USA > Illinois > Hancock County > Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Hancock County, Volume I > Part 128
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highly incensed at the failure of his bill to pass as he had originally written it; but as Mr. Whit- lock writes "he philosophically accepted the situa- tion and stubbornly set about accomplishing his purpose in some other way." When after several months' delay the new seal finally appeared the faet that the state was to have a new seal had apparently been forgotten by every one. The design of the seal found in use after October 26, 1868, is considerably at variance with the old seal in a number of details but especially in the motto. The motto on the new seal still con- tinued in use with the same words as required by the act, but the position in which they appear on the scroll allows them to be read in reversed order. The so-called scroll is in fact a pennant held in the eagle's beak and seems to be floating in irregular folds showing the word "sovereignty" upside down making it quite possible to regard the motto as Tyndale wished it to appear. It does not appear that any official notice was ever taken of this variation from the instructions eon- tained in the act which directed that the new seal must "correspond with the original seal of state in every partieular." The present seal, just as Sharon Tyndale had it designed, has therefore. been in constant use for the last half century. As Whitlock observes: "The perverted design of 1868 was strictly adlıered to with one exception. The word 'sovereignty' in the motto of the seal of 1868 appeared right side up to the eye, though upside down on the scroll. In the re-cut seal the word appears inversely, the position it naturally would assume upon the convolutions of the pen- nant. But the seal today in use is not that which the law or the legislature intended or directed it should be." Mr. Whitlock was an employee in the office of the secretary of state at Springfield in 1893-7, and it will be remembered was United States minister to Belgium during the great war in Europe. In article V., Section 22, of the State Constitution of 1870, it is provided that "There shall be a seal of the State, which shall be ealled the 'Great Seal of the State of Illinois', which shall be kept by the Secretary of State, and used by him, officially, as directed by law."
SHANAHAN, David Edward, was born in Lee County, Ill., September 7, 1862. He has lived in Chicago, IlI., since infancy, where in his boyhood he attended the public schools and in due course was graduated from the high school in that city, after which he took a course in the Chicago Law College. In 1885 and the following year he served acceptably in township offices. He was elected to the General Assembly of Illinois, in 1894, and has
been regularly re-elected at the close of each two-year term up to the present time, thus hav- ing served continuously in that body for over a quarter of a century. He was Speaker of the House in the Forty-Ninth and Fiftieth General Assemblies, and is now speaker of the Fifty-first. Mr. Shanahan is engaged in the real estate and insurance business at Chicago where he also has his permanent residence. Perhaps there is no man in the Illinois Legislature who has had so large an experience in the business of law-making in this state as Mr. Shanahan.
SPARTA, a city of Randolph County, situated on the Centralia & Chester and the Mobile & Ohio Railroads, twenty miles northwest of Ches- ter and fifty miles southeast of St. Louis. It has a number of manufacturing establishments, in- eluding plow factories, a woolen mill, a eannery and creameries; also has natural gas. The first settler was James McClurken, from South Caro- lina, who settled here in 1818. He was joined by James Armour a few years later, who bought land of McClurken, and together they laid out a village, which first received the name of Co- lumbus. About the same time Robert G. Shan- non, who had been eondueting a mercantile busi- ness in the vicinity, located in the town and beeame the first Postmaster. In 1839 the name of the town was changed to Sparta. Mr. McClur- ken, its earliest settler, appears to have been a man of considerable enterprise, as he is credited with having built the first cotton gin in this vi- cinity, besides still later, erecting saw and flour mills and a woolen mill. Sparta was incorporated as a village in 1837 and in 1859 as a eity. A eol- ony of members of the Reformed Presbyterian Church (Covenanters or "Seceders") established at Eden, a beautiful site about a mile from Sparta, about 1822, cut an important figure in the history of the latter place, as it became the means of attracting here an industrious and thriving population. At a later period it became one of the most important stations of the "Under- ground Railroad" (so called) in Illinois (which see). The population of Sparta (1890) was 1,979; (1900), 2,041; (1910), 3,081.
STATE PURE FOOD COMMISSION. The act establishing the State Food Commission went into effect July 1, 1899, Alfred H. Jones, of Robinson, Ill., being then appointed Commissioner and hold- ing office to the present time (1911). An act passed May 14, 1807, enlarged the powers of the Commission, authorizing the appointment of an Assistant Commissioner, a State Analyst, an At- torney and a Chief Clerk, besides several chemists,
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inspectors and other employes, whose duty it is to investigate and report upon the condition of raw material and manufactured food products to prevent adulteration and protect the consumer from fraud.
UNITED STATES COAST GUARD. The act creating the United States Coast Guard service was approved January 28, 1915. Under the terms of this act the former United States Life Saving service and the United States Revenue Cutter service were combined with the newly created Coast Guard service under the administration of the Navy Department. The organizations of the various life saving stations and revenue cutter service were continued as before. The stations of the coast guard on the Illinois coast of Lake Michigan are as follows: three at Chicago and one at Evanston. All stations are connected by telephone and patrols are maintained along the beach from one station to another. The Coast Guard is a part of the military forces of the government and may be employed in military or naval operations. There are 270 officers and 3886 men in this branch of the service which covers the coasts of the nation, as well as twenty-four cruis- ing cutters for sea and lake service operating from 279 coast stations. There is a Coast Guard Academy maintained by the government at New London, Conn., at which there were in 1919 thirty- six cadets in attendance.
WEST FRANKFORT, a city f Franklin . County, on the line of the Chicago & Eastern Illinois Railroad; is a rich coal mining region and has some manufactures. Pop. (1910), 2,111.
WEST HAMMOND, a village situated in the northeast corner of Thornton Township, Cook County, adjacent to Hammond, Ind., from which it is separated by the Indiana State line. It is on the Michigan Central Railroad, one mile south of the Chicago City limits, and has convenient ac- cess to several other lines, including the Chicago & Erie; New York, Chicago & St. Louis, and Western Indiana Railroads. Like its Indiana neighbor, it is a manufacturing center of much importance, was incorporated as a village in 1892, and has grown rapidly within the last few years, having a population, according to the cen- sus of 1900, of 2,935.
WITT, a city of Montgomery County on the "Big Four" and C. & E. I. R. R., 10 miles north- east of Hillsboro; in mining district. Pop. (1910), 2,170.
YATES, Richard, Jr., Governor and Congress- man, was born at Jacksonville, December 12, 1860. His father was Richard Yates the famous "war
governor" who at the time of the younger Richard's birth was governor-elect, and while yet an infant, Richard was taken to Springfield with his parents. After his father's inauguration in January, 1861, he with his parents became occu- pants of the executive mansion. In his youth, Richard, Jr., was educated at the public schools of his native city and at Illinois College from which he was graduated in 1880. He then took a course in the law department of the University of Michigan, graduating therefrom in 1884, and soon thereafter entered upon the practice of law, having been admitted to the bar in both Michi- gan and Illinois, and to practice in the Circuit and Supreme courts of the United States. For four years (1885-9) he served as city attorney for the city of Jacksonville. In May, 1900, he was nominated for governor on the Republican ticket at Peoria, and in the following November was elected. He was inaugurated in January, 1901, and became again an occupant of the exe- cutive mansion taking with him his mother, then a widow, who forty years previously had entered the same mansion as its mistress with the infant Richard. This is the only instance in the history of the state where a father and son have occupied at different periods the governor's chair. Mr. Yates served one term as governor, from 1901 to 1905. On October 28, 1888, he was married to Miss Helen Wadsworth in Jacksonville, Ill. In 1918 he was elected Congressman-at-large on the Republican ticket. His residence is at Jackson- ville.
"Y-EMBLEM" OF CHICAGO. The emblem which so frequently meets the eye of the public in Chicago which has been adapted to many pur- poses, and which for convenience we will here designate as the "Y" emblem, has an interesting history the outline of which is given in this article. In tracing the history of this emblem we must go back to the time when the great World's Fair was dedicated which event occurred October 21, 1892. The dedication coincided with the 400tlı anniversary of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus. The date of the discovery under the old style calendar was October 12, 1492, but under the new style, established in 1752, the date was properly changed to October 21. It will be remembered that the opening of the World's Fair did not occur until May 1st of the follow- ing year, namely in 1893. A few weeks previous to the dedication the Chicago Tribune in an edito- rial article said: "The matter of decorations should be left to the taste of those who have pro- fessional experience, and are qualified to make
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suggestions." One such, Frank D. Millet, the decorative artist, has already, by request, thrown out some general hints which can safely be fol- lowed by the committee, such as the use of two colors, red and white," to be used on flags, streamers, gonfalons and hangings of every description. Mr. Millet had further suggested "the propriety of selecting colors which shall be known as Chicago's 'municipal colors', after the manner of European cities." (It will be recalled in this connection that Frank D. Millet lost his life when the ill-fated steamer "Titanic" foundered, April 15, 1912. On September 12, 1892, the Tribune printed an announcement that $100 would be paid "for the best suggestion of color or combination of colors for a 'municipal color' for Chicago." In its issue of October 1, the Tribune announced that the award of $100 for a "munici- pal color" had been made. The winner of the prize was Alfred Jensen Roewad, a native of Den- mark. Roewad had been a resident of Chicago only two years where he was at the time practis- ing his profession as an architect. The design submitted by Roewad is described as follows: A shield, banner or flag, with a field or background of terra-cotta or red color, upon which is placed a band in white or silver, shaped like the letter "Y", intended to divide the field into three parts, the outer edges the same as the band. The artist accompanied the design with a letter, as follows: "The three parts indicate the three Chicago divisions-north, west and south-united with a white or silver band, the river. Red and white are the best colors for decorating, both with house fronts and green leaves as backgrounds." The design, "shaped like the letter 'Y' was shown on the shield in an inverted position, that is, the main stem was above and the branching parts below. This can be seen in the illustration printed in the Tribune in its issue of October 1, 1892. But in popular usage the position has become re- versed, and the main stcmn of the design begins at the bottom and branches off toward the top. The committee which made the award was com- posed of Walter Shirlaw, Walter McEwen and Edwin H. Blashfield. This committee had been appointed by F. D. Millet, who in his letter to the Tribune enclosing the report, said of the de- sign: "It is significant and simple and recalls a heraldic device, or rather, is a reminiscence of the way coats of arms and banners were designed in the days of chivalry." Later issues of the Tribune show that business men very soon began to make use of the design in their advertisements. It became popular at once, and its use and popu-
larity have been increasing ever since that time. The first draft in colors of the shield designed by Roewad was made the target of ridicule by those critics who always seize upon occasions of this sort for the display of cheap wit. Among the different epithets applied to the design the one which obtained the widest currency was its .description as the "liver and lard" design. The first proposal it will be observed was for a "municipal color," no mention being made of any design connected with it. No one seemed to have thought of a combination such as eventually was made. The idea seems to have grown in the mind of the designer to include a device which, as Millet said, was reminiscent of "the days of chivalry," and which has given to Chicago a unique and significant emblem. Its widespread popularity is, in fact, proof of its lasting merit. The question sometimes arises as to whether this emblem has ever received official sanction by the city council. Not until a municipal flag was authorized in April, 1917, has there ever been any official men- tion of the emblem. On April 4, in that year an ordinance was passed by the council prescribing the form and colors of a "municipal flag," with the devices to be shown upon it in connection with the various official and non-official uses for which it was intended. One of the devices thus shown is the emblem of which we have just given the history. The ordinance provides that "the forms, emblems, symbols and colors of the municipal flag," including a standard, pennant and badge, shall be two bright red, six-pointed stars set side by side between two blue bars running length- wise of the flag on a white background. Also that the municipal flag shall be the official flag of the several departments of the city government, each such department to place upon it its own appro- priate symbol or emblem. Thus some twenty- three city departments may have a special flag for its own use and display. But the Y-shaped emblem does not appear as a device on any of the official flags of the city departments. There is provided, however, a "municipal device" for the use of "the varied unofficial interests of Chicago and its people," which "shall show a Y-shaped figure in a circle, colored and designed to suit individual tastes and needs." The city clerk has the custody of these various flags a full descrip- tion of which is given in the ordinance. It is interesting to mention in this connection that the ordinance forbids the use of the municipal flag for advertising purposes, and contains a special provision that "such municipal flag' shall never
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be displayed in any position that shall indicate superiority to, or precedence of, the flag of the United States." The recognition of the value of the "Y" emblem, as shown in the section of the ordinance quoted above, prescribing its use by "the varied unofficial interests of Chicago and its people," as well as the numerous uses to which it had already been applied during the twenty- five years since its appearance, amply justifies
the favorable initial reception it received from the public, and its continuing popularity. Thus the two figures which have come down to us from the glorious World's Fair days, the "I Will god- dess" and the "Y-Emblem," are worthy not only of our admiration for the designs, but also the deep respect we must feel for the genius and in- spiration of their designers.
J. SEYMOUR CURREY.
SUPPLEMENT NO. III.
DRAINAGE DITCHES AND LEVEES. The great agricultural district of Illinois has been immensely improved from the state of nature, by expensive drainage ditches and levees, or by the installation, in some instances, of pump- ing machinery. Millions of acres of former wet or overflowed lands have thus been redeemed from swamps, sloughs or almost worthless river bottoms. In the years from 1870 to 1874, the great Sny Island Levee and Drainage District of Adams, Pike and Calhoun counties, was im- proved by a levee 50 miles in length along the east bank of the Mississippi River. This stream called the Sny, or "Snycarte," which was really a bayou of the Mississippi River, flowed from an opening in that stream in Adams County, through the enormously rich valley lands lying between the Mississippi River and the parallel line of bluffs, and emptied itself into the main stream in Calhoun County. Upon the organiza- tion of this drainage and levee district, a dam was constructed in Adams County at the head of the Sny, and by the building of the levee along the main river bank, all of the upper part of the bottom land of this large district was enclosed. The channel of the Sny was left open at the lower end and ordinary floods were car- ried off into the Mississippi thereby, and over 100,000 acres were thus preserved from over- flow. This work was constructed under drain- age laws which were supposed, under the con- stitution of 1870, to give authority for the issue of bonds to be assessed upon the land benefited. After the completion of the work and the sale of the bonds, the courts decided the bonds were issued under a law which violated the constitu- tion of the state, and the $600,000 worth of bonds were decided to be worthless and have proved a loss to their owners.
In 1878, the people of Illinois adopted an amendment to the constitution, and in agree- ment with this carefully worded amendment, various acts of the legislature have since been
passéd, and in accordance with some of these, this unfortunate district has been greatly im- proved. Under the different acts of the legisla- ture which have been enacted at various times, a great number of drainage and levee projects have been carried out and others are still being planned. Immense tracts-of swamps and over- flowed lands, considered almost worthless by our early pioneers, have since been brought to a high state of cultivation and are now by far the richest farm lands in Illinois. Large areas of these wet lands, once called sloughs, which yielded only coarse grass, reeds or rushes, have been improved by what are called "dredge ditches," excavated by powerful steam dredge boats.
The report of the State of Illinois Rivers and Lakes Commission furnishes a tabulated list of 'all the drainage and levee districts in this state. It gives the titles of 505 of these dis- tricts, situated in 81 different counties, and embracing 2,857,000 acres, with enough more land under contract to bring the total much above 3,000,000 acres. There are 21 counties which do not report any ditches or levees. The cost of all this work is given at nearly $19,000,- 000. It includes 3,118 miles of open dredged ditches and 1,322 miles of levee. These 3,000,- 000 acres are easily worth $100 more per acre on account of the improvement by drainage and levees which, for the whole state, amounts to $300,000,000. Nearly all of this additional value has come from the intelligent action of the voters of Illinois in the adoption of the drain- age amendment to our state constitution in 1878, supplemented as it was by the prompt and care- ful action of the state legislature.
The Cairo District, owned almost entirely by the Halliday family, consisting of 6,400 acres, is a sample of districts constructed on over- flowed river bottom land wholly surrounded by levees, and freed from water by powerful pump- ing machines. The Kaskaskia Island Drainage
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and Leree District is being constructed on this plan of plain levee construction. When com- pleted, it will contain about 11,000 acres of the Great American Bottom, wholly surrounded by a very high levee. The Mississippi River, in 1881, broke through the Kaskaskia River a few miles above the old town of Kaskaskia, and has widened that stream so that the entire current from the Mississippi River flows through the en- larged channel, and the town has almost en- tirely disappeared. The old river channel around the west side of the island is now closed, and the Kaskaskia Commons and Common Lands, amounting to about 11,000 acres, includ- ing some private property, under recent legisla- tion, are about to be included in a district to be surrounded by a very high and costly levee, and powerful pumps will drain the enclosed arca. Our drainage laws have been gradually adapted to a combination of land and sanitary drainage which will allow cities or villages or both, to be assessed for sanitary improvements in com- pany with adjacent or included territory, to be improved for agricultural purposes. It is al- most impossible, in general statements, to indicate clearly all of the peculiar legal pro- visions for the various conditions of drainage required, all of which provisions have been based upon the constitutional amendment of 1878.
The Hillview Drainage and Levee District of Greene and Scott counties, may be taken as an illustration of a very common variety of dis- tricts which are peculiar to Illinois River bot- toms, although they can be found along the Mississippi and in other parts of the state. The Hillview district is about 7 miles long from north to south and 3 miles from east to west and contains 12,500 acres of land. It lies on the east side of the Illinois River. Like many other river bottom districts, it formerly contained several lakes which had been leased to hunting and fishing clubs. Hurricane Creek in Greene County, which issues from the bluffs at Hill- view, is kept out of the district by the three- mile embankment of the Chicago & Alton Rail- road which forms the levee along the south side of the district. The Big Sandy Creek in Scott County, is leveed on both of its banks, carrying its water out to the Illinois River, and the levee on the north bank forms the south levee of the next district in Scott County, while the levee on its south bank is the north levee of the Hillview district. The west levee of this district is along the west bank of the Illinois River while the
east side of the river consists entirely of high hills or bluffs. As none of the streams coming from these hills are very large, the flood waters of the district are quite easily handled by its pumps. There are about 16 miles of small lateral dredge ditches conveying the drainage all to one main ditchi and the pumping plant is located at its outlet. The whole assessment on the district, which included all expenses, except- ing such tile drains as the land owner may desire, was in the neighborhood of $300,000, making an average assessment of about $25 per acre. In this district, as in many others, there was quite a large area of practically waste land before the commencement of the work, and an- other very large area which had long been culti- vated and which possessed considerable value, its owners running the risk of occasional over- flows. Districts like the Hillview district are very common, especially along the Illinois River. Now that the flow of water from the Chicago Sanitary District has been quite fully estab- lished, it is believed that districts of ths char- acter combining very similar features with those here illustrated, will prove to be of great permanent importance. The largest drainage project in this state, outside of Cook County, is the East Side Levee and Sanitary District of East St. Louis. It has been in process of or- ganization for several years and work has been in progress for over three years. It is about 18 miles in length, and its western boundary is the levee along the Mississippi River, much of which is the old levee raised, enlarged and strengtli- ened. Its average width is 7 miles and it will enclose the cities of East St. Louis, Granite City and Venice, besides several villages.
Cahokia Creek, which is about 55 miles in length, with a drainage area of about 300 square miles, flows through the central portion of East St. Louis and has hitherto been an almost insuperable barrier to modern improvements. Near the point where this large creek comes out of the bluffs and encounters the Great Amer- ican Bottom, quite a number of miles above Granite City, a large canal or outlet has been dredged to the Mississippi bank. It is 100 feet in width at the bottom and on its south bank has been thrown up a levee which will resist the Mississippi River at times of overflow, and forms the north levce of the district. The south levee will extend from the line of bluffs at the southeast corner of the district to its intersec- tion with the southwest corner of the district
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