Charles C. Patton Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

the Lake?
A. All I remember is that they had an awful lot of stumps they
tried to take out.
Q. Horse and Buggy?
A. Yes, with horses. The dam was built not with bulldozers, but
with teams of horses that dragged these scoop shovels along.
They scooped up the dirt and dumped it. It was an onerous task.
It took haurs and hours and hours to do that.
Q. Then certain trees were planted around.
A. Yes, they hired a lady, and I can't remember her name. [ a
Mrs. Knutsen]. She was a friend of my mothers and she did the
planting, and they planted certain trees, and each of the lots
that had been laid off, so that when people came and leased the
lots, they had tress already planted on it. Of course this was
all farm land to begin with, and there weren't any trees, sa we
had to plant them, and she did a pretty good job planting good
trees in each of the lots.
Q. W a s she the woman who was also responsible for the Lincoln
Gardens?
A, I think so. She was a maiden lady. I can't remember.
Q. Do you know much about the Lincoln Gardens?
A. No, I don't remember much about them.
Q. Were there any Indians here in this particular area?
A. Yeah, there were Indians here. There were prehistoric
Indians here. As a matter of fact, down the road
houses, when they built that house, they found a
Indian arrowheads right there at that place when
foundation. I don't know what Indians they
prehistoric. But these were Potowatomis here
then some of those who were pretty poor
have some Indian artifacts that I picked up down at Clear Lake.
There was, apparently a large Indian village out at Clear Lake at
one time, and when they mined the sand and gravel, they picked up
a lot of Indian arrowheads and axes, and that sort of thing, and
actually guns that had been dropped in the Lake by hunters or by
the Civil War soldiers who had a camp there.
8. What camp was there?
A. It was Camp Butler. Camp Butler was first started
Clear Lake and the first winter they spent out there, it
i