History of Lee County, together with biographical matter, statistics, etc., Part 35

Author: Hill, H.H. (Chicago) pbl
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, H.H. Hill
Number of Pages: 910

USA > Illinois > Lee County > History of Lee County, together with biographical matter, statistics, etc. > Part 35

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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.

46th Ill. Vols .; Albion Comstock, Co. I, 89th Ill. Vols .; Wm. H. Curly, Co. C, 13th Ill. Vols .; J. M. Crampton, Co. I, 31st Mass. Vols .; C. H. Daw (regiment unknown), C. A. Harper (regiment unknown), Harrison Hale (regiment unknown), Cyrus D. Lyman, Co. E, 7th Ill. Cav .; H. H. Morey, Co. C, 89th Ill. Vols .; John Madden, Co. D, 46th Ill. Vols .; James A. McGary (regiment unknown), Frank H. Mellen, Co. A, 89th Ill. Vols .; Albert W. Preston, Co. E, 140th Ill. Vols., and Henry Sanger, 2d Me. Vols., honorably discharged therefrom, and in 1863 reënlisted in the 52d or 57th Ill. Vols. The present officers of this association are John C. Church, president; Win. B. Andruss, sec- retary and treasurer; Wm. T. French, Henry T. Ford and Wm. E. Ives, directors.

Although the Lee County Agricultural Society is now extinct, it was once so prominent an institution that it requires some mention. It was organized in 1854, and incorporated in July 1857. The third annual fair was in Amboy, in 1856, and from that time this was the regular place for holding the exhibitions. In 1858 grounds were leased in Farwell's addition for a term of five years, and buildings erected thereon. The society ceased to be of any public usefulness after the expiration of this lease. In 1863 a fair was held, or attempted to be held, but it was a failure. There was a rival society in Dixon, and overtures were made by each looking to consolidation, but whether it was ever effected we are not informed. At all events it did not have the support of Amboy, and so far as this place is concerned the active history of the society ends during the time of the war. J. B. Wyman, C. F. Ingals and R. N. Woods were presidents, and Josiah Little, N. S. Chase and H. G. Pratt were secretaries.

TEMPERANCE WORK AND THE DEMAND FOR IT.

At the beginning of the year 1867 there were nine licensed saloons, seven sold intoxicating liquors and two retailed beer. This was not an unusual number, but about the average for many years. These dens made men shameless, brutal, vagrant, and dangerous. Drunkenness and its concomitant routs, frays, thefts, insults, deadly accidents and blood-shedding became almost too familiar for comment. Ladies upon the street were obliged to push their way through maudlin, ribald crowds, and unoffending citizens were never safe from being set upon and beaten by cowardly gangs of drunken roughs, for such offenses were not uncommon.

During the year succeeding the war no less than five attempts were made to burn the business part of the city. Add to these public an- noyances and dangers all the disgrace, orphanage, unseen woe and

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social wretchedness, and it will be seen that there was strong moving cause for temperance work.

To overcome as much as possible these licensed, alarming evils, many cooperative temperance and total-abstinence efforts have been started and maintained, until periodical apathy would strangle them to death or neutralize their influence. We can only briefly refer to the principal ones. The first organized movement to "suppress the un- lawful sale of ardent spirits and gambling " was the " Carson League." A meeting of the inhabitants, attended by many of the leading men of the place, was held on February 4, 1856, in the Baptist church, and a constitution and by-laws common to this form of organization were adopted. Alonzo Kinyon filled the chair and J. F. Pirie acted as sec- retary. The business was conducted by twelve directors, whose duties were to attend to the enforcement of the law. The first board con- sisted of D. S. Clark, R. M. Brigham, J. Clark, R. H. Mellen, J. D. Weddell, John Dexter, W. E. Ives, J. F. Powers, A. E. Wilcox, H. M. Taylor, A. Kinyon and C. Bridgman. Stock was taken to the amount of $600,000, and those subscribing gave what was called stock notes, on which the directors were authorized to make assessments " to defray the expenses of the league," which included the expenses of prosecutions. This league existed about two years.

We find it stated in " The Times," in 1858, that the Sons of Tem- perance and Good Templars were meeting in the same hall with the Masons and the Odd-Fellows. The lodge of Good Templars was or- ganized in the spring of that year, but its existence was not long con- tinned. After this had lapsed, in January 1862, a lodge of this order was started at Binghamton. In March a " section of the Cadets of Temperance " was instituted in Amboy for the training and instruction of the youth. Amboy Lodge, No. 646, was organized in November 1865, and enjoyed a tolerable lease of life. Friendship Lodge, No. 512, was started in October 1870. Organizations of a transient char- acter have been formed at times to arouse the slumbering sense of the people when urgent labors were necessary to carry elections, and other- wise to checkmate the debauching alcoholic interest.

Reform division, No. 555, Sons of Temperance, was organized February 24, 1862, under the jurisdiction of the Grand Division of Illi- nois, E. D. Lamoine, of Paw Paw, being Grand Worthy Patriarch, and Geo. L. Moore, of Lebanon, Grand Scribe. Charter members: W. H. Tousley, N. T. Pratt, W. B. Andruss, C. P. Miller, F. I. Foot, Wm. H. Hayward, John Carter, jr., M. Gilleas, Chas. A. Allen, D. C. Udell, J. A. Scollay, W. C. Sears, D. C. Graham, D. B. Wall, Chas. E. Ives and Samuel E. Appleton. The division has had its days of prosperity -when high tide came and multitudes floated in,-and of adversity-

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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.

when the tide ebbed away, and those of least principle or will-power dropped out ; but a few have always held on to the good craft. The period of greatest prosperity was in 1876 and 1877, during and since which time over 200 have been initiated. This division, with the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, organized in December 1876, and the Red Ribbon Club, organized in 1877, worked in harmony to- gether, the reading-room over the store of W. B. Andruss & Son being their headquarters. The club has ceased as an organization, leaving the other two bodies still doing effective work. Present officers : Mrs. Daniel Bull, W.P .; Mrs. C. W. Bell, W.A .; Daniel"Bull, R. S .; Miss Emma Sleeper, A.R.S .; Wm. B. Andruss, F.S .; Edgar Miller, Treas .; Rev. N. A. Reed, D.D., Chaplain ; B. B. Howard, C .; Mrs. A. Los- sie, A.C .; Mrs. M. J. Mingle, I.S .; C. W. Bell, O.S., and C. W. Dem- ing, P.W.P. Representatives to the grand division : C. W. Deming, E. Miller, C. P. Miller, W. B. Andruss, J. S. Oleson, C. W. Bell, Rev. Dr. N. A. Reed, G. W. Mingle, Mrs. M. J. Mingle, Daniel Bull, Mrs. Daniel Bull and B. B. Howard ; of these Messrs. Andruss and Deming are representatives of the Grand Division of Illinois to the National Division of North America.

" On November 19, 1876, a few ladies who had attended the state annual convention at Dixon, and returned with hearts quickened to the need of gospel temperance work in their midst, extended an invi- tation by the various pulpits to all interested in temperance to meet Tuesday afternoon, November 21, in the Baptist church, to organize a Woman's Christian Temperance Union." A committee was named to ob- tain a good lecturer, and another to collect funds from the citizens to pay the expense of the lecture-course. Prayer-meetings were appointed to move the hearts of the people in the new work, and three of those were held in the Methodist church. Volunteer laborers having come forward, on December 2 a called meeting was held in the Congrega- tional parlor to district the city, so that the canvassers could go to work soliciting members and money. Their success was very encour- aging. Mrs. Foster, of Iowa, was engaged, and gave three lectures on December 17, 18 and 19, and then it was decided to organize, which was done in the Baptist church on the last day mentioned. The officers chosen were Mrs. Mingle, president; Mrs. Vaughan, Mrs. Poland and Mrs. Badger, vice-presidents ; Mrs. Williams, recording secretary ; Mrs. Chase, corresponding secretary, and Mrs. Reagan, treasurer. The standing committees were: on reading-room, Mrs. Andrnss, Mrs. Mil- ler, Mrs. Poland, Mrs. Williams ; on public work, Mrs. Battis; on lit- erature, Mrs. Chase ; on statistics, Mrs. Reagan ; on finance, Mrs. Miller. Most untiring and zealous endeavors have been put forth by these christian women to secure a ripe harvest of good works in the com-

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munity, and their hands have been royally upheld by the citizens. The Union occupies the cheerful and tastefully furnished hall over the hardware store of W. B. Andruss & Son, on Main street. Gospel meetings are held here every Sabbath afternoon under the auspices of the Union. These ladies inaugurated a free reading-room, and dedi- cated the hall to the high objects of social, religious and intellectual culture, with devotional and literary exercises on April 17, 1877. The Library Association uses the same hall, holding under the Union.

The Father Matthew Total Abstinence and Benevolent Society, founded by P. A. Boland and named in honor of the great Irish bene- factor and apostle of temperance, is an independent body chartered by the state, and was organized December 15, 1872. It has sixty mem- bers and is in a flourishing condition. This is a valuable auxiliary to the reform movement.

Banner Temple, No. 24, of the United Order of Ancient Templars, was organized in August, 1889, with thirty-four members, and was chartered October 21. Present officers : Lee Cronkrite, T .; Mrs. C. A. Bartlett, P.T. ; Frank Almy, V.T .; Frank Marrow, R .; Mrs. Ford, A.R .; H. T. Ford, F .; H. Shurtleff, C .; Miss Fisher, M .; (vacant) A.M. ; Mrs. Henry T. Ford, T .; Mrs. Trainer, W .; Mr. Skinner, G. Meetings are held on Monday nights in Odd-Fellows' Hall. This order furnishes insurance to its members, and embraces as comprehensive objects as any of the benevolent associations.

JOURNALISM IN AMBOY.

Under this caption the "Amboy Journal" of April 11, 1874, narrates its own history to that date in the subjoined sketch :

"In May or June, 1855, the 'Amboy Printing Association ' was formed, which secured the publication of the 'Lee County Times,' with Augustus Noel Dickens, a brother of the author Charles Dickens, as editor. So far as we can learn the stockholders were A. Kinyon, W. E. Ives, John L. Skinner, John B. Wyman, H. B. Judkins, W. B. Stuart. August 1, 1855, as appears by a bond in our possession, one H. B. Judkins bound himself in the sum of $200 to said association in consideration of the transfer of the press, etc., to publish or cause to be published the said 'Lee County Times' for the space of one year. Volume 1, number 33, was issued February 7, 1856, by H. G. Pratt as editor and proprietor, and this is the oldest paper on our files. Volume 1, number 41, was issued as the 'Amboy Times,' by Cottrell & Pratt, April 3, 1856; and that name was continued for ten years, or until volume 11, number 18, published by Goff & Shaw, February 8, 1866. In the meantime, however, publishers had succeeded each other in the following order: Cottrell, Pratt & Miller; Cottrell, Pratt &

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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.

Somes ; Pratt & Co. (John Lewis, James F. Somes) ; Pratt, Shaw & Co. (Joseph Lewis) ; Gardner, Shaw & Lewis; and Pratt & Shaw. When Goff & Shaw issued volume 1, number 1, of the 'Lee County Journal,' February 25, 1866, they called it the 'new series,' and dropped the record of the eleven years and twenty weeks of a news- paper issue from the same office. This course we consider unwise, and propose now to remedy by calling the present issue of the 'Journal ' volume 19, number 1.

" Burrington & Shaw published the 'Lee County Journal' from February, 1867, to December, 1867, when we find a card published giving notice that they would suspend the issue of any paper for two weeks, because of the want of payments and patronage on the part of business men and subscribers. From January 16 to December 24, 1868, B. F. Shaw was editor and proprietor.

"Some graceless scamp has stolen the files from the last date to January 6, 1870, when we find the paper issued by Stimson & Corbus until March 10, when the thief, or the most improvident publishers, again leave us no files up to September ; when Wm. Parker changed the name to the one now used, and continued its publication for just two years, to September 6, 1872, when we [W. H. Haskell] bought the 'Journal,' paid off its mortgages, began to improve the paper and increase its circulation, having gained 200 subscribers in nineteen months without especial effort at solicitation."

On October 15, 1879, Mr. Haskell sold the office to E. W. Faxon & Co., and on February 1, 1881, Dr. C. E. Loomis, of Lee Center, purchased it and is the present editor and proprietor. The paper has always been republican in politics.

TORNADO.

The great tornado of 1860 occurred on Sunday, June 3. It began its ravages as far west as Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and gathering force as it proceeded, left a track of death and desolation behind. In the vicinity of Clinton twenty-five persons were killed. The town of Comanche, on the Iowa side of the Mississippi, was totally destroyed ; and Albany, on the Illinois side, shared nearly the same fate. In the two places the killed and wounded reached not fewer than 125 persons. The towns of Lyndon and Mount Pleasant, in Whiteside county, suf- fered severely, and in the neighborhood of Morrison and Sterling about a dozen were killed and a larger number wounded. From the point where the hurricane struck this county to Bradford township it spared nothing in its course. Trees, crops, stock, fences and buildings were swept away with terrific fury, and numbers of persons, not a few frightfully mangled, were killed outright, while a still larger number

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sustained different degrees of injury. In its progress onward from Bradford it alternately raised and lowered, leaving evidences of its violence at intervals. Its track was about forty rods wide, and the ground over which it passed had the appearance of having been swept by a mighty torrent. In its twistings and whirlings it described a zigzag course, with arms and angles jutting out at short distances. The general direction was from west to east through Amboy, about a mile south of the north line of the township. The first casualty was the serious injury of a man named Emmet, his wife, two children, and a hired man, who were living in a house owned by E. B. Stiles. The building was demolished. The next place visited east of this was Mr. Morse's. His house was destroyed, and Mrs. Morse was hurled five rods and disemboweled. She survived in this horrible condition about an hour. Mr. Morse was despaired of for some time, but finally recovered and is now living. One of the sons was slightly injured, another dangerously, and a daughter had both legs broken and died. James Rosbrugh's farm, occupied by Edward Sacket, was next in the track. The house, barn and blacksmith shop, were carried entirely away; and all the family of five persons seriously and some danger- ously injured. F. H. Northway's buildings suffered total wreck. The family were taken up with the house into the air, but fortunately all escaped with the exception of cuts, bruises and broken ribs. A boulder weighing a quarter of a ton was lifted at this place and carried ten rods. From here the storm headed more northerly, and John Crombie's house shared the general ruin ; one of his little children was killed, and another was so hurt that it barely recovered. Lyman Bixby's family took refuge in their cellar half a minute before the tempest reached them and were saved, though the house and barn went to atoms. Farther north James Moffat's house was unroofed ; and cuts and bruises, from which no one was exempted, were the extent of injuries here. R. D. Peironnet lost his barn, back kitchen and outbuildings. A traveler, who had stopped at a vacant building near, and had the calves of his legs nearly torn off, was at once brought to Mr. P.'s for care. Onward the destroying force went to Isaac Gage's; but we shall let Mr. Gage tell his own fearful story of loss and bereavement in the picturesque account which he has given of this calamity, and on which we mainly rely for adequate description. P. D. La Forge's handsome residence was partly unroofed, a back kitchen blown away, and his barn rent to pieces.

From this point we prefer Mr. Gage's striking statement of his personal experiences at the supreme instant of disaster, and of his inti- mate knowledge of the ravages made in his neighborhood and to the eastward. It was published in the Amboy "Journal " February 7, 1874.

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HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY.

" This wind storm, called a tornado, struck our house on the eve of June 3, 1860, about nine o'clock. It being Sabbath evening we had retired rather early, and I soon fell asleep to be awakened by a terrible crash as of thunder, seemingly without a cause. For the next instant it was so still one could have heard a pin fall in any part of the house, but for a moment only ; then, sir, there was a sound which I shall ever fail to describe, but I will give the best version my poor mind can. It was not thunder, and though it lasted but a moment it shook the earth for miles around. Another moment and every- thing was as still as death; then instantly came the grand crashı, and we were in the elements. Now it is partly by sight and partly by feeling that I shall attempt to describe what took place. I jumped out of bed and grasped the door-handle to go for our chil- dren, but could not open the door. Suddenly it opened and knocked me down on one knee, and violently dragged or shoved me about five feet out of doors to the ground, while the house and my four boys went into the air far above my head ; some of the furniture, or some portion of the house, struck mne in the back and passed on. This con- fused state of things lasted perhaps five minutes, I should think not longer, and then out came the moon as bright as day ; it seemed as if it wanted to show us what desolation and destruction had been done. Here and there lay heaps of rubbish, parts of the house and some parts of the furniture, all broken small enough for stove wood, and only three out of seven of our family were able to see this ruin. Some were dead, and some were not conscious of anything that was going on, though yet alive. A twin boy of eleven years had his life literally whipped out of him; he was dead when found. My eldest, a boy of seventeen, was carried through the air and débris the distance of sixty rods or over, and was so bruised that his entire person after a few hours became perfectly pulp-like, resembling a blood-blister. He lived, how- ever, until the seventh day, in the most wonderful agony. Most of the time he lay seemingly unconscious.

" The rest of the boys were not carried so far away. When we found my youngest son the little fellow looked most horrible, not a scrap of clothing on him save the collar of his shirt; his head was cut and bruised, and his body so bloody and dirty that we could scarcely see any human shape to him. We picked him and his little dead brother up about twelve rods from where the house had stood a few moments before.

" When we went to bed that evening a large kettle that would hold a barrel or more was standing under the eaves of the house, full of water; it was taken up and carried high enough to strike the corner of the barn about twelve feet from the ground, and there it sat where

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the barn stood with two or three pailfuls, of water in it yet. In the débris of the barn lay a young stable horse ; when first seen he was on his back with the timbers piled upon and about him six feet high, and one large piece lay across his neck and held him down so firmly that he could not stir.

" From this point on in a southeast direction the surface of the earth was covered with bits of everything in the shape of fence rails, boards, timbers, etc. All seemed to have been carried with so great force that they were driven into the ground from three inches to one foot or more. One stick, thirteen feet long and about ten inches square, was taken over 100 rods from my house and thrust into the earth ten feet, at an angle of forty-five degrees. It seems that the air must have been full of every conceivable thing, parts of wagons and buggies and goods from the house were literally torn to fragments and scattered abroad. Before the storm I had two lumber wagons, after it I had only two wheels left.

"After leaving my place it struck Mr. Lorenzo Wood's, there it en- tirely demolished the buildings (and they were many), but carried away nothing very heavy, except a few sheep that were transported something near twenty miles. His papers were found by honest men and returned. I think there were none on Mr. Wood's farm seriously hurt, unless it was a tenant family [the Felties] who were lifted house and all into the air and carried in a southwesterly direction over the line fence into my field, and there caught by another current and carried in a circle back into the same field that they started from, mak- ing a distance of about fifty rods before the house was torn to pieces. Its course could be traced for weeks after, for in places the corners of the house struck into the earth, and in others the building dragged along and made large holes as if several wagon-loads of soil had been removed, and then elevated itself, no one knows how high, before coming to the final crash. As I said before, this family were some- what hurt, but I think they all survived. One of the men who were in this house told me afterward that when it was in motion the stove rolled over the room like a ball, and all their furniture, with them- selves, was pitched and tumbled about fearfully. At this point it seemed to reach out to the north about twenty rods and take in a Mr. Preston, who owned and lived on the Chadwick farm. It demolished all his buildings, and carried him with two of his children out through the tree-tops and landed them several rods from where they started unharmed, save some flesh wounds; but his only a son, a little boy, was killed outright. From there it passed on, devastating everything in its way, until it struck Mr. Martin Wright's. It cleared him out, tearing down everything in its course, and threw him and his wife's

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sister up into some trees, broke out a large piece of the lady's jaw- bone, taking with it the teeth, and so nearly killed Mr. Wright that his life was despaired of for a long time. Both finally recovered, while Mrs. Wright, who was in the house at the same time and not hurt at all, died in less than ten days, as it was supposed, from fright. The cyclone moved from here to Mr. Jolin Lane's, destroying everything, but killing no one. From this point it left Amboy township and visited the corner of Lee Center, passing into Bradford, doing serious damage to Mr. Darwin Woodruff's farm, lifting up his house and dashing it to fragments instantly, so injuring the inmates that they were taken up for dead, but they all recovered. Beyond this point for some miles it did little harm ; but fourteen miles distant it descended, leaving articles taken from this neighborhood, and so lowering at intervals to deal ont destruction ; its force did not seem to abate until it reached Lake Michigan."

The many admirers of the late Col. Wyman will thank the Hon. B. H. Trusdell for the following graceful memoir of their lamented friend :

John B. Wyman, oldest of ten children, of Scotch ancestry, was born July 12, 1817 ; and was educated at a select school at Bolton, and at the public schools of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. At the age of fourteen he ceased study altogether under the direction of tutors; and in view of his liberally practical acquirements in later life, may be said in truth to have been a thoroughly self-made man. Having quit school, he became employed in a clothing store in Shrewsbury ; and in 1838, as a partner in a mercantile firm, opened the first ready-made cloth- ing store in Cincinnati, Ohio. He remained in that city two years, and then returned to his native state to become a member of a firm en- gaged in the dry-goods business. At that time he was married to Miss Maria Bradley. In 1846 he was general clerk in the Springfield car and engine shops, and afterward superintended the construction of cars. He was a conductor on the New York and New Haven railroad in 1850, and subsequently superintendent of the Connecticut River railroad. In 1852 he entered the service of the Illinois Central Rail- road Company, and assisted in the survey and construction under Col. R. B. Mason, general superintendent and engineer. He was first employed on the branch, but in 1853 was transferred to the main line, and accepted the superintendency of the north division. At the earliest moment he acquired an interest in Amboy and laid out Wyman's addition, and we may almost call him the father of the city. He settled permanently in the place on the completion of the passen- ger house, of which he was proprietor some time. He was twice mayor of Amboy, and the first incumbent of the office. His second

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History of Lee County, together with biographical matter, statistics, etc., Part 35

Author: Hill, H.H. (Chicago) pbl Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago, H.H. Hill Number of Pages: 910

Author: Hill, H.H. (Chicago) pbl
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, H.H. Hill
Number of Pages: 910