SALINE COUNTY
P. 538 PIONEER EVENTS—
COUNTY SEAT LOCATED AT RALEIGH—
POLITICAL HISTORY—CIVIL WAR SENTIMENT—
HARRISBURG—ELDORADO—
CARRIER MILLS—THE OLD STONE FORT—
PIONEER EVENTS
The county was not separated from Gallatin till so late that it can not be said to have had any pioneer history as Saline county. However, we shall mention the events as belonging to Saline county. John Wren and Hankerson Rude were the first persons to enter land. They settled near Eagle mountains in the southeast township. Wm. Gassaway entered land very early in Galatia township. The first mill for grinding was erected by Zadock Aydolett. It was a horse mill, and the millstones were quarried from Eagle mountains. Chas. Mick and Hugh Lambert built the first school house in the southeast corner of the county. The first thresher was brought into the county in 1855. Prior to that time the flail and the sheet were used to thresh and to fan the wheat.COUNTY SEAT LOCATED AT RALEIGH
When the county was organized the county seat was located at Raleigh, six miles due north of the present city of Harrisburg. In 1848 a court house was built, also a jail. The latter was sixteen feet square and two stories high. A new court house was built of brick in 1853-4. It cost $5,500. In 1860-1 a new court house was erected in Harrisburg, the location of the county seat having been changed from Raleigh to Harrisburg.POLITICAL HISTORY
The political history of Saline county is interesting. Franklin county lies just west of Saline. This was the home of General John A. Logan P 539 at the outbreak of the Civil war. The whole of Southern Illinois was strongly tinctured with secession at the outbreak of the war. Shortly after the war opened many negroes began coming into Illinois from the slave states south of the Ohio. Among those who gave them shelter was Dr. John W. Mitchell, who lived in Independence township, due south of Harrisburg, at a village called Independence. The negroes were known as contraband negroes. The presence of these negroes greatly annoyed certain patriotic states right statesmen and a meeting was held in the court house in Harrisburg October 25, 1862, to protest against the presence of these contraband negroes. The Hon. Wm. J. Allen and James B. Turner were the leading spirits in this meeting. They “resolved,” but they never could find any one who was willing to take the resolutions and notify Dr. Mitchell of the action of the meeting. A
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REV. SAMUEL
WESTBR0OK, A SOLDIER IN GEN. POSEY‘S REGIMENT IN THE BLACK HAWK
WAR. HE LIVED TO BE 98 YEARS OLD |
second meeting was held and similar “resolves” passed, but Dr. Mitchell stood his ground. The negroes were not removed. Dr. Mitchell was indicted under the “black laws,” but the indictment was stricken from the docket.
CIVIL WAR SENTIMENT
The “Knights of the Golden Circle” were very strong and well organized in Saline county. Three knights went one time to notify L. J. Jobe, a Union soldier who was home on sick furlough, to leave the neighborhood. He told his wife to bring his gun and open the door, and as he lay in bed he told them to come in and make their threat good, but they never ventured in. Notwithstanding this anti-union sentiment the county contained many loyal people and kept her quota so full it was never necessary to run a draft in that county. Quite a good many of the soldiers in John A. Logan’s P 540 regiment, the Thirty-first, were from Saline. Company B of that regiment was largely Saline county boys. Company G also was from Saline largely.HARRISBURG
The city of Harrisburg is now an important center. It was laid off in 1853. Lots were sold and a few houses built. In 1859 after some litigation the county seat was moved from Raleigh to Harrisburg. It grew slowly. Dr. J. W. Mitchell was a warm friend of the town and did much to further its interests. Today it is a city of 5,309, with all the modern machinery of a young city. The coal interests are largely responsible for its recent growth. Its reputation for good schools reaches all Southern Illinois. The city schools are separated from the high school, the latter being a township school. It is under the principalship of Mr. Harry Taylor.ELDORADO
Eldorado is a substantial city of 3,366 people. It has grown very rapidly within the past ten years. It is situated at the crossing of the Shawneetown division of the L. & N. and the Eldorado branch of the I. C., and the Big Four. There are coal interests here and considerable business is done by wholesale firms. There are five coal mines in the vicinity of Eldorado. These mines, the railroad facilities, the country trade, and some minor factors give the town a large amount of business. All about the territory surrounding these towns there are large areas in tobacco. In some places in the county there are to be seen the tobacco-drying houses which gives this region an aspect similar to the Kentucky and Tennessee plantations. Eldorado has a fine township high school. M. T. Van Cleve is principal.CARRIER MILLS
In addition to Harrisburg and Eldorado there is Carrier Mills, a town of 1,558 people. It is on the Big Four southwest of Harrisburg. Stonefort is a prosperous village situated in the southwest corner of the county. Galatia and Raleigh are two towns on the I. C. railroad. They are good business points for business men working on small capital. They have good country around them.THE OLD STONE FORT
An interesting feature in this county is the old stone fort which is found four miles east of the present town of Stonefort. This old fort is on top of a hill which is almost inaccessible. The walls are constructed of large stones and the whole reminds one of the ruins of a once well constructed fortification. It has gone to ruin more or less in the past fifty years. A town called Stonefort was laid off two or three miles west of the old fort in 1858, but there were houses there earlier. The first house in this immediate vicinity was one built in 1831 by J. Robinson, The old fort was there in the 30’s and there is no tradition that seems acceptable to the public. Some scholarly visitor named the ruins Cyclop Walls, but most people call it old stone fort.
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