USA > Illinois > Sangamon County > History of the early settlers of Sangamon County, Illinois : "centennial record" > Part 5
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June 4, 1821 :
At the meeting of June 4th John Hamblin and David Black were appointed con- stables. To this time the records show that the name of the county had been written Sangamo, but without any apparent reason, we find a letter added, making it Sanga- mon.
June 5, 1821 :
At a meeting of the commissioners under this date, we find that John Kelly was allowed $42.50 due him on contract for building the court house, and he was allowed $5.00 for extra work. At a meeting September 1, 1821, Jacob Ellis was allowed $4.50 for Judge's seat and bar in the court house. The meeting of December 4, 1821, shows that Jesse Brevard was allowed $20.50 for finishing the court house, making a total of $72.50 as the total cost of the first court house of Sangamon county, but even here we see that the cost nearly doubled the original contract of $42.50.
Continuing the business done on June 5th, we find that the county was divided into four election districts, or townships, called, respectively, Sangamon, Springfield, Rich- land and Union. Overseers of the poor were appointed, two for each township, and a board of three trustees to look after the overseers of the poor. It does not appear that any one was appointed to look after the trustees. At that meeting James C. Stephenson was appointed county surveyor, and George Hayworth county treasurer, in place of James Sims, who refused to qualify. Provision was made for levying a tax on houses, neat cattle, wheel carriages, stock in trade and distilleries.
July 16, 1821. Ordered, that one-half of one per cent. be levied on all property for the purpose of paying for the public buildings, and for other purposes.
35
SANGAMON COUNTY.
December 4, 1821. John Taylor came into court and entered his protest against the sufficiency of the jail. At the same term it was ordered that Robert Pulliam be allowed to keep a tavern, or public house of entertainment, upon his executing a bond and pay- ing to the county the sum of three dollars, and that he be allowed to charge the follow- ing rates, to-wit: Meal of victuals, 25 cents; bed for night, 121/2 cents; feed for horse, 121% cents; keeping horse all night, 371/2 cents; whisky, for half pint, 121/2.
March term, 1822. Erastus Wright was authorized to keep a ferry across the Illinois river, opposite Fort Clark, now Peoria. Rates of charges were fixed in the license. We learn that he never kept the ferry.
Elijah Slater, on filing his bond, with Dr. Gershom Jayne as security, was granted license to keep a tavern, or public house of entertainment, in the town of Springfield, and a schedule of charges fixed similar to that annexed to Mr. Pulliam's license.
George Hayworth, the county treasurer, made what was probably intended as his annual report, although the county had been organized only about eleven months. The amount of taxes collected for 1821 was $407.44; fines collected, $40.00, making the total receipts $447.44. The amount paid out was $420.1834. This included the pay- ment of all the officers, and of all bills connected with the building of the court house and jail, leaving $27.2614 cents in the treasury, and no public debt. From the official papers it appears that the entire salary of the county treasurer for that year was $22.2614 .
July 29, 1823, the amount of taxable property returned to the court was $129,112.50. After reducing the territory of the county to about one-seventh of the original area, we find that the taxable property now-1876-amounts to about thirty-five millions of dollars.
Adam Hamilton, county treasurer, reported at the May term, 1824, total amount of collections was $875.871/2, and the disbursements $753.90, leaving a balance of $121.97 in the treasury.
After the temporary location of the county seat, a contest sprang up, looking to the permanent location of the same. At an election of members of the legislature, two opposing candidates went before the people on the merits of two localities. I. S. Pugh was the candidate for Springfield, and William S. Hamilton, a son of the distinguished statesman, Alexander Hamilton, represented Sangamo, a beautiful site for a town on the banks of the Sangamon river, about seven miles west, bearing a little north from Springfield. Hamilton was elected, but Pugh went to Vandalia, the capital, as a lobby member, and succeeded in having commissioners-named in the next paragraph- appointed, who proved to be favorable to Springfield.
An act of the General Assembly, approved December 23, 1824, provided for redue- ing the boundaries of the county, and named James Mason, Rowland P. Allen, Charles Gear and John R. Sloo, as a board of commissioners who should permanently locate the county seat. A proviso in the law forbade its being located unless thirty-five acres of land was donated on the spot. The commissioners assembled March 18, 1825, and confirmed the former location. More than the requisite donation was made, forty-two acres being conveyed for that purpose by Elijah Iles and Paseal Enos. The land con- veyed was parts of sections thirty-four and twenty-seven, in town sixteen north, range
36
HISTORICAL PRELUDE.
hive west, of the third principal meridian. The work of the special commission was consummated when the county commissioners accepted the deeds. They soon after ordered all the land to be laid out into town lots, and, after reserving one square for county buildings, had the remainder sold. Wm. S. Hamilton was appointed to lay off and map the town lots. At the same meeting it was ordered that the sale of lots should begin on the first Monday in May, 1825, and that it should be so advertised in the Edwardsville Spectator, and in the Intelligencer, at Vandalia. Mr. Hamilton failed to lay out the lots, and Tom M. Neale did the work. At a meeting of the commis- sioners, May 2, 1825, Mr. Neale was appointed crier to sell the lots, and Erastus Wright to clerk at the sale. The following report of two days' sales will show the contrast between the value of Springfield real estate then and now :
FIRST DAY.
Lots.
Block.
Amount.
Garret Elkin ..
bought.
I
22
$25.75
James C. McNabb.
3
22
12.00
James Adams.
5
13.75
Robert Hamilton.
7
22
16.50
SECOND DAY.
Garrett Elkin.
bought
22
31.00
Elijah Iles
4
23
40.00
James Adams.
6
22
17.25
Garrett Elkin
S
22
17.564
T. M. Neale.
3
23
21.00
66
2
23
17.25
Thomas Cox ..
I
23
14.00
C. R. Matheny
...
S
23
10.25
.
At the June term, 1825, of the county commissioners' court, John Taylor, sheriff, made the following return or report :
Taxes collected for 1824
$600.00
Fines collected same year .
23.00
Total.
$623.00
Amount paid out.
549.97
Balance in favor of the county.
$73.03
July term, 1825. The county commissioners began to think the time had arrived for building a larger and better court house. They passed an order that the county pro- ceed to build a court house, not to exceed three thousand dollars, provided one-half the expense be made up by subscription. It was to be of brick, two stories high. The failure to raise the money by subscription defeated the whole project.
It will be remembered that the court house built in 1821 cost, on the original contract, $41.50; for extra work, $5.00; for a seat for the Judge, $4.50; and for finishing the building, so as to make it habitable for winter, $20.50, making a total of $72.50.
5
23
14.00
. .
..
20,00
37
SANGAMON COUNTI.
Coming down from their project to build a $3,000 court house, we next find a con- traet in the office of the county clerk, made September, 1825. Log buildings could no longer be tolerated, and this was to be a frame. The contract price was $449.00, which did not include the flues. That was let to another party for $70.00, making a total of $519.00. The old log court house was sold at auction to John Taylor for $32.00, nearly half the original cost. The new frame court house was built at the north-east corner of Adams and Sixth streets. It must have been a magnificent struc- ture, judging from the fact that at the term of the court in June, 1826, Robert Thomp- son was allowed two dollars and twenty-five cents for the plan of the court house.
It may be a matter of some interest to say a few words here about the method of raising revenue to keep the machinery of government moving. At a term of com- missioners' court, March 23, 1827, a schedule was made of the kinds of property to be taxed, beginning : "On slaves and indentured or registered negro or mulatto servants, on pleasure carriages, on distilleries," etc., etc.
Only a few years elapsed until the frame court house was thought to be inadequate to the growing wants of the people. It is recorded in the county archives that in Feb- ruary, 1830, the county court appointed three agents or commissioners to superintend the erection of a brick court house. On the third of March the commissioners reported to the court that they had entered into contracts with two parties. One for the brick work, at $4,641, the other for the wood work, at $2,200, making a total of $6,841. This edifice was completed early in 1831, and stood in the centre of the publie square, bounded by Washington and Adams, Fifth and Sixth streets. It was a square buikl- ing, two stories high, hip roof, with a cupola rising in the centre. From the time that court house was erected, all the business of the town collected around the square.
In 1837, when Springfield was selected as the future capital of the state, with a pledge to raise fifty thousand dollars to assist in building the state house; also to furnish the site upon which it should stand, it was not an easy matter to agree upon a location. If land was selected far enough from the existing business to be cheap, the fifty thousand dollars could not be raised. Those already in business around the square refused to contribute, because the state house, being so much larger and more attractive, would draw the business after it, thus depreciating the value of their property. After dis- cussing the question in all its bearings, it was found that the only practicable way to settle the matter was to demolish the court house and use the site for the state house. Under that arrangement the business men around the square pledged themselves to contribute to the fifty thousand dollar fund to the extent of their ability. The court house was accordingly removed, early in 1837, and work on the state house commenced. This square, with the court house and other buildings on it, were valued at sixteen thousand dollars, about one-third of which was lost in the destruction of the buildings.
Having thus summarily disposed of their court house, and having engaged to do so much towards building the state house, the people of Sangamon county were unable to undertake the building of another. In order to supply the deficiency, the county authorities rented a building that had been erected for a store house by the Hon. Nin- ian W. Edwards. It is at the west side of Fifth street, five doors north of Washington, and was used as a court house for about ten years. Mr. Edwards still owns it, and it is yet used as a business house. After the state house was built, the fifty thousand
38
HISTORICAL PRELUDE.
dollars paid, and the county emerged from the general wreck caused by the financial crash of 1837-8, Sangamon county began to take measures for erecting another court house. In the month of February, 1845, a lot of ground was purchased at the south- east corner of Washington and Sixth streets, as the site for the building. On the twenty-second of April a contract was made by the county commissioners for the build- ing, according to plans and specifications previously adopted. The edifice was to cost $9,680, to be paid in county orders. It was completed according to contract, and was used as the court house of Sangamon county nearly thirty-one years, until January, 1876.
When the movement for building a new state house was made, early in 1867, it was deemed politic on the part of the friends of Springfield that Sangamon county 'should purchase the old state house, erected from 1837 to 1840, and make it the court house of the county. The law providing for the building of a new state house, which was ap- proved by Gov. R. J. Oglesby, February 25, 1867, with a supplementary act two days later, contained a clause for the transfer of the state house to Sangamon county and the city of Springfield, which was afterwards changed, making the county alone the pur- chaser. It was stipulated that the Governor should convey the public square, con- taining two and a halt acres of land, with the state house upon it, to Sangamon county, in consideration of two hundred thousand dollars, to be paid to the state of Illinois, and for the further consideration that the city of Springfield and the county cause to be conveyed to the State a certain piece of land, described by metes and bounds in the bill, and containing between eight and nine acres, upon which to erect the new state house. The law also provided that the state should have the use of the old state house until the new one was completed. The land was secured at a cost to the city of seventy thousand dollars, and conveyed to the state; the two hundred thousand dollars was paid by the county, and the property conveyed by the state to the county. That was done in 1867, but the county did not come into possession of the property for seven years. During that time the simple interest, at ten per cent., on the two hundred thousand dollars purchase money, would have amounted to one hundred and forty thousand dol- lars, making the cost of the old state house to Sangamon county three hundred and forty thousand dollars. The state vacated the house in January, 1876, and the county authorities at once took possession. It will thus be seen that in fifty-five years the county has had five court houses, and been ten years without any. The first one cost forty-two dollars and fifty cents, and the last three hundred and forty thousand dollars.
CIRCUIT COURT.
While the commissioners were busy putting the machinery of the county in working order, we find that the Circuit Court for the county was organized also. The follow- ing is the complete record for the first term:
Sangamon Circuit, May Term, 1821 :
At a Circuit Court for the county of Sangamon, and State of Illinois, begun and .held at the house of John Kelly, on the first Monday of May, (7th day), in the year of our Lord, one thousand, eight hundred and twenty-one.
39
SANGAMON COUNTY.
Present : JOHN REYNOLDS, Judge. CHARLES R. MATHENY, Clerk. JOHN TAYLOR, Sheriff. HENRY STARR, Prosecuting Attorney, pro tem.
The following list of Grand Jurors were empanneled and sworn :
Daniel Parkinson, foreman.
George Hayworth,
Clayhourn James,
William Eads,
Henry Brown,
Thomas Knotts,
John Darneille,
James MeCoy,
Archibald Turner,
James Tweddell,
William Davis,
Aaron Hawley,
Abraham Richey,
Field James,
Abraham Carlock,
Mason Fowler,
Levi Harbour,
Isaac Keys,
Elias Williams.
Charles R. Matheny presented his bond and security as elerk, which was approved by the court.
John Taylor presented his bond as sheriff, with security, which was approved by he court.
Suit was commenced by Samuel L. Irwin against Roland Shepherd, for trespass, ind dismissed at plaintiff's cost.
The Grand Jury came into court and returned two indictments for assault and bat- ery and one for riot. Trial deferred until next term, and court adjourned.
The next term was October 8, 1821 ; held but one day, and proceedings covered wo pages of the record.
Next term commenced May 6, 1822; lasted three days, and proceedings covered ine pages of the record. Now, in 1876, with the county reduced to about one-seventh of the territory it then occupied, the Circuit Court continues about eighteen weeks, annually, or three terms of about six weeks each, and the proceedings of each term over from three to five hundred pages of the record.
In those days, when the electric telegraph was unknown, and it required from wenty days to one month for a letter or newspaper to be brought from the Atlantic oast, the early settlers were under the necessity of giving an amusing turn to passing vents when it was at all practicable. An incident illustrating this is related by men vho witnessed the facts. When the court was held in the first log court house, an Attorney by the name of Mendel violated the rules of decorum as understood by his Honor, Judge John York Sawyer, who ordered Mendel to be arrested and sent to ail for a few hours. On repairing to the court house next morning, the Judge, lawyers nd others were surprised to find the court in session before the hour to which it had djourned. A large calf was on the platform usually occupied by the Judge, and a lock of geese cooped up in the jury box. Mendel, having been released from jail, was nside the bar; bowing first to the calf and then to the geese, he commenced his plead- ng : "May it please the Court, and you gentlemen of the jury."
10
HISTORICAL PRELUDE.
The first three or four years of the records of the Circuit Court reveals nothing more than the ordinary routine in such tribunals. The most startling event in the community occurred August 27, 1826. A murder was committed that day near the Sangamon river, in what is now Menard county, about five miles above where Peters- burg now stands. A blacksmith named Nathaniel VanNoy had, in a fit of drunken frenzy, killed his wife. He was arrested and lodged in jail the same day. The sheriff, Col. John Taylor, notified Judge Sawyer, who at once called a special session of the Circuit Court. A grand jury was empanneled and sworn, consisting of the following citizens :
Gershom Jayne, foreman,
Stephen Stillman, John Morris, John Stephenson, Jr., James White,
Thomas Morgan,
John Young, John Lindsay,
James Stewart,
Charles Boyd,
Jacob Boyer,
Wm. O. Chilton,
Robert White,
Job Burdan,
John N. Moore,
Hugh Sportsman,
Wm. Carpenter,
Abram Lanterman.
Upon hearing the evidence a true bill was found against the accused, and a petit jury called, consisting of the following persons:
Boling Green, foreman, Samuel Lec, Jesse Armstrong,
Wm. Vincent, Philip I. Fowler,
John L. Stephenson,
Levi W. Gordon,
Levi Parish,
James Collins,
Thomas I. Parish, Erastus Wright,
Geo. Davenport,
A foreman was appointed, the jury sworn, and the trial commeneed on the 28th. Attorney-General James Turney acted for the people; James Adams and I. H. Pugh, for the defendant. A verdict of guilty was rendered on the 29th, and sentence was pronounced the same day, that the condemned man be hung November 26, 1826. Thus, in less than three days was the murder committed, the murderer tried and condemned to be hung. The sentence was carried out at the time appointed, in the presence of almost the entire community. Many are yet living who witnessed the execution. Having already sold his body, it was delivered to the surgeons, who immediately com- menced dissecting it in an old open house. The spectacle was so revolting that they were compelled to desist and remove it to a more private place. In a country so new, the settlers so widely separated, and so little that was interesting or exciting to furnish topics for conversation, the excitement caused by that event cannot be imagined by the people at the present time. The writer has, time and again, had the dates of events, such as the advent of families in the community, marriages, births, deaths, and incidents too numerous to mention, all settled beyond a doubt by its having occurred " the fall Van Noy was hung!"
Jesse M. Harrison, Robert Cownover,
James Turley,
Aaron Houton,
SANGAMON COUNTY.
PROBATE COURT.
Having given an account of the organization of the Commissioners' Court and of the Circuit Court, the department of justice would not be complete without a Probate Court. The following from its records will show when and by whom that court was organized :
SPRINGFIELD, SANGAMON COUNTY, STATE OF ILLINOIS, Func 21, 1821.
Agreeable to an act of Assembly establishing Courts of Probate. approved February 10, IS21, the court was opened at Springfield, Sangamon county, on the 4th day of June, 1821. Present, James Latham, Judge.
The court proceeded to issue letters of administration to Randolph Wills on the estate of Daniel Martin, deceased. After which the court adjourned until court in course.
JAS. LATHAM, Judge.
After which court met and adjourned three times without transacting any business, until' August 26, 1821, when the filing and recording the will of Peter Lanterman occupied the attention of the court one entire term.
October, IS21, we find the following will recorded:
Before the witnesses now present, Louis Bennett, in perfect memory, does give to the daughters of Kakanoqui, Josett Kakanoqui and Lizett Kakanoqui, two thousand livres each, and six hundred livres for praies for his father; also, six hundred livres for him, if for prayes, and thirty dollars for prayes promised, and one hundred dollars for Kakanoqui, the rest of his money to be given to his brothers and sisters of Louis Bennett. After duly hearing read over before the witnesses now present, and signing the same will, he does voluntarily appoint Joseph D. Portecheron and Louis Pencon- neau, Senr., as exacquators of his will.
Ilis
LOUIS + BENNETT.
mark.
JOSEPH D. PORTECHERON, ) JOSEPH DUTTLE, His Witnesses.
FRANCOIS + BARBONAIS, mark.
NEWSPAPERS.
During the winter of 1826-7 the "Sangamo Spectator" was established in Spring- field by Hooper Warren. He says, in a letter to the old settlers' meeting, October 20, IS59: " It was but a small affair, a medium sheet, worked by myself alone most of the time, until I made a transfer of it, in the fall of 1828, to Mr. S. Meredith." Mr. War- ren is yet residing at Henry, Illinois.
The Sangamo Fournal was established by Simeon and Josiah Francis. Sec their names. The first number of the paper was issued November 10, 1831, and has con- 6-
42
HISTORICAL PRELUDE.
tinuod to the present time, and is now known as the Illinois State Fournal, and has been published weekly and daily since June 13, 1838. Its present proprietors are the "Illinois Journal Company," composed of D. L. Phillips, Prest .; E. L. Baker, Sec .; J. D. Roper, Treasurer; and Charles Edwards and A. J. Phillips.
The Illinois State Register, first established at Vandalia, was removed to Spring- field in 1836, by Walters & Weber. It has been published as a weekly and daily since January 2, 1849. Its present proprietors are E. L. & J. D. Merritt.
SANGAMON RIVER NAVIGATION.
The transportation question will always be a leading one in civilized communities, and especially so in their carly settlement. To the first settlers of Illinois it was of un- usual importance, on account of the vast extent of undrained soil, so rich and soft as to be almost impassible, in its natural state, for half of every year. For the transporta- tion of heavy articles long distances, no other mode was thought of except by water. They could be conveyed three or four times the distance in that way, much cheaper than on a straight line by any known method. Consequently, efforts were made to navigate every stream to the highest point possible. In the Sangamo Journal of January 26, 1832, there appears a letter from Vincent A. Bogue, written in Cincinnati and addressed to Edward Mitchell, Esq., of Springfield. Mr. Bogue says he will at- tempt the navigation of the Sangamon river if he can find a suitable boat, and expresses the opinion that if he succeeds it will revolutionize the freight business. This is an editorial paragraph from the Springfield Journal of February 16, 1832:
"NAVIGATION OF THE SANGAMO .- We find the following advertisement in the Cincinnati Gazette of the 19th ult. We hope such notices will soon cease to be novel- ties. We seriously believe that the Sangamon river, with some little. improvement, can be made navigable for steamboats for several months in the year." Here is the advertisement :
" FOR SANGAMO-RIVER, ILLINOIS .- The splendid upper cabin steamer, Talisman, J. M. Pollock, Master, will leave for Portland, Springfield, on the Sangamon river, and all the intermediate ports and landings, say Beardstown, Naples, St. Louis, Louis- ville, on Thursday, February 2. For freight or passage, apply to Capt. Vincent A. Bogue, at the Broadway Hotel, or to Allison Owen." The same boat was advertised in the St. Louis papers.
After the above notices appeared in the fournal, the citizens of Springfield and surrounding country held a public meeting, February 14, 1832, and appointed a com- mittee to meet Mr. Bogue with a suitable number of hands to assist in clearing the river of obstructions. Another committee was appointed to collect subscriptions to defray the expense. The Journal of March S announces the arrival of the steamer at Meredosia, where its further progress was obstructed by ice. The Sangamo Journal of March 29, 1832, says: "On Saturday last the citizens of this place (Springfield) were gratified by the arrival of the steamboat Talisman, J. W. Pollock, Master, of 150 tons burthen, at the Portland landing, opposite this town. (Portland was at the south side of the Sangamon river, between where the bridges of the Chicago & Alton and the Gilman, Clinton & Springfield railroads now stand.) The safe arrival of a boat of the size of the Talisman, on a river never before navigated by steam, had
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