Wayne County
History & Genealogy

THE STORY OF CISNE

BY L. S. HARRINGTON

Transcribed by Laurie Selpien

The exact date when the first white family settled in Bedford Township is unknown. But the first of which there is record is that of Alexander Campbell, Irish by birth, who came from Virginia as early as 1816. He had four sons, Alexander, John, Moses, and Joseph. Others soon to follow were Nathan Morris, Ephraim LeCroy, Martin Emmons, Noah Towns, Jessie Laird, R. T. Forth, Jeff Murphy, Stephen and Merritt Harris, Elias May, James Clark and Tira Taylor.

John Skelton built the first horse mill operated in the township, Harmon Minor also had an early mill, as did also Erl Stine, James Cooper and John Pettyjohn have similar mills in early days.

About 1850, a number of families came from Columbia County, Ohio, who were members of the Christian Church. These organized a church at Buckeye in 1840. Another immigration followed about the year 1851 and the following, from which churches of the same faith grew up at Pleasant Grove and Geff, first named Jeffersonville, later changed to the shorter name and spelling because of the confusion in the mails with Jeffersonville, Indiana. Among these were the families of Jessie Milner, Isaac Carson, Levi Cisne, Peter Perrine, Stephen Stine, Aaron Evans and others.

CHURCHES FORMED

In 1854 a Christian church was organized at the Way schoolhouse, were the congregation continued to meet until it erected its present building in Cisne in 1873. Report gives S. V. Williams credit for being the first minister. Whether that means of the original organization, or the first pastor after the church was built is not certain. The first organization of the Methodist church or of the Methodist Society, as John Wesley first named his organization is believed to have been held in the Bedford Schoolhouse about two miles North of Cisne in 1860’s. The first church was built in Cisne in 1890. After the Christian church was built in Cisne, the Methodist moved their meetings from the Bedford school to the Christian church where they held services until 1881, where Rev. L. A. Harper, the first Methodist minister held services. (See Harper’s Journal) Meetings were held for a time in the school building that is now the Ellis and Bratton Feed Mill. Under the ministry of the Rev. MacIntosh, the members of the church decided to have a permanent building. Mr. F. A. Kutz took the pastor in his buggy to solicit the members. The money was subscribed and the building was erected in 1890.

THE RAILROAD

On February 25, 1867, the Illinois Legislature passed an act incorporating the Illinois South Eastern Railway Company, the incorporators being Charles A. Beecher, Joseph J. R. Turney, Robert F. Hanna, Carroll C. Boggs, Joseph T. Fleming, Henry Holzhauser and Edward Bonham, all of Wayne County, and John W. Westcott, William B. Wilson, Daniel McCauly and William H. Hanna of Clay County. The charter provided that Beecher, Fleming, Bonham, Wilson and Westcott should constitute the first Board of Directors. Instead of the railroad being constructed by the men who secured the charter from the Legislature the construction was taken over by the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad that had built the line from the Ohio at Cincinnati to the Mississippi at St. Louis which was completed and went into operation in the year 1857. Thus the proposed line taking a general north and south direction would provide transportation for a considerable area of Illinois not otherwise provided for and also become a valuable feeder for the main line that became the first segment of the later great Baltimore and Ohio system. The proposed line as finally constructed runs from Beardstown in Cass County to Shawneetown in Gallatin. Shawneetown was the queen city of Southern Illinois in the early days. It was one of the chief ports for river shipping on the Ohio from the beginning of the American Revolution to at least fifty years after Washington become president of the new republic. It had the second bank established in Illinois.

NO LOAN FOR CHICAGO

Time, climate, geography, water, soil and industry determine success and failure of most human activities and thus affected Shawneetown. A druggist named Robinson and a neighbor to townsman rode back to Chicago because the Shawneetown bank had received a letter from Chicago asking for a loan. The trip was likely made also to satisfy their curiosity. When asked about Chicago on their return, they reported that it had but a few poor houses sitting on a swampy land near Lake Michigan, and was too far from Shawneetown to ever amount to anything. They could have bought one hundred sixty acres of land there for a thousand dollars. The requested loan was refused by the Bank. The quarter section of land was located where the Chicago Loop is now.

John Milner said he was present at a meeting of some of the railroad officials with several other citizens of the community, including Levi Cisne, David Simpson, Peter Perrine, Aaron Yarnall, Sylvester Taylor, and Charley Beecher who had been influential in securing the charter for the railroad and getting it built through this part of Wayne County. This meeting was held at the point on the open prairie where the survey for the railroad crossed the line in Section Eight at a line between the farms of Aaron Yarnall and Sylvester Taylor, where they drove a gold spike into the ground, as the place for beginning to lay the first railroad track in this part of the line. Having located and marked that point for the beginning of construction, they pulled up the spike and all walked together to the spot where they expected to build the station. As the men stopped at that point, Mr. Beecher, said “We must have a name for the town we are going to build here. Perrine, you get enough honor by having the town build on your land. I suggest we name the town for Levi.” “And that is how,” says Milner, “That Cisne got it’s name.” As an honor and as a tribute to Levi Cisne. And so the town stands today as the only geographical spot in the world that bears those five letters in the exact order to spell CISNE. That was the year 1870.

In that year John Dee, Deputy Wayne County Surveyor, surveyed the land of David Simpson and Peter Perrine, and made out a plat for the town around the spot where the railroad planned to build a station. Thus the spot for the depot and the railroad survey were considered more important or satisfactory than the usual geographical directions, which accounts for the reason Cisne streets run at an angle and do not correspond with usual geographical lines.

THE FIRST MAIL

According to the best available information the first mail delivered in this neighborhood was thrown off the stage at the home of Aaron Evans, about a mile north of Cisne, near where Billie Miller lives now. Evans’ home thus the first post office in Belford Township before any house was built in Cisne. The stage was driven between Flora and Fairfield by Nick Powell who spent much of his life keeping a harness shop and store at Fairfield.

In 1871 a sawmill was set up by J. G. Hill, Harmon Milner and E. Shaw. From the year the survey and plat for Cisne was made there is no record to cover the history of the next twenty eight years. Only a few important incidents, mostly from the memories of the oldest people can now be gathered, mostly without dates. The calendar points to days ahead, but we tear off the page when a month is past, and the minds of all drop them quickly beyond recall. The oldest left now (1955) are Mrs. Chapman, mentioned above, Mrs. Belle McCumber, who has reported the news of the community to the county papers for more than fifty years, and Mrs. Laura McGlassen, the two latter past ninety years old.

In possession of the present writer is an account of an election election held in January, 1898, on “the matter of the Incorporation of the Village of Cisne, Illinois.” On January 26 of the year, the ballots and report of the election on that proposition were given to Judge W. T. Bonham, of the Wayne County Court, and two Justices of the Peace, to canvases the results of the election. These gentlemen report, that “For Village Organization under Illinois law, there were east 44 votes; against Village Incorporation east 41 votes.” Thus by a margin of three votes Cisne won the right and power of becoming a municipality, and the duty and privilege of election of President and Board of Six Trustee, a Village Clerk and a treasurer, or the last official could have been appointed then, but was the only official who handled enough money to be required to give bond.

CISNE TODAY

Cisne has splendid grade and high school building, an official consolidated school system with school buses transporting students from a large area. Other social interest of the community are the Masonic Order, Rotary, Lions and Women’s Clubs, American Legion, Boy and Girl Scouts, with other groups connected with Church, School and local activities.

Cisne has recently constructed a complete water and sewer system that has been in successful operation for more than four years. An abundant supply of excellent water comes from a deep well that has not only been adequate for uses of the town, but during dry seasons of the past three years hundreds of tankers of water have been furnished for families through the country whose wells and cisterns went dry.

Many splendid home, business, church and school buildings with a central park, wide well surfaced streets makes Cisne one of the most attractive small towns in the state. The consolidated school, school buses bringing children from all parts of the country, the automobile, telephone, radio, movie theater, a higher degree of intelligence are all drawing town and country closer together, in thought and understanding, and appreciation. Without question the word is getting better when it has when it has proper training and an even chance. That is something of the Cisne picture of the past and of today. Let us all do our bit to keep it faced toward the sunrise.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION…….

Excerpts from HISTORY OF WAYNE AND CLAY COUNTIES ILLINOIS ILLUSTRATED
CHICAGO:
GLOBE PUBLISHING CO., HISTORICAL PUBLISHERS,
183 Lake Street.1884.

“Alexander Campbell was a member of the Legislature in 1822. He was an illiterate man, but had good sense and an honest, warm heart. He has many descendants yet in the county. One of his sons now resides in Springfield, Ill., and one of his daughters and many of his grandchildren are yet in the county. Among the early weddings of the county was the marriage of John Moffitt to one of Campbell's daughters.”

Nathan Morris He sold out here and went to Salt Lake City, but not liking the area as well as he thought he would, he returned to his old home here. In July 1875, his home was hit with small pox Nathan and six members of his family all died according to the Wayne County Press July 22, 1875.

Ephraim Lecroy was very early in the township. He came from Ohio, and is still living. He first settled in Bond County, Ill., but came here in an early day.

Also death announced in Wayne County Press April 10, 1885

Martin Emmons was also from Ohio, and is still living in the township at quite an advanced age.

Obit found in Wayne County Press Aug 17, 1886 Martin was the son of Elias & Marion Emmons he was born about 1812 in Columbiana County, Ohio he married Rebecca Skelton daughter of John & Hannah Skelton who died May 24, 1859, he then married Amanda Allen daughter of Elijah and Christina Allen Mar 11 1860 who died Oct 25, 1885. Martin was the father of 13 children 7 living at the time of his death.Matin Emmons is buried in the Buckeye Cemetery Wayne county Illinois.

Wayne County Press Nov 19, 1885 Obit of Amanda ALLEN Emmons

Born in Johnson County, Indiana Jan 27, 1827 mother of 4 children died Oct 27, 1885 buried in Buckeye cemetery.

Noah Towns, another Ohioan, was an early settler in Bedford, but now lives in Elm Township.

Jeff Murphy came from Kentucky, and went to California from here, where he died.

Stephen and Merritt Harris first settled in Barnhill, but afterward in this township. They were sons of Isaac Harris, who, it is claimed, was the first settler in the county. Merritt was born here, is still living, and a citizen of Moultrie County.

Elias May came from Ohio, and has been dead many years.

James Clark was a very early settler, and has children still living here.

Tira Taylor was an old settler. He was a soldier in the Mexican war, and also served in the late civil war.

Buried in the Laird Cemetery, derved Co. E. 58 Ill. Inf.

JOHN PETTYJOHN, farmer, P. O. Rinard, came to Wayne County in 1838 with his parents, and has since resided here. He was born in Brown County, Ohio, May 9, 1813, the eldest child of Edward and Sarah (Line) Pettyjohn, the father a native of Virginia, and the mother of Kentucky. Edward Pettyjohn was a farmer by occupation, and was a volunteer in the war of 1812. He was a son of John Pettyjohn. who was a son of one of three brothers who came to this country from Wales. The parents of our subject were blessed with ten children, of whom four are now living --- John; Ruth, wife of J. A. Hays, of McLean County, Ill.; Thomas, a farmer residing in Clay County, this State; and Ann, who lives in Tazewell County, Ill., widow of James Gunyon. Francis, now deceased, married Marcus Summers, and their only child. Sarah E., is now the wife of Solomon Yates, a substantial farmer in Bedford Township. Our subject received only a limited schooling, and during his life has given his attention to farming pursuits. He came to his present place, on which his father had previously located, about 1852. It now consists of 240 acres. He has been married three times; first in Ohio to Keziah Shearer, who bore him seven children --- three of whom survive --- Thomas J., Rowan and Homer S. His second marriage was with Fidelia (Summers) Williams. This union gave two children, both of whom are deceased. He married his present wife, Catharine Anderson, in November, 1871. She is the daughter of David and Nellie (Miller) Anderson. Her father is at present living in Logan County, Ohio, a farmer by occupation. Mr. Pettyjohn is among the old settlers of Wayne County, and is highly respected by all who know him. In political affairs, he votes the Republican ticket.

ISAAC B.CARSON, Sheriff of Wayne County, Ill., was born in Carroll County, Ohio, September 17, 1832. His parents were William and Elizabeth (Booth) Carson. The father was a native of Ireland, and emigrated to the United States with his parents when four years old. The mother was born in Pennsylvania. They were married in Carroll County, Ohio, and reared a family of three sons, viz., Joseph, Isaac B, and Robert V. Carson, the oldest of whom is living in Wayne County, and the youngest is deceased. The father is still living and a resident of this county. The mother died in Ohio in 1836. Mr. I. B. Carson married, in Ohio, May 1, 1853, and in fall of same year came to Illinois and settled in Wayne County, near the present village of Cisne. Here he has been engaged in the pursuit of farming since that time. In politics, he is a Democrat, and has represented his township as Supervisor. In 1882, he was elected to the office of Sheriff of Wayne County, a position which he fills with universal acceptance. They have a family of nine children, viz., Elizabeth A., deceased; Sarah L., wife of B. F. Bowles; Mary E.; Joseph W., married to Eliza L. Wood; Eliza J., William H., Elmer R., Laura May and Alice M. Carson. Mr. Carson owns a farm of 200 acres in Sections 21 and 28 of Bedford Township.

LEVI M. CISNE, farmer, P.O. Cisne. Prominently identified among the substantial and respected citizens of Wayne County is the gentleman whose name heads this sketch, the necessary brevity of which compels us to note but a few of his many genial and worthy qualities. He came from Monroe County, Ohio (his native county), where he was born December 28, 1830. He is the eldest child of Emanuel and Sarah (Garrett) Cisne, both of whom were natives of Pennsylvania. The father was a miller by occupation in early life, but gave his attention more to farming pursuits in later years. During his life, he took active interest in political affairs, and enterprises calculated for the public good, and was for many years a General in the old State militia, and was thereafter popularly known as Gen. Cisne. He served also in an Ohio regiment during the late war. His venerable partner in life survives him, and is still living in Ohio, at the good old age of seventy four. Their wedded life was blessed with nine children, all of whom were raised to manhood and womanhood, and six are now living --- Levi M., Mary E. Phillips, David A., Nancy J. Crawford, Eunice A., Amos. and Sarah C., wife of Dr. J. P. Walters, of Cisne. Levi M. Cisne, the subject of these lines, obtained what little education was afforded by the old-fashioned subscription schools of his native State, and he remained there, engaged principally in farming, and occasionally in steam-boating, until removing to this county in December, 1854. In 1860, the people elected him, as a Republican, member of the County Board from Bedford Township, and he served as such with great ability throughout seven consecutive years. Having the welfare of the people at heart, all enterprises which promised beneficial returns, and those calculated for the lasting good of the masses at large, found in him an able and stubborn advocate, and at the time when the proposition requesting the assistance of the citizens of Wayne County in the building of the proposed southeast division of the O. & M. R. R. was under consideration, he wielded a powerful influence in its favor, and the ultimate building of the road was largely due to his commendable efforts in its behalf, and the village of Cisne now bears his name, in recognition of the valuable services he rendered. During the war, Mr. Cisne took a census of the township, preparatory to a draft, ascertaining thereby the names of those eligible for war service. He also canvassed part of the county, soliciting names to a petition requesting the Governor of the State to exert his influence in favor of some plan to secure the soldiers' vote at Lincoln's second election. Mr. Cisne has also given a good deal of attention to church debts, and has within his life been many times instrumental in raising them to the extent of several thousands of dollars. He has for many years been a member of the A., F. & A. M., and, with his wife, of the Christian Church. He was married, January 18, 1855, to Jane Ray, born November 8, 1833, a daughter of Maj. B. and Mary (Martin) Ray. The union has been blessed with nine children, of whom there are eight living, as follows: William H. (who is the present general railroad agent at Cisne, and is also a member of the firm of Brock & Cisne, general grain and produce merchants), Mary C. (wife of B. M. Brock), Sarah J. (wife of Allen Stine), Julia A., Agnes M., Jonah G., Charles B., Edna P. (deceased), and Isaac M. Mr. Cisne has a farm of 320 acres, which is devoted to farming in its various branches, but a specialty is made of red top grass, the seed of which Mr. Cisne has annually sold in such large quantities as to give him the name of "Grass Seed Cisne." The presence of such men in any community tends to its higher advancement, and to their enterprising efforts is largely if not altogether due the material growth and prosperity of our Western country.

Hon. Charles A. Beecher was born in Herkimer County, N. Y., August 25, 1829, and with his family removed to Licking County, Ohio, September, 1836, and located in Fairfield June 8, 1854. He had been a pupil --- irregular attendant --- in the Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio, from September, 1849, to December, 1853, and during vacations he taught school during the winters and attended school during the summers, and sometimes performed hard manual labor during vacations. He attended the Law Department of the Farmer's College, College Hill, near Cincinnati, Ohio, from December 1, 1853, to June, 1854, and was admitted to the bar in February, 1856, and at once entered actively upon a lucrative and successful practice. During five years, from 1870 to 1875, he was out of the active practice of the law, and was bending all his energies toward the construction of the Springfield Branch of the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad. In December, 1868, he had been elected Vice-President of that road, which position he held until the property was sold to the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad in January, 1875. In September, 1873, he was appointed Receiver with Alexander Storms by the United States Circuit Court of Illinois, of the Springfield & Illinois Southeastern Railway, and this position he continued to fill until the sale of the road by a decree of the court in September, 1874. Mr. Beecher was then appointed the agent of the bondholders, and operated and controlled the road in their behalf until the formal transfer of the road to the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad March 1, 1875. He was then made Division Superintendent of the Ohio & Mississippi, in which capacity he acted until June 1, 1875, at which time he was appointed General Solicitor of the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad and branches. This road was placed in the hands of a receiver in November, 1876, and Mr. Beecher has continued to the present time its general solicitor. October, 1876, he was elected a member of the Board of Directors of the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad and is still a member, and his term of office to this position will not expire until 1886.

The charter of the Illinois Southeastern Railway was granted in 1867, and Mr. Beecher was made one of the incorporators, and upon the original organization of the company he was elected Treasurer. In 1872, the duties of his office required him to move his residence to Springfield, Ill., where he remained for three years, and, in 1875, he removed to St. Louis, and, in 1879, the growth of the work in his office as General Solicitor of the great corporation of the Ohio & Mississippi Railway required his removal to his present residence in Cincinnati, Ohio. These are the dates and figures that are the strong outline, when well studied, of the career of Mr. Beecher since, as a very modest and unassuming young attorney, he commenced life in Fairfield. The dates and figures tell much of the story of a man who was destined to rise by the inherent power that was within himself. He entered the corporation of the Springfield & Illinois Southeastern Railway as one of its most unassuming corporators. A stranger would notice in the young attorney but little else than a pleasant, smiling face, affable manners and a retiring modesty. He was given, much by accident, an obscure and unimportant office --- Treasurer to a corporation without a dollar, and with but little hopes of ever being more than a paper railroad. His nature was not self-asserting, and yet no great progress had been made in putting the enterprise on its feet until it was most manifest he was the master spirit of the scheme, and many men from Shawneetown to Springfield soon came to know that if the road was ever built it would owe this good fortune largely to Beecher. His genius and untiring energy gave all that part of Southern Illinois the railroad now running from Shawneetown to Beardstown. The ordinary rule in life is for the big fish to swallow the little ones, but it is a very easy matter to read most plainly between lines, as we give the dates and facts above of Mr. Beecher's connection with the great corporation at which he now stands at the most important post, that he controlled its destinies. From his first connection with the railroad interests he was thrown in contact with some of the ablest financiers, as well as some of the most eminent attorneys in the country as well as in Europe, and yet he came in conflict with none that in either law or in large and intricate financial schemes that ever overreached him, or that probably did not retire in the faith that in some way the rural attorney from Wayne County had left them at the foot of the class.

Mr. Beecher cast his first vote for President in 1852, for Gen. Scott. In 1856, he voted for Fremont, and has since voted regularly with the Republican party. From 1862 to 1868, he was a member of the Republican State Central Committee. In 1867, he was one of five Commissioners appointed by Gov. Oglesby to locate and build a Southern Illinois Penitentiary, but the Legislature failing to make the necessary appropriation, therefore nothing further was done.

Such are the outlines of the career of no common man, and of all the attorneys who have ever pitched their tents in Wayne County we strongly incline to the belief he will go into history as the prominent central figure in the entire list. He is but now upon the threshold of his professional life, and has already accumulated a large fortune, and a fame and name among the attorneys of the country that cannot be gainsaid.

The Stines came from Ohio. There were four brothers---Stephen, Isaac, Peter and Eri---all early settlers. Isaac is dead, but the other three are still living.

AARON S. YARNALL, farmer, P. O. Cisne, was born in Belmont County, Ohio, November 21, 1831, to Joseph and Asenath (Slack) Yarnall, natives of Pennsylvania. The father is a son of Thomas, who was a son of George Yarnall, both of whom were from Pennsylvania. The parents of our subject are both living in this county. They were blessed with eight children, of whom there are four now living --- Drusilla, A. S., Maria and John. Our subject received but a limited education; during his residence in Ohio, he was engaged principally in farming pursuits. March 28, 1853, he landed in Bedford Township, and located where his father now lives. His present farm property consists of eighty acres, and he gives his attention to farming in its various branches. November 3, 1864, he married Sarah J. Moore, a daughter of Alexander and Jane (Quinn) Moore, who came to Wayne County in 1860. The latter were the parents of nine children, four sons of whom were in the army --- Samson C., in the Eighty-seventh Illinois Volunteer Infantry; John Q., Sixty-second Illinois; Martin W., first in Sixth Missouri, and afterward in Thirteenth Missouri Cavalry, and Robert T., in Sixty-first Illinois. Samson, Robert, and possibly a third child, are now living. Mr. Alexander Moore died August 19, 1883. Mr. and Mrs. Yarnall are the parents of five children, four of whom survive --- Jessie M., Asenath J., Joseph M. and William H. Mr. Yarnall is a Republican in politics and with his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Jessie Laird was a 2^nd Lieutenant 3^rd Regiment., 1^st Brig., Illinois Mounted Inf., of the Blackhawk War. He was born March 4, 1792 and died Apr 13, 1873, he is buried in the Laird Cemetery, Wayne County, Illinois. Wayne County Illinois Cemetery Inscriptions Vol. VI by Doris Bland

R. T. ( Robert Tillman) Forth and family information can be found here.

Wayne County History & Genealogy

Wayne County
History & Genealogy