1882 History
Chapter 30 – Pitman Township
POSITION AND BOUNDARIES — PHYSICAL FEATURES — PRODUCTIONS — SETTLEMENT OF THE WHITES — EARLY MILLS — SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES — SECRET SOCIETIES — ROBBERY, ETC.
By G. N. Berry
PITMAN was originally included in the territory of Harvel Township, from which it was separated and formed into a distinct division in the year 18. Lying in the northwestern part of Montgomery, it is surrounded on the east, north and south by the townships of Harvel, Bois D'Arc and Zanesville respectively, while Macoupin County forms its western boundary. It was named in honor of J. H. Pitman, a prominent citizen and one of the chief movers in its organization. Viewed from a topographical, geological or agricultural standpoint, it is so very similar to other townships already described as to render it unnecessary to enter into minute details. The surface in the main consists of fine prairie land, sufficiently undulating to present a very pleasing prospect to the observer, while the soil is of the black loamy nature, common to this part of the State, and noted for its richness, depth and fertility.
The tributaries of Macoupin Creek, a stream which flows along the western boundary in the adjoining county, are the only water-courses in the township. But little native timber is left standing, although at one time there were several strips of woodland in the southern and southwestern parts.
Realizing the necessity of timber, the settlers, as soon as their farms were broken, turned their attention to its cultivation, and in many places throughout the township are now to be seen artificial groves of considerable extent and beauty. The varieties of timber most commonly found growing in these groves, are the different species of maple, ash, walnut, hickory and cottonwood, all of which grow rapidly, and attain to considerable size in a few years after planting. The agricultural productions of Pitman, like those in all parts of Montgomery County, comprise the cereals usually grown in this latitude — corn, flax, vegetables of all kinds and varieties, while the cultivation of fruits receives great attention and has acquired considerable importance as an industry. The early history of Pitman is similar to that of many other townships of the county, and its experience has been the experience of all early settlements, with all the exciting scenes and deprivations of pioneer life, and the gradual unfolding and development of a community complete in its organization, and rich in the high elements of domestic, social and religious life.
The pioneer moves into the new country with his few household goods around him, and rises a king and conqueror. Here he erects his altar, builds his house, breaks the prairie or levels the forest; calls down the sunlight to thrill with life the sleeping soil and adorn its surface with the bloom of vegetable life, while Nature in her loveliness matures and yields to him her ripening fruit, the richest treasures of her bosom. Here is laid the keystone in the arch of a new social structure, above which are to cluster and unfold all the elements of a high civilization. Hence we see the importance of collecting in successive order all the scenes and events of a community's growth, from its earliest settlement — its first germ — to its full organization, and its most recent form, together with the influences, local characteristics, and other combinations that may have modified or directed its development. Thus we are enabled to grasp the science that underlies and governs its life — a science that should be perpetuated in imperishable records to our children and our children's children.
The earliest settler in Pitman of whom we have any record was a man by the name of Denton, who made the first entry of laud in the year 1822, on the farm now owned and occupied by John Husband. He lived in this place until the year 1830, at which time he died, his death being the first that occurred in the township. John Haines came here about the same time that Denton made his appearance, and entered land in the western part of the township, near the Macoupin County line. The above are the only settlers of Pitman of whom any account could be obtained prior to the year 1829, although there are vestiges of several old buildings to be seen which afforded shelter and temporary homes for a number of squatters who moved farther west as the country became more thickly populated. John L. Rogers was one of the first permanent settlers of Pittman, having come to this part of the Stale about the year 1829. and entered a tract of land in the western part of the township, in Section 30. His enterprise was here auspicious, not only in fitting land for cultivation, but also in erecting a small grist-mill on his place near the county line, thus becoming a pioneer in mill building as well as in farming. Rogers died in the year 1852, having reached the good old age of seventy-two years. He had three sons and two daughters, all of whom are living in the State. The old Rogers farm is at present owned by Theodore Rogers, a son of the preceding, and a prominent Methodist preacher of Central Illinois.
Davis Bagby was a resident of Pitman as early as the year 1832, having come here in company with his father-in-law, Miller Woods, both of whom located in the southwest corner of the township. The place where Woods first settled is now owned by William Hackney. Bagby subsequently purchased a piece of land in Section 10, where he lived until the year 1865, when he died, lamented by all who knew him. He was a soldier in the war of 1812, having served his country faithfully throughout that memorable struggle. Another prominent pioneer was D. G. Whitehorn. at present the oldest living settler in Pitman Township. The date of his arrival in this part of the State was the year 1831. He located a farm in Section 18, where for fifty -one years he has lived a prominent and upright citizen. In the year 1834, he was married to Catharine Bagby, daughter of Davis Bagby, being the first marriage that took place in the township.
George Wagoner was prominently connected with the early history of the Township, and can be named among its pioneer settlers. He moved here from Kentucky about the year 18__ , and secured a piece of land in Section 29, which is still in the possession of his family. His death occurred in the year 1864. Frederick Hamilton was an early settler also, having entered land in the western part of the township about the year 1833. His death, which occurred two years later, is the second event of that kind that transpired in Pitman.
Subsequently there appear the names of Zadok Leach, William King, Tazewell Brown, Flower Husband, William Hamilton and L. C. Richardson, all of whom came from States farther south and settled in the territory of Pitman between the years 1837 and 1840. The place where Leach settled is at present in possession of the Wagoner heirs. King sold his farm to a man by the name of Young, and moved to Christian County, where he died several years ago. Brown entered land lying in the west-central part of the township, where his widow still lives. L. C. Richardson, who, next to Whitehorn, is the oldest resident of Pitman, selected as his home a piece of land lying in Section 30, on which he still resides, surrounded by the comforts and conveniences which he has accumulated by a life of industry and economy.
There are other names connected with the early history of the township aside from those already enumerated, which we were unable to learn. In the old burying ground at Sulphur Springs, where the hardy and energetic pioneers are sleeping in their last resting-place, can be seen many of the names mentioned in these pages, while others, who were as prominently identified with the township's history, lie in graves unmarked by the simplest epitaph. Those early pioneers were men of sterling integrity, high moral worth, and eminent in all those virtues which make men great. Though their bodies have moldered back to Mother Earth, they are not dead. The body may die: a good example will live forever. They have gone to
"Join the choir invisible, of those immortal dead who
live again
In minds made better by their presence; live
In pulses stirred to generosity;
In deeds of daring rectitude; in scorn
Of miserable aims that end with self;
In thoughts that pierce the night like stars,
And with their mild persistence urge men's minds
To better issues."
The inconveniences of the first settlers, though probably not comparable with those experienced by pioneers in older sections of the country, were still of such magnitude that we of the present can form but an approximate idea of their realities. A very great inconvenience felt among them was the want of a mill to grind their corn and grain, the nearest being in Butler Grove and Hillsboro Townships. During the winter season, when the deep snows precluded the possibility of traveling over the trackless prairies, the settlers manufactured their own meal by grinding or rather cracking corn in common coffee mills. Other contrivances were improvised: One method very much in vogue was to make a rude mortar by hollowing out the top of a stump. Sometimes this was done by boring or chiseling, but it was frequently burned out and the cavity scraped with a knife or other instrument until all the charred spots were removed. In this cavity the corn was placed and pounded with a heavy, rude pestle attached to a swing-pole overhead. The bruised corn was known by the name of "samp," and when pounded was made into "johnny cake," the coarser part being boiled into “mush." The first mill in the township was erected by J. L. Rogers for his individual use. It was a very primitive affair, operated by horse-power, and ground very slowly, but made a fair article of meal. It was much used in after years by the settlers in grinding corn for horse feed. A second mill was built by Flower Husband on his farm about one-half a mile south of the Rogers place, in the year 1840. This mill was operated by horse-power also, and it seems to have done a very good business, as it was kept running quite extensively for ten years. David Plane built and operated a little mill just across the line in Macoupin County about the year 1850, and for several years supplied breadstuff's to the people of the adjoining townships.
A number of the first settlers had been men of influence and education in their old homes, and did not neglect the intellectual culture of their children after locating in the new country, and schools were at once established. The first schools were kept across the line in the little settlement in Macoupin County, and were attended by the youth of this township for several years. The first school in Pitman was taught by William Mclver in a little frame building erected for the purpose and known as the Friendship Schoolhouse. The date of this school was about the year 1854. The second school was taught by Bluford Pillsbury the following year. William King, Edwin Rogers and a Miss Harris were among the early teachers of the township. The first house in which a public school was taught is situated in the west-central part of the township, and is still used for educational purposes. The first public school was taught by a Mr. Ware about the year 1858, as near as could be ascertained. Generally speaking, the progress of the public schools here as elsewhere throughout the country has been of a most remarkable and satisfactory character. The primitive, ill-ventilated and unhealthy log shanties have given place to neat and commodious frame structures, while the former teachers, of whom many were possessed of but indifferent scholastic attainments, and would now be considered far from competent, have been supplanted through the means of the normal institutes and model schools, which the liberal-mindedness of our law-makers has given us with those who are a credit to the present system and the State which supports it. John L. Rogers was the first Justice of the Peace elected in Pitman, an office he filled with ability for two years. He was elected in the year 1840; John Snow was chosen Constable at the same election. The Justices of the Peace, at present, are William Woods and Richards. The first birth mentioned as having occurred in the township was that of Mary Rogers, daughter of John L. Rogers, who was born in the year 1832. The first cemetery was laid out near the Providence M. E. Church in the year 1862, and the first person interred therein was a man by the name of Newell, who died the same year. The early pioneers of Pitman found ample time amid their other duties to discharge those higher and holier obligations which they owed their Creator, the majority of them being devoted church members and sincere Christians. The Methodists had a flourishing church at a place called Sulphur Springs in Macoupin County, as early as the year 1840, which was attended by the residents of western Pitman for a number of years. The organization was moved into this township in the year 1851, and the name changed to the Providence M. E. Church. The Friendship Schoolhouse was used as a place of worship by the congregation until the year 1864, when the present church edifice was built. This building cost the sum of $1,500, is of frame, and will comfortably seat 275 persons. At the time the organization was moved from Macoupin County, it was presided over by Rev. James Hutchinson, and numbered fifty members. Since then, the number has decreased somewhat, there being at present but forty names on the church records. Among the pastors of this society can be named the following: __ Sample, David Bardrick, George Craig, Henry Wilson, Adam Wagoner, L. L. Harlan, __ Prettyman, O. H. P. Ash, James West, A. T. Orr and __ Sloan. The present incumbent is the Rev. A. D. Beckhart. Their Sunday school, which is in good condition and well attended, is under the superintendency of S. R. Rice. This church is one of the points in the Millwood Circuit.
The Missionary Baptists have a strong organization near the central part of the township on Section 28, known as the Prairie Grove Church, though at what time it was organized was not learned. Their building which is the finest church edifice in the township was erected in the year 1880 at a cost of about $2,500. The present membership of this church is about fifty.
The Prairie Chapel M. E. Church is situated near the northeast corner of the township in Section 12, and was organized in the year 1879. Their house of worship, a neat frame building, was erected the same year, and cost in the neighborhood of $2,200. There are now on the church books the names of about fifty members, and the congregation is reported in a flourishing condition. It is a point in the Raymond Circuit, and is at present ministered to by Rev. A. D. Beckhart.
At one time there were several granges of the Patrons of Husbandry in successful operation in this township, only one of which is in existence at present. Washington Grange, No. 970, was instituted in the spring of 1874, with a membership of twenty-seven. The present membership is about seventy, among whom are many of the foremost fanners of the township. Their meetings are held in the East Union Schoolhouse, situated in Section 19. The officers of this lodge at present are R. N. Long, W. M.; S. R. Rice, W. O.; William Howland Steward; Edwin Grimes, Gate-Keeper; H. G. Wagoner, Treasurer; Jasper Street, Secretary; Mollie Howland, Ceres; Mollie Bowman, Assistant Steward; Miss Street, Flora.
We will conclude this brief sketch of Pitman with the following account of a very daring robbery, which took place in the year 1881, at the residence of Enoch Perrine, who lives in the northwestern part of the township. Perrine is a prominent stock-dealer, and is known to have carried large sums of money on his person. Shortly after making a heavy sale of stock, his house was visited one night by a party of three masked men, who forced an entrance into the same, and, after tying and gagging the different members of the family, searched the premises, and carried away about $7,000, which Perrine had that day received. The members of the family were left tied, and in this helpless condition they remained till nearly morning, when one of them succeeded in freeing himself. The rest were soon liberated, an alarm given and soon detectives were on the tracks of the robbers, one of whom was overhauled in St. Louis, and the other two were captured shortly afterward in Chicago. They were brought to Hillsboro, tried, convicted and sentenced to a long term of imprisonment in the penitentiary.
Extracted 15 Jan 2017 by Norma Hass from History of Bond and Montgomery Counties, Illinois, published in 1882, pages 413-417.
