John Broom (1809 - 1886)

Born 16 Oct 1809 in West Virginia, USA

Husband of Mary (Allen) Broom — married 11 Feb 1828 in Smith, Tennessee, USA

Descendants

Died 9 Feb 1886 at age 76 in Mason, Effingham, Illinois, USA

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Biography

John was the son of Miles Broom and Elizabeth Vincent. He passed away in 1886.

Residence

Date: 1830^[1]

Place: Fayette, Illinois, USA

Notes: John and Mary lived next door to Mary's parents, Benjamin and Sarah. Mary's sister, Charlotte, was also a neighbor.

Anecdote

Date: 4 Jul 1832

Place: Effingham, Illinois, USA

Notes: "In the pioneer days, the people had their sports, which were perhaps as enjoyable to them as our more refined amusements are to us in this fast age. Log-rollings, houseraisings, corn-huskings, usually accompanied with the old-fashioned quilting parties, were common occurrences. These gatherings were heartily enjoyed by all. The muster and election days, and Fourth of July celebrations were important events. Dr. Matthews, in his pioneer sketches of Mason,thus describes a "Glorious Fourth," which is worthy of reproduction in these pages:" On the Fourth of July, 1832, a"grand barbecue was instituted by Judge Broom and a few of the Vandalia boys, at Ewington. Bear meat and venison smoked upon the spits, whisky toasts were drunk freely in tin cups and gourds, red-hot speeches were made, and the American Eagle flopped his wings and crew with patriotic pride above the hills of the Wabash. Judge Broom was selected to read the Declaration of Independence, and he did so, standing on an old cottonwood log just north of the bridge. He says he couldn't spell half the words of the sacred document, and to this day is in total ignorance as to how he blundered through it. But nobody was competent to criticise him, and nobody laughed. The Judge pronounces that the happiest day of his life. Of that jolly band of celebrators, he is the sole survivor in Effingham County. They all have dropped away, weary of the march, long ago." The above was no doubt the first Fourth of July celebration ever held in the county.
Education was not neglected by the pioneers,and schools were established very early.The first school taught in Mason Township, and perhaps the first in the county, was taught by Col. Sam Houston. Judge Broom signed one scholar, for which he was to pay the sum of $2.50. To obtain the money necessary to liquidate this liability, Mr. Broom "pulled fodder" for old Vincent McGuire, at 16 2/3 cents a day. He received the money in half-dollars (Hull's, perhaps), without holes in them, and paid his tuition on the day the school was out." ^[2]
"As an illustration of the hard times endured by the pioneers. Judge Broom says that, for the first two or three years after he came here, he took his plows on horseback, and sometimes on foot, four or five miles north of Shelby ville, to a blacksmith, named Thomas Jackson, who was a Methodist preacher, and knew him (Broom) in Tennessee, before they moved to Illinois, and would sharpen his plows on a credit. He could not, in summer time, travel with horses during the day, on account of the " green-head " flies, which were such torments the horses became almost unmanageable from their annoyance. Judge Broom also relates, by way of illustrating the pioneer period, how, when he came here, he had nothing, and was in debt besides. He went to Vandalia and stated his circumstances to a merchant there, who sold him on credit a few plates, knives and forks, and a pot or two for cooking. The next spring, he took beeswax, deerskins and venison hams enough to him to pay for the things."^[3]

Land purchase^[4]

Date: 9 Oct 1833

Place: Effingham, Illinois, USA

Notes: 40 acres at $1.25 per acre (total $50)

Land purchase^[5]

Date: 1 May 1838

Place: St. Clair, Illinois, USA

Notes: 80 acres at $1.25 per acre (total $100.80)

Land purchase^[6]

Date: 4 Apr 1839

Place: Effingham, Illinois, USA

Notes: 40 acres at $1.25 per acre (total $50)

Land purchase^[7]

Date: 23 Dec 1839

Place: Effingham, Illinois, USA

Notes: 40 acres at $1.25 per acre (total $50)

Residence^[8]

Date: 1 Oct 1850

Place: Effingham, Illinois, USA

Notes: At the time of the 1850 agriculture census, John indicated that he had 90 acres of improved land and 230 acres of umimproved land. The cash value of his property is illegible. The value of his farming implements was $250. He owned 6 horses, 2 dairy cows, 24 other cows, 15 sheep, and 45 swine. The value of his livestock was $300. He had 75 bushels of wheat, 20 bushels of rye, 800 bushels of Indian corn, and 200 bushels of oats.

Residence^[9]

Date: 22 Oct 1850

Place: Effingham, Illinois, USA

Notes: John, age 40, was working as a farmer. His real estate was valued at $1500. Mary, age 43, was keeping house and looking after her family: William, age 21, Benjamin, 19, Sarah Ann, age 17, Elizabeth Jane, incorrectly listed in the census as age 19, Dinah, age 13, Martha, age 12, Rebecca, age 6, and Mary, age 2.

Land purchase^[10]

Date: 15 Feb 1851

Place: Effingham, Illinois, USA

Notes: 80 acres at $1.25 per acre (total $100)

Land purchase^[11]

Date: 13 Jun 1853

Place: Effingham, Illinois, USA

Notes: 40 acres at $2.50 per acre (total $100)

Land purchase^[12]

Date: 24 Nov 1853

Place: Effingham, Illinois, USA

Notes: 80 acres at $2.50 per acre (total $200)

Residence^[13]

Date: 18 Jun 1860

Place: Effingham, Illinois, USA

Notes: John was 49 and Mary was 53. Living in their home were their children Benjamin, age 25, Dinah (listed as Dicy), age 22, Rebecca, age 13, and Mary, age 11. Also living in their home were Patrick Braman, age 16, working as a farm laborer, and Monroe McCracken, age 10. John's real estate was valued at $7160 and his personal estate at $6300. John's birthplace is listed as Tennessee. Benjamin's occupation is listed as farm laborer and Dicy's occupation is listed as domestic.

Residence^[14]

Date: 1 Jul 1870

Place: Effingham, Illinois, USA

Notes: John was 60 and Mary was 64. John is listed as a retired farmer whose real estate was valued at $10,000 and his personal estate at $200.

Life Sketch^[15]

"Judge John Broom was the second son of Miles and Edith (Vincent) Broom and was born in the newly settled portion of the Old Dominion known as "New Virginia" (now West Virginia) near the Tennessee line, October 16, 1809. While still an infant, his parents moved to Jackson County, Tenn, and soon after to Smith County, in the same state, where his boyhood was passed in a log hut in the wilds of a dismal canebrake. Miles Broom served in the War of 1812 and when discharged at New Orleans, started home, but when only thirty miles on his way, sickened and died. This was in the year 1815. Mrs. Broom was thus left with three small children, and John Broom, then a very small boy, toiled and struggled to help his mother on the ten acres of land she had secured, until he was seventeen years old. When less than nineteen years old, in 1828, he married Mary Allen, of Smith County, Tenn. In August, 1829, their first child was born, and in October of the same year, the little family started west, taking with them their goods, which they loaded into a "carry-all." He joined his father-in-law, Benjamin Allen, and the two families arrived at their new home in Illinois, near the present site of Mason, November 6th. John Broom, the husband and father, but not yet a voter, was five dollars in debt with nothing to depend upon but his stout heart and brawny arm. He and his father-in-law purchased the improvements on a claim made by John McCoy, and Mr. Broom went to Vandalia and there bought, on a year's credit, such things as he was compelled to have.
In 1835 Mr. Broom secured employment at thirty-seven and a half cents a day, getting out rock in a limestone quarry for the National Road, and thus earned money to pay for eighty acres of land, together with a yoke of oxen. This was the foundation of his fortune and he prospered so well that he was able to give each son 100 acres of land, each daughter forty, and retain 400 acres himself.
In 1830 Judge Broom was elected Constable and in 1839 Justice of the Peace, holding that office for over forty years. For five years he held the office of Associate Judge and in 1862 was elected County Judge, which office he held four years. Judge Broom's was a useful, busy life, as he won his success in life mainly through farming, stock raising, contracting and teaming and also various other occupations. He married people, tried suits, adjusted the difficulties of neighbors, administered estates, and often gave gratuitous legal advice. He read the Declaration of Independence, standing on a cottonwood log, at the first Fourth of July celebration held in Effingham County, on the occasion when Aiken and Berry Evans, of Vandalia, were orators of the day. He was well known through his public life and in his private capacity as neighbor and friend was greatly esteemed. Judge Broom died February 9, 1886."

Life Sketchl^[16]

"John Broom came also in 1829. He is a native of Tennessee, and he and his father-in-law, Benjamin Allen, with their families, came to Illinois, arriving iri this township in the early part of November, 1829. He settled on Limestone Creek, some three miles west of Mason. He was penniless when he arrived, and in debt, besides, to his father-in-law; but, nothing daunted, he went to work with a stout heart and willing hands. For the first years of his wilderness life, he subsisted on the products of his rifle, deer, bear, turkeys and other game being quite abundant. The first land he owned was an eighty-acre tract, which he paid for with money earned in blasting rock in the quarries, for the National road, when it was in course of construction, and for which he received the liberal sum of 37| cents per day. By persevering industry, he has accumulated considerable property, and now as he is passing down the shady side of life, he is enjoying the fruits of a well-spent life. For several years he has been a resident of Mason Village, his health preventing him from active life on the farm. He has held many offices - Constable, Justice of the Peace, Associate County Judge, etc. since his youth. Poverty prevented him from receiving an education, and thus, realizing the need of it, he has always been a zealous friend of schools, and an earnest supporter of all measure for the benefit of learning. His father-in-law, Benjamin Allen, was a good farmer and a respected citizen. He died on the place where he settled, and the bones of himself and wife molder together in the dust upon the old homestead, the place now owned by Mr. Dovore. Mrs. Charlotte Kepley was a daughter of Allen, and a widow. Afterward, she married John Allen, who, although of the same name of her father, was not related to him.
The first wheat sowed in Effingham County was by Judge Broom and Mr. Allen. They went all the way to Shelby County, and, with their horses, assisted Andrew Wakefield to tramp out wheat in the old-fashioned way, by laying the wheat on the ground and driving horses over it - receiving for themselves and their horses a bushel and a half of wheat per day. They worked long enough to obtain four bushels of wheat. This they brought home with them on horseback, and prepared a piece of ground, in which it was sown."

Life Sketch^[17]

"Judge John Broom, retired Mason, whose portrait appears in this work, is the second son of Miles and Edith (Vincent) Broom, both natives of North Carolina. The parents had four children - William, John, Dicy, and Samuel. Our subject was born October 16, 1809 on the Boiling Fork of Elk River, in the newly settled portion afterward called New Virginia, in the Old Dominion, near the Tennessee line. While an infant his parents moved into Tennessee, Jackson County, from which place they, in a short time, moved to Smith County, same state, on Barren River, near the Kentucky line - an unbroken canebrake wilderness. In 1814, their house and its contents were burned, and the family literally turned "out of doors;" the father, as soon as he could, erected a log hut, but before he could put on a roof, his country's call for soldiers in the war of 1812-15 took him into the army, and this helpless family were literally left in an uncovered railpen, with a few shucks for bed, bedding, and household furniture. The neighbors eventually put a roof over their heads. The father (Miles Broom) served his country during the war, and was distinguished by the personal notice and friendship of General Jackson, for his bravery. As in after years, Gen. Jackson, in making a 4th of July oration, noticed Judge Broom, the son of his soldier friend in the audience, placed his hand on the boy's head and stated taht he had seen that boy's father in battle, when he was so sick that he had to lean against a wall to load and fire his gun, yet he fought the fight like a hero. Miles Broom, when discharged at New Orleans, started home, but when only thirty miles on the way sickened and died, in the year 1815.
Judge Broom's mother was then a widow, with four small children, three boys and a girl, and, at the tender age of seven years, John Broom was pretty much the family dependence in their struggle for existence. At the age of seven, he attended an orphan school three months, and this constituted his educational privileges. His mother had secured ten acres of land, and here he toiled and struggled for the family's scanty existence until seventeen years old.
February 11, 1828, being less than nineteen years old, he married Mary Allen, of Smith County, born June 4, 1806, near Salisbury, on the Yadkin River, NC, daughter of Benjamin and Sarah Allen, natives also of North Carolina. The young wife was the possessor of a bed, and the youthful benedict owned a pony and a saddle, and this was the only freight in this connubial bark when launched upon the matrimonial sea. The young couple rented a farm and mill and worked the happy hours away. In August 1829 their first child, William, was born, and in the October following, the now little family of wife and child were loaded into a "carry-all," with all of their other goods, and started westward. He joined his father-in-law, Benjamin Allen, and drove his four-horse team to their new home in Illinois, on Fuller Creek, where the two families landed on the 6th of November, 1829. On the banks of this classic stream, if he took an inventory of his possessions, preparatory to a new start in a strange land, it would have resulted about as follows: A pioneer, a husband, a father, not yet a voter, $5 in debt, and nothing else in the world. No, not a pauper, for as his long and useful life has shown, he was rich in health, energy, resolution, industry, and that Western vim and pluck that wins its way and triumphs over every obstacle.
Judge Broom and his father-in-law purchased the improvement of John McCoy. The Judge had to go to Vandalia and buy on a year's credit such things as he was compelled to have. He thus secured, among other things, a few shoe-maker's tools, and for years he made all the family shoes, and his wife could cook nearly everything in the kettle. Like all pioneers, their meat was wild game. The first three years he had to carry his plow, sometimes on horseback and sometimes on foot, forty-five miles, to get it sharpened, often occupying three days on a trip of this kind. In 1835, he secured employment at 37 cents a day in the rock quarry, getting rock for the national road; the second year, he had become so expert that he got 70 cents a day. This was the foundation of his prosperity and fortune, and, in 1834, he entered his first forty acres of land, and bought a voke of oxen. In company with others, he plowed the first furrow on the National road to a point near Vandalia. Farming, cattle-raising, contracting, teaming and working by the day or by the contract, he prospered, and, although he reared a large family of children, he provided enough to give each son 100 acres and each daughter forty acres, and retain over 400 acres of land for himself.
His official life commenced with his maturity, being elected Constable in 1830. He was elected Justice of the Peace in 1839, and has filled this office for forty-one years; was five years Associate Judge, and in 1862 was elected County Judge, and served four years ; was nominated for the Legislature, but declined on account of ill health, and designated Hon. Stephen Hardin to take his place. Here are fifty-nine years of life in our count-. Looking backward over this long history of public trusts and labors well and faithfully discharged, must cheer with sincere joy the evening of a long and well-spent life.
Judge Broom's was a useful, busy life, as full of hard work as it was of variety. He farmed, made shoes, contracted on the National road and other work; teamed to St. Louis and Terre Haute, married people, tried their law suits, arbitrated and adjusted the difficulties of neighbors; administered on estates; gave gratuitous legal advice; cried all the auction sales; hunted bee- trees and paid his first debt with honej', wax, and skins and venison hams, and read the Declaration of Independence, standing on a Cottonwood log, at the first 4th of July celebration ever held in the county, when Burke Berry and Aikin Evans, of Vandalia, were the orators; has been foreman of more grand juries than any other ten men of the count-, and that he drew around him always troops of friends is evidenced by the confidence of his neighbors in the long lease of official life they have so generously forced upon him.
His beloved wife and help-meet, the mother of- his nine children, died February 8, 1870. The children were as follows: William, born in Tennessee; Benjamin, born in this county September 16, 1831, is a farmer in Chase County, Kan.; Sarah Ann and Elizabeth Jane, (twins), born March 8, 1833; the former married Croft Grider, now a prosperous farmer in West Township, this county, the latter married James Osman, of Chase County. Kan.; Dicy, born May 27, 1837, married Thomas Peterson, a farmer of Mason Township; Martha Caroline, born August 1. 1839, married John W. Smith, both dead, and left six children; Marinda Effie, born July 12, 1843, died in infancy; Rebecca Adeline, born August 6, 1845, married Thomas Allen, both dead, and left two children; and Mary Rachel, born July 12, 1848, died August 19, 1863. Our subject was re-married July 18, 1880, to Mrs. Arminda J. Newman."

Obituary^[18]

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1886--EFFINGHAM DEMOCRAT IN MEMORIAM OF JUDGE JOHN BROOM The subject of this memoir acquired a reputation and won for himself a record of greater fame than can be said of any other citizen of Effingham county. He emigrated to within a few miles of where his body--the mortal, corruptible tabernacle, now rests in the Mason cemetery during the administration of President Andrew Jackson. From and after Nov. 6th, 1829, John Broom was one of the leading, enterprising spirits of our county. A few of our old men, who were boys when the late judge landed here, will remember the trials, and hardships of a frontier life. When a log house was to be raised, every able-bodied man living within ten miles would be invited, and when these gentlemen were called to dinner they would drop their hand-spikes and pole-forks and gather around a plain, old-fashioned table to eat whatever the humble family had been able to provide. Terre Haute, Ind., was the most convenient point for corn grinding. Wheat they had not. Later they patronized the mills at Shelbyville and Vandalia. When they wanted a plow sharpened or a horse shod, the distance to a blacksmith was from thirty to forty miles, and for five months in the year the trips to these points had to be made at night. The green flies were so numerous and so industrious that no horse could live on the prairie roads in the daytime. In brief, the early settlers suffered every inconvenience and privation that mortals could endure. The young colts, calves, lambs and pigs had to be driven into stables at night to secure them against the ravages of the panther, wolf, wild cat and catamount. By industry and economy the judge gathered together a large share of the good things of this world around him. At the age of 21 he was elected constable in the year 1830. In 1839 he was elected justice of the peace which office he filled for 41 years. He was associate judge 5 years and county judge 4 years. At one time he was nominated for the legislature but refused to be a candidate in consequence of ill health. For more than 56 years he lived in our midst and the lawyers of southern Illinois pronounced him the best judge of statutory law in this judicial district. He was born in Virginia, Oct. 16th, 1809, was married Feb. 11th, 1828, and buried the companion of his youth Feb. 8th, 1879. July 18th, 1880, he was married to Mrs. A.J. Newman, who still lives, also two daughters and one son survive the father to mourn the loss of their best earthly friend. Judge Broom died Feb. 9th, 1880, in Mason and his funeral was preached by Rev. Mr. Stauffer. He was buried in honors by the Masonic fraternity.

Sources

1. ↑ 1830; Census Place: Fayette, Illinois; Series: M19; Roll: 25; Page: 239; Family History Library Film: 0007650
2. ↑ Perrin, William Henry (editor), History of Effingham County, Illinois, Chicago: O.L. Baskin & Co., 1883, p. 192.
3. ↑ Perrin, William Henry (editor), History of Effingham County, Illinois, Chicago: O.L. Baskin & Co., 1883, p. 194.
4. ↑ Illinois Public Land Purchase Records, Volume 343; Page 122.
5. ↑ Illinois Public Land Purchase Records, Volume 340; Page 004.
6. ↑ Illinois Public Land Purchase Records, Volume 146, Page 064.
7. ↑ Illinois Public Land Purchase Records, Volume 146, Page 099.
8. ↑ Census Year: 1850; Census Place: Effingham, Illinois; Archive Collection Number: T1133; Roll: 1; Page: 917; Line: 8; Schedule Type: Agriculture
9. ↑ Year: 1850; Census Place: Effingham, Illinois; Roll: M432_105; Page: 328A; Image: 661
10. ↑ Illinois Public Land Purchase Records, Volume 147; Page 108.
11. ↑ Illinois Public Land Purchase Records, Volume 148; Page 061.
12. ↑ Illinois Public Land Purchase Records, Volume 148, Page 111.
13. ↑ Year: 1860; Census Place: Township 6 Range 5 E, Effingham, Illinois; Roll: M653_176; Page: 966; Family History Library Film: 803176
14. ↑ Year: 1870; Census Place: Mason, Effingham, Illinois; Roll: M593_219; Page: 453A; Family History Library Film: 545718
15. ↑ William Henry Perrin, editor, History of Effingham County, Illinois (Chicago, Illinois: O. L. Baskin & Co., Historical Publishers, 1883), p. 725-726.
16. ↑ William Henry Perrin, editor, History of Effingham County, Illinois (Chicago, Illinois: O. L. Baskin & Co., Historical Publishers, 1883, p. 191).
17. ↑ William Henry Perrin, editor, History of Effingham County, Illinois (Chicago, Illinois: O. L. Baskin & Co., Historical Publishers, 1883, p. 151).
18. ↑ Effingham Democrat, 26 Feb 1886