|
THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF
Capt. Stephen B. Hanks
In 1914, when an old man
CAPT. STEPHEN B. HANKS,
A Cousin of Abraham
Lincoln and a Pilot and Captain
On the Upper Mississippi
River for Seventy-two Years.
From the Diary Kept by Capt. Hanks, and Placed with
The post, to be Published After His death……..
Edited by Capt. Fred A. Bill No 1623 Van Buren-St., St.
Paul, Minn. To Whom all communications concerning
This History Should be Addressed, and who will be Glad
To Give Publicity in These Columns to All Corrections,
Additions and Comments, Sent in by Old Rivermen and
Others Interested.
Published in the Burlington
Saturday Evening Post
March 26, 1921-1922
How it
came about
St. Paul., Min. March 20, 1921- Editor Post: the
manuscript of the life of Captain Stephen Beck Hanks, received
from you some time ago was written during the years 1904-8,
from the Captain’s dictation, by Mr. C. B. Paddock, of Albany
Ill., a brother-in-law of the Captain. The Captain himself,
while full of energy and always ready to “do something” had a
nervous affliction that made it hard for him to write and the
work of Mr. Paddock, since deceased, was cheerfully given to
assist an old neighbor and companion in leaving a record which
he hoped would be of interest to his friends and associates
and be of historic value as well.
In preparing the manuscript for your
columns we have adhered just as closely as possible to the
original and no claim is made by the author, nor the writer,
that the story has any literary merit whatever. It is just
the telling of the happenings in a busy life as they would be
told to a few friends by the fireside.
Whenever it is thought best to inject
some facts not found in the manuscript into these articles,
for the purpose of making some incident a little more clear or
to give some additional information that we trust will be of
interest, such matter will be in the form of “notes” so
arranged as to preclude the possibility of their being taken a
as part of the original manuscript.
We trust that our readers may derive as
much pleasure in the reading of these articles as the writer
has in preparing them. Yours Truly,
Fred A. Bill
Family
My father’s people so far as I can
learn and from childish recollections of conversations among
the adults of the family; were of English extraction and of
Quaker antecedents. They came to America with the Puritan
Pioneers and originally settled in New England. Later they
drifted down through Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia into
North Carolina from which State my father came to Kentucky in
his early life with his parents and immediate family.
My grandfather and grandmother Hanks I
know but little about, as they died before my time. My
grandfather’s family consisted of five boys and one girl. The
boys were named Joshua, John, Nathan, one whose name I cannot
give, and my father Thomas who was born Jan 24, 1777. The
girl was named Nancy and she became the wife of Thomas Lincoln
and later the mother of our martyred President, Abraham
Lincoln. I am unable to give these names in genealogical
order and do not know the birth rank in the family of my
father. I never saw any of this family except my father and
uncles, Joshua and John. These three brothers lived close
together and I think occupied portions of the estate left by
my grandfather. I can remember playing with the children of
my uncles but cannot say what became of them except that they
drifted across the Ohio river in time and were lost to us. I
have occasionally read or heard of people of our name in
southern Ohio, Indiana and Illinois and have no doubt but that
they are descendants of these uncles.
My mother’s name was Kathryn Beck. Her
father was Stephen Beck and he was a soldier in the war of the
revolution. Of his ancestry I know little except that he was
of German origin and that the family were early pioneers in
America. I never knew my grandfather Beck. My grandmother
Beck, whose maiden name was Wright, was born in Philadelphia,
Pa. I knew her well in my earlier years. One of my earliest
recollections is in hearing her tell most interesting tales in
the Indian wars and of the sieges they frequently underwent.
Many a time did she mould the bullets that were fired at the
foe from rifles pointed out through the port holes in the
blockhouses and stockades within which the settlers gathered
for safety. These stories were very thrilling and left and
unfading impression upon my young and receptive mind.
There were seven girls and three boys
born to my grandfather and grandmother Beck. The boys were
named William Wright Beck, John Beck and Alfred Beck. The
girls were were Polly who married Samuel Slocomb: Betsey, who
married a man named Dickerson; Becky who married a man named
Culbertson; two others whose names I cannot recall who married
men named Hall and Dodge respectively, and my mother Kathryn.
I cannot give the order of the birth of these children but my
mother came along about the middle of the list. Most of these
girls located in Southern Illinois and nearly all had large
families. William Wright Beck went south and later became the
owner of a large plantation in Alabama on the Tombigbee
river. The last we heard of him was about the commencement of
the Civil War when report came to us that he had donated one
hundred thousand dollars to the cause of Succession and would
make farther subscription if necessary. I mention this matter
of devotion to the Southern cause as an illustration of how
families became scattered in this country and the different
views they acquire on a subject due to their environments.
John Beck located some five miles east of Springfield
Illinois on the Sangamon river about 1827 or 1828 of. My
grandmother Beck made her home with him during her later years
and here she died in 1859 of cholera at the age of
ninety-three years. About the same time John Beck lost two
children of the same disease.
My Father’s family consisted of the
following; Harriet Eveline, born June 21, 1813, William
Wright, born Feb. 20, 1815; Elizabeth, born Aug. 1 1817;
Thomas Wright, born Oct 10, 1819; Stephen Beck, (myself), born
Oct 9, 1821; Mary Ann, born Oct, 30, 1823; David C. born Feb.
10, 1820, and Samuel Slocumb, born, March 30, 1828. In all
six boys and three girls.
Perhaps there may be no better place to
say something of these brothers and sisters and their
families, although doubtless they will be referred to later
on.
My oldest sister Harriet died June 10,
1834. How many children she had I do not know. There was one
boy who was named Thaddeus Napoleon Bonaparte Walker.
Doubtless there were other children but I did not know them.
My sister died in her early years and the family drifted out
of my knowledge.
William Wright Hanks come to
Northern Illinois sometime later than myself, stopping first
in Knox County. He was married and had three children when he
came north. Later he went to Rockingham, just below
Davenport, Iowa, where he was employed as a hotel clerk. For
some reason unknown to me he left his family and disappeared
for some ten years and returned as suddenly as he left. But
that is another story and he has not been heard from by my or
his family for many years and whether alive or dead I do not
know.
Elizabeth, commonly called Betsy went
to Knox County, Ill. with the family of Samuel Slocumb about a
year after I went north. Here she married James Withrow
and they went on a farm in Henry County, Ill. When the gold
fever broke out in California he left his family and went out
there, returning about 1890 and spent his few remaining years
with his children. Meantime his wife Betsy, had died and the
children were scattered, some being with relatives and others
making their own way in the world.
Thomas Wright Hanks left
Kentucky with a cousin named Dick Hanks for some point in the
South, I think Mississippi. He learned the saddler’s trade, a
very profitable one at that time. We had only one letter from
him and we do not know whether he is alive or dead.
Mary Ann and myself went to northern
Illinois, with the family of Alfred Slocomb. She made her
home with us until she married Aaron Colvert about 1840.
Later they moved to Iowa. Her husband went into the Union
army and died in the South and she became a pensioner of Uncle
Sam, and at the writing is living with a son in the state of
Washington.
David C. Hanks came to Albany,
Ill., about 1843. He soon followed me in river work and has
spent most of his life as a pilot and master, engaged chiefly
in the rafting business. He married Helen Bennett in 1852 and
has spent the last eighteen years with his family in Albany.
Samuel S. Hanks came to Illinois
in 1844 and to Albany a little later. He has spent the larger
portion of his life on the river and a part of it in farming.
With others he went to California during the gold excitement
but did not remain long. He was married to Hannah Stagg,
previous to going to California. He moved to near Davenport
some thirty-five years ago and recently went to Princeton,
Iowa, where he still lives with some of his children, his wife
having died a number of years ago.
HISTORY
I was born near Hopkinsville, Ky., on
Oct. 9, 1821. My birth place was the typical log home of that
day. The farm was, as I learned in later years, some thirteen
hundred acres, some three hundred or four hundred being under
cultivation. My father had a number of slaves, how many I do
not know. Two of these, an elderly man and woman, were kept
about the house for house work, and the others attended to the
stock and in the many duties incidental to a large farm with
varied crops and the diversified industries maintained about
the homes in pioneer days. We were almost independent in
those days for food, clothing and shelter, and practically
self sustaining. There was a grist mill, not far away, built
by my grandfather before I was born, where our bread stuffs
were prepared
This mill was located at a ledge of
rock and the head of water was raised several feet by a dam
above the ledge making altogether a very good fall and quite a
sufficient for the purpose. Quite frequently I fished at the
race exit and a couple of incidents fixed the locality vividly
in my memory. A negro boy seeing me fishing one day coaxed me
to loan the pole and line to him, which I did. He soon landed
a fine fish and immediately ran away with it, to my
indignation as I figured the catch was mine. Another time the
older people were at church and on the return came upon a
number of us boys swimming at this same place. We attempted
to hide but could not avoid discovery and were properly
corrected and admonished for our lack of reverence for the
Sabbath.
Besides raising our bread stuff, we had
abundance of meat from the different domestic animals and if
we tired of the tame variety, we took to the woods where there
was much wild meat, venison and turkeys being the chief. In
the season there were wild pigeons by the million. In what
was known as their “roosts” the limbs of the trees would be
topped with the birds until they would break and in places it
would be difficult to go through the timber on account of
these broken limbs. The pigeons were killed and carried away
by the people literally by the wagon loads.*
Our hogs ran wild much of the year and
when it came time to feed them for fattening my father had a
tin horn with which he called them to be fed. When they heard
this horn they came running from all directions to get the
corn. We had a flock of sheep which in addition to making
meat for us furnished wool for clothing. We also had an
abundance of geese, chickens and guinea fowls, but not many
turkeys, as the wild ones were plentiful.
Of sweets, we had abundance of honey,
both from wild bees and from swarms kept in the primitive
“beegums” of that day. Then there was the so called “sugar
bush” on the place where in the early spring we gathered sap
from the maple trees and made our usual supply of sugar and
syrup. The “bush” was quite a distance from the house and a
rough home made sled was used as a conveyance between the
house and the place of operations, which was known as the
“sugar camp” the trees were tapped with a small auger and an
elder or cane spout inserted in the hole through which the sap
ran through troughs hollowed out of logs. The sap was
gathered two or three times a day into barrels hauled on a
primitive sled usually made from a forked tree, the prongs
being curved up like a sled runner. The sap when gathered was
emptied in to a tank which was simply an immense log of some
soft wood hollowed out like a canoe and holding some fifty
barrels or more. From this the sap was dipped into large iron
kettles, set on arches of stone with furnace cavitics beneath
for the fires. The last run of sap, at the close of the
season, would not make good hard sugar but made an excellent
syrup. The close of the season was always celebrated with a
sugar party. To which all the young people of the neighborhood
were invited. The syrup was made into wax and candy and the
fun was fast and furious until the early hours of the next
day.
Our clothing was made from material
produced on the place. Wool from the sheep was carded, spun
and woven by the women of the household. Among my earliest
recollections is sitting by the fireplace and keeping up a
fire of pine knots to furnish light for mother and the girls
to spin yarn during the long winter evenings. I often became
so sleepy that I would drop asleep and the light would die
out. Flax was another of the textiles we produced on the
place, which was made into tow. Cotton was another product to
some extent, and from these different fibers the clothing and
various cloth requirements of the family were manufactured.
Tow shirts were the regulation garments for young children.
Linsey-woolsey for the women and girls and jeans for the men
and boys. These different fabrics were the products of the
simple spinning wheels, reels and looms found in the homes of
all the industrious people of the country if it was desired to
have clothing that would appeal more to the eye, in of her
words a dress up or more appropriate “Sunday suit’ thread of
different colors in combinations as desired would be woven
into the cloth. The making of the cloth was one of the many
duties of the women in addition to the regular household work
and the latter was not lightened by the labor saving devices
of the present day.
Our place was located somewhere in the
northeastern portion of Christian country in the western part
of then Kentucky, near the head waters of a small stream
called Pond river. The mill previously mentioned, was on this
river where it fell from higher ground over the ledge of rock
referred to, to lower ground and at that point it became
practically dead water and the Ohio river, in times of flood,
backed up Pond river to this point and frequently much of the
lower ground was covered with water. This justified the name
of the stream.
The house and surrounding buildings
were near the crest of the bluff, or ledge and on the high
land of the place, the house itself standing on the highest
elevation. The house in which I was born was a large log
house, as were the homes of all the early settlers there, but
of that house I have only a faint recollection. The house I
well remember was made of brick and was built after I was old
enough to have some recollection of its construction. One
incident fresh in my mind, and probably about the first thing
I can remember, is falling into one of the trenches being dug
for the foundation. I was not able to get out by myself and
the old darky women of the house came to my rescue. I had a
slice of bread and butter in my hand which was lost in the
scramble much to my distress. I have no other recollection of
its construction except that later on some of the older ones
showed me a large hole a few rods away and told me the house
came out of that hole. This, to my child mind, was a great
mystery, although a statement of fact, the clay for the brick
coming from the hole.
The barn must have been in an immense
structure, for about all the coarser produce of the place was
stored therein and the threshing of the grain was done on its
floor, usually with flails although I remember once seeing the
grain being tramped out with horses. Another large building
was the tobacco house a two story structure in which the
tobacco was hung for curing. After the corn was husked, every
day that was damp enough our time was spent in the building
striping or stemming the tobacco leaves and tying them in
“bands” and packing in large casks, holding several hundred
pounds, which were also made on the premise. When the time
came to take the product to market instead of loading the
casks on wagons, wooden pins were inserted in the center of
the heads of the cask, a pair of thills (?) were securely
attached to the pins and the cask rolled away to market by ox
or horse power.
Another and quite important building,
was the still house. This was of moderate dimensions,
probably some twenty-five feet square and of sufficient height
to accommodate the necessary machinery. We used it to take
care of the surplus from the peach and apple orchards from
which we make peach and apple randy. In addition to taking
care of our own product we did a good deal of custom work for
our neighbors. As I remember the process, the peaches were
placed whole in a large boiler (apples were crushed before
being boiled) which was covered with a circular cover with a
horn like projection, or pipe, in the center, curving out,
which led the vapor, or steam, from the boiling mass into the
top end of a large coiled of lead pipe enclosed in an upright
tank of cold water, the tank being six or eight feet in
diameter and of corresponding height. The condensed liquid
running from the lower end of the coil was the brandy
beautifully clear and transparent and in high repute among the
people of that time and place. This was previous to any
temperance agitation and before the advent of the saloon and
the industry was recognized as legitimate at that time.
Another prominent feature with simple machinery or appliances
was for making rope of various size and kinds, this was a
straight smooth piece of ground probably three hundred feet in
length on which the fiber was twisted and when desired several
strands were twisted together, as was necessary for bed cords,
halters, lines for driving etc. flax was the material
principally used for this work. It underwent a sweating, or
rotting process to break up the woody matter; then it was
broken and hatchelled and the coarser fiber separated from the
finer, the former being used in making the ripe and the finer
spun for clothing and domestic use. The very finest was made
into sewing thread. |
