4-4 in the Government survey, the northeast township in the county is
Meacham. A little more than half of this township is beautiful level prairie
land, slightly undulating in a very small part. The prairie is all cultivated
and a good part of the timber land is cleared and in good farms. A small part of
the timber, like that of Omega, is somewhat broken and hilly. The Chicago branch
of the Central Illinois crosses the northwest corner, but has no station in the
township. Kinmundy and Farina in Fayette county are its markets for the larger
part, although some produce is taken to Clay county station on the Springfield
branch of the Baltimore & Ohio Southwestern.
The first settler was
Cornelius Dunham. He came with his family from New York in 1823, and located on
section 13, but in 1836 he went to Iowa, leaving his family behind. The family
afterwards went to Wisconsin.
The prairie was first, occupied by a man
by the name of Ingram. He located near a point of timber since known as Ingram
Point. This was about 1824. John Chesser located a farm in what is now known as
Schrutchfield's Prairie. It was then called Chesser's Prairie, but he only lived
there one year, and in 1833 sold to Terry Schrutchfield, and the name changed to
that of the new settler. One Wright also located in the same prairie about this
time. Schrutchfield lived in Xenia about ten years, having came from Indiana in
1823. His son, John Schrutchfield, inherited the same farm and occupied it many
years.
Felix G. Cockrell, of Morgan county, Kentucky, came to Meacham
with his wife in 1837. They had two children at this time and had six more born
to them here, seven of whom reached maturity. Mr. Cockrell lived on the farm
where he first settled until his death about eighteen years ago, near ninety
years of age. Two of the sons are still living, Hon. James Cockrell and Clayburn
Cockrell, both of this county. Mrs. Cockrell died in 1865. Mr. Cockrell married
again in 1868, and three children were born to them.
William Orender
settled a claim in 1837, but sold it to John Deremiah, who with his brother,
Thomas, entered in section 3, in 1837. John Orender located on what is known as
the Switzer place, but sold his claim to Switzer in 1838. All the Orenders moved
to Fayette county, where all the family died. George Neal and his father-in-law,
William Chaffin came to Meacham the same year, 1837, as did also John Meacham
and his wife, Nancy, and her son-in-law, and her single daughter, Henrietta
Lilly. They came from Tennessee in 1837. Henrietta married William Deremiah soon
after their arrival. Meacham's house was the voting place for the precinct and
thus his name attached to the township.
John W. Nichols was in early
life something of a wanderer. He was born in Tennessee and came to Kinmundy in
1823. At that time his nearest neighbor was five miles away. After four years he
went to Wisconsin, where he married, and the next year returned to Marion county
and lived just north of the city of Kinmundy. This was in 1828. The next year he
moved to Fayette county, and after a short stay moved to Salem, and in 1837 he
entered land in Meacham, where he made himself a home and where he lived many
years, and where he died at a ripe old age.
In 1839 a Mormon, who had
been driven out of Missouri, came to Meacham. His name was George W. Orman, and
he preached at his home to such of his neighbors as would come. John
Schrutchfield was converted to that faith and joined the Mormon church, but the
doctrine was not acceptable to the people and there were no more converts.
A post-office was established in 1840 on the Salem and Ewington road and
called Mount Liberty, but when an office was established at Kinmundy, it was
discontinued. The township is now served by rural routes.
Felix Cockrell
built a horse mill in 1844, Andrew Shields a blacksmith shop about 1835. The
Elder graveyard was the first burial place. It is still used occasionally as a
place of interment. The first sermon preached in the township was at the house
of Nancy Mitchell in 1837, by William Chaffin, a Christian preacher. The
Methodists built the first church in 1840. It was of logs hewn by Wesley Oliver.
William Blundle was the first preacher. During the Civil war politics divided
the church, and it went down and for a time there was no church in the township,
but school-houses were used. Now churches have been built and the spiritual
needs of the people are cared for by visiting ministers.
The first
school was taught by Hiram K. Farris at the Farris school-house. William
Deremiah was the second teacher, at the Elder school-house. These schools were
taught early in the thirties. In 1839 the Cockrell school-house was built and
the first teacher was Miss Susan Jones, afterward Mrs. "Buck" Pace, of Salem.
Meacham now has good school-houses conveniently located to meet the needs of an
increasing population. The township is purely agricultural and ranks with the
best in the county.
Extracted 27 Mar 2020 by Norma Hass from 1909 Brinkerhoff's History of Marion County, Illinois, pages 208-210.