UNIV jf\ ILLINOIS \*$Kfi , AI CHAMPAIGN- (JR. ANA ILLINOIS HISTORICAL SURVEY RKWHBHffi STB* HISTORY OF HARDIN COUNTY, ILLINOIS WRITTEN BY The Historical Committee for the Centennial 19 3 9 PREFACE HARDIN County has contributed Largely to Illinois history' and we cannot fully comprehend the story of our beloved county unless we know someuYng of the trials and triumphs of the people who have given to Hardin County its prominence in the state and national affairs. It is the aim jf the authors to present the important facts in the history of Hardin County in chronological or- der and in a brief and tangible shape without making any attempt at rhetorical display. Grateful acknowledgements are due the Historical committee composed of the following persons: E. N. Hall, R. F. Taylor, A. A. Miles, Robert Gustin and Sidney Hainan for their untiring efforts in assembling and preparing the material and facts here presented. The history of Hardin County has been written as a part of the Centennial celebration which was observed on Thursday, March 2nd, 1939 by the opening of court in regular session with Circuit Judges Roy Pearce, W. Joe Hill and Blaine Huffman sitting in a body with County Judge James G. Gullett. The early history of the county from the date of organization up to July 4, 1876 as had been prepared by L. F. Twitchell, Franklin Dimick, John Vinyard, Elihu Oxford, Edward Shearer and John Mitch- ell was read and ordered to be made a permanent record of the Circuit Court and of the County Court of Hardin County that it might be preserved for succeeding gener- ations. The principal address was delivered by David A. Warford, a native of Hardin County but now an attorney at law of Marion, 111. Many other former residents of the county made short talks. The program for the evening was prepared and pre- sented by the schools of Hardin county under the direc- I. X\lk tion of County Superintendent Clyde L. Flynn. Musical numbers were furnished by the Elizabethtown and Rosi- clare grade schools and the Rosiclare High School. The spelling contest was conducted with great interest and enthusiasm and the winners were Mrs. Margaret Green Howse, first; Mrs. Ella McDonald, second; and Ruey M. Rash, third. Everyone enjoyed the program and it was de- cided to hold a more elaborate celebration on July 2nd, 3rd and 4th at Elizabethtown. A meeting was called on March 28th for the purpose of getting plans under way for the celebration to be held on July 2nd, 3rd and 4th and the following executive com. mittee was selected with a representative from each pre- cinct of the county. James A. Watson, Chairman; R. F. Taylor, Vice Chairman; Clyde L. Flynn, Secretary; and the following committeemen from each precinct: Otis Lamar, East Ros- iclare; W. C. Karber, West Rosiclare; Eschol Jackson, McFarlan; C. C. Kerr, Cave-in-Rock; R. F. Austin, Rock Creek; Chas. N. Hill, Battery Rock; Guy Hale, East Mon- roe; J. H. Banks, West Monroe. It was decided that the celebration commence on Sun- day, July 2nd with a homecoming in all churches of the county and to be continued on the 3rd and 4th at Eliza- bethtown, the county seat town. In view of the great task of planning and completing arrangements for this celebration the following commit- tees were appointed for the task : Finance, W. C. Karber, Otis Lamar, E. F. Wall, Jr.; Schools, J. H. Banks, Loren E. Denton, W. E. Jackson, Ray Oxford, H. W. Bear, Dora Young, Fred Wheeler, Evans Young, Walter W. Hamil- ton; Antiques, Grace H. Kenney, Essie Robinson, Etta Car- ter, Gwendolyn Oxford; Agriculture, Chas. N. Hill, Glen C. Smith, Eschol Oxford, M. J. Koch; Mines, A. A. Miles; Churches, R. F. Austin, L. T. Rash, Dewey Green, John Suits; Fraternities and Civic Organizations, Guy Hale, J. II. L. Hosick, Joe Frailty, Wiley Cochran, J. W. Hill, Winnie Lovier, Charlotte Gullett, Lena Travis, Gladyne Richards; Forests. W. D. Gissen, Forester; Publicity, C. C. Kerr, Sarah Porter; Registration, Otis Lamar; Concessions, W. E. Jackson, Chas. D. Ledbetter, Oscar Rice; Parades, Woodrow Frailey, Guy Hale. J. H. Banks, Chas. Hill, R. F. Austin; History, E. N. Hall, A. A. Miles, R. F. Taylor, Robert Gustin, Sidney Hainan. The question of finance was the major problem hi connection with the celebration and after due consider- ation the honorable board of County Commissioners, John Gintert, Raymond Rose and Chas. M. Austin agreed to underwrite the proposition for $500 which wss guaran- teed by some sixty-five good loyal citizens of the county to be repaid by receipts from concessions and other sources of revenue. A. D. Paris was given the responsi- bility of securing donations from merchants, business and professional men and others of the county of which he did an exceptionally good job. The work of this history is divided into well defined units of study, and each chapter is written by a different author who has endeavored to bring to the young citizens of Hardin County an appreciation of the dramatic history of their county. The authors are deeply indebted to many citizens of Hardin County who have freely given advice, suggestions and material assistance in publishing this history of Har- din County. Clyde L. Flynn. III. PREHISTORY OF HARDIN COUNTY (Judge Hall) Our committee has given me the privilege of writing the first chapter in the historical sketch of Hardin County; thereupon readers may excuse me for offering a few \tords by way of introduction. History has been rather loosely defined as a record of past events; but it is far more than a mere statement of dry facts. History is the measuring of facts; an inter- pretation of events, trends, and movements which build societies, weld counties into states and nations, and de- velop mankind into higher and healthier degrees of en- lightenment. Wherefore history has been accorded a seat, and a favorite seat, among the learned sciences. The Muse of History: The Greeks believed that there were nine goddesses, called Muses who inspired and presided over the fine arts of learning, and that Clio, the Muse of history, was the wisest of the Muses. They further believed that Clio's inspired quill sketched the story of mankind, beginning with Deucalion, who not so many years before their own days, tided himself and family over the flood in his own ark, and so became the father of the Greeks, while the other nations; that is, "the heathens" grew up from stones, However Clio inspired wise men to write their own im- mortal story down to that of Glorious Athens. So virtually all the other nations believed that man- kind came upon the earth about 4000 years B. C. and like- wise believed that they knew their history from the be- ginning; nevertheless in recent times it has been discover- ered that the time Clio first inspired men to write is what scholars have chosen to call the "Dawn of History," and that such dates are very far removed from the time of man's advent upon the earth. As only about one-tenth of a mountainous ice floe may be seen above the surface of ocean waters, so it has been discovered that only about one-tenth of the story of man floats above that wave-line which we call the dawn of history. Hence scholars have recently learned that, when compared with the whole story of mankind, all his- tory is but modern. What is Prehistory? Such as they know of the story of the human race be- fore the Dawn of History, has been named "Prehistory." So I have that difficult but pleasing task of writing a sketch of that prehistory, which the hills of Hardin County could tell, if they would divulge secrets guarded within their cryptic caverns ten-thousand years and more. Before 1900 scholars began to think of the Old World of buried cities and lost empires as a vast field for the study of this new branch of knowledge; but they have been surprised that in the short space of time since the World War facts have come to light proving that our own American Continent from Alaska to Patagonia is immensely rich in ruins and data for prehistory; hence this new science is just now sparkling with interest. Our own Hardin County centers in this interesting field, and more or less takes its prehistoric coloring from the whole field. Prehistory cannot be written with the same degree of exactness in dates and locations that his- tory copied from original records can be written; but scholars very largely judge the prehistory of a certain place from that of the region in which it lies. They would say that the prehistory of Hardin County is practically the same as that of the Ozark regions, because it nestles in the arms of those mountains. Perhaps we should also think of the two main sources of prehistory as artifacts and traditions. Artifacts include the ruins and relics left by people who lived before the age of history. Traditions include such stories, songs, folklores, and reminiscences 5s are orally handed down from one generation to anoth- er, or from one race to another. Hardin County a Choice Site That our own Hardin County with her beautiful in- terchange of hills and valleys, hanging cliffs and forest shelters, clear streams and sparkling fountains has fur- nished homes for three distinct races of mankind is not any more doubted by investigating scholars. These fav- ored attractions gave her a choice place, first place in the hearts of the nations. They turned their backs upon the swamp-cursed lands all about her to love her and wed her. Competent and conclusive evidences for these things are to be had, if the writer's humble efforts can arraign them before the court of prehistory. We know that when the White Man came, he settled in Hardin County, pitching his log hut near a fine spring. Hardin County was dotted with many settlements with their churches, schools, and water mills a hundred years before what was called the "Big Flats" had any settlement other than a hunter's shack on the highest and driest lands here and there. "Many of those who did try to settle in the flat lands," pioneers said, "had the 'shakes' till they turned yaller, and had to pull stakes for the hills of Har- din County." One is naturally led to conclude that these same con- ditions prevailed when the Red Man came before the White Man, and that they also existed when the Mound Builder came before the Red Man. These mountains promised not only natural shelters, wholesome waters, and good health to each coming race of men, but they offered the more immediately pressing needs of food and sustenance. The heavy forests of Hardin County abound- ed with nuts, fruits, and honey, the bluff ranges with game, rhe grassy glades with deer, and the streams with fjs.h; while acres of wild rye stood in the valleys, bushels of acorns lay under trees, and wild sweet potato roots in the ground, all waiting to be pounded into meal for hot johnnycakes and jumped-up hoecakes for all three races of mankind. Indians called the oak "The King of Forests," and no doubt Mound Builders held that wonderful tree fam- ily in like esteem, for kettles filled with acorns and with acorn meal have been unearthed buried in ancient city- sites and in mounds. Perhaps these were borne by the fruitful oak 3000 or more years ago. In fact the heavy mastfall from Ozark Oaks gave man meal for his bread and also fattened his meat till only a few years ago when a heartless commerce discovered the oak was prized for furniture; then it was swept from the forests. However lo use the fine figure of the Hebrew poet, prehistoric Har- din County was "a land flowing with milk and honey." Why a Hunters Paradise There were yet other conditions favoring prehistoric Hardin County for the abode of man, and we are now ready to consider proof that these existed at the time the ancient Mound Builder occupied our county. Pioneers very early observed that deer and other ruminant ani- mals here had migratory habits. These passed the sum- mer months very largely on the plains to the north, but they returned to Hardin County and other Ozark regions for winter quarters. No doubt there were more than one urge for those movements. In winter seasons rains, snows, and icy swamps naturally drove them to lands provided with natural shelters; but without doubt deergrass fur- nished the main urge, for strange to say, it drove animals from the hills in summer and invited them back in winter. This unusually rank grass covered the Ozark ridges from knee high to shoulder high to a man. It was some- what of the nature of sorghum cane; when growing it was succulent, puckery in taste, and altogether unsavory for pasturage. However in late fall deergrass ripened and sweetened; then bowing down and curing under frosts and snows, it provided that most valuable ruminant fam- ily with the best winter forage an All-wise Creator ever gave to tide them over the bleak days of winter. Hence up till later pioneer days large herds of animals left oar hills in summer to return here as soon as winter proven- der was needed. Herds of buffaloes were among those migrating; but they were not forest animals; they were the first to go, when the powder and lead of the White Man came. Judging from the lay of the lands as well as from other inferences, we. may safely aver that these movements and advantages existed for Hardin County 2000 years ago at the coming of the Red Man, and 5000 years ago at the coming of the Mound Builder. But the most competent evidence is yet to be considered. Hardin County's First Race So far as is known now the Mound Builder was the aboriginal race of Hardin County. The Mound Builder is the least known, yet the best known of any ancient race. Judging from tradition, he is the least known; no ditty, no psalm, no poem, not one word has come down from his lost race or from his vast American Empire. Neverthe- less judging from artifacts, the Mound Builder is the best known of the prehistorically ancient. His imperishable earthworks have told a wondrous story. His vast em- pire was built upon river commerce. City sites, mounds, pounds, playgrounds, etc. lay along or near all the rivers, but wherever a river ceased to be navigable, he ceased to build. In his mounds and buried factories are found the most exquisitely ornamented pottery ever made by raaa, and the finest cloth known to the weaver's art, as well as the most beautifully bedecked clothes known to the art of needlecraft. A few mounds were left in Hardin Coumty and ad- joining counties, but most of them have been ploughed down, till hundreds, maybe thousands have been lost since the coming of White Men to the Ozark plateaus. For- tunately there is a public sentiment now seeking to pro- tect at least the more conspicuous mounds and other earthworks which have come down from that ancient race- Monks Mound near East St. Louis which covers about 13 acres of land and is still 100 feet high is protected by our own state. So also the Great Serpent Mound of Ohio pre- senting a gigantic but beautiful serpentine figure almost a mile long is protected by the state of Ohio. Prehistoric Tolu However tempting this subject is in its general sur- vey, I must turn to the Mound Builder in or at the door- ways of our own county. Prehistoric Tolu, Kentucky which stood facing the hunting grounds of our county was an amazing example of Mound Builder's work here. Tolu was a walled city like ancient Jerusalem and Babylon. White pioneers found the walls of that prehistoric city broken down and covered with debris in places. For 200 years pioneers and their progeny have hauled building stones from that wall. Many other stones have succumb- ed to disintegration, yet there are foundation stones in that wall which are estimated to weigh a ton and more. Moreover a subway led under that wall and under the ground to a spring of copious waters almost a quarter of a mile away and which was securely hidden from the eyes of strangers by a high creek bank and willow growths. South of that city something like a hundred acres are cov- ered from three to five feet deep with chippings from river shells. I examined these studiously and found a number of shells which are not to be seen in the Ohio river in our day, and if I interpret geology correctly they belonged, or at least some of them, to shell animals that 6 are extinct in our age. We may safely conclude that Ancient Tolu, whatever name Mound Builders knew it by, was a busy trinket factory, a mint, and banking center; because as their artifacts prove, they used a shell money system. Indians might have borrowed the use of wam- pum from them. Prehistoric Corrals On the north edge of Hardin County, and which at one time was within its limits, are yet to be seen the wreckage of The Pounds walls. These walls extending east and west from the gateway were really one wall al- most a quarter of a mile in length. Oldest men whom I questioned in my boyhood days agreed that this wall was six feet thick; but some believed that this wall and the one around Old Stone Fort on the same mountain trend were originally eight feet high, while others believed they were as much as ten or even twelve feet high, especially near the gateways and at the ends. These were at first believed to be Indian forts; for the wreckage of eight or ten have been discovered in our Ozark ranges. Some Philadelphia scholars came to Shawneetown in pioneer days and proceeded to make a thorough examination of The Pounds. Their verdict was that those structures were pounds built for corralling ani- mals. One mark that they relied upon for their conclu- sion was the site of an old buffalo wallow, which may yet be seen just below the only spring on The Pounds.- An old buffalo trail and a wallow is to be seen at Old Stone Fort, as well as in other places where similar inclosures were built. Evidences are rather conclusive that these pounds were built by Mound Builders to entrap buffalo, deer, and perhaps wild sheep and goats. A number of gaps in bluffs near the center of our county were also closed by high rock walls, no doubt for the same purposes of entrapping animals when they annually came to our lountains for winter shelter and deergrass provender. Uncle John Bishop, who taught the writer to bunt in his early teens, pointed out two bluff-gaps in the Rock Creek bluffs, where walls had been thrown down by men i for building stones for chimneys, flag stones for walkways, etc. He furthermore said that there were a half-dozen such walls or parts of them inclosing gaps in those bluffs when he himself was a boy. I le George Joyner, a pioneer settler of Stone Fort, in answer to boyish questions of the writer told of driving deer into Old Stone Fort, and of the advantages of that ill- closure for corralling animals. The South Fork of Saline river hugs closely to that bluff, and as it follows a north- easterly course there for more than a mile it has or did have a high bank on the north shore. Animals coming to that high bank in seeking to elude drivers or pursuers, natur; Ily followed up the stream, but instead of finding a cross]?;:;,', they encountered a bank growing more precip- itous, till at length it turned into a bluff; then farther up they came to the gateway into the inclosure When they entered that, they were inclosed by a bluff on the south a hundred feet high, and a half-moon shaped wall on the north joining hard at the bluff edge on the west. Cer- tainly no ancient Nimrod could have selected a better site for corralling animals anywhere else in those mountains. The Fat Man's Grief Sin uld a frightened animal jump over the bluff, it could be followed by what pioneers called "The Fat Man's Grief. '" This is a path leading down the bluff so narrow that ; fat man who attempts to descend by it may be brougl t to grief. Strang* *o say, there is a fat man's grief on th w< stern limb of The Pounds bluff, one in Johnson * cid another in Jackson County, all leading down fro d ci rr lis. No doubt those narrow passages w< ■ s< iected or worked out to permit men, but not ani- on U ! I< scend the bluffs. Uncle William Winters, of Civil War fame, now in his nineties, and Uncle Owen Curry his nephew in his i ighties tell of corralling deer in The Pounds. One, day they drove two into the gateway, which they left guarded by two trusty dogs; but when the deer discovered thai they v/< r< hemmed, they jumped over the bluff into the lops of the timber below. One jumped into the fork of a small hickory tree, which splitting down .1 little way held the deer fast, where it died before they fell the tree. They did not find the other at all. They believe that the boughs of the trees and underbrush bore it un- crippled to the ground, securing its escape. The stones in The Pounds wall before they were bat- tered and broken were of a flag-stone nature weighing from about 50 to 75 pounds. They are of the same con- sistency as those under the bluff in a drainway about a quarter of a mile from the wall. In that day long before it was discovered that steam could lift the lid of a teaket- tle, those thousands of stones were cither carried around and up that steep bluff-way, or were drawn upon the bluff by thongs and ropes. Both means might have been used, but either or both required an immense amount of labor. Mound Builders Not Indians l\ was once written in our histories that these pre- historic structures were the workmanship of Indians for forts, but this conjecture is a historical error. Nature built the only fort an Indian ever wished for, because am- bush was his fort. Neither was he a builder. He did not build anything or work at any trade. Looking upon all as menial, he pursued his chase or war-path, leaving his improvised tepee to be built by squaws and Neither did Indians build the massive walls of ancie u, or dig its subway to that city's water supply. >1 build the stone bison traps and pounds found in Hardin County and in every other county in these Ozark spurs and ranges. The Mound Builder was altogether a different man from the Indian. He was a larger man than either In- dians or Caucasians. He had a long head, which ethnolo- gists call a dolichocephalic head, while the American In- dian had a round head with a cephalic index of 80 and more. It is now believed that the two races came from different continents; and that oft-repeated question of "How did the Mound Builders first and the Indians later come to America?" have been recently and rather con- clusively answered. Geodetic surveys prove that the mighty centrifugal forces of the earth are gradually inching the massive land divisions towards the equator, leaving more room towards the poles for seas and bays. The artic coasts are known as sinking coasts. They believe that 8000 years ago Mound Builders could have crossed by way of Greenland and Labrador dry shod to America. They probably be- longed to that ancient stalwart Neanderthal Race. Their cranial and skeletal measurements are similar. It might have been that prehistoric race of gigantic men that Moses referred to when he wrote. "In those days there were giants upon the earth." Animal Ascendencies Mound Builders came to our country in time to build an empire in the Mississippi Valley before what Zoologists call "The Buffalo Ascendency." This was one of the strangest freaks known of the animal kingdom. How- ever scientists claim that prehistoric Hardin County has known two of these freaks (I may call these for the use of a better term). The saurian ascendency first reigned su- premely here. Along the shores of our rivers where our homes and towns now stand there stalked big oil-, lizzards a hundred feet long and beside which an elephant 10 would have appeared a mere midget. Furthermore flying from spur to spur of our Ozark hills, maybe all the way from High Knob to the Ben Taylor Tower, were pterodac- tyls, which had wing-spreads outmeasuring the wings of our largest air-planes and beak-like jaws and teeth more dangerous in appearance than those of alligators. It is said that man had not come to live in our county at that time, and the writer knows one man who is pleased that he missed that ascendency of brontosaurs, dinosaurs, and pterodactyls in prehistoric Hardin County. However the American Bison ascendency played a rather conspicuous role on the stage with all three races of men in our hills. Early white men standing on a bluff or other prominence have estimated that they have seen herds of buffaloes like a sea on the plains, and having, they believed, a million head. Perhaps in order to break up such overcharged herds, they had a habit of dashing into a panic stricken rush called a buffalo stampede. Pioneers claimed that this was the most fearful sight ever witnessed on the Great Plains of America. Under the thunderous roar of a buffalo stampede, it is said that the earth trembled as if it were in the throes of a mighty quake. Early historians believed that Indians drove Mound Builders from their vast empire in the Mississippi Valley, but some later scholars believe that it is more probable that they were driven from their homes by the untamable buffalo ascendency. What few they could trap in moun- tain pounds in Hardin and her sister counties did not effect their mad onrush. Be this as it may, it is well known that the mad, stampeding buffalo held Indian prowess in check on the Great Plains. The scattered tribes that settled there were driven in by stronger and more war-like tribes, and then they sought bluffs, rugged lands, or forested strips along rivers for protection from the beastly buffalo and his wild 11 stampedes. Buffaloes were the tyrants of the American plains from the Rocky mountains to the beginning of the. Hardwood Belt in the state of Ohio. That beastly tyranny might have domineered the vast plains of America for two or three thousand years without a waver or shadow of turning, till the coming of the in- vincible White Man on his horse. The buffalo had no fear of man nor of beast; but when man sat astride of a horse, that seemed to form an impression upon the bully beast of Pegasus, the winged horse, and from it he fled pell-mell. About 1870 a fad for Buffalo rugs and robes leaped into vogue as if it came in overnight both in Amer- ica and Europe. During the next thirty years it is esti- mated that two millions of these animals were shot down every year. Sixty million buffaloes fell upon the plains; Iheir hides were taken and their bodies left for beasts and birds. History has no record or anything like that destruction of animal life. Thereafter no more buffaloes were driven into the pounds of Hardin County, or deer either. His stampedes had stood at bay two strong races of men, but the third race brought buffaloes to extinction or near it in the unbelievable space of thirty years. The Red Man of the Forests However, previous to this event Indians followed Mound Builders in that prehistoric drama of Hardin County and other Ozark regions. It is believed that per- haps the Red Man held possession of our county more than a thousand years before the coming of Europeans. Recent ethnologists hold that there can be no mistake that the American Indian is a descendant of the ancient Mongolian Race of Central Asia. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. aptly called the Desert of Gobi "The Dead Heart of Asia." From that mad climate 5000 years ago, Mongo- lians fled to the four winds. The sinking Alaska Penin- sula was then a wide isthmus over which unnumber J tribes crossed to America. 12 It is one of the discoveries of prehistory that the tribes of mankind multiply prolifically in the tonicy cli- mates of northlands, while they suffer loss and decima- tion in the pestilential south; hence tribes generally and steadily move from north to south. The mighty empires of southern lands like Rome, Babylon, and Jerusalem have fallen before onrushing wild tribes from northlands. At the coming of the White Man to our country this move- ment was in full force and effect among Indian tribes. The fierce Iroquois were driving Algonquian tribes southward from New York and the Great Lakes. The Algonquians had pushed the Shawnees from Ohio and Indiana down to Shawneetown, and Tolu with Hardin County lying between as their chief hunting grounds. In return the Shawnees were bloodily clashing with tribes south of them, which gave that region the name of Ken- tucky; that is, "Dark and Bloody Grounds." At this time as Cherokees said, "the Pale Faces" came, but the Shaw- nees called white men "Big Knives," because they carried swords. Prehistoric Trails Now I am edging upon the borders of history, which belong to other writers in our committee. But the line between tradition and history has never been surveyed. Like hope and prayer, it is difficult to tell where one ends and the other begins. I must not close without adding a few words pertaining to the famous Indian trails of Har- din County. These trails virtually all connected Shaw- neetown, Equality, and Tolu. These were famous Shaw- nee cities, but they were noted cities under Cherokee rule, before Shawnees drove them southward; and we have al- ready noted evidence which prove that they were also famous under the rule and prowess of Mound Builders. Furthermore there can be little doubt that those trails were well-trodden paths when nuts were first jarred from 13 topmost twigs of our giant forests by resounding war- whoops of "Big Injuns." North and west Shawnees were held in check by Illini and Tamaroas, which were like- wise Algonquin tribes. Illinois was named for the Illini, which meant Big Men. The Saline and Ohio rivers were the main avenues of trade between these cities. Birch-bark canoes carried salt from the "Salt Spring" of Equality and the "Salt Licks" of Shawneetown to Tolu for that city and a num- ber of villages on the Hardin County side. These canoes returned with supplies of shell beads, trinkets, and wam- pum from the shell factories of Tolu. 'But the main land trail w r hich traversed our county began at Equality proceeding southeastward to the Salt Spring, where it was joined by a branch trail from Shawneetown. From that juncture it pro- ceeded to Potts Kill Spring, where there was a vil- lage. Here it branched and passing through the moun- tain gap near the present site of Thos. Clanton's Store, it entered Shawnee Hollow, and from time immemorial has been known as Shawnee Hollow Trail. This crossed the mountain pass again near Keeling Church and School into Hosick Creek, which led on to the river opposite Tolu. This trail was famous for its game long after the White Man came, and it must have been even more so before a Big Knife had set foot upon it. It would be only a mat- ter of conjecture to try to estimate the number or amount of flint arrow heads, hatchets, skinning knives, pipes, etc. that have been picked up for the past 200 years along the trail threading its way through that deep hollow. How- ever, one could safely place the estimate in tons of Indian artifacts. Another trail which was really a branch trail slipped up Pounds Hollow to The Pounds, and from there it fol- lowed Big Creek to the Illinois Furnace and joined the Shawnee Hollow trail as it was leaving that hollow for 14 the Keeling Gap and Hosick Creek depression. Anoth- er followed the trend of the mountains southwestward from Equality to Herod Gap where it also divided. One trail crossing the valleys of Rose and Hicks creeks avoid- ed the mountains by following Walrabs Mill Creek till it also joined the Big Creek and Shawnee Hollow trails. The other branch followed Big Grandpier creek to a few villages near some large springs along the river. From these it followed the river passing the sites of Rosiclare and Elizabethtown to their village and ferry near the mouth of Hosick Creek. The Bloody Fords Road Trail These were well-traveled hunting trails following creeks and valleys always well supplied with game and water. In fact hunting necessarily had to be done more or less by trails, because it was a tiresome task to travel through the high grass most seasons of the year. How- ever the shortest route connecting Equality and Shawnee- town with Cave-in-Rock and Tolu, and the one travelled for other intercourse than hunting and fishing trips was that famous trail taken over by White Men and named Fords Road for Esquire James Ford, who rebuilt Fords Ferry and Tolu. This noted trail divided towards the southern terminus into two branches for Fords Ferry cine? Cave-in-Rock, where there were large Shawnee vil- lages at the coming of Caucasian Big Knives. If we may rely upon the traditionary^ history of Shaw_ nees, that 25-miles of path was famous as a war-path. Here Cherokees and other tribes driven southward met their Waterloo defeats under such famous Shawnee Chiefs as Logan the Eloquent and Tecumseh the Wise. Here also that favorite path was marked and colored with blood when Shawnee later clashed with Big Knives. Nevertheless that 25-miles did not cease to flow with human blood even after Indians were gone, if we are to believe the voluminous traditions of pioneers; for in those 15 ( ; wh ii Tories and bandits fled westward from what 1 i U( d "The Tyrannical Government of George Wash- ington and Pat Henry," they set up a rebellious rule of clans, hoping to Isold Hardin County for their own, and men continued, (to use the speech of that bloody path) to "bite the dust of Fords Road." Many of those Indian trails became roadways in pioneer days, and some of them are traveled to this day. ois Route No. 34 slips through Herod Gap and I tcln s as the Indian's most western trail of our county did to furnish travel both up and down the Ohio river. So also Route Xo. 1, though much straighter and shorter, follows the Equality Trail pretty well of Indian days and of Fords Road of pioneer days, and there is still a road avoiding the mountains by following" Shawnee Hollow to Elizabethtown. But by far the most famous road and by far the most notorious is the old trail of Fords Road seen in part by State Route No. 1. Whole families weirdly disappeared on that road never to be heard from again. Virtually every mile of it has its murder story as well as its ghost story. The folklores of three races of mankind which occulty hover about that most notorious path in the Mis- sissippi Valley are hoary and bloody, fantastic and mar- velous. In Indian days as well as in pioneer days it was also spoken of as "the Road of the Werwolf." If Indian traditions are to be given credence, hundreds of arrows sped from the finest archers at that meddlesome spook, but no hair was ever skelped from it by Indian archery. Likewise fearless pioneer marksmen whose aim was true with the old flintlocks spent many a ball and the powder which followed it with a whirling spurt of fire at that strange loafer of Fords Road, but no marksman ever drew blood from that magic target. Honest pioneers from that race of men honored for truth and veracity claim that at least three men at different times had tried to kick the Werwolf off Fords Road, but that their home-made boots W slipped through that vicious-looking animal, as if they had kicked through a shadow. Many a brave Red Man and sturdy White Man have taken to forest paths travel- ling some distances around rather than tread the dust of that Werwolf Road after sunset. Modern readers will ask me, "Now, Mr. Writer, why are you writing this ghostly stuff? Do you not know that we don't believe a word of this large volume of folklore told by Indians and pioneers also?" That's perfectly all right; readers may toll me that and get by with it easily; but if those brave old Indians or sturdy White Men were living, I would not advise any one to tell them that thev were lying and try to get bv with it. The Noble Shawnee s Shawnee Indians who called the forest-covered hills and sheltered valleys of Hardin County, "Our Happiest Hunting Grounds," were intelligent and upright people. They would fight before they would break a trust or be- tray a friend, and their word sealed by a smoke from the peace-pipe was as good as any man's bond. It has been said that Chief Tecumseh was the wisest unlettered man that ever lived. He preached a crusade uniting Red Men to resist encroachment of Big Knives. His war trumpet was a long-necked gourd said to be five feet long. When that mighty trumpet sounded, Indian war-whoops also sounded in the din of battle. In the battle of the Thames near Lake Erie, however, Tecumseh fell; his trumpet ceased, and Indians fled to the four winds. When that wise Chief who ruled Hardin County went down to rise no more, Indian rule and gallantry also went down to rise no more. A third race had come to possess these hills. It is said that Frederick the Great, who was the most learned man of his times, was a great admirer of history; but when he found time to read, he would say 17 to his servant, "Jimmy, bring me my liar." The servant understood that the king wished his history brought to him. All History Biased So wise men in general have held history to be far from an unbiased report of the acts of men and nations; but it is the humble opinion of the writer of this brief sketch that the biggest untruth in all history is that biased story of the American Indian found in United States his- tories. There were hundreds of treaties entered into between Europeans and Indians, but these were all broken by White Men, except one. That one made under the historic elm with William Penn was the only one never sworn to and the only one never broken. Bancroft, the most trustworthy of American historians, says, "There was never a drop of Quaker blood shed by an Indian, or of Indian blood shed by a Quaker." They told William Penn on that famous day that they would live in peace with him and his tribe so long as the sun and moon con- tinued to shine, and they kept their word. The facts are that domineei^ng Big Knives broke all teatries, and tried to enslave Red Men by whole tribes. Failing in this, they proceeded to drive them from their homes and lands, shooting them down as they would shoot s of jungles, and because Indians would not succumb to such inhuman treatment and raised their hands in de- fense of their homes and families, American history wrote them down as savages unworthy the consideration of civilized people. But as I was leading up to say, the Shawnees who ruled our own county were a learned people; that is, if one would be allowed to use the term "learned" for the quaint knowledge and wisdom they cultivated and re- vered. They had and wished to have only one book, but that was the "Book of Nature given by the Great Spirit." The habits and habitudes of animals, trees with their 18 fruits, barks, and juices, and herbs with their healing properties were common knowledge to them. They knew the stars of the firmament and grouped them into constel- lations which agree so well with Mongolian astrology that there can be no mistake that they came from a common source. They furthermore were a chaste people, true to family vows and ties. Divorce and illegitimacy were vir- tually unknown among them. When the deadly milk-sick plague swooped down up- on pioneer Hardin County with an awful death scourge for man and beast, settlers began to move to settlements north and west towards Vandalia, because they superstit- iously reasoned among themselves that these hills infest- ed by wicked clans were at length justly cursed by heaven's decree. However, in the time of that dire ca- lamity, it was a Shawnee medicine woman, who led Doc- tor Anna Bigsby into the forests to teach her "White Sis- ter" the cause of the milk sick plague. She showed her the deadly snake-root herb, saying that it must be first destroyed before White people and their cattle could live in these mountains. The Shawnee's Signal System When I assert that Shawnees used a system of wire- less telegraphy in the hills of our county, it may surprise some readers who have been schooled to that adverse view of Indians advanced by U. S. history. Pioneer Big Knives did not understand that ingenius invention, and were many times made to wonder how Red Men knew that their armies were approaching even beyond rivers and mountains. Though many times generals had taken the utmost precautions to keep strategic plans and movements from being revealed, yet in some mysterious way Indians foreknew and prepared bloody ambush attacks, or fled to safety before an army approached. Near Indian village sites along the northern ranges 19 of our county were for a long time seen what early set- tlers called "coalings." This term also later was applied to the iron mining regions of our county, because in them were many sites where charcoal had been burnt for use in blast furnaces for smelting iron. Charred wood is a lasting substance, and remained many years to mark places where Shawnees raised their signal fires. An Indian lived so near the breast of nature that he knew winds and weather intimately. He knew the day when smoke would rise steadily towards the zenith cup of the heavens. Weather bureaus have since discovered that the Creator wisely planned to water the lands by sending vast whirlwinds from west to east collecting and distributing vapors. From two to five of these pass over us a week usually with higher wind and falling weather. But there are a few hours, often a whole day, as the cen- ters of these cyclonic movements are passing, during which the air becomes very quiet, often sultry and ap- parently breathless, but during these hours the air is steadily rising and .carrying smoke upward in straight columns. The mother buzzard knows these hours and days quite well, and she leaves her bluff retreats of our coun- ty with her bevies, and without efforts of wings or pinions they circle upward, being lifted by rising currents aloft to high altitudes, where in their circles they naturally turn anti-clockwise, as all whirlwinds turn over our county, and as some timber also twists in growing. Li ewise the Shawnee's instinctive knowledge of na- ture led him to prepare for the centers of rising atmos- pheric drifts in order to send up his smoke signals from his telegraphic smoke-pit. A blue smoke spoke a certain message, a white smoke another, and a black smoke still another. At times a blue cone rose from one point, while from an adjacent hill a white cone rose, or maybe two would rise of the same color, and on the night following 20 perhaps their fires would paint the heavens with a radiant glow. All these signals were read and interpreted by allied chiefs far away. A number of these coalings were left on the Oldham Hills of our county lying near the Saline and Ohio rivers. Night fires and day columns of smoke on that high spur could be seen far up the Ohio and Wabash to the north, up the Saline to the west, and up Tread Water eastward in Kentucky. White men passed up their notices of these smoke messages, as a casual fire or burning tepee, and thought no more about it, but it came to light many years later that on the northern hills of Hardin County in pre- historic days there was a wireless system of telegraphy, and that this system explained how Red Men came to know many things, which many white people believe they received through revelations from their prophets fortune tellers. Nevertheless this as well as other knowl- edge and inventions reveal to us that Hardin County was inhabited in prehistoric days by an intelligent race, a brave and noble race of men. This bush-whacking warfare continued in H County till 1813 bloodily fought between three tribes, in their free-for-all war. These were the Cherokees, the ./nees, and the Big Knives (White settlers). How- ever, it is believed that Cherokees moved on southward ta!:ing less part north of the Ohio river after 1800. It is known that Tecuniseh was in Hardin County Terri- tory and in Tolu, Kentucky as late as 1808, organizing his forces against Big Knives. In 1811 William Henry Harri- son whipped the Shawnees out of Tippecanoe, their only remaining town in Indiana, and sent them scouting into the Illinois Territory. Hardin County Abandoned In the War of 1812 Teetmisoh advis< i join tne bril .Inst the Big Knives. The British com- 21 missioned him as brigadier general, but he was killed in the battle of the Thames near Detroit in 1813. After this his brother, Tenskwatawa the Prophet, took command as ruling chief of Shawnees, and virtually gave up the fight. Under his rule Shawneetown and Tolu were abondoned, and Hardin County with them, as the Shawnees moved westward along the Ozark Ranges. So at the time Illi- nois became a state in 1818 there were very few Indians in our county, and they desired peace with the Big Knives. In 1829 the Indian Territory was set aside by the U. S. Congress as a permanent reservation for Indians. In the next few years many tribes, which had been reduced to dwindling number in their wars with Big Knives, were moved to reservations in that Territory. Among them were the Shawnees, but a few scattering families hiding in the Ozarks here and there remained here many years. They were called "Stowaways," because they had dodged officers in their work of moving Indians to western reser- vations, but they gave pioneer settlers no more trouble in the way of warfare. From this time on Hardin County's main trouble was in establishing law and order among a lawless class of river pirates, rogues, and highwaymen, who gave her trouble for a number of years. Gala Days of Irish Miners The iron industry did as much later on to invite peo- pue to Hardin County, as her beautiful hills, healthful waters, and abundant food supplies had been doing from time immemorial; but here history begins, and I must close for other writers. However, many fine stories have come down to us from those gala days through the chan- nels of tradition; hence I may claim an interest in them as a writer of prehistory. Yet I shall venture only a clos- ing one. Uncle Riley Oxford who got his start in boy- hood days by hauling "pigs" (pig iron) from Martha Fur- 22 nace to the Elizabethtown landing, gave the writer a good story, which reveals iron-mining times quite well. Hardin County being the first and only mining sec- tion then in the West, very few here knew anything about iron mining. Uncle Riley said that many Irish workers who understood mining came to our county from the East, and that they were a gay set of fellows. One Sat- urday pay-day a nimble young fellow offered to wager a gallon of good whiskey that there was not a man on the job who could hit him with a club. Colonel Ferrell who was then in his prime of life and who had been somewhat of a fighter himself accepted the proffered wager. So the bully Irishman walked out with his shillalah in hand. An Irish shillalah is a stout cudgel about the size of a large hoe handle, but not so long. The hilarious crowd found one for Col. Ferrell, and gathered around the contestants to see the shillalah bout. The Colonel struck at and punched at the young Irishman rather light- ly at first, but each of his efforts was skillfully warded off with the shillalah of the practiced Irishman. At length the contest became more spirited and he caught a rather quick lick of Col. Ferrell's which jarred his hand painfully and angered the Colonel; whereupon he came back with a quick stroke intended to knock the bully down. Nevertheless the practiced shillalah again caught his club, jerking it from his hand and whirling it over the heads of by-standers into the brush. Then rubbing his hand, Colonel Ferrell exclaimed, "D- n him, fellows, draw out his gallon; I'll pay for it; pay for two before I'd fight him again!" 23 PIONEER HARDIN COUNTY By Robert A. Gustin French Occupancy In the year of 1692 the English settlers of Maryland were treated to a bit of excitement. Two hundred odd Shawnee Indians had appeared on the banks of the Sus- quehanna. There near the mouth of the river they squatted, as if they intended to make the spot their per- manent residence. Suspicious of the Indians' intentions the colonists sent officers to investigate — and found the leader was a Frenchman, Martin Chartier. Chartier was questioned and his siory recorded. According to it, he must have been the first man ever to travel the length of the Ohio — and strangely enough to the English offi- cials, his journey had been eastward. Upstream, he had travelled through over a thousand miles of unknown wil- derness before he and his band reached to most western outposts of the English. Perhaps a part of the Ohio, roughly between Pitts- burg] the falls at Louisville, had been seen a few years previously by LaSallc. But Chartier was undoubt- edly the first of any white man on the lower five hundred miles of the river. In 1679 he had been one of the men with LaSalle, when that explorer was on the Illinois river preparing for his first exploration of the Mississippi. La- Salle's harsh treatment had caused him to desert in Jan- uary 1680. after which he had wandered to the Ohio and Wabash Valleys, where he had made friends with the Shawnees. There he had lived for several years before he with his band migrated eastward, probably to escape punishment by the French government for his desertion. Martin Chartier: we have no definite proof, still we can feel pretty certain that he was the first White to touch what is now Hardin County, to trap its streams, explore 24 its forests and bills, Jive within its bounds. We can pic- ture him, dressed like his Indian companions in fringed buckskin shirt and loincloth, leather leggings and mocca- sins, carrying Indian weapons, the tomahawk and knife, in his belt, a bow and arrows (little chance of him possess, ing ammunition for a musket), beaching a canoe with a band of Shawnees before the great-mouthed cave which overlooked the Ohio, and there camping for the night, listening to his braves as they squatted before the camp- fire, telling legends of the place. Then, before the parly left the following morning on its way upstream to the creek of the licks to make a supply of salt for which the band had hungered for months, possibly Chartier scrawled his name and date among the Indian pictographs upon the cave walls. The first of all the white man names inscribed there — and like so many others, now erased by time along with the crude scrawls of French courcurs and voyagcurs who for eighty years after his visit camped there on voyages between Detroit and New Orleans along the Mauniec-Wabash- Ohio-Mississippi route with cargoes of furs or brandy and trade goods. Names which in turn were erased or covered by the English-speaking banditti and traders and trappers of the late seventeen hundreds, the settlers and boatmen of the eighteen hundreds, the tourists of today. There is no question but what the lug cave facing the Ohio river was widely known in early days. 1 1 is indi- cated on a number of old French maps made before 1750. In fact, "le caverne dans le roc.' 1 the c;ive-in-thc-rock, together with 'la riviere au sel," the river to the salt, were the only two landmarks shown for Southcastera Illinois. Even later, up until almost 18()0, references to the cave on maps and in a few scattered reports are about all the record there is concerning Hardin County territory. During that early period, the region, like the rest of the 25 Western Ohio Valley, was largely unsettled, and unex- plored except for a few hunters, it was visited only when river travellers camped upon its banks for the night. English Occupancy In 1766, just after the English had taken control of Illinois from the French, the commercial firm of Bayn- ton, Wharton and Morgan, in high hopes of creating a boom for the "Far Western Country", sent several con- voys of goods down the Ohio and up the Mississippi to the Kaskaskia and Gahokia settlements. The booms never materialized, and the firm went into the hands of receiv- ers; but the journals of the commanders of the boat con- voys were preserved; and from them we get our first English description of the Hardin County region: "Tuesday, March 25th. At eight o'clock this morning brought too at an island (it rained and blow'd very hard) opposite to which on the west side the river is a large rock with a cave in it. At nine sett off again, at one o'clock in the afternoon, it rained and blow'd so very hard was obliged to bring too, the gale continuing, en- camp'd for the night. Came about forty miles since six o'clock this morning. Passed several fine islands this day." With rain and gale, Jennings, the writer, must have been too busy to spend much time describing the country. However, later in the year, Captain Gordon heading another convoy writes: "August 2nd. We left the Wabash in the evening. Next morning we halted near the Saline or Salt Run — of which any quantity of good salt may be made. From this place the Deputies from the northern Nations were sent across the country by Mr. Croghan to the Illinois, to acquaint the Commandant and Indian people there of our arrival in these parts .... 26 August 6th .... In the morning we halted at Fort Massac, formerly a French Post, 120 miles below the mouth of the Wabash, & 11 below that of the Cherokee river (i. e. the Tennessee) The country 25 miles from the Wabash begins again to be mountainous, being the N. W. end of the Apalachian mountains (sic) which entirely terminate a small distance from the river. Northerly — they are between 50 & 60 miles across and are scarpt rocky precipices. Below them no more highlands are to be seen to w.rd as far as those that border the Mexican Provinces. The reason of the French's sending a garri- son to this place was to be a check on the Cherokee parties that came down the river of that name which is navi- gable for canoes from their upper towns and who harassed extremely the French traders intending to go among the Wabash and Shawnee Nations .... "Hunters from this post may be sent amongst the buffalo, any quantity of whose beef they can procure in proper season & salt may be got from the above mentioned Saline at an easy rate to cure it. . . . " Hardin County Battle Ground Gordon's journal was written in 1766. But the coun- try near Hardin County remained unchanged for almost forty more years. Buffalo was hunted here after 1800, when it was still unsettled by whites because it was dan- gerous territory — for Indians as well as whites. Here the Cherokees from south, the Iroquois from the east fought the Shawnee and the other Illinois tribes from the north and west in a continuous free-for-all scalp lifting. For years Southern Illinois was deserted except for roving bands of Indian hunters, or occasionally a small group of white hunters from Eastern Kentucky or Tennessee- such a group as George Rogers Clark found at the mouth of the Tennessee River in 1779 at the time he brought his men down the Ohio on his way to a victorious cam- paign against the British at Kaskaskia. 27 Even in 1801 a river traveler wrote that the whole stretch of river between Louisville and Natchez was noth- ing but howling wilderness except for small settlements at Redbank and Yellowbank, a government post at Fort Massac, and a cabin below the big cave. The Coming of the Settlers. Two years, however, was the beginning of a new era. In 1803-1804 Southern Illinois was ceded to the United States by the Indians; and in that year the Louisiana Ter- ritory was purchased. This purchase gave the Union control of the whole of the Mississippi river. Until that time, the lower part, including the port at New Orleans, had been in the hands of either the Spanish or the French. These nations had kept shipments of American produce from being floated down to New Orleans and trans: pen by ocean vessels to Europe or the Eastern States. had delayed the settling of the Mississippi and Ohio Valleys, as there was no other way for s of thai time to get their farm products to :i n ir- by floating it down-river. with the Mississippi opened, a tide of emi flowed westward from the overcrowded and discontented frontiersmen from Kentucky and Tennessee, whose had pushed through the Cumberland Gap a gen- eration before, and who, feeling crowded wheneve r settled within rifle-shot, were pushing still : the west; backwoodsmen and Scotch-Irish m the Carolinas and Virginias, leaving worn-out hill farms and the country of slave-worked plantations which they could not compete; enterprising Yan en and Germans fom low wage-paying factories tsylvania or New York and New England; a [of emigrants from persecution in Ireland or es in England. pari of this tide of migration to wh I I . J - ! ■■ states of Indiana and Illinois stopped in the 28 region of Hardin County. Some of these folk, from the eastern end of the Ohio, came down river in flatboats, keel boats, and arks, bringing their few household fur- nishings, their stock and farm tools by water. But most- ly Hardin County settlers came overland across the wil- derness trails of Tennessee and Kentucky. Their possessions were few — even the best of ox- carts or conestaga wagons had tough sledding over the rough hill-and-valley trails. But the men were back- woodsmen by birth, their wives and daughters of back- woodsmen. Indian fighting and hunting had been the men's professions for generations. And in those trades they have never been excelled before or since. With them, as with the Indians before them, farming was a side line to supplement a food supply of game. For them in the rough hard life they had to lead any belongings except the most essential were a burden. When they traveled, they traveled light so that they could travel far. With the lone hunter such possessions might con- sist solely of weapons: the flintlock long-rifle with its powder and shot, together with a knife and hand-axe, while inside belted hunting shirt lay an emergency supply of venison jerky, johnny-cake, and bag of parched corn for food. Such lone hunters rarely built more than brush lean- to shelters. They did not settle permanently. It was the more serious, true backwoodsmen rather than the hunter who cleared and settled Hardin County. Their possessions, brought by slow ox-cart up through Tennessee and Kentucky, consisted of a few cooking ves- sels, a spinning wheel and loom, and perhaps quilted or pelt coverlets for the cabin; draw-knife, saw and axe for tools; the iron parts of shovel, hoe, scythe and plow for farming; and of course the precious sacks of seed for planting. Possibry some wheat and oats; but never with- out seed corn — and with it, to be planted Indian fashion in Hi c same patch, seeds for squash, pumpkin and climb- 29 ing beans. Nor were seeds for fruit trees forgotten, par- ticularly peaches; for the frontiersman had long known that the peach was a versatile article. It was luscious fresh from the tree; dried, it was a delicacy throughout the long winter; and better still, or so it was thought, it could be made into potent peach brandy — a product which with whiskey was commonly used in that day both as a substitute for water and for cash in trading with the small boat stores which floated from isolated settlement to settlement down the river. Today the hill land of Hardin and other Ozark coun- ties is classed far below prairie land in fertility. But during this early period Hardin had advantages with which the prairies could not compete. Indians still held title to most of the flat upstate and few trails led through it; and too, most of it was so far from water highways that crops raised there cost more to get to market than they were worth. But farms in the Hardin County region had access lo the busiest and best river highway of them all : the Ohio- Mississippi route. There a number of backwoodsmen came to settle for a good purpose. They calculated to find the hill country on which they built their cabins free from the agues and fevers which were so common among folks living elsewhere in swampy flat lands. Besides, most of these settlers had come from hill country; they felt at home among the Illinois Ozarks. The hollows were filled with game; the buffalo, bear, and deer for food and skins; the beaver, mink, otter, and others still common today for pelts; the wild turkey, the migrating ducks and geese, and the small game for table delicacies. There is no doubt but what the backwoodsmen found a hunter's paradise in the forest with which the whole Hardin County region was then covered. The forest it- self was a source of income. The navigable Ohio was near by. The huge trees of oak, walnut, poplar and 30 maple could be logged to the river, rafted downstream to Mississippi towns and sold. But most of this splendid timber never saw market. Its real use to the settler was for building the cabin — and of course for fuel. Other- wise trees were a nuisance— to be girded by the settler as soon as possible, and when dead the following year, felled and burned at a logrolling frolic. Thereafter corn and potato patches were planted in the shallow-plowed stump-field which circled the cabin, after which it was up to the ambitions of the individual as to how much extra land he would clear, how big a crop he could raise with his yoke of oxen, how many head of stock he could acquire and care for. Extent of Early Settlements Usually, up until 1814, there was little clearing of land by settlers; for not until 1812-14 could land be bought in Southern Illinois, the settlers being squatters allowed by the government to remain upon the land, but with no rights of possession. However, in 1814 a government land office was es- tablished in Shawneetown. There land was sold in quarter sections: first at public auction; or when no bid- ders were found, later on at a minimum price of $2.00 per acre, payable in installments over a three-year period. An 1818 land-plat map shows almost all Hardin County land bordering the Ohio had been taken up. In addition there was a large block taken out along Big Creek and other blocks near the mouth of Saline Creek, in the Harris Creek bottoms, and at Karber's Ridge. In that year it is estimated that four hundred to five hundred people must have lived within the present boun- daries of Hardin County — a well settled region for that time. Yet even ten years earlier the county had been settled along the river banks. This is described in the journal of Fortesque Cuming, who made a flatboat trip down the Ohio in 1808. Here, several paragraphs arc de- 31 voted to the region between Diamond Island, below Evansville, and Fort Massac, all of which is connected with Hardin County history: Shawneetown and Early Records No history of Hardin County would be complete without mention of Shawneetown. Up until 1816 all of Hardin was included in the county of Gallatin, of which Shawneetown was the county seat. After 1816 and until 1839 southwestern Hardin was included in Pope County. But the northeastern part remained in Gallatin until 1847. Through all these years, particularly the early ones> Shawneetown was the metropolis of Southern Illinois. It was never a large place; floods and a malarial location kept its size down to less than one hundred buildings; but it was a thriving place with its brick bank, its news- paper, its brick hotel where Lafayette visited in 1825, its busy blacksmith shops, general stores, its taverns crowded with emigrants — and it would be hard to overestimate its importance. Chicago could be walled off and cause less inconvenience to the population of near-by states today than would have been caused in early times if there had been no Shawneetown. It was the port of entry to the Illinois country. From it ran the best and most traveled trail to Kaskaskia and the other Mississippi settlements. The salt works which supplied the Middle West with most of this article, pro- ducing over 300,000 bushels a year, were located on Saline Creek only ten miles away. This salt was routed through Shawneetown to ports up and down the rivers of Ohio and Mississippi. In other ways, too, the town was a part of first im- portance. It was near the junction of the Wabash, which was an important water highway in early pioneer days. Farm produce from the Wabash Valley settlements was brought to Shawneetown and sold to speculators who shipped it on to New Orleans. 32 Manufactured goods, brought up the Mississippi and Ohio by keel boats or down the Ohio from Pittsburgh and Cincinnati were unloaded and sold here. It was here that the first postoffice was located; here the early settlers in Hardin County came to do their trading, exchanging pelts and pork, both on the hoof and as bacon, and their crops of potatoes and corn for iron tools and pans, ammunition and glassware, muslins from England, tea from India, and other items common today, but which to the early inhabitants were prized because they were touches of civilization. Here, in Shawneetown, on May 24th, 1813 two flat- boats were warped together and moored at the low, un- Jeveed landing; and with the long row of river-front cabins as a background, the first Court of Common Pleas of the new County of Gallatin was opened with L. White, J. C. Slocum, and Gabriel Greathouse, Gentlemen, pre- siding. On that day this flatboat court heard the petition of one Lewis Barker for the inhabitants of Rock-and-Cave (later Cave-in-Rock) Township to establish a road from Barker's ferry to the U. S. Salines at Francis Jourdans. The petition was granted and viewers were appointed to survey the best route, these being: Lewis Barker, Phillip Coon, Issac Casey, Chisem Estes, Francis and Joseph Jour- dan. Q 1 * ihe f