The town of Vermillion embraces that part of T. 32, R. 2, lying southwest of
the Vermillion river. It was among the earliest settlements in the county. It
contains a fine tract of timber, called Bailey's Grove, through the center of
which runs Bailey's creek, while to the northeast it rests on the Vermillion
river. This grove was doubtless the attraction that induced the settlement, for
here, as elsewhere, the first settlements were all along the edge of the best
timber.
Lewis Bailey, the first settler in the town of Vermillion, came from Ohio; first
to Indiana, and then to Illinois in 1825. He first came to Ottawa, but located
on Section 19, at the head of Bailey’s Grove, which was called Bailey’s Point.
His son Augustus is claimed to have been the first male white child born in the
county, while a daughter of Christopher Long was the first. George Galloway, son
of James Galloway, of Fall River, has claimed the honor of being born before
Bailey. The fact seems to be that Bailey's son was a few days the oldest, but he
was born at Peoria, where his parents had gone in a canoe, in anticipation of
the event, and soon after returned, having been absent from home eighteen days.
The location selected by Bailey was a romantic one, and he said it was a
favorite resort of the Indians, who ever evinced a keen appreciation of the
beautiful. Mr. Bailey's neighbors at first were only Indians. He always
expressed a high opinion of his swarthy friends, and persistently claimed that
they were more honest, friendly and trustworthy than the whites. He was
doubtless somewhat misanthropic. He with his family left the county in 1844, and
died in Oregon. He had two sons: Augustus and Timothy.
William Seeley, a native of Seneca County, New York, came to Madison County,
Illinois, in 1818, and brought his family in 1820. He came to Bailey’s Grove, La
Salle County, in the fall of 1828, and brought his family in the spring of 1830;
he settled on Section 19, just east of Bailey's; he subsequently laid out the
town of Lowell, on the Vermillion, and in company with Charles Elliott built the
stone mill now standing; he held the office of Justice of the Peace several
years; was County Commissioner, and prominent among the early settlers; he died
March, 1857. His children were: John, who died single; William, married Belle
Tylee, they are in Kansas; Randolph, married Clarissa Ellsworth, are in
Nebraska; Samuel, married Hattie Tylee, live in Lowell; Anna, married a Mr.
Knight, live in Chicago; Mary, married Ebenezer Burgess, now deceased; Eveline
married Barnum Newton; Sarah, married John Seeley, now dead.
Mr. Enos came from Sangamon County in 1829; settled on Section 18, and sold his
claim to Mr. Pate, who came from the same county in 1830, and he sold to Jacob
Moon in 1831. Enos and Pate were frontier men, and went West.
Jacob Moon came from Dayton, Ohio, in 1831, and settled on the Enos claim, and
in 1838 sold to Joel Alvord; he moved on to a claim on the Vermillion, just over
the line, in what is now Livingston County, called Moon's Point, where he died
in 1853. The family are wealthy farmers and large stock dealers.
John Slater, from Ohio, settled in Sangamon County in 1823, came to Bailey's
Grove in 1829; he bought a claim of Tracy, a transient claimant, on S. 24, T.
32, R. 1; in 1833 sold his claim to Nathaniel Eddy, and made a claim on S. 19,
T. 32, R. 2, where he lived and raised a large family. He died of cholera in
1848; his first wife died in 1 832; his second wife, Mary Warnock, is now living
with Alfred. He left seven children: Henry, married Lydia Galloway, he died of
cholera in 1848; Harriet, married Jacob Barr, they live at Lowell; Sally, is
single; Olive, married Charles Clark, and lives in Missouri; Jerusha, married J.
W. Wells, she is now a widow, living in Streator; B. F., married Louisa Dart,
are now living at Farm Ridge, have six children; Alfred, married Mary Jane
Kirkpatrick, and lives at Metropolis, Ill.
John Bailey, and wife, Sally Benjamin, came from Windsor, Vermont, in 1831, to
Putnam County, and in 1882 bought the claim of Warren's estate on S. 17, T. 32,
R. 2, where he lived till his death in 1842. A good citizen, he always
cheerfully bore his portion of the public burden of a new settlement. His widow
died in 1854. He left seven children: Sarah Ann, married Nelson Alvord, a
Baptist preacher; Mary, married William Laughlin, now a widow; Rhoda, married
Samuel Bullock; Annis, married Bailey Barrass; Maria, married Seth Eaton; Emily,
married Frank Wood, they live in Eden; William, married Janet Potter, adopted
daughter of John Rider, and lives on the old farm — is now Town Supervisor.
Leslie Kent, and wife, Huldah Harman, from Conway, Mass., in 1833; settled on S.
18, T. 32, R, 2. Mrs. Kent died in August, 1840; he died in September, 1846,
leaving two daughters: Huldah, married Edward R. Williams, they live in Deer
Park; Caroline Mahala, married Wells Alderman.
Daniel Warren, and wife, came from Maine in 1809, to Madison County, New York;
he came by wagon,, with his family, the whole distance from New York to Illinois
in 1830; settled on S. 17, T. 32, R. 2;. died there in 1832, aged 64; his claim
was sold ta John Bailey. He left eight children: Polly, married Asa Holdridge;
Nathan, settled in Serena; Daniel, died in Serena; Ezekiel, died at An Sable;
Samuel, died on Indian creek; Eunice, married Alfred Kellogg; Betsey married
George Sprague; Olive, married Alva O. Smith, and died in Serena.
William Petigrew, from Kentucky, a single man, boarded with Lewis Bailey; made a
claim; sold to Enos, and went to Holderman’s Grove; married a widow with two
children, and then removed to Indian creek, where he and his family were all
killed in the Indian massacre.
Dea. John Leonard, from near Boston, Mass., in 1831, came with the Northampton
colony in company with Mr. Jones; they located at Bailey's Grove. Jones died
soon after, and Leonard eventually married Jones' widow, and settled on S. 18,
T. 32, R. 2. He was deacon and an active member of the Congregational church; a
radical abolitionist, he had the reputation of keeping a station on the
Underground Railroad; he removed to Galesburg, where he died in 1866; his wife,
and two children, Levi and Sarah, died there also.
Levi Jones, from Massachusetts, in 1831, one of the Northampton colony, died the
same year; his widow married Dea. Leonard, left four children: Daniel and
Raymond; Mary, married Daniel Little; Susan, is in Galesburg.
Jacob Elliott, and wife, Mehitable Cook, from New Hampshire, in 1839, resided at
Lowell. He died in 1841, leaving four children. His son Charles married Lucy
Bach; second wife, Harriet Huntington. He was a partner of William Seeley in
the town of Lowell and water-power adjoining. They built the stone mill, and
anticipated building up a manufacturing town that would not disgrace its
namesake in Massachusetts. It was not a success proportioned to the enterprise
of its founders, and the early death of its proprietors put a stop to its
further progress. Charles Elliott was for several years a Justice of the Peace
and County Commissioner: he died about 1855 or '56, and left one son by his
first wife, Jacob, who married a daughter of Sargeant Cummings, and lives in
Iowa; Sarah, the daughter of his second wife, married Uriah Painter, and lives
at Streator.
Jacob Elliott's other children were: Cook, who married Jane Wiswall, and died
soon after; Mary, married Emery Stanford, now dead; Sarah, married a Mr. Weber,
both are dead.
Emery Stanford, from Waterloo, N. Y., came in 1837, a stone mason by trade; he
built the stone mill at Lowell for Seeley & Elliott, an enduring monument to the
skill and fidelity of its builders. He married Mary Elliott, and moved on to a
farm on S. 27, T. 32, R. 2, where he still resides. Has been Town Supervisor and
held other positions of trust. He has three children: Sarah, married Justin
Hall, of Chatsworth; Russell, married Mary Hutchinson; Frank, is in Livingston
Co. Mr. Stanford has a daughter, Susan, by a former wife, who married Henry
Loomis, now in Kansas.
Leonard Bullock, from Rehoboth, Mass., in 1837; he first engaged in teaching and
then extensively in farming in company with his brother, Joseph, near Tonica. He
married Julia Eames, and died in fall of 1856, leaving three children: Henry,
married Fanny Laughlin, and lives near Tonica; Eliza and Lura reside with their
mother on the old farm.
Henry L. Fulton, millwright, and Emeline Castle, his wife, from Waterloo, New
York, came to Lowell in 1837, and moved to Chicago in 1842, where he now lives.
They had two children: Juliette, married Thomas C. Whitmarsh, live in Chicago;
and Franklin, married Amelia Schock, now practicing as physician in Geneseo,
Illinois.
Joseph Hamar, of Massachusetts, came to Illinois in 1835, in company with Dr. J.
S. Bullock; left Massachusetts in October, and came by the way of Albany, Erie
canal and steamer to Cleveland, and by canal to Portsmouth, Ohio, and by steamer
to St. Louis; took passage for the Illinois river; was detained by ice near
Alton. Nov. 30th left the boat, and Mr. Hamar and Edw'd Knapp, also from
Massachusetts, started on foot through a deep snow and over an uninhabited
prairie for his destination in La Salle County. They reached Springfield Dec. 4,
Tremont, on the 7th, and Bailey's Grove on the 11th. Dr. Bullock. arrived by
boat Jan. 2, 1836. In January, Mr. Hamar went to Dixon on foot to enter land,
and was gone ten days. In the spring he was joined by his family and found
quarters at the hospitable house of Lewis Bailey. He settled on S. 32, where he
built a log cabin the following summer, the first in that locality that ventured
to settle away from timber on the open prairie. Mr. and Mrs. Hamar, in common
with their neighbors from New England, brought with them a high regard for the
church and school-house, which they learned among their native hills. Mr. Hamar
died Aug., 1846, aged 51. Mrs. Hamar died May, 1876, aged 78, leaving seven
children: Elizabeth, now the widow of Samuel Wauchope, of Farm Ridge; Mary Ann,
widow of Oeorge Kingsbury, living near Tonica; Minerva 0., wife of Nathan L.
Eaton, living three miles east of Tonica; Joseph E., living in Santa Barbara,
Cal.; Geo. E., is in Dodge County, Nebraska; Therestal, died in 1846; Eugene
lives in Tonica.
Benjamin Washburn, and wife, from Plymouth County, Massachusetts, in 1835;
settled on S. 15. Had four sons: Benjamin, lives in Lowell; Salmon B., is in
Colorado; Gustavus and Stillman are dead.
Henry Angell, from Rhode Island; left there in the fall of 1835. While on the
way was frozen in on the Erie Canal, and wintered in Utica, New York; arrived
here in the spring of 1836, and settled at Vermillionville, where his wife died.
He married Miss "Washburn, and settled on S. 35; he died about 1850; his widow
died in 1874. His children by his first wife are: Abbey, who married John Pry,
her second husband is John M. Trout, now in Kansas; Henry, is in Nebraska; Mary
Jane; Lydia, married Granville Clark. His children by his second wife are:
Washburn and Albert, twin brothers — Albert is dead, Washburn married Miss
Stillwell; Everett, is married, and lives on the old place; Ann, married George
Enderton; Hannah, married George Sharp.
Mr. Wilkinson, from Rhode Island, came with Henry Angell, his brother-in-law, in
1836, and settled at Vermillionville; soon after went to Iowa.
Levi Woodward, and wife, from Massachusetts, came in 1837, and settled on S. 32,
T. 32, R. 8, where he died in 1846. His widow married John Clark; she became
insane, and died in the Asylum at Jacksonville. Mr. Woodward left four children:
Lewis, married Relefe G. Dart, second wife Margaret Dart, is living in the town
of Allen, has twelve living children, and is a large farmer; Ona, is living in
Denver; Mary, married a Mr. Richardson, and they are living in Iowa; Elizabeth,
married a Mr. Conway, of Missouri.
Lloyd C. Knapp, came from Massachusetts in company with the family of Joseph
Hamar, and Joseph Bullock, in the spring of 1836; he settled on S. 33, T. 32, R.
2, where he now lives. He married Sarah Kirkpatrick. Their children are: Alvan,
who died soon after his return from the army, in the war of the rebellion;
Austin, lives in Kansas; Sarah, wife of Nathan Hall, lives at East Lynn; Dora,
wife of Albert Hall, lives at Chatsworth; George, is at Anna, Ill.
; and two
younger children, at home.
Joel Alvord, Edward Alvord, Nelson Alvord, (sons of Joel), Jacob Barr, William
Groom, and Madison Goslin, left Albany County, New York, in wagons, the 15th day
of May, 1833, for the West. In Chicago, they met Judge Isaac Dimmick, then
returning from a tour of exploration, who directed them to this locality. They
arrived here July 18th. A journey by land for hundreds of miles at that day
through a country, most of it unsettled, without roads or bridges, can hardly be
appreciated now. They were compelled to adopt camp life; stopping at night on
the bank of some stream, where wood and water could be procured, and sleeping in
their wagons, or on the ground, and in some instances were compelled to build
bridges to cross the streams. Madison Goslin died in the fall of 1833.
Joel Alvord, and wife, in 1833, bought a claim of Jacob Moon, on S. 18, where he
spent the remainder of his life a substantial farmer, and good citizen. He died,
March, 1856, aged 76, leaving five children: Betsey, married Reuben Moffat;
Edward, married Elizabeth Cleveland; Alison; Nelson, a Baptist clergyman,
married Sarah Bailey, and lives in Kansas; Joel, married Lydia Hall, died of a
wound.
Jacob Barr married Harriet, daughter of John Slater, and is now living at
Lowell; has five children: Henry, married Harriet Alydo; Sybil, married Eugene
Miller; Imogene, married Samuel Underbill, of Tonica; Ellen, married Benton
Crumrin, now in California; Arthur, is in California.
The author is indebted to Mr. Barr for the history of the colony, of which he
was one.
Ezra Hawley, and wife, Rhoda M. Buck, came from Bennington County, Vermont, to
Sangamon County, and to Bailey's Grove, in June, 1835; settled on S. 20, where
lie is still living. His living children, are: Anson, at home; Myron, who
married Emeline Hall, in Vermillion; Hiram, married Mary Goodwin, lives near the
old place.
Nathan Hawley, brother of Ezra, came from Vermont, July, 1836, and died the next
October; his widow, Chloe Ann Whiteside, lives near Peoria.
Aurilla Buck, sister of Mrs. Ezra Hawley, came in 1836; she married John Becker;
is now a widow, living in Rockford.
Jacob Burgess, came from Burlington County, New Jersey, in December, 1837;
settled on Section 31. His wife was Olive Clark; they are both dead. Ebenezer,
married Mary Seeley, he died in 1841; Dorothy, married Jonathan Hutchinson, of
Iowa; Jacob, married Betsey Hall, and lives in Tonica; Warren, married Emma
Swift; Stokes, married Emma Hiller; Sidney, married Miss Allen, on the old farm;
Mary, married Israel Hutchinson.
Israel Hutchinson, from New Jersey, came in 1837, and settled on S. 32, where he
still resides; he married Mary Burgess, and has had fifteen children.
Jonathan Hutchinson, from New Jersey, came in 1837; married Dorothy Burgess;
moved to Iowa.
Bailey Barrass, from Saratoga, N. Y., in 1837; a carpenter and joiner by trade,
an industrious and good mechanic; he married Annis, daughter of John Bailey. He
died in 1864, aged 51, leaving four children: John, died in the army; Orvill,
married Anna Fleming; Onslow, married Margaret A. Mosier, of Tonica; Julia, at
home.
Josiah Seybold, from Southern Illinois, a native of the State, came in 1833. He
built a flouring mill on the Vermillion, which was completed in 1836; he sold
the mill to the Messrs. Todd, and moved on a farm in the town of Eden. While
descending the Mississippi in a flat boat, he died at Natchez, suspected of
poison. He left three children: Thaddeus, married Lizzie Denton, lives in
Washington, D. C.; Jerome, is in Chicago; Mary, is the wife of Willis Stewart,
of Putnam County. Mrs. Seybold, Nancy Scanlan, from Virginia, now lives with
Mrs. Stewart.
Chester Dryer, from Seneca County, N. Y., in Dec. 1885, his family came in June,
1836. A sad fatality attended his family; his second son, Calvin, died in 1840;
his oldest son, William, died in 1841, and his wife, Sarah Hobro, died in 1842.
Of seven children by his first wife, one only survives, Keziah, wife of Sanford
Harwood, living in Iowa. Mr. Dryer's second wife is Mary Little; they have one
daughter. He brought in the first threshing machine — a fourhorse power that
delivered the grain on the ground from the cylinder to be cleaned by the hand
mill — an imperfect implement, but far better than tramping out the grain on the
ground with horses or cattle.
Mr. Dryer has held the office of Justice of the Peace for several years.
George Brown, from New Hampshire, came in 1830; was part owner, with William
Seeley, of the first sawmill built at Lowell; he died at Seeley's about 1836.
Moses Little, son of Ebenezer, came from New Hampshire in 1837; settled on
Section 33; removed, and died in Iowa, November, 1856.
Fernal Little, from New Hampshire, came in 1837; went to the south part of the
State.
Deacon Button came from Ohio to Michigan, and from Michigan to S. 31, T. 32, R.
2, in 1835; in 1844 he moved to Wisconsin. He had a large family; Rosanna,
married Peter Schoonover; another daughter married a Mr. Curtis; Ann, went to
Wisconsin; Aladelphia, died at home. His sons were: Hollis; Ard, married the
widow Faro; Charles, is a Baptist preacher of note; Asa; and some younger
children. They all went to Wisconsin.
Mr. Curtis, son-in-law of Button, came from Michigan with him, was constantly in
litigation with his brother-in-law Schoonover till he left for Wisconsin with
his wife's father, when Schoonover had to find another opponent.
Peter Schoonover came from Ohio and from Michigan here in 1830, settling on
Sections 32 and 33; married Rosanna Button, and was a large farmer and stock
raiser. He had a passion for litigation which was apparently uncontrollable, and
he seemed in a state of suffering when denied the pleasure and excitement of a
lawsuit. About 1857 he moved across the plains to Oregon, and when last heard
from was preaching in California. He had but little education, but much
practical shrewdness, and had learned by experience many quibbles and quirks of
the law. Nothing afforded him more exquisite pleasure than to get the advantage
of an opponent at law or to circumvent and outwit the simple men he employed to
work his farm. The tale of his sharp transactions would fill a volume. His
practice was, to make a written contract with the men he hired, so worded that
the contract was sure to be broken, when the laborer got no pay.
A few are inserted as a curiosity in their way.
He sold a pair of steers for $65 worth $35, and took a note as follows: " One
day after date, I promise to make for Peter Schoonover 32,000 oak shingles at
$2.00 per M., Schoonover to furnish timber." The cattle were placed at double
their value, and so was the work — but as the shingles could not be made in one
day, the giver of the note was called on for the money at the advanced price.
He arrested a German for burning some wheat stacks, as he claimed, by
carelessness; the frightened German who had not been near the stack, settled and
gave a note for $100; this by advice, he refused to pay; an arbitration
followed, and Schoonover recovered $28. Anxious to pay it and be clear of the
trouble, he traded a rifle worth $25 and a heifer worth $15 — all the property
he had, with Schoonover, and got an old rifle worth 50 cents and a credit on his
note for $13. Now, says Schoonover, you cannot read English, and will not
comprehend an endorsement, you had better give me a new note for the $15 balance
and take up the old note. He did so, but found he had received the $100 note
that was killed by the arbitration — Schoonover retaining the twenty-eight and
the fifteen dollar notes and the rifle and heifer.
He hired two Germans to split 6,000 rails for $30, or $5 per M., and to take in
pay a mare for the $30. The rails were to be good size, not less than four
inches square at the little end. One evening, Schoonover says, "Boys, let me
learn you a little shrewdness — it will enable you to get rich; let us alter the
terms of our contract, you give me $60 for the mare and I will give you $10 per
M. for making the rails, it will be all the same; if you buy the mare for $30,
you can never sell her for more, but give $60 and she will sell for that." They
did so. When the rails were made, they would not measure four inches square at
the small end, as no lot of rails ever did, and they got nothing for the
splitting, and paid $60 cash for the mare worth $30, which he had induced them
to take in advance, and they had traded away.
As a specimen of his forensic ability, a sample is given. His father-in-law,
Dea. Button, sued him for taking and butchering some of his hogs, and recovered.
At the trial, Schoonover said: "This old man has followed me from Ohio to
Michigan, and from Michigan to Illinois; he has pursued me as Saul pursued
David. And although I have had frequent opportunities I never cut off the tail
of his coat. How it looks for this old man to endeavor to destroy the reputation
of the legal protector of the only unspotted daughter the old man has got; this
venerable old man with one foot in the grave, and God knows the other had ought
to be."
Benjamin Lundy, settled in the town of Vermillion in 1838. His reputation is so
world-wide that among the old settlers he deserves more than a passing notice.
His ancestors were from England and Wales, and both his parents belonged to the
Society of Friends. He was born at Hardwich, Sussex County, New Jersey, January
4, 1789. His educational advantages were a few months only at a common school.
He learned the trade of a saddler at Wheeling, Virginia, and as that place was
then a great slave mart, he became strongly impressed with the enormity of
slavery. He here formed the acquaintance of William Lewis, and sisters, one of
whom he afterwards married, and set up his business of saddler, at St.
Clairville, on the Ohio. Although successful in business, he soon left it for
the more congenial employment of working for the freedom of the slave.
Lecturing, forming anti-slavery associations, and editing an abolition paper,
was the commencement of a work to which he devoted his life. When he entered the
field he promised never to leave it till he ceased to breathe or the object was
accomplished; he kept his word and died in the harness. Like Howard, the
philanthropist, he made it a life-work, regardless of the sacrifices, privations
and personal dangers that beset his path. His was such a character as the world
seldom produces. It crosses the plodding, selfish track of common humanity like
a luminous meteor passing athwart the somber darkness of the midnight sky. Men
pause while the evils and wrongs of society are exposed; and those who are ever
prone to travel thoughtlessly and without inquiry, in the ruts their fathers
made, even though they may be stained with the blood of suffering innocence,
have their dormant and sleeping consciences aroused.
Lundy was the first anti-slavery apostle, whose whole life was an offering on
the altar of human rights; his efforts aroused and enlisted Tappan, Goodell,
Garrison, and others, who became his coworkers, and who carried on the work
after Lundy had gone to his rest.
He started an anti-slavery paper at Mount Pleasant, Ohio, in 1821, called the
"Genius of Universal Emancipation." This paper he published sometimes as a
weekly, but generally as a monthly, with slight interruption, till his death, a
period of eighteen years. After issuing eight, monthly numbers he removed his
paper to Tennessee where he continued till his removal to Baltimore in 1 824.
The circulation of his paper was quite satisfactory, especially so in most of
the slave-holding States. His treatment of the subject, though firm and decided,
was mild and conciliatory, yet it soon aroused the demon of slavery, and often
exposed him to personal danger. - On one occasion in Tennessee, two ruffians
entered his office, shut and locked the door, and demanded the recantation of an
article published in the "Genius," but he coolly faced and held them at bay till
help arrived.
The circulation of his paper had become so general over the whole country, that
he thought its publication in one of the Atlantic cities would increase its
efficiency; he selected Baltimore as being central, and within the shadow of the
dark pall of human slavery, and located there in 1824. In 1828, lie made a tour
through New England, lecturing and forming his favorite anti-slavery societies,
and increasing the circulation of his paper. On this trip he first made the
acquaintance of Arthur Tappan, in New York; of William Goodell, in Providence,
and of William Lloyd Garrison, in Boston. Previous to this time, neither of
those gentlemen had been very active in the anti-slavery cause.
In November, 1828, he again traveled over New England and New York, and
delivered forty- three lectures while on the trip. The following winter he was
assaulted and nearly killed in the streets of Baltimore by Austin Woolfolk, a
slave-trader, for commenting on his conduct. The judge, before whom Woolfolk was
tried, told the jury that Lundy got no more than he deserved, and when the jury
rendered a verdict of guilty, the .judge fined him one dollar, and gave the
offensive article to the grand jury, informing them that it was libelous, but
the jury thought otherwise, and found no bill. The same winter Lundy went to
Hayti in the interest of some manumitted slaves who were settled there in a
state of freedom. While in Hayti his excellent and amiable wife and co-worker
died, leaving him with a family of five children. Though keenly sensitive to his
loss, his efforts in his life work were soon renewed with his usual vigor.
In the spring of 1829, he went again to Hayti on a similar mission. That spring
Wm. Lloyd Garrison joined him at Baltimore in editing the "Genius." Garrison was
more severe in his language than Lundy, and was soon imprisoned for libel, and
compelled to leave Baltimore. Soon after, a similar experience awaited Lundy,
and he was compelled to remove his paper to Washington.
In the years 1830 and 1831, he traveled most of the time, taking some of his
type and his subscription list with him. Stopping each month at some village
printing office he would get the loan of press and types, issue his monthly
edition, mail to his subscribers, and go on lecturing and forming societies; but
Washington was nominally the place of publication.
Lundy visited Texas and Mexico three different times, to procure grants of land
on which he could locate emancipated slaves, and raise cotton and sugar by free
labor. He found encouragement in Texas, but the filibustering on that contested
field about that time defeated the object. He obtained a grant of 138,000 acres
in the Mexican State of Tamanlipas, on condition he should introduce 250
families; this scheme received much favor at home, but the arrangement was also
defeated by the Texas imbroglio.
In these enterprises, Lundy seemed to trust in Providence, but more in his own
industry and indomitable pluck. On his arrival at Metamoras, on his journey to
Mexico, his funds gave out; he at once rented a room, went to work at his trade
of saddler, earning sometimes five dollars per day, and when his purse was
replenished, he again went on his way; he had frequently done this before.
His paper was prominent in all public questions where slavery was involved. With
the co-operation of John Q. Adams, he fought the enterprise of the Texan
invaders, as he had before in 1823 and '24, taking a leading part in opposition
to the attempt to introduce slavery into Illinois. It is singular, in the light
of the subsequent history of the anti-slavery contest, that the movement
inaugurated by Lundy should have made such headway in the slave States. His
paper for August, 1825, states that he had more subscribers in North Carolina
than in any other State. At an election in Baltimore, in 1826, Raymond, the
anti-slavery candidate, received one seventh of the votes cast; this and other
indications show that there was a healthy anti- slavery sentiment at the South,
but the aristocratic slaveholders then, as since, when aroused, crushed it out
and silenced its voice. A very unfortunate occurrence took place on the 3d of
August, 1831, in the insurrection of about fifty slaves in Southampton Co., Va.,
under a fanatical preacher by the name of Nat Turner. They procured arms and
commenced an indiscriminate massacre of all they met, without distinction of sex
or age, to the number in all of sixtythree, when they were dispersed. At the
same time a plot for an insurrection of the slaves of several counties of North
Carolina was discovered, and rumors of plots elsewhere were rife.
The natural effect of all this was to prejudice the public mind against all
anti- slavery efforts, and to embitter the contest between the pro’s and anti’s.
There is no probability that the anti-slavery movement had any influence in the
Nat Turner insurrection; Turner was a fanatic, and probably insane; he claimed
to have been commanded from, heaven to do what he did.
In August, 1836, Lundy commenced in Philadelphia the publication of a weekly
paper devoted toemancipation, called the National Inquirer, and in 1838
relinquished its publication, and was succeeded by John G. Whittier. The
"Genius," as a monthly, was published during this time at Philadelphia,, where
it had been removed from Washington.
A large hall, costing $30,000, built by abolitionists and others, was opened on
the 14th of May, 1838, and several abolition meetings and discussions held;
therein. On the evening of the 17th, a mob assaulted and burned the hall, with
little opposition from the police; the firemen protected the adjoining building,
but did nothing to save the hall. This was done in staid Quaker Philadelphia,
and shows the bitter contest then being waged on the slavery question. Lundy’s
books, papers, clothing and other personal effects were all burned in the
building. He had for sometime contemplated moving his paper to the then opening
Northwest. He left Philadelphia in July, and arrived in Illinois in September.
Disappointed in an attempt to start hi*paper at Hennepin, he accepted a
proposition from the citizens of Lowell, La Salle Co., and moved therein the
winter of 1838-9, built a house and printing: office, and purchased a tract of
land four miles distant. Here his paper was published rather irregularly, for
the want of funds, having at first no help, but his two sons, one of whom
attended to the farm.
In August he was attacked with bilious fever, then prevalent in that locality,
and died on the 22d of August, 1839, in the 51st year of his age. His remains
were buried in the Friend's burying ground on Clear creek, in Putnam County,
Ill.
The foregoing gives but a faint idea of the self-sacrifice, indomitable
perseverance, and whole-souled philanthropy of Benjamin Lundy, for whatever may
be the views of any one on the slavery question, it cannot be denied that he
deserves the name of a philanthropist in the broadest sense. He was not a
fanatic; his views were broad and catholic, as is shown by the toleration of his
efforts at the South, where his paper was as well received as at the North. His
efforts at colonization were broad and comprehensive, showing a cool head as
well as a warm heart; always conciliatory, but never yielding an iota of the
rights of our common humanity, his was just the organization to lay broad and
deep the foundations of universal emancipation. With an open and pleasing
countenance, genial, and winning manners, he made friends of all his associates,
while his convictions of truth and right were as firm as the granite hills;
neither poverty, sickness, affliction, toil and privation, mob violence, or the
heel of the beastly Woolfolk, could swerve him from his purpose.
His weapons were argument, reason, justice, and right, clothed in the garb of
plain Quaker simplicity and sincerity; and when the contest became intensely
embittered, and insane passion put reason and right at defiance, it was,
perhaps, well that he should quietly go to his rest beneath the peaceful sylvan
beauties of the prairie, where coming generations will chant the praise of the
Quaker philanthropist, whose quiet voice spoke terror to Tyranny's hosts, and
inaugurated the work that finally broke the fetters of the slave.
Mr. Lundy left five children, two sons and three daughters: Susan, married Wm.
Wiseman, of Putnam County, now in Kansas; Eliza, married Isaiah Griffith, live
in Iowa, Mr. Lundy’s sons are both, dead. Charles, died in Oct., 1858; his
widow, Mrs. E. M. Lundy, is living at Granville, Putnam County. Benjamin,
married, practiced medicine in Magnolia, and died there, leaving one son,
William L., the only male descendant, who is clerk in a drug store, in Henry;
his widow married C. C. Gappin, and lives in Lacon. Esther, the twin sister of
Benjamin, died single.
Zebina Eastman was assisting Mr. Lundy in the publication of his paper, at the
time of Lundy’s death, and immediately after commenced the publication of the
"Western Citizen," an anti-slavery paper, at Chicago, which was continued for
several years, and was really a continuation of Lundy’s work in the Northwest.
David Perkins came from New York in 1837. He married Miss Barrass; resided at
Lowell several years, and removed to Chicago, where he is now living.
Dr. Jethro Hatch, and wife, Ruth Cogswell, came from New Preston, Ct., in 1834;
was a physician of good practice. Had two daughters: Mary Ann and Elizabeth.
Mrs. Hatch died about 1845; the Doctor died about 1860.
Extracted from 1877 History of La Salle County Illinois, pages 287-310.
| Lee | DeKalb | Kane |
| Bureau |
 |
Kendall |
| Putnam | Grundy | |
| Marshall | Woodford | Livingston |
