USA > Illinois > Ogle County > Mount Morris > Mount Morris : past and present, an illustrated history of the village of Mount Morris, Ogle County, Illinois > Part 22
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JAMES ROUSE is night foreman of the rotary press department. He was born at Osborne, Kans., Feb. 16, 1890, and came to Mount Morris in March, 1924. He mar- ried Mildred L. Lowe and has seven chil- dren: Eugene, Margaret, Alma, Arliene, Mildred, James and Barbara. At present he is chief of the local volunteer fire de- partment.
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MOUNT MORRIS: PAST AND PRESENT
A BUSY day at the Kable plant in 1938. Workers' cars parked on Sunset Lane at south of plant.
pose of handling the newsstand distri- bution of some of the magazines pro- duced in the printing plant, as well as similar periodicals printed elsewhere. The business did not prosper, and in order to forestall any loss, it was sold to the then vice-president and treasur- er of the Company, Samuel J. Camp- bell, and subsequently all stock inter- est was disposed of. Under Mr. Camp- bell's management the business took a quick turn for the better, and at the present time is employing approximate- ly 125 people. The quarters are in the former College Hall building.
In a word, the unknown Index of 1898 has grown in forty years to the nationally known Kable Brothers Com- pany. The initial working force of three, drawing a total weekly pay of probably $15.00, has become today a force of over eight hundred people, who, in one record week of 1937, were paid $26,873. The $800 investment has increased to more than $1,800,000 to- day, and the estimated output for the first year of business will be multiplied almost 4,000 times in this fortieth an- niversary period. But figures do not tell the whole story. Only people living in Mount Morris today, who look back to
the 90's, can appreciate the transforma- tion in the community wrought by this successful business enterprise.
The following record of the volume of business done in each of the past forty years shows at a glance an almost uninterrupted growth, there being only one recession-in 1918-prior to the great depression years of 1931-1936:
1899 (estimated) $ 900
1900
(estimated) 1,500
1901
2,234
1902
2,857
1903
4,794
1904
4,954
1905
9,560
1906
13,707
1907
17,569
1908
25,714
1909
60,797
1910
87,086
1911
101,878
1912
118,047
1913
135,495
1914
152,563
1915
196,888
1916
219,677
1917
276,163
1918
249,098
1919
352,402
THE PRINTING INDUSTRY
VIEW LOOKING WEST from the top of the Kable plant showing the new addition to the village of Mount Morris. Through the center is the new street, Sunset Lane, and at the right is the park and a small section of the Sunset Golf Club which was built in 1937.
243
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MOUNT MORRIS: PAST AND PRESENT
1920
611,825
1921
793,267
1922
849,519
1923
1,122,067
1924
1,448,512
1925
1,639,528
1926
1,994,690
1927
2,328,145
1928
2,514,197
1929
2,820,255
1930
3,274,818
1931
2,915,308
1932
2,491,413
1933
2,398,811
1934
2,435,674
1935
2,733,209
1936
2,949,612
1937
3,389,793
1938
(estimated)
3,500,000
The company has a sales and service office in Chicago at 160 N. LaSalle St., in charge of Justin Kable. A. L. Jones is also connected with the Chicago office as salesman.
The company also has an office at 420
Lexington Ave., New York City, in charge of Wm. M. Cotton. Both sales offices are connected by teletype and the Mount Morris office has a direct private wire to Chicago.
MOUNT MORRIS PRESS
K. M. Reynolds operates a printing establishment in Mount Morris, known as the Mount Morris Press. He is the son of Charles and Mabel (Graves) Reynolds and was born Nov. 30, 1905, at Lostant, Ill. He attended the Lostant public schools and the Western Military Academy at Alton, Ill. He started in the printing business at Lostant, worked for awhile in Chicago, and located in Mount Morris in June, 1935. The plant is located in a frame building back of the Wishard Building. He is assisted by Mrs. Reynolds and they specialize in commercial printing. He is a mem- ber of the Masons and Business Men's League. Mr. Reynolds was married in 1924 to Etta Mae Defenbaugh.
Chapter 10 COMING OF THE RAILROAD
T HE history of Mount Morris might properly be divided into two epochs-one reaching from the time of its founding in 1839 until the coming of the railroad in 1871, and the second from 1871 until the present time. During the period embraced in this first epoch, Mount Morris was isolated from the world, and the restlessness of her citizens knew no bounds. Merchandise of all kinds had to be transported by team from Polo and other towns and grain was hauled long distances to mar- ket. Passengers and the mails were transported by the old-time stage coach or on horseback. At last Mount Morris people began to be very impatient for a railroad and the subject became the principal topic of discussion both in the home and on the groceryman's store box. Every rumor of a possible railway project was grasped by the anxious peo- ple and every effort made to encourage any such enterprises. It was as early as 1853 when this "railroad fever" began to take hold of the people throughout this part of the county, caused no doubt by the success of the Illinois Central Railroad, built through the west part of the county in that year. Numerous lines were projected, and the people were called upon to aid in their con- struction by subscriptions to capital stock, donations and loans of credit, both in their individual and corporate capacities. Among those that were pro- jected about this time was the Chicago, St. Charles & Mississippi Air Line Rail- road, which was designed to cross Ogle County from east to west. The board of supervisors of the county met and voted in favor of taking $100,000 in the capital stock of this railroad. This railroad like many others failed to materialize, how- ever.
The next railroad project to cause
hope to rise in the breasts of the people was that of the Ogle & Carroll County Railroad Company which was incorpor- ated in 1857 by the General Assembly of Illinois. Section two authorized the company to "locate, construct and com- plete, maintain and operate a railroad from the town of Lane (now Rochelle), in the county of Ogle, to the town of Oregon in same county; from thence to the town of Mount Morris; from thence on the most eligible and direct route to or near the town of Mt. Carroll, in the county of Carroll; from thence to the Mississippi River." The company was also empowered to construct said rail- road east from Oregon to the city of Chicago. The capital stock was fixed at one million dollars, divided into shares of one hundred dollars each. The com- pany made but little effort to organize under the original act, and two years later the charter was amended by "An act to amend an act entitled 'An act to incorporate the Ogle & Carroll County Railroad Company,'" approved Feb. 24, 1859. The company then organized and elected directors, among whom was Frederick G. Petrie, of Mount Morris, who was elected president.
After this railroad company was ac- tually organized in 1859, still there were apparently no better prospects of a railroad through Oregon and Mount Morris than before. Notwithstanding the fact that Oregon and other towns had repeatedly voted aid, the company had accomplished nothing toward the construction of the road as late as 1867. The nearest railroad point to Oregon, was at Franklin Grove, Lee County, on the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, twelve miles away. Finally, however, the right man became interested in the railroad scheme and there began to be evidence of the railroad becoming a
245
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MOUNT MORRIS: PAST AND PRESENT
reality. Concerning this, Kett's History of Ogle County says:
"In the spring of 1867, shortly after the last vote of the town of Oregon (a vote to donate $50,000 to the company, under certain specified conditions and restrictions), the contract to build a new wagon bridge across Rock River at Ore- gon was awarded to Messrs. Canda & Hinckley, of Chicago. Mr. Francis E. Hinckley had the supervision of the work. While here Mr. Hinckley became aware of the existence of the charter of the Ogle & Carroll County Railroad Company and the condition of its affairs. He became interested, investigated the matter and determined that the road should be built. He waited upon the officers of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad, who expressed a willingness to carry out the terms of the contract with the old G. & C. U. Company, and agreed to furnish the iron and ties as soon as the work of grading was com- pleted, and the preliminaries relating to use of cars, drawbacks, etc., should be arranged. The firm of Canda & Hinck- ley dissolved and Mr. Hinckley assumed sole control 'having,' it is authoritatively stated, 'possessed himself of a contract for the rights and franchises of the Ogle & Carroll County Railroad Company.'"
It seems, however, that this old com- pany became disorganized and many of the old members, together with Mr. Hinckley as the moving spirit, applied to the General Assembly for the incor- poration of the company under a new name, the Chicago & Iowa Railroad Company. The Assembly passed the act of incorporation March 3, 1869. This act provided that "all such persons as may become stockholders in the corpora- tion" should be a body politic and corporate, etc. This company was authorized to locate, construct, complete, maintain and operate a railroad from Chicago to a crossing of Rock River at or near the town of Oregon, thence through Ogle and Carroll Counties to the Mississippi River at Savanna; thence up said river to Galena and the north- ern boundary of the state. The capital stock was fixed at one million dollars, in shares of one hundred dollars each, and might be increased by the directors to any sum not exceeding five millions.
The act provided that the several towns, villages and cities along or near the route of the railroad, in their corporate capacity, might subscribe to the stock of the company or make donations thereto, or lend their credit to the com- pany to aid in constructing or equipping the road, provided, that no such sub- scription, donation or loan should be made until the same should be voted for by the people of the respective towns, cities or villages.
The Chicago & Iowa Railroad Com- pany was organized soon after its in- corporation, by the election of Francis E. Hinckley, James V. Gale, Frederick G. Petrie, Elias S. Potter and David B. Stiles, directors; and the board organ- ized by the election of Francis E. Hinck- ley, president, and James V. Gale, vice- president. Thenceforward the work was prosecuted by this company, entirely superseding the Ogle & Carroll County Railroad Company. In fact, the corpor- ation act authorized the construction of this railroad over substantially the same route as the proposed Ogle & Carroll County Railroad. The promoters of the scheme proceeded immediately to solicit aid of the various towns and cities along the route, as provided by the corpora- tion act. Oregon was the first to respond and voted to donate $50,000 to the enter- prise, by a vote of 152 to 1.
During the summer and autumn of 1869, the engineers of the Chicago & Iowa Railroad Company surveyed and located the road from Rochelle to Ore- gon, the work of grading was com- menced and nearly completed. When it had nearly been finished, Henry Keep, of New York, had been elected president of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad Company, and when Mr. Hinckley ap- plied for the iron, which had been promised by that company, he was told that it could not be furnished him. Mr. Hinckley, accompanied by Mr. Petrie, immediately went to New York, but Mr. Keep could be induced to give no rea- son for violating the agreement, further than that it was not to be the policy of his company to foster or encourage any more branches. This failure, or refusal, of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad Company to furnish the iron and ties for the road delayed its completion, but Mr.
247
COMING OF THE RAILROAD
Hinckley and his associates at length succeeded in making satisfactory ar- rangements with Mr. Joy, president of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Rail- road Company, for a connection with that road at Aurora. An appeal was then made to the cities and towns along the proposed line of the road for aid. Aurora voted one hundred thousand dollars, Flagg fifty thousand, Mount Morris and Forreston each seventy-five thousand, Alto, Lee County, thirty-three thousand, and several of the towns be- tween Alto and Aurora twenty-five thousand dollars each, Pine Rock ten thousand dollars, Nashua five thousand dollars. After all these appropriations had been made Mr. Hinckley and his friends had no trouble in interesting New York capitalists to the extent of advancing a million dollars on a first mortgage, and late in the fall of 1870 grading commenced in Aurora, and on the thirty-first of December, 1870, the construction train reached Rochelle.
Concerning the appropriation of $75,- 000 by the township of Mount Morris toward the building of this railroad, the township clerk's record book says: "At a special town meeting held in the town of Mount Morris in the county of Ogle and state of Illinois, at the shop of A. W. Little, on the 30th day of June, A.D. 1870, to vote for or against a donation to the Chicago & Iowa Railroad Company. The meeting was called to order by Frederick B. Brayton, town clerk. M. T. Rohrer was, on motion of Wm. H. Atchi- son, duly chosen as moderator, who be- ing duly sworn by F. B. Brayton, town clerk of said town, entered upon the duties of his office. The polls for the election for or against donation were opened, proclamation thereof being first made by the clerk." Following this is the poll list of 269 voters who partici- pated, and the result of the election, as follows: For donation, one hundred and sixty-three votes; against donation, one hundred and six votes.
Here a word regarding these many donations will be in order. It was an exceedingly peculiar or rather remark- able piece of scheming and financiering on the part of Mr. Hinckley, who was really the principal owner of the road, how he managed, with little or no capi-
tal of his own to start with, to build and equip this railroad, by actual out-and- out donations, and came out in the end with a fortune. In fact it might literally be said that the people of Illinois delib- erately handed him over a sufficient sum of money to build himself a railroad. Although the statement seems some- what hyperbolical, it is not far from the truth. The fact of the case is, the peo- ple were placed in a rather queer position with a difficult question to de- cide upon. Men came along and made propositions that if aid would be voted the railroad could be built and many well knew that the coming of the rail- road would surely be worth to the community the amount of money to be paid,-$25,000, $50,000, or $75,000, as the case might be, but on the other hand there was that objection to the thought of deliberately handing over money to a man or company of men and creating for them fortunes, merely because they were in a position to ask it. This latter way of looking at the matter and other objections to these donations were evi- dent to many people and there was a strong minority in opposition, and bit- ter animosities sprang up, which unfor- tunately are not allayed even yet in some places. The strong opposition by the minority in many towns caused quarrels, and much litigation was en- tailed upon the people in consequence. The majority of the people, however, believed the flattering tales which the railroad projectors told them, and will- ingly voted the aid requested, as men- tioned before. They were led to believe that every man's farm would be a for- tune if they would but aid liberally in the construction of railroads. After a time their dearly-bought experience led them to discover the folly of such a course, and in the latter part of 1870 they amended their constitution to pro- hibit such corporate action in an amend- ment to the organic law of the state providing that "no county, city, town, township or other municipality shall ever become subscriber to the capital stock of any railroad or private corpor- ation, or make donation to, or loan its credit in aid of such corporation."
The minority, which had opposed the original voting of donations, took every
248
MOUNT MORRIS: PAST AND PRESENT
opportunity to prevent the issuing of the bonds and also the payment after they had been issued, which action was the cause of the trouble afterward encoun- tered by Mount Morris and, in fact, all points along the line. Many towns re- fused to issue the bonds voted, and some actually avoided the payment by taking advantage of certain technical errors in regard to the legality of the elections when the donations were voted, or some trifling breach of the agreement on the part of the railroad company; others compromised, but many were compelled to pay the full amount, besides a great deal more to cover expenses incurred during litigation. Concerning Mount Morris's well-known unsuccessful at- tempt to avoid the payment, more is said farther on, in the chronological or- der of events.
As stated before, the Chicago & Iowa Railroad was completed as far as Ro- chelle in December, 1870. It was farther completed from Rochelle to a point on the east bank of Rock River, opposite Oregon, April 1, 1871, and regular trains for passengers and freight put on. The bridge across Rock River was completed and the cars crossed it for the first time, Oct. 20, 1871. During the summer of 1871 work progressed on the grading of the road between Oregon and Mount Morris, which was watched with great interest by the people of the township, delighted as they were at the thought of having a railroad. The first passen- ger train was run to Mount Morris Nov. 12, 1871, and the people celebrated the event in grand style. An elegant public supper was given in honor of the rail- road officials.
As soon as the road was completed to Forreston, a connection was made with the Illinois Central Railroad, which opened a route from Chicago to Sioux City, Iowa. A contract was made be- tween the two roads by which the cars of the Illinois Central reached Chicago over the Chicago & Iowa Railroad. New depots were erected along the line in 1872; through trains between Chicago and Dubuque were put on, and the road entered upon a period of good manage- ment and general prosperity. The Illi- nois Central continued to run trains over this road to Chicago until about
1888, when their own road was com- pleted through Freeport and Rockford to that city.
The first station agent in Mount Mor- ris was Mr. A. W. Brayton, later a pros- perous druggist and book-seller in the village. His night operator was H. D. Judson, a young man who had made his home with the family of F. B. Brayton. Mr. Judson advanced rapidly in favor with the railroad company and later became superintendent of the road. He acted as night operator under A. W. Brayton and later succeeded Mr. Bray- ton as agent, with Samuel Rohrer and later "Bob" Lillie as night operators. The succession of agents and operators since that time cannot be definitely ascertained, but the following is prob- ably nearly correct, the agent being mentioned first and the night operator second: C. E. Holbrook and Lyle New- comer, Ed. L. Mooney and George Shank, Thomas Webb and F. F. Knodle, F. F. Knodle and J. D. Miller, and since 1888, after the Illinois Central trains ceased running, and the night operator was dispensed with,-F. F. Knodle, Reu- ben Godfrey (three years), S. G. Brown (three years), and F. C. Remmer. Fol- lowing Remmer, came Elmer Cutts who remained for a number of years, then J. O. Pahaly for a short period. C. O. Jern, the present agent, has been in charge since 1913.
The record of the big fight carried on by Mount Morris for so many years in an attempt to avoid the payment of the money voted to be donated to the rail- road is in some respects a rather pecul- iar piece of history. The complications arising in the case render the task of tracing it one of great delicacy. As to the propriety of voting the donation of $75,000 in the first place, there is of course a diversity of opinion, and also upon the right and wrong of attempting to evade the payment of the same, but it is not the purpose of this book to ren- der any verdicts, one way or another, but merely to give the facts in the case. Undoubtedly the township has derived $75,000 worth of actual benefit from the presence of the railroad and would not part with it for that amount of money, or even for the larger amount which was paid in consequence of the addition of
249
COMING OF THE RAILROAD
C. O. JERN, who has been agent for the Burlington Railroad in Mount Morris since 1913, was born Jan. 17, 1881, at Vaderstad, Sweden, and came to the United States in 1890. He studied teleg- raphy at Oquawka, Ill., and has worked as agent and telegrapher for the Burling- ton Railroad at Viola, Bradford, Chapin, Arenzville and Eola, coming to Mount Morris in April, 1913. He has been a member of the grade school board and a charter member of the Kiwanis Club. He married Marguerite Hill and they have one daughter, Rosalie (Mrs. Franklyn Balluff).
interest during the period of litigation.
By the terms upon which the donation of $75,000 was voted by Mount Morris, the company was required to complete the road through the town before the bonds should be issued. While the work was progressing the people apparently regretted their liberality and the minor- ity, who had strongly opposed the measure at the election, decided to do all in their power to prevent the issuing of the bonds. Consequently an injunc- tion, signed by Daniel J. Pinckney, John W. Hitt, Jacob H. Mumma, John E. McCoy, Milton E. Getzendaner and John Sprecher, was drawn up and filed in the circuit court of Ogle County, praying that the township of Mount Morris be restrained from the issuing of bonds for the payment of the seventy- five thousand dollars, or any part there- of, or the interest thereon, or any part thereof; also to restrain the township
from causing any tax to be levied for the payment of the same. In the writ, an alleged illegality of the election, when the donation was voted, was claimed as the pretext for filing the injunction. The injunction was temporarily granted and the case brought up in the circuit court. But while the slow processes of law were at work on the matter, negotiations were in progress between Mr. Hinckley and Supervisor J. W. Hitt for an amic- able settlement of the matter, and an agreement was finally reached to com- promise the bond issue at $50,000. This arrangement was decided upon by the people at a special town meeting held March 19, 1875. Regarding this meeting and its action the old village record book has the following:
Special town meeting met at the shop of A. W. Little in pursuance of call. On motion A. Newcomer, Esq., was chosen moderator and O. H. Swingley, secretary. On motion, the meeting adjourned to Sei- bert Hall. The hour of two o'clock, P.M., having arrived, the meeting proceeded to business. On motion the supervisor (J. W. Hitt) of the town of Mount Morris was requested to make a full statement to the meeting of all correspondence and ne- gotiations that had taken place between himself and Mr. Hinckley with regard to the settlement of the claim of the Chicago & Iowa Railroad Company against the town, whereupon the supervisor made a full statement of all that had taken place between himself and Mr. Hinckley, in- cluding Mr. Hinckley's proposition for a final settlement of the question at issue, viz.,
That the Chicago & Iowa Railroad Com- pany would accept bond to the amount of $50,000 dated March 1, 1875, running not to exceed ten years, at ten per cent annual interest, or in lieu thereof $45,000 in cash in full liquidation of said claim. After full and free discussion the follow- ing resolutions were adopted without a dissenting voice.
RESOLVED, that after a full consideration of the terms of the proposition made by Mr. F. E. Hinckley, president of the Chi- cago & Iowa Railroad Company through our supervisor to settle the claim of said company against the town, now in litiga- tion, we regard said proposition as alike fair and honorable on the part of Mr. Hinckley, and are of the opinion that the same ought to be accepted in the same spirit in which it is offered.
RESOLVED, That fully recognizing the services rendered the town by the parties who, with honest and consistent purpose, have so persistently contested the issue of the bonds of the town to the amount of $75,000 we are partly in favor of so ar- ranging the settlement with Mr. Hinckley that they shall receive, at the expense of
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MOUNT MORRIS: PAST AND PRESENT
the town, the sum of $1,600, being the amount they have expended in lawyers' fees, traveling expenses and court charges.
RESOLVED, That the parties in the suit and the town authorities be and are here- by requested to conclude the settlement without unnecessary delay.
On motion of A. Q. Allen, the follow- ing was offered and unanimously adopt- ed:
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