USA > Illinois > Hancock County > History of Hancock County, Illinois, together with an outline history of the State, and a digest of State laws > Part 37
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After the demise of the New Era, a printer named Liek issued for a time in Warsaw the Public Record. He was succeeded in 1867 by Mr. Dallam, father of the present editor of the Bulletin. Mr. D. was an able and vigorous writer. His ready and sharp wit . made him a formidable antagonist to those brethren of the quill who belonged to the other side in politics. The following notice of him we ent from the Bulletin announcing his death, which occurred quite suddenly, on March 16, 1868, in Warsaw:
" Francis Asbury Dallam was born in Butler county, Kentucky, September, 1824. Whilst he was still a child, his father removed to the city of St. Louis, Mo., where he was educated and soon became a practical printer. He soon took a high rank in his pro- fession, and in 1846 became the editor of a newspaper, establishing the Miner's Prospect at Potosi, in Missouri, and editing it in con- nection with Mr. Philip Ferguson. At St. Louis he was married to Miss Anna McKee, of that city. In 1852 he established at Oquawka, in this State, the Oquawka Plaindealer, which soon became extensively known as one of the ablest advocates of the principles of the old Whig party. This paper was a very success- ful enterprise, and the reputation which he here acquired procured him an invitation to Quiney, where, in 1856, he edited the Repub- lican in connection with Mr. H. V. Sullivan, and in the course of a few months united this paper with the Whig, in which he was associated with Mr. John T. Morton. But in 1859 he returned again to Oquawka, and resumed the editorship of the Plaindealer. He was, of course, a very decided advocate of Mr. Lincoln's elec- tion to the Presidency, and received from him the appointment of Postmaster of Ognawka. But at the breaking out of the Rebellion, he was the first man in the place of his residence to volunteer in the army, where he became Captain of Company D, of the Tenth Regiment of Illinois Volunteer Infantry, with Morgan as its Col- onel. Re-enlisting at the close of the three months' service, he was appointed Major of the same (Tenth) Regiment in which he made the Kentucky campaign with General McClernand. In May, 1862, he became an Adjutant-General upon the staff of Gen- eral Ross, but was soon after compelled to resign on account of the
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HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
state of his health, remaining as an invalid for some months at his home in Oquawka. In 1863 he made an excursion to California, and 1864 found him in Nevada, where, besides editing a paper, the Carson Independent, he became a member of the Convention which formed the Constitution of that State. The year 1866 found him again in Quincy, in this State, as editor of the Whig and Republican, and in the following year he removed to this place and bought the Record, the title of which he soon changed to that of the Warsaw Bulletin, which he continued to edit until the time of his death."
At Mr. Dallam's death the paper was left in the hands of his widow and young sons. These-first Frank M., and latterly " Phil," -- haveconducted the Bulletin ever since with good success. It now stands in the front rank among the country papers ; in size, excel- lence of workmanship, and character of its editorials, second to but few of them. The Bulletin is a pronounced Republican, 9-column folio, at $2.00 a year.
About the beginning of 1877, Mr. J. M. Faris came to Warsaw from Pike county, and established a Democratic paper, to which he gave the old name of Hancock Democrat.
Mr. Faris was in bad health the whole period of his stay in the county, and he was compelled to give up the business. His estab- lishment was purchased by George P. Walker and Cortez Maxwell, Esqs., and continued (Mr. Walker retiring after a few months) till the fall of 1879, when it was discontinued. The Democrat was an 8-column folio sheet, neatly printed, at $2.00 per annum.
At La Harpe, after the demise of Dr. Rankin's Democrat, Mr. Henry King, a young son of J. W. King, Esq., with Frank Nash, published the Star of the West. This was about 1858 or 1859; and afterward, in 1866 or 1867, James L. King published the Home News. How long these papers continued we are not advised, but only for short periods. In November, 1874, Mr. H. G. Rising began to issue the La Harpe Leader, and before the close of a volume left it in the hands of L. S. Cogswell, Esq., who changed it to the La Harper in October, 1875. In his hands it continned over two years, when he transferred it to J. C. Conlson, Esq., who issued his first number dated April 5, 1878. Mr. C. is a son of Dr. Coulson, an early settler, and we believe is a native of the county. He is still at the helm of the La Harper, industriously devoting himself to the interests of his pleasant little city, and has succeeded in building up a fair patronage. His paper seems to be popular with the people; it is decidedly a local journal, and is now in its fifth volume. It is a 5-column quarto.
In the spring of 1858, after leaving the Plymouth Locomotive, Mr. Gregg established, at Hamilton, the Hamilton Representative, a 6-column folio. This continued two or three years, till it suc- cumbed to the hard times of the war. Again, in May, 1873, he published the Dollar Monthly, changed to Rural Messenger, Jan-
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HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
uary 1, 1876, and suspended April, 1877. It was a large 16-page sheet, and was devoted principally to literary and rural affairs.
This brings us back to the county-seat, where we began, and where the first news sheet was floated upon the prairie breezes of Hancock county, 44 years ago. The summer it was issued the grass was knee high over the public square, with paths here and there across to the few business houses. The wild deer sniffed the morning air in the suburbs, and the howlings and barkings of the little prairie coyotes awoke the echoes of the night. The town had perhaps 100 inhabitants, all told; the county, say, 3,000.
After the suspension of the Carthagenian, the place was without a paper for ten or twelve years, or more. But to omit none, we should mention that in the fall of 1836, a small campaign sheet was issued from the office of the Carthagenian, called The Echo, under the management of Walter Bagley, Esq., intended to advo- cate the election of Gen. Harrison to the Presidency. Only a few numbers were issued.
The next venture there, we believe, was made by Mr. Thaddeus Clarke, of Macomb; but the date is not recollected, neither can we recall the name of the paper, but believe it was News-Letter. This must have been a few years before his connection with Mr. Manier on the Republican.
In the spring of 1860 Mr. James K. Magie, from the Oquawka Plaindealer, came to Carthage and established the Carthage Tran- script. How long this paper continued we have not at hand the means of knowing, but it was succeeded by the Carthage Gazette, in the hands of Mr. Fowler, afterward associated with Mr. Noble L. Prentis, and by them conducted with spirit and tact till about 1869 or '70, when it passed to its present proprietor. The Gazette is now in its 15th year.
We must not leave out of the list the little college monthly, named the Carthaginian (with an i instead of an e in its third syllable, which its erudite editors claim is the correct orthography). It is a handsome octavo, issued from the office of the Republican, scholarly, spicy, under the management of the Faculty and literary societies of Carthage College.
We have now gone through the list as well as the means at hand will permit, but very probably not without some errors. To enu- merate: At Carthage we have had the Carthagenian, Echo, News- Letter(?), Transcript, Republican, Democrat, Gazette, Carthagin- ian-8.
At Nauvoo-Times and Seasons, Wasp, Expositor, Neighbor, Eagle, New Citizen, Icarian Review, Popular Tribune, Demo- cratic Press, Independent-10.
At Warsaw- Western World, Signal, Message, Commercial Journal, Democrat, Express, Crusader, New Era. Bulletin, Pub- lic Record, Democrat 2d, Warsaw Democrat and Independent-13.
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HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
At La Harpe-The Democrat, Star of the West, Home News, Leader, La Harper-5.
At Augusta-Times, Home Banner, Herald-3.
At Dallas City-Star of Dallas, Democrat, Advocate, Sucker State, Monitor, News-6.
At Plymouth-Locomotive, Advocate, Phonograph-3.
At Hamilton-Representative, Dollar Monthly, Rural Messen- ger-3.
Grand total, 51.
Over half a hundred; one for every year of the county's exist- ence. To enumerate the fortunes made in these enterprises would be an easy task. To count the absolute and the partial failures would be a little more difficult. There have been reasons for these failures, chief of which has been ambition-ambition of individ- nals to be at the head of a press, and ambition of rising villages to sport a newspaper. None of these first publications but were begun too soon, before there was sufficient population and business to sustain them. And yet, having induced men to embark in these enterprises, it was the duty and the interest of the towns to sustain them. A newspaper failure in a rising village is a disaster not only to the person managing it, but also to the community.
It has taken a long chapter to tell the story of these newspaper ventures,-the births, growths, suspensions, resurrections, failures and final flickerings of newspaper life in Hancock during its first half century. The budding hopes blasted, the air-castles . over- turned, little fortunes consumed, debts incurred, mortgages fore- closed and Sheriff's writs executed, nobody may know, and nobody cares.
The career of that Cincinnati Franklin Press, the first one brought to Warsaw, was a remarkable one, and of itself tells a story of newspaper adventure and failure. It has truly been on all sides in politics. It first served the Whigs with White and the World; next Neutrality with Sharp and the Signal; then again a Whig under Gregg & Patch in the Message; then it breathed fire and Anti-Mormonism with Sharp again in the Signal; then with Gregg & Miller a Neutral; then with McKee a Democratic organ in the Commercial Journal; then with Rankin at La Harpe, a Democrat; then to Manier & Co. at Carthage, an Independent; then to Child, a Democrat and an opposer of the war; then to Griffith & McClaughy, a War Democrat; and finally, it rests from its wanderings and polit- ical labors in a quiet nook in the Republican office, a doer of all work, after 40 years of active service; and in all this time it has not been out of the county. It may truly be called a Hancock institution.
CHAPTER X.
WEATHER PHENOMENA.
The year 1811 is far enough back to go in search of historical incidents connected with Hancock county; and what we have to record of that year, concerns alike the whole Mississippi Valley. That was a year long to be remembered. The first steamboat to traverse the Ohio and Mississippi rivers-the " New Orleans "- was launched at Pittsburg in the summer of that year, and made her trip to New Orleans, scaring the aborigines along the rivers out of their seven senses. Arrived in the vicinity of New Madrid, the terrible earthquake occurred, which rocked the waters of the river, sunk large tracts of land, partially destroyed the town and came very near putting an end to the first experiment of steam navigation in the West. To increase the. dismay caused by the earthquake, a fiery comet was seen coursing through the heav- ens, exhibiting an immense and gorgeous length of tail-the sup- posed harbinger of disaster to the astonished inhabitants.
But the earliest date we can reach with safety, in regard to weather phenomena in Hancock county, is that of the memorable
DEEP SNOW,
so well recollected by all living in this region in 1830-31. That win- ter marks an epoch in the history of Hancock and all the Military Tract and indeed, throughout a large portion of the great North- west. What its limits were we are unable to say, but they were extensive. To recount the sufferings caused by it would fill vol- umes. Those who were caught unprepared-as many always are, especially in a new country-were put to great extremes for the means of sustaining life till spring. Fire-wood, generally near at hand, could be reached by dint of hard labor. But the difficulty was in procuring provisions. Wild game and the product of the cornfields was the main dependence of the settlers. In most instances, the corn had not been gathered. It became a herculean labor, first to find it, as it lay imbedded in the snow, and then to procure it, and when procured, how was it to be got to the mills and returned in meal? Travel, for the greater part of the winter, was almost entirely suspended, it being impossible to go but a few rods in a day, with the best of teams. A great deal of stock died, from suffering in the snow, and from want of food. Game died in great numbers in the woods; or if alive, could not be found, and if occasionally found, was easily caught, but so poor as to be fre- quently unfit for food.
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HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
But the greatest suffering, perhaps, was in those instances where people were caught away from home and out in the storm. Some of these instances of peril are reported in other portions of this book.
The snow began to fall on the 29th of December, 1830, and continued almost incessantly for three days. The average depth was about four feet, with drifts in all the ravines and low places, sometimes twenty and thirty feet deep. What few fences there were had been entirely covered; roads, of which there were but few, were obliterated. The New Year of 1831 was ushered in upon a canopy of universal whiteness. The snow remained on the ground till spring, and as the winter advanced and a crust began to form, the difficulties of travel increased. All remember the deep snow of 1830-31.
STORM OF 1836.
The next to mention is the remarkable storm and " sudden freeze " of Dec. 20, 1836. This we describe as experienced at Carthage. Other accounts from other places somewhat differ.
The night had been warm, and in the morning a soft rain was falling, which continued till seven or eight o'clock. Then the weather began to grow colder, a slight wind began to blow from the west and afterward from the northwest, every moment increasing in violence. The rain ceased, but soon was succeeded by sleet, and by ten o'clock there was a continuous and violent gale blowing, driving before it a body of fine round sleet, as hard as ice, and so cutting that it could not be faced. The soft ground was soon frozen hard, its nneven spaces filled with the sleet, till it became as hard and almost as smooth as ice, making travel very difficult. It continued all day and long into the night, the gale and sleet and cold unabated, and at times coming with increased violence. How low the mercury fell we can not now remember, but there was within the twenty hours of the storm a change of not less than sixty or seventy degrees of temperature.
People who were so unfortunate as to be caught out in the storm suffered intensely. Frozen ears, frozen feet and hands were numerous, and numbers over the country were frozen to death. One man was frozen to death between Carthage and Commerce, while on his way with an ox team. His comrade barely escaped with his life. The Illinois river froze over in an incredibly short period of time.
TORNADO, JUNE, 1838.
A correspondent in the north gives us the following: In the month of June, 1838, a terrible tornado passed over the north part of the county. The storm-cloud commenced gathering west of the Mississippi, and by one o'clock had assumed a formidable, black and angry appearance. Orossing the river near Fort Madi-
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IIISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
son, it started in an easterly direction. Then the clouds assumed the appearance of large inverted funnels, three in number. Clear- ing the bluff timber, it struck the earth near the west line of 7-7, about midway of the township. Then it presented an appearance at once awful, and grand to behold. The weeds and grass of the prairie were literally torn up by the roots. Continuing east, with a noise like a thousand thunders, it struck the young settlement of Pilot Grove. Huge trees were uprooted and broken like pipe- stems, and log houses were blown down. In one of the houses an old lady by the name of Sears was killed. A new frame-house that had just been built, was taken from its foundation, carried several rods and set down again, without receiving any material injury. Three persons were killed in the vicinity of Pilot Grove. Some cattle and horses were killed and missing.
The tornado continued on through the timber east of Joseph Lionberger's mill, completely destroying every tree and bush in its path. It finally spent itself over in the bluffs of the Illinois river. For many years afterward, the track of this fearful tornado was visible, and the dire effects of its fury to be seen.
HIGH WATERS.
We are unable to give all the years in which the Mississippi rose to unusual height, but those of 1835, 1844, 1851 and 1853, are particularly remembered. In each'of those years the water covered the whole valley from bluff to bluff, with slight exceptions, all the way from Lake Pepin to St. Louis, making a broad expanse of water from two and three to seven miles wide. At Warsaw, and between that and Lima lake, the whole of that rich and valuable bottom land, now attempted to be reclaimed, was overflowed to a depth of several feet; while on the opposite side it extended to the sand ridge five miles away, leaving Alexandria from four to eight feet under water.
The year 1836-the year of our first acquaintance with the river -the water was also high, and there have been several seasons of high water since-dates not now remembered. These annual over- flows are known as the "June rise," because they occur in June on the lower Mississippi; here they generally reach the maximum by the middle of May, and are often on the decline before the begin- ning of June.
But it will be observed that the " Father of Waters " is, by slow degrees gradually diminishing in volume; these high stages becom- ing less frequent, and its low stages in the autumn months more marked.
THE BASCO TORNADO.
The tornado which passed through Bear Creek township on the evening of July 3, 1873, was not only very destructive, but was attended with peculiar characteristics. There had been wind and
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HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
heavy rain all over the middle and southern portions of the county during the day, but the tornado proper began about three miles west of Basco, and held an easterly course towards Bentley, where it became less violent. It was, without doubt, accompanied by fire, as parties who were in it remember a sensation of heat, and some say, a smell of sulphur. Those who witnessed it from Basco, rep- resent it as sublime and terrible : a smoky, blue-colored cloud, rolling forward at great speed, emitting flames at intervals, and carrying destruction in its path. Houses, barns, farm imple- ments, horses, cattle, trees, fences, and linman beings, were carried bodily into the air and deposited chiefly outside of the tornado's path. The total width of the hurricane was only about a quarter of a mile, while the tornado proper was only a few rods wide. It so happened that but few residences lay directly in its path, hence the destruction of life and property was not very great.
A full account of this terrific tornado, and the destruction it occasioned, was published in the Carthage Republican of the 16th, from the pen of its editor, J. M. Davidson, Esq. The incidents narrated in it are so remarkable, and so well authenticated, that we copy almost entire, omitting only the least important portions:
" Arriving at the village of Basco by the morning train, the writer was taken in kindly charge by Esquire Crow, a venerable and good citizen of the village, who procured a horse and buggy, and, without unnecessary delay, we were on the road to Booz's place, where the tornado seems to have made its first appearance in the township.
"Mr. Booz's residence was a log house consisting of a story and a half, with a frame lean-to kitchen on the north. Between four and five rods to the north of the house was a large, new frame barn. East of the house, from 8 to 10 rods, was a fine growth of young timber, most of the trees being from 5 to 7 inches in diameter. So much for the situation. Mr. Booz was in the house when his oldest son, 18 years old, came running in and cried out excitedly: 'Father, come out here and see what this is!' Mr. Booz ran out and saw a dense cloud that looked like smoke rolling furiously toward the house, and the air was very hot and smelled like sulphur. He ran into the house, shut the doors and got his wife, children and himself into the cellar just in time to hear the whole upper part of the house go off with a crash. The concussion was so great as to tumble over the milk pans in the cellar and shake the cellar walls terribly. He says: 'The whole house was lifted about one foot from the foundation on the west side, but fell back again.' The storm lasted less than five minutes and then he came out of the cellar to witness a scene of destruction that fairly paralyzed him. The upper half of his house was gone; his kitchen and smoke house nowhere to be seen; nothing left of his fine new stable but a few foundation posts and a pile of manure, and the pretty grove of timber twisted and broken into indescrib- ably fantastic shapes. In the stable were three horses, a threshing
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HISTORY OF HANCOCK COUNTY.
machine, a cultivator and other tools and about five tons of hay. A new wagon stood close to the stable. None of these were now to be seen: all were swept away. One of the horses was carried into the timber and fell into the top of a young hickory tree and from thence to the ground where it was found dead next morning .. Another horse was evidently carried over the house into the road, and seemed not to have been badly hurt. The other was carried in an opposite direction, and landed in a meadow without injury. The broken remnants of Mr. Booz's wagon, cultivator, and parts of the barn were found scattered through the timber and beyond. Some remnants are not found yet. The most of a heavy iron cultivator was found in Sanderson's meadow, 100 rods east! It is stated that Mr. Wm. Damron, who was some half mile north of the tornado, saw Mr. Booz's stable lifted into the air 200 feet, that it whirled around rapidly and finally fell to pieces and was blown off into the timber. Seventy-five apple-trees were torn out by the roots and carried across fields; posts five feet long on which the barn sat were pulled out of the ground in which they had been set nearly four feet! Two cows and calves were carried fully 100 yards into an adjoining meadow, all more or less injured.
"We have been more particular in describing the destruction at Booz's place because it will answer for a faithful description in general, if not in detail, of the remarkable effects of the tornado throughout its entire path.
"East of Booz's, about a quarter, or a little more, was a liewn log house belonging to Mr. W. C. Baldwin and occupied by How- land Steffy and wife as renters. This house, and the barn adjoin- ing it, were blown to pieces, the logs carried hundreds of feet into an adjoining meadow. The floor only of the house was left. They said there had been a stable near by, but we don't believe it! " When the tornado approached, Mr. Steffy undertook to secure the door, but in an instant he was hurled 50 feet toward the road, the house taking another direction. After the storm passed he searched for his wife and found her lying composedly behind a locust stump in Sanderson's meadow with the logs of their house piled all around her! Mr. and Mrs. Steffy were both severely hurt, but able to pick their way through fallen timber and accumulated rubbish to Mr. Booz's place, and afterward to some neighbor's who had better accomodations! Sanderson's meadow, immediately east of Steffy's, was thickly strewn with debris, timber, parts of wagons, household goods, dead pigs and chickens, wearing apparel, etc. The next place struck by the tornado was that of John Sanderson, north of east from Steffy's half a mile or more. Here the destruc- tion was as complete as if the premises had been mined with gun- powder. Not one stick of timber in either house or stable was left in its original position ; even the rocks at the corners were thrown out of their places, and there was not enough timber of any kind left within a hundred yards-either of house or barn-to build a smoke house! The house and barn seem to have been carried up into the
ยท
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HISTORY OF HIANCOCK COUNTY.
air, broken to pieces and scattered about by the whirlwind, while the contents of the dwelling, including Mrs. Sanderson and her two smaller children, were blown in a direct line south from 500 to 1000 feet. Broken bedsteads, tables, chairs, cooking stoves and other furniture, together with remnants of clothing, etc., were blown in fragments in a straight line south through the meadow just as if the house had been carried up into the air, and when the floor fell out an under current had driven the family and contents in the direction we have named. The fence south of the house, which was not wholly blown down, was, on the day of our visit, festooned with remnants of wearing appearel, bed clothing, etc. Concerning Mr. Sanderson's whereabouts or escape, there seems to be some confu- sion. That gentleman told us that when the storm came on him he was in the yard west of the house. His oldest child, a little girl 8 years old, was with him. They fell down, or were blown down, on the ground. When the storm passed over, himself and little girl went round and round the fallen rubbish calling for mother and the little children, but getting no response, he said he thought his wife and children had been blown away off, and so he went over to Mr. John Elder's, three-quarters of a mile distant, to get assistance. We learn, however, that Mrs. Elder firmly believes that Mr. Sanderson and child were blown over half that distance by the storm, as he could not have reached her house so quickly other- wise after the destruction of his house, which she witnessed. Dr. Hill, Mr. Tanner and others, of Basco, who were watching the tor- nado, saw Sanderson's house and barn rise in the air and go to pieces. The first named gentlemen at once mounted their horses and rode at full speed towards the scene of destruction. Others followed quickly. Search for the family was immediately insti- tuted, and within five minutes Dr. Hill found Mrs. Sanderson about 70 steps south of the house, lying with her youngest child in her arms. Every particle of her clothing except a remnant of an under garment was stripped from the poor woman, and that was wrapped tightly across her shoulders and under her arms. Dr. Hill threw his coat over her until remnants of bed-clothing could be picked up to wrap around her. The woman was conscious, and begged to have her head raised, which was done. The little
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