THE early history of Pulaski County, as we have stated elsewhere in this
volume, has been written in connection with that of Union and Alexander up
to the date of its organization as an independent county in ,1843. As a part
of Alexander County, it was separated from Union in 1819, and so remained
for nearly a quarter of a century. In the meantime, the population had
increased to an extent that required, or at least admitted of, a division of
the territory known as Alexander County. The following act, dated November
3, 1843, was passed by the Legislature:
AN ACT FORMING PULASKI COUNTY.
Section 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois represented
in the General Assembly, That all that tract of country within the following
boundaries shall constitute the county of Pulaski, viz.: Beginning at a
point on the Ohio River in Range line between 2 and 3 east, of the Third
Principal Meridian, and running north with and on said line to Cache River;
thence down and with said river to the Alexander County line; thence north
on said last-mentioned line to the southeast corner of Union County; thence
west along said line to Mill Creek; thence along and down said creek to
Cache River; thence down and along the west bank of said river to the Ohio
River, and thence up and along said river to the place of beginning.
The remaining sections of the act, which is a rather long one, are omitted.
These, when divested of the "said whereases," with which they are
encumbered, require the people to meet at the usual places of voting within
the specified territory, and vote upon the question as to whether "the said
county shall be so constituted." It further stipulated that the election
returns should be made to the County Commissioners' Court of Alexander, the
Clerk of which should send a copy of the proceedings, in the event the vote
was favorable to the formation of the county, to the Secretary of State, and
to the proper officers of Massac County. It further stipulated that the
Clerk of Alexander County should furnish a copy of the proceedings to Henry
Sowers, Thomas Lackey, Jr., and Thomas Howard, who are named in the act as
Commissioners to locate the seat of justice of the said county.
These Commissioners were required to meet at the house of Thomas Forker, and
proceed to examine the different eligible sites, and to decide upon the one
best adapted for the county seat. A donation of Dot less than ten acres of
land was the condition upon which the site was to be accepted as the seat of
justice of the new county. The report of the Commissioners was to be made to
Thomas Forker, and the general election was to be held at Caledonia. William
A. Hughes was appointed for the occasion, and authorized to act as County
Clerk, and, as such officer, the election returns were to be made to him.
The county was assigned to the Third Judicial District. The public debt of
Alexander County was to be divided between it and Pulaski, and the school
fund distributed according to population. The new county was to vote with
Union and Alexander for State Senator, and with the latter for
Representative in the Lower House of the Legislature.
The county was named in honor of Count Pulaski, a Polish nobleman, born in
1747, and a soldier of renown. He took a conspicuous part in the war for the
liberation of Poland, and when further resistance became hopeless he went to
Turkey and thence to France, where he offered his services to Benjamin
Franklin, our representative then at the court of Louis XVI. He arrived in
Philadelphia in the summer of 1777, and entered the service of the United
States as a volunteer, but was afterward made a Brigadier General by
Congress, and appointed to a command of cavalry. He was one of the most
brilliant cavalry officers in the war of the Revolution, and continued in
that branch of the service until his death, which occurred October 11, 1779.
No excuse is deemed necessary for this digression. It is always of more or
less interest to the reader to learn the origin of the names of places he
reads about, particularly those of historical significance. The name of
Count Pulaski will ever be venerated by American citizens, for the
assistance rendered us in the dark hours of our struggle for independence.
According to the provisions of the act for the formation of the county, the
Commissioners appointed to select the seat of justice met, and after "mature
deliberation," decided upon the town of Caledonia. The required donation of
land was made by Col. Justus Post, and the first deed recorded in Pulaski
County is from " Justus Post and Eliza G. , his wife; " and the
consideration is " the permanent establishment of the seat of justice on the
premises. " It " bargains and grants," in the town of Caledonia. Blocks No.
2, 3, 25, 26, 35, 36 and Water Blocks F and G, embracing one .79 acres of
ground, which was accepted in lieu of the originally required ten acres. The
deed for the same is acknowledged before Thomas Forker, Justice of the
Peace. A court house was erected on the land donated by Col. Post Building
court houses in those days seems to have been a great undertaking, as, in
the case of this one, the county was authorized by an act of the Legislature
in 1847 to borrow $600, " to finish the court house of Pulaski County. It
further authorized the county " to levy a tax to build a jail." At first the
county officers, we learn, did not keep their offices at the county seat;
just where they did keep them we did not learn. Like the first Postmaster of
Effingham, they kept them, perhaps, in their hats. At any rate, the
Legislature, by an act passed February 21, 1845, legalized the official acts
in the "portable" offices of Pulaski County. In the same year (1845), the
records of Johnson and Alexander Counties were ordered, so far as pertaining
to this county, to be transcribed and certified.
The records of Pulaski County are very imperfect. In November, lS79, a fire
occurred in Mound City, the present county seat, in which a large portion of
the records were destroyed; in fact, nearly all of them, up to 1860, were
lost by this calamity.
The first term of the Circuit Court convened in Caledonia in May, 1844. Hon.
Walter B. Scates, Judge; J. M. Davidge, Clerk, and B. B. Kennedy, Sheriff.
The following were the first grand jurors, as returned into court by the
Sheriff: Isaac Dement, Samuel F. Price, Joseph Evans, John Steen, Charles
Stephenson, William Echols, George W. Howell, N. M. Thompson, Learn an T.
Philips, Thomas Tucker, John C. Etherton, Samuel Parker, Daniel Arter, D.
Thornton, J. B. Sanders, George Augustine, A. F. Young, J. B. Malin, Elijah
Axley, A. Youngblood, Hugh McGee and C. R. Vanderbett. On the traverse jury
were H. R. Thomas, William Byrd, S. F. Rand, John C. Meyer, John Benton, J.
M. Timmons, Henry Castol, A. B. Bankston, Aaron Atherton, George Tucker, M.
K. Concine, A. Hunsaker, James Dillow, James Hughes, William Murphy, Eli
Morris, Moses Kitchell, George Boyd, Reuben Cain, William Forkner and Hiram
Boren.
Willis Allen was Prosecuting Attorney. The first Common Law case tried was
Wiley Davidson vs. Jones & Davis, in which John Dougherty appeared as
attorney for the plaintiff. A judgment was taken by default. In the second
case, W. A. Denning was an attorney. Gilbert Leroy was also an attorney at
this term of the court. Davis
and Timothy Barlow also appeared as attorneys. The Judge appointed J. M.
Davidge Master in Chancery.
At the term of court held in September, 1847, Hon. William A. Denning,
Associate Judge of the Supreme Court, presided; S. S. Marshall was
Prosecuting Attorney; James M. Davidge, Clerk, and Henry M. Smith, Sheriff.
In 1849, Hugh Worthington was Sheriff. In 1852, W. K. Parish was Prosecuting
Attorney, and Henry M. Hughes. Sheriff.
The first County Judge was Richard C. Hall, who served until 1847, when he
was succeeded by James M. Davidge. In 1857, N. M. Thompson was elected
County Judge, and M. R. Hooppaw and Isaac R. Baker, Associates. Ephraim B.
Watkins succeeded Davidge as County Judge in 1861, with George Minnich and
Caleb Hoffner as Associates. Washington Hughes was School Commissioner. In
1864, George Minnich was elected '.Sheriff, and Hugh McGee District Justice.
In 1865, A. W. Brown was County Judge, and W. L. Hambleton, Associate.
George S. Pidgeon came in as County Judge in 1869, and Obadiah Edson and
Caleb Hoffner, Associates, and E. B. Watkins, County Clerk. In 1872, Henry
M. Smith was State' s Attorney; Benjamin Glen, Circuit Clerk, and A. M.
Brown was appointed County Judge, to fill vacancy caused by the resignation
of Judge Pidgeon. In 1873, G. L. Tombelle was County Judge; John Weaver,
County Treasurer; Daniel Hogan, County Clerk, William M. Hathaway, County
Superintendent of Schools, and Romeo Friganza, William B. Edson and J. S.
Morris, County Commissioners. In 1875, D. J. Britt was Assessor and
Treasurer, and E. B. Stoddard, Surveyor. In 1875, Robert Wilson was Sheriff;
James R. Drake, Coroner; B. L. Ulen, Circuit Clerk; Louis C. Smith, State's
Attorney, and Louis F. Crane Assessor and Treasurer. In 1877, A. M. Brown
was County Judge; Daniel Hogan, County Clerk; A. S. Col well, County
Superintendent of Schools; John Weaver, County Treasurer; Albert Wilson,
Sheriff. In 1879, N. M. Smith, County Judge; John Weaver, County Treasurer,
and Henry Lentz, Surveyor. In 1880, Louis F. Crane, Sheriff: Reuben Wilkins,
Coroner; James Anderson, State's Attorney, and B. L. Ulen, Circuit Clerk. In
1881, Joseph P. Roberts, States Attorney, and S. A. Hight, County
Superintendent of Schools. In 1882, the following officers were elected, and
are, at the present writing (1883), still in office: Louis F. Crain,
Sheriff; Henry M. Smith, County Judge; John A. Waugh, County Clerk; Mrs.
Hettie M. Smith County Superintendent of Schools; John Weaver, County
Treasurer, and Samuel H. Graves, Coroner. We could not suggest a most
appropriate name for Coroner, for truly it is a grave office.
The second instrument recorded in the Clerk's office is one signed by Jesse
Richardson. It is " the last will and testament " of Mr. Richardson, and is
a solemn document, as all such papers should be. It is draped in a funeral
pall, so to speak, and begins with the solemn invocation:
"In the name of God, Amen.
"I, Jesse Richardson, of the county of McCracken, State of Kentucky, being
at this time of perfect mind and memory, but in a low state of health, and
calling to mind that, it is appointed unto all men once to die, and after
death to come to judgment,' and having, therefore, settled all my worldly
affairs," etc. He then proceeds to liberate his slaves, and gives them
liberally of his worldly goods, that they "may live free and independent,
and become prosperous and happy;" all of which was quite right and proper.
Deeds, wills and assignments are, at first, miscellaneously recorded
together. Owing to the imperfect -state of the records, caused by the fire
already alluded to, we can give but few extracts that would be of any
interest to our readers. As a general thing, however, the court records are
not thrillingly interesting reading matter to any not immediately concerned
with them, or to those "learned in the law." More copious extracts will be
given in the chapter devoted to Mound City, from the time the seat of
justice was moved to that city.
Caledonia remained the county seat until 1861. On the 13th of February of
that year, the Legislature passed an act, authorizing the removal of the
capital to Mound City, and Caledonia shared the fate of Unity, America and
Thebes, and became another deserted metropolis. Few moldering relics now
remain of its former grandeur to mark the spot where erst it stood. The
eddying waters of the Ohio, as they roll by, sing its requiem, and the
murmuring winds, sweeping over its deserted courts, howl the refrain of its
departed glory. A sketch of all the dismantled and abandoned towns of Union,
Alexander »and Pulaski Counties, would form an interesting chapter in the
history of Southern Illinois.
Pulaski County remains under the original precinct system of county
government, persistently eschewing the township system of organization. The
wisdom of their choice is a debatable question, and one we shall not attempt
to decide. There are strong arguments in favor of both systems. While the
County Commissioners' Court is a smaller and therefore, as a rule, a more
controllable body, by outside influences, there is little doubt that a Board
of Supervisors is not only more directly expensive, but also that a thousand
and one petty claims, of every conceivable character, having no foundation
in law or justice, aggregating no insignificant sum, are constantly
presented, loosely investigated and tacitly allowed. The strongest argument
in its favor is, that no county, having once adopted township organization,
has ever been known to go back to the precinct system.
The county, as at present laid off, embraces the following precincts: Mound
City, Burkville, Villa Ridge, Pulaski, Ohio, Ullin, Wetaug and Grand Chain.
At the time of the organization of the county, in 1843, its population was
probably about 1,500 souls. The census of 1850, the first after it became a
county, shows its population to be 2,264. In 1860, it had 3,943; in 1870, it
had increased to 8,752, and in 18S0 to 9,507. Its largest increase was
during the decade from 1860 to 1870, its population more than doubling in
those ten years. Its increase from 1870 to 1880 is but 755, a great falling
off, when compared to that of the preceding ten years.
The Clerk of [the Circuit Court was Algernon Sidney Grant, who, it will be
remembered, figured in the organization of the town of America. His rank of
seniority among resident lawyers of what is now Pulaski County seems quite
well determined. He was here when the territory was taken from Union and
became Alexander County, and by reference to the early history of that
county it will be seen he was one of the first Clerks of the Circuit and
County Court.
Of the lawyers, the first were Alexander P. Field, Judge Richard M, Young,
Jeptha Hardin, Henry Eddy, William J. Gatewood, John Dougherty and Mr. Grant
and a man named Boswell. Of a later date were Willis Allen, W. J. Allen and
Henry W. Billings.
The Circuit Judges, from the creation of the county, were in the following
order: Thomas C. Browne, Jeptha Hardin, Walter B. Scates, William A.
Denning, Alexander M. Jenkins, Wesley Sloan, John Olney, J. H. Mulkey,
William H. Green and David J. Baker.
In the early Circuit Court records of every county in Central and Southern
Illinois, occurs the name of Judge Thomas C. Browne. He was one of the
Supreme Judges who were required to do Circuit Court duties, and, judging
from the records of these many counties, Judge Browne must have led an
active and laborious life, as small as his salary was for the immensity of
the travel and labor he was required to perform.
Jeptha Hardin held courts and practiced law in nearly all the counties of
Southern Illinois. A. P. Field and Richard M. Young are noticed at some
length in the chapter on the bench and bar of Union County. Judge Walter B.
Scates was a resident, for many years, of this portion of Illinois. He
became largely interested in coal mines, near Collinsville, and eventually
was the principal owner of the Western Telegraph Company. He resigned his
position as one of the Supreme Judges of the State, and became a resident of
Evanston, near Chicago, where he improved a magnificent estate, and attached
to it was his noted deer and elk park, that for many years was a place for
the interested visitors to Evanston until finally, we understand, the Judge
came near losing his life from a furious stag.
Judge Jenkins is noticed in the history of Cairo, and an account of his
death may be found in the Alexander chapter on the bench and bar.
Judge Wesley Sloan was intimately known to the people of Pulaski as a great
Judge and an upright citizen. When he left the bench he retired to private
life, taking with him the esteem and confidence of all.
The early judiciary of Illinois was marked as furnishing a higher order of
talent — larger minded men — than are to be found in the early political
history of the State. Many of these early jurists will take their proper
place in history as among the country's best men. From the now old and
desolate town of Kaskaskia, they radiated out over the sparse settlements of
the county, like rays of light and sunshine. They mingled with the rude
people, assisting, advising and counseling them for their own good and
benefit. They forecast and laid well the foundations for the superstructure
of the civil polity of the State; and in looking into the imperfect records
of their lives that are now attainable, the student of history is impressed
with the fact that here, indeed, was Illinois most favored and fortunate.
In the history of Cairo and the Illinois Central Railroad, in this volume,
we had occasion to tell much of the life and acts of Justin Butterfield, of
Chicago, who was Commissioner of the Government United States Land Office in
Washington, at the time of the building of the Illinois Central Railroad. It
was much upon an idea of his, uttered in a speech in Chicago at a railroad
meeting in which lay the key to the construction of that most important
enterprise. Something of the man may ^be gleaned from the following
anecdote, as related by Hon. I. N. Arnold at a meeting of the State Bar
Association of 1881.
In December, 1842, Gov. Ford, on the application of the Executive of
Missouri, issued a warrant for the arrest of Joseph Smith, the Apostle of
Mormonism then residing at Nauvoo, as a fugitive from justice. Smith was
charged with having instigated the attempt, by some Mormons, to assassinate
Gov. Bogg, of Missouri. Mr. Butterfield had sued out a writ of habeus corpus
from Judge Pope, and Smith was arraigned for a hearing. The Attorney General
of Illinois, Mr. Sanborn, appeared, to sustain the warrant Mr. Butterfield,
aided by B. S. Edwards, appeared for Smith, and moved for his discharge. The
Prophet (so-called) was at. tended by his twelve apostles and a large number
of his followers, and the case attracted great interest. The court room was
thronged with prominent members of the bar and public men. Judge Pope was a
gallant gentleman of the old school, and loved nothing better than to be in
the midst of youth and beauty. Seats were crowded on the Judge's platform,
on both sides and behind the Judge, and an array of brilliant and beautiful
ladies almost encircled the court. Mr. Butterfield, dressed a la Webster, in
a blue dress -coat and metal buttons with buff vest, rose with dignity, and
amidst the most profound silence. Pausing, and running his eyes admiringly
from the central figure of Judge Pope along the rows of lovely women on each
side of him, he said:
" May it please the court:
" I appear before you to-day under circumstances most novel and peculiar. I
am to address the ' Pope ' [bowing to the Judge], surrounded by angels
[bowing still lower to the ladies], in the presence of the holy apostles, in
behalf of the Prophet of the Lord."
Another instance of Mr. Butterfield's infinite and ready wit was an instance
occurring in one of the Northern courts, held by Judge Jesse B. Thomas. Mr.
B. became irritated by the delay of the Judge in deciding a case, which he
had argued some time before. He came into court one morning, and said with
great gravity: "I believe, if your honor please, this court is called the
'Oyer and Terminer;' I think it ought to be called the 'Oyer sans
Terminer;'" and sat down. The next morning, when counsel were called for
motions, Mr. Butterfield called up a pending motion for a new trial in an
important case. "The motion is over-ruled," said Judge Thomas, abruptly; "
yesterday you declared this court ought to be called 'Oyer sans Terminer,'
so," continued the Judge, " as I had made up my mind in this case, I thought
I would decide it promptly.'''' Mr. Butterfield seemed, for a moment,
disconcerted, but directly added, " May it please your honor, yesterday this
court was a Court of Oyer sans Terminer; to-day your honor has reversed the
order, it is now Terminer SANS Oyer: But I believe I should prefer the
injustice of interminable delay rather than the swift and inevitable
blunders your honor is sure to make by guessing without hearing argument."
This reminds us of an apt retort made by M. J. Inscore to Judge Dougherty. A
case of considerable importance was pending before Judge Dougherty, and
attorneys from abroad — among others. Judge Mulkey, Hon. D. T. Linegar and
Judge W. J. Allen — were counsel. Several days had been consumed in hearing
the testimony and arguments on points raised, and finally it came to the
argument of counsel. Judge Dougherty announced they could have thirty
minutes on a side and no more. Inscore remonstrated earnestly, insisting
there were eminent counsel from abroad, and the case was long, tedious and
important, and it would be impossible for counsel to do justice to
themselves or their case in that brief time. The Judge was firm and Inscore
persistent, when finally the Judge remarked, with much emphasis, that the
best speeches of the great English bar had been made in thirty minutes.
"Yes," replied Inscore, "I know; but those men are all dead."
The history of the bench and bar of Pulaski County, from the removal of the
county seat from Caledonia to Mound City to the present time, will be found
in full in Dr. Casey's very interesting history of Mound City in this
volume.
Schools. — The educational history of the county should interest every
reader of this work, more, perhaps, than any other subject mentioned.
Nothing adds so much to the prosperity of a community, or to its
civilization and refinement, as a perfect system of common schools. The
early schools of this county, like the whole of Southern Illinois, were of
the commonest kind. After the repeal of what is known as the " Duncan law,"
the cause of education, for over a generation, was in anything but a
flourishing condition, not only in the county but in the S<^ate. For nearly
a half-century, the schoolhouses, books, teachers and manner of instruction
were of the most primitive character, and very different from what they are
at the present day. Then, too, there was an uncivilized element on the
frontier, who believed education was a useless and unnecessary
accomplishment, and only needful to divines and lawyers; that bone and
muscle, and the ability to labor, were the only requirements necessary to
fit their daughters and sons for the practical duties of life. A proverb
then current was " The more book learning, the more rascals." To quote a
localism of the day, " Gals didn't need to know nothin' about books and all
that boys orter know was how to grub, maul rails and hunt." That senseless
prejudice, born of the civilization of the time, has descended, in a slight
degree, to the present, and yet tinges the complexion of society in some
localities.
The pioneer schoolhouses, as a general thing, were poor, and are described
in other portions of this volume. A few of these humble temples of learning—
time-worn relics of the early days— are yet to be found in many portions of
Southern Illinois — eloquent of an age forever past. The pioneer teacher was
a marked and distinctive character in the early history of the county, and,
by common consent, was a personage of great importance. He was considered
the intellectual center of the neighborhood, around which revolved all the
learning of Greece and Rome, and hence he was consulted upon every subject,
public and private. But he, too, is a thing of the past, and we shall never
see his like again. He is ever in the van of advancing civilization, and
flees, like a frightened deer, before the whistle of the locomotive and the
click of the telegraph wires.
The county has, at the present time, thirteen log schoolhouses, and
twenty-seven frames, making a total of forty. There are two graded schools,
the remainder being ungraded. There are employed, in graded schools, seven
teachers — one male and six females; in ungraded schools, forty-eight
teachers — seventeen males and thirty-one females; whole number of teachers
employed is fifty-five. The number of pupils* enrolled in the county is
3,146; total population in the county, under twenty -one years of age, 2,897
males and 2,868 females; and the number reported between the ages of twelve
and twenty-one years, seventeen males and fourteen females unable to read.
The value of school property in county, $14,797; levy for school taxes,
$13,510.89; bonded school debt, $994.90; average wages paid male teachers
per month, $36.90; highest wages paid male teachers per month, $80; highest
wages paid female teachers, per month, $50; total amount paid teachers,
$9,609.
The county has made rapid advancement in the cause of education in the last
decade of years. New and commodious houses have been built, and older houses
repaired and refurnished, and every effort made to raise the schools to that
high standard of excellence which the progress of the age demands they
should be. Better teachers are now employed; better salaries are paid them,
and many other needed improvements have been added.
Churches. — In the pioneer days of Southern Illinois, it was not thought
necessary that preachers should be educated men. It was sufficient for them
to preach the Gospel from a knowledge of the Bible alone. They made their
appeals warm from the heart, painting the joys of heaven and the miseries of
hell to the imagination of the sinner, and terrifying him with the one, and
exhorting him, by a life of righteousness, to attain the other. The
earnestness of their words and manner, the vividness of the pictures they
drew of the ineffable bliss of the redeemed, and the awful and eternal
torments of the unrepentant, clothed in their rude, wild eloquence, were
irresistible, and the rough sons of the frontier trembled before them, as
the strong oaks of the forest are shaken by the sweep of the hurricane's
blast. Above all, they inculcated the sublime principles of justice and
sound morality, and were largely instrumental in promoting the growth of
intellectual ideas, in bettering the condition and in elevating the morals
of the people. To these old-time evangelists are we indebted for the first
establishment of Christian institutions throughout the country. They have
passed away, with the civilization of the period in which they lived and
labored, but they have left behind them the record of a mission well and
faithfully performed. May their sacred ashes repose in peace in the quietude
of their lonely graves, until awakened by the archangel's trump in the last
day.
The first preacher in this county, of whom we have any account, was a
Methodist preacher named West. . He was one of those self-appointed
missionaries of the frontier, who went from place to place, intent only on
showing men the way to better things by better living, that finally they
might reach that best of all — a home in heaven. Elders James Edwards and
Thomas Howard were also early preachers in the county. Elder Howard was a
man of generous mind, and co-operated freely with ministers of other
denominations. He believed that in " things essential there should be unity,
in things not essential there should be liberty, and in all things charity."
He was one of the founders of Shiloh Baptist Church, in the west part of the
county, in what was known as the Atherton settlement, one of the oldest, if
not the oldest, church organization in the county. Another Baptist Church
was afterward formed in the Sowers settlement — now Pisgah— and one at
Caledonia. About the same time, or shortly after, a church was organized and
a house built near Calvin's, called Mount Zion. Kev. "William Echols, a
zealous minister and worker in the cause of the Master, was the light and
life of this church as long as he lived. Thus, as population increased,
churches sprang up in all the different settlements of the county.
The following extract is from an article written by Rev. E. B. Olmstead, and
is pertinent to the subject: " Protracted and camp meetings were common;
people came to them from far and near. The meetings gave occasion for social
enjoyment not otherwise attainable. Little matters of business were adjusted
on the week days; what little politics there were was freely discussed, and
on Sunday, when most people were assembled, it was not uncommon for notices
to be read of horses or cattle strayed from this or that settlement,
belonging to this or that person, and thus the ox or ass was pulled out of
the ditch on the Sabbath Day. The preaching was of the faithful, earnest
sort. The hearers were men and women who, whatever may have been their moral
character, believed in the Bible as the Book of God, and never took refuge
in atheism or infidelity. The spirit and animus of these meetings naturally
encouraged the development of the emotional nature of the hearers, and led
to some extravagances; but the doctrinal pabulum was sufficiently strong, in
the less exciting times, to counteract that kind of sentiment." This is but
similar to all the early religious history of the country. Christianity has
kept pace with all other improvements of the nineteenth century. "' The good
old paths the fathers trod " are not adapted to our present refined tastes,
and we must needs broaden and smooth them for our especial benefit and use.
The county is well supplied with church organizations and commodious temples
of worship. Every village and hamlet, and nearly every neighborhood, has its
church and Sunday school. There is no lack of religious facilities, and if
the people do not walk in the "straight and narrow path," they have but
themselves to blame for any short comings laid up against them.
| Union | Johnson | |
| Alexander |
 |
Massac McCracken KY |
| Ballard KY |
