My great grandfather came to Illinois from Ohio in 1832, on horseback. His
name was Samuel Parr. He was a carpenter and cabinet maker. He built the Joseph
Brumback house in 1833.
Joseph Brumback's wife was my
great-grandfather's sister Mary. Samuel Parr made his home with the Brumbacks
while building his own house, which still stands on the homeplace in Manlius
township, north of Marseilles.
The beams in this house are black walnut,
hand hewed. There is a fireplace which will take four-foot back logs. The crane
in the fireplace had hooks on which to hang kettles. The original andirons were
wrought iron. He made the doors, cupboards and panellings in the wainscoating by
hand. The cellar floor is of Joliet stone, brought by canal boat from the quarry
at Joliet.
The piers of the barn are also of Joliet stone. The beams are
hand hewed. The braces and beams are put together with wooden pegs.
Saw
logs were hauled several miles to a sawmill to be sawed into boards.
The
deed to my great-grandfather's farm was signed by President Van Buren. The land
was land granted to Illinois and Michigan Canal Company and sold for $1.25 to
$1.75 an acre, depending on whether it was timber or prairie land, timber at
that time being more desirable. My grandfather split out thousands of rails to
make rail fences. They farmed the highland because there were many ponds and
swamps.
This wild prairie land was beautiful with flowers. The ponds and
swamps were full of wild fowl and varieties of snakes. There were both prairie
and timber wolves, and occasionally a panther. There was wild game; deer and
wild turkeys were plentiful.
People who later built north on the prairie
used the timber as a common pasture.
There were no roads laid out,
people traveled where it was easiest, usually on the highest land. The trail
then going north of the house. After the road was surveyed on the proper line it
went south of the house instead of north. If it had been placed on the proper
line it would have gone through the big barn, which is at least twenty-five rods
south of the house.
At the time my great-grandfather built this house,
the nearest house northeast was at Big Grove, and the fort at Ottawa was the
nearest place of refuge when Indians came.
Before the canal went
through, wheat was hauled by wagon (four horses on every wagon) to Chicago,
where it was loaded and shipped east on boats. Usually several neighbors went
together for protection. The trip took five days — two days going in, one to
unload and load a return load of merchandise for themselves and neighbors, and
two days to come back. Wheat was ground into flour at Elerdings' mill, north of
Sheridan. Wool was taken to Dayton, where it was made into flannel, usually red.
My grandfather and the Millikens, the Trumbo's and the Fogies kept packs
of foxhounds and went hunting, as the English do. They all had good saddle
horses; they could jump fences and ford rivers. They went as far west as La
Salle and north along the river past Sheridan. They killed wolves, but a fox,
when run to earth, was never dug out and killed.
Joseph Brumback had a
sorghum mill and made molasses for himself and the neighbors. One night my
grandfather, George Parr, was helping the Brumback boys, his cousins, boil down
syrup when they decided to make some taffy candy. Mr. Brumback came to see if
everything was all right, and it happened that the boy who was drawing the
molasses did not turn the faucet off far enough and a barrel of molasses
drizzled down the creek.
Here is another story of my grandfather's
boyhood: He and his cousins were looking for their cows. They saw a neighbor
also looking for his cows. The boys climbed a tree and hid. When the neighbor
came near ^he tree, they screamed like a panther. The man ran home without
waiting to find his cows. He afterwards told there was a panther in the woods.
There is also a story handed down from my grandfather that while he was
building a house a man visited and spent the night. He placed his violin in the
wall behind the wainscoating. When he went away he left it there. My
great-grandfather, not knowing the violin was there, lathed and plastered the
wall. The violin is there yet, if the story is true.
Extracted 08 Nov 2018 by Norma Hass from Stories of Pioneer Days in La Salle County, Illinois, by Grammar Grade Pupils, published in 1932, page 44.
| Lee | DeKalb | Kane |
| Bureau |
 |
Kendall |
| Putnam | Grundy | |
| Marshall | Woodford | Livingston |
