Clark County IL Archives History - Books .....Chapter VI Early Settlers 1907
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Book Title: Historical Encyclopedia Of Illinois And History Of Clark County

CHAPTER VI.

EARLY SETTLERS-OLD-TIME LAWYERS-OLD-TIME DOCTORS-OLD-TIME PROMINENT MEN-STRIKING
INCIDENTS, OCCURRENCES, ETC., OF EARLY CLARK COUNTY HISTORY.

   The first settlement of Clark County appears to have been in York Township,
on the Wabash River, and among the first to arrive was Thomas Handy and family,
who, in 1814, came from New York by way of the Allegheny, Ohio and Wabash Rivers
to Vincennes, Ind., and from there by boat to the spot where the village of York
now stands. After a short time they went on to Section 18, in York Township,
where they erected temporary shelter, but not being able to enter land at that
time, they removed in 1816 to Section 16, where they made their future home. In
1816 came William Hogue, from Virginia, who soon went on to Terre Haute, Ind.
David Hogue and the Richardson and Fitch families came also this same year.
There were two of the Richardson boys, John and Joseph, and they came from New
York, where they had formerly been prosperous business men, but having suffered
reverses, they sought the rich and fertile but wild land of York Township as
their future homes. Most of the early and more prominent settlers of York came
from New York, and to this fact does the township owe its ancient and euphonious
name. John F. Richardson, son of John Richardson, was a keen, far-seeing
business man, and he entered, in his own name and that of his kindred and
friends, large tracts of the rich prairie lands of York Township. His brother,
George, was also a fine business man, who subsequently went to Texas, where he
amassed quite a fortune. Chester Fitch, a relative of the Richardsons, came with
them. Jonathan Lindley, accompanied by his brothers, came about this time from
North Carolina, but the brothers stopped in Crawford County. Jonathan settled on
Section 3, in York Township, in the neighborhood of the fine farms of William
and John Marvin, on Lower Walnut Prairie. About this time landed, from the
Wabash, and also from New York, James C. Hillebert, and in walking the single
plank which led from the boat to the shore, Mrs. Hillebert fell off into the
river, but a man by the name of Welsh was on hand, and after great difficulty,
and after she had nearly drowned him, succeeded in saving her life by pulling
her out by the hair. She is the first person of whom history speaks as having
been involuntarily immersed in the waters of the beautiful Wabash. James C.
Hillebert was the father-in-law of William B. Hodge, who was a mere child when
he came to York with his parents, having been born two years previous at Terre
Haute, Ind., May 23, 1818. He is the oldest living resident of the ancient
village, which has been his home for about eighty-six years. James Bennet, who
still lives at West York, was born within a mile of York, January 25, 1822, and
is doubtless the oldest living native son of the community. Samuel Lacy and John
S. Bradbury, both over eighty years of age, have lived in the vicinity all their
lives, though Mr. Bradbury was about six years of age when he came here with his
parents from North Carolina. James C. Hillebert, who was also the grandfather,
on his maternal side, of William B. Hodge, Jr., was a man of brains and energy,
who soon acquired a large amount of property for those times. He was always very
prominent in county and community affairs, especially in the bitter wars of
Auburn and Marshall for the county seat, in which he championed Auburn.

   Joseph Shaw also arrived at York in 1818, from Kentucky. He was an aristocrat
of the old school, but a fine business man, and soon acquired quite a fortune.

   Isaac Moore and John Chenoweth, the former from Virginia and the latter from
Kentucky, also came in 1816, though Chenoweth had arrived at Vincennes in 1814.
Moore died at Natchez, La., in the spring of 1835, while returning from New
Orleans, where he had gone with a raft from York. Chenoweth grew rich and
prosperous, but subsequently suffered reverses, and went to Edgar County in
1855. His grandson, M. R. Chenoweth, one of the best known and wealthiest men in
the county, still lives at Marshall, and still owns about 600 acres of the fine
land in York Township, upon which his grandfather settled in 1816.

   George Catron came in 1817, from Tennessee, where he was a member of one of
the most prominent families of that State, his brother being at that time an
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. Samuel Prevo, the ancestor of the
innumerable Prevos of York, Darwin and Marshall Townships, Clark County, and of
Sullivan County, Ind., came also from North Carolina in 1817. He was the first
County Judge of Clark County, and was known as "Judge Prevo" and "Headstrong
Prevo," being regarded as the most willful, stubborn and headstrong man in the
county. He ran for the Legislature and was beaten, but his son, Samuel Prevo,
father of the present Samuel Prevo, of Marshall, who is Chairman of the Board of
Supervisors, and an ex-officio member of the Board of Review of Clark County,
received the honor his father desired, and was elected to the Legislature of
Illinois from Clark County. In 1818 came, from New York, John Parker, who was
drowned in Raccoon Creek while crossing this stream at high water.

   William Ketchum came also from New York in 1818, and his name has persisted
in York for more than eighty years. William Ketchum was a carpenter, and soon
had plenty of work. Reuben Crowe also came in from North Carolina the same year,
and his descendants still live in York and Melrose Townships. Ambrose Pease
arrived about this time from Sacket Harbor, N. Y., having traveled by sleigh to
the Allegheny, and thence by boat to York.

   Zachariah Archer came also this year, following his brother Charles, who had
arrived the year before. In 1819, Reason Bell came from North Carolina, he and
his wife riding on horseback, and their only child, Wiley O. Bell, father of the
writer, held in his mother's arms, he having been born two years before in
Randolph County, N. C. Wiley O. Bell lived in York Township for eighty-four
consecutive years, never more than two miles from York, and died at West York,
September 23, 1901, in the eighty-sixth year of his age. At his death he was the
oldest living resident of York Township. Reason Bell, the grandfather of the
writer, entered the quarter-section of land in Section 32 where James Nicol now
resides, and built the brick house still occupied by Mr. Nicol, it being the
first brick residence in York Township. In this house the writer was born
January 5, 1849, and within 300 feet of it, on the public highway, his youngest
brother, Charles L. Bell, was murdered on July 14, 1896, by David McDonald and
John Clements, McDonald firing the fatal shot that pierced his heart. Reason
Bell was a prominent, well-to-do early settler, and died at his home in York
Township in January, 1834, when about forty years of age. Samuel Prevo, the son
of Judge Samuel Prevo., was his administrator, and among the estate papers is an
account filed against the estate in the handwriting of Robert L. Dulaney, who
was then clerking in his Uncle Woodford Dulaney's general store, which shows
that whisky and tobacco were articles of prime necessity in every well regulated
household in those early days. The Dulaneys, Woodford and Robert L. were among
the early settlers of York. In 1815 came, from New York, Lawrence Hollenbeck,
who was the father of thirteen children, among them being Lawrence, John, David,
Peter, William, Nathan, Hannah and Elizabeth. He was the grandfather of John
Milton Hollenbeck, who still resides in Darwin Township, and who is the father
of Judge William T. Hollenbeck, and still has in his possession at his home in
Hatton, Darwin Township, a powder horn made in 1816. In 1820 came Jesse Miller,
who afterwards had to flee the county to escape death at the hands of the
enraged citizens, who believed that he had poisoned his wife to make room for a
young woman then living in his family. Miller was not a doctor, and his wife
having become sick, he prescribed for her with what certainly appeared to be
suspicious results.

   In 1824 Reese Pritchard and his family came to York from Virginia, among them
Stephen Pritchard, who lived all his life in York, and died there a few years
ago. Ira, William, Henry and Samuel Prevo, the sons of Samuel Prevo, the son of
Judge Prevo, were all born, lived and died at ripe old ages in York Township.

   Until his recent death Perry C. Murphy was, with the exception of William B.
Hodge, the oldest living resident of the village of York. Mr. Hodge is
approaching ninety years of age, and lives in York. Mr. Murphy was a man of
property, an ardent Free Mason, and one of the best known, most highly respected
and prominent citizens of that part of the county.

   Considerable trouble was given the people of York in those early times by the
Indians, who had enlisted under the flag of Great Britain in the War of 1812,
and who were slow to find out that the war had closed with the defeat of those
for whom they had fought. William Hogue, who had come to York in 1816, was a
great hunter-the Nimrod of that part of the county-and he was known to have shot
and killed two Indians. The first was killed just across the river from York,
after he had first shot at and missed Hogue, and the other was killed as he was
skulking up on Hogue's little son, who had started home on horseback with a deer
he had killed. Hogue was following behind his son, and seeing the Indian
skulking from tree to tree along the way the son was going, and manifestly
intending to kill him and secure the horse and deer as soon as he got out of the
sight and hearing of his father, fired and killed the Indian to save the boy.
Many Indians, principally Kickapoo, who were generally friendly to the white
settlers, came to York to trade the skins of wild animals for ammunition,
trinkets, whisky and dry-goods, but after 1830 they were seen only at rare
intervals, as they passed through York on their way to the farther and more
thinly settled West.

   Dr. Tutt was one of the early practicing physicians of York, as was also Dr.
Charles Johnson (Abijah Edmunds), who had come for some mysterious cause from
Boston, and was a man of fine education and great force of character. He at
first kept a store at York, but afterwards studied medicine, and for many years
was one of the leading physicians and most influential men of the county. Dr.
Charles Gorham, Dr. D. O. McCord, Dr. John M. Janes, Drs. Brown, Prewett, the
McBride boys, Thomas and Clary, all practiced medicine with marked success, and
Drs. Johnson, Gorham, McCord and Janes acquired more than local renown.

 The business of flat boating was an early and profitable one in York, and
remained so until 'after the completion of the north and south railroad through
that part of the county. Darwin, York, Hutsonville and other river towns ran
many such boats to New Orleans, and a good deal of money was made in that way by
John Richardson, Ambrose and Lewis Pease, his son, John Hollenbeck, Isaac Moore,
Wiley O. Bell, Hathaway Linton and others who engaged quite extensively in river
commerce. Wiley Bell, Lewis Pease, Linton and others lost heavily in the great
Natchez storm of the thirties, as most of their boats that were tied up there at
the time were destroyed or damaged. Wiley Bell was often heard to tell how, when
the storm caught the boat, and while it was tossing in the angry waves of the
Mississippi, an old negro was observed on board with a large Bible under his
arm. After the storm had subsided, and while the boat was lying high on the
banks of the river, where it had been thrown by the wind and waves, the Bible
was found soaked with water, but still intact, but the old negro was seen or
heard of no more. The Bible Mr. Bell brought home and kept for many years, and
it was even in existence a few years ago in York Township.

   Several early incidents of a striking character in York Township are
remembered and talked of, even to this day. The great circus fight between the
Dolson boys, Samuel, Tunis, Jacob, Ham, Daniels, Stephen Fears, Stephen
Pritchard and others, and the circus men, resulted in several mutilations and
one or two deaths. The fight, about which men and women talked for years, was
started by Samuel Dolson, and grew out of the ruin of the new spring hat of
Dolson's wife by the rain. A terrific storm of wind and rain came up while the
show was going on, and the tent had to be lowered to prevent it from being torn
into ribbons. In doing so, the rain poured in upon the people and the aforesaid
new spring hat was ruined. Dolson resented this, quarreled with one of the
showmen, and finally struck him. The fight then became general, vicious, brutal
and bloody. Tent stakes, neck-yokes from wagons, clubs, stones and fists were
all used, and several men badly injured. The showmen had the best of the first
round, but that night the injured citizens and their friends rallied and drove
the circus from town without any night performance. It is related that Stephen
Fears, who was a quiet, powerful, well-known fighting machine of that early day,
was busily engaged in slipping upon the different fighting showmen and felling
them one after another with well directed blows behind the ears from his
powerful fist. His pastime, however, was finally discovered, and one of the
showmen struck him an awful blow with the neck-yoke of a wagon, knocking him
down and under a wagon, where he lay for some time with the blood running out of
his ears. The "subsequent proceedings interested him no more." The murder of one
Lacy by Joseph Evans, sixty-five years ago, the first homicide ever committed in
York, created intense excitement, and was talked of for years. Evans was the son
of Benjamin Evans, one of the early settlers and most prominent and respected
men in York vicinity, and this fact, added to the prominence of Lacy, and the
circumstances following the killing, but added to the widespread interest of the
tragedy. Evans was a carpenter, and was building a house for Lacy on the
southwest corner of the block in York where John Keller now resides, and just
west of the old Bardell residence, which still stands. Evans had been drinking,
and when Lacy abused him he became so enraged that he struck the latter on the
head with a large plane he was using and killed him. Evans was arrested and
taken to jail at Marshall, but was soon released by his friends and returned to
his father, who then lived in the old Evans-Bradbury house about sixty rods
south of the present home of John S. Bradbury, in Crawford County. Here he was
secreted in wheat fields and other places for about a month, and finally was
taken in a canoe by William White down the Wabash River to a boat at Vincennes,
Ind., aboard which he passed into the great wilderness of the Southwest to be
seen or heard of no more in this part of the country. What became of him was
never known. He had married Sophia Long, and had one child, now an inmate of the
Soldiers' Home at Quincy, Ill. His wife lived for many years in York, and died
after vainly hoping and praying that she might see the husband and father again.
Evans had many brothers, sisters, relatives and friends, and his misfortune cast
a gloom over them all that was never lifted. The writer remembers well, when a
boy, often seeing "Aunt Sophia," as the wife of Joseph Evans was affectionately
called, press her hands pathetically to her broken heart and burst into tears as
she rushed from the presence of those around her, but he did not then know the
cause of it all, as the mother of the writer was the niece of the absent Evans,
and of course interested in maintaining the Evans secret. It was in fact so well
kept by all the large family of relatives that it was only in recent years that
any of them could be induced to talk of it at all. This was one of the saddest
cases of misfortune, absence, waiting, heart-broken love and devotion, on the
part of the wife and son, brothers, sisters and other relatives of Joseph Evans,
that Clark County has ever had. His last surviving brother, Nixon Evans, died in
Melrose Township a few years ago.

   The shooting of William H. Avers by Jack Dixon, accompanied by Thomas Files,
in 1869 or 1870, at York, Ill., also created great excitement. Ayers was a
desperado from Richford, Tioga County, N. Y., who came to York shortly after the
Civil War. He was a man of energy and push, but had a violent temper and was so
dishonest and criminal in his methods of doing business that he kept the south
part of the county in a turmoil of excitement and trouble for years. For the ten
years of his residence in York the criminal dockets of the Clark County courts
were rarely free from cases of The People vs. William H. Ayers. He was a known
bigamist, four times repeated, having left a wife at Richford, N. Y., and having
married at least four other women in Clark County, in Indiana and Michigan.
Dixon and Files, who were officers, were trying to levy an execution on a horse
and buggy belonging to Ayers, when he resisted, drew a weapon on the officers,
and was shot by Dixon. The wound was not fatal and Evans recovered. Dixon and
Files were tried in the Circuit Court of Clark County for shooting Ayers and
acquitted through the able defense of John Scholfield and James C. Robinson.
Ayers was frequently shot at, several times wounded, shot at several men
himself, and was finally driven out of the town of York by its enraged citizens.
As Ayers, with a string of wagons carrying his goods, passed out of the town, he
was followed by a posse beating tin pans, drums and other instruments of noise
making, as an expression of their great pleasure at getting rid of him.

   The murder of Charles L. Bell, the youngest brother of the writer, near the
Nicol residence, a mile west of York, on July 14, 1896, by David McDonald and
John Clements, was the next startling occurrence in York Township. Great
excitement and intense feeling prevailed in Clark and Crawford Counties, Ill.,
and in Sullivan County, Ind., where Bell was well known, and where he had many
friends and some bitter enemies. Bell was the son of Wiley O. Bell, one of the
early settlers of York Township, and his murder was so wanton, brutal and
inexcusable, that feeling ran high for a time. He had had no trouble whatever
with his slayers, though he had had a difficulty with a relative of McDonald and
Clements a few hours before, in which Bell had struck this relative and been
fined for it. As soon as McDonald and Clements heard of this, they unhitched
their horses from their plows in a field near York, hitched a team of mules to a
wagon, procured ammunition, cleaned their pistols, practiced shooting for a
time, then got into the wagon and went west of York along the public highway
where they knew they would meet Bell, as he came from West York. They did meet
him, as they expected, coming into York in a buggy, and McDonald deliberately
shot him through the heart as he was jumping from his buggy to get away from
them. He was left dead in the road, while McDonald and Clements, whipping up
their mule team, drove on west a few miles to the home of their relative, Daniel
Clements, who had had the trouble with Bell in the morning, where they were
arrested the same night by the Sheriff and taken to Marshall. They were indicted
and tried at the following December term, 1896, of the Clark Circuit Court,
convicted and sent to the penitentiary, at Chester, Ill., for an indeterminate
period. After serving a year or more in the penitentiary their parole was
secured by the aid of their attorneys and powerful political friends, whereupon
they returned to York, where in less than a week Clements died of pneumonia.
McDonald still lives. They were prosecuted by H. C. Bell, P. G. Bradbury, a
cousin of Charles L. Bell, T. L. Orndorff and Adam Gard, and defended by Graham
& Tibbs, E. Callahan and George N. Parker. Judge Bookwalter, of Danville,
presided at the trial, overruled a motion for a new trial, and intimated that
the defendants should have been convicted of murder.

   Settlers began to locate in Darwin Township about the time or a little after
they began arriving at York. Among the early arrivals were A. Snyder and Charles
Neeley, who reached there in 1816. Neeley was the second County Judge, and at
his house the first elections were held, and the County Commissioners' Court
held its first meeting. In the same year came John Davidson, Jesse Ezra and
others. In 1817, Lewis Bohn, the father of James Bohn, still of Darwin Township,
arrived from Pennsylvania. He came by wagon and was weeks on the way. The
Leonard brothers also came from New York the same year and located near the site
of the future county seat at Aurora. They subsequently sold out to Dr. Septer
Patrick, the first Justice of the Peace, as well as one of the first physicians
of Clark County. In June, 1818, came Zachius Hassell, from Tennessee. He cleared
up a good farm, made money and sold out to Zachariah Linton, moving first to
Wabash Township and later to Paris. Linton was a native of Ohio, and ran a few
flat boats down the river, as did his son Hathaway some time later. On one of
his first trips to New Orleans the former had loaded his boat with wood, and
while in New Orleans he got into trouble with some person, struck him on the
head with a stick of wood and killed him. Thereupon he was seized, summarily
tried and as speedily hanged. His son Hathaway continued on his farm in Darwin
Township, became a fine scholar, was very prominent in all county affairs, and
was several times County Treasurer. In 1821, Samuel Yocum, a native of Kentucky,
reached Darwin, and died soon after. He was a brother-in-law of Nathaniel
McClure. In this year also came Jacob Harlan from Ohio, and William B. Archer,
then County Clerk, took him in the office with him. He afterwards married the
daughter of John Chenoweth and became Postmaster, Clerk of the County
Commissioners' Court, Recorder, County Judge and Notary Public, holding,
frequently, several of these offices at one and the same time. John Chenoweth,
his father-in-law, was in good financial circumstances, for the times, and
Jacob, having taken unto himself a rich man's daughter as his wife, proceeded to
get luxurious and built a hewed log house, something unusually fine in those
primitive times. Nathaniel McClure came in from Kentucky in 1819, but died soon
afterwards. He had started to Fayette County, but liked Darwin and stopped
there. William Nixon also came from Kentucky about the same time. In 1822, James
P. Jones came to Darwin from New York. He kept a tavern at Darwin and was
elected Sheriff in 1824, serving until 1831, seven years, an unusually long term
for a Sheriff.

   Darwin, the mecca of all these early settlers, was named by Dr. Septer
Patrick, who appeared to have been a man of some literary attainments, after
Charles Darwin, the noted naturalist and scientist. Justin Harlan reached Darwin
from Ohio in 1825, and he, together with Uri Manley, W. P. Bennett, O. B.
Ficklin, T. C. Cone, E. B. Webb, Nathaniel Huntington, Jacob Cole, John McLean,
John M. Robinson, Wickliffe Kitchel, Henry W. Dunford, one Nash, Eldridge S.
Janney, Aaron Shaw, Joshua McRoberts, Kirby Benedict, A. C. French, Charles
Emerson, Alfred and Edward Kitchell and Josiah P. Cooper, were among the early
lawyers that made the old and diminutive county court houses of Aurora and
Darwin ring with the forensic eloquence in their defense and denunciation of
litigants. Oratory was much more in vogue then than now and had much more
influence in swaying court and jury, while the crowds were always there, and
hung on the words of those orators as they have probably not since that time.
There seems also to have been a lawyer by the name of Bell practicing in Darwin
in those early times, but whether he was related to any of the other Bells of
York and Darwin Township is not known. John McLean was the first Congressman
from Illinois, was also United States Senator, and was elected three times to
the Illinois Legislature. He was born in 1791, in North Carolina, and came to
Illinois in 1815. He was one of the most brilliant and eloquent men Illinois
ever knew, and died at Shawneetown, October 14, 1830. Wickliff Kitchell, lawyer,
was born in New Jersey, May 21, 1789, and died January 2, 1869. He was a member
of the Illinois Legislature from Crawford County, and also Attorney-General of
Illinois. Alfred Kitchell was born at Palestine, March 29, 1820, was State's
Attorney, member of the Constitutional Convention of 1847, County Judge of
Richland County, and Circuit Judge. Edward Kitchell, brother of Alfred, was born
at Palestine, December 21, 1829, and died at Olney, July 11, 1869. He went to
the gold fields of California in 1852, was a Colonel in the War of the
Rebellion, and mustered out as Brigadier-General by Brevet; ran for Congress in
1866, was Collector of Internal Revenue in 1868, and Presidential Elector in
1868. Aaron Shaw was afterwards several times Circuit Judge, and also a member
of Congress. He was born in New York in 1811, and died some years since in Olney.

   Wabash, the next township to be settled, had as first arrivals the Black
family, which came in 1816. They came from Indiana, though originally from
Kentucky. Mr. Black had five sons, John, William, James, Joseph and Thomas, and
all were men of energy and influence. Richard Armstrong came with the Blacks. In
1816 came also the Perrys, Kuykendalls and the Cowens. The Perrys were from
Ohio, the Kuykendalls from Kentucky, though they came here from Vincennes. Hugh
Henderson and Jesse Esery came in 1817 and the former built the first mill in
Wabash Township. It was of the tread wheel variety. James McCabe came from
Tennessee about this time and was one of the first Methodist preachers to appear
in that part of the county. Harry Shackton, one Sheets—who kept a ferry—Thomas
Thompson and James Cox came in 1819, and also Jonathan Wiley a great hunter of
bees. Jonathan Hicklin, also a great hunter, a friend and acquaintance of Daniel
Boone, and a spy in the Indian wars of Kentucky, was an early arrival who always
had plenty of money and was supposed to be connected with a band of
counterfeiters. He died at the age of 106 years, the oldest person Clark County
ever knew. James Lovelace, Samuel Elam and the Taylor, Ash-more and Groves
families came in 1822. Following them were Abraham Washburn, the herb doctor,
and William Wood, the devout Presbyterian. The Plasters, McGregor, Dunlap, West,
Hutchinson and Rhodes families arrived in the early 'thirties, and from that on,
the National Road being under way, the settlers flocked in increasing numbers to
Wabash Township. In 1832 a man named Durrell built a water mill as a rival to
the Henderson tread mill, before mentioned. A saw mill was added some time later
to the Durrell water mill, and then came Horace Richie, who built a steam and
grist mill two miles east of Livingston. Mr. Richie sold out to one Welsh, and
he in turn to Rufus Neal. The first public road to be laid out, or viewed out,
was the work of David Wyrick, Henry Taylor and Stephen Archer, and was called
the "Darwin Road." In 1820 the Terre Haute Road was viewed out through the south
part of the township by W. B. Woods, Goldberry and Dunlap. The National Road ran
through the county in a southeasterly direction, and of course through Wabash
Township. Livingston was laid out by Robert Ferguson, and David Wyrick built a
tavern there in 1833, the first in the township. A little later James Twilley
built another tavern.

   Melrose Township had as its first settler Joseph Willard, who came from North
Carolina in 1816. The next year came James Bartlett and several other families
from New York. Stephen Handy, who came from York Township about this time, was
the first Justice of the Peace of the township, and was also Surveyor of Clark
County. In 1823 came Benjamine Dolson from New York; John Morecraft came in
1827, and in 1828 arrived Jonathan Metsker, from Kentucky, and, Benjamine Ogden,
Benjamine Long, Joseph Evans and others. The Coopers arrived in 1831, Nathan
Wells and Peter Dosher in 1832, and Isaac Weldon in 1836. Wolves and deer, as
well as other wild animals indigenous to that locality, were there in large
numbers, and hunting was not only a pastime but a necessity. Levi Wells, William
Maxwell and William Maples were noted hunters of their day. Lewis Huckaby put up
the first mill, and Jacob Shelter built a saw mill on Raccoon Creek, and also
made brick when the water was too low to run his mill. Benjamine Ogden was a
blacksmith, Metsker a wagon and plow maker, and Armitage Kinderdine a carpenter,
and all of them found plenty of work in their several lines of usefulness.
Nathan Wells and Susan Willard were the first couple to marry, and Samuel Ogden
and Martha Morgan the second. Melrose was platted in 1847, the land belonging to
Nathan Wells, Joseph Edwards and Samuel Keline. John Gwinn put in the first
store in 1847, and one Sibley put up a $4,000 mill in 1868.

   Dolson Township was settled as early as 1828 by John Duke, William Rogers and
William Smith. David and Isaac Murrey arrived in 1830, and Isaac erected a rude
carding mill some time afterward. A small horse mill was built in the township
as early as 1838, and Christian Clapp built a water mill on Mill Creek in 1840.

   Clarksville was laid out by George Lee in 1851, the surveying being done by
James Lawrence, County Surveyor. The Doughtys, Harrisons, Haslitts, Elleges,
Rogers, Bartmess, Heath, Lees, Fitzgeralds, Boyers, Coons, Welsh and Claypools
were among the early settlers of Dolson Township.

   Martinsville Township was occupied first in 1829 by John Chancellor, and Amos
Potts reached there from Ohio in 1830. The Weisner, Chriss and Scholfield
families came in a little later. Thomas Scholfield, father of the late Judge
John Scholfield, came to Melrose Township from Ohio in 1828, and moved to
Martinsville Township in 1832. He went to Oregon in 1856. Joseph Martin laid out
Martinsville Township in 1832.

   Anderson Township was settled by Joseph Archer about 1830. In 1832 came John
Birch, father of Robert Birch and Timothy Birch, the former of whom was the most
noted outlaw of the county. He was a leading member of the Fox-Long-Birch gang
of cut-throats, robbers, horse thieves and murderers that so long infested
Illinois, Missouri, Iowa and Indiana, and who murdered old Colonel Davenport
near Rock Island, July 4, 1845. The gang is fully described in the "Banditti of
the Prairies," a book published by Edward Donney, the detective, who, assuming
to be in sympathy with the gang, landed some of them in prison, caused others to
be hanged, and finally broke up and dispersed the others. It was the publication
of this book that caused the whipping in Anderson Townshp of Davis Phillips, his
son, Thomas Phillips, and others. A feature of the book is a conversation
between Bonney and old John Birch, called the "Old Coon," in which Birch stated
that the "Clerk of the Court" at Marshall was his friend, and always gave him
advance information of any trouble that was threatened him or any member of the
gang by the authorities. The "Old Coon" did not name the Clerk, but suspicion
fell at once on Phillips, and so he and his son Tom, who were out with a posse
that was scouring the woods for the gang in the neighborhood of the Birch cabin,
in Anderson Township, were seized upon, tied to trees and unmercifully whipped.
There was no evidence against the Phillips, except the bare statement of old
John Long, and few people in Marshall who were here then and conversant with all
the facts in the case, believe that either Darius Phillips or his son Tom were
guilty, and the whipping of them is now regarded as an outrage. Phillips then
lived in the house now kept by Mrs. Falley as a boarding house on West Main
street, and when seen there soon after by Homer Quick asd others his back was in
a badly lacerated condition, his son Tom being in the same condition. Phillips
resigned his office and he and his family went West, never to return. Two of his
sons, including Tom, have been back once each, but did not make their presence
generally known. It is thought they may have been looking for some of those who
committed the outrage upon the father and brother, with the intention of getting
even with them, as this was expected by a good many people for years after the
Phillips family left. It is noted that the former history of Clark County,
published in 1883 by O. L. Baskin & Co., intimates that Bonney, the detective,
had been himself a counterfeiter, and was himself a criminal, but this
intimation is, we think, refuted by the result of his trial, on the charge of
counterfeiting, wherein he was acquitted in the United States Court at
Springfield, Ill., at the December term, 1846. Besides, ten of the jurymen who
tried Bonney signed a statement addressed to the Secretary of the Treasury, in
which they completely exonerated him. Moreover, on January 6, 1847, Governor
Thomas Ford, of Illinois, gave to the public and to Bonney a certificate in
which he states that he was present at the trial, heard the evidence, fully
concurs in the statement of exoneration and innocence published by the jury, and
believes that he was innocent, and further that the indictment for
counterfeiting against Bonney was procured by perjury and in an attempt to get
even with him for his pursuit and punishment of the Fox-Long-Birch gang. Surely
these statements, by men most competent to judge of the guilt or innocence of
the accused, should settle the matter for all time. Bonney had to pretend to be
a member of the gang, and to take some little unimportant action in their
rascalities in order to obtain and hold their confidence until he could
apprehend them.

   The settlement of Orange Township began with the arrival of Newton Howerton
and Moses Engle about 1836. Enock Thompson came in 1837, and in 1838 came the
Harrisons, Canady, Maples, Foster and Rubottom families. Maples was a gambler
and a desperado, committed many acts of lawlessness and finally sold out to John
S. Hicks and left the county with another man's wife. In 1840 came the Malone,
Beauchamps and Bennett familes, and soon after the Hix, Prindle and Elliotts.
The first marriage in the township was that of John Hix and Olive Blakeman in
1840, and Francis Hardway, the son of Andrew and Margaret Hardway, was the first
person born there. Robert and Thomas Bailiff, father and son, both Cumberland
Presbyterians, were among the first and best known and best beloved preachers,
and T. C. Bailiff, a grandson of Robert and a son of Thomas, still keeps up the
good work there.

   John Burris was the first actual settler of Johnson Township, arriving in
1833, and the same year came a man by the name of Ingraham. Daniel Doughty, a
Baptist preacher, came in 1836, and Jacob Janney came in 1837. The Alexander
Mount and Megeath families also came in 1836. James Mount was the first Justice
of the Peace of Johnson Township. In 1836 came also the Crouch, Davee, Hilburn
and Owings families. Dr. Henry King, afterwards a noted physician of Illinois
and Oregon, was also one of the early settlers of Johnson Township, as were also
James Henderson and Hawley Childs. David Ingraham was killed about 1837, and his
was the first death, to occur in the township. John Burris, the son of John and
Elizabeth Burris, was the first child to be bora there, in 1836, and in 1838
occurred the first marriage, that of Amos Carlan and Amanda Brewster. George
Janney and Eliza Williamson, and Joseph Howe and Letty Foster soon followed
their good example. William Blundell was preaching there as early as 1838.

   Parker Township's first settler was Hezeriah Martin, who arrived in 1827, and
in 1828 came George Parker, after whom the township was named. John G. Morrell
came in 1830, Lewis Walker came in 1831, and in 1832 came Morris Carruthers,
Thomas Lamb, David Easton and Stanley B. Walker, the latter an Old-School
Baptist preacher. In 1833 came William Lee, John Johnson and Calvin Boyd, the
latter of whom ran for the Legislature but was defeated. Isaac Bean and L. D.
Robinson were also early arrivals, and the latter was a brother of the famous
James C. Robinson, who was a Clark County and Springfield lawyer, member of
Congress, candidate for Governor, a noted campaign speaker, and one of the
brainiest men in Clark County. The Connellys, Houghtons, Hammonds and Barbees
also came early, and their descendants are a controlling force in business and
politics at the present time.

   The settlement of Auburn Township was begun when Jonathan Rathbone arrived in
1832. He was soon followed by Ralph Haskett, Orndorff, Robert Downs, John
Fredenberger, Samuel Williams and others. Nicholas Hurst, a prominent early
settler of Auburn, was Sheriff, Associate Judge and County Treasurer. He was the
father of Seymour Hurst, of Marshall, who is Chairman of the County Democratic
Committee, has been Postmaster of Marshall, and a candidate for State Senator.
He is now a candidate for the lower branch of the Illinois Legislature. He is a
fine business man, a leader in his party, and one of the most prominent and
useful citizens of Clark County. Archibald Stack was also an early settler of
Auburn, was once quite wealthy in land, but became involved in a lawsuit with
James C. Hillebert and suffered heavy losses, as did nearly all who became
involved in lawsuits with that keen, pugnacious, enterprising, wide-awake early
settler of Clark County.

   The town of Auburn, in a comparatively early day, was the scene of the
notorious and long-talked-of personal encounter between John Welsh and John
Fitzsimmons. Fitzsimmons was a noted fighter, and had conquered every man up to
the time he met John Welsh. Mr. Welsh was a peaceable man in the main, but was
of giant strength, desperate courage and fierce temper. The fight occurred at a
great barbecue, and Welsh was one of the managers, and had charge of the tables.
Fitzsimmons was drinking some, and as usual spoiling for a fight. In the good
old days in Clark County men fought only with the weapons nature had given them.
The revolver was unknown, the sling-shot and brass or steel knuckles, were
unheard of, clubs, stones and knives unthought of as they are today, and
therefore encounters rarely resulted in anything more fatal than broken noses,
blackened eyes, loss of teeth, and sometimes a few broken bones. Fights were
fair, neither was allowed any help, and they continued until one of the
contestants said he had enough. After the fight was over that was generally the
end of it, and the persons thus engaged in fistic encounters were usually later
the best of friends. In the good old scrapping days Ham Daniels, Steve Pritchard
and Jim Fears, of York; John Welsh, John Fitzsimmons, Nelse Shaffner, John
Williams, who was shot and killed at Nelse Shaffner's house by Bill Haddix, a
Deputy Sheriff of Clark County, there were no deadly weapons used, and no help
given to either man, but the best man was allowed to win. At the Auburn barbecue
Fitzsimmons became unruly, boisterous and threatening, and finally struck John
Welsh, who had tried to quiet him. Soon one of the hardest, most desperate and
long-continued fistic encounters ever fought in Clark County was on. Both men
were giants in physical strength, had desperate courage and both were in the
prime of young and vigorous manhood. Welsh finally whipped Fitzsimmons, and it
was the last fight he ever had. He never recovered fully from the effects of the
mauling he had received from Welsh, but the men afterwards became friends as
they had been before. When Fitzsimmons was on his deathbed he told Welsh, who
had called to see his old antagonist, that he was dying from the effects of
their Auburn fight, but that he himself was the aggressor and did not blame him.
The killing of Williams by Haddick, while justified in law, as Haddix was a
Deputy Sheriff, and, in company with Jack Harlow, another Deputy Sheriff, was
trying to serve a warrant on Williams, who ran out of the back door of
Shaffner's house, where Haddix was standing, and refusing to halt when called
upon to do so, was shot by Haddix as he ran along Shaffner's garden fence, the
ball striking him squarely at the base of the brain, killing him instantly.
Haddix nearly lost his mind through remorse over the killing, and he never
recovered from the effects. It was at the Coroner's inquest over the body of
Williams, at Shaffner's house, that Dr. George Center, then a practicing
physician of Clark County, exhibited one of his usual but cruel freaks as a
surgeon. He was a vivisectionist of the most merciless and radical type, and was
wont to indulge in the intellectual pastime of nailing the four feet of cats and
other small animals to boards, and while stretched out on their backs, alive, in
a helpless position, would coolly and deliberately cut away the hide, muscles
and tendons in the regions of the heart, stomach, lungs and other internal
organs, until he could, through the thin covering of these organs, or with no
covering whatever, note the heart beats, the circulation of the blood, the
action of air in the lungs, and the digestion of food in the stomach. He kept at
this merciless business while at Marshall until the practice became so
unbearable to its people that he was obliged to desist. At the Williams inquest
Center called upon Mr. Shaffner to get him a saw to saw into the head of the
deceased in order to locate the bullet that had killed him. Shaffner refused,
and he then tried to get some one to get him an axe so that he might chop into
the skull. This so enraged those present that they peremptorily and
threateningly forbade Center to go any farther in his investigation. He
afterwards moved to Evansville, Ind., where he became a demonstrator of anatomy
in a medical college there, and was quite successful. While here he came near
being shot on several occasions on account of his brutality or imagined
brutality to patients in his capacity as a surgeon.

   Among the early settlers of Douglas Township may be mentioned the Ashmores,
Forsythes, Davis, Galbraith and Lycan families. In 1853 occurred the murder of
Robert Ashmore by William Forsythe. Both men were Kentuckians and the best of
friends until Forsythe lost a valuable calf and accused Ash-more of stealing it.
Ashmore sued Forsythe for slander, whereupon Forsythe swore vengeance and
declared he would kill him if he did not withdraw the suit. Ashmore refused to
do this, but went on with his preparations for the trial. On the morning court
was to convene, Ashmore, while in the act of saddling his horse, was shot from
ambush and instantly killed. Forsythe was arrested, tried, convicted and
sentenced to be hanged, but the Governor commuted his sentence to a life term in
the penitentiary. He became afflicted with a terrible cancer of the face while
in the penitentiary, and after serving eight years was released and came home to
die the same year. This was one of the most noted murder cases ever tried in
Clark County, was the talk of the county for years, and is still talked of by
those who remember the murder and the incidents that followed it. Douglas
Township contains a large Irish Catholic population, and they are among the most
industrious, thrifty, well-behaved people of the county. Castle Finn is the only
town, or rather hamlet, for it has no town or village organization.

 The first settlement of Casey began with the construction of the National Road
through the county, and the first permanent resident was John Doughty, who
located near the present site of Cumberland, east of the city of Casey proper,
in 1833. In 1834 came Silas Whitehead, the father of Silas S. Whitehead, and in
1835 Joshua Chancellor. The latter had formerly lived in Martinsville Township,
having located in 1829. In 1835 arrived James O. Hedges and his son, James V.
Hedges, and in 1836 came Asa W. Dolson, Thomas Scholfield, Henry Bromwell, the
Chisms, John and William, Addison Barbour, William Shook, William Sullivan and
Levi Mumford. They were followed in 1837 by Dixon Cobb, a violent, hotheaded,
prejudiced, unreasonable fellow, who had a good deal of trouble with his
neighbors. Cobb finally accused William Shook of stealing hogs and upon being
sued for slander was found guilty and left the county. He went to Vincennes,
where subsequently his son, Thomas R. Cobb, was elected a member of Congress.
The village of Casey was incorporated in 1871.

   James Shaw, one of the first settlers of Westfield Township, arrived in 1829,
the same year as Daniel Evinger, Absalom Kester and Thomas Frazier. In 1830 came
Esau Morris, William Comstock, James Jones, David Bennett and others. Bennett
was killed by falling from his horse in 1834, and his was the first death that
occurred in the township. William Goodman, George Goodman, Henry Randall, Elijah
Stark and James Bell came there in 1831. Bell was a man of education and a fine
violinist. The Lowrys, Eastons, Biggs, Macks, Brookes, Bar-bees and Joseph
Briscoe came in 1832. Henry Briscoe came in 1835 and soon after Coleman Dun. In
1838 William Lee erected the first saw mill in the township. It was an ox
tread-wheel mill, but did good service until it was abandoned in 1848.

   Clark County has had its share of distressing homicides, but it has never had
a hanging or lynching. Darwin has had its killing of James Oxendine by Frank
Jeffers, for which he was acquitted; and Albert Hall, one of the most peaceable
and well liked men in that township, had tiie misfortune some years ago to shoot
and kill John Wells, whom he early in the morning mistook for a turkey while
hunting for turkey in the elbow brush west of Darwin. It was a distressing
mistake, for which Hall was in no wise blameable, but it has grieved and
troubled him incessantly since that time. The killing of Dr. Duncan, in
Marshall, by Hamilton Eaton, as well as that of Mack Morton by his wife in
Marshall; also that of Trenck Towsley by Richard Myles, in Darwin, created
intense excitement and no little bad feeling in their respective localities at
the times of their commission, but those who had the misfortune to do the
killing were all tried and acquitted —Jeffers and Eaton on the plea of
self-defense; the wife of Morton on the plea of insanity, and Myles, by virtue
of the "unwritten law," which rarely allows a man to be convicted where the
killing is done in defense of the honor of his home and family. The trial and
acquittal of the wife of Burns Dixon, also of Darwin, on an indictment charging
her with the crime of poisoning her husband, and her acquittal, created great
dissatisfaction in the county. She was ably defended by James W. Graham, while
John Scholfield defended Hamilton Eaton. Thomas J. Golden defended Richard
Myles, and Golden, Scholfield & Booth defended the slayer of Mack Morton. The
killing of "General" Craig, in Anderson Township, by young Paul Sweet, also
created great excitement. Craig was an influential man in his neighborhood, and
his death was the result of ill feeling over a woman who was a domestic in
Craig's household. Sweet was defended by Golden and W. A. Wilkin, and though
vigorously prosecuted by attorneys employed by the brother of Craig, he was
acquitted, dark County has been the scene, fortunately, of but few of the more
loathsome, indecent and unnatural kind of crimes, and the mob spirit has never,
be it said to her honor, manifested itself in the county. The people, no matter
what the offenses against the criminal status have been, have always manifested
a willingness to allow the law to take its course. Among the noted doctors of
Marshall, Martinsville, Casey and Westfieid Townships who have practiced in the
county during comparative recent years, we desire to mention Dr. Fleming Rice
Payne, Dr. F. H. Jennings and Dr. J. M. Janes, of Marshall; Dr. W. H. McNary and
Dr. Gard, of Martinsville; Dr. Richard Williams, of Casey, and Dr. James Parcel,
of Westfieid. These men all stood high in their profession, and their respective
deaths were a distinct loss to the medical fraternity of Clark County. No
stronger, abler physicians, or men of finer common sense, have ever lived and
practiced in Clark County that Drs. Payne, McNary, Williams and Parcel, and we
wish to bear especial tribute to their memories, both as doctors and as men.

   Dr. Tom Williams, the worthy son of an honored father, is an intelligent,
progressive physician of Casey at this time, enjoys a fine practice, has the
confidence of his people, and is well liked by all who know him, both as a
physician and man. Among the older and more prominent physicians of Clark County
in active practice at this time we wish to make honorable mention of Dr. Robert
H. Bradley, Dr. G. W. Prewett, Dr. H. W. Haslit, Dr. E. M. Duncan and Dr. Edward
Pearce, of Marshall, and Dr. W. W. Bruce, of Casey. These men are all old
practitioners in Clark County, and have the confidence and esteem of all who
know them, not only as physicians but as citizens and men. There are other
bright and up-to-date physicians in the county of less years of practice, among
them Dr. John Weir, of West Union; Drs. L. C. Weir, P. P. Haslit, J. J. Rose and
J. W. Smith, of Marshall; Drs. Phelps, Wilkin and Wilhite, of Martinsville, and
Dr. Phelps, of Casey, and others. These are sufficient to show that Clark County
is not behind her sister counties in good doctors, but maintains in that regard,
as she has always done in the past, a high standard of professional ability and
standing among her professional men of the medical fraternity. The dental
profession is also ably represented in the county by Drs. W. R. Turman and J. B.
Taylor, of Marshall, and by W. Kelly, of Martinsville, and others.



Additional Comments:
HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS
EDITED BY
NEWTON BATEMAN, LL.D.
PAUL SELBY, A. M.

PUBLISHED BY MUNSELL PUBLISHING CO., FOR MIDDLE WEST PUBLISHING CO.

AND HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY

EDITED BY
HON. H. C. BELL

ILLUSTRATED
CHICAGO
MIDDLE WEST PUBLISHING CO.
PUBLISHERS
1907

Entered according to act of Congress in the years 1894, 1899, 1900, and 1905 by
WILLIAM W. MUNSELL
in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington


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