THE first time that the eye of civilized man ever rested on the soil of the present county of Madison was in the year 1673.  Marquete and Joliet, on their voyage of exploration, reached the waters of the Mississippi on the seventeenth of June, and a few days afterward their canoes were gliding past the shores of the district of country embracing what is now Madison county.  the sensations of these explorers are given by Marquette in this language:

     "As we coasted along rocks frightful for their height and length, we saw two monsters painted on one of the rocks, which startled us at first, and upon which the boldest In-

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dian dare not gaze long.  They are as large as a calf, with horns on the head like a deer, a frightful look, red eyes, bearded like a tiger, the face somewhat like a man's, the body covered with scales, and the tail so long that it twice makes the turn of the body, passes over the head and down between the legs, ending at last in a fish's tail.  Green, red, and a kind of black are the colors employed.  On the whole of these two monsters are so well painted that we could not believe any Indian to have been the designer, as good painters in France would find it hard to do so well; besides this they are painted so high upon the rock that it is hard to get conveniently near to paint them.  As we were discoursing of them, sailing gently down a beautiful still clear water, we heard the noise of the rapid, into which we were about to fall.  I have seen nothing more frightful; a mass of large trees, entire with branches, real floating islands, came rushing from the mouth of the river Pekitanoui (the Missouri,) so impetuously that we could not, without great danger expose ourselves to pass across.  the agitation was so great that the water was all muddy, and could not get clear."
     Such were the

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PIONEER AMERICAN SETTLEMENTS.

     The district of country comprising the present county of Madison was explored by the Rev. David Badgley, and some others, in the year 1799.  The luxuriant growth of grass and vegetation, evidence of the great fertility of the soil, reminded the explorers of the richness of the country, the best of the land of Egypt, in which the children of Israel had possessions, "and grew and multiplied exceedingly," and they called it Goshen.  David Badgley was a Baptist preacher who came to Illinois in 1796, and settled in St. Clair county, a few miles north of Belleville, where he died in 1824.  He was never a resident of this county.  The first American settler to push beyond the frontier, and plant himself within the limits of what is now Madison county, was Ephraim Conner.  This was in the year 1800, he built his rude cabin in the northwest corner of the present Collinsville township, but whether dissatisfied with his isolated position, or prompted by a roving spirit, peculiar to the early pioneers, he sought some now "lodge in the vast wilderness."  The next year, 1801, he disposed of his improvement to Samuel Judy, who became a permanent and valued citizen of the flourishing Goshen Settlement, which the rapidly arriving immigrants in a few years brought into existence.
     The Judy family is conspicuous in the early settlement of Illinois.  Jacob Judy, the father of Samuel Judy, was born in Switzerland, and came to America when six years old.  He was married in Frederick county, Maryland, and at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, "worked for the public," as an early chronicler says, "at the gunsmith business, for many years, and received nothing for it."  He started for the frontier regions of the west in the eyar 1786, with his family than consisting of three children, and descerded the Ohio river to Kentucky.  On his way, at the mouth of the Scioto, he heard Indians on the bank making noises to decoy him to the land, but he kept straight on his way down the river.  His daughter, Nancy, then a girl of eighteen, steered the boat while the others rowed, with all possible speed, past the dangerous locality.  He remained two years in Kentucky, near Louisville, and then set out for Illinois, making a voyage down the Ohio in a flat boat.  The hostile Indians obliged him to seek protection up Cash river, in the present county of Alexander, where he remained seven weeks, until a boat could come from Kaskaskia to his relief.  He lived at Kaskaskia four years; in 1792 he moved to the New Design settlement in the present county of Monroe; and in 1794 settled in Monroe county where he died in the year 1807.  The place where he lived was widely known as Judy's mill.  Samuel Judy, his only son, the pioneer of the family in Madison county, was born on the nineteenth of August, 1773.  He married Margaret Whiteside, a sister of Gen. Samuel Whiteside.  In the early Indian troubles in Monroe county, Judy, then a young man of only twenty,

     The first settlement on the Six Mile prairie was made in the year 1801.  A family named Wiggins settled here, and with them lived an unmarried man, Patrick Hannibery.
     In the early history of Madison county the most numerous family were the Gillhams.  Thomas Gillham, the first of the family to come to America, was a native of Ireland.

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He settled in Virginia about the year 1730, and afterward moved to South Carolina.  He had eleven children, seven sons and four daughters: Ezekiel, Charles, Thomas, William, James, John, Isaac, Nancy, Mary, Sallly, and Susannah.  The original stock was Irish Presbyterian, though the descendants are now mostly of the Methodist faith.
     The first of the family to behold the Illinois country was James Gillham, the fourth son of Thomas Gillham.  He came in the summer of the year 1794 in search of his wife  and children, who were then held captive by the Indians.  He had married Ann Barnett, in South Carolina, and at the close of the war of the Revolution moved to Kentucky.*  He conceived so favorable an opinion of Illinois that he made it his home  in 1897, first settling in the American Bottom below St. Louis, and at the beginning of the present century moving to what is now Madison county.  Congress, in 1815, gave to Mrs. Gillham one hundred and sixty acres of land at the head of Long Lake, in township four, range nine, in testimony of the hardship and sufferings she endured during her captivity among the Indians.  The children of James Gillham, were Samuel, Isaac, Jacob Clemons, James, Harvey, David M., Polly, Sally and Nancy.  Samuel settled in section fifteen of township four, range nine; and the other sons, Isaac, Jacob Clemons, James, Harvey and David M., all made homes for themselves in section four of the same township and range.  The descendants of the two youngest daughters now reside in the State of Mississippi.
     James Gillham wrote to his brothers in South Carolina of the advantages of the Illinois country, and his brother, Thomas, left South Carolina in the fall of the year 1799, and reached the end of his journey on the closing day of the eighteenth century - thus ready to begin the new century in the new western world.  Two other brothers, John and William, came to Illinois in the year 1802, both settling within the present boundaries of Madison county, and another brother, Isaac, followed a couple of years afterward.
     The oldest son of Thomas Gillham was Isham Gillham, sheriff of Madison county, from 1812 to 1818.  He first settled on a farm adjoining that of Colonel Samuel July, and in the spring of 1817 moved to the bank of the Mississippi, nearly opposite the mouth of the Missouri.  Another son, William, settled on a farm in the Ridge prairie, five miles east of Edwardsville.  One of the daughters, Violet, married Joshua Vaughn, and settled in the American Bottom; and another, Patsy, became the wife of Peter Hubbard, and moved to Bond county.
     William Gillham on coming to Illinois settled in the Six mile prairie, as early as 1820, or 1822; he moved to Jersey county.  His sons were John D. William, and Ezekiel.  William became a resident of Scott county, and the two others lived in Jersey county.  One of the daughters, Agnes,

---------------
      *One day in the month of June, 1790, while Mr. Gillham was plowing corn on his farm in Kentucky, and his son Isaac, then a small boy, was clearing away with a hoe the cods of which the plow might throw on the young stalks, a party of Kickapoo Indians stole up to the house, and captured Gilliam's wife and his three other children, whose ages ranged from four to twelve years.  The field in which Mr. Gillham was at work was at some distance from the house, and it was not for some time that he discovered the misfortune which had befallen his family.  In the meantime the Indians hurried away with their prisoners.  Mrs. Gillham was so alarmed at the sudden appearance of the savages that she lost her senses, and the first that she could recollect afterward was the voice of her oldest son, Samuel, saying "Mother, we are all prisoners."  The Indians ripped open the beds, turned out the feathers, and converted the ticks into sacks into which they placed clothing and such other articles as they could carry on their backs.  They then hurried off in the direction of the Kickapoo town, near the head waters of the Sangamon river in Illinois.  Their course avoided the settlements, and their anxiety to escape pursuit made them push forward without rest or food.  The savages hurried them forward with fierce looks and threatening gestures.  The children's feet became sore and bruised, and the mother tore her clothing to get rags in which to wrap them.  The Indians had with them a small quantity of jerked venison which they gave the children, but neither they nor the mother, had a particle of food, until one day after they had traveled some distance from the white settlements, the party made a halt, and two of their best hunters were dispatched to look for game.  Towards night they returned with one poor raccoon.  Mrs. Gillham, who was afraid that either the children would parish with hunger, or that the Indians would kill them to save them from starvation, afterward said that the sight of this one poor coon gave her more satisfaction at that time than any amount of wealth could furnish.  The coon was dressed by singing off the hair over a blazing fire, and after throwing away the contents of the intestines, in was chopped in pieces, and with head, bones, skin, and entrails, boiled in a kettle and made into a kind of soup.  The Indians and their captives sat around the kettle, and with bone spoons and forked sticks, obtained a scanty relief form starvation.
     They approached the Ohio river with great caution, fearful that they might be discovered by white people passing down the river.  They camped through the day in the thick wool near the site of the town of Hawesville, Kentucky, and made three rafts of dry logs, lashed together with thongs of red elm bark, and at night crossed the river in safety.  Once across the Ohio the Indians relaxed some of their caution, marched slower, and secured abundant food.  Keeping to the right of the white settlement at Vincennes, they crossed the Wabash below Terre Haute, and marching through the present counties of Clark, Coles and Macon in this State, finally reached the Indian town on Salt Creek, about twenty miles east of north from the present city of Springfield.
 

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Thus they began the new century in the new world.  James was here as before stated, and two others, John and William arrived in 1802, both settling within the present boundaries of Madison county.
     Charles, the first son, and his two eldest sisters remained in the old south state.  Ezekiel, the second son, raised a large family, four of whom emigrated to Illinois, namely, Charles, Mary, Ruth and Margaret.
     Charles, son of Ezekiel, was the father of Mrs. Lucretia, wife of the late Hon. J. T. Lusk, and grandfather to Capt. G. C. Lusk and Mrs. Sarah Torrence., residing in Edwardsville, where they were born.  Ezekiel was the grandfather of the late Thomas and Davidson Good.
     Thomas Gillham, the oldest of the second family, married a Miss McDaw and raised three sons, Isham, William and John  T.; and seven daughters, Jane, Margaret, Sally, Violet, Patsy and Agnes, several of whom either died young or never came to Illinois.
     Isham, the oldest son, married Ruth Vaughn.  Their family were Jonah K., Shadrach B., John, James Johnson, and a daughter Julia, all born and raised in Madison county.  Only one, J. J., is now living.  He now lives in Jersey county.  Isham first settled on a farm adjoining that of the late Samuel Judy, and, in April 1817, removed to the bank of the Mississippi river, nearly opposite the mouth of the Missouri.  He was Sheriff of the county from 1812 to 1818.
     William, the second son of Thomas Gillham, Jr., married Mary Anderson, and settled on a farm in Ridge prairie, five miles east of Edwardsville.  Their children were Evaline, Cyris, Isham, Valugand, Orsman.  I am not aware of any of this family residing in the county at present.  Vioet married Joshua Vaughn and settled on the American Bottom near the bluff.  Patsy married Peter Hubbard and moved to Bond county.  Agnes lived to be old and died single.  Of the remainder of the family I have no history.
     William, second son of Thomas Gillham, married Jane McDaw.  Their sons were John D., William and Ezekiel.  Their daughters were Agnes, Sally, Mary, Margaret, and Jane.  John D. has always lived in Jersey county; his sons Marcus and Andrew still reside there I believe.  William long since removed to Scott county.  Ezekiel also lived in Jersey county, and is the grandfather of the Rev. John D. Gillham, now of Belleville.  Agnes married John G. Lofton, and was the mother of the Rev. Thomas G. Lofton, the former owner of the great Orchard farm, four miles north of St. Louis on the Alton road.  John G. Lofton was one of the first judges of the Court of Common Pleas of Madison county.  Sally married a Mr. Waddle, raised four sons, named Alexander, Thomas, Andrew and William.
     After Mr. Waddle's death, she again married a Mr. Jarvis, and was the mother of John Wesley and Fletcher Jarvis, and a daughter Lucinda.  Although twice married afterward she had no more family.  She always resided in Madison county.
     Jane, the youngest daughter, married William Davidson, and was the mother of T. Sidney, now living near Venice, and Mr. Madison Davison, who settled a farm near the present residence of C. P. Smith in Fort Russell township, and died there in 1859 or '60.
     James Gillham, the third son of Thomas Gillham, Sr., and Miss Ann Barnett, a sister of Capt. Barnett of Revolutionary fame, was married in the state of South Carolina in 1770, and at the close of the war for Independence removed to Kentucky.
     Their children were as follows, viz.: Samuel, Isaac, Jacob Clemons, James Harvey, David, Polly, Sally and Nancy.  As before stated, Mr. Gillham first saw Illinois while in search of his captive family, and was so pleased with it that he determined to make it his future home, and did so from the summer of 1797, and in 1800 he settled in the American Bottom below St. Louis.  In the latter part of the same year

MORE OF THE GILLHAM FAMILY to come...................

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MONKS OF LA TRAPPE.

THE SETTLEMENTS, DURING THE WAR OF 1812 - 14.

INDIAN TROUBLES.

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WOOD RIVER MASSACRE.

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CITIZENS OF THE COUNTY IN 1815.

     A "list of persons subject to road labor," preserved in the county records, gives, doubtless, the names of the great portion of the adult male residents of the county at that time.†
     On the "public road leading from Edwardsville by Thomas Good's to Samuel Judys."  These lived south of Edwardsville in the present Edwardsville township: - William Sherone, John Robertson, sr., John Robertson, jr., James Roberson, Andrew Black, Charles Gillham, Francis Kirkpatrick, William Gillham, Thomas Good, James Good,  Ezekiel Good, William Tilford, Josias Randle, James Watson, Richard Wright, Joshua Dean, William Courtney (17).
     On the "public road, leading from the New Bridge on Cahokia creek near Edwardsville to where the said road crosses Indian creek."  These lived north-west of Edwardsville: - - Thomas Kirkpatrick, John Kirkpatrick, John  Newman, John Stout, Upton Smith, Richard Standford, Josiah Vaughan, William Montgomery, James Gillham, Andrew Dunagan, Ryderus Gillham, Ephraim Davison, Joseph White, John Hewitt, John Springer, John Fullmore, Silas Beasley, Field Bradshaw, Jones Bradshaw, Obadiah Bradshaw, William Lawless, Rowland Heritt, Michael Dodd.
     On the "public road leading from Edwardsville to Isom Gillham's bridge on Cahokia creek," James Kirkpatrick overseer: - Benjamin Stedmans, Beniah Roberson,‡ John McKinney, Henry Bonner, John W. Wright, James

----------
     * From an article furnished by E. K. Preuitt.
     † The spelling is given as found in the record, much of it obviously incorrect.
     ‡ Properlly spelled Robinson.

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SUBSEQUENT SETTLEMENTS.

     After the war of 1812-14 was ended, the settlements in the county rapidly increased.  A treaty of peace with the Indian tribes of the Northwest was concluded in October 1815.  Emigrants from older States, who had been deterred from coming to Illinois by reason of the Indian hostilities, now poured into the country, and soon took possession of the hitherto unsettled parts of the county.
     In the year 1813, Major Isaac H. Ferguson built the first house ever erected on the Marine prairie, but after building it, did not dare to live there for some time on account of the hostile Indians.  Major Ferguson is spoken of by an old resident as the noblest pioneer of Madison county, a man of fine native talent, and as brave as Julius Caesar.  He fought the Indian race in Illinois, and ended his life fighting under Gen. Scott, as an officer in the United States army in Mexico.
     Permanent settlements in the Marine prairie were made in 1813 and 1814 by John Warwick, John Woods, George Newcome, Isaac Ferguson, Joseph Furgason, Absolom Ferguson, Aquilla Dolahide, Abraham Howard and Joshua Dean.  In 1815, the settlements were increased by the arrival of Chester Pain, Thomas Breeze, Richard Winsor, John Campbell and John Giger; and in the following year came Henry Scott, John Lord, James Simmons, Henry Peck, Andrew Matthews, Sr., and Andrew Matthews, Jr., Lefford, French, James French, and Abram Carlock.  In 1817, there were no new settlements, but in 1818 and succeeding years the arrivals were very numerous.
     A colony, among which were Rowland P. Allen, Elijah Ellison, and their families, arrived at Edwardsville in December, 1847, and in 1818, Allen and Ellison came to the Marine settlement.  Among the arrivals in 1819 were Capt. George C. Allen, Capt. Curtis Blakeman, Capt. James Breath, Capt. De Selhorst, Capt. David Mead and their families.  These men had seen years of service on the ocean, and had come to the west to engage in agriculture, and rear their families.  They came from New England, New York and New Jersey.  The circumstances of their settling here gave to the prairie, and the village when it was founded, the name of Marine.  The Judd family also settled here in 1819, as did James Sacket, a native of Connecticut.  Capt. Curtis Blakeman was one of the leading men of this colony.  He came with considerable wealth while the others from the east had been mostly driven to Illinois either by poverty, or a desire to retrieve a fortune lost by commercial reverses.  He was a candidate for county commissioner in 1820 and was elected to represent the county in the legislature in 1822.  For a number of years he filled the office of justice of the peace.  His son, Curtis Blakeman, was a prominent citizen of the county, and was elected a representative in the legislature in 1842.  The wife of

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John L. Ferguson was the daughter of Curtis Blakeman, Sr.  Major Ferguson, and the older settlers, coming as they did, from the heavily timbered counties of Kentucky and Tennessee, all made clearings in the edges of the forest, and there built and lived.  Roland P. Allen was one of the first to build in the prairie, and was laughed at for his willingness to haul building material, fencing, and fire wood so far, a distance of half a mile.  But in a few years the older pioneers realized the advantages of a residence on the prairie, and began themselves to leave the gloom of the woods, and come out into the sunshine.
     Mrs. Elizabeth Randle with a family of nine children, seven sons and two daughters, the youngest of whom was Irwin B. Randle, now a resident of Edwardsville, removed from Stewart county, Tennessee, to this county in the fall of 1814, and the next year settled a couple of miles southeast from Edwardsville.
     Among the early settlers in the neighborhood of Troy .............

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then moved to the northern part of the county.  He had a horse-mill.  His house was the early voting place of Silver Creek precinct.  He died in 1846.  Abraham Carlock settled in this part of the county in 1817,  David Hendershott and Samuel Voyles in 1818, James Keown in 1819 and John Harrington in 1820.
     New Douglas township, six, range five, had only one early pioneer, Daniel Founderburk, who ws born in South Carolina, settled here in 1819 and died in 1838.

EARLY MARRIAGES.

     The first marriage license found among the records was the sixth issued, and reads as follows:
                                         ILLINOIS TERRITORY
                                             MADISON COUNTY}ss.

The Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas of Madison Count,
     to all who shall see these presents, greeting.

     KNOW ye that license and permission is hereby given unto any Judge of the General Court of the Illinois Territory, and any Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, Justice of the Peace, or Licensed Minister of any Religious Society in the County of Madison, to join together in matrimony, as man and wife, Daniel G. Moor gentleman, and Miss Frankey Jarvis, both of this county, according to the usage, custom, and the laws of the territory, and for so doing this shall be their sufficient license or warrant.
     In testimony whereof, I, Josias Randle, Clerk of the Court, have hereunto set my hand and (the county not yet having provided one) affixed my own private seal, at my office, this 21st day of June, in the year of our Lord, 1813, and of our Independence the Thirty-seventh.
                                        JOSIAS RANDLE, C. C. C. P.
(SEAL)

     The following are the marriage licenses issued from June 1814, to June 1819, No. 15 to No. 150.  The names of the parties are spelled as they appear in the records: -

* Purifa Kirkpatrick in Record of Certificate.
† William Hailey in Record of Certicates
 

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     Below are the marriage certificates on record from January, 1813, to May 1819.  Much diversity appears between the list of licenses and certificates.  Much diversity appears between the list of licenses and certificates.  where the authority by which the parties were married was a license, "L" is affixed, and "Ad." where it was by advertisement.  The latter was common in the earlier years.  It is some source of satisfaction, even at this late day, to observe that John Cressup and Agnes Manning, to whom a license was given on the third of May, 1819, on condition that there should be no objections, on the part of the parents, were married the same day, as appears by the certificate:

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CHARACTER OF THE EARLY SETTLERS.

     In Territorial days the inhabitants of the county, almost without exception, were of Southern origin.  Strong sectional prejudices existed, especially toward the "Yankee," which appellation was given to every man who hailed from the Northern section of the country east of the Allegheny mountains.  Before the year 1817 the only representatives of the New England states, who had visited the county, were the vendors of wooden clocks and tin ware, and under these circumstances the pioneers could not, perhaps, well be blamed for their first impressions of the Yankee character.  An early resident of this county states that there were three classes of society known in the territory of Illinois:  First, the white man, born in a slave state, who arrogated to himself the title of the real Westerner; second, the negro, generally a slave; and third, the Yankee, from over the Mountains.  Traces of this prejudice could be discerned for many years, but among intelligent classes the emigrant from the East soon came to be appreciated at his real worth, and recognized as among the most valuable citizens of the county.  Subsequent to 1847 the county received a large Eastern emigration, in which came individuals whose merits raised them to positions of influence, and who contributed greatly to the prosperity of the county.  Especially was this case in the Marine settlement, at Edwardsville, and later at Alton, whose rapid growth and business prosperity were almost entirely due to Eastern men.
     The early settlers had great respect for the religious views of others.  Although their opinions on theological subjects were very decided and very dissimilar, yet a quarrel on these matters was of rare occurrence.  The Methodists and the Baptists were the leading denominations.  The Metho-

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dist camp meetings were numerously attended and proved influential means of increasing the membership of the churches.  Althoug most of the people drank occasionally there were fewer drunkards than might have been expected.
     The people ........

PIONEER CUSTOMS AND MODES OF LIFE.

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PRAIRIE FIRES.

PIONEER SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES.

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EARLY MILLS

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AGRICULTURE

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THE FIRST ORCHARDS.

BIRDS AND ANIMALS.

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PRAIRIE FLIES.

INDIANS - TREATY AT EDWARDSVILLE.

ITEMS CONCERNING SLAVERY.

     The ordinance of 1787 prohibited the introduction of slavery into the northwestern territory, of which Illinois was then a part.  This ordinance was construed not to operate on the slaves already owned by the early French settlers.  After the organization of the Indiana territory in whose government Illinois was included, laws were passed by the territorial legislature, permitting slaves to be introduced or indentured servants, and many thus came to the territory

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Under this arrangement the owner went with his slaves before the clerk of the court of common pleas, and there the negroes agreed to serve their master a certain number of years and then become free.  This agreement was to be made within thirty days after the slaves entered the territory, and if the slaves would not consent to the agreement they might be removed out of the territory within sixty days.
     The following is a copy of a bill of sale of one of these indentured servants from Etienne Pensoneau of St. Clair county to Samuel Gillham of this county, with subsequent conveyances.  First appears the record certificate of indenture and then the conveyance from Pensoneau to Gillham:

     I, John Hay, Clerk of the County Court of St. Clair county, Illinois Territory, do hereby certify that Elienne Pensoneau and Frankey a negro woman, about the age of twenty-three, entered into an indenture and agreement in the Clerk's office of the said county of St. Clair, whereby the said Frankey agrees to serve the said Etienne Pensoneau, the term of thirty years, and that the same was duly registered the 9th of November, 1811.
     Given under my hand this 12th of August, 1815.
                                          JOHN HAY, C. C. C. St. C.

     Know all men by these presents that I, Etienne Pensoneau of the county of St. Clair, have this day assigned and do hereby assign all my Kight, Title, and Interest in the within named Frankey to Samuel Gillham, and do moreover, warrant that the said Frankey was a slave and my property before and at the time she indentured herself.  In the above assignment made for and in consideration of the sum of five hundred dollars, currency of the United Slates, to me in hand paid by the said Samuel Gillham, and I do hereby assign overall my right and title to a child of said Frankey, a girl of about one year old.  In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my baud and seal at Cahokia this 12th of August, 1815.
                                        Test. JOHN HAY,
                                                          ETNE PENSONEAU.
     Recorded September 19, 1815.
                                                JOSIAS RANDALL,
                                                                    C. C. C. M. C.

     Know all men by these presents that I, Etienne Pensoneau of the county of St. Clair, have this day assigned and do hereby assign all my Kight, Title, and Interest in the within named Frankey to Samuel Gillham, and do moreover, warrant that the said Frankey was a slave and my property before and at the time she indentured herself.  In the above assignment made for and in consideration of the sum of five hundred dollars, currency of the United Slates, to me in hand paid by the said Samuel Gillham, and I do hereby assign overall my right and title to a child of said Frankey, a girl of about one year old.  In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal at Cahokia this 12th of August, 1815.

                                        Test. JOHN HAY,
                                                          ETNE PENSONEAU.
     Recorded September 19, 1815.
                                                JOSIAS RANDALL,
                                                                    C. C. C. M. C.

     "Know all men by these presents that I, Samuel Gillham, for, and in consideration of the sum of $500 to me in hand paid, I do by these presents sign over all my right, title, interest, and demand of, in and Test. to the within bill of sale, and also before the signing of these presents deliver one negro woman named Frankey and one negro girl named Faney unto David Nix, for him, the said David, to hold according to law as given under my hand and seal this 8th day of October, 1816

                                              SAMUEL GILLHAM (Seal).
      Uel Whiteside."

     Illinois Territory, Madison County, this day personally came the above named Samuel Gillham and acknowledged his signature to the above to be his voluntary act and deed, and for the purpose above stated as given under my hand and seal this 8th day of October, 1816.
                                              UEL WHITESIDE, J. P., (Seal)

     The early newspapers contain interesting advertisements in reference to runaway negroes.  The following is taken from the Louisiana Gazette, published at St. Louis:

FORTY DOLLARS REWARD.

     Ran away from the subscriber, on the 27th of Maya, a negro man named George, about 40 years old, six feet, or upwards, high, coarce features, large beard and whiskers, speaks plain and with assurance, has a large vacancy between his fore teeth, but not with the loss of a tooth, yellow complexion, sorrily clothed, having none but those on him, viz.:  A big coat of jeans, dyed brown, the under part of the sleeves a drab color. The public are hereby cautioned against dealing, or harboring him at their peril.
     The above reward will be paid to any person who shall deliver the aforesaid negro to me, at Mr. John McDow's, six miles from St. Louis, near the Six Mile Prairie, Illinois Territory.
                                              JOHN HUMPHRIES,
     June 25, 1811.

     In 1819, in the same journal, appears an advertisement in which a reward of $100 is offered for a negro named Jim, who ran away from Chariton, Howard County, Missouri Territory.  He is described as being five feet, eight inches in height, well-featured, weighing one hundred and sixty five pounds, and being "middling black."  He took with him a dog and gun.  A reward of $100 will be paid, by Charles Simmons, to any person securing said negro in any jail, if taken without the territory of Missouri, and $35 if taken within said territory."
     In the Edwardsville Spectator, 1823, an advertisement offers for sale "An indentured negro man, twenty-three years of age with twenty-three years to serve, well-acquainted with farming, a pretty good rough shoemaker, has attended at a distillery, and possesses a good moral character."
     The Madison Association to oppose the introduction of slavery in Illinois was formed at Edwardsville on the 28th of June, 1823.  The officers were: Curtis Blakeman, president, William Otwell and Benjamin Spencer, vice presidents;  Thomas Lippincott, secretary, and David Prickett, recording secretary.   An address was drafted by Thomas Lippincott.  Among other members appear the names of George Churchill, Amos Squire, John C. Riggin, George Smith, Charles Gear, Benjamin Stedman, Jarrot Duggar, William P. McKee, John T. Lusk, John Barber, and Thomas S. Slocum.
     The following is an advertisement in the Edwardsville Spectator of the 27th of July, 1833:

SHERIFF'S NOTICE.

     There wa.s committed to my care July 17, 1833, Primes, a black man, a runaway servant, aged about thirty-five years, five feet, eight or ten inches high, stout made.  He acknowledged himself to be the properly of a Mr. William Poke, of Hardeman County, Tennessee, near Bolivar.  The attention of the owner is directed to this notice, and the law under which the prisoner was taken up, which makes it my duty to sell the prisoner in six weeks from this date unless the right to the property is established according to law.

REMARKABLE SEASONS AND CHANGES OF WEATHER.

     In the winter of 1805 occurred what was known, for years afterward, as "the cold Friday."  The weather suddenly became intensely cold, and caused the day to be long remembered by the early settlers.
     The summer of 1818 was unusually sickly near the banks

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EARTHQUAKE OF 1811.

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NAVIGATION OF THE MISSISSIPPI.

     Several other earthquakes have been observed, though none so violent as this.  They seemed to occur every three or four years, and invariably appeared to approach from the southwest.  Joshua Dannagan stated that he witnessed one, about the year 1831), strike a forest.  For a moment the leaves seemed to wilt as under a strong heat, but soon resumed their original appearance.  The same authority is given for the statement that they most frequently came at night, and were always accompanied by a low moaning noise.

NAVIGATION OF THE MISSISSIPPI.

END OF CHAPTER VII -                  

- CHAPTER VIII -