Brooklyn was on the edge of the frontier. A class of rough characters, who made their
livelihood by hunting and fishing, were living along the creek when the Higgins
family arrived.[1] The ruffians soon moved on to other frontier
spots. Close by were the remains of an old Indian
campground. The young family arrived
into what looked like a “vast wilderness”.
It was a promising place, having an abundance of natural resources such
as bubbling springs of fresh water and forest of hardwoods such as oak, hickory
and walnuts trees
Clearing the land and preparing it
for planting was hard work. Daniel’s
first duty was to fell trees and erect a log cabin made without glass, nails,
hinges or locks. He had to make simple
furniture for the family, stools or benches, things he could make with an axe
and auger. Years later, Daniel, was
knows as a man who “…lacked none of the qualities necessary in the make-up of
the true pioneer, and was undismayed by the formidable task which lay before
him.”[2]
Abundant herds of deer lived in the
area. They were a good source of protein for the areas early settlers. The smooth, skinned and tanned hides were
useful for many purposes including clothing.
The deer were a nuisance though, as they nibbled on gardens and young
fruit trees. The growing pioneer
population’s constant slaughter of the deer resulted in the extermination of
the local deer by 1865. Prairie hens and
wild turkeys were a plentiful source of protein.[3] Prairie wolves, although timid, stole lambs
and pigs from the pioneers until they too were exterminated. Other smaller animals lived in and around
Brooklyn when the Higgins family arrived such as the opossums, raccoons, ground
hogs, skunks, foxes, squirrels and rabbits.[4]
Much to the dismay of early settlers,
snakes abounded in the area, probably due to the huge population of mice. The snakes hibernated in communal dens during
the winter. The pioneers were
particularly worried about the prairie rattlesnake and copperheads. Once a snake den was located, all the men and
boys in the area would dig into the den and drag out the hibernating snakes and
kill them. One such den close to
Brooklyn was described in this way
“…the reptiles were all twined together in a hideous
mass … rattlesnakes, black racer, copperheads and every variety of snakes wound
together indiscriminately, but by far the largest number being
rattlesnakes…something over five hundred of the creatures were dragged from
their quarters and destroyed…some of them as much as six feet long and as thick
as a man’s leg.”[5]
Brooklyn’s first white settler
arrived in the spring of 1830. William
C. Ralls claimed a site for a Mill on Crooked Creek in December 1831. Richard Redfield established the first
blacksmith shop in town to help with the mill construction. Once the mill was completed in 1836, the town
was platted and lots were advertised in every major newspaper in the United
States. [6]
James S. Blackburn arrived in
Schuyler County in 1830, settling in Rushville where he started the county’s
first tannery. He decided to study
medicine, achieving this goal in 1836, he moved to Brooklyn buying land just
northwest of the town.[7] He served as the town physician for many
years. When his son and local merchant,
Robert Blackburn, sold his farm in 1868, he reserved one acre of Section 16 for
the Blackburn Cemetery. This cemetery
became the final resting place for many of the Higgins family members. The government
established the town’s first post office in 1840 with William Horney as the
first postmaster. Miss Dodds taught the first school in the town in 1844. Other pioneers followed and Brooklyn soon
became a promising site for families searching for a suitable place to set down
their roots. Settlers were attracted to
Crooked Creek, which flows through the area and laid their claims on either
bank. Lumber, an abundant and precious
commodity, lined the creek or La Moine River as it was first called.
Brooklyn Township was just eight
years old when the Higgins family arrived.
Just two years later, Daniel’s 66-year-old father Joseph died on January
7, 1840 in Franklin Township, Greene, Pennsylvania. Daniel and Sarah had two more known sons,
Henry born May 17, 1842 and James born February 5, 1844; making a total of five
known boys and one daughter.
[1]
Howard F.
Dyson, Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Schuyler
County (Chicago, IL: Munsell, 1908), 695
[3]
W. R. Brink and Company, The Combined History of Schuyler and Brown Counties, 1686 – 1882 (Rushville,
IL:Schuyler-Brown Historical & Genealogical Society, 197-?), 6
[5] Ibid., 635
[6] Schuyler
County IL GenWeb Project, “Brooklyn
Township History”, http://schuyler.illinoisgenweb.org/schuylernewhome/Towns/Brooklyn1908.html
(accessed April 10, 2013)
[7]
Floyd Mansberger and Christopher Stratton,
“Results of Phase II Archaeological Investigations at the Frakes Site (11SC
869), Schuyler County, Illinois,” Fever River Research, (Springfield, Illinois,
December 2000), 10
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