| HISTORY OF COLES COUNTY. |
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EAST OAKLAND TOWNSHIP. In a country like ours, the department of history can claim to chronicle no mighty events, nor relate any of those local traditions that make many countries of the Old World so famous in story and song, yet they serve the purpose of directing attention to the rise, progress and present standing of places, which may fairly claim in the future what has made others great in the past. With these lines of preface, we will say a few words of the boundary and topography of one of the finest sections of Coles County. Oakland Township, or East Oakland, as it is called, lies in the northeast corner of the county; bounded on the north and east by Douglas and Edgar Counties on the south by Ashmore Township, and on the west by Embarrass River. It is a little more than a full Congressional township, being seven sections from north to south, and six full sections wide in the narrowest place, while in some of the bends of the river it extends in nearly a section deeper. Brush Creek is the principal stream aside from the Embarrass River, but the land does not need additional drainage. The town contained, originally, much fine timber, of all the different varieties common in this portion of the State, and, although a great deal of it has been consumed, there is still left enough for all practical purposes. The Illinois Midland Railway passes through the north part of the town, from east to west, and has added much to the importance of this section of the county. The village of Oakland is a thriving place of four or five hundred inhabitants, and will be more fully described further on. THE SETTLEMENT. The first white settler in this vicinity, is supposed to have been Samuel Ashmore. He came to this immediate neighborhood in 1829, though his first settlement was in what is now Douglas County, but included for years in Coles County. He settled on what was known as the Laughlin farm, and now owned by Andrew Gwinn. Here he remained but a couple of years, when he removed to the present limits of Oakland Township. He was from the State of Tennessee, and was Captain under Gen. Jackson in the war against the Creek Indians, and in the battle of New Orleans, and always retained the warmest veneration for “Old Hickory.” When he removed to this section, three of his sons—Clayborne, at the time married, and George W. and Madison, single—came with him. At the time of Mr. Ashmore’s location here, Paris and Grand View were the nearest settlements to him. From the Oakland Herald we make the following extract: “Resolving to leave Tennessee, whose chattel-slavery he thoroughly detested, with his brothers William, James and Amos, and all their families, he came to the Wabash country. Here he soon fell into the chronic frontier style of life, common to-day as it was then. First to make an improvement and next to make a sale, and, when that is made, go to chopping upon another claim. If it be true that a rolling stone gathers no moss, it is apparent that the tramp-farmer is a failure. By the help of his sons, he opened a farm near Darwin, cleared off one hundred acres of bottom timber, built a two-story house and several stables and out-houses; after that, he sold the whole ’caboodle’ to his son-in-law for $600, in order to get to the Embarrass country. ***Having succeeded in selling his first location to Mr. Laughlin, Mr. Ashmore moved down to Hoge’s Branch, where most of his sons and sons-in-law had by this time settled; he commenced work on what is now known as the Barbour farm. Here, after filling the office of Justice of the Peace, he died in 1838; aged, as his tombstone states, sixty years.” Mr. Ashmore, as stated, had several sons, who settled in this section at an early day. Some of them came with him, and others a few years later. In 1831, James and Hezekiah Ashmore settled in the neighborhood. These were his sons, and the latter, after remaining here a short time, removed to Ashmore Township, where he is more fully noticed. Samuel Hoge, a son-in-law of Samuel Ashmore, settled here also in 1831. James Black, another son-in-law, came at the same time. They are long since dead. Stanton Pemberton came in the fall of 1831. He was from Washington County, Va. The Herald, which published some reminiscences* a year or two ago, says of the Pembertons: “ Mr. Pemberton was not healthy, and lived but a few years. His widow continued with us till 1854, and lies buried in the upper grave-yard.—She was remarkable for three things her candor, her good cooking and her genuine hospitality. Her son, Alfred D. Pemberton, still lives on the old place, and ‘Uncle Jack,’ as the children call him, continues with us in the village—a well-preserved specimen of the olden time.“ Two sons of Mr. Pemberton, A. D. and J. J. Pemberton, and two daughters, are still living in the neighborhood where they located nearly fifty years ago. John King came from Tennessee in 1832, and may be reckoned among the early settlers. He moved to Iowa, where he still lived at last accounts of him. * These reminiscences were published during the summer of 1877, and contain much pertaining to the early history of this section. Hence we shall make frequent extracts from them. In 1830, James Reddin and Eli Sargent settled in Oakland Township. Reddin built a horse-mill, the first institution of its kind in the country, and one of great convenience to the scattered pioneers. His descendants still own the land upon which he settled so long ago. Sargent was from Ohio, and located adjoining Mr. Ashmore. He is said to have been a man of considerable wealth, and entered several hundred acres of land. “He, too, brought with him his sons and daughters. The latter made the journey on horse-back, and had a gay old time riding through the wilderness. The world was not so wide then as it is now, and he and Mr. Ashmore soon discovered an incompatibility of temperament, which the narrow bounds of the country aggravated exceedingly.”* Mr. Sargent was not a healthy man, and suffered long and severely. He died in 1834, and, says the Herald referring to his death, “of his family there survive his daughter, Mrs. Guinn, and his stepdaughter, Mrs. Sargent, of this village, who have the honor, we believe, to be the only ones who remain with us of the immigration of 1830.” We make no excuse for the following lengthy extracts from these reminiscences. Referring to a pioneer family, it is of interest as a part of the early history of the country. “ After Mr. Sargent’s death, his widow bought the Samuel Hoge farm, and with her son, John L. Berry, and her daughter Rachel, made her home there, where she died in April 1847, in her sixtieth year. Afflicted with asthma, she was an inveterate smoker, of course, but possessed uncommon business capacity. Mounted on ‘Old Ned,’ in rain or sunshine, day or night, she attended all calls upon her professional services, and in this particular alone was an exceedingly useful person. Ned was a favorite—a large, brown, pacing horse, which she had reared from a colt. Within the thirty years of his life, he had carried her everywhere that she went; three times from the Embarrass to the Scioto. He survived his mistress a year. Reared in Kentucky, Mrs. Berry had been left a widow, with poverty and several young children for an inheritance. Her effects then consisted of twenty acres of ground, her horse, Ned, a slave woman and her children. Sickness came, bread became scarce and the wolf looked in at the door. The slave woman and the horse did the farming, and had it not been for the woman and the horse, her family would have come to absolute want. When she married Mr. Sargent (who was a rich man), she went with him to Ohio, taking Ned and two of the five children of the colored woman. To her she left the land, who, after a trial of eighteen months, left it and went as a cook to a hotel in Louisville. Here she died, and Mrs. Sargent had her other three children sent to Ohio, and ultimately brought them all to this country. Her most judicious advisers, including her husband, had urged her to sell them, to put them in her pocket, etc., and showed her the ‘black laws’ of Illinois and all the difficulties of the situation. But no, the memory of that woman and horse toiling in the sun, to raise bread for her and her children when she lay sick and prostrate, was not to be overcome. Worldly woman as she was, she possessed a determined will, and she decided never to sell them.***Mrs. Sargent was a woman of limited education, and knew nothing about the abstract doctrine of human rights. She was a Baptist, and neither knew nor cared, perhaps, for Wesley’s opinion on the ‘sum of all villainies,’ and of Abolitionism, she concurred in the then common opinion, that its advocates were thieves of a hideous character. What was it that caused her to withstand the pressure of interest? Was it gratitude, or was it instinct, or was it both? Thirty years have passed away, but it seems to us as but yesterday that we saw her sitting by her great fire-place, indulging in her pipe, with death awaiting at her elbow; a picture of stoical calm, which we have never seen equaled within our threescore years of time.“ * Oakland Herald. Another of the early settlers in this township, and who deserves more than a mere passing notice, was Thomas Affleck. He came from the “lowlands” of Scotland in 1832, and first settled on the Wabash, near Clinton, but came to this settlement in 1836. His wife is said to have been a most amiable woman, and died in 1840. Mr. Affleck is spoken of as a fine violinist, and spent much time in exercising on the sweet and pathetic airs of “Bonnie Scotia.” Says one: “ His rendering of ‘ Roy’s Wife of Aldivalloch ’ was such as none but a native Scot could equal. With his chin pressed down upon his fiddle, his large head and great staring eyes above, together with his powerful voice, he repeated and practiced the music of his native land.” He was a model farmer and spent much time and labor in looking after his farm, digging ditches and otherwise improving it. He had once been a grocer in Dumfries, Scotland, his native place, and though long out of the business when he came to this country, it is said he was almost unequaled in putting up packages of goods, and could put up more coffee, sugar or pepper in a paper than any merchant in Oakland. And that when he had completed a job of this kind, the form of the package and the turns of the wrapping thread would be very artistic. He was quite a hunter, and when he wanted game he would “harness” up a yoke of cattle to his sleigh and strike out for the hunting-grounds, where, turning his cattle loose to feed, he would sit and wait and watch for his game, and would rarely miss a single shot in bringing it down. He was a great mechanical genius, and on this point a Dr. Pease, an amateur phrenologist, found his head on measurement to be twenty-four inches in circumference—equal to a No. 9 hat—and his “bump of mechanics” the largest he had ever examined. Referring to his mechanical genius, the reminiscences published in the Herald, from which we have already quoted extensively, say: “One of these was a mode of sandbars and deepening the outlet channels of rivers and harbors. This process, as he often described it to us, was very similar to the jetty system now used by Capt. Eads at the mouth of the Mississippi. It consisted in first confining the water by the means of ballast and piling on each side of the desired channel. This means he held would, of itself, in time effect its purpose, but to hasten it on he next proceeded to drive in the channel, every eight or ten feet, iron piling. These iron piling consisted of two flat bars perforated with inch holes and joined at the points, but designed to be separated above by the distance of an inch or less. He next let down between the bars thus constructed, sections of boiler- iron, twenty or thirty feet long, to a point near the bottom, where it was secured by pins placed in the bars. Thus, when the work was completed, it somewhat resembled the lower board of a plank fence, and the water forced underneath was expected to tear out a channel. This, in brief, is an outline of his idea. He claimed that he had successfully applied it on the Clyde, and in other harbors in Scotland, and had presented his project and claims to the Board of Admiralty. Of Sir James Graham, the then head of the Board, he spoke with his characteristic bitterness, and, being in lack of means, he turned his back in disgust upon the Old World, to find a home and a grave in Illinois.” The Herald, concluding it lengthy notice of Mr. Aftieck, says: “But the habit of strong drink was the evil genius of his latter days, and when under its influence his temper and invective were peculiar and terrific. He thus went on drinking himself to death as fast as he could, hoping, in his unhappiness, soon to be at rest by the side of his deceased wife. His son-in-law. Rev. A. 0. Allen, persuaded him at last to go with him to his residence at Terre Haute, but not until the old man had exacted a pledge of Mr. Mosely and other citizens that they would see to the return of his body when the end should come. He did not stay long; he parted with the world and its troubles on the 2d of June, 1852, aged 67 years; and Mr. Mosely and the citizens of Oakland fulfilled their pledge and laid him by the side of the wife of his youth.“ Lyman, Almon and Daniel Keyes were from the Empire State, and settled at what is still known as Donica’s Point. They are all long since dead. Lyman went to the Mexican war, and left his bones to bleach on the bloody field of Chapultepec. Thomas Blair was another old settler at Donica’s Point, but his native place is not now remembered. L. E. Archer was a Vermonter, and came to this settlement in an early day. He was an odd character, and many hard stories are still told of him. He was very close in his dealings, and always got the best end of a bargain in a trade with his fellow men, even stretching the truth to accomplish his purpose. It is said that his capacity for drinking whisky was almost unbounded, and that he always bought it by the gallon, in order to get it a little cheaper; less than that quantity did him no good or harm, but after he had drunk a gallon it then began to “fly into his head.” He died at the age of eighty-four years, and his family are scattered to the four quarters of the earth. A man named Donica, was the first settler at this place, and from him it took its name, but we were unable to obtain much information in regard to him. William Nokes, or “Uncle Billy” Nokes, as he was called mostly, was an extraordinary character that should have special notice in these pages. He was from Kentucky, and came here at an early day in the settlement of Oakland Township. Like the great lawyer we have heard of, he “Prided himself on his learned diction,
He was a great romancist, and like the majority of that class, he was usually
the hero of his own stories. He used to say that in his younger days in the
old Blue-Grass State, he had been a great favorite among the ladies, and had
been compelled at a single term of the court at Louisville, to answer to a
dozen different suits for breach of promise. From the personal description we
received of him,* we do not doubt his power of attraction with the daughters of Eve. He went by the name of “Old Bag o’ Shot,“ a name given
him in honor of one of his stories, in which he claimed to have carried a
bag, containing half a bushel of shot, along the streets of Louisville, and as
the frost had just come out of the ground, he sunk to his knees every step,
while the bricks of the pavement piled around his feet. This story, it is said,
grew by repetition until the shot became two bushels and the displaced brick
reached to his waist. Another story told of him, is that he once went to old
‘Squire Ashmore’s and made a complaint against a young man of eighteen
years, for assault and battery. Though he was considerably “bunged up,” the
’Squire persuaded him that it would not look well in a man who had carried
two bushels of shot to prosecute a stripling of eighteen years, and so in his
good-nature, Mr. Nokes withdrew his complaint. He removed to Iowa many
years ago, where he died.And diluted the truth with a good deal of fiction.” * A snub-nosed, big-mouthed, coarse-featured, stoop-shouldered man.“ The winter of the “deep snow” (1830-31) two families encamped on the Embarrass River, near where the railroad crosses. After the melting of the snow, the river rose higher than ever known before or since. One of these families was that of Aaron Collins, mentioned among the early settlers of Morgan Township, the other was a Mr. Mason, who settled on this side of the river, on what is now known as the Naphew farm. He did not remain here long, but sold to a man named William Chadd, a blacksmith, millwright and jack-of-all trades. Chadd was from the White River country in Indiana, possessed considerable means, and by the aid of three sons and seven daughters, soon opened a large farm. He is described as a “ little, wizened, dried-up man of sixty, with a large nose and a very full eye.“ “ Old Shad,“ the people called him for short, like Nokes, often regaled his friends with some very extravagant stories. Speaking of his resources, one day, he said he had a bushel of “cut money” laid by for a “rainy day.” Like many of the other early settlers, he took the mill fever, and in addition to his blacksmith-shop, built a “corn-cracker ” near by. Being asked one day if he could grind wheat on his mill, replied, “Well, yes, if I had a bolting-cloth; in fact, I told the boys the other day that we’d try it, so I took a bushel of very clean, nice wheat and ground it. I then took the grist over to Mr. Reddin’s and bolted it. Well, sir, I had a hundred pounds of flour and two and a half bushels of bran.” Again we extract from the Herald reminiscences: “Mr. Chadd was possessed in a high degree with personal dignity. His children treated him with profound respect; he was no joker, and did not permit anybody to joke him. Any insinuation as to the truth of his stories he promptly resented, for he told them in dead, sober earnestness. Seated on a horse-block one day, conversing with Mosely and Pemberton on the subject of music, he observed that the jew’s-harp, if properly made, was the best instrument known. That he had once made one for a boy, a good big one several feet long. The bows or frame he made of “tire-iron ” and the tongue was an inch steel bar. ‘Why, you could,’ said he, ‘hear it three miles!’ At this point Mr. Pemberton stupidly inquired as to how the boy got it into his mouth. Chadd treated the query with contemptuous silence, but afterward remarked to Mr. Mosely, ‘Jack Pemberton would like to say something smart if he knew how.’ The limits of this article forbids further details. A volume would scarcely contain all the incidents of Mr. Chadd’s eventful life. Who has not heard of his duel before breakfast, when in a room eighteen feet square, securely locked, he and his antagonist armed with knives, fought for eight hours, ankle-deep in blood? Who has not heard of his quarryblast on White River, which required the labor and teams of a hundred men six months to remove? Who has not heard of his snake story, of his fish story, and his perpetual-motion saw-mill? Mr. Chadd was gathered to his fathers long ago, in the fullness of time and a good old age.” We will give one more instance of his India-rubber stories, and then pass on to other scenes. This was of his professional experience, which he related to Dr. Rutherford, and exhibited to him his “spring lancet” and his “pullikin,” the latter for extracting teeth, and estimated the number of teeth drawn with them, or it, at several barrels, and the blood shed by the “lancet” at the hogshead measure. He stated to the Doctor that he had once been applied to tap a woman for dropsy. From this duty he had shrunk, pleading ignorance and other disqualifications, but as no physician was in reach, he made an effort, and although the woman was a small one, he drew from her one hundred and twenty gallons of water. Martin Zimmerman came from Augusta County, Va., in 1836, and settled first in Edgar County, where he remained about a year, and then removed to this township. He resided here until his death, which occurred in 1852. He has many descendants still in the county, who are among the prominent farmers and business men of the country. Enoch Sears and Asa Reddin were also early settlers in this township. David Winkler and the Hoskinses settled on Brush Creek. There are, perhaps, other old settlers whose names should be mentioned, but we have failed to obtain them. And then, after the Black Hawk war, emigrants came in so rapidly that it is impossible to keep track of the period of their settlement and where they came from. So we will not attempt to further particularize, but take up other matters of interest. FRAGMENTS OF HISTORY. By reference to the map in the front part of this work, it will be noticed that there is a jog, of two sections in width, in the north line of the county, the full extent of Oakland Township. When Douglas County was set off from doles, says Capt. Adams in his Centennial Address, the village of Oakland was regarded as having “great room for outgrowth and development” (and, we may add, it still retains this expectation of its people). Therefore, Coles County, as well as the people of Oakland, were unwilling that the village should be cut off in a new county; hence the jog above referred to was made to keep the village of Oakland in this county. Here, as in all newly-settled communities, attention was directed at an early day to mills; for, with all the great inventions of the age, there has not yet been one devised by which the human race can live without bread. And in this town, as elsewhere, the mill business was in high popular favor forty years or more ago. To own a horse-mill gave one an air of importance, and a saw or grist mill, as an old settler expressed it, rendered the fortunate owner ’the biggest toad in the puddle.” One of the first efforts at a water-mill was by Mr. Laughlin, where the river crosses the northwest corner of Section 12 but he was not very successful in his attempt. It passed into the hands of Henry McCumbers, familiarly called “Old Sport.” But he never realized much from it, and, after struggling on with it for a few years with a perseverance worthy of a better cause, he finally gave it up entirely. A man by the name of Whitlock also tried; and after a year’s hard work, saw a friendly (or unfriendly) flood carry it away on a “march to the sea.” Mr. Chadd referred to as the man of long-winded* stories, in another part of this chapter, had a genius for mills as well as for story-telling. He built a mill near the present railroad-crossing. He tried undershot, turbine, and re-action wheels; but they amounted to little, and finally a flood took the whole structure away, and sent it after its predecessor, down the river. David McConkey was another who spent more on a mill than he ever succeeded in getting back. It was the same old story—the floods carried it away, and left its owner in poverty. The era of steam-mills will be noticed in the history of the village. A man of the name of Robert Bell was the first regular carpenter in Oakland Township, and, it is said, was a superior workman. Many specimens of his work still remain to testify to its quality. The finishing-lumber then was rough-sawed poplar, and had to be “dressed” by the carpenter, as planing-mills and sash-factories were unknown. Everything needed in the construction of a house, including flooring, molding, etc., had to be worked out by hand, and the frames were generally of hewed material. The erection of a frame house, at that early period, was a much bigger job than at the present day; and, in the place of the large lumber-yard we find in every town and village now, at that time the market was usually supplied by “whip-saw.“ At a very early day, Andrew Gwinn, with the aid of “Old Billy” Nokes, ran one of these “whip-saw” mills. Two men could saw 200 feet in a day, and this sold at $4 per hundred. One of the first wagon-makers was a man named Alpheus Jacques. He, it is said, used to make wagons and buggies out of old rails and “’most anything he could pick up.” His skill with the draw-knife was remarkable, and the rapidity with which he turned out work was truly marvelous. Among the early blacksmiths were David McConkey and William Chadd. McConkey made considerable money as such, and then spent it in his attempts at a mill on the Embarrass, as already stated. The first store in Oakland Township was kept by a man named Sheriff, an uncle to the present Postmaster at Paris, Edgar County. It was located on the road east of the village of Oakland, and his goods were hauled from Chicago by ’Squire Pemberton.” Chicago, then, says the ’Squire, “ was no larger that the village of Oakland is now.” The first post office in the township was kept by Wilson Morrison, east of the village. It was on the confines of a large grove, surrounded by oak-trees, and thus received the appropriate name of Oakland—names since bestowed on the village and the township. In was on the mail-line between Paris and Decatur, and the mail was carried weekly on horse- back between those places. EDUCATIONAL AND RELIGIOUS. The name of the first pedagogue in Oakland is not now remembered, but schools were taught in the neighborhood quite early. The people have ever taken great interest in educational matters, and, at the present day, no town in Coles County is better favored with school facilities than Oakland. The matter will be again alluded to in the history of the village. Church organizations, also, will be further noticed in the village history, as the Presbyterian, the oldest organization in the town, is located in the village of Oakland. The only church-edifice outside of the village is Prairie Union Christian Church, located in the southern part of the township. It was organized in the neighborhood schoolhouse, March 1, 1871, with thirty-two members; three elders, viz., A. J. Shulse, S. D. Honn and D. W. Honn. The church was built and dedicated the same year the society was organized, and cost $1,830, not including the lot on which it stands. The present Elders are D. W. Honn, A. J. Shulse and John Childress. Previous to the erection of the church, the people of the neighborhood attended divine worship at the village of Kansas, in Edgar County. It is in a very flourishing state, with a present membership of about sixty-five, and a Sunday school during the summer season. When settlements were first made in this part of the county, there were plenty of Indians in Southern Illinois, and likewise in this section. They were the Pottawatomies, Winnebagoes and the Kickapoos. They were friendly and did the whites no harm. The fright of the Black Hawk war had little effect here, from the fact that at the time it took place, there were very few settlers in this neighborhood. The Indians had a trading-post near the village of Camargo, in Douglas County, established by two men named Vesor and Bulbery, French Canadians. Near this post, the Indians had a burying-ground, and once every year held a grand powwow for the benefit of the departed souls of their deceased friends. In Morgan Township they had a camp, which is noticed in the history of that town. Oakland Township is Republican in politics at the present time. In the old days of Whigs and Democrats, it was Democratic by a small majority, not- withstanding it gave Harrison a small majority in 1840, and Clay, in 1844. With these exceptions, it was Democratic. In the late war, Oakland did its duty nobly, and sent many of its young men, and old ones, too, to do battle for the Union. The first Justice of the Peace in this section, was Samuel Ashmore, the old patriarch of the Ashmore family. The present justices of the township are, J. J. Pemberton and William Hunt. When Coles County adopted township organization in 1860, G. W. McConkey was the first Supervisor of Oakland Township. The present Supervisor is H. Rutherford, and N. P. Smith is the present Town Clerk. This concludes the general history of Oakland Township, and we will now proceed to devote a few pages to the history, laying-out and the location of THE VILLAGE OF OAKLAND. This enterprising little village is situated on the Illinois Midland Railroad, about twenty miles northwest from Paris. It was surveyed and laid out by Reubin Canterbury, County Surveyor, for Madison Ashmore, on the 12th of May, 1835. James Ashmore built the first residence in the village. McCord built a residence soon after the one built by Ashmore. Some say that McCord’s was built before the village was laid out, while others hold to the fact as given above. The first store was kept by a man named McCleland Another was opened very soon after McCleland’s, by a Mr. Trembly, but neither lasted long, and both “broke” in the business. Says the Herald reminiscence: “For the next four years, no goods of any kind, save what a peddler might bring in, were sold in Oakland. Our trading had to be done in Charleston or Paris. Not a spool nor a thread, nor even a pin, was to be had short of these towns. There was nothing here to buy goods with. Four-year-old steers went at $10 per head, and the only good horse we ever owned we bought for $50. Corn for many years never rated above 10 cents per bushel, and then was not considered a merchantable article.” The next effort at merchandising was made by Robert Mosely. In 1844, he opened a small stock of goods, and for a time had what little trade there was, all to himself. John Mills and R. T. Hackett were the next merchants, and about this time “Matt” Ashmore opened a kind of curiosity shop in Pemberton’s old tavern stand. In the year 1847, Pemberton went into partnership with Mosely, and thus began their long partnership business. But we have neither time nor space to follow the mercantile business through its long and eventful career to the present time. Other points demand our attention. The first tavern in Oakland was kept by Daniel Payne, soon after the laying-out of the village, and the next, perhaps, was kept by ’Squire Pemberton. The village at present has two first-rate hotels—the Oakland House, kept by H. A. Frederick, and the Union Hotel, by Mrs. Jones. The first post office was kept by McCleland, elsewhere mentioned as the first merchant. The present Postmaster is L. C. Thornton. The first blacksmith in the village was a man named Maxon, and his shop was a counterpart of that described by Long- fellow, except that instead of the “spreading chestnut-tree” it stood under a spreading oak-tree. We are informed that it consisted mainly of a bellows and anvil, rigged up under an oak tree, and that there was no building belonging to it. The first doctor to practice in this section was of the name of Montague, but of him we learned but little. The next was perhaps Dr. H. Rutherford, who came here in 1840, and practiced the healing profession until he amassed quite a snug fortune, and physicians became so plenty that he could retire from a long life of laborious work. In 1854, Clement & Clark built a steam-mill in the village of Oakland. It was a great institution in this primitive settlement, and people came for miles to see the engine work, and were frightened out of their wits when the steam blew off. A sash saw was added to it, but was soon dispensed with. The mill has several times changed proprietors and is now owned by John Burwell. The Smith mill, as it is called, is of rather recent building, and was put up by W. P. West some eight or ten years ago. The Herald’s reminiscences thus speak of the originator of this last enterprise: “ This man was what might be termed a fool for luck, and a spendthrift by nature. His father gave him a large farm at Culver’s Grove. Getting embarrassed, he sold out, came down to this part of the country, and worried awhile with the McConkey mill. He next got hold of the Frank Williams’ steam grist and saw mill. He succeeded in trading this worthless property to Thomas Kinney for a good farm in Edgar County. Selling the farm, he commenced building the mill before referred to, and at the same time he set up a grocery. About this time he succeeded in becoming guardian for the William Franklin heirs, for whom he drew pension money to the amount of $1,100. His luck continuing good, his grocery burnt down, and he received $1,500 of insurance. His borrowed money began pressing him and he sold out to his partner, W. 0. Smith, at a very good figure. If he had stopped here he would have had a good living remaining, but a man of the name of Foulke, of Kansas, sold him an old rattle-trap of a mill for $5,000, worth about that many cents. This stroke finished him, cleaned him up, and it is said that he is still following up the mill business, but in a second-hand way.” The large grain elevator standing by the railroad was built in 1875-76 by F. R. Coffman. One had been built here in 1872, and burned a short time after, when this one was built in its place. It is now owned by Dr. Rutherford, and is an excellent building, well-appointed in every particular, with steam-power and with a capacity of 15,000 or 20,000 bushels of grain. It is standing idle at present. The Oakland National Bank was established in 1874, with L. S. Cash, President, and John Rutherford, Cashier. The same officers still have charge of it, and are gentlemen of excellent business attainments, energy and enterprise. VILLAGE ORGANIZATION. The village of Oakland was incorporated years ago, but as the first records were not to be had we could not get the exact date, nor the names of the first Board of Trustees. The present Board is as follows, viz., William Henderson, M. W. Ammerman, J. W. Stokes, Frank Pleasant, J. R. Lawson and Merrill Hackett. William Henderson is President of the Board; W. M. Bowman, Village Clerk; A. A. Dunseth, Police Magistrate, and John Tibbs, Town Marshal. The first church was organized by the Old-School Presbyterians in the year 1831. They built a small log church on the site of the “upper grave-yard,” which afterward was turned into a schoolhouse. They next erected a frame building on the public square, 25x40 feet, but for lack of funds never finished it. It was finally abandoned, and, in 1844, their present church edifice was erected. Rev. Isaac Bennett was one of the first preachers. He was a native of Philadelphia, was educated at Princeton and was a man of much intelligence and refinement. He was averse to noise, the cry of a child, when preaching, totally upset him. After his marriage, a “change came over the spirit of his dreams,” and when two, three or four children had gathered about his knees, he was altogether another person, and could study his sermons better than ever and “ preach right along in the stiffest kind of a squall.” Rev. Mr. Montgomery was another preacher of this congregation; also Rev. Mr. McDonald and Rev. Mr. Venable, of Paris. At present, there is no regular pastor. A good Sunday school is maintained, of which Mr. Eckard is Superintendent. The Cumberland Presbyterians organized a society in 1843, under the Rev. James Ashmore, a son of Amos Ashmore and a brother to the wife of Rev. Mr. Bennett. They have an elegant little frame church in the village and a flourishing society. Rev. J. P. Campbell is the present Pastor. R. G. Forsythe is Superintendent of the Sunday school connected with this Church. The Methodist Episcopal Church was organized by Rev. Arthur Bradshaw in 1858. Their church was built soon after its organization. The society is large and flourishing, and is under the pastoral charge at present of Rev. Mr. Lacy. Of the Sunday school of the Church, N, P. Smith is Superintendent. The first school in Oakland was taught by Madison Ashmore, but the year is not now remembered. The first schoolhouse was a small frame building, which was used as a temple of learning until the building of the present large brick, some nine years ago. It is a spacious edifice, well designed for school purposes and cost about $7,000. Prof. Failing is Principal of the school at present Miss Lida Reel, Miss Kate Crawford and Miss Jessie Burr, teachers. Freemasonry and Odd Fellowship are well represented in Oakland. Oakland Lodge No. 219, A., F. & A. M., was organized October 7, A. L. 5856, A. D. 1856. The first officers were Thomas J. Don Carlos, Master; William D. Martin, Senior Warden; Alfred D. Pemberton, Junior Warden; John W. Kurtz, Treasurer; Robert Mosely, Secretary. The present officers are : H. D. Williams, Master; E. H. Warden, Senior Warden; L. B. Crawford, Junior Warden; L. S. Cash, Treasurer; N. P. Smith, Secretary; John Rutherford, Senior Deacon; R. G. Forsythe, Junior Deacon, and John Menaugh, Tiler, with seventy members on the roll. Oakland Chapter, No. 153, Royal Arch Masons, was organized October 24, 1872, with the following officers: A. P. Forsythe, High Priest; S. M. Cash, King, and R. F. Larimer, Scribe. The present officers are: John Rutherford, High Priest; S. A. Reel, King; R. F. Larimer, Scribe; Jo. W. Clement, Captain of the Host; D. H. Gordon, Principal Sojourner; H. D. Williams, Royal Arch Captain; L. B. Crawford, R. G. Forsythe, A. J. Taylor, Masters of the Veils; L. S. Cash, Treasurer, and E. H. Warden, Secretary, with thirty members. Oakland Lodge, No. 1,192, Knights of Honor, was instituted September 5, 1878, by Stanley Walker, D. D. Charter members: L. S. Cash, M. B. Valodin, W. C. Lacy, N. P. Smith, N. R. Moore, D. A. Rice, Rev. J. P. Campbell, William Henderson, Shep Florer, W. H. Glass, W. J. Peak, J. W. Turner, Lewis Kees, B. F. Smith, M. R. Williams, R. L. Burns, J. G. Hamil ton and R. M. Young. The first officers were M. B. Valodin, D.; William Henderson, V. D.; L. S. Cash, Treasurer; D. A. Rice, R.; M. R. Williams, F. R.; N. P. Smith, D. and R. Present officers: William Henderson, D.; B. F. Smith, V. D.; L. S. Cash, Treasurer; N. P. Smith, R.; M. R. Williams, F. R. Oakland Lodge No. 545, I. 0. 0. F., was instituted April 8, 1874. The charter members were A. A. Dunseth, A. M. Merrill, R. S. Smedley, J. P. Coons, James Stiles, of which A. A. Dunseth was first Noble Grand A. M.; Merrill, Vice Grand; and R. S. Smedly, Secretary, and A. A. Dunseth the first Representative. The present officers are: D. A. Rice, Noble Grand R.; Gomel, Vice Grand; William M. Bowman, Secretary, and N. P. Smith, Deputy Representative. Welcome Encampment, No. 24, I. 0. 0. F., organized January 5, 1876. It is the old No. 24, of Charleston, which surrendered its charter during the war, and hence lost its number. The first officers were: J. G. Crawford, C. P.; S. M. Cash, H. P.; J. A. Johnson, S. W.; J. C. Bandy, J. W.; N. P. Smith, Scribe. The present officers are Robert Rutherford, C. P., and N. P. Smith, Scribe, with twelve members. The first newspaper in Oakland was the Herald, and was established by J. W. Crane in 1875. It is at present owned by S. A. Reel & Co., with Rev. J. P. Campbell as editor. It is an eight-page paper, presents a fine appearance, and is one of the spiciest sheets in the county. The Oakland Ledger is a small paper, recently established in the village, and is an interesting little journal. Oakland comprises some fifteen or twenty stores of all classes, including dry goods, grocery stores, hardware stores, furniture stores, etc., also a full line of shops of all kinds, blacksmith, wagon-makers, harness-makers, etc., etc. It has two good hotels, three churches, one excellent schoolhouse, two steam-mills, one grain elevator, a railroad and depot, and its full share of professional men. The village has two cemeteries; one is some distance from the village, in a northeast direction, and was laid out before the village. Many of the old settlers and pioneers sleep in the “upper grave-yard,” as this burying-ground is called. The other is nearer the village, and was laid out in 1855. It is a pretty little cemetery, and is well beautified and adorned with trees and shrubbery. In conclusion of this chapter, we would say that Oakland is a model little village, with the most favorable prospects for a bright future. Though in early days it had the name of being a rough place, with some rough characters in it, yet education and civilization have done their work, and a more refined little city cannot be found in this or surrounding counties. |