"Early Days in Madison County, Illinois"
Madison County ILGenWeb Coordinator - Beverly Bauser
The following articles, titled "Early Days in Madison County," were written by Reverend Thomas Lippincott from August 26, 1864 to July 28, 1865. Reverend Lippincott (1791-1869) settled in Edwardsville in 1818, and was a strong foe of slavery. He was active in opposing the adoption of a pro-slavery constitution for Illinois in 1824. In 1825-26 he edited, in association with Hooper Warren, the Edwardsville Spectator. He then became a minister of the Presbyterian Church and associated himself with its activities throughout Illinois.
Annotations by George Churchill
George Churchill’s career
paralleled Thomas Lippincott's. He assisted Hooper Warren in
editing the Edwardsville Spectator, 1819-25; actively opposed
the pro-slavery movement in Illinois; and served in the Illinois
General Assembly, 1822-32, and 1844. Because he voted against
the resolution for a convention to revise the constitution in
favor of slavery, he was burned in effigy at Troy by pro-slavery
constituents. Included below are some of his annotations
concerning Reverend Thomas Lippincott's “Early Days in Madison
County.”
EARLY DATE IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 1
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, August 26, 1864
(Written at the request of Willard C. Flagg, Secretary of the
Madison County Horticultural Society.)
I was very imprudent
to allow myself to be beguiled into a sort of a promise to call
up the memories of the years that are long past. I am in the
predicament of him who boasted to Hotspur that he could “call
spirits from the vastly deep,” when the spicy gentleman
significantly asked, “But will they come, when you do call
them?” I am afraid not, very readily, and not very regularly,
yet I will try.
I came to Madison County in the Autumn of
1818. In fact, it was the first day of winter when I arrived
with my family to reside. But it may not be intolerable in an
old man’s story to go back a little and tell how it happened.
The trip down the Ohio River from Pittsburg to Shawneetown
would be more interesting to hear about than to perform, as we
did. But I neither can nor desire to enter into particulars. We
started – “we” may be understood to designate my wife, my child,
and myself, together with all my worldly goods – but on the boat
“we” included another family, consisting of a man, his wife, two
children, and a young lady, who united ….. [missing] …. Times
that I write about, but a Monongas flatboat, about half the
length of those generally used at that time for conveying
produce to New Orleans, and like them, covered over with a
crowning roof, which was the deck on which the navigators
walked, and covering of a cabin below.
Well, we started,
as I was going to say, on the first day of December 1817, and on
the 30th day of the same month, landed at Shawneetown. The most
notable event of the voyage is thus written in my diary, under
date 18th December: “Was passed by the steamboat (about two
o’clock) built by Evans, Steckhouse & Rogers, of Pittsburg. She
moved majestically along at a rapid rate.” This was the first
steamboat we saw on the Ohio, and the only one we saw on our
twenty-nine days trip.
I feel inclined to copy the minute
made by me in regard to one place. We had descended the Falls in
an oar boat, during a heavy rain and fog, and our women and
children and beds were very wet. In consequence, we went ashore
to obtain lodging for the folks while we could dry the bedding,
and were hospitably and kindly entertained by Mr. Nathaniel
Scribner, one of the proprietors of the town, with whom my wife
had been formerly acquainted. After leaving, I wrote thus: “New
Albany is pleasantly situated on the right bank of the Ohio
River in Indiana, and in my opinion, bids fair to become a place
of great business. Enterprise is a characteristic of the
proprietors, and many lots have been sold. There are at present,
ninety families (Mr. N. Scribner informed me) in the place, some
good frame houses, a number of log dwellings, an elegant brick
house and store, owned by Mr. Paxson, late of the house of
Lloyd, Smith, and Paxson of Philadelphia, and a steam mill,
driving two saws and one run of stones. Two steamboats are on
the stocks, and three more are to be shortly put up. A ferry,
having a great run of business, is established here.” Such was
New Albany, and such its prospects, as they appeared to me on
Christmas Day, 1817. I have never stepped on its shore since,
and cannot, therefore, describe its present or foretell its
future, except from the current history.
On landing at
Shawneetown, we found a village not very prepossessing, the
houses, with one exception, being set up on posts several feet
above the earth. The periodical overflow of the river accounted
for this, and I imagine the exception, a brick house, was hardly
as agreeable residence when the inhabitants went from house to
house in boats (an annual occurrence) as the less pretentious
log dwellings.
After a detention of several weeks at
Shawneetown – while we were told the roads were impassable on
account of mud – a hard freeze and storm covered the face of the
earth with solid ice, and procuring a horse, I set out with my
family and my “plunder,” as the people along the road would call
it, in a little Dearborn wagon, to cross the country to St.
Louis, leaving my companions at Shawneetown. The _____ on which
we started became slow, as we advanced, and we waded through it
slowly, wearily, from the 6th to the 17th of February 1818,
except two days spent in the kind and hospitable family of Judge
Lemen, at New Design, near where Waterloo now is, when we saw
and crossed the majestic Mississippi, and for a few _____ are
residents of St. Louis.
Such was traveling in the
Territory of Illinois. The road a mere path, and thro” the woods
indicated by “three back” trees. The only towns or villages that
we saw were Kaskaskia, the seat of the Territorial government,
Prairie de Rocher, a few miles from St. Louis. It will take
another paper to get me over to Alton.
I arrived at
Louisville, Kentucky, February 15, 1817, and left for St. Louis,
June 5, on the keelboat Dolphia, Captain Billings. During my
stay at Louisville, I worked at the printing business, a part of
the time in the office of the Louisville Courier, published by
N. Clarke, and another part of the time in the office of the
Correspondent, published by Elijah Berry, afterwards well known
as the Auditor of Public Accounts of the State of Illinois. Mr.
Lippincott’s mention of Mr. Paxson reminds me that during my
stay at Louisville, a Mr. Paxsen was drowned in a creek a few
miles from New Albany, Indiana, while attempting to swim his
horse across the same, when the water had been swelled by a
sudden freshet. Such disasters were of frequent occurrence in
the “early days” of the West, when bridges were few and far
between. Our own Birkbeck lost his life in a similar manner.
When the Dolhin arrived at Shawneetown, June 11, my fellow
traveler, Mr. Kersey Jones – a tanner from Pennsylvania - and
myself, concluded to leave the boat and walk across the country
to Kaskaskia. Shawneetown is described in my diary as “a village
of about forty houses; no fields, gardens or orchards are to be
seen here.” We left Shawneetown on June 11, and reached
Kaskaskia on the 16th, tired and footsore. We put up at the
hotel of Mr. William Bennett. Mr. Bennett was a Pennsylvanian.
He has since resided in this county and in Galena, and was the
father-in-law of the late Guy Morrison of this county. This
hotel appeared to be the rallying point of most of the
Territorial officers, such as Governor Edwards, Secretary
Phillips, Delegate Pope, and Colonel Michael Jones of the Land
Office. The latter took a fancy to my fellow-traveler, claimed
him as his nephew, and offered to set him up in business if he
would stay. But Kersey Jones disliked the country, would go and
look at Saint Louis, and then return to Pennsylvania. We stayed
six days at Kaskaskia, then proceeded to Ste. Genevieve,
Missouri, where we learned that the Dolphin had left the landing
only an hour before. We walked up the riverbank about two miles,
overtook the boat, got on board, and arrived at Saint Louis on
June 27, 1817. We put up at the Green Tree Inn, kept by Daniel
Freeman, formerly of Dover, New Hampshire. Travelers by steam at
the present day will look with wonder on the record of journeys
made forty-eight years ago.
EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO 2
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, September 2, 1864
In a
few days after my arrival in Saint Louis, I was employed for a
little while to do some writing for Rufus Easton, Esq., a lawyer
of wealth and prominence in the Territory of Missouri, of which
he had been the delegate in Congress. One of the jobs executed
by me for him was making a fair copy of a plat or map of Alton,
a town which he had laid out the previous year on the banks of
the Mississippi in Illinois. This map was designed for
exhibition at the East, in order to effect the sales of lots. I
took some pains to make it look well, and I believe, gave
satisfaction.
After a few months spent by me as clerk in
a store, Colonel Easton proposed to me that I should take a
stock of goods, in partnership with him, and keep a store at
Alton or neighborhood, and accordingly I became a resident as
before said in Illinois – now became a State – on the 1st of
December, 1818. It was not in Alton that my store was opened.
Alton was in embryo. When Colonel Easton brought me first in his
gig to see the place, there was a cabin not far, I should think,
from the southeast corner of the penitentiary wall, or corner of
State and Short Street, occupied by the family of a man whom the
Colonel had induced to establish a ferry in competition with
Smeltzer’s ferry, a few miles above. I forgot the name of this
ferryman, and indeed the names of almost everybody else then
extant (which is the reason why I said it was imprudent in me to
attempt these sketches), but his habitation was about as
primitive and unsightly as I had seen anywhere. I do not think
he was overworked by the business of his ferry at that time, for
the old road passed north and out of sight, and it was not easy
to persuade travelers to try the new one, even if they ever
heard of it, which was probably rather seldom.
Let me
tell a few things about the origin and early years of Alton. In
the first place, Colonel Easton laid out in 1817 or before the
town fronting on the Mississippi River, consisting of the
streets between and including, I believe, Henry Street on the
East, and Piasa Street on the West. I do not remember how far
north it extended, but think not further than Tenth Street. This
may not be correct, and if the original plat, or boundaries, can
be found, which is doubtful, it might be interesting to the
curious to ascertain the facts. I know the valley, now the east
part of town, was not in the first map. The town immediately had
a rival. Mr. Joseph Meacham laid out Upper Alton, and published
it abroad as if it were part of Alton, but on the hill. I
believe purchasers discovering that it was 2 miles away from the
landing expressed dissatisfaction; whereupon Mr. Meacham
purchased what was called the Bates farm, laid it out, and
advertised it as Alton on the river. This last enterprise was
purchased by Major Charles W. Hunter, perhaps in 1818, and has
since been popularly known as Hunterstown, and has very properly
been incorporated into the city of Alton. I did not, in those
days, expect to see the three separate enterprises united as
they now substantially are, into one thriving business and
commercial place.
Litigation kept Alton from improving
some ten or twelve years. Several of the leading lawyers of
Illinois purchased or possessed a title adverse to that of
Colonel Easton, to the land on which he had laid out his town.
Such men as Ninian Edwards, the Territorial Governor, Nathaniel
Pope, so long the able District Judge, and others, would bring
wealth, legal talent, and perseverance into the conflict, and
Colonel Easton had them all to contend against. Of course, no
permanent improvements, nor extensive purchases would be made
while this contest was going on. I know not who had the right,
or the law in the case, nor do I believe anybody else ever knew,
and when the parties got tired of their unprofitable contest,
the compromised by dividing the land. Of this division, I only
know that Edwards, Pope, and Co. got some of the northern
portion, and laid out some beautiful lots, which are now
occupied by the elegant houses of Mr. Bowman and others, on a
line with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. This difficulty
being removed, improvements began to be made, and the village of
Alton began to be. But I must go back and tell a little – all
that I can remember – of the day of a small thing.
Notes
on Lippincott’s No. 2 by George Churchill
It was either in
1818 or 1819 that I attended at Colonel Easton’s Alton, where
the proprietor was to offer some of his city lots for sale, and
for that purpose, displayed a beautiful map, which had been
prepared in accordance with this advice of one of the posts of
that day:
“The most important point, perhaps Lies in the
drawing of the maps;
The painter there must try, By mingling
yellow, red and green,
To make the most delightful scene,
That ever met the eye.”
There were Gospel Lots, an
Observatory Square, College Lots, and I know not how many other
reservations for public and charitable purposes, delineated on
the map. The company was not numerous, yet two gentlemen from
the State of New York were there, viz: Mr. Reuben Hyde Walworth,
afterwards Chancellor of the State of New York ___ ____ ____
[unreadable] think no lots were sold. There were three or four
buildings east of Little Piasa, but no improvements west of that
stream.
In the latter part of 1819 and the forepart of
1820, John Pitcher advertised that he kept the Fountain Ferry.
His advertisement was succeeded in the Edwardsville Spectator,
on the 22nd of February, 1820, by that of Mr. Eneas Pembrook who
added that he also kept a tavern. Both the ferrymen advertised
that the road from Milton, by Fountain Ferry, to Madame
Griffith’s near Portage des Sioux, is three miles shorter than
any other road now traveled between said places, and that at
Fountain Ferry a boat could cross three times in less time than
it could cross once at any other ferry on the same river in this
State. I know not at what ferry the immigrant for Boone’s Lick,
mentioned by Parson Flint, crossed the Mississippi, but when he
got into the Point Prairie, St. Charles County, Missouri, where
the soil is as rich as fresh soil can be, he dug up some of the
black soil and exclaimed: “If the land is so rich here, what
must it be at Boone’s Lick!”
The Bates farm was
afterwards called “Hunterstown.”
Joseph Meacham laid out
the town now called Upper Alton in 1817 or before, upon land on
which only one-fourth of the price had been paid. He disposed of
as many lots as he could by lottery. Each ticket drew one lot,
or a larger tract – say thirty acres, more or less. These last
were considered high prizes. In 1817, Meacham’s Alton was far
ahead of all the other Altons in population and improvements.
The people of the adjacent country were in the habit of lumping
them all together, and calling them “Yankee All-town.”
At
length, the owners of lots in Meacham’s Alton discovered that
they were in danger of having said lots forfeited to the United
States. To prevent this, they raised the necessary funds,
cleared the land out of the Land Office, and appointed Messrs.
Ebenezer Hodes, James W. Whitney, Erastus Brown, and Augustus
Langworthy to execute new deeds to those who held deeds from Mr.
Meacham, on their coming forward and exchanging their old deeds
for new ones from the above-named gentlemen. This was
accordingly done, and one danger was avoided.
EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 3
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, September 9, 1864
[Note: This article was extremely hard to read – there are
omissions and may be errors.]
The stock of goods which
Colonel Easton prepared to put in my hands, and which ______
into Madison County, was to be ________ not of a larger stock
that he had ______ on point on the Missouri River, which ______,
and I hoped to make valuable as a ferry (called Fountain Ferry),
and perhaps a town. The Colonel had purchased a large stock of
merchandise and place it in the hands of Ebenezer Huntington, a
young man who had made extensive tours ______ the South as a
lecturer and de_____, with no little applause, and in the winter
of 1817-18, was starring it in St. Louis on the stage. It was
soon found that _____ and dollars’ worth of goods was too much
to hold in a place where there was nobody to buy – at least I
saw no one _____ near there, and so the Colonel sent a part of
it by me to be offered for sale on the east side of the
Mississippi.
Hawley’s store was not opened in Alton,
______ _____ there. Sometime in November 1818, I stepped out of
a keel boat on to the shore of the Mississippi, and found _____
and my goods under a magnificent grove of Sycamore or Cottonwood
trees, _____ from the mouth of what the _____ had named Fountain
Creek, but which was, and is better known as Little Piasa, _____
point where the bluff jutted on the river, on which the old
Penitentiary was afterwards built. I think there was no house
there then but the ferry house, and perhaps a cabin on or near
Second Street [Broadway], somewhere south of Alby Street. The
hills were crowned with lofty oaks, and formed, as they do now,
a splendid outlook over to Missouri and up and down the river.
Nature was in her own dress then.
There was a busy,
active village even then in the neighborhood. A firm, consisting
of John Wallace and Mr. Seely, owned a mill site three miles
below on the Wood River, where they had three mills – two saw
mills and a grist or flour mill – and they were in full, active
operation. Messrs. Wallace and Seely had laid out a town and
called it Milton, and were doing a fine business. A distillery a
few rods up the Wood River was equally active. A. W. Donohue, a
merchant of St. louis, had put up a building and opened a store
at the bridge in Milton, under the charge of Richard T.
McKenney, but whether from want of patronage or society, Mr.
McKenney ____ before _____ ______ the store in St. Louis. He was
afterwards teller and then cashier of the Bank of Edwardsville,
and was highly esteemed for his social qualities and strict
integrity. To this storehouse, by direction of Colonel Easton, I
brought the goods, and the farmers and travelers (for there was
a road there, and some travelers) could read the sign,
“Lippincott & Co.,” and if they chose, purchase dry goods and
groceries as cheap and as good, perhaps, as they can be had now
in these war times. I remember I sold coffee at fifty cents a
pound, and salt at three dollars a bushel.
A contract had
been entered into by Colonel Easton with Daniel Crume and
William G. Pinckard for the erection of four log houses. I
believe hewn logs, on different parts of the town site. He
afterwards changed the plan so far as to unite two of these in
one, which was put up on the block between Market and Piasa and
Second [Broadway] and Third Streets. I believe that house (which
was so long occupied by Mr. Thomas G. Hawley) is still standing,
though surrounded by other buildings at least it was there until
the brick stores were put up in front of those I have mentioned
the name of a gentleman who has always been a resident of Alton,
knows its history much more perfecting, and would remember
vastly better than I, and I would suggest that one of the
proprietors of the Alton Telegraph could probably have access to
him and to his more valuable reminiscences. At any rate, I hope
my old friend, William G. Pinckard, will look over, correct, and
complete the rambling recollections of one whose memory is not
only defective, but who is so far away from the place and people
of Alton as to have no means of correcting errors, or help in
recalling facts.
I have a very indistinct recollect, or
imagination, of a row of several small tenements strung along
under the sycamores, sometime in the winter of 1819-20, occupied
by several families, whose names I cannot recall (unless one of
them was named Ward), who did not remain long in the place or
neighborhood. It was a ephemeral as humble. But I seem to
remember yard and garden fences in a small way. It seems to me
these cabins must have been under the first bank, which was
where Second Street [Broadway] is, west of Piasa.
Notes
on Lippincott’s No. 3 by George Churchill
Walter J. Seely
moved to Edwardsville, where he kept a public house. He died
January 13, 1823. The Star of the West said he was a native of
Goshen County, New York, probably meaning Orange County, in
which the town of Goshen is situated.
EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 4
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, September 16, 1864
I
do not get along fast. Three numbers only bring us to the winter
of 1818-19, and well little of that. No matter. When the reader
gets tired of the early days, or its old writer, he can skip the
rest. Or the editors can just cry “hold, enough,” and the
fountain will dry up.
In order to draw travel, a road was
necessary to Alton from Milton, and to cross Shield’s Branch, a
bridge was indispensable. Accordingly, Colonel Easton made a
contract with Joel Finch to build a frame bridge, for which he
was to be paid at my store, the sum of two hundred dollars. The
bridge was built about or very near the site of the present
covered bridge. One or two of the same kind succeeded the
original at almost the same price, before the present structure
was erected, the road wound somewhat through the Bottom, but was
soon run as now along the bluff. There were two families
residing between Milton and Alton – or more properly between the
Wood River and the Bates’ farm. The first, near Wood River, was
owned and occupied by a widow Meacham, who had been there during
the late war time – the War of 1812 – and as she told me, was
visited by Indians on the same night, I think, on which the Wood
River Massacre occurred. The old lady was highly esteemed, and I
used to enjoy her conversation much. She had two sons, men
grown, and two or three daughters, if I am not mistaken – one of
whom was married to Mr. Whitehead, afterwards a thriving and
wealthy citizen of St. Louis, and a L____ First Presbyterian
Church. If I could talk awhile with Squire Pinckard, I know I
could tell a good deal more, and a good deal better about some
of the first families of that part of Madison County. The other
family on the road was that of Mr. James Smith, nearer Alton. I
only know of this family that Mr. Jubilee Posey married a
daughter, and that I often enjoyed their hospitality in later
years in the neighborhood of Troy, where Mr. Posey was a thrifty
and respected farmer.
I can now, familiar as they were to
me and long remembered, call to mind but few of the old settlers
round Alton at that time. There were besides others, two
families scattered along the American Bottom for some miles
below Milton. The Gillhams and the Preuitts. Gillham was the
last Sheriff of Madison County under the Territorial Government.
He owned a fine farm and a ferry on the banks of the
Mississippi, opposite the mouth of the Missouri, most of, or at
least much of which farm I believe has gone down the river,
perhaps to the Gulf of Mexico. In the summer of 1818 or 1819 (I
forgot which), I saw several steamboats lying at the bank of Mr.
Gillham’s farm – more than I had seen at one time at St. Louis.
They were boats employed by Colonel James Johnson, brother to
Richard M Johnson, to carry supplies for up the Missouri to Fort
Osage, on a contract with the U. S. Government. I suppose such
boats would be considered small affairs now, but to me, and many
who went to see them, they were rather magnificent. The other
Gillhams were settled along near the Long Lake.
The
Preuitts occupied farms along the bluff from the Wood River to
where the Edwardsville Road ascended the bluff at W. T.
Davidson’s. Abraham, William, and Isaac dwelt on the side of the
bluff facing the Bottom, and Solomon, somewhere on the table
land above. They have all been gone many years to Greene County
I believe. One of them, Isaac, was distinguished as having been
the only one who killed one of the Indians who had massacred
several of the Moore family in the forks of the Wood River. The
pursuit of the Rangers was so hot, however, that it was believed
none of the gang ever got back to their tribe alive.
There was a farm and horse mill adjoining Milton, and several
fine farms strung along on the west side of the prairie some
three or four miles – some of them quite large and all
productive. I have since been passed over the same ground, and
found it clear prairie. The only indication of settlement being
rows of cottonwoods forming a hollow square, and showing where
the fences of one of the farms had been. These latter years have
filled up this space with farms again.
Above the bluffs,
on the table land, I remember several farms which were old
settlements when I came to the country. In the forks of the Wood
River were three brothers by the name of Moore – George,
William, and Abel. The two latter had built them each a brick
house, but George still occupied the old log, considerably
enlarged, and near him still stood the blockhouse to which the
inhabitants resorted to in times of danger, and the powder mill
in which they were wont to provide themselves with ammunition.
Supplemental Correction
In the second number of these
articles, I have not seen the first, the types make me say
things that need correction. The read says, “Written at the
request of W. C. Flagg, Secretary of the Madison County
Horticultural Society.” According to this, Horticulture seems to
have functions still more varied than were ascribed to it by a
certain divine, whom I once heard lecture on the 4th chapter of
Genesis. On the 2d verse, he explained that “The first
employment of mankind were agriculture and horticulture, the
cultivation of the ground and raising of cattle.” I did not
suppose, however, that horticulture would include the gathering
of scraps of history. As it seems, I may also have made some
blunders, the printer will please cause it to read – Written at
the request of W. C. Flagg, for the Illinois Historical Society.
The other error is geographical. I am made to say, “the valley
of Piasa was the east part of the town.” I said, or ought to
have said, the west part.
Early Days in Madison County, No. 5
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
Source: The Alton Telegraph, September 23, 1864
The inhabitant of the settlement between the two branches of the
Wood River, if we may judge from a specimen, increased apace. I
was called in 1819, I believe, to marry a couple (for I received
a commission as Justice of the Peace within a few months of my
arrival at Milton) which was duly performed under the shade of
one of the monarchs of the primeval forest. Some years
afterwards I called to see this married pair at their residence
on the Woodburn road, and found them a well to do family, the
parents in the vigor of life, with sixteen children. I do not
know that all the families were equally prosperous, but the
population and the farms multiplied in that region.
I had
occasion in that year to make a journey into "the Sangamon
country" (it was not yet in existence at that time). Starting
from Milton and ascending the bluffs a short distance from it,
the road skirted the Wood river timber on the south side,
passing through what was known as Rattan's prairie, and
continuing entirely in the prairie, after passing the head and
timber of that stream a mile to two, perhaps more united with a
road that ran from Edwardsville, and so passed North. The farm
and house of Jesse Starkey was the last we passed, as I
remember, in that region.
Of the inhabitants of that
prairie settlement, I can only remember to name William
Montgomery, Richard Rattan, Thomas Rattan, Rev. William Jones
and Jesse Starkey aforesaid. There were others, one especially,
whose house I often passed in after years on the way to
Edwardsville, as well if not better known to me, but whose names
I cannot recall. These were all men citizens. I believe their
descendants are of substance, and have been prominent people of
note in this county or elsewhere at the present day.
In
the journey I spoke of, we made many points. There were, after
leaving Wood river and launching out into the open sea (prairie)
as land marks, first Dry Point, the head of the southern branch
of the Macoupin; then Honey Point, of the Middle Fork; then Slab
Point, a little off the road to the left; and next Lake Fork, at
the head of the northern branch. From this last the road struck
across to Brush creek, and then to Sugar creek, waters of the
Sangamon river. We staid all night at Honey Point at Mr.
Robinson's (father-in-law to George Debaun) and the only house
between Jesse Starkey's in Rattan's prairie and a house on the
waters of Sugar creek, now in Sangamon, but then in Madison
county. Soon after, (that same season perhaps) Dry Point was
occupied, I think by a Mr. Hammer, and Lake Fork was improved by
Mr. Henderson. As Mr. Henderson kept a very comfortable and
pleasant house of entertainment, at a point where the roads from
Edwardsville and Hillsborough (where that was built) to the
Sangamon Country, and afterwards Springfield, it became a place
of great resort and of course quite noted; but it seems to have
been known as Macoupin Point in those after years. The roads
being subsequently changed, Mr. Henderson removed his
establishment some years afterwards to the prairie where the
roads from Madison county to Springfield were crossed by the
road from Hillsborough to Jacksonville. After his death, this
house was kept by his widow, and then by his son-in-law Mr.
Virden; who, when the railroad (Alton & Springfield) was located
removed a few miles (in sight of the old place, and gave name to
the flourishing village now well known as a point on the St.
Louis, Alton & Chicago railroad. But, I am getting ahead of my
story.
When I came to Milton there was a public house
kept by Joel Bacon, in a cabin near the bridge. In the summer of
1819 he erected a frame house a little higher up, to which he
removed his family and tavern - it was not a drinking house -
and entertained travelers as comfortably as the circumstances of
the country allowed. His wife was a notable and very excellent
woman, and his daughters and hers, all afterwards married, some
in Greene and one in Pike counties, aided in keeping a cleanly
and respectable house. I boarded with them in the cabin some
weeks or months, until ready to occupy the little room in the
rear of my store.
I think it must have been in the summer
(or spring) of 1819, that Mr. Robert Collet, a merchant of St.
Louis, bought out the interest of Mr. Seely in Milton, and
henceforth Wallace and Collett became the proprietors of the
village, the mill and the business of Milton, Mr. Collett,
however, kept the store - a rather extensive one for the time.
My store was separated from the rest of the house simply by
lathing. My residence was then in a little cabin near Mr.
Bacon's. That big house, after Mr. Bacon's death, being still in
its unfinished state, was taken down and taken up to Upper
Alton, where it was the residence of George Smith. Perhaps I
ought not to omit so trifling a circumstance as the gathering of
about a dozen or twenty children - all there were - into our
house on Sabbath mornings for religious instruction. My wife,
who had had much experience and success in teaching, could not
be easy without the effort, and it was made; - and thus, got the
name of the first Sabbath School in Illinois.
EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 6
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, October 7, 1864
Dr.
Langworthy was a man of some note in those days. My memory fails
me here again, not only with respect to his name, which I well
knew, but with regard to some other persons more or less
connected with him. Though I knew and respected them, I find it
impossible to recall enough about them to venture any mention of
them. One man, of a different class, must not be omitted on
account of his after history. A young man by the name of Robert
Sinclair (so he wrote it) was well known. He kept a “grocery,”
i.e. grog shop, and was one of the boys who could run horses,
drink whisky, play cards, and generally and particularly carry
out the practices of rowdyism as well as anybody. Being Deputy
Sheriff, he was placed in positions of no little responsibility,
and I am not aware that in his official or business transactions
he failed to discharge his duties acceptably. He was certainly
rather illiterate, but shrewd and active, and in person he might
be considered a model of manly beauty. That which was the chief
incident of his history (in our county) belongs to a later day,
and comes more properly in connection with another. He is
introduced here simply as one of the early settlers of Upper
Alton.
There was another, and very different person on
whom my mind loves to dwell. Whether he was among us so soon as
this, I am not sure. Perhaps one of the editors of the Telegraph
could ascertain and tell. Rev. Nathaniel Pinckard, having
preached the gospel as a Methodist minister, in the traveling
connection many years, settled down at the late evening of life
in the new and crude village of Upper Alton. He had made the
accumulations common to the calling: experience, wisdom, the
love of God, and his fellow men, the usual infirmities of age,
and _____ to toil for a living. His cheerful, genial spirit and
kindness of heart, rendered him very attractive to me, and I
believe to others. There was one tie that bound us together even
more than others – a strong sympathy and agreement on the
subject of slavery. My hatred of it was inherited, or at least
drawn with my mother’s milk. His was caused or intensified by
actual contact and experience. In the course of his ministerial
service, he was at one time sent as a missionary to one of the
islands of the West Indies, and there he saw it, and having
human sympathies, felt it. One illustration, which I had from
his own lips, I will give. At one of his stations among the
members of his church was a young and beautiful girl – if my
recollection is not at fault, intelligent and accomplished, too,
whose character and sorrows deeply interested him. Of her piety
and good conduct, he seemed to have no doubt. After the relation
of minister and member had continued along enough to inspire
mutual confidence, she sought his counsel on the most momentous
question that can arise in human experience and action. She was
a slave. Although the pretext of color was obliterated, she was
subject to the will, the caprice of one who wore the garb of a
fellow man. This was enough to grind the intelligent and
sensitive soul, but this was not all. Her master was her father
and her grandfather. With the quick sense of purity and morality
awakened by Christian experience and feeling, how keen must have
been the emotions of wrong and shame that stung the young
disciple, the offspring of lust and incest. But there was a
deeper depth of grief and degradation for her. Whether from
advances actually made, or from the known character of her
brutal master-father I know not, but her soul was harrowed by
the fear that he would compel her to submit to his doubly
incestuous lust, and her anxious and agonized and repeated
inquiry of her pastor was, whether it was not her duty to commit
suicide to preserve her chastity. And he confessed to me that it
was a question too awful for him to decide. He could only weep
with her, and bid her trust in God and pray for deliverance.
I could add more from his West Indies experience to show the
moral horrors of slavery, but choose rather to give a
characteristic anecdote of him which may provoke a smile. His
residence in Upper Alton (Salu) was at a point where Smeltzer’s
ferry road – leading into Missouri – branched off from that
which was traveled towards northern Illinois. Of course, the
immigrants into Missouri took slaves with them, and it was easy
to distinguish them from those intending to settle in our State.
One day a moving train came to this point with the usual
assortment of colors marking our western neighbors, and either
hesitated or were taking the wrong road. Mr. Pinckard ran out
and called to them, “Here, you must take the left hand, you with
the darkies,” and he added, “I am afraid you will always have to
take the left.” He was a good man, and when afterwards I tried
to sound the gospel trumpet, although of a different
denomination, his sympathies and his prayers helped me.
[The editor of the Telegraph added: Rev. Nathaniel Pinckard was
the father of William G. inckard, and came to Alton in 1818.]
Dr. Langworthy’s Christian name was Augustus. When I last
heard from him, he was living at Tiskilwa, Bureau County,
Illinois. I find the following in the Edwardsville Spectator,
August 28, 1819:
“Post offices have been established at
Alton, Gibraltar, and Carlyle. Dr. Augustus Langworthy is
appointed postmaster at the former place, and Thomas F. Herbert,
Esq., at the latter.”
I will add that Daniel D. Smith was
appointed postmaster at Gibraltar.
EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 7
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, October 14, 1864
I
hope Mr. Flagg, or whoever may be employed as the
historiographer of the Society, has a good planning mill to
winnow out the few grains of wheat there may chance to be among
the mass of chaff in these rambling sketches, by the
old-fashioned hand process would hardly pay, but improvements
are the order of the day, and who knows, but some patent
separator may soon, or already be discovered by which all that
is worth saving may be got out and put away by steam?
Sometime in the winter of 1819-20, perhaps in February, a family
arrived in Milton which had a more important relation to myself
than to Madison County. And yet the State of Illinois and county
of Madison, and even the city of Alton have since felt its
influence. I had known Elijah Slater from my first coming to the
State. Indeed, we had met on the Ohio River, which we were
descending at the same time – he on a raft of lumber, which he
had purchased at Olean, and I in the cockle boat previously
described. Both stopped a while at St. Louis, and then came to
Milton, where a friendship was formed which was cemented by
religious sympathies and efforts. After a few months, he
returned to his former home, Ithaca, New York, and in the winter
aforesaid, arrived in Milton with his family. It may amuse my
readers, especially the descendants of that good man, to see an
account of his reception in those primitive times.
I had
become a widower with a child of some two years. Unwilling to
part with the little one, and indeed knowing no one to whom I
could entrust her, I prevailed on a kind friend, the daughter of
the good Deacon Crocker, at whose house in St. Clair County my
wife died, to come home with me and keep house. We were sitting
one evening by a bright cabin fire, when a knock was heard and
Mr. Slater entered. He informed me that he had brought his whole
family along, and expected them to tarry in Milton awhile, until
he could get a house built on the farm he designed to make.
“Well bring them in.” “I don’t know, but it will make too much
trouble, and take too much room for them all to come. I guess
part of us, at least, had better go to Mr. Seely’s.” Mr. William
Seely had come to the West with Mr. Slater, and afterwards
settled on the Vermillion River. “Well, bring them in for the
present anyhow.” It was amusing to see the blank astonishment
and alarm in the countenance of Miss Crocker, when she said to
me after Mr. Slater went out. “Why, what in the world are you
going to do with them?” “Do with them? Give them a place to
stay. They have beds.”
In order to feel the force of her
question, it may be necessary to describe the mansion of which
the hospitalities were thus offered. It was a log cabin, say 16
by 18 feet, with a shanty closet perhaps six feet square, and a
loft above in which I could possibly stand erect, under the
ridge pale. Mr. Slater’s family, then with him, consisted of
himself and wife, and three daughters. And the driver of the
team must have a place, of course. I do not think his son,
Samuel, was with them then.
The result was that a part of
the family took up their temporary abode with us, and a part
with Mr. Seely, until in early spring, there were houses built
for both families on farms which they opened (or rather
enclosed) on the prairie north of Sugar Creek, some six miles
from where Springfield was, a couple of years afterwards,
located by commissioners as the county seat of the newly erected
county of Sangamon, of which county seat they were among the
very first inhabitants. In inviting them all into my little
cabin, I did just as we were all accustomed to do in those days,
and without any apologies.
On my return from the trip to
Sugar Creek mentioned in a previous number, I was bringing my
bride home. At Honey Point, where we stayed all night, there
were travelers already provided for, and I and my wife slept on
a buffalo robe, spread on the floor. There was no other way.
The second of Mr. Slater’s daughters came with them a
married woman. Her husband, Mr. Joseph Torry, soon followed, and
joined in the farm enterprise. A few months afterwards, I was
married to the eldest daughter, and in the autumn, Mrs. Torry
and my wife both died, within a week of each other. Though not
perhaps exactly within the scope of my sketches, it may not be
uninteresting to the present generation of Madison County to add
that the third daughter was a year or two afterwards married to
Dr. Gershom Jayne, to whom Alton is indebted, in part, for what
was deemed an important improvement, and that their eldest
daughter is the wife of the Hon. Lyman Trumbull. As he and his
family have somewhat been intimately associated with the
fortunes of Alton and the county, it seemed proper to mention
these facts.
Of Mr. Slater I have to say, that he was a
man of more than ordinary worth. Though somewhat visionary in
business matters, he was in other respects a man of sound sense
and good information, a devoted Christian and peculiarly
amiable. And his wife was one whom to know was to love. Their
evening of life was rendered happy by filial love and care in
the pleasant home of their surviving daughter.
EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO 8
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
None found
EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 9
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
Source: October 21, 1864
My family suffered
much with sickness while we resided in Milton. The dam on the
edge of the ledge of rocks across the Wood River, just below the
bridge, was supposed to create malaria. I know I have often, of
a summer evening, held my breath or my nose while passing over
the bridge. Dr. John Todd of Edwardsville was our physician. But
as he was ten miles off, and had a most extensive practice, we
had occasionally called in Dr. Clayton Tiffin, who resided at
St. Marys, only three miles off. Perhaps my readers will wonder
where St. Marys was, within that distance. A year or so
afterwards, I was called from Edwardsville to marry my friend,
Ebenezer Huntington, to the sister of Dr. Tiffin, the ceremony
to be performed at his house in St. Marys. I went, and found a
level plain at or near the mouth of Wood River, on the lower
side, with a two-story framed house on it, in which Dr. Tiffin
resided. That was St. Marys. Whether the town of Chippewa, of
which I heard some years ago, occupied the same spot, I do not
know, but doubt whether it was as well built, if as populous.
The town of Edwardsville was in those years an important
place. It was the residence of Ninian Edwards, who had been the
only Governor of the Territory of Illinois, and was now a
Senator in the Congress of the United States. Jesse B. Thomas,
his colleague in the Senate, was also a resident of
Edwardsville, and the two distinguished citizens, with their
accomplished families, formed a nucleus round which the
intelligent naturally gathered. We know that the young ladies
shone as brilliant gems in the gay and polite circles of the
city of Washington.
These two men have filled places in
the political history of not only the State (as well as
Territory) of Illinois, but of the United States, too important
and prominent to be soon forgotten. If this were the place, or I
the person, to give the political history of the times and the
actors in them, it would be easy to find many materials, and
pleasant to gather them. But, though I might collect many facts
of interest, there would be so many more left out for want of
documents and memory, that I shall not attempt it. Of Judge
Thomas I will only say that he was a man of gentlemanly and
pleasant manners, and without any remarkable powers of mind (of
which he was sensible) could and did exert a great influence
over the people. It was he who in 1820 presented to Congress the
celebrated compromise on slavery, by which Missouri was received
into the Union. No one, at home, supposed him the author, nor
would they if they had not known from the current reports of the
day that it emanated from Henry Clay. Fully convinced as I was,
and am, of the good intentions of the movers in this measure, it
seemed to me an unfortunate attempt to mingle iron and clay,
wrong with right, and likely to prove disastrous, only
postponing and greatly aggravating the catastrophe. With a
number of others among us, I was, therefore, opposed to it.
Whether our judgment has been vindicated by the present
rebellion [Civil War], which cannot but be traced to that
compromise as one of its causes, may be left to the candid
judgment of the present and future generations.
Of Ninian
Edwards I could find it in my heart to say much more. Besides
the fact that his abilities were superior – that he stood in the
councils of the Nation as a power, and filled, I may say, the
first place in the political history of Illinois - I might be
influenced by motives of personal friendship to fill a large
space with my reminiscences. But I forbear. His government of
the Territory, his subsequent election as one of the first
chosen Senators, his career there, his fearful conflict with W.
H. Crawford in which both parties may be said to have been
destroyed, his appointment as ambassador and resignation of it,
and finally his election of Governor of the State to succeed
Edward Coles, are matters of history and need not be dwelt upon
in these sketches. I cannot forbear, however, to mention one
thing which was known to me more fully perhaps than to the
public of that day. It is that: When he found it advisable on
account of some of the unpleasant consequences of his contest
with Mr. Crawford to resign his foreign mission, he had received
a large sum – I think nine thousand dollars – from the United
States Treasury for his outfit, and had actually expended it.
There was no legal claim on him for it, and many thought no
moral obligation to repay it, for he had expended it in the
legitimate objects of, and as a necessary preparation for his
mission. He, however, from his private fortunate, returned the
money into the treasury.
Few more genial, pleasant, and
interesting men are to be found in the walks of private life,
few could attract more strongly in the social circle than Ninian
Edwards, and a vein of egotism always discernable rather
enhanced than diminished the zest of social intercourse. Of
Edwardsville and its men of that day, I may have much to say in
the future numbers.
EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 10
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, October 28, 1864
The
town of Edwardsville had been laid out before I was acquainted
with the county, and was the seat of justice. It occupied a
ridge jutting but from the Cahokia River, having on each side a
somewhat deep and abrupt ravine separating it from the level
land adjacent. Thus, it had but one street, or scarcely more,
and in this respect, as well as in its position, I believe is
pretty much the same yet. The court house was a log building on
the edge, next to the street of the square, which was a
remarkably contracted opening not far from the lower end of the
town. The jail on the same piece of ground was no more
remarkable for beauty or strength. It was composed of logs, and
perhaps lined with plank. Nor could the brick court house and
jail built a few years afterwards be called a great improvement.
I remember when Lorenzo Dow came to Edwardsville and preached,
some years after this, when he was shown the court house as the
place of meeting, refused to preach in it, saying it was only
fit for a hog pen. It had not yet a floor, except a narrow
staging for the court and bar.
About this time (I mean
1819), some gentlemen purchased a farm at the south – rather
southeast end – and laid it out in blocks and streets, with an
open square of reasonable size in the center. It was designed
not only to rival, but supersede and swallow up the old town,
and probably to this end (for I can conceive no other) it was
laid out in such a way as not to connect by streets with the
street already established. While the form of the ridge
controlled the course of the main street, there was no reason,
but the caprice of the proprietors, why the streets of the
addition should not correspond with it, or else with the
cardinal points of the compass. But it agrees with neither, and
moreover, the old street was made to butt against a solid road
at the junction.
The proprietor of the old town was James
Mason, who had purchased it before I knew it. He had built a
brick house on the rear of the square, in part of which an inn,
or as it would now be called, a hotel, was kept by William C.
Wiggins, afterwards so well-known at Wiggins Ferry, St. Louis.
At this hotel might have been seen during the years of its
occupancy by Mr. Wiggins a number of men of no small note – the
elite of that day, both of our own citizens who had not yet made
homes, and especially of those who came to spy the land with a
view to future settlement. For comfort, for good living in a
plain way, such as was then thought genteel enough for the best,
and for neatness, the public house of Mr. Wiggins furnished a
resting place which the intelligent and refined traveler was
well prepared to appreciate, after a horseback ride across the
State, over the new roads, and stopping at the log farm houses
on the way.
Edwardsville was at that time the most noted
town, perhaps, in Illinois. Though the old capital was at
Kaskaskia, and the new prospectively at Vandalia, neither was as
much a point of attraction as Edwardsville – not morely for the
reason that as I said the chief men of the young State resided
there, but more, and perhaps mainly, as the point, to which
people came as a center from which they were accustomed to go
out prospecting. For I think the west side of the State at that
time invited immigration much more than the east. The land
district had been opened, and the land office established at
Edwardsville a few years, and consequently all who wished to
settle anywhere north of the Kaskaskia district must enter their
land at our county town. The lands were sold by the government
on a credit at two dollars (the minimum) per acre. On paying
one-fourth of the purchase money down, the remainder might be
delayed. This was doubtless in order to enable the settler to
make the balance by labor on the land; which was doubtless often
done. But unfortunately, the spirit of speculation was aroused.
Thousands upon thousands of acres were purchased by
non-residents on more speculation. And the actual settler was
deluded with the hope of making money to pay the balance, and so
entered three or four times as much as he had money to pay for.
And, as if to excite speculation still more, a person might by
depositing sixteen dollars on a tract (80 acres), one-tenth of
the purchase money, secure a pre-emption for a certain length of
time, and then, if I do not forget, transfer it to another
tract, if he preferred it. Such was the state of things at that
time, and consequently, there were many congregated at Mr.
Wiggins’ house from time to time, and at all times, whose object
and business it was to enter many or large tracts of land, to be
kept until the price of land should rise. These were, of course,
men of property, and many of them men of intelligence and
standing, and added to the residents, made a lively and pleasant
society.
EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 11
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, November 18, 1864
At
the establishment of the Land Office at Edwardsville, Mr. McKee
was appointed Register, and Benjamin Stephenson, Receiver. The
former died, and Edward Coles had been appointed his successor
before I became acquainted there. It was the wish of the friends
that William Paton McKee, a son of the deceased, who had in fact
conducted the office from the beginning, should be appointed to
the place, and interest was made for him, but he was a minor,
and the Government declined. As the next best thing, it was
understood that one should be appointed to hold it until young
McKee came of age. The estimation in which he was held may be
inferred from this, and I will only add that this estimation was
general, and that it continued to the end of his life. A close
and intimate acquaintance with his private, as well as his
official character, enables me to say that he was in all
respects worthy of the very high regard which all entertained
for him.
Of Colonel Stephenson, I have to say that he was
a plain, unassuming man, not highly educated, but of practical,
good sense, and amiable and pleasant in the circles of social
life. His position, and especially the elegant and high-toned
manners of his beautiful and attractive wife and daughter, the
latter just budding into womanhood, together with their close
association with the accomplished family of Governor Edwards,
placed him and his among those who were at the head of society,
along side of the family of Judge Thomas, whose step-daughter,
Miss Rebecca Hamtramck, shone as a brilliant star in the
fashionable circles of Washington city. Indeed, we had evidence
that Edwardsville, in the persons of Miss Julia Edwards,
afterwards Mrs. Daniel P. Cook, as heretofore intimated, and
Miss Hamtramck furnished society in the National Capital with
some of the most perfect specimens, in one case of charming,
modest beauty, and grace, and in the other, of dashing, elegant
manner and splendid appearance, that it could boast during a
session of Congress, within the Presidential term of John Quincy
Adams. With these, and others fully competent to associate with
them, and the stranger heretofore mentioned, it may not be too
much to say that there was an intelligent and refined, if not a
fashionable society in Edwardsville, as early as 1819 and 1820.
In a former number I have spoken of Governor Edwards. The
name of Edward Coles cannot be passed over without remark. He
was of one of the leading families of Virginia – a genuine F. F.
V. – but his course was so eccentric in the view of his kindred,
that he well nigh lost caste among them; and it may be that he
deemed a sort of honorable banishment to the wild prairies of
Illinois, a relief from what would almost perhaps be considered
a social ostracism at home. His brother, Colonel Isaac Coles
(whom I remember to have heard in my youthful days called the
most perfect gentleman in America), was then private secretary
to President Jefferson. His brother-in-law, Andrew Stevenson,
was, I think, in Monroe’s term, Speaker of the House of
Representatives in the U. S. Congress, and himself occupied the
position of Private Secretary to Mr. Madison in his Presidency,
as well as special messenger or enjoy to the Government of
Russia. He was wealthy, and so far as I could discover – with
some favorable opportunities for knowing – did not value office
for its emoluments. Yet, he accepted the office of Register of
the Land Office in the Edwardsville district, and came to
Illinois before it had become a State. Whether he came as a
friend and substitute of Mr. McKee I know not, but he resigned
when McKee came of age, and said he was deemed eccentric, and no
wonder, for when upon the death of his father, he fell heir to a
parcel of negro slaves, he determined to set them free, and not
all the expostulations or persuasions of his friends and family,
nor their offers to exchange other property for them, could
induce him to change his determination. He would emancipate
them, and did! And trusting to the binding force of the Virginia
act of cession, he brought them to the Territory of Illinois,
bought lands a few miles from Edwardsville, and settled them on
the prairie, where with his help, they made themselves farmers,
and some of them, at least, whom I knew years afterwards, lived
comfortably and respected. His subsequent election as the second
Governor of the State of Illinois, and some part of his course
during that time, will come under the head of events occurring
in following years.
There were three brothers in
Edwardsville at this time, and for some years afterwards, who
occupied conspicuous positions, though not much in the official
line. James, Paris, and Hail Mason. The first of these, James
Mason, was as I have said, proprietor of the old town plot
[Edwardsville]. He was a genial, pleasant man, seeking mainly
the acquisition of wealth, and having no political ambition. His
home and family was ever a place of delightful resort, not only
from his own cheerful, good fellowship, but especially rendered
so by the cordial, sprightly, and lady-like manners and
interesting conversation of his wife. Paris Mason was an
industrious man, and carried on a mill at the foot of the
street, where the Cahokia was dammed for that purpose. The
third, Hail Mason, was for a number of years a Justice of the
Peace, and a useful, worthy citizen, well known and enjoying the
confidence of all. He afterwards became _______ in the Methodist
connection for a few years. But they all died years ago.
The first Register of the Land office at Edwardsville was John
McKee. His son, who was deputy or chief clerk under his father
in the register’s office, held the same place under Edward
Coles, who was appointed to fill the vacancy occasioned by the
death of John McKee. The son’s name was William Patton McKee.
“He resigned when McKee became of age.” I do not know when Mr.
McKee came of age, nor the exact time when Mr. Coles resigned
the office of Register, but I presume he resigned previous to
his inauguration as Governor of Illinois, which took place
December 5, 1822. Colonel Benjamin Stephenson, Receiver of
Public Moneys, died on October 16, 1822. His death caused the
postponement of the Land Sales, which, by the President’s
proclamation, were appointed to be held about that time at
Edwardsville. In giving his readers notice of this postponement,
the editor of the Edwardsville Spectator assigned two causes for
it, to wit:
1st, the death of the Receiver, and 2nd, the
absence of the Register – Mr. Coles having taken the liberty,
between his election and inauguration, of visiting his aged
mother in Virginia. Mr. McKee tried to convince the editor that
the absence of Mr. Coles had nothing whatever to do with the
postponement of the sales, that he, William P. McKee, was fully
authorized to act in the place of the Register, that as the
office of Receiver was vacant, no sales could take place, even
if the Register were personally present. I do not know whether
the editor was ever convinced of his error or not. To other
people, it was a very clear case. The Star of the West of March
8, 1823, announced the appointment of Samuel D. Lockwood as
Receiver of Public Moneys in place of Colonel Stephenson,
deceased, and I suppose the appointment of William P. McKee as
Register was made about the same time.
EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 12
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, November 18, 1864
The
bar at that early day was more respectable than might be
expected “in a new country.” How often have we old settlers
smiled with a kind of good-natured contempt at the utterance of
this qualifying phrase. We so often heard it applied where it
was utterly ridiculous. Newcomers would always speak
depreciatingly of the accommodations with which they had to put
up, and the great privations they had to suffer, and do so
still, and we sometimes happened to know and often suspect that
they had been deprived of a good many discomforts by their
removal. But when they spoke of the climate and the people, the
lawyers and doctors as inferior, and even the soil and the
crops, we sometimes lost patience, but oftener our gravity.
I had had some opportunities to discover the standing and
qualifications of the lawyers in Pennsylvania and in New York –
mostly in the “rural districts” – yet not so exclusively there,
but that having been reared in the city, I could see and guess a
little about the acumen, so celebrated of even the “Philadelphia
lawyer.” It might seem extravagant boasting of our western
pleaders of that day, who came to court on their own horses, who
had to “put up” at the unplastered taverns from two to four in a
room (if not in a bed), whose consultations with clients were
perforce held in a barroom, or out on the porch or prairie, and
whose law libraries were carried in their saddlebags,
re-enforced, it may be, by an odd volume borrowed from some
lawyer resident at the place, there being no public library
anywhere on the circuit. It might, I say, seem boasting to say
of men so circumstanced, that they evinced as much shrewdness,
talent, and learning, and managed their cases as well as their
learned brethren on the eastern slope of the mountains. They
might not be so well dressed – their woolen wrappings round
their legs as they dismounted from their tired horses on arrival
after a hard day’s ride might not be so genteel, especially in
muddy weather, and their personal appointments generally might
not be so neat and pretty. Nay, there might be an appearance of
coarseness in manners, as they were seen sometimes in the
streets, or joking and laughing at the public table, which was
public literally. Yet, after all, I must affirm that many of the
lawyers of that day who usually practiced in the Circuit Court
of Madison County, would have stood side by side with the
gentlemen of the bar in the Atlantic states, would without fear
of failure or mortification have met them before a court of jury
anywhere.
True, there were of the inferior sort, mere
half-read, pretentious pettifoggers. And there were others who
might have done better than they did, kept at the bottom of the
class by idleness, and perhaps intemperance, but the names only
of several of our lawyers in the early days would show an array
of which Illinois might be proud, even now.
The first
Judge of the Circuit, including Madison County, under the State,
was John Reynolds. Of him I need not speak. He still lives, and
his standing, character, and idiosyncrasies are well known. If
he did not stand at the head of his profession within his
Circuit, it is no more than often happens. I believe he was
considered a competent lawyer. Of the stories told of him, a
portion, perhaps, were like Sargent’s Temperance Tales, “founded
on fact,” though the foundation was sometimes rather small for
the superstructure. He was certainly not a martinet in his
professional or judicial department, and I believe does not
affect etiquette to this day. What I consider the mistake of his
life, was indicated by a single remark of his. We happened to be
looking at a mechanic at work on the foundation wall of a jail.
“Ah,” said he, “these are what will keep society in order,
rather than your Sunday Schools.” I do not repeat his words, for
they were spoken thirty years ago; but this was the precise
idea. Little does he know of human nature, and little weight
does he give to the testimony of human history, who considers
jails and courthouses more efficient as reformatory or
regulating institutions of society, than the Bible, the Pulpit,
or the Sunday School. It is only where these have failed of
their full influence for want of the proper use of them, that
those become necessary and indispensable as they are, after all,
only necessary evils. Let us hope that in the last days of his
prolonged life (Governor Reynolds may know the worth of that
Bible which he then considered less valuable to society than the
jail).
The oldest member of the bar was William Mears. I
think he was an Irishman, and his idiom was, as is usual, quite
expressive. He was treated with great respect by the court and
bar, and had the reputation of being a good lawyer, but his
advanced age precluded somewhat the energy, and it may be the
acuteness by which the younger ones, at least some of them, were
characterized. I think he did not continue long. Another of the
earliest was James Whitney, long known since then, at the seat
of Government as Lord Coke, and standing chairman of the lobby.
His talents, whatever may have been his law learning, did not
place him in a high position. But as I knew him in those days,
he was an amiable, well-meaning man. Neither of these resided in
Edwardsville. Whitney (at that time) dwelt in Upper Alton, but
afterwards, I think, in Pike or Calhoun County. Mears I know not
where.
Notes on Lippincott’s No. 12 by George Churchill
“Lord Coke” ???, alias James W. Whitney – the first time I saw
this character was August 24, 1817 at Belleville, Illinois. I
find the following entry in my diary under the above date:
“Whitney is a Yankee from the vicinity of Boston, and came to
this country in 1800. He has been 2,500 miles up the Missouri,
and was taken prisoner by the Indians.”
EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 13
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, November 25, 1864
Other non-resident lawyers who practiced in our court, now
recollected by me, where David Blackwell, Alfred Cowles, Daniel
P. Cook, Elias K. Kane, and perhaps, at that time, Samuel D.
Lockwood.
Alfred Cowles would have been a respectable
lawyer in one of our eastern cities. I am not sure that he would
not have taken a higher grade, relatively, there than here. He
was a scholar, a gentleman and a Christian. In the investigation
of legal points, and in calm argument, he could maintain a
position, I believe, with the best. And he could successfully
present a case to an intelligent jury. But he had none of that
slap-dash oratory, or that easy fluency which captivates the
common mind. He was a thinker and a lawyer, as well as a man of
integrity and good feeling; was held in high personal respect;
and on the whole, successful in his profession.
A good
deal of the same language might be used in describing David
Blackwell, and yet there was a wide difference, especially in
manner, and probably in acquirements. Mr. Blackwell was
respectable as a lawyer, though not eminent; was far from being
brilliant, limited, as I suppose, in his literary education; and
more rustic in his personal deportment. He would not have
appeared as well in a city court, but I think his standing was
about or nearly the same among us as Mr. Cowles. Not more
graceful, nor more eloquent, he could, I think, adapt himself
better to ordinary juries, perhaps for the very reason that he
was less polished and precise. My recollection of both these
gentlemen is very pleasant.
Among the magnates of that
day – not titular, but real – were ranked Elias Kent Kane and
Daniel Pope Cook. They were rivals, both at the bar and in
political life. I will not promise a perfectly fiar, though I
mean an entirely candid estimate of these gentlemen. I had much
more acquaintance with Mr. Cook, I esteemed him as a personal
friend, and was on the same side in the political questions –
especially the great question – of the day. It is hardly likely
that I should steer entirely clear of partiality. I shall not
try. Yet I hope to be honest, and to have the eyes of memory
open while I give a “charcoal sketch” of men who deservedly
filled a large space in public regard at the commencement of the
history of our State.
Mr. Kane did not visit our county,
or circuit, perhaps, very often. His residence was at Kaskaskia,
and his usual circuit in that direction. But it was easy to
perceive that he stood in the first rank when he did come. And
this is about all that I can say of him as a lawyer. My
acquaintance with him was mainly as a politician. And here he
took a position among the leaders, and although Shadrach Bond
was our first State Governor, I believe it was conceded that Mr.
Kane was chief ruler at the opening of our history. I do not
know how long he was in the Territory before the adoption of the
Constitution, but he was one of these who composed the
Convention, and as I have understood, not one to whom we are
indebted for the provisions to which we owe our prosperity as a
State, and our present immunity from insurrectionary and
guerrilla raids – I mean the prohibition of slavery. At any
rate, I know that he was a leader, and an able one, in the
subsequent effort to destroy or remove that cornerstone of
liberty. Mr. Kane was a keen, shrewd, talented politician.
Daniel Pope Cook was a candidate for Congress when I first
heard of him, in competition with John McLean of Shawneetown.
This last-named gentleman did not, so far as I remember,
practice in our court, so that my acquaintance with him was only
in his political character, and mostly of later years and
contests, but the subject matter of the contests was the same.
The first, and all I knew or heard of the candidates in their
first canvass was, that Mr. McLean was in favor of slavery, and
Mr. Cook opposed to it. I do not recollect whether the proposed
admission of Missouri entered into the question before the
people or not. In fact, I knew nothing of the men, or of their
claims or merits at that time, only on the slavery question.
That was enough for me.
I may say, in passing, that Mr.
McLean was as I afterwards discovered, a man of more than
ordinary talents as able debater, and as ________ eloquent
orator. His fine, legendary, noble, firm, melodious voice, and
easy manners (naturally graceful) added to a strong mind, gave
him more than ordinary _____ on the _____ in the Legislative
hall, and I suggest, at the bar. He was an able opponent.
Of Mr. Cook, I shall have more to say than can be included
in this paper, and it may as well be deferred awhile until he
became a resident among us.
EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 14
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, November 25, 1864
There were two gentlemen of the bar, resident at Edwardsville,
when I first knew anything about the courts, who were quite
prominent men, if not at the head. They could hardly be called
rivals in any sense, for their aims and spheres of action were
almost entirely different and never interfered. Yet both were
men of marked ability, and exerted no small influence. They were
Henry Starr and Theophilus W. Smith. While memory brings them
together, it presents them almost wholly in contrast.
Mr.
Starr was a lawyer, Mr. Smith a politician. The former had his
life in the investigation of the deep questions and foundation
principles of the law, and their bearing on the causes committed
to him. The latter, while a lawyer of acknowledged ability,
seemed more intent on the question of immediate success, acute
in finding flaws, and taking unexpected turns. He practiced law
for a living, but his life was in political struggles, and this
chosen field of action called forth certain habits and methods
of doing things which were naturally introduced into his
professional career. While Mr. Starr was absorbed in the
business of his profession, so that mere party strife had no
interest for him, Mr. Smith seemed mainly interested in the
promotion of some political scheme or party question. Mr. Starr
was strong. Mr. Smith keen. Mr. Starr was clear and convincing.
Mr. Smith ingeniously dark and mystifying. Mr. Starr able in
establishing and showing the truth, Mr. Smith equally able in
hiding it, or – as we of the cloth would say – “darkening
counsel.” I do not know that Mr. Starr ever made a political
speech. Mr. Smith was somewhat famous for those performances.
And yet my opinion is that Mr. Starr could have succeeded, so
far as oratory was concerned – real eloquence – in being an
abler debater, even on the stump, than Mr. Smith. And though
indifferent to party strife where vital principles were at
stake, Mr. Starr was neither indifferent nor idle. During the
winter of 1822 and 1823, while the pro-slavery party was
manipulating the Legislature in order to get the Convention
question started, Mr. Starr wrote one or two of the ablest and
most caustic articles on the subject that appeared.
They
differed in other respects. Mr. Starr was genial, but hardly
social. Mr. Smith was social, but hardly genial – at least often
otherwise. So engrossed was Mr. Starr with his profession, that
often in hours of relaxation among his friends, in the midst of
lively converse he would all of a sudden spring some unexpected
legal question upon them, as far as possible from the theme or
thoughts of the moment. He raised many a laugh at himself by
this.
Mr. Smith, on the contrary, while his opponents
thought him always scheming, gave himself up in his social and
convivial hours to the spirit of the occasion, and when
entertaining guests in the midst of his interesting family
circle, he could throw no little charm over the scene by his
lively and entertaining manners. He became a Judge of the
Supreme Court, which honorable and responsible position he
filled, I believe, to the satisfaction of those who were
conversant with the courts at that time. But that was for the
greater part at a later period than belongs to the Early Days. I
may have occasion to introduce him in another connection.
Mr. Starr, after practicing law in our courts honorably and
successfully for several years, removed to Cincinnati, and
having maintained his character and reputation as a lawyer, a
man, and a Christian, and acquired a handsome property, died a
few years ago much respected. Judge Smith has also been dead
some years. Their toils of earth are ended, and all of earth
which they acquired is nothing now to them. Let us hope that
they did not neglect to secure more durable treasure. Of Mr.
Starr, I have heard that he was several years a member and
officer of a Christian church. Of Mr. Smith’s religious hopes I
know nothing, only that he once evinced a strong desire and even
hope of Divine mercy. That was in the early days.
I find
memory at fault – as I expected. There were others of that day
whom I perhaps ought to recall, but of whom only two or three
can be brought up. Polemon H. Winchester was a young lawyer of
fair promise and prospects. But the hopes of his friends were
blighted as the result of convivial habits then too common, and
still the bane of society. Habits that formed clung to him
through life, and though of a leading family in Tennessee,
allied by marriage to that of Colonel Stephenson, possessed of
fair, but abused talents, and qualities that drew one to him in
spite of his habits, he sunk rather than rose, and dragged
through a life of poverty until a few years past, when he sunk
into the grave. A painful incident of his life that shook
society to its center can only be alluded to, and that only
because it belongs to the history of the times. I refer to his
trial for the murder of Daniel D. Smith. This man was a waif
thrown upon society we know not how. I never knew whence he
came, nor of his kindred. He was, I think, a land agent, and was
considered as an Ishmaelite, nobody’s friend and nobody his
friend. He was stabbed one day in a quarrel, and died
immediately. A small company was present, including Mr.
Winchester, who was quarreling and disputing with him. No one
saw him stabbed, but all saw him fall, and it was evidently from
a wound inflicted by a dirk or knife, opening the jugular vein.
But the only dirk or knife found in the company (not on the
person of Winchester) was entirely clean, not a drop or stain of
blood upon it. Such were the facts I believe correctly stated.
As far as I recollect, no one saw Winchester, or anybody else,
aim a blow at Smith, but Winchester was nearest him when he
fell. Of course there was excitement. Although no favorite in
Edwardsville, the people were not willing to have Mr. Smith
murdered with impunity. Prejudice set in strongly against
Winchester, and there were many warm friends of his wife and
family, of whom I was one, whose sympathy with them inclined
them to secure to the accused at least a fair trial. Able
counsel was, of course, employed, and in addition to what talent
could be procured at home, the friends of Winchester sent to
Tennessee for the famous Felix Grundy, who was not only
celebrated as an advocate, but a friend of the family. It was a
time of intense interest. The trial was perhaps the most solemn
event in the history of Madison Circuit Court. And when the jury
rendered a verdict of “Not guilty,” I know not whether relief or
surprise predominated. I confess that, for myself, the emotions
were about equal. I will explain. There were few, I suppose, who
did not believe that Smith died by the hand of Winchester, but
many, of whom I was one, had strong doubts, or positive
disbelief, of its being a deliberate act of murder. It appeared
rather a sudden burst of anger, excited by the terrible taunts
of which the deceased was capable. We expected, therefore, a
verdict of manslaughter. But the powerful and personal appeals
of the great Tennessee orator carried the jury away on a tide of
feeling.
Nicholas Hanson and John York Sawyer, though
they figured afterwards, one as a legislator and the other as
circuit judge, were well known in Edwardsville in those days,
but not as lawyers. They did not practice much at the bar.
ARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 15
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, December 9, 1864
I am
not an analyst, but an angler, throwing my line back into a
former generation, in the hope of catching and bringing to the
present a few of the men and things of forty years ago. No
matter therefore, whether I group those years together or bring
them forward more regularly in the order of time. But in my
mind, the two men – Hooper Warren and George Churchill – are
coupled together, not merely because they worked together in the
same office in Edwardsville, and labored together afterwards in
the same noble cause, but especially because they thought and
felt in sympathy, and thought and felt unknown to the
politicians around them, if not to each other, while both were
employed in the mechanical labor of the printing offices in St.
louis. I do not know that the pen – or types – were need by Mr.
Warren to attack slavery in the St. Louis papers, but Churchill,
while a journeyman printer, having with some hesitation on the
part of Mr. Charless, obtained leave, wrote and published in the
columns of the paper on which he worked, a series of articles
which caused no small stir in the public mind. He took the
character of “A farmer of St. Charles County,” and in a style
purposely plain, presented argument in favor of excluding
slavery by the Constitution about to be adopted so strong and so
clear as to startle the readers and alarm the advocates of
slavery. No less than three of the ablest lawyers in Missouri
were called out by them. These, if I was not misinformed, were
Judge Beverly Tucker, Henry S. Goyer, Esq., and Colonel Thomas
H. Benton. It was acknowledged that whoever the writer was, for
he was a myth, he held a powerful pen. It was, I believe, not
until he had left St. Louis and was quietly at work on the
Edwardsville Spectator that the discovery of the authorship was
made. And there was some chagrin evinced by one at least of his
doughty opponents, when it was known that they had been put to
their mettle by a journeyman printer, as if this were a singular
fact.
Mr. Churchill has rendered important service to the
county and State since then, which ought to be known, but which
probably will not be to the present generation, though he still
lives in the county and is able to wield a vigorous pen. I was
amused, on looking at the circular from the Historical Society
requesting these reminiscences, to see the name of George
Churchill occupying a prominent place among the signatures. Of
all men living, I know not one who could tell so much of the
early history of the county or State, and tell it so well. I
hope he was one of those to whom the circular was sent, and that
he will respond to it as fully and publicly as I have done, and
am doing. Let him remember the pious quotation of a clerical
member of the Senate in those days – “As the scripter says, ‘The
bird that can sing and won’t sing must be made to sing.’”
I must mention one fact before I leave him (Mr. Churchill)
to his seclusion. While he was a member of the Legislature –
where I heard him classed as second (if to any) only to one,
Thomas Mather – he prepared and procured the passage of the best
and only good road law the State ever had. Instead of a poll tax
as the present law is, throwing the burden of road mending on
the poor, it was a tax on the property and persons that would be
benefitted by the good roads. There was a marked improvement in
the roads, while this law was in force, and the tax on the
community, and especially on the poor laborer, was much lighter
than before (or since). But it was an innovation, and would not
be tolerated. Its unfortunate author had done too good a thing,
and could not be re-elected, and the next session saw it
repealed and the old poll tax revived. Governor Edwards
laughingly remarked to me one day of the road law, that he had
no road tax to pay, while a farmer in ____ate circumstances with
several sons above eighteen was taxed fifteen or twenty dollars
a year. So it is now. I use the road every day, and am not
taxed. My neighbor has not a wheel nor the means to have one,
and is taxed for himself and son some four to six days work. Had
not Mr. Churchill better be put in again?
Some things in
this and the preceding number were mentioned more fully in a
series of papers published in the Alton Courier in 1858, on the
history of the Convention struggle, entitled “the Conflict of
the Century.” But I apprehend not many of the present vendors
will remember, if they have seen, those articles. Besides they
are told now in relation to the county history, as they were
included in the great moral struggle of the State.
It is
but a short time since I saw in the papers the announcement of
the death of my old and valued friend, Hopper Warren. It fell
sadly on my heart. A few years ago, a correspondence growing out
of my Convention narrative revived the acquaintance, after long
years and many of ignorance of each other’s whereabouts, and
awakened afresh the strong sympathetic regard which I had felt
for the good, honest, faithful man nearly half a century before.
Churchill and I are left. Which shall heave a sigh over the
other’s grave? No matter, we hope to meet in Heaven.
Notes on Lippincott’s No. 15 by George Churchill
Hooper
Warren – In the forepart of the year 1810, while in working the
office of the Missouri Gazette, published by Joseph Charless
Sr., I became acquainted with a printer named Hooper Warren. He
was a native of New Hampshire, and had learned his trade in my
native county of Rutland, Vermont (it is a remarkable
coincidence that Horace Greeley, also, was born in New
Hampshire, and learned his trade in the same county of Rutland,
though in a different village). Mr. Warren showed me a
prospectus, which he had just issued, of a paper to be called
the “Edwardsville Spectator.” Finding that he upheld what I
considered correct principles, and desiring to see a good paper
flourishing in the county which I had selected for my permanent
home, I was easily induced to assist in giving a start to the
Spectator. The first number was issued May 29, 1819, and the
paper proved a success. Mr. Warren never faltered in his
attachment to the cause of universal freedom. He was the author
– not always the writer – of his editorials, for some of them
flowed immediately from his brain to his composing stick. A very
correct outline of the biography of Mr. Warren appeared in the
Alton Telegraph of September 9, 1864, copied from the Chicago
Tribune. It should be known that the world is indebted to the
worthy Secretary of the Chicago Historical Society for the facts
contained in that article. Says the Secretary in a letter to me,
“Although our lamented fellow citizen and worthy friend has been
for some years my correspondent, I had never the privilege of
seeing him, until about the 9th or 10th of this last August,
when he visited our rooms a few times. His last call was on the
12th, when I found him feeble, complaining of diarrhea, which
obliged him, as he thought, prematurely to close his visit at
Chicago. I seized the opportunity, fearing it might be the last,
to obtain in writing some memoranda of his life and labors, &c.
I little thought, however, my fears would so soon be verified.
It seemed he went only to Mendots, where he breathed his last.”
He died on august 22, 1864.
The Edwardsville Spectator
was the main organ of the Anti-convention party in the campaign
of 1823-24. The Illinois Intelligencer came over to the side of
freedom about three months before the election of 1824, and the
Illinois Gazette, conducted by Henry Eddy, though in favor of a
Convention, had the liberality to publish Morris Birkheck’s
“Letters of Jonathan Freeman,” in opposition to the Convention.
At the election of 1824, Madison County gave 563 votes against
the Convention, and 351 votes for it. Majority, 212. Whole vote,
914. The whole State gave 6,640 votes against Convention, and
4,972 for a Convention. Majority, 1,668. Whole number of votes,
11,612.
EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 16
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, December 16, 1864
Marine settlement was an institution of the early day. In the
year 1817, I suppose – the same year that I came – Rowland P.
Allen, father of Dr. G. T. Allen, came out as a pioneer to
explore for himself and some sea-faring friends, with a view to
settlement in the West. He made choice of the prairie, or point
or bay of the prairie, lying between Silver Creek and the middle
fork, or Peck’s branch, of Silver Creek. It was certainly a
well-chosen spot. In the next year, a colony, so it might be
called, of those who had long traversed the ocean, settled on
this prairie. Captain Curtiss Blakeman, Captain George C. Allen,
with one or two others of the same vocation, and the original
discover, R. P. Allen, settled in the lower part; and the
following year, Captain James Breath came out in company with
another group, yet in connection with the former, and pitched
his tent for a few years on Silver Creek, in the same prairie,
some eight or ten miles north of them, and then removed to the
immediate neighborhood of his brother Mariners. And so, the
place took the name of Marine Settlement. Colonel John Shinn,
whom I had known in Philadelphia as a practical manufacturing
chemist doing an extensive business, bought a farm in the same
place, and afterwards William C. Wiggins, getting tired of
keeping tavern in Edwardsville, built and dwelt in the prairie a
little while, until the long and well-known enterprise started
by his brother, Samuel Wiggins, and called Wiggins’ Ferry,
called him to busy life again. Mr. D. Ground (father of the
present Samuel Ground) and Jacob Balster were well known, early
settlers also, and Isaac Ferguson had preceded them all. The
settlement soon became widely known as an intelligent,
enterprising and prosperous society, and many of the comforts
and even refinements of social life were enjoyed in advance of
most others.
Captain Blakeman was early elected to the
Legislature, and always enjoyed the confidence and respect of
the people at home and abroad. He had, as he told me, “crossed
the line” (the equator) forty-four times, having made eleven
voyages to China. His house – ever open to hospitality – and
several articles of furniture, both curious and useful, and I
may add, ornamental – showed the neat handiwork of the artisans
of the celestial empire [China]. It was an entertainment of no
trifling character to hear the intelligent “old salt” tell of
his experiences and the sights he had seen during more than a
quarter century of busy sailing from hemisphere to hemisphere.
His memory, as well as his name, still lives.
Captain
George C. Allen was another specimen of the retired seaman. His
genial spirit and manners strongly attracted people to his
house, and the ever-cheerful and abundant hospitality and
conversation of his congenial wife made it a resort for a large
circle of old and of new-made friends. I believe he was always a
special favorite, as I know his wife was. The last several years
of his life were spent alone – at least in lonely widowhood –
and he showed it. But it is satisfying to the heart of
friendship to know that they were spent in the family of his
worthy daughter and son-in-law, ever watchful of his comfort,
and in the enjoyment of a bright and joyous hope of better
things beyond the grave.
It is fit that their long-time
friend and fellow seaman, Captain James Breath, should be spoken
of in this connection, for though not at first in the immediate
neighborhood, the friendly association was kept up – ten miles
was not far off in those days – and many years did not elapse
before he was found along side of them. Of him I might be
tempted to speak at length, for he was not only a particular
friend, but we were affiliated by marriage, and our children
closely allied by blood. But I will forbear, and only talk of
him or of his congenial neighbors. Captain Breath had an
advantage of his friends in having received a liberal education,
though I have forgotten what college was his alma mater, for he
was not apt to allude much to it, and I consequently had it not
impressed on my mind. His nautical neighbors used to say of him
that he was as good a seaman and commander as sailed out of New
York harbor, and that his one eye (he had but one) saw
everything, and everything was kept shipshape. He had been
injured by a fit of sickness soon after his arrival in the West,
so that his under jaw was stiffened, and his utterance greatly
impeded. In consequence of this, he could speak but a few words
at a time, and he acquired the habit of giving immense emphasis
to his words. I heard a gentleman say once that he had never
dreamed that so much could be said in so few words. His house,
like that of his brother sailors, was the home of hospitality.
He had a high sense of honor and integrity, and for a number of
his later years was a consistent and humble Christian. His death
was sudden – instant – but we felt that all was ready. His wife,
a beloved sister-in-law, survived him some years, and then
followed him to the presence of her long-loved Savior.
Rowland P. Allen, the founder of Marine Settlement, though not a
sailor, cannot be omitted in this connection. He brought them
together, dwelt in the midst of them, was related to one of the
families, and might be said almost to have been at once the
connecting rod and the vivifying spirit of the whole. And he
survived them all. His last days were spent in the indulgence of
a cheerful hope, with his only son, and he was not unknown to
the present generation in Madison County. I love to think of him
as a friend and brother, gone not long before me to the better
land.
EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 17
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, December 16, 1864
There was a time when Gaius Paddock and his farm were considered
an institution of our county, and I suppose he is remembered by
all the old settlers and many of our juniors still. His
residence, seven miles north of Edwardsville, was as well known
to travelers to the Sangamo or Mauvais terre countries – so the
districts now comprising Sangamo, Morgan, and the whole group of
counties around them were then called – as Edwardsville itself.
It became a favorite stopping place very early, and continued to
be so as long as I frequented the road. He was a Revolutionary
soldier, and drew a pension, for which I, as clerk of Vanzant
and Rockwell drew up his papers. When I came to St. Louis early
in 1818, Mrs. Paddock kept the boarding house, and all the
bachelor lawyers and other big men boarded there, while the old
gentleman was at the farm, preparing it for the residence of the
family. So it continued several years, some of the daughters
(perhaps all by turns) living with the father and some with the
mother, thus working into each other’s hands, and at length the
family came together, a new frame house was built, and the
establishment carried on by as efficient a household as is often
found. It was, and is, a charming place, and was a resort for
those who loved to associate with intelligent, energetic women,
mother, and daughters, and see the results of their economical
and tasteful labors.
I knew a bachelor in those days who
had a farm adjacent. He did not remain a bachelor, but took one
of those daughters to wife, and lived and prospered there, but
lives no longer. Gershom Flagg was well known, and even
distinguished as an intelligent, prosperous, but unambitious
farmer, and it was always rather a mystery why he was not known
in the councils of our State, if not our nation. That he was
competent to fill a respectable and even a high station was well
known, and there were those who doubted whether his brother,
then Secretary of State in New York, possessed any more solid
qualifications. I have had some suspicion that the declination
by his son of the nomination at the recent election tended
somewhat to explain. Is the disinclination to office hereditary?
There was another son-in-law of Mr. Paddock’s living near
there in those days – Pascal P. Enos, Eq. He was a lawyer, but
did not, so far as I know, practice in our courts. Perhaps it
was owing to his deafness, which of course would be much in the
way of success. When J. Q. Adams was elected President, he was
appointed Register of the Land Office at Springfield – a
confessedly good appointment. He did not live many years
afterwards, but his family occupies a position there among the
most respectable of the early inhabitants of the now State
capitol.
I should mention John Estabrook as another of
those whose early and long residence in that neighborhood helped
to give it character. In the evening of his days, he has retired
from the active life of the farmer to the beautiful village of
Bunker Hill, where I had the pleasure to spend a most agreeable
hour a few years since, in lively old times chat with him and
his estimable companion.
I have spoken of Robert Collet
in a former number as having purchased the part of Mr. Seely in
the village and mills of Milton. In 1820, he sold out his store,
and made a farm a mile or two west of Mr. Estabrook’s, which he
stocked with choice fruit trees from New Jersey. Both he and his
wife loved to indulge in an elegant and refined taste, and his
house and surroundings soon showed the results in a
superabundance of fine shrubbery out of doors, and (for those
days) gentility within. Formed for society, I doubt it either
Mr. and Mrs. Collet could long enjoy the seclusions of their
place, beautiful as it was, and my impression is that they left
it in a few years and died in St. Louis, where their sons now
reside. However, there are those who can correct this, if in
error. Mr. Collet’s mother, a grand old lady, resided with them.
She was a native of the Isle of Man, and as she informed me, a
descendant of that Edward Christian (or his brother), who was a
prominent character in one of Scott’s novels.
In those
days there came one to the county who figured much more largely,
at least in political life. Emanuel J. West had in his youth
gone out to the island of Tenneriffe, where he became a clerk to
a wise merchant, and after the death of his employer, married
his widow. He was a smart, shrewd man, of elegant address and
uncommonly pleasing manners, and no wonder he won the affections
of the amiable Spanish widow, for he easily attracted people to
him in this region. He purchased the farm of Thomas Rattan near
Mr. Collet’s which he called Glorietta, and settled on it. I
suppose the place is well known now, on the new road (new, that
is, about twenty years ago), but as that road is on the north
side of the house, and when he purchased it in the early day,
when I knew it, was on the south front. I cannot say that I
recognize it at all. In after years, Mr. West was elected to the
Legislature, became prominent and active as an advocate of the
convention, and finally was appointed ambassador to, I forget
what South American Government, for which he was supposed to be
peculiarly qualified, speaking the Spanish language as well as
his own. He died, however, on the passage to his embassy. I
believe some of his descendants and of his wife still reside in
the county.
Have I mentioned Rattan’s prairie before? It
is the lower point of what is now called (I think) Dorsey’s
prairie. Among the early settlers were Richard Rattan, Thomas
Rattan, William Montgomery, Rev. William Jones, Jesse Starkey,
and others, perhaps, whom I do not call to mind.
EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 18
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, December 23, 1864
It
seems a natural transition – my readers may not see it as I do –
from these chief names of Marine Settlement to one who never
figured largely in our county, but had an important influence on
my own life.
At the close of 1819, a group of families,
all connected together, yet independent, arrived at Edwardsville
from the city of New York. They were the families of Abraham
Leggett; his son, Abraham A. Leggett; and his four sons-in-law,
Captain Breath (already mentioned), Thomas Slocum, Cornelius W.
Oakley, and Edwin E. Weed. They first stopped in Edwardsville,
and there purchased or settled farms on the east side of Silver
Creek, on the line of what was afterwards the road from
Edwardsville to Hillsborough, when the latter place began to be.
Already, however, travelers from Edwardsville passed by or
through these farms in going to McCord’s settlement in Bond
County, and to some settlement higher up on Shoal Creek. It must
have been in February 1820, that Dennis Rockwell and myself
passed this neighborhood and lodged on Shoal Creek at Rev. Jesse
Townsend’s, about eight miles southwest of where Hillsborough
was subsequently located. The next morning we called at a
gregarious bachelor establishment, of which John Tillson and
Benjamin Shurtleff were chief proprietors, and then passing on
eastward to the prairie, lost ourselves or our way, and after
wandering all day, bivouacked [camped] on the banks of a small
stream, an affluent of the Kaskaskia, and did not reach
Vandalia, then our destination, the next day. We were glad when,
in the middle of the afternoon, we found a cabin where we could
get some fried bacon, corn bread, coffee, and a bed – of all
which we thankfully partook before we essayed the remaining
twelve miles. It was the first house we saw from the morning
before. I wonder how that prairie, east of Hillsborough, would
look to us now. But the reader will think I have lost my way
again. I will return to the families above mentioned.
Of
Captain Breath, I have already spoken in another connection. Of
the remainder, Mrs. Weed, Mr. Leggett’s youngest married
daughter, died in Edwardsville before they could get to the farm
selected, and Mr. Weed very soon returned to New York. Mr.
Oakley, the husband of another daughter, did not, I believe,
come out at all. Having got into business, he sent for his wife
and children, who returned to him. All this was before I became
acquainted with the family. Abraham A. Leggett, the son, and
Thomas Slocum, the remaining son-in-law, settled on their farms
on Silver Creek, but soon got tired of the arrangement and
followed the others on the back track. The old folks were thus
left alone by their married children, except their oldest, and
did not remove to their farm at all, but remained in
Edwardsville until the Spring of 1822, when they also returned
to New York.
But of Mr. Leggett, I have somewhat more to
say. He was a Revolutionary soldier, and for his courage and
coolness at the retreat of our troops from Long Island, received
a commission, and was at the close of the war ranked as Captain.
He was a hearty, hale old man, and I believe had, with one
exception, always been so. Being industrious, skillful and
energetic, was prosperous as a blacksmith, and besides his own,
was employed by Government to superintend its shops in the city
of New York. He had thus acquired a handsome competency, when by
some sudden reverse he lost all, and was induced to try the West
with a view to farming. He carried on a little shop while here,
but did not extend it.
In the Spring, or rather Winter of
1821, he undertook a journey with his youngest son (for he had a
son and daughter still unmarried, and hardly arrived at
maturity), to see the Mauvais terre country, which had just come
into notice, especially the famous Diamond Grove, that was
supposed to shine as a gem of the prairies, and in the
neighborhood of which Thomas G. Hawley had made the first farm
and plowed the first furrow the preceding season. Mr. Leggett
and his son went in a wagon, and having explored the country as
designed, started on their return to Edwardsville. I do not know
what it was that induced them, but they struck out for a new,
and I believe untraveled route, which led them across the waters
of Apple Creek and the Macoupins. A snow storm set in, the
clouds obscured their sky-marks, and they lost the points of the
compass. In consequence, they wandered five days without food or
fire, were compelled to leave the wagon, mounted the exhausted
horses, and thus riding and walking, dragged their slow way
along. At length, they descried a wagon in the distance, and
making their way to it, learned their whereabouts, some six or
seven miles from Mr. Paddock’s. It was still a weary struggle to
traverse the smooth prairie – they had a road now – to the
house, which they reached at twilight, and were soon partaking
of refreshments, and not long after, occupying a comfortable
bed. It is not wonderful that they were both visited by severe
sickness during the summer.
I was married to the daughter
in the following Autumn, and in the Spring of 1822, as I said,
the old folks returned to New York, when Mr. Leggett procured
remunerating and appropriate employment from the corporation,
and lived to a good old age (89), retaining his active energy
and cheerful, genial spirits to the last.
Of his son, it
may be proper to say more, though perhaps unnecessary. William
Leggett was yet a minor when he came with his parents to
Illinois. Talented and ardent, and with strong predilections for
literary employments, his young spirit rather chafed under the
comparative, and perhaps apparent rather than real, idleness of
his days, for it was not easy for him to obtain such employment
as was most suitable. At length, by the aid of Governor Edwards,
who discovered and appreciated his abilities, he obtained a
midshipman’s warrant, and entered the Navy. One long cruise in
the Mediterranean was, in the time of peace, sufficient.
Resigning, he undertook to conduct a literary periodical, which
though marked by both talents and industry, and received with
favor, he was compelled for want of the necessary capital to
relinquish. He then became an editor, associated with William C.
Bryant of the New York Evening Post. It was in this position (in
which, owing to a voyage to Europe in pursuit of health, which
took Mr. Bryant away for perhaps a year) Mr. Leggett became the
responsible editor. He was brought prominently before the
public, as the bold advocate of freedom, and the propounder of a
broader and nobler democracy than the party had known or was
prepared to receive. It is gratifying to know that Mr. Bryant
has fully justified by ever maintaining the principles so boldly
enunciated by his associate and friend.
The Plaindealer
was afterwards established by Leggett for the advocacy of the
same great principles, but sickness and death soon put an end to
his labors. He died in 1839, having received a mission in
Central America, afterwards performed by John L. Stevens. He was
admired by multitudes for his powerful vindication of the right
and the truth. By me he was beloved as a brother.
EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 19
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, January 6, 1865
I
presume it will not be supposed that we were without sickness in
those days, or without physicians. Such a supposition would be
wild enough. In fact, the experiences of the first few years of
our State history in Madison County, and I believe all the
counties, was a pretty severe one. There was in some of the
years much, and very sore disease. I think that cases of violent
bilious fever of various types – which might be called malignant
– were more frequent than since, taking the amount of population
into the account.
Of physicians, I have spoken of Doctor
Tiffin of St. Mary’s, who afterward removed to Edwardsville and
then to St. Louis, and incidentally alluded to Dr. Langworthy of
Upper Alton. Dr. Brown also was, as mentioned, a resident in
Upper Alton, but was engaged in other business. Our chief
physician, the main dependence of the county, was Doctor John
Todd. He was thoroughly educated, skillful, attentive, and kind,
and I believe was universally relied on as the doctor. He had
successively several associates in the practice, some of them
good physicians and well liked, but he was the standard. Dr.
Bowers, one of them, was a proud Southern man, and boastful. He
was, I believe, able professionally, but very loose in his
principles. He did not remain. Dr. DeCamp was respected, and
perhaps would have been a valuable aid or associate, but he
received an appointment as surgeon in the army. I have seen his
name among leading surgeons since the commencement of the
Rebellion, and think he is still living. But whoever also
practiced, and however successful, the public mind depended on
Dr. Todd as the leading and ablest practitioner of the healing
art. He was not only sympathetic and kind by the bedside, but
genial and cheerful to a remarkable degree. His pleasant face
shone on the sick one with hope and comfort, as it was want to
irradiate and enliven the social circle, especially at his own
home. He might have been a man of wealth without changing his
field or taking office, if he had been as careful to charge and
collect fees as he was indefatigable and attentive in earning
them. To their old, old friends, it is at once pleasant and
mournful to see Dr. Todd and his life-long companion, worthy and
beloved as they ever have been, while laboring under the
infirmities of age and ill health, yet surrounded by loving ones
at their home in Springfield, and serenely waiting until their
change come. The generation extant in Madison County in 1824 and
previously must be all gone before Dr. Todd will be forgotten
there.
Old settlers remember Joseph Conway, a bachelor,
who was long clerk of the circuit court, an amiable and
accommodating gentleman, without any remarkable characteristics
or history. I do not know to what place he went.
William
L. May was a citizen of Edwardsville, who was not then
considered remarkable for talents or popular arts. He removed to
Springfield, and in future years was elected to Congress,
beating Benjamin Mills of Galena, who was a man of talents not
only, but superior education and most attractive oratory.
Abraham Prickett was a merchant in Edwardsville, and two of
his brothers, one, Isaac, as a merchant there, and one, David,
as a lawyer, &c., in Springfield, as well as some of the
succeeding generation, kept of the name and remembrance. But the
big store was kept by Robert Pogue, who with his brothers, did a
large business for a few years, and then left the country.
Joshua Atwater was there, and I believe is there yet. I suppose
his old age is cheered by a competence of this world’s goods,
and a good hope for the next.
I should do wrong to omit a
name which in the earliest days of the State of Illinois was
well known and highly respected in Madison County. I refer to
Josias Randle, who was the Recorder of Deeds, &c., at a time
when Madison County reached over a large territory. I believe
the business of the office was very great, and yet the
incumbent, though plain and frugal in his domestic arrangements,
seemed not to have accumulated any considerable wealth. I never
saw a more venerable, patriarchal looking man, and his character
was correspondent. As a Methodist preacher, without eloquence,
he possessed unbounded confidence and respect. Two of his sons,
Barton and Richard, have been well known as preachers since. His
office was kept at his dwelling on the west side of the ravine
that skirts the village on the west. I do not know whether he
ever laid off town lots on his hill, but there were several
families located there, of whom I remember Nathan Scarritt and
Don Alonzo Spaulding. Mr. Scarritt had a brother, Isaac
Scarritt, a preacher of more than average ability, but he had
lost his wife before my acquaintances with him, and I think did
not keep house. He afterwards removed to the North, within a
day’s ride of Chicago. Nathan Scarritt sojourned at Edwardsville
a year or two, and then removed to the prairie which bears his
name [now part of Godfrey]. He had some sons, as well as
daughters. I recall two little boys, who used to do errands, had
sometimes come to my residence, perhaps my readers have heard of
Russell and Isaac Scarritt. I say nothing of younger ones –
Jotham, &c. Few men, so unpretentious, have left so favorable
and so deep an impression on the public mind as Isaac and Nathan
Scarritt on the generation of forty years ago. My Spaulding is
still a citizen of the county, both well known and respected.
EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO, 20
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, January 13, 1865
I
think it was in the winter of 1820-21 that I went in company
with Major William H. Hopkins (have I spoken of him before? I
ought, for he and his family occupied an important position in
Edwardsville) to the southern part of the county, and visited a
place of business enterprise that even then had begun to attract
attention. These were mills – sawmill and flour mill – driven by
horses or oxen, a distillery, a store, a tan yard, and a
shoemaking shop, all carried on by five brothers, who had come
from Litchfield, Connecticut, and were united in the enterprise.
I do not know if they had then laid out a village, which they
called Unionville, but they did so then or afterwards. At the
time of this visit, I only saw one of the brothers, who was at
work on a large frame house – large even now – which they were
erecting preparatory to the coming of their venerable parents
and sisters. The names of these brothers were Augustus, Anson,
Michael, William B., and Frederick Collins. A noble band of
brothers. While actively and energetically driving their
business in the most economical and profitable way, and rapidly
accumulating wealth, they were far from being unmindful of the
higher interests, social and spiritual, of themselves and those
around them. One of their first cares was the erection of a
commodious – for those days – and well-arranged place of
worship, which also served the purpose of a schoolhouse. Only
one of the brothers – Augustus – was then married. In due time,
three others became so. William B. Collins married a daughter of
Mr. Hortzog of St. Louis, then running a mill in the American
Bottom; Michael, a daughter of Captain Blakeman; and Frederick,
a daughter of Captain Allen – both of Marine Settlement, and
already introduced to the reader.
I said they were
growing wealthy. Each attended to a special department, and all
worked in unison. It was their aim and boast to have the
products of their labor of the best quality. Their whisky was
considered first-rate, and their inclined wheel ox mill flour
commanded an extra price in eastern markets. Not only had they a
store at their own establishment on the Canteen Creek, but
opened a depot at St. Louis for their commodities. They obtained
a post office, but inasmuch as there was one by the name of
Unionville in the State, the Postmaster General changed the name
of this, which being accepted by them, thenceforth was known as
Collinsville. There they went on and prospered, but, although it
will take me beyond, or rather bring me within, the date at
which I propose to close my sketches, I must tell of a change
that subsequently occurred – a change remarkable as not only
involving the entire breaking up of the partnership and
scattering the family, but as the result of an idea, a notion,
or more properly, a principle.
One of the chief sources
of revenue to them, working in, as it did, with all the other
branches, particularly the mill, was the distillery. It was
planned with a view of making the greatest possible amount of
good whisky, with the least possible amount of labor, and I
believe it was considered a superior establishment. At that
time, no scruples prevailed about it. It was regarded a
legitimate business everywhere, except among the very scrupulous
Quakers, who always deemed it wrong to do their neighbors wrong,
even in the way of business. So, it was carried on with great
energy and profit. But in after years – later, as I said, than I
intended to bring these articles – there came a doubt on the
public mind as to the lawfulness (in a moral point of view) of
making or vending that which had no other effect, and no other
aim almost, than to injure and destroy domestic peace, public
welfare, good morals and manhood, and produce poverty, crime,
and wretchedness. On this subject, the Collins brothers – and
their father too – agreed with the public, and saw no moral
wrong in the business until their eyes were opened by
investigation and reflection. It so happened that the doubt was
first thundered forth – it may have been whispered before – by
the pastor whose teachings they had enjoyed in their Connecticut
home, whom they had felt with tears, and who was beginning even
then to wake a continent by his eloquence and truth. “The six
sermons on Temperance” of Lyman Beecher, which waked the whole
Christian people of America, could not fail to elicit the
attention of his former parishioners, and followed up by the
argument and appeals of Christian friends, were taken into
serious consideration, which after much consultation among the
partners, and I may add, prayer, resulted in the determination
to close the business entirely and forever. I happened to know
something of the workings of their mind – the reasons which
weighed for and against – and the thoroughness of the work of
reform. Several thousand dollars had been recently invested in
the buildings and apparatus. So much capital, they argued, to be
lost, and so much of their ability to contribute to benevolent
enterprise diminished. They were convinced at length that the
business was wrong, was unchristian, and should cease, and
instead of selling the machinery, as they might have done for a
round sum, they totally demolished the building, broke up the
generators, took the huge tanks to their dwellings for cisterns,
and sold the washtubs to farmers for granaries. I have seen
these double bogsheads or tubs at different farm houses, full of
wheat or other small grain, while yet there were few or no barns
in the country. The partners then separated – Augustus soon died
– several went to the Illinois River and established mills, &c.,
at Naples, and William B. Collins remained alone at
Collinsville, carrying on the business – minus the distillery –
until his death. His widow and children (except the son in the
army) still residing there. All are now gone, including the
oldest son, Amos M. Collins of Hartford, the well-known
philanthropist and Christian, but the youngest brother,
Frederick, who resides in Quincy, and a sister, the widow of him
who has been ever known among Presbyterians as the Apostle to
the great West, the venerated Salmon Giddings. I hardly know or
can conceive a lot or memory more favored, more to be desired
than that of the venerable William Collins, to leave such a name
and such a progeny as he did to shed blessing on the generations
following. And I have introduced the facts above told as a
bright example of the power of religious principle applied to
the conduct of life. What untold calamity and crime would have
been spared to our country – themselves especially – if the
holders of slaves could have been so convinced and induced so to
act.
Many years ago, I met Dr. Beecher at Northampton,
Massachusetts. He talked of this family with deep affection. “It
was a sad day,” said he, “when Deacon Collins and family left
Litchfield. We thought they were going out of the world. We
cried and they cried. It was hard to part. But see how time
orders. Deacon Collins makes the first considerable subscription
for Illinois College, that set it a going. Edward is made its
President, and finally I am called to Laue Seminary!”
EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 21
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, January 13, 1865
In
speaking of the venerable Josias Randle of Edwardsville, I might
with propriety have introduced others of the name and kindred.
My readers will, I trust, allow me to ramble, and to forget, as
much as may happen, and accept what they can get from my
dilapidated memory.
There was a brother of Josias Randle,
whose name I cannot recall, but he was the father of Josiah, who
lived many years in Scarritt’s Prairie. George, who was at a
mill on the Macoupin, and Irvin B. Long, and still well known at
Alton. A cousin, Parham Randle, was and continued long to be a
very interesting preacher, and Thomas Randle began his ministry
(still continued I believe) in those days. In the same
neighborhood lived William Otwell, a respectable and estimable
man, who at one time was a representative in the State
Legislature. His son, Stith Otwell, began to preach about that
time and big fair for a life of usefulness, but he was early cut
off by death. Matthew Torrance and Joseph Robinson, though well
known and highly respected, as was David Robinson, whose
residence was on the other side of the Cahokia, were never in
public business or otherwise conspicuous. But I may be permitted
to remark that these and such like men contributed greatly by
their Christian character and good example to preserve and bless
the community of which, in the early day, they formed an
important and influential part.
South of Edwardsville, in
the edge of Ridge Prairie, there were several persons, who for
several reasons, ought perhaps to be mentioned. William Gillham,
a substantial farmer (connected with the Gillhams of the
American Bottom, some of whom I have spoken of) had been, I
believe, a member of the Territorial Legislature. Adjoining his
farm was that of the widow Robinson, whose son, Benniah
Robinson, was known as a well-educated man, who, if he had
possessed popular talents or chosen to employ the abilities he
had to win popular favor, might have occupied stations of trust
that would have made him conspicuous. But he seemed to choose a
quiet and recluse life, while he remained among us, and some
years since went to California or Oregon, I forget which. Robert
McKee was a neighbor and good man, but unpretentious. Near him
was a man who, however quiet and unambitious, could not be
unknown. This was John Barber, a farmer and teacher, whose
influence as a religious, able and consistent man, preceded by
many years his official character as a preacher of the gospel.
His position in this respect was the result many years after
this, and not the cause of the high regard in which he was held
by the community. A long life of usefulness was given, and he
and the satisfaction to his son, John Barber Jr., occupying a
prominent position as an uncommonly, able minister of the
gospel, who was felt for the few years of his life as a
vivifying power in the branch of the church, with which he was
connected. The son was soon called home, the father lived long –
if indeed he is not yet in the land of the living. Much I loved
and honored them both.
It ought, perhaps, to have been
mentioned that among and connected with the families of the
Leggetts, Breath, &c., were two Irish families, who, however
unpretending then, have left their mark upon our State. I speak
of David Gillespie and Robert Gordon. They and their wives have
been gone many years, but the present generation knows and feels
the names they have left behind them.
The survivors of
that early day in Edwardsville will remember well, especially
the mother of Matthew and Joseph Gillespie. She was an
extraordinary woman – strong, athletic, and hardworking. She was
held in such estimation by the better class, that according to
my recollection, no one was more welcome as a visitor or
occasional inmate in the families than Mrs. Gillespie. I know it
was so in mine, and my wife considered it a favor to spend a few
hours in her company. The reason was, not that she had, or
pretended to have any special refinement of manners, but in
addition to her good character and deportment, she had a strong,
nervous mind, stored, more I thought than any other known by me,
with a vast amount of scriptural truth. I never durst encounter
her in argument, or hardly attempt to quote scripture to her,
for she was more than my match. Her sons, both occupying – one
indeed now only in the past – important positions in public
life, doubtless received the impress of their mother’s mind, who
did not live long enough to see them in the fullness of their
prosperity. But the Judge, while occupying his seat on the bench
of justice, and filling a large space in the public eye, may,
and doubtless does, look back to his noble mother with pride, as
well as veneration and love.
While Mathew Gillespie is
freshly remembered still, and Joseph Gillespie and Joseph Gordon
are happily known, in their several spheres, as powers in the
State by the present generation, they belong, in my recollection
– though in their youth time – to the past, and hence have a
place in these desultory memories.
EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 22
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, January 20, 1865
I
alluded to Major William H. Hopkins, and wish to say something
of him, because at the early day, his house was for a season my
home, and an important resort for many persons who were more or
less conspicuous in our social circle, if not in political life.
Major Hopkins was a native of Orange County, New York, in
which county his father was for many years clerk of the Circuit
Court. Having married in Cincinnati, Major Hopkins removed to
Edwardsville, I believe in 1819. After keeping boarders in the
vicinity of the courthouse a while, he removed to a commodious
building in the “new town” (as the addition was popularly
called), which he had erected for a hotel. His house was for
several years the most respectable and well-kept in the region,
and was patronized by the elite. It was, indeed, a desirable
home for quiet bachelors, and pleasant stopping place for
travelers, combining (such is my recollection of it, having been
a boarder for a year) the entertainment of the better class of
inns with the comforts of a home. The Major, his sprightly,
energetic sister, and his interesting and amiable wife, seemed
peculiarly qualified and calculated for the position. I doubt
whether their genial influence were or could be so well felt in
the more extensive hotel which they afterwards kept in St.
Louis. And the home-likeness was enhanced by the presence of his
venerable parents, General Reuben Hopkins and his excellent and
life-long companion. I believe they were revered and beloved by
all the inhabitants of the house. There were several of those
who hold a place in my memory, no longer among us, at least in
these parts.
I believe I mentioned Richard T. McKenney as
having preceded me in keeping a store at Milton. He returned
from that place to St. Louis before I came to Milton. Afterwards
he came to Edwardsville and resided there several years. He was
a clerk or teller in the Bank of Edwardsville, and on the
resignation of Mr. Seward, of whom I will speak directly, was
appointed cashier. He was not only a good accountant, but a most
worthy and highly esteemed gentleman. He went to Springfield,
and afterwards to St. Louis, where he died early.
Dennis
Rockwell was at Edwardsville when I went thither from Milton in
the Fall of 1820. He had established a land agency office in
connection with a Mr. Van Zandt of Washington City, by the firm
name of Van Zandt & Rockwell. There was considerable business
done in that line in those years, and when I had sufficiently
recovered my health, which at the death of my second wife, and
as the result of long watching, had broken down, Mr. Rockwell
employed me as an assistant. Few men have won more friends or
retained them longer than Mr. Rockwell. As a business man, he
was much more than ordinarily expert and correct. He not only
wrote a very neat hand, but wrote it with a rapidity not
excelled by those whose manuscript is hardly legible. Removing,
with his father-in-law, Mr. Austin, to the Mauvaisterra country,
he became one of the first citizens of Jacksonville and of
Morgan County, and was appointed by Judge Lockwood, who knew his
competency, clerk of the Circuit Court. In this office, and that
of Postmaster, he spent many years to the satisfaction of those
who had business with either office. Never, I think, was eminent
ability and urbanity more beautifully united. It is pleasant to
know that, although he will never probably see these lines, he
is still in the land of the living, and enjoying a serene
life-evening, in the place ever most dear to him – the home.
Another interesting reminiscence of the Hopkins House is
Chester Ashley. He came from the East – I do not remember the
State – and engaged in the practice of law. He was a man of
talents, educated and well read in the law. Moreover, he was a
man of elegant manners, frank, genial, and sociable, and seemed
well situated to attain at once to popularity and eminence. I
think he had a high sense of honor and rectitude of character.
His health failed, and after recovering, he married and removed
to Little Rock, Arkansas. I was not surprised when he was
elected to the Senate of the United States, from that State, but
rather wondered that his political advancement did not occur
sooner. In the pleasant recollections of that House, the persons
of Mr. Ashley, his amiable wife, and her lovely sister
(relatives of the Hopkins family) constitute an important
element. His career and death are known as part of the Nation’s
history.
Alexander Miller is not to be forgotten by me as
long as memory retains its hold. He was not only one of those
who formed the pleasant circle at Hopkins,’ but an endeared
friend before and after. His father, John Miller, came to Milton
in 1810 with a son and two daughters, and built and set up a hat
manufactory. His coming was remarkable for one thing – they
landed in Milton from a keel boat, directly at the mills, close
by the dam – the only instance, I suppose, in which the Wood
River was navigated by a keel boat. Mr. Miller, the father, died
soon. The son was employed by me as a clerk while I continued in
business. The daughters married, and from that time Alexander
Miller and myself dwelt together, mostly in my family, until I
removed from Edwardsville. In this place he became an assistant
in the land office, and then cashier of the Edwardsville branch
of the State Bank, whose accounts he settled up for the State
Government. After which he was employed by Dr. Edwards in the
land office until his last sickness. He died in Dr. Edwards’
house. Mr. Miller was a man of singular rectitude and symmetry
of character. In every business undertaken by him, he evinced a
clear understanding of it, and most faithfully performed it. No
man was more respected and confided in by all, and I may be
permitted to add – none was more beloved by me.
Benjamin
J. Seward, whose name is introduced above, came to this State
(Territory rather) in the Fall of 1817. He preceded me at
Shawneetown about a month, but left it immediately so that I did
not see him until I met him in Edwardsville or Saint Louis. On
the erection of the Bank of Edwardsville, he was made its
cashier, and Benjamin Stephenson, President. He did not remain
long, however, but went, I believe, to St. Louis, and afterwards
returned East. He was an active and energetic business man, but
my acquaintance with him was of a later date, when he was
laboring as the Agent in Illinois for the American Sunday School
Union. From this State he was promoted to the General Agency for
the Valley of the Mississippi, and stationed at Cincinnati. He
was called away from this important post by his brother, William
H. Seward (I think at the time he was elected Governor of New
York) to attend to his extensive lands and the business
connected with them. A few years, however, closed his busy life
on earth. Ardent, enthusiastic, and sanguine, he pushed his
efforts, in whatever line, to their utmost practicability, and
from my own experience, I should judge his friendships were of
an equally strong character.
On the road from
Edwardsville to Ripley (which was once expected to be a town on
Shoal Creek), the family of Mr. Hoxsey lived, and some of them
live there still, being known as respectable citizens of the
county. It was a common remark among bachelors – and widowers –
for many years, that there was always a beautiful daughter
there, and so it became the nearest way to several places. At
least four gentlemen with whom I am or have been acquainted
besides, others, have successively drawn upon the bank of Silver
Creek for their best treasure – viz: Beneniah Robinson, Dr. Weir
of Edwardsville, Daniel Anderson, and Anderson M. Blackburn. I
trust the issues have been equally valuable. There is a cluster
of male descendants of the old gentleman – sons of this son
Tristram, in Perry County, in which I write, who are worthy to
bear and transmit the name. One of them has given his young life
to his country.
EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 23
Source: Alton
Telegraph, February 3, 1865
The Methodist and Baptist
churches were early planted in Illinois, and there were many
preachers of those denominations who labored more or less in
Madison County. The Baptists were mostly of the old school, or
what we call hyper-Calvinistic class. They were then popularly
called Ironside, but since have obtained the nickname Hardshell.
I do not approve such nicknames, and only mention them because I
do not know, or at least remember, their own distinctive name.
About the time I came over from St. Louis to reside in Illinois,
only maybe in 1819, John M. Peck, who had come to St. Louis
before me, came also to itinerate among them. He was an able
man, as many can testify, and urged his new school, missionary,
Sunday school, Bible, and Temperance efforts with great zeal,
power, and success. But he was not received with cordiality by
the brethren of the old churches. They considered him an
innovator, and after a few years declared non-fellowship with
him. I shall have more to say of him hereafter. Of the good
brethren of the old side, I need not add any more.
The
Methodist Church furnished many specimens of able ministry and
devotion to the work. The principal resort – or meeting place –
in Madison County, so far as I recollect, was not in
Edwardsville, but some two miles westward, where they had a
meeting house and camping ground called Ebenezer. Besides these
already mentioned (who were with one exception local preachers),
the most conspicuous, or at least the best remembered by me,
were John Dew and Samuel H. Thompson. These were noble men. Mr.
Dew was a man of unusual intellectual power. Not very eloquent,
or at least oratorical, his strong arguments and vigorous
appeals – to the judgment rather than the parsions – were felt,
especially by thinkers. His personal character had great weight.
He was believed to be all he pretended. Samuel H. Thompson was a
different style of man. His intellectual power could not be
esteemed equal – not do I suppose his mind was so well stored
with study, nor do I remember any instances of remarkable
eloquence or oratory, yet he could command an audience and
produce more effect upon the public mind than Mr. Dew, or any
other of the men of his day. He was frequently impassioned, but
this did not seem to be the secret of his power. I was led to
attribute it to his strong common sense, combined with a
knowledge of mankind, and warm affections. Governor Edwards said
of him that he was the most powerful man with the people he
knew, and if he had made politics his business, would be
wonderfully successful. But he was devoted to higher work, and
though he allowed himself in after years to be used as a
candidate for the office of Lieutenant Governor, he abstained
from personal effort, and it was thought, lost his election by
it. He, however, thought he did better in laboring without
remission to save souls. He is in a condition to judge now,
looking on both worlds of the wisdom of his choice.
Of
Presbyterians, in those days there were few, if we except the
Cumberland Presbyterians, who were active, efficient, and
successful. I have mentioned the John Burbers, father and son,
as, though not the first as ministers, among the most efficient
laborers of them.
In 1819, two ministers came into
Illinois as Presbyterian missionaries. Their names were _____
Lowe and _____ Graham (I have not their Christian names), and
were educated at Princeton. As their field included Illinois and
Missouri, and their time a year or less, we, of course, saw but
little of them. Perhaps the same year, or the next, Nicholas
Patterson passed through part of the county, and then
disappeared. The next I remember were Edward Hollister and
Daniel Gould. They were here in 1821. Mr. Gould taught school in
Edwardsville six months, while Mr. Hollister itinerated mostly,
I believe, in Missouri, occasionally visiting Edwardsville. The
people of this village were so well pleased with Mr. Hollister,
that they invited him to return and settle. But the way was not
open, and they were disappointed. After laboring some years in
the South, he came to Illinois again, perhaps in 1834. He now
resides in Griggsville, I believe, but your Mayor can tell. Mr.
Gould went to North Carolina, married, and died.
Subsequently, I think in 1822, two other missionaries came from
New England – Messrs. Orin Carlin and I. N. Sprague. They
labored mostly in Madison and adjacent counties, and their
influence was consequently more felt among us. There was another
missionary or two about this time, whose name or names I cannot
now recall, though with one of them, at least, who came from
Princeton (was his name Williamson?) I was about as well
acquainted as with any of those early missionaries. I remember
him as a devoted and devotional young man, and an impressive
preacher. He settled in New Jersey, as in after years did Mr.
Sprague, who is there now.
Before all these, the Reverend
Salmon Giddings, who arrived in St. Louis in 1816 or early in
1817, came over occasionally and preached. It was he who formed
the churches of Edwardsville and Collinsville – the first of the
denomination in Madison County.
EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 24
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, February 17, 1865
It
remains that I tell what I can of the Convention struggle of
1823-4. By the Constitution adopted on assuming the position of
a State, Illinois had declared herself a free State, and we
fondly deemed the matter settled. But we had hardly entered upon
the new responsibilities of sovereignty, before the nation was
agitated afresh by this subject of slavery. Missouri having as a
territory held slaves – whether in accordance with the treaty of
purchase has been latterly doubted – on offering herself to the
United States as one of them, insisted on entering with the fell
system of slavery fastened and fixed upon her. In vain was every
effort to convince her of its danger or its sin. Her great men
were determined, and so fixed were they in the determination to
be a slave State, that they bound the curse upon her by bands of
iron, never to be broken. And the slave-power of the Union,
seizing the opportunity to spread the system, rallied round her,
and by threats of disunion and violence, obtained their end so
fas as to admit her with her chosen calamity, by yielding so far
as to provide that it should be the last slave State north of
the Maryland line. That in this unhappy compromise, bearing in
it the seeds of the present rebellion, they were deceptions,
intending to break the compact on the first favorable
opportunity, subsequent events have amply proved. But they
triumphed. They laid the foundation of a great slave State, and
laid it so securely – as they hoped – it could never be shaken,
and that it would be a point d’appue from which the citadel of
freedom might be successfully assailed. But “the triumphing of
the wicked is short.” The young giant has snapped the chains.
Sampson has awaked from his sleep on the lap of his Delilah, and
burst the new cords with which she supposed she had effectually
bound him. How glorious is free Missouri! Welcome – a thousand
welcomes – to the fraternity of free sovereign States!
But Illinois had other reason than sympathy with her younger
sister for sorrow at this result. The slave power was
encouraged. It had won a victory. The mighty Mississippi would
on one side be colored by the dark blood of the slave, even up
to the mouth of the Des Moines. It had conquered the spirit of
freedom by compromise. It had wrung the admission of its right
to live beyond its original boundaries. Now let the principle be
established that Freedom and not Slavery is limited within
certain bounds. Let us leap across the Great River, raise the
black standard in the young State which, though it had the
impudence to exclude slavery, yet is known to certain many who
look back to the flesh pots of Egypt with longing eyes. Thus
shall the entire breadth of the river, almost throughout its
whole length, be tinged with the same dark blood, and the ears
of the despot be regaled by the melancholy mirth, the sad,
hopeless song of the slave.
There was an enterprise
worthy of the efforts of the arch enemy who delights in the
misery, and more in the wickedness of man. To poison and wear
out the fertile prairies of Illinois by the sure process of
deterioration always the result of enforced and therefore
superficial tilth, to confer them with myriads of wretched human
beings, who should have no rights, no homes, no wives or
husbands, no children, no power to resist outrage, no chastity
or claims of right to protect it, no hope, no Bible; and yet
with living souls, accountable to God, and with other myriads
whose wont and basest passions should be cherished and fostered
by the consciousness and exercise of irresponsible despotic
power! Oh, how the malignant field rejoiced and gloried in the
anticipated triumph! And there were these all over the land who
willingly lent themselves to the accomplishment of his fell
purpose. Many of them indeed were blindfolded by him before they
could be led captive by him at his pleasure. They were made to
believe that it might be in accordance with the Divine will. He
had permitted slavery. He had some wise purpose in it. It could
not, therefore, be wrong in us to fulfill His purpose. Slavery
existed in the time of the Savior, and he did not preach against
it, nor did his servants, the Apostles, at least in direct
terms. Paul exhorted slaves to be obedient – therefore masters
might enforce obedience. Moses recognized slavery, and the
patriarchs were slaveholders – therefore we may. Nay, the
abominable, slanderous He was believed and often repeated, that
the young relative or protégé of the good Philemon, who in
sowing his wild oats had wandered off from his good home and
protector, and afterwards repented his wicked wandering and by
the advice of Paul, the instrument of his conversion, who knew
him and Philemon, determined to return like the prodigal, who,
when he returned, bore the credentials of a minister of the
gospel, and in company with others, a special messenger of the
church to sister churches – that he was a thief and runaway
slave. Nay more! That Paul, in sending Onesimus on this mission,
or approving the action of the church in doing it, merely meant
to return a fugitive slave to his master! And all this tissue of
falsehood and absurdity, not supported by a word of proof, but
inconsistent with the whole tenor of Paul’s beautiful letter to
Philemon, was received by intelligent and honest men, and argued
by learned commentators, in the interest of slavery. Such indeed
was the blinding influence of slavery – sin always blinds –
that, as I happen to know by frequent experience, a denial that
the word of God ever sanctions slavery was considered equivalent
to a denial of the Bible. The time has come when anti-slavery is
not heresy, and the time is fast approaching in which it will be
deemed amazing that it was even thought that the recognition of
an existing fact constituted approval, that a code limiting an
existing system both in extent and duration – and, in its utmost
severity commuting the death penalty of criminals to
imprisonment for life – was made for the purpose of giving
divine sanction and perpetuity to the oppression of the
innocent.
Such were some of the delusions under which
many good people defended or apologized for the enormous wrong.
But there were others, prominent, active, leading men, who had
not the poor apology of delusion. They cared not for the wrongs
and sufferings of slaves – they hoped to make money. Some of
them had come from slavedom poor, ignorant, oppressed, ground
down by the proud lords of large domains and gangs of negroes;
and, rescued from poverty and contempt by the enjoyment of equal
rights, had accumulated wealth enough to awake ambition, and now
longed and sought to become the lord and exercise the authority
of the master. What did they care who was harmed so they were
benefitted? I was once applied to by an acquaintance to know if
a friend of mine would take charge of a liquor shop at a good
salary. I not only promptly replied no, but expostulated on the
iniquity of the thing and the great evil which would be done by
such an establishment. He rejoined that “he did not care; his
object was to make money.” So was it with many, if not most of
the leaders in the effort to enslave Illinois. That man died a
poor wretch. So slavery is ruining its advocates.
Coming
down to the time of our great struggle for freedom, I have been
led to moralize somewhat on entering upon it. My readers must
bear with me. The anxieties, the conflicts, the hopes, the
fears, the fond expectations, the disappointments of half a
century have not tended to produce indifference. The old
soldier’s heart will quiver as he rides over the field of blood,
thought it may be of victory.
EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 25
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, February 17, 1865
There are several persons, more or less, conspicuous in the
early days, whom I have neglected hitherto to introduce, not
intentionally, but from a vagrant memory. Let me bring them in
now, and then proceed to the closing chapters of my long-winded
sketches.
Among these, Nathaniel Buckmaster occupied the
public mind as much and as long as almost anyone. He was here
probably before I became a citizen of the county. At least my
first recollections of Edwardsville include two brick houses
which he had put up – one for James Mason, in the rear of the
old courthouse square, and one for Governor Edwards on the
corner of the public square in the new town. Once a selected
candidate for the Legislature, he next turned his attention to
the Sheriffalty, not only with a success, but with a success
unparalleled by any other man. How often he was elected, and how
long he held the office I cannot tell, but it became a question
whether he had not secured a life ______ in it. And I am not
sure, but it was allowing himself to work another position
instead of the sheriffalty that finally left him out. Although
his intellectual powers were not great, though respectable and
practical, and his education quite limited, Colonel Buckmaster
has certainly great influence with the people, or he could not
have had such remarkable and long continued success. He was
shrewd, if not able, and after his first effort and failure,
never committed himself through the press, relying on personal
intercourse with the voters. He obtained wealth, and I am not
aware that the public complained or had any cause to complain of
unfair means or oppression on his part. His descendants
deservedly occupy positions of respectability and influence.
George Barnsback and Jacob Gonterman, living in or near the
edge of Ridge Prairie, southerly from Edwardsville, were
respectable and respected farmers. The latter, I believe, never
occupied a public position, but by his well-known character and
descendants has left an excellent reputation. Mr. Barnsback was
not much in public either, yet was known as a man of more than
ordinary intelligence and character. He was an educated German
gentleman, choosing, I believe, to live a retired life on his
farm in the edge of the woods. He had in those days a nephew,
whom I recall as a bright, good looking, intelligent, young
German, just learning to speak our language. He married a
daughter of Mr. Gonterman, and settled in the county. The people
of Madison County know him as a man of business, and public man,
of the right character, by the name of Julius Louis Barnsback,
now, if I forget not, a representative of the county in the
Legislature.
There was a family living in Edwardsville
awhile, whose name I have endeavored in vain to recall. They
lived in a house (the only one at that time) nearly midway
between the old town and the new – I speak now of the built
portions. Perhaps it may be remembered as an old frame house,
nearly opposite where the Catholic Church was afterwards built.
I introduce them now for the reason that Charles Slade married
one of this family. Mr. Slade was a public man, and more so,
perhaps, than I can now tell. He went out eastwardly and laid
off a town on the Kaskaskia River, where the Vergennes Road
crossed it, which he called Carlyle. He was particular about the
orthography of this name, wishing to distinguish it from the
Carlisles in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, because it was a family
name. He told me it was the name of his grandmother. The name
had not then become famous as since. Mr. Slade was an active,
gentlemanly and handsome young man, which is nearly all that I
knew of him personally. But he was afterwards elected to
Congress, and it now seems like a dream or memory glimmering
that he had a diplomatic appointment. Mr. Churchill can set this
– and a hundred other things – right, if he chooses.
I
cannot recollect the date of the advent to Edwardsville of John
Adams, but it must have been somewhere in those days. He set up
a carding machine and fulling mill – at one time essaying the
manufacture of woolen cloth. It appears to me that the latter
business did not succeed on account of the nature of the water,
but he carried on the carding, and was the first to introduce in
the county, and so far as I know in the State, at least on the
West side, the manufacture of castor oil. In this he did an
extensive business, giving quite an impetus to industrial
pursuits in Edwardsville, and was the means of causing the
manufacture to be much enlarged in the State and in the
neighboring city of St. Louis. Mr. Adams was a modest,
unpretending man, very energetic in business, well known for
integrity and trustworthiness, and much beloved for his amiable
and excellent deportment in domestic and social life. He was at
one time Sheriff of the county.
EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 26
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, February 24, 1865
[This article was hard to read, and has some omissions.]
I am
hardly prepared for the task which I have imposed on myself.
Having seen by the papers that an old friend – William H. Brown,
Esq., of Chicago – had prepared and delivered an address before
the Chicago Historical Society, on the history of the Convention
struggle of 1823-4. I hoped to obtain a copy before it should
become necessary to enter upon it. Whether it is published or
not, I have received no copy, and must either depend again on my
defective memory, or wait in the hope of still receiving it.
A few years ago, I attempted to give a brief history or
sketch of the history of the struggle to introduce slavery in
Illinois. It was published in the Alton Courier, and afterwards
republished in the Egyptian Republic at Centralia, and again (in
1860) in the Henry Weekly Courier at Henry, Marshall County,
under the title of The Conflict of the Century. This title was
chosen, not as intending to intimate that that “conflict” was
fought only in Illinois, but simply as an account of one
campaign of the great struggle between Freedom and Slavery:
between Light and Darkness, which has been going on through all
this century so fiercely; and which was at the time of writing,
about to culminate in the present hideous rebellion. Although it
is not my plan to copy the account thus alluded to, nor even to
revise it for the present notes, I expect to make use of it, and
whatever other means I may have at command, to make my present
statements correct and reliable.
It has been already
hinted that the success of slaveholders in their efforts to
plant the institution in Missouri emboldened them to try again,
and that circumstances was supposed to be favorable for a
campaign in Illinois. Accordingly, the subject was not allowed
to sleep. The fact that the anti-slavery article in our
Constitution had been adopted only after opposition and
discussion, perhaps gave encouragement for an effort to tear out
what we had deemed the cornerstone of our Temple of Liberty. I
may be permitted to advert to my former account in order to set
this matter of the original State constitution more clearly
before the reader, and perhaps more correctly than I had the
means to do then. The following paragraph is copied from that
account:
“when in 1818, Illinois adopted a Constitution
and became a sovereign State, the subject of slavery, it is
believed, formed not a very prominent element in the discussions
of the occasion. The convention was not unanimous in the passage
of the article forbidding slavery or involuntary servitude
except in punishment for crime, but the Ordinance of 1787 was
too plainly applicable, and too stringent to allow any hope of
success in an attempt to fasten slavery upon the infant giant.
So, the State was born free.”
A valuable and interesting
letter, which I received from the venerable ex-Governor, Edward
Coles, a few years since, enables me to give a more specific
representation of the facts on this point. He says:
“You
are mistaken in supposing the subject of slavery had not formed
a prominent topic in the political discussions of Illinois
previous to it becoming a State. On the contrary, in a very
early period in the settlement of Illinois, the question was
warmly agitated by ______ advocates and opponents of slavery.
This state of things was increased by the ordinary _____ ____
made the abode of the ___ _____ ____, in the relation of masters
and slaves, ______ its first settlement by Christians by ____,
when slavery was prohibited by law, but tolerated by custom,
aided by ignorance. Before the separation of Illinois from
Indiana, Congress was petitioned by the Territory Legislature to
repeal the ordinance of ____. It _____ a petition of this kind
that the celebrated John Randolph, as eloquent of a committee of
Congress, made his ______ report adverse to their prayer for
_____ of the ordinance and the question of slavery. This report
was adopted by Congress with little or no opposition. _____ on
this and other indi_______ _____ ______ no prospect of Congress
repealing the_____ fundamental law (the ordinance, the advocates
of slavery had to _____ _____ themselves in retaining in ______
in violation of the ordinance, what was called “French Slaves,”
and extending bondage to a limited extent to other negroes,
under the denomination of “indentures.”
During the
existence of this state of things, the slavery agitation was
lulled, but not extinguished, as was seen by its mingling itself
so actively but in the election and conduct of the members of
the Convention, which made the Constitution in 1818. I am the
more conversant with the character of that Convention from
having attended it during my first visit to Illinois, and made
the acquaintance and learned the opinions, views, and wishes of
many of its prominent members.”
Whether this quotation
corrects any material error of mine or not, I am happy to have
an opportunity to give so valuable, though brief, a statement
from Gov. Coles to the public. The venerable writer still lives
in Philadelphia, and from his letters, he may be seen by the
above specimen, although suffering from physical causes, seems
to possess much of the vigor, if not sprightliness of earlier
life. I wish he might have strength to fill up the outline of a
movement no one knows so well as he.
EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 27
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, March 3, 1865
In the
“Conflict of the Century,” I spoke of the origin of the direct
attempt to change the Constitution in the interests of slavery
as having been in 1822, though with reservation for errors in
memory. I was aware that the Edwardsville Spectator had given
warning previously to this, and Mr. Warren seemed to think, not
without some reason, I had hardly done him justice by the
general statement I had given.
Let me indulge in an
explanatory episode. When I began to send the numbers of the
Conflict of the Century to the Alton Courier, I requested Mr.
Brown, the editor, to forward a copy to each of five or six of
my old friends, who were co-laborers in the contest, but have
reason to believe it was forgotten, or imperfectly attended to.
It was in the hope of obtaining corrections and amendations from
those who could make them, but none appeared. There were two men
to whom I more especially desired to send them, because from
them I could have stronger hope of receiving the much-wished
annotations. These were Edward Coles and Hooper Warren, but
unfortunately, I knew not their whereabouts. Afterwards, I
learned the residence of Mr. Warren, and immediately wrote to
inform him of the matter. He expressed anxiety to have the
papers, and proposed if I could procure no other, that I should
send him my only copy and he would have it again printed. Having
access to the office of a paper printed at Henry, he would
himself set up the matter, and forward me a number of copies in
return. In carrying out this arrangement, Mr. Warren printed the
articles in the Henry Weekly Courier, condensing, with my
consent, the ten numbers into three, and added a few notes
correcting some real and some supposed errors, but otherwise
adding very little the information conveyed. In the
correspondence between us, Mr. Warren informed me of several
things he had written on this and co-relative matters in several
newspaper, which I should be rejoiced, but do not hope to see.
His account would be of great interest and ought to be put in a
publication form and placed before the public. He is now gone,
and I fear there is little hope of seeing anything from his able
and truthful pen, except those fugitive pieces ____ the _____
papers of the day.
In one, the notes appended by him, Mr.
Warren says, in reference to the date 1822:
“Nearly three
years previous to the time here mentioned, the Spectator warned
the people of Illinois of a plot to call a convention for the
purpose of introducing slavery into this State. It did not cease
its warnings, not its denunciations of the actors in the plot
until it exploded.”
This witness is true, and it was to
this fact I alluded in speaking of intimations in the papers on
the matter. But I have to acknowledge that an incorrect
impression was made by my statement. My memory – thus assisted –
sustain Mr. Warren in his assertion of having anticipated and
given warning of the open effort. Yet the public were taken by
surprise. My remark, in the “conflict” was literally true. “but
when this was intimated in the papers, it was vehemently denied
as unkind and ungenerous suspicion, entirely without cause.” And
I know I am not in error when I say, that some of the friends of
Mr. Warren, his co-adjutators in the conflict, thought him
premature and probably unjust. They had abundant evidence at
length of the correctness of his foresight. As he became better
known as an editor, his political friends learned to place more
confidence in his _______.
While on the subject of Mr.
Warren and his correspondence, I wish to say more about his
writings. In answer to the expression of a strong ______ on my
part that he would write fully on that convention struggle, he
says:
“Three or four years ago, I was requested by Mr.
Eastman, editor of the Chicago Magazine, to write for that
periodical a history of the Convention Question in this State,
and I agreed to comply on the condition that I could procure a
file of the Edwardsville Spectator – mine having been lost in
Cincinnati. I have not been able to procure another. Mr.
Churchill declined to lend his copy. During the Fremont campaign
in 1856(?), the same request was made by Dr. Ray, one of the
editors of the Chicago Tribune for that paper, which I was
obliged to decline for the same reason.”
It seems sad,
that Mr. Warren should thus have been compelled to decline a
task which he was so well able to perform, by the loss of the
file of his own paper. He had better do as I did – write from
memory and risk mistakes for others to correct. Mr. Churchill
possesses probably the only copy of the Edwardsville Spectator
during the six years of Mr. Warren’s editorship now in
existence, for the bound copy of Governor Coles, left by him in
the hands of Rev. John M. Peck to be presented to the Illinois
Historical Society, and which saw in Mr. Peck’s library some
years before his death, was unhappily destroyed (I suppose) by
fire in the burning of his seminary building. I suggest that Mr.
Churchill is the most, if not the only man who can give a full
and correct history of events having so vital an influence on
the State and such close connection with – or rather forming so
important a part of the history of the Slavery conflict in these
United States. It is hardly possible that Mr. Brown could give
more than the merest outline in the limits of an address
delivered at a sitting. But I long to see that address.
But I wish to make some further extracts from Mr. Warren’s
letter, to show somewhat of things that he has written. He says:
“Since the publication of Ford’s History, I have on several
occasions written articles for the newspapers, concerning the
early agitation of the Slavery Question in this State, the most
of which was a review in the Chicago Freewest of that part of
Ford’s book, which gives an account of the press during the
convention period. That article brought forth three numbers from
the Rev. J. M. Peck, on the subject of the convention, which was
published in the same paper. He was associate editor of the
Freewest. These were followed by some editorial ________, which,
very much to my regret, ___ __ moral offence, not so much
_______ in his own account, as _____ sympathy with Gov. Coles. I
have since written and published in the paper printed to _____,
a letter to the Hon. John Reynolds, reviewing that part of his
“Own Times,” which relates to the press and his disingenuous
notice of Messrs. Edwards and Cook.”
How I have longed to
see such documents as these from any of my old friends or forty
years ago! And how much nearer perfect could I have made my own
half-remembered account. But this is all now beyond my reach. If
I had the means at my command, I would make the journey to
Chicago, just to search the archives of the Chicago Historical
Society, where I suppose they and a multitude of other priceless
papers are buried – to experience no resurrection in my time. I
hope that flourishing and valuable institution will not let
these and such like papers remain buried always.
EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 28
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, March 10, 1865
It may
be interesting, if not important, to trace the proceedings of
the parties of the day through the channels, as well as to the
source. I have already indicated the source, but, in all
political transactions the channel may be not only devious, but
ramified, and so it was in this.
It has been shown that
Governor Coles was an ardent hater of slavery. By the
constitution, the existence of slavery to a limited extent was
recognized and allowed, in the persons of what was called,
“French Slaves.” That is, some who had been introduced by the
old French or Canadian settlers, prior to the occupancy by
Americans of the country bordering on the Mississippi. A few of
these having been retained under the territorial rule, still
remained in bondage, and the constitution did not strike off the
chain, at least of that generation. The inconsistency of this
with the principles of the constitution itself, and its
intrinsic injustice, impressed the Governor so strongly, that in
his inaugural, he recommended the emancipation of the French
Slaves.
Here was a wedge ready furnished to the hands of
the party. Mr. Warren, who was equally opposed to slavery with
the Governor, but not equally friendly to him, as he says in a
note to the “Conflict” – “depreciated a recommendation in the
Governor’s inaugural, as calculated to precipitate the question
of a convention; and it so actually happened.” Governor Ford
says, “This served as the spark to kindle into activity all the
elements in favor of slavery.”
It may be worthwhile to
consider how far we are bound, on all occasions, to put forth
what we believe to be right principles. Whether we may consult
expediency, not instead of right, but for its ultimate recesses.
Mr. Coles and Mr. Warren were equally opposed to slavery, and
equally conscientious. The one desired and labored for the utter
extinction of the wrong, as earnestly as the other. One struck
immediately on his official responsibility, at what remained in
our institutions of the barbarous iniquity. The other deemed it
an error to do so, on the ground of inexpediency. Which was
right? It should be observed that Mr. Warren’s reason was, that
the recommendation was “calculated to precipitate the que3stion
of a Convention;” and Governor Ford says, it had that effect.
However, we may approve Mr. Warren’s reasoning and motives, it
is impossible not to admire governor Coles’ principles and
frankness.
Mr. Ford represents the proslavery leaders as
reasoning thus – or at least acting on such reasoning: “Slavery
could not be introduced, nor was it believed that the French
slaves could be emancipated, without an amendment to the
Constitution.”
If so, and I see no reason to doubt it,
the Governor furnished a strong – one of the strongest –
arguments for a convention. I know it was considered an
unfortunate move at the time by some of their friends, who
cordially agreed with him.
One of the unpleasant memories
of the struggle of that day is that there was division among the
leading anti-slavery men, which hindered them, not from aiding
in concert on the main question, but from combining and mutually
consulting on specific movements. Ford says:
“Mr. Coles
was a Virginia, had been private Secretary to Mr. Madison, had
traveled in Europe, was well informed, well bred, and valuable
in conversation, had emancipated his slaves in Virginia, was
appointed to a land office in Illinois, through the influence of
Mr. Crawford, the Secretary of the Treasury, had brought his
slaves with him to Illinois and settled them on farms, and was a
thorough opponent of slavery. At that early day, Mr. Crawford
and John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, and others, were looking
forward as candidates for the Presidency. Ninian Edwards, one of
our Senators, favored Mr. Calhoun, and Jesse B. Thomas, our
other Senator, was in favor of Mr. Crawford. To counteract the
influence of Edwards, Mr. Coles was sent out to Illinois.”
The point of the foregoing extract touching my present topic
is, that “through the influence of Edwards, Mr. Coles was sent
out to Illinois.” However correct or otherwise this may be, in
reference to the maneuvers at Washington, Mr. Edwards and Mr.
Coles were not cordial, political friends. They did not work
together. While their relations to public questions ought to
have made them one in public life, they were not only two, but
antagonistic. This I felt rather than saw (being friendly to
both), and at this I often wondered – what local questions
divided them I think I never saw, for neither ever spoke
disparagingly of the other in my presence. I could act with both
freely and openly, yet could never see them act together. The
solution must therefore be found in something like the facts
presented by Governor Ford. The opposition must have begun or
been inspired at Washington. They were not rivals; and even if
prospectively – with a distant view to the Senate or otherwise –
there was no need of appearing unfriendly or looking askance at
each other, at that time. Mr. Crawford and Mr. Calhoun – I
wonder if those men ever did good enough to their country to
counteract the evils of their machinations – reached their long
arms to Illinois, and played their men, like the pieces on the
chess board, against each other. And they had men to play. I
know that Governor Edwards was in favor of Mr. Calhoun, it was
long before secession – but about the preferences of Governor
Coles I have not any clear recollections.
The most
disastrous effect of this antagonism, in my opinion (and I think
other mutual friends agreed with me) was that Mr. Coles and Mr.
Warren became irreconcilably separated. The particular
occurrence that divided them I do not know, and think I never
did, but I had abundant and frequent evidence of the fact. The
Spectator, so far as my memory goes, never spoke in commendation
of any act of Governor Coles’ administration, and I think never
encouraged him so far as to couple his name, unless officially,
with any measure which it approved. Thus, in a journal which
exerted perhaps more than any other in the State, an influence
on the public mind, was certainly discouraging to an executive
whose administration was during the most trying epoch of our
State’s history, excepting that just closed of Governor Yates.
There will be further occasion to advert to this.
EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 29
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, March 10, 1865
[This article was so damaged and unreadable that I could not
transcribe it. I could see, however, that the article was
discussing slavery and the State Convention.]
EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 30
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, March 17, 1865
Such
was the state of things in the ranks of the leading anti-slavery
men of that day. Governor Edwards was not active in the canvass.
He, as well as Judge Thomas, had, in the U. S. Senate, favored
the reception of Missouri as a slave State. In fact, he was a
slaveholder, so far, at least, as to have two or three French
slaves in his family, and probably more elsewhere. He did not
pretend to be scrupulous in the matter, or even anti-slavery,
yet he expressed himself strongly opposed to the introduction of
slavery into Illinois, because it would be a curse to the State.
I do not know that he made any public demonstration on the
subject. The most of his time was spent in Washington during the
canvass. One fact, however, may be suggestive: all his warmest
friends were leading men in the anti-convention struggle. His
son-in-law, the noble Daniel P. Cook, residing, when at home, in
his family, was certainly not influenced in favor of the
Convention movement. A series of powerful articles, written by
him at Governor Edwards’ house, was published in the
Edwardsville Spectator during the summer, and the Governor’s
radiant face, when they were alluded to, showed the depth of his
appreciation. For myself, although no assistance or offer of
assistance or direct word of encouragement, so far as I
remember, ever came from him to me, yet I felt strengthened and
cheered by the evidence I had of his approbation of my course.
Whether the want of cordiality between himself and Governor
Coles had any tendency to hinder him from open and active effort
in the cause, I do not know, but certainly at the time I had my
thoughts, and deplored the effect. How far Mr. Cook was
influenced by this want of cordiality on the part of his
father-in-law and Mr. Coles (and indeed, if the latter was an
advocate of Crowford, which is not within my knowledge, he was
as far from agreeing with Mr. Cook as Mr. Edwards), I am not
able to say, but the difference did not keep him back from
direct and energetic effort in the same cause. Not only the
essays mentioned above, but his whole activities to keep out,
and to keep down slavery, were used without ____. And, as will
be seen, there was ample room without the necessity of any
formal coalition.
I believe I have already said that on
the meeting of the Legislature, it was soon found that the enemy
was at work to fasten the shackles of slavery on the young
State. There was a majority – a strong working majority, who had
come prepared to vote for a Convention – a majority, but in the
lower house, not a constitutional or two-thirds majority. What
is to be done? The Senate is ready at once to pass the requisite
resolution to submit the question of Convention or No Convention
to the people, but there lacks the addition of a few votes, one
or two, of that majority below; and without them, it cannot be
done. A vote or two of hesitating ones can perhaps be procured
by careful manipulation, but still on counting noses, there are
not enough. The difficulty is in one man. Fortunately for them,
his seat is contested. We can oust him. We have a majority, and
settle can side questions to suit ourselves. Let us then put out
the recusant, and fill his place with one who is willing to do
our bidding. Aye, but there is often an obstinate little ‘but’
in the way – but there is another question on which the men and
their positions are reversed. He who will vote for one
Convention will not vote for our man. We have a Senator to
elect, and cannot afford to lose the man of our party. Of
course, it is to the leaders of the Convention party this
language, or reasons, is attributed.
Governor Ford does
injustice to the leaders of the movement. It was by no means so
clumsily done. They were too able, too shrewd to be caught in
such a trap of their own setting. The process was a bold one,
and violated every principle of justice, as well as the elective
franchise; was contrary doubtless to the meaning of their oaths
as legislators; but it was not quite so barefaced. If I am not
mistaken, the thing was done in accordance with parliamentary
forms.
Nicholas Hansen, as I have elsewhere said, was a
young lawyer residing for a time in Edwardsville. He removed to
the “Bounty Lands” or “Military Tract,” as the region north of
the Illinois River was then called, and which, as Governor Ford
says, was erected into the county of Pike. John Shaw was a
farmer and trader, I believe on the banks of the Mississippi
River, in the same tract, where he laid off a town and did
business. Hansen was from New York, of Dutch descent, if I am
not wrong, well educated and well disposed, but not, I think, of
strong or far-reaching mind. Shaw was a shrewd, but not educated
man, and I have the impression not especially scrupulous,
particularly in political matters. But, it is seen, both might
be serviceable as members, and each had his knotty point. I
have, perhaps, said as much before, but no matter.
Hansen
was the returned member – Shaw the contestant. Which had the
right to the seat was the question. Until that question is
decided, of course Hansen sits. The regular committee is
appointed to examine the evidence and report. While they are at
work, every inducement which can be offered to influence
Hansen’s vote in favor of the Convention is urged. Days, weeks
are consumed in this effort. How much evidence the committee
examined I do not know, but it did not seem to lookers on that
the right to the seat depended on this. Promises and persuasions
failing, threats were resorted to. But these had no effect. Next
to the honors of the seat, the honors of martyrdom floated
before the eyes of the young legislator. “They are determined to
make a great man of me,” said he one day, or words to that
effect, in my hearing.
At length, the committee reported
a resolution “that Nicholas Hansen is entitled to a seat as
representative from Pike County.” Instantly, a member, Mr. West
of Madison, rose and moved “that the report be recommitted to a
select committee,” and the report was so committed. Mr. West was
appointed chairman, of course, no matter who were the others,
and quietly put the report in his pocket. There was a good deal
yet to be done. It would seem that Mr. Hansen’s claim was
considered decidedly the better one, and if he could be worked
over for their use, they would somewhat prefer to let him
remain. And so renewed efforts were made, one after another
tried to prevail on him to change his position on the Convention
question, but he was “an obstinate Dutchman,” and could not be
moved. There was no other way, or but the one, they must turn
him out. The time was passing, the Senator chosen, the session
drawing to a close, the vote must be had without further delay.
How can it be done? The easiest thing in the world. Nothing,
only to swallow conscience, bury the right, ignore the people,
defy or bamboozle constituents. So, the committee reported the
identical paper, with “Nicholas Hansen” stricken out and “John
Shaw” inserted in its place. And so, the report being adopted,
John Shaw became the sitting member.
EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 31
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, March 17, 1865
It
would be strange if no repetitions and no incoherencies should
mark these numbers. Written as they are with little help to
memory, and with the one or two immediately preceding numbers
always gone to press, and no copy before me (for if copying were
required, they would never be written), it can hardly be
expected that I should pursue a regular, unbroken line of
narrative, even if each had been my original plan. I wish to
give a true account as far as I go, whether complete and
connected or not. The reader may skip when tired of the old man,
and the editor shut down at any time.
Would it be
interesting to the present generation to have some idea of the
State Capital in the winter of 1822-3? An inside view of
political maneuvers might entertain the reader, but there are
others who knew much more of them than I did. Perhaps an outside
view of the place, a personal sketch or two, or may be an
anecdote, may supply the place in part.
The town of
Vandalia was altogether an experiment. The Legislators of 1818
wished to get the State House and appendages above highwater
mark. So, a commission was appointed who ranged the Kaskaskia
River from mouth to – not its source, but – beyond existing
settlements. They found hills – whether three or seven, I have
never counted – but hills enough to rescue the place from the
flat sameness of the territorial seat of Government at
Kaskaskia; and fixing their stakes, laid off the town (they did
not call it city, I believe) and named it Vandalia. It was said,
it may be with some truth, that this was a mistake - that they
intended to give it the name of an early discover, but somehow
got Vandal in their heads instead of LaSalle. However that may
be, they found a name which in spite of its association is
euphonious as well as sonorous, and a site which may be ranked
for beauty among the finest in the State, in both respects as
well as in originality far superior to the present State
Capital, yet Springfield is the more proper place for the seat
of government, and I am inclined to the opinion, no better, take
it all in all, can be found in the State. Chicago and East St.
Louis have been named, perhaps in irony, for either would be
preposterous. Alton might be somewhat more sensible, at least,
the capital would have a place to stand on, out of the mud.
Bloomington or Peoria would have been well enough if it had been
placed in either. But to remove it, ces bona!
But I
forgot – I belong to another generation, and have somehow
impertinently stuck my nose into the present. Let Young America
forgive me. “Old men for counsel” is an antiquated adage. I
withdraw to the past.
A square of reasonable dimensions,
quite as respectable, certainly, as that on which the present
State House stands, was retained in the center, designed,
eventually, to be occupied by the State House, and one was
afterwards built on it, and around this square the buildings
needed for officers were scattered. These were temporary, of
course. At the next and lower side of the square and facing it,
a wooden building had been put up, two stories high – not very
high, though – sufficient to accommodate the Senate on the
upper, and the House of Representatives on the lower floor. At
one end of the building, passage was partitioned off, some eight
or ten feet wide, with a stairway. This afforded entrance to
both Halls of Legislature. The style of the building was
primitive and plain as a quaker meeting house. But it answered
the purposes of legislation, or most of them, for I do not
remember any committee rooms, unless there was one room of
moderate size partitioned off from the Senate chamber. On the
opposite and upper side of the square was a structure then
considered large, built by Mr. Erast, a German gentleman, and
occupied for a hotel. Some members were accommodated there, and
others where they could find a room about town. I wish the
members of the Legislature recently adjourned, who grumbled so
much about their fare, could have had a bird’s eye view of
Vandalia that winter, especially if a double bateaux were their
cicerone to open the roofs for them. I fared well. Four of us,
clerks, &c., found board at a private house, good enough, and
lodging in a room together, where we had a good fire. Colonel
Henry S. Dodge, engrossing and enrolling clerk of the Senate,
was my bedfellow, as well as associate in the clerical
department. David J. Baker, who was acting as assistant clerk of
the lower house, and sometimes Henry Starr, occupied the other
bed. We had a very pleasant company. Two of us are long gone –
the other two waiting for our call away. May we meet in a higher
sphere!
The furniture of the State House was as plain and
primitive as the structure. No cushioned chairs, but long, hard
benches were the seats of the members. The speaker, I think, sat
on an arm chair on a platform, hardly large enough to contain
it, and a few inches high, with a board before him for a desk
supported by several sticks called balusters, and a table before
it for the clerk. I have described the Hall of Representatives.
The Senate chamber was “like unto it,” only smaller. The
governor, Secretary of State, and other high officers who did
not happen to reside at Vandalia had lodgings and board, little,
if any, better than the rest. Where their offices for business
were that winter, I cannot say. The auditor’s was in a brick
building, if I remember.
It should be borne in mind, that
Vandalia was only about three years old at this time, and that
it had no railroad in existence or expectancy to push it
forward; no settlements older than itself around it; and no
extraordinary soil or peculiar natural advantages. It had to
make itself. The Cumberland Road was an afterthought, so far as
this place was concerned, and though the Kaskaskia which passed
by it had been, as I heard, declared a navigable river by law,
there seemed to be a “higher law” which utterly ignored or
forbade its navigation. A great state of forwardness in
improvement could hardly have been expected.
EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 32
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, March 24, 1865
Do my
readers think I have strayed off from Madison County? Let them
be patient. They will find the old county mixed up with my
story, and by and by, when the scene of action shall be brought
within its limits again, they will probably find, as Sterne, or
some other writer has proved, that “a discussion is no
digression.”
I have already brought out the catastrophe,
and some readers may think I have come to the end of the story,
at least as far as Vandalia and the Legislature are concerned.
Yet it may not be amiss to linger awhile at our primitive seat
of government, and observe the doings of that winter there. One
thing worthy of remark is that there was a large proportion of
recognized ministers of the gospel in the two houses. These, or
several of them, were disposed to magnify their office, and
accordingly, there was preaching in the hall of Representatives
twice every Sabbath. And there was a variety – Baptist,
Methodist, and Unitarian – followed each other, each with no
small zeal maintaining his views, and some of them combating the
views of each other right manfully. Perhaps this controversial
divinity was mainly conducted by two individuals – perfect
antipodes in theological views, and almost equally dissimilar in
manners and other characteristics, yet both worthy men.
Mr. Kincaid was a man of some culture, a great reader, if not
more properly a student, and ingenious in argument. His views
were peculiar. Not only was he a Unitarian, but I should say
humanitarian in his views of the Divine Person. I heard him
preach an elaborate discourse to show that God was endowed with
a human body, hands, eyes, &c., and of course occupied a
specific place, from which, being very high, he could look down
and see and control the world. He was an amiable man, possessing
the confidence of those who knew him, and so honest, that though
by no means dull of apprehension, he could be and was deceived
by pretenders.
Daniel Parker was the opposite.
Illiterate, uncultivated, rude in manners, he was a man of no
small lpower. His theological position was Trinitarian,
ultra-Calvinistic, strict Baptist. I never met with another
person who held his views, though he had followers and churches
on his side of the State, of whom he was the recognized leader.
His peculiarity was in holding to what was called the two seed
doctrine. That is, as I understood him, every person born into
the world was by his birth fixed in a class, on one side or the
other of the line of character and destiny; was, in short,
either a child of God or a child of the devil. As God’s purposes
never change, so the matter was settled from everlasting to
everlasting. And so we had it. Mr. Kincaid would spend an hour
in his calm, though by no means tame, persuasion to a good life
drawn from his point of view, and at his close, Mr. Parker would
announce with entire confidence his intention to demolish his
argument in the afternoon or evening. And then, he would spend
his hour or more with vest unbuttoned, and cravat taken off
(both while speaking), laboring and sweating vehemently, tearing
the English language, if not his opponent’s of course, to
pieces. And there was mental vigor, power of thought, if no
elegance of language, in his preaching. I do not say that this
or these, comprised all the kinds of preaching we had, or the
best, but certainly the most remarkable. And they had hearers –
the hall full. Some of us went hoping, not always in vain, to
hear the gospel. Some, to hear the controversies. Others seem to
hear the preacher, whoever he might be.
The clerk of the
House was a candidate for the highest office in the gift of the
Legislature. He was known to be a gambler, profane and immoral.
Every Sabbath – every sermon – found him sitting on the desk at
which he usually wrote, facing the preacher, looking earnestly
and listening devoutly. It was frequently remarked that he was
not seen at gaming tables, publicly, though I heard it more than
once said that there were more private places of resort at which
he might solace himself. At length, the election came off – he
was successful. That same night, as I went into the somewhat
public room of the Senator from Madison, I saw him seated at
cards. Laying my hand upon his shoulder, I said, “What’s this?”
He looked up over his should at me and replied, “I _____ _____ -
the election’s over.” His desk did not groan under his weight on
the Sabbath, I think after that. He has been a Governor (of
another State) since, and though himself dead, his name seems
perpetuated not in honor, even until lnow, as rebel claimant of
the same position.
Another prominent man was candidate
for a high office – the highest below the bench. He had
certainly some eminent qualifications for electioneering. I
never understood that he was at the head of the profession,
though he sought the highest place. He was a very attentive
hearer – or seemed to be – if whatever preacher (member of
either house) held forth. His position, as a hearer, was much
more humble than that of the Clerk, yet equally conspicuous to
the preacher. He uniformly planted himself upon the edge of the
little platform on which the preacher stood, and on which the
speaker sat during session. This seat had special advantages.
Not only was he always in sight of the preacher, but looking up
with earnest attention, gave the impression of deep interest, if
not devotion. Moreover, tobacco shewing was common, and
preachers did not all eschew the weed – they preferred to chew
it. Some of them scattered their bountiful benefactions with
profuse liberality, on every side, so that the humble hearer at
their feet partook largely of the benefit. A waggish lawyer said
that T- was sitting under the droppings of the sanctuary.
It was strange that a man of common understanding and
self-respect did not see how he was despised for his barefaced
hypocrisy. And it is still more strange that good men, of fair
capacity for discernment, could be, and were, deceived by him.
They did not see him at the gambling halls, for they did not go
there, and he was careful to avoid or prevent them from seeing
whatever he thought would discredit him in their eyes. Yet it
was a wonder to some of us, that the thin and partial disguise
with which he and some others were clothed, could blind so many
as it did. Some gentlemen were conversing one evening about the
man of whom these remarks are made, when Mr. Kincaid said, “I
acknowledge that I was completely deceived by him. He spoke with
tears in his eyes of his sins, and asked me so earnestly and
repeatedly for my prayers, that my sympathies were excited, and
I took him into my heart as a sinner turning from his ways, and
was willing to do anything for him in my power. A gentleman
present replied, “Yes! And he will deceive you again, if he has
any occasion.” “Well, I confess,” replied Mr. Kincaid, “that he
almost succeeded in deceiving me the second time.” I will not
pretend to give the precise language of Mr. Kincaid, but am
persuaded of its substantial correctness.
Both these men
were successful candidates. They are now no more on earth, and
now know how far their success was success. And they were both
zealous advocates of the Convention, though not members of the
Legislature. Mr. Parker and Mr. Kincaid voted against the
measure.
EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 33
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, March 31, 1865
Although my business was in the Senate chamber, and my place at
the desk to record all the proceedings of the body, and although
I do not remember or believe that I was ever absent from my
place half an hour during the sessions, I have no distinct
recollection of more than one or two of the leaders or active
members of the Senate in the struggle. As before said, the
Senate was safe, nothing needed to be done for the cause there.
It was in the House the effort was required to work over, or
work in, the requisite two-thirds. Consequently, the interest
centered in the House. There was a good deal of maneuvering,
indeed, carried on in the Senate chamber, but it was mostly or
entirely on other matters. In the matter of divorces, a large
business was done. One of the Senators had a sister,
unfortunately married, and wished her released. In order to
secure success to his bill – the merits of which I do not know –
he favored other applications. Other members of each house
probably had their pet cases, and so divorces became the order
of the day. I think there were more than forty couples divorced
that winter by act of the Legislature. A lawyer, being employed
to write a petition for a divorce, disgusted with the whole
thing and hoping to stop it by ridicule, prepared the paper in
such a manner and gave such absurd reasons for asking it – such
for instance as this – “One of us is Irish and the other Dutch,
and we can’t quarrel in comfort” – as raised peals of laughter
when it was read. Yet the divorce was enacted.
Among the
Senators, the most remarkable, perhaps, was the Reverend William
Kinney of St. Clair County. With very limited education and
opportunities for self-improvement equally limited, he had
acquired and held among educated and able lawyers, by no means
unambitious, the position of a leader. Doubtless he held this in
the Senate by reason of the powerful influence he exerted in the
State among the people. It is true this influence, so far as
direct, was mainly over the denomination of Christians, among
whom he was recognized as a preacher, but that was a power which
he knew how to work to his advantage. Illiterate as he avowedly
was, he possessed talents of a commanding order or degree. It
will not do to call it simply shrewdness or cunning. The man who
is unable to write a correct sentence in plain English, who
writes the personal pronoun “i,” and who yet can stand beside
the highest the ablest, the most learned and the most practical
politicians of the State as their peer, and maintain his
standing there for years, must have higher qualifications than
usually come under the denomination of shrewdness. In his own
denomination, he was all powerful. I do not remember that I ever
heard him preach, and there were no occasions in the Senate
during the winter I was there, to call out eloquence. His
speeches were short, inelegant, rude, but to the point. His
acquaintance with the scriptures was by no means extraordinary
for a preacher of long standing, either in extent or accuracy.
As an instance, I heard him one day in the Senate say, “I had
the satisfaction to do (with work hands on the road) as the
scripture says, ‘The bird that can sing, and won’t sing, must be
made to sing.’” Yet he could seldom be caught, or if caught,
held in a trap. When asked for the chapter in which his text was
to be found, he said, “Well, if it ain’t there, it ought to be.”
I have been told that his preaching was noted for ingenuous
argument or sophistry, and homely but apt illustrations. Such as
– to show how much easier it is to discover faults, than to
correct them, or to ridicule some criticism. “A hog may find a
hole in the fence, but he can’t mend it.” To describe a
denomination of Christians who were very zealous and very noisy
in their devotions, he said, “They were like an empty wagon
moving downhill.”
I doubt whether there was a man more
industrious or more efficient in labors for the Convention than
Mr. Kirney. Others could write better, of course, for there were
able and accomplished men associated with him; but he was
everywhere among the people, talking of the benefits to be
derived to the State, and the great improvement in the condition
of the negro, which would be produced by the change sought for.
That he was not over scrupulous on the moral aspects of the
subject, or the means used to secure the end, we had evidence
enough, but in this respect, he was held in countenance, if not
quite equaled, by his associates, the leaders, in the contest.
If is sad to remember that in the last years of his life, his
religious character, his standing, his hopes, were wrecked by
intemperance, and his course characterized by the most awful
profanity. In his creed, he acknowledged a Supreme Being, who
was the efficient cause of all things, each individual sin
included, and who it would seem, had no rule or reason for his
judgments, but his own unchangeable will. It was the doctrine of
Fate, in its most absolute form. And he gloried in it. A son of
his died at West Point. A fellow student wrote the father saying
he died in the full belief that his fate was fixed by the
absolute and eternal decrees of God, which nothing could modify,
and the father showed me the letter, printed in gold letters on
black satin, to be framed and hung up in his house.
EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 34
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, March 31, 1865
I find
Mr. Churchill – I am glad I have called him out, for I mean to
take the credit of it – thinks “brevity is the soul of sit,” and
rather obliquely hints that his old friend has forgotten the
adage, old folks, like the Hou______, need a flapper to wake
them up occasionally. My apology for stretching out this series,
which, like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along, is,
that it is not a continued narrative, but a string of sketches,
which like beads, may be slipped off the string anywhere. Some
sea captains have described the sea serpent as resembling a long
row of barrels, following each other. So these articles come in
succession, but if connected at all, the connection is
frequently out of sight.
I think I will not attempt any
more personal sketches, except to say a few words of our
presiding officer, the Lieutenant Governor, and this I do
because I think he has had hardly fair dealing from the hands of
others. Governor Ford has caricatured him, or perhaps it were
more correct to say, embalmed in history, a caricature which he
received by tradition, both in the wolf speech and his general
character. It is very certain that Adolphus Frederick Hubbard
was not a man of strong intellect or well-furnished mind, and
that the lawyers associated with him loved to place him in
laughable, or it may be, ridiculous positions. I saw a good deal
of this practical joking among them. They were delighted to find
a subject, especially a newcomer on the circuit, and if a green
yankee, so much the better, whom they would lampoon unmercifully
until he would bear it no longer. But, indeed, they were all
accustomed to “give and take” in this matter. It made their
circuits more cheerful, took off the drudgery, thus to alternate
their hard travel and hard work with mirth inspiring wit.
Knowing this habit of the lawyers of that day, I have always
supposed the representations of Gov. Hubbard’s speeches greatly
exaggerated, and some of them probably pure inventions. Nor do I
believe that the men of high character and generous spirit whom
I have heard repeat them, ever gave, or would have given,
consent to their perpetuation in a professing to be grave and
truthful history.
Whatever were Mr. Hubbard’s
eccentricities or deficiencies, it must be admitted that in his
intercourse with others, either official or social, his demeanor
was that of a gentleman. I considered him a good-natured
egotist, whose self esteem was manifested rather amusingly than
offensively. His manners – I have that session only on my mind –
seemed a combination of the easy, good natured, amusing
arrogance which I have often observed in young gentlemen from
the South, and dignified condescension, or if you like it
better, condescending dignity. As presiding officer of the
Senate, my opinion was, and is, that he aimed to be impartial as
well as uniformly polite, nor do I recollect to it any complaint
was made by the Senators. To myself, his deportment was always
pleasant and respectful, and I think the relations between the
presiding officer and Secretary could not have been more free
from friction. He was in favor of the Convention; but I am not
aware of his ever having swerved from the line of duty to
promote it. On the whole, while there was little in common
between us – nothing, I may almost say, but our common humanity
– my recollections of Lt. Gov. Hubbard are far more agreeable
than those relating to some others, who occupy more conspicuous
places in the history or memories of those days. I think he was
measurably, if not entirely, free from inebriety and
profaneness, vices which prove far too prevalent among us.
I believe I have already intimated that the Convention
question was connected with others, with any that could help it.
On the other hand, there were others which required the help of
this. One of these was the construction of a canal to unite Lake
Michigan with the Mississippi River, through the Illinois River.
They were tacked together, therefore, for mutual support, and if
my memory is not at fault again, were passed, on the same day
and hour. The canal measure was indeed brought up in various
ways. One effort caused no little amusement to observers by a
scene now brought up before me. A Senator, Mr. Kinney, who was
opposed to the canal, but who probably had no reference to that
measure in his present proposition, offered a resolution that a
committee should be appointed to inquire into the expediency of
appropriating funds for the purpose of draining certain lakes in
the American Bottom. Another Senator immediately proposed to
amend by adding, “and also ------ Bottom” (I don not remember
the order, nor even the name of the “Bottoms” proposed to
drain). Then another amendment, “_______ ------Bottom;” then
another, and so ____ _____, as Mr. ____ ____ _____
inconsiderable pond in what would now be called Southern
Illinois.” At this point, a Senator arose and gravely proposed
another amendment to these words, “and also the Bottom of Lake
Michigan.” This, our course, was a quietus to the whole thing,
and I am the more disposed to think that the first proposition
was made without reference to the canal from the chagrin
manifested by the mover at the ludicrous result.
EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 35
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, April 7, 1865
The work
was done. Nicholas Hanson, having secured the election of Judge
Thomas, who was not responsible so far as I know for the
maneuvering to accomplish it, now was “stricken out,” and John
Shaw “inserted” in the report, and so John Shaw took his seat,
the Convention Resolution passed, and the party triumphed. Their
“triumph” was characteristic. When the shades of night
prevailed, a crowd was gathered, candles were lighted, horns
were blown, tin pans were pounded, clapboards were rattled, and
a crowd of men, without order, but with wild halloos, savage
shouts and as savage groans, paraded – no, rambled without order
– through the streets of Vandalia, “making night hideous,” and
aiming to strike terror fate the feeble minority of one-third
whom they had circumvented. It was a noisy, and to a
considerable extent, drunken mob. It was designed to show that
they were determined to win, and thus intimidate the
anti-slavery men and render them hopelessly inactive, thereby
insuring them an easy victory in the final vote of the people.
In this, they were doomed to disappointment. The opponents
of the introduction of slavery into our State were alarmed, but
not disheartened. They saw danger, but felt resolved to meet it.
There would be a fearful struggle – perhaps defeat – but they
would address themselves to the conflict with energy and
courage. They knew they had the right, and would “quit
themselves like men” to maintain it, and preserve the State, if
possible, from the blighting curse of slavery, that their
children and children’s children might enjoy the benefit of free
institutions.
In this spirit a meeting was held in a room
of a private house, in which some of the anti-slavery members
boarded, and to which the invitations were given personally –
and not publicly – to such as were known to be true to liberty.
Here the matter was discussed, not formally, I think, but
conversationally, and the great question was, “How shall we
proceed to defeat the ruinous measure now thrown before the
people?”
After all, there was little of organization. No
society was formed that I know of, no leaders chosen, no
particular plan of operations – only that all should do their
best, especially in their own localities. It was deemed
important – indispensable – that we should have at least one
paper which should not only be accessible to us, but wholly and
heartily on our side, pledged, not by promises, but by
principle, well established and well known, so that undoubting
confidence could be placed in its conductors. Accordingly, the
question was put with deep anxiety. Have we such a paper now in
existence? It was answered in the affirmative. The Edwardsville
Spectator was named as an uncompromising foe to the
establishment of slavery. There were those on the east side of
the State who did not know the Spectator or its editor. They
asked, “Is he safe? Will he be true to the cause? May we fully
rely on him?” Various questions were put of this character,
which showed not only the anxiety, but the alarm, or uneasiness
which prevailed. To all these questions, there was one answer.
The fullest assurances were given that Mr. Warren would at all
hazards, and under all circumstances oppose the attempt to
introduce slavery, with all his power. To make assurance doubly
sure, I was requested and promised to call on Mr. Warren on my
return to Edwardsville, and sound him without any intimation of
advantage whatever. I did so, and after telling something of the
proceedings at Vandalia of the slave party, and the anxiety of
the anti-slavery men, asked him incidentally as it were, what
course the Spectator would take. “Against it, of course.” Of
course I needed no more, nor even that, but to fulfill my
mission, suggested that the Convention party was strong and
determined, and would bid high. “They can’t buy me,” was his
emphatic ultimatum. I have been told in late years by Judge
Lockwood that he also was requested to do the same thing, and
performed it with similar results. It was to satisfy those who
had not the same acquaintance with the man that we had. A
subscription was gotten up to increase the circulation, and
intended not only to diffuse information more, but to benefit
the conductor of the paper. I understood then that the amount
subscribed was two thousand dollars in State bank paper, valued
at that time at fifty percent of its face, but am sorry to learn
that the amount subscribed was much less, that not near all was
ever paid, and that the paper – bank paper I mean – depreciated
so much that it is doubtful if the subscription did not
eventuate in pecuniary loss to Mr. Warren. At any rate, he knew
nothing of the subscription or any intention of the party to
remunerate him, until after he was fully and spontaneously
committed on the subject. I have now to allude to a more painful
aspect of the case. In one of the notes which Mr. Warren
appended (according to my request) to his edition of “the
Conflict of the Century,” he says:
“The doubts of its
(the Spectator’s) future course in relation to that question, by
anti-slavery members, as mentioned by Mr. Lippincott were
superlatively preposterous. I will just point to their source:
The late Rev. John M. Peck of St. Clair County, in the
letter to Hooper Warren, published in the Free West, of May 3,
1865, relates an interview, after the adjournment of the
Legislature, between himself and Governor Coles, sought by the
latter, in which the Governor made known to Mr. Peck
confidentially, a project he had in view of purchasing an
interest in the Vandalia paper. That he (Governor Coles) was
about to appoint a new Secretary of State in the place of Mr.
Lockwood, resigned, and that his object in requesting the
interview was to consult Mr. Peck as to a person who was not
only capable of performing the duties of Secretary, but those of
an editor also. Does not this plainly solve the misgivings about
the future course of the Spectator?”
To which I answer
(and cannot avoid the wish that my old and valued friend were
still here to see the answer). It does not “solve the misgivings
about the future course of the Spectator.”
In the first
place, the questions were not put nor prompted by Governor
Coles. I feel perfectly assured that he had no part in proposing
them, nor do I believe he expressed a doubt about the future
course of the Spectator. Whether he was present at that meeting
at all is by no means settled in my mind, but whether or not I
am very certain that Mr. Warren is entirely mistaken in
attributing the questionings to him, for in the second place,
the questions did not imply doubt, but ignorance of the paper
and the man. They came from members who resided on the east side
of the State, were not readers of the Spectator, and had very
little, if any, knowledge of its course or principles. To us who
knew him, they were “preposterous,” not so to those who knew him
not. I may have occasion to speak of the remainder of his note,
of which I have only given part, in another connection. Here I
wish both Mr. Warren and Governor Coles to be put right before
my readers. They were both thorough going, honest opponents of
slavery, and ought to have been friends. I have the greater
confidence in my statements because the queries were put to and
answered by myself.
EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 36
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, April 21, 1865
The way
now seems clear to return to Madison County. In the remaining
portion of what I have to say, the field of operations, so far
as it was under my eye, was mainly at home in our own county. My
unassisted memory will not enable me to distinguish between the
years 1823 and 1824, in regard to the labors of the
anti-Conventionists. Nor can I remember when the Convention
Organ – whose name, as usual, I forget – published by Thomas J.
McGuire, and edited by Theophilus W. Smith, was commenced at
Edwardsville, but suppose it must have been in the former year,
for the contest between it and the Spectator waxed hot, long
before the election of 1824.
There was a meeting held at
the old log courthouse of anti-slavery men, at which something
of organization was attempted. I was chosen Secretary, to
correspond with other friends, but did very little as such;
nothing, indeed, unless it was to receive and answer a few
letters, and some small sums of money to defray expenses. If
there was any president or other officer, I have utterly
forgotten it. It seems to have been understood, or taken for
granted, that Edwardsville was a sort of center of operations on
our behalf, and hence a few communications were received from
other parts of the State. But as it was not attempted or
designed to assume that position, the few laborers in the cause
satisfied themselves with individual instead of organized
efforts; and most of them with what could be done through the
Spectator. I say, “most of them.” There was one of the little
band – a band drawn together by affinity, and not bound by
organized association – whose labors were far more extensive;
and as in a former series I may have failed to do him justice,
it affords me pleasure to embrace the opportunity afforded by
these numbers to bring the facts more fully before the public.
In the Conflict of the Century, when speaking of a few only
of those who had engaged in the effort, such as were supposed to
be gone beyond the reach of any word of commendation of mine,
the following words occur:
“There were those who wrote
more, but there was no one more indefatigably, nor more
disinterestedly engaged in the effort to keep out the curse of
slavery than Edward Coles, then Governor of the State. His chief
efficacy was, perhaps, in procuring and circulating at his own
expense, in pamphlet form, mainly, any popular works on slavery
that could be got by an extensive correspondence. His daily
counsels and hints, however, to a little band of men in
Edwardsville, suggested many an article which he saw not and
knew not of until he saw it in print.”
In another
connection, speaking of a pamphlet circulated by him, entitled,
“Information Concerning the Present State of the Slave Trade,” a
marginal note is appended, saying “One of Governor Coles’
correspondents on the occasion was the late Robert Vaux of
Philadelphia. I have an idea that this came from him.”
At
the time of writing the Conflict, and for some years after, I
knew not the address of governor Coles. But as the edition of
Mr. Warren came out, I saw a notice of a serenade to him in
Philadelphia. Without delay, I wrote to him, and afterwards sent
him a copy of the series, accompanied by another letter. In
reply, I had the great pleasure to receive two letters from him.
The first in answer to mine, informing him of what I was doing,
or had done, and requesting corrections and additions; the
second, written after he had received my publication, with some
remarks on it. I have long felt that it would be a favor to the
public to publish both these interesting letters entire, but at
present I shall give only some extracts bearing on the facts in
question. In reference to the amount written by him, he says:
“I gladly avail myself of this occasion to express my
obligations to you for the kind and gratifying notice you take
of me in your publication. At the same time, allow me to add, if
you had been aware of the extent of the labors of my pen, you
would not have said I had not written much. The hostility
imbibed by Mr. Warren against me prevented my contributing to
his paper (the Spectator), but I contributed to other papers
over various signatures, and published several pamphlets, and
caused many to be published, several of which I assisted in
circulating, particularly those you allude to from the
enlightened and philanthropic pen of my friend, Robert Vaux of
this city. My labor in the cause was so great, that during the
several months which passed between my purchasing the Illinois
Intelligencer and the election, there were but few numbers of
that paper which did not contain something from my pen – either
original essays, the most methodical and lengthy of which were
contained in nine numbers published over the signature of ‘One
of Many” – or numerous extracts from the speeches and writings
of the most celebrated men of American and Europe – many of
which were published under the title of ‘The Voice of Virtue,
Wisdom and Experience on the Subject of Negro Slavery.’”
Of the manifold labors of Governor Coles, in other respects I
was aware, and have endeavored to do him justice in regard to
them. Probably there is but one person now living (Judge Samuel
D. Lockwood) who knew so much of those efforts as myself. Every
day for months we were together, and the correspondence and the
pamphlets alluded to were before us. But I confess I was not
aware of the amount of writing for the papers on the subject,
which was performed by him. In addition to what I did know, it
must be called immense. And I can hardly feel otherwise than
glad that my omission has called out the eloquent correction.
The fact that Governor Coles did not write for the
Spectator, and the reason of it (the misunderstanding between
them) was known, and as the Intelligencer did not pass into the
hands of David Backwell until the second year of the conflict, I
was under the impression that the labors of the governor, except
the daily consultations, consisted mainly in procuring and
circulating the essays and other productions above mentioned.
Besides the expense incurred by him in doing this, it is evident
that there must have been a large correspondence, as well as
extensive researches.
EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 37
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, May 5, 1865
Mr.
Warren, in his note, already referred to more than once, after
relating the circumstance given by Mr. Peck in relation to the
appointment of a Secretary of State, the wrong inference from
which I have noticed in a previous number, adds the following as
facts:
“The Governor, in pursuance of Mr. Peck’s
recommendation, appointed David Blackwell to be Secretary of
State, and about one year thereafter, just three months before
the termination of the canvass, he succeeded in renting the
establishment of the Illinois Intelligencer, for the time being,
and placed Mr. Blackwell in it as editor.”
Doubtless Mr.
Warren, if he were still living, would desire to have justice
done to Mr. Coles, and I am sure that if in the eternal world he
has cognizance of the affairs of this, he wishes the truth to be
known. On the note above, Mr. Coles, in his letter, says:
“I will correct your mistake in saying I rented the
establishment of the Illinois Intelligencer and placed David
Blackwell in it as Editor. I did not rent, but virtually
purchased it. The facts were these: The Illinois Intelligencer
was owned and edited by Berry and Blackwell. The former having
become very much in debt, his half of it had to be sold to pay
his debts. I proposed to David Blackwell that if he would buy
the establishment and would become the Editor, I would loan him
the money to pay for it, on the condition that his brother (the
partner of Berry) would consent to give him, and he give me, the
control of the paper during the great political contest then
pending, and as he had no property, that he would give me a lien
on the establishment to secure the payment of the money loaned
him. Being poor, and receiving but a small income from his
profession of lawyer, his older brother (the Editor) being
anxious to befriend and assist him, consented to my proposition.
The purchase was made, the money paid, and the agreement and
lien between David Blackwell and myself were all duly committed
to paper. To the great surprise of all, the delight of one
party, and the consternation and displeasure of the other, the
first knowledge the public had of it was the annunciation in the
paper, that it had changed owners, and with it would change its
principles, and in future would oppose the convention, and the
making Illinois a slave State.
EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 37
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, May 5, 1865
Mr.
Warren, in his note, already referred to more than once, after
relating the circumstance given by Mr. Peck in relation to the
appointment of a Secretary of State, the wrong inference from
which I have noticed in a previous number, adds the following as
facts:
“The Governor, in pursuance of Mr. Peck’s
recommendation, appointed David Blackwell to be Secretary of
State, and about one year thereafter, just three months before
the termination of the canvass, he succeeded in renting the
establishment of the Illinois Intelligencer, for the time being,
and placed Mr. Blackwell in it as editor.”
Doubtless Mr.
Warren, if he were still living, would desire to have justice
done to Mr. Coles, and I am sure that if in the eternal world he
has cognizance of the affairs of this, he wishes the truth to be
know. On the note above, Mr. Coles, in his letter, says:
I will correct your mistake in saying I rented the establishment
of the Illinois Intelligencer and placed David Blackwell in it
as Editor. I did not rent, but virtually purchased it. The facts
were these:
The Illinois Intelligencer was owned and
edited by Berry and Blackwell. The former having become very
much in debt, his half of it had to be sold to pay his debts. I
proposed to David Blackwell that if he would buy the
establishment, and would become the Editor, I would loan him the
money to pay for it, on the condition that his brother (the
partner of Berry) would consent to give him, and he give me, the
control of the paper during the great political contest then
pending, and as he had no property, that he would give me a lien
on the establishment to secure the payment of the money loaned
him. Being poor, and receiving but a small income from his
profession of lawyer, his older brother (the Editor), being
anxious to befriend and assist him, consented to my proposition.
The purchase was made, the money paid, and the agreement and
lien between David Blackwell and myself were all duly committed
to paper. To the great surprise of all, the delight of one
party, and the consternation and displeasure of the other, the
first knowledge the public had of it was the annunciation in the
paper, that it had changed owners, and with it would change its
principles, and in future would oppose the Convention, and the
making Illinois a slave state.
Nearly all of the
subscribers to the paper being advocates of making Illinois a
slave-holding State, and thinking it probable in the gust of
passion produced by the change that they would withdraw their
names as subscribers, I directed that no attention should be
paid to such notices, but that the paper should be continued to
be sent to all the old subscribers until after the election
should be over, when, if they still continued to refuse to take
it, I would pay their subscription from the change of the paper
until the election. I did not lose much by this, as few
persisted in refusing to pay after the election was over and we
had carried it. I lost, however, after waiting several years
with the hope of collecting it, a good portion of what was still
due me, on the plea of poverty set up by Mrs. Blackwell after
the death of her husband, which induced me to exempt her from
the debt.”
Mr. Coles errs in attaching to me the
statement that he rented the Intelligencer establishment. It was
Mr. Warren, and not myself, whose misinformation on the subject
led to his note. My understanding at the time agreed with what
Governor O. now says. And I may add, that I was much more likely
to know the truth of the matter, having daily interviews with
the Governor in reference to this very subject, than Mr. Warren,
between whom and Governor Coles there was no intercourse. I
presume Judge Lockwood has full knowledge of the facts, and I
feel no small pleasure in being able by the foregoing extract to
contribute to the truth of history in reference to that
momentous struggle.
I cannot resist the temptation to add
further extracts from letters received from Governor Coles in
reference to that eventful period. In his letter of June 15,
1860, after speaking of severe chronic neuralgia which made it
exceedingly difficult and painful for him to write, he
continues:
“This inability I regret the more, and will
exert myself the more – yes, to the utmost extent of my diseased
powers, to aid you, as I still feel, and the longer I live, and
the more I witness the revolting and disgraceful scenes of the
present times, in upholding and extending slavery, the greater
the interest, and the more hearty satisfaction I feel at the
part I acted, and the gratification I desire from reflection on
the course I pursued, and the agency I had in preserving the
Prairies of Illinois from the curse of slavery. I assure you
this is to me a source of great consolation as I approach the
termination of my earthly existence, and calmly review the past,
and anticipate the future. Whether I get credit as helmsman for
steering the Illinois ship of state through the conflicting
tempest which raged so violently between the extremes of Freedom
and Slavery, I certainly review my conduct on that tempestuous
occasion with approbation and indescribable satisfaction.”
Can those who strove to fasten chains on the infant Illinois
enjoy this reflection as well? I propose to give other extracts.
EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 38
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, May 12, 1865
I am
indebted to the kindness of my friend, Churchill, for a copy of
the Journal of the House of Representatives of our State, for
the session in which the famous convention Resolution, of which
I have been writing, was passed, and sent forth for the decision
of the people. I thank him for it. It revives in my memory men
and scenes and things which must always be of deep interest to
me – almost making me live a winter of my life of forty years
ago over again. If only I could get a copy of the Journal of the
Senate, which I wrote myself, I would then have other men living
before me, who have for the most part been long dead. But that,
I fear, is beyond my reach.
What is of more importance,
the Journal received enables me to correct an egregious blunder
or two, one of which I more than half suspected while
perpetrating it. It is in reference to the representation of
Madison County in the House during that winter, and especially
to Mr. Churchill’s membership. The fact is, I was in a perfect
bewilderment on the subject when writing about it, and strove
hard, but having no aid to memory, strove in vain to get it
right. The difficulty was, I had forgotten, and could not
convince myself that our old county loomed so large at that time
as to send four men to represent her in the Legislature – one in
the Senate and three in the Lower House. Yet so it was, and four
men of ability and power in the body.
I have already
spoken of Theophilus W. Smith as the Senator from Madison. In
the House of Representatives, the county was represented by
George Churchill, Emanuel J. West, and Curtiss Blakeman. That I
should have ignored Captain Blakeman in telling of the men and
doing of that day appears to me now almost ridiculously strange.
The old Salt, full of the practical wisdom, gained by life-long
voyaging from land to land. In most responsible trusts, and firm
as a rock in the maintenance of right, was an object of
contemplation then, and a living memory now. Yet, as good old
Dominee Sampson says, “I was oblivious.”
Mr. West has
been, perhaps, sufficiently mentioned. I do not know as well as
Mr. Churchill, of course, how efficient he was as a member, but
from the knowledge I possess of him, should judge that he had
considerably more than average ability in management, and at
least a respectable position as a speaker. Probably he made no
pretension to oratory, or effort at long speeches.
My
readers are wondering how in recalling the events of that day I
could leave out George Churchill, and so am I. The only
explanation that occurs to me is that I very well knew Mr.
Churchill’s legislative career, having been deeply interested in
it always, and I may say always “accessory before the fact,” and
had when writing as lively a recollection of his standing and
usefulness in that capacity as now. But I could not fix it in my
mind whether he was elected for that particular session or not.
Nor could I be certain whether the frequent sight and hearing of
him I had in his place as a member was then or at other session,
when I was in the habit of attending every year at Vandalia the
meetings of our State benevolent societies. At any rate, he was
there, and was there as a living man, seen, felt, and even heard
– though only in short speeches – with as much respect,
attention, and effect as any other man in the body. In the
classification of members (on our side especially, but not
exclusively), it was, I believe, usual to place Thomas Mather at
the lead, and George Churchill next. And yet both were modest,
unassuming men.
The other blunder I leave for Mr.
Churchill to correct when he comes to annotate on No. 32, I gave
the history as I was told it at or near that time. The Journal
does not sustain me in my statement. Perhaps even Governor Ford
may be more correct than I. Let Mr. Churchill give a full and
graphic account – as we know he is able – of the turning out of
Nicholas Hansen, from his own memory aided by the Journal
aforesaid. It deserves to be told fully and truly.
I will
not now notice the names of men in Upper Alton, whom I had
omitted, as revived by Mr. Churchill – perhaps never, though the
recollection is interesting – except as to one, and that, to
speak of an incident in the canvass of the Convention question.
Benjamin Spencer was a mechanic of good intelligence and
unblemished character, and so well and generally liked that he
was elected one of the County Commissions at the election of
1822. In the Fall or winter afterwards, he died, and the Court,
of course, had a vacancy to fill which an election was held
early in 1823. The anti-convention men were of opinion that our
county was on the right side, and felt anxious to test the
question by this …… [unreadable] …. Was pretty well known, they
importuned me to allow myself to be set up as a candidate
opposed to the Convention, and at length, overcome by the
solicitations of men as Lockwood, McKee, Miller, and others I
consented. Accordingly, I was the anti-convention candidate and
was elected as such, over – I know not whom. It was an
anticipatory triumph of the free State party, which was the
whole aim in the measure.
The result was curious. The
regular members of the court were John Barber, an elder in the
Cumberland Presbyterian Church, Hail Mason, an elder in the
Presbyterian Church in Edwardsville, and I, elected to fill the
vacancy, was an elder in the same church with him. We had but
one term of the Court after I was elected, but that was enough
to “turn the world upside down” in Madison County. In short, we
had the effrontery to refuse licenses to sell liquors – remember
this was before the temperance movement, before we ever heard of
the “Six sermons” even – not absolutely, nor to all, but to
every applicant who we believed designed to keep a mere grog
shop, however he might parade his band, “to provide lodgings for
poor travelers and stabling and provider for their horses,”
according to the letter of the law. They stormed and threatened,
but we calmly persisted and prevailed. No harm ever came of it.
The election in Edwardsville in the ensuing August was as quiet
as if no interest were left in the result.
It may be
wondered – it was then – how we three men, not learned in the
law, durst assume the responsibility to refuse licenses to such
as produced exactly the bond the law required, when the
universal belief was that the granting of such license was
imperative on us. So, the applicants and their friends insisted,
but we persisted. Not to claim too much honor for the court, I
will reveal the fact that we acted under the best legal advice.
It was Samuel D. Lockwood who, as I was going to take my seat in
the court, informed me that it was my duty and the duty of the
court to guard the public interests on that point, and that we
had the legal power to refuse all applications, when we judged
the public interests demanded it. To him, then, belongs the
honor of the first temperance movement I know of in the State.
Armed with his advice, we were invincible.
It may not be
altogether impertinent to add, that all three of the then county
Commissioners afterwards became preachers of the gospel in three
different denominations – Cumberland, Methodist, and
Presbyterian. The whole number may be an episode. Well, I have
authority for saying as in a quotation in a former number, the
wit of which was spoiled by the printer, “a digression is no
digression” – at least sometimes.
EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 39
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, June 16, 1865
Governor
Ford, in his somewhat incorrect list of names, has mentioned two
of whom I have not spoken, who ought to be remembered with
respect among the opposers of the slavery constitution, and in
connection with the early history of the State: Morris Birkback
and George Forquer, and though not of our county, I must be
permitted to say a word of them.
Morris Birkback was an
Englishman – a farmer – and a man of extensive acquirements,
unblemished character, and amiable as well as gentlemanly
deportment. He first visited American, extending his tour of
observation to Illinois, before it became a State. On his return
to England, he wrote and published a book, which was so well
done, so interesting, and so reliable, that it brought a number
of the reading _______ to the newborn State in its earliest
infancy. Himself, with some associates, founded an important
settlement in Edwards County. The name of George Flown has been
long well known as one. A Mr. Gilbert T. Pell from New York or
Long Island, and son-in-law, if I remember right, of Mr.
Birkbeck, was a young man of noble appearance, and was a good
member of the Legislature during that important session. He went
back afterwards, and I have often wondered if the Mr. Pell,
whose name I see among the members and speakers of the Farmer’s
Club, reported in the New York Tribune, is not the same man. On
the resignation of Mr. Lockwood, Governor Coles offered the post
of Secretary of State to Mr. Birkbeck, who officiated in it I
think but a short time. Mr. Churchill says he was drowned in
crossing one of the swollen streams of our yet unimproved State.
I had lost the fact, as I have many others, but am aware that
the State was early deprived of his valuable services and
influence. My recollections of him are among the pleasant ones
of the early days.
George Forquer was the older brother,
by a different father, of Governor Ford. I think, when I was
passing through to St. Louis in 1818, or if not then, a few
years after, their mother was spoken of as a widow residing at
or near the present site of Waterloo. At any rate, she must have
been a woman of character to rear two such boys as George
Forquer and Thomas Ford at that early day in the Territory of
Illinois. Mr. Ford was yet a youth when the battle of freedom
was fought, and we can only judge from subsequent events what
would have been his course in the contest, had he been an actor.
But his brother (I remember with pleasure that each habitually
spoke of the other as brother, without the qualifying “half”)
was a man, though quite a young one at the time. He was a member
of the Legislature, I forgot what session, and without so far as
I know, any appearance of arrogance, soon took a prominent
position in the House. His cheerful, frank and pleasant manners,
combined with real talent, rendered him a favorite. I think,
indeed, he was rather a pet of the party, who loved to call him
out. Of one thing I am sure, they had entire confidence in his
integrity, and I believe never had occasion to regret it. On the
retirement of Mr. Birkback from the office, he was appointed
Secretary of State, and still subsequently was a candidate for
Congress, to which he was not elected. His early death was
deeply mourned.
I may be allowed, in passing, to remark
on the striking contrast in many things between the brothers,
Forquer and Ford. The former, open, genial, eloquent, social;
the latter (I speak of him at recollected on his coming to
Edwardsville in early manhood to complete his law studies, and,
perhaps, be admitted to the bar) with down look, unsocial,
though not really unpleasant in manner, with shrinking – it
seemed to me – from, or avoiding general society, and inclined
rather to descend in the social scale than to aspire to the more
refined. In those days, his moral habits, so far as I know, were
good. It was said of him, I know not with what truth, that he
was a more profound lawyer than his brother, though less capable
of expressing his views. I never heard him address the public.
But in the great conflict, Mr. Forquer was a bold and faithful
champion of the right, and was really one among the leaders of
the contest.
Elsewhere I have spoken of Thomas Mather as
the acknowledged leader of the anti-slavery party in the House.
He was an able man, not given to long speeches, but watchful and
far-seeing, and his business habits, for he was a merchant and
afterwards banker, made him more than a match for the shrewd and
able lawyers and others on the opposite side. His perusal
character gave him great influence, for it inspired confidence.
I do not know whether we had much aid from his pen, nor do I
remember that he traveled extensively, if at all, during the
canvass, but I know he stood among the highest throughout, as a
moving spirit to inspire confidence and incite to action.
I think now I have, in one place or another, introduced the
names of nearly all of those who were active on our side of the
great question, unless there may have been some on the other
side of the State, and have probably confirmed the
classification of Governor Ford, excepting the omission of a
name or two, and the inversion of Governor Edwards and Henry
Eddy. I confess that to find my own name among such a group as
Coles, Cook, Lockwood, Birkbeck, Churchill, Peck, Blackwell,
Warren, Mather, and Forquer, as one with them, is anything but
mortifying or unpleasant, and I should leave to be inferred what
my feelings are on seeing it there, if nothing more had been
said on the subject. But I dare not silently admit the truth of
a certain extravagant report, which in after years, met the ear
of a ministerial friend, was made public by him. To be coupled
with John M. Peck in the matter was no small honor, but it were
unjust and untrue to attribute so much to either of us, as was
done in that case. Mr. Peck was active, ardent, industrious,
more than many, in propagating right sentiments, yet by no means
more than all, and I wrote many a squib for the Spectator,
mostly under the eye and at the instigation of Coles and
Lockwood and McKee, and sometimes others perhaps, but in all
cases as a subordinate worker, and never a leader. I am willing
to be known as one of those who labored to defeat the effort to
curse our State with slavery, but dare not accept of honors
which I never earned.
EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 40
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, July 7, 1865
My
sketches, rambling and fragmentary as they are, would be
unpardonably defective if they were to contain nothing more than
already contained in them of one whom I long knew and esteemed
as friend, and who after a life of extraordinary activity,
energy, and usefulness, in part, at least, recognized by
collegiate honors, departed this life a few years ago at a ripe
age, it is true, yet sooner than his strong constitution
indicated in the earlier years of our acquaintance. I speak of
him who was long known among us as the Rev. John M. Peck, and
late with the literary title of D. D.
Mr. Peck came to
the West in 1817 – a few months before me. When I arrived at St.
Louis in February 1818, he had, in company with Rev. Mr. Welsh,
been laboring several months at that place and the towns and
neighborhoods surrounding it, as a missionary of the Baptist
Church. I believe the labors of these young men were efficient
then, and laid the foundation of the great prosperity which
afterwards crowned the efforts of the denomination. Among their
enterprises was a Sabbath School for blacks, which called down
upon them the curses of slaveholders. I heard a Major L----, a
prominent man connected with and one of the “first families,”
threaten some violence, I do not remember what, to Peck, if he
should undertake to teach his “n-----.” From the natural
fearlessness of the man, I do not suppose this threat, if he
ever heard of it, had so much influence in closing the school as
the frequent absence and early removal of Mr. Peck from St.
Louis, but I believe it was soon discontinued. One occurrence
which affected them somewhat may be mentioned:
The
missionaries, of course, reported to the society which sent
them. In the ardor of their zeal, they used strong language (as
missionaries have sometimes done) in depicting the moral wants
of the people. One, at least, of their reports came back on the
pages of a periodical, and being circulated, gave great offense.
The leaders of society did not like to have their drinking,
gambling, and swearing habits published to the outside world,
though by no means careful to avoid or even conceal them at
home. Gentlemen, who considered themselves, and were considered
by others at the head of society, did not scruple in those days
to gather at “Hull’s Grocery,” and take their glasses at the
counter, and sit and smoke and chat with the same indifference
to appearance that is seen at the saloons of the present day by
regular plebian topers. And indeed, there was less attempt at
concealment, for Hull had no painted screen to hide his
customers from the street. Still, it did not look well in print,
and maledictions were poured on the Yankee missionaries.
This is not of Madison County, nor did Mr. Peck ever reside in
it. Yet his labors and his influence were felt so much by the
inhabitants of Madison at the early day, and he was so well
known, that he may well be considered part and parcel of its
history.
I do not know the year in which Mr. Peck removed
to Illinois, but it was after laboring with great energy in both
our State and Missouri - visiting various points, preaching the
gospel, and gathering or trying to gather churches. I wish I
knew more regarding these incipient efforts, yet the importance
and value of the labors could not be known from the amount of
immediate and apparent success. “The day of small things” was
the precursor and the preparation, necessary to all subsequent
growth. Mr. Peck, after a few years, settled in St. Clair
County, and named the spot “Rock Spring.” I need not say that
this spot has become historical, and that its memory should be
regarded by Alton with peculiar reverence as the parent of
Shurtleff College, in giving birth to which it gave its life.
Rock Spring Seminary, however, was founded, or at least built, a
few years after the time to which I had proposed to limit this
series of papers. No matter, it belongs to the early day, and I
will not be particular about dates, which are always rather
indefinite with me anyhow.
Mr. Peck began his labors in
the hope, I believe, of drawing the existing Baptist Churches
into a closer union with those with which he was connected at
the east. These were popularly known as missionary Baptists,
while the old, and as they call themselves Regular Baptists,
were anti-missionary. I may be wrong, but am inclined to believe
that he might have met with considerable success if it had not
been for one man, who, as an acknowledged leader, had almost
unbounded influence over the denomination. What his motive was I
need not say. Mr. Peck manifested not only ardent zeal and
untiring industry, but a grade of talent and intelligence which
such a man as Mr. Kinney might well apprehend dangerous to his
supremacy. I heard Mr. Peck once – it was in the earliest of the
early days – preach to a congregation in the early days – preach
to a congregation in the woods near the Wood River, in which the
ministers – not Mr. Kinney, however – formed no small portion of
his hearers, and in his discourse, he spoke very pointedly to
ministers who were devoted to secular employments – going, as he
quoted, “one to his farm and another to his merchandise.” This,
from a mere youth – for he was apparently quite youthful – was
not likely to be well received by men who were much his seniors
in reality and more in appearance, and it was not.
I
think injustice has been done to the class of ministers here
spoken of. They were illiterate men, necessarily, for they had
grown up on the frontier, where schools were scarce and poor,
and the people had neither time nor money to spend in getting an
education; the very class from which our lamented late President
[Lincoln] sprung by almost superhuman effort, as represented in
Mr. Thayer’s “Pioneer Boy.” These uneducated men had the love of
Christ and the love of souls in their hearts, and thought
themselves called of God – as I have no doubt many of them were
– to preach the gospel which they felt so precious. Not asking
for, they received no compensation or support. So, they had to
support themselves, and this must be done mainly by hard work.
Cheerfully preaching the gospel gratuitously, it became their
pleasure, and eventually their pride, to “make the gospel of
Christ without charge,” making Paul’s exception of himself from
the law he had just laid down and proved by argument, the rule
of action for themselves and others.
Such were the
teachers whom Mr. Peck sought to win to a higher, more
intelligent, more expansive, and more aggressive course of
action. Perhaps he was too hopeful at first, and too hasty; did
not make sufficient allowance for life habits, or begin with
sufficient caution and gentleness, for there was much simplicity
for life habits, or begin with sufficient caution and
gentleness, for there was much simplicity of faith and
child-like docility in this primitive people, which it always
seemed to me might have been used as an open door to the heart.
An appearance of assumption, a show of superior ability on the
part of the new preacher – especially a young one – would
naturally repel, rather than attract. Without intimating that
Mr. Peck intended or attempted to assume authority, it may yet
be confessed that his manner was not always as gentle and
persuasive, nor as free from a conscious superiority, as might
have been desirable. Yet I fall back upon the thought that the
influence of one man was probably the chief power – at least in
the first few years – that kept the old Baptist churches, as a
body, entirely aloof from Mr. Peck, and those who affiliated
with him. But I have more to say of Mr. Peck in a future number.
EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 41
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, July 14, 1865
I have
seldom seen a specimen of physical and moral vigor combined in
one person equal to John M. Peck. For years, his labors were
more than two ordinary men could do. It took a long time to wear
out or break down his constitution, but it was done at last.
Several of the latter years of his life were years of weariness
and weakness. He seemed but the wreck of himself when I saw him
occasionally, seldom indeed, in those years. I wondered and felt
sad to see him, whose fearless, energetic step I had been wont,
“in weakness and in fear and in much trembling,” to follow as
best I could, when all things were new and crude in our young
State; now, though but a few years my elder, bowed with age and
infirmities, while I enjoyed uninterrupted and almost robust
health. It was the consequence and the index of our comparative
activity in the earlier day.
I believe the first years of
Mr. Peck’s labors were as a missionary of the Baptist Church.
Afterwards, he labored in the Bible cause, whether an agent of
the American Bible Society or not, I am not able to tell. But
afterwards for several years he was the agent of the American
Sunday School Union for the State of Illinois, succeeding
Benjamin J. Sewald in that service. But whatever might be his
specialty at the time, he was a bold, untiring champion of
Christian effort in all its departments. It was by his
enterprise mainly, that the several State Benevolent Societies
were early organized, and for several years carried on with no
little energy. The Bible Society – the Sunday School Union, and
the Temperance Society of the State of Illinois – and was there
not a Tract Society also? – which held their meetings without
fail at the seat of Government annually in the first week of
December, owed more of their efficiency to John M. Peck than to
any, if not all others. He was indefatigable in her efforts to
awake and keep up an interest among leading men at the capital,
and among ministers and Christians over the State, and I may
add, his cheerful, hopeful – nay confident – courage was quite
efficient in inspiring zeal and hopefulness in others. He seemed
to know no such word as fail, as he said he knew no such emotion
as fear.
But, whatever other things he attempted, he did
not fail to magnify his office as a preacher. He was always
ready, and I believe sought all proper occasions to preach the
gospel. Nor was his preaching crude and rambling, but clear,
terse, consecutive, and at once evangelical and instructive.
Such was his manner of preaching in those days, and I loved
to listen to him, for I was always fed. By our common interest
in the several benevolent enterprises, we were much together,
and I may say, labored together years before I engaged in the
ministry as well as afterwards. So that my acquaintance with him
then was intimate, and I am happy to feel and say that the
friendship, the “brotherly kindness,” awakened by our
intercourse and union, never knew abatement, though for a number
of later years, our respective fields of labor allowed us to
meet but at long intervals.
One of the last – if not the
very last – interview I enjoyed with him was at his home at Rock
Spring. He took me over to the old building, which originally
held the Rock Spring Seminary, and which, after that institution
was merged in Shurtleff College, he appropriated to his use as a
library. I confess I was surprised to see a large room, and
more, on the second floor, entirely surrounded by book shelves
and entirely filled with books, which he had collected in his
years of labor and travel. Many of them were rare, some very
valuable, and a few at least such as were contained probably in
no other collection. Among this latter class were bound volumes
of some of the newspapers, which had been published in our
State. I remember particularly a volume of the Edwardsville
Spectator, which Mr. Peck told me, as Governor Coles has since
written, was preserved and had bound by the latter gentleman,
and placed in the hands of Mr. Peck to be used by him in
preparing a history of Illinois, and then handed over to the
Illinois Historical Society for preservation in its archives. I
fear the intentions of both Mr. Coles and Mr. Peck were
defeated. The history has never appeared, if written, and a
fire, which destroyed the building, probably consumed with the
large collection of rare, old works, the only file of the
Edwardsville Spectator, except that of Mr. Churchill, which was
in existence.
In the grand struggle to preserve liberty
in Illinois, Mr. Peck was among the most active and efficient. I
cannot now tell how much he wrote, though it is impossible to
suppose that his ever-active pen was idle, but he traversed the
State, over and over, and everywhere scattered publications,
talked and preached, and argued with his forcible logic,
spreading light and influence everywhere, exposing the schemes
of political adventurers and the horror of slavery. Nor did he
think his labor against the Convention desecrated the pulpit, or
were incongruous with the calling which he esteemed the highest
and holiest. He was pleading against oppression. Illinois has
reaped vast blessings from his labor.
It was at a later
period that Mr. Peck commenced the enterprise of a Seminary,
designed for general benefit, and especially to aid the
education of those who should become ministers of the gospel, I
think, was several years before, that he had projected it.
Rev. John M. Ellis came to Illinois as a missionary in 1825.
He came full of the importance of education, and of plans for
its accomplishment. He was on a journey from Kaskaskia, probably
in 1825, and passing Rock Spring, saw Mr. Peck (I have the
anecdote from Mr. Peck), busy at work among some timbers, and
rode up to speak with him. “What are you about here?” he
inquired. “Building a college,” was the reply. In the
conversatin, Mr. Peck observed to Mr. Ellis, “You Presbyterians
ought to be getting up a college, too.” Mr. Ellis replied
thoughtfully, “I don’t know, but we ought,” and ride away
apparently thinking of it.
Mr. Peck, from this
circumstance, supposed he had thus originated in the mind of Mr.
Ellis the enterprise in which he was afterwards so successfully
engaged. And he deserves all the credit of the suggestion. It
was the offspring of a large heart, as well as an expanded mind.
I know not that Mr. Ellis ever explained the fact, but at that
moment, he was on his way to a settlement in Bond County to see
some friends with whom he had had some correspondence, and with
a view to perfecting a plan of an institution which had already
been projected, and which, after several years of arduous
exertion on his part, and various modifications, resulted in the
establishment of Illinois College at Jacksonville.
It is
pleasant to think of these two pioneer men, both now departed
from earth. John M. Peck began early – his cautious friends
thought too early – to found an institution which should aid the
youth in acquiring an education, and especially to raise the
qualifications of those who should preach for the Baptist
Church; and John M. Ellis, at the same time, and not without
similar discouragements, projected an enterprise in connection
with the Presbyterian Church. Both were modest in their first
plans, yet far-reaching, intending to rise higher and higher as
the way might be opened, and both resulted in the founding of
colleges which have prospered in spite of difficulties, and are
this day living monuments of Christian enterprise in the early
day. Long may Illinois College and Shurtleff College flourish,
side by side, and so long may they bear the names respectively
of John M. Ellis and John M. Peck on their foundation stones,
and the remembrance of them fresh and warm in the hearts of the
multitude who receive the benefit of their self-denying labors.
It is a matter of painful regret that when Elijah P. Lovejoy
was doing what Mr. Peck had so nobly begun in years ago, the
latter, instead of joining in the noble work, threw his
influence against Lovejoy, and when popular fury was rising
against the faithful witness, Mr. Peck - unintentionally and
unconsciously, I am sure - pursued such a course as tended to
fan the flame. And it is believed that ever after that event, he
was on the conservative side rather than the progressive. Yet,
let not any of us condemn him for this. He was doubtless honest
and sincere as ever. Let the good he has done for the State and
the world be had in everlasting remembrance.
EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 42
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, July 21, 1865
I have
devoted two numbers to a brief and imperfect sketch of my long
and highly valued friend, Dr. John M. Peck, and yet am hardly
prepared to pass on without adverting to him again. In truth, I
feel that the State and the people in it are under obligations
to him, so great and so important, that his name should be had
in perpetual remembrance. And I am happy to add the testimony of
one who knew him well, and who was himself one of the workers in
that day of trial, when Illinois was in imminent danger of
having the curse of slavery fastened upon her free limbs. I
refer to the Hon. William H. Brown of Chicago, of whom I have
previously made mention, and who by request of the Chicago
Historical Society, prepared and delivered in December last, a
historical address on the Convention struggle, which was
published by the Society. I take the liberty to extract a
paragraph from the address bearing upon my present subject:
“Governor Coles,” says Mr. Brown, “was the admitted leader
of the Anti-Convention party. With him were associated men of
intellect and character, but they were unused to the conflicts
of party, and were but indifferent leaders. The great man of the
day, it may now be said, was the Rev. John M. Deck. D.D., a
Baptist minister who came to the West in 1816. He was a man of
diversified talent, and like many others of his eastern
brethren, could turn them to a good account in more ways than
one. His plan of organizing the counties by a central committee,
with branches in every neighborhood, was carried out by his own
exertions and personal supervision, and was greatly instrumental
in saving the State. Being an agent of the American Bible
Society, his duties frequently led him to Egypt and elsewhere –
and he doubtless performed the double duty of disseminating the
Holy Scriptures and correct principles at one and the same time.
Though he was ardent in the advocacy of every question, in the
correct decision of which he considered the people had a deep
interest, and placed himself in the forefront of all the moral
reforms of his day, he yet retained a strong hold upon the
affections of all classes. As a preacher, he had no superior,
and his piety was never questioned. He died a few years ago,
lamented by all who knew him.”
According to this, there
was more of organizations than I have represented in these
papers. I supposed that the central point was Edwardsville,
where there was a kind of society or committee of which I was
Secretary. And I remember some sort of a correspondence of
official character, relating to our movements, and some small
sums of money, as already mentioned, but the whole amount of
both, so far as my recollection goes, was so small as to leave
the impression that there was little of organized effort in the
State. There may have been more of centralization at Vandalia,
the seat of government, than I was aware of, and Mr. Brown,
residing there, and a leading one among the active
anti-convention men, was in a position to know. In fact, I was,
as I have elsewhere said, merely a subaltern [lower status], and
had but a partial knowledge of the great points of strategy in
the campaign. But Mr. Peck’s active mind was just the one to
originate, and as far as practicable, work out such a plan.
I may be excused for prolonging my memories of this
remarkable man. Among other things, he established, and for some
years conducted, a religious newspaper – “The Pioneer,” – in the
interest of religion generally, and the Baptist Church in
particular. It was ably conducted, of course, and ought to be
(whether it is or not) preserved in the archives of the Illinois
Historical Society, both as a record and specimen of the early
days. It was published, at least part, it not most of the time,
in Upper Alton.
Mr. Brown says, “he was a man of
diversified talents.” True, and the enterprises in which he was
engaged were as diversified. Besides agencies for the Bible and
Tract and Sunday School and Temperance Societies, successively;
and agencies of various sorts for his own denomination; and
editing and publishing a weekly paper; and all the while
preaching grand, and for the most part, unsectarian (but whether
sectarian or not) noble sermons, full of light; he was ever
gathering facts and preparing statements for a map, or for a
history, or for the use of some editor or author or benevolent
association. His Emigrant’s Guide and Map of Illinois, afforded
more than any or all which had preceded them, of each of these
were two editions, and each was a standard work as long as in
the transition state of our young west, any geographical work
could be. The map was constructed by him in conjunction with the
late John Messinger of St. Clair County, a large and beautiful
sheet, showing not only the township, but the section lines, in
a clear, perspicuous form. Mr. Peck had been long gathering
materials for a history of Illinois, most of which, probably,
were consumed in the fire which destroyed the old building of
the Rock Spring Seminary. We cannot avoid regret that so noble a
project was never carried to completion. It might have been
somewhat crude, necessarily so, from the multifarious
employments and consequent irregular habits of the author, but
nevertheless, his love of truth, his clear conceptions, and his
indefatigable industry would have made it a work, the like, or
the value of which we can scarcely hope to realize.
I
have heard it objected to Dr. Peck by brethren of his own order,
that he attempted more than he accomplished. That a great many
projects were begun, but never finished. His plans were larger
than his means or his time. Doubtless, there is truth in this.
And we, who were his co-workers in the early day, were well
aware of it. Many a noble scheme was proposed and started by
him, which resulted in little or nothing. Nevertheless, we were
never unwilling to listen, nor afraid to undertake, when he
proposed, for if there was more go-ahead in him than others,
there was at the same time a fund of practical sense, a clear
perception of “how to do it,” that galvanized us into
co-operation.
Let his brethren, who, having come from the
methodical schools of the East, and worked in the grooves of
order and precision (after he had long wandered over the
prairies and labored alone), felt rather shocked at his more
desultory, perhaps certainly more daring course, and who have
felt disappointed at some of his failures, consider more
attentively what he accomplished. Look at the Bible – the Sunday
School – the Temperance cause as they are or were when he left
them. Look at the Baptist Church here in the West, spreading its
branches over the vast valley. Who will dare to say that these
are not all a quarter of a century in advance of what they would
have been without the activities which he put in motion? And who
of them all would, or could have done what he did? To whom is
the State indebted for Shurtleff College? However we may honor
others for the zeal and public spirit which had given it such
prosperity, it is to John M. Peck we must attribute the
conception, the incipient movement, and the transfer to Alton,
of that valuable institution. I know of the zeal and energy
shown in the first movement, and I was a witness of the earnest
desire he had to have his darling enterprise transferred to
Upper Alton, and his joy at the success which crowned his
efforts. I fear the present generation does not appreciate its
indebtedness to the arduous and successful labors of that noble
pioneer.
EARLY DAYS IN MADISON COUNTY, NO. 43
By Rev. Thomas
Lippincott
Source: Alton Telegraph, July 28, 1865
It seems
that Governor Ford, Mr. Brown (perhaps), and myself were all and
equally in error in regard to the time of the “Saturnalis” (as
Mr. Churchill calls it), that was got up by the conventionists
to celebrate their victory. The mistake can easily be accounted
for. Governor Ford was not there, and told it on hearsay. Mr.
Brown puts it rather indefinitely, though a reader would
understand it to mean the night after the passage of the
Convention resolution, and as for myself, I don’t pretend to
accuracy in dates, except in certain cases. I confess, I now
wholly rely on Mr. Churchill’s correctness, in admitting that
the rowdy demonstration was on the night before the _____
passage, when it would seem to have been rather premature. It
should be remembered, however, that the ________ had made the
thing sure, and the ______ _______ _______ practice might tend
____ ______ by making the im_____ ____ _____ to go the whole
than shrink.
I feel very much indebted, as no doubt the
readers generally do, to Mr. Churchill, for the very full and
correct account he has given of the maneuvers of the Convention
party in reference to the Shaw and Hansen contest. He has not
left it to depend on the veracity of any or all of the writers
who have told the story, nor rectified our errors by his own
assertion, but has given the testimony of the journals of the
two Houses of the Legislature. Whatever credit or discredit may
belong to the transactions, is thus effectually attached to
those who achieved the enterprise. And, while I would wish to
have given a true and correct account of everything I undertook
to tell, I can hardly regret the imperfect statements or even
blunders that have called forth a history, which, though too
brief (I mean his own narrative of it), is yet so complete. I
can only wish that Mr. Churchill may yet undertake, instead of
mere “Annotations,” a connected history of that Convention
struggle, from first to last (and as much more of the history of
our forty years life as he can find time to prepare), more ample
than Mr. Brown, and myself, and all others, have hitherto
accomplished. And I add the wish, that instead of the columns of
a newspaper, such a work as he could make might appear in a well
printed and well bound volume. It would be a standard work, read
and received and relied on, when those of the two ex-Governors,
Ford and Reynolds (whatever their merits) were forgotten. The
annotations suggest, though, for a portly duodecimo.