USA > Illinois > Douglas County > Historical and biographical record of Douglas County, Illinois > Part 5
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be paid over to the state wherein said land is situated ; and when the lands have been located by warrant or scrip, the said state shall be authorized to locate a like quantity of any pub- lic lands, subject to entry, at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre or less, and patents shall issue therefor." By an act approved March 3, 1857, "all lands selected and reported to the general land office," under the above recited laws, were "confirmed to said states respectively so far as the same remained va- cant, unappropriated and not interfered with by an actual settlement under any law of the United States."
Under the act of 1855, indemnity for lands disposed of by the United States on scrip or warrant was sought to be secured out of lands outside of the state limits, but the interior de- partment decided (February 5, 1866) that "such indemnity must be limited to the state in which the original selections were situated, and as there are no public lands in Illinois with which to satisfy such awards, if made, this of- fice declines to take cases as the one in ques- tion into consideration." On April 12, 1881, the department rendered a decision to the effect that "the right of indenmity under existing laws goes only to sales made prior to March 3. 1857: for sales subsequent to this latter date no indemnity is now provided." Another ques- tion arising under these acts, in which Doug- las county, with certain others, has a peculiar interest, relates to the original grant to the Illi- Dois Central Railway Company. These lands were granted by the general government by an act approved March 20, 1850, and conveyed every alternate section, designated by even num- bers, for six sections in width on each side of the road. Applications for indenmity for cer-
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BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL.
tain lands within the six miles limit of this grant were denied by the department in Novem- her. 1855. on the ground "that those lands which had been removed by the president under the act of September 20. 1850, did not pass to the state by virtue of the swamp land act." This decision has been repeatedly re-affirmed. and as late as 1881 efforts are being made to set aside the effect of these several decisions by congressional action, and until such remedial legislation is accomplished. Tuscola and Ar- cola townships will not be able to recover any indemnity for swamp lands.
It will be observed that under existing laws and decisions of the department of the interior, only the cash indemnity is available to Illinois claimants, and that only on lands erroneously disposed of by the United States between Sep- tember 20, 1850, and March 3. 1857. In most of the counties in Illinois, the original selec- tions of swamp lands were incomplete, for the reason that the county authorities who selected them under instructions of the governor failed in most cases to list any swamp lands which had been entered prior to the actual date of the selection. But few of these selections were made prior to 1852, and most of them not until 1853. so that the new selections are made to include all swamp lands entered after Septem- ber 20, 1850. and not previously reported. Douglas county has filed its claim and proofs for some six thousand acres, but has only re- ceived two thousand, eight hundred and fifty- one dollars and twenty-one cents, which is as yet unappropriated.
Agriculture .- Douglas is a purely agricult- ural county. The prime essentials of cheap coal, constant water-power and abundance of timber all seem to be lacking in quantities ade-
quate for manufacturing purposes. The dif- ferent streams of the county are all fringed with a good growth of timber, which includes the usuay varieties of this latitude, such as white, black, Spanish and red oaks, shelbark and white hickory, sugar and white maple, white and red ( slippery ) elin, black and honey lo- cust, white and black walnut, swamp and up- land ash, sycamore, cottonwood, mulberry and wild cherry. Since the land has been under cultivation, considerable timber has been added by the cultivation of forest trees on the prairie, to the success of which numerous groves about the county bear witness. Wood is still the prin- cipal fuel and is hauled to the various villages in considerable quantities. The varieties gen- erally used are hickory and oak, and bring prices varying from four to five dollars per cord. Since the building of the east and west railroads, coal has come largely into use, not only in the town, but among the farmers also, and will eventually supplant wood as fuel. The coal used is generally the bituminous va- riety, of Indiana. and is sold at about three dollars and a half per ton. No generally ob- served system of agriculture is followed by the farmers here. Average success has yielded too liberal returns to make a study of the scien- tific principles underlying this industry seem a necessity, and many innovations have been introduced in farming methods during the last twenty years. The pioneer farmer had enough to engage his attention and resources in pro- viding a plain subsistence for his family, and did little in the way of improved methods of cultivation, but with the rude, careless method in vogue, the land yielded considerably in ex- cess of the home demand, and in the absence of any profitable market there was no suffi-
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cient inducement to increase the annual prod- uct by increased care and system. The first set- tlers began their improvement in the timber, and the scarcity of this in the county greatly delayed its development. It was not until the building of the Illinois Central Railroad that the prairie land began to be taken up for cul- tivation, and then the great obstacle of its low, wet character retarded the movement. For some years this was borne with as beyond rem- edy, or at least not to be improved save by years of cultivation. Up to about 1878 the farming interests suffered very much from this cause, inany farmers selling their property after sev- eral successive annual failures and moving to drier locations in the west. The new purchasers were generally men of some capital, who at once grappled with the evil, and by a system of drainage favored by good seasons revolu- tionized farming interests and made Douglas county as good an agricultural region as is found in the state. Tiles are most extensively used and the soil is richly productive and does not need enriching by artificial means. Com- mercial fertilizers are unknown here, and even the accummilations of the barnyard are not pre- served with care and seldom used. The lack of demand for its use is the prime reason for this waste, but the large demands upon the prairie farmer's time is also a notable factor in this matter. There is a time in the spring when the hauling and scattering of manure might be done without the neglect of other duties, but in this latitude the soil is generally at this time so soft that it is considered unwise to cut it up with the wagon. The fertility of the soil lias led to the practice of cropping the same field for twelve or fifteen years in succession, but this practice has of late years given way to
a more or less systematic rotation of crops which is found to be advantageous.
The great staple of the county is corn. This is usually the first crop planted on sod ground, and generally is succeeded by a second crop, and then by wheat. The ground is gen- erally well prepared and the seed put in by a two-horse machine. The rows are laid out regularly both ways, and the crop is generally well cultivated. This is principally done with the double cultivator passing in both directions and continued until the plant is some four feet high or begins to "joint," when the crop is "laid by." The farms are generally large, averaging throughout the county from one hun- dred and sixty acres to two hundred acres, and the usual amount of help available will not permit further care, even if it was deemed nec- essary. More care is not, however, considered of any advantage. Corn is husked from the standing stalk, a wagon being driven along one side and two rows taken at a time, the ear being stripped, broken off and thrown in the wagon to be transferred to the crib. This har- vesting is generally done in November, but it is often late in the following month before the crop is all housed. Many of the cribs are mere temporary structures designed for the season's yield, and are built at the most con- venient point. The present season has been es- pecially unfavorable for housing corn. The warm wet weather has prevented the grain from hardening and drying, and some have been obliged to put lines of tile through the body of the grain to give it air to dry. The different towns about afford good marketing facilities, and it is generally disposed of in the ear, but few steam shellers being found in the county. A large proportion of the yield is fed
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BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL.
to stock, but a still larger proportion. perhaps, is shipped away and forms an important source of revenue.
Wheat is an important product of the con- ty. In an early day this was thought to be ill- adapted to the soil and climate and was only found to succeed on the sod ground of the tim- ber lands. Continued cultivation and the care- ful choice of seed has developed the fact that it can be grownanywhere with fair success, though many still hold that it is more productive on the soil of the timber belt. While it is found to do well on sod ground, is generally sown on corn stubble. In this case it is usually drilled in with a single-horse machine of five hoes between the rows. When sown otherwise, the ground is carefully prepared and the seed put in with a two-horse drill. The grain is threshed in the field. the steam-power and horse-power thresher being in about equal use and favor. The straw was, some years ago, generally burned, but a more economical method has since come in vogue, and the straw stack gen- erally left open to stock, which are found to thrive in an open winter with very little other feeding. The sales of wheat each year reach a high figure and find the general market through the elevators which are found at each of the principal villages of the county. Oal, are grown to a considerable extent, and form a considerable part of marketable product of the county.
ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD.
This road was completed through Douglas county in 1855. the charter having been granted by act of congress in 1850. This was the first . ablic work that received subsidies of land from
the United States government. The matter was engineered by Stephen A. Douglas, at that time United States senator, in which enterprise he had the task of reconciling and combining in favor of the measure the influence of both Benton and Clay, who were strongly opposed to each other in everything else. Mr. Clay said in a speech that he "had traveled these prairies for days at a time and never saw a tree as large as a walking stick." Douglas turned to Benton and said, "He never was on a prairie in his life, and on our prairies you are never out of sight of timber a minute."
This road was granted every alternate sec- tion of land, designated by even numbers, for six miles on either side of the track, afterward increased by a further grant of the alternate sections within fifteen miles of the track on each side of the road and its branches, all even num- bered sections, except section 16, which was reserved for schools and also excepting lands occupied by actual settlers. The United States lands had been selling for one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre and the price of the remaining lands was immediately doubled, and some are said to have sold as high as five and six dollars per acre.
The government reserved the privilege of transportation, free of toll or other charge, of any property or troops of the United States, and a condition was, that the road should be completed in ten years, and the company, by act of assembly, to pay into the state treasury five per cent. of the gross earnings of the road for all future time, and also, three-fourths of one per cent. of stock and assets, or enough to make at least seven per cent. of the gross earn- ings, a perpetual revenue to the state; and the lands were to be free from taxation until they
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BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL.
had been sold and conveyed. By the charter road is free from local and municipal taxation. The number of acres granted to this road in the state was two million, five hundred and ninety-five thousand.
The relative elevations of points along the line of this road in the county are as follows :
The south line of the county . . . . 303.0
Arcola station 303.7
Bourbon Switch. 279.3
Tuscola station. 285.3
North line of county 332.7
This makes Arcola 18.4 feet higher than Tuscola, on the line of the road. The north line of the county is the highest point, but one, between Centralia and Champaign, the high- est point being two miles north of Tolono. It is notable, however, in connection with these facts, that Tuscola is conspicuous from the sur- rounding country, which is not the fact in the case of Arcola, and may be owing to some ex- tent to the elevation of some buildings, as the court house and seminary. These figures apply to this railroad only. It will not do to compare them as they stand with comparative elevations upon other roads in the county.
THE INDIANAPOLIS, DECATUR & WESTERN RAILWAY.
This road traverses the county from east to west, north of the middle, in township 16 and near the middle of Newman, Camargo, Tuscola and Garrett townships, intersecting the Illinois Central at Tuscola, the county seat. It was finished through the county in 1872. The charter of the Indiana & Illinois Central
Railroad Company, of Indiana, bears date of December 30, 1852; that of the Decatur & Indianapolis was dated March 21, 1853, and these were consolidated in 1854, forming the 1., D. & W. Railway, the road receiving its pres- ent name under reorganization in 1876.
In 1868, Douglas county purchased 2,459 shares of the capital stock of the company and there was issued to the county a certificate for the shares. These were at a par value of $122,- 950 and were purchased of private parties in Indianapolis for $20,000. The transaction was conducted by T. H. Macoughtry, Malden Jones, and Thomas S. Shiss, and reported to April term of county court, 1868. In 1872 the county issued to the company $80,000 in bonds, with interest at ten per cent., payable annually, principal payable in twenty years, reserving the right to pay the principal after eight years ; this in accordance with the will of the electors, as expressed at the polls July 15, 1869. There was also subscribed in aid of this road, by a vote of the people in Newman town- ship, $12,000; Camargo township, $15,000; Tuscola township, $20,000; Garrett township, $13,000; making an aggregate of $60,000, payable in fourteen years, with interest at ten per cent. Pending the building of the road large quantities of lands had been acquired by the company, long its line in this and other counties, in subscriptions of private parties for stock.
The relative elevations of points along the line of this road, in the county, are as follows :
East line of county 247
Newman 238
One mile east of Camargo 268
Two miles west of Camargo. 268
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BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL.
Tuscola 25I
Atwood, west line of county . 257
THE ILLINOIS MIDLAND RAILWAY.
This line traverses the county from east to west, in the south part, crossing the Illinois Central at Arcola. It was originally an enter- prise of citizens of Arcola and the vicinity, and was first called the Paris & Decatur. Upon the extension of the line to Terre Haute, the name of that city was prefixed, and, finally, a further addition was made to Peoria. It is now operated by the Vandalia system. The first train passed over this road October 25, 1872.
THE DANVILLE, TUSCOLA & WESTERN RAILROAD.
This road was instituted by Tuscola people, materially aided by influential parties in Douglas and Vermilion counties. It runs in a northeast direction from Tuscola, leaving Douglas county in the northeast part of Cam- argo township, thence through parts of Cham- paign and Vermilion counties to the ancient town of Dallas, and to Danville. The prelim- inary surveying was done upon this line in January, 1872, and ground broken the follow- ing April. It is now the Chicago & Eastern Illinois, running from Chicago to St. Louis.
Other roads have been proposed which were designed to cross the county in some part, as a
road from Pana to Tolono, through Garrett township; a Mattoon & Danville, through Bowdre and Newman, and a Charleston & Danville, touching Sargent township, all of which have had preliminary surveys. Another proposed road is
THE TOLEDO & ST. LOUIS,
Which runs in a southwesterly direction from Arcola, has been graded for several miles. In October, 1871, delegations from Arcola and Tuscola met in Shelbyville, in the interests of this road and that of their respective towns; this, of course, was whilst the Illinois Central was the only railroad in the county.
PROPORTION OF INDEBTEDNESS ASSUMED.
In the act creating the county of Douglas. the new county became responsible for one- fourth part of the indebtedness of Coles county to the Terre Haute & Alton Railroad, and accordingly, at a special meeting of the county board, January 8, 1868, the county purchased of John Monroe, of Coles county, bonds num- bers 1 to 15 inclusive amounting to $19.070.98, and also paid interest on a remaining $10,000, amounting to $7,800, and since, about $12,500 of interest and principal, making a total cost to the county, in the transaction, of $39.370.98. Coles county had taken $100,000 in the stock of the road, now called the 1. & St. L.
THE MILITARY RECORD
OF
DOUGLAS COUNTY.
CHAPTER III.
THE MILITARY RECORD OF DOUGLAS COUNTY.
PUBLIC SENTIMENT AND CIVIL ACTION.
The war of the Rebellion is a great land- mark in the history of the nation. It is a no less important one in the history of Douglas county. In its early history the winter of the "great snow" measured the perspective of re- ceding years, but in the maturer age "the war" marked the turning of a new page. In those years of national trial there was scarcely a fam- ily in the county that was not called upon to do and suffer for the common weal, and many a heart sorrow or the foundation of a pros- perous fortune dates back to those fateful years.
The political events which preceded the war found many anxious watchers here. The senatorial campaign of 1858, with the succeed- ing presidential contest of 1860, in both of which Lincoln was the exponent of principles then in the ascendancy in Douglas county, served to fix the attention of this section upon the political storm which seemed to be gather- ing with portentions mutterings over the south-
ern portions of the country. It is doubtful whether hope or fear predominated in the minds of the people as the day approached when Lincoln was to be inaugurated, but the hope and expectation of the great majority was that, in his grasp, the serpent of secession would be strangled, as Jackson had done be- fore in the case of the "Nullifiers." It was in this state of vacillation between hope and fear, that the reverberations of Fort Sumter's guns assailed the ears of the eager North. It was this explosion, echoing round the world, that united the various political elements, and made men Union or non-Union. Niceties of political distinctions were almost entirely lost sight of, and while the change of front was too sudden and radical to secure the adhesion of all to one party, Douglas county, in the main, pre- sented but one sentiment, and that for the sup- port of the Union. Saturday, April 13, 1861, Fort Sumter surrendered. The news spread over the country and Douglas county respond- ed to the call for troops with a patriotic en- thusiasm not excelled by any community in
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BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL.
the state. Volunteering for the service was spirited, and prominent in the efforts to se- cure troops for the defense of the Union should be mentioned the names of E. McCarty and J. B. McCown.
It was not until the second year of the war that the county took official action to aid enlistments. In July, 1862, the county court passed an order "for the purpose of aiding in enlistment of volunteers for the United States service to be raised in the county of Douglas; for the support of the families of those who have heretofore enlisted from Douglas county." By this order the sum of $2,000 was appropriated, or as much as necessary for the purpose. At the same time, to carry out the intention of this appropriation, it was fur- ther ordered "that the justices of the peace of the county be invited and requested to act in concert with the court in carrying out this laudable intention, by acting promptly in this matter, by ascertaining and reporting to the clerk of this court the names of all volunteers who were or are residents of their respective precincts at the time of entering the service, showing separately the names of all those leaving wives and families or others dependent upon them for a livelihood and support. The said justices shall from time to time keep them- selves advised of the condition and wants of all such families as far as the comforts and necessaries of life are concerned, and shall make arrangements with some merchant, or merchants, grocer or grocerymen, to furnish the said families and persons dependent, as aforesaid, with the said necessaries, using due caution and circumspection with an eye to economy, reporting their acts and doings in the premises to this court at each regular
meeting of the board, together with the bills made for said support, properly certified to by them, for allowance as other claims by the court; and further to do and perform what other duties may become necessary as time may suggest in the premises." A regular tax was subsequently levied for this purpose, and in December, 1864, it was ordered "that Gil- bert Summe be appointed agent, whose duty it shall be to visit all such destitute families and ascertain their exact condition, and supply their wants by giving orders to grocers and merchants for such groceries or clothing as their wants may require, specifying definitely the quantity of each item and article, using all due care and circumspection with an eye to strict economy, and keeping a just and correct account by copy of each order, in whose favor drawn, and to whom the order may be sent. It shall be the duty of said agent further to agree with some merchant or merchants, gro- cer or grocers, to supply the said volunteers' families with such things as they may require at a reduction on their customary rates of sale, if such an arrangement be possible." The tax reached one and a quarter mills upon the dol- lar for this purpose, and the method of dis- bursing it was changed so as to pay each wife or mother of volunteers $I per week, and fifty cents per week for each child under ten years of age. What stm the county expended in this way does not appear in the state reports, and no reliable estimate can be made of it, but it was a very considerable sum, and does honor to the loyal, generous sentiment of the county. No bounties were offered by the county. In fact, there seemed no necessity for this ex- penditure to stimulate enlistments, the county promptly meeting the demands made upon it
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BIOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL.
and filling its quota without resort to draft. The population of Douglas county in 1860 was 7,109; the enrollment showed, in 1863, 1.491 men subject to military duty, and 1,803 in 1864, and 1,846 in January, 1865. The quota of the county in 1861 was 199 men; in 1862, 136; under the calls of February I and March 14, 1864. for an aggregate of 700,000 men, Douglas county's quota was 336, and under the call of July 18, 1864, for 500,000, it was 281, making a total of 952 men as the quota of the county prior to December 31, 1864. Up to this period the enlistment had reached 1,008, making an excess of 56 men. Under the last call, December 31, 1865, the quota was 225, and the enlistments 167, making the grand total of quotas: For the war, 1,177, and the credits, 1, 175, a deficit of 2 men. It is probable, however, that instead of a small deficit, Doug- las county furnished more than her quota, if all who volunteered from it had found their names placed to its credit.
The first full company-D, Twenty-first Illinois-went out under the command of Capt. James E. Callaway, of Tuscola, who became lieutenant-colonel. President Grant was the first colonel of this regiment. B. Frank Reed, of Bowdre township, was also a captain of this company. He died in September, 1865, of wounds received at Chickamanga. William Brian was the first captain of Company H, Twenty-fifth Regiment. Four companies were made up for the Seventy-ninth, Allen Buckner, of Arcola, being the colonel. A. Van Deren, of Tuscola, was captain of Company B; William A. Low, of Newman, was captain of Company E; Oliver O. Bagley, of Camargo, was captain of Company G. and Dr. H. D. Martin, of Arcola, was captain of Company K. Dr. Mar- 4
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