Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1907-09-05

Late Ru.N .-.s0d County Judge.
flcers of the n.-.n.z cation the manu-
script was forwar.yl TO them and was
read at a meetUg held at the village
town hall Saturuag light. 1t was pre-
pared with great fidelity to details an
contains many facts of interest that
have never found their way into print
1t is expected that at the next meet
ing of the organization a paper from
another native of the township, DR.. F.
c. Smith of Nevada, Iowa will be
read. Dr. Smith sent a letter of regret
Saturday promising to come at late,
date. Judge Parmenter's "reminiscences
are here given in full:
The territory within the limits Ct
Andalusia township, as everyone
knows, originally belonged to the
American Indians
In 1541, Ferdinand De Soto discov-
cred the Far West" which included
Andalusia and it was claimed as a
Spanish possession and was then i
part of Florida. Spain did not settle
the country and in 1868 that French
took possession of this country incIud
ing Andalusia, and held it for 100
years, and it became a portion of
Louisiana.
In 1765, the French authority gave
way to the British rule and it was
placed under the local administration
of Canada. After the commencement
OF the revolutionary war. it was claim
81 10 A l..
sachusetts, Connecticut and Virgins
all claimed Andausia and the rest OF
Illinois. In 177S, Virginia passed q
law for the protection of the county
of Illinois.
Patrick Henry, the immortal pa
triot, was then governor of Virgini=
and he appointed John Todd, Ken
lucky lawyer as a sort of military
governor of the county of Illinois.
Illinois was formed into a state an.
admitted into the union in 1918. An
Galusia township was formed by bein,
severed from Edgington township il
1859; John Buffum was the first super
visor.
My father, Lorenzo Parmenter, cam
to this county from BernardstOr
Mass, in 1888. and settled on the oil
home farm in Andalusia township i
the spring of 1913.
Had Little to Begin With.
When he commenced to make
home on his land i'll this TOWNSHIP
he did not have either horse, plo'
or wagon. All he had to commenc
farming with, was an ak. two pig
three sacks and a bushel basket
Other early farmers in Andalusi
township commenced farming wit
even less. l remember when Willial
Schuck purchased a small farm, .
the river bottom a short distance b.
low Coal creek. He said he had bee
working by the day long enough, h
was now going to make forum
and that by farming, though he sal
he had but one tool to farm wit
and that was a grubbing hoe, an
that he had borrowed thar from h
neighbor, BObbie Johnston.
| wa born i'll Andalusia tOwnsh
and came very near dying in it twic
the frs time was when | was a vel
small boy. My father had dug We
short distance from the house.
was a wei season and water W;
struck a about seven feet; the We
mad not been either walled or coverC
up. When ! BEGAN to navigate as
child instedI OF creeping as a chi
should do, I learned to travel on n
hands and fect and in this fashit
| could outrun my mother; one d.
/ started off on all fOurs towards Il
well; my mother ran after me, but
beat her and tumbled heels over he;
into the well. My mother was alon
but she was equal to the occasion
by the use of a fence rail she ST
Ceeded in getting into the well az
rescued me. She got out of the W.
with the assistance of the rail.
My home has always been not mo
than a mile and half from the O
Mississippi river, and if l ap "wi
from it now for a week, | get r.
some. When your fellow townsma
Theodore Simmons and l were boy
about eight or ten years old, we us
to take his little skiff and paid
along the shore of the river near L
home. then near the mouth of &C
creek One Sunday we concluded
go to the island opposite his hon
When there, as boys of that a
usually do, we found a swimming no
1t was little lake on the island.
was too tempting, we could not