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From: <>
Subject: [ILBOND-L] 138 Pages of Bond County History
Date: Fri, 27 Oct 2000 15:38:10 EDT


Thanks to the Illinois State Historical Library in Springfield, which
provided it at a reasonable copying and postage fee, I now have a copy of
Hubert Schmidt's 1936 University of Chicago master's dissertation, "An
Economic and Social History of Bond County, Illinois Before 1850."

It has footnotes, with lots of surnames.

I am sending a copy to Bob McCollum, who was kind enough to scan the
Historical Society Journal article by Schmidt that is posted on the website,
for his opinion on whether the entire work could be scanned. If that's just
too much work, and takes up too much server capacity, I will figure out a way
to distribute copies at cost for those would like to have one.

The material is very readable, and very interesting. I haven't had time to
read it all, but didn't we have someone who was asking about the File family?
For them, this excerpt might be helpful:

"The dozens of Files in Bond County today trace their ancestry to one Henry
Phoile, a second generation Hollander, who came to Bond County in 1820 from
South Carolina. The clerk at the land office changed the name to File,
probably by mistake, and the newer name has stuck."

For those who had questions about divorce records:

"The bonds of matrimony, once entered into, were not lightly broken. From
1817 to 1850, twenty-four divorces were granted in Bond County, eleven being
to men and fourteen to women. In four other cases men sued for divorce and
in eight others women, one man and three women being 'repeaters.' In other
words, only thirty-one couples over a period of thirty-four years attempted
legally to break their matrimonial ties. The wives were invariably charged
with adultery; the husbands with adultery or with desertion.. . .In one case
a wife refused to go ahead with her case even though conditions were such
that her husband was later indicted for [fathering a child out of wedlock].
(Footnote citation to John Gilmore and Elizabeth Gilmore.) Toward the end of
the period a speeding up of cases where adultery was charged is noticeable.
In a case of 1848, the sheriff served a writ in the morning of the court day.
The wife was ordered to appear at two o'clock on the same day. She refused
to appear and the divorce was granted in the afternoon. (Footnote citation to
John A. Barlow and Mary M. Barlow.)"

On "Community Life, Recreation and Amusements":

"Special occasions were celebrated to the full. The sending of the county's
contingent of eighty-five men to the Mexican war on June 19, 1846 was such an
instance. One account dwells upon the fine sermon preached to the boys, the
martial music of the Greenville band, and the giant meal furnished at a
nearby farm. A different account goes into the details as to the hilarity of
the send off, helped by the barbecue of a whole beef and by pails of free
whiskey passed around and ladeled out with a dipper by a huge negro.

"Much more sober and sane were the neighborhood affairs created by certain
types of farm work. The wheat harvest was often so arranged that all the men
of a neighborhood worked together, taking the fields of grain in the order of
their ripening. (Footnote reference to William Gray McCaslin narrative in
the 'Old Settlers' records.) ...House raisings, barn raisings, corn
huskings, etc., combined labor and social activity. (Footnote reference to
Charles Beneulyn Johnson, 'Illinois in the Fifties,' 1918.)

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