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 44
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101 | Part 102 | Part 103 | Part 104 | Part 105 | Part 106 | Part 107 | Part 108 | Part 109 | Part 110 | Part 111 | Part 112 | Part 113 | Part 114 | Part 115 | Part 116 | Part 117 | Part 118 | Part 119 | Part 120 | Part 121 | Part 122 | Part 123 | Part 124 | Part 125 | Part 126 | Part 127 | Part 128 | Part 129 | Part 130 | Part 131 | Part 132 | Part 133 | Part 134 | Part 135 | Part 136 | Part 137 | Part 138 | Part 139 | Part 140 | Part 141 | Part 142 | Part 143 | Part 144 | Part 145 | Part 146 | Part 147 | Part 148 | Part 149 | Part 150
Of the butterflies and moths may be named as the most showy : Papilio Turnus and its variety glauens, Troilus, Asterias, Philenor, Thoas, Ajax, Callidryas, Marcellina, Colias, Casonia, C'. Edusa, C. Philodice, Terias Lisa, T. mesicana ( properly a straggler from the South), Danais Archippus, Argyunis Cybele, A. columbina, A. myrina, Melitara Photon, MI. Asmerca, MI. Tharos, Grapta interrogationis, Vanessa T-album, V. Antiopa, Pyrameis Atalanta, P. cardui. P. huntera, lunonia conia, Libythea Bachmani, Nymphalis ursula, N. Dissippus, Apatura Celtis. Deilephila lineata, Darapsa myron, Chorocampa tersa, Philampetus satellitia, P. Achemon, Macrosila carolina, M. quinquemamlata, Sphinx Kalmir, Ancerys ello, C'eratomia quadricornis, C. repentinus, Smerinthus myops, S. csouca- tus, S. modestus. S. geminatus, Saturnia So, S. Maja, Attams Europia, A. Promethe, A. Luna, A. Polyphernus, C'eratocampa regatis, C. imperialis, and many smaller moths.
Amply represented are the mollusks by the genus Unis in the Illinois river : U. alatus, gracilis, plicatus, multiplicatus, harrymosus, cornutus, tuberculatus, elegans, securis, occideno, luteolux, crassus, gibbosus, wardii, donaciformis, triangularis, rerrucoxus, anadon- toides, ellipsis, coccineus, pustulosus, trigonus, zigzag, Margaritana confragosa and Anodonta grandis.
There are land and water snails of the genera Helix, Succinca, Pupa, Planorbis, Physa, Lymnaa, Paludina, Melania.
To follow further down the lower organizations of animal life would not be in the compass of this work.
301
HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY.
CHAPTER VIII.
POLITICAL ECONOMY.
Counties and County Commissioners - Origin of the System - Towns and Town Supervisors -Origin of the Sys- tem - First Session of the County Commissioner's Court -Starting the County Government - First Road View - Dram Shops - Ferries and Ferry License - First Jurymen - North and South Roads - Election Pre- cincts - First County Exhibit - First Assessment - Taxes and Tax Payers in 1825.
COUNTIES AND COUNTY COMMISSIONERS.
The present system of County management is so different from that practiced when the County was first organized and until 1850, that a paragraph in explanation is neces- sary. Management by three men, styled the Board of County Commissioners, or County Commissioners Court, is of Southern origin and practice, while the present system by a Board of Supervisors, consisting of one member from each township and division of cities, is of Eastern or New England origin.
County organization originated with Virginia, whose early settlers soon became large landed proprietors, and aristocratic in feeling. In consequence of their large landed interests, they lived apart in almost baronial magnificence on their own estates, and owned the laboring population. Under these circumstances the materials for a town were not at hand, the voters being thinly scattered over a large area of country. County organizations, where a few influential men managed the whole business of the communi- ty, retaining their places almost at will, was in consonance with their recollections or traditions of the judicial and social dignities of the landed aristocracy of England, in de- scent from whom the Virginians felt so much pride. In 1634, eight counties were organ- ized in Virginia, and the system, extending throughout the State, spread into all the Southern States, and some of the Northern States, unless we except the nearly similar division into " districts " in South Carolina, and that into " parishes " in Louisiana, under French introduction.
Illinois, as already shown, became a County of Virginia on the conquest of the coun- try by Gen. Clark, and retained the County organization. The first settlement by Americans was by people from the Southern States, almost exclusively, who adhered to the customs and practices, social and political, of the States in which they had been born and educated. The men who framed the first Constitution all lived in the southern part of the State. There was not a man in the convention from any part of the commonwealth north of Madison and Crawford counties. The first Legislatures were also made up of men strictly Southern in sentiment, and it is not strange that they engrafted in the Con- stitution of 1818, and the early laws under it, features in consonance with their ideas of political economy and government. The County system continued in exclusive practice until 1848. Under it the local business was managed by three Commissioners in each County. who constituted a County Court, with quarterly sessions.
TOWNS AND TOWN SUPERVISORS- ORIGIN OF THE SYSTEM.
While the southern part of the State was settled by people from the Southern States, the northern and central parts were settled, in the main, by people of New Eng- land birth and character, who, like their southern neighbors, brought with them the cus- toms, political and otherwise, of the States in which they had grown to manhood. These customs were essentially different from those in practice in the south part of the State, and as the Eastern or New England population increased by imigation, their sentiments
302
HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY
and ideas of political economy grew more and more compact; and, consequently, dissat- isfied with what they regarded as an arbitrary and inefficient system of County manage- ment. It was maintained by this people that the heavily populated districts always con- trolled the election of the Commissioners to the disadvantage of the more thinly settled sections : in short, that under that system " equal and exact justice " to all parts of a county could not be secured. Under these influences the constitutional provision of 1848 and the subsequent law of 1849 were enacted, enabling the people to vote " for " or "against " adopting the township system. This law, if adopted, erected each township into a kind of independent municipality, and clothed them with the right to regulate their own domestic or internal affairs, and with the further right to be represented in a larger municipal body for the whole county, when the members from the several townships became a County Board of Supervisors. The question was submitted to the people at the elec- tion held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, 1849, and while uni- versally approved and adopted in counties where there were a majority of New England- ers and a preponderance of New England sentiment, the plan was unpopular, disapproved and rejected where there were a majority of Western and Southern voters. As a conse- quence both systems are in force in Illinois. Mr. Ballance, writing in 1870, said : " The new plan furnishing more offices than the other, which, to Americans, is an unanswera- ble argument in favor of any measure, the thing has been so managed that, in a little less than twenty-six years, sixty-six counties have come into the measure, leaving only thirty- six which still stand out and refuse to adopt the system." Peoria county was one of the first to adopt the system, and the records show that the first meeting of the Board of Supervisors was held on the 8th day of April, 1850.
The township plan originated in Massachusetts, and dates back to 1635. The first legal enactment concerning this system provided that, " Whereas, particular towns have many things which concern only themselves, and the ordering of their own affairs. and disposing of business in their own town," therefore the freemen of every town, or the major part of them, shall only have power to dispose of their own lands and woods, with all the appurtenances of said town, to grant lots, and to make such orders as may con- cern the well-ordering of their own towns, not repugnant to the laws and orders estab- lished by the General Court.
The New England colonies were first governed by a " General Court," or legislature, composed of a Governor and small council, which court consisted of the most influential inhabitants, and possessed and excercised both legis- lative aud judicial powers, which were limited only by the wisdom of the holders. They made laws, ordered their execution by officers, tried civil and criminal cases, enacted all manner of municipal regulations ; and, in fact, did all the public business of the colony in which they held.
" They might also," remarks Mr. Elijah M. Haines, in his Laws of Illinois, Rela- tive to Township Organization, "impose fines of not more than twenty shillings, and choose their own 'particular officers, as constables, surveyors for the highways and the like.' Evidently this enactment relieved the General Court of a mass of municipal de- tails, without any danger to the powers of that body in controlling general measures of public policy. Probably, also, a demand from the freemen of the towns was felt for the control of their own home concerns."
Similar provisions for the incorporttion of towns were made in the first constitution of Connecticut, adopted in 1639. The plan proved popular and became universal through- out New England, and came westward with the emigrants, to New York, Ohio and other Western States, including Northern Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota.
FIRST SESSION OF THE COUNTY COMMISSIONER'S COURT.
The first meeting of the Board of County Commissioner's Court was held on the eighth day of March, the next day after the election. [Here it is proper to remark that neither one of the three commissioners was chosen from Peoria county, as defined by the
303
HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY.
act under which it was organized, but from the territory attached for judicial purposes. Of the second Board only one, John Hamlin, was chosen from the county.]
There is nothing on record to show where the Commissioners met, but it is reason- able to presume it was at the house of William Eads. After being "duly qualified according to law," the Court was declared organized, and Peoria county, with two hun- dred dollars in the State treasury to draw on, was launched upon an independent county basis. The first business of the Court was the appointment of clerk, and it was
Ordered, That Norman Hyde be appointed Clerk of the County Commissioner's Court.
Mr. Hyde was " duly qualified, " and entered upon the duties of scribe. This re- cord, as are all the old records in the County Clerk's office, is in an excellent state of preservation, and has been carefully kept. It is a six quire volume, plain blue paper binding, a fair quality of paper for the times, but coarse as compared with the paper of modern manufacture. The record was commenced in a very plain hand, and is, in fact, a very handsomely kept transcript of the Court's proceedings. We copy :
Ordered, That Aaron Hawley be appointed Treasurer of Peoria County.
Ordered, That the County seal be called Peoria.
Ordered, That a court house be erected on some suitable site where the Commissioners shall designate, of the following dimensions to wit : Twenty feet square and nine feet from the floor to the joists, with a good plank or puncheon floor : said house to be built of good materials and in a workmanlike manner.
Ordered, That a Clerk's office be erected of the following dimensions, to wit : Fourteen feet square, with a good puncheon floor to be done in a good workmanlike manner and of good material.
Ordered, That the court house and clerk's office be let out to the highest (lowest ?) bidder, on Saturday, the twelfth day of March inst., at twelve o'clock a. m. The clerk's office to be erected by the 20th inst., and the court house by the 25th of May next.
Four days later these orders were revoked, and no court house was built until 1836 when the brick structure that preceded the present fine stone building was erected. Un- til that time the courts were held first, in a small log building, (the Ogee cabin) about sixteen by eighteen feet, that stood on or near the site occupied by the Fort Clark mill ; and afterwards when the population and attendance increased so that the "little old cabin " was too small, in an upper room of a stone building on Water street. The clerk's offices, in early times, were kept in the cabin residences, of the clerks. " When I came here " - in 1831-remarks Mr. Ballance, Isaac Waters was clerk of both Courts. He lived in a cabin made of small unhewn logs, daubed with common mud, not half large enough to accommodate his family, and yet he had no other place to keep the few books and papers belonging to the Courts. These he sometimes could not find, and was blamed when, perhaps, he deserved more to be pitied. After the present court house was built (the one recently torn down-Ed.) the clerks and sheriff were accommodated with rooms in the first story."
At the same session, the 8th of March, it was further
Ordered, That Robert Berrisford be appointed Constable.
Ordered. That Reuben Brattan and Seth Wilson be appointed Constables.
The Court then adjourned until the 12th, at 10 o'clock a.m. At this session only two of the Commissioners, Nathan Dillon and William Holland were present.
Ordered, That the Order of the eighth inst., for building a court house and clerk's office, be and the same is hereby revoked.
Ordered, That Abner Eads, Stephen French and Daniel Prince be and they are hereby appointed trustees of the sixteenth section, in township eight north, and range eight east, in the County of Peoria, said section being ap- propriated for the use of schools.
Ordered, That all property subject to a county tax be taxed one-half per cent. on the value of the same.
The Court then adjourned.
The next meeting was held on the 16th of April. Full Board present.
304
HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY.
FIRST GRAND JURORS.
Ordered, That the following persons be summoned by the Sheriff to be and appear as grand jurors at the next Circuit Court, to he held on the second Monday in June next, in and for the County of Peoria, to wit . William Eads, Abner Eads, Alva Moffatt, Elijah Hyde, Noah Beacham, senior, William Wright, John Ridgeway, Robert Berrisford, Josiah Fulton, Thomas Camlin, John Phillips, George Ish, David Mathews, Jacob Wilson, Elisha Fish. Isaac Perkins, Nathaniel Cromwell, Walter Dillon, William Davis, Alexander McNaughton, George Sharp, Austin Crocker, Augustus Langworthy, Allen Dougherty.
FIRST TRAVERSE JURORS.
It was further ordered, that the following persons be summoned as a traverse jury :
Stephen French, Joseph Ogee, Abner Cooper, George Love. Joseph O'Brien, Elias P. Avery, Thomas Dillon, Jesse Dillon, Seth Wilson, John Klein, George Klein, Stephen Carle and James Walker.
From some cause the June term of court, for which these jurors were drawn, was never held ; consequently they never qualified as jurors.
The Clerk was directed to furnish the sheriff with a list of the jurors, "according to ław." when it was further
Ordered, That Reuben Brattan, Absolom Dillon, Daniel Like and George Harlan be appointed constables for Peoria County.
An order was entered of record, recommending William Smith to the governor as a " suitable person to fill the office of Justice of the Peace in and for the County of Peoria."
An order relating to the county seat quarter was then made, when the court adjourned. At the June session it was
Ordered, That the following persons be summoned as traverse jurors, to be and appear at the next Circuit Court, to he held in and for the County of Peoria on the second Monday in June, inst., at 10 o'clock. A. M. : Horace Crocker, Noah Beacham, jr., Aquila Moffatt, Henry Neely, William Smith, Charles Love, John Sharp, William Barker, John Cooper, David Hlukey, Philip Latham.
John Dixon was recommended to the governor for appointment to the office of Jus- tice of the Peace.
Rivers Cormack was appointed to take the census of Peoria county.
FIRST FERRY UNDER AUTHORITY OF PEORIA COUNTY.
On the 7th of June it was
Ordered, That the ferry license granted by the County Commissioner's Court of Sangamon and Fulton counties to John 1 .. Bogardus, authorizing him to keep a ferry across the Illinois river opposite the town of Peoria, be entered on the records of this court.
Then follows the written authority of Sangamon and Fulton counties, duly signed by the proper officers. The Sangamon county " order " is certified to be correct by .. C. R. Matheny, C. C., by E. Wright, Dept. Clk," and the Fulton county " order " is certi- fied to be correet by "John Dewey, Clerk, etc." The Peoria commissioners ordered that the rates of ferriage as established by Sangamon and Fulton counties be adopted.
These rates were as follows :
For each man and horse. tsk' cents. .. foot person . 12 % ..
= Dearborn sulky or chair . 50
= wagon or other four-wheeled carriage, with horses or oxen 37 12
.4
cart with two oxen 3712
every head of neal caltle, horses or mules. 1215 ..
..
.. each hog, sheep or goal ..
4
every hundredweight of goods, wares or merchandise. 1232
.. bushel of wheat, or other article sold by the bushel
305
HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY.
And all other articles not enumerated in the list, in equal and just proportions. And when the lake or river is over its banks, at the first material bend of the creek from its mouth, when a landing can not be had at that place, double these rates.
FIRST ROAD VIEW.
Ordered, That the petitition of sundry inhabitants of the county of Peoria praying for the appointment of viewers to view a road leading from the ferry landing opposite the village of Peoria to the old crossing on Sugar creek, near Robert Musick's, be granted, agreeable to the prayer of said petitioners ; and that Samuel Fulton, Alexander McNaughton, and Norman Hyde, be appointed viewers.
FIRST COUNTY ALLOWANCE.
Ordered, That Aaron Hawley be allowed forty-one dollars in paper of the State Bank of Illinois for services rendered the county, and that the treasurer pay the same.
DRAM SHOP LICENSE AND PRICES.
John Barker, on the 8th of June, was authorized to keep a dram shop in the town of Peoria, and that the clerk grant him a license, and take his bond according to law, upon his paying ten dollars in paper of the State Bank of Illinois for the use of the county, and one dollar for clerk's fees. It was further
Ordered, That the said Barker be allowed to charge according to the following rates, to-wit :
For each half pint of wine, rum or brandy.
25 cents.
44
44 pint of wine, rum or brandy
371/2
$4
half pint of gin. 1834
pint of gin 311/ 44
61/
..
pint of whisky
1834
4 4
= breakfast, dinner or supper
183/
horsefeed
1212
keeping horse over night
25
€ 4
" night's lodging for one person.
1212
MISCELLANEOUS.
Joseph Ogee was allowed one dollar in specie, or its equivalent in State paper, for the use of his house for holding this term of court.
Norman Hyde tendered his resignation as clerk of the Commissioner's Court on the 8th, which was accepted, and John Dixon was appointed to fill the vacancy.
Peter DuMont was allowed one dollar for his services as clerk of the election in March.
Ordered, That the Circuit Court be held in the house of Joseph Ogee, below the ferry landing.
Norman Hyde was allowed twelve dollars and fifty cents for services as clerk of the court.
July 16th John L. Bogardus was appointed to take the census of the county vice Rivers Cormack, who declined the appointment previously tendered.
Hiram M. Curry was appointed Constable. In some places the name of Hiram McCurry appears in the records, but the representative of this name is identical with Hiram M. Curry.
June 8th, the court being in session, an order was entered appointing John L. Bo- gardns assessor, providing the " Judge of the Circuit Court should give his opinion that the assessment previously made was not valid." At this session the appointment of Mr. Bogardus was confirmed, from which it would seem the Circuit Judge had rendered the opinion that the previous assessment referred to was not valid. The assessment was ordered to commence at once.
Cornelius Brown was licensed to keep a dram shop in the village of Peoria, upon the same terms and was allowed the same rates as Mr. Barker, previously licensed.
Aaron Hawley and John L. Bogardus were recommended to the Governor as suita- ble persons for appointment to the office of Justices of the Peace.
.. one gill of whisky
half pint of whisky
1212
306
HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY.
Frederick H. Countryman and Elijah Hyde were appointed Constables.
The Commissioners now reconsidered their first order relating to tax levy and increased the rate from one-half of one per cent. to one per cent.
Ordered, That the Sheriff of Peoria county be authorized to draw and receive out of the treasury of the State of Illinois the sum of two hundred dollars, being the proportion of non-resident land tax allowed said county by the act entitled " An act for forming a new county out of the county land in the vicinity of Fort Clark, approved Jan- uary 13. 1825."
Then follows this entry: " Be it remembered that on this 16th day of July, 1825. John Dixon, Esq., appeared in open court and took the oath of office as a justice of the peace in and for Peoria county ; also the oath to support the Constitution of the United States and of this State, and the oath prescribed in the act entitled . An Act to Suppress Dueling,' approved February 22, 1819."
MORE JURYMEN.
The next session of the court was held in September, when the following persons were ordered to be summoned as grand jurymen for the next term of the Circuit Court, which was set for the second Monday in November: Stephen French, Abner Cooper, George Love, Joseph O'Brian, Elias P. Avery, Thomas Dillon, John Dillon, Seth Wilson, John Kline, George Kline, John Hamlin, Archibald Allen, Nathaniel Cromwell. Isaac Perkins, James Latta, Henry Thomas, George Harlan, Isaac Waters, Augustus Long- worthy, George Sharp, William Holland, Joseph Smith, John Phillips, Major Donahoe.
None of these representatives of the olden time are known to the people of Peoria county in 1880. If any of them are living, no one here knows where. It is fair to pre- sume that all of them have been gathered to the home of their fathers.
PETIT JURORS.
Austin Crocker, William Clark, Stephen Carroll, Joseph Ogee. William Blanchard, Elijah Fish, David Matthews, William E. Phillips, George Ish, Josiah Fulton, Jacob Funk, Isaac Funk, Hugh Montgomery, Alexander MeNaughton, Allen Dougherty, Nathan Dillon, Walter Dillon, William Davis, William Woodrow, John Somers, Elijah Hyde, Alva Moffatt, William Eads, and Seth Fulton, were ordered to be summoned as petit jurors.
Of these jurors, Jacob Funk was subsequently killed by a merchant of Pekin, Taze- well county, at Coalville, just across the river from Peoria, about 1830 or 1831. He was owing a debt to the merchant, about which there had been several quarrels. The mer- chant had brought suit and obtained judgment. He waited patiently and often asked Funk to pay the judgment, receiving insolent replies. At last the merchant's patience became exhausted, and he registered an oath that he would colleet the debt. The mer- chant ordered an exeeution, and the sheriff, being partially crippled, and Funk a sort of bully, a posse of men was summoned to necompany the sheriff to make the levy, the mer- chant among them. Funk was a blacksmith, and when the sheriff and his party arrived at his shop, they found it barrieaded and Funk ready to receive them. After some manenvering Funk came out from behind the barricade, and in the melee which followed the sheriff was pushed over or knocked down by Funk, when he was shot and killed by the merchant. Funk was related to the great Illinois farmers of that name.
A few years ago MeNaughton was reported to be living in Henry county, a hale, healthy old man, surrounded by all the comforts of life.
NORTH AND SOUTH ROADS.
September 6. James Barns, James Latta and William Clark were appointed to view the road leading from Peorin to the south line of the county ; and Stephen French, Elias P. Avery and Henry Thomas were appointed to view the road lending from Peoria to the
307
HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY.
north boundary of the county. At a session of the court, on the sixth of December, these viewers submitted favorable reports, which were accepted, and the roads were or- dered to be opened.
Ordered, That William Holland shall receive four dollars in specie, or its equivalent in State bank paper, for running, or causing to be run, the exterior lines of the town of Peoria, and making a plat of the same, and the treasu- rer is hereby required to pay the same.
ROAD DISTRICTS.
At this session of the court, there road districts were established with the following boundaries :
First District. - Beginning on the bank of Peoria Lake, between townships eight and nine north, thence west on the line between said townships to the west line of the county ; thence north with said line to the northern boundary of the county ; thence east with said boundary line to the Illinois river ; thence down the same to the place of beginning.
Stephen French was appointed supervisor of this district.
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.