USA > Illinois > McLean County > History of McLean County, Illinois, Volume I > Part 18
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Further north along the Illinois Central Railroad are located the plants of the Dodge-Dickinson Company, makers of mattresses and kin- dred products ; the Hayes-Hamilton Stove Company, and the Davis Ewing Concrete Company, all doing a large business.
The Paul F. Beich Company, owners and operators of a very large candy-making plant in Bloomington, is one of the well-established and best-known industries of McLean County. Mr. Beich, the founder, began
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operations in a small way when he was a young man, in a room on Front Street. Later he acquired the Lancaster Caramel Company, which occu- pied the building near the Alton station which had been originally built for a buggy factory. Eventually Mr. Beich gained control of the whole company and its plant, and the Paul F. Beich Co. was incorporated. Sev- eral additions to the building have been made in the last fifteen years, the last of which was erected in 1923. The company manufactures a great variety of candies, and its sales cover the whole country and many foreign countries. The same concern operates a factory in Chicago, but the main offices are in Bloomington. The factory here employs scores of people, many of them young women. The officers are: Paul F. Beich, president ; Frank E. Sweeting, vice-president; Ernest H. Black, secretary.
The MaGirl Foundry and Furnace Works, located on East Oakland Avenue, has been in operation for many years successfully manufactur- ing a line of furnaces and other similar products. It was founded by Pat- rick H. MaGirl now deceased. The manager at present is James D. MaGirl.
The Bloomington Canning Company is one of the important indus- trial plants of the county. Its plant is located inside the corporate limits of Normal, just north of Division Street. It has been in operation for about twenty-five years, and. each season it gathers and packs hundreds of thousands of cases of sweet corn which is grown on its own leased farm lands or bought from farmers with whom contracts are made at the be- ginning of each season. The active canning season is carried on for only about six or eight weeks beginning about the middle of August and run- ning into late September each year. While packing is in progress, the factory employs several scores of people in the various operations. A smaller force of employes are in the plant the year round for the pur- pose of boxing and shipping out the product as ordered. The sales of the goods from this factory cover nearly every part of the country. The company was owned and managed for several years by Peter Whitmer, R. F. Evans, William L. Evans and J. O. Willson, all now deceased. The present officers of the company are: Ira S. Whitmer, president; Leroy G. Whitmer, vice-president ; Charles D. Myers, secretary.
For the past 20 years Bloomington has been known as an important point for jobbing interests. This has been especially true in the line of wholesale grocery establishments, of which there are three larger ones.
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Each of these handles hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of groceries in a year, having large establishments.
J. F. Humphreys & Co. for many years occupied a building at Grove and East, but lately bought the large warehouse on South Main, formerly used by the Illinois Moline Plow Co. The officers are: Howard Humphreys, president; R. O. Ahlenius, vice-president; Rogers Humphreys, secretary- treasurer.
The Campbell Holton Company, wholesale grocers, have a large ware- house and shipping plant on South Gridley Street, formerly the plant of the Continental Packing Company. It has been remodeled and enlarged for the use of the Holton Company and is a modern plant in every way. The officers of the company are: Campbell Holton, president; H. W. Kelly, vice-president; C. A. Stephenson, secretary ; E. M. Evans treasurer.
The Cumming Wholesale Grocery Company occupies the building on South Center which is a part of the Johnson Transfer Co. plant. It was formerly known as Hawks, Incorporated, having been founded by E. B. Hawks and his associates and transferred last year to the present corpo- ration. The officers are W. H. Cumming, president and treasurer; Egbert B. Hawk, vice-president; L. W. Bosworth, secretary; directors, W. H. Cumming, Charles F. Scholer, E. B. Hawk, L. W. Bosworth and Charles F. J. Agle.
In years gone by, the nurseries of the county formed an important factor in its business. They were located mostly in the vicinity of Normal, where the era prior to the Civil War several very large nurseries, they being among the largest in the central west, in fact. They were the Over- man nurseries, the Mann nurseries, the Phoenix nursery, the Augustine nurseries, and Home nursery, the Corn Belt, and several others. Changes have taken place in that business as in all others in the last generation, but the nursery business still forms an important part of the general business and industrial activities of the county. The last city directory of Bloomington and Normal indicated that there are eight nurseries now doing business here, some of them of many years' establishment, and others having come upon the field of comparatively recent date.
The manufacturing and industrial interests of Bloomington and Mc- Lean County include very many smaller plants both in the county seat, at Normal and in several towns of the county. The products of these plants are widely distributed, and the money coming in from them forms one of the factors of the prosperity of the county and its people.
CHAPTER XVIII.
RAILROADS.
ILLINOIS CENTRAL OLDEST-FINANCES-BUILDING OF EAST AND WEST LINES- VOTING OF BONDS-BUILDING ROAD NORTH AND SOUTH-C. & A. SHOPS- GROWTH OF RAILROADS-VALUATION OF RAILROAD PROPERTY-ELECTRIC RAILROADS-TELEGRAPH COMPANIES.
McLean County has four steam railroads passing through its county seat, and there are two other steam roads crossing the county, one along the northern edge, the other across the southeast corner. The oldest . of these roads in point of first being projected, is the Illinois Central, which was part of the great scheme of internal improvements which the state legislature voted in 1837. The road was to be built from Galena to Cairo, but its exact route across the state was uncertain. The state voted its credit to the Central road to the extent of $3,500,000. The building of the road was started, when the financial catastrophe of 1841 occurred, and its further construction was delayed ten years. On Sept. 30, 1850, a law passed congress donating to the State of Illinois for the use of the Cen- tral railroad nearly 2,500,000 acres of public land, the state to dictate the terms on which the land was to be granted. The state in turn required by law that the Central road should pay to the state treasury 7 per cent of its gross receipts. This payment grew as years went on until it reached $1,000,000 per year. Afterward many of the counties, including Mc- Lean, complained that part of this money received from the Illinois Cen- tral, should go into the county treasuries of the counties through which the road was built. When the line was to be laid out for the construc- tion of the road, General Gridley was in the Legislature, and he tried to
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get it routed through Decatur, Clinton and Bloomington, three county seats within his district. Owing to much rivalry for the route, it seemed that his purpose might be defeated, but he secured its final routing to pass within five miles east of the corner of town 21 north range on 1 east. This point is two and a half miles east of Heyworth, which would have routed the road eight miles east of Bloomington. General Gridley's pur- pose was accomplished, for when the building of the road was begun it was seen that it must be constructed through Decatur, Clinton and Bloom- ington. The first part of the line was built from the north, and a train was run down from LaSalle to Bloomington on May 3, 1853. The panic of 1857 came soon after the building of the road this far, and the further development of the line was much retarded.
The east and west steam roads running through Bloomington had checkered careers in getting started. The line known as the Big Four of recent years, and later as the New York Central, from Peoria to Dan- ville, was first projected in 1837 as part of the great internal improve- ment scheme mentioned in connection with the Illinois Central. The road had been graded from Pekin to Mackinaw when the hard times of 1841 came. This retarded the completion of the road for more than ten years. Ín 1857 a vote was taken on the proposition of Bloomington Township · voting bonds of $100,000 to assist in financing this road, but by a vote of 1,570 to 1,166 it was defeated. The project lay dormant until about 1866, when it was revived. The following year Bloomington Township did vote the $100,000 bonds for this enterprise, while Empire Township also bonded itself for $75,000 to aid the road, and West Township gave $20,000 in a similar way. The line was completed from Pekin to Bloom- ington on May 31, 1870. It later became known as the Indianapolis, Bloomington & Western, then the Peoria & Eastern, and finally the Big Four and now the New York Central.
Early in the '50's there was a project for building the Peoria, Bloom- ington & Lafayette Railroad, which, however, did not get much of a start. It was revived in 1867 under the name of the Lafayette, Bloomington & Mississippi, to be built first from Bloomington to Lafayette, Ind., and eventually completed west to Peoria. On June 3, 1867, Bloomington Township voted $100,000 in bonds to aid this road, McLean County also subscribed for $20,000 of bonds, and various townships along its route voted aid as follows: Padua, $30,000; Arrowsmith, $30,000; Cheney's
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Grove, $50,000; village of Saybrook, $10,000. The road was completed from Lafayette to Bloomington in 1872, and it was completed west to Peoria in 1885. The name changed several times, being known as the Lake Erie & Western, and now as the Nickel Plate. The state constitu- tion of 1870 prevented any county or municipality issuing bonds to aid a railroad, hence after that year no railroad bonds were voted.
In point of its future effect upon, the prosperity of Bloomington and of McLean County in general, the most important railroad built into the city and county was what is now known as the Chicago & Alton, but which in its earlier stages was known as the Alton & Sangamon road. This road, connecting the great cities of Chicago and St. Louis, with Bloom- ington its principal division terminal, was built in sections under at least five different charters granted by the State of Illinois. When it came into McLean County it arrived rather quietly, and with no flourish of trumpets as had the Illinois Central road. The Central had been under discussion in the State of Illinois since 1836, and its extension south from LaSalle in 1853 brought to Bloomington its greatest crowd of peo- ple known up to that time when the first train reached the city. On Feb. 6, 1851, General Gridley, then a member of the State Senate, wrote a letter to the Western Intelligencer, published at Bloomington, in which he exulted over the passage by the Legislature of the bill chartering the Illinois Central Railroad, and added: "I am also of the opinion that the bill extending the charter of the Alton & Sangamon Railroad Company to Bloomington will pass the house and become a law; in which event I am assured by the agent of the company that the road will be constructed and completed in two years."
The bill did pass the Legislature, surveys were made, the contracts let for building the road north to Bloomington, and on Oct. 16, 1853, the first trains were run from the south into Bloomington. For several months the trains from the south connected with the Illinois Central at Blooming- ton Junction (Normal), thence over the Central via LaSalle to Chicago. At that time the road advertised to take passengers to New York via Chicago "in only sixty hours."
As the road reached Bloomington in the late fall, it was impossible to finish the line north until the following summer. The building started north from Bloomington and was finished so that an excursion train was run down from Lexington on July 4, 1854. The Joliet & Chicago road had
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been previously constructed, so that when the extension north from Bloomington to Chicago was made, the line was completed from St. Louis to Chicago. The Illinois Central depot was located at the eastern edge of town, and the leaders of that day, Jesse Fell and others, thought it best to locate the Chicago & Alton depot on the western edge, thinking the town would spread out between the two. Jesse Fell, David Davis, General Gridley and others secured donations of land and other gifts to secure for Bloomington the location of the repair shops of the new road, thus laying the foundations of what proved to be the city's chief indus- trial enterprise. The shops in turn gave rise to the idea of building from Bloomington the new division to Jacksonville in 1867, for which Bloom- ington Township and city of Bloomington voted bonds of $75,000. If this aid had not been given, the Jacksonville line would have been built north from Delavan to Washington.
The small shops of the C. & A. erected in 1853-54 were burned down in 1867, and it required a strong effort on the part of citizens to secure consent to rebuild here, for Chicago, Springfield and. Joliet were all seek- ing the location. The fact that the road had three divisions centering here was one of the main arguments in favor of Bloomington.
As an indication of the growth and developments of the railroads and their holdings in McLean County, the figures of the assessed valuation of railorad property in the county for the year 1923 may be cited. There are in this county for the year 1923 a total of 218 miles of steam rail- way lines, the total property value of which as assessed by the state tax commission was $4,144,542, while the total assessed valuation was $2,589,- 677. It is well known that the assessed valuation is one-half of the real valuation, and even at that the figures are always very low. Railroads of the county, the number of miles of each and the total amount of prop- erty as assessed by the state tax commission for the year 1923 were as follows:
Chicago & Alton-Forty-two miles; assessed valuation, $849,712; property values, $1,807,620. Bloomington & Jacksonville (branch of Chi- cago & Alton), 14 miles; assessed valuation $198,729; property values, $296,171.
Chicago and Springfield division of the Illinois Central-Ten miles; assessed valuation, $136,383; property values, $201,600.
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Kankakee and Southwestern division of Illinois Central-Twenty- nine miles; assessed valuation, $233,864; property values, $275,551.
Main line Illinois Central-One mile; property values, $953.
Rantoul division Illinois Central-Seventeen miles; assessed valua- tion, $136,067; property values, $164,316.
Lake Erie & Western-Forty-two miles; assessed valuation, $421,900; property values, $543,181.
Peoria & Eastern-Thirty-seven miles; assessed valuation, $371,442; property values, $529,805.
Toledo, Peoria & Western-Twenty-one miles; assessed valuation, $211,394 ; property values, $278,472.
Wabash, C. & P .- Two miles; assessed valuation, $30,197; property values, $46,873.
Bloomington, Decatur & Champaign Electric Railroad-Thirteen miles ; assessed valuation, $78,558; property values, $93,989.
St. Louis, Springfield & Peoria Electric Railroad-Sixteen miles; as- sessed valuation, $101,033; property values, $128,922.
The two electric railroads last mentioned are parts of the Illinois Traction System, whose total mileage in this county is 30 miles, and total assessed valuation $179,591; total property values, $223,285.
The first use of a telegraph line into Bloomington or McLean County took place on January 28, 1854. The line was from Springfield to Bloomington, which was constructed after citizens of Bloomington had subscribed $1,000 as a bonus to the Western Union Telegraph Company for such a line. In August, 1853, John Caton, pioneer of the Western Union, came to Bloomington and told General Gridley that if the citizens would take $1,000 of stock his company would give the city an office on the line from Springfield to Chicago. The purse of $1,000 was made up, mostly in subscriptions of $50 each, and the poles were soon set and wires strung. The first message, sent on January 28, from Springfield to the editor of the Pantagraph, as follows:
"C. P. Merriman: May the new communication by telegraph, so aus- piciously opened, continue for ages. Signed, S. Francis."
Matthew L. Steele was the first operator, who served till 1866, when Arthur T. McElhiney succeeded him and filled the position for 25 years.
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HISTORY OF MCLEAN COUNTY
The telegraph companies in Bloomington have kept pace with modern facilities and improvements in other lines. The Western Union now has a large and handsomely equipped office located at 210 West Washington Street.
The Postal Telegraph Company established an office in Bloomington some 20 years ago and have since maintained it.
CHAPTER XIX.
BANKS.
FIRST RECORDED LOAN IN COUNTY-PIONEER BANKS PANICS-INCREASE IN NUMBER OF STATE BANKS-LIST OF PRESENT MCLEAN COUNTY BANKS- DEPOSITS.
Banks and banking institutions as we know them now did not exist in the earlier years of McLean County. In fact, for many years after the white settlers began to take up land in this section of Illinois, they could buy the land from the government at $1.25 per acre, but they were unable to secure funds with which to buy the necessary implements and stock for the proper conduct of their farms. The first recorded loans of money made in this county were those in the year 1829, when Dr. Peebles seemed to be the principal man engaged in any kind of money loaning business. In the period just preceding 1836, there was a large influx of population into this county, and money became more plentiful, due to speculative buying and selling of lands and town lots. Then came the panic of 1837, and money went flat again, for everybody was hard up. Governor Ford, in his message of 1843, told the Legislature that he did not believe there was over $400,000 of money in circulation in the whole state of Illinois.
For the ten-year period prior to the Civil War there were three banks in Bloomington, operating under the state banking law, but none in any other town of the county. When the Civil War came on, banks holding bonds of the southern states found them very greatly depreciated and some banks caught with many southern bonds had to go out of business. One such bank was the Lafayette Bank of Bloomington. Gridley's bank,
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started in 1853, found its notes subject to great discounts. The prede- cessor of the First National Bank had declined to use southern bonds as the basis of its issues, hence it got over the crisis and reorganized in 1862 as the First National Bank. It then began to operate under the national banking laws instead of the state. Peoria, Springfield, Chicago and In- dianapolis banks in those days supplied most of the money needed by farmers for buying cattle and other farm operations. The interest charges were very high, being 2 per cent per month as the minimum.
Another era of hard times in 1873 resulted in the failure of the Home Bank of Bloomington, run by McClun, Holder & Co. The First National Bank, which had been organized on a 'permanent basis in 1865, remained as solid as a rock and pursued a careful and judicious policy.
The number of banks grew rapidly in the 20 years from 1875 until 1895, and at the close of the period there was one or more banks in nearly every important town in the county. Many of these were private banks, but when a law was passed about 1911 that all private banks must organ- ize under state or federal direction, then some of the smaller banks went out of business. At one time in Bloomington, about 1905, there were seven banks in operation. Then consolidations took place, and the num- ber of banks in Bloomington now (1923) is five. The Corn Belt Bank, the McLean County Bank and the American State Bank were the younger of the institutions, but they have outlived some of the older banks. The Third National was first absorbed by the First National. Then the State National and the State Trust and Savings were combined with the First National Bank and the building of the latter was remodeled to accommo- date the larger institution. The American State bought the Metropole Hotel Building in 1923 and made it into a first-class banking house. The Corn Belt remodeled its entire interior. The People's Bank erected in 1902 a seven-story bank building, the only seven-story structure in the downtown district.
In towns outside of Bloomington many of the banks own their own homes, and occupy up-to-date quarters. The following is a list of the banks in McLean County, with the year of their organization and their present officers :
Anchor State Bank, founded 1895, president, Jacob Martens; vice- president, J. H. Nafsizer ; cashier, H. B. Ulmer.
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HISTORY OF MCLEAN COUNTY
Arrowsmith State Bank, founded 1893; president, J. H. Jacobs; vice- presidents, G. F. Lester and G. A. Builta; cashier, Raymond Webber.
Bellflower Exchange Bank; founded 1906; president, J. E. Smith; vice-president, H. F. Helmick; cashier, Helen Helmick.
Bellflower State Bank, founded 1892; president, A. F. Gooch; vice- president, D. R. Gooch, Jr .; cashier, A. G. Gooch.
Corn Belt Bank, Bloomington, founded 1892; president, John J. Pitts; vice-president, O. P. Skaggs; cashier, C. J. Moyer.
American State Bank, Bloomington; founded 1902; president, Albert Wochner; vice-president, Frank Oberkoetter; cashier, Adolph Wochner.
First National Bank, Bloomington; founded 1865; C. W. Robinson, chairmòn of board; Wilber M. Carter, president; H. K. Hoblit, H. W. Hall, J. J. Condon, vice-presidents ; Frank M. Rice, cashier.
First Trust and Savings Bank, Bloomington; president, Wilber M. Carter; vice-presidents, H. K. Hoblit and W. J. Carter; cashier, Leonne Robinson.
Liberty State Bank, Bloomington; founded 1920; president, John W. Rodgers; vice-presidents, E. E. Fincham and Phil Wood; cashier, P. A. Johnson.
McLean County Bank, Bloomington; founded 1903; president, Lee Rust; vice-presidents, R. R. Johnson, Howard H. Rust; cashiers, W. L. Rust, J. P. Arnett.
People's Bank, Bloomington; founded 1869; president, W. L. Moore; president of board, F. D. Marquis; vice-president, L. H. Weldon.
Farmers State Bank, Carlock; founded 1899; president, J. E. O'Hara; vice-president, S. E. Maurer ; cashier, H. B. Carlock.
Farmers Bank, Chenoa; founded 1884; president, J. S. Kelly; vice- president, Maurice Monroe; cashier, C. H. Merriott.
State Bank of Chenoa, founded 1892; president, A. D. Jordan; cashier, L. L. Silliman.
Farmers State Bank, Colfax; founded 1903; president, Charles At- kinson; vice-president, Joseph Martin, Sr .; cashier, Edna M. Atkinson.
Citizens State Bank, Cropsey ; president, E. T. Lange; vice-presidents, S. E. Thomas, John Brucker; cashier, G. M. Meeker.
Cropsey State Bank; founded 1892; president, M. B. Meeker; vice- president, H. C. Cantle; cashier, J. H. Barnes.
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HISTORY OF MCLEAN COUNTY
State Bank of Cooksville; founded 1892; president, N. L. Elbert; vice- president, Wesley Woodard; cashier, Edward Weidner.
Farmer State Bank, Danvers; president, J. C. Nafziger; vice-presi- dent, W. Miller; cashier, W. D. Kitchell.
First National Bank, Danvers; founded 1903; president, C. R. Ewins; vice-president, Peter Risser; cashier, Lyle Stuckey.
Farmers State Bank, Downs; founded 1901; president, J. R. Carlisle ; vice-president, W. M. Buckles; cashier, E. B. Lanier.
Bank of Ellsworth, founded 1891; president, C. A. Shinkle; vice-presi- dent, Tobey Bane; cashier, C. C. Kreitzer.
State Bank of Gridley; founded 1891; president, W. D. Castle; vice- president, J. R. Heiple ; cashier, J. R. Heiple.
Farmers State Bank, Heyworth, founded 1906; president, C. H. Russum; vice-president, Albert Fulton; cashier, J. T. Buck.
Heyworth State Bank; founded 1891; president, J. P. Shelton; vice- president, F. L. Wakefield; cashier, L. T. Rutledge.
Bank of Holder, Holder; founded 1905; president, H. M. Murray ; vice- president, S. Evans ; cashier, F. W. Boston.
Hudson State Bank; founded 1900; president, J. F. Shepard; vice- president, William Humphries; cashier, R. A. Ensign.
First National Bank, Leroy; founded 1903; president, H. H. Crum- baugh; vice-presidents, G. E. Dooley and J. W. Weidner; cashier, R. E. Kimler.
1924 Leroy State Bank; W. F. Crumbaugh, president; vice-president and cashier, J. Keenan.
People's Bank, Lexington; founded 1900; president, J. J. Kemp; vice-president, R. T. Claggett ; cashier, L. B. Strayer.
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