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 49

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 49

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"State of Illinois, Peoria Circuit Court, November Term, Eighteen Hundred and Twenty- five : We, the traverse jury in and for the county aforesaid, do find No-ma-que, an Indian of the Pottawatomie tribe, guilty of the murder of Pierre Landre. Austin Crocker. Allen S. Daugherty, Alexander McNaughton, Nathan Dillon, Henry Neely. William Woodrow, Peter Du Mont, Aaron Reed, Abram Galentine, Josiah Fulton, Cornelius Doty, David Mathews. November 17, 1825."

A motion for a new trial was made and overruled. Counsel for defendant also moved for arrest of judgment, which motion was also overruled, and No-ma-que was called for sentence. The sentence of the court was that No-ma-que should be held by the sheriff until the third Saturday in January, 1826, and that on that day he should be taken by the sheriff to some convenient place and there hung by the neck until he was dead.

Hamilton carried the case to the Supreme Court, secured a hearing, and on the 25th day of December, 1825, that court reversed the decision of the court below, but ordered No-ma-que to be held for thirty days, to enable the local authorities to take measures to again bring him to trial. He was held as a prisoner, part of the time under guard, a part of the time confined in jail at Edwardsville, and a part of the time he was permitted to go at large on his own recognizance, until the October term. 1826, when he was again indicted and called for trial. His counsel moved that the indictment be quashed on the ground that he had been once convicted of the offense charged. The defendant then raised the question of jurisdiction, to which the attorney for the people demurred. The demurrer was sustained by the court, to which defendant's counsel excepted, and the case was again certified to the Supreme Court. From that time forward until the May term of the court, 1828, No-mna-que roamed at will, without hindrance.

A chapter in Droun's Peoria Directory, 1844, written by "J. H., Esq." (John Ham- lin), gives the following sketch of the court in 1826 :

" In the year 1826 I lived three miles from Mackinaw, on the Peoria and Springfield road, in what is now Tazewell county, but then attached to Peoria, and being twenty- one years of age that year, I was summoned on the grand jury. There were not enough adults then in Peoria county proper to form the grand and petit juries, and hence they were summoned from the attached portion. All the grand jury but two were from the cast. side of the Illinois river, and were chiefly my neighbors. We took our provisions and bedding, the latter being a blanket orquilt for each. It was also the practice in those days to take along a flagon of liquor, and the custom was not omitted on this occasion. In truth, so faithfully was the flagon put under requisition, that but two of our number were sober when we appeared in court to receive the judge's charge. Judge Sawyer was the pre-

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HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY.

siding judge, James Turney the prosecuting attorney, and Messrs. Cavarly, Pugh, Bogar- dus and Turney the entire bar.

"There were only about eight bills of indictment found by the grand jury - one of these was against an Indian named No-ma-que, for murder. He had been tried the Fall before, but obtaining a new trial he was indicted again at this term. There being no secure jail, the sheriff (Samuel Fulton) kept him under guard at the house of a Mr. Allen. One night about a dozen drunken Indians met to rescue him, and attempted to enter the door for that purpose. Allen sprang out of a back window, and, seizing a clapboard, rushed around to the front of the house and laid about him with great fury. He felled four of the Indians to the ground before they could recover from their consternation, when the others retreated. Allen followed close on the heels of the hindmost and belabored him without mercy until he begged for quarters, crying, 'Stop, white man ! Stop, white man ! Stop !' Felling him, also, the five laid until morning, when they were able to crawl off. *

" The court-house was a log building on the bank of the river, in which the jurors slept on their blankets on the floor. There was a tavern kept by Mr. Bogardus, but it was not large enough to furnish sleeping accommodations for them. The grand jury room was a lumber cabin, in which Bogardus kept saddles and other cattle fixings."

THE LAST OF NO-MA-QUE.

At the May term, 1828, on motion of the attorney for the people, the No-ma-que mur- der case was struck from the docket, and the red murderer left the country. When Black Hawk invaded Illinois in 1832, No-ma-que was present with him at Stillman's Run, and was badly wounded. He was found in that condition lying in the way of some of the Peoria men, who humanely shot him to death to end his misery.

THE COURT-HOUSE AND COURT IN 1833-4- RESIDENT LAWYERS.

Droun's Peoria Directory (1844) has another article, written by " I. U., Esq." (Isaac Underhill), from which the following extracts are selected :

" I first landed on the shore of Peoria Lake on Christmas day, 1833, and took lodg- ings with our worthy townsman, A. O. Garrett, who then kept the ' Peoria Hotel,' in a small two-story wooden building at the corner of Main and Washington streets.

" The only building west of the hotel at that time was a barn a short distance up Main street. The entire town consisted of but seven frame houses and a few log tene- ments. Being favorably impressed with its future prospects, its beautiful site, and the magnificent lake, I determined to make it my future residence. Mr. Aquilla Wren was at that time one of the County Commissioners for Peoria county, of whom I purchased several lots on Washington street, at forty dollars each. The day following I left in the steamboat Peoria for the South.

"In a few months I returned again to Peoria. During my absence expensive prepa- rations had been muade for building, and before the first of September about forty houses and stores were erected.

"Judge Young was the presiding judge at that time, and held the Circuit Court in a small building, fourteen feet square, on the river bank. *

* * The grand * jury sat under the shade of a crab-apple tree, and the petit jury deliberated in an old French cellar (sometimes humorously called a potato hole - Ed.), partially filled up and surrounded with a growth of rank high weeds and grass. * The * * venerable Isaac Waters was clerk of the court. His office and dwelling were in a small log cabin, where now (1844) stands the plow works of Tobey & Anderson. The old

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HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY.

gentleman used to carry the seal of the Court in his pocket, and on one occasion, by mis- take, offered it to the post-master in payment of postage.

" The only practicing members of the bar that resided here at that time were the Hon. Lewis Bigelow and Charles Ballance. The former was an eminent jurist and pro- found scholar. I was informed that he wrote a digest of the laws of Massachusetts, a valuable work of upwards of eight hundred pages, with one quill. He died here in 1838. William Frisby, a member of the bar of much promise, arrived here in 1834. By his in- defatigable studies he was fast reaching the topmost round of the ladder of his profession, when he died in 1842, lamented by a large circle of friends and acquaintances.'

THE OLD CIRCUIT - JUDGES YOUNG AND FORD.

In 1-32 and 1833, the judicial district of which l'eoria formed a part was composed of what are now the counties of Pike, Adams, Brown, Schuyler, Fulton, McDonough, Hancock, Henderson, Warren, Knox, Marshall, Stark, Henry, Mercer, Rock Island, Put- nam, Bureau. LaSalle, DeKalb, Lee, Whiteside, Carroll, Jo Daviess, Stephenson, Winne- bago, Ogle, Boone, McHenry, Lake, Cook, DuPage. Kane, Grundy. Will and Peoria." In those days there were but few white men in all the region of country, and but few roads or bridges, and no public conveyances of any kind. Judges and lawyers traveled on horse-back from county seat to county seat. In some instances they traveled in squads and camped or lodged wherever night overtook them. And jolly squads they were ! Places of entertainment along the trails of travel from court to court were few, as well as poor in accommodations. Sometimes judges, lawyers and families where they stopped to remain over night, all slept in one room, which served as well for kitchen, dining room, parlor, sitting room, etc. Songs, jokes, stories. and tricks played on each other, were the amusements of the night. And the old-time lawyers and judges made a humorous combination, about which many amusing anecdotes might be written. Their like the country will never know again.

Judge Samuel D. Lockwood succeeded Judge Sawyer, and presided at the May term, 1827, and in June, 1829, Richard M. Young came to succeed Judge Lockwood. "The most essential requisites for a good judge in those days," wrote Mr. Ballance, " was to own a good horse and to know how to ride him. These two requisites Judge Young possessed in a high degree. He was a fine looking, complaisant Kentuckian, who did not possess much legal learning, but did own a fine, high-blooded Kentucky horse, and knew well how to ride him.

" In May, 1833, Judge Young made his appearance in the village of Peoria, and an- nounced that he was on his way to Chicago to hold court. He had traveled one hundred and thirty miles from Quiney, where he lived, and to reach Chicago, as the trail then ran, had not less than one hundred and seventy miles more to travel to reach the county seat of Cook, making in all three hundred miles he had to travel to hold a three days court."

Mr. Ballance desired to accompany Judge Young to Chicago, partly to seek practice and partly to see the country. So scarce were horses in Peoria at that time that he could neither hire nor borrow one in the village on which to make the trip, and went to the country and presented his case to an old farmer, who had a small drove of horses. The only broken ones the farmer had, he wished to use, and as a matter of necessity, Mr. Ballance took one that was unused to bridle or saddle, and " on which no man had ever sat." Ile asked the old farmer why he had not broken his horses, and he replied that he was too old and that his boys were too young. He made Mr. Ballance welcome to the colt, however, but filed a demurrer to his attempting to ride him, "for," said he, "I am afraid he will break your neck." Mr. Ballance cited as authority in objection to the demurrer, that he had been raised where they made horses as u business, and that he

* Ballance's l'eoria.

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HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY.

would risk the chances of a trial, if he could get into the saddle. The colt was caught, bridled and saddled, and the farmer and his oldest son held him in chancery till Mr. Ballance was well mounted, and then let him go. And he did go - sometimes with one end toward Chicago, and sometimes with the other, and sometimes sideways, but Bal- lance stuck to the saddle like a mortgage to real estate, and reached Chicago after a little more than three days.

To return to Judge Young. It is said of him that he had sufficient ability to fill any office with honor and respectability, and that he became very popular with the masses. He was elected to the U. S. Senate in 1836, and served a full term of six years from the 4th of March, 1837, to the 4th of March, 1843. After that he served on the supreme bench, and acquitted himself with creditable distinction. But at last his sun sank in clouds. For several years before his death he resided in Washington and practiced as a claim agent. There he became insane and died in an insane asylum. Of his last days and of his sufferings but little was ever known to his old associates and acquaintances in Peoria.

After Judge Young was elected to the United States Senate, Thomas Ford succeeded to the judgeship. He served as a judge six years, and in 1842 was elected to be Governor of the State on the Democratic ticket. When he retired from the gubernatorial chair in 1846, he removed from his home at Oregon, in Ogle county, to Peoria, and resumed the practice of law. Here his fortune began to wane. His health failed and he became a hopeless invalid. His devoted wife wore herself out in watching and caring for her hon- ored husband, and died suddenly. Her husband died soon after (in 1850), leaving his family in poverty and destitution. It is said that while Governor Ford lay sick and help- less, his family was furnished with food by a party of Peorians, all but two of whom had been his political opponents. The same good Samaritans bore his funeral expenses and carried his remains to the silent city of the dead, and there consigned to mother earth all that was mortal of one of the purest and most incorruptible judges and governors known in the history of Illinois. He died ignorant whence the aid came, so quietly and unos- tentatiously was the truly Christian work carried on. And after the mother and father had been laid away in their " windowless palaces of rest," their children, all but the old- est one, who was then nearly grown, were cared for and educated by the same kindly hands that smoothed their parents' pathway to the tomb. Such deeds of true Christian charity may not be justly recognized and appreciated here, but a reward far richer than ever conceived in the hearts of men, awaits them in the eternal Aisles of Light.

Between the time of his removal to Peoria and his death, Governor Ford completed his manuscript history of Illinois. After his death, the late General Shields revised the manuscript, where revision was necessary, and perfected arrangements to secure its pub- lication, for the benefit of the author's children. This was the only legacy left them, and is, in fact, the only reliable early history of the State ever published. But for Gov- ernor Ford's indomitable industry and familiar knowledge of the men and times with which he was closely identified for so many years, and the generosity of his friend and compatriot, there is but little doubt that much of the early history of the State would have been forever lost.

JUDGES FROM 1825 TO JANUARY 1, 1880.

The following is a complete register of the Judges who have presided in the Peoria circuit from the first term of the court in November, 1825, to the present - January 1, 1880 :

Samuel D. Lockwood came to succeed Judge Sawyer, and presided at the May term, 1827. In June, 1829, Judge Lockwood was succeeded by Richard M. Young. Judge Young remained on the bench until the close of 1834. Sydney Breese presided at the

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HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY.

Spring term, 1835. and Stephen T. Logan presided at the September term, 1835. Thomas Ford presided at the May term, 1836. Dan Stone presided from the May term, 1837. to the May term. 1838. In August, 1838, Thomas Ford was elected to be Judge of the distriet, and when the September term of court came on, he exchanged with Jesse B. Thomas of the first district, and the latter gentleman presided here. Ford presided at the April term, 1839, and regularly at every term thereafter until 1842. closing his judgeship with the April term. John D. Caton presided at the October term, 1842, and Judge Young, who had been elected to the Supreme bench, presided in May, 1843. J. D. Caton, one of the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court, presided at the October term, 1843. and regularly thereafter until and including the October term, 1848. T. Lyle Dickey presided at the May and October terms, 1849. William Kellogg, of Fulton, was elected to be Judge of the Tenth district in 1849, and presided at the March term, 1850. and until March, 1852. Onslow Peters, of the Sixteenth district, presided at the May term, 1853, and until he was succeeded by Judge Gale, at the May term, 1856. Judge Elihu N. Powell presided at the November term, 1856, and was succeeded at the August term, 1861, by Amos L. Merriman. Merriman resigned in September, 1863, and was succeeded by Marion Williamson, who was succeeded in turn by Sabin D. Pu- terbaugh in August. 1867. Puterbaugh remained on the bench until January, 1873, and then resigned. Between the time of his resignation and the election of Joseph W. Cochran, in June. 1873, Henry B. Hopkins was appointed to be Judge ad interim. Coch- ran served until June, 1879, and was succeeded by Ninian M. Laws, of Lacon.

PERSONAL MENTION.

Nearly all of the old-time Judges have passed away. The last days of Young and Ford have been noticed, and our pen is now directed to those who succeeded them :

E. T. Lockwood, subsequently removed to Belvidere. Boone county, and for some years prior to his death lived at Batavia, Kane county, Ill., where, having acquired a competency by the rise of some lands in the suburbs of Chicago, he purchased a beautiful country place, and peacefully closed a life of rare usefulness and singular purity and honesty.

Sydney Breese died on his extensive and well-cultivated farm near Carlisle, in Clin- ton county, June 27, 1878. His portrait, a correct likeness, has a place in the Peoria Law Library.

Dan Stone died at Galena.

Jesse B. Thomas subsequently removed to Chicago, where he died in 19 -. His son, Jesse B., is an eminent Baptist elergyman, and was pastor of a Baptist church in that city.

J. D. Caton served on the Supreme bench for a number of years, and won distinction as an able and impartial jurist. He became immensely wealthy, and his home at Deer Park, Ottawa, La Salle county, is the pride of that part of the State. He is now largely interested in telegraphy and the manufacture of telegraphic instruments.

T. Lyle Dickey has been twice elected to the Supreme bench, where he is still sery- ing.

Kellogg was elected to Congress in 1856, and re-elected in 1858 and 1860, serving six years. He died December 20, 1872.

Onslow Peters was a native of Massachusetts. His father was a blacksmith, and owned the farm on which the Massachusetts State Reform School is located, at West- boro, and sold it to the State for that purpose. Onslow came to Illinois in 1836. After President Pierce succeeded to the Presidency in 1853, Judge Peters went to Washington to look after an appointment, and died there suddenly the 28th of February, 1856.

Gale is secretary of the Peoria Gas Company.

E. N. Powell died in Peoria July 15, 1871.

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HISTORY OF PEORIA COUNTY.

A. L. Merriman removed to Washington City, where he is practicing his profession as a claim agent.

John York Sawyer was born at Reading, Windsor county, Vermont, March 15, 1787. At the commencement of the war with Great Britain in 1812 he enlisted in the army and was appointed ensign, and afterwards promoted to adjutant of Colonel Aikens' reg- iment, and served until the close of the war. He came to Illinois in 1816, and settled at Edwardsville on the 16th of December of that year. He was Probate Judge and Re- corder of Madison county for several years. On the 29th of December, 1825, Messrs. Sawyer, Samuel McRoberts, Richard M. Young, James Hall and James O. Wattles were commissioned to be Judges of the Circuit Court. In the arrangement of circuits, Judge Sawyer was assigned to the First circuit, which included Peoria county. The appointment of clerks to the clerk was vested in the judges in those days, and Judge Sawyer appointed Isaac Waters to be clerk of the Peoria Circuit Court. After serving as judge two years, the Legislature repealed the act establishing the system of courts as being too expensive, the salaries of the judges being fixed at five hundred dollars each per year.

In 1827 Sawyer embarked in the newspaper business, establishing the Plow-Boy, an agricultural paper, which he published for two years. He afterward owned the Illinois Advocate, published at Edwardsville, and was the author of the first " Illinois Farmers' Almanac." In 1832, he was elected State printer, and moved to Vandalia, where he died in 1836, from an attack of pneumonia. Judge Sawyer was twice mar- ried. His second wife survived him, and died in Upper Alton in 1872. He left no issue.

Marion Williamson died in Peoria, on the 22d day of April, 1868. He was born in Adams county, Ohio, where he received a common school education, and then climbed to the honorable distinction of lawyer and judge by his own unaided exertions. He read law in the office of William Buck, of Adams county, and was admitted to the bar in 1852, and went to Ottumwa, Iowa, where he spent the Winter of 1852-3, and re- moved to Oquawka, in this State, in the Spring of the year last named, and came from there to Peoria in the Fall of 1856, and associated himself with Judge Mead. In 1859 the partnership was dissolved, and Judge Williamson opened an office by himself, and continued the practice of his profession until Judge Merriman resigned, as elsewhere noticed, when he was elected to fill the vacancy. On the occasion of his death a city paper, referring to his judgeship, said : " He filled the office with honor to himself and benefit to the community. His peculiar adaptability to the position made him one of the best officers that ever sat on the bench."

Sabin D. Puterbaugh resigned in January, 1873, and returned to law practice. He has written and published a treatise on common law practice, and also a treatise on chancery pleadings, several editions of which have been published, which is evidence of their value to the profession.

Joseph W. Cochran also returned to the practice.

An act of the Legislature, approved June 2, and in force July 1, 1877, divided the State of Illinois, exclusive of the County of Cook, into thirteen judicial circuits, of which the Counties of Putnam, Marshall, Woodford, Tazewell, Peoria and Stark were desig- nated as the Eighth. Under the provisions of this law, one additional judge was elected in each district on the first Monday in August, 1877. David McCollough was elected as the additional judge in this (the 8th) circuit. The same act provided that three judges should be elected by general ticket in each circuit on the first Monday in June, 1879, and that their tenure of office should continue for six years. At that election McCollough was elected from Peoria county, Laws from Marshall county, and Burns from Marshall county.

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APPELLATE COURT.

At the same time, June 2, 1877, an act was passed creating four appellate courts, Peoria being in the second appellate district.

The law further provided that the Supreme Court should select twelve circuit Judges to hold such Appellate courts, three to each district. Judge McCulloch was selected as one of the Appellate Judges for the third district, and is now serving.

THE CRIMINAL CALENDAR.

Considering that Peoria county is a river county, and that since the building of rail- roads, the city of Peoria has become a railroad center of no mean importance. the county has always been remarkably free from capital crimes, as compared with other communities. There have been fewer murders, in proportion to the population, than in any other county in the State. From the time of the first settlement in the shadows of Fort Clark in the Spring of 1819, the presence of evil doers and criminally disposed char- acters, has not been tolerated. Every attempted violation of the law, every infringement upon the rights of persons and property, has been promptly met and as promptly punished.

In mixed communities and growing, prosperous centers, there is always a certain per cent. of reckless, graceless characters and dishonest persons who seek by any means but honest industry to obtain a livelihood. These characters. as a rule, are never rightly en- titled to be called permanent residents, but more appropriately come under the head of what are now called tramps. And it is safe to assume that seven out of every ten erimi- nal cases, especially of the higher grades, that stain the court records of Peoria county, have been committed by transient characters. Capital offenses have been committed here, as they have been committed in every community since the world began to be peo- pled. But they have been punished. Only a very few of those convicted for murder. have escaped the full punishment of the law. Some, as in the case of MeAlister, who murdered Joseph Eads in the beginning of 1875, paid the penalty of life sentences in the penitentiary. Others have been sentenced for longer or shorter periods of time, according to the nature of the circumstances under which the offenses were committed.

The death penalty has only been pronounced in four cases in the fifty-five years that have passed since the organization of the county under an act of the Legislature approved January 13, 1825. The first instance was in the case of No-ma-que, the Indian, already cited. In the other three cases the sentences were fully executed.

ALMOST A TRAGEDY - A DOUBLE EXECUTION.

The first execution of the death penalty in Peoria county was a double one, in which two young men, named respectively Thomas Brown and George Williams, were executed for the murder of a man named Hewitt, in the latter part of 1850.

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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 49

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