THE Township and village of Senachwine derive their names from a noted
Indian chieftain formerly living in the vicinity, and whose remains were
interred half a mile north-east of the village. The Township consists of one
whole and one fractional township, and contains in all about forty-four
sections of land. It lies upon the west side of the Illinois River, and is
made up of alluvial bottom and table land of unparalleled fertility.
Portions are subject to overflow, but year by year the river is receding or
the annual deposits raise the land so that a larger surface is brought under
cultivation.
The principal stream is Senachwine Creek, known in
former times as the Little Elbow in contradistinction to a larger stream of
the same name in the vicinity.
Senachwine Lake is a pleasant body of
water east of the village, about two and a half miles long and from eighty
to one hundred rods wide, noted for its fine fish and for being a pleasant
resort for hunting and bathing parties in summer.
In 1885 a town was
laid out here by B. M. Hayes, but appears to have died in the shell, as
nothing of its history can be learned.
Subsequently the village of
Senachwine was laid out by Peter Barnhart and Cortland Condit, owners of the
land.
In the year 1855 the Bureau Valley Railroad was built, and the
same year James McCurdy opened a store, the first in the place. He was also
the first postmaster. In that year, too, George H. Ward began the grocer's
trade, and Aaron Haines built a hotel. At present the town contains about
one hundred buildings of all kinds, and 400 inhabitants. It has two
churches, a fine public school house, elevator, passenger building, flouring
mill, several good stores, etc.
The bluffs abound with coal, which,
though easily mined, has never been developed.
Early attention was
given to schools, and a building for school purposes was erected in 1838, on
an island in the lake, at which most of the young men of that day obtained
the rudiments of their education. The first teacher was Mary Emerson, and
her patrons were Messrs. Reed, Bacon, Morgan, Talliaferro, Barnhart and
Condit. For many years this building served its purpose, but long since gave
way to a better structure and went to decay.
The first white settler at Senachwine was James R. Talliaferro, who in
March, 1835, made a claim on the site of the deserted Indian village. The
only white settlers then in this valley besides himself were: Tyrrell
Reeves, Jesse Perkins, Win. Lathrop and Russell Mallory and their families.
For many miles above and below, on the east side of the river, there were no
other settlers.
At Henry there were Major Thompson, Mr. Stacey and
Charles Nock. With the exceptions of Mr. and Mrs. Talliaferro, there are now
none living of those first settlers of this Township.
George Reeves,
famous as "the outlaw," lived in a small shanty north of Talliaferro's
dwelling, which is now known as the James Winship place. Reeves' brother
Tyrrell at one time lived near the top of the same hill, but he subsequently
removed to the lower end of Crow Meadow Prairie. There was a third brother
named William, who lived with them a short time, but returned to Indiana.
There was still another brother named John, who improved the place from
which George was afterward expelled. Tyrrell and William improved the place
which was afterward known as the Barnhart place.
When Talliaferro
moved to Senachwine he was accompanied by a young man named Asa Mounts, and
a young woman, Charlotte Pfieffer. These persons were subsequently, in the
fall of 1835, united in marriage and settled north of Mr. Talliaferro's
place, on the Perkins farm.
The next settler was Wm. L. Gilbert, who
occupied a part of the Barnhart farm, and near him Dr. Culbertson, a
physician who did not practice his profession, also settled and improved the
Wm. Wheeler place.
In the fall of 1837, Samuel C. Bacon and Thomas
Morgan settled upon the Culbertson claim.
The wife of James R.
Talliaferro came with her parents to LaSalle County in 1828, when she was
thirteen years of age; was married in 1833, and came to live at her new home
at Senachwine in 1836. The first death that occurred here was their son
Norris, on August 21, 1836, an infant less than a year old.
Thomas
Morgan came to Hennepin in 1835, and was married to Clara Cook, sister of W.
E. Cook, deceased, of Lacon, an account of whose wedding is given elsewhere.
Peter Barnhart afterward bought Gilbert's claim and settled thereon
in 1836. On this place he was prosperous, and there he ended his days.
C. R. Condit came in 1836, and settled south of the Indian mounds, where
he laid out the town of Senachwine, at first calling it Condit. Philip Reed
arrived during the same season and made a claim on what was afterward the
Drake farm.
Lewis Thompson and Wm. Kidney arrived in 1837, and began
improvements on their afterward well known homestead. James Buchanan came in
1838, made a claim and sold it to Matthew Hoyt, who occupied it the
following year.
William Williams started from his home in
Philadelphia in 1837, went to Hartford, Indiana, where he remained till the
spring of 1838, when he made a trip as supercargo of a flatboat down the
Ohio and Mississippi Rivers and up Red River, returning to Hartford the next
year. Later in the year he traveled across the country on horseback to
Warford Bonham's, above Sparland. He afterward opened a claim in the Snyder
settlement, where he became acquainted with John B. White, for whom the town
of Whitefield was named. In 1843 he married Miss A. Lyon, having previously
moved to Senachwine. He was Judge of Putnam County for six years, and held
many different local offices, among them Justice of the Peace, the duties of
which office he performed for twenty-five years.
Samuel C. Bacon
moved to Senachwine in the fall in 1837, and was the first Justice of the
Peace of the precinct, and afterward of the town, an office which he held
for over twenty-five years.
John Williams came West in 1837, and
settled at Hennepin, but afterward moved to Senachwine, and settled on his
present farm.
Loton Frisbee settled near the bluff, in Senachwine,
in June, 1835, near the line of Henry Township. At that time Russell Mallory
lived on the prairie, but sold his claim the same year to Colonel Snyder,
who previously lived on Guy Pool's place.
The first minister who ever preached in this locality was Elder James B.
Chenowith, of the Baptist Church. He commenced his labors in 1838, and lived
on a place about half way between Senachwine and Tiskilwa.
In 1839
Rev. Mr. Kenyon, a Methodist, came into the neighborhood, and commenced a
ministration in holy things. He was the first man to introduce a McCormick
reaper in this section of country.
In 1857 the Methodists, having
increased in numbers so that no private house could accommodate them, built
a neat and substantial church. Their first "class meeting" was organized in
1838.
Surrounded by an amphitheater of hills, near the mouth of Little
Senachwine Creek is a beautiful and romantic spot, whereon for ages stood a
famous Indian village bearing the name Senachwine. This was the name of a
prominent Indian chief who for nearly a hundred years had dwelt in this
region. Between this historic place and the Illinois River there is a
beautiful lake, celebrated for the abundance and excellence of its fish. The
Indian chief gave his name not only to his village and this lake, but also
to the creek which enters the valley here; and the town of the white people,
the voting precinct and the township have all been honored with the same
title. This was also the name of the postoffice until some ambitious person
with an unpoetic soul desired a change in the name of the office to make it
conform with that of the railroad station near the old town, and had it
called Putnam.
In unknown ages past, this county was the bed of a
great inland lake, and the bluffs northwest of the village, an island,
which, as the waters subsided, became the wooded range of hills we now see.
These mark the southeastern boundary of the small valley which afforded a
site for the Indian village of Senachwine. These hills are separate and
distinct from the Illinois River bluffs, and stand out upon the plain to the
East, a marked feature in the landscape.
In the vicinity are
numerous mounds and remains of an ancient civilization, and on the top of a
ridge east of Mr. Talliaferro's residence is a series of mounds in which
some trace a resemblance to certain animals, and claim they were originally
constructed for worship.
The dwelling and a portion of the farm of
James R. Talliaferro are in this beautiful valley, wherein stood
Senachwine's village. Even as recently as 1835 the country around was strewn
with the relics of Indian wigwams, and there were visible evidences of the
existence of at least 300 of their rude houses. Early French traders mention
the existence of an Indian village there which numbered 500 lodges.
The large number of mounds found upon the hills around this little valley
can be accounted for on no other hypothesis than that this was once densely
populated by the aborigines, and probably had been for many years an Indian
burial ground.
When Mr. Talliaferro first visited this locality, now
more than fifty years ago, the grave of the old Indian chieftain, Senachwine
(then not long dead), was shown him. The stakes which had been placed at
each end of the grave were there still, and a high pole which had been
placed near the spot to indicate its locality, still had fluttering at its
top a small flag, which the old chief 's followers had placed there. Mr.
Talliaferro's residence stands on the site of a once large and thriving
town, inhabited by a race of people whose characteristics were entirely
different from ours. Where wigwams stood, the plowman regularly drives his
team afield to cultivate the soil. The burial places of the red man of the
forest are also utilized for similar purposes, and the mounds which were
made to indicate their resting places are being converted by the plowshare
of modern civilization into corn and wheat fields.
Senachwine, the famous Indian chief, of whom we have frequently made
mention, died in 1830 at the Indian village which bore his name, and his
body was buried with the pomp and ceremony which became his station. For
many years his grave was an object of interest, not only to the white
people, but to the Indians also, who came from long distances to visit it.
In 1835 a large number of Pottawattomie Indians came to pay their
tribute of respect to the memory of this dead chief. When they assembled
around the mound they were greatly and justly indignant at finding the
remains had been molested. Some worthless hunters, searching for valuables,
had rifled the dead chief's grave and scattered his remains. Deep was their
grief and lasting their resentment. It was an insult and outrage difficult
to endure. They opened the grave and proceeded with much ceremony to
re-inter his bones. This done, they made a new mound over the spot, placed
substantial posts in the ground at either end, and about a rod away toward
the south-west erected a pole, with a small flag at the top. When this was
accomplished they bitterly turned their faces 'to the setting sun and
departed, never to look upon his grave again.
The following incident, related by Mrs. John Williams, shows what the sex
were capable of in the olden time, and that though woman may faint at the
sight of a dangerous mouse and go into "conniptions" at the explosion of a
Fourth of July squib, she can, under other circumstances, exercise courage,
judgment and self-possession of the highest order.
One morning in
1846, during the absence of the "men folks," she saw from her cabin window a
fine looking deer pass by, and taking her husband's loaded gun from its
rest, endeavored to bring him in range, but without effect. She had two dogs
that came at her call and attacked the deer, but after a short run and
fierce fight they were disabled. Finally she shot the animal in the head,
without, however, dispatching him, and while she returned for a knife to cut
its throat, a disreputable character named Cy Bowles, who had quietly
watched the performance, hastily dispatched the game, and being a large,
powerful man, shouldered and carried it off before her return.
Occasionally a fugitive slave would find the road to liberty through
Senachwine, sent upon this out-of-the-way trail to avoid pursuit.
Once a negro, hotly pressed by his enemies, was disguised by his friends as
a woman, and passed through Senachwine in a lumber wagon, in charge of
George Cone, who lived between this village and Henry.
On another
occasion a fellow came to the house of Asa Cunningham, near the village, and
begged his assistance. He was an escaped slave, from Missouri, and while
resting by the roadside discovered in the distance an approaching horseman,
whom he at once knew to be his master. The negro said: "I was so skeert dat
I shet my eyes, afeerd he'd see 'em, and didn't dar to draw my bref, afeerd
he'd smell 'um, for I'd a ben eatin' wild ingens (onions)." The master was
at the hotel, and the slave dare not move, for it was in the middle of the
day. Mr. Cunningham was the village undertaker, and rightly believing no one
would hunt a runaway in a hearse, hitched up his blind horse and loading the
"darkey" into a coffin, drove through Senachwine at a melancholy amble, the
business gait of the ancient nag. The master saw the cavalcade as it passed,
and was amused at the oddity of the turnout, while the driver headed his
course for Hennepin and safely delivered his lively "corpse" into the hands
of trusty friends, who kept him concealed until the pursuers left the
country.
A number of years ago a man named Anderson McKee was the keeper of an inn
at Henry. He had as a guest one Williams, a drunken, worthless fellow, who
never found it convenient to pay his board bills. This delinquency was the
cause of frequent disputes between the parties, and Williams, becoming
angered at McKee's continued demands, determined to do him bodily harm. He
told McKee if he would procure a horse and buggy and go with him to Boyd's
Grove, where he said money was due him, he would liquidate the debt. McKee
consented to the arrangement, and they started off, not, however, directly
toward the place they proposed to visit, for they were seen riding about the
bluffs beyond Senachwine, on the road leading to Princeton. It was while in
a thick piece of woods on these bluffs that Williams, with a knife with
which he had that day provided himself, while McKee's attention was
diverted, deliberately cut the throat of his companion. There was a profuse
flow of blood from the wound, and the injured man immediately lost
consciousness. Williams, supposing he had fully succeeded in his murderous
work, dragged the body from the buggy and placed it behind a large log lying
some distance from the road. Finding water near by, he removed the blood
stains from the buggy and his person as well as he could, and instead of
continuing forward on the Princeton road, turned in the direction of Henry.
When about half way between that place and Senachwine he was met by a man
who had seen him and McKee together in the buggy before they left Henry, who
asked where McKee was. Williams gave an evasive answer, and the man
continued his journey. Approaching a farm house a short distance beyond, he
found the people there in great commotion. It seems that McKee, after having
been thrown behind the log and left for dead by Williams, revived
sufficiently to drag himself to the farm house, not many rods away, and with
his remaining strength tell his pitiable tale. A physician was summoned, but
when he arrived it was too late. The vital spark had fled.
The man
who had met Williams, on learning these facts and seeing the bloody body of
McKee, took a circuitous route, hurried to Henry, and procured the issue of
a warrant for the arrest of the murderer. An officer immediately went in
pursuit, readily found the man he was in search of, and lodged him in jail.
In due time a trial of the case was had, the culprit was convicted of
manslaughter, and served out a term in the penitentiary therefor.
The early settlers had many hardships and privations to contend with, but their worst foes were ague and malarial fevers. Bad as these complaints * are now, they were infinitely worse then, while the remedies now most used were then unknown. Physicians were few, and reliance was mainly upon roots, herbs, and good nursing. The year 1838 was particularly unhealthful, and numerous deaths occurred among the children. In two neighboring families in Senachwine, twelve persons were prostrated at once, and only one person to wait upon them. Dr. Montfort, of Henry, was the only physician available, and his labors were incessant. Mercury in its various forms was largely used, often entailing great and untold suffering, as in the case of a Miss Reed, one side of whose face was eaten away by the poison, leaving the bare and fleshless jaw exposed; her teeth fell out, and her jaws became set so that it was with difficulty food could be forced into her mouth. Her sufferings were intense; yet she recovered, and modern science restored her fearfully mutilated face into at least a semblance of humanity, after which she enjoyed good health for many years. This was done by removing the skin from a portion of the arm, binding the arm to her face, and then retaining it with bands until it grew there, when the piece so attached was cut off and rounded into form. The operation was painful, but the woman's will and endurance made it a success.
Extracted 27 May 2017 by Norma Hass from Records of the Olden Time, 1880, by Spencer Ellsworth, pages 266-275.
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