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TWO
horses bearing two brothers rode into the little
village of Decatur one summer day in 1839.
The two men had heard that a railroad to pass
through the village had been surveyed, and that
the town was likely to become a place of
importance. They decided to come and see,
and, if they thought advisable, to invest some
money in government land hereabouts.
The two brothers were George Westcott
Powers and Samuel St. John Powers.
They had ridden here all the way on horseback
from Mobile, Ala., although their native state
was New York. Coming from Alabama, they
journeyed through Kentucky and Tennessee, and
crossed the Ohio river at Shawneetown.
The elder brother, George W. Powers,
invested in land, and made all arrangements for
building a home upon it. Then he returned
to Alabama. He had a double reason for
returning to that state. One was to look
after his business affairs there, since he had
decided to locate in Decatur, and the other was
to get married and bring his bride back with
him.
He left in charge of his brother Samuel
the task of seeing that the house was built.
The main part was of brick, and this was the
first brick house in the county outside of
Decatur. It was Mr. Powers'
intention to build entirely of brick, but it had
been impossible to secure enough brick, and it
was necessary to use lumber for a part of the
structure. In that day brick had to be
hauled from a distance.
The wood used in the house was oak, hickory
and black walnut. The construction work
was done by Benjamin
Dillehut.
POWERS FARM HOME
An Indian trail had run through the Powers
land. Various articles of pottery,
vessels, arrowheads, and the like had been found
on the place.
Mr. Powers and Miss Almira Avery Giles
were married on April 27, 1840, Mrs. Powers
having been a teacher for several years n
Tuscaloosa, Ala. She was a graduate of the
Emma Willard seminary in Troy, N.Y.
Their wedding trip was the journey to their new
home in Illinois and their method of traveling a
double carriage drawn by a pair of dapple gray
horses. They were accompanied here by Mr.
Power's
mother, Mrs. Abigail H. Powers, and his
younger sister, Sarah Ann Powers.
It took thirty-nine days for the trip, the party
arriving in Decatur, June 4, 1840.1
Some interesting incidents of the childhood
days of Mrs. Powers have been told by her
daughter, Mrs. Sarah Powers Durfee. One of
them she describes as follows:
"Almira Avery Giles was born at East
Charlemont, Mass., March 3, 1818. Her
birth, with two teeth, and a veil over her face,
caused the superstitious to attach more
importance to her than to many others.
Almira was a second child, first daughter of
Almira Avery and Dr. John Giles.
When Almira was five years old a relative, who
had quite a large family of boys, came to visit
this family, and the mother was so pleased with
Almira that she besought the child's mother to
let her take her home for a visit.
"With the same pride and care of the mothers
of the present day, and with much more
difficulty, the mother, Almira, made her ready,
and the child returned with the guests to their
home. In a few months, letters were
written for the child's return, but receiving no
reply, a member of the family took the journey
and found the family had moved 'west' leaving no
trace. The parents were in great distress
and for three years lived in uncertainty.
"At that time, Jonathan Avery, the
grandfather, a wounded Revolutionary war
soldier, had to attend to some business and
started on horseback for east New York, "West',
as it was called. After traveling a number
of days he saw some children by the roadside and
recognized Almira, although tanned very
brown and in an untidy condition. He
called her by name and she answered.
Without further delay, he lifted her onto his
horse, turned back, and in due time delivered
her to her parents.
"There was great rejoicing in his daughter's
household when Jonathan returned with the
lost Almira. The mother gave her
face, ands and feet a thorough soaking in
buttermilk, as she was so tanned one would
scarcely know her to be a white child. She
had been gone three years, and was eight years
old. As she had not been sent to school,
she did not even know her alphabet."
Almira started to school at once.
At the age of fourteen she entered an academy at
Bennington, Vt., later going to Troy to enter
the Emma Willard seminary. One of her
studies there was French and as it happened that
her roommate was a French girl, she became
proficient in that language.
It was through another seminary friend that
she met her future husband. Sarah Ann
Powers, sister of George W. Powers, lived
near the seminary and was a student there, and
the two girls became fast friends. When
George came home from college on a visit, he was
introduced to Miss Giles. The
friendship resulted in their marriage several
years later at Tuscaloosa, Ala., after which
they came in Decatur to make their home.
Mr. Powers contracted for a mail route for
four years, and employed four young men to carry
the mail. One was his brother, Samuel,
another was John Harrell, another Baxter
Hunting.
The second year after the Powerses
came, the corn crop was enormous. But
there was no market for it, outside of St. Louis
and Chicago, and the market was too low to make
it profitable to haul the grain that distance.
Only three cents a bushel was offered. So
a lot of splendid Macon county corn that year,
instead of being sold, was used as fuel in the
fireplace.
Macon county's good soil was producing other
things besides corn. The pumpkins grew so
large that only three could be put in a wagon
bed. With two more resting on top, one had
a big load of pumpkins. Wild strawberries
were so plentiful on the Powers land that
after the horses had been walking through them,
it looked as though their feet were bleeding.
Mr. Powers became well acquainted with
the land in this part of the state and located
all the land which his brother, William,
purchased, as well as the tracts he himself
bought. William Powers was then in
Havana, Cuba, and sent money to his brother in
Decatur to invest in land.
In later years, William Powers, who
was unmarried, located in Bloomington, but he
spent much time in Decatur and erected a number
of buildings here, one of them a business
structure of three stories, in the 100 block
East Main street, south side.
At the time it was erected it was the most
pretentious business building Decatur had.
It is still in use.
Chauncey M. Powers, another brother,
settled northwest of Decatur, near Boiling
Springs, on a farm. After his death, his
family moved to Tennessee.
George W. Powers was elected to the
legislature in 1844 and served in that capacity
until his death, Sept. 16, 1849. Before
his death he had been urged to run for the
United States senate. Mr. Powers was the
second attorney admitted to the bar in Macon
county.
His business interests demanded his presence
in Decatur to such, an extent that the family
left the farm home and moved in to Decatur in
the fall of 1847. Mr. Powers bought
property on North Main street, and present site
of the Decatur public library and five acres to
the north. It was necessary to remodel the
house on the property, and the family lived for
two years on Wood street, moving to the
remodeled home on North Main in Marcy, 1849.2
Mr. Powers had his office in the brick
court house on Lincoln square.
After the removal of the G. W. Powers
family to Decatur, the farm home continued to be
occupied by Samuel
Powers, who had married Caroline Giles,
sister of Mrs. Powers. Sarah Ann
Powers, young sister of Mr. Powers,
had married Rev. Fielding N. Ewing,
prominent Presbyterian minister. Both
these weddings had taken place at the G. W.
Powers country home. Rev. and Mrs. F.
N. Ewing
in later years came to Decatur to live.
They erected their home on Ewing avenue in 1867.
Mr. Ewing
died in 1880 and Mrs. Ewing in 1902.
G. W. Powers's death occurred in the
North Main street home just six months after the
family had become settled there. Mrs.
Powers, left with three youngsters to
support, began to teach, opening a school in her
own home. Later she taught in the Masonic
building and still later in a brick house on
West North street.
She was the first president of the Ladies'
Library association, the forerunner of the
Decatur public library, the story of which is
told in another chapter. Mrs. Powers
passed away April 2, 1900.
Samuel Powers was a great lover of the
outdoors and of horses, and as a breeder of fine
horses he became known over the country.
For some years he made his home on the farm.
Decatur has long since guilt up to, and away
beyond that farm home. Its location now
would be described as the 1500 block East Locust
street.
SAMUEL POWERS
When Samuel Powers moved in to
Decatur, he built a home at the south end of
Powers lane, choosing the location because of
the seven fine hickory trees on the hill.
The house is still standing at 595 Powers lane.
Mr. Powers was in California during the gold
rush, and brought back thousands of dollars in
gold. He passed away in 1885, and his wife
in 1909.
ORLANDO POWERS HOME
Orlando Powers, another brother,
visited here several times before he located in
Decatur. In 1849 he brought his bride, who
had been Charlotte Given, for a visit at
the G. W. Powers home. They arrived
three weeks after the death of G. W. Powers,
not knowing until their arrival in Decatur that
the brother had died. The next summer they
moved to a house at Franklin and Wood streets,
the present site of the Moose club. Later
Mr. Powers built a mill on South Franklin
street. He was in the milling business for
some years, ran an abstract office, conducted a
general merchandise store and later a shoe
business. For ten years he lived in
Jacksonville, then returned to Decatur and made
his home at 317 West Decatur street. It is
now the home of W. M. Wood.
As a business man he was extremely
successful. He was given credit one time
for helping to save the day during a run on a
bank, by offering to give his personal note for
whatever amount any depositor wished to
withdraw.
Mr. Powers in 1889 built the Powers
grand opera house, which for years was Decatur's
popular theater. After it burned in 1914,
the Hotel Orlando, named for him, was
erected by his children on the site of the opera
house.
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1
When Mrs. Almira Avery
Powers first came to Decatur with a pretty
peaches and cream complexion, she was suspected
(Horrors, must we tell it!) of painting her
cheeks. The women of the community just
had to know!
So one day they invited Mrs.
Powers and her
sister-in-law, Sarah Ann, to a quilting bee,
probably their first social event in their new
home. Before the noon meal was served, one
of the ladies asked the two newcomers if they
did not want to wash, and conducted them to a
place where a wash basin and towel had been
provided. Having been warned beforehand
that they should adapt themselves to the customs
of their new home, the two women obligingly
"washed up" before sitting down to the meal.
Later on, a neighbor confidentially told Mrs.
Powers that the women
wanted to find out if she painted her cheeks,
and after she had washed her face that day of
the quilting bee they had examined the towel!
2
The homes of George W.
Powers introduced several innovations in the
way of house hold equipment to Macon county.
Mr. Powers brought home the first cook stove.
The first lard lamp, bought in Springfield, was
another innovation. It was a glass bowl on
a metal base, standing on a slab of marble.
The globe was of ground glass, with a grape
design. My, how everybody admired the
beautiful light made by this new-fangled lamp!
This was something different from tallow
candles.
Still more modern became the
Powers home when Mr. Powers
brought home the first wall paper! The
design for that paper is still in possession of
the family. It is a delicate scroll, with
a bird perched on top, on the background of
white ivory satin. Mr.
Powers hung the paper
himself, and naturally it made the house very
attractive.
The home also boasted the first "bought" carpet.
Other new things were the window shades painted
by Mrs. Powers.
The material used was muslin.
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