Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of St. Clair County, Volume I, Part 88

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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PUGH, Jonathan H., pioneer lawyer, was born in Bath County, Ky., came to Bond County, Ill., finally locating at Springfield in 1823, and being the second lawyer to establish himself in practice in that city. He served in the Third, Fifth, Sixth and Seventh General Assemblies, and was defeated for Congress by Joseph Duncan (after- wards Governor), in 1831. Died, in 1833. Mr. Pugh is described by his contemporaries as a man of brilliant parts, an able lawyer and a great wit.

PULASKI COUNTY, an extreme southern county and one of the smallest in the State, bordering on the Ohio River and having an area of 190 square miles and a population (1900), of 14,554. It was cut off from Alexander County in 1843, and named in honor of a Polish patriot who had aided the Americans during the Revolution. The soil is generally rich, and the surface varied with much low land along the Cache and the Ohio Rivers. Wheat, corn and fruit are the principal crops, while considerable timber is cut upon the bottom lands. Mound City is the county-seat and was conceded a population, by the census of 1890, of 2,550. Only the lowest, barren portion of the carboniferous formation extends under the soil, the coal measures being absent. Traces of iron have been found and sulphur and copperas springs abound.

PULLMAN, a former suburb (now a part of the South Division) of the city of Chicago, 13.8 miles south of the initial station of the Illinois

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Central Railroad. The Pullman Palace Car Com- pany began the erection of buildings here in 1880, and, on the 1st of January, 1881, the first family settled in the future manufacturing city. Within the next few years, it became the center of the largest manufacturing establishments in the country, including the Pulhnan Car Works, the Allen Paper Car Wheel Works and extensive steel forging works, employing thousands of mechanics. Large numbers of sleeping and din- ing cars, besides ordinary passenger coaches and freight cars, were manufactured here every year, not only for use on the railroads of the United States, but for foreign countries as well. The town was named for the late George M. Pullman, the founder of the car-works, and was regarded as a model city, made up of comfortable homes erected by the Palace Car Company for the use of its employés. It was well supplied with school- houses, and churches, and a public library was established there and opened to the public in 1883. The town was annexed to the city of Chi- cago in 1890.

PULLMAN, George Mortimer, founder of the Pullman Palace Car Company, was born at Broc- ton, N. Y., March 3, 1831, enjoyed ordinary edu- cational advantages in his boyhood and, at fourteen years of age, obtained employment as a clerk, but a year later joined his brother in the cabinet-making business at Albion. His father, who was a house-builder and house-mover, hav- ing died in 1853, young Pullman assumed the responsibility of caring for the family and, hav- ing secured a contract for raising a number of buildings along the Erie Canal, made necessary by the enlargement of that thoroughfare, in this way acquired some capital and experience which was most valuable to him in after years. Com- ing to Chicago in 1859, when the work of raising the grade of the streets in the business portion of the city had been in progress for a year or two, he found a new field for the exercise of his inventive skill, achieving some marvelous trans- formations in a number of the principal business blocks in that part of the city. As early as 1858, Mr. Pullman had had his attention turned to devising some means for increasing the comforts of night-travel upon railways, and, in 1859, he remodeled two old day-coaches into a species of sleeping-cars, which were used upon the Alton Road. From 1860 to 1863 he spent in Colorado devoting his engineering skill to mining; but returning to Chicago the latter year, entered upon his great work of developing the idea of the sleeping-car into practical reality. The first

car was completed and received the name of the "Pioneer." This car constituted a part of the funeral train which took the remains of Abraham Lincoln to Springfield, Ill., after his assassination in April, 1865. The development of the "Pull- man palace sleeping-car," the invention of the dining-car, and of vestibule trains, and the build- ing up of the great industrial town which bears . his name, and is now a part of the city of Chi- cago, constituted a work of gradual development which resulted in some of the most remarkable achievements in the history of the nineteenth century, both in a business sense and in promot- ing the comfort and safety of the traveling pub- lic, as well as in bettering the conditions of workingmen. He lived to see the results of his inventive genius and manufacturing skill in use upon the principal railroads of the United States and introduced upon a number of important lines in Europe also. Mr. Pullman was identified with a number of other enterprises more or less closely related to the transportation business, but the Pullman Palace Car Company was the one with which he was most closely connected, and by which he will be longest remembered. He was also associated with some of the leading educa- tional and benevolent enterprises about the city of Chicago, to which he contributed in a liberal manner during his life and in his will. His death occurred suddenly, from heart disease, at his home in Chicago, Oct. 19, 1897.

PURPLE, Norman H., lawyer and jurist, was born in Litchfieldl County, Conn., read law and was admitted to the bar in Tioga County, Pa., settled at Peoria, Ill., in 1836, and the following year was appointed Prosecuting Attorney for the Ninth Judicial District, which then embraced the greater portion of the State east of Peoria. In 1844 he was a Presidential Elector, and, in 1845, Governor Ford appointed him a Justice of the Supreme Court, vice Jesse B. Thomas, Jr., who had resigned. As required by law, he at the same time served as Circuit Judge, his district embracing all the counties west of Peoria, and his home being at Quincy. After the adoption of the Constitution of 1848 he returned to Peoria and resumed practice. He compiled the Illinois Statutes relating to real property, and, in 1857, made a compilation of the general laws, gener- ally known to the legal profession as the "Purple Statutes." He subsequently undertook to com- pile and arrange the laws passed from 1857 to '63. and was engaged on this work when overtaken by death, at Chicago, Aug 9, 1863. He was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1862,

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and, during the last ten years of his life, promi- nent at the Chicago bar.

PUTERBAUGH, Sabin D., judge and author, was born in Miami County, Ohio, Sept. 28, 1834; at 8 years of age removed with his parents to Taze- well County, Ill; settled in Pekin in 1853, where he read law, and was admitted to the bar in 1856. At the outbreak of the rebellion he was commis- sioned, by Governor Yates, Major of the Eleventh Illinois Cavalry, and took part in numerous engagements in Western Tennessee and Missis- sippi, including the battles of Shiloh and Corinthi. Resigning his commission in 1862, he took up his residence at Peoria, where lie resumed practice and began the preparation of his first legal work -"Common Law Pleading and Practice." In 1864 lie formed a partnership with Col. Robert G. Ingersoll, which continued until 1867, when Mr. Puterbaugli was elected Circuit Court Judge. He retired from the bench in 1873 to resume pri- vate practice and pursue his work as an author. His first work, having already run through three editions, was followed by "Puterbaugh's Chan- cery Pleading and Practice," the first edition of which appeared in 1874, and "Michigan Chancery Practice," which appeared in 1881. In 1880 he was chosen Presidential Elector on the Republi- can ticket. Died, Sept. 25, 1892. Leslie D. (Puterbaugh). a son of Judge Puterbaugh, is Judge of the Circuit Court of the Peoria Circuit.

PUTNAM COUNTY, the smallest county in the State, botlı as to area and population, containing only 170 square miles; population (1900), 4,746. It lies near the center of the northi half of the State, and was named in honor of Gen. Israel Putnam. The first American to erect a cabin within its limits was Gurdon S. Hubbard, who was in business there, as a fur-trader, as early as 1825, but afterwards became a prominent citizen of Chicago. The county was created by act of the Legislature in 1825, although a local govern- ment was not organized until some years later. Since that date, Bureau, Marshall and Stark Counties have been erected therefrom. It is crossed and drained by the Illinois River. The surface is moderately undulating and the soil fertile. Corn is the chief staple, although wheat and oats are extensively cultivated. Coal is mined and exported. Hennepin is the county- seat.

QUINCY, the principal city of Western Illinois, and the county seat of Adams County. It was founded in 1822-the late Gov. John Wood erect- ing the first log-cabin there-and was incorporated

in 1839. The site is naturally one of the most beauti- ful in the State, the principal part of the city being built on a limestone bluff having an elevation of 125 to 150 feet. and overlooking the Mississippi for a long distance. Its location is 112 miles west of Springfield and 264 miles southwest of Chi- cago. Besides being a principal shipping point for the river trade north of St. Louis, it is the converging point of several important railway lines, including the Wabash, four branches of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, and the Quincy, Omalıa & Kansas City, giving east and west, as well as north and south, connections. At the present time (1904) several important lines, or extensions of railroads already constructed, are in contemplation, which, when completed, will add largely to the commercial importance of the city. The city is regularly laid out, the streets inter- secting each other at right angles, and being lighted with gas and electricity. Water is obtained from the Mississippi. There are several electric railway lines, four public parks, a fine railway bridge across the Mississippi, to which a wagon bridge has been added within the past two years ; two fine railway depots, and several elegant public buildings, including a handsome county court-house, a Government building for the use of the Post-office and the United States District Court. The Illinois Soldiers' and Sailors' Home is located here, embracing a large group of cot- tages occupied by veterans of the Civil War, besides hospital and administration buildings for the use of the officers. The city has more than thirty churches, three libraries (one free-public and two college), with excellent schools and other educational advantages. Among the higher institutions of learning are the Chaddock College (Methodist Episcopal) and the St. Francis Solanus College (Roman Catholic). There are two or three national banks, a State bank with a capital of $300,000, beside two private banks, four or five daily papers, with several weekly and one or two monthly publications. Its advantages as a shipping point by river and railroad have made it one of the most important manufacturing cen- ters west of Chicago. The census of 1890 showed a total of 374 manufacturing establishments, having an aggregate capital of $6, 187,845, employ- ing 5,058 persons, and turning out an annual product valued at $10,160,492. The cost of material used was $5,597,990, and the wages paid $2,383,571. The number of different industries reported aggregated seventy-six. the more impor- tant being foundries, carriage and wagon fac- tories, agricultural implement works, cigar and

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HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.

tobacco factories, flour-mills, breweries, brick- yards, lime works, saddle and harness shops, paper mills, furniture factories, organ works, and artificial-ice factories. Population (1880), 27,268; (1890), 31,494; (1900), 36,252.

QUINCY, ALTON & ST. LOUIS RAILROAD. (See Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad.)

QUINCY & CHICAGO RAILROAD. (See Chi- cago. Burlington & Quincy Railroad.) QUINCY & TOLEDO RAILROAD. (See

Wabash Railroad.)

QUINCY & WARSAW RAILROAD. (See Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad.)

RAAB, Henry, ex-State Superintendent of Public Instruction, was born in Wetzlar, Rhen- ish Prussia, June 20, 1837; learned the trade of a currier with his father and came to the United States in 1853, finally locating at Belleville, Ill., where, in 1857, he became a teacher in the pub- lic schools; in 1873 was made Superintendent of schools for that city, and, in 1882, was elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction on the Democratic ticket, declined a renomination in 1886; was nominated a second time in 1890, and re-elected, but defeated by S. M. Inglis in 1894. In the administration of his office, Pro- fessor Raab showed a commendable freedom from partisanship. After retiring from the office of State Superintendent, he resumed a position in connection with the public schools of Belleville.

RADISSON, Pierre Esprit, an early French traveler and trader, who is said to have reached the Upper Mississippi on his third voyage to the West in 1658-59. The period of his explorations extended from 1652 to 1684, of which he prepared a narrative which was published by the Prince Society of Boston in 1885, under the title of "Radisson's Voyages." He and his brother-in- law, Medard Chouart, first conceived the idea of planting a settlement at Hudson's Bay. (See Chouart, Medard.)

RAILROAD AND WAREHOUSE COMMIS- SION, a Board of three Commissioners, appointed by the executive (by and with the advice and con- sent of the Senate), under authority of an act ap- proved, April 13, 1871, for the enforcement of the provisions of the Constitution and laws in relation to railroads and warehouses. The Commission's powers are partly judicial, partly executive. The following is a summary of its powers and duties: To establish a schedule of maximum rates, equi- table to shipper and carrier alike; to require yearly reports from railroads and warehouses; to hear and pass upon complaints of extortion and

unjust discrimination, and (if necessary) enforce prosecutions therefor; to secure the safe condi- tion of railway road-beds, bridges and trestles; to hear and decide all manner of complaints relative to intersections and to protect grade-crossings; to insure the adoption of a safe interlocking sys- tem, to be approved by the Commission; to enforce proper rules for the inspection and regis- tration of grain throughout the State. The prin- cipal offices of the Commission are at the State capital, where monthly sessions are held. For the purpose of properly conducting the grain inspection department, monthly meetings are also held at Chicago, where the offices of a Grain Inspector, appointed by the Board, are located. Here all business relating to this department is discussed and necessary special meetings are held. The inspection department has no revenue outside of fees, but the latter are ample for its maintenance. Fees for inspection on arrival ("inspection in") are twenty-five cents per car- load, ten cents per wagon-load, and forty cents per 1,000 bushels from canal-boat or vessels. For inspection from store ("inspected out") the fees are fifty cents per 1,000 bushels to vessels; thirty-five cents per car-load, and ten cents per wagon-load to teams. While there are never wanting some cases of friction between the trans- portation companies and warehousemen on the one hand, and the Commission on the other, there can be no question that the formation of the latter has been of great value to the receiv- ers, shippers, forwarders and tax-payers of the State generally. Similar regulations in regard to the inspection of grain in warehouses, at East St. Louis and Peoria, are also in force. The first Board, created under the act of 1871, consisted of Gustavus Koerner, Richard P. Morgan and David S. Hammond, holding office until 1873. Other Boards have been as follows: 1873-77-Henry D. Cook (deceased 1873, and succeeded by James Steele), David A. Brown and Jolın M. Pearson; 1877-83-William M. Smith, George M. Bogue and John H. Oberly (retired 1881 and succeeded by William H. Robinson); 1883-85-Wm. N. Brain- ard, E. C. Lewis and Charles T. Stratton; 1885-89 -John I. Rinaker, Benjamin F. Marsh and Wm. T. Johnson (retired in 1887 and succeeded by Jason Rogers) ; 1889-93-John R. Wheeler, Isaac N. Phillips and W. S. Crim (succeeded, 1891, by John R. Tanner); 1893-97-W. S. Cantrell, Thomas F. Gahan and Charles F. Lape (succeeded, 1895, by George W. Fithian); 1897-99-Cicero J. Lindley, Charles S. Rannells and James E. Bidwell. (See also Grain Inspection.)

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BIRD'S EYE VIEW OF ILLINOIS SOLDIERS' AND SAILORS' HOME, QUINCY.

SOLDIERS' WIDOWS' HOME. WILMINGTON.

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HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.

RAILROADS (IN GENERAL). The existing railroad system of Illinois had its inception in tlie mania for internal improvement which swept over the country in 1836-37, the basis of the plan adopted in Illinois (as in the Eastern States) being that the State should construct, maintain, own and operate an elaborate system. Lines were to be constructed front Cairo to Galena, from Alton to Mount Carmel, from Peoria to Warsaw, from Alton to the Central Railroad, from Belleville to Mount Carmel, from Bloomington to Mack- inaw Town, and from Meredosia to Springfield. The experiment proved extremely unfortunate to the financial interests of the State, and laid the foundation of an immense debt under which it staggered for many years. The Northern Cross Railroad, extending from Meredosia to Spring- field, was the only one so far completed as to be in operation. It was sold, in 1847, to Nicholas H. Ridgely, of Springfield for $21,100, he being the highest bidder. This line formed a nucleus of the existing Wabash system. The first road to be operated by private parties (outside of a prim- itive tramway in St. Clair County, designed for the transportation of coal to St. Louis) was the Galena & Chicago Union, chartered in 1836. This was the second line completed in the State, and the first to run from Chicago. The subsequent development of the railway system of Illinois was at first gradual, tlien steady and finally rapid. A succinct description of the various lines now in operation in the State may be found under appropriate headings. At present Illinois leads all the States of the Union in the extent of railways in operation, the total mileage (1897) of main track being 10,785.43-or 19 miles for each 100 square miles of territory and 25 miles for each 10,000 inhabitants-estimating tlie population (1898) at four and a quarter millions. Every one of the 102 counties of the State is traversed by at least one railroad except three-Callioun, Hardin and Pope. The entire capitalization of the 111 companies doing business in the State in 1896, (including capital stock, funded debt and current liabilities), was $2,669,164,142-equal to $67,556 per mile. In 1894, fifteen owned and ten leased lines paid dividends of from four to eight per cent on common, and from four to ten per cent on preferred, stock-the total amount thus paid aggregating $25,321,752. The total earnings and income, in Illinois, of all lines operated in the State, aggregated $77,508,537, while the total expenditure witliin the State was $71,463,367. Of tlie 58,263,860 tons of freiglit carried, 11,611,- 798 were of agricultural products and 17,179,366

mineral products. The number of passengers (earning revenue) carried during the year, was 83,281,655. The total number of railroad em- ployés (of all classes) was 61,200. The entire amount of taxes paid by railroad companies for the year was $3,846,379. From 1836, when the first special charter was granted for the con- struction of a railroad in Illinois, until 1869- after which all corporations of this character came under the general incorporation laws of the State in accordance with the Constitution of 1870 -293 special charters for the construction of railroads were granted by the Legislature, besides numerous amendments of charters already in existence. (For the history of important indi- vidual lines see each road under its corporate name.)

RALSTON, Virgil Young, editor and soldier, was born, July 16, 1828, at Vanceburg, Ky .; was a student in Illinois College one year (1846-47), after which he studied law in Quincy and prac- ticed for a time; also resided some time in Cali- fornia; 1855-57 was one of the editors of "The Quincy Whig," and represented that paper in the Editorial Convention at Decatur, Feb. 22, 1856. (See Anti-Nebraska Editorial Convention.) In 1861, he was commissioned a Captain in the Six- teenth Illinois Volunteers, but soon resigned on account of ill-health; later, enlisted in an Iowa regiment, but died in hospital at St. Louis, from wounds and exposure, April 19, 1864.

RAMSAY, Rufus N., State Treasurer, was born on a farm in Clinton County, Ill., May 20, 1838; received a collegiate education at Illinois and McKendree Colleges, and at Indiana State Uni- versity; studied law with ex-Gov. A. C. French, and was admitted to the bar in 1865, but soon abandoned the law for banking, in which he was engaged both at Lebanon and Carlyle, limiting his business to the latter place about 1890. He served one term (from 1865) as County Clerk, and two terms (1889 and '91) as Representative in the General Assembly, and, in 1892, was nominated as a Democrat and elected State Treasurer. Died in office, at Carlyle, Nov. 11, 1894.

RAMSEY, a village of Fayette County, at the intersection of the Illinois Central and tlie Toledo, St. Louis & Western Railroads, 12 miles nortlı of Vandalia; the district is agricultural; has one newspaper. Pop. (1890), 598; (1900), 747.

RANDOLPH COUNTY, lies in the southwest section of the State, and borders on the Missis- sippi River; area 560 square miles; named for Beverly Randolph. It was set off from St. Clair County in 1795, being the second county organ-

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ized in the territory which now constitutes the State of Illinois. From the earliest period of Illi- nois history, Randolph County has been a pivotal point. In the autumn of 1700 a French and Indian settlement was established at Kaskaskia, which subsequently became the center of French influence in the Mississippi Valley. In 1722 Prairie du Rocher was founded by the French. It was in Randolph County that Fort Chartres was built, in 1720, and it was here that Col. George Rogers Clark's expedition for the seizure of the "Illinois Country" met with success in the capture of Kaskaskia. American immigration began with the close of the Revolutionary War. Among the early settlers were the Cranes (Icha- bod and George), Gen. John Edgar, the Dodge family, the Morrisons, and John Rice Jones. Toward the close of the century came Shadrach Bond (afterwards the first Governor of the State) with his uncle of the same name, and the Menards (Pierre and Hippolyte), the first of whom subsequently became Lieutenant - Gov- ernor. (See Bond, Shadrach; Menard, Pierre.) In outline, Randolph County is triangular, while its surface is diversified. Timber and building stone are abundant, and coal underlies a consid- erable area. Chester, the county-seat, a city of 3,000 inhabitants, is a place of considerable trade and the seat of the Southern Illinois Penitentiary. The county is crossed by several railroad lines, and transportation facilities are excellent. Pop- ulation (1890), 25,049; (1900). 28,001.

RANSOM, (Gen.) Thomas Edward Greenfield, soldier, was born at Norwich, Vt., Nov. 29, 1834; educated at Norwich University, an institution under charge of his father, who was later an officer of the Mexican War and killed at Chapul- tepec. Having learned civil engineering, he entered on his profession at Peru, Ill., in 1851; in 1855 became a member of the real-estate firm of A. J. Galloway & Co., Chicago, soon after `removing to Fayette County, where he acted as agent of the Illinois Central Railroad. Under the first call for volunteers, in April, 1861, he organized a company, which having been incor- porated in the Eleventh Illinois, he was elected Major, and, on the reorganization of the regiment for the thirce-years' service, was commissioned Lieutenant-Colonel, in this capacity having com- mand of his regiment at Fort Donelson, where he was severely wounded and won deserved pro- motion to a colonelcy, as successor to Gen. W. H. L. Wallace, afterwards killed at Shiloh. Here Colonel Ransom again distinguished himself by his bravery, and though again wounded while

leading lıis regiment, remained in command through the day. His service was recognized by promotion as Brigadier - General. He bore a prominent part in the siege of Vicksburg and in the Red River campaign, and, later, commanded the Seventh Army Corps in the operations about Atlanta, but finally fell a victim to disease and lis numerous wounds, dying in Chicago, Oct. 29, 1864, having previously received the brevet rank of Major-General. General Ransom was con- fessedly one of the most brilliant officers contrib- uted by Illinois to the War for the Union, and was pronounced, by both Grant and Sherman, one of the ablest volunteer generals in their com- inands.

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Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of St. Clair County, Volume I, Part 88

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