USA > Illinois > Adams County > Quincy > History of the city of Quincy, Illinois > Part 22
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The usual annual statement on the first of April showing its financial condition and rec- ords for the year past reported the bond in- debtedness of the city as $20,640.00 and $700 ont as vonchers. The bond debt on the first of April, 1845, was $20,888.38. The schedule of receipts and expenditures showed as dur- ing the year :
Received from wharfage $1,152.33
Received from cemetery. 381.32
Received from taxes 4.833.56
Received from market house 346.09
Received from license, grocery 686.05
Received from license, store 841.22
Received from license, wagon 203.17
Received from sundries
274.91
$8,718.65
The expenses of the city during this period were $7,621.20. leaving. as the statement says. "a balance of $1,007.45 to apply on the debt." Reference to one item in the foregoing stato- ment of the sources of revenue will give some idea of the increasing commercial business of the place. The receipts from wharfage were increased $306.35, about one-third over the same in the preceding year. The tax levy for the year 1846 was established at one-half of one per cent for city purposes and one-eighth of one per cent for school purposes.
The city again assumed the balance of the school debt and ordered the erection of a schoolhouse to be constructed in every respect like, and to be of equal capacity with that built
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ADAMS COUNTY.
the year before. Water street, running south from the foot of Maine street, eighty feet west of and parallel to Front street, was by ordi- nance laid out. The first ordinance being faulty in description, a second was passed, but the measure met with hosts of opposition. Re- monstrances and claims for damages from near- ly every property holder along the river side poured into the council, but they were all dis- regarded and laid on the table. The street was never fully established and in time the tract was made a public landing. The ferry was free during the year, and an earnest attempt was made to have the city purchase or perpet- ually lease it, but without success, as no satis- factory terms could be made with the owners of the franchise.
At the August election here. as it was throughout the state, there was less than the usual political interest felt. The whigs had not vet recovered from their unexpected and crushing defeat of 1844. French and Wells, the democratic candidates for governor and lieutenant governor. carried the county by abont 350 majority. Dr. Ellis. the abolition candidate, receiving 98 votes. Judge Douglas was re-elected to congress, beating Dr. Vande- venter, the whig candidate, 281 votes in Adams county. For the legislature 1. N. Morris, Wm. Hendrix and J. M. Seehorn, democrats. were chosen over A. Williams, W. H. Tandy and Richard Starr, by majorities from 150 to 200. Hendrix died in December, shortly after he had taken his seat. There was no senatorial elec- tion. Smith holding over. E. H. Buckley and Mason Wallace were elected from Marquette county pledged to oppose the organization of the county. Buckley took his seat in the legis- lature, but Wallace did not. and W. H. Chap- man, who had been a candidate. was admitted with Buckley and served during the session.
Bnekley and Chapman, thus elected and ad- mitted to the legislature. gave their attention to such course as would bring about the best correction of the county difficulties whereof Quiney, as the county seat, was the original bone of contention, and this was judiciously done. Chiefly through the influence of the former the name Marquette was changed to Highland : other boundaries were proposed. but the real action as arranged was to throw the whole issue forward for consideration in the constitutional convention, which was about to be called. In that convention, finally. in 1847. the matter came up and was settled at once and forever, by the engraftment in the new constitution of a comprehensive clanse. pre- sented and pressed to adoption by Mr. Wil- liams, the delegate from Adams county, to the
effeet that all unorganized counties or parts of counties should with the new constitution revert to the county from which they had been incompletely detached.
Thus was ended this strife of half a dozen years, commenced for the purpose of removing the county seat from Quincy. It was a long. acrimonious, expensive struggle, and at last ended just where it began. with everything replaced in the old position. The city and county had been during the year constantly alive with meetings and excitements over this question and also over the Mormon matters. both of which vexations troubles, happily for harmony, passed now out of existence.
The last year appeared to see the Mormon diffienlties overcome, but it was only on the surface. They ripened again in the summer of 1847. and, of course. Quincy had to partici- pate in the excitement. The determination of the people of Hancock county, outside of Nau- voo, which was shared by those of the adjacent counties, that the Mormons would leave the state was met by an equally dogged determina- tion on the part of the "saints," that they would not go. and though many left. yet many remained. and a large portion of these were unable to leave. The military company from Quiney, which had been stationed at Nauvoo during the past winter to preserve order. was. with the exception of ten men, withdrawn in May. The idea that such a squad could en- foree law and preserve peace was farcical. The bitter hostility grew stronger and stronger. Each act of lawlessness was followed or offset by another. Finally. in the latter part of An- gnst. Col. Chittenden. of Mendon, in Adams county, one of the most prominent men of the county, was taken prisoner by the Mormons. Ile was only detained one day and night. but his capture eansed the anti-Mormon feeling to break ont beyond repression. A large and ex- cited meeting was held in Quincy. commit- tees were appointed. soldiers enlisted and simi- lar movements made elsewhere, resulting in the assemblage of about nine hundred men from Hancock, Adams, Brown and the vicinity. under the leadership of Colonels Chittenden and Singleton, finally organized with Tom Brockman, of Mt. Sterling. as commander. This force took position in eamp about half way between Carthage and Nauvoo. On the other hand, the Mormons and those who were in sympathy with them in the city prepared for fight. The outcome was easily foreseen.
The population at this time of Nauvoo was mainly women, children and men, not all of the most reputable stamp. By the 13th of September, two weeks after Chittenden's eap-
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ADAMS COUNTY.
ture, almost all of the residents of Nauvoo had crossed the Mississippi, and the lowa bank of the river was swarming with these hapless, ragged exiles. The Mormon rule in Illinois was broken to all appearance and the sect dis- persed, yet in October the governor had to make his approach for the third time, with an artillery force, to restore order and clear out the last of this misguided sect. And they left at last. A few settled in northern Illinois under the leadership of a son of their martyred prophet. another band established itself on one of the islands in the northern part of Lake Michigan, while the great body of them wended their way westward to Salt Lake.
CHAPTER XXV.
1847.
SCHOOL DISTRICTS, SALE OF N. C. R. R. AU-
THORIZED. ATTEMPT TO BUY FERRY. CEN- SUS TAKEN. FINANCE. NEW BUILDINGS.
DEATH OF NOTABLE MEN. DELEGATES TO CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. S. A. DOUG- LAS. CITY BOUNDARY EXTENDED. NEVINS ADDITION. WHY NO. 13TH, 15TJI AND ITTIL
STREETS.
Business during the winter of 1846-47 was not brisk as it had been in the preceding sea- son. Prices ruled at about the same, but there was a falling off. both in the pork packing and in the milling manufacture, of nearly one-fifth in amount as compared with the same periods in 1845-46, and in the latter branch of business this decreased prodnetion continued through- out the year. Abont ten thousand barrels less of flour were manufactured by the mills in 1847 than in 1846.
The winter was not severe. The river long remained open. affording fair navigation. It first closed on the 8th of January. remained so until the 21st of February. when it opened and continued free to the 20th of December. It then closed to open again on the next new-year day.
At a special election on the 14th of January. John M. Ruddle was chosen to the legislature to fill the vacaney made by the death of Wm. Hendry. The city council on the 4th of Jan- ary prepared an application to the legislature for an amendment to the city charter so as to organize the city into separate school districts. The bill for this purpose was passed and ap- proved on the 27th of February. It created the "Quiney School District," and placed the entire care and superintendence of the common school under the control of the city council, authorizing also the appointment annually of a school superintendent. thus separating the
schools from their previous association with the county officials. The law was made de- pendent on its being adopted by a majority of the legal voters of the city. This was done at the April election by an almost unanimons vote.
At this same session a bill passed the legis- lature authorizing a sale of the Northern Cross Railroad property, of which that part lying within the corporation limits from Twelfth street to the river had two years before been re- linquished to the city. The portion of the road from Quiney to the Ilinois river was. under the authority of the above law, purchased by parties in Adams and Brown counties and a company was organized as the Northern Cross railroad company. This company. with the aid of county. city and personal subscriptions, con- structed the road from Quiney to Galesburg. which has since become the ( .. B. & Q., and at a later date. the same interest, somewhat changed. built the other portion from Camp Point to Meredosia, which has since fallen into possession of the Wabash. But a very small portion of the original line of survey was adopted by the new road as it is now com- pleted.
Another of the many efforts made to place the city in possession of the ferry was at- tempted but without snecess. Carlin and Rog- ers offered to sell the entire franchise of the ferry, boat, lands and all for $10,000, or with- out the land for $8.000. This proposition was considered by the council on the 1st of Febru- ary and rejected. but at the following meeting in March they offered to buy, for $4,000, the "boats. fixtures and privileges" until the ex- piration of the lease in 1853. This proposition was not accepted by the ferry owners.
A very thorough eensus of the city for school purposes was taken by J. HI. Luce on the order of the city council, which showed that on July 14th, there was a population, of those under twenty years of age. of 2.638. thus distributed : South of Broadway. 2,254: north of that street. 339; colored in the whole city. 45. The entire population of the city was 5.401 whites. 77 blacks: total, 5,478. The tax assessment was fixed for the year as before, at 16 of 1 per cent for public purposes and 1% of 1 per cent for school purposes.
The fiscal statement made in April professes to show the financial condition of Quincy at the expiration of this, ils seventh year of existence as a city. A comparison of this statement with that of 1841 and those of subsequent years. may show what progress had been made during this period and how much it had eost to make this progress. The manner in which these an- nual exhibits were made up then and often
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ADAMS COUNTY.
sinee, has not always given the clearest idea of the situation, since no two appear to have been gotten up on the same form, each city clerk rendering his statement according to his own faney or his accountant training, and some- times, as it was unkindly asserted. willingly shaping it so as to bewilder and deceive. While this is not probable and figures are said to "never lie" yet there has been sometimes in our city history a good deal of difficulty in finding out the truths that the figures ought to tell. It was abont this time that the city credit began to be clouded and its vouchers bear a discount vaine, a condition that continued for the following twenty years, swelling every ex- pense that was incurred just in proportion to the depreciated value of the vouchers. The cause of this was the large number of vouch- ers issued and the size of the bonded debt, abont $20,000. and yet seeming then as heavy as the nearly one hundred times larger burden that has since been borne.
In 1840 the city commenced its chartered ex- istence with no liabilities other than the old town of Quiney indebtedness. which became its heritage, amounting to $1,100.36. less $355.99 cash received from the town treasurer. So it started out with this light debt of $744.37.
The fiscal statement April 1st, 1847, is as fol- lows:
LIABILITIES.
Bills payable
$22.108.99
Treasury orders
246.92
Vouchers
7.311.63
Tax book
123.76
$29.791.30
RESOURCES.
Less $1,511.43 $29,791.30
RECEIPTS.
Taxes were
$ 4.892.66
Wharfage
1.158.65
Licenses
2,229.27
Sundries
60.02
Balance deficiency
1.386.09
$ 9.726.69
EXPENSES.
Fire department
282.37
Cemeteries
215.69
Salaries, ete
1,353.90
Volunteers
254.55
Tax titles
353.19
Free ferry
350.00
School, etc.
1.973.23
Nuisances
407.22
Interest
1.050.59
Cisterns
556.53
Poorhouse 628.74
Roads. etc. 2.242.59
Sundries 58.09
$9,726.69
The greater portion of this bonded debt or- iginated in the street grading and improve- ments absolutely necessary at the time. Quincy has been, on account of "the lay of the land." an expensive city to build up. Chicago, Peoria, Springfield and others lie leveled by nature for the settlers' use. Here. the grading plane had to be applied to almost every aere of our
seamed and rugged city site. These improve- ments comprehended no very extended space. Our limits were small as compared with what they have since become, and the population was rather compact. The city boundaries were Vine street on the north. Twelfth on the east and Jefferson on the south, and it was within a small portion of this area that "improve- ments" work was done. The population was mostly confined to an area between Broadway and Ninth and Delaware streets. Less than one-seventh lived north of Broadway. a few houses were scattered between Ninth and Twelfth, while sonth of State and Delaware the land was all either under farm cultivation or was nnenclosed forest. A considerable amount of substantial building improvement. was done during this year, among the most no- table of which was the erection of the four three-story briek stores on Hampshire street north of the square on the site of the old Land Office hotel. This was the largest and best block of buildings for store purposes that had vet been constructed in the city. These were still standing. They were immediately ocen- pied and drew to Hampshire street the leading trade of the place. where it has largely re- mained. Before this time the buildings and business houses on the north side of the square were mostly inferior, but the convenience of the street, having the longest level of any in the city and the easiest ascent from the river and also the best road out to the country, made it from this time. the principal business thor- oughfare.
Quite a number of notable deaths occurred during this year, among those who had been prominent in the past history of the place. Jo- seph T. Holmes, who, it may be fairly said, was the leading business spirit of the town in early days, died at Griggsville on the 13th of April. lle was a native of Connecticut, came to Quiney in 1831. engaged in mercantile and milling por- suits, and was from the time of his arrival leadingly conspicnous in measures of enterprise and advancement. Afterwards he abandoned
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ADAMS COUNTY.
secular busmess, studied for the ministry and was pastor of the Griggsville Congregational church at the time of his death.
The Rev. George Moore, who had been for over six years ministering for the Unitarian Church, died of consumption on the Ilth of March. He was an eastern man of thorough education and scholarly tastes, with a gentle- ness and refinement of nature and manner that made him attractive in person and vocation, and greatly condneed to the future prosperity of the small society over which he presided.
The Reverend S. S. Parr, a somewhat eccen- trie but eloquent and forcible pulpit declaim- er, who had been for some years preaching at the oldl Baptist church on Fourth street, in this city. where he always drew crowds to his even- ing sermons, died in August at Hannibal, Mo.
Timothy Kelly, also, the most prominent representative Irishman of early times, was killed at Buena Vista, on the 22nd of Feb- ruary. Much sympathy was aroused by his death, and publie action was taken in regard to his memory, and provision for his family. It is a singular fact about Capt. Kelly. as has been before mentioned, that, owing probably to the careless manner in which military rec- ords were then kept. his name, although his service and death in battle are well known, does not appear in the Adjutant General's record of the Mexican war soldiers, on the roster of Company E of the Second Illinois infantry. to which he was attached. A rather unfortunate faux pas occurred when Capt. Kelly's remains reached Quincy. under the care of Capt. (JJudge) Lott. The Quiney vol- unteers of the First regiment had got back on the 9th of July, all of the original number re- turning except six. who had died of disease.
A barbecue was given them on the 17th. which was intended to be a jovial affair. A good deal of preparation was made, and a large crowd gathered at the springs, im- mediately east of where now Dick's brewery buildings stand. Preparations had also been made for a general display at Capt. Kelly's funeral, when his body should arrive. The steamer came with the remains, while the bar- beene was in the height of progress, just as Mr. Browning was abont commencing his ad- dress. and the barbeene was abandoned. This clashing of the two occasions, one of jollity. and the other of sadness, was unfortunate. but accidental. The following of Capt. Kelly's funeral was very large. He was much re- spected in Quincy.
On the call of the Governor, issued May 5th. for additional volunteers, an attempt was
made to raise a company at Quiney. but it did not succeed. Some twenty enlistments were made here, and one of the four mounted ritle companies commanded by Capt. W. B. Stapp. rendezvoused, and was mustered in at this place, on the 10th of August.
This and the preceding year were the "Mex- ican war times." and there prevailed here. as there did everywhere else, the excitement al- ways attendant upon "war's alarms." Though the Mexican war was but a fire cracker event, contrasted with our late civil war, and there could have then been nothing equal to the intense interest which absorbed all public thought and action during this late freshly remembered struggle: vet a similar sentiment to a lighter degree existed, and "war talk" was the leading and foremost topic. Papers were eagerly scanned for news from Mexico and Taylor and Scott were constantly follow- ed and formed the staple subjects of enquiry and conversation.
The first constitution of Illinois. formed in 1818, at the time of the state's admission, had proved, or was thought to be. after thirty years' of operation, inadequate to the vastly increased and varied needs of the state. The real sentiment, however, that indneed the call- ing of the convention of 1847 to revise the constitution was the pressing need of creating an organic law more stringent, more economic than that at the time existing, one which might better avail in raising the state from its de- pressed condition. pave a path toward the restoration of its shattered credit, and invite an immigration which was now avoiding it. With a bonded debt, and defaulted interest thereon, the state securities rating at less than twenty cents on the dollar, and auditor's war- rants selling at a discount, one can easily con- reive the existing necessity for reformatory legislation. The convention of 1847 met the needs of the matter wisely and well, as the spring of prosperity that almost immediately followed after its action has abundantly proved. The legislature had. by an act of February 20, 1847. ordered an election to be held on the 19th of April. for delegates to frame a new state constitution. This elec- tion was held, as it happened in Quincy, at the same time with the regular city election. The whigs nominated as delegates to the con- vention. Archibald Williams, from Adams and Highland (formerly Marquette) against whom there was but little opposition, and from Adams county. B. D. Stevenson, J. T. Gilmer and Henry Newton: the democratic nominees were : Wm. B. Powers. Wm. Laughlin and J. Nichols. Messrs. Williams. Powers, Laugh-
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ADAMS COUNTY.
lin and Nichols were elected. This convention met in the following June, and after nearly three months of session. framed a constitu- tion to be submitted to a popular vote for ratification in Mareh, 1848. Its general fea- tures may be noticed hereafter. The special hearing that its provisions had upon Quincy and Adams county, was the making of Adams and Pike. a senatorial district, and the final settlement of the county division quarrel, by prescribing in substance that all counties not vet organized, should be re-attached to the counties from which they had been taken. There had been, early in the year, the usual number of meetings and the average propor- tion of excitement over this vexations old is- sne, but the constitutional provision above named, quieted it forever.
At the city election. in April. John Wood, whig. was re-elected Mayor, over John Abbe, democrat. and 11. T. Ellis. Thomas Redmond, H. L. Simmons (successor to Fred Johnson. resigned ) democrats. and G. B. Dimock. were elected Aldermen. This gave the control of the council to the democrats, but after a pro- longed and somewhat personal contest, HI. H. Snow, whig, was re-chosen clerk.
A native American ticket for the city offices polled abont 50 votes. At this same election an anti-license vote was successful, and also the amendment to the school law. before re- ferred to, which had been submitted for popu- lar ratification.
The same rate of assessment as in the pre- vions year-12 of 1 per cent for public pur- poses, and 1's of 1 per cent for sehools, was or- dered by the council.
Mail facilities were now better. Besides the daily stage mails from the east. and semi- weekly mails to and from the adjoining coun- ties, there was the twice a week mail from St. Louis, by steamer. Newspaper enterprise was also on the increase. There were the two standard weeklies, the IIerald and Whig, also on the 24th of November, a small daily was issued by Homer Parr, and James Sanderson. This was the second venture towards the es- tablishment of a daily paper, and like its pre- decessor of the previous year, it lived not long. A German Catholic paper. also. the "Stern des Westen" (Star of the West) was started during the month of August. The foundation of the large Catholic Church. the St. Boniface. was laid on May 26th. with im- pressive ceremonies.
Judge Douglas, who had been a resident of Quiney since 1841, when he was appointed as one of the Judges of the Supreme Court, and was assigned to duty on the Quiney Circuit,
had been chosen by the legislature, during the preceding winter, to succeed General Semple, as United States Senator. He resigned the seat which he had held in the lower house of Congress by three successive elections. and Wm. A. Richardson was elected by the demo- eratie convention to succeed him. Douglas was then the foremost man of his party in the state as he soon after this became equally its leader in the nation. He was a citizen of Quiney from 1841 until about 1852, when he removed to Chicago and was by far the most noted in his publie career of any of the emi- nent men that Quiney has placed in politieal life. Although his state prominence had not been cradled in this section, it was from Quiney. as he expressed it, that he was "first placed upon a national career. where he was ever after kept." His five years' service. as a representative from this district, was ably followed by that of Col. Richardson. for the next nine years, with a subsequent election in 1860, and afterward an election to the United States Senate to fill out the unexpired period of Senator Douglas' term, after the death of the latter.
Col. Richardson was at the time of his elec- tion in 1847, a resident of Schuyler county, which he had represented almost continuously in the legislature, and had just now returned from the Mexican war with a well earned reputation for bravery and skill. As the suc- cessor and confidential associate of Judge Douglas. and from his own inherent force of character, his position and influence in the national councils was always high. At the August eleetion, he carried Adams county over N. G. Wilcox. the whig candidate. by 819 majority. At the same election. P. A. Goodwin. democrat, was elected Probate Judge over Miller. whig. the former incum- bent : J. C. Bernard, whig. over J. H. Lnee. democrat, County Clerk, and J. H. Holton, In- dependent. Recorder, over Edward Pearson and J. D. Morgan. the whig and democratic nominees. The entire vote of the county was about 2,100. In the city, the local whig ticket, was successful.
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