Past and present of the city of Quincy and Adams County, Illinois, Part 18

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 18

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At the election in April the democrats elected all the city officers-Enoch Conyers as mayor, over H. Asbury, by 90 majority ; and John B. Young, I. H. Holton and J. D. Morgan, alder- men, over H. V. Sullivan, George Chapman and G. B. Dimock. Later in the year John Abbe resigned. C. Swartont was chosen to succeed him as alderman from the First ward. The new council at its first meeting changed all the city officials. I. O. Woodruff succeeding S. P. Church as city clerk. Dr. JJ. B. Convers was appointed city physician, with an annual salary of $100 -- "he agreeing to give the same to the schools." The salary of the mayor was fixed at $250, he also to attend to the duties of street superintendent, and that of the clerk at $200. The city was reported as owing, on the 1st of January. $22,380.

On the 16th of April, by ordinance, a com- plete system of grades of streets throughout the city was established. embracing all from Broadway to State, and in past farther south. and from Front to Twelfth ( then called Wood street ). This was the first comprehensive plan of action in regard to city grades that had been adopted, and though slightly changed occasion- ally. since on almost every street has been ad- hered to.

A carefully compiled special census of Quincy. taken during this year, reports the population to have been 2,686. The other data secured at this time are of peculiar value for the reason that they indicate the business con- dition of the place more in detail than appears in any similar schedule of earlier date.

The report shows that the city then con- tained 464 frame, 138 brick and two stone buildings- the committee not seeing fit, per- haps being too proud. to make mention of the more numerous log houses; there were also 20 dry goods, 19 groceries, 1 book, 1 hide and leather, 1 iron, 2 shoe, 2 milliner, 3 drug stores, 9 hotels, 8 boarding-houses. 9 churches (there were several societies without a church build-

ing), 1 reading-room, 20 lawyers, 12 physicians, 1 dentist, 1 government and 3 private land of- fices, 3 insurance offices or agencies, 2 commis- sion houses, 6 pork houses, 2 bakeries, 2 bath- houses, 1 ropewalk. 1 tanyard, 4 brickyards. 1 iron foundry, 1 market house, 3 lumber yards, 3 breweries, 1 woolen mill, 1 castor oil and 2 soap factories, 1 shingle mill, 2 water mills, 3 steam Hour and 2 steam sawmills, 2 hatters, 11 shoemakers. 4 watchmakers, 2 gunsmiths, 6 house and sign painters, 6 masons, 6 plasterers, 9 chair and cabinet, 12 carpenters, 10 wagon and coach. 12 blacksmiths, 4 saddle and har- ness, 3 barbers, 11 tailors, 7 butchers, 7 cooper shops, 2 printing offices.

There were two regular weekly newspapers. the Whig and the llerall, the latter also semi- weekly, and during the summer and fall there was issued a spicy paper. the People's Organ. advocating Quiney as the county seat or the division of the county.

The amount of provisions prepared was abont the same as in the preceding year, 12,000 hogs being packed, and the milling business was also about the same ; the mills shipped away nearly 25,000 barrels of flour.

Mail facilities had improved. The two east- ern semi-weekly stages now came in as tri- weeklies on alternate days, making it practi- cally a daily mail, although not always afford- ing the earliest news. In addition to these there were two mails carried north, one south and one west into Missouri.

The "hard times" that had commenced with the financial crash in 1836-37 caused by the par- tisan destruction of the United States bank and the suspension of most of the other banks in the country, continued as before, and, indeed. it was not until three or four years later that business here or anywhere in the country came to a condition of assured confidence and pros- perity. The debtor class was very numerous and still struggling under the prostration of half a dozen years. Money was fearfully scarce. State bank and Shawneetown bank pa- per, which had been the chief currency of the state in times past, was now at a discount of from 36 to 40 cents and most all other bank cir- enlation was proportionately discredited. Econ- omy such as would seem niggardly during the past thirty years was universally practiced, and under these there came a slow but substantial increase of population and advance of prosper- ity, both in the city and county.

There was more than the usual amount of local publie excitement throughout the year. growing out of the agitation of the slavery question and also from the differences over the proposed division of the county, which last

PAST AND PRESENT OF ADAMS COUNTY.

issue had arisen as the natural sequent of the bitter and as yet unsettled county seat quar- rel of the preceding year. These excitements entered into the elections and the courts, af- fected business and social relations and were productive of much and long-lasting acrimony and estrangement. The feverish feeling created at the time of the Nelson disturbances several years before, though somewhat suppressed still festered in the minds of the border people in the adjoining state and a similar sensitiveness pervaded to a considerable extent our own com- munity. It was kept alive by its own distrust- fulness and by the occasional escape of a slave. who was always suspected-with perhaps more or less of truth- of having been persuaded to run away, or afterward being harbored and hid by the abolitionists of Quiney.

In the previous year. 1841. three young men, Burr, Work and Thompson, students at Dr. Nel- son's Mission institute, some two miles east of Quiney, crossed the river a short distance sonth of the city and had not long landed before they were arrested under the charge of abducting or attempting to abduet slaves. They were speedily tried, convicted and sentenced to the Missouri penitentiary for a term of twelve years each. That they went over there for that pur- pose is more than probable, but it is still more certain that legal proof was wanting to sustain the charge against them. and this fact. added to a general suspicion that they in their rather too verdant philanthropy had been decoved across the river for the purpose of being caught, brought about their pardon and release from the prison when their periods had about one- third expired. This, however, with other like occasional actions, kept sentiment on the sła- very subject constantly on the alert.

At a meeting held in Quiney on the 13th of June the abolitionists of the county resolved to organize politically and bring out a county ticket. They nominated for representatives to the legislature R. Sartle, Levi Stillman. Lewis Rowe, Wm. Wells and Richard Eels; connty commissioner, 11. H. Snow : sheriff, E. II. Fow- ler; coroner. Edward Turner. This, although the numerical strength at the polls was shown to be very small, yet drew the question into no- tice like the flaunt of a red flag to their foes, and their actions were closely scrutinized, both here and across the river. An anti-abolition meeting was held at the courthouse which de- nouneed in vigorous language the enticing away of slaves or their concealment. Shortly after the election (sometime in October) a slave swam across the river, got into communication with some of his colored brethren and was taken under the protection of Dr. Richard Eels.

a prominent physician of the city, living then on Jersey between Fourth and Fifth streets. The doctor took the fugitive in his buggy at night after giving him a change of clothing and started for the country. He was followed by the Missourians and others who had obtained traces of them and finally the doctor was pressed so hard that he dismissed his passenger and told him to make for the cornfields, which the poor fellow did, but was soon canght and carried back to slavery. The doctor got back safely, but unfortunately there were found two proofs against him in addition to the partial recognition of himself and his horse. There were in the buggy the still wet clothes in which the man had swam the river, and also the dry garments which the man had on when taken, the ownership of which was traced to the doc- tor. Eels was tried in the Adams county court under the then existing fugitive slave law of the state and was convicted and fined. This derision was sustained by the supreme court of the state and of the United States. This case commencing this year and continuing for sev- eral years. attracted much attention every- where, from the importance of the issues in- volved, and was the cause of especial interest here from the prominence of the man who was under trial. This revived much of the former feeling of distrust between the neighboring see- tions, which only slowly wore away as all of the slaves here in northeastern Missouri who wanted to, gradually ran away, as they easily could, but was not fully allaved until the civil war pet an end to it.

The political record of 1842 was of a very pe- muliar cast. It singularly illustrated the strong predominance of partisan feeling and old party associations over the demands of local duty and interest. The two parties-the whig and the democratie-were almost equally balanced in the city and in the county.

They had been so for many years past-the whigs having slightly the superiority, owing in a great measure to the higher relative stand- ing and capacity of the men whom they placed before the public as their representatives and leaders. A reference to the politically promi- nent men of forty and more years ago will fully sustain this statement. Yet, usually any ordi- nary local issue, or as it more often happened, the personal popularity or otherwise of a can- didate, would easily determine an election and overrule party action. The special strength of the democratic party lay almost exclusively for a number of years on what was known as the "foreign vote."

A enrious exemplification of this was proven by Judge Lott and the writer in 1848 from an

PAST AND PRESENT OF ADAMS COUNTY.

examination of the poll books that had been used at the elections of that year. That was the last year of elections "viva voce." The bal- lot system of voting ordained in the later state constitutions was not in existence at that time, and first was used in the fall of 1848. Previons to that period all voting was done openly and aloud. A register was pre- pared by the judges containing the names of all supposed candidates under the head of the offire to which they aspired and each voter as he came to the polls would give in his name, have it written down and then announce she- ressively who he voted for. His vote thus given would be tallied on the line containing the name of the candidate for whom he voted. Thus the poll book was the final "return" and not only could it be known afterward how each man had voted, but also how the vote was pro- gressing during the day. Judge Lott had said that "out of the one thousand and fifty votes that had been cast at that time it would be found that less than one-fourth of those who had voted the democratic ticket were native born, and that it had been nearly so in propor- tion for several years past." On examining the poll book it appeared that out of five hundred and sixty democratie voters less than one hun- dred had American names. The curious corol- lary to this is that through the earlier years of the city the foreign vote generally con- trolled; and it was especially strong for the reason that naturalization at that time was not a necessary qualification for a state voter, since under the old constitution and until 1848 any white male citizen over twenty-one years of age. and who had been in the state six months, was a qualified voter, whether naturalized or not. This fact is a worthy matter of record, as it has had a strong bearing upon the municipal fortunes of the city. The foreign immigration which poured so extensively after 1835-36 into Quiney, instinctively enlisted in the democratic ranks and constituted for many years its chief strength.

Recurring to the statement made above that political affairs during this year had a peen- liar cast, it is somewhat strange that although there was before the people the most important and absorbing local issue that they have ever had-that of the removal of the county seat- vet party nominations were made and strife went on as usual withont any special formation upon this question that affected the parties.

The vote, it will be remembered, in 1841 was declared to be in favor of Columbus. The county commissioners neglected to order the removal of the county records. A mandamns was applied for and granted, directing them

to comply with the law, but they still evaded it and Quincy had appealed from the declared result.

Thus the sectional rivalry between the two claimants to the possession of the county seat had at this time become a legal issue-to be determined by the courts, and dependent upon the "glorious nncertainties of the law." By the delay thus seenred Quincy was greatly the gainer. Columbus came into court fortified by the record of a legally ordered and formally held election and a certificate of a majority of the votes cast being in favor of removal, and that these figures and the formalities of the elec- tion were unquestioned. All beside this that was needed and demanded was that the county commissioners should transfer the records and offices. Quiney, on the other hand, stood solely upon the refusal of the commissioners to issue the necessary order for removal, but there was added to this an assertion of illegalities in the election. While these never came to be fully proven, they were so broadly charged and he- lieved and were tinged with so much of plausi- bility as to greatly cloud the question and make a decision upon it difficult and doubtful.

It appeared, for instance, that at the August election in 1841, 2,978 votes were cast for mem- bers of congress, while at the same time the vote on the county seat question was 3,181-an excess of 203 votes. The well-known latitude that is usually allowed on a sectional vote, with- ont question, in localities where the sentiment is all one way. gave credence to the suspicion and charge that this excess was illegal and that the majority of 91 obtained by Columbus was cast by unqualified voters. This suspicion was strengthened when, a year later, at the Angust election in 1842. there were but 3,069 votes polled for governor in a very warmly con- tested election, and on the same day 1,574 votes were given for Wm. Richards ( who represented the Quiney interest and was its candidate for re-election as county commissioner ), and 1,393 votes cast for JJ. Turner, the representative of Columbus, 30 votes being thrown away on the abolition candidate who was unpledged. Here was a falling off within a year of nearly two hundred votes on this local test question, when it would seem that natural eanses and the con- tinuing interest in the question would have increased the vote: and. significantly. as it was claimed. the falling off was from the former Columbus vote. All this tended to weaken the claims for its removal. So stood the issue at the end of the year 1841.

At their February meeting in 1842 the county commissioners' board had a full meeting, all were present and acted for the first time for

PAST AND PRESENT OF ADAMS COUNTY.

several months. Under the requirement of the mandamus issued by Judge Douglas in Septem- ber. 1841. they "agreed to disagree." Two of the board ( Richards and Seehorn, a majority) decided that the result of the election was so doubtful that they would not obey the writ of the circuit court. The other commissioner. Smith, said that he was ready and willing to order the removal of the records.

Thereupon Judge Douglas on the 4th of March issued a peremptory mandamus to the commissioners ordering their immediate action. From this Quiney at onee appealed to the su- preme court, giving security, and the settlement of the case was, of course. still farther delayed. It was argued in the supreme court in the JJuly following by George C. Dixon for the commis- sioners and Archibaldl Williams for the Colum- bus claimants, and the decision was ordered deferred outil December.

Immediately after the Angust election of 1842 the contest took a new shape and a bombshell was thrown into the Columbus camp which broke its unity and resulted in the full defeat of all its aspirations. At a meeting held in Quiney on the 26th of October the proposition was agreed to that the legislature should be asked to divide the county by cutting off the ten townships on the eastern side of Adams. and therefrom form a new county. Columbus was asked to unite with this movement, but refused. In fact, Columbus conkl not safely agree to it for the reason that the town lies on the extreme western edge of the proposed new county-a part of it being in Gilmer town- ship, and the village would thus be ent in two. and the same objection would then lie against Columbus as a county seat ("away at one side of the county") that had been before used against Quiney.

This project stirred into activity every local interest in the county and proved that the pre- vions movement had not been based on a pref- erenee for Columbus merely, but for a county center. A half score of plans were started for outlining new counties, most of them not favor- ing a division of the county, but demanding. if a division of the county should be made, that it should be so ontlined as to make a central point the county seat, most generally ignoring Columbus. Some of these proposed to take in part of Hancock, some part of Schuyler, and some part of Brown or Pike, and all seemed to have forgotten about Columbus. The end was not difficult to foresee.

This movement, adroitly originated for a di- vision of the county, so as to compromise the differences between eastern and western ser- tions, practically decided, at the very ontset

that the county seat ultimately would remain at Quiney. Time had been gained, and the issue transferred itself again to the state legislature, which then convened every two years on the first Monday in December.

As early as the 19th of December, at the ses- sion of 1842-43. Mr. Wheat, one of the repre- sentatives from Adams county, introdneed a bill for the division of the county, based upon the proposition which had been made and adopted at the meeting in Quiney on the 26th of October.

Upon this there followed a flood of petitions for and remonstranees against the proposed ac- tion, coming from all parts of the county with every variety of project, proposition and sug- gestion. It was made a matter of long, bitter and doubtful discussion, and came to a final determination in the early part of 1843, result- ing in a nominal division of the county, which separation stood as of a record which was never practically completed throughout the five fol- lowing years.

Mr. Wheat's action in this matter was not in accord with that of the other four representa- tives, and was not in sympathy with the popu- larities of the period, the publie generally sus- taining those who were opposed to a division of the county, but it is a truth which no one now looking back to that contest can deny. that, however, it might have been operative upon the interests of Columbus or any other section of the county antagonistie to Quiney ; so far as the city was eoneerned this movement which he drove through the legislature, to the peril of personal popularity, was that which clinched the continuance of the county seat at Quincy for all time to come. This story of the county seat difficulties and the temporary divi- sion of the county is a part of past history, upon which depended the future interests of Quincy. It could be told in far more amplified detail, because it was the absorbing idea of its time. It was settled during the winter of 1842-43. but it had kindled passion and prejudice which may claim consideration in a subsequent chapter.

Manufacturing interests during this year showed a steady and healthy progress not only in the enlargement and inerease of a number of already existing industries, but also in the establishment of several new enterprises. An iron foundry was started by James Adams and Milton Worrell, on the east side of Front street, between Broadway and Spring. This was the first establishment of the kind, the pioneer in business of a special industry that has gradual- ly grown to be one of the most extensive and substantial factors in the permanent prosperity of the place.

PAST AND PRESENT OF ADAMS COUNTY.

About the same time O. F. & G. A. Miller, who had as early as 1836 opened the first regn- lar drug store in the place, built a castor and linseed oil factory on the west side of Front street, opposite the Adams & Worrell factory. This was a few years later changed into a steam Houring mill. At this time the castor bean mania was overspreading the west, as exten- sively as had not a long time before the "Morns Multicaulis" or silk work fever, and as a little later came up the beet sugar craze. These all had their day and it is enrious now to revert to those times, when, for two or three years so many of our farmers set off and carefully planted four or five acres of the white mulberry or Morus Multieaulis, and after that sensation had fallen through, each one had next his aere or more of the handsome flowering castor bean ; and still farther on, and bnt shortly afterward, all expectations were sweetened by the profuse enltivation of the sugar beet, which was to rival and exelude from use all tropical sugars, and all this unfortunately worked to the partial neglect of the cultivation of the great staple cereals which are adapted to our latitude, cli- mate and soil.

The winter of 1842-43 was unusually severe. The snow fall began early, and continued longer and more in amount probably than in any season since the proverbial "big snow" winter of 1831. Business and travel through- out the central and northern part of the state was for a large part of the winter done on sleds and sleighs.

A sleighing pleasure party, for instance, left Quincy during this winter, visited Jacksonville and Springfield and returned safely on run- ners, after being gone nearly two weeks.

CHAPTER XXL

1843.

EARTHQUAKE. POLITICAL STRUGGLES. DOUG- LAS. BROWNING. MARQUETTE COUNTY. JUDGE BOTT. CAPT. KELLY. R. M. YOUNG. SIDNEY BREESE. DULL

BUSINESS. JUDGE THOMAS. HIGHLAND COUNTY. NEW BUILD-

INGS. NEW SCHOOLS.

The river was unusually high during the win- ter of 1842-43, and continued so until late in the year. It had closed on the first of Derem- ber, 1842, opened on the 24th of January fol- lowing, and until abont the middle of February there was some, though difficult navigation. It then firmly closed, opening again on the 6th of April, and did not close during the winter of 1843-44.

The rather unusual excitement of an earth- quake shock occurred on the 4th of January, the heaviest that had been known for many years. The rumbling was distinctly heard and the shaking of the ground and buildings felt and seen throughout all central Illinois. With the exception of a general scare and an occa- sional break of crockery, no damage was done.

The city council early in the year, made an attempt to secure as a public landing, all of the river front lying south of Maine street, and west of a line parallel with Front street and eighty feet west. The consent of most of the owners of the property affected, to convey the same to the city was obtained, but some of them objected, and although the council on the 8th of July, declared the land in question a land- ing, yet this summary course was indecisive and was not eventually sustained.

The city election in 1843 resulted in the com- plete snecess of the democratic ticket. Enoch Conyers was re-chosen mayor over Capt. JJoseph Artus, and Thomas Jasper, Samuel Holmes and R. S. Benneson, elected aldermen. Sam'l Leech was re-elected city clerk. An official statement made by the city clerk in September showed rather an unsatisfactory financial condition. It reported an indebtedness of $22,098.50, of which $5,746.48 would mature during the year, and that the tax assessment of $4,089.14, if all ap- plied to this debt, would leave a deficit of $1.636.34. llow the apprehended trouble was avoided, does not appear, probably, as in the later years, by postponement and hoping. Mi- cawber like, that something would "turn np." The salary of the city clerk was fixed at $100. showing either a commendable spirit of econ- omy, or that the duties of the office were not very heavy. II. S. Cooley, then a young lawyer not long a resident of this city, who afterwards became prominent politically, being secretary of state when he died, a few years later, was ap- pointed city attorney. A special census taken by order of the council in November in refer- ence to the school question, which was still in a very nusettled state, gave a total population of 3,148 and of children under twenty years of age, in the city and adjoining section, which formed with Quiney a school district. 1,357.

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Past and present of the city of Quincy and Adams County, Illinois, Part 18

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