The following article was taken from a 1978 article written by Homer Butler and published in the Marion Daily Republican as follows. Additional notes were added for clarification.
Mrs. Ed Queen recently brought by some notebooks and documents handed down in her family and gave me an opportunity to learn at first hand something about the way of life the people who lived in the Marion area 125 years ago and more.
This information is contained in the writing of an ancestor of Mrs. Queen who set up housekeeping with her young husband in what is the southwest section of Marion exactly 130 years ago last March.
She was Mary Elizabeth Cox, who on March 3, 1848 at the age of 19, became the bride of William Aikman, who became one of the area’s most prominent farmers and business men.
But it is the story of adversity and hardship as told by Mrs. Aikman, rather than the narrative of her husband’s accomplishments, which seizes the imagination of one who is permitted to read the things she wrote as late as 1909 in anticipation of her death nearly 20 years after she became a widow.
At the time of her marriage, the author of this revealing narrative lived with her father and his family at Poor Prairie, which was the name of the community located in what is now northwest Marion before the town of Marion was formed.
Mary Elizabeth Cox was born March 17, 1827 in North Carolina. She was brought to Illinois at the age of three by her father and mother, Thomas and Millie Cox. The family settled on a farm two miles east of the present city of Herrin and lived there about six years. After the death of his wife and his remarriage, Cox moved his family to another farm at Poor Prairie.
Writing a history of her family as a record for her children and other descendants from memory many years later, the bride of March, 1848 related some of the experiences of a couple starting out to build their own lives in this community in sharp contrast to living conditions in the same area today.
“We had a very small start,” she stated simply, “We moved into the house on April 1st on the farm where we spent the remainder of his days. There were only 35 acres of the land which belonged to the farm and only 15 acres or so of that was cleared and in cultivation, the other part being thick woods and bushes.”
“We moved into our little hut. It was about eight by 20 feet, built of round logs or poles and hewed down a little with a broad-axe outside and inside, and chinked and then daubed with mortar to keep out the cold winds in winter. The chimney was built of split sticks and daubed with mortar. The hearth was made of mortar and let dry to make it hard so we could step on it without making tracks.
The doors were made of clapboards pinned on with wooden pegs, as nails were an unknown article in those days. The floor was made on puncheon, hewed with a broad axe to make them smooth enough to walk on safely. (A puncheon is a split-log or heavy slab of timber with one face smoothed.)
We did not have any windows. We only had light when we opened the door.
We had a cupboard of boards fixed up in one corner of our little hut to set our few dishes. I scrubbed it until it looked very nice, and my husband and I were happy as June bugs.
We only had a very scanty allowance to begin with but we fixed our few things as the best circumstance would allow. We had bacon and Mr. Aikman had $30 in money. With this we bought some dishes and cooking utensils and farming tools. We bought some hens and we had some hens setting when we moved into the house, but we didn’t have any water on the farm.
There had been several wells dug, but didn’t find any water, so we had to carry our drinking and cooking water half a mile the first summer. In the fall we had a new well dug and got plenty of water, but it was so hard we couldn’t wash or cook with it, but I made out with it until we got a cistern made. I would carry the clothes down to the spring and wash them and then carry them back to the house to dry.
We raised a good crop. We had fine sweet potatoes and raised cotton and corn and everything farmers grew in those days. I would work out some in the field and in the potatoes and cotton. We managed to get a pretty fair start before our family was very large. I would make butter and sell it, as we had two good cows. I would sell eggs at four cents a dozen and butter at six cents a pound.
About a year after we were married, by husband bought two horse wagons and two good horses which made a fine team. Then we would haul goods to Vienna and other towns at about $1.50 a day. When he had to go to town, he would haul firewood and sell it to a few families as coal was an almost unknown article in those days.
From early life he made use of means at hand to advance labor to its highest plane and to put farming into the best state of cultivation. He purchased and operated the first threshing machine ever brought to this county. He contended that the best was the cheapest, hence the first improved cattle owned in the county was his.
About the year 1858, he was engaged in the sawmill business, but sold his mill to J.H. Duncan & Company. Later, he engaged in the first flour mill business and operated the first roller mill in this county.” (This was the original mill in the 500 block of N. Market St.)
The Aikmans were devoted to their religion. Having joined the Presbyterian Church at the same time a year and a half before their marriage, they were active in its work until its membership dwindled during the Civil War when they affiliated with the Methodist church in Marion.
At his funeral it was said that when they established their home in Marion, Mr. Aikman set up a family altar on which for 43 years, he kept a fire burning.
The Aikmans were the grandparents of Carl Raybourne of Marion and Roy Raybourne of Herring, and the grandparents of the late Mrs. Jennie (Hendrickson) Hentz of Marion.
For further information, see the post “Aikman, William 1825-1890 and Mary 1827-1913.”
Sam’s Notes:
The location of the Aikman home was revealed in the 1905 Souvenir History book when it noted that the Aikman’s daughter, Rosalie, married William Hendrickson and bought her parent’s old homestead, tore down the old house and rebuilt a new home on site. In Rosalie’s obituary it states that her home at 1001 S. Vicksburg was where she was born and lived her whole life. For more details on the Hendrickson’s see the post “William Hendrickson 1845-1922.”
This William Aikman is not to be confused with William J. Aikman, another prominent businessman who lived on W. Main Street.
(Extracted from Glances at Life by Homer Butler, December 9, 1978)