USA > Illinois > Mason County > The History and Mason Counties, Illinois > Part 41
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Lyman Trumbull was elected the successor of Gen. Shields, and served from March 4, 1855, to March 4, 1861.
Stephen A. Douglas was for the third and last time elected as his own successor, from the 4th of March, 1859, after a most brilliant, giant contest in 1858 with Abraham Lincoln. Mr. Douglas died soon after the opening of the war, in 1861, leaving an imperishable name as the most illustrious of all the Illinois Senators.
Orville H. Browning was. in 1861, appointed by Gov. Yates as the suc- cessor of Mr. Douglas.
Lyman Trumbull was elected his own successor, and served from March 4. 1861, to March 4, 1867.
William A. Richardson was elected. in 1863, to fill out the unexpired term of Judge Douglas. ending March 4, 1865.
Richard Yates was elected the successor of Mr. Richardson, and served with distinction as Senator from March 4, 1865, to March 4, 1871.
Lyman Trumbull was for the third term elected his own successor, and served with great distinction in the Senate for eighteen years, his last term beginning March 4, 1867, and ending March 4, 1873.
John A. Logan was the snecessor of Gov. Yates, and was the second native Illinoisan elected to that exalted position, which he held from March 4, 1871. to March 4, 1877.
Richard J. Oglesby was the successor of Judge Trumbull, and served iu the Senate from March 4, 1873, to March 4, 1879.
David Davis was the successor of Gen. Logan, and was elected for the term beginning March 4, 1877, and ending March 4, 1883.
John A. Logan was a second time elected to the Senate as the successor of Gov. Oglesby. His term began on the 4th of March, 1879, and will end March 4, 1885. Thus ends the roll of illustrions Senators for Illinois up to the present time. Of the nineteen men who have filled the high position, the writer was honored with the acquaintance of all but the four first-named, and among them were a mumber of great men, and none of small caliber.
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HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
BOUNDARIES AND TOPOGRAPHY OF ILLINOIS.
Illinois is bounded on the north by the State of Wisconsin : on the east by Lake Michigan. and the States of Indiana and Kentucky ; on the south by Ken- tucky. and on the west by Missouri and Iowa. Its extent in length is 380 miles, and in breadth at the north end. 145 miles, extending in the middle to 220 miles, and thence south narrowing to a point. It has an area of 55,405 miles and contains 35.459,200 acres of land, nearly all of which is fit for culti- vation. The outline of the State is about 1,160 miles in extent, 850 of which consists of navigable waters. The section of country lying near the southern limits of the lake country forms a summit from which the plane inclines to the south and west to the lower end of the State. at Cairo, where the lower section of the plane is only 350 feet above the sea level, whereas at the upper, or north- ern end of the plane it rises as high as 900 feet. This incline gives a southern or southwestern direction to the principal rivers in the State. The general sur- face of this plane is quite level, though there are some hills in the two ends of the State and along the Illinois and Mississippi Rivers. The arable elevation of the plane is about eight hundred feet above the level of the sea, and the mean height is about five hundred and fifty feet.
The principal river of the State is the Illinois, formed by the junction of the Kankakee, taking its rise in Indiana, and the Desplaines, with its head in Wisconsin, and uniting in Grundy County, and flowing from thence west and south to its entrance into the Mississippi, on the south line of Jersey County. at an elevation of about four hundred feet above the level of the sea. The banks of the river are generally low and subject to overflow in times of high water. The high waters of the Mississippi have backed up the Illinois as far as Havana-the fall from thence to the Mississippi being fifteen feet. The tribu- taries of the Ilinois are the Fox River, which comes from the north. in Wiscon- sin, and enters the Illinois at Ottawa, forty miles below the head of the river. Opposite the city of La Salle, the Vermilion enters the river-a good. large mill stream, coming in from the southeast. Sixty miles further down. the river enters Peoria Lake. an expansion of the river continuing twenty miles to the city of Peoria, and about two miles in width, with deep clear water. and no perceptible current-making it a beautiful sheet of water, abounding with fish, and lined on either side by high and grand-looking bluffs. Three miles below the city of Pekin, the Mackinaw comes in from its source, some eighty miles east, a turbu- lent stream of no use except for drainage. Next comes in the beautiful Quiver River. a small stream without timber belts-a good discharge of clear water fur- nishes fine fish and two very good flouring-mills-it is a Mason County enter- prise-beginning and ending in the county, discharging into the Illinois two miles above Havana. Opposite Havana, the Spoon River enters. It is quite a. large river, watering a large portion of the military tract, heading some eighty
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HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
miles north and meandering through several counties to its mouth in Fulton County. Eight miles above Beardstown the Sangamon enters from the cast. It is the largest of all the tributaries of the Illinois, some one hundred and fifty miles in length, and has been in the past navigable as high up as Springfield. On its bluff banks below Petersburg was once the town of Salem, the home of one of the immortals-Abraham Lincoln-who navigated the river as a flatboat- man. It forms the southern boundary of Mason County up to the mouth of Salt Creek, a large tributary of the Sangamon, which is the southern boundary of the county to where it joins on to Logan County. East of Springfield, the river divides into the north and south fork-the former passing near Decatur, through Macon, Piatt, Champaign and Ford Counties, and the latter south through Christian County-the several branches watering and draining an immense area of the most fertile soil of the State. It has wide bottom lands subject to overflow. except when protected by levees, which is being done extensively in Mason County. On its banks is a heavy growth of timber, once valuable for its walnut. oak, hickory and other kinds of trees. These bottoms abound in wild plums. pawpaws, persimmons, pecans, and other fruits and nuts. It was here that the poet Bryant found
" The wild cup of the Sangamon,"
a gorgeous trumpet flower that twines about the trees on the bank of the river. Crooked Creek is an extensive water-course that enters the Illinois six miles below Beardstown, and waters a portion of the military tract. Below Crooked Creek, on the east side of the river, enters Indian Creek, in the lower end of Cass County ; Mauvaisterre and Sandy, in Scott County, and Apple Creek and Macoupin Creek, in Greene County. McKee's Creek, on the west side of the river, enters opposite Naples, and is the farthest down of all the streams that water the military tract. These streams generally traverse rich portions of the State, furnishing necessary drainage, water and timber.
The Illinois is one of the finest navigable streams in the world for boats of light draft, the fall being only about one inch to the mile, and the current gentle. with soft. sandy bottom, securing the greatest safety and ease of navigation. It was once the great highway of commerce for a vast region of country on both sides of the river, and continued so until the introduction of railroads, since which there has been a great decline in river business. The navigation of the river by steamboats began in 1828. and, in 1836, there were as many as thirty-five steam- boats navigating the river. The number of arrivals and departures for that year at the port of Havana was 450. The boating business increased and improved in character until the river packets became immense floating-palaces. carrying immense crowds of people and entertaining them in the most sumptu- ous manner. This mode of travel and means of commerce culminated some twenty years ago, and dwindled down to the present time, when one semi-weekly packet boat does the entire business from Peoria to St. Louis, with the help of some local packets from points below.
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HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
The improvement of the river by locks, dams and other means may bring back a portion of this vast trade : but at the present time the railroads have it mostly their own way.
Canal-boating on the river was once a business of large proportions, and this was, to some extent, the cause of decline in the steamboating business. Canal- boats used to line the river and block up the ports with their numbers at a not very remote period, and they took in the corn, wheat, pork and other products during the winter, and carried them to market, either north or south, when the river opened, and all this was done at low rates. Now, however, they are not fast enough to suit the age. There are those. in these degenerate days, who would rather « go to hell in a minute " than spend a little time in fitting themselves for heaven.
THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL.
As this great work has always been a matter of especial interest to the peo- ple living upon the borders of the Illinois River, a short chapter is devoted to that subject.
The project of a ship canal to connect the waters of Lake Michigan with the navigable waters of the Illinois River was first suggested during the war of 1812 by a writer in Niles' Register. The war had demonstrated the immense advantages of such a work in time of peace, as well as war. It was one of the compensations of that war, to the West, that it was the means of directing attention to this portion of the great Western country. In 1816, the title to a strip of country twenty miles wide was obtained from the Indians for the pur- pose of securing a route for this work. In 1821. an appropriation of $10,000 was made by Congress for a preliminary survey of the canal and for a survey of the twenty-mile strip. Shadrach Bond. first Governor of Illinois, in his first message, called attention to the importance and feasibility of the work. A sur- vey was made, in accordance with the law of Congress, and the project pro- nounced feasible and highly important.
In 1826. Congress donated to the State, for the purpose of constructing the canal, every alternate section of land within a strip ten miles wide along the ronte from Chicago to La Salle-a magnificent domain of 300,000 acres. In 1829, the General Assembly of the State passed an act, creating a Board of Canal Commissioners, and authorized them-not to enter upon the work of build- ing a canal, but to sell the lands and give to settlers pre-emptions on the same. by which many old settlers obtained their homes. Fortunately, the folly of this course was soon discovered and the act repealed. At the session of 1834-35. another act was passed, creating a new Canal Board, and authorizing the Gov- ernor to negotiate bonds for construction. and pledging the canal lands for their redemption. At that time, however, the immense value of these lands was not appreciated by the capitalists who had money to loan, and it was not until at a special session of the Legislature, in 1835. through the great exertions of Col. J. M. Strode, of Galena, (who then represented the entire region north of Peoria
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HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
in the State Senate), the act was so amended as to pledge the faith of the State for their redemption, that the bonds could be negotiated. The bonds were nego- tiated by Gov. Duncan in 1836, and in the same year preparations were made for active work.
William B. Archer, Gurdon S. Hubbard and William F. Thornton, all Colonels-as most men were in those days-were the first Commissioners, and they fortunately chose William Gooding as Chief Engineer. Subsequent changes brought James B. Fry-another Colonel-into the Board. The first ground was broken at Bridgeport on the 4th of July, 1836, and the event was celebra- ted in grand style, with an address from Dr. Egan. The work was begun on the " deep-cut " plan, by which the canal was to be fed from the waters of the lake, through the Chicago River, as is now done.
At the time of letting the first contracts, the speculative mania was at its height, and labor and supplies were at a high figure-laborers getting from $20 to $30 per month, with board: pork, $20 to $30 per barrel ; flour, $9 to $12 per barrel, and other things in proportion-and the contracts were predicated upon these high prices. To facilitate the transportation of supplies, what is called the " Archer Road" was built from Chicago to Lockport, at an expense of $40,000, which created some scandal, on account of Mr. Archer being the pro- prietor of an addition to Lockport. The work was continued by means of the money raised upon the bonds, canal lands and lots in Chicago, Lockport, Ottawa and La Salle, until the year 1842, when, after an outlay of over $5,000,000, the work was suspended.
The enterprise was begun when everything had to be done in the most expensive way, and when the country was on the eve of a financial crash, vet the State could have gone through with it, and maintained her credit. if other wild projects had not been connected with it.
The central and southern portions of the State, jealous of their own imme- diate interests, looked upon the canal as a northern project, got up for its exclusive benefit, and so they formed a syndicate, as it were, and insisted that, as the price of their votes for further appropriations to the canal, the balance of the State should have all the railroads that were called for by the syndicate- and, in the year 1837, an act was passed, which ultimately ruined the credit of the State and ended in financial disaster. By this act, a loan of $8,000,000 was authorized, on the faith of the State, for the purpose of gridironing the State with railroads, and a $4,000,000 loan for the further prosecution of the canal. The sum of $200,000. out of the eight-million loan, was to be given ont to the few counties that got no promise of a railroad, for the ostensible purpose of constructing roads and bridges.
Absurd as this scheme was, at that time, loans were readily obtained to the extent of nearly $6,000,000, for the purpose of carrying it out. As a result of all this outlay, the only railroad ever built under this stupendous scheme of folly, was a short line of railroad from Springfield to the Illinois
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HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
River at Meredosia, fifty-five miles of road. with strap iron for rails, nine miles of which were completed in the year 1838, and over which the writer of this had his first ride upon the first trip of this first railroad built in Illinois and in the Mississippi Valley. Much work was done on other roads, but before any other one was completed, the collapse came, and the work on the roads was sus- pended-never to be resmed.
The financial and commercial prostration that struck the East in 1837, was held in check for a time by the enormous expenditures of money upon our public works, and the work was continued under difficulties on the canal. by the help of canal scrip, and other devices, until the year 1842. when the work was stopped entirely for want of means to continue it. By great exertion, the interest on the canal debt was paid for the year 1841. but no provision could be made for anything more.
In the latter part of the year 1840, a debt of $14,237,348 had been con- tracted to be paid by a population of 478,929-nearly thirty dollars per capita for each and every man, woman and child in the State. The canal debt was over five millions, at the time the work ccased, and the contractors abandoned their jobs, and claimed heavy damages, and things began to look pretty blne for the State. AAn act was afterward passed providing for a settlement with them and limiting the amount to $230.000.
The canal could not. of course. be allowed to remain long in this condition -for the bondholders were equally interested with us in devising some means for its early completion-it being too important and too costly an enterprise to be abandoned. At the session of the Legislature, 1842-43, an act was passed which accomplished the purpose. By the provisions of this act. the canal itself and all the unsold lots and lands were transferred to a Board of three Trustees -two to be chosen by the bondholders and one by the Governor of the State. The bondholders agreed to advance the further sum of $1,600,000 to complete the canal on the cheaper plan of a high level. The Trustees were to prosecute the work and retain possession of the canal and its revenues until the debt and further cost of completing the same, with the interest thercon, should be fully paid by the tolls and moneys derived fran sale of lands and lots. The Board was organized and the work resumed in 1845. and proseented to completion in 1848. The canal debt, interest and cost of construction, were paid in full from these resources, in the year 1871. and the canal was surrendered to the State with a balance on hand of $95,742.
In the year 1865, an arrangement was entered into by the Canal Trustees. with the Board of Public Works of Chicago, by which the canal was completed on the original deep-eut plan in the year 1871-thus letting the pure waters of Lake Michigan flow through the canal into the Ilinois River and thence down to the Gulf of Mexico, and also opening the way for the beautiful lake perch and other fishes to run down into the Illinois, sport with the croppy, listen to the catfish sing, and assist in getting up fish-fries.
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HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
MATERIAL WEALTH OF ILLINOIS.
Perhaps the best evidence of the richness and productiveness of the soil of Illinois, as also the wealth and prosperity of the State, will be found in statistics -some of which are here briefly given.
Of the 35,459,200 acres of land within the borders of the State, about twenty millions are in cultivation, and five millions in woodland, leaving a greater portion of the remaining ten millions of acres of virgin soil yet to be put into cultivation, which is rapidly being done by drainage. levying and other means.
There are now growing within the State 8,965,760 aeres of corn, which, at a moderate estimate of thirty-five bushels per acre, will produce 313,801,600 of bushels, and valued at 30 cents per bushel will be $94,140,480. In 1875, the corn produced was 130,000,000 bushels, which was at that time more than double the amount raised in any other State, and one-sixth the entire crop of all the States.
The acreage of wheat for 1879, is 2,365,798, which, at an estimate of twenty bushels per acre, will produce 47,315,960 bushels, worth, at 90 cents per bushel, $42.584,374. There were thirty millions of bushels produced ten years ago, and that was more than any other State produced at that time.
In oats there are 1,448,562 acres.
In meadows there are 2.179,122 aeres. In 1875, there were harvested 2,747,000 tons of hay in Illinois, which was more than one-tenth of that pro- duced in all the States, and its value was more than all the cotton raised in Louisiana or any other State.
The pasturage, at present, consists of 4,157,320 acres, and its value is more than twenty millions of dollars.
The number of cattle in the State this year is 1.722,057, and the number estimated for market this year, 376,577.
Of hogs now on hand there are 2,814,532, of which 2,013,718 are doomed to slaughter this year.
The number of sheep is 762,788.
Number of horses on hand is 881,951.
Number of mules, 122.348.
The number of hogs slaughtered in 1875, was 2.113,845, about half the entire crop of the United States, and the value of all the slaughtered animals in the State was $57,000.000. one-seventh of the total for that year.
The value of the farm implements in the State is over two hundred million dollars.
The value of the annual manufactures of the State is about two hundred and ten millions of dollars.
The mineral wealth of the State is beyond computation, as there are 41,000 square miles of coal, over forty feet in thickness. There are but 12.000 square miles of coal in all Great Britain, and that is rapidly being exhausted. At the rate which England is using coal the supply in Illinios will last 120,000 years.
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HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
Illinois is now the third State in population. and in railroads far ahead of any other State, having at present 7,579 miles of track within her borders, valued at over $600.000.000. using 3,500 engines, and some 70,000 cars in operating them.
Illinois also excels all other States in miles of postal service; money orders sold: internal revenue paid into the National treasury; in the amount and value of her lumber trade, grain trade, and also in the amount of whisky which she makes, to revive the drooping spirits of the people of other States.
Having devoted thus much to matters of the State. the affairs of the county will come next in order.
ORGANIZATION OF MASON COUNTY.
Mason County was formed out of parts of the counties of Menard and Tazewell. and organized in the year 1841. The records of the county are made up in part from Tazewell. Menard and Sangamon. Menard was taken from the northwestern part of Sangamon County and formed into a county in the year 1838. All that portion of territory lying between the Sangamon River and Salt Creek on the south, to the north line of the twentieth tier of townships. inelnding what is now Bath, Lynchburg. Kilbourne. Crane Creek, Salt Creek and Mason City, belonged once to Sangamon-latterly to Menard County-and the remainder of the county, inchiding the present townships of Havana, Sherman, Pennsylvania, Allen's Grove, Manito, Forest City and Quiver belonged to the old county of Tazewell, which contained all the territory north of the line just described, as far east as the west line of MeLean County, and as far north as the south line of Putnam County, and bounded on the west by the Illinois River. The original county seat was at Mackinaw, and from thence it was removed to Pekin, and in 1835 was removed to Tremont, and from thence back again to Pekin, where it has been for many years. The towns in old Tazewell were Wesley City. Pekin, Havana and Matanzas, on the river. and Mackinaw. Dillon, Bloomingdale and Washington, in the interior.
Sangamon County was taken from Madison and Bond, and was organized in the year 1821. In the year 1837. it was the largest and most populous county in the State, containing sixty full townships-over 2,000 square miles of territory. At the time of the admission of the State into the Union, there was not a white inhabitant in the whole of Sangamon County, and in 1837 (nineteen years after), the population was estimated at over 20,000. As the capital of the State, the home of Lincoln. Baker, and other illustrious names, old Sangamon is held in a spirit of veneration by people who claim to be her offspring.
EARLY SETTLEMENTS.
The lands within the present county of Mason were first surveyed and opened for settlement in the years 1821-22-23-24, by William L. May and others. For many years, the region of country within the forks of the Illinois
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HISTORY OF MASON COUNTY.
and Sangamon Rivers was looked upon by the surrounding inhabitants in other counties as a sandy, barren waste, fit only for the abode of hunters, fishermen and such people as cared not for mosquitoes, fleas and other "varmints," and who were not afraid of the ague and other malarial diseases that then prevailed most plenteously, and so the country was avoided by what was considered the better class of people. These prejudices kept back the settlement of the country until the year 1827.
On the 17th of October. 1827, Ossian M. Ross, then living in the neighbor- ing town of Lewistown, entered the first land in the county, where the city of Havana now stands, and on the 12th of November, 1827, the town was laid out by Stephen Dewey for Mr. Ross, the proprietor. The plat was not put on rec- ord until June 2, 1835, at Pekin.
The first settler in Havana, and in the county, is believed to have been James Hoakum, who kept the ferry for Mr. Ross. Henry Sears says that he was at his house in 1827. he thinks. and certainly not more than a year later. He had a child born in his house about that time-the first white birth in the county.
In 1828. John Stuart settled on the head of Snicarte Island, now in Bath Township, and afterward sold out to Amos Richardson, who afterward sold out to John Knight. Some of the Stuart family are still living in the same neighbor- hood, and one of them is now languishing in the county jail under a charge of murder ! John Gillespie settled the same year on the place where the town of Moscow once stood, and soon left it, to be afterward entered by O. M. Ross.
In 1829, O. M. Ross built the Ross Hotel, which stood on the bluff, south side of Market street. Moses Freeman & Bros. were the architects and builders, and, when completed. Mr. Ross moved into it with his family and there remained to the time of his death-January 20, 1837. It is safe to say that Mr. Ross was the first permanent settler. In the fall of that year (1829), the Havana Post Office was established, and O. M. Ross appointed Postmaster, making the Havana office two years older than the Chicago Post Office. The ferry had been established some time before, and for a long time the place was best known as " Ross Ferry." Asa Langford, the father of our George, was interested in the ferry at a later time, and finally settled in Havana-a jolly old fellow.
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