Tracking down Carrier Mills' blockhouse
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Gillum Ferguson gave a program about his book "Illinois in the War of 1812" at Harrisburg District Library Wednesday and then left to go find the location of one of the blockhouses that were so popular during that era.
Ferguson and Carrier Mills-Stonefort High School history teacher set out for Nolen Road near Sahara Woods and father and son - Britt and Clayton Nolen - led them on a short jaunt from their home into the woods to find the Hampton Pankey Blockhouse site.
Blockhouses were typically two story structures with thick wood walls. The second story was typically wider than the first story and featured narrow windows that a rifle could be poked through.
Hampton Pankey was one of the early settlers in Saline County. Ferguson said he understands Pankey was living in the area in 1804 or 1805.
Motsinger's information indicates Pankey registered his land deed in 1814.
"1814 was the earliest they could register a deed," Motsinger said.
Those deeds registered in that timeframe can be assumed to be the earliest settlers who had been carving a farm out of the Illinois territory.
In about 1811 the settlers began building blockhouses for protection from American Indians.
Britt and Clayton Nolen live on a house off of Nolen Road on a hill with an expansive view of the surrounding countryside. Salem Cemetery can be clearly seen all the way across Carrier Mills Road from the Nolen's front yard. The view was one reason to build a protective blockhouse for those in the community to use as a retreat in case of trouble. Two springs oral history holds as being nearby prior to the area being strip mined was another reason for the location.
"That would be the number one thing they would be looking for. Water," Motsinger said.
Stories from the Nolen family tell of one of the springs having had a concrete shelter built around it before the strip mine. Strip pits in the pine woods contain water year round which likely are fed by springs.
The Nolens heard much about the area passed down through generations. Britt Nolen's great-grandfather owned the land and passed it down through his family. Britt Nolen's father, Bill Nolen, now owns the area of pine forest where the group believes the blockhouse must have been.
The Nolens led the group through the woods to an old cemetery with only a few cut stones evident and a few blank sandstone markers. The most legible tombstone was that of Stephen Pankey, son of Hampton Pankey. The group believes Hampton Pankey's grave is also in the cemetery that has become overtaken by autumn olive and other brush.
Ferguson believes most of the families who have lived in Saline County for many generations are related to Hampton Pankey. Pankey had seven daughters and three sons. One of those sons was John Pankey who was one of the founding fathers of Harrisburg.
Though the strip mines altered the landscape and hills that were there may no longer exist, the mines spared the cemetery so it is a reliable elevation. Because of the strip mining there is no way to determine the exact location of the blockhouse, but oral history, early written histories, the springs and the cemetery are strong evidence the blockhouse was in the vicinity.
Other Saline County blockhouses were the Gassaway Blockhouse near Galatia - Ferguson believes near the Bethel Cemetery, the Jacob Karnes Blockhouse northwest of Raleigh, one near Raleigh Road either in the Wolf Creek Cemetery or on private property nearby, the Hankerson Rude Blockhouse in Rudement near Blockhouse Cemetery, one on Battleford Road in a spot known as Blockhouse Farm as late as the 1920s and one near the former Winkleman School on Winkleman Road.
Though the blockhouses were capable structures, there is little evidence there was much need for them in Saline County.
Ferguson said there was an account written by Isaac Newton of a party chased by American Indians into the blockhouse near the Winkleman School.
Coleman Brown wrote of people in the Raleigh Road blockhouse who heard people moving about outside and the next morning saw footprints in the dew they believed were those of Indians.
A third account tells of a group bedding down when they heard rifles clicking and believed they saw Indians looking at them before fleeing to a blockhouse.