to express between them, because it is like choosing between Punch and the Devil."

The result of the presidential election of 1860 showed that the South was yet hostile to Mr. Douglas. The total vote for him in the fifteen slave states was only 163,525, while in Illinois alone, it was nearly that much, being 160,215, as against 172,161 cast for Mr. Lincoln. Mr. Lincoln's total vote for president in the United States in 1860 was 1,857,610, and that of Mr. Douglas 1,291,574.

Up to the time of Mr. Douglas' death, June 3, 1861, he was one of Mr. Lincoln's most ardent supporters in his efforts to preserve the Union. I must now pass over the years of great responsibility and sadness experienced by Mr. Lincoln while president of the United States. Those who were here can never forget the great sorrow which hovered over the entire country, and especially Illinois, when on April 15th, 1865, it became known that Mr. Lincoln had died at the hands of an assassin. Yet there was occasionally one who rejoiced over the sad news. One such I met that day. As we met, his only greeting was, "Hurrah for the bullet that killed Abe Lincoln". It was all he said. When I recovered from my surprise, he was out of my reach, and soon out of my sight.

Had Mr. Lincoln been able to speak, of all such he would have said: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do," for his manner of life fully exemplified what he recommended to others: "Malice toward none, charity for all."

Historical Sketch of Cahokia Township,
Macoupin County, Illinois

BY HENRY B. BLEVINS.*

The history of Cahokia began a long time before its settlement. Everyone who is at all versed in the pioneer history of Macoupin County has heard of General Whiteside, who commanded a semi-military organization known as the "Rangers," whose mission was that of intimidating hostile Indians and pursuing and punishing them when hostile demonstrations had been made or depredations committed.

One of Whiteside's Indian raids took his "Rangers" through Cahokia township in 1811, this being the first historical incident recorded authentically in the township. Larkin Craig, in 1832 a member of the State Senate, a pioneer preacher and early settler of Cahokia, was personally acquainted with many of the actors in this raid and often related the account of it to me. I will give it as I recall it from his narrative:

"In June, 1811, there was a family in Bond County by the name of Cox, residing about three miles northeast of Pocahontas. The family consisted of Mr. Cox, his wife, a son and daughter. On the morning of June 2, 1811, the senior members of the family went out to pick wild strawberries. When they returned they found the son murdered and scalped, the daughter gone and plenty of evidence of the presence of Indians. Whiteside was notified at once, and with his "Rangers" started in ho tpursuit. A number of the Indians riding ponies made the band easily trailed. They went northwest, crossed Cahokia Creek, three or four miles below its head, and a party of the Indians on foot were overtaken as they were resting in a small grove of timber on Prairie branch. One Indian

*Henry B. Blevins was the first white male child born in Cahokia Township, Macoupin County, Illinois. He was born February 2, 1834, died February 4, 1908. This article was read by the secretary of the Macoupin County Historical Society at its annual meeting, June, 1908.

was killed and more wounded. Two miles to the northwest another Indian was killed. They continued the pursuit, killing one Indian at a time until near Chatham, in Sangamon County, where they regained possession of the girl and returned, claiming they had killed all of the Indians but two."

my father's knee.

Perhaps no Indian raid was better verified by landmarks than this one. The citizens of Pocahontas and vicinity contributed funds and erected a suitable monument to the memory of young Cox. I have seen the monument and listened to the tale they told me. The same story as a boy I often heard at The monument is about ten feet high and stands alone at the edge of the forest, marking the site of the Cox home where the young man was slain by an enemy who was a terror to the pioneers of those early days. The grove where the first Indian was killed has long since disappeared, but the remnant of it I think is remembered by C. A. Walker and Major F. H. Chapman. The last four trees of that grove stood in the branch close to my father's house. My oldest brother found under those trees an old butcher knife, well eaten with rust. My father thought it belonged to the Indians.

The place in Cahokia township where the second Indian was killed is better verified. Four boys, Kinder and Karnes, picking berries thirty-six years afterwards, found an old flintlock gun and a tomahawk, both nearly eaten up with rust. This find was one-half mile south of where the village of Clyde (now Hornsby) stands. I have seen all three of these relics, but unfortunately they were not preserved.

The first settler in Cahokia was John Blevins, who built a cabin on the west half of the southwest quarter of township eight, north of the base line, range six, west of the third principal meridian. He and his family wintered there. In the spring of 1831, he entered the above eighty acres. The cabin, of course, was built of logs, and there being no neighbors to assist in the "house raising", he and his wife built the cabin. by rolling the logs in place with oxen, in the same manner as logs are rolled on a log wagon. My aunt Jennie often told the story to us as children.

In the fall of 1831 came John and Thomas Kinder, Amos Snook and Peter Karnes. They built cabins and entered land, so that in the second winter there were five families and a permanent settlement was established.

In 1833 Tarleton Blevins, Lodowick Jones, Nathan Duncan and others came. Tarleton Blevins built the first blacksmith shop.

The first school was a log cabin on section sixteen. There were no nails, glass, lime or plank used in its construction, or in any of the cabins built before its time. It had wooden door hinges, peg-leg seats and a log cut out for a window. It had a fire-place built of stones, and a mud chimney like other cabins. My mind rapidly carries me back to those times.

Cahokia township was a manufacturing community in the thirties and early forties. How many, if they could see them, would know a flax break, rope walk, flax hackle, flax spinningwheel, hand loom or warping bars; the adz with which they made our puncheon floors, the frow with which to split the clap-boards for the roofs of the cabins, the ox yoke and plow with wooden mould board, and many other primitive tools and utensils which have been supplanted and are now only to be seen in museums as epoch-marking relics. To those of us who have been eye witnesses to the evolution it seems as a dream. The pioneer usually made the shoes for his family or hired them made at fifty cents a pair, everyone furnishing the leather for his or his family's shoes. As individuals advanced financially and had more time and help, the cabin was supplanted with a hewed log house of greater dimensions, with sawed plank floor and shaved oak shingles and space between the logs chinked with lime and sand. They burned their own lime on log heaps.

The first accessible sawmill was on Shoal Creek, built and operated by a man named Fogoeman. The four prime necessities to a settler were a frow, an axe, a dog and a gun. The rail maker got three bits a hundred for making rails; the farm hand received six dollars per month, and the school teacher ten dollars and boarded himself. The best cows sold for seven dollars, though they seldom changed hands.

We sowed wheat in the corn and covered it with a shovel plow, cut it with reap hooks and cradles and tramped the grain out with horses. The acreage was not large and many farmers used sycamore gums for granaries.

In those times when a traveler rode up to a cabin and asked for a night's lodging, the reply was, "Light off." If he knocked at the door it was, "Walk in." Heart to heart sympathy was characteristic of the early settler. The traveler was often able to enlighten us with some late news, perchance of the latest election or of some of the important questions agitating the public. The lack of transportation facilities caused news to travel slowly and the high rate of postage was necessarily prohibitive, except for the most important correspondence. It cost twenty-five cents to post a letter and twenty-five cent pieces were very scarce.

Settlements or neighborhoods were usually many miles apart, yet the people were neighborly and were always ready to assist each other in times of necessity or death. The nearest settlement north of Cahokia was in what is known as Honey Point township. This for many years was known as Hammer's Point. A man by the name of Hammer settled near what is now known as the Barnes neighborhood about the year 1819, and for many years was the only inhabitant of that locality. There was a trail leading from the river at Alton, through Edwardsville and what is now Bunker Hill, by way of Hammer's Point to Springfield. A sign or guide-board, which was fastened to a large locust tree which stood near a small branch somewhat north and east of Bunker Hill, directed the traveler to Hammer's Point and assurance that "honey and water in abundance were easily obtained there," and from circumstances the name was gradually changed until it finally went altogether by the name of "Honey Point."

Concerning this man Hammer an incident was related to me as a boy by Telemacus Camp, who settled near what is now known as Staunton, in 1819. A man named William Purdy was handling government supplies from the river at Alton to Springfield, and in passing the home learned that Hammer's wife had just died. There was not a vestige of a plank or piece