USA > Illinois > Illinois in the fifties; or, A decade of development, 1851-1860 > Part 9
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Instinetively, almost, you search for another grave, and at last, beneath a graceful elm, you catch a glimpse of an old white marble slab with rounded top. Pushing aside the weeds and briars you find chiseled into the upper part of the stone a figure of a weeping willow, and just beneath the following: "Sacred to the mem- ory of Dr. Tobias Tansy. Born A. D. 1810; died A. D. 1858. For many years an enthusiastic practitioner of the Botanie, or Rc-Form System of Medicine. A man of forceful character who fought his own battles, con- sistently took his own medicine and died. Peace to his ashes."
CHAPTER XIV.
RAILROADS AND OTHER METHODS OF TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION.
When I was home I was in a better place- But travelers must be content.
-- Shakespeare. There is nothing gives a man such spirits, Leavening his blood as cayenne doth a curry,
As going at full speed-no matter where its
Direction be, so 'tis in a hurry --. -- Byron.
In Illinois, the decade of the fifties was an era of railroad building, surprising in extent and undreamed of in results.
In 1850, all told there were but 111 miles of railroads in Illinois. In 1860, ten years later, there were 2,270 miles. Moreover, the 111 miles of constructed road was deemed of so little value that in 1847, twenty-four miles of this between Springfield and Jacksonville was sold for $21,000, about one-tenth of first cost.
But fortunately for all concerned with the coming in of the second half of the Nineteenth Century railway construction and railway management came to be bet- ter understood, more intelligently put through and more wisely supervised; and in consequence men of affairs became interested in railroading and capital was at- tracted. Fortunately, too, at almost the psychological moment, there was a large influx of the precious metal from the newly discovered gold fields of California.
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Some Early Railway Lines
It was under these circumstances that a sort of fever for railroad construction spread over the whole extent of the "Prairie State", as Illinois was then called. Among the roads built was the Illinois Central between Chicago and Cairo, with a branch extending northwest from Centralia to the Mississippi river in northern Illi- nois. Senator Douglas did very much in causing this road to be a reality, but the late William S. Wait of Greenville, Bond County, is entitled to the honor of being the first one to suggest this line and of doing it away back in the thirties.
The Wabash, then known as the Toledo, Wabash and Western R. R., was built across the state from a point opposite Hannibal, Missouri, on the Mississippi river, to Indiana and on east. The Ohio and Mississippi, now the Baltimore and Ohio, was built east from St. Louis through the state and on to Cincinnati. The Big Four, then the Terre Haute, Alton and St. Louis, was built between the cities named. The Chicago and Alton was built between these two cities and put in operation in the fifties; the line from Alton to St. Louis was built during the Civil War in the early sixties. In the north- ern part of the state several lines were constructed that have since become parts of extensive systems. Among these may be named the Northwestern, Burlington, Rock Island, and Michigan Central. In addition other lines I cannot now recall were built and at once put in suc- cessful operation. Engines and passenger cars and like- wise freight cars were much lighter than today; and sleeping cars, dining cars and mail cars were not yet in use. Roadbeds were much more crooked and uneven than today and never rock-ballasted.
In addition to the above named roads work was done
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"The Steam-Cars"
on many other lines that never had a train pass over them. This was for the reason that none of them were finished; indeed, few of them were graded only in places. In that period wheelbarrows and shovels, re- spectively, propelled and wielded by lusty Irishmen, were almost the sole means in' use for grading road- beds. But slow and tedious as was this method, by means of it hundreds and hundreds of miles were graded that never served the purpose of the projectors and was left to be slowly worn away by rain and flood.
Nearly every town and village had its one or more enthusiasts for a railroad, some of whom were destined to be only dreamers and hence never permitted to see. the "iron horse", as the locomotive was then called, whisk through the hamlet, other than in imagination. But in localities where the railroad really came, every one's countenance beamed with satisfaction; and when the first train pulled in, how many hearts throbbed the faster, how many eyes shone the brighter, and how many eyes for the first time looked on a real locomotive and the "steam-cars" behind it! Then when by good for- tune certain ones were permitted to enter the steam- cars and ride behind the strange, puffing engine, what an indescribable sensation! How fast the fence-posts and trees seemed to rush by! Ilow those who were per- mitted to ride on the first train were envied by their less fortunate neighbors!
The farmers whose homes were near enough to see." the trains rush by were deemed fortunate in being per- mitted to frequently see so novel a sight. Those who were further away would watch the smoke of the loco- motive and listen for its whistle. On a certain day, when the atmosphere was in a peculiar state, I was one.
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Common Modes of Travel
of a party of several persons who distinctly heard the whistle of a locomotive twelve miles away. This story sounds "fishy", but I can vouch for its truth.
So much for the railroads. Now a brief reference to some of the things they in no small measure superseded may interest the reader.
In the early fifties the three chief means of travel were on horseback, in wagons and by boat. When the road to be gone over was poor, or for any reason unfit for wheels, the saddle-horse was made to serve a most useful purpose and was ridden by both men and women, the latter always riding on a side-saddle. Any woman who would have ventured to ride astride would then and there have seriously compromised her good name.
The most common mode of travel, especially when sev- eral members of the family needed a conveyance, was the two-horse wagon in which windsor or split-bottom chairs would be taken from the house and placed in the wagon-bed. The average farmer thought himself well fixed when he could take his family to church or to town in a spick-and-span, newly painted two-horse wagon, drawn by a pair of well groomed and neatly harnessed pair of horses. Occasionally a one-seated "top" buggy would be seen on the road, but this was so rare as to be especially noticeable. Indeed, a buggy in that day was much rarer on the highway than is today a ten- thousand-dollar automobile.
On the chief thoroughfare the stage-coach, drawn by four horses, passed each way daily. Also canvass-cov- ered wagons would be seen slowly moving to and fro- generally to and from the distant city on a large stream or body of water where steamboat traffic was available. Most of these were known as "market" wagons and the
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"Marketers" and "Movers"
driver was always referred to as a "marketer". Such wagons were always loaded with produce to be disposed of in the city. Maybe it was a load of hogs in a strong hog-coop, made especially for the purpose and which for the time being displaced the wagon-bed. Maybe it was a load of sheep in a similar coop. Maybe chickens, ducks, geese or turkeys; sometimes all four and all in a coop devised for this use.
Sometimes the covered wagon, instead of containing hogs, sheep or poultry would be loaded with human live-stock-"movers"-all seeking that always beckon- ing, always-enticing, better country. In this case the mother, girls and other females and younger children would be in the wagon, where the lines would be in the hands of the head of the family, and the boys would be on foot and looking after the milk-cows, horses and sometimes hogs that were driven behind the wagon. If the weather happened to be warm, one or more panting dogs with their tongues lolling out would be under the wagon and there easily keeping pace with the slowly moving cavalcade. When night came on, a convenient camping place would be selected, preferably in the tim- ber near a spring, or stream. Supper would be cooked on an open fire made by always-easily obtainable wood. When all had satisfied their hunger, the females and smaller children would lie down in the wagon on the feather beds always taken along. Meantime the men would spread their blankets and quilts on some grassy spot under the trees. Thus all slept in the open, and it is not hard to imagine that after the day's adventures, all eyes were soon closed and all cares for the time for- gotten. When night overtook those going to market they nearly always camped out and of course prepared
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"Marketers" and "Movers"
their own food by an open fire. Corn and oats and frequently hay were taken along for the always faithful horses.
For the market droves of fat cattle might not infre- quently be seen moving along in the care of men on horses aided by two or three dogs. Fat hogs, too, were not infrequently taken to market "on foot", as the term was. Indeed, where a farmer had a goodly num- ber this was the only way to move them, slow as was the process. In that day hogs had much longer legs than they have in our time, otherwise they could never have made the long trips to market.
At best the roads were poor, bridges were always made wholly of wood, and being poorly seeured in place, they not infrequently washed away.
As to water privileges, Illinois was especially favored. On the whole of its western border for a length of four hundred miles or more was the Mississippi river; on its southeastern border was the Ohio; on the east was the Wabash; on the northeastern border Lake Michigan. Penetrating its western and northerly limits was the Illinois; and in its interior were the Okaw, Kaskaskia, Sangamon and other small rivers, all when high navi- gable for flatboats and other small craft. On the Mis- sissippi and Ohio fine river packets made regular trips and carried passengers and freight.
Outside the larger cities banks were few and conse- quently people for the most part kept their money in their homes, and, strange to say, it was seldom stolen. Cattle buyers and others who had to have considerable sums of money put it in a belt and fastened this around them, next their bodies under their clothing. In the county seats and considerable towns the leading mer-
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McCormick's Combined Reaper and Mower of Two Genera- tions Ago. (See page 11). (Courtesy International Harvester Company)
Cradles and Reaping-Hook for Cutting Grain and Flails for Threshing it-All displaced in the 50's by Machinery. (Loaned by O. W. Converse, Springfield, Ill.)
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"Foot-Pad"
chant would act as a sort of banker for his patrons by keeping their money in his "strong-box".
In that period, much more frequently than today, men walked to and fro, and thus traveled through the country. Working men when going any distance nearly always carried a stout stick or cane over one shoulder, to the rear end of which was attached a small bundle of clothes tied up in a red handkerchief. Not infre- quently a man would be met on the road whose every look and action told the story that he was a "foot-pad", or what we of today call a tramp.
Words, terms, customs, outward appearances change, but at bottom man is always much the same.
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CHAPTER XV. ELECTIONS, PARTIES AND POLITICS.
Where village statesmen talked with looks profound And news much older than their ale went round. -Goldsmith.
The seals of office glitter in his eyes ; He climbs, he pants, he grasps them. -- Cowper.
The first election I recall was held in the fall of 1852, when General Scott ran for President. Elections in my childhood were one of the few things that served to bring to the village all of the men from the surrounding farms, and among these were sure to be two or three neighborhood "bullies" who at such times were almost always "spoiling for a fight". Whisky in those days could be obtained by the jug as easily as molasses can now, and with a "few drinks ahead" the bully was ready and anxious to get in a fist-fight. These fights were not always confined to the fists, for sometimes those engaged would bite and scratch like cats; and worst of all, attempt to "gouge" out an eye. I knew one man who had his thumb nearly bitten off in one of these election-day fights. However, in most instances officers of the law and good citizens managed to part the contestants before anything more serious resulted than bloody noses.
Substantially all the elections occurred in the fall season when apples were ripe and cider-making was on, and consequently cider could nearly always be had on
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"Don't Owe You Nuthin' "
election day. Usually it was sold with ginger-bread, which was baked in large iron pans and cut in pieces about the size of one's hand which sold at five cents each, and a large glass of cider sold at the same price. A certain stand where cider and ginger-bread were sold is responsible for the following :
A stranger walked up to the stand and said to the proprietor :
"Say, mister, give me a piece of ginger-bread." The proprietor did as requested and the stranger, after eye- ing his prospective purchase for a minute, said :
"Mister, would you mind takin' this ginger-bread back and givin', me a glass of cider?" Again the oblig- ing proprietor did as requested. The stranger drank the glass of cider at one gulp, and turning on his heel started off. The proprietor called to him and said :
"Say, stranger, you forgot to pay me for that cider."
"Don't owe you nuthin'," answered the stranger.
"Why, how's that?" inquired the proprietor.
"Giv yu the ginger-bread fur it," was the prompt response.
"Well, then, pay me for the ginger-bread," suggested the proprietor.
"Why, yu'v got the ginger-bread!" was the stran- ger's answer.
"So I have," acknowledged the proprietor, "but I believe in the mix-up I have somehow been cheated."
In 1852 General Scott was the Whig candidate and Franklin Pierce the Democratic candidate for President. I was too young to know anything about parties, but I remember hearing older persons say the Whigs would never again run a presidential ticket; and it turned out that they never did.
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The Mainc-Law
The Whig party was succeeded by the American party, which was popularly known as the Know-Noth- ing party. This was a secret organization with grips, signs, etc .; and it is said that when outsiders tried to find out about the organization from its members the reply was always, "I know nothing about it". Hence the origin of the popular name for this party. When a boy I remember reading a book called "The Know- Nothing", written I suppose in the interest of the party of that name. Some of the tenets of this organization were opposition to the Catholic Church and insistence that America should be ruled by Americans. This or- ganization turned out to be a political mushroom; it · loomed up, increased rapidly in its following, and in three or four years went out of existence. For a time the Know-Nothings carried our county, but none of my relatives of voting age were ever its adherents.
During the winter of 1854-5 the Illinois Legislature passed an Act forbidding the sale and manufacture of intoxicants, to take effect when ratified by the suffrages of the legal voters of the state. This aet was almost an exact duplicate of one which had been adopted in the State of Maine, and henee it came to be popularly known as the "Maine-law". The date fixed upon for the voters to decide whether the Maine-law should or should not be adopted in the Prairie State was June 17, 1855. Although not yet twelve years of age I was much interested in this campaign. Doubtless this was due to the fact that while not avowed prohibitionists, yet all iny adult relatives were its ardent supporters. In the rural communities this proposed law found its most earnest advocates among preachers, teachers, re- formers and all who were in favor of a general moral
145
Lager Beer in the 50's
and social uplift. On the other hand, all who made use of intoxicants in any form were stoutly arrayed against it. From my home in Pocahontas, Bond County, I one day accompanied Uncle Benjamin Johnson, a strong, forceful man and a warm temperance advocate, on a trip to Highland, Madison County. In that day High- land was almost as German as Berlin, though in the town and country surrounding was a liberal sprinkling of Swiss and French; in a word, the population was almost wholly foreign, and to say that they were all dead-set against the Maine-law only expresses the naked truth.
When we got to Highland we found great crowds of people and three or four speakers on as many rostrums, addressing groups of attentive auditors and punctuat- ing every word with an emphatic gesture. What these words were we were left to guess, for everything spoken was in the German language. However, we knew that practically every argument that by hook or crook could be marshalled against the Maine-law and its believed- to-be fanatical advocates, was being driven home with vehement force and energy.
On the grounds, but at a supposedly proper distance from the speakers, an old cannon, a rusty, discarded field-piece, was fired as fast as it could be loaded. Mean- while beer was on tap at a number of stands and, save my uncle and myself, practically every man drank to his fill. To us this was all novel, for in that day beer- drinking had not as yet become common.
At last the seventeenth day of June came; a day that was cool and cloudy and which I recall distinctly for I dropped corn from sun-up until sun-down. Had I been old enough to vote I should certainly have cast my bal-
146
Political Pot Boiling
lot for the Maine-law as all my uncles did and as I felt sure my father would have done had he been alive. But notwithstanding the work, hopes and prayers of the many who favored the Maine-law it was defeated by a large majority and the now almost forgotten effort to make Illinois a prohibition state in the 50's promptly became a thing of the past.
The repeal of the Missouri Compromise in 1854 set the political pot to boiling in earnest and it was the one thing of all others that led to the formation of the Re- publican party ;* an organization at its inception made up of voters from all parties who had one thing in com- mon, namely dread of the threatened encroachments of slavery.
The Compromise and all. connected with it was uppermost in everyone's thought and the village states- men never seemed to tire of discussing it. One old fel- low always referred to it as the Com-prom-ise Line and he also called the president, Buke-hanan. In the minds of some the Compromise seemed to be a sort of fence which kept slavery from crossing the line 36° 30'. I recall one speaker who took advantage of this idea and said, "Yes, fellow citizens, the Compromise which our Democratie friends have just torn away was a fence, not an ordinary fence, but a fence that was horse-high, bull-strong and pig-tight!" As most of the speaker's audience were farmers, his argument was by them deemed unanswerable.
In 1856 there were three presidential tickets in the field : the Democrats brought ont Buchanan and Breck-
*The name Republican as a party name was first made use of at a convention held July 6, 1854, at Jackson, Michigan.
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"Black" Republican
enridge ; the Republicans Freemont and Dayton and the Know-Nothings Filmore and Donnelson. This was the first and last time the Know-Nothing or American party appeared in a presidential election. The Republican party had only been in existence a year or two and consequently Freemont and Dayton were its first can- didates for president and vice-president respectively. In that campaign a popular slogan with the Republicans was "Free-people, frec-speech, frce-labor, free-soil and Fremont". As Fremont wore a heavy beard, then a new thing, he was by his opponents called the "woolly- hoss." Furthermore, some of these opponents always derisively said Black Republican when referring to the Fremont ticket.
In that day almost every community raised a flag- pole for favorite candidates. For this purpose a straight hickory pole forty or fifty feet in length would be brought in from the nearby timber and a hole dug for the reception of its larger end, usually about eight inches in diameter. Meantime a new national flag was lettered with the names of the desired candidates for president and vice-president respectively. Finally on an appointed day the partisans of these candidates would congregate, raise the pole to its place, fill in the dirt around its base, run up the flag and give three rousing cheers for Freemont, Buchanan, or Filmore as the ease required. Sometimes short speeches and ap- propriate songs were an accompaniment of the "pole- raising."
Perhaps in the following week on the opposite side of the street a second pole would be raised for other candidates, indeed in some cases no less than three poles
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"An Old Public Functionary"
could be seen in the same village, each one floating a partisan flag.
Buchanan was an elderly man and his friends were fond of referring to him as an "Old Public Function- ary"; this because he had long held office and with credit to himself had been United States Senator, Sec- retary of State and Minister to England.
The election in 1856 came on a cold, raw, rainy day, the kind which my elders said always favored the Dem- ocrats. Be this as it may, the Democrats carried the day and on March 4, 1857, Buchanan was inaugurated President of the United States and continued in office till four years later he was succeeded by that Illinoisian among Illinoisians, Abraham Lincoln.
Type of Frame House Common in the Late 50's.
Bedstead, Trundlebed and Some Articles of Every Day Use. (Loaned by O. W. Converse, Springfield, Ill. )
CHAPTER XVI. SLAVERY AND THE LINCOLN-DOUGLAS DEBATE.
Slavery is a blessing established by God's decree and sanc- tioned by the Bible from Genesis to Revelations .- Jefferson Davis.
We now know that slavery was a gigantic mistake, and that Emerson was right when he said, "One end of the slave's chain is always riveted to the wrist of the master."-Gen. John B. Gordon, (C. S. A.)
The incurability of the evil is one of the greatest objections to the extension of slavery .- Thomas Benton.
Slaves in a land of light and law ; Slaves crouching on the very plains Where roll'd the storm of freedom's war.
-Whittier.
On March 1, 1845, three days before the close of Pres- ident Tyler's administration by joint resolution of the two houses of Congress, Texas was annexed to the United States-an event that proved to be far-reaching in its consequences. Indeed, it is perhaps not too much to say that this was the first Act in a great drama upon which the curtain rose not to go down till Lee surren- dered at Appomattox, twenty years later. At the period of the Texas annexation the Southern slave-holders were at the very zenith of their power and with high-handed determination were bent on effecting the greatest possi- ble extension of slavery. Moreover, in striving to ac- complish their purposes they were so energetic, so per- sistent and so dominant that all else was made to seem insignificant by comparison. Impressed with this state
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150
War With Mexico
of affairs, Lord Macaulay said in the British Parliament, "That Nation (the United States) is the champion and upholder of slavery. They (the people of the U. S.) seek to extend slavery with more energy than was ever exerted by any nation to diffuse civilization."
In 1822, while Texas was yet a part of Mexico, the latter country abolished slavery throughout its whole ex- tent. But notwithstanding the fact that Texas had thus become free soil, emigrants from our Southern States went thither and carried with them their slaves and kept them in bondage.
In 1836 the inhabitants of Texas declared their inde- pendence of Mexico and organized a Republic. This action on the part of Texas resulted in war between that country and Mexico which in one form or another, con- tinued till the former was annexed to the United States, nine years later. ,
During the whole time that the Texas annexation scheme was under consideration, Mexico was on the alert and keenly alive to the situation; and no sooner had President Tyler signed the joint resolution than the Mexican Minister at Washington asked for his pass- ports and left for his own country.
On March 4, 1845, James K. Polk succeeded John Tyler in the presidential ehair, where one of his chief inheritances was our strained relations with Mexico. But instead of endeavoring to pour oil on the troubled waters-instead of striving to modify and ameliorate our strained relations he, in a few months, sent an "Army of Occupation" to the Mexican border and ordered a strong fleet to take position at Vera Cruz and, as was doubtless intended, war with Mexico was the re- sult. A war that lasted through 1846-7 and ended early
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