Hide Article Text (OCR)
Staunch Shiloh Township Landmark* ■* * . f . . . • •* • *FromStoodByIXOYDR. DeWITT Hewed timbers from theold Franklin S. Casey home will be among the exhibits at the folk festival to be heldAugust 3-4 at the old Norris barn at Waltonville.i i •• • *This staunch old house stood as a landmark on Mulberry Hill in Shiloh Township for nearly 140 years and was one of the first frame houses in the county. When razed in 1973 its timberswere still solid, and strong.Mulberry Hill is' located just a little north of the Richview Road and about three quarters of a mile west of the new Shiloh Church, it is one of the highest elevations in Jefferson County and from it one can see Mt. Vernon, Woodlawn and Waltonville. The first deed to the hill was made toFranklin S. Casey, though , other members of his family occupied it an an earliertime, and when Dr John W' • * .Watson came' to the county in 1621 he made his home there for about a year. Dr. Watson was the first physician in Jefferson county and the ancestor of the Watsons, who were prominent in the early history of the county.Mulberry Hill is the present home of Mr. and Mrs. Richard Payne. Mrs. Payne, the former Wilma Osborn, was born in the old Casey home. Volney Osborn, • who married Elizabeth, a daughter of Franklin S. Casey, was her great grandfather. Mr. Payne is a descendant of Joseph Payne who came to the county in 1835, and is related to Rufus Bond, early druggist of Mt. Vernon, and to Shadrach Bond, first governor of Illinois.vThe Paynes were reluctant to raze the old house which had stood there for so many years. Its timbers were still sound, but it had been vacant for a few years, and vandals, had done immense damage by breaking out the windows and almost wrecking the interior. The Paynes tore it down in 1973 and have built a modern new home on the old site.It is assumed that the hill - got its name from a grove of mulberry trees which the Caseys found there when they came to -the county in 1818. One giant mulberry| still stands and is believed to i be one of the original trees.| At the base it is nearly six feet in diameter, and from thi; base five large trunks branch out. It is about 65 ’feet high, and may be one of the oldest and largest mul-lierry trees in the state, Franklin S., Casey was anative of Tennessee and of Smith County (from which he got his middle name.) His father was Abraham P. Casey, a brother of Zadok.Franklin came with his'■ 1 . sfamily to this county in 1818. As young man he served as-a constable and later as a deputy sheriff. In 1829 he married Rhoda Taylor, daughter of Billington Taylor, Dr., Adam Clark John-I ,.son gives this account of his financial situation, and ofhis first house on MulberryHill:“All that he had was a horse and a few notes forwhich he had traded; and all that she had was a bed andtwo dollars, ih money thatshe had made By weaving. After living awhile at Mr. Taylor’s, C. sold hi£ horseand entered a. little land at* * \ ,the place where he afterwards lived so long; and as there was a little cabin on it erected a few years beforeby his brother Green’, hewent immediately upon his farm.-“The cabin was a poor one, the jams being pretty nearly burned out - of the chimney, and the clapboarddoor fitting up so poorly that a dog cOuld go in and out when it was shut; But Green gave Frank a colt to use for breaking it; G. also had a large stock of half-wild hogs, and he gave F a few hogs for his year’s supply of meat in return for help about taking care (of the stock; and he traded for a little corn thus making his bread and meat secure.” “The furniture was scanty, consisting of a bed scaffold,' a couple of old chairs and a bench as big as a common, shoemaker’s bench that served for a table. The two dollars refer-, i . ,red to got cups, saucers and plates, and a few glasstumblers. The cooking apparatus consisted of\ the never-failing and exceedingly useful skillet. Bread, you know, can be baked on a skillet, meat fried in it, andthen tea or coffee made in it.*But Auht Rhoda’s coffee in* *.that day would not have been coffee ‘by any other name.’ The tea was sassafras or sage, and the coffee parched corn, or sometimes wheat.”, The Caseys, however, lived only three or , four years in this primitive cabin. Franklin, was a good manager and was ambitious and industrious. His financial situation improved rapidly, and in three or. four years he began the building of the new house which in its time was to be one of the fi-nest in the county.But the construction of the Casey’ home in the 1830’s was a stupendous task which required about two years for its completion. At that time nearly every building in Jefferson County was a log structure, for there were no. sawmills ih the county and the building Of a frame house meant that sills, joists, studdings, rafters, roof boards, and even plastering lath had, to be split and hewed from oak logs. ■ - , /The tools then availableHillHouseWaltonville Festivalm'■iniwmmrnmy.v.ms.ya-V..IHMWi.*.v.Ay.•V.SV«•■y*:SV.V-•MVA’.V.■v,*JmmX*.S'**'•v*•M:V-V.Hmm.y.vA\.vv.♦ » • «HPwmww** v. ■*■Sfw;il.yvv*:y.y.'SAv.v.y.;avmft;•%Va'T:Xiii»i ••M.,■MvX‘.y.y.X*;*m.r*y-HOUSE ON MULBERRY HILL, built about 1836 by Franklin S. Casey and razed in 1973. The picture is copied from a small snapshot taken about 1928. The man on the porch is Fred Osborn a great-grandson.of thebuilder. H ’/were the cross cut saw, the mall add wedge, the broad ax the adz, the auger, the . drawing knife, aiid the froe. Some of these old tools will. 1 ' . ' ♦ -i 1 * • ' • *also be oh display at Waltonville.the front part of the Casey home was a two-story structure about 20 feet wide and 40 feet long. Attached at t he rear of the north ehd wasthe kitchen, a one-story addition about 20 feet square. It is said that originally the house had tall columns in front like those of many oldsouthern homes, but if it did, this jivas later changed to an ordinary porchthe photograph.niere were three large fireplaces having chimneys built of large sandstone blocks which came from a quarry near the old Shiloh cemetery. Some of the blocks weighed as much as 300 pounds and a few as much as 1500.Sandstone blocks werealso used for the . foundations', The outer sill: were from 14-inch timbers hewed to an ell shape to provide a ledge upon which the floor joists rested. The floor joists were 4 x 8’s, and the studdings were 4 x 4’s mortised into the sills and fastened with inch and a half wooden pegs. Topping the stpds was a 4 x 8 inch header into which the studdings were mortised and pegged. Theupper joists were 4 x 4’s apd the rafters 2 x 4’s. The original roofing was of long split boards or shakes. The walls and ceilings were lathedwith split lath and plastered with sand and lime plastering. The nails used were ofthe old square wrought iron type, and these were not much used for the framework, the parts of which were mortised and fastened with wooden pegs.. Planed weatherboarding,flooring and trim lumber■were hauled in ox-drawn wagons from Belleville, a distance of more than 70 miles, for that was the location of the nearest planing mill. The weatherboarding was of poplar and was eight inches wide,. The flooring was tongue and grooved oak planed on one side.When it was finally completed it was one of the best homes jn the county, and it stood as proof that its owner’s fortune was on the rise. The Caseys lived in thisabout 35 years and in it their eleven children grew up.r * 1 I T-* *•* * 1 V » . « . *• . . -J • ■ .t*'*4 «• *' ..... I ■- ’■ ?£* V,*• ; /i sI . • / A** 'I *T1 * ‘l’Farming and dealing in stock, Franklin prospered and came to own over a thousand acres of land. Healso held numerous offices*in the county. For several years he was a county judge and was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1848.According to Perrin, the historian, Mt. Vernon was selected as the site for the Supreme Court of the First Grand Division through the efforts of Franklin S. Casey, his uncle, Zadok Casey, and Judge Walter B. Scates.(The building is now the Appellate Court Building.)Leaving Mulberry Hill in 1870, Franklin S. Casey moved to Mt. Vernon and— 9built what Adam Clark Johnson termed a “splendid mansion” where he died ayear later. This, new home was located near what is now Seventeenth and Logan streets. It burned down a few years after his death.New fathers getpaternity leavesThe U.S. Department of Labor has become the first federal agency to grant paternity leaves to new fathers.Under a new collective bargaining agreement, Labor Department male employes are allowed up to 30 days’ leave when their child is bom. Time off can be charged to annual leave or taken withoutpay. — CNSBUILDING HITAn Army B-25 bomber crashed into the Empire State building on July 28, 1945, ripping a hole in the building’s side and killing 13.i ' iVt.«• vV * ■ « /.? jlt;• -A- * fXr ».• .*y.- • * % •«h -, a;rlt;* *. ’ ' i - v ■■/ftX..u./f-.MANION APPLIANCE CO.I I.* ’twV -lt; -•FINAL REDUCTIONSON ALL MERCHANDISE LEFT!■2 Upright qnd 1 Chest Food FreezersI . ‘■ ' ’i♦4 Washer Dryer Combinations1 Gas Dryer1 Electric Dryer3 Side By Side Refrigeratorsl.- \ i«7 Electric Ranges1 Gas Built-InCook fop Oven With Hood1 Electric Cook Top
Newspaper Details
Mt Vernon Register News
Mt Vernon, Illinois, US
Thu, Aug 01, 1974
Page 19
Full Page
Clipped by
Lori S.
USA 09 Apr 2023
Other Publications Near Mt Vernon, Illinois
Weekly Exponent
Mt Vernon News
Mt Vernon Free Press
Sucker State
Mt Vernon Unionist
