CHAPTER II
Pg. 5

How the Early Settlers Lived
Organization of Union County

     Those early settlers of Union County lived a rugged, difficult life.  They earned their livelihoods hunting, trapping and fishing. They grew what few items of food they ate and depended on wild game, which was plentiful, for meat.  The county was a dense forest, so thick that the hunter carried an axe to blaze his path when he went away from the small clearing surrounding his log cabin.  They ground their own corn by hand to make meal for corn pone and Johnny cake and their main diet was "hog and hominy."  They grew flax and wool and spun the thread which was woven into cloth for bedding and clothing.  Much of the men's clothing was made of skins from the wild animals the hunters killed.
     The men wore long hunting shirts and moccasins and leather or buckskin breeches and the women linsey dresses and petticoats and home-made shoes  Ordinarily the people went barefoot.
     Fort Massac was the nearest trading post where supplies could be obtained.  These came from New Orleans or Pennsylvania, transported on a barge tied with ropes and pulled up the river by men walking along the river banks.
     An account is given of the difficulty encountered in making suitable garments for John Grammer to wear to the legislature when he represented Johnson County (which then included what is now Union County) in 1812.  The neighbors and friends gathered nuts which were taken to Fort Massac and exchanged for a few yards of "blue drilling," which with careful cutting and measuring was only enough to make a long hunting shirt and a pair of high "leggins." 
     John Grammer was the first person from this county to be elected to public office.  He was uneducated but was said to be very shrewd.  He invariably voted "no" if he did not fully understand the question before the house.  He coined words at random with which to express himself in his lusty speeches.  He was popular enough to be re-elected each term of the legislature and served his last term as a senator in 1834.
     The only social events of the times were weddings, dances, quilting parties, singing schools and "meetins."  Everyone took part in the wedding celebration.  The men would meet at the home of the groom and the women at the home of the bride.  Then the men would go in a group to the home of the bride where the wedding would take place.  As soon as the guests assembled for the wedding a bottle race would ensue.  After dinner the dancing began and would continue until early the next morning.  At ten o'clock at night the bride's friends would steal her away and put her to bed in the "loft" of the house, then the groom's friends would do the same for him, while the dancing and fun making continued  down stairs.  The merry making would frequently continue for several days in both the home of the groom and the bride and often in the new home of the bride and groom which the friends and neighbors had usually helped to build.
      The first marriage in the county records was John Murray and Elizabeth Latham, by John Grammer, Feb. 26, 1818.  On April 7th, 1818, John Weldon, Esq., certified he married James Latham and Margaret Edwards on March 2nd.  Joseph Painter and Elizabeth Brown were married Apr. 26, 1818, by George Hunsaker.  Other early marriages were Samuel Morgan and Rebecca Casey, Francis Parker and Catharine Clapp, Allen Crawl and Catherine Vancil, John Rupe and Lydia Brown, Eli Littleton and Ede Hughes, David Callahan and Elizabeth Roberts, Isaac Finley and Polly Hargrave, William McDonald and Mary McLane, Henry Johnston and Nancy Atherton, John Russell and Percy Huston, Daniel Ritter and Elizabeth Isenogle, Peter Sifford and Leyah Mull, Jacob Hunsaker and Elizabeth Brown, A. H. Brown and Sarah Mathes, William Ridge and Esther Penrod, Abraham Hunsaker and Polly Price, George Dougherty and Rachean Hunsaker, John Biggs and Sarah Cope, William Clapp and Phoebe Witherton, George Lemen and Sarah Lesley, John Price and Nancy Vancil, John Leslie and Catharine Nigel, Peter Wolf and Margaret James, Messiah O'Brien and Charlotte Hotchkiss, Daniel T. Coleman and Lucy Craft, and Samuel Dillon and Margaret Lingle.
    As children grew up the boys were taught to use bows and arrows and shoot game and the girls were taught to cook, spin and sew.
     The first school was taught by an unknown Irishman at Dogtooth Bend.  Later Winsted Davie established a school two miles south of what is now Jonesboro.  The teachers were paid by subscriptions from the parents of the pupils.  Reading, writing, spelling and numbers were the subjects taught.
     In 1812 what is now Union, Pulaski, Alexander and part of Johnson counties, was known as Jonesborough township.  A town hall, and court house were erected at Elvira, a spot one mile east and seven miles North of what is now Mt. Pleasant.  This served as the town hall for several years.  After Illinois became a state in 1818, John Grammer donated a plot of ground upon which to build public buildings.  This ground was located in what became Jonesboro, the county seat of Union County.
     Jessie Echols, George Wolf and Thomas Cox were appointed commissioners by the legislature to fix the boundaries of Union County.  The present boundary line was established by them Feb. 25, 1818, but a provisioned boundary included Pulaski and Alexander counties in Union until such time as they became counties.
     In the act of the legislature creating Union County, it was also provided that the home of Jacob Hunsaker, Jr., was to be used as a seat of justice until such time as a permanent location was established and a court house erected.
     Jessie Echols, John Grammer, George Hunsacker, Abner Keith and Rice Sams were elected county commissioners and they met at the Hnsaker home in accordance with the ruling of the legislature.  Abner Field was made clerk of the court and Joseph Palmer was the first sheriff.  George Hunsacker, William Pyle, John c. Smith, Rice Sames, Abner Keith , Jessie Echols and John Bradshaw were appointed justices of the peace by the governor of Illinois and Robert Twidy was he first constable.
     The first official act of the commissioners' court was to declare the road from Penrod's Ferry to Elvira and from Elvira to Jackson county, public roads.
    The oldest public industry in the county is road building and Henry Laymer, Ephriam Voce, William Pyle, David Arnold and George Hunsaker were appointed road overseers and viewers.
     The first county order of two dollars was written to Samuel Penrod for bounty for a wolf scalp.  Two people were licensed to open taverns in their homes and the price of liquor was regulated.  Whiskey was 12½c per half pint, rum 50-c; brandy 50c; breakfast, dinner, and supper 25¢ each; bed 12½c; horse to stand at hay and corn all night, 37½c.
     Two ferries were licensed and taxes were levied on horses, negroes, ferries, cattle, hogs, sheep, wagons and wheeled carriages.  In 1812 taxes of ½ per cent were levied on town lots, carriages for conveyance of persons, distiller's stock in trade, horses, cattle, grist and saw mills and in 1821 on watches and clocks.
     The first criminal case on record was that of the United States vs. John Thomas.  Since there was no jail the prisoner was hoarded with Robin Hargrave, who was allowed seventy dollars for keeping him sixty-two days.  Joseph Palmer, the sheriff, was paid thirty dollars for his services in apprehending the culprit and bringing him to trial.  The jury deliberated its verdict on a log near the Hunsaker home.
     It seems that the poor have been with us always because during the first year of the existence of Union County, the court bound out an indigent child.
     Thus in 1818 a county government was set up and began to function in Union County and the county began to grow in industry and population.