USA > Illinois > Peoria County > Peoria > Peoria city and county, Illinois; a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Vol. I > Part 30
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72
These churches in Timber township, together with the one at Mapleton form the Glasford circuit with pastoral residence at Glasford, with a parsonage located there valued at $1,500. Pastor, H. M. Blout.
MEDINA TOWNSHIP
MOSSVILLE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCHI
About the year 1869, the late G. W. Schnebly acting for the people who were interested in the Presbyterian church at Mossville, employed the building firm of James Hazzard & Son of Peoria, who erected for him a neat, comfortable, small brick church building, seating about two hundred people, at a cost of about $2,600. A large percentage of the membership residing on High Prairie, in the vicinity of Alta, found the location at Mossville inconvenient and on October 9, 1875. it was decided to remove to the former place. The church building at Mossville was sold, and purchased by the late Samuel C. Neal for the Methodists, and has since been used by them, they having put in a modern hot-water or steam heating plant. As might be surmised the membership has been small-some fif- teen or twenty, with a Sunday school of about forty members. Under these cir- cumstances the pastoral service has been either in connection with some other church, or by a supply appointed by the presiding elder or district superintendent. The present pastoral service is by Rev. F. E. Ball, pastor of Wesley Methodist Episcopal church, Peoria.
While the Methodist church at Alta is in Medina township, the early organiza- tion, and location of the church was in Radnor, and as its pastoral connections and residence are still there, it was thought best to so give its history.
RICHWOODS TOWNSHIP AVERYVILLE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH
The only Methodist Episcopal church in Richwoods since Grace Methodist Episcopal church was taken into the city, is the Averyville church. This society was organized about 1894 by Rev. T. W. McVety when he was pastor of First church, Peoria. The church was organized. in the village hall and its members worshipped there for a short time. Shortly afterwards lots were purchased on Madison avenue from Mr. Luthy and the present church building erected at a cost of about $2,600, beside the cost of the lots.
Rar. Fr. 16, He center
PUBLIC L 01
ENN AND A
201
HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY
This church now (January, 1912) has forty-five members with a Sunday school of seventy-five members and an average attendance of fifty-two.
The Ladies' Aid Society, of which Mrs. Charles Koch is president, has thirty members. Frank McBridge is Sunday school superintendent.
This church has always been served in connection with some other church. Its present connection is with the church at Putnam. H. Wakefield is pastor. The valuation of the church property including furnishings is $3,950.
CHAPTER XX
THE TIME THAT TRIED MEN'S SOULS-AN INTERESTING BIT OF UNTOLD HISTORY AS WRITTEN BY COLONEL RICE-LINCOLN AND JUDGE KELLOGG
The real trial of the characters of men occurs before the great outbreak in all revolutionary or critical situations when each man must align himself on one side or the other of the great questions presented according to his own judgment and convictions. It is comparatively easy after an alignment is made for one to fill his place and battle in forum or in field for the side he approves. It is not easy in the beginning to determine what position to take, for this involves two things, the abstract question of what is right and the question of how differences of conscientious convictions can be adjusted. Men are so constituted that they look upon important questions from different points of view and conscientiously differ as to what is just, therefore, in order that we may live together in peace, concessions intist be made and the conscientious convictions of others must not be ruthlessly disregarded. It is in such trying times that men of sound judg- ment, strong character, great moral courage, kindness of heart and charitable feelings towards others appear as leaders. Lincoln was pre-eminently such a man. He had strong convictions in regard to slavery and more strong in regard to the necessity of preserving the Union. His problem was "what do the people think?" "What can they be relied upon to do? Can they be induced to work together for the support of right and for the preservation of the Union?" These were questions of very great difficulty calling for solution by the president elect. It was, therefore, thought desirable by Mr. Lincoln and some of his most intimate friends that a proposition of compromise with the southern states, as liberal as possible toward their views should be offered, which if accepted might prevent a long, bloody and expensive war and whether adopted or not might secure for the administration the support of Mr. Douglas and his powerful party. Such an attempt was made as appears from the following article which was pre- pared by the late Hon. David McCulloch, after those events had been long enough passed to allow men to think calmly and at the same time was written before those who had personal knowledge of the facts had passed away. It was submitted to the surviving friends of those interested, most of whom are now gone. It narrates circumstances which probably have not found a place in per- manent print before.
AWFUL DAYS OF DOUBT AND ANXIETY BEFORE THE TERRIFIC STORM
The rejoicing over the great republican victory (in the fall of 1860) was soon turned into a serious consideration of the gravity of the situation. On the next day after the election, the "Palmetto Flag," South Carolina's emblem, was unfurled from the shipmasts in Charleston harbor, and on the next day after the great illumination at Peoria, the legislature of that state passed a bill for the equipment of 10,000 men and ordered an election of delegates to consider the necessity of immediate secession. Two days thereafter both her senators in con- gress resigned their seats. Then men began to inquire of each other, "Do you think the south is in earnest in its threats of secession ?"
203
204
HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY
Georgia followed South Carolina on the 18th of November by appropriating $1,000,000 for the purpose of arming her citizens. Then the inquiry began, "Do you think we are going to have war?"
December 3d came and with it the assembling of congress. In his message Mr. Buchanan declared secession to be unlawful, but denied the power of the general government to coerce a sovereign state. This was an announcement to the secessionists that they were at liberty to go on with their unlawful purposes without hindrance from the government during the last four months of his administration. Although the republicans had won the victory their hands were completely tied. It began to look as if the Union was to be dissolved without resistance.
Stormy times had now set in. On December 5th the United States treasury suspended specie payment. Then the cabinet began to dissolve by the succes- sive resignation of its members. On the 20th South Carolina passed its ordinance of secession. On the 24th its representatives in congress resigned their seats and returned to their homes. Still men continued to inquire, "Do you think they mean war or only bravado?" We were in a state of war without knowing it. But the war at this period was on one side only. There was no resistance. Forts and arsenals of the United States were quietly taken possession of by the seceding states; senators and congressmen resigned their seats as their respective states seceded ; on December 27th the United States Revenue Cutter, "The William Aiken" was surrendered to the authorities of South Carolina. On January 9, 1861, another one "The Star of the West" on her way from New York with pro- visions and reinforcements for Fort Sumter was fired upon by South Carolina batteries and compelled to return. Still men continued to inquire, "Do you think there will be war?"
A pall of terror seemed to have spread itself over the whole North. It was the recoil produced by the discharge of a broadside. People began to consider whether they might not have gone too far in the late election. When confronted with the horrors of internecine war. they began to quail before its awful con- sequences. Especially in the eastern cities it began to look as if the North was ready to give up all it had gained. We began to wonder if we had a country to fight for. or whether our boasted constitution was a rope of sand. The flag itself had disappeared. Except on national holidays, or when carried as an ornament at the head of some military display, it had for some years ceased to attract any considerable degree of admiration. During this lull before the storm it inspired little enthusiasm. The slave power had no further use for it; the new forces of freedom were awaiting their turn. Congress itself seemed to have caught the infection "While the secession leaders were engaged in their schemes for the disruption of the national government and the formation of a new confederacy, congress was employing every effort to arrest the disunion tendency by making new concessions, and offering new guaranties to the offended power of the South." No sooner had it convened than "in each branch special committees of conciliation were appointed. They were not so termed in the resolutions of the senate and house, but their mission was solely one of conciliation." In the senate they raised a committee of thirteen, representing the number of the original states of the Union. In the house the committee was composed of thirty-three members, the representatives from the Peoria district, William Kellogg being a member of the latter. Proposition after proposition was introduced, until, as Mr. Blaine afterwards said they would have filled a large volume.
But the South emboldened by the vascillating course of congress became more defiant than ever. One of their leaders contemptuously said if the North would sign their names to a blank sheet of paper and submit it to the South to fill in the terms of re-union they would not do it. With the president at its back the South had the North on the run. With the North it was surrender or fight with the fighting postponed until the incoming of the new administration.
Among the measures prominently brought forward for the pacification of
205
HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY
the country was a proposed amendment to the constitution submitted by the venerable and highly respected John J. Crittenden, senator from Kentucky. Coming from a border state senator, it was looked upon by many as the embodi- ment of the sentiments which might be agreed upon by the whole country. This proposition had been rejected by the senate but afterwards brought forward in the house as a substitute for the measures purposed by the house committee of thir- teen. The report of that committee was so obnoxious to the northern representa- tives as to meet with but little favor in the house. To his credit be it said that our representative, Judge Kellogg, was one of the three who voted against it in committee.
But many of the republicans, rather than have war, were willing to go to great lengths in the way of conciliation, believing that conciliation was better than dis- union. It was even hinted that Senators Cameron and Seward, both of whom were named in connection with cabinet positions, had shown signs of a willing- ness to compromise on terms agreeable to the border states.
It was during this period of excitement, when four states had already seceded and others were in process of seceding; when the principal forts, arsenals and navy yards in the South had fallen into the hands of the seceding states and the surrender of Fort Sumter had been demanded, that our congressman, Wil- liam Kellogg, on the 20th day of January, 1861, visited Mr. Lincoln at his home in Springfield. What occurred at that interview may never be known. It is known however, that a long interview took place reaching far into the night. It is known too, that Mr. Lincoln was in favor of securing to the people of the South all their constitutional rights even to the restoration of their fugitive slaves. It is also known that he had great solicitude about the retention of the border states in the Union, if disunion should become an accomplished fact. But so far as known he had never by any word publicly uttered or by any letter written re- ceded one jot or one tittle from the principles of the platform upon which he had been elected. But who knows that he never entertained the thought that, if by so doing, war might be averted, the seceding states brought back and the Union restored, he might have considered it his duty to yield? He had already seen enough of the vascillating course of some of the party leaders, both in and out of congress to awaken his deep solicitude for the future, yet still continued to counsel a firm adherence to the principles of "No more slave territory."
It was a matter of great surprise therefore, that within ten days after his return from Springfield, that Mr. Kellogg who was supposed to stand very near the president-elect should present in congress a measure of compromise which was interpreted by all parties as a departure from the Chicago platform. His proposition was presented on February I, for the purpose of having it printed and at the proper time offered as a substitute for the Crittenden amendment. The supposed nearness of political relationship of Judge Kellogg to Mr. Lincoln was at once seized upon by the democrats in congress as a circumstance indicative of a willingness on the part of the president-elect to concede more than his party had been willing to do. But no sooner had this intimation been thrown out than Judge Kellogg declared upon the floor of congress that no human hand other than his own was in any way responsible for the proposition.
The Crittenden amendment embraced the following points: To renew the Missouri line of 36° 30' and carry it to the Pacific ocean ; to prohibit slavery north and permit it south of that line ; to admit new states with or without slavery as their constitutions might provide ; to prohibit congress from abolishing slavery in the states or in the District of Columbia so long as it should exist in Virginia or Maryland ; to permit free transmission of slaves by land or water in any state ; to pay from the National treasury for fugitive slaves rescued after arrest; to amend the Fugitive Slave Law in respect to commissioners' fees and to ask the northern states to repeal their personal liberty laws in regard to such fugitives.
The proposition of Judge Kellogg embraced the following points: To renew the Missouri line of 36° 30' and extend it to the Pacific ocean ; to prohibit slavery
206
HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY -
north of that line and to permit slave owners in the states to take and hold them in territory south of it while such territory should remain under territorial govern- ment ; to admit new states formed from territory either north or south of it with or without slavery as their constitutions might provide; that the general gov- ernment should have no power to abolish or establish slavery in any state; that congress should have power to enact laws for the return of fugitive slaves ; that the foreign slave trade should be abolished and that no new territory should be annexed or acquired by the United States unless by treaty to be ratified by a vote of two-thirds of the senate.
There was nothing new in this proposition; every article thereof having in one form or another been before the house. It seems to have been an effort to collect and condense into one amendment those points which had met with the greatest favor. It was, however, interpreted by both democrats and republicans as a plain departure from the Chicago platform in permitting the extension of slavery into new territory lying south of the line of 36° 30'. For this Judge Kellogg was severely condemned by his constituents, and within a week there- after the Peoria district congressional committee met and called a delegate conven- tion to be held at Peoria on the 22d day of February, ostensibly to take such action as they might see fit; but, for their utterances made at the time, it would appear that the true object of the convention was to pass judgment upon the course of Judge Kellogg. The several counties responded to the call by calling either delegate county conventions or mass meetings, at which resolutions were passed deprecating any departure from the Chicago platform. One or two called upon Judge Kellogg to resign; while one commended his motives while differing with him in his plan. The resolutions passed at the caucus held in the city of Peoria were emphatic in declaring the party had not advocated one set of principles before election to be discarded and' another set substituted after elec- tion ; that the Kellogg proposition met with their hearty condemnation and they entered an earnest and emphatic protest against them.
During all this time the republican papers of the district were filled with articles denunciatory of Kellogg's course, some charging him with treachery to the party, some calling him a renegade, and some called upon him to resign.
The republicans of I'coria county met in convention on the 21st day of Feb- ruary to elect delegates to the congressional convention. In their resolutions they had declared that Kellogg had forfeited all claim to the confidence of his constituents and ought not to be considered as the representative of republican principles. This resolution when first presented contained this further clause : "And it is the sense of this convention that he ought to resign his trust into the hands of the people by whom he was elected," but after some debate it was stricken out by the convention.
In the congressional convention which met in Peoria on the next day it was resolved "That we enter our solemn protest against the resolutions offered by our representative in congress to amend the federal constitution, believing them to be subversive of our plighted faith, our party's honor and the spirit of our institu- tions, and we earnestly urge him to an unfaltering support of republican principles as enunciated in the Chicago platform." An attempt was made to add the words "or to resign" but after a sharp debate it failed by a vote of 79 to 88. The Transcript in an editorial said that "most of those who voted against the amend- ment believed that Judge Kellogg was a man of honor and if he could not com- ply with the request of the convention he would resign without being asked, and if he was not a man of honor he would not resign although asked, and it would be a waste of breath." But Kellogg did not change his course nor did he resign. Nor was the demand renewed. Possibly the most radical of his opponents had not stopped to consider that his term was about to expire and that his resignation of his then pending term would serve no good purpose. Should he resign the term to which he had just been elected the vacancy would have had to be filled by a new election, which in the then excited state of the country might not have
207
HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY
resulted in a republican victory. It is possible, too, that Mr. Lincoln may have thrown his advice against the party's insisting on Kellogg's resignation.
Here is an enigma in politics which is heightened by the fact that for ten days, during which time this excitement was raging in the fourth district of Illinois, Mr. Lincoln was on his way to Washington, stopping first at Indianapolis, then at Cincinnati, Columbus, Pittsburg, Cleveland, Buffalo, Albany, New York, Trenton, and Philadelphia, making speeches at all important points addressing the legislatures of three states and arriving at Washington on the day next after this congressional convention. If Mr. Lincoln had then regarded his old friend as a traitor to his party, is it to be supposed he would have maintained a profound silence or would he not have made it known in some way that his course did not meet with his approval? For five days this silence was maintained and no steps taken by Kellogg to recede from his position.
On the 28th day of February, however, with the proceedings of the Peoria convention before him he made the formal presentation of his proposed amend- ment by moving it as a substitute for that known as the Crittenden amendment. This was as far, however, as it ever got. Congress was in a turmoil. One proposition after another was swept away as by a cyclone until nothing remained but a simple proposal to amend the constitution to the effect that congress should have no power to interfere with slavery in the states where it then existed. This proposition was adopted by the requisite vote in each house and sent to the sev- eral states for their approval. But the logic of events dispensed with the neces- sity of its being acted upon, for within sixty days from that date the rebellion was in full sway and greater issues were upon the country.
Judge Kellogg remained in congress for two years thereafter, during which time his district was changed and he was not again a candidate. But Mr. Lincoln offered him the position of minister of the United States to Nicaragua, which offer he declined. He then appointed him chief justice of Nebraska territory, a position he continued to hold until its admission as a state March 1, 1867, nearly two years after Mr. Lincoln's death. It is quite evident therefore, that Judge Kellogg never lost the confidence of Mr. Lincoln as he must have done if the latter had regarded him as a traitor to his party.
The history of the time also shows that other republicans in congress had made as bad breaks, or worse than this of Judge Kellogg. Particularly was this the case with Charles Francis Adams, whom Mr. Lincoln appointed minister to the court of St. James. Mr. Seward was also accused of weakening and his home organ, the Albany Evening Journal, edited by Thurlow Weed, was out- spoken in favor of some compromise. Yet Mr. Seward was then known to be slated for and afterwards received a cabinet appointment. The Chicago Journal came out decidedly in favor of Kellogg's course, and the idea seemed to be floating in the air that, if not Mr. Lincoln, at least Mr. Seward looked with favor upon his proposed amendment. Early in February, the Illinois State Journal, the leading republican paper at Mr. Lincoln's home, and before he had started for Washington had said: "Our dispatches from Washington this morning state that Mr. Kellogg had received a message from a leading republican here (Spring- held) stating that his proposition is satisfactory. Such is not the case. We believe no republican of character has transmitted such a dispatch. The Breck- enridge platform will never be received by the people of Illinois as a basis of an adjustment." Although not mentioning his name the evident purpose of this emphatic denial was to exculpate Mr. Lincoln before the public from any con- nection with the Kellogg proposition.
What motive had Judge Kellogg for his course upon this occasion? He must have known his proposition would meet with defeat. He must have known he would be condemned at home. There was nothing to gain at that time either personally or politically from his course. It is possible he thought to lay this last burden upon the conscience of the south ; to offer them this last peace offer- ing, to hold out to them this last olive branch, which if accepted by them would
208
HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY
have thrown the responsibilities of the war upon the north, but if rejected by them would justify the incoming administration in the adoption of such measures as should be found necessary to maintain the national authority. Whatever his underlying motives may have been and by whomsoever advised it is certain Judge Kellogg never shirked the whole responsibility of his actions but went to his death bearing his reproach.
After his death, however, those who had knowledge of the affair gave to the country the solution of the problem. Judge Kellogg died at Peoria, December 20, 1872, and was buried on the Sunday following. On the day of his death a meeting of the Peoria Bar was held, at which meeting a committee was appointed to draft resolutions commemorative of his life and services, of which committee Elbridge G. Johnson, who had been a member of the legislature in 1861, was made chairman. On the Tuesday following, at the convening of the circuit court, Hon. Sabin D. Puterbaugh presiding. Mr. Johnson presented to the court the resolutions which had been adopted by the bar and moved that they be spread upon its records. On the day following (Wednesday, January 8, 1873), an account of these proceedings was published in the Peoria Transcript, then the leading republican paper in the district, in which allusion is thus made to the remarks of Mr. Johnson : "In speaking of the memorable compromise resolutions offered in congress by Judge Kellogg, Mr. Johnson stated that the resolutions had been prepared in Springfield by Judge Kellogg and Mr. Lincoln, the presi- (lent-elect, who gave them his hearty indorsement. At the same time he felt that in the agitated state of the country, the presenter of them might fall a victim of popular prejudice. Judge Kellogg, notwithstanding he felt the full force of the danger of political death presented the resolutions and met the fate he feared awaited him, but gave no sign as it would never have done to commit Lincoln to any line of policy."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.