USA > Illinois > Christian County > Past and present of Christian County, Illinois > Part 5
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60
The officers elected at this time were Thomas P. Chapman, Peter Porter and Gavin Ralston. Sr. Members of the County Commissioners' Court, E. S. Young, Clerk
35
CHRISTIAN COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
of the County Court : Thomas W. Davis, Probate Justice : William S. Ricks, Sheriff ; Benjamin Williams, Coroner; H. M. Van- (leveer, Recorder, and John S. Stockton, County Surveyor.
The law required the judges of the sev- eral precincts to meet at Allenton and can- vass the votes and deliver to the officers elected a certificate of their election, which they did, and declared the officers above named as elected.
The poll books were retained by the judges until the County Clerk was qualified, when they were to be delivered to the Clerk, and it became his duty to make a transcript of the votes so returned and transmit the same to the Secretary of State, which was done, and we are informed the returns were mailed at Blue Point, the then nearest post- office, being about 12 miles distant.
The total number of votes polled at this election was 160; the population of this county was then only about 1,400.
The County Commissioners' Court at that time, so far as the business transactions of the county was concerned, corresponded with our present Board of Supervisors, and was composed of three commissioners. The first commissioners selected for the county were Gavin Ralston, Peter Porter and Thomas P. Chapman. They met and held their first session of court at Taylorville on Monday, April 15. 1839. Their first act was to order the Clerk to procure blank books for keeping of records of the county commissioners', recorder's office and school commissioners' office : they next divided the county into four districts for the purposes of assessment, numbering the districts from one to four inclusive, beginning with the north part of the county and dividing the territory of the county as well as they could between these four districts ; thereupon John
S. Stockton was appointed Assessor of the' first district, Daniel C. Goode of the second district, Thomas P. Bond of the third dis- trict and A. Council of the fourth district. The County Commissioners then ordered the Clerk to purchase a county seal for Dane county.
On the next day, April 16, the Court again met and appointed Jesse Murphy Col- lector for the County of Dane; Gabriel Jer- nigan, Treasurer of the County of Dane, and Horatio M. Vandeveer, School Commis- sioner of the County of Dane. It then pro- ceeded to divide the county into seven road districts and appointed Martin Hinkle, Su- pervisor of the first road district, John G. Fletcher of the second road district, David Simmons of the third road district, Allen Peabody of the fourth road district, Will- iam B. Hall of the fifth road district, Pres- ley Peak of the sixth road district and Fran- cis Adams of the seventh road district, and assigned to each of the supervisors so ap- pointed a particular road, being principally parts of the road then described as extend- ing from Springfield to Terre Haute, Springfield to Charleston and Springfield to Taylorville. This was all of the business transacted at that meeting.
The County Commissioners' Court again met on June 24. 1839, this being the June term thereof. At this meeting they drew lots as to who should be next elected. Gavin Ralston drew No. 1, Peter Porter No. 2 and Thomas Chapman No. 3.
At this meeting the county commissioners made the following order: "Ordered, that the courthouse be let out to the lowest bid- der, the undertaker giving bond with ap- proved security. Description of the court- house being 36 by 30 ft., 21 ft. high, and to be fenced in a workmanlike manner."
3
36
PAST AND PRESENT
Notices were then directed to be issued for the August election.
On Monday, Aug. 12, 1839, the county commissioners ordered the Treasurer to col- lect from the proprietors of Taylorville $1,000, to apply to the building of the court- house in Taylorville.
In speaking of the road supervisors being assigned to certain districts and their duties to look after particular roads in the county. it must be remembered that the county, at that time, had less public highways than there are now railroads in the county. The road known as the Springfield and Terre Haute road traversed the northern part of the country, passing through Mt. Auburn and the highway known as the Springfield and Shelbyville road passes through the more central part of the county, striking Blueville, Old Edinburg and Allenton and a point near Pana. After the location of Tay- lorville this road was changed so as to pass through Owaneco, Taylorville. Blueville, thence to Rochester and Springfield : after- wards there was a road laid out from Tay- lorville to Hillsboro. These constituted perhaps the entire public highways of the county at that time: the public was then served by running stage lines along these roads at such seasons as was practicable, and people living off of these highways were compelled to reach different parts of the county by traveling through the prairie grass. In some instances, trails had been formed so as to form a kind of a path along which the people traveled, but in most cases the travel was across swampy, flat prairie without anything to guide or direct, except known points of timber. The inhabitants of Christian county, however, were instinct- ively progressive and were not slow in dis- covering that to constitute a habitable coun- try it was necessary to build roads and
bridges. As soon as the revenue of the county would permit, the good work began, and we are told by the old settlers that a road was surveyed and located between Taylorville and Mt. Auburn and between Taylorville and many other points in the county as rapidly as it could be done. From an examination of the County Commission- ers' Court it appears that the question of building and repairing roads constituted one of the main objects to which the attention of this Court was called.
The trail was sufficient for the savage who raised no crops, nothing to be hauled upon the highway and cared for nothing but the present, but to the man of energy. of care for the future and looking forward to an age of prosperity, the trail would not an- swer the purpose. consequently it became necessary to build these highways travers- ing the different parts of the county and connecting the people with other localities by which they could exchange their conr- modities. From the small beginning of highways thus described, few, imperfect and rude as they were, a system of commercial intercourse was started between the early settler of this county and the localities more favorably situated along the river and used for trading posts, and as business centers, and from that day until the present there has been a steady improvement not only in the numbers of the highways, but in their condition until nearly every section of land in the county is almost, if not entirely, sur- rounded by good highways, suitable for the convenience of the farmer, and for the most parts of the year constitute the best high- ways in the world, excluding the macadam- ized roads: as the value of lands advance and the people become more prosperous it is to be hoped that good roads for all sea- sons of the year may take the place of the
37
CHRISTIAN COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
dirt road that can not be made to serve the interests of the traveling public during very muddy seasons. There is no improvement that would develop a country more rapidly. more surely increase the value of its land than a good system of roads so built as to afford easy and rapid traveling at all sea- sons of the year. Even if such roads were built by special assessment of the lands ben- efited the increased value of the farm, the pleasures and benefits accruing to the home would more than compensate for the ex- pense. Let us have a better class of road.s.
TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION.
In the early 60's there began to grow in this community a feeling that the business interests of the county should not be left to be determined alone by the County Com- missioners' Court. That court, being com- posed of only three members, was not able to appreciate the wants of the several locali- ties of the county, and that a want of a rep- resentative from many of the localities pre- vented such localities from receiving the at- tention that they felt was needed. A feeling to adopt township organization sprang up and grew rapidly. desiring to distribute the power for the making of public improve- ments and apportion the objects for which the finances of the county were disbursed.
Township organization had been adopted in New York and many of the eastern states, and was highly approved in many of these states, and so much were the people of many counties of Illinois pleased with the work- ings of township organization that a rapid demand for the adoption of township or- ganization sprung up all over the state.
Many of the people of Christian county were also thoroughly imbued. with the idea that township organization was best for the entire interests of the community, and so
persisted in their demands for the submis- sion of this question that it was finally sub- mitted to a vote of the people to adopt or reject township organization. It was de- feated at two elections, but at the third elec- tion, held on Nov. 7. 1865, the proposition to adopt township organization was carried, and A. G. Neel of Pana. Dial Davis of Mt. Auburn and J. H. Vandeveer of Taylorville were appointed commissioners to divide the county into towns.
At the March term, 1866, the commis- sioners reported that they had divided the county into 17 towns, as follows :
Assumption, Bear Creek, Buckhart, Adams, Douglas, King, Locust, Mosquito, Mt. Auburn, Pana, Nevada, Ricks, Rose- mond, Stonington, South Fork, Smith and Taylorville. At the April special term, 1866, the name of the town of Adams was changed to Prairieton ; the town of Smith to May; the town of Douglas to Johnson, and the town of Nevada to Greenwood. With these changes the names adopted, that the judges suggested, have remained as the names of the several towns of this county to the present time. The first board of su- pervisors was composed of Jacob Overholt of Assumption, James H. Hill of Bear Creek, John Sharp of Buckhart, George W. Traylor of Greenwood, T. B. Anderson of Johnson, William A. Potts of King, B. C. Cochran of Locust. John S. Fraley of May, James M. Davidson of Mosquito, John M. Hill of Mt. Auburn, W. B. Little of Pana, W. K. Eaton of Prairieton, James H. Cisne of Ricks, Thomas E. Simpson of Rosemond, Gavin Ralston of South Fork, Asa Bowman of Stonington and W. W. Anderson of Tay- lorville.
W. W. Anderson was elected chairman of this board of supervisors and from that time until the present the business interests
35
PAST AND PRESENT
have been conducted and controlled by a board of supervisors, and they have had the complete control of the finances of the county, which have at all times been man- aged with reasonable economy.
This board has had charge of all public buildings and improvements of every kind and character and assisted in the building of bridges in the several localities of the county, so that it may be said that the pub- lic improvements and bridges over the larger streams of the county are in a reasonably good condition, and the county has not at any time had a heavy indebtedness imposed upon it. The people have at no time suf- fered because of taxation for county pur- poses, and to-day no indebtedness exists against the county, and all public improve- ments have been made at such times and under such circumstances as not to burden the people with heavy taxation.
FINANCES OF THE COUNTY.
It is but natural, and we presume com- mon, that the finances of all counties at their organization are meager and require the most rigid economy to carry on the county government. In the year 1839 H. M. Van- deveer, who was then Clerk of the Circuit Court, was by the County Commissioners' Court authorized to purchase such records as were necessary for the recording in the several departments: the bill rendered by him showed that he purchased supplies for the Recorder's office to the amount of $24.37: Circuit Clerk's office. $82: County Clerk's office, $93.25: School Commission- er's office. $8.87; jury book, $1.25. and county seal, $12, making a total of $221.74. The bill rendered by him shows the rigid economy exercised both by him and those with whom he was associated in the pur- chasing of equipments for the several of-
fices. It is said by Dr. Goudy "that the clerks used a wooden bench with a screw fixed in a frame for more than twenty years to take impressions of the official seal. It cost $2.50. This economical outfit lasted for several years."
"The court appropriated at the rate of $4 per month to pay rent for the use of the Circuit and County Clerks. The Ralston building was the first one in Taylorville used for that purpose after its location as the county seat. It was moved from Edin- burg."
The writer, in a conversation with W. A. Goodrich, one of the early settlers who came to this county in 1840 and resided at Mt Auburn, learned that the county was not only economical with reference to the pur- chasing of records and the payment of sala- ries, but Goodrich says the county actually had nothing, not even a hitching post, near the old court-house; that he came here in 18.40 to have a deed recorded, and not find- ing a post. fence or tree in the vicinity of the courthouse, was compelled to tie his horse to the door latch while he went up to have a deed recorded, and says that is the first time he met H. M. Vandeveer, who was then recorder, both of whom afterwards be- came life-long friends and prosperous citi- zens of the county.
The necessity of this economy was well understood by the officers in charge of the finances of the county. At the June term, 1839, of the Commissioners' Court, they levied a tax of 70 cents on the $100 of all the real and personal property of the County of Dane.
It should be borne in mind that the title to much of the lands, in the county at that time, was in the government, and not yet
39
CHRISTIAN COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
subject to taxation, which made the real taxable property of the county very small. The valuation for taxation of that year was $108,630, upon which the 70 cents was lev- ied and brought a total revenue of $760.41. This is but a mere pittance when compared with the taxable property and revenue of the county at the present day.
An examination of the record discloses that the total valuation of the property of the county for the year 1903 was 39,571,- 875 dollars; the assessed valuation, 7,914 .- 375 dollars, and the total taxes raised by this assessment were 351.587.28 dollars. By contrasting these figures with those of the assessment of 1839, we appreciate, to some extent, the vast improvement that has taken place in the county since its organiza- tion. It should be borne in mind that such lands as were taxable and the best lands of the county in that day were worth only from $1.25 to $5 per acre. The same lands are now worth from $100 to $125 per acre.
The scanty revenue made it impossible to construct therefrom a courthouse and other public buildings, and the policy of requiring the proprietors of the county seat to contrib- ute $3,000 to the funds of the county to assist in building a courthouse was a wise one, as was required when the county seat was located at Taylorville.
At the June term, 1839, of the County Commissioners' Court, an order was made to build the first courthouse at Taylorville, in the following language: "Ordered, that the courthouse be let out to the lowest bid- der, the undertaker giving bond with ap- proved security; description of the court- house to be 36x30 ft. x21 ft. high, and to be fenced in a workmanlike manner." At the August term, 1839, of said court, the County Treasurer was authorized to collect from the proprietors of Taylorville $1,000,
to be used in the building of the court- house; this courthouse was completed in September, 1840, at a cost of $2,350, but the proprietors of Taylorville failed to pay the money, according to contract.
At the March term, 1840, of the County Commissioners' Court, they ordered the Treasurer to demand immediate payment of Eastham, Taylor, Allen and Barrett of the moneys they had agreed to pay, and if not paid to sue the said proprietors for the same. Suit was brought and a committee, consisting of H1. M. Vandeveer, T. P. Bond and Jesse Langley, was appointed by the commissioners to settle the suit and accept in payment thereof Taylorville real estate. The suit was finally compromised by the proprietors of Taylorville deeding to Chris- tian county 78 lots, including the public square in the Village of Taylorville, "or 1/4 of the present town of Taylorville," all of which, except the public square, were after- wards sold, by order of the County Com- missioners, and the money paid into the treasury.
While the courthouse that had just been completed was not a costly structure nor of great proportions, it was all that was needed by the citizens of the county at that time. It answered their purposes; furnished of- fices for the county officers and a courtroom commensurate with the wants of the people ; was hailed by the inhabitants of the county with probably as much delight and satisfac- tion as the new courthouse that was com- pleted at Taylorville in the year 1902. The offices and court up to this time had appar- ently been of a transitory character and lo- cated wherever convenient, but now they were all gathered under one roof and the people appreciated the benefits that accrued from having the officers of the county as- sembled at one place, and a courtroom that
40
PAST AND PRESENT
was sufficiently large to accommodate the few trials that were then instituted in our courts. The offices were on the second floor and courtroom on the first.
COUNTY JAIL.
On April 4. 1846, the commissioners di- rected that a contract be made on Monday. the first day of June next. to erect a jail of the length of 20 feet, the width of 16 feet and two stories high, with two rooms on the first floor and one on the second, the lower walls to be made of hewn timbers 10 inches thick and to be constructed by building two walls 8 inches apart and the space between the walls filled with timbers 8 inches thick set on end : to be built of white or burr oak with two doors to the lower story and one to the upper; all to be placed upon a stone foundation. There was to be one window in each room in the first floor 12x18 inches with iron grates, two windows in the sec- ond story, 24x30 inches, with iron grates ; the shutters were to be of the thickness of three one-inch plank lined on the inside with sheet iron.
The contract for the building of this jail was awarded to James C. Morrison about June 2. 1846, for the performance of which he executed a bond, and while the records are silent as to the price to be paid for this jail, orders were drawn payable to J. C. Morrison upon the contract to the amount of $394.80: this jail was erected near the southeast corner of the square and located probably on the back of the lot now occupied by Ahlman's meat shop. This would not he a very safe place for the incarceration of criminals at the present day, but in those days the criminals did not have the many inventions and contrivances of escape that they do now, and this was reasonably safe for the prisoners of that day. I am in-
formed, however, that a negro who had es- caped from his master in one of the South- ern states was incarcerated in this jail and held for some time, but made his escape, luckily for him, the day before his master arrived.
Prior to the construction of this jail the prisoners of Christian county were confined in the jail at Springfield, as the records dis- close that bills were paid by the county com- missioners of this county to Sangamon county for the food and care of prisoners.
The next building erected by the county was a courthouse, being the second one built by the county. The records are not entirely clear as to the date at which the contract for this building was made. Some confusion grows out of the fact that a contract was first made with Squire & Overholt for its erection, which for some reason was not carried out, and afterwards a contract was made with Dennis & Ream of Springfield, Ill., to complete the building of the court- house at a cost of $13,526; under this con- tract the courthouse was completed in the year 1856. This courthouse, when com- pleted. consisted of an office for the Circuit Clerk and Recorder, and a County Clerk's office. Afterwards vaults were added to each of these offices, and were supposed to be fire-proof. On the other side of the build- ing on the lower floor were three rooms set apart, one for the Treasurer, one for the Sheriff. and one for the County Judge and for the Superintendent of Public Schools. There was a large hallway of the width of about 10 feet, running north and south the entire length of the building and separating the Clerk's offices from the other offices ; there was an upper story consisting of the Circuit Court room, a small room for the jury, which was afterward converted into an office for the Circuit Judge ; also a grand
41
CHRISTIAN COUNTY, ILLINOIS.
jury room; the grand jury and Circuit Judge's rooms were used, when not other- wise occupied, by the petit juries in consid- ering the cases submitted to them. This building served the purposes of the county until the year 1901, when it was sold to Mr. L. D. Hewitt and removed. This was the courthouse in which much of the important litigation of the inhabitants of the county was conducted; it was the scene of many a forensic battle ; was the room in which many of the present members of the bar made their maiden effort ; many were the trials of criminal cases in which the public were in- tensely interested upon one side or the other, and often did litigants assemble in this room with a host of friends arrayed upon each side, a feeling of bitterness of sufficient in- tensity existing to precipitate a battle be- tween these friends had there not been some way of giving vent to the pent-up feelings of the contestants, but in the courtroom, before the court and jury, their rights and interests were submitted, passed upon and determined, and although in some cases jus- tice may have miscarried, yet upon the whole, it can be well said that justice was reasonably well meted out, and had it not been for the courtroom and cool headed ad- vocates employed upon each side to repre- sent the interests of their respective clients and allay the intensity of the feeling that existed, many of these contests would have resulted in bloodshed, and by this means, the spilling of blood was averted and satis- faction given that was far above any that could have been realized by a hand to hand combat or settlement of the affray by battle.
The liberties and rights of many a poor, downtrodden and oppressed man and woman have been here preserved to them; the court, jury and bar have here stood like an impenetrable wall, protecting many in-
nocent victims from the ravages of an in- furiated populace, from the frauds of the sharp, unscrupulous villain, from the con- spiracies of the wicked, from the greed of the shylock, from the unfortunate position brought about by accident or ignorance, and while it is the pride of many that they have been able to spend a life without having been engaged in a law-suit, and many dread a contest in court, yet it is equally true that the courtroom is the asylum to which we all rush for safety in the hours of greatest peril. selecting the lawyer for our guide and the judge our arbiter. If there is one thing that the people of any county should remem- ber above all others, it is that the courts finally determine and settle all of their dif- ferences, and that each man owes to every other an obligation to perform his duties as juror, when selected, or in any way, when called upon to aid the courts in the adminis- tration of justice, without flinching, without seeking to be excused because of some triv- ial matter, without shirking the duties that the laws have enjoined upon him as a good citizen.
Every citizen should remember that when he himself is in peril, his greatest desire is that his rights be determined by an upright judge, a just jury and a conscientious ad- vocate.
These qualities are best preserved by an unflinching adherence of every citizen to the duties enjoined upon him by law.
The old courthouse is gone, but to the bar, many are the pleasant memories that cling around the scenes that transpired in that old courtroom, and while it has given way to a better and more pretentious build- ing and courtroom, this will not, in all probability, be the scene of greater contests or produce brighter or more pleasant memo- ries than the one that has passed away.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.