History of Sangamon County, Illinois, together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history, portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens, Part 90

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Inter-state publishing company
Number of Pages: 1084

USA > Illinois > Sangamon County > History of Sangamon County, Illinois, together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history, portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens > Part 90

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).

Smith, Lloyd B.

Pierson, J. G.

Staley, W. H.

Loose, Mrs. J. G. Loose, Joseph Lyon, H. D. Malone, A. C. Marsh, W. H. Mason, J. A. Mason, John L. Mason, Noah Mason, Seth Mason, W. T

Patton, James W.

Salzenstein, E.

Walther & Hecht

Myers, Davidson & Henley

Primm, E. Primm, Mrs. E. Putnam, Jonathan Pyle, Lawson Radcliff, C. C.

The first President of this society was J. B. Perkins, who served two years, and was suc- ceeded by Platt S. Carter, and he by John A.

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HISTORY OF SANGAMON COUNTY.

McClernand, and then George Pickrell was elected.

The following named constitute the present officers:

President-Geo. Pickrell. . Wheatfield

Secretary-Phil M. Springer Springfield

Treasurer-E. A. Hall

Springfield

VICE-PRESIDENTS.

J. A. Able. Auburn

A. R. Bradeen .Springfield

Geo. Carpenter. Capital

P. S. Carter. Loami

C. L. Conkling Capital

M. C. Connelly Capital

J. D. Crabb. . Woodside

H. R. Davis.

. Pawnee

J. E. Dodd. . .Talkington

Bryant Fay.

Island Grove

Win. Finney. Rochester C. Flagg. Sherman

Anton Frey. Curran

Frank Godley Capital

S. A. Grubb.

Clear Lake

O. P. Hall.

. Mechanicsburg

Owen Hanratty.

Capital

G. L. Harnberger

Cartwright

W. F. Herndon.

. Capital

W. F. Irwin. Salisbury

J. A. Kennedy.

.Springfield

S. T. Matthew . Ball

Thos. Munce. Wheatfield

D. W. Peden. Illiopolis

J. W. Priest

Capital

W. B. Robinson.

Buffalo Hart Hartman Spengle Cotton Hill

B. F. Talbott. Capital E. N. Thayer Chatham

N H. Turner. . Gardner

Wm. M. Warren New Berlin

O. S. Webster. . Williams

J. W. Wigginton

Cooper

DIRECTORS.

Geo. M. Caldwell Williamsville

S. N. Hitt. . New Berlin

J. B. Perkins. Woodside

Jacob Leonard Sherman

J. S. Highmore. Rochester

Annual exhibitions have been held since 1871, by the new society, with the exception of the years 1879 and 1880, when the State Agricultural Society held fairs on the grounds.

The Board, on its organization, leased from the county the old Poor Farm, near Springfield, which have been fitted up in handsome style and very convenient.

STATE FAIRS.

The first two exhibitions of the Illinois State Agricultural Society, in the years 1853 and 1854, were held at Springfield. Also the fairs of 1879 and 1880. Each of these exhibitions were a decided success. To Simeon Francis, a Sanga- mon county citizen, is due the credit of the organization of the society and success of its

first exhibitions, probably more than any other man.

THE AMERICAN BERKSHIRE ASSOCIATION.

The American Berkshire Association was organized February 25, 1875, its object being to collect, revise, preserve and publish the history, management and pedigree of pure-bred Berk- shire swine.

On the 18th of March, 1879, the Association was incorporated as a stock company under the laws of the State of Illinois. Charles F. Mills was elected President; Philip M. Springer, Secre- tary, and H. L. Sanford, of Logan county, Treasurer. Vice Presidents were chosen in nearly every State in the Union and also in Canada, England and Ireland, to represent the interests of the Association.

Under the careful management of its efficient and faithful officers, the Association has achieved a decided and well-deserved success. The public registry of swine was a new project and deemed altogether impracticable by many engaged in the breeding and rearing of hogs. To-day, fol- lowing the example of the American Berkshire Association, the breeders of a number of other classes of swine, as also of sheep, have organized for the purpose of recording stock of their respective breeds.

Thousands of dollars are lost to farmers and stockmen every year by the injudicious selection of breeding animals. One of the most common mistakes is that of using sires of unknown ancestry. There is no longer any excuse for this. In the purchase of Berkshires particu- larly, all who will may readily avail themselves of the advantages presented by the American Berkshire Record, published by the Association, for securing well-bred stock. In making addi- tions to herds already started, or in founding new herds, well advised breeders use no other than well-bred pedigreed animals.

The American Berkshire Record is the ac- knowledged authority in matters of Berkshire pedigrees wherever this breed of swine is known. The four volumes already published contain a fund of information invaluable to breeders. In these will be found in addition to the pedigrees of the best families of Berkshires in the world, premium essays and other valuable treatises on swine; also the table of characteris- tics and the standard of excellence, together with many illustrations of representative ani- mals.

Philip M. Springer, of Springfield, Illinois, is still the Secretary and chief executive of the Association and editor of the Record.

HISTORY OF SANGAMON COUNTY.

551

CHAPTER XXVI.

VARIOUS THINGS.

THE DEEP SNOW.

The following highly graphic description of the deep snow of 1830-31, was written as a con- tribution to the Old Settlers' Society in 1858, by Rev. J. G. Bergen, and no apology need be offered for its insertion in this connection :

"Steeped in the heat of July-thermometer ranging ninety degrees-strange time to write about snow. Write about the hot season, thunder-storms, tornadoes, sunstrokes, not so strange. We live on neutralized contrasts, and take pleasure in them. We think and move also by associations. The deep snow of the winters of 1830-31, of Illinois, associates itself now by two facts. It comes in regular course. It was made also the limitation point of the late meet- ing of old settlers in Springfield, at which time we had a good time in general, and appointed a committee to ascertain the facts of the log-house times-memorable days of hospitality and security.

" The deep snow is chronicled in the memory of the old settlers of Sangamon. They talk of it as when a child ; soldiers of the old French war in Canada, under Wolfe, talked of the depth and heights of the snow in the forests of New York in 1766, and the consequent sufferings of the Provincial troops on their return home. They talk of it as our Revolutionary fathers talked of the memorable snow winter of 1779 in New Jersey.

could rig a 'jumper' with a store-box or a crate. Bells of any description, if not in the cutter, were hung on the horses by ropes or twine. The straps of bells we brought from New Jersey were, I believe, the first and only straps here at the time. They were freely at the service of Drs. Todd and Jayne, who were famous for fast horses, if not good sleighs. They were famous horsemen, hardy and hard drivers.

" As the snow fell night after night, and week after week, these implements, if they lost in novelty, gained in utility. Serious preparations were made by increasing the size and strength of the sleighs and doubling teams, to break the way to mill and woods, for household bread, fuel, corn and provender. Mr. Enos, one of the wealthiest men of the place, and Receiver of Public Moneys, turned out with a great sled and two yoke of oxen, to haul wood to the destitute. With wolf-skin cap on head, with Yankee frock, buttoned up close to the neck behind, reaching below his knees, belted over a great coat beneath, with legging protectors and ox-goad in hand, he rolled up the bodies and limbs of trees, some of them more than fifty feet long, to the door of the writer, for which he and his family shall receive our thanks while life shall last. The same kind act he did to many others. His timber was nearest to the town. Woodmen felled the trees, rolled them on the sled, and the benevolent veteran left them at our doors.

"Snow succeeded snow, interchanged with sleet and fine hail, which glazed and hardened the surface. Nine long weeks witnessed this coming deep snow, until in all these parts its depth averaged from four to five feet. Woe was the day when sleds met on the single beaten track! The plunging of horses, overturn- ing of loads-not to speak of the screams of the belles within, the laughs of young America,

" The autumn of 1830 was wet, and the weather prevailingly mild until the close of December. Christmas Eve the snow began to fall. That night it fell about a foot deep. It found the earth soft, grass green, and some green peach leaves on the trees. The day was mild. The snow contributed greatly to the amusement of the boys, and called forth the hilarity of all who had sleighs or sleds, or who | or the wrath of the teamsters. Many were the 61- -

55:

HISTORY OF SANGAMON COUNTY ..

joyous rides the two doctors, with four horses to their sleighs, gave the young people. Sometimes a day was spent going to Sangamon town for a barrel of flour, only seven miles, or five to Clark's. They made separate trips to Jackson- ville as a matter of amusement, to take or bring some storm-bound friends. Once, with a bevy of ladies, one of them fresh from Boston, the party had all sorts of a time. Though the des- cription of these rides, as given at the time, is vivid in my recollection, I shall leave them to the imagination of the reader, with the rough, roomy sleigh, covered with buffalo robes, filled to overflowing with hale, happy companions, be- hind four fiery horses, clamping their bits in their mouths, ready for a plunge. The driver cracks his whip, the bells jingle, as the merry party sings out, and they are off -sometimes in deep drifts where they founder, snow within, snow without, snow everywhere, cold cutting the face, drifts blinding the eyes, horses rearing and plunging, at times drawing their 'slow length' wearily along.

" During the long nine weeks the thermometer ranged close to zero; a few times it went twenty below, and the water dropped from the eaves only two days, so intense was the continuous cold. When the snow fell there was no frost in the ground; the sap of the trees had not been forced by the cold to the roots. The conse- quence was the peach trees were invariably killed; apple trees and nurseries mostly shared the same fate. The summer before, I had seen wagon loads of peaches in some orchards. Such a sight has never greeted our eyes since, in these parts.

"Great hardships were endured that winter by men and beasts. When the snow came it found most of the corn standing on the stalks. The fall had been so warm and wet that the farmers had a better reason than common to in- dulge the careless habit of leaving their corn in the field, to be gathered in winter, when they wanted it. The snow became so deep, the cold so intense, the crust at times so hard, and the people were so unprepared for such an extreme season, that it became almost impossible in many parts of the country to obtain bread for family use, though amid stacks of wheat and fields of corn. Water-mills, scarce and small as they were, were frozen and stopped a considerable portion of the time. If the one-horse 'corn-cracker,' for 'dodgers,' or the inclined wheel of the ox- mill could go, it was with great difficulty; and many lived so far from these it was impossible to go to them. Many had no road and no ability

to make one through the depths of snow; and those who had, were compelled to make them over and over again, in consequence of the drift filling the track, or a new supply from the clouds.

"Hundreds of hogs and fowls perished. Horses and cattle were in many instances turned into the corn fields. Prairie chickens, whose habit, as is well known, is to roost on the ground, per- ished that winter in such number, we feared the race of this fine bird would become extinct. When their time of roost come they would light upon the snow, if the crust would bear them; or if its bosom was soft, plunge into it, and spend the night as on the earth; but if a heavy fall of snow come that night, especially if it were coat- ed with a crust of ice, as often happened, the poor imprisoned things were locked in, and thousands and thousands perished."

RAILROAD VILLAGES.

Railroad villages are camparatively a recent feature in village building. They usually begin with a depot, followed by a postoffice, a black- smith shop and the contents of a couple of ped- dler's packs duly distributed upon a half dozen shelves, and there they are born, christened and waiting to grow. The trains run to and fro and the passengers see the little groups clustered round the track and wonder what they do there, and why they do not go on with the train. By and by houses get to be an epidemic and up they go, here and there and all about. Streets are staked, lots are measured and a public square is reserved, and they have a justice, and a doctor, and a young lawyer, and "stated preaching" once in two weeks. That's a pretty good begin- ning, but its only a beginning. A young sopho- more, out of funds, and looking for a place to teach a winter's school, gets off a straggling train some day. Everybody knows he is there. He

reached there at two o'clock, and by half past three everybody knows who he is, and what he is, and whence he is, and the 'squire sees him and the doctor shows him around the town, waves his hand towards the prairie and dilates upon its resources; towards the town and pro- nounces a eulogy upon its enterprise, and the young man is charmed, and over the stone he elimbs at once up one flight of stairs into a "high school."

Things go on bravely, and a public-spirited individual, who, as he says, has more room than he wants, gets the painter-for meanwhile such an artisan has taken passage in the village en route to greatness-to emblazon his name in very

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HISTORY OF SANGAMON COUNTY.

black letters upon a very white board, and there is general rejoicing at the new "hotel," where the lawyer argues with the storekeeper nightly, while the doctor completes the triangle upon the des- tiny of the world in general and Depotdom in particular.

What they lack now is a newspaper. By-and- bye an old press is for sale in a neighboring town and a "tramping jour" has stranded upon their beach, and the lawyer promises to write their "leaders," the doctor their obituaries, the school- masters do the puzzles and the poetry, while the blacksmith and the merchant promise to be lib- eral patrons in the way of advertising. The paper appears -- like the village, it is small, but with the village it grows.

The trains use to whistle and ring and barely slacken their speed. Now, they stop altogether, for there are more to get off and more to get on.

The tavern-keeper takes a State map of a ped- dler, who happened to be his guest over a rainy Sunday, discovers that Depotdom is the geographi- ical center of the country. There is an immense agitation. The seat of justice, justice herself, scales and all must be removed thither. They work at it, electioneer about it, bid for it and gat it.

Now the huddle is a village; now the village is a town; now the town is a shire-town; now the shire-town is a city. The blacksmith shop has grown into a half dozen factories; the lawyer is multiplied by ten, and the doctor by six, and the storekeeper knocks down his prices to compete with nineteen new comers. And all this is ac- complished through the influence of railroads and locomotives within the space of two or three years.

The lawyer is a county judge, the doctor has grown rich, the blacksmith is mayor, and the sophomore is married and settled. They have a lyceum and a library, and a little daily that re- gales its readers with a whole column of city items. How they talk of "our city!" They are no longer villagers and pagans. They are citizens.

HARD TIMES.

The effect of the hard time's throughout the United States, beginning in 1837, was not felt in this county until the following year. From that time until about the year 1845, our people experienced greater financial embarrassment than at any time in the previous history of the county. Money was an almost unknown com- modity, all business being transacted through the means of trade or barter. A would trade

B flour for its value in meal; B would trade C a yoke of oxen for a horse; D would trade E a half dozen hogs for a cow, &c. If money enough could be raised to pay the general taxes, a man considered himself fortunate. Many were the straits to which the people were led to make both ends meet, and many laughable inci- dents are narrated of the crooks and turns that were made-incidents that are laughable to us now, but were serious matters at that time. Notes were given for value received, payable in a cow, or a horse, or other property, and when the note came due, and collection was to be made, it would sometimes be hard for one party or the other to make proof of it being that which was described in the note. Many notes were held, without attempting to make collec- tion, in the hopes that better times would dawn upon the country, and their makers be able to pay the money.

During these hard times the price of such articles as the people here had to buy, rapidly advanced, while that of which they had to sell as rapidly declined. New Orleans sugar sold at sixteen and two-thirds cents per pound; coffee, twenty-five cents; calico or prints, fifty cents per yard; hogs brought from one dollar to one dol- lar and twenty-five cents per hundred pounds; wheat, twenty cents per bushel.

In a general way, Ford, in his "History of Illinois," well describes the existing order of things in this county at that time. On pages 96-99, will be found the following:

"Commerce from 1818 to 1830 made but small progress. Steamboats commenced running on the Western waters in 1816, and by the year 1830 there were one or two small ones running on the Illinois river as far up as Peoria and sometimes further. The old keel-boat navi- gation had been disused, but as yet there was so little trade as not to call for many steamboats to supply their place. The merchants of the vil- lages, few in number at first, were mere retailers of dry goods and groceries; they purchased and shipped abroad none of the productions of the country, except a few skins, hides and furs, and a little tallow and beeswax. They were sus- tained in this kind of business by the influx of immigrants, whose money being paid out in the country for grain, stock and labor, furnished the means of trade. The merchant himself rarely attempted a barter business, and never paid cash for anything but his goods. There was no class of men who devoted themselves to the business of buying and selling, and of making the ex- changes of the productions at home for those

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HISTORY OF SANGAMON COUNTY.

of other States and countries. The great ma- jority, in fact, nearly all the merchants, were mere blood-suckers, men who, with very little capital, with small stock of goods, and with ideas of business not broader than these ribbons, nor deeper than these colors, sold for money down, or on credit for cash, which, when received, they send out of the country. Since their time a race of traders and merchants have sprang up who use the money they receive in purchasing the wheat, corn, beef and pork of the farmers, and ship these articles to the east- ern cities.

" Mather, Lamb & Company, late of Chester, in Randolph county, but now of Springfield, were the first to engage in this business, and they were led to it by the refusal of the United States Bank, at St. Louis, to grant them the usual facil- ities of trade. As they could got no accommo- dation from the bank, they fell upon this course to avoid going to St. Louis to purchase eastern exchange.

" The money they received being again paid out, remained in the country and the products went forward in its place to pay for stock of goods. The traders in this way made a profit on their goods which they brought into the State, and another profit on the produce which they sent out of it.

"But, as yet, the merchant generally had neither the capital nor the talent for such a busi- ness, and it was not until a more recent period- upon the going down of the United States Bank, the consequent withdrawal of facilities for ex- change in money, and the high rates of exchange which came in with local banks of doubtful credit-that they have been very extensively forced into it. When they no longer could get either money for remittances to these eastern creditors, or bills of exchange, except at ruinous rates of premium, they at once saw the advan- tage of laying out the local currency received for their goods in purchasing the staples of the country and forwarding them in the place of cash. In very early times there were many things to discourage regular commerce. A want of capital; a want of capacity for the business; the want of a great surplus of productions, the continual demand for them created by emigrants and facility of carrying on a small commerce with the money supplied by emigration alone, all stood in the way of regular trade.

"New Orleans, at that time, was our principal market out of the State. It was then but a small city, and shipped but a trifle of the staple arti- cles of Illinois to foreign countries. Such ship-

ments as were made to it were intended for the supply of the local market, and here the Illi- noisans had to compete with Kentucky, Ohio, In- diana, Tennessee and Missouri. Any temporary scarcity in this market was soon supplied, and the most of the time it was completely glutted.

" For want of merchants or others who were to make a business of carrying our staples to market, our farmers undertook to be their own merchants and traders. This practice prevailed extensively in the western country. A farmer would produce or get together a quantity of corn, flour, bacon and such articles. He would build a flat-bottomed boat on the shores of some river or large creek, load his wares in it, and, await- ing the rise of water, with a few of his negroes to assist him, would float down to New Orleans. The voyage was long, tedious and expensive. When he arrived there he found himself in a strange city, filled with sharpers ready to take advantage of his necessities. Everybody com- bined against him to profit by his ignorance of business, want of friends or commercial connec- tions, and nine times out ten he returned a bro- ken merchant. His journey home was performed on foot, through three or four nations of Indians, inhabiting the western parts of Mississippi, Ten- nessee and Kentucky. He returned to a desolate farm, which had been neglected since he was gone. One crop was lost by absence, and an- other by taking it to market. This kind of bus- iness was persevered in astonishingly for several years, to the great injury and utter ruin of a great many people."

THE FIRST COURT HOUSE.

The first County Commissioners took the oath of office on the third day of April, 1821, and one week after met for the purpose of selecting a temporary seat of justice. On that same day they made the following contract for the erection of a court house.

" Article of agreement entered into the 10th day of April, 1821, between John Kelley of the county of Sangamon, and the undersigned County Commission- ers of said county. The said Kelley agrees with said Commissioners to build for the use of said county, a court house of the following description, to-wit: The logs to be twenty feet long, the house one story high, plank floor, a good cabin roof, a door and window cut out, the work to be completed by the first day of May next, for which the said Commissioners promise, on the part of the county, to pay said Kelley forty-two dollars and fifty cents. Witness our hands the day and date above.

JOHN KELLEY, ZACHARIAH PETER, WILLIAM DRENNAN."

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HISTORY OF SANGAMON COUNTY.

The foregoing contract was merely for the erection of the building. To Jesse Brevard was let the contract for finishing the same in the fol- lowing terms:

" Jesse Brevard agrees with the County Commission- ers to finish the court house in the following manner, to-wit: To be chinked outside and daubed inside. Boards sawed and nailed on the inside cracks, a good, sufficient door shutter to be made with good plank and hung with good iron hinges, with a latch. A window to be cut out, faced and cased, to contain nine lights, with a good sufficient shutter hung on the outside. A good, sufficient wooden chimney, built with a good sufficient back and hearth. To be finished by the first of September next. JESSE BREVARD."

The entire cost of the building, including a Judge's seat and bar, was $72.50. ( See engrav- ing).

THE SECOND COURT HOUSE.

On the passage of the act in 1824, defining the boundaries of the county, commissioners were selected to permanently locate the county seat. As already stated Springfield was selected. At the July term, 1825, the County Commissioners passed an order that the county proceed to build a court house, at a cost not to exceed $3,000, provided one-half the expense be made up by subscription. It was to be of brick, two stories high. The effort to raise the money by subscrip- tion proving a failure, the building was not erected. But the old log court house was too small and inconvenient, and another building must be provided. Accordingly, in September, 1825, a contract was made for the erection of a frame building, which, when completed, cost the sum of $519. The new frame house was built on the north-west corner of Adams and Sixth streets, and was erected by Thomas M. Neale. The contract for the chimney was let to Joseph Thomas.

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History of Sangamon County, Illinois, together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history, portraits of prominent persons, and biographies of representative citizens, Part 90

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Chicago, Inter-state publishing company Number of Pages: 1084

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Chicago, Inter-state publishing company
Number of Pages: 1084