USA > Illinois > Jefferson County > History of Jefferson County, Illinois, 1810-1962 > Part 10
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As the three railroad employees saw thein train disappear, in a seemingly futile gesture they started to nun along the track in pursuit. At lion's Station, two miles down the line, they borrowed a push can and set off down the long downhill grade. Two miles from Etowah the pushcan was derailed by a gap in the track where the fugi- tives apparently had removed two Lengths of nail. Fuller and his men quickly put the can back on the track beyond the gap and proceeded to Etowah. There the old Yonah, with a full head of steam, was standing on the spur. Fuller and his group boarded the Yonah and within minutes they and some six on eight Confederate soldiers were zooming down the track in a mist of rain. The fourteen miles to Kingston were covered in fifteen minutes, indeed a record for the thirteen-year- old engine. At Kingston, however, Fuller met with more frustration. The agent had been fooled into permitting Andrews and his boxcans full of Federal soldiers to pass through. After hearing the agent's story, Fuller, Murphy and the others abandoned the Yonah and uncoupled the Locomotive Smith from its passenger coach and again the chase was on. The going was slow, however. At intervals, the engineer had to stop so that crossties could be removed from the track, and after four miles the train had to give up the chase. Fuller and Murphy climbed down and started again on foot. The two men had covered per- haps three miles in the direction of Adairsville when they heard a southbound train. It stopped for them and Murphy explained what had happened. The engineer reversed the train on Murphy's ordens and continued down the main line in reverse -- the name of his locomotive was the Texas. The next nine miles were covered in twelve minutes. About two miles north of Calhoun, Fuller and Murphy sighted the General stopped and a group attempting to pry up a rail, A quick toot of the whistle from the Texas sent them scurrying back aboard the stolen train. Within seconds it had disappeared around a curve.
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Then the Texas rounded the curve, in its path was a boxcan rolling slowly toward it. Engineer Bracken slowed, coupled onto the boxcan, and proceeded with the chase. The Texas roared around a short curve onto a fill leading to the high wooden trestle approach to the bridge across the Ostanaula River, and there standing on the trestle was another boxcar. They coupled onto it and were on the move again. It Resaca, just beyond the Oostanaula, the two boxcars were quickly shunted to the siding, and the chase resumed. The General was headed forward, the Texas was running in reverse, and each hurtled down the track at more than a mile a minute along a stretch of railroad where the sale speed was listed at between sixteen and eighteen miles per hour. Aboard the General node twenty anmed men; aboard the Texas were five men and two boys, unarmed except for Anthony Murphy's rusty shotgun. He said later that he didn't even know whether or not it was Loaded.
For Andrews and his nineteen raiders, time was running out -- so were wood and water. Steam pressure began to drop at an alarming nate and the speed of the General slowed accordingly. The bearded man advised his men to leave the engine in small groups and try to make their way back to the Federal Lines in Tennessee. On the top of the grade two miles north of Ringgold the General gave one final gasp and rolled to a dead stop. In seconds the General was abandoned.
The daning "Andnews Raid" a feat that might have brought a quick end to the Civil War, had failed.
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HAROLD HOJARD CONTRIBUTES: "Some History of Business in Mt. Vernon and Jefferson County"
"Bright with the respendency of culture, throbbing with the life blood of industry and commerce which seeks only to find a more liberal and more widely extended expression is lit. Vennon, the com- mercial center of a great commonwealth, which numbers among its people the best and most progressive: a city of beauty embalmed in the heart of love of every Mt. Vernonian. Did some band wish to pro- nounce an apostrophe to the King City of Southern Illinois, here would he find his text. It is naturally one of the attractive cities of Illinois and upon it is stamped the signet of enterprise and public spirit.
"The sum of lit. Vernon's prosperity is but in its ascendency and still fan from the zenith. Enterprise is planning new forms of labor and new institutions of learning and charity. "
All this is taken from a publication of 1916 modestly en-
titled: "Greater Mt. Vernon. Opportunity's Gateway -- The King City." We also have the statement of Joe V. Baugh that, "There are few more inviting spots on God's foot-stool than lit. Vernon during the heated term. "
When I was asked to do this paper on Pioneer Business Firms and Industrial Development of lit. Vernon, I expected to have to depend largely on recollections of my own life time, what I had heard from some of the older residents and what could be remembered by some of those older citizens who are still with us. However, I have been greatly surprised at the amount of information that is still available in printed form and the difficulty was in organizing, boiling down and eliminating.
For our facts and near facts we are indebted to the book "Illinois in 1837" by S. Augustus Mitchell, "The History of Jefferson County" by William Henry Pernin, "Wall's History of Jefferson County" written by John A. Wall in 1909, "The Headlight, " a souvenir booklet issued by the L. & N. Railroad in 1898, "A City Directory" of 1901-02, a special supplement to the llt. Vernon News issued in 1904, and the "Greater litt. Vernon Opportunity's Gateway, " previously mentioned which was issued in 1916.
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Mr. Wall credits much of his information to Dr. Adam Clark Johnson, a close relative of my mother, who wrote the famous johnson Family History.
Jefferson County was organized June 7, 1819, from Edwards and White Counties, and the City of Mt. Vernon was Laid out by William Hostick, in June on July, 1819, and comprised twenty acres which was donated for that purpose by William Casey. According to my information lin. Casey erected a house about where the Post Office now stands at Eleventh and lain, saying, "Boys, here is the first house in town;" but when the town was Laid out, his house was just a few yards west of the city limits which nan along Casey Street (now Eleventh Street). Business in those early days was extremely simple but by no means easy.
lin. Perrin says that prion to 1840 peltry was the chief staple of the county. Sometimes it seemed to be the only thing anybody had to sell or buy goods with. Merchants sent deer hides to St. Louis by the hundreds, some shaved and some with the hair on. The shaving was done fast and cheap. A man hung a hide up by the neck, took a knife, scraped upwards and literally made the fun fly. Scraping a deer's hide was considered to be worth from 3¢ to 5%.
Most of the early settlers wore home made deer skin panta- loons, hunting shirts, and hats on caps, after they had worn out the original clothing they brought in with them. This was partly because they could get nothing else and partly because beyond the settlements the shrubs and vines soon tone cloth into shreds. However, most of these settlers were not good tanners, so their deer skin clothing was not very good looking. The breeches soon got tremendous knees that were a permanent part of the costume. "Then the breeches legs got wet, they would dangle down around their feet a foot too long; and when they dried, they were a foot too short.
After the first year on two, people had time to raise cotton, and buckskin gave way to cotton which was dyed with copperas. The people made their own indigo, and the process of setting the dye was such as to draw buffalo gnats around one's Sunday clothes in a most provoking manner. The book, "Illinois in 1837, " says that the wild animals were deen, wolves, nacoons, and opossum, but that buffalo
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which were formerly numerous had entirely left the Limits of the State.
Dear were then more abundant than in the first settlement of the country, as they appeared to increase with the population, apparently because they found protection in the neighborhood of man, from the beasts of prey that assail them in the wilderness and from whose attacks their young particularly can with difficulty escape. Immense numbers of deer were killed every year by hunters who took them for the hams and skins, throwing away the rest of the carcass. Venison hams and hides were important articles of export. Fresh hans usually sold at from 75 to $1.50 a pain and when properly cured were a delicious article of food. Partridges were taken with nets in the winter by, hundreds in a day and furnished no trifling item in the luxuries of the city markets.
Bees were plentiful, and many frontier people made them a profitable business. After the frost had killed the vegetation, the people would hunt the bees for honey and wax, both of which found a ready market. Bees were kept by farmers to a considerable extent. Many farmers had large droves of cows, and the author says they could be multiplied to an almost indefinite extent.
Butten was 12¢ to 20¢ a pound, and home made cheese brought 8g to 10g. Other products were grapes, plums, crab apples, apples, peaches, conn, wheat, oats, barley, buckwheat, Irish and sweet potatoes, turnips, nye for horse feed and distilleries, tobacco, cotton, hemp, flax, castor beans, and beet sugar.
These people also raised beef, horses and swine which brought four to five dollars delivered.
Before this time, however, In. Wall says, "Thus far there had been but little incentive to grow crops, for there was no market. Every settler raised his own conn, potatoes, and 'ganden sass' but no more than enough for home consumption. Hard times were the rule especially by the time spring put in its appearance. About all the settler had to trade were hen's eggs, pelts, hides, etc., except occasionally the men and children would go into the woods and dig 'ginseng' which would bring about $3 per pound and that would make the whole family feel aristocratic. The cattle and hogs wintered
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themselves. is to fresh meat, there was no trouble. The head of the family would take down his gun and go a little way into the woods and bring in game of different kinds for breakfast, dinner on suppen when ever needed. : Ind everybody had a little conn patch for bread, but there were no means to reduce the corn to meal except with those who were lucky enough to have montans and pastles on those who would hollow out the top surface of a big stump and beat the essence out of it with a hammer on stone. There were no mills for a long while."
The first business establishment in Jefferson County of which I was able to find a record was that in. Pennin relates that in 1316 an old man named Hynes settled a little west of Kelly out on the Goshen Road where for some years he kept a public house.
In 1817 up the Goshen Road, Villiam Goins settled. He was considered a bad man. He made millstones, and it was believed he also made counterfeit money. He had a tavern, a grocery, and a great many other things including bad company. After the settlement had increased a little more, he was invited to leave and obeyed with alacrity.
In about 1818 Lewis Watkins settled about a mile south of the Atchison place where he sold goods for a while. Isaac and William Casey constructed a little hand mill that would grind a bushel on two a day, and they did night well; but many of the first settlers had to beat their meal in a montar,
Elisha Plummer, the first blacksmith, came to lift. Vernon in 1020 and started a blacksmith shop in the William Casey house and also started two cabins on what is now South 11th Street. lin. Wall says he was also a cabinet maker, his wife a sister to Jarvis Pierce. Colonel Reardon, the preacher, was his son. (I can't quite figure that one out.)
Wall also says that Thomas Tunstall bought the Kirby Tavern and kept it and sold groceries. (But it doesn't say when. ) He bought and sent south a great deal of stock. He gave a set of plates on a set of knives and forks for a yearling. He erected a treadmill that stood near the Asa B. Watson place and brought John Summers from Shawneetown to run it. Summers afterward married and a long line of Summerses followed.
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Downing Pace came, and married Milly Pace, went to Vandalia, to Collinsville, finally relocated in lit. Vernon, where he sold goods and was Justice of the Peace. He built a two-story house on the north side of the square and put in another grocery store.
Joseph Wilbanks came in and took change of the tavern. The first gunsmith was a man named Lee who was here as early as 1822.
Rhoda Allen's sons were the first cabinet makers,
As Mr. Perrin says, "Thus the trades became represented on the County as business and population demanded. " Min. Wall lists among those who did business on the square and who bought in and sold out were William Hamblin, James Black, E. H. Ridgway, W. W. Pace, Stinson Anderson and scores of others whose names we have not been able to secure; but business went on and the town grew as the new settlers came in, mostly from where the original settlers came from. lin. Wall tells how in 1830 Dr. Adams built a house where Grant's Store later was. He sold it to H. T. Pace for $20, and he to Burchett Maxey for $25, and he to Oliver Morris for $35.
According to the State Census of 1835, Jefferson County had a population of 3,350. Franklin County (organized in 1818) had 5, 551. Washington County (organized the same year) had 3, 292. Hamil- ton County (born in 1821) boasted 2, 877 inhabitants, and Marion County ( formed in 1823 from Jefferson and Fayette Counties) had 2, 884.
llt. Vernon -- the seat of justice -- was near the center of the county on a branch of the Big Muddy River. It was pleasantly situated on the north side of Carey's Prairie and surrounded with a considerable settlement. Population in 1835 was about 150, with six stores, three groceries, one tavern, two physicians, two ministers, a courthouse, a jail, a Methodist Episcopal and a Baptist Society, besides various mechanical establishments.
Jefferson County even then formed a square of twenty-four miles with an acreage of 576 square miles. The surface of the county was about one-third prairie, the remainder timber. The soil was "tolerable second nate. "
There were several compact settlements in the county, among which were: lloones Prairie, six to twelve miles southeast of lit. Vernon
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with about seventy-five families; Prairie was eight miles Long, two to three miles wide; Gun Prairie -- six miles south, two miles long, one mile wide, land good, twenty families; Long Prairie -- five miles west between the middle and west forks of Big Muddy, tolerably fertile, four miles long, one and a half miles wide, forty families; Jordans Prairie -- six miles north, five miles long, one and a half miles wide, fifty families; other old towns in the county, now extinct, included Winfield, Fitzgerald, and Lynchburg. Spring Garden was also at one time one of the leading cities of the county.
Other towns in this section of the state in those days were: Salem -- a pleasant village of about one hundred sixty; (no mention of Centralia is made in this book); Nashville -- on the main road to Shawneetown, several stores and mechanics, a steam mill, population one hundred to one hundred twenty; Fairfield -- several stores, hand- some courthouse, about one hundred sixty; Carmi -- about two hundred fifty.
Chicago at that time had a population of about 8, 000, and was just starting to grow. Mit. Cannel, Shawneetown, Edwardsville, were all considerably langer than IMt. Vernon; and Alton was really booming with wages of $2.50 to $3.00 for bricklayers per day, $2.00 to $2.50 for stone masons, and $1.50 less 50€ per day board for laborers. Laborers in the East were getting 40€ per day. Board at their hotels was : 3.00 to $4.00 a week without lodging. Lodning was $1.00 to $1.50 a week additional. Boanding houses got $2.50 to $3.00 per week Lodging included.
Illinois College had 42 students in college, classes and 22 in the Preparatory Department. College classes were not yet organized at Shurtleff and lickendrecan Colleges, but they had 60 and 50 students in the Preparatory Department.
Steamboat fare from Louisville including meals was $12.00 and deck passage was $4.00.
lit. Vernon was badly handicapped in the very early days by transportation problems. The towns then expected to prosper were along navigable rivers on main stage routes. Around 1537 was the period of development of the internal road and canal system, the canal part of which flopped in the panic of 1837. Practically all of the
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railroad expansion of Illinois was still on paper in 1837, and nowhere is there any mention of the railroads which have figured in the growth of Centralia, Carbondale and Mt. Vernon. Non had the Williamson-Frank- lin County coal field really been uncovered at that time, apparently. The national Road had been mapped as far west as Vandalia but not completed all the way to that city, and Illinois was putting on the pressure to have it cross the Mississippi at Alton rather than at St. Louis.
The next most important stage route was Vincennes to St. Louis, which passed through Salem and Carlyle, and the routes from the Ohio, particularly from Shawneetown, tied into that road at Carlyle but apparently missed litt. Vernon.
Until development of the railroads which now pass through lit. Vernon, we were more or less isolated from any particular reasons for attraction on expansion. The railroads seem to have brought the transportation needed for starting industries. Under the conditions, it is remarkable that lilt. Vernon made as much progress as she did during the first 25 on 30 years.
We seem to have had quite a stormy time in getting our first railroads, replete with various schemes, including much politics, city stickers, high hopes, bitten disappointments, and all the trimmings. Finally the St. Louis and South Eastern Railroad (now the L & N) was extended from Ashley to lilt. Vernon in 1869-70 using the original road bed made in 1858 by Van Duzer, Smith and Company. This was accom- plished largely through the efforts of Samuel K. Casey, Dr. W. Duff Green, James lil. Pace, Stephen T. Strattan, Juege Thomas S. Casey, George W. Evans, Charles H. Patton, James E. Fergerson, George H. Varnell, Cyrus L. Hayes and others.
The Ain Line (now the Southern Railway) reached lit. Vernon in 1883. The Chesten and Tamanoa Road (later known as the !) ( & il) and for a time owned by Dr. Letchen Inons and now a branch of the Missouri Pacific) was built in the 80's. It was destined to be continued to Terre Haute, Indiana, and to become part of another trunk line system. The Jacksonville and Southern also came into Drivers and on into litt. Vernon over the L & N tracks and later the ( & { I came in and played a large part in shaping the destiny of some of the smaller towns in the county.
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The supplement to the it. Vernon News issued in June, 1904, announced that a second road to traverse the coal sections between here and the Mississippi was about to be constructed and that in addition the Southern Illinois Electric Railroad Company would that summer complete its line between lit. Vernon and St. Louis and that the work of construction was then going on. The story further said that many wealthy people of St. Louis had purchased property for sun- mer residences in or near litt. Vernon, and thein number might be expected to be largely increased after the completion of the electric line.
The telegraph came with the railroad. Mention is made of one Timothy Condit who in 1848 used to take and read the only daily paper that came to lit. Vernon. One of the newspapers in 1866 said it was reported that eight on ten wells would be sunk for oil in Clark County; but it was nearly forty years before the work was done.
Incidentally, In. Wall calls mt. Vernon a newspaper grave yard because of the many papers that have been born and died here in the past.
In 1869 the First Bank of Carlin Cross and Company was on- ganized and a little later taken over by local capitalists as the lit. Vernon ilational Bank with Noah Johnston, President and C. D. Ham, Cashier. In 1800 it became known as the lit, Vernon Bank of C. D. Han and Company, which name continued until 1897 when it became the Han ilational Bank. The Third National Bank was organized with a capital stock of $50, 000 and began business February 4, 1902. The Jefferson State Bank was organized November 20, 1905, also with a capital stock of $50, 000. The lit. Vennon State and Savings Bank consolidated with the Third National in 1905.
lit. Vernon was incorporated as a village in 1937 and chan- tened as a city in 1972 with James 1. Pace as the first mayon. Alder- men were Thomas H. Hobbs, Alexander Smart, John J. Bambrook, and Thomas Handsacker. John H. Pace was city clerk, John N. Satterfield police magistrate, and' Edward J. Waters was city marshall.
A nather complete noster of our business men of past years would probably be of considerable interest to some, and here are some of such names as I have been able to dig up.
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James 11. Pace, in the supplement dated 1904, alluded to previously, lists some of the early business men as Joe Pace, Harvey T. Pace, Johnson, Downing Baugh, Edward H. Ridgway, and & D. Anderson. In 1904 only three of the original residents (all born within the present city limits) were known to be surviving. They were Joel F. Watson, James l. Pace, and Ins. C. J. Fly.
The Unionist, one of the now deceased newspapers, in an issue of November 1863 lists business establishments of that time: J. Pace and Son, lilain and Union Streets; H. T. Pace, southwest corner Main and Union; R. i). Lyon, northeast conner Bunyan and Union; T. H. Hobbs & Co., southeast connen Bunyan and Union; Strattan & Fergerson, northeast conner Bunyan and Washington; J. F. Watson, lilain below Washington and Union; D. Baltzel & Son, Main conner Casey; Johnson & Ham, southwest conner lain and Casey; groceries were: W. D. Watson, . Union north of Main; E. J. Vinton, Main below Union & Washington; John Kleine, Main Street. clothing: M. Chrman, liain Street; H. ). Seiner. Saddlery & Harness, J. E. Dawson, D. C. Jannen, .). B. Thorn; Boots & Shoes -- John Hampel, William Fauchen, S. R. Palmer; Wagons & Carriages -- Ina G. Carpenter, R. C. Jarrell; Blacksmithing, J. H. Hendman, Hardin Davisson; Tinner - Ed Noble; Drugs -- Dr. E. C. Welborn.
In those days the present Fifth Street was named Park. Sixth Street, which led to the famous Green Lawn Springs where the High School Gym now stands, was naturally, Spring. Seventh Street was Breckenridge. Ninth Street was Washington. Tenth Street was Union. Eleventh Street was Casey Street, giving us both Casey Street and Casey Avenue. Twelfth Street was First. Thirteenth Street was Elm. Broadway was Bunyan and nan east only to Eighth, which was the edge of the Green home place which extended from Jordan to Main between the present Seventh and Eighth Streets. The Greens also owned, among other properties, the Green Lawn Springs lot which contained among other things several famous springs and a huge roller skating rink.
We have been unable to find just when the streets were ne- named, but it was when Judge A. D. "ebb, father of Roger, George, Andy, and lins. Clarence Stelle, was city attorney.
In 1878, business men included Bangen Brothers, Strattan, Pace and Jestbrook, D. B. Goodrich, M. M. Goodale, S. S. Porter, E. 11.
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Sheppard, L. H. Thompson, Charles Zierjacks, Hansbury Company, Hobbs, Tabb and Haynes, Vannell and Company, Bittroff and Ryan, J. C. Jackson, ¿ ¿ Fengerson and Company, in. and ins. Jaines Hitchcock, V. S. Hallo- well, Pavey and Allen, Preston and Libby, Dr. Blum.
1880 -- The Jefferson County census was 20,636. Hugent and Brother had moved to St. Louis. Local business men included R. C. Ryan, R. F. Pace, Hicks and Company, B. F. Harmon, lise and Company, Hudspeth and Poole, G. F. In. Wand, Howard Brothers, Rentschler and Jatens, Simmons and Hinman, G. .!. Yost and Company, Jebb Brothers (A. D. and A. C.), Law.
My own outfit seems to have been here at least by 1083 in the grocery business (my grandfather Soloman, my father, and Uncle Joe.) They were in business in a half dozen different locations on the square, sold out and went to Atlanta for a few years, and came back and into groceries again. In 1897 Uncle Joe and Sam Casey started a wholesale grocery on Jest Broadway as ?. T. Howard and Company, one of the first wholesale groceries in Southern Illinois. In October, 1299, my father sold his retail store and joined the firm which was incorporated on May 1, 1902, and continued for many years. Few Local firms have had as long a continuous history, but several have been in business a good long time and have had extremely, interesting careers.
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