USA > Illinois > Iroquois County > History of Iroquois County, together with Historic notes on the Northwest, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic, though, for the most part, out-of-the-way sources > Part 39
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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.
drawing a teeming population. The county-seat was also coveted by the proprietors, and all the possibilities of this paper town were staked on this grand object. But it failed. Middleport was more fortunate. Hugh Newell having his attention first directed to the subject by Micajah Stanley, for a long time kept this point, as well as the adjacent country, an object of deliberation and careful per- sonal inspection. He entered the E. ¿ N.E. ¿ Sec. 31, T. 27, R. 12, August 27, 1836; and his means being limited, he interested Jacob A. Whiteman to join him in entering the N. W. ¿ N. W. ¿ Sec. 32, which was done September 29. Austin Cole, of Danville, had entered on the 21st the S. W. ¿ of the same quarter section. Some transfers took place before the county-seat was removed there. It was laid out by Newell and Whiteman in December, 1836.
As before related, Lewis Roberts had procured the passage of an act enabling the county to relocate the seat of justice. Merritt L. Covel, John Moore and Cheney Thomas, of McLean county, were named as conmissioners charged with this duty. They were to meet at Middleport on the first Monday in June, 1839, or within thirty days thereafter, and to fix upon a location. If they .selected private property, they were required to obtain from the owner at least 20 acres of land as a donation to the county ; but if the selection was in a town or village, then not less than fifty lots of an average value with the remaining ones, for which, in either case, they should take a deed in fee-simple to the county. On the 13th Messrs. Moore and Covel met at Middleport, and after subscribing the required oath, entered upon their labors. On the 17th they rendered their report to Jonathan Wright, Adam Karr and Samuel McFall, county com- missioners, declaring the county-seat removed from Montgomery and permanently located at Middleport. For their services each of the commissioners was allowed $33. They obtained from Hugh Newell Jacob A. Whiteman, Jacob Troup and James Smith a deed to 100 town lots. Most of these were subsequently sold and conveyed by Micajah Stanley, and after him a few by George B. Joiner, for the county, at prices ranging from 85 to $40. They furnished a much needed revenue, and contributed toward the crection of county buildings.
The growing necessities of the public business dictated the build- ing of a court-house- and a jail, but the county was too weak finan- cially to accomplish much in that direction. The commissioners decided to begin the jail first, as that was more urgently demanded. Hugh Newell was appointed agent to let the contracts, but this had not been done when he died, May 8, 1841, and his place as agent
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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.
was supplied by the appointment of Micajah Stanley. Meantime the offices had been removed to Middleport, and sessions of the cir- enit court held there. The last term of this court, as probably that of the county commissioners, held in Montgomery, was in Septen- ber, 1839. A frame building in Middleport, belonging to Newell, had been rented by the county. The second floor was used for a court-room. Office rooms were also rented of Garrett Eoff. James Crawford took the contract for building the jail. It was a hewed log structure, about 16×20 feet square, and cost $159.30 when ready for the reception of occupants. It was finished in the winter of 1842-3, nearly two years having transpired from the letting of the contract. The door was fastened on the outside with an ordinary padlock. The floor was made of square timbers laid together, on which the walls of the house were raised. After becoming seasoned some of them were loose, and it was only necessary to slip one either way to have a place of egress. The breaking of this jail was rather a pastime. It is told that the prisoners used facetiously to complain that the swine worked their way under the floor after the crumbs of bread that fell through, and rooted them out of jail. Pancake, a faithful infractor of the law, charged " Garry " Eoff, the keeper, one night when he was leaving, to prop the door well, as the hogs were in the habit of rooting it open and getting his corn-bread. It is not said which this sarcasm reflected against most-the jail or the bread. No other place for the confinement of criminals was provided in Iroquois county until 1858.
At the March term, 1843, it was ordered that a court-house be built on the public square in Middleport. Certain dimensions, together with the general features of a plan, were specified, and a committee named to procure a plan and to estimate the cost. Acting on the report rendered that day, the commissioners, on the 10th of April, appointed Lorenzo D. Northrup, Charles Gardner, Isaac Courtright, Samuel Harper and John Harwood a building commit- tee. The dimensions were slightly changed. The building was to be 373 feet square, of two twelve-foot stories; and the committee was limited to $1,506, fifty-two town lots in Middleport, and the saline land in Vermilion county for its inclosure. The town lots included those which had already been sold. $800 were appropri- ated from the treasury to begin the work. The house was of brick, 40×40 feet, with a square roof, surmounted by a belfry, which was never furnished with a bell. The first floor was laid with brick and kept covered with sawdust to render it noiseless ; this was the conrt- room1. The offices and jury rooms were up-stairs.
Micajak Stanley
LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.
By the fire of October 16, 1866, a part of the county records, on which we have thus far depended for information, were destroyed. The hiatus extends to September 23, 1861, about eighteen and one- half years. Through this period we are as a traveler that wanders in a desert.
The saline land above referred to was a part of the salines situ- ated in Vermilion county, and which were granted to the two coun- ties by the state in 1837, for the purpose of building a bridge across: each the Vermilion and Iroquois rivers. When Illinois was a terri- tory the salt springs on these lands were considered valuable for the manufacture of salt, and were reserved from sale and leased by the government ; but the management of them proving unprofitable and troublesome, the lands were ceded to the state. Salt-making at these springs was abandoned many years ago. The amount of land appor- tioned to Iroquois county we have not been able to learn, but it was inconsiderable. Mr. Stanley states that he was empowered to sell the land, and that he went to Vermilion county and exchanged .a tract (either 40 or 80 acres) for a horse, which was disposed of in Chicago, and the proceeds applied on the court-house. Joseph B. Dean had the first contract to lay the brick. In June, 1845, the walls had been reared about four feet; all the funds on hand had been expended, and work was discontinued. George B. Joiner and William Pierce were now appointed commissioners to superintend the further con- struction. New contracts were made, and it is thought that Aaron Hoel and his son burned the rest of the brick, and that Spencer Case did the mason work. The Hebrews were required to make brick without straw,-a thing scarc y more difficult than this committee had to do when it was forced to build a court-house without money. They disbursed county orders till these were so depreciated toward the close, that they paid them out at half their face value. The con- tractors who accepted them were compelled to negotiate them at 75 per cent discount.
To encourage settlement, public lands were exempted from taxa- tion five years from the date of entry. While this was, no doubt, a judicious course, it can be understood that the resources of the pub- lic treasury were so disproportioned to a population at most small in number, it was nearly impossible for the people to proceed with public improvements. The building was inclosed in 1846, and near the end of the year it was first used for holding court ; t it was not completed and furnished, and the offices occupied unti next sum- mer. It would be interesting to note the difficulties ad delays by which the completion of the first court-house was retarded four years ,
23
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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.
were the facts accessible, but it can now only be said that it cost a patient and protracted effort, and in the end left an onerous debt. A special act was passed February 16, 1847, authorizing the county commissioners to borrow a sum of money not to exceed $1,000, to finish the court-house, or to redeem orders issued for that purpose, for which they might execute notes or bonds with interest at a rate not over 12 per cent. In 1851 another act was procured empower- ing the county court to levy a special tax of one mill upon every one hundred dollars' worth of taxable property, which was, when col- lected, to be kept as a separate fund for the payment of debts incurred in building the court-house, and if any surplus remained, it was to be applied to the erection of a jail.
The constitution of 1848 did away with probate justices and county commissioners' courts, and provided for county courts. The general assembly, at its first session after the adoption of the constitution, enacted a law (February, 1849) establishing county courts witli pro- bate jurisdiction, and providing that two associate justices of the peace having county jurisdiction, to be elected by each county at large, should sit with the county judge, and that the court, as thus organ- ized, should possess and exercise the same powers as had belonged to the old commissioners' court. The judge, sitting by himself, con- stituted a court for the transaction of probate business. These officers were to be elected every four years.
John Chamberlain was the first county judge of Iroquois county, and was elected to that office in November, 1849, filling it three con- secutive terms. He was a man of strongly marked personal charac- ter; possessed decided convictions and commanding ability ; and as an orator and lawyer, superior powers. By conferring freely with men he always had so exact a knowledge of current popular feeling that it seemed as if he had a prescience of events. His habits in this particular were remarkable enough to require mention. With rare subtlety he drew from others what they would conceal, without compromising his own information. This was done with diplomatic art, and scarcely left a sensible impression of his mastery. The advantages so gained he did not fail to make an element of success in objects which 'forever remained in the custody of his own conscious- ness. He was dark and difficult to fathom ; mistrustful of men, dili- gent in detail, long headed, slow to act, but eminently energetic and unshrinking when the time of action came. His sagacity was always equal to the occasion. In private life he displayed the traits and practiced the forts of genuine benevolence. He was tall of stature, and of striking appearance. When he undertook the control of the
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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.
county government its fiscal affairs were in a deplorable condition. County orders were bringing but thirty-seven and a half cents on the dollar. The judge addressed himself with zeal to the restoration of the county credit. In less than four years under his administration the whole debt was redeemed, and orders were at a premium for taxes ; but they fell again somewhat below par, when the liability of $50,000 was incurred in aid of the Peoria & Oquawka Eastern Extension railroad, -a measure against which he opposed an earnest, vigorous, but unavailing remonstrance.
In 1846 Micajah Stanley went to the legislature from this county. The navigation of the Kankakee and Iroquois rivers had excited much interest and been warmly discussed and advocated since any considerable settlement had been made in the county. The feeling had become so earnest that this question was the staple of thought and conversation - the single idea of the public mind. Mr. Stanley brought forward a bill chartering "The Kankakee and Iroquois Navigation and Manufacturing Company," which was passed and approved February 15, 1847, granting this corporation full control of the improvement of the two rivers for navigation, and also all the use and control of the water-power thereon for the term of fifty years. Several amendatory acts have taken effect, but none of them changing the original powers granted. Fifty thousand dollars were raised by stock subscriptions and expended on a dam and lock at Wilmington, which was swept away by high water the next spring after it was completed. By a law in force February 12, 1849, the county court of Iroquois county was granted power to levy and cause to be collected a tax not to exceed $1 upon each $100 worth of taxable property for the purpose of improving the Kankakee and Iroquois rivers, provided that upon thirty-days notice previous to a general election a majority of the votes cast upon the question should be in favor of the tax. We do not know that any money was raised in this way, and it is doubtful if tlie ques- tion was submitted to the people, Judge Chamberlain, though favor- able to the improvement of these streams, and taking an active interest in the design, being, as is evidenced by other acts of his, opposed to such a plan for raising funds in the then exhausted condition of the county, and the low state of its credit. The company made the Kankakee navigable by slack-water to Wilmington, connecting that city with the Illinois and Michigan canal. Then the work slum- bered some time, so far as the general public was concerned. Again, in the summer of 1862, fresh interest was aroused in the project, and citizens of Iroquois and Kankakee counties, and delegates from
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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.
Newton county, Indiana, held a public meeting at Middleport, on June 16, at which business committees were appointed, one of which was to examine and report on the subject preparatory to raising stock. This was composed of Dr. C. F. McNeill, chairman ; George B. Joiner, Michael Hogle and John Wilson of Iroquois county ; James McGrew and E. A. Webster, of Kankakee county ; G. W. Spitler, of Jasper county, Indiana, and A. B. Condit, of Newton county, Indiana. Condit was a practical engineer, and was appointed by Gov. Wright, of Indiana, in 1853, to do the engineer- ing for the draining of the swamp lands in White, Jasper and New- ton counties. It is stated in the " Middleport Press " of that date, that he explained, by diagrams and otherwise, the practicability, at a very small cost, of making the rivers navigable at the driest sea- son of the year, by slack-water, not only up to Middleport, but to Rensselaer, Indiana, by making a reservoir of Beaver lake. He further advocated the feasibility of a navigable eastern outlet by way of the Pinkamink and a seven-mile canal over a flat surface to the head of the Monon, and down that stream and the Tippecanoe river into the Wabash and Erie canal. At the meeting of July 2, the chairman read an exhaustive report showing the stage of the work, and also what was further required to be done, besides demonstrating its practicability and importance. But notwithstand- ing the enthusiasm of the hour, the absorbing and gigantic demands of the war coming suddenly in the form of calls for 600,000 volun- teers, caused this local enterprise to be forgotten. "The Kankakee Company," an association of Massachusetts capitalists, of which Gov. Claflin is president, purchased the franchises and property of the old company, and are slowly prosecuting the extension of navi- gation on the Kankakee toward the state line. For a while after the building of the Chicago, Danville & Vincennes railroad the question of improving the Iroquois river was generally thought to be forever quieted, but in the winter of 1879-80 the agitation was again revived, and the attention of Hon. G. L. Fort, representative from the eighth congressional district, was invited to the subject with a view to bringing it before congress ; and petitions were cir- culated asking an appropriation for the work. In 1878 Mr. Fort introduced a bill in congress appropriating $50,000 for the survey and improvement of the Kankakee, but the amount was reduced to $10,000, with which an examination was made. In 1879 there was an appropriation of $28,000, and in the fall the river was again sur- veyed from Wilmington to a point one mile and a half above Momence, under the direction of Maj. Jared A. Smith, of the United States engineer corps.
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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.
In 1851 an attempt was made to form the county of Kankakee from Will and Iroquois. A law was enacted defining the boundaries and establishing the new county, subject to a vote of the people of the two counties to be affected, which was to be taken at a special election on the first Tuesday in April. The vote in Iroquois county stood 192 for and 554 against the proposition. More than three- fourthis of the minority vote was polled in Limestone and Polk pre- cincts, which were situated on the Kankakee river. The attempt was renewed in the fall of 1852, when petitions were again circulated and signed, and on the assembling of the legislature they were laid before that body. The law relating to the formation of new counties required notice by advertisement and otherwise before the general assembly should act upon the petition, which notice it was charged had never been legally given. It further required that the lines of division or curtailment should be particularly described in the peti- tion. The proposed new county, with the metes and bounds set forth in the petition not meeting with favor among the members of the legislature, the southern boundary was changed in the petition and fixed on a line farther north. A law was enacted February 11, 1853, establishing the county of Kankakee with the amended boundaries, provided that a majority of the voters of each of the counties of Will and Iroquois voting on the question should vote in favor of the meas- ure. William Parish and James Lamb, of Iroquois county, were designated as commissioners to receive the return of the votes of their county. A special election was held on Tuesday, April 5; 1853. At the time of the election the Illinois Central railroad was in course of construction, and a great force of laborers were employed at that point in excavating and quarrying. This floating population was used at the polls in Limestone precinct, voting in phalanx for the new county. It was charged that irregularities were committed in the organization of the election board. In 1851 this precinct had cast 65 votes for the new county, and 27 against it, making a total of 92, which was said to be, and probably was, the full strength. At this election there were 360 votes polled, and all in favor of the proposed county. When the poll-lists were returned it was found that the judges and clerks had made no certificate. In consequence of the invalidity the return was thrown out by the canvassers, when the vote in the county stood 367 against, to 290 for, the new county. George W. Byrns, justice of the peace, who returned the poll-book and was chosen to assist in the canvass, refused to sign the certificate declaring the result. It was proposed by Byrns and others to procure a writ of inandamus to compel the board to accept the return, whereupon
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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.
Judge Chamberlain and the associate justice, William Pierce, sued out an injunction restraining the county clerk, Amos O. Whiteman, from making returns of the election, and the commissioners from receiving them. The regular April term of the circuit court should have begun on the 26th, when the case would have come up for hear- ing ; but the judge, Hon. Hugh Henderson, did not arrive, and so ordered a special term for July. May 9 was the time fixed by law for the election in Kankakee county to locate the seat of justice and elect officers, in case that the county should be established by the votes of the people. A. O. Whiteman, writing on this subject, says : " After the issue and service of the injunction, Orson Beebee (afterward judge of Kankakee county), Dr. Lyons, S. S. Vale, and several others, leading men of Momence and vicinity, came to Middle- port and examined all the poll-lists of said election (including what purported to be a poll-book from Limestone precinct), and after due deliberation and legal advice from J. A. Whiteman, S. A. Washing- ton, and others of the Iroquois county bar, were of the opinion that all would be right if they should proceed to organize the county of Kankakee." He further adds: "In May, a deputation consisting of Hon. William Pierce, Hon. Joseph Thomas and others whom I do not now remember, visited Springfield for the purpose of an in- terview with the attorney-general, Governor Joel A. Matteson, and Hon. T. H. Campbell, secretary of state, the result of which I do not know." The election was held on the day mentioned, and Kankakee county was fully organized. Taking into consideration all the circumstances, and the excitement having cooled off, the com- plainants thought it best to dismiss the injunction, which was accord- ingly done on their motion. Through the informal proceedings described, a part of Iroquois county was detached and Kankakee finally established ; and the people of the latter only narrowly suc- ceeding had been obliged to forego the attempt to get a larger strip of territory. It had always been a favorite object with that county to get the remainder of township 29, and in 1867 an act was procured attaching it to Kankakee, if a majority of the voters of each county should consent. Accordingly an election was held May 14, 1867, at which the result in Iroquois county was 513 votes for annexation, and 1,095 against, thus defeating the scheme.
" The first efforts seriously made to construct railroads "* in the state of Illinois, was in the winter of 1832-3, when the legislature passed several charters to incorporate companies. The one for the
*Ford's History of Illinois. p. 166.
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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.
Central railroad, which was to extend from Peru to Cairo, was granted to Darius B. Holbrooke, a friend and partner of Judge Sid- hey Breese, by which latter gentleman this undertaking was first brought, through a newspaper publication, into public notice. No stock was taken in this company, and at the session of the legisla- ure of 1836-7 that body inaugurated a system of internal improve- nents, which was made to include the Illinois Central railroad, the whole to be under the control and at the expense of the state. Mr. Holbrooke's charter was, consequently, repealed. Over a million dollars were spent on this single improvement when the financial revulsion of 1837 came on and bankrupted the state, and forced an abandonment of all these works. Mr. Holbrooke asked and obtained a renewal of his charter, by which was granted to him and his asso- ciates all the work that had been done on the line, provided that he should build the road. Judge Breese, then a senator of the United States, from Illinois, brought forward a bill from the committee of the public lands of the senate, conferring exclusive preemption privi- leges on Holbrooke to all the lands on each side of the road at $1.25 per acre, for a period of ten years. Mr. Douglas denounced it as a gigantic scheme for speculation, and demonstrated that it would be injurious to the interest of the state. He then introduced in the senate the bill, which finally passed, granting to the state every alternate section within six miles of the road on each side of the main track and branches, designated by even numbers, to aid in its construction from the southern terminus of the Illinois and Mich- igan canal to Cairo, with a branch to Chicago, and another via Galena to a point on the Mississippi river opposite Dubuque, Iowa. For any lands embraced in this donation which might have been sold or preempted, the company was entitled to receive an equal amount to be selected from the public lands within fifteen miles on either side of the line by agents to be appointed by the governor. The lands reserved by the government within the six-mile limits were not to be sold for less than double the minimum price of the public lands. The road was to be commenced simultaneously at both extremities of the main line, and continued therefrom until completed ; and if not completed within ten years the grant should be forfeited. The inside history of this bill in detail, as related by Mr. Douglas himself, in a small work on constitutional and party questions, to which we are indebted for some of our facts, is of no little interest ; but we can refer only to a single incident. When introduced in congress it met with sufficient opposition in the house to defeat it by two votes, which proved in the end, and to the great
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