USA > Illinois > St Clair County > Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of St. Clair County, Volume I > Part 78
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MORRIS, Freeman P., lawyer and politician, was born in Cook County, Ill., March 19, 1854, labored on a farm and attended the district school in his youth, but completed his education in Chicago, graduating from the Union College of Law, and was adınitted to practice in 1874, when he located at Watseka, Iroquois County. In 1884 he was elected, as a Democrat, to the House of Representatives from the Iroquois Dis- trict, and has since been re-elected in 1888, '94, '96, being one of the most influential members of his party in that body. In 1893 he was appointed by Governor Altgeld Aid-de-Camp, with the rank of Colonel, on his personal staff, but resigned in 1896.
MORRIS, Isaac Newton, lawyer and Congress- man, was born at Bethel, Clermont County, Ohio, Jan. 22, 1812; educated at Miami Univer- sity, admitted to the bar in 1835, and the next year removed to Quincy, Ill. ; was a member and President of the Board of Canal Commissioners (1842-43), served in the Fifteenth General Assem- bly (1846-48) ; was elected to Congress as a Demo- crat in 1856, and again in 1858, but opposed the admission of Kansas under the Lecompton Con- stitution; in 1868 supported General Grant -- who had been his friend in boyhood-for President, and, in 1870, was appointed a member of the Union Pacific Railroad Commission. Died, Oct. 29, 1879.
MORRISON, a city, the county-seat of White- side County, founded in 1855; is a station on the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, 124 miles west of Chicago. Agriculture, dairying and stock-raising are the principal pursuits in the surrounding region. The city has good water- works, sewerage, electric lighting and several
manufactories, including carriage and refriger- ator works; also has numerous churches, a large graded school, a public library and adequate banking facilities, and two weekly papers. Greenhouses for cultivation of vegetables for winter market are carried on. Pop. (1900), 2,308.
MORRISON, Isaac L., lawyer and legislator, born in Barren County, Ky., in 1826; was edu- cated in the common schools and the Masonic Seminary of his native State; admitted to the bar, and came to Illinois in 1851, locating at Jacksonville, where he has become a leader of the bar and of the Republican party, which he assisted to organize as a member of its first State Convention at Bloomington, in 1856. He was also a delegate to the Republican National Convention of 1864, which nominated Abraham Lincoln for the Presidency a second time. Mr. Morrison was three times elected to the lower house of the General Assembly (1876, "78 and '82), and, by his clear judgment and incisive powers as a public speaker, took a higli rank as a leader in that body. Of late years, he has given his attention solely to the practice of his profession in Jacksonville.
MORRISON, James Lowery Donaldson, poli- tician, lawyer and Congressman, was born at Kas- kaskia, Ill., April 12, 1816; at the age of 16 was appointed a midshipman in the United States Navy, but leaving the service in 1836, read law with Judge Nathaniel Pope, and was admitted to the bar, practicing at Belleville. He was elected to the lower house of the General Assembly from St. Clair County, in 1844, and to the State Senate in 1848, and again in '54. In 1852 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the Lieutenant-Gov- ernorship on the Whig ticket, but, on the disso- lution of that party, allied himself with the Democracy, and was, for many years, its leader in Southern Illinois. In 1855 he was elected to Con- gress to fill the vacancy caused by the resigna- tion of Lyman Trumbull, who had been elected to the United States Senate. In 1860 he was a can- didate before the Democratic State Convention for the nomination for Governor, but was defeated by James C. Allen. After that year he took no prominent part in public affairs. At the outbreak of the Mexican War he was among the first to raise a company of volunteers, and was commis- sioned Lieutenant-Colonel of the Second Regiment (Colonel Bissell's). For gallant services at Buena Vista, the Legislature presented him with a sword. He took a prominent part in the incor- poration of railroads, and, it is claimed, drafted and introduced in the Legislature the charter of
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the Illinois Central Railroad in 1851. Died, at St. Louis, Mo., August 14, 1888.
MORRISON, William, pioneer merchant, came from Philadelphia, Pa., to Kaskaskia, Ill., in 1790, as representative of the mercantile house of Bryant & Morrison, of Philadelphia, and finally established an extensive trade throughout the Mississippi Valley, supplying merchants at St. Louis, St. Genevieve, Cape Girardeau and New Madrid. He is also said to have sent an agent with a stock of goods across the plains, with a view to opening up trade with the Mexicans at Santa Fé, about 1804, but was defrauded by the agent, who appropriated the goods to his own benefit without accounting to his employer. He became the principal merchant in the Terri- tory, doing a thriving business in early days, when Kaskaskia was the principal supply point for merchants throughout the valley. He is de- scribed as a public-spirited, enterprising man, to whom was due the chief part of the credit for securing construction of a bridge across the Kas- kaskia River at the town of that name. He died at Kaskaskia in 1837, and was buried in the ceme- tery there .- Robert (Morrison), a brother of the preceding, came to Kaskaskia in 1793, was appointed Clerk of the Common Pleas Court in 1801, retaining the position for many years, besides holding other local offices. He was the father of Col. James L. D. Morrison, politician and soldier of the Mexican War, whose sketch is given elsewhere .- Joseph (Morrison), the oldest son of William Morrison, went to Ohio, residing there several years, but finally returned to Prairie du Rocher, where he died in 1845. - James, another son, went to Wisconsin; William located at Belleville, dying there in 1843; while Lewis, another son, settled at Covington, Washington County, Ill., where he practiced medicine up to 1851; then engaged in mercantile business at Chester, dying there in 1856.
MORRISON, William Ralls, ex-Congressman, Inter-State Commerce Commissioner, was born, Sept. 14, 1825, in Monroe County, Ill., and edu- cated at McKendree College; served as a private in the Mexican War, at its close studied law, and was admitted to the bar in 1855; in 1852 was elected Clerk of the Circuit Court of Monroe County, but resigned before the close of his term, accepting the office of Representative in the State Legislature, to which he was elected in 1854; was re-elected in 1856, and again in 1858, serving as Speaker of the House during the session of 1859. In 1861 he assisted in organizing the Forty-ninth Regiment Illinois Volunteers and was commis-
sioned Colonel. The regiment was mustered in, Dec. 31, 1861, and took part in the battle of Fort Donelson in February following, where he was severely wounded. While yet in the service, in 1862, he was elected to Congress as a Democrat, when he resigned his commission, but was de- feated for re-election, in 1864, by Jehu Baker, as he was again in 1866. In 1870 he was again elected to the General Assembly, and, two years later (1872), returned to Congress from the Belle- ville District, after which he served in that body, by successive re-elections, nine terms and until 1887, being for several terms Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and promi- nent in the tariff legislation of that period. In March, 1887, President Cleveland appointed him a member of the first Inter-State Commerce Com- mission for a period of five years; at the close of his term he was reappointed, by President Harri- son, for a full term of six years, serving a part of the time as President of the Board, and retiring from office in 1898.
MORRISONVILLE, a town in Christian County, situated on the Wabash Railway, 40 miles southwest of Decatur and 20 miles north- northeast of Litchfield £ Grain is extensively raised in the surrounding region, and Morrison- ville, with its elevators and mill, is an important shipping-point. t has brick and tile works, electric lights, two banks, five churches, graded and high schools, and a weekly paper. Popula- tion (1890), 844; (1900). 934; (1903, est.), 1,200.
MORTON, a village of Tazewell County, at the intersection of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe and the Terre Haute & Peoria Railroads, 10 miles southeast of Peoria; has factories, a bank and a newspaper. Population (1890), 657; (1900), 894.
MORTON, Joseph, pioneer farmer and legisla- tor, was born in Virginia, August 1, 1801; came to Madison County, Ill., in 1819, and the follow- ing year to Morgan County, when he engaged in farming in the vicinity of Jacksonville. He served as a member of the House in the Tenth and Fifteenth General Assemblies, and as Senator in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth. He was a Democrat in politics, but, on questions of State and local policy, was non-partisan, faithfully representing the interests of his constituents. Died, at his home near Jacksonville, March 2, 1881.
MOSES, Adolph, lawyer, was born in Speyer, Germany, Feb. 27, 1837, and, until fifteen years of age, was educated in the public and Latin schools of his native country; in the latter part of 1852, came to America, locating in New Orleans, and, for some years, being a law student
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in Louisiana University, under the preceptorship of Randall Hunt and other eminent lawyers of that State. In the early days of the Civil War he espoused the cause of the Confederacy, serving some two years as an officer of the Twenty-first Louisiana Regiment. Coming north at the expi- ration of this period, he resided for a time in Quincy, Ill., but, in 1869, removed to Chicago, where he took a place in the front rank at the bar, and where he has resided ever since. Although in sympathy with the general princi- ples of the Democratic party, Judge Moses is an independent voter, as shown by the fact that he voted for General Grant for President in 1868, and supported the leading measures of the Repub- lican party in 1896. He is the editor and pub lisher of "The National Corporation Reporter, " established in 1890, and which is devoted to the interests of business corporations.
MOSES, John, lawyer and author, was born at Niagara Falls, Canada, Sept. 18, 1825; came to Illinois in 1837, his family locating first at Naples, Scott County. He pursued the vocation of a teacher for a time, studied law, was elected Clerk of the Circuit Court for Scott County in 1856, and served as County Judge from 1857 to 1861. The latter year he became the private secretary of Governor Yates, serving until 1863, during that period assisting in the organization of seventy- seven regiments of Illinois Volunteers. While serving in this capacity, in company with Gov- ernor Yates, he attended the famnous conference of loyal Governors, held at Altoona, Pa., in Sep- tember, 1862, and afterwards accompanied the Governors in their call upon President Lincoln, a few days after the issue of the preliminary proc- lamation of emancipation. Having received the appointment, from President Lincoln, of Assessor of Internal Revenue for the Tenth Illinois Dis- trict, he resigned the position of private secretary to Governor Yates. In 1874 he was chosen Representative in the Twenty-ninth General Assembly for the District composed of Scott, Pike and Calhoun Counties; served as a delegate to the National Republican Convention at Phila- delphia, in 1872, and as Secretary of the Board of Railroad and Warehouse Commissioners for three years (1880-83). He was then appointed Special Agent of the Treasury Department, and assigned to duty in connection with the customs revenue at Chicago. In 1887 he was chosen Sec- retary of the Chicago Historical Society, serving until 1893. While connected with the Chicago Historical Library he brought out the most com- plete History of Illinois yet published, in two
volumes, and also, in connection with the late Major Kirkland, edited a History of Chicago in two large volumes. . Other literary work done by Judge Moses, includes "Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln" and "Richard Yates, the War Governor of Illinois," in the form of lectures or addresses. Died in Chicago, July 3, 1898.
MOULTON, Samuel W., lawyer and Congress- inan, was born at Wenham, Mass., Jan. 20, 1822, where he was educated in the public schools. After spending some years in the South, he removed to Illinois (1845), where he studied law, and was admitted to the bar, commencing prac- tice at Shelbyville. From 1852 to 1859 he was a member of the lower house of the General Assem- bly; in 1857, was a Presidential Elector on the Buchanan ticket, and was President of the State Board of Education from 1859 to 1876. In 1864 he was elected, as a Republican, Representative in Congress for the State-at-large, being elected again, as a Democrat, from the Shelbyville Dis- trict, in 1880 and '82. During the past few years (including the campaign of 1896) Mr. Moulton has acted in cooperation with the Republican party.
MOULTRIE COUNTY, a comparatively small county in the eastern section of the middle tier of the State-named for a revolutionary hero. Area, 340 square miles, and population (by the census of 1900), 15,224. Moultrie was one of the early "stamping grounds" of the Kickapoos, who were always friendly to English-speaking settlers. The earliest immigrants were from the Southwest, but arrivals from Northern States soon followed. County organization was effected in 1843, both Shelby and Macon Counties surrendering a portion of territory. A vein of good bituminous coal underlies the county, but agriculture is the more important industry. Sullivan is the county-seat, selected in 1845. In 1890 its population was about 1,700. Hon. Richard J. Oglesby (former Gover- nor, Senator and a Major-General in the Civil War) began the practice of law here.
MOUND-BUILDERS, WORKS OF THE. One of the most conclusive evidences that the Mis- sissippi Valley was once occupied by a people different in customs, character and civilization from the Indians found occupying the soil when the first white explorers visited it, is the exist- ence of certain artificial mounds and earth works, of the origin and purposes of which the Indians seemed to have no knowledge or tradition. These works extend throughout the valley from the Allegheny to the Rocky Mountains, being much more numerous, however, in some portions than
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in others, and also varying greatly in form. This fact, with the remains found in some of them, has been regarded as evidence that the purposes of their construction were widely variant. They have consequently been classified by archæolo- gists as sepulchral, religious, or defensive, while some seem to have had a purpose of which writers on the subject are unable to forin any satisfactory conception, and which are, therefore, still regarded as an unsolved mystery. Some of the most elaborate of these works are found along the eastern border of the Mississippi Valley, especially in Ohio; and the fact that they appear to belong to the defensive class, has led to the conclusion that this region was occupied by a race practically homogeneous, and that these works were designed to prevent the encroachment of hostile races from beyond the Alleghenies. Illi- nois being in the center of the valley, compara- tively few of these defensive works are found here, those of this character which do exist being referred to a different era and race. (See Forti- fications, Prehistoric.) While these works are numerous in some portions of Illinois, their form and structure give evidence that they were erected by a peaceful people, however bloody may have been some of the rites performed on those designed for a religious purpose. Their numbers also imply a dense population. This is especially true of that portion of the American Bottom opposite the city of St. Louis, which is the seat of the most remarkable group of earth works of this character on the continent. The central, or principal structure of this group, is known, locally, as the great "Cahokia Mound," being situated near the creek of that name which empties into the Mississippi just below the city of East St. Louis. It is also called "Monks' Mound," from the fact that it was occupied early in the present century by a community of Monks of La Trappe. a portion of whom succumbed to the malarial influences of the climate, while the survivors returned to the original seat of their order. This mound, from its form and com- manding size, has been supposed to belong to the class called "temple mounds," and has been de- scribed as "the monarch of all similar structures" and the "best representative of its class in North America." The late William McAdams, of Alton, who surveyed this group some years since, in his "Records of Ancient Races." gives the fol- lowing description of this principal structure:
"In the center of a great mass of mounds and earth-works there stands a mighty pyramid whose base covers nearly sixteen acres of ground.
It is not exactly square, being a parallelogram a little longer north and south than east and west. Somne thirty feet above the base, on the south side, is an apron or terrace, on which now grows an orchard of considerable size. This terrace is approached from the plain by a graded roadway. Thirty feet above this terrace, and on the west side, is another much smaller, on which are now growing some forest trees. The top, which con- tains an acre and a half, is divided into two nearly equal parts, the northern part being four or five feet the higher. . On the north, east and south, the structure still retains its straight side, that probably has changed but little since the settlement of the country by white men, but remains in appearance to-day the same as centuries ago. The west side of the pyramid, however, has its base somewhat serrated and seamed by ravines, evidently inade by rainstormns and the elements. From the second terrace a well, eighty feet in depth, penetrates the base of the structure, which is plainly seen to be almost wholly composed of the black, sticky soil of the surrounding plain. It is not an oval or conical mound or hill, but a pyramid with straight sides." The approximate height of this mound is ninety feet. When first seen by white men, this was surmounted by a small conical mound some ten feet in height, from which human remains and various relics were taken while being leveled for the site of a house. Messrs. Squier and Davis, in their report on "Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley," published by the Smithsonian Institute (1848), estimate the contents of the structure at 20,000,000 cubic feet.
A Mr. Breckenridge, who visited these mounds in 1811 and published a description of thein, esti- mates that the construction of this principal mound must have required the work of thousands of laborers and years of time. The upper terrace, at the time of his visit, was occupied by the Trappists as a kitchen garden, and the top of the structure was sown in wheat. He also found numerous fragments of flint and earthiern ves- sels, and concludes that "a populous city once existed here, similar to those of Mexico described by the first conquerors. The mounds were sites of temples or monuments to great men." Accord- ing to Mr. McAdams, there are seventy-two mounds of considerable size within two miles of the main structure, the group extending to the mouth of the Cahokia and embracing over one hundred in all. Most of these are square, rang- ing from twenty to fifty feet in height, a few are oval and one or two conical. Scattered among
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the mounds are also a number of small lakes, evidently of artificial origin. From the fact that there were a number of conspicuous mounds on the Missouri side of the river, on the present site of the city of St. Louis and its environs, it is believed that they all belonged to the same system and had a common purpose; the Cahokia Mound, from its superior size, being the center of the group-and probably used for sacrificial purposes. The whole number of these structures in the American Bottom, whose outlines were still visible a few years ago, was estimated by Dr. J. W. Foster at nearly two hundred, and the presence of so large a number in close proximity, has been accepted as evidence of a large population in the immediate vicinity.
Mr. McAdams reports the finding of numerous specimens of pottery and artificial ornaments and implements in the Cahokia mounds and in caves and mounds between Alton and the mouth of the Illinois River, as well as on the latter some twenty-five miles from its mouth. Among the relics found in the Illinois River mounds was a burial vase, and Mr. McAdams says that, in thirty years, he has unearthed more than a thousand of these, many of which closely resemble those found in the mounds of Europe. Dr. Foster also makes mention of an ancient cemetery near Chester, in which "each grave, when explored, is found to contain a cist enclos- ing a skeleton, for the most part far gone in decay. These cists are built up and covered with slabs of limestone, which here abound."-Another noteworthy group of mounds-though far inferior to the Cahokia group-exists near Hutsonville in Crawford County. As described in the State Geological Survey, this group consists of fifty- five elevations, irregularly dispersed over an area of 1,000 by 1,400 to 1,500 feet, and varying from fourteen to fifty feet in diameter, the larger ones having a height of five to eight feet. From their form and arrangement these are believed to have been mounds of habitation. In the southern por- tion of this group are four mounds of peculiar construction and larger size, each surrounded by a low ridge or earthwork, with openings facing towards each other, indicating that they were defense-works. The location of this group-a few miles from a prehistoric fortification at Merom, on the Indiana side of the Wabash, to which the name of "Fort Azatlan" has been given-induces the belief that the two groups, like those in the American Bottom and at St. Louis, were parts of the same system .- Professor Engelnian, in the part of the State Geological
Survey devoted to Massac County, alludes to a remarkable group of earthworks in the Black Bend of the Ohio, as an "extensive" system of "fortifications and mounds which probably belong to the same class as those in the Missis- sippi Bottom opposite St. Louis and at other points farther up the Ohio." In the report of Government survey by Dan W. Beckwith, in 1834, mention is made of a very large mound on the Kankakee River, near the mouth of Rock Creek, now a part of Kankakee County. This had a base diameter of about 100 feet, with a height of twenty feet, and contained the remains of a large number of Indians killed in a celebrated battle, in which the Illinois and Chippewas, and the Delawares and Shawnees took part. Near by were two other mounds, said to contain the remains of the chiefs of the two parties. In this case, mounds of prehistoric origin had probably been utilized as burial places by the aborigines at a comparatively recent period. Related to the Kankakee mounds, in location if not in period of construction, is a group of nineteen in number on the site of the present city of Morris, in Grundy County. Within a circuit of three miles of Ottawa it has been estimated that there were 3,000 mounds-though many of these are believed to have been of Indian origin. Indeed, the whole Illinois Valley is full of these silent monuments of a prehistoric age, but they are not generally of the conspicuous character of those found in the vicinity of St. Louis and attributed to the Mound Builders .- A very large and numerous group of these monuments exists along the bluffs of the Mississippi River, in the western part of Rock Island and Mercer Counties, chietiy between Drury's Landing and New Boston. Mr. J. E. Stevenson, in "The American Antiquarian," a few years ago, estimated that there were 2,500 of these within a circuit of fifty miles, located in groups of two or three to 100, varying in diameter from fifteen to 150 feet, with an elevation of two to fifteen feet. There are also numerous burial and sacrificial mounds in the vicinity of Chilli- cothe, on the Illinois River, in the northeastern part of Peoria County .- There are but few speci- mens of the animal or effigy mounds, of which so many exist in Wisconsin, to be found in Illinois; and the fact that these are found chiefly on Rock River, leaves no doubt of a common origin with the Wisconsin groups. The most remarkable of these is the celebrated "Turtle Mound," within the present limits of the city of Rockford-though some regard it as having more resemblance to an alligator. This figure, which is maintained in a
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