Portrait and biographical album of Henry County, Illinois : containing full-page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county, Part 100

Author:
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 850

USA > Illinois > Henry County > Portrait and biographical album of Henry County, Illinois : containing full-page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county > Part 100

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Another railroad enterprise which is to-day owned by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Com- pany, was the Rockford, Rock Island & St. Louis Railroad. This road was to run from Rockford to St. Louis, via Rock Island. It secured the charter of the old Sterling & Rock Island Road, which was granted in 1854. The panic of 1857 and the war delayed railroad enterprises for a time, but shortly after the war the Rockford, Rock Island & St Louis Railroad was pushed forward. The Sterling branch, being already completed, gave it a line from St. Louis to Sterling. The remainder of its line it was never able to complete. This road was sold under a fore- closure of mortgage to the St. Louis, Rock Island & Chicago Railroad Company, which was incorporated April 21, 1876. It was soon afterward leased by the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company, who now operate it as its St. Louis Division. This road was sold for $1,600,000, and it is said that it cost $11,000,000. The bond holders who live in Germany were the losers of about six-sevenths of their investment.

The American Central Railroad, now the Galva & Keithsburg Branch of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, was begun as early as 1847, but not completed until 1868.

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As above remarked, the management of this road has been of the highest character. Men of broad and liberal views, enterprising and considerate for the comfort and welfare of their patrons, have always been at its head, and especially is this the case at present. The passenger department of few railroads in the country is managed with that sagacity and at the same time with that singleness of purpose to give the traveling public every accommodation known to the science of railroading, that characterize the Chi- cago, Burlington & Quincy R. R. This department is under the management of Mr. Perceval Lowell. A trip over this road will convince the most exacting that Mr. Lowell not only understands the art of rail- roading, but is exceedingly generous in providing every means of both comfort and safety. He has imbued all of his subordinates with that one idea so prominent with him,-" the public must and shall have the very best of traveling accommodations, and the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad shall be excelled by none."

Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad.

B Y the Legislature of 1851 this great Illi- nois railway was incorporated as the Chi- cago & Rock Island Railroad. The object of the projectors was to connect the Great Lakes with the Mississippi, by way of Chicago and Rock Island, a distance of 1811/2 miles. This road was completed in the spring of 1854, and at once took rank as one of the great lines of the country. Improved and wild lands contiguous to the city and along the line of the road entered a few months previous with warrants costing the purchaser from 87 1/2 to 1121/2 cents per acre, rose to $5 and $10 per acre.

The presence of the locomotive arouses the dor- mant energies and sets on foot enterprises that oth- erwise might sleep for ages. It changes the face of society and moves the whole world forward. Rail- roads create business and build up cities that other- wise would never have had existence.

This road passes through some of the finest agri- cultural country in the State. In 1866 this railroad was consolidated with the Mississippi & Missouri

Railway Company, under the name of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad Company, which name it now bears. In June, 1869, its line was com- pleted to Council Bluffs, where it connected with the then newly completed Union Pacific Railway. From the date of its completion to the Missouri River, it has been a favorite route of the travelers and tourists to the Pacific slope and also to the Territories. Since that time it has expanded, by consolidation with other lines and by building branches into Iowa and Missouri, from 550 miles to a great railway op- erating some 1,400 miles of road, and having for its termini the cities of Chicago, Peoria, Keokuk, Coun- cil :Bluffs, Des Moines , Atchison, Leavenworth and Kansas city. Its freight now embraces the products of the Eastern and Western States and Territories, as well as that of Europe and the empires of the Old World. This company has also opened up a new route to the Northwest, known as the " Albert Lea Route, " extending to Minneapolis, where it connects with the Northern Pacific and the St. Paul & Mani- toba Railroads.

This route traverses some of the finest scenery in the country and takes the traveler to many of the most noted resorts for health and pleasure in the United States. The Chicago & Rock Island Rail- road has had a rich country and an extensive com- nierce to support it, and from its first inception it has been prosperous. From the running of the first train up to the present time, the management of this road has been such as to secure and hold the sympathy of its patrons. This has been accomplished by es- tablishing the principle of equal and exact justice to all, and by giving to the people, as far as in human power lay, immunity from dangers incident to travel. The Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway has had an able management. For many years Mr. R. R. Cable has been its President and General Mana- ger and Mr. E. St. John has been its General Ticket and Passenger Agent. This very popular and effi- cient railroad official-Mr. E. St. John-has been recently promoted to the position of Assistant Gen- eral Manager, while he still holds his former posi- tion. So long a continuation of the road under the same management, speaks well for the company and also for its officers.

The personnel of this railroad has been highly commendable. Their agents and conductors have

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been obliging, their engineers skillful and faithful and their brakemen prompt. The Superintendents have also been scrupulous and exact, training the men under them to correct business habits.

The aim of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway Company has been to locate its lines and establish its connectlons so as to reach its objective points with the greatest facility and in the most de- sirable manner. From the completion of its first track to the Mississippi to the present time, when it operates over 1,400 miles of road, a great portion of which is spanned by double parallel lines of steel, the Rock Island Company has performed its duty to the State, and has been a potential factor in the de- velopment and civilization of the great West.

The Peoria & Rock Island Railroad.

HIS originated as a Henry County railroad enterprise, being fathered by Amos Gould and Orrin E. Page, of Cambridge. These gentlemen procured a charter in 1867 for the road, and by the middle of 1871 trains were running over it. The first train was run over the road July 8, 1871. It enters the county at sec- tion 36, Galva Township, passes through Galva, Bishop Hill, Cambridge, Warner, Osco and Orion, leaving the county from Western Township.

ISCELLADSOUS.

Crime.

EVERAL anecdotes related elsewhere in this book completely illustrate the fact that with the pioneers in Henry County about the only criminal that confronted the sparse settlers was the horse-thief. One rea- son why this particular species of thief only was present at that day probably is the fact that the horse was about the only property that presented itself to the thief. There was no money in the country, and little or nothing else that would pay the rascals to carry to the far away markets. But in the course of time men did get to stealing timber,-first, off of Government land, then off of school lands, and then taking freely and with impunity from non-resi- dent timber owners. Many substantial, good men at one time, hardly thought it dishonorable to get all the

timber they wanted for home use or the markets without paying for it. Then, in the course of time, men would sometimes kill some one else's half-wild hog in the woods and supply their families with meat. And from here came a growth of a small crop of hog thieves. As population increased, and mar- kets came to be nearer and better, these thieves would sometimes steal cattle from the range. And sometimes extensive feuds came into existence over suspicions and charges in reference to missing hogs, cattle and horses. In the course of the progress of the settlement, and the establishment of stores and business houses, came the occasional burglary ; and the incendiary at rare intervals, plied with his de- structive trade as an aid to his robberies and thefts. There was never a marked feature among the people of this county of any of these crimes or criminals. In fact, as it has always been a rural people there has been but a small per cent. of crime in the county,

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compared to other places, especially where there were large towns and cities. But advancing civilization always carries its own haunting shadows with it, and therefore it is that we can easily trace in every grow- ing community the natural growth or development of a certain character of crimes. The development from horse-stealing to murder and robbery of the most fiendish kind and quality is possible to trace even in this moral county. We do not attempt to give an account of all the crimes of the county, but only those which were the most startling and atro- cious.

BANK ROBBERY.

The good people of the county, more especially of Kewanee, were, in the latter part of August, 1882, startled by the news that the First National Bank of Kewanee had been robbed in broad daylight. Two armed men had entered the bank, just after the close of business hours, and, by violence overcoming the only two employees in the room at the time, had car- ried off the money, first throwing these two persons -the assistant cashier, Mr. J. J. Pratt, and a lady clerk, Miss Charity Palmer-into the vault, in an in- sensible condition, and had got away, and had been gone some time before these employees could release themselves and give the terrible news to the public.

The two men who entered the bank and robbed it were named Welch and Kenedy. Welch had been a commercial traveler in this part of Illinois, and he was recognized by Miss Palmer and Pratt when in the bank. He was run to the ground in the East, and Kenedy was caught in the distant West by Pinker- ton detectives. These arrests occurred some two weeks after the robbery. The cunning detective soon wormed a confession out of Welch, and the whole story was soon known, and then the whole community was more amazed than ever, because Pratt, the assistant cashier, was implicated. He was arrested, and then he, too, confessed at once and told all about it. Pratt was a young man, reared in the town, was a great favorite in the community, a model churchman and Sunday-school teacher, and every one was highly indignant when he was arrested-at his father's in the night. No one would or did be- lieve in his guilt, except the detectives, until he con- fessed and told where he had buried his share of the swag, under the sidewalk in front of his home. A man named Scott, a dentist who had lived in Prince-

ton, and was then in St. Louis, was arrested; he was not convicted of the robbery, but was sent to the penitentiary for a forgery that he and Pratt had con- cocted and carried through some time before the robbery. On the preliminary examination Pratt and Welch told the whole story, reserving nothing. It seems that Miss Palmer was the only honest one in the lot, and she had been seized by Kenedy and choked and beaten to insensibility, but had fought like a tiger until overcome. The robber had seized her, and put his hand over her mouth to prevent her screanis, and she bit his fingers to the bone. On the final trial of Pratt, Welch and Kennedy, they all con- fessed, and the Judge sent them to the penitentiary for the term of six years each. The bank recovered the most of the money, and there are many men now in Kewanee who feel real sorrow for Pratt,-we hope solely for the sake of his respected parents and sis- ters ; for certainly by his own confession, both in the robbery and the forgery, it was a public misfortune he could not have been sent to the penitentiary for the term of his natural life.

SHOCKING MURDER.

While all Kewanee and vicinity were in the throes of excitement and the preliminary examination of the bank robbers was going on before Esq. Wood, there came the still more startling news that Mrs. Maggie A. Copeland, wife of Joseph L, Copeland, living on a farm four miles south of Kewanee, had been brutally murdered at her home in broad daylight. It was said or supposed to have been done by tramps for the purpose of robbery. When found the body lay with the head toward the door, just outside the house, and in the kitchen and in the main house were evidences of the struggle she had made for life. She had been horribly beaten, and shot three times; the fiend commencing the attack in the kitchen, followed her into the house, and she had jumped through a screen door and still pursued had turned to go again into the house, when she fell on her face and expired. The trunk in which was nearly a hundred dollars had been rifled, but the other furniture had not been disturbed.

Mrs. Copeland was young, accomplished and very intelligent and handsome, beloved and greatly es- teemed by a large circle of friends. Her husband had left her, taking, most fortunately, their bright- eyed, sweet-faced little boy with him, going to town

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with a load of corn. To the people of Kewanee and vicinity, particularly, here were horrors on horror's head accumulated.

It soon turned out that the murderer was a man named Mockinson, a wretch who had come from near the same place in Ohio the Copelands were from. He had come into the neighborhood, and had no acquaintance except a hired man who worked for a neighbor of Copeland. In the kindness of their hearts, Copeland and wife had allowed Mockinson to make their house his home, and had treated him more as a brother than a stranger. He got work at a near neighbor's, but would frequently go to Cope- land's, visit and eat and sleep there and be enter- tained, and in return for this great kindness, in his black heart he hatched and nursed his hideous crime. He confessed his guilt, told the sickening details of his story, and was duly hanged, as he most richly deserved to be. He was a depraved, vile and wretched human beast, without a redeeming trait or quality in the world, and it is hoped that there was not a healthy-minded man, woman or child in the world but that, when told the story, was really re- joiced when his neck was broken by the hangman's rope.

ANOTHER.

About one year before the above related murder, there occurred in the northwest part of the county, near Colona, a double murder, the details of which are sickening. Clem Gallion murdered Thomas Dilley and wife.

In the dead of the night, the murderer secretly entered the bed-chamber of the victims, and as Dilley lay asleep, he shot him dead, the bullet enter- ing the eye, and death was so instantaneous that he never moved, but lay dead just as he was sleeping! The shot probably awoke Mrs. Dilley, and then the murderer, having no other shot left, fell to and with an old broken shovel slowly pounded the poor woman to death! The sight in the room was simply appalling. Blood and brains were on the floor, the bed and the walls, the plastering broken in many places, the foot-board of the bed splintered, and the poor woman literally beat to a jelly! What a slaughter pen! and the victims were a good man and wife, who had extended to the murderer friend- ship and kindness, and given him a home when he was in pressing need of it,

In the adjoining room were asleep the three Dilley children, the eldest a girl of 12 years; and as soundly as children sleep, the girl was awakened, and greatly frightened at the horrid din, but in her terror acting with wonderful discretion. Through a crack she saw a light in her parents' room, and quickly she approached and looked through, and saw a man rumaging in the bureau. She recognized Gallion and realized something terrible was going on. She waited till he put out the light and went away, and then she aroused the other two children, one of them not yet five years old, dressed them, and tak- ing hold of hands, they went through the dark to a neighbor's, nearly three-quarters of a mile, roused them up and gave the alarm.

This diabolical murder occurred in the latter part of 188r, and the murderous monster was hanged the next May.

John Root, a Swede, was sentenced Sept. 18, 1852, for two years for manslaughter, in Knox County, to where he had taken a change of venue. He was educated as an American, but married a woman more recently from Sweden, who was a mem- ber of the Bishop Hill Colony. Eric Jansen was autocrat of this colony and would not let Mrs. Root leave it to live with her husband among the Ameri- cans. Mr. Root brought suit against Jansen at Cambridge, and while the case was pending, he shot and killed him in the Court-House at mid-day. At the end of a year he was pardoned.

Old Settlers' Society.

HE early settlers of Henry County organ- ized their society in 1875, and have had every year large and interesting gatherings of the pioneers, their families and friends. It is one of the most successful and prosperous county organizations in the State. Speeches, poems, familiar talks, reminiscences and anecdotes are the performances on these occasions from the stand; but in the crowds many dear old friends meet and clasp hands, and eyes which age is fast making dim are there brightened again ; and who can imagine the swelling hearts, the glow of recollections of the long ago that come rushing to the rekindled memories of the white-haired grandfathers and grand-

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mothers at these hearty re-unions ? We most heartily endorse the concluding verse of a poem, read at the Old Settlers' meeting of 1879, by T. F. Davenport, as follows :---

" So keep up these gatherings, year after year; For we cannot expect to be always here. As the months and years go hurrying by, And we fail in strength as time will fly, We can still look back on the simple ways, The innocent pleasures, the happy days. Of our pioneer life, and still can say We thank our God, we're here to-day."

The first meeting to organize an old settlers' as- sociation was held in the Town Hall in Cleveland, July 10, 1875. James Glenn was selected to act as Chairman ; James H. Paddelford as Secretary, and William Glenn was chosen Treasurer. A meeting was appointed for Aug. 13, 1875, to be held at Hanna Grove. That meeting was well attended, and great interest was manifested by the pioneers in recounting the incidents experienced in their early settlement of the county. James M. Allan was elected President of the association ; James H. Paddelford, Secretary ; Patterson Holmes, Assistant Secretary, and William Glenn, Treasurer; and one Vice-President for each township was also selected, as follows : Clover, J. W. Epperson ; Oxford, Robert D. Timberlake; Weller, John Pyatt; Kewanee, E. E. Slocum; Western, Chauncey Washburn ; Osco, R. H. Hinman ; Mun- son, J. W. Crawford; Cornwall, Lewis Shearer; An- nawan, John L. Dow; Colona, James Glenn; Gene- seo, Alfred W. Perry ; Alba, W. D. Robertson; Phenix, Benj. F. Frittz ; Yorktown, Lyman Stowell ; Burns, Jacob Kemmerling ; Galva, John A. Ayres ; Wethersfield, Charles B. Minor; Lynn, George B. Pillsbury; Andover, S. W. Knapp; Cambridge, George T. H. Wilson ; Edford, William Austin ; At- kinson, Asa Crook; Hanna, Phil. K. Hanna; and Loraine, Joseph Arnett.

The second annual meeting was held at Geneseo, Aug. 11, 1876, when Joseph A. Sawyer was chosen President and T. F. Davenport Permanent Secre- tary ; P. H. Beveridge was chosen Assistant Secre-

tary, and Philip K. Hanna, Treasurer. The third annual meeting was held at Cambridge, Aug. 10, 1877, when Philip K .. Hanna was elected President ; M. B. Potter, Assistant Secretary ; and M. B. Lloyd, Treasurer. Mr. Lloyd held the position of Treasurer until 1883. The fourth annual meeting was held at Kewanee, Aug. 11, 1878, and Matthew B. Potter was chosen President. The next annual meeting was held at Orion, Aug. 21, 1879. Alfred W. Perry was given the position of President. The sixth an- nual meeting was held at Hanna Grove, Aug. 26, 1880, when Mr. Lewis Shearer was chosen President. At the next meeting, which was held at Cambridge, Sept. 8, 1881, Mahlon B. Lloyd was elected Presi- dent. Dr. Ira R. Wells was elected to this position at the eighth annual meeting, which was held at Geneseo, Aug. 30, 1882. The next meeting was held at Orion, Aug. 28, 1883, when Matthew B. Pot- ter was elected President, and C. C. Blish Treasu- rer. At the tenth annual meeting, held Sept. 17, 1884, at Alpha, A. W. Perry was elected President, and Mr. Blish was re-elected Treasurer. The next meeting was held at Colona, Aug. 27, 1885, when Mr. Richard Mascall was given the position of Presi- dent, and Mr. Blish was again re-elected Treasurer.

The meeting of 1885 was at Colona, and was probably one of the largest and most interesting meetings ever held in the county. President A. WV. Perry, whose zeal at the Old Settlers' meeting is well known to be boundless, selected from the as- sembly ten old ladies who were in Henry County 50 years ago, and who now were seated on the stand facing the throng on this semi-centennial celebra- tion of the country's natal day, the only ladies, save Mrs. Earl P. Aldrich, who was not present, who now reside in the county, and who were here 50 years ago. These ladies were Mrs. Columbia Ald- rich, Mrs. Polly Hecox, Mrs. Caroline Withrow, Mrs. James Glenn, Mrs. Martha Sively, Mrs. Arthur Hunt, Mrs. Elizabeth Brandenburg, Mrs. Shaw, Mrs. Lowe and Mrs. Anna Burrall.

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TOWNSHIPS

A T the November election of 1856 the proposition to adopt township organization was voted upon by the people of the county, and was carried in the affirmative by an over- whelming majority. To comply with the expressed wishes of the voters at the December term of the County Court, Merritt Munson, John Piatt and M. B. Potter were appointed the three Commissioners to "lay out the county into town- ships " in conformity to the organi- ization laws. The Commissioners met at Cambridge Feb. 16, 1857, to 1 enter upon the duties of their office. They published a notice to the people to meet to- gether in the different townships or contemplated divisions " to consult together and agree upon names for their respective towns and report the same to the Commissioners ;" and since that date the present townships have existed, under the township organiza- tion law.

The first meeting of the first Board of Supervisors met in Cambridge April 10, 1857, at which meeting were present O. A. Turner, Geneseo; J. N. Wilson, Munson; W. T. Crosier, Loraine; Lewis Shearer, Cornwall ; M. B. Potter, Wethersfield ; William Mil- ler, Edford; George B. Pillsbury, Lynn; S. W. Knapp, Andover; A. Underwood, Oxford; Henry

Hand, Hanna; R. Mascall, Cambridge; Benjamin Fritts, Phenix ; D. L. Wiley, Galva ; Austin Sykes, Galva; Abisha Washburn, Western ; David Walters, Atkinson ; John McNeil, Alba ; James Latimer, Yorktown; Silas Newton, Annawan; Henry Stick- ney, Clover ; Ira Parker, Burns ; L. C. Welton, Osco ; John Piatt, Weller.

In the year 1858 the complete Board of Supervi- sors elected was as follows : M. B. Potter, Wethers- field; D. L. Wiley, Galva ; J. N. Wilson, Munson : Geo. C. Walden, Annawan; Thos. Nowers, Atkin- son ; J. H. Johnson, Geneseo; J. R. Wells, Colona ; Benj. Fritts, Phenix; J. Latimer, Yorktown ; R. A. Tenny, Kewanee ; Ira Parker, Burns; R. Mascall, Cambridge ; S. W. Knapp, Andover; G. B. Pillsbury, Lynn; Edwin Bundy, Oxford; William Forgy, Clo- ver; Levi Higgins, Western; L. C. Welton, Osco; L. Shearer, Cornwall; George Bawmour, Alba ; Will- iam Miller, Edford; Thomas Hill, Hanna; W. T. Crosier, Loraine; John Piatt, Weller. I. N. Wilson was elected Chairman.

ALBA TOWNSHIP.

LBA Township was the last township to attract the early, or for that matter, also the late comers. It is traversed by Green River, that mneanders entirely from the east part of it to the west side, mostly in the north- ern tier of sections. And then, just west of the west line is the mouth of Mud Creek, which en-

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ters the township at the south line and bends around through sections 35, 29, 30, 19 and 20. These streams were, it seems, protecting barriers against the settlers, and they traveled around them, the im- migrants from the east striking south of Mud Creek and the Green River swamps; and those, of course, which came by way of the river, stopped among their friends in other parts of the county, and often, for many years, lived there without seeing any part of Alba Township.

The nanie Alba was one of the unaccountable in- ventions of the Commissioners selected to give bap- tismal names to the twenty-four townships in the county. What, if any, meaning there is attached to it we are unable to ascertain. It is a case, perhaps, of purely poetic fancy, and will always remain a re- minder to posterity of the oversight of those who gave names to localities in the county of what an opportunity was missed-what inadequate ideas the men who shaped the destinies of this fair portion of our land had of the real benefactors who had made the great sacrifices for our good. (The word alba in Latin signifies white.)

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Portrait and biographical album of Henry County, Illinois : containing full-page portraits and biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the county, Part 100

Author: Publication date: 1885 Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Publishing Co. Number of Pages: 850

Author:
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Chicago : Biographical Publishing Co.
Number of Pages: 850