USA > Illinois > Peoria County > Peoria > Peoria city and county, Illinois; a record of settlement, organization, progress and achievement, Vol. I > Part 52
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HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY
sermon was preached by Rev. W. G. Pierce, of Elmwood, assisted by Rev. James Wycoff and Rev. B. F. Hackins. The last named was pastor twelve years. From a variety of causes, the society ceased to maintain its organization and the church edifice is now owned and used as a place of worship by the Methodist Episcopal church of Elmore.
The church of the New Jerusalem ( Swedenborgian) once had an organization at Rochester, the meetings having been held in the house of John Smith, Jr., on section eighteen. At this meeting Rev. John B. Hibbard, a cultured and eminent divine of Chicago, made an address. The society consisted of John Smith, Jr. and wife, Gilbert Arnold, Caleb North, G. P. Wycoff, the Adams and Pnesipher families of Southport, and Philander Arnold of West Jersey, Stark county.
The first Sunday school was organized in the spring of 1841, Mrs. Breese, wife of Rev. Robert Breese, being the first superintendent. She was a woman of fine moral and religious sentiments and great force of character and made the school a success in every respect. Of those who attended this school, the fol- lowing survive: Mrs. Mahala Hurd, nee Bodine, West Jersey, Stark county ; Mrs. Acenath Neal, nee Matheus, Mossville, Illinois.
The first school in the township was taught in the winter of 1836-37 by Caleb North, in a small log cabin on the southwest corner of the northwest quarter of section twenty, for which he received the munificent salary of ten dollars per month and boarded around with the scholars. There is not a known pupil of that school now living.
The first school house in the village of Rochester was built by Dr. Fifield, Russell Stanton and Jonah Lewis, without the assistance of public funds. It remained until 1867, when it was replaced by a large and commodious brick structure which still remains.
The township is now divided into eight full and two fractional union districts in all of which public schools are regularly taught. The zealous interest taken by the people in the cause of popular education is manifested by the flourishing condition of these schools and the liberal taxes voluntarily imposed upon them- selves by the tax payers for their support. The school houses are, as a rule, of the most improved pattern and furnished with all modern appliances to secure the comfort, health and advancement in study of the pupil, the cost varying from one thousand to five thousand dollars. They compare favorably with those of other localities. Many of them are equipped with fine school libraries.
In the year 1845. Rev. Robert Breese and his accomplished wife, who was a graduate of the celebrated Holyoke seminary, established a school of high grade, called the "Breese Seminary."" Mrs. Breese was the real principal, her husband devoting his time mainly to ministerial work. This school was liberally patron- ized by the wealthy and influential families of the surrounding country. Mrs. Breese remained as principal of this school until about 1850, when she was suc- ceeded by Miss Elizabeth Goodell.
The only persons who attended Miss Goodell's school as pupils and now known to be living are Erastus Stanton, of Republic county. Kansas, and Mrs. S. J. Adams, nee Anthony, of Peoria county. The "Seminary" building has long since disappeared and on its site is a cottage of the village blacksmith.
From 1836 to 1856, Peoria was the market for the agricultural products of Millbrook township. The wheat, oats, corn, and dressed hogs were hauled there in wagons and in a while, dressed hogs were marketed at Lacon. Cattle were driven to Chicago. After 1856, Elmwood and Oak Hill, on the Peoria & Oquawka railroad became its principal shipping points. After the building of the Buda branch of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy railroad, the village of Monica be- came a market for the eastern part, and Brimfield for a part of the south side of the township.
The Atchison. Topeka & Santa Fe railroad was built across the township in 1887. In the following year an elevator was erected at the village of Laura on the line of that road. There are now two large and well equipped elevators at that place. besides cribs of ten thousand bushels capacity.
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HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY
li was no gay "outing" to drive to Peoria or Lacon across the bleak, treeless windswept prairies, with the mercury below zero and to be pelted at almost every step with flying snowflakes and eat a frozen dinner at noon time. It required lots of that commodity, commonly called "sand," to "face the music."
When it comes to the marketing of grain, contrast the past, when it took two whole days to haul a load of thirty-five or forty bushels of wheat or corn to Peoria, and the present. Now one team will deliver anywhere from two to seven loads, of from fifty to sixty bushels, to the elevator in one day.
During the month of January, 1912, the Davis Grain Co., of Laura, received twenty-five thousand bushels of corn and six thousand two hundred twenty-eight bushels of oats, and were seriously handicapped by want of transportation.
The roads in an early day followed the lines of the least resistance and wound about over the country "every which way," to avoid the steep hills and deep miry sloughs, having for their objective a convenient and shallow ford across the larger streams. About 1840 a state road was laid out from Peoria to Rochestund via Brimfield, French Grove and Rochester, here crossing Spoon river. There was an immense amount of traffic on this road in 1849-50-51-52 and 53. People were moving to Iowa, Oregon and California, and the wagon makers, blacksmiths and hotels located at Rochester did a flourishing business. All the time the pay was spot cash for their work.
A road led in a northeasterly course from Rochester to Hickory Point in Stark county. There was a road across the east side of the township. crossing the river at the Carter Ford, thence south and connecting with the Knoxville road at Brimfield. There was and is a road leading south and north across the west side of the township that connected Rochester with Newbery, Farmington and other towns in that direction. There was an east and west road on the half sectional line of the second south tier of sections, named the old Acme road. There was a heavy travel over this highway at one time, but it is now vacated. I am of the opinion this was at one time an Indian trail ( from the finding of stone and flint implements along its course ), and probably connected the farms on the Illinois river with those on Spoon river.
At the present time there is a laid out highway on nearly all the sectional lines in the township. The high places have been cut down, the low ground filled up and some of the more important roads gravelled in a good and sub- stantial manner. The makeshift wooden bridges have been displaced by sub- stantial structures of iron and steel, with massive piers or abutments of concrete. The log and plank culverts have been replaced by iron and steel pipes.
There were six or eight inches of snow on the ground on the morning of De- cember 20, 1856, with a warin, gentle wind blowing from the south. As the day advanced, the warmth and wind increased. The snow became a soft slush, with rivulets everywhere. Between two and three o'clock a fearful roar was heard in the northwest. A glance disclosed the presence of an oncoming cloud of dark and portentious mien. In a moment the air was filled with fine hail and snow, accompanied by a wind of fearful velocity and arctic temperature. In a few minutes the ground was a sheet of solid ice. Many pigs and poultry not under shelter froze fast in their tracks. John Sutherland and his son, Elisha, were about a mile northeast of where Monica now is, when the blizzard struck them. They nearly perished before reaching the home of Capt. Williams.
Therragood Smith was the first justice of the peace in the territory now embraced in the township of Millbrook and was elected at a precinct election.
Pursuant to a previous notice given by the county clerk of Peoria county. the first annual town meeting of the citizens of the town of Millbrook was held at the house of Joseph Warne, Esq., on Tuesday, April 2, 1850. Charles Yocum was appointed moderator and Augustus A. Dunn, clerk of the meeting. The moderator and clerk sworn by "Justice" Warne, sundry rules and regulations were enacted, relative to fences and live stock, at this meeting.
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HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY
Erastus A. Lewis was elected pound master for Rochester and Samuel Hart for the other parts of the town, by holding up of hands. Sixty-eight votes were cast and the following officers were elected :
William Cumming, John E. Wolever, N. N. Davis and J. S. Hirst were elected overseers of highways in their respective districts. The following is the result of the election for town officers: C. W. Stanton was elected supervisor ; R. C. Hart, assessor ; G. P. Wycoff, collector ; Charles Yocum, overseer of poor ; Alex- ander McDonald, E. J. Sutherland and A. A. Dunn, commissioners of highways ; William Hakes and Samuel A. Smith, constables; M. F. Greeley and Joseph Warne, justices of the peace ; C. R. Young, town clerk. The town meeting was voted to be held at Rochester.
CHAPTER XXIII
VILLAGE OF PEORIA INCORPORATED IN 1831-FIRST OFFICIALS-VARIOUS INDUSTRIES AND MERCANTILE CONCERNS OF TIIAT TIME-EARLY CHURCHES, PREACHERS, NEWSPAPERS AND DIRECTORIES-PEORIA INCORPORATED AS A CITY IN WINTER OF 1844-FIRST OFFICIALS FOR WHICHI ONE IIUNDRED AND NINETY-SEVEN VOTES WERE CAST-FIRST AND PRESENT PUBLIC BUILDINGS-UTILITIES AND GOVERN- MENT OF THE CITY-THE POSTOFFICE.
The history of the city of Peoria practically begins with that of the county, for on the 7th day of January, 1825, it was ordered by the county commissioners' court that William Holland be authorized to employ a suitable person to survey into lots the fractional quarter section of land by the legislature for the county seat, the dimensions of the lots to be eighty feet wide and one hundred feet in length, including eight feet to be deducted from each for an alley, the street on the shore of Lake Peoria to be one hundred and ten feet in width.
An order was made upon the petition of William Holland, at the September term following, that a town be laid out as the county seat of Peoria county. In this order provisions were made for the streets to run following the cardinal points of the compass, that the public squares should be three hundred and sixty feet on each parallel, containing five lots each of seventy-two feet frontage; that there should be a public square containing four square blocks; that Water street should be one hundred and ten feet wide, and to commence on the edge or break of the bank of the lake and extend back the one hundred and ten feet required. At the same term William Holland received an order for four dollars in specie, or its equivalent in state bank paper, which was about two dollars, for running or causing to be run, the exterior lines of the town of Peoria and making a plat of the same.
A street was laid out commencing at the quarter section corner near the inter- section of Bridge and Adams streets, running thence north along the west line of the quarter between the old town and what is now Monson & Sanford's Ad- dition, thirty-one feet east of the present east line of Franklin street, to the northwest corner of the quarter located on the premises now occupied by Dr. Miller ; also a street along the north line of said quarter to the northeast corner between Adamıs and Jefferson streets near Eaton, in the lot recently selected for the Assembly Hall. This exterior street stopped at that point probably in anticipa- tion of a street being laid out on the adjoining fractional quarter section now known as Mill's Addition, running thence south to the river. All the interior streets were laid out parallel with these streets, the same as in Monson & San- ford's and other additions in the west part of the city.
The action of the commissioners' court noted above was taken, notwith- standing the difficulty in securing from the government a grant to the land and claims set up by those alleging to have an equity in the property. At the March (1826) term the court, having the situation in mind, ordered, that whenever the said land should be entered by the county, the damages sustained by such per- sons should be ascertained to the extent of the cost of improvements made by the claimants, and the amount to be deducted out of the price of any lots they may purchase.
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HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY
A sale of lots was ordered at the May term, to take place on the tenth of July following, the terms of sale to be ten per cent cash, the balance on six, twelve and eighteen months' credit. Another order at this term was for a re- survey of the town and the streets to be run parallel with the river, and William Holland was employed to see that the work was done.
On the 10th day of July, 1826, an order was entered by the commissioners' court, in which Joseph Smith was authorized to employ an auctioneer for the sale of lots and to furnish whiskey for the occasion; also that the clerk deliver the plat for recording. The survey commenced at the foot of Fayette street, running thence to Liberty street, thence to Madison street, thence to Fayette street, thence to Water. There were three other blocks, not divided into lots, between Madison and Monroe streets, shown on the plat, and this was the first plat recorded as a permanent survey of the town of Peoria.
As to the naming of the streets. Judge McCulloch contributes the following :
"The street next the river was called Water street, and those running parallel with it were named after the presidents of the United States in the order of their succession, except the then incumbent of that office, for whom there was no street to name, and, if there had been, it could not have been done without duplication. No record is left of any reason why the other streets were named as they were, but it will readily appear why Main street received its name, it being the longest street on the plat except Adams, and the one most eligible for business purposes. Fulton street may have been named after one of the Fultons, who were among the earliest settlers, one of them. Samuel Fulton, being then sheriff of the county. The name of Liberty street is wholly arbitrary. Hamilton may have been named after the surveyor, William S. Hamilton, but more prob- ably after his father, the distinguished Alexander Hamilton. Fayette was doubt- less named after the Marquis de LaFayette, who had recently visited this country and whose name was on everybody's lips."
William Clark had been secured as auctioneer and the court, on July 11th, allowed him three dollars for crying the sale of lots and on the following day, William Holland received an order on the county treasurer for $10.50, for serv- ices rendered and cash paid by him in surveying the town of Peoria. It was also ordered by the court that William S. Hamilton be paid the sum of $58.75, in full payment for surveying the town of Peoria. It appears that Hamilton had agreed to and received two lots in lieu of the cash. The book kept to record that first public sale of Peoria lots contains the following names and notations of pur- chases :
Isaac Funk purchased lots No. 6 in block No. 2, price $100; No. 8 in block No. 2, at $66.50; No. 10 in block No. 2, $55; No. 1 in block No. 7, $38; No. 8 in block No. 3, at $77 ; and No. 1 in block No. 3, at $52.
Hiram Eads bought lots No. 5 in block No. 2, at $52; and No. 4 in block No. 10, at $34.50.
John Hamlin, lots No. 10 in block No. 3, at $85; and No. 9 in block No. 3, at $52.50.
Samuel Fulton, lot No. 4 in block No. 2, at $35.
Eli Redman, lot No. 7 in block No. 7, at $31.
George Sharp, lot No. 6 in block No. 7, at $42.
Nicholas Hansen, lots No. I in block No. 6. and No. 2 in block No. 6, at $85.
William Holland, lot No. 3 in block No. 2, at $29.
Henry Neely, lot No. 7 in block No. 2, at $67.
James Latham, lots No. 7 in block No. 3, at $79.75 ; and No. 6 in block No. 3, at $62.
Joseph Ogee, lots No. 6 and 7 in block No. I, at $96.25.
William Wright, lot No. 5 in block No. 9, at $25.
William S. Hamilton, lots 8 and 9 in block No. I, at $58.75 (his fee for survey).
Joseph Smith, lots No. 1 and 2 in block No. 2, at $51.
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HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY
Hiram Curry, lot No. 9 in block No. 2, at $51.
James Scott, lot No. 5 in block No. 10, at $50.621/2. Rivers Cormack, lot No. 10 in block No. 4, at $85.
A second sale of lots was ordered to be advertised by the commissioners' court on the 5th day of September. 1826, to take place on the first Monday of November following and another order of like purport was entered at a special term of the court in July, 1832, and from that on several sales of lots were or- dered until all had been disposed of.
On July 3d, 1832, it was ordered that the public ground in front of Water street should remain as such without being built upon until the town of Peoria should become incorporated.
Charles Ballance, county surveyor, was ordered on the 5th day of March, 1834. to establish the exterior lines of Peoria town-fraction ; also to lay off in blocks and lots the remainder of said fraction. As surveyor, Ballance made a re-survey of the town plat, and laid off the whole quarter section into lots and blocks, making all the streets one hundred feet in width. In the following July Mr. Ballance re-platted that portion of the town northeast of Fayette street, making the streets running from the river towards the bluff, eighty feet wide, and obtained a tract of ground in the northeast corner of the quarter section, which was designated as a part of "State Square."
PEORIA INCORPORATED AS A VILLAGE
The legislature passed an act on the ist day of March, 1831, providing for the incorporation of towns and cities. Under authority of this measure an elec- tion was held on March 11th, 1835, at which time the following board of trus- tees was chosen by the electors: Dr. Rudolphus Rouse, Chester Hamlin, Rufus P. Burlingame, Charles W. McClallan and Isaac Evans. Dr. Rouse was elected president of the board, which met at the store of Rufus P. Burlingame, and elected Cyrus Leland, clerk, and Mr. Burlingame, treasurer. At this meeting the board passed a resolution that the village should embrace an area of one square mile, having its center at the southwest corner of Main and Madison streets.
On the day preceding the election of the board of trustees Abram S. Buxton and Henry Wolford founded the first newspaper in Peoria and called it the "Illinois Champion and Peoria Herald." From its pages the reader learns that the firm of Pettengill & Gale were in the mercantile business in a building for- merly occupied by P. G. Deal and kept a general assortment of hardware, tin and woodenware, window glass, hollowware, fire dogs, card boxes, sheet iron backs, tin plate and cooking stoves, stove-pipe, plain and fine harness, boots and shoes, socks and stockings. Aquilla Wren desired his patrons to know that he had on sale Kanawha and Conemaugh salt, fresh raisins, Cognac brandy, white Malaga wine, Madeira and port wine, London Particular Teneriffe, claret wine, Muscat wine, brown sugar, burr millstones and other things. I. M. & J. Crisman & Company had a line of spring and summer goods and other things. There were two public houses advertised, one kept by William Eads near the old fort and the "Peoria House and General Stage Office," corner Main and Washington streets, presided over by O. A. Garrett. The "Champion and Herald" also shows that in 1834 there was a tailor in the second story of a building belonging to Aquilla Wren, on Water street, by the name of P. A. Westervelt. The following physicians were here at that time: Dr. Joseph C. Frye, who lived at the residence of Mr. Buxton, on Adams street, now occupied by the Bryan block; Dr. J. M. Russell, Dr. Kellogg and Dr. Augustus Langworthy. The cards of only two law- yers were published in the paper. These were Charles Ballance, at the time county surveyor, and John L. Bogardus. It appears, however, that there was another attorney here when the "Champion and Herald" was founded, in the person of Lewis Bigelow.
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HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY
In the issue of the "Illinois Champion and Herald" of date December 6, 1834, a card of thanks was published, signed by fifteen persons, in which Captain O. H. Kellogg, who had just made a successful trip from St. Louis to Peoria, with the Winnebago, was extolled for his skill and perseverance, as well as kindness and hospitality shown them on their voyage with him. In another column of the paper was a card of Captain Kellogg, giving notice that his boat would be fitted up to run between Peoria and St. Louis the next season.
Among other notices, published in this premier paper of the county may be mentioned the following : Preaching at the schoolhouse by Rev. Leander Walker ; desire of William Eads to sell an unfinished house on Liberty street, and other property ; the offer of a reward by Seth Fulton for the return of two stray horses; notice of Isaac Waters, clerk of the county commissioners' court, to persons, whose notes given for town lots were due, to make payment; also that on December 26th a contract would be let to the lowest bidder for the building of a county jail; there was also a notice for a meeting to form a lyceum.
About the year 1838, a publication entitled "A Gazetteer of Illinois," issued by Dr. J. M. Peck, describes Peoria at that time in the following words :
"Peoria now has twenty-five stores, two wholesale and five retail groceries, two drug stores, two hotels and several boarding houses, two free schools and an incorporated academy, two Presbyterian houses of worship and congrega- tions, one Methodist, one Baptist, one Unitarian and one Episcopal congregation, six lawyers, eight or ten physicians, one brewery, two steam sawmills, the usual proportion of mechanics, a court house and a jail and a population of from fif- teen to eighteen hundred, which is rapidly increasing. The 'Peoria Register and Northwestern Gazetteer' is issued weekly by S. M. Davis, Esq. The religious people of this place have contributed no less than about $23,000 the past year for philanthropic purposes."
In the "Peoria Register and Gazetteer," established on the 7th of April, 1837, by Samuel M. Davis, is published the notice of a meeting of the lyceum, of which Charles M. Reynolds was secretary. Also a notice that the Rev. Mr. French would preach in the court house on Sunday, and notices by Rev. Isaac Keller, pastor of the First Presbyterian church, and Rev. John Spaulding, pastor of the Main Street Presbyterian church, who would hold services on Sunday.
The provision market was quoted as follows: Flour, $2.50 to $3.00 per one hundred pounds ; beef. 4 to 6 cents per pound ; pork, 6 to 7 cents ; mutton, scarce at 8 cents ; Jard. none; butter, 16 to 20 cents ; white beans, $1.00 to $1.25 per bushel; corn meal, 75 to 871/2 cents ; oats. 25 to 30 cents a bushel ; corn, 62 to 75 cents ; potatoes 37 to 50 cents ; onions, 50 to 63 cents; eggs, 10 to 12 cents per dozen ; chickens, $1.50 to $1.75 per dozen.
The following professional cards appear in the paper: Lawyers, Powell & Knowlton, office in the court house; Charles Ballance; James H. Sanford, in the rear room over the store of Alter & Howell. Main street ; George B. Parker, probate justice, office in the court house; Peters & Gale, attorneys, office in the court house; Frisby & Metcalf, attorneys, office in the court house. The busi- ness cards were: T. L. Mayne, watchmaker and jeweler, Washington street; A. Meyers, groceries, liquors, wines, cigars, etc., Water street; J. C. Armstrong, wholesale grocer, forwarding and commission merchant; A. G. Curtenius, re- ceiving, forwarding and commission merchant, Water and Liberty street. This was at the place now occupied by the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific passenger and freight depot. Farrell & Lippincott, wholesale druggists, Main street ; Forsythe & Company, consisting of R. J. Forsythe, of Wheeling, Virginia, and Andrew Gray, Peoria, general agents, receiving, forwarding and commission merchants; John A. McCoy, dealer in leather of all kinds, boots, shoes and hats, corner of Fulton and Water streets; I. & J. Tapping, fashionable tailors, suc- cessors to J. G. Lineback.
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GARAGE
OLD PUBLIC HIALL, MADISON AND LIBERTY STREETS
HETALS
THE FIRST JEFFERSON HOTEL-STOOD ON THE SITE OF THE NEW HOTEL
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HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY
PEORIA INCORPORATED AS A CITY
In the winter of 1844-5 the state legislature passed a measure entitled "An Act to Incorporate the City of Peoria," and providing therein that the charter should be submitted to a vote of the people. Pursuant thereto an election was held at the court house on April 21, 1845, which resulted in a large majority vote in favor of the adoption of the charter. There were 197 votes cast at that election and only 35 of them were against the proposition. On Monday, the 28th of April, an election was held for officials to govern the newly made city, at which time William Hale was elected mayor and Jesse L. Knowlton, Peter Sweat, Charles Kettelle, Clark Cleveland, John Hamlin, Chester Hamlin and Hervey Lightner were elected aldermen. Jacob Gale and Amos P. Bartlett each received 168 votes. This made a tie. On May 5th William Hale was sworn in and the aldermen with him, who, upon their first meeting, passed an ordinance providing that in case of a tie vote for alderman the lot should be cast by the mayor. The mayor, acting under this authority, cast his vote in favor of Amos P. Bartlett. At the same time Jesse L. Knowlton was elected city clerk.
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