"LI B R.ARY OF THE UNIVERSITY Of ILLINOIS B F9823C 1968 111. Hist. burv. Funk of Funk's Grove By HELEN M. CAVANAGH This special edition was issued by The Illinois State Historical Society Springfield, Illinois 1968 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign http://archive.org/details/funkoffunksgroveOOcava osa^C FUNK OF FUNK'S GROVE Farmer, Legislator and Cattle King of the Old Northwest 1797-1865 HELEN M. CAVANAGH Bloomington, Illinois Pantagraph Printing Co. 1952 Copyright 1952 HELEN M. CAVANAGH All rights reserved Printed in the U.S.A. o Contents Preface 3 Chapter I — Westward Migration of the Funk Family 9 Chapter II — Pioneer of the Prairie at Funk's Grove 16 Chapter III - Cattle King 44 Chapter IV — Law-Maker from Sugar Creek 86 Chapter V — Rails Across the Prairie . . 100 Chapter VI — The Land Acquisition . . 121 Chapter VII - Men and Events 1850-60 Slavery, Territories and Politics 135 Chapter VIII — Agriculturist as Supervisor and State Senator .... 160 Appendix 191 Bibliography 195 Index 205 iu List of Illustrations Isaac Funk (from a contemporary engrav- ing) Frontispiece Marker on the site of Isaac Funk's first log cabin 26 Isaac Funk's second residence, 1832, and addi- tion, 1836 27 Isaac Funk's third residence, 1841-42, addition to second cabin, 1836 27 Isaac Funk's fourth residence, 1864 ... 34 Marker on the site of first school house in Funk's Grove 42 The Church near the cemetery in the Grove . 43 The cattle market in Chicago ( 1868) ... 50 Type of pure bred cattle in McLean County . 58 "Miracle" a descendant of the horse ridden by Isaac Funk 64 "Marsh Cattle" raised by Isaac Funk ... 78 Funk's Grove Timber 114 Map of Isaac Funk's early land holdings . . 122 Circular issued by Illinois Central Railroad 127 Early views of Chicago 154 Reprint of Funk's speech in Illinois Senate . 172 Isaac Funk and Cassandra Funk .... 186 V To My Parents The Prairies! I behold them for the first. And my heart swells, while the dilated sight Takes in the encircling vastness. Lo! they stretch In airy undulations, far away, As if the ocean in his gentlest swell, Stood still, with all his rounded billows fixed, And motionless forever — Motionless? No — they are all unchained again. The clouds Sweep over with their shadows, and beneath The surface rolls and fluctuates to the eye: Dark hollows seem to glide along, and chase The sunny ridges. From The Prairies William Cullen Bryant Preface Isaac Funk has been recognized in many ways for leadership in early grain and live-stock activities from the time of his pioneer settlement at Funk's Grove in 1824 until his death in 1865. Then he had become one of the forceful spokesmen for agricul- tural interests in central Illinois. Short accounts of his life and occasional references are available. No biographical study of his participation in the eco- nomic and political development of the Old North- west as he expanded his crop raising and stock feed- ing interests has heretofore been undertaken. He was honored in 1913 as one of the illustrious agricul- tural leaders in Illinois whose portraits appeared in the Farmers Hall of Fame at the University of Illi- nois. Among those also chosen were Cyrus Hall McCormick, inventor of the reaper; James N. Brown, first president of the Illinois State Fair; Jonathan B. Turner, father of Agricultural Colleges and Experi- mental Stations; Philip D. Armour, developer of cen- tral livestock markets; Benjamin F. Harris, successful farmer livestock breeder and William Parlin, pioneer manufacturer of agricultural implements. As one of the well known early cattle men Isaac Funk has also received recognition. His portrait appears in the Gallery of the Saddle and Sirloin Club of the Union Stockyards in Chicago as a silent testimonial to the days when the packing indus- try was in its infancy and the droves from the Funk Farms in McLean County provided supplies of livestock. Three generations of Funks now are in- cluded in the Gallery with the additions of portraits of LaFayette, son of Isaac, and Eugene D., son of LaFayette. With unusual foresight Isaac Funk ac- cumulated one of the largest land-holdings in the west during the years 1824-65 enabling his descen- dants to continue operations in large scale crop de- velopment and feeding of stock. The extensive land-holdings acquired by Isaac Funk before his death were developed by his de- scendants. Many examples emphasize the continu- ing attention given to the perfecting of herds on the Funk farms. L. H. Kerrick, a son-in-law, won the International in 1900. Deane Funk with his father, Jacob, as Angus breeders, entered International Grand Champions in 1908. LaFayette Funk and his sons including Eugene D. Funk, Sr., as Shorthorn breeders also produced many prize-winners. These interests were reflected when Eugene D. Funk, Sr., from his knowledge of selective breeding in cattle applied the idea to scientific grain-breeding particu- larly in Hybrid corn. The steady growth of Funk Brothers Seed Company in the twentieth century can be attributed to the continuation of creative and business-like methods. Isaac's faith in the land was justified by many of his descendants for whom he provided an example of leadership in agricultural enterprise and a record of achievement in civic re- sponsibility. The public career of Isaac Funk includes not only leadership in the economic growth of the Old North- west particularly in Illinois, but also an unique con- tribution to the cause of the Union in the form of a "Great Speech" delivered in the state legislature dur- ing 1863. He spoke against the Copperheads as a representative of the important agricultural area in central Illinois. The North acclaimed him for his effort. Despite the loss by fire of valuable manuscript ma- terials considerable information is available to enable the historian to reconstruct the story of his public activities. Few agricultural leaders from central Illinois were so widely reported in contemporary publications. During his lifetime his contributions to both the economic and political life of his commu- nity, section and nation were well known. This biography emphasizes the public career of Funk of Funk's Grove. It could not have been writ- ten without the cooperation of his many descendants, especially that of Mr. Deane Funk of McLean who suggested the possibility of the study. Mr. Eugene Funk, Jr. of Bloomington collected family records and manuscript materials. He gave generously of his time and advice in assembling the information and by his interest in the project insured its completion. Mrs. Madeline Funk McCullough of Bloomington contributed many items and letters written to Isaac Funk. Manuscripts were also made available by Mr. Dana F. Rollins of Shirley. Mrs. Hazel Funk Holmes of Cambridge, Massachusetts aided in the search for information and Mr. Arthur Funk of Shir- ley, Mrs. Clara Funk Humphreys and Mrs. Grace Funk Bracken of Bloomington, Mrs. Birdie Kerrick Ewing of Decatur as well as other members of the Funk family provided helpful material. Miss Olive Stubblefield granted permission to use the Stubble- field manuscripts. The descendents of David Davis, Sr. allowed use of manuscripts in their possession. Mr. Edward N. Wentworth of Armour Livestock Bureau made valu- able suggestions and Mr. Matt Parkhurst of the Union Stockyards of Chicago offered reference to his collected notations. The Tract Book of the Illinois Central Railroad became available through the cour- tesy of Mr. Wayne A. Johnson. The entire manuscript has been read and construc- tively criticized by Professors Avery Craven and William T. Hutchinson of the Department of History in the University of Chicago. The errors are those of the author. Librarians and custodians were especially help- ful. Mrs. Inez Dunn of the McLean County Histor- ical Society cooperated in every way to make the in- formation under her supervision easily available. Courtesies extended by the staff members of the Illinois State Historical Society, The University of Illinois, the Chicago Historical Society, The Li- brary of Congress, The University of Chicago, 6 Archives of Illinois, Newberry Library, John Crerar and of the Illinois State Normal University are deeply appreciated. Miss Margaret Schertz contributed many hours in typing the entire manuscript. Helen M. Cavanagh Illinois State Normal University Chapter I Westward Migration of the Funk Family The first member of Isaac Funk's family crossed the Atlantic almost a century before his descendants settled in central Illinois near the Grove that perpetu- ates the name. Years of struggle influenced him to depart from the Rhenish Palatinate in 1733 to seek freedom from religious oppression. Among those who did not complete the difficult voyage to the new world was the wife of this courageous and freedom- loving pioneer. She died on the high seas after giving birth to a son named Adam. Ninety years of west- ward migration brought their descendants from Pennsylvania to Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio and Illinois by 1823. 1 1. The first member of this branch of the Funk Family to migrate to the new land was named Frederick, according to Rev. A. J. Fretz, A Brief History of Bishop Henry Funck and the Funk Pioneers, (Elkhart, Indiana: Mennonite Publishing Company, 1899). Other accounts as John Barger, Memoirs of Mr. Robert Stubble field, ( Bloomington, Illinois: Pantagraph Publishing Com- pany, c. 1870) call this first migrant Adam. Barger's account was obtained from Mrs. Dorothy Stubblefield, a daughter of the Adam Funk who came to Illinois. As migrations from the Germanies increased dur- ing the eighteenth century into Pennsylvania 2 many turned southward to western Virginia and into the long valleys of the Allegheny mountains. Young Adam and his foster parents moved over the bound- ary line of Pennsylvania to Strasburg in Virginia. Some years later after marriage to Sarah Long of Philadelphia, a family of three children named Adam, Jacob and Margaret was established. The first of these children, Adam, was destined to carry the westward migrations of this branch of the Funk family through Kentucky, Ohio and eventually to central Illinois where he died in 1830 at the home of his son. Possibly he followed the route from Virginia by the Cumberland gap and north to Clark county in Kentucky where he chose to locate near the Lexington area. Before Adam moved to Kentucky he married Nancy Moore. They remained in Clark county, Kentucky until 1808 when the family consisting of six boys and three girls 3 located in Fayette county, Ohio on Paint creek six miles northeast of Washington Court House some four miles south of the village of Bloomingburg. Here they engaged in raising grain and stock for thirteen years on land purchased from Edward Stubblefield. Economic difficulties later in 2. Albert Bernhardt Faust, The German Element in the United States, 2 vols., (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1909), I, 128. 3. The children were: Absalom, John, Jacob, Sarah, Isaac, Dorothy, Tabitha, Jesse and Robert. Sarah was the first wife of Robert Stubblefield. 10 the 1820's influenced two of the sons to seek their fortunes in central Illinois. 4 After the War of 1812 westward migration into the Old Northwest was greatly accelerated because of the partial clearing from the territory of the Indian and British influences. People long settled near the banks of the Ohio river began to seek lands not yet occupied as they thought of Ohio as an "old state" having entered the Union in 1803. The Old Northwest was the New Northwest of the years 1820- 65 when four additional states, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin took their places in the Nation. The older settlements in the southern part of the Old Northwest were tied economically to the east and to New Orleans. Following the administra- tions of Andrew Jackson contrasts in the economy and ideas of Northwesterner and Southwesterner began to crystalize. Two new sections rose to seek their places in the Nation as the West again became a haven of opportunity. Isaac Funk and his brothers developed extensive land-holdings in the Old North- west and contributed effectively during these years to the economic and political growth of Illinois. 4. A. J. Fretz, op. cit., pp. 721ff. Also John Barger, op. cit., also L. H. Kerrick, "Life and Character of Isaac Funk," McLean County Historical Society, Transactions, II, ( Bloomington, Illinois: Pantagraph Printing Company, 1903), 580. See Robert Stubble- field, MSS, S. J. Brittenham to (?) May 31, 1869 states that Benjamin Tutt conveyed to Adam Funk 400 acres of land being the whole of Thomas Hoff's survey No. 3708, by deed dated June 1, 1812. On August 13, 1816, Adam conveyed this land to Absa- lom and October 23, 1824 Adam assigned the residue of his lands to one Richard Douglas(?) Land was eventually sold for taxes. 11 The Funks participated in the transition from sub- sistence farming to the production of large surpluses of grain and livestock. Outlets at St. Louis and New Orleans were eventually supplemented by rapidly expanding lake ports such as Chicago. 5 Isaac Funk was among those who sought to bring railroads to the Prairies and who developed grain and stock raising activities to large scale enterprises in the highly productive agricultural area of McLean County, Illinois. He became one of the spokesmen for this section during the critical years of the Civil War. The ideas and ideals of these pioneers who popu- lated western lands were nurtured in cabins built near the groves. They sought to build anew the lives they had foresaken. As Adam Funk viewed the end- less panorama of wilderness about him he thought ahead to waving grain and to easier lives for his chil- dren. His sons Isaac and Absalom with the usual frontier characteristics of individualism, inventive- ness and competitive acquisitiveness apparent in new areas offering freedom and opportunity, 6 carried their father's dream to reality. If the prairies and the waterways could be bent to the will of these men who settled nearby, advantages would result for many. Faith in these common men grew in the minds of their contemporaries as they broke the prairies and became known for their advocation of democ- 5. A. L. Kohlmeier, The Old Northwest, Keystone to the Arch of the American Federal Union, ( Bloomington, Indiana : Prin- cipia Press, 1938). 6. F. J. Turner, The Frontier in American History, (New York: Henry Holt, 1920), p. 154. 12 racy and fair dealing. The Funk brothers rose no higher in esteem and economic well-being during these years than their fellow men allowed. If judg- ments were not those of the twentieth century then it is well to study these pioneers in the light of the times when they lived. Settlers from the upland South and the lower middle states were scarcely distinguishable as they moved into the river valleys of the West. These peo- ple with varied characteristics and customs set the patterns for the culture of the Old Northwest. 7 Only the northwestern part of Ohio remained unsettled by 1825 and Indiana was occupied south of the National Road, or the 40th parallel, near the Ohio river while Illinois was only sparsely settled north of Alton. 8 Freedom of opportunity and abundance of land were the chief advantages to those who sought to build again in the central part of the Old Northwest. 9 An unusual chapter in the history of the Old Northwest began when the two Funk brothers made their choice of settlement. Isaac and Absalom, sons of Adam who led the advance of their family from Ohio in 1823, staked their claims in May 1824 on the prairies of Illinois where the wide stretches of level land long awaited the recognition of men who 7. A. O. Craven, "Advance of Civilization" in Sources of Culture in the Middle West, edited by D. R. Fox, (New York: Appleton Century, 1934), pp. 45-46. 8. T. C. Pease, The Frontier State, 1818-48, Centennial History of Illinois, II, (Springfield: Illinois Centennial Commission, 1918), 5; also Henry C. Hubbart, The Older Middlewest, 1840- 1880, (New York: D. Appleton-Century Co., 1936), p. 4. 9. F. J. Turner, op. cit., p. 154. 13 knew their value. The prairies had been ignored be- cause they were removed from large arteries of trans- portation. A neighbor from Ohio, William Brock had suggested lands around Old Town Timber and Blooming Grove. The brothers, influencing Brock to join them, chose to locate near the Grove that bears their name some twelve miles south of the present city of Bloomington, Illinois. 10 Eventually four brothers Isaac, Absalom, Robert and John settled in this locality. Another brother, Jacob, settled near Fort Clark and Jesse located near Randolph Grove. The significance of the proper proportion of land to timber and to water was one of the guiding prin- ciples to the pioneer and apparently was not un- known to the Funk brothers. 11 This combination promised economic security to these men ever ready and willing to work with the land when their farming activities once practiced in Ohio could be resumed. Branches of Sugar Creek ran near Funk's Grove through the wide stretches of prairie grass extending in every direction. Stock raising and crops might again bring security to the brothers who without cap- ital and burdened with debt set about the task of selecting their land. Observing the binding force of "squatter's rights" they proceeded to claim as much land as they thought could be entered when the land offices were opened. 12 10. LaFayette Funk, "Pioneer Settlers in Funk's Grove," McLean County Historical Society, Transactions, II, 482, records that the winter of 1823-24 was spent at George Riddle's, 15 miles east of Springfield. 11. T. C. Pease, op. cit. 12. L. H. Kerrick, op. cit. 14 The father of the two boys, Adam, recently be- reaved of his wife, Nancy, on hearing of the possibili- ties of the new location made the trip to Illinois with two other sons and the second of his daughters, Dorothy, who was Mrs. Robert Stubblefield. Jesse and Robert Funk with their father and the Robert Stubblefields found Isaac and Absalom in Decem- ber, 1824, boarding with the Brock family. Increased numbers demanded additional food, shelter and in- surance of security. 13 Adam Funk had viewed the great panorama of new land as he moved from north- ern Virginia through Kentucky and Ohio into Illinois. His sons were to carry his efforts to find the proper settlement to magnificent proportions. Isaac and Absalom Funk set to work with a will that accomplished most gratifying results by the time of the Civil War. They witnessed extraordinary changes in population, livestock and grain markets and transportation. They did not hesitate to identify themselves with the new state of Illinois and its prob- lems. As they slowly attained material possessions they also gained the respect and confidence of their fellowmen who measured them according to the values of the frontier. Optimism, initiative, devotion to democracy, courage, and honesty became the tests of their recognized leadership. They exhibited a roughness and a readiness to act quickly and decis- ively when events demanded. 13. Fretz, op. cit., Barger, op. cit., also L. H. Kerrick, op. cit. 15 Chapter II Pioneer of the Prairie at Funk's Grove Settlements in southern Indiana and Illinois failed to attract the interest of the Funks as they rode from Ohio in 1823 to the new west. Their advance to the prairies was delayed by the usual spring floods on the Wabash river. The brothers decided to in- vestigate the possibilities in the Sangamon country sparsely settled north of Springfield. They spent the first winter near the village and then turned north. This decision was the first in a significant series en- abling them to achieve economic leadership in later years. The Funk brothers probably noted that Bond county in Illinois was among those located farthest north with the denser areas of population established south of a line drawn from Alton via Carlyle to Pales- tine on the Wabash river. They may have listened to some of the reverberations from the election of 1822 reflecting the difference of opinions regarding the extension of slavery into territories above the line of the Missouri Compromise suggested by Sen- 16 ator Thomas of Illinois. 1 Little did Isaac anticipate the lengths these shadows would cast before them to the year when he would speak in the Legislature of his adopted state during a Civil War for a rich agricultural section completely covered in 1824 by waving prairie grass. The extraordinary expansion of the economic life in the state came with the advance of population into the central and northern sections. Population totals in this prairie land were estimated at less than two persons per square mile in 1820 while the south- eastern and southwestern portions boasted of more than six persons for the same space. 2 Ten years later, however, some of the counties surrounding the land later included in McLean county claimed two to six persons but the area of McLean county where the Funks chose to settle remained in the lower classifica- tion. The estimate of less than two persons applied to a wedge-shaped section extending southward through Edwards County. 3 Totals for McLean County by 1840 proved how quickly the county be- came a desirable location for at that time it claimed six to eighteen persons per square mile while south- ern Illinois showed less than two to six persons. 4 1. Alexander Davidson and Bernard Stuve, History of Illinois, 1673-1873, (Springfield: Illinois Journal Company, 1874), Chapters 26 and 27. 2. T. C. Pease, op. cit., see map opposite p. 4. 3. Ibid., see maps opposite pp. 174 and 384. Counties near- by showing 2-6 persons including Knox, Peoria, Fulton, Mason, Tazewell, Logan and parts of DeWitt. Tazewell County was formed in 1827; McLean County was established in 1831. 4. Ibid. 17 The lands to the north of McLean were then only sparsely settled. During the years 1824-30 Isaac Funk and his brothers were among the earliest of the pioner farmers in this prairie land of central Illinois. Less than half the people, however, had lived in this new state as long as three years and not quite one- third had been in the region for ten years. 5 Although there would appear to be a preponderance of south- ern stock in Illinois during the early years of settle- ment there is much to justify the description of these people as more western than southern. 6 Illinois lacked adequate transportation facilities and a nu- merous laboring class. Frontiersmen were less an- noyed by these difficulties than the older settlers in the southern sections of the state. The farmer could immediately turn to stock raising because there was little need for many laborers. His chief problem was that of obtaining the initial investment. 7 Islands of settlement appeared in the unclaimed lands of Illinois as well as in other parts of the Old Northwest. New communities comparable to Funk's Grove were farther removed from the earlier loca- tions near major arteries of trade. 8 Each new locality contributed its own social, political and economic development. Similarities were noticeable because the people endeavored to build anew the desirable 5. Solon J. Buck, Illinois in 1818, Illinois Centennial Com- mission, I (Decatur, Illinois: Review Printing and Stationery Com- pany, 1917), 93. 6. Ibid., p. 97. 7. Ibid., p. 140. 8. Ibid., p. 141. 18 features of former locations while frontier charac- teristics again modified the traditionalism of their eastern heritages. Glimpses of these new and small worlds become visible from the remaining records although pioneers were not the most painstaking historians. Engrossed with the responsibilities of survival in a rough and raw land men like the Funks led lives of action with little thought or time to re- cord their accomplishments. Acts more often than words enable the historian to chronicle their con- tributions. 9 Progressive settlements transforming frontier wilderness into agricultural and industrial communi- ties provide one of the most interesting stories in the study of the history of the United States. 10 The study of Funk's Grove township in McLean County, one of the richest agricultural areas in the United States, is no exception. Frontiers were of many kinds; those of exploration, Indian land cessions, governmental surveys, land sales and actual settlement. 11 Illinois passed through these successive stages and encour- aged new settlers in 1818 by offering a variety of these possible levels of opportunity. When the Brocks, Funks and Stubblefields arrived in 1824 at Funk's Grove, land offices nearby were not yet open. People who settled in the various localities in Illi- 9. R. Carlyle Buley, The Old Northwest, 1815-40, 2 vols. (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, 1950), I, 138 for com- ment on the inadequacy of materials for a study of home life among early settlers. 10. S. J. Buck, op. cit. 11. Ibid. 19 nois were of many extractions. Some were descended from the Old French settlers of Kaskaskia and Ca- hokia environs; others were derived from German antecedents descended from former migrations that had penetrated into Kentucky and southern Ohio. Often religious influences resulted in integrating communities. 12 A group of English settlers appeared in Edwards County under the leadership of George Flower and Morris Birkbeck. 13 Flower was especially impressed by the availability and desirability of the cheap prairie lands. 14 The earliest German settlements were made before 1820 in St. Clair County, Illinois, before the Funks settled in a central section of the state. A larger number of these settlers arrived after 1830 pushing westward from the original settlements in Pennsyl- vania by way of the Ohio river and from locations on both sides of the river. German farmers from the original Pennsylvania groups were described by Dr. Benjamin Rush as interested in providing large and suitable barns for their livestock before they built too well for themselves. Trees were not left to perish in the ground but were cleared immediately from the land thus made ready for cultivation in the second year. They had reputations for feeding their stock well, for building good fences, economizing wood and keeping their livestock warm in winter. Many of them lived frugally and recognized the ad- 12. Ibid., pp. 102-104. 13. Ibid. 14. Ibid., p. 105. 20 vantages of vegetable gardening. German groups believed that their children should become self-sup- porting. They emphasized the idea of inheriting property held continuously by succeeding genera- tions. Although the early prairie years were spent chiefly in clearing the land many of these character- istics were discernible in the Funk farms of later years. 15 Newcomers to the prairies who found vestiges of settlement within several miles usually received welcome and help in erecting their cabins and in planting their first crops. The responsibility for ob- taining food and shelter was left to the ingenuity and initiative of those who settled in comparatively un- known areas. Life, as the Funks discovered, was not impossible where the groves provided game and the unusually fertile soil produced a small patch of corn for bread. Social activities kept pace with the numbers of people. Orations, parades, the reading of the Declaration of Independence on the Fourth of July and group singing at other times brought people together. Amusements such as horseracing, cock fighting and gambling were not unknown in some places. Where schools were erected education was limited to the three R's. A few libraries and some newspapers appeared in older settlements. 16 Circuit riders and occasional preachers carried the gospel of the Methodists, Baptists and Presbyterians into 15. Faust, op. cit., pp. 131-138. 16. Buck, op. cit., p. 170. 21 the new settlements. 17 Jesse Walker and Peter Cart- wright were typical of this group. Five circuits were established for the Methodists by 1818 with three preachers assigned to one circuit and one to each of four circuits. There was one presiding elder for the district at that time. 18 Churches were not commonly seen in the rural sections where religious meetings were held in homes. This type of religious growth resulted at Funk's Grove. Approximately ninety-one percent of the people of Illinois following some occupation in 1820 was engaged in agriculture. 19 Fertile land of the first class required no fertilizer for a century and for the first ten years it was said to be too rich for growing wheat. Land of the second class required no fertilizer for the first twelve or twenty years. 20 Corn was easier to harvest than wheat and was more useful because it provided food for both man and beast. 21 The growing of grain, especially corn, became the chief enterprise next to stock raising on the lands of the Funk farms in these early years of prairie devel- opment at Funk's Grove. A niece of Isaac many years after these prairie years described the kinds of available food as cracked corn, fresh or dried fish, wild meat, berries, maple sugar and syrup as well 17. Ibid. 18. Ibid., p. 175. 19. Arthur Clinton Boggess, The Settlement of Illinois, 1778- 1830, V (Chicago: Chicago Historical Society's Collection, 1908), 165. 20. Ibid. 21. Ibid. 22 as honey from native bees. Coffee for many years was a luxury. Light bread was often made by pour- ing boiling water over white ashes from hickory wood and when cool used as a substitute for baking powder. 22 Evidences of democracy and equality in dress, manner and speech are indicated in the following account: All were common in dress, some rude in manner, few boisterous, mostly quiet in speech and slow in movement, very little refined as now gauged, no learning from books outside the bible, hymn, song music and school books. Intercourse between in- mates and close relations, frank, laconic, abrupt, good natured; with acquaintance only, and strangers, inquisitive, genial, tolerant and leading to more inti- macy. These characteristics I recall in men, mostly. Women conformed in milder degree of each phase of speech, manner and action. 23 Amusements were of the type that emanated from every day living. Women were occupied with the duties revolving around the hearth and home while men could hunt, watch horse racing, participate in meetings at the time of elections, carry the grain to mill, attend school meetings, muster meetings, cabin- raisings, participate in road-making and repairing 22. Sunday Bulletin ( Bloomington, Illinois), April 22, 1900, clipping in possession of Mrs. Birdie Kerrick Ewing. 23. James Haines (Pekin), "Social Life and Scenes in the Early Settlement of Central Illinois," Illinois State Historical So- ciety, Transactions, X, (1905), 36. 23 or perhaps engage in pitching horse shoes. 24 Social singing of play and forfeit songs was possible in home and group gatherings. Costumes were of the most available cloth, wool, flax, cotton or tow-linen. Men in summer and mild weather usually possessed a "hat of plaited rye, oats or wheat straw; shirt and pants of cotton, flax or tow-linen cloth." 25 Often local or traveling cob- blers supplied boots. Ruralism and hospitality above all other charac- teristics identified these agricultural areas of the new west. These characteristics were not easily distin- guished from those attributed to frontier or Amer- ican ways of living. They provided an integrating emphasis on similarities in the new settlements often overbalancing whatever there was of difference. One commentator on Social Life in Central Illinois observed: Cabins, though generally small, like an omnibus would always admit more to share in all the com- forts they afforded. These were few and simple, but supplied all real wants and pressing needs of that time. They would fall short of demands of present- day luxury, of warmth, cupboard and bed-room equipment. The fireside was wide and generous in heat, but sometimes one side of its guests froze while the other side burned. 26 The Funks, the Brocks, Stubblefields and others developed much the same frontier living at Funk's Grove. Soon after deciding to settle here, Isaac raised a crop of corn on bottom land near Fort Clark, 24. Ibid., p. 38. 25. Ibid., p. 39. 26. Ibid., p. 45. 24 now Peoria. Isaac remained for some months near Fort Clark. His name appears in the list of 66 voters of the 1236 inhabitants who voted in the first Peoria county election held March 7, 1825. He was called to the panel of petit-jurors September 1825 and was assessed taxes of $200.00 in the first list of taxpayers. There he met and married Cassandra Sharp who had migrated to Illinois from Ohio with her family. Cas- sandra was small and slight with brown hair worn close to her head. 27 She brought a bed, a spinning wheel and a cow to the log cabin in the Grove where she found a large fireplace equipped with crane, fry- ing pans with legs to set down in the coals and a so- called Dutch oven. These early ovens were "not ex- actly Dutch ovens" according to reminiscences of old settlers. They were described as about six inches deep and one and one-half feet across holding about six gallons, covered with a lid and having three legs about three inches long. Corn loaves of bread were often baked in them. The frying pan or skillet had a handle about a foot long and was covered with a lid. 28 The food supplies including vegetables and 27. A bracelet reportedly made from hair of Cassandra Funk is in the possession of Dana Rollins; one account describes Cassan- dra's hair as black. The spelling of Cassandra appears to have been acquired later. Early papers show the spelling as Casander, see Funk MSS. These Funk Papers were made available by Dana Rollins, LaFayette Funk and Eugene Funk, Jr. See Marriage Register No. I, March 1825-March 1855, Peoria Illinois, for the ninth entry. Attention called to this item by Mrs. Frank Funk. Photostatic copy in possession of Eugene D. Funk, Jr. 28. Typewritten copy of Reminiscences of John and George Stubble field, July 31, 1899, in Manuscript File, McLean County Historical Association. There was also in general use a large 4 or 5 gallon pot. Plates and bowls were often made of pewter. Accord- ing to this account Dutch ovens were built on frames. 25 dried fruit in season, deer, wild turkey, prairie chick- ens, quail, wild geese and ducks were almost at the door. 29 A family of ten children demanded time and care. The eldest boy, George, was born in 1827. Adam, Jacob, Duncan, LaFayette, Francis and Benjamin followed in that order by 1836. A younger group of children, Absalom, Isaac and the only daughter, Sarah, completed the group by 1846. Death broke this family circle when Adam died in 1847. 30 Cassandra Funk was gentle and patient, quiet in manner and even-tempered enough to check the quick impatience of her husband. Isaac was about five feet ten and one-half inches in height weighing about two hundred pounds. He was powerfully built, moving quickly and easily in pursuit of his objec- tives. Isaac Funk was not one to be forgotten easily. His dark brown eyes were clear, penetrating and steady; his hair was black, inclined to curl above a high forehead, Roman nose and long, strong upper lip with a wide mouth closing firmly. 31 As late as the third or fourth winter after coming to the Grove, Isaac reportedly split rails to sell at twenty-five cents a hundred to buy corn for bread at one dollar a 29. Johnson and Company (eds.), History of Peoria County, (Chicago: Donnalley, Gassette and Lloyd, Printers), 1880, p. 288- 310, and Clara Funk Humphreys, "Cassandra Sharp Funk," McLean County Historical Society, Transactions, II, 521-522. 30. The children were George W. ( 1827-1911 ) ; Adam ( 1828- 1847); Jacob (1830-1919); Duncan M. (1833-1910); LaFayette (1834-1919); Francis M. (1836-1899); Benjamin (1838-1909); Absalom (1841-1915); Isaac (1844-1909); Sarah (1846-1907). 31. L. H. Kerrick, op. cit., p. 511. 26 Location of Isaac Funk's first log cabin, at the edge of Funk's Grove timber. Isaac Funk's second residence, 1832, and addition 1836. wmmmm Isaac Funk's third residence, 1841-1842, addition to second cabin 1836. bushel. 32 From modest beginnings Cassandra and Isaac Funk with their fast growing family of sons sought to obtain from their land its great harvest. This result was not easily attained. During the first seven years after his arrival Isaac possessed no wagon. Corn was carried on horseback some fifty miles or more to Springfield 33 from the Grove con- taining some 2,000 acres of heavy timber principally burr, red and white oak, maple, elm, ash, hickory, linden and black walnut. 34 Near this grove Isaac erected a small pole cabin twelve by fourteen feet covered by bark from the linden tree kept in place by weight poles. A window was provided later to supplement a stick chimney and one door of clap- boards. The first floor was laid with peeled elm bark in Indian fashion. Eventually a puncheon floor, and a roof of riven four feet clapboards were added. Until 1830 this chinked and daubed house served as the early homestead when it was destroyed by fire at the time of the death of Adam. A hewed log cabin in 1832 replaced the original. A new cabin ex- tending several feet over to the end of the first was constructed in 1836 and provided a covered way be- tween the two houses. Each of the cabins was de- scribed as eighteen feet square with a window, a puncheon floor and stick chimney. The first frame house erected in 1841-42 served as the family home 32. McLean County Directory, 1866. 33. Chapman Brothers (eds. ) Portrait and Biographical Al- bum of McLean County (Chicago, 1887), p. 1148. 34. Ibid., p. 1160. Also estimates of Professor Spaeth of University of Illinois. 27 until 1864 when a larger frame house costing about $6,000.00 was constructed, later destroyed by fire October 19, 1889. 35 Dr. Laban Shipp Major, a visitor for dinner in 1835, described the Funk cabin as about twenty-five feet square and one story high with a loft reached by a rude ladder. An immense fireplace attracted his attention. It extended across the greater part of one side of the house. Logs two to three feet thick made a fire large enough to roast a whole ox. Fire from these logs would last from five to seven days. There was no need for many chairs because the hearth was very capacious and about eighteen inches lower than the puncheon floor. 36 As the seasons changed the family was surrounded by the natural beauty of the land broken by the stately grove, gulleys and clear streams. Outlined against the ever changing skies of central Illinois the grove stood west from the cabins. A contemporary author described the prairie as most beautiful in the spring when it became "a garden formed and 35. Pictures in McLean County Historical Society, Transac- tions, II, see L. H. Kerrick, op. cit. The first frame house had two rooms, 20 x 40, a kitchen 20 x 20, two stairways and a stairway to the third floor. There were two rooms on the third floor. See p. 633. The north room upstairs on the second floor was a school room. ( Interview with Mr. Arthur Funk, February 4, 1949 ) . An account by LaFayette Funk also appeared in The Daily Bulletin, October 19, 1902. The last residence built by Isaac Funk was described as "substantial," costing $6,000.00 See Daily Pantagraph, July 22, 1864, for estimated cost. 36. E. Duis, Good Old Times in McLean County, (Blooming- ton, Illinois: Leader Publishing Company, 1874), p. 292. 28 cultivated by nature's hand, composed of clustering flowers." 37 The prevalent tint was pink in this land of flowers. Through the summer the rich growth and cool haven of the grove provided protection for both man and beast from the intense heat of late July and August. As autumn approached deeper reds and yel- lows appeared. The galaxy of color that enshrined the grove became an aura of predominating gold, and "to the latest period of autumn the prairies exhibited a brilliant golden hue." 38 Those who looked back from a distance at the grove enveloped in blue haze realized its significance as a symbol of stability. With its natural offerings of lumber, firewood, protection, shelter, treasures of wild flowers and varieties of birds it eventually be- came the center of religious and educational activity in the community of Funk's Grove as well as the final resting place of many of the inhabitants. As spring, summer and autumn unfolded their won- drous combinations from nature's pallette so did "stern winter cast her mantle over the earth" binding "the stream in icy fetters, then a prairie is a spec- tacle, grand and sublime." 39 Cassandra and Isaac Funk had food for their souls as well as for their bodies. Life here would be stern and unrelenting in toil and effort but rewards could be more than material. Funk's Grove became "an Illinois land- 37. "Letters from a Rambler in the West," No. 3, February 8, 1937, Illinois in 1837, (Philadelphia: Grigg and Elliott, 1837). 38. Ibid., p. 26. 39. "Letters from a Rambler in the West," Ibid. mark, it is a link in the chain which connects today with the days of the pioneer." 40 Funk's Grove as part of the Sangamon country was included in the area drained by the Sangamon river and its tributaries of Salt creek and South Fork. Sugar creek is one of the main branches of Salt creek. These tributaries were described in 1837 as having pebbly bottoms and clear transparent water. A pros- pectus for Immigrants in the same year described the area as one seldom equalled in fertility, as high and undulating, interspersed with timber and prairie land. The prospectus also declared that scientific examinations as well as actual results from settlement and cultivation have determined the fact that the prairies are richer as you approach their middles, and in some measure in proportion to the distance from the timber; and that the carbonate of lime, so rich a nourisher of grasses and grains is found in the soil of the prairies to an extent of from 20 to 42 percent. In timber land it is found in much smaller proportions. 41 This country was advertised in 1837 as one of the the finest stock districts in the western states. The summer range for cattle was said to be inexhaustible with the possibility of acquiring almost any amount of hay. Although cattle could frequently be fed on the prairie through the entire year it was generally 40. Eugene D. Funk, Sr., Speech (typewritten copy), Sep- tember, 1918. 41. Illinois in 1837, pp. 25 and 26. 30 necessary to feed from the first of December until the last of March. 42 The prospectus foresaw the fact that the Sangamon land would afford range for thou- sands of cattle for many years in a strangely pro- phetic statement It will soon constitute one of the richest agricul- tural districts in the United States, the soil being of such a nature that immense crops can be raised with little agricultural labor. 43 This information was not news to Isaac and Absa- lom Funk in 1837 as they bent their energies to the accumulation of land through profits gained from stock raising and crop production. Their early activi- ties established them as leaders in this enterprise. According to Reverend John Barger, Isaac saved $1400 from his five years' earnings. With $200 he bought his first quarter section, loaned to his neigh- bors $800 to buy their homes and with the remaining $400 he purchased a lot of cattle. 44 The grasses of the prairie area were described in 1857 45 in an article appearing in the Transactions of the Illinois State Agricultural Society, 1856-7. I. A. 42. Ibid., p. 26. 43. Ibid., p. 36. 44. Fred Gerhard, Illinois As It Is, ( Chicago : Keen and Lee, 1857), p. 307. 45. Charles T. Leavitt, "The Meat and Dairy Livestock In- dustry, 1819-60," (unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, University of Chicago, 1931), p. 115, quotes from Illinois in 1837, and Statis- tics of the West, 1836. Also quoting these two works are Bidwell, P. W. and Falconer, I. J., History of Agriculture in Northern United States, 1620-1860, (New York, Peter Smith, 1941). 31 Lapham observed then that to the wild grasses of the prairies the state of Illinois owed its future con- dition of wealth and prosperity. 46 Two types of grasses are listed as characteristic of the prairies in an extensive study published in 1918. The big blue- stem, described as a common grass in Illinois charac- teristic of the prairie, furnished good pasture when young with the stem soon becoming hard. This grass grew 3.5 to 6 feet tall. The second type of prairie grass called little bluestem grew in closer bunches and was shorter and more slender than the first. According to Mosher "These two species of Andro- pogon were found in abundance in the original prairies. This species usually turns purple early in the season. When young it is relished by stock." 47 Blue Grass appeared later on the prairies. Twenty families were located within a circumfer- ence of thirty miles at the time Funks, Stubblefields and Brocks settled near the Grove. Thirteen of these families were living in Blooming Grove and four were located at Randolph's Grove. Those who lived in the former place included James Rhodes, Ebe- neezer Rhodes, John Dawson, William Orendorff, John Hendricks, William Walker, Thomas Orendorff, John Brock, Bailey, Harbard, John Ben- 46. I. A. Lapham, "The Native Naturalized and Cultivated Grasses of the State of Illinois," Illinois States Agricultural Society, Transaction, II, (1856-57). 47. Edna Mosher, The Grasses of Illinois, Bulletin No. 205, University of Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station (Urbana, Illinois, March, 1918). See also Arthur Weldon Watterson, Econ- omy and Land Use Patterns of McLean County, Illinois, ( Chicago : University of Chicago, 1950), p. 29. 32 son, James Lotta, Milton Stringfield and William Hodge. Among the settlers at the latter location were Gardner Randolph, the widow Sarah String- field, James Burlingson and James Stringfield. 48 When the new settlers decided upon their location at Funk's Grove, Mr. Brock erected a cabin in the ex- treme southwest of section 30 T 22 Range 1 E; the Funk brothers built their cabin near the middle of section 16. When Robert Stubblefield and his family arrived they decided to live near the center of sec- tion 18. Jesse and Robert Funk lived with Isaac and Absalom until they married two sisters named Stringfield. Jesse then settled at Randolph Grove and Robert located in section 8. Early land entries were not recorded for Isaac and Absalom Funk until Rve years after their settlement near the Grove. The larger portion of the land was entered under Isaac's name. Although a partnership existed between the two brothers available records show that it was not officially dissolved until some years later. Isaac paid Absalom and later his widow for land in the name of his brother. 49 The entries near the Grove made in Isaac's name to the west in Township 22 N.R. 1 W of the third Principal Merid- 48. Barger, op. cit. This account was recorded by Barger from a statement made by William Hodge some fifty years after the event. 49. Isaac Funk MSS show that Isaac paid only for the land held in Absalom's name at this time. If there were any additional settlement of the partnership no record is at present available. See LaFayette Funk, op. cit., for description "near the middle of sec- tion 16." The manuscript copy of this address states "a little north of the middle of section (16)." 33 ian McLean county, included some three hundred and twenty acres in 1829. Eight years later four hundred and eighty acres were added. Other claims had been entered at this time including those of Joseph Harbert and Jacob Rankin in 1827 and 1829. During 1836-37 John C. Cass, Alexander Dallas, Sam- uel (Lemuel?) Evans, Mathew Marsh, Andrew Biggs, Oliver Shipler and John Ayers had entered land near the Grove in sections 12, 13, 14, 23, 24, 25 and 26. Biggs worked for Isaac at $8.00 per month during 1826-29. The location of the Funk land ap- peared to follow no exact pattern of choice but al- ways was located as near as possible to the branches of Sugar Creek and to the Grove. 50 Land entries were made by four of the Funk brothers, Isaac, Absalom, Robert and John in Town- ship 22 N.R. 1 E of 3rd principal Meridian, McLean County, Illinois. These entries were far more exten- sive than those described above in Range 1 W and by 1837 were scattered east to the northernmost cor- ner of the township. One branch of Sugar Creek ran through sections 1, 9, 10, 11, 16, 17, 18, 19 and 30. 51 The Funks made their entries in these sections and in 8 and 20 where the Grove also extended. The Funks purchased land in section 16 in 1834 from 50. See Abstract of Entries (photostatic copies from original Tract Books) Funk's Grove Township; also Isaac Funk MSS for original land grants dated 1839 for land entered in 1837; also 1830 for entries made in 1829, see map opposite p. 122. 51. Illinois Central Tract Book. Map opposite pages dealing with Township 22 n R 1 W. 34 Jesse Fell who was School Commissioner. Land was also held in sections 7 and 15 by 1837. 52 About four hundred acres were obtained in sec- tion 16 where Robert held twenty acres later sold to Isaac in 1846. Others who held land nearby before 1837 included Samuel Murphy in section 7, Runyan Hougham in sections 8 and 10, Robert Peebles in sections 9 and 10, Robert Stubblefield in sections 17 and 18, Sally Brock in sections 19, 29 and 30, Samuel Biggs in section 30, Elijah Brock in sec- tion 30, John Stubblefield section 17, James Berry in section 18 and Oliver Shipler in section 6. 53 The closest approximation from available sources of information indicates that between one thousand and one thousand fifty acres were entered in Isaac's name in 1829 plus four hundred acres in the name of Absalom and one hundred sixty acres in the name of Robert. Isaac and Robert entered separately a total of four hundred acres in 1831. Totals vary up to 1840 but estimates show a total holding of between six thousand and six thousand three hundred acres at that time. 54 Entries of land were first made at the 52. Abstract of Entries (photostatic copies from original Tract Book) Funk's Grove Township; also Illinois Central Tract Book for Township 22 N. R 1 E of 3rd Principal Meridian for map showing timber outline. 53. Abstract of Entries (photostatic copies from original Tract Book) Funk's Grove Township; also LaFayette Funk, op. cit., p. 485 for references to Andrew Biggs, Robert Guthrie, Lemuel Evans, John Funk, Runnion Hougham and Samuel Murphy. 54. L. H. Kerrick, op. cit.; also estimates compiled from Abstract of Entries from original Tract Book for Funk's Grove Township, also Isaac Funk MSS. 35 Springfield and Vandalia offices while later entries were made at the Danville office. At the rate of one dollar and a quarter per acre the early investment in 1829 by Isaac alone involved a capital outlay of over twelve hundred dollars while the total investment by 1840 was well over seventy-five hundred dollars. The problem confronting the early settler was how to maintain himself on his land pending the time when he could farm it. The usual ratio of prairie land to timber was two to one. 55 The estimated cost of fencing a forty in 1839 was two to three hun- dred dollars. This cost hastened the use of the osage orange hedge advocated by Jonathan B. Turner. 56 The Grove was described as containing about two thousand acres of heavy timber 57 so that by 1840 the Funks had put this general ratio of timber to prairie into actual practice in their land-holdings. Land held in other parts of McLean County by Isaac Funk by 1840 was scattered, totalling about thirteen hundred acres. These holdings ranged from three hundred and ninety acres in Lawndale Town- ship to eighty acres in Empire Township. 58 Isaac secured by deed four hundred acres in 1839 from Absalom, eighty acres from Oliver Shipler in Section 55. T. Pease, op. cit., pp. 179-183. 56. Ibid. 57. Chapman Brothers (eds.), op. cit., sketch of D. M. Funk, p. 1160. 58. Isaac Funk MSS: 80 acres in Empire township; 200 acres in Dawson township; 320 acres in Lexington township; 320 acres in Arrowsmith township and 390 acres in Lawndale town- ship. 36 13 R 1 W, in 1838 eighty acres each from John Stubblefield and James Berry and two hundred forty acres from the latter in 1832. Elisha Greene gave up two hundred forty acres in 1840 and Robert Funk re- leased three hundred sixty acres. For all of this land Isaac paid money. 59 Although Isaac Funk continued to purchase land during these years he did not obtain large tracts until 1850. Possibly the depression years after the Panic of 1837 contributed to some conservatism for as David Davis said in 1840, "The farmers complain of hard times — no market for grain here and no price where there is a market. Wheat 40^, oats and corn 18 3 /^, pork $2.50 per hundred and beef." Flour sold for three dollars per hundred because of the scarcity of mills. 60 Almost two years later Davis added that property of all kinds "depreciated in Illinois." Farms that would not have been sold for $15 per acre were in December 1841 a drug on the market at $5. He added "The farmers complain greatly at the hardness of the times. Pork is the only staple here in the in- terior of the state away from navigable water; and five years ago it brought cash — five dollars per hun- dredweight, now it brings on a credit one dollar and fifty cents by the hundred." 61 The largest acquisitions of land were not made 59. Ibid. 60. David Davis MSS, David Davis to Wm. P. Walker, Jan- uary 19, 1840. 61. Ibid., David Davis to Wm. P. Walker, December 22, 1841. 37 until the 1850's but Isaac was not averse to borrow- ing money in the early days for his business activi- ties. An indication of his good credit is the fact that he and Cassandra mortgaged 1651, 34/100 acres as security for four thousand dollars on October 28, 1835 at 10% interest. The loan was made by the Illi- nois State Bank and was completely paid off by No- vember 25, 1842. 62 The second of the double cabins was built in 1836 and additional land was entered in 1836-37. During the years from 1836 to 1842 Isaac took over the land held by Absalom. An indenture from Absalom to Isaac transferred for $2240 five hundred and sixty acres located variously in sec- tions 8, 17, 19 and 20 of Township 22 N.R. 1 E of McLean county. 63 A formal notice dated August 2, 1841 of the dissolution of the partnership between Absalom and Isaac appeared in the Sangamo Journal directing all whom it might concern to know that the "co-partnership heretofore existing between Isaac Funk and Absalom under the firm name of I. & A. Funk has been dissolved by mutual consent." All claims and debts were to be adjusted by Isaac. 64 Absalom moved to Chicago to attend to the develop- ing stock business there. The Chicago Daily Demo- crat announced the death of Absalom in 1851 as that 62. Isaac Funk MSS, See indenture dated October 28, 1835. 63. Ibid. See indenture, Absalom to Isaac, November 8, 1839. Later Isaac for $1,050.00 received another block of about 320 acres from Absalom, April 15, 1848 and in 1852 about 500 acres from Absalom's widow, Sarah, for $1,219.82. 64. Sangamo Journal, August 6, 1841. 38 of an old citizen of Illinois "regarded with sentiments of esteem and respect." 65 At the time of the Panic of 1837 the brothers were reported to be worth some $18,000, a fair amount for those days. During this year, however, Archi- bald Clybourne failed in Chicago and the Funks lost $7,000.00. 66 After 1840 the Chicago market became the center of growing business. A new day was ahead in the Old Northwest as people began to pour into the prairie sections and the Great Lakes region. As horizons and markets widened new needs arose demanding capable and forthright leadership in legislative halls. Isaac had acquired sufficient eco- nomic and political prestige to enable him to seek political office as a member of the state legislature by this time. The process of making a staunch and loyal Northwesterner was slowly crystallizing. According to one account Isaac received only a common school education 67 but his interest in provid- ing opportunities for others was a compelling one. About 1827 the Funk and Stubblefield families with some others from the west end of the Grove and from Mount Hope township decided to erect a school- house. The site, donated by Isaac for the considera- tion of one dollar, was located on the east bank of Sugar Creek near the west side of the west half of the southwest quarter of section 17. The building 65. Illinois Journal, September 10, 1855. 66. Daily Pantagraph, March 12, 1928 (estate series ^ 67. Chapman Brothers (eds. ), op. tit., p. 1148. 39 erected near the location of the present church in the Grove was twenty feet square, covered with clapboards held in place by weight poles; as having a clapboard door hung on wooden hinges; puncheon floor and puncheon seats, and with desks made of boring auger-holes into the wall; in- setting wooden pins therein, and laying on the pins boards hewn from walnut logs. 68 There was a huge fireplace half as long as one side of the building in the room. Windows were made by "paper greased with hogs lard pasted across small sticks placed at intervals over openings on two sides of the structure." 69 The curriculum consisted of read- ing, writing and ciphering. Some years later another schoolhouse was erected in the southeastern part of the township. 70 Throughout his life Isaac gave evidence of his sup- port of and confidence in educational institutions. He sent some of his sons to college and cooperated with the local educational institutions of higher learn- ing located in the Bloomington area. Committees were appointed to purchase property and to erect buildings for the Central Illinois Female College. Among those on the Board of Trustees were Issac 68. The History of McLean County, (Chicago: Wm. Lee Baron, 1879), pp. 626-627. For description of School Sites, see McLean County Deeds, Book K, p. 310 (kindness Mr. Brigham. ) 69. Baron, (pub.) op. cit. 70. Ibid. There were two schools in 1858 of fifty-two pupils; the total expenditure was a little less than three hundred dollars. 40 and Jesse Funk, Jesse Fell and David Davis. The Funk brothers expended about $4,000 for a building to ac- commodate sixty young ladies. 71 Isaac Funk was also one of the founders of Illinois Wesleyan University and the donor of $10,000 later paid by his estate for the establishment of a chair of Agriculture on that campus. 72 While a member of the County Court of Supervisors from 1859 until his death in 1865 Isaac Funk acted as a member of the committee to appraise the Swamp Lands later sold to support the establish- ment of Illinois State Normal University. 73 Religious activities began early in the community of Funk's Grove. The first sermon preached there was delivered by the Reverend Paton Mitchell of the Cumberland Presbyterian church at the cabin of Robert Stubblefield. Ministers of various denomina- tions also preached from this cabin. Messages were sent forth from the school house by the Reverends S. R. Beggs, Wm. Royal and others. A Methodist Epis- copal church in the Grove was organized in 1833 by the Reverend Royal then in charge of the circuit. 74 A large room in a new frame house built by Robert Stubblefield served at times as a place of worship. A class met in this home until 1848 when the gathering 71. Mary P. Hoover, "Bloomington, 1852 to 1856." McLean County Historical Society, Transactions, II, 403; others were J. E. McClun, James Miller, Rev. F. N. Ewing, and Dr. E. R. Roe. Also see Directory of Bloomington, 1856, p. 8. 72. Isaac Funk MSS. 73. Records of the County Court of Supervisors of McLean, 1859-63. 74. Barger, op. cit. 41 place was transferred to the school house. When the school was not in session the building, according to the deed made by Isaac in 1846, was to be free to all denominations of Christians. 75 A quarterly meeting was held under the leadership of the Reverend John Barger, presiding elder of the Methodist Church, during the fall of 1848 at Funk's Grove. Isaac requested that he preach the funeral sermon for his son, Adam, who died sometime before. Cassandra and Isaac became members of the church at this time. 76 Many years later shortly before the death of Isaac a new church was erected 1864-65 77 and was dedicated in the following year. 78 The struc- ture stands to this day as a monument to the early religious activities continuously carried on in the cathedral-like setting of calm and stately trees in the peaceful Grove. The cemetery nearby chosen by Isaac's father, Adam, among the first of the Funk family to find a final resting place there in 1830, continues to call back many of his des- 75. Ibid. The class included Robert Stubblefield, John Stubblefield, Tabitha and Absalom Stubblefield, John, Robert, Mar- garet and Virginia Funk, Dorothy Stubblefield and Robert Stubble- field as leader. See also Deed for School Site, McLean County Deeds, Book K, p. 310, kindness of Mr. William Brigham, author of The Story of McLean County and Its Schools (Bloomington: McKnight and McKnight, 1951). 76. Barger, op. cit. 77. LaFayette Funk, Historical Address (MS copy). This address was delivered at the Funk-Stubblefield reunion, Septem- ber, 1899. Adam Funk was instrumental in selecting the site of the burial ground near the church where he was among the first to find a resting place, February 20, 1830. 78. Record of the Funk-Stuhblefield Reunions, p. 160, 60th Reunion, September 2, 1944. 42 Marker on the site of the first school-house in Funk's Grove. cendants to this quiet city of the dead. Inhabitants were permitted to use a portion of this land granted for the school site as burying ground for relatives and friends. 79 From the days of the pioneers to the twen- tieth century the peace and quiet beauty of the Grove have penetrated the minds of many who sought such a haven. Pioneer life at Funk's Grove was typical of the development of many other settlements in central Illinois. Beginnings were modest but opportunities for leadership and for wealth were present if indi- viduals chose to remain and grow with the country through the difficult years. As Isaac Funk concen- trated on the feeding of stock for the distant markets and turned some of his land to the cultivation of grain he recognized the need for more land and for adequate arteries of transportation across this level land. He did not hesitate in the succeeding years to identify himself with the problems confronting the new state of Illinois. Both his neighbors and ad- mirers in the region and in the Union eventually ac- claimed him as a spokesman from an agricultural area that grew out of the clearings on the prairies. 79. McLean County Deeds, Book K, p. 310 (attention called to this description by Mr. Brigham). 43 Chapter III Cattle King The earliest enterprise of size undertaken by the Funks was cattle-grazing. Markets were not avail- able in Illinois during the earliest years so they pre- pared for the eastern centers of trade. If no sale were possible in Ohio the cattle were again put on the road to be driven over the mountains to Lancaster and Chester counties in Pennsylvania. The cattle then might be sold in small lots to feeders who pre- pared them for the markets in Baltimore and Phila- delphia. 1 Cattle droving in the prairie sections of the Old Northwest demanded skilled men. William Oliver, an English observer, who spent Eight Months in Illinois during 1841 described the coming of the drovers into the prairie country in the beginning of a summer. After a drover purchased as many cattle as he needed in a given neighborhood he appointed 1. Prairie Farmer, January, 1941; also I. F. King, "The Com- ing and Going of Ohio Droving," Ohio Archaeological and Histori- cal Society, Publications, XVII, ( 1908 ) , and Charles W. Towne and Edward Wentworth, Pigs from Cave to Corn Belt, (Norman: Uni- versity of Oklahoma Press, 1950), pp. 155-161. 44 a meeting place where all were to congregate on a certain day. Few scenes in the west were more ex- citing than the start of a drove of cattle at sunrise: ~ The sun was pouring his rays, almost blood red, through among the huge trunks and limbs of a neigh- boring grove, tinging everything, and embuing the heaven with one rosy hue. Horses stood hitched to the branches of young hick- ory trees while the men in the picturesque dress of the west with heavy whips in their hands waited for the signal to depart. The cattle rushed from the pens "pell mell amidst a torrent of shouts and yells. The charge was desperate and for some time it was hard to say whether the beasts or their opponents would gain the victory/' As the herd approached the prairie, often at a full gallop, it might extend over a surface of half a mile. The cattle became accustomed to their fate after a few days and if not over driven could arrive at their destination in better condition than before they started. 3 Although the drovers early proceeded to Pennsyl- vania where they disposed of their stock, a packing industry developed in the Old Northwest centering first around Cincinnati and gradually moving west- ward. The story of packing in Cincinnati is chiefly one of Pork processed as early as 1810. The westward shift in increased corn production to Illinois by the 2. William Oliver, Eight Months in Illinois, (Newcastle on Tyne, 1843, Chicago: Walter M. Hill, 1924), p. 106. 3. Ibid., p. 108. 45 time of the Civil War contributed greatly to the rise of other packing centers. The industry grew notice- ably in Illinois during the eighteen hundred and forties. During the winter of 1847-48 towns along the Ohio river chiefly at Cincinnati slaughtered one million eighty four thousand hogs while on the Miss- issippi between St. Louis and Burlington, Iowa, some two hundred seventeen thousand were killed. Along the Illinois river one hundred fifty six thousand were slaughtered. There was definite contrast in the num- ber of four hundred and six thousand hogs packed in 1850 in Cincinnati with the sixteen thousand pre- pared in Chicago during the same year. Illinois towns including Springfield with eighteen thousand, Pekin with twenty-five thousand, Canton with nineteen thousand and Alton with thirty thous- and were ahead of Chicago. Beardstown, long the Porkopolis of Illinois packed thirty thousand while LaFayette, Indiana, prepared forty thousand and Terre Haute, Indiana, prepared sixty-five thousand hogs. 4 Chicago gradually gained in packing activities al- though pork was packed in the above centers for many years. Cattle, however, never extensively packed in Cincinnati found their way to the lake city. The earliest packing began in Chicago in 1832 when George W. Dole undertook the business at the south- east corner of Water Street and Dearborn near the 4. Prairie Farmer, January 1941, p. 90. The grandsons of LaFayette Funk have heard him relate that hogs were driven at different times by Isaac to Cincinnati. A story of cattle driven to Milwaukee, an early packing center, was related by Edward Wentworth who heard it from Eugene Funk, Sr. 46 Tremont House where he prepared meat for Oliver Newberry of Detroit. 5 Archibald Clybourne, the government butcher for the Pottawatomies, established a packing house on the east side of the North Branch of the Chicago river in 1833; the average cost of the cattle was $2.80 and the hogs $3.00 per hundred pounds net. 6 Soon Oliver Newberry and George W. Dole erected a slaughter house on the south branch in 1834 where some three hundred head of cattle and fourteen hundred hogs were packed during the year. Gurdon S. Hubbard, who six years before this was active in distributing pork and beef, started operations in an old bank building at the corner of Lake and LaSalle Streets in 1834. A lack of barrels necessitated the storing of meat from 5,000 hogs until spring. Hubbard later built on South Water Street between Clark and La- Salle where he continued until 1848 when he re- moved to the North Branch. Sylvester Marsh who packed with Hubbard 1833-34 built on Kinzie near Rush entering into partnership with Dole in 1838 or 1839. 7 Marsh remained in business until 1855. He appeared before the United States Senate committee in 1883 when he recalled that in 1836 he packed six thousand hogs in Chicago mostly for home consump- tion. He paid $6.00 a hundred pounds for pork in 5. S. T. Andreas, History of Chicago, I, (Chicago: A. T. Andreas, 1884), 560. See also Thomas Senior Barry, Western Prices Before 1861. ("Harvard Economics Series," LXXIV, [Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1943]), 220. 6. Andreas, op. cit. 7. Ibid. 47 1838. Cramel and R. M. Hough were associated with March in 1839. D. H. Underhill came to Chicago in 1837-38 and engaged in the packing business for a brief period killing hogs near Absalom Funk's butcher shop lo- cated on the corner of North Water and North State Streets. As early as 1835 Chicago became the chief market for the Funks although they often sent hogs to Galena in the early years. 8 Absalom moved to Chicago in order to take care of the business there. He became one of the better known meat men in the city, 9 listed in 1839 under the name of Funk and Doyle at Fulton and Illinois Markets at 95 Lake Street and North Water Street, corner North State. 10 His name appeared alone in 1843 as a butcher in Fulton and Boston markets. His residence was listed on Wells Street between Randolph and Washington Streets, while the Fulton market was located on the Southwest corner of Lake and Dearborn with C. P. Albee as proprietor. 11 His name was listed in 1850 as Funk and Albee, Butchers, stall 2 and 4 City Mar- ket. Absalom was also listed at 143 LaSalle Street. 12 8. Dr. E. Duis, Good Old Times in McLean County, Illi- nois, p. 592, ( Bloomington, Illinois: The Leader Publishing and Printing House, 1874), p. 592. Eugene D. Funk, Sr., in a speech delivered in 1918 stated that Absalom and Isaac did their own slaughtering in Chicago. See E. D. Funk, Sr., Speech, September, 1918. 9. Charles Cleaver, introduction by Mabel Mcllvane, MS copy in possession of Matt Parkhurst, Union Stock Yards, Chicago, Illinois. 10. Directory for City of Chicago, 1839, p. 15. 11. Ibid., 1843, p. 56. 12. Ibid., 1850, p. 35. 48 At the age of twelve years, Jacob third son of Isaac, spent ten months with his uncle in Chicago, then a community of about five thousand inhabitants. Fre- quently Jacob herded a flock of sheep on the site of what later became the Grand Pacific Hotel. 13 Ab- salom's holdings in Chicago were later liquidated for the sum of $25,230 14 when he died in 1851 a re- spected citizen of Chicago and of Illinois. 15 The difficulties encountered during the early years of the packing industry were equalled only by the problems of the drovers who obtained their herds from Western states. Wind, rain and storm often combined to provide hazards to endanger the life of the tireless drover. One spring Isaac contracted to purchase a herd of cattle on joint account with a Dyer and Chapin in Chicago. Funk was to do the buying, feeding and driving and the company was to furnish the money. Cattle were cheap in Missouri but the season proved to be an unusually wet one. For four months no one heard from him. At home the family feared that he had drowned in the swollen streams or that he had been murdered for the large sums of money he car- ried. Absalom came down to the Grove from Chicago because he was greatly worried by the continued silence. Soon Albert Nickerson of Randolph returned from Missouri and told of seeing Isaac buying stock. 13. Chapman Bros. (eds. ), op. cit. 14. Robert Stubblefield MSS, statement of Williams, Burr and Capen. 15. Illinois State Journal, September 10, 1851. 49 When Isaac reached the Grove he related a story of sick cattle with sore tongue and "foot evil." The cattle were in poor condition but after feeding them the poorest one hundred head were retained while the others were put on the road to the Chicago market. The result was a loss of eight hundred dollars. Isaac was willing to take four hundred dollars or sell his interest in the cattle at the Grove for the same amount. He was paid for them and kept them until the next season when they compensated somewhat for the loss. 16 While driving five hundred hogs to Chicago dur- ing the winter of 1841-42 Isaac was overtaken by a severe sleet storm common to central Illinois. He determined to proceed by cutting the ice with an axe to provide the foot hold for the hogs. The legs of some of the hogs were tied together in order to pre- vent slipping. He was detained some eighteen days when a heavy fall of snow enabled the drove to reach Chicago without additional difficulty. 17 New gen- erations of Funks hear these stories retold at the fam- ily reunion held every fall. The foregoing descriptions of the early droving and packing activities in Illinois immediately raise questions regarding the methods employed in ob- taining, preparing and weighing cattle for the rapidly expanding packing industry located in Chicago. The limited cattle business in early Illinois has 16. George Funk, article, "George Funk as Cattle Herder," Daily Pantagraph, June 12, 1905. 17. Duis, op. cit., p. 582. 50 IBRARY UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN been described with few exceptions as "unscientific, inefficient and haphazard." Although a Dr. J. W. S. Mitchell of Champaign County in 1836 thought that he had demonstrated that his herd of blooded Short- horns could be wintered as well as ordinary stock he reportedly sold out a year later. 18 Moreover the small farmers often opposed the development of better herds. According to Governor Ford when the legis- lature passed a law to improve the breed of cattle by prohibiting small bulls from running at large, the people took their side and denounced the law as aris- tocratic and favorable to the rich. 19 When they real- ized that their corn crop could walk to market they became interested in better breeding. Isaac Funk and Jonathan Cheney were reported many years later to have procured the first drove of feeders ever bought in Chicago and brought to Mc- Lean county for feeding. This herd totalling two hun- dred head was driven to the home of Milton Smith southeast of Pleasant Hill where they were divided for ownership. 20 Funk, however, secured cattle from a variety of places. Although he obtained large numbers from Illinois and Missouri he also was reported to have purchased in 1855 with John Nichols twelve hundred 18. Pease, op. cit., p. 385. 19. Ibid., p. 385, quotes from Ford, History of Illinois, 1870, p. 108. 20. Daily Pantagraph, July 8, 1915. Letter to the editor by A. V. Pierson of Lexington, Illinois, son-in-law of Milton Smith; also A. V. Pierson, The Old Chicago Trail read before the McLean County Historical Society, June 4, 1904. 51 head in Texas for twenty-seven thousand dollars. 21 This was a comparatively early date for the purchase of cattle in Texas although cattle from that state were reported from time to time after 1846 22 with six hundred coming to Chicago during 1854. A recent account emphasizes the development of the regular cattle trade from Texas with the North before the Civil War. Many cattle were driven through Kansas City and St. Louis in Missouri. Lit- erally thousands were trailed from Texas and the Indian country through Missouri to Illinois during the eighteen hundred and fifties. Crossings of the Mississippi were possible near Quincy, Illinois and Hannibal, Missouri. The restrictive legislation aganst Texas cattle because of fear of fever durng the fifties, according to Ralph Bieber, did not have great effect. Many cattle passing through Arkansas, Nebraska and Iowa were also destined for the prairies of Illinois. These cattle were remarkable for their sleek appear- ance and very long horns but were said not to sell any better than those from the Illinois prairies. 23 One pair of horns in a herd of six hundred in 1857 measured six feet from tip to tip. 24 Average weights of the cattle sold at the Chicago market during the fifties are difficult to determine. 21. Paul Gates, op. cit., p. 384. Quotes from the Illinois State Register, November 15, 1855. See also Carl Sandburg, The Prairie Years, (New York: Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1926), p. 107. 22. Bidwell and Falconer, op. cit., p. 400. 23. Chicago Democratic Press, September 15, 1858. 24. Ibid., October 14, 1857; see Ralph Bieber (ed.), (South- west Historical Series, Introduction to VIII, [Glendale, California: Arthur H. Clark Company, 1939]), 27-39. 52 Contemporary accounts describe the cattle from the prairies of Illinois as weighing between six and seven hundred pounds without stating these as dressed weights. Estimates quoted in the usual secondary writings make no definite distinction between dressed and live weights. Isaac Funk in 1854 sold to the Hough packing house fourteen hundred head of cattle averaging seven hundred pounds each, then described as the highest average paid for so large a number of cattle "ever known to be sold in this mar- ket." 25 Sixty-four thousand dollars was the sum paid for these cattle. According to figures compiled by Matt Parkhurst at the Union Stock Yards and from contemporary accounts these weights appear to be dressed weights. 26 This conclusion was substantiated by George Funk, who participated in the early busi- ness. He declared that they always sold by the dressed weights with the packer receiving the hides and tallow. 27 W. W. Corbett in an article written in 1862 from Chicago stated that the heaviest cattle were sent east estimating that the average of beef cattle when marketed was as high as 750 pounds. 28 I. Funk was 25. Ibid., December 6, 1854. 26. Chicago Daily Democrat, May 8, 1857, states that 38 cattle raised at Mechanicsburg, Illinois, all under three years aver- age 1,500 lbs. with six of the largest at 1,794 lbs. 27. George Funk, op. cit. 28. W. W. Corbett (Chicago), "Beef and Beef Cattle of the West." Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for the year 1862. House of Representatives Executive Document, 37th Con- gress, 3rd Session, (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1863). 53 reported to have said in 1862 that beef going to New York markets sold "here" at three to four dollars per cwt. gross and packing cattle at two to two dol- lars and fifty cents per cwt. gross. 29 The cost of transporting from Chicago to New York by rail was in 1854 from fourteen to sixteen dollars a head. 30 Scales were employed for weighing cattle in the early fifties. B. F. Harris located near Urbana, Ill- inois shipped in the spring of 1854 one hundred fat cattle with average weight at l,965y2 pounds gross described as the heaviest sold in that part of the country up to that time. They took the State Fair premium and were sent to the World's Fair in New York. Neighbors of Harris, named Calif and Jacoby during the next spring weighed their drove at aver- age of 2,113 pounds. Harris' drove in the presence of two hundred or more cattle men averaged 2,377 pounds. According to one account "the scales used were Fairbanks' patent, previously adjusted, and the weighmaster legally qualified was Dr. Johns of De- catur, who was a successful and extensive stock farmer." 31 Other sources indicate that scales were used as early as 1852. 32 29. Ibid. 30. United States Patent Office Reports for 1854, Agriculture, 33rd Congress, 2nd Session, Senate Executive Document No. 42, (Washington: Beverly Tucker, Printer, 1855), p. 12. 31. Mary Voss Harris, "The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin Harris," Illinois State Historical Society, Transactions, XXX, (1923), 89-93. 32. Walter Goodspeed and Daniel Healey, History of Cook County, 2 vols. (Chicago: Goodspead Historical Association, 1909), I, 239. 54 Three of the most extensive stock growers of the Old Northwest in 1862 were Isaac Fimk of McLean County and Messrs. Alexander and Strawn of Morgan County, Illinois. They were known then as "beef kings." The methods employed to prepare his cattle for market were described in some detail by Funk himself. He usually wintered from seven hundred to one thousand head of cattle and "stall-fed" three to five hundred head for the early spring market about the first of April. Cattle were purchased whenever profitable during the year; those sold in the summer and fall were usually three years old. 33 Funk pre- ferred to buy steers when they were two years old costing from $18 to $25 per head. After one summer, one winter and half the next summer they averaged $45 to $52 per head. Cattle on the Funk Farm were wintered on "shock corn." The steers "wintered through" then marketed in midsummer were "strong-fed," while those in- tended for market during the last of March or first of April were "stall-fed." The bullock that was fed by the latter method "gets enough to keep him thriving finely all winter, gaining flesh and growing, too," on the corn gathered from the field on wagons driven to the pasture lot where the cattle were herded. 34 One man was occupied from early morning when he ate breakfast by candlelight until evening when he ate supper by the same kind of light, feeding 33. W. W. Corbett, op. cit., p. 333 includes a summary of the methods employed by Isaac Funk. 34. Ibid. 55 seventy-five to one hundred head. During the day he harvested corn with from two to four yoke of oxen depending on the condition of the soil. Mr. Funk was reported to have said: the true way to feed is to provide two fields for each company of cattle. Feed the cattle in one field today, and in the second to-morrow; to-morrow turn in one hog for every strong fed to two hogs for every stall- fed animal into the field in which the cattle were fed today, changing each day, the hogs following the cattle one acre of good corn will winter one bullock, if strong-fed; if stall-fed it will require one acre and a half per bullock. 35 According to this account the cattle were given no other feed and were protected only by the native timber. About every third day the stock was salted with the feed and provided with plenty of water. 36 Probably the cattle were wintered through on "shock corn" on the prairie pasture protected by the timber from the severe winds of winter. These sources do not indicate any proportion of grass or hay to corn used in feeding. Jacob Strawn kept one man for every hundred head and allowed for stall-feeding half a bushel of corn daily. He turned in two hogs to each steer to collect the waste. The allowance of pasture and corn for each head of stock was two acres. 37 35. Ibid. 36. Ibid. 37. Ibid. 56 Twelve years after the publication of the article by W. W. Corbett giving the above information in the Agricultural Reports, John G. McCoy in a book entitled Cattle Trade of the West and the Southwest (1874) presented an account of methods used in central Illinois in the middle of a description of the business undertaken by John T. Alexander. Accord- ing to McCoy, a few weeks before the grass in the pasture fields failed, the feeder gradually gave some corn to the cattle, increasing the amounts slowly. The feeder's outfit was described as an ox team of one or more pairs of cattle attached to a wagon with a rack where the "shock corn" was thrown. The feeder with a stake or standard from the rack threw the "shock corn" to the ground, first on one side and then on the other while the team moved in a circuit covering the ground with corn stalks. McCoy added, "The aver- age-sized bullock will eat and waste one-half bushel of corn each day and will in time become very fat. The usual gain in four to six months feeding is from two to three hundred pounds." Two yards were pro- vided when "shock corn" was fed, enabling the swine to eat the waste in one yard while the cattle fed in the other space. 38 Jacob Strawn and John T. Alexander who settled in Morgan County were contemporaries of Issac Funk. They did not come to Illinois as early as Funk 38. John G. McCoy, Cattle Trade of the West and South- west, 1874. Reprinted and edited by Ralph Bieber (Southwest Historical Series, VIII, [Glendale, California: Arthur N. Clark and Company, 1939]), 235-36. 57 although Strawn migrated from Ohio in 1828 when he purchased 160 acres of land. He returned to his home until 1831 when he came again to Morgan County. Unlike Funk, Strawn arrived with capital of $6,000 to $8,000. 39 Eventually his home farm con- sisted of 8,000 acres plus an additional 10,000 acres in Sangamon and Morgan counties. His stock busi- ness was large enough to enable him occasionally to control the St. Louis Market. 40 One account gives credit to Strawn for introducing among stockmen in the Middle West the system of stall feeding with corn although no proof is offered. 41 It was also stated that the "brand of Strawn's cattle was recognized in all the principal markets" 42 although the system of branding used on the prairies of Illinois in these early days is not clear. C. A. Harper refers to records of certain ear marks and brands recorded by county clerks. Probably the same systems of branding preva- lent in the southern part of Illinois were adopted in the central counties. The methods included notching and cutting the ears of the animals "in all possible directions and forms." These marks were entered with the clerk of the county. Persons living within the same county or within five miles of each other 39. C. P. McClelland, "Jacob Strawn and John T. Alexander." Illinois State Historical Society, Journal, XXXIV, (June, 1941), 172. 40. Ibid., p. 187. 41. No supporting evidence is given for the statement ex- cept in an account by J. G. McCloy, op. cit., which obviously was written as a general description of the system while McCloy was talking about Alexander. 42. C. P. McClelland, op. cit, p. 191. 58 were not allowed to duplicate the marks. The clerk's fee for making the entry was twelve and one-half cents. 43 John T. Alexander purchased his first land in 1848 located ten miles east of Jacksonville in Mor- gan County. At the close of the Civil War he held 7,200 acres of land when he purchased some 26,000 acres known as the Sullivant farm or "Broadlands" in Champaign County. The period of his extensive or concentrated land-holdings is later than that of the acquisitions by Isaac Funk. 44 Alexander shipped cattle directly from Logansport, Indiana via rail and water to New York and Boston. The general types of cattle raised by Isaac Funk were mostly of the Shorthorn breed with cross breeds of the Shorthorn and native cattle. 45 As early as 1849 the Chicago Democrat noted that the improved breeds and their crosses were intermingled with the 1650 cattle purchased from Isaac Funk. 46 Many small herds of Durhams and some larger ones were well distributed over the state of Illinois during the early 1860's, when nearly all the common stock had 43. Charles Harper, "The Railroad and the Prairie," Illinois State Historical Society, Transactions, XXX (1923), 105; also R. G. Thwaites, Early Western Travels, 1748-60, X, in John Wood, "Two Years Residence in the Settlement on the English Prairie," (London: 1822, Publisher, Cleveland: Arthur H. Clark Company, 1904), 283. 44. C. P. McClelland, op. cit., pp. 202-204. 45. This estimate was made by Eugene Funk, Jr., President of Funk Brothers Seed Company and by Theodore Funk, Presi- dent of Chicago Producers Commission Association. 46. Chicago Democratic Press, June 4, 1855. 59 an infusion of more or less Shorthorn blood. A few choice and superior Devons were also owned in Ill- inois but despite their advantages they were not so generally prized as the Shorthorns. 47 A farmer from Vermilion County Illinois, declared that in his opin- ion a cross of three quarters Durham and one quarter ordinary blood made the best stock. He also said that common stock was best for the dairy. 48 Accounts of the early packing industry in contem- porary publications reveal the significance of the enterprise carried on by Isaac Funk. Attention was called to the amount, kinds and weights of the cattle raised and fed on the Funk estate. The volume of the business as well as the recognition of the ability of Isaac Funk in these transactions called forth approv- ing comment. The Chicago Democrat reported in 1848 the slaughtering at Wadsworth Dyer & Company's pack- ing house of a drove of cattle belonging to Isaac Funk of McLean County. The sum of money in- volved was $30,000. The reporter remarked that the cattle were all bought in McLean County so that the money would be scattered in small sums to the farmers there. He added that there could not be many poor farmers in that county. 49 A year later the 47. Ibid. 48. Martin Mondy, "Statement," United States Patent Office Reports for 1854, Agriculture, 33rd Congress, 2nd Session, Senate Executive Document, No. 42. 49. Chicago Democrat, October 24, 1848 (Courtesy Matt Parkhurst ) . 60 Prairie Farmer described beef packing at the same house, noting that cattle were purchased by this con- cern from a very few drovers residing in McLean and LaSalle Counties. Isaac Funk of McLean fur- nished 1,650 head of which the best 1,500 averaged dressed weight of 659 lbs. each. David Strawn of LaSalle supplied 100 head and Mr. Holderman of Kendall furnished 650 head. This account stated that improved breeds and their crosses are mingled in all of these droves and blood was found to be equivalent to feed "or rather to do what feed cannot do viz. give great weight of beef in the parts of the animal where it is most wanted." 50 The Western Whig carried an article in July 20, 1850 from the Chicago Tribune relating Funk's own description of his business. He kept stock constantly from the numbers of two thousand to twenty-five hundred head. These he fed during the winter and turned them out on the prairie during the summer. Twelve to fifteen hundred acres of ground were cul- tivated for the above purpose while over ten thous- and acres were given over to grazing. This report from the Tribune called attention to the fact that it had reminded its readers the preceding Fall that some of the finest cattle brought to the Chicago market were from the Funk farm. The article concluded with the following comment: "He (Funk) is the right kind of a man for his business and is becoming as 50. Prairie Farmer, December, 1849. 61 famous in northern Illinois as Strohs of Morgan county is a little farther south." 51 According to re- ceipts of cattle in Chicago for the year 1851 McLean County sent as many cattle to market as any other county in the state. Of three thousand six hundred and seventy-seven cattle from McLean County Funk was credited with eleven hundred and ninety-three, Jesse Funk with four hundred and Robert Funk with seventy-five. This estimate credited Isaac Funk with shipping twice as many as any other man from the county. 52 Cattle were also driven, according to one account, to Buffalo, New York. Eight hundred dollars in gold from the proceeds of cattle Funk had added to a herd he was driving to Buffalo, New York, "was in the possession of the father of Albert R. Greene who de- scribed him as the best business man in that part of the state." 53 Crops raised on the Funk farms plus the share obtained from tenants and more purchased from the tenants provided the feed for the cattle. Often Funk paid so much per pound for grain fed to his cattle by other farmers. Sometimes he purchased crops to feed cattle on the farms where they were raised. 54 He was 51. Western Whig, July 20, 1850, quoted from the Chicago Tribune. Probably this refers to Strawn of Morgan county. 52. Bloomington Intelligencer, January 14, 1852. John Greg- ory was the nearest competitor with five hundred sixty-seven head. 53. Albert Robinson Greene, "A Little McLean County His- tory," Illinois State Historical Society, Journal, VIII, (October, 1915), 461. 54. L. H. Kerrick, op. cit., p. 503. 62 described as fair in his dealings and in the prices he paid when he bought the cattle. David Davis of Bloomington stated that Funk paid off immediately. 55 L. H. Kerrick, who married the only daughter of the Funk Family, wrote that his father-in-law never calculated the weight and cost on paper when buying droves of cattle or hogs but reached the result quickly. On the drives to Chicago Funk would often go by night to buy hogs from farmers to be turned into his drove the next morning. The process was this: He would get down on his hands and knees while others drove the hogs from beneath a shed or from a straw stack, in front of him so that he could bring their outlines between him and the light of the horizon. Then he would count, weigh, estimate and buy them on the spot. His judgment was certain and rapid. 56 When the drovers neared the vicinity of Joliet keen competition often resulted in an effort to be the first to reach the packing house. The descendants of Isaac Funk today tell with variations the story of the season when he was ready to move a drove of 1,000 or more hogs to Chicago at the time when he thought a drove from north of Lexington would get under way. He inquired the best time for moving his hogs and was told to move them when he pleased. This he did, learning that the others were only a one day 55. Ibid., p. 513. 56. Ibid., p. 516. 63 W u « CD « ^ ® fa' -2 2 ° -w H I $h CO W Am - o£ g Hi O a 3 M ^ w CO 5.3 Wo wo £-; 00 Jfl n © g-w O £> CD C» 05 CO rj . v. / M * fc "S fa 0> d to O © wC5 Hi w pqco 3 v "* s 1 P OPM s SB I 1° ©P5 P4«J W > Kb 3S