Coles County IL Archives History - Books .....Early Facts And Features 1879
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Book Title: History Of Coles County

EARLY FACTS AND FEATURES.

   Thus we have taken a brief glance at a few of the first permanent settlements
made in Coles County. We have passed over the settling of the county in this
brief manner, in order to avoid, as much as possible, repetition. In the
township histories, which follow, the settlement of each will be taken up and
considered separately, and everything of interest will be fully and faithfully
given, while in this chapter, matters pertaining more particularly to the county
at large will be noticed.

    The pioneers of a country are always subjected to many inconveniences, and
live a hard and rough life. When immigrating to a new country, one leaves behind
all the comforts and luxuries of civilization, to endure hunger and cold, and
most of all, to brave the dangers of a wilderness. At the time of settling this
country, it was inhabited by wild beasts, and wild men but little less savage
than the wild beasts themselves. They came here poor, and for years the struggle
with poverty was a hard one. Think of a family without bread for three weeks,
and living on wild meat, potatoes and parched corn! As we look around us to-day,
at the waving fields of "golden grain, ripening for the harvest," the droves of
cattle grazing on the rich pastures, and the almost innumerable car-loads of
grain and stock shipped to distant points, it is hard to realize what it was
fifty years ago, and what the pioneers of that day underwent to produce this
grand transformation. In the Centennial Address of Capt. Adams, already referred
to, he says: "The early settlers were generally poor, and lived on Congress
land. Considerable improvements were often made on land before it was entered.
The custom not to enter each other out was the local law of the neighborhood. It
sometimes occurred that entries were made of lands by others than the actual
occupants. This invariably stirred up the righteous indignation of the
settlement, and a meeting would be called, resolutions adopted and a plan of
operation laid out. They at once went to work, tore down the house on the land
and hauled it off, filled up the well, gathered the crop, pulled up the
fruit-trees and garden stuff, and removed the fences and other improvements. And
then, if the party entering another out made a fuss about it they had to climb a
jack-oak or ride a rail."

   Not only were the people hard run to live, to "keep soul and body together"
but when we consider the tools and implements they had to work with, we wonder
in our minds how they managed to live at all. The old "bar share" and "Cary"
plows would be objects of great curiosity to the present generation, in this age
of magnificent plows-plows that will almost turn the soil, if put in the field,
without team or driver. An old farmer told us the other day, that for years
after he settled in the neighborhood, there was but one wagon in the settlement,
and one grindstone "and upon the latter," said he, "we used to grind our Cary
plows when they become too dull to plow well." And yet we complain of hard
times! Why, we don't know the meaning of the word, as compared to these early
settlers, who broke down the barriers between the wilderness and civilization.
Again, quoting from Capt. Adams, "They hauled hay eight miles in winter on
hand-sleds, sold their horse-collars to buy bread for their children; rocked
their babies in sugar-troughs, and stood guard over them to keep the wolves
off", and fed them on venison and wild honey."

   Nor is the credit all due to the "lords of creation," in the privations
endured in these early days. Noblewomen lent their presence to "gild the gloom"
of wilderness life, and cheerfully shared the toils and cares met with in their
new homes. Figuratively they put their hands to the plow, and, in cases of
emergency, did not hesitate to do so literally. They drove oxen, assisted in
planting, cultivating and harvesting the crops, besides attending to their
household duties; and these last were much more onerous than at the present day.
Then they included the spinning and weaving into cloth, flax, cotton, and wool.
The wool was carded into rolls at the carding mill or machine, spun into yarn on
the "big wheel" by the wives and daughters, woven into cloth and manufactured
into garments by the same busy hands, for the family wear. If a lady was so
fortunate as to possess a calico dress, she was the envy of her "set," just as
the "lady of the period," who robes in satin and a "love of a bonnet," is the
envy of her less fortunate sisters at the present day. But the half-century that
has passed has made many changes, and brought us many improvements. We have
grown much older in many respects, if not wiser, and become mere extravagant in
our desires and more luxurious in our tastes. We cannot think of living on what
our fathers lived on fifty years ago. Our very appetites have changed. The
"corn-dodgers" and fried bacon our parents were glad to get, if set before us at
the present day, would cause us to elevate our "Grecian noses" to an angle of
ninety degress. But this is as it should be. We live in an age of improvement,
and it is but just that all should move on together. It is not in a spirit of
grumbling or dissatisfaction that we have fallen into a moralizing mood, but by
way of contrasting the past and present, and of showing the grand march of
improvement for the past fifty years. When we look back over the years that are
gone, at the changes and improvements wrought in the land, we are almost ready
to attribute it to the power of Aladdin's wonderful lamp. As a cap-sheaf to the
reflections we have been indulging in, we give the following gem from the "poet
laureate" of Coles County:

"The old log cabin with its puncheon floor-
 The old log cabin with its clapboard door!
 Shall we ever forget its moss-grown roof,
 The old rattling loom with its warp and woof?
 The old stick chimney of 'cat and clay,'
 The old hearthstone where we used to pray?
 No!  we'll not forget the old wool-wheel,
 Nor the hank on the old count-reel;
 We'll not forget how we used to eat
 The sweet honey-comb with the fat deer-meat;
 "We'll not forget how we used to bake,
 That best of bread, the old Johnny-cake! "


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

THE HISTORY OF COLES COUNTY. ILLINOIS,

CONTAINING

A History of the County—its Cities, Towns, &c; a Directory of its Tax-Payers;
Portraits of Early Settlers and Prominent Men; General and Local Statistics; Map
of Coles County; History of Illinois, Illustrated; History of the Northwest,
Illustrated; Constitution of the United States, Miscellaneous Matters, &c, &c.

ILLUSTRATED

CHICAGO:
WM. LE BARON, JR., & CO., 186 DEARBORN STREET.
1879.


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