History of Bureau County, Illinois, Part 27

Author: Bradsby, Henry C., [from old catalog] ed
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Chicago, World publishing company
Number of Pages: 776

USA > Illinois > Bureau County > History of Bureau County, Illinois > Part 27

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HISTORY OF BUREAU COUNTY.

added. Mr. Joseph Sutherland has held the office of Elder eighteen years. This church seems to be a power for good in this commun - ity.

The Methodist Episcopal Church of Milo, located one mile south of Boyd's Grove, was organized in 1851 by Rev. J. L. Wilson. Names of corporate members are: T. N. Shep- herd and wife, W. W. Macklin and wife, T. R. Capperoone and wife, Rufus King and wife, Harvey Bacon and wifo, Horris Berry and wife. Present number is fifty-four. The Sabbath-school averages fifty. The church building cost $2,100. A Bible society was organized here in 1850, and is in a flourish- ing condition.

Names of ministers since the first are: J. L. Pinkard, William Cummings, Mr. Frasure, William Calhoon, J. F. Whitson, J. Mat- thews, T. Watson, J. T. Linthicum, S.B.Smith, William Stuble, James Cowden, H. Tifney, G. J. Luckey, T. Hogland, J. W. Anterman, S. Wood, R. N. Morse, W. H. Hitchcock, H. K. Metcalf, E. C. Wayman and J. A. Riason. This church is doing a good work.

The Baptist Church of Milo has a church in Boyd's Grove. It is not known at this present writing that this church now keeps up any regular services. No report has been received.

The Methodist Episcopal Church keeps up a class in Hunter's Schoolhouse on the south- east quarter of Section 13.

The Methodist Episcopal Church in Wheat- land Township is located on the southeast quarter of Section 31. Called Whitefield Corners Church.

French Grove .- Going back a little in time we find the following interesting items in reference to the first church movements in this place as follows:

July 26, 1841, at the log schoolhouse at the east of French Grove, a church was organized

and was to be known as the " First Church of French Grove." This was composed of mem- bers of various denominations, and Rev. S. L. Julian was the first pastor. They adopted a constitution August 21, 1841. By consent of all, Article 7: "We will not drink ardent spir- its ourselves, nor allow them to be drunk in our families, nor furnish it to those in our em- ploy, and will discourage its traffic in our community;" was adopted. They also agreed to immersion. Were neither Unitarian nor Trinitarian, but ou the middle-ground, and the agitation of either subject would be a violation of the covenant. First members who signed the covenant, were: Jabesh Pierce, James Carroll, John Mason, Elizabeth Pierce, Abigail Mason, Elizabeth B. Foster, Mary Stevens, Malinda Stevens, Abraham Fry, Nathaniel W. Stevens. Rev. S. L. Julian and wife did not sign the articles till Novem- ber 13, 1841. June 9, 1842, at a business meeting of the church, they voted to do away with the previous church organization, and also gave letters of dismission to all who requested the same. June 14, 1842, a num- ber of those who had been members of the previous church met and organized the " First Free-Will Baptist Church of French Grove," and the following subscribed to this organi- zation: Rev. S. L. Julian and wife, John H. Stevens and wife, John Mason and wife, Augustus Lyford, Charlotte Lyford, Mary Emerson and Florinda Stevens. December 24, 1843, is the last record of this organiza- tion.

French Grove Sabbath-school Society was organized August 23, 1843, and constitution adopted and signed by the following: S. L. Julian, D. E. Brainard, Shallor Brainard, William H. Mason, Nathaniel W. Stevens, Joseph Foster, John Mason, Andrew Julian, Charles Townsend, John W. Mason, Jesse Emerson, D. E. Stevens, Albert R. Brainard,

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Franklin Foster, N. L. H. Julian, Abigail Mason, Harriet Foster, Elizabeth Foster, Sally Brainard, Mary Stevens, Mary F. Julian, Angeline Brainard, Abigail Rowell, Julia Brainard. Soon after this the name was changed to Union Sunday-school, and has continued under the same form of organiza- tion to the present day, with an enrollment of about 100.

Perkins Grove Church (Zion Church) .- German Evangelical. In 1843 Johannes Fau- bel came to the county from New York. S. A. Tobias preached in Faubel's house. In 1848 the meetings were held in Jacob Betz's house. In 1850 the members increased. Jacob Popp was elected class-leader and Jacob Betz as ex- horter. In 1854 the circuit was divided. T. C. Anthes was the minister and Conrad Spiel- man was class-leader. In 1853 they built a brick church 2Sx36. . In 1859 fifty persons were joined to the church.

In 1864 the Zion Church was built-a frame, 32x42-costing $1,700, and the old church was torn down and rebuilt 36x50, costing $3,000. Both houses were dedicated by Bishop J. J. Escher.

In 1870 at a church meeting it was decided that Kuntel Bauer was not a witch as her sis- ter charged her to be.

The present minister is Charles Gagstaet- ter, a native of Germany. The present mein- bership is sixty.

Clarion Township Zion's Church .- Ger- man Evangelical Lutheran Church (only four- teen members.) It was founded September, 1857, by Rev. Johannes Koch. It was a branch of the German Evangelical Zion's Church built in 1851 by Unions and Luther- ans. The number of members was twenty: Frederick Stanberger and wife, Nicholas Gross and wife, Adam Geuther and wife, Se- bastian Puehlhorn and wife, John F. Meier and wife, George Schaller and wife, Hen-

ry Truckenbrod and wife, Peter Faber and wife, Adam Grosch and wife, Mrs. M. Bar- bara Heiman. John Waid and wife, John Baner and wife, Pancratz Gross and wife, George Platsch and wife, John Gruber and wife, John Schmidt and wife, Casper Fetzer and wife and Frederick Herr.

In September, 1858, a church was built- a frame-costing $1,200; now, since improved, $2,200. It was remodeled about 1874, and cost $2,200. The following is a list of min- isters: John Koch in 1857; George Guebner 1858-60; Henry Ehlers of Bremen Seminary, 1860-67; George Schieferdecker, Saxony, 1868-74; John Wittig, 1874-84; the latter is a native of Hessen, Germany. He was educated in St. Sebald, Iowa. Most of the members are Coburger and Bavarians; all natives of Germany.

There is a German school attached to the parsonage, where they are taught all branches; also has a German Sunday-school. Present members about fifty.

There is a branch of this church at Van Orin, in Lamoille Township, which was founded about 1876 by Rev. John Wittig. The meetings are held in the schoolhouse every month. It is called the St. Johns Church-nine members.

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HISTORY OF BUREAU COUNTY.

CHAPTER XVI.

ORIOIN OF THE ANTI-MONOPOLY MOVEMENT-JOHN H. BRYANT'S CONNECTION WITH THE SAME-BIRTH OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY -JUDGE LAWRENCE DEFEATED FOR SUPREME JUDOE-JUOGE CRAIO ELECTED-THE BEGINNING OF THE GREAT CONTEST OF THE PEOPLE AGAINST CORPORATIONS-ITS EFFECT ON THE WHOLE COUNTRY-HOW BUREAU COUNTY HAS KEPT IN THE LEAD IN ALL GREAT MOVEMENTS-THE XIIITH ARTICLE OF THE STATE CONSTITUTION AND ITS CONSEQUENCES-THE LAWS ENACTED AND THE COURT'S DECISION FOUNDED THEREON-ILLINOIS THE BIRTH- PLACE OF EVERY MODERN GREAT POLITICAL REVOLUTION-SOME CORRECTIONS IN HISTORY-THE FACTS IN THIS CHAPTER WILL SOME DAY BE A GREAT CHAPTER IN AMERICAN HISTORY-ETC. ETC.

And as it is with money-getting, So with life, 'till life is o'er, Man seldom has so much of it, But he wants a little more.

-J. H. BRYANT.

E INGLAND'S Magna Charta has now for centuries stood as one of the most prom- inent landmarks in the great highway of National and civil liberty. And well it may. It was the victorious assault upon " the di- vine right of kings," and that monster heresy that the "king can do no wrong." It was a sure foundation on which to build the liberty of the people and check the tyranny of rulers -to give the people some voice in the asser- tions of their plainest rights. Nothing could be more interesting to the student of politi- cal economy (a subject of which every voter in free America is, by a terrible legal fiction, supposed to understand) than the study of the history of charters and charter rights, and the growth of their abuses in this coun- try. In the United States the interesting chapter dates its commencement from the argument of Daniel Webster in the Dart- mouth College case. This great forensic effort, from the master of American consti- tutional law, became a national era, and the great argument was a settled fundamental law of the country for half a century. But at that time we had no great and rich rail-

roads, no powerful private corporations, and no chartered privileges were sought, except for religious, educational and, perhaps, in a few instances, social bodies. Mr. Webster was the father of the idea of "vested rights" -that a charter was " a contract " by which the State gave a portion of its powers to a company, and that it could not resume pow- ers it had granted away. Hence, at the time of Mr. Webster's argument in the Dartmouth case it could not be foreseen what the future of this country would bring forth. The his- tory of the sudden rise of great charter cor- porations is so recent that it must be famil- iar to the reader. These rich corporations sprang into existence like the growth of the mushroom, and so numerous were the calls upon the Legislatures for acts of authority to incorporate that finally a general law was passed authorizing everybody that might de- sire it to apply to the Secretary of the State and procure license therefor. The rapid bnilding of railroads, especially after Senator Douglas' bill in Congress which resulted in the completion of the Illinois Central Rail- road, started up an era of prosperity and rapid development of the country never be- fore equaled. Men who were paupers one week became often millionaires next week, and the people rejoiced and showered their favors upon these and all other corporations without stint, and they voted all the money and all the privileges they asked for without question. Voters did not look ahead-they never stopped to think, and they could not comprehend how evil could come of institutions that were so rapidly de- veloping the wealth of the country. As said above, a history of this general frenzy that seized the voters, which permeated the remot- est frontier cabins in the land and extended up through the smallest local municipalities to and including the General Government itself

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until the financial agent of the United States in official publications announced in flaming headlines that " A Public Debt is a Public Blessing," and its equally swift development of gigantic evils, would be a most interesting and instructive chapter for the rising gener- ation to contemplate and study. Internal improvements, credits, vast speculations and inflation were the national South Sea bub- ble, that ran like a prairie fire over the coun- try. In the meantime the vast corporations were being gathered into the hands of the big and little Jay Goulds of the Nation, and while the people were lured by the rush of prosperity, these schemers were sapping the public substance, piling up fortunes that would individually run into the hundreds of millions, and were commencing to subsidize and control little ignorant and feeble munic- ipalities rapidly, and from here extended their vision until they boldly and success- fully captured States and then the General Government itself. They elected members of State Legislatures, State Senators, Con- gressmen, United States Senators; and Judges and courts and lawyers were their ready and willing minions. The principal men of the smallest villages filled their pockets with free passes, and the lawyers all over the land an- swered any grumbling complaint by simply saying, "Here are vested rights, and you people must endure it the best you can." State Supreme Courts, especially the Illinois court, and the United States Supreme Court, had either expressly decided or had tacitly conceded that the charter of a railroad com- pany in which was granted the right to fix tolls, there was no power in the State or peo- ple to modify or change it. In other words, the roads could form their syndicates or pools and there was no limit to their powers to extort and oppress the whole people.

In order that the reader may look behind

the curtains and see something of the real doings of these great corporations, we ex- tract briefly from the evidence before a com- mittee of the late State Constitutional Con- vention of New York. The entire testimony may be found in the reports of the committee, Vol. V, No. 150:

Edwin D. Worcester, sworn : - I am Treasurer of the New York Central Railroad Company, and have been for two years; was Assistant Treasurer for two years previous.

QUESTION. - Do you know of the New York Ceutral Railroad Company paying out con- siderable amounts of money during the ses- sions of legislation ?

ANSWER. - Yes, considerable amounts of money.

Q .- I think you have succeeded in procur- ing legislation for two or three years past ?

A .- Yes, we succeeded in getting the legis- lation.

Q .- Were the expenses attending the ap- plication paid by the President of the road ?

A .- I can state the amount of money he had; the whole amount of money paid was $205,000.

Q .- Did he ever state to you any purpose for which it was to be applied ?

A .- Well, I don't remember that he did.

Q .- How are the items or entries made in your books with reference to the expenditures of this $205,000 ?

A. - There were no entries made with regard to those disbursements.

Q .- Was authorization given before or after the advances or disbursements were made ?

A .- It was after that the Board confirmed the advance, but did not state what should be made of the item.

Q .- What is the condition of the item on your books?

A. - It is charged to the Treasurer's office

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and remains there. The action of the Treas- urer in advancing the money was confirmed by the Board.

Q-The year previous about what money was expended ?

A .- I think it was something like $60,000, that was charged to expenses pertaining to the Legislature.

In 1873 a bitter quarrel between the rail- road magnates brought about an investiga- tion by a committee of the State Legislature of New York, before whom Jay Gould testi- fied and coolly informed the people that through his manipulations and by the power and influence of his money, they had been wrestling with one another for years past, as Democrats and Republicans, with no other result and no other purpose but the election of his creatures to office. Here is his testi- mony :

" I do not know how much I paid toward helping friendly men. We had four States to look after, and we had to suit our politics to circumstances. In a Democratic district I was a Democrat; in a Republican district I was a Republican, and in a doubtful district I was doubtful; but in every district and at all times I have been an Erie man."

The state of things unearthed by this in- vestigation was officially described in the re- port of the Legislative Committee as fol- lows:

" It is further in evidence that it has been the custom of the managers of the Erie Rail- way, from year to year, in the past, to spend large sums to control elections and to influ- ence legislation. In the year 1868 more than one million ($1,000,000) were disbursed from the treasury for 'extra and legal services.' For interesting items see Mr. Watson's testi- mony, pages 336 and 337.

" Mr. Gould, when last on the stand, and examined in relation to various vouchers

shown him, admitted the payment during the three years prior to 1872 of large sums to Barber, Tweed and others, and to influence legislation or elections; these amounts were charged in the 'India rubber account.' The memory of this witness was very defective as to details, and he could only remember large transactions; but could distinctly recall that he had been in the habit of sending money into the numerous districts all over the State, either to control nominations or elections for Senators and Members of Assembly. Con- sidered that, as a rule, such investments paid better than to wait until the men got to Al- bany, and added the significant remark when asked a question that it would be as impossi- ble to specify the numerous instances as it would be to recall to mind the numerous freight cars sent over the Erie road from day to day."

Through these methods the railroads not only pack Legislatures and the bench with their creatures, from whom they can obtain such laws and such rulings as they desire, but by other methods, not less nefarious, they compel the people to fe-imburse them for the money expended in securing the nom- ination and election of their own tools by stock watering. Shortly after the transac- tions admitted by Worcester, Treasurer of the New York Central Railroad Company, the Vanderbilt management of the New York Central Railroad watered the stock of the road $47,000,000 and a purchased Legisla- ture legalized it. Regular dividends of 8 per cent have since been declared upon it and these dividends upon the water alone, have in thirteen years, with interest compounded an- nually, amounted to over $75,000,000 .*

There is no purpose in this reference to the general state of affairs which were rapidly culminating about the year 1872, to reflect

* From a circular by John Scott, Esq., of Princeton.

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or prefer charges against any particular cor- poration. This prominent road is merely selected and the above extracts from sworn tes- timony is given simply to elucidate what we started out to say, and to make plain the existence of the great Gorgon that the fool- ish people had fostered and fattened and possessed with their money and unlimited powers. The country had reached a period when some man must step forward and cut the Gordian knot. The people were rudely awakened from their golden dreams when these great corporations began to carve "the pound of flesh nearest each one's heart." The people must revolt and strike the hand that was at every man's throat. They did, and as much as it may be news to even the people of this county, yet Bureau County is entitled to the great honor of starting the movement that extended all over the United States, and to John H. Bryant is due the conception and execution of the first steps in the revolution and the rescue of our people from these soul- less tyrants. The golden opportunity pre- sented itself in the spring of 1873, when Judge Lawrence was a candidate for re- election to the Illinois Supreme Court from this district. The usual form that had ob- tained in the election of Judges was for the members of the bar to agree upon some one and the people would elect whoever it might be. Judge Lawrence was admittedly an able jurist, pure and upright, but he was purely a lawyer, and the cold letter of the law was the one thing before his eyes when he made up his judgments. Ancient precedent, the de- cisions of the courts, the great arguments. like Webster's and the black-letter of the law were the supreme things in a court room to his mind. The only question possible for him to consider was, "Is it so designated iu the bond ?" and if yea, then he was the "Dan- iel come to judgment," and who suffered he

could not consider. Hence his purity of mind and great legal attainments at that par- ticular time made him both a menace and a danger to the public weal. The bench and bar of this district had chosen Judge Law- rence for re-election, and when a visiting attorney came to Princeton, we are informed, there was but one firm of attorneys-Her- ron & Scott-but that endorsed Judge Law- rence for re-election. Under the move given the people by Mr. Bryant, Judge A. M. Craig was secured to stand against Judge Lawrence, and thus was the issue of anti-monoply first fairly presented. It was the people on one side and the railroads and great corporations and the attorneys on the other side. The people triumphed and Judge Craig was elected, and is now in the early part of his second term, having the second time defeated a nominee of the Republican party.

The race between Craig and Lawrence was one of the notable contests in this country for the judicial ermine. It was watched with deep interest in all the States, and everywhere the lawyers and railroads were for Lawrence, and many good people were frightened into voting against their own plainest interests by the sneers and taunts of those who called Judge Craig the ignorant "Granger." The writer of these lines was not in the district, but he distinctly remembers how the lawyers in his town were ready to work or pray, or both even, for the success of Lawrence. They openly said the dignity of the learned pro- fession, the cult of the wig and woolsack, were at issue, and it would be almost a crime to defeat the great jurist by this farmer judge. But Judge Craig was elected and the people won a great victory, and he has been re-elect. ed, and nothing better can be said for the sound sense of the people than the fact that he defeated a party nominee, running as an independent, in a district overwhelmingly

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Republican. Here was a real case of the con- flict of the "higher law" versus the law of the land-the cold letter of the statute book, ver- sus the rights and liberties of the people. We have no hesitation in saying it was the begin- ning of a revolution-a revolt by the people in their own interests, -that is one of the greatest victories attained since the Declara - tion of American Independence. True, it did not, like the "Irrepressible Conflict," exter- minate the great evil it attacked, yet it is a step forward all along the line for the relief and freedom from the tyrant monopoly, and it was the liberation of white men, the entire farming and laboring interests in this coun- try, exceeding in numbers ten times the 4,000,000 of slaves that were liberated by the late war. It was a bloodless victory, yet the grander by this fact, and except that the miserable demagogues have stepped in and checked and to some extent stopped the great movement, yet the leven has commenced its work, it is there, and some day it will go on to the end in the general relief. As an illus- tration of what were the first results in this contest the following recital will explain :

The first case that arose after Judge Craig became a member of the court was the case of Munn & Scott vs. the People, reported in the 69 Ill., page 80. The Constitution of 1870, Article XIII, declares that all elevators and warehouses where grain is stored for com- pensation, are declared public warehouses, and where such warehouse or elevator is lo- cated within the corporate limits of a city of 100,000 inhabitants, certain duties were enjoined upon the owners or operators of such warehouse obviously, because the people by the XIIIth Article of the Constitution, de- clares them public warehouses, etc., and to give proper effect to this XIIIth Article, the General Assembly, in 1871, passed an act to give effect to the Constitution, and provided

all owners of such warehouses, before operat- ing the same, should take out a license from the Circuit Court of the county, and give bond to the people in the sum of $10,000, condi- tioned, for the faithful performance of their duties as such public warehouse.

The law of 1871 referred to provides that such warehouses should receive for stor- age any grain that should be tendered them and that the warehouseman should not make any unjust discrimination in the amount he should charge between individuals, and that such license should be taken out from the Cir- cuit Court before such warehouseman could operate at all.

Munn & Scott, of Chicago, owned a large elevator combined with a warehouse in the city of Chicago; had owned and operated the same prior to the adoption of the new Con- stitution, containing the XIIIth Article before referred to. It was well known that they had exercised unfair and unjust discrimination between individuals in Chicago, who stored large amounts, and the producer in the coun- try, who wished to store smaller amounts. And when the Constitution of 1870 was adopt- ed declaring such elevators and warehouses public warehouses, and after the acts of the Legislature passed in aid of the Constitution and requiring such warehouseman to take out a license from the Circuit Court to operate the same and give bond in the penal sum of $10,- 000, conditioned, that they would not make unjust discriminations between individuals who might wish to store grain in such place, and as the railroads all over the Northwest were making unjust discrimination in the amount they charged in carrying the people's freight, claiming that they had vested rights, by their charters, to charge people what they pleased; and that the people were powerless aud had no remedy.

Munn & Scott claimed their warehouse

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was private property ; that they could operate it as they pleased; that it could not be de- clared a public warehouse and they refused to take out a license or pay any attention whatever to the laws of the State, and they were npheld in their disobedience to the laws by the railroad corporations. An informa- tion was filed in the Criminal Court of Cook County by the State's Attorney; they were put on trial, convicted and fined $100. They were defended by five ablerailroad attorneys: Messrs. Jewett, Goudy, McCagg, Fuller and Culver, all claiming that the law was an in- fraction of the rights of the citizen and au unwarranted interference with their property. The case was appealed by Munn & Scott to the Supreme Court, prior to Craig's election, and was argued before he took his seat on the bench, but the Court could reach no de- cision and did not decide the question.

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History of Bureau County, Illinois, Part 27

Author: Bradsby, Henry C., [from old catalog] ed Publication date: 1885 Publisher: Chicago, World publishing company Number of Pages: 776

Author: Bradsby, Henry C., [from old catalog] ed
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Chicago, World publishing company
Number of Pages: 776