that convention twenty-eight states and three territories w^ere represented by 465 dele- gates. It was at this convention that I first had the oppor- tunity and the pleasure of seeing and hearing that grand and noble lady, Miss Frances E. Willard. She placed in nomination for president John P. St. John, and on that occasion she made one of the most eloquent and powerful speeches that was heard during the convention. I felt a little honored in being chosen with her on the committee that drafted the platform and resolutions which w-ere unanimously adopted by the convention, I have been a member of some temperance organization for over half a century. I have never indulged in the use of liquor nor tobacco in any form, and during the more than eighty years of my life 1 do not think that: I ever had to exceed more tlian five days of sickness, and I attribute my good health and length of years very materially to abstaining from the use of liquor and tobacco. My wife and I lived together lacking but tlirce days of fifty-eight years. There were born to us six children, four sons and two daughters. Our first child, Ossian, died when eighteen months old. All my other children are married and have families. They are Harriet S. Hall, Frank W. Koss, Mary F. Childs, George C. Ross and Joseph Ij, Ross. I have twelve grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. I have been a member of the Presbyterian church for sixtyyears. Iwas convertedim- der the preaching of the Rev. Dr. David I^^elson, at a Pres- byterian campmeeting held near the town of Canton, Illi- nois, in 1838. I first joined the Presbyterian church, at Canton, Illinois, in 1838. I have been a member of the Presbyterian church at Vermont, Illinois, and also of the Presbyterian church at Macomb, Illinois. I held the office of ].residing elder in each of tliose churches, and have represented each of them in presbytery. I am at the pres- ent time a niend>er