USA > Illinois > Carroll County > The history of Carroll county, Illinois, containing a history of the county-its cities, towns, etc., a biographical directory war record statistics, portraits of early settlers and prominent men history of the Northwest Illinois miscellaneous matters, etc > Part 22
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In 1837, George W. Christian had come in possession of that tract of land now embraced in the farm of Sherman Cole, a tract of ten acres owned by Hon. J. M. Stowell, and extending north to the Baptist Church and east to Clay Street. Of this tract, Christian proposed to give thirteen acres to the county if the seat of justice should be located here. Emmert, Halder- man & Co., the mill company, likewise proposed to donate forty acres on the east side of the present town site, on the same condition. Both parties -i. e., Christian, and Emmert, Halderman & Co .-- kept their faith and did convey to the county commissioners and their successors in office, the lands referred to.
Savanna, had failed up to this time to comply with the requirements of the law under which the county had been organized, and during the ses- sion of the legislature of 1842-3, an act entitled " An aet to re-locate the .county seat of Carroll County" was passed, and "John Dixon, of Lee County, Moses Hallett, of Jo Daviess County, and Nathaniel Belcher, of Rock Island County, were appointed commissioners to select a site for the re-location of the county seat. * ** And the said commissioners, or a majority of them, shall meet at Savanna, in the County of Carroll, on the first Monday in May next (1843), or within fifteen days thereafter, and after being duly sworn to the faithful discharge of their duties, shall proceed to examine such parts of said county as they may think proper to enable then to select such a site as in their opinion shall give the greatest amount of good to the greatest number of inhabitants of said county, as a county seat; and said commissioners, after having made such selection, shall report to the clerk of the County Commissioners' Court of said county a certificate thereof, which certificate of said selection shall be recorded by the clerk of said County Commissioners' Court; Provided, always, that such selection so made shall not be the town of Savanna."
Section 2, of the same act, provided as follows: "That an election shall
243
HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.
be held in the County of Carroll, on the first Monday in Angust next, at the usual place of holding elections in said county, for the removal of the seat of justice of said county; at which election the clerks thereof shall open two columns, one for Savanna, the present seat of justice, and one for the place which shall be designated by the commissioners hereinbefore appointed, and shall receive and record the votes of each qualified voter for one of the aforesaid places as the seat of justice thereafter for said county. * * * The clerk of the County Commissioners' Court shall immedi- ately after the receipt by him of the returns of said election, in the presence of two justices of the peace, open said election returns, compare them, and certify the same to the County Commissioners' Court, and the place having the greatest number of votes shall be and remain the seat of justice in said county."
Pursuant to their appointment under this law, two of the commissioners, John Dixon, of Lee County, and Moses Hallett, of Jo Daviess County, pro- ceeded, within the time specified, to examine the ground, etc., and on the 17th day of May, 1843, made the following report :
The undersigned (who constitute a majority of the commissioners so appointed to select a site as a county seat for said county), who, after having examined said county with a view of the best interests of the greatest number of inhabitants of said county, and after taking into consideration the liberal donation to be secured to the county commissioners of said county for the use of the people thereof, do, by these presents, make known and declare that the site selected, as aforesaid, is the south half of the east half of the southeast quarter of section one (1), township twenty-four (24) north, range four (4) east of the fourth principal meridian, and that a substantial stake has been set in the place selected as a public square, to which site we have given the name of Mount Carroll.
As witness our hands and seals this seventeenth day of May, A.D. one thousand eight hundred and forty-three.
JOIN DIXON.
[Seal.]
MOSES HALLETT. [Seal.]
The returns of the August election show that 421 votes were polled on the county seat question, of which Mt. Carroll had 231, and Savanna 190. There were only four precincts, or voting places, at each of which votes were cast as follows:
Precincts.
Mt. Carroll.
Savanna.
Savannah
6
130
Cherry Grove
46
16
Elkhorn Grove
78
38
Preston
101
6
231
190
Majority for Mt. Carroll
41
The report of the commissioners to re-locate the county seat was entered upon the journal of the County Commissioners Court at their September session, 1843. In August the people had voted and the result was known, so that at this session the commissioners inaugurated measures looking to a removal of the county offices from Savanna. John Wilson was appointed as an agent for the county to demand the execution of a warranty deed from George W. Christian to the county for the land he had agreed to donate to the county if the county seat was located at Mt. Carroll, and also to super- intend the division of the Emmert, Halderman & Co. tract into town lots, etc., and to give public notice of the sale of lots and to sell on such terms and conditions as the county commissioners should direct, to receive notes, execute title bonds and deeds to purchasers under his proper hand and seal, for and in behalf of the county," etc.
244
HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.
The immediate site designated by the locating commissioners by driv- ing a stake into the ground, was at or near the west line of Main Street, on the top of the hill near the Baptist Church. Upon the first organization of the county, the choice of a name was left to the settlers in Cherry Grove Precinct, the most of whom were Marylanders, and they named the new county in honor of that grand old patriot who wrote his name to the Decla- ration of American Independence, "Charles Carroll, of Carrollton." From the point where this stake was driven in the earth, the ground sloped in all directions, and was elevated above the surrounding country. The name of Mount Carroll was given to the new county seat-a place before unknown by any name except Emmert, Halderman & Co.'s Mill Site.
THE FIRST COURT HOUSE.
December 5, 1843. Col. Beers Tomlinson, one of the members of the Board of County Commissioners, was "appointed agent for the County of Carroll to contract for the building of a court house of the following descrip- tion, to-wit: Thirty feet by forty on the ground; a basement of stone sixteen inches above the surface of the earth, two feet thick. The first story to be eight feet and nine inches high in the clear, divided into four rooms, entrance and one flight of stairs as marked on plat number one on plan on file in this office. The timbers of the lower floor to be good substantial sleepers; the joists of the second story floor to be ten inches deep and two inches thick and twenty inches apart from centre to centre. The second story to be eleven feet high, to be finished according to a specified plan in this office. Roof, cupola, cornice, and frontispiece all to be finished accord- ing to the last above named specified plan. The walls of the building above the basement to be brick; first story walls to be sixteen inches thick or the length of two brick; flnes suitable to receive stove pipes prepared in each room; doors to each room containing six panels each and one and a half inches thick; outside doors to be two inches thick. Floors to be of good white oak, tongued and grooved, one and a quarter inches thick. The roof covered with good merchantable pine shingles. The building to be painted throughout-outside and inside-the whole building to be finished on or before the October term of Circuit Court of Carroll County, A.D. 1844, in accordance throughout with the plan on file in this office, to be built of good sound material, and built in a workmanlike manner. If it should be necessary, our agent, in entering into a contract with builders may make such slight changes in the above specified plan as may be deemed proper."
A sale of lots was advertised for the 20th of November, A. D. 1843, at one third cash in hand, one third in six months. and the remaining one third in twelve months from the day of sale, secured by the notes of pur- chasers, the county commissioners giving title bond for deed when last payments were made, the county commissioners stipulating to receive specie, current paper and county serip in payment for lots, etc. The day of sale came, but in consequence of objections raised by the Mill Company, no sales were made. In agreeing to donate forty acres of land and one thou- sand dollars in money to the county, if the seat of justice were located adjacent to their mill property, the company understood and expected that the site for the court house would be selected near the line dividing their land from the forty acres they would deed to the county, that they might be equally benefitted by the nearness of the public buildings to them. But, when Mr. Wilson, the county clerk and special agent for the county to
ยท
245
HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.
superintend the division of that forty acres of land into town lots, selected the site for the court house, etc., instead of locating the court house square on the northwest corner of the land donated by the Mill Company, he selected the county square near the centre of the forty acres, and hence the objections of the company. That company not only objected to the meas- ures, so far as they had been prosecuted by Mr. Wilson, and to the sale of lots as a violation of the agreement entered into when they donated the land, but refused to pay the thousand dollars which they had offered in addi- tion to the land. The county needed public buildings. The treasury was empty, the people were poor, and to raise a sum sufficient to build a court house, etc., by taxation, would have imposed a heavy burden upon the set- tlers-a burden they could not carry. A thousand dollars in those days was a " bonanza " to Carroll County, and it was to the public interest to secure the money offered by the Mill Company, as well as the forty acres of land. A compromise was made on terms offered by Emmert, Halderman & Co., to this end: that, if the county commissioners would deed back to the company the forty acres which they had donated to the county and release then from the payment of the one thousand dollars they had offered, and also deed to them the Christian tract of thirteen acres, they would give a sufficient number of acres of ground near their mill, and build thereon a court house, and deed the same to the county. The terms were accepted, and the present public square was surveyed out and the erection of a stone court house commenced and completed on the northwest corner of the square, which served the county until the present handsome brick temple of justice was completed, in 1858. Afterwards, with a frame addition built on the north side, it was used and occupied by Messrs, Blake & Stowell as a hardware store. It was burned down in October, 1872.
Nathaniel Halderman, of the firm of Emmert, Halderman & Co., seems to have been the representative, or business man, of the Mill Company, and to have conducted all their business matters, particularly in arranging and adjusting the differences that came up between his company and the county, and to no one man, perhaps, is there due a greater degree of credit for the inauguration and management of the public interests of Mount Carroll than to Nathaniel Halderman, who, though now nearing the last of the years allotted to man, is remarkably well preserved, intellectually and physically, and one of the most active business men of the community, and highly respected not only at home, but abroad.
March 6, 1844, while the county commissioners were in session, Beers Tomlinson, building agent for the county, submitted his first report, in the words following, to-wit:
To the Honorable County Commissioners Court, of Carroll County, Ill .- GENTLEMEN: In conformity to required duties, on the first day of January, '44, I presented a blank bond, received from the clerk of said court, to Messrs. Emmert, Halderman & Rinehart, 10 be exe- cuted by them to the people of said county, which they refused to sign. stating that the bond required more of them than they agreed to perform, which was the addition of a cupola, bell, frontis and elevation of the upper floor. With that alteration they would sign said bond. Accordingly a bond was drawn, copied from the original, with the above exceptions, and signed by David Emmert, N. Halderman and S. M. Hitt, for the completion of said house as required in the original blank bond. At a subsequent period. I made a verbal contract with the said Emmert & Halderman, to put up the said house with stone instead of brick. The last named alteration was, that the building should be 31 by 41 feet, instead of 30x40. I am informed by said E. & H. that about one half the stone is now on the building spot. Thus far I have gone and no further.
Very respectfully your humble servant,
SAVANNA, 5th March, 1844.
B. TOMLINSON.
246
HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.
Second Report .- At the June session of the County Commissioners Court, Mr. Tomlinson presented his second report, as follows:
To the Honorable County Commissioners Court of Carroll County, Ill .- GENTLEMEN: Since my last report, I have made no alteration in the construction of the court house. The men who are engaged in putting up the building are progressing as fast as can be ex- pected. The walls are stone instead of brick, as was calculated in the first place, when the contract was made. The first story of the wall is laid, and the work appears to be done in a good, substantial, workmanlike manner, and the house will be completed by the first of October next, and I see no reason why the next Circuit Court should not be held at Mount Carroll. All of which is respectfully submitted. 3d June, 1844.
B. TOMLINSON.
Tuesday, June 4, 1844, the County Commissioners Conrt
Ordered, That the several officers of this county who are required to hold their offi- ces at the county seat, move their offices from Savanna to Mount Carroll on the first Mon- day of September next, and that Henry Smith, Esq., be required to procure suitable offices at said Mount Carroll, to be occupied by said officers, etc.
Careful inquiry fails to locate the offices after their removal here any- where except in the court house. As it was only about one month after their removal here until the court house was finished, if they occupied any other quarters, it must have been in Mr. Wilson's private residence-a house that stood on the corner now occupied by the bank block, at the cor- ner of Main and Market Streets.
. When Emmert, Halderman & Co. entered into a contract to build the court house, they exacted a guaranty from the county authorities that, when completed, it should be open for a period of ten years to religious meet- ings and such other public gatherings as occasion and the necessities of the time demanded. July 4, 1844, the building had so far advanced towards completion that it was fitted up and decorated with evergreens, etc., for a celebration of our nation's birthday, which was the first time the day had been publicly observed and respected in Mt. Carroll. Hon. Thomas Hoyne, then of Galena, but now of Chicago, and at one time not long ago mayor de jure of the latter city, was orator of the day, and although there have since been thirty-three recurrences of the day, nearly all of which were pub- licly observed, none of them were more happily spent. In pioneer life there is a soul and a feeling -- a genuine spirit of hospitality and sociability that is comparatively unknown when a country grows older and richer. Pent-up conventionalities and self-constituted castes do not interfere to crip- ple the truer inwardness of the human soul. Distinctions and fashions do not turn up their noses at their neighbors. The people more fully believe in the truth of the sentiment that " all men are created free and equal " than they do in later years, when farms have been opened and made remunera- tive, fine houses made to take the places of log cabins, cities to supersede wayside post-offices, and finely-constructed church edifices, with their cush- ioned pews, to supplant the old log school houses and primitive dwellings as houses of worship. These modern achievements are well enough in their way, but they cripple rather than develop the grander and nobler attributes of the human heart, and dwarf that genuine hospitality and sense of humanity that obtains among pioneers everywhere.
The first session of the County Commissioners Court held in Mt. Car- roll, commenced on Monday, the 2d day of September, 1844. There were present of the old board, Henry Smith and John C. Owings. Beers Tom- linson had been succeeded at the August election by Henry B. Harmon, who presented to the board his certificate of election, when the oath of
247
HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.
office was administered to him by Leonard Goss, P.J.P., and he entered upon a discharge of the duties of a county commissioner.
During this session of the commissioners (on Wednesday, the 4th), the court
Ordered, That the debt of Carroll County in the hands of Emmert, Halderman & Co., amounting to six hundred dollars, is this day funded as follows: Said indebtedness to be paid at the expiration of two years, in six equal instalments, with interest payable half yearly, at the rate of eight per cent per annum; and the clerk of this court is authorized and required to give bonds in accordance with the above agreement, the evidence of the original indebtedness, as above, having been given up in open court and paid over to the treasurer. Also
Ordered, That John Wilson, clerk of this court, be our agent to procure suitable furniture for the court house, and to see that the same is put in readiness for holding court in October next.
The next session of the County Commissioners Court was held in De- cember, the recorded proceedings of which show that Emmert, Halderman & Co. were allowed $50 for two stoves and seventy pounds of pipe, including, three elbows, and that Leonard Goss was appointed to take possession of the stoves on behalf of the county, and directed to appropriate one to the use of his office (Cirenit Clerk) and the other to the use of the room designed for the use of the County Commissioners Court. From these several orders last quoted, it would seem that the court house had been completed and turned over to the uses of the county, but, in hunting over the journal, the writer could find no record of the faet-an omission that should not have occurred. But oral evidence, as well as an order directing County Clerk Wilson to procure the necessary furniture and prepare the building for the fall term (1844) of the Circuit Court, the completion of the court house is fixed about the first of October of that year. In the completion of the building, Em- mert, Halderman & Co., as shown by an order made at the March term (1845) of the County Commissioners Court, had done extra work to the amount of one hundred and fifty-six dollars, to secure the payment of which the following contract was entered into by and between the county com- missioners and Emmert, Halderman & Co .:
They (Emmert, Halderman & Co.) shall be permitted to rent out that part of the court house used as a school room, at a reasonable price, until the above amount ($156) is raised. provided such time shall not exceed a term of ten years from the 10th day of Octo- ber, 1844; and unless the above amount is raised as aforesaid, then the above order to be void, and no liability resting upon the county. It is also understood that said room is at all times to be open for county purposes, free of charge. The said Emmert, Halderman & Co. are further required to report semi-annually the amount received as above, which shall be credited on this order.
On the margin of this order appears this endorsement:
This contract cancelled and contract given up, March 4, 1847.
This, it seems, completed in good faith, all matters between Emmert, Halderman & Co. and the county commissioners, in relation to the build- ing of the court house.
Nearly six years had come and gone since the county was organized and the first election of county officers in April, 1839. The county had in- creased largely in population and wealth, and, so far, its public affairs had been carefully and economically managed. The liberality and enterprise of Emmert, Halderman & Co. had provided for the county a court house amply sufficient and commodious for any new county, and one that answered well for nearly twenty years, thus enabling the people to avoid . making a debt, or subjeeting them to heavy taxation for publie building
248
HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.
purposes. This liberality and public spirit of the founders of Mt. Carroll. Emmert, Halderman & Co., provided the means by which the county could prepare themselves against the day when a larger and better court house would be needed.
FIRST SETTLEMENTS.
Thus far only the first settlement at Savanna, the history of the or- ganization of the county, the re-location of the county seat, the building of the first conrt honse, etc., etc., have been followed. To render our under- taking more complete and comprehensive, the settlement of the different parts of the county will now be taken up, that the names of the first settlers and some of the pioneer incidents may be preserved.
Taking these settlements in their regular order, we return to Savanna, to add a few additional items that were omitted in the beginning of these pages for want of the proper data. After the work had been commenced, the writer visited Dr. E. Woodruff, of Savanna, to solicit his aid in mak- ing some corrections and supplying some important dates, etc. While on that visit, that very courteous and intelligent gentleman kindly consented to "hunt up" sundry items of Savanna's early days, withont which this history would be incomplete. True to his word, as he has ever been to all his promises, Dr. Woodruff remits to these pages the missing links in the history of that part of Carroll County of which he has been an honored, respected and useful citizen and representative man for over forty years.
SAVANNA, ILL., Nov. 19, 1877.
H. F. KETT & Co .- Dear Sirs: I wrote to Mr. Pierce, at Hampton, Ill., for items of interest to your praiseworthy undertaking -- the " History of Carroll County," but, owing to the death of his sister, Mrs. Rhodes, his attendance at her funeral, etc., I did not receive an answer until this morning, when I received the following:
"Mrs. Mary Jane Rhodes, whose death is referred to above, was the first white child born in what is now Carroll County. She was born May 8, 1829, and died Nov. 14, 1877.
"The principal tribes of Indians here when the settlement at Savanna was com- menced were, the Foxes, Keokuk, chief; the Sacs, Black Hawk, chief; and a few Winne- bagoes and Pottawatomies."
The first marriage occurred (I think) in 1835, when Vance L. Davidson was married to Harriett M. Pierce. They subsequently moved to California, where they were still living at last accounts.
Marshall B. Pierce, (now of Hampton, Ill.,) and Julia A. Baker procured the first marriage license after the county was organized, and were married by Benjamin Church, Justice of the Peace, Ang. 25, 1839.
We had occasional preaching, as a preacher happened among us. %
No church record prior to 1858 is known, to my knowledge, although there was an M. E. Church organization as early as the Spring of 1838, but I can not give you any definite information about it.
The first death of which I have any positive knowledge was in the family of Luther H. Bowen, when they lost an infant son. The second death was in the same family, in the Fall of 1837, when the wife and mother followed the infant son to a home beyond the skies. The first church edifice was erected by the Methodist people, in 1849.
The first steamboat to land at Savanna was the "Red Rover," Captain Throckmor- ton, that stopped to take on wood-red cedar, cut along the bluffs above town. In these days, when cedar posts, for fencing posts, etc., are worth twenty-five cents each, that kind of fuel would be rather expensive.
The land upon which the town of Savanna was built was patented by A. Pierce and George Davidson. I think Vance L. Davidson also patented some, but I can not say now what part, or how much.
M. B. Pierce says in his letter to me : "Father's house was a hospital for the sick of the whole country for several years, which was the cause of Savanna bearing the name of being a sickly place, bilious fever and ague being the principal diseases." And again he says: "Rattlesnakes were very plenty and denned in the bluffs above town. For the first few years we used to go snaking, and killed hundreds of them as they came out of their dens in the spring." Since my acquaintance with him, I have often heard him relate snake stories of his boyhood's days.
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