USA > Illinois > Knox County > History of Knox county, Illinois > Part 4
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71
1
47
HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.
Shields had been placed hors de combat, the command of his force, consisting of three regiments, devolved upon Colonel Baker. This officer, with his men, stormed with unheard of prowess the last strong- hold of the Mexicans, sweeping everything before them. Such, in- deed, was the intrepid valor and daring courage exhibited by Illinois volunteers during the Mexican war that their deeds should live in the memory of their countrymen until those latest times when the very name of America should have been forgotten.
In 1846 the democratic candidate for governor, Augustus C. French, won an easy victory over the whig nominee, Thomas M. Kilpatrick. The office having expired by the adoption of the new constitution of 1848, French was re-elected, and went out of office in January, 1853.
In 1852, at the November election, Joel A. Matteson, democrat, was chosen governor over the whig candidate, E. B. Webb.
From 1852 to 1856 the republican party was organized. In the latter year they elected W. H. Bissell over W. A. Richardson, demo- crat.
During the year 1858 occurred the memorable contest between Lin- coln and Douglas for the senate, and which secured for them the nom- inations for President two years later.
In 1860 the " War Governor," Richard Yates, was elected by the republican party. His opponents were J. C. Allen, democrat; Thomas M. Hope, Breckinridge, democrat; and John T. Stuart, of the Bell-Everett party. He occupied the chair of State during the most critical period of our country's history, and discharged his duty with patriotic fidelity to the cause of the nation.
THE WAR OF THE REBELLION.
Abrahanı Lincoln was inaugurated President of the United States in 1861. At the time of his accession to power several members of the Union claimed they had withdrawn from it, and styling them- selves the "Confederate States of America," they organized a separate government. This action, and the firing upon Fort Sumter, rendered it necessary to call for troops to suppress this outbreak and open re- bellion. Accordingly a call was issued by the President. Simultane- ously with the call enlistments commenced in this State, and within ten days 10,000 volunteers offered service, and the sum of $1,000,000 was tendered by patriotic citizens. Of the volunteers who offered their services, only six regiments could be accepted under the quota of the State. These were designated by numbers, commencing with seven, as a mark of respect for the six regiments which had served in
48
IHISTORY OF ILLINOIS.
the Mexican war. Illinois put into her own regiments for the United States government 256,000 mnen, and into the army through other States enough to swell the number to 290,000. This far exceeds all the soldiers of the federal government in all the war of the Revolu- tion. Her total years of service were over 600,000. She enrolled men from 18 to 45 years of age, when the law of Congress in 1864 -- the test time-only asked for those from 20 to 45. Her enrollments were otherwise excessive. Her people wanted to go, and did not take the pains to correct the enrollment; thus the basis of fixing the quota was too great, and the quota itself, at least in the trying time, was far above any other State. The demand on some counties, as Monroe, for example, took every able-bodied man in the county, and then did not have enough to fill the quota. Moreover, Illinois sent 20,844 men for 100 days, for whom no credit was asked. She gave to the country 73,000 years of service above all calls. With one-thirteenth o the population of the loyal States, she sent regularly one-tenth of all the soldiers, and in the perils of the closing calls, when patriots were few and weary, she sent one-eighth of all that were called for by her loved and honored son in the white house. Of the brave boys Illinois sent to the front, there were killed in action, 5,888; died of wounds, 3,032; of disease, 19,496; in prison, 967; lost at sea, 205; aggregate, 29,588. As upon every field and upon every other page of the history of this war, Illinois bore her part of the suffering in the prison pens of the South. More than 800 names make up the awful column of Illinois's brave sons who died in the rebel prison of Andersonville, Ga. Who can measure or imagine the atrocities which would be laid before the world were the panorama of sufferings and terrible trials of these gallant men but half unfolded to view? But this can never be done until new words of horror are invented and new arts discovered by which demoniacal fiendishness can be portrayed, and the intensest anguish of the human soul in ten thou- sand forms be painted.
On the 15th of November, 1864, after the destruction of Atlanta, and the railroads behind him, Sherman, with his army, began his march to the sea-coast. The almost breathless anxiety with which his prog- ress was watched by the loyal hearts of the nation, and the trembling apprehension with which it was regarded by all who hoped for rebel success, indicated this as one of the most remarkable events of the war; and so it proved. Of Sherman's army, 45 regiments of infant- ry, 3 companies of artillery, and 1 of cavalry were from this State. Lincoln answered all rumors of Sherman's defeat with, " It is impos- sible: there is a mighty sight of fight in 100,000 western men."
49
HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.
Illinois soldiers brought home 300 battle flags. The first United States flag that floated over Richmond was an Illinois flag. She sent messengers and nurses to every field and hospital to care for her sick and wounded sons.
Illinois gave the country the great general of the war, U. S. Grant.
One other name from Illinois comes up in all minds, embalmed in all hearts, that must have the supreme place in this sketch of our glory and of our nation's honor: that name is Abraham Lincoln. The analysis of Mr. Lincoln's character is difficult on account of its symmetry. In this age we look with admiration at his uncompro- mising honesty; and well we may, for this saved us. Thousands throughout the length and breadthi of our country, who knew him only as " Honest Old Abe," voted for him on that account; and wisely did they choose, for no other man could have carried us through the fearful night of war. When his plans were too vast for our compre- hension, and his faith in the cause too sublime for our participation; when it was all night about us, and all dread before us, and all sad and desolate behind us; when not one ray shone upon our cause; when traitors were haughty and exultant at the South, and fierce and blas- phemous at the North; when the loyal men seemed almost in the minority ; when the stoutest heart quailed, the bravest cheek paled; when generals were defeating each other for place, and contractors were leeching out the very heart's blood of the republic; when every- thing else had failed us, we looked at this calm, patient man standing like a rock in the storm, and said, " Mr. Lincoln is honest, and we can trust him still." Holding to this single point with the energy of faitlı and despair, we held together, and under God he brought us through to victory. His practical wisdom made him the wonder of all lands. With such certainty did Mr. Lincoln follow causes to their ultimate effects, that his foresight of contingencies seemed almost prophetic. He is radiant with all the great virtues, and his memory will shed a glory upon this age that will fill the eyes of men as they look into history. Other men have excelled him in some points; but, taken at all points, all in all, lie stands head and shoulders above every other man of 6,000 years. An administrator, he saved the nation in the perils of unparalleled civil war; a statesman, he justi- fied his measures by their success; a philanthropist, he gave liberty to one race and salvation to another; a moralist, he bowed from the summit of human power to the foot of the cross; a mediator, he exercised mercy under the most absolute obedience to law; a leader, he was no partisan; a commander, he was untainted with blood; a ruler in desperate times, he was unsullied with crime; a man, he lias 4
50
HISTORY OF ILLINOIS. -
left no word of passion, no thought of malice, no trick of craft, no act of jealousy, no purpose of selfisli ambition. Thus perfected, without a model and without a peer, he was dropped into these troubled years to adorn and embellish all that is good and all that is great in our humanity, and to present to all coming time the repre- sentative of the divine idea of free government. It is not too much to say that away down in the future, when the republic has fallen from its niche in the wall of time; when the great war itself shall have faded out in the distance like a mist on the horizon; when the Anglo-Saxon shall be spoken only by the tongue of the stranger, tlien the generations looking this way shall see the great President as the supreme figure in this vortex of history.
The rebellion was ended with the surrender of Lee and his army, and Johnston and his command, in April, 1865. Our armies at the time were up to their maximum strength, never so formidable, never so invincible; and, until recruiting ceased by order of Secretary Stanton, were daily strengthening. The necessity, however, for so vast and formidable numbers ceased with the disbanding of the rebel forces, which had for more than four years disputed the supremacy of the government over its domain. And now the joyful and welcome news was to be borne to the victorious legions that their work was ended in triumph, and they were to be permitted " to see homes and friends once more."
Richard J. Oglesby was elected governor in 1864 by the republican party, in opposition to James C. Robinson, democrat. In 1868 John M. Palmer won an easy victory over Jolin R. Eden, democrat. Richard J. Oglesby was again elected in 1872, and in 1876 Shelby M. Cullom, republican, was elected, and is the present incumbent.
SENATORS.
The following are the names of all the persons that have repre- sented this State, since its organization, in the United States Senate:
Years.
Jesse B. Thomas.
.1818 to 1829
Ninian Edwards.
1818 “ 1824
John McLean. 1824 " 1825
E. K. Kane ..
1825 " 1835
John McLean. .1829 " 1830
D. J. Baker. 1830 1 mo.
J. M. Robinson. .1830 to 1841
W. L. D. Ewing 1835 “ 1837
R. M. Young. 1837 " 1843
S. McRoberts. 1841 " 1843
James Semple. 1843 “ 1847
51
HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.
Sidney Breese.
.1843 to 1849
Stephen A. Douglas. 1847 ‘ 1861
James Shields 1849 “ 1855
Lyman Trumbull .. 1855 " 1873
O. H. Browning
1861 " 1863
William A. Richardson. .1863 " 1855
Richard Yates. 1865 " 1871
John A. Logan. 1871 " 1877
Richard J. Oglesby
3 - 1
David Davis ..
1877 " 1883
GOVERNORS.
The following are the names of all the Governors of the State:
Years.
Shadrach Bond.
1818 to 1822
Edward Coles. . 1822 " 1826
Ninian Edwards (formerly Governor of the Territory). 1826 " 1830
John Reynolds. 1830 “ 1834
Joseph Duncan. 1834 " 1838
Thomas Carlin
1838 “ 1842
Thomas Ford.
1842 " 1846
Augustus C. French.
1846 " 1853
The office having expired by the adoption of the new constitution of 1848, he was re-elected, and went out of office in January, 1853.
Joel A. Matteson January, 1856 to 1857
William H. Bissell, died while in office. 1857 " 1860
Lieut .- Gov. John Wood. 1860 " 1861
Richard Yates 1861 : 1865
Richard J. Oglesby. 1865 ' 1869
John M. Palmer .. .1869 " 1873
Richard J. Oglesby (elected United States Senator) " 1873
John L. Beveridge, vice Oglesby. .1873 " 1877
Shelby M. Cullom, present incumbent ..
1877 " 1881
DRESS AND MANNERS.
The dress, habits, etc., of a people throw so much light upon their conditions and limitations that in order better to show the circum- stances surrounding the people of the State, we, will give a short exposition of the manner of life of our Illinois people at different epochs. The Indians themselves are credited by Charlevoix with being " very laborious,"-raising poultry, spinning the wool of the buffalo and manufacturing garments therefrom. These must have been, however, more than usually favorable representatives of their race.
"The working and voyaging dress of the French masses," says Reynolds, " was simple and primitive: The French were like the
LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
52
HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.
lilies of the valley [the Old Ranger was not always exact in his quotations],-they neither spun nor wove any of their clothing, but purchased it from the merchants. The white blanket coat, known as the capot, was the universal and eternal coat for the winter with the masses. A cape was made of it that could be raised over the head in cold weather."
" In the house, and in good weather, it hung behind, a cape to the blanket coat. The reason that I know these coats so well is, that I have worn many in my youth, and a working man never wore a better garment. Dressed deer-skins and blue cloth were worn commonly in the winter for pantaloons. The blue handkerchief and the deer-skin moccasins covered the head and feet generally of the French Creoles. In 1800, scarcely a man thought himself clothed unless he had a belt tied around his blanket coat, and on one side was hung the dressed skin of a pole-cat, filled with tobacco, pipe, flint and steel. On the other side was fastened, under the belt, the butcher-knife. A Creole in this dress felt like Tam O'Shanter filled with usquebaugh : he could face the devil. Checked calico shirts were then common, but in winter flannel was frequently worn. In the summer the laboring men and the voyagers often took their shirts off in hard work and hot weather, and turned out the naked back to the air and sun.
" Among the Americans," he adds, "home-made wool hats were the common wear. Fur hats were not common, and scarcely a boot was seen. The covering of the feet in winter was chiefly moccasins made of deer-skins, and shoe packs of tanned leather. Some wore shoes, but not common in very early times. In the summer the greater portion of the young people, male and female, and many of the old, went barefoot. The substantial and universal outside wear was the blue linsey hunting-shirt. This is an excellent garment, and I have never felt so happy and healthy since I laid it' off. It is made of wide sleeves, open before, with ample size so as to envelop the body almost twice around. Sometimes it had a large cape, which answers well to save the shoulders from the rain. A belt is mostly used to keep the garment close around the person, and, nevertheless, there is nothing tight about it to hamper the body. It is often fringed, and at times the fringe is composed of red, and other gay colors. The belt, frequently, is sewed to the hunting-shirt. The vest was mostly made of striped linsey. The colors were made often with alum, copperas and madder, boiled with the bark of trees, in such a man- ner and proportions as the old ladies prescribed. The pantaloons of the masses were generally made of deer-skin and linsey. Coarse blue cloth was sometimes made into pantaloons.
53
HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.
"Linsey, neat and fine, manufactured at home, composed generally the outside garments of the females as well as the males. The ladies had linsey colored and woven to suit their fancy. A bonnet, com- posed of calico, or some gay goods, was worn on the head when they were in the open air. Jewelry on the pioneer ladies was uncommon; a gold ring was an ornament not often seen."
In 1820 a change of dress began to take place, and before 1830, according to Ford, most of the pioneer costume had disappeared. "The blue linsey hunting-shirt, with red or white fringe, had given place to the cloth coat. [Jeans would be more like the fact.] The raccoon cap, with the tail of the animal dangling down behind, had been thrown aside for hats of wool or fur. Boots and shoes had sup- plied the deer-skin moccasins; and the leather breeches, strapped tight around the ankle, had disappeared before unmentionables of a more modern material. The female sex had made still greater progress in dress. The old sort of cotton or woolen frocks, spun, woven and made with their own fair hands, and striped and cross-barred with blue dye and turkey red, had given place to gowns of silk and calico. The feet, before in a state of nudity, now charmed in shoes of calf-skin or slippers of kid; and the head, formerly unbonneted, but covered with a cotton handkerchief, now displayed the charms of the female face under many forms of bonnets of straw, silk and leghorn. The young ladies, instead of walking a mile or two to church on Sunday, carry- ing their shoes and stockings in their hands until within a hundred yards of the place of worship, as formerly, now came forth arrayed complete in all the pride of dress, mounted on fine horses and at- tended by their male admirers."
The last half century has doubtless witnessed changes quite as great as those set forth by our Illinois historian. The chronicler of to-day, looking back to the golden days of 1830 to 1840, and comparing them with the present, must be struck with the tendency of an almost monotonous uniformity in dress and manners that comes from the easy inter-communication afforded by steamer, railway, telegraph and newspaper. Home manufacturers have been driven from the house- hold by the lower-priced fabrics of distant mills. The Kentucky jeans, and the copperas-colored clothing of home manufacture, so familiar a few years ago, have given place to the cassimeres and cloths of noted factories. The ready-made-clothing stores, like a touch of nature, make the whole world kin, and may drape the charcoal man in a dress-coat and a stove-pipe hat. The prints and silks of Eng- land and France give a variety of choice, and an assortment of colors and shades such as the pioneer women could hardly have dreamed of.
54
HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.
Godey, and Demorest, and Harper's Bazar are found in our modern farm-houses, and the latest fashions of Paris are sometimes brought into queer contrast with the garments of the older mode in some of our more remote communities.'
PHYSICAL FEATURES OF ILLINOIS.
In area the State has 55,410 square miles of territory. It is about 150 miles wide and 400 miles long, stretching in latitude from Maine to North Carolina. The climate varies from Portland to Richmond. It favors every product of the continent, including the tropics, with less than half a dozen exceptions. It produces every great food of the world except bananas and rice. It is hardly too much to say that it is the most productive spot known to civilization. With the soil full of bread and the earth full of minerals; with an upper surface of food and an under layer of fuel; with perfect natural drainage, and abundant springs, and streams, and navigable rivers; half way between the forests of the North and the fruits of the South; within a day's ride of the great deposits of iron, coal, copper, lead and zinc; and con- taining and controlling the great grain, cattle, pork and lumber mar- kets of the world, it is not strange that Illinois has the advantage of position.
There are no mountains in Illinois; in the southern as well as in the northern part of the State there are a few hills; near the banks of the Illinois, Mississippi, and several other rivers, the ground is elevated, forming the so-called bluffs, on which at the present day may be found, uneffaced by the hand of Time, the marks and traces left by the water which was formerly much higher; whence it may be safe to conclude that, where now the fertile prairies of Illinois ex- tend, and the rich soil of the country yields its golden harvests, must have been a vast sheet of water, the mud deposited by which formed the soil, this accounting for the present great fertility of the country.
Illinois is a garden 400 miles long and 150 miles wide. Its soil is chiefly a black, sandy loam, from 6 inches to 60 feet thick. About the old French towns it has yielded corn for a century and a half without rest or help. She leads all other States in the number of acres actu- ally under plow. Her mineral wealthi is scarcely second to her agri- cultural power. She has coal, iron, lead, zinc, copper, many varieties of building stone, marble, fire clay, cuma clay, common brick clay, sand of all kinds, gravel, mineral paint,-in fact, everything needed for a high civilization.
OLD KINZIE HOUSE.
57
HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.
AGRICULTURE.
If any State of the Union is adapted for agriculture, and the other branches of rural economy relating thereto, such as the raising of cattle and the culture of fruit trees, it is pre-eminently Illinois, whose extremely fertile prairies recompense the farmer at less trouble and expense than he would be obliged to incur elsewhere, in order to obtain the saine results. Her rich soil, adapted by nature for imme- diate culture, only awaits the plow and the seed in order to mature, within a few months, a most bountiful harvest. A review of statistics will be quite interesting to the reader, as well as valuable, as showing the enormous quantities of the various cereals produced in our prairie State:
In 1876 there was raised in the State 130,000,000 of bushels of corn,-twice. as much as any other State, and one-sixth of all the corn raised in the United States. It would take 375,000 cars to transport this vast amount of corn to market, which would make 15,000 trains of 25 cars each. She harvested 2,747,000 tons of hay, nearly one- tenth of all the hay in the Republic. It is not generally appreciated, but it is true, that the liay crop of the country is worth more than the cotton crop. The hay of Illinois equals the cotton of Lonisiana. Go to Charleston, S. C., and see them peddling handfuls of hay or grass, almost as a curiosity, as we regard Chinese gods or the cryolite of Greenland; drink your coffee and condensed milk; and walk back from the coast for many a league through the sand and burs till you get up into the better atmosphere of the mountains, without seeing a waving meadow or a grazing herd; then you will begin to appreciate the meadows of the Prairie State.
The value of her farm implements was, in 1876, $211,000,000, and the value of live stock was only second to New York. The same year she had 25,000,000 hogs, and packed 2,113,845, about one-half of all that were packed in the United States. She marketed $57,000,000 worth of slaughtered animals,-more than any other State, and a seventh of all the States.
Illinois excels all other States in miles of railroads and in miles of postal service, and in money orders sold per annum, and in the amount of lumber sold.
Illinois was only second in many important matters, taking the reports of 1876. This sample list comprises a few of the more important: Permanent school fund; total income for educational purposes; number of publishers of books, maps, papers, etc .; value of farm products and implements, and of live stock; in tons of coal mined.
58
HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.
The shipping of Illinois was only second to New York. Ont of one port during the business hours of the season of navigation she sent forth a vessel every nine minutes. This did not include canal- boats, which went one every five minutes.
No wonder she was only second in number of bankers or in physi- cians and surgeons.
She was third in colleges, teacher sand schools; also in cattle, lead, hay, flax, sorghum and beeswax.
She was fourth in population, in children enrolled in public schools, in law schools, in butter, potatoes and carriages.
She was fifth in value of real and personal property, in theological seminaries, and colleges exclusively for women, in milk sold, and in boots and shoes manufactured, and in book-binding.
She was only seventh in the production of wood, while she was the twelfth in area. Surely that was well done for the Prairie State. She then had, in 1876, much more wood and growing timber than she lrad thirty years before.
A few leading industries will justify emphasis. She manufactured $205,000,000 worth of goods, which placed her well up toward New York and Pennsylvania. The number of her manufacturing estab- lishments increased from 1860 to 1870, 300 per cent .; capital employed increased 350 per cent .; and the amount of product increased 400 per cent. She issued 5,500,000 copies of commercial and financial news- papers, being only second to New York. She had 6,759 miles of railroad, then leading all other States, worth $636,458,000, using 3,245 engines, and 67,712 cars, making a train long enough to cover one- tenth of the entire roads of the State. Her stations were only five miles apart. She carried, in 1876, 15,795,000 passengers, an average of 363 miles, or equal to taking her entire population twice across the State. More than two-thirds of her land was within five miles of a railroad, and less than two per cent. was more than fifteen miles away.
The State has a large financial interest in the Illinois Central rail- road. The road was incorporated in 1850, and the State gave each alternate section for six miles on each side, and doubled the price of the remaining land, so keeping herself good. The road received 2,595,000 acres of land, and paid to the State one-seventh of the gross receipts. The State received in 1877, $350,000, and had received up to that year in all abont $7,000,000. It was practically the people's road, and it had a most able and gentlemanly management. Add to the above amount the annual receipts from the canal, $111,000, and a large per cent. of the State tax was provided for.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.