Past and present of the city of Quincy and Adams County, Illinois, Part 29

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 29

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The first regular daily mail by steamer was established in April from St. Lonis to Galena, which was continued for many years, until superseded by the more rapid railroad convey- ance. Before this time occasionally mail mat- ter had been carried on the boats and messen- gers appointed to take it in charge, but it was only occasional and never became permanent until now.

The Whig opened ont as a daily on the 22d of March, issning at the same time a tri-weekly. It was the beginning of the present Daily Whig, although it met with two or three temporary suspensions before it became substantially es- tablished. The uncertainties of the telegraph

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PAST AND PRESENT OF ADAMS COUNTY.

and the dearth of local matters of interest were the difficulties which hampered the establish- ment of a daily paper in those days.

The winter of 1851-52 was very cold and con- tinued late into the spring. On the 10th of April there came one of the most severe and unseasonable storms ever known in the west. extending throughout the state and lasting for several days. The snowfall was from one to two feet in depth.

MIneh improvement was made in the general appearance of the place by the building of many handsome, tasteful private residences. a feature peculiarly lacking heretofore, and also of large and substantial storehouses. The city was growing fast. Among the needed and im- posing improvements was Kendall's, after- wards known as the City Hall, at the corner of Maine and Sixth streets, at a cost of about $20,000. This was notable as being the first publie hall in the place. Before this time the Court House or the churches, if they could be obtained, were the only conveniences for lec- tures, fairs and all exhibitions of a like charac- ter. Mr. Orrin Kendall, the owner of this hall, was one of Quincy's most energetic and enter- prising men. He moved from here to Chicago, and, as though he had a passion for such plans, erected there a hall patterned almost precisely after that in Quincy and endowed it with his name, a handsome structure, which fell before the great fire of 1871. The stone Episcopal church, now the Cathedral, was finished during this year.

The boom in real estate property continued. An indication of these values was shown in the sale of what was then known as the "Mast cor- ner." so called from its owner, Michael Mast. an eccentric, popular little man, a tailor, the earliest German settler in the place, and the first tailor also. This property, 4916 feet on Maine by 100 feet on Fifth street, was sold in September for $4,165, abont $85 per front foot on Maine. There were on it no improvements of value. The contrast of these figures is enrions with what the same property "went for" twenty-seven years before at the County Commissioners' sale. Then the entire corner lot. 99 feet by 198, of which the "Mast corner" was one-fourth, brought at anetion, $16.25. about 17 cents per foot. Quite a handsome speculation.

Business of all kinds was active and extend- ing. There was in it a bustle. life and confi- dence that gave most sanguine promise for the future. With a fast increasing population, real estate rapidly acereting in value, money facil- ities all that could be desired, eastern railroad connections assured. this was much the most lively and seemingly successful year that

Quincy had known since 1836. The staple business of the past winter had been up to the standard. Between 19,000 and 20,000 hogs were the reported product of the packing sea- son of 1851-52, about the average of the three or four preceding years. The great flour mill- ing business, which, for the last fifteen years, had been a specialty of Quincy. as ahead of any of the upper Mississippi cities, was increasing in proportion to its past standard, but it met with temporary misfortune during the year. Two of the largest of the half-dozen flour mills came to what is the frequent fate of such struc- tures, destruction by fire. These were the Wheeler & Osborn and Smith mills, on Front street, burned on the 17th of September.

So common had then become, as it still is, this fatality of steam mills, that it was said somewhat savagely, but suggestively, when these two went down, "Well, this makes four steam flour mills burned in the last two years. Better call them steam fire mills." A tally of the grist mills in Quincy which have thus been cremated, would more than exhaust one man's fingers.

Among the chief manufacturing establish- ments of the place, and perhaps that which handled the heaviest transactions of any, was the Thayer distillery, located about one-half mile south of the city, whose report at this time stated the cost of the buildings, etc., to have been $30,000; that there was annually consumed 300,000 bushels of grain: $12,500 paid for cooperage: $4,500 paid to wood choppers: $8,000 to employes, and that there was capacity for feeding 2,000 hogs and about half that number of cattle, which each year was fully used.

The first published official report of the superintendent of the public schools was issued this year. Before this period, as required by law. a brief formal statement was annually handed into the council, and as briefly and for- mally placed away on file. A detailed report of the condition of the public schools was, on the commendatory recommendation of the mayor, ordered to be summarized and officially published, since which time this has been an- nually done, and it is only from this date that a fair history of the public schools can be made, the earlier records being meager or lost. The public schools had now, after many years of trial, outlived all the opposition and prejudice with which they were at first assailed: were well managed, flourishing, and favored by the general public. There were two schools, large- ly attended. each with a primary department attached, employing in all eight teachers.

The especial national excitement of this year was the coming to America of the noted

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patriot and exile Kossuth, who was warmly welcomed all over the land by manifestations of sympathy and respect such as have been ac- corded to no foreigner except when Lafayette made his tour through the United States in 1824-25. Beside the interest that he attracted as being the most eminent representative of re- publican freedom in Europe, he was an orator of most graceful and persuasive nature. lle was gifted with a lingual facility that enabled him to use the English language with a readi- ness and aptitude equal to Carl Schurz, to whom, while he was inferior in force and orig- inality of intelleet, he was far superior in elo- eutionary grace. The "Kossuth eraze," as it was called, pervaded the whole country, Quincy, as well, and the Mayor, always alive to catch a popular feeling, placed before the coun- eil a proposition to officially extend to Kos- suth the courtesies of the city, which was done, and seconded also by a public meeting of the citizens. Kossuth did not come, but he was met and greeted at St. Louis by a formal rep- resentation of the council and by a large dele- gation of the citizens, who returned delighted with him and themselves.

The railroad work went steadily forward, between two and three hundred men being em- ployed in grading at various points along the line within twenty miles of Quiney. As almost the entire original state survey had been aban- doned, and a new line laid ont, the lawyers, of course, reaped a small harvest out of a good many "right of way" cases that naturally came np. Some not pleasant jars occurred also over this question. whether the road should be fin- ished first from Camp Point to the Illinois river, or pushed northwards to a Chicago connection. The indefiniteness of that elanse in the charter, which prescribed that the road should not run east of Knoxville, and the uncertainty of where would be the Mississippi terminus of the C., B. & Q. road, which was rapidly reaching south- ward, also the adverse interests of other con- templated railroads in the upper section of the Military Tract, added to these embarrassments. They were all finally adjusted, however, with the conclusion that the northern connection should be first secured by the way of Gales- burg. MeDonongh county, in May, by a ma- jority of 173, in a pretty large vote after a hotly contested election, voted a subscription of $100,000, and in August, Brown county fol- lowed snit by the decisive vote of 749 for, to 316 against, a bond subscription of $50,000, and about $25,000 of private subscription was raised at Meredosia and points westward along the line.

At the October session of the city council the railroad asked from the city the right of way

on Front street, from Broadway north to the city limits, and also the use by "loan" or grant, or otherwise, of a portion of the public land- ing for depot purposes. The right of way was given and also the grant of a tract two hundred feet in length on the west side of Front street and north of Vermont. This was the first of the franchises granted by the city, followed by others of like nature; which have given to this one railroad so much; and, so far as other roads are concerned, exclusive privi- lege. These were accorded to what, at the time, was the Northern Cross railroad, but passed and continued when it became absorbed in the (., B. & Q. railroad.

The brief statement heretofore given of the transactions of the Thayer distillery as par- tially illustrative of the business of the place, should be supplemented by a mention of other interests carried on at the same time by its active and enterprising proprietor, who was generally recognized as the foremost business man of the city.

With this reference to Mr. Thayer and his career is associated the remembrance of another man who occupied the same relative position through ten or twelve years of an earlier pe- riod. The business enterprises of these two men were ahost precisely the same, their in- fluence and position in the community was very much alike, and the career of each came to a nearly similar close. The names of what are called business men, however conspienous they may be for the time, do not live on the records like those of the politician and the placeman. but their immediate importance and influence is far more effectively felt, is often more ad- vantageons and much more permanent.

D. G. Whitney came to Quincy from Marietta, Ohio, about 1831 or '32, started a store in partnership with Richard S. Green, and rapidly rose to the position of being the most extensively engaged and supposed wealthiest merchant of the town, a place which he main- tained for many years. Of a genial, generous disposition, quiet but attractive demeanor, he had great business ambition and a shrewd, bold. broad capacity therefor. Beside manag- ing his large mercantile establishment on the west side of the square, where probably more trade was done than at any three or four of the other stores, he had interests in several country stores: built also in 1834 a distillery two miles below the town; later on erected a large steam flour and saw mill ten miles sonth, and in connection with it put up a capacious warehouse on the west river bank, about six miles above Hannibal, and subsequently built. at the corner of Maine and Front streets, two brick storehonses, the largest structures of

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the kind then in the city. In addition to the care of these manifold interests, he was inter- ested in the steamboat traffic between St. Louis and Quiney, and more or less each year en- gaged in grain and provision speculation. About 1837-38 he built the house now owned by General Singleton ("Boscobel"), which when erected, was the most expensive and ele- gant private residence in this section of the state. lle pulled with apparent success through the "hard times" of 1837 and after, but failed about 1842 or '43, and twice after- ward each time with a huge cloud of local in- debtedness about him, despite which he twice temporarily established himself through his personal popularity and his strong hold upon publie confidence. On his final failure. he re- moved to California, in 1849, and there partial- ly succeeded in restoring his fortunes, but never attained the pre-eminence that he sus- tained here. His death was caused by being crushed between the cars abont twelve years ago.

About 1844 or '45, when the financial pres- tige of Mr. Whitney was declining, Mr. Syl- vester Thayer came from New York and opened a dry goods store on the north side of the public square, under the firm name of S. & W. B. Thayer, afterwards Thayer & Co. Later they purchased and removed to the building on the southwest corner of Maine and Fourth. The younger brother was popular, and the older one shrewd, longheaded and enterprising. They soon stepped into an extending city and county trade, and gradually enlarged their op- erations in the same manner as Mr. Whitney bad done ten or twelve years before. They built and operated a large steam mill at the foot of Delaware street, and erected on the op- posite side of the street the largest warehouse in the city, and probably the largest above St. Lonis, with a depth of one hundred and sixty-seven feet and a width of sixty feet, which is still standing and has since been used for a tobacco factory and other purposes ; also the distillery south of the city, sinee known as Curtis'; made large stock purchases, bought acres of grazing lands in Missouri and operated on a seale as much more extensive than had been done before as the size and business of the city was greater than it had ever been.

Some years subsequent to this period (1852) they failed hopelessly, loaded as Mr. Whitney had been with local indebtedness. but this fail- nre was different in the one respect, that Thay- er carried down with him the two banking houses of Flagg & Savage and Moore, Hollow- bush & Co., while Whitney's failure involved

only a great number of individual creditors. The failures of these two men, owing so ex- tensively as they did, was a crippling misfor- tnne to many, but yet Quincy owed them much.

During the twenty-five or thirty years when the one or the other of them was a leading spirit of Quincy's business, it was to a great degree their enterprise, means, business bold- ness and sagaeity that kept the city ahead of the competition of surrounding rivals, gave it life. activity and employment, and engrafted upon it prosperities which were bound to be- come permanent. Such men make towns though they fail. The business history of Quiney would be half untold if these men and what they did, were omitted.

Mr. Thayer was personally a different man from Mr. Whitney. Ile was thoroughly a busi- ness man, and rarely seen in society, always either at his counting room or place of husi- ness, or at home. lle was also an extreme democrat as Mr. Whitney was as ardent a whig, but he only touched polities when it fell in the way of his business interests. He was elected alderman and mayor and was very effi- cient in both positions. To him in a large de- gree, and very much to his regret when the result transpired, is dne the election of the first republiean U. S. Senator from Illinois. It is a enrious piece of local political history, still more curious from its broad effects. The whig, or anti-Nebraska convention, as it was called, in 1854, had nominated for the legislature Messrs. Sullivan and Gooding. A bitter per- sonal feeling between Mr. Gooding and Dr. Harrington, who was an aspirant for the nom- ination. both being citizens of Payson, made Dr. Harrington incline to come out as an in- dependent candidate against Gooding. At this same time the temperance matter had stalked into the canvass and a series of awkward questions upon this subject was publicly pro- pounded to the legislative candidates. The re- ply of Mr. Ruddle, one of the democratie nom- inees, to the effect that he was not especially hostile to a moderately restrictive temperance law if passed upon by the people, did not ae- cord with the interest and views of Mr. Thayer, and when Dr. Harrington appeared as a can- didate Mr. Thayer actively threw all the in- Anence that he conld exert against Ruddle and in support of Harrington. The result was that, while the democratie ticket carried the county at the November election by several hundred majority. Mr. Ruddle was beaten for the legis- lature by Mr. Sullivan, who led him six votes (Dr. Harrington getting between 600 and 700), every other democrat on the ticket be- ing elected. These six votes placed Sullivan

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in the legislature, which thus had a republican majority of one, by which one vote. Lyman Trumbull was chosen to the United States Sen- ate. As Mr. Thayer said afterwards, the re- sult unfortunately exceeded his expectations. What might have been the bearing upon the country and parties had Trumbull not been chosen, and Shields or Matteson elected to the senate as affirming Illinois in the support of Douglas' Nebraska policy, is a question for politicians to speenlate on if they choose, but it is a queer fact that this result was brought about by a trifling local dispute and accident in Adams county.

Money Howed freely during these days. The state was flooded with bank note promises to pay. The free banking law of 1851 was pro- dueing its natural fruits ("dead sea apples." as they partially proved to be), as will the results of every financial scheme that proposes to perpetuate a uniform equalized national eur- reney which is based on other security than the national credit, faith and industry. Flagg & Savage, the leading brokers, organized the "City Bank of Quiney" and issued notes. Their's was the earliest established private bank of issue in the place. Their notes, how- ever, did not circulate at home, but were ex- changed for others of an equivalent face value issued by some distant banks, organized and with a circulation secured ( ?) by the deposit of state bonds, bought or borrowed. and the cheaper these were, the better for the banks.

Quiney was much exercised about this time for the want of a "nom de plume." All the other cities in the land had their fancy names, and Quiney had none. The titles it should with most apparent propriety claim, of "Mound City" or "Bluff City," had already been assumed by St. Louis and Hannibal. It was proposed to call it the Hill City, but that would have dwarfed it alongside of Hannibal, and Mountain City was too monstrons. There were sixteen churches in Quincy at this time. a very large number in proportion to the pious population, and it was seriously urged to have the place christened "the City of Churches." but this was a name that might not stiek, and had already been adopted elsewhere. So the eity went upbaptized for awhile longer, until the name "Gem City" was assumed, why, how or for what specific reason it is diffienlt to say, although there are some appropriate points to warrant this title, and it has now become per- manently fixed.

A special session of the legislature was called which began on the 6th of June and ended on the 26th. It was important only to Quincy for the reason that the Pike county railroad

matter was being battled over in the legisla- ture. and now became a local question of some importance. Quiney railroad interests sought to "stave off" the granting of a charter to the Pike county road (from llannibal to Naples) until the N. C. R. R. was completed to Mere- dosia. In this they mainly succeeded, but the question entered into and a good deal affected the political issues in the city for some years.

This was a year of notable political changes and surprises alike in local and national affairs. The city election in April was a singular show- ing, completely reverisng the previous political order of things. The council, which two years before in 1850, had consisted of five democrats and one whig, now had five whigs and one dem- oerat. The whig conneil, following the prece- dent of their predecessors, placed in all the appointive offices men of their own political faith. E. H. Buckley was chosen city clerk, which place he ocenpied for the next two years, and the entire city "outfit" was composed of whig officials. John Wood was chosen mayor over J. M. Pitman by 190 majority on a vote of about 1,200, and John Wheeler, A. B. Dor- man and JJ. N. Ralston were elected aldermen. the whigs carrying every ward for the first time in the history of the city.

But little of new and local importance of- eurred in the transactions of the council dur- ing the year. One rather amusing excitement, such as Quiney occasionally and Quincy only can furnish, came up during the latter part of Mayor Holmes' administration, over the matter of paying the animal state tax. The collection of this tax had been heretofore made by a different official and at a different period from that of the city tax, and now by law the time for its payment was advaneed, throwing the collection of two taxes into the same year. The fact that Quiney paid no county tax, and perhaps the other anomalous fact that for sev- eral years the eastern part of the county had avoided the payment of taxes. had put into the heads of some earnest people the idea that the paying of state taxes. apparently twice in the same year, could be got clear of, notwithstand- ing that they were based on separate assess- ments. So much stir was made over this ques- tion that the mayor, who, with many merits as a citizen and official, always had an eye to the vox populi vox Dei, especially the popular eve. called a publie meeting to decide whether the state tax of 1851 ought to be collected. The meeting was a large one and it was there re- solved that, while the payment of two taxes. so nearly together, was a hardship. yet it conld not be evaded, and so this little teapot tempest was calmed down.

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PAST AND PRESENT OF ADAMS COUNTY.

The one special action of the new city coun- cil that created comment and criticism, was their raising the salary of the mayor from $250 to $300. In the earlier times the mayor was not only the figurehead of the city in his rep- resentative character as president of the coun- cil and vested with a good deal of executive authority, but he was also, ex officio, a magis- trate and expected to serve as such, and was, withal, street superintendent. Some of the earlier mayors, Conyers and Wood, for in- stance, from a sense of duty and personal in- clination, gave up most of their time to over- seeing the street grading, the laying of side- walks, gutters, etc., which was no small task for whoever undertook to personally superin- tend all the details. The duties attaching to a seat in the city council were not as many as in later years, nor was the aldermanie dignity so prized and sought after as now: but for these, or some other reasons, the selection of men to fill such positions was taken much more satisfactorily. Take, for instance, the names of the aldermen of this year. 1852. who were a fair sample of what and who the city fathers used to be. John Wheeler. Chas. A. Savage, Thomas Redmond, A. B. Dorman. Dr. J. N. Ral- ston, George W. Brown, all representative men whose intelligence and character commanded public confidence, strongly contrasting with some of our later day councils.

Political feeling ran high during this last, hopeless, struggle of the whig party for a na- tional existence. Large party mass meetings were held during the campaign. The demo- cratie ticket carried both county and city, giv- ing Pierce for president over Scott, and Matte- son. for governor over Webb, nearly 400 ma- jority. and the local candidates about 50 less. To congress, W. A. Richardson was elected over O. H. Browning. J. M. Pitman. John Moses and David Wolf to the legislature from Adams, and Brown over J. R. Chittenden, J. C. Cox and John Lomax, and Levy Palmer. sheriff, and C. M. Woods, circuit clerk, beat R. P. Coats and John Field. Calvin A. Warren was elect- ed state's attorney by about 600 majority over J. H. Stewart, the former incumbent. The freesoil vote of 261 in 1848, now fell off to 107, and the 190 whig majority at the April city election was replaced by an equal major- ity on the other side.

CHAPTER XXXI.

1853.

PORK SHIPPED SOUTH BY BOAT IN JANUARY. THE EELS CASE. JUDGE SKINNER ON THE

FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. QUINCY GASLIGHT

AND COKE COMPANY. BANKING. ENGLISH

AND GERMAN SEMINARY. JEFFERSON SCHOOL PROPERTY. BUSINESS PROSPERITY. CHAR- TER FOR A BRIDGE. COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. QUINCY MADE A PORT OF ENTRY. THE GERMAN TRIBUNE. $100,000 VOTED TO RAILROAD, IMPROVEMENT OF MAINE, HAMP- SHIRE AND BROADWAY. AGITATION FOR PLANK ROAD TO BURTON. ROAD ON OPPO- SITE SIDE OF RIVER TO THE BLUFFS. FIRST "STRIKE." "QUINCY BLUES."

TARY ORGANIZATION.

OTHER MILI-

Navigation, which had ended on the 25th of December, 1852, was resumed on the first of February, and continued until Christmas again in 1853. The river had been open here during most of the winter, and about the middle of January a boat, the Regulator, which had been wintering here, started southward laden with a heavy shipment of pork, and after ten or twelve days' battle with the ice, reached St. Louis, and returned to Quincy. It was then an important advance gained to get the winter packing product of Quincy to St. Louis or the south at the earliest possible period. The busi- ness in this line for the season had been good, and some 21,000 hogs were reported as having been packed. The price greatly varied. run- ning from $3.50 up to $6.00.

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Past and present of the city of Quincy and Adams County, Illinois, Part 29

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