We’ve all heard people talk about “The good old days”, usually with nostalgia and giving an impression of a time of tranquility and the good life. Is this the way things really were? Let us consider the life our forefathers led, for example Henry McNeal and Joel Thompson who founded Hampton. They were young, McNeal 17 and Thompson a little older. They had left their families in Galena where they, themselves worked in the lead mines. At that time Galena was by far the largest city in Illinois. Chicago was a fever-ridden collection of shacks built in a swamp. Most of the population of Illinois lived in the southern part of the state. Illinois had been a state a bare 10 years.
There is a story about Illinois becoming a state. The law said that a territory must have at least a population of 30,000 before it could be admitted as a state. Those anxious to achieve statehood set out to hold a census. It wasn’t long before it became apparent that they would fall far short of that goal. It was decided to take the census in an innovative way. Men were posted at crossroads of the main thoroughfares through the state, which wasn’t hard because there were very few of them. They would tally up all the people that passed by. Of course, this meant that some people would be counted several times and also, people just passing through en route to other places would add to the “population”, In due time they had 30,000+. Nobody knows what the actual population was, but it was probably lower than any other state that was admitted to the Union.
There was another problem. The northern boundary of Illinois according to the Ordinance of 1787 (formation of the Northwest Territory) stretched from the most southern point of Lake Michigan straight west to the Mississippi. If that had been followed, today Chicago would be in Wisconsin and we would have been border line Cheeseheads. It was changed because of that old American bug-a-boo the slavery controversy. It was argued that if Illinois had no outlet to the Great Lakes it would turn its focus to the south and probably become a “slave state”. It was a good example of how slavery affected our country continually until the eruption of 1861. The boundary was changed and Illinois admitted as a state in 1818. We will celebrate this next year when Illinois’ quarter comes out. So our state entered the Union in a flurry of political chicanery. Some things never change.
By 1828 when McNeal and Thompson arrived the steamboat era was just beginning. It occurred on the lower Mississippi earlier, starting about 1811. It was not until 1823 that the first steamer powerful enough to navigate the more hazardous upper river, arrived. It was the “Virginia”, soon to be joined by 729 more by 1840 and ushering in a new era for transportation and commerce. Hampton was born as a result of these events. The enterprising young fellows, McNeal and Thompson obtained timber rights from the government and commenced cutting wood and selling it to the early steamboats that burned it for fuel. They made enough money to buy an acreage of government land, and in 1838, platted the town and, presto, here was Hampton!
But, what was life like for the two young pioneers? There was no motel 6 to hang your hat in. Not even a farmer to let you sleep in his barn. Probably, what the two young men did first, was to build what was termed a “three-faced camp”. Basically, 3 walls, leaving one side open. If you read a biography of Abraham Lincoln you find the Lincoln family living in one of these one winter. Typically the logs were stacked about 7 feet high. Poles were laid across about 3 feet apart. A roof of clapboards (made by splitting oak logs) was laid on the poles. There usually was a dirt floor. There were no doors, windows, or chimney. The open side of the “camp” served as all three. There would be a large pile of logs laid in front of the open end. They would be set on fire for warmth or cooking purposes. Some better than being in the open, but not a lot better. Also, they had to start from scratch and cut the logs, split the clapboards, and trim the poles before even starting to build. Yes, those were the good old days (sarcasm intended).
As soon as possible they built log cabins for each of them. Probably helping each other. For a person to do this alone is to terrible to think about. The cabin differed from the camp, in that it had 4 walls, a door, a window, a fireplace, and a chimney. The spaces between the logs was filled with sticks (called chinks) and then daubed over, inside and out with clay. Sometimes instead of a dirt floor, they had a floor of split logs with the split side up. For a fireplace a space was cut in the logs on one side, about 6 feet long, and filled with stone. The chimney was made of split sticks of wood covered inside and out with clay. This was called a “cat and clay” chimney. You might think there was a danger of fire with what was essentially a wooden chimney. You would be right. Chimney fires were commonplace and they were constructed in such a way that they could be torn off and keep the cabin from burning down. The doors were made of clapboards with leather hinges, woden ones if you wanted to be fancy. McNeal’s cabin was where the Soldier’s Monument now stands. Thompson’s was up stream about 3 blocks and was on the river side. We’re out of space here now; so you’ll have to wait till next time to hear about “the good old days”.