such rapid progress that it could not be over

come.

The settlers were not discouraged, but immediately put up a new building within two hundred yards of the first, also on Mr. Davis' land. This was also built of logs, with puncheon floor, slab seats without backs or support, but it had one decided advantage over the old building, that in that day was considered a very great improvement. Instead of greased paper for windows, it was supplied with regular sash and glass window-lights. Besides the regular building, a shed at one end was attached, in which school was kept during the summer months of the year. School was kept in this building some ten years or more, when a building was put up at Monroe, with but very little improvement on the old, except the logs were hewn a little smoother, and a little better fitted together, the seats or benches being about the same. School was successively taught here, from 1843 to 1854, when the present building was erected, and where school has successfully been taught ever since.

Mr. Alexander Hoffman, about the year 1842, taught a private school at his own house, which was considered a great benefit to the community. A school-house about this time was built on the land of Richard Graves, but after the second term it took fire and was consumed.

Clear Creek Church.-One of the first things which our Pilgrim Fathers did, after crossing the storm-swept ocean, was to assemble upon the frozen, barren rocks of Plymouth, in the great temple, whose majestic dome was the over-arching skies, and offer prayers of thanksgiving for their safe voyage and successful landing. So it was with the first settlers of Cass County. Whenever a few families were sufficiently near to each other to be called a neighborhood, we find them often assembled, either in the open air,

or within the narrow confines of some pioneer cabin, blending their hymns with the moan of the autumn winds, and returning thanks amid the screams of the panther and the howling of wolves. In all the trials, privations, and sufferings that attended the first subduing of the forests, or the taming of the prairies, the settlers forgot not that God was the great source of blessing, and would not forsake them in their hour of need.

Clear Creek church was first begun at the residence of Mr. John Ray, about the year 1832. He being a minister of the gospel, invited in a few families, and under his own roof first began the work of organizing a a church. The members that first added their names to the roll of membership were, himself and wife, Joshua Crow and wife, James Davis and wife, John Mathews, Benjamin Mathews and wife, William Shoopman and wife, and Nancy Hill.

Meetings were continued at the cabin of Rev. Mr. Ray, for two years or more, when he removed to Texas, and left the settlers without a minister, and a regular place of meeting.

Rev. Cyrus Wright came among the settlers about that time and offered his services to the community, which were gladly and thankfully received. Meetings were then held at the cabin of Mr. Shoopman, who resided on Clear Creek, and the church from that took its present name. After continuing the meetings for some time at the residence of Mr. Shoopman, the society decided to hold their meetings at the cabin of Mr. James Davis, where services were continued for fourteen years, Rev. Cyrus Wright being the officiating minister. During this time the following members were added to the society: D. Hardy and wife, Elijah Davis and wife, Julia Ann Davis, Millie Hoffman, Nancy Rnby Mr. Harding, Betsy, Bridgewater, Thomas Cowen, Mrs. Morgan, Lucy Bridgewater,

Peter Hudson and wife, John Howell and wife, Joshua Howell and wife, James Blan and wife and two daughters, Mr. Richards and wife, Rachel Epler, Nancy Hill, Ira Crow and wife, Amanda Thornsberry, Thomas Buck and wife, Miles White and wife, and Mr. Ephraim White. At the present day but few of the above members are living.

In 1852, they built their present church, at a cost of $500, besides the time and labor contributed by the individual members.

The building committee was made up of the following persons: Alexander Hoffman, James Davis, and William Shoopman. The above committee were also elected the first trustees of the church, to which a deed of the

land was given by John Schaffer, free of all cost.

No regular services at present are held. William Dyre occasionally preaches to the few members that are left. The church at one time had a large membership, and was among the most prosperous of the county.

The society saw its brightest days of prosperity when the church was first built, and Rev. Mr. Wright was pastor. After his death, Rev. Mason Beadle took the charge as pastor, and at the close of his ministerial services, many of the members moved away, others died, and now there are but fifteen members remaining of that once prosperous body.

OREGON PRECINCT - DESCRIPTION

"Once o'er all this famous land

Savage wilds and darkness spread,

Sheltered now by thy kind hand,

Cheerful dwellings rear their head. Where once frowned the tangled wood, Fertile fields and meadows smile, Where the stake of torture stood,

Rises now thy churches' pile."

HE world is now taking time to look back

THE

and the story of the pioneer is becoming one of absorbing interest. Illinois was for a long time considered "out West," and its people, scarcely yet out of the prairie wastes, took little interest in those traditions relating to a condition of society but little removed from their own. But the onward rush of the quick march of civilization, has pressed back the western frontier, making the once northwestern territory the central link in the brilliant chain of states. This awakening to the true value of the pioneer history of this country comes in many respects too late. The children of the pioneer settlements have been fast gathered to the rest of their fathers within the past decade, and the old landmarks, one by one, have decayed and passed away with those that placed them.

The men who first burst into the native sod that hugged the hills and valleys of Oregon Precinct; the men whose axes rang first along its winding groves, where the foot-prints of the red man were imprinted in the sands; the men whose bullets first pierced the bounding deer that played and hid among its countless hills, have long since passed away; their lips

*By J. L. Nichols.

are hushed in sleep that never can impart the hunger, and hardships, and trials of their pioneer struggles. "The half can never be told." It must rest in secret and in silence in the pulseless bosoms that know no wakening.

"Great God of love, we dedicate these hills and vales to Thee,

To hold Thy dead of every name, God's Acres let them be.

And may the souls whose bodies lie within this beauteous calm

Be resting in the bosom of The Heavenly Paschal Lamb."

We honor those pioneer veterans for their self-sacrificing devotion in opening up for us such a country of richness, of happy homes. and of glowing prospects for the future.

en;

The path which men pursue in life, the dark waves they struggle to repel, the rough waters they endeavor to traverse, and their temporal happiness, depends almost wholly upon surrounding circumstances. See the life and pursuits which the pioneer has choshe knew there was but hardship, privation and long suffering in store for him; the vigorous years of his manhood must be given, and the strong muscular frame must be weakened with age to secure a brief respite from toil in the autumn of his declining years. Such was the character and make-up of the first settlers of Oregon Precinct, and the success of their labors, and the realization of their most sanguine expectations, no one will question; the churches, school houses and beautiful homes that everywhere meet the eye, are the monuments of their pioneer industry.

Oregon Precinct, like Richmond, is rather too undulating for convenient travel over its roads. There seems to be nothing but hills, over one only to be at the foot of another, and so on throughout the precinct; yet as broken and bluff-like as the country seems to a passing traveler, it contains some of the best and most productive farm lands in the county.

The land that is too broken for cultivation, makes admirable pastures for sheep and cattle, and the farmers with their improved and imported stock, find abundant wealth in the Oregon hills.

There are three streams that form the principal drainage of the precinct. Coxe's Creek, running through the Western part, is quite heavily timbered; some portions of this timber, in the past has been of more than an ordinary growth, but the best part has been cut down, and a dense, thrifty growth of young trees has taken rapid possession of the ground. Panther Creek rising in the centre of the precinct, is rather a small stream whose banks in many places are very high and bluffy; there is also some timber scattered along its banks, and quite a grove where it takes its rise and from which it derives its name. Middle Creek flows through the Northeastern corner, and contains very little water, and has but very little timber growing along its banks till it reaches Richmond Precinct, where it is quite heavily timbered. These streams are comparatively small, and only in places contain water the year round; they invariably cease running about the first of June, and in very dry seasons scarcely any water can be found in the entire length of their channels. While in the dry portions of the summer they can scarcely be termed creeks of the smallest character, in Spring, after the heavy rains, they become raging, roaring rivers, sweeping through the bills with such velocity and force that bridges,

The first settlement in Oregon Precinct was on Middle Creek. Mr. McDonald and Mr. Redman were the first to penetrate the pathless wilds and seek homes among the Indians and wild beasts that roamed over the hills and woods of the country. They built their cabins near the present site of Newmansville, in 1824, and lived there in the solitude and silence, with Salem their nearest post-office, and Eli Cox, who had settled at Coxe's Grove in 1820, their nearest neighbor, till 1828, when Bartlet Conyers and Henry Hopkins were added to the little settlement.

Beardstown or Salem were the only places where farm produce or grain could be sold, and groceries and household necessaries purchased. At this time, however, there was but one store at Salem, kept by Messrs. Hill & McNamer. In reaching either of the above named places, the early settlers found much difficulty; the country was rough, the streams unbridged, and the only way farmers could travel was for several to go together and double up their yokes of cattle in the bad and difficult places of the road, and help each other through. And after getting their grain to market through these trying circumstances they could realize but 10 cents per bushel for their corn and 40 or 50 cents for their wheat, the corn being shelled and the wheat threshed by hand.

Bangs, frizzes, paint and lily hands were unknown among the rustic maidens of pioneer times. They spun and wove their own cloth

ing; went into the field with their brothers and fathers; mowed, reaped, bound, raked, and cut wood, were strong, rugged, and perfect pictures of health. But very little luxury was enjoyed on the part of the pioneer in these days; during the big snow of 1830 and '31, many families lived exclusively for months on corn bread and parched corn, the meal being prepared in a mortar, as there were no mills that could be reached.

In 1844 we find in the other portion of the precinct the following settlers: Mr. and Mrs. Cress; G. Wood, on Sec. 34; Elijah Carver; James Garner, Sec. 3; Geo. Beggs, Sec. 34; John Sherrer, Sec. 3. In 1846 the cabin of Joseph Allison was put up with no other neighbor but Amos Garner, who lived then on the farm now owned by his brother William. Much of the land in Oregon was sold for 50 and even 25 cents per acre, and there was government land as late as 1854; the farm now owned by R. P. Bell was sold that year, among one of the last pieces, at the low government price of 25 cents per acre.

Game, as in other parts of the county, was very plenty. It seems buffalo and elk once had their habitation here, as many of their bones and horns were seen by the early settlers, strewn over the prairies and through the forests. Wolves were very numerous, though seldom doing violence to human beings; yet no one cared to risk himself at night among them without some sort of protection. There is but one instance in the county where a man was attacked by them, and that was Daniel Troy of Bethel, who returning late with a quarter of beef, was forced to give it up to beat a hasty retreat to protect himself. Thomas Boycourt was one of the most distinguished hunters in the precinct while residing on Section 34. His eagle eye allowed no deer or wild turkey to escape when once his trusty rifle was leveled upon it. The early amusement of the young people

and

was principally dancing. An old settler tells us, notwithstanding the dancers had a rough puncheon floor and no better beverage to enliven their spirits than home-made whisky, sweetened with maple sugar, yet it is doubtful if the anniversary of American Independence was ever celebrated in the State by more joyful and harmonious gatherings than those who danced the scamper down, doubleshuffle, Western swing and half-moon, in the frontier-cabins of our early settlers, here in the county.

Newmansville was laid out in 1858, by Mr. W. Newman, who built a blacksmith shop and rented it to Thomas Joyce; he afterwards sold it to Alexander Robinson, who has been in active business ever since. A wagon shop is also connected with the blacksmith shop, where considerable repairing is done in that line.

Thomas P. Way built the first and present store building, and did a good business for three years, when he sold out to Pilcher and Murphy, who continued the business for seven or eight years, when they sold out and moved to Chandlerville. The store then changed hands very frequently for several years, or till 1881, when the present occupant, J. S. Struble, purchased the stock, and has since been doing a fair business for an inland country trade. There are six residences in the village.

The post office is generally kept by the party in business. The office was first known as Higley, and since changed to Newmansville.

The first doctors in Newmansville were Kilburn Hathwell and James Galloway. As the country began to settle, Dr. Logan came in 1857, and has continued in active practice till within a few years; his health failing him, he was compelled to give up the greater portion of his ride. A young physician, Charles Matthew, has been practicing for the past four years with very good results.