USA > Illinois > Jackson County > History of Jackson County, Illinois : with illustrations descriptive of its scenery and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 22
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acts an important part in determining the temperature. A body of water becomes heated less rapidly than a land surface, when both are equally cx- posed to the sun's rays : and the water parts with its heat more slowly than the land, when both are cooling. The air over a hcated surface, tends up- wards, and its place is supplied by the air lying over the cooler surface. For this reason, there is a tendency in the air over the lake, to move towards the land in summer and autumn, and from the land to the lake in the winter and spring, which tend to reduce the inequalities of temperature, especially in places near the lake shore. A similar tendency is noted in the daily movement of the air from the lake in the afternoon and evening, and towards it in the early morning.
The absence of mountain barriers for long distances permits great varia- tions of temperaturc. At Chicago, the observed range is 132°. A persistent south-west wind, even in winter, diffuses over the State the temperature of a southern climate ; while in summer and autumn, a continued north wind or north-west wind, would bring cold.
The weather of Illinois is not so well understood as that of several other States. We ought to have a series of meteorological observations, made in cvery County ; and the County Agricultural Societies could not undertake a more useful task than that of making daily observations of the thermometer, barometer and rain gauge. It would add largely to our ability to forecast the weather, and with immense benefit to the farming community. The different educational institutions of the State would find it both interesting and useful to engage in the same labor."
MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN.
Illinois stands second to no State in the union among the lists of those that have contributed names illus- trious in history, statesmanship and glorious and patriotic achievements of military prowess won by undaunted courage on fields of bloody carnage.
Illinois, the home of the immortal Lincoln, during the dark and trying days of the Great Rebellion, furnished a brilliant galaxy of genius and pa- triotism and valor in the persons of inany of her distinguished sons whose names are to-day as "familiar as household words" in the history of our nation. Prominent among these is the name of Gen. John A. Logan, with a military record as brilliant and grand as that of any hero who ever unsheathed his sword in defence of his country during the war of the Great Rebellion. Jackson County, Illinois, feels a just pride in this her gallant son, distinguished alike upon the field of battle and in the solemn councils of the nation. Justice can- not be done by our feeble pen to this distinguished chieftain, and statesman of more than national fame, in the brief limits of our space in this work. It would require a large volume in- deed, to faithfully chronicle the biog- raphy, the public services and notable events in the life of this distinguished General and statesman. We can but give a very brief but truthful sketch of General Logan's history, compiled mainly from official records, leaving to others the delineation at length of the General's history, which, so varied and eventful, so marked and original, has imprinted itself upon the great public events of the last score of years so plain and legible, that he who runs may read. Ordinarily, few men of military prowess and practice, are equally gifted in qualities of statesmanship. But General Logan is a remarkable exception. Endowed with intellect of wonderful capacity and comprehension, with a logical
MAJOR-GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN.
BIRTH PLACE OF GEN! LOGAN.
RUINS OF THE OLD LOGAN HOUSE.
brain, fertile genius and most in- domitable will, he has ineffaceably in- scribed success upon his banner as well in the halls of Congress as upon the tented field. This fact is amply illustrated by his potent and com- manding influence as one of the most influential of political leaders for years in the Republican party, and as one of the most effective and in- defatigable speakers and workers for years in both the House and Senate of the United States Congress. Few lives are more eventful, more fruit- ful of interest, than that of Major- General John A. Logan, Ex-United States Senator from Illinois. He was
ary 9th, 1826. His father, Dr. John born in Jackson County, Ill., Febru- Logan, emigrated from Ireland to Illinois in 1823. His mother, Eliza- beth Jenkins Logan, was a native of Tennessee. For his earlier educa- tion, he was indebted mainly to the wise teachings of his father and the limited opportunities which the new
settlement afforded. Having im- proved these means, however, and thus laid a foundation for an educa- tion in his youthful days a matter alas, too often neglected by youths blessed with superior privileges, he afterwards became a student at tbe Louisville University, from which, in due course he graduated with honor. At the commencement of the Mexi- can war, young Logan, fired with pa- triotic fervor enlisted as a private among the Illinois volunteers. But his manly bearing, popular gifts and genial manners were such as to com- pel the respect of his fellow soldiers, who very soon chose him to be lieu- tenant in a company of the First Illi- nois Infantry. He early evinced by his faithful performance of duty as a soldier, the possession of those rare qualities befitting a military officer, which have so distinguished him in latter days. He was afterwards made adjutant of the same regiment. At the close of the war with Mexico, he returned home, when his mind natu-
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
rally turned to the law as a field in which its energy could have full scope. In the fall of 1848, he began his legal studies in the law office of his uncle, Alexander M. Jenkins, formerly Lieutenant Governor of Illinois. In No- vember, 1849, he was elected Clerk of Jackson County. He still pursued his legal studies, however, attended a course of Law lectures in Louisville, and having received his diploma, commenced the practice of his profession with his uncle.
Young Logan was immensely popular, genial and winning in his manners, which, with his acknowledged ability rapidly won him a high place in pub- lic favor. In 1852, he was elected Prosecuting Attorney of the Third Judi- cial District of his State, a position he held until 1857. In the fall of the year 1852, he was also chosen a member of the State Legislature, and was three times re-elected. In 1856, he was a Presidential elector. In 1858, he was elected by the Democrats as a representative in Congress, and re-elected in 1860. Up to that point, when it became evident that the South would precipitate a struggle and seek to overthrow the Union, Logan had been an uncompromising Democrat, and in the noted Presidential campaign of 1860, he most earnestly espoused the cause of Stephen A. Douglass, of whom he was a most devoted frieud and admirer. He strenuously advocated the election of Douglass. But as soon as the disunion purposes of the rebellious element were inanifest, Logan, grandly rising above party and politics in his love for the union, boldly avowed that in the event of Abraham Lincoln's election to the Presidency, that he would " shoulder his musket to have him inaugurated." This was no idle boast, but the deliberate expression of a pur- pose which was afterwards most nobly executed. While in the city of Wash- ington, in attendance upon a called session of Congress in 1861, in the month of July, he joined the troops of the union on their way to meet the enemy, and fought in the ranks at the disastrous battle of Bull Run and was of the last who left the field. He resigned his seat in Congress, feeling that his services were of more importance at that trying hour in the field. In the month of September, 1861, he entered the army as Colonel of the 31st regi- ment of Illinois Infantry. Previous to this, however, his influence in southern Illinois was almost unbounded in rallying trcops to the standard of the union. Unabated in his ardor and confidence in the cause of loyalty by the reverses of the Bull Run disaster, and fully realizing that the time for decisive action had come, he had immediately returned to Southern Illinois. He canvassed Southern Illinois, announcing his resolve to enter the service of his country, in defense of the old " blood-stained flag," and by his stirring speeches of pa- triotic eloquence, raised thousands of troops not only for his own regiment but for others, among them, for that of Col. U. S. Grant. Illinois' proud record for loyalty in that trying time when the issue hung trembling in the balance, may in no small part be attributed to General John A. Logan. Southern Illinois, it must be remembered, was at that time, almost entirely Democratic, and Logan having always been previously a devout Democrat, it was a matter of supreme importance to the State where his influence should be thrown. Like Stephen A. Douglass the great leader of the Northern De. mocracy, he espoused the cause of the Union, and carried with him Southern Illinois. His command first met the enemy at the battle of Belmont, where Col. Logan actively participating in the midst of danger had his horse shot from under him. In this engagement he led a bayonet charge breaking the enemies' lines and relieving a portion of Gen. M'Clernand's command which were being surrounded and threatened with capture by the enemy. He led his regiment in the attack upon Fort Henry. While leading his men in the
assault on Fort Donaldson, he was seriously wounded, which for a time disa- bled him from active service. As soon as possible, however, he reported himself again for duty to Gen. Grant at Pittsburg Landing, and participated prominently in that battle. Constantly and rapidly rising to prominence as a military chieftain, he was, in March, 1862, duly made a brigadier general of volunteers. He bore an important part in the movement against Corinth and was afterward put in command of Jackson, Tenn., with orders to guard the railroad communications. In 1862, Gen Logan was strongly urged by his enthusiastic friends and old constituents to represent them again in Con- gress as a representative at large, for the State. As illustrative of his genu- ine devotion to the cause of the Union and of the grand and almost sublime superiority of patriotism to partisanship which actuated his bosom in this critical period in our nation's history, we cannot do better than quote his glowing words of patriotism used in reply to the urgent importuuities at this time, for him to resume the seat he had resigned in Congress. Gen. Logan answered : "In reply I would most respectfully remind you, that a compli- ance with your request on my part, would be a departure from the settled resolution with which I resumed my sword in defense aud for the perpetuity of a Government, the like and blessings of which no other nation or age shall enjoy, if once suffered to be weakened or destroyed. Iu making this reply I feel that it is unnecessary to enlarge upon what were or are, or may hereafter be, my political views, but would simply state, that politics, of every grade and character whatsoever, are now iguored by mc, since I am convinced that the constitution and life of the Republic-which I shall never cease to adore -are in danger. I express all my views and politics when I assert my at- tachment for the Union. I have no other politics now, and consequently, no aspirations for civil place and power. Ambitious men, who have not a true love for their country at heart, may bring forth crude and bootless questions to agitate the pulse of our troubled nation and thwart the preservation of this Union ; but for none of such am I. I have entered the field to die, if need be, for this Government, and never expect to return to peaceful pursuits until the object of this war of preservation has become a fact established."
In Gen. Grant's Northern Mississippi campaign, General Logan com- manded the Third Division of the Seventeenth Army Corps under General McPherson, exhibiting skill and bravery so distinguished as to lead to his promotion to the rank of Major General, his commission bearing date Nov. 26th, 1862. He was prominently active in the movement on Vicksburg, the seven steam-boats which ran the batteries with supplies, being manned exclusively by men from his command, and of his own selection. He con- tributed largely to the victory at Port Gibson ; saving the day by his person- al valor at the battle of Raymond ; participated in the defeat of the rebels at Jackson, and was prominent in the battle of Champion Hills. General Grant in his report of the battle of Champion Hills says : "Logan rode up at this time and told me that if Hovey could make another dash at the enemy, he could come up from where he then was and capture the greater part of their force, which suggestions were acted upon and fully realized." At the siege of Vicksburg he commanded M'Pherson's centre and made the assault on the 25th of June. His column first entered Vicksburg ón its sur- render and he was made its military governor. The Seventeenth Army Corps, in admiration of the man, presented him a gold medal inscribed with the names of nine battles, in which he was eminently prominent and dis- tinguished. In November, 1863, he succeeded General Sherman in com- mand of the Fifteenth Army Corps, and during that winter had his head-
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
quarters at Huntsville, Allabama. He led the advance of the Army of the Tennessee in the movement at Resaca, and participated in the battle that ensued with Wood's division. At Dallas, on the 23d of May, he met and repulsed Hardee's veterans, and the next day was wounded by a shot through the left arm. At Kenesaw mountain he drove the enemy from his line of works. At Atlanta, after the fall of General M'Pherson, he succeeded that gallant officer in command of the Army of the Tennessee in that desperate battle. General Sherman, in his report, speaking of this event says : "Gen. Logan succeeded him and commanded the Army of the Tennessee through- out this desperate battle with the same success and ability that had charac- terized him in the command of a corps or a division." And in his letter to General Halleck, of Aug. 16th, General Sherman writes : " General Logan fought that battle out as required, unaided save by a small brigade sent by my orders." On the 28th of July, he fought the battle of Ezra Chapel, where, in the language of Sherman " he commanded in person, and that corps as heretofore reported, repulsed the rebel army completely." General Logan was efficieut in the remaining battles of the war with the same dis- tinguished success until after the fall of Atlanta, when his troops being ordered into camp for a respite, he went North and spent a few weeks in can- vassing the Western States during the Presidential Campaign of 1864. Afterward he rejoined Sherman's army at Savannah, Ga. From Savannah he marched through the Carolinas participating actively in the battle of Benton's Cross Roads on Mill Creek. After Johnston's surrender he marched with his veterans to Washington city and took part in the grand review of the victorious Union armies on the 23d of May, 1865. On the same day he was appointed to the command of the Army of the Tennessee. When active duty in the field was over and the war for the "preservation of the Union " had becoinc "an established fact," the event for which he had so ardently longed, he at once tendered his resignation, stating that he was unwilling to draw pay when not in active service.
General Logan was offered the position of Minister to Mexico in 1865, but declined the honor. He was elected a Representative at large to the Fortieth Congress and re-elected to the Forty-first Congress, in which he served as Chairman of the Committee on Military affairs, a position for which his great experience in military matters peculiarly fitted him. He was again re-elected to the Forty second Congress, but before taking his seat he was elected by the Legislature of the State of Illinois, as the successor of the Hon. Richard Yates, in the United States Senate. He entered upon the
duties of that high position March 4th, 1871. In January, 1868, a high mark of distinction was conferred upon Gen. Logan by the Grand Army of the Republic, in electing him to the high position of Commander-in-Chief of the order, and in May, 1869, and also in May, 1870, he was honored with re-election to the same position. Of General Logan's power and ability as a statesman, so brilliantly evinced by his record in both Houses of our National Congress, so well known to the whole country, it is almost superfluous for us to speak. He was a terror to his political enemies, of which every upright and influential statesman will have many, while he was a tower of strength to his party. His numerous speeches, both in the House and Senate of the United States, evince the most careful study, the most logical deductions of a wise statcsmanship, the most thorough analysis of the motives and the most biting invective and cutting ridicule of the ingenious sophistries and fallacies of his opponents' reasonings. Specious sophistry and plausible demagoguery receive no quarter, no mercy at his hands. At the same time gifted by nature with a commanding personal piercing eye and remarkable force and energy of expression, his impassioned and eloquent utterances fall from his lips with the force and power of the orator gifted by nature with a faculty to woo, convince and win the judgment of the hearer. In the winter of 1876 and 1877, after one of the most prolongod and violent contests that ever . characterized the Legislature of any Statc, he was defeated by the combined efforts of the Granger and Liberal and Democratic factions, the contest being embittered the more on account of his acknowledged power in the ranks of his own party.
Distinguished as he is, honored by the nation, he is yet in the vigor of his manliood, and it may well be remarked of him, as he remarked of Sheridan, Grant and Sherman, in a speech in the United States Senate, when defending them against the calumnies of their enemies. Hc said : "I say this in all kindness, because I am speaking what future history will bear me out in; when Sheridan, Grant and Sherman and others like them are forgotten in this country, you will have no country."
The name of John A. Logan shall live linked by his noble deeds with those of Grant and Sherman and Sheridan, and the noble list of giants, who, by their herculean efforts and undying loyalty, throttled treason and saved the nation. The Prairie State, as she calls the roll of the honored and revered names of Lincoln, Bissell, Grant, Yates, Oglesby and others, will not omit to pronounce with pride the name of her gallant and illustrious son, Maj. General John A. Logan.
ONE of the leading lawyers of Illinois, was born in Wilson Co., Tennes- see, June 9th, 1828. Second child of Hon. Willis Allen and Elizabeth Joiner, his wife. Willis Allen, a native of the same County and State, was descended from a hardy Irish ancestry. He married Elizabeth Joiner in 1824. She was of Welch origin, born in North Carolina, and came to Ten- nessee with her parents when an infant. Iu March, 1829, himself and wife emigrated to Illinois, and located about eight miles east of Marion, the County Town of Williamson Co. (then Franklin Co.). Here he followed agricultural pursuits until 1834, when he was elected Sheriff of Franklin County, and was re-elected in 1836. Elected to the lower house of the Legisla- ture in 1838. In 1840 was elected State's Attorney for the 3d Judicial Cir- cuit Southern Illinois, composed of sixteen counties. Re-elected" in 1842 ; and in 1844 elected State Senator, and was Presidential Elector on the Polk and Dallas ticket in the same year. Elected to Congress in 1850, and re- elected in 1852; and upon the formation of the 19th Judicial Circuit, he was elected Judge, and died at Harrisburg, Saline County, while holding court, April, 1859. William J. Allen, the subject of this sketch, furnishes one of the few instances of inherited mental ability. He entered life at a period and in a country where few, if any of his fellow-citizens, could say their hour- glass shifted its tranquil sands in the annexed silence of the student's cell- at a time when turned upon the dark and stormy tides of political passions, man wrestled with man in fierce conflict. He was for a time a student at a
boarding-school kept by B. G. Roots, near where Tamaroa now is, and many of his fellow-students have since attained enviable positions in life. He became a law student in 1846, instructed by his father, and attended the law term of the University of Louisville, in the winter of '47, '48. Upon quitting the University, he was admitted a member of the Bar, and selected . as his field for practice, Metropolis, Ill., at which place he remained five years. From there he removed to Marion, and practiced one year with his father. Was elected to the Legislature in 1854, and in 1855 was appointed U. S. Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, which position he filled creditably during the administrations of Presidents Pierce and Buchanan. In 1855 he became associated with Jno. A. Logan in a law co-partnership, which continued until 1859, when he was elected to fill the vacancy occa- sioned by the death of his father. In 1861 he was elected to Congress, in place of Logan, who resigned to join the Army, and in the same year elected a member of the convention to revise the Constitution of Illinois, in which he was chairman of the committee on Bill of Rights and a member of the Judi- ciary Committee. Was re-elected to Congress in 1862. He was also a mem- ber of the convention to revise the Constitution '69, '70. Was again made Chairman of the Bill of Rights, and reported the present bill to the Judiciary Committee. Was a Delegate to the Charleston convention in 1860, and at the convention at Baltimore was on the committee of Credentials as the Dele- gate from Illinois. At the New York convention in 1868, which nominated
HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
Seymour, he was the Illinois Delegate on Committee on Resolutions, and in 1876 was Chairman of the Illinois Delegation at St. Louis, and Elector at Large on the Tilden and Hendricks ticket. In the maturity of his manhood it was his good fortune to make the acquaintance of Annie Mckean, daugh- ter of Hugh Blair Mckean, one of the founders of Indianapolis. She was educated in Ohio, and with her sister came to Illinois, and settled in Wil- liamson County. It was here they met, and on Dec. 1, 1858, were married, and five children have been born to them. He has fought in the lists where giants in the law were opposed to him. In 1856, assisted by Logan, he pro- secuted Robt. Sloo for the murder of John E. Hall, Circuit Clerk of Gallatin County. Opposed to him were Leonard Sweat, Col. Thomas G. S. Davis, now of St. Louis, and Hou. John W. Cockrell, of Henderson, Ky. He was engaged in the celebrated case of the U. S. vs. Wright, for perjury arising under the Graduation Act, against Lincoln and Judge Logan. Was em. ployed by the Governor of the State in the prosecution of the Williamson County venditta for the murder of Henderson Spence and Sisney. Of the three implicated, one was hung, and the rest sent to the penitentiary.
The man whose history we are recording (if indeed that can be called his- tory which is written during the life of an individual) may be placed at the head of the State's nobility. If it is to his credit to have had noble ances- tors-he assuredly had a noble father-and it would be difficult even for himself to determine the influence which the father exerted upon the son-
we can say this, fortunate is the son who can claim such a father, and the father may well rejoice in the possession of such a son. His early success, whe- ther it be attributed to the influence of the father, or whether it was the out- growth of his own efforts, rapidly developed his powers; and while it may be said that the times were favorable to his projects, yet the devotion of an already extended life towards their accomplishment, suggests the inference that he would have been a successful and distinguished man in any epoch of the world's history. His domestic relations are characterized by the most intimate confidence and refined tenderness, indicating that he had from the beginning resolved that his children should ever find their father's absolute devotion of thought and feeling. We must infer from his general deport- ment that he was always impressed with the conviction that " fashionable life " was a compound of vice and folly. To politics, in the vulgar sense of the term, he has felt an honest repugnance He has large ideas of his duty to his country, and under any combination of circumstances would have been an ardent patriot. He is profoundly impressed with the importance of the great end to be gained by providing systems and means for the education of every child in our republic. Next to his domestic hearth, his whole being has been concentrated in his duty to his profession, and it may be fairly con- ceded that he has achieved distinction as a logical, as well as eloquent de- bater, a close and concise reasoner, and profound jurist.
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