Fulton county Illinois, newspaper - A Rambler’s Notes June 6, 1907 Transcribed from the Canton Weekly Newspaper June 6, 1907 ==================================================================== Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: © Lisa Jump ==================================================================== A RAMBLER'S NOTES Mrs. Ellen Thompson, widow of Charles Thompson, now living in Canton, is one of the early settlers, one of the pioneers, of Fulton County. When she was only 13 years of age her parents, Azwell and Susan Shoemaker, emigrated from Indiana to Vermillion County Illinois, and after residing there for about one year came to Fulton County, settling about one mile west of Fairview near the old Markley homestead. Isaac Lamb, deceased, was an uncle of our subject, and was also a near neighbor. Mrs. Thompson was born in a humble pioneer home in Lawrence County Ind., and what little education she has was received in a primitive log schoolhouse of the early times. She was born and has passed the greater part of her life in a cabin. Her father was a pioneer teamster and hunter of Fairview, Ellisville and Young Hickory townships. Large quantities of pork were packed in Ellisville and Fairview, hauled to Liverpool and Copperas Creek landing, and shipped south. Most of the pioneer towns of the county enjoyed a season of prosperity about this time, which in some cases lasted for several years. Fairview and Ellisville were often crowded with teams, sometimes extending for a distance of half a mile, a solid mass of wagons. As the westward flow of emigration increased many were attracted to the pleasantly situated town of Fairview and the fertile country around it, and the former grew quite rapidly, and before many years rolled around the latter was all occupied. When the Shoemaker family first settled in south Young Hickory there were only two log houses and a water mill at London Mills, and the county around was very thinly inhabited, the settlers all living in log houses. A cabin was built in the woods on what is now a part of the Ellen Reid farm. A man named Wishard at that time owned this tract of land but, it was later bought by William Jackson and then by William Reid. Game was abundant and both the big gray wolf and prairie wolves were numerous. Mr. Shoemaker, the father of the subject of our sketch, spent much of his time in the native forests and upon the broad wild prairies hunting. He was an excellent marksman and the report of his rifle generally meant the death of a wolf, catamount, wildcat, deer or wild turkey. “I was only 13 years old” said Mrs. Thompson, ”when I accompanied my parents from Indiana to their new home in Illinois. We made the journey in a two-horse wagon, camping out at night, and I well remember seeing wolves run across the road ahead of us and hearing them howl in the dense forests through which we passed.” “After living a short time in Vermillion County we came on to Isaac Lamb’s west of Fairview, where we stopped temporarily, then moved into a cabin on section 31, Fairview Township. Elizabeth Markley, the widow of Jonathan Markley, lived in a log house near us. We spent our first winter here in this cabin. Isaac Lamb, who was my uncle, came to this county in 1841 and the Markley family came in the early 30’s.” It was in 1845 or 1846 that we settled in the Markley neighborhood, west of Fairview. Our tables in those good old days were always bounteously supplied with ‘samp’ corn bread, wild honey, venison, wild turkey, prairie chicken, quail and fish. We had little or no wheat bread, coffee or tea, but we cared nothing for them. Plenty of wild fruit was found in the prairie and in the woods, we made our own clothing and lacked for nothing. It is true, we did not have knick-knacks, that the people now have, and did not dress as they do now, but high living and fine clothes do not make good men and women. We all stood on equality and dressed in our homespun garments, believed there was room enough in this world for all of us. We did not expect to accomplish everything in our day, but we wanted to do what good we could for ourselves and our neighbors. We carried the torch of progress into the wilderness and have handed it to our children, but there are some things about out modern civilization that I do not like. In the deep forests or on the wild bleak prairie, in our little cabins, daubed with mud, with the little paths that led down to the spring where the clear pure water bubbled out day and night, we were the happiest people in the world. We all joined hands, we were one grand family. We freely gave to others the right that we claimed for ourselves and were ever ready to extend a helping hand to those who needed assistance. Pride and wealth have destroyed the sociability and have almost destroyed the Christianity of the country. The poor man standing erect by his little cabin home if he is honest and honorable should be respected just the same as though he were worth a million. Money doesn’t make the man, or the woman either.” “The people of today are slaves and how they crouch and cringe before wealth, before a man who is rich! The poor, honest, laboring men and women are the only kings and queens here in pioneer times. The early settlers of Illinois were all poor but poverty is sometimes an advantage. Most of the great men and great women of America were reared in log houses, in the cottages of the poor.” “Cooking is one of the fine arts some say! We old pioneer mothers know something about cooking before a fire in a fireplace. We cooked the old-fashioned way, made corn bread the old way- and how nutritious and sweet it was, and how it filled our veins with pure, rich blood, which gave up pluck, courage, and endurance. Ah, we are degenerating in some things.” “When we first came to the country a man was rated at his real worth. Now, a person is rated by his money, is gauged by his wealth. The farmers of the country have more conveniences, and live better, than we did here in pioneer times, but they do not enjoy life as well as we did then- are not so strong, healthy and happy as we were then. What we need now is more manliness and less pride, more self-respect and less fashion, dignity and self-conceit. We can be happy without wealth, but I am not so sure that we can be happy with it.” “I was born in Lawrence County Ind., Feb. 28, 1832, and am the daughter of Azwell and Susan Shoemaker, the former a native of Virginia and the latter of Indiana. There were 12 children of us in the family, but brother John, who lives west of Canton, and myself, are the only survivors.” We moved from Fairview to the south part of Young Hickory township and squatted among the hills in cabins near Spoon River for several years. Much of the land we lived on in this section bordered on Spoon River and was thickly covered with timber and brush that a man could not see above his head. We built at first a cabin right in the brush and set industriously to work clearing off the bushes, making rails for fences, and breaking a small patch of ground for cultivation.” “Father and even we girls, took part in the log-rolling and other measures by which the country was cleared and developed, and we learned to do all manner of farm work.” “I remember the old government trading post that once stood upon the Conway place. Some of the logs were there until along in the 60’s.” “When Spoon River was up, and overflowed in the bottom land, great snakes were driven out by the high waters to the bluffs, and I have killed many big rattlesnakes right in our yard.” “Before we came to the country the Indians were numerous and troublesome and the settlers built a stockade at Taylor’s Springs for protection.” “Oh yes, I recall many of the incidents of the overland journey from Indiana to Illinois. Wild game was plentiful and my father killed many deer along the route and in the confines of this county. We made our way across the swamps, traversed the prairie, climbed the hills and finally reached Fulton County and I have been here ever since.” “We lived in a cabin near Lewistown one season, and one night when father was away, mother and we children were very much alarmed at the number of wolves which gathered around our home and made night hideous with their howls and growls. We had butchered a few days before, and as the roof of the cabin was open, or partly so, we thought the hungry ferocious animals were going to come in and devour us sure. They chased the dog under the house and snapped and snarled around the door until midnight, when they left. It was a night of horror, a night of fear and dread, and I will never forget it.” “My girlhood was spent in a cabin in the wood, in the wilderness, and we lived in Young Hickory when there were but a few settlers in all the township. We also lived in a log house in Ellisville when the country along Spoon River was in a very wild condition.” “There were no railroads in the county then and everything was hauled to and from Liverpool and Copperas Creek landings.” “We were all- both girls and boys in those days, reared in the habits of industry and were not afraid of work. Mother could weave and cut and make garments and we girls could knit and spin and we always kept the family comfortably clad.” “Although the wolves howled around the door at night and the country was full of snakes and wild animals, we looked forward with bright hopes to the future, and I have lived to see a great change in Fairview, Ellisville, Young Hickory and Lewistown townships.” “My father was an oldline Whig. Mother was a member of the Christian church. The former is buried in the Lewistown Cemetery and the latter in the Foster graveyard, east of Fairview.” “We lived on what was known as the Sheets place, near Lewistown.” “I lived at home until I reached womanhood, when I was married to Charles Thompson, a pioneer of Fulton County and a native of Michigan.” “The date of our marriage was Feb. 10, 1847. My husband was a Republican politically, and we were both members of the Christian church. He died some forty years ago on the old homestead in south Young Hickory, and his remains rest in the old Cline family burying ground, south of the Speedwell school house.” “Eight children were born to us- four boys and four girls. Seven are living namely: Mrs. Susan M. VanPelt, Peoria; Azwell Thompson, on a farm in Orion township; Mrs. Martha Conway, living on the Vittum place, west of Canton; William Thompson, a resident of Canton; Mrs. Eliza Pye, residing in Peoria; Charles Thompson and Mrs. Ettie Shoemaker both residents of Canton; Abram Thompson was four years old when he died. His remains rest beside those of his father in the Cline graveyard.” “G.W. Williams, ‘Uncle Dick’ and ‘Uncle Sammy’ White, Alexander Hines and William Jackson, the Cline family and later G.W. Conway and Nathaniel Aylesworth were some of our neighbors in Young Hickory township.” “Mush and milk used to be our regular diet for supper, but father used to kill deer and cure their hams just the same as they do the hams of hogs, and we had wild meat the year round.” “Canton was a small but business place when I first visited it.” “The Rev. E.W. Irons and other old ministers used to preach in the log school houses and I have gone to church in an ox wagon and dressed in linsey and barefooted.” “A true Christian clad in homespun garments is better than a proud hypocrite clothed in silks.” “Old Uncle Billy Cutherell, who came from England or Scotland in a very early day, is still a resident of Canton. He is over 80 years of age, is a carpenter by trade and helped to build the second frame house erected in this city. He is a cousin of mine by marriage and if his memory is good he ought to be able to tell you something about the early history of Canton and this part of the county.” “I used to be strong and healthy but I am a aged woman now and have spent all my life in hard labor, but I still like to visit the old home place, although I do not own it now- that spot hallowed by the memories of my earlier life, my earlier years.” “There were no stronger, manlier people than the early settlers of Fairview, Ellisville and Young Hickory townships”. Mrs. Thompson suffers to some extent from the infirmities of old age but she is still quite hale and hearty and bids fair to live for many years yet. She has the pleasure of looking back upon a long course of life will spent and is held in the very highest esteem by all her acquaintances and friends. She earnestly endeavors to practice in daily life the grand principles of Christianity, in which she believes.