Clark County IL Archives History - Books .....Chapter XIX Melrose Township 1883 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/il/ilfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com April 24, 2007, 7:06 pm Book Title: HISTORY OF CRAWFORD AND CLARK COUNTIES, ILLINOIS CHAPTER XIX.* MELROSE TOWNSHIP—SURFACE CHARACTERISTICS—TIMBER, GROWTH, SOILS, ETC-FIRST SETTLEMENT—BACKWOOD EXPERIENCES—PIONEER INDUSTRIES-CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS. *By G. N. Berry. TOWNSHIPS, like children, are often found convenient objects with which to associate the names of cherished friends or the recollections of earlier homes. The early emigrant casting off from the scenes that blessed his childhood and going into surroundings that almost blot out the remembrance of brighter scenes, perpetuates the names of his early years as an anchor that still holds him fast to his native land though stress of circumstances may lengthen the cable indefinitely. So long as the name remains, the cable is not parted. It is probably on this principle that the township, to which this chapter is devoted, bears the euphonious name of the old English village. Melrose lies in the lower tier of townships in Clark County and is the second from the Wabash River. It was originally pleasantly diversified by prairie and woodland and offered a tempting home to the early settler who not unfrequently prized the present advantages of a new home not less than its possibilities for the future. The early settler was no more blessed with prophetic vision than the generation of to-day, and chiefly sought as a site for a new settlement, a land that would furnish him the comforts and pleasures to which his early surroundings had accustomed him, and it is no uncommon thing to find those, who, after passing through the stern vicissitudes of pioneer days, regret the change and sigh for the joys that once they knew. But this township seems to have supplied both demands equally well. The surface is somewhat broken in the northern and eastern parts, and along the course of Raccoon Creek which rising in the northwest part flows diagonally through the township. Just north of the center the surface seems to be marked by an elevation which divides the natural drainage, sending off a branch due eastward to Mill Creek, and another branch near the northern border in the same direction to the same stream. This part of the township was originally well covered with a large growth of the various kinds of oak and hickory, and in the eastern part with maples as well. The prairie land was chiefly in the western part where an arm of Dolson prairie invades the township. A small prairie of a few hundred acres, known as Crow's Prairie, is situated in the southeastern part. These lands were originally low and wet and were marked by the growth of some walnut timber. There was but little undergrowth, however, in any part of the township, and it is said that an ox-goad could not be procured short of the Wabash River. The soil varies with the character of the surface; that of the woodland being chiefly a light clay, admirable for the culture of wheat, and that of the prairie being a black loam with clay subsoil, better adapted to corn raising. These qualifications of soil have determined the industry of the farmers who devote their attention to raising their specialty in corn or wheat. The early settlement of this county came in from the east, and it was not until the more attractive lands along the Wabash, in York township, were occupied that the inflow of population invaded this section. Reuben Crow, a resident of York, made an entry on section 36, as early as 1816, but beyond giving his name to the prairie here, made no improvement and never was a resident of the township. The first actual settler, Joseph Willard, came here about the same time and settled on the same section. He was a native of North Carolina, and made the journey from his native State with an ox-cart. In the following year the township settlement received several accessions. Among these was James Bartlett, a native of New York, who came by raft to Cincinnati and from thence by wagon. He was an energetic man and soon became a prominent citizen in the new community which grew up here. He died in 1872, and was at that time the oldest of the masonic fraternity in the county. Stephen Handy, who came into York with his father in 1814, in this year made a start for himself and entered land on section 13. He was the first justice in the township, and subsequently was elected as county surveyor. William Martin was another addition to the Melrose settlement in 1817. He was a native of New York, a cabinet maker by trade, and came by the river forcing his way on a keel boat. In 1823 John Moorcraft came and settled on section 11. He was a native of New York; a man of some wealth who had met financial embarrassment and came to this new country with the hope of retrieving his fortune. He was a man of good parts, gained prominence in the community, and was influential in forming its character. In this year also came Benjamin Dolson, from whom the prairie and one of the northern townships of the county was named. Mr. Dolson was a marked character in the early community, and won a regard that will perpetuate his memory. He was born in St. Lawrence County, New York, and spent his childhood and youth under the rugged influences of a pioneer community. At eighteen years of age, in company with a single comrade, he took a raft of lumber to Quebec during the British embargo. He and his companion were seized and impressed into the naval service. On the following night he planned to escape, and seizing the long boat the two got clear of the ship. This was not effected without alarming the watch, however, and they were saluted by a broadside from the ship's guns. Though near enough to hear the captain exclaim, "This will send them to hell," they were so fortunate as to receive no injury from the shot. The darkness of the night and the rough state of the river gave them more anxiety, but they were finally successful in reaching the American side in safety. But once on land their troubles had only just begun. Here they found an untracked wilderness with which they were entirely unacquainted. They launched into these interminable woods, and for weeks wandered without getting any trace of a human being, and subsisting in the meantime on buds, roots, a porcupine and a ground squirrel which they secured. They finally reached the settlements in New Hampshire, famished and worn out with their experience, and for two weeks were unable to proceed to their homes. Mr. Dolson was subsequently a scout attached to Gen. Brown's army and became noted for his woodcraft and many thrilling adventures. At the close of the war he engaged with the Onondaga salt company and here received injuries which caused him to limp the rest of his life. It is said that he and his father, who was a widower at this time, were both suitors for the hand of the same lady, who favored the older man. This may or may not have been the cause of his coming to the west, but he, at all events, came to Ohio in 1818 and married in the following year. On coming to Clark County, he settled his family in York until he had built him a cabin on the prairie. The land was at that time wet and unprepossessing, and his choice was considered bv the rest of the settlement as the height of folly. His cabin stood near an old Indian trail which was subsequently used by the Kentucky immigration. The demands of the situation induced the opening of his cabin for public entertainment, which was the first hotel in the township. Mr. Dol-son sold out in 1832, and removed to Martinsville, where he opened a hotel on a larger scale on the National Road. He is remembered as one of the most athletic and powerful men of his time; a good hunter, a man of quiet demeanor, of few words, and singularly well preserved. He died in 1842. The community seemed to have received no further accessions of importance until 1828, when a number of families came into the township. Of these were Jonathan Metsker, a native of Kentucky, came from Indiana and settled on section seven; Benjamin Odgen settled on the same section; Benjamin Long, a native of Virginia, Joseph Evans and James Hayes on section eighteen. Others came in from time to time, but of whom it is impossible to learn anything definite. Among these may be noted the names of Joseph Edwards, a native of Virginia, who settled on section 19, in 1831; Cooper in southern part of township in same year; Natham Wells, from North Carolina, in 1832; Peter Dosher, from Tennessee, and settled on section 18, in 1832; Levi Sharp, from Kentucky, in 1836; Isaac Welden, in same year, and others. Among the various belongings brought in by the settlers none proved more useful than the gun with which each man was provided. Next to his ax and plow, he depended upon it for support in subduing the wild land in which he reared his cabin home. The woodland abounded with game, which at first was his principal dependence for sustenance, and later his greatest annoyance and chief cause of damage. Deer and wolves were found in large numbers, with occasionally a wild cat and bear to vary the sport. The wolves were of the large timber variety which attacked young pigs, calves and sheep almost with impunity. A story is told of a settler who was aroused in the night by a disturbance among his stock near his cabin and suspecting the cause, rushed out of doors with but very little clothing. A large wolf broke for the woods at his approach, and determined that he should not escape, the settler hallooed his dog to the pursuit and followed on forgetting his gun and outer clothing in the excitement of the chase. It was early spring and not warm enough to warrant so light clothing but cheered by the baying of his dog and that of a neighbor's dog which had joined the chase, he pressed on and found the wolf sitting on the ice of the creek keeping the untrained dogs at a safe distance by snapping at them vigorously. Not a stick or weapon of any sort was at hand, and it occurred to the settler that if he could seize the wolf by the tail and swinging him over his head he could bring him down on the ice with fatal force. He made the attempt and succeeded in seizing the animal, but the rest of the programme was seriously interfered with. The wolf turning, cat-like, upon its new enemy closed its teeth upon the hunter wherever opportunity offered. To add to the predicament the dogs ceased their attack and began fighting each other, leaving the man and wolf to settle it for themselves. In the midst of the short and sharp struggle that ensued, the ice broke and precipitated both combatants in three or four feet of cold water. This accident suggested the idea of drowning the wolf, but at this juncture the dogs tired of their own diversion, renewed their attack on the wolf, and no sooner would the man get the wolf, as he hoped, nearly drowned than the dogs would fasten on it and in the struggle bring its head to the surface. The struggle went on in this way for a half hour when the noise of the dogs and shouting of the man brought a near neighbor, and the two dispatched the animal. Wolves were hunted on horseback when the ground was frozen and was counted rare sport. Organized hunts were frequent, when relative values were put upon the different kinds of game and the defeated party paid for the whisky. A keg of the liquor would be provided, and a day or two after the hunt both parties would gather at some point and if the liquor lasted a day or two would be spent in shooting at a mark, athletic sports, etc., which not unfrequently included two or three serious bout of fisticuffs. In such a country, and in a community very largely from the south, there would be a good many who were more or less noted as hunters. Melrose had its full share of these characters, and their adventures formed the chief topic of the early fireside talk. Among this class is remembered Levi Wells, a native of North Carolina, who settled on section 30, in 1833; and William Maxwell, a New Yorker, who settled here in 1836. Another man who gained some celebrity as a hunter was William Maple. He was an old man upward of seventy years of age when he left the township in 1847. He was a gunsmith, and lived in a retired cabin by himself, and gained his livelihood principally by hunting. He renewed his youth and startled the community somewhat by eventually eloping with a young woman of the settlement. The early settlement was scarcely younger than that of York, and the only outlet was by the ferry across the Wabash and thence to Vincennes. After the first crop of corn was secured they were pretty independent of outside resources. The woods furnished meat and sugar, and with the various wild fruits, and the different forms in which the corn product was made up, the pioneer's fare was not such as to invite starvation at least. It was not very long before the growth of York supplied such groceries as the pioneer could afford to buy and mills on the adjacent streams afforded facilities for turning their own crops to available use without the inconvenience of going long journeys over almost impassable roadways. An early mill was erected in the west part of town by Lewis Huckabee. This was a horse mill with "nigger-head buhrs," and did good service for some fifteen years. The patrons were obliged to bring their teams and run the mill, paying toll for the use of the machinery. Jacob Shelter who settled on section 26, built an early saw-mill on Raccoon Creek, and when water was plenty did a good business. In the low stages of the water he turned his attention to making brick, which found a sale quite early. The number of mechanics who gathered here in the early years was quite remarkable, and solved many a problem that often prove vexatious to the first comers to a new country. As early as 18^8 Benjamin Odgen settled on section 7, and set up a blacksmith shop. He was quite as well skilled in shoeing men as horses, and in the winter turned his attention to shoemaking. Metsker was quite a mechanical genius and did a general wagon making business, making plows, etc., as well. Armitage Kinderdine who settled early on section 35, combined the qualities of a carpenter and millwright. None of these men devoted themselves exclusively to their trades, but added the cares of a backwoods farm. But with these advantages there was plenty for each household to do in preparing the clothing for the family. The lack of facilities to prepare wool and flax and the distance of any place of supply obliged the early settlers to resort to such material as could be prepared without machinery. The men generally wore buckskin pants and shirts. Flax was early raised and as this could be prepared entirely at home came into general use for clothes of both sexes. Sheep were early brought in, and though they were protected from the ravages of the wolves only by constant and laborious care, the wool product amply repaid their toil. The yield was not large but such an absolute necessity that one can hardly imagine the community getting along without it. For years this wool had to be taken long distances to be carded. Then the work of the housewife began. From this and flax were made the serviceable jean and linsey-woolsey with which young and old were clad. Boots were unknown, and both sexes wore moccasins at first and a little later coarse shoes made by traveling workmen. Their amusements grew out of their work. Loggings, raisings, and hunting were the occasions when men got together for a frolic as well as work. Quilting and spinning bees gave the women au opportunity for social intercourse, the occasion generally closing with a generous supper and a dance at night, when the gentlemen came in. Dancing was the favorite amusement of the time. Notwithstanding the dancers had only rough puncheon floors, and no better refreshments than whisky sweetened with maple sugar, there is probably to-day no more happy company than those who danced the "scamper-down, double-shuffle, western-swing and half-moon," a half century ago.* * The first wedding in this community was that of Nathan Wells and Susan Willard, and the second that of Samuel Ogden and Martha Morgan. The first birth was a daughter of Daniel Wells, now Mrs. Mary Dodds. The death of John Beauchamp, in 1828, is the first noted in Melrose. The growth of the school idea in this township was slow. There were the usual difficulties in the way. The scholars were few and the population so scattered that there was some difficulty in fixing upon a satisfactory location for a house, and a more effectual hindrance than either was the idea that children should early learn to be useful. It was not until about 1834 that the first school-house was put up. This stood near Melrose village, on section seventeen. This structure was a split-log cabin, covered with shakes, and one end entirely occupied by a mammoth fireplace. The floor was of puncheons, the desk was a puncheon supported by pegs driven into the wall, and before this was placed the rude puncheon bench on which the scholars sat. Joseph Claypool, a native of Virginia, who settled on section seven, was the first teacher. He was hardly fitted to suit modern demands, but in that day was about the only one to be got for the position, and doubtless filled the place acceptably. He was rather profane and did not hesitate to use such language in the school room. School government in those days was a "rough-and-tumble" affair in which the scholar frequently got the better of the set-to- In one of these encounters Claypool was put out of the house, but he subsequently paid tribute in whisky and maple sugar, on which the whole school got drunk. Claypool afterward joined the church through the influence of a Methodist revival, but even then his habit of swearing got the better of him, and would occasionally break out and command the *' d—d lazy little cusses to get still and go to work." The house burned down the next year, but was replaced in ten days by the neighbors. A second school-house stood in the northwest corner of the township. S. C. Fox was the first teacher here, and an exceptionally good one. He was a minister and held services here on Sunday. Liberty school-house, in the northeast part of the township, was built in 1840, and was first used by John Page as teacher. These old log structures have finally all passed away, the last one disappearing in 1881. The first frame school-house was built in Melrose village in 1850, and in it was taught the first public school. Hitherto schools were supported by subscription or pro rata payment according to the number of scholars sent, and these payments made in such property as the patron had to spare. There are now seven districts all well supplied with frame buildings. Among the early settlers were several preachers who early introduced public religious worship. Among these was John Salmon, a native of New York, who settled in 1832 on section 25. He was a Methodist minister, and early held s.er vices in his own and others' cabins. He was a man of some ability and made a valuable impression on the community. Robert Bailiff was another early minister, who came from Tennessee to Crawford County in 1830, and a year later came to Melrose. He was a man of fine character and great energy. He made the journey to this State in an ox cart, and started his new home here with $10, as the sum of his earthly capital. He was a Cumberland Presbyterian, and notwithstanding the pressing need of his family, added to his cares of a frontier farm by preaching in various parts of the county. He was pastor of a single church for forty years, and died, universally beloved, in 1879. His son and grandson both followed in his steps and are in the ministry now. James McCord was an early Methodist circuit rider, and preached the first sermon heard in the log school-house near Melrose Village. Revs. Chrissey, Chamberlain, Massey, McGinnis and McMurtry were early and devout Methodist missionaries' of the Baptist church. Revs. Thomas Young and Richard Newport were early preachers. The first church organization was the "New Providence Cumberland Presbyterian Church." Services were held at the cabin of Robert Bailiff in 1833, by Rev. Silas Osborne. In the following year a church was organized by Rev. Henry Groves at Mr. Bailiff's residence, with Mr. Bailiff and wife, Joseph Green and wife, Sarah Buckner and Thomas Handy as members. For ten years meetings were held at. Mr. Bailiff's residence; a log house 20x26 feet was erected on section 36, the land being donated for the purpose by Mr. Bailiff. This building served for a place of worship until 1867, when it was torn down and the material used to erect a dwelling where it is still doing service. In 1867 a frame building, 26x36 feet, was erected on the site of the old log structure at a cost of $1,100, and is still doing service. It was dedicated in the same year by Rev. Jesse Beals. Rev. I. C. Hill was pastor of this church until 1838, when Rev. Robert Bailiff was called as pastor, and continued in the service of the church until his death, in 1879. His son, Thomas succeeded him, and is now the pastor. The membership numbers fifty-eight persons. Plymouth Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in 1838 at the old school-house near Melrose Village, by Rev. William Blundell. The original members were Nixon Evans and wile, T. Handy and wife, R. Handy and wife and Hannah Willard. The first meetings were held at the residence of Mr. Evans and at the school-house until 1859, when a frame building, 27x30 feet, was erected at a cost of $1,000. This is an appointment on the Livingston circuit. The church has at present fifty-seven members. Potter Hall United Brethren Church was organized in 1863, and a frame building put up for its use at a cost of $1,000 in the same year. The church is located in the northern part of the township, and was organized by Rev. Helton, with a fair membership. The number has somewhat diminished since then, though regular services are still maintained. Rev. Hartwell is the present pastor. The growth of the early settlement in Melrose Township was not such as to warrant the laying of any village. The two thoroughfares that cross the county from east to west and from north to south, do not touch this township. The York and Charleston road, a route which was originally blazed out by Nathan Wells when he came to his place in the west part of town, was located in 1838. It was extensively traveled, and through the exertion of Colonel W. B. Archer, the Legislature made an appropriation for improving it. In later years it lost very much of its early importance. The York and Martinsville road was established about the same time, but neither of these roads brought with it such influences as to develop village growth. In May, 1847, however, the village of Melrose was platted on the corner of sections 17,18, 19 and 20, the land belonging to Nathan Wells, Joseph Edwards and Samuel Keline. This was simply a business venture which has resulted in a village of some eighty inhabitants, two stores, a blacksmith shop and a combined saw and grist mill. The first store was put up soon after the laying out of the village by John Gwin, but two years later it was destroyed by fire, the stock and building proving a total loss. Nathan Wells succeeded him, erecting a building and putting in it a general stock, but it was closed out a year later at his death. The Melrose mill was erected in 1868 by Sibley at a cost of $4,000. Additional Comments: Extracted From: HISTORY OF CRAWFORD AND CLARK COUNTIES, ILLINOIS. EDITED BY WILLIAM HENRY PERRIN. ILLUSTRATED CHICAGO: O. L. BASKIN & CO., HISTORICAL PUBLISHERS, LAKESIDE BUILDING. 1883. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/clark/history/1883/historyo/chapterx91gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ilfiles/ File size: 24.1 Kb