USA > Illinois > Adams County > Quincy > History of the city of Quincy, Illinois > Part 24
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The annual fiscal statement for the year end- ing April, 1848, exhibited a much larger reve- nue than that of any of the preceding eight years, and also a corresponding increase of ex- penditure. The total expense record of the city was $15,794.05, and as showing how and where the money went. among the larger items of account were for salaries, $1,547.86; streets, $2,600: schools, $1.841.88: poorhouse and pan- pers, $1,142.46; publie landing, $635.65: inter- est on debt. $1.498.90 ; fire department, $258.88. There was received from taxes, $6,271; wharf- age. $1,147.31: licenses, $2.656.97.
The bonded debt at this time was compara- tively small and the interest was regularly met. The credit of the city was good, voneh- ers generally passed at a little less than faee value, and it was not until some years later that they declined to the ruinons rate of dis-
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count under which they weakened for twenty years or more. It was a costly after-page in the city history, when for many years, its war- rants and vouchers bore a depreciated value of from thirty to forty percent, causing an equiv- alent addition to the cost of every public im- provement or expenditure and adding just so much more to the inereasing pecuniary bur- den. The usual tax levy was ordered of 12 of one per cent for general and 1g of one per cent for school purposes. The schools were now in a prosperous and improving condition. An attempt was made by the colored eitizens to obtain a separate public school. Several meet- ings were held and the council was petitioned in that behalf, but the matter was deferred and nothing came of it.
The past experiments of the city in running the ferry had never given satisfaction and it was now licensed to the charter owners for $61 per month.
The winter business of 1847-48 figured up fairly. the price of hogs ran from $1.75 to $2.15, and 19,906 were reported as packed, the largest number yet known. Wheat through the season averaged about 75 cents. The mills reported in the fall about 3,000 bushels ground daily. Quite a loss to the place occurred on the 18th of September in the destruction by fire of Miller's woolen factory, which had been well operated for the past two years. A se- vere tornado struck the eity on the 21st of June, destroying several buildings and doing a good deal of general damage.
Another weekly newspaper made its appear- anee on the 13th of September. It was called the Quincy Tribune and Free Soil Banner, edited by an association of gentlemen. It was as its name indicated. an anti-slavery exten- sion or "Wilmot proviso" journal and sup- ported the Van Buren and Adams electoral tickets. It was spicily conducted during the eampaign, but the publication ceased in the following year. On the first of December was issued the Western Law Journal. edited by Charles Gilman. reporter for the Illinois Su- preme Court. It was the first legal journal of its kind in the state and continued in monthly publication until the death of its editor a year or two later.
At the August election. the last which was held in that month, the new constitution hav- ing changed the time to November. Wm. A. Richardson was re-elected to congress without opposition, and the demoerats carried the county by majorities varying from 200 to 350. O. C. Skinner, J. Marritt and Jonathan Dear- born were elected to the house over B. D. Stev- enson. J. Irwin and Ilans Patten, the district embracing Adams and Brown counties: H. L.
Sutphin was chosen state senator from Adams and Pike, beating Archibald Williams five votes in Adams and much more in Pike. There was a good deal of interest over the election of circuit clerk and reeorder. It was the first time this office had become elective. Abraham Jonas was the whig candidate and Peter Lott. I. O. Woodruff and C. M. Woods were in the field as democratic candidates. The day be- fore the election the latter two withdrew in favor of Lott, who was thus suecessful over Jonas by 323 majority.
The presidential election in 1848 was marked by the earnestness and excitement which always attends these eontests, but it possessed a peculiar interest from the presence of a third factor in the field. This was the free soil party. with Martin Van Buren and. Charles Francis Adams as its candidates for the Presidency and Vice Presidency. This movement operated powerfully in the north- eastern states and to a lighter degree in the west, but it eut sufficiently into both of the two great parties everywhere to shadow the result with uncertainty. The close completeness of this eanvass and the vote drawn out. is shown by the fact that at the state election in August the highest total vote cast in Adams county (now consolidated by reunion with Marquette) was 3,329: while three months later in No- vember, at the presidential election, these fig- nres rose to 4.488. out of which Cass, the demo- eratie nominee, received 203 more than Taylor. the whig candidate. This majority was all made in the eity. the county vote outside of Quiney being an exact tie between the two. Van Buren's vote was 261. The election lay undecided for several days. and it was not until late on the night of Friday after the day of election, that the telegraph brought the re- turns from three southern states assuring the victory to the whigs.
The city was made lively at once, but the result had been so long in doubt and each side was so hopeful that for awhile both parties were on the hurrah, and it took some time for them to unmix and the beaten ones to go to bed again. An odd little ineident oe- curred in connection with this election. It was the first election by ballot that had been held in the state. and the writer. with another, started out the day before to distribute the printed whig tickets at several precinets in the county. and voted at one of them on the day following. It happened that there were no Van Buren tickets there, and several sturdy democrats were present who had long looked to Mr. Van Buren as their political leader, and were desirous of voting for him. No one knew the names of the free soil eleetors, and we
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were called upon, but could only remember the two leading names. These we gave, and a tieket was written out, headed with Van Bu- ren's name and these two electors only, which received some ten or fifteen votes. These were counted and canvassed, no exception being taken, a procedure that would not go through anywhere nowadays, unless in Chicago.
The first fireman's parade. of which the city has since had so many. came off on the 4th of .July. It was a successful event. The two Quincy companies and a visiting company from St. Louis formed the procession and par- tieipated in the contests. A pleasant episode occurred on the 26th of October, on the ocea- sion of the retirement of JJudge Purple from the bench where he had so popularly presided for several years. It was the presentation of an address and resolution of regret to which the Judge feelingly responded, which was fol- lowed by a farewell banquet given by the members of the bar.
CHAPTER XXVH.
1849.
TAXATION OF CITY PROPERTY FOR COUNTY PURPOSES. PUBLIC READING ROOM. FE- MALE SEMINARY ESTABLISHED ON MAINE STREET. FINANCIAL. CHOLERA, CALIFOR- NIA EMIGRATION. J. M. HOLMES. THESPIAN SOCIETY. PICKETT, THE FAMOUS CONFED- ERATE GENERAL, AN AMATEUR ACTOR. POP- ULAR LECTURES. LIBRARY. SLANDER SUIT OF BROOKS AND BARTLETT. RAILROADS AGAIN. CHANGE IN COUNTY GOVERNMENT.
The vexed matter of the taxation of city property for county purposes became a matter of consideration and conference between com- mittees of the city council and the county com- missioners, but there was no result reached. At the November election the question of adopting township organization for the county was submitted and carried by a vote of 1754 to 453. every preeinet in the county voting for the measure except Quincy. where the vote stood 228 for to 276 against. the Quiney vote being largely influenced by the belief of many that if the city became a township it would in- jure its chances of remaining as the county seat. This was unfortunate. Heretofore the estrangement between city and county had been caused by the county seat quarrel. Now, and for nearly forty years after, there was added to this the issue of unequal taxation. That the Quincy people had some foundation for their fears is shown by the fact that in De- eember an effort was made to re-open the old county seat matter through an application to the county court to have the ease reinstated. It did not, however, prevail.
The cause of most of the discordance be- tween the city and county was an article in the first charter, passed by the Legislature, in 1840, exempting "the inhabitants of the city of Quincy *
* # # ** Trom any tax for coun- ty purposes, except for the completion of the county jail. now being erected in said city." This puerile provision quietly interpolated into the charter with the thought perhaps that something might be gained thereby. attracted but little attention at first, but soon after proved to be a "Pandora's box" of evil and dissension. It was unnecessary, as subsequent history has shown, but it long served as a source from which prejudice, jealousy, per- sonal interests, and political demagoguery would always make material for discord and strife. This is to a great degree now allayed. but it was throughout the lifetime of a genera- tion and a half an over festering sore.
A public reading room, which had been started late in the fall preceding, on quite an extensive seale. flourished well through the early part of this year. Its rooms were on Fourth street, between Maine and Jersey, and it announced as having on its files over 60 newspapers. It was popularly patronized for a brief time, but, like several other institutions of the same kind in the past, its life was brief, scarcely reaching into the second year.
Educational interests were roused by the coming to the city of Miss Catherine Beecher, of the well-known Beecher family, who had de- voted herself to the establishment of female schools. Under the stimmhus of Miss Beecher's prestige and presence much interest was awakened and at a publie meeting on May 31 the project was set on foot to establish a first- class female seminary, many of the leading people giving favor to the enterprise. It con- templated an expenditure of $10,000 in ground, buildings, etc. The school was located on Maine. near the corner of Sixth street, and commenced with high expectations. It was superior to any that had preceded it. but it finally went the way of the others. after a duration measured more by months than by years.
The annual fiscal statement for the year end- ing April 1, 1849, gave a clearer idea in its de- tail and summary of the financial condition of the city, than had been usually made in these periodical exhibits. From that it appears that the receipts into the treasury, from all sources had been. during the year. $12.718.92: while the expenditures during the same period were $12,217.88. The liabilities of the city were placed at $35.834.65, a large portion of which was the outstanding vouchers. The debt of
PAST AND PRESENT OF ADAMS COUNTY.
the city, as summarized in this statement, was: Treasury orders. $246.92: bills payable. $25 .- 056.19; vonphers in circulation. $1.927.39; to- tal. $27.230.50. It was an important period in the financial record of the city. for the reason that during this year there came the first large demand for the payment of the outstanding and marired city bonds, which now had to be paid or provided for in . me way. and with this came also as the necessary consequence- Quiney's first experiment in "refunding." This became now a necessity and it was at- tended to later in the year, as will be told in its time and place, but it struck at a time when the city credit was at a very low ebb. and. of course. we had to pay for it. The current es- penses of the past year were not large. The street appropriations were very small com- pared with those of earlier years, being but $2.711.15: the ferry. always an annoyance and expense. had e st >1.552.6: and the fire de- partment had needed -1.124.21. To these. add the interest assoonnt of $1.293.12. and all the chief items over -1.000.00 of expenditure are revited. Yet there were many minor expenses which swelled the total of expenditure to an equality with the receipts. leaving nothing wherewith to meet the averting debr.
Mr. Conver, why was chosen mayor now for the third time. having been elected in 1542 and 1.43 and a candidate for the same in 1844. He was a man cf much pers nal popularity and Usefulness as a public citizen. Beside the serv- te he hal rendered the city as mar.r. ke bad formerly been one of the town trustees. and had also heid other positi us ne prible trus :. It was his face to die of ch viera three months after his election. h. nured ani lamented. He was the fry: mayor wh. died in thise. There has been but one like overrene since. W. T. Rogers died in ISED, near the el. se ef his see- end term. The office vacated by the death of Mayer Conven was filled at a special election. ca Angas: 2). when Sammel Holmes was ch sen. Mr. H.ime. hai just been removed from the position of register of the public land office which he had acceptably Elled. He was an enterprising and popular man, though an extreme partisan. No opposition was made to bis election.
The change f administration by the elec- con of Taylor as President in is4s. made the usual cheial changes here, whigs easily ad- justing themselves to the seats that had been for years pas: illed by den arats. Abraham Tomas became postmaster. succeeding D .. $ W. Rogers. Archibald Williams was appointed United States District Attorney for Hizois. Dr. Hiram Rogers and Sammuel Holmes. Re- ceiver and Register of the public land office.
were succeeded respectively by H. V. Sullivan and Henry Asbury.
The city debt question occupied the atten- tion of the council throughout the first six months of their session .. At the first meeting on May Ist the subject came up and a resolu- tion passed authorizing a loan of $20.000 and the issuing of an equal amount of bonds bear- ing .ix per cent interest. some irregularities in the early proceedings, the death of the mayor and other causes. delayed the consum- mation of this project. although it was con- tantly before the council until October 26. when the order passed upon which the transac- tion was completed. and twenty " Special Loan Bonds " of slow each. drawing o per cent in- terest, were issued and immediately purchased by Pare & Bacon. of St. Louis. for eighty cents on the dollar. the ouneil ratifying the sale. At this time (October, Mayor Holmes officially published the entire corporation debt as amounting to $25.642.03. drawing six per cent interest. that =15.005.[D) was now due, and that the city revenue was $13.500. In this state- ment he did not mention the property owned by the city, which would have fairly footed up to an amount: mich over its indebtedness. The etty was then un questionably solvent. Propo- Sition looking to economy and limitation of expenditures were made and to some extent carried onit. The salary of the mayor and of the city clerk was Exed at $250 each. and like measures taken towards curtailment. This was an expensive Fear on account of the chol- era which razed so fatally through the hot maths, and the consequent depression of busi- ness and other causes.
This was a gloomy and depressed period for Quincy. as it was for nearly every other place in the west. Pestilence plated its paralyzing hand un: all interests with a grasp and weight that can only be realized or those who have felt it. dark experience. The conditions of sixteen years hefire were repeated. when. pre- called by tw! sickly seasons of fever. the Asiati- cholera. decinated. within one week. the en- dre population of the little village. then con- raining between four and Eve hundred people. Many of the early settlers still vivilly retained an apprehensive recollection of the sad seenes the nel which they had gone during that brief rigtation of this des latine source. The wallprix. a more dians pest than the cholera. had in the winter and early spring prevailed to stick an extent as to an use pablis alarm and tall for the preventive action of the author- ities, in the prescribing of general vaccination. isolation of the sick, establishing a pest house. ete. Its ravages bad nearly ceased. when the more fearful Ebe appeared. not unexpectedly.
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ADAMS COUNTY.
The uncertainties that surrounded its stealthy coming gave it (aided by its chief agent, Fright.) a greatly increased fatality.
During the preceding year it had swept through the seaboard and lake cities and early in the spring developed itself in the Missis- sippi Valley, coming upon Quiney like a light- ning stroke. On Saturday, March 17th, five cases were reported, all of which proved fatal during the night and Sunday. Two of them were four miles north in the country, at Mit- ler's or Leonard's Mill. The other three were in the south part of the city. Only one more death occurred during this month, and none in April. thus giving hope that the blast had passed by, but with a like suddenness it reap- peared on the 13th of May, when five deaths were reported, and before the end of the month seven additional fatal cases occurred : vet on the 1st of June and for the following ten days there were none. But, with a dead- lier stroke it returned for the third time. on the 11th of June, and from that time continued to increase in the number of cases and malig- nancy, up to the 4th week in July, when it commenced abating. About the first week in September it finally disappeared.
llow it affected public feeling and business is expressed by the Whig, which. in its issue of July 10th, says: "The sickness last week, and the increased number of deaths, seems to have spread a gloom over the city, visible in the countenances of all. It is indeed a trying time in the history of Quincy. AH business in a measure is suspended. Our country friends seem to have deserted us, but few visit the city. and those only who are compelled to do so, to provide the necessaries for the harvest. Travel, to a great extent, on the river, is sus- pended for the present, and the packets now plying between this city and St. Louis are probably not paying expenses. How long this state of gloom and despondeney is to last, the Great Disposer of events only knows."
Two hundred and thirty-six deaths from cholera were officially reported as late as the latter part of Angust. when the disease had nearly run its course, but this record is de- fective, since many burials were unreported. The distinction between deaths from "chol- era" and "other causes" was for reasons that will be understood. usually made to discredit the extent of the epidemie so as to allay appre- hension. An addition of at least one hundred to the above figures would be not far from correct. The heaviest mortality was in the last week in July, when 44 deaths wore reported. the total number reported for this month be- ing 142, and the most deaths on any one day being 15 on the 29th.
Beside its free ravage among the immigrants it l'ound a field among the families which, be- cause of the unusually high water, were driven from the bottom lands, near the city, and had crowded themselves together in temporary homes. Therein was a feast for the pest. In one house, thus ocenpied, on Vermont street, eight died within three days. In a German family, on the corner of Jefferson and Seventh, consisting of eight persons, all died save one, an infant. It destroyed entire families. The wife of a well-known Magistrate, Prentiss, was taken by it and died on Monday. On Thurs- day the grave was opened for the husband. Dr. Stahl, the earliest German physician, who had more to do with the disease than any other, lost his wife and child almost at the same time. Dr. Barlow rode ont to visit a patient, a mile east of the city, was there canght by the chol- era and died, and in a week his wife followed him. The Mayor of the city. Enoch Conyers, a man of rather unusual physical health and reg- ularity of life, was suddenly ent down on the 21st of July. Rusk, a prominent Odd Fellow. died, "of cholera," and was buried by his lodge on the 23rd. Charles Gilman, a promi- nent lawyer, reporter for the Supreme Court. attended this funeral, officiated, and in the morning he was dead. No appreciation of the condition can be derived from description. nor can any words pietre the general despondence of feeling. The morning enquiry was: "Who is dead?"
Singularly enough, during all this time, while twice the epidemic had apparently left the city, it continuously infected the steam- boats plying the river. In early June, at a time when there were no cases in the eity, a steamer-the Unele Toby-passed up the river. landed here with three dead bodies on board and before it reached Rock Island there were twenty-four more added to the death list.
Publie meetings were held to demand more complete sanitary measures, and the council ordered the examination of all strangers com- ing into the city. appointed inspectors of health for each ward. made free appropriations. established a pest house, ete .. but the disease had its own way, and it was proven that no measures can over drive away this fell de- stroyer when preventive precautions have been neglected.
It is a enrions fact connected with the chol- era record of Quincy. a fact that perhaps may be worth seientifie investigation, that on its first and second brief visits the victims were almost wholly strangers. Five of the six who died here in March and nine ont of the twelve reported in May, were nou-residents or new- romers, but on the third appearance in June, it
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ADAMS COUNTY.
struek equally at all classes of the community, although its ravages were more general among the German citizens. It then seemed to have thoroughly planted itself and pervaded the place so that neither vigorous health, regular- ity of life, careful precaution and avoidance of conditions which were supposed to invite the epidemic, were safeguards from attack. When it reappeared during the two following years of 1850 and 1851, though with far less fatal effect, the cases were isolated and in all ranks of society. This peculiarity led to the prediction, favored by some very high medical authority, that the cholera had or would be- come a permanent disease of the Mississippi valley, as much so as it is reckoned to be in the valley of the Ganges, a prophecy which was dissipated by after experiences, and now is no longer regarded. Fright was the plagne's best ally, as it was in 1832.
It is said that a prominent lawyer, who was afterward a supreme judge and governor of the state. hearing, while at breakfast, that the "cholera had come," gathered his family and what of furniture he could hastily paek, and hurried away as fast as horseflesh could draw him, leaving his house open and the breakfast dishes still on the table. In many cases people Hed in almost equal haste at this time. and it not infrequently happened that they took the disease with them. The spread of the epidemic was, however, slight in the adjacent portions of the county.
CALIFORNIA EMIGRATION.
California emigration was the great all ab- sorbing event of this year. The gold discov- eries on the Pacific coats in the preceding year aronsed and fostered a fever of excitement and restlessness such as the country had never before known and can never know again ; irre- sistible in its spread and permeating every class and condition of society. Though enpid- ity and gold getting was the primal incentive, and the basis of this great movement, yet the activity of almost every other restless passion gave to it an added stimulus. Curiosity, the spirit of adventure, love of novelty. the con- tagion of that feeling which makes men rush in wherever others are. so started a swarm of human wanderers, such as on this continent will never again be witnessed. Flowing from every section of the land, the united adven- turesomeness of the east. south and north poured itself in an increasing stream, across the great grass plains. and through the lone gorges of the rough rock mountains on the pathway to the promised land of gold.
Every hamlet and nearly every home sent forth its wanderer. and with the earliest open- ing of spring the green prairies were whitened by the long caravans of wagons carrying with them hardy and adventurous gold seekers.
California was the common topic of thought and talk. The excitement of this unprece- dented gold fever was universal. infecting all ages, classes and conditions and reaching into every avenue and recess of society, enlisting. not only the adventurers with nothing to lose, but also, making men who had secured perma- nent prospects and position, throw aside busi- ness and profession, and for the time being abandon home attachments and duties. at the alluring beek of the golden wand.
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