History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois, Part 58

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. ; O.L. Baskin & Co.
Number of Pages: 948

USA > Illinois > Union County > History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois > Part 58
USA > Illinois > Pulaski County > History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois > Part 58
USA > Illinois > Alexander County > History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois > Part 58

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Thomas Howard, on December 5, 1836, makes a report as County Treasurer as fol- lows: The Treasurer of Alexander County has the honor of submitting to the honora- ble Commissioners' Court the inclosed state- ment, containing a concise account of re- ceipts and expenditures of the treasury during the preceding year, pending the last of No- vember, 1836. Received on bonds and from Atherton, $10.62}; for sundry license, $32; from fines, etc., $24.50; total, $67.62}.

The county, in 1836, received $500 as its part of Gallatin saline lands.

In 1837, Peter Casper was a member of

the County Court, and Levi Lighter was elected and qualified this year. Joshua McRaven was elected Sheriff; George Cloud again elected Clerk. Thomas Howard was County Treasurer and L. B. Lisenbee and John Hodge were his sureties. The officer then gave bond for $1,000. This year D. Arter's peculiar signature appears as one of the County Commissioners. Wilson Able was again elected a School Commissioner, and gave bond with D. Hailman, John Hodges, Daniel Brown and L. B. Lisenbee, sureties.

In 1838, the Commissioners' Court was D. Arter, Martin A. Morton and James Mas- sey.

In 1839, Henry L. Webb was elected County Clerk and George Cloud finally retired. John Hodges was in 1840 School Commis- sioner, and George Cloud, the old-time County Clerk, was elected Treasurer, and Samuel Nally was County Collector.

Henry L. Webb, County Clerk, rendered his bill in 1841 something as follows: Two years' service to June 4, 1841, $40; eighteen months' service Clerk of Circuit Court, $35; making tax lists, $6.

In 1842, the Commissioners' Court was John C. Atherton, William Dickey and Franklin G. Hughes.

In August, 1843, Jonathan Freeman was elected Clerk of the county. The County Court met at Unity December 3, 1844, and among other things it was

Ordered, That the donations granted by George W. Sparhawk et al., and the deed of conveyance by them made to the County Commissioners of Alex- ander County is hereby accepted by this court [this was in Thebes .- ED. ] as a site for the permanent seat of justice of the county of Alexander, and further, that Jonathan Freeman, the County Commissioner under the law, entitled an act to permanently locate the county seat of Alexander County, is appointed general agent to carry out the provisions of said act, and to execute deeds of conveyance to purchas-

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HISTORY OF ALEXANDER COUNTY.

ers of lots at the said county seat, upon his receiv ing satisfactory evidence of the terms of sale hav- ing been complied with; and that the said general agent shall have power to contract for the removal of the public property of the officers of the county from the town of Unity to the new county seat aforesaid, at any time after having given ten days notice of the intended removal.

I do solemnly protest against the above order.

(Signed), MARTIN ATHERTON.

At a special meeting of the County Court, April. 1845, Henry W. Billings was ap- pointed a referee on the part of Alexander County to meet Thomas Forker, a referee for Pulaski County, "to settle and adjust the claims Alexander County holds against Pu- laski County," and ordering the referee to report to the Commissioners of Alexander County on the 28th of April, 1845. Billings was also retained by the county as attorney to conduct the suit, of Alexander County against Pulaski County.

In 1845, Alexander W. Anderson was Sheriff, and L. L. Lightner, Martin Atherton and Moses Miller were the County Commis- sioners. In 1846, L. L. Lightner appointed to contract for the new court house at Thebes. contracted with Earnst Barkhausen to erect, the same.

In 1839, the Constables in the county were William Hunsaker, David Kendall, George Peeler, Thomas B. White, Isaac Little, John Hagden, Charles M. Lee. The Justices were Edmund Hodges, W. H. Smith, George Cloud, Thomas Howard, Richard Burton, Daniel L. Smith, John O. Marsh, John Pi- zor, Jonathan Lyerle, Stephen Jones, Will- iam C. McMullan, Thomas W. Porterfield, Thomas Forker, William Wilson, Joseph B. Saunders, William Wofford and Thomas L. Mackay.

J. J. McLenden was Sheriff in 1839. In 1829, David H. Moore; in 1829, James S. Smith; 1830, Wilson Able; 1832, Franklin Hughes; 1834, Solomon Parker, 1836,

Joshua McRaven; 1837, Jesse J. McLendea. September, 1846, the Commissioners' Court was composed of L. L. Lightner, Moses Miller and Silas Dexter; Lemuel B. Lisenbee was County Clerk: Alexander W. Anderson, Sheriff; L. L. Lightner, School Commissioner. In 1848, Green Massey was Sheriff. In 1850, the Commissioners' Court was composed of L. L. Lightner, Patrick Corcoran and Silas Dexter.

In 1851, the court was re-organized and a Judge and two Associates were elected. Levi L. Lightner was Judge, and Silas Dexter and P. Corcoran were Associates. This year Coventry Cully was Sheriff; A. W. Ander- son, Treasurer. In 1852, Robert E. Yost was County Clerk and William C Massey Sheriff. In 1853, James L. Brown was Treasurer. This year, L. L. Lightner was re-elected Judge and Alexander C. Hodges and James E. McCrite Associates. In 1854, William C. Miller was Treasurer; James L. Brown, Sheriff. In 1857, William C. Yost was County Clerk. 1857, C C. Cole, Sher- iff. In 1858, N. Hunsaker was Sheriff.

In 1860, the County Court consisted of A. C. Hodges, Judge, and B. Shannessy and James E. McCrite, Associates; John Hodges, Sheriff.

In 1863, N. Hunsaker was Treasurer; 1862, O. Greenlee, Sheriff.

1864, J. E. McCrite, School Commissioner; J. F. Hayward, County Surveyor; John Q. Harman, Circuit Clerk; and Charles D. Arter, Sheriff.

1865, Alexander C. Hodges, Judge; John Howley and J. E. McCrite, Associates; Jacob G. Lynch, County Clerk; N. Hun- saker, County Treasurer; S. Delaney, Sur- veyor; Superintendent of Schools, Joel G. Morgan.

1867, John H. Mulkey, Judge of the Court of Common Pleas; F. E. Albright, Prosecut-

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ing Attorney; W. A. Redmond, County Treas- urer.

1869, Fredoline Bross, Judge; J. E. McCrite and Severe Marchildon, Associates; Jacob Y. Lynch, County Clerk; William Martin, County Treasurer; Lewis P. Butler, Superintendent of Schools; John P. Haley, County Surveyor.

1871, William Martin, County Treasurer; John P. Haley, Surveyor.

1872, Reuben S. Yockum, Circuit Clerk; A. H. Irvin, Sheriff; John H. Gozman, Cor- oner.

1873, F. Bross, Judge; J. G. Lynch, County Clerk; William Martin, Treasurer; George Fisher, J. L. Saunders and Thomas Wilson, County Commissioners; Phebe Tay - lor. School Superintendent.

1874, A. H. Irvin, Sheriff; J. H. Gozman, Coroner; Thomas Wilson, County Commis- sioner.

1876, John Able, Coroner; Martin Brown, County Commissioner; John A. Reeves, Cir- cuit Clerk; Peter Saup, Sheriff; W. C. Mul- key, States Attorney.

1877, Reuben S. Yocum, County Judge; Samuel J. Humm, County Clerk; A. J. Al- den, County Treasurer; Mrs. P. A. Taylor, School Superintendent; Thomas W. Halli- day, County Commissioner.

1878, Sheriff, John Hodges; Richard Fitzgerald, Coroner; Samuel Briley, County Commissioner.

1879, Miles W. Parker, County Treasurer; J. A. N. Gibbs, County Commissioner; Sur- veyor, Charles Thrupp.

1880, John Hodges, Sheriff; A. H. Irvin, Circuit Clerk; James M. Damron, County . Attorney. He fled the county in the early part of 1883. Richard Fitzgerald, Thomas W. Halliday, County Commissioners.

1881, Peter Saup, County Commissioner.

1882, John H. Robinson, County Judge;

John Hodges, Sheriff; M. W. Parker, Coun- ty Treasurer; Samuel J. Humm, County Clerk; Lou C. Gibbs, Superintendent of Schools; Richard Fitzgerald, Coroner; James H. Mulcahey, County Commissioner.

The county seat, although in every act pertaining thereto, it has been called an act to locate the permanent seat of justice," has been anything else but "permanent," it would seem from its travels, until it was finally fixed in Cairo in 1860. It commenced life at that great future city, America, and in 1843 it folded its tent and moved to Unity, where the Commissioners " went one eye," as they were directed to do by the Legisla- ture, toward the public good and fixed its "permanent" abode once more. In 1843, it once more wended its way from Unity to Thebes, and here it made "permanent" prep- arations to stay. It took off its "things " and had its "knitting" along, and the be- wildered people settled down in the easy be lief that this town of such an old name would perpetually be the place where they could always in the future go to do their courting. But Cairo came to covet the hon- ors that Thebes had worn since 1845, and in 1860, the county seat was again removed, and is now, it is supposed, once more per- manently located in Cairo.

An act of the Legislature of 1863 author- ized the county of Alexander to issue coun- ty bonds to be used for the purpose of con- structing the present large and commodious but horridly kept court house and jail in the city of Cairo. This building was completed and the courts and county officers were put in possession of the completed building in 1865. It would not be a discredit to the county to fill up the lot, build a new iron fence and repair and paint and fix up gener- ally its public buildings.

The traveling "permanent seat of justice"

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of Alexander County marked all its journey - ings by the rapid decay of the ambitious lit- tle cities that had been thus cruelly deserted. The "capital mover" had in each case per- formed his work well. If he left the old town desolate and deserted, he proclaimed great promises to the new, and in each case, as the new would start into such vigorous life, the old would be seized by a corre- sponding rapid decay, and generally before the new town could get its public buildings ready for occupancy, the old town would be "the deserted village," whose casements were beaten only by the wheeling bats and hoot ing owls. It has been remarked by an in- telligent observer that the territory of the two most southern counties in Illinois- Pulaski and Alexander-possess more de- serted and decayed and now nearly forgotten towns, cities and villages, and particularly county seats, than any other territory of equal extent in the United States. And, after go- ing over a somewhat patient examination of

these places, we are not at all prepared to deny the claim.

Caledonia, America and Trinity-the first two at one time in their brief lives county seats-are places where the signet of eter- nal silence has taken the place of once busy, thriving towns, and are all within a distance of a few miles along the bank of the Ohio River. These places were all more or less of a mushroom character, and partook much of that visionary greatness that shot up like a rocket and came down like a stick. They were in sight, nearly, of Mound City and Cairo, two places that at different times cut most fantastic tricks-but of this the reader is referred to the respective histories of those places, especially the most admirable and interesting chapters of Dr. N. R. Casey's on "Mound City" -- a remarkable instance of truth surpassing fiction, and presenting a story that, under the able and facile pen of the Doctor, may be read, admired and marveled at by the present and the generations to come.

CHAPTER III.

CENSUS OF ALEXANDER COUNTY CONSIDERED-THE KIND OF PEOPLE THEY WERE-HOW THEY IMPROVED THE COUNTRY-WHO BUILT THE MILLS-DOGS VERSUS SHEEP- PERIODS OF COMPARATIVE IMMIGRATION-ACTS OF THE LEGIS- LATURE EFFECTING THE COUNTY, ETC., ETC.

"He bent his way where twilight reigns sublime, O'er forests silent since the birth of time."

T r HE accessions to the 'population of the county, from the time of its formation to the year 1840, were gradual. The census of 1820 shows a population of 626; in 1830, it was 1,390, an addition in ten years of 764 people; in 1840, the population was 3,313; in 1850, it was reduced, by striking off Pu- laski County, to 2,484; in 1860, it was 4, 707;

in 1870, 10,564; 1880, 14,809. Since 1850, there has been an increase of 12,325. Two- thirds of this was the growth of the city of Cairo, and was mostly the result of the build- ing of the Illinois Central Railroad.

The earliest comers were principally Southern men, and of these people there were a large number who were of the middle classes of society, so to speak. Some of them brought their slaves, with the intention,

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HISTORY OF ALEXANDER COUNTY.

usually, of liberating them after = short term of service here, and these men were often large minded, and, for that day, possessed of liberal education, and furnished, even in that early time, material for the study of orig- inal and marked character sketches. It was this class of men who impressed themselves upon the early history 'of Southern Illinois, and for many years their works were every- where visible. It was of this class that came the grand and wonderful schemes in regard to building the great cities and railroads and canals in the wilderness. Their wild dreams were generally abortive, but to them, when they were working them out, they were most real; and the writer has often talked with men, now old, who were young men then, and who had been swept into the circle of the influence of some of those day-dreamers and air-castle builders, and in describing the wonderful talking and persuasive influence of them, they will grow eloquent, and tell you they remember these men as the most seductive talkers they ever met. Of fine personal appearance, of high-born and gentle blood, polished as courtiers, chivalric and lofty in bearing, they talked up their favor- ite hobbies with the inspiration of genius, and they blew their bubbles of wondrous beauty. Their temperaments were generally poetic-nervous, sanguine; and a study of the wrecks that are left us of their castles in the air, furnish conclusive evidence that they always argued themselves into an implicit belief in even their wildest dreams, as in every instance they went down with their schemes, standing bravely at the wheel, al- though all they possessed in the world were stowed away in the wrecked ship. They never, " like rats, deserted the sinking ship." They never imagined it was sinking, until the dark waters had whelmed it, and in it everything they possessed. They were men

of broad and generous ideas, as a rule, and their enthusiasm led them into many mis- takes; but they were mistakes of the head, and not of the heart.

For thousands of miles there came men to settle in Illinois, and when St. Louis and Kaskaskia were rival towns, they would, after a careful examination of the two places, select Kaskaskia, in the implicit faith that it was to be the great city of the West. The same mistake was many times made in refer- ence to Chicago, and people would pass it by and locate in some noisy little place where now not one stone rests upon another.

With this class of rather better men, of course, came the coon-skin tribe, with their pack of cur dogs and troops of frowsy chil- dren. This latter class greatly outnumbered the former, as has their posterity outnum- bered that of the former, and to some extent given its tone and coloring to the people of the present time. The broad-minded and enterprising men generally died poor, and the other kind but seldom grew to any great wealth. In the year 1850, as stated above, there were but 2,484 people in Alexander County. Prior to this time, the immigrants were nearly all from the South. In this year, Wilson Able was the Sheriff of the county, and lived at Able's Landing, eight or nine miles above Cairo, on the Mississippi River. His coming had called about him a good-sized settlement. He was a man of com- manding influence, and was a member of the Legislature when the first legislation was had in reference to the Central Railroad. He kept, a store and owned a large tract of land, and at one time did the largest general business of any man in the county. His two boys, Bart and Dan, were born and reared here. They are now prominent and influential citizens of St. Louis. John McCrite, John P. Walker, James Massey, Samuel M. Phillips, Charles

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HISTORY OF ALEXANDER COUNTY.

Hunsaker, Joseph Harvil, Henry Sowers and Nesbit Allen were living above Able's, but they did their trading and shipping mostly at his landing. Judge L. L. Lightner, who served the county so long as County Judge, came from Missouri in the early thirties. He for years filled many different offices, and his counsels and official acts rendered his life here one of the most conspicuous in the county. Edward Hodges, grandfather of the present Sheriff, John Hodges, came about the year 1838. He married a Hunsaker, and opened a farm near the old town of Unity. Until 1840, there were very few attempts to open and cultivate farms in the Mississippi bottoms. The Hodges and Hunsakers were among the oldest and most prominent of the early settlers. They were an active and vig- orous people, characterized by good intellects, great energy, and they to this day hold their position as among the first people of the county. The Hunsakers are a numerous family, and are to be found in Union, Alex- ander and Pulaski Counties, and the old pa- triarch, Abram Hunsaker, came to Illinois as early as 1803. Among the first merchants at Unity was John S. Hacker, of whom an ex- tended account may be found in the preced- ing chapter. Samuel B. Lisenbee came in an early day from Jonesboro. William Wil- son came into this county in an early day. He had chanced his fortunes as early 1817, in the town of America, and upon its decline and fall he came here. Hodges & Overbay had a store in Thebes, when the place was first laid out, and the next store was opened by Alexander Anderson. As late as 1830, there was not a church edifice in the county, yet the people would assemble at some neigh- bor's house, and listen to preaching at fre- quent intervals, especially when such favor- able opportunities presented themselves as the passing through the country of preachers

of different denominations. When the hard- shell preacher chanced by, Methodists, Presbyterians and all other denominations would go, and respectfully listen to the Word of God, and, vice versa, when other preachers would come pretty much all would turn out to hear them. A Baptist Church was eventually built on the bottom, not far from Cape Girar- deau. Another was about a mile and a half north of Thebes, and was a noted resort for the people for miles around. As late as 1846, there was a church built at Goose Island Landing, and one on the road leading from Thebes to Cairo. The first school was on Sexton's Creek, and among the first school teachers David McMichael, Topley White and Moses Phillips. The second school was near the north county line, in the Cauble settlement, near David McAlister's house, Topley White also taught school here for some time. Then John McCrite taught a school about one and one-half miles east of Thebes. John Lawrence built a horse mill on Sandy Creek, about nine miles northeast of Unity. Levi Graham had started another horse mill near the Union County line. Then Peter Miller put up another, two miles east of Thebes, and then Jack Allen had one about nine miles north of Cairo. The first saw mill in the county was built by Woolfork & Newman, at Santa Fé. It was afterward owned and run by James C. & William Mc- Pheters. Lightner & Bemis built one at the mouth of Clear Creek. John Shaver, moved down from Union County into the upper part of Alexander about 1830. The most of the families had hand mills, in which they cracked the corn for their bread. They were cheap, rude mills indeed, and it was very laborious to grind on them, but for many years they were the universal resort for bread. A man named John Lewis event- ually got to making these mills for the peo-

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HISTORY OF ALEXANDER COUNTY.

ple out of the rocks he found in the hills and cliffs, and at one time his factory was quite an institution. These " grind-stones " were mostly procured near Elco, and they meas- ured from fourteen to sixteen inches across the face. David Hailman made an ambitious attempt to build a water mill at Unity about 1832. He had the frame up and much of the work completed, when he failed and the work was never completed. The first regular public cemetery was upon what is now the Widow Clutt's farm, about two and a half miles north of Thebes.

Prior to 1835, the people were not farmers, but hunters. They would "squat" on a piece of land, put up a rough cabin and some of them had cleared a few acres for a truck patch. About the time named above, the real farmers first began to come, and then hunters began to get ready to move on-go West, where the crowding civilization and settlements would not trouble them, or dis- turb the game they were wont to chase. Of this class were those new comers whose necessity, in the chase and in protecting their pigs and chickens from the hungry wolves and other wild beasts, required the services of the dog, and hence always a good- ly portion of many families were made up of " mongrel, puppy, whelp and hound, and cur of low degree." But, most unfortunate- ly, with the disappearance of the simple trappers and hunters, the dogs did not go, but remained in unlimited numbers for these many years, after their day of usefulness had passed. And now we have no hesitation in saying that one of the greatest misfortunes to Southern Illinois has been its large num . bers of worthless, sheep-killing curs. These perpetual pests have cost the three counties of Union, Alexander and Pulaski many, many thousands, if not millions of dollars. there never had been a dog here, there would

have been raised annually thousands of sheep where none are raised now, and we make no question but the life of one sheep is at any time worth more than every dog in the dis- trict. It is not a good sign to see a people run too much to dog. As a rule, these brutes are not good to eat, nor do they "toil and spin," but they do occasionally make them- selves manifest by going mad, and thus men- acing with a most horrible death every man, woman and child in the community. The dog propensity in man is simply the remnant of transmitted savagery. A savage loves his dog better than his wife and children. A silly city girl's pet poodle, and a backwoods- man's love of his mangy cur, are one and the same hideous disease that has been trans- mitted from savage ancestors. We can well understand that a good dog-a dog of sense and breeding-is not going to prowl all over the neighborhood and kill people's stock; nor will he bite and tear your child in pieces, as it passes along the road or as it approaches your house; but if we can only have good dogs at the expense of these vicious and worthless ones, then, in heaven's name, we say, Let them all go. Start the busy dog-killer, and let him not eat or sleep while a four footed dog lives. We are told of a distin- guished citizen who pays taxes on nine dogs -- $9, and all his other tax is $1.25. This enterprising man will tell you the country is of little or no account; that farmers cannot make a living, and that it is foolish to try to raise stock here; that, in short, everything is going to the "demnition bow-wows." In the language of the woman who was driving the ox team hauling rails, while her " old man " was at the village, industriously getting drunk, " It seems like a good country, though, for men and dogs, but powerful tryin' on women and oxen." Has the reader any idea how many men have attempted to

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HISTORY OF ALEXANDER COUNTY.

raise blooded sheep in these three counties, and quit the business when the dogs had destroyed their flocks? Can any estimate ever be made that would tell this people of how many men had come here with a view of going into the stock business, and when they were confronted with the great dog problem have turned away, and found other places to go into business? Does any man live who is so stupid as not to know that if you could only get rid of the dogs there would be an- nually raised, in each of these three counties, 50,000 sheep? Sheep are not raised here solely because dogs are. This is a self-evi- dent proposition. To produce 200,000 sheep annually would be worth, each year, more than half a million dollars, and yet the dog raisers will tell you they are poor-that they cannot pay their debts, and they often are not able to clothe their children, much less educate them. Such ignorance and trifling- ness is an unmixed evil to the country. Such people will half feed and clothe their chii- dren, and in their turn they will grow up dog-breeders, and, so to speak, a kind of doggy people. Such men will sneer at peo- ple who care for their children, feed them on rich and generous food, clothe them in the best, educate them, send them to travel and learn the world, and mix, in social in- tercourse, with people of that type who im- part gentility and information, as "stuck-ups." From the defects of their own training, they want none of this "hifalutin " style, but turn, content, to their association and com- panionship with their dogs. And now that we have had our say about dogs, in plain, Anglo- Saxon terms, we are content to dismiss the subject with an apology to the dog-raiser, or to the dog himself, and for our life we cannot decide to which of these two we should make our apology, and so we will

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History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois, Part 58

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892? Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Chicago, Ill. ; O.L. Baskin & Co. Number of Pages: 948

Author: Perrin, William Henry, d. 1892?
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago, Ill. ; O.L. Baskin & Co.
Number of Pages: 948