USA > Illinois > Cass County > Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Cass County, Volume II > Part 42
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INCORPORATED AS A CITY.
Virginia was now a city, having availed itself of the provision in the new constitution under acts of the legislature persuant thereto, and be- came incorporated as a city August 12, 1872.
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It had also additional railroad facilities, owing to the building of the line from Beardstown through Virginia to Springfield, which was opened in 1871, and the completion of the Peoria, Pekin & Jacksonville road to Jacksonville in 1869. The Farmers National Bank had been organized, and was doing business successfully. The city school district had purchased the old Union College buildings and grounds for a pub- lic school and also had the old courthouse re- modeled for a primary school, and the city was generally flourishing.
A number of saloons had also made their appearance and did a large business until the great Murphy movement swept over the country, and a branch of the work under the Timiney Brothers assaulted the evil at Virginia. Con- tinuous meetings were held and a great revival of temperance ensued. Everybody took the pledge and kept it for thirty days, more or less, after the Timiney Brothers left. There was one of the signers, however, who ever after stuck to his blue ribbon and avoided the liquor. Many will remember Michael Fahey, with his little donkey and cart driving about the streets, with a cheery word for all he met, his only fault being intemperance, but his wife induced him to sign the pledge and he kept it until his death, which did not occur until many years later.
TILE AND BRICK PLANT.
In 1883 George Henderson started a tile fac- tory for making farm drain tile and later at- tached machinery for making building brick. In 1893-4 he made as high as 30,000 brick per day. His tile and brick plant was the largest manu- facturing establishment in the county with the exception of the Schmolt sawmill and cooperage works at Beardstown. For several years Mr. Henderson employed fifty-three men steadily. In 1897, after the big fire in Virginia, he made over 2,000,000 building brick, but the drain tile be- came less in demand and after the buildings were restored following the fire, there was not so great a local demand for brick, and it was not profitable for him to manufacture them for shipping, so the output gradually diminished, un- til about 1910 he abandoned his plant, the ma- chinery was sold and removed.
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In 1884 a mining company was incorporated and a coal shaft sunk, but after a few years it was abandoned and the shaft filled up. In 1889 a charter was granted to Charles Wilson, George
Conover and L. A. Petefish, incorporators of the Virginia Canning Company. A plant was estab- lished and continued with an excellent output of canned goods, but in 1902 the stockholders and manager became discouraged with the future outlook and moved the factory to Petersburg.
CONFLAGRATIONS.
Virginia had been fortunate in escaping dis- astrous fires until 1889, but on October 6 of that year a fire occurred on the west side of the public square which destroyed several business buildings. On August 27, 1897, occurred the big fire, as it has ever since been called. It started about 1:30 A. M., in the rear of a drug store owned by William Barkley, and soon spread to other buildings on the south side of the court- house square, which was occupied by the best store and business buildings of the city, includ- ing the two banks, and could not be checked until the entire block was consumed. There was no adequate fire protection and there was nothing to do but try and save the contents of the build- ings. Jacksonville and Springfield sent their fire engines as soon as the word reached them, but arrival was too late to be of much assistance. The Baltimore .& Ohio Southwestern Railroad Com- pany furnished a special engine and car to bring the fire engine from Springfield and declined any remuneration from the city. Neither Springfield nor Jacksonville would accept pay for the serv- ices of their fire departments. The loss to Vir- ginia was very heavy, amounting to over $150,- 000, but immediately the citizens set about to rebuild and now have in place of the old build- ings splendid new modern business houses of handsome exterior design. Again, on the night of December 8, 1900, a fire started in a millinery store on the east side of the public square and could not be controlled until it had consumed greater portion of the buildings of that block. The burned district was soon rebuilt, and since then, except for the fires that burned the school buildings that have been mentioned in the arti- cle devoted to schools, Virginia has been free from fires of any great destructive character. The city is a little better protected now in its fire department equipment, but has no adequate water supply, and a fire engine without water cannot make much of a contest with a raging fire.
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PAVED STREETS.
Virginia's greatest improvement is its paved streets. Before paving was laid, the blaek soil at certain times of the year made the streets absolutely impassable for vehicles. Many times the mail was earted in a wheelbarrow to the depots, and hauling any loads or even an empty wagon through the streets was impossible. In 1910 some enterprising young men, among them being John G. Pratt, Marcellus C. Petefish, David Salzenstein and L. A. Petefish, determined to amend conditions in that line at least, and so they started the project of paving the streets, and by their efforts, seconded by the city eoun- cil, presided over by Mayor Charles W. Savage, the principal streets of the city are now splen- didly paved. Furthermore, the road to the C., P. & St. L. Railroad depot, a distance of nearly a mile from the business center of the city, is also well paved. Virginia is now one of the most beautiful little cities of Illinois, situated upon undulating prairie land which in the past thirty years has beeome almost a forest of beau- tiful shade trees of maple and elm, in pleasing contrast to the barrenness of earlier days.
RESULT OF VIRGINIA WOMEN'S FIRST VOTE.
The business interests of the city, its churches, schools and industries, have all been mentioned in the history of particular subjeets. It has entirely discarded one industry, in fact has been without it for a number of years, and that is the saloon business. For several years before the local option law was in force, the saloons had been banished by the vote of the people in electing anti-saloon councilmen. After the local option law eame into force, every vote taken proved the anti-saloon forces to be in a decided majority, but it remained for the women voters of Virginia to make a most unique record. The first opportunity the women had to vote upon any question after their right of suffrage had been extended by the legislature was at the November election in 1913, upon the question, "Shall this Virginia Preeinet continue to be anti- saloon territory?" The women cast 494 votes and each one of that entire number was against the saloon. Whatever anyone may think of the question voted upon, all will admit that it was a most remarkable record.
ADDITIONS TO VIRGINIA.
Virginia has had a number of additions laid out and platted and made a part of the city, some within the original corporate limits, and some adjoining. They are as follows, after the Public Grounds and the addition thereto in 1838: Hall & Thomas addition, October 15, 1856; Robert Hall's addition, July 17, 1857 ; Robert Hall's sec- ond addition, August 29, 1859 ; Barden & Wood's addition, June 4, 1SGS ; Stowes' addition, June 4, 1868; Stowes' second addition, Mareh 30, 1871; S. H. & J. A. Petefish's addition, March 29, 1872; Beers' Cheston Hill addition, March 1, 1876; Haskel's addition, May 19, 1877 ; Heirs of Eliza- beth Thompson addition, June 3, 1896. Grand Villas, a platted territory adjoining the city on the south, was laid out in 1876, but was not within the corporate limits, and was not made a part of the eity by dedication or by ordinance. The lots were soon all sold and nearly all of them have a house occupied as a residence, and a eonsiderable population is thus added to Vir- ginia. These citizens enjoy the advantages of close proximity to the city without the incon- venience of holding any of the city offices.
LONGEVITY NOT UNUSUAL HERE,
There are yet a number of persons living at Virginia who were born within its limits as early as 1845, or prior thereto. Robert Hall, already mentioned, was born here June 19, 1835. Mrs. Elizabeth (Murray) Jacobs, mother of County Clerk Henry Jacobs, was born April 17, 1839, and still lives in the house on E. Beardstown street where she was born. Mrs. Jane ( Elliott) Craw- ford, born June 15, 1841; James Clifford, born November 18, 1841; Charles I. Haskell, born in September, 1845; and William Clifford, born in 1844, are others. That Virginia and the sur- rounding localities have been healthful is attested by the taet that a large number of people have attained to the advanced age of ninety years and over. The names and ages of those nonagena- rians, so far as they can be aseertained, are as follows: Zachariah Hash lived to be ninety-five years one month and six days old, and died May 12, 1907. He was born in Green County, Ky .. April 6, 1812, eame to Illinois with his father, Philip Hash, in 1822, and lived in Cass County until his death. Doreas Mathews was born Feb- ruary 18, 1818, in the state of Virginia, and eame with her parents, who were named Hamilton, to
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Cass County in 1838, and remained here nntil her death, which occurred February 2, 1911, when she was ninety-three years eleven months and twelve days old. Mark Buckley, born at Oldham, England, came to Cass County in 1837, and died at Virginia, this county, March 2, 1906, aged ninety years nine months and twenty days. William 'Stevenson, born in Kentucky, Decem- ber 25, 1813, came to Cass County in 1829, and died here March 18, 1909, aged ninety-five years three months and sixteen days. William T. Treadway, born in 1818, died in Cass Connty, July 18, 1912, aged ninety-three years, ten months and twenty-six days. Elizabeth Davis, born in Tennessee in 1800, came to Illinois with her husband, James Davis, in 1821, died in March, 1897, at the age of ninety-eight years, being the oldest person in Cass County. She was the mother of Francis M. Davis of Vir- ginia, a veteran of the Civil war. Mrs. Sarah C. Gatton was born May 18, 1822, in Madison, Ohio, and came to Illinois in 1841. She snr- vives and lives at her home in Virginia, being ninety-three years old. William B. Payne, one of the oldest merchants of Virginia, was born at Nicholasville, Ky., Angnst 24, 1824, and is ninety-six years old. Thomas Williamson, born at Oldham, England, November 15, 1819, is ninety-six years old. Mrs. Sarah (Hopkins) Cunningham was born in Clark County, Ind., December 19, 1824, and came to Cass County, Ill., in 1825. She is ninety-one years old, and makes her home with her son, Henry Cnnning- ham, in the neighborhood where her father, Henry Hopkins, settled ninety years ago. Mrs. Bernice Hunt, widow of Joseph Hnnt, is ninety years old. She is the danghter of Littleberry Freeman, who came from Tennessee in 1829, and in 1830 entered a tract of land in section 2, township 17 north, range 10 west, about a half mile east of Virginia. Mrs. Hunt is still residing on a part of that land with her son, J. Henry Hunt. Mrs. Margarette Reid was born in Scot- land, in 1818, and is still living on her farm on section 21, township 18, range 10, being ninety- seven years old.
WALNUT RIDGE CEMETERY.
In 1872, in the month of June, the trustees of Virginia bought at a master-in-chancery's sale fifteen acres off the west side of the southwest quarter of the southeast quarter of section 34, township 18, range 10, a half mile north of the
town, and had it laid out as a cemetery. It was given the name of Walnut Ridge Cemetery, and is a most beautiful location for the city of the dead. After it was surveyed and platted, it was formally dedicated by the city conncil of Virginia as follows:
"Mayor's Office, City of Virginia. "September 20, 1872.
"The land hereinbefore described as it is therein platted, is hereby dedicated and set apart as a public burying ground, to be subject to all reasonable rules which may be adopted by the city council of said city.
"G. W. GOODSPEED, Mayor.
"Attest
"R. W. RATHBUN, City Clerk."
The town had been incorporated as a city between the time of the purchase of the land and the time of entering the order of dedication, which accounts for the nse of the terms "city council" and "city" instead of those of trustees and town.
PUBLIC RECREATIONS.
At Virginia, as elsewhere in the connty, the recreations of the people were varied and lim- ited, in earlier days mainly furnished by quilt- ings, apple cuttings, house raisings and their attendant amusements of dancing or the playing of games. Later came public picnics, and after the close of the Civil war there were frequent soldiers' reunions with speaking, music and sim- ilar entertainments. As these grew fewer on account of the passing away of so many of the old soldiers, the fraternal societies in a manner took their place. the Odd Fellows and Masons having gatherings. The log rollings of the Wood- men. which formed an amusement once, has fallen into disuse almost altogether. Formerly teams were made up by the various camps and at some hour of the day a large log which had been especially brought to the grounds for the purpose, was rolled a certain distance by each team in turn, the contest being with regard to the rapidity with which a team conld roll the log a given distance. Prizes were given the successful teams. There were other sports, and drills by the Woodmen teams. These annual gatherings are not entirely abandoned, but are held less frequently. Basket-ball and football are the sports of the schools of late years in imitation of the athletics of colleges. Baseball is of course the game which attracts the majority.
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Playing marbles is still the pastime of the boys in the spring, and pitching horseshoes is still a summer sport for the men who gather at the country stores, or blacksmith shops, and even at picnics. It is a very popular game, and as the implements with which it is played are so easily obtained, they consisting of two pair of horse- shoes, with two stout pegs driven into the ground at a distance of trom 25 to 30 feet apart, it is not difficult to start a game. The players stand at one peg and pitch the shoes at each other, the contest being to pitch or place the shoes nearest to the peg, or even over it, each shoe landing and remaining nearest the peg, or over it, count- ing so much for the game as may have been agreed upon beforehand. This description is not written especially for the present generation, or for the following one, but to make a record that will be interesting a century hence. It may be interesting for the people of 2015 to know how we innocently could amuse ourselves and how simple minded we were and how little it took to furnish us recreation from the everyday toils and burdens of lite.
THE OLD TRAVELING CIRCUS.
One entertainment of the earlier days that afforded great amusement was the traveling cir- cus, not the great three ring combination of the present day, traveling on a special train with its thousand actors and employes, but the old time one ring, one tented affair, with its single ring master, one clown and trick mule. It was heralded for weeks ahead by flaming posters upon every barn and vacant space where the persuasive advance agent could induce the proprietor of the aforesaid barns and vacant spaces to permit him to place them. When the circus did come it was not crowded out to the very edge of town, or even clear beyond the cor- porate limits, but was given the most central location where there was room enough to pitch the one big canvas.
On the public square of Virginia, then only a scattered village, where the courthouse now
stands, the nomadic showmen were given a hearty welcome, and the occupancy of so public a place gave rise to nothing more serious than the strengthened odor of dog fennel, as its essen- tial oil was pressed out by the many feet of the unsophisticated, who tramped around with gap- ing wonder to view the deep mysteries of tent raising, or to get a glimpse of the one (tooth- less) lion, which a daring showman was later to beard in his den. Nothing but dog fennel had the temerity to grow upon that plat of land for many years after it was surveyed and dedicated to the public, in 1836, as Washington Fountain Square. The old time circus proprietors had a - full and perfect appreciation of the power of first impressions and availed themselves of it in the regal manner in which they caused the band wagon to make its appearance upon the village streets. Every boy for miles around was up long before daybreak, if indeed he spent the previous night in bed at all, and congregated with his fellow urchins at the point on the high- way where his unerring instincts told him the show would approach the town. There was no great street parade of empty painted wagons with gaily caparisoned horses, riders and driv- ers. The band wagon was escorted by a motley troupe of some hundred barefooted boys, for the most part dressed only with a "hickory" shirt and jeans trousers, held up by one "gallus," made of that same hickory stuff, trudging joy- ously along. This kind of a parade once seen is not easily forgotten, at least by any of the par- ticipants. Such a parade in the older days was made up of the future merchants, mechanics, physicians, lawyers, judges, statesmen, and the soldier defenders of their country, and as they now look back through the mist ot departed years and revive the scenes in memory's hall, what would they not exchange for one hour of the unsophisticated joy of their youthful day in following the band wagon? How many glit- tering illusory objects they have followed since then have ended less triumphantly and have given them less joy.
BIOGRAPHICAL
CHAPTER XXXVIII
THE PART OF BIOGRAPHY IN GENERAL HISTORY- CITIZENS OF CASS COUNTY AND OUTLINES OF PERSONAL HISTORY-PERSONAL SKETCHES AR- RANGED IN ENCYCLOPEDIC ORDER.
The verdict of mankind has awarded to the Muse of History the highest place among the Classic Nine. The extent of her office, however, appears to be, by many minds, but imperfectly understood. The task of the historian is com- prehensive and exacting. True history reaches beyond the doings of court or camp, beyond the issue of battles or the effects of treaties, and re- cords the trials and the triumphs, the failures and the successes of the men who make history. It is but an imperfect conception of the philoso- phy of events that fails to accord to portraiture and biography its rightful position as a part -- and no unimportant part-of historic narrative. Behind and beneath the activities of outward life the motive power lies out of sight, just as the furnace fires that work the piston and keep the ponderous screw revolving down in the darkness of the hold. So, the impulsive power which shapes the course of communities may be found in the moulding influences which form its citizens.
It is no mere idle curiosity that prompts men to wish to learn the private, as well as the public, lives of their fellows. Rather is it true that such desire tends to prove universal broth- erhood ; and the interest in personality and biography is not confined to men of any par- ticular caste or vocation.
The list of those, to whose lot it falls to play a conspicuous part in the great drama of life, is comparatively short ; yet communities are made up of individuals, and the aggregate of achieve- ments-no less than the sum total of human happiness-is made up of the deeds of those men and women whose primary aim, through life, is faithfully to perform the duty that comes nearest to hand. Individual influences upon human affairs will be considered potent or in- significant, according to the standpoint from which it is viewed. To him who, standing upon the seashore, notes the ebb and flow of the tides and listens to the sullen roar of the waves, as they break upon the beach in seething foam, seemingly chafing at their limitations, the ocean appears so vast as to need no tributaries. Yet, without the smallest rill that helps to swell the "Father of Waters," the mighty torrent of the Mississippi would be lessened, and the beneficent
influence of the Gulf Stream diminished. Count- less streams, currents and counter currents- sometimes mingling, sometimes counteracting each other-collectively combine to give motion to the accumulated mass of waters. So is it- and so must it ever be-in the ocean of human action, which is formed by the blending and repulsion of currents of thought, of influence and of life, yet more numerous and more tortu- ous than those which form the "fountains of the deep." The acts and characters of men, like the several faces that compose a composite picture, are wrought together into a compact or hetero- geneous whole. History is condensed biog- raphy ; "Biography is History teaching by example."
It is both interesting and instructive to rise above the generalization of history and trace, in the personality and careers of the men from whom it sprang, the principles and influences, the impulses and ambitions, the labors, struggles and triumphs that engross their lives.
Here are recorded the careers and achieve- ments of pioneers who, "when the fullness of time had come," came from widely separated sources, some from beyond the sea, impelled by divers motives, little conscious of the import of their acts. and but dimly anticipating the har- vest which would spring from the sowing. They built their primitive homes, toiling for a pres- ent subsistence while laying the foundations of private fortunes and future advancement.
Most of these have passed away, but not be- fore they beheld a development of business and population surpassing the wildest dreams of fancy or expectation. A few yet remain whose years have passed the allotted three-score and ten, and who love to recount, among the cher- ished memories of their lives, their reminis- cences of early days.
[The following items of personal and family history, having been arranged in encyclopedic (or alphabetical) order as to names of the individual subjects, no special index to this part of the work will be found necessary. ]
ABBOTT, James William .- Chandlerville is the center of a rich agricultural district that looks to it as a market so that the handling of grain for the farmers is an important industry. One of the men who has made a success along this line is James William Abbott. He was born in this city. September 21. 1877. a son of James and Margaret ( Lidsay) Abbott, the former born in Lancashire, England. August 30. 1853, and the latter in Mason County. Ill. The father came to Mason County. Ill., from England with
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his parents, and resided with them on their farm until he was of age, when he moved to Cass County and began the milling business. For ten years he continued in this business for himself, and then discontinued the milling busi- ness and went into the grain business. For a time he and his father were partners, but this asso- ciation ceased with the death of the latter in 1905. Mr. Abbott enjoyed the advantages offered by the high school of his native place and is a well informed man.
Mr. Abbott was married to Martha E. Elliott at Chandlerville, Ill. She was born in Cass County. November 7, 1876, a daughter of Hugh P. and Sarah Elliott. Mr. and Mrs. Abbott have had the following children : William Edi- soll, James Hugh, Orville E., Maxine E., Vir- ginia May, and Norman Clare. Mr. Abbott is a Republican and was elected mayor of Chandler- ville for a term of two years and a school trustee for three years. He belongs to Chandlerville Lodge No. 724, A. F. & A. M., and in religious faith is a Methodist. A man of progressive ideas, he is always anxious to work for the betterment of his community, and the advancement of moral standards.
ADKINS, John Richard (deceased) .- The late John Richard Adkins of Ashland, Ill., was one of those men whose memory is held in kindly recollection long after they have passed away. His deeds of kindness were many, and his record of a life of honest industry and helpful, peaceful neighborliness is something to be cherished by family and community. Mr. Adkins was born on the southern line of Cass County, July 10, 1839, a son of Joshua and Elizabeth (Smith) (Flinn) Adkins, natives of Tennessee, the latter being the widow of Josiah Flinn, who had left four children. they being as follows: Nancy, who is now a widow (Mrs. Bertram), living in Iowa ; Jane, who became Mrs. Jacob Schroeder, is deceased ; and William and Mary, the latter Mrs. John Lang. both died in Kansas. Joshua Adkins was married in Morgan, now Cass County, Ill .. to Mrs. Elizabeth (Smith ) Flinn, and they had two children, namely : John Rich- ard, and Elizabeth, who became Mrs. Morton Fortney. and both are deceased. Joshua Adkins and wife settled on a farm in Cass County, after their marriage, and they lived there until they died.
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