BUILDING MATERIALS. The earliest settlers along the streams had of course plenty of trees. They made log houses and other buildings, rail or pole fences, and other crude conveniences. Soon they began to make boards. One James Jackson had a sawmill in which logs were raised up and sawed by one man above and one below with a crosscut saw. They cut basswood, elm, oak, and other trees, and did good work. John Dukes had a horse power sawmill in 1839, but this must have been a small affair for local use. Prior to that time there were several waterpower mills in the region. Mr. Myron Prince had a mill on Spoon River, eight to ten rods above the present Slack-water bridge, "in a very early day." This mill served people as far as Toulon. There was a dam, and a bridge not far from the present one. In time of flood people used to gather from far and near to save the bridge from driftwood by keeping the same cleared out with chains, oxen, and other devices. The mill burned in 1847. Meantime Mr. (Thompson? or Erastus?) Peet had built an excellent framed mill on a tiny stream northeast of Princeville, but often did not have water. The men of the countryside, to protect their facilities for lumber, after the fire of 1847, turned out and in one day took down, moved, and set up at Slackwater this Peet mill, which was bought by Myron Prince, owner of the mill that burned. (S. S. Slane interview.) The first Slackwater mill furnished the lumber for the school house built in district No. 3 in 1844 (some say 1846) and for many other buildings far and near. They made unplaned flooring there, also unplaned siding which was used for new houses or for covering old log houses (interview with Mr. F. B. Blanchard). The saw mill was a fully equipped institution in a very early day. All the mills were of the up and down type, not circular. (Mr. Blanchard.)
Other very important mills were at Rochester, established in 1836 and run day and night; on Walnut Creek; a college owned mill at Jubilee which had also steam power as a reserve. Much lumber was imported
from farther away, perhaps because the supply of good trees at home was insufficient.
On this latter point some of the old men say that because of prairie fires the timber then was not so good as later. We know too that the owners of timber came to feel that the supply was not nearly enough and hence held it at very high prices before the opening of the Illinois and Michigan canal. Mr. S. S. Cornwell built his house on Sec. 21 with lumber which he brought with oxen from Ellisville, Fulton County, forty miles away. Mr. Lemuel Auten thinks he got lumber of better quality there. It was not uncommon to bring lumber by oxen from Chicago when returning from delivering a load of wheat or other produce. Jonathan Nixon, a cabinet maker who came to Princeville in 1840, got lumber from Slackwater for all the coffins used in the community for many years. The real or feared scarcity of timber is seen in Charles F. Cutter's assertion that most of the lawbreaking cases of the time concerned thefts of timber from U. S. or non-resident's land. Of a specially godly man in White's Grove neighborhood it was said far and wide that "he never stole any timber". Joseph Armstrong, after long search, in 1855, bought five acres of "poor timber nine miles from home" and with it fenced his quarter section.
But there were other building materials. B. F. and J. Z. Slane operated a widely patronized stone quarry where they got out both sandstone and limestone. They cut wood and burned limestone, making lime for mortar and for an excellent plaster used by all who did not want a white plaster bad enough to send oxen to Chicago to get it. Austin and T. P. Bouton had a quarry on Sec. 25, Thomas Morrow on Sec. 12, and there were others in surrounding townships. There were brick yards too. one at Jubilee College, and several others within reasonable distance in Akron and other townships.
FENCES. The zig-zag rail fence, and poles fastened to posts, were early very common. The most
primitive attempt of the prairie farmer was a ditch, flanked by a bank of piled up sods. This was very unsatisfactory and its use was not widespread or long continued. A pole fence was often made by driving posts with a little horse operated pile-driver, and poles were nailed to the posts. Hedge was not much known or used in the 50's. However nobody fenced much except his cultivated land. Stock ran at large. E. B. Calhoun says his father had horses (branded) which ran miles from home for months at a time. Much of the north Jubilee timber seems to have been a haunt of stock that was turned out for the summer.
ROADS. Mr. Arch Smith says that when he came in 1844 there was no public road except the state road from Peoria to Rock Island. There were no roads on the section lines. In going to school children had to cross the sloughs and get through the slough grass often ten feet high, as best they could. People built their own log bridges. Evidently every man had his own trail. Enough trails coming together made a road. Everybody wanted to go diagonally across the other man's land, but the trails had to be diverted when they came to fenced tracts, and this threw the roads more and more onto their present locations on section lines. There are many old gullies worn out by cross-country travel, as for example, one across the north end of Sec. 28 where we can still trace a section of the route between Princeville and Farmington. This route enters the West half of the North East quarter of Sec. 28 about 50 rods South of the North end and runs a little South of West. It was used until S. S. Cornwell fenced in the North West quarter of the section. This road was already on the section lines farther East and after that followed the section lines for some distance West, although by an error of survey, the section line was here several rods too far to the North (Statement of Emanuel Keller and Andrew Martin) ; error corrected later. Even so late as during the war, there was a good deal of travel by opening and shutting "bars",
e.g, the road between Secs. 21 and 22 was not open "till late" (Says E. B. Calhoun).
Definite data about roads and fences is not very plentiful, but it seems probable that by 1860 most of the main traveled roads in the township were substantially as now, except inside of Sec. 21. Mr. Joseph Armstrong says that when he came in 1855 about half of the prairie between him and Princeville was unfenced, and he names three people who lived "along the road".
Dr. Mott came to Princeville in 1837, and Jerome Sloan says that in 1839, Dr. Mott brought the mail from Peoria on horseback, coming via Jubilee. We know that in later years the mail was brought up by stage over a route that entered Princeville from the East. There was in the 50's, if not earlier, a regular stage route from Peoria to Knoxville via Brimfield. The Peoria and Oquawka Railroad was built in 1856, and thereafter rail service was available from Elm-wood, Oak Hill, and Langdon Station, which is about three miles East of Oak Hill. The people in Mill-brook township seem to have hauled produce to this railroad, but Princeville township apparently considered that the road was better and not much farther to Chillicothe, which had by this time both rail and river shipping facilities. Men from "Monica" in those days used to go to Peoria by riding across the unfenced Jubilee woods on horseback to Langdon station.
DRAINAGE. Both roads and fields sadly needed drainage, but not much was done. It was not till after the war that tile drains were used, and all earlier efforts were not very successful. The open ditches which were first tried soon filled up with the loose soil and vegetation so that they were not of much avail. Then somebody invented a "mole". This was a properly shaped piece of iron fastened at the bottom of a broad flat drawbar in such a way that when propelled by a capstan or strong force of oxen, it ran along
under-ground and forced the soil apart, leaving a passage through which the water was drained off exactly as it is now by tile. Of course this work was not permanent, but while the little opening remained it did the thing desired. Mr. Armstrong used one so successfully that he was able to farm a good twenty acres that had been useless before. The plan paved the way for the drain tile which were soon put in extensively.
PRICE OF LAND. In 1840, $200. to $300. per quarter, with sometimes $400. for an extra good piece. In the early '50's, $400. to $600. per quarter for open prairie.
CROPS AND MARKETS. The crops were as now corn, oats, wheat, hogs and cattle. Only wheat, pork and cattle seem to have been produced much beyond home needs. They raised good wheat when the country was new. It was cut with a cradle, thrashed by having boys ride one horse and lead others over it, while the men kept stirring it with forks, and cleaned either by wind or fanning mill. Pork and wheat were the great cash crops. Often the wheat was taken to Chicago by oxen and there would be a return load of salt, clothing, lumber. If sold in Peoria. Lacon, or Chillicothe, it brought less (sometimes about 28c says W. W. Mott). These river markets sent grain to New Orleans by flat boat, the boatmen did not always think enough of the grain to cover it, and in wet weather it might cover itself with green sprouts (Lemuel Auten). Dressed hogs could be sold in Peoria or Lacon, but the price was low; in the 50's prices varied much. Lemuel Auten recalls that often potatoes were about 10c per bu., oats 10c, corn l5c, eggs 3c, dressed hogs 2c. Mrs. Auten recalls the sale of some very fine steers at a somewhat later date at $16 per head.
There was no salt in Northern Illinois. It came from Syracuse, N. Y., via Chicago. Mr. L. Auten recalls a price of 75c to $1.00 per barrel, but that must have been after the canal was opened. Before that
it came from Chicago by oxen and was often a compelling necessity for some trips to Chicago, round trip two weeks.
Cattle were often sold to buyers, who drove them to Chicago from distances of hundreds of miles, pasturing them by the way on the rich grasses of the open country. Mr. Lemuel Auten says that a man by the name of Jacob Strawn from Southern Illinois was a big cattle buyer. He once saw Mr. Strawn drive 1200 cattle from the South West through "Monica". There were in the herd two elks which evidently were the leaders. Hogs were sometimes, though not often, driven short distances. The settlers had horses, cattle, hogs, chickens, but apparently the breeds were not as distinct as now. "They were mixed" is common testimony.
STORIES OF HUMAN INTEREST. Mr. Lemuel Auten tells of the courtship of one of the men who bought cattle and drove them hundreds of miles. The herders had trouble keeping the stock out of closed fields. One day a woman sat in a gap in a fence while a great herd went by. The owner of the herd said, "Why did you sit there ?"
"To save the herdsman trouble."
The man looked at her quite a while and meditated on the spirit shown in the service. Probably she was comely, too.
Finally he said, "Are you married?"
"No."
Pretty soon she was.
During the famous winter of the sudden bitter cold, some men were driving hogs from Princeville to French Grove. They had reached a point near the corner of Sec. 28 (where the Crawford house now stands) when the cold came upon them. They ran for a house near and across the road from where the old Calhoun home now stands, a run of about eighty rods to the East. They stayed there till the next day, when they ventured out and found the hogs exactly
where they had left them, piled in a pyramid, dead, frozen stiff. This is the great cold snap which all the old settlers remembered all their lives, when deer and other wild and domestic animals froze to death with their feet in their tracks in the mud, and when the buffaloes perished by thousands, in the herds which had gathered together in their usual winter quarters.
There was in White's Grove neighborhood one Mr. Paine, a jack of all trades, gunsmith, tanner of leather, cobbler. To him one day went little Archie Smith with little Mary Ann (?) Moody to have a tooth pulled. Which was the patient and which the comforter the story does not say. Mrs. Paine gave each of them a wheat biscuit. Little Archie, who had lived for a long time on corn bread and fat pork says scores of years afterward, "I believe they were the best things we ever ate".
In the early schools not every child had his own supplies. One slate and one book of a kind per family was often generous equipment. One of the "girls" had had a slate and only the frame was left. One of the boys tried to make off with the said frame to use as door for a projected squirrel cage. The girl in defense of her property slipped her head through it. The boy got his head in too and neither could get out. The teacher intervened and stood them on the floor in that memorable position. (Names furnished on request!)
Various of the witnesses testify that the people of this neighborhood were exceptionally high-minded folks, unusually law-abiding, conspicuously God-fearing, etc, etc. It is interesting to note that every early neighborhood was better than the rest in that respect. They all admit it themselves. Seriously, it is to their credit that such were their boasts, instead of rivalries over certain well known and more modern subjects of controversy.
MASONIC RECORD OF LEONARD KLINCK, SR.
His the First Masonic Funeral Held in Princeville.
By O. B. Slane, 1916.
Leonard Klinck was born January 14, 1785 at Albany, N. Y., died at Princeville, Ill. October 17, 1852, and on the third day after death was buried with full Masonic honors in the Princeville cemetery. This was the first Masonic funeral held at Princeville.
It is not known what lodge had charge. Peoria Lodge No. 15, Temple Lodge No. 46 of Peoria, and Toulon Lodge No. 93 were the only chartered Lodges in this part of Illinois at that time. The records of the two first named lodges give no account of such funeral, and the first records of Toulon lodge being destroyed by fire, it seems impossible to ascertain what lodge conducted the funeral rites.
A letter from the secretary of Richmond Lodge No. 23, Ontario, Canada, dated Nov. 22, 1915 says; "On February 19, 1846, Brother Leonard Klinck was appointed secretary until St. John's Day when he was re-appointed. He became Sr. Warden December, 1847, and the last time he attended Richmond Lodge was Sept. 7, 1848." The early records of this lodge were also destroyed by fire. A letter from R. L. Gunn, Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Canada says:
"Our records show that Bro. Leonard Klinck, age 60, gate keeper, residence York, was initiated on April 20th, passed on May 26th, and raised on June 25th, 1825 in Richmond Lodge, Richmond Hill, Canada, then under the Grand Lodge of England, now No. 23, on the roll of this Grand Lodge."
The writer, after a correspondence covering several months. with secretaries and grand secretaries of chapters in both Canada and New York, utterly failed to find when or where Companion Klinck received the degrees of Royal Arch Masonry. He was undoubtedly a Royal Arch Mason otherwise he could not have been admitted into the Commandery.
A Knight Templar's certificate issued by the Grand Commandery of New York, and now in posession of Mrs. Charles Collins of Castleton, Ill., says that "Bro. Leonard Klinck received the following orders and degrees of Knighthood in Apollo Encampment No. 15, K. T., Troy, N. Y.: Order of the Red Cross, Knights Templar, Knights of Malta, Knight of the Christian Mark and Knight of the Holy Sepulcher. The certificate is signed by Stephen C. Leggett, recorder, and is dated September 29, 1847. The certificate does not show when the brother took the degrees of Knighthood, but the writer having written the recorder of Apollo Commandery for this information received his reply under date of August 26, 1916, in which he says, 'In searching for the desired information, I find that Sir Leonard Klinck received the orders of Knighthood in Apollo Commandery No. 15, K. T., on September 30, 1847 and removed from Troy, N. Y. in 1849."
He also says: "We have searched the register of Apollo Chapter R. A. M. but fail to find his name mentioned nor do we find any record in the commandery register as to what chapter he did belong." In 1808 Bro. Klinck was married to Mrs. Elizabeth Brown Grant. Her maiden name was Brown. Grant, her first husband died in 1806. Grandmother Klinck, as she was familiarly known, was the mother of thirteen children, eleven by her second husband. She was member of the M. E. Church, a great reader of the Bible. In fact, she read the Bible through several times. She died at Princeville, Ill., Oct., 22, 1887, just two days before her 105th birthday.
Bro. Klinck's funeral in 1852, being the first one of ts kind here, was a noteworthy event. Masons came from adjoining towns in all directions and the local residents turned out in force, partly from curiosity. Those who were there told in after years how men and women stood on the wagon seats to get a better view of the ceremonies. It was about ten years later that Princeville Lodge, No. 360, was organized and chartered.
"A SHORT COURTSHIP AND A HAPPY
MARRIED LIFE."
By William R. Sandham, 1921
Among the first settlers of what is now LaSalle County, Illinois, were Louis Bayley and his wife, Betsey Butler Bayley. To them a son was born, July 17, 1828, whom they named Augustus, and who was the first white child born in what is now LaSalle county.
Louis Bayley was a soldier in the War of 1812. His father, Timothy Bayley, was a soldier in the Revolutionary war. Mrs. Betsey Butler Bayley died in the year 1840, leaving to be cared for by her husband Louis Bayley, their two living children, Augustus and Timothy, the latter being three years old.
During the time between 1835 and 1855 there was among the itinerant preachers of Illinois (who were generally known as circuit riders) one named Rev. William S. Bates, whose circuit included Stark and LaSalle counties. Mr. Bates and Mr. Bayley were warm personal friends, and when he was in LaSalle county, Mr. Bates always made his headquarters at Mr. Bayley's home. On one of his visits to Mr. Bayley's home the traveling preacher found Mr. Bayley to be a very busy man. Besides his work as a farmer and as the operator of a sawmill, he was doing his own housework, with the assistance of his eldest son. "Well, Mr. Bayley," said the preacher after the usual greetings, "you need a wife to do your cooking, to care for your house and to look after the welfare of your two boys." "I assure you that I know that what you are telling me is true," said Mr. Bayley. "I do not know where I can find such a woman—one who is willing to marry me and assume the responsibility of doing the things that are needed to be done in my home." "Well," said Mr. Bates, "perhaps in my work as an itinerant preacher I can find such a woman. If I do, I will let you know."
In the early part of the year 1843 the itinerancy of the Rev. Mr. Bates brought him into LaSalle county, and, as usual, he stopped to stay over night with his friend, Louis Bayley. After supper, which had been prepared by Mr. Bayley and his son, Augustus, Mr. Bates told Mr. Bayley that he had found a woman he was satisfied would make him a good wife, and one who would be a kind mother to his two boys. "Tell me about her," said Mr. Bayley. "The woman's name is Mary Lake," said the preacher, "and she lives with a brother-in-law named Sewell Smith, who lives just south of Spoon river on section 14 in Essex township, in Stark county. I have seen her and I have told her about you and your home and your two boys. I advise you to go to see her."
A few days after the circuit rider went on his way, Mr. Bayley hitched a team of his best horses to a light wagon and started for Spoon river. On the evening of March 19th he arrived at the farm, now owned by Sol and Jesse Cox, two miles south of Wyoming, and just north of Spoon river, where he stayed that night. The next day he forded Spoon river a few rods below what is now known as the Bailey bridge. In a very short time he knocked on the door of the Sewell Smith home, and a woman opened the door. "I am Louis Bayley of LaSalle county," said the visitor, "and I am looking for a woman named Mary Lake." The woman quickly extended her right hand and said, "I am Mary Lake; come right in. I know what you have come for." It is enough to say here that Louis Bayley and Mary Lake were married before the setting of the sun on that day—March 20, 1843.
The following day Mr. and Mrs. Louis Bayley left stark county for their home in LaSalle county. All the reports which have come down through the sons and grandsons of Louis Bayley and the neighbors who knew them intimately tell the same story—that Mr. and Mrs. Bayley had a very happy married life.
Louis Bayley sold his property in LaSalle county in the year 1849 and moved to Stark county. He bought the eighty-acre farm where he found Mary Lake, March 20, 1843. That eighty-acre tract is now owned by Louis Bayley's grandson, Orpheus Bailey, son of Augustus Bailey, who, as stated, was the first white child born in what is now LaSalle county.
Mrs. Mary Lake Bayley died March 3, 1861, and Mr. Bayley had inscribed on her tombstone: "A Good Wife and a Kind Step-Mother." Louis Bayley died at Forest Grove, Washington county, Oregon, in 1896, aged 92 years. His son, Augustus, died in Stark county, Illinois, August 26, 1905. The other son, Timothy, lives in Pacific county, Washington.
The spelling of the name, Louis Bayley, as here given, is the way Louis Bayley spelled the name. The other members of the Bailey family spell the name Bailey. The marriage record in the office of the county clerk in Toulon has the spelling, Lewis Bayley.
Rev. William S. Bates retired from active service as a minister about 1855. He owned and lived on the southeast quarter of the northwest quarter of section 28 in Essex township, Stark county, Illinois, from September, 1857, to January. 1864. He moved to Kansas, where he died a few years later.
SMALL POX AND CHOLERA IN PRINCEVILLE
Interview with Milton Wilson, 1915.
Genuine small pox in five or six families in early summer of 1915, with milder cases in many more families, started the discussion.
"The first time Princeville had the small pox," remarked Uncle Milton, was in 1849. It was at the Clussman home, on the farm now John and Mary Dickinson's. Clussmans had come here from New York City and had visitors from home that summer who unintentionally brought the small pox or varioloid, with them.
"Varioloid, you understand, is small pox in the first stages, which never gets beyond the first stages. Nearly the whole Clussman family caught it. Henry Clussman especially being the worst, and the widowed mother having her hands full.
"John McGinnis, then a boy of 15 or so, and living across the field in the red brick house, now Burk DeBord's, came around to investigate and satisfy his curiosity. Repeated warnings, commands and scoldings could not keep him away from the house, but he declared boldly, he was not afraid of catching the small pox. Sure enough he came down with it and when an old man, a few pock marks still showed each side of his nostrils.
"Doctor Henry, then unmarried and a young man, attended the patients. He was boarding at the Breese house (now Minnie Bennett's property) and changed his clothes before and after each visit, in a stable on tbe outskirts of the village."
"Did they have vacination in those days, Uncle Milton ?"
"Yes, I think they did."
The only other person to get the small pox was John M. Henry, the Doctor's brother. He was a young man too, carpentering at the Clussmans', and taken with the disease there.
"Where he is taken is a good place for him to stay"
—said his doctor brother,—and there he was cared for and treated, his brother making two visits daily for a time. Later he was brought to town and put in an upstairs room at the Hitchcock & Rowley hotel. Here Benjamin Slane, who had had small pox when a child, tended him, going up and down a ladder to that room.
"Of course there were no quarantine regulations in those days, but the rules of common sense dictated some things."
"Has Princeville ever had the small pox since then ?"
"Never, I think, until the present epidemic, except that Win. Owens' two boys, Ed. and William, had it bad in the late 50's; no one else had it then, and Dr. Henry was again the physician.
"But there was a case of Asiatic cholera in 1852. John W. Gue kept a little store on the Henry corner now occupied by Willis Hoag's new grocery. Gue went to St. Louis, where the cholera was epidemic, in places, along the river. Coming home with what at first was diognosed as bad diarrhoea, he soon had the straight cholera, and died.
"That was in May, 1852. I helped to lay him out, to place his body in the coffin, and to take the coffin to the cemetery. No public funeral was possible, of course. I said 'coffin' because that was all they had in those days,—a box shaped this way (here holding his hands wedge shaped)—and nothing fixed up like a casket these days."
FIRST BUILDINGS ERECTED IN PRINCE
VILLE THAT ARE STILL STANDING.
By Odillon B. Slane, 1921.
The residence corner at Main and Clark Streets now occupied by Mrs. Carrie Parents, was built in 1840. This building was first used as a carpenter's shop by Jonathan Nixon. It was next occupied as a residence by Geo. W. McMillen.
Former residence of Peter Auten Sr., corner of Main and Tremont Streets, West side of Park, was erected in 1842 by Samuel Alexander.
The Dr. Cutter residence, corner of French and North Streets, was built in 1845.
The residence now occupied by Edward Auten Sr. and located at corner of Main and Clark Streets, is probably the oldest building in Princeville. The first part of it was built by Win. C. Stevens about 1838.
The Old Stone Schoolhouse, the first public school building in Princeville, and located at corner of Canton and French Streets, was built by donations of stone, lime, lumber, labor and a small amount of money. This structure was erected in 1846, as shown by carving in South gable. Benj. F. Slane taught the first school in this building, in winter of 1847-1848. (The earlier log school house was run on the subscription plan).
Hitchcock's Hall, the part used first as a store, was built in 1852. Afterwards the main hall was built in 1858. The stone and lime used came from the Slane quarries one mile South of Princeville.
THE LUCKY THIRTEEN.
The Article on "Civil War Record of Princeville", Vol. II of History and Reminiscences, speaks of the "Lucky Thirteen" who enlisted in Peoria Battery, spring of 1861. As the group were about to start to Peoria to enlist, Rev. Ahab Keller of the Princeville Methodist church made a very devout and fervent prayer that they all might be spared to safely return. The prayer was answered, and all of them did providentially return, after three and four years of service.
The names of the thirteen have now been verified as follows: James F. Carman, Edwin Hoag, Letz Lair, Noah Lair, Will Lair, Win. Best, Enos Frost, Sam Coburn, James McGinnis, John Auten, Morris Smith, Win. Morrow, and H. A. Stowell.
THE BEALL FAMILY.
By Charles W. Beall, 1922.
Asa Beall, a soldier of the war of 1812. was born in Fayette Co., Kentucky, November 28. 1792. He was the son of Thomas Beall, an old pioneer of Kentucky. Altho' reared on a farm, Asa Beall learned to be a millwright by trade. He built the first grist mill at Cincinnati, Ohio. He was married to Miss Susan Coyle, December 2,1819. Susan Coyle was born July 2, 1800.
In 1832, Mr. and Mrs. Beall left Kentucky and came by boat to Peoria, Ill. They bought a place near Mossville on the Illinois river, where they lived for a short time. Being among the early settlers, Mr. Beall found the country but little improved. The nearest market was Chicago, where he hauled his grain. On account of malaria and mosquitoes they soon disposed of their place and moved to Section 36. Jubilee Township, near Kickapoo.
At that time Asa Beall knew every man in the county, and he took an active part in the early history and development of the county. He and his son, on a return trip after hauling wheat to Chicago, brought back lumber for buildings on the land he had purchased from the Government. He lived here until 1851, when he sold out and bought 160 acres of raw land, the S. W. 1/4 Section 2, Jubilee Township. At his death in 1875, Jubilee Township lost an honored pioneer.
Mr. Beall was quite a politician in his day and was identified with the Democratic party. He was well-read and a well-informed man, was religiously inclined and leaned toward the Methodist faith. His wife, Susan Coyle Beall, died in 1872. They were the parents of eight children :—Susan, who married James Vanarsdale; Thomas, married to Ophelia Bush; Maria, never married; Harriett, married James Morris Rogers of Wyoming, Stark Co., Ill.; John, died when a small
boy; Francis M., married to Mary Curl; Josephine, wife of William Lawrence; and William, married Mary Lawrence.
William Beall was a soldier in the Civil War, a member of the 77th Illinois Infantry, afterward consolidated with the 47th. He enlisted in 1862, served three years and was promoted to the rank of corporal.
Francis M. is the only survivor of his father's family. At the age of 82, he and his wife are living the quiet life at their home in Princeville.
Eight soldiers of the war of 1812 are buried in the Princeville cemetery. Among them is Asa Beall, whose remains lie beside those of his wife, the companion of his youth and one of the pioneer mothers of Illinois.
THE BRONSON FAMILY.
By Mrs. Anna Bronson Lutes, Urbana, Ill., 1921.
The Bronsons were English; several brothers came over from England; the name was spelled in various ways by the different branches of the family—"Brownson"—' 'Brunson" and "Bronson", as our branch of the family spells it.
One John Bronson came from Cambridge, Mass., to Hartford, Conn., in 1636, we think he was one of Mr. Hooker's company. The little "Company" went from Massachusetts to Hartford and bought land of the Indians. Mr. Hooker was head of a church, and the law was then, that no man could vote unless he was a member of some church. This was in the fall of 1635. He was a soldier in the Pequot war in 1637; finally settled in Farmington, Conn.; was one of the pillars of the church which was organized in 1652; was a deputy to the General Court in 1651 and also in later years, four sessions in all, and was constable for Farmington; he moved to Wethersfield where he died Nov. 28, 1680. This John Bronson left
seven children. All Bronsons, in fact, seemed to have large families, all living to a great age,—several over a hundred years. They were well respected, were all church people, and in later years were members of various churches.
The New England Family and Town Records show different Bronsons about the time, of the Revolutionary War, and the present family may be traced from one Asa Bronson who died at Valley Forge. There was another Asa Bronson, probably a son, who was in the Revolutionary army in 1780, and was pensioned in 1818, for Revolutionary War Service.
The elder Asa Bronson had a son Phineas, born Nov. 9, 1765, at Enfield, Conn., who was also a soldier of the Revolution, who moved in 1793 to Norton Center, Ohio. He was a Baptist. This family moved overland in wagons, leaving Ohio on Sept. 13, 1841 and arriving in Princeville, Illinois on Oct. 5 of the same year. Mr. Bronson died Oct. 25, 1845, and is one of two Revolutionary Soldiers buried in the Princeville Township Cemetery. The children were Electa, who married George Hubbard (father of T. Hubbard); Rachel, who married Joel Morley; Thankful, who married Bliss Hart; Isabel, who married Dennis Bates; Amos, who married Caroline Green; Phineas Jr. (born Jan. __ 1802), who married Elsie Stoddard, and after her death Jerusha T. Gue; Hiel (born April 1, 1804), who married Mary B. Nesmith; Orrin, who died in infancy; and another Orrin born four years later, who married Susan Bonurant. This Orrin had died in Ohio, but his widow came West with the family.
Amos Bronson's children were William, Henry, Sarah and Burr.
Phineas Bronson Jr. and his first wife were the parents of children as follow: Antoinette, who married Milton Nesmith; Isabel, who married Thomas Black; Herbert West, who died at age of 10 or 12 in 1842, and was buried in the Cemetery one mile South of Princeville, which two years later was abandoned for the present Princeville Township Cemetery; Ovando,
who married Amanda Morrow; and Hiram Curtis, who married Mary E. McKown.
Phineas Bronson Jr. and his second wife were the parents of Eugene Cecil, and a daughter who died at birth. Phineas Bronson lived on his farm South East of Princeville until his death in 1879. His widow and son Eugene moved to Urbana, Illinois, about 1883 where Mrs. Bronson died Oct. 18th, 1890. Eugene is now in North Dakota.
Hiel Bronson and his wife Mary were parents of three children: Abigail Maria, who married Daniel Hitchcock; Amanda Lettia, who married Rufus J. Benjamin; and DeLorman Thomas, who married Nina B. Gue. Hiel Bronson moved to town about 1857, and kept general store, his death occuring April 12, 1887; his wife died April 15, 1888.
Mrs. Abigail Hitchcock never had any children. She and her husband moved to Princeville where they had a mill for many years, and her husband was Justice of the Peace several terms in succession. She died Feb. 17, 1901.
Mrs. Amanda Benjamin, who died Dec. 13, 1898 left two daughters, Julia M., wife of Willard Henry, and Mary L., wife of Julius H. Hopkins.
DeLorman Thomas Bronson, who died March 10, 1917 was the father of the following nine children, besides three who died at birth: Louie Gue, John Wesley, Ernest Roscoe, George Durrill, Eugene Victor, Anna Maria, Lilly Offley, Nina Louisa, and Bertha Harriet Rosalind. Two of these, Major George D. Bronson and Lieut.-Chaplain Rev. Eugene V. Bronson, were in France in the late world war.
THE CAMPBELL FAMILY.
By Stewart Campbell, 1922.
The history of the Campbells in this vicinity begins in 1852. In that year John Campbell, son of Gilbert and Mary Crawford Campbell and a native of Kentucky, came from near Eaton, Ohio, and settled in Millbrook Township on Sec. 23.
One of the very early settlers in this part of Illinois was Samuel Campbell (brother of Gilbert), who lived near Lewistown in Fulton County. His nephew John had visited him and was very favorably impressed by Illinois and also by one of the Illinois girls, Margaret Dooly. Margaret went with him to Ohio, but they remembered Illinois and returned here with their family in 1852. They bought land and built a three or four room log house on Sec. 23, south of the corner marked now these many years by the Campbell school house. In this home they lived the life of the pioneers of the time, laying the foundations of their family and taking their part in developing the neighborhood.
By 1861 three of their seven children were sons who were old enough to answer their country's call. David and Samuel enlisted at once, but before seeing actual service died of fever contracted in camp. They were buried in one double grave in the old Campbell cemetery, on Sec. 13, Millbrook Township. Charles saw service, returned safely home, lived many years on Sec. 13 Millbrook, just east of the Campbell school house, finally moved to Sutton, Nebraska, and died there. Felix lived west of Brimfield for a long time and has now been for some years in Champaign. The youngest son George XV. ("Little George") succeeded his father on the old homestead until he retired and moved to Lincoln, Nebraska. There were two daughters. Mary taught some of our early schools, later married Miles Seery, lived in Princeville, and died in Elgin a good many years ago. Addie married William H. Wilson and lives in Wichita, Kansas. These three brothers
and two sisters all have children and grandchildren, but like the parent stock they have sought new homes and are scattered from Illinois to California.
John Campbell and his wife Margaret left the old home about 1883 and spent their declining years near their daughter Mrs. Wilson in Burrton, Kansas. In 1886 they returned to celebrate their golden wedding. On a beautiful summer day they received the greetings of scores of kin and friends beneath the sturdy trees of a grove that they had planted on the bare prairie. Uncle John died in 1888. Aunt Margaret continued to delight us all with her annual visits until her death in 1899. She was a very active old lady and always relished having it told of her that she lost her spectacles in the course of a five mile walk on her eightieth birthday. This old couple now sleep in the cemetery which bears their name, beside the sons they gave to their country and in the midst of the land where they spent most of their active life.
John Campbell's brother Alexander left his Kentucky home between 1825 and 1830; settled in Rising Sun, Indiana, married Sophia Cunningham there in 1832, moved to Versailles, Indiana in 1859, and died there in 1865. Alexander had three daughters and six sons, four of whom were either old enough to go to war or went anyway. William, Gilbert and Lewis ("Lute" or "L. L.") enlisted in 1861 and saw service to the end. Lewis was not yet seventeen years old and too little they say to carry a gun. But he just had to go. so company A 37th Indiana Infantry took him along and let him blow the bugle. He was successively Company, Regimental, and Brigade Bugler, and Brigade Postmaster. He saw service at Stone River, Chickamauga, Missionary Ridge, Atlanta, Jamestown, and minor engagements. He was mustered out in 1864 but immediately reenlisted in 13th Ohio Cavalry, and was with Sheridan through to the last charge at Petersburg. Edward was next in age. He enlisted as soon as he could but the war was about over and he
was out only eight months. Poor George R. stayed at home and cried for fear the war would be over before he could possibly get into it, and it was.
All these soldier boys came home safely, but the father died in 1865, and the family began to scatter. Six of them came to Princeville and vicinity. Gilbert came here and married, lived on the farm now owned by John Vogel on Sec. 15 in the old house still to be seen there. Later he lived on the farm on Sec. 11 where Emanuel Keller lived for forty years. He moved finally to Maryville, Missouri. Lewis came in 1868, George in 1871; of these two more presently. James, the youngest brother was here one year, Elizabeth taught the Campbell School about 1872, Mary taught the Nelson and other schools a few years later. These three all went to Kansas before 1880.
"Uncle Jimmy" Campbell, the carpenter and cabinet maker, came soon after the war. He built for his brother John the house which still stands on the Campbell home farm on Sec. 23 Millbrook, and the old familiar barn across the road on Sec. 24. He soon moved into Princeville and until 1880, when he died, he is listed in all the village reminiscences as the cabinet maker. His shop was in the old brick Hitchcock Building. Many a home was furnished with his handiwork, as all the old settlers recall. It is interesting to note that Mr. and Mrs. Lemuel Auten, now well past eighty years of age have in their home two bedsteads which are in constant use now and have been ever since Uncle Jimmy made them, and which have apparently as much service in them yet as they had some fifty years ago.
Lewis Campbell came in 1868, riding his army horse from Indiana. He lived on the farm with his brother "Gil" a while, taught in the Garrison school and elsewhere. From 1870 to 1873 he clerked in Mr. Simpson's store in Princeville and then built in the new village of Monica the store and dwelling now occupied by Camp & Berry. There he sold dry goods for Mr. Simpson till 1878, when he went into busi-
ness for himself. He moved to Peoria in 1889 and was in the U. S. Internal Revenue service nearly all the time until his death in 1918. On January first, 1874, in the Princeville Presbyterian church he married Sophia Edwards, who with their daughter Edith, lives in Peoria.
George R. Campbell, now Monica's earliest and oldest citizen, came to Illinois in 1871, like Lewis, from Indiana on horseback. He taught school two years in Peoria County and two years in Rock Island County. On January first, 1875, he bought and took possession of a grocery store which had been conducted by Tom Drennan in the south side of L. L. Campbell's building. Thus began a career in Monica which has continued in merchandising and other activities for now almost fifty years. Mr. Campbell sold groceries for more than twenty five years, built three business buildings on the fire-fated north side, built his own and three other houses, served sixteen years as postmaster, some years as clerk of the Modern Woodmen, has been Notary Public since 1904 and Justice of the Peace since 1903. He was one of the early superintendents of the Monica Sunday School, long time trustee of the M. E. Church, and an active member of the committee that built the parsonage in 1894. His favorite recreation has been politics. Always an ardent Republican he has been busy in the cause. In 1892 and again in 1920 he was delegate to State Conventions. Between these dates he has had a constant part in lesser matters, always taking part in local caucuses and since 1916 a member of the county central committee. The high spot of his political joy came in 1920, when he was nominated "Elector-at-large from Illinois for President and Vice-President of the United States," and was elected to that office by a plurality of more than a million votes.
George Campbell married Mollie Stewart in 1875. She had her part in the community life for thirty nine years, until her death in 1914. There are four children,
Stewart and Angie of Monica, Gilbert of Evanston, Illinois, Elizabeth of Davenport, Iowa.
L. L. and G. R. Campbell are closely connected in the minds of those who recall the early history of Monica. Each was an early and successful merchant, each served as postmaster and in other public offices, each platted and sold lots in additions to the village, each erected several buildings, each was ardent in politics. Each was always ready for anything to boom and boost the town and country around.
Campbell blood seems to be restless pioneer blood. Of all who came here, all have died or moved away except one. Of all who were born here all have died or moved away except four. They are scattered from Illinois to Canada and California. They took a hand in building this community—and moved on to take a hand in building other communities.
THE JAMES CARLETON FAMILY.
By Miss Julia Carleton, 1920.
James Carleton, sixth and youngest son of Amos and Mary Porter Carleton was born near White River, Vermont, March 8, 1814. When he was a babe his parents moved to Salem Township, Champaign Co., Ohio.
His father being a teacher, all the children received their education in the home, and had what was considered a fair education in that early day before the establishment of the public school.
After the death of his father in 1851, he with an older sister Harriet, and a younger sister Clarinda Julia, lived with and cared for their aged mother until her death at their home in Champaign Co., Ohio. On October 3, 1858, James Carleton was married to Nancy Prater of Bellefontaine, Ohio. They then moved to a farm near West Liberty, Logan Co., Ohio, where they resided until the fall of 1861, when they loaded
their household goods and came by wagon to Peoria Co.
The family, consisting of wife, two children, and he two sisters, who still made their home with them, came to Peoria by train and settled for a short time in Radnor Township. They then moved to Akron Town-hip where they lived for several years. In the meantime Mr. Carleton purchased a farm of 235 acres, in Section 2, in Jubilee Township, where he moved March 1, 1870.
Children born to James and Nancy Carleton were William; Mary (Mrs. John Byers) who died May 19, 1920; James Aaron; Jane (Mrs. P. H. Lipps) who died Feb. 21, 1898; Luther Clark; Edward F.; and Julia. On March 15, 1876, Harriet, the oldest sister of James Carleton, passed away, aged 64 years, 2 months, 20 ays. On March 10, 1887, the younger sister, Clarinda Julia, passed away, aged 68 years, 9 months, 17 days. On June 8, 1892, James Carleton. subject of this sketch, died at the home where he had lived over 23 years. His wife, Nancy, died Feb. 3,1894. They are both buried in the Princeville cemetery.
DOCTOR JOHN E. CHARLES.
Doctor John E. Charles came to Princeville in the spring of 1861 and was a resident of the village until the spring of 1881. He was born, the son of a farmer near the village of Clinton, in Allegheny Co., Pa., Dec. 5th 1813 and married Margaret Oliver, the daughter of a neighboring farmer about the year 1841. He acquired a common school education, studied medicine at Miami College, Cincinnati, Ohio, graduated, and began the allopathic practice of medicine in Columbiana county, Ohio. Practicing there a few years he then moved to Allegheny City, Pa., and later moved to a point in Jefferson county a few miles up the Ohio river from Steubenville.
Here he was residing in 1849, having acquired two farms, and was also in successful practice of his profession, when gold was discovered in California. He could have sat down and his farms and his medical practice would have in a few years made him of independent means. But the gold fever got into his system and the "wanderlust" into his blood. Leaving his wife to manage the farms and take care of the two children which had come to them, he became a "49er." Spending the year 1850 in the Sacramento Valley of California he, still believing that there was the El-dorado, came back to his Ohio home, mortgaged the farms, outfitted a train of prairie schooners, and with a large bunch of horses and cattle, and fifteen or twenty of his neighboring young men farmers whom he "staked" for the trip, returned across the plains to California in the summer of 1852.
There he remained for the next nine years with success and failure alternating each other. At one time his mining and stamp milling was yielding $100 per day, but dry weather and failure of water supply resulted in the loss of the proceeds of many preceding days. He made regular money remittances to his family back in Ohio and continually anticipated bringing them to him in the golden sunset state, but in his nine years absence the mortgages had eaten up his farms. When he returned to Steubenville in the early spring of 1861 he was "broke," forty-eight years old, and had a family awaiting to renew their acquaintance with the husband and father of whom they had seen so little since 1849. This time, bringing the family along, he came to Princeville upon the invitation and urgent request of William Beer, of Akron Township, his cousin, and who with his wife had been one of his fellow voyagers to California.
When he landed in Princeville his worldly possessions were his medical books, surgical instruments. household goods, and less than twenty five dollars in cash. With the self reliance and courage which had carried him through many previous discouraging sit-
uations he set about making acquaintances and, incidentally, friendships which he held through his life.
It must have been several months before he was called in the first case which was to test his qualification as a physician. It was in the family of Jackson Colwell, a farmer living four miles north west from Princeville. One of the younger members of his family had the typhoid fever, a disease very prevalent on the Illinois prairies during 1861 and for some years previous, and very often attended with fatal results. The child recovered rapidly and what more natural than that Dr. Charles should receive the gratitude and friendship of Jackson Colwell and his neighbors, many of whose families had been visited by the dreaded typhoid. At once and for many months Dr. Charles, on his saddle horse, might be seen traveling the country roads leading to the west and northwest from Princeville. From that beginning his medical practice and his friendships spread until at the time of his departure from Princeville in the spring of 1881 there was no more overworked physician, either before or since, ever lived in that village.
Riding by night and day, summer and winter, through rain and through snow, answering every call whether it was to the home of the prosperous or the lowly, through any hour of the day or night for twenty years, brought to a culmination his desire to quit the wear of it all and return to the rest and sunshine of olden California, to which he had twice previously journeyed.
This time he, with his wife, his daughter Maude, her husband John J. Hull, and his nephew Paul Hull, traveled by railway tourist car instead of covered wagon and ox teams as he had done on his two former trips, thirty and thirty four years before.
They spent the summer of 1881 in the lovely and quiet village of Cloverdale about sixty miles north of San Francisco, and though their surroundings were pleasant and the climate and sunshine all that could be desired they all thought often and longingly of dear
old Princeville. Before the fall had verged into winter that malady, Nostalgia (for which there is only one quick acting and pleasant to take cure) had seized the whole family and they came back, each one declaring he or she was content with California, but that some others were so homesick they just had to come.
From 1882 until 1890 the family home was at 811 Fayette street, Peoria. In the spring of the latter year they removed to Chicago, where Paul Hull's newspaper work had led him in the previous fall. Here Dr. Charles, settling into the retirement of a ripe old age after a busy and adventurous life, was living when on a visit at the home of his son, H. E. Charles, at Peoria in April, 1891, he was taken with pneumonia. This in a few weeks carried him away at the age of 78 years, and he was laid beside his wife in the family burying lot in Springdale Cemetery at Peoria.
Dr. Charles could not have been said to be lacking in fixedness of purpose because his medical practice was calling upon his time almost continuously from the time of his graduation in the profession until his death, but he had the instincts of a speculator in almost any of the business affairs of life which might be presented to him. Passing over his three journeys to California which were entirely speculative, and at least the two first of them containing more adventure than occurs in the lives of many average men, a few incidents at Princeville illustrate the complexity of his inclinations. He would rather miss his dinner than an opportunity to either buy, sell or "swap" a horse. It was his diversion. If he got the worst of it in a deal he made no complaint but trusted to even up on the next one. If the other fellow complained either that day or the next week, his horse was returned or the trade readjusted to restore good feeling.
His trading disposition, within not over three years after his arrival in Princeville, led him into the acquirement of real estate. In the early settlement of Princeville much of the timbered grove lying immediately north of the village had been subdivided
into tracts of from two and a half to ten acres and sold to the farmers on the adjoining prairies for fencing and fire wood. These lots as they became denuded, were not held as of high value by the farmers, many of whom lived five and six miles away. He bought of those until, united and adjoining they amounted to a considerable and worth-while acreage. There was a quarter-section one mile north of the village which was of unknown ownership for a number of years and which was literally robbed of its trees. It was, previous to 1861, known as "The Stump quarter" where all helped themselves as fast as the young trees became of usable size. Dr.. Charles made inquiry until he ascertained the eastern ownership of this quarter-section and with borrowed money bought it for cash at a very low figure. Within two years, he had sold two forties or more than he had paid for the whole one hundred and sixty. His land holdings altogether amounted to over two hundred acres, in addition to his residence and several other properties in the village at the time he determined to make his final trip to California.
In the spring of 1868 in association with Jacob Fast, he bought a drove of young unbroken mules which they matched and sold in pairs at about $400 per team, taking notes from the purchasers, and each clearing $500 in the total transaction. A year later he purchased a drove of two-year-old Indiana bred steers which, because of a pasture shortage in that state, were offered to him at a very low figure. He pastured them during the first summer on his "Stump-Quarter" land, wintered them by buying different corn-stalk fields and moving them from one to the other. During the winter he drove them to a Bureau swamp or the following summer pasturage, and sold them in the fall in fine condition to a distillery feeder, at a very handsome profit. These are but a few of the many business transactions in which he engaged during the twenty years of his residence in Princeville.
That he had the sporting inclination which has 'become so prevalent in more recent years it may be told
that in the Presidential election of 1864 he made a wager with Austin Bouton, each putting up a $150 horse, that Abraham Lincoln would carry one southern state, Dr. Charles winning as Lincoln carried the state of Missouri.
A last fact to be told in the Princeville life of this man is that in all the years of his medical practice, and with the many people he had other business dealings. he never sued to collect a debt nor did he ever become involved in any legal dispute.
Of the members of his family who journeyed with him to California in 1881, Col. John J. Hull, died at Peoria in 1883; Dr. Charles' wife Margaret Charles died at Peoria in 1888; his daughter Maude, wife of Col. Hull died at the home of her daughter Mrs. June Hull Bird in Washington, D. C., in 1908, and Paul Hull died at Brimfield, Ill., in 1912. All are buried in Springdale Cemetery, Peoria, Ill.
There are not many men or women living now in Princeville who were of mature age or thought during the twenty years Dr. Charles was in their midst—and there are not many of them living now anywhere—but wherever they are they were his friends then and respect his memory now.
THE EDWARDS FAMILY.
By Miss Ellen C. Edwards, 1922.
Thomas L. Edwards was born in Belfast, Ireland, in 1810, and when but 14 years of age came alone to America, making his home for some time in Massachusetts. He learned the trade of block printing at Fall River, and later became a journeyman in New York. During the year 1827, when the cholera epidemic raged in New York, Mr. Edwards volunteered his services as a nurse, and nobly devoted his entire time to the curbing of this dreaded epidemic.
In 1835 he was united in marriage with Sarah Jane Dalrymple, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Dalrymple, born in the northern part of Ireland, in 1815. In early childhood she accompanied her parents to America, settling in the Maine forests near Passamaquoddy Bay, at which place her father was engaged in the milling business. Later on they removed to Taunton, Mass., and in 1840 he bravely combated the hardships of the West, settling in Radnor Township, Peoria County, Illinois. Mrs. T. L. Edwards accompanied her parents on this journey westward, our subject following as soon as his business affairs could be completed.
While located in the East, this union was blessed with one child, James, who died in infancy.
In 1845 Mr. Edwards purchased a partially improved farm in Akron Township, Peoria County, Illinois. By untiring and unceasing efforts, he succeeded in getting this farm under cultivation. There were many hardships attending this labor, which he cheerfully overcame. At this time his little son Samuel, age 9 was called by death, and his loss was greatly mourned. A considerable portion of Mr. Edwards' farm was marshy and damp. On account of this condition he was greatly handicapped with ill health, and in 1860 he passed away. In former years he had been an Episcopalian but at the time of his death he was identified with the Presbyterian Church of Princeville, Illinois. His political adherence was given to the Republican Party.
At the death of her husband Mrs. Edwards was left with a family of small children, for which she had to provide. At this time the country was undergoing great hardships owing to the Civil War, and the financial strain was greatly felt. No matter how hard the struggle her beautiful and cheerful disposition carried her through any situation and she was always sought out on account of her splendid good humor and Irish wit. Mrs. Edwards was a consistent member of the Presbyterian Church of Princeville, and her chil-
dren were brought up in this faith, in later years devoting much time to church work.
She was loved and greatly honored by her children and grandchildren, and it was the delight of their lives when she would sing to them her Irish songs and tell them stories in her native brogue. In September 1901, this brave woman passed to her reward, leaving to mourn her loss, Jemima D., Margaret E., Ellen, Mrs. Sophia Campbell of Peoria, Illinois, Archibald D., and seven grandchildren.
ISAAC B. ESSEX FAMILY.
By William R. Sandham, 1918.
Isaac Bowen Essex, son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Bowen) Essex, was born near Charlottesville, Albemarle county, Virginia, January 29, 1800. He attended such schools as the state of Virginia afforded at that time, and a few terms at the University of Virginia, which is located in Charlottesville in his native county. He was married December 25, 1821, to Miss Isabella D. Williams, who was born in Albemarle county in 1797.
Mr. and Mrs. Essex were strong believers in Christianity. They were equally as strong in their opposition to slavery, which then existed in Virginia. They believed that it was wrong to buy and sell and hold in bondage men and women who were made in the image of and were direct descendants of God. For that reason, as did the parents of John M. Palmer, Shelby M. Cullom and many others who came from slave holding states to Illinois, they decided to seek a home in a free state. They left their home in Albemarle county in 1822 and lived a year in Bath county in the western part of Virginia. In the spring of 1823, they moved to Ohio and rented a farm near Columbus in Franklin county. Columbus was then a village of 1500 people. They raised good crops, but there was no profitable market. Mr. Essex quit farming and taught
school three winters. In the summer time he kept books for the contractor and builder of the Ohio canal.
In the fall of 1826, Mr. and Mrs. Essex loaded their belongings into a "prairie schooner," and with a daughter named Elizabeth, and two sons named Elijah and Elisha Jones, again turned their faces toward the vest. They drove through Ohio and Indiana into Illinois, passing through the site of Bloomington, and on the night of November 26, 1826, they camped by the side of a big log on the east side of the Illinois river, opposite Fort Clarke, where is now the city of Peoria. The next day they were ferried across the river in such small boats that the wagon had to be taken apart to get it across. They made the horses swim the river. Mr. Essex soon found employment among the settlers not far distant, with enough pay to keep his family through the winter. In the spring of 1827, Mr. Essex rented some land near where is now Princeville. He sowed a bushel of apple seed, with the expectation of starting a nursery. In the spring of 1828 Mr. Essex went to the Galena lead mines, leaving his familv in Peoria county. He returned to Peoria county in the fall of 1828, in the full belief that there was more money to be made in farming than by working in lead mines. He then sold his apple trees as seedlings. Some of them were sold to a Fulton county man. From one of these trees came the famous Fulton County apple.
The sale of his apple trees gave Mr. Essex some money to buy land. He bought the northeast quarter of section 15 in what is now Essex township in Stark county, from a land agent named Avery. Thus it was that Isaac B. Essex, in December, 1828, when the state of Illinois was ten years old, was getting ready to build home in the wilderness, and in April, 1829, became with his wife and children the famous first settlers in what is now Stark county, Illinois.
The northeast quarter of section 15 in Essex township, on which the first settlement in Stark county was
made, was conveyed by the United States October 28, 1818, the year Illinois became a state 100 years ago, to Rufus Stanley, in consideration of his services as a corporal in Hopkins' company of dragoons in the war of 1812. Some time in the 20's it was sold for taxes by the state of Illinois to Ossian M. Ross, for $1.82. Mr. Ross conveyed the quarter to Isaac B. Essex by warranty deed for $100.
The pioneer home being built and occupied, Mr Essex set about improving his land and doing some planting to raise a partial supply of food for the ensuing year. The meat supply was in a great measure provided for, as the surrounding grove was full of game. Spoon river, which flows through the land was well supplied with fish. The nearest mill was fifty miles away. To save time Mr. Essex made a mill of his own, by making a mortar in the end of a log, put in the grain and pounded it with a pestle hanging on a swing pole. Mr. Essex made rails and farmed by day and after supper pounded grain for the next day's bread. Mrs. Essex wove the cloth for the family clothing, and later for the neighbors as the country became settled. By the spring of 1830, Mr. Essex had fenced several acres of land on which he raised that year a good crop of potatoes and other vegetables and some corn.
In the early part of the winter of 1830 and 1831, the father and mother of Isaac B. Essex, six of their sons, their only daughter and her husband, David Cooper, came to Illinois. They arrived too late in the season to build a house, consequently they all lived at the Isaac B. Essex home all that winter. Mr. and Mrs. Cooper slept in a covered wagon. Some of the Essex family settled in what is now Stark county, and became prominent in its development. The others settled in some of the nearby counties. During that winter of 1830 and 1831, several Pottawattomie Indians passed through the country on their way to and from Peoria and Rock Island. They traveled mostly on snowshoes. One day when some of the Essex brothers
were hunting, they saw some of these snowshoe tracks in the snow. They hastened home to tell the family about tracks of some strange animal which they had seen. When the Indians made stops for the purpose of hunting they made good neighbors. They often did the Essex family favors, and were favored in return. These favors were appreciated by both the Indians and the Essex family. During the Indian trouble in 1832, Isaac B. Essex and family lived in Peoria. While there Mr. Essex taught school. Both he and the Essex family claimed that he was the first teacher of white children in Peoria county. He moved back to his farm in 1833.
Up to this time the nearest postoffice was Peoria, thirty miles away. In the year 1833, a postal route was established through what is now Stark county. The Spoon River postoffice was located in the home of Isaac B. Essex, and he was appointed postmaster, giving him the distinction of being the first postmaster as well as the first settler in what is now Stark county. The mail was brought from Peoria once a week by a man on horseback. In this same year Mr. Essex became the agent of a man in New York, who had bought the bounty claims in the vicinity of several soldiers of the War of 1812. During this year of 1833, Mr. Essex was appointed a commissioner of the school fund of township twelve range six (now Essex) and as such he sold the school section in said township, February 4,1834, for $968.70, nearly $1.514 an acre. At this time only two newspapers came to the Spoon River post-office. One of these came to Isaac B. Essex.
One day in the fall of 1834, Mr. Essex and his two eldest boys were gathering corn on the part of the farm across Spoon river from the farm buildings when they saw a prairie fire coming from the southwest. They hurried across the river, the boys by a foot bridge, Mr. Essex going by way of a ford. When they reached the home they found Mrs. Essex in a faint by the stable. By almost superhuman efforts, by carrying
water in a bucket, she had saved the house and stable. A patch of corn and a stack of oats were burned.
Mr. and Mrs. Essex were natural pioneers. They had an abundance of the qualities that are always needed in frontier settlements. One of these is contentment, another that of being happy in a pioneer home. They were both devoted church members. Mr. Essex was a Methodist, Mrs. Essex a Baptist. Their log house, being the largest in the neighborhood, was open for prayer and other church meetings, and for the religious services which were held by the itinerant preachers of those pioneer days in Illinois. These preachers were always welcomed by Mr. and Mrs. Essex, and when they came they were well cared for in their home. Sometimes spelling bees and other gatherings were held in their home. In fact, the Essex home was what we call in these later days, a community headquarters.
In this pioneer home, the first in Stark county, a son was born to Isaac B. Essex August 27, 1829. They named this son, the first white child born in what is now Stark county, Simeon. Two other children were born to Isaac B. Essex in this same pioneer home, and named Ira and Mary.
By the middle of the year 1835, Mr. and Mrs. Essex had their farm fairly well improved, and it made them what they considered a very desirable home. They had no thought of ever selling it. A man named Christopher Sammis asked Mr. Essex what he would take for it. Mr. Essex named a price so high that he thought no one would give it. To his great surprise, Mr. Sammis accepted the offer. Then the Isaac B. Essex family had to find a new home.
In the fall of 1835 Mr. Essex went to what is now Drury township, in the southwest corner of Rock Island county, where he bought 320 acres of land. Later he bought 380 acres more. He was the second white man to buy land in the township, thus opening the way for his family to again become pioneers. He bargained for the building of a house and returned to
his Spoon river home for the moving of his family, his stock and his other personal property to the new home. He had a considerable number of horses, cattle, sheep and hogs. The horses were used by horseback riders to drive the stock. The household goods and other property were loaded on wagons which were drawn by oxen. It was a slow journey. In several places roads had to be made and bridges built. It took them ten days to go from the old home to the new, a distance of eighty miles.
In a few years Mr. Essex had a large part of his land under cultivation and in pasture. He became one of the most prosperous farmers in Rock Island county. This new Essex home was the largest in the neighborhood, and it became a community center, similar to the old home on Spoon river. The traveling preacher was welcomed as before.
Mr. and Mrs. Essex' daughter Elizabeth, their firstborn, died in 1842. The son, named Ira, died in 1854, and the daughter, named Mary, died in 1856. The parents of Mr. Essex died in Essex township, Stark county, in 1853. Mrs. Isaac B. Essex, the hardworking and industrious pioneer wife and mother, died September 8, 1859. She was buried in the Essex cemetery, which is a part of the farm bought in 1835.
Soon after the death of his wife Mr. Essex visited a son near Helena, Arkansas. There he became acquainted with Mrs. Elizabeth J. Carver, to whom he was married, after consulting his sons, January 3, 1860.
Mr. Essex and his second wife lived on the farm in Rock Island county until 1865. He then gave 500 acres of his land to the sons of his first marriage, and rented the other 200 acres. Mrs. Essex wanted to move back to Arkansas. Mr. Essex did not want to live in what was once a slave state. They compromised and moved to Union county, almost in the extreme south part of Illinois. They bought a farm near Dongola, on which they lived until the death of Mr. Essex, caused by being injured by some cattle which were fighting, and which he tried to separate, Nov. 7. 1877. The body
was taken to his old home in Rock Island county, and buried by the side of his first wife. He willed the land in Union county to his second wife, and the land in Rock Island county to their children.
Isaac B. Essex and his first wife had seven children, three of whom were born in what is now Stark county. He and his second wife had five children.
Isaac B. Essex was a man of considerable education and general information. He was always an advanced leader in promoting all good work in the communities where he lived. Tradition brings down to us that Mrs. Isabella Essex, the pioneer wife and mother was a very faithful and efficient helpmate. Mr. Essex was greatly interested in the improvement of all kinds of farm livestock, especially when he lived in Rock Island county.
SIMEON ESSEX, STARK COUNTY'S FIRSTBORN.
Simeon Essex, the first white child born in what is now Stark county, Illinois, son of Isaac B. and Isabella D. Essex, was born August 27, 1829, in the first house built by white people in the county, on section 15 of what is now Essex township. The boy Simeon was taken by his parents to what is now Drury township, in the southwest corner of Rock Island county, Illinois, in November, 1835. He was taught to read and spell in the spare moments of his father and mother, his sister and two elder brothers. Later he learned to write and "do sums" in a log school house in the neighborhood. Meanwhile he helped his father and brothers in doing the necessary farm chores. Later he did a man's work on his father's farm, as required by the needs of farm life in those pioneer days. After he became of age he learned the trade of a mason, which he followed more or less regularly all his life. When not working at his trade he was engaged in farming.
When Simeon Essex grew to manhood he married, on March 4, 1849, his cousin, Miss Dorinda Essex, daughter of Joseph Essex, pioneer blacksmith of Toulon, Ill. She was born Dec. 21, 1830. Mr. and Mrs. Essex made their home in Rock Island county until 1869, when they moved to Cerro Gordo county, Iowa. Late in the year 1870, the family started to move to Eldorado, Butler county, Kansas, in covered wagons. While on the way Mrs. Essex became ill and died in the wagon in which they were moving, in the early part of December, 1870.
Mr. Essex lived at Eldorado, Kan., until he went to live with his son, Simeon Francis Essex, at Rockford, Gage county, Nebraska, in the spring of 1900.
In March, 1874, Simeon Essex was married the second time to Mrs. Mary Dennison, who died in 1885. He was married the third time in November, 1897, to Mrs. Mary Hillard, who died in 1898.
Simeon Essex, Stark county's first-born, died at the home of his son at Rockford, Gage county, Nebraska, July 8, 1901. He was buried in the Stark cemetery, six miles southeast of where he died.
Six of the ten children of Simeon Essex and his first wife, two sons and four daughters, are still living, five in Kansas, and one in Missouri.
THE FRIEDMAN FAMILY.
By Joseph C. Friedman, 1921.
Joseph Friedman was born in Baden, Germany, October, 1819. The opportunity for getting an education in those days was very limited. A few lessons from the preacher-schoolmaster was all the instruction he got from books. While a young man he got a government position as driver of a 12-horse mail and passenger coach, the line extending between two large cities in Germany.
In 1848 the German government forbade all young men of military age leaving the country, and further,
ordered them to report once in every two weeks at a military post. This interfered so much with his work that he decided to come to the United States. With the acquaintance he had of mail routes, etc., he had little trouble in passing the guards and crossing the border into France. He crossed the ocean in a sailing vessel, with a rough sea and storm tossed, being out of sight of land for seven weeks.
Soon after coming to this country he married Caroline Kreisinger, of Buffalo, N. Y. They lived in New York state four years, he working as a farm hand at $8.00 per month, and boarding himself. Mr. Friedman, his wife and one child came to Princeville in June, 1852. He bought and located on 80 acres of prairie land, a part of Section 31, Valley Township. Stark Co. He followed the occupation of farming until 1890, when he retired from active work. He with his wife, moved to Princeville, where he died in September, 1897, and his wife in February, 1902.
By industry, economy, and shrewd 'business qualifications, Joseph Friedman accumulated a thousand acres of land in Peoria and Stark Counties. Mr. and Mrs. Friedman were the parents of six children, three sons and three daughters. John Friedman, deceased, born 1849, married to Emma Winkelmeyer in 1876, and to them were born six children, John, Bertha, Joseph, Amelia, William, and Emma; Sophia, born 1854; Louisa born 1858; Joseph C. Friedman born 1863, married Jennie S. Kopp in 1896 and to them were born six children, Ruth J., Harry J., Florence I., Ivan D., Caroline A., and Helen H.; William C. Friedman, born 1865, married to Minnie Steemer, in 1890 and to them were born seven children, Josephine, Edward, Grace, William Jr., May, Morris, and Bessie; Caroline M. Friedman born 1867, married to Lucas Hofer in 1889, and to them were born four children, Theodore, Harry, Caroline and Harriet.
The direct descendants of Joseph and Caroline Friedman now living, i. e. children, grandchildren,