The Salines of Southern Illinois, George W. Smith

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Sailings of Southern Illinois by George W. Smith, from
the Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society, nineteen o four.
This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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(00:22):
LibriVox dot org. The evidence that salt was made within
the limits of the present state of Illinois by other
people than Indians and Europeans would not be regarded as
very trustworthy before a court of the common people. But

(00:43):
to the man who is accustomed to look into the
things about him in a scientific way, there is abundant
evidence that salt was manufactured in southern Illinois by a
people whose history antedates that of the tribes who inhabited
this country at the coming of the Europeans. The evidence

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of prehistoric salt making in the southern part of this
state rests very largely upon the fact that in the
region of salt springs and salt licks a species of
pottery is found whose use can be explained on no
other theory, so well as on the one which assumes

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that the vessels were employed in the manufacture of salt
on the Saline River which flows towards the east and southeast,
through the counties of Williamson, Saline, and Galatin. There are
two very noted localities. They are about four miles apart.

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One locality is noted for a very strong salt spring,
a strong sulfur spring, and a freshwater spring. This locality
has several names, but it is usually called the Nigger Spring,
the Nigger Well, and the Nigger Furnace. It is four

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miles down the river from the present town of Equality.
The other locality is marked by what in early times
was called the half Moon Lick, and also by very
strong deep wells. This point is about one mile from
the town of Equality and very near the Saline River.

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The earliest known English people to settle in this locality
came about eighteen hundred or possibly in eighteen o two.
In the region of the Nigger Spring and in that
of the Half Moon Lick, the earliest English settlers found
large quantities of all sorts of pottery, tomahawks, arrowheads, vases,

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and other similar articles. In addition to these familiar articles,
there was found a species of pottery unlike that found
in other localities. These pieces of pottery seemed to be
parts of large vessels. A sketch of Illinois, published in

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Philadelphia in eighteen thirty seven contains a short account of
Glatin County. The Nigger spring is called the Great Salt Spring.
This sketch says the principal spring was formerly possessed by
the Indians, who valued it very highly, and it appears

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probable that they had long been acquainted with the method
of making salt. Large fragments of earthenware are continually found
near the works, both on and under the surface of
the earth. They have on them the impression of basket
or wicker work. Mister Georgie Sellers, a very noted man

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of Galatin County, in an article in the September issue
of the Popular Science Monthly for eighteen seventy seven, attempts
to disprove the current belief that the markings on this
pottery were made by a basket or framework in which
the vessel is supposed to have been molded. His theory

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is that the impressions were made by wrapping coarse cloth
around the vessels as they were lifted off the mold
which was within the vessel. Mister Sellers quotes from a
number of scientific writers who seem to have either visited
the region around the Great Salt Spring, or else had
specimens of pottery from that locality. All the gentlemen who

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have examined this peculiar pottery are of the opinion that
the vessels were used in the manufacture of salt. Mister
Sellers first visited the place as early as eighteen fifty four,
and he says at that time that all about the
salt springs there was an abundance of this pottery. Just

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above the springs, on a ridge which was in cultivation
as early as eighteen fifty four, mister Sellers found acres
actually covered with the old salt pans. He thinks the people,
whoever they were, were accustomed to take the water upon
the hill, and there in the pans let the water evaporate.

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Possibly the process was hastened by dropping into the pans
large stones previously heated in a fire. Again, all around
the Half Moon Lick, which is near the town of Equality,
large quantities of the same kind of pottery has been found.

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In the report of the Illinois Board World's Fair Commissioners
eighteen nine three, page two eighty three, Professor William McAdams
says these salt pans have been found in abundance, both
in and around the salt works in Illinois and in
Missouri near Saint Genevieve. He describes them all as having

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those peculiar markings to which I have referred. Mister McAdams
found two of these pans entire near the salt works
at Saint Genevieve, Missouri. They were serving as a coffin.
It seemed the corpse was put into one of these pans,
and another pan inverted over the first one, and then

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some earth thrown over the casket. Professor McAdams says these
salt pans are from three to five feet in diameter.
There are traditions that the salt springs, wells, and licks
on the Saline River in Gale Latin County were operated
by the Indians and French for many years previous to

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the coming of the English about eighteen hundred. Certain it
is that the French understood the salt making process. The Indians,
without doubt knew where the springs and licks were. An
English gentleman, writing to the Earl of Hillsboro in seventeen
seventy in speaking of the region around the mouth of

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the Wabash and the saline rivers mentioned the abundance of
salt springs in that region. Captain Thomas Hutchins, in a
book called Topographical Description of Virginia, in describing the region
of the Wabash, says, the Wabash abounds with salt springs,

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and any quantity of salt may be made from them
in a manner now done in the Illinois country. This
was in seventeen seventy eight, twenty two years before the
coming of any English people. Mister Charles Carroll of Shawnee
Town told me it had always been his understanding that

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the French operated the wells and springs several years previous
to eighteen hundred. A History of Illinois, said to have
been written by Calvin Leonard and published by Iverson, Blakeman,
Taylor and Company about eighteen seventy, has an account of
salt making by the French and of a massacre of

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them by the Shawnee Indians. The Chicago Historical Society knows
nothing of such a book, and I have doubts of
its existence. Count Volney, who made a tour of North
America from seventeen ninety five to seventeen ninety eight, spent
considerable time in Vincennes in seventeen ninety eight, and speaks

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of the brine springs at Saint Genevieve, Missouri, but says
not a word about the springs on the Saline River.
Mister William McAvoy, now of Equality, says that General Leonard
White knew Volney very well, and says that General White
told him McAvoy that Volney stayed a month in the

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neighborhood of the salt works. I pressed mister McAvoy very closely,
and he still insisted that General Leonard White had often
told him of Volney's visit to the locality. But I
could not find a single word about the salt works
on the Saline in Volney's writings, So I am inclined

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to think there is some error in mister McAvoy's tradition.
The earliest reference I was able to find in the
American state papers is in the Law of May eighteenth,
seventeen ninety six. In an Act of this date, it
is made the duty of the working for the United

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States and making surveys in the territory northwest of the
Ohio River, to observe closely for mines salt springs and
salt licks and mill seats. Evidently there were no wells
or springs operated in Ohio this early. For in the
life of Ephraim Cutler, son of Reverend Manassa Cutler, he

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says that in seventeen ninety six, when he came to
the settlements below Marietta, that there was no salt to
be had west of the mountains except at Marietta, and
what was for sale here had been brought over the
mountains on pack horses. He says further that this salt
was sold for sixteen cents per pound. Mister Cutler further

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says that in seventeen ninety eight the Shawnee Indians told
Lieutenant George Irving that fifty miles inland from the Ohio
River there was a salt spring. Search was made and
the spring found near what is now the town of Chandlersville,
ten miles southeast of Zanesville. A salt company was organized

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by four settlements and men sent to make salt. Four
men could make six bushels a week by hard work.
In the winter of seventeen ninety nine and eighteen hundred.
William Henry Harrison was the delegate in Congress from the
territory of the Northwest. In his report, mister Harrison says,

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upon inquiry, we find that salt springs and salt licks
on the east of the Muskegem and near the Great
Miama are operated by individuals and timber is being wasted. Therefore,
we recommend that salt springs and salt licks, property of
the United States, yet in the territory northwest of the Ohio,

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ought to be leased for a term of years. The
report was referred to the Committee of the Whole, but
no definite action was taken on the committee's recommendation. Harrison
became governor of the Indiana Territory in the summer of
eighteen hundred. In eighteen o two, he visited Kaskaskia and

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was there importuned to call a convention to take steps
looking toward the introduction of slavery into the Northwest Territory.
The convention was called in the fall of eighteen o two.
Among other things, the convention asked Congress too annull the
sixth article of the Ordinance of seventeen eighty seven and

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to grant sailine below the mouth of the Wabash to
the territory. Congress received the memorial and granted neither of
the two requests. On March third, eighteen o three, Congress
authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to lease the salt
springs and licks for the benefit of the government. On

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June seventh of the same year, Harrison negotiated a treaty
at Fort Wayne between the government and five Indian tribes.
This treaty ceded to the United States two million, thirty
eight thousand, four hundred acres of lands in what is

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now southern Indiana and Illinois. In the same summer of
eighteen o three, Governor Harrison leased the sailing on the
Saline River to a Captain Bell of Lexington, Kentucky. I
am inclined to think that probably this Captain Bell was

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at that time working the salt springs on Saline River
by permission of the un Indians. Reynolds says. The first
white man to settle in Shawnee Town was a Michael Sprinkle,
who came about eighteen o two, and about the same
time a Frenchman, La Bosier settled there and ran a

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ferry to accommodate people who were coming out of Kentucky
to the salt works on the Saline River. Captain Bell
no doubt worked the salt springs till the end of
eighteen oh six. For the records show that for the
year eighteen o seven the works were leased to John
Bates of Jefferson County, Kentucky. By Active Congress March twenty sixth,

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eighteen oh four, there were established three land offices, one
at Kaskaskia, one at Detroit, and one at Vicenne's. And
by the same act, all salt springs, wells and licks
with the necessary land adjacent thereto were reserved from sale

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as the property of the United States. The territorial governor
was authorized to lease these salt wells and springs to
the best advantage of the government. On the thirtieth of
April eighteen o five, Governor Harrison appointed his friend Isaac White,
then of the Sins, to be government agent to reside

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at the salt works and to receive the rental due
the United States. Mister White assumed the duties of his
position and was assisted by John Marshall, who probably lived
in Shawnee Town. Just where White resided is not known,
but presumably at what I have designated as the Nigger Well.

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Some four miles below equality. In eighteen o six September eighth,
Governor Harrison appointed mister White a captain in the U. S.
Knox County Militia from evidence of a private nature. White
himself became lesi of the salt works in eighteen o
eight and perhaps retained control of them till eighteen ten

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or eighteen eleven. While Captain White was residing at the
salt works, he became involved in a difficulty with a
Captain Butler, and Butler challenged White to mortal combat. The
challenge was accepted, and two days before the day set
for the duel, Captain White wrote his wife, who perhaps

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was at Vincenne's, a very touching letter, telling her he
expected to be killed. On the same day that he
wrote his wife, he made his will, signed and sealed it.
On the day set for the duel, Butler and White
both appeared on the appointed spot, and they were informed

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by their seconds that horse pistols were the weapons distance
six feet. Butler backed down and refused to fight, saying
that it would be murder and he could not engage
in such an affair. In eighteen eleven, Captain White, now
a colonel in the Illinois militia sold out his interest

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in the salt works to three men, Jonathan Taylor of
Randolph County, Illinois, Charles Wilkins, and James Morrison of Lexington, Kentucky.
From the beginning of eighteen o eight to eighteen eleven,
Leonard White, afterwards known as General Leonard White, seems to

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have been the government agent. He himself later on became
interested in salt making. In the summer of eighteen eleven,
Colonel Isaac White was in Vincennes's and was initiated into
the Masonic lodge at that place, and on September nineteenth,
eighteen eleven, he was raised to the sublime degree of

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Master Mason. Colonel Joe Davies of Kentucky, who was in
Vincennes's at that same time, acted as Worshipful Master. Colonel
Davies was in Vincennes's in response to an invitation from
Governor Harrison preparatory to an attack upon the Indians. On

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November seventh, eighteen eleven. Colonel Davies and Colonel White fell
side by side in the Battle of Tippecanoe. On February twelfth,
eighteen twelve, Congress created the Shawnee town Land district. Thomas
Slew was appointed Register and John Caldwell was made Receiver.

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In this same act, a provision authorized the President to
reserve not less than one township of the land around
the salt works from sale. Leonard White, Willis Hargrave, and
Philip Trammell were made a commission to select the lands
which should be reserved as the sailing reservation. They performed

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their duty and set aside ninety six thousand, seven hundred
sixty six point seven nine acres. This was something over
four townships. This was and is yet called the reservation.
About the same time, mister Slough notified the General Land

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Office that there were sailing indications in other localities in
southern Illinois, and he was accordingly authorized to make reservations
adjacent to such springs or licks. Mister Slough made a
tour of inspection, and as a result, about eighty four

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thousand acres additional were reserved for sailing purposes. From eighteen
o seven to the admission of Illinois August twenty sixth,
eighteen eighteen, the entire rental occurring to the United States
from the sailings on the Saline River was one hundred

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and fifty eight thousand, three hundred and ninety four bushels,
and the total cash turned into the treasury for the
same time was twenty eight thousand, one hundred sixty point
twenty five dollars. Ohio turned in two hundred forty dollars
in the same time, while Indiana, Kentucky, and Missouri made

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no returns. In eighteen eighteen, April eighteen, an enabling Act
was passed by which Illinois was permitted to make a
constitution and apply for admission into the Union. The act
contains seven sections. The sixth section has four parts. Part

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two reads as follows, all salt springs within such State
and the land reserved for the use of the same,
shall be granted to the said State for the use
of said State, and the same to be used under
such terms and conditions and regulations as the Legislature of

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the said State shall direct. Provided the legislature shall never
sell nor lease the same for a longer period than
ten years at any one time. In pursuance of this Act,
the Constitutional Convention met at Kaskaskia in the summer of

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eighteen eighteen and made a constitution. In that constitution are
some provisions that used to be a great mystery to me.
Act six deals with the question of slavery. Section two
of the sixth Article reads as well follows. No person

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bound to labor in any state shall be hired to
labor in this state, except within the tract reserved for
the salt works near Shawnee Town, nor even at that
place for a longer period than one year at any
one time, nor shall it be allowed there after the

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year eighteen twenty five. Any violation of this article shall
effect the emancipation of such person from his obligation of service.
The second section of the sixth Article provides that all
indentures entered into without fraud or collusion prior to the

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making of the Constitution according to the laws of Illinois Territory,
shall be held as valid, and the person so indented
must be held to a fulfillment of the agreement in
the contract. Section one provides that no person could be
held to service under an indenture hereafter to be made

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unless the person was in a state of freedom at
the time of making his contract, and indentures made by
negroes and mulatos are not valid for a longer time
than one year. This sixth Article deals almost wholly with
conditions at the salt works on the Saline River. At

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the time the Constitution was made, Congress as well as
the territorial legislature of the Northwest Territory, was memorialized time
and again for some relief from the sixth article of
the Ordinance of seventeen eighty seven. As soon as Indiana
Territory passed into the second grade of political organization, the

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legislature passed a law permitting the bringing into the territory
of negroes and mulattos who were slaves in other states.
The law which regulated the bringing in of the slaves
while Illinois was a territory was passed by the legislature
of Indiana in eighteen o five. It provided one that

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slaves over fifteen years of age might be brought in
from slave states, and within thirty days the owner might
enter into an agreement with the said slave by which
the slave agreed to work in Illinois for a stated
time for a consideration. Two. If within the thirty days

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the slave refused to enter into such an agreement, his
master had thirty days in which to return him to
a slave state. This law was applicable in any part
of the Indiana territory, but it was especially advantageous to
the leasees of the salt works on Saline River. Mister

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says in the article in the Popular Science Monthly that
the Nigger Well or salt works was worked almost wholly
by Negro slaves. The Reverend Samuel Westbrook, now ninety five
years of age, told me he came to Johnson County
in eighteen twelve and from there finally to Equality in

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eighteen twenty six. At that time, the wells about the
Half Moon Lick were vigorously operated. I was very particular
to ask him about the use of slave labor, and
he seemed to think there were a great many negroes
and mulattos at work in the various forms of industry.

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But he seemed to think that most of the colored
people were free at that time. In my search for
information relative to the use of slave labor in the
salt works, I was directed to a colored family seven
miles northwest from Equality. I found the man of the house,

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mister George Eliot, about fifty years old, while an unmarried
sister was sixty two years old. I found these colored
people very intelligent and quite prosperous farmers. When I made
my mission known, mister Elliot said his sister would provide
me with all their old papers. His sister brought out

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a large roll of papers that belonged to their father.
From these two colored people and the papers I secured
the following facts. Their father, Cornelius Eliot, was born a
slave in seventeen ninety one. His master was John Eliot
of Moray County, Tennessee. Cornelius had evidently been a laborer

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in the salt works on the Saline River from the
time he was old and large enough to be of service.
In eighteen nineteen, Timothy Guard, one of the leases of
the salt works, seems to have gone into Tennessee and
bought this slave, Cornelius of John Eliot. He brought the

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negro to the Half Moon Lick and set him to work.
Cornelius was a cooper, and beryls were in great demand.
In eighteen twenty one, Timothy Guard had it in his
heart to set Cornelius free. It appears that Cornelius had
earned one thousand dollars in the three years. Either mister

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Guard had received directly the profit of the negro's labor
and counted it worth one thousand dollars, or else the
slave had been permitted to lay by his earnings at
any rate. I read an indenture on parchment which was
written in Timothy Guard's handwriting, in which he says that

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in consideration of one thousand dollars cas cash in hand,
he gives Cornelius his freedom. The document is signed by
Timothy Guard and sworn to before John Marshall, a Justice
of the Peace. Following which is a certificate by Joseph M. Street,
who was Clerk of the court, to the effect that

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John Marshall was a Justice of the Peace. Within a
few years after Cornelius had purchased his own freedom, he
bought the freedom of his mother and three brothers. For
one of his brothers, he paid the sum of five
hundred and fifty dollars, and I read the manumission papers.

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In eighteen twenty eight, Cornelius married a free negress from Kentucky.
He then bought eighty acres of land and commenced farming.
He afterwards bought more land, and at the time of
his death he owned three hundred and sixty acres of
good farming land six or seven miles d northwest of Equality.

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This story of Cornelius Elliott is probably only one of
scores of similar stories which may be truthfully told of
the period of industrial service in the salt works in
Galatin County. In eighteen eighteen, when Illinois became a state,
the salt springs, wells, and licks with the lands adjacent

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became the property of the State of Illinois. At this
time there were in existence five distinct leases of salt
wells and springs from the United States to individuals. The
leases had been made by Ninian Edwards, representing the government
an all board date of eighteen seventeen. One was with

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Willis Hargrave and Meredith Fisher, a second was with Jonathan Taylor,
a third with George Robinson, a fourth was with James Ratcliffe,
a fifth with Timothy Guard. The benefit of the unexpired
leases from August twenty, sixth, eighteen eighteen to June nineteenth,

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eighteen twenty fell to the State of Illinois. The legislature,
which met at Kaskaskia in the winter of eighteen eighteen
eighteen nineteen, authorized the Governor of the state to continue
these leases with the above named gentlemen. The governor was
also authorized to lease the Big Muddy Sailing for a

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term of ten years. This sailing was in Jackson County,
three miles west of the present city of Murphysboro. This
sailing had been leased to Conrad Will March twenty fifth,
eighteen fifteen for three years. Brownsville was made the county
seat of Jackson County in eighteen sixteen. The salt wells

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were near the town, one a half mile above and
one a mile below or down the river from the town.
Mister Will came to Keskaskia from Pennsylvania about eighteen eleven.
He bought a drove of cattle and took them back
to Pennsylvania. He must have returned shortly after this, for

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he seems to have been in Kaskaskia some time previous
to his leasing the wells in eighteen fifteen. It is
more than probable that either mister Will or someone else
was working the wells on Big Muddy prior to eighteen fifteen.
At least mister Will returned to Pennsylvania the second time,
it seems, after kettles to make salt. These kettles, mister

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Will probably brought down the Ohio, up the Mississippi, and
then up the Big Muddy on keel boats. He brought
his family to Brownsville about eighteen fourteen or eighteen fifteen.
He lived at first in a double log house, which
is said to have stood for many years. Help was

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scarce in Jackson County in eighteen fifteen, so mister Will
is said to have gone into Kentucky and brought slaves
to his salt works. Conrad Will was a doctor and
his granddaughter now living in Carbondale. As some of his books,
he made salt and ran a ten yard. He served

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in the Constitutional Convention of eighteen eighteen and in several
of the early legislatures. He had one granddaughter, who was
born in eighteen twenty eight. Several years before mister Will's death.
In eighteen twenty four, the legislature authorized the governor to
lease the Big Muddy Sailing to James Pierce. In eighteen

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twenty seven, mister Pierce, not having accomplished much in his
salt making, the legislature relieved him of his obligation relative
to the salt works. In eighteen thirty four. The wells
were leased to Conrad Will again till eighteen forty. At
this time eighteen forty the lands should be sold. There

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is no record of any income to the general government
or to the state from the big muddy sailine. At
this place, as I have noted, there were two wells
about a mile apart. The machinery consisted of a row
or double row of kettles set over an open ditch.

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The sides of this ditch were lined with cut sandstone.
At one end of the row of kettles the fires
were kept going, and at the other end of the
row was a smokestack. The kettles were very large, holding
about one hundred gallons each to Within the past ten
years the old furnaces were quite undisturbed, but of late

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the rocks have all been taken out to make foundations.
The old kettles are scattered over the neighborhood and are
used chiefly for scaling the hogs at butchering time. One
of the wells had a copper pipe running down into
the earth through which the water flowed out at the top.

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A few years ago, an enterprising citizen hitched his team
to the pipe and twisted it off several feet below
the surface. Water still flows out at that point. There
was in the first part of the last century a
sailine in Monroe County, nine miles due west of the

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present city of Waterloo. It was owned and worked by
General Edgar. The Honorable ac Bollinger of Waterloo took the
pains to secure some facts about this siline, but he
was unable to secure any information of value. Colonel William R.

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Morrison was unable to furnish anything definite, but suggested that
doctor Lewis James of Old Minds, Missouri, might be able
to give some valuable facts concerning this sailing, but a
letter to the doctor failed to bring a response. In
eighteen twenty six, the United States Senate asked the Secretary

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of the Treasury for a complete report of all incomes
from the sailings and also a description of all reservations.
In this report from the Secretary of the Treasury, no
mention is made of sailings in Monroe, Madison, or Bond Counties. However,
from reliable sources we know that Judge Biggs made salt

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in Madison on Silver Creek and in Bond on Shoal Creek.
And from an Act of the Legislature in eighteen twenty seven,
it appears that Stephen Galliard and Samuel Montgomery were leases
of a sailing on Shoal Creek. In by Act of
the Legislature January twenty third, eighteen thirty three, the Governor

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was authorized to lease the sailings in Bond County or
to appoint an agent to take charge of them. The
wells were on Section thirty two in Township six, Range four.
One section was reserved from sale. The first well was
just at the edge of the water of Shoal Creek.

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The settlers dug a second well on higher ground and
do the water with ordinary water buckets. The boiling was
done in kettles, and it is said there were as
many as ninety of them. Many of the kettles are
to be found in the locality. Besides Montgomery and Galliard

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above referred to James Coyle, Spencer, John Lee, and other
made salt here. James Coyle settled near the wells in
eighteen seven seventeen. On April fourth, eighteen twenty two, a
sun Jeremiah Coyle was born, and he still lives on

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the old homestead. I am indebted to the Reverend Thomas W.
Hines for the facts about the Shoal Creek saline in
the early days of salt making on the saline river.
Wood only was used for fuel. The water was boiled
in large cast iron kettles, holding from sixty to one

(37:30):
hundred gallons. They were placed in rows, and one furnace
would sometimes have from twenty to thirty kettles. At first,
the furnace was close to the well or spring. Timber
was plentiful and it was not difficult to keep the
furnace supplied with fuel. As time went on, the process

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became more systematic and the works grew. More timber was
needed to make more salt. The item of hauling wood
three or four miles became a serious one. In those days,
there were professional axemen, expert teamsters, and skilled firemen. It

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was a busy scene. Twenty or thirty axemen in the timber,
eight or ten, four or six mule teams on the
roads from the timber to the furnaces, six or eight
regular firemen, kettle hands, coopers, salt packers, salesmen, timekeepers, boarding

(38:32):
house keepers, freighters, hoop pole merchants and hangers on by
the score. The water was put in fresh at the
fire end of the row and moved from kettle to
kettle back toward the chimney, where there was a large
flat stirring off pan. Attached to this pan was a

(38:53):
large draining board. The salt was scraped up to one
side of the pan and shoveled up on this board.
The water drained back into the pan and the salt
became dry. It was then taken to the salt shed,
where it was packed in barrels and was then ready
for the market. When the timber had been used up

(39:16):
back three or four miles, then they moved the works
to the fuel. The water must now be gotten to
the furnaces. This to modern engineers would be a simple problem,
but to our friends of one hundred years ago, it
was not so simple a task. The plan required a long,
tedious preparation. Large straight trees from sixteen to twenty feet

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long in body were cut. They must be at least
ten inches in diameter at the small end. This would
make them fourteen to sixteen inches in diameter at the
large end. With a four inch auger. A hole was
bored lengthwise through this law. The opening in the large

(40:02):
end was seamed to about six inches in diameter, while
the small end was trimmed down to about six inches
from outside to outside. Strong iron bands were then put
on the large end, and the small end of another
log was forced into the large end of the first log.
The second log was driven into the first with a

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sort of battering ram, such as we have used to
bombard the large hickory trees to knock off nuts in
the fall of the year. These wooden pipes were laid
from the spring or well to the furnace, which was
often three to five miles away. The pipelines are said
to have been always straight and went over hills and

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across creeks. However, the country is comparatively level. When the
pipes crossed the creeks, they waded the pipes to the
bottom of the stream with large castings in the general
form of a horseshoe. These were straddled over the logs
and are said to have weighed two hundred and fifty

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to three hundred pounds. All the pipes made prior to
eighteen fifty were made by hand, but about eighteen fifty,
or probably a little later, they were bored by horse power.
As said before, the pipeline took a straight line from
the well to the furnace. At the well, a pump,

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or rather an elevator was rigged up a continuous belt
with flat buckets riveted to it. This crude elevator raised
the water ten, twenty or thirty feet as needed, and
thence it flowed down an upright pipe which connected at
the bottom with the regular pipeline. I was not able

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to determine whether or not there were relay stations, but
I am inclined to think there were. The cisterns where
these elevators were located were called heisting cisterns. The fact
that this piping system was in use in an early
day has led to some errors with regard to wells.

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Some people living in those regions have thought there was
a well wherever there was a furnace, and the old
furnaces are thick all over the country. This is not
the case. There were few wells, but the piping system
carried the water in all directions. The two chief places
where wells were sunk were at the Nigger Spring and

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at Half Moon Lick. It has been estimated that one
hundred miles of pipe was laid from eighteen hundred to
eighteen seventy three. The first wells were probably square and
were twenty feet in diameter and about sixty feet deep.
They were walled up with logs. All the old walls.

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Wells as they appear today are circular and are about
twenty to twenty five feet in diameter and from four
to ten feet deep, with sloping sides. The water rose
in these wells to within a few feet of the
top of the ground in what may be called the
middle period of salt making. Pipes were sunk in the

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bottom of these wells and a stronger brine secured. Timothy Guard,
who was connected with salt making as early as eighteen
sixteen and as late as eighteen thirty or later, dug
a deep well near the half Moon Lick, perhaps as
late as eighteen twenty five. The well was dug down

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some sixty feet and walled up, and then a boring
was made in the bottom of this well. A very
fine quality of brine was thus secured, and Guard's Well
is a very noted place, though few could point out
the exact spot. A large tree is growing on the
inner margin of this well. Its banks are grassy, and

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water stands in it some six feet below the surface
of the ground. This well was used till about eighteen
fifty four. About this time a company was formed consisting
of Stephen R. Rowan, Andrew McAllen, Chalen guard Abner Flanders,
Broughton Temple and Joseph J. Castle. They made preparation to

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manufacture salt on a more extensive scale than ever before.
They sunk another deep well at great expense and expended
so much money that the company broke up, and Castle
and Temple eventually became the owners of the grounds and improvements.
These two men proceeded to complete the preparations for the

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manufacture of salt. Large boilers, engines, and pumps were installed.
Large boiler iron evaporating pains were placed over the furnaces
instead of the kettles. These pans were from twelve to
twenty feet wide and extended from the grates to the
smoke stack a distance of sixty or seventy feet. There

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were three such rows of pans, all connected with the
same smoke stack. The old pans are lying there now
in the weeds and brush. I calculated their area and
found they covered about three thousand square feet. The pans
were from ten to twelve inches deep. Coal had been

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discovered in a nearby hill, and it was substituted for wood.
A tramway was built from the coal mine to the furnaces.
The water or brine was pumped from the deep wells
to the top of the thorn house. This thorn house
was a frame structure resembling in general appearance the false

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work used in constructing a bridge across a small river.
It was twenty or thirty feet wide at the bottom
and extended sixty feet high, narrowing towards the top. This
would be the end view. It extended some one hundred
fifty or one hundred seventy five feet in length. There

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were quite a number of cross beams, ties and braces,
and the whole inner space was filled with bundles of
thorn bushes. These bundles of thorn bushes were carefully packed
in the framework in such a way that all space
was completely filled with them. These thorn bushes were found

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in great quantities all about the works. On top of
this thorn house, running its entire length, was a trough
full of small holes. The brine was pumped into this
trough and allowed to float gently to the other end,
and if it did not trickle through the holes on

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the first trip, it was guided into another trough and
caused to float down it till all had passed through
the openings in the bottom of the trough. This brine
now trickled through the thorn fagots to the bottom of
the structure, where it was caught in a large trench

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and conveyed to a large retaining basin. This thorn house
was a great mystery to the infrequent visitors to the
salt works. There are two explanations of its office in
salt making. One that the brine, in passing from the
top of the structure to the bottom lost by evaporation

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forty percent of the water. This was a great saving
of fuel and labor in the boiling process. Another explanation
of its use was this in evaporating the brine by
boiling the water, there were deposits of some substance like
gypsum at the bottom of the pan, which adhered to

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the bottoms of the pans, and, if not often removed,
would prevent the passage of the heat from the fire
to the water, and thus the pans would be burned. Now,
the thorn bushes were supposed to have the power to
crystallize this foreign matter and thus purify the brine. This

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plant was owned and operated by Temple and Castle from
about eighteen fifty four to eighteen seventy three. They are
said to have made five hundred bushels of salt every
twenty four hours. In about eighteen seventy three, Temple and
Castle constructed a very complete plant a mile away at

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the coal mine, thinking it cheaper to move the water
to the coal than the coal to the water. The
plant was an expensive one, and when everything was nearly
ready for work, hard times came on. Salt became cheap,
and the new works were never put into operation. In

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course of time, the machinery was removed and little is
left to mark the new plant. On December eighteenth, nineteen
o three, I visited this region. I spent four days
in gathering up the facts concerning this great industry of
a former age. It was a pleasant task. Mister A. D. Blankenship,

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a former student in the Normal, was kind enough to
furnish me a conveyance and accompany me in my investigations
on reaching equality. I was fortunate to make the acquaintance
of Messrs Moore, Druggists, who are very much interested in
preserving the story of early days about their town. Mister

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Harry Moore accompanied me to the old works. The ground
is quite level and subject to overflow. The day was
an ideal spring day, and as I stood on the
spot where for three fourths of a century a great
industry flourished, I had a strange feeling. It was deathly still.

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There were no noises, no bird songs, no cattle, no life.
A mile away we could hear the noise of the village,
a passing train, and the noise about the coal mine
and coke ovens. We soon came to the cinder roads,
and then we knew we were near the furnaces now.

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And then we passed an old well. We had a
camera and we took views of wells, pans, thorn bushes,
et cetera. We found the old furnaces. The outlines of
the old pans are still to be seen. One old
pan is quite well preserved, but it will soon be

(50:53):
molded back to earth. Whence it came, We found the
old retaining cistern and found the location of the old
residence of temple and Castle. About a quarter of a
mile away, we visited the noted half moon lick. This
is some one half quarter long and half quarter wide
at the widest part. It is about twenty or twenty

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five feet deep and is destitute of any growth except
some willows and tufts of grass. This lick is supposed
to have been the resort of wild animals for centuries past.
The teeth and bones of masterdons have been found here.
We got a fairly good view of this lick. The

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afternoon I spent with mister McAvoy, a very intelligent and
courteous old gentleman who came to Equality about eighteen fifty five.
Mister McAvoy is a friend of mister Temple and is
in possession of much valuable information which he has gathered
in the last half century. The second day, I visited

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the Nigger Well, four miles below Equality and across the
river from the town. There was a downpour of rain
this day which prevented me from making a close study
of this region. However, I was able to find the
exact spot the Nigger spring, which was salt and is
the one evidently just used. The sulfur spring, which I

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found very strong and was evidently formerly in use, for
the old timbers are still to be seen embedded in
the mud, and the fresh water spring not far away.
These are all described by Colonel Cellars as early as
eighteen fifty four. Just to the right as you go
down the river towards the southeast is a high range

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of hills, and at the Nigger Well the bluffs come
close to the river. And it is just up on
these bluffs where Colonel Cellars used to find the Indian
graves and evidences of a village. A few yards below
the springs, I found a native to the manor born.
He had lived in that immediate vicinity for fifty years

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and seemed a little surprised to think anyone would attach
any importance to these old salt springs. He told me
that in a little bottom field just in front of
his house and lying just below the springs, that he
had plowed up bushels of broken pottery, and that the
whole field seemed to be one big furnace. I asked

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him if any salt had been made there within the
last fifty years, and he said that everything looked just
as it did fifty years ago. I examined carefully the trees,
and I am very sure there are many of them
three feet in diameter. And yet Colonel Sellers affirms that
in an early day, every stick of timber was cut

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off for fuel. I learned from the native above referees, too,
that there was an old pipeline running from the springs
near to an old furnace down the creek, but across
from his house. And he said he was sure the
old kettles were there yet, but said they were covered
up in the dirt, but he was sure they could

(54:17):
be found. He said further that another line of pipe
led to a furnace further down the river. This line
may have led to weeds works which were one half
mile below the island ripple. I visited Shawnee Town and
spent considerable time with mister Charles Carroll, whom I found
to be a very pleasant gentleman. He is probably the

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best informed man in Shawneetown on early Galatin County history.
I spent some time in the Recorder's office verifying some
facts which I had gathered elsewhere. Incidentally, I took one
occasion to visit the old flag said to have been
carried in the Revolutionary War by General Pavey. I also

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viewed for a few moments the old brick house in
which General Lafayette was entertained this is called the Rawlins House. Finally,
I viewed with no little interest, the humble home in
which Illinois's greatest soldier and our honored guests to day
were married, General and Missus Juno A. Logan. The third day,

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in company with mister McAvoy, mister McIntyre, mister Bunker, and
mister Smith, I visited again the old salt works on
the outskirts of Equality. This second visit was very profitable,
for mister McIntyre was from a boy and employee about
the works, and most of the time in the capacity
of cooper. Mister McIntyre knew every foot of the ground,

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and with his help I drew a map locating every
important place of interest about the grounds. On this day,
in company with doctor Gordon and mister McAvoy, I called
to see Uncle Peter White Colored, now seventy years old.
Uncle Pete was brought up in the immediate vicinity of

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the salt works. When he was ten years old, he
and three other children were kidnapped and taken into Arkansas
and sold. He was afterwards rescued by wat White. Uncle
Peter's memory is good, and I gathered some valuable information
from him on the fourth day, I visited the Elliott

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family previously referred to, and also the Reverend Samuel Westbrook,
now living in El Dorado. Mister Westbrook was born in
eighteen o nine. He came to Johnson County in eighteen twelve,
and in eighteen twenty six he came to Equality and
began laboring in various capacities in the salt making business.

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He was, among other things, a teamster. He had lived
in the immediate vicinity of the salt works for the
past seventy eight years and has a very vivid picture
of most of the incidents which occurred within that period.
The men and women who have lived in this region
from a very early day are very few, and their

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ranks are thinning every day. In a few years there
will be none living whose lives cover the period of
salt making. And so far as I have been able
to find out, little, if anything, has ever been written
and printed of this great industry of Southern Illinois and

(57:33):
of the salines of Southern Illinois. By George W. Smith,
from the Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society, nineteen
o four, read for LibriVox by Sue Anderson,