USA > Illinois > McDonough County > History of McDonough county, Illinois, its cities, towns and villages with early reminiscences, personal incidents and anecdotes and a complete business directory of the county > Part 15
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HISTORY OF M'DONOUGH COUNTY.
CHAPTER XVI.
1857-1860.
A called meeting of the Board of Supervisors was held May 11, 1857, and continued in session three days. This was the first meeting ever held by the Board. John Price, of Eldorado, was elected Chairman pro tem., after which Jonathan H. Baker was elected permanent Chairman. Rules were adopted for the government of the Board, and business at once proceeded with. The following named persons responded to their names : John Price, Eldorado ; James H. Epperson, New Salem ; Samuel H. McCandless, Mound; Alonzo L. Kimber, Prairie City ; Joel Pennington, Industry ; Isaac P. Monfort, Scotland; Jonathan H. Baker, Spring Creek ; D. I. Dungan, Walnut Grove ; James H. Dunsworth, Eagle Town; Isaac McCowan, Erin Town ; William Heath, Sciota; James Ma- guire, Macomb ; John S. Holliday, Lamoine; Stephen A. White, Tennessee ; Ebenezer N. Hicks, Rock Creek; William W. Moss, Blandinsville. George A. Taylor, Sheriff, and Isaac Grantham, Clerk, were also present.
For several years previous to this time our county had enjoyed a season of unexampled prosperity. Emigration had poured in, and in less than five years we had more than doubled our population. The speculative fever raged high, and real estate advanced in a marvelous degree.
Land which, before the railroad was projected, would not bring the government price, $1.25 per acre, now ranged from $10 to $30, and that, too, without improvements of any kind. Town lots which before went begging at from $25 to $50, readily sold at from $200 to $500. Laborers were in great demand, buildings were erected by the hundred, and all seemed on the high road to wealth. In the year 1856 William H. Randolph & Co. opened a
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banking and exchange office in Macomb, and in an evil hour took stock to the amount of $20,000 in what afterwards proved to be a wild cat bank of the worst species. The county was flooded with the issues of this bank, though not all being of the series assumed by Messrs. Randolph & Co. The name of this institution was the Nemaha Valley Bank, having a large number of stockholders throughout the county. Its plan of doing business was substan- tially as follows : Its stock was divided into a certain number of shares and sold to parties desiring them, the purchaser being en- titled to a certain amount of the bills of the bank in proportion to the number of shares held. The bills held by each contribu- ting purchaser constituted a series for which he was only to be held responsible, each redeeming the series assigned to himself. Arrangements were entered into by the holders of the different series to redeem the notes of each other when presented for pay- ment, and sending them in for redemption. This arrangement served to strengthen the confidence of the people in their sta- bility.
This county was also flooded with the notes of the Platte Val- ley Bank, another institution of the same wild cat species. When the crash in 1858 came the notes of these banks were at once pre- sented to the different depositories for redemption. Messrs. Ran- dolph & Co., though having out but $20,000, continued to redeen until they had paid out over $25,000, and, then becoming satisfied that they would never be enabled to obtain anything from MeCoy, the owner of the Nemaha Valley Bank, they were forced to sus- pend. Mr. Randolph's loss, we are reliably informed, was not less than $100,000 directly, and as much more indirectly, in con- sequences of the sacrifices he was compelled to make.
The failure of Messrs. Randolph & Co., in connection with the panic throughout the whole country, operated heavily against the interests of this county. Nearly all public and private improve- ments were suspended ; mechanics and laboring men were thrown out of employment; real estate depreciated in value, and mortga- ges given for securing payment on land were foreclosed, and the sufferings of the people were very general. Notwithstanding all this, they soon rallied, and an era of prosperity began again.
The Board of Supervisors, at its first session, placed the license for the sale of intoxicating liquors at $300 per annum. Petition after petition was sent in during the year, and au effort was
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made by some of the Board to reduce the amount. Like the un- fortunate woman with the unjust judge, they continued to plead until the patience of the members gave way and the license was made $50.
On account of the large amount of repairs necessary to be made on the poor farm, an order was made at the September term of the Board to sell it, provided it could be sold for not less than $30 per acre. Eighty and one-third acres were afterward sold at this price.
A clause in the charter of the city of Macomb, relieving it from taxation for county purposes, has always been a source of great trouble to the Board of Supervisors. The following is the pro- vision of the charter in question :
The county of McDonough shall be exempt from the support of any citizen of said city who may become a pauper, but the City Council shall provide for the support and care of all paupers belonging to said city and pass such ordinances and regulations as they shall deem proper for the purpose thereof. The City Council shall also provide for the payment of all costs in the Circuit Court of McDonough county for the conviction of any citizen of said city for any criminal offense, and the prosecuting attorney's fees and jailor's fees, in case the same cannot be collected from the offenders. Or the City Council may provide for the payment to the county of McDonough, annually, of such sums as will be a fair proportion of the expenses of the county for the Circuit Court of said county-the amount to be fixed by the City Council and the County Court of said county, and to be apportioned equitably and justly. In the consideration of the sup- port of paupers and the payment of the expenses and costs aforesaid, all the real estate within said city and all the personal property of the inhabitants of said city shall be exempt from all taxes for county purposes, except for paying the interest and finally the principal of the bonds of McDonough county, issued or hereafter to be issued as subscrip- tions for railroad stocks : provided, that, upon the final payment of any such bonds, the said city shall be entitled to a pro rata amount of the stock for which they were given with said county, according to the amount paid therefor by said city.
In one way or another, at nearly every meeting of the Board, questions would arise with reference to this matter. The Board finally asked the State Legislature to repeal this clause of the city charter, which was accordingly done.
By the contract with the Northern Cross railroad, the bonds and coupons given in aid of the said road, were made payable in New York. At the September term, 1859, of the Board of Supervi- sors, it was ordered that the coupons, due the following January. should be paid as usual. At the December term this order was rescinded, in consequence of a decision having been rendered by the Supreme Court of the State declaring that cities and counties have no right to make bonds issued in aid of railroads payable in the city of New York, (See 22 Ill. R., pp. 147), and that counties
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and cities, by such decision, are not legally bound on contracts to pay moneys anywhere else than at the city or county treasury. Contracts made to pay such indebtedness elsewhere than at said treasury are void, as the statutes of the State of Illinois do not authorize cities and counties to make a contract payable at any other place than at their treasury. (See 22 Ill. R., pp. 147-156.)
In March, 1860, in the Supreme Court, or the United States District Court, suit was commenced by Van Hoffman et al. against the county. At the June term of the Board of Supervisors Hon. James M. Campbell was authorized to employ counsel, and, in the name of the county, to defend this suit. Mr. Campbell employed Messrs. Goudy & Waite, of Chicago, to take charge of the case. Before a trial was had the Supreme Court of the State, in a trial between Johnson vs. Stark County, in a great measure overruled and revised the above decision. On learning this, Messrs. Goudy & Waite advised Mr. Campbell to pay the judgment which would be rendered against the county in the case, and it was accordingly done. We cannot help but disapprove the action of our Board of Supervisors in this case. We think they did wrong in attempt- ing to shirk the payment of a just debt in the manner called for in the contract. It may be offered in extenuation that the directors of the railroad had defrauded the county out of the stock taken by it, but this would first have to be proven before it could be made to appear as a justification.
At the December (1860) meeting of the Board, Mr. Hendricks, ot Macomb, offered the following resolution, which, ou motion, was adopted :
Resolved, That the Board of Supervisors of the County of McDonough, Illinois, respectfully recommend to the favorable consideration of the Legislature of this State, at its next session, the passage of a law for the relief of the tax-payers of the State. That the Clerk of this Board be directed to forward copies of this resolution to our mem- bers of the Senate and House of Representatives.
Everything then was at a low price; mechanics and laboring men were out of employment; gold and silver was at a premium, and great difficulty was experienced in obtaining enough to pay taxes. In view of this fact, Mr. Hendricks, at the same session, offered the following resolution :
WHEREAS, Pending the crisis of affairs in this county, the low prices of products of the farmers, and want of employment for the mechanics and laborers, the citizens and tax-payers labor under great disadvantage in procuring gold and silver to pay their taxes ; therefore,
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Resolved. That the County Treasurer. Township Treasurer, and Town Collector be, and they are hereby, requested to receive in payment of the county revenues, town, school, and road tax the bankable currency of the banks of this State, which are recognized as having fully complied with the laws of Illinois, to the satisfaction of the State Auditor ; and that the collectors of towns above alluded to be required to pay over to the county treasury every week the collections each may have made in currency.
The resolution was not adopted, but in lieu thereof the follow- ing :
Resolved. That the several Town Collectors and the County Treasurer be. and they are hereby, requested to receive from and after January 28, 1861, in pay for county, school and town taxes, until the fifteenth day of March next, the notes of all solvent banks of the State of Illinois, the stockholders and officers of which have fully complied with the laws of this State; and said Town Collectors are hereby requested to pay over weekly to the County Treasurer all such sums as they may collect as aforesaid.
In 1858 there was a great fall of rain, and the rivers and streams of the west, were higher than ever before known, save in 1844. Crooked creek swelled to the proportion of a good sized river. June 3, of this year, William H. Franklin, of Macomb, while re- turning home from Missouri on horseback, came to this stream near the Horace Head farm, west of town, and hardly knew whether to cross or not, but deciding to make the attempt he urged his horse into the water, hoping to strike on the bridge. Unfortunately he missed it, and went down into the water. His horse turned to go back, but the stone abutment at the end of the bridge rose perpendicular upon either side, making this impossi- ble. He then resolved to sink his horse and swim for life. After swimming a short distance he reached some brush to which he clung for a moment or two, when, observing a huge drift of wood being swept toward him, he let go and struck out for a tree, the branches of which he observed above the water. Having on two coats and a pair of heavy boots he could scarcely swim at all, but managed to reach the point which he was endeavoring to make. Climbing the branches of the tree as far as possible, he still found himself in the water. Thinking he would never be able to reach the shore, he commenced hallooing as loud as possible, when his cries attracted the attention of a young son of Jesse Walker, who came down to the bank and answered his eall. Mr. F. told him to go at once for his father, when he was in- formed he was in town; but the boy started for him. Meeting his father, the boy related the circumstances, when they both re- turned hurriedly to the stream. Mr. F., seeing the two could do
H-11
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nothing for him, told them to go to town and get six or eight hundred feet of rope and more help. About ten o'clock at night a large crowd from Macomb gathered on the bank and endeavored to cheer the almost drowning man with the assurance that they would soon reseue him. The current of the stream being so swift it was found impossible to reach him with the rope, when B. F. Martin and Orsamus Walker hurried back to town for the purpose of building a boat, while Andy Lewis, Benjamin Naylor and a man named Bromfield, went up the stream about three quarters of a mile, made a raft and floated down. Bromfield fell off the raft and was swept down the stream, but was rescued. The effort to reach the man with the raft proving fruitless, nothing could be done until the arrival of the boat, which arrived at about three o'clock the next morning. Having been in the water for some ten hours, it was with difficulty Mr. F. could get in the boat which was rowed out to meet him. He has no desire to meet with an- other like experience. The horse, after making several attempts, finally reached the shore some distance down the stream.
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HISTORY OF M'DONOUGH COUNTY.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE WAR-AT HOME.
We now come to the year 1861, the first year of the great rebel- lion, and we note with pride the history of McDonough during the stirring events of the succeeding four years. True there are some things we wish might be forever blotted from the book of remem- brance, but such cannot be the case, and it becomes our duty, as a faithful historian, to record the facts as they occurred, trusting the time is past when bitter feelings will be engendered by recall- ing the scenes of those "days that tried men's souls."
Politically, McDonough county has ever been close, neither one of the great parties, at any time being able, with confidence, to claim it as its own. Settled, as we have before stated, principally by emigrants from the Southern States, it could hardly be other- wise than that the sympathies of many would be with the South, and that ill-feeling would exist towards the Abolitionists. But notwithstanding all this, there beat within their breast a patriotism that made them forget mere party feelings and sectional lines in their greater love for the Union. Every star and every stripe in the old flag they loved with a devotion which afterwards ex- hibited itself on many a battle field.
Many of our best and most patriotic citizens endeavored, by all the means within their power, to prevent the election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidential chair, believing it would endanger the Union. Others, equally true, worked hard for his election, be- lieving it impossible that it should afford any pretext for the se- cession of the Southern States. When the dark war clouds began to spread over our country, each and every one hoped, even against hope, that they would soon pass away, and that peace and prosperity would continue to reign. But such was not to be the case. On the twelfth day of April, 1861, the rebels, who for weeks
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had been ereeting their batteries upon the shore, after demanding of Major Anderson a surrender, opened fire upon Fort Sumpter. For hours an incessant cannonading was continued; the fort was being injured severely ; provisions were almost gone, and Major Anderson was compelled to haul down the old flag-that flag which had seldom been lowered to a foreign foe, by rebel hands it was now trailed in the dust ! O, how the blood of patriotic men in the North boiled when they learned of the outrage! And no- where was greater indignation manifested than in McDonough county. Partisan feeling that had heretofore existed was now swept away, and in the language of the immortal Douglas, but two parties could exist-patriots and traitors.
When the President issued his call for 75,000 men, McDonough county responded without delay ; and when the call, but a few days afterward, was made for 300,000 more, others were ready to go forth in defense of their country. Meetings were held in vari- ous parts of the county, participated in by Democrats and Repub- lieans, now only to be known as patriots, and resolutions were adopted setting forth in the strongest terms undying devotion to the Union. As showing the feeling existing at the time, we give the following: At Macomb, April 17, 1861, a large and enthusi- astie meeting was held, and a committee, consisting of Nelson Abbott, Charles Chandler, A. K. Lowry, W. E. Withrow, John Knappenberger and Carter Van Vleck, was appointed to prepare resolutions expressing the sense of the meeting. This committee consisted of three Democrats and three Republicans. They re- ported as follows :
WHEREAS, War against the government of the United States has been commenced by the authorities of the so-called Confederate States. by assailing and reducing Fort Sump- ter, a fortress garrisoned and defended by United States soldiers, and under the sacred protection of the national flag ; and,
WHEREAS, The president of the United States has issued his proclamation reciting that "the laws of the United States have been and are opposed in several states by combinations too powerful to be suppressed in the ordinary way," and calling for volun- teers to suppress said combination and execute the laws ; be it
Resolved by the citizens of Me Donough county, without distinction of party, in mass meeting assembled, That it is the duty of all loyal and patriotic citizens, at whatever cost of blood and treasure, to sustain and support the constituted authorities of the United States in their lawful efforts to preserve the Union, maintain the integrity of the consti- tution and the supremacy of all the laws, and protect the federal capital and sustain the honor of our national flag.
Resolved, That, while we would be glad to see such legislation adopted by the federal and state governments as would, if possible, bring about an honorable reconciliation between the citizens of the several states, yet we deem it the duty of our Legislature about
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HISTORY OF M'DONOUGHI COUNTY.
to assemble to pass such laws as will render the general government speedy and efficient aid in all its lawful endeavors to carry out the objects indicated in the foregoing reso- lution.
Resolved, That the stars and stripes are the emblems of our country's liberties and honors. and wheresoever floating it is the duty of every American citizen to yield to that flag unconditional allegiance and undying devotion.
At Colchester, April 19th, at a public meeting, they reported as follows :
Resolved, That we. the citizens of Colchester and vicinity, have no ill-feeling toward any political party, and say, with the immortal Clay, that we know no North-no South- no East-no West; we know only the welfare of our country.
Resolced, That, in view of our present crisis, we pledge our support to the administra- tion for the purpose of sustaining the government, the constitution, and the Union. In doing so we show them we are not degenerated sons of '76.
At Foster's Point, on the evening of the twenty-seventh of April, the citizens assembled and adopted the following :
WHEREAS, The government of these United States has been assailed-the flag of our country fired upon and dishonored-our country is severely threatened with destruction ; therefore,
Resolved, That we, without respect to party, declare our undying devotion to the Union, the constitution, and the enforcement of the laws.
Resolved. That we know no government but our government, no country but our coun- try, and no flag but the stars and stripes of our honored sires.
Other meetings were held in various parts of the county, and equally strong resolutions were passed. The people were thor- oughly aroused. About the twentieth of April a company num- bering one hundred and eight was formed at Macomb, and the following officers elected : V. Y. Ralston, Captain; B. F. Pinck- ley, First Lieutenant; II. M. Bartholomew, Second Lieutenant. As the names of the company are given elsewhere, it is not neces- sary that we should repeat. D. P. Wells had another company ready, when the two together left Macomb for Springfield, the place of rendezvous. They were escorted to the depot by about one thousand persons, and many were the tears shed and the hearty "God bless you !" given over the departure of loved ones. But there was not one of all that number who would have had any one of the departing boys turn back. Samuel Wilson, of Middletown, with another company, joined the two from Macomb at Colchester, and, together, the three proceeded to Springfield, from which place they were forwarded to Quiney, where the work of organizing the regiment was completed.
For four long years, the organization of new companies and en- listment of men for old companies whose ranks had been deci- mated by disease and rebel bullets, was carried on. Gray-headed
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men, who had almost reached three-score years and ten, and boys not yet out of their teens, went to the camp, and through the most urgent solicitation, were accepted and sworn into the service. Neither age nor youth kept them back, and when rejected from either cause, or from physical inability, would insist on being re- ceived, believing themselves as capable of doing a soldier's duty as thousands who had already gone. Three thousand of as brave men as ever handled a musket or drew a sword, went out from this county, many, very many, never to return. If you go with me to the battle-fields of the South, we shall see how there fell at Donelson, Shiloh, Mission Ridge, Lookout Mountain, Chat- tanooga, Chickamauga, Atlanta, Vicksburg, and other places, those who were the pride of fond fathers, loving mothers, and unselfish, devoted wives. We shall see them dropping off, one by one, and often, withont coffin or burial shroud, thrown into the cold ground, there to await the resurrection morn, and the re-union upon the other side of the River of Death. In many a home throughout the county we find the vacant chair, and witness the mournful look of those ever watching for one that cometh not. Upon our streets, day by day, we meet those wearing sleeveless garments, or walking in a way that tells too plainly that the sound of the footfall is not made by flesh and blood. Inquire the reason, and we shall probably learn that while charging the enemies lines at Vicksburg, Shiloh, or elsewhere, a cannon ball deprived them of a limb. But no word of complaint do we hear; the only regret expressed being that it was not possible to do more for their country.
While they were away upon the tented field, the patriotie men and women at home were not idle. Although impossible to get the county to do anything in an official way for the relief of sol- diers' families, many, as private citizens, thought it not only a duty but a blessed privilege to render all the aid in their power. Dur- ing the entire four years of war, we think but little actual suffer- ing was experienced by any at home on account of the absence of their natural protectors, who were serving their country. Fairs and festivals were held for the purpose of obtaining sanitary sup- plies for those in the field, and Soldiers' Aid Societies were con- tinually investigating and relieving the wants of the needy at home.
Occasionally word would be received of the gallant conduct upon the battle field of some company from this county, and al-
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though hearts were made sad by the fact that the blood of many had been shed, yet all rejoiced that none failed to perform their duty. At the battle of Shiloh the 28th regiment distin- guished itself greatly, and the ranks of Co. D were decimated by the shot and shell of the enemy, but still they faltered not. At the first meeting of the Board of Supervisors held thereafter, Hon. James M. Campbell introdneed the following resolution, which, on motion, was unanimously adopted :
Resolved. That James M. Wallin, Esq .. the Chairman of this Board. be requested to procure and present to Capt. G. L. Farwell, for his company D, 28th regiment, Illinois Volunteers, a national flag as a token of merit for distinguished patriotism in the battle of Shiloh, on the sixth and seventh of April last, on behalf of McDonough County. Illi- nois.
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