REMINISCENCES

 

Wm. H. Smith. Henry Smith, my father, was a native of Prussia, and born July 4th, 1777; emigrated to the U. S. and landed at Baltimore July 4, 1799, amid the roar and sound of cannon and music, celebrating the day that gave birth to our National Independence. A very short time after landing here in walking along some of the roads in or about Georgetown, some elderly gentleman came riding by, and a puff of wind blew the gentleman's hat off and over the fence; my father jumped the fence, got the hat and gave it to its owner, upon which the gentleman gave him a silver dollar. Upon arriving at the inn, father made inquiry who the gentleman was that was so generous and liberal in giving so much for so small a favor, and was told that it was General Washington.

The first day of May, 1837, I took leave of my old native town, foot and alone, to seek my fortune in Illinois. I traveled over 200 miles afoot. After I had made up my mind to go West my brother-in-law, George Glassford, concluded to go too, and as he would go through to Wheeling by stage (no railroads then) and me afoot, we made calculation on time and distance. We met there, and a steam boat, Swiss Boy, was laying at the wharf with steam up; we took this for Peoria. We reached Peoria in due time and I tried to get employment in a mill, but there was none there at that time. The place was quite small. The court-house apparently stood back of town, and you had to travel quite a distance through the wild prairie grass, to reach the Bluff. Finally there was an old man by the name of Davis came to town hunting a few hands to work on a brick yard, and I engaged to him. After running a while in connection with Mr. D., making brick, a Mr. Hamlin & Knowlan, of Peoria, bought of Brook & Cogswell, of Canton, a steam mill in Utica, Fulton Co., and knowing I had been hunting a berth in a mill, hunted me up and finally hired to them. I left the brick yard on the 28th day of August, 1837, took passage on a steam boat, and came ashore at Copperas Creek Landing. There was a little one-story log cabin on the bank, which was used as a kind of a warehouse; was all the house that I recollect of seeing there then. I started afoot on the road, meandering along the creek for Utica, and arrived there about the middle of the afternoon; took charge of the steam mill the next morning. Mills were not very plenty and some that run by water would dry up, consequently our mill was crowded; they came a great distance and sometimes waited over a week for their turn. In a few days Mr. Knowlan came down looking around to see how things were going. I was grinding corn, trying to make good meal, according to my Virginia style, Mr. K. felt of it, looked up to me and says: "By G—d, Billy, you will spile these Suckers; they aint used to such meal as that; role it out like h—ll." I worked for them in the mill until the fall of 1838, when myself and Israel Myler rented the mill for a few months, and in the spring of 1839 I rented it alone and fitted up a distillery that was connected with the mill. On Christmas of 1837 or '38, I don't recollect now, I was invited to a quilting party at Thomas T. Bybee's. I attended and there became acquainted with my first and second wives.

In the spring of 1840 Captain Jones Rawalt and myself concluded to load a canal-boat that John A. Jones owned, with such products as we had on hand and could obtain, such as pork, grain, potatoes, etc., and float down the river until we found sale. After we had our load aboard Mr. Rawalt sold to me. I reached Alton after a very long, rough voyage, and sold part of my cargo, and the rest stored there and visited my old home, but returned to Illinois within a few weeks.

In those days I thought Utica was the greatest place in the county. We had a steam grist-mill, a distillery, a grist and saw­mill run by water power, two stores, grocery, coopershops, wagon shops, blacksmith shops, etc., etc., and we could, and did get up the biggest Fourth of July celebration in the county; have the best liberty pole; a cannon to burn powder and have a free dinner and ask all to join with us in the festivities and celebration; we had our uniform company, armed and equipped. Wm. C. Killsa was our Captain. I engaged in mercantile business there.

In the spring of 1840 or '41 there came to Utica three men by the name of Hale, Thompson and Miller. Miller was hired to teach a school. Hale and Thompson rented the steam grist-mill and distillery. They seemed to make considerable show, fixing up the mill, buying grain, etc. They went in debt for everything, saying they would pay as soon as they got some drafts exchanged, as it could not be done here; finally Messrs. Graham & Snyder, of Canton, bought one of their drafts, paid some goods and balance in money. As soon as they got the money they made excuse now that they would look around and buy some cattle to feed their still-slop, etc., but their intention was to leave. I saw all was not right and followed Thompson to John Coleman's, in Canton, took Thompson one side, told him my fears and I wanted my pay or some assurance as I did not believe he would come back; well, they had bought several hundred bushel of grain, but never paid for it; they, however, gave me a lien on the grain to secure me; they left, owing John Coleman considerable and he attached this grain and this brought me in the first law suit I ever had, with a man too that was posted in law. I beat him before a justice, Fairchild by name; he appealed; finally compromised; gave him a part of the grain; he paying all the cost. Miller, the school teacher, was never heard from. John G. Graham or Snyder, followed Thompson, overtook him near the State-line of Indiana, brought him back; he gave up all he had and was let go. After telling where Hale, his partner was, parties went in pursuit of Hale; found him living on Fox river; his right name being Chandler; he was brought back, had a preliminary trial; in default of bail was sent to jail. He was taken to Lewistown hand­cuffed, night overtook them and he made his escape; the handcuffs being found near Utica, it was supposed he had found some friend there to assist him. It was supposed and really understood that the parties, who was imposed on by the forged drafts, had been made good, and the prisoner given a chance to make his escape.

There was a grist and saw-mill in Utica built, I believe, by a Mr. Clark, some several years before I come to the county, owned by Theopolis Kirk, and rented to Samuel Myers and Wm. Enochs. It did considerable business; afterward I rented the mill, refitted it, but run it but a short time and sold out to other parties.

My land was surrounded with a very heavy growth of the finest timber I ever saw, being clustered up with grape vines, that sometime we would have to cut several trees before we could make them fall to the ground; all this together with the decaying vegetation in the fall of year and the musquitoes [misspelled]. Oh! my, it makes me shudder to think back, what I have had to endure among all these pests; why, sir! I have had my corn torn down by the raccoons; you would have thought a drove of hogs were in the field; I have had it badly eaten by squirrels. They would be in droves so thick sometimes that I have seen forty or fifty on some of the dead trees through the field; blackbirds were terrible, we had to watch and scare them off as they passed from the bottoms, their roosting place, in the morning and back in the evening, and unless you watched your crop they would tear open, eat and destroy your crops. Before going on my place I tried to get a location at the Landing on the river; the little log warehouse I spoke of before on my landing here from Peoria, belonged to Ira Mills, he did not seem to do much, still I knew that all the goods and wants of the country from abroad and all our surplus products must either be shipped in or out by the Illinois river, and I thought I could build up a good business at the Landing. I made a proposition to Mr. Mills to buy so much ground and give him a horse and buggy for a lot, and rent his warehouse and ground for five years, to pay the rent in building on the premises, but he was one of those kind of men that would do nothing, and not let any one else. Failing in this enterprise I moved on my place; immediately after this A. C. Thompson bought lands adjoining Mr. Mills. Richard Tompkins took charge and opened up a much better Landing than Mr. Mills, as his, Mr. Mills, was nearer the mouth of the creek and gradually filling up, and finally went down. Mr. Elisha W. Resor and Wilson Hulit became interested in the other Landing, and afterwards Snider and Benjamin Rawalt, among them, built up several large warehouses. Mr. Resor and Hulit opened up a store, bought in the products of the country, done quite a large business, and sometimes there has been as high as a hundred teams a day with loads of grain, come to the warehouse. The year the cholera raged along the river, Snider and Benjamin Rawalt fell victims to the scourge. In the latter part of 1855 or 1856, the main warehouse stored full of the products of the country, took fire and burned down.

In the spring of 1856 I commenced building my mill; started the engine on Christmas day, the saw soon after. The next spring put in a run of burrs and after awhile bolts and another run of burrs, etc., having two double flued boilers and plenty of power to drive all, I run the mill successfully, but for several years past I have not given it much attention, having Mr. Bybee's business to look after. I assisted Mr. Bybee in his business for many years, and the last few years of his life had his entire business. In 1842 agreed to take full charge of his affairs. He selected me some years ago, if I should outlive him, to settle up his estate. On the 4th of Oct., 1877, he died. I gave bond of $400,000; took charge of the estate, his personal and real property footed up to $281,000. I distributed among the heirs in the month of January following, $175,000, and made some advances since, and the two years has just passed since I took out letters, the time allowed in settling up the estate. I have the balance in shape according to agreement with heirs to pass over to them in a few days. This is the largest estate ever probated in Fulton Co. and so arranged as to be settled up in the two years.

Richard Hall relates quite an interesting incident of "Westerfield's defeat." He and his brother-in-law, Joe Hedge, started from near Havana to go to Lewistown by way of Waterford. Seeing a team about ready to cross by the ferry at the Illinois river, they requested the ferryman to pull across, when Mr. Wentworth, who owned the team, asked Dick (Richard Hall) to ride and drive while the other two walked. When half-way to Waterford they noticed a man dodging in and out of the bushes near the road as though he was trying to see and not be seen. The party made some remarks about it, but concluded he was looking for bees, or hunting. He finally came up to them, but had evidently thought they were Indians. His name was David Fouts. He said, "boys, you had better be going to the other end of the roads, for, he said, the Indians were killing every one in the town of Canton." He himself heard the screaming and yelling of the women and children, and knew that every white human was being murdered. Mr. Hall and party, however, kept on. They next met Louis Winans with two yoke of oxen hitched to a sled on which was a bureau, bedding and his family, with two boys plodding along in the road behind, while he was urging the oxen by whip and speech continually. They next met John Pixley, with one yoke of oxen hitched to a sled, on which were his wife and some children, while others walked. Pixley, while on his retreat, picked up a son of John Coleman who had been deserted by his father, and took him to Havana.

Richard Hall on this trip came through Thompson's Prairie, went up to a log cabin owned by a Mr. Thompson, and noticing quite a stir, asked what was up. They explained that the Indians were coming, and they were fixing up a fort. This cabin was about 12x14 feet in size, and a few good men with handspikes could have upset it.

One of the neighbors of Elijah Willcoxen, by the name of Farris, during-the Westerfield Indian scare, while fleeing with her children, was encumbered by a babe, which she was obliged to abandon in order to escape with the rest. She afterwards recovered the child, however.

It is related that one of the primary causes of the Black Hawk war was from an incident that happened in Liverpool tp. Joseph Farris, Asa Smith, and Bird Ellis, while out hunting, espied a young Indian, caught him, cut switches and whipped him with them. He attempted to escape and while doing so one of the party struck him on the head with a gun, and they left him near the Indian camp. He recovered so as to get to his friends, but died just as they arrived at Peoria, where they had carried him on a litter. From this and other incidents was the cause of the Black Hawk war, in which so many innocent lives were lost. Excerpt from the History of Fulton County pub. in 1879 by C. C. Chapman, pgs 1028-1035.

Mrs. Adeline Ray, daughter of Elijah Willcoxen, tells of an incident that happened to her father during the winter of the big snow. He started out on a hunt and was obliged to wear large snow shoes, 16 inches wide by 2 or 3 feet long. While going over a large drift he made a misstep, and fell head first into the snow. Nothing remained in sight but his feet and the big snow shoes. As fast as he would try to get up the snow would break away and let his head and shoulders down deeper than ever. He finally succeeded in getting his knife out and cutting the snow shoes from his feet and extricated himself, but came pretty near being "drowned in the snow."
Mrs. Ray says the whole settlement was almost like one family, kind, hospitable and honest, always ready to help one another. She can remember of seeing deer in herds of 15 to 20 at a time. Excerpt from the History of Fulton County pub. in 1879 by C. C. Chapman, pgs 1028-1035.

The following essay was delivered by Miss Emma Williams at the graduating exercises of the Canton High School in 1874:

Feeling that our county is not appreciated as it should be, I have undertaken to give a short description of it. Being our home, we cannot but feel some interest in it, and it is to our advantage to know what it contains, and what has been done, and what is the best mode of improving it. It was originally a part of Pike county; was organized Jan. 28, 1823, and has from its earliest history manifested great industry and improvement. It is triangular in shape, 9 to 36 miles long from north to south, 14 to 20 east and west, and consists of 26 organized townships, and in 1870 contained a population of 38,000.

It has many natural advantages, such as being well watered; plenty of timber; rich fertile soil; and accessible to market by the Illinois river, which is now being much improved by the building of the Copperas creek dam. This when completed will give those of the southern part of the county greater facilities for shipping their produce to the great markets of Chicago and St. Louis by water transportation, which was in the early days of the county the only means of transportation. The surface of the county consists of undulating and highly cultivated prairies, diversified with excellent timber. It was originally nearly equally divided between prairie and timber land. But a large portion of this timber has been cleared away in developing the agricultural interests of the county, and splendid farms now occupy places which but a few years ago were covered with a dense forest.

There is considerable variety in the soils of this county, though there are none so poor that they will not produce fair crops of the cereals grown in this region when properly cultivated. The most productive soils are those covering the prairie land which are a chocolate brown, rich in organic matter and produce very large crops. The poorest lands are the white oak ridges that skirt the borders of small streams, but they will yield fair crops, and are equal, if not superior, to the prairie land for the growth of fruit.

Sand and clay for making brick are found abundantly distributed in every neighborhood and on almost every farm in the county. The soil of the prairies furnish abundant of brown clay, which, when mingled with sand found in the beds of streams, forms excellent material for this purpose.

Nearly all the uplands of the county are underlaid with coal. The most complete expanse of the productive coal-measures that have been discovered in the State is found here. Several strata, all of which have been worked to a greater or less extent, have been discovered. It is so abundant in many places just beneath the surface that with but little effort it may be quite easily obtained, and it is so distributed as to be accessible to any portion of the county. The strata comprising numbers one, two and three, outcrop on all the streams in the south and west portion, and is of great value to South Fulton, while strata numbers four and six, the most valuable in the northern portion of the State, underlies nearly seven townships in the county, equal to nearly 9,000,000 tons of coal to the square mile.

The mining and shipping of coal in our county will compare favorably with any in the State. It is equal in quality to any in the West, and will answer most all purposes for which coal is used.

A good quality of fire-clay has been found in the vicinity of Marietta, from two to three feet in thickness and will be quite valuable in course of a few years in making fire-brick.

A fine quality of sandstone is being extensively worked on Spoon river which is quite valuable for building purposes.

Between Seville and Bernadotte there has been found extensive beds of St. Louis limestone, which forms material for making the purest and whitest made in the State. Our mineral resources are being more fully developed every year. In fact our county may be called a mine of wealth.

Our railroad facilities are very good. The Buda & Rushville branch of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railroad passes through from the north to the southwest part of the county, and the main line intersects the northwest corner of the county. The Toledo, Peoria & Warsaw crosses from east to west nearly through the center of the county, and the Rockford, Rock Island & St. Louis railroad through the southwestern part, affording us good shipping facilities for our surplus produce.

The educational advantages are certainly worth mentioning. Great improvements have been made in the Public School system within the past twenty years. Every parent recognizing the just, moral claim of every child to an education, feels the importance and dignity of his obligations, and upright and loyal citizen, to make equal provision for all.

We have a number of fine churches of most every denomination, and different societies, as Masonic fraternity, Odd Fellows. Good Templars and many other, seem to be in a flourising condition.

I might mention the benevolent societies. Where is there a county which makes greater efforts to provide for her poor and needy than our own? All seem to be ready to give a helping hand to assist those who are destitute of the many comforts of life.

There is also several weekly newspapers published in our county, three of which are published in our own city. Besides these there are in operation some very large woolen mills, wagon shops, etc. The plow and cultivator factory of Canton is one of the most extensive of the State.

The future for Fulton county looks bright. In what direction can you turn and point out to us a county containing better advantages than we possess for manufacturing, mining and the general pursuits of life.

Let the idea be fully realized that thousands of dollars lie buried within a few feet of the surface of the ground and some one will devise plans and means for rendering it available. We have a number of manufactories but need more to use our undeveloped resources. The industry of the past is but an earnest of the speedy accomplishment of the present and future. It is quite important that every citizen, either as an economist or tax-payer, should call for an inventory of the mineral wealth of the county, to show the advantage we have for manufacturing. A thorough survey of the county at the present time when capital is beginning to seek investment would be of great value.

Farmers have paid for their lands, mechanics are building their houses and will soon have surplus means that will seek employment within our borders. If not invested here it will be elsewhere and some reliable data must be furnished to convince capital that there is a substantial basis for its investment here, and nothing can do this more efficiently than a thorough survey under the auspices of the county government. When we can do this, our wealth is sure, and Fulton county will rank one of the first in the State.

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