USA > Illinois > Stark County > History of Stark County, Illinois, and its people : a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Volume I > Part 8
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THE COURTHOUSE
For more than two years after the organization of the county. the public business was transacted and the sessions of the Circuit Court were held in private dwellings. Some time in the early part of 1842
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a contract was made by the county commissioners with Abel Mott, an elder of the Mormon Church, to erect a courthouse upon the public square in the Town of Toulon. It seems that Mr. Mott failed to carry out his part of the agreement to the satisfaction of the board of commissioners, as the records show that Cyril Ward, John Shores and J. H. Wilber were appointed to arbitrate the differences or mis- understandings between the contracting parties. On January 20, 1843, after the arbitrators had rendered their decision and made their report, the commissioners ordered "that the treasurer pay to Abel Mott the sum of $360.36, to be paid out of the notes given for the sale of lots in the Town of Toulon, it being a balance due him in full for building said courthouse in said town."
On March 8, 1843, Minott Silliman, the treasurer of Stark County, filed a claim for $21.75 for commission on $1,087.25 worth of notes taken in payment for lots in the Town of Toulon and turned over to Abel Mott since March 10, 1842. The sum represented by these notes was probably somewhere near the cost of Stark County's first courthouse, so far as the contractor was concerned. There were some extra charges, however, as shown by the minutes of the commission- ers' court. Notice was given by the board on September 7, 1842, that a contraet would be let on the 20th of October "to underpin the conrthouse with stone in a good and workmanlike manner, payable either in notes of the sales of lots in the Town of Toulon, or State Bank of Illinois paper."
At the same time W. T. Vandeveer was appointed agent of the county to award the contract and oversee the work "to the best advan- tage for said county." For some reason the contract was not let at the appointed time, for on July 3, 1843, the bid of Calvin Powell, of $74.00, for underpinning the courthouse, was accepted by the board, the work to be completed by the first Monday in September. On the same date the commissioners made a private agreement with Minott Silliman, by which the latter was to "build six chimneys for stove pipes in the courthouse," for the sum of $33.50, the chimneys to be finished by the first Monday in September.
The old frame courthouse continned in use for nearly fifteen years before any agitation was started in favor of a new one. On September 10, 1856, John Berfield, Henry Breese and C. M. S. Lyons were appointed a committee "to visit Lacon, in Marshall County, and obtain a full description of the courthouse at that place-its size, the material of which it is constructed, its cost and manner of construction-together with such drafts, models, plats, etc., of said
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building, or such other plats as they may deem expedient; to consult with experienced builders, and to make such other arrangements preparatory to building a new courthouse as they may think necessary and report to this board at its next meeting."
The committee reported on October 11, 1856, and with the report submitted plans and specifications for a new courthouse. The report and plans were accepted and approved by the board and the committee was discharged as a committee of inquiry and investigation, but the same men were immediately appointed a building committee, with instructions to advertise for bids and report progress at the next meeting. On December 9, 1856, the committee reported that three sealed proposals for the erection of the courthouse had been received, to-wit:
Thomas B. Starrett and Edward Nixon $12,700
Stephen M. Fisher 10,500
Parker C. Spaulding 8,300
The bid of Mr. Spaulding, whose home was in Knoxville, Ill., was accepted, but before the contract was entered into he came for- ward with the complaint that the advertisement, upon which he had based his estimate, stated that the building was to be fifty-six feet in length, while the plans and specifications called for a building sixty- four feet long. He therefore asked the board to permit him to add $1.185 to his original bid, which was granted, his figures then being more than one thousand dollars below those of the next lowest bidder. A contract was then made with Mr. Spaulding, in which he agreed to furnish all materials and labor necessary to complete the court- house for $9.485. This contraet was dated December 23, 1856, and Mr. Spaulding agreed to have the building completed by the first day of December, 1857.
Before the courthouse was more than half done the contractor assigned to Elias Spaulding, who failed to finish the building within the stipulated time. On December 9, 1857. the county clerk was directed to issue an order on the county treasurer for $1,000, due February 15, 1858, the last payment to Elias Spaulding for building the courthouse. The contractor was allowed $104.68 for extra work. and some other extras added by the board amounted to about fifty dollars.
On August 4, 1857. it was ordered by the supervisors that the elerk advertise and sell the old courthouse at auction on the first day of the October term of court, the purchaser to remove the building
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from the public square within thirty days after the sale. The house was bought by Jefferson Cooley, who removed it to the east end of his hotel lot, on the northwest corner of Main and Miller streets, where it was used for years as a livery barn. It was then sold to M. B. Downend, who removed it to his farm a short distance east of Toulon and converted it into a cattle shed.
THE ANNEX
The fireproof building, immediately west of the courthouse, which for want of a better name is here called the annex, was erected for the purposes of obtaining more room for the transaction of county business and providing a safe depository for the public records. It had its inception on September 12, 1883, when James H. Quinn, the supervisor from Goshen Township, offered the following preamble and resolution :
"Whereas, it is the duty of the board of supervisors to provide necessary buildings and suitable fireproof safes or offices to keep and properly protect the records of the county, and
"Whereas, the present buildings and offices of Stark County, Illinois, are entirely inadequate for that purpose, both as to capacity and protection from fire, and each property holder in the county, as well as each one who is affected by the records of the county, is without such protection as an ordinarily thoughtful and prudent man would provide for his own private interests, and
"Whereas, the finances of the county are such that we can and should immediately make such provision as we are required by law, and in duty bound to do by the obligation of the oath of our office; it is therefore
"Resolved by this board, and we do hereby appropriate the sum of $6,000 for the purpose of building a suitable fireproof structure for offices and for the records of said county, said offices to be built on the courthouse square in the Village of Toulon, in said county, and we do further direct that the said sum of money be levied and extended upon the tax books of the respective townships that are now being prepared for the taxes assessed for the year 1883."
Upon the roll being called, the supervisors from Goshen, Elmira, Toulon and West Jersey townships voted aye; and those from Essex, Osceola, Pen and Valley voted no. The result being a tie vote, the resolution was declared lost. The next day Mr. Quinn, not willing to accept defeat, presented another resolution to appropriate $6.000
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for a fireproof building, provided: "That the sum of $2,000 be raised by the citizens of the said Village of Toulon and appropriated by them to aid in the erection and construction of said fireproof building, in addition to the above named sum of $6.000."
After some diseussion this resolution was laid on the table and no further action in the matter was taken until the following spring. On April 29. 1884, the resolution was taken from the table and upon the final vote was rejected. Robert Armstrong, the member of the. board from Elmira Township, then offered a resolution similar in character to that of Mr. Quinn, except that the amount to be appro- priated was left blank, to be filled in after the cost of such a building was ascertained, and the people of Toulon were not required to appro- priate any part of the cost of said building. Mr. Armstrong and William P. Caverly were appointed a committee to procure plans, specifications and estimates and report at the next meeting of the board.
On May 27, 1884, they reported that they had employed Charles Ulricson, an architect of Peoria, to make plans, which were submitted to and approved by the board. The next day, on motion of J. S. Atherton, the sum of $7.500 was appropriated for the building and W. P. Caverly, of Toulon, Robert Armstrong, of Elmira, and John Jordan, of Essex, were appointed a building committee. Bids were advertised for and were opened on July 14, 1884. The contract was awarded to John Volk & Company, of Rock Island, for $7.414, and W. P. Caverly was appointed to oversee the erection of the building. In this fireproof structure are the offices of the recorder, surveyor, county and cireuit elerks.
THE COUNTY JAIL
A careful search through the records fails to reveal just when and how the first jail in Stark County was built. For several years after the organization of the county prisoners were kept in the jails of some of the adjacent counties. On September 8, 1846, the county commissioners ordered the treasurer to pay to the treasurer of Mar- shall County the sum of $134.63 "for keeping, boarding and guarding Josiah Kemp and Robert Brown," etc.
The next entry in the commissioners' record relating to a jail is found in the minutes of September 3, 1849, when the following war- rants were drawn on the county treasury for labor or material used in building a fence around the jail lot at the southwest corner of
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Franklin and Jefferson streets, opposite the public square: Alexan- der Abel, $10.62; Jacob Holgate, $8.50; David Winter, $5.25; John A. Williams (for self and boy), $10.00; Henry White, $10.30, making a total allowance of $44.87 for the fence.
Just a year later-September 3, 1850-the clerk was ordered "to make out and transmit to the elerk of Knox County so much of the record as may be necessary to exhibit the amount paid by the County of Stark for expenses incurred by Washington Stair, a prisoner in the Stark County jail on change of venue from said County of Knox." etc.
From these three entries it may be seen that the jail was built some time between the years 1846 and 1850-probably in 1849, at the time the lot was fenced. It was a brick building, the jail proper being on the first floor, while upstairs were living rooms for the jailer and his family. The brick walls of the lower story were reinforeed by a lining of heavy timbers, studded with nails, but even this precau- tion was not sufficient to prevent prisoners from working their way to liberty when they were so inclined. There was at least one jail delivery that is still remembered by old settlers.
It was a sort of open seeret that "Unele" John Culbertson was in the habit of keeping a considerable sum of money about his house. One Sunday morning, while Mr. Culbertson and his family were attending church, four men broke into the house and ransacked until they found at least a portion of the gold and silver coin, which they divided into four shares and concealed the money in hollow trees near Toulon. There was a slight snow on the ground, and when Mr. Cul- bertson returned from church and saw what had happened he raised the alarm. The neighbors soon gathered and had no difficulty in track- ing the housebreakers into the woods, where three pareels of the money were recovered. The men were afterward arrested and eon- fined in the old jail, where they kept up a noise every night, singing. hallooing, ete., to prevent the sheriff from hearing their efforts to break through the wall. The only heat in the cell room was furnished by a stove. Heating the poker in the stove. the prisoners used it to burn out a section of the timber, hanging their clothes over the place during the day so that their work would not be discovered. After the timber was burned away they pounded a hole through the brick wall- singing and yelling all the time as usual-and made a dash for free- dom. Their escape was soon discovered, however, and a pursuit insti- tuted that resulted in the recapture of the fugitives. The Civil war was on at the time and they were given the opportunity of enlisting.
COUNTY JAIL AND SHERIFF'S RESIDENCE, TOULON
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA
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instead of spending a term in prison. They accepted the alternative and entered the army.
In December, 1865, the sheriff was directed to ascertain the cost of two iron cells for the jail. The following March John M. Brown, then sheriff, reported that two cells would cost $1,150, but the board of supervisors decided that it was too much money to spend on a jail that had about outlived its usefulness and the cells were not installed. No movement for the erection of a new jail was made for nearly thirty years after that date, notwithstanding that every grand jury for the greater part of that period condemned the jail as unsafe and unsanitary. On March 1, 1895, Sheriff Donald Murchison sub- mitted to the board of supervisors the following report :
"To the Honorable Board of Supervisors of Stark County, Illinois:
"Gentlemen :- The statute, Chapter 75, Seetion 12, makes it the duty of the sheriff, from time to time, to report to the board the condition of the county jail, and the fact that the board may, in some measure at least. be acquainted with the condition of the jail does not relieve the sheriff from the duty of making such a report, or of the responsibility which would attach to his failure to make known to the board the condition of the jail. Therefore. I would report to vonr honorable board:
"First-That the jail is in such a condition that it would be con- sidered unfit for the confinement of brute beasts, much less a fit place for the confinement of human beings. It is a pure impossibility either to ventilate or light (except with artificial light) the miserable den.
"Second-It is in such a condition that it is utterly impossible to confine and keep prisoners safely within its walls.
"Third-It is in such a condition that it is wholly laeking in facili- ties for handling prisoners with safety.
"Fourth-There is only one apartment or cell for all classes of prisoners, whereas, the statute, Chapter 75, Section 11, forbids the confining of men and women together, and minors with notorious offenders in the same room. I would therefore urge on the board the necessity of at once making such repairs and improvements on the jail as will afford proper light and ventilation, and such as will insure, at least to a reasonable degree, the safe keeping and handling of prisoners. Also, to provide such apartments as will enable the jailer to comply with the statute in keeping the various elasses of prisoners apart as above set forth. The roof leaks badly and needs repairing. All of which is respectfully submitted.
"DONALD MURCHISON, Sheriff."
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The board took the sheriff's report under advisement and after examining the jail decided that Mr. Murchison's caustic criticisms were not without foundation. On May 2, 1895, the chairman of the board was instructed to proeure plaus and estimates for a new jail and report at the next meeting.
On July 3, 1895, it was "moved and seconded that the supervisors build a jail for Stark County, not to exceed the cost of $8,000, pro- vided they can sell the west eighty aeres of land belonging to the poor farm, at not less than $80 per acre, and apply the proceeds as part payment on said jail."
On the same date the clerk was ordered to advertise for bids ou the west eighty acres of the poor farm and on the old jail lot. and also for bids for the construction of a new jail until 10 o'clock A. M., August 6, 1895. When the bids were opened it was found that the Champion Iron Works had submitted the best proposition, offering to build the jail complete for $7,200, and that eoneern was awarded the contract. All bids on the eighty acres of land were rejected and the board levied a tax that would net $8,000 for the construction of the jail. The southwest corner of the public square was selected as the location and John P. Williams was employed to superintend the building of the jail. It was completed in March, 1896. With the new jail, which includes a residence for the sheriff, Stark County can claim to be as well provided in this respect as any county of its class in the State of Illinois.
THE POOR FARM
Concerning the first poorhouse, or poor farm, in Stark County, Mrs. Shallenberger, on page 82 of her history, says: "The first county poorhouse was located a little northeast of Toulon, on what was long familiarly known as 'Adam Perry's place:' indeed the house was but the old residence enlarged and adapted in various ways to its new duties. But this being decmed insufficient to meet the demands liable to be made by the increase of paupers as the county grew in years and numbers, it was decided in 1868 to buy a larger farm, farther from town, and to ereet upon it a good, substantial and commodious poor- house. Accordingly a tract of land deseribed as the northeast quarter of Section 12, Township 12 north, Range 5 east, in Stark County, was purchased from Mr. Davis Lowman, at a cost of about eight thousand dollars, and early in the following year preparations for building began-the committee in charge being C. M. S. Lyons, J. H. Quinn and H. Shivvers.
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HISTORY OF STARK COUNTY
"The old buildings were sold, the old farm platted and sold in small lots, and the contract for the new building let to William Caverly for the sum of $16,000. This was considered by some an unnecessary expense, considering the small number of our paupers, and the project met with some opposition and a good deal of ridicule."
The poorhouse erected in 1868 was destroyed by fire in the early part of December, 1886, and a few days later Edward Colgan, chair- man of the board of supervisors, was authorized to "make, sign and execute proofs of loss." ete., in order to obtain the indemnity from the insurance companies-$2,500 in each of two companies. Some of the citizens of the county advocated the purchase of a new farm and the board appointed a committee to examine farms, ascertain the prices at which they could be purchased and report. Several farms were examined by the committee, but upon final consideration of the matter the board decided to retain the farm already owned by the county, and on January 18, 1887, appointed John F. Rhodes, John W. Smith and John Hazen a committee to build a new poor- house on the old foundation walls according to plans made by John Hawks. On February 18, 1887, the building committee entered into a contraet with Ira F. Hayden to erect the new poorhouse for $6,909, and some additional expense was incurred in repairing the foundation walls where they had been injured by the fire, making the total cost of the building a little over seven thousand dollars. It was completed and accepted by the board on September 14, 1887. has been kept in good repair and is still in use.
HOW THE COUNTY WAS NAMED
In the early part of this chapter is given an account of the effort to establish Coffee County in the legislative session of 1836-37. as taken from Mrs. Shallenberger's work on Stark County. The same author says, regarding the name of Stark County: "To whose taste this name was due is sometimes a matter of curiosity among our people, who had formerly suggested 'Coffee.' There is no means of ascertaining this to a certainty now, and it is a matter of small importance, but the writer is well convinced that the name was a politie concession on the part of Colonel Henderson to the wishes of his constituents from Vermont, many of whom lived about Osceola Grove, and who also urged Bennington as a suitable name for the county seat."
John Stark, in whose honor the county was named, was a native
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of New Hampshire, where he was born on August 28. 1728. of Irish parents, who came to America some ten years before. He served with distinction in the colonial army during the Revolutionary war and was a member of the council that arranged the terms of General Burgoyne's surrender at Saratoga. With seventy-one Irishmen in his command, he was at the battle of Bunker Hill, and it is said he was the officer who first gave the command: "Hold your fire. boys, till yon see the whites of their eyes," a policy that carried death and defeat to the forces of General Howe. On another occasion, at the beginning of an engagement, he urged his men forward by saying: "We must win today, or tonight Molly Stark is a widow." While it may have been a source of some regret to Colonel Henderson that the county was not named after his old military commander. it was named for a hero who was no less illustrious.
CHAPTER VII TOWNSHIP HISTORY
ORIGIN OF THE TOWNSHIP-FIRST TOWNSHIPS IN THE UNITED STATES JUSTICES' DISTRICTS IN STARK COUNTY-ESTABLISHMENT OF CIVIL TOWNSHIPS IN 1853-ELMIRA-ESSEX-GOSHEN-OSCEOLA-PENN -TOULON-VALLEY-WEST JERSEY-MILITARY LAND ENTRIES IN EACH-HOW THE TOWNSHIPS WERE NAMED-EARLY SETTLERS - PRESENT DAY CONDITIONS-RAILROADS-SCHOOLS-POPULATION AND WEALTH.
The township as a subordinate civie division originated in England in Anglo-Saxon times and was called the "tunscipe." It was the polit- ical unit of popular expression, which took the form of a mass convention or popular assembly called the "tun moot." The chief executive of the tunscipe was the "tun reeve," who, with the parish priest and four lay delegates, represented the tunscipe in the shire meeting. Says Fiske: "About 871 A. D. King Alfred instituted a small territorial subdivision nearest in character to and probably con- taining the germ of the American township."
In the settlement of New England the colonies there were first governed by a general court, or legislature, composed of the governor and a small council, generally made up of the most influential citizens. The general court was also a judicial body, deciding both civil and criminal causes. In March, 1635, the General Court of Massachusetts passed the following ordinance:
"Whereas, particular towns have many things that concern only themselves, and the ordering of their own affairs and disposing of business in their own town, therefore, the freemen of every town, or a majority of them, shall have the power to dispose of their own lands and woods, and all the appurtenances of said towns; to grant lots, and to make such orders as may concern the well ordering of their own towns, not repugnant to the laws and orders established by the Gen- eral Court.
"Said freemen, or a majority of them, shall also have power to choose their own particular officers, such as constables, petty magis-
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trates, surveyors for the highways, and may impose fines for violation of rules established by the freemen of the town; provided that such fines shall in no single case exceed twenty shillings."
That was the beginning of the township system in the United States. Connecticut followed with a similar provision regarding local self government, and from New England the system was carried to the new states of the Middle West.
In the southern eolonies the county was made the politieal unit. Eight counties were organized in Virginia in 1634 and the system spread to the other colonies, except in South Carolina the counties are called distriets and in Louisiana, parishes. The Illinois country became a county of Virginia after the conquest by George Rogers Clark in 1778.
The first provision for a eivil township northwest of the Ohio River was made by Governor St. Clair and the judges of the North- west Territory in 1790. The term "civil township" is here used to distinguish the township with local officers from the Congressional township of the Government survey. The latter is always six miles square, but the eivil township varies in size and its boundaries are often marked by natural features, such as ereeks, rivers, ete.
In New England the township is still far more important in loeal matters than the county. The town meeting, which is the sueeessor of the old "tun moot" of Anglo-Saxon days, wields great influence in such matters as the levying of local taxes, appropriating funds and issuing bonds for publie improvements within the township limits. In the South the township is little more than name, all the local business being transaeted by the county authorities. Through- out the great Middle West there is a well balanced combination of the two systems, schools and roads being usually in charge of town- ship officials, while business that affects more than one civil township is handled by the county.
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