USA > Illinois > Henry County > Bishop Hill > A history of Bishop Hill, Illinois : also biographical sketches of many early pioneers in Illinois, 100 years > Part 10
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But after the Crimean war came the financial crisis of 1857. Illinois lost two hundred and fifty banks at one fell swoop. One of the first to go was the classic Bank of Oxford, located in the hazel-brush near Bishop Hill, and the Nebraska Western Exchange Bank soon followed. The Western Air Line
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Railroad shared the fate of the banks, and left the Jansonists a worthless debt of thirty-four thousand dollars for actual work performed.
The inevitable reation against the management of the trustees set in. The people began to accuse them, and especially Olof Johnson, of transcending their powers and squandering the property of the community. The most wonderful stories were circulated concerning the extravagance of Olof Johnson. He was reported to have gambled away, in New York, a for- tune in a single night. In Chicago he was said to have bribed the police with fabulous sums when they broke in upon his midnight orgies. In St. Louis, so it was rumored, he bought a steamboat to amuse his friends for a single night, and in New Orleans, in company of Southern slave-owners, he was claimed to have lit his imported cigars with bank-notes, boast- ing of his white slaves in Bishop Hill who needed no blood- hounds or whipping-posts to keep them to their task.
Following the flush times preceding 1857 came a complete or partial standstill in nearly all lines of industry. The mem- bers of the community were no longer deceived and quieted by a great show of business. The disaffection which was brew- ing took form in 1857 in an attempt to repeal the charter. The attempt was frustrated by the judicious expenditure on the part of Olof Johnson of six thousand dollars in Springfield. But in 1858 and 1859 resolutions were passed at the annual meeting looking to the control of the actions of the Board of Trustees by the society.
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On January 9, 1860, the treasurer of the community read the following annual statement of the Board of Trustees:
Assets
Farm lands $414,824.00
Galva real estate. 33,228.47
Buildings and improvements. 129,508.61
Horses and mules. 21,520.00
Cattle account 17,099.00
Hog account
1,700.00
Sheep account
1,400.00
Poultry 50.00
Implements, forming
5,965.00
Furniture and movables
11,610.14
Steam mills
1,454.70
Boarding-house utensils
3,096.40
Mechanical department
9,092.88
Produce 4,616.00
Merchandise
4,775.60
County bonds
56,000.00
Railroad stock
21,765.78
Western Exchange Bank stock.
9,500.00
Bills receivable
46,144.45
Due from N. A. L. R. R. Co :
33,826.91
Due from the estate of Radcliffe
3,907.48
Due from Stark County
6,000.00
Personal account
8,521.91
Cash 581.25
$846,277.58
Liabilities
Bills payable
74.014.56
Personal account
1,630.78
Balance
770,631.94
$846,277.58
Balance stock on hand. $770,630.94
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The accuracy of this statement was questioned and a com- mittee was appointed to make a thorough examination of the community's books, the trustees asking for a delay of three weeks, which was granted.
Pending the examination of the books, special meetings were held by the members of the community, at which a new set of by-laws, calculated to restrict the powers of the trus- tees, was adopted. The preamble explains sufficiently the temper of the by-laws: "Whereas, the members of the Bishop Hill Colony have each one carefully considered and reflected upon the situation and condition of the general affairs of the Colony and the intention of its organization; and, Whereas, the general conviction has been acknowledged and expressed that the design and end for which this Colony was established never can be obtained under the present system of manage- ment; and, Whereas, the necessity requires and demands a change and reform in conducting and managing the affairs and property of the Colony: Therefore, to effect this just and needful change, the Bishop Hill Colony has this day adopted the following by-laws."
The principal provisions of the new by-laws were as fol- lows: The trustees might not buy or sell real estate, nor make contracts and debts binding upon the community, without the latter's express permission. The trustees were to be guided in other matters by the general instructions of the community. The general business meetings were to be held monthly instead of annually. The main office of the trustees should be in Bishop Hill and not in Galva. In case of withdrawal, members were to be entitled to fixed compensation for the property and labor which they had contributed to the society. The trustees, how- ever, refused to acknowledge the legality of the meetings in which the by-laws had been adopted. As they persistently de- clined to appear in the monthly meetings, or to render any ac- coun whatever of their management, a resolution was passed, in which they were declared to have forfeited the confidence of the community and were requested to hand in their resignations. The resolution failed in its object.
In October, 1860, Olof Johnson, as the principal offender, was formally deposed from office. But he secured an injunction against the Bishop Hill Colony, and had himself, together with
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certain of his friends, appointed receivers to wind up the affairs of the corporation. For on February 14, 1860, a plan had been agreed upon looking to the dissolution of the society and the allotment in severalty of the communal property. This plan provided for a preliminary extra-legal division of property between the Olson and the Johnson parties, the former receiving two hundred and sixty-five shares out of a total of four hun- dred and fifteen. By being appointed a receiver for the Bishop Hill Colony, Olof Johnson got control, not only of the shares belonging to his own, but also of those belonging to the opposite party.
On May 24, 1861, in order to prevent any inconveniences which might arise from the infringement of legal technicalities and to facilitate the final individualization of the property, Olof Johnson was not only reinstated as a trustee, but was also invested with powers of attorney to settle with the creditors of the community. Property more than sufficient to extinguish all claims against the society was set aside for that purpose, and the trustees were given five years in which to accomplish the work, an annual report of progress being required.
In the spring of 1861 the Johnson party perfected the individualization of its property, each member entering upon the complete possession of his share. The distribution was made on the following basis: To every person, male and female, that had attained the age of thirty-five years, a full share of all lands, timber, town lots, and personal property was given. A full share consisted of twenty-two acres of land, one timber lot-nearly two acres-one town lot, and an equal part of all barns, horses, cattle, hogs, sheep or other domestic animals, and all farming implements and household utensils. All under this age received a share corresponding in amount and value to the age of the individual, no discrimination being shown to either sex. The smallest share was about ten acres of land, a correspondingly small town lot and timber lot, and part of the personal property. Thus a man over thirty-five years of age, having a wife of that age or over, would receive considerable property to manage. He held that of his wife and children in trust, the deeds being made in the name of the head of the family.
In the spring of the following year the Olson party followed
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suit, so that after March, 1862, the Bishop Hill Colony was practically extinct. It is a singular fact that this division, com- prising, among others property, not less than about twelve hundred acres of land, has always been regarded as thoroughly just, and it is belived no complaint has ever been raised against it.
The members of the community now considered that their financial troubles were at an end. But they were grievously mistaken. The trustees made no reports. On the contrary, in 1865, Olof Johnson assessed the individualized lands ten dollars an acre, which assessment, aside from the property already reserved by the trustees, was sufficiently large to pay the entire debt of the community. In 1868 an additional assessment of eleven dollars per acre was made. This was more than the members would stand, and on July 27, 1868, a committee was appointed to bring suit by bill inchancery against the trustees. In this suit, the special master in chancery, in referring to the trustees' financial statement of January 9, 1860, said : "Upon the making of said report ... the Colony, at the same meeting where the said report was made, appointed a committee to examine and revise all the accounts of the Colony for the past year and make report. After the appointment of the committee and before they were given access to the Colony books for exam- ination, new books were made up under the direction of some of the trustees, and these new books, instead of the original, were shown to the said committee for their examination. The difference between the new and original books is the said sum of $42,759.33. Upon my order to the said trustees to produce the Colony books, the said new books, and not the original, were produced." The special master found that, at the date of his report, Olof Johnson and the trustees were indebted to the Bishop Hill Colony in the sum of $109,619.29.
It is not the intention to rehearse the details of this tedious and expensive lawsuit. Some of the principals are still living. The suit impoverished many, and destroyed much of the har- mony and good-will which still existed at the dissolution of the society. The "Colony Case" lasted twelve years, and was famous in its day among the legal fraternity in Illinois. After the death of Olof Johnson, in 1870, it languished until, in 1879, it was ended on the basis of a compromise.
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VIII .- CONCLUSION
In concluding this monograph upon the history of the Bishop Hill Colony, it will be profitable to inquire what were the principal advantages of the communistic system, and what were the principal causes of its failure.
One immediate cause of failure was, of course, the disas- trous financial management for the the Board of Trustees, and especially Olof Johnson, were responsible. The defects of the charter and first set of by-laws, which hardly left the community a supervisory control in the management of its own affairs, have been reviewed. Under the circumstances it was not surprising that the trustees, well-intentioned as they undoubtedly were, should be tempted to exercise their powers to further arbitrary schemes of aggrandizement. This tempta- tion was increased by the speculative temper of the general business world in the flush times preceding 1857.
A second cause of failure was the religious tyranny exer- cised by the Board of Trustees, and especially by Jonas Olson. This tyranny culminated in the arbitrary introduction of celi- bacy, in the accomplishment of which drastic measures were freely resorted to. In 1859, religious dissension ran so high that all community of worship was apparently destroyed. A strong reformatory party, led by Nils Heden, demanded and obtained important concessions from the Board of Trustees, which, however, led to no permanent conciliatory results.
A third cause was the importation of ideas and habits of thought antagonistic to the communal life. This was due to the building of railroads, and to improved means of communi- cation generally with the outside world. Even under ordinary circumstances the transferring of interests from one generation to another is a delicate and painful process. Under the peculiar circumstances which obtained in Bishop Hill, it was perhaps impossible of accomplishment. The communism of the Jansonists was founded upon a religious basis. As soon as this basis should be withdrawn, the superstructure was destined to fall. And that is what happened, for with the death of its founder, Jan- sonism rapidly went into decay. At the best there was little attraction in the religious life in Bishop Hill.
The advantages of the system were such as were derived either from the application of the collectivist principle in the
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process of production, or from an equal distribution of econ- omic goods. Labor was saved, consumption of every description was reduced, starvation was impossible. Yet, while the Janson- ists fared well materially, and while it is true they laid stress upon elementary education, the general intellectual life was exceedingly restricted. But perhaps it was not any more so than that of the backwoodsmen by whom they were surrounded. One thing is certain, the Jansonists displayed a wonderful amount of skill and ingenuity in all trades and mechanical arts.
When the allotment in severalty took place, the majority of the Jansonists left Bishop Hill and moved out upon their farm lands. The division took place in a fortunate period. During the War of Secession, high prices were obtained for agricultural produce, and the more thrifty and fortunate were enabled to accumulate handsome competences.
Of the persons who have figured in the foregoing pages the majority are now dead. John Root was sentenced to im- prisonment for two years in the State penitentiary. He died some years after his release, friendless and penniless, in Chicago. Mrs. Eric Janson, once so handsome and gifted and powerful, ended her days in the County Poor House in 1888, and lies buried in the community's burrying-ground at Bishop Hill. Eric, Janson, Jr., grew to manhood in Bishop Hill, and is now a successful newspaper editor in Holdrege, Nebraska. Jonas Olson still preaches occasionally in the Old Colony Church, and although his voice trembles and his frame shakes, the fire of the old-time eloquence is not wholly wanting. It is well that his eyes are growing dim, for the congregation which greets him is becoming piteously small, and looks grotesquely out of place in such a pretentious house of worship. The majority of the Jansonists have joined the Methodist communion, and even Jonas Olson no longer adheres to the old faith, but is now an independent Second Day Adventist.
The present town of Bishop Hill numbers only three hun- dred and thirty-three inhabitants. The shops and the mills and the manufactories are empty, and the very dwelling-houses are going to ruin. In the light of the past, it is truly a Deserted Village. But the spruce and the elm and the black walnut saplings that were planted in the days of the Colony have grown into magnificent shade trees, and speak of the glory of the past.
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PART III
1896
MONUMENT IN THE PARK
1846
Dedicated to the Memory of the Hardy Pioneers Who, in Order to Secure Religious Liberty Left Sweden, Their Native Land, with All the Endearments of Home and Kindred and Founded BISHOP HILL COLONY on the Uninhabited Prairies of ILLINOIS Erected by Surviving Members and Descendants on the 50th Anniversary, September Twenty-third,
1896
-Translation of inscription on Old Settlers' Monument.
--
1345
Kre uch släyt, Địa attt sum bac dem Nact, Och grundads
Jutrots.
Øtterletuauds medlemmac och
.000
Jungs Acsdagen
1336
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1846-1896 Monument starts from Galva to Bishop Hill, September 21, 1896. John Root, George Snyder, Fred Otterstrom, and F. M. Niot.
BISHOP HILL / 155
1855
BISHOP HILL
145
..
Top Row, left to right-N. Soder, Jonas Lindstrum, P. J. Stoneberg, Axel Gabrielson, John Root.
Second Row-Olof Olson, John Soderquist, Mrs. Mary Soderquist, Jonas Olander, Jonas Headlund, Mrs. Mary Johnson, Peter O. Krans, Mrs. Lottie (Westberg) Holden, Mrs. Caroline Winroot, Mrs. Betsy E. Root, Master Earl Root. Third Row-E. L. Swanson, Mrs. Jennie Swanson, Mrs. Martha Apelgren, Miss Hannah Chaiser, Mrs. Louise Myrtengren, Mrs. Eliza- beth Barlow, Miss Emma Lind, Mrs. Pauline Lindbeck, Daniel Lindbeck, Isaac Blomberg, Geo. E. Troline, Mrs. Christine Blomberg Eric Krans. Fourth Row-Mrs. Mary Blom, Olof Krans, Mrs. Josephine Kingdon, Hon. Jonas W. Olson, Jacob Jacobson, Mrs. Kate Nelsonå, Mrs. Anna Peterson, Peter Johnson, Mrs. Christine Johnson, Mrs. Elizabeth Hallfast, Mrs. Anna Nystrum, Eric Nystrum.
Fifth Row-Mrs. Dr. J. F. Vannice, Mrs. Elizabeth Ericson, Mrs. Mary (Malmgren) Olson, Mrs. Mary (Jacobson) Johnson, Capt. Eric Johnson, Mrs. Matilda (Warner) Rutherford, Mrs. Kate (Bodinson) Harmon, Mrs, Elizabeth Berg, Miss Nettie Ericson.
BIC BRICK
3
1. Olof Olson, X. Olof Forse, 2. Olof Brolin, 3. John Ericson, 4. John Root, 5. Andrew Barlow, 6. Peter Strom, 7. Olof Nordstrom, 8. Olof Anderson, 9. Eric Olson, 10. Jonas Danielson, Doodle), 11. Eric Linden, 12. John Lindbeck, 13. John Stoneberg, X. Mrs. John Root, 14. Olof Elblom, 15. Isac Stoneberg, 16. Olof Peterson, 17. Mrs. Olof Philstrand, 18. Mrs. John B. Johnson, 19. Mrs. Olof Lind, 20. Mrs. Kate Nelson, 21. Mrs. Olof Elblom, 22. Mary Stoneberg, 23. Lars Lindbeck, 24. Earl Root. 'Jonas Spets in second doorway.
Group taken on Semi-Centennial Celebration, 1896
Group taken on Semi-Centennial Celebration 1896
Bishop Hill Band, taken in 1877
PART THREE
BISHOP HILL COLONY SEMI-CENTENNIAL
PREFACE
To the Reader :
Believing that it will be appreciated by posterity if a record of the proceedings of the Semi-Centennial celebration of the settlement of Bishop Hill Colony in Henry County, Illinois, which was held at Bishop Hill on September 23 and 24, 1896, would be preserved in a more permanent form, I have under- taken the task of copying said proceedings which were published at the time by E. E. Fitch which is herewith submitted in bookform with some additions in the line of views of buildings, potographs and groups of old settlers taken in the park at the Reunion with the expressed wish that on the one hundredth anniversary of the event, these proceedings be read as a part of the exercises of the occasion.
The children and men and women who are coming upon the scene of action cannot be made to realize the conditions existing here when the first pioneers blazed the way in the wilderness to the now fertile spot of the New World.
THEO. ANDERSON.
Chicago, Ill., July, 1946.
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Address of Welcome-Rev. Axel Gabrielson Resident M. E. Minister, Bishop Hill
Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen, friends, one and all :
As the mouth-piece on this occasion of the corporate village of Bishop Hill its citizens, and those adjacent to it, who have had a part in arranging this celebration, let me in giving the address of welcome, first of all, in their behalf, express satis- faction at the sight here, greeting our vision, the assemblage of this vast concourse of people, from distant places and near, met to do honor to the day we celebrate.
But in the midst of the pleasure which such a scene affords, , a feeling of sadness steals over us, as we reflect, that not many of the original founders of the Bishop Hill Colony remain today, after the lapse of half a century of time, to extend a greeting to you through a delegated medium or personality. Almost all of them sleep now in yonder peaceful city of the dead, or lie in the quiet shade of the distant woods, or rest, here and there one, in almost isolated graves.
Yet our hearts are cheered by the presence of a few among us, and in the name of these remaining aged and honored veter- ans, I want to say to you, their descendants, to friends of long standing, and to those of more recent acquisition as well, gathered from near and far, welcome, yea, thrice ·welcome here today.
They have come, 'tis true, to only a small town, but now, as in the days of Bethlehem, the least of Judean cities, size, let me remind you, is not the only measure of greatness.
The Palestine city was not great because of its territory, or many inhabitants, but because it gave birth to One in whom all nations blessed.
Our town, though small too in circumference, and insig- nificant as to population, and laying no special claim to dis- tinction on the ground of having produced any one in vying in greatness, even with mortal men, may still aspire to position among celebrated places, because, possibly, of her age in a comparatively new country, and certainly because, to brave men and women from the distant North-land, of Scandinavia, Helsingland, Sweden, belongs the credit of the founding of
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this exceptionally quaint and unique town, on the wilds of an Illinois prairie, a half hundred years ago, and in its name Bishop Hill, the creation of this noble land of patriots, professed and sincere followers of the incomparable Bethlehemite, we greet you one and all, and bid you, welcome, among us today.
In behalf also of the young manhood and womanhood of Bishop Hill, who have shared none of the hardships of the pio- neers of forty-six, forty-eight and fifty, but who today, con- sciously enjoy, in the heritage they possess, the fruit of the privations and labor of those heroes, living and dead, I bid all present here, welcome to the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of Bishop Hill.
Yes, welcome to our home during your stay, and welcome to enjoy without limit, whatsoever of good with which a bene- ficent Providence has seen fit to bless us.
Again, in the name of all those whom I today represent ; the movers in and promoters of the celebration enterprise, their committees. who have so faithfully and well performed every detail entrusted to them, the active energetic citizen, the retired, aged, honored and loved among us, and the corporation itself, in the name of all these I extend to you all, from the least to the greatest inclusive, an earnest, sincere and warm welcome !
Response-John Root
Mr. Mayor and Fellow Citizens of Bishop Hill :
On behalf of the old settlers here assembled, and especially on behalf of those from abroad I desire to return to you my most sincere thanks for the cordial welcome you have extended us. We come here today from Puget Sound and from the Gulf of Mexico, from Chesapeake Bay and from the Golden Gate, from the East and from the far West, beyond the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers. We come not as strangers, but as mem- bers of one large family holding a reunion at the old homestead. While many of us have been separated from the old home for more than a quarter of a century, the scenes and surroundings which greet us upon our return are familiar, and but few changes have taken place. The same broad streets lined with their beautiful maples, magnificent elms and drooping lindens -the same grand park, the same old church, the same old school-
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house, the same postoffice as of old, the same dwelling houses, and the same old bell with its familiar sound, that had its multiplicity of duties to perform; to call us to attend divine worship, to school, to dinner, and to sound the alarm in case of fire or other danger, and I am not certain but what it also did curfew duty.
As is well known the causes which led these pioneers, the founders of your town-these quiet law-abiding people-to for- sake their native shores of the Scandinavian peninsula, with all the ties and traditions to which they were bound, and to seek for themselves and posterity a home in the land of the free though in the unknown and uninhabited West, in this beautiful Mississippi Valley, was the religious persecution to which they were subjected. In all monarchies where Church and State are united, religious oppression, though varied in severity, is gen- erally the rule, and with the exception of the instruments of torture, it is doubtful if these people were any the less oppressed than were the victims of the Spanish Inquisition. Where their mode of worship differed from the forms prescribed by the established church, or where religious services were held at different times or places, and by other persons than those prescribed by royal authority, they were harrassed by the min- ions of the law, arrested, fined and imprisoned, until life became to them a burden, and so like the Puritans of old, they set sail for a more congenial clime. Think of the sacrifices they made for their religious convictions; home and fatherland, the land of song and story; the land of the midnight sun; the land of Gustavus Vasa and of Gustavus Adolphus, the hero of Protes- tantism. All these associations and many more were held for naught, and they left all and embarked upon the high seas. Some of them in schooners and fishing smacks which would today be condemned as unseaworthy to sail on a pleasure lagoon within sight of a life-saving station. Tossed on the waves of the stormy Atlantic for three and four months, they finally landed in New York City, and by slow degrees, by stage route, canals and the great lakes, arrived at Chicago, then a village just entering her 'teens, and containing but a few thousand inhabitants. From there they continued their journey on foot across the country till they settled down on this beautiful spot.
It is conceded by all that this settlement at the time
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it was made was the advance guard, the entering wedge, to Scandinavian emigration to this great Northwest. They were to Scandinavia what the Independents and Puritans were to England and Holland, and this stopping place may justly be called their "Plymouth Rock."
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