G. M. Hinshaw

As printed in 1874

George Hinshaw, Jr., was born December 26, 1820, on a farm two miles from the town of Monroe, the county seat of Overton County, Tennessee. He came from old English Quaker stock, his ancestors having emigrated from England to Ireland at an early day and from there to America. The majority of his relatives are still Quakers, though Mr. Hinshaw does not belong to that honored sect.

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His father's name was George Hinshaw, and his mother's maiden name was Susannah Johnson. Mr. Hinshaw, sr., the father of George Hinshaw of whom we are writing, came to Blooming Grove, McLean County, Illinois, in July, 1827. He had visited Illinois during the year previous, in company with Stephen Webb (now living at Twin Grove), and had made a claim of some land on the Kankakee River not far from Joliet. But when the family moved to Illinois the country was very wet, and it was impossible to go up to the Kankakee. More than that, some difficulty had occurred between the whites at the mining country near Galena and the Winnebago Indians, and the settlers feared an Indian war in the northern part of the State. All of these considerations determined Mr. Hinshaw not to go up on the Kankakee. The weather during their journey was terrible, and they were seven weeks in traveling. It rained very hard and the whole face of the country seemed covered with water. They crossed the Sangamon River at Newcom's Ford, this side of Urbana, on a raft, which they were obliged to build. They were delayed there one week. When they came to Cheney's Creek, they had great difficulty in crossing, and stopped to camp, and there a great hurricane came near blowing their horses and wagon away. Mr. Hinshaw, sr., bought a claim of twenty acres with a cabin and growing crop, in the south side of Blooming Grove, and there he built a house. He gave a wagon and yoke of oxen, worth in all about fifty dollars, for his claim. Money was then scarce. The price of a good cow was only five dollars. When he settled in Blooming Grove the government had surveyed the land, and shortly afterwards it was brought into market, and he bought two hundred and twenty acres for $1.25 per acre. This was all the money he had and he was thought to be rich ! At that time the Kickapoo and Pottawotamie Indians were plenty, and both tribes lived together in friendship. But they moved West about the time of the Black Hawk war. The Indians were always ready to trade, and exchanged buckskin and moccasins for pork, flour, tobacco, &c., &c. Mr. Hinshaw thinks these savages very polite people. When they make a visit, only one talks at a time, and in this respect they differ somewhat from the ladies of a sewing circle or a mite society. But these barbarians resemble the ladies in one respect, they are fond of display and love jewelry and trinkets, which they wear in their ears and sometimes in their noses. The Indians sometimes cultivated the ground and raised what they called squaw corn. This they buried in the ground when they went hunting in the fall, and sometimes did not dig it up until the following spring. They ground their corn by putting it into the hollow of a log and beating it with a pestle, as the settlers were obliged to do during the winter of the deep snow.

The early settlers were generous and hospitable. The "latchstring was always out." They kept no locks on their doors, a simple wooden latch was used, but only for the purpose of keeping out the wind and storm. They were more sociable than people now, and were always anxious to help their neighbors. There was not so much hunting after money then, for they had little money to hunt after. A word was as good as a bond, and they had no promissory notes, no bills, no banks, no newspapers and very little news. A letter from Tennessee was four or five weeks on the road, and postage was twenty-five cents.

Mr. Hinshaw went to school during the winter of the deep snow and spent his Saturdays in gathering corn and pounding it in a mortar. He thinks children learned more in those early days in a given length of time than they do at present, for then the teacher made them fear the rod.

Mr. Hinshaw has done his share of hunting, especially after wolves, which were a common pest. He has hunted them towards a pole put up in some central locality, when all the settlers would turn out from various parts of the country.

Mr. Hinshaw has had his experience, too, with fires on the prairie. He remembers one hard experience when he was going to mill with oxen and was overtaken by a fire. He tried to drive his oxen through it, but they refused to face the flames and turned and ran away in spite of all his efforts. At last he saw a place where a part of the fire had gone faster than the rest, leaving a gap in the road. Into this gap he rushed with his oxen and got through.

The year 1844 was the wet season. During that year he drove a herd of cattle from here to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He swam creeks and rivers of all kinds and sizes. He was delayed at the Kankakee and was fifteen days in crossing it. He m'lean county. 211- frequently drove his cattle in the river, but when they struck the swift current they turned for the shore from which they started, and came back. But at last he found a tall ox, which touched bottom, and went across, and the rest followed. Mr. Hinshaw has had a varied experience with stock. About three years ago he went to Kansas and invested in Texas cattle with rather bad fortune. He had one hundred and thirty head of cattle in the fall, and only fifty-three of them were left in the spring. The remainder died.

Mr. Hinshaw has lived in Bloomington for about ten years, but he has owned a farm ever since he was twenty-five years of age. He now lives at Sulphur Springs, in the outskirts of Bloomington, on the Chicago & Alton Railroad.

Mr. Hinshaw was married July 1, 1848, to Polly Maria Toliver, daughter of James Toliver. He has had ten children, of whom four are now living. As to personal appearance he is tall and portly. When he was twenty-seven years of age he had a severe sickness, was ill for a long time with the typhoid fever, and since then he has been very stout in appearance. He has a large head and a large brain; has small sparkling eyes, and a pleasant, genial countenance; he is full of fun and appreciates a joke. He has a firm, resolute character, combined with a mild and pleasant disposition. He is always ready to meet his friends with real English cheer, and indeed he appears a "fine old English gentleman, one of the olden time."

His children living are:

Ida May, born January 1, 1857.

Ezra, born July 11, 1862.

Toby, born April 16, 1865.

Rollo, born August 21, 1867.

They are all living at home.

Dr. William Lindley.

As printed in The good old times in McLean County, Illinois / containing two hundred and sixty-one sketches of old settlers, a complete historical sketch of the Black Hawk War and ... all matters of interest relate (1874). See the original pages. Wording is the original; obvious scanning errors have been corrected, and a few may remain.