1918 Annals - Rio Township
By Heber Gillis
Joseph Rowe is acknowledged as the first man to settle in Rio township. He
built some sort of a house, the first one a white man put up in the
township, but his future is lost to the history of Rio.
Some squatters made temporary light camp stops in the early 20's at Rio, and
a family that had built a cabin on the slope of Pope Creek near where the
State Aid Road now crosses had their house burn in the late thirties while
they were at the fort at the Snodgrass house near Henderson on the McMurtry
farm.
John McMurtry, whose daughter was the first white woman to be buried in Rio,
came from Kentucky by way of Indiana to Section 33 in 1829. He served as a
soldier in the Black Hawk War. His descendants occupy a large space of
farming land near North Henderson; the Piatts of Galesburg, together with
the Heflins of Rio, are among those now living.
In 1833 Reece, Sam and James Jones likewise came from Kentucky. Both
Kentucky families brought good oxen and horse teams with them and also drove
in good loose animals of all kinds. Reece Jones permanently settled in a
home, defended it from the Indians, and when they burned one cabin he built
another better than before. He educated his family in the best schools of
that day within his reach, and they moved socially in the best circles in
the state. The Jones family built the first school house in Rio township,
aided by the subscriptions of other settlers in labor and money. A Miss
Jones was the first teacher.
In the early thirties Erasmus Hall settled on Pope Creek, where he operated
a saw mill. Noted Indians called at his home and the trader Le Claire was.
an acquaintance of his. Hall's Ford was on the trail from Peoria to Rock
Island as was also Bruner's cabin near the southeast part of the township.
Bennet Fleharty came to Section 6 just west of the Jones family in 1834. He
afterwards kept a store on his farm where Fred Anderson now lives.
Geo. Simms settled about the same time as Fleharty on Section 6 in Rio, and
Section 1 in North Henderson township, Mercer county, building his house,
which consisted of one large room, with one end of it in Rio, Knox county,
and the other in Mercer county. At dances held here it was not uncommon to
have the music in one county and the dancing in the other. When marriages
were solemnized in this house, care was taken to have the bride and groom
stand well over in the county that issued the license. Mr. Simms gave public
addresses to the older people on the subject of slavery, outlining the
history of the Rebellion in advance, and made quite good guesses concerning
the result.
Joseph Hahn came from Pennsylvania in 1835 and settled in Section 33 on a
farm extending from the south line of the township to the center, much of
the way one mile wide. It sloped gently to the south and was a most
excellent farm with good drainage, fine soil, good timber and was close to
the store of Goff, the Baptist church, and the second school house built in
the township. All of these public buildings Hahn assisted in building and
maintaining. He had served in the War of 1812 and was well fitted to engage
in pioneer enterprises.
About this same time Mr. Westfall came to Section 6. The year 1835 also
marks the advent of several other Rio pioneers. Pedro Epperson and his
brother, Edly, settled on the section south of Westfall. Their
brother-in-law, the father of Dr. John N. Cox, came in the fall of that
year, but soon moved to some very good farm land near Old Oxford, where he
spent the greater portion of his life. During the Civil War he was given a
commission by Governor Yates. Pedro Epperson, a man of great energy, soon
had good buildings and fences. Immediately after locating he made a large
rail crib like a house and was able to entertain his sister and her family
royally. While the Jones and McMurtry families were forward in school
building, the Simms and Epperson families did their share in maintaining
same. Pedro Epperson and his descendants are reputed to have owned at times
a strip of six sections a mile wide across the township.
Geo. W. Weir built a flat-boat and floated down the Mississippi River to New
Boston in 1835, where he chopped wood for the original Drury of that place.
In the winter of that year being in need of bacon he walked to the home of
the original Jones family in Rio township. On his return trip with the bacon
on his back, the wolves bothered him considerably. As a result of this trip
to Rio he hired to Sam Jones for $3.00 a month and stayed two or three
years. As part of his pay he took a pair of steers and some wheat, putting
the latter in a rail pen chinked with straw. Two or three years later he
drove the steers to Milan and traded the wheat for log chains. He also
acquired another breaking team of oxen. Mr. Weir lived to be over ninety
years of age.
In 1835 Isaac M. Wetmore came to Rio with John Wycoff on horse-back by way
of Chicago where he partly bargained for 160 acres of land. Later he
relinquished it for more tillable land on the Rio and Ontario line. Dearborn
St. is on the Chicago land which he contemplated buying or is a boundary of
it. Mr. Wetmore ran a store in Rio on the slope south of the Washington
school house and afterward established a very fine farm on both sides of the
township line with extra fine buildings on the Ontario side of the line.
In 1835 Michael Bruner drove a pair of oxen from Breckenridge county,
Kentucky, to Rio, bringing his wife and young family. Later Mrs. Bruner
died. In 1839 he drove a pair of oxen to the same place in Kentucky and
brought a second wife, his father, Adam Bruner, and his uncle, Peter Bruner,
with him to Rio. Both the elder Bruners had spent long years preaching the
gospel. They with their two brothers had served in the Revolutionary War and
all four were later buried in a cemetery on the Bruner farm. Knox county now
owns this site and has erected a monument to their memory. The Bruner farm
in 1850 had a licensed tavern upon it and possessed unusual buildings for
that day. It was on the trail from Peoria to Rock Island and during the
Civil War fruit from its fine orchard sold for $50 per tree on the stem.
About this time Michael Loveridge, an English educated veterinary, settled
about one mile west of Joseph Hahn. He was a useful and highly respected man
in this community, preaching the plain truth of the gospel in a fearless
manner during the forties and up to 1862, when he moved to Oregon. Hahn,
Loveridge, the Deatherages and Lewis Goff built the second school house in
the township, also a Baptist church which, with the store of Goff's, made
the south central part of the township quite a public settlement.
Samuel Brown came about this time to the west of these and is the only one
of this group now living, being more than ninety years of age.
Soon the Woodman's, the Larkin Robertson family, the two Coe's, Lewis and
Nelson, with Benjamin Harvey and Luther Fitch, settled more centrally in Rio
township.
John D. Bartlett and family came in 1842. Wm. Dailey, James Hinchliff,
Philip Prior and David Woodman built near the center, with Wm. Barnard a
little farther north.
The first period when the very early settlers came was a ranch life. Cattle
and hogs ran loose on the open prairie. The small grain fields were fenced.
A law of "common field" prevailed; everybody gathered his corn and the
cattle were turned on the fenced section to feed at will. Later, as the
farms were cultivated, the law caused the stock to be taken from the
highways and no open prairie grass was left. The cows that the early
settlers brought were good stock. The Kentucky settlers later brought fine
beef sires.
The pioneer traveled in wagons, on horse-back, and on foot. He was wont to
stop at the nearest house for dinner or lodging and was always welcome. He
brought the news of his locality and they told him of their affairs so that
he was a medium of intelligence at his next stopping place. The amusements
were dances, foot races, ball games, horse races, military training etc.
There were no more capable men at caring for their affairs than the first
settlers. They met every emergency. They fed, clothed, nursed and buried
their neighbors with their own hands. A common bond bound the various
settlements together. The pioneers in the forties lived in substantial log
houses. About all the money they could spare was for door latches and
"trimming salt," which was scarce. Health failed without it, and expeditions
were planned to get it.
Many interesting things could be related concerning the early pioneers. A.
J. Streeter herded some cattle in the central part of Rio township and
watered them at the Collins spring. Later he was nominated for President of
the United States on the National ticket. Quite a number of his planks came
to be beams and stringers in suggesting improvement of the present national
policy.
Frank Hickley and Peter McCartner, Jr., also herded cattle and drove them to
the same spring. The former one day walked into a railroad auction sale, bid
off an entire railroad, and paid cash for it. The latter after quitting the
cattle industry engraved some fine greenbacks which the United States
treasury afterward unwittingly accepted as genuine.
In the early fifties Robson Bros, establish a cash corn market of large
proportions. It gave an outlet for more corn and made it easier for the
settlers to pay for land. During the years when Rio had no railroad
facilities this cash market contributed greatly to the community's
prosperity.
Before the Township Organization Act, citizens of Rio and Ontario voted in
Ontario. Later Rio Settlement was a part of the political unit of Ontario.
Squire Mosher of Ontario was territorial judge while the two were one unit.
Reuben Heflin, Samuel Brown, John Robson, Samuel May, John Wycoff, Robert
Deatherage and James Deatherage have all voted in the territory of Ontario.
The first Civil War Veteran was Abner Titus.
In 1870 the Rockford, Rock Island & St. Louis Railroad came to the east
township of Mercer county on the way to Rock Island with no charter to enter
Knox county. Pope Creek is a deep stream and tributaries run northwest in
east Mercer county. Rio township had a better crossing. In Knox county, it
was then lawful to vote aids to railroads. The convention to frame a new
state constitution was in session. The railroad wanted aid to build a
right-of-way without condemnation. It was expected the new constitution
would forbid voting aid to railroads. The town was nearly evenly divided
before voting aid but the affirmative gained during the canvassing and Rio
bought its share of the improvements. This resulted in locating the road
from Monmouth to Rio and on to Rock Island, and later the connecting line
from Galesburg to Rio was built, giving the township plenty of
transportation. In getting the right-of-way near Pope Creek the full value
of the land for the entire farm was paid to the owner and only one hundred
feet wide was taken.
Some of the more or less prominent men about this time include the
following: S. W. May, who invented and defended his invention in court of
the May windmill, now owned and manufactured by his niece, Miss Duwaine
Phymister, of Chicago, at her factory in Galesburg; Robson Eros., William,
John and Robert, who handled most of the fat cattle raised just before and
during the Civil War from Rio and New Boston; Chas. Bryant, kinsman of the
noted poet by that name, and himself a writer of poetry; F. A. Landon, Sr.,
adept in verbal squibs; David B. Woodman, the largest man in Knox county,
who ran fifty yards in record time, beating a sprinting stranger who
bantered him.
No less interested in the progress of the community and active in all
forward-looking enterprises was Heber Gillis, who, with his brother,
Theodore, came to Rio township on Christmas, 1856. Their father, Dr. Geo.
Gillis, followed them in the fall of 1859.
Hall, Heflin, and Edw. Grain, together with the elder Deatherage, sawed the
lumber for the first frame house.
Benjamin Harvey was a pioneer thresher, going as far as Rock Island in a
fall and winter run. The grain was torn from the straw. Men pitched it away
and later separated the grain from the chaff and cockle burrs with fanning
mills. Some boys left home for California after turning the mill one season.
Samuel Brown , Harrison Shannon, Reuben Heflin and Thomas Jones were among
the early officers of the township, both as supervisors and as justices of
the peace. Robert Deatherage, Gilbert Wetmore, Benjamin Harvey, James
Mansfield and F. M. Epperson have been justices of the peace for long terms.
B. E. Frankenberger now occupies that position also.
The Black Hawk War, the Mexican War, the Civil War, the Spanish War, and now
the most uncalled for slaughter of men ever known — all have called for many
of our best men and women, in some cases whole families responding.
The original prairie was called wet. The subsoil held water often too long
during wet seasons. The ground often baked before it could be cultivated.
Tile drains are now used freely and little trouble is experienced from the
extremes of wet and dry. Large sums of money are buried out of sight in
tile, but they are permanent improvements, being just as good as when laid
forty years ago. Progressive farmers still think that a larger outlet would
prevent a cold, slow growth of com as in 1917. Hog disease has been
conquered largely. Tuberculosis cattle are being weeded out. Horses are
larger and better for farming. Roads are better. The man power is much
greater than fifty years ago. Many plows have passed the experimental stage.
One man handles twice as many horses as then. Planters approach perfection;
binders work like clocks. Grain separators are wonders as compared with
those of years ago. Much money has been spent in improving stock and grain,
and the results are plain to be seen.
Rio township is the home of some fine thoroughbred stock, especially cattle.
That one herd of Shorthorns was selected with intelligent care is revealed
by the fact that they are descendants of tribes originated and bred by such
famed Aberdeenshire breeders as Cuickshank, Duthie, Campbell and Lord Lovat
and the present generation is the product of sires and dams of America's
best. Four are daughters of the great sire Lord Avondale, a bull which sold
for five thousand dollars at auction in 1916 and is now conceded to be one
of the most successful of the breed. Others are by Sultan Goods of the
"Sultan" tribe. Challenge Victor, the Dutchman, a grandson of the St. Louis
World's Fair champion, Choice Goods, White Gloster by Fair Acres Sultan,
Baron Kerr H, Lucky Pride H, a grand-grandson of The Lad for Me, Glen View,
Dale III, by the famous sire, Avondale. Revealing as this does unusual
strength of blood through the sires, many of the dams too are equally
attractive and have a record as producers that stands high; for instance,
the cow Lucky Clari produced a bull that was purchased by Francisco Maissa
for shipment to the Argentine and a calf from Verbena Lass has found a home
in the herd owned by Dr. Rabey, Gatesville, Texas. Two well bred bulls, Bud
Avondale, by Lord Avondale; and Challenge Victor, by Challenge Mysie, are
samples of the high-bred stock to be found in Rio township. Illinois is
richer because of this select collection of the breed for the reason that
permanent agriculture and soil improvement go hand in hand with live stock
production.
The schools of Rio township are of the district grade. There are two
churches in the community, the Methodist and Congregational, Rev. Glen A.
Rowles being the resident pastor of the latter.
Rio has a railroad junction with unusually good train service, a fine bank
building, and other improvements. In 1917 the road tax amounted to $19,000.
Three hundred and eighty-two autos assist transportation. The township as a
whole is prosperous and progressive in every Way.
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 163-169.
