Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of St. Clair County, Volume I, Part 3

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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ALEXIAN BROTHERS' HOSPITAL, located at Chicago; established in 1860, and under the management of the Alexian Brothers. a monastic

order of the Roman Catholic Church. It was originally opened in a small frame building, but a better edifice was erected in 1868, only to be de- stroyed in the great fire of 1871. The following year, through the aid of private benefactions and an appropriation of $18,000 from the Chicago Re- lief and Aid Society, a larger and better hospital was built. In 1888 an addition was made, increas- ing the accommodation to 150 beds. Only poor male patients are admitted, and these are received without reference to nationality or religion, and absolutely without charge. The present medical staff (1896) comprises fourteen physicians and sur- geons. In 1895 the close approach of an intra- mural transit line having rendered the building unfit for hospital purposes, a street railway com- pany purchased the site and buildings for $250,- 000 and a new location has been selected.

ALEXIS, a village of Warren County, on the Rock Island & St. Louis Division of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railway, 12 miles east of north from Monmouth. It has manufactures of brick, drain-tile, pottery and agricultural imple- ments; is also noted for its Clydesdale horses. Population (1880), 398; (1890), 562; (1900), 915.

ALGONQUINS, a group of Indian tribes. Originally their territory extended from about latitude 37° to 53º north, and from longitude 25° east to 15° west of the meridian of Washington. Branches of the stock were found by Cartier in Canada, by Smith in Virginia, by the Puritans in New England and by Catholic missionaries in the great basin of the Mississippi. One of the prin- cipal of their five confederacies embraced the Illinois Indians, who were found within the State by the French when the latter discovered the country in 1673. They were hereditary foes of the warlike Iroquois, by whom their territory was repeatedly invaded. Besides the Illinois, other tribes of the Algonquin family who origi- nally dwelt within the present limits of Illinois, were the Foxes, Kickapoos, Miamis, Menominees, and Sacs. Although nomadic in their mode of life, and subsisting largely on the spoils of the chase, the Algonquins were to some extent tillers of the soil and cultivated large tracts of maize. Various dialects of their language have been reduced to grammatical rules, and Eliot's Indian Bible is published in their tongue. The entire Algonquin stock extant is estimated at about 95,000, of whom some 35,000 are within the United States.

ALLEN, William Joshua, jurist, was born June 9, 1829, in Wilson County, Tenn .; of Vir- ginia ancestry of Scotch-Irish descent. In early

HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.

infancy he was brought by his parents to South- ern Illinois, where his father, Willis Allen, be- came a Judge and member of Congress. After reading law with his father and at the Louisville Law School, young Allen was admitted to the bar, settling at Metropolis and afterward (1853) at his old home, Marion, in Williamson County. In 1855 he was appointed United States District Attorney for Illinois, but resigned in 1859 and re- sumed private practice as partner of John A. Logan. The same year he was elected Circuit Judge to succeed his father, who had died, but he declined a re-election. He was a member of the Constitutional Conventions of 1862 and 1869, serv- ing in both bodies on the Judicial Committee and as Chairman of the Committee on the Bill of Rights. From 1864 to 1888 he was a delegate to every National Democratic Convention, being chairman of the Illinois delegation in 1876. He has been four times a candidate for Congress, and twice elected, serving from 1862 to 1865. During this period he was an ardent opponent of the war policy of the Government. In 1874-75, at the solicitation of Governor Beveridge, he undertook the prosecution of the leaders of a bloody "ven- detta" which had broken out among his former neighbors in Williamson County, and, by his fear- less and impartial efforts, brought the offenders to justice and assisted in restoring order. In 1886, Judge Allen removed to Springfield, and in 1887 was appointed by President Cleveland to succeed Judge Samuel H. Treat (deceased) as Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois. Died Jan. 26, 1901.

ALLEN, Willis, a native of Tennessee, who removed to Williamson County, Ill., in 1829 and engaged in farming. In 1834 he was chosen Sheriff of Franklin County, in 1838 elected Rep- resentative in the Eleventh General Assembly, and, in 1844, became State Senator. In 1841, although not yet a licensed lawyer, he was chosen Prosecuting Attorney for the old Third District, and was shortly afterward admitted to the bar. He was chosen Presidential Elector in 1844, a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1847, and served two terms in Congress (1851-55). On March 2, 1859, he was commissioned Judge of the Twenty-sixth Judicial Circuit, but died three months later. His son, William Joshua, suc- ceeded him in the latter office.

ALLERTON, Samuel Waters, stock-dealer and capitalist, was born of Pilgrim ancestry in Dutchess County, N. Y., May 26, 1829. His youth was spent with his father on a farm in Yates County, N. Y., but about 1852 he engaged

in the live-stock business in Central and Western New York. In 1856 he transferred his operations to Illinois, shipping stock from various points to New York City, finally locating in Chicago. He was one of the earliest projectors of the Chicago Stock-Yards, later securing control of the Pitts- burg Stock-Yards, also becoming interested in yards at Baltimore, Philadelphia, Jersey City and Omaha. Mr. Allerton is one of the founders and a Director of the First National Bank of Chicago, a Director and stockholder of the Chicago City Railway (the first cable line in that city), the owner of an extensive area of highly improved farming lands in Central Illinois, as also of large tracts in Nebraska and Wyoming, and of valuable and productive mining properties in the Black Hills. A zealous Republican in politics, he is a liberal supporter of the measures of that party, and, in 1893, was the unsuccessful Republican can- didate for Mayor of Chicago in opposition to Carter H. Harrison.

ALLOUEZ, Claude Jean, sometimes called "The Apostle of the West," a Jesuit priest, was born in France in 1620. He reached Quebec in 1658, and later explored the country around Lakes Superior and Michigan, establishing the mission of La Pointe, near where Ashland, Wis., now stands, in 1665, and St. Xavier, near Green Bay, in 1669. He learned from the Indians the existence and direction of the upper Mississippi, and was the first to communicate the informa- tion to the authorities at Montreal, which report was the primary cause of Joliet's expedition. He succeeded Marquette in charge of the mission at Kaskaskia, on the Illinois, in 1677, where he preached to eight tribes. From that date to 1690 he labored among the aborigines of Illinois and Wisconsin. Died at Fort St. Joseph, in 1690.

ALLYN, (Rev.) Robert, clergyman and edu- cator, was born at Ledyard, New London County, Conn., Jan. 25, 1817, being a direct descend- ant in the eighth generation of Captain Robert Allyn, who was one of the first settlers of New London. He grew up on a farm, receiving his early education in a country school, supple- mented by access to a small public library, from which he acquired a good degree of familiarity with standard English writers. In 1837 he entered the Wesleyan University at Middletown, Conn., where he distinguished himself as a mathematician and took a high rank as a linguist and rhetorician, graduating in 1841. He im- mediately engaged as a teacher of mathematics in the Wesleyan Academy at Wilbraham, Mass., and, in 1846, was elected principal of the school,

HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.

meanwhile (1843) becoming a licentiate of the Providence Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. From 1848 to 1854 he served as Princi- pal of the Providence Conference Seminary at East Greenwich, R. I., when he was appointed Commissioner of Public Schools of Rhode Island -also serving the same year as a Visitor to West Point Military Academy. Between 1857 and 1859 he filled the chair of Ancient Languages in the State University at Athens, Ohio, when he ac- cepted the Presidency of the Wesleyan Female College at Cincinnati, four years later (1863) becoming President of McKendree College at Lebanon, Ill., where he remained until 1874. That position he resigned to accept the Presi- dency of the Southern Illinois Normal University at Carbondale, whence he retired in 1892. Died at Carbondale, Jan. 7, 1894.

ALTAMONT, Effingham County, is intersecting point of the Vandalia, Chicago & Eastern Illinois, Baltimore & Ohio S. W., and Wabash Railroads, being midway and highest point between St. Louis and Terre Haute, Ind .; was laid out in 1870. The town is in the center of a grain, fruit- growing and stock-raising district; has a bank, two grain elevators, flouring mill, tile works, a large creamery, wagon, furniture and other fac- tories, besides churches and good schools. Popu- lation (1890), 1,044, (1900), 1,335.

ALTGELD, John Peter, ex-Judge and ex-Gov- ernor, was born in Prussia in 1848, and in boy- hood accompanied his parents to America, the family settling in Ohio. At the age of 16 he enlisted in the One Hundred and Sixty-fourth Ohio Infantry, serving until the close of the war. His legal education was acquired at St. Louis and Savannah, Mo., and from 1874 to '78 he was Prosecuting Attorney for Andrew County in that State. In 1878 he removed to Chicago, where he devoted himself to professional work. In 1884 he led the Democratic forlorn hope as candidate for Congress in a strong Republican Congressional district, and in 1886 was elected to the bench of the Superior Court of Cook County, but resigned in August, 1891. The Democratic State conven- tion of 1892 nominated him for Governor, and he was elected the following November, being the first foreign-born citizen to hold that office in the history of the State, and the first Democrat elected since 1852. In 1896 he was a prominent factor in the Democratic National Convention which nominated William J. Bryan for Presi- dent, and was also a candidate for re-election to the office of Governor, but was defeated by John R. Tanner, the Republican nominee.

ALTON, principal city in Madison County and important commercial and manufacturing point on Mississippi River, 25 miles north of St. Louis; site was first occupied as a French trading-post about 1807, the town proper being laid out by Col. Rufus Easton in 1817; principal business houses are located in the valley along the river, while the residence portion occupies the bluffs overlooking the river, sometimes rising to the height of nearly 250 feet. The city has extensive glass works employing (1903) 4,000 hands, flouring mills, iron foundries, manufac- tories of agricultural implements, coal cars, min- ers' tools, shoes, tobacco, lime, etc., besides several banks, numerous churches, schools, and four newspapers, three of them daily. A monu- ment to the memory of Elijah P Lovejoy, who fell while defending his press against a pro-slav- ery mob in 1837, was erected in Alton Cemetery, 1896-7, at a cost of $30,000, contributed by the State and citizens of Alton. Population (1890), 10,294; (1900), 14,210.

ALTON PENITENTIARY. The earliest pun- ishments imposed upon public offenders in Illi- nois were by public flogging or imprisonment for a short time in jails rudely constructed of logs, from which escape was not difficult for a prisoner of nerve, strength and mental resource. The inadequacy of such places of confinement was soon perceived, but popular antipathy to any increase of taxation prevented the adoption of any other policy until 1827. A grant of 40,000 acres of saline lands was made to the State by Congress, and a considerable portion of the money received from their sale was appropriated to the establishment of a State penitentiary at Alton. The sum set apart proved insufficient,and, in 1831, an additional appropriation of $10,000 was made from the State treasury. In 1833 the prison was ready to receive its first inmates. It was built of stone and had but twenty-four cells. Additions were made from time to tiine, but by 1857 the State determined upon building a new peniten- tiary, which was located at Joliet (see Northern Penitentiary), and, in 1860, the last convicts were transferred thither from Alton. The Alton prison was conducted on what is known as "the Auburn plan" - associated labor in silence by day and separate confinement by night. The manage- ment was in the hands of a "lessee," who fur- nished supplies, employed guards and exercised the general powers of a warden under the super- vision of a Commissioner appointed by the State, and who handled all the products of convict labor.

HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.

ALTON RIOTS. (See Lovejoy, Elijah Par- rish.)

ALTONA, town of Knox County, on C., B. & Q. R. R., 16 miles northeast of Galesburg; has an endowed public library, electric light system, cement sidewalks, four churches and good school system. Population (1900), 633.

ALTON & SANGAMON RAILROAD. (See Chicago & Alton Railroad.)

AMBOY, city in Lee County on Green River, at junction of Illinois Central and C., B. & Q. Rail- roads, 95 miles south by west from Chicago; has artesian water with waterworks and fire protec- tion, city park, two telephone systems, electric lights, railroad repair shops, two banks, two newspapers, seven churches, graded and high schools; is on line of Northern Illinois Electric Ry. from De Kalb to Dixon; extensive bridge and iron works located here. Pop. (1900), 1,826.

AMES, Edward Raymond, Methodist Episcopal Bishop, born at Amesville, Athens County, Ohio, May 30, 1806; was educated at the Ohio State University, where he joined the M. E. Church. In 1828 he left college and became Principal of the Seminary at Lebanon, Ill., which afterwards became McKendree College. While there he received a license to preach, and, after holding various charges and positions in the church, in- cluding membership in the General Conference of 1840, '44 and '52, in the latter year was elected Bishop, serving until his death, which occurred in Baltimore, April 25, 1879.

ANDERSON, Galusha, clergyman and edu- cator, was born at Bergen, N. Y., March 7, 1832; graduated at Rochester University in 1834 and at the Theological Seminary there in 1856; spent ten years in Baptist pastoral work at Janesville, Wis., and at St. Louis, and seven as Professor in Newton Theological Institute, Mass. From 1873 to '80 he preached in Brooklyn and Chicago; was then chosen President of the old Chicago Univer- sity, remaining eight years, when he again be- came a pastor at Salem, Mass., but soon after assumed the Presidency of Denison University, Ohio. On the organization of the new Chicago University, he accepted the chair of Homiletics and Pastoral Theology, which he now holds

ANDERSON, George A., lawyer and Congress- man, was born in Botetourt County, Va., March 11, 1853. When two years old he was brought by his parents to Hancock County, Ill He re- ceived a collegiate education, and, after studying law at Lincoln, Neb., and at Sedalia, Mo., settled at Quincy, Ill., where he began practice in 1880. In 1884 he was elected City Attorney on the

Democratic ticket, and re-elected in 1885 without opposition. The following year he was the suc- cessful candidate of his party for Congress, which was his last public service. Died at Quincy, Jan. 31, 1896.

ANDERSON, James C., legislator, was born in Henderson County, Ill., August 1, 1845; raised on a farm, and after receiving a common-school education, entered Monmouth College, but left early in the Civil War to enlist in the Twentieth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, in which he attained the rank of Second Lieutenant. After the war he served ten years as Sheriff of Henderson County, was elected Representative in the General Assembly in 1888, '90, '92 and '96, and served on the Republican "steering committee" during the session of 1893. He also served as Sergeant-at- Arms of the Senate for the session of 1895, and was a delegate to the Republican National Con- vention of 1896. His home is at Decorra.

ANDERSON, Stinson H., Lieutenant-Gover- nor, was born in Sumner County, Tenn., in 1800; came to Jefferson County, Ill., in his youth, and, at an early age, began to devote his attention to breeding fine stock; served in the Black Hawk War as a Lieutenant in 1832, and the same year was elected to the lower branch of the Eighth General Assembly, being re-elected in 1834. In 1838 he was chosen Lieutenant-Governor on the ticket with Gov. Thomas Carlin, and soon after the close of his term entered the United States Army as Captain of Dragoons, in this capacity taking part in the Seminole War in Florida. Still later he served under President Polk as United States Marshal for Illinois, and also held the position of Warden of the State Penitentiary at Alton for several years. Died, September, 1857 .- William B. (Anderson), son of the preceding, was born at Mount Vernon, Ill., April 30, 1830; attended the common schools and later studied surveying, being elected Surveyor of Jefferson County, in 1851. He studied law and was admit- ted to the bar in 1858, but never practiced, pre- ferring the more quiet life of a farmer. In 1856 he was elected to the lower house of the General Assembly and re-elected in 1858. In 1861 he entered the volunteer service as a private, was promoted through the grades of Captain and Lieutenant-Colonel to a Colonelcy, and, at the close of the war, was brevetted Brigadier-Gen- . eral. In 1868 he was a candidate for Presidential Elector on the Democratic ticket, was a member of the State Constitutional Convention of 1869-70, and, in 1871, was elected to the State Senate, to fill a vacancy. In 1874 he was elected to the Forty-

HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.

fourth Congress on the Democratic ticket. In 1893 General Anderson was appointed by Presi- dent Cleveland Pension Agent for Illinois, con- tinuing in that position four years, when he retired to private life.

ANDRUS, Rev. Reuben, clergyman and edu- cator, was born at Rutland, Jefferson County, N. Y., Jan. 29, 1824; early came to Fulton County, Ill., and spent three years (1844-47) as a student at Illinois College, Jacksonville, but graduated at McKendree College, Lebanon, in 1849; taught for a time at Greenfield, entered the Methodist ministry, and, in 1850, founded the Illi- nois Wesleyan University at Bloomington, of which he became a Professor; later re-entered the ministry and held charges at Beardstown, Decatur, Quincy, Springfield and Bloomington, meanwhile for a time being President of Illinois Conference Female College at Jacksonville, and temporary President of Quincy College. In 1867 he was transferred to the Indiana Conference and stationed at Evansville and Indianapolis; from 1872 to '75 was President of Indiana Asbury Uni- versity at Greencastle. Died at Indianapolis, Jan. 17, 1887.

ANNA, a city in Union County, on the Illinois Central Railroad, 36 miles from Cairo; is center of extensive fruit and vegetable-growing district, and largest shipping-point for these commodities on the Illinois Central Railroad. It has an ice plant, pottery and lime manufactories, two banks and two newspapers. The Southern '(Ill.) Hos- pital for the Insane is located here. Population (1890), 2,295; (1900), 2,618; (est. 1904), 3,000.

ANTHONY, Elliott, jurist, was born of New England Quaker ancestry at Spafford, Onondaga County, N. Y., June 10, 1827; was related on the maternal side to the Chases and Phelps (dis- tinguished lawyers) of Vermont. His early years were spent in labor on a farm, but after a course of preparatory study at Cortland Academy, in 1847 he entered the sophomore class in Hamilton College at Clinton, graduating with honors in 1850. The next year he began the study of law, at the same time giving instruction in an Acad- emy at Clinton, where he had President Cleve- land as one of his pupils. After admission to the bar at Oswego, in 1851, he removed West, stop- ping for a time at Sterling, Ill., but the following year located in Chicago. Here he compiled "A Digest of Illinois Reports"; in 1858 was elected City Attorney, and, in 1863, became solicitor of the Galena & Chicago Union Railroad (now the Chicago & Northwestern). Judge Anthony served in two State Constitutional Conventions-

those of 1862 and 1869-70-being chairman of the Committee on Executive Department and mem- ber of the Committee on Judiciary in the latter. He was delegate to the National Republican Con- vention of 1880, and was the same year elected a Judge of the Superior Court of Chicago, and was re-elected in 1886, retiring in 1892, after which he resumed the practice of his profession, being chiefly employed as consulting counsel. Judge Anthony was one of the founders and incorpo- rators of the Chicago Law Institute and a member of the first Board of Directors of the Chicago Public Library; also served as President of the State Bar Association (1894-95), and delivered several important historical addresses before that body. His other most important productions are volumes on "The Constitutional History of Illinois," "The Story of the Empire State" and "Sanitation and Navigation." Near the close of his last term upon the bench, he spent several months in an extended tour through the princi- pal countries of · Europe. His death occurred, after a protracted illness, at his home at Evans- ton, Feb. 24, 1898.

ANTI-NEBRASKA EDITORIAL CONVEN- TION, a political body, which convened at Decatur, Feb. 22, 1856, pursuant to the suggestion of "The Morgan Journal," then a weekly paper published at Jacksonville, for the purpose of for- mulating a policy in opposition to the principles of the Kansas-Nebraska bill. Twelve editors were in attendance, as follows: Charles H. Ray of "The Chicago Tribune"; V. Y. Ralston of "The Quincy Whig"; O. P. Wharton of "The Rock Island Advertiser"; T. J. Pickett of "The Peoria Republican"; George Schneider of "The Chicago Staats Zeitung"; Charles Faxon of "The Princeton Post"; A. N. Ford of "The Lacon Ga- zette"; B. F. Shaw of "The Dixon Telegraph"; E. C. Daugherty of "The Rockford Register"; E. W. Blaisdell of "The Rockford Gazette"; W. J. Usrey of "The Decatur Chronicle"; and Paul Selby of "The Jacksonville Journal." Paul Selby was chosen Chairman and W. J. Usrey, Secre- tary. The convention adopted a platform and recommended the calling of a State convention at Bloomington on May 29, following, appointing the following State Central Committee to take the matter in charge: W. B. Ogden, Chicago; S. M. Church, Rockford; G. D. A. Parks, Joliet; T. J. Pickett, Peoria; E. A. Dudley, Quincy ; William H. Herndon, Springfield; R. J. Oglesby, Deca- tur; Joseph Gillespie, Edwardsville; D. L. Phil- lips, Jonesboro; and Ira O. Wilkinson and Gustavus Koerner for the State-at-large. Abra-

HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.

ham Lincoln was present and participated in the consultations of the committees. All of these served except Messrs. Ogden, Oglesby and Koer- ner, the two former declining on account of ab- sence from the State. Ogden was succeeded by the late Dr. John Evans, afterwards Territorial Governor of Colorado, and Oglesby by Col. Isaac C. Pugh of Decatur. (See Bloomington Conven- tion of 1856.)

APPLE RIVER, a village of Jo Daviess County, on the Illinois Central Railroad, 21 miles east-northeast from Galena. Population (1880), 626; (1890), 572; (1900), 576.

APPLINGTON, (Maj.) Zenas, soldier, was born . in Broome County, N. Y., Dec. 24, 1815; in 1837 emigrated to Ogle County, Ill., where he fol- lowed successively the occupations of farmer, blacksmith, carpenter and merchant, finally becoming the founder of the town of Polo. Here he became wealthy, but lost much of his property in the financial revulsion of 1857. In 1858 he was elected to the State Senate, and, during the session of 1859, was one of the members of that body appointed to investigate the "canal scrip fraud" (which see), and two years later was one of the earnest supporters of the Government in its preparation for the War of the Rebellion. The latter year le assisted in organizing the Seventh Illinois Cavalry, of which he was commissioned Major, being some time in command at Bird's Point, and later rendering important service to General Pope at New Madrid and Island No. 10. He was killed at Corinth, Miss., May 8, 1862, while obeying an order to charge upon a band of rebels concealed in a wood.

APPORTIONMENT, a mode of distribution of the counties of the State into Districts for the election of members of the General Assembly and of Congress, which will be treated under separate heads:

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Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of St. Clair County, Volume I, Part 3

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