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 42
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Both daily and weekly. editions have increased in circulation and influence until no provincial paper excels the Journal. The weekly is a large . forty-eight-column paper. The daily is twenty-eight columns, receives the latest telegraphic reports, and makes a specialty of local interests. The Journal has an extensive steam printing establishment in connection with it, and is in full tide of prosperity.
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HISTORY OF MORGAN COUNTY.
Illinois Courier, now published tri-weekly and weekly, being a con- solidation of Illinois Sentinel and Jacksonville Enterprise, the two offices being purchased by T. D. Price & Co., who, besides uniting them, more than doubled the capacity of the establishment, by adding other power presses and other machinery, including a full supply of poster printing materials and a book-bindery, making it one of the most complete printing houses in the State.
10
EROCENS-PINILLA
COURIER OFFICE.
The Sentinel was established by J. R. Bailey, in January, 1855, by whom it was conducted as a weekly paper until January, 1872, when he sold to Fanning, Paradice & Co., who also bought the Jacksonville Independent, and added steam fixtures and a power press. The Independ- ent was established April 29, 1869, by Ironmonger & Fink, Henry B. Fink being editor. During its continuance under Mr. Fink, Ensley Moore was employed as assistant editor upon the Independent, and Moore introduced into Jacksonville journalism the system of collecting suburban, news by special correspondences, a point of much value to the Independent and its successors. In 1873 the establishmet was sold to Gersham Martin -W. Y. Dowdall, of the Peoria Democrat, afterward purchasing an interest -it was conducted by Martin & Co. until purchased by the present proprietors.
In 1874, the Jacksonville Enterprise was established as a weekly paper by James S. Hambaugh, who, in 1875, started a daily paper. After the Sentinel and Enterprise offices were purchased by T. D. Price & Co., in May, 1876, the offices were united, as stated, under the name of Illinois Courier, the paper being published daily and weekly until January, 1877, when the daily was temporarily suspended.
The firm of T. D. Price & Co., as publishers of the Courier, is composed of T. D. Price, M. N. Price, H. L. Clay, and G. E. Doying, all practical printers - each giving personal attention to its business -- Mr. Clay as editor, Mr. Doying as manager. The office is in Ayers' Block, on West State Street, in the business center of the city. In all respects the office is fully equipped and equal to all demands upon it.
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HISTORY OF MORGAN COUNTY.
The weekly Courier is a large four-page paper, and the tri-weekly a seven-column four-page paper. It is democratic in politics, but conser- vative in its views upon all subjects, having for its main purpose the advancement of all local interests. It is claimed by its friends to be the best representative of the literary institutions which cluster at Jackson- ville - an acknowledged center of learning in the West.
THE STATE INSTITUTIONS.
Illinois Institution for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb. The earliest recorded mention of the deaf and dumb, is that of the Pentateuch -" Thou shalt not curse the deaf." While the Mosaic law forbade unjust imposition and aspersion against this large and interesting class of unfortunates, the laws of the most refined nations of antiquity placed upon them the same disabilities as appertained to infants and idiots, and the usages of nations less enlightened, consigned them to death upon the discovery of their deficiency. The eminent Roman philosopher Lucretius, in the century immediately preceding the advent of Christ, says :
To instruct the deaf no art could ever reach, No care improve them and no wisdom teach.
In the latter part of the seventh century, John, Bishop of Hagulstad, taught a deaf mute to speak and repeat words and sentences. One other instance occurs in the fifteenth century, while two are mentioned as occurring in the sixteenth. Of the two attempts made in the sixteenth century, one was by Pedro de Ponce, a Benedictine monk, in the convent of Ona, in Spain, in the year 1550, he is claimed to have instructed four mutes with great success. He died in 1584. The first treatise on the education of mutes was written by John Paulo Bonet, in the early part of the seventeenth century. During the same century, Dr. John Wallis, in England, in a publication enunciated the principles afterward known as those of De l'Epee. About the middle of the eighteenth century, Jacob Rodriguey Pereira, a Spanish Jew, attained such success in France as to receive the commendation of the Academy of Sciences, and to attract the attention of several crowned heads. Just at this time, unfor- tunately for Pereira's fame, love of money got the better of his humane promptings, and he died without making his processes clearly known. Simultaneously with Pereira, the Abbe De l'Eppe, in France, and Samuel Heinecke, a soldier in Germany, were working in behalf of the deaf mute. De l'Eppe attached chief importance to signs, as a basis of instruction. Heinecke regarded articulation as the only proper means. Pereira's
method was to combine the two.
The first deaf mute of whom record is made in this country, was the son of Francis Green, Esq., at that time residing in Boston. He was sent to the Braidwood School, near Edinburgh, Scotland. This place was Dumbiedikes, and was so called because the school for the dumb was located there. The place is immortalized by Sir Walter Scott, in his story " The Heart of Midlothian." Dr. Samuel Johnson, writing of this school, says : "There is one subject of philosophical curiosity to be found in Edinburgh, which no other city has to show, a college of deaf and dumb, the pupils can not only speak, write and understand what is written, but
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it is an expression scarcely figurative to say they hear with the eye. It was pleasing to see one of the most desperate of human calamities of so much help. Whatever enlarges hope will exalt courage."
The little daughter of Dr. Mason F. Coggswell, an eminent physician in Hartford, Conn., had the misfortune to suffer total loss of hearing as the result of a disease then known as spotted fever, but of late years greatly dreaded, under the name of cerebro - spinal meningitis. One day, Thomas M. Gallaudet, son of a neighbor and friend, a young clergyman, who had recently carried off the highest honors at the Andover Theological Seminary, as he had previously done at Yale College, chanced, in passing, to see little Alice Coggswell playing in the garden, and, attracted by her bright and winsome ways, endeavored to establish some communication with her. Before he had left the garden he had succeeded in teaching her the word hat .? From this, he proceeded in sub- sequent visits, to teach her to write the names of other objects and even little sentences. As hope animated the mind of the father, he began to make inquiries as to what had been done for the deaf and dumb abroad, and as his information increased, he ascertained that there were a number of deaf mutes in the State of Connecticut, who, like his daughter, were entirely without education. Through his efforts, a few gentlemen assem- bled in Hartford and decided that it was expedient to send some one abroad to learn the process of instruction there employed, and undertake the education of the deaf and dumb in this country. Their choice natu- rally fell on Mr. Gallaudet, who, on the 25th of May, 1815, embarked for Europe and proceeded to London, where he made application for permission to attend the exercises of the school and make himself familiar with the processes employed. But Dr. Watson, the superintendent, informed him that the rules of the institution were such that it could not be permitted. He next went to Edinburgh, and sought from the Rev. Robert Kinniburgh, principal of the institution there, the privileges which he had been denied at London. Here he met with the same answer, Dr. Kinniburgh having, like Dr. Watson, received his license to teach only on condition that he should not impart a knowledge of the art to any one designing to estab- lish a separate institution. Returning to London, he had the good fortune to meet the Abbe Sicard, the successor of De l'Epee, who had brought with him his two celebrated pupils Massieu and Clerc, for the purpose of demonstrating the value of his process. Becoming very much interested in the project of Mr. Gallaudet, he at once invited him to Paris, where he accordingly found himself March 9, 1816. The time of his sojourn was much shortened by his obtaining the consent of the Abbe to Mr. Clerc's accompanying him to this country, and in June of the same year they set sail for America, arriving in New York the 9th of August. On the 15th of April, 1817, the first asylum in this country was opened in a rented house in Hartford, with a class of seven pupils. Mr. Gallau- det was appointed Principal, which position he held until his health failed him. He died Sept. 10, 1851, aged sixty-one years. Mr. Laurent Clerc died at Hartford July 18, 1869.
Since the time of Dr. Gallaudet, forty-nine institutions have been established, all but four of which may be regarded as owing their exist- ence and their method to his influence.
The act to establish the Illinois Institution for the Education of the
[1:a
BAKER
THE ILLINOIS INSTITUTION FOR THE EDUCATION OF THE DEAF AND DUMB, JACKSONVILLE. PHILLIP G. GILLETT, SUPT.
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HISTORY OF MORGAN COUNTY.
Deaf and Dumb. was approved February 23, 1839, the bill having been framed and introduced by O. H. Browning, of Adams County. It names for trustees, Thomas Carlin, Dan'l G. Whitney, Thomas Cole, Otway Wilkinson, Sam'l D. Lockwood, Jos. Duncan, Wm. Thomas, Dennis Rockwell, J. M. Sturtevant, Geo. M. Chambers, Sam'l M. Prosser, Porter Clay, Matthew Stacy, Richard F. Barrett, Sam'l H. Treat, Cyrus Walker, Benj. F. Morris, William E. Withrow, James McCrosky, and Thomas Worthington. Section third states: "The object of said cor- poration shall be to promote by all proper and feasible means, the intellectual, moral and physical culture of that unfortunate portion of the community who, by the mysterious dispensation of Providence, have been born or by disease become deaf, and of course dumb, and by a judicious and well adapted course of education, to reclaim them from their lonely and cheerless condition, restore them to the ranks of their species, and fit them for the discharge of the social and domestic duties of life." The charter further provides for the location of the institution at Jacksonville, where an eligible site was selected one mile west of the Public Square, and a building suitable for the occupancy of this class of unfortunates was erected, but was not opened for the reception of pupils until January 26, 1846. Mr. Thomas Officer, formerly of the Ohio institution, was appointed superintendent; under his management the school was well conducted, and at the close of the year 1855 the number of pupils who had been in attendance was one hundred and sixty-two.
Mr. Officer in the latter part of the year 1855 presented his resigna- tion to the board of directors, which was accepted.
The board were fortunate in securing as the successor of Mr. Officer, Phillip G. Gillett, A.M., a graduate of Asbury University, at Greencastle, Indiana. Mr. Gillett having taught for four years in the Indiana Deaf Mute Institution, came to preside over this one with an experience which was of incalculable value to the institution at that time. The board of directors who were instrumental in procuring the services of Mr. Gillett, in their report for the years 1855-6, say : " The board of directors deem themselves fortunate in having procured the services of Mr. Gillett. He is a gentleman of strong and vigorous mind, an accomplished scholar, and experienced in teaching the sign language; indeed he has made this his occupation for life, and with him it is as much a labor of love as duty."
The number of pupils in actual attendance at this time was one hun- dred. There were but two trades taught : shoe making and cabinet making. The school flourished from this time forward, new buildings were erected, more land was purchased, and needed improvements were added from time to time, as necessity required.
During the fall term of '68, two experimental classes in articulation were formed, and after a fair trial, it was found to be of such great value to those for whom it was intended, that it was continued, and there are now three teachers devoting their time exclusively to that department. The General Assembly of 1869-70, appropriated $4,000 for procur- ing printing presses, and the necessary equipments; since that time quite a number of the pupils have learned the trade, and after quitting school have found themselves able to be self-supporting. An art depart- ment has been added, and those of the pupils who evince talents in that direction, have the benefit of instruction from a competent teacher.
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HISTORY OF MORGAN COUNTY.
Drawing, painting, wood carving, and scroll work, are taught in this department. A fine library-provided by the Legislature-is an attract- ive feature of the institution.
The institution was for years unable to secure a sufficient supply of water, but this difficulty was overcome in 1870, by building a reservoir on the grounds of the institution, capable of holding three and a half million gallons of water, and here the ice for the use of the household is procured in winter.
At the opening of the session of the school in '56, repeated applica- tions were received to admit persons who, though mute, were not deaf ; their inability to articulate being the result of imbecility of mind. Dr. Gillett in his report for that year, urges the establishment of an institu- tion where this class of children might be cared for. But it was not until 1865, that the General Assembly incorporated the " Asylum for Feeble Minded Children." A building near the Deaf and Dumb Institu- tion-the Governor Duncan property-was rented, and placed under the supervision of Dr. Gillett. Having thoroughly organized the school, Dr. Gillett resigned the superintendency and recommended as his successor, Dr. Chas. T. Wilbur, who was accordingly appointed. This institution is now in successful operation in Lincoln, Logan County. On account of its being an outgrowth of the Deaf and Dumb Institution, it is thought fitting to mention it in this connection. The buildings of the Deaf and Dumb Institution are all of brick, and are built in the most sub- stantial manner. The number of pupils increased so rapidly that greater accomodations were needed, and the General Assembly in 1873, nade an appropriation for the erection of a dining room sufficiently large to seat five hundred pupils, all at one time ; this building was soon after finished and is found to be all that could be desired. It is one of the largest rooms used for this purpose in the State, being sixty-seven feet wide, and ninety feet long. An appropriation was made at the same time for the erection of a school building, one of the largest detached buildings in the State used for school purposes. It contains besides the twenty- eight school rooms, a chapel, capable of holding one thousand people. The garden is under the supervision of a competent gardener, who instructs those of the pupils who may be placed under his charge, in this useful employment. The number of pupils in actual attendance at this time is four hundred and twenty-six. The value of the property is estimated to be $325,000.
The present prosperity of the institution is owing in no small degree to the untiring labors of the present superintendent, Dr. Gillett. The State Board of Charities in their report to Governor Beveridge, say : " With the advent of Mr. Phillip G. Gillett, from Indiana, to the super- intendency, in 1857, the institution entered upon a new career of vigorous growth and expansion. His energetic spirit has driven the school, the public, and even the Legislature before him; when this has been impossi- ble, he has sometimes gone, in advance, himself, and waited for the rest to come up." Asbury University, in Indiana, in 1871, conferred on Mr. Gillett the title L.L.D. The institution has grown to be an honor to the State of Illinois, and occupies a position second to none in this country.
Illinois Central Hospital for the Insane .- This is the oldest institu- tion of its kind in the State. The act to establish it was passed by the
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HISTORY OF MORGAN COUNTY.
General Assembly March 1, 1847. Before the erection of this institution, this class of unfortunates were kept in county poor-houses, by their friends, and in private institutions ; but in none of these was their keep- ing, in the majority of cases, such as would tend to their comfort or cure. In many instances they were confined in pens or cells, in which they were subjected to all the inclemencies of the weather, their condition being no better than that of wild beasts.
Miss D. L. Dix, a philanthropic lady who had devoted the best years of her life to aid the insane, and who had traveled most extensively in the furtherance of her purpose, visited the majority of the counties in this State, to learn the condition of the insane, and to see if some provision could not be made for their proper care and support. In a great many cases she found them in a deplorable condition. In a memorial prepared by her and presented to the General Assembly, at the session of January, 1847, she vividly describes the condition of the insane, as found by her in her travels, and makes a most urgent appeal for their relief and sup- port. In reference to the treatment of insane persons, Miss Dix, in her memorial, says :
"Insanity is no longer regarded as the extinction of the mind, a dis- ease hopeless and incurable, but proceeding from physical causes which disable the brain for a time from the correct exercise of those functions through which the mind is represented. And this malady is subject to successful physical treatment, as surely as a fever, or other common bodily disease. In view of ascertaining the condition and necessities of these miserable fellow-beings, I have journeyed over no inconsiderable portion of the State, visiting some of the northern, central, and southern dis- tricts ; and prevented only by severe and protracted illness, the last autumn, from a more complete course of inquiry and observation.
" Scenes of misery have met my view which no language, however vividly combined, can adequately describe. In addition to what I have witnessed, distressing circumstances have been communicated, throughi reliable sources, as existing in private families, which yield additional ¿ evidence that this appalling malady is making sure advances throughout the country. It is not confined to rank, age, sex, or condition. All are liable to its attacks, and all are directly concerned to secure means for its cure. This can be done only by the establishment of a hospital adapted expressly to this end."
Miss Dix, in her memorial, further vividly describes the condition of the insane throughout the State as she found them. Many were kept in cages, pens, and cells, which generally, through their imperfect construc- tion, afforded ill protection to the persons confined in them. She further says in her memorial : " In the poor-house at Galena, the master showed me through a small apartment occupied by poor patients ill of fever, of consumption, and others confined merely through accident, broken limbs, etc. Passing into the adjacent apartment, also small, I perceived a man- cage constructed on one side, with strong perpendicular bars, enclosing a space about six feet by three.
"' There, madam,' said the keeper with emotion, ' there is the only place I have for keeping the furiously insane when they are sent to the poor-house-a place not fit for a dog-a place where they become daily worse, and where their cries, vociferations, and blasphemies, with other
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HISTORY OF MORGAN COUNTY.
offenses, drive all peace and quiet from the place. The sick have no respite, and the family at large no rest. We want, madam, a hospital in our State, and the people ought to know it. It costs as much again, and three-fold as much, to keep them here as it would in an asylum, and when we've done our best, they are in a dreadful condition.'
" In the southern, as in the central and northern counties, most dis- tressing cases of persons whose limbs have been frozen, both through exposure while wandering in the country during inclement seasons, and from being shut up in small cells or pens, without clothing or fire to temper the cold in the one, or protection from the pitiless storms in the other." Many of the readers of these pages will doubtless remember the case of the man named Fanning, at one time a resident of this county, He was visited by Miss Dix, who thus describes his condition :
"There is at this time in Morgan County a man who has been furiously mad, most of the time, for many years. Since he became in- sane he has been supported at large expense by the county. His sister and brother-in-law have charge of him. A county officer writes to me concerning this poor creature, as follows: "Fanning is in a most wretched condition, being kept more like a wild beast than a human being.' I have, together with several citizens of Jacksonville, visited this maniac. Those who are paid by the county for taking charge of him, seemed to me to err through incapacity and entire ignorance how to control him, rather than through willful neglect and inhumanity. His sister said to me : 'He is a sight of trouble, and costs a dreadful deal- but we had rather take care of him, than leave him to strangers, because we are kinder and treat him better than they would.' Now for the comfort, the situation, the treatment of this unoffending man, who, before the accident which induced insanity, was characterized, as is testified by those who knew him, for intelligence, industry, and correct habits. It was an intensely hot day last summer when I visited Fanning. He was con- fined in a roofed pen, which enclosed an area of about eight feet by eiglit -probably a few inches over. The interstices between the unhewn logs freely admitted the scorching rays of the sun then, as they now afford admission to the frequent rains, the driving snow and pinching frost. He was without bed, and without clothing ; his food, of the coarsest kind, was passed through a space between the logs, 'no better,' said a neigh- bor, ' than the hogs are fed.' Some sort of coarse bed-clothing and gar- ments, at times were supplied, but usually not. His feet had been frozen and had perished ; upon the shapeless stumps, he could, aided by some motion of his shoulders, raise his body partially against the side of the
pen. This wretched place was cleaned ' once in a week or fortnight,' in mild weather, not so in the wet, cold, wintry seasons. I was told that when the pen was opened for this purpose, the help of neighbors was requisite. ' We have men called, and they go in and tie him strongly with ropes, and get him out on the ground, and then they clean the place and him, by throwing over pails of water.' Of course no fire is here introduced in cold winter weather, but a singular expedient has been adopted, as horrible as it is singular. Beneath the pen is excavated a pit about six feet deep and six on either side. This dreary, ghastly place is entered through a trap door; neither light, heat, nor ventilation tliere ;
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HISTORY OF MORGAN COUNTY.
but there is to be found a pining, desolate, suffering maniac, whose piteous groans, and frantic cries would move to pity the hardest heart."
The earnest words and works of Miss Dix and others, were not with- out their effect. Judge William Thomas, who has given so much of his time to benevolent works, and who was mainly instrumental in securing its location in Morgan County, drew up and presented a bill to the Gen- eral Assembly of '46-'47, providing for the erection of a Hospital for the Insane. The main features of the bill introduced by Judge Thomas, were, that " there shall be established, as soon after the passage of this act as shall be practicable, at, or within four miles of the town of Jack- sonville, in the County of Morgan, in this State, an institution to be styled and known as the Illinois State Hospital for the Insane." The following persons were named in the act as trustees: Joseph Morton, James Dun- lap, John J. Hardin, John Henry, Samuel D. Lockwood, William Thomas, Bezaleel Gillett, Nathaniel English, and Owen M. Long, all of Morgan County. The act further provided that the sum o of $60,000
should be appropriated for the erection of buildings capable of accommodating two hundred and fifty patients ; for the proper admission of patients, for their care and keeping, and for the appointment of officers and the necessary assistants. The trustees above named met on the 20th of March, 1847, and organized as a board by electing Samuel D. Lock- wood, president, and William Thomas, secretary. On the first of May, the board agreed on a location provided the land could be purchased at twenty dollars per acre. On the 15th of May eighty acres of the desired land was purchased at a cost of $1,600, and on the 4th of June following, they purchased eighty acres adjoining, for $1,670. The land lies south of Jacksonville, and the site for the building is one and a quarter miles south of the public square. It is believed that no better location could have been made. The site is so elevated as to command a view of the country for several miles to the north, south and west, and to admit of easy drain- age into a running stream passing near the same. The members of the board having received such information in relation to the building in Indiana as to induce the belief that the plan of that building might be safely adopted, Moore C. Goltra was employed to proceed to Indianapolis and obtain the plans, drawings and specifications of that building. On the tenth day of July Mr. Goltra returned with the ground plans and draw- ings of the Indiana Hospital, which the board adopted, and employed Mr. Goltra as mechanical superintendent. The erection of the buildings began that fall but on account of various delays was not open for the reception of patients until the Fall of 1851. On the 3d of November of that year, according to a notice published and sent throughout the State, three months previously, as required by law, the Hospital was opened for the reception of patients. During the first thirteen months there were received one hundred and thirty-eight patients, of whom seventy-three were males, and sixty-five were females. Of this number thirty-eight were discharged cured, showing the beneficial results of such an institu- tion. On the 12th of August, 1848, James M. Higgins, M. D., of Griggsville, was appointed medical superintendent. He remained in charge of the institution until June 6, 1853, when the trustees deemed it best to make a change in that office. Andrew McFarland, M. D., of the New Hampshire Asylum for the Insane, was chosen to supersede
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