Southern Illinoisan from Carbondale, Illinois • Page 10

Page Ten SOUTHERN ILLINOISAN, SUNDAY, AAAY 16, 1971 Carhendale Herrin Murphysbero Li 2 West Frankfort area studied by society sp hill t7 f- Ui i Uj llrvz Ki 4 3 T-h-JT1 ftl Mrs. Walter Dimmick looks over old guest register in front of building that once was the Dimmick Inn in Vest Frankfort pital. It was the first time prepaid hospital service was available in the area, according to Mrs. Louvcrna Mings, serc-e tary to the present hospital administrator William Palmer. In IS Union Hospital burned.

"Fire destroyed everything but the annex. There were no fatalities, but all the records were destroyed," Mrs. Mings said. "A temporary hospital was set up cn the second floor of a building inthe business district until the annex was converted to a 40-bed hospital," Mrs. Mines said, A new hospital was completed in 19SS.

Mrs. Maris Wright said that in addition to insuring that historical sites and information arm't lest to future generations, the society wants to recognize the struggles cf the founding fathers and provide historical information for students and tourists. The society is hoping to use the Logan Grade School on Frankfort Hill as a museum. Pupils from the school moved to a new building in January. and built on what now called Frankfort Hill, in eastern West Frankfort.

'Tm still trying to find the (direct) link between Fort Jordan and Frankfort Hill," Mitchell said. About two miles southeast of West Frankfort is Garrett's Prairie, settled before 1814. A marker on the site says the first ccunty seat was cstalbishcd at Moses Garrett's tavern in 1818. The tavern was located along the Shawnee Kaskaskia trail. The trail came into the Frankfort area from the southeast and continued west through today's towns of Plumfield and Mulkeytown until it reached the Mississippi River at Kaskaskia.

Letters describing life in an English settlement about 50 miles northeast of Franklin County was published by Morris Birkbcck in 1818. The settlement was near the present-day town of Albion, according to John Clifford, associate professor at Southern Illinois University. Birkbeck writes that settlers were a mixture of ages, experiences and backgrounds. "A large proportion profess no particular religion courthouse is used as a place of worship. "Children are not baptized there is no consecrated burial place or funeral service.

The body is enclosed in the plainest coffin; the family carries it into the woods; a grave is prepared and the body quietly placed in it. "Then trees are felled and laid over the grave to protect it from wild beasts. If the party belongs to a religious community, preaching sometimes follows if not, a few natural tears are shed in silence, and the scene is closed. "We are not quite out of the hearing of the world and its bustle, but the sound is rather long in reaching us," Birbeck writes. Philadelphia, daily papers arrived once a week, a mcnth after they were published, and they included extracts from English Journals cf the month before, he said.

"So we take up the news as you (his friend in England) forget it; and what happened three months ago in Europe is just now on the carpet here," Birbeck wrote. Turkeys Cheap W7ild turkeys weighing about 12 pounds were sold "five for a dollar;" land cost $2 an acre; farmers planted Indian ccrn cn the first ploughing; and wheat was planted the second year, Birbeck reccrded. In 1822 Franklin and Williamson Ccunty had 1,763 residents, according to an 1876 atlas of Birbeck recorded. In 1822 Franklin and vWilliam-son County had 1,763 residents, according to an 1876 atlas cf Illinois. The first permanent court-housc in Franklin and William-sen counties was built in 1826 on Frankfort Hill.

A historical marker says the courthouse was By Marta Ladd Of The Southern Illinoisan A 500 mile walk. A Christmas Eve birth A frontier family of 18, including three sets of triplets. These scenes during the 167-year history cf the West Frankfort area are being recorded by the Frankfort Area Historical Society. A. J.

Mitchell a state trooper and treasurer of the society, has copied information about the early history from records made by G. A. Hefflin of the Corinth area. Other sources support the notes. The first white settlers in Franklin County arrived in 1804 after walking about 3CO miles frcm Central Tennessee, according to Mitchell's notes.

A permanent camp was made about eight miles east cf present-day West Frankfort, near what is cow Thcmpscnvillc. The group included seven Jordan brothers Francis, James, Thomas, Elias, Moses, and Elijah; John and William Browning (nephews of the Jor-dans) and Joseph Estes and William Barbry (sometimes spelled Barbrey). It is unclear if women were In the first group, but in 1805 John Browning returned to Tennessee for his wife, Nancy, and came back to Franklin County in 1806. Sisters Nancy, Jemina and Molly Jordan also were among the early settlers. In 1809, the settlers built Fort Jordan near the campsite.

John and Nancy Browning had 18 children, including three sets of triplets and a pair cf twins. The twins, James K. and William R. Browning, were born Dec. 24, 1810, in Fort Jordan and were the first white children born in Franklin County, according to Mitchell.

"Jchn Browning became a prominent Baptist minister and hemesteaded on Browning Hill in 1814. He is buried there aslo," Mitchell's nctes say. A son of James R. Browning was the late William R. Browning, former coroner of Franklin Ccunty.

Franklin County Sheriff Barney Browning said he has no direct family link with the early settlers. "My relatives came from the East and were cousins of the early Brcwning said. First White Cemetery Barbry, one cf the 1804 settlers, was killed by Indians in 1812 and was buried near Fort Jcrdan. This was the first white cemetery in Franklin Ccunty. Four years ago, said Mitchell, he was walking over the fort and cemetery sites and found that enly the spring and a few tombstones remained.

The exact location of a second fort and its connection with Frankfort is unclear. Frankfort eventually became West Frankfort. Some sources say Frank Jordan built a fort in northern Williamson County and others contend he sought higher ground to the west of the original fort stories fire built on the town square near the present-day Logan Grade School The first brick building and store also stood on the square. In 1833, Franklin County was divided and Williamson County was organized. To place the county seat in the center of the county, the town of Benton was established.

The historical society is working to preserve several pre-Civ-il War Houses cn Frankfort Hill. One is on the southeast corner of the square across from Logan School and is known as the Thompson house. It was once a tavern, according to Mrs. Lee Rains cf West Frankfort, who lived in the house as a child. "There was a dark spot on the floor in a room in the northwest corner of the house that couldn't be scrubbed away.

I was told it was a bloodstain from a man killed in a tavern fight," Mrs. Rains said. The house is supported with 12-inch-square wooden beams and large hunks cf sandstone. On the square's north corner is the Dimmick house, once known as the Dimmick Inn. An old register is labeled B.

Dimmick, Proprietor, Frankfort Hotel" and has entires dating back to 1871. The first part cf the register is missing but the owner, Mrs. Mable Dimmick, said her late husband W'alter Dimmick recalls seeing the signature Lincoln" in the first part of the register. Page-length blotters covered with advertisements of Marion businesses separate each page. Abraham Lincoln's picture hangs in a small upstairs bedroom at the rear cf the Dimmick house.

The room is decorated in red, white and blue. A blue and beige cover on a pre-Civil War bed has "Sally Dimmick, 1833" woven into a corner. Lincoln Slept Here "This bedroom is supposed to be where Lincoln slept," Mrs. Dimmick said. Another pre-Civil War house owned by FYcd Darby is a few houses south of the square.

A well, now filled .41 1 .3 1 3LS S3 Wit; -wLa-uu 24" Am Hospital gines, the 1376 Illinois atlas says. Ironically, in a history rf Illinois published in 1877, it was reported that the coal veins in Frankfort County were too deep and too thin for a profitable venture. Peabody No. 11 coal mine was sunk in 1390 and by the 1920s, several mines surrounded West Frankfort. In 1301, the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad was built and the town of West Frankfort sprang up.

It was 1923 before Frankfort and West Frankfort were united into one town, according to Mro. Blake. The population was almost during this period. Many of today's residents recall the exciting, sometimes dangerous days of West Frankfort when the coal mines flourished. Most cf the mines are closed now.

Hospital Dedicated In 1916, a group of coal miners organized a hospital in a house cn Parkhill Street and by 1920 a hospital building was dedicated. It was called the United Mine Workers cf America Union Hos it "3 If Gary DeNeal, around hie I l--yJ in with dirt, is in the Darby's back yard. Mrs. Mavis Wright said the well was used as a stop for stage coaches traveling the Kaskaskia Shawnee Trail, which ran along St. Louis street.

Mrs. Wright was the original promoter of the society Descriptions of Frankfort square are given by the late Mrs. R. P. Blake, (known as Aunt Dollie) in a paper written in 1951 that Mrs.

Wright now keeps. Mrs. Blake said that as a child, she saw a blacksmith shep, woodworking shop and a castor bean press on the square. Walter Collins, executive director of the West Frankfort Chamber of Commerce, said, "There is some evidence during the Civil War period that Gen. Jchn A.

Logan raised part of the 31st Illinois Volunteer Infantry on the square (on Frankfort Hill J.Roy Willhite of West Frankfort recalls a story about his grandfather, Isaac N. Willhite, who joined the Union Army at 19. "He walked 25 miles to Shaw-neetown to join up and later Children shudder By Wanda arras Of The Southern Illinoisan Tiny toes dug into the cool wet sand. Little fingers wcrked aimlessly at great mounds. A Lcckwccd ghost? Just over in Saline County? Next door to Williamson, where sixth graders of Marion play in a k-yards? Firelight splashed across spellbound faces as 35 sixth graders encircled a flickering camp fire on the beach of Little Grassy Lake at the Little Giant Camp near Carbondalc.

The youths had come to Little Giant Camp to study for three days in the outdoors. For one of those three nights, (hey gathered around the camp-fire as Gary DeNcal, Rt. 3, Harrisburg, confronted them with the possibilities of ghosts in Saline County. DeXeal has been collecting ghost stories from Saline County residents for the past six months. Tales Told Tales of the Lockwood ghost were related to the youngsters.

Four young men, a young girl and an elderly man were reported to have come face to face with the ghost on Lock-wood Hill near Harrisburg. A young man and his girl, riding by horse and buggy to church one Sunday morning, were stopped by a mysterious person. Grasping the reins, the person stared at the two. "What do you want?" the young man demanded. The person fled.

Eighteen years later, three boys traveling up the hill came upon the much-talked-about apparition. One walked toward him. He ran down the hill, rolled under a fence and disappeared. The elderly man reported the same story. Still Searching? Could the unidentified person be the ghost of a man murdered on Lockwocd Hill, DeNcal asked.

Does he come down to the road on the hill looking for his murderer? Will he continue to search until he finds the killer? The children considered and shuddered. Ghost he marched with Sherman across Georgia to the sea," Willhite said. Willhite's grandfather was one of five men out of 2C5 troops of the 56th Illinois Infantry who survived the explosion and sinking of the steamship General Lion. A book published in 1906 said the General Lion was taking the troops to Washington to board railroad cars headed for Illinois. A storm hit near Cape Hatteras, N.

C. and a tank of oil broke open. Oil leaked into the ship's furnace and exploded; hundreds perished. There were 18 companies from Franklin County in the Civil War, according to the "Franklin County War History," published in 1920 by the Trovil-lion Press of Herrin. Companies with men listed frcm Franklin County or Frankfort included Company 40th Infantry; Company 89th Infantry; Company HCth Infantry; Company 113th Cavalry; and Company 15th Cavalry.

By 1876, the population of Franklin Ccunty was 12,652. There were 16 business establishments and eight steam en- and love them And what about the Jiffy? Folks say. he floats like a cloud, screams like a woman and naps in the corner of rail fences. And he may have stoTen a cow's tail and ran off with it. Two young boys report-hearing screams moving mysteriously from pine tree to pine tree before the cow came home without a tail.

In the small village of Somerset, south of Harrisburg, two small children reported they were visited by the gtost of their dead mother one night while their father was away. After a cozy evening in front of the fireplace with just the two of them, the mother departed. One of the youngsters interrupted, "I know a ghost story." 'Chicken House Ghost' The child related the tale of a "chicken hcusc ghost" which turned cut to be a raincoat hung on the chicken house door. "The ccat was full cf bullet holes the next morning," the youngster giggled. DeNcal told the story of a certain married man attracted to a lovely lady just across the graveyard.

The grieving wife died, leaving to the care of the husband her black marc. Her dying words were, "Take care cf my black mere." Each night as the man rede the mare a cress the cemetery to visit the young lady his wife's ghost leaped onto the mare's back. One night the horse panicked as the ghost hopped on and the man was thrown against his wife's tombstone and killed. DeNeal painted pictures of other strange beings and happenings, the disappearance of Golconda residents going to Eagle Creek, the 8-fcct-tall hermit who stole canned fruit and sheets, the headless creature clothed in a great white coat marked with checks and wearing boots and the young woman who died of fright after she tied herself to a grave stone to prove she didn't fear ghosts. The children begged for more but DeNcal had no more stories and, reluctantly, they started the long walk back through the black night to the lodge eavh with a friend a whisper away.

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