One of my chief pleasures in early childhood was to listen to stories
that my grandfather told of when he lived in a log cabin which was located near
the Vermillion river in Farm Ridge township.
His parents, John and Jane
Crawford, who were Scotch-Irish, came from Donegal County in the Donegal
mountains of northern Ireland. They came directly to La Salle county. The family
consisted of the parents and an infant daughter Anna. They were attended by an
Irish nursemaid who put the fire-tongs in the baby's cradle to keep the fairies
away.
On arriving in Ottawa his father hired a team to carry them to the
farm, which was to become their future home. At that time a squatter was living
on the land. He had built a log cabin and a log barn on the land. His father
bought the squatter's interests in the land and became possessor of the house,
barn, stock, furniture and food, including the pans of milk on the pantry shelf.
In short, they bought everything but the squatter's personal belongings, and
these the man packed and went away.
A vacant brick house stood on a sand
hill about two miles from the river. His parents moved into this house in the
winter time because it was much warmer than the other house. In the spring they
would move back again to their own property. In March, 1853, my grandfather was
born. He was named George. One month later they moved again to the log cabin.
One of his earliest recollections of his father's hunting was when he
brought a deer home on his back. It was so large that it had to be hung on the
rafters for future use.
When he was six years old he started to school
in the school which is now the Crawford school. It is sometimes called the Farm
Ridge school because it is near the Farm Ridge Episcopal church.
While
he was quite a small boy one of his evening chores was to bring home the cows
which were pastured in the timber across the river. They were located by the
sound of a cowbell which was on the lead cow. One late fall evening when the
cows had wandered farther than usual and were quite a ways from the river it
began to grow very dark. By the time it had grown so dark he could hardly see he
had found the cows and started them home. A wolf on a distant hill began to
howl. One after another the wolves lifted their voices in the still night. Being
only a small boy, he was quite frightened. But he succeeded in getting home
before the wolves came very close.
Another incident he told of was the
exciting adventure which one of their neighbors had. He was spearing fish
through a hole in the ice on the river. His only light and weapon was a lighted
pine torch. Having caught a fine string of fish for his supper he started for
home. Before he had gone far a pack of hungry wolves, smelling fresh fish,
started after him. He knew they smelled fish, so he threw them one. While they
were fighting over that he would run for the nearest house, which was where my
grandfather lived.
His father died when he was thirteen years of age. He
being the oldest son was left as chief assistant on the farm.
Extracted 08 Nov 2018 by Norma Hass from Stories of Pioneer Days in La Salle County, Illinois, by Grammar Grade Pupils, published in 1932, page 57.
| Lee | DeKalb | Kane |
| Bureau |
 |
Kendall |
| Putnam | Grundy | |
| Marshall | Woodford | Livingston |
