Past and present of the city of Quincy and Adams County, Illinois, Part 12

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 12

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At the August election tand it may be stated that until after 1848, all the general elections. except the presidential in November, were held on the first Monday in August. Earl Pierce was elected sheriff for the sixth and last time. as before his term expired he "between two days" suddenly took a trip, and some other things, that did not belong to him to Texas. Pierce had been sheriff since 1826. and was a specimen politician of the times.

A frank, generous, rollicking manner, and an active. adroit, aspiring nature, long made per- haps the most popular and influential man of the county, but constant office holding spoiled him. Ile was brigadier general of the state militia (cornstalk) as it was then termed, of which, the 37th Adams County regiment was a part, officered by Col. P. W. Martin, Maj. Wm. G. Flood. Paymaster O. II. Browning, Adjutant Dr. S. W. Rogers, all of the Black Hawk war eminence. Thos. C. King was elected coroner. A. W. Shinn, Geo. Taylor and John B. Young were county commissioners. No other change was made in the other county officers; Wren, Snow and Frazier remaining in office.

The legislative apportionment made at the session of 1835-6 entitled Adams county to one senator and two representatives, under which O. H. Browning was elected senator. and George Galbraith and J. II. Ralston representa- tives. Joseph Dunean was governor: Wm. L. May representative, and John M. Robinson and W. L. D. Ewing senators in congress, the latter being succeeded by Judge Richard M. Young, who was chosen at the session of 1836-7 for the full term. being the first member of either house of congress from Quincy.

Navigation opened March 18th and continued good until about December 1st. Time. especially in port, was not economized as now. The Wyoming left Quiney on the evening of May 1st for St. Louis and got back on the evening

PAST AND PRESENT OF ADAMS COUNTY.

of the 4th, being out seventy-two and a half honrs, claimed to be the quickest trip yet made. Two regular packets, the Quincy and O'Connell, plied between St. Louis and the rapids. The river was very high early in the season, flooding the low lands and laying a fatal wet blanket over the prospects of many of the expectant eities which had been born from the speculative frenzy of the last two years and located in the bottom land.

Marion City, or Green's landing as it had been known, ten miles below Quiney, and an- nonneed as its future rival, where some $400,- 000 were said to have been invested in lots in 1835, was almost completely covered by the irreverent Mississippi and its inflated preten- sions hopelessly dissolved.

Work was begun on the Quiney Honse and courthouse, both of which were finished in 1838. Several other briek. among them the Methodist church, and a large number of frame buildings were erected. "averaging a new dwelling for a family, for every day between the first of April and the last of August," and it was estimated and recorded that over two hundred non-resi- dent mechanies and laborers found here steady employment. Prices ran higher than in the previous year. Flour sold at $7.25, wheat 87 cents, potatoes 40 to 50 cents, butter 20 cents, bacon 1216 cents, beef $7.00 per hundred.

Another hoped for county seat was laid off and advertised as the town of Lafayette, on the S. W. 14, 1 S. 7 W. at the real geographical rentre of the county. (I think that this name should be Adamsburg, L. B.) The proprietor of the town was very liberal in his offers. pro- posing to give every other lot to the county, and also if it became the county seat to give half the balance of the land, and to the first merchant and first mechanic who should settle and build a honse worth one hundred dollars any lot that he might choose. It was then and vet is a very good farm.

The railroad movements of the preceding year brought about at the session of 1835-6 one of the first railroad charters granted in the state which blended afterward with the, inter- nal improvement system, and is now the Wabash. Being a pioneer enterprise of its kind and containing some singular features, the ehar- ter is worthy of a summarized statement of its provisions. It empowers John Williams, James Bell, Wm. Carpenter and Wm. Craig, of Sangamon : John W. Murphy, Samuel Me- Roberts and G. W. Cassidy, of Vermilion ; Matthew Stacy, James Tilton and .T. T. Hardin, of Morgan, and J. T. Holmes, E. L. Pearson and J. W. MeFaden, of Adams, "to construct a road from some point on the line between this state

and Indiana, thence to Danville, Deeatur, Springfield, Jacksonville, Meredosia, Mt. Sterk- ing, Clayton and Quincy- provided they make arrangements with a company already char- tered to make a road from Jacksonville to Meredosia." If they could not agree on terms with this intermediate incorporation "the judge of the Morgan conrt" should decide. The first named company, the " Wabash & Mississippi."

not to buildl from Jacksonville to Meredosia until terms were arranged with the other com- pany. The company was required to expend $20,000 within four years, or to operate within ten years, or forfeit the charter. The capital stoek was fixed at $3,000,000, with the privilege of increasing the same to $5,000,000.

All the town lots in the original town of Quiney remaining unsold were offered at ane- tion by the county commissioners, on April 11. The prices given are of relative interest and enriosity now. The north half of what is now the courthouse block, facing Broadway, sold for $541; the north half of the block next on the west sold for $736; the two lots of block 10, on Vermont street, between Fifth and the alley, facing the courthouse, brought better figures, $1,398; that part of block 11 on Fifth street facing Washington Square, excepting about one hundred feet at the corner of lamp- shire and one hundred feet in the middle, where the late courthouse stood. was sold for $11,657, being an average value of about $58 per foot : the ground on the east side of Sixth, between Vermont and Broadway, opposite the present court house, was struck off at $488: lot 1. block 21, at the corner of Jersey and Sixth, brought $200, while lots 6, 7 and 8, on the south side of the same block, were bought for $957- abont $3 per foot. Lots on York street, he- tween Second and Sixth, realized from $1 to $6 per foot-the last a high figure, the average being a little over $2. This section contained at that time the most desirable selections for residenee lots. Lot 1, block 26, at the corner of York, sold for $450.

Property at private sale changed hands often some standing improvements. The first large and at rapidly rising rates. The highest price previously paid for any piece of property in the town had been for the Quiney Honse cor- ner, being about $80 per foot. but this included sale above that figure was made in this year. being that of lot 7, block 8, on the north side of Hampshire, one hundred feet west of Fourth. at the rate of $100 per front foot.

The sales above described as being made by the county commissioners were only of unim- proved property, and completed the transfer into private hands of all of the original town of

PAST AND PRESENT OF ADAMS COUNTY.

Quiney, except such as was reserved for public purposes, similar sales having been held from time to time sinee 1825. Almost all of this land was purchased by residents.

John Yorcke Sawyer. a prominent official figure in the infancy of Quiney, having been the first cirenit judge, and holding the first court in the county. in 1825, in Keyes' cabin on Front street. died this year, March 13th, at Vandalia. Ile was then the editor of the Van- dalia Advocate. Ile was better educated than the average of the profession in his time, and was an excellent lawyer. as with perhaps a single exception. have been all the judges upon this cirenit bench.

Judge Sawyer was legislated out of office two years after the formation of this county, and was sneceeded in 1827 by Sammel D. Lockwood, one of the purest and clearest minded men that ever adorned the bench. In 1831 an additional cirenit was made, comprised almost entirely of the Military Tract. To this Richard M. Young was appointed and sustained the office with dignity and credit until his election to the United States senate, which took place this year. As before stated. up to this period. the Adams county bench had been exceptionally well filled.

A discordant publie question broke ont about this time, and several years elapsed before its final settlement. It was as to where the mar- ket should be located. A portion of the com- munity had been accustomed and wished still to see buildings, such as courthouse. market house. etc., built on the publie grounds and the ground to be left unenclosed, while another portion desired to have such grounds, as far as practicable. enclosed for park purposes, and that public buildings should be erected else- where. This struggle had been made over the courthouse location the year before. That he- ing decided, it now came up over the market house. It was at one time concluded to double the width of Maine street east of Fifth, and half way to Sixth, and build the market house therein. This project of course. fell through, but the contest was kept up, to be told more of hereafter.

There also now awoke the aspiration to be- come a city, a natural notion in a growing town. no matter how young the town may be. This is a feeling that is fostered by many in- terests. but it is a question of serious doubt whether many of the little cities which throng the state, instead of being what they are now, with a form of government entailing increased expense, political strife and all its bad couse- quences, would not have been benefited by a

longer adherence to the town system, which is the simplest. fairest, though not always the strongest system for corporate rule. It is also the equalized and consistent basis of our gen- eral institutions. It was four years later that Quiney became a city. and it was undoubtedly needful that it should do so.

The Bounty Land Register, still the only paper in the place, was purchased in July by John H. Petit, and took the additional name of Argus. The year following this. it became the Quincy Argus, and a few years later the Herald. its present title. It was now slightly enlarged, having five 216-inch. instead of four 3-inch columns, as before-on nearly the same sized sheet 211 _x14. but with a gain of read- ing matter of an inch on the top and half an inch on the side margin. The color and texture of the paper and style of type were unchanged. and such as are never seen nowadays. It now assumed what it had not during its ownership by Mr. Woods, a decided and avowed position as a democratie journal, which. under its va- rious names, it has always maintained.

CHAPTER XIV. BANKS AND BANKING IN QUINCY.

The opening branch of the State Bank of Illi- nois during this year was the commencement of banking in Quincy. The brief story of this institution will be hereafter told. but a skeleton sketch of the llinois banking abortions prior to this period will not be amiss here, since it will show the financial movements and money- less condition of the state generally. in which Quiney of course had its share.

There is a world of financial philosophy to be gathered from the banking history of Illi- nois.

A bank at Shawneetown was authorized by the territorial legislature of 1816, and at the next session two others were ordered to be lo- cated at Kaskaskia and Edwardsville. These had a brief existence, and in three years' time suspended. In the meantime. however. their circulation had been redundant. Profuse supply of money. known to be worthless, stimulated speculation of the wildest kind. Everybody was anxious to get and to get clear of these "rag promises, " and the result was that when the collapse came in 1820 everybody owed everybody. The first state legislature in 1819,

PAST AND PRESENT OF ADAMS COUNTY.

seeing the need of some financial action, but. understanding their business, less, if possible, than all legislatures generally do, chartered a bank with a capital of $2,000,000 to run for twenty-seven years, the charter, however, be- ing afflieted with so many absurd features, that although books were opened by law through- out the state, not a dollar of stock was sub- seribed.

At the following session. 1820-1, the Illinois State Bank was established with a charter to run ten years and a capital of $500.000 based upon the credit of the state alone. This bank was born with some most extraordinary fea- tures, which readily foreshadowed its fate. It was in violation of the United States constitu- tion. its bills bearing two per cent annual in- terest, and being redeemable in ten years. Three hundred thousand dollars in bills not above $20 were ordered to be issued, loaned out on per- sonal security for amounts of $100, and seeur- ity on real estate at double valuation for sums between $100 and $1,000. Of course every- body borrowed and nobody ever thought of paying back the amount borrowed. This $300,- 000 was all that was issued, the notes falling in value almost immediately to twenty-five eents on the dollar, and the bank became so dis- credited that the subsequent legislatures did not dare to order the full circulation anthor- ized by the charter. With many other weakening elements in its organization, the bank stag- gered through its chartered existence of ten years, and when in 1831, it was wound up, it appeared that although only $300,000 had been issued, the loss to the state had been more than $500,000.

The wiping out of this worthless circulation did not still the popular call for more money, and the legislature of 1834-5 took hold of the question with commendable zeal, but with judgment that showed but little gain from late experience. That the state needed financial leg- islation was evident, for while the old bank issues had been cleared off by an increased debt (the famous Wiggins loan of $100,- 000, which made sueh bitter acrimony, though it saved the state's eredit), yet foreign rag paper took the place of our Own. In February, 1835, the Territorial Bank of Shawneetown, which had been dead for twelve years, was exhumed and an- other State Bank was chartered, with a capi- tal of $1.500,000 and allowed an increase of $1.000,000 more. Six branches of this were authorized to be located wherever and when as a requirement precedent, $250.000 had been locally subscribed. In April of that year some- what more than half this sum was subscribed

towards the establishment of a branch at Quiney. At the special session of 1835-6 some changes in the law were made and there were more branch banks authorized. The pre-requis- ite conditions having been complied with, a branch bank was located in Quiney during the latter part of this current year, but it hardly was in complete operation until early in the succeeding season.

The life of this bank was very brief, sinee it suspended specie payments, as did almost all the banks in the country under the financial crash of 1837. The suspensions were legalized by the legislature, and, two years later, in 1839, still farther extended in time, and the State Bank and its branches continued a feeble existence until their general dissolution in 1842. For the first year and a half of its existence before suspension this branch bank was a valu- able aid to the business of the place, and was such also to a limited extent, however, after- ward until it "wound up." The institution was located on the southwest corner of Fourth and Maine, in the two-story frame bnikling built by Peter Felt, and afterward owned and oceu- pied by the Burns family. Joseph T. Holmes was its president, although as a branch bank its business was managed by the cashier, that prince of good fellows, most jolly sportsman and finished gentlemen, Capt. E. J. Phillips. The clerks were, first, John Martin Holmes, the wittiest man in the West, who, everybody that used to laugh in Quiney yet remembers, and whose brilliancies would fill volumes, after him C. B. Church, and later and lastly, Quincy's late mayor, J. K. Webster, who came in 1840 from Galena, where he had been similarly em- ployed, and elerked until the bank closed. The record of this bank, like that of its prede- ressors, was a checkered one. Its stock at first stood at thirteen per cent premium, but a rapid deeline within two years found its notes at from fifteen to twenty cents discount, and later scarcely quotable at all. Its business was broadly extended, and it was not until about 1870, nearly thirty years after its failure, that the settlement of its affairs was eoneluded.

The banking history of Illinois contains a most instruetive and suggestive lesson in its experiences from territorial times to the pres- ent, and its final record may be properly here given, since like the general financial situation of the state was necessarily that of Quiney. Following the failure, before mentioned, of the state bank of 1835, after its three or four years of siekly existence. there came a dull decade of financial nncertainty and business depression. The poverty shifts of those days cannot be ap- preciated now, especially by the modern shod-

PAST AND PRESENT OF ADAMS COUNTY.

dyite, but as everybody was poor, few felt the worse for it. Money, such as it was, was far from scaree. Therein, indeed lay a great trouble. Illinois was flooded with issues of banks from other states, many, indeed most of which, were of doubtful or unknown condition, and coun- terfeits were countless. So evident was the want for a steadier, safer money currency that the legislature in 1861 passed over the gover- nor's veto, the "free banking law," which, having been submitted to the people, was ap- proved by a decided popular majority. Expe- rienee had taught our legislative solons some wisdom, as was evidenced in this law, which was a step in the right direction; a movement nearly up to the present stable system of a re- liable national circulation. Banks were legal- ized whose notes should be secured by the de- posit of United States or state stocks. Had the former only been allowed as securities, the present well-recognized principles would have been reached ; that no lasting eirenlation can be created which will harmonize business, repre- sent values, inspire national confidence in its current stability and future redemption except that which is based on the national credit and to which the industry of the whole people stands pledged. Little matters it whether the paper so authorized and so seenred floats under the name of "United States Bank Notes," "Sub-Treasury notes,""National Bank notes," or "Greenbacks"-these all mean the same- a moneyed assurance guaranteed by the nation.

Naturally enough it happened that most of the one hundred and ten banks, organized under the law of 1851, fortified their circulation by the deposit of Southern State Stocks, these rating the lowest in the market and being the easiest procured. They were, however, but a straw dependence. and with the too certain foreshadowings of the civil war all such securi- ties began to decline, and when finally twelve states seeeeded, all these stocks waxed worth- less and of course, the banks went down. The loss, however, compared with previous bank failures, was relatively light, and fell upon in- dividuals and not on the state. The few banks that remained in 1863, those with their circu- lation based on United States or Illinois stocks. generally became national banks under the pro- visions of the law of Congress of that year. The preceding is a seant but correct sketch of early monetary conditions in Illinois and Quincy as well.

Resuming the local banking record and bringing it down to the present, it appears that the death of the State Bank of 1835 suspended all banking operations in Quincy for ten or more years.

Subsequent business of this character has been conducted by private parties. Business here and generally in the state, for several sue- ceeding years, was very light, especially such as would naturally depend upon banking con- venienees. These were "hard times," dull, slow times, and yet endurable and not unen- joyable. perhaps the more enjoyable from the deprivations. Auditor's warrants, county orders, city serip (almost the only moneyed material with which state, county or city could pay their way along, and the only paper that had a seem- ingly sure value) were at a vexationsly varying discount, passing at ten, twenty or thirty per cent below their face value and of course the publie "paid the loss." People worked and lived, but all business beyond home living and labor was greatly cramped. The mercantile need for exchange with which to remit eastern payments was embarrassing, though this was largely relieved by the land agencies. Most (it might almost be said all) of the unsettled land in Illinois, not still held by the general govern- ment, belonged to non-residents who paid their annual taxes through these Quincy agencies, and their checks on eastern banks, or authority given the agents to draw upon them for the amount of their taxes afforded an exchange facility to Quincy merchants such as other see- tions of the state did not possess.

The later and continuous record of Quincy banking begins with 1850 when Flagg & Savage opened their banking house on the south side of Maine, about four buildings west of Fifth. removing in 1857 to the corner of Fifth and Maine. These two, Newton Flagg and Charles 1. Savage, with whom was associated I. O. Woodruff, who became a partner in 1857, were the pioneer bankers of Quincy. For some time previous Mr. Flagg and Lorenzo and Charles IF. Bull had dealt in exchange, the former through Page & Bacon and the latter through Clarke & Brothers, bankers of St. Louis, but the above was the earliest regular banking house. Its business immediately became large and h- crative. It suspended in the fall of 1857, re- opened a few months after, and the next year finally failed. Later in this same year (1850) Jonathan II. Smith and A. C. Marsh started, under the Quincy house, a bank styled the "Farmers and Merchants' Exchange Co." It discontinued within less than two years' time. About 1853 Ebenezer Moore, J. R. Hollowbush and E. F. Hoffman began business as Moore. Hollowbush & Co. Their location was on the north side of the public square, about midway in the block. This house, like that of F. & S., went down in 1857. both failures being mainly caused by the failure of S. & W. B. Thayer's

PAST AND PRESENT OF ADAMS COUNTY.

distillery and mercantile business, which was then the most extensive business of the place. The "Bank of Quiney, " owned by J. R. Matte- son and D. Boon, opened in 1856, at the south- west corner of the square under the Quincy house, continuing business there for four or five years.

In 1857 was started the Quiney Savings and Insurance Co., an incorporated institution, now the "First National Bank," which for three or four years was located at the north- west corner of Ilampshire and Fifth, thence removed to its present place, on the northeast corner of flampshire and Fourth. This is the oldest banking institution in the city. It became a National bank in 1865. This bank was consolidated with the State Savings Loan & Trust Company, which had been founded on the business of L. & C. H. Bull. Moore, Sher- man & Co.,-Ebenezer and F. C. Moore and S. C. Sherman-revived the old bank of Moore. Hollowbush & Co., and for about two years transacted business at the same place in 1859- 60. TI. F. J. Rieker began business in 1860 on the south side of Hampshire near Fifth, re- moving about six years since to his present place, one block west, where Moore, Ilollow- bush & Co., had formerly been. "John Wood & Son" commeneed banking abont 1862 at the sontheast corner of Maine and Fifth. Their business was transferred in 1864 to Flachs, Jansen & Co., who discontinued two years later. L. & C. H. Bull's bank was opened in 1861 at its present location on the corner of Maine and Fifth in the building first occupied by Flagg & Savage. E. J. Parker & Co., operated as bankers at the same corner from 1874 to 1879. when the firm merged with that of L. & C. H. Bull. From 1866 there was connected with and owned by this firm, the "Farmers and Merchants' (2nd National) Bank," which dis- continued in 1872. T. T. Woodruff for some two years, about 1869-70, did a banking busi- ness on the west side of the public square, where also in 1875 the "German American Bank." an incorporated institution, opened and operated for about two years. In 1869 the Union Bank (chartered) commenced on the east side of Washington Square. removing in 1875 to the corner of Fifth and Hampshire : the building which it had left, being again oc- cupied as a bank from 1876 to 1879 by Henry Geise.

The foregoing list comprises all the banking institutions of Quiney throughout the past thirty-five years. The business of some of them has been very large. Of those that have gone out of existence but two can be said to have failed. The others were discontinued,

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Past and present of the city of Quincy and Adams County, Illinois, Part 12

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