1918 Annals - Ontario Township
By Hugh Greig
While it is true that no well-defined Indian trail crossed, in any
direction, this township, yet there is indisputable evidence that the Redman
was a frequent visitor. The large number of arrow points found in the
vicinity of Pilot Knob prove this. The point named is one of the few decided
elevations in what is now Knox County and must have been used in times
innumerable by the Indians to watch the coming or going of a friend, or to
detect the stealthy approach of a dusky enemy.
The area in timber was much too limited to furnish an ideal hunting ground,
and no living spring now known could have supplied water for any large
number of people. Therefore, Pilot Knob, despite its sightliness, lacked
many qualifications which could induce the wanderer to make of it an abiding
place.
That there were large numbers of magnificent trees nearby and in every
direction, far as the eye could reach, a waving ocean of tallest grasses,
proving the unsurpassed richness of the soil was to the Indian a matter of
little or no importance.
It is quite probable that more than a century before the white man, as a
settler, looked on this rich, rolling prairie land, the explorer on his way
from the Illinois to the Mississippi or vice versa, had traversed this
region and unquestionably the hunter of a much later date had stood on Pilot
and in ever more than fancy "was monarch of all he surveyed."
However, though explorers and hunters have a place in history, a place which
bold, venturesome men only can fill, still it is of a truth he and she who
are possessors of or possessed by the ideas of the settler, the settler who
squats on a definite spot of earth, in some legal form obtains the squatters
right to stay and stays. Such is the germ from which in due time Ontario
township, Knox County, Illinois, the nation is made.
And if we are to judge the Ontario of today and of all the succeeding
tomorrows by the all around make up of the early settlers we may well be
thankful and take courage, for were they not all or nearly all the not
distant descendants of those who made homes, built schools and churches,
fought Indians and brought a thousands smiles to the flinty face of sterile
New England, and some in the morning of their manhood assisted in Central
New York by arduous labor in transforming a forest into a farm; and though
here they found the unbroken prairie a new problem, its solution was simple
in comparison; it is true the implements needed were different, the skill to
produce them was not yet acquired, but here was the soil, stubborn indeed,
but not more so than the settler. With a plow largely of timber, much
prairie was brought under cultivation; corn was planted, not with a planter
and check-rower, but with an axe, in due time this gave place to the hoe,
and as evolution seems to be a universal law the two-horse planter came and
stays.
Besides the corn, all the grains suitable to our soil and climate were sown
and rich were the rewards of the husbandman. One crop now never seen in this
township was to a limited extent grown, viz., flax, and not only grown, but
by skilled and willing hands became by much patient labor a part of the
clothing of the almost moneyless early settlers, and in even this year of
grace and carnage this writer was shown a considerable sample of linen
fabric, the flax from which it had been made grew on Section 31, Ontario
township, the home for more than sixty years of G. W. Melton, Mrs. Melton
and family, and we have reason to believe that the aforesaid Mrs. Melton
with her own hands heckeled, spun and wove the linen cloth to the writer
shown.
In the same year but previous to Mr. Melton's arrival, an Alexander Williams
had fenced and plowed some twenty acres on the northwest quarter of Section
30 and therefore, so far as known, was the first settler in the township,
who evidently intended to remain. However, in 1836 he sold his holdings to
I. M. Wetmore. The latter became one of the large landholders in the
neighborhood and in all his after years was a most prominent and successful
farmer. And though the name, Wetmore, is less common than in the early days
it is still with us and with a goodly number of others in a most interesting
and pleasant way links the present with the past.
As stated, a goodly number of names familiar in the early days are still
here, yet it is very true that a large and increasing percentage of our land
owners and tenant farmers can and do speak an alien tongue, but we all know
by evidence that cannot be gainsaid that alien speech is no indication of
alien sentiment. When we bear in mind that perhaps even a majority of our
voters are of foreign birth or are the children of those who hail from the
land of Thor, and also recognize the fact that when the R. C., the Y. M. C.
A., the K. of C. or other similar agencies let it be known that funds are
needed in their ceaseless works of mercy, Ontario has unhesitatingly gone
over the top.
In the matter of the various bond selling campaigns, over the top is simply
considered the normal thing. This, however, is usually looked on as a fairly
good investment; yet take it all in all, the profit, the real profit, that
which never tarnishes, is that derived from that giving where nothing is
returned in kind. But to speak of the cold facts of history it is a pleasure
to mention that while settlers were few, money almost unbelievably scarce,
yet the matter of education was not forgotten, for in 1839, a school house
was built on the Northwest Quarter of Section 32. Just in what manner the
project was financed we do not know, we only know that the free school
system or anything much resembling it had not yet arrived; we have no reason
to believe that the curriculum was very varied. All, no doubt, had at times
an uncomfortable amount of fresh air; as has been hinted the course of study
was somewhat brief, but as was proved on many subsequent occasions, the
pupils graduated having, in the words of John Hay, "a middling tight grip on
the handful of things they knew."
The first teacher was Sally Ann Belden. The school house for several years
was used for religious services, and as denominational lines were not
strictly drawn, the preacher of the occasion was not questioned very closely
as to his beliefs or un-beliefs on doctrinal matters.
There are now in the township eight rural schools, and while all of them
have been to some extent remodeled and greatly improved in general
appearance externally and internally, the course of study has become
practically uniform; the teachers in a knowledge of teaching methods and in
scholarly equipment far surpass those of the so-called good old days of long
ago. The Oneida district, officially known as No. 27, is what is known as a
graded school. Four teachers are employed and all pupils who successfully
pass the eighth grade are eligible to enter the High school. The latter
which is conducted in the same building, employs four teachers, each of whom
we are glad to say is a graduate of a State University or College in good
standing, and pupils honorably finishing the four year course are, provided
they have made the best of their opportunities, able to enter any college in
our state.
Every girl or boy in this township is in some High school district or in
non-High school territoiy which amounts to the same thing. And yet, sad to
say, very many of our young people never pass the eighth grade and some
never reach it.
It was a number of years after the establishment of the first school when
the township became a political unit, the first Supervisor was Edward Crane;
Clerk, W. J. Savage; Assessor, J. Burt; Collector, E. C. Brott; Overseer of
the Poor, T. F. P. Wetmore. They also had constables and highway
commissioners. It is not all likely that the latter gentlemen were at any
time urged to use their influence in favor of hard roads, and if their
successors ever have been the good advice given them appears to have been
wasted. The justices of the peace were E. Chapman and T. E. Mosher.
The names of the supervisors who until the present time have succeeded Mr.
Crane, are as follows: J. Hammond, W. B. LeBaron, J. Hammond, W. B. LeBaron,
A. S. Curtis, O. Beadle, E. Crane, A. S. Curtis, G. L. Stephenson, O. L.
Fay, G. E. Fredericks, Hugh Grieg, J. J. Clearwater. There is in the
township but one village, Oneida. It was platted in the autumn of 1854 by C.
F. Camp, B. T. West and S. V. R. Holmes. It is said that there was no
intention on the part of railroad officials to have a station at that point
but there were more convincing inducements presented at that time to the
needy company chief of which was a gift by C. F. Camp of a plot of ground
500x1,000 feet, on which at this date are the R. R. Station, two grain
elevators, various other buildings, and last and greatest is the beauty spot
of the village, the little park which is the admiration of all, and as the
years come and go the home one and the passing traveler notes the deep green
sward, the clumps of shrubbery each in its season blossom tinted, the
spreading branches of the elms, maples, chestnuts giving promise of the
future forest shade where all can realize it, if they will that our pagan
ancestors were not far amiss when they, in the shady woodland's "dim
religious light" saw a temple in which they did and we might worship God.
The writer calls Oneida a village, and, as he thinks rightly, so as more
befitting our small and sadly diminishing numbers, still it has a city
charter, a special charter by the way. However, it is quite doubtful if the
makers thereof could today recognize their handiwork. It will interest some
to know that Oneida's first school was built in 1855, and its first teacher
was Mary Allen West, who later became County Superintendent of Schools, and
in such position and in others subsequently filled, she not only raised the
standard of scholarship among the teachers but raised the standard of civic
righteousness in every community that knew her presence.
The village, as has been noted, has two grain elevators, two banks, the
First National and the Anderson State Bank; we have had and now have a
weekly paper, the Oneida News, a Masonic lodge with a large membership, a
Modern Woodmen Camp, a Mystic Workers Insurance Company, two Woman's Clubs,
which are decidedly helpful in a social and literary way. There is also an
organization known as the Oneida-Altona Branch of the Knox County Free
Kindergarten, and out of this has grown what may be called an auxiliary. The
latter is wholly composed of farm wives and daughters, and has its centre in
that intangible, but yet very real, something known as Ontario. The meetings
are no doubt beneficial in a social way, but it is the sentiment of the
heart materialized by the hands that on many, very many occasions brings
cheer to the little homeless ones in the Galesburg Kindergarten.
The Church in Ontario Township
In 1840 the Presbyterians planned and in a measure effected an organization,
which so far as now known in a short time as such disappeared. The same
denomination again in 1863, probably as a result of the seed sown in 1840,
took the necessary steps to found a church in Oneida, and in 1865 one was
erected. The building was completely destroyed by a windstorm in 1868. A new
church was immediately erected and has been added to, the interior
remodeled, the congregation is out of debt, has a resident pastor, but the
membership is slowly but constantly diminishing.
In that part of Ontario township which is known as Ontario, parenthetically
it may be said, that this section has a social center of its own; it is
really a community within a community, although not nearly so much so as in
the days that are gone; yet it still exists, resembling some of the European
States, however small. The Ontarioans are staunch believers in autonomy, and
this being so the settlers who favored the congregational system of church
management came together in 1848 and discussed the feasibility of organizing
a church of this denomination, and in 1852 the church which is still in
existence, was erected; there has been no resident pastor for a number of
years and though preaching services are occasionally held it would seem to
an unbiased onlooker that the end of the Ontario Congregational church is
near at hand.
About the same time in the same community a certain number, who, from the
old eastern home, had brought certain inherited theological ideas which to
them seemed essential, decided to build a Baptist church. Such was built;
also a parsonage, and for many years preaching services were regularly held.
However, for a considerable time no services were held, the church building
was demolished, the parsonage sold, the society disbanded, and the place
which knew it, and knew it for its good, will in all probability know it no
more.
In 1852, in the neighborhood of what is now Oneida, a Congregational Society
was formed. In 1855 the church building, which is still the property of the
society, was built, has had an eventful and most useful existence, but the
church is pastorless, with slight signs of rejuvenation. There are still
members of the church and of the society who hope and look forward to a new
life for their beloved church, and for them and for the community as a whole
such a consumation is to be wished.
The Oneida Methodist church was built in 1863. It was a live organization to
begin with, all its past history proves that it has not lost its pristine
enthusiasm, and in keeping with its inner life its material progress is well
shown in the new brick edifice which occupies and graces the site of the old
wooden structure, and at this writing a new, handsome brick veneered
parsonage is nearing completion.
Sometime between 1850 and 1860 a Baptist and a Universalist church were
built in Oneida. The latter was destroyed by fire; was rebuilt, but was
wrecked by a windstorm. The Baptist church was demolished at the same time
and neither was ever rebuilt. There was also a Lutheran organization which
at no time had more than thirty members, its existence was brief as its list
of members. The Seven Day Adventists had a place of worship for a short
time. Church and church goers have disappeared.
There is also on Section 1 a Christian church. It has always been
numerically weak and in common with all, or nearly all Ontario churches, it
is not only weak, but constantly becoming weaker.
It would appear from the foregoing that at some time there have been in
Ontario township ten religious societies, at least eight have had places of
worship. At present there are but two congregations having resident pastors
— the Methodist and Presbyterian. For this condition there may be many
reasons given. It is true that there are a less number of inhabitants in the
township, and a smaller percentage of the lesser number are church goers,
and again there is a Swedish Lutheran Church in Altona, where a large number
of the older people of our township regularly attend public worship. On such
occasions they meet with friends of kindred speech and from the pulpit hear
the words to memory dear and sing the songs they first heard in their old
home, "over there." There is also a church of the same denomination in
Wataga and though not so largely attended as that in Altona still quite a
number of families from the southern side of Ontario are attendants and
members. The same may be said of the extreme north of the township, the
people here going to Woodhull.
However, it will have to be admitted that the chief cause of the decadence
and disappearance of churches is the fact that a large and increasing number
of people never go to any church and another large, and perhaps increasing,
number, seldom go. Neither class mentioned can be depended on as a liberal
giver to any department of church work, and churches need friends.
However, in the not distant future all three societies, Altona, Wataga,
Woodhull, in all their meetings will use and use only the English tongue. In
that case will the present average church attendance prevail, or will
decadence and, in many instances, disintegration take place?
Yet even if the church as the embodiment of Christianity should largely or
wholly pass, would not that something in it which is greater than itself
continue to live, ever, ever marching on.
Extracted 15 Dec 2017 by Norma Hass from Annals of Knox County: Commemorating Centennial of Admission of Illinois as a State of the Union in 1818, published in 1921 by the Centennial Historical Association, Knox County, Illinois, The Board of Supervisors, pages 134-139.
