History of Bureau County, Illinois, Part 52

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 52

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).

Trotting Horses .- This strain of horses was brought to Bureau County with reference to improving the breed of horses in 1872. Mr. E. S. Wordsworth and his cousin, James Wordsworth, brought here some of the best thoroughbred stock then to be bought. They brought from Orange County, N. Y., several stallions and mares descended directly from imported Messenger, the "great progenitor of trotters." The most noted were: Menelaus, Maj. Grant, Silver Duke and Woodlawn.

390

HISTORY OF BUREAU COUNTY.

Menelaus was a son of Rysdyke's Hamble- tonian, Silver Duke and Woodlawn grand- sons, and Maj. Grant a great-grandson. The mares and fillies were numerous, and most of them of the best trotting and thor- oughbred families. All were brought into this county to be "wintered," because of the fine quality of hay and pastures and the cheapness of grain. The Wordsworths lived near, and did business in Chicago, and had just gone extensively into the "blooded horse" business when the Chicago fire of October, 1871, so crippled them in business that they were obliged to sell many of their best horses, and get cheaper pasturage than close prox- imity to a great city could afford. Their enterprise was a total failure financially for three reasons: They had bought their stock when prices were at the highest point, and they sustained great losses in the Chicago fire, and both were inexperienced in the stock business. Both men soon became bankrupt, their fine selection of horses scat- tered, and the experiment was pronounced a failure. The men have passed into obscurity, but many of the horses that they brought from Orange County, N. Y., and from Ken- tucky, have become famous, and the breeders have scarcely profited by their experience, because they were made over-cautious. There were no horse-breeders nor horsemen in the county with experience, so that noblest of animals, the trotting horse, fared badly for many years, and, but for his fine constitu- tion and perfect breeding, he would have become obscure if not extinct. Many very fine driving horses have been raised; many very fine animals have been ruined utterly by so-called training, and others killed out- right. A horseman needs to be as well bred and as delicately organized as his horse. Instead, we find a most ignorant, coarse and often brutal man possessing sole power over

a horse that generations of fine breeding have made perfect. Ignorance, stupidity and inexperience seem to have combined against the trotting horse of Bureau County, and his career here cannot be considered a success. The only celebrated trotting horse ever raised in the county is the mare Cleora, bred by Mr. James Wordsworth, raised by Mr. I. N. Norris, and bought, when matured and trained, by Mr. William Rockafeller, of New York City. Her sire was Menelaus, and her dam Thornleaf. Thornleaf's sire is Mambrino Patchen, and her dam was Dandy, one of the most famously-bred mares in America, descending in several direct lines from imported Messenger. Dandy was gray, so is Thornleaf, aud Cleora is black in color, her sire, Menelaus, being a rich mahogany bay. Cleora's best recorded time before Mr. Rockafeller bought her was 2:18§, but it was thought she could have easily trotted in 2:14 if it had been thought desirable to have al- lowed her to make such a record. She has twice been driven double with Independence, a grandson of her grandmother, Dandy, a mile in 2:16}, and they have trotted more heats under 2:18 than any other team. She is thought by some to be a better and faster mare than Maud S., but has not had the ad- vantage of the same wise and careful train- iug. If the man who broke and trained and drove her up to the time of her purchase by Mr. Rockafeller, Arnold Grey, could have re- mained her trainer and driver, she might have become as famous as her cousin, Maud S.

Three of Cleora's half sisters are owned by I. H. Norris, and are very valuable ani- mals. Baronet is also owned by I. H. Norris, who brought him from Kentucky. He also owns the celebrated stallion, Cas- tillian, sired by Gov. Sprague. This horse came from Crystal Lake, Henry County.

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391

HISTORY OF BUREAU COUNTY.

Draft Horses .- This breed of horses has been a success in Bureau County for two reasons - the pasturage is the best in the world, and great care has been taken in importing the best horses from France, Scotland, England and Canada. They are no more trouble to raise than cat- tle; there is a market for colts and fillies as soon as they are weaned, and geldings at three years are ready for the home market, and four and five are ready for the city.

The Norman-Percheron has been the most extensively raised, and was the first of the three draft breeds to be introduced into this county. The Princeton Drafthorse Breeding Company sent Mr. N. C. Buswell twice to France to select for them some of the best horses to be had in France. He brought in two separate importations, and their value to the county can scarcely be over-estimated. A man in Neponset began importing about the same time, and he now has one of the most extensive Percheron-Norman breeding establishments in the State. He also has raised some Clydesdale horses. Dr. William H. Winter also has a large and very fine Percheron-Norman breeding establishment. Mr. I. H. Norris and his brother Mr. William Norris are also extensively engaged in breed- ing and raising these horses. Mr. I. H. Norris has at the head of his establishment the imported stallion Vallient, selected and brought over by Mr. N. C. Buswell in his second importation.

It was in 1873 that a company of men of the townships of Princeton, Berlin and Ohio organized and commenced to import the thoroughbred Norman horses, and in this year and the next year they imported some very fine horses. The agent, Col. Nick C. Buswell, visited Europe and made all their selections. The first idea was to import for themselves, but afterward they imported to

supply a home demand for these horses that rapidly grew in proportions. Among their first customers were the Norrises, Dun- ham, Dillon, Becket and Perry. In 1881 I. H. Norris and S. P. Clark imported three English draft horses, and in 1882 they brought twelve, and in 1883 they imported thirty stallions and mares of the best breeds they could procure of the draft horse. Of Col. Buswell's first importation, the Berlin company got one; the Princeton company one, and J. R. Carpenter one; O. J. Evans one; Dr. Winters got two mares, and William Joder, Tiskilwa, one, and the Ohio company one. A man named Stepson, in the spring of 1874, brought over two stallions and a mare.

The stallions crossed with the common horse has increased their value 100 per cent, and the same ratio of improvement continues to the three-fourths and other improved bloods. Some of the best posted men we have, men who make their estimates from careful observations, are free to say that in ten years from date Bureau County will show a better strain of thoroughbreds than is now possessed by France. The benefits to the horse will come of our superior grass and water and careful selection of breeders and judicious crossings.

Of the many very excellent draft horses imported, it is said by those who we suppose know, that Valliant, owned by I. H. Norris, selected by Col. Buswell, has sired more first- class colts than any other horse yet brought here. Another famous horse of Col. Bus- well's selection, and now owned by the Princeton company, is Malbranch. He was brought to this county in 1873. The same company own La Force. Dr. Winter's two stallions have already yielded him over $20,- 000 the past ten years. The value of fine stock is somewhat manifest when it is consid.

392

HISTORY OF BUREAU COUNTY.

ered that Dr. Winter's horses are just com- mencing to reach the period of large profits.

Mr. Warren, although comparatively a new beginner in the horse line, has raised already over twenty-five roadsters. One mare, Nellie Grant, has a record, made in Peoria in 1883, of 334. This is the only one of his herd he has trained.

The Berlin Township Importing Company was the first in the county to move in the matter of importing thoroughbred horses. They commenced with the Norman, and since then many have imported the Clydesdale. The two breeds have their special admirers.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

POLITICAL AFFAIRS GENERALLY-CENSUS OF BUREAU COUNTY- DOUGLAS AND STUART'S RACE TO CONGRESS-THE SIZE OF THE DISTRICT-POSTOFFICES AND POSTMASTERS-THE VOTE OF THE COUNTY-WOLF HUNTS-ROADS-AN OLD RELIC-H. L. KIN- NEY, ETC., ETC.

THIS county has had rather more than its share of variety in politics. When there were but nineteen votes in the county the first election, there were but five of them Whigs. The others were Democrats and Jackson Democrats. The distinction be- tween a Democrat and a Jackson Dem- ocrat was the difference between "a" and "an out- and-outer." And it is said, by way of illustration, that an "out and- outer " was so intensely for Jackson" first, last and all the time," that his descend- ants are still voting away for Old Hick- ory. As the county began to fill up with set- tlers, the Whigs began to manifest their strength, and in the early forties it became rather painfully evident to the " Hunkers " and "Barnburners," "Loco-Focos " and Democrats (the latter term including all the

others), that the Whigs were a power in the county not to be despised. In 1844 the Dem- ocrats began to divide on the slavery ques- tion, and the Whigs stuck the closer together when they saw dissensions in the enemy's ranks; this, too, in the face of the fact that originally the northern Whigs had been the original anti-slavery or Emancipation party. This latter party had its origin in the South, among slave-holders, and the northern Whigs attached but a small portion of their party enthusiasm to this branch of the party faith. They rather inclined more strongly, as the cardinal idea of their politics leaned, to Mr. Clay's protective tariff theories. In the National political contests the Whigs, though generally outvoted, yet had suffi- cient victories, some of them overwhelm- ing, upon the enemy, to keep them in line, aud ever eager to take up the guantlet of the Democracy. But it seems from inherent elements in that organization it really com- menced to decay, or rather to disintegrate, at least a decade before the death of its great and illustrious leader, Henry Clay. He was strong enough to rally it at all times with an unbroken front-with every appearance of lusty vitality, yet a kind of internal dry rot was upon it, and when his hands were folded upon his quiet breast, it quickly passed away and its ranks were busy finding some flag to enlist under, to renew the fight against the long hated Jackson Democracy. In the meantime the Democrats were quarreling much among themselves; and Democratic bolter's candidates in the Presidential elec- tion, were well calculated to further widen the breeches in the ranks. The malcontent Democrats thus began to call themselves Free Soilers, and in this part of the country they took upon themselves the name of the Lib- erty party.

When the county found it was in political

393

HISTORY OF BUREAU COUNTY.

existence, it was a question of great doubt what party was in the ascendancy in north- ern Illinois. In fact, all over the State at that time, the Whigs were moving over the face of the land with energy, resolution and confident power. In 1838 John T. Stuart, who now resides in Springfield, and is of the law firm of Stuart, Edwards & Brown, was the Whig candidate for Congress in the Northwestern Congressional District in this State. Stephen A. Douglas was the Demo. cratic candidate. The district extended from the northwestern corner of the State down the Mississippi River to and including Cal- houn County, and extended east so as to include Greene and old Morgan Counties, and thence up through McLean County to the northern line. It included probably forty or more counties, which were for the most part thinly settled. The canvass com- menced in March, the two candidates travel- ing often together ou horseback, and lasted until the first Monday in August, when the election was held. The voting was viva voce under the old Constitution, so that each man's vote was recorded opposite to his name.

Douglas was in Chicago on the day of the election, and he received so large a vote in Cook County that he had no doubt of his elec- tion. He was so elated that when he started for Jacksonville, where he then resided, he took his seat on the front of the stage with the driver, and traveled on down to Lockport, receiving the congratulations of his friends on the way. When he got to the latter place he found that the canal men and hands had voted against him because in the Legis- lature he was in favor of the " shallow cut," and opposed to a deep canal. Mr. E. B. Talcott was then an assistant engineer on the canal works and resided in Lockport. He engineered the bolt and induced the scratch-

ing of Douglas' name from Democratic tickets and substituting Stuart's. This was a dis- couraging aspect of the case, but as Douglas proceeded southward on his journey he found that this defection did not extend far below Lockport, and that Ottawa and Peru and the residue of the canal regions had given him the usual Democratic majorities. But when he arrived at Peoria, which was then the cen- tral point whence the stages converged, he found that the Military Tract was less favor- able to him than he had expected, and the belief was there that Stuart was elected by a small majority. It was so close, however, that the result was claimed by both parties, and doubt was not removed until the official returns reached the office of the Secretary of State, which showed that Douglas was elected by eight majority.

Mr. James Matheny, who was at that time a young and very ardent Whig, said he believed " the Democrats had been cheating us," and if any one would pay his expenses he would saddle his horse in the morning and go to every county seat and examine the poll- books. Mr. Stuart paid his expenses and he made the examination, traveling over the whole district and examining all the poll - books. He found quite a number of errors, but they all canceled each other, except in one precinct, where the poll-book showed that in carrying over Stuart's vote from one page where he had a majority his votes were put into the Douglas column on the next page and Douglas' into his. Correcting this mis- take the decision of the returns was reversed, and Stuart elected by twelve or thirteen votes. This was done and the facts certified to the Secretary of State, and Stuart got the certifi- cate.

Douglas contemplated contesting the elec- tion upon the ground that the original returns in the Secretary's office showed that

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HISTORY OF BUREAU COUNTY.

he was elected, and there was no law author- izing amending the returns. He consulted Senator Thomas H. Benton on the subject, who advised him not to contest, and said to him that though the House might be largely Democratic he would not probably get his seat, for he had not received a majority of the votes. Moreover, he said a young and aspiring politician could not afford to be counted in when he was not elected. Douglas took his advice and abandoned the contest. Stuart took his seat and was re-elected to the Whig Congress.

Abraham Lincoln had just been admitted to the bar, and when Stuart started for Wash- ington he left his business with Mr. Lincoln, whom he had admitted to a copartnership in his office in Springfield.

Maj. Stuart in the new deal in politics found himself a Democrat, and was elected to the first Lincoln Congress as such, and occupied a Democratic seat in that House for the same number of years that he had a gen- eration before when he came there as a Whig.

Up to the year 1832 there was but one Con- gressional District in the State. There were two more added at that time, and the terri- tory out of which this county was formed was in the Third District, which embraced all the country north of a line drawn across the - State from just south of Quincy to a point on the State Line a few miles south of Danville, excepting the counties of Champaign, Ver- million, and Iroquois, and the district was represented in Congress by William L. May from 1833 to 1838.

Daniel P. Cook had represented the entire State from 1818 up to 1827, and Joseph Dun- can from 1827 to 1833.

Gov. Coles, in bis message to the Legislature in January, 1826, congratulated that body upon the fact that the State then contained a population of 72,817 souls.

In 1850 the Whigs were the masters in Bureau County. They stood with a bold front in every contest with the factions that constituted the opposition. The Whig County Central Committee consisted of Oliver Boyle, Amos Fisher, Ashel Lomax, Alpheus Cook and S. A. Paddock; and the prominent workers through the county were: W. B. Whipple, Milo; James M. Dexter, Indian- town; George M. Radcliffe, Arispe; Jonathan Ireland, Leeper; Amos Whittimore, Concord; James Hambrick, Center; John L. Ament, Princeton; Ezekiel Piper, Selby; Jesse Wix- ham, Hall; Ezekiel Thomas, Bureau; Increase Hoyt, Dover; H. J. Stacy, Berlin; Wicher Dow, Fairfield; Daniel Hill, Green- ville; Tracy Reeve, Lamoille. S. Allen Paddock was their editor, "The Yeoman of the Prairie Land."

The last of the Whig Presidents, Taylor, had died soon after his induction into office, and the Whigs of Bureau had an abiding and active faith in the new President, Fill- more. This year the Whig Congressional Convention in Joliet put in nomination Churchill Coffing. He failed of an election, but the county of Bureau stood bravely to its Whig guns. Hon. John Wentworth, Demo- crat, had entered Congress from this district in 1844, and continued to represent it as long as the county remained in his Congres- sional District. The size of the Liberty party at one time may be indicated by the fact that not long after Hon. Owen Lovejoy came to the county he was candidate for a local office. and got one vote in Princeton. As a candidate for Congress in November, 1850, the change that came to him is further shown that in the same county he received afterward about 1,800 majority, without ever changing in the least his political prin- ciples, for the same office. The vote in Princeton that year was as follows:

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HISTORY OF BUREAU COUNTY.

For Congress-Churchill Coffing, 184; R. S. Malony, 97; J. H. Collins, 83; Owen Lovejoy, 1; R. S. Thompson, 1; R. H. Col. lins, 1. For Representative-D. L. Hough, 221; S. A. Paddock, 195; Abraham Phillips, 132; John Hise, 92; H. S. Beebe, 61; S. Edwards, 37; Samuel Swift, 1; D. E. Norton, 1. For Sheriff-E. M. Fisher, 199; Rufus Carey, 108; Jacob B. Thompson, 50; Timothy Edwards, 28. For Coroner-Alpheus Cook, 175; M. E. Lasher, 158; W. C. Anthony, 42. The Whigs carried this election, by majorities of from 75 to 200.

As already remarked, when the old parties, or the Whig and Democratic parties, were the dividing lines, the Whig party was in the ascendant in the county. This continued until 1854, when new books were opened, and new parties were make. The Republi- can party was a child of swift growth and great power. From a single vote for Love- joy in nearly 350 votes in Princeton, when he was the nominee of the Republican party the majorities reached as high as 1,900 at one time. From this high tide it has slowly decreased, and at the late election the plu- rality of the national ticket was a little less than 1,000 votes. The following town- ships were the Republican strongholds: Clarion, Ohio, Walnut, Greenville, Manlius, Dover, Berlin, Princeton, Wyanet, Neponset, Macon, Indiantown, Lamoille, Milo, Wheat- land, Concord and Mineral; and the fol- lowing as a rule sustained by small majorities the Democratic ticket: Westfield, Selby, Hall, Arispe, Leepertown, Gold, Fairfield and Bureau. But these results were not invariable. At the last election (1884) the following townships gave Democratic major- ities (all others were Republican): Greenville (a tie), Westfield, Hall, Selby, Leepertown and Arispe. The names of the nine voting precincts prior to the adoption of townships

were Princeton, Tiskilwa, Dover, Lamoille, French Grove, Hall, Brush Creek, Green River and Hazelwood. In 1850 there were not enough inhabitants in Manlius, Gold and Wheatland to organize.

While the Democratic party was gaining strength in other portions of the country, it was to a certain extent losing its power in this county over many who had prior to 1844 been good Democrats. And when the Missouri Compromise measures were repealed a shock ran all over the parties of the North, and the Whig party at once acknowledged its dissolution, and thousands of Illinois Democrats were ready to desert their party and attach themselves to some new one more nearly in accord with their views. Hence, the times were ripe, July 4, 1854, for the organization of the Republican party, as was done in Princeton on that day.

In a preceding chapter we have given the official votes of the county at elections at different periods, that will indicate not only the increase of the voting population, but the nature of their party preferences.

In the Congressional election of 1880, the vote of Bureau County on Congressmen was: Hon. T. J. Henderson, Republican, 4104; B. N. Truesdale, Democrat, 2,589; P. L. Kinney, Independent, 388. Total vote, 7,181.

For county officers the following is the vote of the county by towns:

For Congress, T. J. Henderson, Republican .... 3714

James S. Eckles, Democrat . 2989

States Attorney, Gibons, Democrat. 3055

Trimble, Republican. .3678

Circuit Clerk, Peterson, Democrat. .3513

Hubbell, Republican .3242

Coroner, Hopkins, Greenback. 218

Keller, Democrat .. 2727

Keener, Republican .3767

Surveyor, Bryant, Independent. .3233

Hodgman, Republican .3476

Representatives in the General Assembly, Miller and Boyden, Republicans, and Raley,

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HISTORY OF BUREAU COUNTY.

Democrat, were elected. In the Congression- al District the vote for Congressmen was as follows:

Henderson, Eckels, Republican. Democrat.

Henry

4191

2434

Burea

3714

2989

Lee

3263

2447

Putnam

600

529

Whiteside

.3773

2300

The vote of the county of Bureau, 1884, for President was as follows:

TOWNS.

BLAINE, R.

CLEVELAND, D.

ST. JOHN, P.

BUTLER, G.

Clarion .

106

Lamoille

195

107

Ohio. .

165

114

Walnut

169

120

Greenville.

107

Fairfield.

Westfield

196

Berlin

167

Dover

190

Bureau.

Manlius

Gold .

Hall.

149

Selby.

117

166

Princeton

595

351

Wyanet

213

146

Concord.

320

217

Mineral ..

101

Leepertown

Arispe. .

102

137

Indiantown

205

Macon

Neponset.

197

101

Wheatland.

Milo.

128

Total

3702

2754 174

213

The total vote of the county in 1880 was 7,081. The vote of 1884 was 6,843.

Population. - The first census after the or- ganization of the county was in the year 1840. Total population 3,067. In 1850 it was 8,841; 1860, 26,426, the largest per cent of increase made in any decade of the county's existence; 1870, 34,415, and in 1880 it dropped slightly, and was 33,189. And of these there are only 156 negroes, and one In-

dian. Native white 'males over twenty-one years of age, 5,812; foreign males over twen- ty-one years, 2,929, and forty negroes; total population qualified to vote, 8,781. Thus it may be seen there were nearly 2,000 voters who did not vote at the late election. The population of the county is divided into 17,- OSS males and 16,084 females; of these 26,- 994 are native born and 6,178 foreign born. There were born in Illinois, 18,088; in In- diana, 380; Iowa, 223; Kansas, 70; Kentucky, 128; Louisiana, 12; Maine, 157; Maryland, 144; Massachusetts, 476; Michigan, 173; Minnesota, 26; Alabama, 4; Arkansas, 6; California, 8; Colorada, 5; Connecticut, 136; Delaware, 63; Florida, 2; Georgia, 7; Mis- souri, 123; Nebraska, 11; New Hampshire, 216; New Jersey, 445; New York, 1,682; North Carolina, 12; Ohio, 1,471; Pennsyl- vania, 1,966; Rhode Island, 111; South Car- olina, 2; Tennessee, 31; Texas, 3; Vermont, 316; Virginia, 107; West Virginia, 41; Wis- consin, SO; Dakota, 6; District of Columbia, 2; Utah, 1. Of the foreign population 260 are from Canada; 320 from Denmark; France, 96; German Empire, 1,798; England, 756; Ireland, 1,048, and others from nearly every country in the world.

The population of the county in civil di- vision is as follows:

Arispe Township, including part of Tiskilwa

Town ... 1160

Tiskilwa Town (part of). 334

Berlin Township, including Malden Village. . 1276

Malden Village. 359

Bureau Township 947

Clariou Township.

851

Concord Township, including following villages 2636 Buda Village 778

Sheffield Village 905

Dover Township, including Dover Village .. 1341

Dover Village. 239

Fairfield Township 915

Gold Township. 616

Greenville Township 1008

Hall Township 1058

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History of Bureau County, Illinois, Part 52

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