Centennial history of Madison County, Illinois, and its people, 1812 to 1912, Volume II, Part 99

Author: Norton, Wilbur T., 1844- , ed; Flagg, Norman Gershom, 1867-, ed; Hoerner, John Simon, 1846- , ed
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Chicago ; New York : The Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 868

USA > Illinois > Madison County > Centennial history of Madison County, Illinois, and its people, 1812 to 1912, Volume II > Part 99

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John Jarvis came from the east, his home having been near Grafton, West Virginia. He came to Illinois in 1803 and settled near Tur- key Hill, in the adjoining county of St. Clair. In 1813 he came to Madison county and com- menced farming on the present site of the city of Troy. The greater part of what is now a thriving city was entered by him in 1814, being at that time virgin soil. The township which contains it -- Jarvis township --- was named for John Jarvis. The town when first started was known as Columbia and for some time its principal industry was the Jarvis grist mill, which supplied the wants of the farmers for miles around. In 1819 more territory was added to the town and its name changed to Troy. Mr. Jarvis died here on October 29, 1823, and his wife survived until December 24, 1858.

William W. Jarvis was given a good busi- ness education in the schools of Troy, and was still a boy in his 'teens when the Civil . war broke out. At the first clash in April, 1861, he was fired with a patriotic desire to defend the cause of the North, and was one of the first to enlist, being among the early call for ninety days' service. He was en- rolled in Company I, of the Ninth Illinois Infantry, and when the three months were up he promptly re-enlisted for three years. The engagements of the Ninth numbered one hundred and ten and Mr. Jarvis was in prac- tically all of them. He was twice wounded and twice was taken prisoner by the enemy. The last experience of this kind landed him in the famous Libby Prison at Richmond, Virginia. He was a prisoner there when General Joe Hooker fought the battle of Chancellorsville, and well remembers the con- sternation that was produced when some of the Union cavalrymen succeeded in reaching

the very walls of the prison before being driven back.

Returning from the war, Mr. Jarvis took up farming and for a while studied law, but finally selected mercantile pursuits, and in partnership with the late J. A. Barnsback opened the first lumber yard in Troy. In 1869 he purchased his associate's interest and conducted the business alone until 1876, when he disposed of it to enter the live stock com- mission line at the National Stock Yards, just outside East St. Louis. He followed this with much success for ten years, and in 1885 opened the Troy Exchange Bank, H. H. Padon being his partner in the enterprise.

Banking offered the field for which Mr. Jarvis had been searching and he at once took the greatest interest in it. The follow- ing year he disposed of his commission busì- ness in order to give his whole time to the bank, and in 1887 purchased his partner's share, thus becoming the sole owner. The bank is managed conservatively and has never felt any embarrassment in the occasional pan- ics that reach the west. Its loans are secured by the richest of farming land and approved city property, and its resources are gilt-edged in every particular. The surviving members of Mr. Jarvis' family are all daughters, but one of them has inherited her father's apti- tude for finance, and in Miss D. Genevieve Jarvis the Troy Exchange Bank possesses a feminine cashier, one who is not so in name alone, but who fills the duties of the office daily and knows every detail of the banking business. At the meetings of the Bankers' Associations in Illinois Miss Jarvis, like her distinguished father, is ever accorded a place® of honor.

Mr. Jarvis was married on December 24, 1867, to Miss Sarah E. Barnsback, daughter of Thomas J. and Nancy (Montgomery ) Barnsback, whose parents were among the Illinois pioneers who came from Kentucky. Mr. Barnsback operated an extensive farm in Pin Oak until his death on March 9, 1880. To Mr. and Mrs. Jarvis nine children were born, of whom four survive. They are: D. Genevieve Jarvis, cashier of the Troy Ex- change Bank; Sarah, wife of F. W. Seele, of St. Louis; Mabel, wife of W. C. Seele, of St. Louis; and Bessie B. Jarvis.

Political office never held any charms for Mr. Jarvis, but he has always taken a keen although impersonal interest in the workings of the parties and the trend of civic affairs. He was one of the first commissioners of

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Madison county before the township system was inaugurated. He is a public-sipirited citi- zen whose life has been an open book to those about him and who holds the friend- ship, admiration and esteem of all.

DR. J. MORGAN SIMS. No class of our pub- lic men is more deserving of grateful respect than those earnest, studious, often self-sacri- ficing men who give their lives to the ameliora- tion of bodily and mental ills. A prominent and highly esteemed member of this profes- sion is Doctor J. Morgan Sims of Collinsville, whose interesting career calls for as careful review as the data provided will permit. Dr. Sims' parents were both of southern birth, William Sims, his father, being a native of North Carolina and his mother, Sallie E. Jones Sims, one of the daughters of Georgia. William Sims was a farmer in Lincoln county, Kentucky, and it was amid the fair rural sur- roundings of his home here that Morgan Sims was born on April 20, 1868.

The education provided by the public schools of Lincoln county was rapidly and thoroughly assimilated by Morgan Sims in his boyhood days, and his eagerness for knowl- edge led him to supplement this early train- ing by a course in the Louisville high school. Having creditably completed this stage of his intellectual development, he entered the Uni- versity of Louisville, from which he was graduated in 1890.

Dr. Sims' first professional location after having attained his degree was in Covington, Kentucky, where he practiced until he was appointed by Governor John Young Brown as surgeon and physician for the Central Asylum for the Insane at Lakeland, Kentucky. After spending four years in the arduous and re- sponsible duties of his position in this institu- tion, he received another state hospital ap- pointment at Little Rock, Arkansas-making him official surgeon and physician at the Lit- tle Rock Asylum for the Insane.

In 1897 Dr. Sims once more changed his location, this time making his home and his field of activity the enterprising town of Col- linsville. Here he has since remained, his talent and experience, as well as his distinctly personal characteristics, professional and un- professional, making him a valuable acquisi- tion to the town. His importance in the com- munity is indicated by his recent nomination at the Democratic party primaries for the office of coroner in Madison county.

The family relations of Dr. Sims are closely

connected with Collinsville. In 1909 he was united in marriage with Miss Sadie Clayton, a daughter of Phineas Clayton, who was a native of England and who has been a resi- dent for twenty-five years of Collinsville, where he has been identified with the mining interests of this place. Doctor Sims and Mrs. Sims have one daughter, Sarah Evelyn.

In politics Doctor Sims is a staunch and ever loyal Democrat, with clear-cut principles founded on logical basis. He is a leader in this community, as he has been in others, for in matters social, public and professional, his individuality adds elements of strong char- acter. Not only is he an active member of the county, state and national medical associa- tions, but his fraternal affiliations also include the Masonic lodge, the Eagles, and the Mod- ern Woodmen of America.

JOHN MCAULEY PALMER .* Pioneer of Mad- ison county. Louis D. Palmer, the father of John M. Palmer, was born in Northumberland county, Virginia, and was the son of Isaac and Ann McAuley Palmer, both natives of Northumberland county, Virginia, and both born in the year 1747. As the name indicates, Charles McAuley, great-grandfather of John McAuley Palmer, was of Scotch descent, and came to Virginia from the north of Ireland. The great-grandfather, Thomas Palmer, immi- grated to Virginia from England early in the eighteenth century ; his son Isaac married Ann McAuley, and their son, Louis D. Palmer, married Ann Hansford Tutt, born on the 27th day of October, 1786, in Culpeper county, Virginia, where her father, Lewis Tutt, and her mother, Isabella Yancey, were born in 1780.

The Tutts were from England, the Yanceys from Wales, both families being wealthy and belonged to the Established church, while the Palmers were not so well off and were Bap- tists.

The father of John M. Palmer was ap- prenticed to a cabinet-maker in Lexington, Kentucky, where he remained until he was of age, in 1802. In March, 1814, he was married, soon after his return from taking part in the war with the "British and Indians," in the rifle regiment of Colonel John Allen, and but for the fact that he was upon detached duty that day would have been in the massacre which followed the surrender to General Win- chester at Raisin river.

John M. Palmer, subject of this sketch, was * Compiled by Mrs. J. M. Palmer.

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born in Scott county, Kentucky, on September 13, 1817. In the fall of 1819 the family re- moved to Christian county, then known as the "Green River Country." I quote now from the "Personal Recollections of General Pal- mer," pages 3-4: "Our removal was after the manner of the times; we traveled the distance on horseback, my brother, then four years old, rode on the horse behind my father, and my mother, on another horse, carried me in her lap; their worldly goods consisted of two hundred silver dollars and two horses, as I have often heard -- " the silver was carried in saddle-bags. "I have listened to many talks about their removal, but only recollect that my father often said that during the journey, if I had a full allowance of food and sleep, I gave no trouble. I think I have maintained the character then earned ever since."

In April, 1831, Louis D. Palmer came to Illinois-moved to do so from the fact that it was a new and free state -- for even at that early day he was an advocate of freedom and temperance, thereby causing his slave-owning neighbors to regard him with somewhat of dis- favor; and the fertile lands of the new state offered great inducements to the father of a large family of boys. John M. was left with his grandparents until the next fall, when with an aunt and uncle he joined the family in Illinois. The route followed was "from Hop- kinsville, by way of Princeton, Caldwell coun- ty, to Ford's ferry on the Ohio river, thence after crossing the river by Equality, Mt. Ver- non and Carlyle to Edwardsville," and the road was crowded by "movers" to central Illinois and Missouri.

The family had settled in Madison county, north of Edwardsville, on Paddock's prairie, about ten miles east of Alton, where two hun- dred and forty acres of land had been entered. In writing of this period General Palmer seems to have been impressed by his first view of the prairie, their beauty and fertility, and near the close of his long and eventful life says "they linger in my memory like a grand, rest- ful dream."

Life on the farm was similar to others of that period ; early hours and hard work, shared by younger brothers, were factors in forming the rugged, sturdy, honest character of John McAuley Palmer. But the ambitious spirit of the youth-who in Kentucky had attended for a short time a school taught by Isaiah Boone, relative of Daniel, and Hezekiah Woodward, competent instructors, was not

satisfied with the routine of the farm; he craved a wider field and larger scope of ac- tion, yet realized that to be fitted for such work, education beyond the limits of a country school would be required. But with steadfast- ness of purpose and the hopefulness of youth he kept the goal in view.

In 1832 the faithful wife and mother died, leaving five boys and one small girl to be cared for ; this large family and its demands, simple as they were, gave small promise that the ambitious youth could soon realize his hopes ; but again we quote from the "Recol- lections" and give the story in his own words: "I remember that one winter with a younger brother (Scott) I cut saw-logs on government land, and by that means earned forty-eight dollars ; my father added the balance needed, two dollars, and the amount of expenses at , the land office, and I entered forty acres of land in my own name, which, after attaining my majority, I conveyed to my father.

"The next spring and early summer I drove a prairie team, four yoke of oxen attached to a twenty-four inch plow, at eight dollars per month. I worked at home when needed, and finally, in the summer of 1834, my father 'gave me my time.' This expression may have an amusing sound to the boys of this day, who will hardly consent to give their fathers their time. One evening while my father and self and younger brothers were discussing the sub- ject of education and matters of that kind, my father said to me in reply to some expression of a wish to obtain an education : 'Very well, sir, you owe me four years' service yet, I will give you that ; go and get an education.'

I looked at him with an expression of surprise, no doubt, and asked in an excited, trembling voice, 'When may I go, sir?' He seemed amused and said, 'Tomorrow morning, if you like.' I remember that I left the room to conceal my excitement ; after recovering my composure, I returned to the room where my father was seated, and sat for some time in silence, when he said, with signs of emotion, 'I have no money to expend for your educa- tion, but a healthy boy as you are needs no help ; you may go tomorrow morning ; I give you your time. Don't disgrace me : may God bless you!' I accepted his offer, and as he had said it, I knew he would not mention it again. That evening I talked to Roy and Frank, my brothers, who seemed as elated with the prospect before me as I was. Next morning, after an early breakfast, I left home

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on foot without money or clothes: both seemed unnecessary, for was I not going out into the world a free man, where clothes and money were abundant, and to be had by any- one who would earn them? . My desti- nation was Upper Alton, where there was a school recently established. It was under- stood to be a 'manual labor school,' and it was my purpose to enter that institution and pay my expenses by my labor. I reached Upper Alton about one o'clock in the afternoon, and had made up my mind before arriving there that it would be necessary at once to find work. I had no difficulty in doing so.

"I needed no dinner-my dreams were more than food-but as I passed along the principal street soon after entering the town, I saw a man named Haney plastering a new frame house for Mr. George Haskell, and turned off to where he was superintending, or making a bed of mortar. I asked him if he 'wished to hire someone to make and carry mortar?' He said he did. I had never made mortar for a plasterer ; he put a shovel into my hand and told me how to manage the sand, the lime, and other ingredients, watched me work awhile, offered me seventy-five cents a day, told me where I could get good board at one dollar and a quarter per week, agreed to be respon- sible for me, and I worked that afternoon and continued to work until the job was done. I do not remember the exact number of days this required, but I do remember that when I was paid and had settled my board, bought a shirt and a pair of socks, I had all of five dol- lars left, which was, as I thought, clothes and money enough for anybody. I then entered the college, and for awhile paid my board by my earnings on Saturdays. I also, with my brother Elihu (afterwards a minister of the baptist church ) took a contract to remove the trees from a street leading from Upper Alton to Middletown. The trees were large white oaks. We grubbed them up and were well paid for doing so. In September, 1836, I returned to Upper Alton, where I spent most of the winter in school, working in payment of my board, in the family of the Rev. Ebenezer Rodgers, a Baptist preacher who had lately come into the state from Mis- souri."

In 1837 Mr. Palmer engaged in the business of peddling clocks as a means of acquiring further means for the prosecution of his edu- cation and continued in this until December, 1838, when he taught school for three months in Fulton county. While engaged in the sale

of clocks he visited the counties of Fulton, Pike, Greene, and Hancock, in all of which valuable friendships were formed ; in the last- named, Hancock, his acquaintance began with Stephen A. Douglas, then a candidate for con- gress in opposition to John T. Stuart : it was during these years that the question of abolish- ing slavery in the District of Columbia and to abolish slavery in the states was agitated ; and on the seventh of November, 1837, Elijah P. Lovejoy was killed at Alton. After leaving Fulton county, Mr. Palmer decided to visit his father in Madison county, and his eldest brother, Elihu, who was married and lived in Carlinville, as pastor of the Baptist church, and had his first experience on a steamboat. Again we quote : "I took passage at Utica on Illinois river for St. Louis, on the famous steamboat then well known as the 'Ark.' We spent two nights and the whole of one and part of another day, and reached St. Louis on the third day. I went to the 'Green Tree Tavern,' as it was then described ; I spent the night and next morning there. started on foot, and reached Edwardsville after a walk of some twenty miles, spent the night there and next morning went to my father's house on Paddock's prairie, arriving there after a further walk of eight miles, carrying my belongings with me. On March 26th, 1839. I arrived at Carlinville, Macoupin county, where I afterwards spent so many years of my life, and formed many valuable and enduring friendships, and entered into re- lations of the most interesting and affecting character.

"It was then a place of about four hundred inhabitants, and was a rough specimen of an Illinois town. I reached Carlinville on a Sat- urday about noon : my brother, Rev. Elihu J. Palmer (whom I have mentioned), had mar- ried a year or two before, Miss Eliza Gordon, of Edwardsville. He lived in Carlinville, was poor and so was his congregation, but his and their wants were few and simple My own capital was entirely satisfactory to me. I had twelve dollars in money, a few extra clothes. a rifle gun, which I had left in Fulton county. and a silver watch, which was of uncertain value. My brother was not at home when I reached Carlinville, having gone to attend a religious meeting at a distance. He returned, however, on Monday afternoon, and persuaded me that Carlinville had advantages for me that I could find at no other place. He proposed that I should make my home with him, assist in the necessary work, which in-

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cluded the chopping of firewood where it grew, assist in hauling it to the house, which we did generally, with a borrowed team, and cutting it into lengths for the fire-place. . . After my brother moved away, I got excellent board at one dollar and twenty-five cents per week, washing included. The washing involved no great labor, for two extra shirts, made of what we call 'domestic,' with collars of the same material as a part of the garment, left laun- dry labor very light."

Mr. Palmer entered the office of Mr. John S. Greathouse, who was one of the leading lawyers of the village, where he pursued the study of law until December, 1839, when he went to Springfield to obtain a license to prac- tice law. Here he met and renewed his ac- quaintance with Stephen A. Douglas and in- formed the latter of his desire; Mr. Douglas, with that "cheerful kindness which always characterized him, and made him so popular with young men particularly," made his appli- cation for admission, and had himself and Hon. J. Y. Scammon appointed a committee to examine the young man touching his qualifica- tions to practice law. They proved satisfac- tory and the license was granted; it was signed by two judges of the supreme court, Thomas C. Browne and Theophilus W. Smith. At this time many prominent men were as- sembled in Springfield, among them Alexander P. Field, John Calhoun, O. H. Browning, Stephen A. Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, Isaac P. Walker, Edward D. Baker and others. During the heated campaign between Harri- son and Van Buren in 1840 Mr. Palmer was a devoted adherent of Van Buren, believing that he was a "great statesman, devoted to sound principles and eminently patriotic."

On December 20, 1842, Mr. Palmer was married to Miss Malinda Ann Neely, of Car- linville, daughter of Mr. James Neely. She was born in Kentucky, and died in Springfield on the 9th of May, 1885.

In 1843 Mr. Palmer became a candidate for the office of probate judge, and was elected by a large majority; this office was abolished by the constitution of 1848, which created county courts with more extended jurisdiction. In 1847 Mr. Palmer was elected a delegate to a convention called on pursuance to an "Act to provide for the call of a con- vention to revise the constitution of the state of Illinois."

In May, 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska bill was passed by congress, thereby a breach was Vol. II-33

created in the Democratic party, and in the state legislature that convened in January, 1855, five anti-Nebraska Democrats voted for Lyman Trumbull for United States senator ; the Democrats thus voting were Burton C. Cook, Norman B. Judd and John M. Palmer of the senate, and Allen and Baker of the house. On the 29th day of May, 1856, a con- vention was held at Bloomington, called the "Anti-Slavery Extension Convention," of which Mr. Palmer was made the presiding of- ficer ; this meeting was really the birth of the Republican party in Illinois. In 1859 Mr. Palmer was nominated for congress by the Republican convention, but was defeated. In 1861 John M. Palmer was one of the five dele- gates appointed by Governor Yates to attend the peace convention held in Baltimore; on May 25, 1861, Mr. Palmer took command of the Fourteenth Illinois regiment of Illinois in- fantry, having been elected colonel at its or- ganization in Jacksonville, Illinois. After

some months of service in the west with Gen- eral John Pope, during which time he took part in the capture of Island No. 10, one of the strategic points of the Mississippi river, and while advancing to Corinth, Mississippi, Colonel Palmer was assigned to the command of a brigade of the First Division of the Army of the Mississippi. In May, 1862, he was very ill with pneumonia and was sent home for re- covery, where he remained from June until the following August, when he joined the army and relieved General E. A. Paine, former brigadier commander. The fall and winter of 1862 was spent in camp at Nashville, Ten- nessee; a diary, kept during these months, records much of interest.

At the battle of Stone river, Brigadier Gen- eral Palmer was advanced to the rank of major general of volunteers. In January, 1863, he took part in the battle of Cripple Creek, and during the fearful days at Chickamauga fought gallantly; it was after Chickamauga that General Palmer forwarded to the war department at Washington his resignation as major general of volunteers in the army of the United States. His reason for doing so is given in his own words, as pub- lished in his "Personal Recollections," chapter 16, page 192:

"I tender my resignation because the late order of the war department, which abolishes the Twenty-first army corps and orders its late commander, Major General Crittenden, before a court of inquiry, implies, and will be

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understood by the country as implying, the severest censure upon the conduct of the of- ficers and men lately composing the corps. The order is, in its circumstances, without ex- ample in the military history of the country. No corps before this has been deprived of its commander, and stricken out of existence within a few days after a great battle, in the midst of important military operations, and in the face of the enemy. By this sudden, de- cisive, sweeping order, the government has given to the misrepresentations of the fugi- tives from the battlefield the weight of its own apparent indorsement, slander is dignified into history, and henceforth refutation is impos- sible." "It is due to General Rose- crans to say that he was no party to the in- justice which I resented, and he, in his in- dorsement on my letter of resignation, at- tempted to secure for us justice.'

The resignation of General Palmer was not accepted by order of Mr. Lincoln, and later he was appointed to the command of the Four- teenth Army Corps in the place of General George H. Thomas, promoted to command of the Army of the Cumberland, from which he was relieved, "at his own request," in August. 1864, and proceeded to Carlinville, from which place he was to report by letter to the adju- tant general U. S. A. at Washington. The following February he visited the city of Washington by the direction of Governor Oglesby, and while there was, by order of President Lincoln, placed in command of the "Military Department of Kentucky," with headquarters at Louisville. In 1866 his resig- nation as major general of volunteers was ten- dered and in April of the same year he asked to be relieved from the command of the De- partment of Kentucky, and in July he was or- dered by Mr. Stanton to preside over a court martial at Raleigh, North Carolina. On Janu- ary II, 1869, General Palmer was inaugurated governor of the state of Illinois, and remained in office until 1873 ; during his term as gover- nor occurred the Chicago fire and the memor- able clash between the governor and the federal government. In 1876 Governor Pal- mer was, with other northern Democrats, chosen by Abram S. Hewitt, chairman of the national Democratic committee to go to New Orleans and witness the count of the electoral votes for president of the United States, Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden being the candidates.

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Centennial history of Madison County, Illinois, and its people, 1812 to 1912, Volume II, Part 99

Author: Norton, Wilbur T., 1844- , ed; Flagg, Norman Gershom, 1867-, ed; Hoerner, John Simon, 1846- , ed Publication date: 1912 Publisher: Chicago ; New York : The Lewis Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 868

Author: Norton, Wilbur T., 1844- , ed; Flagg, Norman Gershom, 1867-, ed; Hoerner, John Simon, 1846- , ed
Publication date: 1912
Publisher: Chicago ; New York : The Lewis Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 868