USA > Illinois > Vermilion County > History of Vermilion County, Illinois, Volume One > Part 10
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The State Bank of Illinois, chartered in 1835, started a branch bank in Danville in 1836. This was at a time
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when Danville felt that it needed a bank. The United States Land Office was located here and work of building the Northern Cross Railroad was under way.
Mordecai Mobley was sent here to manage the branch bank. He rented a small building south of the public square and east of Vermilion Street. This bank did not issue bills of its own but handled the paper of the parent bank.
The financial panic of 1837 put a finish to this venture and one night Mobley loaded the banking equipment and assets into his carriage and drove away, never to return. This was one of the few banks in the country, however, in which the people did not lose a cent. It is believed the banker took this method of disappearing so that the citizens would not take means to prevent the closing or removal of the bank.
Danville did not have another bank until 1852, when a man named Cullum started a stock security bank, which meant that a certain amount of his capital was invested in state stocks, chiefly Missouri, North Carolina, Tennessee, and other southern states.
Illinois was bankrupt and had not paid interest on its debt for fifteen years, consequently Illinois bonds were not regarded as bankable and this led to money being invested in bonds of other states. Eastern states had no trouble in selling their bonds in the east, and this left chiefly southern state bonds on the market.
The Cullum bank was capitalized at fifty thousand dollars and Guy Merrill was the first cashier. It was started in an old frame building on Vermilion Street and was later removed to West Main Street, opposite the Mc- Cormack House.
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After being operated successfully for three years, this bank was sold to Daniel Clapp, who knew little about bank- ing and who failed in 1856.
Tincher & English, who were in the mercantile busi- ness, were made the assignees of the Clapp bank, and after closing up the business, opened a private bank. They weathered the financial crisis of 1857 and made the first application in Washington for a national bank charter in 1864. In 1872 the capital was increased to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars and weathered the 1873 panic without any trouble.
This is today the First National Bank, one of the strongest financial institutions in the country, and a sub- stantial interest in the bank is today held in the families of the founders, John L. Tincher and Joseph G. English. Following the incorporation of the private bank as a national bank, three thousand dollars worth of stock was sold to William I. Moore, Benjamin Crane and E. H. Pal- mer, the balance being held by the original partners.
Short & Wright, a real estate firm, opened a private bank in connection with its business in 1865. In 1867 Abraham Sandusky and Andrew Gundy became partners of J. C. Short and the bank became known as the Exchange Bank of J. C. Short & Company.
J. C. Short's heavy investments in coal lands and rail- roads eventually brought this firm to financial trouble and the Exchange Bank was closed. The Danville Bank and Trust Company was organized out of the ruins of the Exchange Bank.
In 1873 William P. Cannon and Joseph G. Cannon organized the Vermilion County Bank with a capital of one hundred thousand dollars, this eventually developing into the Second National Bank of today, or as it was known
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for years, the "Cannon Bank," because of Joseph G. Cannon's world wide fame as a statesman due to his nearly a half century in Congress.
Today there are five strong banks, three of them char- tered as national banks-First National, Second National and Palmer National. The two state banks are the Com- mercial Trust & Savings and the American Bank & Trust Company. The total resources of these five banks are thirteen million, seven hunded sixteen thousand, one hun- dred and fifty-two dollars and ninety-seven cents. Total bank deposits for 1929 were eleven million four hundred sixty-four dollars and fifty-eight cents. Bank clearings for the year were fifty-four million, four hundred forty- three thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight dollars and eleven cents.
Danville has a nation-wide reputation for its building associations, of which it now has six, all substantial insti- tutions, with total assets of thirty-one million, nine hun- dred sixteen thousand eight hundred dollars, and all having played an important part in the development of the city. There are seventeen associations in Vermilion County with combined assets of twenty-three million, two hundred eighty-eight thousand four hundred fifty dollars and sixty- one cents.
There were three started in 1873-Danville People's Building & Loan Association, Mechanics Building and Homestead Association and the Danville Building & Sav- ings Association. A fourth, the Danville Benefit & Build- ing Association, was chartered in 1874, although its organ- ization was not perfected until 1877.
Of these, the Danville Benefit & Building Association, 6 East Main Street, is the only one of the four existing under its original name.
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The first officers of the Danville Benefit & Building Association were: President, J. G. Holden; secretary, S. H. Stewart; treasurer, T. S. Parks.
The first officers of the other associations were :
Danville People's Building and Loan Association : President, W. P. Cannon; vice president, William Gid- dings; secretary, Asa Partlow; treasurer, R. A. Short; attorney, F. W. Penwell; directors-J. H. Miller, O. S. Stewart, W. J. Henry, George Dillon, G. W. Jones, J. R. Holloway and C. U. Morrison.
Mechanics Building and Homestead Association : President, W. W. R. Woodbury; vice president, W. A. Brown; secretary, J. H. Phillips; treasurer, E. H. Palmer; attorney, J. W. Jones.
Danville Building and Savings Association : President, Judge E. S. Terry, vice president, J. G. Holden; secretary, V. Leseure; treasurer, A. S. W. Hawes; attorney, J. P. Norvell.
The six associations operating today are: Danville Building Association, Danville Benefit and Building Asso- ciation, Equitable Building Association, Fidelity Building Association, American Building Association and Vermilion County Building Association. Hoopeston has two associa- tions and there is one each in Fairmount, Ridgefarm, Poto- mac, Georgetown, Oakwood, Rankin, Rossville and Sidell.
It is the boast of the building associations that there has never been a dollar lost of investors' money in the years they have been operating, and since the days of the private banks back before the Civil War, there has never been a bank failure, a record of which Danville is proud. Credit for this record is given to the fact that the men behind the banks and building associations are conservative and substantial, men of the highest integrity, men who
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have never been the object of the slightest suspicion that they could be tempted to gamble with the money of depositors.
Danville's postoffice has seen many changes since Amos Williams, along with his other jobs, became the first post- master and kept the office in his residence in the south part of town, south of the McCormack House. Mails at first were received twice a week from Vincennes, Indiana, and twice a week from the east. The mail route south went from here to Georgetown, thence west to a postoffice in the Josiah Sandusky residence, and from there on to Paris.
A change in national administrations saw Col. Isaac R. Moores succeeding Amos Williams as postmaster, and the office was removed to a store on Main Street. Josiah Alex- ander succeeded Colonel Moores and he in turn was suc- ceeded by Othniel Gilbert, who moved the postoffice to the Pennsylvania House. There occurred the first postal rob- bery of the city, a genial boarder at the Pennsylvania House disappeared about the same time that a one thou- sand dollar remittance became missing.
Alexander Chesley followed Gilbert and the office was moved to another building. He was followed by H. G. Boise, who moved the office again to a building on Main Street.
In 1861 Rev. Enoch Kingsbury, pioneer preacher, became postmaster and moved the office to the old Presby- terian Church building, where another robbery occurred. A music teacher named Smith was suspected and after- ward sent to the penitentiary for his theft.
The postoffice was changed several times, finally going to the old courthouse and then to a government building on Vermilion Street, across from the present beautiful
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Federal building, for which Danville owes a debt of thanks to Uncle Joe Cannon.
In 1879 there were nine dry goods firms, twelve cloth- ing and tailoring firms, eight hardware and implement firms, two harness-makers, two furniture firms, five book stores, three drug stores, eight hotels, five milliners and about thirty firms engaged in selling groceries, provisions and fruit.
There had been a steady influx of settlers, a goodly per- centage of which traveled on to other middle western points after a year or two here. Of foreign birth, the Germans predominated. The Irish came next, with the Belgians, Welsh, Swedes and English in the order named.
People became interested in the seventies in the preser- vation of historical records and the Vermilion County His- torical Society was organized October 23, 1877. The board of supervisors gave the society the use of two rooms in the old courthouse and J. C. Winslow became the curator, he and Hiram W. Beckwith and W. R. Jewell forming the first board of managers.
Later the following officers were elected: President, J. G. English; vice president, W. P. Chandler; secretary, H. A. Coffeen ; treasurer, E. D. Steen ; curator, J. C. Wins- low; managers-H. W. Beckwith, W. R. Jewell and C. M. Taylor.
This organization is part of the past and today the collection of historical data of the county is in the hands of the Half Century Club, organized a number of years ago by the late Amos Gardner Woodbury, membership in which is restricted to those who have lived in the county fifty years or more, or members of families that have lived in the county that long.
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The Danville Lyceum was organized July 4, 1878, hav- ing for its object the improvement of its members in liter- ature and debating. It had about forty members and started the nucleus of a library. The officers were: Presi- dent, J. D. Bennett; vice president, W. L. French; secre- tary, W. C. Johnson; treasurer, A. Sommers; marshal, W. Heater; librarian, G. W. Whyte; directors-W. J. Calhoun, J. D. Benedict, J. B. Samuels, P. E. Northrup and J. W. Whyte.
The old Vermilion Opera House stood on the corner of North and Vermilion Streets and was built in 1873 by English, Chandler & Dale. It was a substantial brick building and cost twenty thousand dollars. It had two store rooms on the first floor and was considered one of the largest auditoriums in the state at the time.
Hacker's band was organized in 1878 with F. C. Hacker as leader, and he also organized the Danville Orchestra.
The Farmers and Mechanics Institute was organized in 1859, and for years it held an annual fair. The fair- grounds, sixteen acres, were adjacent to the north city limits.
And even in the early days Danville was not lacking in public-spirited men who would have done much for their home city if prosperity had been on a more substantial, dependable basis.
As I write this, I am thinking of John C. Short, whose career back in the late sixties offers a romance of finance and business. Coal producer, railroad builder, banker and newspaper publisher, John C. Short was a man of vision, but he was living in a period when fortunes change owner- ship quickly and his ideas were a half century early.
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F
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CITY HALL, DANVILLE, ILL.
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But with all his business and financial ramifications, John C. Short had his civic dreams and one of them was a beautiful park for future generations. This was Moss Bank Park, named after the Moss Bank coal mine, which he opened just prior to his becoming interested in the building of the Paris & Danville railroad. This was west of the city in what is now Vermilion Heights.
Mr. Short took an 80-acre tract of land for this park and laid it out in drives and walks. It abounded in shade and was beautifully situated. But Moss Bank Park today is but a memory, due to the collapse of the material dreams of Mr. Short.
There is an interesting connection between Moss Bank Park, with its 80 acres, and the beautiful Harrison Park of today, for John C. Short at the time he dreamed of Moss Bank Park was the publisher of The Evening Commercial, which he founded in 1866, and The Commercial-News of today is the outgrowth of the Evening Commercial and Harrison Park was given to the city of Danville by its late publisher, John H. Harrison.
The old Vermilion County Militia, which existed back in the days of the Winnebago and Blackhawk Wars, has been touched upon, but in the seventies there were two other military organizations which deserve more than passing mention.
Battery A, First Regiment, Illinois National Guards, was organized in 1875. Its officers were: Captain Scott; first lieutenant, A. P. Matthews; second lieutenant, E. Winter. It was reorganized March 17, 1876, with E. Win- ter as captain; J. G. Field as first lieutenant, and S. W. Denny as second lieutenant. It numbered 53 men, was supplied with two ten-pound Parrott guns and the United
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States regulation army uniform, using Bier's Hall as an armory.
The non-commissioned officers of the reorganized bat- tery were: First sergeant, H. J. Hall; quartermaster's sergeant, W. W. Woodbury; commissary sergeant, C. D. Eoff ; first duty sergeant, J. Haptenstall ; second, S. Thomp- son; third, William Cummings.
The battery was organized after the first reaction fol- lowing the Civil War had died out and it remained active down through the Spanish-American War and up until the World War.
The Danville Guards was organized in February, 1876. It numbered thirty-seven men, fully equipped and uni- formed, using the Hesse Hall for an armory. Its officers were: Captain, L. T. Dickason; first lieutenant, Edgar C. Dodge; second lieutenant, J. D. Benedict; first sergeant, Jacob Goth; second sergeant, L. D. Gass; third sergeant, A. C. Bristow; fourth sergeant, James Pate; fifth ser- geant, J. D. Harrison.
Danville Township was organized in 1851, the township at that time including all of the then existing city of Dan- ville, north to Voorhees Street, or the Newell Township line, which was organized the first year, Vermilion County by a vote of the people having adopted the township or- ganization plan on November 5, 1850.
J. A. D. Sconce was the first Danville Township super- visor, serving in that office three years. W. E. Russell was the first township clerk, holding the office two years. W. M. Payne was the first assessor and collector, serving in this office again in 1854, 1855 and 1856.
There were only ninety-nine votes cast at the township election in 1852, but the number of voters casting ballots gradually increased to one thousand three hundred and
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seventy-eight in 1879. Nelson Maddox was the first jus- tice of peace and S. L. Payne the first highway commis- sioner. In 1865 Danville became entitled to an assistant supervisor and J. L. Tincher was elected to that position. holding the office until his death in 1871, when he was suc- ceeded by H. M. Kimball.
The records of the city of Danville were destroyed by a fire in 1867 and its early history as a municipality is extremely hazy. In 1872 the existing city records dis- appeared.
CHAPTER X
DANVILLE, CONTINUED
DANVILLE INCORPORATED IN 1872-CHIEF INDUSTRIES-DEVELOPMENT OF THE FIRE DEPARTMENT-PRESENT FORM OF CITY GOVERNMENT -GERMAN SOCIETIES IN DANVILLE-RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS-DE- VELOPMENT AND DISAPPEARANCE OF DENMARK-GROWTH OF THE COUNTY-DANVILLE AS A CENTER-ITS THRIVING INDUSTRIES TODAY -PRESENT POPULATION.
A special charter was issued the city in 1855 by the state legislature, which repealed an older one, establishing the limits of the city so that they should include the old town and all the new additions that had been platted. A new charter was granted by the state following the fire in 1867 and in 1874, the city was incorporated under the general act of 1872.
The villages of Germantown and South Danville; now parts of the city of Danville, were incorporated in 1874. Germantown had for its limits the east boundary of Dan- ville and commencing at the point where the east boundary crossed the Danville-Covington road, thence north to the north boundary line of the city, thence west along the north boundary line of the city to where it crossed Stony Creek, thence up said creek to a point where the road from Dan- ville to Williamsport, Indiana runs due east, thence east along this road 230 rods to a road running south, thence
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south to the Danville-Covington road, thence west to the east boundary of the city.
Sixty voters petitioned for the village charter. Thirty- one votes were cast at the election to decide whether the village should be incorporated, thirty of which were for the project. Thirty-four votes were cast at the first vil- lage election, July 31, 1874, the following trustees being elected: F. Schlief, August Koch, J. Leverenz, E. Lowe, F. Hause, and C. B. Davis. The board elected the following officers: President, C. B. Davis; clerk, John L. Smith; treasurer, George Rust.
The old car shops of the Chicago and Eastern Illinois Railroad, employing at that time two hundred and seventy- five men, with an annual payroll of $11,000, were located within the limits of Germantown and formed its chief industry.
There were five hundred people living within the limits of South Danville when it was incorporated as a vil- lage and seventy-seven voted at the special election, March 14, 1874, on the question of incorporating, fifty-one being for the incorporation and twenty-five against.
The following village trustees were elected April 22, 1874; James Bracewell, James Hall, David Frazee, Joseph Anderson and M. C. Wilkinson. B. T. Hodges and J. H. Lewis drew a tie vote and the election of Hodges was de- cided by drawing straws before Judge Hanford. David Frazee was elected the first president and H. J. Hall the first clerk.
At that time the coal mining operations of A. C. Daniel provided the village's chief industry and most of the resi- dents were coal miners.
Both Germantown and South Danville are now a part of the city of Danville, leaving Tilton as the only village in
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the township. The Wabash railroad and coal mining were responsible for the settlement in the fifties of Tilton, both of which now have very little influence upon that com- munity, which claims the distinction of being the home now of the Cornstalk Products Company, manufacturers of the first paper pulp made from cornstalks in the world. The Cornstalk Products Company, substantially financed and facing a brilliant future, occupies remodeled buildings on the site of a manufacturing plant that has had a varied career in Tilton, many things from railroad cars to automobiles having been produced in it.
Tilton is within the confines of the Danville consolidated school district and it is not a mere guess to predict that within a few years, Tilton together with Central Park and Richland, suburbs to the south of South Danville, will be annexed to the city of Danville, materially increasing the population and placing it in the ranks of the leading cities of the state from the standpoints of population and industry.
Danville's first real fire department, Lincoln Fire Com- pany No. 1, was organized May 6, 1867, with forty mem- bers, serving without pay. The apparatus consisted of a hook and ladder truck of rather ancient vintage.
The first officers of this volunteer company were: Fore- man, D. A. Childs; assistant foreman, M. Redford; secre- tary, Charles Eoff; treasurer, C. Y. Yates.
The same year, during which period J. C. Winslow was mayor, the city bought a second hand fire engine and two hundred and ninety-nine feet of leather hose for one thou- sand two hundred dollars.
In 1872, under Mayor T. H. Myers, the city bought a steam fire engine, an additional hose cart and three hun- dred feet of the best rubber hose. The fire company was
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reorganized on a more efficient basis and the number of members fixed at sixteen, with small salaries, based upon the services rendered, allowed. A second steam engine was purchased by the city in 1875. Two engineers were em- ployed, one on full time, in 1874.
The fire company was again reorganized in 1879 and the office of chief of the fire department created, with W. H. Taylor appointed as the first chief. His salary was fifty-five dollars a month. First Engineer George Lupt, Second Engineer Putnam Russell and W. D. Dearing each drew fifty dollars a month. The following five firemen drew thirteen dollars a month: Charles Adams, Frank Wells, James Harrison, Jackson Brideman and George Cox. Isaac Hurlacker and E. Peables were paid twenty dollars a quarter, A. Brant and C. Lindsey drew fifteen dollars a quarter, and William Dallas, J. Peables, E. Brant and M. Yearkes were on the city payroll for thirteen dollars a quarter.
Today Danville maintains a highly efficient fire depart- ment with sub-stations, including a company and appa- ratus in the old Germantown City Hall.
Danville has also progressed from the old aldermanic form of city government to the commission form of gov- ernment, adopted about three years ago, with Henry Hulce as mayor and the following city commissioners: Public Health and Safety, Walter D. Smith; finance, Columbus Schatz, streets and public works, William F. Sheets; parks and public property, William C. Kiningham.
On East Main Street, near the Wabash Railroad cross- ing, there is an old-time, rather small, brick building that represents the days of the middle seventies when two, now little heard of, German societies, both of which ranked high for many years among Danville's organizations. It was
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POST OFFICE, DANVILLE, ILL.
ILLINOIS NATIONAL GUARD ARMORY, DANVILLE.
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the home of the Danville Turn-Verein, organized March 22, 1874, with a membership of twenty-five, and the Gegen- seitige Deutsche Unterstutzungs Verein, organized Febru- ary 7, 1872. The first Turner Hall dedicated December 25, 1875, was destroyed by fire February 9, 1877, and the new building which arose from its ashes was dedicated August 12, 1877.
The first officers of the Danville Turn-Verein were: President, A. Sieferman; vice president, A. Oberdorfer; secretary, John Bross; treasurer, E. Flemming; gymnastic leader, Henry Grube.
The first officers of the other German society were: President, A. Sieferman; vice president, George Duden- hofer; secretary, E. Blankenburg; financial secretary, W. Schatz; treasurer, Stacy Miller.
The churches of Danville have exerted a powerful in- fluence upon the development and growth of the city of Danville. The pioneers, as a rule, were devout churchmen and their first thought was to secure a place for religious services.
This influence of the church could not be expressed in a more fitting eulogy than that delivered in 1879 by Rev. A. L. Brooks, pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of that society, and which applies to all the churches:
"We arrogate nothing when we say that it is a church of the living God, that it has been a pillar and ground of those great fundamental and vital truths by which the city in which it has been located has been blessed and pros- pered. We do not hesitate to say that the influence of the church has been very significant and benign upon all the material and social and religious interests of the city. Her teachings have been in accordance with the wisdom and
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righteousness and love and grace of God. They have served to hold in check the tendencies to lawlessness and crime; they have enforced public morality, stimulated the desire for good government, for commercial integrity, for social purity. Conscience has been enlightened and its judgment enforced. It has carried the peace and piety of our holy religion into many of the homes of the city. It has restrained the youth from the follies and crimes that afflict the homes and communities where church influences are not in the ascendant. It has drawn to our city some of the best and most permanent of our business and social element. It has exerted a significant influence on the edu- cational interests of our community. It has been the con- servator of good order and peace, but especially and su- premely has it exerted a mighty influence in maintaining these great and fundamental doctrines by which it alone is possible to lead men out from the dominion and con- demnation of sin. It has done a work for this city which no mere secular institution could have done. It has been more to the material social and christian prosperity than any single industry could have done. It has been more to the happiness and welfare of our families than any or all of the worldly endowments of a gracious providence could have been without it. It has brought to us the best returns of all the investments we have made of our worldly sub- stance, and it has brought us into the highest and noblest fellowship of the pure on earth and of the sinless in heaven."
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