USA > Illinois > Morgan County > Jacksonville > Historic Morgan and classic Jacksonville > Part 44
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Mrs. Cox died in 1866 or 1867, after which time the old man lived alone till a short time before his death, his children having grown up and left him.
He always kept about his cabin a considerable sum of money, and two attempts were made to rob him, in both of which he was most brutally treated; the first time by choking and beating, and the second by burning the old man till he gave up some of his money. We are sorry to say that none of the perpetrators were ever discovered.
Perhaps right here we should recall the
"THREE MILE STRIP"
contest. It appears, from Judge Shaw's statements, that from January, 1837 to 1843, there was growing "a feeling of dissatisfaction among the people of the southern half of township XVII, and other parts of Morgan, with Jacksonville." By act of the Legislature, two votes were taken; one in August 1843, on a proposition to divide Morgan into two counties-Morgan and Benton. This proposition failed of the requis- ite number of votes, and " Benton" county was not created. In May, 1845, those living in the four precincts forming the " three mile strip"-the northern tier of precincts -- voted for and against being attached to Cass county, and through the votes and influ- ence of Arenzville, the majority for taking the territory from Morgan was 168. There was considerable of a contest before the Legislature in getting this election ordered ; Morgan then had four representatives in the Legislature, all Whigs. Among them was Francis Arenz, a resident on the "strip," and John W. Pratt, who, in two terms, did much to gain for Cass this valuable political and cultivable territory. So close was the Legislature at this time as between Whigs and Democrats that it was urged as an argu- ment that this loss of territory to Morgan would change it trom Whig to Democratic control and that change would transfer the majority in the House from one party to another.
Cass county had a population in 1860 of 11,325. For the next ten years there was very little change, so that in 1870 there were only 11,580 reported by the census gatherers
279
FIRST CRIMINAL CASE-FIRST FRAME HOUSE.
In 1880 she came up nicely, however, showing 14,493 residents. The first census ever taken was in 1840-total population 2,981. In 1850 she had grown to 7,253.
Circuit Clerk Downing informed us that the first entry in a criminal case in Cass county was for a change of venue in a murder case. Messrs. Gatton & Berry told us more about this cause. It was a very deliberate murder, a Mr. Fowl in Philadelphia, being shot with a revolver, by Nathaniel Graves. The murderer was tried at the May term and sentenced to be hung, but broke jail before sentence was executed, and escaped to his native State, Kentucky. There have been quite a number of murder trials in Cass since the separation, but never a conviction where the punishment was more than a fine, except in the case of a German living near Chandlerville, convicted of wife-murder and sentenced to Joliet for life. He is still there, in the State peni- tentiary.
THE FIRST FRAME HOUSE
built in Virginia was by Dr. H. II. Hall, father of Henry II. Hall, Esq., of Jacksonville, He was not only the founder and first house-builder, but first merchant and the ruling spirit of the place up to the day of his death, in 1847. He first visited the West in 1831, when he entered several hundred acres of land, upon a portion of which Virginia now stands. In 1835 he moved to this State from the Old Dominion, and settled upon his land already entered. He laid out and named the town of Virginia in 1836, making sales of quite a number of lots that year. He opened the first store in the village, em- ploying as a clerk Charlie Oliver, afterwards a prominent merchant himself. In 1838 Dr. Hall made an addition of fifteen acres of public grounds, donating them to the county. Of the first frame houses in Virginia, both built by Dr. Hall, one is now occu- pied by John Berryhill as a residence and the other, built for a store, is now used for a dwelling, being located two blocks from the square and occupied and owned by the Misses Suffern.
POSTSCRIPT. FINAL CORRECTION OF ERRORS.
Page 82. Twenty-sixth line from top, 1822 should read 1832.
Page 253. Fourteenth line from bottom, for " bank" read banks.
Page 255. Twenty-second line from top, for "these malarious diseases" read thus.
Page 256. Eighth line from bottom for "feat" read fact.
Page 223. The figures "633" cover patients only and to include all inmates should be 746, making the total 1,500 instead of "1,300."
101
0
TRADE
KINGS
PALACE
KINGS
JAMES T. KING.
3 % TRADE PALACE DRY GOODS STORE.
J. T. KING'S STORE, EAST SIDE SQUARE, JACKSONVILLE.
CHAPTER XV.
Biographical Sketches, with some Portraits of Prominent Citizens of Morgan County, including many now numbered with the dead. The Pioneers, the Cattle Kings, the Educators, the State Officials, the Politicians and the Business Men, such as Struern, Alexander, King. Smith, Gillett, Carriel, Phillips, Bullard, Morrison, Duncan. Kirby, Tanner. Bailey. Yates, Glover, Turner, Thomas, Sturtevant, Morse, Short, Sanders, Moore, Tomlinson, Munroe, et al.
HON. JOSEPH O. KING has been frequently mentioned in the preceding pages of this volume. We have tried to give him due credit for his activity in prominent local institutions and interests.
Mr. King was born in Enfield, Connecti- cut, in 1814, and came West in 1838. His home was made in this city at that time, and here has he remained, in active and honored social, business and political life until the present date. Mrs. King, who has been called to heavenly rest, was always a favorite in the social, musical and religious circles of the city, and ever ready to identify herself with that which was pure, elevating and philanthropic. Two sons (Edw. J. and William M.) and two daughters (Miss Mary and Mrs. Emma
Dwight) have survived their mother and cheer the declining years of their father the subject of this brief sketch.
Mr. King has held many offices of trust in the Town Board of Trustees, City Council, and as Mayor for one term. Upon arriving in Jacksonville, he first on- gaged in the drug and hardware business, afterwards was interested in the dry goods, lumber and milling trade. For the last twenty-five years of his life he has been Superintendent of the City Gas Light and Coke Company. It was through his activ- ity and zeal that the ball was started which located here the State institutions for the blind and insane and gave the city its gas-light and water privileges.
For further information as to his useful life here, see pages 107, 109, 114, 118. 121, 123, 135, 136, 145, 14S, 193, 202, 201. 205, 253 of this volume.
JACOB STRAWN, SR., agriculturist and stock dealer, was born in Somerset county, Pennsylvania, May 30th, 1800, de scending from English and Welsh ancestry. His paternal ancestor came over in the ship which brought William Penn.
His father, Isaiah Strawn, had four sons and two daughters, and Jacob, the subject of this sketch, was the youngest of the family. These children were early initia- ted into the mysteries of farming, in which business the Strawn family in its various branches has since become so distin- guished.
Jacob Strawn inherited an unusual share of the hardy vigor and energy of his ancestors, and early manifested those tastes and facilities for agricultural and
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
.
business pursuits for which in later life he became quite remarkable. He was born of the soil, and had for it a kind of filial regard. He took to farming natur- ally and from a love of the employment. It was the bent of his mind. But his special inclination was to the handling of cattle. When but ten years of age he had ideas of stock-raising, and began oper- ations in that line, which foreshadowed the talent and success subsequently evinced in the same. These native tendencies were but little stimulated or modified by advantages of education, which at that time and in the rural region where his boyhood was spent were very limited. In the year 1817 the family removed to Lick- ing county, Ohio, where they renewed the business of farming, but on a much larger scale.
Two years later, at the age of nineteen, Jacob was married to Matilda Green, a daughter of a Baptist minister in the neighborhood. He was soon settled on a farm of his own, not far from his father's, and at once began to breed and deal in cattle and horses, and was so successful in this line of business that in a few years he was worth several thousand dollars. But desiring to extend his operations beyond what was possible on a comparatively small tract of land in Ohio, he turned his eye towards the rich and cheap prairies of Illinois, and in 1831 settled in Morgan county, four miles southwest from Jack- sonville, on the large farm for so long the homestead and still the property of the family. A that time he was probably worth from six to eight thousand dollars. In the December following his wife died; she had borne him seven children, of whom three sons are living and largely engaged in agricultural pursuits.
In July, 1832, he married Phæbe Gates, daughter of Samuel Gates, of Greene county, Illinois. By his second marriage he had five sons and one daughter, of whom three sons survive, and are owners of large agricultural estates, settled upon them by their father some years previous to his decease.
His settlement in Illinois marks an era in western farming, but especially in stock- raising. Once firmly fixed on his vast
farm, exceeding eight thousand acres of rich and beautiful land, in a few years he had it all under fence and a large portion of it under cultivation. From time to time he added to his estates large tracts of val- uable land in other places in furtherance of his vast plan of stock-feeding, and with a view of supplying the great markets of the East, South and West. His vast herds were often seen passing from one of these farms to another. No one thought of competing with him in this business ; no one could well do so, for if any had the necessary funds, they had not the required genius for enterprises of such a character. They had not the generalship which com- bines such numerous operations and suc- cessfully directs them to a single end.
It is related that to defeat a formidable . combination to break down his trade in St. Louis he sent out agents upon every road leading to that city with positive in- structions to purchase every drove on the way thither, and so well was this move- ment conducted that for a time, ample enough to show his capacity to cope with any such clique, he held a complete mo- nopoly of the trade. None of his great success was due to chance, or what is call- ed good fortune ; but it was all the legiti- mate result of wise foresight, prudent management, and a most untiring industry, while not a little was due to a ceaseless activity, both of mind and body, which few meu would be capable of, whatever their talent or disposition might be. He had wonderful physical endurance. He did not spend much time in bed, or in the house, but a great deal in the saddle, night and day, when gathering and direct- ing the movements of his vast herds. His business was his pleasure ; he got much of his sleep and rest on horseback. Certain maxims, which he published for the bene- fit of others, were the secret of his own prosperity. Some of them sound like Benjamin Franklin's and are worthy to be placed with them; for instance these : "When you wake up do not roll over but roll out," "I am satisfied that getting up early, industry, and regular habits are the best medicines ever prescribed for health," "Study your interests closely, and don't spend any time in electing presidents,
253
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
senators, and other sinall officers, or talk of hard times when spending your time in town whittling on store boxes, etc .. " "Take your time and make your calcula- tions: don't do things in a hurry, but do them at the right time. and keep your mind as well as your body employed."
It is well known that he made no pro- fessions of piety. Yet he believed religion important and necessary. He had faults peculiar to a person of powerful passions and strange eccentricities, but his life was an example of many worthy qualities and deeds In uprightness he was severe : in honesty unquestioned. He had a high sense of honor. His word he held sacred. His promptitude in meeting promises was proverbial. He came to time in making payments, and required those who owed him to do the same Yet he was kind as well as just: he was slow to take advan- tages of any person's necessities or mis- fortunes. He had no sympathy for the lazy, but he was a friend to the industrious poor ; he had a warm heart for the labor- ing class, and he did not coldly turn away from any well authenticated tale of sorrow.
During the late war he was strong for the Union cause, and generous in his ex- pressions of regard for our soldiers in the hospital and the field. At one time he contributed ten thousand dollars to aid the Christian Commission. Other citizens of the county giving a like amount at the same time. He was also instrumental in sending fifty milch cows to Vicksburg for the relief of the wounded and suffering troops at that place.
He was a true patriot, and his habits were marked by extreme simplicity. as became the greatest farmer of the republic. He made no show of dress or equipage. He thought more of well tilled fields and handsome stock than of all personal adorn- ment. He hated all show and sham. but admired all substantial worth. He had the strong temptations of opulence and passion, but he was remarkably free from the vices which often spring up in the midst of such influences. The young, es- pecially, may profit from his example of industry. frugality, honesty, and strict temperance. In principle and habit he was a thorough total abstinence man,
never using intoxicating liquor in any shape, and not furnishing it for laborers or for guests. He could not endure men about him who indulged in strong drink. Tobacco also he discarded as both unneces sary and injurious. He could not bear the presence or enjoy the company of per- sons given to any bad principles, vulgar habits, or low vices.
After a life of almost unexampled activ- ity, and of very unusual success in accom- plishing the worldly objects at which he aimed, he died suddenly at his home, August 23d, 1865, from a disease to which for many years he had been subject. His funeral was largely attended, and on the 17th of September following, a com- memorative discourse was delivered by Rev. L. M. Glover. D. D .. the pastor of the family, in Strawn's Hall, Jacksonville. Mr. Strawn is buried in the beautiful "Diamond Grove Cemetery." an expensive and worthy monument marking the spot. The Strawn mansion is occupied by ten- ants of his surviving widow, who is spend- ing the latter portion of her busy life in a home of elegant ease and hospitality located on West College Avenue, Jackson- ville. His sons Julius E., Isaiah and Gates are also residents of the city at the present time.
JOHN ADAMS. LL. D., was born on the 18th of September. 1772. in Colches- ter, Connecticut: he was. consequently. four years old when the Declaration of Independence was declared. He was born when these United States were colo- nies, under George III. He saw the Fed- eral Government at its beginning, wit- nessed its growth and prosperity for nearly three-quarters of a century ; voted at every Presidential election from Washington to Lincoln. inclusive.
He had a strong and vigorous consti- tution, which had much to do with the re- sults of his long and remarkable life.
He received a liberal education, en- tering Yale College in the year 1:91, at the age of nineteen. He graduated with a sound scholarship; to the culture and knowledge there acquired, he added that of constant study and mental action, to the end of life
284
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
When he left college, he intended to study law, but the sickness of his mother, to whom he was devoted changed his plans, and he commenced the business of teaching in 1795, which occupation he followed for forty-eight years. He was principal of literary institutions in Canter- bury, Colchester, and Plainfield, Conn. In 1810 he was invited to become Princi- pal of Phillips Academy, at Andover, Massachusetts; an institution designed to prepare young men for college. Eleven hundred and nineteen pupils were admit- ted under his administration.
In 1837, Mr. Adams, having resigned his situation at Andover, turned his face towards the Western country, locating in Jacksonville, taking charge of the Female Academy, until 1843, when he resigned, having placed the institution on a firm and substantial basis.
His pupils from these different institu- tions, numbering some 4,000, are scattered over this and other countries, occupying places of honor and usefulness.
Ile was a lover of children and youth and possessed the rare art of winning their confidence and love. At the age of sev- enty he engaged in the Sunday-School work, and organized in destitute places 322 schools, embracing more than 16,000 scholars. He was the first one who gave life and zeal to this work in this region of country. He was for a long time Su- perintendent of the Sunday-School con- nected with the First Presbyterian Church in this city, and for a quarter of a century a member of the Session
Ile received the title of Doctor of Laws from his Alma Mater, but was universally greeted by one dearer to him than any other, " Father Adams."
Ile was of an equable and happy dis- position. A combination of personal and social qualities gave him access to many hearts. Ile was a daily student of the Bi- ble; a sincere and earnest Christian, a bright, cheerful, happy man. He lived a long and honored life, and died. April 24, 1863 in the 91st year of his age.
The Trustees of Phillips Academy re- quested that his remains should be borne to New England, and laid by the side of those men who, in their early days, were
banded together to establish literary and benevolent institutions, which should bless not only the States bordering the Atlantic, but be felt throughout the world. The first religious newspaper, the Bible and Tract Societies, Foreign Missions, and other kindred associations were born on that hill, and consecrated to God. But his last request was that he might be laid be- neath the prairie sod of his much loved and adopted home. No tall or costly shaft, but the simple epitaph, "A lover of children, a teacher of youth, be inscribed upon the granite which should mark his last resting place
CAPT. ALEXANDER SMITH, propri- etor of the Dunlap House, was born in Eaton, Ohio, June 27, 1844. He emigrated to Atlanta, Ill., in 1859.
Hle enlisted as a private soldier in Company E, 7th Illinois Infantry, April 17, 1861, to serve three months. The company was the first in Camp Yates, at Springfield, under the Governor's call for troops. It was stationed, during its term of enlistment. at Alton, Cairo and Mound City. He was very apt in learning mili- tary duty, so much so that at the organ- ization of the company for the three years service he was unanimously elected first- lieutenant of the company, though not
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
quite seventeen years old, and on the 12th of March, 1862, before reaching his eighteenth year, he was promoted to the captainey for gallantry at the siege of Fort Donaldson. He was mustered out of the service at the termination of the war, at Louisville, Ky., in 1865, after having served continuously for over four years and seven months, and participated in all the great battles, marches and sieges in which the Army of the Tennessee took part, from Belmont, Donaldson, Shiloh Seige of Corinth, Battle of Corinth, Al- toona Pass, Atlanta, March to the Sea Bentonville, N. C., (last battle of the war), to the final great event of the war, the grand review at Washington. At the battle of Altoona Pass (Ga.), the company which he had the honor to command lost, in a square stand-up fight, the unpre- cedented number of sixteen men killed outright, two mortally wounded, a loss said to have never been equalled during the war, in one company.
Capt. Smith returned to Illinois at the close of the war, and for four years was clerk of the Essex House, at Mattoon. He came to Jacksonville in 1869, and was clerk of the Dunlap House till 1874; clerk of the Park Hotel till 1875; man- ager of the Dunlap House, 1876; propri- etor of the Park Hotel from 1876 to 1880: owner and proprietor of the Dunlap House and Park Hotel since and now.
J. R. BAILEY, editor and publisher the founder of the Jacksonville Sentinel, and its editor and publisher from January 1855, to January, 1872-seventeen years- was a native of Bucks county, Pennsylva- nia. lle was of Protestant Irish descent; his ancestors emigrated from the north of Ireland during an early period in the first settlement of the colony of Pennsylvania. They bought a tract of land on the banks of the Delaware river, some thirty miles above Philadelphia, of the London Land Company, on which they settled, and on part of which some of their descendents yet reside. Here the subject of this sketch was horn, in May, 1818. In 1824 his father sold his farm and moved with his family to the city of Philadelphia.
| At the age of fourteen years he found it necessary to quit school and engage in the active business of life. Hle first served two years at the printing business, in a small German and English oflice. At this time buckskin balls were in use for inking the type, and he remembers work- ing at one time on the old wooden press used by Benjamin Franklin during his publishing career in Philadelphia, since on exhibition at the Patent Office at Washington. It came about in this way : The Franklin press had fallen into the hands of Mr. Ramage, the veteran Phila- delphia press maker, who had it stored away. The Ramage press in the office needed repairing, and while this was be ing done, the old wooden Franklin press was loaned to the office as a substitute. The frame was like that of an ordinary country loom; the bed of stone and the platen a block of wood, just half the size of the bed, requiring two impressions to a full form. Tiring of the printing oflice. young Bailey, at the age of sixteen years, commenced to learn the carpenter trade, and in company with his brother, Judge J. S. Bailey, of Macomb, Ill., he worked at that business two more years. Desiring, however, a vocation giving him more out- door exercise, and seeing an opportunity to better his condition by moving farther West, Mr. Bailey made up his mind to such a move. After his marriage to Miss Ann Henderson, a young lady from New Jersey, he removed to Iowa, and com- meneed the work of building up a home on his claim, the land not yet being in market. At that day the country was very new, the entire territory being in possession of the Indians, with the excep- tion of a narrow strip nlong the Missis- sippi river, known as the Black Hawk Purchase. All supplies had to come from the east side of the Mississippi, and the first settlers underwent many hardships, Mr. Bailey having to shoulder his full share of the exposure and hard- ship of a frontier life. Not yet twenty- three years old, and unaccustomed to the use of the pioneer's ax and maul, he found making rails and building log cabins heavy work ; but he persevered until his farm was fenced and broken and the land
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
paid for. During the first year of his set- tlement, Mr. Bailey began to take an act- ive part in politics; was elected a justice of the peace, and in 1844 he received the Democratic nomination for Representa- tive in the Territorial Legislature. In the meantime the Indian title to the lands west to the Missouri river had been extin- guished by purchase, and a number of new counties had been laid out and set- tled. Wapello, the new county west of Jefferson, became attached for legislative purposes, the district thus formed to be represented by one Member of the Council and one Representative. The Democrats of Wapello claimed the Representative, and Mr. Bailey voluntarily retired from the canvass to give place to another. During the next two years a State constitution was formed, and Iowa became a State. In the fall of 1846 Mr. Bailey was nominated by the Democrats of Jefferson county, again a district by itself-for Representative to the first State Legislature. He was elect- ed, and thus participated in setting the wheels of the new State government in motion, serving during the sessions of 1847-'48. Both these sessions were char- acterized by stormy excitement over the election of the first United States Sena- tors, and the Legislature failed to elect until the session of 1849. During this period he began to exercise his talents as writer, contributing articles of a political character to the local press, and hence his attention became directed to the publish- ing business. In 1852 Mr. Bailey sold his farm and removed to Mt. Sterling, Brown county, Ill. Here he commenced his carreer as editor and publisher, by invest- ing in a newspaper office that had been established by John Bigler, who went to California in 1849, and afterward became Governor of that State. The paper was called the Prairie Pioneer, but the name was afterward changed to Chronotype. While publishing this sheet, Mr. Bailey was appointed postmaster under Mr. Pierce's administration, and held the office three years, resigning when he removed to Jacksonville, in the winter of 1855. Since that time the history of J. R. Bailey has been intimately blended with the his- tory of Morgan county, there having been
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