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 97
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The people of Morristown themselves soon were free to admit that their place was not suitably lo- cated. Joshua Harper, one of the proprietors of the place, was a candidate for the Legislature in 1842, and he distinctly pledged the people that, if elcted, and a majority of the people so petitioned, he would vote to send the county seat to any point they wished, " even into the Winnebago swamps." He was elected, and was fathful to his promise.
CAMBRIDGE.
Cambridge, Geneseo and Sugar Tree Grove were the rival points for the new seat of justice. Some maneuvering was attempted to get it located on sec- tion 7, 15-3. This land was owned by Ithamar Pillsbury, of Andover. Joseph Tillson, called gen- erally " Judge "Tillson, was the powerful champion of Sugar-Tree Grove. He was, as said elsewhere, an early settler, and always an active man, and one of much weight and influence in county matters. Probably the gratitude of the good people of Cam- bridge will some day erect a suitable tablet to the memory of " Judge" Tillson in the Court-House Square. Petitions to locate at Sugar-Tree Grove were circulated. Col. Wells, of Wethersfield, drew a petition and circulated it in his town ; John Kilvington pressed the petition upon the attention of the people of Wethersfield and about Barren Grove. The activity of "Judge " Tillson and his friends se- cured a majority in the county to sign the petition to locate the county seat at or near Sugar-Tree Grove, the present site of Cambridge. Geneseo remonstrat- ed vigorously, and started for a signature and petition for the appointment again of "commissioners to lo- cate." It was said that James M. Allan was the chief instigator in this movement of Geneseo.
To people who have come into the county .or grown up since this exciting county seat controversy raged so intensely, the story of the " fine work " done, the shrewd schemes put upon foot by the leaders on both sides of the question, sound strangely indeed. But we must remember that in those days a part of the great importance that attached to the question was the fact that then the county seat alone was the one point where the important leading town of the coun- ty was to be; men then supposed, as there were no great river town to be made in the county, that the county seat alone could induce people to build a city. The day of railroads was not then : it is now, and to- day there are several towns and cities in the county that have distanced Cambridge, the present county seat, " in climbing that rugged hill where fame's fair temple shines afar."
When a majority of the people had signed the pe- tition to make Cambridge the county seat, the peti- tion was forwarded to Col. Buford, of Rock Island, who then represented this district in the Senate. He introduced a bill at once to re-locate the county seat of Henry County. It was passed by the Senate and went to the House, where Joshua Harper was the member from this county. The bill passed the House and became a law Feb. 21, 1843. The loca- tion, as fixed by the bill, was on the northwest quar- ter and southwest quarter of section 7, township. 15, 3 east, 40 acres from each quarter-section. The bill provided courts should be held at Morristown until suitable buildings could be provided in Cam- bridge. The bill also provided for the re-conveyance by the county of all property deeded in Morristown. See history of Cambridge.
Officials.
AMES D. TABOR was elected first Sher- iff. His first term ended 1840. He was again elected, but the Governor refused to commission him, as his books were not straight. A new election was ordered, and Tabor was again elected, and by some hook or crook got his commission this time. He was again elected in 1842, and at the end of his term ran away and left his securities and many others in the lurch.
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HENRY COUNTY.
In 1838 the Legislature enacted that the County Commissioners should by lot determine their respect- ive terms of office. Osborn drew the long term, and Hanna the short. Hanna was re-elected in 1839.
1840, John Carson was elected Commissioner. August, 1841, William Ayers, beating the old Com- missioner, Osborn, one vote. . It was Andover vs. Geneseo.
1841, September, George McHenry was elected to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Carson, when the following named gentlemen were elected : 1842, Francis Loomis; 1843, Luke C. Sheldon; 1844, Amos B. Cole ; 1845, Francis Loomis ; 1846, Elisha F. Calkins; 1847, William Ayers; 1848, William Miller and Stephen Palmer; Calkins having removed from the county.
In 1849, under the new Constitution, a County Judge (also Probate Judge) and two Associates, styled County Justices, were elected, to-wit : J. M. Allan, Judge ; William Miller and John Piatt, Asso- ciates.
In 1850 Allan was elected to the Legislature, and a special election for Judge resulted in the election of Joseph Tillson.
1853, Stephen Palmer was elected Judge, and Robert Getty and John Piatt, Associates.
In 1857 the township organization system was adopted in the county, and the Board of Supervi- sors succeeded the old County Commissioners' Court.
1857, M. B. Potter was elected County Judge.
1844, Lewis M. Webber succeeded Tabor as Sher- iff. He was re-elected by a majority of one vote. Webber went to Rock Island and followed merchan- dising.
M. B. Potter succeeded Webber in 1848. The law prohibiting a Sheriff serving two terms in succession then went into effect. Henry G. Little was elected in 1850. Potter again in 1852. T. F. Daven- port in 1854. J. F. Dresser in 1856. P. H. Sniff in 1858.
James M. Allan is a native of Tennessee ; reared in Alabama. His father was a Presbyterian minis- ter. The Major came to Illinois in 1835, and to" Henry County in 1836. A large man physically and mentally, and a man of big heart, naturally full of goodness and charity. He was appointed Circuit
Clerk in 1837, by Judge Dan Stone, and re-appoint- ed by Thomas Ford. He filled the office until the election of Samuel P. Brainard, in 1848.
At the election, 1839, by a very clever trick George Tyler beat Major Allan twelve votes for County Clerk. Tyler never qualified, and at the special election ordered, Allan received fifty-seven votes of the sixty-three votes cast in the county. He was his own successor in this office until 1849, when he became County Judge. And this last office he re- signed the next year, having been elected a member of the General Assembly. It is told of the Judge that one year the County Assessor and Collector having absconded, he voluntarily assessed the county and then in due time proceeded to collect the taxes he had assessed. He assumed the office, and every- body was glad that he did and thanked him for it, which goes to show that the disease of "pap-suck- ing" did not rage so fiercely among the good people of Henry County as it has of late years in the na- tion.
In 1838 Judge Allan was appointed School Com- missioner, and July following Treasurer pro tem. In short the entire round of places of honor and trust were freely accorded to him by the people of the county. He won the respect and confidence of all who knew him. He never betrayed or neglected a trust. He was of Southern blood, and he and his remarkable brother, William T., left the South and came to Illinois to escape the ownership of slaves they had inherited, and that by the laws of the State they could not liberate. William T. Allan was the forerunner and the peer of Owen Lovejoy in North- ern Illinois. In freeing the land, in liberating the white man from the curse of African slavery, in striking the shackles from the slaves, he went forth like Peter the Hermit-eloquent, brave, sincere and unconquerable; defying the hooting mobs, and proclaiming the new religion of "free speech, free press and free man."
Major James M. Allan retired mostly from public, political or official life in 1852, and in 1858, in com- pany with Atkinson (now of Moline), Edwards and others, organized the Winnebago Swamp Land Com- pany, and purchased 50,000 acres of the swamp lands of Henry County. This was a vast, and at that day, a daring enterprise, and has resulted in draining and making splendid farms of what for
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many years were regarded as the uninhabitable por- tions of the county.
An early settler who had known Allen long and well thus sums up his leading characteristics : " Allan, though brave as any man, large and of tre- mendous physical force, was never a burly bragga- docio, but always polite, social and affable-kind and generous to all mankind, and in his intercourse with crowds of men diffident. He had a strong sense of duty, as well as a strong perception in which way lay his and the public's interest. When
there was an imperative necessity he could make a speech to a crowd to a good purpose, or button-hole a voter and make a little speech to him alone, un- equaled by any other man in the county. He is the Pater patria of Henry County. He lobbied through the Legislature the act organizing the county, filled nearly every office at different times ; stood by as a keen-eyed sentinel ever ready to protect the rights and integrity of the county, and he success- fully attended the session of the Legislature and thwarted the movement of Gen. Henderson, who was then a resident of Stark County, in his scheme of de- taching a portion of this county and adding it to the domain of Stark County."
The imperishable finger-marks of Major Allan are everywhere in the county. They will be his endur- ing monument for many and many long years after he has gone the way of all the earth.
In 1862 Holmes O. Sleight was elected County Treasurer, and was re-elected in 1864.
Judge George E. Wait was elected County Judge in 1861, and at the expiration of his term Julius S. Hinman was elected his successor, which office he continuously held by re-election until his death, in the spring of 1885. The vacancy caused by the death of Judge Hinman was supplied by an election in May, 1885, when the present County Judge, John P. Hand, was elected.
The present (1885) county officials are : John P. Hand, County Judge.
F. G. Welton, County Clerk; W. L. Dalrymple, Deputy County Clerk.
County Treasurer, J. C. Hoflund ; Deputy, Esq. Neely.
County School Commissioner, E. C. Rosseter.
County Surveyor, Orson Jones.
Sheriff, B. F. Goodell; Deputies, G. McClung, Isaac Cook and E. C. Williams.
Coroner, Frank McArthur.
Master in Chancery, W. H. Shepard.
The Circuit Judges of this Judicial Circuit are : G W. Pleasants, of Rock Island; A. A. Smith, of Gales- burg; and John J. Glenn, of Monmouth.
Circuit Clerk, L. H. Patten. His efficient deputy since the year 1869 is Anna Boyd.
e
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HENRY COUNTY.
Legal
History.
HEN the county was organ- ized it was the Sixth Judicial Circuit. The first term of Court was held at Richmond, April 1, 1839. Thomas Ford was the presiding Judge; Nor- man H. Purple, State's Attor- ney; James M. Allan, Clerk ; James D. Tabor, Sheriff. No Grand Jury appeared, and the Sheriff was ordered to summon 23 qualified persons as a Grand Jury, and the same number as petit jurors. Judge Dan Stone's commission to James M. Allan, as Clerk, bears date Aug. 17, 1837. Governor Joseph Duncan issued Sheriff Tabor's commission. The first case on the docket was Arthur Thornton and Job Searl vs. Moses F. Stemson. Judgment by con- fession in the sum of $400. The first case on the People's docket was against Charles Atkinson, for- feiture of recognizance as witness.
There were nine cases on the docket at this term of the Court. The only criminal case was the Peo- ple vs. John Porter, counterfeiting. Venue changed to Ogle County. This Court convened on the ist and adjourned "until Court in course" on the 2d of April.
The second term of the Court was at Richmond, commencing October 7, 1839. Thomas Ford, Judge ;
N. H. Purple, State's Attorney ; Allan, Clerk ; Tabor, Sheriff. Milo M. Pollock was appointed Foreman of the Grand Jury. Jury empanelled, and Court ad- journed for the day.
The first jury trial was The People vs. Hiram Pearce-disturbing the peace. The jurors were : Elias Walters, William Hite, James Withrow, Wil- liam Walters, Charles W. Davenport, Luke C. Shel- den, William Ayers, Edward A. Mix, Jesse Woolsey, William Woolsey, David Potter and Joshua Dodge. Verdict guilty, and fined $25.
Attorneys at this Court were Peters, Drury, Wells and Purple The Court finished all business in two days and adjourned.
The next term, April 6, 1840, the same officers as the preceding Court. Among the attorneys present was Mr. Harvey. Court adjourned on the 8th.
The next Court was begun May 17, 1841. Thomas C. Browne, Judge; Hall, State's Attorney. Browne renewed James M. Allan's commission as Clerk. Knowlton, Knox, Manning and Southwick were of the attorneys at this Conrt. Adjourned May 18.
Circuit Court, Sept. 27, 1841, begun and held at Geneseo. Browne, Judge; Kellogg, State's Attorney, pro tem. No jurors were summoned to this Court. The Sheriff was ordered to summon 23 grand and 23 petit jurors.
May 10, 1842, the next term convened at Morris- town. Same officers as preceding term. Another term in Morristown, Sept. 26, 1842. Same officers. Then May 15, 1843, at same place. Joseph H. Wells, State's Attorney; Allan, Clerk, and Tabor, Sheriff. Again, there was a term in September fol-
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HENRY COUNTY.
lowing. Next in May, 1844. Same officers. In September another Court, and Lewis M. Webber, Sheriff.
At May term, 1845, J. L. Loop was State's Attor- ney.
At September term, 1845, T. J. Turner was State's attorney.
1846, May term, Thomas J. Turner, State's Attor- ney.
1846, September term, H. B. Stillman, State's At- torney, pro tem.
1847, April term, H. B. Stillman, State's Attorney ; September term, same officers.
1848, April term, same officers; September term, same officers, except Samuel P. Brainard, Clerk.
1849, May term, Benj. R. Shelden, Judge; Henry B. Stillman, State's Attorney ; Matthew B. Potter, Sheriff, and Samuel P. Brainard, Clerk ; September term, same officers.
Brainard made H. G. Reynolds Deputy Clerk.
The November term, 1850, of the Circuit Court, Judge William Kellogg presided, Harmon G. Rey- nolds, State's Attorney, Ben Graham, Clerk, and M. B. Potter, Sheriff.
October term, 1851, Ira O. Wilkinson Judge, Henry H. Stillman, State's Attorney, Ben Graham, Clerk, Henry G. Little, Sheriff.
October term, 1852 : M. Shallenbarger was State's Attorney, and Sylvester Blish, Master in Chancery. During his term the office became vacant by his death, and James M. Allan was appointed to fill the vacancy, by Judge Kellogg. At this term of the Court William H. Brainard Jentered upon the duties of Circuit Clerk.
October term, 1853, Wilkinson, Judge, William T. Miller, State's Attorney, Potter, Sheriff, Brainard, Clerk.
September, 1855, J. W. Drury, Judge, T. F. Dav- enport, Sheriff.
April term, 1856, William L. Dalrymple was Cir- cuit Clerk.
April term, 1857, J. Wilson Drury Judge, Justus F. Dresser, Sheriff, John C. Hawley, State's Attorney, Thomas Wiley, Jr., Clerk.
By act of the Legislature the terms of holding the Conrts in this, the 6th Judicial Circuit, was changed, and the Courts in Henry County were changed to the first Monday of March and the first Monday of Oc- tober, of each year.
October term, 1857, officers were: Drury, Judge, Wiley, Clerk, Dresser, Sheriff, J. B. Hawley, State's Attorney.
At the March term, 1859, the Judge failed to come, and there was no Court for this term. Judge Drury appointed a special term to convene April, 1859. At this term of the Court Purnel H. Sniff appeared as Sheriff.
At the April term, 1860, John H. Howe, presiding Judge, Wiley, Clerk, Sniff, Sheriff, J. B. Hawley, State's Attorney.
March term, 1861, J. H. Howe, Judge, Amos Gould, Clerk, Adam K. Henny, Sheriff, Hiram Bige- low, State's Attorney, Amos Gould appointed J. A. Nye, Deputy.
October term, 1862, William W. Heaton, Judge, Levi North, State's Attorney.
March term, 1862, Wilkinson, Judge, Hiram Bige- low, State's Attorney.
March term, 1863, John B. Hagin, Sheriff.
March term, 1864, same.
At the March term, 1865, William W. Otis, Sheriff, Charles C. Wilson State's Attorney.
October term, 1867, George W. Pleasants, Judge, C. C. Wilson, State's Attorney, George W. Sroufe, Sheriff, Amos Gould, Clerk.
October term, 1868, Anthony R. Mock, State's At- torney.
February term, 1869, Andrew G. Warner, Sheriff, Thomas J. Atwater, Clerk.
Thomas J. Atwater, Circuit Clerk, died in Febru- ary, 1872, and at the February term of the Court of that year Judge Pleasants appointed Lewis H. Pat- ten to fill the vacancy. Mr. Patten has continued to hold the office by election since, and is the present Circuit Clerk.
John B. Hagin was Sheriff at the February terin of the Court, 187 I.
February term, 1873, Thomas E. Milchrist, State's Attorney, Peter Johnson, Sheriff.
February term, 1875, William J. Vannice, Sheriff.
February term, 1878, John J. Glenn, presiding Judge.
October, 1878, Arthur A. Sinith, Judge.
February, 1879, Judge Glenn, presiding.
At February term, 1881, Benj. H. Goodell, Sheriff.
There was no change until the February term, 1883, when A. A. Smith was the presiding Judge. He again presided at the October term, 1883. Judge
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HENRY COUNTY.
Glenn at the February term, 1884, Judge Pleasants at the October term, 1884. At the special March term, 1885, Judge Smith presided. At the June session Judge Glenn presided.
Bench and Bar.
HE coming of Judges and lawyers was like an after-thought to the stern and silent pioneers, and yet in one sense there was here half a century ago what might have been termed a pioneer Bench and Bar. These have been styled the "Circuit Riders," from the fact that in those days the Court circuits were boundless in extent and the lawyers were few, and twice a year Court and lawyers would travel on horseback from county to county, holding the short terms of Court in each, and dealing out the homœopathic doses of jus- tice that the wants of a simple people demanded.
Court day then was an event all over the county. The coming into the county-seat (generally Sunday afternoon) of the Judges and lawyers was a tremen- dous occasion, to which the people looked with an interest only now exceeded by the boys on circus day. The two transcendent days of interest were the August election and Court days. To the com- mon rustic mind there was something awe-inspiring in the approach and in the presence of the Judge and lawyers.
Beyond all question the oldest licensed lawyer now in the County is Major James M. Allan, now a quiet farmer in Loraine Township.
The first lawyer to " stick stakes " was in the year 1845. Practically there was no "first," or, possibly, they were twins. At all events, two brothers, so far as is now known, came here about the time indicated above, and concluded to try their luck among the people of Henry County, William H. and Samuel P. Brainard. The last named soon found a more con- genial and better paying business than the practice before the Courts by getting himself elected Clerk of the Circuit Court, and this was so small in the way of fees that soon after he had to secure the office of County Clerk, in the hope that the two together would buy ample fall pumpkins to winter on. He
evidently found himself a bloated office-holder, but in the other emoluments of life was in the happy state of preparation for a position as the "skeleton man " in the first circus that might come along. 1849, the day of the California '49-ers, found him thus gyrating between the glimmering pumpkin pile and the evan- escent emoluments of his two offices, and his reduced system succumbed to an attack of " gold fever," and he struck out "across lots " to California. He appointed a deputy, gave him all the fees of both offices, " throwed " in the remaining small supply of " grub " on hand and to the vision of his constituents he van- ished, in 1850.
His brother, William H., was some time after elected Circuit Clerk, and he profited by his brother's experience and did not join the two clerkships to- gether ; but he joined to his first office the position of County School Commissioner, and was lucky enough to have the selling and transferring of most of the school lands, and from these he reaped a golden har- vest.
In coming along the dead level of this vale of tears, there tumbled into Henry County about the year 1848, Jerome B. Carpenter, who swung his shingle to the quiet breezes as an " attorney and counsellor at law,"-fees reasonable " except where services furnished." The very few years spent here were by far the most successful and respectable of his life thus far, for it is a fact that this legal lumin- ary rolled about in the shadow and in sunshine, and it did sometimes look as though his " shiner " had got tangled behind the thick clouds and could hardly get out by the tallest kind of scratching. He left the county after three years and went to Chicago, thence to Texas, thence most probably to the -.
Hon. John Buckles, who first located in Cam- bridge, may well be classed as among the first of the real lawyers to come to this county as a permanent home for the practice of an honorable profession-a profession that sheds only luster upon those who can aid in shedding additional luster in return upon the ancient wig and woolsack. He came from Indiana to Henry County in the early '50's, and at once en- tered vigorously and successfully upon the practice, and from the first compelled a recognition of his eminent abilities. His greatest strength was probably as a trial lawyer, and especially in the cross exam- ination of witnesses. Here his legal acumen, his ready wit as keen as a Damascus blade, liis thor-
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ough knowledge of human nature, his grasp of truth in a mountain of stuff and rubbish, were all at full play in an instant ; and woe be to the witness who had to pass through his hands after an attempt to scale the truth in his direct examination! And such was his power in cross-examinations that he often by a single question broke down the force of a wit- ness's entire testimony, even where the witness had not tried to prevaricate.
Buckles died in 1874, his death sending a shadow to many a heart among his wide range of acquaint- ances, admirers and warm friends. His widow and children are in Chicago.
William Smith, now of Topeka, Kansas, was for some years a lawyer living in Geneseo.
Henry Cady will be remembered by some of the people of Cambridge and Geneseo, in both of which places he lived in the name, if not much in the style, of a lawyer. He came to the county about 1860. We understand he has some political position in Lake County. We don't know what it is-it may be watching 'Lije Haines !
One of the celebrated " so-called " lawyers that came to the surface in Henry County was Andrew Crawford, now living in Chicago, and one of the rich of that city. He landed at an Irish hash-house in Geneseo, in 1858, as one of the railroad roustabouts. The gang, of which Andy was a voracious specimen, was at that time building railroad fence through the county. Thus he graduated as a fence-builder, and was in Geneseo on pay-day and resigned as fence roustabout. It was a rare instance of nerve and courage in a man who could thus deliberately resign a soft and lucrative position that he might have held for life, and in cold blood face the grim realities of becoming a lawyer, " without the benefit of clergy. " When in search of notes about the absent great, we inquired where he studied law. "Never studied at all, at any time or anywhere," was the invariable an- swer, " How did he get license?" " Admitted by act of the Legislature," was the response to this in- quiry. "What did he do when he quit railroading?" " Nothing, except saw wood a little. "
He never did know any technical law. He was no book-worm, and knew little of law or literature ; but as a judge of the values of property, as a buyer and seller, he probably never had an equal in the county. He was full of common sense, and an energy and in-
dustry that never tired. What little law he prac- ticed was all upon his intuitive knowledge of property and his common-sense resources, that were nearly infinite. He made the acquaintance of the Merriman Bros., bankers in Geneseo, soon after he located here, and they recognized his great financial qualifications ; and it was to this fact that he at once took a position in monetary affairs in the county and in a little while was recognized as a capitalist. And when he was elected to the State Senate an ill- natured paper in an adjoining county said he was a reckless experiment as a politician, a lawyer without a case, but a financier and capitalist that could get on his money " two per cent. a minute."
How he came to be elected Senator was about as follows : There was a convention in session in Gen- eseo, and two candidates before it who had each other by the hair, and each determined never to sur- render. The convention was having a monkey-and- parrot time of it between these two candidates, and at just the right moment Andy Crawford was sprung upon the exhausted body and nominated. This was in 1870, and he was elected to the Senate for the short term.
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