THE STORY
OF CISNE
BY L. S. HARRINGTON
Transcribed
by Laurie Selpien
The exact date when the first
white family settled in Bedford Township is unknown. But the first of which
there is record is that of Alexander Campbell,
Irish by birth, who came from Virginia as early as 1816. He had four sons,
Alexander, John, Moses, and Joseph. Others soon to follow were
Nathan Morris, Ephraim LeCroy,
Martin Emmons, Noah Towns,
Jessie Laird, R. T. Forth,
Jeff Murphy, Stephen and Merritt
Harris, Elias May, James Clark
and Tira Taylor.
John Skelton built
the first horse mill operated in the township, Harmon Minor also had an
early mill, as did also Erl Stine, James Cooper and
John Pettyjohn have similar mills in early days.
About 1850, a number of
families came from Columbia County, Ohio, who were members of the Christian
Church. These organized a church at Buckeye in 1840. Another immigration
followed about the year 1851 and the following, from which churches of the same
faith grew up at Pleasant Grove and Geff, first named Jeffersonville, later
changed to the shorter name and spelling because of the confusion in the mails
with Jeffersonville, Indiana. Among these were the families of Jessie Milner,
Isaac Carson, Levi Cisne, Peter
Perrine, Stephen Stine, Aaron Evans and others.
CHURCHES
FORMED
In 1854 a Christian church
was organized at the Way schoolhouse, were the congregation continued to meet
until it erected its present building in Cisne in 1873. Report gives S. V.
Williams credit for being the first minister. Whether that means of the original
organization, or the first pastor after the church was built is not certain. The
first organization of the Methodist church or of the Methodist Society, as John
Wesley first named his organization is believed to have been held in the Bedford
Schoolhouse about two miles North of Cisne in 1860’s. The first church was built
in Cisne in 1890. After the Christian church was built in Cisne, the Methodist
moved their meetings from the Bedford school to the Christian church where they
held services until 1881, where Rev. L. A. Harper, the first Methodist
minister held services. (See
Harper’s Journal)
Meetings were held for a time in the school building that is now the Ellis and
Bratton Feed Mill. Under the ministry of the Rev. MacIntosh, the members
of the church decided to have a permanent building. Mr. F. A. Kutz took
the pastor in his buggy to solicit the members. The money was subscribed and the
building was erected in 1890.
THE
RAILROAD
On February 25, 1867, the
Illinois Legislature passed an act incorporating the Illinois South Eastern
Railway Company, the incorporators being Charles A.
Beecher, Joseph J. R. Turney, Robert F. Hanna, Carroll C. Boggs, Joseph T.
Fleming, Henry Holzhauser and Edward Bonham, all of Wayne County, and
John W. Westcott, William B. Wilson, Daniel McCauly and William H. Hanna
of Clay County. The charter provided that Beecher, Fleming, Bonham, Wilson
and Westcott should constitute the first Board of Directors. Instead of
the railroad being constructed by the men who secured the charter from the
Legislature the construction was taken over by the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad
that had built the line from the Ohio at Cincinnati to the Mississippi at St.
Louis which was completed and went into operation in the year 1857. Thus the
proposed line taking a general north and south direction would provide
transportation for a considerable area of Illinois not otherwise provided for
and also become a valuable feeder for the main line that became the first
segment of the later great Baltimore and Ohio system. The proposed line as
finally constructed runs from Beardstown in Cass County to Shawneetown in
Gallatin. Shawneetown was the queen city of Southern Illinois in the early days.
It was one of the chief ports for river shipping on the Ohio from the beginning
of the American Revolution to at least fifty years after Washington become
president of the new republic. It had the second bank established in Illinois.
NO LOAN FOR
CHICAGO
Time, climate, geography,
water, soil and industry determine success and failure of most human activities
and thus affected Shawneetown. A druggist named Robinson and a neighbor
to townsman rode back to Chicago because the Shawneetown bank had received a
letter from Chicago asking for a loan. The trip was likely made also to satisfy
their curiosity. When asked about Chicago on their return, they reported that it
had but a few poor houses sitting on a swampy land near Lake Michigan, and was
too far from Shawneetown to ever amount to anything. They could have bought one
hundred sixty acres of land there for a thousand dollars. The requested loan was
refused by the Bank. The quarter section of land was located where the Chicago
Loop is now.
John Milner
said he was present at a meeting of some of the railroad officials with several
other citizens of the community, including Levi Cisne, David Simpson, Peter
Perrine, Aaron Yarnall, Sylvester Taylor, and
Charley Beecher who had been influential in securing the charter for the
railroad and getting it built through this part of Wayne County. This meeting
was held at the point on the open prairie where the survey for the railroad
crossed the line in Section Eight at a line between the farms of Aaron
Yarnall and Sylvester Taylor, where they drove a gold spike into the
ground, as the place for beginning to lay the first railroad track in this part
of the line. Having located and marked that point for the beginning of
construction, they pulled up the spike and all walked together to the spot where
they expected to build the station. As the men stopped at that point, Mr.
Beecher, said “We must have a name for the town we are going to build here.
Perrine, you get enough honor by having the town build on your land. I
suggest we name the town for Levi.” “And that is how,” says Milner,
“That Cisne got it’s name.” As an honor and as a tribute to Levi Cisne. And so
the town stands today as the only geographical spot in the world that bears
those five letters in the exact order to spell CISNE. That was the year 1870.
In that year John Dee,
Deputy Wayne County Surveyor, surveyed the land of David Simpson and
Peter Perrine, and made out a plat for the town around the spot where the
railroad planned to build a station. Thus the spot for the depot and the
railroad survey were considered more important or satisfactory than the usual
geographical directions, which accounts for the reason Cisne streets run at an
angle and do not correspond with usual geographical lines.
THE FIRST
MAIL
According to the best
available information the first mail delivered in this neighborhood was thrown
off the stage at the home of Aaron Evans, about a mile north of Cisne,
near where Billie Miller lives now. Evans’ home thus the first post
office in Belford Township before any house was built in Cisne. The stage was
driven between Flora and Fairfield by Nick Powell who spent much of his
life keeping a harness shop and store at Fairfield.
In 1871 a sawmill was set up
by J. G. Hill, Harmon Milner and E. Shaw. From the year the survey
and plat for Cisne was made there is no record to cover the history of the next
twenty eight years. Only a few important incidents, mostly from the memories of
the oldest people can now be gathered, mostly without dates. The calendar points
to days ahead, but we tear off the page when a month is past, and the minds of
all drop them quickly beyond recall. The oldest left now (1955) are Mrs.
Chapman, mentioned above, Mrs. Belle McCumber, who has reported the
news of the community to the county papers for more than fifty years, and
Mrs. Laura McGlassen, the two latter past ninety years old.
In possession of the present
writer is an account of an election election held in January, 1898, on “the
matter of the Incorporation of the Village of Cisne, Illinois.” On January 26 of
the year, the ballots and report of the election on that proposition were given
to Judge W. T. Bonham, of the Wayne County Court, and two Justices of the
Peace, to canvases the results of the election. These gentlemen report, that
“For Village Organization under Illinois law, there were east 44 votes; against
Village Incorporation east 41 votes.” Thus by a margin of three votes Cisne won
the right and power of becoming a municipality, and the duty and privilege of
election of President and Board of Six Trustee, a Village Clerk and a treasurer,
or the last official could have been appointed then, but was the only official
who handled enough money to be required to give bond.
CISNE TODAY
Cisne has splendid grade and
high school building, an official consolidated school system with school buses
transporting students from a large area. Other social interest of the community
are the Masonic Order, Rotary, Lions and Women’s Clubs, American Legion, Boy and
Girl Scouts, with other groups connected with Church, School and local
activities.
Cisne has recently
constructed a complete water and sewer system that has been in successful
operation for more than four years. An abundant supply of excellent water comes
from a deep well that has not only been adequate for uses of the town, but
during dry seasons of the past three years hundreds of tankers of water have
been furnished for families through the country whose wells and cisterns went
dry.
Many splendid home, business,
church and school buildings with a central park, wide well surfaced streets
makes Cisne one of the most attractive small towns in the state. The
consolidated school, school buses bringing children from all parts of the
country, the automobile, telephone, radio, movie theater, a higher degree of
intelligence are all drawing town and country closer together, in thought and
understanding, and appreciation. Without question the word is getting better
when it has when it has proper training and an even chance. That is something of
the Cisne picture of the past and of today. Let us all do our bit to keep it
faced toward the sunrise.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION…….
Excerpts from HISTORY OF
WAYNE AND CLAY COUNTIES ILLINOIS ILLUSTRATED
CHICAGO:
GLOBE PUBLISHING CO., HISTORICAL PUBLISHERS,
183 Lake Street.1884.
“Alexander Campbell
was a member of the Legislature in 1822. He was an illiterate man, but had
good sense and an honest, warm heart. He has many descendants yet in the
county. One of his sons now resides in Springfield, Ill., and one of his
daughters and many of his grandchildren are yet in the county. Among the
early weddings of the county was the marriage of John Moffitt to one of
Campbell's daughters.”
Nathan Morris
He sold out here and went to Salt Lake City, but not liking the area as well as
he thought he would, he returned to his old home here. In July 1875, his home
was hit with small pox Nathan and six members of his family all died according
to the Wayne County Press July 22, 1875.
Ephraim
Lecroy was very early in the
township. He came from Ohio, and is still living. He first settled in Bond
County, Ill., but came here in an early day.
Also death announced in
Wayne County Press April 10, 1885
Martin Emmons
was also from Ohio, and is still living in the township at quite an advanced
age.
Obit found in Wayne County
Press Aug 17, 1886 Martin was the son of Elias & Marion Emmons he was born about
1812 in Columbiana County, Ohio he married Rebecca Skelton daughter of John &
Hannah Skelton who died May 24, 1859, he then married Amanda Allen daughter of
Elijah and Christina Allen Mar 11 1860 who died Oct 25, 1885. Martin was the
father of 13 children 7 living at the time of his death.Matin Emmons is buried
in the Buckeye Cemetery Wayne county Illinois.
Wayne County Press Nov 19,
1885 Obit of Amanda ALLEN Emmons
Born in Johnson County,
Indiana Jan 27, 1827 mother of 4 children died Oct 27, 1885 buried in Buckeye
cemetery.
Noah
Towns, another Ohioan, was an early
settler in Bedford, but now lives in Elm Township.
Jeff Murphy
came from Kentucky, and went to California from here, where he died.
Stephen
and Merritt Harris first settled in Barnhill, but afterward in this
township. They were sons of Isaac Harris, who, it is claimed, was the
first settler in the county. Merritt was born here, is still living, and
a citizen of Moultrie County.
Elias May
came from Ohio, and has been dead many years.
James Clark
was a very early settler, and has children still living here.
Tira
Taylor was an old settler. He was a
soldier in the Mexican war, and also served in the late civil war.
Buried in the Laird
Cemetery, derved Co. E. 58 Ill. Inf.
JOHN PETTYJOHN,
farmer, P. O. Rinard, came to Wayne County in 1838
with his parents, and has since resided here. He was born in Brown County,
Ohio, May 9, 1813, the eldest child of Edward and Sarah (Line) Pettyjohn,
the father a native of Virginia, and the mother of Kentucky. Edward
Pettyjohn was a farmer by occupation, and was a volunteer in the war of 1812. He
was a son of John Pettyjohn. who was a son of one of three brothers who came to
this country from Wales. The parents of our subject were blessed with ten
children, of whom four are now living --- John; Ruth, wife of J. A. Hays,
of McLean County, Ill.; Thomas, a farmer residing in Clay County, this State;
and Ann, who lives in Tazewell County, Ill., widow of James Gunyon.
Francis, now deceased, married Marcus Summers, and their only child. Sarah E.,
is now the wife of Solomon Yates, a substantial farmer in Bedford Township.
Our subject received only a limited schooling, and during his life has given his
attention to farming pursuits. He came to his present place, on which his father
had previously located, about 1852. It now consists of 240 acres. He has
been married three times; first in Ohio to Keziah Shearer, who bore him seven
children --- three of whom survive --- Thomas J., Rowan and Homer S. His
second marriage was with Fidelia (Summers) Williams. This union gave two
children, both of whom are deceased. He married his present wife,
Catharine Anderson, in November, 1871. She is the daughter of David and
Nellie (Miller) Anderson. Her father is at present living in Logan County,
Ohio, a farmer by occupation. Mr. Pettyjohn is among the old settlers of
Wayne County, and is highly respected by all who know him. In political
affairs, he votes the Republican ticket.
ISAAC B.CARSON,
Sheriff of Wayne County, Ill., was born in Carroll County, Ohio, September 17,
1832. His parents were William and Elizabeth (Booth) Carson.
The father was a native of Ireland, and emigrated to the United States with his
parents when four years old. The mother was born in Pennsylvania.
They were married in Carroll County, Ohio, and reared a family of three sons,
viz., Joseph, Isaac B, and Robert V. Carson, the oldest of whom is living
in Wayne County, and the youngest is deceased. The father is still living
and a resident of this county. The mother died in Ohio in 1836. Mr.
I. B. Carson married, in Ohio, May 1, 1853, and in fall of same year came to
Illinois and settled in Wayne County, near the present village of Cisne.
Here he has been engaged in the pursuit of farming since that time. In
politics, he is a Democrat, and has represented his township as Supervisor.
In 1882, he was elected to the office of Sheriff of Wayne County, a position
which he fills with universal acceptance. They have a family of nine
children, viz., Elizabeth A., deceased; Sarah L., wife of B. F. Bowles; Mary E.;
Joseph W., married to Eliza L. Wood; Eliza J., William H., Elmer R., Laura May
and Alice M. Carson. Mr. Carson owns a farm of 200 acres in Sections 21
and 28 of Bedford Township.
LEVI M. CISNE,
farmer, P.O. Cisne. Prominently identified among the substantial and
respected citizens of Wayne County is the gentleman whose name heads this
sketch, the necessary brevity of which compels us to note but a few of his many
genial and worthy qualities. He came from Monroe County, Ohio (his native
county), where he was born December 28, 1830. He is the eldest child of
Emanuel and Sarah (Garrett) Cisne, both of whom were natives of
Pennsylvania. The father was a miller by occupation in early life, but
gave his attention more to farming pursuits in later years. During his
life, he took active interest in political affairs, and enterprises calculated
for the public good, and was for many years a General in the old State militia,
and was thereafter popularly known as Gen. Cisne. He served also in an
Ohio regiment during the late war. His venerable partner in life survives
him, and is still living in Ohio, at the good old age of seventy four.
Their wedded life was blessed with nine children, all of whom were raised to
manhood and womanhood, and six are now living --- Levi M., Mary E. Phillips,
David A., Nancy J. Crawford, Eunice A., Amos. and Sarah C., wife of Dr. J. P.
Walters, of Cisne. Levi M. Cisne, the subject of these lines, obtained
what little education was afforded by the old-fashioned subscription schools of
his native State, and he remained there, engaged principally in farming, and
occasionally in steam-boating, until removing to this county in December, 1854.
In 1860, the people elected him, as a Republican, member of the County Board
from Bedford Township, and he served as such with great ability throughout seven
consecutive years. Having the welfare of the people at heart, all
enterprises which promised beneficial returns, and those calculated for the
lasting good of the masses at large, found in him an able and stubborn advocate,
and at the time when the proposition requesting the assistance of the citizens
of Wayne County in the building of the proposed southeast division of the O. &
M. R. R. was under consideration, he wielded a powerful influence in its favor,
and the ultimate building of the road was largely due to his commendable efforts
in its behalf, and the village of Cisne now bears his name, in recognition of
the valuable services he rendered. During the war, Mr. Cisne took a census
of the township, preparatory to a draft, ascertaining thereby the names of those
eligible for war service. He also canvassed part of the county, soliciting
names to a petition requesting the Governor of the State to exert his influence
in favor of some plan to secure the soldiers' vote at Lincoln's second election.
Mr. Cisne has also given a good deal of attention to church debts, and has
within his life been many times instrumental in raising them to the extent of
several thousands of dollars. He has for many years been a member of the
A., F. & A. M., and, with his wife, of the Christian Church. He was
married, January 18, 1855, to Jane Ray, born November 8, 1833, a daughter of
Maj. B. and Mary (Martin) Ray. The union has been blessed with nine
children, of whom there are eight living, as follows: William H. (who is the
present general railroad agent at Cisne, and is also a member of the firm of
Brock & Cisne, general grain and produce merchants), Mary C. (wife of B. M.
Brock), Sarah J. (wife of Allen Stine), Julia A., Agnes M., Jonah G., Charles
B., Edna P. (deceased), and Isaac M. Mr. Cisne has a farm of 320 acres,
which is devoted to farming in its various branches, but a specialty is made of
red top grass, the seed of which Mr. Cisne has annually sold in such large
quantities as to give him the name of "Grass Seed Cisne." The presence of
such men in any community tends to its higher advancement, and to their
enterprising efforts is largely if not altogether due the material growth and
prosperity of our Western country.
Hon. Charles A. Beecher
was born in Herkimer County, N. Y., August 25, 1829, and with his family removed
to Licking County, Ohio, September, 1836, and located in Fairfield June 8, 1854.
He had been a pupil --- irregular attendant --- in the Wesleyan University,
Delaware, Ohio, from September, 1849, to December, 1853, and during vacations he
taught school during the winters and attended school during the summers, and
sometimes performed hard manual labor during vacations. He attended the
Law Department of the Farmer's College, College Hill, near Cincinnati, Ohio,
from December 1, 1853, to June, 1854, and was admitted to the bar in February,
1856, and at once entered actively upon a lucrative and successful practice.
During five years, from 1870 to 1875, he was out of the active practice of the
law, and was bending all his energies toward the construction of the Springfield
Branch of the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad. In December, 1868, he had been
elected Vice-President of that road, which position he held until the property
was sold to the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad in January, 1875. In
September, 1873, he was appointed Receiver with Alexander Storms by the United
States Circuit Court of Illinois, of the Springfield & Illinois Southeastern
Railway, and this position he continued to fill until the sale of the road by a
decree of the court in September, 1874. Mr. Beecher was then appointed the
agent of the bondholders, and operated and controlled the road in their behalf
until the formal transfer of the road to the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad March
1, 1875. He was then made Division Superintendent of the Ohio &
Mississippi, in which capacity he acted until June 1, 1875, at which time he was
appointed General Solicitor of the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad and branches.
This road was placed in the hands of a receiver in November, 1876, and Mr.
Beecher has continued to the present time its general solicitor. October,
1876, he was elected a member of the Board of Directors of the Ohio &
Mississippi Railroad and is still a member, and his term of office to this
position will not expire until 1886.
The charter of the Illinois Southeastern Railway was granted in 1867, and Mr.
Beecher was made one of the incorporators, and upon the original organization of
the company he was elected Treasurer. In 1872, the duties of his office
required him to move his residence to Springfield, Ill., where he remained for
three years, and, in 1875, he removed to St. Louis, and, in 1879, the growth of
the work in his office as General Solicitor of the great corporation of the Ohio
& Mississippi Railway required his removal to his present residence in
Cincinnati, Ohio. These are the dates and figures that are the strong
outline, when well studied, of the career of Mr. Beecher since, as a very modest
and unassuming young attorney, he commenced life in Fairfield. The dates
and figures tell much of the story of a man who was destined to rise by the
inherent power that was within himself. He entered the corporation of the
Springfield & Illinois Southeastern Railway as one of its most unassuming
corporators. A stranger would notice in the young attorney but little else
than a pleasant, smiling face, affable manners and a retiring modesty. He
was given, much by accident, an obscure and unimportant office --- Treasurer to
a corporation without a dollar, and with but little hopes of ever being more
than a paper railroad. His nature was not self-asserting, and yet no great
progress had been made in putting the enterprise on its feet until it was most
manifest he was the master spirit of the scheme, and many men from Shawneetown
to Springfield soon came to know that if the road was ever built it would owe
this good fortune largely to Beecher. His genius and untiring energy gave
all that part of Southern Illinois the railroad now running from Shawneetown to
Beardstown. The ordinary rule in life is for the big fish to swallow the
little ones, but it is a very easy matter to read most plainly between lines, as
we give the dates and facts above of Mr. Beecher's connection with the great
corporation at which he now stands at the most important post, that he
controlled its destinies. From his first connection with the railroad
interests he was thrown in contact with some of the ablest financiers, as well
as some of the most eminent attorneys in the country as well as in Europe, and
yet he came in conflict with none that in either law or in large and intricate
financial schemes that ever overreached him, or that probably did not retire in
the faith that in some way the rural attorney from Wayne County had left them at
the foot of the class.
Mr. Beecher cast his first vote for President in 1852, for Gen. Scott. In
1856, he voted for Fremont, and has since voted regularly with the Republican
party. From 1862 to 1868, he was a member of the Republican State Central
Committee. In 1867, he was one of five Commissioners appointed by Gov.
Oglesby to locate and build a Southern Illinois Penitentiary, but the
Legislature failing to make the necessary appropriation, therefore nothing
further was done.
Such are the outlines of the career of no common man, and of all the attorneys
who have ever pitched their tents in Wayne County we strongly incline to the
belief he will go into history as the prominent central figure in the entire
list. He is but now upon the threshold of his professional life, and has
already accumulated a large fortune, and a fame and name among the attorneys of
the country that cannot be gainsaid.
The Stines came from
Ohio. There were four brothers---Stephen, Isaac, Peter
and Eri---all early settlers. Isaac is dead, but the other three are
still living.
AARON S. YARNALL, farmer, P. O. Cisne,
was born in Belmont County, Ohio, November 21, 1831, to Joseph and Asenath
(Slack) Yarnall, natives of Pennsylvania. The father is a son of
Thomas, who was a son of George Yarnall, both of whom were from Pennsylvania.
The parents of our subject are both living in this county. They were
blessed with eight children, of whom there are four now living --- Drusilla,
A. S., Maria and John. Our subject received but a limited education;
during his residence in Ohio, he was engaged principally in farming pursuits.
March 28, 1853, he landed in Bedford Township, and located where his father now
lives. His present farm property consists of eighty acres, and he gives
his attention to farming in its various branches. November 3, 1864, he
married Sarah J. Moore, a daughter of Alexander and Jane (Quinn) Moore, who came
to Wayne County in 1860. The latter were the parents of nine children,
four sons of whom were in the army --- Samson C., in the Eighty-seventh Illinois
Volunteer Infantry; John Q., Sixty-second Illinois; Martin W., first in Sixth
Missouri, and afterward in Thirteenth Missouri Cavalry, and Robert T., in
Sixty-first Illinois. Samson, Robert, and possibly a third child, are now
living. Mr. Alexander Moore died August 19, 1883. Mr. and Mrs.
Yarnall are the parents of five children, four of whom survive --- Jessie M.,
Asenath J., Joseph M. and William H. Mr. Yarnall is a Republican in
politics and with his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.
Jessie Laird was a 2nd Lieutenant 3rd
Regiment., 1st Brig., Illinois Mounted Inf., of the Blackhawk War. He
was born March 4, 1792 and died Apr 13, 1873, he is buried in the Laird
Cemetery, Wayne County, Illinois. Wayne County
Illinois Cemetery Inscriptions Vol. VI by Doris Bland
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