Historical encyclopedia of Illinois, Part 124

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. cn; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913; Gale, W. Shelden
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1388

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EARLY HOMES.

To the early settlers, Knox County afforded exceptional advantages for comfortable sus- tenance and rapid improvement. Material for shelter and for fuel was to be had in the groves; game was abundant at all times, and wild fruits in their season; honey could be found in the hollow trees; acorns, walnuts, hickory and hazel nuts were plentiful for the swine; and good grazing for stock and hay to cut were in sight of the cabin door. Small fields for im- mediate cultivation were easily made by felling the trees, or in the rich, mellow soil from which hazel bushes had been torn. The prairie sod was tough; but after the first breaking, the ground proved fertile, easily worked and in the highest degree productive. To the settler with moderate means, no prospect could be more alluring. Needed improvements could rapidly be made. His buildings were sheltered by the groves, his rich, loamy fields, in front and beyond, afforded unlimited range for his stock. To the rugged pioneer of limited means, ease of present subsistence and the virtually unlim- ited opportunity offered to industry, energy, and prudence, were attractive. No country, new and remote from markets, could offer better inducements to the man without capital, seek- ing to work his way by the labor of his own hands, to competence and comfort. His own toil provided for his essential wants. For the walls of his house, he cut logs from small straight trees; from free-splitting oak or walnut, he made his shingles; from basswood logs he split planks; for chimney and hearth he pro- cured stones, sticks, and clay; and for nails he used wooden pins or thongs of hide or hickory bark. His rifle or shotgun supplied him with meat; a small piece of ground, from which he grubbed the hazel bush, yielded him what grain and vegetables he needed; and a little corn, re- duced to meal by pounding or grating, furnished flour for his bread. A coon skin made him a cap. Mocassins were made from skins dressed by himself. When his sheep were sheared, his wife, with her wheel, loom, and needle, made the clothes for the family. The few things beyond his reach, he obtained by barter in some, perhaps distant, town, offering in exchange the skins of animals, captured or slain through

his own prowess; or honey, found in cavities of trees. Crops never failed; starvation never stared him in the face. Despite all the priva- tions incident to pioneer life, the condition of the Knox County pioneer was luxurious, when compared with the lot of the man who chose his home in the dense forest, or on the plains of the far West, many of whose wants were to be supplied only by purchase, the means for which were often precarious, and meager at the best.

EARLY LAND TITLES.

How he should meet the payments to be made for his land was to him an after-consideration. Before they became a matter of solicitude, he was more than able to meet his living expenses, and had a surplus. If he had settled on Gov- ernment land, he had to meet the cost of entry. Most of the land, however (the school sections, on which the neighboring settlers fixed the price, excepted), was included in the list of bounty lands, awarded to the soldiers of the War of 1812, and granted ten years before the first settler appeared in this county. Very few of the grantees paid any attention to the title to their lands. They sometimes disposed of them, at nominal prices, to speculators, and most of them were sold for taxes, the tax titles being bought and held on speculation. The set- tlers did not hesitate "to squat" on these lands. The comity of neighbors secured them from any danger of someone buying from under them, whether the settlement was on government or school lands, or on lands of private persons. Owners were not likely to find profit or pleasure in evictions, or to find it to their interest to refuse terms of sale which might be considered fair in the neighborhood. Indeed, mutually satisfactory arrangements were more easily obtained because of the low cost to the holder and the questionable character of his title, and for the additional reason that it was well- nigh impossible to arouse any compunction in the breast of the average pioneer, as to the unlimited use of timber belonging to non- residents.

EARLY LICENSES.

In those times, not only saloons but also stores of all kinds were licensed by the Com- missioners' Court. It is an interesting and significant fact that, while the fee charged for a general store in 1836 was eight dollars per annum, William Denby was compelled to pay fifty dollars for the privilege of peddling clocks for three months. The explanation seems

Josiah Babcock

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to be that the peddler was a Yankee; shrewd, perhaps tricky, and an object of suspicion and distrust, as were most of those who hailed from a different locality; for the majority of early settlers were Kentuckians.

IMMIGRATION.

Take the map of the United States, and draw a line from Galesburg through Vincennes, In- diana. When prolonged it will penetrate the heart of the blue grass country. Along that line, as a sort of main channel, with countless outpourings on either side, flowed the tide of settlement from Kentucky, Tennessee, and Vir- ginia. Down to 1832, the year of the Black Hawk War, Knox County settlers came mainly from these States, either directly, or from tem- porary homes in southern Indiana and Illinois. Later, with the termination of Indian hostilities, when immigration was resumed, the tide, at first, set chiefly from the same sources, although the number of settlers from the Northern States gradually increased.

Eastern immigration set in in full force in 1836, the year of the arrival of the Galesburg Colony. It was an era of such enterprises, and many colonies of Easterners sought to found cities in the West. But in one respect the Galesburg Colony stands alone. It was not a money-making enterprise. These colonists sought to build up a community, and those original members of the colony, who could not come to live on their lands, were encour- aged to surrender their holdings to permanent settlers. This was in direct contrast with the action of other colonies, where most of the members remained at their Eastern homes, and held their lands simply for speculative pur- poses. It is this element of contrast, perhaps, which largely promoted Galesburg's rapid growth, as compared with the more tardy development of other enterprises of a like gen- eral character.

The immediate addition to the population was considerable. From that time forward the Southern immigration began to decline, and New York, New England, Ohio, and Pennsyl- vania supplied the majority of the new arrivals. The first considerable European accession was the Scotch settlement in the northeastern part of the county, chiefly in Copley. In 1846, a religious and communistic colony, under the leadership of Eric Janson, settled at Bishop Hill, in Henry County, near the northeastern corner of Knox. Influenced by Rev. Jonas

Hedstrom, a Methodist clergyman, who had emigrated from Sweden and who was then living in Victoria, a considerable number seceded from this colony and settled on farms near Victoria. Steady immigration from Sweden followed. Some of the new arrivals devoted themselves to agriculture, but more, either pre- ferring, or better prepared for, work in town, came to Galesburg, whose rapid growth from 1850 to '57 created a demand for their labor. They are now to be found in all parts of the county, engaged in all descriptions of occupa- tions; while in the northern towns and in Gales- burg, the Swedish element constitutes a large proportion of the population.

The Irish first appeared in force in 1854, as laborers on the railroad. For some time they remained content with this employment, but, little by little, they began to seek other outlets for their energy, many going to work upon farms. Accession to their numbers followed through immigration from the old country. Other foreign countries have contributed but little to the county's population. Negroes are found mainly in the cities, occupying substan- tially the same positions as in other centers in Illinois.

All the land between the Illinois and Missis- sippi Rivers, as far as the north line of Mercer County, is in the Military Tract, so called because the Government patented most of it as bounty to soldiers of the War of 1812. When the United States survey was made, the sur- veyors reported the character of each quarter section. From these reports the patents were made out, and great care was taken to give the soldiers the lands which were well timbered and watered. What was left of such desirable pieces was open to pre-emption by the first set- tlers. Aside from the manifest convenience incident to the conjunction of prairie and wood- land in close proximity, the Southerners found the flat lands objectionable for many reasons. Cold winter winds swept over the open ex- panse, and these were, at times, unbroken, even by the groves and thickets which furnished the wood for their cabins and fences. These im- migrants from the southland, moreover, brought with them modes of building and styles adapted to a warmer country. Before Eastern immigra- tion had assumed considerable proportions, the residents believed Knox County to be quite thoroughly settled. There were few localities left where both good wood and prairie land could be found together. And they thought it

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better for themselves that their long, broad ranges for stock should not be disturbed. The settlers who came from the East, however, were accustomed to rigorous winters and severe out- door labor in cold weather. They knew no fear of prairie winters, whose winds were offset by the refreshing breezes of summer. Their modes of building and dress were suited to the climate. They brought stoves, hitherto unknown in this new section, which reduced the labor of providing fuel. They were willing to take their farms on the prairie and their wood lots in the heart of the grove. Still, the distance from wood was an element not to be ignored in fixing the value of land. The greater the distance, the greater the cost of improvement and main- tenance, as well as of the indispensable fuel. For many years, prairie land was practically unsalable unless woodland was offered in con- nection with it. Gradual changes took place which made the prairie farms more and more desirable. Coal mines were opened, and, to some extent, coal began gradually to supplant wood as fuel. Improved facilities for trans- portation made lumber cheaper, and revised and more stringent stock laws made less fencing necessary. Hedges began to he planted, and railroads established stations in the center of the largest prairies. Still, in 1850, many of the larger tracts of prairie land remained unin- closed, and were for sale at low prices. Yet so steady was the appreciation in the value of these farms, that hy 1858, practically no open prairie was left unoccupied.

TIMBER LANDS.

The consumption of wood for improvements, fuel, and repairs reduced the area of timber land. Only a small proportion of the original forest, or even of the second growth, remains. Yet the wood famine, so long predicted, has been averted. The importation of lumber and the changes in the style of building and fencing, together with the substitution of coal for wood as fuel, have made the timber yet standing of comparatively little value to the farmer. The woodland, stripped of trees, was long left un- occupied, except in small tracts hy persons of very limited means, who found partial occupa- tion in teaming, mining, wood-cutting, and casual labor for others. It was considered inferior to the prairie, and, encumhered with stumps, bushes, and worthless trees, it was not easily ploughed. As the prairie range for cattle disappeared, however, these lands were enclosed

for pasturage. As Western competition in cattle made grazing land less valuable, these cleared lands began to offer greater inducements for cultivation. Decay of stumps, and destruction of bushes and sprouts through grazing, removed obstacles, and the turf of blue grass and white clover, following the removal of the shade, pre- pared the soil for the plough.

IMPROVED CONDITIONS.

After the founding of Galesburg the county grew rapidly. Its population steadily increased until near 1870, when the census returns showed a larger population than ever before or since. The cultivation of the land has been more ex- tensive and thorough; but the number employed in agricultural work has decreased. The farms are made and the labor that was needed in their making is no longer required, while cheaper methods of building and fencing have reduced the lahor necessary for maintenance. More work is done, too, hy casual help, living in towns. Holdings are larger than they were, and fewer hands, proportionally, are employed on large than on small farms. Another reduc- tion in the amount of manual labor needed has resulted from the adoption of better methods of planting, cultivating, and harvesting, three and four horse teams and machinery having taken the place of men. That class of small farmers who occupied a portion of their time at other work has disappeared. There is an increased tendency, on the part of those not wholly de- voted to agriculture, to seek homes and employ- ment in the towns; and this statement holds good even of those owners who prefer to lease their lands or place them in the hands of hired men, in order to give their families the con- venience and comforts of a town residence.

Woodcutters and coal miners are less numer- ous, consumption of wood for fuel having decreased owing to the substitution of coal, oil, and gas, while even the wood and soft coal of this county are largely displaced hy the output of others.

With the construction of railroads, villages sprang up and grew rapidly. Their growth was checked and followed hy a decline, a circum- stance attributable to various causes, such as the falling off in the surrounding population, the competition of other stations on subse- quently constructed railroads and the enlarged facilities for reaching and trading in larger towns.

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KNOX COUNTY.

POPULATION.

From 1870 to 1890, the population outside of Galesburg fell off twenty-five per cent, although considerable compensation for this loss was found in the growth of the city itself. Since 1890, however, the falling off in the townships has been checked, while the population of Gales- burg has steadily increased. A table of the population follows:

1830. Estimated. 400

1840. United States Census. 7,060

1850. United States Census. 13,279

1860. United States Census. 28,663

1870 United States Census 39,522

1880 United States Census.

.38,344

1890. United States Census.

.38,752

1896. Estimated

45,000

1896. 11,333 votes for President.

In 1840, Henderson was the most populous township, having eight hundred and fifty-six residents. Knox ranked second with seven hundred and thirty-three, and Cedar third, with six hundred and sixteen. Since 1860, Galesburg has been in the lead, with Knox second and Cedar third.

EARLY DEVELOPMENT.

Prior to 1854, the most important events in the history of Knox County, after the county seat had been laid out and the county machinery put in motion, were the coming of the Galesburg Colony, in 1836-7, the building of a new court house in 1839, and a new jail in 1841, and the changes of government from County Commis- sioners to County Judges in 1849, and to town- ship organization in 1853. During all this time, the county was never in debt, although taxes were very low, never exceeding fifty cents on the hundred dollars.

In 1854, the railroad came, imparting a great impetus to the county's growth. From 1850 to 1860, the percentage of Increase in population was larger than in any other decade of its his- tory, except the first. Galesburg profited more from this than the rural distrlets, containing, in 1860, more than one-half of the total popula- tion; while in 1850 it had but one-twelfth. This led to the agitation of the question of transferring the county seat to Galesburg, which finally ended in its removal in 1873.

With a rising tide of immigration, pauperism came to be a perplexing problem. An almshouse was first built in 1866. Additions were made in 1876 and again in 1890. (See Alms House.)

WAR OF REBELLION.

In 1861, came the war, and Knox County's duty was nobly done. She furnished three thousand eight hundred and seventy-six troops, only eighty-seven of whom were "hundred day men"; a record exceeded by only seven countles in Illinois. Of these, one hundred and twenty- three were killed in action, one hundred and sixty-eight were wounded, three hundred and forty-four died, and ninety-six were captured. (For a list of Knox County soldiers see "Knox County Roll of Honor," published in 1896 by the Memorial Hall Committee of the G. A. R.) At home, too, as well as in the field, the county bore its part with cheerful zeal and patriotic devotion. The people were most liberal, one township vieing with another in striving to lighten the burdens of the soldiers. What was privately contributed cannot even be estimated; but Galesburg Township alone gave $62,340 in addition to the aid rendered volunteers' fam- ilies after the war had ended. The Board of Supervisors was ever active and generous In providing for these, and the records of that body are full of resolutions and orders looking to this end. Large sums were borrowed for the payment of bounties, the amount reaching $58,610 by January 12, 1863, and being subse- quently materially augmented. The total out- lay by Knox County on this account and for aid to soldiers' families exceeded $400,000. Even as late as May 1, 1866, the Board voted to con- tinue to extend assistance to the latter when actually needing and deserving relief.

NEW COUNTY BUILDINGS.

The removal of the county seat rendered the provision of suitable county buildings at Gales- burg imperative. The city had already donated to the county twenty thousand dollars toward the erection of a jail, besides giving as a site for the structure the ground on Cherry street on which the "fire-proof building" now stands. In addition, the municipality had agreed to provide a court room for ten years.

The first consideration was the building of the jail, and on January 15, 1874, the contract therefor was given to I. R. Stevens, the con- sideration named being $34,900. It was occupled October 3, following. The old Opera House, on the southern side of the public square in Gales- burg was secured and utilized for the purposes of a court room, and no haste was shown in the erection of a permanent edifice. In fact, it was not until September, 1886, that such a bullding

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KNOX COUNTY.

was completed. It is one of the best arranged and handsomest court houses in the State. (For history of its construction, see Court Houses.) The old offices, in the "fire-proof building" on Cherry street, had become utterly inadequate to the needs of the county, and when the latter vacated them, the city took possession of the building, and at present, some of the municipal offices are located there.

INDUSTRIES.

The chief industries of Knox County have always been agriculture and stock raising. Manufactures have never played an important part in its economic history. There is no water transportation, and the river counties naturally had great advantages over it prior to the build- ing of the railroads across its surface. The lead thus obtained has been steadily kept. Brick manufacture, however, has thrived since steam gave better transportation facilities, and some of the largest and best brick plants in the United States are at present located here. The machine shops of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Company also employ a large force. What manufacturing is done is mainly at Gales- burg, Abingdon, and Knoxville, to which cap- tions the reader is referred for more detailed information.

The county is everywhere underlaid with coal of good quality, but the veins are too thin to be profitably worked on a large scale. It has been supposed that in Copley and Victoria coal ex- isted in paying quantities, and to tap these coal fields the Galesburg and Great Eastern Railroad was built from Wataga to Etherley. (See Min- ing and Railroads.)

AGRICULTURE.

The soil and climate are well adapted to the growth of all cereals and grasses common to this latitude, while for stock raising they are unsurpassed. The attention given to each branch of farming has varied, from time to time, with the changes in conditions, reduction in the cost of transportation, the opening of new markets, changes in methods of cultiva- tion due to the introduction of machinery, and the lowering of profits through the competition of newer settlements.

In the early history of the county, vegetables and grain were raised for consumption by the settlers themselves. As more and more land was placed under cultivation, the unmerchant- able surplus was utilized in the raising of stock.

Wheat was the first grain raised for trans- portation, the acreage sown increasing year by year for a considerable time. It was sold in Peoria and Oquawka, and, before the opening of the Illinois and Michigan Canal, was sometimes hauled to Chicago, the farmers bringing back salt and pine lumber.

The cost of transportation and of harvesting determined the extent of the crop. It was cut with cradles, bound by hand, and threshed by tramping with horses. Extra hands in harvest were not easily secured, and wages were relatively high. The first threshing machines were introduced about 1842; the first reapers, about 1847. Primitive and inefficient as they were, compared with those at present in use, they saved labor and rendered the extension of cultivation possible, while the improvements, made each year upon the crude patterns of the early days, have increased their practical value a hundred fold. The light snow falls left the young plants exposed to the extreme cold of winter, which sometimes destroyed them, espe- cially on the bleak, unprotected prairie. On newly broken ground, the fall growth was usually vigorous enough to pass safely through this danger; but on land which had been for some time cultivated, the crop was a precarious one, and its continued culture was due to the introduction of improved varieties of spring wheat. As competition from newer settlements grew and the ravages of insects became more fatal, less wheat was sown, until in the sixties, wheat-culture was abandoned on most farms.

About 1883, press drills began to come into use, and many farmers discovered that by em- ploying this valuable agency, preparing the ground more carefully, this cereal might be raised with better chance of success. Its culti- vation was therefore resumed, and continued for twelve years with satisfactory results. The past three or four years, however, have proved less profitable.

The principal crop of the county is, and always has been, corn. On most farms, the acreage is limited, by necessity of such diversi- fication of crops as will give occupation to the farmer and his men outside of the corn season, proper rest to the soil, and pasturage and hay for stock.

But little corn was reported from the county before the coming of the railroads. In 1844, the first attempt was made. Prices were enhanced at the seaboard by the excitement caused by the Irish famine. Lorentus E. Conger, John L.

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KNOX COUNTY.

. Clay, and Joel Graham, living southwest of Galesburg, collected their surplus corn, pur- chased a large crop on the neighboring Gale farm, hauled it to Oquawka, and loaded it there on a flat boat. They had no cornshellers, and they shelled their corn by tramping with horses. They carried it to New Orleans, where they sold it, returning with its value in groceries and silver dollars. Even since the construction of railroads, the great bulk of Knox County corn has been consumed at home. The acreage was never greater than now, and the raising of live stock has been greatly reduced; yet only a frac- tion of the crop is exported.

Next to corn, the crop most extensively raised is oats. A large proportion of this goes out of the county. Its relative worth for shipment as compared with its feeding value at home is greater than that of corn. Although a less valuable crop than the latter, its cultivation on some portion of the farm permits a more con- tinuous occupation of the working force, as well as a change the following year to grass or clover.

Rye and barley are good crops, but generally regarded as less desirable than either wheat or oats. Millet, in all its varieties, is often profitably raised, especially on farms not well supplied with meadow, or on ground that has proved too wet for early planting.

Broom corn is also cultivated in some sections with profit. The country around Galesburg and Galva was among the first localities in the West to make this crop a farm product, and for sev- eral years was the chief Western growing dis- trict for broom corn. Its cultivation has proved, on the whole, very profitable, but owing to a fall in prices and a distaste for the character of the work which it requires it has greatly fallen off.

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Historical encyclopedia of Illinois, Part 124

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. cn; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913; Gale, W. Shelden Publication date: 1899 Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1388

Author: Bateman, Newton, 1822-1897. cn; Selby, Paul, 1825-1913; Gale, W. Shelden
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: Chicago : Munsell Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1388