USA > Illinois > Lee County > Early Lee County, being some chapters in the history of the early days in Lee County, Illinois > Part 7
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THE OLD CENTRAL RAILROAD AT DIXON.
The "Act to establish and maintain a general system of internal improvement," approved February 27, 1837, appropriated three and one-half million dollars for the purpose of building a railroad from Cairo to Galena, by way of Savanna.
The act created a Board of Fund Commissioners and authorized it borrow money on the faith and credit of the state and pay out this money on warrants drawn by the commissioners of public works. It created also, a Board of Commissioners of Public Works of seven mem- bers, to be elected by the legislature biennially, one from each of the judicial districts into which the State was then divided. The first board was composed of William Kinney, whom the Board elected its president, Murray McConnell, Elijah Willard, Milton K. Alexander, Joel Wright, James W. Stephenson and Ebenezer Peck. Judge Moses, in his History of Illinois, p. 400, says that John Dixon was a member of the first board, but the legisla- tive records show that he is wrong. Stephenson, who lived at Galena, was the member for the sixth district. He resigned in the summer of 1838 because of ill health that soon resulted in his death. Soon after his resignation there was presented to the Governor a petition reading as follows :
To His Excellency, Joseph Duncan
Governor of the State of Illinois, Sir
· The undersigned citizens of the sixth judicial Cir- cuit in the State of Illinois, have recently understood that a vacancy has occurred in the office of Commis- sioner of Public Works for this Circuit, by the resig- nation of Col. James W. Stephenson.
They would therefore respectfully recommend John Dixon of Ogle County to your favorable consid- eration, under a thorough conviction that his charac- ter qualification and standing in society would ren-
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EARLY LEE COUNTY
der his appointment more acceptable to the people of this Circuit than that of any other individual.
S. M. Bowman
WVm. Martin
Isaac S. Boardman, Jr.
David Hill
James Davy
Harvey Morgan
A. W. Hughes
B. H. Harris
S. G. Holbrook
B. H. Stewart
Wm. G. Elder
Wm. Fellows
John Young
Natt. G. H. Morrill
G. B. Dills
C. W. & M. P. Bartlett
Stephen Fuller
Jacob M. Morrill
Jos. Crawford
Harvey Woodle
A. D. Moon
Orin Skeel
Horace Thompson
Peter
Wm. Thompson
L. S. Huff
Carleton Bayley
D. Bates McKenney
C. H. Chapman
Daniel W. McKenney
G. L. Chapman by C. H. C.
Lewis Lovel
C. Woodruff
Coridon Deland
Elias Dement
James Hambleton
J. G. Dement
E. E. Gardner
G. Wetzlar
John Cutshaw
Lewis Davis
James Douglas M. Falvy
Wm. Reed
John G. Bellaragee
Denison Spooner
A. T. Wilson
Orin Bennett
David Brown
Robert Averil
Henry
J. W. Hamilton
M. Fellows
D. C. Stevens
Geo. W. Chase
Hugh McBride
A. Robinson
Saml. J. Charters
Jolın Saunders
John W. Stoklager
James Kellers
Asa Crooks
J. N. Calmes
A. Charters
S. Matthews
Wilson
H. P. Darrow E. W. Hine
Austin L. Bull
Isaac T. Thomas
G. D. Latham
Robert
N. W. Brown Wm. Jones
Kemp James Benjamin
Horace S. Benjamin
J. K. Cutshaw John Cutshaw
Hiram F. Parks
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A. LINCOLN
Harrison Barnes
Alex Evans G. A. Martin
Elijah Bowman
Thomas McCabe
Nemehiah Hutton
Daniel Roony C. S. Lunt Chas. Fred Hubbard
H. Gates Howlett
John Caldwell
Wm. A. Fraser
Nathan Morehouse
E. Southwick, Jr.
W. P. Burroughs
M. T. Crowell
P. M. Alexander
James Power
M. M. De Long John Low
W. T. Chapman
John M. Thompson
James McKenney
Augustus Hawley
F. C. McKenney
Theodore Jaques
Wm. McKenney
A. L. Porter
Seth Preston
John Brandon
John Maynard
Noah Beede
R. L. McKenney
(Two other names appear but they are totally illegible.)
At the same time there was presented to the Governor the following :-.
Springfield, July 25.
To His Excellency Jo Duncan
Having been informed that a vacancy has occured in the board of Com. of Public Works by the resig- nation of J. W. Stephenson we take much pleasure in recommending to your favorable consideration for the vacancy thus created our friend- fellow citizen John Dixon of Ogle County whom we consider in every way qualified to discharge the duties of said office.
JESSE B. THOMAS, JR.
SIMON FRANCIS
JOEL WRIGHT Comr. Pub. Works.
J. R. SPEED
G. ELKIN
C. R. MATHENY
THO. C. BROWN A. G. HERNDON WM. BUTLER.
N. W. EDWARDS
A. LINCOLN
A. G. HENRY
R. B. Loveland Otis Loveland Roswell Streeter Jarod Martin Simon T. Martin Isaac Morgan Thos. I. Harris
Oliver A. Hubbard Simon Fellows
E. C. Cothral
Henry A. Coe
Richard McKenney
John Wilson
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EARLY LEE COUNTY
Upon receiving these petitions, the Governor sent this letter to Mr. Dixon at "Dixonville or Dixon's Ferry, Ogle County" :-
Jacksonville Aug. 2nd. 1838. Dear Sir
You are hereby appointed Commissioner of the Board of Public Works for the Sixth Judicial Cir- cuit, in the place of Col. J. W. Stephenson, resigned.
I will direct the Sec. of State to forward your commission, with despatch.
Your appointment should have been attended to sooner, but my little son has been dangerously ill, and has absorbed all my attention.
Your Friend & Obt. Servant,
JOSEPH DUNCAN Gov. of the State of Illinois
To
JOHN DIXON, ESQ. Ogle County Illinois
His commission is dated at Vandalia, August 8, 1838, and he began the performance of his duties on the four- teenth of that month, after the contract for the construc- tion of part of the railroad between Galena and Savanna had been let by his predecessor.
The sixth judicial circuit then included the present counties of Jo Daviess, Stephenson, Winnebago, Ogle, Carroll, Whiteside, Rock Island and Lee. La Salle was in the seventh circuit of which Ebenezer Peck of Chicago was the member of the board.
February 19, 1839, the two houses of the legislature met in joint session and elected Mr. Dixon Commis- sioner of Public Works for the sixth circuit, he receiv- ing sixty-six votes, William C. Enos thirty, John Turney seventeen, Hunt ten, and four votes were scattered. Among those voting for Mr. Dixon were Orville H. Browning, afterwards United States Senator and Sec-
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SURVEYS FROM LA SALLE NORTH
retary of the Interior, John S. Hacker, later Colonel of one of Illinois' most famous regiments in the civil war, John Hamlin, his old Peoria friend, Edward D. Baker, who was killed in battle in the civil war while United States Senator as well as Colonel, Jesse K. Du- bois, afterwards Auditor of Public Accounts of the State, John J. Hardin, who was killed in battle in the Mexican war, and Abraham Lincoln. At this election Jesse B. Thomas was chosen to succeed McConnell, John Hogan to succeed Kinney, and Hart Fellows to succeed Wright. Peck, Willard and Alexander were re-elected.
Following this election, Mr. Dixon took the oath of office at Vandalia February 28, 1839, before Theophilus W. Smith, one of the judges of the Supreme Court. His commission, dated February 22, 1839, is signed by Thomas Carlin, Governor.
Under date of Omaha, Nebraska, June 15, 1881, Frederick A. Nash wrote John Wentworth that he ar- rived at Chicago February 11, 1837, under promise of a situation with James Seymour, who had been selected by Edmund D. Taylor and William B. Ogden to survey and locate the Galena and Chicago Union Railway; "we were paid off, and June 1st, left for Peru, then a prom- ising city on paper and prairie bluffs, to enter upon the surveys north and south of the Illinois river, under the old Illinois Internal Improvement scheme. * * James Seymour was chief; his brother, William H. Seymour, was assistant; P. H. Ogilvie, draughtsman, a lively little Scot, and a graduate of Edinboro; Geo. Howel, rodman, and myself, axeman and chainman. From Peru, or La Salle, our surveys extended up the Vermillion to Dixon and Galena,-from the south side of the river in the direction of Bloomington, running 60 miles without a tree or any stream to check our progress. * * In 1840, Ogilvie, myself and others listened to a four hour speech from Stephen A. Douglas, at Dixon's Ferry, and
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EARLY LEE COUNTY
to a shorter and spicy address from "Long John" Went- worth, then in the bloom of manhood. In 1840 I was junior assistant engineer, and had charge of construction from La Salle to the Bureau river, near Inlet Grove, Lee County, and a small prairie town called Greenfield, in Bu- reau county." (Greenfield is now La Moille.)
Nash, evidently writing from recollection, is slightly in error. The division he joined was organized May 8, 1837. (See report of Seymour in Northwestern Gazette & Galena Advertiser, February 24, 1838.)
Ogilvie later surveyed and made a plat of a town, and when the owners of the site were trying to find a name for the place, he suggested Moulin, as they thought it would be a manufacturing town. After some discussion his suggestion was modified and the name made Moline. (Moline Dispatch, August 24, 1898.)
In June, 1837, a party of engineers was formed at Ga- lena, with William B. Gilbert at its head, and given charge of the work between Galena and Rock river. In the same month a fourth corps of engineers was organ- ized at Dixon's Ferry, with Amedee Blane in charge un- til the arrival of Ogilvie who continued the surveys until his health failed. Blanc, whose work had been confined to the Rock river improvement up to that time, then took up the railroad surveys. This party was disbanded in the fall of that year. (25th Cong., 2d Sess .: Sen. Doc. 259.)
The division engineer's office was located at Dixon in a building erected by "Granny" John Wilson on the south side of East First Street between Galena and Ottawa avenues. The first term of the Circuit Court of Ogle County was held in that building in 1837. (Kurtz, History of Dixon and Palmyra; Hill, History of Lee County.)
Stephenson advertised for bids for the construction of the railroad from Galena to the south, the bids to be
88
LA SALLE TO INLET
opened at Dixon's Ferry, Ogle County, May 12, 1838, and it appears that they were opened and the contracts awarded that day. The law required the concurrence of "the acting commissioner on the line, and at least one other member of the board," together with the rec- ommendation of "the principal engineer in charge of the work," in the letting of contracts.
Attached to the Report of Joel Wright, Commissioner of Public Works for the Fifth Circuit, is a report of Hiram P. Woodworth, Chief Engineer, dated at the Rail- road Office, La Salle County, November 27, 1838, stat- ing that contracts for the construction of that part of the Central Railroad extending southerly from Galena twenty miles had been let "last May ;" that the work was delayed because although some of the contractors had labored faithfully others had abandoned their jobs and absconded, and, also, by reason of the "protracted and painful ill- ness of our late and much lamented" commissioner Col. Stephenson. He also said that he had had thorough sur- veys made on every possible route between Savanna and Rock river, owing to the feeling exhibited.
From the report of T. B. Ransom, engineer, November 28, 1838, attached to the report of Commissioner Peck, it appears that the line of the Central Railroad north of the Illinois river had been located so that it would cross Bureau creek about eighteen and a quarter miles from La Salle and Inlet creek about twenty-eight and two-thirds miles from La Salle; that one line had been considered that would cross Rock river about two miles above Dixon's Ferry.
Ransom further says that the contract for the construc- tion of the first eleven miles north of La Salle was let to Kennedy & Brookin, with H. K. Curtis in charge as engineer.
A petition of citizens residing "in the Rock river coun- try" was presented to the Legislature in 1838 soon after
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EARLY LEE COUNTY
it was reported that the Board of Public works had so located the line of the Central Railroad that it would pass through Dixon, and in it these worthy citizens complained that the road from ""Rocky Ford on the Inlet" to a point on the Mississippi near Savanna had been "located to suit personal interests rather than those of the State;" that it had been located on "very uneven ground" and on a route longer than other routes; that it would cross Rock river where the banks are so low and the bluffs recede so far as to cause the "construction of immense embank- ments to reach a viaduct of sufficient elevation to permit the passage of steamboats," "besides," the water is deep and the bottom sand and clay. To show that they were moved solely by public spirit, they invited attention to the facts that the ground from Rocky Ford to Sterling is quite level, that the banks of Rock river at Sterling are close to the water's edge and but about twenty feet higher; that the river bed there is a mass of solid rock and the water so low that the State had already begun . the work of excavating a boat channel through this rock, and that it would be good policy to have the railroad cross Rock river at the place already selected for the im- provement of the river. The petition was signed by Hugh Wallace, Lot S. Pennington, Nelson Mason and some twenty others, showing, quite conclusively, that it eman- ated from Sterling.
To overcome this petition there was presented to the Legislature a protest signed by some one hundred and thirty "Citizens on Rock River and vicinity," asserting that the railroad between Rockyford and Savannah "has been judiciously located," and referring to the reports of the engineers.
Upon consideration of the petition and protest, on Jan- uary 14, 1839, on motion of James Craig of Jo Daviess, the House
"Resolved-That the Board of Public Works be
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SAVANNA TO DIXON
requested to communicate to this House at as early a day as practicable. *
"3d. At what place on Roek river the said Board of Public Works have determined that the Central railroad shall eross, and their reasons why a more direet route from Peru, on the Illinois river, to Sa- vannah, on the Mississippi river, has not been adopted. *
"6th. Whether the line of the Central Railroad adopted is longer or shorter than another line from Peru, on the Illinois river, via the rapids on Rock river, to Savannah, on the Mississippi river, and the comparative cost of construction of the two routes.
"7th. And that they report to this House their reasons for leaving an interval of ten or twenty miles between that part of the Central railroad already put under contract from Galena south, and that part pro- posed by the Board of Public Works to be put under contract, during the ensuing six months, east from Savannah towards Roek river."
To this resolution the Board of Public Works answered, January 29, 1839, by letter to the Speaker of the House, saying "The Board have to state that they have not yet determined where the Central Railroad shall cross Rock river the line not having been definitely located from Rocky ford, or inlet, to Savanna."
Attached to this letter was a report, under oath, of W. B. Gilbert, the engineer, dated at Dixon, December 4, 1838, stating that the line from Galena south for twenty miles was put under contract "May last;" that the line had not been definitely located from the south end of the part under contract to Savanna; that a line could be run from Savanna to the Winnebago swamp by running down the Mississippi eighteen or twenty miles, thenee through the Cat-tail swamp to Rock river, but such a line would not be of benefit to the country; that an examination had been made of a line from about eight miles south of Savanna up the valley of Johnson's creek to the ridge between that ereek and little Rock creek, and
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EARLY LEE COUNTY
thence to the Upper Rapids of Rock river, (at Sterling), over an undulating surface with a maximum grade of seventy one and one-half feet per mile. Attached to this report is one made by George W. Clarke, assistant engin- eer, saying that he found that the most favorable point for crossing the Winnebago swamp was at Rocky ford; that he had selected the line that was found least expen- sive and best suited to the wants of the country, a route that passes through "the most beautiful and fertile sec- tion of country to be found between the Mississippi and Rock rivers," and the rapidity with which this portion of the country is settling and "the evident prosperity of the town of Dixon, Buffalo Grove, the Elkhorn and Pres- tonville settlements furnish sufficient evidence that that location, as here recommended, is decidedly best calcu- lated to promote the interest of the work."
Clarke says that he had divided the work between Sa- vanna and Rocky ford into five divisions, the first, eleven and a quarter miles long, had a maximum grade of sixty four feet to the mile for a short distance; the second, thirteen and ninety seven hundredths miles long, had a maximum grade of thirty-one feet to the mile for a dis- tance of nine-tenths of a mile, all the rest being under twenty-five feet: the third division, sixteen and forty- 'seven hundredths miles, running along Elkhorn creek, from the mouth of Middle creek, to Chambers' mill, thence to Buffalo Grove (this is the line he preferred but there were other lines to be further examined); the fourth division, twelve and sixty-seven hundredths miles, ran from the "flourishing little village of St. Marion, in Buf- falo Grove," and extended to Dixon where it crossed Rock river; the fifth division, twelve and six hundredths miles, ran from Dixon to Rocky ford. He, further, states that another line had been partly examined from the end of the second division having a maximum grade of fifty- six feet to the mile which passed "near Thomas Wardin's house" to and across "the valley of Buffalo creek, over
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BRIDGE AT DIXON
a gently undulating plain, to the Hamilton Mounds; thence across the valleys of Sugar creek and Dry run by the claims of Mr. Fellows and Col. Stephenson to Rock river."
The Chambers mill was on the Elkhorn creek, near Brookville, and was later known as Herb's mill. The name of the town of St. Marion was changed to Buffalo, and later the town became, as it now is, that part of Polo called "Old Town." Thomas Worden (not Wardin) lived on section twenty-two, in the town of Eagle Point, near Hazelhurst. Stephenson's claim was about a mile and a quarter west of Polo.
A table attached to Clarke's report shows that the pro- posed line, after leaving St. Marion, climbs a heavy hill to Kellogg's claim, thence across a prairie, and with a descending grade to Gee's farm; thence over another prairie, and an undulating country to Charters' farm, thence, descending a steep hill, to Dixon. The heaviest grade on this line was sixty-six feet to the mile, and about thirteen hundred and twenty feet long. For a distance of about twenty-three hundred feet out of Dixon there was a grade of fifty-eight feet to the mile, going south. Speaking of the bridge needed at Dixon, Clarke says :-
"A bridge will be required to cross Rock river of the following dimensions: 630 feet in length; three arches 210 feet square; two piers sixteen feet thick and thirty-five feet wide at the foundation, tapering to eleven feet thick and thirty-one feet wide at the springing of the arch; the bridge must have an ele- vation of thirty-five feet above the common stage of water so as not to interfere with the steamboat navi- gation of Rock river; the width of the bridge to be thirty-one feet so as to furnish a roadway for teams and the viaduct for the railroad, agreeably to the pro- visions of the state law."
After this description Clarke continues :
"After a careful examination of the country be-
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EARLY LEE COUNTY
tween the Mississippi and Rock rivers, and consider- ing that twenty miles below Dixon these rivers ap- proach within fifteen miles of each other, thereby in a measure superceding the necessity of connection by a railroad, I must express my decided opinion in favor of Dixon as a crossing place. This flourishing town, beautifully situated on the banks of Rock river, becomes a point necessarily independent of any local consideration, for it is but two miles north of a straight line drawn from Savanna to Rocky ford; and in that distance, either above or below the town it would be impossible to find so favorable a cross- ing place. The water here is never known to overflow its banks, and abundance of stone is found on the margin of the river."
Clarke compliments his assistants, George H. Hubbell and Henry Wing upon their work.
Clarke's estimate of the cost of the railroad from Sa- vanna to Dixon was $283,791.49, including the bridge at $36,750.
The plat of the town of Dixon, as recorded in the Re- corder's office, shows the proposed right of way through the town, beginning at the old Chicago road and terminat- ing on the south bank of the river at the foot of Hennepin avenue. The road bed was graded practically all the way from Dixon to the Illinois river at La Salle,-but the rail- road never was completed. So far as we are advised no work was done between Savanna and Dixon. No grading was done on Hennepin avenue. The bridge never got any further than sketches and plans by the engineers. The scheme failed. The state was plunged into an indebt- edness that staggered her people and prompted them to talk of repudiation. Fortunately, the Governor, Thomas Ford, was a man and he effectively stamped out all efforts at repudiation. When the collapse came auditor's war- rants on the treasury were selling at fifty cents on the dollar, there was not enough money in the treasury to pay postage on the state's official letters. Nobody profited by
94
WARRANT ON FUND COMMISSIONER
it except the officers who drew their salaries, the con- tractors who were fortunate enough to get their estimates cashed, and the inhabitants of Springfield who succeeded in their plan to have their town made the capital.
Whenever any of Commissioners needed money to pay for work or supplies, he obtained from the Board of Pub- lic Works a draft on the Fund Commissioners (or Com- missioner, there being but one after 1839). A copy of such a draft is shown here. The John Hogan who signed this one as President of the Board was Register of the Land Office at Dixon from 1841 to 1845. All efforts to find a warrant payable to Mr. Dixon failed.
100
. Momentan. 1, 4,69
PUBLIC WORKS
100
Ju/1233.A
"March 18.' , ''",
Fund Commissioner of the State of Illinois,
--
1. Buther Work CE HUNDRED
internal Juvin gsince 15th 1840
100 --- ---
Draft 1 969 dated fine-15- 1840
100
The round hole and the slashes to its left show that this draft was "Cancelled and cut." On the back are these endorsements : "Pay bearer, J. Beall, Comr.," and "Paid on the principal of this Scrip Seventy 40/100 dollars, being the dividend of the State debt fund declared January 1st, 1851. $70.00 40/100. Thos. H. Campbell, Audr."
-
JOHN DIXON v. ORIN HAMLIN.
After the Board of Public Works had finally located the line of that part of the Central Railroad that was to be constructed between Galena and Savanna, John Dixon, he then being the Commissioner for the Sixth Judicial Circuit, advertised in the Northwestern Gazette & Galena Advertiser that bids for the construction of that part of the road would be received by him at Dixon's Ferry May 20, 1839. Subsequently he changed the time and place to Savanna June 20, and at that time and place the bids were received and the awards made, Orin Hamlin being the successful bidder for two of the sections-six and sixteen-into which the work was divided. Ham- lin began his work, and carried it on in such manner that he won the confidence of Mr. Dixon.
In due course of time vouchers for work done on the railroad were prepared. To pay them Mr. Dixon had to obtain the money from Vandalia, then the State Capi- tal. Hamlin represented that he had some matters of his own that required him to go to Vandalia and persuaded Mr. Dixon to let him have the draft. In the Northwest- ern Gazette & Galena Advertiser of August 3, 1839, is the following :--
"Messrs. Houghton &: Stevens :
I have just returned from Rock River. Mr. Ham- lin has made his elopement with $11,500 of the pub- lic money, being the amount drawn for by Mr. John Dixon, Rail Road Commissioner. This will make a temporary derangement of the Rail Road. But prompt measures are being used to replace the money, so that in a very short time the contractors will be paid.
Yours in haste, JAMES CRAIG,
July 30, 1839."
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:
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SUIT IN ATTACHMENT
Houghton & Stevens were then the owners of the Gaz- ette. Craig was a surveyor, and a member of the House of Representatives from that district at that time. He lived at Craig's Mills, or Hanover, near Galena.
While Craig puts the amount stolen at $11,500, Mr. Dixon, in his account with the state, charges himself with $11,600 as of June 13, and that is the amount he sought to recover by attaching Hamlin's property.
In the Galena Gazette of August 10, 1839, appeared a notice, signed by Samuel Smoker, then clerk of the Cir- cuit Court of Jo Daviess County, that John Dixon had sued out of that court a writ of attachment, dated July 20, 1839, against Orin Hamlin in a suit to recover $11,- 600, the writ being returnable to the then next October term of the court, and that there had been attached, as the property of Hamlin, two horses, some wheelbarrows, spades, shovels, picks, etc. Thomas Drummond, after- wards judge of the United States Courts in Illinois for many years, acted as the attorney for Mr. Dixon.
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