USA > Illinois > Whiteside County > History of Whiteside county, Illinois, from its first settlement to the present time, with numerous Biographical and Family Sketches > Part 10
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BOARD OF SUPERVISORS
time, interest at the rate of ten per cent. per annum. The Board appointed a committee to purchase the farm on the terms stated in the report, the farm to be known when purchased as the "County Poor Farm."
At the September term, 1857, Wm. Prothrow, Chas. Wright, and Justus Rew, a committee appointed to procure a loan to be applied in redeeming the county bonds, reported that owing to the extreme scarcity of money, they had been unable to procure the funds in the county, and had therefore sent Mr. Prothrow to Chicago, where he had met with much difficulty for several reasons, and among them, the stringency in the money market, and the fact that the county had allowed the first bonds to mature and go by without making adequate provision for their payment. This distrust placed the county paper in the sec- ond class. The agent, therefore, owing to the urgent demand for money, coupled with the fact that the county was paying three per cent. a month on matured bonds, sold the paper at a discount of eighteen per cent. The commit- tee stated it as their opinion that it was the only course left to save the county, and prevent further repudiation, believing the latter to be more costly than the sacrifice they had been compelled to make. At the same session the Drainage Commissioner was ordered to pay in the proceeds of the swamp land sales to assist in defraying the indebtedness of the county, the latter to give bonds to the School Commissioner for the amount, to be paid in five years, with interest at ten per cent. per annum, payable semi-annually in advance. The proceed- ings of the Board of Supervisors in this and succeeding years in relation to matters pertaining to the county buildings, etc., will be found under the head of "County Buildings."
The Board at the January meeting in 1858, resolved to sustain the town collectors and the County Treasurer, in receiving good Illinois and Wisconsin currency in payment of taxes. A committee was appointed at the same session to establish, if practicable, the title of Whiteside County to certain swamp lands lying near the original line between Rock Island and Whiteside Counties, at the Meredocia, the lands being originally within Whiteside County, but owing to the establishment of a new line placed in Rock Island County. The committee decided that if the original line could be defined the land would be found be- longing to Whiteside County, but if not it would be bad policy to prosecute the matter with Roek Island. M. S. Henry, Esq., attorney for the county being present, stated that he believed the lands to belong to Whiteside. He also stated that Whiteside County was entitled to receive from the general govern- ment the purchase money received by it for so much of the swamp lands under the act of Congress, and which can be proved as such, that were entered at the land office, and paid for in money. Also, that the county is entitled to receive from the general government, land warrants for so much of said swamp lands as were entered by land warrants from the general government. Mr. Henry made the following proposition: "I will promise to recover, and collect or prosecute the claim this county has against the general government or State, such moneys, land warrants or certificates, and pay all expenses of prosecuting, recovering and collecting said money and land warrants, the county agreeing to permit me to retain fifty per cent. of the amount of land warrants and money secured or re- covered as aforesaid, I to give bond with security for the performance of my part of the agreement, and the payment to the county of its share of the moneys and land warrants." The proposition was accepted, and the bond placed at $20,000.
At the September term, 1859, Hahnaman and Tampico were granted each a separate organization under the township organization law. In 1860, the Board ordered that any sheriff, constable, or other officer arresting a horse thief
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HISTORY OF WHITESIDE COUNTY
should receive a reward of fifty dollars, upon the conviction of the offender. From 1861 to 1866 inclusive, the most important proceedings of the Board were in relation to the war, and the erection of the county buildings at Morrison. The sketch of these proceedings can be found under the heads of "The Civil War" and "County Buildings."
At the April term, 1865, George C. Wilson was appointed Commissioner to take the census of the county for 1865, and at the September term the assess- ment of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad Company for 1865 was raised fifty per cent. above the valuation fixed by them for the year.
In December, 1865, the County Clerk was ordered to convey to Nelson Mason the interest of the county in block 57, west of Broadway, in Sterling, being the land donated by citizens of that city for county purposes, by quit claim deed. At the same term the committee of the Board on Railroad Freight to whom was referred the resolution in reference to freight and transportation reported, that by reason of the want of shipping facilities heretofore afforded to the people of the county, and the extortionate price of freight demanded by the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad Company, nearly amounting to a prohibition of sending the products of the county to market by rail, they would recommend that the citizens of the county interested in securing a reasonable freight in sending their products to market, meet at Sterling on the third of January, and at Morrison on the eighteenth day of January, 1865, to take into consideration the improvement of the rapids of the Mississippi river, the construction of slack water navigation on Rock river, and the connection of the Mississippi river with Lake Michigan by a ship canal from Rock river to the lake by way of the Illin- ois and Michigan canal.
At the April term, 1866, the County Clerk was directed to draw an order on the Treasurer for $800, that being the amount apportioned to Whiteside to aid in the survey of Rock river with a view of making a water communication between Green Bay, Wisconsin, and the Mississippi river by way of the former river. In September, 1857, the fifty dollar bounty for conviction of horse thieves was rescinded, and another adopted to pay $300 to the person or persons securing the arrest and conviction of any one stealing a horse from a citizen of Whiteside County. At the same term Hon. W. W. Heaton, Judge of the 22d Judicial Circuit, was ordered to be paid $100 for each term of the Circuit Court held in Whiteside County, so long as he remains Judge of the Whiteside County Circuit Court, unless otherwise ordered.
At the December term, 1868, the Board adopted a resolution requesting the Representative from the district of which Whiteside formed a part, to pro- cure the passage of an enabling act allowing Whiteside County to donate $20,000 to the Illinois Soldiers' College at Fulton, as an endowment fund. A resolu- tion was also adopted requesting the same Representative to secure the repeal of the act of the General Assembly, of 1854, approving and confirming the report of the single Commissioner, who, under the act of 1853, had the boun- dary line between Rock Island and Whiteside surveyed and located, whereby Whiteside lost several thousand acres of land, and which caused great incon- venience as to schools, and the rights of franchise of citizens of Whiteside County.
The following resolution offered by Supervisor W. M. Kilgour, was adopted at the December session in 1869:
WHEREAS, The subject of the removal of the National Capital to the valley of the Mississippi is being agitated by the people of the United States, and Whereas, that great river of the West with its navigable tributaries touches nearly every Southern and Western State, and washes the western boundary of our county, and Whereas, the great central route from the New England and Middle States by rail to the West and Pacific
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COUNTY SEAT AFFAIRS.
States, and to the East by way of the West, crosses the great river on the western bor- der of Whiteside County, therefore
Resolved, By the Supervisors of Whiteside County, that said Board by and with the leave of the State of Illinois, do hereby offer and agree to cede to the Federal Gov- ernment all authority of law held or exercised by said Board of Supervisors in or over said county of Whiteside, provided said Federal Government locate said Federal Capital within said county.
A copy of the resolution was ordered to be sent to the Hon. John A. Logan, Member of Congress at Large, Hon. H. C. Burchard, Member of Con- gress from this District, and Hon. James McCoy, Member of the Constitutional Convention then in session at Springfield.
Mr. Kilgour also offered the following resolution, which was adopted:
Resolved, That the Board take this occasion to express to Hon. W. S. Wilkinson, the respected retiring Clerk of this Board, their high appreciation of his distinguished services during his long continuance in office, rendered the more so by the fact that he retires voluntarily to give room to one who, through misfortune in war, is incapacitated for the hardest physical labor, and while we shall miss his genial face, able counsel and thorough experience in the transaction of the business of the Board, we can but wish him happiness and success in whatever line of life, private or public, he may see fit to pursue, or be called upon to fulfil.
At the January term in 1872, the bounty for the arrest and conviction of horse thieves, was reduced to $100. but in the April term following it was again raised to $300, and each town in the county requested to form a society for the prevention of horse thieving, and the arrest and conviction of all offenders. At the July term of the same year the Supervisor of each town in the county was appointed a Commissioner to use due diligence and dispatch in securing the destruction of Canada thistles. In December, 1874, the resolution of the Board authorizing the payment of $300 for the arrest and conviction of horse thieves was rcseinded, to take effect on and after January 1, 1875.
COUNTY SEAT AFFAIRS.
The first act of the General Assembly of the State in relation to a county seat in Whiteside County was approved February 21, 1839, by the Hon. Thos. Carlin, the then Governor.
The act provided that the legal voters of Whiteside County should meet at the respective places of holding elections, on the first Monday in May, 1839, and vote for the permanent point or points for the seat of justice. In the event of more than one place receiving votes, another election should be held on the Monday four weeks next following, and on Monday of each succeeding four weeks, until some one place should receive a majority of all the votes cast at any one election. Under the act any individual of the county could offer donations in land whereon to locate the seat of justice, which offers or proposals, after being posted up at three public places in cach precinct, should become binding on the individual making the same, and the person or persons offering such donation at the place selected by the legal voters, execute a good and sufficient deed to the County Commissioners of the county within four weeks after a selection of the location. The act also provided that the County Commissioners eanse public buildings to be erected without unnecessary delay.
In pursuance of this act an election was held on the first Monday of May, 1839, in the different precincts in the county, to locate the county seat, but no place having received a majority of the votes, another election was held on Monday four weeks following, the result being the same. Four more elections were held, when finally at the one held on the 23d of September, 1839, Lyndon received a majority of all the votes cast, and was declared duly elected the
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HISTORY OF WHITESIDE COUNTY.
permanent seat of justice of Whiteside County, by C. G. Woodruff and Adam R. Hamilton, the Justices of the Peace named in the act for that purpose. Lyndon was to all intents the county seat prior to that time, as the County Commissioners' Court had held its sessions there since May 16, 1839. On the 11th of February, 1840, a contraet was entered into between John Roy and Augustine Smith, on the part of the people of Lyndon, and Thomas C. Gould, by which the latter agreed to construct a good and substantial building, 26 feet long, 17 feet wide, and one and a half stories high, on lot 51, in block 10, in the town of Lyndon, to be used for holding courts, and other public purposes. The building was erected, and used for county and court purposes whenever required, until June 1841 when the county seat was moved to Sterling.
It appears that the proprietors of the town of Sterling had, on the 3rd of May, 1839, under the provisions of the act of February 21, 1839, offered do- nations in land whereon to locate the seat of justice, consisting of eighty acres of land bounded as follows: "Beginning at a point ou Broadway and Fourth street, being the center of the town; thence west 50 rods; thence north 120 rods; thence east 90 rods; thence south 120 rods; thence west 30 rods to the place of beginning, containing sixty acres, and the balance, being twenty aeres, lying partly between the said sixty aeres and the river, and to be bounded by streets and alleys, and extending to the river, the 60 acres to be deeded to the County Commissioners by the proprietors of the town formerly known as Har- risburg, and the 20 acres by those of the town formerly known as "Chatham." Besides the donation of these lands the proprietors of the above places agreed to pay to the County Commissioners $1,000 each for county purposes, in equal payments in five, six, nine and twelve months from the date of the location of the county seat, provided the public buildings for the county be placed on block 58, west of Broadway, that being a central position in the town.
It was not, however, until 1840 that Sterling made any publie movement toward securing the location of the county seat. Then application was made to the County Commissioners' Court for a re-canvass of the vote cast at the election of September 23, 1839, and the application was granted. At that election the regularly appointed judges of one of the precincts of the county refused to serve, and other judges were appointed in their places who received, counted, and returned the votes cast. The returns from this precinct were re- jected by C. G. Woodruff and A. R. Hamilton, the Justices of the Peace named in the act of February 21, 1839, to canvass the votes, as irregular, and this rejection gave Lyndon a majority of the votes for the county seat. The election of a County Commissioner on the 22d of February, 1840, however, gave Sterling a majority of the members of the Commissioners' Court, and as we have stated a recanvass was ordered, at which the votes of the rejected precinct was counted, making the result in the county stand, 264 votes for Sterling, 253 for Lyndon, and 4 for Windsor.
Upon this result being ascertained, the County Commissioners' Court, on the 8th of April, 1841, caused the following order to be entered of record:
"Whereas, by virtue of an act of the General Assembly of the State of Illinois, passed on the 21st day of February, 1839, providing for the location of the county seat, or seat of justice of Whiteside County and State aforesaid, to the end therefore, we the County Commissioners in and for said county, from a fair and impartial examination of the poll books, now in the Clerk's office of the County Commissioners' Court, do verily believe that the people of said county have placed the county seat at the town of Sterling, in said county, do therefore order the Circuit and County Commissioners' Courts to be holden in and at the town of Sterling, in said county, and do direct this order to be put on
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the record of this court, and that a copy of this order be served on the Sheriff of this county, and also on the clerk of the Circuit Court. Passed and ordered by the court. Theo. Winn, Clerk, April 8, 1841."
The donations offered by Sterling were changed several times, but at the December term, 1841, of the County Commissioners' Court, it was ordered "that the county house and other county buildings be erected on the center of block 57, west of Broadway, or within forty feet of said center." The court house building was ordered to be of the following dimensions: forty feet square, the lower story nine feet high in the clear, with a passage ten feet wide, and the upper story twelve feet high in the clear, the whole to be divided into suitable rooms. The building was completed sufficiently to allow courts to be held in it in 1844, but was not wholly finished until later.
The first term of the County Commissioners' Court held at Sterling, after the order placing the County Seat at that town, commenced June 8, 1841, and the succeeding terms were also held there up to and including the September term, 1842, when Lyndon having secured a majority in the Board of Commis- sioners, an order was entered removing the County Seat back to that place, and the Commissioners accordingly met and held their court there at the December term, 1842.
So uncertain, however, was the tenure by which either place could expect to hold the coveted location, that the passage of an act was procured at the session of the General Assembly in 1843, appointing G. W. Harrison and John McDonald, of Jo Daviess County, Joshua Harper, of Henry County, Leonard Andrus, of Ogle County, and R. H. Spicer, of Mercer County, Commissioners to locate the County Seat of Whiteside. The act was approved February 28, 1843, and provided that the Commissioners, or a majority of them, should meet at the town of Albany on the first Monday in May, 1843, or within thirty days thereafter, and locate the County Seat at the place which would most conduce to the public good of Whiteside County, and proceed to examine such parts of the county as they might think proper to so locate it, and when the location should be made, make out and return to the Clerk of the County Commissioners' Court, a certificate of such location. The act provided that the Commissioners should in no case locate the County Seat at a place where a donation of not less than thirty acres of land for county purposes, could not be obtained. It also provided that the County Commissioners should as soon as convenient after the location of the County Scat by the State Commissioners, cause to be erected a suitable court house, and other necessary buildings for public use, and all the public officers required by law to keep their offices at the county seat were to be notified to remove their offices to that location.
In accordance with this act, three of the Commissioners, Joshua Harper, Leonard Andrus, and R. H. Spicer, met at Albany at the specified time, and then proceeded to examine different locations in the county. They finally agreed upon Lyndon, and on the 27th of May made the following report:
"We, the undersigned, Commissioners appointed by an act of the Legisla- ture of the State of Illinois, passed at its last session to locate the seat of justice of Whiteside County, in said State, do hereby certify that we have performed the duty enjoined upon us by said act, (having been first duly sworn as the law requires) and have located the said seat of justice of Whiteside County upon the south half of the southeast quarter of section 16, in township 20, north of the base line of range 5 cast of the 4th principal meridian, believing the location most conducive to the public good of said county. Given under our hands and seals this 27th day of May, A. D., 1843."
This apparently settled the question in favor of Lyndon as a permanent
[H-9.]
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HISTORY OF WHITESIDE COUNTY.
location for the County Seat. Lyndon donated forty acres of land adjoining the old town to the county for public purposes, being described as the southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of section 16, township 20, north of range 5 east of the 4th principal meridian; but no county buildings were erected upon it, the courts and county officers being provided for in buildings situated in the village. Matters rested in this manner until April 14, 1846, when the County Commissioners entered an order that the grand and petit jurors elected at their March term to attend the May term of the Circuit Court to be held at Lyndon, be summoned to attend at Sterling instead of Lyndon, at the May term of that Court. This order was made by reason of Sterling claiming that under the order of the County Commissioners' Court county buildings had been erected and finished at that place, and had been accepted by the Commissioners, and that therefore the seat of justice should be removed there. It was also claimed that suitable buildings for county business had not been erected at Lyndon, upon ground donated to the county. After this the terms of the Circuit Court were held at Sterling, although the County Commissioners continued to hold their sessions at Lyndon.
Lyndon, however, was determined not to yield to the order of the Commis- sioners without a struggle, and after the Circuit Court had been moved to Ster- ling under the order just mentioned, applied through Thomas W. Trumbull and Augustine Smith, two of her citizens, for a mandamus compelling the Commis- sioners to make an order removing the Circuit Court back to the old location. The principal grounds upon which the mandamus was asked, were that the seat of justice had been permanently located at Lyndon by Commissioners appointed under an act of the Legislature of the State, and that there were suitable build- ings at that place for holding courts, and for county purposes. The Court, upon hearing the case, refused to grant the writ, holding from the facts shown, that the buildings used for county purposes at Lyndon were not upon the ground donated by it to the county as was required by the statute.
At the session of the Fifteenth General Assembly an act was passed entitled " An act declaring the town of Sterling the County Seat of Whiteside County for a time, and under the conditions therein mentioned," which was approved by the Governor, February 16, 1847. One of the conditions, and the principal one mentioned in this act, was that the County Seat should be located at Sterling until such time as the county paid a sum sufficient to compensate the donors of lands and money in that town, for county purposes. This sum amounted to several thousand dollars, which the people of the county felt illy able to pay at that time. No steps were, therefore, taken to raise the amount.
Under this act the County Commissioners at their June term in 1847, ordered the removal of the County Seat to Sterling, and held their next session there on the 7th of September. The Court House had been finished and prop- erly fitted up for county offices, and for holding the courts, in the meantime, so that comfortable and convenient quarters were afforded to all having connection with court and county business.
It was now Lyndon's turn to obtain an act from the Legislature looking towards a re-location of the County Seat at that place, and the efforts put for- ward to this end secured the passage of an act entitled " An act permanently to locate the seat of justice of Whiteside County," approved February 6, 1849. The first section of the act recites "that in pursuance of the fifth section of the seventh article of the constitution, the southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of section 16, in township 24, of range 5 east of the 4th principal mer- idian, in the county of Whiteside, is hereby fixed as the place to which it is pro- posed by this act to remove the seat of justice of said county, as hereinafter
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provided; and the said place so fixed upon is hereby called and named Lyndon." The second section provided that the legal voters of the county should meet at their respective places of holding elections, on the first Tuesday in April, 1849, and proceed to vote according to law, as in other cases of elections, to perma- nently locate the seat of justice of the county, either at Lyndon or at Sterling, the latter place being the then temporary seat of justice, and whichever place should receive a majority of the legal votes given at the election, should there- after be the seat of justice of the county. It was also provided in the act that any person capable of contracting, might make a written offer or offers of land, money or other property at the March term of the County Commissioners' Court, in 1849, to aid in the erection of public buildings in the county, and that the offers should be entered of record, and be binding upon the person or persons making the same, in case Lyndon should be selected as the permanent seat of justice. The act also repealed the act entitled " An act declaring the town of Sterling the County Seat of Whiteside County for a time, under the conditions therein mentioned," approved February 16, 1847, and revived and continued in force the third and fourth sections of an act entitled "An act to permanently locate the seat of justice of the county of Whiteside," approved February 28, 1843, provided, that the first act should not be repealed unless the seat of justice should be removed to Lyndon, under the provisions of this act.
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