USA > Illinois > Madison County > Centennial history of Madison County, Illinois, and its people, 1812 to 1912, Volume I > Part 44
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At the time the exclusion scheme was con- ceived the city was divided into five school dis- tricts, under a special charter, the children in each district being required to attend the school located in such district. To annul these limitations the ordinance dividing the city into such districts was repealed and a new ordi- nance adopted making the entire city a school district. In furtherance of the scheme, and as a part thereof, the erection of two new school houses was ordered so that the three hundred colored children of school age might be forced to attend them without regard to place of residence within the lines of the old districts. The new buildings were designated, with grim irony, the (Fred.) Douglass and Lovejoy schools, and orders were issued by the authorities that all colored children, under and including the eighth grade, must attend the new schools, it being promised that they would receive the same instruction, in the various grades, as formerly in the other schools. It was later placed in evidence that the opening of the public schools in Septem- ber, 1897, was postponed for the sake of com- pleting the Douglass and Lovejoy schools. It was also in evidence that when the schools were opened the police force of the city of Al-
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ton was engaged for from two to three weeks in standing at the doors of the public school houses, except the Douglass and Lovejoy schools, and driving back the colored children of school age into the street and directing them to attend the Douglass or Lovejoy school, and, at the same time, permitting the white chil- dren to pass in. The colored people resisted this action of the City Council and Board of Education and filed a petition in the supreme court to compel the authorities to permit the attendance of the colored children in the white schools, nearest their place of residence as heretofore. The petition for a writ of man- damus was in the name of Scott Bibb who in October, 1897, sued to compel the city to admit his children to the Washington school, with- in two blocks of his house, the same being the school and district where they formerly at- tended, whereas the next nearest of the colored schools was fourteen blocks from his resi- dence. The suit which followed was entitled "The People vs. the Mayor and Council of the City of Alton." The colored people raised a fund to prosecute the suit and employed Gen. John M. Palmer, Springfield, and Colonel Brenholt as their attorneys. General Palmer died before engaging actively in the case and the burden fell upon the junior counsel who prosecuted it through eleven years of bitter litigation to a final successful termination in the supreme court, there being, during the prosecution, eight different lawyers pitted against him, in addition to the city counselor.
The brief and argument of Colonel Bren- holt, in the final hearing, are fully reflected in the review of the case by the supreme court which is quoted below in part: "This proceeding was commenced by the filing in this court, in pursuance of leave granted for that purpose, of the petition of Scott Bibb for a writ of mandamus commanding the Mayor and City Council of the city of Alton to admit Minnie Bibb and Ambrose Bibb, chil- dren of the relator, to the Washington school,
or the most convenient of the public schools of said city, without excluding them, or either of them, on account of their color or descent. Issues of fact were made up and certified to the circuit court of Madison county for trial. This was done in the exercise of discretion as to the mode of trial and for the purpose of making the practice conform as nearly as practicable, to that adopted in similar cases in trial courts, although the provisions of the statute regulating practice have no application to proceedings in this court. No rule has been established concerning the method of trying issues of fact in mandamus cases, and the court has generally adopted the practice of certifying such issues to a trial court, with a direction to return a verdict to this court.
"The issues in this case have been tried seven times by juries in the circuit court, and in two of them the juries disagreed. Upon the first where there was a verdict it was in favor of the respondents, and it was certified to this court. That verdict was set aside for manifest error prejudicial to the relator in the rulings of the court in the admission of evidence. There was another trial resulting in a verdict in favor of the respondents, which was set aside on account of a misdirection of the court in submitting to the jury a question of law. Upon another trial there was a third verdict in favor of the respondents, which this court set aside because clearly contrary to the facts proved and without any support in the evidence. It was proved at that trial, beyond dispute or controversy, that the re- spondents were guilty of the charge contained in the petition, and the evidence introduced by them had no tendency to prove that the inten- tion clearly manifested by their acts did not exist. The verdict could only be accounted for as the product of passion, prejudice or hostil- ity to the law."
Other trials followed upon which the court commented much as above and added, re- garding the last : "The attorney for re-
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spondents says we ought to approve this ver- dict for the reason that the question of fact has been tried seven times in the circuit court ; that the juries have twice disagreed and five juries have decided in favor of the re- spondents, and all the trials have been pre- sided over by learned judges.
"We should be remiss in our duty to en- force the law and would forfeit the respect of all law-abiding citizens if we should ap- prove this verdict for no other reason than because it is one of a series which represent, not the enforcement of law or the discharge of duty, but a deplorable disregard for the law and for the rights of. citizens. . The verdict must be set aside, and the next question is whether the issue shall be again sent to the circuit court for trial."
The court then argues this question and concludes that the effort to obtain a fair trial before a jury has been utterly futile and there- fore that the issues will not be again certified to the trial court but will now be finally dis- posed of.
"We therefore find that all the material facts alleged in the petition are true as therein stated and that the relator is entitled to a writ of mandamus as therein prayed, and it is there- fore ordered that a peremptory writ of man- damus issue according to the prayer of the petition, that the respondents pay the costs, and that execution issue therefor."
The above opinion was delivered by. Jus- tice Cartwright for the majority of the court. Justices Scott and Farmer dissented, and said, in part: "We regard the opinions filed in this case prior to the foregoing as correctly stating the law. We dissent from the judgment now entered because we believe this court is without power to render that judgment in the absence of the verdict of a jury in favor of the relator, and we do not join in the criticisms of judges and jurors found in the majority opinion. If the majority regard the juries that can be obtained in Madison county, and
the judges who preside in the circuit courts of that county, as unfitted by prejudice to try the questions of fact that have been certified to that court, this court possesses the undoubted power to make an order submitting the same issues for trial to the circuit court of any other county in the State."
Thus ended the long-drawn out litigation. In the opinion of the majority of the supreme court the verdicts in the circuit court were "the offspring of passion and prejudice," and not creditable to the trial juries nor to certain judges. But now as to the practical results of the protracted litigation: When the final decision was rendered the children of Scott Bibb, the relator, had attained to adult years and the decision of the supreme court was of no benefit to them. It is true the decision also meant that no colored children can be ex- cluded from the public schools on account of color ; but the race affected in Alton has not availed itself of its rights under the decision. The colored children still attend the Lovejoy and Douglass schools, set apart for them, ex- cept those who have passed the eighth grade who are admitted to the High School. At first the attendance at the colored schools was small, but as the litigation wore tediously on with no prospect of speedy termination, the colored people, weary of the struggle, lost heart, and rather than that their children should fail of an education, sent them to the prescribed schools where the attendance is now about normal, with colored teachers in charge. Notwithstanding the final decision of the high- est tribunal in their favor the actual status of the colored children in the schools is prac- tically that provided for them by the City Council and Board of Education, eleven years ago, in direct contravention of the law. It shows the strength of popular prejudice and also indicates that no law is stronger than popular sentiment as regards its practical en- forcement. It must be admitted that many good friends of the colored race, as well as
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those less friendly, hold that it is for the best interest of both races that their children be educated separately. They also claim that the separation gives colored pupils an incentive to pursue the higher studies and thus become qualified for teachers, as the existence of colored schools furnishes them with openings and positions they could not otherwise obtain. All of which is true, at the same time the alleged advantages do not satisfy the law.
There is another reason why, after the de- cision of the supreme court in their favor, the colored people made no attempt to send their children to the white schools. It has been a hidden chapter, never made public, but which the historian has no right to ignore. Briefly told it is this: About the time the decision of the supreme court was rendered the terrible race riots at Springfield took place with their accompaniments of murder, bloodshed and destruction of property, and for which the city of Springfield has just paid out over $36,000 in settlement of damage suits brought against it. In view of the fearful outrages at the state capital, the result of passion and prejudice, the leaders of the colored men in Alton, be- lieving that the majority of the populace was
still hostile to the coeducation of the races, advised their people to make no effort to take advantage of the supreme court's decision in their favor but to submit quietly to existing conditions, fearing a similar outbreak to that at Springfield if they attempted to send their children to the white schools. The advice was taken, the existing status of the colored chil- dren remained unchanged and the victory in court was a barren one. It is hardly conceiv- able that such an outbreak would have taken place, the races in Alton, having dwelt together in amity, but the spectre of the Springfield riots hung over the colored leaders and they counseled prudence and submission. I have recorded the facts. It is not probable that had the colored children attempted to enter the white schools, under the provisions of the man- damus, that the city authorities would have made any resistance. It was popular prejudice that they feared. It will be for the future historian to record whether that decision ever became effective in Madison county. Other state enactments are also ignored especially in the case of the state liquor laws and that with the connivance of county and municipal authorities.
CHAPTER XL
FINANCIERS AND CAPITALISTS
EARLY CAPITALISTS OF THE COUNTY-BUSINESS EFFECT OF LOVEJOY'S MURDER-BENJAMIN GODFREY, SIMEON RYDER AND OTHERS-ALTON NATIONAL BANK-RICHEST PER CAPITA TOWN-GRANITE CITY-OPULENT LAND OWNERS.
"Ill fares the land to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates, and men decay." -Goldsmith.
[Contributed]
While in Madison county wealth has ac- cumulated, its manhood has not decayed. Each decade shows a very material increase in its assessed valuation and as the representa- tives of each generation have served their allotted time and gone to their reward, their places are taken by others equally as strong, as virile and as keen in business knowledge.
A county is considered good or bad as one can or cannot make money and is afforded a safe home for his family in a God-fearing, law abiding community. Madison county has always been a good country and now offers extraordinary inducements to the industrious and ambitions of any nationality. With its cheap fuel, raw materials, and excellent freight rates, it promises to soon be one of the leading manufacturing counties of the state, second to but few. Its rich soil offers marvel- ous opportunities, when the latest methods of farming are followed and small farms in- tensively cultivated have been substituted for the present method of large ones, extensively cultivated. It needs capitalists and financiers to erect the factories and develop the soil and the result will be more capitalists and Vol. I-20
financiers added to Madison county's long list, in the next decade.
Whether or not a man is wealthy is a comparative expression. In some localities one may be "passing rich with forty pounds a year." With the same money in a large world he is unnoticed and unknown. Still wherever he may be, the man who in comparison with his neighbors is possessed of the most money, is the capitalist of that locality and looked up to accordingly. In speaking of capitalists, it must be remembered that it is not his money that is looked up to as much as his skill and genius in making the money. That is where the man and the brain are shown. There is as much gray matter in the brain of one who can make a small fortune with meager oppor- tunities as in one who makes more with larger opportunities.
EARLY CAPITALISTS OF THE COUNTY
Madison county has been very fortunate in having had many men who were either financiers or capitalists. Their lives in many instances read like fairy tales but it is impos- sible to refer to them at length in an article of this nature or give any extended list of them, especially as many of their biographies appear elsewhere in this work. Its failures have been few and in the main free from adverse criticism. In the making of the county she can present a long list of men who, being
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citizens either by adoption or birth, con- tributed to her growth by their skill and acumen in financial operations.
Closely identified with the history of Illi- nois and the west is our county seat, Edwards- ville, laid out in 1816, the county being estab- lished in 1812. The residence of many of the prominent men of that day, a land office was established there and all who wished to settle anywhere north of the Kaskaskia district must enter lands at that place. Some of those mak- ing entries did so for homes, others for specu- lation, but none of them, even the most sanguine, dreamed of the land becoming worth two hundred dollars or more an acre within less than one hundred years.
As an example of its class of citizens might be mentioned Ninian Edwards, a resident from 1818 to 1824. At times, a territorial governor, a state governor and a United States senator, he also engaged extensively in the mercantile business, having no less than eight or ten stores in as many places in Missouri and Illinois. He established stores at Kaskaskia, Belleville, Carlisle, Alton and Springfield, in Illinois, and at St. Louis, Franklin and Chari- ton in Missouri.
BUSINESS EFFECT OF LOVEJOY MURDER
In the thirties, Alton was one of the cen- ters towards which enterprising and ambitious men of means turned. Up to the time of the panic of 1837 and the murder of Lovejoy, its population was being rapidly increased by an influx of men, bringing with them not only money but brains to devote to the upbuilding of the city and the state. At that time Alton probably possessed a larger percentage of high class men, men of education, men of refine- ment, men of means than any city old or new in the country. But the panic and the murder stemmed the tide and diverted it to other localities not so well favored by nature.
It is useless at this time and out of place in this article to discuss the murder of Lovejoy.
On the one hand, a set of men have contended that he was a martyr, giving up his life to protect free speech and the liberty of the press ; on the other hand, others equally as respect- able, equally law abiding, with an equally high sense of honor, have maintained that he con- fused license of the press with the liberty of the press and by coming to Alton and insist- ing on publishing his doctrines he invited mob law and himself brought his murder on his own head. Be that as it may, the fact remains that these two events, the panic and the mur- der, changed the destiny of Alton and Madi- son county temporarily, but after many years they are again coming into their own.
ATTEMPT TO CORNER LEAD MARKET
Among the people who were being added to its population were many from the New Eng- land states, thrifty, capable, enterprising men, but when the advice was thundered through the east, "Go around Alton-avoid it as you would Sodom and Gomorrah," this immigra- tion ceased. Either the panic or the murder would effectually act as a barrier to future progress, but both coming together fell as a deadly blight on the community. Just think of Alton at that time and what a potent factor in finance and commerce it bade fair to be. It gave promise of becoming the commercial center of the Mississippi valley. Its popula- tion contained many of the brightest minds of the country, its wharves were crowded with steamboats, its stores filled to overflowing with merchandise. In the commencement of 1837 with a population of about 2,500, it contained twenty wholesale and thirty-two retail stores. In 1831, according to the Rev. J. M. Peck, building lots sold for from twenty to one hun- dred dollars, lots being sold this low on condi- tion that good buildings should be erected on them within one year on penalty of a forfeit- ure. In 1837 the best stands for business near the river sold at from three hundred to four hundred dollars per front foot ; lots more re-
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tired for private residences, from one hundred to fifty and twenty-five dollars per foot. Stores rented from fifteen hundred to four hundred and dwelling houses from six hun- dred to two hundred. Rather a handsome increase in six years. Some of the large whole- sale stores did a business of from two hun- dred and fifty thousand to half a million dol- lars annually. Not large figures in this day when houses count their sales by the millions, but in that day and age these figures were colossal. It is hard for us to realize at the present time what an important factor Alton was in the commerce of the west during the thirties, when the largest mercantile houses were located here, importing direct from Europe and with a large and growing trade with New Orleans. Its merchants and financiers were active, aggressive and pushing out for new business for their own enrichment and for the upbuilding of the town. Their ventures were not always successful but the spirit of financial domination was here. A case in point is referred to by Gov. Thos. Ford in his history of Illinois. It was an ef- fort to corner the lead business of the west by the Alton captains of industry, which reads as follows: "The stock in the State Bank having been taken, it went into operation under the control of Thomas Mather and his friends in 1835. The Alton interest in it was very large. Godfrey Gilman & Company, merchants of Alton, had obtained control of a large part of the stock ; enough in case of divi- sion to control the election of directors. To conciliate them, the bank undertook to lend its aid to build up Alton in rivalry of St. Louis. At this time a strong desire was felt by many to create a commercial emporium in our own state and it was hoped that Alton could be made such a place. As yet however, nearly the whole trade of Illinois, Wisconsin, and of the upper Mississippi was concentrated in St. Louis. The little pork, beef, wheat flour and such other articles as the country
afforded for export, were sent to St. Louis to be shipped. All the lead of the upper and lower lead mines was shipped from or on ac- count of the merchants of St. Louis. Ex- change on the east to any amount could only be purchased at St. Louis and many of the smaller merchants all over the country went to St. Louis to purchase their assortments.
"The State Bank undertook to break up this course of things and divert these advan- tages to Alton. Godfrey Gilman & Company were supplied with about $800,000 to begin on the lead business. By their agents they made heavy purchases of lead and had it shipped to Alton. Stone, Manning & Company, another Alton firm, were furnished with several hun- dred thousand dollars with which to operate in produce and Sloo & Company obtained large loans for the same purpose. The design of the parties, of course, was not accomplished. Instead of building up Alton, enriching its merchants and giving the bank a monopoly of exchanges on the east, these measures re- sulted in crushing Alton, annihilating its mer- chants and breaking the bank. The Alton merchants, however, commenced operations on the moneys furnished by the bank, and they were so anxious to obtain a monopoly of purchases that prices rose immediately. The price of lead rose in a short time from two dollars and seventy-five cents to four dollars and twenty-five cents per hundred. This did not appear to be the best way of monopolizing the lead trade. Therefore, Godfrey, Gilman & Company furnished their agent in Galena some two or three hundred thousand dollars to purchase lead mines and smelting estab- lishments. This agent was a manly, honorable and honest man, but wild and reckless in the extreme. He bought all the mines and smelt- ing establishments he could get and some lots in Galena. He scattered money with a profuse and princely hand. The effect was apparent in a short time. Property in Galena rose in a few months more than two thousand per cent.
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While such great exertions were being made to divert the lead trade to Alton and while such lavish expenditures at Galena raised its price there, they could not keep up the price in the eastern cities, its destined market. The lead was kept in store in New York a year or two in hopes the price would rise. The owners were at last compelled to sell at a great sacrifice and the operation ruined all con- cerned. Stone, Manning & Company and Sloo & Company were equally unfortunate.
"I think the bank must have lost by all its Alton operations nearly a million of dollars and was nearly insolvent before the end of the second year of its existence though the fact was unknown to the people. The Democrats helped to make the banks, but the Whigs con- trolled the most money, which gave them the control of the banks. The president and a large majority of the directors and other offi- cers were Whigs; just enough of Democrats had been appointed to avoid the appearance of proscription. Thus the Democrats were de- feated at least once in the contest for the 'spoils' and probably it will always be thus when long purses are to decide who are the 'victors.' "
Of course, Governor Ford being a Jack- sonian Democrat and 'forninst' banks and the business men above mentioned being in the main Whigs, the governor's statements may be taken Cum grano salis.
You will notice that these men were capi- talists, were endeavoring to corner the lead market and form a practical trust. The "Bet- ter than thou arts" of that day exclaimed, no doubt, "Anathema maranatha" on these men and their works; thus history repeats itself. If it had happened in this day and age what an opportunity would have been given to those who cant about civic and business righteous- ness to hold up their hands in holy horror. What an opportunity for the yellow press to have bespattered the participants with their slime, exercising their license of the press;
how the muckrakers could have disported in the leaves of the magazines published for rev- enue only and what an opportunity for Execu- tives to issue diatribes inveighing against the predatory rich and swollen fortunes! And as they were Whigs or the Republicans of that day, what a congregation they would have made in which to pass the hat to save doubtful states !
It must be remembered that the firms above referred to were composed of men whose in- tegrity was not questioned. They entered into a reputable business venture which, unfort- unately, proved unsuccessful.
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