USA > Illinois > McLean County > History of McLean County, Illinois, Volume I > Part 29
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In the northeast corner is the men's smoking room which has two 9 by 12 rugs and twelve pieces of wicker furniture.
In the southeast corner is the kitchen. This is thoroughly equipped to banquet four hundred people. There is a large supply of dishes, silver- ware, etc., a large double gas range, battery of coffee urns, work tables and other necessary equipment.
The structure, both inside and out, is of ornate design, is complete in all its appointments and is withal, a building of which the soldiers and citizens of the city and county must have just cause to be proud.
Willis S. Harwood of Bloomington was the chairman of the building committee during the erection of the McBarnes building. Ben S. Rhodes was vice chairman; Harris K. Hoblit, treasurer; Oscar Hoose, secretary ; John Bozarth, Charles P. Kane, Walter Arbogast and T. F. Harwood were
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the other members of the committee. Mr. McBarnes chose some of the members of the committee and the American Legion selected the others. The ones chosen by Mr. McBarnes were W. S. Harwood, Messrs. Hoblit, Bozarth and Arbogast. The ones selected by the Legion were Secretary Rhodes, Oscar Roose, Charles P. Kane and T. F. Harwood.
Court Houses .- In the course of its history, McLean County has built four court houses. The first building used as a court house was really the residence of James Allin, situated on the block bounded by East, Grove, Albert and Olive streets. Here the first term of court was held in September, 1831, but it did not do any business except receive the report of the grand jury, which had held its session out of doors under a tree. James Allin was clerk, Cheney Thomas sheriff and Thomas Orendorff bailiff. In the year 1832, September, the first jury trial was held at the same place, the case of Steer vs. Dawson, growing out of the defendant taking up cattle without advertising. The first divorce case was Neville vs. Neville, the wife being granted a divorce. An important case of that time was that of the Illinois Central Railroad Company against the county of McLean, involving the power of the legislature to exempt the road from taxation on its paying a certain sum. Abraham Lincoln was the company's attorney, and he afterward sued for his fee of $5,000, which the jury allowed him.
All four of the court houses were built on the square bounded by Jefferson, Main, Washington and Center streets. The first was a one- story frame building 18x30 feet, divided into three rooms. It was built in 1832 by Asahel Gridley for $339.25. It was used also for a school house and public meetings.
The second court house was erected in 1836 and used for 30 years. Leander Munsell was the builder, and the cost was $6,375. It was brick, two stories high, 40x45 feet, contained five rooms. It had doors on all four sides. It was used for many political meetings, but the commis- sioners refused its use to the Abolitionists, as they were considered enemies of the country. One of the stirring scenes in this building was on May 25, 1862, when within a short time a military company of 248 men was recruited for emergency guard duty at Springfield to replace other companies who had been sent to the front. Many noted judges presided in this building, including Samuel H. Treat, T. Lyle Dickey, Oliver L.
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Davis, Charles Emmerson, David Davis, John M. Scott. Among the noted lawyers were Abraham Lincoln, John T. Stuart, Stephen T. Logan, James Shields, James A. MacDougall, Edward D. Baker, Leonard Swett and Robert G. Ingersoll.
The third court house was erected in 1868 and was used until it was ruined in the big fire of 1900. A. B. Ives, as chairman of the board of supervisors, cast the deciding vote on the question of building a new court house. It was 11 years later, in 1879, that the building commis- sion reported the building completed at a cost of $404,727.51. The exter- ior was of Joliet limestone, and the structure was large and beautiful and convenient. In the fire of June 19, 1900, the wooden window frames and other parts caught fire and the heat ruined the stone facings, so that the board voted to tear down the building and erect another.
The fourth and present court house was built of Bedford sandstone with interior finishings of marble and scagliola. It is conveniently ar- ranged, and contains besides the offices for the county officials large rooms where the Historical Society and the old soldiers had headquarters until the McBarnes Memorial building was erected in 1922, when these latter organizations were removed to that structure. The total cost of this building was $474,000, which was paid off in five years after the building bonds were issued. During the building of this court house, all county business was done in old Turner Hall on South Main street.
County Jails .- The first county jail was erected in 1831 on the north line of the court house yard, 16x16 feet in dimensions, and costing $331. It was built of hewed logs and contained one room above the other. One of the rooms of the jail was a dungeon. On July 4, 1836, the first jail delivery of the county occurred, when one Dick Morrow, deliberately crawled out of the window between the bars and began looking for the sheriff to help him celebrate the 4th. In 1837 the jail was condemned as unfit for use, and on July 6, 1836, the board contracted with Dr. Isaac Baker for a new jail. The second jail was built at the corner of Market and Center streets. It was of brick exterior and with hewed logs on the inside below. The top floor was finished like a dwelling house. This building cost $1,500 and was used as a jail until 1849. It was torn down in 1857. The third jail was built at the northwest corner of the court house square in 1848, the contract going to William F. Flagg for $2,216.
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It was a two-story brick structure 20x41. There were two compartments in the jail proper, one for persons arrested for crime, the other for those imprisoned for debt. Outside the building was a stockade, with toilet accommodations, etc. An ell built on the main part was for residence purposes for the jailer.
The fourth jail was built at the corner of Center and Market, on the site where the second jail was torn down. It was erected in 1857 and cost $13,150. It was two stories in height and contained the sheriff's residence in addition to the jail. This building, meant to house ten prisoners, was considered a model when it was erected. It was continued in use for 20 years, during which the county grew from 22,000 to nearly 60,000 popu- lation, and of course the jail was outgrown. Sometimes there were 40 prisoners in the space meant for ten. George Perrin Davis, chairman of the committee on public buildings, made a report to the board of super- visors in 1879 condemning the building for further use as a jail. There had been several escapes of prisoners owing to the weakened condition of the iron gratings of the cells. The matter hung fire before the board until March 8, 1881, when the contract for the fifth and last jail was let.
The jail at the southwest corner of Center and Market streets was the scene of the only lynching in the history of McLean County. One night in October, 1831, Frank Pierce, who had been put in jail on a charge of stealing a horse from Guy Carlton, tried to break out. In so doing, he secured a gun and shot the jailer, Teddy Franks, who died shortly after- ward. A crowd gathered at the jail, and in spite of the efforts of Sheriff Joseph Ator, to prevent their getting the prisoner, they dragged him from the jail and hanged him to a tree in a vacant lot at the northeast corner of the street. Afterward the crowd quietly dispersed.
The present jail stands on a lot at the corner of Madison and Monroe Streets; is built of brick and limestone trimmings, and contains the jail proper and the sheriff's residence. It cost $72,000 when built, and has been several times remodeled. The residence is separated from the jail proper, so that the sheriff's family is not required to mingle with prison- ers except when necessary for feeding them. In addition to the usual cell tiers, there are compartments for boys, for women, and separate rooms for the temporary detention of insane persons. It is equipped with suitable sanitary arrangements. Of late years many of the federal prisoners sentenced to confinement by judges at Peoria, Springfield and
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other federal courts, have been sent to McLean County to serve their sentences, owing to the fact that the jail in this county is superior to those of many other counties.
Motor Car and Era of Paved Roads .- One of the chief factors in the retardation of the development of McLean County was the fact that while our soil was excellent for raising crops, it was abominable in its natural state for the building of a road for constant travel. The nature of the soil was and is such that when it is soaked with water it is of the con- sistency of putty or worse. This natural condition of the soil, added to the fact that in the early years it was overgrown with long prairie grass, and its natural surface crossed by sloughs and shallow streams, made the general body of the land in McLean County a terror to travelers. Before the land begun to be drained or improved, it was for perhaps six months of the year so soft and yielding in its consistency that it would not bear up a wagon and team, and hardly hold a horse and rider.
Indian trails formed the nearest approach to what we would now call a road in McLean County. The earliest immigrants who settled here, soon found the shortest cut from grove to grove, and made a sort of rude kind of road along these routes. The Legislature wrestled with road ques- tions from its earliest years. It laid out many "state roads" on paper, but these in fact were about as impassable as the uncharted trails of the Indians. Not many years after the first settlers came to McLean County, there was what was called the Bloomington and Springfield state road, and there was a general notion of a main traveled road from Peoria east, which crossed this county. The Galena lead mines were one of the prin- cipal industries of Illinois in the '30's, and roads leading to them were laid out from many points in the state. When stock dealers or others wanted to drive to Chicago, they just cut straight across the prairie as best they could find their way. There was little semblance of a road to guide them.
The streams were of course unbridged for many years. The people had no money to build bridges, and no engineering skill to construct them even if they had had the money. Sometimes farmers of a neighborhood would get together and build some sort of a rough bridge that would sup- port their wagons in crossing the Mackinaw River, Kickapoo Creek, Money Creek or Salt Creek. It was not until after township organization had
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been adopted in 1858 that the question of bridges received any co-opera- tive attention. The townships one after another took up the subject and voted funds to build the most necessary bridges.
By the time of the Civil War something of an attempt to make main roads north and south and east and west had been accomplished. They might be traveled with some hope of progress in the summer and fall when the weather was dry, but for the winter and spring months the people were practically marooned in their own homes, except as dire neces- sity compelled them to undertake the hazards and discomforts of travel by horseback or team.
The "good roads" question has therefore been a constant issue with the people of McLean County, from the earliest times until the very recent past, when a program of state and county aid in building roads bids fair to at last "pull Illinois out of the mud."
Many a time has the question of road building become a live politi- cal issue for the past forty years. In the earlier days of agitation for the improvement of the highways, it required a brave man to suggest that an artificial hard surface could be applied to an Illinois mud road and make a construction that would stand up under the effect of rains, at a cost that would not actually bankrupt the whole population.
One of the "good roads" conventions when the agitation became acute was that held in Bloomington on Sept. 19, 1899. This was a dis- trict affair, the delegates coming from McLean and many surrounding counties. Capt. S. Noble King was the presiding officer. After two days of discussions, the meeting adopted resolutions to the effect that paved roads were impracticable, but that the delegates would all go home and boost for the best dirt roads that they could make.
This agitation had its effect nevertheless, and within a few years afterward, the people of Bloomington voted a tax of something like $20,000 to construct two strips of "hard road" west and south of the city limits of Bloomington. This road was built under the general direction of James G. Melluish and it stands today, although nearly worn out.
Some of the outside townships, notably Lexington, many years ago took practical steps toward improving the roads outside of Lexington for several miles in each direction. The people of that township were fortu- nate in having a supply of gravel along the Mackinaw River bottoms, and the township road commissioners supervised the distribution of this ma-
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terial along the roads. The consequence was that Lexington had grav- eled roads that were several hundred per cent better than the average dirt road, for many years prior to the general movement for improved highways got under way.
But to return to the subject of paved roadways: Some fifteen years ago a number of enterprising farmers and other people down the road toward Shirley, assisted by citizens of Bloomington, raised a fund for putting a hard surface on the Bloomington-Shirley road. The Funks fur- nished a large proportion of the money for this interesting experiment, which was the most pretentious road building enterprises that had been undertaken in McLean County up to that time. The road was built of a composition of asphalt and other ingredients put down on a foundation of crushed rock. It stood up under the traffic conditions for several years, until the multiplication of automobiles made it impossible to hold up longer, and it had about gone to pieces prior to the project by which the State of Illinois built the paved road from Bloomington to Shirley along what was known as the Illini boulevard road.
The factor above all others which contributed to good roads senti- ment in McLean County, as elsewhere, was the advent of the motor car, or as it was first known as the "horseless wagon." It is not the province of this history to trace the origin of the invention of the automobile, but when this form of locomotion became a practical affair in the United States, McLean County took up the new vehicle and adopted it for gen- eral use as fast as the people understood it. The first motor vehicle brought to Bloomington was a steam-engine propelled machine owned by E. E. Ellsworth, an engineer on the Alton road. It was viewed as a great curiosity at first, but gradually other machines came to the city and county, and the era of motor travel had dawned for this section.
Motor cars demanded a better and more constant road that they could travel. At first the owners of motor cars put them up for the win- ter as soon as the roads got muddy in the autumn. But this was an uneco- nomical use of the expensive machines, for from one-third to one-half of their time was wasted. Therefore people said that the all-round year round road must be made. Therefore under the administration of Gov- ernor Lowden the Legislature passed a law granting permission for the state to embark upon a stupendous road building program. A bond issue of $60,000,000 was put up to the people, and passed by a very large vote.
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The bonds were to be paid by license fees paid by the automobile owners. There was very general support of the proposal by newspapers of all kinds, and by organizations of every sort. The result was that out of 661,815 votes cast on the proposition, 507,419 were favorable to it. The vote was taken in November, 1918, and at once thereafter steps were taken to bring before the Supreme Court the question of the constitution- ality of the law. The court sustained the law, and plans were made to carry out its provisions.
Illinois meantime had secured $3,300,000 from the government allot- ment as its share of the $75,000,000 appropriated to aid states in build- ing roads.
McLean County, however, had built some paved road prior to the let- ting of the first state contract for roads in this county. A strip of about three miles in length was constructed east of the city limits of Blooming- ton on Empire Street, and later another short strip to connect with it on the east end.
The state road building program got started so far as McLean County is concerned, in the years of 1922 and '23. The hard road paralleling the Alton railroad extends clear across the county, this being part of the great Chicago-St. Louis paved roadway to be known as the Illini boule- vard. Another road, to extend eventually from Peoria east to Paxton and beyond, is partly built, from Bloomington west to the county line and beyond. Still another state road is under way, north and south, known as the Meridian Trail road, to pass eventually from Cairo to Rockford.
CHAPTER XXXV.
MISCELLANEOUS, CONTINUED.
EXTINCT TOWNS AND VILLAGES-POLITICAL HISTORY-POPULATION STATISTICS- INTERESTING FACTS.
Extinct Towns and Villages .- In the course of years there have been many towns proposed and some of them laid out on paper or perhaps actually surveyed and platted, which events of later years caused to be abandoned. The county has several such, which are worthy of a passing note in a chronicle like this.
Clarksville was laid out by Joseph and Marston C. Bartholomew in 1836 in Money Creek Township. It contained twenty-four lots. Gen. Bartholomew was a noted man of his time, having been a commander in the Indian wars. Clarksville at one time had a two-story hotel, a card- ing mill, several business houses, and its population numbered 300. After Gen. Bartholomew died in 1840, the village fell into decay, and finally only ยท one or two buildings and the cemetery mark its site.
Monroe was laid out in Empire township by John W. Badderly the year before LeRoy was platted. It never grew to large dimensions, and when Gen. Gridley and M. L. Covell laid out Leroy they gave Badderly 27 lots in the new town and he moved his buildings to Leroy, where he continued for many years in business.
Lytleville was laid out in 1836 by John Baldwin, consisting of 85 lots located in section 23 of Randolph township, northeast of Heyworth. Peru was another town in the same township on section 24. The latter never had any buildings in it, being a paper town. Lytleville once aspired to become the metropolis, even competing for the county seat. A saw
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mill located on the Kickapoo had been erected by James Hedrick, and this mill formed the center of Baldwin's town. But fate was against Bald- win, and in spite of his energy he was never able to permanently establish his little city. Baldwin added a grist mill to his saw mill, and at one time did a flourishing business. There are now (1923) only two old build- ings left standing in Lytleville.
A town called Livingston was once projected in White Oak town- ship, but it never got beyond the paper stage.
Oak Grove was another village in White Oak township, located on section 28, and from 1878 to '88 it looked promising. Several stores, a postoffice, mill, harness shop and twenty dwellings were erected. In 1887 when the Lake Erie railroad passed a mile and a half southwest of Oak Grove and the town of Carlock established on the railroad, most of the buildings in Oak Grove were moved to Carlock, and the former village disappeared.
Pleasant Hill was laid out on section 21, Lexington township on April 6, 1840, and twelve years later an addition of 48 lots was planned. Isaac Smalley was the founder of the town, and the name was appropriate to' the location. Smalley was a live citizen and gave his energy to promotion of his settlement, at one time having succeeded in having there three churches, several stores, several work shops, one Academy of fifteen rooms, and some 50 dwellings. Smalley tried to get the Alton railroad to pass through his town, but it finally went through Lexington and Pon- tiac, passing by Pleasant Hill and sounding the latter town's death knell. The town of Oneida, east of Pleasant Hill, was another of Smalley's dreams, but after his death in 1855 both towns degenerated, only two or three houses still remaining at Pleasant Hill.
Danvers township was the site of the once planned town of Wilkes- borough, in section 24. It was laid out in 1837, and in 1859 had some fifteen families residing within its boundaries. At one time the postoffice was at Wilkesborough, and the people of Concord (Danvers) had to go there to get their mail. The town, however, died out and Danvers survived.
The village of Mt. Hope was laid out June 16, 1837, by William Peck, agent of the Farmers' and Mechanics' emigrating society, being located near where the town of McLean now stands. It was a part of the Mt. Hope colony scheme, promoted in Rhode Island, by which each stockholder
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was to have 320 acres of land and four town lots. The panic of 1837 hit the colonization scheme and destroyed the hopes of the village. A certain Dr. Whipple had the largest house built, and there were several others. When the Alton road was built and the village of McLean was established, the church and other buildings were moved from Mt. Hope to McLean, and the town plat was vacated and reverted to farm lands about 1854, when Hudson Burr and others bought the site.
A town called Newcastle was once laid out about two miles from Atlanta, but it was abandoned when the Alton road established a station at Atlanta.
West was the name applied to a proposed town in West township which never got further than the paper stage.
Just across the line over in Woodford county north of the McLean County border, was the town of Bowling Green, which early promised to rival Bloomington as a trading center. Four miles west of Bowling Green was a rival town, Verseilles, and these two competed for many years to become county seat of Woodford. Verseilles finally won and enjoyed the reputation of a county seat for several years. When the Illinois Central road was built, a few miles east, both Bowling Green and Verseilles went backward and finally disappeared.
Political History .- It is a cause of pride for McLean County that it has a political record worthy of its people. It has furnished a number of distinguished men to the state and nation, and has taken an active and patriotic part in every election, local, state or national. The first record of political feeling among the people living in this section is that of a history written by the late Capt. J. H. Burnham many years ago, in which he told of the sentiments of the settlers at Blooming Grove in the presidential election of 1824 as being "decidedly in favor of freedom." The slavery question was paramount at that time. The first political divi- sion with which the people came in contact was the organization of Oren- dorff voting precinct, which was a part of Tazewell county and took in a wide stretch of territory.
The election of 1832 was the first one in which the people here took a part after the organization of McLean county. The leaders of the Democratic party in its early history were Gen. Merritt L. Covell, Gen. Henry Miller, Welcome P. Brown, and Gov. John Morr Moore. Covell and Miller were heroes of the Black Hawk war.
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The Whig leaders of the early days were Jesse W. Fell, David Davis, Asahel Gridley, Gen. Joseph Bartholomew and Dr. John F. Henry.
John Moore was the most successful politician of the county in his times. He was a member of the house, of the state senate, lieutenant governor, and state treasurer. In the Mexican war he became lieutenant- colonel of the Fourth Illinois volunteer regiment. He was a man of great ability and wide popularity.
Welcome P. Brown was the first McLean county man to be elected to the legislature, this being in 1834. The following term, John Moore and George Hinshaw, Democrats, were both elected.
The Mexican war period saw political feeling aroused to a high pitch in McLean county as elsewhere. Coming on down to 1851, the time of the granting of the charter for the Illinois Central railroad through Illi- nois, McLean county was fortunate to have as a member of the state sen- ate Gen. Gridley, by whose shrewd work alone the railroad was routed through his district, composed of McLean, DeWitt and Macon counties, and thus the cities of Bloomington, Clinton and Decatur were assured of the new road. Gen. Gridley was a Whig, a man of force and eloquence and a person of great influence in the senate.
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