History of Vermilion County, together with historic notes on the Northwest, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic, though, for the most part, out-of-the-way sources, Part 38

Author: Beckwith, H. W. (Hiram Williams), 1833-1903
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Chicago : H. H. Hill and Company
Number of Pages: 1164

USA > Illinois > Vermilion County > History of Vermilion County, together with historic notes on the Northwest, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic, though, for the most part, out-of-the-way sources > Part 38

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First the Danville people tried to slack-water the Vermilion and render it navigable to its mouth. Failing in this, they petitioned congress, in company with citizens of other counties, as early as 1831 to grant a strip of land between Vincennes and Chicago for a rail- road. In 1835 a charter was secured for the Chicago & Vincennes Railway, and among the charter members appear the names of Gur- don S. Hubbard (who a few years before had taken up his residence at Chicago). John H. Murphy and Isaac R. Moores, of Danville. The same year a charter was secured for a railroad from Quincy to the Indiana state line in the direction of La Fayette, via Springfield, Decatur and Danville, under the name of the "Northern Cross Rail- road." This is now none other than the great Wabash.

THE GREAT WABASH.

At this time our county was ably represented in the legislature by Dr. Fithian. He predicted the financial ruin that would surely overwhelm the state if the legislature persisted in its wild scheme of general internal improvements-a project with which the people of the state then seemed infatuated. When he saw he could not pre- vent the plan from being carried into effect, and that the public money was going to be wasted, anyway, he skillfully managed that work should begin at once on that part of the "Northern Cross " running through his county. Accordingly, a large portion of the $1,800,000 appropriated to the "Northern Cross " was expended in

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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY.

1837, 1838 and 1839 in grading the road-bed from the Champaign county line east to the Vermilion, and in the heavy cuts and fills adjacent to that stream, and in erecting the three large abutments of piers standing in or near the river itself. Thus the heaviest and most expensive part of the road east of the Sangamon was practi- cally finished before the "crash" came, which put an end to the "system." Here matters rested until 1853, when the project of extending the railroad from Decatur east across the state was again taken up. The heavy work previously done by the state in Vermilion county was too valuable to be thrown away. It was the lodestone that drew the iron rails to Danville. This is not all; another rail- road corporation was building a line from Toledo up the Maumee and down the Wabash. Its projectors had intended, originally, to keep down on the east side of the Wabash, through Covington, and make their St. Louis connection by way of Paris. Luckily its pro- jectors met the parties who were extending the Great Western rail- road -as the new organization was called -in New York, and learning that the latter road was assured of an early completion to Danville, the former corporation changed their route and crossed the Wabash at Attica and came on to Danville. The writer may state. what he knows to be true, that it was the intention of the Wabash road to make Danville its terminal point. They did in fact operate the section between Danville and the state line for a spell, in conformity with its agreement. The two corporations disagreed about a trivial matter, when the Wabash company withdrew to the state line, compelling the Great Western to follow them. Here they remained for eight years, and until the consolidation of the two roads in 1865, when Danville again became the end of a running division.

The first engine that ever ran into Danville was The Pioneer. It crossed the bridge over the Vermilion River in the latter part of October, 1856. The writer had the satisfaction of riding over on the engine with the engineer. The connection with the Wabash con- struction train was made some five miles northeast of Danville, in Makemson's timber, one cold drizzly day well on toward the last of November. The writer was on the ground, as were a large num- ber of other citizens, to see the last spike driven. The next day the Wabash engines were in our town, waking up its quiet streets to new life and busy stir, which has since continued with an ever in- creasing activity.

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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY.

CHICAGO & EASTERN ILLINOIS.

Although this is a comparatively new road it must not be pre- sumed that consequently it should be placed among the list of unim- portant lines, for just the very opposite is the fact. However much older roads have assumed in the credit of opening up and developing this part of the state, no less can, in justice, be said of the line under consideration. Let any one take a map of eastern Illinois published prior to 1870, and he will observe that much of what is now known as the most desirable portions of the state was entirely without rail- road facilities. Some places through which this line now passes were forty miles from a railroad station. It will therefore be seen under what disadvantages this part of the country labored, and a good reason will easily be discovered for its tardy development. Then, also, the country including this county and much more valuable country was cut off entirely from communication with the great me- tropolis of the west, Chicago. It is, therefore, not surprising that so complete and prosperous a road as the Chicago & Eastern Illinois railroad should be built up in eight years, for its construction was an urgent necessity, and it takes no philosopher to comprehend that the causes which led to the building of the road will ultimately make it the most important line passing through this section. While numberless roads have been projected, and many built, in different portions of the state, wherever local pride or an itching for speculation could secure the needed aid, with few exceptions they have not only proved failures, but have bankrupted and disgusted their patrons. This line, however, unlike nearly all born under the peculiar law passed by the Illinois legislature but a short time before, has gradually from the first gained in public favor, and though it received large donations from the townships through which it was built, there are few persons, and perhaps none, who regret having aided so worthy an enterprise.

The leading citizens of this county had long felt the necessity of a direct outlet for travel and commercial purposes with Chicago, and to that end, in 1868, a bill was passed by the legislature which au- thorized the townships through which it was proposed to run, to vote bonds in aid of its construction. Among the prominent ones in this county who interested themselves in the project were John L. Tincher, H. W. Beckwith and Alvan Gilbert. It was through Mr. Tincher's influence that the charter was obtained. The people gen- erally in the eastern part of the county were interested and anxious for the success of the enterprise. Danville township voted $72,000 for the construction of the road, and $75,000 for the erection of the car-shops, which are located at that city. Ross township also voted

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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY.

$24,000, and Grant $18,000. In 1871 the road was completed to Danville. J. E. Young, of Chicago, was the contractor, and built the road. The road was originally bonded for $5,000,000, which represents the supposed value at that time, but in consequence of great shrinkages in all stocks about that time and since, its actual value is probably somewhat less at present. In 1874 the company failed, and the property was placed in the hands of a receiver, in the person of Gen. A. Anderson, who continued to manage the affairs of the line until 1877. On the 17th of April of the year named the road was sold to a new corporation for $1,450,000. The present officials of the new corporation are F. W. Huidekoper, of Meadville, Pennsylvania, president ; Thomas W. Shannon, of New York, vice- president ; A. S. Dunham, secretary ; J. C. Calhoun, treasurer ; O. S. Lyford, general superintendent ; Robert Forsyth, general freight agent. Mr. Dunham has been connected with the road ever since the formation of the first company. Mr. J. G. English, of the city of Danville, is a member of the board of directors.

In 1872 the company then in existence began the construction of a branch from Bismark, in Newell township, to Brazil, Indiana. The road is completed and in running order to the coal-fields in Fountain county.

The machine-shops referred to have been built in the northeastern part of the city of Danville, and are in successful operation, employ- ing about two hundred hands.

The whole enterprise may now be said to be on a solid basis, and systematically and successfully conducted. Large expenditures are being made for repairs and for the purchase of new material and steel rails. The business of the line, through the discreet management of its present officers, and by a liberal course toward its patrons, is already very large and rapidly increasing.

Without taking up space to note the many preliminary meetings, conferences, etc., covering a period of four or five years, in which many citizens of Danville spent a good deal of time and money in aid of the "Indianapolis, Crawfordsville & Danville," and the "Danville, Urbana, Bloomington & Pekin" railroads, we may say that the first was extended as far west as Crawfordsville late in the year 1869, while the latter was completed from Pekin to Danville in January, 1870. Trains ran from Danville to Pekin for a period of some nine months. In the meantime the gap between Crawfords- ville and Danville was closed up. The connection of the rails was made on the prairie some eight miles east of Danville in September, 1870, and through trains were put upon the road shortly afterward.

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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY.

In November of the following year the route from the Ohio at Evansville to Lake Michigan, at Chicago, was established by the completion of the Evansville, Terre Haute & Chicago and Chicago, Danville & Vincennes railroad lines. Within the next year the La Fayette, Bloomington & Muncie railroad was extended across the northern part of our county, connecting that most enterprising portion of our population with an eastern outlet for the products of their well-tilled and bountiful fields.

Another enterprise in the way of railroad transportation deserves special mention, not so much for the encouragement it received from citizens of the county, as for the pluck and persistent efforts of its projectors in putting through an enterprise in the face of the most discouraging obstacles. We allude to the "narrow-gauge," built almost entirely through the unaided efforts of Mr. Gifford, and the Penfield Brothers, of Rantoul. This line opens up to market a wide belt of rich agricultural country, extending the entire width of our county ; and the annual shipments of live stock and grain would astonish citizens, if they would take the pains to consult the statistics of the business of this company, and see the enormous tonnage of this seemingly little, though important line.

To the above railroad lines has been added still another, - largely aided by local subscription, - the Paris & Danville, giving the southern townships of the county long needed facilities.

Here, then, we have Vermilion county traversed east and west by no less than four of these great and indispensable arteries of communication, and by another trunk line traversing the entire length of the county north and south, making in all over one hun- dred and thirty miles of completed track within the limits of the county, which is only twenty-two miles broad by forty-two miles long. There are few, very few, other counties in the state so abun- dantly supplied with railroad facilities as Vermilion, yet the enter- prise of our people is not supplied ; their demands require still more railroads ; and the writer here predicts the early completion of two other roads, one from the southwest part of the county, putting Sidell and Carroll townships in communication with the focal system at Danville; and the other-a branch line -from Marysville to Danville. Then every part of the county will be connected -without more than one transfer-with Chicago, Toledo, Indianapolis, Evansville, Cairo, Cincinnati and St. Louis, and through these with all the tide-water ports of the Gulf and the Atlantic.

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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY.

TWENTY-FIFTH REGIMENT ILLINOIS VOLUNTEERS.

CONTRIBUTED BY CAPTAIN ACHILLES MARTIN.

The 25th Ill. Vol. Inf., three companies of which (A, B and D) were from Vermilion county, was organized in Vermilion county, June 1, 1861, and mustered into service at St. Louis, Missouri, August 4, 1861, and from there transported by rail to Jefferson City, Missouri, and thence to Sedalia, Missouri, and marched to Springfield, Missouri, under Gen. Fremont, in pursuit of Gen. Price's army, and from thence to Rolla, Missouri, where, with a portion of Fremont's army, it spent the early part of the winter of 1861 and 1862, but returned to Springfield, Missouri, in Feb- ruary, 1862, under command of Gen. Siegel, and pursued Gen. Price's army to Bentonville, Arkansas, where, on the 6th, 7th and 8th of March, 1862, the memorable battle of "Pea Ridge" was fought. The 25th Reg., having been held in support until early morn of the third day, took the front under the immediate com- mand of Gen. Siegel, in support of the artillery which opened the engagement. After a fierce contest with grape, canister and shell at short range. the enemy's batteries were silenced, and the mem- orable order, "Up, 25th, Minutes! Col. Minutes!" was given by Gen. Siegel in person, and the next moment the regiment, under the most terrific fire of musketry, with other troops, charged the enemy in a thick wood, where, after a fierce and deadly contest, the enemy's lines gave way, and the whole army was soon in full retreat, and thus was victory brought out of what but a few hours before was considered, by the general commanding, a defeat. The regiment was highly complimented for its gallantry in this (its first) engagement. Then, in connection with the army, it took up the line eastward, where, after a long and tedious march, it arrived at Bates- ville, in Arkansas, and was there detached from the army, and, with nine other regiments under command of Gen. Jeff. C. Davis, marched eastward to Cape Girardeau, Missouri, a distance of two hundred and fifty miles in nine days, having made an average of about twenty- eight miles per day. The regiment then, by river transportation, joined Gen. Halleck's army in the siege of Corinth, Mississippi, which place was soon evacuated by the enemy ; and after a short stay in Mississippi marched eastward under command of Gen. Buell by way of Nashville, Tennessee, to Louisville, Kentucky, a distance of nearly five hundred miles, in the month of August, in the most extreme heat and drouth. Here a few days were spent in reorgan-

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izing the army, when it was ordered in pursuit of Gen. Bragg's army, then invading Kentucky. Later. the battle of Perryville, or Chaplain Hills. was fought between a portion of the two armies, wherein the 25th Reg., and more than sixty thousand other well- equipped soldiers, were compelled to act as spectators in the slaugh- ter of a portion of our army under command of Gen. McCook, because, the general commanding said. that McCook had brought on the engagement without his orders. After this battle the regi- ment returned to Nashville, Tennessee, and Gen. Rosecrans put in command of the army then known as the Army of the Cumberland, which remained at Nashville until the last of December, 1862. when it was advanced to Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and met the enemy under command of Gen. Bragg at Stone River, Tennessee, on the 30th of December, 1862, and at the dawning of the 31st the enemy attacked in great force. The 25th Reg. being in the unfortunate right wing of our army, was soon sharply engaged, when the charge grew fierce and deadly. The line on the left of the 25th gave way. and being fiercely assailed in front and left, the regiment was com- pelled to change front under a most withering fire. Here the color- bearer was stricken down and the flag lay on the ground, when Col. Williams, of the regiment (than whom no more worthy patriot has died ). raised the colors with his own hands, and having indicated the new line to be formed, he planted the flag firmly, and uttered in loud tones his living and dying words: " Boys, we will plant the flag here and rally around it, and here we will die!" The next moment, with flag-staff in hand, he fell. The regiment, after twice repulsing the enemy in front. finding itself flanked on both right an'd left, retired from its position and fell to the rear, leaving more than one-third of its number dead and wounded on the field. The enemy was finally checked, and the battle continued sullenly until the 2d of January. 1863, when Gen. Breckenridge made his cele- brated assault on the left wing of our army. The charge was brill- iant beyond comparison. The shock of battle was terrific. Our left was broken, defeated and driven back. Fresh troops were in like manner swept away like chaff before the wind. Fifty pieces of artillery were brought to bear on the enemy's right. The earth trembled and shook as a leaf in the storm beneath the iron mon- sters, as they poured their storm of death into the advancing col- umn, and yet their onward march was as the march of destiny, until the shout from Gen. Negley rang out - " Who'll save the left ? " "The 19th Ill.," was the reply -the 25th Ill. being close in their support. They did save the left, and the 25th held

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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY.

the front thus carried until the retreat of the enemy, while the heaps of the enemy's dead testified to gallantry worthy of a better cause. The regiment, in connection with the army, next marched south in pursuit of Gen. Bragg's army till it reached the Tennessee River, near Stevenson, Alabama. To cross this river in the face of the enemy and lay the pontoon bridge was given in charge of this regiment alone ; consequently, at early morn our shore was lined with skirmishers and a battery of artillery, while the regiment em- barked in pontoon boats and rowed away to the opposite shore a mile distant, drove the enemy back, laid the bridge and was cross- ing the entire army over by eleven o'clock A.M. The sight of this little circumstance was extremely grand, but the danger great. The regiment next crossed over Sand Mountain and Lookout Mountain and entered into the valley, again engaging the enemy in the terri- ble battle of Chickamauga, Georgia, where it]left more than two- thirds of its number among the dead and wounded on the field, all of whom fell into the hands of the enemy. This battle, for severity, stands second to none in the history of the war, and no regiment in the engagement suffered greater loss than the 25th Ill. The regi- ment was next called to meet the enemy at the battle of Chattanooga, under command of Gen. U. S. Grant, and when the order came to storm Mission Ridge, the 25th Reg. was assigned the front, or skir- mish line, where it advanced slowly until within a few rods of the enemy's guns, when, with a simultaneous charge, in connection with the 35th Ill., carried the enemy's works, captured their batteries, broke their lines on Mission Ridge, and made way for a magnifi- cent victory. Along the entire line here again the carnage was great, but the achievements brilliant in the extreme. The regiment was then ordered to east Tennessee, where it spent the winter in various unimportant campaigns, and in the spring of 1864 rejoined the Army of the Cumberland, near Chattanooga, under command of Gen. Sherman, and started on that memorable campaign to Atlanta, Georgia, at which place it terminated its service and returned home to be mustered out.

During the months of this campaign, the endurance of both offi- cers and men of the regiment was taxed to its utmost - it was one long and tedious battle, often violent and destructive, then slow and sullen, both armies seeking advantage by intrenching, manœuvering, flanking and by sudden and by desperate charges, the 25th Ill. bear- ing its equal burden of the toils, the dangers and losses, as will more fully appear from the following order or address, delivered by Col.

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W. H. Gibson, commanding the brigade, on its taking leave of the army, at Atlanta, Georgia, August 20, 1864, to wit :

"Soldiers of the Twenty-fifth Illinois Volunteers : As your term of three years' service has expired, and you are about to proceed to your state to be mustered out, it is fitting and proper that the colonel com- manding should express to each and all his earnest thanks for the cheerful manhood with which, during the present campaign, you have submitted to every hardship, overcome every difficulty, and for the magnificent heroism with which you have met and vanquished the foe. Your deportment in camp has been worthy true soldiers, while your conduct in battle has excited the admiration of your companions in arms. Patriotic thousands and a noble state will give you a recep- tion worthy of your sacrifice and your valor. You have done your duty. The men who rallied under the starry emblem of our nation- ality at Pea Ridge, Corinth, Chaplain Hills, Stone River, Chicka- mauga, Mission Ridge, Noonday Creek, Pinetop Mountain, Kenesaw Mountain, Chattahoochee, Peach Tree Creek and Atlanta having made history for all time and coming generations to admire, your services will ever be gratefully appreciated. Officers and soldiers, farewell. May God guarantee to each health, happiness and useful- ness in coming life, and may our country soon merge from the gloom of blood that now surrounds it and again enter upon a career of progress, peace and prosperity."

THIRTY-SEVENTH REGIMENT ILLINOIS VOLUNTEERS.

CONTRIBUTED BY GEN. J. C. BLACK.

This regiment was recruited in the counties of Lake, La Salle, McHenry, MeLean, Cook, Vermilion and Rock Island, and was or- ganized at Chicago, and mustered into the United States service on the 18th of September, 1861. Its colonel was Julius White, since major-general ; its major was J. C. Black, now of Danville, Illinois, who recruited and took to camp Co. K from Vermilion county. The muster role of Co. K showed representatives from many of the old families of Vermilion county : Fithian, Bandy, English, Morgan, Clapp, Brown, Henderson, Allison, Conover, Black, Culbertson, Johns, Canaday, Lamm, Myers, Payne, Songer, Thrapp, Delay, Folger, Gibson, Liggett, and others. Some of these representatives died in service ; some returned home full of the honors of a well- rendered service, and are to day prominent among our business and professional men. Peter Walsh, the late prosecuting attorney ;

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HISTORY OF VERMILION COUNTY.

William P. Black, of Chicago; William M. Bandy, editor of the "Post," Danville; W. H. Fithian, of Fithian, Illinois ; George H. English, and many are farming in this vicinity. These are of the living. Among the dead we recall Fitzgeral, Marlatt, Reiser, Snider, Adkins, Barnard, Hyatt, Henderson, Stute, Brewer. Conover, George Johns and Jas. Culbertson. These died without fear and without reproach.

THE LEFT WING OF THE 37THI ILLINOIS REGIMENT AT PEA RIDGE.

Co. K. was distinctively the boys' company; its recruits were most of them under age at the time of enlistment. In the Memorial Hall at Springfield, Illinois, are found only two captured flags; one was taken from the Mexicans at Buena Vista, the other was taken from the rebels at the battle of Pea Ridge by the 37th Ill. Vol. Inf. "The boys" did their share wherever they went. Mustered into service on the 18th of September, they entered the Department of the Missouri the next day, and took part in Hunter's campaign against Price in southwestern Missouri, marching to Springfield and back to Laurine Caulmint. In the dead of winter, breaking up their encampment, they joined in Pope's campaign against the guerrillas. In the spring of 1862 the 37th set out on the route for northwestern Arkansas, and participated in the bloody battle of Pea Ridge on the 6th, 7th and 8th of March, which raged with especial fury on the 7th, near Lee town, when the 37th received the charge of McCul-

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lough's and MeIntosh's column, and when in thirty minutes it lost one hundred and twenty men out of an effective present force of seven hundred and fifty ; but the charge was broken, and the enemy withdrew.

After this battle Gen. Custer was ordered to Batesville and Helena with the entire force, except the 37th Ill., one battalion of the 1st Mo. Cav., and one section of the Peoria battery ; and until June this force was kept in the extreme front in the enemy's coun- try, fifty-five miles in advance of any assistance, feeling the pulse of rebeldom. beating daily in this its farthest extremity. Marching and counter-marching over one hundred miles frontage of mountainous region, ambushed and bushwhacked day and night. it kept the flag at the front, and always flying. In the summer of 1862 the 37th joined the larger forces. It bore its share in the marches and skir- mishes in southwestern Missouri, and finally, on the 7th day of De- cember, assisted in the terrible fight and brilliant victory at Prairie Grove, where, in the capture of a battery and the assault upon the enemy in their chosen position, the 37th. reduced to three hundred and fifty men, lost seventy-eight killed and wounded ; but they took the battery. It returned to St. Louis from there, and were sent to Cape Girardeau, whence it started after Gen. Marmaduke, over- taking him on the banks of the St. Francis River at Chalk Bluffs. The fight at this point freed southeast Missouri of all rebel forces, and won for the 37th high praise in the reports of the commanding general. They then returned to St. Louis, and joined the forces under Gen. Grant, and participated in the siege of Vicksburg.

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History of Vermilion County, together with historic notes on the Northwest, gleaned from early authors, old maps and manuscripts, private and official correspondence, and other authentic, though, for the most part, out-of-the-way sources, Part 38

Author: Beckwith, H. W. (Hiram Williams), 1833-1903 Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Chicago : H. H. Hill and Company Number of Pages: 1164

Author: Beckwith, H. W. (Hiram Williams), 1833-1903
Publication date: 1879
Publisher: Chicago : H. H. Hill and Company
Number of Pages: 1164