USA > Illinois > Morgan County > History of Morgan county, Illinois : its past and present, containing a history of the county; its cities, towns, etc.; a biographical directory of its volunteers in the late rebellion; portraits of its early settlers and prominent men [etc., etc.] > Part 34
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Congress, in its division of the Northwest Territory, had made provision for the sale of every sixteenth section of land, the proceeds to be applied to a fund for the promotion and maintenance of popular edu- cation. Morgan County contains in its present limits, sixteen of these sections, or over ten thousand acres of land. Judge Thomas was appoint- ed Commissioner by the County Court, to sell these lands. He dis- charged his duty with his usual faithfulness, and a large increase was thereby made to the school fund.
The old log school houses, upon the passage of this law, soon began to give way to more comfortable frame structures, which in some instan- ces are now replaced by brick structures, filled with every modern con- venience. The advance of civilization ; the improvement of the country ; the educated tastes of the people, and the demand for a more advanced and better class of instruction have brought about a higher grade of teaching, and a consequent demand for advanced and excellent teachers. Time will undoubtedly show a still higher grade, and it is hoped it will soon be that the profession, so fraught with the interests of all, will not be made simply a stepping stone to other and more lucrative callings.
The day of subscription schools did not entirely cease in all cases until about 1853. That year the school superintendent came upon the field, and his work soon manifested itself. Longer terms were secured, and in a few cases graded schools established. The Illinois College, the . Female Academy, and othe similar institutions, were doing a good work and each one molding the public mind to a higher course of instruction. Among the private schools of the county, started in early days, none de- serve more mention than the one known as "Ebenezer Church and School." It was started about four miles north of town, about 1832, by Rev. Peter Akers, D.D., now an old minister in retired life in Jack- sonville. Some of its teachers were, Rev. John M. Piper, in the Autumn of 1835 or 1836 ; Rev. John Clark, who had been a missionary at Green
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HISTORY OF MORGAN COUNTY.
Bay, Wisconsin, brought to be educated there, George Copway, John Johnson, and Peter Marksman, three Indian boys, who afterward became of great benefit to their fellow men in the frontier. Others that he brought from his mission were, Samuel Spates, David Weatherford, and Allen Huddleson. Some of these are yet living and doing good service in their various fields of labor.
Dr. Akers, so long identified with the interests of Morgan County, was born on the first day of September, 1790, in Campbell County, State of Virginia, at the house of his parents, John and Agnes Akers, three miles southeast of the court house. He was about seven years old when he was sent to a common school. When sixteen years old, a school of little children was taught by him. He next went to different institu- tions of learning, both in Virginia, North Carolina, etc., where he both taught classes and was taught a full course of English, Latin, and Greek languages. His graduation ticket of A.M., was given him in Transylva- nia University, Kentucky. He was also president, for some time, of a State Institution in Mount Sterling, Kentucky. He studied law with Ma- jor W. P. Fleming, in Flemingsburg, Kentucky. And in March, 1817, he obtained license to plead in all the courts of that State ; and being re- ceived into partnership with Major Fleming, he entered into an extensive practice for four years ; and meanwhile edited and published a political Whig paper, called The Star. Having married in 1818, and his wife being taken sick unto death, in the early part of 1821, he received an abiding conviction of his need of religion. And his wife having departed in great peace, when he found peace in believing, he was most deeply convinced that it was his duty to quit the practice of law, and preach the balance of his days. Therefore he joined the itinerant body of the M. E. Church, in 1821, and having filled the various appointments as- signed him, and having married his second wife, he was, at his request, transferred to Illinois Conference in 1832.
Jacksonville became the chief place of his subsequent abode ; but having bought a place about four miles north of Jacksonville, in 1832, he had there a church and school house built, called Ebenezer, where he instituted a Manual-Labor school, in which, by him and others, were taught the various branches of English literature, and also the Latin and Greek languages. 'He was also three times made president of McKendree College in Lebanon, Illinois. In this institution he served in all, about eight years. He also filled other appointments, stations, presiding-elder districts, etc., in Illinois, for many years, then went, labored and preached eight years in Minnesota ; returned to Jacksonville, Illinois, and preached six years on two districts ; was then superannuated ; since which this is the seventh year. This year, 1878, is also the forty-sixth since he first came to Jacksonville, where he yet lives in his eighty-eighth year. He has preached in most of the United States, while filling different appoint- ments. In 1833, September, he was sent by Conference to " McKendree Seminary," which, by the next legislature, he and the trustees, got to be chartered as a " College ;" to which he was again sent by Conference, in October, 1834.
Other schools in different localities were founded as the population increased and as towns were started. The colleges and superior advan- tages offered in the county seat, soon took precedence over all others, and
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HISTORY OF MORGAN COUNTY.
finally drew all to them. Each town now supports its graded school only, while Jacksonville offers to all advanced education equal to any city in the Union.
The statistics of the county schools heretofore given, show fully their standing and efficacy. Before giving them we will, however, notice the work of each superintendent and the advance made by each.
In 1853, Mr. W. Catlin (since deceased), the first county superin- tendent, was elected to the office. The schools were paid partly by sub- scription and partly from the public funds, and but few of the teachers " boarded 'round."
Mr. Catlin was succeeded by that well-known educator, Newton Bateman. The examination of teachers now became more rigid, and marked improvement in every way was manifested. Mr. Bateman being clected to the State Superintendency, Mr. Thomas Springer, now an attorney in Jacksonville, succeeded him. Improvement in all things still went on during his term of office. He was followed by Mr. S. M. Martin, and he by the present incumbent, Mr. Henry Higgins, elected in 1873, and re-elected in 1877.
The last log school house disappeared in the Summer of 1876, giving place to a frame one of more and better proportions, and filled with better furniture and apparatus.
In the Summer of 1874, the first Institute was held in the county. Prior to this time an association was formed among the most prominent teachers, and Mr. Higgins chosen its president. From an average monthly attendance of fifteen or twenty, the number has increased to more than double either number. The Institutes are held every year, lasting from three to six weeks, and are unusually well attended. An association at Waverley meets monthly, having the same object in view - the promotion and advancement of the teachers, and their profession.
The following statistics, taken from the records in the office of the County Superintendent, show fully the present condition of the common schools of Morgan County, and are in striking contrast to any preserved from the records of forty years ago. For the year ending September 30, 1877, there were reported 3,063 male, and 3,441 female- 7,044 persons of school age. There were also reported 15 brick school houses, and 97 frame -112 in all. 86 male, and 84 female-170-teachers, whose average length of schools were 7.8 months. The average monthly wages paid to male teachers was $61.00; to female, $43.25; the total amount expended for school purposes was $97,990.76.
H
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HISTORY OF MORGAN COUNTY.
JACKSONVILLE.
" I hear the tread of pioneers, Of nations yet to be, The first low wash of waves, where soon Shall roll a human sea."
This city very deservedly bears the name of the " Athens of the West." As its history progresses, the reader will observe the spirit which char- acterized many of its earliest inhabitants. The founding of a college was one of the first things to engross their attention, and from the number the city now sustains, this interest has never waned. Jacksonville is most pleasantly situated, and contains at present about twelve thousand inhabitants.
When the law establishing the County of Morgan was passed - January 31, 1823, -not an inhabitant dwelt on the future city's site. Owing to the fact that at that time but few families lived within the bounds of the new county- then including Scott and Cass Counties -the legislature thought best to provide that the county seat should be tem- porary only, leaving to some future legislature to fix a permanent seat of justice. This temporary county seat was located at a place called " Olmstead's Mounds," near where Mr. Adam Allison now lives, and here, in an old cabin on Mr. Swinerton's farm, the first county courts were held. But one year elapsed ere the people evinced a desire for a permanent county seat, and on January 6, 1825, John Howard, Abraham Pickett, and John T. Lusk, of Madison County, were appointed Commis- sioners to locate the permanent seat of justice for the new county. They were required to meet at Mr. James Deaton's on the first Monday in March following, and after being duly sworn were to proceed to select a site for the county seat as " near as possible to the center of the territory as practicable, having a due regard to the present and future population." In this law it was also provided that if said county seat should be located upon land belonging to any private citizen, the owner or owners of the same should donate to the county twenty acres, to be laid out in lots and sold, the proceeds of which should be applied to the building of a court house and jail for the county.
In obedience to this law, the three persons appointed located the county seat in the center of a quarter section of land composed of the east half of the northeast quarter of section twenty, and the west half of the northwest quarter of section twenty-one, in township fifteen, north of the base line, and in range ten west of the third principal meridian.
The day this county seat was located the land belonged to the gov- ernment of the United States, but the next day, at nine o'clock in the morning, the government sold it at private sale at one dollar and a quarter per acre, to Thomas Arnett and Isaac Dial, two citizens residing near the place - Arnett purchasing the tract in section twenty, and Dial the tract in section twenty-one. Arnett and Dial resolved, in connection with the county, to lay out a town upon this land, and by an agreement between these owners and the County Commissioners' Court, a line was drawn from east to west, through the center of the quarter section, and Arnett and Dial conveyed, by deeds to the county, each twenty acres immediately
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HISTORY OF MORGAN COUNTY.
on the north side of that line. This donation by those proprietors con- tained forty acres, being double the quantity required by the law to be given to the county. On the 10th of March, 1825, those proprietors, for themselves, and the county court for the county, laid out a town on eighty acres of land, in a square form, in the center of the one hundred and sixty acre tract, the county owning the north half and the proprietors the south half, and after much research and deliberation in selecting a name, they called the town Jacksonville, after General Andrew Jackson, he being the great man of that day.
Previous to that time there had been a public road laid out from Springfield, the then recently located county seat of Sangamon County, to the town of Naples, on the Illinois River, in Morgan County. This road, by way of eminence and distinction, was called the State road. This State road passed east and west on the top of the ridge of land directly over the spot selected for the county seat. The surveyor who laid out the town (Mr. Johnston Shelton) began the survey by laying out a central square of land, containing something more than five acres, directly in the center of the one hundred and sixty acre tract, the State road running through the center of the square. Upon this State road he located a street, sixty feet wide, intending it to run due east and west across the one hundred and sixty acres, and on the north line of the land belonging to the proprietors ; thus locating one-half of the square and one-half of the width of the street on the land of the private owners, and the other half on the land of the county. This street was called State street.
A street was then laid out running north and south through the center of the land and the central square, of the same width, and was called Main street. Taking these two streets as base lines, the town was laid out into square blocks, of one hundred and eighty feet nine inches on each side, which blocks were divided into three lots, each of equal size. All other streets, except those two, were made forty feet wide, and the alleys twenty-five feet, all running at right angles with each other.
The county offices and all county business were removed from the temporary county seat at Olmstead's Mound, in the Summer of 1825, and the first Circuit Court was held at Jacksonville in September of that year.
When the Commissioners located the seat of justice, they found on the site one cabin occupied by a hatter named Alexander Cox, who made caps of furs for the settlers. This cabin stood near the fountain in the Public Square, and was a comfortable, though primitive affair. Almost contemporary with the laying out of the town, this cabin was purchased by Mr. Thomas Carson, also a hatter by trade, who emigrated hither from Sangamon County. He was a native of Virginia. From the Old Domin- ion he removed to Kentucky, then the western terminus of almost all emigrants. From this State he brought his wife to the new State of Illinois, then a comparative wilderness, and, following in the steps of the greater part of emigrants from Kentucky to the Prairie State, came to the Sangamo country. By some means he was induced to locate in the new County of Morgan, and as been stated, purchased Mr. Cox's cabin. He soon after removed it just south of East State Street, fronting the Public Square. Placing the cabin a little in the rear of the corner, he erected to the front a large hewed log dwelling, in which he opened a
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HISTORY OF MORGAN COUNTY.
tavern. The sash for the windows of this house were carried by Mrs. Carson from Jersey Prairie on horseback. As the county wa's incorporated in a municipal capacity, he was required to procure a license. In all licenses to keep public houses, or ferries, at that date the rates of charges were established. By the destruction of the court house and its records in the Autumn of 1827, all such records were destroyed, and we have no means of determining such charges save by those prescribed after that event. It is probably correct to suppose that the prices allowed for entertainment did not change much in that short interval, and we can very safely assume that Mr. Carson received for rum, brandy, gin, and wine twenty-five cents per half pint; for whisky, half that sum for the same quantity ; for a meal of victuals or keeping a horse over night, twenty-five cents ; for lodging twelve and one-half cents, and for feeding a horse six and one-fourth cents. Mr. Huram Reeve and some others think that Mr. David Tefft opened a tavern in a small building sixteen feet square, erected by him on the east side of the Square previous to the open- ing of Mr. Carson's. Mrs. Carson stated to Mr. J. R. Bailey that her hus- band procured his license first, and was the first tavern-keeper in the town. This opinion was confirmed by Mr. Dennis Rockwell, the first county clerk, and is probably correct.
The tavern of Mr. Carson was removed to East Morgan Street to give place for the erection of the Congregational churchi, which was afterward known as the " Union Hall." The old building is partly standing at this time.
The third hotel in the town was not built until 1828. It was situated on the east side of the Square, and was probably the first frame building erected in Jacksonville. This building was rented to Mr. George M. Richards, who obtained his license to keep a public house February 15, 1828. It is the first license recorded now on record. Those of Mr. Carson and Mr. Tefft being destroyed by the burning of the old cour house in 1827. Mr. Richards' rate of charges are worth preserving, and were as follows :
For rum per half pint,
25
cents.
For brandy per half pint,
25 cents.
For gin per half pint, 25 cents.
For wine per half pint. 25. cents.
For whisky per half pint, - 123 cents. -
For meal of victuals,
For lodging, -
25 cents. 64 cents.
For horse feed (corn or oats), - 64 cents.
Mr. Carson remained in Jacksonville during his lifetime, and was always an excellent citizen, doing much toward the prosperity of the city. He was also the first jailor, and in that official capacity held the keys of the old log structure, which, though uncouth in appearance, was as safe a repository for criminals as its more pretentious successors of to-day. Mrs. Carson was more widely known than any woman in the county. " Mother " Carson, as she was called, was known in St. Louis, Springfield, and equally distant places. She followed the profession of midwife, and so extensive was her practice, and so remarkable her success, that she was often called to these and equally distant places in the practice of her
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HISTORY OF MORGAN COUNTY.
profession. She seldom lost a patient, and it has been confidently asserted by many that she was present at the birth of fully three thousand children. She died while the courts were in session, and so respected was she by all, that, upon motion of Judge William Thomas, court adjourned to attend her funeral.
The laying out of the city, and its selection as the seat of justice, brought immediately a number of families thither. Dennis Rockwell, the first recorder, clerk of court, and the first post-master here, was without doubt among the first settlers.
Mr. Rockwell was a native of Vermont. He resided for some time at Edwardsville, Illinois, and when Morgan County was organized, he was appointed clerk of the Circuit and County Commissioner Court, and recorder, and, upon the location of the county seat at Jacksonville, post-master. In 1854, he removed to Chicago, where he was engaged in the lumber business until 1867, when, his health failing, he returned to Jacksonville. He was one of the first directors of the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, and, with Colonel Geo. M. Chambers, superintended the erection of that building. He was also one of the trustees of the Institution for the Blind. For a time he held a position as cashier in the Branch of the State Bank, located in Jacksonville. He donated to the Episcopal church, of which he was a member, the block of ground on which that church now stands, and gave largely toward the erection of the house and support of the minister. After his return from Chicago, in 1867, his health failed him and he died shortly thereafter.
The first store in the county was opened soon after the town was laid out, by Hacket & Fairfield. Before opening this store in town, they peddled through the settlements, exchanging goods for furs, beeswax, and honey, the only money found in the settlements at that time. Town property, for the first three or four years of the growth of the town, was very low. A lot on the southwest corner of the square, now occupied by the dry goods store of Metcalf & Fell, was offered to Mr. Dennis Rockwell for a cow and calf, worth at that time ten dollars, and Mr. Rockwell sold at one time eight acres of land, just north and west of the square, now in the heart of the city, for eighty dollars-to be paid in blacksmithing.
The first improvements on the west side of the square were a row of small frame houses. In one of these houses the first barber shop was opened, by a colored man named Ball, and in one of these buildings Colonel John J. Hardin held his office.
General Hardin, one of the most prominent men in Morgan County, was born in Frankfort, Kentucky, on the sixth day of June, 1810. He came to this part of Illinois at an early day, and at once entered actively into the practice of his profession-the law. He was a member of different legislative bodies, and held other and various offices of trust. He was elected a general of militia, and, on the breaking out of the Mexican war, was the first one in the county to enlist. He was immediaately chosen captain of a company raised there. After leaving for the seat of war, he was chosen colonel of a regiment; and, while gal- lantly leading his men at the battle of Buena Vista, on the 23d of Feb- ruary, 1847, received a death wound. In July, his body was brought home, and deposited in the old cemetery. His funeral was one of the
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HISTORY OF MORGAN COUNTY.
largest ever held in the city. Many State officers, and others promi- nent in life, came to pay their respects to the memory of one so well known and revered.
All houses were built of logs, with puncheon floors, wooden-hinged doors, and " stick " chimneys. The old log school-house, erected proba- ably early in 1826, was of this pattern. Judge William Thomas taught the first school therein. It was also used by the Methodists and Pres- byterians as a house of worship, each denomination alternating with the other. It was in this pioneer structure that Dr. J. M. Sturtevant, so long and so intimately connected with the educational interests of Jack- sonville, preached his first sermon in the county. This was in the Fall of 1829, when he and Theron Baldwin emigrated to Illinois, pledged with others to establish the institution with which he has been so long asso- ciated. Speaking of this journey, and the old school-house, the Doctor says :
" On our arrival at St. Louis, then a village not much more pop- ulous, nor half as beautiful as Jacksonville is to-day, we found no public conveyance to Jacksonville of any sort. The rivers were open and in good stage, but there was no regular navigation on the Illinois, and no boat was likely to go up. There was no stage to this place, and no mail, except one carried on horseback once a week from Springfield. I pro- cured a carriage and driver for myself and wife and two ladies accompa- nying us, and left my friend, Mr. Baldwin, to devise the best plan he could for reaching our common destination. The route from St. Louis to this place was nearly the same then as the one now generally traveled. But it was a journey through a wilderness. Delhi, Jerseyville, Kane, Whitehall, and Manchester were not even in name. Alton could hardly be said to be. Carrollton was for the most part a cluster of log houses. It was a dreary journey, in mud and melting snow, through a region, much of which seemed incapable of settlement for a generation to come, on account of the scarcity of wood. The unfortunate detention of our vehicle in one of those mud-holes, which are one of the first marks of commencing civilization, compelled us, like Mr. Ellis, to pass Saturday night on the other side of Sandy Creek. The inconvenience to which we were subjecting the family, in the small cabin where we stopped, com- pelled us to resume our journey with the dawning day. It was on a bright Sabbath morning, on the fifteenth day of November, a little after sunrise, that we came in sight of Jacksonville. It was already called, in the ordinary speech of the people, a beautiful place. I had often heard it called so myself; and beautiful it was, when the bright face of spring was again spread over it, though its beauty was God's work, and not man's It was at that time little better than a group of log cabins. The prairie was in the somber brown of autumn, with scarce a tree or shrub to relieve the monotony. To the northwest, however, the view was shut in by an elevation, which a New Englander might almost recog- nize as a hill. It was crowned with a natural grove. Against the front of the grove was already projected an edifice of brick, which at that dis- tance, and on such an elevation, made an appearance of considerable dignity and magnificence. The site on which it stood charmed every be- holder. It was the south half of what is now our college buildings, then in the process of erection.
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HISTORY OF MORGAN COUNTY.
" We were most cordially welcomed at the humble but none the less hospitable dwelling of Mr. Ellis. He was still absent at the East, but his house was in charge of one whose heart was the abode of every noble and generous sentiment. God only knows what the cause of edu- cation and of religion in this State owes to her wisdom, energy, and cheerful self-denial.
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