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 47

Author: Beckwith, H. W. (Hiram Williams), 1833-1903
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago : H.H. Hill and Co.
Number of Pages: 1180

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 47

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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.

shown, as it also was upon other portions of the route, and there has not been, and never can be so long as the people shall adhere to and exercise their right of control over corporations, any cause to regret that they gave it encouragement.

The officials of this company have set a commendable example in listening and making reasonable concessions to the demands of their patrons. The road was originally bonded for $5,000,000, but by the shrinkage of values in the past few years it has sustained some decrease in like manner as other species of property. In 1874 the company failed, and the business passed into the hands of a receiver, in the per- son of Gen. A. Anderson, and so continued until April 17, 1877, when the road was bought by a new corporation for $1,450,000, and the name changed to Chicago & Eastern Illinois. The machine shops are located at Danville, and the general offices are at 123 Dearborn street, Chicago. The chief officials are, F. W. Huidekoper, of Meadville, Pennsylvania, president ; O. S. Lyford, superintendent ; A. S. Dunham, general pas- senger agent, and Robert Forsythe, general freight agent. Mr. Dunham has been connected with the road ever since the formation of the first company. This is known as the "Danville route," and furnishes the best communication over the safest connections and through the finest and most picturesque scenery to the far-famed everglades, the land of the sun - Florida.

BOUNTY ORDERS AND COUNTY BONDS.

We had purposed to give a full account of the vast outpouring of treasure during the war, but being now on the "ragged edge " of "the last days" granted us by the patient and indulgent publishers, we must omit it, having no doubt that as we have dealt so much with figures, this compulsion will draw from the reader a sigh of relief. Iroquois county did her whole duty in the late war, with money as well as with men. She spent large sums in the support of volunteers' families ; she paid recruiting officers liberally ; and slie voted more than $135,000 in bounties to soldiers. All honor to her powder-burned sons ! All praise to the true hearts at home ! On February 15, 1870, the last bounty orders fell due. The amount at that time, less the bounty fund in the treasury, was $51,926.41. An act had been pro- cured in 1869 authorizing the county to issue bonds not exceeding $50.000 to refund this interest-bearing debt. At the annual meeting in September, 1869, Jolın A. Koplin, A. J. Alexander and F. J. Sears were appointed to negotiate the loan. They effected the sale of the bonds to George C. Tallman at ninety cents on the dollar. These were payable February 15, 1875. The bonded indebtedness now amounted

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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.

to $66,000. It has been shown that, by an error in the record, the board were led a few years later to suppose that the railroad bonds would become due July 1, 1875. This body gave timely attention to the maturing liability, and at the November election in 1874 sub- mitted to the people the question of replacing the old with a new issue. This was authorized by a large majority. At the December meeting Mr. Alexander presented a plan for an issue to accomplish the gradual extinction of this debt. He had taken the principal interest in the refunding, and was unanimously selected as one of a committee of three, the other members of which he, as chairman of the board, was to appoint, whose duty it should be, after causing the bonds to be prepared, to negotiate them to the best advantage. About the begin- ning of the year they placed the entire issue with D. K. Pearsons & . Co., of Chicago, at par in New York exchange. Judge Wood was employed to draft the bonds in approved form, and to attend to their lithographing. On February 15 the $50,000, with accrued interest of $5,000, became due, and was paid at the American Exchange Na- tional Bank, New York, and the remaining $11,000 was deposited in the First National Bank of Chicago. The time approaching when it was supposed that the railroad bonds would be due, a remittance was made to the Ninth National Bank of New York; but the time came and passed without presentation of the bonds. The existence of this error was first learned on addressing one of the holders. They refused to surrender them until due, and the committee withdrew the money and deposited it with the First National Bank of Watseka at six per cent interest. The committee declined all compensation for their valu- able services in making this loan, and received the unanimous thanks of the board for their successful labors. When the time for the pay- ment of the bonds was near at hand there was discovered one of those complications of circumstances which foresight sometimes cannot prevent, nor correct intentions remove. Before this juncture had been advanced, the statement that the township and county bonds, issued in aid of the Chicago, Danville & Vincennes railroad, were unconstitutional and void, and proceedings had been begun in the Iroquois circuit court to test their validity. Certain persons had also sought to buy the county railroad bonds at a speculation, and to advance this object would have alarmed the holders with information and threats of this nature, had the latter been susceptible to such influence. Mr. Alexander had not been returned by his town at the spring election, and as there had been no session of the new board he still retained his place on the commmittee, though he was in doubt as to his right to serve. The board would meet July 10, only ten days after maturity of the bonds,

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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.

and he decided not to act at that time. Mr. Hitchcock also preferred to await the action of the board ; but Mr. Secrest was in favor of tak- ing the responsibility of making payment, although many lawyers thought the bonds were illegal. When the supervisors convened they unanimously instructed the committee to surrender the certificate of deposit which they held, and the First National Bank of Watseka was directed to pay the bonds, which now amounted to $17,600. Immedi- ately the bank, the county clerk and the treasurer were enjoined not to make payment to the bondholders. The latter had official information that the money had been in abeyance a year for the purpose of settle- ment, and being thus assured that there was no thought of attempting to repudiate the obligation, the injunction failed of the anticipated effect. November 24, the injunction having been withdrawn, the bonds were paid, with interest, up to the time when they fell due, and indorsements of the sums made. The holders presented their claim of $706 for interest from July 1 to the date of payment, but uncertain action prevailed, indicating the quandary of the board, until the May term, 1878, when states attorney Harris was directed to commence proceedings for possession, and they were recovered and canceled.

Following is the outstanding bonded indebtedness of the county, showing the principal, and the amount falling due each year : 1880- principal, $6,000, amount, $11,200; 1881- principal, $7,000, amount, $11,600 ; 1882-principal, $8,000, amount, $11,900; 1883-principal, $9,000, amonnt, $12,100 ;. 1884-principal, $10,000, amount, $12,200 ; 1885 - principal, $12,000, amount, $13,200.

TOWNSHIP BOND CASES.

The later proceedings regarding the township bonds issned in aid of the Chicago, Danville & Vincennes railroad require some mention. Without going into details of the judicial proceedings in each case, it will be sufficient if we state that all of those towns having a debt incurred in aid of this road, except Fountain Creek and Pigeon Grove, enjoined further payment on their bonds between 1876 and 1878, excepting, also, as to time, the town of Concord. Stockland paid her bonds. The city of Watseka paid $4,500. Ash Grove compromised for fifty cents on the dollar, and paid the costs of the injunction. Fountain Creek and Pigeon Grove did not enjoin. Concord was the first to lead off in the attempt to establish the illegality of these bonds. In 1873 New Hampshire sued for the interest on twenty of the bonds which it held, and the case was tried before Judge Blodgett, and decided against the township. An appeal was taken to the United States supreme court, and heard at the October term, 1875, and in

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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.

May, 1876, the decision was rendered by Justice Strong, who pro- nounced the bonds void, on account of conflicting with the state con- stitution. This was the first case ever decided against the holders of railroad bonds. The Middleport suit was made a test case before the supreme court of this state, and the bonds were held to be null and void, for the principal reason that the act of 1867, under and by virtue of which the aid was voted, provided that the appropriation should be paid by taxation, and conferred no authority to issue bonds; and that the constitution has intervened to prevent the enlarging or changing of the obligations assumed prior to its adoption. Most of these towns have obtained perpetual injunctions, but the United States supreme court has recently decided that a decree rendered in a case where ser-

WOODLAND MILLS

vice is by publication, as it was in these cases, is not a bar to the recov- ery or collection by the defendant. It is not impossible, then, that they may be reopened. The obligation of these towns to pay their bonds is clear. If there are any exceptions they are in the cases of Concord and Sheldon. All voted aid for a single consideration - the building of the road. They have received it, and are deriving the benefits which a railroad gives, and will continue so to do. Taking advantage of irregularities, and the change of the organic law, they could not have directed a more effective blow at their honor and credit, if the purpose had been to tarnish the one or impair the other. The sober judgment and just convictions of men will stamp it as a viola- tion of faith in which there is naught to extenuate. It ought to serve as a lesson that all political issues which are made upon the validity of obligations, for which a consideration has been received, tend only to corrupt the popular conscience and undermine the foundations of pub- lic virtue.

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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.

CINCINNATI, LAFAYETTE AND CHICAGO RAILROAD.

The Illinois company of the Cincinnati, Lafayette & Chicago rail- road was organized in May, 1870, and the Indiana company a year later. The road was built in 1871 and 1872, and put into operation the latter year, at a cost of $3,778,216. Its length is seventy-five miles. Lafayette and Kankakee are the termini. By connecting the Indian- apolis, Cincinnati & Lafayette and the Illinois Central railroads it forms an important link in the through line from Cincinnati to Chi- cago. Wlien opened, this road took an advanced position in regard to tariffs, and its course toward its patrons has been so just and liberal, and its management so conscientious, that it has always enjoyed the good-will, and received the commendation of the business public.

GILMAN, CLINTON AND SPRINGFIELD RAILROAD.

The Gilman, Clinton & Springfield Railroad Company was char- tered in 1867. Two amendments to its charter were obtained before work was begun in 1870. It was put into operation in September, 1871. The road is one hundred and eleven and one-half miles long. It traverses one of the most fertile and highly cultivated portions of the state. The construction of this road was a gigantic speculation, and some of the practices connected with it partake so much of a darker nature that they might well be characterized by a different name. Like many others built about the same time, and by the same methods, it shortly went into bankruptcy. In November, 1873, F. E. Hinckley, of Chicago, was appointed receiver by the McLean county circuit court, and he kept possession of the road until August, 1875. Until June of the next year it was operated by the trustees of the first mortgage bonds. On the 10th of that month the property was sold by order of the Circuit Court of the United States for the southern district of Illinois, and afterward managed by George Bliss and Charles S. Sey- ton, trustees for the purchasers. The amount of the purchase was $1,500,000 in first mortgage bonds. It is now owned and controlled by the Illinois Central company. The general offices are in Springfield.

THE COUNTY POOR FARM.

The county poor farm was purchased about the beginning of the year 1857. It was an improved tract of 230 acres, 40 of which were woodland, and was obtained for $3,100. H. B. Coberly was the owner. For many years only a small rental was derived from the investment, and at length the supervisors looked witli so little favor on it that they would have sold the farm if they could have found a purchaser. For-

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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.

tunately they did not succeed in the endeavors made, and now the county has a well-managed and valuable asylum for this unhappy class of our humanity. Not having had time for a personal examination we extract from the Report of the Board of Public Charities a descrip- tion of the premises : "The farm needs underdraining. A good gar- den, five acres ; orchard of one hundred and fifty trees ; red barn across the road. There are two buildings : one frame, for the keeper and the female paupers; the other of brick, for male paupers and the insane. The house occupied by the keeper, built in 1871-2, contains sixteen rooms. The insane department was built in 1877. It is a brick struct- ure, 25×48 feet, two stories in height, with a cupola and a bell. The insane occupy the lower floor ; nine cells, seven feet wide and ten feet long ; brick partitions ; doors paneled, with iron rods across each panel ; wooden shutters to windows, the same; iron bedsteads, not fastened ; no privy seats; heated by furnace, and by a stove in the hall; the cor- ridor between the cells is used as a sitting-room by male paupers. This department is clean and quite comfortable ; the keeper's office is in the same hall. Thirty-seven pauper inmates were inspected, of whom eight were insane; eight children under ten years of age. Saw pauper children playing croquet in the yard. The keeper's contract extends over four years ; his salary is $600, and all bills are paid by the county. The premises are clean. and sufficiently well furnished, but the dining- room is too small. There is an artesian well in the yard."

Until the present manager was employed the custom had been to rent the place for cash, and pay the lessee a stipulated sum for the care of each pauper. A strict account is kept of everything raised, bought and sold - vegetables, cereals, merchandise, provisions, live stock ; amount of the latter slaughtered and consumed; quantity of work done and help employed ; prices paid, and extent and cost of improve- ments. Under the careful supervision of the committee of the board of supervisors annually appointed, and the able management of Mr. Cast, the present keeper, who reports to the committee, and they in turn to the board, this institution, which merits the fostering care it receives, has attained a high state of efficiency in providing for the unfortunate poor and afflicted. The keepers of this farm have been Samuel Porter, Thomas Mason, Joseph Moore, John Ash and Isaac Cast. The latter has been on the place since the spring of 1875.

THE LAKE SURVEY.

We are indebted to M. H. Messer, Esq., for the following concerning the lake survey: In 1879 the lake survey was extended from Lake Michigan near to the mouth of the Wabash river. For points of obser-

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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.

vation, four towers, eighty-five feet high, were erected in this county, one at Clifton, about one-third of a mile northwest of the depot; one about fifty rods southwest of J. R. Louden's dwelling, on Sec. 6, T. 25, R. 14 (Onarga township); one on section 11, in Crescent township, and the other on the N.E. ¿ of Sec. 35, T. 25, R. 12, in Milford township. The object of this work is to connect the lake survey with the Atlantic coast survey, which has been extended up the Mississippi river. It will be used to determine the length of an arc of a meridian for astronomical purposes, to determine the topography on the line, and for other scien- tific questions.

ABSTRACT OF VOTES IN THE COUNTY, PRESIDENTIAL YEARS.

Annexed is a statement of votes cast at presidential elections, show- ing the electoral strength of the county at the different times: In 1836 the democratic vote was 96, whig, 22; 1840, Van Buren, 175, Harrison, 154; 1844, Polk, 281, Clay, 204; 1848, John Wentworth, democratic candidate for congress, 333, J. Y. Scammon, whig, 267, Owen Lovejoy, abolitionist, 7; 1852, Pierce, 482, Scott, 387, Hale, abolitionist, 22 ; 1856, Fremont, 750, Buchanan, 460, Filmore, know-nothing, 108; 1860, Lincoln, 1,429, Douglas, 955, Breckenridge, 8; 1864, Lincoln, 1,777, McClellan, 843; 1868, Grant, 2,764, Seymour, 1,326; 1872, Grant, 3,081, Greeley, 1,761; 1876, Hayes, 3,768, Tilden, 2,578.

MICAJAH STANLEY'S ACCOUNT OF EARLY DAYS.

I came here in 1830, from the state of Ohio, Clinton county. We arrived here in the fall of 1830. In September we got to the Wabash river, and stopped three weeks on the Wee-haw Prairie. We found that country almost without inhabitants. There were some Indians and a few settlers, some six or eight families. We left there and set- tled near Milford, then Vermilion county, the same fall. We found here Samuel Rush, Robert Hill, Daniel Barbee, Jefferson Mounts, Hiram Miles and his father, and Joseph Cox. There were also two men named Singleton, two named Miller, and one named Reading, and also one negro, all living with the Indians, and left with them, and hence are not counted settlers. I came with my father's party, which consisted of my mother, Hannah Stanley ; my oldest brother, William Stanley, and his wife Judith; my second brother, John Stanley, and his wife Agnes ; iny youngest brother, Isaac, and two sisters, Rebecca and Elizabeth. With us came from Wee-haw William Pickerel, an old Quaker, who was the founder of Milford, having laid out the town. He built a mill, lience the name Milford. Pickerel was a remark-

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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.

able man ; he was a blacksmith, a miller and a farmer -jack of all trades and master of all arts ; as honest and industrious as the day was long.

That winter we witnessed the hardest I ever experienced in my life. We were destitute of almost everything. We came here with eight head of horses, fifteen head of cattle, and a flock of sheep; and we expected to get hay of the people that were here, but the fire had des- troyed it all. We had to haul our corn from the Wabash : we liauled what we expected would do us. In the early part of the winter, in December, a snow fell ten inches deep; that was increased through the winter until it became eighteen inches deep on the level, and then there came a rain and formed a crust on that. It created such a crust that a dog could run anywhere over it. The snow in places was drifted until it was six or seven feet. That fall we had plenty of wild turkeys, but the winter was so severe they all froze; and we had plenty of deer; the dogs and wolves killed a great many of them ; we could find plenty of deers' carcasses afterward. The deer were not all killed, and we soon had plenty of them again, but we had no more wild turkey after that.

In 1831 we liad a pretty liard time making a crop; with the rains we had, our streams were filled up very high, I may say tremendously higli. In the spring we commenced farming. We began to plow and break prairie, and put in ten acres that had been in cultivation in the spring before.

That fall (1830) Mr. Hubbard was living here at Bunkum, and had lris trading-house where Benjamin Fry lived. He moved that year to Danville, and opened a store. He employed mne and some other men to go to Chicago for goods. He engaged four teams. I took five yoke of oxen. We went a little too soon, and liad to stay there three weeks before the boat came in with the goods. At that time there was noth- ing between here and Chicago in the shape of a white family. We stayed all night at his trading-house, and the next morning we started for Chicago. We went up and crossed the Kankakee river where Robert Hill formerly kept hotel, above Momence. When we got there the river was bank full. We had to ride on the middle cattle and drive the head ones, and the water ran into our wagon-boxes. When we got to Chicago we found no goods there, so we had to stay three weeks before the schooner came in. Inside of old Fort Dearborn there were two or three persons doing business. Mr. Dole was there, and another gentleman was keeping a boarding-house there. Mark Beau- bien was up the river in a little one-story house, keeping “ tavern like hell," as he expressed it. Mr. Kinzie was up in the forks of the river,

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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.

and one of the Merricks lived at the old Merrick stand, near the pres- ent Douglas monument. There was a little dry land along the beach, and I do not blame Mr. Fry for taking the horse instead of the land that was offered him. We left Chicago, and in three days we got to the Calumet river. Sometimes we had to hitch ten yoke of oxen to one wagon to haul it through the quick-sand. We were between three and four weeks getting liome. We ran out of provisions on the way back, and Henry Hubbard met us at Beaver creek with a basket of provisions. When we got home we rested about three weeks, then took the goods on to Danville. This is my experience on that trip.

After that the country began to settle up a little more. After the Black Hawk war there were two settlements made. My father-in-law, John Moore, settled four miles southeast of Watseka, where some of the family still stay. About that time a report came to our settlement in the evening by the mail-carrier, who carried the mail from Danville to Chicago on horseback, that the Indians liad followed him until he got to the Iroquois river. He was all dirty and his horse was all dirty, and he was afraid to take his supper at the hotel ; and we had another assurance from some men that went out to Hickory creek to look at the country. They came riding in in the afternoon, and said the Indians had followed them all day and were close upon them. My mother was in the house, and the rest of us were in the field planting corn. We thought it all a farce. The rest of them went away, but I stayed until dark, and when I went through the settlement they were all gone except George Hinshaw, an old bachelor, who was living there. I found him, and when we went through that settlement we found the calves shut up in rail pens, and we tore the pens down and let them out. Such had been their haste that they left them in that condition. The next day we went to Parish's Grove, and I said to Hinshaw, " We had better go back; if the Indians had been so near they would have been here before this time." The greater part of the settlers stayed down on the Wabash until fall, so we almost lost that crop. This was in 1832.

I was in Bunkum in 1832. There had been a report of Indians scouting through the country. Mr. Vasseur and Benjamin Fry had been out to look after the matter. When I saw them their horses were dirty ; that was the first time I ever inet those gentlemen ; I have been acquainted with them ever since until the death of Mr. Fry.

In 1833, I think it was, we held an election for a justice of the peace in Vermilion territory ; there were two precincts; Milford was entitled to one and Bunkum to one; but we failed to know that we were ell- titled to two justices, so Bob Hill and Ike Courtright were the candi-

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HISTORY OF IROQUOIS COUNTY.

dates. There was a spirited contest between the rival candidates, Hill representing the Milford settlement and Courtright the Bunkum set- tlement. Each wanted the justice in his precinct; but the election was held at Bunkum, and this gave Courtright the advantage, and he beat Hill two or three votes. Courtright went to Danville and got his commission, and executed all the legal business for the whole of this county. But two years afterward Hill was elected, and he went to Danville after his commission, ånd, lo and behold, he was presented with one two years old, and might have had it when Courtright got his, as we were entitled to two justices all the time. I was not twenty- one when I came here, but was in the next February, so I was entitled to a vote, and that was the first time I ever voted in my life. Mr. Courtright made a very prominent justice of the peace. Mr. Hill was also a very prominent man. We had no need of justices then, only to take notice of the estrays. The first business I had was to take a notice of a steer, and I had Mr. Singleton come up as a witness to the marks on that brute.

WOODWORTH & MILLER'S BLOCK, MILFORD.

When the citizen came to our county then we met him, as we do to- day, with open arms and a hearty shake of the land. Then we would go eight and ten miles to help build a cabin. And you, my old friends who are here to-day, still have the same feeling as you did in the early days of the settlement. When a man came into the county, and we found he wanted to be a citizen, we turned out to help him build his cabin, because they were honest and true men, almost all of them. There were but very few men that partook of the intoxicating cup to excess. In 1835 I moved to the place where I now live. I located three miles from any other house. There were plenty of Indians, and they were as honest as any men I ever lived among. They would not suffer

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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 47

Author: Beckwith, H. W. (Hiram Williams), 1833-1903 Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Chicago : H.H. Hill and Co. Number of Pages: 1180

Author: Beckwith, H. W. (Hiram Williams), 1833-1903
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago : H.H. Hill and Co.
Number of Pages: 1180