TOPOGRAPHY
The surface of this county is generally rolling,
and, with the exception of two or three small prairies, was originally covered
mainly with timber. There are no streams of any considerable size in the
county, the largest being the North Fork of the Saline River, which has its
origin in Section 8, Township 6, range 7 east, at the junction of Wheeler's
Creek and Lake Creek, and runs southerly into Saline County. In the
southwest portion is Rector Creek and in the west is Macedonia Creek, in the
north are Auxier and Haw Creeks, the latter being a branch of Skillet Fork,
which intersects the extreme northeast corner of the county. A glance at
the map shows that all these strams have their origin within the limits of the
county and run to the four points of the compass, thus indicating that Hamilton
County is more elevated than any of its immediate neighbors. The alluvial
deposits are confined to the valleys of the small streams, and are generally
less than a mile in width. The drift deposits in the uplands vary from ten
to thirty feet in thickness, and consist of buff and yellow, gravelly clay, with
small boulders interspersed from a few inches to a foot or more in
diameter. Beneath this <pg.
242> gravelly clay and hard pan of the drift are
sometimes found stems and branches of trees in the ancient soil in which they
grew.
GEOLOGY
The rocks of this county belong to the upper coal
measures, ranging from Coal No. 10 to No. 13, the rock strata being from 150 to
200 feet in thickness, but the coal is seldom thick enough to work. In
early days the coal on Hogg Prairie was worked to some extent by stripping to
supply the blacksmiths, but upon opening up the thicker veins in Saline County,
the work in Hamilton County was abandoned. Beneath this coal is a layer of
limestone from thirty to forty feet in thickness. This is a fine, grained,
grayish rock, turns yellowish drab upon exposure, and when burned yields a
strong, dark colored lime. Sandstone is quarried southwest of McLeansboro
for building purposes. It dresses easily and hardens on exposure.
Clay suitable for brickmaking is abundant in every locality, as is also sand for
mortar and cement. There are a few mineral springs in the county, one a
mile and a half east of McLeansboro, one north of, and one in McLeansboro.
SOIL
Alluvium bottoms of various widths exist all along
the main branch of North Fork and on some of the smaller streams. Here the
soil is very rich, usually a sandy loam. The prairies are small and occupy
the highlands between the sources of the streams. The soil is of medium
quality and produces fair crops of oats, wheat, corn, grass, etc. The oak
ridges have a thin soil with a stiff clay subsoil and require artificial
stimulus or the plowing in of green crops to retain their productive
qualities. Generally speaking this county compares favorably with other
portions of southeastern Illinois.
<pg. 243>
LOCAL NAMES
It may be of interest to many to know that Rector
Creek was so named from the fact that John Rector
was killed near or in this creek by Indians, while engaged in the original
survey of the country in 1805. The following entry on the field book of
Saline County has reference to this murder:
"John Rector died May
25, 1805, at the section corner of Sections 21, 22, 27 and 28; buried from this
corner, south 62°, west 72 poles, small stone monument, stone quarry northwest,
150 yards." This was in Township 7, Range 7.
Moore's Prairie was so named from a man named Moore whose Christian name can not now be recalled, but who was killed by
Indians. The same is the case as to Knight's Prairie. Hogg Prairie
was named after the father of Samuel Hogg.
Eel's Prairie is said to have been named after Eli Waller,
though the connection is not obvious. Beaver Creek was named from the
presence of large numbers of beavers in and near the creek. Allen Precinct
was named after a Mr. Allen, it is now Twigg
Township named after James Twigg. Griswold
Precinct was named after Gilbert Griswold, it is
now Flannigan Township named after a Mr. Flannigan.
Shelton Precinct was named after Joseph Shelton,
Crouch Precinct after Adam Crouch, and Mayberry
Precinct after Frederick Mayberry.
SETTLEMENT
It is not easy to state with certainty who was the first settler within the
present limits of Hamilton County, but the following are among the names of the
early settlers: David Upton, who located
about six miles southwest of the present town of McLeansboro, in 1816, on what
is known as Knight's Prairie. Charles Heard
came in a few weeks later from Rutherford County, Tenn., near Stone River, and
purchased the improvements of David Upton,
consisting mainly of a small log cabin. Mr. Heard
brought <pg. 244>
with him his wife and five children – James M., John
H., Charles H., Elizabeth
and Polly. Other early settlers were John
Bishop, John Hardister, William
Hungate (the latter having a family of four of five children), Jacob
Coffman, Gilbert Griswold, Samuel
Hogg, John Townsend, Jacob
Braden, Abram Irvin; John
Schoolcraft and his four sons, James, John,
Hezekiah and Almon,
and three daughters, Nancy, Margaret
and Susan; William
Christopher, and Jesse Hardister; John
Daily and his family of six sons and four daughters, viz.: Anderson,
William, Vincent, John,
Levi and Harvey, and Nancy,
Jensie, Mary and Elizabeth
(Nancy married Benjamin Hood,
Jensie married Daniel Tolley,
Mary married Job Standerfer,
and Elizabeth married John
Bond); Frederick Mayberry and his sons, Frederick,
Jacob, George and Solomon;
Samuel Biggerstaff and his sons, Hiram,
Wesley and Alfred; William
Hopson and Jesse Hopson, brothers; Richard
Smith and his sons, Samuel and John
B. Smith; William B. McLean, brother of John
McLean, of Shawneetown; Freeman McKinney,
brother-in-law of William B. McLean; Thomas
Smith and Randolph Smith, each with a large
family; Townsend Tarlton, one of the members of the
first county commissioners' court; Robert Witt; Richard
Lock and his sons, John, Jonas,
William and Samuel; Mastin
Bond, father of John Bond; Andrew
Vance and family; Adam Crouch; John Buck, son of Frederick Buck, of
Gallatin County, and his sons, John and William;
John Ray, John, James,
Caleb and Matthew Ellis;
Jesse C. Lockwood, brother of Judge
Lockwood, of the Illinois Supreme Court; Chester
Carpenter, a Baptist preacher, and his son, Milton
Carpenter, also a Baptist preacher, and afterward State treasurer; Dr.
Lorenzo Rathbone, and John Anderson, whose
daughter married Dr. Rathbone; Gabriel
and Edmund Warner, A.T.
Sullenger, John Willis, Merrill
Willis, Hardy C. Willis, Elijah
Burriss; John Moore, father of Mrs.
Charles Heard, and his sons, James, Alfred
and Green; Levi Wooldridge,
in the southeastern part of the county, and John <pg.
247> Wooldridge, near the
present site of Hoodville; Job Standerfer, William
Denny and James Lane, Sr., the latter coming
into the county in 1818, from Sumner County, Tenn., with his family, consisting
of his wife and sons, William, Leaven,
Thomas, James, Jr.,
(afterward county judge), and L.B. Lane and
daughters, Sadie, Lavina,
Elizabeth and Mary.
Lewis Lane, another son of James
Lane, Sr., came at the same time as the head of a family, bringing his
wife, Mary, and two children, Joel
P., and Eliza (who is now living as the
widow of Lewis Prince, her second husband, the
first having been a Mr. Biggerstaff.) Mr.
Grimes and his sons William and "Don,"
came in 1818, probably from Kentucky. John
Biggerstaff, a brother of Samuel, was also
an old settler, and a Mr. Billings and his sons, Henry
and William, came in 1817. Robert
Wilson, with his wife and daughter Eliza,
came from Kentucky. William Allen and his
sons, John and Jacob, and Thomas Garrison were also early pioneers. Some
of those who settled in the northeast part of the county in early days were Mr.
Rador, Adam Thompson and sons, William
Porter, Hiram and Eli York (brothers from Kentucky), Thomas White and sons, Hugh
and Thomas; James Hopson,
John Palmer, Michael
Smithpeter; Langston Drew and his sons, John
and William, and daughters, Elizabeth,
Frances and Nancy; Samuel
Martin and wife and two sons, and two daughters, Lewis
Thomas with his wife and two daughters, from White County, Tenn., Hiram
Thomas, wife, and sons, and Mrs. Lewis F. Peter
and Samuel, and two or three daughters, John
Davis, Jesse Moore, from Tennessee, with his
wife and four sons and four daughters; a Mr. Sexton
and his son Harvey, Edward
and William Compton, and Lewis
Thompson (who married a Sexton, and became
very wealthy). In the southern part of the county were James
Twigg, who came in 1822, from Rutherford County, Tenn., after whom Twigg
Township was named, and who is still living at the age of eighty-three.; Henry
Hardister came as a yound man; John Burnett
and family, <pg. 248>
Isaac Johnson with a large family; Robert
Johnson and his sons, John L. and G.W.;
Samuel Wilson and Charles
and three daughters; Jacob Braden, in 1819, with
five or six sons; Jesse C. Lockwood, Charles
Phelps, Gilbert Griswold; Richard
Waller, with wife, three sons and three daughters; John
Douglass, from Tennessee, with wife and sons, James,
Hezekiah and Hugh, and
three or four daughters; "Hal" Webb, David
Keazler; John and John
S. Davis, from South Carolina; Mr. Young,
with his wife; Hugh Gregg; Samuel
Flannigan, with a large family; Uriah Odell
and two brothers, and William, Charles
and Christopher Hungate. Some of those in the
vicinity of Knight's Prairie were Robert Page, from
South Carolina, with three sons and some daughters, Capt.
Hosea Vise and Nathaniel Harrison; Nimrod
Shirley, with a large family; John Hall,
grandfather of the present lawyer, John C. Hall, of
McLeansboro; Richard Maulding, William
James; William Lane, wife, two sons and
three daughters; Lewis Lane, grandfather of Gov.
Henry Warmoth, of Louisiana, who was born in McLeansboro about the year
1840; Martin Kountz, John
Griffey, John Shaddock; Robert
Clark, wife, three sons and three daughters; Thomas,
Hiram and John Barker,
from Kentucky; Samuel Beach, who afterward moved to
Wayne County; William Hall, father of the present
sheriff of the county; Elijah, John,
William and Robert Kimsey,
each with a large family; Jeremiah McNimmer, William
P. Procter, David Procter, Reuben
Procter, Isaac McBrown, and Hazel,
Calvin, John, Henderson
and Robert McBrown, Joseph
Shelton, Nathan Garrison; Mr.
Stull, wife and son James, who is still
living; William Stearman, Martin
Stearman, Mr. Lowery and son John
Lowry, Elliott W. and Young
S. Lowery, all from Tennessee; Hazel Cross
and family, Pleasant Cross and family, Mr.
Whitewell and family, Isaac Going and
family; Thomas Burton and family, consisting of
wife, four sons and five daughters; Reuben <pg.
249> Oglesby; William
Johnson, wife and two sons, Jesse and Eli;
Ephraim and Thomas Cates,
both with families; Philip Bearden and family; a
portion of the above in the northwest part of the county. Samuel
McCoy and O.L. Cannon, from Ohio, settled in
the vicinity of the present Dahlgren, and also Henry
Runyon and George Irvin, in 1822, in the
same part of the county. A.M. Auxier settled
in the northern part of the county, or in Wayne County. Auxier's Creek and
Auxier's Prairie were named after him. His son, Benjamin
Auxier is well remembered from a difficulty he had with a man named Grant,
occasioned by jealousy of the latter with reference to some woman whose name is
not to appear in this history. In connection with the affair Grant
swore he would kill Auxier, and Auxier,
wishing neither to be killed nor to kill Grant,
caught him in the woods, bound him to a log with a strong withe across his neck,
and put out both of his eyes.
Crouch Township was named after Adam
Crouch. In this township were the following as early
pioneers: William Ellis, William
Rowls, wife and three or four sons, John Warfield,
wife and three sons and three or four daughters, all from Kentucky; Jarrett
Trammell, wife and sons, Nicholas and Philip;
Francis Lasley, Phelan
Woodruff, Charles Crissell, David
Garrison, Sr., Abram Peer, Samuel
Close and family, James Hall, Charles
Tarter, Robert Van Devener, Samuel
Deets (first tailor in McLeansboro), who came from Logan County, Ky.; John
Irvin (first hatter in McLeansboro); John White
and family, from Tennessee; George Saltman and
family, Martin Sims, James
Hunter, James and David
Barnes; Mr. Lakey, who lived on the
"Jones tract," after whom Lakey's Creek was named, and who was killed
by his son-in-law; Moses and Abraham
Hudson, Andrew Peck, Mason
Morris, Edward Gatlin and Lofty
Nichols (the latter lived near McLeansboro), William
Vickers, Samuel Crouse, James
Hughes, Thomas Howard, and several others
whose names can not now be ascertained. The first white settler <pg.
250> whoever he was, has left no posterity to perpetuate
his name. George McKenzie is said to have
settled here about 1810.
Mastin Bond has been
mentioned above as one of the ancient pioneers. His son, Richard
Bond, related to Thompson B. Stelle the
following incident relative to "Indian Charley," the last of the
Shawnee Indians to leave the happy hunting grounds of this county. This
Shawnee was a "medicine man" of great reputation among his race.
He lived on Opossum Creek, near Joseph Coker's
farm, where he remained until 1823, about one year after his wife had gone
away. He said he felt sad to leave his happy hunting grounds and the
graves of his fathers, but that he believed the Great Spirit had given the
country to the "pale face," and he was, in that view of it, content to
go. On the day before his departure he told Mastin
Bond and John Dale of a great secret.
There was a small herb growing in their midst that would ruin the country some
day if it were not destroyed. There was a small patch of it in Eel's
Prairie, on Big Creek, and one near Auxier's Pond, on Auxier's Creek. The
noxious weed was known to all the Indian doctors, but its ravages had not then
commenced; so the old pioneers lost an opportunity to know and to destroy the
deadly "Milk Sick."
The only other Indian story for which there is space in
this sketch is one told in a short history of pioneer life in Hamilton County,
by William Bryant. He says: "We left Mr.
Ivy's place this morning, January 1, 1810," but he does not tell us
where Mr. Ivy's place was. Prior, to leaving,
however, there was a general hand-shaking all around, and the best wishes were
bestowed upon all. The squaw then put in. Drawing a couple of French
pipes from her bosom, she filled them both with the dried leaves of the sumac,
then lighted each with a live coal. She put the stem of one in her mouth,
drew three whiffs of smoke and handed the other to Mr. Ivy,
raising three of her fingers near his face saying, "Good heart,
smoke." When he had taken three <pg.
251> draws she lowered her fingers, took hold of his
pipe and handed it to Mr. Bryant's uncle, going
through the same performances, then offered the pipes to the married ladies, and
so continued to all the company, but for the young people she filled the pipe
with the pulverized leaves of the plant know as "Adam and Eve."
There was a young couple present who wanted to get
married and the squaw performed the ceremony in the following manner:
Filling two pipes she handed one to each of the couple, and when each had taken
three draws she had them change pipes and smoke them empty. She then laid
both pipes on the ground, side by side and declared the couple man and
wife. A grand march then followed with the squaw in the lead uttering
tremendous yells.
It was stated above that the first white settler in
Hamilton County, whoever he was, left no posterity to keep his name alive after
his demise. This was not, however, by any means generally the case with
pioneers. Judge Thompson B. Stelle, in his
historical sketch of the county elsewhere quoted from says:
Our good old grandfathers were always
proud when the day would come that they like Jacob of old could name their
twelfth son Benjamin. This is illustrated by the story about the good old
matron who when asked by a friend, how many children she had, replied that
indeed she did not know, that she and the old man kept count until they had a
dozen whopping boys and girls, but that since then they had paid no attention to
the matter.
In another place Judge
Stelle says in substance: The mode of living in pioneer times was
much different from what it is at the present time. Meal was made in a
"hominy mortar," a block of wood with a hole burnt in one side into
which they put the corn and crushed it with a pestal attached to a spring
pole. After separating the coarse from the fine, the former was called
hominy, and the latter fine meal. The fine meal was baked into bread for
breakfast and the hominy boiled for dinner. The separation of the hominy
from the fine meal was effected by means of a buckskin sieve, a piece of
buckskin stretched over a hoop, with holes punched through it with an awl.
The common <pg. 252>
varieties of corn bread were "hoe cakes," "Johnny cakes,"
and "dodgers." A dodger was cooked by being roasted in hot
ashes, a Johnny cake by placing the dough on a board near the fire, and when
cooked on one side turned over and cooked on the other, and a hoe cake was
cooked by placing the dough on a hoe which was placed on the fire and
heated. The main reliance for flesh food was bear meat and venison.
Buckskin was the most common article used in making
wearing apparel. Buckskin dresses by the women. Their natural charms
were not set off, as are those of the young ladies of the present day by yard
upon yard of ribbons, laces and flounces, and it is said of the pioneer women
that they were courted as assiduously and as honestly, and were withal far more
sensible than are their fair granddaughters, for they did not then court for
pastime.
Go to Next Page
...
Go to 1887 History Main Page
|
