USA > Illinois > Coles County > The History of Coles County, Illinois map of Coles County; history of Illinois history of Northwest Constitution of the United States, miscellaneous matters, &c., &c > Part 25
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The hard times that followed have almost an unequaled history. The decline in fictitious values, the distress of many people who had caught the
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contagion of suddenly growing rich without giving an equivalent for the pros- perity, the fall of real estate, the high price of produce, and, more than all, the dread of emigrants, who feared to link their lives with a commonwealth whose taxes for the future seemed unbearable, gave the State a reputation any- thing but agreeable.
It was young, however, full of resources, and confident in its powers. Able men took the helm ; a series of redeemable, long-time bonds was issued, the canal, through additional loans, was completed ; and by the time the Mexican war began to agitate the minds of the American people the bonds of Illinois had risen, first to forty, then fifty, then seventy, and now to ninety cents on the dollar. To its everlasting credit it must be recorded, all were paid ; and to-day the debt of the State is only a nominal sum, which could be paid at any time. Whatever may be said of the system of Internal Improvements, it must be recorded that the people learned a lesson, dearly, too, that it does not pay municipalities to assume the construction of such works, and that it is always disastrous to entail a debt in expectation of future greatness and ability to dis- charge it. Where such a course succeeds once, it will fail a hundred times ; and even if succeeding, it is only by unnatural methods.
The reverse of the system was so great that no attempts were made to com- plete any of the unfinished roads for over twelve years. Of all the grand system of internal railroads in Illinois, but one, the Northern Cross Railroad, was the only one that reached practical results. Of that, in the spring of 1837, some eight miles were built, and, on November 8, the first locomotive that ever turned a wheel in the Mississippi Valley was placed and made a trial- trip, running out and back on the eight miles of the old flat bar track. The road was finished on to Jacksonville, and, in the spring of 1842, to Springfield, where it terminated. The little locomotive, minus a spark-arrester and cow-catcher, was a terror to cattle and buildings, throwing the one ruthlessly from the track, and burning the other with its sparks. It was, after running a year or so, run off the track by a drunken engineer, and sold to Gen. Semples, of Alton, who nearly bankrupted himself in a fruitless endeavor to make a steam road-wagon of it. Mule-power superseded the engine on this road until about 1847, when the track was sold (being worn out, and the strap rails stolen for sled shoes by the surrounding populace) to a company of capitalists, for $100,000, one-tenth of its cost, and by them remodeled, equipped, completed and the beginning of the present Wabash Railway was the result.
TERRE HAUTE & ALTON RAILROAD.
In 1850, the next railroad was made in Illinois. By February of that year, the Chicago & Galena (now Chicago & North-Western) was finished as far as Elgin, and an excursion-train ran between the two cities. A great revival in railroad interests sprang up. Among those sharing in the awakening was the old Terre Haute & Alton Road, which a second time comes into the narrative.
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Work began under a new corporation in 1851. The old route was deter- mined on, as much of it at either end could yet be used. As has been stated, no grading had been done in Coles County. The Illinois Central, whose early history is analagous to that of the Terre Haute & Alton, was surveyed while work was being done on the latter road, and an agreement made between the two roads stipulated that whichever got to the place of contact last should bear the expense of crossing. Work went vigorously on through 1853, 1854 and 1855, and, in order to accomplish the feat, the Terre Haute & Alton Road hastily graded their route and reached Mattoon first. This was accomplished in the winter of 1855. As fast as either end of the roads was completed, cars were put on, the intervening links being traversed by stages which carried pas- sengers who desired to travel in the then incomplete condition of the roads. This road completed its bed and ran a train of cars through from Terre Haute to Alton a little before the holidays in the winter of 1855-56. The grading was very incomplete, many places the engine being unable to pull but few cars at a time. When "stuck," as the natives called it, fence-rails were used as an assistant motive power, or neighboring horses or oxen borrowed to help haul the engine over the incline.
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About the time of the building of this and the Central road, a policy arose on the part of the residents of Central Illinois known as the "State's Policy." It more particularly affected those on the line of the Terre Haute & Alton Road, whose terminus was Alton, which by the people of that city. always a rival of its great foreign neighbor, was considered as one of the public cor- porations that would in time enable her to become what she sought to be- the emporium of the Mississippi Valley. This policy party sprung suddenly into existence when the Ohio & Mississippi, and the Vandalia-then known as the Brough Road-attempted to get charters. They must not center at a point opposite St. Louis ; they must come to Alton or not be built. No track was allowed to be laid from Alton to the river on this side of St. Louis, and for two years this "policy" threatened the serious failure of these two corporations. It was extremely narrow, selfish and bigoted, and was handled without gloves by the foreign press and by the people on the line of these two roads striving to get a crossing in Illinois. Not until 1852-53. did the party lose its power in the State Legislature, and not till a new body was elected from the people, who, by this time began to see its narrowing effects, were the desired charters allowed.
Senators Douglas and Young wrote letters to prominent men in Illinois urging them to abandon the idea, and pointing out to them the fact that the grant to the Central Railroad could not have been obtained, had such a "pol- icy " been known to exist.
Owing to this feeling, mainly, the Terre Haute & Alton Road was built from the city on the Wabash to her aspiring neighbor on the Father of Waters; and, owing to this same policy lurking then in the minds of the citizens of that
Jolin Gordon | DECEASED) PLEASANT GROVE
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place, was the road for a number of years compelled to transfer its freight and passengers to boats, and float them to the mighty emporium on the western bank of the same mighty stream. It was finally overcome, however. A track was built to the east side of the river, opposite St. Louis, where, until the erec- tion of the present grand bridge, the ferry-boat transferred them over the river.
With the change of terminus, a change of name occurred. and when the connection was effected with the road leading eastward to the capital of Indiana. the name assumed its present form.
Now it connects with the " Bee Line," eastward, and forms a continuous route from the cities of the Mississippi Valley to those on the Atlantic seaboard.
Mr. E. B. McClure, the General Superintendent, is a citizen of Coles County, residing at Mattoon. Here is what what may be termed the " Half- way House," and here are some of the principal offices. The car-shops of this Company were removed from Litchfield, in 1870, and erected on a lot of ground donated by the residents of the northeast part of town, where they are placed. They were secured through a donation of $60,000 on the part of Mattoon, in whose history a full account of them may be found.
THE ILLINOIS CENTRAL RAILROAD.
Like the Indianapolis & St. Louis, the Illinois Central had its rise in the Internal Improvement system of 1835, and, like that road, went down in the collapse of the system in 1840. Some work was done on the road during this period, chiefly at the northern end-its connection with the canal. It was intended to connect the canal and the junction of the rivers at Cairo by means of this road ; and from published statements of the late Judge Sidney Breese and letters of Stephen A. Douglas, we learn the idea originated as early as 1835, the commencement of the system referred to.
The revival of railroads and the consequent improvement in property received a great impulse in Congress by the grant of 3,000,000 acres of land to the State of Illinois for the construction of the Central road. A more munificent grant of land could hardly be imagined at that date, and to the Senators and Representatives in Congress of that session is the grant due. The provisions of the grant were that the road was to be completed in ten years. In case of failure, the unsold lands were to revert to the General Gov- ernment, and for those sold the State was to pay the Government pricc. The. belt of land was to include each alternate section for a width of twelve sections. the odd-numbered sections to be the property of the railroad, the even-num- bered ones to be the property of the Government, and to be sold at not less than double the ordinary price ($1.25 per acre), i. e., $2.50 per acre.
The lands in this belt not already sold were to be withdrawn from market and to remain so until the location of the road was permanently decided upon. The State found itself in possession of the grant of land at the session of 1850, and 1851, and as the act of Congress had passed the September previous, the
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intervening time had been assiduously taken up by the press and stump of the State in advocating and discussing plans for carrying out the project. It may be remarked here that every plan brought forward was secretly fed by private interests as much or more than by public good. Each town on any line from Cairo to La Salle knew it was destined to be the one the road should pass through. The session of the State Legislature was harassed by various monop- olists, who saw in the brilliant prospects an easy way to secure wealth, and who, for a time, seriously crippled the enterprise. Many persons were strongly in favor of the State engaging in the work as it had done twelve years before, and advocated the payment of the State indebtedness by means of the sale of the lands and profits from the lands.
The maxim that " A burnt child dreads the fire " was exemplified here. The State did not care to repeat the experiment it had so disastrously attempted a few years before; especially so when an unexpected solution of the problem of how to best build the road presented itself.
Robert Schuyler. George Griswold, Gouverneur Morris. Jonathan Sturgis, George W. Ludlow and John F. A. Sanford, of New York City, and David A. Neal. Franklin Haven and Robert Rantoul, Jr., of Boston, came before the Legislature, represented by one of their number, and offered, if the State would give them the grant of land, they would build and equip the road, and have it in running order by the year 1854 ; that by the 4th day of July, in that year, the road would be completed. There was a speedy, unlooked for solution of the whole question. A company of capitalists step forward, propose to complete and equip the road in a given length of time, much shorter than the State could hope to-to, in fact. relieve them of all care in the matter, and, when done. to pay annually into the treasury 7 per cent of all its gross earning in lieu of all taxes, State and municipal. It is said. in their eagerness to obtain the road, the capitalists would have bound themselves to pay 10 per cent as readily as 7 : but that that was engineered through the Assembly by a prominent citizen of Illinois, who was secured for this purpose by the company. After a little delay in getting the Commissioner of the Land Office, at Washington, to convey the land to the company, work was begun. At the outset, much strife was engen- dered over the route the road should take, several towns vying with each other in their efforts to obtain not only the road through their midst, but the com- mencement of the branch to Chicago. The question was finally decided by the State selecting a route as direct as possible, through a region containing as much unsold land as possible, thereby gaining all the land she could. The main line ran from Cairo north to Central City, where the Chicago branch diverged in the direction of that city, taking in its route Coles County. The main stem continued north through Decatur, Bloomington, La Salle, where it encountered the southern end of the canal, and on northward, ending at Galena. Thus, by rare sagacity, a company of capitalists found themselves in possession of a magnificent railway. built from the proceeds of bonds issued by them
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secured by the lands, without the outlay of a dollar of their own money. They set aside a certain part of the lands, the proceeds of which were to be applied to the interest on the bonds. The prices realized for all these lands ranged from $5 to $55 per acre, and as the road opened, an immense region of hitherto unproductive lands, the sales on the part of both the road and the Government were simply enormous. The Government was the real gainer, for much of the lands had been in the market over thirty years and had not found a purchaser. Now. the railway promised a speedy outlet for farm produce; towns and villages sprung into existence with Western-like prodigality, and before a decade of years had passed, the enterprise had yielded a hundred-fold. It was the first subsidy granted any railroad by the Government-a practice which, we are prone to say, has, in a measure, been somewhat abused.
The Illinois Central Road was completed and in full running order by the winter of 1856, a year and a half from the time the memorialists agreed to inake it, they having been delayed in getting the grant of land properly deeded to them by the Commissioner of the Land Office at Washington. Construction- trains were running that winter, and on January 1, 1856, says Mr. Frank Alli- son, of Mattoon, a passenger-train made the first run from Chicago to Cairo.
This railway is one of the longest in the West, and from the 7 per cent of its earnings a revenue accrues to the State amounting now to over a half-million dollars annually. This, the Company has at various times endeavored to reduce or change ; but the people have set their faces against it, and, not long since, have placed it beyond the reach of the Legislature, by a constitutional amend- ment to the organic law of the State.
OTHER RAILROADS.
In addition to the two extensive lines of railway crossing the county, three others have been added since the war; none, however, so great or having such history as their predecessors.
The close of the late rebellion threw upon the country a large force of unemployed men, and a vast amount of capital. This latter was used in open- ing new enterprises, and, as the States had learned to let such affairs alone, men with tact and energy stood ready to enter upon them. A railroad from Mattoon to Danville; from Mattoon to Grayville, thence to Evansville; from Charleston to several other towns in the State, was proposed, while roads in various direc- tions across the county were projected. Of these enterprises we will mention none save the successful ones : the Grayville & Mattoon, the Decatur, Mattoon & Southern, and the Illinois Midland.
The Grayville & Mattoon Railroad began to be talked about as early as 1866. One effort brought on another, and in the columns of the Mattoon papers, from that time down to 1872 and 1873, large-headed articles appear every week or so, all prophesying great results. Townships along the line of the proposed road gave liberally in bonds and private subscriptions, as those
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HISTORY OF COLES COUNTY.
along the line of the Indianapolis & St. Louis had done, and a speedy comple- tion was expected. Only twenty-eight or thirty miles of grading were com- pleted, however, and that in Richland County, and for four or five years the road lay dormant. In 1874. a new company was formed, and by two years had the grading completed to the south line of Coles County. Work was con- tinued on up through the county, at first running the line to intersect the Illinois Central about a mile south of Mattoon. The grade was made here ; but afterward changed, and brought directly into the town. It was all con- pleted and the track laid by July 4, 1878, and on that day a grand excursion. under the care of J. H. Herkimer, the Receiver, was inaugurated, and a hila- rious day made along the route. The road has been operating since then, and has had a good local trade, the freight business especially being quite heavy. A short time ago, Mr. Herkimer and his associate officers resigned, from various causes, and were succeeded by E. B. Phillips, Receiver ; M. H. Riddell, Gen- eral Traveling Agent ; S. C. Anthony, General Clerk, and S. M. Henderson, Roadmaster. This road received $75,000 in bonds from Mattoon Township and the city ; from the former, two-thirds, and from the latter, one-third. The vote on this question was held in Mattoon, Tuesday, February 9, 1869; 444 votes were cast in favor of the tax, and 7 against it. Whether the town and township are justified in such a heavy debt, in addition to several others of a similar character. i. e., the $60,000 for the shops, is a serious question, and one which conservative citizens are inclined to doubt.
The Decatur, Mattoon & Southern Railroad was begun in 1871, and com- pleted to Hervey City, seven miles from Decatur, by 1873. Here, this Com- pany was allowed a joint use of the Illinois Midland Company's track to Decatur, which the courts afterward decided they were entitled to, and which they yet use.
January 16, 1874, the road passed into a Receiver's hands, and the name changed to the present one, it being formerly known as the Decatur, Sullivan & Mattoon Railroad. Since that date, the Receiver has been managing it. It is run in connection with the Indianapolis & St. Louis Road, and is under the care of Mr. E. B. McClure as Manager. Mr. W. H. Lewis is the General Agent. Both these gentlemen reside at Mattoon. and are connected with the Indianapolis & St. Louis Road.
The remaining road, the Illinois Midland Railway, runs through but a small part of Coles County. It crosses the township of Oakland from east to west, passing through the village. The road runs from Terre Haute to Peoria, and is in three divisions, which originally were separate roads ; when consolidated, the present name was adopted. The part running through Coles County was built from Decatur to Paris, under the name of the Paris & Decatur Railroad. It was completed in 1871, and, for a time, used the track of the Indianapolis & St. Louis Road from Paris to Terre Haute. When the Paris & Terre Haute Road was completed, in 1875, it formed a junction with that road, and, soon
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after, consolidated with it. Only about six miles of this railroad passes through Coles County, and that in the extreme northeast part, in Oakland Township, in whose history it is more fully noticed.
While on the history of railroads, it might not be amiss to say something about telegraphs. They were, in their infancy, regarded as somewhat super- natural, as all things are apt to be when we cannot understand them ; and, when a line was brought through Coles County in advance of the railway, it is related that it was not uncommon for some of the worthy citizens to hourly gaze upon it to see the news flash along. Their desires were, however, not gratified. They couldn't see the news ; but they thought they could hear it, especially when they stood near a post and heard the ring caused by the vibration of the wires. with the air passing over them. The supposition lasted very satisfactorily until they found out better, and was as harmless as deceptive.
The first operator in town was Fred Tubbs, and was succeeded by W. W. Craddock. They were here in 1850, at the time the railways of the State began their second era of construction, and have since been prominently known in the county. Other lines were added to the one running east and west across the county, as the railways were built and the utility of suchr inventions became apparent. Now, they run in all directions, and one can talk with another, even though a continent be between them. Should the telephone supersede the tel- egraph, as it bids fair to do, those of the future will see a result almost beyond our conception.
POLITICAL AND WAR RECORD.
In the days of Whigs and Democrats, Coles was a Whig county by several hundred majority, in contests where party lines were closely drawn. Upon the organization of the Republican party, a ehange came over the color of its poli- tics. and for a number of years it was Democratic; but, eventually, the Repub- licans gained the ascendency, and for several years carried the day in all impor- tant elections. At the present time, the political question is toned down to a point, that both of the great parties claim to be the dark horse. At the last Presidential election, the county was carried by the Hayes Electors by a small majority. In the local elections of the last few years, the spoils have been pretty equally divided between Democrats and Republicans. The present county officers and their political faith are thus represented : Hon. J. R. Cun- ningham, County Judge, Democrat ; J. F. Goar, County Treasurer, Repub- lican ; William R. Highland, County Clerk, Democrat ; W. E. Robinson, Circuit Clerk, Republican. The latter was elected by a small majority, and his election contested by Mr. Clarke, his Democratie competitor for the office. The case was tried in the County Court, and occupied the spare moments of Judge Adams, of that august tribunal, from December until the June follow- ing, when it was decided in Robinson's favor. Clarke, still unsatisfied, appealed to the Supreme Court, which body confirmed the decision of the County Court, and thus Mr. Robinson's title to the office was settled. The other county offi-
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cers-J. E. Brooks, Sheriff; T. J. Lee, Superintendent of Schools ; and John L. Aubert, County Surveyor-are Democrats. Such is the political record of the county. It is probable, however, that, in a State or national contest, with a full vote on both sides, the Republicans would carry the day.
Coles County's war history is written in characters of blood upon a hun- dred battle-fields. Citizens of Coles have figured in every war, from the Revo- lution down to the great rebellion that shook the republic to its very founda- tion. In many of the Indian wars of the times, they have borne an honorable part. Upon the records of the County Commissioner's Court of 1835, we find the certificates of Elisha Hadden, John Parker, Joseph Painter, John Hart and Griffin Tipsoward, made under oath to the Commissioners' Court for the purpose of obtaining a pension under an act of the United States Congress passed in 1832. These parties made oath to their services in the armies of the United States during the Revolutionary war and the wars with the Indians of those times. Hadden stated on his oath that he was in the battle of King's Mountain, in North Carolina, "against the British and Tories ;" and that. in a battle soon after with the Cherokee Indians, he was wounded, and for three months lay in the fort helpless, and was then carried home to North Carolina on a litter. Painter testified that he was in the Revolutionary battle of Eutaw Springs, and several skirmishes in North Carolina. Hart, that he entered the service of the United States in 1776, and served under Gen. Clarke, and was in several battles with the Indians. Griffin Tipsoward, that he entered the service in Virginia, in 1775, and at the close of the war was discharged by Gen. Washington.
In the war of 1812, many of the pioneers of this county had participated, as elsewhere noticed, and some are still living who took part in that struggle with Johnny Bull. In the Black Hawk war of 1832, an entire company from Coles County (then in her infancy) responded to the call of the Governor for troops. Many of them are still surviving. The officers of this company were: James P. Jones, Captain ; Thomas Sconce, Isaac Lewis and James Law, Lieutenants. In the Mexican war, notwithstanding it was considered a Demo -. cratic issue and Coles was a Whig county, a full company was raised and par- ticipated in many of the battles, among which were those of Vera Cruz and Cerro Gordo. The officers of the company were: W. W. Bishop, Captain ; J. J. Adams, First Lieutenant; H. C. Dunbar, Second Lieutenant, and Charles Jones, Orderly Sergeant. Bishop and Adams are dead, Dunbar lives in Texas, and several of the rank and file are still living in the county.
In the war of the rebellion, Coles County furnished quite a little army. The Seventh and Eighth Regiments of three-months men, cach drew a com- pany from the county ; the Seventh a company from Mattoon, and the Eighth a company from Charleston. The Twenty-first (Grant's old regiment) con- tained many men from Coles, as well as the Twenty-fifth, Thirty-eighth, Fifty- fourth, Sixty-second and One Hundred and Twenty-third Volunteers and the
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