USA > Illinois > Greene County > Past and present of Greene County, Illinois > Part 17
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stock and continued to run the mals until Mit- death. From that time they randir the name of the estate until June 25. 1903. when the present company purchased the stack and continued the business. These mills have a capacity of 125 barrels per day, and their brand of flour is not excelled.
GREENE COUNTY NATIONAL BANK.
The history of the Greene County Na- tional Bank properly dates back to the first beginning of banking in this county-1854- when David Pierson embarked in the busi- ness in Carrollton. In that year Mr. Pierson started a bank in connection with his mer- cantile business. Four years later he turned his entire attention to banking, and in 1859 he began the erection of the large three-story brick building, at the northwest corner of the square, which has been continuously occu- pied by the bank for over thirty six years. In 1874 Mr. Pierson's sons, Robert and Da- vid D., became partners in the firm of David Pierson & Sons, in what was then known as Pierson's Exchange Bank. During the pan- ics of 1857 and 1872, when nearly every bank in the state was closed, this institution never refused to meet a just demand.
In 1878 David Pierson desired to retire from business on account of his advanced age, and the Greene County National Bank was organized to succeed the old institution. It began business on July 1, with a paid up capital of $100,000. Its first officers were John 1. Thomas, president : David D. Pier- son, vice president : Robert Pierson, cashier ; Ornan Pierson, assistant cashier.
During the twenty-six years of the bank's existence it has ever maintamed : reputa- tion for accommodating, fair and sate li- ness methods and dealings, and has the satis-
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PAST AND PRESENT OF GREENE COUNTY.
faction of seeing the volume of business yearly increasing.
The following statement shows the con- dition of the institution at the present time :
RESOURCES.
Loans and discounts $724,639 26
Overdrafts, secured and unsecured. 18,917 36
U. S. bonds to secure circulation 50,000 00
Stocks, securities. etc. 23,016 67
Banking house, furniture, and fixtures ... 2,500 00
Due from National Banks (not reserve agents ) 9,851 72
Due from State Banks and Bankers 1,816 57
Due from approved reserve agents
42,481 25
Notes of other National Banks
8,000 00
Fractional paper currency, nickels and
cents 212 19
Specie $33,325 30
Legal-tender notes 10,000 00
43,325 30
Redemption fund with U. S. Treasurer
(5 per cent. of circulation)
2,500 00
Total $927,260 32
LIABILITIES.
Capital stock paid in $100,000 00
Surplus fund
25,000 00
Undivided profits, less expenses and taxes paid 8,931 80
National Bank notes outstanding 50,000 00
Due to other National Banks 103 33
Due to State Banks and Bankers 1,707 64
Individual deposits subject to check. 275,862 04
Demand certificates of deposit 262 75
Time certificate of deposit 465,392 76
Total $927,260 32
State of Illinois, County of Greenc, ss. :
1, Ornan Pierson, cashier of the above named bank, do solemnly swear that the above statement i- true to the best of my knowledge and belief.
ORNAN PIERSON, Cashier.
Subscribed and sworn to before me this 22d day of March, 1905.
F. A. WHITESIDE, Notary Public.
Correct-Attest : D. D. Pierson, Stuart E. Pier- .n. Wm. L. Armstrong, Directors.
The present officers are: D. D. Pier- con, president : John Snyder, vice president ;
Ornan Pierson, cashier; S. E. Pierson, as- sistant cashier ; directors, D. D. Pierson, John Snyder, Daniel Morfoot, S. E. Pierson, W. L. Armstrong and Ornan Pierson.
THE CARROLLTON BANK.
This well and favorably known institu- tion was established August 9, 1877, with Benjamin Roodhouse, president, and W. W. Beatty, cashier. The other stockholders at that time were David Wright, Jeduthan El- dred, C. H. Hodges and John Kaser. Judge C. D. Hodges was then erecting the substan- tial brick building intended for, and since occupied by, the bank, and pending its com- pletion the business was begun in the small building adjacent, since torn down to give place to the Hodges block.
Benjamin Roodhouse resigned the presi- dency April 1, 1883, and was succeeded by George W. Davis, who has since, until re- cently, remained at the head of the institu- tion. John M. Roodhouse succeeded Mr. Beatty as cashier at the end of the first year, and he in turn was succeeded by Dr. E. B. Hobson three years later.
In October, 1886, the stockholders of the Carrollton Bank bought out John Long's bank and re-organized. John L. Eldred and B. C. Hodges, who became stockholders at this time, were elected cashier and assistant cashier, respectively, Mr. Davis being con- tinued as president.
The present owners of stock in the Car- rollton Bank are George W. Davis, John L. Eldred, Beverly C. Ilodges. Mrs. Mary Brace, Mrs. AAnnis Rhodes, Mrs. Ella Meek and the heirs of Charles McAninch, the four last named receiving their stock by inheri- tance. Charles H. Eldred has been in the employ of the bank as bookkeeper during
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PAST AND PRESENT OF GREENE COUNTY.
the past nineteen years. David Winn is the night watchman.
The men who are managing the affairs of the Carrollton Bank have exercised good judgment and conservative business meth- ods, and have made this one of the safe and substantial institutions of the town.
The present officers are: Beverly C. Hodges, president ; Henry Schafer, vice pres- ident : John L. Eldred, cashier; Charles H. Eldred, assistant cashier. The directors and owners are: B. C. Hodges, Henry Schafer, John L. Eldred and Samuel W. Eldred. John L. Eklred, the cashier, has been contin- uously in the institution for twenty-five years.
THE PRESS OF CARROLLTON.
THE PATRIOT.
The Patriot, of Carrollton, now one of the most enterprising and up-to-date weekly newspapers in this section of Illinois, had a precarious and sometimes interrupted exist- ence in its early years. . As its name indi- cates, it was born and christened at a crucial period. in the nation's history. The paper was first establishel as the Carrollton Press by S. P. Ohr, in September, 1859. Three years later the war cloud loomed up, and Mr. Ohr, with patriotic instincts, suspended his paper, locked up his office and went to the front as captain of Company .\, Sixty-first Illinois Infantry. He never returned to the editorial desk, but died in the service of his country in September, 1864. Early in that same year the local Union League took up the matter of reviving the paper. The late David Pierson was a prime mover in the project. The paper made its appearance as
the Greene County Patriot in April or May, 1864. D. Pierson & Company were the pub- lishers, and Elder E. L. Craig the editor. In 1868 the office was leased to William B. Fair- child, who edited the paper with considerable ability for several years. After him came two or three aspiring journalists who retired in rapid succession. In 1874 Edward Miner became the responsible head of the paper, and under his management it started quite noticeably on the up-grade. In 1876 Clem- ent L. Clapp bought the paper, and for twelve years he so directed its course as to make it one of the stable, prosperous and respected institutions of the county. In April, 1888. Charles Bradshaw, the present owner and editor, purchased the paper and printing plant from Mr. Clapp, and has now (1905) been managing the business seventeen years. The Patriot has achieved success by keeping in close touch with the people of Greene county, and has advanced the interests of its home town, and indeed of the entire county, by inspiring a progressive spirit. It has taken the lead in advocating various public improvements. Politically it advocates the principles of Republicanism, but always re- serves the right to condemn corruption or bossism in its own as well as any other par- ty. The paper is devoted chiefly to the news of Greene county, and is most attractively arranged and printed. The office has re- cently put in a new press, which, added to its other equipments, which enables it to turn out printing of all kinds in the highest style of the art.
CARROLLTON GAZETTE.
This paper is the oldest represents tive of journalism now being publishel in the county. It was established in 1846 by
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PAST AND PRESENT OF GREENE COUNTY.
George B. Price, who was its editor and pub- lisher for many years. The first issue ap- peared June 26 of that year. It was a five column folio, all printed at home. Mr. Price continued the publication with him until November, 1851, when he associated with him R. B. Dedham, and the paper was enlarged to a six column folio. Mr. Ded- ham, however, did not continue in con- nection with the enteruprise very long, and Mr. Price again continued alone ex- cept with the assistance of his son, until 1860. On December 8th of that year he an- nounced that he had secured the services of H. L. Clay to have charge of the editorial de- partment. This firm existed until 1863, when Mr. Clay retired and the business was continued by Price & Son. In 1868 George B. Price retired from the editorial work, and the paper was then conducted by his son, Thomas D. Price, although the firm name remained the same, until on July 9, 1881, H. H. Montgomery purchased an interest, and the firm name was changed to Price & Montgomery. This co-partnership contin- ued until May, 1883, when Mr. Montgom- ery sold his interest to H. P. Farrelly, and Price & Farrelly composed the firm and con- tinued the publication until July 19, 1886, when James McNabb, the present master in chancery of the county, purchased Mr. Far- relly's interest, and the publication was under the firm name of Price & McNabb. On January 1, 1897, William A. Hubbard, who had just completed his second term as county clerk, purchased Mr. T. D. Price's interest in . the journal, changing the firm name to Hubbard & McNabb, Mr. Hubbard assuming the business and Mr. McNabb the editorial control, which they now continue to exercise. The Gazette office is equipped with large facilities in the way of up-to-date
presses and other devices for doing good work, and in the printing line is doing a large business.
Few cities of the size of Carrollton can boast of two weekly journals that surpass the ones published as above. They are clean, newsy and reliable, such as no home in the county need hesitate to place upon their table.
CARROLLTON LIBRARY.
The movement for the present public li- brary and reading room in Carrollton was inaugurated in the spring of 1901. The peo- ple voted and the city council levied a two mill tax for its support. The first board of directors was : George W. Davis, president ; B. C. Hodges, Stuart E. Pierson, E. A. Doo- little, Charles A. Weimer, Frank P. Will- iams, Henry T. Rainey, Mrs. Howard Burns and Mrs. Helen Martin.
The library and reading room was opened in the fall of 1901 in the Schwarz block, on the south side of the square. Mr. Andrew Carnegie having pledged the sum of ten thousand dollars for the erection of a build- ing, the board purchased the present site on the southeast corner of the square and let the contract to M. L. Reed and Thomas W. Moore of Carrollton April 29, 1902. The buliding was completed and ready for occu- pancy December following and the library moved into its new quarters on the 18th of that month. The only changes in the board of directors since that time have been those of R. E. Fain in place of Mrs. Martin, re- signed. and C. E. F. Allen in place of Charles AA. Weimer, deceased.
The building is of vitrified brick with stone trimmings, of colonial style, fronting sixty-three feet on South Main street, by
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PAST AND PRESENT OF GREENE COUNTY,
forty-five on West Sixth. The first floor is devoted to library and reading room, and the second consists of a handsome auditor- ium, forty-five feet square, and a club room. Under the entire building is a basement nine feet in height, suitable for various purposes if desired, but at present unfinished.
The library consists of some two thou- sand volumes, covering a large range of lit- erature, juvenile, fiction, history, biography, science and miscellaneous, which is free to everybody residing in the city of Carrollton and available for the surrounding communi- ties under certain restrictions. AAt its inception it was very materially assisted by a bequest of a large and valuable collection of books made by the late Sammuel Dexter Eldred, of Chicago.
The library and reading room is open every week day between the hours of 2 and 5 p. m., and again from 7 to g in the even- ing, and is largely patronized by the public. The reading room is also open to the public from 2 until 5 p. m. on Sunday.
The first librarian was Mrs. Helen Mar- tin, to whom the library is largely indebted for the classification and arrangement of the books in systematic order. Since Mrs. Mar- tin resigned. the post of librarian has been most acceptably filled by Miss Laura Wright of Carrollton.
CARROLLTON ATTORNEYS.
The resident attorneys at law of Carroll- ton at present are : Henry T. Rainey ( pres- ent congressman), Henry C. Withers, Henry H. Montgomery, Frank .\. White- side, Colonel J. B. Nulton, E. W. Painter ( state's attorney ). James McNabb ( master in chancery ). Norman L. Jones, E. W. Chism. Thomas Henshaw, David F. King ( county judge ) and R. W. Raines.
CITY OF GREENFIELD
The city of Greenfield is Licatel in the eastern part of the county in section 4. 10-10.
From an historical address delivered July 4. 1876, by Professor Wilder, we gather that up to 1820 no permanent settle- ment had been made within the corporate limits of Greenfield, but about that time Ste- phen and Jeremiah Hand partially erected a house on the north side of the public square, but before it was completed, sold it to James Cannedy, who finished it and occupied it with his family, getting into it just in time to be sheltered from the "deep snow" which came that winter.
Mr. Cannedy, in the fall of 1831. sold his property to George W. Allen and re- turned to Tennessee. Mr. Allen, who be- came the future projector and proprietor of the town, moved his family from the farm, north of Apple Creek, and took possession of his new purchase. When Mr. Allen located in the town his bank account was limited to two dollars, and this was exhausted on the first night after his arrival in the purchase of a porker, which was necessary for the imme- cliate supply of his family.
In the spring of 1832, Mr. Allen, becom- ing discouraged with his limited facilities for replenishing his purse, and his experi- ence with the unwonted severity of two nor- thern winters, determined to return to his old Tennessee home. Accordingly he load- ed what little household effects he was pos- sessed of into his little ox cart and trudged his way back to the southland. But 01 18_4 he returned to Greenfield and made his first crop that year on his farm about three miles south of town, where he continued to restle until his death some thirty years since.
During this year ( 1834) Willand Cald-
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PAST AND PRESENT OF GREENE COUNTY.
well and family arrived and occupied a house on the northwest corner of the square, but soon after built a new residence which he oc- cupied until his death. W. P. Burroughs re- moved this year from west of White Hall to a farm some four miles northwest of town. At the same time S. B. Culp, afterward Rev. S. B. Culp, pastor of the Baptist churches of Hickory Grove and Charity, came to Greenfield and opened a tailor shop over Allen's store. He removed from Greenfield the next year to Rivesville and officiated as major of militia in the southern end of the county for some years, when he became a preacher, and officiated as pastor in Greene and Macoupin counties with great success until his death, which occurred in 1893, in the eighty-first year of his age. At this time the nearest postoffice to the little village was Carrollton, whence the mail was sent out to the isolated new settlers of Greenfield by any person whom they would weekly designate to go to the county seat and bring it out. To remedy this inconvenience it was suggested that a town should be laid out and a post office established. This suggestion was soon acted upon, and one of the most enterprising residents, George W. Allen, in 1835, laid out a plat of thirty-four lots, and in 1836 remodeled said plat to contain two hundred and eight lots, when the town was formally christened Greenfield by Rev. James B. Corrington, at the time a local Methodist Episcopal preacher. The lots thuis laid off were offered for sale at low figures ; but like many other paper towns that had a temporary existence at that day, there were but few applicants and still fewer pur- chasers who paid anything but pledges never to be redeemed ; yet the great end of securing increased mail facilities was early realized. Through the persistent efforts of Mr. Allen,
he succeeded in inducing the government to establish a mail route from Jacksonville, through Greenfield, to Alton, and to locate a post office in the little village. Mr. Allen received the apointment as first postmaster, and continued to hold the position for seven- teen years.
Not long after this route was established a cross route was made, furnishing a cross mail from Carlinville to Carrollton, and thus was the infant town brought into uninter- rupted contact with the outer world.
In the winter of 1835-36 three or four persons who afterward figured somewhat conspicuously in the subsequent history of the village, arrived and became citizens. They were Benjamin King, Martin A. Coop- er, R. M. Booker and Fielding L. Stubble- field. Mr. King found employment as clerk in the store of Mr. Allen, where he remained two years, when he and his wife took up their residence on a farm, he to discharge the manifold duties in church and state which a confiding public imposed upon him, and she to meet the responsibilities appropriate to her sex, with no disposition to press "Wo- men's rights" beyond that circle. Mr. Cooper was a young physician from Tenn- essee, an unmarried man who sought the little village for the purpose of beginning the practice of his profession, and so pleased were the citizens of the community with the young doctor, and with the prospect of har- ing a resident physician (Carrollton then being the home of the nearest doctor), that they joined forces and assisted him to erect a small cabin for his office and residence, upon which being completed, he got leave of absence and returned to Tennessee, and in a short time returned with a bride, whom he at once installed as mistress of his cabin. Hav- ing thus located. he began his practice
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PAST AND PRESENT OF GREENE COUNTY
swing around the circle, embracing Rock- bridge, Witt's Mill, Hickory Grove, Ath- ensville, Scottsville, Barr's Store, Fayette and Rivesville, in which situation for many years no competitor thought it worth while to disturb him, umtil in 1850 Drs. Ledbrook and Finch appeared upon the scene, when he divided practice with them. Mr. Booker came to Greenfield in 1835 with his family from Kentucky. He taught school for three months, but in that time satisfied his aspira- tions in that direction, and in the spring of 1836, with the proceeds of his winter's work, supplemented with an amount which he bor- rowed, making his capital $1,000, he invest- ed in general merchandising, and started out with ambition to become a millionaire. Ile left no honorable means untried to accom- plish his purpose and for seventeen years his best energies were given in this direc- tion, but on the 24th of February, 1853. death called him hence. He left to his fam- ily a snug little fortune of $60,000. Mr. Stubblefield came to Greenfield in 1835 and secured a farm through Mr. Allen, where he continued to reside until his death in 1875.
In June. 1838. Greenfield was visited by one of the most terrible and destructive hail storms ever witnessed in the entire history of this region, both for violence and the size of the stones precipitated. As proof of this, it is related that the most substantial barn in the locality on the farm then known as the French farm, owned by Michael Buch- annan, Esq., had its roof entirely broken in; cattle were greatly injured ; swine, sheep and hens without number were killed, and much other damage done by the sudden descent of these aerial missiles, six of which the next day weighed seven pounds and two ounces, while others were found by N. Dickerman and D. Edwards to
be seventeen and eighteen Inche- wegen- ference, the whole closing up le cendering all the windows in the then httle bourg that faced the storm lightless.
In February of the year 1839 the first carpenter and cabinetmaker settled in Green- field in the person of Joseph Hartsook. Ile occupied a residence on the northwest corner of the public square and many of the first residence of Greenfield were constructed by him. Following Mr. Hartsook in this line came Messrs. Wooley, Speaks and Heaton, who were his immediate successors in this vocation, and to whom Mr. Hartsook sur- rendered the square, saw and plane, and de- voted himself to the, presumably, more con- genial avocation of law and politics.
In 1841 the first public house of worship was erected. Before this time the early set tlers had experienced much inconvenience in having no fixed place of worship, but al- ternating between the private residences of George 11. Cowden, George W. Allen and Joel Edwards. This state of affairs, how- ever, was remedied by the erection of what was known as the Old Methodist church upon a lot of ground donated by George W. Allen. Ichabod Valentine, as master work- man, superintended the erection of the build- ing, and it was completed and opened for di- vine service during the winter of the same year, when the venerable Dr. B. C. Wood. of Carrollton, preached the first sermon in it-the funeral discourse of Samuel Capps. who died upon his farm at Palmyra at that time, and was brought for interment in the burial ground at Rubicon. In this building the Methodists concentrated their scattere I forces, numbering some fifty in the society. Ilere they domiciled until this their early home no longer met their increased necess1- ties, when, in 1856. they erected in its plice
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PAST AND PRESENT OF GREENE COUNTY.
a more pretentious brick edifice, which did duty until some three years ago, when the present large and modern edifice was com- pleted and occupied by the society.
In 1842 Captain Josiah Caswell came out from Vermont and located on a farmi afterward occupied by Thomas Ford-a farm first entered by Charles Stout, the fa- ther of Mrs. Ephraim Barnett, in 1835. Leaving this place, he resided some five or six years on a place southeast of town, where, having improved the "Sulphur Springs" property, he lived till his decease on Sep- tember 24. 1872, in the eighty-first year of his age.
The next accession to the population of Greenfield was in 1844, when Norman C. Wooley, James Hall and Isaac R. Ostrom arrived there, Mr. Ostrom locating upon land a half mile west of town, then known as the John Pickett place. He erected the first circular sawmill ever operated in that local- ity. Superadded to this Messrs. Joseph Hartsook and Edward Johnson put in oper- ation during the same year, 1845, a turning lathe, and the first one, too-a machine for the manufacture of bedsteads, etc .; but they soon after transferred their interest in the machine to William Speaks and Norman C. Wooley, who, as before stated, succeeded Mr. Hartsook as carpenters and cabinetmak- ers, and who turned it to practical utility in the prosecution of their business in this direction, as evidenced by the fact that be- sides doing a great variety of other work, they built, or aided in building, most of the structures that went up in the village from 1846 to 1852. Notably among these build- ings were the Sheffield residence, the early palace of the town, Booker's house, F. J. Stock's residence, Wilhite's frame store, Edwin Wooley's old home, the Temperance
hall, the Methodist second parsonage, Mr. Wahl's residence, the old seminary, S. P. Cameron's and D. S. Wilson's homes, the Union church, alias the town hall, and Pro- fessor Wilder's dwelling.
Robert Mcknight seems to have been the first blacksmith in the village, followed by Messrs. Renshaw, Wilkinson and others ; yet Mr. Henry Cress seems to have been the first to deal effective blows in the service of His Vulcanic Majesty, and to have been the most successful in this department of honor- able and useful industry. He came to Green- field in 1846 and plied his vocation in connec- tion with G. H. Kinkaid, who had preceded him in January of that year, and carried on their trade in a shop on the northwest corner of the public square until January of 1847, when they removed to their new shop, after- ward owned and carried on by J. B. Brodmar- kle. They were succeeded at their old stand by Messrs. Halliday and Drake. Continuing in their new locality some two years, Mr. Kinkaid gave up the hammer and anvil for the dry goods business, between which and the anvil he alternated for several years. Mr. Cress on the contrary continued to stick to the anvil, and taking as a partner Ephraim Barnett, continued in the business success- fully for ten years, when the condition of his eyes became such as to necessitate the abandonment of the shop, which he did, and retired to a farm, and as a husbandman was successful. He left his premises in the hands of J. B. Brodmarkle, who managed the business for several years, coupling with it a general assortment of hardware goods. Mr. Brodmarkle managed the business so successfully that at present he owns and man- ages one of the most complete agricultural and hardware stores in the county.
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