Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Winnebago County, Volume I, Part 102

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913; Church, Charles A., 1857-
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 724

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HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS.

over fifty years in its pursuit in connection with private and public schools and the College, of which more than forty years were as Professor and President of Lombard University at Galesburg. He has also lectured and conducted Teachers' Institutes all over the State, and, in 1859, was elected President of the State Teachers' Associ- ation. He made three visits to the Old World- in 1879, '82-83, and '91-92-and, during his second trip, traveled over 40,000 miles, visiting nearly every country of Europe, including the "Land of the Midnight Sun," besides Northern Africa from the Mediterranean to the Desert of Sahara, Egypt, Palestine, Syria and Asia Minor. A lover of art, he has visited nearly all the principal museums and picture galleries of the world. In politics he is a Republican, and, in opposition to many college men, a firm believer in the doctrine of protection. In religion, he is a Universalist.

STAPP, James T. B., State Auditor, was born in Woodford County, Ky., April 13, 1804; at the age of 12 accompanied his widowed mother to Kaskaskia, Ill., where she settled; before he was 20 years old, was employed as a clerk in the office of the State Auditor, and, upon the resignation of that officer, was appointed his successor, being twice thereafter elected by the Legislature, serv- ing nearly five years. He resigned the auditor- ship to accept the Presidency of the State Bank at Vandalia, which post he filled for thirteen years; acted as Aid-de-camp on Governor Rey- nolds staff in the Black Hawk War, and served as Adjutant of the Third Illinois Volunteers dur- ing the war with Mexico. President Taylor appointed Mr. Stapp Receiver of the United States Land Office at Vandalia, which office he held during the Fillmore administration, resign- ing in 1855. Two years later he removed to Decatur, where he continued to reside until his death in 1876. A handsome Methodist chapel, erected by him in that city, bears his name.

STARK COUNTY, an interior county in the northern half of the State, lying west of the Illi- nois River; has an area of 290 square miles. It has a rich, alluvial soil, well watered by numer- ous small streams. The principal industries are agriculture and stock-raising, and the chief towns are Toulon and Wyoming. The county was erected from Putnam and Knox in 1839, and named in honor of General Stark, of Revolution- ary fame. The earliest settler was Isaac B. Essex, who built a cabin on Spoon River, in 1828, and gave his name to a township. Of other pio- neer families, the Buswells, Smiths, Spencers and

Eastmans came from New England; the Thom- ases, Moores, Holgates, Fullers and Whittakers from Pennsylvania; the Coxes from Ohio; the Perrys and Parkers from Virginia; the McClana- hans from Kentucky; the Hendersons from Ten- nessee; the Lees and Hazens from New Jersey ; the Halls from England, and the Turnbulls and Olivers from Scotland. The pioneer church was the Congregational at Toulon. Pop. (1880), 11,207; (1890), 9,982; (1900), 10,186; (1910), 10,098.

STARVED ROCK, a celebrated rock or cliff on the south side of Illinois River, in La Salle County, upon which the French explorer, La Salle, and his lieutenant, Tonty, erected a fort in 1682, which they named Fort St. Louis. It was one mile north of the supposed location of the Indian village of La Vantum, the metropolis, so to speak, of the Illinois Indians about the time of the arrival of the first French explorers. Tha population of this village, in 1680, according to Father Membre, was some seven or eight thou- sand. Both La Vantum and Fort St. Louis were repeatedly attacked by the Iroquois. The Illinois were temporarily driven from Lá Vantum, but the French, for the time being, successfully defended their fortification. In 1702 the fort was abandoned as a military post, but continued to be used as a French trading-post until 1718, when it was burned by Indians. The Illinois were not again molested until 1722, when the Foxes made an unsuccessful attack upon them. The larger portion of the tribe, however, resolved to cast in their fortunes with other tribes on the Mississippi River. Those who remained fell an easy prey to the foes by whom they were sur- rounded. In 1769 they were attacked from the north by tribes who desired to avenge the murder of Pontiac. Finding themselves hard pressed, they betook themselves to the bluff where Fort St. Louis had forinerly stood. Here they were besieged for twelve days, when, destitute of food or water, they made a gallant but hopeless sortie. According to a tradition handed down among the Indians, all were massacred by the besiegers in an attempt to escape by night, except one half- breed, who succeeded in evading his pursuers. This sanguinary catastrophe has given the rock its popular name. Elmer Baldwin, in his History of La Salle County (1877), says: "The bones of the victims lay scattered about the cliff in pro- fusion after the settlement by the whites, and are still found mingled plentifully with the soil." In1911, the Starved Rock tract (290 acres) was bought by the State for $146,000; will become a historic park.

STARVED ROCK

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STARNE, Alexander, Secretary of State and State Treasurer, was born in Philadelphia, Pa., Nov. 21, 1813; in the spring of 1836 removed to Illinois, settling at Griggsville, Pike County, where he opened a general store. From 1839 to '42 he served as Commissioner of Pike County, and, in the latter year, was elected to the lower house of the General Assembly, and re-elected in 1844. Having, in the meanwhile, disposed of his store at Griggsville and removed to Pittsfield, he was appointed, by Judge Purple, Clerk of the Circuit Court, and elected to the same office for four years, when it was made elective. In 1853 he was elected Secretary of State, when he removed to Springfield, returning to Griggsville at the expiration of his term in 1857, to assume the Presidency of the old Hannibal and Naples Railroad (now a part of the Wabash system). He represented Pike and Brown Counties in the Constitutional Convention of 1862, and the same year was elected State Treasurer. He thereupon again removed to Springfield, where he resided until his death, being, with his sons, extensively engaged in coal mining. In 1870, and again in 1872, he was elected State Senator from San- gamon County. He died at Springfield, March 31, 1886.

STATE BANK OF ILLINOIS. The first legis- lation. having for its object the establishment of a bank within the territory which now consti- tutes the State of Illinois, was the passage, by the Territorial Legislature of 1816, of an act incorporating the "Bank of Illinois at Shawnee- town, with branches at Edwardsville and Kas- kaskia." In the Second General Assembly of the State (1820) an act was passed, over the Governor's veto and in defiance of the adverse judgment of the Council of Revision, establish- ing a State Bank at Vandalia with branches at Shawneetown, Edwardsville, and Brownsville in Jackson County. This was, in effect, a recharter- ing of the banks at Shawneetown and Edwards- ville. So far as the former is concerned, it seems to have been well managed; but the official conduct of the officers of tlie latter, on the basis of charges made by Governor Edwards in 1826, was made the subject of a legislative investiga- tion, which (although it resulted in nothing) seems to have had some basis of fact, in view of the losses finally sustained in winding up its affairs-that of the General Government amount- ing to $54,000. Grave charges were made in this connection against men who were then, or afterwards became, prominent in State affairs, including one Justice of the Supreme Court and one (still later) a United States Senator. The

experiment was disastrous, as, ten years later (1831), it was found necessary for the State to incur a debt of $100,000 to redeem the outstand- ing circulation. Influenced, however, by the popular demand for an increase in the "circu- lating medium," the State continued its experi- ment of becoming a stockholder in banks managed by its citizens, and accordingly we find it, in 1835, legislating in the same direction for the establishing of a central "Bank of Illinois" at Springfield, with branches at other points as might be required, not to exceed six in number. One of these branches was established at Van- dalia and another at Chicago, furnishing the first banking institution of the latter city. Two years later, when the State was entering upon its scheme of internal improvement, laws were enacted increasing the capital stock of these banks to $4,000,000 in the aggregate. Following the example of similar institutions elsewhere, they suspended specie payments a few months later, but were protected by "stay laws" and other devices until 1842, when the internal improvement scheme having been finally aban- cloned, they fell in general collapse. The State ceased to be a stock-holder in 1843, and the banks were put in course of liquidation, though it required several years to complete the work.

STATE CAPITALS. The first State capital of Illinois was Kaskaskia, where the first Territorial Legislature convened, Nov. 25, 1812. At that tinie there were but five counties in the State- St. Clair and Randolph being the most important, and Kaskaskia being the county-seat of the latter. Illinois was admitted into the Union as a State in 1818, and the first Constitution provided that the seat of government should remain at Kaskaskia until removed by legislative enact- nient. That instrument, however, made it obli- gatory upon the Legislature, at its first session, to petition Congress for a grant of not more than four sections of land, on which should be erected a town, which should remain the seat of govern- ment for twenty years. The petition was duly presented and granted; and, in accordance with the power granted by the Constitution, a Board of five Commissioners selected the site of the present city of Vandalia, then a point in the wilderness twenty miles north of any settle- ment. But so great was the faith of speculators in the future of the proposed city, that town lots were soon selling at $100 to $780 each. The Com- missioners, in obedience to law, erected a plain two-story frame building-scarcely more than a commodious shanty-to which the State offices were removed in December, 1820. This building

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was burned, Dec. 9, 1823, and a brick structure tracts, thus causing a direct loss to the State. If the internal improvement scheme was ill-advised, the time chosen to carry it into effect was most unfortunate, as it came simultaneously with the panic of 1837, rendering the disaster all the more erected in its place. Later, when the question of a second removal of the capital began to be agi- tated, the citizens of Vandalia assumed the risk of erecting a new, brick State House, costing $16,000. Of this amount $6,000 was reimbursed . complete. Of the various works undertaken by by the Governor from. the contingent fund, and the balance ($10,000) was appropriated in 1837, when the seat of government was removed to Springfield, by vote of the Tenth General Assem- bly on the fourth ballot. The other places receiv- ing the principal vote at the time of the removal to Springfield, were Jacksonville, Vandalia, Peoria, Alton and Illiopolis-Springfield receiv- ing the largest vote at each ballot. The law removing the capital appropriated $50,000 from the State Treasury, provided that a like amount should be raised by private subscription and guaranteed by bond, and that at least two acres of land should be donated as a site. Two State Houses have been erected at Springfield, the first cost of the present one (including furnishing) having been a little in excess of $4,000,000. Abraham Lincoln, who was a member of the Legislature from Sangamon County at the time, was an influential factor in securing the removal of the capital to Springfield.

STATE DEBT. The State debt, which proved so formidable a burden upon the State of Illinois for a generation, and, for a part of that period, seriously checked its prosperity, was the direct outgrowth of the internal improvement scheme entered upon in 1837. (See Internal Improvement Policy.) At the time this enterprise was under- taken the aggregate debt of the State was less than $400,000-accumulated within the preceding six years. Two years later (1838) it had increased to over $6,500,000, while the total valuation of real and personal property, for the purposes of taxation, was less than $60,000,000, and the aggre- gate receipts of the State treasury, for the same year, amounted to less than $150,000. At the same time, the disbursements, for the support of the State Government alone, had grown to more than twice the receipts. This disparity continued until the declining credit of the State forced upon the managers of public affairs an involuntary economy, when the means could no longer be secured for more lavish expenditures. The first bonds issued at the inception of the internal improvement scheme sold at a premium of 5 per cent, but rapidly declined until they were hawked in the markets of New York and London at a dis- count, in some cases falling into the hands of brokers who failed before completing their con-

the State, only the Illinois & Michigan Canal brought a return, all the others resulting in more or less complete loss. The internal improvement scheme was abandoned in 1839-40, but not until State bonds exceeding $13,000,000 had been issued. For two years longer the State struggled with its embarrassments, increased by the failure of the State Bank in February, 1842, and, by that of the Bank of Illinois at Shawneetown, a few months later, with the proceeds of more than two and a half millions of the State's bonds in their possession. Thus left without credit, or means even of paying the accruing interest, there were those who regarded the State as hopelessly bank- rupt, and advocated repudiation as the only means of escape. Better counsels prevailed, how- ever; the Constitution of 1848 put the State on a basis of strict economy in the matter of salaries and general expenditures, with restrictions upon the Legislature in reference to incurring in- debtedness, while the beneficent "two-mill tax" gave assurance to its creditors that its debts would be paid. While the growth of the State, in wealth and population, had previously been checked by the fear of excessive taxation, it now entered upon a new career of prosperity, in spite of its burdens-its increase in population, be- tween 1850 and 1860, amounting to over 100 per cent. The movement of the State debt after 1840 -when the internal improvement scheme was abandoned-chiefly by accretions of unpaid inter- est, has been estimated as follows: 1842, $15,- 637,950; 1844, $14,633,969; 1846, $16,389,817; 1848, $16,661,795. It reached its maximum in 1853- the first year of Governor Matteson's administra- tion-when it was officially reported at $16, 724,- 177. At this time the work of extinguishment began, and was prosecuted under successive administrations, except during the war, when the vast expense incurred in sending troops to the field caused an increase. During Governor Bissell's administration, the reduction amounted to over $3,000,000; during Oglesby's, to over five and a quarter million, besides two and a quarter million paid on interest. In 1880 the debt had been reduced to $281,059.11, and, before the close of 1882, it had been entirely extinguished, except a balance of $18,500 in bonds, which, having been called in years previously and never presented for

Av.

The Practice School.

Main Building. Gymnasium and Library Building.

ILLINOIS STATE NORMAL UNIVERSITY, NORMAL.

Library and Gymnasium Building.

Main Building.

SOUTHERN ILLINOIS NORMAL, CARBONDALE.

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payment, are supposed to have been lost. (See Macalister and Stebbins Bonds. )

STATE GUARDIANS FOR GIRLS, a bureau organized for the care of female juvenile delin- quents, by act of June 2, 1893. The Board consists of seven members, nominated by the Executive and confirmed by the Senate, and who consti- tute a body politic and corporate. Not more than two of the members may reside in the same Con- gressional District and, of the seven members, four must be women. (See also Home for Female Juvenile Offenders.) The term of office is six years.

STATE HOUSE, located at Springfield. Its construction was begun under an act passed by the Legislature in February, 1867, and completed in 1887. It stands in a park of about eight acres, donated to the State by the citizens of Spring- field. A provision of the State Constitution of 1870 prohibited the expenditure of any sum in excess of $3,500,000 in the erection and furnishing of. the building, without previous approval of such additional expenditure by the people. This amount proving insufficient, the Legislature, at its session of 1885, passed an act making an addi- tional appropriation of $531,712, which having been approved by popular vote at the general election of 1886, the expenditure was made and the capitol completed during the following year, thus raising the total cost of construction and fur- nishing to a little in excess of $4,000,000. The building is cruciform as to its ground plan, and classic in its style of architecture; its extreme dimensions (including porticoes), from north to south, being 379 feet, and, from east to west, 286 feet. The walls are of dressed Joliet limestone, while the porticoes, which are spacious and lofty, are of sandstone, supported by polished columns of gray granite. The three stories of the building are surinounted by a Mansard roof, with two turrets and a central dome of stately dimensions. Its extreme height, to the top of the iron flag-staff, wlrich rises from a lantern springing from the dome, is 364 feet.

STATE NORMAL UNIVERSITY, an institu- tion for the education of teachers, organized under an act of the General Assembly, passed Feb. 18, 1857. This act placed the work of organization in the hands of a board of fifteen persons, which was styled "The Board of Educa- tion of the State of Illinois, " and was constituted as follows: C. B. Denio of Jo Daviess County ; Simeon Wright of Lee; Daniel Wilkins of Mc- Lean ; Charles E. Hovey of Peoria; George P. Rex of Pike; Samuel W. Moulton of Shelby; John

Gillespie of Jasper; George Bunsen of St. Clair; Wesley Sloan of Pope; Ninian W. Edwards of Sangamon; John R. Eden of Moultrie; Flavel Moseley and William Wells of Cook; Albert R. Shannon of White; and the Superintendent of Public Instruction, ex-officio. The object of the University, as defined in the organizing law, is to qualify teachers for the public schools of the State, and the course of instruction to be given embraces "the art of teaching, and all branches which pertain to a common-school education; in the elements of the natural sciences, including agricultural chemistry, animal and vegetable physiology; in the fundamental laws of the United States and of the State of Illinois in regard to the rights and duties of citizens, and such other studies as the Board of Education may, from time to time, prescribe." Various cities competed for the location of the institution, Bloomington being finally selected, its bid, in- cluding 160 acres of land, being estimated as equivalent to $141,725. The corner-stone was laid on September 29, 1857, and the first building was ready for permanent occupancy in Septem- ber, 1860. Previously, however, it had been sufficiently advanced to permit of its being used, and the first commencement exercises were held on June 29 of the latter year. Three years earlier, the academic department had been organ- ized under the charge of Charles E. Hovey. The first cost, including furniture, etc., was not far from $200,000. Gratuitous instruction is given to two pupils from each county, and to three from each Senatorial District. The departments are: Grammar school, high school, normal department and model school, all of which are overcrowded. The whole number of students in attendance on the institution during the school year, 1897-98, was 1,197, of whom 891 were in the normal department and 306 in the practice school depart- ment, including representatives from 86 coun- ties of the State, with a few pupils from other States on the payment of tuition. The teaching faculty (including the President and Librarian) for the same year, was made up of twenty-six members-twelve ladies and fourteen gentlemen. The expenditures for the year 1897-98 aggregated $17,626.92, against $66,528.69 for 1896-97. Nearly $22,000 of the amount expended during the latter year was on account of the construction of a gymnasium building.

STATE PROPERTY. The United States Cen- sus of 1890 gave the value of real and personal .property belonging to the State as follows: Pub- lic lands, $328,000; buildings, $22,164,000; mis-

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cellaneous property, $2,650,000-total, $25,142,000. The land may be subdivided thus: Camp-grounds of the Illinois National Guard near Springfield (donated), $40,000; Illinois and Michigan Canal, $168,000; Illinois University lands, in Illinois (donated by the General Government), $41,000, in Minnesota (similarly donated), $79,000. The buildings comprise those connected with the charitable, penal and educational institutions of the State, besides the State Arsenal, two build- ings for the use of the Appellate Courts (at Ottawa and Mount Vernon), the State House, the Executive Mansion, and locks and dams erected at Henry and Copperas Creek. Of the miscellaneous property, $120,000 represents the equipment of the Illinois National Guard; $1,959, - 000 the value of the movable property of public buildings; $550,000 the endowment fund of the University of Illinois; and $21,000 the movable property of the Illinois & Michigan Canal. The figures given relative to the value of the public buildings include only the first appropriations for their erection. Considerable sums have since been expended upon some of them in repairs, enlargements and improvements.

STATE TREASURERS. The only Treasurer of Illinois during the Territorial period was John Thomas, who served from 1812 to 1818, and became the first incumbent under the State Government. Under the Constitution of 1818 the Treasurer was elected, biennially, by joint vote of the two Houses of the General Assembly; by the Constitution of 1848, this officer was made elective by the people for the same period, with- out limitations as to number of terms; under the Constitution of 1870, the inanner of election and duration of term are unchanged, but the incum- bent is ineligible to re-election, for two years from expiration of the term for which he may have been chosen. The following is a list of the State Treasurers from 1818 to 1911, with term of each in office: John Thomas, 1818-19; Robert K. Mclaughlin, 1819-23; Abner Field, 1823-27; James Hall, 1827-31; John Dement, 1831-36; Charles Gregory, 1836-37; John D. Whiteside, 1837-41; Milton Carpenter, 1841-48, John Moore, 1848-57; James Miller, 1857-59; William Butler, 1859-63; Alexander Starne, 1863-65; James H. Beveridge, 1865-67; George W Smith, 1867-69; Erastus N. Bates, 1869-73; Edward Rutz, 1873-75; Thomas S. Ridgway, 1875-77; Edward Rutz, 1877-79, John C. Smith, 1879-81; Edward Rutz, 1881-83; John C. Smith, 1883-85; Jacob Gross, 1885-87; John R. Tanner, 1887-89; Charles Becker, 1889-91; Edward S. Wilson, 1891-93; Rufus N. Ramsay, 1893-95;

Henry Wulff, 1895-97; Henry L. Hertz, 1897-99; Floyd K. Whittemore, 1899-1901; Moses O. William- son, 1901-03; Fred A. Busse, 1903-05; Len Small, 1905-07; John F. Smulski, 1907-09; Andrew Russel, 1909-11; E. E. Mitchell, 1911 -.

STAUNTON, a village in Macoupin County, on the Chicago, Peoria & St. Louis and Wabash Rail- ways, 36 miles northeast of St. Louis; an agricultural and mining region; has two banks, churches and a weekly paper. Pop. (1900), 2,786; (1910), 5.048.

STEGER, a village in Cook and Will Counties, on the C. & E. I. R. R .; has some local industries and one weekly paper. Pop. (1900), 2,161.

STEEL PRODUCTION. In the manufacture of steel, Illinois has long ranked as the second State in the Union in the amount of its output, and, during the period between 1880 and 1890, the increase in production was 241 per cent. In 1880 there were but six steel works in the State; in 1890 these had increased to fourteen; and the production of steel of all kinds (in tons of 2,000 pounds) had risen from 254,569 tons to 868,250. Of the 3,837,039 tons of Bessemer steel ingots, or direct castings, produced in the United States in 1890, 22 per cent were turned out in Illinois, nearly all the steel produced in the State being made by that process. From the tonnage of ingots, as given above, Illinois produced 622,260 pounds of steel rails,-more than 30 per cent of the aggregate for the entire country. This fact is noteworthy, inasmuch as the competition in the manufacture of Bessemer steel rails, since 1880, has been so great that many rail mills have converted their steel into forms other than rails, experience having proved their production to any considerable extent, during the past few years, unprofitable except in works favorably located for obtaining cheap raw material, or operated under the latest and most approved methods of manufacture. Open-hearth steel is no longer made in Illinois, but the manufacture of crucible steel is slightly increasing, the out- put in 1890 being 445 tons, as against 130 in 1880. For purposes requiring special grades of steel the product of the crucible .process will be always in demand, but the high cost of manufacture prevents it, in a majority of instances, from successfully competing in price with the other processes mentioned.

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Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Winnebago County, Volume I, Part 102

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913; Church, Charles A., 1857- Publication date: 1916 Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 724

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913; Church, Charles A., 1857-
Publication date: 1916
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 724