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IVORY JOHN MARTIN IVORY J. MARTIN* *Portrait and Biographical Record of Shelby and Moultrie Counties, Illinois, Chicago, 1891, pp. 160-61. The power of the press is a trite but a forcible subject, for it is one of those themes which is constantly reinforcing itself by proving anew every day its reality. Throw out of account the influence which is exerted by the newspapers of Illinois, the destinies of the Prairie State would be largely affected by such elimination. The sketches which we have been called upon to give of the newspapers and editors of Moultrie County present matters which are of interest to everyone. The Sullivan Progress has been from the first a success and it now occupies first rank with the best papers in this part of the State and has a well-equipped office for job work and all kinds of printing. It was originally issued in 1857 under the caption of the Express, but was soon changed in title to the name which it now bears. Mr. Martin has been its editor and manager since 1885 and added to those duties its proprietorship in 1887. It is now a seven-colunm six-page paper with a good circulation and is issued weekly. Mr. Martin, who came to Sullivan, Moultrie County, in 1883, on account of having been appointed Deputy County Clerk by Mr. Charles Shuman, took charge of this paper after the expiration of his term of office, and has now taken Mr. Shuman as his partner in the management of the business. This was his first newspaper work but he proved himself no amateur in the business. Mr. Martin was born in Whitley Township, Moultrie County, November 7, 1859, and was there reared upon his father's farm and received his education at Lee's Academy at Loxa, Coles County. For seven years he taught in Coles and Moultrie Counties, having taken his position at the teacher's desk before reaching the age of seventeen, obtaining his academic course during the same years that he devoted to teaching. He came of a family that has resided in the county for many years, as they settled here in the '30's. The father, John N. Martin, was born in Coles County, this State, and was only five years old when the family removed to what is now Moultrie County. He is still carrying on the farm in Whitley Township and is the son of John Martin, a native of Kentucky, a grandson of James Martin, a Virginian, and a great-grandson of John Martin, who migrated to Kentucky about the year 1777, during the Revolutionary War. The family was there in the days of Daniel Boone and had to make their home in a fort for self protection. The first John's son James was very young when the family came to Kentucky and he grew up near the Kentucky River and there married, and reared his family. At a very early day he came with his household to Coles County, Illinois, and later made his home near Bruce, Moultrie County, where he died in 1865, at the very venerable age of ninety-one years, having buried his wife some twenty years before. For generations, the family religion is of the old school Baptist denomination and their politics of the Democratic order. John Martin, the grandfather of our subject was a young man when his parents came to Illinois and he here reached his majority and married a Miss Neely. Her father was known far and wide as an Indian fighter on the frontier and was an original character in the early pioneer days. In his later years John Martin removed to Whitley Township, Moultrie County, and built a mill there. John N. Martin, the father of our subject, is one of a family of four sons and three daughters who are all living. He grew to manhood to Whitley Township and was married in Coles County to Miss Rachel Martin, who as well as her husband, is now living, having reached nearly three-score years of age. Of their children who are now living, our subject is the eldest, the others being Joel K, who is studying law under the Honorable John R. Eden, of Sullivan, and Nancy E., who is yet at home with her parents. Our subject was married in Sullivan in 1886 to Miss Rose Eden,, daughter of the Honorable John R. Eden, of whom more can be learned in the sketch of that gentleman which appears in this volume. The subject of our sketch has ever taken an active part in local politics since he became of age, but is no office seeker. His paper is Democratic as are also his own political views. He is a man who is capable of a vast amount of hard work and he is exceedingly skillful in the management of his business. His wife was reared in Sullivan and is a graduate of the Georgetown Convent in the District of Columbia. She is an earnest member of the Christian Church and is the mother of three children Olive, Eden and Neely.
A Preliminary Note I.John and Sarah Scott Martin II. Samuel Martin Ill. William Harvey Martin IV. The Daughters of John and Sarah Scott Martin V. James Scott and Mary Figley Martin VI. Five Sons of James Scott and Mary Figley Martin A.Samuel Martin B.Rezin C. Martin C.James Frost Martin D.Archibald Lane E.Joel Figley Martin F.John and Ann Neely Martin 1.Isabel Martin 2.James Uwis Martin 3.John Neely Martin 4. William Thomas Martin 5.Daniel Parker Martin 6.Rhoda Martin 7.Serilda Jane Martin 8.Mary Bathe/Robinson VII.John Neely and Rachel Elvina Martin VIII. Me, Myself IX. The Martins -- A Recapitulation I.J. Martin A Preliminary Note* *From the text of this manuscript, it appears to have been written (or completed) in 1941 (see, eg., pp. 143, 144, 146). I.J. Martin wrote another paper about the Martin family consisting of 37 long manuscript pages. It refers to Mabel George's son John "now (1943) training in an army camp." This second paper covers generally the same subject matter as the first. Where it adds additional information, the relevant text is set forth in footnotes with introductory references to "1943 text."
There is a family tradition that the first of the family to come to Virginia from
England were three brothers who were perhaps unmarried at the time.** There is
nothing definite known of the date of their coming. Our Kentucky ancestor, John
Martin, was a descendant, perhaps a grandson, of one of these three immigrant brothers.
**1943 text: "The family tradition is that three Martin brothers came from the south
of England to Virginia before the Revolutionary War perhaps three or more generations
before." board of directors of the colony. But he returned to England and may never have come back. There are many people of the family name now living in Virginia as indeed everywhere else. There are some prominent people among the Virginia Martins. Some have been governors, senators and representatives. Some of them are probably of the same family to which belonged the John Martin who became a Kentucky pioneer. The Scotts are a widely scattered people but nowhere appear so numerous as the Martins. The three Scott brothers, Andrew, Samuel, and Dodridge, who came to this county were relatives of Sarah Scott Martin. Two of the later members of this family have held county offices in Moultrie County. I. John and Sarah Scott Martin My family starts with the earliest paternal ancestor that I know anything about -- John Martin -- who came to Kentucky from Virginia among the first pioneers. He had married Sarah Scott, a member of the Virginia family that was later honored by the distinguished soldier General Winfield Scott*. *1943 text: "Sarah Scott was a member of the same family to which General Scott, also a Virginian, belonged. It is said that [James Scott Martin] made a jesting remark about the defeat of the General, who was the Whig candidate for President in 1852, saying, 'If I had known that no one else was going to vote for Cousin Winfield, I would have voted for him myself.'" This Martin family lived in a fort (or within easy reach of one) during the Indian wars that lasted until the close of the Revolutionary War.* Some of their children were born in the fort, including my great grandfather, James Scott Martin, who was born in 1779. There were six sons and perhaps as many daughters born in Kentucky, and the family lived there until after the death of John Martin. *1943 text: "Our known history begins with John Martin and his wife Sarah Scott Martin who came to the Kentucky settlements about the year 1777. They lived in a fort on or near the Kentucky River during the period of the Indian wars."
Little is known now of him except that he was an early Kentucky pioneer. He was among
the Tennessee and Kentucky riflemen that fought the British and Tories at the battle
of Kings Mountain. I do not know the name of the fort in which he and his family
lived. There was a fort named Martin's Station, which was captured by the Indians;
but of course he was not there. His widow, Sarah Scott Martin, used to tell her
granddaughters in Illinois about her life in the Kentucky fort -- about molding bullets
for the men who were defending the stockade during the Indian attacks. She loathed the
white renegade Simon Girty, who may have led the Indians in one of these attacks. he stopped at the gate; and Logan ran out alone and carried the wounded man into the enclosure.* *1943 text: "[I]t is also reported that John Martin accompanied Captain Logan who rescued a man who was wounded outside of the stockade at the beginning of the surprise attack. The story is not highly complimentary of Martin. It is said that Logan called for volunteers to assist in the rescue, and none but Martin responded. He accompanied the captain as far as the gate of the stockade but here his courage failed, and Capt. Logan ran out alone and carried the wounded man into the fort amidst a shower of Indian arrows.
"Father said there was no evidence that this particular John Martin was our ancestor
and that there could have been a John Martin in every fort. Uncle Jim thought that
he did the prudent and wise thing, and that if a group of men had gone to the rescue,
some of them would have been hit, and then there would have been more wounded to be
rescued. 'Any way,' he said, 'he did just about as I would have done."' **1943 text: ... near the present city of Olney." Stephen).* I think it was Richard who settled in Iowa. There does not appear to have been much correspondence with these two branches of the family, and little is now remembered of them. *1943 text: "Two of the brothers, Stephen and Richard, went further west one of them to Missouri, and the other to Iowa."
A man named John Martin who came from Iowa and who may have been a member of that
branch came to Moultrie County about 1859 or 1860 and bought three or four hundred
acres of land near Lovington. He put two tenants on the land and went away. Soon
after the Civil War began, he brought a little boy six or seven years of age, whom he left
with one of the tenant families and said he was going to Missouri to look after some
business affairs. He never was heard of again. After the war -- several years after
-- W.A. Cochran, then a young lawyer, looked up the Iowa people who claimed to be his
relatives and bought their interest in the land for Charles Howell and James Gregory.
These relatives said that John Martin was never married and that he was probably
killed in Missouri in the disorderly warfare in that state. No one appeared to know anything
about the boy who had been left in Illinois. He was now a grown young man and had
lived in the same family he had been left with. Howell and Gregory gave him 80 acres of the land (he made Q.C. [quit claim] deed to the other land). The four sons of John and Sarah Scott Martin who settled in Illinois were John Charles, James Scott (who was my great grandfather), Samuel, and William Harvey. I think John must have remained in southern Illinois.* I do not remember hearing anything about him or his family, though I have heard of two or three Martins -- Nelson and I think two Georges -- that I cannot quite place.
*1943 text: "The other one of the six sons -- whose name was John (families then endeavored
to name the last son after the father) must have remained in Southern Illinois.
I have no information concerning him or his descendants. There has been a history
prepared that probably told about him, but I have been unable to find it."
It is certain that three of the sons -- James Scott, William Harvey, and Samuel --
came to what is now Coles County and settled near Kickapoo Point, about six miles
west of Charleston, about the year 1820 or soon thereafter.**
**1943 text: "After a short stay [in Southern Illinois] (perhaps a few years), three
of the brothers -- James Scott, William Harvey, and Samuel -- came farther north
and settled in, or at the edge of, the Kickapoo timber, a few miles west of the present
city of Charleston."
II. Samuel Martin 1. In the 1880's I met and got quite well acquainted with one of the sons of Samuel, whose name was Moses Williams Martin (named for his step grandfather). His brother (John, I think) lived in Edgar County, and I never met him. M.W. Martin was the best educated one of the entire family. After graduating from College, he studied in France and Germany. After returning home he taught school several years -- mostly as principal in Chicago suburban schools, and in Cleveland's administration was appointed to a position in the Chicago custom house. -- a position which he kept until he was ready to retire. He was never married. His aunt (Cousin Martha, the mother of Mrs. W.G. Covey) said, "You can't fool me, that boy has been disappointed in love." 2. The two sons of James were James and Charles. The former was a lawyer who retired from practice early, and when I knew him about 1880, he was a prosperous farmer. His brother Charles, also a farmer, lived on Luther Lane's farm near Sullivan for a while. He moved back to Coles County. 3. The other son of Samuel Martin Sr. was John, whom at least a hundred relatives called "Cousin John." He was one of the most popular members of the family and the only one who kept to the original settlement at Kickapoo. He lived to be about 80 years of age and died about 1880, or perhaps a year or two earlier. His wife was Martha Cassidy, and they had one son and four daughters. The son, A.J. (known as Alex or Aleck), lived on the old Kickapoo home place until his death about 25 years ago. He was married twice but had only one son and two daughters. Both the daughters, I think, died about the time of his death. His son is somewhere in railroad employment. Of the four daughters of John and Martha Martin, Sarah and Bessie died single, Mary married Thos. E. Edwards, a preacher, and died leaving one daughter, Mary Edwards, who was -- at last account -- a missionary among the Chinese of San Francisco. The other daughter of "Cousin John", Emma, married Willis G. Covey, a Vermont yankee, well known in Sullivan as a long time editor of the News. The Coveys had two sons, both printers, one of them in the village of Kansas in Edgar County. The other died recently in Chicago. There were two or three daughters. The foregoing is about all I know of the family of Samuel Martin, Sr. III. William Harvey Martin Next, I will give a sketch of the descendants of William Harvey, which will leave only my own branch of the family (James Scott Martin and his descendants). William Harvey Martin was the ablest and most distinguished of the sons of John and Sarah Scott Martin. He was a Predestinarian Baptist preacher. After living at Kickapoo Point for a few years, he settled with his family near Lynn Creek, the largest of the four or five streams that flow into the main channel of Whitley Creek. The creek known as Whitley is formed near the old Whitley settlement at Whitleys Point by two small streams, which were early known as the Forks (the North and the East forks). It is next joined by a stream from the Northeast called Crabapple Creek, which rises in Coles County. Lynn Creek, which runs into it from the south, is formed by two or three branches, the longest of which starts near the town of Gays. Waggoner branch is a stream several miles long which flows into Whitley near its mouth and which opens into the Okaw river near the old town of Bruce. William Harvey Martin had visited the Waggoner settlement there in 1829 or 1830 and was instrumental in organizing the Baptist Church of Lynn Creek, the oldest church organization in what is now Moultrie County.* 1943 text: "Uncle Billy, as he was called, was a famous pioneer preacher of the old school Baptist Church. While he still lived at Kickapoo, he began coming over to Lynn Creek (a branch of Whitley) where the Waggoners had settled to preach the gospel. In 1829 or early in 1830 he officiated [sic] in organizing the first church in what is now Moultrie County. It began with a membership of twenty members." "Uncle Billy moved his family to a farm near the old church in 1831, and he was the pastor until his death in 1854."
He was married twice. His first wife was Elizabeth (or Susan) [actually Abigail]
Whitaker, said to have been his cousin; his family consisted of three sons and two
or three daughters. After his death in 1853 or 1854, all his children of the first
marriage moved to Texas and settled in the vicinity of Dallas and Fort Worth. It is said
large numbers of their descendants still live there. One of his sons was named William
Harvey, and that name occurs frequently among his descendants; and all or nearly
all of his namesakes are or have been Baptist preachers.**
** 1943 text: "John Martin, the other son whose name I know, died leaving two sons:
John, who died in his young manhood, and Henry Whitaker Martin, who after being drafted
in the Confederate army, returned to Illinois and lived to be 96 years of age on a farm in North Okaw township, Coles County." Henry Whitaker Martin, one of the grandsons of the old pioneer preacher, having bought out the Neely heirs to some land in North Okaw Township, Coles County, came back from Texas after the War to dispose of the property, but decided to keep it, and later moved his family from Texas. Henry Whitaker Martin was a son of John, who had married Susannah, a daughter of James Scott Martin and an aunt of my father. That made Henry W. and my father first cousins. Uncle Henry died only a few years ago at the great age of 96 years. Henry Whitaker Martin had a son, John James, and a daughter, Cora, who married a man whose name was Martin (though not a relative). She died leaving a son who died, single, in boyhood. John James had two sons and a daughter, who married the surviving husband of her aunt Cora, and after his death she married __________. One of the sons died leaving a large family, who are now grown. I have met two of the boys, who appear to be fine young men. J.J.'s other son, Henry, is in business in Mattoon (now a sales manager for a stock food company and located in Decatur).* John James Martin was a man of much more than average ability. He had a good common school (text book) education and had read and thought much beyond his texts. He taught school, studied law, was admitted to the bar but never practiced. Soon after he was admitted to the bar, the democrats *The language within the parenthesis is in a different handwriting, and was clearly added after I.J. wrote his text; the added language may have been written by Robert Walter Martin. nominated him for County Superintendent of Schools, but he was not elected. He was a successful [man] and at time of his death owned several hundred acres of land. He wrote for the papers a good deal and published some readable poetry, noted for originality of style and thought. He and my brother prepared a lengthy and comprehensive history of the Martin family, but the manuscript was lost after my brother's death. Doubtless it contained a detailed history of the Texas descendants of William Harvey Martin, a history that can only be hinted at here. The second group of children of William Harvey Martin (his second wife was Cynthia Clarke), consisted of one son and four daughters. The son, Orange Clarke Martin, was more ambitious than any of his contemporary Martin relatives. He decided to go to college, and some time in the 1840's he registered as a student in Shurtleff college, a Baptist (missionary) institution at Alton. His father had a farm of 240 acres of good land which produced an abundance of food, but little money. Orange and one or two other students rented rooms together and limited their living expense by bringing meat, flour, meal, fruit and molasses from their homes. (He told me this in 1876 when he was here on a visit from his home in Minnesota, where he had located in 1861.) After returning home from college, he taught school for a few years, and after the death of his father, he became a merchant in Sullivan. His wife was a member of the Roney family, and his children have visited their Roney relatives here a number of times. I think that Orange Clark Martin was the first Moultrie County student in any college. The publishers of a book written by a Whitley Township man in its advertising said that the author of the book was the first in his township to seek a higher education (that is, higher than the common district school). Several Whitley people have had a college or an academic education. The talented preacher John Garland Waggoner was a college graduate. Oliver J. Kern was older than the author alluded to. So were Anna Reeder Welch and her brother (I forget his first name). There were several older students of the normal schools, such as Gideon Alexander Edwards and Charley Warden. The Walker girls pursued higher studies at Lee's Academy, as did many others. Frank and Bob Peadro were early students at Illinois University, and I believe Frank completed the course. All of which (if they knew it) ought to teach boasting publishers that derogatory comparisons are odoriferous. Of the four daughters of William Harvey Martin by his second marriage, one died young and single. Two of them, Ada and Lydia, married John Tolley and John C. Tolley, who were cousins to each other. The first (John and Ada) moved to Missouri and lived near the Kansas border, close to Ft. Scott. I never heard much about their family. The John C. Tolleys lived near Tower Hill and used to visit at our home. There were three or four children, but I do not remember their names. They finally moved to Missouri too. The other daughter, Jane, married John Elder, and about 1871 they too moved to Missouri and settled close to the two Tolley families.* Both the Elders died within three or four years thereafter. Their oldest children, two daughters, Lydia and Narcissa, both married and both stayed in Missouri. Lydia had married Lemuel Hixon here before moving to Missouri. Their son John Hixon, a printer, came back to Sullivan about 40 years ago (1899), but later went to **1943 text: "... a great woman -- one of the greatest -- Aunt Jane Elder, wife of a great and good man, John Elder." Texas where his widowed mother was then living. Narcissa married a cousin, one of the Tolleys, and after his death she returned to Moultrie County and died only a few years since. One of her daughters lived near Allenville a few years ago -- may be living there yet -- and her children attended the Sullivan High School. Some, I think, went to the University. I do not recall their names. The eldest son of the Elders, William Shields, came back before his father's death. After the death of John Elder, Henry W. Martin, who was a nephew of Aunt Jane Elder, went to Missouri for the two youngest children, Esias Dalby (known later as E.D. or Deed Elder) and Ada Belle, who made their homes with him until they entered homes of their own. Another of the Elder sons, Rezin Euphrates, came back too and made his home in the family of Peter P. Miller until he and one of the Miller daughters, Sadie, decided to make a home for themselves. His older brother, W.S. and another of the Miller girls were married about the same time. Her name was __________. She died after a few years, leaving one son, Charles (now deceased) and a daughter, Eva, who married Samuel David Cummins. W.S. Elder was married in succession to two other wives. I could not name all of his children with certainty. Three of his sons were Clarence, Fred, and Felix. Fred married Ethel Harpster, my niece, but that will be recorded elsewhere. R.E. Elder* had two sons of his first wife, John, who
*1943 text: "[H]is family, instead of calling him by his first name, which had a tolerable
sound, corrupted the second name into the word Fratie, or Frate. He was such a fine
likeable boy that I always felt sorry for him on account of his funny name." married a daughter of Arthur Vaughan, and William S. Jr., who married a daughter of Lawrence Purvis. R.E.'s second marriage was with Rosa Janes. They had two sons and two daughters. One of the sons, George, married a daughter of W.S. Young. Both died comparatively young, leaving three sons. The other son of R.E. Elder, married a young lady named Anderson. He was accidently killed a short time after his marriage while hunting, and his wife, after giving birth to a daughter, became incurably insane. The daughter was reared by her grandmother, who had married Charles Reeves. She graduated from the Sullivan High School, and is now married. One of R.E. Elder's daughters married Thomas Young, and the other married a son of Ora Reeves, the well-known Baptist preacher. E.D. Elder was a school teacher, a lawyer, and a Baptist preacher.* He was an eloquent speaker, a little too emotional for success at the bar, but effective in the pulpit. People who could remember his grandfather, William Harvey Martin, said that the grandson had much of the old preacher's power and eloquence. I did not mention that his brother, R.E. Elder, was a preacher too, and though he was not so eloquent he was a much better thinker, and his sermons carried greater weight in the estimation of the more intelligent of his hearers. *1943 text: "The youngest son ... was given the name of Esias Dalby Elder, which was promptly shortened to E.D., which his little sister rendered 'Deed', and that was the principal name he carried through life."
E.D. Elder was for a while a partner of John Eden Jennings, a noted lawyer. One day
W.B. Hopper, then pastor of the Christian Church, was visiting in the law office. Jennings said to them, "You preachers have a pretty soft snap. Now we lawyers, when we get up to address a jury, know that sitting there listening to every word is the opposing lawyer, as smart as we are and sometimes a damn sight smarter; and if we make the least mistake in our argument, he will pick it up in his answer. Now preachers can get up in the pulpit and say anything you blank blank please and there is not one to answer you, and you can get away with it. Pretty soft I should say." Elder was a candidate for nomination for County Judge in 1914, but was defeated by John B. Grider. Jennings was candidate in 1922, but he too was defeated by Grider. In turn, he defeated Grider in 1930. Grider had been a candidate six times, was defeated for the nomination twice (once by Purvis) and lost the election once to Oscar Cochran (but defeated Cochran in the next election). I cannot say much about the family of E.D. Elder as I was only slightly acquainted with most of his children and could not be sure even of their names. (One of his daughters married __________ Ashbrook.) There remains one other of the children of John and Jane Martin Elder, a daughter, Ada Belle, who married a Janes. Both are dead. One of their sons, Harold Janes, is a Baptist preacher. It would be interesting to know how many of the sons, grandsons, and great grandsons of "Uncle Billie" Martin have followed his foot marks in the pulpit. Harold sometimes preaches at Lynn Creek Church, which his great grandfather organized in 1829. This brief sketch so far has told something in some respect as much as I know of the descendants of five of the six sons of the Kentucky pioneer, John Martin and Sarah Scott Martin.*
*1943 text: "The pioneer mother of the family, Sarah Scott Martin, widow of John Martin,
the Kentucky frontiersman, came to Illinois with her six sons. She made her home
in Illinois with James Scott Martin and family until her death sometime prior to
1840."
IV. The Daughters of John and Sarah Scott Martin maternal grandfather) and his wife was Mary Figley [Feagle]. Of her family, nothing is now known. James Scott Martin was born in a Kentucky fort in 1779* in the period of the Revolutionary War, and the more immediate and the more dangerous to the lives of his family -- war with the Indians -- a war which raged almost incessantly along the Kentucky River frontier until final peace was established about 1783 or 1784. He must have married at an early age because it is recorded that one of his sons was born in the year 1800. His wife's name was Mary Figley. Nothing is known of her family except a little about one of her cousins, disclosed by an incident that may be as well related here as anywhere.
*1943 text: "I get the date by calculation. He died in February 1865 and he was said
to be 86 years of age."
When James Scott Martin and Mary Figley Martin were starting in a lengthy caravan
for the Illinois settlements and after the wife and their children, including a girl baby being
about one year old, were seated in the moving wagon, a cousin came to her with her
own year old daughter, begging her to take the baby with her and promising to follow herself
in the next caravan scheduled to start three or four months later. She explained
that her husband had whipped her that morning and that she had left him, and that
the separation was final. Without giving grandmother a chance to accept or refuse, she
suddenly disappeared, leaving the baby in the wagon. When the head of the family
returned just as the caravan was ready to start on its long journey, it is said he
was not very well pleased with the surprising increase in his household. But there seemed
to be nothing to do but accept the situation. This was in the early spring, but the year is uncertain. It was probably 1802 or 1803. I make this guess (it is little more than a guess) for the reason that one of my grandfathers, Joel Figley Martin, was born in Kentucky in 1800, and I think my other grandfather, John Martin, was born in Illinois, and the year of his birth was 1806.* My two grandfathers were brothers. 1803 would give ample time for the arrival and growth of a year old sister of Joel Figley, or 1805 would provide time for still another year-old baby. The removal to Illinoiss could not have been later than 1805 for the reason that my grandfather, Joel Figley, had no recollection of how he came to have (supposedly) twin sisters. That is the way (as twins) the two girls grew up until they were eighteen years of age. They were informed of the truth on the occasion of their marriages, which occurred on the same day.
*1943 text: "John (my other grandfather) was born in 1806, and I have understood that
his place of birth was at or near Sand Prairie in Southern Illinois."
The reason the deception had to be maintained was that the mother of the baby died
in Kentucky before the second caravan started. It is not known when the girl's father
learned where his daughter had been taken. He did not see her until after her marriage, when he visited her at her home in southern Illinois. The visit was not pleasant
for either of them. He blamed her foster parents, whom she still regarded as a real father and mother. It is said she tried to make due allowance for his natural feeling of resentment at what he considered a personal wrong and injury, but she could not q
uite excuse his
denunciations, and they never met again. I had heard this story but I never knew the name of the family of the girl's father until I moved to Sullivan, where I became acquainted with an old gentleman who wore a medal given him because it had been ascertained that he was then the earliest living settler in Illinois. He had moved with his family from Kentucky in 1806 before he was quite a year old. The old gentleman was "Uncle John" Rose. He was a sturdy old man and lived to be well past the age of 80. (One of his sons, James Knox Polk Rose, was a high school teacher, in some respects the best I ever knew. He was County Superintendent of Schools from 1873 to 1877. He declined a reelection because the salary of $350 fixed by the Board of Supervisors was too low.) After Uncle John was given the medal by the Illinois Old Settlers Association, I told him that my family came to Illinois a little before 1806, but that none of them who came then were still living. He asked me if I was related to James Scott Martin, and when I replied that he was my great grandfather, he startled me by saying "he kidnapped a baby cousin of mine, a daughter of my uncle." In further talk I learned that he knew the baby's mother had given her to them, but he said the Martins did very wrong in keeping her, which may have been technically true if they had been given any choice in the matter. The old gentleman and I had been good friends for the two or three years I had known him, and I was friendly with all his family that I knew, especially with one of his sons, whom I regarded as one of my best -- if not the best -- of my teachers. But I think the old man had less regard for me afterwards, though I may have imagined the cool reserve of his manner. As I have written of two of the daughters, the (so called) twins of James Scott and Mary Figley Martin, leaving off at the time of their marriage,* not even giving the names of their husbands or their own names (for the very good reason that I never heard them), I may as well tell the little that I know of his other daughters. I have heard of three of them, and there may have been none other.
*1943 text: "The two reputed twins were married at the home on or near Sand Prairie
and remained there when the family moved to Kickapoo."
One -- I think her name was Sarah -- married Daniel Critsinger. (Sarah Critsinger
may have been a daughter of Charles Neely. That too would make her an aunt of my
father.) They were probably married in southern Illinois, or it may have been in
the Kickapoo settlement. They later owned and lived on a farm near Lynn Creek, now in Whitley
Township, Moultrie County. The farm is now owned by Roger C. Garrett. Of Aunt Sarah
I think it was said that she never talked much and was never positive about anything,
but it was said "Uncle Dan" talked enough for both. He was said to be a good man
but "too high strung." Some people are yet living who remember hearing of the terrible
fist fight he had with Henderson P. Phillips, another "high strung" pioneer, in a
dispute over some trifling matter. They moved to Texas before the Civil War, and I have
heard nothing more of them or their family. easily explained as they were double cousins of the first degree. I remember hearing of another cousin of father whose name was George Neely. Another daughter (my impression is that her name was Mary) married James Lewis. They must have moved away or died early, as I remember hearing nothing further about them. A son, Martin Lewis, was here from Texas for a visit about the same time as Martin Neely's visit. I remember seeing him but once. One of their daughters, Emily, made her home with her grandfather and grandmother until she was married about the year 1856 to Archie Lane. (More will appear about the Lanes further along in this sketch.) Another daughter, Susannah, married her cousin, John, a son of William Harvey Martin. She was the mother of Henry Whitaker Martin, who has been heretofore mentioned. Another daughter, Isabel, married James, another son of William Harvey Martin, and he, after her death, married her sister Euphamy, another daughter of James Scott and Mary Figley Martin. VI. The Five Sons of James Scott and Mary Figley Martin
James Scott and Mary Figley Martin had five sons. Their names were Joel Figley, (born
in 1800), Samuel, John (born in 1806), Rezin Charles, and James Frost (born in 18
10 or 1811). the name of his wife. They had two sons, George and Nelson. (I am not quite sure that George and Nelson were sons of Samuel. They were cousins of Father and it is just possible that one or both could have been his second cousin. Or they may have been sons of James Martin, who married his cousin, a daughter of James Scott Martin.) Both of these died in early manhood. One of them -- George, I think -married my father's eldest sister, and both of these died soon after, leaving a son who died when he was about three years of age. B. Rezin Charles Martin was a Baptist preacher, and though he died when but slightly past middle age, he had won distinction both as a thinker and a public speaker. George W. Dalby, who was a competent judge in such a case, said that his name, Rezin, was well given and that it should have been spelled "Reason." I will add here a note on George Wade Dalby, who was the most noted preacher in his church for thirty or forty years after about 1850. About the year 1869, he and several other preachers got into a controversy with an eloquent and forceful preacher, John Shields, who lived near Paris and was pastor of the largest Baptist church known at that time (about 300 members). Dalby's associates in the controversy were several eloquent preachers in Indiana -- Joseph Skeeters, two brothers named Darnell and George W. Paine, and James S. Whitlock. Most of the preachers sided with Dalby and Skeeters, but did not get deeply into the controversy. Skeeters was the leader in the attack. He had said, "why Shields is preaching a typical Methodist heaven, the kind that produces the camp meeting shouting orgies. I am going to hit that the first chance I get." And he did, at an association meeting held at a church in Shelby County. Both he and Shields delivered sermons on Sunday, and Shields, who was first, repeated his description of the heavenly life, a spiritual existence which followed immediately after death; he argued that it was only the sinful flesh that died, but the soul, which he said was the real man or woman, went directly to an eternal bliss. Skeeters in his sermon did not mention Shields or what he had said, but declared his own belief that the Christian faith was grounded on the promise of the resurrection, and if that failed, "all our hopes are vain." He said this was what Paul had in mind when he declared, "If there be no resurrection from the dead, then we of all men are the most miserable." This is briefly and in substance what both men said. I know because while I was not present at this particular meeting, I have heard both of them discuss the matter several times. It might have passed away as only a difference of opinion, but soon after, it may have been before they left the meeting, Shields, who was very indignant, met Skeeters and a wordy dispute followed in which Shields told him he was a "soul sleeper." At that time, preachers did not often go by train, but would go across country usually holding meetings wherever they stopped at night. Monday evening after the association meeting closed, Shields had an appointment at the Lynn Creek Church. Skeeters, Dalby, W.H. Darnell, and G.W. Paine came along, but took seats in the audience, and Shields had the pulpit all to himself. I heard that sermon, and in some way I had heard of the controversy on the day before. The Church was crowded, many people expecting a renewal of the controversy, but Shields did not mention the disputed doctrine. Four years later the disputed doctrine was discussed again at a meeting of the association held at Lynn Creek. In this meeting, W.H. Darnell followed Shields and made a very strong presentation of their position. Dalby, who was moderator (Chairman) of the meeting and who sat at the front of the platform by the side of the speaker, fervently shook the hands of Darnell at the conclusion. The next morning I saw Shields and Darnell meet near the speakers stand and saw men hurrying toward them, evidently expecting something like what occurred four years before. But the conversation, though serious and dignified, was quite friendly. Skeeters had preceded Shields (they always had three sermons at these Sundays and all of them too long). I heard Skeeters talking to a group of men and saying: "He did not make an attack. He gave his own views and said nothing he did not have a right to say." But the feud gathered strength largely on account of Shields' aggressiveness. I remember hearing him say, "I would not talk to any of those men (meaning perhaps Dalby, Skeeters, the Darnells and Paine) without witnesses, because," he said, "I know they will lie." He was an older man than the others, and was nearly blind. (Skeeters became blind too in his old age.) The lay leaders of the Shields party were all old men with their families and others under their influence. The controversy did not much disturb the churches in Indiana, where Skeeters and the Darnells and their friends had full sway. But in the Illinois associations, it was different. Wherever Shields had personal influence, there was trouble except in his own association, where he appeared to have a united following. Lynn Creek and one other church in the Okaw association were divided. The division was made in Bethal Church by a ruse. The Shields following lived at or near the little settlement of Paradise, and the members living there asked for letters of dismissal to form another church. Afterwards they took their new church into the Shields association (called Little Wabash). At Lynn Creek Uncle Gilbert [Waggoner], a man whom everyone loved and respected, presented to the Church asking for letters, but when asked for the reason for the request, he just got up and left, and the others joining in the request went with him. They built what is known as the Waggoner church, but it was given a bible name. It too joined the Little Wabash Association. I think this church and also the old Lynn Creek congregation have suffered the same blight that has denuded most of the country churches (and some in town too). The preachers of the Skeeters and Dalby school, while they did not hesitate to declare their position on the disputed question, seldom elaborated or explained it. They did not like the taunt of "soul-sleeper." Some of the small preachers of the Shields faction went to a spiritualistic extreme. Dalby in private and friendly conversation went much further than he ever did in the pulpit. My father never joined in argument over the disputed doctrine, but I think he favored the Skeeters and Dalby position. Anyway, he remained in that church party. Dalby once said in private talk "When a man sleeps he is unconscious of his surroundings. He may sleep so soundly that he does not dream or is at least unable to remember a dream. Now if a man were in a deep, dreamless sleep and if something should occur to end his life, do you think this man, who at the moment apparently knows nothing, will at the next moment, in death, know everything? It is nonsense I tell you; when a man is dead, he is dead." But he had faith in the Resurrection! Dalby was at first a preacher in the "Separate" Baptist church, and it is said that he went to hear R.C. Martin preach to get his points on "Predestination," which is the principal difference between the two Baptist churches. He did this for the purpose of answering them as he was also an eager and talented controversialist. He was impressed in a way different from what he expected. He put off his answer and returned for another hearing and finally acknowledged conversion to the older doctrine, and was for many years a leading preacher among Baptists of the old school (the people of other churches call them "Hardshells"). John R. Eden, who knew Dalby well, said of him that he had the "keenest" mind he ever encountered. He had once been Dalby's attorney, and was surprised at his ability to understand a point of law on the instant it was presented. He said if Dalby had been a little better educated and had studied and practiced as a lawyer, he would have been brilliantly successful. In 1855, only a few weeks before his death, Rezin C. Martin had a debate in the Christian Church at Sullivan with Col. John W. R. Morgan on the question of adopting what was called the "Maine Liquor Law," which was submitted to a popular vote in Illinois. It was really a question of statutory prohibition. Even Maine did not adopt constitutional prohibition until thirty years later. As prohibition was not then a party question, the politicians hesitated to take sides, and the debate was carried on mostly by the preachers. The Methodist ministers generally espoused the cause of prohibition, while the Baptists as generally took the side of "personal liberty." The historical reason for such alignment readily appears. The Baptists resented governmental interference with personal affairs, when actual crime was not involved. The early Baptists had been persecuted through many generations by the English government. Even in this country, they had seen their first great preacher, Roger Williams, banished from the New England settlements and forced to find a temporary home among friendly Indians. In Virginia, they were prosecuted on the charge of "preaching the gospel without a license." If they had asked for a license, it would have been refused. The student of history knows how Patrick Henry won his first distinction as a lawyer in the famous "preachers case." The new church of the Disciples (Christian) was started mostly by people who were Baptists or by those who inherited the Baptist tradition as to personal liberty. Some of the Disciples were former Presbyterians, and that church had been "persecuted" or persecutors, depending upon whether they were in a majority or minority. On the other hand, the Methodists had been derived from the Episcopals, who had (except for a short interval under Cromwell) been the dominant church in England. It was the Episcopal Church that had jailed the Baptist preachers in Virginia, and it had been tolerated in all the colonies. So it is easy to understand the different attitude toward governmental interference even though freedom of worship was no longer questioned. Col. John W.R. Morgan, who had been the advocate of the prohibition (or Maine) law, became its champion in three debates or public discussions in the County. One debate was in Sullivan, and the other two were at Marrowbone (now Bethany) and Lovington. Judge W.G. Cochran heard the discussion at Lovington. He was but eleven years old, but said he remembered the meeting quite well. He said the opposition to the law was represented by a minister of the Christian Church. He did not remember his name. He felt sure that it was not Hostetler or Henry Kellar, but said it might have been one of Kellar's brothers. They were all preachers, and it was said that all of them as well as Bushrod Henry were opposed to the Maine law. I have this fact from John R. Eden, who was intimately friendly with the Henry and Kellar families. But Mr. Henry had by that time moved to Shelbyville. (I use the personal names of these preachers for the reason that the old school Baptists, and until quite recently the members of the Church of the Disciples, never used the title "Reverend" in speaking of their ministers.) The first arrangement for the debate in Sullivan was for Dr. William A. Kellar, then the pastor of the Christian Church, to oppose Col. Morgan, but in a cholera epidemic he was stricken and died of the plague. It is remarkable that shortly after the debate, Rezin Martin too died, of malarial fever. The meeting at Sullivan was attended by a large crowd, which entirely filled the auditorium of the Church, and many outside heard the speeches through the open windows. The meeting was presided over by John R. Eden, then a young lawyer of two years standing at the bar. When some people at the conclusion of the debate called upon him for a decision, he replied that the voters of the state would render a verdict at the election -- which they did, in rejecting the law by a big majority. The people of the state were never again called upon to vote on the question of prohibition for nearly 80 years, when the question of repeal of National prohibition was submitted, and then they again voted overwhelmingly against the prohibition idea. Rezin C. Martin was married about 1830. His wife was a daughter of William Clemmens, who lived near Urbana. I never heard her called by any name except "Aunt Polly," but whether her name was Pollyanna or whether it was a nickname, I do not know. About the time of his marriage or soon thereafter, Uncle Rezin moved from Coles County and settled on a farm part of which is now owned by Edward C. Peadro, near the old site of Lynn Creek Church. (Mr. Peadro also owns a small portion of the W.H. Martin farm.) After living there nearly a quarter of a century, he died in August 1855, shortly after his debate with Col. Morgan. Rezin was a successful physician of the hydropathic school (if there was such a school). He was fairly successful in healing others, but when he was attacked or afflicted with a malignant fever, there was no one to administer the treatment to him. It is probable that he had no physician in attendance. He did not favor drug treatment, and he was the only hydropath in the neighborhood. He was survived by his widow and a large number of children. After a few years, Aunt Polly was married to William Hixon, a widower and an old friend who lived near her father's home in Champaign County. He was said to be as good a man as Moses Williams (already mentioned), but he did not have the same opportunity to prove his worth as stepfather, as his wife's children were mostly grown or nearly so. Only one -- the youngest daughter, whose name was Sarah -- made her home with them for any great length of time. Rezin had one son, Lemuel, by his first marriage. Lemuel has been mentioned as the husband of Lydia Elder and the father of John Hixon, who was a painter in Sullivan for several years. There were three other daughters of Rezin C. Martin, all of whom were grown young women at the time of their father's death. The eldest, Ruth (usually called Ruthie), married James M. Smith, who was a grandson of John Waggoner, the eldest of half dozen sons of Isaac Waggoner, the pioneer from North Carolina. James and Ruthie Smith had one daughter, Avena, who married Logan Holmer. They moved to Tennessee and died there, leaving a son and daughter, who inherited the Smith estate upon the death of their grandmother only a few years ago. The daughter, who still lives in Tennessee, remains the owner of the old Whitley homestead. The second daughter of Rezin C. Martin, whose name was Phoebae, married Isaiah Waggoner, a son of George Waggoner, one of the pioneer Waggoner brothers. They had two or three children when they moved west about 1870. The eldest son was named Malden. Their history can be found in the printed history of the Waggoner family. Uncle "j" became a Baptist preacher after going west, and he was said to be "a good one" by those who heard him when he visited here about 25 years since. Another daughter, Mary Jane, married George Monson, and they too went west. I remember two or three of their children, but I have never heard about their subsequent history. Not much can be written about the sons of Rezin C. Martin. The eldest was John Wesley (a strange name for the son of a Baptist minister). He went west before I can remember him. He may have been in the army (on either side). His word was not considered quite reliable, and it is said he told conflicting stories about his life. The only time I ever saw him was about 1870, when he came to our home with a little daughter about six or eight years of age, a beautiful little girl. I do not think he had then visited any of his nearer relatives. I heard Mother tell him (he was her double cousin) to be sure and visit his mother (which I am sure he intended to do). I doubt if he saw his sister, Mrs. Smith. He left the little girl with his mother, Aunt Polly Hixon. I saw her a few years later -- a beautiful young woman. I never heard what further became of Wesley. He was a queer character. Darius Litford was the second son and a likeable man. He had some ability as a salesman, and spent some time in what was called canvassing (or peddling). He and his stepbrother, Lemuel Hixon, became what was then called free thinkers (as if there could be any real thinking that is not free!) or skeptics. He finally, like all his brothers, drifted away somewhere, and after the middle seventies I heard nothing of them until a few years ago a granddaughter of Litford was living with Eliza (Hostetler) Waggoner in Sullivan. She was a Roman Catholic and she said her grandfather had joined that church. It seemed strange, at first thought, but a little reflection discloses the reason. First, a Protestant believer -- then a doubter or skeptic, perhaps an atheist -- then he begins to doubt his doubts and wonders if his so-called reason has not been playing him tricks. If he turns to religion again, he is apt to seek authority rather than a creed that needs interpretation by his own mind or reason. This may lead him straight into the Catholic Church -- a refuge for the tired thinker or for the timid who are afraid to follow the guidance of their own minds. The other sons of Rezin C. Martin, whose names were William, Joel and Worley, after working as farm hands for a few years, all went away, and I lost trace of them. I think the youngest daughter, Sarah, married in Champaign County, and I suppose the daughter of Wesley did the same. I remember that Worley had many friends and was almost as popular as his elder brother, Litford. Bill and Joe did not attract so many friends, although I think no one really disliked them. None of them, not even Litford or Worley, appeared to pay much attention to girls. C. The youngest son of James Scott Martin was James Frost.* He was twice married. James Frost was 50 or 51 years of age at the beginning of the Civil War. Notwithstanding his age, he enlisted and was a good soldier throughout the War. * 1943 text: "James Figley Martin." "He lived to be 93 years of age." There was one son by his first marriage, Miles, who married a sister of my father, "Aunt Rhoda." They had two or three children when they moved to Nebraska about 1868. I think their family was not considered large for that day -- four or five children at most. By his second marriage, Uncle Jim was the father of two sons and a daughter, Emily, who married Peter Tritmaker. The two (Tritmaker) daughters are married and are living in the State of Washington. Of the two sons of James Frost Martin by his second marriage, Charles married Louisa, the eldest daughter of Archie and Emily (Lewis) Lane. Charley and Mrs. Lane, Louisa's mother, were first cousins, so that he and Louisa were cousins of the first degree once removed, as the English awkwardly describe such a relation. They both died in St. Louis a few years ago. Some of their children have visited here (with their Lane relatives) and they seemed to be serious and rather important people. The other son, Sylvester Martin, went to Missouri sixty or more years ago. I do not know much about his family. D. This is a good place to say something of Archibald Lane, whose name has already been mentioned. He was related only by adoption and marriage. About 1841, after the marriage of all their children and after the death of Sarah Scott Martin, who had made her home with them since coming to Illinois, my great grandfather and great grandmother, James Scott and Mary Figley Martin, made the trip back to the old home in Kentucky. They spent the nights at public inns along the road. At one inn there was a lively six-year-old boy that attracted their attention, and especially when they found that he was an orphan and not closely related to the innkeeper. After leaving the inn to continue the journey, great grandmother declared that if the boy was still there on the return trip, she would offer to take him home with them. On returning, she found the innkeeper's wife quite willing to give him up, as she said the inn could not provide a good home for a child. Archibald was taken into the family, though not legally adopted, and his name was never changed. He had playmates with the grandsons of his foster parents, and to all intents and purposes he became one of the family. He took care of his protectors in their old age, and when the old gentleman died at the age of 86 years, he gave his home farm to Archie Lane, who as has been said, had married their granddaughter, Emily Lewis, who had also for several years made her home with them. The Lanes had two daughters and three sons. The eldest daughter, Louisa, as has just been said, married Charles Martin. James Lewis Lane married my cousin Mary, daughter of Uncle William Thomas Martin. Their history will be given further on. A second son, Charles Martin Lane, married a daughter of Daniel M. Patterson. He became a lawyer, and before his death lived in St. Louis. They had two daughters and one son, Hoke Lane, who lives here, having married a daughter of Rufus Harshman. The third son, Jeff Lane, married Martha Miller. They had two or three children who became printers. Their son, Ray, is now running a newspaper at Bement. E. All the children of James Scott Martin have been accounted for (some of them quite briefly) except my two grandfathers. The eldest son, I think the eldest child, was my mother's father, Joel Figley Martin, who was born in 1800. When about ten years of age, he was afflicted with what was then called the "white swelling," which left him with a bent and stiffened knee. He had to use crutches the remainder of his life. He recovered in every other way, and was physically strong and healthy until his last illness, when he died of pneumoma at the age of 66 years. Joel Figley became better educated than most boys of his day, but there was little chance for more than the rudiments of an education, aside from reading the few (very few) books obtainable. He went to school, when there was a school, at first riding in a dog cart, and later he had a pony. Usually the school was several miles from home. He taught school himself for several years, and also served as Justice of the Peace and school treasurer. He thus managed to make a living for a large family until his children were able to care for themselves.* *1943 text: "[H]e was an intelligent reader, and though a poor man, even then he had a good history. My father bought some of his books, craving most for the Bible commentaries and other religious books he bought. There were some m the collection that I devoured, such as a good -- though too short -- history of Greece, the Sayings of Poor Richard, and a collection or selections from the writings of Seneca under a general title of Moral Philosophy and A Guide to Virtue -- a forbidding title but a good book." Joel Figley was also a Baptist preacher (the kind of Baptist that had no payroll for preachers). I remember hearing him preach, but cannot remember anything I heard him say. He was not as eloquent as his younger brother, Rezin C. Martin, but like him, he tried to teach by explanation (exposition) and argument, but being less eloquent, his sermons suffered by comparison. Dalby, a younger preacher, once said, "I could learn more from him than from anyone else, except his brother Rezin." Joel Figley Martin married Elizabeth Clemmens, with whom he became acquainted when visiting her home near Urbana on a preaching tour.** The Baptists in early days went many miles to their meetings. In fact, the Western half of Indiana and Eastern Illinois appeared to be one Baptist neighborhood. **1943 text: "Her sister Polly, as has been stated, became the wife of Rezin C. Martin." Joel F. Martin and his family lived for many years in the Lynn Creek neighborhood, but later their home was in North Okaw Township, Coles County. They had a large family, five sons and seven daughters. The oldest son, James Scott Martin Jr., died in early manhood. He left a widow and two children. She took the children and went to her own people, and I think little was heard from them afterward. The second son, Samuel, was about 26 or 27 years of age when he went to Texas with the other Martins, three or four years before the War of Secession. He married in Texas, but I think he had no children. A year or two after the War, he came back with W.H. Martin and visited for a few weeks. Both he and Uncle Henry (who was not an uncle but a cousin) had been drafted into the Confederate Army, and served through the War. They were very bitter against secession, and both were Republicans. Uncle Henry, after moving here, became a Democrat, but Uncle Sam stayed a Republican, although perhaps he did not take the trouble to vote in Texas. The third son was Uncle Rezin (who wrote his name "Reese"). He had a leg crushed in a runaway accident when a little boy, and it had to be amputated. He was the problem child of the family. His father, who was a cripple too, tried to educate him, but he would not study. He learned to read a little, but that was about all. However, he was cheerful and fun loving, and a boon companion for boys until they grew up, got too big, when he held aloof from them. He was never married. Uncle Levi was the next son. He served in the Union army throughout the war (the last thirteen months a prisoner at Tyler, Texas). Uncle Jeff (Thomas Jefferson)* went to war later as a recruit and got into action just in time to be taken prisoner along with Uncle Levi and several other Coles County boys. But Uncle Jeff managed to escape before they reached the prison camp. His account of his escape to the Union lines made a thrilling adventure story. He had to travel at night and hide by day, and depend upon such food as he could persuade negroes to bring him. *1943 text: "The youngest of the brothers, Thomas Jefferson Martin, ...." For a while, Uncle Sam was a guard at the prison camp, and did what he could to help Uncle Levi and his two or three friends, who had decided to stay the War out in prison rather than attempt an escape. After the War, Uncle Levi married and went west. I remember they had a daughter two or three years old, pretty but as fat as a fat pig. I think he and his wife separated soon afterward, and he finally went to Texas and lived with or near Uncle Sam. His pension would keep him comfortable. Uncle Jeff went away about the same time, and I think he seldom stayed long in one place. He wrote me once after he had been away thirty years or more. He had been in Canada for a few years and was then with a lumber company in the State of Washington. He wrote a number of inquiries about people, and signed "Tom Martin." I replied but heard nothing more from him. Later he wrote one of his sisters from the soldiers' home in Nashville. He was then 80 years of age, and thought his roving life was over. The eldest daughter was Rachel Elvina, my mother, born April 1, 1832. She was married in 1853 to her cousin, John Neely Martin. Their history will appear further on in this sketch. In pioneer days every large family, if they had any enterprise or ambition, had to make itself a sort of industrial corporation. Each family was a manufacturing establishment. In the home, there was the cooking, weaving, sewing and knitting, and laundry to supply the needs of a dozen or more people. Each large farm had its smith and carpenter shop. And the boys and girls would specialize in the different work or trades. My mother was the weaver of her family. She got to be an expert weaver, and after being provided with a good loom, she took in weaving for other families. The next daughter was Lucy, who married a man named Robinson (I have forgotten his first name). They moved away in the 1850's and I do not think she ever came back for a visit. One of her sons was here, but that was fifty years ago. The next daughter, Louisa Anne, married George Martin, a cousin. He died early, leaving two children, George and a daughter whose name I have forgotten. Aunt Louisa Anne married again, her second husband being William Holmer, who was another good stepfather -- kind and understanding. They moved away, and I do not know their subsequent history. Aunt Pollyann was the next daughter in this large family. She made a rather "uncouth" marriage. Her husband was William Yarborough (later spelled Yarber), who was a Sullivan teamster who made a living hauling produce to Mattoon and returning with merchandise for Sullivan merchants before the railroads were built. The North Okaw road to Mattoon ran by Grandfather's house, and that accounts for their acquaintance. They both died about the same time, leaving two children, William and _________, both of whom are now deceased without leaving children. T'he next daughter was Rebecca, who married Abram Stevens, a war veteran, several years her senior. Two sons, John and William, went west, and the last I heard of William, he was a business man and politician in Kansas City. Another son, Oscar, lived at Mattoon, as do two or three married daughters. One of the Stevens daughters, Mrs. Cora Stamper and her husband, own a farm in Whitley Township, a portion of which was owned by her great grandfather, James Scott Martin, more than 100 years ago. Another daughter, Ruth, married Bob Robinson, an Englishman who also was a soldier in the Union army. Their daughter Marge married a man named Robinson, but not a relative. A daughter of theirs, being a granddaughter of Aunt Ruth, was married to a nephew of mine, Lawrence Martin Harpster. Aunt Ruth's oldest son was named James. He went to school to me in 1876-77, when he was five years old. The younger members of the family I never knew. Aunt Lurana* was the youngest of my mother's sisters. She lived with us and went to school when she was fourteen to sixteen years of age. She married Wade Fulton. There were two sons, Harry and Walter, and two daughters, Mary and Fannie. *1943 text: "Margaret Lurana." F. All the sons and daughters of James Scott Martin and their descendants so far as I know have been mentioned. except my father's father, whose name was John and who was the third or fourth son in the family. He was named for his Grandfather Martin. The eldest son, Joel Figley, had been named for the other grandfather. John was called "Squire John," but why I do not know. My father did not remember his ever holding the office of Justice of the Peace. The title may have been only complimentary. John married, about 1828, Ann Neely, his cousin**. I think her mother was a sister of James Scott Martin. After their marriage they lived for ten years at Kickapoo Point in Coles County.*** They then moved to the Whitley Creek **1943 text: "He was born in 1806, married in 1827 to Ann Neely (said to be his cousin)." *** 1943 text: "He had a small farm in the north edge of the Kickapoo timber on the road from Charleston toward the present city of Mattoon. They lived here for ten or twelve years, and here most of their children were born: Isabella in 1829, James Lewis in 1831, John Neely (my father) in 1833, and William Thomas in 1835. In 1838, John Martin sold his Kickapoo farm to Capt. B.F. Jones, who for about 60 years was one of the leading citizens of that community." settlement* and began, in 1838, the improvement of a farm, part of which is now owned by Rex Garrett. He built a two story residence, which stood about 150 yards south of the present location of the Garrett home. The farm was two miles long, north and south, and from a quarter to a half mile wide. His father, James Scott Martin, had moved to the neighborhood five years earlier. The latter had been one of the County Commissioners elected when Coles County was organized in 1830. He had been reelected and was still a Commissioner when he moved away, in 1833. *1943 text: "... where his father, his brother Rezin and his uncle William Harvey Martin had settled some years earlier. He bought land in what was later known as the Whitfield neighborhood, and built a large two-story house on land now owned by Rex Garrett. He kept adding to his purchase until he had several hundred acres reaching from Whitley Creek to what is now known as the Western Avenue public road." 2. The eldest son, James Lewis Martin, was born in 1831. He married Emsey, a daughter of Gilbert Waggoner. She was my favorite aunt, the only relative by marriage, and she was my mother's favorite too. They had three sons and four daughters. Mary Ann, the eldest, married Henry Humphries, but lived but a short time after her marriage. Catherine, the second daughter of James Lewis Martin, married a man named Thomason, but she too died within a short time. (After Catherine's death, Thomason married a daughter of Lafayette Bond. After Thomason s death, his widow and two or three daughters lived in Sullivan.) There were two other daughters, but I do not remember which is the elder. Lucretia married first, Earl Howard. They had two sons, 1 believe, before he died. Her second marriage was to a man named Henderson, and they have several children. The other daughter of James Lewis Martin, Narcissa, married Frank Bundy. He was a successful farmer, and it is said that he and his brother Edgar made some money in grain on the Board of Trade. He died while yet a young man, leaving his widow and three daughters well provided for. For quite a while they have lived in Chicago, but still own a good farm near Mattoon. Uncle Jim's eldest son, John Henry (nicknamed "Doug"), died when he was about 19 years of age. The second son, James Bayley, lives in Washington State. I do not know much about his family. I was never much acquainted with the youngest son, George, and I do not know if he is still living. Uncle Jimmy Lewis (everyone called him that) was a farmer, but more of a trader. About the time of the Civil War, he had started well in business, and appeared to be prospering, when a trading partner absconded with most of the partnership property, leaving the partnership debts unpaid. Those debts worried my Uncle for many years. At times he lived in Arkansas and Missouri. His last years were spent in Missouri, but after suffering an accidental injury, he was brought here and died at the age of 89 at the home of his daughter, Sarah Powell. Mrs. Powell (who has been left out of the foregoing sketch) was his second daughter. She married Nelson Powell, who was what is called a good manager, though never a hard worker. I will add here a note about Nelson Powell,, who was a remarkable man. He was. illiterate -- could not write and could scarcely read -- in fact never tried to read. But he could think! He knew nothing of the rules of arithmetic -- could not write figures or even read them -- but he could make astonishing mental calculations. If given the measurement of a grain bin or crib, he would be able to compute the capacity approximately. He never explained his mental premises. He was a predestinarian in religion and a Republican in politics. He read nothing but he listened to arguments, speeches, and conversations, and became fairly well informed. He was unyielding and uncompromising. For instance, he could see nothing wrong in the so-called corruption of the Grant Administration. In 1880 when the State of Indiana went Republican by a small majority and it appeared from the exposure of the "Dorsey Circular" that the Republicans had employed a system of vote buying, Uncle Nelsen said he could see nothing wrong in that. "If," he said, "the Democrats have votes to sell and the Republicans have money to buy, and if they can agree on the price and the terms, I see nothing wrong in it. Both the buyer and seller are acting for the good of the country." He could dispose of any other political controversy just as effectively and just as satisfactorily to himself He never wasted any money. Even his friends thought him too close, even stingy. I remember when he was poor his mother owned a few acres of rich bottom land and a two room log cabin. Nelse cultivated the rich land in vegetables, sorghum, etc., some poultry and pigs, and in that way they made a sort of living. He began buying a few calves and let them grow up on the range. They were a hungry herd through the winter. After the death of his mother, Nelse sold the little river home and purchased 35 acres of prairie land and took in a bachelor partner, Sylvester Martin, who had a team and plow. He began to prosper and soon bought the adjoining 45 acres, making his first 80. About this time, he married Sally Martin. Within a few years he had several hundred acres, and then quit buying land and loaned his money and reloaned the interest. When he died, his personal loans had reached $15 or 20 thousand, and he had bought two good homes in Sullivan. Nelson applied his homely philosophy to every problem. Once a dependent man who was rather difficult to please left his home with a relative and took up his lodging in the county farm (or poor house). After waiting a while, he spoke to Uncle Nelse of what he called the disgrace to his family in allowing one of its members to live in the "poor house." "No disgrace at all," he replied. "Yours is a large family and it has been paying taxes for many years to support the poor, and no member has ever been benefitted until now. It is all right for you to have a home at the farm." The logic struck the poor man with such force that he left the county farm to live with one of his sisters. Nelson Powell died several years ago, leaving his widow and one daughter, who is married to Ira Carson. Mrs. Powell died a few weeks ago (1941). After the death of Aunt Emsey, Uncle Jim married again. I never met his second wife, as they did not live here much of the time. People who knew said she was a good woman and a good wife -- a good fortune. It would have been a great affliction after living so many years with a perfect woman like Aunt Emsey to be mated with her opposite. 3. The second son in the John Martin family was John Neely, born in January 1833. His history will be given toward the end of this sketch. 4. The third son (fourth child) was William Thomas Martin, born in 1835. He was known generally as "Will Tom." Father usually spoke of him as "Will," sometimes as "William Thomas." The "Will Tom" was a neighborly call, not a family one. He married Jane, daughter of William Waggoner, who was a son of John ("Uncle Jackie"), the eldest of the well-known pioneer Waggoner brothers. With the exception of a year in Mattoon and a year or two in Arkansas, they lived on a farm in East Nelson Township. After Aunt Jane died, sometime in the 1890's, Uncle Will married again, but he was not so fortunate as Uncle Jim. It is unnecessary to write of his second wife. Aunt Jane had been beyond criticism. She had been less talkative and less cheerful, and on that account seemed less friendly than did Aunt Emsey, but I am sure it only seemed so, for she never failed in any of her duties of friendship or in loyalty to her family. Their eldest daughter, Nancy Anne, married Martin T. Waggoner, the youngest son of Uncle Gilbert and Aunt Patsey. They had two daughters, Jerusha, who died some ten years ago, and Belle, who married a man named Allison. They lived in Sullivan and have one daughter. Nancy Martin Waggoner died a short time prior to the death of Sarah Powell. They at that time were the two oldest living grandchildren of John Martin. (I have that distinction now.) The eldest son of William Thomas Martin was Francis Marion, who died about three years ago, in 1938. He married Marcia, the daughter of Thomas Graven. They were the parents of five sons and three daughters. The first son, John, died in young manhood. Two sons, Edwin and Fred, are married and live in Mississippi. Each has two or three children. Roy is married and lives in the old family home southeast of Sullivan. They have no children. Another son, Carl, served overseas in the World War and was severely wounded. He is married, lives in Sullivan, and has children. One of the daughters, Nellie, married Otis Williamson and lived for many years in the Northwest before her death a few years ago. They were the parents of a large family of children. Another daughter, Ettie, married a man named Sutton and has lived near Springfield for many years. They have no sons and three daughters. The youngest daughter of F.M. and Marcia Martin, Carrie Eathel, married my son, John Eden Martin. Their history and that of their children will be given further on in this sketch. (Their history is also given in the printed history of the Waggoner family.) The second son of William Thomas Martin was John Dawson, named for a Baptist preacher. He was married twice and had one son and three daughters of his first marriage. He died several years ago, and none of his children live here. The youngest son, William Isaac Martin, married Ida T'hompson. They five near Sullivan and have reared an interesting family. They have four sons and three daughters. The sons and one daughter are school teachers. One daughter, Sarah, is married to a man named Christ, and lives on a farm east of Sullivan. Mabel, the school teacher, and Laverna, are at home. Ernest, the oldest son, married a Myers, and they have one daughter, who is also married. Ernest is principal of a school at Bethany. One of the daughters of William T. Martin, Sarah, married Albert Baugher. They had two sons. Ollie is married and lives near Windsor. They have several children. One of their daughters married Mark Buckalew. The other of the two sons of the Baughers, Ed, married, but he left his wife and their children twenty or more years ago and his whereabouts are not known. His wife was afterward married to Len White, who reared the Baugher children. The next daughter of W.T. Martin, Mary, married James Lewis Lane, as has been related. They reared a large family, three daughters and seven sons. The eldest daughter, Maude, was a school teacher. Her first marriage was to James Weaver, and they moved to the northwest. Her second marriage was to ___________. The eldest son of the Lanes is Claude. He first married a daughter of Charles and Candace Hunter. They had four children. After the death of his wife, he remarried. They live not far from Bruce. The second son was Charles Albert Lane, who is now (1941) County Treasurer. He married Vica, a daughter of my school boy friend, Frank Leeds. They have four children, who have taken advantage of their school opportunities in high school and college. Their names are: Charles, Orris, Louise, and Wilma. Walter Lane was for a while in business in Sullivan, but is now located in Springfield. He married a daughter of Andy Waggoner, who was a son of AJ. (Jack), one of the sons of Uncle Gilbert. They have two or three children. Roscoe is another son of J.L. and Mary Lane. He is married, is employed in Mattoon, but lives near the old Waggoner Church in Whitley Township. The fourth daughter of W.T. Martin, Violet (named for the heroine of Mrs. Gilbert Judson Beebe's story of that name), was married to Allen Hostetter, son of William Hostetter, whose wife was Nancy, one of the daughters of Gilbert Waggoner. This branch of the Hostetter family moved to Missouri fifty years ago. In the settlement of Uncle Will's estate, the names of several Hostetter heirs appeared, but I do not remember the names. The next daughter, Elizabeth, married Will Sutton. They are living at the old homestead, a part of which they own. The youngest daughter, Dora, married Will Thompson. They live near Moweaqua. 5. The fourth son of John and Ann Neely Martin was Daniel Parker Martin. He was the last child of the family, and was born in 1845. He was named for the most noted Baptist preacher of his day, who was the formulator of a theological theory known as the "Two Seed Doctrine," which is seldom or never mentioned now. The Parkers, Daniel and two or three brothers, including Senator Nat (or Nathaniel), with their families went to Texas in the middle fifties at the time so many Martins went. Some of them settled on the frontier and became involved in Indian warfare. A daughter of one of the Parkers was taken prisoner by the Indians, became a wife of one of the chiefs and the mother of a famous chief who later was distinguished in border warfare with the whites. Bonnie Parker, the noted woman bandit who was killed a few years ago in a gun battle with detectives, was a daughter of some of this Illinois-Texas family, possibly a descendant of the noted two-seed preacher. Daniel Parker Martin enlisted in the Union army when he was about 18 years of age -- possibly a little before his 18th birthday. He was making his home with us, as Father had been his guardian since the death of their father. He stayed in the army about 16 months before coming home on a furlough about Christmas time in 1864. Uncle Parker was the sixth uncle of mine named Martin in the war, counting one grand uncle Jim. Another, Uncle Sam, was in the Confederate army. Two other uncles, Stephens and Robinson -- both soldiers in the war -- later married two of my aunts. This makes eight soldier uncles -- not a bad record. Uncle Parker about 1867 married Amanda Fortner, and when they went west they had two sons -- the eldest John Neely, and the other William. Uncle Parker became a missionary Baptist preacher. He and Aunt Manda were divorced and she became a sort of independent preacher and evangelist -- a little on the sensational order. He married again, and there were several children in his two families. 6. Aunt Rhoda, the second daughter of John and Ann Neely Martin, was born in 1837. She married a cousin, Miles Martin who has been mentioned as the son of James Figley [Frost?] Martin. They had two children, a son James and a daughter Millie, when they moved to Nebraska about 1869. I think the family numbered five or more children al together. 7. Aunt Serfida Jane was born in 1839. She lived to a greater age than any of her brothers or sisters, dying at the age of 91 years. 8. Aunt Mary, born in 1842, was married twice. Her first husband was James Bathe, and they had one son, John Martin Bathe. Her second husband was William Robinson. They had three or four children, all small, when they moved to Arkansas. (I had three Robinson uncles by marriage, and none of them was related to either of the others. Besides my cousin, Maye Robinson married a Robinson, who was unrelated to any of them. It makes one wonder how all the unrelated Robinson families got started. But in the early days, any son of Robert or Robin could become the founder of a family under the name of Robertson or Robinson.) This completes the sketch of the Martin family with the exception of my father, John Neely Martin, and his descendants, whose history will follow in succeeding pages.* _____________ *1943 text: "A remarkable fact of this family was their health and longevity except the eldest, Isabella, who died in young womanhood soon after her marriage. The four brothers all lived beyond the age of 80 years. My father, John Neely, was past 90 at the time of his death in 1923. William Thomas died near the same time at the age of 88. James Lewis had lived to be 89, and Uncle Parker was beyond 80 when he died. Of the sisters, Serilda lived to be 93, and Aunt Rhoda was 78 at the time of her death. Aunt Mary met an accidental death at her home in Arkansas when she was about the age of 50." VII. John Neely and Rachel Elvina Martin My father, John Neely Martin, was the second son (third child) of John and Ann Neely Martin. He was born in January 1833 in the family home at Kickapoo. Grandfather owned 80 acres of good prairie land just north of the Kickapoo timber, a little more than a mile south of the present town of Loxa (or Stockton) between Mattoon and Charleston. It has been said already that the family moved to what is now Whitley Township, Moultrie County, in 1838, when my father was but five years of age. He and his two brothers broke out most of the prairie land of Grandfather's farm. A big sod plow was used, drawn by a team of three yokes of cattle. It took all three of the boys to manage the outfit one to drive and guide the cattle, and the other two at the plow, one to hold the handles, the other to keep the plow in the ground, sometimes by riding on the front end of the beam. When most of the hardest work of breaking the prairie grass sod was done, the young men concluded that running a mill would be more to their taste, and they persuaded their father to sell the farm and build a mill over at the point where Whitley Creek joins the Okaw River.* The mill enterprise was a failure. Even when there was plenty of water to turn the large wheel of the mill, the water fall over the dam was only a few feet, so that not enough power was developed. They were not informed in the philosophy of the water wheel and made the strange mistake of thinking that the potential power or force depended upon the length instead of the height of the water head. The water was dammed for a mile or so, but the level was only a few feet above the wheel. *1943 text: "I am not certain whether the mill dam was built in the channel of the creek or upon the river. The mill was well constructed with burrs for grinding both corn and wheat, and with saws for the manufacture of lumber." Grandfather may never have understood the cause of the failure, but he soon saw that he was losing money, and he resold the outfit and it was moved to Missouri. He died soon afterward, in 1856. While the mill enterprise was a failure, Grandfather did not lose much money in the venture. But it was a mistake to sell 400 acres of good prairie land for $7.00 or less per acre and invest in poorer land. The probate files and records show a personal estate of $4700, besides the cheap river land in his possession. His Whitley farm had been sold for less than three thousand dollars. It was that sale that was a bad move.** ** 1943 text: "Grandfather was left with a hundred or more acres of land near the mill site, which had been acquired for the saw timber. This he conveyed to his youngest daughters, unmarried at the time. He died soon after, in 1856." In 1853 when Father was a few months past 20 years of age, he married his cousin, Rachel Elvina, daughter of Joel Figley and Elizabeth Clemmens Martin. She was born April, 1832, and was therefore 21 years of age at the time of the marriage. They lived near the mill site until the mill was closed down, when they moved to the North Okaw settlement near where Mother's parents then lived. In the first few years, three children were born, all dying in infancy. Their names were William Harvey, J ames Benton, and Narcissa. In the fall of 1858, Father bought from James Hostetler a tract of 20 acres in the northeast comer of Section 8 in Whitley Township, and built a one-room house.* He had learned the trade of carpenter and then had no intention of developing a farm. Howev er, he kept making small purchases through a long term of years, until he had bought altogether 140 acres (40 of which he sold to my brother, and 20 to my brother in law). He also about 1860 bought a railroad tract of prairie land, 40 or 80 acres, a mile or two south of Bruce; but at the beginning of the War, carpenter work ceased, and fearing that he would not be able to make the payments, he sold his contract for a little more than he had paid for it. Later the railroad company extended the time of pa yments and he realized that he could have paid out on the land, and that he had made a mistake in
*1943 text: "They lived for five or six years on rented land, and in 1859 moved to a new home of their own at Lynn Creek, where they lived for fifty years. They moved to Sullivan, but soon after in June 1909 Mother died at an age a little
over 77 years. Father lived until April 1923, dying a few weeks after his 90th birthday." abandoning the claim. Possibly he was too cautious, but on the other hand he was relieved of many worries that adventurous people have. There was probably never a time in his life that he felt or feared that he was losing money, and there never was a ti me that he was burdened with debts that he was unable to pay. He always had credit at the stores, but never ran large bills. When he bought on credit he always knew about when and how he would be able to pay, usually with money he earned at his trade, as he seldom had much of value to sell. He traded mostly at Windsor or Sullivan. At Sullivan I think he traded almost entirely at Judge Eden's [Joseph Edgar Eden] store. I remember coming to Eden's store about 1867, I think, when I was 8 years of age. The store was in a large room just south of the Eden hotel, where the First National Bank is now. It was rather cool, and while standing near the big stove I looked around and saw hanging in several places cards: "We sell for cash only," and "Please do not ask for credit." While we were standi ng there Judge Eden came in, and after a few words of greeting asked, "Well, what can we do for you this morning?" Father said ' "I don't know how much; these cards are a little discouraging." The Judge leaned over a little (he was quite tall) and said, n ot very loud, "Young man, you know quite well that those cards were not put up for you!" He then went with us to one of his clerks and said, "Let Mr. Martin have anything he wants to buy and give him all the credit he asks for." I think Father was not in any way surprised, and took it as only a matter of course, but the incident gave me one of the proudest moments of my life. The great financial and industrial panic of 1873, like the disturbances occasioned by the beginning of the Civil War, checked building operations; and Father gave up contracting
altogether. He did a little work at his trade in the next few years, but only for wages. In 1871 he tried to get the contract for building a new school house in the Whitfield district. He and Aaron Merkle had often worked together -- usually one helping the other -- as they took contracts separately. Merkle was on the board of directors and could not take the contract himself, but he could help Father with the work if he did not share in the profits of the contract. They made together the estimate for Father's bid, which was about $1500. However, the low bid was about $200 less, and I thi nk Mr. Merkle was a little pleased when he learned that the contractor, Henry Sutton, had lost money, or at least made no profits on the job. In 1871 and 1872, Father had a contract for making railroad ties in Hugh Simper's timber on Whitley Creek. There was a narrow ridge along the creek bluff that was covered with fine white oak and burr oak trees. He hired Jack Waggoner to help him in cutt ing down the trees and sawing and splitting the logs. Also Jack would score (or had to drop) the sides of the pieces, and Father would shape and smooth the ties with the broadaxe. He got 15 cents for each tie, and they made 30 or more a day. Father mad e enough money to buy and pay for the 15 acre tract he was working, most of which was good bottom land. Two or three years before, he had bought a fifteen acre tract in the same 40 acres, and a little later he bought the other 10 acres. For several year s -- 10 or 12 -- he had spent a good part of the winters hewing out the heavy frame timbers for houses and barns in the Whitley Creek timber, and put them into buildings on the prairie in the summer and fall months. But after 1873 his carpenter work was only occasional. In 1875 he bought the 20 acre tract where the Harpsters now live, and in this transaction he borrowed $600.00 of Dr. Samuel R. Oliver at 8 per cent interest, and this debt he did not pay for 20 years, after he had paid $960 in interest. In the meantime he had bought and paid for other land, and had built a new ho use on the home place, on the Lynn Creek hill. Father was elected township clerk in 1868, defeating Thomas Boyd, the Republican candidate by ten majority. The next year he declined to run and W.H. Garrett was nominated. Dr. Oliver and one or two other Democrats united against Mr. Garrett and elected Uncle Alex Edwards by a majority of 25. Next year, Father was again a candidate and defeated Uncle Alex by ten majority. He was reelected each year until 1873, when he was elected Justice of the Peace, an office which he held for several terms. About 1898 he was again nominated for Township Clerk, but was defeated by the Republic candidate, Thomas Boyd, the same man he had defeated 30 years before. He always had an interest in politics and was well informed on national issues. He did not talk much in crowds, but in companies of two or three he could discuss politics or religion and hold his own with anybody. He was never physically over strong, bu t was usually in good health and was a good steady, though not speedy, worker. In thinking about my father's occupation, I recall that I do not remember seeing him idle. If he was not at work making or mending something, he was either reading or writing. He had some manual skills in many trades. He worked in wood and leather, and if he had a forge and tools he could have worked with iron and steel.
In the winter when it was too cold or too wet to work in the timber, he was busy in the house or shop. He made feed baskets of split hickory that were artistic as well as strong, serviceable and durable. He could clean, oil and even repair a clock. I r emember that a traveling watch and clock man one winter day offered work on our tall clock. When Father told him that he did that himself, the fellow appeared greatly amused. He asked, "What do you do if you find that a pivot of a wheel has worn its cas ing?" "I mend it." "How?" "I put into the bearing a thin piece of brass or copper." "Oh," said the man, "you have no tools to do that sort of work." "Why," said Father, "all the tools you need are a file and a claw hammer." The man began gathering up hi s things, saying, "There is no use of fooling away time on you. A file and a claw hammer!" Father had the heartiest and longest spell of laughter that I ever saw him have, and it was repeated many times when he thought of the incident.* *1943 text: "He led a quiet but an ever active life, up to and through his 88th year, and continued his study and reading a year or more longer. He read carefully and attentively a six-volume copy of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Ro man Empire in the last two years of his life." VIII. Me, Myself I was the third child of the family, born November 7, 1859. I was named John Ivory, the first a family name after my Father and Grandfather. The second name was for a friend of the family, Ivory Quimby, a lawyer then located at Monmouth, Illinois .** **1943 text: "I am grateful to my father for not allowing me to be burdened with the last name of the barrister." Most people called me by the second name, but when I started to school I signed "John I. Martin." Usually when it got in print, it appeared as "John J." which annoyed me not a little, and especially for the reason that I had a cousin by that name. I cons idered the plan of writing the full name, "John Ivory" -- a good many people called me that anyway. I also thought of "J. Ivory," but I never liked that form. Mother suggested that I write it "Ivory J." or "I.J.", and that is what I decided to do. Thi s was in 1878, when I was in my 19th year. At first I used just the name "Ivory," but later I began writing "J" for a middle initial. The first thing I remember in my life occurred, I think, when I was about two years of age, or possibly younger. I had fallen asleep on the floor and under a table. It was one of those old style drop-leaf affairs, and when the leaf was down, the edge of the table cloth reached the floor. Anyway, when I awoke it was entirely dark around me, but I could hear people talking out in the room. I at once made myself heard, and was soon helped out into the open where I could see. A woman, probably one of my aunts, held me on her lap until Mother came into the room. I remember there was some talk that I did not understand, but which I felt sure was about myself, and when Mother laughed at something that was said, I was mad all over, and I think I said so in the only way a baby can. The next incident was in the summer before I was three. There was a "clearing," as it was called, in front of our house along the public road, and at the end of the clearing was thick timber with some underbrush. I remember seeing a buggy, in which were two men driving two horses, each with a white stripe down its face, dash out of the timber on the east and in a moment disappear on the west. It appeared wonderful at the time and it made an impression that I never forgot.
The next distinct recollection I have is of my Uncle Parker going to the War. It was in the summer of 1863, a few months before I was four years old. Uncle Jeff, my mother's brother, went at the same time. I have a somewhat confused recollection of the last year or two of the War. Mother had two brothers in the Union Army, and her oldest brother, who lived in Texas, had been drafted into the Southern Army. She hated the War, and she blamed both the abolit ionist agitators and the secessionists, and thought they were equally to blame. The soldiers stationed at Mattoon occasionally made night raids into the country, and sometimes entered the homes of Democrats, seizing guns or searching for evidence of disloyalty. We were never disturbed, but I remember one night someone tapped on a wi ndow and then said the soldiers were out on another raid. Mother was alarmed, but Father said there was no danger. He stepped outside and listened awhile before going back to bed. Later I was told that one night Father and Uncle Jim Hostetler kept vigi l at a point where they could watch both their homes, but I knew nothing about it at the time. Neither of them belonged to any club or political organization, and neither did any wild talking, so that none of the spies would have had anything to report to the Mattoon camp. So there was really no danger of their being disturbed. I remember when Uncle Parker came home just before Christmas in 1864. He had served about 17 months without a furlough. He had 30 days leave, which was later extended, and he did not go back until he went for his discharge.
The next definite recollection is the assassination of Lincoln, which we probably heard in a day or two. I remember a woman who sometimes helped Mother with her work (the woman's name was Susan Bullick). When Mother told her, she said, "I'm glad of it." Mother said a plenty to her, and I think changed her mind about it. One gift that Mother had was the use of plain speech. There was never any doubt of her meaning. One of her nephews said long afterwards, "When Aunt Rachel thought that anything needed to be said to anyone, she did not hunt around for someone to say it; she just said it herself." I have a few more memories of 1863 and 1864, possibly as early as the summer of 1862. It is about my great grandfather James Scott Martin, and my grandfather Joel Figley and my grandmother Elizabeth Clemmens. They were usually at our house once a month at the Baptist meetings at the Lynn Creek Church. Grandfather was the regular pastor of the Church, but Dalby often preached the main Sunday sermon. My great grandfather, I think, came at other times too. I remember seeing him romp with my brother, who at the time was just big enough to walk, which would mean that I was a little over three. I think the last time I saw him was in the fall of 1864, two or three months before I was five. He had walked from his home a mile east of Bruce, stopping for a v isit with Uncle Gilbert and Aunt Patsey Waggoner, and resting again at the home of the Elders. He came suddenly upon my brother and me as we were playing at the edge of the orchard. He was not tall, 5 feet and 8 or 9 inches, but was rather stout, with a face full, round and
ruddy, and with merry twinkling eyes. I have never seen a finer looking old gentleman.* * 1943: "He came upon me and my brother with his plump, round face red and smiling. He wore a bright colored cap knit with wool yarn, and with a tasseled top. He was carrying a heavy walking stick on his arm." Grandfather was more sober and less playful -- probably the dignity becoming a preacher had to be maintained. But still more serious yet was my grandmother. She was kind and loving enough, but seldom smiled and never laughed as Mother frequently did. L ife had been a serious business for Grandmother. with a large family and a husband handicapped by his lameness. I neglected to say when writing of him a few pages back that he had learned to mend, and even to make, shoes; and so with his working family a nd little farm, the family was self-sustaining. In my seventh year, March 6, 1866, 1 was a fascinated observer of a tornado that moved in a northeast by east course from the present site of Bruce to about the present location of the town of Allenville. We were more than two miles away and could not se e the surface disturbance, only the funnel-shaped black cloud that moved with a whirling and rocking (like a spinning top) motion. The folks standing around me called it a hurricane -- the first time I had heard the word. I think there have been only two real tornados through Moultrie County, though there have been other more or less destructive storms. The first tornado is the one which occurred in March 1866. The other was the one that did such destructive work in Matt oon and Charleston in the summer of 1917. It missed the towns of Shelby County,
moving south of Findlay and north of Windsor. It disturbed some farm improvements through Moultrie County, and hit a few people on the roads along its course. The destruction in Mattoon and Charleston was appalling. It will be noticed that both of thes e tornados went along courses south of the river. We had good neighbors, and I was intimate with the children of a half dozen families -- the Elders, Hostetlers, Harrisons, Garretts, Merkles and Phillips. At school there were others. My brother had two pals, Warren Hillingost and Charley Edwards. Joe Merkle was my favorite among boys of my age, after the Elders moved away, and I had a good friend in Dave Maxedon, a boy three or four years older than myself. He was steadily loyal and recklessly brave, and I valued him as a sort of protector. In 1866 I went to a summer school at Smyser to a good teacher, whose name was Gainer. My recollections are mainly of the playground. I remember one of the larger boys, Jake Burch, getting a whipping. I think that was the only incident of the kind in th e whole term. Most teachers then made a sterner record. About this time, the district boundary lines were readjusted, and we found ourselves in the Whitfield district; and the summer of 1867 1 attended school taught by Sarah C. Scott (afterward Sadie Scott of the Scott sisters, dressmakers in Sullivan). The w inter school was taught by John Mason, the jolly Old Pedagogue, one of the best teachers of his day. By this time, my brother Joel Kester (born January 1861) had became of school age, and went to the summer term under Miss Scott, and except in bad weather to Mason. A younger brother, Samuel Oliver, born in 1862 had died
when a little past two years of age. A sister, Sarah Elvina, born in 1864, lived until January 1884. She was married to Charles Batson. She and my brothers made good companions during our years of childhood, and I think we were as happy as the a verage children of our day. A younger sister, Susannah, died when about two years of age. Her death and that of Sammy were the only bereavements of our childhood.* *1943 note: "Father and Mother had the distressing misfortune of losing five children in early childhood. Their names were James, William Harvey, Nerissa, Samuel Oliver, and Susannah." I think Mason taught the summer term in 1868. And I think it was this school that Bill Wrackley attended. He was the counterpart of Huck Finn, and when I read Mark Twains story, I recognized the portrait. I never think of one without recalling the othe r. Bill's father was tenant on the Whitfield farm and he was about nine years of age. One morning he came to school without his dinner bucket -- said he never wanted dinner anyway. School, or "books" it was called, always started as soon as enough pupils arrived. In a short time Mrs. Wrackley appeared, and seeing her son through an open window, she shouted, "Bill Wrackley, come here this minute; you knowed your father wanted you to chop corn." Bill, without asking leave, grabbed his hat and ran. It has probably always been a teacher problem to keep children busy who had not learned to read. One of the schemes was to have them copy (in print, not script) on the slate from the reader. Bill had not read beyond the first reader. One day he got int o trouble for printing something
that was not in the book. He was writing or printing from the famous "cat and kit" page of McGuffey's reader. Frazier Philips told us what happened. He had printed:
"See the cat. All of which was very well, but Bill had added: "Dam the cat!" I doubt if this is a true story of Bill Wrackley. I have since read a similar story, and I suspect that Frazier had read something of the kind before crediting it to Bill. The Wrackley family moved away about this time. Bill may be living yet, at the age of 81 or 82 years. At the Whitfield school they sometimes let a good teacher go on account of salary, and for the fall and winter term 1868-1869, George W. Rare was employed. He was a well educated, likeable young man, and probably would have been successful if he had not been the successor of Mason. I think he had the noisiest school I ever saw. An unusual situation was that he had no trouble with the larger pupils, but with the boys -- and girls too -- of the intermediate ages. The large boys did not start until after corn husking -- except one young man who had spent his boyhood in the army, an age when he should have been in school. This was William Edward Waggoner -- Will Ed, he was called. 1868 was a presidential election y ear -- the Grant and Seymour campaign. All the boys were Democrats except Will Ed, and he kept them all fighting mad. One day at noon John Phillips, one of the large boys, stopped at the school, and we --
Joe Merkle, Harry Reed, Marion Phillips, and others -- proceeded to tell John all the mean things that Will Ed had said. We hoped to start a fight, but John and Will Ed only laughed about it. Realizing that we were made game of, we refused to get excite d any more. Our taunt was, "O you were afraid to talk that way to John Phillips, a man of your size, etc. etc." I remember one morning a great crowd of Democrats met at the Whitfield cross roads and formed a mile long procession to go to Shelby to hear Clement L. Valandingham speak. I wanted to go, and I think if I had asked Father, who was in the procession, he w ould have taken me along. I usually went with him any place I wanted to go. After Grant was elected with a big majority, people began to say, "He is the man on horseback we have been expecting and fearing. He is in for life." They repeated the same gloomy comment when he was again elected in 1872. Some people had said something similar on Jackson's election in 1832, and some childish people have similar apprehensions about Roosevelt now. Another sister, Nancy Emmeline, was born October 11, 1870. She was six years of age when I first began school work away from home, and for that reason I never had the intimate companionship with her that I did with Joe and Sarah. Mason taught a summer term at Smyser in 1869, and I attended. I was then past 9 years of age. I felt like an outsider in this school. Mason taught at the Whitfield school in 1869 and 1870 (fall, winter and spring). My Aunt Lurana lived with us and wen t to school. The summer term was ended or closed with an entertainment and picnic in the
grove. Mr. Stearns, who was County Superintendent of Schools, together with several Sullivan people came, and we learned soon after that Mason had been elected principal or superintendent of the Sullivan schools. The school directors employed Frank Peadro for the fall and winter of 1870 and 1871. Frank had been a pupil in the school, but it was said that the large boys were going to quit school and it was thought he could get along with the others -- and he did, in a way, but the school was not a success. The next teacher, John Wilson,, was a stern disciplinarian, but not a very good teacher. After working for four months, he let Bob Peadro finish the term. Here is a sample case of Wilson's "discipline." He always carried a switch in his hand which he us ed several times a day -- sometimes only three or four blows, and sometimes a dozen or more. The recitation bench was on a rostrum at the end of the room, and the class faced the bench. One morning I was in the class and just in front of me a girl about my age, 11 or 12 was seated, and she was watching two boys on the seat behind her, who were writing or perhaps drawing a picture on a slate. Wilson spoke to her sharply and told her to turn around in her seat. But after a while she turned her head and looked ba ck. Wilson stepped from the rostrum and gave her a dozen stinging blows across her shoulders. 1 suspect that this incident had something to do with his resignation, which came two or three weeks later, although I never heard the matter discussed except b y some of the pupils. The girl, Nellie Makepeace, was a quiet, well-behaved pupil, and her punishment was an inexcusable outrage. Wilson resigned, he said, because he had purchased an interest in a store at Summit (now Gays) of his brother-in-law, Capt. Samuel F. Gammill. The partnership did not
"jell", and Wilson and his brother started a store of their own. (The railroad station here was called Summit because it was, as the railroad survey showed, the highest point between Terre Haute and the Mississippi. The old Whitley post office was moved to this station. The post office could not be called Summit because there was then a post office by that name near Chicago. Both the station and the post office were named Gays in 1886. The Gammill store was started in 1865 by Capt. Gammill and his fa ther, the firm being known as Gammill & Son. It bears the same name today, although I am not sure whether a father and son are now the owners.) Our next teacher, John Pennell Boggs, was a picturesque character and, notwithstanding his peculiarities, was a pretty good teacher -- the best we had had since Mason. Another presidential election had come around -- the Grant and Greeley campaign of 1872. Both candidates were Republicans, although Grant had been a Democrat until he was given the Republican nomination four years before in 1868, while Greeley had been f irst a Whig and then a charter member of the Republican Party. He was now the liberal (or progressive) Republican candidate, and had been endorsed by the Democrats. Father was not for Greeley, and I did not take much interest in the campaign. At that time, there were only three or four (I can think of only three) Republican voters in our district, and two of them -- Jim Bence and John True Edwards -- were for Greele y. But several Democrats, including the Whitfields, were not, although they were not for Grant either. 1873 was the first year of the great panic which lasted six or seven years -- although the first two or three years were
the worst. The fall and winter terms of school, 1873-74, were taught by a Mr. Ferguson. I think his initials were F.J., but I am not sure. He appeared well educated and was a fairly good teacher. He was a good penman. Instead of teaching writing thro ughout the term, he had one week of intense instruction and practice. I was then 14 years of age, and had never written much -- and that little with a pencil. After a week's time, I could write pretty well, better than I do now. Charley Warden taught a summer term either in 1873 or 1874, but I worked on the farm and did not attend. Joe and Sarah did. This term finished one event that was talked about for fifty years. In that day, a common punishment was to make a pupil stand o n the floor, sometimes with a clown or dunce hat on his head. Abram Jones, the Baptist minister, had a family of three daughters and two sons, and they were all what was called "headstrong." Tabitha, one of the daughters, 14 years old, was particularly w illful. One day for some slight fault, Warden ordered her to take her book and stand in the corner of the room, and she refused to obey. He threatened to whip her, but she still refused. He then sent a boy for a switch. He wore out three switches on h er shoulders before she yielded. The girl did not seem to mind the punishment much -- not so much as the teacher, who was almost a nervous wreck at the close. It is hoped that he learned never to try to compel a child by punishment to do anything it ref uses to do. Mr. Jones, the preacher, had an unfortunate pastorate at the Whitfield Church. A dispute of some kind with Baylis Peadro, father of Frank and Bob, was the start of the trouble, and it grew until the church was divided into hostile groups. The Separate B aptist Association was unable to settle the matter and suspended membership in the Association for one year. Jones, who led the largest part or group in the church, then united with the Missionary Baptist
Association. The other group was then reinstated in the Separate Baptist Association, and claimed the ownership of the church building. However, when the title was examined, it was found that the deed had been made to the Whitfield Baptist Church, witho ut specifying the kind of Baptist denomination. As both groups claimed to be the Whitfield Church, and as the Jones group was in possession, there appeared to be no legal remedy. After a long term of years, the Missionary Baptist ceased to hold meetings in the church, and the Separate Baptist group took charge, but all of the old contestants had passed away. The strife divided the neighborhood in bitterly hostile factions for many years. It happened that the Warden family belonged to the Jones faction . Otherwise the school incident heretofore mentioned might have been more unpleasant. As it was, Mr. Jones was reported to have said that he was glad Tabitha had found someone she had to obey. Until my fourteenth year, I had never taken school very seriously. I could write and read fairly well, and had studied the arithmetic text, until I knew the simple processes very well. While I neglected school, I had become a steady reader of books, and I think Mother had noticed it. Anyway ju |