Grundy County IL Archives History - Books .....Chapter 22 1882
************************************************
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:
Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com May 4, 2006, 3:08 am

Book Title: History Of Grundy County IL 1882

CHAPTER XXII.*
 
HIGHLAND TOWNSHIP—TOPOGRAPHICAL CHACTERISTICS—PRAIRIE BANDITS—LAWLESS LAW—
SETTLEMENT OF THE TOWNSHIP—THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.

HIGHLAND Township, occupying the southwestern corner of the county, is what 
its name implies, high land—the highest, perhaps, in the "little kingdom of 
Grundy." The general slope of the surface, similar to most of the southern 
part of the county, is to the northeast. Johnny Run and Murray Sluice cross 
the township diagonally in nearly parallel directions, passing out of the 
township near the northeast corner. The Waupecan crosses the northwest corner 
and the Mazon the southeast, in the same general direction. The general 
elevation of the land makes it in this respect, especially in the southern 
part, among the most desirable for farming purposes. Along the streams, the 
land is of a decidedly rolling and almost broken character. With the exception 
of several thousand acres belonging to Wm. Scully, an Irish Lord, the farms 
are generally small, and the acreage of the township better divided up than 
elsewhere in the county.

The earliest people who took possession of Highland were some nameless roughs, 
generally supposed to be connected with a class of thieves and highwaymen, who 
were known as Prairie Bandits. This part of the State became infested with 
these desperadoes about 1836 or '7, and while they scrupled at the commission 
of no form of

*By J.H. Battle.
 
crime, they were especially annoying in their principal business of horse 
stealing. The principal scene of their operations was on the Fox River, but no 
locality in the northern part of the State, where good horses could be had for 
the stealing, was exempt from these marauders. Their plan was to take the 
lighter horses of this region to Indiana and sell them, making the return trip 
with heavy draft horses, which were disposed of in Iowa and Michigan for work 
in the pineries. For a time these depredations were carried on with impunity. 
The population, scattered at considerable distances apart, was principally 
confined to the edge of the timber, leaving the prairie a broad highway for 
these bandits to pass from one end to the other of the country undiscovered. 
The early settlers did not submit to this state of affairs without some effort 
to bring these persons to justice and to recover their property, but singly, 
the pioneers proved but poor trappers of this game. The bandits were known to 
be desperate characters and adepts in the use of weapons and in traveling the 
open prairie, and it often happened that when a party got close upon the 
thieves, discretion seemed the better part of valor, and the chase was given 
up. Their success emboldened these robbers, and the early stock and land 
buyers seldom traveled alone, and never unarmed.
 
A good horse caused many persons to be waylaid and killed, and a large amount 
of money in the possession of an unprotected traveler, almost inevitably 
brought him to grief. Burglary soon followed their success on the road. 
Farmers became more cautions and evaded these foot pads. In this case the 
cabin was entered and the money taken while the family were kept discreetly 
quiet by a threatening pistol. The open handed hospitality of a new country 
made the settlers an easy prey to those who lacked even the traditional 
respect of the Bedouin freebooter. It was impossible to discriminate between 
the worthy stranger and the bandit of the prairie, and the stranger taken in 
was more likely to prove a robber than an angel in disguise. Civil authority 
seemed hopelessly incapable of remedying the evil. Occasionally a desperado 
would be apprehended. Legal quibbles would follow and the rascal get free, or 
justice be delayed until a jail delivery would set him loose to prey upon the 
public again. This occurred with such monotonous regularity and unvarying 
success, that the scattered pioneers lost confidence in each other and anarchy 
seemed about to be ushered in. This general distrust gave rise to many 
unfounded rumors, and may have been the origin of the general belief in regard 
to the first inhabitants of Highland. But these people were known to be rough, 
boisterous persons, who did nothing toward making a permanent home, and enough 
had been stolen in the county to raise suspicion.

Of course such a state of things could not long continue. Deep mutterings of 
vengeance, portentious of a storm of wrath, were heard, and vigilant societies 
came into existence at several localities. One of these societies, formed in 
the northern part of the State, was captained by a man named Campbell. He was 
a Canadian, and a man of great energy and decision of character. The bandits 
were alarmed, and resolved to depose him. One Sunday afternoon, two men by the 
name of Driscoll, called at Campbell's gate and inquired of his daughter for 
her father; Campbell came to the gate, when, without saying a word, the 
visitors shot him through the heart, and coolly rode off. The next day the 
people assembled en masse, took three of the Driscolls, tried them by a jury 
of their own, found two of them guilty, gave them an hour to prepare for death 
and shot them. They then resolved to serve every thief they caught, in the 
same way.* The effect of this summary reprisal was salutary in its effect. The 
gang that had infested this part of the State were struck with terror, and 
left for a less determined community, and this region was happily relieved of 
the incubus which had rested heavily upon it. This was about 1836 or '7. 
Grundy County, as an organization, was unknown, and the community but barely 
established, did not take an active part in these movements, though 
sympathizing with and profiting by them. But no communities found difficulty 
in organizing for its own defense when occasion demanded. Two fellows were 
suspected of horse-stealing, in the southern part of the county. They were 
observed to stay at their father's house at day time, and to be abroad at 
night, and occasionally to be gone for several weeks without any ostensible 
business. A committee advised them to leave and not re-

*History of La Salle County—Baldwin.
 
turn, but disregarding this warning they were visited and severely whipped, 
and the father ordered to move out of the neighborhood, which was a short 
distance south of the present line of the county. Other organizations were 
known as "Claim Associations," which did not have so good a reason for their 
existence. These were combinations by settlers to resist the encroachments of 
speculators, though their power was exerted against any interloper or new-
comer. Certain lands were bought and located near other sections, which the 
settler intended, as he got the means, to take up. A new-comer was informed 
that certain sections were open to him, and that others had been assigned to 
those already on the grounds. The new-comer sometimes saw fit to disregard 
this intimation, made his own choice and began his improvements. In one such 
case a large pile of rails, which had been prepared at a considerable expense 
of time and labor, and drawn to the place where the fence was to be built, was 
found entirely burned, and a few days later, the wagon left loaded with rails, 
was found consumed with its load. Such incidents were not frequent, but 
occurred here and there, and served to illustrate the tendency of very good 
citizens when the established restraints of society are somewhat relaxed.

A more recent exhibition of the crude administration of justice occurred about 
1867, in an adjoining township. Two men were paying attentions to a woman; one 
was afterward found shot dead, lying in the road near his team. Suspicion was 
directed toward the rival of the dead man, and he subsequently acknowledged to 
the grand jury that he had hired his brother to shoot the unfortunate victim 
for fifty dollars.

The murderer was apprehended and brought to trial, but the witness before the 
grand jury took refuge behind the plea that his evidence would criminate 
himself, and the prisoner was discharged, though there was no doubt 
entertained of his guilt. The two conspirators returned to their homes and 
conducted themselves in such a way as to inflame the general feeling against 
them, until the public sentiment crystallized into a "vigilance committee" and 
an order to leave the country. The one who did the shooting fled, but his 
brother gave himself to the sheriff for protection. On the following day some 
two or three hundred men assembled at Morris, forced the jail, and hung the 
man to a tree on the south side of the river.

The first permanent settlement was made in Highland by James Martin in 1845 
or '6. He came from Indiana and located his land in the southeast corner of 
the township. He was soon followed by his brothers-in-law, John and William 
Scott, who settled near him. But little more is known of these persons, as 
they stayed only a short time here. James Funk was the third settler, and 
William Pierce came soon afterward, taking up land in the northern corner. 
About 1851 Alvin and Cushman Small, John Empie, and a Mr. Kline came into the 
northeastern section of the township. In this year also came Paddy Lamb, an 
Irishman, from New York. He made a claim on section 17, and returned to his 
home in the East. In 1855 he came back and settled. While at his old home, his 
project of turning farmer in Illinois was freely discussed among his 
associates and fellow countrymen, and quite a number were induced to emigrate 
to this township. A family by the name of Wier, in Vienna Township, had an 
extensive acquaintance with their countrymen, and it was largely through their 
influence that the settlement of Highland took its exclusive character. John 
Weldon, a resident of Vienna, also was an influential factor in the Highland 
settlement. New-comers were referred to him for advice as to choosing lands, 
and he soon became known to the Highland people as "Daddy Weldon" a title of 
respect which still clings to him. With such a beginning, the tendency was to 
build up a community which was almost exclusively Irish. The settlement was a 
comparatively late one, there being but fifteen votes in 1856. Of these it is 
said fourteen were cast against, and only one for, Buchanan for President. 
Paddy Lamb was the single-handed champion of the successful candidate, and it 
is said, his was the first Irish or Democratic vote cast in the township. It 
may be said that the first case of "bulldozing" occurred in the township on 
this occasion. The majority desired to make the ballot unanimous and indulged 
in a good deal of good-natured effort to convert Lamb to the opposition, but 
he would have none of it, and still glories in the firmness of his convictions.

There is neither village nor post-office in the township. A somewhat 
pretentious but considerably neglected town-house marks the "center," and a 
Catholic place of worship, in the northwest corner of section 4, attracts the 
devout of this township. The latter building was erected in 1868, at a cost of 
about $2,400.

Additional Comments:
HISTORY OF GRUNDY COUNTY ILLINOIS; Containing a History from the earliest 
settlement to the present time, embracing its topographical, geological, 
physical and climatic features; its agricultural, railroad interests, etc.; 
giving an account of its aboriginal inhabitants, early settlement by the 
whites, pioneer incidents, its growth, its improvements, organization of the 
County, the judicial history, the business and industries, churches, schools, 
etc.; Biographical Sketches; Portraits of some of the Early Settlers, 
Prominent Men, etc.; ILLUSTRATED. CHICAGO: O. L. BASKIN & CO., HISTORICAL 
PUBLISHERS, Lakeside Building. 1882.


File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/grundy/history/1882/historyo/chapter270nms.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/ilfiles/

File size: 12.3 Kb