USA > Illinois > The era of the Civil War, 1848-1870 > Part 8
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
The revival of party allegiance was a potent force in this process of readjustment. Party leaders finally came to realize that interest in the struggle at Washington had interfered with normal political activity at home. The closing weeks of congress and the period following adjournment, therefore, witnessed a general attempt to get the party machinery into
71 Sheahan, Life of Douglas, 186; Flint, Life of Douglas, appendix 30; Chicago Daily Journal, October 24, 1850. The author of the other resolutions was B. S. Morris, a prominent old-line whig. Shields also introduced resolu- tions supporting the fugitive slave law. Illinois State Register, October 31, 1850.
7.3
AGITATION AND COMPROMISE
running order for the state and congressional elections in November, though it was too late to hold state conventions to nominate candidates for state treasurer. The democratic state committee, therefore, took the responsibility of offering the name of John Moore,72 while the whigs made a feeble effort to rally to the support of John T. Knox.
Democratic forces were badly split in the northern dis- tricts ; but party leaders and party journals eloquently pleaded for union and harmony, for dropping past differences and unit- ing under one banner.73 So zealously was this matter pressed that the separate free democratic candidate in the Chicago district was compelled to withdraw from the field. "Long John " had found his place in congress too unattractive to run again,74 so that the party united on Dr. Richard S. Moloney, a Wentworth protégé of strong antislavery feelings; the State Register, however, struck his name from the list of democratic candidates that it posted.75 This made the contest in that district, as elsewhere, a straight-out whig and democratic duel with only a handful of abolitionists in an independent move- ment. In the Springfield district Richard Yates, the whig candidate, defeated Thomas L. Harris in his campaign for reelection and was the only whig member returned to congress.
Old party allegiance had thus crushed the very existence of the promising free soil movement of 1848. Strong anti- slavery activities were regarded as inconsistent with a proper loyalty to the union; they had been proved, moreover, in a party sense, to be disorganizing and party politicians now opposed them more than ever on that score. No sooner, therefore, had the legislative session organized in January, 1851, than a joint resolution was introduced declaring that inasmuch as the constitution was created and adopted in a spirit of compromise, and as slavery was one of the principal sub-
72 Illinois State Register, September 5, 1850; Zarley to French, August 30, 1850, French manuscripts.
73 Ottawa Free Trader, August 17, 30, September 28, 1850; Chicago Demo- crat, August 26, 30, September 6, 1850.
74 Wentworth to E. W. Austin, July 1, 1850, ibid., July 19, 1850; Chicago Daily Journal, July 10, 1850.
75 Illinois State Register, October 17, 1850. Wentworth's opponents were planning to establish a rival conservative democratic paper in Chicago. Gal- loway to French, July 24, 1850, Harris to French, July 27, 1850, French manu- scripts.
74
THE ERA OF THE CIVIL WAR
jects of compromise, as the constitution did not conflict with the divine law and as there was no higher law than the con- stitution, therefore, all controversy upon the subject of slavery was to be deprecated; for these reasons the measures of adjust- ment passed by congress in 1850, including the fugitive slave law, were given a hearty approval, the Illinois delegation in congress was instructed to use their best abilities and influence in resistance to any attempt to disturb this settlement, and the Wilmot proviso resolutions of instruction of 1849 were rescinded.76
This resolution, which was promptly passed, is an indi- cation of the spirit that dominated party politics in Illinois up to the enactment of the Kansas-Nebraska bill. Especially was this true of the Illinois democracy, which was able to congratulate itself, despite antislavery resolutions of county and district conventions in the northern part of the state, that the state organization had never become contaminated with free soilism but had succeeded on the principles laid down by Thomas Jefferson and Andrew Jackson, while the party in other states had been divided by schisms and overwhelmed by defeat.77 This remained a source of party strength until 1854 when it suddenly became a serious element of weakness with the reopening of the slavery controversy.
78 Laws of 1851, p. 205-207; Underwood to Gillespie, January 15, 1851, Gillespie manuscripts.
77 Joliet Signal, July 22, 1851.
IV. PRAIRIE FARMING AND BANKING
W ITH the rush of immigration into Illinois new blood and energy was injected into all phases of agricul- tural activity. While the rest of the industrial population of the state increased only twenty per cent, the agriculturists more than doubled in the decade ending in 1860. The new settlers brought with them their own notions of successful farming, but their enthusiasm for the new environment tempered their devotion to old methods and inclined them to select only those features which might make for improvement. With the prairies thrown open for agricultural development and prairie farming only in its infancy this spirit of experimentation contributed to the important progress made in the last decade of the ante- bellum period.
Already by 1850 the adaptability of Illinois soil for spe- cialization in corn culture had been demonstrated; a crop of 57,646,984 bushels of this staple represented an output nearly three times that of other grain crops. This emphasis on corn continued and was reflected in even stronger terms in 1860 when an output of 115, 174,777 bushels moved Illinois from third rank as a corn growing state to the head of the column. In this decade the corn belt began to shift from the Illinois valley to the prairies of the eastern counties in the central divi- sion. Besides its supremacy in corn production, Illinois, the fifth wheat growing state of 1850, by more than doubling its wheat production, carried off first honors in 1860 with 23,837,- 023 bushels. In the early fifties the belief spread that the risks in wheat culture were less in southern Illinois where the grain matured earlier and was saved from the blight and rust caused by the June and July rains ; and Egypt, which had been steadily losing ground during the forties, recovered with a sixfold increase while the northern and central divisions doubled their crops. The northern counties, however, still produced over
75
76
THE ERA OF THE CIVIL WAR
one-half the wheat of the state. Northern Illinois also raised nearly three-fourths of the 15,220,029 oats crop of 1859, which represented a fifty per cent increase for the decade, and two-thirds of the rye crop of 951,281 bushels, and of the bar- ley crop of 1,036,338 bushels, both of which represented ten- fold increases.
With these important gains in the agricultural output of the state, Illinois became one of the most important granaries for the supply of the industrial centers of the Atlantic seaboard and Europe. Illinois flour began to find its way into eastern and European markets, the southern Illinois product being especially favored. Chicago came into its own as the grain emporium of Illinois and the west, an "agricultural weather- cock " " showing from whence comes the balmy winds of pros- perity." Soon it was the largest primary grain depot in the world.1
Grain buyers from Chicago scoured every section of the state, including even the extreme southern portion, and ar- ranged to ship the crops northward. In order to hurry the grain to the eastern markets, eighteen of the most prominent mercantile houses organized a " Merchants' Grain Forwarding Association " in September, 1857. This represented a division of labor which changed the Board of Trade, organized in 1848, into a general commercial organization. Heavy grain specu- lation began to develop at Chicago ; the operators worked inces- santly at the exchange at the Board of Trade rooms and at a certain street corner known as "gamblers' corner." Many a fortune of $20,000 or $30,000 was made within a few weeks, though numbers of "lame ducks " appeared at the same time.2 The general effect upon the business of the city was extremely good, but the farmers were restive under this system and throughout the decade continued a spasmodic agitation for cooperative associations for the disposal of their produce. Finally in 1858, local agitation led to a farmers' congress at the state fair at Centralia which adopted a declaration in favor
I Illinois State Journal, September 6, 1855; Ottawa Free Trader, Feb- ruary 18, 1854.
2 Cairo Times and Delta, July 15, 1857; Quincy Whig, October 3, 1857; Chicago Daily Times, October 7, 1857; Guyer, History of Chicago, 23; Chicago Democrat, May 5, 1857 ; Chicago Press and Tribune, July 4, 1859.
77
FARMING AND BANKING
of the formation of wholesale purchasing and selling agencies in the great centers of commerce "so that producers may, in a great measure, have it in their power to save the profits of retailers." 3 It was another matter, however, to translate this resolution into action.
Good crops prevailed generally throughout the decade ex- cept in 1854 when a general drought did especially heavy damage in the southern part of the state. Vegetation in many districts was entirely burned up, wells and creeks dried up, and farmers unable to secure water often sold their stock to be driven where feed and water could be had rather than see it perish. The corn crop was seriously damaged, but small grains suffered less. Although there was no danger of a food short- age, the food speculators were soon at work forcing prices up to new records. High prices had been prevailing since the European famine year of 1847 which drove wheat up to $1.25 a bushel; a gradual drop had ended with the Crimean War news in early 1854 which, followed by the activity of foreign buyers, brought back $1.10 and $1.25 wheat. By that time prices which had previously varied considerably were becoming standardized by Chicago and New Orleans markets. The summer drought sent prices of breadstuffs higher than they had been for eighteen years, wheat selling at $1.25, corn at 40 cents and potatoes at $1.50. Normal prices had not been entirely restored when the panic of 1857 arrived. Speculators began to talk of short grain crops and of the rot in potatoes, but crowded cellars and bursting grain ricks contradicted their statements. They were able, however, to keep the bottom from falling out of the market, although the farmer suffered from the depression; the price of foodstuffs was prohibitive for the poor of the cities.4
It was obvious to the more aggressive and progressive agri- culturalists of the state that education could work a vast improvement in prevailing methods and practices. Even con-
3 Rockford Register, October 16, 1858; Rockford Forum, July 18, 1848; Western Citizen, January 8, 1850; Our Constitution, June 26, 1858.
+ Joliet Signal, August 29, September 5, 1859; Chicago Daily Times, Sep- tember 3, 1857. While exorbitant prices prevailed in Chicago, corn was burned for fuel at Kankakee as cheaper than coal. Rockford Republican, January 21, 1858.
78
THE ERA OF THE CIVIL WAR
temporary critics characterized the methods of cultivation as "most slovenly." "This is especially true in the Southern counties. The best farmers plough only four or five inches deep, never use a hoe, but do perhaps once in a season run a cultivator between the rows of Indian corn. Under such cir- cumstances it is not probable that much more than half of what might be is raised." This was obvious, when in contrast with the general average of 35 bushels such large scale pro- gressive farmers as B. F. Harris of Champaign county and David Strawn of La Salle county could raise over 60 bushels of corn per acre. B. F. Harris in 1855 harvested 700 acres of corn at 65 bushels per acre, 70 acres of oats at 30 bushels, 20 of wheat at 20 bushels, and 2 of potatoes at 75, besides raising 100 tons of hay, 360 head of cattle, 21 horses, 200 hogs and 12 sheep. In the same county Michael L. Sullivant planted over 7,000 acres in corn. There were farms with an acreage of 10,000 and even 27,000, one of the latter having 3,000 acres of corn in a single field. These large farms attracted considerable attention, but little was known of their methods by the small holders.5
With the decade of the fifties, however, the Illinois agri- culturist began for the first time seriously to analyze his weak- nesses and to determine his future needs. Out of the agitation for industrial education came the proposition to organize a state agricultural society. Farmers' associations and agricul- tural societies already existed in several counties, and under the leadership of the Sangamon County Agricultural Society the Illinois State Agricultural Society was launched at Spring- field on January 5, 1853. One function of the new organiza- tion was to encourage the formation of additional county agricultural societies ; it drafted a model constitution; and by the direct cooperation of its officers new societies were formed, first in the northern and central counties and later in southern Illinois. The legislature was induced to appropriate an annual sum of fifty dollars to each county society having an active existence. By the end of the decade, therefore, eighty-eight agricultural societies were to be found in Illinois, twenty more
5 Prairie Farmer, July, 1855; Western Journal, 2:254; Urbana Union, Oc- tober 25, 1855; Our Constitution, June 12, 1858; Illinois Globe, September 22, 1849.
79
FARMING AND BANKING
than in any other state in the union. At the same time a broader connection was established when Illinois came to take part in the sessions of the National Agricultural Society, and when the Northwestern Agricultural Society established its headquarters at Chicago in 1859.6
Both the state and county societies placed especial emphasis on their annual fairs; the first state fair was held at Spring- field, October 11-14, 1853. It was the policy of the society at this time to pass the state fair around among the various cities of the state; a movement gathered considerable force to local- ize it at Springfield with permanent grounds, purchased with a legislative appropriation; but it was defeated by the combined opposition of rival places.7
The premiums offered by the State Agricultural Society aroused general interest in new agricultural machinery. Sev- eral Illinois reapers were on the market, including, besides the Cyrus H. McCormick machine, the manufacture of which had come to be concentrated at Chicago, the inventions of Obed Hussey of Chicago, J. H. Manny of Freeport, Jerome Atkins of Will county, Charles Denton of Peoria, and G. H. Rugg of Ottawa. It was said that three of the four reaping machines that took prizes at the Paris exhibition in 1855 were owned and manufactured by residents of Illinois. Reaper trials were arranged to test the respective merits of the various machines; the State Agricultural Society held a trial at Salem in July, 1857, followed a few days later by a privately arranged contest at Urbana in which five reapers were entered. Advan- tages continued in favor of the C. H. McCormick machine which enjoyed special patent rights.8 The success of mowers
6 Chicago Daily Democratic Press, October 25, 1852; Prairie Farmer, De- cember, 1852; Illinois State Register, January 13, 1853; Peru Daily Chronicle, January 6, 1854; Chicago Weekly Democrat, April 8, 1854; Chicago Press and Tribune, September 19, 1859, April 13, 1860.
7 Illinois State Agricultural Society, Transactions, 1: 43 ff .; Aurora Beacon, January 27, 1859.
8 When, in 1852, McCormick applied for the renewal of certain patents that had already expired, considerable opposition developed on the part both of reaper inventors and of farmers who were unwilling to pay the patent fee of $30 which McCormick was able to collect under his monopoly. Ottawa Free Trader, February 7, 12, April 17, 1852; J. D. Webster to Trumbull, August 7, 1856, Trumbull manuscripts. See article " Illinois -The Reaper State," Chicago Advertiser clipped in Illinois State Register, November 6, 1851; also ibid., September 4, November 13, 1851, September 13, 1855.
80
THE ERA OF THE CIVIL WAR
and reapers was so evident that inventive genius was next directed toward raking and binding attachments; L. D. Phil- lips of Chicago patented such an invention in December, 1857. Others brought out improvements in old machines with special devices of their own. The desire to develop a " steam plow" which might be used to turn the prairie sod with more economy than the use of horses, oxen, or mules would permit, furnished an interesting field of experimentation. At a trial at Decatur on November 10 and II, 1858, a demonstration was made under unfavorable conditions, which was voted satisfactory by the newspaper correspondents. Another trial was made at the state fair at Freeport in 1859 with the Fawkes' steam plow, which had been awarded the grand gold medal at the United States Agricultural Fair the preceding year; the committee, however, was unable to arrive at a decision as to its success.º
By this time a considerable amount of agricultural machin- ery had been introduced on the large farms in certain regions along the Illinois river and in the upper counties, so that cul- tivators, seed drills, reapers, and mowers became fairly com- mon while even a threshing machine was occasionally seen.10 The value of farm implements and farm machinery increased from $6,405,561 in 1850 to $17,235,472 in 1860.
One of the chief difficulties of the Illinois farmer was that of securing a cheap and efficient fencing. Wood was too scarce and too expensive for its limited wearing qualities; wire and specially prepared sheet iron strips nailed to posts in the ground proved not altogether satisfactory; ditching and bank- ing schemes and sod fences met with slight success, and though various kinds of hedges were tried, they were usually too slow of growth. Then Jonathan B. Turner introduced the Osage orange which had all the qualities most needed for a successful hedge -cheapness, certainty, quick growth, and unlimited endurance. By 1848 he had tried out two or three miles of hedge on his farm; and though it cost him $150 a mile for a three years' growth, he was able to sell plants at $10 per thou-
9 Chicago Daily Democratic Press, January 8, 1858; Chicago Press and Tribune, November 15, 1858, September 13, 1859; Belleville Advocate, Novem- ber 24, 1858; Illinois State Agricultural Society, Transactions, 3 : 99-100; 4:23. 10 Chicago Daily Democratic Press, September 17, 1857; Alton Courier, August 2, 1858.
81
FARMING AND BANKING
sand. Turner immediately called the attention of leading agriculturalists to his experiments, and by 1851 so many were converted to the Osage orange hedge that it threatened to supersede all other kinds of fences in a few years.11
Signs of a growing diversification of agriculture appeared during the fifties. Northern Illinois was raising potatoes in increasing quantities while in the southern counties castor beans became a favorite crop. The pioneer farmer and the recent settler had lacked the time to set out fruit trees and had later neglected this means of varying their hog and hominy diet. In 1850 there were few signs of fruit culture in Illinois. "Where the strawberry-bed ought to be, you will perhaps find a tobacco patch, and the hog-pen has usurped the place of the currant bushes," 12 commented a thoughtful traveler.
Illinois farmers gradually became alive to this neglect of horticulture, especially as the demand arising for fruit and vegetables brought exorbitant prices for the available supply. Soon important developments were evident in the extreme southern counties of the state; by 1860 apples, peaches, and melons were shipped in large quantities from the southern fruit farms. Alton became an important fruit market with large exports; its peaches were sometimes ordered direct by New York fruit houses. Peach orchards of 1,000 trees became fairly common. Isaac Underhill of Peoria had on his " Rome Farm" of 2,200 acres an orchard one mile square with 10,000 grafted apple trees and 6,000 peach trees. William Yates had a four hundred acre farm in Perry county with over 4,000 peach, pear, and apple trees besides a wide assortment of smaller fruits. Mathias L. Dunlap's nursery near Urbana came to have a wide reputation for its excellent fruit and filled orders from every part of the west. Grape culture flourished in the German districts around Alton and Belleville; many
11 J. B. Turner to French, May 24, July 7, 1848, French manuscripts; Prairie Farmer, January, 1851; Western Journal, 5: 190; Joliet Signal, January 14, 1851 ; Illinois Journal, April 2, 1851. Wire fences cost $181.80 per mile; rails $149.60, according to J. D. Whitely in Prairie Farmer, October, 1848.
12 Chicago Tribune clipped in Illinois State Register, March 13, 1850. Potato prices hovered around the dollar mark during the earlier years of the decade but later dropped to twenty-five and thirty-five cents a bushel and became in truth the "poor man's comforter." Alton Weekly Courier, August 24, 1855; Mound City Emporium, May 13, 1858, March 17, 1859.
82
THE ERA OF THE CIVIL WAR
temperance advocates began to look to the use of native wines as the most satisfactory way of banishing drunkenness from the land.13 In October, 1851, the Northwestern Fruit Growers' Association was organized; and, supported almost entirely by residents of Illinois, it met in annual session until 1857, when it decided to merge itself into the Illinois Horticultural Society, organized in 1856.
There were, of course, some unsuccessful attempts at diver- sification. In 1848 an enthusiastic campaign was inaugurated to develop hemp growing to the point of successful competition with the Missouri farmers; in a few years, however, the move- ment collapsed. Experiments were attempted with flax culture but without marked success, while the cotton crop of southern Illinois rapidly declined in spite of the previous success with it in that region.
The most exciting venture in the field of agriculture during the decade was in the cultivation of the "Chinese sugar cane." The whole northwest nourished the ambition to convert itself into a sugar-growing district. In 1856 J. M. Kroh and a few other farmers in Wabash' county planted small plots of this "Chinese millet," "sorgo sucre" or "northern sugar cane" as it was variously called, and reported great success with an output of forty-five gallons of syrup from a half acre not- withstanding many unfavorable factors. Immediately the keenest interest was aroused in this new discovery. Kroh alone sold seed to over 2,000 persons, and his neighbors distributed their surplus; seed was also distributed by congressmen as political favors to their constituents. In the next season the cane was planted in every county in the state; in many districts nearly every farmer planted at least a few rows by way of experiment ; and Kroh's neighbor, Edwin S. Baker of Rochester Mills, tried the experiment on the largest scale, with twenty acres. The success of these various enterprises aroused enthu- siasm for the new crop; sorghum molasses was immediately enrolled as an Illinois staple, and successful experiments in granulation made domestic sugar merely a question of the cost of manufacture. An Illinois State Sugar Cane Convention was held at Springfield, January 7, 1858; after an organization 13 Chicago Weekly Democrat, August 6, 1853.
83
FARMING AND BANKING
of the sugar growers was perfected, experiences were ex- changed and important data assembled.14 The result was an increased acreage and harvest. Sugar mills were installed, and although the production of sugar was found impracticable, the extraction of syrup was very successful; one mill in Spring- field was operated in season day and night with a three hun- dred gallon daily output. The Illinois advocates of the Chinese sugar cane were exultant; nowhere in the United States had its cultivation been so successful and so encouraging.
Stock raising was an especially important interest in central Illinois where it proved a most profitable business when prac- ticed on advanced principles. Three of the most extensive cattle raisers were Isaac Funk of Bloomington, who in 1854 sold in a single lot 1,400 head of cattle averaging 700 pounds for $64,000; Jacob Strawn, who fed the first steers in Morgan county and who "has probably fed more since that time than all other men in the county together ; " 15 and B. F. Harris of Champaign county who made a fine showing at the World's Fair at New York in 1853; in 1855 he raised 500 head of cat- tle and 200 hogs and marketed a drove of 100 bullocks aver- aging 2,373 pounds. In the early days large cattle feeders like Jacob Strawn had to scour all central and southern Illinois and the settled parts of Missouri and Iowa to secure stock; now in the fifties cattle was brought in droves from Missouri, Texas, and even Mexico to convert the immense yield of Illinois corn into marketable form.
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.