Spoon River
Bridge at London Mills
submitted by Bill Wilson
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This excerpt was taken from the History
of Fulton County, published by Chas. C. Chapman & Co. in 1879, pages 969-970.
Upon the southeast quarter of section 28, in the valley of Big Coal creek and near its confluence with Spoon river, owned by Nathaniel Aylsworth, stands a mound in the shape of a frustum of a cone. Around this hundreds of bullets have been picked up. Some of these ancient missiles are exactly like the minie and Springfield balls of to-day. There is also another kind, which are pointed at one end and flat at the other. This, no doubt, was the location of one of the chain of forts erected by the French from Lake Michigan to the Gulf of Mexico, as it is on a direct line from old Fort Clark, now Peoria, to Fort Madison, on the Mississippi river, both of which were French forts and constituted a part of this great chain of defence. Sixty years ago the Pottawatomie Indians lived on this same section, and upon the southeast quarter buried their dead. Mr. Aylsworth found the skeleton of an Indian in the trunk of a large white-oak tree, which he cut down several years ago. Another was found in the trunk of an elm. Peter Beer and James Kline exhumed an Indian skeleton here, which had buried with it jewelry, silver coin, a gun and a British General's golden epaulets. Here, also, upon section 28, are the once famous trading-house springs, the largest being at the head of Goose Lake, on Spoon river. A part of the remains of this old Indian trading-house was to be seen only a few years ago mouldering away by the spring, while the latter flowed on as fresh and gayly as it did the day the house was built.
It is claimed by some that Laban Reynolds was the first settler, and by others John Beer is accorded that honor. It is not positively known when the former settled here, but the latter located upon the southeast quarter of section 28 in 1829. Thomas Hummell came during the same year. Robert Combs and Henry Alms settled here in 1835, and David Cowman and Ludwick Kline and others came the following year. Robert Combs and the widow of Henry Alms are all still living here, each of them at the ripe old age of eighty-three. Mr. Alms fought in the war of 1812, and his father served in the Revolution under Washington.
The first school-house in the township was upon section 36 in 1835, and the first teacher was Mr. Barnes. There is no regularly surveyed town in Young Hickory, yet Midway is a little village of about, forty inhabitants, and is situated upon sections 2 and 11. It contains a store, blacksmith-shop and postoffice. London Mills is also another postoffice in this township. It is located upon the northwest quarter of section 3. In it are two stores and a blacksmith-shop.
There are seven school-houses and three churches in the township. The Christians (New Lights) had an organization here at one time, but some of the members have moved away, and some have died, until the congregation has grown so small that regular services are no longer held. The first death in the township was that of Joseph Smith.
Waterspout.—In 1868, upon the farm of Wm. Taylor, occurred a wonderful phenomenon. On passing his large spring near the old trading-house spring he observed that a great flood had swept the vegetation and logs down the hill and along the course of the spring. On tracing it up the hill he found the place at which it struck the ground. It washed out a great hole like that of a cellar. In 1874 the same thing recurred, and in the very same spot, which is precisely over the spring. Mr. T. also states that almost every tree upon the hill in the vicinity of the spring has been struck with lightning.
Amarugia.—Near the center of the township is the spot where in early days some of the settlers would congregate for sport, such as horse-racing, shooting matches, prize fights, etc. Some of them would take a little too much bourbon, and appeared very ridiculous, to say the least, which on one occasion brought forth the following remark from one of the old settlers: "They look more like Amarugians than anything else." The people took up the name and christened the place Amarugia, by which that vicinity is known even to this day, and the time was when all persons living in Young Hickory were known as Amarugians for twenty to thirty miles around.
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