Coles County IL Archives History - Books .....Mills, Stores, Post Offices, Etc. 1879
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Book Title: History Of Coles County

MILLS, STORES, POST OFFICES, ETC.

   In opening up a new country, one of the first enterprises inaugurated for the
public good is a mill, for with all the inventions of the age there has been no
discovery as yet made to enable the human family to get along without eating. We
have it upon good authority that in the early times people were sometimes
without bread for three weeks in succession, but there is no evidence that they
were destitute of all other kinds of provisions at the same time. Mill
facilities, fifty years ago, were very limited in this section of the country.
The first mill of any note in the county was what is now known as the Blakeman
Mill, on the Embarrass River, and was built in 1829 by the Parkers, just fifty
years ago.* To this mill, we are informed, men came forty and fifty miles on
horseback, with a bushel and a half of corn, and it frequently was frost-bitten.
"This mill," said an old gentleman, "run all the year, except when cows came
along and drank the river dry." It may have been this thoughtless act on the
part of the cattle that suggested the introduction into the country of
horse-mills. They were a dry-weather mill, and during the dry season were kept
pretty busy. Charles Morton built one of these dry-weather mills in the
neighborhood of Charleston, in an early day, which was of benefit to a large
scope of country. One of the early mills was built on Kickapoo Creek, by a man
named Robbins, but it was a frail structure, and could only grind one grist of a
bushel and a half of corn from Monday morning to Saturday night. A man named
Stevens built a mill in what is now Oakland Township, very early, and soon
after, Redden built one in the same neighborhood. Redden's mill is said to have
been a curiosity in its way, in this, that it had a buckwheat bolt attached.
Chadd built one a few years later, on a new plan, but without a buckwheat bolt.
If the stories told of it be true, it was a very remarkable mill, and far
superior to the mills of the present day. The proprietor boasted that on a
certain occasion he ground a bushel of wheat on his mill and bolted it on
Redden's bolt, and the one bushel turned out one hundred pounds of superfine
Hour, and two and a half bushels of bran. (It may have been that the mill was no
better than those of the present day, but a better quality of wheat was grown
then.) But these mills were a "big thing" in their day, as well as a useful
institution of the country.

*It was subsequently moved to the opposite side of the river and became the
Blakeman Mill.


   The first store opened in the county was by Charles Morton. When he came to
the county in 1830, he brought a stock of goods with him, and opened them out in
a small pole cabin, near the present city of Charleston, and, upon the
laying-out of the town, moved within its corporate limits. He established his
store upon one of the eligible corner lots, and thus the mercantile business was
begun, not only in the county, but in its metropolis. Other stores were opened a
few years later at Kickapoo, Hitesville and other points in the county. Morton
was not long allowed a monopoly of the mercantile trade of Charleston, but on
the principle that "competition is the life of trade," soon had plenty of
company. Mr. Morton was also the first Postmaster in the county. This fact is
disputed by some, however, who claim that George Hanson established a post
office at Wabash Point some time before there was one at Charleston. Samuel
Frost carried the first mail through the county. The route was from Paris to
Vandalia, then the capital of the State.

   Tan-yards were among the enterprises of the pioneer days. People then were
not ashamed to wear, but were glad to get, shoes of home manufacture. Many of
the pioneers were sufficiently versed in the lore of St. Crispin to make shoes,
and their genius was called into question at the approach of winter. To satisfy
the demand for "shoe-leather," tanneries were established where the peoples'
"cowhides " and deerskins were made into leather. One of these early tanneries
was established by William Wagner in the Kickapoo settlement. Another was
established at Charleston by David Eastin, which afterward became the property
of the Stodderts, and was operated by them for years, in fact, until tan-yards
went out of fashion. Carding machines were also included among the early
industries of the county. As we have stated in another page, the pioneer ladies
manufactured the family clothing. Nearly every family raised a few sheep. The
wool produced by these useful animals was carded into rolls by these machines,
when they were taken in hand by the women, spun into yarn on the "big wheel,"
and then woven into cloth on the old "rattling loom." One of the first
carding-machines in the county was established or built by John Kennedy in
Charleston soon after it was laid out as a town. Daniel Evinger built a carding
machine on Parker's Prairie, about 1828, which is supposed to have been the very
first institution of the kind in the county. But these machines, tan-yards and
horse-mills have long ago become obsolete, the latter have been superseded by
fine steam-mills, the tan-yards by "brought-on" boots and shoes and the jeans
and "linsey-woolsey" by store goods.

   Among the first blacksmiths in the county were two men of the name of Owens
and Harman, who had the first shop in Charleston. John Carter, of Ashmore, was
another of the early blacksmiths, and also P. K. Honn, who for many years kept a
shop at Hitesville. (For a beautiful tribute to this class of mechanics, the
reader is referred to Longfellow's poem entitled "The Village Blacksmith.")
Other mechanics and trades-people came in, the settlements nourished and grew
prosperous upon the products of their own enterprise. In this small and humble
way, the foundation was laid for the power and greatness enjoyed at the present
day.


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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