USA > Illinois > Rock Island County > Past and present of Rock Island County, Ill., containing a history of the county-its cities, towns, etc., a biographical directory of its citizens, war record of its volunteers in the late Rebellion, portraits of early settlers and prominent men > Part 15
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 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65
"Rock Island, Ill., Oct. 25, 1861.
T. J. PICKETT. Government Agent."
Copies of the above memorial were freely distributed among the mem- bers of Congress and laid on the desk of every Senator and Representative. An act of Congress providing for the Arsenal and Armory, and making an appropriation of $100,000, was passed July 11, 1862. In May of the fol- lowing year a commission, composed of Major F. D. Callander, Major C. P. Kingsbury and Captain F. J. Treadwell, was sent by the Ordnance Department to locate the proposed Arsenal building on Rock Island. Sites also for magazines on the island were recommended by the commission. The report was adopted, and Major Kingsbury was ordered to take charge of the work of construction. He arrived in August, 1863, and on the 3d day of September broke ground for the government building at the lower end of the island.
From an article prepared by Captain L. M. Haverstick, and published in the Chicago Inter-Ocean, we quote the following, with a few changes adapting it to our purpose:
" An arsenal merely ' for the storage and repair of arms ' was not what the Ordnance Department contemplated, nor what the country needed at Rock Island. . Therefore in August, 1865, General T. J. Rodman was assigned to the command of the island, with instructions to prepare plans for an armory and arsenal combined, where small arms and other munitions of war could be manufactured, as well as repaired and stored. The great scientific knowledge and long experience of General Rodman peculiarly fitted him for this work, and the result was an elaborate plan, equal to the wants and interests of the country."
GENERAL RODMAN'S PLANS
were submitted to Congress during the session of 1865, and approved. An appropriation was made to begin work on the new buildings; and from that time forward steady progress has been made towards their completion.
A portion of the island had been sold under a special act of Congress. The Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Company had located their track across the island and built upon its banks the abutments for their bridges. When the government decided to utilize the island for a perma- rent and extensive manufacturing depot, it was found necessary to buy out the interests of the private parties and of the railroad company. A com-
138
HISTORY OF ROCK ISLAND COUNTY.
mission, consisting of General J. M. Scofield, Selden. M. Church and Jas. Barnes, was appointed to appraise the lands on the island owned by individ- uals. An act of Congress approved June 27, 1866, appropriated the money necessary to buy out their claims, authorized the relocation of the railroad · bridge, and provided for compensating the railroad company for changing its route across the island. The same act made an appropriation to begin work on the development of the water-power. Under this and subsequent acts the government united with the railroad company in the erection of the magnificent iron bridge which now spans the main channel of the river, sharing in the expense and securing a free wagon way in addition to the railroad tracks. Thus the dangers and obstructions incident to a railroad passing over the body of the island were removed, the government and the public secured safe and ready passage between the island and the Iowa shore, and by the relocation and widening of the draw, the interests of navi- gation on the river were greatly subserved. The island is connected with the Illinois shore by two iron wagon bridges-one at Moline and the other at the city of Rock Island. The railroad company has an independent iron bridge across the Illinois channel. These bridges are all of superior strength and material, and make the island readily accessible from both sides of the river.
TIIE PLAN OF THE ORDNANCE DEPARTMENT
Contemplates the erection of five armory and five arsenal workshops, uni- form in size and dimensions, and each with a corresponding store-house attached for receiving and issuing the manufactured work, separate build- ings for filling cartridges and shells, and the necessary magazines for storing powder and ammunition; also officers' quarters, soldiers' barracks, hospitals, office, and other buildings common to a military post. The plan inchides an ample reservoir for the supply of water, a thorough system of sewerage, and the construction of roads and avenues for utilizing and beautifying the island. The shops will be run by water power, though the buildings and machinery will be so constructed that steam power may be readily attached in case of necessity. The shops will each have a front of 110 feet; depth, 300 feet; with a court opening from the rear 90 feet wide and 210 feet deep. This court serves the double purpose of light and ventillation, as well as for the location of boiler-rooms and smoke-stacks, should steam power be introduced. Excepting the foundry and forging shops, each of these build- ings will have two main stories, with high basement and attic. Of ten pro- posed workshops, six are either completed or in course of construction. Two are fitted with machinery, and are used for preparing the wood and iron work for the remaining shops and in the manufacture of the machinery required for them. These buildings are of the most durable and substan- tial character. The walls are of heavy Joliet rock, roughly dressed; the supporting columns are of iron and stone; the joist, rafters and stairways of iron; the roof of slate; spouts and gutters of copper; and the ceilings are formed of successive arches of brick resting on the rim of the iron joists. Thus, neither noise nor fire can be communicated from one floor to another. Nothing has been wasted in useless ornament-nothing has been spared that would add to durability and strength. There are also completed four sets of permanent officers' quarters; a soldiers' barracks, with ample
139
HISTORY OF ROCK ISLAND COUNTY.
accommodations for 180 men; a post building, comprising rooms for the quartermaster and commissary departments, guard house and steam fire engine, and a powder magazine 36 by 80 feet.
AFTER THE WAR
Immense quantities of ordnance stores, both such as had been intended for our own armies and such as had been captured from the rebels, were shipped to Rock Island for storage. Much of the confused mass was found unser- viceable, and was from time to time sold at public auction. It was mostly purchased by second-hand dealers and by iron founders, though it is said that some of the cannon bought by private parties were afterwards sold to South American countries where the art of war has not reached so high a degree of development as with us. At present two-thirds of the United States army is supplied with ordnance stores from this arsenal, requiring frequent and heavy shipments both to and from Rock Island.
WHAT REMAINS TO BE DONE.
According to the plan of the department there yet remains to be con- structed four of the ten workshops, a hospital, an office building, such store- houses as may be needed, and a series of laboratories or "filling rooms," where the powder is put into the cartridges and shells. It is designed to construct these laboratories of light iron frames, to which wooden sides and roofs will be lightly attached, so as to offer little resistance in case of explo- sion, and thus lessen alike the possible damage and danger. The slightest shock would knock them to pieces and give the exploding powder easy vent.
An idea may be formed of the completed establishment when it is stated that the ten workshops will have an area of thirty-six acres of shop floor; that it will require 2,000 horse-power to run all the machinery; that it will require from 7,000 to 10,000 employees to run the shops to their full capacity; that the five armory buildings can turn ont 3,000 breech-loading rifles per day, and the five arsenal buildings a corresponding amount of am- munition, and the various infantry, cavalry and artillery equipments.
COST OF THE WORKS./
Buildings such as these, are necessarily costly; but no observant person can visit the island without being impressed with the strict economy that pervades every branch of the works. The first study of the officers in charge is to do the work right; the next is to do it economically. The wooden buildings erected on the island in 1863, were torn down and con- verted into temporary shops, in which was done much of the iron work and all of the wood work, such as doors, sash, frames, floors, etc., used in the erection of the permanent shops, barracks and officers' quarters. The ma- chinery was subsequently removed from the old shops to the new, and such additions made to it as will enable the commandant to do still more of the future work by his mechanics, and at a material saving to the government. Not only this, but he designs making a considerable portion of the ma- chinery required to equip the remaining shops, having demonstrated that he can do so at less cost than to buy from private manufacturers. In the
140
HISTORY OF ROCK ISLAND COUNTY.
meantime he is training up a force of skilled mechanics whose experience may prove serviceable to the government in case an emergency should sud- denly call the same machinery into active service.
UTILIZING REFUSE AMMUNITION.
Vast piles of unserviceable and obsolete ammunition have been sent to the island; shot and shell of every possible calibre and of every imaginable and unimaginable style of construction-shrapnel, grape, canister, and fragments of broken cannon. These are being recast in the arsenal foun- dry, and by a small addition of new metal are made to do duty in the iron columns and stairways of the new buildings, and even in the water and sewer pipes beneath them. The brass and copper bands and plugs found on the old shells are first carefully removed. These pass into the bronze door- knobs, saslı-pulleys, and various other articles of practical and peaceful utility. The old gun carriages are new drays, carts, and stone wagons, la- boring to build up, not to batter down and destroy.
THE MANY ADVANTAGES OF ROCK ISLAND,
As the site of the future great armory and arsenal of the nation are so ap- parent to one familiar with the spot that it seems like telling an old story to recount them. The beanty and healthfulness of the location, its accessi- bility from all quarters, both by rail and river, and the consequent facility for shipping to and from either the raw material or its products, the vast water-power at its side, the rich coal fields at hand to furnish fuel for steam, the large body of skilled workmen in the vicinity, trained in our various private manufacturing concerns, of which the government can avail itself in an emergency, the cheapness of labor and the cheapness of building ma- terials at this point-these are only a few of the many advantages which suggest themselves. Nor is it an improbable supposition that the progress of iron manufacture in the West will, in the course of a few years, establish smelting furnaces and rolling mills at convenient points, where the splendid ores of Missouri and Lake Superior will be converted into merchantable iron as cheaply as it is now done in the iron regions of Pennsylvania.
PERSONAL.
It is due to the memory of the late Gen. T. J. Rodman to say that the chief credit for originating the plans of the government establishment on Rock Island, belongs to him, and that in all his efforts to push the great work, he was supported by the late Gen. Dyer, then chief of the Ordnance Department. The arduous labors, both mental and physical, which the task devolved on him, undoubtedly hastened Gen. Rodman's death. He lived to see his great work well under way-a work which is a grander monu- ment than the plain but impressive shaft which marks his tomb on the island.
Col: D. W. Flagler, the present commandant, likewise had a difficult task before him in assuming General Rodman's place. He had. to familiar- ize himself with the plans and details of the work, change and modify where
141
IIISTORY OF ROCK ISLAND COUNTY.
an advantage could be gained, and carry it forward in the face of a growing national stringency in finance, and harassed by congressional legislation on the labor question and other topics affecting the progress of the work.
GOVERNMENT APPROPRIATIONS.
The following are the appropriations which have been made for the va- rious departments of the government works on the island from the com- mencement to the present: 1862, $100,000; 1866, $493,600; 1867, $886,500; 1868, $380,000; 1869, $1,000,000; 1870, $660,000; 1871, $688,000; 1872, $752,000; 1873, $554,100; 1874, $400,150; 1875, $309,500; 1877, $136,000; 1878, $155,000-making a grand total of $6,614,850. This amount has been expended in the following sums, for the purposes named: Arsenal, $1,286,500; payment of claims for land, $293,600; development of water- power, $695,400; store-houses and barracks, $222,500; Rock Island bridge, $1,136,400; repairs and improvements, $353,000; workshops, $1,885,350; avennes and streets, $38,000; repairing quarters, $5,000; purchasing and laying pipe, $21,850; subaltern officers' quarters. $78,750; machinery, tools and new shops, $192,500; Moline bridge, $100,000; powder magazine, $15,000. These appropriations and the specific objects to which they have been applied are given as reported by the War Department, except those of the two last years-$136,000 for 1877, and $155,000 for 1878-the specific objects of which are not mentioned.
ROCK ISLAND MILITARY PRISON.
By order of the War Department, in July, 1863, Rock Island was made a military prison for the confinement of Confederate prisoners. During the same month Capt. Charles A. Reynolds, Assistant Quartermaster United States Army, arrived, and commenced building a prison and barracks. The first soldiers for guard duty arrived November 3, 1863. Lient .- Col. Schaffner arrived on the 19th of November, and took command. On the 22d Col. Richard Henry Rush arrived and took command of the post, and Col. A. J. Johnson was appointed in charge of the prisoners. The first installment of prisoners, taken at the battle of Lookout Mountain, arrived from Chat- tanooga Dec. 3, 1863, and from that time till the close 'of the war a large number of prisoners were kept under a strong guard upon the island. The whole number of prisoners confined here was 12,215; the number of deaths was 1,960. About 500 died of small-pox, a great many of scurvy, and others of various diseases, chiefly pneumonia. They were put into rough boxes and buried in trenches. The corner-posts of the cemetery where their ashes repose, are composed of cannon taken from the Confederates, planted with their muzzles in the ground, and, of late, strung around with chains, forming the enclosure. Within this enclosure sleep nearly 2,000 Confederate dead. At a few of the graves friends of the deceased have erected plain headstones, and placed on them a few simple and tonching inscriptions. Who cannot feel, while standing in the presence of these graves of 2,000 misguided men-enemies once, perhaps, but enemies no longer-the full force of the following words:
·
one of 122002-2
142
HISTORY OF ROCK ISLAND COUNTY.
"The reconciling grave
Swallows distinction first, which made us foes. Here lurks no treason, here no envy swells, Here grow no damned grudges, here no storms, No noise, but silence and eternal sleep."
POST CEMETERY.
There is also near the head of the island a Union soldiers' cemetery. where 310 graves are enclosed by a neat iron fence. This was, till recently, one of the national cemeteries, but has been changed to the Post Cemetery, and will hereafter be used only as a burial place for those who die in the government service at the Arsenal and Armory.
CITY OF ROCK ISLAND.
The city of Rock Island is a well laid-out and substantially built town containing a population of about 12,000. It is situated on the Illinois side of the Mississippi River, at the foot of the Upper Rapids, and just below the western extremity of the island of Rock Island, from which it derives its name. The situation of the city is one of the most beautiful that can well be imagined. The bluffs on the Iowa side approach the shore, so that the city of Davenport lies chiefly on the hillsides and over their summits; on the Rock Island side they recede to the distance of more than a mile, leaving a broad and beautiful plain upon which the city is built. This plain is sufficiently elevated to afford a dry and healthy location, and is bounded by the river in front, forming a graceful curve southward at the lower end of the city, and in the rear of the distant hills which form a charming background to the city plat. On this plain the space is amply sufficient for a city of a hundred thousand inhabitants. From almost any point of observation in this vicinity the views are very fine. They combine a land- scape of mingled art and nature; the cities of Rock Island, Davenport and Moline, with their tall spires and smoking factories; the island of Rock Island in the broad, bright channel of the Mississippi, and connected with both shores by its magnificent iron bridges. Looking up the river towards the Island, the bridges, with their piers and spans, are seen stretching across a space of three-quarters of a mile, at the point formerly occupied by old Fort Armstrong, while in the distance rises the tall smoke-stack of the Government Works, the Arsenal and Armory, almost hidden in the trees which in this part of the Island have been preserved, and the grounds converted into a beautiful sylvan park. Over this property of the Govern- ment, seen not near enough to discern distinctly its stars and stripes, floats the symbol of the national anthority, the United States flag.
The Island, the Arsenal works and grounds, and the wonderful improve- inents of the water power, constitute the chief points of attraction to visit- ors at Rock Island.
EARLY HISTORY.
FARNIIAMSBURG AND STEPHENSON.
The city of Rock Island was preceded by the town of Farnhamsburg, the first settlement on this side of the river within the present city limits.
143
HISTORY OF ROCK ISLAND COUNTY.
Here the first house was built by Col. Davenport and Russell Farnham, partners in the Indian trade, in 1826. It stood near the landing from old Fort Armstrong, in the vicinity of the present depot of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, and was a noted place in the early history of Rock Island County. Here the County government was formed, the first elections held, and the first post office established; it was the seat of the Circuit and County Courts from 1833 to 1835.
This original seat of justice of the County was superseded by the town of Stephenson, a village laid out in what is now the lower part of the city of Rock Island, in 1835. It was laid out by the Commissioners authorized by the Legislature to establish the seat of justice for Rock Island County, and contained the present county grounds, with a portion of the present county buildings. Here are still standing many of the earlier buildings erected by the pioneers, and here were inaugurated many of the first insti- tutions of Rock Island. Stephenson was the cradle of Rock Island, the nursery of much of that intellectual and social life which has since expanded into the larger and intenser life of the city. The founder of the first news- paper here, in 1839, thus speaks of the old town of Stephenson, as it appeared to him in 1840: "The inhabitants of the town and its environs could not be surpassed, if equaled, by any city in the West, for men of intelligence ---- courteous and kind in everything. Our judiciary consisted of Judge Stone, who was very soon superseded by Judge Brown; our bar con- sisted of Joseph Knox, Joseph B. Wells, J. Wilson Drury and H. G. Rey- nolds; the clerk of the Court was an old bachelor, Joseph Conway, brother of Miles Conway, who, with a Mr. Cooper, composed the magistracy of the village; while our medical department was represented by Dr. Gregg alone, a man eminent in his profession.
"There were three stores in the place, kept by John Meller, Lemuel Andrews, and a Mr. Kauffman. Two more came afterwards, viz., Mr. Bond and Mr. Moore. There was one tinning establishment, Lee & Chamber- lain's; one saddler's shop, J. M. Frizzell's; one cabinet maker's and one gunsmith's shop; three taverns, Mr. Bently's, on the river bank; Buffune's, back of the Court House square; and the Rock Island House, on Main street, kept by A. Vancourt & Brothers. This was the leading hotel at that day. There was one restaurant, and one other, called a saloon for the want of a more appropriate name. One minister of the gospel-Presby- terian-Rev. Mr. Stewart, preached in a little school-house back of Dr. Gregg's residence on Main street-our only church, lyceum and town hall. The Powers family, Guernseys and old Mr. Vandruff, who lived on the island in Rock River, and kept a ferry at the Rapids, and something for the "inner man," were among the first settlers of Rock Island. There were but few places of any note above Quincy, Ill. Where Keokuk now stands, there was a trading post kept by a half-breed, who sold liquor to the Sac and Fox Indians, and engaged in towing barges over the Rapids with horses, to Fort Montrose. At the east side of the Mississippi, at the head of the Rapids, at a place then called "Commerce," was situated a stone warehouse where passing steamers discharged freight for the surrounding country. The Mormons had a short time previous been driven out of Missouri, and they encamped on the west bank of the river, awaiting trans- portation to the Illinois side to build the city of Nauvoo, and their wagons and equipage presented the appearance of an army encamped. The town of Burlington, Iowa, had but few houses. . .. Bloomington, now Musca-
144
HISTORY OF ROCK ISLAND COUNTY.
tine, contained about six houses, and had the appearance of being a very sickly place, if I could judge from the looks of the citizens who came aboard the steamer."
This has reference to the summer of 1838, when the writer, Mr. Henry C. McGrew, came up the river. In all the distance described, from Quincy to the lead mines at Galena, Stephenson was then the most noted steamboat landing. Here, for many years, travelers from the "Sangamon Country " and Fort Clark, reached the river on their way to Galena, and the mineral regions north.
TOWN OF ROCK ISLAND.
The Town of Rock Island came into being as a new edition of Steph- enson, enlarged and revised by an Act of the Legislature, passed in March, 1841. This Act changed the name to Rock Island, and incorporated the latter as a town under a board of nine trustees. The trustees of the old village held over till the next annual election in September, but a special election was held on the first Monday in April for four other trustees, who, together with the five old trustees, constituted the new board. The addi- tional trustees elected were : John Buford, George W. Lynde, Lemuel Andrews, and James M. Bellows.
The boundaries of the town. as defined by this act, were made to in- clude "all that portion of land contained within the limits of the plat of the town of Stephenson, and all the additions thereto, as of record in the Recorder's Office, in the County of Rock Island." By consulting the re- cords, we find that the following additions had been made : Thompson & Wells' Addition, April 5, 1836; Spencer & Case's Addition, May 17, 1836; and Jones, Gurnsey & Beardsley's, known as the Chicago or Lower Addi- tion, October 22, 1836. About seventy additions have since been made to the city, extending its limits to something like four square miles, viz : a mile and a quarter in average width, by about three and a half miles in length. Its eastern boundary coincides with the western corporate limits of the City of Moline, and thus the two cities join each other, and are con- nected by a street railway, as well as by the regular passenger trains on the railroads.
THE CITY GOVERNMENT.
The City Government of Rock Island was organized under a new Char- ter, in 1849, and the following is a complete list of the Mayors from that date to the present : 1849, Benjamin F. Barrett (Whig); 1850, Joshua H. Hatch (Whig); 1851, P. A. Whitaker (Dem.); 1852 and '53, William Friz- zell (Dem.); 1854, Ben. Harper (Whig); 1855, Benjamin F. Barrett (Whig); 1856, William Bailey (Whig); 1857, Patrick Gregg (Dem.); 1858 and '59, Thomas J. Buford (Dem.); 1860, Calvin Trusdale (Rep.); 1861, '62, '63, '64 and '65, Bailey Davenport (Dem.); 1866, Calvin Trusdale (Rep.); 1867, William Eggleston (Dem.), resigned August 5; 1867, B. H. Kimball (Dem.) to fill vacancy; 1868, Thomas Murdock (Rep.); 1869, James M. Buford (Dem.); 1870, Porter Skinner (Dem.); 1871, Elijah Carter (Rep.); 1872, Thomas Murdock (Rep.); 1873, Bailey Davenport (Dem.); 1874, Thomas Galt (Rep.); 1875, Bailey Davenport (Dem.); 1876, '77 and '78, William P. Butler (Rep.).
V
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.