R. H. Rutledge

As printed in 1874

Robert H. Rutledge was born March 21, 1810, in Henderson County, Kentucky, near the Red Banks. His father, Thomas Rutledge, was born October 17, 1768, in South Carolina. He lived for a while in Georgia, and there married Sallie Smith. He also lived near Xashville, Tennessee, and moved from there to Henderson County, Kentucky, where his son Robert was born. The Rutledge family came to Illinois in December, 1814. They came to Shawneetown, and afterwards moved out in the country about thirty-five miles. The county was then called Gallatin. Thomas Rutledge was there chosen justice of the peace in 1813, and held his office for ten years. In 1826 the family came to Randolph Grove. On the twentieth of August, 1830, old Thomas Rutledge died, in the sixty-second year of his age. His wife, Sallie Rutledge, was born August 20, 1778, and died December 12, 1843.

Robert Rutledge says that when he came to Randolph Grove in 1826, the country was an uninhabited wilderness from Pekin to the eastern state line, and from LaSalle to Decatur. The county was then called Tazewell, with the seat of justice at Mackinawtown. William H. Hodge was then sheriff. Since that time Macon County has been taken off on the south, and Champaign, Vermilion, and our own county of McLean, have been taken from the east.

Mr. Rutledge, like many other settlers, has had a hard milling experience. The family first did without a mill, and Mr. Rutledge, sr., made a hominy mortar and a pestle attached to a spring pole, by means of which the hominy was beaten. But when the little " N----- head" horse-mills came in use, young Robert was oT.>lived to take his sack of corn, go to mill on horseback one day and return with meal the next.

Mr. Rutledge was a lively hunter, and he had plenty of opportunities for exercising his skill, for deer were as " plenty as blackberries." In 1826 he saw from the door of his cabin more than a hundred deer walking one after the other. At one time, during the'Tall of this year, Mr. Rutledge, sr., killed three deer in the morning before breakfast.

The wolves were then very numerous. Mr. Rutledge, at one time during the fall of 1826, was traveling in an ox-cart a short distance west of where Hey worth now is, and there saw within forty yards of him twenty-eight large gray wolves and one prairie wolf. He often went on the " ring" hunts, as they were called, and was in the great hunt described By John Price, which appears m'lean county. 767- in the latter's sketch. Mr. Rutleclge also says that the great wolf, which was for a long time the terror of the whole neighborhood for a great many miles around, once got into his traps and lost its toes in getting out. This was the wolf which was afterwards killed by John Price. ]Mr. Rutledge's last wolf hunt was in the month of June in about the year 1838. He started out one rainy morning with John Weedman. They went not more than a mile and a-half before starting three large black wolves. Weedman shot one through the shoulder, and Rutledge, while riding at full speed, shot another.

McLean County was organized in 1830. The first couple married in the county after its organization were Robert H. Rutledge and Charity Weedman. They were married June 9, 1831, by Father T. Brittain, who lived at the head of Old Town. The first license granted in McLean County after its formation was given to them by Isaac Baker, the first county clerk. Charity Weedman was born July 21, 1812, in Perry County, Ohio. Her father came to McLean County in 1830. He was an active man of considerable influence, and was for some time a county commissioner. He was a great hunter, was wide awake, arose early in the morning and at one time killed two deer before breakfast in order to have a good appetite. His daughter Charity was a lively young woman; she was up and doing and at one time walked four miles to leave in order to earn some chickens to get a start and raise a flock. Robert and Charity built their first cabin in the fall of 1831, on the ground where they now live. Their little cabin had neither floor nor door until the following spring. Their bedstead was made by boring holes in the side of the house and driving in poles for rails and using clapboards for bedchords, Robert Rutledge and his brother-in-law, Jacob Bishop, thought they must have the luxury of tables, so they cut a log and each of them split out a table from it. The first prairie which Mr. Rutledge broke was in the spring of 1832. He then worked under some difficulties. Mrs. Rutledge had one child, which she would lay on-the bed and go out and drive the oxen, while Mr. Rutledge held the plow.

Mr. Rutledge made his first journey to Chicago with Garson Wright and Jacob Bishop, and it required four or five v/eeks to make the round trip. While they were gone, their unprotected families were obliged to be on their guard against Indians and wild animals. The three men went with ox teams to where Pontiac now stands, thence to Sulphur Springs and the Kankakee River, where they forded, thence to Hickory Creek, north of Joliet, and from there to Chicago. They were loaded with corn and oats, and sold the corn for $1.50 per bushel and the oats for $1.00. They found in Chicago only one family of white folks, that of "William Clybourne. They did their trading with two Frenchmen by the name of Beaubean. They loaded their teams with salt and started on their return to their anxious families. After going twelve miles they came to the river Desplaines and were there water bound three days. At last their fifteen teams were taken over by half-breed Indians for $1.50 a piece. They were water-bound two days at the Dupage River, and amused themselves during their enforced idleness by going to hear a Methodist preacher, who was exhorting to the Indians. They crossed the Dupage in canoes and the Desplaines in the same way. From there they went to Sugar Grove on Fox River, and thence to Ottawa, where they crossed the Illinois. From there they went to Panther Creek, thence to Crow Creek, then on to Havens' Grove across the Mackinaw, thence to where Bloomington now is, and on home to Randolph's Grove.

When Mr. Rutledge came to Randolph's Grove, there were Gardner Randolph, Captain Stringfield and his mother's family James Burleson and family, Jesse Funk, Mr. Dickerson and W. Games. Isaac Funk, Robert Stubblefield and William Brock lived at Funk's Grove. John Hendrix, William and Thomas Orendorff, William Walker, Ebenezer Rhodes, John Rhodes and John Benson, lived at Blooming Grove.

The changes which have taken place are of every kind and description. The face of the country is changed by the fields and houses and roads, by the timber which has been cut down, and by the timber which has grown up. Mr. Rutledge has cut timber, grown since his settlement here, that square eight inches.

Mr. Rutledge has had few misfortunes, but one has been something of a difficulty for him. Mr. Rutledge's house burned down on the sixteenth of October, 1872, but it is now replaced m'lean county. 769 by a new and substantial building which will be his homestead for the remainder of his life. But notwithstanding this misfortune, Mr. Rutledge has usually been very successful. He has acquired a competence of this world's goods; he has been blessed with good health, a splendid wife and a magnificent crop of children. He has had twelve children, seven of whom are living.

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.