USA > Illinois > Cass County > Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Cass County, Volume II > Part 12
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The act of the legislature granting a vote upon the question of removal of the county seat from Virginia in 1842, provided that if removed by vote. then the locality to which it was to be removed should provide a suitable court and jail without expense to the county. Beardstown agreed to the proposition, and guaranteed the buildings before the vote was taken. Pursuant to the vote in favor of removal to Beardstown at the election held September 3. 1843, and to the requirements of the law. the trustees of Beardstown contracted with B. W. Schneider to build a courthouse. and with Thomas Beard, the founder of Beardstown, to build a jail. Both buildings were erected on lot 1 of block 31 of the original town of Beardstown, at the south- easterly corner of the public park. The court- house was built on the north end and corner of the lot, and the jail at the rear end on the south, with an open space of abont 20 feet be- tween the two. At the February term, 1845, of the commissioners court, the deed to the lot was presented to the board along with a receipt from the contractors, B. W. Schueider and Thomas Beard, for payment in full for the cost of erection of the buildings. and a certificate from Judge Samuel D. Lockwood, the circuit judge for the county, of the sufficiency of the buildings. Whereupon the board ordered all the
papers recorded, and adjourned the court to meet at Beardstown on the first Monday of March, 1845. The courthouse building is a two- story brick one, with a court room and jury rooms on the second floor. There are four rooms on the ground floor, with a hall through the cen- ter, from north to south, and a stairway to the second floor at the rear end of the hall. It was not a large building, but was made very sub- stantial and convenieut, and is yet in a splendid state of preservation, having been kept in ex- cellent repair. and is now the city hall of Beards- town, in which the city offices are located. the court room being used for the council chamber. It is also used for holding the terms of the city court, inaugurated at Beardstown in 1911. The old jail is used as a city jail, and the space be- tween the two has been enclosed and houses the fire department of the city. The famous "Duff Armstrong" trial was held in this courthouse, a description of which is given in another chapter.
CONCERNING LOCATION OF COUNTY SEAT.
The buying, selling and exchanging of the public buildings of the county has been the re- sult of the contention over the permanent loca- tion of the county seat. therefore the history of that struggle is necessarily interwoven with the history of the public buildings. Under the law at that time it required a special act of legislature to have a vote upon the question of the removal of a county seat. On February 11, 1853. the legislature passed an act for a vote on the question of removal of the county seat. the vote to be taken the first Monday of Novem- ber. 1853. The election was held and resulted in the defeat of Virginia. Again, in 1857, Dr. Samuel Christy, representative from Cass County, secured the passage of an act for a vote on the question. That election was held No- vember 3, 1857, and it was charged that both sides of the contending forces committed stu- pendous frauds in securing a large vote. Beards- town succeeded in getting the greater number of ballots into the boxes, and Virginia, accepting the defeat. hided its time, which came again by act of legislature dated February 14, 1867, granting a vote to be taken April 2, 1867. The election resulted in an overwhelming majority for removal to Virginia, but trouble ensued which brought a contest in the Circuit court. The poll books of Virginia were rejected, aud Beardstown retained the county seat. In the
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meantime a constitutional convention was called and held and a new provision was incorporated which was more favorable for the location of county seats near the center of counties, and Virginia, being practically in the center of Cass County, thought the time had come when surely, ' if ever, she might recover the coveted prize. An act of legislature was passed providing the man- per in which the vote under the new constitu- tional provision should be polled, among the provisions being one that a petition should be filed in the county court, after certain prelimi- naries, containing the names of signers of at least two-fifthis of those who had voted at the previous presidential election. It required a great deal of labor on the part of the Viriginia people to secure that petition, but it also gave them an opportunity to canvass the question with the voters. At last the petition was fin- ished and presented, and an election ordered for the second Tuesday of November, 1872, and the election carefully guarded and held, resulted in a majority of 128 for removal of the county seat to Virginia. Previous to the holding of this election, Virginia people, under the leader- ship of Jacob Dunaway, Samuel Petefish, Z. W. Gatton, Charles Crandall, Ignatius Skiles and others induced the building of a courthouse under the guise of erecting a new city hall for Virginia, and then agreeing to donate the build- ing for a county courthouse. A contract was entered into with Jobst & Pierce, contractors of Peoria, Ill., and a very excellent two-story brick building was erected on the public square of Virginia, known on the plat as Washington Fountain Square, and divided into compartments suitable for a courthouse. The building was constructed in 1872, but was not fully equipped until after the question of the county seat loca- tion was fully determined by the Supreme court, where it had been appealed after passing through the lower courts. After a canvass of the vote upon the election and Virginia had, by the canvassing board, been declared winner, an injunction was procured preventing the removal of the records to Virginia. The injunction was watched closely, and by renewals was kept in force until along in the fall of 1874, when, by an oversight on the part of lawyers for Beards- town, it was permitted to expire, and before another could be procured, Virginia people had organized a company, which, under the command of Robert Hall, went with teams to Beardstown in the night, and after the injunction expired
at midnight, loaded up the records and files of the courts and escaped with them to Virginia. This was a hazardous undertaking, with the bit- terness that had been engendered by the long contest, but it was more easily accomplished by reason of the fact that the county officials who had been elected at the previous election were residents of Virginia and the east end of the county, and favorable to the removal of the county seat to Virginia. It is said they were let into the secret of the undertaking and had prepared the records and files so that they were readily loaded into the wagons which came for them, and it was not until late the next morn- ing that it was discovered by the Beardstown people that the records and books had disap- peared. This, however, did not end the matter. Beardstown secured an injunction against the officers doing business at Virginia until the case should be finally decided. On June 7, 1875, the county board entered on their records that they had received a decision of the Supreme court dissolving the injunction, and organized the board by electing William Campbell chairman, and ordered the removal of the furniture from the Beardstown courthouse to the courthouse at Virginia, located on lot 77, or Washington Foun- tain Square. The other commissioners were, at that time, Robert Fielden and John H. Melone.
The present courthouse at Virginia has been in'use by the county ever since 1875. In 1891. E. M. Dale, under contract with the county board, built two fireproof vaults of large size, one on the east and one on the west side of the main building, with a room above each of them. The east room, below, is used for the vault for the deed records, and the Circuit court records, and the one on the west side is for the records of the County court, and those of county affairs. The east room above is used for the court library, and the one on the west is for the office of the county superintendent of schools. The jail at Virginia was built by Joseph F. Black, a pioneer resident of Cass County, and one of the best known architects and builders in central Illinois. He built the Central school building at Beardstown, and the Methodist church of that . city, and the Cumberland Presbyterian, the Methodist and Christian churches of Virginia, and also the opera house of the same city, as well as many of the best and most costly resi- dences of Virginia. The jail was built in 1876, under contract dated February 28 of that year, at a cost of $14,000. It stands on lots 112 and
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
113 of the original town, on W. Beardstown street, and is of brick and stone; the jail proper being of stone exclusively, while the main build- ing is for the sheriff's residence and is a two- story brick structure, trimmed with stone, pre- senting an attractive appearance, although of a plain style of architecture.
PROVISION MADE FOR COUNTY POOR.
The other public or county buildings and prop- erty are those purchased and held for the care and maintenance of the poor. Prior to 1839, the method of caring for the poor was of an extremely humiliating character. When a per- son was cast upon the county in those days, an order was entered and the county clerk put up the paupers at public auction to the lowest bidder, that is, they were sold to the person who would take, keep and care for such paupers for the smallest sum per month. Reading the records without an explanation would result in engendering a feeling of horror at the uninten- tional barbarity practiced in those early days. Brutal and barbaric as it was, it was done with the best intentions on the part of those who had a disagreeable duty to perform. On June 22, 1839, there is record of a case in which two paupers, a man and woman, in which the woman was auctioned off at $3 per month, and the man at $10 per month, the two parties who agreed to take them at these sums being, according to the records, the lowest bidders.
On December 8, 1840, Willian Blair was al- lowed by the county board $S5 for building a small frame house, a "substitute for a hospital for keeping a deranged woman" in the Sugar Grove District, under conditions that could not occur in Cass or any other county of the state at the present time. Great advancement has been made in methods of treatment and care for the unfortunate of the human race. Excellent homes are now provided in each county for the poor, and hospitals are built by the state for the treatment in a scientific manner of the deaf, blind, sick and demented. No insane person can be kept in an almshouse, however well and efficient the provisions for their comfort may be. There is no more "farming out" or selling of paupers. While all are not cared for in the county almshouse, the cases of those who are not, are carefully considered by the overseers of the poor, or the county boards, and such pro- vision made for them as is deemed best for their
welfare. The latest, and one of the most im- portant efforts on the part of the people of the state through their legislators to provide for helpless children and worthy mothers, is the "mothers' pension law." In 1846 the County of Cass concluded, through its commissioners, that it would make better provision for maintaining the poor, and purchased of Rev. Reddick Horn a tract of land of 134 acres, in township 1S, north, range 11, west, in sections 21, 2S and 29. Rev. Reddick Horn, the Protestant Methodist preacher before mentioned in these pages, was then clerk of the Circuit court of the county, and continued as circuit clerk until March 28, 1849. On March 5, 1846, the county bought of James Buck and wife the west one-half of the southwest one-quarter of the southeast one- quarter, and the southeast one-quarter of the southwest one-quarter of section 21, same town- ship and range. With some slight changes re- ducing the amount of land to 190 acres, which the county now owns, it has held those lands ever since. Of this farm, 100 acres is of the finest fertile soil in the county, and the balance is used for pasture and for buildings and feed lots, barns, etc. There is an excellent orchard and vegetable garden, the latter supplying suf- ficient vegetables for all the inmates. There is a splendid herd of dairy cattle which furnishes all supplies needed in a dairy line for the home. About twenty-five inmates are cared for an- nually.
On July 29, 1854, the county commissioners contracted for the erection of a house to be built on the southeast quarter of the southwest quarter of section 21, at a cost of $950, and by that fall it was ready for occupancy as an alms- house. It was a small building with six rooms, all on one floor, and served the county very well as a comfortable home for the inmates. During 1888, however, a large three-story house was erected on the same building lots, which afforded ample provision for the poor. In 1899 this house was burned in some mysterious manner, but another was immediately built. This time, how- ever, it was deemed wiser not to erect a house higher than two stories, and place more of it on the ground floor. There are now thirty-five rooms, which contain many modern conveniences that were not in the former home. The build- ings are about one-half mile north of the sta- tion of the B. & O. S. W. Railroad, in the hamlet of Bluff Springs, and are upon an ele- vated tract of ground from which is obtained a
JOHN M. BIERHAUS
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
splendid view of the Illinois River bottom lands, stretching for miles to the west and south, which is as beautiful and entrancing a scene as may be found in any part of the great, picturesque Illinois valley. John Thompson, who has been superintendent of the farm and home for fifteen years, is a very efficient man.
CHAPTER X.
EARLY INDUSTRIES OF CASS COUNTY.
FIRST GRIST MILLS-FIRST SAWMILLS-FIRST STEAM OPERATED FLOUR MILL IN COUNTY-FIRST STEAMBOAT -- FERRY ESTABLISHED BY THOMAS BEARD IN 1826-EARLY SETTLERS-NEW RICH- MOND ROBINSON'S MILLS- JAMES M. ROBINSON -VIRGINIA STEAM MILLS-INTERESTING OLD DOCUMENTS-OTHER MILLS-EARLIEST TANNERY -ANDREW CUNNINGHAM-HIS NOTES OF TRAVEL PICTURE THE TIMES -- CHICAGO AS A CITY ONLY AS OLD AS CASS COUNTY-EARLY MANUFACTURES -WAGONS - CHAIRS - FARM MACHINERY - STEAMBOATS-PRINCETON WOOLEN MILLS-JOHN E. HASKELL-A CHURCH ORGAN-PORK PACKING AN EXTENSIVE EARLY INDUSTRY.
FIRST GRIST MILLS.
The earliest industries requiring the use of machinery in Cass County were the grist mills. The primitive way of preparing the corn, the principal cereal used for food by the early set- tlers, by grating or pounding the grain on a hominy block until reduced to a coarse meal, was entirely too slow and laborious to be con- tinued when a better way was afforded. Enter- prising men early began to arrive in the county looking for a suitable place to locate a mill along the streams, where they could, by a little effort, dam the water so as to give additional power and thereby turn their simple mill wheels.
The first of these mills to be erected in Cass County, or in that part of Morgan afterwards made a part of Cass County, was in section 31, on Indian Creek, in township 17, range 11, a short distance south of where the steam flour mills of Arenzville now stand. It was built and operated by James Stuart, about the year 1821. Mr. Smart, a few years later, entered the land
on which the mill stood, and in 1832 sold out to Bennet Smart, who conducted the mill for a year and then sold both land and mill to Francis Arenz, who gave additional water power by making a new dam at the bend of Indian Creek, about a half mile north. Mr. Arenz conducted the mill for several years without much finan- cial success, and then sold to Herman Engel- bach and Peter Arenz. Although the mill was a small affair simple in its construction, it was of great benefit to the needy settlers here, when it was established, for it was the nearest mill within a radius of 100 miles, the next nearer being at Cahokia Creek, on the south. On the ditch cut where the new dam was built, John Savage, who some years later was elected and served eight years as sheriff of Cass County, built a sawmill. After the best of the board timber in the immediate neighborhood was con- verted into lumber, Mr. Savage turned his mill into a flour mill, but made little success of it until steam power was introduced. A few years later it was abandoned and the machinery moved to a new locality up in Monroe Precinct.
In 1829 the firm of Knapp & Pogue built a steam mill near the Illinois River on land bought of March & Beard, proprietors of the town of Beardstown, which they . laid out later that same year. The mill proved a success from the very first, and by 1830 its capacity was from fifty to seventy-five barrels of flour per day. About that time a distillery and sawmill were attached to the plant. A great part of the prod- ucts of the plant were shipped to other markets by river boats which had, by this time, begun to ply in great numbers upon the Illinois River. The steamer Mechanic, with John S. Clark as captain, was the first steamboat ever up the Illinois, and came in the summer of 1827. There were no railroads in the state, and no mode of shipping merchandise other than by the river traffic. Beardstown soon became a noted sluip- ping point for all the central interior portion of Illinois, west as well as east of the river. Thomas Beard had established a ferry across the Illinois River on June 5, 1826, from the Mound Village (on the present site of Beards- town) to Schuyler County, obtaining a license from the commissioners of Schuyler County, for which he paid the sum of $6 per year. The pro- pelling power of the boat was a long pole by means of which it was pushed across the river. In 1836, when the boats began to make regular trips from St. Louis, connecting with the Ohio
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River boats, Mr. Beard sent to Pittsburgh and obtained a horse power for his boat.
By 1830 emigrants were pouring into Cass County by river steamers, movers' wagons drawn by horses or oxen, on horseback and on foot. In 1833 James M. Robinson came from the state of New York, and unloaded his family and household goods in the town of New Richmond, to be. There was then nothing but the tall prairie or slough grass, and possibly a few stakes in the ground driven by the enthusiastic promoter, who had seen the Talisman steam up the Sangamon River in 1832. Mr. Robinson had thought a New Richmond would be a good sea- port town for the east end of Cass Couuty, or, as it was then, Morgan County. If he was disappointed he concluded to stop there for a while at any rate, so built him a rude log cabin and made a shelter for his stock. There, in a few weeks after their arrival, was born the first son to Mr. and Mrs. Robinson, and they named him Charles Chandler Robinson, in honor of Dr. Chandler, who was the attending physi- cian when the child was born. Dr. Chandler had but the year previously settled at the mouth of Panther Creek, now the site of Chandlerville. In 1835 Mr. Robinson entered a 40-acre tract on the edge of Menard County, about three miles east of New Richmond, with Clary's Creek running through it. Believing the locality an excellent place in which to erect and maintain a grist mill, Mr. Robinson, in 1836, erected what soon became the famous Robinson Mills. A sawmill was attached, and people came for many miles to have their grain ground, to purchase lumber or to have their saw logs worked up. Mr. Rob- inson was a practical miller, having learned his trade and worked at it several years before emigrating from New York to Illinois. A short distance from his mill he built a substantial double log house, and there resided for many years, giving strict attention to the milling busi- uess. In 1846 he was elected to represent Menard County in the lower house of the state legislature, and had served one term when the constitution of 1848 made a change in the man- ner of representation. He died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Emily Burton, at Lincoln, Ill., February 22, 1871. His son Charles, who was born at New Richmond, Ill., married a daughter of Dr. Pothicary, so long a resident of Virginia, and for many years lived on a splen- did farm about five miles east of Virginia. This farm was owned for a number of years by
George Cosner, and is now owned and operated by John Williamson, one of the best agricul- turalists in Illinois. The old Robinson Mills - have long since disappeared. Only one very familiar with the locality in an early day could point out the site. New Richmoud, or what- ever little there grew to be of it, is also goue. Few people now living have even heard that there was a New Richmond in Cass Couuty.
About 1833 several mills were erected aloug the various water courses in the present ter- ritory of Cass County. One was built by Wil- liam Carver ou the uorth fork of Little Indian Creek, or as it was called by some in that day "Nigger Creek." The towu of Princeton had just been laid out and a number of set- tlers were gathering at that point. The mill was about two miles north of east of Princeton. The old quill dam remained for many years. In 1838 Dr. Heury Hall, the founder of Virginia. built a mill on Job's Creek, about two miles north of his new town. It was a small affair and of very limited capacity, but a great cou- venieuce to the settlers, it saving them many miles of riding and driving over difficult roads. Some time about 1815, the exact date is not ascertainable, a steam grist mill was built aud operated at Virginia. It stood on the east side of the branch which crosses Beardstown street, two blocks east of the public or Court House Square, and back about 200 yards from the street or road as it was then, on the north side. It was the experiment of Dr. M. H. Schooley aud Nelson B. Beers, who had entered into a part- nership for the purpose of couducting a milliug business. Mr. Beers was a brother-in-law of William Holmes and had come from New York state, where he had been a practical miller. Dr. Schooley had been a resident physician of Virginia for several years. A short time after erecting the mill an equipment was attached for sawiug lumber. The business was continued with more or less success for a number of years, but Dr. Schooley, becoming infected with the California gold fever, which had become epi- demic at that time, sold out his interest to N. B. Newman, In the Illinois Observer, a paper published at Virginia, by A. S. Tilden, beariug date of April 13, 1849, appears the following notice :
"The co-partnership heretofore existing be- tween Nelson B. Beers and M. H. L. Schooley in
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HISTORY OF CASS COUNTY
the Virginia Steam Mills was this day dissolved by mutual consent.
"Virginia, January 20th, 1849.
"N. B. BEERS, "M. H. L. SCHOOLEY."
In the same newspaper appears the following advertisement :
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"Virginia Mills are now in operation, and we are prepared to grind wheat and corn on accom- modating terms. Flour and meal constantly on hand. Sawing done for 6216 cents per liun- dred eash, or one-half of the lumber to be re- tained. 600 cords of oak and hickory wood wanted, between this and the first of May next. "Also wanted a young man of temperate and industrious habits to learn the milling business. -Beers & Newman."
Just how long this partnership continued is not known, but Mr. Beers kept an interest in the mill until 1853, when the plant was con- sumed by fire. Virginia was without a mill for a number of years. In 1862, Armstrong & Beas- ley built a mill on the west side of the same branch, and a little further north, where the remains of a later mill now stand. That inill and its business was successively traded around and operated by indifferent millers until late in the sixties, when Jacob Dunaway, an enter- prising citizen, bought it, but in 1871 sold it to Martin Cosgro, an expert miller. Mr. Cosgro was a native of New York state, where he learned the millers' trade, and worked at the business in Albany, Oswego, and other New York state towns, until 1860, when he came to Peoria, Ill. There he worked in the Fort Clark and City Mills until 1871, when he came to Virginia and purchased the Virginia Steam Mills from Mr. Dunaway. He operated the plant success- fully until the spring of 1885, when it was burned to the ground, nothing whatever being saved from the flames. The loss was heavy and very little insurance was carried, but the people of Virginia, realizing that the loss of the flouring mill meant a more serious loss to the town in other directions, soon generously subscribed to a fund for rebuilding the mill and by the begin- ning of the next year a substantial roller mill, with all modern improvements, was in operation. Mr. Cosgro continued in control and managed the mill until 1893, when he sold out to H. A. Hueffner, a practical miller and excellent man
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