USA > Illinois > Adams County > Quincy > History of the city of Quincy, Illinois > Part 26
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"What say yon. Pom & Co., C. M. Pomeroy. John Tillson. Geo. Bond and others. Dall show. isn't it? But we will assure our friends of the rod and line.
"There is a good time coming. boys. A good time coming!
"The lakes and ponds are now full. and when old Mississippi withdraws within his banks, we may expect the sport to commence, and that sickness will yet abate and business hopes be restored."
Notwithstanding the unpromising aspects of the early part of this year, with its withering sickness and its late and light land tillage, the outcome was unexpectedly satisfactory. Pro- duetion of all kinds, though not fairly up to the average increase of former years in quan- tity. was generally superior in quality, as is not uncommonly the result of a backward sea- son and a lessened extent of farm enltivation. Fruit was abundant, the grain yield was good. and most of it was safely harvested, thus ereat- ing a brisk business for the fall. sufficient to compensate for the dullness of the spring and summer months.
The provision business of 1848-9 had been steady and active. More pork had been "put up" than had been packed in the preceding winter. the rates running quite regularly from about $2.70 to $3.00. Nearly an equal amount of provision was enred during the winter of 1849-50. although the packing season opened very late and rather dull. the first figures for pork being $2.25 and slowly raising afterward. but at no time equal to the prices of the pre- vions winter.
Real estate rates varied but little during this year, and the changes of property ownership were not very many. It was reserved for the sneceeding year. 1850. to exhibit the full com- mencement of a rapid advance in land and values of every kind, which continued for sev- eral years, almost equaling the great speenla- tive periods of 1835 and 1836. The price given for one well-known piece of property. at the time considered to be among the most valuable and salable lots in the city. will convey an idea of how property rated at this time. Part of lot 1. block 18, at the southwest corner of Maine and Fourth streets. 28 by 100 feet. with a three-story brick storehouse on it. was sold for $4.035 cash. At the same time the ground adjoining on the south. 40 feet front on Fourth street. and 99 feet in depth, was purchased for $640. $16 per foot. The varying values which attended the transfers of this piece of property are curions.
At the original sale in 1831. the entire lot, 99 feet on Maine. by 190 on Fourth. was bonghi of the county commissioners for $18.25. It was early improved by Captain Pease and Burns, who successively owned it and erected on it what was about the best two-story frame dwelling house and store building in the place at the time. and it was half a dozen years later purchased and occupied by the Branch Bank
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ADAMS COUNTY.
of the State of Illinois. When this institution failed, the property went to sale, and in 1843 the north portion of it was purchased by A. T. Miller, nominally for about $10,000; but as this consideration was in the shape of the de- preciated state bank paper. which had no fixed value whatever, it would be difficult to deter- mine what it really sold for. The old bank building was then removed to the south end of the lot, and Mr. Miller. an enterprising mer- chant from Baltimore, the brother of George A. and E. G. Miller, built on the corner what was then the largest store-room in the city, a three-story brick, 100 feet deep, twenty-five feet front width on Maine, being the build- ing which was occupied by the Herald office, when destroyed by fire in 1870. On the death of Mr. Miller, the property was purchased as above stated. by S. & W. B. Thayer, for $4,- 035. Five years later, 1854. it was again sold for $15,000.
The telegraph line, which had been com- pleted to Quincy, by way of Beardstown and Springfield during the preceding year, had not been under the O'Rielly management, operat- ed to the satisfaction of all concerned. Of the local subscriptions on which the Ilinois line was established, about $10.000 had been raised in Quiney and vicinity. A meeting of the stockholders was called and held, at Peoria on the 10th of April, and then there, under the state law, a new company was form- ed and organized, into which was merged the O'Rielly stock and interest, and a different management was assumed. This was what has since been known as the Caton and Western telegraph company, which soon became ex- ceedingly prosperous, as its predecessor had not been. The Quincy interests at this meet- ing were represented by Newton Flagg and Lorenzo Bull, the latter of whom was made a director in the new company. On an assess- ment of 40 per cent being ordered, to relieve the company embarrassments and carry for- ward its business, a large portion of the Quincy stock was allowed to be forfeited. The few who paid np this assessment and retained their interests eventually found the investment very successful and remunerative.
A quite exciting trial eame off at the June term of the circuit court, which aroused all the political and no small amount of the per- sonal feeling of the place. This has now passed away under the shade of nearly forty years, but it was a stirring event at the time. It was a slander suit brought by S. M. Bartlett, edi- tor of the Whig, against C. M. Woods, pub- lisher of the Herald. Woods and Austin Brooks were the Herald proprietors, and Brooks was the editor who had written the ar-
ticles complained of, but the suit was brought against Woods as being equally liable and more personally responsible. It assumed a yet more sharp partisan character from the fact that most of the whig lawyers of the city were engaged for the plaintiff, and the democratic lawyers as generally took part in the defense; and also because the court was presided over by Judge Minshall, who had just been elected to the bench, as the whig candidate, after a warm political contest at the first election when judges were chosen by a popular vote. His rulings, therefore, were often regarded on the one side as being the conclusion of party prejudice. and on the other sometimes thought to be timid from his fear that he might be sus- pected of too much leaning to the side of his own political faith. Judge Minshall was an able, honest and impartial man, but very slow of thought and new on the bench, which made him sometimes appear wavering and undecid- ed. A quick-minded, prompt acting man like his predecessor. Judge Purple, would have been far better fitted to handle such a case at such a time, and escaped much of the un- just criticism that Judge Minshall received. The arguments of the lawyers, on the one side especially, were almost like political speeches. The result at the close of a contest running through several days was a nominal verdict for the plaintiff. This trial. while nnimpor- tant except as to local feeling. did, however, affeet and illustrate some things well.
One result of this slander snit between Bart- lett and Brooks was an improvement in jour- nalism in its future assumption of a more courteous character, and more ereditable and proper tone than it had previously exhibited, which, with occasional exceptions, it has since maintained. Editors discovered that the pub- lie regarded with no sympathy, but with posi- tive aversion their parades of private griefs and personal abuse, which had become to be almost the sum total of editorial topic. Criti- cism and denunciation of the opposite party soon drifted into personal vilification of each other, and the result was that in such cases the character of each contestant was lowered not more by what was charged upon him by his opponent than by the display that he made of the worst side of himself.
The public estimate finally placed upon what was said by these belligerent "knights of the quill." is shown in the story of the Quiney lawyer, who counseled against a suit for slander being instituted. "Why." said the angry would-be client, "he has abused me ont- rageonsly; he has said " "Pshaw !" said the lawyer quietly, "What of it? Noth- ing that such a fellow says ean slander any-
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ADAMS COUNTY.
body, and more than that, my good fellow, don't you know between ourselves whatever anybody may say against you. no jury would think of considering slanderons?"
Bartlett and Brooks were unusually superior men in their vocation. Well versed in local political and general public information, ready and trenchant writers, and each popular and trusted as a leader in his party. They repre- sented, in sentiment and in character, the ex- treme views of the two parties of that day- the whig and democratic.
The project of a railroad coming into Quiney from the east, which had for years past been talked about by the busybodies, thought of by the thoughtful, and about which so many pub- lie meetings had been held, came at last into a shape of certain advancement. The reckless and Inekless experiment of the state originat- ed in 1836, to cobweb itself all over with rail- roads. had resulted in only one thing observ- able, which was a huge debt that required fifty after years of exceptional taxation to pay, and nothing beside, except seattered over the state a great deal of incomplete and worthless work. These and the ownership of road beds and franchises was all the state and public had to show for the expenditures. The legislature wisely offered all these (except the debt) for sale. On the 6th of August, at Springfield. sale was made by the state to James W. Single- ton, Samuel Hlohnes. C. A. Warren, J. M. Pit- man. H. S. Cooley and T. N. Morris. of all that part of the Northern Cross railroad lying be- tween the Illinois and Mississippi rivers, ter- minating at Quincy, for $100.000 in state se- curities, which were then at so low a depre- ciation that the cash consideration of the sale was really but about $8.000. This sale car- ried with it the ownership of the roadbed. etc., and all the franchise rights contained in the original charter. Much heavy and expensive grading had been done by the state on several sections of the line. some of which was sub- sequently utilized, but in building the present road, a large portion of the old survey was abandoned. especially that part which lies in Adams County.
It was the original design of the parties who had purchased this railroad from the state to obtain local subscriptions from Quincy. and from Brown and Adams counties, and thus strengthened, to procure moneyed means from the east to carry on its construction. In fur- therance of this plan, a meeting of citizens was called. and held at Quiney. on the 13th of Oe- tober. and after some discussion which revealed the fact that there existed some dissatisfac- tion with the project in the shape in which it then stood. a committee was appointed to pre-
sent the matter to "eastern capitalists, " but from this nothing resulted.
On the 22d of October a company was form- ally organized, under the provisions of an act passed Feb. 10th, 1849. with I. N. Morris. as president : Samuel Holmes, secretary, and .. M. Pitman, treasurer. Work was immediate- ly ordered, a competent engineer, Wm. T. Whipple, and a corps of assistants. were eu- gaged. and surveys commenced, resulting in the early establishment of lines varying not very much from the original route. This or- ganization did not, however, for some rea- son. meet the general sanction, and early in 1850. it was changed. and a year later changed again. A meeting. not largely attended. on the 30th of October, asked the county to vote a subscription of $100,000. Nothing came of this. however. This brief sketch is the history of the beginning of the connection of this city with railroads, for which enterprises it has fir- nished nearly a million of dollars. The suc- ressive steps in 1850 and in 1851. when the city for $20.000 purchased the road, became its chief owner and subscribed $100,000, the first installment of the great debt above allud- ed to, will be stated in their proper order.
There were several radical changes made during this year, in the system of county gov- ernment-changes prescribed by the new state constitution. and by the legislature which fol- lowed its adoption. all of which affected the subsequent current of Quincy history. From 1825 to 1834, Quincy, though the county seat. was not more than any other hamlet or set- tlement (prononneed in ancient sneker vernac- ular with the heaviest kind of emphasis on the final syllable) and its local government, if it had any. was like that for the rest of the county, vested in the three commissioners. who exercised supervision and sway over all the corporate and internal interest of the county. The immediate local jurisdiction of Quiney, passed in 1834, when the town was in- corporated, under the control of the board of town trustees: and six years later. in 1840. with the formation of the eity, the municipal authority was vested in the city council. mak- ing the city somewhat peculiarly and almost entirely independent of the county authorities. and subsequent action made it more so. The new state constitution of 1847-48 abolished the county commissioners' conrt. and also the office of probate judge. providing in lien there- of. for a county court. composed of one chief and two associate judges. clothed with full primary jurisdiction in all matters of probate. and "such other duties as the General Assem- bly may prescribe." connected with the ad- ministration of the county affairs. Here was
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a much-improved advance from the old county commissioners' court system, and the chief and best features of which have been retained and engrafted into the later and present con- stitution of 1872. Following upon this con- stitutional change, came the adoption of the township system. authorized by law and now prevailing in most of the counties of the state. To Quiney and Adams county the action un- fortunately taken at this time about the changes in the form of county government, both in the reconstruction of the county court and in the adoption of the township system, induced a Pandora's box of trouble, which a generation's patience hashardly yet healed. The constitution of 1847 had conferred a blessed local benefit in its arbitrary reunion of Adams county, and thus treading out the dispute over a division of the county, but sore seetional feeling showed itself in a strife over the elec- tions above referred to. The old county court had so much been the nursery where county quarrels were nurtured that to some extent these distrusts and estrangements entered into the choice of the new court, each party appre- hensive of what might be the action of the new tribunal, vested with so much more pow- er, and on the township question almost a elear issue was made between the county and the city.
The township system for local home govern- ment originated in New England, and gradual- ly became adopted in some of the other north- ern states. The county court system was the plan universally in use in the southern states. and Ilinois, which was originally a county of Virginia, had engrafted it in its state constitu- tion of 1818. The former system is much the most advantageous and satisfactory, as it is more in harmony with the democratie principle of our institutions. It brings the machinery of local goverment nearer to the knowledge and control of the voter, making each town. as it were a little republic. the unit factor in the general government, through which local in- terests can be more effectively promoted, and better guarded. Wherever it has been adopt- ed. it has never been departed from and is gradually becoming the local system for the country.
It was optionally incorporated into our state constitution of 1848, and in April, 1849, a law was passed providing a plan and authorizing the counties to vote thereon. About half of the counties of the state, generally in the north- ern part, embraced the new plan, and since then a large number of others have done so. and in no case has a county gone back to the old system. Adams county was among the earliest to vote for township organization, but
it was a long time before it was completely es- tablished, and its history in connection with the county and Quincy is peculiar. In com- pliance with the law above-named, the Adams county commissioners, rather unwillingly, it was said, at their September session, passed an order to "the judges of election in the several precinets in said county, to open polls for vot- ing for or against Township Organization, as provided by the statute of Hlinois, in force, April 16, A. D. 1849." The vote thus provid- ed for was taken at the November election, and resulted in favor of township organiza- tion by the decisive majority of 1.301, in a vote of over 2,200, the significant fact being, that while every precinct in the county gave a majority for the measure, Quincy only, voted in opposition, more than half of all the mi- nority votes thrown against it being cast in the city.
As authorized by the above mentioned vote, the commissioners, on the 6th of December, ap- pointed a committee to divide the county into townships. This committee reported in the following March. 1850, the formation of twen- ty towns, with boundaries defined and names recommended, Quincy being one of them. hav- ing its limits the same as those fixed by the eity charter. This report was adopted with the exception that in several instances, the names proposed by the committee were changed by the court at the request of the peo- ple of the township. Subsequently two addi- tional towns, Mendon and McKee, were estab- lished, making the permanent sub-division of the county to consist, as it does at present. of twenty-two towns, inclusive of Quincy. The city, however, consistently with its vote of op- position, and to its own disadvantage, took no steps toward town organization, held no elec- tion for officers in April. and steadily refused to claim or have any representation in the Su- pervisors Board for twenty-five years. until 1874, when it came in with its representation of one Supervisor and Assistant Supervisors, to which by its population. it was entitled. It was a singular fact that during all this period. at any time a dozen citizens of Quiney could under the law, have compelled it to organize. or the Board could. on this default of the city. have appointed supervisors for it; but the wish of the city to keep out, was met by a. willingness on the part of the county that it should stay out. Dignified diplomatie rela- tions were maintained. however, between the two powers, and by formal treaty and agree- ment. Quiney. in consideration of its waiver of the right and responsibility of representation, annually paid in lieu thereof a stipulated sum towards the support of county expenses; at
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ADAMS COUNTY.
first $300 per annum, afterwards increased to $800. and finally $3,000.
At the regular election in November, which was for county officers only, and also for the vote on the township question, party nomina- tions were made and party lines were drawn. The political status of the county was uneer- tain. At the presidential election in the pre- ceding year. Cass, democrat, carried the coun- ty over Taylor, whig, by 203 majority, but there was also a Van Buren, freesoil, vote of 261. It was the first election for officials of the new court. a judge and two assistant justices. The sensitive sectional distrusts before men- tioned. and also some personal issues entered into the election and broke the unity of party action. The democrats elected their eandi- date for county judge. Philo A. Goodwin. by a large majority. the two associates and the school commissioner. The Whigs elected J. C. Bernard, county clerk, and also the county treasurer.
The chief and almost the only special po- litieal excitement of this year was confined to the democratic party.
It was over the election to the United States Senate, of a successor to Sidney Breese, whose term expired on the 4th of March. His oppo- ment for the canens nomination was James Shields, who died recently, after having been the recipient of more varied distinctions than almost any other man of his day. The position which Adams county. with its large and able delegation to the General Assembly, might as- sume was important and indeed. largely deter- mined the result. Breese was the more learn- ed. the abler and older publie man, having a political record of prominence as old as the state history. but he was not possessed of pop- nlar manners or disposition and he had also fallen ont with his junior colleague in the Sen- ate. Douglas, then the rising man of the state, and already almost, as he afterward was. omnipotent in Illinois. Shields was a genial. magnetic man, of fair talent. and ho presented himself to the people with the fresh prestige of Mexican war wounds and honors.
The two aspirants visited all sections of the state and Quincy with the rest. Breese here obtained an instruction in his favor to the log- islative delegation from this county, but after the legislature had convened. a democratic pub- lie meeting, held at the court house. passed re- verse resolutions which instructed for Shields. The latter was elected. but on taking his seat at Washington was confronted with the charge that he had not been nine years a citizen of the United States, which he really lacked by several months. This fact was well known at the time of his election, but it did not prevent
his being chosen, although his rejection was a certain consequence. On failing to maintain his senatorial seat he appealed to the legisla- ture at its special session in October, and was easily re-elected. Time had now eured his dis- ability. It is a singular fact that a strong fac- tor among the many influences which conduced to Shields' success at this time, was his well- known opposition to slavery extension (a ques- tion that had now begun to permeate all the polities of the land) and that it was his faith- ful adherence to his friend Douglas in 1854 on the passage of the Nebraska bill (relnetantly given, for he disapproved its policy), that pre- vented his renomination and threw him out of the line of political promotion in Illinois.
Among the exciting local events of the time was the murder of Major Prentiss, who was found dead in the street near the court house on Christmas eve, evidently killed. lle was a well-known citizen, who had mingled much in local polities, and his violent death created a great sensation. Murders were infrequent in those days, and whenever they did ocenr. the murderers rarely escaped detection and pin- ishment, a marked contrast with the record of prime in later years. In this case. West, who was charged with the offence, was, in the fol- lowing year, tried and sentenced to a three- year term of service in the penitentiary.
With its period of wilting siekness and de- pression : the depletion from emigration: the doubtful early prospects of crops and dull sea- sons of business. latterly revived ; the radical changes in public relations, this was one of the most eventful years of Quiney history: the more also it may so be considered because with the latter part of the year began a "boom" of prosperity : an advance in real estate valnes, in population. in business activity, which, rapidly developing in the following year, continued un- abated for the next ten years.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
1850.
CALIFORNIA EMIGRATION. CHOLERA. FIRST
SUCCESSFUL MEDICAL SOCIETY. CENSUS
TAKEN. POPULATION OF COUNTY AND CITY
26,508. PRIVATE BANKING BEGUN. TEMPER-
ANCE AGITATION. FISCAL STATEMENT OF
CITY. PERIOD OF PROSPERITY. LOSSES BY
FIRE. TWO GERMAN NEWSPAPERS. FALL
ELECTIONS. STEADY GROWTH. PROPERTY
VALUATIONS.
The iee blockade of the winter of 1840-50 was of brief continuance. The river closed in 1849, on Christmas day. and opened on January 29th,
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ADAMS COUNTY.
giving good average navigation throughout the year, and not closing at all during the winter of 1850-51. The dreaded cholera which had so fearfully seourged the city in the previous year, returned, but its ravages were compara- tively light. About fifty was the estimate of the total number of deaths. The exodus to California continued, notwithstanding that the returning pilgrims of the year before brought but little to show for their venture, and gener- ally gave dissuasive advice to those who were smitten with the gold fever: but the report of a single case of success in the mines, no matter how doubtful its credit, would outweigh all else, and the stream of treasure-seeking adven- turers still unbrokenly flowed westward.
It was an observable and somewhat eurious fact that of the hundreds who went from this section to California in 1849 and 1850. many more of the second-year emigrants made there their permanent home than of those who were of the year preceding, and that among the number who have thus remained. the larger proportion came from the emigration of the county outside of the city. The second emi- gration was made up of a more stable element. and men moved away from their former homes with more fixed intentions and better arrange- ments, and a great many took along their fami- lies.
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