The History of Peoria County, Illinois. Containing a history of the Northwest-history of Illinois-history of the county, its early settlement, growth, development, resources, etc., etc., Part 24

Author: Johnson & co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago : Johnson & Company
Number of Pages: 932

USA > Illinois > Peoria County > The History of Peoria County, Illinois. Containing a history of the Northwest-history of Illinois-history of the county, its early settlement, growth, development, resources, etc., etc. > Part 24

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).

in 1821 the State legislature organized seven new counties -Greene, Fayette, Montgomery, Lawrence, Hamilton, Sangamon and Pike. Applications for authority to organize new counties were so numerous that the legislature provided for twelve weeks, publication of their intentions before petitions would be received and entertained in the future.

157

GENERAL HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

Pike county, organized under an act approved January 31 (1831), embraced all the territory north of the Illinois river and its south fork, now Kankakee river. A Gazet- teer of Illinois and Wisconsin,.'published about 1822, says that the county " included a part of the lands appropriated by Congress for the payment of military bounties. The lands constituting that tract, are included within the peninsula of the Illinois and Mis- sissippi, and extend on the meridian line passing through the mouth of the Illinois, one hundred and sixty-two miles north. Pike county will no doubt be divided into several counties, some of which will become very wealthy and important. It is probable that the section about Fort Clark will be the most thickly settled. On the Mississippi river, above Rock river, lead ore is found in abundance. Pike county contains between 700 and 800 inhabitants. It is attached to the first judicial circuit, sends one member to the House of Representatives and, with Greene, one to the Senate. The county seat is Colesgrove, a post town. It was laid out in 1821, and is situated in township eleven south, in range two west of the fourth principal meridian. Very little improvement has yet been made in this place or the vicinity. The situation is high and healthy, and it bids fair to become a place of some importance." This is all that is known of the Town of Colesgrove, the county seat of all this region in 1821.

Fulton county was formed from Pike, January 28, 1823, and included all the terri- tory north of the base line, and west of the fourth principal meridian, which had been in Pike. Peoria county was created from Fulton, January 13, 1825.

CHAPTER XII.

NORTHERN ILLINOIS INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

1832-1842-Governor Duncan - Internal Improvements - Inflation - Fever of Speculation - Paper Towns - Illinois and Michigan Canal - Panic - Repudiation - Lovejoy and Freedom - Slavery and Murder - Governor Carlin - Prairie Pirates - Reign of Terror - Desperate Resolves and Desperate Deeds - Mormons and Mormon War, etc.

After the close of the Black Hawk war in 1832, the attention of immigrants began to be directed to the northern part of the State. Previous to the close of that crusade nearly the whole of the country north of Peoria, with the exception of the Fever river country around Galena, was an undisturbed wilderness waste, of which but little was known by white men. The result of that war removed all apprehensions of danger from Indians and opened the country to the peaceable possession of tillers of the soil and founders of towns and cities.

In 1833 settlers began to come in and make claims and improvements, and it was not long until signs of American civilization were to be seen all over the country. Chicago, until then scarcely more than a trading post, took on new life and rapidly grew into prominence as a commercial center. These settlers were nearly all from the Eastern States, and were widely different in their habits and customs from the people who settled the southern part of the State. As the latter established southern habits and customs in that section of the commonwealth, so did the New Englanders fix their habits and customs in the northern part of the State. These differences are as plainly visible in the character of houses and farm buildings and in the management of farms, as in the social customs and habits of life. In short, there is about the same relative difference between the people of these two sections of the State, as there is between the people of South Carolina and Massachusetts. But all have proved themselves good citizens in every

158

GENERAL HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

sense, and these differences have no doubt benefited each other, as well as the State in which they live.

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.

At the general election in 1834 Joseph Duncan was chosen Governor. His prin- cipal opponent was Ex-Lieutenant Governor Kinney. A reckless desire for internal public improvements had seized the minds of the people, and in his message to the Legislature in 1835, Governor Dunean said : " When we look abroad and see the exten- sive lines of inter-communication penetrating almost every section of our sister States : when we see the canal boat and the locomotive bearing with seeming triumph the rich productions of the interior to the rivers, lakes and ocean, almost annihilating time, burthen and space, what patriot bosom does not beat high with a laudable ambition to give Illinois her full share of these advantages which are adorning her sister States, and which a munificent Providence seems to invite by a wonderful adaptation of our whole country to such improvements ?"

The Legislature responded to the ardent words of the Governor. and enacted a sys- tem of internal improvements without a parallel in the grandeur of its conception. They ordered the construction of 1,300 miles of railroad, crossing the State in all directions. This was surpassed by the river and canal improvements. There were a few counties not touched by railroad, or river or canal, and they were to be comforted and compen- sated by the free distribution of 8200,000 among them. To inflate this balloon beyond eredence, it was ordered that work should commence on both ends of each of these rail- roads and rivers, and at each river-crossing, all at the same time. This provision, which has been called the crowning folly of the entire system, was the result of those jealous combinations emanating from the fear that advantages might accrue to one seetion over another in the commencement and completion of the works. One can appreciate better, perhaps, the magnitude of this grand system by reviewing a few figures. The debt au- thorized for these improvements in the first instance was $10,230,000. But this, as it was soon found, was based upon estimates at least too low by half. This, as we readily see, committed the State to a liability of over §20,000,000, equivalent to $200,000,000. at the present time, with over ten times the population and more than ten times the wealth.

Such stupendous undertakings by the State naturally engendered the fever of spec- ulation among individuals. That particular form known as the town-lot fever assumed the malignant type at first in Chicago, from whence it spread over the entire State and adjoining States. It was an epidemie. It eut up men's farms without regard to locality, and eut up the purses of the purchasers without regard to consequences. It was esti- mated that building lots enough were sold in Indiana alone to accommodate every citizen then in the United States.

Chicago, which in 1830 was a small trading-post, had within a few years grown into a city. This was the starting point of the wonderful and marvelous career of that com- mercial center. Improvements, unsurpassed by individual efforts in the annals of the world, were then begun and have been maintained to this day. Reports of the rapid advance of property in Chicago spread to the East, and thousands poured into her borders, bringing money, enterprise and industry. Every ship that left her port carried with it maps of splendidly situated towns and additions, and every vessel that returned was laden with immigrants. It was said at the time that the staple articles of Illinois export were town plats, and that there was danger of crowding the State with towns to the exclusion of land for agriculture.

ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL.

The Illinois and Michigan canal again received attention. This enterprise is one of

159

GENERAL HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

the most important in the early development of Illinois, on account of its magnitude and cost, and forming as it does the connecting link between the great chain of lakes and the Illinois and Mississippi rivers. Governor Bond, the first governor, recommended in his first message the building of the canal. In 1821 the Legislature appropriated $10,000 for surveying the route. This work was performed by two young men, who estimated the cost at $600,000 or $700,000. It cost, however, when completed, $8,000,000. In 1825 a law was passed to incorporate the Canal Company, but no stock was sold. In 1826, upon the solicitation of Daniel P. Cook, Congressman from this State, Congress gave 800,000 acres of land on the line of the work. In 1828 commissioners were ap- pointed, and work commenced with a new survey and new estimates. In 1834-5 the work was again pushed forward, and continued until 1848, when it was completed.

PANIC - REPUDIATION ADVOCATED.

Bonds of the State were recklessly disposed of both in the East and in Europe. Work was commenced on various lines of railroad, but none were ever completed. On the Northern Cross Railroad, from Meredosia east eight miles, the first locomotive that ever turned a wheel in the great valley of the Mississippi, was run. The date of this re- markable event was November 8, 1838. Large sums of money were being expended with no assurance of a revenue, and consequently, in 1840, the Legislature repealed the improvement laws passed three years previously, not, however, until the State had accu- mulated a debt of nearly $15,000,000. Thus fell, after a short but eventful life, by the hands of its creator, the most stupendous, extravagant and almost ruinous folly of a grand system of internal improvements that any civil community, perhaps, ever engaged in. The State banks failed, specie was scarce, an enormous debt had been piled up, the in- terest of which could not be paid, people were disappointed in the accumulation of wealth, and real estate was worthless. All this had a tendency to create a desire to throw off the heavy burden of State debt by repudiation. This was holdly advocated by some leading men. The fair fame and name, however, of the State was not tarnished by repudiation. Men, true, honest, and able, were placed at the head of affairs ; and though the hours were dark and gloomy, and the times most trying, yet the grand Prairie State was brought through and prospered, until to-day, after the expenditure of millions for public improvements and for carrying on the late war, she has a present debt of only about $300,000.

MARTYR FOR LIBERTY.

The year 1837 is memorable for the death of the first martyr for liberty, and the abolishment of American slavery, in the State. Elijah P. Lovejoy was shot by a mob in Alton, on the night of the 7th of November of that year. He was at the time editor of the Alton Observer, and advocated anti-slavery principles in its columns. For this prac- tice three of his presses had been destroyed. On the arrival of the fourth, the tragedy occurred which cost him his life. In anticipation of its arrival a series of meetings were held in which the friends of freedom and of slavery were represented. The object was to effect a compromise, but it was one in which liberty was asked to make concessions to oppression. In a speech made at one of these meetings, Lovejoy said : "Mr. Chairman, what have I to compromise ? If freely to forgive those who have so greatly injured me ; if to pray for their temporal and eternal happiness; if still to wish for the prosperity of your city and State, notwithstanding the indignities I have suffered in them - if this be the compromise intended, then do I willingly make it. I do not admit that it is the busi- ness of any body of men to say whether I shall or shall not publish a paper in this city. Thatright was given to me by my Creator, and is solemnly guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States and of this State. But if by compromise is meant that I shall cease from that which duty requires of me, I can not make it, and the reason is, that I fear God

160

GENERAL HISTORY OF ILLINOIS

more than man. It is also a very different question, whether I shall, voluntarily or at the request of my friends, yield up my position, or whether I shall forsake it at the hands of a mob. The former I am ready at all times to do when circumstances require it, as I will never put my personal wishes or interests in competition with the cause of that Master whose minister I am. But the latter. be assured I never will do. You have, as lawyers say, made a false issue. There are no two parties between whom there can be a compromisc. I plant myself down on my unquestionable rights, and the question to be decided is, whether I shall be protected in those rights. You may hang me, as the mob, hung the individuals at Vicksburg : you may burn me at the stake, as they did old Melu- tosh at St. Louis : or, you may tar and feather me. or throw me into the Mississippi as you have threatened to do; but you can not disgrace me. I, and I alone, can disgrace myself, and the deepest of all disgrace would be at a time like this to deny my Maker by forsaking his cause. He died for me, and I were most unworthy to bear His name should I refuse. if need be, to die for Him." Not long afterward Mr. Lovejoy was shot. His brother Owen, being present on the occasion, kneeled down on the spot beside the corpse. and sent up to God, in the hearing of that very mob. one of the most cloquent prayers ever listened to by mortal car. He was bold enough to pray to God to take signal ven- geanee on the infernal institution of slavery, and he then and there dedicated his life to the work of overthrowing it, and hoped to see the day when slavery existed no more in this nation. He dicd, March 24, 1864, nearly three months after the Emancipation Pro- clamation of President Lincoln took effect. Thus he lived to see his most earnest and devout praver answered. But few men in the nation rendered better service in over- throwing the institution of slavery than Elijah l'. and Owen Lovejoy.

CARLIN ELECTED GOVERNOR.

Thomas Carlin, Democrat, was elected Governor in 1838. over Cyrus Edwards, Whig. In 1842 Adam W. Snyder was nominated for Governor on the Democratie tieket. but died before election. Thomas Ford was placed in nomination, and was elected, ex- Governor Duncan being his opponent.

PRAIRIE PIRATES.

The northern part of the State also had its mob experiences, but of an entirely dif- ferent nature from the one just recounted. There has always hovered around the frontier of civilization bold, desperate men, who prey upon the unprotected settlers rather than gain a livelihood by honest toil. Theft, robbery and murder were carried on by regularly organized bands in Ogle, Lec, Winnebago and DeKalb counties. The leaders of these gangs of eut-throats were among the first settlers of that portion of the State, and eonse- quently had the choice of location. Among the most prominent of the leaders were John Driscoll, William and David, his sons : John Brodie and three of his sons ; Samuel Aikens and three of his sons ; William K. Bridge and Norton B. Royce.

These were the representative characters, those who planned and controlled the movements of the combination, concealed them when danger threatened, nursed them when sick, rested them when worn down by fatigue and foreed marches, furnished hid- ing places for their stolen booty, shared in the spoils, and, under cover of darkness and intricate and devious ways of travel, known only to themselves and subordinates, trans- ferred stolen horses from station to station : for it came to be known as a well-established fact that they had stations, and agents, and watchmen scattered throughont the country at convenient distances, and signals and pass-words to assist and govern them in all their nefarious transactions.

Ogle county, particularly, seemed to be a favorite and chosen field for the operations of these outlaws, who could not be convicted for their crimes. By getting some of their number on the juries, by producing hosts of witnesses to sustain their defense by

161

GENERAL HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

perjured evidence, and by changing the venne from one county to another, and by con- tinuances from term to term, they nearly always managed to be acquitted. At last these depredations became too common for longer endurance ; patience ceased to be a virtuc, and determined desperation seized the minds of honest men, and they resolved that if there were no statute laws that could protect them against the ravages of thieves, rob- bers and counterfeiters, they would protect themselves. It was a daring resolve, and bloodily executed.

BURNING OF OGLE COUNTY COURT-HOUSE.

At the Spring term of court, 1841, seven of the " Pirates of the Prairie," as they were called, were confined in the Ogle county jail to await trial. Preparatory to hold- ing court, the judge and lawyers assembled at Oregon in their new court-house, which had just been completed. Near it stood the county jail in which were the prisoners. The " Pirates " assembled Sunday night and set the court-house on fire, in the hope that as the prisoners would have to be removed from the jail, they might, in the hurry and confusion of the people in attending to the fire, make their escape. The whole popula-

tion were awakened that dark and stormy night, to see their new court edifice enwrapped in flames. Although the building was entirely consumed, none of the prisoners escaped. Three of them were tried, convicted and sent to the penitentiary for one year. They had, however, contrived to get one of their number on the jury, who would not agree to a verdict until threatened to be lynched. The others obtained a change of venue and were not convicted, and finally they all broke jail and escaped.

Thus it was that the law was inadequate to the protection of the people. The best citizens held a meeting at White Rock and entered into a solemn compact with each other to rid the country of the desperadoes that infested it. They were regularly organ- ized and known as " Regulators." They resolved to notify all suspected parties to leave the country within a given time ; that if they did not comply, they would be severely dealt with. Their first victim was a man named Hurl, who was suspected of having stolen his neighbor's horse. He was ordered to strip, his hands were tied, when thirty- six lashes of a raw-hide were applied to his bare back, the blood following each stroke. " He stood the ordeal," said an eye witness, " without flinching, and when the terrible work was ended, he remarked, 'Now, as your rage is satisfied, and to prove that I am an honest man, I will join your company.' " He became a member of the regulators, although it was almost certainly known that before this castigation his life had not been one of irreproachable honesty.

The next victim was a man named Daggett, formerly a Baptist preacher. He was sentenced to receive five hundred lashes on his bare back. He was stripped, and all was ready, when his beautiful daughter, aged about sixteen years, rushed into the midst of the men, begging for mercy for her father. Her appeals, with Daggett's promise to leave the country immediately, secured his release. That night, new crimes having been discovered, lie was taken out and whipped, after which he left the country, never again to be heard from.

The friends and comrades of the men who had been whipped were fearfully enraged, and swore eternal and bloody vengeance. Eighty of thein assembled one night soon after, and laid plans to visit White Rock and murder every man, woman and child in that hamlet. They started on this bloody mission, but were prevailed upon by one of their number, whom they met on the way, to disband. Their coming, however, had been anticipated, and every man and boy in the town was armed to protect himself and his family.

MURDER OF JOHN CAMPBELL -THE MURDERERS SHOT.

John Campbell, captain of the " Regulators," received a letter from William Driscoll, filled with most direful threats - not only threatening Campbell's life, but the life of any

162

GENERAL HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

one who should oppose their murderous, thieving operations. Soon after the receipt of this letter, two hundred of the " Regulators " marched to Driscoll's and ordered him to leave the country within twenty days, but he refused to comply with the order. One Sunday evening, just after this, Campbell was shot down in his own door-yard by David Driscoll. After the shooting the murderers turned and started in a southeast direction, and, when they had gone a short distance, and while Mrs. Campbell was standing over her lifeless husband, Taylor Driscoll, who accompanied David on his murderous mission, turned and aimed his rifle at the grief-stricken woman, but lowered it without firing.

News of this terrible crime spread like wild-fire. The very air was filled with threats and vengeance, and nothing but the lives of the murderous gang would pay the penalty. Old John Driscoll was arrested at his home, was told to bid his family good- bye, and then, with his son, went out to his death. The " Regulators," numbering 111, formed a large eirele, and gave the Driscolls a fair hearing. They were found guilty and senteneed to be hanged. The condemned men begged that the death sentence be changed - that they might be shot to death instead of " hanged like dogs." Their re- quest was granted. and the Regulators were divided into two death divisions - one, con- sisting of fifty-six. and the other of fifty-five. The first division was detailed to the exe- cution of the old man, and the other to the execution of William. The old man was led forth first ; his eyes were bandaged and he was made to kneel upon the earth facing his executioners. The signal to fire was given, and he fell to the earth riddled and shattered to pieces with the charges of fifty-six rifles.

William's fate eame next. In the last hour of his extremity, abject fear overcame his former boldness, and his hair turned almost white. In a semi-conscious condition, he was led forth and made to kneel near his father's lifeless body, when the discharge from the other fifty-five rifles found his life, and his body fell bleeding and quivering by the side of his father.

The measures thus inaugurated and carried out freed the country from the domina- tion of outlaws, and rendered secure the lives and property of the honest settlers. But it was a dire result.

THE MORMON WAR.

In April. 1810, the " Latter-Day Saints," or Mormons, came to Illinois in large num- bers, and settled at what had formerly been known as Point Commerce, but which they afterwards called Nauvoo, in Hancock county. They were induced to come there by the presentation to Joe Smith, the Prophet, of a large traet of land, by Dr. I. Galland, an early settler of Lee county, Iowa. A more picturesque or beautiful site for a city could not have been selected. Dr. Galland owned large tracts of other lands in the vicinity, and although he professed a belief in Mormonism, there is no doubt that his objeet in giving land to the Church of Mormon, was more with a view of benefiting himself in the end, than the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, for he was a shrewd, far seeing man.

In April, 1840, the " Latter-Day Saints," or Mormons, came in large numbers to Illinois and purchased a traet of land on the east side of the Mississippi river, about ten miles above Keokuk. Here they commenced building the city of Nauvoo. A more picturesque or eligible site for a city could not have been selected.

The origin, rapid development and prosperity of this religious seet are the most remarkable and instructive historical events of the present century. That an obscure individual, without money, education, or respectability, should persuade hundreds of thousands of people to believe him inspired of God, and cause a book, contemptible as a literary production, to be received as a continuation of the sacred revelation, appears

163

GENERAL HISTORY OF ILLINOIS.

almost incredible ; yet in less than half a century, the disciples of this illiterate enthusiast have increased to hundreds of thousands ; have founded a State in the distant wilderness, and compelled the Government of the United States to practically recognize them as an independent people.

THE FOUNDER OF MORMONISM.

The founder of Mormonism was Joseph Smith, a native of Vermont, who immigrated while quite young with his father's family to western New York. Here his youth was spent in idle, vagabond life, roaming the woods, dreaming of buried treasures, and in en- deavoring to learn the art of finding them by the twisting of a forked stick in his hands, or by looking through enchanted stones. Both he and his father became famous as " water wizards," always ready to point out the spot where wells might be dug and water found. Such was the character of the young profligate when he made the acquaintance of Sidney Rigdon, a person of considerable talent and information, who had conceived the design of founding a new religion. A religious romance, written by Mr. Spaulding, a Presbyterian preacher of Ohio, then dead, suggested the idea, and finding in Smith the requisite duplicity and cunning to reduce it to practice, it was agreed that he should act as prophet ; and the two devised a story that gold plates had been found buried in the earth containing a record inscribed on them in unknown characters, which, when deciphered by the power of inspiration, gave the history of the ten lost tribes of Israel.

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.

The History of Peoria County, Illinois. Containing a history of the Northwest-history of Illinois-history of the county, its early settlement, growth, development, resources, etc., etc., Part 24

Author: Johnson & co., Chicago, pub Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Chicago : Johnson & Company Number of Pages: 932

Author: Johnson & co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Chicago : Johnson & Company
Number of Pages: 932