USA > Illinois > St Clair County > Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of St. Clair County, Volume II > Part 20
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The cyclone which struck St. Louis at 5:30 P. M., on May 27, 1896, left its traces in St. Clair County, Ill., also. It was most severe west of Belleville, raging and blowing down houses between Belleville and the Mississippi River. Birkner and Harmony Stations were badly damaged, and several houses there blown down. Mascoutah was struck, and many of its buildings were destroyed. In Belleville, trees were uprooted and chimneys blown away. Richland Creek overflowed its banks and flooded the lower places in South Belleville.
LYNCHING OF DAVID WYATT .- On June 6, 1903, David Wyatt, a negro school teacher of Brook- lyn, Ill., shot County Superintendent of Schools Charles Hertel, for refusing to renew his cer- tificate. Complaints had come from the people of Brooklyn to the Superintendent that Wyatt had acted arbitrarily in many ways and been guilty of conduct unbecoming a man in charge of school children; hence Mr. Hertel could not conscientiously renew his certificate.
The shooting took place late in the after- noon, and soon afterward there were murmurs of lynching. Feeling ran high. The negro was arrested immediately, carefully guarded, and put in the murderer's cell in jail. Later in the evening, when it began to grow dark, a mob collected before the jail to talk over the affair and see what was going to be done. Attempts were made to disperse the mob. Mayor Kern tried to calm it by reason; but he was only jeered for his trouble. The au- thorities then tried to dampen the ardor of the crowd by sprinkling them with the city hose, whereupon they cut the hose into pieces.
Some of the most daring of the mob bat- tered down the front door with a heavy plank, but were covered with revolvers and forced to retreat. Meanwhile, the negro prisoners in the jail were frantic from fear, each one afraid of being taken by mistake.
At about 10:45, some of the mob attacked the rear door of the jail, which was unguarded,
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
battered it down with sledge hammers, and burst into the jail. They then proceeded to break the strong lock of the murderer's cell, which took them over half an hour. About 11:30, they dragged forth the negro, kicked and otherwise abused him, then tied a rope around his neck and dragged him to Spring Street, north to Main, thence to the public square. The crowd, meanwhile, followed close- ly. When they reached the square, they hanged the negro to a pole, mutilated his body, then poured kerosene on it, which they ignited, burning practically all his remains. The note- worthy feature of this lynching was the fact that, instead of the wrathful spirit which is supposed to characterize mobs, this mob showed a spirit of levity, evidently considering the mat- ter a great joke, which certainly it was not.
An inquest was held, and the jury decided: "We, the jury, find that the deceased came to his death at the hands of parties unknown to the jury." There was some talk, later, about prosecuting the men who led the lynching, but practically nothing was done.
The jail was pretty badly injured in the attack, nearly all the windows being broken and the doors badly battered, the damage amounting to between $300 and $400. Fortu- nately Mr. Hartel recovered from his wound.
CHARLES DICKENS'S DESCRIPTION OF BELLE- VILLE IN 1842 .- "Belleville was a small collec- tion of wooden houses, huddled together in the very heart of the bush and swamp. Many of them had singularly bright doors of red and yellow, for the place had been visited lately by a traveling painter, who got along by eating his way, as I was told." Court was in session and Dickens states that "the horses of the Judge, the bar, and the witnesses, were tied to rough temporary racks in the road, which was a for- est path nearly knee deep in mud and slime. The hotel in this place was like all hotels in America; it was an odd, shambling, low-roofed out-house, half cow-shed and half kitchen; with a coarse brown canvas table-cloth, and tin sconces stuck against the walls, to hold candles at supper time."1
THE BELLEVILLE LITERARY SOCIETY .- This was a society formed of public-spirited citizens of
Belleville in educational interests. A meeting was held at the court-house, July 24, 1850, to organize the society. Its object, according to the by-laws, was "the promotion of education, science, and literature, by procuring and fur- nishing suitable buildings and grounds in the city of Belleville, for the use of schools es- tablished by the Belleville School Association, and for scientific purposes in general." The stock was in shares of $100 each, each share entitling the owner to one vote; and the busi- ness of the society was confided to five Trustees to be elected by the stockholders ac- cording to law.
The following were original stockholders: Messrs. Theodore Krafft, Henry Goedeking, Jo- seph Kircher, Philip B. Fouke, Thomas James, D. M. Hopkins, Charles T. Elles, Samuel B. Chandler, William C. Kinney, Edward Abend, Nathaniel Niles, H. Schleth, William Lorey, T. Heberer, John Scheel, Dr. H. D. Berchelmann, Taylor and Williams, William H. Underwood, Charles Merck, Theodore Engelmann, Peter Wilding, John Reynolds, Julius Raith, George T. Neuhoff, Jacob Knoebel, Conrad Bornman, James L. D. Morrison, Edward Tittmann, C. Tittmann, James Affleck, Mace & Heely, Dr. E. Jörg, J. W. Pulliam, Russell Hinckley, Gustavus Koerner, James Shields. The following officers were elected: Messrs. Henry Goedeking, Charles T. Elles, William H. Underwood, Na- thaniel Niles, John Scheel, Trustees; Henry Goedeking, President; Charles T. Elles, Secre- tary and Treasurer.
The first act of the new society was to buy Odd Fellows Hall to be leased to the school association for a public school building, for the sum of $2,500. In 1851, the Trustees elect- ed were: C. T. Elles, J. W. Pulliam, James Affleck, E. Yoerg, and H. Goedeking. The Pres- ident and Secretary of the preceding year were re-elected. The Board then erected a belfry, and had a bell placed in the building. They also voted to propose to the Library Society to move their library from Dr. Schott's and become members of the Literary Society, which proposition was later accepted.
In August, 1852, the following Trustees were elected: Messrs. C. T. Elles, William Lorey, James Affleck, William H. Underwood, and Rus- sell Hinckley. William Lorey was elected
(1) Charles Dickens' "American Notes." The au- thor is said to have stopped at the old "Mansion House" during his stay in Belleville.
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
President, and C. T. Elles re-elected Secretary and Treasurer.
In August, 1853, the officers were re-elected, and the Trustees, with the exception of James Affleck and William H. Underwood, who were replaced by Edward Tittmann and Dr. Berchel- mann. In the minutes of the society, under date of July 14, 1854, is recorded the following: "I made a lease for the first and second stories with Mrs. Edwards and Miss Hough for one year and $150, from September 1, 1854." (Signed) "C. T. Elles, Secretary."
In February, 1855, the same Trustees and offi- cers were re-elected. September 3, 1855, C. T. Elles resigned his position as Secretary of the association, having disposed of his stock in the Literary Society Hall, commonly known as Odd Fellows' Hall. Russell Hinckley was elected to fill his place. In February, 1856, however, Mr. Elles was unanimously consti- tuted a member of the board, having become an owner of stock since last meeting, and at the next election he was again elected Secre- tary and Treasurer.
In August, 1858, the following Trustees were elected: Messrs. Joseph Kircher, Conrad Born- man, William Lorey, C. T. Elles. The officers were re-elected. In the election of the follow- ing year, the result was as the year before, with the exception of Mr. Kircher, who was replaced by Jacob Knoebel.
In September, 1863, the Trustees of the Lit- erary Society declared their definite intention to sell the Literary Hall and the furniture there- in, and gave notice to the School Directors to vacate said hall within sixty days from Sep- tomber 26, 1863. At the meeting of January 26, 1867, the Treasurer reported that the Lit- erary Hall was vacated by the School Directors, the keys of the hall delivered, and the rent was paid. Later the hall was offered to the City Council for a City Hall for $5,500, but this offer was not accepted. February 20, 1868, we find the following record:
"We, the undersigned stockholders of the Belleville Literary Society, hereby acknowledge the receipt of $125 per share in full; and here- by assign, for value received, all right, title, and interest in the Belleville Literary Hall to Russel Hinckley." A dividend was also recorded and as signed by the Trustees, Jo- seph Kircher, C. T. Elles, William Lorey, Jacob Knoebel, Conrad Bornman and Russel Hinck-
ley. As no meetings are reported after 1868, we conclude that the organization ceased to exist about that time.
BELLEVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY .- Before 1835, a few leading Germans, who had made this part of Southern Illinois their home, began ransack- ing private libraries, that for some time past had been neglected-rescuing some of their old national poems and philosophical works from the dust, and blending them with works tending to illustrate the history and political science of the country of their adoption. An informal meeting was held at the house of one of their number, in July, 1836, when the follow- ing agreement was entered into:
"The subscribers hereby have united into a society for the purpose of owning and posses- sing, in common, a library; and they pledge for the maintenance, and, if possible, augmen- tation of the same, to pay, on the twelfth of August, 1836, the sum of three dollars each, and on the same day of every subsequent year the sum of one dollar and fifty cents each, into the treasury of the society thus formed."
The parties to this agreement were: T. E. Hilgard, A. F. Wolfe, Theodore Engelmann, Theodore Hilgard, Julius Scheve, Hon. Gusta- vus Koerner, Anton Schott, M. D., H. Wolf, George Bunsen, W. Decker, Von Haxthauser, Franz Koehler, J. Ledergerber, A. Reuss, M. D., Otto Hilgard, Dr. Adolph Engelmann, J. C. Hildenbrandt and Carl Koehler. The first offi- cers of the society thus formed were: Presi- dent, G. Bunsen; Librarian, Anton Schott; Treasurer, F. Hilgard; Directors, Adolph Reuss and A. Berchelmann.
An act of incorporation was drafted for the society which soon afterward became a law. The first meetings of the society were held at the houses of one or other of the leading mem- bers, alternately, and only four were held in each year. They were generally opened with readings from some favorite author, or of origi- nal essays on current subjects, as a preliminary to discussion and criticism. But these literary meetings also partook of a social, and some- times a convivial nature. The library was formed mainly by donations of books in the first instance, but, as funds accumulated, books were purchased, and at length it began to as- sume respectable proportions. As a matter of niere curiosity, we may state that the first books bought were "Jared Sparks' Life and
.
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
Writings of Washington," and a journal of the proceedings of the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States, held in 1836. The library was kept at the house of Dr. Schott, the librarian, until 1852, when it was removed to Belleville, and Messrs. Rau, Kellermann and Raab successively became librarians. Having attracted the atten- tion of many leading representative men, it received valuable additions from Senators Breese and Trumbull and Congressmen Bissell, Fouke, Morrison and others.
The Sængerfest was established in Belle- ville in 1853, and besides cultivating a taste for vocal music among members, began also the formation of a library for their use. The founders of this society were Jacob Brosius, An- drew Kissell, Jacob Weingartner, Philip P. Gundlach, Daniel Schmidt, Jacob Geiss, William Oster and Frederick Kuhn. In 1859, the old German Library Society and the Sængerbund were united and incorporated under the name of the "Belleville Sængerbund and Library So- ciety."
Under the charter of 1860, Dr. Schott was chosen President; Gustav Kellerman, Libra- rian; Frederick Reiss, Treasurer; Bernhard Wick and Jacob Weingaertner, Directors. The library was moved to the corner of Main and High Streets, the corner owned by Mr. C. T. Elles, and later to the room above the engine- house on North Illinois and B Streets.
The united society in 1870 had nearly 500 members, including many leading citizens, and the library contained nearly 5,000 volumes of the choicest works in the English and Ger- man languages. The business meetings were held semi-monthly, and the musical rehearsals on Tuesday and Friday of each week. These musical rehearsals were conducted by a pro- fessor, who usually accompanied the singers on a piano. The society's rooms were fitted up and furnished in a style becoming the objects of the organization and the requirements of its members. An annual fee of $3, collected from each member, met the ordinary expenses of the society, which was then in a very thriv- ing condition, and more cosmopolitan in its character than when its foundations were first laid in 1836.
In 1883, the library had 8,875 volumes. At that time, the Belleville Sængerbund and Li-
brary Society was about to dissolve, and of- fered to give its library to the city on condi- tion that it be a free library forever, and that the city assume a certain pecuniary obliga- tion. The City Council accepted the offer. The Belleville Public Library was established Feb- ruary 5, 1883, and the Mayor, Benjamin J. West, Jr., appointed as Library Directors the following citizens: Hon. Gustavus Koerner, Dr. George Loelkes, Dr. Washington West, Curt Heinfelden, Alonzo S. Wilderman, F. G. Kenow- er, Theodore J. Krafft, Hugh W. Harrison, and Charles Knipsel. The library was then moved to the engine house on South Jackson Street, between Main and First Streets, February 2, 1884, F. J. Staufenbeil was appointed Librarian, and Miss Josephine Bissell, Assistant Librarian.
September 4, 1893, the library was moved to its present quarters in the City Hall, a build- ing erected on the southwest corner of Illinois and First Streets, at a cost of $55,700.
In the year 1903-04, the library lost by death two invaluable and faithful officials, Mr. F. J. Staufenbiel, Librarian, and Miss Josephine Bis- sell, Assistant Librarian. The present officials are: Mr. A. M. Wolleson, Librarian; Mrs. Anna Barbeau and Miss Elsa Raab, Assistant Libra- rians.
If we note changes brought about in twenty years, we can appreciate the growth of the library:
1884.
1904.
Books in library.
8,875
37,338
Books loaned out.
8,411
23,619
Visitors ..
11,866
31,764
Readers.
5,975
13,028
Reading cards issued
345
5,907
MATTERS OF LOCAL INTEREST TREATED ELSE- WHERE .- Belleville's educational history, her ec- clesiastical history, her part in the Civil War and in other wars, the establishment and de- velopment of her newspaper press, something of the careers of her professional men promi- nent in other days, fraternal organizations, fig- ures indicating the rise and progress of her coal industry, an account of the centennial cele- bration of the organization of the county, held within her limits, and other important and in- teresting matters connected with local history, are, by the plan of this work, included in other chapters.
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
CHAPTER XVIII.
CITY OF EAST ST. LOUIS.
GENERAL HISTORY-RICHARD M'CARTY FIRST SET- TLER-CAPTAIN PIGGOTT AND OTHER EARLY ARRI- VALS-WIGGINS FERRY ESTABLISHED IN 1816- LAFAYETTE'S VISIT-"BLOODY ISLAND" AND SOME NOTABLE DUELS-FLOODS AND TORNADOES-JACK- SONVILLE AND ILLINOISTOWN EARLY VILLAGES- COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT-
RAILROADS, MANUFACTURES AND LIVE-STOCK TRADE-CITY INCORPORATED - MUNICIPAL OFFI- CIALS - POSTMASTERS - PROSPECTIVE FEDERAL BUILDING - BUSINESS MEN'S ORGANIZATIONS- THE EADS BRIDGE-OTHER LOCAL IMPROVEMENTS -NATIONAL STOCK YARDS - CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS - PRESS AND PUBLIC LIBRARY - LAW- YERS AND PHYSICIANS-TO WIIOM HONOR IS DUE.
EAST ST. LOUIS HISTORY IN OUTLINE. (Con- tributed by Thomas L. Fekete.)-To write a history of East St. Louis that would, in any sense, be complete, would require more space than should be expected of us, but we here reproduce the main features of the city's his- tory. In so doing we must refer to its loca- tion opposite the great metropolis of the Mis- sissippi Valley and in the heart of the "Great American Bottoms"-probably the richest strip of land in the United States; while the "Fa- ther of Waters," the mighty Mississippi River, one of the greatest arteries of commerce, flows beside her, and is spanned by that vast engi- neering triumph, the Eads Bridge, which unites the largest city of Southern Illinois with St. Louis.
For more than one hundred years there has been something of a community where East St. Louis stands. In 1765 Richard McCarty (known as "English McCarty") settled here, owning 400 acres of land on both sides of Ca- hokia Creek. Twenty years later the whole sec- tion was devastated by a flood, pronounced by the Indians as the greatest whose memory was preserved in their traditions. White settlers, however, soon repaired the damage wrought by the flood, and a little group of houses, mainly inns and houses of entertainment, ap- peared in the south part of what is now the city of East St. Louis. At that time farmers
from the country who wished to transport their produce to the growing settlement of St. Louis left their teams where East St. Louis now is and crossed on canoes and on flat boats, bringing back goods in the same way. In 1797 a ferry to accommodate these people was instituted by Captain Piggott. In 1810 the first brick house was built by Etienne Pen- soneau at what is now the corner of Main and Menard Streets. The first steamboat to ascend the Mississippi, having been launched at Pittsburg, came to East St. Louis in 1811.
Just after the battle of New Orleans in 1815 the residents planned "Jacksonville," which name was changed two years later to Illinois Town, though the plat was not recorded until 1825. Fifty years afterward this was made a part of East St. Louis. In 1810 "Bloody Island," now called "The Island," and embrac- ing the territory between Cahokia Creek and the Mississippi, received its first public notice. It was here, in 1817, that the first noted duel between St. Louisans was fought. On Au- gust 12 of that year Colonel Thomas H. Benton and Charles Lucas met here, according to the code then prevailing, and Mr. Lucas was se- riously wounded. Six weeks later they met again at the same place and this time Mr. Lu- cas was killed.
In 1818, the Wiggins Ferry was established and has ever since been one of the commercial institutions of East St. Louis. In 1902 the stock in this company was bought up by the associa- tion that controls the Eads Bridge.
Another duel was fought, June 30, 1823, on Bloody Island, between Thomas C. Rector and Joshua Barton, in which Barton was killed. By this time the code had fallen into disre- pute, but it was not until 1830, when, on Au- gust 27, in a duel between Thomas Biddle and Spencer Pettis, both principals were killed, that the frown of society was formidable enough to prevent further encounters of this kind.
In 1825, on the 29th of April, the Marquis de Lafayette visited East St. Louis. In 1826 occurred another overflow of the Mississippi River, which spread to a great depth over the lowlands. In 1828 the Wiggins Ferry began to operate with steam as a motive power. It was in 1836 that the first railroad in the State of Illinois was built from East St. Louis to the Bluffs. It was owned by the Illinois &
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CITY HALL, EAST ST. LOUIS.
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HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
St. Louis Coal Company and its cars were drawn by horses. Four years later, the first school- house within the present limits of the city of East St. Louis was built by Captain John Trendley and, in 1841, the firm of Sunrix and Jarrot began the publication of the first news- paper, "The American Bottom Gazette," near the corner of Main and Market Streets.
In 1844 occurred the greatest Mississippi flood in the memory of white men. The overflow ex- tended from the Missouri Bluffs to those in Illinois, covering the entire bottoms on both sides of the main channel so that a steamboat is said to have crossed over to the Illinois bluffs over the bottom lands. After the sub- sidence of the waters a settlement called "Paps- town" was started near where the Heim's Brew- ery was afterward built.
The first church within the corporate limits of East St. Louis was built by the Methodists in 1845. The Methodist Episcopal Church of Illinois Town was erected in 1849. This, in 1868, became St. John's Methodist Episcopal Church and, again in 1887, was reorganized as the Summit Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church. In 1905 this congregation moved to an elegant stone church at Thirteenth Street and Summit Avenue.
On February 13, 1847, the St. Clair County Turnpike Company was incorporated. This was the first turnpike in the State of Illi- nois and is still in existence under the name of The Rock Road. The same year the first dyke was built on the site of Vaughn's dyke. but the flood of 1851 destroyed it.
The ground was broken for the first steam railroad, the Ohio & Misissippi, in 1852, though the road was not formally opened until 1857.
In 1854 the St. Louis, Alton & Terre Haute Railroad Company opened a branch line from East St. Louis to Belleville under the name of
the Belleville & Illinoistown Road, which later (1873) was extended, under the name of the Belleville & Southern Illinois, to Duquoin, there forming a connection with the Illinois Central Railroad and giving a direct line to Cairo. These two sections now constitute a part of the Illinois Central System known as the "Cairo Short Line."
The construction of the first division of this line marked the real beginning of East St. Louis, though it was still some years before the town received its now famous name. This
growth is to be attributed primarily to the Ohio & Mississippi Railroad, which bore to the East the market staples of St. Louis and the West- ern country. Buffalo meat and robes, bear car- casses, venison, fine furs and abundant sup- plies of wheat, corn and other farm products began to roll to the Atlantic ports from St. Louis, the new city of the West, which had hitherto been connected with them only by wagon conveyance, canals, or the slow early- date steamboats which dubiously plowed their way up the Ohio River, when disaster did not prevent. Soon curious, adventurous spirits came to the Western city to test the mood of Dame Fortune in commercial ventures. Grad- ually this infusion of Yankee blood stirred the old French metropolis west of the river into a growth some part of which was shared by the village on the eastern shore. Railroad after railroad now entered their competitive forces for the wealth of the West. The Chi- cago & Alton, the Toledo & Western, the Terre Haute & Indianapolis, and other routes long since absorbed by the gigantic trunk lines of Gould, Vanderbilt, Harriman and Hill, slowly and laboriously built their several tracks into East St. Louis, where they were compelled to locate their termini and establish their west- ern bases. These great institutions, the Wig- gins Ferry Company and the St. Louis Trans- fer Company, originated and gained power from this fact, and have grown stronger and more prosperous as the years went by. Thus it has been that East St. Louis became a railroad center, and its population of engineers and fire- men, of conductors, brakemen, switchmen, ma- chinists and other railroad employes became a marked factor in building up the new town.
The rolling mills-one of which was built where the Republic Steel Works now stand, the other on the site of the present Relay Depot-gave a new element to the rapidly grow- ing population. The Heims Brewery supplied its foaming beverage to the thirsty residents, and a flour-mill and elevators arose along the river bank. All this time residences, stores, sa- loons and shops were being built in all di- rections. In 1859 the town of East St. Louis was platted and entered of record. This did not include the part of the city then known as Illinois City, which came in 1887. In 1865 the town was incorporated under a special charter as a city, and though this charter was
754
HISTORY OF ST. CLAIR COUNTY.
once amended, it was abandoned in 1888, and East St. Louis was organized under the gen- eral law.
In 1854 the first hotel, the Western, or Bundy House, was opened at what is now 120 South Main Street. Four years later came another of the great floods that have so often spread over the bottom lands of the Mississippi River.
The first President of the First Board of Trustees of Illinois City was Daniel Sexton, elected in 1859.
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