USA > Illinois > Morgan County > Jacksonville > Historic Morgan and classic Jacksonville > Part 50
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54
324
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
State's Attorney, and attended the courts thereof in 1829, when he resigned. On March 25, 1830, he was married to Cather- ine Scott, of Morgan county, Illinois, a native of Litchfield, New York. In 1831 he was appointed School Commissioner of Morgan County, by which he was au- thorized to sell the school-lands of the several townships, and secure the money arising from the sales. He resigned this office early in 1835. He participated in the Black Hawk war: first in the spring of 1831, in the brigade under General Joseph Duncan, and a year later under General Samuel Whitesides, and filled the position of quarter master and commissary on both of those occasions.
He was elected to the State Senate for four years, and took his seat in December, 1834. That body then consisted of twenty- four members, of whom but two others- Cyrus Edwards, of Alton, and Richard Taylor, of Chicago-besides himself sur- vive. The leading question pending dur- ing that winter was the construction of the Illinois & Michigan Canal, and after some time had been passed in discussing it, a loan of $500,000 was authorized, though subsequent legislation was re- quired to effect this. Beside several other bills of minor importance, Senator Thomas was the author of the following general laws: 1. The seven years' limitation law in regard to actions and suits against par- ties having possession of lands with a con- nected title in law or equity. 2. The act (and the first on that subject) authorizing religious societies to hold in perpetuity ground whereon to build houses of wor- ship, and to bury the dead. 3. The act vesting trustees of incorporated towns or cities with power to declare what should be considered nuisances, and to provide for their abatement. 4. The act to pro- vide for the distribution and application of the interest on the school, college and seminary funds. 5. The act to provide for the security of the school-funds. At this session provision was made for the appointment of State's Attorneys by the Legislature, which he opposed as being unconstitutional, these offices having been previously filled by the Governor and Senate.
!
The Legislature convened again, under the call of the Governor, in December, 1835, the chief objects being to provide for work on the canal, and for appointing the representation for the succeeding five years.
At the session of 1836-7 Senator Thomas was appointed chairman of the committee on the canal and canal lands, and so con- tinued until he left the Senate, in March, 1839. During this session (of 1836-37) an effort was made to change the canal from Ottawa to Joliet, to a slack-water naviga- tion, but it did not succeed. He made a report against the change, and in favor of the "deep cut." He prepared all the bills for acts relating to the canal and canal lands, that were passed from Decem- ber, 1836, to March, 1839. He was op. posed to the system of internal improve- ments adopted in 1836-37. He prepared and introduced the bill for the "Act to amend the several laws in relation to com- mon schools," approved March 4, 1837, by which, for the first time, provision was made for the organization of a system of common schools throughout the State. In the session of 1838-39, his time was mostly occupied in preparing and acting upon bills relating to the canal. At this session an act was passed incorporating the Deaf and Dumb Institution, of which he was made one of the trustees, and was continued as a member of the board until 1869, when he was appointed a member of the Board of State Charities, which po- sition, owing to infirmity, he resigned during the following summer. In March, 1839, he was elected Circuit Judge of the First Judicial Circuit, by the Legislature. He was elected to the lower branch of the State Legislature in 1846. During the first week of the session of 1846-47 he proposed and introduced a bill for an act incorporating a Retreat for the Insane- the first movement in the Legislature on that subject-with provisions for the care of that unfortunate class. This bill passed the House and had been read, and referred to a committee in the Senate, when Miss Dix arrived at the seat of government, on her mission to petition the Legislature to make provision for the care of the in- sane of the State. She objected to this
325
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
bill because it made no appropriation of funds; and she, with the committee, de- cided to propose and introduce a new bill in the Senate. Accordingly, with the assist- ance of Miss Dix, the HIon. Charles Con- stable, of the Senate, prepared the bill, which was finally passed; and Judge Thomas was made a trustee of the institu- tion. When Miss Dix reached Spring- field, he was the only member of the Legislature with whom she had any ac- quaintance; he therefore introduced her to the members. He remained a trustee of this Retreat until after the purchase of the site and the walls of the building were ready for the reception of the roof, when lie resigned. Ile was elected and served as a delegate in the Constitutional Conven- tion of 1847. He was one of the parties who paid the expenses of maintaining a School for the Blind for nearly a year pre- vious to the meeting of the Legislature in January, 1849; and he was the author of the bill creating and incorporating the Institution for the Blind, which was passed without a change. He prepared the bill which was enacted in March, 1845, incor- porating the Sangamon & Morgan Rail- way Company, and authorizing the sale to that company of the railroad from Spring- field to the Illinois river. IIe also pre- pared, and secured the passage of the acts under which the road was extended east- ward from Springfield to the State line.
He was a member of the Legislature during the session of 1851-52, and the sub- sequent called session. Ile was charged with being the author of the bill for the "Act to establish a general system of bank- ing,".passed in 1851; but the charge was false. At the request of the committee lie revised the bill, arranged the sections, and proposed several amendments, all of which were adopted. He prepared all the bills required at this session in relation to the State institutions located at Jackson- ville. At the subsequent called session he proposed the bill for the obtaining of the right-of-way for roads, which was passed without any substantial change.
During the two sessions he was placed on numerous committees. Upon most of them he acted, and his time was constantly occupied in reading bills and in preparing,
suggesting and reporting amendments. He uniformly opposed special legislation, especially acts authorizing executors, ad- ministrators and guardians to sell real estate of infants, acts granting divorces, acts granting ferry-licenses, and acts for all purposes that could be compassed by application to the courts.
The present "Illinois Female College" was originally incorporated as the "Illinois Annual Conference Female Academy," intended to be established and sustained by the voluntary contributions of the preachers, members and friends of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was ap- pointed one of the trustees, and contrib. uted very liberally towards the same. He continued a trustee until the institution was changed to a college, and until a large debt had been contracted (for which the trustees were personally responsible), in enlarging the building and providing boarding and rooms for pupils coming from distant points. As all of his time was required in attending to private and public engagements, he proposed to re- sign his place as trustee; and to avoid the implication that this proposition was with a view to escape responsibility for liabilities, he advanced $1,000 to the board, which was supposed to be a liberal part in case the trustees should be required to meet the liabilities out of their private means. In 1861 the west wing was burned, and this so reduced the capacity of the building to accommodate boarders, that no revenue could be expected from that source ; and therefore the trustees decided at once to meet the indebtedness, whichi amounted to over $30,000, or to abandon the college. He now paid what was ad- mitted to be more than his pro rata part of the amount; and it was said that, but for his liberality, the debt could not have been paid. Although this may be true, the same remark would apply to several of the preachers, who paid as much, if not more than he did, in proportion to their means.
Following the payment of this indebt- edness, he was one of several who con- tributed about $6,000 for rebuilding the west wing. He then insured the building for $5,000, and the trustees did the same for $30,000. In less than three years the
326
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
main building was burned. He charged the institution the cost of the insurance, and gave the college the balance of what was paid him on his policy. In addition he donated $1,000 to pay for heating the main building with steam, which, being rebuilt, he again insured it, and in less than two years it met a similar fate. He donated, as in the first instance, tlie balance accruing to him, amounting, alto- gether, to about $7,000, but has not rein- sured since the rebuilding of the main edifice. He proposed to resign his posi- tion as trustee, in 1874, but the Conference were unwilling to accept. His term of office expired in 1875, and he determined not to accept a reappointment.
In the spring of 1861 he was appointed, by the Governor and Senate, a member of the Board of Army Auditors. In the fol- lowing summer he was deputed to go to Washington to obtain funds from the United States, to pay war-accounts, and succeeded in obtaining $450,000. He had the accounts in such form, that Secretary Chase, without occupying more than twenty minutes' time, gave the order for the mon- ey. On applying at the Treasurer's office, he discovered that the treasury-notes which he expected to receive were not printed, and twenty days elapsed before they were delivered to him. He continued in the office of Auditor until the spring of 1862, when he resigned, having examined up- wards of $2,000,000 of accounts.
Judge Thomas long since gave up the practice of his profession by reason of ad- vancing years and consequent infirmities; but, happily married in his old age, to Mrs. Leanna Orear, still occupies with her and other relatives, a delightful home on West College avenue.
See pages 14, 15, 43, 45, 48, 50, 53, 57, 58, 63, 65, 80, 81, 87, 97, 101, 102, 110, 114, 115, 118, 119, 120, 121, 123, 127, 175, 241, 243, 250, 262, 263, 278.
ISAAC L. MORRISON has been a res- ident of the city of Jacksonville since June, 1851. He is a native of Kentucky. He was admitted to the bar in his native State, and has made the practice of the law his business from the time of his ad- mission to the bar.
In politics he is Republican. He was a delegate to the Republican Convention which assembled at Bloomington, Ill., in 1856. He attended the Republican Con- vention at Baltimore, in 1864, as a dele- gate, and served as a member of the Exec- utive Republican State Central Committee for that year. In 1877, 1879 and 1883 he was a member of the House of Represent- atives in the State Legislature and served as Chairman of the Committee on Judi- ciary in the Thirtieth and Thirty-Second General Assemblies. In 1880 he was the Republican candidate for Congress in this district. The district being largely Dem- ocratic, he perhaps had no expectation of being elected. However, he made an act- ive canvass, and reduced the Democratic majority about 900 votes and ran ahead of the State and national tickets,
REV. LIVINGSTON M. GLOVER, D. D., was born February 21st, 1819, in the the township of Phelps, Ontario county, New York, and was the son of Philander and Ruhamah Glover, who removed from Massachusetts to the "Genesee country" in 1800. He is descended from English ancestry, traceable back to Saxon times, when the name was written Gelofre. Several persons of the name have been dis- tinguished in the fatherland; as, Robert Glover, who perished at the stake in 1555, in the reign of "bloody Mary," and Richard Glover, an eminent poet, merchant, and member of Parliament, born in London in 1712, and who died in 1785 in that city, author of an epic called "Leonidas," also of several tragedies.
About the year 1640, two brothers, John and Henry Glover, emigrated to America, and settled in New England, near Boston. From the latter of these the Rev. Dr. Glover was descended ; and his immediate ancestors were residents of Conway, Mass.
After passing a third of a century in New York State, his father removed, in 1833, to the then Territory of Michigan, and settled on Lodi Plains, near Ann Arbor. Thither his son Livingston accompanied him, and up to the age of seventeen was reared on a farm, following the plow, etc., but without any special fondness for an
327
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
agricultural life, as his tastes, from early childhood, strongly inclined him to letters, study, and public life. Stories are nar- rated of his stopping the team in the har- vest field, and of his mounting a stump to exercise his gifts in declamation. When other boys of his age were at play, he was engaged in writing articles for the village paper; so that his father early predicted the uselessness of inducing him to follow in his footsteps, as an agriculturalist.
About the year 1834 a "Manual Labor School"- then very common and a furore throughout the country-was established in Ann Arbor, very near the site of the present university. He was enrolled among its first.pupils, and for a year or more pursued the studies preparatory to a college course, laboring four hours per day on the "school farm" in payment for board.
In the autumn of 1836 he entered the Western Reserve College at Hudson, Ohio, from which institution he was graduated at the commencement in 1840. After leav- ing college, he at once connected himself with the Lane Theological Seminary, Cin- cinnati, studying for the ministry, to which he had devoted himself at the time of his conversion in 1836, although pre- vious to that date his preferences led him in the direction of the law and of political life.
Having passed two years in theological study, he was licensed to preach the gos- pel, and in October, 1842, took charge of the Presbyterian church of Lodi, Michigan, where his first profession of faith had been made. He continued at that place for six years, making proof of his ministry in a wide spread country congregation, and among a people who had known him from boyhood, enjoying their confidence, and being very successful in his ministrations, proving somewhat of an exception to the rule that "a prophet is not without honor, save in his own country."
In the autumn of 1848 he received, very unexpectedly, a call from the First Pres- byterian Church of Jacksonville, Illinois which against the wishes of his people he deemed it his duty to accept. He took charge of that important congregation in October, 1818, and continued to serve this
congregation as beloved pastor for the term of thirty-two years.
In October, 1873, the quarter-centennial of the pastorate was observed with appro- priate and interesting ceremonies. Ilis pastoral charge was of longer duration than any other of this denomination in the State, and perhaps in the West.
He received, in 1864, the honorary de. gree of Doctor of Divinity from Centre College, Kentucky. As a theologian, he had few equals in the country, and was a most influential and useful clergyman and citizen. lle was a man of broad, liberal and Christian views. Dr. Glover thor- onghly identified himself with the ednea- tional and benevolent interests of this place. For eighteen years he was a mem- ber and Secretary of the Board of Trustees of Illinois College. At the time of his death he was President of the Board of Trustees of the Jacksonville Female Academy, and also President of the Board of Directors of "Oak Lawn Retreat," a private institution at Jacksonville for the insane. Ile took a firm and advanced stand in the temperance reform, and in all kindred causes.
In the course of his ministry he pub- lished more than thirty discourses, ordi- nary and special, generally at the request of his people or of the community. In addition to these, he gave numerous arti- cles on various subjects to the religious and secular papers. Through the same medium he published many poems of a moral and religious character, and, for the most part, lyrical in form.
He has twice gone abroad; in 1858, he travelled through Europe, and as far East as Syria and Egypt, and again in 1873, by appointment of the Presbyterian General Assembly of the United States, he went as a delegate to the Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland, meeting in Edinburgh. At that time, he made an extensive tour through the British isles.
Ile was identified with Illinois during a period of wonderful development and saw the humble village of Jacksonville expand into a beautiful and thriving city of 10,000 inhabitants.
He was married in 1843, to Marcia A., daughter of Professor Rufus Nutting, of
328
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHIES.
the Western Reserve College. As the fruit of this remarkably happy union there were five children all of whom survived him and are living to day: Mrs. Mary Mitchell of Springfield, Lyman Beecher of Chicago, Mrs. Mattie Higginson of Humboldt, Kansas, John Adams of Indian- opolis, Ind., and William Brown of Hum- boldt, Kansas. Dr. Glover's beloved wife, mother and brother are still residents of this city, honored for their own sakes as well as for the memory of his consecrated Christian life, which terminated after weeks of great suffering from disease, on Thursday, July 15th, 1880 The entire community felt the loss incurred in his transfer to "the better land" and joined their sympathies and tears with the afflict- ed family and the stricken church of his loving care as the mortal remains were lain to rest in the beautiful Diamond Grove Cemetery.
See also pages 55, 57, 61, 69, 71, 94, 115, 116, 125, 130, 153, 154, 156, 173, 186, 197, 198, 206, 210, 262, 269, 283.
HENRY CUTHBERT TUNISON was born in Tazewell county, Illinois, on Feb- ruary 5th, A. D. 1855. Removed with his -
parents to Greene county, Illinois, when less than one year old. His boyhood was spent on the farm formerly owned by his father, Isaac C. Tunison, part of which is within the limits of the city of Roodhouse. His present place of residence is Jackson- ville, Morgan county, Illinois. He was married on March 23d, 1876, near Man- chester, Illinois, to Miss Kate R. Murray. In 1868, at the age of thirteen, he began business for himself as a canvasser. Soon after he became an employer, sending out, over a limited territory, a few sub-agents. Later he became a publisher of atlases, maps and charts. To-day his name is a household word in every part of the United States, Canada and the Maritime Provin- ces, and his trade extends into British Columbia, Old Mexico, the Bermudas and the West Indies. He has traveled in every state and territory of the United States, also in foreign lands, and is the proprietor, to-day, of wholesale Atlas, Map and Chart houses in the following cities: New York City; London, Canada; Chicago, Illinois; Cincinnati, O .; Atlanta, Georgia; Jacksonville, Ill .; Kansas City, Mo .; and San Francisco, Cal.,-and contemplates establishing a house in London, England.
JOHN J. HARDIN, eldest child of Mar- tin D. and Elizabeth Hardin, was born January 5, 1810. His father, a distin- guished lawyer of Kentucky, died Octo- ber 8, 1823, John then being thirteen years old. Upon his mother, as sole ex- ecutrix of his father's will until he should be twenty-one years of age, devolved the care of the family and the, management of the estate, The latter was so embar- rassed by security debts, amounting to nearly $50,000, that Henry Clay and other friends of the family advised her to sur- render it to the creditors and free herself from the perplexities connected with its settlement. Of firm and resolute pur- pose, and with a will to discharge any liability of her deceased husband, and educate her children, she said, "Gentle- men, give me time, and I will pay all." Time was granted; and, applying herself to the task, she managed the estate with so much discretion and ability, that she paid all of the liabilities against it, sup-
329
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
ported and educated her children, and provided for their advancement in life
John, who early manifested that deter- mined purpose and energy of character which was impressed upon him by the example of his mother, received a liberal education and was bred to the law, un- der the late Chief Justice Boyle. The Chief Justice resided about five miles from Harrodsburgh Springs, and em- ployed a portion of his leisure in the in- struction of a few law-students, who boarded in the families in the neighbor- hood and repaired weekly to his library for examination. In 1829 John J. Hardin boarded in the family of Mrs. Smith, whose daughter, Sarah, he afterwards married. Judge Wm. Brown, of Jack- sonville, studied law with the Chief Just- ice at the same time, and became the warm friend of Hardin for life.
Hardin's professional studies complet- ed, his active temperament led him at once to seek out a theatre upon which he should act his part in the drama of life.
He explored Illinois; and, captivated with its beauty, settled in Jacksonville in 1830. In the January following, he re- turned to Kentucky and was married. Possessing a correct judgment of human nature, an ardent temperament, uncom- mon tact, energy, perseverance, he made his mark wherever he moved, and soon stood in the front rank of his profession. As an advocate, notwithstanding an occa- sional hesitancy of speech, he was always heard with attention. He selected the strong points of his case with discretion and sustained them with great force of argument.
At times the strong passions and syn- pathies were stirred up, and he became persuasive and eloquent. A plain, blunt man when his indignation was aroused, woe to the man who, either before the jury or the people, felt the heavy stroke of his "meat-axe oratory."
In 1832 he was appointed State's Attor- ney for this circuit, and for years dis- charged the duties of the office with faith- fulness to the public interests.
At the session of 1839 (). H. Browning, of Adams, and Wm. Thomas, of Morgan, of the Senate, and John J. Hardin, of the House of Representatives, procured the
enactment of a law founding the Deaf and Dumb Institute, in this place. In time the Insane Asylum and the Institu- tion for the Blind were also located here.
Social in his habits, warm hearted and free in his intercourse with the people, bold and fearless in the promulgation and advocacy of his political opinions; and withal public spirited, he soon became a leader in politics. How successfully he maintained the strife, against large odds, is well remembered by friend and foe.
In 1836, 1838 and 1840, he was returned as a member of the House of Represent- atives of the General Assembly, from Mor- gan county.
In 1843 he was chosen to represent this district in Congress, which he did with honesty, vigor and patriotism.
Possessing a taste for military life, Col. Hardin passed from one grade to another in the militia until he was appointed to the high oflice of Major General. Ile par- ticipated with honor in the Black Hawk war, and was selected by Gov. Thos. Ford as a man eminently to be relied upon in the settlement of the Mormon disturbance in Hancock county.
In 1847, the United States entered into war with Mexico, without deciding the question of the justice or injustice of that war. Thousands differed with the gov- ernment, yet when the call was made for volunteers, John J. Hardin, then Major General of the Illinois Militia, was the first to appeal to his fellow citizens to rally around the national flag. His ap- peal was promptly responded to, and Gen. Hardin was elected colonel of the First Regiment of Illinois Volunteers. In train- ing his undisciplined troops, in providing for their wants, in cheering them on the march, in watching over them in camp, he discharged successfully the duties of lris arduous command.
On the 21st of February, 1847, General Taylor, who commanded our army in Mex- ico, being satisfied that the Mexicans, un- der Santa Anna, were upon the forward march, broke up his camp at Agua and fell back to the strong mountain pass, a little in front of Buena Vista. The road at this point becomes a narrow defile, the valley on its right being rendered quite
330
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.
impracticable for artillery by a succession of rugged ridges, extending far back to- wards the mountains which bound the valleys. "The features of the ground were such as to nearly paralyze the artil- lery and cavalry of the enemy, while his infantry would not derive all the advan- tage of his numerical superiority. In this well-selected position, Gen. Taylor, at the head of 5,000 effective men, chiefly volunteers, prepared to receive the ene- my-22,000 strong, and composed of the flower of the Mexican nation. In the or- der of battle Capt. Washington and bat- tery was posted to command the road, while the First and Second Illinois Regi- ments, under Cols. Hardin and Bissell, and the Second Kentucky, under Col. McKee, occupied the crest of the ridges on the left and in the rear." At 11 o'clock on the 22d, the American army was sum- moned to surrender at discretion, and the usual defiance returned. The battle of Buena Vista began in earnest on the morn- ing of the 23d of February, and contin- ned all day. Towards evening the enemy were driven from the field and the Amer- icans were victorious, but not without great loss of life-264 killed, 450 wound- ed, 26 missing, on the American side; Mexican loss estimated, killed and wound- ed, 2,000 men. The commanding gener- al, in his official report, remarks: "In the last conflict we had the misfortune to sustain a very heavy loss-Col. Hardin, First Illinois ; Col. McKee and Lieut .- Col. Clay, Second Kentucky Regiments fell, while gallantly leading their commands." He further adds, "No loss falls more heavily on the army than that of Col. Hardin.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.