vein of coal is reached, some six feet in thickness. The trains going north take coal at this point; besides this, much is shipped over the road to other points.

The first church erected in the corporate limits of the village was the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, which was built in 1861. It is a frame building, and cost about $3,000. Their first preacher was Rev. J. G. White, whose greatest forte seems to have been in fighting the Catholics, not with fisticuffs, but with his tongue. The Church is without a regular Pastor at present, and has but a small membership. Quite a flourishing Sunday school is maintained. The next church edifice was the Christian Church, erected in 1864. built under the pastorate of Elder H. Osborne; is a frame building, and cost about $4,000. The present Pastor is Elder H. O. Breeden. A Sunday school is carried on, of which, Dr. Metcalf is the Superintendent. There was a church, at one time, of the German Reformed, but their society dwindled down and finally became extinct, and they sold their church building. The Baptist Church was erected in 1871, at a cost of $8,500, and is a handsome brick edifice. This is the original Clary's Grove Baptist Church, already noticed as having been organized in the little log schoolhouse, in 1824. Since that time, it has had fifteen pastors, viz.: Revs. Joseph Cogsdall, Williamson, Trent, J. H. Daniel, William Spencer, Tannehill, Evens, Theodore Sweet, Abraham Bale, J. L. Turner, Gouldsby, Winn, Gross, Jones and H. P. Curry. From this patriarchal Church have grown nine of the Baptist churches of this county, besides some located in the adjoining counties. Since its organization, nearly fifty-five years ago, more than 2,000 members have been received into fellowship. There is no regular pastor at present. A large and flourishing Sunday school is carried on, of which George W. Bell is the Superintendent. There is no Masonic or Odd Fellows' Lodge in Tallula, a circumstance that is rarely to be met with in a village of its size in Illinois. There is, however, a Lodge of the Knights of Honor.

The first school taught in the village of Tallula was by Miss Sarah Brockman, in 1859, in the district schoolhouse, which stood just without the corporate limits. This may seem an Irish bull, but it was termed the village school, and patronized by children from the village. The German Reformed Church was afterward used for a schoolhouse. The brick school building erected in 1868-69 is one of the finest in the county, and cost between $8,000 and $10,000, besides three acres of land, upon which it is located, and donated by Mr. Greene. The corps of teachers employed for the coming year is as follows: George S. Montgomery, Principal, assisted by Miss Sallie A. Johnson, Miss Nellie Robertson and Miss Mary D. Riley. The usual attendance at the school is about one hundred and fifty pupils.

Tallula was incorporated as a village under the general law in 1871–72. The first Board of Trustees were J. F. Wilson, R. H. Bean, J. T. Bush, J. F. Wathen and F. S. Thrapp, who organized for business by electing

R. H. Bean President of the Board. The present Board is J. Q. Spears, S. T. Carrico, G. Bullock, Dr. E. T. Metcalf and Frank Wilkinson, of which John Q. Spears is President; C. T. Spears, Clerk; J. F. Wilson, Treasurer, and N. L. Randall, Police Magistrate. The population is about eight hundred, and the business may be summarized as follows: Eight general stores, embracing dry goods, groceries, hardware, drugs, etc., with the usual supply of blacksmith, wagon, shoe and harness shops. There is no saloon in the place, and has been but one since it was laid out as a town, and it was starved out, which speaks well for the high standard of its morals.

The cemetery of the village is a beautiful and well cared-for buryingground. It has been carefully laid out and incorporated, and has a fund of about $1,500, with which to keep it in order. Col. Judy is President of the Association, and F. S. Thrapp, Secretary and Treasurer. About one-fourth of the lots have been sold, and, when the remainder have been disposed of, it is intended to spend the proceeds in beautifying the grounds, by laying out walks, planting trees and shrubbery and otherwise improving it. Nothing speaks more highly of a people than a loving care of their dead, and Tallula's pretty little cemetery bears many a token of affection to the loved and lost.

The village of Rushaway, once a thriving business place, almost the equal of what Tallula now is, has rushed away among the things that were. It was laid out by J. T. Rush and William Workman some time in the fifties, but just what time is not now remembered. The first store was kept by J. T. Rush and a man named Way. These two names, associated in business and combined together, gave the name of Rushaway to the village. F. S. Thrapp also had a store there. A post office was established, with Rush as Postmaster. When the railroad was built, it missed the town a few miles, and on the laying-out of Tallula, a portion of the place rushed to Tallula, and the remainder to Ashland. The post office was moved to Tallula, and its name changed to its new location. The proprietors of the railroad, it is said, would have run their road through the village, if they had received the proper encouragement, but the people of Rushaway, believing that the road would be compelled to come that way, stood upon their dignity and even refused to give the right of way, save at the highest market value. As a consequence, the road was located elsewhere, and Rushaway was left out in the cold. The completion of the road sealed their doom, and, as already stated, a part of the business men removed to Ashland, and the others to Tallula. At present, there is nothing left to designate the spot. The original site of the town is a flourishing farm and orchard, and the passing strangers would be surprised to learn that the place was once a thriving village.

ATHENS PRECINCT.

The year immediately succeeding the admission of Illinois Territory to a position among the sisterhood of states, immigration commenced to flow steadily into the Sangamon country, and during the following half-decade quite a number of settlements were formed within the present limits of Menard County. Settlements, cotemporaneous with those at Clary's Grove, which are recorded as the first made in the county, were begun in the present precinct of Athens. But first as to its position and topography. It is situated in the extreme southeastern portion of the county, and is bounded on the north by Indian Creek and Sugar Grove Precincts, east and south by Logan and Sangamon Counties, respectively, and west by the Sangamon River and Petersburg Precincts. In shape, it very closely resembles the capital letter L, being ten miles along its northern boundary, by two and one-half on the east, and five and one-half on the west. The surface is pretty nearly equally divided between woodland and prairie. Congressionally, the precinct is included in Townships 17 and 18 north, Ranges 4, 5 and 6 west of the Third Principal Meridian. The northern half of this section is far better adapted to purposes of tillage and pasturage than the southern. The soil is of the finest quality, and yields abundant harvests of the various cereals commonly cultivated in this latitude. Handsome and costly private residences, such as are seen mostly in the suburbs of populous cities, are not infrequently met with in traveling through this part, and these, along with the finely cultivated farms which they adorn, bespeak the success which has attended those who were fortunate enough to secure a firm footing here in an early day. Nearly the entire surface is sufficiently elevated and rolling to obviate the necessity of artificial drainage. The timber area is confined to the western portion, along Indian Creek and the Sangamon. The west and middle fork of Fancy Creek crosses the eastern portion, and affords drainage to a vast area of the prairie portion of the precinct. Indian Creek flows in a general western direction through the northwest part, and with streams of lesser importance on the west side, all tributary to the Sangamon, drains effectually the woodland district. The Springfield & North-Western Railroad crosses it in a general northwestern direction. Having taken this somewhat cursory glance at the topography of this section, we will next direct

our attention to its

EARLY SETTLEMENTS.

As was the unvarying custom, these were made in the edge of the timber, and not far distant from the water-courses. And here, upon the very threshold of our investigation, we are environed with difficulties. To designate any one of the earliest settlers as being the first, would be to assume a risk that we do not feel disposed to take upon our shoulders. A number came in at so

nearly the same date, and the testimony is so evenly balanced in making each first, that we are rather inclined to think that that honor cannot, at this late date, with safety, be accorded to any single individual. Among the earliest, however, we may chronicle the arrival of Robert White and William B. Short. Both were from Green County, Ky., and settled in the northeastern part of the precinct, in Indian Point timber. They are said to have staked off their claims. and commenced their improvements in the fall of 1819. Short settled near the creek, while White laid his claim a short distance north and west of him. The claims first staked off they improved and afterward entered, and these they continued to hold during their lifetime. Short died in 1863, and was buried at the old Lebanon Cemetery, near his place of residence. He was the "most married" man in the entire community, as he plighted his love at the nuptial altar no less than five times. White's decease occurred a few months ago, he having lived to a ripe old age. The old homesteads are owned and occupied by James C. Short and R. F. White, sons of the early pioneers. An elm tree, bearing the initials "W. B. S.," yet stands not far distant from the family residence, and marks the corner of the Short claim made in that early day. The same fall, or possibly in the early spring of 1820, Joseph Smith, who came from the southern part of Kentucky, made a claim on the south side of Indian Point timber. Smith was a wagon-builder by trade, and, as he had a shop at his residence in quite an early day, it was, beyond question, the first in the precinct. He improved the farm now owned by Alfred Turner. He died a number of years ago, and lies buried at Indian Point Cemetery. William Holland, a brother-in-law of Smith, came from Ohio and laid a claim, also on the south side of the creek. Holland was a blacksmith, and, like Smith, was the first mechanic of his kind in this entire section of the country. He was appointed by the Government blacksmith to the Kickapoo Indians in this section, and received for his services $500 per annum. Some years later, by order of the Government, he went to Peoria, or Fort Clark, as it then was, where he was similarly employed for some time. He finally moved to Washington, in Tazewell County, where he died several years ago. Some of his descendants are still living in and around the city. Matthew Rogers, from Otsego County, N. Y., built a log cabin one mile north and east of the present village of Athens. This he did not occupy, however, until the spring of 1821. Four years later, the claim was surveyed, and as soon as it came into market, he entered quite a body of land. The closing years of his life were spent in the village of Athens, where he closed a long and well-spent life in 1847. Three of his children are yet residents of the precinct-Henry C., its oldest citizen, Mrs. Amsberry Rankin and Mrs. Harry Riggin. The life of Mr. Rogers was so prominently connected with the early settlement of this section, that he seems worthy of more than a passing notice. He is a descendant from the same stock with the celebrated John Rogers, who was burned at the stake, a martyr to his devotion to religious principles. He married Anna, daughter

of Timothy and Miriam Lee Morse, through whom the family is connected with the late Professor S. F. B. Morse, the illustrious inventor of the electric telegraph. While in New York, Matthew Rogers occupied a prominent position in the community, and was a colonel of militia. The family emigrated to Illinois in 1818, but so tedious and slow were the means of travel in those early days, that, leaving home in September, they did not reach Troy until the following February. He built a frame barn in 1825 or 1826, and this is said to be the first frame building erected in the State north of the Sangamon River. He established the first nursery in the same limits, and kept the first post office. In the fall of 1819, Thomas Primm came from St. Clair County, and laid a claim southeast of where Athens now stands. After taking the preliminary steps necessary to secure his claim, he returned to his family. He returned in the summer of 1820, and raised a crop, but did not bring his family until the fall following. On his first visit, he sold the animal on which he rode, to Stephen England, in payment for which England was to build him a cabin and make a stipulated amount of rails. His cabin was built in 1819, but was not occupied till the fall of 1820. The family of John Primm, his brother, was here in the summer of 1820. The advent of the Primm family to Illinois dates back to a very early day. John, the father of Thomas and John above mentioned, came from the Old Dominion to St. Clair County in 1802. The date of coming on their mother's side reaches even farther back. Mrs. Primm was a daughter of Abram Stallings, who came down the Ohio River from Virginia. and settled in the present bounds of St. Clair County in 1796. Their father, with his three brothers, William, James and Thomas, were soldiers in the Revolutionary struggle, and fought in Washington's command. Thomas Primm died at his home, near Athens, in May, 1856, at the age of seventy-four. Three of his sons still reside in the precinct, viz.: William, Dr. Thomas L. and Abraham. Daniel, Ninian, James and John died after arriving at manhood, each having acquired considerable property. The sons of John still living are Elisha, John and Enoch. The settlements now mentioned were the very first made in what is now Athens Precinct. Orimal Clark laid a claim on the site of the village of Athens as early as 1820. He did not remain long before he sold out to Rev. John Overstreet, and moved to Fancy Creek, below Williamsville. He finally moved to Springfield, where he died a number of years ago. A number were added to the citizenship of the precinct during the year 1820. Martin Higgins, John Moore, a Mr. Terry, William Armstrong, James Haynes and John Good, all came during the last-mentioned year. Higgins was from New York, and was a son-in-law of Matthew Rogers. He settled the farm on which William Primm now resides, and which, in an early day, he sold to his father, Thomas Primm. Higgins next located south of Indian Creek, and continued to live there until the date of his decease. Moore and Terry were both from Vermont, and settled at Indian Point. Moore was a cabinet-maker by trade, and had the first cabinet-shop in this section. Terry and his wife were