USA > Illinois > De Witt County > History of De Witt county, Illinois. With illustrations descriptive of the scenery, and biographical sketches of some of the prominent men and pioneers > Part 18
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F. G. Paine, probate justice, resigned his office on July 4th, 1844. It is not known what indueed him to tender his resigna- tion at the nation's holiday,- his letter seems to indicate ill humor, to wit :-
J. J. MCGRAW, ESQ., CLERK OF THE COUNTY COMMISSIONERS' COURT :
I hereby resign the office of Probate Justice of the Peace, to which I was commissioned by the Governor of the State of Illinois for the county of De Witt. I shall refuse to do business in that office from and after the present day. You are therefore authorized to issue a writ of election to fill my vacancy,
A financial statement, dated June, 1845, represents an indebt- edness of $1624.31, and not a dollar in the treasury. The avail- able assets consisted in the delinquent tax list for the current year, amonnting to $170.55.
Eighth Board.
JAMES VANDEVENTER, FRANKLIN BARNETT,
- 1845 to 1846.
JOHN MAXWELL.
The first inquest of the county, held by J. H. MePherson on the body of Matthew K. Martin, occurred during this administra- tion. The reader will find a full account of this morder case under the heading of "Courts."
There is nothing further of any interest to mention. The county debt was slowly increasing ; it amounted in June, 1846, to $1959.54, and no money in the treasury.
Ninth Board
FRANKLIN BARNETT, JOHN MAXWELL, 1846 to 1847.
WILLIAM COTTINGHAM,
This board undertook to build a new court-house. The Clerk was instrneted to invite bids, by advertisements in Springfield papers. John Maxwell protested against these proceedings, and had his protest entered upon the records, as follows :-
" I, John Maxwell, one of the members of the County Commissioners' Board of De Witt County, do hereby dissent and enter my most solemn protest against the majority of said board in relation to the building of a court-house, or receiving proposals for the same; first, believing that the
69
HISTORY OF DE WITT COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
people are already oppressed with taxation, and the county is already some twelve or fourteen hundred (over two thousand) dollars in debt, and that the people, who should ever rule, have not been consulted on the subject ; these, with many other reasons, I deem sufficient to dissent from the ma- jority, being determined to do no act of this kind without consulting the people."
The fiscal statement of June, 1847, shows a county debt of 82117.35, with $16.70 in the treasury to meet it.
Tenth Board.
JOHN MAXWELL, -
WILLIAM COTTINGHAM, 1847 to 1848.
W. G. WRIGHT.
The protest of Maxwell's had delayed the building of the court-house for almost a year ; meanwhile the question had been diligently mooted, and some citizens had volunteered pecuniary aid towards building a better court-house.
The records of the board, December term, 1847, contain the following :-
" Whereas, the citizens of De Witt County have bound themselves to raise one thousand dollars, in responsible subscriptions, for the purpose of building a court-house in the town of Clinton; therefore it is ordered that the County Commissioners proceed to the letting of said house on the first Monday of January next, said house to be two stories high, thirty two feet wide by forty-four feet long, built of brick, and finished in a good work- man-like manner. It is further ordered by the Court, that the Clerk canse an advertisement to be published in the State Register, for three weeks, stat- ing that a court house will be built, of the size and form aforesaid ; that 8500 will be paid when the walls are erected, and $500 when the same is completed and received, and the balance to be paid as to be agreed upon by the parties at the time of accepting the bid ; bids to be sent in by the first Monday of January, 1848."
Messrs. Smith & Dellahunt took the contract on the 3d of January, 1848, for $3,300. The court-house was completed and received in June, 1849; the contractors were paid $265 for ex- tras not provided for in contract, to wit: "Cupola" and painting. The total cost of the building was $3,565. The county issned eleven bonds, amounting in the aggregate to 82,674.53, to pay the balance due to the contractors on the day of settlement. They seem to have received previously the sum of $880.47, and it is very probable that this amount was raised by voluntary contributions.
Eleventh Board.
JOHN MAXWELL, WILLIAM WRIGHT, 1848 to 1849.
- WILLIAM COTTINGHAM. S
The building of the conrt-house seems to have occupied the attention of the commissioners to a great extent, no other public business being considered during the time. The collector of the revenue of 1847 had departed this life rather abruptly, leaving his accounts in a somewhat confused condition. The financial statement of 1849 reports tax-bills of 1847 to the amount of $679 still outstanding, and the county debt to be 84,250.01, and not a dollar in the treasury. The ordinary expenditures during the year amounted to $1,055.20 only.
Twelfth Board.
WILLIAM WRIGHT, WILLIAM COTTINGHAM, Sept. 1, 1849, to Dec. 1, 1849. JOHN MAXWELL, re-elected. )
The official term of this board was but brief. The new con- stitution of Illinois had abolished the county boards, substituting
iu their stead county courts, to cousist of one judge and two associate justices, to be elected for a term of four years,
The last county board perfected a settlement with the collector of the revenue for 1848, who had also completed the work of his predecessor.
From this settlement it appears that William Mitchell had collected $252 41 before his death.
The county debt amounted, as stated above, to $4,250.01, to wit :
Court-house bonds of 1839. $604 00
Jail bonds, balance of. 205 00
Accrued interest on above Court-house bonds 600 48
Court-house bonds of 1849 2,674 53
County orders-unpaid 166 00
TOTAL 84.250 01
First County Court, 1849 to 1853.
DANIEL ROBBINS, Judge.
JOHN MAXWELL, 1 Associate Justices.
WILLIAM DANNER,
Up to this time the authorities of the county had in no wise aided in the improvement of roads and the building of bridges, so much needed ; nor had the financial condition of the county permitted any appropriations for this purpose.
In 1850 the county court had bridges built over Rock Creek, Big Slough, south-east of Mount Pleasant, Salt Creek, at the crossing of the road from Clinton to Marion and South Fork of Salt Creek, near Mount Pleasant, spending $325 iu their erection. The current county expenditures during the year exceeded those of the preceding years to the amount of about $500, $1,229 10 in county orders, and $163.85 in juror warrants were issued during the year. The records give also an account of the town lots iu Clinton, sold by the sheriff in April, 1851. James Allsup bought fourteen boots for $256, Samuel Harrold, one for 834.25; S. Slatton, oue for $30; Nathan Murphy, one for $20 ; Alex. Argo, three for 884; Samuel Cox, one for 825; W. N. Meservay, one for 825; Thomas Little, two for $40, and W. Yearman, one for 820 These twenty-five lots had been ap- praised at 81,562.50 in 1839, aud were sold for 8566.25 iu 1851. No wonder that the paper of the county remained under par.
The county jail was found by the grand jury to he in a " dilapitated, unsafe, aud uufit condition," and the sheriff was ordered to have it repaired at once. The reader will soon learn what steps that officer took to carry out this order.
Associate Justice William Dauner died on the 13th of July, 1851. The following resolutions were entered of record Sep- tember, 1851:
" That by the death of William Danuer the county hast lost a good citizen, a just and faithful judge, au upright and honorable man.
" That this court, feeling deeply the loss of their associate, tender their sympathy to his bereaved family.
" That the clerk make out and transmit to the widow of the deceased a copy of these resolutions."
W. Y. McCord was elected associate justice to fill vacancy caused by the death of William Danner.
The county expenditures were constantly increasing, the taxes grew higher, and yet the public debt was not reduced. The court continued to make internal improvements by the building of numerous bridges, and the citizens endorsed this proceeding by re-electing the county judge for another term.
70
HISTORY OF DE WITT COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
Second County Court, 1853 to 1857.
DANIEL ROBBINS, County Judge.
SAMUEL GRAHAM,
CHARLES C. WATSON, S Associate Justices.
The same system of internal improvements was pursued during this term. The county tax, 84,458.22 in 1853, was increased to $7,300 in 1854.
A short abstract of the tax values of the county may find space here.
Value of live stock
$400,000
Moneys at interest
135,000
Store goods
70,000
Farming utensils
55,000
All other personal property
150,000
Farming lands
930,000
Town and city lots
85,000
TOTAL $1,825,000
The state tax for the year amounted to about $9,000, and the local school taxes to a little more than $2,000. The total tax did not exceed oue dollar per oue hundred dollars of tax value. Still the usual growling at the enormous taxes were constantly heard. It is very much to he deplored that none of the consti- tutional growlers of those years had to pay taxes, when they had run up, as in the city of Clinton, to ten times the amount meu- tioned herein.
The jail building had meanwhile remained an eye-sore; the peremptory order of the county court, that the sheriff should at once repair the building, had beeu disobeyed, iguored, yea, treated with contempt. A powder plot at Clinton iu 1854! and so reported by grand jury of the county, as will more fully ap- pear from the following, a verbatim copy of said report :
De Witt Connty Circuit Court, May term, 1855. Pleas b gun and held at the Court-house in Clinton, on Monday, the 14th day of May, A D. 1855. Hon. DAVID DAVIS, Judge of the 8th judicial circuit, composed of the counties of De Witt, etc., presiding.
On the 18th day of May of the said May term, the following order appears of reeord :
The grand jury this day returned into court the following or- der, to wit :
" The grand jury have visited the jail of our county, we find the roof very much dilapitated, the rooms very filthy, and au amount of gunpowder, nearly two kegs spilled on the floor some time last year, and not removed, with the probability that it has settled between the crossed timbers and beneath."
It is therefore ordered by the conrt, that all prisoners of this county shall be committed to either the county jail of MeLean or >angamou counties, until the county court of this county shall prepare a suitable prison ; it is further ordered that the clerk of this court certify this report, together with this order, tu the county court at its next regular ses ion.
STATE OF ILLINOIS, ? : ss. DE WITT COUNTY I, Robert Lewis, clerk of the circuit court within and for said couuty, do hereby certify the above to be a true copy of the report and order, as appears of record in this office this 3d of June, 1855.
SEAL
ROBERT LEWIS, Clerk.
William Bolin, who had been sheriff in 1854, and ex-officio jailer of the county, was considered the intellectual originator, the modern Robert Ratesby as it were, of this diabolical plot ;
it has never been ascertained whom he had intended for the Guy Fawks of this conspiracy, he probably intended to play that part too. However his plans, like those of the London plotters of 1604, were frustrated. Guy Fawks' day (November 5) was kept as a national holiday for over two hundred years, and was also celebrated iu the New England states for many years. Even to this day, the street gamins of London may be seen, on the 5th day of November, dragging Guy Fawks in effigy through the streets of London, and burning it publicly at night. The historical day of the discovery of the De Witt county powder plot is the 14th day of May. So far the two conspiracies are analagous; they differ, however, materially in the objects to be attained. Ratesby and Fawks attempted to destroy the great and good men of the land, while Bolin aimed at the bad and wretched jail-birds of his county ; and if hereafter the boys of De Witt county should contemplate to celebrate their 14th day of May, let them have a booming bonfire in houor of their grim old sheriff.
The county court of those days looked upon the matter from a different standpoint, and contemplated with anger the extra expenditures to be met. Their order in reference to the affair, sinister as it appears, is not plain nor very intelligible-reading as follows :
" The grand jury has condemned the county jail on account of its being in a filthy condition and in need of repairs-that gun- powder to the extent of two kegs has been spilled on the floor, descending through the cracks thereof, making it unsafe to life, and that llon. Judge Davis had thereupon ordered that all criminals or persons committed in De Witt county should be conveyed to the Bloomiugtou or Springfield jails in this state- and that this court, being of the opinion that the gunpowder above alluded to was placed in said jail by the permission of William Bolin then sheriff. It is therefore ordered, that the court will choose a man, and that the said William Bolin may choose a man, and if they cannot agree, the two to choose a third man to value the said jail, and that said William Boliu may use any means he may choose for the purpose of removing the difficulty so far as the powder is concerned, at his own risk ; and as to the cleaning and repairing of said jail, this court will provide, the said Bolin being accountable only so far as the use of fire or other means he may use for the purpose of removing the danger of the powder to the county for the value of said jail."
The records do not disclose who were chosen to value, nor what further measures were resorted to. It is probable, how- ever, that the building of a new jail in 1857 was in part brought about by the plot.
Charles C. Watson vacated his office in autumn, 1854, and was sncceeded by George B. Lemen in December of said year.
The Cliutou divi-ion of the Sons of Temperance, No. 216, were granted the free use of the court-room up stairs, on condition that said Sous repair damages done by holding meetings in said room previously, to repair broken benches, put new glass where there are holes in the lights, and repair the plastering arouud the stove-pipe. This order leads us to iufer that the meetings of these Temperate Sons had been rather intemperate.
Ou the 26th of January, 1857, the hids for building a new jail were opened, and the contract awarded to Hoagland & Ricketts, who offered to build the jail according to plans and specifications for $12,000 in cash, or for $14,578.40 in county bonds, bearing interest at the rate of six per cent. per annum from date; the building was to be completed ou or before December 1, 1857.
.
71
HISTORY OF DE WITT COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
The court chose the bond bid, and the contractors filing a good and sufficient indemuity bond, issued a number of bonds, amount- ing in the aggregate to 817,223.00, to become due in June, 1857 1858, 1859, and 1860, respectively, bearing six per cent. anonal interest from date of issue, viz., March 6th, 1857, in payment of work hereafter to be done!
W. Bolin, G. B. Lemen, and Jesse Stout were appointed ex- perts to inspect the work as it progressed. The jail was to be built on the plans of the Tazewell county jail, then considered one of the best in the State.
The ground on which it was to be erected had been bought of Fred. Hanguer, who received his pay, viz., 8623.87, in teu per cent. interest-bearing county bonds, March 2d, 1858. We have failed to ascertain why the county court issued and paid over to the contractors $17,223 in county bonds, instead of $14,578.40, as previously agreed upon. The cash bid of $12,000, made at the same time, indicates that the county paper, at the time of receiving bids (January 2d, 1857), was worth about eighty-three cents per dollar. Two months later ( March, 1857), it seemed to have taken $17,223 in county bonds to represent $12,000 in money ; in other words, county orders were then worth only seventy cents per one dollar.
This unfavorable condition of the finances of the county de- layed the work of the contractors, who, in one instance, had to hypothecate 89000 of those bonds to obtain a temporary loan of only $2500. In July, 1858, the county court negotiated with A. Gridley & Co. a loan of $12,000, in order to have funds with which to pay the work on the jail as it progressed. The money was placed in the McClean county bank, and was to be checked out by Robert Lewis, and only in favor of the jail contractors, and in amounts in accordance with the progress of the work.
This is the first instance of placing public funds under the control of a fiscal agent, of rudely iguoring the county treasurer, and in defiance of the revenue law. The jail bonds mentioned above ($17,223) seem to have been surrendered to the county court in part only, as some of them are marked " paid," and defaced ; none of them have been destroyed, and they all remain on file in the Clerk's office. No financial statements are men- tioned during this period, and with part of the county funds in another county, part in hands of collectors, and balance, if any, in the hands of treasurer, it would scarcely have been possible to have a correct and succinct statement made.
The people of the county had meanwhile become restive and dissatisfied with the management of their affairs. A petition, signed hy Nathaniel Razey and ninety-nine others, praying for a vote on the adoption of township organization, was presented to the court in September, 1858. The court thereupon ordered a vote, and the system was adopted by a vote of 1424 against 308 at the November election in 1858.
In December, 1858, R. Lewis reported that he had drawn $5262.22 of the county deposits in the McClean county bank.
A. L. Barnett, Smith D. Jones, and D. M. Drag were ap- pointed Commissioners to divide the county into townships.
In January, 1859, Robert Lewis reported that he had drawn $2450 of the jail funds, leaving a balance of $4387 78 in bank. The court ordered the issuing of $12,433.80 in new bonds, to take up an equal amount of jail bonds issued March 7th, 1858, which were ordered to be cacelled.
The county court remained in activity until June 6th, 1859, confining themselves to routine business only, when the Board of Supervisors took charge of the government of the county.
SUPERVISORS.
First Board-1859 to 1860.
George A Hume, of Wapella, Chairman ; Wilson Allen, Texas ; B. G. Lisenby, Creek ; Hiram Chandler, Nixon ; A. A. Eads, Barnett ; W. B Smith, Clintonia ; John D. Hutchin, Tunbridge ; James Millmore, Harp; Edward O. Day, De Witt; Thos. C. Robb, Waynesville ; C. S. Cain, Wilson ; R. R. Knight, Santa Anna; and Jonathan Pearson, of Rutledge.
One of the first resolutions of the board was to employ a com- petent attorney to attend to the legal business of the county, and to be the cuuusellor of the board in their proceedings. They accepted the offer of L. Weldon, and fixed his compensation at Que hundred dollars per annum.
Questions having arisen as to the legality of the acts of the former county court since April, 1859, the Board asked C. H. Moore and L. Weldon for their opinion in regard to this matter. This opinion was given on the 9th of June, 1859, in words as follows :-
" TO THE HONORABLE THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS OF CLINTON COUNTY.
" GENTLEMEN :- The undersigned, to whom you referred the question : ' When did the power of the county court of this county over county busi- ness cease ?' would give as their legal opinion, that on and after the first Tuesday of April, 1859, the county court, for county business, ceased to exist, and that any acts done after that time were illegal and void.
" The sixth section of the 7th article of our Constitution provides how counties can adopt township organization.
"The Legislature, in their Act of April 1st. 1851, article 1, section 4. expressly states, that if it shall appear that a majority of the legal votes of said county was cast for township organization, then the county so voting shall be governed by and subject to the provisions of this Act.
"Township organization on and after the first Tuesday in April succeed- ing said election.
" As we presume that there was nothing wrong intended, permit us to suggest that your board run over all acts done by them, and adopt all that are right. Those that you don't ratify are dead letters, and you had hetter so notify the Clerk, Treasurer, and Sheriff."".
The opinion rendered was undoubtedly correct, and the advice, though unasked, more so, and what is still better, the board had sense enough to act on this wise suggestion. Fault-finding seems to have been the rule for years and years; committees of inves- tication chase one another ; reports follow reports, until the cli- max is capped by a resolution of the board to investigate their own actions.
Returning to the subject, let it be said that the Board of Su- pervisors examined the proceedings liad by the defunct county court up to the fourth day of June, and that these proceedings were sanctioned by the following resolution :-
" Resolved, that after a full examination of the proceedings of the old officers of the old county court, from the 1st to the 4th of June, and as from the full examination of laws and decisions of the Supreme Court, and like- wise of legal counsel, we are fully satisfied that their powers ceased on the 5th of April last, and further, that, as we find all bills that were allowed were fair on their face; and we further agree that the Clerk shall issue bis orders on the same."
From the latter part of this resolution, it is to be inferred that the board suspected that doubtful claims or jobs had been passed ou and ordered to be paid; hence the trouble. The "old mem- bers of the old county court," however, had acted wisely and properly in confining themselves to routine business only, and in finally disposing of pending claims against the county. These "old members of the old county court" certainly knew more
72
HISTORY OF DE WITT COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
about the merits of those claims than a number of new men could find out in the brief space of their sessions.
The jail contracted for in 1857 was received in June, 1859. Hoagland and Rickets, coutractors, received the following amounts, to wit :---
First payment, bonds of March, 1857, 82500 00
Amounts drawn from county funds in Mc-
Clean county bank, 8,776 40
Subsequent payments (June 10th), proba-
bly county orders, 641 25
$11,917 65
The actual cost of the jail seems to have exceeded this amount, as will appear from the following :---
Jail bonds paid to contractors as above, . $2,500 00 Bonds issued January, 1859, to take up part of first jail bonds, issued March 7th, 1857, 12,433 80
Amount paid to contractors in cash as above, 9,417 65
Amount paid Fred. Hanguer for lot, 623 87
824,975 32
The original jail bonds, 817,233, seem to have been disposed of as follows :-
Amount paid bona fide to contractors, $2,500 00
Amount redeemed by the issue of January,
1859, . 12,433 80
Amount surrendered to the county, . .
2,289 20
$17,223 00
On the 24th of June, 1850, L. Welden was appointed agent of the county to prosecute its claim against the Federal Govern- ment for swamp lands sold in violation of the Swamp-Land Act of 1850.
Darius Hall was made the fiscal agent of the county, June 24th, 1859. All county moneys were ordered to be deposited with him, and he was to pay interest to the county at the rate of ten per cent. per annum on all deposits left in his hands for over sixty days This arrangement, probably made through motives of economy, was wholly and absolutely wrong. The Treasurer of the county is by law the custodian of all county funds, and his bond secures the county against loss,
The boundaries of the townships of Clintonia and Wapella, were changed, September, 1859; sections one, two, three, four, five aud six of Clintonia were added to Wapella.
The first tax levy made by the Board of Supervisors was thirty-three cents per one hundred dollars.
John Warner was made swamp-agent in December, 1859, in place of L. Weldon heretofore appointed.
The boundary between Santa Anna and De Witt township were changed by taking off from Santa Anna and adding to De Witt the following tracts, to wit. : commencing at the north-west corner of section thirty, in township twenty, range five east, thence east to the north-east corner of the north-west quarter of said sec- tion, thence south one-half mile, thence east to county line, thence south-west with the county line to the range line, thence north with the range line to the place of beginning.
The Board, hy order of December, 1859, prohibited the keep- ing of saloons or tipling houses, by a vote of ten against three- Wilson, Allen, J. D. Hutchin, and Ben. Lisenby voting nay.
In March, 1860, the Board instructed their attorney, L. Wel- don, to bring suit against ex sheriff Merryman, for the recovery of revenne balances in his hands, viz., $375.00, from 1856, and 8425.00, from 1857.
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