Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of St. Clair County, Volume I, Part 107

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. ed. cn; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913. jt. ed. cn; Wilderman, Alonzo St. Clair, 1839-1904, ed; Wilderman, Augusta A., jt. ed
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 698

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TURNER, John Bice, Railway President, was born at Colchester, Delaware County, N. Y., Jan. 14, 1799; after a brief business career in his native State, he became identified with the con- struction and operation of railroads. Among the works with which he was thus connected, were the Delaware Division of the New York & Erie and the Troy & Schenectady Roads. In 1843 he

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came to Chicago, having previously purchased a large body of land at Blue Island. In 1847 he joined with W. B. Ogden and others, in resusci- tating the Galena & Chicago Union Railway, which had been incorporated in 1836. He became President of the Company in 1850, and assisted in constructing various sections of road in Northern Illinois and Wisconsin, which have since become portions of the Chicago & Northwestern system. He was also one of the original Directors of the Nortlı Side Street Railway Company, organized in 1859. Died, Feb. 26, 1871.

TURNER, Jonathan Baldwin, educator and agriculturist, was born in Templeton, Mass., Dec. 7, 1805; grew up on a farin and, before reaching his majority, began teaching in a country school. After spending a short time in an academy at Salem, in 1827 he entered the preparatory depart- ment of Yale College, supporting himself, in part, by manual labor and teaching in a gymnasium. In 1829 he matriculated in the classical depart- ment at Yale, graduated in 1833, and the same year accepted a position as tutor in Illinois Col- lege at Jacksonville, Ill., which had been opened, three years previous, by the late Dr. J. M. Sturte- vant. In the next fourteen years he gave in- struction in nearly every branch embraced in the college curriculum, though holding, during most of this period, the chair of Rhetoric and English Literature. In 1847 he retired from college duties to give attention to scientific agriculture, in which he had always manifested a deep inter- est. The cultivation and sale of the Osage orange as a hedge- plant now occupied his attention for many years, and its successful introduction in Illinois and other Western States-where the absence of timber rendered some substitute a necessity for fencing purposes-was largely due to his efforts. At the same time he took a deep interest in the cause of practical scientific edu- cation for the industrial classes, and, about 1850, began formulating that system of industrial edu- cation which, after twelve years of labor and agitation, he had the satisfaction of seeing recognized in the act adopted by Congress, and approved by President Lincoln, in July, 1862, making liberal donations of public lands for the establishment of "Industrial Colleges" in the several States, out of which grew the University of Illinois at Champaign. While Professor Tur- ner liad zealous colaborers in this field, in Illinois and elsewhere, to him, more than to any other single man in the Nation, belongs the credit for this magnificent achievement. (See Education, and University of Illinois.) He was also one of

the chief factors in founding and building up the Illinois State Teachers' Association, and the State Agricultural and Horticultural Societies. His address on "The Millennium of Labor," delivered at the first State Agricultural Fair at Springfield, in 1853, is still remembered as mark- A ing an era in industrial progress in Illinois. zealous champion of free thought, in both political and religious affairs, he long bore the reproach which attached to the radical Abolitionist, only to enjoy, in later years, the respect universally accorded to those who had the courage and independence to avow their honest convictions. Prof. Turner was twice an unsuccessful candidate for Congress-once as a Republican and once as an "Independent"-and wrote much on political, religious and educational topics. The evening of an honored and useful life was spent among friends in Jacksonville, which was his home for more than sixty years, his death taking place in that city, Jan. 10, 1899, at the advanced age of 93 years .- Mrs. Mary Turner Carriel, at the pres- ent time (1899) one of the Trustees of the Univer- sity of Illinois, is Prof. Turner's only daughter.

TURNER, Thomas J., lawyer and Congress- man, born in Trumbull County, Ohio, April 5, 1815. Leaving home at the age of 18, he spent three years in Indiana and in the mining dis- tricts about Galena and in Southern Wisconsin, locating in Stephenson County, in 1836, where he was admitted to the bar in 1840, and elected Probate Judge in 1841. Soon afterwards Gov- ernor Ford appointed him Prosecuting Attorney, in which capacity he secured the conviction and punishment of the murderers of Colonel Daven- port. In 1846 he was elected to Congress as a Democrat, and, the following year, founded "The Prairie Democrat" (afterward "The Freeport Bulletin"), the first newspaper published in the county. Elected to the Legislature in 1854, he was chosen Speaker of the House, the next year becoming the first Mayor of Freeport. He was a member of the Peace Conference of 1861, and, in May of that year, was commissioned, by Governor Yates, Colonel of the Fifteenth Illinois Volun- teers, but resigned in 1862. He served as a mem- ber of the Constitutional Convention of 1869-70, and, in 1871, was again elected to the Legisla- ture, where he received the Democratic caucus nomination for United States Senator against General Logan. In 1871 he removed to Chicago, and was twice an unsuccessful candidate for the office of State's Attorney. In February, 1874, he went to Hot Springs, Ark., for medical treatment, and died there, April 3 following.

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HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.

TUSCOLA, a city and the county-seat of Douglas County, located at the intersection of the Illinois Central and two other trunk lines of rail- way, 22 miles south of Champaign, and 36 miles east of Decatur. Besides a brick court-house it has five churches, a graded school, a national bank, two weekly newspapers and two establislı- ments for the manufacture of carriages and wagons. Population (1880), 1,457; (1890), 1,897; (1900), 2,569.

TUSCOLA, CHARLESTON & VINCENNES RAILROAD. (See Toledo, St. Louis & Kansas City Railroad.)

TUTHILL, Richard Stanley, jurist, was born at Vergennes, Jackson County, Ill., Nov. 10, 1841. After passing through the common schools of his native county, he took a preparatory course in a high school at St. Louis and in Illinois College, Jacksonville, when he entered Middlebury Col- lege, Vt., graduating there in 1863. Immediately thereafter he joined the Federal army at Vicks- burg, and, after serving for some time in a com- pany of scouts attached to General Logan's command, was commissioned a Lieutenant in the First Michigan Light Artillery, with which he served until the close of the war, meanwhile being twice promoted. During this time he was with General Sherman in the march to Meridian, and in the Atlanta campaign, also took part with General Thomas in the operations against the rebel General Hood in Tennessee, and in the battle of Nashville. Having resigned his com- mission in May, 1865, he took up the study of law, which he had prosecuted as he had opportu- nity while in the army, and was admitted to the bar at Nashville in 1866, afterwards serving for a time as Prosecuting Attorney on the Nashville circuit. In 1873 he removed to Chicago, two years later was elected City Attorney and re- elected in 1877; was a delegate to the Republican National Convention of 1880 and, in 1884, was appointed United States District Attorney for the Northern District, serving until 1886. In 1887 he was elected Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Judge Rogers, was re-elected for a full term in 1891, and again in 1897.

TYNDALE, Sharon, Secretary of State, born in Philadelphia, Pa., Jan. 19, 1816; at the age of 17 came to Belleville, Ill., and was engaged for a time in mercantile business, later being employed in a surveyor's corps under the internal improve- ment system of 1837. Having married in 1839, he returned soon after to Philadelphia, where he engaged in mercantile business with his father;

then came to Illinois, a second time, in 1845, spend- ing a year or two in business at Peoria. About 1847 he returned to Belleville and entered upon a course of mathematical study, with a view to fitting himself more thoroughly for the profession of a civil engineer. In 1851 he graduated in engineering at Cambridge, Mass., after which he was employed for a time on the Sunbury & Erie Railroad, and later on certain Illinois railroads. In 1857 he was elected County Surveyor of St. Clair County, and, in 1861, by appointment of President Lincoln, became Postmaster of the city of Belleville. He held this position until 1864, when he received the Republican nomination for Secretary of State and was elected, remaining in office four years. He was an earnest advocate, and virtually author, of the first act for the regis- tration of voters in Illinois, passed at the session of 1865. After retiring from office in 1869, he continued to reside in Springfield, and was em- ployed for a time in the survey of the Gilman, Clinton & Springfield Railway-now the Spring- field Division of the Illinois Central. At an early hour on the morning of April 29, 1871, while going from his home to the railroad station at Springfield, to take the train for St. Louis, he was assassinated upon the street by shooting, as sup- posed for the purpose of robbery-his dead body being found a few hours later at the scene of the tragedy. Mr. Tyndale was a brother of Gen. Hector Tyndale of Pennsylvania, who won a high reputation by his services during the war. His second wife, who survived him, was a daughter of Shadrach Penn, an editor of con- siderable reputation who was the contemporary and rival of George D. Prentice at Louisville, for some years.

"UNDERGROUND RAILROAD," THE. A history of Illinois would be incomplete without reference to the unique systeni whichi existed there, as in other Northern States, from forty to seventy years ago, known by the somewhat mys- terious title of "The Underground Railroad." The origin of the term has been traced (probably in a spirit of facetiousness) to the expression of a Kentucky planter who, having pursued a fugi- tive slave across the Ohio River, was so surprised by his sudden disappearance, as soon as he had reaclied the opposite shore, that he was led to remark, "The nigger must have gone off on an underground road." From "underground road" to "underground railroad," the transition would appear to have been easy, especially in view of the increased facility with which the work was performed when railroads came into use. For

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readers of the present generation, it may be well to explain what "The Underground Railroad" really was. It may be defined as the figurative appellation for a spontaneous movement in the free States-extending, sometimes, into the slave States themselves-to assist slaves in their efforts to escape from bondage to freedom. The movement dates back to a period close to the Revolutionary War, long before it received a definite name. Assistance given to fugitives from one State by citizens of another, became a cause of complaint almost as soon as the Govern- ment was organized. In fact, the first President himself lost a slave who took refuge at Ports- mouth, N. H., where the public sentiment was so strong against his return, that the patriotic and philosophic "Father of his Country" chose to let him remain unmolested, rather than "excite a mob or riot, or even uneasy sensations, in the minds of well-disposed citizens." That the mat- ter was already one of concern in the minds of slaveholders, is shown by the fact that a provision was inserted in the Constitution for their concili- ation, guaranteeing the return of fugitives from labor, as well as from justice, from one State to another.

In 1793 Congress passed the first Fugitive Slave Law, which was signed by President Washing- ton. This law provided that the owner, his agent or attorney, might follow the slave into any State or Territory, and, upon oath or affi- davit before a court or magistrate, be entitled to a warrant for his return. Any person who should hinder the arrest of the fugitive, or who should harbor, aid or assist him, knowing him to be such, was subject to a fine of $500 for each offense .- In 1850, fifty-seven years later, the first act having proved inefficacious, or conditions having changed, a second and more stringent law was enacted. This is the one usually referred to in discussions of the subject. It provided for an increased fine, not to exceed $1,000, and im- prisonment not exceeding six months, with liability for civil damages to the party injured. No proof of ownership was required beyond the statement of a claimant, and the accused was not permitted to testify for himself. The fee of the United States Commissioner, before whom the case was tried, was ten dollars if he found for the claimant: if not, five dollars. This seemed to many an indirect form of bribery; clearly, it made it to the Judge's pecuniary advantage to decide in favor of the claimant. The law made it possible and easy for a white man to arrest, and carry into slavery, any free negro who could

not immediately prove, by other witnesses, that he was born free, or had purchased his freedom.

Instead of discouraging the disposition, on the part of the opponents of slavery, to aid fugi- tives in their efforts to reach a region where they would be secure in their freedom, the effect of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 (as that of 1793 had been in a smaller degree) was the very oppo- site of that intended by its authors-unless, indeed, they meant to make matters worse. The provisions of the act seemed, to many people, so unfair, so one-sided, that they rebelled in spirit and refused to be made parties to its enforce- ment. The law aroused the anti-slavery senti- ment of the North, and stimulated the active friends of the fugitives to take greater risks in their behalf. New efforts on the part of the slaveholders were met by a determination to evade, hinder and nullify the law.

And here a strange anomaly is presented. The slaveholder, in attempting to recover his slave, was acting within his constitutional and legal rights. The slave was his property in law. He had purchased or inherited his bondman on the same plane with his horse or his land, and, apart from the right to hold a human being in bond- age, regarded his legal rights to the one as good as the other. From a legal standpoint his posi- tion was impregnable. The slave was his, repre- senting so much of money value, and whoever was instrumental in the loss of that slave was, both theoretically and technically, a partner in robbery. Therefore he looked on "The Under- ground Railway" as the work of thieves, and en- tertained bitter hatred toward all concerned in its operation. On the other hand, men who were, in all other respects, good citizens-often relig- iously devout and pillars of the church-became bold and flagrant violators of the law in relation to this sort of property. They set at nought a plain provision of the Constitution and the act of Congress for its enforcement. Without hope of personal gain or reward, at the risk of fine and imprisonment, with the certainty of social ostra- cism and bitter opposition, they harbored the fugitive and helped him forward on every occasion. And why? Because they saw in him a man, with the same inherent right to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" that they themselves possessed. To them this was a higher law than any Legislature, State or National, could enact. They denied that there could be truly such a thing as property in man. Believing that the law violated human rights, they justified themselves in rendering it null and void.

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For the most part, the "Underground Rail- road" operators and promoters were plain, obscure inen, without hope of fame or desire for notoriety. Yet there were some whose names are conspicuous in history, such as Wendell Phillips, Thomas Wentworth Higginson and Theodore Parker of Massachusetts; Gerrit Smith and Thurlow Weed of New York: Joshua R. Giddings of Ohio, and Owen Lovejoy of Illinois. These had their followers and sympathizers in all the Northern States, and even in some por- tions of the South. It is a curious fact, that some of the most active spirits connected with the "Underground Railroad" were natives of the South, or had resided there long enough to become thoroughly acquainted with the "insti- tution." Levi Coffin, who had the reputation of being the "President of the Underground Rail- road"-at least so far as the region west of the Ohio was concerned-was an active operator on the line in North Carolina before his removal from that State to Indiana in 1826. Indeed, as a system, it is claimed to have had its origin at Guilford College, in the "Old North State" in 1819, though the evidence of this may not be conclusive.

Owing to the peculiar nature of their business, no official reports were inade, no lists of officers, conductors, station agents or operators preserved, and few records kept which are now accessible. Consequently, we are dependent chiefly upon the personal recollection of individual operators for a history of their transactions. Each station on the road was the house of a "friend" and it is significant, in this connection, that in every settlement of Friends, or Quakers, there was sure to be a house of refuge for the slave. For this reason it was, perhaps, that one of the most frequently traveled lines extended from Vir- ginia and Maryland through Eastern Pennsyl- vania, and then on towards New York or directly to Canada. From the proximity of Ohio to Virginia and Kentucky, and the fact that it offered the shortest route through free soil to Canada, it was traverscd by more lines than any other State, although Indiana was pretty thoroughly "grid-ironed" by roads to freedom. In all, however, the routes were irregular, often zigzag, for purposes of security, and the "con- ductor" was any one who conveyed fugitives from one station to another The "train" was some- times a farm-wagon, loaded with produce for market at some town (or depot) on the line, fre- quently a closed carriage, and it is related that once, in Ohio, a number of carriages conveying

a large party, were made to represent a funeral procession. Occasionally the train ran on foot, for convenience of side-tracking into the woods or a cornfield, in case of pursuit by a wild loco- motive.

Then, again, there were not wanting lawyers who, in case the operator, conductor or station agent got into trouble, were ready, without fee or reward, to defend either him or his human freight in the courts. These included such names of national repute as Salmon P. Chase, Thaddeus Stevens, Charles Sumner, William H. . Seward, Rutherford B. Hayes, Richard H. Dana, and Isaac N. Arnold, while, taking the whole country over, their "name was legion." And there were a few men of wealth, like Thomas Garrett of Delaware, willing to contribute money by thousands to their assistance. Although technically acting in violation of law-or, as claimed by themselves, in obedience to a "higher law"-the time has already come when there is a disposition to look upon the actors as, in a certain sense, heroes, and their deeds as fitly belonging to the field of romance.

The most comprehensive collection of material relating to the history of this movement has been furnished in a recent volume entitled, "The Underground Railroad from Slavery to Free- dom," by Prof. Wilbur H. Siebert, of Ohio State University ; and, while it is not wholly free from errors, both as to individual names and facts, it will probably remain as the best compilation of history bearing on this subject-especially as the principal actors are fast passing away. One of the interesting features of Prof. Siebert's book is a map. purporting to give the principal routes and stations in the States northwest of the Ohio, yet the accuracy of this, as well as the correct- ness of personal names given, has been questioned by some best informed on the subject. As might be expected from its geographical position between two slave States-Kentucky and Mis- souri-on the one hand, and the lakes offering a highway to Canada on the other, it is naturally to be assumed that Illinois would be an attract- ive field, both for the fugitive and his sympa- tlıizer.

The period of greatest activity of the system in this State was between 1840 and 1861-the latter being the year when the pro-slavery party in the South, by their attempt forcibly to dissolve the Union, took the business out of the hands of the secret agents of the "Underground Railroad," and-in a certain sense-placed it in the hands of the Union armies. It was in 1841 that Abra-

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ham Lincoln-then a conservative opponent of the extension of slavery-on an appeal from a judgment, rendered by the Circuit Court in Taze- well County, in favor of the holder of a note given for the service of the indentured slave- girl "Nance," obtained a decision from the Supreme Court of Illinois upholding the doctrine that the girl was free under the Ordinance of 1787 and the State Constitution, and that the note, given to the person who claimed to be her owner, was void. And it is a somewhat curious coincidence that the same Abraham Lincoln, as President of the United States, in the second year of the War of the Rebellion, issued the Proclamation of Emancipation which finally resulted in striking the shackles from the limbs of every slave in the Union.

In the practical operation of aiding fugitives in Illinois, it was natural that the towns along the border upon the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, should have served as a sort of entrepots, or initial stations, for the reception of this class of freight-especially if adjacent to some anti- slavery community. This was the case at Ches- ter, from which access was easy to Sparta, where a colony of Covenanters, or Seceders, was located, and whence a route extended, by way of Oakdale, Nashville and Centralia, in the direction of Chicago. Alton offered convenient access to Bond County, where there was a community of anti-slavery people at an early day, or the fugi- tives could be forwarded northward by way of Jerseyville, Waverly and Jacksonville, about each of which there was a strong anti-slavery sentiment. Quincy, in spite of an intense hos- tility among the mass of the community to any- thing savoring of abolitionism, became the theater of great activity on the part of the opponents of the institution, especially after the advent there of Dr. David Nelson and Dr. Rich- ard Eells, both of whom had rendered themselves obnoxious to the people of Missouri by extending aid to fugitives. The former was a practical abolitionist who, having freed his slaves in his native State of Virginia, removed to Missouri and attempted to establish Marion College, a few miles from Palmyra, but was soon driven to Illinois. Locating near Quincy, he founded the "Mission Institute" there, at which he continued to dis- seminate his anti-slavery views, while educating young men for missionary work. The "Insti- tute" was finally burned by emissaries from Mis- souri, while three young men who had been connected with it, having been caught in Mis- souri, were condemned to twelve years' confine-

ment in the penitentiary of that State-partly on the testimony of a negro, although a negro was not then a legal witness in the courts against a white man. Dr. Eells was prosecuted before Stephen A. Douglas (then a Judge of the Circuit Court), and fined for aiding a fugitive to escape, and the judgment against him was finally con- firmed by the Supreme Court after his death, in 1852, ten years after the original indictment.

A map in Professor Siebert's book, showing the routes and principal stations of the "Undergound Railroad," makes mention of the following places in Illinois, in addition to those already referred to: Carlinville, in Macoupin County; Payson and Mendon, in Adams; Washington, in Taze- well; Metamora, in Woodford; Magnolia, in Put- nam; Galesburg, in Knox; Princeton (the home of Owen Lovejoy and the Bryants), in Bureau; and many more. Ottawa appears to have been the meeting point of a number of lines, as well as the home of a strong colony of practical abo- litionists. Cairo also became an important transfer station for fugitives arriving by river, after the completion of the Illinois Central Rail- road, especially as it offered the speediest way of reaching Chicago, towards which nearly all the lines converged. It was here that the fugitives could be most safely disposed of by placing them upon vessels, which, without stopping at inter- mediate ports, could soon land them on Canadian soil.

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Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of St. Clair County, Volume I, Part 107

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. ed. cn; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913. jt. ed. cn; Wilderman, Alonzo St. Clair, 1839-1904, ed; Wilderman, Augusta A., jt. ed Publication date: 1907 Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 698

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. ed. cn; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913. jt. ed. cn; Wilderman, Alonzo St. Clair, 1839-1904, ed; Wilderman, Augusta A., jt. ed
Publication date: 1907
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 698