USA > Illinois > Adams County > Quincy > History of the city of Quincy, Illinois > Part 9
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ADAMS COUNTY.
form. In the writer's family a portion of it is thas preserved. His father, had, as postmaster, for many years received it in large amounts and substituted legitimate coin therefor on settlement with the department. From the handfuls of silver wedges thus left in his pos- session he cansed to be manufactured a "tea set" consisting of sugar bowl, cream cup, ete., which have since often socially, circulated with as much satisfaction as they formerly did in their particular cuneal form. This set is still preserved, special in its attractiveness alike from being a family heirloom, more than half a century old, and also from the oddity of its origin. Much more has undoubtedly been saved in a similar way.
Following this adroit device for the crea- tion of a small coin circulation and at the same time speculating therein by obtaining nine- eights from each divided dollar. there came another specie speculation in small coins, some- what more profitable and decidedly more legiti- mate. At this time almost the only small silver coins in use were the Mexican and Spanish Picayune (614 cents) and bits (1215 cents), and by these all trade prices and values were scaled.
The federal half dimes and dimes, of which there were but few, passed current from hand to hand, equal severally with the picayune and the bit, so that whoever in the eastern states exchanged dollars for dimes, receiving ten dimes for each dollar, and brought his bags of dimes to the west, made twenty-five per cent by the operation. With eight of these ten-cent pieces he could buy a dollar's worth of any- thing. and have two dimes remaining, equal in purchasing power to twenty-five cents. This. as may be imagined, was an exchange factor of no light weight.
The moneyed condition of the country (if paper is money ) superficially viewed, was won- dronsly flush and favorable to the settlement and development of the west, but was intrin- sically fictitious and rotten. The veto of the national bank, by which step the government assumed the vicious policy of refunding to pro- teet its people by guarding the legal promises to pay, which are the indispensable needs of all civilized communities, and of refusing to es- tablish a circulating medium uniform, staple, safe everywhere, since the resources and sta- bility of the people and of each one of the peo- ple who used it would be pledged to its valid- ity, this unwise movement opened the flood- gates of banking irresponsibility, and the land was made to teem with "shoddy" and "wild- cat" bank notes. With this profusion of en- graved paper, miscalled money, came that delu-
sion which appears to periodically affect each generation, making men, as says America's most eminent writer, to "mistake the multipli- cation of money for the multiplication of wealth, not understanding that it is a mere agent or instrument in the interchange of traf- fie, to represent the value of the variaus pro- duetions of industry, and that an increased cir- enlation of coin or bank bills, in the shape of currency, only adds a proportionately increased and fietitions value to such productions."
This wild inflation affected the whole conn- try, especially pervading the west, so inviting at that time to speculative chances, and Quiney and its surroundings shared in the mania. Land had then as now, and as always, its fixed rela- tive productive value, but money was cheap, common, plenty, "thick as antumnal leaves. that strew the forests of Valambrosa," and ultimately about as valueless. It passed as freely from hand to hand as a candidate's "shake" on election day.
As illustrative of this speculative whirl and of the great fall and deep depression in prices that inevitably succeeds these unnatural condi- tions, we vite the sale of what is now Nevins' addition. This tract, containing one hundred and twenty aeres, comprised within Twelfth, Jersey, Eighteenth and Broadway, was bought at this time by an eastern company for thirty thousand dollars. Five years later the pur- chasers sought to sell for five thousand but could not, and it was not until 1850, fifteen years after the above-named purchase, when it had been divided among the owners and was platted into sixty lots of about two aeres each. that it could be put upon the market. The lots then sold at prices running from three to eight hundred dollars-a few bringing more, but the average was, aside from the fifteen years' taxes, money interest, etc., hardly to the origi- nal buyers a return of their purchase money. Yet these unnatural money conditions, with their certain future relapse, gave for the time, a brisk prosperity to the place, and, it must be admitted, developed conditions which resulted in permanent growth.
Its business situation is fairly represented in the following statement, prepared at the time by one of Quiney's earliest settlers, and one himself peenliarly a part of its early history. Some missions and inaccuracies ocenr. slightly characteristic of the compiler. but in the main it is a correct and comprehensive schedule, as no one then but Judge Snow could have made. It somewhat varies the appearance of the town as pietured in a previous paper. for the reason that this was made up at a later period in the year.
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ADAMS COUNTY.
"There are in Quiney," says this report, "ten stores, one land ageney, one silversmith. three cooper shops, six lawyers, six physicians. three blacksmiths, one printing office, two bak- ers, one coachmaker. four tailors, two wagon makers, three plasterers, two drug shops. one bonnet store, two masons, four groceries, two warehouses, twenty-one merchants, five carpen- ter shops, two shoemakers, two butchers, one gunsmith. one government land office, one milli- ner and mantua maker, three taverns, one pork merchant, four saddlers, two stonemasons, one wheelwright, one chairmaker, one steam mill, one woolearding machine, two regular steam packets to St. Louis. "
Some of these occupations existed prior to this period. some dated with the year, while still others were established subsequent to the time when the foregoing schedule was com- piled, and of course do not appear. Here fol- lows as a proper and pleasant touch to recoller- tion brief mention of a few of these then repre- sentative business men, who now have almost entirely passed from life and taken their names with them into partial forgetfulness. Such no- tice. at this dim distance of time, naturally can be but seant and without pretension to full ac- enracy or precision.
The lawyers alluded to by Judge Snow were O. 11. Browning. Archibald and Robert R. Williams, J. Il. Ralston, J. W. Whitney (Lord Coke) and Louis Masqueier. Several of them have been heretofore sketched. The first two carried conspicuous names. O. H. Browning. who, as a young lawyer from Kentucky, settled here in 1831. almost immediately acquired. and maintained for nearly fifty years, the recog- nized leadership at the Quincy bar. Excelled as he may have been in some one line of ca- pacity or attainment by this or that professional compeer. vet in industry, experience, sagacity. knowledge of men. self-possession, grasp alike of comprehensive principles and of detail: in- deed in the general aggregate of excelling qual- ities needful to the symmetrical mold of a great legal mind, he had no equal here or superior in the northwest. Ile possessed, to a rare degree, one most especially valuable legal attribute : a natural lucidity of expression through which to transfer his own thoughts with equal clear- ness and force to every member of a mixed and miscellaneous andience, composed as it might be of all grades of intelleet and intelligence,and to do this in such a way that each listener re- ceived what he heard as seeming to himself 10 be the self-flattering elaborations of his own brain. Hle retained these splendid mental traits unelouded, and his physical faculties equally preserved, throughout his eminent half-century
career, down almost to the day of his life's dlose in 1881. Archibald Williams, heretofore spoken of as the first lawyer to settle in Quincy, coming here in 1829, filled for thirty-two years a foremost position at the bar and earned a rep- utation more extensive than the state.
While not possessing some of the varied mental adornments peenliar to Mr. Browning, and not so educationally advantaged in youth, vet in native muscularity of intellect he was at least his equal. llis force of thought was singularly strong, and his comprehensive and coneise analytical power would most striking- ly appear when. before a court, he would in the briefest of terms unfold, apply and enforce a legal principle. It was the mutual good for- tune of these eminent men to be for thirty years in almost constant professional collision. they severally being the especial legal repre- sentatives of the opposite positions in the con- tested and unsettled tax laws of the state. What benefit it must have been to two such minds to be so opposed in a struggle over such great interests, involving the profoundest principles of human law, may be well imagined.
Louis Masquerier was a notable man in his day : a man of many varied qualities: a ready speaker and writer, of much information, al- ways ambitious, but always failing from his caprices and lack of judgment. A wag de- seribed him as graduating from an institution "for the promotion of useless knowledge and the general confusion of the human under- standing." He was a clever fellow and gen- orally liked. Soon after this time he moved to Southern Illinois and there died.
The physicians were Drs. Eels & Nichols (partners), S. W. Rogers. Hornsby, Ralston & 11. Rogers (partners). Some of these have been previously sketched. Dr. Hiram Rogers was a physician of edneation and skill. He came to Quincy in 1843. Trom New York, and first en- gaged in the drug business with Dr. Ralston. lle was register of the public land office from 1845 to 1849. He died several years since, leav- ing liberal charitable bequests. His widow, the daughter of Capt. Pease. yet resides here.
Dr. Samuel W. Rogers, the elder brother. was the first physician who settled in the place ( 1829). Outside of his professional position, which was high. he was a man of much force and leadership in public affairs. He was promi- nent in town councils, and equally so in his party ; was rity postmaster during the admin- istration of President Polk. He died about four years since af his daughter's residence in New Hampshire.
All of these men ranked high in public esti- mation. Indeed, both the medical and legal
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ADAMS COUNTY.
profession then aggregated at home and abroad, a fairer standard of success and re- speet than is common in later years. While lacking the advances of science and experience, they were for that period, equal to the respon- sibilities which they ware called to meet, and if there were fewer men of eminence, there were fewer charlatans. This cannot as well be said of the clerical profession. With the exception of the faithful "Parson" Turner, there were few if any among the Frequent floating preach- ers who would instinctively be called a "di- vine.'
The two "drug shops" cited by Judge Snow were those of Rogers & Ralston and Wells & Morey, who kept a small stoek of drugs, chem- icals, etc., although most of the physicians soll medicines.
The steam mill at the foot of Delaware street was operated by J. T. Hohes & Co. Capt. Nathaniel Pease, located on Front street near Vermont, was the only pork merchant.
The one printing office was that of the Bounty Land Register, now the Quiney Herald, established this year by C. M. Woods.
Three taverns graced, some say disgraced the town. They were Rufus Brown's, the first in the place, where now stands the Newcomb Hotel: the Land Office Hotel, kept by W. S. Walton, on the north side of the square, just west of Fifth street, and George W. Hight's Steamboat llotel on Front street, about oppo- site the present railroad depot. better then known as "Catfish Hotel." No special delinea- tion of these need be given. Their reputation was long preserved in the expressive vernaeu- lar. eurrent in those days, which we cannot ex- hume without offending the tastes of our read- ers and also drawing too strongly against the third commandment.
The bonnet store and milliner and mantua- maker's shop was kept by Mrs. Dr. Nicholas and Mrs. Burns, on the west side of Fourth street. near Maine, afterwards immediately op- posite. Fortunately, forty-seven years ago "boughten goods" were not so prevalent, nor was "style" thought to be so indispensable as now, home-made truck meeting the general want, so that these ladies had little difficulty in keeping up with the fashionable demands on their tastes and time.
D. G. Whitney was then, as before and after, the leading merchant, who had associated with him. successively. Richard Green. and his own brothers, Ben and William. Mr. Whitney was from Marietta. Ohio, and came westward early. Hle possessed unusual mercantile enterprise and skill, carrying on several branches of business at the same time : an extensive store on the west
side of the square, a distillery some two miles below the town, a grist mill in the south part of the county, and a warehouse near by on the river bank. also having interests in several country stores. All these made him the most extensive, as he was the most popular business man of the county. He built the mansion after- ward owned by Gen. Singleton ("Boscobel"') east of the city, which then was the most palatial residence in this part of the country. His fail- ure in business, was to himself and to the gen- eral publie, the most hurtful of any that ever occurred here. Mr. Whitney removed to Cali- fornia in 1849, and there partially restored his fortunes. Ile finally died about ten years (1886) since, crushed by a railroad ear colli- sion.
The Pearson brothers, E. L. and Albert, were merchants from near Philadelphia. They owned and resided on fine Farms, of 160 aeres each, immediately east of Twenty-fourth street, at the southeast side of the city. Their store was on the west side of the public square, near the center of the block. After retiring from mercantile life, the elder, Edward L., removed to California, and there died. Albert engaged for a time in banking at Warsaw, Ill., afterward returned past and died in 1881, at his home in New Jersey. They were men of mind, of more than ordinary originality and vigor of thought. influential and respected For their intelligence and hospitality, and possessed of some marked eccentricities. Albert, the second brother, hekl it to be the sacred and bounden duty of every American citizen to denounce Andrew Jackson, an obligation which he patriotically performed to the last day of his life.
Matthews & Co., from Ohio, were like Whit- ney and the Pearsons, early settlers. Their store was on Maine. corner of Third. Subsequently they opened a store at Carthage, and later at Warsaw. to which latter place they moved, and finally left for the east. There were three brothers, of whom only one (James) we believe is living at this date (1886).
Rogers & Duteher were a prominent merean- tile and commission firm. Samuel C. Rogers, the senior member, was a very superior business man. Ile passed quite a portion of his time in New Orleans. He was quite an ardent and liberal Catholic, and that church owes much to him and to his gifted wife. Thos. B. Dutcher, also a man of good business habits, after his failure in Quiney, engaged in the commission business at St. Louis, and latterly in New Or- leans. Both of these gentlemen have long been dead.
Stephen and Samuel Holmes were brothers of J. T. Hlohnes, several times mentioned. The
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ADAMS COUNTY.
Holmes family was from Connectient, and pos- sessed of Yankee enterprise to the amplest ex- tent. Stephen died a few years after this time. Sammel, one of the most enterprising, rapid- minded men of the town, was prominent in many publie matters. especially devoted to po- litical affairs, holding various offices in the town and city. mayor several times. register of the government land office, representative to the general assembly and speaker of the House. ete. He died in 1868. The store of the Hohes', who kept the same under several changes of firm name, was at the southwest corner of Maine and Fifth. Later in the year Geo. W. Brown. a brother-in-law, was associated in the business, and finally assumed it.
John Burns, Ar., a former sea captain, came from Massachusetts in 1834. to remain. Ile had visited Quiney the year previous. His store was at southwest corner of Maine and Fourth. Capt. Burns afterward moved to Payson, and retiring from business, returned to Quincy, where he died at an advanced age. The family is extensively represented here and in the Pa- rifie states. Their homestead for many years was the "Burns place, " now owned by Lewis Kendall, one mile north of the city. on Twelfth street. This was a large family of active and enterprising people.
Joel Rice, who died several years ago, was a Kentuckian by birth, but came to Quincy in 1835, from Cincinnati and began business on Front street, as a general dealer and shipping merchant, afterward engaging in grain and pork packing. A lucky event a few years later closed his speculative ventures, which were really foreign to his cautions, prudent nature. The river froze quite unexpectedly and con- tinued closed for some time. holding in its grasp a steamboat on which Mr. Rice had shipped the product of his entire winter's work. indeed, ahnost all that he was worth was in- vested in the enterprise. He had to ship in the face of declining prices and of a certain loss. to what extent. he could not know. Hle had made his negotiations with the Illinois State Bank, and his payments were to be made to the bank and in its paper. The bank failed while the steamer lay locked in its jey fetters. The depreciation of its paper saved him from the apprehended loss. He quit speenlation to any extent after this experience. as he said. he "didn't think a bank would fail and the river freeze up at the same time again." Mr. Rice subsequently engaged in the iron business. retiring several years ago. Ile died abont 1878. Mr. Rice was an earnest public worker. espe- cially during the earlier period of the city's history. Ile was of somewhat quaint manner.
methodical habits, and precise in expression. lle left a reputation for straightforward in- tegrity such as few men obtain.
John W. MeFadon, located on Hampshire, not far from Fourth, was one of the early mer- chants. Ile was a native of Baltimore. a man of broad information, derived from unusual op- portunities of foreign travel and business as a ship supercargo, which occupation carried him almost over the world. He was for some years engaged in business at Rio Janeiro. He brought west a song sum of money, opened a store at Marcelline, and later at Quincy. he invested sagaciously in lands and town lots, and hand- ling his business prudently and living frugally. left at his death, in 1864, one of the largest es- tates in the county, and a name of honor. Mr. MeFadon was very averse to political notoriety, although possessing most positive political at- tachments and prejudices: his likes were with the Whig party. especially on account of its commercial and financial policy, and his dis- likes were for the Democratic and Abolition parties, although, like most of the Whigs, he was anti-slavery in principle. When asked onee why he never got into public life. "By Jupi- ter." said he. his favorite expression, "I'm too much of a Whig and a gentleman to be anything but postmaster at Bear Creek, where they have to have some such man to read the directions on the letters."
John A. Pierce's store was on Maine street. north side, near Fourth; later removed to Fourth. just south of D. G. Whitney & Co. He had been a sea captain and had all the bluff. frank and genialty and general intelligence that usually attaches to that pursuit, but totally unskilled as a merchant. Ile returned to New York the following year. having disposed of his business to 1. O. Woodruff.
S. R. M. Leroy for a short time kept a store adjoining the Land Office Hotel; he died dur- ing the year. leaving an extensive family con- neetion. now represented by the Sullivan, Rich- ardson. Dunlap and Lane families of Quincy and the Reeds and Belknaps of Keokuk. Iowa.
Levi Wells, mentioned in a former chapter, one of the very earliest of the pioneer settlers, was at this time engaged in merchandizing in his own building. near the southwest corner of Fifth and Maine, part of which he occupied as a residence. To his general store he and a Mr. Morey. added what was. perhaps (though small). the largest assortment of druggist stock in the place.
Tillson & Pitkin, at the old postoffice. corner of Fourth and Maine, represented the oklest then existing mercantile house of the town, that of Tillson & Holmes, founded in 1828. Seth
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PAST AND PRESENT OF ADAMS COUNTY.
L. Pitkin, the junior partner, was a Conneeti- ent man, of excellent character and business qualifications, but. like many such men, seemed to labor under misfortune. Mr. Pitkin was a relative of U. S. Penfield, and Mr. Penfield and Thomas Pope also were elerks in this store at a somewhat later date.
The firm of Berry & Parker, changed during the year to Berry & Skinner, transacted a live- ly business at the corner of Fourth and lamp- shire. They were brothers-in-law. They were not successful in business and have long since passed away, not far distant in the dates of their death.
Among the merchants who are vet (1866) alive and residing here. are Samuel Jackson, from Charlestown, Mass., who opened a store this year on Hampshire street, about opposite the Tremont House, and Samuel P. and Clark B. Church, New Englanders, but from Pitts- burg here, who located on Fourth street, on the west side, near Jersey. George Hunting- don, long since deceased, opened the first ex- clusively commission house. Montandon & Kimball late in the year began business imme- diately east of where the Newcomb Hotel stands. This was Deacon Kimball and Il. L. Montandon, the silversmith (of whom here- after). A tin store kept by A. Maddock, from Cincinnati, on Front, at the corner of Vermont, was perhaps the first store of this kind.
The grocers, as such, were Thos. C. and Win. King and Win. P. Reeder, on Hampshire street. near Fourth, and Win. Curtis & Co. on the same street, near Sixth. We say "as such" because these professed to be solely grocers, while the faet was, that nearly all of the stores kept more or less of an assortment of groceries, hardware and everything besides that was saleable.
The names above given comprehend almost the entire "class mercantile" of the place. There doubtless are some omissions, but not many.
C. Brown, on Maine street, west of the bonnet store. and May and Robidonx, on Front, or Water street, as it was then called, between Maine and Hampshire, operated small bakeries. Conrad Broseal, the early baker does not ap- pear to have been in business at this time.
Of the blacksmiths who had shops, Harrison Dills, who came in 1834, from Virginia, and located at the corner of Hampshire and Sixth. and Jos. Galbraith. a Pennsylvanian, and David Karnes were abont all. The last two, with their families, are gone. Asa Tyrer, the pioneer blacksmith, of 1825, was not then (1835) work- ing. Mr. A. C. Lightfoot and a Mr. Sykes, were the leading stone masons. The first named was a man of considerable influence and energy
in public affairs. Wagonmakers, wheelwrights and coachmakers may be classed together. Of these A. C. Root and C'arter & Walker ap- pear to be the only parties who had shops. Sam Seward, the first wagonmaker of 1826, had long since disappeared. There were sev- eral carpenter shops and plenty of carpen- ters, though many were but temporary resi- dents, drawn hither from the neighborhood by the opening opportunities for work, and many of these were but rough workmen. Nathaniel Summers, from Kentucky, who set- tled in 1829, was the earliest of the boss car- penters. There were also T. C. King, from Virginia : J. C. Sprague, a New Yorker, -- Purnell, the Winters. Charles Green, Amos W. Harris and others.
Mr. Harris may be called the pioneer in the lumber trade which forms so great a factor in our present prosperity, since in addition to his carpenter's shop he established the first lumber vard of any extent. The only gunsmith was Joseph Musser, whose shop stood about where the Occidental hotel now is. lle died a few years since at La Grange, Mo. James Me- Quoid, Walby and Albright were butchers. James Hl. Lure, who had for some years kept a chairmaker's shop, on Fourth near Jersey, was still so engaged. Mr. Lnce, accidentally shot himself while hunting at Lima lake. Dur- ing this year there came Wm. Townley from New York, who added to his cabinet making business that of carriage and ornamental paint- ing. This was an advance on whitewash. Whitewash, to use a solecism, was the chief coloring material in general use. Paint as yet. was not in general nse. Even "God's Barn" was unpainted. remaining so for many years, until it became somebody else's barn.
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