The public lands of Jefferson County were 1 surveyed in 1814 and 1815. The field notes of the exterior lines of Town 2 south, Range 3 east, are signed by Charles Lockhart, Deputy Surveyor, and dated " December 18, 1814;" those of the interior lines, by Joseph Meacham, Deputy Surveyor, "April 19, 1815." The surveys seem to have been very accurate, as the aggregate—23,022 acres — falls only eighteen acres short of an exact township; but there was carelessness somewhere, as this note on the records will show: St. Louis, Mo., February 17, 1817. There are no notes of the east boundary of this township on file in this office. D. Dunklin, Surveyor Oeneral. And the deficiency has never been supplied. In looking over those old field notes, we are surprised at another feature—the frequent occurrence of " White Oak" among the bearing trees. It may have been that the surveyors sought this as the most enduring variety of oak; possibly it may sometimes mean water oak; yet the proportion seems very large. Of about 200 bearing trees, there were twenty-five hickory, fifty-seven "Black Oak," five "Pin Oak," nine elm, three sassafras, two ash, one each of gum, locust, mulberry and walnut, and ninety-six "White Oak."

At the time when our sketch begins, the natural features of the country differed from anything we have seen here for a generation or more. The prairies, valleys, bills and water-courses were where they are to-day, of course, but all were dressed in quite another garb. The annual autumnal fires, sweeping over all, burned out and kept down the undergrowth; and the woods were so open, the trees so lofty, the branches so high, and the ground so bare of anything like a bush, that game could be descried in any direction at almost any reasonable distance. A deer could be seen a quarter of a mile in the woods, and a man on horseback nearly a mile, at any point where there were no intervening hills to stop the view.

The eastern part of this township consisted of open barrens, as if a few trees had been scattered over a somewhat broken or rolling prairie. These facts explain what would seem very odd in the old field notes above referred to, that the section corner between four and five on the township line had to be marked by a "post in mound;" that the half mile corner on the north side of Section 29 is marked "no trees," and the same note is made of the corner between Sections 11, 12, 13 and 14.

The prairies generally ran into the woods without any border of small trees or thickets; and the grass was generally higher than a man's head, frequently high enough to hide a man on horseback at the distance of a hundred yards. They appeared much more nearly level than now. This was partly because the grass was ranker on the lower ground, and partly because, before the grass was eaten and tramped down so closely, the water filtered away or stood in the valleys, whereas it now washes a channel that carries away the soil.

There was this peculiarity, too, in both prairie and timber, that wherever the ground was level or low, it was wet and marshy throughout the year. Being trampled but little and very porous, besides being shaded by the luxiu'iant grass, the earth held water so that it hardly ever became thoroughly dry. Bottom lands were extremely wet, and their soil a heavy clay, utterly unlike the loam that has since been carried down from the adjacent uplands.

With these facts all in view, and knowing that the township is somewhat hilly on the west, rolling off to the creek two miles to the east, rising gently into hills beyond, with a little prairie of about 1,000 acres on its south side, the reader can form a pretty good idea of what the present Mount Vernon Township was at the beginning. There was no trace of man, except the surveyor's marks upon the trees, and the Goshen road. This famous road led from Goshen, a settlement four or five miles this side of Edwardsville, to the salt-works on the Saline; and was made by parties going to the Saline for salt. It struck this county just south of where the town of Walnut Hill now stands, and passed out near the southeast corner. It entered this township about Section 5, and running west of the old Short camp-ground, passed out east of where John Waite lives. So noted was this old trail, that it is referred to over fifty times in the Government surveys of the county, and eight or ten times in the field notes of this township. In numberless places it may still be seen. Yet it was only a narrow trail, almost buried under the rich growth of summer, coming out in wonderful distinctness after the autumnal fires.

About the year 1815, a man by the name of Black came up from Pope County on a hunting expedition. On his return, he gave a glowing account of the country, and especially of a beautiful prairie he had visited. Among others, he told his story to the Caseys, near Cave-in-Rock. They soon set out in search of Black's Prairie, and this was the occasion of their first visit to this part of the country. They never knew whether they found Black's Prairie or not. But in the autumn of 1815, Isaac Casey and his two sons—William, a married man, and Thomas M., a large boy—came out to look at the country. They came by Crenshaw's; and he, glad of new-comers, as all pioneers are, accompanied them in their search for locations.

A circumstance occurred on their way up, which afforded them much amusement. As they took a northwesterly course across the prairie, a deer (a very large buck) started up at a little distance from them, and the men all blazed away at it at ouce. It ran a little way, and fell. They ran up, each one shouting, "I killed it ! I killed it ! It's my deer, I killed it !" when lo only one bullet-hole was to be found in all its tawny hide. The animal was opened and the bullet found, when it proved to be from the gun of Crenshaw, the oldest man, indeed the only old man in the company. This party went a few miles beyond the present site of Mount Vernon, and returned.

In the spring of 1816, Isaac Casey, William, his son, Brunetta, his daughter, and Isaac Hicks, his son-in law, all came out and built a camp at the northern edge of the prairie, just east of where the Supreme Court building now stands. They broke and cultivated a little field, without any fence of course, extending to where the Methodist Church stands. In after years, when the old camp had been left and had rotted down, a locust tree sprang up on the old chimney pile —the same tree that now stands in the street east of the Supreme Court House. In the fall of this year, 1816, these all went back to the Ohio River where they came from, and brought out their families and the rest of their stock. William Casey, with wife and child, came into the cabin just referred to. Isaac erected a cabin near where L. N. Beal lives. Section 31, while Isaac Hicks located near the place at which he died.

While these pioneers were raising this year's crop, they had no trouble about meat or "sass," as game was abundant and honey more abundant still, but bread was a serious matter. William Casey brought their first supplies of meal from Kentucky, and corn in the following year. Isaac Casey and one or other of his daughters, several times went to the Wabash bottoms, ten miles beyond Carmi, to lay in a supply of meal. "Uncle" Isaac rode a horse and led one, but a single horse and "turn"' of meal was found enough for a girl. One of them, Mrs. Katy Tyler, tells how that, on their return from one of those trips, she chanced to slip off the horse near where the fair grounds are located; and there was not a stump, rock, hillock, log or anything else, from which she could remount " in all that part of the country,'' so she had to walk home.

Of the pioneers of 1817 and 1818, most located in Moore's Prairie and Shiloh. Henry Wilkerson, about this time, settled on the hill just south of the Jake Stitch—now Bates —house; and William Jordan settled on Seven Mile Creek, where Coleman Smith afterward lived so long, and Thomas Jordan southwest of him. Thomas D. Minor, located a little southwest of where Thomas Johnson lives. Very little as to progress of settlement can be learned from the land entries. The first entries were made in 1817. In that year William Casey entered land in Section 30, Isaac Casey in 31, and Gorum A. Worth in 32. In 1818, Elihu Maxey entered land in Section 6, William Casey in 29 and 30, and Thomas Sloo, Jr., in 31. In 1819, Jeptha Hardin entered in Section 20, Abraham P. Casey and Henry Bechtle in 28, Joel Pace and Dorris and Maxey in 30, Gray and Grant and John Johnson in 32. Then there was not an acre of land entered in the township for seven years! So we find hardly half a dozen families in the township at the time Mount Vernon began; and before proceeding further, we must stop and become better acquainted with the persons already mentioned.

Isaac Casey used to say that his father and uncle came over the ocean and settled at Goldsboro, N. C. , whence they passed by successive removals to South Carolina and Georgia.

There is another account—that Abner Casey, reared in the North of Ireland, married a Welsh lady and came to Virginia, on the Roanoke; their children were Levi, Mosea, Eandolph and a daughter; all went to South Carolina about 1760; Randolph married Mary Jane Pennington, and Levi, Randolph, Isaac, Abraham P., Charity, Hiram, Samuel and Zadok were their children. This family went to Georgia in 1795, thence to Smith County, Tenn., a few years later.

Isaac Casey was born in South Carolina in 1765, married Elizabeth Mackey in 1788, and went to Barren County, Ky. He was Sheriff of that county about six years. In 1803, he came to Illinois, and located on the Ohio River, a mile or two above the Cave-in- Rock. A double murder occurred there some years after. A Mr. Ballinger killed a Mr. Billingsly, and then one Fisher killed Ballinger. Fisher was related to the first victim, and aiso to Casey; and Casey was almost the only witness against Fisher. Isaac Casey did not want a man hung on his testimony alone, so he went up into the hills along the Saline, and spent months there; he then went to Arkansas Post and was gone a year, and probably it was really a similar motive that brought him to this section. After living where L, N. Beal does for seven or eight years, he sold out to Abe Buffington in 1825; made a little improvement near where Lewis Johnson lives; went to merchandising with Joel Pace at town in 1828; but soon retired, and spent most of his remaining days in the country. He was a man of great energy and activity, a dignified Christian gentleman, though he had been dissij)ated in his younger days. Isaac Casey was the father of Isaac Hicks' wife, Rebecca; Clark Casey's wife, Polly; Dr. Wilkey's wife, Brunetta; Henry Tyler's wife, Catharine; George Bullock's wife, Miranda. His sons were William, Abram T. and Thomas M. The old man died at Thomas M. Casey's, in 1848. at the age of eighty-four years.

William Casey —or "Billy," as more commonly called—was the oldest son and the second child of Isaac Casey; was born in Barren County, Ky. , in 1794 or 1795. His wife was Amy Barker, daughter of Lewis Barker, who owned the ferry at Cave-in-Rock so long; and they brought one child, Blackford, with them to this county. After living awhile in the cabin before mentioned, he built a pretty decent house of hewn logs where the Commercial Hotel now stands, saying jocosely when it was up, "Boys, here is the first house in town." When the town was laid off, however, this house was just outside the limits. He then cleared a field reaching nearly to where the Presbyterian Church stands. A few years later he built on the hill where Sauiuel Casey last lived; he sold that place to Joseph Slater in 1836, and moved to a place on Puncheon Camp Creek, and thence soon after to the northern part of the State. In a year or two he came back, lived at the Harlow place two miles from town, thence going to Puncheon Camp, thence to Moore's Prairie. His wife died in 1846, and in 1850 he married Miss M. J. Shelton; lived at the Prairie two or three years; moved back to the Harlow place, and died there in 1854.

The name of William Casey was one that suggested a strong mitid, a very strong and active body, and passions deep and terrible when once aroused. He worked and traded with excellent judgment, and received some assistance from his father-in-law ; so that he was for some time the wealthiest man in the county. He and Isaac Hicks were all the men who brought surplus money with them, and much of the land entered by the settlers in that day was entered with money borrowed from ihem. He never sought office, but was once, in 1820, elected as one of the County Commissioners. At all times he walked with a kingly dignity that made our boyish eyes look for the ground to shake under him. Mrs. Casey was a good woman. Their children were Blackford, Maletna (Mrs. A. D. Estes), William B. (or Buck), Abraham, Drury B., Thomas, Melissa (Mrs.Grubbs and afterward Mrs. Lester) and Zadok. Newton, recently deceased, was a son of the second wife.

Henry Wilkerson had a brother John, and Phebe, wife of Rhodam Allen, was his sister. They were Virginians by way of Tennessee. Henry lived for many years on the place he first settled, in a round-pole cabin, for he was fond of drink and never accumulated much ; he was long subject to fits of insanity, in one of which he would set out and walk hundreds of miles; he made three or four trips thus from Tennessee to Virginia, and one from Tennessee to Illinois; he at length became entirely deranged, and remained so till his death, sometimes being furious, at other times nearly rational; but he never was so rational as not to run, when he saw a storm coming, and throw his hat, shoe, sock, or whatever came to hand, into the fire, to stop the wind from blowing. By trade he was a cooper. He lived at Robert's for fourteen years, in a small house in the yard, and died in 1846, aged nearly eighty-four years. His wife, from whom he had long lived separate, survived him, and lived to the age of ninetynine years. Their sons were William, who went to Louisiana ; Edward, who died in Union County, and Robert. Few descendants of these remain. Mrs. Stockird, of Mount Vernon, is a daughter of Edward, and Rosa Wilson a grand-daughter of Roberta short list. Of Henry Wilkerson's daughters. Sally married Jarvis Pierce ; Phebe married Spencer Pace ; Rachel, George Crosno ; and Rebecca, J. Wesley Hicks Many descendants of these are with us.

William Jordan was the son of William Jordan, Sr., and the nephew of Thomas Jordan, who settled near him. The older set were William, Joseph, Thomas and Francis —the last remaining in Franklin Coanty. Thomas lived a few years near where David H. Warren lives, then moved to where Elias Howard lives, and gave name to Jordon's Prairie. His wife was a Whitesides. William Jordan, Jr., had a sister married to Moses Ham and one married to Nicholas Wren, and a brother named Aaron, who married a Crooms. Most of the Jordans remained here till 1830 and 1832, then some went North and some to Texas, A man of the name of Parker from Vincennes got a donation of a league of land in Texas, and took oS" quite a colony of Jordans, Greenwoods and others. Joe Jordan, William, Jr., Thomas, Jr.. Oliver Morris, etc., all went to Texas.

The act of the General Assembly, forming Jefferson Coanty. approved March 26, 1819, as set forth in a preceding chapter, contained this clause :

"And for the purpose of fixing the permanent seat of justice therein the following persons are appointed Commissioners: Ambrose Maulding, Lewis Barker, Robert Shipley, James A. Richardson and Richard Graham ; which said Commissioners or a majority of them, being duly sworn before some Judge or Justice of rhe Peace of this State to faithfully take into view the convenience of the peojjle, the situation of the settlement with an eye to future population and the eligibility of the place, shall meet on the second Monday of May, at the house of William Casey, in said county, and proceed to examine and detei-mine on the place for the permanent seat of justice and designate the same; provided, that the proprietor or proprietors of the land shall give to the county for the purpose of erecting public buildings a quantity of land, not less than twenty acres, to be laid out in lots and sold for that purpose ; but should the proprietor or proprietors reftise or neglect to make the donation aforesaid, then and in that case it shall be the duty of the Commissioners to fix on some other place for the seat of justice, as convenient as may be to the inhabitants of said county ; which place fixed and determined upon, the said Commissioners shall certify under their hands and seals, and shall return the same to the next Commissioners' Court in the coitnty aforesaid." When the first County Board met in June. 1819, the location of the county seat was one of the first matters that demanded its attention. The Commissioners appointed by the Legislature presented the following report :

"According to an act of the General Assembly, passed the 10th day of March, 1819, appointing certain Commissioners to meet on the second Monday of May at the house of William Casey, for the purpose of fixing a permanent seat of justice for and in Jeiierson County, the following persons met, viz. Lewis Barker, Ambrose Maulding and James A. Richardson, who, after being duly sworn, have provided, determined and fixed upon the southwest quarter of Section 29, Range 3, Town 2, on the laud owned by William Casey, the town to be laid off in the southwest corner of said quarter, to commence near the timber, on a point not far distant from said Casey's house, and thence to the foot of the descent, on a point on which said Casey's house stands, or in such manner as said County Commissioners shall designate.

" Given itnder our hands and seals this 12th day of May, 1819.
" It is unanimously agreed that the name of the town shall be Mount Pleasant.
" James A. Richardson,
" Ambrose Maulding,
" Lewis Barker."

This settled the question of locating the county seat. Isaac Hicks had been expecting to have it near him, as " Post Oak Hill," his place, was very near the geographical center of the county, and the land lay well for the piu'pose. An effort had also been made to locate it on the high grounds between the Casey place and the Dodds place, west of the present site ; but the influence of William Casey with Lewis Barker, his fatherin- law, predominated, and it was put as close to him as it could be without including his house and improvements.

Of the men just named, we may here add: Lewis Barker, as just stated, was the father of Mrs. Casey, and the owner of the ferry at Cave-in-Rock, and was a member the first four sessions of the State Senate from Pope County. Ambrose Maulding lived near his brother Ennis, in Hog Prairie, a few miles this side of where McLeansboro is now. Ennis, it will be remembered, went to the State Senate ; he also built a famous mill on Skillet Eork. James A. Richardson lived about Carmi. We don't know what became of Shipley and Graham. A year or two later, the county allowed Maulding $8 and Barker and Richardson $12 each for their services.

Source: The History of Jefferson County, Illinois
by William Henry Perrin
Published by Globe Pub. Co. in 1883

Submitted By: Sandy Bauer