USA > Illinois > McLean County > History of McLean County, Illinois, Volume I > Part 9
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57
Griesheim building, Cole Bros. building and store, Meyer & Wochner building, George P. Davis building, Mrs. J. H. Merrick building, G. H. Read & Bro. building, Odd Fellows building, Livingston Estate building, Eagle block, A. Brokaw barn, Mrs. Swayne's Durley building, Jeff Burke building, McGregor Estate building, Heafer-McGregor building, R. F. and W. L. Evans building, L. H. Weldon building, George Brand building, Model Laundry building, B. S. Green building, Hayes Estate building, J. W. Evans Estate building, C. W. Klemm building, Thompson building, Marble building, Braley building, Stephen Smith building, Phoenix Hotel, Belle Plumb building, Hudson Burr building, Samuel Thompson building Lyman Graham building, Sans building, Dr. Schroeder building, O. Helbig building, Chris Frevert building, Windsor Hotel, Mahaffey barn, Bruner building, J. W. Riggs building, Braley building, Withers Estate building, Stepp building, I. H. Johnson building, James Stevenson building, Spring- baum building, First National Bank damage, I. Livingston building,
137
HISTORY OF MCLEAN COUNTY
George Hanna building, Court House, Second Presbyterian Church dam- age, law library and many miscellaneous losses.
Grand total of losses $2,032,000. Grand total of insurance, $864,238.
The ashes of the business district of the fire of June 19, 1900, had not yet cooled, and streams of water from several fire engines were still pour - ing upon the smoking embers, when the owners and managers of the vari- ous establishments had already begun to make plans for getting back into business and to rebuild the burned district in better shape than it ever was before. Signs hurriedly painted were stuck up at many points of the smoking ruins, telling the temporary locations of the different business concerns. Meantime architects and contractors were besieged with own- ers of the burned buildings to get plans quickly made and the materials on hand for constructing new buildings where the old had stood. Sites of the burned structures were cleared at once in many cases, and enlarged and modernized structures were planned for these sites.
It is impossible to tell the story in detail of the rebuilding of the burned district of the city. Suffice it to say that when the first anniver- sary of the great fire rolled round, a large proportion of the district had new structures already completed or at least under way.
The fire having occurred almost at the middle of the building season, it behooved the owners of the buildings to get quick action if they were to get their new structures ready for occupancy by the coming of winter.
In honor of the energy and optimism shown by the business men in their active working in rebuilding, the citizens planned a jubilee celebra- tion for June 19, 1901, the first anniversary of the fire. At that time over $1,300,000 had already been expended for new structures.
The Court House which had stood as the seat of justice in the county since 1868, was badly damaged by the fire. On the day following the conflagration, the board of supervisors met in special session to take ac- tion on the repair or rebuilding of the Court House. A contract was Jet on July 6 for the tearing down of the dome and upper stories. This work was completed in August, and by that time it was seen that the whole structure was too much damaged to be rebuilt economically. After some discussion, the contract was let to the Peoria Stone and Marble Works to complete the demolition, and this same firm secured the contract to erect the building. How the building was to be paid for was one of the big
138
HISTORY OF MCLEAN COUNTY
problems. At a meeting of the board of supervisors on October 31, at which it was decided to submit to the voters of the county at the Noveln- ber election the proposition of a bond issue of $400,000 to pay for the new Court House. The bonds were to run five years. The voters gave a largo affirmative majority for the bonds, and this end of the enterprise was secured.
The first stone of the Court House was laid on Dec. 28, 1900. The lower walls had been completed to the point of laying the corner stone, and this ceremony was held on May 22, 1901. There was a grand parade of military and civic bodies, and these gathered at the Court House, with a great crowd of the civilian population. The address of the day was made by Grand Master Hitchcock of the Illinois Grand Lodge of the An- cient Free and Accepted Masons. The Court House was completed and dedicated in the summer of 1902.
At the end of the first year, the following new buildings had been completed or were under course of construction:
Court House-cost in round numbers-$400,000; New Illinois Hotel, $115,000; Griesheim building, $105,000; Corn Belt Bank building, $70,000; C. W. Klemm building, $30,000; Livingston-Strouse building, $25,000; Mc- Gregor building, $15,000; Burr building, $6,000; Belle Plumb building, $5,000; Cole Bros. building, $30,000; McLean Co. Coal Co., $15,000; Gra- ham building, $4,000; Durley building, $65,000; Brand building, $20,000; Winter building, $7,000; Evans Estate building, $25,000; Marble-Thomp- son building, $30,000; Odd Fellows building, $30,000; Stephen Smith's Sons building, $35,000; Weldon building, $15,000; Metropole Hotel, $35,- 000; Unity building, $80,000; B. S. Green building, $25,000; Braley build- ing, $15,000; Model Laundry building, $10,000; Braley-Field building, $14,000; Jeffry Burke building, $12,000; Frevert building, $15,500; Col. Smith building, $10,000; repairs made necessary by fire, $20,000; other new business houses, $35,000.
Grand total for first year's buildings, $1,304,500.
CHAPTER VIII.
MODERN NORMAL.
BUILT AROUND UNIVERSITY-EARLY NURSERIES-HORSE BUSINESS- ERA OF IMPROVEMENT-CITY OFFICIALS-WOMEN'S IMPROVEMENT LEAGUE-COM- MERCIAL CLUB-STORES-COUNTRY CLUB.
The development of the town of Normal from a straggling village into a modern little city with every convenience and facility of many a larger place, may be roughly traced back to a period of 25 years ago. At that time began the era of building of pavements, concrete sidewalks and modern systems of sewerage disposal. This development had its reflex effect upon property values in Normal, and thus added to the revenues with which to continue and expand this spirit of development.
It may be worth while to attempt a picture of Normal in the earlier days of its existence as a corporation. It was of course built up around the Normal University, and its whole sustenance in fact was drawn from the students of that institution and those who indirectly depended upon it. The student populations were housed in many "clubs," or co-opera- tive boarding houses, where some property owner, often a woman, would take a number of students for boarding and rooming them. The club commissary would be in charge of a steward who had charge of the buy- ing of provisions and collecting from each member of the club his or her proportionate share of the cost of the raw materials. The woman who owned the house would do the cooking and serving of the meals for an agreed upon consideration.
Other than the Normal University and the life centering around it, for the first 25 years of the town's history, there were principally two
139
140
HISTORY OF MCLEAN COUNTY
other interests in which greater or less numbers of men and their fami- lies depended for their livelihood. These were the nurseries and the horse business. The nurseries were numerous, and at one time Normal as a nursery center had few rivals in the United States, at least in the mid- dle west. Hundreds of acres surrounding the town proper were set out in nursery stock, and during the two main shipping months of the year, April and October, the nursery grounds and packing houses were exceed- ingly busy places, employing scores of men in getting the stock from the grounds and packing it for shipment to all parts of the country. In later years, the nursery business declined to some extent, owing to widespread competition, but there are still several nurseries in and near Normal which have a flourishing business. The oldest of these is the Augustine nursery, which has been in successful operation for nearly a half century. The very earliest nursery in this vicinity was run by Nelson Buck, and Jesse W. Fell, with his brothers, Joshua, Thomas, Kersey and Robert, managed several acres of nursery grounds. But the man best known in the nursery history of McLean County was Franklin K. Phoenix, who ran a large nursery for 20 years prior to the '70's. Then there were Cyrus W. Overman, W. H. Mann, and Dr. H. Schroeder. Jesse W. Fell was noted for his penchant for planting trees, and his habit made Normal one of the best shaded towns in the country, a true atmosphere for scholastic population.
The other business enterprise which grew up alongside of the educa- tional center of Normal was that of the importing, breeding and dealing in heavy horses. This business was of slow growth, like many others, but when it had attained its peak the town of Normal became the draft horse center of the state if not of the middle west. There were several firms and individuals who engaged in the trade to the extent of hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. The principal men who made Normal famous as a horse center were the Dillons. There were several of the Dil- lon brothers, and all had interests in the business. There was Isaiah, Levi, Doff and Melvin Dillon, who for 25 years maintained great barns filled with heavy draft horses imported direct from France and England or other European countries, or bred from the horses which they had im- ported. The plan on which they worked was to go to Europe and buy up several scores of fine draft animals of the Percheron, Clydesdale, Norman or Belgian stock, then ship them here to their barns, where they
141
HISTORY OF MCLEAN COUNTY
were kept until certain specified dates, when great auction sales of the horses would be held. These sales were usually held in February, or per- haps again in the autumn. Buyers would come here from all parts of the country, and the competitive bidding for the animals was- spirited and profitable for the sellers. For several days after each of these sales, the outgoing freight trains would contain carloads of horses bought here and shipped to distant points.
The town of Normal in these days of the early university, of the first nurseries and the horse barns, was an overgrown village with but meager physical improvements. It had no electric lights, practically no sewer- age system, no street pavements, and was connected with Bloomington by a crude railway with dummy engines drawing small cars, then by mules as the locomotive power. Long after street paving and sewerage systems in Bloomington had been constructed on modern lines, Normal was still floundering in the mud. The first use of electricity in Normal was that from a home-made plant of small capacity and meager equip- ment. This plant was destroyed by an explosion and fire, and afterward the town concluded to buy its current from the Bloomington & Normal Electric Lighting Company.
The municipal affairs of the town had got into a rut, this condition having resulted from many years of loose financing in which each year the expenditures were greater than the income. There was no chance of the town undertaking a list of improvements such as pavement and sewer building unless relief could be secured from this overhanging debt.
Beginning with the year 1900, we will trace the history of the town administration and try to outline the changes which took place and which marked the modern era in Normal. The names of two men who were mayors at this period stand out prominently: Otto Seibert, who was re- elected mayor in 1900, had already served two terms. With him were elected as councilmen Edward Metcalf, James Hoselton, George H. Coen, R. M. Huffington and Charles J. Cole. Mayor Seibert was re-elected each year afterward up to and including 1904. The next council contained the same men, with the exception of Thomas Sylvester, who succeeded Huf- fington. The following year, 1902, new members of the council were elected in the persons of D. C. Smitson, Frank Custer and George War- ner, Jr. In 1903 a new council came in, composed of R. M. Huffington, E. G. Sage, J. W. Evans, J. K. McGowan and Charles Shadle. The last
142
HISTORY OF MCLEAN COUNTY
council that served with Mayor Seibert was composed of Messrs. Metcalf, Hoselton, Huffington, Shadle and J. W. Evans. Mayor Seibert had been a business man in Normal for many years, and he might have been re- elected as mayor for still further terms had he not voluntarily retired. The hold-over deficit which had been the bane of many council still hung on at this period.
A change in the mayor's tenure of office, and also of the councilmen, took place at this time under a new state law, they being elected for two years instead of one. Edward J. Metcalf was the first mayor elected under the two-year rule, and with him the council were J. C. Hoselton, R. M. Huffington, J. W. Evans, L. A. Hinton and J. E. Crew. The same council served under the second year of Mayor Metcalf, except that J. H. Riley was elected to succeed Evans.
The year 1907 was an important one in the history of modern Nor- mal, for that year the citizens organized to elect a council that they thought would start the town on a new era. O. L. Manchester, professor of economics in the Normal University, was put up for mayor, with the backing of the Normal Improvement Association, an organization of pro- gressive citizens. He was elected, and along with him were elected as councilmen, A. J. Bill, O. R. Ernst, F. E. Putnam, Prof. James Adams and Prof. F. D. Barber. This administration tackled the problem of the old deficit in city finances. This deficit amounted to about $14,000, or about the whole municipal income from one year's taxes. After looking over the situation, the council took the advice of Jacob P. Lindley, the town's attorney, and decided to convert this floating debt into a bonded indebtedness. It could not be done the first year, and in fact it was not until 1912 that the question of issuing bonds for this sum was put up to the people at the election. It readily carried, however, for the vote in favor of the bonds was 179, and against, 83. The old debt was covered by the bonds, and in due time the bonds were paid off by increased assess- ments, and thus the "hoodoo debt" which had been hanging over the city for many years was taken care of. The Manchester administration also sought out properties which had previously escaped taxation, and in this way added considerable to the city's income.
Mayor Manchester and his progressive council had not been in office long before they set about on a program of physical improvements. They outlined a set of proposed street pavements which covered most of the
143
HISTORY OF MCLEAN COUNTY
principal streets of the city. Prior to that time there were only two blocks of brick pavement in the town, they being on Beaufort and North, in the business section. The people seemed to have confidence in the administration, for they backed the pavement program. Not that all the councilmen were re-elected, for the year 1908 saw a whole new coun- cil elected in the persons of George W. Bentley, L. A. Hinton, Ira C. Simp- son, Jesse H. Riley and Ray Fairfield. The following year Bentley, Riley, Hinton and Fairfield were re-elected, while the new councilman was E. C. Buck. The following year, 1910, a change in law permitted of the election of six councilmen instead of five, for a term of two years instead of one. The men elected were Ray Fairfield, L. A. Hinton, J. H. Riley, T. T. Hunter, G. W. Bentley and E. C. Buck. Mayor Manchester was re-elected the next sprng for a two-year term, and with him Bentley, Riley, J. E. Hatfield and Dr. H. G. McCormick. The year that the bonds were approved, the members of council elected were Fairfield, McCor- mick and Hunter. Only one change occurred in the council next year, D. E. Denman being elected a new member.
This was 1914, and that year one of the most important additions ever made to Normal came up for consideration, it being B. M. Kuhn's addition, known as Cedar Crest. Mr. Kuhn had platted a large vacant tract at the south end of Normal, where his home had stood for many years. He laid out curved drives, and displayed plans for building many new homes. The council finally admitted this addition, and it now con- tains many fine modern homes. It is at the south end of Broadway, which was one of the finest streets improved under the Manchester pav- ing program.
When Mayor Manchester was re-elected for the last time, in 1915, it was the first time women had voted in the city election, and there was the largest vote ever cast. By this time the people recognized the work that had been done-the old hoodoo debt discharged, many streets paved and sewered, the water works rebuilt and many other improvements made. The salary of the office of mayor is only $300 per year, and it was recognized that this was small compensation for the time and work which the office entails. In the second year of Mayor Manchester's last term, the councilmen elected were George T. Lentz, William S. Sylvester and J. L. Wolcott.
In 1917, Mayor Manchester declined to run again for the office, and
144
HISTORY OF MCLEAN COUNTY
John A. Goodwin, who had previously been in the council, was chosen mayor. With him were elected C. L. White, Frank S. Foulk, George Pickering and C. E. Johnson. Mayor Goodwin occupied the executive office in one of the most trying periods in the history of the city, for it was the two years during which the United States was engaged in the World war. Ordinary business of the city had to be largely sus- pended, while the energies of the city fathers as well as of other cit- izens, were devoted to war work. The mayor and council assisted notably in drives for the Red Cross, liberty loans and in many other ways. Nor- mal was the scene of notable accomplishments in war work during these two years. The new councilmen in the second year of Mayor Goodwin's administration were Roy Bryant, Wm. Sylvester and C. E. Johnson.
Mayor Goodwin declined to stand for re-election in 1919, and the office was filled by the election of Frank S. Foulk, former councilman, who is still mayor (1924). The first council elected with Mayor Foulk were George Pickering, Roy Bates, James Hanna, H. W. Adams, Harry Bomgardner. The members elected to council in 1920 were Bomgardner, Sylvester and Palmer Q. Moore.
Mayor Foulk was re-elected in 1921 and again in 1923. Messrs. Bates, Pickering and Enos Stewart were elected to council in 1921, and in 1922 those elected were J. W. Kirkton, Alva E. Briscoe, and Warren White. In this year, E. A. Tobias was elected for the first time city clerk, an office he still holds. The councilmen elected in 1923 were Pickering, Park C. Gillespie and Charles E. Clark. For the election of 1924 the council members elected were W. H. Johnson, R. E. Herr and Warren White. The city clerk chosen was E. A. Tobias, and the police magis- trate was Fred Goff.
Two organizations stand out in their influence for the good of Nor- mal in the past 20 years. They are the Woman's Improvement League and the Normal Commercial Club. The Woman's Improvement League was formed some 15 years ago or more, and has accomplished many notable things. One of these was the creation and construction of the Jesse Fell Memorial gateway at the Normal University in honor of the man who had most to do with the early history of Normal and the ioca- tion here of the great university.
The Normal Commercial Club is an organization of more recent date than the Woman's Improvement League. However, it has done
145
HISTORY OF MCLEAN COUNTY
much for the community since it was formed. It has rented club rooms and furnished them for the comfort and convenience of its members, which include most of the leading business and professional men of Nor- mal.
Coincident with the growth of the spirit of public improvement, the business and commercial interests of Normal have expanded. The busi- ness section of the city some 25 years ago included about two blocks of stores of one kind and another, most of them rather old and out of date and representing comparatively small stocks and furnishings. Today, the retail section of the city has spread out to take in parts of two other blocks, and the general character of the stores has improved and been modernized to a very noticeable extent. The lines of business have also been enlarged, several prosperous stores now existing handling merchan- dise which a few years ago could not be secured in Normal at all. There are two banks where for many years was only one. A weekly newspaper of live contents and enterprising editorship has for many years flour- ished. Several professional men in various lines have built up profitable clientage. Where formerly the people of Normal thought they had to go to Bloomington for any of their requirements in many lines, they now patronize Normal stores and shops.
No doubt the establishment of the summer school at the Univer- sity has had much to do with modern business life in Normal. Formerly there were three months of the year when Normal was practically "dead," for the student population had vanished and the townspeople lived only in anticipation of the opening of the next fall term of school and the returns of the transients. Now, those days have gone forever. The summer time sees even a larger student population than the winter terms, and things are as lively during the heated period as in other seasons. Consequently merchants and tradesmen can figure on a trade more evenly spread over the whole year than they formerly could, when all their profit had to be made in nine months.
Normal has one large and up-to-date country club, the Maplewood. This club acquired the old homestead of W. A. Watson and improved the residence into a modern country club house. The large grounds were made into golf links, one of the best courses in the state. The member- ship of the club is largely made up of Normal people, although many Bloomington people also belong.
(8)
CHAPTER IX.
BLACK HAWK AND MEXICAN WARS.
CHIEF BLACK HAWK-McLEAN COUNTY FURNISHED TWO COMPANIES-BATTLE OF STILLMAN'S RUN-CLOSE OF WAR-BLOCK HOUSES-HOME GUARD- MEXICAN WAR: MCLEAN COUNTY COMPANY-"BAKER'S BOYS"-ACTIVE SERVICE IN MEXICO-BATTLE OF CERRO GORDO-CASUALTIES.
Men of McLean County have taken part in five different wars of the nation since the county was organized. The first was the Black Hawk war with Indians. Then came the Mexican war, the Civil war, the Span- ish-American, and finally the great World war.
Military participation of men in this county in the war of the whites against Black Hawk, the Indian chief, was on a small scale as compared with later wars. But nevertheless in relation to the number of settlers in the county at that time, the number of men sent out was remarkably large. Indians who inhabited the territory of Illinois had by the years 1830-31 passed to the west side of the Mississippi river, and by treaty with the United States agreed to stay there. The Sacs and Foxes of Northern Illinois were the principal tribes. Black Hawk had fought with the British against the Americans in 1812 and felt hostility toward the settlers, hence he never gave his full-hearted consent to the agreement to go beyond the Mississippi. By the spring of 1832 he had stirred up a band of warriors of his tribe, who to the number of 700 or 800 came back into the Illinois lands with warlike intentions. Fragments of other tribes joined them. The governor of Illinois called for volunteers among the white settlers to repel the invasion of hostile red men.
McLean County furnished two companies, with Capt. Merrit L. Co- vell in charge of one and Capt. William McClure in charge of the other.
146
1
147
HISTORY OF MCLEAN COUNTY
There was also a third company enrolled later. They joined the Fifth regiment of mounted volunteers, under command of Col. James Johnson. Both of the McLean County companies rendezvoused at Dixon, but Capt. McClure's company did not reach there in time to join in Maj. Stillman's expedition.
The companies from this county and the others composing the vol- unteer force refused to attach themselves to the force of United States troops, for they said they had enlisted to hunt Indians, and to hunt In- dians they were going. Finally Maj. Stillman got an order from Gov. Reynolds to proceed northward and find the hostile Indians.
On the 13th of May the Illinois volunteer force set out to find the red men, and the result was a battle between the forces, in which the Indians outnumbered the whites and sadly defeated them. The battle became known as Stillman's Run. The force under Maj. Stillman was wholly untrained and poorly armed, and their defeat was the result of their raw condition, from a military sense, and not from lack of bravery. In spite of this initial defeat, the Illinois volunteers later succeeded in driving Black Hawk and his hostile tribes back to the region west of the Mississippi.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.