USA > Illinois > Adams County > Quincy > Quincy and Adams County history and representative men, Vol. I > Part 49
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CHARLES HOLMES COMES TO QUINCY
Asher Anderson had (in 1828) opened a little shack of a store on the northeast corner of Maine and Third, but the first mercantile establishment in which the county seat took any pride was that opened by Charles Holmes and Robert Tillson at this initial period of com- munity development. They were brisk young men from Massa- chusetts, who had been in business at St. Louis for a couple of years. Their trade, which was largely with Galena and the lead miners, had brought them in touch with the Quincy landing and neighbor- hood, and they decided that the prospects there were so good that they would venture to establish a business at that point. As river transportation, either by steamboat or keel-boat, was extremely un-
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eertain in those days, the sending of a stock of goods from St. Louis to Quincy was a heavy and vexatious task. Both freight and passengers were scarce, and no style of craft cared to make a trip only partially laden. The steamboats appeared to be the worst offenders, and in after days, when these troubles were long since past, the old settlers would tell with gusto how steamboats, partially laden, would lie at the St. Louis wharf for days in succession, with steam up and wheels moving, and in apparent instant readiness to start. The captain would vigorously ring the bells about every fifteen minutes, declaring, at the same time, that he would leave right away. No wonder the expression which was most eurrent all along the river, from St. Louis to Galena, was "he ean lie like a steamboat captain."
All ready to move upon Quiney with his stoek of merchandise, Charles Holmes, Tillson's advanee partner, was thrown into such a
A PIONEER QUINCY HOME
One of the oldest frame buildings in Adams County, built in 1833 by Franeis C. Moore on Moore's Mound. Present site of City Water Reservoir.
state of mind and body by these aggravating steamboat promises that he pooled issues with two other young men, who were trying to get their stocks of goods to Hannibal and Palmyra. They all chartered a keel boat and the Holmes-Tillson stock, comprising about $4,000 worth of varied merchandise, was loaded aboard with the other goods. The fourth day out the boat reached Alton. There Mr. Holmes took steamer for Quiney and of course reached his destination in advance of the keel boat bearing his goods. Every newcomer was a curiosity and Mr. Holmes was met at the landing place by Elam S. Freeman, the gigantic blacksmith and moral censor of the town, who rumbled at him : "Young man, have you brought any vices with you?" "No." said Mr. Holmes, "but from the looks of things here, I expect to get some soon."
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Many years afterward Mr. Holmes indulges in these reminiscences : "The town was indeed a forlorn looking place. The bluffs were nearly barren of timber and seamed with rugged gullies; along the river's brink was strung a seanty fringe of feeble trees. A few eabins lay along Front Street looking as if they might have tumbled down the hill and were too feeble to return. These were mostly north of Hampshire Street, and extended in a broken string as far up as the little cove in the bluff where Spring Street comes through. Among these was the cabin of Willard Keyes, about the corner of Vermont Street, and just south of this, with some houses between, was a little larger double cabin than the others, which was George W. Hight's Steamboat Hotel. Three or four of the buildings were groceries of the style spoken of heretofore (grog shops) and patronized mostly by boatmen and Indians. Thence southward on Front Street was the cabin of John Wood at the foot of Delaware Street. Between these two points was the cabin of Levi Wells, half way up the hill near State Street, and further north three or four more such strue- tures hung against the hillside. The steamboat landing was at the foot of Vermont Street. There, the rock from under the bluff eropped out at the river's edge, so as to be visible at an ordinary stage of water. Three or four ragged looking trees grew near the bank, con- venient for the boats to tie to. These appearances continued for many years, even until the small landing was made at the foot of Hamp- shire in 1839.
"There were two routes by which wagons could ascend the hill ; one, sonth of the village along the Milnor Creek and where now is Delaware Street; the other by a very deep and circuitous traek which, wandering upward from near the corner of Front and Vermont streets, finally reached the level of the public square at Hampshire Street between Third and Fourth. On the hill lay the main settle- ments. Around the square, on the north, west and south, were scat- tered cabins, about half a dozen on each side. Near the corner of Maine was the Court House. South and southwest of the public square and east along Hampshire Street, or 'Pueker' Street as it was nicknamed, for two or three hundred yards were similar struetures, with here and there a cabin located farther east. The square was cut diagonally from northeast to southwest by a wagon road. It boasted a luxuriant growth of hazel brush, intersected by footpaths, and also supported three or four small trees and one large white oak.
"And this was Quiney. There were then (1828) the store and three hotels-one under the hill, one at the southwest and the other at the northeast corners of the square. They made no pretense to aristoeratie eleganee or sumptuous gastronomy, yet the 'big bugs' frequented them in profusion and foree. All of these buildings were of logs, mostly round or unhewn. Briek, plaster, laths and weather boarding were factors yet to come, as they did in the following year."
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ROBERT TILLSON EXPANDS THE BUSINESS
Mr. Holmes first displayed his goods in a shanty on Hampshire Street near Fifth, adjacent to what afterward was known as the Land Office Hotel, but before Mr. Tillson arrived in the spring of 1829 he had bought two lots, with 196 feet frontage, on Maine and Fourth diagonally across from the Quincy House. There the partners erected a large frame building. the first in town. In 1831 Mr. Tillson purchased Mr. Holmes' interest in the business and that corner be- came the melens of the former's development as a merchant and a publie-spirited citizen. Upon the site of the frame store Mr. Tillson ereeted a handsome block of stores, and from his twelve years of serviee as postmaster at that locality it was long known as the Post- offiee Block. There were no vital changes in the general condition of Quincy for a number of years after Mr. Tillson established himself in business there as its leading merchant and, with the exception of John Wood, perhaps its most prominent citizen for some years.
In 1830 the temperance people got together and organized a so- ciety. Passing over to 1835, the writer comes to the important local facts of the burning of the old courthouse (good riddance of bad rubbish, perehanee) and the birth of the first newspaper, the Bounty Land Register; issued by C. M. Woods and edited and chiefly owned by the ambitions Judge R. M. Young. It was afterward the Argus and the Herald, and was one of the first newspapers to be established in Illinois. Some elaim second place for it, allowing precedence only to the Journal and Register of Springfield.
JOHN TILLSON, THE ELDER
John Tillson, the elder, of Hillsboro, Montgomery County, a friend and associate of John Wood, had long handled some 1,400,000 aeres of the Illinois Military Bounty tract which had been purchased by non-residents. In 1833 he had been joined by Franeis C. Moore, a soldier of the War of 1812. a Quiney grocer and for a time prior to his connection with Mr. Tillson manager of his father-in-law's real estate in New York City. In October, 1833, was formed the Ilills- boro partnership of Tillson. Moore & Company, and in the spring of the following year the business was moved to what would now he the corner of Twenty-fourth and Chestnut streets-then, "elear ont in the country. "
LAND OFFICE AT QUINCY
The Government Land Office for the public land district which comprised the Military Tract had been located at Quiney in 1831. The office was on the south side of Hampshire Street near Sixth, where it remained for a number of years. But little business was then transacted for some time, there being only seventeen entries Vol. 1-29
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during the first year (1831), the reason for this being that at that time no lands north of Adams County were subject to entry. Al- though the Military Traet had been surveyed in 1815-16, it was not until 1835 that the district as a whole was thrown open to the publie.
The first auction sale of lands thus freely thrown upon the market took place June 15, 1835. From that date until 1857-58, when, most of the lands being entered, the offiee was transferred to Springfield, this business added largely to the growth of the place. The first register and receiver were Samuel Alexander (father of Perry Alex- ander) and Thomas Carlin, respectively. They were succeeded in 1837-38 by William G. Flood and Samnel Leech, after whom came, in 1845, Samuel Holmes and Hiram Rogers; in 1849, IIenry Asbury and HI. V. Sullivan, and in 1853 A. C. Marsh and Damon Hauser- at the expiration of whose term the office was moved to the state capital.
Quiney, for several years after the location of the land office therein, was the headquarters for a large business. All who desired to purchase land, either by private sale or Government entry, were obliged to come hither. They came from all points of the compass and all sections of the country. Some came and passed on, without leaving anything as a memento except temporary meals and lodging; others invested and left for outside homes, and still a third elass bought land and remained to eultivate and otherwise improve it.
SOME OTHER FOOL THAN ALEXANDER
General Tillson tells this story (really one of Governor Wood's) about Alexander: "Samnel Alexander, the first register, was a man of much foree of character, very rough in manner, extremely earnest and ultra in politics and wielding much influence with his party. Governor Wood, whose oft-told old stories have in them always a local relish, was wont to tell of his first and second meeting with Alexander. In 1824, political feeling, fanned by the anti-slavery agitation, was at a fever heat. The question of 'convention' or 'no convention' was voted upon. 'Convention' meant a new pro-slavery constitu- tion. 'No convention' meant a free state. To Governor Edward Coles are we indebted for the blessing that Illinois was not then made a slave-holding state. Immediately after the election Mr. Wood went east and on his way took to Edwardsville, the then state capital, the returns from this section. When the boat on which he traveled stopped at Shawneetown, a crowd eame aboard and asked how the State had voted. The captain said : 'Here's a young man just from Edwardsville ; perhaps he ean tell you.' Wood, thus referred to, said . that 'it was thought at Edwardsville that Convention was beaten by about 1,500.' 'It's a d-d lie!' said one of the parties, answering more from his wish than from his knowledge. Wood picked up a ehair, and but for the interposition of the captain, a small civil war was imminent.
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". . Nine years after,' as John Wood tells us, 'a man, all alone, in a canoe, paddled up to opposite my cabin at the foot of Delaware Street, landed and staid with me over night. He told me that his name was Alexander ; that he had come to open the land office of which he had been appointed register. While at supper he said "I think I have seen you before." Mr. Wood then told him he was the man who at Shawneetown gave him the lie for reporting the result of the election of 1824. "Oh no," said Alexander, "it must have been some other d-d fool;"' and although Wood on every convenient occa- sion hinted at this story of their first meeting. Alexander's memory would only bring forth a recurrence of the old-time statement that 'it was some other d-d fool.' "'
STIMULATING THE MMILS
It should be noted that some progress had been made in mail and transportation facilities, especially when it became evident that the "land office business" was to be a real stimulant. Home seekers and those looking for investments demanded easier and more frequent communication and transportation than had been formerly "en- joyed." Writing of this transition period, General Tillson says: "What we now call mail facilities were anything but facile during this period. Twice a week the eastern mail was expected to be de- livered in Quiney, and usually it eame; sometimes it didn't. There were two stage lines-one through Carrollton and Rushville arriving on Thursday, and one through Springfield and Jacksonville, coming in on Friday of each week. There was also a weekly mail north- ward to Peoria and westward to Palmyra, and farther on cach route. The eastern mails and passengers were, when the roads permitted, brought in by the old-fashioned Troy coach stage, but during no small portion of the time the means of conveyance was the 'mud wagon,' or. with equal appropriateness, called the 'bono breaker.' which was a huge square box fastened with no springs upon two wheels, into which said box mail and passengers were promiseuously piled; and the conjoint and constant prayer of the contused passengers was 'Good Lord, deliver ns!' The earliest, most eopions and most sought for news was that gleaned from the St. Louis papers, which were brought up on the boats and privately cireulated."
THE BOLD QUINCY HOTEL
The "boom" at Quiney, mainly incident to the commencement of the land sales on a large scale, made John Tillson, the elder, a very prominent man in the community, as he was the general agent of the company which had a monopoly on the lands being purchased by eastern investors and also home seckers. A visible and imposing evi- dence of his standing in the community, which was generally pro- nounced a reckless financial venture, was his erection of the Quiney
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House on the old hotel site diagonally across Main Street from his store. The venture was launched in 1835. When entirely com- pleted in 1838 the hotel had cost him $106,000 and was voted by the influx of travelers to Quincy as the finest hostelry west of Pitts- burg. The venture was probably too much for his individual means, for the property was soon transferred to a corporation called the Quiney House Company, which collapsed under the stress of the "hard times" of the late '30s. But the reputation and memories of the Quincy House fixed the town on the western map ; it was a good advertisement for both Tillson's land business and the place itself.
EVENTFUL YEAR (1836)
The State Bank of Illinois had been chartered in February of 1835 and was well under way when the Quincy House venture was launched, and at the legislative session of 1835-36 the Wabash & Mississippi Railroad, the forerunner of the Wabash, came into being. The year 1836 also witnessed another event of moment in the sale of the lots in the original Town of Quiney which had not passed from the county to private ownership. The date of the sale was April 11th. Land on Fifth Street facing Washington Square brought as high as $58 per front foot. York Street, between Second and Sixth, on which were situated the choicest residence lots, sold on an average for $2 a foot.
QUINCY, A TOWN OF "FAIR PLAY"
In 1836-37 Quiney was the center of much excitement caused by bitter local dissensions over the slavery issue. The strong aboli- tionists were Willard Keyes, Rufus Brown, Deacon Kimball, and Doctor Eels, while John Wood, N. Pease, Loyd Morton, J. T. Holmes, H. H. Snow and Doctor Ralston took a firm stand on "fair play," the right of free discussion and other American privileges. But Mis- souri was just across the river; now and then slaves escaped to Quiney, where such as Doctor Eels harbored them and pushed them along to the next underground station. Abolition speakers, like Dr. David Nelson, driven ont of more prejudiced communities fled to Quincy, as a town where they could be assured of getting just treatment : but, despite all disturbanees during this period occurred which past history has called "riots."
BECOMES A TOWN CORPORATION
Previous to the year 1837 the Government of the Town of Quiney had been a part of the township system and was virtually under the state laws, but the Legislature passed an aet providing for a special charter which was approved February 21, 1837. Under its provi- sions an election for town trustees was held April 17th, when E.
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Conyers, Samuel Hohes, Robert Tillson, Samuel Leech and I. O. Woodruff were chosen; JJohn B. Young was added to the Board a few days later. Mr. Holmes was chosen president and Mr. Woodruff secretary.
SIGNS OF GROWTH
Quiney now showed signs of its growing importance both by out- side indications and some from within. The portion of the "inter- national railroad system" from Quiney east to Springfield and the Indiana line had been put under contraet and some grading had even been done. It was to enter the town near what is now the corner of Twenty-fourth and Broadway, not far from Tillson & Moore's land office. Thence the line ran on Broadway directly west to the river bank. We know now how many years were to pass before Quiney was to gather any advantages from that enterprise, or its direet suc- cessors.
BIRTII OF THE FIRE DEPARTMENT
Real publie improvements were going on within the new town limits. The town board at its first meeting in JJanuary, 1838, ap- pointed John Wood and Joel Rice a committee "to report the most beneficial and suitable places for improvements, as well as some plan to protect the community against the ravages of fire." This eom- mittee recommended the purchase of four ladders of 15, 20, 25 and 30 feet in length : six fire hooks and twelve buekets "as the eommenee- ment of a system which may be extended and improved with the growth and experience of the place in connection with the inerease of its resources, so as the more fully and perfectly to protect our citizens and their property against the ravages of fire." These por- chases were made and became the initial of the Quiney Fire Depart- ment, but the dozen fire buekets were not east aside for hand engines until the following year.
STREET IMPROVEMENTS
This committee also, in the matter of improvements, recommended that "$200 be appropriated for the improvement of Delaware Street whenever $300 is furnished by private donation," and that $1,000 be appropriated toward the grading of a street from the publie square to the river, this first to be offered to those who preferred the grading of Maine Street, conditioned that they would give bonds to insure the subseription and payment of whatever said grading would cost exceeding the $1,000 appropriation. Should, however, the Maine Street people not accede to the proposition, it was to be offered to those who desired to have Hampshire Street opened. The Maine Street people declining and the Hampshire people accepting and
"QUINCY NO. 1, ROUGH AND READY"
The first fire engine brought to the State of Illinois. It was pur- chased by the City of Quiney in 1839, and was manned by volunteers from the ranks of the city's business men. Now the property of the Firemen's Benevolent Association.
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complying with the conditions, the grading of that street from Fourth to Front was ordered and begun in March.
This was the first important publie improvement that the town had undertaken. It was the first straight-line communication between the village on the hill and the business on the river bank; the ouly route before this time having been by a devious road which cork- serewed around among the hills and ravines from near the foot of Vermont Street up to about where the Market House formerly stood on Hampshire. The grade level at Hampshire and Fourth had al- ready been established. That on Front, which depended so much on where Mr. Holmes doorsill might be, was now definitely fixed by Mr. Parker and some eivil engineers employed on the Northern Cross Railroad, the work on which had been begun here a few months before.
THE CITY CHARTER OF 1840
The year 1840 was epochal for Quiney. Almost from the time it adopted special town goverment its ambitions citizens had com- meneed to plan for cityhood, and the rapid growth of the place dur- ing that period whetted their desire to become a municipality. The town board finally ordered an election to be held on the third Wed- nesday in March for a vote on the adoption of a city charter which had passed the Legislature on February 3d preceding. The vote stood 228 for the adoption of the old eity charter and 12 against it.
Many of the old settlers thought the eity charter of 1840 con- siderably better than that of 1857. As named by the former the boundaries of the original City of Quincy were as follows: Begin- ning in the main channel of the Mississippi River west of the south line of Jefferson Street, thenee up the river with said channel to a point due west of the northern extremity of Pease's addition to said town, thenee due east to the eastern side of Wood Street (now Twelfth), thence due south along Wood Street to a point dne east from the place of beginning, thence due west down the south side of Jefferson Street to the place of beginning. The first charter divided the city into three wards. One of its provisions, which seemed to especially commend itself to the substantial element of the eity, was that which provided that the mayor must be a freeholder. But many of the citizens thought it savored of elass distinction based on prop- erty, and therefore it was repealed by a legislative act of January, 1841. That measure which made several amendments to the original charter. also reincorporated the old constitutional provision allowing the franchise to those who had resided in the United States six months preceding any election to vote, irrespective of whether he was a citizen or not.
ASBURY FOR PRESIDENT ; VAN BUREN FOR MAGISTRATE
How the latter privilege worked in some cases is well illustrated by the late Heury Asbury, who, at the time of his tale, was a eandi-
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date for justice of the peace. "I was always a Whig and a Repub- lican," he wrote, "but turned Democrat just before the election. The contest was close. I had some good friends among the Democrats, and they went for me, though they voted for Van Buren for presi- dent. Some of these German friends had been here not over six months and were not citizens of the United States. We voted then viva voce, or 'sing ont your choice.' Some of the writer's friends understood no English, but having been impressed by my friends to vote for Asbury-they had retained my name only-and after giving their names to the clerks of election when they came up to vote, were asked by the judges, 'Whom do you vote for?' To which they promptly replied, 'For Asbury.' 'Whom do you vote for, for president ?' To which they promptly replied, 'For Asbury.' 'Then whom do you vote for, for magistrate?' That was a stumper, but after awhile they said 'For Van Buren.' This thing had gone on for a time and the writer, finding it out, appealed to the judges to cor- rect the vote according to the intention of the voters, which was to vote for Asbury for justice of the peace. The judges agreed to . explain to the next voters so as to avoid further mistakes; but the first votes recorded for Asbury for president and Van Buren for justice of the peace were lost to both."
FIRST CITY ELECTION AND OFFICIALS
On the 18th of March the trustees ordered an election of city officers to be held on the 20th of April, all of the polling places being on Fourth Street-at the courthouse and the Baptist and Congrega- tional churches. The election then-in fact, until 1848-was viva voce, and the first campaign for municipal officers was surely a merry affair. The whigs elected their candidate for mayor, Ebenezer Moore, over the democratic aspirant, Gen. Samnel Leech.
Mayor Moore was a Maine man, a good lawyer and at one time associated with Henry Asbury. He had served for some years as a justice of the peace and engaged in business-finally, in several un- fortunate banking enterprises. He passed the last years of his life at Washington City in Government employ and died of cholera in the national capital about 1867.
General Leech had come to Quincy as register of the Public Land Office and was identified with that department of the Government at the time he was a candidate for mayor. He was also one of the town trustees. Abont a decade later he moved to Minnesota, where he held a similar appointment. At the time the democrats nominated him for mayor he was also a town trustee.
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