In 1833 Thomas P.
Chapman came to Illinois to visit relatives in
Fulton, Warren, and Knox Counties. He was very
much impressed with the country and told the
people back in Connecticut about the country
being so nice. About a year later Deacon Samuel
Peabody visited in
Fulton Co., he too coming from CT. He also was
impressed with the country, and retold the
Chapman story on his return.
Mr. Chapman and the
Deacon talked the matter over and formed a plan
to have a colony come to IL and settle; it took
all right with the people, and sixty families at
North Stonington CT pledged themselves to move to
IL. Land could be bought at $1.25 per acre, and
in order to supply the needs of the proposed
colony it would require 11,000 acres.
Dr. Rev. GB Perry and
Thos. Hewitt were elected as a committee to come
ahead and locate a body of land sufficient for
the colony. They could not find enough land in
one body, in the above named counties; they then
traveled south in the state and finally selected
land enough for the proposed colony near what is
now Stonington. Even here a few pieces had been
entered already, but the settlers were willing to
sell out and agreed to give up possession. 1837
was the time when the colony was to move west to
their new homes.
Back in CT, the proposed
colony laid out a town site of 160 acres, and
named the town Stonington, after North Stonington
CT. The first of the colonists started early in
the spring of 1837, their route was to NY,
Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Louisville, St Louis,
Alton, then by prairie schooner to the Stonington
area. Their trip was part of the way by railroad,
and part by boat on river and finished in wagons
across the prairies.
The first of the
Colonists who came was Thos
P Chapman, wife and four
children; B.F. Chapman, wife and two
children; Nicholas Sanders, wife and four
children; Capt WS Peabody; ES Peabody; Amos
Peabody; Alvira Peabody; Allen
B Peabody, wife and two children' Frederick
Fitch; Rev Alvin Ackley; Thos Skiff and wife.
Then two years later came more of the Colony; Deacon
Samuel Peabody, wife and widowed
daughter; Mary Palmer and three children; Samuel
N. Peabody, Deacon Peabody's
youngest son. Horace Morgan and wife; Rev
Parris Pray, wife and one child;
Mrs. Button and her daughter, Sarah K, who
afterwards married Capt
WS Peabody. There were a number
more of the colony who came, but I could not get
their names.
A dismal prospect for
the Colony. It took four weeks for them to
complete their trip from CT and six weeks longer
for their goods to reach them as they were
carried on up the Illinois River to Peoria, which
caused delay. They soon began constructing
houses, but the first was made from small logs
and the cracks were filled with wooden chunks and
mud, but the house building was a very difficult
task, as their nearest mill was 20 miles away.
They used the broad ax to hew out the sills and
posts, the joyces and studding sawed out with the
use of the whip saw. Perhaps there are some who
do not understand what a whip saw is. High
trussels are made and the log is rolled on top of
these trussels. One man stands on top of the log
and one underneath, they pull the saw up and down
through the log, and in this way they sawed out
their floors, joyces and studding every piece was
worked out by hand. The siding was all drewwed by
hand, and also the flooring was dressed and
matched. It took two men to prepare the flooring,
one man to push the plow and one to pull, and in
this way they made their matched flooring.
All the window sash and
doors were made by hand, the glass was bought at
Springfield, some 35 miles away, and this was the
way their first homes were built. Many lived in
little huts until they could get material to
build better. The first good building was built
and called the Colony House. The main part was 20
X 48 feet, two stories, with an L 18 X 20, and
that two stories. This was to accommodate those
who came later. They used what they called a
cornfield bed; throwed beds down on the floor and
sometimes 20 or 30 women would sleep in one room
and the men in their cornfield bed in another
room, and in this way they were able to
accommodate all of the Colony until they could do
better. They gave up the idea of building a town
as it required all their energies in getting
something to eat and wear. Meat, corn and bread
were the staple foods of life. Game of all kinds
was very plentifully, a hunter sometimes would
come to you and ask if you would like a nice
saddle of venison, which is dressed deer. Then
the party would ask "Do you have it with
you?" "No, but I though I would go out
tonight and kill a deer."
Wild turkeys were in
abundance, a nice large turkey that would weigh
25 lbs could be bought of the hunter for $.25.
Deer and wolves were seen on these prairies quite
often in herds of 15 or 20 in a herd. They began
their farming, and this too, was a very difficult
and discouraging job, as their tools were very
crude. Their plow was of a wooden board, and a
cast iron point, never thought of it ever
scouring from the start, they only ploughed small
patches. Just for some corn and wheat, they cut
their wheat with a hand sickle, and beat the
grain out with a flail. When flailed out, they
separated the grain from the chaff, then they
would take a bucket full of grain and chaff, hold
it up and let it run out of the bucket and the
wind would blow the chaff away. They would wait
for a good windy day for separating the grain so
as to use if for bread.
They would have to go to
a water mill near Springfield over 20 miles away.
Ox teams were used to do all of their hauling. A
neighbor would load up his wagon with wheat and
corn in the early fall of the year for the
Colony, and start to the mill with two or three
yoke of oxen, and bedclothes, for he would have
to be gone some five or six days, before he could
get his grinding done. This was much more
difficult to get their bread stuff than we have
today getting our supplies.
The bread question with
the colony was a very difficult matter as I have
stated before, the mill was some 20 miles away.
Corn was the only available grain. It was all
right in summer and early full and before the
corn was thoroughly dry in the fields rain came
and the streams were swollen, no roads and no
bridges anywhere. They went into the fields and
husked out the corn, they would then dry it, and
when dry enough would shell the corn by hand.
Then as soon as the wheat and corn were ready
they would hitch up three yoke of oxen and start
for the Archer water mill on the north fork of
the Sangamon River. The trip to the mill took
about seven days. Then each family would get his
meal and flour. The meal was all sifted and
salted so as to keep it fresh coming from the
mill, it was one of the important items of life.
The next thing, they had
to have a mill in the colony. Deacon Peabody put
in $1000 and two other men put in $500 each.
Leonard Lilly, a mill wright and blacksmith, from
Fulton Co induced them to make it a steam powered
mill, and he went in as third owner. The mill was
in operation in 1842 and was considered one of
the best improvements of the day. I am not sure
as to whether this was the mill where the farmer
sent his boy with a grist of corn to the mill,
with the corn in one end of the sack and a rock
in the other end to balance it across the horses
back.
As the colony became
more settled in homes, they began farming in more
of an extensive way, getting more teams, and
better tools to farm with. They used oxen mostly
for their heavy work, such as breaking up this
new prairie. They used some four to six oxen
yokes on a large plow that would cut a furrow 26
inches wide. It would require a great deal of
work to prepare this ground for seed. It would
take about three years for the sod to rot so as
to be thoroughly pulverized. This soil was very
rich and productive.
They began to raise more
corn and grain of different kinds, also more hogs
and cattle. The cattle were turned loose upon the
vast prairies to get their own living after April
1st. Hogs were out on these prairies and also in
timber, gathering "mast" as they would
say such as hickory nuts and acorns, and such
other food as they could find to subsist on
during the summer season.
In the fall, they would
then put the animals up in pens and fatten these
hogs for market and their own use. Their nearest
market was St Louis. The neighbors would all
together and put their hogs in one drove and
start for St Louis. Several men would go along to
drive them and one man wagon and team would go
along so that if a hog should give out, they
could load him into the wagon and haul him until
night. The next morning he might be able to
travel. It took several days to drive these hogs
to St Louis, one man on horseback would act as
advance agent and go ahead and look for a place
to stop overnight. This was somewhat of a task as
not many families were situated so as to
accommodate so many.
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