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Jefferson County Illinois |
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Jefferson County Illinois |
The Prairie Historian December 1973 Volume 3 Number 4 Submitted By: Abby Newell 5newells@teltech.net |
MERRY CHRISTMAS The first decorated tree was at the home of Gustav Koerner in Belleville in 1833. His daughters took the top of a young sassafras which still had some leaves on it and dressed it with ribbons and bits of colored paper and hung it with little red apples and nuts, all sorts of confections made by Aunt Caroline. They put wax candles on the branches. Perhaps this was the first Christmas tree that was lighted on the banks of the Mississippi. John W. Allen - page 241 of It Happened in Southern Illinois. LATE AND IMPORTANT notice!!!! notice!!!!!!!! notice!!!!!!!! THE DECEMBER MEETING WILL BE HELD IN THE PRAIRIE HISTORIAN MUSEUM AT 7:30 pm WEDNESDAY EVENING DECEMBER 19, 1973. An old fashioned Christmas Party is planned, with a gift exchange. Limit of value $1.00, home made gifts will best suit the occassion, if anyone has the time to make them. The gifts will be numbered and those participating in the exchange will each draw a number and claim the gift with the corresponding number. Those who do not wish to participate in the gift exchange need not do so, but please attend the party anyhow. Anyone who can help trim the tree or take part in the entertainment please contact Jewel McCormack, Program Chairman, phone 279-6557 for details. The tree will be a wild cedar from a fence row. Trimming will be with old fashioned ornaments and decorations, including popcorn, and etc. No refreshment committee was selected so each member may bring what they choose, cookies, candies, and old fashioned delicacies. Don't forget the pop-corn. * * * * * IT IS ALSO TIME TO PAY YOUR DUES FOR 1974 * * * * * We wish to thank everyone for their generous support and cooperation in the building fund and painting. Gertrude Hirons Clemons presented The Prairie Historians with a large donation as a memorial to her late husband, Howard P. Hirons, which has enabled us to pay off the indebtedness on the musuem building. We are indeed very grateful and take this means to express the thanks of all the officers and members. She also donated several historical articles from the Dr. O. P. Norris household and Office. These will be displayed in the case depicting the Medical History of the area. Issued by The Prairie Historians, an organization dedicated to the preservation of things of historic interest. Centered in, but not limited to the southwest four townships of Jefferson County Illinois and contiguous regions without limitation. The area including Knob Prairie, Grand Arm Prairie, Long Prairie, Elk Prairie, Horse Prairie, and Wolf Prairie are of primary interest, but all matters of historic in any area is of extreme concern to The Prairie Historians. founded 1971 membership fee per calender year Individual $3.00 Family $5.00 Officers President: Jerry Elliston, Vice-President: Ileta Philp Secretary/Treasurer: Estelle Holloway Librarian: Dorothy Knight Directors: Willard Fairchild, Betty Borowiak, Louis Norris. Editor: Jerry Elliston Editorial Assistant: Margie Elliston, Beatrice Tuttle, Inez Davis, Hattie Fairchild, Audrey Milliner, Melissa Wells. Every effort will be made to screen the material presented in The Prairie Historian, but neither the editor nor The Prairie Historians assume responsibility for errors in fact expressed by contributors. CONTENTS 1. A Glimpse of the Long History of our Local Environs by Jerry Elliston 5. Butchering Time by Eleanor Hodge 6. Corrections to Elk Prairie School Picture in March 1973 issue of The Prairie Historian. 7. A Walk Down Memory Lane with My Parents "Red" and Hildred Roberts by Audrey Merriman. 7 The Johnson Ditch and The Big Otter Hunt of 1924 8 Nason The City and the Coal Mine 9 The Oldest Horse 10 The Big Fish Tale and The Brownsville and Pinckneyville Roads. 11 The Hall Family - Early Settlers of Elk Prairie A GLIMPSE OF THE LONG HISTORY OF OUR LOCAL ENVIRONS by Jerry Elliston It is not necessary to go very far afield for the objects with which to tell the history of our area by exhibits around the walls of the museam, for a very interesting story took place right in this vicinity, and it is identical in all major respects to the history of the entire area. The first case should contain evidence of the nature of and the past geological record of our environment. Due to the coal and oil industry very few places have been so throughly investigated. I do not wish to create a controversy over the use of the time schedule adopted by the scientist in their explanation of the geologic areas in the forming of the earth, but there is no chronology in the Bible with which to divide the various sedimentary rocks that go to make the earth's surface in our area. This article, then, will use the scientific names and dates in order to place things in their proper sequence. Our topmost bedrock is a part of the fine sediment that collected on the bottom of a fresh water swamp during what is known as the Pennsylvania period in geologic time. That period lasted for about 50 million years, ending nearly 200 million years ago. These are the Coal-Age rocks. At the present time they furnish employment for a great many people in our area. They also furnish most of the energy to make the electricity that is so much a part of our lives today. During the Coal-Ages our museum would have been located deep in the middle of a fresh water swamp filled with a dense growth of enormous trees, of very unusual appearance for many were fern trees, which survive only as tiny plants in the area today. In the steeming jungle they grew at an astonishing rate. The rotting carcasses fell into the water and became peat, a soft, brown accumulation of vegetable remains which is the ancestor of coal. (In forming the deep vein of number six coal, the rich deposit of which is being recovered by all the deep shaft mines in this area, the growth may have continues uninter- rupted for nearly a million years.) Finally the peat became several hundred feet thick, for even after being compressed into the substance resembling a rock that we call coal, it sometimes reaches thickness of fifteen feet. After eons of growth the remains of the mighty forrest was submerged beneath the waters of the Gulf of Mexico (which reached to about Cairo at that time) and shallow sea invaded this area for a period of time. Rock began to accumulate on top of the peat and to compress into coal. The land then arose again and this area was again covered with a fresh water swamp. This was repeated many times. Pennsylvania rocks and shales are exposed in the bed of Knob Creek on the road to the site of Old Williamsburg. One look at the hundreds of layers of shale exposed there, each representing a cycle of flooding and drout, and you will be convinced that eons of time must have passed during the build up of the 800 feet or so of overriding sediment that lies between the present surface and number six coal. Objects from the mine that stirred the curiosity of the miners have been brought to the surface and donated to the writer for a great many years. These things tell some secrets about the plants that once grew here and also about the weather that prevailed during a part of that time. Charles Devine, Tommie Devine, Jack Bicanich and Jimmie Morss, plus several others have donated strange minerals and fossilized plants that will be displayed in the museum. They will tell something about the very, very ancient history of the area. A fews years ago, Mrs. Devine brought in a layer of gypsum about an inch thick, that Mr. Devine had brought up from the mine. Gypsum is formed when a fresh water lake dries up by evaporation. Sometime later Tommie Devine brought a piece containing a cluster of salt crystals. They too are formed when a lake dries up by evaporation. (Gypsym from a dry lake bed forms the sand at White Sands, New Mexico, and the bed of an ancient lake, where salt crystals abound forms the great salt desert near Wendover, Utah.) So those things say that at some time during the forming of number six coal mine a great drout came upon the land, the huge swamp dried up and for a long period of time the land lay parched under a blazing hot sun. These things we will exhibit in the case, along with the fossilized remains of some of the plants that grew here more then 200,000,000 years ago. About a million years ago warm moisture laden air from the seas to the south began to collide with frigid air from the polar regions and unloaded the moisture in the form of snow. A blinding snow storm which lasted all winter came upon the land year after year. More snow built up in the winter than could melt in the summer and after a few thousand years the accumulation became several miles deep. Pressure from the enormous weight of the snow and ice on top caused that at the surface of the earth to become fluid to a degree and to squash outward, carrying rocks and mud with it. The huge pile of ice finally reached as far south as Equality or Shawneetown. A hundred thousand years ago a sheet of ice two miles thick covered the site of the museum. It stayed here for about 25,000 years then it finally melted away. Leaving the landscape scarred and eroded by ice and meltwater. In some places it left great globs of rock filled glacial mud. The sedimentary Pennsylvania rocks had been formed almost on a level, but when the glacier melted away it left craggy pinnacles and deep canyons over the landscape. Knob Hill stood out craggy and rough with no covering of clay to soften the ridges. A ridge ran off to the northwest, but to the east it dropped away sharply into a deep canyon, which stretched away eastward to the high groung where Ed Dalby lives. Proof of this is found in the logs of the drillers who bored holes in the earth to test the thick- ness of the coal seam. When the coal test hole was drilled just west of the Harry Smith place a few years ago, the drill reached a depth of 70 feet before striking bedrock. That ancient canyon has now been filled with mud and silt until today there is a broad flat plain covering the area. About 15,000 years ago debris from the meltwaters of the last glacier, far to the north, clogged the channel of the Mississippi river and blocked the mouth of the big muddy. The great canyon filled with water and a glacial lake stood where the Big Muddy Bottoms are now. Some scientist say it reached a level of 430 feet above sea level, others say 425. The top of Rend Lake dam is only 405 feet, so at either level the museum would have been invaded by water from the lake had it been here at that time. Waves off the ancient lake lapped at the east side of the Knob and undercut the sandstone ledge that you see as you drive down the east side on Knob Street, forming a shelter bluff. It is now filled with windblown earth, but ten thousand years ago that shelter bluff may have been used as a home by some of the very first people to inhabit this area. The earliest evidence of man in southern Illinois that is supported by a carbon date was the remains of a camp fire under a shelter bluff near Modoc, Illinois. It dated about 11,000 years ago. Doubtless people of the Cave Man era were here also, but there were few caves to dwell in. Geologists say the glacial lake was silted in and became a marsh or swamp by about 6,000 years ago, so men of the cave man era hunted and fished around the vicinity of the museum for at least four thousand years before the lake filled in. No kill sites, (bones of extinct animals with spear points imbedded in them,) have been found in southern Illinois, but spear points, exactely like those found imbedded in the bones of the giant animals, that once lived here, that were uncovered in other places, have been found not too far from the site of the museum. Several points of this type were found on a ridge northwest of Ryder crossing. One was found by Gene Dixon while in the company of Sidney Milliner, who persuaded him to keep a record of the find. That point will probably by displayed in the museum. Another ancient spear point was found in a road cut about five miles north of Waltonville. Still another was found by Jimmie Morss southwest of Utah School. All these should be in the case depicting early man in the area. When the last glacier was melting, far to the north, the moisture was all locked up in the ice in the winter time leaving the dry bed of the Mississippi river exposed to the elements. Fierce winds blew from the southwest carrying a load of rock dust from the bed of the stream and spreading it over southern Illinois. This went on for several hundred years, until the glacier scarred landscape, in this area, was softened and neatly hidden beneath a deep mantle of wind blown dust, called loess. In places the loess may be many feet thick as stream banks and road cuts will testify. Only where erosion has exposed the bedrock and washed away the clay, or loess, were rocks and pebbles to be found. Hard granitic rocks from the size of a fist to as big as a house were carried from far to the north by the glacier and left here when it melted. Some of the larger ones are called meteorites by local residents who usually have a tale to tell about it falling from the sky. Usually they tell of a man who was plowing in the field and went to lunch. When he came back the boulder was there. Close examination usually proves these to be large granite boulders of the same material as the millions of smaller ones exposed in the streams and branches. People of the stone age searched for exposure of glacial stones, for it was from these locally gathered stone materials that their tools and utensils were made. Hammers, hatchets, meal grinding tools and many other things including stone balls with which to play a game similar to La Crosse were made from those glacial pepples. After the glaciers all melted away the climate became warmer and drier until our museum would have been setting in the middle of a semidesert. A great grass land covered most of the eastern United States some 5,000 years ago and plants like prickly pear cactus, yucca, and the juniper tree we call white cedar thrived in the area. A few specimens survive today. Finally the rains came back. Trees grew up in the flood plains and along the streams, and even began to encroach upon the grass lands that formed the prairies such as Horse Prairie, Knob Prairie, Elk Prairie, and so forth, that were found by the early pioneer settlers. The people of the mid stone age, who lived in the area at that time found the land populated with a plant community that furnished plenty of berries, roots, nuts, and fruit, as well as grazing for the cloven hoofed animals they hunted for food. They exploited the land for the next several thousand years enjoying the fruits of the bountiful land. By about 500 B. C. people were living on the little ridge north of Knob Creek where the Cortoloni trailer sets now. They were making pottery vessels of clay, and were probably doing some primitive farming. Materials excavated from that site will be displayed in the musuem. Within another 500 years farming was a way of life with the Indians and by 1,000 A. D. traders were in this area from the great city that once existed where Cahokia Mounds State Park is today. To date we have found no evidence of a historic Indian village in this vicinity, but it is a matter of record that the Kaskaskias hunted the prairies in Jefferson County. In 1818 or 1819 David Fairchild built a log cabin near the southwest corner of Knob Prairie Ceme- tery, and the era of white settlement had begun. In 1822 Fairchild sold out to Benjamin Hirons. A few scattered cabins beside the Shawneetown and Kaskaskia trails constituted the settlement of this area until Eli Gilbert came with his grist mill in 1839 and founded Milltown or Knob Prairie settlement in 1840. A store, a mill, a blacksmith shop and a few houses then became the first seat of commerce in the southwest part of the county. Our dioramas will mention only a few settlers by name. That is not meant to play down the impor- tance of the other settlers, but only those who brought changes in the way of life of the people in the area will be depicted, along with the things which brought about those changes. We hope to have records of all the settlers and their descendents in our archives within a few years. The next thing of importance to the people in this area came in 1851-1854. It was during that time that the I C Railroad was built and the big city markets became available to the backwoods residents in this part of the county. A barrell factory was started at Ashley. Hoop poles, barrel staves, railroad ties, and firewood was then hauled to the railroad siding. Soon all manner of livestock was being driven many miles to the stock pens. Those who drove them have passed on, but tales of their experience still linger in the memories of their descendents. These things will be shown, also the way in which the creatures were prepared for the journey as will the later eras in our history. This will require much time, much patience, much work, much research, but it will be worth it all in the end. A WALK DOWN MEMORY LANE WITH MY PARENTS, ALBERTS "RED" AND HILDRED ROBERTS Stories of Elk Prairie and Some of It's Residents of Long Ago by Audrey Merriman THE JOHNSON DITCH This is the story of how the Johnson Ditch came about. There was a road leading from Dareville to where the old Utah School House is now located and it crossed what was known as The Fred Lake. Some of this same road is there yet today. As early as 1912 and perhaps earlier, there was a bridge 800 feet long and about 3 feet high on this same road before the ditch was dug. Later on, about the year 1918, Henry Johnson went to Dareville one day, and while there he saw a group of men talking, so he goes over to join them. He heard Charlie Peterson say that a ditch was needed to drain the lake and how much better it would be if there was one. Everybody in the group agreed that it would be a good thing to have a ditch dug sometime, and with that the discussion ended. All the way home that day Henry thinks about this and he decides it's a good idea, so he gets busy and begins to dig the ditch himself. He dug it three-quarters of a mile long and about one and one-half feet deep. I do not know how long it took him to do this project, but he never did receive any pay from any- one for all his hard work. It was always called "The Johnson Ditch", so even though he received no pay for his hard labor, he did receive recognition for his many hours of hard work. Another story told about Henry Johnson was of him buying a wagon. Henry Johnson worked at helping to lay the first C. B. and Q. Railroad track through Waltonville in about 1904 or 1905. He took the money that he earned from this work and went to Judge Norris' Store and bought himself a brand new wagon. He got someone to pull the wagon home for him and had it set under a big mulberry tree in his front yard. He used a wooden neck yoke to prop the wagon tongue up off the ground, and there it sat for many years, never used. Finally the old neck yoke rotted and fell apart and the tongue rotted and fell out of the wagon, and still it was never moved. Then the mulberry tree died and by that time the entire wagon had rotted and fell apart and he never did hitch a team of horses to it and use it. In facts it's been said that he never did even own a team of horses, so just why he bought the new wagon when he knew he never would use it is still a mystery that has never been solved. Nevertheless it provided the citizens of Elk Prairie something to talk about for many years. THE BIG OTTER HUNT OF 1924 The only otter known to be found in Jefferson County was killed in Elk Prairie Township by Jim Loman and his brother Homer. It weighed 42 pounds. It was quite a sly animal and it took some doing to out-smart it. It's tracks were first seen near the Abner Cemetery, south and west of Nason. The timber used for piling for the Nason mine was shipped in from the northern part of the United States on railroad flatcars. Since Abner Cemetery is near to the mine it was finally decided that the otter must have come in on one of the railroad cars and when the cars were stopped at the mine it jumped to the ground and took off. One morning "Red" Roberts was near the Abner Cemetery with his dogs, going on a hunting trip and the dogs followed the tracks of this otter. They chased it to Lost Knob Pond and then chased it south to Ackley Pond. About one mile south of Ackley Pond the otter ran into Little Awkward Creek and went west of the Big Muddy River. It had made many tracks here on the back so "Red" stopped to check them very closely trying to decide what kind of an animal it was. The tracks looked very much like goose tracks. He then went to the home of Sam Reynolds and told him about those odd animal tracks he had just seen. Some of the neighborhood men went to look at the tracks and they finally all decided it was the tracks of an otter. After much chasing and much slyness on the part of the otter, Jim Loman finally caught it with his two old hound dogs, Rowd and Rattler. It took a while though before the dogs treed it in a big drift above Little Awkward Creek on Big Muddy River. The river was frozen over solid, but farther on down there was an air hole through the ice, and the otter discovered this. It would leave the drift and go to the air hole, and the dogs would find it and bark, and then the otter would dive under the ice and race back to the drift. He could dive under the ice faster than the dogs could run on top of the ice. The otter did this stunt many times. Finally Homer Loman, brother of Jim, saw it leave the air hole and move in beside a big log in the drift. The dogs found it, but once again it dived under the ice and ran back to the air hole. Homer said, "now I know just what that otter is up to and how he's doing all of this". Next time the otter swam back to the drift Homer was waiting for it and shot it with his shot gun. It was wounded, but went on into the drift, but some blood came up to the top of the water, so they followed the trail of blood into the drift and the two dogs caught the otter. This was the first, last, and only otter hunting spree that's ever been known of in Elk Prairie Township. This was in 1924. NASON---THE CITY AND THE COAL MINE. Nason is a community which has had its share of ups and downs. Nason is located about eleven miles southwest of Mt. Vernon, in Elk Prairie Township, and was expected to become a thriving city when it was first founded. Research had revealed a coal vein 8 feet and 10 inches thick, extending in all directions, in southwestern Jefferson county. The Nason Coal Company, with Albert J. Nason as company president, owned several acres of land in Jefferson County. In May of 1923, Warner Louth began grading the streets of Nason and he had them looking real good, then the fall rains began and the streets became so muddy it was next to impossible to get anywhere on them. The people nicknamed the town "Gum Boot City". There was a story told in jest by Rudolph Fair- child. He was walking down the street in Nason one day when he seen a man's head under it. It was just barely sticking out of the mud. When Rudolph said, "Do you need any help?" the head replied, "I reckon not. You see, I'm on a horse." I'm sure it was not nearly that bad, but perhaps there were times when it seemed that way to some folks. The town of Nason officially opened June 9, 1923, with the idea of becoming an industrial city, with the coal mine being the chief industry. The city planners assumed Nason's population would eventually exceed 5,000 or maybe even more, therefore it had big wide streets to accomodate all the automobiles. It had sidewalks throughout the town, many of which can be seen today extending out into empty fields. It had many businesses, including a drug store, Bank, Grocery Store, Saloons, and several more stores. Dimples Nason Williams was the first baby born in the town of Nason. Most of the store buildings have now been torn down and removed. In March of 1923 C. E. Gilliland and Krekel Martin were awarded the contract for hauling materials for the new mine in Elk Prairie Township from Ina to the mine site. The coal mine was built to handle 10,000 tons of coal per day and the railroad depot was located at the west edge of the city. "The Front Door of Nason." A railroad connecting Mt. Vernon and Nason was completed in 1924. It is now no longer in use. The land where the Nason Coal Mine was located was a large meadow of Red Top hay. The hay was given to Sam Reynolds and he got "Red" Roberts to help him cut the hay and haul it off. By the time they got the hay all cut and hauled off, the building of the houses had already begun. The city was building rapidly and everything was "on the Boom." The task of sinking the coal mine began with a very small crew of men at first. Dow Roberson dug and throwed out the first shovel full of dirt and went all the way down to make the mine. Walter Bravard fired the engine and George Hughes ran the hoist that was used to lift the dirt up out of the mine. I'm sure there were other men involved in this work, but I do not know their names. Thus the work began on the Nason Coal Mine. This mine provided work for many people for several years. The city of Nason thrived and many houses were built during this time. The long line of wagons and trucks waiting to be filled with coal was a familiar sight. My husband, Lester Merriman, says he has gone to the mine with his father in a wagon many times to haul home coal for the family to use in the winter time. He said it was not uncommon to have to wait for several hours before you could get your wagon loaded. Then just as it seemed everything was going onward and upward for Nason there came a startling bit of news. The Mine was going to close down. It ceased operation October 19, 1951. When they finished digging the last load of coal before closing the mine, the miners were digging coal from underneath the farm home of Dow Roberson. So, ironically, Dow was involved in the beginning and the ending of the operation of the Nason Mine. The town of Nason peaked and then it declined, with the closing of the mine being the fatal blow. Many of the businesses closed and people began to move away, selling their homes to whoever would buy them. The people who bought the houses moved them away to various other places, and soon Nason had the appearance of a Ghost Town, with the many sidewalks leading to nowhere. But now, once again, it seems Nason is on the rise. Rend Lake, with a portion nearly bordering on the southwestern edge of Nason, is expected to provide new business for the town. There are reports of new construction in the area now, and many places are in the making for recreation sites, so once again Nason is looking ahead to a bright future. THE OLDEST HORSE The oldest horse known of in Jefferson County spent it's entire life in Elk Prairie Township. He was a red and white spotted horse named "Celum" and was owned by Charlie Peterson. The horse lived and died on the same farm where is was born. The horse never did have but two owners. The other owner was "Red" Roberts. He owned the horse a short time when it was three years old, having won him from Charlie on a bet. Charlie then de- cided he wanted the horse back, so "Red" swapped him back to Charlie for a nice big saddle. The horse never changed hands again and lived the remainder of his life on Charlie's farm. The horse out-lived Charlie, so when Charlie died, his son, Donald Peterson, kept the horse and cared for it until it died at the ripe old age of 46 years. As far as we know there has never been a horse to live longer than this. THE BIG FISH TALE----THE ONE THAT NEVER GOT AWAY. Several years ago many of the men would go "hogging" for fish in the various creeks around in the community. They would locate some big fish and then get in the water and catch the fish with their bare hands. In this case, no seine was being used. This particular fish was one of the biggest ever known in this area, and it came from the Big Muddy river in Elk Prairie Township. I don't know the exact year, but it was about 1912 or 1913, I think. One day Rudolph Fairchild and Harry Green went hogging for this big catfish, in the Big Muddy river near where the bridge is now located on route 148, not far from the farm where Rolla Gilbert lived for many years. Rudolph had heard other men tell of seeing this huge catfish in this area so he wants to see if he can find it. He finally located it in about 9 feet of water and he struggles and thrashes around with this huge fish and runs his hand and arm through its gills and out through its mouth and locks both arms together around the fish. He sees he can't handle this fish alone so he begins to yell for someone to come and help him. "Red" Roberts' dad had his mules on some pasture land owned by Judge Norris and he had been down there to put some salt out for the mules and he heard Rudolph yelling for help, so he starts toward the river to see about him. Gus Tuno was plowing corn with mules for Joe Norris and he heard the yells, too, so Gus took the halter ropes off of one of the mules and goes to help the men. Harry Green finally gets Rudolph and the big fish out of the water and they drag the catfish around and tied it to a tree with the rope. Then they took it to Waltonville and weighed it and it weighed 83 pounds. Rudolph wanted everyone in Waltonville to get in on the fish fry, so he decides it should be held in the Waltonville Village Park. Clyde Winn furnished lumber for the tables and they set them up in the park. The woman of Waltonville all brung their skillets and they all began to fry the fish. It was one of the biggest fish fries that has ever been held in Waltonville and everyone participated in it that wanted to. We are always hearing of big fish stories, especially about the big one that got away, but this time the big one didn't get away. He was eaten and enjoyed by all. THE BROWNSVILLE AND PINCKNEYVILLE ROADS by Hildred Roberts The road toward Brownsville and Pinckneyville attracted a good deal of attention considering how little business there was at either of those places. September 27, "The viewers who were to view and mark the road from Mt. Vernon to intersect a cartway in Horse Prairie and on a direction to Brownsville, do make the following report: That we have viewed the same road to run from Mt. Vernon, the present leading road to John Hays' at Elk Prairie; thence along down said prairie near the east side of John Black's farm; thence down a little arm of said prairie to the lower end of same; thence crossing Muddy River below The Hurricane; thence to the county line above the head of Honey Point" signed by Samuel Boswell and Samuel Hayes. In 1835, Isaac Casey, A. Buffington, and Jesse Green were sent to view a road toward Pinckney- ville, and failing to do it the job was let next year to John Dodds, I. T. Davenport and William Hicks. They located it by John Dodd's house to the Nashville Road, by Rhodam Allen's field across the prairie, and so on to the Brownsville Road. Thus it remained until 1839, when A. Milcher, P. Osborn and J. S. Dees were sent out to see if it were not useless for anybody but Dodds and Rhodam Allen, and it certainly was, so there it died. Then an Elk Prairie Road sprang up in 1837, running between Joseph Pace's and Dr. Greethans to Bodine's to Reed's Ford, across Muddy River and to the road to the county line. After changing routes frequently, the Pinckneyville Road was located not far from where it runs now, in March of 1845 by Sam Boswell, Sidney Place, and Jesse A. Dees, the route having been suggested by J. R. Allen and Eli Gilbert in 1844. THE HALL FAMILY -- EARLY SETTLERS OF ELK PRAIRIE by Audrey Merriman and Hildred Roberts Nathan and Polly (Clampit) Hall and their family were early settlers in Elk Prairie. Nathan died in 1860, leaving Polly a widow with a large family at home. At the start of the Civil War her four sons volun- teered for the Army, leaving Polly at home with 4 young children. She got a large dog to have for the protection of the family. It was about the size of an English Mastiff, of no particular breed, but a mixture of many breeds. She allowed this dog to stay in her cabin at night, for she felt safer knowing he was nearby. Then, just as today, there were theives and robbers around, trying to rob people. It was common for the menfolks who were away in the Army to send money back home to their families and the robbers soon learned this, so when the women received the money they would go rob them. Polly was one of the women who received the money. Each month when her sons received their pay they would send some home to their mother to help provide for the younger children still at home. One night shortly after Polly had received her money from her sons, she heard a loud noise outside her cabin door, which she always kept barred. It sounded like someone trying to get into the cabin. Finally it went away, but the next night she heard the same noise again. The dog was all upset and barking and protesting very loudly about this noise. So Polly opened the door just wide enough to let the dog slip outside, and she told the dog, "Whatever that is outside, move it down the path." The dog finally returned to the cabin and all was quiet and there was no more trouble for the rest of the night. She was never bothered anymore with loud noises at night. About 2 weeks later the body of a man was found in the woods not far from her cabin with his throat torn open, and badly slashed by some kind of an animal. Polly always thought that this was the man who was bothering her and that her faithful dog had killed the man and probably saved their lives as well as their money. At the close of the Civil War the four Hall sons returned from the Army and married and began to make new lives for themselves. Thomas B. Hall married in 1868 one of the pretty neighborhood girls, Hannah Elizabeth Lee, dauther of Matthew and Mary Lee. They made their home in Elk Prairie, living in a cabin that set a short distance from where the Old Stenson Peterson farm was located, (Bill Kash now owns this farm). I do not know much about Elizabeth (Lee) Hall, but I do know she was a well educated woman with the most beautiful handwriting I have ever seen. I now have their family Bible and she had written family names and date in it, as well as a few other bits of information. Also she had placed some four leaved clovers and a small wild flower in between some of the pages and these are in good condition yet today, over a hundred years later. There was probably some sentimental reason for her saving these, if we only knew it. They had two babies, both dying as infants. Their third child was Mary Eliza Hall, my grandmother. In 1873 when Mary was about 18 months old, her mother, Elizabeth, took sick with tuberculosis, them days it was called "Lung Fever" or "Consumption", and she only lived about six weeks. They decided to bury her in the Old Clampit Cemetery, or Old Horse Prairie Cemetery as some call it, (about a quarter mile southeast of the Old Primitive Baptist Church east of Emerson Crossing). She died during a time of very high waters. The Big Muddy River was overflowing and water was all over the "Bottoms". The Old Brownsville Road turned west where the Old Stenson Peterson farm was located, went across the Big Muddy River and down thru Winfield. This was the road they would have to use and it was completely covered with water to a depth of several feet. Neighborhood men helped to haul the casket bearing the body to the Cemetery. They tied the bed onto the running gears of the wagon and when water started coming into the bed of the wagon, they placed the casket on their shoulders and finally ended up by setting it on chairs in the wagon bed to keep it out of the water as a long stretch of the road was deeply flooded. In this way they bore the body to the Cemetery. The men rode in the wagon and steadied the coffin on the chairs. The Old Clampit Cemetery is no longer in use and there are only four monuments left in it. They are placed in a pile in the corner of what once was a well kept cemetery, but is now trampled by cattle. In 1912 a group met at the Cemetery and put up a new fence, but it has now rotted away. Moses Hall, Mary (Hall) Fairchild, and her eldest son, Everett, went and helped. They loaded down their brand new wagon, which had bright red wheels, a green bed, and a spring seat, being quite a handsome piece of property, of which they were very proud. They took fence posts, wire fencing and some tools. They also took along a big basket, well filled with all manner of good things to eat, for the men did the work and the women would serve them a big noon meal. It was common, then, for people to have what they called their "Basket Dinners" at any kind of gathering. Just when they quit using the Cemetery I do not know, but Elizabeth Hall is the last one I have record of being buried there but I am sure there were probably others later. When the Horse Prairie Church was erected a Cemetery was started nearer the church. After the death of Elizabeth Hall, Thomas and his small daughter, Mary, moved back to the home of his mother, Polly Clampit Hall. Thomas provided for them and Polly raised Mary for him. Polly also at the same time was raising another orphaned grand-daughter, Polly Hall, who grew up and married James Robinson. While living in Elk Prairie the girls attended the old Boswell School. I've heard my grandmother, Mary (Hall) Fairchild, tell of how they used what was known as corn shuck mattresses. It was her and Polly's job to tear the dried corn shucks up into little strips and they would work at this until their hands and fingers would be cut and bleeding, and get very sore from the irritating task. They thought this was an awful job and didn't like doing it. Of course small jobs such as this was always saved for the children to do. After they got the strips all cut up they filled a large cloth bag with the shuck material and it made a nice soft bed. Polly Hall lived a long and useful life, raising eight children of her own and two grand-daughters. She sent four sons to the Civil War, all received very high compliments from their Commanding Officers. It was said that any time they asked either one of the Hall boys to do something, they did it and never com- plained about it. She had raised a family of which she could be proud. Polly Hall died September 6, 1901, the same day President McKinley was Assisinated. A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT My dear, generous, cooperative, friends: I would like to give you a Christmas present. The present is the word folk. F O L K Webster's Dictionary says the word folk is applied to that great portion of the people who determine the group form of civilization. They preserve the customs, the crafts, the legends, the super- stitions, and the other characteristics pecular to their own social order, from generation to generation, but are seldom recorded in the history books. Only the wealthy or influential ever receive recognition in history books. Did you know that we know more about the way of life of a few wealthy people of long ago than we do about the way of life of all the millions of common folk who were poor? The Prairie Historians are a folk history group. Our little publication The Prairie Historian is a folk magazine, and our museum will be a folk museum. Saturday, December 1, 1973, I attended a workshop sponsered by The Illinois Archaeological Survey, at Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois. While there I met Dr. James Deetz, the principal speaker. Dr. Deetz is the archaeologist in charge of excavation and restoring the Plymouth Colony. When I told him what we were doing he was delighted and began to refer historians to me for help in establishing a folk history program in their own home historical societies. Dr. Deetz pointed out that little is known about the common folk that go to make up the back bone of our civilization, and he is very anxious to encourage folk history programs. He suggested that we call our museum The Prairie Historians Folk Museum. Said our publication should be titled The Prairie Historian, a folk magazine. And that our stated purpose should be to gather preserve and publish folk history, as most historical societies tend to concentrate their efforts toward gathering information about the few locally famous people rather than learning more about their common craftsmen. These suggestions will be considered at our next meeting, please think about them in the mean- time. Jerry H. Elliston, president. *PICTURE COMING AS SOON AS SOON AS I RECEIVE IT* SOMETHING ABOUT THE STUDENTS WHO ATTENDED OAKLAND SCHOOL IN 1894 by Melissa Kirkpatrick Wells, the only student in the picture who is still living. first row - left to right 1-Mrs. Minerva Downen, mother of Iva May, Ida, and Leora Downen. 2-Guy Sulcer, son of Mr. & Mrs. James Sulcer-married Arlene Boswell-a farmer-made his home on Sulcer Family Farm. 3-Harry Kirkpatrick, a farmer-married Opal Martin-was a twin to #4. 4-Melissa Ann Kirkpatrick, daughter of Hiram C. & Mary Elizabeth Hartley Kirkpatrick-married Dr. James W. Wells. 5-Ella Leora Downen, daughter of David and Minerva Downen-married Levi Smith. 6-Frances Shrum, an orphan living with Mr. & Mrs. James Ray. 7-Ida Downen, daughter of David and Minerva Downen-married Alvin Hartley. 8-Roy Crank, the Crank family left Oakland School District-moving to Kansas at the end of the school year. second row-left to right 1 & 2-Minerva Kirkpatrick-holding baby daughter-Leora. 3-Effie B. Kirkpatrick, daughter of Hiram C. & Mary E. Hartley Kirkpatrick-married Joel Edward Smith. 4-Ida Kelley-daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Matthew Kelley-married Pearl Holloway. 5-Leota Kirkpatrick-daughter of Hiram C. & Mary E. Hartley Kirkpatrick-married Joel Wilson Allen. 6-William Martin-son of Lafayette & Martha Martin-married a Miss Johnson. 7-Everett Rowe-son of Mr. & Mrs. James Rowe-married Ruby Ward. 8-James Crank-the family left Oakland District-moved to Kansas. 9-Luther Kirkpatrick-son of Hiram C. & Mary E. Hartley Kirkpatrick-married Callie Jones. 10-Mrs. Martha Martin-holding son Harley number 11. Also mother of number 6. 11-Harley Martin. Third row-left to right 1-Iva May Downen-daughter of David & Minerva Downen-married Walter Webb. 2-Ellis Kelley-son of Mr. & Mrs. Matthew Kelley-married Anna Allen. 3-Amy Sulcer-(Correction to spelling under picture) daughter of Mr. & Mrs. James Sulcer-married Henry Allen 4-Charles Rowe-son of Mr. & Mrs. James Rowe-entered Medical College the fall of 1895 & became a Doctor entered U.S. Army and died in the Phillipines-his body was brought home for burial- I remember attending the funeral. 5-John Smith-(teacher)-son of Frank & Margaret Allen Smith-entered Medical School in St. Louis in the fall of 1895-after graduating married Elsie Greenwood-practiced his profession for a few years then died of TB 6-Oscar Sulcer-son of Mr. & Mrs. Joseph Sulcer-married -wife unknown-was a barber in Sesser Illinois. 7-Emma Wilderman-an orphan-reared by Mr. & Mrs. Henry H. Hartley-married Frank Randall. 8-Louella Crank-moved to Kansas.
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