WILLIAM BANDY
William
Bandy was a prominent citizen in the affairs of Vermilion County
(Illinois) at an early day. He was born in Bedford County, Va., and
when a boy of sixteen came to Vermilion County,
where he lived until his death. William and Washington Bandy came with their foster parents,
making the trip in a four-horse team wagon, taking thirty-six days to
come from their old home to Danville, Illinois. The wagon was filled
with household effects and provisions, leaving but room for the family.
In it their beds were made at night and they took their meals by the
side of the road. When they reached Danville, December 13,
1828, there were but nine families living here. There was no cabin for
them to rent, while they were providing a shelter, but they at last
succeeded in securing a temporary abiding place in a log house which
already contained two families. This building was 16x16 feet, and stood
on the northwest corner of the square upon the present site of the First
National Bank. Mr. Howell, the foster father of William and
Washington Bandy, kept his family in this house until spring, because
he could do no better.
The land
office was at that time located at Palestine, ninety miles away. Mr.
Howell went there right away to enter or purchase land, but could not
do so because the officer in charge would not take the Virginia money which he
offered in payment. After some delay, this difficulty was overcome and
he entered 480 acres of land. He put four cabins up on this land, the
principal one being that which was located one mile southeast of the
public square. This house was made of rough logs with a puncheon floor,
two windows and a door, with greased paper for use in the windows in
the place of glass. The building was 16 ft. by 18 ft. and boasted
window shutters of rived boards. An opening was made in the logs eight
feet wide, and built out three feet, and this was lined with earth for
a fireplace. The chimney was built outside six feet high and covered
with mortar. This rude contrivance lasted for years and furnished
enough heat for cooking and warming of the building in the winter.
The
furniture was equally crude and homely. The bedstead was made of riven
boards and set on wooden legs; the table was made in a like manner,
only the legs were made higher. The family had brought two chairs
whichwere given to the father and mother and the boys had to make
stools for themselves to sit on. A tick was made which was filled with
straw and another filled with feathers, and put on the bed. While game
was plenty, and the family never lacked for meat, the groceries had to
be brought in from Terre
Haute and sometimes failed to be as plenty. After the cabin was
built, water had to be carried 300 yards, until a well could be dug.
Mr. Howell made a contract to get out 10,000 black walnut rails at
twenty-five cents per hundred, and in the meanwhile he and the boys
carried on the improvement of the farm. They broke the first timber
land about Danville and raised some very fine corn which they were
obliged to feed to their swine and sell the pork at from $1.00 to $1.50
per hundred. There was no market for the corn. The wage of a day's
workwas equal to ten or twelve pounds of salt pork or eight bushels of
corn, or, from thirty-seven and a half to fifty cents in cash, and only
the extra good workmen could command that price. William Bandy remained
a member of this home until he was nineteen years old when he went into
the Black Hawk war
in Colonel I. R. Moore's regiment with Captain J. Palmer.
This
regiment went first to Joliet to build a fort. Thence they went to
Ottawa, and yet later William Bandy joined the United States Mounted
Rangers, which comprised six companies. They found the dread scourge of
cholera
at Rock Island and many fell victims to it. This company finally
returned and wintered southeast of Danville until in January they were
ordered to the other side of the Illinois river, but there being no
need of their further service they came back to their camp. They
remained ready for duty all summer, reconnoitering in different
sections until, in the fall of the year, they were discharged. Mr.
Bandy, in company with Mr. Howell, began work as a carpenter, and that
year built a house on what was called Sulphur Springs Place, about one mile
southeast of the court house. In the following spring they built a flat
boat upon which Mr. Bandy loaded great quantities of pork and took it
to New Orleans.
When he reached his destination he found an epidemic of cholera, and he
waited only to sell enough to pay expenses when he came home, having
left the rest of his pork to be sold by others. Two years later he had
a letter from the man who undertook the sale, stating that it was all
sold, and enclosing the price thereof in a draft on a Louisville bank.
Mr. Bandy
built another boat and took another load of produce down the rivers,
and continued these trips year after year excepting in the time of the
Mexican war, when he abandoned the river until after its close. Later
he furnished the Illinois
Canal company with packet horses and also was a merchant in partnership
with his father-in-law, William
Murphy. He later had a hardware store, conducting the largest
business of this kind in the county, for years. He spent the last years
of his life in the real estate business. His first residence was on
North street, east of Vermilion, where he had a half acre of ground. He
was appointed as one of the commissioners to make the slack water of
the Vermilion river, in 1835, but did not see it practical; later he
was appointed marshal of the Eastern District of Illinois, but there
being nothing which appealed to him in the office, he withdrew.
Mr. Bandy
represented his township two terms as supervisor; he also served the
city as president of the city council and as alderman. Mr. Bandy
married Miss Harriet J. Murphy, in 1833. They were the parents of seven
children. Mrs. Bandy died in 1872, and nine years later he married Mrs.
Deborah (King) Johnson.
(History of Vermilion County, Illinois
By Lottie E. Jones Published In 1911) - Submitted by Barb Ziegenmeyer
