USA > Illinois > Adams County > The history of Adams County Illinois : containing a history of the county - its cities, towns, etc. a biographical directory of its citizens, war record of its volunteers in the late rebellion; general and local statistics, portraits of early settlers and prominent men > Part 39
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
SEC. 20. At the first regular term of the County Commissioners' Court of the county of Adams, after the said award thall be filed as aforesaid, the said court shall make an order in favor of the said county of Marquette for the amount so awarded, to be paid to it by the said county of Adams, as in the last preceding section provided, and the said amount shall then be considered due from the said county of Adams to the said county of Marquette, and shall be paid in the the same manner as other debts against said county.
SEC. 21. The said commissioners, for the purpose of discharging the duties required of them by this act, shall have free access to the records of said Adams county, but shall not be permitted to remove from their respective offices any books or papers belonging thereto, and it shall be the duty of the clerk of the County Commissioners' Court of said county, and of all other officers of said county whom the said commissioners may deem it necessary to call upon, to aid them in the investigation aforesaid, for which said services, so to be rendered as aforesaid, the said clerk and other officials shall make no charge against the said county of Adams.
SEC. 22. The said commissioners may adjourn their meetings from time to time, to suit their convenience, but shall use all reasonable dispatch in the discharge, as herein- before required of them, and the concurrence of any two of them in any act or duty herein- before required of them shall be valid and binding to all intents and purposes; and they shall be paid by the county of Adams in the same manner as other charges against said county, three dollars each per day during the time actually employed in the discharge of their aforesaid duties, and for every day's necessary travel in going to and from the said seat of justice of the said county of Adams.
SEC. 23. As soon as the said county of Marquette shall be organized, and the clerk of the County Commissioners' Court of said county of Adams notified thereof, the treasurer of said county of Adams shall pay and deliver over to the treasurer of the county of Mar- quette, for the use of said county, such proportion of the funds now in the treasury of the said county of Adams, for the use of said county, and in the kind of funds in which the same was collected, as the value of the taxable property lying and being within the said county of Marquette bears to the value of the taxable property lying and being within the now county of Adams, as appears upon the book or books of the assessor of said Adams county, for the year eighteen hundred and forty-two, and the taxes assessed on the property lying and being within the limits of said county of Marquette, for the year eighteen hun- dred and forty-two, shall be collected by the collecting officer of the county of Adams, the same as if said county had not been divided, and the amount collected for the use of the county paid into the county treasury of the said county of Adams, the same as now required by law; and the treasurer of the county of Adams shall immediately thereafter pay and deliver over to the treasurer of the county of Marquette, for the use of the said county, such proportion of the aforesaid amount as the value of said taxable property lying and being within the limits of said county of Marquette bears to the value of said taxable property lying and being within the limits of the now county of Adams, as appears upon the aforesaid book or books of the aforesaid assessor; and it shall be the duty of the afore-
292
HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY.
said treasurer of said county of Adams to take duplicate receipts for the money so to be paid by him as aforesaid, from the treasurer of the said county of Marquette, one of which he shall cause to be filed in the office of the County Commissioners' Court of said county of Adams.
This act shall take effect and be in force from and after the passage thereof. APPROVED February 11th, 1843.
The question as to whether Marquette was legally created, was determined in the Supreme Court of the State, at the December terin, 1843, in the case of the People ex relatione, Andrew Redman vs. Nicholas Wren, connty clerk of Adams county. Redman had been elected a justice of the peace for Columbus precinct, in Marquette county, and he brought the suit in the shape of an application for a writ of mandamus to compel Nicholas Wren, as clerk of Adams county, to issue his certificate of elec- tion. In the opinion in this case the Court say, "That the county of Mar- quette was absolutely created by the first section of the act entitled ' An act to create the county of Marquette,' etc., and it was not left optional with the inhabitants to organize or not; but whether organized or not it was abso- lutely separated, for election purposes, from Adams county. The jurisdic- tion of Adams county, for the purpose of county government, did not extend over the county of Marquette on the 7th day of August, 1843." The principal argument urged on behalf of Redman, the relator in this case, was that to give Marquette the essential constituents of a county it must be organized, and that until organized the people were deprived of the right of exercising the elective franchise unless they were permitted to vote with Adams county; and it was asked whether the Legislature could possibly intend to do an act that could be productive of such injustice ! The Court go on to say: "The whole of this argument is founded on fallacy. First, the inhabitants of Marquette have all the rights, powers and capacities possessed by citizens of any other county in this State, and the consequences complained of spring from a neglect to exercise these capacities. Secondly, it was their duty to elect officers at the time and in the manner prescribed by law. They had the capacity to do this, and failed to exercise that capacity, so that, instead of being deprived of rights they have neglected the performance of specific duties. Men who neglect to vote for county officers at a general election, might as well complain of being deprived of the elective franchise. It must be recollected that there are other rights than those of the inhabitants of Marquette concerned in this question. The inhabitants of Adams have their rights also. They have organized in conformity to law, and constitute a separate community, with separate interests, subject to the control and management of a dis- tinct corporation, and for the citizens of Marquette to interfere in the municipal government of Adams county would be an invasion of corporate rights of citizens. In a case like the present, the duty of the Court is plain and obvious; our duty is not to declare what the Legislature ought to have done, but what it actually has done; not to legislate, but to simply
293
IIISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY.
declare what the law is. If a law operates oppressively it is the province of the Legislature to afford redress; but while it continues a law, it is the duty of the citizens to obey it, and of courts of justice to declare and enforce it." The application of the writ was refused, and the relator ordered to pay the costs.
Although elections took place at stated times and places, no officers ever qualified, and Marquette county paid no taxes for the term of five years, to State or county. There was no prince or potentate to rule this people; as sheep without a shepherd, they browsed around as they pleased -- yet we are told that there was no lawlessness, vice, or violence among the people, but prosperity prevailed on every hand. At last there was an election for the Legislature, after the county had changed its name to Highland, and Edward H. Buckley and Willis H. Chapman were sent to Springfield. Their certificate was given them by Wesley D. McCann, J. P. for Adams county. He received, in those days, all the returns of elections and was de facto county clerk. There is no doubt but the old esquire bore his extra honors with becoming dignity.
When Highiland was fully organized, the seeds of dissension sown in the county seat contest, years before, began to spring up on the question of geographical centre. Columbus had made a weapon of this argument, and now the residents of " Bush Prairie " figured themselves out to be nearer the centre of Highland county than Columbus was. They made use of the proverbial expression, which was new in those days, that " what was sauce for the goose was sauce for the gander." They nevertheless failed to secure the honor of the county seat, and Columbus kept it until the Legislature reunited the divided county.
HIGHLAND COUNTY.
The contest was continued at home and in the Legislature and Supreme Court at Springfield, by the various interests involved, until 1846, in December. Speeches were made throughout the county, at every school- house, church or other available place of holding meeting, by the oratorical friends of the different localities. It was the topic of discussion on, every occasion, in the field, the shop, the family, the store, or wherever men might chance to meet. Hon. E. H. Buckley, who was a lawyer, practicing at that time in Columbus, and one of the ablest and most influential friends of Columbus, was elected to the Legislature from Marquette county, and at the session of the Legislature which met in December, 1846, Mr. Buckley prepared, and through his ability and persevering efforts overcame a strong opposition and procured the passage of a law, changing the name of Mar- quette county. and creating the county of Highland, by adding a small portion of Gilmer township. This may be regarded as the final legislation in the contest, as it is an act by which the long and bitter contest was ter- minated. For that and its historical interest, it is inserted in full:
294
HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY.
AN ACT to change the name of the county of Marquette, to organize the same and to attach a portion of the county of Adams thereto, to provide for the collection of revenue therein, and for other purposes therein mentioned.
SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois, represented in General Assembly, that the county heretofore known by the name of Marquette county, shall hereafter be known and called by the name of Highland county.
SEC. 2. All that part of the now county of Adams, lying east of the line commencing at the northwest corner of section two (2), in township two (2), north of the base line and range seven (7), west of the principal meridian, running thence due south on said sectional line, eighteen miles, to the township line, running between townships one (1) and two (2), south, thence east on said township line, two miles, to range line, between six and seven west, as aforesaid be, and the same is hereby attached to and made a part of the county of Highland aforesaid.
SEC. 3. There shall be an election held in the said county of Highland, on the first Monday of April next, in all the precincts of said county, as laid off by the county of Adams, for use of county officers of the county of Highland, including two justices of the peace and two constables for each of said precincts, which said election shall be held and. conducted in all respects as required by the general election laws of this State, as is now provided by law ; Provided, however, the County Commissioners' Court of Highland shall, at their first session, in and for said county of Highland, determine by lot, as is now provided by law, their respective terms of office, so that the one shall expire on the first Monday of August next, and one on the first Monday of August, eighteen hundred and forty-eight, and one on the first Monday of August, eighteen hundred and forty-nine, and in case of the con- test of any of the officors named, it shall be determined according to the laws concerning contested elections.
SEC. 4. Within five days after said election is held, the judges of said election shall make returns of the poll-books thereof to Wesley D. McCann, at his office, in the town of Columbus, in said county of Highland, or in case of his death or absence, to James A. Bell, at his office, in said town of Columbus, who, together with two justices of the peace of said connty, shall meet within eight days from the said day of election, at the office of the said Wesley D. McCann or James A. Bell, (as the case may be) and then and there open and compare said poll-books and returns, as aforesaid, and do and perform all such acts as are required by the laws of this State. Open returns are made to the County Commissioners' Court and the said Wesley D. McCann or James A. Bell, (as the case may be) are hereby required to perform all such duties, in relation to said returns, as the clerks of the County Commissioners' Court are required to do and perform, under the election laws of this State.
SEC. 5. Sections 1, 4, 6, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17, of " An Act to create the county of Marquette and for other purposes therein mentioned," approved February 11th, 1843, be, and the same are hereby declared a part of this act, except the name Marquette; wherever it occurs in said sections, it shall be so changed as to read Highland, and except the boundaries of Marquette county, as fully as if the same were set out in full and incorpor- ated into this act, and sections 2, 3, 7, 8, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22 and 23 of said act are hereby repealed.
SEC. 6. The county commissioners of said county shall hold their first court in the said town of Columbus, in said county of Highland, and the courts of justice for said county shall be holden in said town of Columbus, as aforesaid, until provision by law shall be made to hold them elsewhere.
SEC. 7. As soon as the said county of Highland is organized, the school commission- ers of the county of Adams shall deliver and pay over to the school commissioners of the county of Highland all the school funds belonging to the several townships in the county of Highland, and all moneys, notes, and mortgages appertaining to the same, and also all moneys and interest arising from the school, college and seminary fund which may belong to the county of Highland; and the auditor of the State is hereby authorized to pay over to the school commissioners of the county of Highland all moneys which heretofore have been and may hereafter be due and set apart to the county of Marquette as a portion of the school fund due said county.
SEC. 8. All letters of administration which have been or may hereafter (before the organization of the county of Highland) be granted by the probate justice of the peace of the county of Adams upon estates being or lying within the county of Marquette or Highland are hereby declared as legal as if letters, as aforesaid, had been granted in the county of Marquette, and the same shall be settled in the county of Adams as fully as if in said county of Marquette ; and the liabilities of executors, administrators, and their securi- ties, are hereby declared the same as if letters had been granted by the probate justice of the peace in and for said county of Marquette, and all deeds, mortgages and other instru- ments in writing entitled to be recorded by the laws of this State which have heretofore been recorded in the recorder's office of Adams county affecting or relating to real or per- sonal property lying and being in the county of Marquette, or which shall hereafter be recorded in said recorder's office affecting property in the county of Highland, before the organization of said county be and the same is hereby declared as valid as if they were re-
S. J. Hall
PROF. OF MAPLEWOOD SCHOOL CAMP POINT
.
295
HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY.
corded in the county of Marquette or Highland; and all acknowledgments of deeds and other instruments in writing which have heretofore been acknowledged by justices of the peace of the county of Marquette, and all official acts of said justices of the peace shall be as valid as if said justices had been duly elected and qualified as justices of the peace of the county of Marquette.
SEC. 9. The assessor of taxes in and for the county of Highland for the year eighteen hundred and forty-seven shall at the same time he makes the assessment for the year eigh- teen hundred and forty-seven also make an assessment for the year eighteen hundred and forty-six; and the collector of the county of Highland shall collect the amount of the State tax for the said year of eighteen hundred and forty-six, at the same time and in the same manner as for the year eighteen hundred and forty-seven :
Provided, Said assessor in making said assessment for said year eighteen hundred and forty-six and the collector in collecting said tax shall only make and collect the same upon property whichi was in and owned in said county of Marquette in the year eighteen hun- dred and forty-six, and for the purpose of ascertaining the amount of personal property so owned as aforesaid, the assessor is hereby empowered to administer an oath to each person liable to be taxed as aforesaid and require him or her to answer on oath what amount of property he or she respectively held subject to taxation for the year eighteen hundred and forty-six; and upon refusal to answer under oath, as aforesaid, the assessor shall be governed as is now provided by law, as in case of refusal.
SEC. 10. That the said county of Highland shall be and remain attached to the county of Adams for all judicial purposes up to the time fixed for the organization of the said county of Highland and until the time for the officers to qualify as herein provided and not thereafter.
SEC. 11. In case the said county of Highland shall organize within the time allowed in this act for the said county of Highland to organize, the tract of land attached by this bill to the said county of Highland from the county of Adams aforesaid by the second sec- tion of this act shall be and remain a part of the county of Adams.
SEC. 12. In case the said county of Highland shall not organize within four months from the passage of this aet, it shall be the duty of the governor of this State to appoint some suitable person or persons to assess and collect all the arrearages of taxes due the State of Illinois and now aceruing in the said county of Highland; said assessors and col- lectors giving bond and security as the law now requires to be given by assessors and col- lectors of the revenue of the State and having the same rights and powers, discharging the same duties, and being in like manner liable as assessors and collectors now are by the laws of the State of Illinois.
SEC. 13. The clection for county officers as provided in the third section of this act shall be held on the third Monday in April next as is provided in said seetion, said election to be held and conducted in the same manner as therein provided, and it is hereby made the duty of the person to whom the returns of such an election are made to meet the county commissioner's clerk of the county of Adams at his office in Quincy within four days after the returns are made to him, for the purpose of comparing the vote and ascertaining who has received a majority of votes for joint members from the counties of Adams and High- land to the convention of this State, and deliver a certificate to the person elected and trans- mit of said votes to the secretary of the State; and the said person to whom the returns of the election of Highland county is made shall make out and deliver to the person elected to the convention of this State from said county a certificate of election as aforesaid.
SEC. 14. This act shall be in full force and effect from and after its passage. APPROVED Feb. 27, 1847.
Col. C. A. Warren, in an address delivered at one of the " old settlers rennions," speaking of the contest to divide the county, facetiously re- marks, "There was a protracted session of the court and the legislature to decide which end of the county had been cut off when it had been divided in the middle; they finally decided that what God had put together no man should put asunder."
296
HISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY.
.
CHAPTER V.
THE MORMONS.
This body of men and women came to Illinois after their expulsion from Missouri, in which State their leaders had incurred the ill-will of the authorities, and had been subjected to trial before a court martial, and had been sentenced to be shot for treason, but their lives were saved by General Doniphan, who denounced the military proceedings and gave them the benefit of judicial trial. The whole body of Mormons came to Illinois in 1839 and 1840, and were at first received as an abused and persecuted, but innocent party. They selected Nauvoo, in Hancock county, as their head- quarters, and there they essayed to build up a city and a temple. As Hancock county joins Adams on the north, all of these proceedings were of interest to the Adams county people.
In May, 1844, discussions began among the Mormons in Nauvoo. Some citizens procured a press and began the publication of a paper not opposing Mormonism per se, but against the arrogance of Joseph Smith, the prophet. Messrs. Blakesly and . Higbee addressed a large meeting at Quincy against the prophet. They were the persons proposing to estab- lish the new anti-Smith paper. In the week following, Mr. John P. Green, a Mormon, made a counter-speech.
A prospectus of the new paper announced that its publication would begin June 7th, 1844, and its name would be The Nauvoo Expositor. The publishers were to be, Messrs. William Law, Wilson Law, Charles Ivins, Francis M. Higbee, Robert D. Foster and Charles A. Foster. The paper proposed "to advocate the unconditional repeal of the Nauvoo City Charter," "to advocate unmitigated disobedience to political revelations," " to advocate the freedom of speech in Nauvoo."
This enterprise was destined to be short-lived, for, after the appear- ance of the first number on June 8th, Joe Smith called a meeting of the city council and issued an ordinance declaring the paper a nuisance.
The Warsaw Signal Extra contains a communication from one of the publishers, Charles A. Foster, dated June 11th, 1844. He says : " A company consisting of some two hundred men, armed and equipped with muskets, swords, pistols, bowie-knives, sledge hammers, etc., assisted by a crowd of several hundred minions, who volunteered their services on the occasion, marched to the building, and breaking open the doors with a sledge hammer, commenced the work of destruction. They tumbled the
297
ILISTORY OF ADAMS COUNTY.
press and materials into the street, set them on fire, demolished the machin- ery with a sledge hammer, and injured the building very materially."
The ringleaders, though arrested, were brought before the municipal court on a writ of habeas corpus, and "honorably discharged." Indig- nation meetings were held in Warsaw, and Carthage and Walter Bagby and O. C. Skinner were appointed to see the governor and represent the state of things.
A public meeting of the citizens of Quincy was held, and a committee of twelve appointed to go to the scene of disturbance. Joseph Smith had declared martial law, and was making preparations to defend the city with a force of from three to four thousand men. The killing of Joe Smith and his brother Hiram, and William Richards, took place June 28th, and was the cause of great excitement all through the country. According to one account, Joe Smith's body fell from the jail window pierced with six balls. His brother Hiram received five balls. Governor Ford was in Nauvoo at the time with some troops, but moved out before the news reached there. The governor having reached Quincy immediately issued an order, which, as far as we know, is the first proclamation and the only one that ever was dated from Quincy by a governor of Illinois:
HEADQUARTERS, QUINCY, June 29, 1844.
It is ordered that the commandants of regiments in the counties of Adams, Marquette, Pike, Brown, Schuyler, Morgan, Scott, Cass, Fulton and McDonough, and the regiments comprising General Staff's brigade, will call their respective regiments and battalions together immediately upon the receipt of this order, and proceed by voluntary enlistment to enrol as many men as can be armed in their respective regiments.
They will make arrangements for a campaign of twelve days, and will provide them- selves with arms, ammunitions and provisions accordingly, and hold themselves in readi- ness immediately to march upon the receipt of further orders.
The independent companies of riflemen, infantry, cavalry aud artillery, in the above- named counties, and in the county of Sangamon, will hold themselves in readiness in like manner.
THOMAS FORD,
Governor and Commander-in-Chief.
Previous to this, however, on account of the news before received, between two and three hundred men, under command of Major Flood, had departed by steamer for Nauvoo. They returned unscathed in a few days after.
Governor Ford seemed very much alarmed at the condition of things, and acknowledged that he stood in dread of assassination by the belliger- ants. He remained some time in Quincy, as he considered it particularly eligible from a strategic point, and was here visited by deputations from the seat of disturbance.
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.