Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. I, Part 3

Author: Wilcox, David F., 1851- ed
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 762

USA > Illinois > Adams County > Quincy > Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. I > Part 3

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).

The following is a well-put paragraph from Mr. Kraber's pen : "The old reliable red headed woodpecker is an aetive worker, and stops the career of thousands of insects in the embryo state from fur- ther developing into pests of the soil, and from adding to the dis- comfort of mankind. Flying from one tree to another with its red head and white marked wings, it is easily seen. It is not a wild bird, and ean be studied at pleasure. Ilis near relative, the yellow hammer, or flieker of the 'high roller' of E. P. Roe, is another bird to study with reference to habits, ete., since they have many traits worthy of emulation by the human family. The flicker and its mate will edge up to each other on the limb of a tree and go through more fantastic motions than any quixotic people. It would be hard to describe them, as they sit there swinging back and forth in unison, their heads up and moving from side to side, and all the while ehat- tering to each other something very interesting to themselves. At

QUINCY AND ADAMS COUNTY

such time it does not take a very close observer to see that it is bird sentiment being expressed in its most amorous and innocent way. They mean every word they say, and lay it off so positively to one another that one can hardly help looking on and listening, and under- standing just what they are talking about. It is interesting to have it made so plain that they are one in sentiment, and agree so well in their out-of-door domestic life."

Up to the '60s, the red-eyed wild pigeons appeared in Adan County during their migrations southward as to break the forest trees and darken the sun, taking the course of the river bluffs in the spring and fall. They are now extinet in this part of the world. Flocks of plovers, often taken for wild pigeons, still occasionally fly across country from southwest to northeast. Even the honk of the Canadian wild geese, which onee bred in such numbers in the north- western part of the county, in the region of Lima Lake, is seldom heard. "Their habit," says Mr. Kraber, "was to leave the lakes and rivers by the hundreds before sunrise, and settle down into the wheat and corn fields upon the bluffs and further inland until about ten o'clock in the morning. Then all would return to the river and lakes until about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, when they would again enter the fields and feed until after dark; then go back to the water for the night with much noise. They were very regular about it until late in the fall, and sometimes all winter if the weather was mild. They domesticated very readily, and became quite tame, but when so are only waiting to try their wings for a final good-bye. They are des- tined to early extinction." The wild turkey has quite disappeared from the locality.

The Mississippi River is the home of the gulls. They spend much time on the wing over the water, never flying very high. They are both scavengers and eaters of fresh fish.

FRIENDS OF THE FARMER

But it is the land birds in which we take the practical interest ; the destroyers of inseet pests destructive to vegetation ; the real friends of the agriculturist. What these inseets are and the special varieties of birds which seem ereated to assist in their extermination was thus told not long ago to a State Farmers' Institute by O. M. Sehantz, president of the Illinois Audubon Society :

"The State of Illinois is 378 miles long in its greatest length and 210 miles wide. Owing to its length and its peculiar position, it has almost as great a range of elimatie influences, geographieal influenees, and so on, as any state in the union. Therefore, its flora and fauna, its animal and vegetable life are extremely varied. The northern part is entirely different in its geography and its animal life from the southern part. By its location, part of it tonehing Lake Michigan and the rest of it being tributary to the great Mississippi Valley, ex- cept for the water fowl of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, more migra-

QUINCY AND ADAMS COUNTY

tory birds pass through the Mississippi Valley than through any other part of the United States.

"In the consideration of a question of so great importance to the Illinois farmer as the relation of birds to farm economy, it is very necessary to make clear in the most direct manner possible just how and why the farmer is to be benelited.

"The proper time to plant, seasonable weather during the grow- ing season and also for the harvesting of erops, are, naturally the most evident factors in successful farming.

"The old-fashioned. unprogressive farmer gave little thought to other and less noticeable handicaps, such as plant diseases and the myriads of inseets that were the natural enemies of both his fruit and cereal crops. With the rapid increase in the value of farm lands, the competition for markets, and so forth, it has become absolutely neces- sary for a farmer to know every factor that may enter farm economy, or he fails to win out.

"The lax use of powers of observation is rapidly disappearing, and today our farmers are growing more and more alive to the fact that a knowledge of scientifie farming is the only way to make 150 to 250 acres yield a profit.

"The agricultural colleges of many states, and the Federal De- partment of Agriculture, have for many years past conducted most exhaustive research as to the losses due to noxious insects, and the most effective means of eurtailing these losses.

"We have, by cultivation and removal of forests, disturbed the nat- ural balance of nature. We have made conditions extremely favorable for the rapid increase of certain noxious inseets. Insect life increases at such an incredible rate that with no cheek of any kind everything green would soon disappear, and in a short time the land would be uninhabitable.

"On the other hand, it is a well known faet that certain of our most useful birds increase as a result of the settlement of land.

"Many birds are very tolerant of man, if reasonably protected and allowed to rear their young undisturbed.

"In the earlier years of the settlement of the country, there did not exist the same need for watchfulness that is necessary today.

"The problem of adequate food supply for the world is a part of the problem of the United States. One hundred years ago, very few men devoted even a small portion of their time to the study of insects in their relation to the food supply, or to the careful study of birds as the most effective check on the spreading of injurious insects. Today thousands of men and women are preparing earnestly for these very important studies, and the biologieal departments of our colleges and universities are of the most importance and popular in all parts of the United States.

"The Illinois Andnbon Society was organized less than twenty years ago by a few very earnest bird lovers in Chicago. Their pri- mary object was no doubt a humane desire to protect from destrule-

QUINCY AND ADAMS COUNTY

tion the many beautiful birds that came in such great numbers to the woodlands and parks in and around Chicago. The time has come when a much greater field is open for it and similar societies, for in- telligent work for the protection of birds, not only for their beauty and wonderful songs, but as a vital factor in the economics of the country's food supply.

"The problem of the city bird lover is largely different from that of the farmer and the people of the smaller cities and villages.

"The larger cities, particularly Chicago, are flooded with thou- sands of immigrants, to whom the United States means all sorts of liberty. License to kill birds, we understand, is in some parts of Southern Europe held out as a great inducement to prospective emi- grants in connection with cheaper living. Cheap firearms are sold everywhere, and Sundays and holidays during the summer months see each day a veritable 'armed host' scouring the prairies and woodlands ready to kill anything that flies.

"Where transportation is cheap, these irresponsible shooters reach the farms, and not only trespass on the fields of growing grain, but shoot thousands of the farmers' best friends, the birds, or if no birds can be found, his domestic chickens, dueks or turkeys.

"The problems of Illinois are those of Iowa and the other adjoin- ing prairie states.

"No crop raised by the farmer is immune from insect foes. Many of these insects are so minute that they ordinarily escape the notice of the casnal observer, yet the damage annually done on a single farm by these inconspicuous insects may run into large sums of money.

"The different aphides or plant lice, whose life cycle is only a few days, increase with such astounding rapidity that the figures startle.

"These soft small insects, of which thousands could be held in one's hand, frequently cover the stems of their host plants completely.

"The greatest enemy of the different aphides is the warbler fam- ily, which numbers among the twenty-five or thirty varieties that visit us many of our smallest birds. The number of insects that a pair of these little birds will consume for a single meal is almost beyond comprehension.

"To better understand the ability of birds to check insects, it is necessary to know something of their marvelous powers of digestion. Birds fill themselves to running over with either weed seeds or insects so that frequently they are replete up to the bill. The process of diges- tion is so powerful and rapid that they can eat almost without stopping, many birds consuming an amount of food each day equal to abont one-third of their own weight.

"The temperature of birds and their circulation is much greater than that of other animals, consequently it is largely a matter of fuel enough to keep the machinery going properly.

"Much painstaking work has been done recently in the State of Massachusetts in order to ascertain the effect that wild birds have on

QUINCY AND ADAMS COUNTY

the awful inseet pests which have become so serious a problem in that state.

"While the conditions in Illinois are vastly different from those in Massachusetts, the results of the investigation should be of great interest to Illinois farmers,

"It has been proven that almost without exception all birds have a good balanee to their eredit over and above the damage they do ; that even such conspienously aggressive birds as the bluejay, grackle and crow have a large eredit in assisting to destroy both larvae and adults of the gypsy and brown-tailed moths. Such birds as feed on fruits-robins, catbirds, cedar birds and others-also devour enough insect pests to have the balance in their favor.

"Many birds are peculiarly adapted to attend ecrtain insects, and the birds have been very happily alluded to by one writer as the police of the orchard and garden.

"The seed-eating birds, which include the sparrows and finehes, destroy weeds by the million. Three morning doves' stomachs con- tained by actual count a total of 23,100 weed seeds, consumed at one meal.

"All of the thrush family, of which the robin and bluebird are the best known members, are valuable inseet destroyers. The fly- catchers, headed by the kingbird and phoebe, and containing abont eighty nearly related species, the swallows, martins, night hawk and chimneyswifts, are policemen of the air.

"The towhee and many sparrows forage on the ground; the nut- hatehes, woodpeckers and brown creepers take care of the trunk and branches; and the warblers and vireos examine the leaves and buds. The entire tree or shrub is thoroughly guarded. Out in the open, the meadow lark. bobolink, bobwhite, prairie chicken and many others keep tab on grasshoppers, eriekets and myriads of other inseets. No inseet family eseapes ; it has an ardent, relentless foe in some bird.

"Now, what is your duty to your bird friends ? Make your prem- ises attraetive. Furnish bird boxes or nests, feed the birds in winter ; exterminate stray cats; plant vines and shrubbery hearing fruits agreeable to birds : help to legislate against shooting ; train the small boy to respect and love the birds and not to collect birds' eggs; teach him also to shoot with a field or opera glass. If a bird helps itself to a little of your fruit, before destroying the bird look up its record and see what insects he preys upon.

"Observe closely the birds at nesting time and note the tireless energy with which the young birds eat, and then do a little calenlat- ing by multiplying the number of times fed by the inseets fed at a meal.

"Read literature on the subject of bird conservation. Result : Sure and lasting conversion to the side of the birds.

"Seientifie men look with alarm at the rapidly decreasing bird pop- ulation. The rapid inerease of population, encroaching more and more

QUINCY AND ADAMS COUNTY

on the nesting places, lessens the available woodland and prairie where the birds may nest and not be disturbed.

"Intelligent planting of shrubbery and vines along roadsides, as is contemplated by the Lincoln Highway movement, will in part over- come this condition.

"Coneerted efforts by states and at Washington for better bird protection, the education of all classes as to the beneficial part the bird has in our daily life, vigorous prosecution for violation of our present game laws, the taxing of cats, the encouragement of organiza- tions for bird study-all these are necessary and important features of the growing intelligent effort for bird conservation. .

"See that some one attends to the purchasing of good bird books for your publie library ; offer prizes to your children for best observa- tions or well written papers about birds, their habits and usefulness- these papers, or the best of them, to be published in your local paper.

"There is no reason why, in this tremendous state, a powerful and concerted effort should not be made for bird conservation and pro- tection which would place the State of Illinois in the first rank in the Union for such work.

"Nowhere in the entire United States is there a greater and more interesting bird migration, both spring and fall, than in this state. The state's length gives it a wonderfully interesting plant life and variety of climate. This, in part, explains its variety of bird life.

"A very small sum as an individual contribution, if given by enough people, would maintain a paid expert whose duty might be that of state ornithologist.

"There is a man in Massachusetts who gives his entire life and energy to this very important work, and whose book, 'Useful Birds and Their Protection,' is the last word in bird conservation."

CHAPTER 11

WEALTH BASED ON THE SOIL

THE RICH CORN BELT-EARLY ATTEMPTS AT FRUIT RAISING-HIOG RAISING AND PORK PACKING-ADAMS COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SO- CIETY-COUNTY FARMERS' INSTITUTE ORGANIZED THE COUNTY'S FARM ADVISER-WORK OF THE COUNTY FARM IMPROVEMENT ASSO- CIATION-PRESENT AND FUTURE OF AGRICULTURE.

Numerous agencies have been involved in the development of the industries of Adams County, based on the natural riches of its soil, ' its good drainage and elimatie advantages. In the earlier times, be- eause of the sparsely settled population and comparative poverty of the pioneers, all the efforts made toward the improvement of agri- eultural methods and the betterment of farming conditions were put forth by individuals-each man for himself. As the population and general prosperity increased, agricultural and horticultural societies were organized, the live stock men met and conferred as to the most approved ways of raising their hogs, cattle and sheep: fairs were held in different parts of the county, attended by the farmers and their families; under Congressional laws the swamp lands in the American bottom commenced to come into the market and he systematically drained, while the county took up the matter, in behalf of the farms, in that and other traets naturally subject to overflow, and lands formerly considered worthless were transformed into valuable farms; the farmers' institutes were founded and ex- panded rapidly as educational forees in matters connected both with farming and the domestie life of rural communities: the good roads movement was born and developed in Adams County, first, through rather dissipated efforts of neighborhoods and county legislation, and finally under the superintendent of highways; telephones and auto- mobiles became familiar objects to hundreds of households, so that every member of a rural family was brought close to his neighbors and at the same time was in constant healthful contact with Nature. and finally Uncle Sam himself, as he has a hearty way of doing. offered his warm hand and his efficient services in the widespread co- operative measures which had been gathering force during a period of eighty years and donated the county farm adviser, with the Farm Improvement Association and the Home Improvement Association, as a vital factor in the great work of extracting every advantage and blessing possible from the farmer's efforts and the farmer's life.

Vol. 1-2

QUINCY AND ADAMS COUNTY

THE RICH CORN BELT

Adams County is in the geographical center of the great corn belt which extends across Northern and Central Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska. The soil is especially rich in nitrogen, that of the bottom lands containing nearly 8,000 pounds per acre. The bluff and prairie lands also carry about three-fourths as much nitrogen; so that the county is one of the banner corn sections of the state. It has been found that by such a rotation of crops as corn, oats, wheat, clover, and then "repeat," the soil may be kept live and fertile without applying commercial fertilizers to any marked extent. The average acreage of pasture lands is more than 50,000.

EARLY ATTEMPTS AT FRUIT RAISING

Fruits were cultivated in Adams County about as early as corn and as soon as the first settlers commenced to raise hogs; but they

EXIIIBIT OF ADAMS COUNTY CORN

never flourished in any marked degree as a leading and standard industry based on the soil. In the spring of 1820 John Wood made a journey on foot to a St. Louis orchard and brought home a pint of apple seed for which he paid a good dollar. He planted the lot and three of them took root. Afterwards he gathered seed from an orchard owned by a Frenchman on the other side of the river; or rather he extracted it from the apple pulp of a cider mill. Mr. Wood also obtained another lot from a poor family in the neighborhood to whom he had given a large quantity of maple sugar. From such sources he started the first orchard in the county on land at Quincy which he owned, between what are now Twelfth and Fourteenth and State and Kentucky streets. About the same time he planted some

QUINCY AND ADAMS COUNTY

peach stones, which were set out in his orchard in 1824, and three years afterward was gathering fruit from both varieties of trees.

Before the year 1832 Major Rose, Willard Keyes, James Dunn, Silas Beebe and others of the early settlers, including several in the eastern part of the county, had planted apple orehards. These trees were all seedlings, except about a dozen in Mr. Wood's orchard, and many of them were obtained from him. George Johnson, of Colum- · bus, Deacon A. Scarborough and Clark Chatten, of Fall Creek, were among the pioneer fruit raisers. Mr. Scarborough introduced the Concord grape. Mr. Chatten was for thirty years the leading horti- eulturist in the county, and in 1867 had the largest orchard in the state. At that time he had 240 acres devoted to apple trees and 187 acres, to peaches. The largest nursery was owned and condueted by William Stewart, of Payson, who dealt in apple and peach trees, ornamental shrubs, flower seeds, etc. In 1852 he started a branch at Quiney.

Although not large in quantity, Adams County fruit took pre- miums in exhibits made at the State Fair and before the American Pomological Society. In the early '60s Clark Chatten took the first premium offered by the Illinois Agricultural Society for "the best cultivated orchard," and Ifenry Clay Cupp, also of Fall Creek, shared the honors with him as the leading orehardist in the county.

The hortieulturists of Adams County, however, were few as com- pared with the farmers and raisers of live stock. Although several made a marked financial suecess at fruit raising, it was always con- sidered safer to follow it as a side line than as a regular avocation. A horticultural society was formed in 1867, but it languished, and later Mr. Cupp formed the Mississippi Apple Growers Association at Quiney.

HOG RAISING AND PORK PACKING

But from the earliest times, corn and hogs were considered "stand- bys." That combination made Quiney and the county quite famous as trade and commercial centers for many years. The most prom- inent figure in that field for several years was Capt. Nathaniel Pease, who came from Cleveland in 1833, although his family lived in Boston. He was an energetie, enterprising and popular Yankee, and his trip to Cleveland and Quiney gave him his first western experience. The captain purchased 300 hogs at Quiney, for which he paid about $15,000. He then had them slaughtered and packed, and sold the pork in the eastern markets at a handsome profit. This was the first exportation of pork from Adams County. In the fall of 1834 Captain Pease returned to Quiney with his family and settled permanently. During the packing season he put up 2,500 hogs, for which he paid from one to two cents a pound. His death occurred in 1836. and it was sincerely mourned by the home people with whom he had gained general respect and friendship. The next regular pork packer was

115

QUINCY AND ADAMS COUNTY

Joel Rice, and Artemus Ward succeeded him. A hog averaged about 200 pounds in those days, but gradually increased in weight. In the fall of 1836-37 prices also advanced, and farmers were no longer satisfied with 61/2 cents per pound for their pork.

But other places were destined to far outstrip Quincy as a packing center, and in the very heyday of her fame the figures were not star- tling. The number of hogs packed during the fifteen years, 1833-48, was as follows: 1833-34, 400; 1834-35, 3,500; 1835-36, 3,000; 1836-37, 5,000; 1837-38, 7,000; 1838-39, 6,000; 1839-40, 10,000; 1840-41, 10,000; 1841-42, 11,000; 1842-43, 12,000; 1843-44, 18,000; 1844-45, 10,000; 1845-46, 15,000; 1846-47, 12,000; 1847-48, 20,000.

ADAMS COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY

The first organized movement among the farmers and citizens of Adams County to consolidate their sentiment regarding the ad- vancement of their affairs was in January, 1838. On the sixth of that month a meeting was organized at Columbus for the purpose of forming an agricultural society, at which Maj. J. H. Holton was appointed president and Richard W. Starr, secretary. Hon J. H. Ralston explained the object of the meeting and, with Dunbar Aldrich, Daniel Harrison, Lytle Griffing, Colman Talbot, Stephen Boothe and James Murphy, was named to formulate a constitution. It was pre- sented and adopted at the same meeting, and the following officers were elected : Maj. J. H. Holton, president; J. H. Ralston, Daniel Harrison and Stephen Boothe, vice presidents; R. W. Starr and Dun- bar Aldrich, secretaries; Col. M. Shuey, treasurer. It would appear that the society was largely of a social organization, and that little effort was at first made to prepare exhibits, as object lessons of progress made and suggestions of future improvements, and it was not until 1854 that the first regular fair was held under its auspices. On October 18th and 19th of that year a vacant tract between Sixth and Eighth, just north of Broadway, inclosed with a pile of fallen trees and brushwood, and closely guarded against the invasion of the village boys, was opened to the public. The exhibits and attendance were fully up to expectations, and for a number of years fairs were held by the society at various points in the county. But as time progressed sectional jealousies sapped the strength of the society, and the preponderance of the Quincy element brought about the or- ganization of the Quincy Fair Association. The latter, which pur- chased its own grounds many years ago, virtually crowded out the county organization.

COUNTY FARMERS' INSTITUTE ORGANIZED

The second striking advance in agricultural education was made in 1881 at the suggestion of the State Board of Agriculture, when 'the Adams County Farmers' Institute was organized, by the election

QUINCY AND ADAMS COUNTY

of George W. Dean as president, C. S. Booth, secretary, and A. R. Wallace, treasurer. Mr. Dean himself writes as follows: "We had no way to support it exeept by the encouragement of such men as P. S. JJudy (known as "Uncle Phil"), A. R. Wallace, W. A. Booth, S. N. Black and a number of others. With this support it became popular, and instructive meetings were held in October and May of each year. We used mostly home talent, securing an expert when we could do so. Our success encouraged other counties to organize and thus an interest was created throughout the state. But being satisfied that it would be impossible to get the best results from a farmers' institute at individual expense, a number of interested farm- ers met at the Leland Hotel, Springfield. Illinois, during the Thirty-

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.

Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. I, Part 3

Author: Wilcox, David F., 1851- ed Publication date: 1919 Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 762

Author: Wilcox, David F., 1851- ed
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: Chicago, New York, The Lewis Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 762