Past and present of the city of Quincy and Adams County, Illinois, Part 10

Author: Collins, William H. (William Hertzog), 1831-1910; Perry, Cicero F., 1855- [from old catalog] joint author; Tillson, John, 1825-1892. History of the city of Quincy, Illinois. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Chicago, S. J. Clarke Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1228

USA > Illinois > Adams County > Quincy > Past and present of the city of Quincy and Adams County, Illinois > Part 10

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Levi Wells, mentioned in a former chapter, one of the very earliest of the pioneer settlers, was at this time engaged in merchandizing in his own building. near the southwest corner of Fifth and Maine, part of which he occupied as a residence. To his general store he and a Mr. Morey, added what was. perhaps (though small), the largest assortment of druggist stock in the place.

Tillson & Pitkin, at the old postoffice, corner of Fourth and Maine, represented the oldest then existing mercantile house of the town. that of Tillson & Holmes, founded in 1828. Seth

PAST AND PRESENT OF ADAMS COUNTY.

L. Pitkin, the junior partner, was a Connecti- eut man. of excellent character and business qualifications, but, like many such men, seemed to labor under misfortune. Mr. Pitkin was a relative of ['. S. Penfield, and Mr. Penfield and Thomas Pope also were elerks in this store at a somewhat later date.

The firm of Berry & Parker, changed during the year to Berry & Skinner, transacted a live- ly business at the corner of Fourth and Damp- shire. They were brothers-in-law. They were not successful in business and have long since passed away, not far distant in the dates of their death.

Among the merchants who are yet (1866) alive and residing here, are Samuel Jackson, from Charlestown, Mass., who opened a store this year on Hampshire street, about opposite the Tremont House, and Samuel P. and Clark B. Church, New Englanders, but from Pitts- burg here, who located on Fourth street, on the west side, near Jersey. George Hunting- don. long since deceased, opened the first ex- elusively commission house. Montandon & Kimball late in the year began business imme- diately east of where the Newcomb Hotel stands. This was Deacon Kimball and I. L. Montandon. the silversmith (of whom here- after). A tin store kept by A. Maddock, from Cincinnati, on Front, at the corner of Vermont, was perhaps the first store of this kind.

The grocers. as such, were Thos. C. and Wm. King and Wm. P. Reeder, on Hampshire street, near Fourth, and Win. Curtis & Co. on the same street, near Sixth. We say "as such" because these professed to be solely grocers, while the fact was, that nearly all of the stores kept more or less of an assortment of groceries, hardware and everything besides that was saleable.

The names above given comprehend almost the entire "class mercantile" of the place. There doubtless are some omissions, but not many.

C. Brown, on Maine street, west of the bonnet store, and May and Robidoux. on Front, or Water street, as it was then called, between Maine and Hampshire, operated small bakeries. Conrad Broseal, the early baker does not ap- pear to have been in business at this time.

Of the blacksmiths who had shops, Harrison Dills, who came in 1834, from Virginia, and located at the corner of Hampshire and Sixth. and Jos. Galbraith. a Pennsylvanian, and David Karnes were about all. The last two, with their families, are gone. Asa Tyrer, the pioneer blacksmith, of 1825, was not then (1835) work- ing. Mr. A. C. Lightfoot and a Mr. Sykes, were the leading stone masons. The first named was a man of considerable influence and energy

in public affairs. Wagomakers, wheelwrights and coachmakers may be elassed together. Of these A. C. Root and Carter & Walker ap- pear to be the only parties who had shops. Sam Seward. the first wagonmaker of 1826, had long since disappeared. There were sev- eral carpenter shops and plenty of carpen- ters, though many were but temporary resi- dents, drawn hither from the neighborhood by the opening opportunities for work, and many of these were but rough workmen. Nathaniel Summers, from Kentucky, who set- tled in 1829, was the earliest of the boss car- penters. There were also T. C. King, from Virginia : J. C. Sprague, a New Yorker,- Purnell, the Winters, Charles Green. Amos W. Harris and others.

Mr. Harris may be called the pioneer in the Inmber trade which forms so great a factor in our present prosperity. since in addition to his carpenter's shop he established the first Imber vard of any extent. The only gunsmith was Joseph Musser, whose shop stood about where the Occidental hotel now is. He died a few years since at La Grange, Mo. James Ale- Quoid. Walby and Albright were butchers. James II. Unce, who had for some years kept a chairmaker's shop, on Fourth near Jersey, was still so engaged. Mr. Imce, accidentally shot himself while hunting at Lima lake. Dur- ing this year there came Wm. Townley from New York, who added to his cabinet making business that of carriage and ornamental paint- ing. This was an advance on whitewash. Whitewash, to use a soleeism, was the chief coloring material in general use. Paint as yet. was not in general nse. Even "God's Barn" was unpainted, remaining so for many years. until it became somebody else's barn.

George Wood, from New York, on the north side of the public square, who later in the year associated with himself S. Halsey, and R. B. Wilmoth were cabinet makers also. Among the saddlers and harness makers, Levi B. AHen, before named as the first of the trade in 1825, was still in business on Maine, west of Fourth. There were also Lytle Griffin, who soon moved to Columbus, and Cornelins Conley. B. Pea- body carried on a wool-carding business on the north side of Maine, about midway between Third and Fourth : he died during the year. The only livery stable, which, also, was the first to be established in the city, was that of John B. Young and Martin Ladner. on the north side of Hampshire, west of Third, just where the wind- ing road from the river reached the main town level. There were three or four cooper shops ; one was that of George W. Chapman, at the southwest corner of Third and Hampshire.

PAST AND PRESENT OF ADAMS COUNTY.

right good fellow was Chapman; he was very round shouldered, for which he cared little. per- haps enjoyed it, as he used to tell with much glee, how Thomson, a big, noisy harum scarmm painter, once said to him, "George, what a splendid, full chested man you would be if your head was turned the other way. " He left here a few years later for Texas, where he died, and few men had more friends.

Wells & Morgan E. Wells and J. D. Mor- gan) had also a cooperage establishment in a log cabin on the northwest corner of the Public Square. and a shop run by John Watts, we think in connection with the steam mill, was at the foot of Delaware street. There were four tailor shops: that of J. P. Bert, father of the present well known Bert family, on Fourth street, opposite God's barn, of Louis Cosson, who had bought ont Michael Mast, and was as eccentric a Gaul as Mr. Mast was a Tenton. and Il. B. Swartz, both on the west side of the public square. and S. Leachman's. on Hamp- shire near Sixth. Mr. Bert died in 1860, re- gretted as he had been respected in life. Mr. Cosson, leaving a prosperous tailoring business engaged in other pursuits, steamboating, at the last, and died in St. Louis.

HI. L. Montanden was the first, and for a long time. the only silversmith and jeweler. His shop was at the corner of Maine and Fifth, over IHolmes' store, afterward moved immediately east of Brown's hotel, where he engaged in merchandise with Deacon E. B. Kimball. The latter, with Mr. White, soon after took the steam mill of J. T. Holmes & Co .. and ran the same for many years. Montanden, who moved to Iowa some years later, was a worthy kind of a man and something of a character. Gov. Wood used to tell, with his well known zest, of his calling on Montanden with a gentleman who desired to have his watch repaired. M., after examining, declined to touch it, saying, "I can do good blacksmith work on all the watches about here, but yours, Mr. T., is too fine a watch for me to meddle with." "Well." said the would-be-customer. "I thank you, and must say that you are too honest a man to be work- ing at what you can't do." Whether this had any effect in influencing his subsequent change in business can't be known, perhaps it had.

QUINCY AS A TOWN-LAND BUSINESS THE QUINCY HOUSE.

Continuing and completing these references to the various business occupations of this year. as summarized by Judge Snow, and mention of

the men who conducted them, we come to what were the principal factors in the promising prospects of the place. These were the Govern- ment Land Office tof which hereafter) and the "land ageney" before named, and the Quincy Tlouse, which latter, although built during the two following years, was projected this year and was born of the land agency and hence may be properly mentioned in this connec- tion. The "land agency" was that of Tillson, Moore & Co., John Tillson. Jr., F. C. Moore. Lloyd Morton. B. F. Willis, and succeeding him on his death about this time. S. (. Sher- man, partners therein. It had been established by Mr. Tillson, at Hamilton, now Hillsboro, in 1820, and in 1834-5 the other parties above named were associated in the firm and the office was transferred to Quincy.

It was a fortunate circumstance that brought it to this place. Had Peoria been selected as the state capital instead of Springfield it would have been taken there, and our rival city would then have reaped the advantage of being the great land center and of having the big hotel.

Few men were as extensively known through- ont this section of the state as these agents, both because of their personal dealings with so many of the incoming settlers and their fre- quent periodical trips into all the counties of the tract.

John Tillson came to the west from Massa- chusetts in 1819, landing at Shawneetown on the same day with Gov. Wood. Spending the following winter in Edwardsville, recording deeds and looking into land business of his own and others. forseeing what fruitful business prospects lay in the lands of the then unsettled Military Tract, he established an agency, as above stated, near the state capital. for the reason, that, then and for some years after, the tax on non-resident lands (which paid state tax only) was paid at the state capital and not in the counties as now. This business grew so rapidly that in two years from that time it comprehended the ageney of almost all the non- resident land in the state. So much so that we have letters from the state anditor saving. "We have our books now ready, please come and pay the state tax." Later, when the taxes by law were paid in the counties, and the general inter- ests of the business required a location near the lands, Mr. Tillson removed with his office to and resided at Quincy until his death. Ile was found dead in his bed at the Peoria house in 1853, having died instantly, as did his father and grandfather, of heart disease. Business perplexities shortened a life that otherwise might have reached, as has those of many of his family before him, to nearly a century. He

PAST AND PRESENT OF ADAMS COUNTY.

was a large man, of unusually rapid and power- ful action, both muscular and mental; thought but little of rising early and walking from his home to Vandalia (the capital) twenty-eight miles distant, in time for breakfast and to at- tend to business for the day. Ilis philanthropy and sagacious publie spirit were part of our early state history. A modest and nnosten- tatious man, he contributed to the welfare of society in many and substantial ways. In the town of his first residence, which he founded, fostered and beautified, making it one of the most attractive villages in the state, he would not permit even a street to be named after him. Many of the earlier beneficial enterprises of the state received from him origin or aid. To one of our oldest educational institutions he private- ly gave a large subscription. conditioned that another should also contribute and that it should hear the name of the latter. We heard Gov. Wood say to him. "If you had come here when I did there would be twice as many peo- ple here by this time."

Francis C. Moore, whom ahnost everybody from Calhoun county to Rock Island used to know, was a polished, graceful gentleman of small stature, singularly alert in thought and action. He was born in New York, brought up with a mercantile edneation, came west in 1834. entered into the land office at Hillsboro, came to Quiney the following year. Ile was the lead- ing partner in the firm of Moore, Morton & Co. for some thirty years, when it went ont of ex- istence. lle was a very attractive man : indus- trions, precise in business, kindly, social, jovial as a boy; a most earnest member of the Epis- copal church, of which he may almost be ealled the father and founder, in this city. He was twice married, leaving a family of eight chil- dren, three of whom were John L. Moore, Mrs. J. T. Baker and Mrs. J. G. Rowland. He died in Omaha, at the residence of one of his chil- dren in 1874.

Lloyd Morton, "Old Uncle Morton," as all called him, for he was one of those slow-man- nered men who seem old when young, was a Massachusetts man, a brother-in-law of Mr. Tillson. He came west in 1829, clerked in the office until 1834, when he became a partner and later brought his family to Qniney. He was an odd man, with a slow, drawling speech, much intelligence and quaint wit. Ile bore through life a proverbial reputation for strong, good judgment and integrity, a special distinetion which few gain who work for it, but which the publie instinet confers upon some men, and rarely bestows it wrongly. lle had singularly cool conrage and determination ; qualities needed and tested among the rough scenes of

earlier days. An odd story is told of him, which is "ower trne." It is said that at the time of the Nelson riots, he came in from his home, the present Buckley place, on Broadway and Twen- ty-fourth, with a gun loaded to the muzzle with shot, slugs, etc., and answered all queries by saying the he meant to point his gun towards the left of the enemy and pull trigger and swing it round to make a swathe through them. Fortunately for all hands, no fight came off. otherwise the story would have been too mourn- ful to be told. He died in 1862, leaving three children, John T. for many years a eirenit judge in Kansas; the late Col. Charley Morton, and one daughter, Joanna.

Seth (. Sherman, whose somewhat recent death and burial on the same day with his wife, is still fresh in memory, was a Vermonter, well edneated and of unusual literary tastes and at- tainments. Ilis library was one of the largest and best selected in the place. He moved to the west about 1830, located at Vandalia, was editor and lawyer while there, thence came to Quiney with the other partners and remained in the business for many years. Ile, with F. C. and Ebenezer Moore, engaged for a time in banking about 1856. He was the first collector of internal revenue for this district. He died in 1879.

Connected with the locating of the land busi- ness in Quincy was the erection of the Quincy llonse. It was, and yet is, a puzzle to some why so large and expensive a building should have been built at such a time in the little town of Quiney. Its anomalons appearance may be con- ceived when we note that there were not a dozen brick buildings in town, only two or three about the square, no building existing over two stories high, and but few such; that no street was graded to the river, the old winding track from about the foot of Vermont to the vicinity of the present City Hall, being the only road from the landing to the square ; that there was no Maine street east of Sixth; that on Hamp- shire all was open country beyond Eighth, that north of Broadway were woods and cornfields. that the same appeared three blocks south of Maine, and the contrasted size and elegance of such a structure may be fairly imagined. It had been the original intention of Mr. Tillson, who built it, to ereet a hotel costing about twenty thousand dollars. Deacon E. B. Kim- ball, who had owned part of the land on which the house was built, was interested in the enter- prise, but the whole was finally taken by Mr. Tillson and the project enlarged with the fol- lowing design. A stock company had been formed, composed of eastern men who owned most of the non-resident land in the Military

PAST AND PRESENT OF ADAMS COUNTY.

Tract, of which Mr. Tillson was made general agent and superintendent.

A large portion of the lands were held by the tax title, under which, indeed, most of the land in this seetion was originally settled and im- proved. It was exceedingly desirable to secure favorable legislation so as to quiet the contests over titles. The state legislature was not par- ticularly zealous to guard the interests of foreign land owners, none the more because these owners were mostly from the east, and it was suggested that if the company owned a sub- stantial improvement and interest their claims and those of persons who bought from them, would be more highly regarded and secure. With this object, Mr. Tillson, built the house at a cost, when furnished, of one hundred and six thousand dollars. It was transferred to the company, which then became the Quincy House Company. The objects were partially ae- complished, favorable legislation as to time and place of recording deeds, the "possession law," ete., being the fruit of this plan; but the bene- ficial results were brief. Between 1835 and 1838 financial reverses came. "Ilard times" such as have never since been felt, stagnated the business of the country, and the Quincy Ilouse Company and all connected with it went down, but the benefits to Quiney from its con- struction were not only immediate, but perma- nent.

Charles Ilowland. from Middleborough, Mass., was the arehiteet. When built, and for some years afterward, the house stood with its lower floor even with the street, but a deeline grade on Maine street and the lowering of Fourth street left the cellar wall on that side about half exposed. and many were the pro- phecies that the wall would fall. But houses in those days were built to stay, and this has stood and shown a strength under a test such as few struetures could bear. It was most thor- oughly built ; cost was nothing as against com- pleteness. The stone work was extra solid for those days, the bricks were pressed, the rafters of best seasoned hard wood; the pine flooring and finishing wood was brought by boat from Pittsburg: the upholstering, furniture, etc., were made in Boston.

Its construction furnished work for more me- chanies than then lived in Quiney. It was opened in 1838, by Wm. Monroe, formerly of the Bloomfield house, Boston. Many will pleas- antly remember that prince of genial, jovial landlords, the stately, substantial landlady, and their three active, attractive daughters. They are all dead. Mr. Monroe, after leaving here with his son-in-law. Charley Andrews, kept the Monroe house in St. Louis, and later the New-

hall house at Milwaukee. It is a little singular that the Quincy house, the finest hotel of its time in the west, and the Newhall house, twen- ty years later the leading western hotel of its day, should have been kept by the same parties, and been destroyed almost at the same time. The house has been operated almost constantly from the first. It was closed in the winter of 1845-6 and 1850-51 for repairs, and once or twice for a brief period, has been since tenant- less. Its landlords after Mr. Monroe have been Miller & Guttery, D. W. Miller, O. M. Sheldon. Floyd & Kidder, Boon & Blossom and one or two others whose names we do not recall, E. S. Morehouse, and lastly Geo. P. Fay.

It was a leading social institution in its early days, a sort of society headquarters. Gaiety gathered in its halls, and whatever was done by the "Quincy Honse ladies" and the many young men who boarded there was society ex cathedra. Those were generous, joyous times. Everybody knew everybody, himself and fam- ily, horse and dog. If you met some one whom von did not know. the first friend you saw could tell you who he was. Quincy was a kind of Rus in urbe. Its seant area and its palatial hotel, combined pastoral freedom with town luxury. Refinement and rurality intertwined. It was but a few moments' walk from a city hotel to a forest seclusion. Game and fish were within hand reach and plenty as blackberries. All this made it an attractive and familiar sum- mer resort from St. Louis and the south.

The impression made on a stranger by such a contrasted condition of things was well told us by Dr. Bartlett, one of the keenest of the old time sportsmen: "I came to Quiney," said he. "knowing nothing of it and nobody in the place, but looking for a place to settle. I got in late at night and only noticed with surprise the size and style of the hotel. which seemed better than in St. Louis. The next morning I looked out of my third story windows but couldn't see much town. It was country all around. I went down stairs and found Mr. Monroe buying a saddle of venison for fifty eents. and just then (it was before breakfast ) Capt. Phillips came in with his gun and dog and a back load of quails which he had shot in Keyes' eornfield. I went upstairs and told my wife that I had found the place to stay."

It was the center for news from abroad and at home. There were no daily papers then, no telegraphie news. It came through the St. Louis papers, or was brought by returning eiti- zens. The big reading room was the place for eoncourse in summer and winter evenings, and though the day of the old house is over and its like will eome never again, there are not a

PAST AND PRESENT OF ADAMS COUNTY.

few lingering grey heads of the place who will pleasantly recall those gossip gatherings in the old office and halls; and the toes of some now stately silvered dames will yet tingle at the sometime recollection of those cadenced foot tappings on the parlor carpets when Taylor and Baker and Bert and Chick, and the "Monroe girls," and the "Merend girls" et id genus ome, struck out fun from joy's freshest foun- tain as they did in old times, and as only old times knew how to do, with the great landlady seated in her cozy whist corner, and her much lesser half, the mirth eyed landlord, rubbing his generous palms and looking smilingly on.

The government land office for the public land distriet which comprised the Military Tract had been located at Quiney in 1831. The office was on the south side of Hampshire street near Sixth, where it remained for a number of years. But little business was then transacted for some time, there being only seventeen en- tries during the first year (1831), the reason for this being that at that time no lands north of Adams county were subject to entry. For some reason, to the writer unknown, the gov- ernment periodically placed only portions of its surveyed land in the market, and although the entire Military Traet had been surveyed in 1815 and '16, it was not until this year that all of the district was thrown open to the public.

The first sale at auction, as lands were then from time to time offered, took place June 15th of this year. From thenee until 1857-8, when most of the lands being entered, the office was transferred to Springfield. this business added largely to the growth of the place. The first Register and Receiver were severally, Samuel Alexander (father of Perry Alexander) and Thomas Carlin. They were succeeded in 1837-8 by Win. G. Flood and Samnel Leech, after whom came, in 1845, Samuel Holmes and Hiram Rogers ; in 1849, Henry Asbury and H. V. Sulli- van, and in 1853. A. (. Marsh and Damon Ulanser, at the expiration of whose term the office was removed.

Of Thomas Carlin mention has been made. Samuel Alexander, the first Register, was a man of much force of character, very rough in manner, extremely earnest and ultra in politics and wielding much influence with his party. Gov. Wood, whose oft-told old stories have in them always a local relish, was wont to tell of his first and second meeting with Alexander. In 1824 political feeling, fanned by the anti- slavery agitation, was at a fever heat. The question of "convention" or "no convention" was voted upon. Convention meant a new pro slavery constitution. No convention meant a

free state. To Gov. Edward Coles are we in- debted for the blessing that Illinois was not then made a slave-holding state. Mr. Wood, immediately after the election, went east and on his way took to Edwardsville, the then state capital, the returns from this section. When the boat on which he traveled stopped at Shawneetown, a crowd came on board and asked to learn how the state had voted. The captain said, "here's a young man just from Edwardsville, perhaps he can tell you." Wood, thus referred to said that "it was thought at Edwardsville that 'convention' was beaten by about 1,500." "It's a d-d lie!" said one of the parties, answering more from his wish than his knowledge. Wood picked up a chair and but for the interposition of the captain a small civil war was imminent.

Nine years after, as John Wood tells it, "a man, all alone, in a canoe, paddled up to op- posite my cabin at the foot of Delaware street, landed and staid with me over night. Ile told me that his name was Alexander, that he had come to open the land office of which he had been appointed Register." While at supper he said, "I think I've seen you before." Mr. Wood then told him that he was the man who at Shawneetown gave him the lie for reporting the result of the election of 1824. "Oh, no," says Alexander, "it must have been some other d d fool," and although Wood on every con- venient oreasion hinted at this story of the first meeting, Alexander's memory could only be re- freshed by the statement that "it was some other d d fool."

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Past and present of the city of Quincy and Adams County, Illinois, Part 10

Author: Collins, William H. (William Hertzog), 1831-1910; Perry, Cicero F., 1855- [from old catalog] joint author; Tillson, John, 1825-1892. History of the city of Quincy, Illinois. [from old catalog] Publication date: 1905 Publisher: Chicago, S. J. Clarke Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1228

Author: Collins, William H. (William Hertzog), 1831-1910; Perry, Cicero F., 1855- [from old catalog] joint author; Tillson, John, 1825-1892. History of the city of Quincy, Illinois. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1905
Publisher: Chicago, S. J. Clarke Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1228