PATTON-Jane - Fountain County INGenWeb Project

The following are excerpts from an intersting volume, entitled "Remembrances of a Pioneer" published in book form in 1904 by Mrs. Jane Patton who is still living on the old homestead in Button Township.

In 1884, (sic - think this is 1854) my husband and I moved to Vermilion County, Illinois. We bid farewell to the home of our childhood and the homes that we had lived in and good people that had lived there. Some of them live there yet and I love to visit those old scenes of my young days. How sweet is their memory after so many years spent away from them. The day we loaded our wagons to leave for Illinois, we had a home and yard full of people. They were so glad to get us away that they all wanted to help us start. They made us a barrel of kraust, and loaded 5 wagons and about sundown we came across the creek to one of the places that I never got tired of going to, that was my Aunt Jane Campbell's and Uncle Samuel and Joseph Campbell's to spent the night. It was a hard trial to leave all the relatives and neighbors behind. Mrs. Harshbarger; Mrs. Dice, Mrs Greenley, and many more that had been good to me in so many ways besides all the relatives but we had decided to come and I think it was for the best that we did. We were two days on the road. We brought two cows, four horses, chickens and turkeys. We stayed at Mr. Joseph Delays six or seven miles form the state line city and ate dinner at Marysville what is Potomac now. We got to our future home in the afternoon in time to unload our goods and put up four beds and the cook stove. These were essential things tha tnight for there were 5 men came with us besides our own family; they came to drive the teams and have a good time and they had it. We had brought lots of things cooked and had a turkey for the first meal in our new home and we all enjoyed our supper that evening. T hat was Thursday evening and all stayed with us until Monday morning and then started home. They had seen those black prairies but before they started for home they visited the deep cut prairie, Prospect City what was afterward Paxton but the railroad was the object in view. None of them had ever seen a railroad as far as I know. I know I had not. There was only one house in Paxton or what is Paxton now. The Mr. Stites' family was there and the trains stopped when needed. The boys wanted to get something to take home with them and found some beans for sale and bought them to take home. They wanted to kill a deer to take home but did not get to do that but got some venison some place, I think but am not sure of that. Deer were plenty then for you could see them almost every morning going form the timber out on the prairie, but they could see you would see them. Mr. Patton went back to Indiana in December and took the boys back there to school. There was no school here that winter. The Illinois Central commenced to run trains the spring we came here; in the fall there was no railroad at Danville, Illinois. Then men came to our house from Covington and the country around there more than once to go to Loda or Paxton and take the train to Chicago. I forgot to tell the names of the ones who came with us when we moved to this country - Obidah Marlatt, long since dead, my uncle, Samuel Campbell, Joseph Douglas, a cousin and my brother, S. Cade. The first Sunday Mrs. WIlliam Robison came. I had never met here but she and Mr. Robinson came here from Fountain County. Some of the Robisons and Woods live there yet. They lived in the field just south of here but there is no house there now. She died the next June. She came the first Sunday and was very cheerful and friendly. It did me lots of good to have a neighbor so soon. She helped me just as if she had always known me, but she was taken suddenly sick of inflammation of the stoch and died. We miss our firneds when they are gone and do not forget their kindn ess. I will now tell about who lived here when we came. Uncle Tommy Lion lived at Sugar Grove then - in the house that has always stood there until lately. Mr. Bittle bought Mr. Lion out and then Mr. Patton bought the land of Mr. Bittle. Mr. Hiram Driskal and his family lived on the Driskal farm. All these have gone to their long homes, Mrs. Driskal lately. A Dr. Hobert lived in what is now a cattle pasture just east of the Sugar Grove schoolhouse. His family all died, 3 or 4 with what is known as milk sickness and then he left and got married again and died. Vannatta lived at what is known as the Lamb farm; Mr. Davis Morehouse lived where Joseph Kerr lives now; Mrs. Jesse Piles on the Piles farm the farthest out from the timber. Mrs. Piles still lives in Hoopeston but Mr. Piles had gone to his long home. Estrige Daniels lived on the farm that LaFayette Patton lives on, but the house was over in the field. Elihu Daniels lived south of William Moudy's. There is no house there now. Three families live dup close to where the frame and br ick churches are now; the father, old Mr. Tanner lived west of the brick church and Peter lived SW, close the frame church and John lived north. Uncle John Dobbs, as everyone called him lived between the two church on a farm known as the old Walker home. His house was the place where we all went to church, had preaching every 3 weeks and class meeting every Sabbath something we do not have now. The house was a large hewed log house with a fireplace and room for 3 beds and for all the people that there was to come. Uncle John Dobbs was class leader and good one. I would like to go to a meeting of that kind now. There was John P. Dobbs and he lived close there but the next spring he moved out on the prairie, not far from old Pellsville, the farthest out of anyone then. He build a house with one room upstairs and one room downstairs. Obidah Marlatt gave it the name of the North Pole and that was the name of the neighborhood for awhile. That was the first house north of us until we got to Ash Grove. That spring two more familiesm oved out on the prairie, Mr. Dove and Mrs. Shannon, one east of us and Mr. Dove northeast of us. I remember seeing Mr. Dove's team the first trip he made with the material for his house. I think the team must have been 3 miles from our house. There was nothign there thenb ut the prairie grass, green or brown, asthe season might be. Southeast of our home half a mile, Harmon Strayer and his brother John lived and nortwest of us about three miles Milton Strayer. He is remembered as one of the good men of this world. He was kindness to perfection and Matthew Elliott, father of WHH Elliott, and he and his family were all Methodists of the old-time religion. Their house was the first house I ever ate in away from home after coming to Illionis. We went to church to our home, Uncle John Dopps (sic) and went there for dinner. We had venision for dinner, I remember. I thought then we had good people here and I think soyet. We had been here about 3 weeks then. There has been regular preach ing by the Methodist preachers right in the same place. Only a short time after Uncle John Dopps went away, preaching was in the schoolhouse until the church was built. I would like to tell the name of the ministers that have been here in these 44 years but I think many of them are reaping their reward and their works do follow them. I will not say anything more about this eventful year at the present time.

1885. That winter was one of the cold, story winters of that time and we got the full benefit of the winds and snow. I think the snow staye dont he ground perhaps six weeks or more and cold all the time and only two rooms to our house and a smokehouse and stable for the horses and two cows; no fence only a pen for the corn fodder for the cows and horses. We bought that, and the cows would stay for the feed for there was no fence to keep them. Mr. Patton hired the rails made to fence 160 acrse of land, a good fence staked and two rails on the top and Mr. Patton and Obe Marlatt hauled all the rails to fence it, through the storms and snows. Sometimes the snow would blow and drift so that we could not see the tracks of the wagon of the next load. I could see them when they left the timber and get almost any kind of a dinner, except cook dry beans before they would get home to dinner. It was a mile and 3/4 straight west of the house where we lived to the edg eof the timber where they got the rails and I could see them very plainly. In the after part of the winter Obe Marlatt went to Bloomington after plows to break the prairie; that was as near as they could be gotten. He bought five, some for the neighbors. I think if some of the people had to do as we did they would think they would have a hard time now. Well, that spring it was break prairie with our own 4-horse team and ox. The man broke by the acre, $2.50 per acre, broke and planted sowed corn, 140 acres and raised the best vegetables of all kinds, melons, pumpkins by the wagon load and the best corn. We sold 100 acrs of it to cattle feeders the n ext fall for $500 and was pleased with our years' work. In the spring we built two room sto our house and dug a cistern fenced in a garden and put an addition to the stable. Money was very plentiful that summer or spring. John Adamson that lived at Covington brought 100 and over of 4-year old steers to be herded ont he prairire, and they were so large and got so fat on the grass without any expese excpet to pay the herder and for salt the prairie grass was so fine. 1856 was another year of improvement. We set out the fence to take in more land, hauled more rails and built two houses on the farm that winter for two tenants to move ont he farm in the spring. That spring I was sick, had a spell of fever and had a girl to stay with me. I had gotten so I did not need her and she was going home Sunday morning but Saturday evening she took a chill and was so bad Sunday we sent for her aunt, Mrs. Solomon Koder but we did not know anything about the disease then. It was spina l or spotted fever and the doctor nor anyone else could do any good as doctors fail in most cases of that disease. Her name was Nancy Skinner. There were 3 of them. They were orphan children and their aunt, Mrs. Koder had raised them All 3 of them were about grown and all of them died in a very short time. They had such a good home with their aunt and uncle. That summer everything was corn. We could not see the country so faraway and the people had come to the country so fast that there were new houses on all sides of us. There was lots of corn, and no sale for it, unless cattlemen came in with cattle to feed the corn to. Corn would grow then if you planted it without any trouble. The weeds had not got a strt then only the tumbleweeds and they would roll over the field and lodge against the fences as high as the fence. 1857 was a new year and how many times we make resolves to lead a better life if these things concern our future welfare which it should. If we start wrong in our work we are very sure to come out wrong, unless we repent a nd go back and do our work over again. It is so much easier to make good resoutions than it is to keep them. I have found this true all through life. How true the words prove, "Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love." THis winter, we did not do much work ont he farm and improve it so much and March 23 there came to our house another baby boy. We called him Charles Delaware, the Delaware being the name chosen by his oldest brother. This summer was the same; plow, raise corn, cut prairie grass and cut up corn and have lots of men to work as we always had. But the last of this year there came the greatest calamity that we ever called to pass through. Mattie, our only girl, came home from school sick with what proved to be cerebral spinal fevera dn as spotted fever. She was very bad from the first and her suffering was simply agonizing. Her muscles were contracted and sometimes her head would be drawn to her hips almost like a hoop. We had Dr. Courtney from Blue Grass Grove and Dr. Whitmore but they did not do any good, neither do I think any other doctor would. Their principal medicine was solelia. She was very sick 8 weeks. When we would go to turn her in bed and let her limbs fall it would almost kill her but she lived through all this intense suffering. So many times she would have spasms and we would think she woudl not live one hour but she got over all this suffering without being left with some mark of it for life. She was past 7 at that time. One or two days after Mattie was taken, Lafayette was taken bad also. He had more fever and his muscles did not contract so much; it was more in his head and it has left its mark with him for life, for he has always been deaf ever since. He had gone to school just two or three days. He was sick 7 weeks and when he got better so he was conscious and knew us, we did not know that he had lost his hearing and was to be deaf all his days. But one night someone was there and brought a dog and it came close to his bed and he laughed at it. We talked to him about it and he would not say a word, and then we knew he could not hear but it never came to my mind that it was to be permanent or it would have been much harder to bear. His speech did not leave him. He just forgot most of the words, being so young, just two or three weeks past 4 and he says words yet. There was living at our house with us a good, sweet girl. Her name was Margaret Shoey. She had been with us about a year and half. She had a mother and an inhuman stepfather and the neighbors got her away from them. Mr. Dove had lived close to them and got us to go and get her but she hid from him the first time and the second time she just told him she would not go. She took the same as the others had Saturday evening. Both Drs. were there but there was no help for her. The spots were more marked than on our own two children. She died Monday night or Tuesday morning at 1 or 2 o'clock. The disease was epidemic. There were 14 deaths in the surrounding country but our neighborhood suffered most. One little girl about two, Sylvester King, half a mile north of our home, died. She was sick just two or three days. John Wilson's half a mile SE of us lost a sweet little girl about the same age; and Mrs. David Morehouse, half mile south of us. All these were taken away in two or three days' sickness. We were all just like one family around there then. I left my own sick ones to go and prepare the bodies of those that had died. I speak of when our house was full of people helping us with our sick ones. There were no trained nruses then and no coffins kept in thefurniture store for sale. The first thing after death was to straighten the body and take the measure fora coffin and go to the carpetner's and get a coffin made for that would take some time and the funeral would be appointed accordingly. I have helped take the measure of a great many people for a coffin for I was a born leader in taking care of sick and caring for dead. I commenced that kind of work before I was married. I rememb er a little baby just a few days old that I took on my lap and dressed for the grave when I was not more than 17. I think this will sound strange to some. 1858 came with all of the sickness and death. Some had died before the new year came and some after. Mr. Elihu Daniels, south of the Will Moudy farm died and Mr. Lucas had a daughter about 14 to die; a Mr. Mullen, that lived west of the brick church had two little children that lived with them. They had no children of their own and these two died. I think the disease was not contagious but it was epidemic. I never want to see another time like that. There was a family lived east on our farm. Their names were Hartman. They just stayed at our house. They had two little girls and they slept on the bed with our sick children. Mr. Hartman would only go home to feed his things sometimes for two or three days then would go home to sleep and rest and come again and his brother stayed all the time and their children never to ok the disease. Who can forget the people that do so much for you in such distress and affliction? The people did not do any work around there only what had to be done and went where they were needed the most. I could write about it and never get done telling how good the people were to us, and all the rest that had sickness and death in their family. The tears will come sometimes yet when I think of it. That spring the creeks were very high. We could not cross the middle fork of the Vermilion for six weeks there ws so much rain and no bridges then. There was a man drowned that spring in thecreek close to Charley Wood's home and it was more than a week before the body was gotten out of the creek. Mr. Patton's father came to see us that spring and went home and took sick and died May 31, 1858. Some one came after Mr. Patton and he went and found his father very sick. He stayed a few days and then came home but he was soon sent for again to attend the funeral. The east fork of the Vermilion was very high. He went horseback and had to swi m his horse to get over the creek. No way to go to the rr and no telegraph. We took a wagon and went over into Indiana in August to attend the sale of the personal property, Mr. Patton and his brother being the administrators of his father's estate.

1859 came and nothing special happened until fall, when Mr. Patton rented our farm here to a Mr. Hunt and Isaac Brown of Indiana for five years and made arrangements to move back to Indiana his father having left him a farm. He had two wagons loaded to go back but I was not very much in favor of going and leaving more here than we could get there. That night after supper Mr. Patton came down to Mr. Wm. Robison's and bought his farm of 200 acrs of land, the 40 that our house is on and the 160 south of our home. We never thought of going back to Indiana since, but loved to go and visit and see the old home of my childhood but the most of the ones I knew so well are gone. 1860. And who is it that is 50 or 60 years of age that does not remember the first five years of the sixties; about Abraham Lincoln and the war times and how we would watch for the news if we did not have any friends there. That spring we moved from the house we had lived in about 1/4 of a mile from the house I call home now, into a double hewed log house, with an entry between them. On Jan 22 there was another one added to our family, and we called him Franklin. He was a delicated little one and always was through life. We built our house that fall under many difficulties. The first house we lived in thelumber was all hauled from Indiana and we expected to have inside work of our present house of black walnut lumber but got it home from Indiana and put it in a kiln to dry and it took fire and burned up, except enough for our front door, 3 wagon loads. All the lumber was hauled from Paxton and the brick for the cellar form 10 mile Grove the other side of Paxton. in October, William went to get a load of brick and as he was coming home he had a barrel on his wagon on top of the brick and was on top of the barrel. The barrel fell off and he also and the wagon ran over his legs and mashed one of them as wide as the wagon tire so some of th epieces of bone were ont he outside of his leg when I got to where he was. He crawled to the horses and unhitched them and got on and rode one of the horses to Mr. Montgomery's and we were sent for. Mr Patton was after cattle up at Paxton. He was sent for and brought two doctors, Dr. LB Farrar and Dr. Smith of Loda and we had sent ofr a Dr. 5 or six miles south of our home. We got him about midngiht and all 3 doctors held a consultation. Two doctors were for amputation, but Dr. Farrar took the case. Billy, as we called him had amost bled to death before the doctors got there and the Dr. had cold water poured on his limb for several days every half hour or so and saved his foot and Dr. Farrar of Paxton should have all the credit that Billy Patton has two feet to walk on today. Well I did not have a very easty time that f all -- all the carpenters and the men to cut corn for that had to be done if we got anything for the corn; Billy and a sickly baby to care for. I had two girls to work for me some of the time, Mr. Anthony Godson worked here and the girl that afterwards became his wife, Susan Keplinger. John Harmon that live sin Los Angeles, California did the outside carpenter work but had Uncle John Koder and a Mr. William Civill to help and after the building was closed Mr. Kuder (sic) did the inside work and Mr. Wm. kinmin did the mason work - the fastest man I ever saw work at any kind of work. 1861 came as all years do and we had moved in our new house which was a good one for those times in this country full two stories high with 5 rooms above and 4 below and a cellar under the house. It has been acomfortable home for 40 years but sorrows have come often and pleast times also. If it were possible for me to live in this house for 40 more I would take care ofit as I have done it would be a good house at the end of 80 years if fire or cyclone did not des troy it. The first glass windows in the sitting room are all good, and never one pane of glass has been broken out for 40y ears. I would like tos ee all the different people that have made their homes for a long and some for a shorter time with us in this house in 40 years that it has been my home. Many have gone to their long home that had a home iwth us and were employed by us to work in the house and farm. I would like to see them all at one table. I think it would reach a long way. 1862 came and passed without any special incident to ur family, only the same routine of work that comes to people in everyday life. The horrors of the Civil War were thought more of that anything else and how anxious we were to hear formt he ones that left. 1863 came and without incident only we had plenty of work to do. We had a large drove of cattle that year and herded them on the prairies that summer. We did lots of farming and raised wheat at that time here on the prairie better th an can be raised now on the prarie. In June that year, the 25th there came a little girl we called Ida J and she made ltos of racket most of the time when her eyes were open. That December Billy came home from Indianapolis. He had been there at school and soona fter coming home to spend the holidays took the lung fever and was very bad sick and one week after that his father took sick with the same disease. I suppose you would call it pneumonia now. THis year had a sad ending to us. 1864 came as no other year that I ever saw and never to be forgotten. The first day of that year wast he worst storm or blizzard. You could not see 3 steps from you and it was so cold you would freeze ina very shor time. Sammy Patton and a Mr. SMith had 125 head of cattle about one mile east of our house that they fed shock corn to and they would never have gotten hom that day if it had not been that there was a rail fence that they got close to and followed to our house and barn. There was a number of people perished that day and night in Illinois. So many sch ool children started home and wer elsot by the way and lost their lives or limbs. Mr. John Wilson, a neighbor lost 100 head of hogs in that storm. Dr. LB Farrar came next morning to see our sick folk and stopped on the way and warmed at Mr. Button's and when he came to our house he was so cold he could hardly get to the house and the snow was drifted so that it was almost impossible to get any place. Almost all the chickens in the country froze to death. Mr. Patton took sick that New Year's day and Dr. Farrar was attending to Billy and then we sent to Urbana to Dr. Summers to come. Mr. Daniel Moudy went after Dr. Summers. Mr. Moudy will never forget that trip he almost sacrificed his life for us in that great affliciton. Dr. Summers came and stayed 3 days and nights and Dr. Farrar was here most of the time. He came through the bitter cold weather and snow drfits which lasted several weeks, the like of which I have never seen in this country beofre or since. Mr. patton was not expected to live and Billy was very sick. 8 days after Mr. Patton took sick, Samuel, the second son took as the rest; the red, brick-colored spittle and pain in the left side like all the others. The Dr. was here at the time he took down but could not check the disease and he was very bad sick. Three beds in two rooms and most of the time 3 men to care for the sick and sometimes more, day and night. There were no trained nurses at that time but I got to be pretty good one before all got well, especially in taking care of fly blisters. Three men sick at one time. It did not take me long sometimes to shed tears with all the care and trouble I had and hard work and to think of things out of doors and in the house. Joseph Harris came and left his home and stayed 26 days and fed the cattle and took care of the other stock and in the deep snow and very cold weather. Money does not pay for such work at such times and the men in the neighborhood would come and stay, sometimes two or three days and then go home and sleep and rest and then come back again. What would we have done if the neighbors hadn't been so good? I never got tired of doing something for the sick after that as long as I was able, if I could do it, no matter who they were. After all I have told about this siege of sickness in our own family, Charles McGlaughlin, an old Irishman that had no home only our house, took down with the same disease one week after Sammy took sick: three downstairs and one upstairs; four beds occupied with sick; one or the other of the doctors was there almost all the time. Franklin Rice went to Indiana after William Patton and to tell the folks over there about all the family being sick and William Patton came and stayed 15 days and his sister came soon after and stayed several days. All these trips then were worse than a trip to Denver would be now, but all our family got well after 3 months from the first to the close of the sickness. There was only one death in the neighborhood and that was a young man nam ed Shaver. If we never got sick we would not be thankful for good health. I thought sometimes that I was nearer worn out than the sick were; I would go out in the kitchen sometimes after something and forget what I went after, but never gave up but once and that was the afternoon that Samuel came in and I had to fix another bed for him. I sat down ont he floor and cried and thought I could not do anything more but I thought this will not do and I had to do all I could do and was thankful I had so much help. This is enough for one year but not half I could tell about it. 1865 was a year of no special incident in the family only the common work on the farm and house. There was always plenty to do. Billy came from Jacksonville the 15th of April, the day Abraham Lincoln was assasinated and when he came about 5 o'clock in the evening I went to meet him and the first wod that he said was to ask fi I knew that the President had been killed. I had no heard it until then. A Mr. Ballard had just moved in the house we first lived in and I wnet t here the next day and when I told him he just walked the floor, he was so excited that he did not know what he was doing hardly. The whole country was stirred up and in mourning for the beloved President's death. His name will live through ages to come. February 27, 1902. After almost one year of the time has passed I will try to finish the sketches I commenced some time ago and will tell something of what happned in the last year that has just closed, 1901. In this year I have passed through the great affliction of my life of bodily suffering that it was impossible for me to pass through and still live to tell about it but I will never tell it all for it would be impossible to tell it so anyone would know how much I suffered. May 8, 1901, I ran a small oak splinter in my forefinger on my left hand, and blood poisoning started from the effects of the splinter. The next day, the 9th of May we called Dr. Wylie of Paxton and Dr. Hester of Clarence and they split my finger. The next day they came and split my finger and the third time had 8 or 9 places opened on my hand. I did not know much by this time and when the doctor would dress my hand it was all I could do to stand it. The Dr. came twice a day for awhile and then went to Chicago for a trained nurse and she stayed 10 days. I had to have medicated water poured in every two hours and take whiskey and strychnine every 4 hours. The perspiration from the poison was very offensive and I had to have alcohol baths twice a day and a chill one every 24 hours and suffered intensely then. I would sometimes look at my hand and wonder if it would ever get better. Oh, how glad I would be when the Dr. would get through dressing it! But everything has an ending and so did my trouble with blood poisoning after being under Dr. Hester's care from May 9 until July 17, making 59 visits. I thank him for his kindness to me all this time. May God's blessing be with him through life and may he live a righteous life, and be a blessing to the people wherever he may be. "I am exulting while I may, for joy is uppermost today." 1866. This year there was lots of work to do. Some of the children at school and some at work at home. I will here write a subscription or copy of it which was written March 13, 1866 for John Keplinger, who lost his limb just at the close of the war. They were our neighbors then. Sugar Grove, Champaign County, Illinois. We, the undersigned agree to pay John Keplinger who has lost a leg in defense of our country, the sum annexed to our names, for the purpose of assisting him to get an artificial leg. LH Unstad ... $2.00; Charles McLaughlan ... $2.00; Anton Giteen ... $2.00; R. F. Kerr .... $1.00; David Patton .... $5.00; J. H. Flagge .... $1.00; Harmon Strayer .... $1.00; Arthur F. Flagge .... 50; Wm. Montgomery .... $1.00; James Mercer ....50; Stephen Lamb ... $1.00; Joshua Lucas .... $1.00; John Warren .... $1.00; A. B. Lucas .... $1.00; W. H. H. Elliott .... $1.00; S. P. Mitchell ... $1.00; George P. Gitson ... $1.00; John H. Gitson ... $1.00; Aaron Albier ... $1.00; A. M. Elliott ...50; Elam Wait .... 50; Thomas Elliott .... $1.00; Milton Strayer ... $2.00; Joseph Harris ... $1.00; G. O. Marlatt ... $1.00; James B. Lucas ... $1.00. John Keplinger lives in Indianapolis Indiana and I suppose gets a good pension at this time, March 4, 1902. In the winter of 1866 we had a revival in the church. Here, I see by a letter that I wrote then, that Billy joined the church at jacksonville that winter and some names here at home that united with the church - Mrs. Hiram Daniels, George Tanner and some of the Sedletter boys. The Rev. Bannan (sic - this is probably Lewis Bannon from the Fountain/Parke County Indiana area who did many revivals throughout Indiana and Illinois during that time) was the pastor at that time and stayed with us while the meeting lasted; and Mrs. Search had so much influence in the church that winter. The Search family moved to Southern Illinois that spring and we were sorry to see them leave the neighborhood, for Mr. Search was the life of the Sabbath School in the Flagge schoolhouse at that time. 1867 came with its sorrows and joys, as most years do. On Feb 20, 1867, there came to our house a new baby girl and she got to be the pet of the family and ruled things as she pleased in her babyhood and girlhood too. That winter I had lung fever and came near leaving this world; was sick about 4 weeks. We named the baby Allie, and now there had been 8 children added to the family a little over 21 years and how many wants are to be supplied with 8 children to care for. When Henry C. Dodge wrote, "Nobody knows but mother," I think he was right. "Nobody knows of the work it makes, to keep the home together, Nobody knows of the steps it takes, nobody knows but mother." Mary Frayne was here and had been for over one year and stayed until the next May or June. She was a kind, good girl. Billy taught school at the Flagge schoolhouse that winter and Sammy and Lafayette went to Jacksonville, Illinois, to school Sammy to the Illinois College and Lafayette to the deaf-mute institution. Times have changed since then. I see by a statement today with a Paxton hardware and implement store that Mr. Patton settled Feb 7, 1867 with the hardware man at Paxton. He had bought two Schuttler wagons and they cost $242.50 and one barrel of flour $14.50 and one $13.50 and there were no trusts then. And sold 100 bushels of rye at 85 cents per bushel. This is all about 1867. 1858 was a new year with many things connected with it. Who is it that enters a new year without making resolves to live a better life and we should thankt he lord for all the blessings we receive at his hand. We should praise God for a home and the blessings of a home. But what changes since then! I take from a store bill at that time, dated 1868, George Wright's store, a few items. 1 1/2 pound Young Hyson Tea ..$1.20; 10 sheets paper .. 10; 1 lead pencil .. 10; 1 broom ... 40; 12 pounds sugar .... 2.00; 9 yards bed ticking...$4.05; 4 spools thread... 40. I forgot to tell about the building of the first church that was built in the country around here. It was built in 1868. It was a Methodist Episcopal church and still stands a monument to many that have gone to their long homes and there has never been a time when there has not been preaching services in it. It was dedicated in November 1868 by Rev. Dr. R.N. Davies. It is known as Pleasant Grove Church. I have before me a note that Mr. Patton paid Sept 2, 1871 that had been given to make up a deficiency on account of some of the subscribers failing to pay their subscription -- I think over 300 dollars in all; but Mr. Patton was very proud of our church and paid it willingly. 1870. This year was without special events to our family. Christmas of that year I went to Chicago with Edd Kingon, a deaf-mute that stayed with us that year and when he went home to spend the holidays, I went with him and stayed 4 days. I had a nice time and was very much interested in what I saw in Chicago but it was not much like it is now. I was at an entertainment at the Wabash Avenue ME Church and to the 1st ME Church and to the 1st Presbyterian and to the museum and everything was different from what I had ever seen. I thought it wonderful and Mr. Kingon and family entertained me royally and showed me around the city. I came home but Edd spent some time before he came back. Sept 3rd of th is year I got the first sewing machine I ever had only a little hand sewing machine to fasten to a table but the Grover and Baker machine cost $75 a note on a year's time. "PS Point Pleasant, Robert Bradley, Agent" so says the old note before me. 1871. The years come and go, whether we are ready are ready or not. Our home affairs were just the same as usual throughout this year as far as I can remember. The last days of September, Mr. Patton and I went to Indiana and came home the first week in October, I think the dryest time I ever saw and the great fire at Chicago the 9th of October made us all feel sad; and the forest fires filled the air so full of smoke that you could not see very far. We had no deep well then and had to haul water for a mile and the stock had to be taken to the creek for water. It took the cattle herder half of the time to get the cattle to water and back. 1874. The new year had dawned upon us in quiet beauty and the sunshine of God's love i s over us. The dear old year was kind to us. Each day brought some new blessing to us, whether we were tahnkful for the blessing or not. The new year brought us a deep well with fine water after 3 months of hard work and many discouragements Mr. Ketchum and Mr. William LeFever sank a well or made a trial for a well and did not succeed and the nmoved to another place, where our well is at the prseent time; and oh, the joy that came to us when the well was completed that June, and the windmill of the Haliday make was put up and ready for work and the well-house finished and a tank for the milk put in. There was not any place I enjoyed at our house so much as the well house and why should I not, after 20 years of getting water sometimes one place and sometimes another. One shallow well would go dry and we would go to antoher and then when it rained they would all have water in and overflow, and the water would not be fit to use, not even to wash dishes in. Sometimes I could not get supper until the men would come home from the field and haul water. This was Illinois before deep wells were made. 2 Peter ii; 17; Wells without Water. Rev. xxi: 6: I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. All the years since that itme the well has never gone dry, for the supply has never run out. 1875. again a new year has come to us. The old year was kind and waited and watched to supply all our needs. This year in many things was the same to us as others. W. T. Patton, or Billy, as we called him when we wanted him to get up to breakfast, though the best thing he could do would be to get married. So November 25, 1875, he was married to Fanny M. Flagge. Our family had been going up the mountain and stopped on the top when Allie was born in 1867, and stayed there for 7 years and then commenced to go down the other side, one by one until all are gone and I am left alone. Billy sat at our table longer than he was at his own at this writing. The realm of advanced activity in the years si nce that time is everywhere manifested; the resources of every department are being fully taxed. During adventures, mechanical inventions, scientific discoveries, commercial enterprises -- all these give signs of progress and unparallel activity in the years since the date of this page. 1876. Almost always the new year makes us thinKnights of Pythiasast years and what may happen in the year we make our figures for now. This year was centennial year and many memories of that time clint to 1776 and to the year 1876, for the celebration of the year at Philadelphia that year was a grand celebration of the 100 years before. There was no special occurrence in our family that year I remember of until October. Mr. Patton went to visit his old home in Fountain County, Indiana where he always loved to go so well, and his oldest sister came home with him to visit us a week and then returned home. Mr. Patton was going to take her home but on Friday evening she took a chill. She was very sick from the first and died the next Wednesday, 20 Oct 1876. The body was taken back home. It was so sad for us to think how well she was when she came to us and how soon she was taken from us. When we went over to her home, my brother and his wife had gone to Philadelphia to the Centennial. This is all I will tell about this year. So many sad things come to us in our lives.

1877. The new years come to us with many memories of the past and of our duty before us for the future for each other and to live for the good of others and that the world might be benefited by us being in it if we live right. The 11th of February the first granddaughter was born to us. W. T. Patton and Fanny M. Patton. A bright little babe and how much we were all interested in her welfare; but alas how soon it was taken from us! It was named Eve. Sometime before this, I had been called to superintend the arrangements where there was a new baby and looked after the welfare of the mother and child, and I can say I went wherever I was called, day or night, rain or shine and I always asked God to guide me aright in whatever I did and success attended all my work of this kind and there was never a death of mother or child in the more than 20 years of my practice of that kind of work within a circle of 3 or four miles and sometimes 5 or six. I was called to visit the sick and care for the dying. There were no trained nurses at that time, and the undertaker was not sent for as they are now. I always knew that there was no one sick or I would know of it, for I was often sent for before the docotr and if I said a doctor was needed, that was sufficient, he was sent for. I would often stay with the sick and dying two or three days. My motto was that if I could be more benefit away from home than at home there was the place I wanted to be. I never lived for myself alone. I always took an interest in other people's welfare. I rejoice that I was permitted to live at the time I did and in the evening time of life I would do as much as I can with my pen by writing letters and cheering words to all. Poverty and riches have little to do with our happiness in this life.

1879. This year is not to be forgotten by some of our family. This year, 10 April the oldest daughter of the family left the home of her childhood, the family circle, the loving mother, the kind and indulgent father and the affectionate brothers and sisters, for the affection of another and changed her nae from Martha I. Patton to Martha I. Flagg, to share the joys and sorrows of a husband, James W. Flagg. One more had left the parental roof. The family are going down on the other side of the hill one by one. This was a prosperous year on the farm. The largest and best crop of wheat that year and our cattle were fine and did well. We got a good price for everything.

1880. This year came in with joy and gladness but how soon our joy may be turned to sorrow. We never know what a day may bring to us and we will be called to endure trials that we think we cannot bear up under. This was the case with me at this time. Mr. Patton left home Feb 20 of that year, on Friday morning, and went to his old home over on Coal Creek, what he always felt was his home more than Illinois after living here 26 years; Fountain County was dearer to him than the home we had here. That night he took a chill, pneumonia developed and there was no remedy. The Drs. were powerless. Dr. Spinning of Covington and Dr. Pettit of Veedersburg were called. He had gone to the farm that his father had given him to stay all night. A Mr. Isley lived there and had the farm rented. I was telegraphed for and went to Rankin that night and stayed and left the next morning at 4 o'clock. I got there at noon and found him very sick. I dispatched for Charley and he got there Thursday and Thursday I sent for Samuel and he got there Friday and all the rest came Saturday and Sunday about 11 o'clock the suffering was all over with him. He was conscious to the last and had been all through his sickness and what a consolation it was to hear him tell all about every arrangement that he wanted made and about the place he wanted his remains laid to rest. He wanted the Rev. Musgrove sent for. He was pastor of the church at Danville at that time and he came. He put his arms around Mr. Musgrove's neck and talked to him so much. The consolation there was in all this. His life was taken Feb 29, 1880. This year there were two grandsons born in the family. A son to W. T. Patton the 5th of July 1880 and another addition to the name of Patton and he was named David. On the 8th of August 1880 a son was born to J. W. Flagg and Martha I. Flagg and he was David Ross Flagg. He ought to be true to his country if his name has anything to do with us. Sept 28, 1880 Lafayette Patton and Ella McHenry were married; another one less to sit at table and one more towards the bottom of the hill when all will be gone. They were married at Sparta, Illinois. None of the family at the wedding only Charley Patton.

(Note: nothing for 1881 or 1882).

This year, April 19, 1883 there was a boy came to live with WT and Fanny and they named him Charley. A large fat baby and he is that way now, only he is not a baby. In September of this year, little Freddie (note: don't believe she gave the relationship of him or his birth in earlier entries -- perhaps it was in the deleted 1881 or 1882?) died. On Oct 6, Alfred Ray Patton was born to Lafayette and Ella and now he is 6' tall. 1885. February of this year saw one of the family leave the home of her childhood for the protection of another. Ida J. Patton and Charles Augustus Lamb were married .... 12 February 1885. Sept 28, 1885 another son born to JW Flagg and Martha and they named him Willie and that is all the name he has yet, poor boy! Well, things went along as usual, but all these years I always attended church and enjoyed going to church more than anything else and teaching little boys in Sabbath School. The weeks were not so long when I got to go to churc on Sabbath day. On Dec 13, 1885 there was born to Ida J. Lamb a sweet little lamb for them to feed and care for named Nellie and that is her name yet and she is larger than her mother now.

The 3rd of February 1886 I went to Indiana for my brothers' birthday. I thought he had lived 60 years and I wanted to eat dinner with him that day. I went without any announcement of my coming and surprised him a little perhaps. It was Feb 4 but the next time they expected me to be there and the event is celebrated yet at that home. This year on August 11th a little girl made its appearance at WT and Fanny Patton's and claimed admittance as one of the family and they adopted her and called her Carrie Patton.

Oct 18, 1888 there came to Billy and Fanny, a little girl and they called her Elsie. She is not very large yet but the baby of the family is almost always babied too much for their own good. This April Grace Kirkley came to our house to board and teach at the Sugar Grove schoolhouse and afterward changed her name to Patton. What a trial to give up the last girl of the family! All say, "Now what will you do? .. All had some advice to give as to what would be the best thing to do. Well, I did just as I had been doing. Stayed in the old home, which was home to me still. I always loved my home better than I did any place else but I have to depend on other people's children to help me make it a home for myself and the different ones that have stayed with me in these years have all been good to me and I have had a good home with the different ones. I have tried to make a home for them for some of them did not have any home but my home but how well have I succeeded? I do not know what they say about it, but I hope that I did not do anything wrong about the way I treated them. Mary Allie Patton and David Henry Cade were married June 7, 1894 and went to Chicago the same evening and came back to visit his folks at Perrysville, Indiana nd soon after went to housekeeping in Potomac, Illinois. There is another section mostly about the community entitled ... Illinois in 1854 and some of the changes in the country since that time and the neighborhood in which I have lived since.