The first settler in Salem township was also the first settler in the county,
as has been related in the sketch of the county. His name was Capt. Samuel
Young, and from him is derived the numerous families of Youngs in this part of
the county. He was a widower when he came to the county and had a large family.
James Young was his eldest son, and was a married man, and soon the old man
turned over to him the cares of the farm, while Captain Samuel put in his time
hunting and fishing, and in other backwoods occupations. He was an original
character and like all backwoods men, he had a strong aversion to anything that
smacked of style, which in his later years, was sometimes seen in the travelers
on the highway from Vincennes to St. Louis. It is related of him that being in
Salem one day he saw a couple of young men who offended his sense of taste by
their slighting remarks. They were easterners who were going to St. Louis. Young
hastened home and getting his gun watched for the youths and as they arrived
about where Ike Shanafelt's house now stands, confronted them with his gun and
made them dismount and dance a hornpipe for the amusement of the backwoods man,
which he made them keep up until well-nigh exhausted, when he permitted them to
proceed on their way, while the old man went chuckling home, but he who laughs
last laughs best, and the old man was not done with dancing. The youths on
arriving at Carlyle related the circumstance and learning of the intention of a
couple of travelers to journey to Vincennes, prevailed on them to pay the old
man in his own coin, which they did by watching for him, and at the muzzle of a
pistol made the old man give a half-hour exhibition dance in the middle of the
road and then rode away leaving the old man in doubt as to who had the best of
it.
The history of Salem is largely the history of the county for the
first few years, so far as civil history goes. The township was about half
timber and half prairie, but now is largely cleared and in cultivation. The main
watercourse is Crooked creek, which flows southwest across the township from
section 24 to 31. The Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern Railroad runs about two
miles south of the north line of the township, and nearly parallel to it, while
the old Vincennes road parallels the railroad, about a half mile north. The C. &
E. I. Railroad enters the township at the northeast corner, bends to the west
about one mile to the city of Salem, and then bends to the east, passing out of
the township near the southeast corner of section 24.
The Illinois
Southern enters the township on the west near the southwest corner and runs to
the city of Salem, its northern terminus. The Chicago branch of the Illinois
Central crosses the northwest corner of the township, but has no station in
Salem township, but Tonti in Tonti township is only three miles from the city of
Salem, and gives good shipping facilities, by that road. It is said that a
narrow policy held to by the citizens of Salem when the road was being built
prevented the Central coming to Salem. If such was the policy of the fathers it
is certainly not of the sons for when the C. P. & M. was projected, Salem
citizens gave eleven thousand dollars cash and the right of way through the
township as an inducement to deflect from a straight line, so as to touch Salem,
and they also gave the right of way to the Illinois Southern, when it was
extended from Centralia.
The next comers after Young and his sons-in-law
Snodgrass and Piles, did not settle in this township for some years. James
Roberts was the first; he came from Indiana in 1819. He brought his wife and
four children, two sons, Jesse and William, and two daughters, both married, one
Mrs. John Walker, the other Mrs. William Frost. This family made the second
settlement and Roberts having selected section 11, began improvements, where the
city of Salem now stands, thus increasing the population by eight adults.
Roberts sold his holdings to Rufus Ricker and Mark Tulley in 1824 and moved back
to Indiana with his entire family. Mark Tully, who came to the township in 1821,
was the second son of an Irish emigrant and wife and was born near Harpers
Ferry, Virginia, then went to Tennessee, thence to Indiana and from there to
Illinois in 1821. He first settled about three miles west of Salem, in the
neighborhood of the Youngs. He brought his wife and four children of his own and
two step-children, having married a widow. Nine more children were born to them
after coming to this county, one of whom is still living in Salem, and is well
known to almost every citizen of the county, who has been here anytime. We refer
to Mr. Ander Tully, Esq., and from him we get most of the facts pertaining to
the family. Mr. Tully soon after his settlement moved to a place north of Salem
and in 1824 in partnership with Rufus Ricker bought out James Roberts and
confirmed the deed of gift of thirty acres of land made by Roberts to the county
in 1823, in consideration of the county seat being located on his land. Ricker
and Tully and their wives signed the deed in 1826, Mrs. Tully signing by mark as
Suckey Tully.
The Tully family by their number unites in strains of
blood more or less closely most of the old families of Salem, among whom are the
Hulls, the Bryans and the Ogles, and through their children, many others. Mr.
Tully was a man of fine character and was endowed with the clear brain and kind
heart of his Irish forefathers. He was the first Sheriff of the county and for
many years was one of the guiding spirits of the destinies of the new county. He
was left the second of five children when quite young to the care of his mother,
made a widow by the unprovoked murder of his father. The story as I have it from
Mr. Ander Tully is as follows:
Shortly after the War of the Revolution
the elder Tully and his wife emigrated from Ireland to Virginia and settled a
few miles west of what is now Harper's Ferry. They possessed but little of this
world's goods, but with cheerful bravery proceeded to wrest fortune from the
hand of destiny. Mr. Tully was employed as a teamster for the proprietor of a
store, a day's journey from the ferry, and was accustomed to take trips lasting
three or four weeks with a five horse team and an immense freight wagon, there
being no other way to transport produce from or goods to the country store of
his employer. On these trips Mr. Tully would camp by the wayside to feed and
cook meals or pass the night, often not seeing a person for days unless chancing
to meet a traveler like himself. On one occasion he was returning with a load of
salt, driving his five horse team (two teams and a "spike" leader, driven by a
single line, the driver riding one wheel horse) when noon overtook him about six
miles from his journey's end and he stopped to feed and rest his team. While so
resting a settler passed going to the store and spoke to Mr. Tully and passed
on. Arriving at the store he told the proprietor his team would be in soon as he
had passed it some miles back. The settler did not return that way, but went
home by another route. The storekeeper looked for the team's coming, but it had
not appeared at sundown. He waited until nine o'clock, then thinking Tully must
have broken down, got another man, and taking lanterns with them started to look
for the team and driver. When they arrived at the place where the friend had
seen Tully taking the noon hour rest, they found the wagon and team with the
best horse missing and a worn-out horse in its stead. A search of the ground
showed evidence of a struggle and blood stains. They followed the track marked
by blood drippings to the ferry, which was of the flatboat kind, held in place
by a rope across the river and a running pulley propelled by poling. The
ferryman had been absent during the day, but his wife on being asked said a man
and woman in a one-horse wagon accompanied by a man on horseback, were ferried
over by her that afternoon, and being asked if she noticed anything about the
buggy, she said there was blood dripping from the rear end, but as it was a
daily occurrence for hunters to have a deer or bear just killed, she thought
nothing of it. She indicated the way the trio went. A posse was obtained and
pursuit made the next day and on the morning after a pole with a man's head
stuck on it was standing on the river bank. The murderers were the notorious
Harpe brothers known throughout the West as Big Harpe and Little Harpe. The head
was that of Big Harpe. Little Harpe and the woman escaped. Little Harpe was
killed in New Orleans years after and confessed before he died that he and his
brother killed Tully, and thus concluded Uncle Ander. My father has told me many
times of the death of my grandfather and from that time the ferry was called
Harper's Ferry. Mrs. Mark Tully died in Salem in 1857. Mr. Tully retired to his
farm in Tonti township and lived a retired life until his summons came in 1869,
October 11th, when he slept the last sleep.
Rufus Ricker came in 1819
from Indiana most probably with Mark Tully, as they were friends and associates
in business, he and Tully buying out Roberts, as has been mentioned before. He
was popular and took prominent part in the affairs of the new county. He was the
first postmaster, being appointed in 1825. After several years he went to Iowa.
The first marriage in the township was Samuel Young's daughter, Patsy, to Jacob
Albert, a soldier of the second war with Great Britain. Abia Lee, a Justice of
the Peace, performed the ceremony. This wedding was in 1816. The first child
born was a daughter of this couple, and the first male child was John, a son of
Matthew Young, who at the age of nineteen married Miss Sarah Ware. John, or
Farmer John Young, as he was called, lived and died within a few hundred yards
of where his father and mother began life together. John lived to a ripe old
age, and died in 1906. Several sons and daughters of Matthew and Sarah Young are
still living in the county, and many grandchildren and great grandchildren.
Matthew's wife survived him three or four years, but died about eighteen years
ago. The writer knew them "well in life, and in death, as minister, laid them to
rest as well as their eldest son, John Young. The first death in the township
was William, son of Robert Snodgrass, and Jane Snodgrass, his wife, which
occurred in 1816. The deceased was buried at Young's graveyard in section 16.
This was the first graveyard in the county.
A rude log hut was built in
1824 near James Young's on section 16 as a school-house, and as it was only used
in summer it was not even chinked and daubed. The first teacher was William
Hadden, who taught the three "R's" "Readin', Ritin' and Rithmetic." Preaching
was at private houses as often as possible and by 1825 the passing preacher
became a regular preacher, leaving his appointments sometimes months ahead, and
today there is one preacher who had preached every year on the same Sunday in
the year for forty-four years. We refer to Elder J. D. Morgan, of Odin, and the
place is at Young's this township. The celebrated Lorenzo Dow, Thomas Cole,
Leonard Maddux and Elder Patterson were among the first preachers and often the
funeral sermon of a deceased friend was preached a year or more after interment.
Those of today cannot know the toil and hardships these early soldiers of the
Cross had to bear that the message might be brought to those hungering after the
bread of life. The preaching day was "norated" abroad and when it arrived the
neighborhood met at the house where the preaching was to be, coming for miles on
foot, in oxcarts, wagons and on horseback. The preacher at the hour of service
arose and lined the opening hymn, sometimes reading the entire hymn first and
then lining it. This was necessary, as perhaps the only hymn book in the
audience was that carried by the preacher. The manner of lining was as follows:
The preacher would read, say,
"From Greenland's icy mountains
To
India's coral strands,"
and then call the meter, long, common, or short,
and start the hymn. After these two lines were sung, he would read the next two:
"Where Afric's sunny fountains
Roll down the golden sands."
All immediately sang these lines and thus alternately reading and singing, the
hymn was finished, nor was the effect so grotesque as one might think, as
practice rendered the singers adept at beginning at the right time with right
tone and pitch. Often in my young days in Illinois I have listened to this kind
of singing and thought it excellent.
James Roberts built the first mill.
It stood on Main street near the place where Mat Marshall's house now stands. It
was a horse mill, but passed into the hands of Mark Tully in 1823 and after
running it some years he made it into a steam mill. No trace of it now remains.
The township is now fairly dotted with fine farms, good houses and barns, large
orchards, and all that goes to make rural life worth living. Schools are
plentiful, with good school houses and the best equipments and a fine corps of
teachers. What a change a few short years have brought about. Where the wild
Indian whoop was heard a few years ago is now heard only the hum of quiet
industry and the silent arches by nature built has given place to the homes of
men. May they be happy homes of virtue, love and peace.
THE CITY OF
SALEM.
The city of Salem, county seat of Marion county, is within a mile
or less from the geographic center of the county, that is, the northeast corner
of the city is within less than a mile of the northeast corner of the township,
which is at the exact center of the county. The original town was an exact
square around which was an alley, twenty feet wide. The city inside of this
alley was divided into four squares by two principal streets at right angles to
each other and crossing each other at what is known as the bank corner. Each
square was again divided into four equal square blocks by streets fifty feet
wide, the two principal streets, Broadway, running north and south and Main
street, running east and west, being one hundred feet wide. The blocks in turn
were divided into eight lots each fifty-six by one hundred and twelve feet.
Block three in square one was reserved as a county square and is still, and
forever must be by the terms of the gift, the court-house square. The land
within the twenty-foot bordering alley, was donated to the county in accordance
with the act of the Legislature creating the county, by James Roberts, who was
the owner by right of squatter sovereignty and entry in 1819. Although he did
not deed the land, but left that to his successors in title, Rufus Ricker and
Mark Tully, who confirmed the gift by deed dated June 6, 1826. The Commissioners
acting for the county were John S. Davis, Leonard P. Pyles and Benjamin
(Blackbear) Vermillion.
The first house in Salem was a log house built
by James Roberts; it stood on the south side of Main street, east of the square,
but was not in the original town. It is still standing, having been repaired and
weather-boarded and now has the appearance of an old frame house. The second
house was built by Mark Tully as a stopping place for the Vincennes stage, which
route was in use as early as 1820. This house was built about the time that
Ricker and Tully bought Roberts out and stood as the homestead of A. R. Bryan
until his death, with, however, many improvements and additions it has sheltered
three generations and still stands a commodious and substantial building.
The first store was kept by Martin Hill. It was in a small frame building
about the middle of the block west from the courthouse, and north of Main
street; it has disappeared. Hill kept a few groceries and notions, perhaps the
entire stock was brought from St. Louis by one wagon. The next store stood where
the National Bank now stands. Thomas Higgins was the proprietor, and was the
first to sell dry goods in Salem.
The first church was built by the
Presbyterians. It stood northeast from the courthouse, near the old creamery
site. It was sold to the Colored Baptists, and is now gone. It was built in
1846.
The first school-house was built in 1840, and stood in the same
part of the town as the Presbyterian church. It was built in 1840. It was a
small frame building and stood many years, and has only disappeared with the
last decade. It must not be inferred that the children received no education
from 1823 to 1840, but during those seventeen years school had been kept at such
times and places as teachers and patrons could make convenient. The city did not
grow rapidly. Indeed, it was only the county seat and a stopping place for stage
coaches for many years and consisted of some half a dozen houses. By 1837 the
hamlet had grown so that the subject of incorporating was agitated and a meeting
was called for July 1, 1837, to consider the advisability of incorporating Salem
as a town. The meeting was held in the store of Col. W. N. Dobbins, and Uriah
Mills was elected as chairman and Thomas Ray as clerk. They were both sworn to
do the duties of their offices to the best of their abilities. The minutes of
the meeting as preserved among the county records are unique, and are here
copied verbatim:
"On motion of Col. W. N. Dobbins, W. D. Haynie
explained the object of the meeting and on motion of N. B. Nelems, the house
proceeded to ascertain by vote the sense of the meeting. Whareuppon William D.
Haynie, Jas. Marshal, N. B. Nelems, William N. Dobbins, Uriah Mills, W. H. H.
Barens, John Harner, George W. Pace and Thomas Ray, voting in favor of
incorporating the said town. No opposition voats. We certify that thare ware
nine voats in favor of incorporating the town, as above, and none against."
"URIAH MILLS, Pres. "THOMAS RAY, Clerk."
We have preserved this
unique document in wording and spelling that modern methods may be compared
therewith. Just what was accomplished by the meeting it is difficult to see, as
no further action seems to have been taken and there is no evidence that the
town was legally incorporated at that time, nor was any further action taken
until the spring of 1854, when a proposition to organize as a village was
submitted to the voters. The proposition was carried by a vote of seventy-six to
thirteen against. An election was called and the following five trustees was
elected: Thomas Day, B. F. Marshall, S. W. Cuningham, T. O. Leffingwell and
Samuel Hull. W. W. Jennings was chosen constable. Salem remained under the
village charter until 1865, when it was made a city by special act of the
Legislature. W. E. McMackin (afterward lieutenant colonel of General Grant's
regiment) was elected first Mayor.
In 1829 Salem contained five
families, viz., those of Rufus Ricker, Mark Tully, James Chance, James Pyles and
Martin Hill. Ricker was Clerk of the Court and postmaster; Tully was Sheriff,
Chance was a blacksmith; Hill a storekeeper, and Pyles a farmer. Today Salem has
three thousand five hundred people, three railroads, three miles of brick paved
streets, about ten miles of granitoid sidewalk, a large three-story school
building, two bank buildings, the finest in Southern Illinois; four hotels, two
steam flouring mills, steam brick-making plant; two large and six medium dry
goods houses, the larger carrying a thirty thousand dollar stock, the others
from six thousand to ten thousand dollar stocks; three millinery stores; one
china store; two clothing stores, each with large stock; one machine shop, four
butcher shops, two furniture stores, one of which is the largest establishment
of its kind south of Springfield; ten grocery stores, one poultry house, two
jewelry stores and two drug stores. The city is lighted by electricity, the city
owning its own plant. Until 1905 the city's growth was very slow, the census of
1900 giving it but one thousand six hundred and forty-two inhabitants, but in
1905 the C. & E. I. Railroad removed their repair shops from St. Elmo to Salem,
a company of citizens buying and giving to the company a strip of land one
thousand feet wide and two miles long for yards. The company also made Salem a
division headquarters with offices of superintendent, engineer, freight and
dispatcher's headquarters of the division, thus doubling the population in less
than a year. Salem still needs two things to make it an ideal city: waterworks
and good country roads leading to the city limits. Both are being agitated and
both will come and that, too, in the near future.
Salem also boasts of
the largest seed-cleaning establishment in the state if not in the world that
makes an exclusive business of handling Red Top seed. Thousands and thousands of
bushels are handled every year. The seed is said to be shipped to Europe and
there used in making an excellent dye for fabric coloring.
The Salem
mine, now being rebuilt after the fire of last December is, as has been stated,
one of the deepest in the state, nine hundred and one feet to the bottom of the
sump. The vein is four feet and six inches thick, but of an excellent quality,
burning without clinkers and giving an intense heat, and is equal to one and
one-half times the unit of other coal.
The city cemetery, known as East
Lawn, is situated in the eastern part of the city and contains about twenty
acres. It is beautifully located and well cared for and speaks well for the
people's remembering their dead. A small soldiers' monument occupies the circle
in the center of the cemetery. It was erected by the Woman's Relief Corps to the
memory of the deceased soldiers of the Civil war. The cemetery as a burial place
dates back to 1830, and a man by the name of Hammers is supposed to have been
the first interment.
The oldest newspaper in the county is published in
Salem. It is the Weekly Herald-Advocate, owned and published by Senator C. E.
Hull.
As Centralia had her mystery of hidden skeletons so Salem also had
her mystery, but in the case of Salem the mystery was speedily cleared away.
About twenty-four years ago, when the excavation for the basement of the
present Cutler & Hays building was being dug, the workmen dug out of an old
abandoned well the skeleton of a woman, which was covered by the debris that had
accumulated in the old well. As an old house had been standing many years on the
spot the report started that someone had been murdered and thrown into the well
years before. Great excitement prevailed and the wiseacres began to tell of this
one and that one who might have been murdered, drawing largely upon their
imaginations, and dark hints as to who the murderers were, filled the minds of
the ever-increasing crowds. People from the country around flocked to town day
after day until the excitement grew so great it was thought best to clear up the
mystery, as some of the best citizens were coming under the suspicion of the
unreasoning throng. It was quietly let leak out that the whole thing was a
grewsome joke and the perpetrators confessed to having hid the skeleton in the
well the night before its discovery. The jokers were Dr. G. S. Rainey, now chief
surgeon for the C. & E. I. Railroad; W. S. Slack, now proprietor of the Salem
Marble Works, and Dr. Will McMackin, since dead. The crowd of excited citizens
vanished and everybody said, "I knew it was some joke of Doctor Rainey's."
Extracted 27 Mar 2020 by Norma Hass from 1909 Brinkerhoff's History of Marion County, Illinois, pages 163-170.