Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Winnebago County, Volume I, Part 81

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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vented him from seeing the consummation of his plan, although Eastman lived to carry it out in part. A paper whose career, although extending only a little over one year, marked an era in Illi- nois journalism, was "The Alton Observer," its history closing with the assassination of its editor, Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy, on the night of Nov. 8, 1837, while unsuccessfully attempting to protect his press from destruction, for the fourth time, by a pro-slavery mob. Humiliating as was this crime to every law-abiding Illinoisan, it undoubtedly strengthened the cause of free speech and assisted in hastening the downfall of the institution in whose behalf it was committed.

That the development in the field of journal- ism, within the past sixty years, has more than kept pace with the growth in population, is shown by the fact that there is not a county in the State without its newspaper, while every town of a few hundred population has either one or more. According to statistics for 1898, there were 605 cities and towns in the State having periodical publications of some sort, making a total of 1,709, of which 174 were issued daily, 34 semi-weekly, 1,205 weekly, 28 semi-monthly, 238 monthly, and the remainder at various periods ranging from tri-weekly to eight times a year.

NEWTON, the county-seat of Jasper County, situated on the Embarras River, at the intersec- tion of subsidiary lines of the Illinois Central Railroad from Peoria and Effingham; is an in- corporated city, was settled in 1828, and made the county-seat in 1836. Agriculture, coal-mining and dairy farming are the principal pursuits in the surrounding region. The city has water- power, which is utilized to some extent in manu- facturing, but most of its factories are operated by steam. Among these establishments are flour and saw mills, and grain elevators. There are a half-dozen churches, a good public school system, including parochial school and high school, besides two banks, two weekly and one monthly paper. Pop. (1900), 1,630; (1910), 2,108.

NEW YORK, CHICAGO & ST. LOUIS RAIL- WAY (Nickel Plate), a line 522.47 miles in length, of which (1898) only 9.96 miles are operated in Illinois. It owns no track in Illinois, but uses the track of the Chicago & State Line Railroad (9.96 miles in length), of which it has financial control, to enter the city of Chicago. The total capitalization of the New York, Chicago & St. Louis, in 1898, is $50,222,568, of which $19,425,000 is in bonds .- (IIISTORY.) The New York, Chi- cago & St. Louis Railroad was incorporated under the laws of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio,

Indiana and Illinois in 1881, construction begun immediately, and the road put in operation in 1882. In 1885 it passed into the hands of a receiver, was sold under foreclosure in 1887, and reorganized by the consolidation of various east- ern lines with the Fort Wayne & Illinois Railroad, forming the line under its present name. The road between Buffalo, N. Y., and the west line of Indiana is owned by the Company, but, for its line in Illinois, it uses the track of the Chicago & State Line Railroad, of which it is the lessee, as well as the owner of its capital stock. The main line of the "Nickel Plate" is controlled by the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Railway, which owns more than half of both the preferred and common stock.

NIANTIC, a town in Macon County, on the Wabash Railway, 27 miles east of Springfield. Agriculture is the leading industry. The town has three elevators, three churches, school, coal mine, a newspaper and a bank. Pop. (1910), 685.

NICOLAY, John George, author, was born in Essingen, Bavaria, Feb. 26, 1832; at 6 years of age was brought to the United States, lived for a time in Cincinnati, attending the public schools there, and then came to Illinois; at 16 entered the office of "The Pike County Free Press" at Pitts- field, and, while still in his minority, became editor and proprietor of the paper. In 1837 he became Assistant Secretary of State under O. M. Hatch, the first Republican Secretary, but during Mr. Lincoln's candidacy for President, in 1860, aided him as private secretary, also acting as a correspondent of "The St. Louis Democrat." After the election he was formally selected by Mr. Lincoln as his private secretary, accompany- ing him to Washington and remaining until Mr. Lincoln's assassination. In 1865 he was appointed United States Consul at Paris, remaining until 1869; on his return for some time edited "The Chicago Republican"; was also Marshal of the United States Supreme Court in Washington from 1872 to 1887. Mr. Nicolay was author, in col- laboration with John Hay, of "Abraham Lincoln: A History," first published serially in "The Cen- tury Magazine," and later issued in ten volumes; of "The Outbreak of the Rebellion" and "Cam- paigns of the Civil War," besides numerous magazine articles. Died in Washington, D. C., Sept. 26, 1901.

NICOLET, Jean, early French explorer, came from Cherbourg, France, in 1618, and, for several years, lived among the Algonquins, whose lan- guage he learned and for whom he acted as interpreter. On July 4, 1634, he discovered Lake Michigan, then called the "Lake of the Illinois,"

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and visited the Chippewas, Menominees and Winnebagoes, in the region about Green Bay, among whom he was received kindly. From the Mascoutins, on the Fox River (of Wisconsin), he learned of the Illinois Indians, some of whose northern villages he also visited. He subse- quently returned to Quebec, where he was drowned, in October, 1642. He was probably the first Caucasian to visit Wisconsin and Illinois.

NILES, Nathaniel, lawyer, editor and soldier, born at Plainfield, Otsego County, N. Y., Feb. 4, 1817; attended an academy at Albany, from 1830 to '34, was licensed to practice law and removed west in 1837, residing successively at Delphi and Frankfort, Ind., and at Owensburg, Ky., until 1942, when he settled in Belleville, Ill. In 1846 he was commissioned a First Lieutenant in the Second Regiment Illinois Volunteers (Colonel Bissell's) for the Mexican War, but, after the battle of Buena Vista, was promoted by General Wool to the captaincy of an independent com- pany of Texas foot. He was elected Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives at the session of 1849, and the same year was chosen County Judge of St. Clair County, serving until 1861. With the exception of brief periods from 1851 to '59, he was editor and part owner of "The Belle- ville Advocate," a paper originally Democratic, but which became Republican on the organiza- tion of the Republican party. In 1861 he was appointed Colonel of the Fifty-fourth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, but the completion of its organization having been delayed, he resigned, and, the following year, was commissioned Colo- nel of the One Hundred and Thirtieth, serving until May, 1864, when he resigned-in March, 1865, receiving the compliment of a brevet Briga- dier-Generalship. During the winter of 1862-63 he was in command at Memphis, but later took part in the Vicksburg campaign, and in the cam- paigns on Red River and Bayou Teche. After the war he served as Representative in the General Assembly from St. Clair County (1865-66) ; as Trustee of the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb at Jacksonville; on the Commission for building the State Penitentiary at Joliet, and as Commissioner (by appointment of Governor Oglesby) for locating the Soldiers' Orphans' Home. His later years have been spent chiefly in the practice of his profession, with occasional excursions into journalism. Originally a Democrat, he became one of the founders of the Republican party in Southern Illinois. Died Sept. 16, 1900.

NIXON, William Penn, journalist, Collector of Customs, was born in Wayne County, Ind., of

North Carolina and Quaker ancestry, early in 1832. In 1853 he graduated from Farmers' (now Belmont) College, near Cincinnati, Ohio. After devoting two years to teaching, he entered the law department of the University of Pennsyl- vania (1855), graduating in 1859. For nine years thereafter he practiced law at Cincinnati, during which period he was thrice elected to the Ohio Legislature. In 1868 he embarked in journalism, he and his older brother, Dr. O. W. Nixon, with a few friends, founding "The Cincinnati Chron- icle." A few years later "The Times" was pur- chased, and the two papers were consolidated under the name of "The Times-Chronicle." In May, 1872, having disposed of his interests in Cincinnati, he assumed the business manage- ment of "The Chicago Inter Ocean," then a new venture and struggling for a foothold. In 1875 he and his brother, Dr. O. W. Nixon, secured a controlling interest in the paper, when the former assumed the position of editor-in-chief, which he continued to occupy until 1897, when he was appointed Collector of Customs for the City of Chicago, serving two terms.

NOKOMIS, a city of Montgomery County, on the Cleveland, Cincinnati, Chicago & St. Louis Railroad, 81 miles east by north from St. Louis and 52 miles west of Mattoon, in important grain- growing section; has three coal mines, employing several hundred men, elevators, water-works, electric lights, creamery, seven churches, high school, two banks and three papers; is noted for shipments of poultry, butter and eggs. Pop. (1900), 1,371; (1910), 1,872.

NORMAL, a city in McLean County, 2 miles north of Bloomington and 124 southwest of Chi- cago; at intersecting point of the Chicago & Alton and the Illinois Central Railroads. It lies in a rich coal and agricultural region, and has extensive fruit-tree nurseries, two canning fac- tories, one bank, hospital, and four periodicals. It is the seat of the Soldiers' Orphans' Home, founded in 1869, and the Illinois State Normal University, founded in 1857; has city and rural mail delivery. Pop. (1900), 3,795; (1910), 4,024.

NORMAL UNIVERSITIES. (See Southern Illinois Normal University; State Normal Uni- versity.)

NORRIS CITY, a village of White County, on the Balt. & Ohio S. W. and Big Four R.Rs. fruit and grain-growing region. Pop. (1900), 868; (1910), 1,055.

NORTHCOTT, William A., Lieutenant-Gov- ernor, was born in Murfreesboro, Tenn., Jan. 28, 1854-the son of Gen. R. S. Northcott, whose loyalty to the Union, at the beginning of the

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Rebellion, compelled him to leave his Southern home and seek safety for himself and family in the North. He went to West Virginia, was com- missioned Colonel of a regiment and served through the war, being for some nine months a prisoner in Libby Prison. After acquiring his literary education in the public schools, the younger Northcott spent some time in the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Md., after which he was engaged in teaching. Meanwhile, he was prepar- ing for the practice of law and was admitted to the bar in 1877, two years later coming to Green- ville, Bond County, Ill., which has since been his home. In 1880, by appointment of President Hayes, he served as Supervisor of the Census for the Seventh District; in 1882 was elected State's Attorney for Bond County and re-elected suc- cessively in '84 and '88; in 1890 was appointed on the Board of Visitors to the United States Naval Academy, and, by selection of the Board, delivered the annual address to the graduating class of that year. In 1892 he was the Repub- lican nominee for Congress for the Eighteenth Dis- trict, but was defeated in the general landslide of that year. In 1896 he was more fortunate, being elected Lieutenant-Governor by the vote of the State, receiving a plurality of over 137,000 over his Democratic opponent; was re-elected in 1900, serving two terms and at the present time (1911) is serving his third term as U. S. District Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois.

NORTHERN BOUNDARY QUESTION, THE. The Ordinance of 1787, making the first specific provision, by Congress, for the government of the country lying northwest of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi (known as the Northwest Territory), provided, among other things (Art. V., Ordinance 1787), that "there shall be formed in the said Territory not less than three nor more than five States." It then proceeds to fix the boundaries of the proposed States, on the assump- tion that there shall be three in number, adding thereto the following proviso: "Provided, how- ever, and it is further understood and declared, that the boundaries of these three States shall be subject so far to be altered that, if Congress shall hereafter find it expedient, they shall have authority to form one or two States in that part of the said Territory which lies north of an east and west line drawn through the southerly bend or extreme of Lake Michigan." On the basis of this provision it has been claimed that the north- ern boundaries of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio should have been on the exact latitude of the southern limit of Lake Michigan, and that the

failure to establish this boundary was a violation of the Ordinance, inasmuch as the fourteenth sec- tion of the preamble tliereto declares that "the following articles shall be considered as articles of compact between the original States and tlie people and States in the said Territory, and for- ever remain unalterable, unless by common con- sent."-In the limited state of geographical knowledge, existing at the time of the adoption of the Ordinance, there seems to liave been con- siderable difference of opinion as to the latitude of the southern limit of Lake Michigan. The map of Mitchell (1755) had placed it on the paral- lel of 42° 20', while that of Thomas Hutchins (1778) fixed it at 41° 37'. It was officially estab- lished by Government survey, in 1835, at 41° 37' 07.9". As a matter of fact, the northern bound- ary of neither of the three States named was finally fixed on the line mentioned in the proviso above quoted from the Ordinance-that of Ohio, where it meets the shore of Lake Erie, being a little nortlı of 41° 44'; that of Indiana at 41° 46' (some 10 miles north of the southern bend of the lake), and that of Illinois at 42° 30'-about 61 miles north of the same line. The boundary line between Ohio and Michigan was settled after a bitter controversy, on the admission of the latter State into the Union, in 1837, in the acceptance by her of certain conditions proposed by Congress. These included the annexation to Michigan of what is known as the "Upper Peninsula," lying between Lakes Michigan and Superior, in lieu of a strip averaging six miles on her southern border, which she demanded from Ohio .- The establishment of the northern bound- ary of Illinois, in 1818, upon the line which now exists, is universally conceded to have been due to the action of Judge Nathaniel Pope, then the Delegate in Congress from Illinois Territory. While it was then acquiesced in without ques- tion, it has since been the subject of considerable controversy and has been followed by almost incalculable results. The "enabling act," as originally introduced early in 1818, empowering the people of Illinois Territory to form a State Government, fixed the northern boundary of the proposed State at 41º 39', then the supposed lati- tude of the southern extremity of Lake Michigan. While the act was under consideration in Com- mittee of the Whole, Mr. Pope offered an amend- ment advancing the northern boundary to 42° 30'. The object of his amendment (as he ex- plained) was to gain for the new State a coast line on Lake Michigan, bringing it into political and commercial relations with the States east of

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it-Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York- thus "affording additional security to the per- petuity of the Union." He argued that the location of the State between the Mississippi, Wabash and Ohio Rivers-all flowing to the south-would bring it in intimate communica- tion with the Southern States, and that, in the event of an attempted disruption of the Union, it was important that it should be identified with the commerce of the Lakes, instead of being left entirely to the waters of the south-flowing rivers. "Thus," said he, "a rival interest would be created to check the wish for a Western or South- ern Confederacy. Her interests would thus be balanced and her inclinations turned to the North." He recognized Illinois as already "the key to the West," and he evidently foresaw that the time might come when it would be the Key- stone of the Union. While tliis evinced wonder- ful foresight, scarcely less convincing was his argument that, in time, a commercial emporium would grow up upon Lake Michigan, which would demand an outlet by means of a canal to the Illi- nois River-a work which was realized in the completion of the Illinois & Michigan Canal thirty years later, but which would scarcely have been accomplished had the State been practically cut off from the Lake and its chief emporium left to grow up in another commonwealth, or not at all. Judge Pope's amendment was accepted without division, and, in this form, a few days later, the bill became a law .- The almost super- human sagacity exhibited in Judge Pope's argu- ment, has been repeatedly illustrated in the commercial and political history of the State since, but never more significantly than in the commanding position which Illinois occupied during the late Civil War, with one of its citi- zens in the Presidential chair and another leading its 250,000 citizen soldiery and the armies of tlie Union in battling for the perpetuity of the Republic-a position which more than fulfilled every prediction made for it. - The territory affected by this settlement of the northern boundary, includes all that part of the State north of the northern line of La Salle County, and embraces the greater portion of the fourteen counties of Cook, Dupage, Kane, Lake, McHenry, Boone, DeKalb, Lee, Ogle, Winnebago, Stephen- son, Jo Daviess, Carroll and Whiteside, with por- tions of Kendall, Will and Rock Island-estimated at 8,500 square miles, or more than one-seventh of the present area of the State. It has been argued that this territory belonged to the State of Wisconsin under the provisions of the Ordi-

nance of 1787, and there were repeated attempts made, on the part of the Wisconsin Legislature and its Territorial Governor (Doty), between 1839 and 1843, to induce the people of these counties to recognize this claim. These were, in a few instances, partially successful, although no official notice was taken of them by the authorities of Illi- nois. The reply made to the Wisconsin claim by Governor Ford-who wrote his "History of Illi- nois" when the subject was fresh in the public mind-was that, while the Ordinance of 1787 gave Congress power to organize a State north of the parallel running through the southern bend of Lake Michigan, "there is nothing in the Ordi- nance requiring such additional State to be organized of the territory north of that line." In other words, that, when Congress, in 1818, authorized the organization of an additional State north of and in (i. e., within) the line named, it did not violate the Ordinance of 1787, but acted in accordance with it-in practically assuming that the new State "need not neces- sarily include the whole of the region north of that line." The question was set at rest by Wis- consin herself in the action of her Constitutional Convention of 1847-48, in framing her first con- stitution, in form recognizing the northern boundary of Illinois as fixed by the enabling act of 1818.

NORTHERN HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE, an institution for the treatment of the insane, created by Act of the Legislature, approved, April 16, 1869. The Commissioners appointed by Gov- ernor Palmer to fix its location consisted of August Adams, B. F. Shaw, W. R. Brown, M. L. Joslyn, D. S. Hammond and William Adams. After considering many offers and examining numerous sites, the Commissioners finally selected the Chisholm farm, consisting of about 155 acres, 11/2 miles from Elgin, on the west side of Fox River, and overlooking that stream, as a site --- this having been tendered as a donation by the citizens of Elgin. Plans were adopted in the latter part of 1869, the system of construction chosen conforming, in the main, to that of the United States Hospital for the Insane at Wash- ington, D. C. By January, 1872, the north wing and rear building were so far advanced as to per- mit the reception of sixty patients. The center building was ready for occupancy in April, 1873, and the south wing before the end of the follow- ing year. The total expenditures previous to 1876 had exceeded $637,000, and since that date liberal appropriations have been made for addi- tions, repairs and improvements, including the

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NORTHERN HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE, ELGIN.

WESTERN HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE, WATERTOWN (Rock Island Co.)

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addition of between 300 and 400 acres to the lands connected with the institution The first Board of Trustees consisted of Charles N. Holden, Oliver Everett and Henry W. Sherman, with Dr. E. A. Kilbourne as the first Superintendent, and Dr. Richard A. Dewey (afterwards Superintend- ent of the Eastern Hospital at Kankakee) as his Assistant. Dr. Kilbourne remained at the head of the institution until his death, Feb. 27, 1890, covering a period of nineteen years. Dr. Kil- bourne was succeeded by Dr. Henry J. Brooks, and he, by Dr. Loewy, in June, 1893, and the latter by Dr. Jolın B. Hamilton (former Super- vising Surgeon of the United States Marine Hos- pital Service) in 1897. Dr. Hamilton died in December, 1898. (See Hamilton, John B.) The total value of State property, June 30, 1894, was $882,745.66, of which $701,330 was in land and buildings. Under the terms of the law estab- lishing the hospital, provision is made for the care therein of the incurably insane, so that it is both a hospital and an asylum. The whole num- ber of patients under treatment, for the two years preceding June 30, 1894, was 1,797, the number of inmates, on Dec. 1, 1897, 1,054, and the average daily attendance for treatment, for the year 1896, 1,296. The following counties comprise the dis- trict dependent upon the Elgin Hospital: Boone, Carroll, Cook, DeKalb, Jo Daviess, Kane, Ken- dall, Lake, Stephenson, Whiteside and Winne- bago.

NORTHERN ILLINOIS NORMAL SCHOOL, an institution, incorporated in 1884, at Dixon, Lee County, Ill., for the purpose of giving instruction in branches related to the art of teaching. Its last report claims a total of 1,639 pupils, of whom 885 were men and 744 women, receiving instruc- tion from thirty-six teachers. The total value of property was estimated at more than $200,000, of which $160,000 was in real estate and $45,000 in apparatus. Attendance on the institution has been affected by the establishment, under act of the Legislature of 1895, of the Northern State Normal School at DeKalb (which see).

NORTHERN PENITENTIARY, THE, an insti- tution for the confinement of criminals of the State, located at Joliet, Will County. The site was purchased by the State in 1857, and com- prises some seventy-two acres. Its erection was found necessary because of the inadequacy of the first penitentiary, at Alton. (See Alton Peni- tentiary.) The original plan contemplated a cell-house containing 1,000 cells, which, it was thought, would meet the public necessities for many years to come. Its estimated cost was

$550,000; . but, within ten years, there had been expended upon the institution the sum of $934, - 000, and its capacity was taxed to the utmost. Subsequent enlargements have increased the cost to over $1,600,000, but by 1877, the institution had become so overcrowded that the erection of another State penal institution became positively necessary. (See Southern Penitentiary.) The prison has always been conducted on "the Auburn system," which contemplates associate labor in silence, silent meals in a common refec- tory, and (as nearly as practicable) isolation at night. The system of labor has varied at differ- ent times, the "lessee system," the "contract system" and the "State account plan" being successively in force. (See Conviet Labor.) The whole number of convicts in the institution, at the date of the official report of 1895, was 1,566. The total assets of the institution, Sept. 30, 1894, were reported at $2,121,308.86, of which $1,644,- 601.11 was in real estate.

NORTH & SOUTH RAILROAD. (See St. Louis, Peoria & Nort'iern Railway.)

NORTHERN STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, an institution for the education of teachers of the common schools, authorized to be established by act of the Legislature passed at the session of 1895. The act made an appropriation of $50,000 for the erection of buildings and other improve- ments. The institution was located at DeKalb, DeKalb County, in the spring of 1896, and the erection of buildings commenced soon after- Isaac F. Ellwood, of DeKalb, contributing $20,- 000 in cash, and J. F. Glidden, a site of sixty- seven acres of land. Up to Dec. 1, 1897, the appropriations and contributions, in land and money, aggregated $175,000. The school was expected to be ready for the reception of pupils in the latter part of 1899, and, it is estimated, will accommodate 1,000 students.

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Historical encyclopedia of Illinois and history of Winnebago County, Volume I, Part 81

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