Pages 45-50

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In my last I promised to tell how it happened that Judge Phelps killed fourteen pigeons with a rifle ball at one shot. It happened as follows: The judge had gone out one morning with his horse Prince and his Dearborn carriage for a ride, and had taken his shotgun with him as was his custom. After firing a few times at squirrels his shot-bag was empty; but he found in his pocket a rifle ball. So he took his knife and cut the ball up into small fragments of lead and loaded his shotgun with them. He soon came to a threshing-floor on my father’s farm, where we had been threshing wheat by having the horses trample it out on the ground. A large flock of pigeons had settled down upon the

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threshing-floor to pick up the grains of wheat that had mingled with the dirt; and when these pigeons rose in a cloud to fly away the judge fired at them on the wing, bringing down fourteen pigeons at one shot with a rifle ball—cut into fragments.

The first year after the Phelpses came to Lewistown they rented twenty acres of my father’s farm and put it in corn. Sumner plowed the corn, and my brother Lewis rode the plow-horse, while I rode the plow-horse for my father’s hired man in the adjoining field. It is a singular fact that in the first settlement of the county the eastern men had to have a boy to ride the horse when they plowed corn, while southern men would always drive their plow-horse with a single line.

After the Phelpses had been in business about two years in Lewistown, Alexis and Sumner established a trading post at Yellow Banks (now Oquawka) on the Mississippi river, and had a large trade with the Indians of Iowa and Illinois.

William Phelps in his youthful days was very fond of the chase. He kept a pack of hounds that were well trained, and during the summer months he would start out in the morning, as soon as it was daylight, with his horse and hounds and a tin horn for a fox-hunt. The deep baying of his dogs and the blare of his horn could in those times be heard for miles around the village. There were a great many wolves, foxes and wildcats in the country, and he would occasionally start up a lynx or a panther. These animals were very annoying to the farmers, as they would kill a great deal of the stock and carry off the poultry, and William and his hounds contributed very materially to their extermination. The first enterprise that William engaged in after leaving home was to set up an Indian trading-post on Grand Island, ten miles below Havana in the Illinois river. After carrying on his trade about one year he was married to Caroline Kelsey and struck out for the wilds of Iowa where he was engaged for many years in trading with the Indians. He was subsequently engaged in steamboating on the Mississippi river for many years.

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The next store that was opened in Lewistown was that of Edward Plude, a Frenchman, and Patrick Hart, an Irishman. They built a frame storehouse on the lot where William Proctor lived for many years, on Main street. They kept the store for about two years, and then my father bought their goods and moved them to a store he had built on the Edwin Harris corner, south of the court house. After my father bought their goods, Plude clerked for my father, while Hart clerked for the Phelpses.

A man named Taylor started the next store. He came from Philadelphia. He brought on a large stock of Indian goods and also brought with him from St. Louis two Frenchmen who were accomplished Indian interpreters, as clerks. Mr. Taylor’s ambition was to seize upon the splendid Indian trade secured by the Phelpses. He sent his French clerks out among the Indians to secure their trade, but made a great failure of it. The Phelpses had dealt so honorably with the Indians and white people that no power could break the confidence that was reposed in them, and they held their magnificent Indian trade until the Indians were driven out of the country. Mr. Taylor was a very bright and enterprising man, and while he was in Lewistown he was married to Miss Ruth Cadwallader, a daughter of Jonathan Cadwallader, who then lived in Lewistown. She was a grand, noble and beautiful young Quaker lady. I happened to be going to school in Lewistown at the time and boarded with Mr. Taylor.

The Phelpses had a keel boat built for their own trade to St. Louis which was run by Norman Scovill as its captain. I was present at one time when they were loading this boat at Thompson’s lake. The cargo consisted of barrels of pork and honey, packages of deerskins and furs, barrels of dried venison, hams, beeswax and tallow, sacks of pecans, hickory nuts, ginseng and feathers, and dry hides. In an ordinary stage of water it took about four days to run a keel boat to St. Louis, by poles, oars and sails, from twenty to twenty-five days to return. I had gone to St. Louis one time with my father with a drove of horses, and came back with Norman Scovill on his keel boat. The river was quite high, and we had to do a great deal of

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"cordeling" and bushwhacking,* and it took us twenty-five days to come to Havana. I remember that we stopped at Alton as we came up the river, and all hands went up town to see the new penitentiary that had just been built. There were only two prisoners in the penitentiary, so we had the privilege of seeing the first prisoners ever sent to a penitentiary in the State of Illinois. Before that time the penalty for the commission of a crime was whipping on the bare back.

Mr. Proctor came to the county in 1825, some four months after the Phelpses had come, and lived in a house near to where the Phelpses had stopped, just north of present Methodist church. He lived there a short time while building a two-story log house on the hill near the site of his tannery (the site of the present residence of T. B. Harben). He carried on the tan-yard for several years, and then engaged in the mercantile business, and by fair and honorable dealing he soon built up an extensive trade.

There have been but few, if any, of the early settlers of Fulton county that have done as much to advance the true interests and prosperity of the country as Myron Phelps and William Proctor. Whenever a college, church, railroad, or factory, or any public improvement was wanting, they would generally head the list with the largest contribution. When the first railroad was built through Fulton county Myron Phelps gave more for its construction than any other citizen. I happened to be one of the directors and also treasurer of the road for two years while it was being built, and therefore know the facts I am stating. Then the grand and noble Christian characters of these men were a blessing not only to the church of which they were honored members, but to the whole community where they lived. I remember some of the circumstances that attended the conversion of Myron Phelps. I was then living in Canton, and Rev. Robert Stewart was pastor of the Presbyterian church at that place. The Methodist brethren had been wonderfully blest in

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some of the campmeetings they had been holding, so the Rev. Mr. Stewart and the officers of his church borrowed the Methodist camp ground and all its appurtenances, and concluded they would try it. So they sent off to Springfield and got Rev. John Hale, the pastor of the First Presbyterian church of that place, and also sent to Quincy and got the Rev. Dr. David Nelson

of that place to come and help run the meeting. They were two of the strongest and most powerful preachers in the state. The campmeeting lasted for eight days, and there were 150 or 200 conversions. A great many Lewistown people attended the camp meeting. My mother had tent on the ground, and I remember that old Dr. Rice and William Proctor were there during the entire eight days, and took a very active part in the meetings. When the meeting closed Mr. Proctor took Dr. Nelson home with him and he held several meetings at Lewistown. The spirit and influence of that campmeeting seemed to pervade all Fulton county. Dr. Nelson visited Myron Phelps at his home, and it was through his mighty influence that he was converted and became a member of the Presbyterian church. I often heard it remarked that when Myron Phelps was converted that "he was converted soul, body, pocketbook and all," for he was always very liberal and benevolent in giving to all worthy objects. I have understood that Myron Phelps was in the habit of giving $1,000 and Mr. Proctor $500 every year for missionary purposes, besides other munificent gifts. I again recall the time when at Vermont a few of us were struggling to build a small church how Mr. Proctor came to our rescue and gave us $100 to buy the lot on which that Presbyterian church still stands.

These men carried their religion with them in all their business transactions. Their influence was felt for good all through this pioneer country. In the heavenly world alone will be revealed the good they accomplished. I have been informed that Myron Phelps was in the habit of always closing his store during the hour of Wednesday evening prayer meeting so that his hands could attend the meeting, and if there were any customers in the store at the time they were invited to go along. I am also told that he never went to the polls to vote that he did not take off

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his hat and cast his ballot with as much conscientious solemnity as he would perform any other religious duty.

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