USA > Illinois > Marshall County > Past and present of Marshall and Putnam Counties, Illinois > Part 3
USA > Illinois > Putnam County > Past and present of Marshall and Putnam Counties, Illinois > Part 3
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So ended a war which could by no possibility have other ending. It was the last despairing effort of a brave and patriotic people to regain possession of the grandest heritage the sun ever shone upon. Had the Winnebago and Pottawat- tomie tribes joined in, as Black Hawk expected, although there is no question what the final result would have been, the co-operation of these war- like tribes would have made the task of conquer- ing them ten times more difficult and the death and destruction would have been horrible to con- template. As it was Black Hawk, by his con- summate generalship, with his little band placed the whole great state of Illinois in abject terror and fought the armies consisting of three thousand men sent against him for six months.
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Several men who afterwards became famous, three of them presidents, were concerned in this war. They were Zachary Taylor, Jefferson Davis, Sidney Johnston and Abraham Lincoln, the three first as officers of the regular army, the other as a member of a company of rangers, but it does not appear that any of them distinguished themselves in the Black Hawk war.
CHAPTER VI.
DIVISION OF PUTNAM COUNTY.
Following the Black Hawk war settlers began to pour into Illinois. Where before single families had come and settled here and there in spots they considered most favorable, now colonies of three, four. and sometimes a dozen families, sometimes connected by blood or marriage, but often made up of old neighbors from their eastern home that were prompted to come by the glowing accounts of the fine climate and exhaustless fertility of the soil.
When they wrote back that crops, thought to be almost miraculous, could be raised year after year, without manuring the ground, it was a reve- lation to the farmers of Vermont and New Hamp- shire, whose entire crop depended upon a fertilizer. And though they hardly credited all the stories told, yet they went on the old adage, "Where there is so much smoke there must be some fire," and were surprised that the truth had been told.
They in turn wrote back and their accounts, if anything, outdid the former oncs, and there was a constantly increasing immigration. Up to 1836 the attention of the immigrants had been turned to secure farms, though where necessary a small town with storc, blacksmith shop and generally a schoolhouse and church clustered in one spot. In the wild cat money times of 1836 and 1837 the spirit of speculation was rife in the land and towns sprang up-on paper-in every direction ; that is, a piece of land was laid off in streets, alleys, lots, etc., and a beautiful drawing of them made as they were expected to be when fully developed. Upon these drawings would be located fine squares, large buildings used for almost every conceivable purpose; even manufacturing establishments would be shown and other desirable things. The idea that was intended to be conveyed was that all
these things were there as represented, when the truth was that they only existed in the imagina- tion, and there was nothing on the site of the "city" unless there might be a cabin or two.
There was a large traffic in these town lots, the eastern states were flooded with the handsomely drawn plots and the glowing descriptions of the advantages of these towns and what they were sure to be in the future tempted hundreds to buy lots at higher prices than the whole "city" was worth.
It helped, however, to boom things and called at- tention to the new country, and settlers poured into the state for, according to the prospectus of the agents, everybody was going to get rich; but the financial troubles of 1837 and 1838 came on and there was a rude awakening, men who thought they were rich found they were little better than paupers, and the many beautiful cities that had looked so well and promised so much were most of them plowed up and converted into cornfields.
There were no less than ten of these towns in what is now Marshall county and more than dou- ble that number in the rest of Putnam county, nearly all of them being laid out in 1836. The settlers in Marshall county on the west side of the river being very few at that time, nearly all the towns in it were on the eastern side; but we will say more of the towns in later chapters, the fact being that this digression about the towns and the speculations of those years had much to do with the eventual dividing up of Putnam county, for the hawking of the town lots all over the east called attention to the country and served to largely increase the influx of actual settlers.
By 1837 there were large settlements in the ex- treme western and northwestern part of Putnam county and the settlers, who found it very incon- venient at times to go to Hennepin to do all their business, began to agitate the question of a new county, and it culminated in setting off Bureau county, containing about one-half the territory which was set off by act of the legislature in 1837 and the county seat established at Princeton. Bu- reau county took more than one-half of the terri- tory of Putnam county, coming down to township 14 and extending four townships north, but not crossing the Illinois river.
The cutting off of Bureau county left Hennepin, the county seat, in the extreme northeastern part of the county, with less than two townships east and nothing but the Illinois river on the west. On
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PAST AND PRESENT OF MARSHALL AND PUTNAM COUNTIES.
the south the county was two townships deep and eight townships wide.
The county west of the Illinois river was very sparsely settled except in the extreme west, where considerable settlement had been made in the neighborhood of Spoon river.
As early as 1836 a petition was sent to the leg- islature, which was well received, and an act was passed during the winter of 1836 and 1837 to set off the county of Coffee, which was to be composed of six townships from Putnam county, two from Knox and one from Henry, to be called Coffee county. To give the act force it was provided that it must be ratified by a majority vote in Knox and Henry counties. The vote did not carry and the act became void.
In 1838 the matter was taken up again by the Spoon river residents, who were tired of going some thirty-five or forty miles to the county seat and possibly finding the Illinois river impassable when they arrived there.
On the 16th of January, 1839, another bill was introduced by Colonel W. H. Henderson, the repre- sentative of the district, to establish the county of Stark. After considerable discussion and several amendments the act was approved, March 2, 1839. The bill cut off six townships from Putnam coun- ty and two townships from Knox county. To give the act force the voters of the Knox county town- ships were to assent to the division, which they appear to have done.
In the meantime that part of Putnam county now comprised in Marshall county had been filling with settlers, especially along the river on both sides. On the east side a considerable settlement had been formed around Columbia (now Lacon), and a number of enterprising business men had settled in the town and near it, and had given it quite an impetus. Henry, also seven miles above on the river but on the west side, had made con- siderable progress and there was quite a sprinkling of farmers scattered along under and on the bluffs. Three or four miles west, the country which has since become Marshall county, had about 1,500 population, which was rapidly increasing.
On December 10, 1838, Colonel Henderson, the member of the legislature, presented a petition, which was largely signed, to form a new county from the southern part of Putnam county. There does not appear at this time to have been much opposition, even the people in the northern part of the county, in the neighborhood of Hennepin,
fearing to lose the county seat, gave it a tacit ap- proval. Two days afterward a bill answering the "prayers of the petitioners" was introduced into the house. As the bill only proposed to cut off territory from Putnam county and as no particu- lar opposition was made to it by Putnam county,. the bill became a law January 19, 1839.
The county as then constituted consisted of four full townships on each side of the river, with four fractional townships, two of them covering an area of about one-half a township each and the other two quite small.
Before the session of the legislature was over a bill was introduced and passed, adding to the counties of Marshall and Putnam the townships known as 29, 30, 31, and 32, range 1 east, but with the proviso that it must be ratified by the voters of La Salle county, from which county the. territory was to be taken. The requisite vote was not forthcoming from La Salle county and the act became void.
Four years later, however, the matter was again introduced, and on March 1, 1843, the two town- ships, 29 and 30, range 1 east, by an act which set off these two townships to Marshall county alone, the people living in the townships acqui- escing.
In the winter of 1839 the legislature appointed a commission, consisting of William Ogle of Put- nam, D. C. Salisbury of Bureau, and Campbell Wakefield of McLean counties, to locate a county seat, their instructions being to "faithfully take· into consideration the convenience of the people, the situation of the settlements with an eye to the future population and eligibility of the place," also "if selection was made of any town already laid off the proprietors should be required to do- nate a quantity of lots equal to twenty acres of land or a sum of $5,000 in lieu thereof, for the purpose- of erecting public buildings."
There were only two towns laid out in Marshall county at the time, Henry, which contained only some half a dozen cabins, a few people and not much else; besides, the town was laid out upon a school section and was under the control of the school trustees. Lacon (the name was changed by act of the legislature from Columbia in 1837) had become quite a town by this time and was in a flourishing condition, having a population prob- ably of about 200 people.
As Henry was owned by the school authorities. and the few inhabitants could not fill the condi-
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PAST AND PRESENT OF MARSHALL AND PUTNAM COUNTIES.
tion, the commission, which had been instructed to make the county seat, by their report made April 6, 1839, located the county seat at Lacon, and Marshall county with the location of the county seat became a full-fledged county.
CHAPTER VII.
ORGANIZATION OF MARSHALL COUNTY.
The organic act of the legislature, establishing the county of Marshall, fixed the time for hold- ing the election of county officers on the 25th day of February, 1839, and the prescribed fifteen-day notice was given by George Snyder, a justice of the peace, for Lacon precinct.
Notwithstanding the sparsely settled country, there appeared to be a patriotism among the peo- ple that made them willing to sacrifice themselves upon their country's altar. No less than twenty- eight candidates entered into the canvass, eight of them being for the office of sheriff; and though the canvass was a short one it was exciting and in- teresting while it lasted.
The officers elected were Elisha Swan, William Maxwell and George H. Shaw, county commis- sioners ; William H. Efner, probate judge; Charles F. Speyers, recorder ; Silas Ramsey, sheriff; An- son L. Deming, treasurer ; A. S. Fishburn, county clerk ; George F. Case, coroner; Jordan Sawyer, surveyor.
The board of commissioners met on the Satur- day following their election in the house of John D. Coutlet, and there organized the first county court.
The term under the law for which the commis- sioners were elected was to be for three years, a new one to be elected every year, and it was neces- sary to decide which should serve for the short terms, which was done by casting lots, with the result that William Maxwell was to serve one year, Elisha Swan, two years, and George H. Shaw for three years. Ira I. Fenn was appointed clerk pro tem. Besides arranging for a permanent county court, the commissioners divided the county into four "justices' districts," two of them east of the river and two west, to which they gave the names of those east, Lacon and Lyons, and those west, Henry and Lafayette. They also appointed John
Wier school commissioner, he to give a bond for $10,000.
The first circuit court was held in the county in Lacon, beginning April 23, 1839, and was held in the Methodist church. Hon. Thomas Ford sat as Judge, and J. M. Shannon as clerk.
A full panel of grand jurymen had been called, consisting of Ira F. Laury, foreman; Lewis Bar- ney, Jeremiah Cooper, Joel Corbell, Alban N. Ford, William Gray, Enoch Sawyer, Charles Rice, Zorah D. Stewart, Elijah Freeman, Nathan Owen, Samuel Howe, George Scott, Robert Bennington, John Bird, Allen Hunter, Henry Snyder and An- drew Jackson, but as there was no criminal busi- ness to come before them and no jail to investi- gate they were discharged the same day. There had been no petit jury called and the business of the first circuit court held in Marshall county was soon finished, little or nothing being done.
But the session of the court showed the need of a court house, and in June, 1839, the board of commissioners was authorized to ascertain the probable cost. It would appear as if their report was satisfactory, as during the summer bids were advertised for "to erect a courthouse 55 feet long and 40 feet wide, with basement and underpinning of stone and superstructure of brick."
The contract was awarded to White & Shepherd, of Fremont, who put up the building according to specifications the next year.
In the fall of 1843, to be exact, on September 7, a contract was entered into between the com- missioners and John Guthrie, to build a jail, the price to be $515. Mr. Guthrie worked at it awhile and then took in Thomas Wier as a partner. It was built of large logs hewn square and set close together. It was entered from the upper story, a ladder furnishing means of ingress and egress, and when the jailer went out he took the ladder with him, it answering the purpose very well for minor offenders, but was hardly secure enough to im- prison desperate criminals, several of whom escaped from it, but it was made to answer the purpose until 1857, when it was replaced by a brick and stone building, with a house for the sheriff attached, and cost $12,000. It was re- placed in 1903 by another, with all the latest im- provements, at a cost of $20,000.
In the organization of the county we have al- ready mentioned that the county commissioners divided the county into four justices' or voting districts.
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PAST AND PRESENT OF MARSHALL AND PUTNAM COUNTIES.
No. 1, Lafayette precinct, comprised all of the county west of the river below or south of town- ships 12 and 13, and consisted of what are now the towns of Steuben and La Prairie.
No. 2, Henry precinct, consisted of all the coun- ty west of the river and north of the Lafayette precinct, and consisted of what are now the towns of Henry, Whitefield and Saratoga.
No. 3, Lacon precinct, consisted of all the county east of the river and west of the third principal meridian, and was made up of what are now the towns of Lacon, Hopewell and Richland.
No. 4, Lyons precinct, was that part of the county west of the meridian comprising what are now the townships of Roberts and Belle Plain.
The third principal meridian was at that time the eastern boundary of the county, townships 29 and 30, range 1 east, having since been added to it.
Besides dividing the county into voting districts they also divided it into fourteen road districts and assessed each able-bodied man a poll tax of three days' labor to be applied upon the roads in his district.
As there was no court house, a room was rented from Elisha Swan in which the circuit clerk, coun- ty clerk, county recorder and probate judge all held their offices, and of which the rental was not to exceed $75 per annum.
For their own use the commissioners rented of a man by the name of Coutlett, to whom they al- lowed the munificent sum of $2.00 for rent of room and fuel for their four days' use. They also voted themselves a per diem of $2.50 and fixed the pay of jurymen at 75 cents a day, they to board themselves.
In 1839 a tax was levied of forty cents on the one hundred dollars, for county purposes, the tax amounting to $875. Of this Silas Ramsey, who was sheriff and collector, collected $787.12.
In June, 1840, the regular decennial census was taken, the first in Marshall county. The enumera- tion gave the population as 1,849, of which 993 were males and 854 females; no negroes or In- dians.
In 1850 the county, which had been rapidly fill- ing up with settlers, had increased in population from 1,849 in 1840 to 5,180, and having at the November election of the previous year decided to adopt the system of township organization, in March, 1850, Samuel Camp, Addison Ramsey and Nathan Patton were appointed commissioners to "divide the county into convenient townships."
CHAPTER VIII.
TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION.
As mentioned in the foregoing chapter, town- ship organization was adopted in Marshall county in 1850.
The commissioners appointed concluded in most cases to set off the congressional townships, and proceeded to name them, with the help of the in- habitants, as follows:
Town 30 N., range 1 E., 3d p. m., Evans.
Town 30 N., range 1 W., 3d p. m., Roberts.
Town 30 N., range 2 W., 3d p. m., Hopewell. Town 29 N., range 1 W., 3d p. m., Belle Plain. Town 29 N., range 2 W., 3d p. m., Richland. Town 13 N., range 9 E., 4th p. m., Whitefield. Town 12 N., range 9 E., 4th p. m., Steuben. Town 12 N., range 8 E., 4th p. m., Fairfield. Fractional town, 13-10 E., 4th p. m., Henry.
And fractional townships 29 and 30 N., range 3 E., 3d p. m., Lacon.
At the time of laying off the townships, town 13, 8 E., 4th p. m., and town 29 N., 1 W., 3d p. m., had none or very few inhabitants, and did not at that time come under the organization, but in 1855 town 13 N., 8 E., was called Saratoga, and town 29, 1 W. of 3d p. m., was in 1856 named Benning- ton. The name Fairfield was found to have been used in other places and was changed to La Prairie.
The first board of supervisors held their first meeting at the court house in Lacon on the 11th day of November, 1850. It was composed of Henry Snyder, John B. White, George W. Bettes, Amasa Garrett, William Maxwell, Albert Ramsey, Reuben F. Ball, Charles S. Edwards, James Gib- son and Theodore Perry. William Maxwell was chosen chairman.
About the time that the township organization was adopted the county received a great impetus in the way of new inhabitants and in the matter of improvements. Comfortable frame houses with shingle roofs and sawed board floors were being built by the newcomers instead of the small log cabins with their clapboard roofs and puncheon floors. Also barns for the storing of grain and hay, as well as horses, began to appear here and there, and sheds for the protection of cattle. Farms also began to be improved, the lands fenced and broken, and prepared for cultivation. Men who had thought that fifteen or twenty acres was enough to farm began to make their fields of forty and eighty acres. The farming implements were
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PAST AND PRESENT OF MARSHALL AND PUTNAM COUNTIES.
also improved, the wooden mold and cast iron plows being supplanted by steel plows, which were more or less given to scouring; the mower and reaper began to take the place of the scythe and cradle, and threshing machines that separated the grain from the chaff taking the place of the flail.
Especially was this true of the west side, which had not appealed to settlers, for some reason or other, nearly as inviting as the east side. At any rate, nearly if not quite two-thirds of the popula- tion of Marshall county was living on the east side of the river. So much was this so that the early settlers of Whitefield came from the east side of the river, from the neighborhood of Mag- nolia and Caledonia, feeling they were crowded out by the settlements becoming too thick.
It must not be inferred, however, that the adop- tion of township organization was the only cause that was making these important changes or even that it was the principal one. That it had an in- fluence, however, there is no doubt. Probably the principal factor in settling up Marshall county about this time was the completion of the Illi- nois and Michigan canal in 1848.
Up to this time the settlers had literally no mar- ket for anything but their pork. The pork pack- ing business received early attention in Lacon, and as it had much to do with the prosperity of the inhabitants in the early days, it deserves more than a passing mention. As early as 1837 the firm of Fenn, Howe & Co. went into the pork packing business, and the following year Elisha Swan bought and cut up three thousand hogs. Most of these hogs were killed by the farmers and the carcasses were bought and cut up. In 1840 Jabez Fisher & Co. began to buy hogs and erected a slaughter house, and soon monopolized the whole business and drew their trade from a circle of about forty miles, handling during the season an average of ten thousand hogs or more, and paying out from two hundred to three hundred thou- sand dollars for hogs, wages, etc.
The product was shipped by boats going down the river, the boats often making their entire cargo of pork, and going direct to New Orleans. The making of the barrels was also an important industry, employing from fifteen to twenty men throughout the entire year. The number of men employed in the entire business was not far from one hundred during the busy season, and brought to the city and county many of the men who later became prominent and useful citizens. The price
paid for pork ran from $1.75 to $2.50 per hundred pounds, according to the weight of the hog, heavy hogs bringing more, accordingly, than light ones. Another great advantage to the county was the money paid out by the Fishers. It was the time of the "wildcat banks," as they were called, and the currency from them, with which the country had been flooded in the flush times of 1836 and 1837, was practically worthless and only taken at large discounts, which varied from day to day, and the tax collectors absolutely refused to take it.
The gold and silver had been driven out of the country by the cheap money and money to pay taxes was almost impossible to obtain. In this di- lemina Mr. Fisher made arrangements with a bank in Boston, Massachusetts, to furnish him money. Mr. Fisher had the confidence of the entire coun- try as being a man of the strictest integrity. He offered to guarantee all money he paid out and such was the extent of that confidence that the tax collectors gave "notice" that they would re- ceive "Boston money" as they called it at par.
Up to 1850 this was about the only way the farmers had to get money, except a few deer hides and furs they might have, but for farm produce there was no cash market. Wheat, to be sure, in Chicago brought cash, twenty-five cents a bushel, but it was necessary to haul it in wagons, and a man who took a load to Chicago and paid his ex- penses on the way had just a "long bit," twelve and one-half cents left of the proceeds.
It is true that some wheat was hauled to Chi- cago, but it was necessary, to save any of the pro- ceeds, to carry provisions and blankets and camp along the road. The trip occupied about a week.
Corn was nominally worth about ten cents a bushel, but no one wanted any. There was no sale for it.
The opening of the canal changed this. While the prices were not much advanced, things could be sold at home. Boats would come to the land- ing, the grain was bought here and then shipped to Chicago or St. Louis.
About this same time the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific railroad was projected, and in the years 1853 and 1854 the Peoria branch was built through the townships of Henry and Steuben. Many of the men who had worked building the road, charmed by the beauty of the country and fertility of the land, settled near the road, some in the towns and some on farms in the country, and became some of our most useful and prominent
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PAST AND PRESENT OF MARSHALL AND PUTNAM COUNTIES.
citizens, building up a competency for themselves and raising noble families of boys and girls who became some of our best citizens.
About this time, too, immigration from the New England states, New York and Pennsylvania, be- gan to come in by great numbers. These men had more money, better ideas of profitable farming and more energy or at least were more accustomed to work.
Many of the earlier settlers sold out to them and the entire country began to put on a new aspect. Land began to advance in value, the towns began to fill up with merchants, mechanics and grain buyers, stocks of goods increased, hotels were built and banks opened, business began to flourish and the county began to reap some of the pros- perity which it has enjoyed to so great an extent ever since.
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