USA > Illinois > Clark County > History of Crawford and Clark counties, Illinois > Part 30
USA > Illinois > Crawford County > History of Crawford and Clark counties, Illinois > Part 30
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SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That the county commissioners shall proceed to lay out . the land that may be given to said county into lots and sell the same or as much as they mav think proper and necessary for the erec- tion of public buildings, within three months from the time the seat of justice shall be established.
SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That in order to remove all difficulty concerning the future division of Clark County, it is hereby enacted that all that tract of country lying north of an east and west line dividing townships numbered twelve and thirteen north, shall be the line between the county of Clark and a county which may be laid off north of the same, provided, however, That all that part of Clark County lying north of the l.ne last mentioned shall remain attached to and be considered a part of Clark County until a new county shall be laid off north of the line as above stated. This act shall be in force from and after its passage.
JOHN MESSINGER, Speaker of the House of Representatives.
PIERRE MENARD, Speaker of the Senate.
Approved by the Council of Revision, March 22, 1819. SHADRACH BOND.
Clark, at her organization, as we have said, embraced a large amount of territory. Fay- ette was formed in 1821, partly from Clark and Crawford. In the year 1823 Edgar County was taken from Clark, locating partly the present north line of our county. In 1830 Coles County was formed from Clark and Edgar. By the forming of Coles, Clark was reduced to the area contemplated in the orig- inal act. But at the session of the Legisla- ture in 1823, William Lowry, the represent- ative from Clark and Crawford, procured the passage of a bill, at the solicitation of the people of the newly formed County of Ed- gar, cutting off three miles from the north line of Clark and adding the same to Edgar, for the reason that Paris was very apprehen- sive of losing the county seat; but by hav- ing this slice attached, it would so centralize ber position as to enable her to retain the seat of justice.
The county was named after Gen. George Rogers Clark, a gallant and meritorious of- ficer of the Revolution, born in Albemarle County, Virginia, in 1752, and died in Ken- tucky in 1806. His campaign through the Illinois did as much to establish the freedom of the colonies as any act of the whole war.
Clark was the fifteenth formed county in the State. The fourteen older counties are men- tioned in the first part of this volume.
At an election held in the county on Mon- day, April 26, 1819, Joseph Shaw, John Chen- oweth and Samuel Ashmore were elected county commissioners. On the 4th day of June, following, the first commissioners' court was held at the house of Charles Nee- ley, on Walnut Prairie, at which William B. Archer was appointed clerk of the court, and William Lockard, treasurer of the county.
Smith Shaw, Thomas Gill and James Watts, the commissioners appointed under the act forming the county to locate the seat of jus- tice, made their report to the court: That
- 238
HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
having proceeded to examine the different situ tions in said county of Clark, and have agreed on the following peace on a parcel of ground whereon the said seat of justice or court house sha l be erected, situated on west fraction No. 15, Town 10 N., of Range 11 W., in the district of lands offered for sale at Vincennes, given by Chester Fitch, John Chenoweth and John McClure, containing two hundred and two acres and an half of land, it being the donation granted agreeable to law by Chester Fitch, to be laid off by the direction of the said county commissioners into town lots; and it is to be expressly un- derstood that the said Fitch is to be at one half of the expence in maping and survey- ing said town; and the said Fitch is to have every other lot in the whole town equal in quality and quantity reserved for the ben- efit of said Fitch and his heirs forever. Given under our hands and seals this 6th day of May, one thousand eight hundred and nineteen.
Witnesses. Signed SMITH SHAW [L. s.]
CHARLES NEELY.
THOS. GILL [L. S.]
JOHN ESSREY.
JAMES WATTS [L. S.]
Very few people, except surveyors, under- stand the true meaning and application of the term, " town and range," as mentioned in the foregoing report, and a brief expla- nation might not be uninteresting. In all Government surveys, "principal meridians " are first established, that is, lines running due north from some designated point. These lines are intersected by " base lines," that is, lines running west from some given point. The term " range," means town- ships numbered either east or west of a prin- cipal meridian line. The term "town," sig- nifies townships numbered north or south of a base line. All lands in our county are reckoned from the second principal meridian, a line running due north from the mouth of Little Blue River, Indiana. The correspond-
ing base line commences at Diamond Island, in the Ohio, opposite In liana, and runs due west, striking the Mississippi a few miles below St. Louis. Our county lies north of the base line, and west of the principil me- ridian. Hence "town ten north, range eleven west," means the tenth township north of the base line and the eleventh township west of the principal meridian line; and as a congressional township is six miles square, the location of the county seat was sixty miles north of the base line, and sixty-six miles west of the principal meridian line. The reason it was called west fraction sec- tion 15, the Wabash River divides the sec- tion, leaving part in Illinois, the remainder in Indiana.
When the commissioners' court declared that the seat of justice should be known and recognized as Aurora, they named a capital, the realm of which was larger than the State of Connecticut. Under the auspices and guid- ance of Joseph Shaw, John Chenoweth and Samuel Ashmore, as county commissioners, and William B. Archer, as clerk, and Will- iam Lockard, as treasurer, was the infant county launched on her career as an independ- ent unit of this great State. Could they but briefly return from that " bourne " and behold from the few and humble seeds they sowed, the mighty and wonderful growth of wealth. improvement, prosperity and power, well might they exclaim, in the language of the prophet of old: "Mine eyes have seen Thy glory, now let Thy servant depart in peace."
When Clark County was organized she had less than nine hundred inhabitants. Now, she has twenty-five thousand. When they named the seat of justice Aurora, there was not a town or village, not even a trading post. Now she holds within her limits sixteen towns and villages. Then there was but one road, the wilderness being threaded by the trail of the hunter or the Indian; now her bosom is
239
HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
checkered with highways, reaching every point within her confines. Her first year's taxes were less than one hundred and twenty dollars; now they are over one hundred thou- sand.
About the year 1821, occurred a threatened government foreclosure on unpaid-for lands, that came very near leading to disastrous re- sults, and forms an interesting episode in the early history, as well as the entire West, but our limited space will not allow of details in this work. All readers of the early history of Illinois are familiar with the subject.
We find on July 16 and 17, 1821, "Joseph Shaw and John Chenoweth, two of the com- missioners, met at Aurora to take the ont- lines of the town, and fix the main street and public square." No court house was ever erected, the courts being held in a small log building, very low, and not to exceed twelve by fourteen feet, which was afterward used by Judge Sto kwell, as a corn-crib, and afterward as a stable. In this small and humble building, jurists of eminence presided, and lawyers of distinction practiced, of which mention will be made hereafter.
The first sale of town lots took place Au- gust 5, 1819, and Septer Patrick purchased the first town lot ever sold in the county, for twenty dollars. Thirty-seven lots were sold, ranging in price from seventeen to three hun- dred dollars. The town improved as much as could have been expected, considering the meager number of inhabitants, that the country was a wilderness, that there was no money, no currency scarcely, the circulating medium being hides and peltry and the limited prod- uce of the county. save when an occasional emigrant came in, with a little of surplus money left, after locating his land. But these visita- tions were few and far between at that day. There was no market for anything, and if there had been the people had nothing to sell,
so their surroundings were not altogether cheery.
The county built a jail, a strong and sub- stantial structure. It was about twelve by . eighteen feet, and two stories high. It was built of round logs, the cracks chinked and daubed. The upper story was for the im- prisonment of insolvent debtors, when the in- famous code of imprisonment for debts dis- graced our statute books. It had two barred windows, one on each side, where the un- fortunate prisoner could sit and look out upon the sunlight and feel happy because he was in prison. A pair of rough stairs as- cended to a stout, wooden door, opening into the debtors' room; there was no opening into the lower room, where all offenders other than debtors, were confined, from the outside, except a barred window. It was reached by a trap door from the debtors' room, through which the prisoners were taken in and out. The inside of the lower room, or cell, if such it may be called, was lined by oak slabs, securely pinned on with wooden pins; the ceiling was covered in like manner. The jail was built by Acquilla Pulteney, for seven hundred and thirteen dollars. He was paid notes on the purchasers of town lots in Aurora. The com- missioners could afford to be a little liberal.
The estray law at that day made it incum- bent on any taker up of an estray, to bring it to the county scat at the first circuit court after such taking up, and put it into the estray pen, which was a secure and substantial structure to say the least. It was constructed for the county by Col. Archer, and any one who knew anything of him, knows he never built anything but what was substantial. It was thirty feet square, six feet high, posts eight inches square, sunk three feet in the ground, and of white walnut wood. If an estray was not claimed and proven in open court, it was put up at auction, and if no one bid above
240
HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
the lawful charges on the same, it became the property of the taker up.
The county also erected one of those ter- ¿ rors to evil doers and petty offenders, a " whip- ping post." It was said to have been a round tree, stripped of the bark, and about twelve inches in diameter, and sunk about two feet in the ground. The offender was tied face to the post, his arms encircling it, his feet fast- ened on either side, his back bared, and the stripes well laid on. It was never used but on one occasion; a man named Whitley be- ing tied up and whipped for stealing hogs.
Aurora was thought to be a most eligible situation for a town and county seat. It possessed the finest landing on the Wabash, which in that day was navigable all the year, and for crafts of considerable size.
The town was situated about two miles north of Darwin, and its site is marked only by the farm house of Oliver C. Lawell. Not a stone is left to mutely tell its history or existence. It but obeyed the eternal man- date that all things earthly must pass away.
The people of the county, believing that the present site of Darwin was a more pleas- ant location for a town, and a more central point than Aurora, that it would materially ad- vance the interests of the county, and be more convenient to the then sparsely settled coun- try, petitioned for a re-location of the seat of justice. By an act of the Legislature, approved January 21, 1823, the county seat was ordered to be removed to Darwin, then known as McClure's Bluff. John McClure, who had long kept a ferry there, was the proprietor of the land, and made a donation on which to build the seat of justice. The site was a level plateau, above high water mark, and sightly and beautiful. Being above the stagnant ponds, and the miasma arising from them, it is, to-day, the healthiest point on the Wabash.
William Lockard laid off the town, and it
consisted of sixty-four lots; numbers twenty- one and twenty-eight were reserved, by the commissioners, on which to erect a court house and jail. The sale of town lots occurred on the first Monday in August, 1823. The purchasers of lots were to pay six per cent of the purchase money on day of sale, one- third of the remainder in nine months, the other two-thirds in equal annual installments.
John Chenoweth was the crier of the sale. Our early settlers were evidently not teetotal- ers and never dreamed of the mighty wave of prohibition, that, in after years, would roll across the land from sea to sea, and reach the uttermost points of this great country. For the commissioners enter the following record: "Ordered by the court that John · Richardson procure ten gallons of whisky to be drunk on day of sale." Let us of the present day imagine a board of supervisors laying out a town into lots for sale, and then ordering the sheriff to procure ten gallons of whisky, to be drank upon the occasion, to be paid for out of the people's money. Such a storm of indignation would be raised about their ears that they would be glad to find peace and oblivion in their political graves.
There were thirty-four lots sold in Darwin at the first sale, John Richardson being the first purchaser of a lot, paying for it the sum of eighty dollars. Lot thirty-two was sold to John Stafford for one hundred and eleven dollars. Lot sixty-four was sold to John Chenoweth for one hundred and three dollars. The low- est price paid for any lot was thirty dollars; and these for bare, naked lots, in a town without a building erected. It shows con- clusively, that the purchasers, and they were men of sound judgment, had great confidence in the future of Darwin.
After the removal of the county seat to Darwin, part of Aurora was inclosed by a fence. Those having purchased lots in Aurora were allowed credit on lots purchased in
241
HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
Darwin for the amount for their Aurora lots, after deducting twenty-five per cent for the first cost of lots, at ten dollars and fifty cents for each lot lying within the inclosure, or partly within, and fifty cents for each lot lying. without the inclosure. Why this distinction was made can only be conjectured.
Darwin soon rose in importance, justifying the foresight of those who had invested. Lots were in demand at increased values. Buildings sprang up, the population increased rapidly, the various industries flourished, and from a single cabin, that marked the site of McClure's Bluff, there arose a thriving, pros- perous village.
By her thrift and enterprise she laid under tribute the country as far west as Effingham, and as far north as Charleston and Danville. Farmers wagoned their wheat and corn, and drove their stock long distances, and ex- changed them for iron, salt, and other indis- pensable articles of frontier life. For five years Darwin town lots were worth more than those of Chicago. She soon became a formid- able rival of Terre Haute, and caused that town great uneasiness about her commercial safety. Her future then gave brilliant prom- ise of hier becoming tlie metropolis of the Wabash valley.
On the 4th of August, 1823, the commis- sioners instructed the clerk to advertise and give notice that the removing of the jail and estray pen from Aurora to Darwin, would be let to the lowest bidder on the 2d day of the following September term of the court. It was afterward let to John Welsh who per- formed the work according to contract. This jail was used until about 1830, when it was destroyed by fire.
The commissioners on the 2d of March, 1824, ordered that proposals be received on the second day of the next circuit court, " for erecting a house to hold courts in," of the following description: " Twenty-five feet long
in the clear, of hewn oak logs, with a lap shingle roof, two windows in front, and one in the rear; a story and a half high, a partition up-stairs; a small window at each end of said house; plank floor and rough plank stairs; the windows. up stairs to contain six and those below twelve lights each; chink and plaster the cracks, and finish the same in a workman- like manner. The pay to be made in the notes of individuals who purchased lots in Darwin, in town lots in Darwin, or partly in each." The contract was let to Lucius Kibby for the sum of six hundred dollars. He agreed to take lots number forty-nine, fifty, sixty-three and sixty-four, at two hundred and eighty dollars, the remainder, three hun- dred and twenty dollars to be paid, one half on the first of April next (1825), and the re- mainder when the house is finished-which he engages to complete in one year from date. He did not finish the work within the time specified, nor was it finished until March, 1827, nearly two years and a half being spent in its erection. The county commissioners were the first to occupy it, and held a special term of their court, on the 28th of April, hav- ing met to examine the court house. William Martin and Enoch Davis, two workmen mutually chosen by the commissioners and Lucius Kibby, to ascertain the same, having examined the house, reported that it had not been done according to contract, and sixty dollars was deducted from the amount origi- nally agreed upon for erecting building. The commissioners, however, gave Kibby an extra allowance of nine dollars for putting in a fire-place, and an additional window up- stairs.
In September, 1832, the court house was weather boarded, and otherwise repaired, and rendered a very comfortable building for the period. A Presbyterian minister named Enoch Bouton, lived up-stairs and held serv- ices below. The hall of justice answered a
242
HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
variety of purposes, and was kept in constant service. The court house was situated on lot twenty-eight, and is still standing, and used as a stable by Doctor Pierce.
On Wednesday, December 5, A. D. 1832, at a meeting of the county commissioners, it was ordered that a new jail be built. Ou the 5th of January, 1833, the commissioners met and offered to the lowest bidder, Mechom Main, junior, the contract for building the new jail, for which he was to receive the suur of four hundred and ninety-five dollars.
The glory and prosperity of Darwin were destined to pass away. Terre Haute, alarmed for her commercial safety, used every exertion to wrest from Darwin the trade she had carned. The National Road, that great thoroughfare from Wheeling, Va., to St. Louis, was in course of construction and passed through Terre Haute, who wished to secure the trade of the country west, while Darwin relied chiefly upon the river for prosperity. Terre Haute was independent without it.
The opening of the National Road through the county in 1834 greatly increased the fa- cilities for travel and transportation, and the agricultural interests of the county, along its line, were very largely stimulated. The de- velopment of villages along and in the sev- eral townships contiguous to the then great thoroughfare, was very rapid.
The people soon began to feel that the seat of justice at Darwin, where they were com- pelled to go for the transaction of all public business, was too remote and isolated, and was not at all situated with reference to the wants and convenience of the then present and future population. The northern section also began to receive an influx of immigrants, and they, feeling and appreciating the incon- venience, joined in the clamor for the relo- cition of the county seat. The proposition was vigorously and loudly opposed by the southern portion of the county. Meetings
were held for and against the propos.tion, and the excitement ran high. The merits of geographical and population centers were loudly and vigorously discussed.
In the fall of 1835 a petition for county seat removal, and remonstrance against, were industriously circulated through the county, the two receiving the signatures of nearly all the county voters, the removal petition having a decided majority. These memori- als were presented to the Legislature at its session of 1835-6, which body, in pursuance of the majority petition, passed an act sub- mitting the question to a vote of the people.
The commissioners were all eminent, Gen. Thornton being one of the most distinguished men in the State. However, they failed to locate the seat of justice, being unable to agree upon any given site, and so reported to the county commissioners.
In 1836 another petition and remonstrance were circulated, though not attended with the same excitement and acrimony that chiar- acterized the former year. These were pre- sented to the Legislature, which body, in order to forever settle the vexed question, passed another act, which became a law in March, 183%, submitting the question to the people. The election came off unattended with the usual fierceness and excitement, for it was evident that a majority of the people favored removal, though the opposition to the proposition made a vigorous and gallant campaign. The result was as follows:
Precincts. For removal. Against.
East Union.
39
55
West Union.
4.
Dubois, Cont. Darwin ...
6. 138
Washington
164 31
Cumberland
91. 2
Richland
64. 0
318
228
Majority for, 150.
But after the county seat removal question
John & Bradbury
245
HISTORY OF CLARK COUNTY.
was settled, the more exciting and more mo- mentous one arose, to which point should it be removed-Auburn or Marshall-they be- ing the only eligible sites. Then occurred, from May to August, 1832, a brief, but one of the most bitter and exciting election con- tests ever in the county; one that was char- acterized by scathing personal detraction and abuse. There were no newspapers in the county in that day, and hence the matter could not be argued through those great dis- seminators of information. There were no polities in the question, and it became one merely of geographical location between the contestants, and one of personal and pri- vate interest. Meetings were held all over the county, which were largely attended by the people, to hear the merits of the two places discussed by haranguing orators. The only way of electioneering was to praise one place and denounce the other. Much that was bitter and acrimonious was said for and against the contesting points. Wordy doc- uments were widely circulated, influencing the public mind. Vituperation and ridicule were indulged in freely, and so fierce and caustic was the fight, that the activity and bitterness of a present day political cam- paign would be moderation and mildness, compared with it. It was the all-absorbing topic-overshadowed and swallowed up every- thing else. The gathering of the people from different sections at the mills, on grinding days, in the small towns, at the blacksmith shops, and even at church meetings, was the signal for fierce discussions and clash of opin- ions. And in several instances where the respective merits of the two places could not be settled by argument and controversy, the matter was arbitrated by rough and tumble fights. It is related that before the com- mencement of hostilities in some of the en- gagements, it was stipulated that the de- feated should vote at the dictation of the
victor; and one brawny Hercules is said to have converted to Auburn three contuma- cious men whose predilections were for Mar- shall, his missionary efforts being attended with only the loss of a few teeth and a por- tion of his scalp. It was a vigorous but con- vineing way of electioneering.
The day at last arrived, the contest closed, and the votes gave the following result:
Precincts. Marshall. Auburn.
East Union
63. 72
Cumberland .
4 .. 123
West Union
5 .. 42
Richland.
19.
57
Dubois.
141
27
Washington
221
41
Total
453
362
362
Marshall's majority 91
Had it not been for the decided majorities in Washington and Dubois Precincts, the two then embracing nearly one-half of the county and its voting population, the whole current of our county history might have been changed.
Marshall had been selected by the people as their county capital, with every indication of its ever so remaining. The town was laid out, October 3, 1835, by the proprietors, Col. W. B. Archer, and Joseph Duncan, after- ward Governor and United States Senator, on the south half of section thirteen, and the northwest quarter of section twenty- four, township eleven north, range twelve west, the dividing line of the sections pass- ing through the court house, and was named in honor of John Marshall, the most eminent chief justice that ever adorned the Supreme Court of the country. The proprietors made liberal and munificent donations of land and lots in perpetuity to the county, for court house, jail and other purposes.
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