USA > Illinois > Williamson County > History of Williamson county, Illinois, From the earliest times, down to the present, 1876, with an accurate account of the secession movement, ordinances, raids, etc., 1914 > Part 5
USA > Illinois > Williamson County > History of Williamson county, Illinois, From the earliest times, down to the present, with an accurate account of the secession movement, ordinances, raids, etc., also, a complete history of its "bloody vendetta," including all its recondite causes, results, etc., etc. > Part 5
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15
72
THE HISTORY OF
wealthy and respectable citizens of the county. In 1857 Erwin and Furlong com- menced business in Crab Orchard. The first store was put up in Marion by Joshua Mul- key in 1840, the next by Robert Hooper. Groceries were always plenty, the licenses varying from $25.00 in 1839 to $500.00 in 1864. There have been no saloons in the county, except at Carterville, since 1872. General Davis, who was one of the best friends the county ever had, ran a still-house and saloon until in 1837, when John New- man got drunk and the hogs ate him; and in 1838, Essex Edmonson got drunk and rode off into the Saline and froze to death. About this time Davis went to the Legisla- ture, and while there, heard A. Lincoln de- liver a lecture on temperance. He came home and closed the door of his saloon for- ever. J. T. Goddard commenced selling whisky in Bainbridge in 1841, and finally got to be one of the wealthiest men. Soon after Samuel Dunaway put up a store and is now the richest man in the county.
Marion was first incorporated in 1851, but soon ran down. Again in 56 but again run down. Then in 1865 by spe- cial Act, and in 1873 organized as a city under the general laws of the State. It has now about 1,200 inhabitants, and has eight
73
WILLIAMSON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
business houses, costing, on an average, $11,000.
Crab Orchard was incorporated in 1867, but two years afterwards disorganized. It has about 300 population.
Jeffersonville is a prosperous little vil- lage, in the north side of the county, com- monly called "Shake Rag," so called from the fact that in an early day a man kept a "blind tiger" in a low, flat-roofed mud house there. When he had whisky he would stick a stick through the roof with a rag on it. As parties ascended the hill on either side, they looked to see if the rag was shaking; if not, then there was no whisky. All the whisky of that day was of the meanest kind imaginable.
Carterville is a village of 500 citizens, which sprung up on the railroad, eight miles west of Marion, and was incorporated as a village in 1873.
The first printing office in the county was owned by W. H. Wileford, in 1838. He did all the printing for this country, and in 1850 he started the Literary Monitor, seven miles southeast of Marion. In 1854 was started the Marion Intelligencer, a Demo- cratic paper ; the Democratic Organ in 1860-1; and the Marion Star in 1866. In 1866, Our Flag, Republican. In 1867, Old Flag, Democratic. In 1868, The People's
74
THE HISTORY OF
Friend, Democratic. In 1872, Williamson County Progress, Republican. In 1873, Farmers' Advocate, Independent. In 1874, Marion Monitor, Republican .In 1874 Ma- rion Democrat, Democratic. In 1875, Egyp- tian Press, Democratic.
These papers were run for two or three years each except the Marion Monitor and Egyptian Press, which are now running, and then died for want of support. There are several good writers in the county. Among the most prominent lady writers are Mrs. M. M. Mitchell and Isabell Marschalk.
There have been four banks in this county-Agricultural Bank, Bank of South- ern Illinois, in 1860, and Menahaway Bank, in 1863; Bolton Bank, in 1858.
The Agricultural Society of this county was organized May 2, 1857, with Willis Al- len as President. It has since been kept up, and each year has added new proofs that the county is growing richer and better. The exhibition of the Society is second to none in Southern Illinois, except in ladies' tex- tile work and works of art.
The Medical Association of this county was organized May 16th, 1875, by Drs. H. V. Ferrell, S. H. Bundy and A. N. Lodge, three of as learned and classic gentlemen as live in Southern Illinois. The Society now has a membership of twenty-eight, and is
75
WILLIAMSON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
highly calculated to banish quacks and igno- ramuses from the profession, and bring tal- ent and science to the bedside of our sick.
During the summer months, from 1850 to 1872, there were a class of men in this county known as teamsters, who followed the business of hauling the products of the county to the railroads and river. In an early day nothing could be sent to market but such things as could walk. Ox teams were used up to 1866, when everybody com- menced to use horses for teaming. This hauling got to be so extensive and costly that there was a general demand for a railroad. An Act passed the Legislature and was ap- proved March 7th, 1867, incorporating the Murphysboro and Shawneetown Railroad Company, and in 1868, a petition signed by one hundred voters, as required by said Act, was filed with the County Clerk, asking the Court to submit a proposition of voting a subscription of $100,000 to the capital stock of said company, to the legal voters of the county. Speakers went out over the county during the canvass, and the people were led to believe that they were taking stock in a railroad company, on which they would annually draw a dividend more than suffcient to pay the interest on the bonds of the county. On the 3rd day of Novem- ber, 1868, the proposition was voted upon,
76
THE HISTORY OF
and resulted in 1779 votes for, and 108 against subscription. On the 12th day of December 1868, the Court made an order that the subscription should be paid in the bonds of the county, running for twenty years, bearing interest at the rate of eight per cent. per annum, payable annually at the office of the County Treasurer. But
said bonds were not to be issued, bear date, draw interest, or be delivered until the road was completed and the cars running 'on the same from Carbondale to Marion. Pro- vided, if the road was not completed by the 1st day of January, 1870, this subscription was to be void. In the same order is found this language:
Whereas, the county of Williamson has this day subscribed $100,000 to the capital stock of the Murphysboro and Shawneetown Railroad Company. Now, therefore, for the purpose of securing the construction and early completion of said road, that this county make and enter into an agreement with the M. & S. R. R. Co., and that the said county in and by said agreement, sell to said Company the $100,000 stock. That the terms of said sale and agreement shall be in effect as follows: That when the certificates of stock shall have been is- sued by said Company to said county,
77
WILLIAMSON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
the said county, after the said road shall have been completed, and within ten days after said Railroad Company shall have issued to said county the certificates of stock for said $100,000, assign, transfer and set over to said Company the certificates for said $100,- 000 stock so isued to said county for the consideration of five thousand dollars, to be paid to said county at the time of said transfer and asignments in the bonds of said county, issued to said Company in payment of the subscrip- tion.
On the 12th day of December 1868, Jesse Bishop and Addison Reece, on behalf of the county, and Samuel Dunaway as president of the M. & S. R. R. Company, entered into a contract in pursuance of the above order, to sell the stock. It was re- corded at the December Special Term of the County Court. This contract was drawn up by Jesse Bishop. They did not claim to have any authority from the people for making this infamous contract, because they gave it as their reason for making it: "For the purpose of securing the construction and early completion of said road."
They did not make it in compliance with any law or vote of the people. It has since
78
THE HISTORY OF
been urged as an excuse for the sale, that it was best for the county, that the railroad company would have closed out the stock by mortgage bonds, and the county would Have got nothing. That might be a good reason to give at this day ; but I have copied the motives above, which actuated the Court in its action at the time. An Act passed the Legislature and was approved March 10, 1869, to change the name of the Mur- physboro and Shawneetown Railroad Com- pany to that of the Carbondale and Shaw- neetown Railroad Company, and to make valid the subscription and contract of sale of the County Court. By this Act it was declared that the County Court, should, on the completion of the road to Marion, set over and transfer the certificates of stock to the railroad company without the payment of the $5,000 or any sum. This Act fur- ther provided that the interest on the bonds should be paid semi-annually in New York, in place of at the county treasurer's office. It was contended in the railroad suit de- scribed hereafter, that this Act was uncon- stitutional, as being ex post facto and im- pairing the obligation of contracts.
On the 24th of December, 1870, there was an order made by the Court, extending the time for the completion of the M. & S. R. R. to the 1st day of January, 1872, and
79
WILLIAMSON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
also extending the time for the completion of a railroad from Carbondale to Marion, to the same time. It was contended, in the suit, that the County Court here recognized two railroad companies, and that the giv- ing of the bonds to the latter that were vot- ed to the former was not valid. It was also contended by the counsel in said suit that if the Act of March the 1st, 1869, was con- stitutional, it limited the time of the com- pletion of said road to the 1st day of Janu- ary, 1871, and it being an amended charter, could not be changed only by the Legisla- ture. At the July special term, 1871, the Court adopted the form of a bond to be issued to the company. At this same term, July 24th, the Court, with Spain as Judge, made an order, after reciting all the Acts of the Legislature, and the previous order of this Court, and reaffirming the subscrip- tion, that the County Clerk should procure one hundred bonds of one thousand dollars each, and that on presentation of the certi- ficates of stock by the company, the bonds should be issued and placed in the hands of James W. Samuels, as trustee, to hold until the road was completed. On this same day the Carbondale & Shawneetown Railroad Company entered into a contract with E. C. Dawes & Co. to build said road. On the 4th day of September, 1871, the Court, after
80
THE HISTORY OF
reciting the order of July the 24th, which stated that the bonds should bear date of January 1st, 1872, made an order that the bonds should be prepared in blank and bear date from the completion of the road, as they expected to have it completed before that date. Most people supposed that only $50,000 worth of stock would be taken when the road was completed to Marion, and but few of them knew anything about the "contract of sale;" but it had leaked out, and by the first of November, 1871, there was considerable talk of an injunction to keep the Court from issuing the bonds. The work on the road was progressing rapidly, and Walter P. Hanchett, the agent of E. C. Dawes & Co., became very uneasy, and on Sunday, November 6th, 1871, sent out a spe- cial messenger to bring in the County Court. They came in next morning, and were set upon all that day by Hanchett and his friends to sign the bonds and place them in the hands of a trustee to avoid the intended injunction from the citizens. Judge Spain and Associate Justice Holland were opposed to issuing the bonds until the road was com- pleted. Manier, was for signing them.
About dark on Monday, the 7th, Hanch- ett and his friends got the Court together in a room over Goodall & Campbell's store, and tried every way to get the bonds signed.
WILLIAMSON COUNTY, ILLINOIS. 81
About 12 o'clock in the night some one told Hanchett to send for R. M. Hundley, that he could get the Court to act. Hundley was sent for, and when he came up town he went to the Lanier Hotel, where Hanchett met him and told him what was up, and that his assistance was urgently solicited. Hund- ley told him he would let him know what he could do in from thirty to sixty minutes. Hundley then went over and had a talk with the Court, and then went back, asked Han- chett what it was worth to him to have those bonds signed that night. He said one thousand dollars. He then drew a draft on the Carbondale Bank for $1,000, and left Hundley, who immediately went home. The Court signed the bonds that night, and delivered them to W. N. Mitchell as trustee, he first giving $100,000 bond for their deliv- ery when called for. These County Judges were not bribed, as would seem from this story, because they are honest, conscientious men; neither did Hundley attempt to bribe them; he simply got $1,000 to use his influ- ence. That they ought not to have signed the bonds when they did is plain; but it was an undue influence and not corruption. Mitchell deposited the bonds in a bank at Springfield, and at the December adjourned term, 1871, the President and Directors of
-F 7
82
THE HISTORY OF
the railroad reported to the Court their ac- ceptance of the road as complete from the contractors, E. C. Dawes & Co., and the Court ordered the bonds to be delivered to the company and received the certificates of stock of $100,000.
On Sunday the 14th of January, 1872, five car loads of iron were brought to Ma- rion, and on Monday, the 15th, the last rail was laid on the track; but the cars had been running to Marion for some time before. At the special term, being the 24th day of January 1872, the Court made an order authorizing the County Clerk to assign and transfer the certificates of stock held by the county in the C. & S. R. R. Co., to E. C. Dawes & Co., of Cincinnati, Ohio, except- ing $10,000 of the stock, which was to be held by the Clerk until the railroad company should have the road completed to Crab Orchard, in this county, and by the contract the railroad company was to pay $5,000 for the certificates in the bonds issued by the county in payment of the subscription, and if they had done that there would have been only $95,000 in bonds outstanding. But they paid it in money, or at least $5,000 of in- terest on the $100,000 of bonds. The $10,- 000 of certificates are still in the possession of the County Clerk, and we pay annually $8,000 of interest and another thousand
83
WILLIAMSON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
for collecting and distributing it. At the March term of the Circuit Court, 1873, a bill "for injunction and relief" was filed by George Bulliner, W. M. Hindman, Henry Williams, George W. Sisney, Robert M. Al- len and F. M. Maxey. The injunction was granted by the Master-in-Chancery, and stopped the Sheriff from collecting the rail- road taxes, and the State Treasurer from paying the interest on the bonds. This case created a great deal of anxiety. The case was decided by Judge Crawford against the complainants, and a judgment of $1,000 was given against them for attorney's fees. An Appeal was taken to the Supreme Court, and the judgment below affirmed.
In 1872, Colonel J. C. Willis, president of the St. Louis & Paducah Rail Road Com- pany, made an earnest effort to get assist- ance from this county in 'building a road, but failed to accomplish anything. On the 18th day of June, 1870, a vote was taken for or against subscribing $100,000 to the capital stock of the Belleville & Southern Illinois Railroad Company, resulting in favor of subscription. The Court made an order that the subscription should be paid in the bonds of the county, running for 30 years, with 8 per cent. interest per annum. Pro- vided, the work on the road commenced by the 1st of January, 1871, and be completed
84
THE HISTORY OF
to Marion on or before the 1st day of Janu- ary, 1872; but the Court reserved the right of extending the time. And at the Decem- 'ber adjourned term, 1871, the time was ex- tended to the first of January, 1873; and again in December, 1872, the time was ex- tended to the first of January, 1874. This is the last order made in the case, and of course the subscription can not now be taken. Had they built the road within the time, I doubt not but the same infamous dealings would have been played on our people, and this county would have had a debt of $200,000 wrongfully fastened upon it, instead of $100,000.
The Carbondale and Shawneetown Rail- road is 17 miles long, and cost $583,407.12, and has a funded and unfunded debt of $275,890.15. For the year ending June 30th, 1875, it transported 38,959 tons of freight. The road has been honestly and fairly operated, and has been a great benefit to our county ; but it is not right in principle for a majority to force an unwilling min- ority to contribute to the building up of a prvate person or corporation. It is right in public matters, but in private concerns their own consent ought to be obtained to make them partners or contributors.
85
WILLIAMSON COUNTY, ILLINOIS. OF CRIMINALS.
I have now come to that division of my subject which must be more interesting to our neighbors than any other. And it is but fitting that I make a few egotistical pre- liminaries. I do not present this volume with the venal soul of a servile author, look- ing for competence or public favor. I was born a farmer, and am therefore independ- ent. But so long as I claim the name of a citizen with my illustrious countrymen, a lasting obligation rests on me to assist in diffusing knowledge, elevating the standard of moral culture, rendering crime odious, and fastening the feelings of friendship on our people. I have intended this feeble ef- fort to lead in that direction. I have known this people from childhood. I believe, sub- limated by education, they are capable of attaining nobler hights than have usually been ascribed to the people of "Egypt." I not only glory in my birth-place, but pass encomiums on the country, and say to the world that from my knowledge of the public spirit of our people, I can expect protection, honest dealing and liberty in Williamson County. Linked to her by historic associa- tions and proudly treasuring the memories of my fathers, the clearest duty of a modest youth like myself, whose unruly and turbu- lent boyhood has been subdued in the pres-
86
THE HISTORY OF
ence of this heroic people, is to assist in tearing down the curtains of darkness which hang like a mighty incubus around the crushed form of my native county, and bury them in the deep pit of contempt, where our citizens can stand by their grave for- ever and mutter thanksgivings to God, and invite an unsophisticated world to look with joy and pride upon a country redeem- ed from crime, and sparkling with brilliant gems of innocence and virtue. If I could roll back the scroll of time, and wipe from its damning record the terrible scenes of blood which have bespangled it, and restore the lives of our murdered dead, I would consid- er it my bounden duty, though I sailed with bloody sails on the seas of grief. But that scroll has been sealed for eternity, not to be unrolled until the echo of impartial jus- tice shall resound in the sunlit chambers of Paradise. I make this effort, prompted by motives, to assist in redeeming, if possible, our county from under the judgment against her, and prove to the world that our commu- nity is not composed of outlaws and cut- throats, but of a highly intellectual, honor- able and moral people. I could wish to write a history by which the reader would 'be carried along the happy gales of pleasure, and never be drifted back into the dark and bitter troubles, but I can not. Crime has
WILLIAMSON COUNTY, ILLINOIS. 87
darkened our county, like the shadows dark- en the earth, and our happiness has come to us only in fragments and detached parts. We have just passed through the deepest and crowning calamity of our history. Never was there such a shock to the feelings and sentiments of our people as the Vendetta caused. None believed that there was a heart so steeped in guilt as to conceive such crimes, nor a hand that dare commit the atrocious deeds. And yet I have to cata- logue the deeds of the Vendetta, concocted by leaders and executed by fiendish emmi- saries, that has not a parallel in the record of crime. Here were men at whose blood- thirstiness £ even savages would blush, which brands them forever as the basest and 'bloodiest of incarnate demons.
Tacitus said: "Shame, reproach, infamy, hatred and the execrations of the public, which are the inseparable attendants on criminal and brutal actions, are no less proper to excite a horror for vice, than the glory which perpetually attends good actions is to inspire us with a love of vir- tue." "And these, according to Tacitus," says Rollin, "are the two ends which every historian ought to propose to himself, by making a judicious choice of what is most extraordinary, both in good and evil, in or- der to occasion that public homage to be
88
THE HISTORY OF
paid to virtue which is justly due it, and to create the greater abhorrence for vice on account of that eternal infamy that attends it."
Plutarch says: "But as to actions of in- justice, violence and brutality, they ought not to be concealed nor disguised." Rollin himself has written, "If the virtues of those who are celebrated in history may serye us for models in the conduct of our lives, their vices and failings on the other hand are no less proper to caution and instruct us, and the strict regard which an historian is oblig- ed to pay to truth, will not allow him to dis- semble the latter through fear of eclipsing the former."
Addison has said, "The gods in bounty work up storms about us, that give mankind occasion to exert their hidden strength and throw out into practice virtues which shun the day." If these virtues are worthy of record, the conditions which generated them are certainly proper for study. This neces- sitates a history of the storms which the gods work up around us. By reading which, others are about to get sootiness and filth from the smoke and flames of incipient storms may take alarm an'd wash in the river of peace and come out white as pearls." Who that reads this record of crime will not appeal to their ruler of human fates be-
89
WILLIAMSON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
below, and record their protests in heaven above against such slaughter! I ask my countrymen if crimes that have sunk a county to the incandescent crater of perdi- tion, ought not to be remedied. If you could cable the lightning from heaven, un- til its fiery forks kissed the flaming waves of hell you would see nothing in its angry flames, as they zigzag athwart the pit of woe, throwing up a lurid glare, but the spec- tral mirage of murder ever standing up as a blazing memento that "sin is death." I am justified by the great writers I have men- tioned in giving the meanest as well as the noblest actions of my countrymen. If I write of the guilty with merciless hands, from a heart as responsive comes spontan- eously praise for the innocent. If not as eloquent and touching, yet as warm, as full, as sincere, as such a tribute deserves. if you are sad at the deeds of bloody men, you will be buoyant at the faithfulness and hero- ism of virtuous men. I expect out of a suc- cession of events which possess all the traits of tenderness, splendor, honor, crime and de- bauchery to write a romance without its ex- aggerations. It is a small difficulty to se- lect an event, and swell it into a great tale, by fabulous appendages and spectral pro- ductions ; for he who forsakes the truth may
90
THE HISTORY OF
easily find the marvelous; but who is im- proved by it?
Samuel Johnson says: "Where truth is sufficient to fill the mind, fiction is worse than useless." Again, "The counterfeit de- 'bases the genuine." I am not writing a rec- ord of passions and prejudices, but of facts, with the wrapping taken off, so that they can be seen as they are. Though some of them are crimes that would make the bai- liffs of hades blush and turn pale, others are heroic acts that would sweep the zones of misery away. I have abused no innocent man, nor palliated the guilt of none; but have intended that my whole course should savor of fairness and candor, more than anything else. Some have used strong ar- guments against our county, but I have not evaded the force of their reasoning where I was unable to refute it, either by a sweep- ing contempt for those who use it, or by charging them with misrepresentation, or by endeavoring to swing off the mind of the reader on some incidental point to the real condition of our county. To enter the arena of controversy with the great cham- pions of crime, or even the little champions, is entirely beyond my ambition. Had that been my object it might have long since been effected. I do not care what this or that party may think of my feeble efforts.
91
WILLIAMSON COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
I feel very little anxiety or solicitude on that subject. I have written the truth as near as I know it, and will leave the result to the arbitrament of public opinion. I have often been asked if I was not afraid that I would be killed if I wrote a history of the Vendetta. I answer, no! I have been personally acquainted with most of the sup- posed members of the Vendetta from child- hood, and am a friend to all of them. I went to each one of them and asked him to tell me all he knew about the Vendetta, and each of them told me fully, fairly,, honestly and I believe truthfully, all I wanted to know. These people are all friendly now, and as gentlemanly as I ever met. Many of them I love and esteem, and to incur their ill-will is by no means desirable; but to court their favor at the expense of the truth or right principle would render me guilty in the sight of God, and contemptible in the estimation of all good men. Since they were so kind as to give me informa- tion enough to write the whole truth, I deem it unkind and unjust to step aside from his- toric facts to hurl the shafts of envy, hatred and malice at any of them. Surely they have borne enough already, and I am satisfied that if no man gets inflamed at this volume
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.