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River.  The latter, before the advent of the "pale face" marred its virgin beauty, was covered with primeval forests, and to the west the prairies stretched away in nature's waving meadows.  Upon the brakes and hills and bluffs rising form the river grew giant trees, which for centuries had defied the fury of the tempest.

SETTLEMENT.

     The first white settlers in Morgan Township are supposed to have been John Caldwell and his son, who bore the same name, and John Kennedy.  They came from Fayette County, Ky., near the city of Lexington, and settled in the timbered portion of the township in 1830-31.  The Caldwells lived hereabout twenty years, when they removed to Edgar County, where the elder died several years ago, but his son is still living in that county.  This is about all that is known of the Caldwells at the present day.  Kennedy remained but a short time, and moved back to Kentucky, where he resided several years, when he returned to Illinois, and died a few years ago in the city of Charleston.
     Aaron Collins is another of the early settlers of Morgan Township, and is supposed by some to have settled here previous to the Caldwells and Kennedy, but after this long lapse of years it is hard to say which of these families was the first to pitch their tents in this section.  Collins came from North Carolina

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in 1830-31, and built the house where his son-in-law, Reese McAllister now lives.  He has been dead a number of years, but a son, Aaron Collins, Jr., still lives in the township.
     Daniel R. and David R. McAllister, the latter usually called Reese McAllister, came to Morgan Township in 1833.  They were from Indiana here, but were originally from Alabama.  When moving to this place they stopped in Ashmore Township, where they remained from spring until fall, when they removed to this township.  Reese has resided here ever since, upon the place where his father-in-law, Aaron Collins, first settled, and Daniel, to the time of his death, which took place in 1871.  John Skidmore came from Indiana to this settlement in 1831-32.  He lived here in quiet until the breaking-out of the gold fever, when he started for California, but died on the way, and never reached the land of gold.  Gibson Gastin came also from Indiana about the same time Skidmore came, and after remaining in the neighborhood a number of years, removed to Taxes, since which time all trace of him is lost.
     David Morgan, for whom the township was named, settled near what was called Greasy Point, Apr. 20, 1834.  He was originally from Washington County, Ky., near Springfield, the county seat, but removed to Vermilion County, Ind., where he remained several years before coming to this neighborhood.  He died in 1860, but has two sons, William and James Morgan, still living in the township, splendid representatives of the honest old pioneer, who has passed away.  The latter still lives on the old homestead, where his father settled nearly half a century ago.  Benjamin Clarke came from Kentucky about 1830-31, and died here several years ago.  His wife is still living, and is the only one of the early pioneers who came here a grown-up person that survives.  A son, Jackson Clarke, and several married daughters, live in the township still, and another son lives in Kansas.
     Gowin Adkins, and Abraham Adkins, a cousin, settled in the town in 1833-34.  The father of the latter came with him, and was of the same name.  They are all dead; Gowin died many years ago, but had a son and daughter.  The former went into the army during the late war, and died while in the service of his country.  Moses Golliday came from Pennsylvania, and settled in the township a year or two before the Adkinses.  He bought out Caldwell; David, a brother, came about the same time, and both he and Moses are dead.  John Golliday, another brother, is still living.
     Isaac Craig, an esteemed citizen of Charleston Township, was an early settler of Morgan.  He came here in 1835.  He was originally from Kentucky, and came to Illinois with his father in 1828, first settling in Clark County.  Isaac Craig remained a resident of Morgan Township about twenty years, and then removed to Edgar County, where he resided for fourteen years, and then removed to Charleston, where he still lives, just north of the city.  He was in the Black Hawk war - volunteered in one of the Clark County companies, but

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having friends in Edgar County, got a transfer to Captain Brimberry's company of Edgar County.  An early settler of the name of Johnson, located on the creek, but he was a "bird of passage," and did not remain long, hence not much is known of him.
     The Chastenes were rather noted characters in this settlement, in an early day.  Mr. Morgan bought a claim from one of them (there were two of them, Jesse and William Chastene), upon which there was a cabin, and twenty-five apple-trees which the old fellow had planted out.  Mr. Morgan closed up the trade, and went to Palestine and formally entered the land.  He then went to his home in Indiana, to move his family here, and when he arrived, old Chastene had dug up every apple-tree and carried them off to some new claim.  These Chastenes are the amateur pork-packers alluded to in the general county history, and from whose questionable operations the little stream of Greasy Creek obtained its classic name.
     Alexander Montgomery came from Indiana to this township.  He was originally from Alabama, and was a brother-in-law to the McAllisters, and settled here the fall after they came to the town.  He died here years ago.  These are all of the earliest settlers in Morgan Township.  Next is rather a later era, and includes such as John Winkelblack, Daniel Beck, Thomas West, Irwin Digby, Cooper Wallace, Y. E. Winkler.  Winkelblack and Beck came from Virginia; the latter is dead, but Winkelblack is still living. Thomas West was from Vermilion County, Ind., and came some years after the Morgans.  He now lives in Douglas County.  Digby came from the same section, and still lives in Morgan Township.  So, also, was Wallace from Vermilion County, Ind., and his father, now living in Douglas County, was originally from Kentucky.  Cooper Wallace has been dead a number of years.  Winkler came from Indiana, but was originally from Kentucky also.  He is still living.  This concludes the list of the early settlers, so far as could be obtained.

GENERAL FEATURES.

     When the first white people came to Morgan Township, there were plenty of Indians in this section.  They once had a camp not far from where Reese McAllister now lives, and there are traces of it still to be seen there.  The likeness of a man cut in the bark of a tree is still visible, though it shows every appearance of having been executed years and years ago.  Many places have been noticed in this immediate neighborhood, supposed to be Indian graves, though, so far as we could learn, none of them have ever been examined to see whether they contain anything like human skeletons.  A year or two ago, Henry Curtis, a son of Samuel Curtis, was one day "digging fish-bait," and dug up a human skull, and, upon examination, a few other bones were found, and rocks were laid in order, as though intended to form a rude sort of covering, ere the dirt was put on the corpse.  But whether this was an Indian, or some lone white man, who had been murdered* in this wild spot, will probably never

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     * The skull had a hole in the back part of it, resembling a bullet-hole.

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known.  But the evidence was pretty strong that it was a human being, either white, red or black, and had been carefully buried there, near the banks of the Embarrass River.
     But, although Indians were plenty here when the whites first came, they were not at all troublesome, but were quite friendly toward the white people.  They would furnish them with game, and hence proved of some benefit, at least.  But long years have passed since the wild yell of the savage disturbed the echoes of  this little community.  But few are still left that can remember them as residents of Morgan, and soon, "Lo! the poor Indian!" will live only in fireside tales.
     Wolves and panthers, with occasionally a bear, inhabited this country forty or fifty years ago, and snakes were a spontaneous growth.  Rattlesnakes were also very plenty.  Mr. Morgan and his sons killed ninety rattlesnakes in one summer, on a ten-acre lot, and it as not a good season for rattlesnakes, either.  Wolf-hunts were common, and their scalps commanded a bounty.  A number of neighbors would band together, with dogs and guns, and the havoc made among the hateful little pests would sometimes be terrific.  A man could pay his taxes in scalps, and, if he had an overplus, could pass them over to the Treasurer and get a county order for the balance due him.
     We don't known whether the same custom prevailed here, or in Coles County, during the circulation of wolf-scalps as currency, that we have heard of in another section of the State, viz., that a man could go into a "grocery" and get a glass of whisky, throw down a wolf-scalp, and the grocery-keeper would give him back a coon-skin, or two opossum-skins, in change.  But prairie wolves, like the poor savage, have gone West to grow up with the country and the grasshoppers.
     The winter of the deep snow is remembered by the few old settlers still living in this part of the country.   Though this fall of snow was but little over half as deep in this latitude as in the northern part of the State, yet it is acknowledged as the deepest ever witnessed here.  It fell in December, 1830, and remained on the ground until the next March.  Here it was only about two feed deep, but in the northern part of Illinois it was four feet on the level prairies.  It as a hard time on stock, and on people, too, in a newly-settled country.  Many wild beasts died from starvation while it lasted, and domestic animals had nearly as hard a time here, for, at that early day, the few people then in Coles County had not been in it long enough to have a surplus of hay and corn.
     As a sample of the hard times the pioneers had to undergo.  Mr. Morgan informed us that he had known thousands of bushels of corn to sell at 8 cents a bushel, an excellent cow and calf for $8, good horses for $40, and what from 25 cents to 37½ cents a bushel.  And, for years, the prices ranged at these figures, and, even then, it was almost impossible to get money for anything one had to sell, for there was but little of that commodity in the country.

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     But these hard times are all past now, and Morgan Township is, to-day, as prosperous a community as one will find in Coles County.  True, we still find a few of the primitive log cabins of the earlier days, but they are not used as a matter of necessity, but from choice.  They have become endeared to their owners, and are cherished as sweet mementoes of the past.  As a rule, Morgan Township has excellent residences, well-improved farms, good roads, and, indeed, everything indicate a prosperous community.

BIRTHS, DEATHS AND MARRIAGES.

     Who was the first person born in Morgan Township is not now remembered.  The first death is supposed to have been the wife of Aaron Collins, who died in the early days of the settlement of Morgan, or Greasy Creek, as the settlement was called.  A child of Jefferson Florer was the first party buried in the Greasy Point Cemetery, near where James Morgan lives.  This is one of the prettiest little burying-grounds we have noticed in the county.  Located on high ground, and kept in excellent order, with many pretty marble slabs and some quite elegant monuments, it is, altogether, a lovely place.
     The first marriage in the neighborhood was Clara Collins and Thomas Creighton, and they were married by David Morgan, a Justice of the Peace.  The population of the township shows that the good old custom, begun thus early, has been kept up, and that there has been "marrying and giving in marriage," since this first couple stepped off the shores of single blessedness.
     Morgan Township has never had any mills, except one or two portable sawmills in the timbered sections along the Embarrass River; one of these, however, we believe, once added a set of buhrs for grinding corn.  Mr. James Morgan says that, when his father first settled in the township, they used to go to the Wabash, and to Decatur, to mill; that two or three neighbors would join together, and, hitching three or four yoke of oxen to a wagon, would start off to mill, and sometimes be absent a week or ten days.  Milling is now done at Oakland and Charleston, and sometimes at mills in Douglas County.
     There was no blacksmith-shop in Morgan Township at a sufficiently early day to be made a matter of history.  That useful trade is pretty well represented at the present day, however, and shops are to be found in every neighborhood. In the early day, the blacksmithing was done by the workmen in the Oakland settlement
     David Morgan was the first Justice of the Peace in Morgan Township, and when the county adopted township organization.  Nathan Thomas was elected the first Supervisor, and was succeeded the next year by John Winkleblack.  The present Supervisor is J. B. Williams; J. L. Rardin and Jesse Hudson, Justices of the Peace.

SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES

     The first schoolhouse was built in Morgan Township about 1839 - 40, but who taught the first school in it cannot be told at this late day.  There were

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schools in the settlement, however, before this house was built, but until it was erected, the settlers cabins were utilized as temples of learning.  And as this is but a fractional town, it has but three schoolhouses within its limits, viz., Winkelblack's, Hazel Dell and California Schoolhouses.  This results from the fact that many of the school districts are partnership districts with Seven Hickory Township, and with Sargent Township, in Douglas County.  A strong effort is being made to get a new district in the northeast part of the township, a move that it seems should terminate successfully, for there is certainly abundant territory and population for a district and a house in this section.
     There are two church edifices in the township.  The first sermon preached, was by the Methodists. The Revs. Fox and McCane were early in the field, but, we believe, never established a permanent society.  The first Cumberland Presbyterian ministers were Revs. James Ashmore and Hill.  The Cumberland Presbyterian Union Church is located in the north part of the town, and was built in 1856-57.  The society was organized in May, 1842, by Rev. James Ashmore, at the house of David Morgan.  Preaching was held at the house of Mr. Morgan and at Aaron Collins', until the church was built.  The present membership is 110, under the pastorate of Rev. J. P. Campbell.  A Sunday school is maintained during the summer season, with an average attendance (last summer) of sixty-three children, under the superintendence of James Morgan, who is, also. Clerk of the Church Session.
     There is also a Cumberland Presbyterian organization at the California Schoolhouse, but they have no regular preaching at the present time, although the organization is still kept up, also a Sunday school during the summer season.
     Salem Missionary Baptist Church is in the extreme southern part of the town.  It is a substantial frame building, and was put up about fifteen years ago, at a cost of $1,000.  Rev. Mr. Thornton is the Pastor, and has a flourishing congregation for a country church.  A Sunday school is carried on during the summer season.
     Our readers will notice on some of the old maps a little place in Morgan Township called Curtisville.  Notwithstanding its dignified name, it was never much of a village.  A small store, a blacksmith-shop, with a "neighborhood " post office, comprised all of Curtisville.  The store was kept by a man named Cutler Mitchell, and the post office was simply an office for the convenience of the neighbors, and whoever went to town brought out the mail-bag.  It was not a regular office, nor was the mail brought regularly, but as it suited the convenience of some one who had other business at town.
     Rardin Post Office is much the same kind of a place that Curtisville once was.  We say once was, for what little there was of the place, has passed away, and there is nothing left to tell where it once stood but a dwelling and a blacksmith-shop.  Rardin is on Section 4, and consists of a small store and a

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blacksmith-shop, together with a post office.  Samuel Rardin keeps both the post office and the store.  This little place and Curtisville, are the nearest that this neighborhood has ever approached to having a village in its midst.
     Morgan Township is Democratic in politics; in fact, it may be termed a Democratic stronghold.  It has always been Democratic, from the earliest period of its existence to the present day.  During the late war, Morgan did its part nobly, filling every call without a draft.  But after all these years, it is impossible to obtain the names of those who participated in the long and sanguinary struggle.  We shall not attempt to do so, but pass from the subject with a well-merited tribute to their bravery.
     This township contains but little of special interest to the historian.  Without villages, towns or cities, railroads, mills or manufactories, there is but little to write about, after the settlement of the town is described, unless we go off into a panegyric on its honest, honorable and upright citizens.  This, however, is not our purpose, as the duty of an historian is to deal in facts, and not in fulsome flattery of persons or things.  And thus we close our chapter on Morgan Township, with the statement that it is one of the most prosperous in this county, and is inhabited by people who "move on in the even tenor of their way,'' quietly attending to their own business, and not meddling with that of others.

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