The Pioneer Preachers were a hardy lot. They came early here to the great valley, seeking out the scattered settlements.
In the forefront came the Old Baptists, known in pioneer parlance as "Ironsides" or "Hardshells."
In the forefront of the Old Baptists came Jesse Elledge, grandson of the Boones.
The ministry of Jesse Elledge in Pike county may be said to date from 1830. True, he had preached in the wilderness
cabins in what is now pike county at a much earlier date, at a time when the site of present Chicago was still
in Pike county. But prior to 1830 his preaching was chiefly east of the Illinois river, in the country that is
now Scott county. Here it was that he first settled his family when he came up over the wild trail from Kentucky,
shortly after the admission of Illinois to statehood.
Jesse Elledge's early preaching was largely to sturdy, stout-fisted, iron-sinewed pioneers who made no profession
of religion. But these men, when a meeting was held at some settler's cabin, shouldered their guns, and followed
by their dogs, attended the meeting. During meeting, the dogs fought among themselves in the cabin clearing or
trailed off into the forests to hunt on their own account. Meeting over, the brother at whose house it was held
would usually pass the whisky of which the preacher generally partook also; then the men would call their dogs
and take a hunt or make up a shooting-match, set up a mark and try their skill. — From Bryan and Rose's "Pioneer
Families."
Says an early chronicler: "Women in those days would walk miles to hear one of those old hard-shell Baptists
expound the Word. Sometimes they would walk 25 or 30 miles to a camp meeting. Carrying shoes and stockings in one
hand and a baby in the other arm, the pioneer mother thus went to meeting. Usually, on these long tramps to the
meeting-house, they were accompanied by their men, who also carried their ‘boughten' shoes in one hand and a gun
in the other. Their dogs brought up the rear. Reaching some creek or spring near the meeting-place, men and women
would seat themselves by the water and wash their feet, then don their foot appeal. The men sometimes wore hunting-shirts
and buckskin pants, sometimes home-made jeans and coats. The women clad themselves in raiment of their own spinning."
Seventy-two weddings are credited on Pike county records to the pioneer preacher, Jesse Elledge. Many of these
weddings were of couples of whom one or both of the parties were of Boone lineage. Usually, in those very early
days in the county, when one of Boone descent was to be married, either Jesse Elledge or Lewis Allen (both Boone
grandsons) were called to do the "hitching," as it was termed in the vernacular of the frontier.
Weddings in those days were great events, although accounts of them are apt to bring a chuckle from readers today.
Here, for instance, is an account of one of these early weddings, taken from a letter written by a pioneer woman
to her kin back east:
"I forgot to tell you of a wedding I and George attended last week. They were married by an old Hard-shell
Baptist preacher by the name of Jabe Ham. He had on a long buckskin overcoat that looked so funny! The man was
in his shirt sleeves, with cotton pants that just came down below his knees, and white cotton socks and buckskin
slippers on his feet. The girl was dressed in a short-waisted, low-necked, short-sleeved white cotton dress, that
was monstrous short for a tall girl like she was, for I don't reckon there was more than five yards of cloth in
her dress. She also had on buckskin slippers, and her hair was tied up with a buckskin string, which is all the
go out here. And when Mr. Ham was spelling and reading the ceremony from the book, the girl commenced sneezing
and the buckskin string slipped off and her hair flew all over her face, and everyone laughed." — Bryan and
Rose's "Pioneer Families."
In the same letter, this pioneer woman complained of the hard lot of women here in these western wilds. "The
men and the dogs have a easy enough time," she wrote; "but we women have to carry water from a half-mile
to a mile, besides doing all the housework." She told her relatives back east to stay where they were but
that if they ever did come out here into the west to be sure to bring her a "plank cradle" for her baby
son. " The boy has bruises and whelts (welts) all over his body," she complained, "from lying in
a half-log," which she said her husband had scooped out for a cradle, with a piece (of wood) at one end for
the baby's head to rest on. She complained also that the baby had but two shirts to his name and they were made
of nettle and "itched him most to death."
The stories of Jesse Elledge's children by his first wife, Adeline Elledge, have been related. Adeline Elledge
died in Kentucky in 1818 and on Sept. 2, 1819 Preacher Elledge took out a license in Clark county, Kentucky, to
marry Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of Nimrod Philips, who became Jesse Elledge's bondsman for the license. The
identity of the mother of Elizabeth (Nimrod's first wife) is unknown. Elizabeth was a sister of Andrew Philips,
so well known in the early days of the valley.
Jesse Elledge and Elizabeth Philips had four children, namely, Alfred Andrew, Sarah Jane, Joseph Addison and Anna
Marie Elledge.
Alfred Andrew Elledge was born in Kentucky June 26, 1820, the first child of Jesse Elledge by his second wife.
He was a small child when his parents emigrated from Kentucky to the region that is mow Scott county, Illinois.
He was about ten years old when the family crossed the Illinois river to make permanent settlement in Pike county.
When a lad of about 18, he went to live with his aunt, Mrs. Ann (Philips) Bickerdike, the widow of George Bickerdike,
who had come from England and made his bachelor settlement here in the interior of North America, in a then wild
and sparsely peopled region. He was the first of the English Bickerdikes in America and was a pioneer of the Blue
Creek country. His cabin home, built of hewed logs from the neighboring forest, still stands in the Blue Creek
region one mile north of Bethel church, on the Griggsville-Detroit road. Here, in this rude cabin, probably the
oldest of its kind in Pike county today, pioneer George Bickerdike kept bachelor's hall in the 1820s.
George Bickerdike ended his bachelor days in the wilderness when, on May 22, 1832, he married Ann, daughter of
Nimrod Philips, proprietor of the famous Philips Ferry. Bickerdike took his bride to the rude cabin home which
he had wrought with his own hands and there they lived until George's death on Sept. 24, 1838. Of this cabin, as
it was in the days when George Bickerdike "kept batch" there, we have a graphic description from the
pen of Edward Burlend, the English novelist and poet, from the account of his adventuring mother, Rebecca Burlend,
who found refuge for her family in this pioneer abode while her husband, John Burlend, was building their own cabin
in the wild land in the fall of 1831. This account will be given in a chapter devoted to the Philips family.
Following the death of George Bickerdike, Alfred Andrew Elledge, then about 18, made his home with his aunt (Mr.
Bickerdike's widow) until some time in the early 1840s. On September 3, 1846, Alfred Andrew married Mrs. Amanda
(French) Elledge, widow of Alexander Elledge, who was a son of Pioneer Boone Elledge of Hinman Prairie.
Amanda French was born in Kentucky in 1815 (according to the census figures of 1880, which do not coincide with
the inscription on Amanda's tombstone in Old Baptist cemetery). She was a daughter of Paul French. The French and
Elledge families were neighbors in Kentucky and both families moved about the same time (just prior to the War
of 1812) across the Ohio river into the Territory of Indiana, locating in Harrison county, and near New Albany.
There Amanda French and Boone Elledge's son, Alexander Boone Elledge, were married in 1832. Following their marriage
they settled in Madison county, Indiana, and there their first child, William Boone Elledge, was born September
19, 1833.
In 1834, Alexander Boone Elledge brought his wife Amanda and baby son, William Boone, to the Illinois country and
located in Griggsville township. Later, his son, William Boone, engaged in milling at Chambersburg and was long
proprietor of the Elledge grist and saw-mills in the village on the north fork of McGee.
Amanda French, by her first husband, became the mother of three sons, William Boone Elledge, French Elledge and
Joel Elledge. Their histories have been recorded in connection with the Boone Elledge descendants.
Alexander Boone Elledge died in Pike county in September, 1844, and on September 3, 1846 his widow, Amanda, married
her first husband's first cousin, Alfred Andrew Elledge, the son of Jesse Elledge, who was a brother of Boone Elledge,
father of Alexander Boone.
Amanda French, who married two of the Elledges, belonged to a family that experienced many hardships in the pioneer
days of Kentucky, where her forebears engaged in many a bloody affray with the Indians. The families of Elledge
and French intermarried in a very early day. In "Pioneer Families of Missouri" is a record of a marriage
of Joseph Elledge (a brother of Francis Elledge who married Charity Boone) and Sally A. French, a daughter of William
French of South Carolina, who was either a brother or an uncle of Paul French, father of Amanda. William French
died and his widow and her children removed to Warren county, in East Tennessee, in 1795, some of the children
later marrying and settling in Callaway county, Missouri, in the Boone, Scholl and Callaway settlement.
Brothers and sisters of Amanda French in Pike included James P., Jacob, Mary Eleanor and Nancy. James P. French
married Amanda Tucker February 4, 1849; Jacob, married in Indiana, came to Pike county with the Elledge families
in 1834 and settled in Griggsville township; Mary Eleanor French married Jesse Lester, May 28, 1840, with Preacher
Jesse Elledge officiating; she died June 23, 1880 and is buried at Blue River, south of Detroit; she was born near
New Albany, Indiana, June 19, 1819; she became the mother of Amanda, John Calhoun, Louisa, James Thomas, Frank,
Emma Zilla, William Paul and Harvey Berry Lester. Emma Zilla, born October 5, 1853, widow of John McCann and now
living at Milton, is the only present survivor of the family.
Nancy French married Mahlon Bennett ("Maillen" on the marriage record), May 5, 1844, with James Abbott
officiating. Among their children was a son, Charles Perry Bennett, who in later years made his home with his aunt,
Amanda Elledge, in Fairmount and still later with Amanda's daughter, Mary Elledge Vail.
Alfred Andrew Elledge and his wife settled in Fairmount township on the southwest quarter of Section 26, adjacent
to Hopewell school house, in 1847. This land, entered in 1818 by John D. Searle, passed by transfer to Alfred A.
Elledge on May 12, 1847. The land is now owned by the McLaughlin brothers. Here on this land, in a small log house,
the Elledges began housekeeping. Mr. Elledge later erected a good-sized frame house some distance from the site
of the former log abode.
Alfred Andrew Elledge and Amanda French Elledge had three children, namely Mary and Martha (twins) and Emily Elledge.
Martha Elledge, on of the twins, died at the Fairmount home July 20, 1848, aged eight months and 25 days. She was
buried in Hinman cemetery, adjacent to the early chapel that is now vanished but which in early times was a place
of worship for the settlers on Hinman Prairie.
Mary Elledge, born in Fairmount township October 25, 1847, married Leander Vail, January 23, 1879. He was a native
of Pike county, born October 20, 1848, a son of John Vail and Helena Reed, who were early settlers in the valley,
the Reeds having come to these parts along with the pioneer Chenoweths. John Vail, the father of Leander, was born
in Ohio September 24, 1815, a son of Solomon and Jane Vail, he a native of Washington county, Pennsylvania, and
of German descent, she a native of Westmoreland county, same state, and of Irish ancestry.
John Vail came to the Illinois country in 1842, landing at Quincy October 10. He had then only $300 to his name.
He began farming and soon accumulated 200 acres of Pike county land and an interest in other acreage. In 1846 he
married Helena A. Reed and three boys and four girls were born to them, one of whom was Leander (Lee) Vail who
married Mary Elledge. Helena A. Reed, mother of Leander, was a daughter of Robert and Susan Reed of Fairmount township,
the latter a native of Northern England.
Solomon and Jane (Peoples) Vail, grandparents of Leander, came to Illinois in 1843, locating at Perry, where he
engaged in agricultural pursuits and stock raising, at which he was more than ordinarily successful. Solomon and
Jane were the parents of ten children, of whom John was the eldest. Solomon Vail, being an excellent trader in
stock, soon accumulated a competence, becoming a fee-holder in much valuable farm land in Fairmount. An early chronicler
described him as "generous, open-hearted and highly respected." Born in October, 1786, he received his
education in his native Pennsylvania and at the age of 28 married Jane Peoples. He died in Pike county February
14, 1846. His wife survived until December 31, 1878, dying at the age of 87. Solomon and Jane are both buried in
the Old Baptist cemetery at Perry.
John Vail followed in the footsteps of his father, engaging in farming and specializing in livestock, producing
some of the most excellent and popular breeds. The homestead on which he resided was situated on a high, fertile
prairie in Fairmount, commanding a beautiful view of the surrounding country. His wife, Helena Reed, on May 4,
1868, while attending to her household duties, was attacked by an illness and, falling to the floor, died a few
minutes later in the arms of her husband. She was only 39 years old. Her husband lived until April 10, 1899, dying
at the age of 83 years, six months and 26 days. He was born in Coshocton county, Ohio, September 24, 1815.
Leander Vail and Mary Elledge had two children, both daughters, namely, Celia Vail and Olive Lee Vail.
Celia Vail, born April 25, 1880, married Dr. George Baldwin Carey of Perry, September 29, 1904. He was born in
Perry August 31, 1856, a son of Eleazer Carey and Rebecca Morris. The father was born in Arkport, Steuben county,
New York, and was married September 7, 1841 in Pike county to Miss Morris, whose birth occurred in Kentucky October
26, 1826. He began teaching school in Pike county, but subsequently choosing to engage in the practice of medicine
and surgery, he was graduated from the old Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, and in 1847 took a post-graduate
course in surgery in the same school. The practice of his profession carried him to most parts of Pike, Morgan,
Brown and Scott counties. He was often called in consultation to Jackson, Quincy and Springfield, becoming one
of the leading pioneer physicians in this part of the state. In 1850 he went to California, remaining there two
years in the interest of health and to attend various medical societies. He returned to Illinois in 1852 but, losing
his eyesight from exposure, was blind the last seven years of his life. In 1850 he was made a Mason in Perry Lodge,
No. 95, A. F. & A. M., and both he and his wife were members of the Presbyterian church, Dr. Carey being a
member from the age of 16. His death occurred when he was 63. He and his wife were the parents of nine children,
among them being Dr. George B. and Dr. A. B. Carey, Jr., now practicing dentistry in Pittsfield as did his father
before him.
George B. Carey in his youth assisted his father, attended school and worked with his brother, Dr. A. B., in his
dental office. In 1871 Dr. A. B. Carey moved to Pittsfield and in 1873 George B. Carey also located in the county
seat, remaining with his brother about nine years. In 1882 he opened a dental office in Perry and engaged in the
general practice of dentistry. He was a member of the Morgan County District Medical Society and of the Illinois
State Dental Association, with which he was connected for a quarter of a century. He belonged to Perry Lodge No.
95, A. F. & A. M., Perry Chapter R. A. M., the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Modern Woodmen of America,
the Mutual Protective League and the old Pike County Anti-Horse Thief Association.
Dr. George B. Carey and Celia Vail had three children, namely, George Lee, Mariella and Richard Vail Carey.
George Lee Carey, born at Perry May 7, 1906, is now engaged in the practice of dentistry at Park Ridge, Illinois,
a suburb of Chicago. He married Dorothy Lee Pedigo of Kenilworth, Illinois, April 3, 1931, and they have two children,
namely, Lee Pedigo Carey, born November 30, 1933, and George Vail Carey, born April 30, 1937.
Mariella Carey, born at Perry June 28, 1909, married Harry E. Reathaford of Chambersburg at Pittsfield on August
17, 1929, he a son of William A. Reathaford and Anna Sargent. They had two children, George Alfred, born March
16, 1930, and Richard Carey, born March 29, 1931. They and their mother reside with Mrs. Celia Carey in Perry.
Richard Vail Carey, third and last child of Dr. George B. and Celia (Vail) Carey, was born at Perry March 12, 1916,
and died July 13, 1921, aged five years. He is buried in McCord cemetery at Perry.
Dr. George B. Carey died at Perry April 24, 1924. He is buried in McCord cemetery. His widow resides in the old
home in Perry with Miss Ella Carey and Mariella and her two children.
Olive Lee Vail, second of the daughters of Leander Vail and Mary Elledge, was born in Fairmount December 27, 1885,
and was married November 25, 1904 to Richard A. Reynolds, a son of Houston and Clara Reynolds. They moved to the
state of Idaho, and Olive Lee died at Filer, eight miles west of Twin Falls, December 31, 1917. Her body was brought
to Perry and buried in McCord cemetery beside her mother. Richard Reynolds, her husband, is again married and resides
at Twin Falls, Idaho.
Leander Vail and his wife, Mary Elledge, both sleep in McCord cemetery at Perry. They died in the same year, she
on April 18 and he on December 18, 1906. She had united with the Baptist church in 1886 and her funeral was held
in the Baptist church in Perry.
Third child of Alfred A. Elledge and Amanda French Elledge was the girl Emily, born in Fairmount township November
9, 1849. Emily Elledge on October 8, 1872 married William Watson, her grandfather, Preacher Jesse Elledge, officiating.
Emily secured a divorce from William Watson in 1874 and the restoration of her maiden name of Elledge, and then
made her home again with her parents in Fairmount. On April 5, 1905 Emily again married, her second husband being
Joseph Dwight Short, a son of John C. Short and Sarah W. Elliott of Perry.
Joseph Short's mother was first married to James McClain Elledge, eldest son of pioneer Benjamin Elledge who settled
northeast of Griggsville in 1834. Sarah W. Elliott and James McClain Elledge were married in Pike county June 16,
1842. James McClain Elledge died a few months after the wedding, on September 20, 1842 and the following April
his widow gave birth to his posthumous son, James McClaim Elledge, Jr., who, when he grew up, went to Memphis,
Tennessee, and later to Texas, where he died. On November 26, 1844, James Elledge's widow married John C. Short
and of the children of this marriage was Joseph Dwight Short who married Emily Elledge.
Joseph D. Short's mother was descended from purest Puritan blood, her family being linked by blood kinship with
the illustrious Eliot family of the early Massachusetts colony, which numbered among its notables that famous "morning
star of missionary achievement," John Eliot, whose translation of the Bible into the Algonquin dialect was
the first Bible published in America. Arah Elliott was born near Worcester, Massachusetts, a daughter of Samuel
D. and Elizabeth Eliott. Her grandfather Elliott participated in the Revolutionary War, and her father, when a
mere lad, wandering over the battlefield at Plattsburg, remembered seeing it strewn with the wreckage of war and
many mangled bodies.
Emily Elledge united with the Baptist church in April, 1875, and later, in 1909, joined the Presbyterian. She died
May 13, 1925, at the age of 75 years, six months and four days. Her husband, Joseph Dwight Short, died in 1931.
Both are buried in Old Baptist cemetery at Perry.
Besides their own children, Alfred Andrew Elledge and Amanda French took three grandchildren into their home in
Fairmount, they the children of Amanda's son, French Elledge, child of her first marriage to Alexander Boone Elledge.
French Elledge had married Rebecca Snyder and she died, leaving three children, Elizabeth, Mary and William Elledge.
All three were taken into Elledge home in Fairmount. Elizabeth, growing into young womanhood, went to St. Louis
and there married Otto Klaus of that city. They resided in St. Louis for five or six years and then went to Chicago
and later to Seattle, Washington, where they are now living. Mary Elledge went to the state of Washington to teach
school, and at Sprague in that state she married E. B. Williamson. They now reside at Prosser, Washington. William
Elledge, the only son of French Elledge, grew to young manhood in Fairmount township and then went west, where
all trace of him was lost.
Alfred Andrew Elledge and his wife Amanda resided for many years on their Fairmount farm, moving in later life
to the town of Perry. Amanda died March 7, 1890 at the age of 75. (Note: On Amanda's tombstone her age is recorded
as 82 but in the census of 1880 she is recorded as being then 65 years of age which would place her birth date
in 1815 instead of 1808.)
Alfred Andrew Elledge died at Perry December 26, 1903, aged 83 years and six months. He and his wife Amanda are
buried in Old Baptist, at Perry.
Mrs. Celia Carey of Perry, a granddaughter of Alfred Andrew Elledge, recalls an incident which she heard related
in connection with her grandfather's death. It seemed that when Alfred Andrew was on his deathbed, he received
from someone near Payson a contribution of five dollars, a sort of conscience contribution, the sender stated that
Alfred Andrew's father, pioneer Jesse Elledge, had baptized the sender's wife in early days and had never been
paid for the baptism service.
Alfred Andrew, of a deeply religious nature, as was his father, was highly respected in the town of Perry, where
he spent his declining days. He was long a deacon in the Baptist church there. "His was the most saintly face
I ever saw," said Mrs. Celia Carey, speaking of this grandfather who was a grandson of the Boones.