History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois, Part 6

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 6
USA > Illinois > Pulaski County > History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois > Part 6
USA > Illinois > Alexander County > History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois > Part 6

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).

[>The only school taught here between 1842 and 1848 was a pay school, and only for a few months, by Mrs. Peplow. In 1848, a Sabbath school was started. It was held in the Cairo Chapel-an up-stairs room in the Holbrook House -- but after a few weeks of meager attendance and listless interests it permanently closed up for repairs and the want of patronage. On the 4th of July, 1848,

under the auspices of Mrs. Peplow's school, the town held its first national celebration. Dr. C. L. Lind was the Orator of the Day, and Bailey S. Harrell read the Declaration of Independence.

This year, too, came the singing-master- the king of the tuning-fork, who could read the " square notes," and who was born with a hawk-nose, chewing plug tobacco, and had been forever trying to marry the belle sun- flower of every school he had taught or at- tended. This particular one is described as a " cadaverous, bacon-colored old curmudg- oen named Winchester." He left the town in great disgust, so complete was his at- tempted school a failure, and it is supposed Cairo survived this calamity with greater equanimity than any of her other inflictions; we have no hesitation in calling his depart- ure a calamity, because from the above de- scription it will be seen he had many of the ear-marks of a great and good singing-school master, and yet he could not sing his "square notes" in Cairo. His experience here may have given rise to the little legend, "I'm sad- dest when I sing."

About the only relief to the monotony of Cairo life began to come as early as 1848, in the promised revival of the building of the Illinois Central Railroad. The subject was stirred more or less at every session of the Legislature, and when the news would reach Cairo of what was being done, a tremor of excitement would pass around, and the wisest heads would say, "Wait till next spring, and the engineers will then be along." There seemed to be no question of the great work being ultimately done. On this point there was neither dispute nor argument, but all questioning turned upon the one pivot, When ? And here the Cairoites centered their future hopes. But year by year came and

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

went, and no engineers showed themselves, and the hopes and fears of the people would rise and fall with the seasons.

In the meantime, Cairo grew a little-just a little more than the natural increase of population. The few there were here found, eventually, plenty to do, and the steamboat trade had gradually grown to be of the great- est importance. In the winter season, par- ticularly when navigation on the upper rivers would be stopped by the ice, the people of Cairo would find themselves overwhelmed by people, suddenly stopped on their way, until all houses would be filled to overflow- ing, and often hundreds of them would go into camp, and be compelled to wait for weeks for the breaking-up of the ice and to resume their journey. Often a boat would thus land and parties would hire rigs and thus go on to St. Louis. Sometimes others would purchase saddle-horses, or a wagon and team, and depend upon selling for what they could get when at the end of their journey. The boats going and coming soon got so they all touched at this point, and in those days there were great numbers of people travel- ing on deck, and these would rush ashore in great crowds for supplies at the baker's, butcher's and at the boat stores.

Gradually, too, Cairo came to be quite a re-shipping point for St. Louis, and Louis- ville, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh freights, and this gave abundant and profitable business to the wharf-boats. In these and a hundred ways, business thrived, and money was dis-

tributed among the people sometimes in plentiful abundance, and there were hard- working, attentive business men among them, and all such not only made a living, but generally were on the highway to independ- ence and wealth. The social life of the place was much like that of the average small river towns, except the wags and prac- tical jokers noticed elsewhere, and with this further and marked exception, they were a big, warm-hearted, hospitable, independent, and a mind-your-own-business kind of peo- ple. Perhaps no community was ever more wholly free from that tea-table, back-biting species of gossip and slander, and prying into other people's private affairs, than were the people of Cairo. They were a just, gen- erous and true people, and so marked was this characteristic from the first, that they have left their impress in these respects, ap- parently, upon the town. The first comers are nearly all gone, the descendants of only a few remain; and yet, whosoever knows the people of Cairo well, may count as his friend many as true people as were ever got together before in the same sized "commu- nity.

This concludes the second natural division in the eras of Cairo's history, to wit, the decade between the collapse of the Cairo City & Canal Company and the revival of the prospects of Cairo by the actual commence- ment of work on the Central Railroad, and, therefore, is an appropriate ending of the chapter.

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

CHAPTER III.

CAIRO PLATTED-FIRST SALE OF LOTS-THE FOUNDATION OF A CITY LAID-BEGINNING OF WORK ON THE CENTRAL RAILROAD-S. STAATS TAYLOR -CITY GOVERNMENT ORGANIZED AND WHO WERE ITS OFFICERS-INCREASE OF POPULATION - THE WAR -- SOLDIERS IN CAIRO-BATTLE OF BELMONT-WAIF OF THE BATTLE-FIELD-" OLD RUBE" -KILLING OF SPENCER -OVERFLOW OF '58 - WASH GRAHAM AND GEN. GRANT-A FEW MORE PRACTICAL JOKES, ETC, ETC.

TN the preceding chapters we have traced the efforts to found and build a city here, and the social and business life of the people, as best we could, down to the year 1852. We found that from 1841 to 1851-more properly to 1853 -was the long period of stagnation, marked only by the natural decay of time, and the small damages that it was possible to accrue to the place from a succession of high waters in the rivers. Miserable little levees, about eight feet high, girdled about the town, winding with the bends of the stream, or jogged into short angles, in the language of a Mound City paper of the early times, the "broken ribs" levee. From the first attempted founding of the city by the Cairo City & Canal Company down to 1851, the company elung pertinaciously to Holbrook's first idea of never selling a foot of the land-only leasing upon the most rigid and arbitrary terms. The agent and attor- ney-in-fact of the property trustees, S. Staats Taylor, Esq., arrived in Cairo, September, 1851. He came with instructions and the power to inaugurate some new and healthy ideas for the company, and for the good of the people and the town. But his first and most difficult task was to obtain peaceable possession of the com- pany's property. The residents had much of it in possession, and so long had they occupied it without landlord, rents or taxes that they felt encouraged to treat the company's preten- sions to ownership with indifference and con- tempt. Then, other parties from the outside

had noticed the apparent abandonment of the place by the company in 1841, and they pounced upon the rich flotsam like buzzards upon a dead carcass, and by all manner of Sheriff's titles, tax deeds, and even bogus decds, attempted to secure both possession and title, some to the whole and some to large por- tions of the land within the city limits. One instance, called the "Holmes claim," may serve as an illustration of some of the many difficulties that the company encountered in regaining what they had apparently aban- doned. The company had acquired title to a large portion of the southern part of the city by purchase from the heirs of Gov. Bond. These heirs had made separate deeds, one of them, Elizabeth Bond, had executed her prop- er deed to her interests in the land and this deed Holbrook had carelessly carried in his pocket and neglected to put it upon the record, until, in the course of time, it was mislaid and forgotten. Holmes was a brother-in-law of Miss Bond, and in some way he ascertained Elizabeth's deed was not on record. He went to Thebes, then the county seat, examined the records, and, being duly prepared, at once placed a deed upon record from Elizabeth Bond to himself, conveying all her right, title and interest in Cairo. This conveyance in- eluded about one hundred acres in the south- west portion of the city. The company ap- pealed to the courts ; the case went into the United States Court, and there it stayed for

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

twenty-three years before being finally adjudi- cated and settled. Five different trials before juries resulted in three verdicts in favor of the company, and two in favor of Holmes-as the boys would say, " the best three in five." There was no question but the chain in the re- cord-title was with Holmes, but the company based their claim and relied wholly upon color of title and seven years' possession and the payment of taxes. Upon this claim the Su- preme Court of the United States gave the company the land and settled the question for- ever.

As said, 1851 dawned a new era upon Cairo. It came to be known that the law had passed the Congress of the United States that would at last secure the building of the Illinois Cen- tral Railroad, and this was cheering news to the good people of the town, and of the whole State. In 1851, the advance guard-the en- gineers-put in their cheerful appearance, and bright and early one morning a squad of them were to be seen trimming out a passage way in the bush and undergrowth and hoisting flag- poles here and there, and peeping knowingly through instruments, and the children shouted to each other that the railroad had come at last. The almost expiring hopes of the older people were revived to the highest pitch once more. Yet the onward move of the town itself loitered, and, until 1854, there was no change among the residents, and but few accessions to the population or improvements of the town. The causes for this were the difficulties about the possession and titles above noticed. Here were three years in the historical life of the city that may be briefly passed over, the real history, if any, that was made during that time, was exclusively concerning the Central Railroad, and will be found in the chapter giv- ing an account of that enterprise.

Mose Harrell, in his sketch of Cairo, justly, we think, insists that for the "real commence- ment of Cairo we are not authorized to go be-

hind that period " (1854). The many years consumed by monopolies in futile attempts to build up the place, and the greater number of years of non-action, cannot be fairly added to the real age of the place, as during the whole of that time public capital and energy were not only not invited to come to Cairo, but ab- solutely forbidden any kind of foothold what- ever. Fairness, then. will fix the birth of the city at that exact period when it became possible and allowable for those essential ele- ments of prosperity to take hold of the under- taking, and to operate without fetter or tram- mel-and not before that period.

The Agent, Mr. Taylor, had finally got such sufficient possession of the property, and had platted and laid off the town anew, that on the 4th day of September. 1854, the lots were of- fered for sale. On the morning of that day. Peter Stapleton purchased the lot on the cor- ner of Third street and Commercial avenue, where he at once erected a substantial and per- manent residence and business house. This was the first sale ever made of a lot in Cairo ; it was the first step in the real city building that has gone on steadily from that day to the present time. The price paid for the lot was $1,250, not far from what the unimproved lot would be rated at now. This purchase was soon followed by others, including Mrs. Can- dee, John Howley, M. B. Harrell and the grounds on which were erected the Taylor House (burned down with several other build- ings in 1860). The people were now buying the lots and building up the town, and it was no longer Holbrook and his iron-cast monopo- ly ; and now the good work went on with ra- pidity, and within a year from the day that Stapleton purchased his lot, so actively had the work gone on, that a large number of build- ings were erected and in the course of erection. and the streets and avenues come to be well defined by the buildings that reared their fronts along the streets and at the corners. But

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

at this time no improvements had been erected on the Ohio levee. The company saw proper to put restrictions here, and would only stipu- late that no other building except brick, iron or stone should be built thereon. All these front lots were regarded as the valuable ones of the town. Williams' brick block had been put up on the levee, and it stood alone until quite an amount of buildings had been placed on Third and Fourth streets and Commercial avenne. Time soon demonstrated the foolish- ness of these restrictions, as few purchasers, be- fore becoming acquainted with the city, its busi- ness, the character and permanency of its pro- tective embankments, the health of the people, etc., felt disposed to erect either very fine or expensive buildings, and these barriers were brushed away and the lots on the levee put upon sale upon the same terms as the others of the town.

Then came the' hosts of eager purchasers, in response to the word that went out that lots in Cairo were upon the market without restric- tions, and upon terms that were regarded as just and liberal. Another proof, were any proof needed, that no man in New York, Philadelphia, or London can manage and build a great city either out here in Cairo or any- where else, where he is not present and a part of the community. As seen by the purchase price of Stapleton's lot, the property was gen- erally placed at a high figure, but when the property on the levee was thrown, unrestricted, upon the market, the figures were increased, and were, in fact, enormously high ; yet the sales were numerous, the most buying for improvement, and many for speculation, even at these high figures. Then, indeed, came the race in putting up buildings-the wants of builders putting to the test the numerous saw mills in the county, and calling from abroad hosts of mechanics and laborers. A great vari- ety'of business enterprises were inaugurated, business, both commercial and mechanical,

grew apace ; drays and other vehicles rattled over the wharf and the streets, and the features of a young and thrifty city began to be visible everywhere.

In another part of this work we have given some account of the rather loose and inefficient general city government that had been adopted by the people, after the dethronement of the Czar of all the Cairos, Holbrook, and the tak- ing of the reins of government into the hands of the few people left here. Early in 1855, so rapid had been the growth of the place, and so apparent the growing necessity, that the citizens met in mass convention, in the Central Railroad depot, and there determined that until a special charter could be obtained from the Legislature, that the city should be incorpor- ated under the general incorporation laws.

In pursuance of this determination, the fol- lowing were chosen, at a general election, Trustees for the ensuing year : S. Staats Tay- lor, John Howley, Peter Stapleton, Lewis W. Young, B. Shannessy and M. B. Harrell.

This board, at once proceeded to put in place the wheels and pulleys and bands and cogs of an elaborate and complete general government. It enacted voluminous ordinances and fulmi- nated its edicts. The quiet and health of the city was their one ambition. Mose Harrell commenced to study, with avidity, the laws of hygiene under Shannessy, and John Howley and Stapleton purchased diagrams and charts of the Constitution of the United States, with a view, perhaps, of settling, by a great com- promise, the questions that were agitating the wharves and wharf-boats, mails, transfers, etc. But the people, from some inscrutable cause, would continue to look upon the whole proceed- ing as a "good joke," and the ordinances were not enforced-remained, in a monumental way, a dead letter upon the journal of the board's proceedings.

On March 9, 1856, imperious necessity called out another effort at a city Government --

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

spelled with a big G-and another election was held, when, besides a Board of Trustees, a Police Magistrate was elected, in the person of Robert E. Yost, Esq. At the first meeting of the board, Thomas Wilson, Esq., was made President ; James Kenedy, Marshal ; Isaac L. Harrell, Clerk; George D. Gordon, Wharf- master, and all other matters closely scru- tinized, to put the machinery of the government into successful operation.

But again, this year, there was not a great deal of government in active play, except in the matter of the ordinance department ; these were ably composed, and they did "sound so grand " on the river's bank, but with the ex- ception of a Marshal, to run in a few unfortu- nates before the Police Magistrate-these two officers reporting, as their year's work, the munificent collection of fines, etc., of $355- and this was added to the Wharfmaster's year's report of $331.50 wharfage, making in all, for those three officers, the munificent sum of $686.50; of itself, not a very enormous salary, but then there were the honors, which may run the sum total into the thousands.

In addition to the fines and wharfage, the city this year derived, from grocery and other licenses, $2,250.50 ; from taxes, $2,325.78.

The entire real and personal property of the city then was valued, for the purpose of taxation, at a fraction over $450,000. There were twenty-eight licensed saloons in the city, two billiard saloons, and nine licensed drays. The records tell the story of how rapidly a solid and flourishing city was rising out of the debris of the wreck of 1841, when the City of Cairo & Canal Company carried all down in its general wreck and ruin. The music of the hammer and the saw was heard upon every side, and to all these was added the cheering scream of the locomotive whistle, and the heyday of flush times once more began to come to Cairo.

Before passing again, however, to the

material affairs of the city, we choose to incor- porate here the details of the most notable occurrence that disturbed the quiet or marred the dignity of Cairo. This was the mobbing of the desperate negro, Joseph Spencer, which took place in the autumn of the year 1855. A citizen of Cairo, George D. Gordon, we believe, had instituted legal proceedings against the negro for trespass, and a writ had been issued for his apprehension. It was served upon him and he informed the officer that he would be at the Justice's office in a few minutes. Instead of quietly submitting himself to the law, like a rational being, he procured a keg of powder, and with this under his arm he repaired to the court of justice. This office was in a room on the first floor of the Cairo Hotel, the upper rooms being occupied by guests, including many women and children. Arrived at the Squire's office, and seating himself upon the keg, and immersing the muzzle of a cocked pistol far into the powder, the audacious negro dictated his own terms to the officer, which were, that judgment should be instantly pronounced in his favor, and the suit thrown out of court, or he would " fire, and blow to h-11 the building and every one in it!" It was evident, from his wicked eye that he would do as he said, and scores of unsuspecting persons in the rooms above would have been blown to atoms. The hangers-on in the court room, as well as the officers present, adjourned themselves out of the doors and windows in rapid confusion. Word of this infernal outrage being generally circulated, a large number of citizens and strangers gathered, and determined that, at least, such a dangerous character should at once leave the city. The negro had a hotel wharf-boat moored to the shore, where he kept a tavern of no mean pretensions, and where many of the sojourners here in their travels have stopped and been entertained. But the reputation of the place was becoming infamous, and circumstances had caused many to sus-

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

pect that in the name of caring for travelers, crimes of the deepest cast had long been going on in Spencer's boat. Strangers had been known to repeatedly stop there and were never seen or heard of again after going to bed. The bedrooms ran along the building on either side, with a hallway in the center, and it was ascertained that under each bed, in every room, . was a trap-door, with the carpet so neatly fitted over this that it could not be discovered with- out the closest inspection, and by this arrange- ment a person could enter, from the hull below, and pass from one room to the other without ever going in or out at a room door.

Spencer was waited upon by a few represent- ative citizens and informed of the determination of the people, and at the same time he was as- sured that he should be safely conveyed across the river. The negro consented to this, pro- vided one or two of the delegation, whom he named, would go in the skiff with him, and to this they agreed. In the meantime a great crowd had gathered on the levee above Spen- cer's boat. Some parties in the crowd, when they learned that these men were going to cross the river with the negro, went to them and ad- vised them not to do so, and thereupon they declined to go, and then Spencer not only de- clined to go, but mocked and defied the people he had so signally outraged. An hour's time was given him for preparation to leave-then another hour; but instead of employing the time for such an end, he used it in preparing himself for resistance. He now concealed him- self in his boat and refused to have intercourse with any one. The crowd grew greatly incensed and they determined to force the negro to leave at all hazards. They made a rush for the room where he was concealed and forced the door, but he had escaped through his secret trap- door as they entered. They were soon notified, however, of his whereabouts, by the report of his shot-gun from another room, the charge of the gun taking effect in the breast and shoulder of

one of the party, producing a wound of which the man died some time after. We can find no one now able to recall the name of this man, he being almost an entire stranger. He was a river man, and either a pilot or engineer. When this shot was fired, the crowd rushed to the room and broke it open, but the room was vacant ; and while the assailants were bewildered about the negro's second strange disappearance, the re- port of his gun was again heard. This shot wounded the well-known citizen, Ed Willett, who was innocently on board the boat, not joining in the assault, but endeavoring to save the furni- ture. This last shot enraged the people in an instant into a fierce mob that cried aloud for blood and that now nothing else would appease. The boat was torn from its moorings and towed out into the river, and in full view of at least a thousand people set on fire, and in less than thirty minutes burned to the waters' edge. But while this work was in progress the desper- ate and now doomed negro was not idle. He evidently felt that he must die, but seemed de- termined to sell his life dearly. Upon those who towed his boat into the stream, upon those who applied the torch, and upon those who filled the scores of skiff's which dotted the Ohio River, he fired repeated rounds and scarcely ever without effect. Exhausting his shot or projec- tiles, he charged his piece with stone-coal and fired that upon his assailants, as long as the eager flames allowed him to resist at all. And now the advancing element had fully shrouded the upper works of the boat, leaving only a plat- form on the stern to be enveloped. Many had concluded the wretched creature had perished in the flames, and as they were about to turn from the sickening sight there was a crash of glass heard in the great bulk of flame. In an instant afterward Spencer appeared upon the stern, in full view of the great crowd, and of his wife upon the wharf-boat, and, looking defi- antly at all, he placed his hand upon his breast and leaped headlong into what he then must

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

have considered the "friendly waters of the Ohio." Long and anxiously the crowd looked for his appearance to the surface, but the wa- ters had closed over him once and forever. Thus, calling destruction on his own head, per- ished the desperate negro, Joseph Spencer.

For weeks and months afterward the news- papers of the country made allusion to the affair as a " characteristic mob," giving it more shapes than Proteus, every writer who took it in hand, molding it exactly to his own liking. Mose Harrell, who was an eye witness to the whole sad affair, and who was daily receiving in his exchange papers from all over the country, at- tempted to summarize the accounts and recon- cile them all into one straight, consistent story, and here is the remarkable result :

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History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois, Part 6

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