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 40
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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.
satisfaction of all parties, with a single exception perhaps, a fortu- nate circumstance, owing to a certain fraudulent proceeding, prob- ably of some engrossing clerk of the Illinois legislature, acting in the interest of Holbrooke, which transaction was discovered and exposed by Mr. Douglas himself. He then procured from Hol- brooke a release of his charter for the road, which the recent discov- ery had shown to be necessary, and had it recorded in the office of the secretary of state at Springfield. The bill had received the opposition of the delegations from Alabama and Mississippi, and he felt that their cooperation was necessary. The Mobile railroad was then building, but had failed for want of means, and Mr. Douglas went to Alabama and held a conference with the president and directors, proposing to obtain for them a grant of lands by making it a part of his bill. This was readily accepted, and he quietly departed for Washington, desirous of not being seen in those parts, lest his influence upon the action of the legislatures of Alabama and Mississippi should be revealed to the senators and representatives in congress from those states. Before he left it had been arranged for the directors to procure from those legislatures instructions to their congressional delegations to support the bill. When the instruc- tions reached them at Washington they were bewildered and in no good humor. It was amusing to Douglas when they came to him for his assistance. Concealing his secret gratification, and assuming an attitude of independence toward them till he could seem to yield, he at length consented to a proposition to amend his bill so as to make a grant to each of the states of Alabama and Mississippi, in the same manner as it did to Illinois. It then became a law, Sep- tember 20, 1850. It had been ably advocated in the house by the representative from this district, the Hon. John Wentworth. This explains how the two southern states came to be included ; as it also revives the memory of the fact that Mr. Douglas was the author and master-spirit of the measure. In 1859, he said : " If any man ever passed a bill, I did that one. I did the whole work, and was de- voted to it for two entire years. The people of Illinois are begin- ning to forget it. It is said Douglas never made a speech upon it." And again : "The Illinois bill was the pioneer bill, and went through without a dollar, pure, uncorrupt, and is the only one that has worked well." * The grant was accepted, and on February 10, 1851, the act passed by the Illinois legislature incorporating the Central company was approved by the governor and became a law.
* "Constitutional and Party Questions," p. 199.
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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.
The incorporators were Robert Schuyler, George Griswold, Gouver- neur Morris, Franklin Haven, David A. Neal, Robert Rantoul, Jr., Jonathan Sturgis, George W. Ludlow, John F. A. Sanford, Henry Grinnell, Leroy Wiley, Joseph W. Alsop, and William H. Aspin- wall. These gentlemen, exclusive of the one last named, were the first board of directors. The interest of the state was protected by appropriate guarantees that the road would be built, and the com- pletion of the main line limited to four years. Near the close of this period the time was, without necessity, extended six months. The branches were to be finished in six years. All the work that had been done on this line by the state, and all the rights of every nature which it had acquired, were transferred to this company by its charter. The lands granted were to be exempt from taxation till sold and conveyed. It was afterward claimed that this provi- sion of the law was retarding the development of the country wher- ever these lands were situated, as purchasers, instead of paying for their tracts and getting deeds from the company, kept renewing their contracts, thus evading taxation, and in 1873 a law was enacted requiring the trustees of the road to offer all unsold lands at public auction once every six months. The lands of this company were sold at prices ranging from $5 to $25 per acre, according to quality and location. The sale of lands within the six and fifteen-mile limits of the road was suspended by the commissioner of the general land office, September 20, 1850, by order of President Fillmore. Those granted to the Central Railroad Company were selected by David A. Neal, assisted some of the time by Col. R. B. Mason, the chief engineer, and the whole grant, save an inconsiderable amount, was certified, March 13, 1852; and the remainder of the lands within the railroad limits, which had been withdrawn from sale, were soon after placed in market by executive proclamation. In return for the grants and franchises conferred, the company was required to pay semi-annually into the state treasury, on the first Mondays of June and December of each year, a sum of money equal to seven per cent of the gross proceeds of the road, which revenue was to be applied to the payment of the interest-bearing indebtedness of the state until it should be extin- guished. The constitution of 1870 makes this a perpetual obliga- tion, and provides that after the extinction of the state debt the rev- enue from this source shall be used to defray the ordinary expenses of the state government. The amount of this revenue to the state of Illinois has been, to the end of 1879, over $8,000,000.
At the time the first annual meeting of the company was held - .
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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.
March, 1851 - there were but ninety-eight miles of railroad in the state, and this was laid with strap iron. The first engineering party was organized in Chicago, on May 21, 1851, and commenced pre- liminary surveys of the Chicago branch, making that city a point of departure, and by the middle of summer seven other parties had been organized and were in the field : at Freeport, La Salle, Blooming- ton, Decatur, Cairo and Urbana ; and the whole line was surveyed and located before the end of the year. The work of construction was begun at Cairo and La Salle about Christmas. The first con- tract for grading was made March 15, 1852, for the division between Chicago and Calumet, and that section was opened for travel by the middle of May. A long contest ensued with the city of Chicago for the privilege of entering the corporation and locating its line along the shore of Lake Michigan ; and at last, on June 14, the city coun- cil passed an ordinance granting permission. On May 15, 1853, the first sixty miles, from La Salle to Bloomington, was opened, and the company commenced operating the road on its own account. In March the Chicago branch was extended to Blue Island. from which point a line of stages were run by Chipman and Wilcox to Middle- port and Danville, furnishing the only regular communication which the county then had with the metropolis. The railroad was rapidly extended during the year, and just at its close was finished to Del Rey, which point the cars reached but little in advance of the new year. The company designed building machine-shops there, but land could not be obtained on liberal terms, and so they erected them at Champaign. We subjoin the following facts relating to the completion of the Chicago branch, which were first published in the Chicago "Daily Press," of November, 1856 :
" Dates of opening by sections : Chicago to Calumet, 14 miles, May 15, 1852. Calumet to Kankakee, 42 miles, July 14, 1853. Kan- kakee to Spring Creek, 31 miles, December 2, 1853. Spring Creek to Pera, 22 miles, May 28, 1854. Pera to Urbana (Champaign), 20 miles, July 24, 1854. Urbana to Mattoon, 44 miles, June 25, 1855. Mattoon to Centralia, 77 miles, September 27, 1856. The main line, from Cairo to La Salle, 309 miles in length, was finished January 8, 1855. The Galena branch, from La Salle to Dunleith, 147 miles, was completed June 12, 1855." The total cost of the entire line was $36,500,000. The capital stock of the company is $29,000,000, and the debt $10,500,000. The general offices are .at No. 78 Michigan avenue, Chicago. This road, by its network of branches and by its connections, furnishes direct communication with both the south and the northwest. Daily passenger trains are run between Chicago and
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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.
New Orleans, 915 miles, without change of cars, a transfer boat being used on the Ohio. St. Louis has, by this route, direct connec- tion south as well as north. Between Chicago and St. Louis through trains are run, and Peoria and Keokuk also are reached without change. From Cairo connections are made with all principal points in the south. The company controls, by lease, the route to Sioux City, thus providing for Dakota travel and emigration. This is one of the best and most safely managed roads in the country. No other public improvement in Iroquois county has done so much for the material and intellectual advancement of her people as the Illi- nois Central railroad. It was opened at a time when attention began to be largely awakened in the east to the subject of making western homes, and the rich country is brought into communication with the world, invited great numbers of settlers from the sterile lands and jostling population of New York and New England. The uniting of eastern culture with western sinew has produced most positive and important benefits to the county.
The Peoria & Oquawka Eastern Extension railroad was constructed east from Peoria. In 1859 it was styled Logansport, Peoria & Bur- lington, a few years later Toledo, Peoria & Warsaw, which name it retained until the transfer early in the present year, when it was changed to Toledo, Peoria & Western. The charter from the state bore date February 12, 1849, and has been several times amended. This important railway was built and put in operation in sections at considerable intervals, and its present line and connecting branches were not completed until 1871. The main line itself was not finished between Peoria and Warsaw but a little earlier. The citizens of this county early displayed a practical interest in the undertaking, by voting, under the law of 1849 providing for a general systemn of railroad incorporations, to take $50,000 of stock in the road. The election was held June 7, 1853, and the question was decided by a majority of 357. Prior to this the individual subscriptions taken in the county had reached the same amount. As soon as the result of the election was known, the county court being required to pay five per cent of the stock in money or in bonds, issued a bond for $2,500. The same per cent was also collected on the private sub- scriptions.
Col. Richard P. Morgan obtained the contract for grading and furnishing with ties all that portion of the eastern extension located between the Chicago & Mississippi (now Chicago, Alton & St. Louis) railroad and the town of Middleport. By this contract, made in September, 1854, the company assigned to him all the proceeds of
364
HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.
subscriptions obtained, or to be obtained, in Iroquois county. He then entered into a contract, bearing date November 13, 1854, with the county court, by which he was to receive 75,000 acres of swamp lands at seventy-five cents per acre. When the stock was voted it was generally understood that it was to be paid for from the proceeds of these lands. Morgan bound himself to procure from the railroad company certificates of the full paid shares of stock, to be transferred or issued to the county, to the amount of the estimates by the com- pany's engineers from time to time, and as such estimates should be presented the county court was to pay to Morgan an amount equal to the par value of the stock so presented, in cash, or by a deed or a bond for a deed, to such a part of the said 75,000 acres of swamp lands as should at that time be unsold. Seventy thousand acres of these lands were set apart, commencing at township 24, range 10 east, and proceeding north by succession of numbers in each range successively until the complement should be obtained, and the other five thousand were to be those which might be selected in any part of the county by the citizens who should bid them off at public auc- tion, at a price exceeding seventy-five cents per acre. The selection was to include all lands of this description entered at the land office, and Morgan was to receive the proceeds of the same. He was also to be entitled to all receipts from the sales of swamp lands by the county, provided that he should expend the money accruing from the sale of the 75,000 acres on the railroad within the limits of this county. The court also agreed to convey to him all the remaining swamp lands after the sale of the 75,000 acres, at $1 per acre, when- ever he should give satisfactory evidence that he could command from the sale of the residue means sufficient, by the addition of such securities as should be due from the company, to complete his contract. He was to pay for these lands with bonds of the Peoria & Oquawka Railroad Company, secured by mortgage on a portion of the road, to which bonds he would be entitled under his contract with that company .. Morgan further stipulated that he would en- gineer and drain the lands free of charge before demanding a title, and also tliat all previous expenses in surveys or otherwise, made according to law, should be provided for from the proceeds of the lands. He was to receive the $2,500 bond which had been issued to the railroad company, and the lands purchased by him were to be exempt from county taxes for three years from the date of this con- tract. Owing to a feeling among capitalists that the title to these lands was uncertain, Morgan failed to obtain means to prosecute the work, and as he could not get money or land from the county only
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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.
as that should be completed in sections and estimates made of the same, a lock was soon produced, leaving neither party capable of exercising separate power over the lands. The demand for them seemed to increase when it became known that they could not be sold. Settlers on adjoining tracts, as fast as they could accumulate means, were anxious to add some portion of these lands to their farms. The jobbers and speculators grew disquiet, for once a pro- pitious circumstance, for their interest and discontent were sure to break the land embargo, if that were possible. Col. Morgan, self- willed and impracticable, meanwhile refused to give any satisfactory assurance of his willingness to accede to an accommodation. Influ- ential persons suggested to him the expedient of making a new contract with the county. Among these were Joseph Thomas and George B. Joiner. The latter finding him on an occasion in the right humor, pressed the matter upon his favorable notice, and the consequence was, that on the 18th of August, 1855, Col. Morgan surrendered his contract, and a new one was made. The county court covenanted with Morgan to pay the monthly installments on the $50,000 subscription in cash, or in county bonds drawing seven per cent semi-annual interest, principal to be paid in fifteen years, with a guaranty on the back of the bonds pledging the proceeds of the swamp lands for their payment. A reservation was made, by which the county was to retain a sum sufficient to defray all the expenses of the survey and selection, as well as the expense of quiet- ing the contests of the title of the county to the lands. It was fur- ther agreed that the county should take steps to bring them imme- diately into market, and to pay Morgan the installınents on the county subscription, either from the proceeds or withi bonds, when he should procure from the Peoria & Oquawka company certificates of paid-up stock to the amount of the installments.
The court gave immediate public notice, through the columns of the "Middleport Press," to all who wished to purchase any of the swamp lands to make application to the county clerk by the 15th of September, and Monday, October 15, was set for the sale to coinmence. A second sale was held on May 6, 1856; these were the only public sales of swamp lands in Iroquois county. Up to this date the county court, which was vested by the special act of February 14, 1855, with power to appoint an engineer to survey the lands, had made no move in the matter, but on September 15, at a special term, they appointed Elkanah Doolittle, who subscribed the proper oath, and then nominated as his assistants, Robert Nil- son, Benjamin F. Masters, George B. Joiner and Joseph Thomas,
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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.
who were confirmed by the court. The lands were examined and classified as first, second and third class, and appraised at $1.25, $1 and 75 cents per acre respectively. It will be necessary now to go back and trace up the history of the swamp land grant. By the provisions of an act of congress approved September 28, 1850, entitled " An act to enable the state of Arkansas and other states to reclaim the swamp lands within their limits," all the swamp and overflowed lands in the several states, unfit for cultivation at the date of the act, were granted to the states respectively. Every legal subdivision of land, the greater part of which was "wet and unfit for cultivation," was to be considered of this class. The reader's attention is invited to the condition upon which the cession was made, as expressed in the act, by which the title to these lands in fee-simple, vested in the state, viz: "That the proceeds of said lands, whether from sale or by direct appropriation in kind, should be applied exclusively, as far as necessary, to the purpose of reclaim- ing said lands by means of the levees and drains aforesaid." The legislature of Illinois, by an act in force June 22, 1852, granted to each county all the lands of this description within its boundaries so donated by the general government, and annexed the same condition as congress had before, " For the purpose of constructing the neces- sary levees and drains to reclaim the same; and the balance of said lands, if any there be, after the same are reclaimed as aforesaid, shall be distributed in each county, equally, among the townships thereof, for the purposes of education ; or the same may be applied to the construction of roads and bridges, or to such other purposes as may be deemed expedient by the courts or county judge herein- after mentioned desiring so to apply it." The control and disposi- tion of these lands was vested in the county courts. By an act approved March 4, 1854, the control was changed to the board of supervisors in counties under township organization. All swamp tracts whichi had been sold by the government after the passage of this act of the general assembly, were to be conveyed by the county in which they were situated to the purchaser, who was to assign all his rights in the premises, and as such assignee the county was authorized to receive the purchase-money from the United States. Likewise, any which had been located by warrants after the passage of the act of congress were to be conveyed by the county, when the locator was to assign the warrant to the county judge, who was then to be regarded as the assignee of the state, and as such was em- powered to locate the same on any of the public lands. In case that any had been appropriated in any other manner after the dona-
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tion to the state, the county was authorized to locate a like quantity elsewhere.
The grant to the state for the building of the Illinois Central railroad was made September 20, 1850, eight days anterior to the passage of the swamp land act. By a ruling of the secretary of the interior in 1855, which is held to be binding on his successors, the state has been deprived of the swamp lands lying within the six-mile limit of that thoroughfare, the title to which remained in the United States.
" The history of the operations under the grant, however, reveal the fact that in the years of land speculation immediately following its passage, many of the lands conveyed by the grant were entered with cash or located with warrants by individuals. As a result of this, contests arose as to the actual character of the lands thus dis- posed of, and the land bureau found itself overwhelmed with con- flicting claims of this description. The process of adjusting these conflicts was necessarily slow, and congress intervened to relieve the department and at the same time relieve the individual purchasers and locators. By act of March 2, 1855, all sales and locations made to that date were confirmed, and upon presentation of proof that the lands were actually swamp, the state was allowed indemnity, to be paid in cash where cash had been received, and in other lands where the swamp lands had been taken by warrant locations. Now it cannot be gainsaid, in view of the strong array of judicial decis- ions on the subject, that had the state of Illinois chosen to contest the right of the government to thus dispose of lands previously granted to her, she could have successfully done so. The moment the swamp grant was approved, the title to the lands vested in the state, and were as much beyond the power of the government to again dispose of them as if it had never owned them. In a spirit of accommodation, however, and to afford relief to many of her citi- zens who had ignorantly purchased these lands, the state of Illinois acquiesced in the plan of relief embodied in the act of 1855, and agreed to relinquish her claim to the land, and accepted the proffered indemnity."*
From these complications have arisen a mass of claims which are yet unadjusted, though legislation is now pending in congress for their settlement, the importance and magnitude of which claims will appear farther on.
* Report of Isaac R. Hitt, state agent of Illinois for the adjustment of swamp land claims against the United States, p. 8.
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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.
The general law of 1852, granting the lands to the counties in which situated, was not-adopting Judge Chamberlain's own lan- guage-satisfactory either to Col. Morgan or to the county court, as it did not authorize or justify the application of the lands to the pay- ment of bonds used in constructing that part of the railroad lying without and beyond the limits of the county. Before, then, the avails of the lands could be pledged to the payment or security of the bonds, the proceeds of which were to be expended as well on that part of the Eastern Extension lying without as within the county, the law had to be changed. It therefore became expedient, if not necessary, to procure a special act applicable to this new state of things. Other counties had set the example of getting special acts from the state to suit existing emergencies, and advance certain objects. Judge Chamberlain and Col. Morgan attended the legisla- ture and obtained the passage of a law, entitled "An act to expedite and insure the thorough drainage of the swamp lands of Iroquois county, and to facilitate the sale thereof," in force February 14, 1855. This act is so important to a full understanding of the sub- ject that we shall be justified in giving a synopsis of the principal portions. The county court of Iroquois county was authorized to appoint an engineer, with assistants, to survey the swamp lands, who should recommend to the court an effectual and thoroughi system of drainage, and make such rules, regulations and compensations as would insure the draining of the lands. From the maps and reports of the engineer the court was to place a valuation on each piece, and to fix the price to be allowed for drainage; the judge was empow- ered to sell the same at public or private sale under the direction of the county court, either in large or small tracts. But those contigu- ous to improved farms were to be sold at public vendue after thirty- days notice in some newspaper in the county, at prices not below the appraised value. The surplus arising from the sales over and above the cost of drainage, was to be applied by the county court in payment for the capital stock of the Peoria & Oquawka Railroad Company on that part of the Eastern Extension situated between Middleport and the Chicago & Mississippi railroad ; also in payment of such other securities of that company as the court might deem expedient ; and to appropriate such portions thereof to school and other purposes as they might think advisable. Payments by pur- chasers were to be made to the county treasurer, in cash, or such securities as the court should deem sufficient, on the day of sale or the succeeding day, the cost of drainage first to be deducted there- from. A certificate was to be given for lands sold subject to drain-
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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.
age, and whenever the drainage should be completed in conformity with the system which the county court should adopt, deeds were to be executed. The balance due for draining each tract might remain unpaid by the purchaser for eight months after the day of sale ; but if the estimated cost should not be paid, or if the labor of draining should not be performed within that time, the land should revert, and the money advanced should be forfeited to the county. Authority was given to receive for all the swamp lands, any money, scrip, war- rant or other evidence of entry which should be issued by congress to the state of Illinois, the same to be subject to the order of the county court. Iroquois county was. exempted from all the provi- sions of the general laws enacted to fix the mode of draining and selling the swamp lands which conflicted with this act.
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