Menard County IL Archives News.....History of Pioneer Hornback Family is History of County part 1 August 9, 1929
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Matthew F Menardhx@gmail.com September 17, 2018, 6:19 pm

Petersburg Observer August 9, 1929
HISTORY OF PIONEER HORNBACK FAMILY IS HISTORY OF COUNTY

LIFE OF ONE FAMILY WAS SAME AS LIFE OF ANOTHER, IN OLD DAYS.

The following history of the Hornback family in Menard county, was prepared 
by a member of the family, and was printed and presented to the various 
members of the family at the annual Bradley-Hornback reunion two weeks ago.  
The history is interesting not only because it tells the story of a family 
long prominent in this county, but because the life of this family was 
representative of the lives of all the pioneer families.  The “copy” was 
given the Observer for publication by C. A. Hornback of this city.

Andrew or “Andy” Hornback, was born in Bath county, Ky., in April 28, 1807, 
his father having come from Virginia with nine children of whom, Margaret, 
Dolly, John, Jesse, Patsy, Andrew and Eliza lived to maturity.  

Simon Hornback was the grandfather of Andy and was one of the associates of 
Daniel Boone, settling with him in Kentucky when the country was full of 
Indians.  To be more secure from the attacks of Indians, he came down the 
Ohio river on a flatboat.  He settled in Bourbon county.  At one time he was 
making salt on Licking river with other settlers when they were attacked by 
Indians.  The redskins outnumbered the whites who had to retreat from tree 
to tree, fighting as they went back home.  One man killed three Indians in 
the engagement.  They then obtained reinforcements and returned to their 
salt works.  Boone on one occasion was taken prisoner by the redmen and was 
gone so long that is wife thought him dead and she packer her few goods on 
mules and set out through the wilderness for Virginia.  Simon Hornback’s 
wife’s name was Alkire.

Andy Hornback, with his father Abraham Hornback and two brothers, came to 
Illinois in 1825.  They were in four-horse wagons and landed at Indian 
Point.  They were thirty days on the road and had not a dollar of money in 
the world.  They husked corn and got two bushels for a day’s work.  The deer 
were so plentiful that it was unsafe to be in the timber after night.  The 
brothers frequently killed them and on one occasion Andrew sat on his horse 
and counted fifty-seven deer.

Abraham Hornback was the first person buried in the Hornback cemetery.  He 
laid the cemetery off and  told them that was where he wanted to be buried.  
We have no history of who Abraham Hornback’s first wife was, but his second 
wife was Betsy Mappin Bracken.

Turkeys and wild geese were plentiful and so were the Indians.  They would 
come frequently to the house to get something to eat and stay until they got 
it.  There was an Indian town at the mouth of Salt Creek which contained one 
thousand warriors.  According to the treaty with the whites they had one 
more year to stay.  They then left, but stopped at Rock Island, which caused 
the Black Hawk war.

Andrew worked some times for Leonard Alkire for $8 per month.  He states 
that he came here nearly naked, and fought the mosquitoes, gadflies and 
snakes.  Horse flies were so thick that stock could not stay on the prairies 
in the day time and he had to keep off the mosquitoes.  After a drizzly 
cloudy day, when the sun came out warm, a person could not go three miles 
without killing a horse.  The horses had to feed at night and they hunted in 
the morning.  They carried a stick while horse hunting and sometimes they 
would kill four or five rattlesnakes in the morning.

A the time a cow would bring about $7 and a calf was worth a dollar.  Pork 
was worth one cent per pound and corn five cents per bushel.  He used to 
haul his wheat to Pekin and sell it for twenty-five cents per bushel.  Oats 
brought ten cents at Beardstown and it took three days to make the round 
trip.  Butter was worth five cents per pound in Springfield and eggs sold 
for four cents per dozen.  A horse was worth from $30 to $40 and it was at 
the estate sale of Andrew’s father that he saw the first horse bring $50.  
Dedmon Powers bought it, keeping it until next fall when he took it to 
Galena and the lead mines and sold it for $100.  Colts were not worth over 
$6 each.

Note – This valuable history was found about 1912 by descendants of Andrew 
Hornback and is absolutely correct in history of Menard a century ago.

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/menard/newspapers/historyo42nw.txt

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