USA > Illinois > Douglas County > History of Douglas county, Illinois > Part 1
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2
HISTORY
OF
DOUGLAS COUNTY,
ILLINOIS,
COMPILED BYORDER OF THE
BOARD OF
UPERVISORS
FOR THE
Centennial Anniversary OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE; JULY 4, 1876. BY. HENRY C. NILES.
"_collecta revirescunt."
STATE
SOVEREIGNTY
UNION
ATIONAL
PRICE FIFTY CENTS.
TUSCOLA, ILL .: CONVERSE & PARKS, PRINTERS. 1876.
V
PUBLIC SCHOOL
08 717
BAKER-C:
TUSCOLA PUBLIC SCHOOL BUILDING.
HISTORY
OF
DOUGLAS COUNTY,
ILLINOIS,
COMPILED BY ORDER OF THE
OARD OF
UPERVISORS
FOR THE
mitthersarn
OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE, JULY 4, 1876. BY HENRY C. NILES.
" ____ collecta revirescunt."
STATE
SOVEREIGNTY
BRARY OF
TIONAL UNION
1875.
PRICE FIFTY CENTS.
TUSCOLA, ILL .: CONVERSE & PARKS, PRINTERS. 1876.
2317
,
TO THE
YOUNG MEN OF DOUGLAS COUNTY
THIS MATTER IS
RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED,
In the hope that they may be reminded of the responsibility they are about to as ume in taking charge of the destinies of little DOUGLAS. May they emulate the noblest deeds of their fathers, so that the bless- ings, which they secured, may descend through them, to posterity. In opening out the resources of the country, converting the rude land into cultivated fields, building cities where none existed before, and making possible the civilizing influences of Churches, Schools and Railroads, their fathers have borne the brunt of the battle, and are now resigning into their hands the result of their labors, for they are passing away.
F547 . IT NG
143
PREFACE.
In the preparation of a history of any minor subdivision of a State, allusion is necessarily made to various events of the past which are well known to many old residents, and many things of the present are recorded which are not strange to the intelligent citizen. Neverthe- less all no not know all of the past, nor is any one thoroughly posted on the present. Hence the hope that this compilation amounts at least to an interchange of knowledge, which being "collected and refreshed" puts all on an equal footing for a fresh start.
It would be as well, perhaps, for us who are familiar with both the past and present of our little Utica, to bear in mind that a history of the past, for the use of the present, is not of more importance than that of the present for its successors.
In regard to the times of elections, terms of office, and the emolu- ments of the different classes of the county public service, the obliga- tions of the county to railroads, population, etc., etc., it is believed that much useful information has been given in, as it were, a pocket form, the matter of which is not claimed as original, but, it is supposed, will be found correct and convenient.
Much of an anecdotical nature might have been added, and many things touched upon could readily have been amplified, but the matter in bulk, and consequently in labor, has far transcended the original design for this occasion.
If, being found correct, as far as it goes, this proves to be, at least, a good beginning for a history of Douglas county, the author will be satisfied, for he believes, that under the circumstances, he has done what he could, and it is expected that citizens will be inclined, to an extent, to commend the work as a step in the right direction, and that they will, from time to time, give some willing assistance in keep- ing up the chronicles of Douglas county, for
"It will be pleasant hereafter .To remember these things."
Where so many have been cheerfully helping in the matter, it were wrong to particularize, they have the
Best respects of
THE COMPILER.
RECOMMENDATIONS.
-
The Congress of the United States, March 13, 1876, passed a res- olution recommending that the people of the several States assemble in their several towns on the "Centennial Anniversary" of our National Independence, and have read a Historical Sketch of said county or town from its formation, and that a copy of said sketch be filed in the office of the Librarian of Congress, as well as in the Clerk's office of said county.
April 25, 1876, this is followed by the proclamation of John L. . Beveridge, the Governor of the State of Illinois, to the same effect, urging a general observance of the recommendation.
In May, 1876, and at a Special Term of the Board of Supervisors, not, however, specially held for this purpose, the following resolution was adopted which had been offered by the Supervisor from Garrett, Mr. Wm. Howe:
Resolved, That Henry C. Niles be employed to prepare a Statis- tical and Biographical History of Douglas County, from its origin to the present time, and to have the same ready by the 4th of July next, provided the said work shall not cost to exceed one hundred dollars.
HISTORY OF DOUGLAS COUNTY.
By the treaty of peace between the French and English in 1763, the Illinois Country was ceded to the latter. It remained in their hands until 1778 in which year Virginia troops under General Clark conquered the country. A county called Illinois was then organized, and had been considered hitherto a part of the territory included in the charter of Virginia. Virginia ceded it to the United States in 1787, and it was called the "Northwest Territory." In ISoo it received a separate organization and i territorial government in con- junction with, and under the name of Indiana. Another division took place in ISog when the distinct territories of Indiana and Illinois were formed.
The name of Illinois is derived from that of its great river, an aboriginal appellation, signifying the "River of men."
When Illinois Territory was a part of Indiana, the seat of Gov- ernment was at Vincennes, and when the Territory was set off from Indiana in ISog the whole State was made into two counties, St. Clair and Randolph. From St. Clair Madison was made; from Madison, Crawford, the State then had about, fifteen counties. In IS19 Clark was set off from Crawford, and extended to the northward indefinitely. Coles county was organized in 1830-31; Cumberland parted from it in 1842, and Douglas in 1859.
Illinois was admitted into the Union of States in 1818, with an area of 55,410 square miles, about 409 of which belong to Douglas county.
Coles county, from the area of which Douglas was taken, once comprised within its bounds all of Cumberland county as well, and was named in honor of Edward Coles the second Governor of the State, elected in 1822.
S
HISTORY OF
Amongst the smallest counties in the State, though not the least by some seven or eight, Douglas county is geographically in the east centre of the State, and lies below the 40th parallel of latitude. Tus- cola, the county seat, being in latitude 39 degrees 45 minutes, North. The county is bounded on the north by Champaign county, on the east by Edgar, upon the south by Coles, and on the west by Moultrie and Piatt.
The election for and against the new county was held in Coles county on the first Monday in March, 1859, and the Clerk was ordered to make his returns to Coleman Bright and Joseph B. McCown, of Camargo.
Coles was a large county of some twenty-four Congressional Townships, and containing about SSo square miles. New towns demanded by the rapidly increasing population of the north part were springing into existence, the principal of which, Tuscola and Okaw, (for so Arcola was originally called), upon the line of the Illinois Cen- tral Railroad, had been laid out, the latter by the railroad, upon its own lands, and the former upon railroad lands by private enterprise
The tedious trip, over the prairie of 20 or 25 miles, to Charleston the county seat, laid out in 1831, and the almost universal disposition of the people towards concentration, carried still farther, eventually, by Township Organization, were amongst the inducements that brought about the division.
The first bill before the legislature, and which was drawn up by A. G. Wallace, assisted by Dr. Mckinney, Martin Rice, Coleman Bright, J. B. McCown, W. H. Lamb, Jas R. Hammet and many oth- ers, which bill passed, left out all of Township 14 of Range 10, 14 Range 11 and 14 Range 14, as if a change had accidentally been made in the Senate. But it was shown that the new county would not con- tain the required area "of not less than 400 square miles," a require- ment of law, whereupon the addition was made which raised the area to the proper standard, and a supplementary act was passed to cover the deficiency.
The act forming the new county went into effect February 8, 1859, the first and erroneous bill had been passed by both Houses before the discovery of the discrepancy or change, only three days of the session remained, and Dr. J. W. Mckinney, of Camargo, repaired at once to Springfield, wrote out the supplementary bill, adding IS
9
DOUGLAS COUNTY.
sections of land. This was between 10 and 12 o'clock in the morning and after a deal of hard work the bill was considered in the House, under a suspension of the rules, and read a second time and passed, reported to the Senate and again passed, under a suspension of the rules; the bill was signed by the Governor at 4 o'clock, and the Doc- tor, with a copy of it in his possession, was on his way home by six o'clock P. M. the same day.
In fixing the county lines an area of some 15 square miles was left out of the southeast corner to accommodate the citizens of Oakland and vicinity, who preferred to remain in Coles county, and by this concession the managers of the partition secured the co-operation of that locality.
There was considerable opposition to the division, as is usual in such cases, but public-spirited men all over the territory held meetings and contributed liberally of their means and time, and finally on the first Monday in March, 1859, Douglas county sprang into existence and was baptised in honor of Stephen A. Douglas. In connection with the name of the county it may not be amiss to recall a little of the history of its christening :
W. D. Watson, of Camargo Township, was in the Senate, and a Republican. The proposed county was of that faith, and the petition for the new county asked for the name of "Richman," that of the first inhabitant; others again were deter- mined to call it "Watson," and the subject was introduced repeatedly at the meet- ings, often under considerable excitement, which finally yielded when the advo- cates of the various other names became convinced that the bill could not pass under any other name than that of Douglas.
Dr. Pearce, of Camargo, and others, strongly opposed the name and only gave up on the solemn promise of the opposition to assist in having the name changed after the institution of the county.
In regard to the spelling of the name, it is notable that we use only one final s, which was the mode of spelling adopted by Senator Douglas, and consequently proper. Strangers to this fact invariably use the double s, which is the original mode.
The partition left the county with 408 sections of land, the area being just about 409 square miles, so-called sections of land hereabout, being of various areas, the smallest being as low as 230 acres and many running considerably over 1,000.
The new county was now horn and christened, and being admit- ted, the next thing in this case was to see that she was properly clothed, and to this end the first nominating convention for the selec-
IO
HISTORY OF
tion of county officers was held in a board shanty on the McCarty farm, 21/2 miles east of Tuscola. The men put in nomination were selected without regard to party, and the officers who were then elected were:
County Judge-James Ewing, still living in Arcola, and the asso- ciates were John D. Murdock, now a large land owner in Camargo Township, who was again elected in 1861. He filled the position for six years, and had been active in the formation of the new county. And Robert Hopkins, one of the pioneers of Newman Township, who was, at the birth of the new county, an associate justice of Coles. Mr. Hopkins died in the spring of 1863, leaving a large unincumbered estatc.
The first County Clerk was John Chandler, now living on his farm east of Tuscola. He was re-elected in 1861, serving in all about six years. Mr. Chandler was one of the most active in the partition, and by reason of a large experience in public business was altogether depended upon for statistics in the interests of the new county. He served in the war with Mexico.
The Circuit Clerk and Recorder, elected at this time, was Andrew G. Wallace, who was re-elected in 1860, 1864 and IS68, hold- ing the office by re-election for over 12 years.
Mr. Wallace is one of the first settlers, having arrived in Coles county in 1834 and was one of the first in Tuscola, where he still lives, conducting a large abstract and loan office.
Samuel B. Logan was the first Sheriff.
Mr. Logan is now a resident of Bourbon Township ' where he is a large land owner. He was a captain in the 54th Regt. Ills. Vols. in the war of 1861.
The office of Assessor and Treasurer was taken by William Han- cock, of Newman Township.
Mr. Hancock is now engaged in banking in the city of Newman, and a large farmer in Sargent Township. He came to this vicinity in November, 1839.
The first County Surveyor was Henry C. Niles, who was re-elected in 1861 and again in 1871.
Mr. Niles came from Baltimore in 1857.
The first meeting of the County Court, as it was called, was held in Camargo, so that the minds of the people might not be prejudiced as between Arcola and Tuscola.
11
DOUGLAS COUNTY.
The selection of the county seat, as was to have been expected, was the occasion of much excitement. The cities of Tuscola and Arcola, from their comparatively central position, and both being sit- uated on the only railroad in the county, were the leading contesting points. The village of Camargo had claims to the honor which were strongly advocated, and the well known Hackett's Grove, not far north of the geographical centre of the county, was also talked of. The aspiring embryo cities of Tuscola and Arcola, at the first elec- tion, polled probably ten times their legal vote, and the count in these two places, being so glaringly preposterous, neither was considered at this time, and the unwritten history of this canvass for county seat will probably remain unwritten during the present generation. At this first meeting of the County Court-a Special Term-April 28, 1859, it was ordered that a special election be held May 30, I859, to choose a county seat as between the two rival towns, which election resulted in the choice of Tuscola.
Camargo was made county seat pro tem and Mr. W. H. Lamb was appointed commissioner to transfer from Coles county records those necessarily belonging to Douglas.
Mr. Lamb had arrived in Camargo in 1853; was a merchant there until 1862 when he became Adjutant of the 79th Ills. Vols. in the war of the Rebellion. He was elected County Clerk, or Clerk of the County Court, in 1865, and at the expi- ration of his term accepted the Cashiership of the First National Bank of Tuscola, a position he still retains.
County organization lasted until 1867. The last County Court was composed of Thos. S. Sluss, of Tuscola, Judge, with Calvin Jones, of Arcola, and John Brown, of Camargo Township, as associ- ates. Judge Sluss was also the first County Judge after Township organization. The associates are yet large farmers in the county.
The people having, at an election held in November, 1867, decided to adopt Township organization, Lucius McAllister, of Arcola; Jos. B. McCown, of Camargo, and Henry B. Evans, of Tus- cola, were appointed Commissioners to divide the county into Town- ships, which duty they performed by making the sub divisions as they now stand.
Jos. B. McCown served honorably in the war with Mexico, as also in the civil war of 1861, when he was Colonel of the 63d Ill. Infantry. Col. Mccown stood high in the estimation of the people and consequently exercised considerable influ- ence in politics and public business generally. He possessed all the attributes of good citizenship, and his death, November 21, 1869, was much lamented.
12
HISTORY OF
H. B. Evans was elected Assessor and Treasurer in 1865 and re-elected in IS67; as Assistant U. S. Marshal in 1870 he procured the Douglas county data for the 9th Census, and has been Post Master of Tuscola for a number of years.
The first meeting, under Township organization, of the Board of Supervisors, was held in Tuscola, on Monday, May 11, 1868, and the Supervisors were :
Caleb Garrett, of Garrett.
Lemuel Chandler, of Bourbon,
Asa T. Whitney, of Arcola.
Oliver C. Hackett, of Tuscola.
Geo. W. Henson, of Camargo.
Benjamin W. Hooe, of Newman.
Isaac W. Burget, of Sargent, and
Benjamin Bowdre, of "Deer Creek," but upon being informed by the State Auditor that there was a "Deer Creek" Township m Tazewell County, the name was changed to "Bowdre" in honor of its first representative.
In September, the same year, a petition to the Board of Super- visors was circulated, to which a great many signatures had been obtained, wherein the petitioners endeavored to show their belief that a majority of the voters of the county desired the abolition of Town- ship organization.
Camargo Township was formerly called Albany Precinct, New- man was once Brushy Fork, Garrett Township was a part of Bour- bon, Bourbon was once North Okaw, Bowdre, once called Deer Creek, was part of Collins Precinct, and Sargent belonged to Oak- land Precinct.
Douglas county, once the 7th, now belongs to the 14th Congres- sional District, comprising the counties of Vermillion, Douglas, Coles, Piatt, Macon and Champaign, and is represented in the House of Representatives by Joseph G. Cannon.
Mr. Cannon came to Tuscola in 1859, the year of the new county ; was elected State's Attorney in 1861 and again in 1864. He was elected to Congress in 1872 and re-elected in 1874.
It is in the 32d Senatorial District, the counties of which, at pres- ent, are Coles, Douglas, Moultrie, and has, of its citizens, been repre- sented by Col. John Cofer, W. T. Sylvester and Joseph H. Ewing, of Arcola; Jas. E. Callaway, of Tuscola, and by Malden Jones, of Bourbon.
13
DOUGLAS COUNTY.
Mr. Jones was the last Sheriff of Coles County before the partition, and was elected to the Legislature in 1864 and re-elected in 1866.
The counties of Vermillion, Coles, Douglas, Edgar and Clark make the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit of the Second Grand Division, and has been presided over by Judges Harlan, Steele, and David Davis. The present Judge is O. L. Davis; the State's Attorney is R. B. Macpherson.
The first session of the Circuit Court was held in the then just finished depot building of the Illinois Central Railroad, and the first civil case on the Docket was Button vs. K. B. Johnson, default of defendant and judgment for three dollars and twenty cents. This was an appeal from Dr. J. T. Johnson, a magistrate in the village of Bour- bon.
Dr. Johnson removed from Bourbon to a point south of Newman, and after a few years went west.
Afterwards Court was held over J. M. Maris' present store, on northeast corner of Parke and Sale streets, in which building Mr. Wallace had his office as Recorder; at that time this was the largest available room in Tuscola, and after that, until the present permanent Court House was built, in the large two-story wooden building which stands opposite the Court House on the north. Judge Harlan pre- sided and heard all cases, whilst busily engaged in carving curious toys from soft wood, a habit he rarely laid aside during business hours.
For a while the County Clerk's office was in the east end of the hotel, burnt in 1864, which occupied the site of the present "Stanley House.">
The Court House was begun under the administration, as a County Court, in 1864, of Judge Francis C. Mullen, of Garrett Township, assisted by John D. Murdock, of Camargo, and Caleb Bales, of Bourbon, as associates.
Judge Mullen was the second County Judge of Douglas county ; was born in Delaware and came to his present location in Garrett Township in 1850.
Mr. Bales was elected in IS61 Associate Justice, and in 1872 represented his Township as Supervisor.
*The original hotel was built by the Town Company, and there seems to be good authority for the statement that the Illinois Central Railroad Company had agreed to put the depot about opposite the site of the Court House, say Houghton street, but under a mistake of the person in charge, it got its present location.
14
HISTORY OF
The Court House is a large brick building of two-stories and basement which contains the jail and living rooms for the Sheriff or Jailer. It is situated in Block "C," a roomy enough plat of ground, 216 x 320, in about the centre of Tuscola. The plat was deeded to the county by the original Town Company for the consideration "that a Court House of a substantial character should be erected upon it with- in four years from March 17, 1864. The grounds to be used exclu- sively for county buildings, and also conditioned that when it ceased to be used for such purposes it should revert to the grantors."
The architect of the building was O. L. Kinney, of Chicago. The original accepted bid for the masonry was $15,000, and the car- penter work was offered for $7,700. The contractors for the masonry failed to perform their agreement, even after two or three extensions of time, and an advance of 20 per cent. on their contract, which advance was also made to the carpenter.
The County Board finally took charge of the work and in con- junction with Mr. J. M. Smith, of Tuscola, employed the same build- ers and others, and brought the work to a conclusion.
The entire original cost of the building and furniture was $42,000, the painting, glazing and iron not having been included in any of the bids.
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