USA > Illinois > Montgomery County > Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Montgomery County, Volume II > Part 12
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TAX LEVIES.
The raising of money to run the county before there was either property to assess or money to pay the taxes with was a problem our fore- fathers had to solve. As is well known, the
county was organized in 1821, and in 1822 the commissioners were in office with no money with which to carry on their official functions. Ac- cordingly they levied on April 4, 1822, a tax of fifty cents on the hundred dollars, on horses, cattle, wheel carriages, watches and clocks, and ordered the treasurer, John Tillotson, to assess and collect the same. Just how much this levy brought the county we do not know, but nine years later, and after lands had been or- dered assessed, Mr. Rountree made a report showing that the taxes charged to lands was $128.49, and the total on personal property was $259.511/2, a total levied of $3SS.001%. To raise some necessary funds, the commissioners before they made a tax levy in 1821 began the practice of charging a license for running a tavern. The term tavern in those days implied the privilege of selling all kinds of drinks, as well as keeping travelers, the charge made during the first few years being $5.00 per year. This was afterwards raised to $10.00, and later to $12.50. These tav- erns were almost always the homes of the own- ers and the keepers were required to provide their guests with bed, food and feed for the horses to a specified amount. C. B. Blockburger, Luke L. Steel, Milton Shurtleff and Phillip Cor- lew were among the first to take out tavern li- censes. In 1823, the scope of taxation was in- creased by adding on negroes, mulattoes, town lots and distilleries. In 1835, the taxes charged on the books were : lands, $185.59, and personal property $441.121%, making a total of $626.711% ; and in 1838, the total taxes charged on lands and chattels was $1,549.40, showing quite a raise in values. Along about 1827 or 1828, the board began the practice of charging a license to merchants, and this was maintained for sev- eral years. The first application on record for such a license was made by Francis Dix, who was licensed by the board "to sell and retail goods, wares and merchandise in the county," and this license cost $12.00 per year, but varied at different times, once running as high as $25.00 in 1838, at which time there were a number of merchants paying it, thus creating quite an in- come to the county.
Thus it will be seen that the board of com- missioners had great difficulties to overcome in order to raise sufficient money to do the busi- ness devolving upon them. It is known that there were several slaves owned in the county at one time. Martin Jones, Henry Hill, the Voluntines and E. Kirkpatrick, are said to have
678
HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY
owned slaves, but just how many is not accu- rately known, but the tax on them certainly added to the county's income. Another of the functions of the commissioners court was to reg- ulate the charges of the taverns obtaining license from the county, in the interest of the people. When it is reflected that in those times that almost everyone traveled on horseback, and were at the mercy of the taverns along the high- way, in order that the reputation of the town might be sustained making it desirable to pass through it, a curb upon extortion became neces- sary. In 1823 the commissioners adopted the following scale of charges: for whiskey per half pint, 18-31-4 cents; for whiskey per quart fifty cents; for breakfast, dinner or supper, one per- son, one meal, twenty-five cents; for keeping horse over night, fity cents; for single feed for horse, twenty-five cents; for rum, wine or French brandy, per half pint, fifty cents; for cider per quart, twenty-five cents; for lodging for man and wife, per night, 121/2 cents each. Ten years later these figures were changed some- what: rum, wine and brandy were reduced one- half ; whiskey was reduced fifty per cent ; horse keeping was reduced twenty-five per cent, but other charges remained the same.
The taxes on lands, at first seems to have been only on the town lots sold by the commissioners inside the town of Hillsboro. Later the tax seems to have been on deeds of conveyance, based we presume on the consideration values. After the land was entered and proven up, so as to be legally conveyed, the tax was then, as now, based on the market value. Old tax re- ceipts of those days are amusing documents to read. One which will serve as an illustration is as follows: "To one title, 25 cents: to two horses, 1212 cents each, twenty-five cents; to 155 acres of land, ten cents. Received payment, $1.30." This is dated 1841.
In 1855, and for several years thereafter, the town of Hillsboro was assessed twenty-five cents on the hundred dollars of property assessed, and yet there is no record of any protesting or even of tax dodging or evading the assessor. As a matter of fact the law of the state in regard to the assessment of property, and the ineffi- ciency in its execution is so exasperatingly weak and discriminating, that honest men act dis- honestly in the feeling that it is made necessary as a matter of self-protection.
Much more might be given along this line,
but this will suffice to show the difficulties and peculiarities that the county commissioners court had to meet, and that this body did meet them with heroic courage. County orders were then used as negotiable paper and often at a discount. State orders, too, were in common use as money, and were sold and passed from hand to hand at a price below par and the county commis- sioners in county business determined the value of such orders. At a very early day the com- missioners began supporting those unfortunate people or paupers who could not support them- selves. The usual method then practical was to employ some family to keep such needy peo- ple at a stipulated price.
AN OLD LAND SALE.
The value of land in the early days, if it might be said to have a value, was an unknown quantity. The first money raised by taxation in this county, was, not from land values, but en- tirely from personal property, and privileges. A few years after the county was organized, land began to have at least a nominal value; the value then seemed to have been based on the government entry charge of 121/2 cents per acre. A horse was then worth as much as a farm. A chicken on the St. Louis market, then would bring enough to pay for two acres of land. It then took two acres of land to pay for one gallon of moonshine whiskey, and yet many would have the whiskey, whether they had a home or not.
The government in an early day, looking for- ward to the future welfare of its independent and growing population, wisely set aside the sixteenth section in every township for school purposes. This provision, like many munificent things that are gratuitously ours, was not valued and appreciated as it should have been, and the lands were generally sold at the first opportunity for a mere pittance. The county records gave the prices obtained for these lands in many, if not all, the townships, but as lands were as high in Hillsboro Township and possibly higher, than anywhere else in the county, and as a fitting illustration of the profligacy of the then authori- ties, we gave the tracts sold in that township.
The sixteenth section included the large fine farm of S. M. Grubbs, southwest of Hillsboro about three miles. It was sold in forty acre tracts. The school commissioner was Israel Seward and after due notice on August 24, 1837,
.
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If M. Considine + Family
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HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY
the land was offered for sale, the terms being most favorable, as the purchasers were not ex- pected to pay any money, but to give their notes to the township school trustees, and to pay them interest on the notes as long as this was done, it did not matter whether the principal was ever paid or not. The following were the tracts sold, the parties who bought them and the prices the land sold for :
The northeast quarter of the northeast
quarter to Peter Blackwelder for .... $ 104.00 The northwest quarter of the northeast
quarter to Martin Cress for. 200.00 The southwest quarter of the northwest quarter to Daniel Seward for .. 210.00
The southwest quarter of the northwest
quarter to Solomon L. Harkey for .... 205.00 The southeast quarter of the northwest quarter to Solomon Harkey for .. 175.00
The southwest quarter of the northeast quarter to William Woods for .. 170.00
The southeast quarter of the northeast quarter to William Woods for .. 155.00
The northeast quarter of the southwest quarter to Daniel Scherer for ... 160.00
The northwest quarter of the southeast quarter to Ammon Forehand for .. . . The northeast quarter of the southwest quarter to Daniel Seward for.
The northwest quarter of the southwest quarter to Daniel Seward for ..
225.00
The southwest quarter of the southwest quarter to John Griffeth for. 285.00
The southeast quarter of the southwest quarter to Daniel Seward for.
The southwest quarter of the southwest quarter to John Killpatrick for. 420.00
The southeast quarter of the southeast quarter to John Killpatrick for. 2S0.00
Total $3,621.50
It is curious to note that the lands were fine, the location good, and in every way excellent locations for permanent homes, and not one of the purchasers have descendants in charge of those lands today. The land is now worth $100.00 per acre, and had the lands been held till that price was obtained, the country schools of the township could now be forever endowed, with an income sufficient to maintain them in efficient manner without taxing the inhabitants of the township a cent for school purposes.
PRESENT COUNTY FINANCES.
The finances of the county are under the con- trol of the board of supervisors which is usually composed of conservative and good business men, and it is not often that extravagance is charged against them ; on the other hand they are some- times thought by those who seek loose purse strings, to be close fisted, yet we think after over thirty years of close knowledge of the finances of the county that the county is to be congratulated upon the uniform ability, probity and keen acumen shown by the men on past boards that have managed the county's affairs. The following brief statement from the last re- port of the supervisors shows the financial af- fairs of the county for the year ending August 31, 1915 :
Receipts.
On hand at beginning of year. $ 1,998.81
Received from excess fees from officials 4,181.81
Received from taxes. 66,531.21
Total receipts $72,711.83
100.00
Expenditures.
357.50 Birth and death reports account. $ 49.00
Circuit jurors account .. 5,247.90
Coroners and insanity account. 323.00
County jurors account. 213.40
County poor farm account 3,837.78
County officers account. 11,311.11
395.00 Courthouse account. 4.076.39
Court reporters account. 490.00
Election account 3,623.25
Fees and salaries account.
4,686.13
Foreign witnesses account. 425.05
Jail and prisoners account. 3,924.53
Litchfield city court account 2.124.75
Medical pauper acount. 4,426.05
Mileage account 965.52
Miscellaneous account 1,810.66
Mothers pension account. 1.578.00
Pauper account 9,452.91
Police account 2,529.65
Printing and supplies account. 6,522.97
$67,618.05
Commissions
1,044.43
Supreme court 655.75
680
HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY
Transferred to state road account. 3,000.00
Error in erroneous tax entry. 18.22
Balance in treasury
375.38
$72,711.83
Assets.
Courthouse and furniture. $135.000.00
Sheriff's residence and jail.
40,000.00
County farm and buildings
35,000.00
Stock, grain, etc., on same.
4,500.00
To cash in county treasury.
375.38
Total assets
$214,875.38
Expenditures.
Showing expenditures during the fiscal year ending August 31, 1915, and comparative state- ment of expenditures for the previous year :
1915 1914
Birth and death reports ac-
count
$
49.00 $
196.00
Circuit court jurors account
5,247.90
7,281.50
Coroners and insanity ac-
count
323.00
567.00
County jurors account.
213.40
420.00
County farmu account ..
3,837.78
6,674.64
County officers account ..
11,311.11
20,585.55
Courthouse account
4,076.39
7,988.62
Court reporters account ....
490.00
420.00
Election account
3,623.25
Fees and salaries account ..
4,686.13
6,127.88
Foreign witness account ...
425.05
585.90
Jail and prisoners account.
3,924.53
6,544.39
Litchfield city court jurors account
2,124.75
1,345.30
Medical pauper account.
4,426.05
4,041.14
Mileage
965.52
1,305.65
Miscellaneous
1,810.66
2,758.45
Mothers pension account ...
1,578.00
497.00
Paupers account
9,425.91
12,416.94
Police account
2,529.65
3,102.78
Printing and supplies
ac-
count
6,522.97
5,419.90
Total paid out on coun-
ty warrants
.$67,618.05 $91,251.64
SLAVERY IN MONTGOMERY COUNTY.
The practice in our courts and the attitude of the public on many matters have passed through
a reformatory stage, from time to time, on vari- ous questions. Not only the practice has been changed, but the law itself, and even the state constitution has sometimes been reversed. For example under our first constitution, slavery was permitted, and there were several slaves held and owned as chattel property in this county. Iu the constitutional convention of 1847, in which this county was represented by Hon. Hiram Rountree, the following resolution was introduced and passed : "That the committe on rights be requested to inquire into the expedi- ency of so amending the sixth article of the present constitution that it shall provide that there shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in this state otherwise than for the punishment of crimes where the parties have been duly convicted, nor shall any person be de- prived of their liberty on account of color." This resolution not only passed, and the consti- tution made to correspond thereto, but public sentiment became so strongly opposed to slavery that Illinois was thenceforth a free state.
Did slavery actually exist in Montgomery County, may be asked by the seeker for reliable information in the future, and from such evi- dence as we have, we are forced to admit that it did exist, though only to a very small extent. Was it legal? Yes and no. In 1787, an ordi- nance was passed for the control of the North- west Territory, of which Illinois was then a part, prohibiting slavery or involuntary servi- tude except as punishment for crime, anywhere in the vast territory known as the "Northwest Territory." This enactment, it seems, was not very rigidly enforced nor was the constitutional prohibition against slavery of 1818 lived up to with any degree of strictness. Public sentiment, especially among the French inhabitants of the northwest, strongly leaned toward slavery ; nor was there any perceptible favorable change of sentiment till after the assassination of Lovejoy in 1837, but the anti-slavery feeling then began to grow, and continued to increase, until the Thirteenth amendment was proposed in 1865, when Illinois was the first to give expressiou to its views by its prompt adoption. In 1823, the fact of negro slavery was recognized in Montgomery County by the passing of an ordi- nance by the county commissioners imposing a tax on negroes and mulattoes.
It is known that the Voluntines, Martin Jones, Henry Hill, and E. Kirkpatrick, and perhaps others owned slaves; at least five in the county
681
HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY
being spoken of in some of the early writings. Negroes in the days of slavery were considered very fine chattel property by those whose scruples did uot hamper their ownership. One able to own slaves was generally regarded as an aristocrat ; or, one who was seeking to secure a living without personal work. A good strong hearty negro man was worth $1,000, or as much as a farm, while a likely young negress would easily bring $500, or as much as a good resi- dence in those days. Every one, however, did not possess the money to invest in slaves, aud thus avoid work, and sometimes tricks were re- sorted to, to get the desired negro help, or to profit out of the business.
The following incident is said to have occurred in Montgomery County and we relate it, with some reserve, as the descendants are said to live in this county today. Two miles east of the village of -, there lived in poverty a man with a wife and some children. The hus- band died and the widow was left in a needy condition. After several weeks, she induced a certain free negro, who was then living in the community to come and make his home at her shanty and do her work. They became constaut companions, and there was a report to the effect that they had married; but that was probably not true. The woman gave birth to one or more children of a decidedly dark hue. There was 110 interference, more than a withdrawal of the ordinary neighborly courtesies that usually ex- isted in that day between neighbors. The widow, learning that there was a market for slaves in St. Louis, schemed to get the uegro to accom- pany her to St. Louis, which he did, and when there, after a secret conference with the slave merchants, she turned over the negro to them, who put him in a place of safety from escape and held him for sale, uotwithstanding he claimed that he owned his freedom. The widow is said to have received the sum of $800 for the negro. She evidently thought that $800 was better for her uses, than the work the man could do, together with the future children that might follow her association with him. Thus the negro was forced the second time into slav- ery, though report says that he had several let- ters written for him back to this county, pro- testing against his treatment, and asking that his freedom be proved up by his friends; but so far as we have heard, no one came forward to champion his cause, and the negro probably
died in slavery before the final liberation of the slaves. It is understood that at least one of the prominent negroes living in this part of the country until a few years ago was a son of this widow and the re-sold slave.
RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE.
As we all know, we have about a dozen old men in this community, whose ages range from eighty to ninety. These old people have been called the Snow Bird Club by someone, as they have an occasional dinner and relate to each other their experiences and reminiscences of old times. No one of this club enjoys relating the events of his youth or the traditions of his fathers more than "Uncle" D. M. Starr, whose memory is remarkably clear. He tells a peculiar experience that his great-graudfather passed through, prior to the beginning of the last cen- tury that is worth recording. "Uncle" Starr is not only an old settler, but the son of an old settler of this county and the grandson and great-grandson of old settlers of the state of Illinois. His father was David Badgeley Starr, who owned the land where the town of Hamil- ton once stood; his grandmother was a Mrs. Badgeley Starr, and one of his great-grand- fathers was a primitive Baptist minister, David Badgeley.
David Badgeley was one of the early settlers of a settlement made in what is now Monroe Couuty, but what was a part of Randolph Coun- ty prior to 1795, and at the time of its begin- ning in 1782 was a portion of the Northwest Territory. It will be remembered by readers of history that when the Northwest Territory was created, with a territorial seat of govern- ment at Marietta, Ohio, that in 1786, by an act of Congress, the Illinois Country was separated from Virginia, and in 17SS Gen. Arthur St. Clair was made provisional governor of the Illinois Country. We then had two counties; and in 1790, Governor St. Clair came to Illinois and established a county, which he named for him- self, St. Clair. This county was divided in 1795 and the southern portion named Randolph. When Monroe County was created in 1816, the portion where our incident now to be related occurred was made a part of Monroe County. The set- tlement above mentioned was made in 1782, and the church afterwards built there was called "New Design," the name being selected to indi-
682
HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY
cate the freedom from the French Catholic clergy tlien so dominant throughout the North- west Territory.
Those active in establishing this church were, Revs. James Smith, a Baptist minister from Kentucky; Joseph Lilliard, a Methodist minis- ter, and David Badgeley, a Primitive Baptist minister, who was the great-grandfather of our esteemed citizen, D. M. Starr, as above stated. Mr. Starr says that Rev. David Badgeley, more than any other, is entitled to the credit of found- ing the settlement and of organizing the New Design Primitive Baptist Church. He first came to the vicinity in 1786, and being pleased with the location, went back to Virginia, collected a number of families into a sort of colony, re- turned and with Revs. Smith and Lilliard, led the work of building the church as above set forth. After these pious ministers began their work of preaching and educating the colonists in the ethics of life, according to the creeds of each denomination, the French Catholic clergy, who claimed that the Catholic Church had the moral control of the country and that they had the right from the church to forbid any other religion from obtaining a hold here, attempted to exercise their claimed rights, by forbidding these ministers from holding religious services on Illinois soil.
After due consideration, Mr. Badgeley, with his followers, selected a spot on the banks of the Mississippi River, nearby, where some forty feet in the water there arose a rock three feet above the water, when the river was at its nor- mal stage; and Mr. Badgeley canoeing himself to that rock, being on neutral ground, the people being seated on the bank, with their guns in hand, preached the gospel as he saw it, and in the quaint manner peculiar to the Primitive Baptist ministers.
Maud E. Johnson, assistant librarian of the New Jersey Historical Society, says: "We are sending you a copy of the record of the Rev. David Badgeley as given in Vol. 3 of the Gene- alogical Collections by C. C. Gardner, as Rev. David Badgeley lived in Virginia prior to the Revolution, his war record would probably be there."
"Rev. David Badgeley, son of Anthony and Badgeley, was born in the Borough of Elizabeth, November 5, 1749. He moved, while a young man, to Hardy County, Va. (about 1768). He was married there a few years later to Rhoda Valentine, who was born in 1752. He
continued to reside in Hardy County until 1796, when he made a trip to what is now Illinois. He was so pleased with the territory that he determined to take his family out there, and the following year in company with nearly 100 other families they made the toilsome journey to Kaskaskia, then the metropolis of the West, which they reached July 4, 1797. He was a Baptist preacher and organized the first Bap- tist Church west of the Ohio River at New De- sign, near where Waterloo now is. In 1804 he bought 400 acres of land five miles north of Belleville, Ill., where his descendants are still to be found. He died December 16, 1824, and his widow in 1832 or 1835."
"Uncle" D. M. Starr says this record is slightly in error, inasmuch as Mr. Badgeley's first visit to Illinois was in 1787, and his removal to Kas- kaskia and New Design, with the 100 families, and the organization of the church was in 1796.
These colonists had, in 1796, built a church which they also named the New Design Church, but the church was little used until after the creation of a territorial government in 1809. Freedom of religious expression was guaran- teed in this new governmental code and "New Design" regained its freedom from clerical dom- ineering and became a popular place for religious worship. It was at the "New Design" that John Seeley, in 1783, taught the first school in Illi- nois. He it was who was named by Governor Reynolds "the schoolmaster of Illinois." Mr. Starr remembers seeing the old church in his boyhood days, and describes it as a log structure with no windows, except two openings between the logs, it having been built before the days of window glass. It was covered with board shin- gles which were so decayed when he saw the building as to be merely hanging on by the more solid portions, in the main being so rotten as to be ready to drop off.
Among those to be converted at the meetings was one James Lemon. After his conversion he became a Baptist minister, and among his chil- dren were some four or five sons, who also be- came ministers. One of these sons, Moses Lemon, settled in Montgomery County, and he was one of the early preachers in the pioneer days. Moses Lemon lived and owned the large mound known as the Lemon Mound, near Walsh- ville. The house stood on the crest of the mound but no evidence of it can now be found. An amusing incident is told of one of the Lemon boys, who afterward became a minister. In
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MR. AND MRS. JESSE H. COVINGTON AND RESIDENCE
683
HISTORY OF MONTGOMERY COUNTY
his early manhood, he was badly dissipated, getting drunk when he could get hold of liquor. On one occasion he went to the stillliouse to get a quart of liquor, which, in the absence of some better vessel, was put into a dried steer's blad- der, and with the bladder of liquor inside the lapel of his coat, and nearly as much inside his stomach, he went to the house where he was stopping. As he stepped upon the steps, he was too tipsy to get in, and fell headlong on the floor ; the bladder escaping and rolling over the floor. The good woman of the house came just in time to see the fall and the escape of the whiskey bladder, and thought old Satan had arrived and in her frightened condition ran for help, yelling at the top of her voice: "Help, the Devil has come, and his paunch has rolled across the floor."
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