Past and present of the city of Quincy and Adams County, Illinois, Part 30

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 30

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The "Eels case," which had been contro- verted in the various courts for many years. originating about 1837, was decided on the 21st of January. This case was important and had much national attention, because it judi- cially settled the personal responsibility of par- ties in a free state who assisted the farther escape of slaves after they had fled clear from the state where local law recognized them as property, thus sustaining the validity of the then existing fugitive slave law in extending its operations into the free states, was espe- cially interesting to Quiney people, for the rea- son that the defendant had long been a promi- nent citizen of this place, where the case com- menved. Dr. Richard Eels, whose name has thus become somewhat accidentally historical in connection with the early anti-slavery strifes, was a well established physician here. and was a member of a small association which aided onward to Canada runaway slaves. The case with its long continuation, financially ruined Dr. Eels, and the anxieties which it created probably aided in breaking down his health. He died in the West Indies about the time that this suit was determined. He was an unusually capable physician and a worthy man of rather extreme and unbalanced opin- ions upon some subjects. Connected with the topie above mentioned, which was once a con- stant vexation, but had of late generally passed ont of thought, there came up a slight renewal of the old slavery fever. A public meeting in Marion county, Mo .. had resolved to have no business intercourse with Quincy on account of

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the disposition of so many of its people to har- bor and aid runaway slaves. The question here was agitated as to what was the obliga- tion in this matter in Illinois under the black laws prescribed by the new constitution, and how far the legal machinery of the state was subservient to the demand for the return of fugitives. Judge Skinner, who at this time was on the circuit bench, made publie his opinion that only the United States law and United States officials had cognizance of such cases, and so with this closed nearly the last of the old-time sensitive trouble between Quiney and its near neighbors across the river.

The Quiney Gaslight and Coke Company, which had been incorporated at the legislative session of 1852-53, perfected its organization on the 9th of August, with a capital stock of $75,000, and made its local contraet with the city for a twenty-five years' exclusive privi- lege. The greater portion of this stock was in the ownership of A. B. Chambers, of St. Louis, and he controlled the affairs of the company for a long time. The remainder of the stock was divided among the local charter members. The company bought on the 30th of July the ground at the corner of JJersey and Ninth, which they yet occupy, and began work at once. Ample means were at the command of the St. Louis parties, and the enterprise was rapidly and judieiously pushed, coming to an early completion and proving to be for a long time most satisfactory to the public and more remunerative to the owners than any of the other inter-corporate improvements in the city.

Banking matters partook of the general quick activity. The "Quiney Savings and In- surance Co.," with banking privileges, char- tered the winter before, formally organized. This was afterwards, with some changes of name and control, the First National Bank of Quiney. A private banking house was opened during the summer on the north side of the publie square by Ebenezer Moore, J. R. Hol- lowbush and E. F. Iloffman, under the name of Moore, Hollowbush & Co. It did a handsome and lucrative business until carried down like the other bank of Flagg & Savage, by the fail- ure of the Thavers three or four years later.

An "English and German Seminary." under the auspices of the Methodist church. was pro- jected this year, and through earnest efforts, enlisting other denominational influences. it be- came a success. This is the institution which was erected and long located in the imposing brick structure on Spring street between Third and Fourth, generally known as the "Method- ist College," now the Jefferson school house. Some years after this, the name was changed

to "Johnson College," in honor of one of its donors. and later still, in recognition of an- other beneficent gifts. it was rechristened "C'haddock College," which title it has sinee worn. About the time of this last change of name (in 1875) the college was removed to the corner of State and Twelfth streets, and estab- lished in the Gov. Wood residence, which had been purchased for its use. At the same time with this removal the city board of education bought, for $30,000, the old college property, which comprised, besides the valuable building, an entire block, and located there the Jefferson publie school. This was a judicious and op- portune purchase for the school interests of the city. It chanced to come at a time when the Jefferson school was required to be re- moved from Jefferson Square, to make way for the new court house, and there was secured to the school board a substantially built strue- ture, amply adapted to the purpose, with a larger surrounding of ground than any other of the eight city school houses, placed also in a quarter where it might not be easy in the future to obtain a sufficient amount of land so centrally and satisfactorily situated for ednea- tional uses.

Trade and business of every kind continued more and more flourishing. About forty steamboats ran regularly from St. Louis to Quiney, and passing here in the up river trade. During the free navigation period of ten months, which continued into December, with a brief suspension in the spring (an unusual occurrence ), there were registered thirteen hundred and fifty steamboat landings, averag- ing about five arrivals each day.

A statement compiled at the close of this year, which is probably correct so far as it goes, but incomplete on account of many omis- sions, rates the animal export trade of the city as amounting to $1,248,011. This professes to embrace all the values of product and manu- facture that had been sold and shipped away. Among the leading items therein cited were 3.153 barrels of beef, 6,850 of crackers, 28,923 of flour, 20,296 of whisky. 101 carriages, 594 wagons, 5,092 stoves. 4.165 plows. 4,119 hides, 8,039 bales of hay, 116 hogsheads of tallow, 3.600 boxed candles. 430,000 feet Inmber. 358,- 000 laths and shingles. $91,000 worth of cast- ings, engines, etc., 40.866 bushels of wheat, 71,386 of corn and 137,299 of oats. At the same time another, like the above only partial statement of the business employments, reports 3 steam flour and 2 steam saw mills. 2 distiller- ies. 25 steam engines in use, 6 machine shops, 4 foundries, 1 cotton, 1 woolen, 1 wooden ware, 1 flooring factory. 3 sash, 3 carriage, 3 large

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wholesale furniture factories and several smaller ones, 2 extensive wagon and plow fac- tories and 7 smaller ones. 2 planing mills, 5 lumber yards, 1 book-bindery. 2 hardware, 6 iron and stove, 3 books and stationery. 4 drug and over 200 retail stores, grocery, dry goods, ete., 2 banking houses, 18 churches, 2 daily and 3 weekly English and 2 weekly German news- papers. The official valuation of city prop- erty for taxation. real and personal. footed $2.076,360.

The old court house, the second one, built in 1836 on the east side of the square, was en- larged by having an extension attached to the rear, and, by an arrangement between the eity and county, the former obtained the use of one of the large lower rooms for a clerk's office and council room, which was thus occupied for the following fourteen years.

A charter for a bridge company was pro- cured at the legislative session of 1852-53. the incorporators being the directors of the N. C. R. R. and some other parties connected there- with. The requirements of the charter were that the bridge should be commenced within three and finished within six years. These time conditions were not complied with, but extensions of the charter were obtained and with some changes from the original plan, this enterprise was the origin of the present rail- road bridge, constructed some twelve or thir- teen years later.

With the accession of the democratic party at the national election in 1852 to administra- tive control of the country, there followed the usual changes among the federal officials. Austin Brooks, editor of the Herald, was made postmaster, supplanting Abraham Jonas, who had held this office during the past four years. Another person, a partner of Mr. Brooks, had been booked for this place. but an unlucky busi- ness contretemps, coming to light, just on the eve of appointment. precluded the use of his name, and the office went to his partner. Also A. C. Marsh, as Register, and Damon Honser, as Receiver of the public land office, succeeded Henry Asbury and II. V. Sullivan. There was a good deal of local special importance attached to the land office and to these positions. They had been, in earlier years, places of distinction and responsibility. and were at one time largely lucrative; mainly so from the fees, the stated salary being small. only $400 per annum. Their value had been for some time past steadily shrinking, and their importance also, and the appointees above named were the last to hold the offices, which ended with their term.

The Quincy land district. established in 1831, embraced the entire Military Bounty Traet. and

covered the 5,369,000 acres of public land lying between the Mississippi and Illinois rivers. reaching as far north as the latitude of LaSalle and Rock Island. More than one-half of this, about 3,500,000 acres, was by congressional law reserved from general purchase, and specially set aside to be deeded as bounties to the soldiers in the war of 1812. Patents for these thus re- served lands were issued to the soldiers as early as 1815 and in the four or five following years. The remaining unpatented lands were not of- fered for sale until a long time later, a large portion of them being reserved for more than 20 years. The cheapness of these bounty lands which could be bought from the soldier paten- tee : 160 acres for from $10 or $15 to $30: or the state tax title for a still lower figure. while the government price for land was $2.00 and later $1.25 per acre, and their unsurpassed fertility, with the advantage of a location between and nearly bordered by two great navigable rivers, were tempting offerings to the adventurous emi- grants and to the speculator, causing a flow of settlement towards this section far in advance of that received by any other part of Illinois; an immigration which continned when the re- mainder of the hitherto government land was thrown open to general entry. With the loca- tion in Quiney of the publie land office. there naturally followed the establishment of the pri- vate land agencies, which represented the titles to nearly all the unoccupied land in the bounty tract that had been granted to the soldiers. Hence every one desiring to purchase either publie or private land had to apply personally or otherwise at Quincy, which. of course. thus became the sole land market center for this section of the state. Had Rushville, which at that period (1831) was more populous than Quincy, and came near being preferred. or Pe- oria. which was about equally central so far as the location of the lands lay : had either of these been the point selected for the public land office. one of the strongest factors in the early history of Quiney's prominence and improve- ment would have been lost. Most of the gov- ernment land had now. in 1853. passed into pri- vate ownership, and when, soon after, the gen- eral government donated to the states all the swamp lands, or those subject to overflow. so little was left in this district that it was no longer necessary to maintain the offices here, and they were removed to Springfield.

Another federal office was created about this time. A bill was introduced into Congress in December, to make Quincy a port of entry. which passed during the session. The object was to convenience the railroad in its payments on the iron imported from England. Under the

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operation of this law shipment could be made through direct to Quiney and here taken out of store, and the duties paid thereon from time to time in such amounts as the railroad company required. Several other cities on this great "inland sea" (as Mr. Calhoun, to evade his own opposition to internal improvements, termed the upper Mississippi), that were similarly inter- ested in railroad enterprises, were also about this time. made ports of entry, and continued such for a number of years, a good while after the chief reason for their establishment had passed away. The law relating to Quiney went into effect Feb. 2. 1854, and the appointment of surveyor of the port was made soon after.

At the November election, which this being the odd year, was only for county officers. the democrats carried the county by the usual av- erage majority of about 200, electing W. Il. Cather County JJudge over Henry Asbury : Geo. W. Leech County Clerk over B. M. Prentiss, and J. Il. Luee Treasurer over C. M. Pomeroy. The city election, in April, was a mixed snecess for both parties. The whigs re-elected John Wood as Mayor over J. M. Pitman by 6 votes, and C. A. Savage to the council from the First ward by 3 majority. F. Welhnan and S. Thayer. democrats, were elected in the Second and Third wards, and the general democratie ticket was successful. With the casting vote of the Mayor, the conneil contimed the former whig officials.

A meeting of whigs was held on the 5th of May to consider the project of establishing a German whig newspaper. There were two Ger- man periodicals then published, both of which were democratic. Mr. Wood proposed to pur- chase type, etc., for such a paper if the party would sustain it for five years. The result was the establishment of the Tribune, which made its appearance on the first of November as an independent German weekly. It did not, how- ever, live out its time. The promised support failed within a year or two and after passing through several changes of ownership and name, it became what is now the Germania. The Herald met with another of its frequent kaleidoscopes and suspended during the sum- mer. resmning about the first of August under the management of Wni. M. Avise & Co.

Railroad matters were progressing success- fully. Much of the grading through Adams county. the heavier sections excepted, was well advanced toward completion, and before the close of the year the entire roadbed to Gales- burg was under contract. Some changes of- curred in the management and in the directory. where a causeless inharmony temporarily oc- ouered that was soon corrected. At the stock-

holders' meeting in April the old directors were re-chosen with two additional members, these were Brooks and Joy, representatives of the northern interests in the road, which eventually obtained its control. W. Il. Sidell became chief engineer, succeeding Newell, and continued as sneh until the final finish of the road to Gales- burg. Later John Wood was made director in place of Pitman, resigned.

At the 1852-53 session of the legislature an aet had been obtained authorizing the city. by a popular vote, to subscribe $100,000 in addi- tion to what had been already given towards the construction of the railroad. The company made application for this, and on the 23rd of June a public meeting was called to consider the matter, at which it was manifest that the general feeling was favorable and earnest for the subscription. The president of the road re- ported in detail its condition and prospects. what had been done and was desired and stated that an additional sum of $160,000 was required to completely grade, bridge and iron the road to Galesburg, and that the plan proposed was for Qniney to furnish $100,000, MeDonongh county $25.000 (having already given $50,000), and that the remainder would be made up by private subscription, also then and at a subse- quent meeting the railroad directory pledged itself to take care of the interest on these bonds. The city council promptly ordered an election to be held on the 30th of July for the proposed subscription of $100,000 in eight per rent bonds. The project was carried by a nearer approach to unanimity even than at the election over the first subscription two years before. Then the vote stood 1,074 to 19. Now there were 1.133 votes cost for and but 4 against. MeDonough county followed snit in August by a vote of 1.145 in favor of the $25 .- 000 subscription with 285 opposed. There was also $30,300 raised by personal subscription, this about completing the amount called for. This was the second of the five subscriptions. amounting to $1.100,000, which have mainly made the foundation of the present city debt. the amount above named having been increased greatly by the funding of long delinquent inter- est. Whatever may be said or thought now. then, or at any time as to the need or propriety of incurring these great debts, Quincy has for them its own sole responsibility to bear, for it is a patent fact that each and all of these meas- ures were eagerly adopted. not only with no shadow of dissent, but with an almost feverish enthusiasm of unanimity. To the $1,100,000 cited above as the sum of Quiney's investments in railroads may be added the city proportion of $220,000 voted by the county to the two

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roads running north and south, which, however, became no part of the liabilities of Quincy, and its burden has insensibly passed out of exist- ence. A special issue of bonds to the amount of $12,000 was made during this year to meet the payment on bonds, about to mature and to take up and fund local indebtedness.

An unusual amount of expensive and perma- nent publie improvement was done during this year. Maine and Hampshire streets along and eastward from the public square were heavily macadamized, "a deep kneeded want during the muddy months." was Quincy's veteran punster's comment on the matter. Broadway from Twelfth to the river was put in passable. traveling condition, by having its uniform grade established and the same nearly finished before the close of the year. This comprehen- sive and costly work, involving one of the larg- est expenditures of the kind that the city had as yet made, was the cause of constant war in the eouneil, and among the newspapers through- out the summer and fall, affording plenty of material for outside gossip and discussion, and often for merriment. It was the raciest, most honest contest of which the vouneil had up to this time been the theater, not exhibiting the cavortings that sometimes have been shown there in later years, but it was pugnacious and pleky and long. The city fathers were evenly divided on this issue. The two from the north and one from the middle ward ardently urging it, while the two from the south ward and the other middle ward member were equally flint- like in their opposition. The project was brought forward, passed through the council, because of the absence from the city of one of the south ward aldermen, the contract was let and the grading commenced. When. however, this ab- sentee alderman returned and one of the north- siders happened to be away, the boot changed legs; the order for grading was revoked, and payment on the work done suspended, until by another chance and the absence again of a south alderman and the return of the north member, thus giving back the original majority, the improvement started up again: and so it see-sawed throughout the season, while all the time one newspaper, to make capital against the city administration, and because its special friend didn't get the contract, bitterly de- nounced the job, and the other paper, to sus- tain the administration and because its special friend had secured the contract. fought for it with equal zeal. It was a furious warfare of words. The editors have gone, the contractors are dead, and two only of the aldermen are living, but the work went on to completion. It was, as before said, a very expensive and troublesome improvement to make, appearing

to many as unnecessary at the time, but was of real. essential importance. This half mile eut to the river had been made by the railroad com- pany twenty years before, and now much was needed to bring it into useful and available condition as a street.

At Twelfth street it lay some ten or twelve feet below the present surface level, to which it was raised again at this time, and to equalize the grade westward required many changes to be made all along the line, some of them quite costly, but the result in creating the best thor- oughfare, in fact, the only easy graded street from the river up into the city, more than war- ranted the propriety of the expenditure.

The grade also of Maine street from Eighth to Eighteenth streets, then the eastern limit of the city, was established and partial work begun thereon, yet many years passed before the street was brought to anything like its pres- ent handsome appearance. Settlement along it at this time was thin, there being but three honses east of Twelfth, and not many more west to Ninth, and the ground was unequal and broken. One now looking along that broad stretch of smooth bedded street, with its easy, graceful proportion of rise and decline, cannot easily realize that its whole length from Ninth to Sixteenth, was at this period a billowy suc- cession of lean hazel ridges and abrupt ravines, as numerous as the crossing streets and at times almost impassable, changed as it now has be- come into the most beautiful thoroughfare of the city, which indeed can scarcely be elsewhere surpassed.

Real estate values continued to advance as they had been steadily doing since 1840, ac- celerated by the active railroad movement and prospects. To the surprise of some. however, this increased rise appeared more in the eastern and central sections, than in the older portion of the city under the hill, where it might be presumed, from the location there of the depot. adding the railroad to the river business, that the value of the ground in that vicinity would be most enhanced. The result was the reverse of this expectation. Some property there changed owners, and at good advanced figures. but the trades made were mostly speculative. and the figures lower than relatively ruled else- where. The lot on the corner of Front and Broadway, which for some years had "gone a-begging" at $20.00 per foot, was now sold for $30.00, but this was somewhat exceptional, and generally the investments in this quarter re- munerated slowly, the truth being that there has always been a larger area of ground and frontage on the river than was needed for the business that required to be specially located there, and this faet holds good as much in later

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days as it always did in earlier times, when only "steamboat business" was transacted un- der the hill.

The promise and stir of the coming railroad stimulated some other latent ideas of enter- prise into activity. There had been for many years a common "talk." usually just before a city election, of a plank road across the river bottom opposite the city. One frequent candi- date for publie honors, periodically used as his political shibboleth, "a town clock, free ferry and Missouri plank road." These of course amounted to nothing after the election. but now with the spirit of enterprise well aroused, and some rivalry excited, the first practical move- ments were made in the direction of the last above named and the most important of the three measures suggested.

Hannibal, seeing that Quiney had an assured eastern and northern railroad connection, while its own was at yet neertain, had pushed out to good completion its plank and gravel road, reaching through the bottom lands to the Illi- nois bluffs so as to secure and retain all the trade of the southern part of Adams county. With an eye towards meeting this flank move- ment from our little rival city, a Quincy com- pany projected and completed the survey of a line for a plank road to Burton, nine miles southeast of the city ; and what was of like but much greater importance, an elaborate exam- ination and survey with estimates of expense, was made by a skillful engineer, B. B. Went- worth, for about five miles of road, commeneing at the ferry landing opposite the city and reaching almost by an air line to the north Fabius bridge at the foot of the Missouri bluffs. The estimates were, for a road of this charae- ter, raised above possible overflow. trestled bridges, etc .. $19.246 for a single track with passings, and $21,656 for a double track. What has been expended since this time. thirty-four years ago, in endeavoring to make a road of this character, we do not know, but it is truth beyond question that if the above named amount, taken from what has been given rail- roads, vast as their benefits have been, had been devoted to the opening of these two enterprises, the gain to Quincy would have been very great and the railroads would not have missed it.

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Past and present of the city of Quincy and Adams County, Illinois, Part 30

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