USA > Illinois > Ogle County > The history of Ogle 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 history of the Northwest, history of Illinois etc > Part 31
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Pre-emption Certificate No. 13,098. To all to whom these presents shall come: GREETING-Wheras, under the provisions of the act of Congress approved on the 26th of May, 1824, entitled an act granting to the counties, or parishes, in each state and territory, in which the Public Lands are situated, the right of pre-emption to quarter sections of lands for Seats of Justice within the same, there has been deposited in the General Land Office of the United States, a certificate of the Register of the Land Office at Dixon, whereby, it ap- pears that full payment has been made by the County of Ogle, in the State of Illinois, by Dolphus Brown, Spooner Ruggles and Henry Farrell, Commissioners of the County of Ogle, as aforesaid, according to the provisions of the Act of Congress of the 24th of April, 1820, entitled, An Act making further provisions for the sale of Public Lands, for fractions numbered one and two, of the northwest quarter of section three, in Township twenty- three, of Range ten east, in the district of lands subject to sale at Dixon, Illinois, contain- ing one hundred and thirty-one acres, and fifty-three hundredths of an acre, according to the official plat of the survey of the said lands, returned to the General Land Office, which said tract has been purchased by the said County of Ogle, in the state aforesaid : Now know ye, That the United States of America, in consideration of the premises and in conformity with the several acts of Congress, in such case made and provided, have given and granted, and by these presents do give and grant unto the said County of Ogle, in the state aforesaid. the said tract above described; to have and to hold the same, together with all the rights, priveledges, immunities, and appurtenances of whatever nature thereunto belonging, unto the said County of Ogle in the state aforesaid and to its successors and assigns forever.
Milram Stocking ROCHELLE
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HISTORY OF OGLE COUNTY.
In testimony whereof, I, John Tyler, President of the United States of America, have caused these letters to be made patent, and the Seal of the General Land office to be here- unto affixed.
[SEAL. ]
Given under my hand at the City of Washington, the twenty-second day of September, in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and forty-two, and of the Independence of the United States the sixty-seventh.
By the President, JOHN TYLER.
Recorded Vol. 20, Page 487, Ex. J. Williamson Reeorder of the General Land Office. By R. TYLER, Secretary.
In the final hearing of the ease before the commissioners of the general land office, the Phelps interest was represented by Francis Scott Key, of Baltimore, Maryland (author of the " Star Spangled Banner), who died in 1843. The county commissioners were represented by General Sampson Mason, of Springfield, Clark County, Ohio, an able attorney of that state, a prominent Whig politician in the days of that party, and for several years (and at that time) a member of Congress from the Springfield district.
November 18, 1839, the county court being in session, Mr. Jacob B. Crist, representing William J. Mix, Martin C. Hill and John C. Hulett, to whom was awarded the contract for building the court house, presented the following estimate for materials:
150,000 brick at $6.50 per M. $975 00
118 perch of stone for foundation wall, at $5. 590 00
1,948 feet of square timher, at 10 eents per foot. 194 80
$1759 80
Deduct fifteen per cent. 263 85 $1,425 95
On the 4th of December another estimate of material was presented, in the words and figures following, to-wit:
Two kegs of nails, at $10.50 per keg.
$21 00
Five boxes 10x12 glass at $5.50. 27 50
$48 50
Deduct fifteen per cent.
7 27 $41 23
An extra session of the commissioners was held in January, 1840, when it was
Ordered, That the court house foundations, now on block seventy-eight, aeeording to the old original city plat, be removed to block ninety-one, Florence, and built on lots two and three (the site now occupied), eastern end, as follows: The ditch for the reception of the foundation wall to be sunk three feet at the front toward the east, and leveled back fifty feet; the wall to be seven feet high from the bottom of foundation, three feet thick, raised four feet above the surface of the ground at the front, and back according to the rise of the ground, considering the wall to be seven feet from commencement of foundation as afore- said; all that part of the wall above natural ground to be of large stone, neatly hammer- dressed, and the whole to be laid in good lime mortar.
Ordered, That proposals for removing and re-building the foundation, according to the foregoing order be received immediately, and to be completed by the 13th of April next
The contract for the removal of the foundation, etc., was awarded to Jacob B. Crist.
At an extra session of the county commissioners court, held May 12, 1840, the following named gentlemen were appointed to superintend the building of the Ogle County court house and jail : A. M. D. Robertson, Isaac S. Wooley and Robert Davis, provided, that if either of the above named persons become interested in the contract for the erection of either of the said buildings, they shall no longer act as superintendents of the erection of the same.
June 5, 1840, the commissioners ordered that a tax of fifty cents be levied on every hundred dollars worth of taxable property in the county
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320
HISTORY OF OGLE COUNTY.
This assessment returned a revenue, according to the following settlement made with the county treasurer, in June. 1841, of $1,667.78, representing an appraised value of $333,556.00.
DR.
County tax
$877 78
Road tax. 438 89
State tax 351 11
$1,667 78
Against this the county treasurer was allowed the following credits :
CR.
Uncollected county tax $67 74
66
road tax.
33 88
state tax. 27 09
Commission on collection of $1,215 05 at 6 per cent.
72 90
Co. proportion of commission at 4 per cent on first $500
15 75
Amount of treasurer's receipts. 1,043 38
" cash paid in 83 02
state tax collected and to be accounted for to auditor of state. 224 02
$1,667 78
The total valuation of personal property in 1842 was $167,348, on which an assessment of one half of one per cent was ordered to be levied. June 7, of that year, the records show the following settlement was made with the collector for 1841 :
Value of property as per receipt. $167,268 00
Add error discovered after date of receipt. 80 00
$167,348 00
County tax at one lialf of one per cent.
$836 74
collected from persons assessed. 4 52
$841 26
State tax, three tenths per cent.
$502 04
collected of persons assessed 2 69
$504 73
Ordered, That Charles Throop, Collector, be allowed the following credits, to wit:
Uncollectable tax, as per certificate. $34 46
Ten per cent for collecting five eighths of $500.
31 25
Six balance, viz: $494.30 31 65
741 90
Treasurer's receipts.
$841 26
Uncollectable state tax
$20 64
Ten per cent on three eighths of $500
18 75
Six balance, viz .: $296 59 17 79
Balance due state 417 55
$504 73
The total valuation of taxable property in 1877 was $18,633,943, and the rate of taxation $1.33 on the hundred. Total tax levy for 1877, $241,497.08.
At the August term of the county commissioners court, the first jail in the county having been completed, an order for $1,822.50 was ordered to issue to Joseph Knox, the builder, in full payment for its erection.
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321
HISTORY OF OGLE COUNTY.
From the date of the organization of the county up to the completion of this jail, evil doers and law breakers had but little fear of local " grates and bars." As will be shown elsewhere, the country was literally overrun with horse-thieves, counterfeiters and criminals of the worst character. They were scattered all over the county. In some localities, their numbers were so great that they controlled the election of local officers, such as jus- tices of the peace, etc. Grand and petit juries were never free from their presence. They were smooth, oily-tongued fellows, of good address, and, to use the words of an old settler who knew them, "generally as smart as whips." Under such circumstances, it was a very difficult matter to con- vict a wrong doer. When arrests were made, bail was always ready to be furnished, for many of the rogues were wealthy. Before the jail was com- pleted, prisoners were either taken to the Jo Daviess or Winnebago County jail, or kept under guard. The general situation considered, however, there were not many such cases, although there were instances when prisons were a necessity. An evil doer who did not belong to the regularly organized gang had no standing among the " brotherhood," and such "unfortunates," when arrested, tried, and found sufficiently guilty to be held to answer to the higher courts, were turned over to guards, or taken to neighboring county jails, most of which, in those days, were very insecure concerns. For want of a jail, and in consideration of the expense attending their transportation to other counties, or guarding them at home, many a rogue " got off" much easier than if Ogle County had been provided with a " good and sufficient " jail. But the time came when the gang did not escape arrest and imprisonment, and after the jail was completed, as many as ten and fifteen of them were incarcerated at one time. But that was a dangerous time for the sheriff and jailor. Life insurance companies, if they had been fashionable then, would not have insured the life of an Ogle County sheriff, his deputies, or the jailor, for a cent. But of these things, more anon.
The first allowance made by the county commissioners court for the care of prisoners in the Ogle County jail, was at their December session, 1840, when a county order was directed to issue to Isaac S. Woolley, for $174.87} for committing prisoners Terrill, Brown, Webb and Dennison to jail, and dieting them to date, and for other duties as jailor.
While the jail was being built and completed, the court house was also under way, and on the 5th of March, 1841, it was "ordered that Jacob B. Crist be allowed $3,000 on court honse contract." The reader should bear in mind the fact that the cost of building the jail and court house was not met and covered by the taxes assessed and collected from personal property, for that would have been entirely inadequate. In 1840 the county tax amounted to only $877.78, and in 1841 to $836.74. When the county com- missioners filed a claim to the northwest quarter of section three, of which fact mention has already been made, although Mr. Phelps and his associates
had sold a large number of lots, Judge Ford was appointed as county agent to sell lots, etc., subject to the order and direction of the county commis- sioners. Judge Ford was succeeded in this duty in June, 1840, by Mr. D. H. L. Moss. The proceeds of these lots were intended to apply on the erection of public buildings for the county, as provided in the act of congress of May 24, 1824, and sundry amendments thereto. Without this aid, the erection of public buildings could not have been nndertaken, as any one can readily see that the amount of taxable property at that time was entirely inadequate to such an undertaking.
322
HISTORY OF OGLE COUNTY.
At the time the three thousand dollar order was issued to Crist on the court house contract, the building was nearing completion-at least, it was so far completed that it was intended to be used for holding the Spring term of the circuit court, which was set for Monday the 22d of March. But the outlaws willed that it should never be used for that or any other term of the court, for, during the night before the court was to convene they set fire to the building and burned it to the ground. This fire being the work of the ontlaws that held dominion in this county at that time, for several years previous and for some years afterwards, a further account of it will be left to make up a part of the history of a reign of terror that hung over the settlers of the Rock River Valley like a death pall for a full decade of years.
On the 4th of June, 1841, it was "ordered that Jacob B. Crist be allowed the sum of $1,000, which is in final settlement on the part of the County of Ogle on the contract for the building of the court house, entered into between William J. Mix, Martin C. Hill and John Hulett, of whom Jacob B. Crist is the representative."
This order closed out the first court house undertaking, and left the county to rebuild a new temple of justice, which was erected on the site of the one destroyed, its erection being commenced in 1843.
The jail built by Mr. Knox, already mentioned, was a stone building, two stories high, and stood a little to the west of the present court house. The building was only eighteen feet square, and had no doors in the lower part. The second story was reached by a stairway on the outside. The prison part or cells were reached through a kind of trap door. Prisoners were taken up the stairs, thence through the door into the upper part. The trap door was raised and a ladder lowered to the first floor, by which the prisoners descended to the "cage," when the ladder was drawn up. But withal, it did not prove to be a very safe concern. In one instance, a pris- oner who had been incarcerated within its walls for some minor offense, dug out in less than an hour with an old jack knife. When the more des- perate characters were imprisoned, it required an almost constant watch to prevent their escape, and even then, they would sometimes get away. There were always some members of the organized gang on the outside, seemingly on the watch, and they spared neither opportunity nor occasion to render "aid and comfort" to such of their confederates as happened to be in the cage; and when it is considered that, for a number of years the gang overran the county, holding the community in continued terror, it is almost a wonder they did not batter the jail to pieces the first time it was used for the confinement of such of the gang as were caught within the toils of the laws which they set at naught.
After the court house was burned in 1841, until the present court house was built in 1843, courts were held in such buildings as could be had sufficiently large for the purpose-sometimes in a house belonging to a Mr. Sanderson, but most generally in a log house belonging to Mr. Jno. Phelps, on Third Street, at or near the corner of Monroe, and not far from the site now occupied by the cheese factory.
Between the time of the burning of the first court house on Sunday night, March 21, 1841, and the building of the present one, the removal of the county seat from Oregon City was seriously agitated. The feeling that had been engendered against Oregon City by the Dixon interests before the erection of Lee county, had never fully died out, and when it became neces-
323
HISTORY OF OGLE COUNTY.
sary to build a new court house, the smouldering embers of that fiery oppo- sition were fanned into new life, and the excitement ran pretty high. Mount Morris, Daysville, Grand de Tour and Byron, were candidates for county seat honors. The friends of each place devised plans and schemes for a division of the county, each different plan being so defined as to make the favorite town the grand centre. But single-handed and alone, Oregon City maintained the supremacy, and finally gained what proved to be a per- manent victory. During the agitation of this question, the county author- ities took no action towards the erection of public buildings, but let the matter remain in abeyance.
In the latter part of March, 1843, a call was issued for a mass meeting of the people of the county, to be held at the old school-house that stood on the west side of Fifth Street, between Washington and Jefferson Streets, to take action in regard to the matter, and to adopt such measures as would settle the question beyond further dispute. That meeting was called for the 3d of April, and was largely attended. The Spring was the most back- ward of any known in the history of the country. Rock River was still blockaded with ice, and snow lay on the ground to the depth of several inches. The day was mild and pleasant, however, and the streets and vacant places-and there was a good deal of vacancy, then-soon became plains of slush.
Colonel Dauphin Brown was selected to preside over the deliberations of the meeting, but the name of the secretary is forgotten-the written pro- ceedings not being preserved. Mount Morris, Grand de Tour, Daysville and Byron were represented in full force. Mr. Phelps and the other represen- tative men of Oregon City were not indifferent to the issue involved, and had secured the presence of every one friendly to their interests. Speeches were made by representative men from cach of the contesting villages, each of them claiming superior county seat advantages. After each of the spokesmen had exhausted their arguments, the question of location was submitted to a vote of the meeting, which resulted in favor of Oregon City by a small majority-Daysville giving up the contest before the vote was taken, and voting with Mr. Phelps and his friends for Oregon City.
A resolution was then passed asking the county commissioners to pro- ceed at once with the erection of a one-story brick court house on the foundations of the one destroyed by fire, a number of persons pledging themselves to assist in its erection and to take town lots in payment for their labor thereon, or for such material as they might be able to furnish. The meeting then adjourned, waded down town through the slush, and, in bumpers of the best whisky to be had in the embryo city, provided at the expense of the Oregon people, pledged each other to bury the hatchet, let by-gones be by-gones, and work together for the common good of the county, after which the delegates retired to their respective homes, as merry as only pioneers know how to be, and yet keep sober. The county seat question was settled.
During the proceedings of the meeting, when the proposition to build a one-story court house was being considered, one of the Danas, of Grand de Tour, took occasion to remark that such a building would look more like a black schooner than a court house, and that it ought to be so called. Mr. Ben. Holden, then a settler in the Town of Maryland, replied that the Grand de Tour people might call it a black schooner if they wished. He was willing to adopt the name. When completed and rigged and ready for
324
HISTORY OF OGLE COUNTY.
the crew, he knew where to find them. All that was necessary was to go down to Grand de Tour. A crew for such a craft could be picked up there at any time.
After this action on the part of the people, the county commissioners set to work to carry out the spirit of the meeting, and soon thereafter pro- ceeded to the erection of the building. At a session of the county commis- sioners held in April, General Philip R. Bennett, the father of William Bennett, Esq., president of the First National Bank of Oregon City, was appointed to superintend the erection of the new temple of justice. At the September term of the Commissioners Court, General Bennett presented to the court the original subscription list by which different citizens had agreed to aid in its erection, take town lots in payment therefor, etc., etc. At the same session, the court authorized Messrs. Bennett, W. W. Fuller and D. H. L. Moss to " proceed with the erection of the court house, and to vary the plan of the same from the specifications presented to the court in April so that the walls will be sixteen feet high." These agents were also authorized to sell lots to defray the additional expense beyond the original estimate of $2,000.
Under these auspices, the present court house, the wings excepted, was completed and ready for court occupancy in the Summer of 1848. The wings were built in 1847, at a cost of $1,000. Moses T. Crowell was the contractor and builder.
In the Summer of 1845, a new jail became a necessity. The old one, always weak and unsafe, was condemned, and measures inaugurated for the erection of a new one on the south side of the public square, between the building now occupied by the county clerk and county treasurer and the new brick jail, erected in 1874. December 4, 1845, the commissioners ordered the clerk to advertise for proposals for the erection of a new two- story brick jail, 18 by 32 feet, resting on stone foundations sunk two and one half feet below the surface of the ground and rising eighteen inches above the surface-the walls to be sixteen feet high. Provisions were made for two cells in the north end of the building, eight feet square each, and to be lined with two thicknesses of two-inch white oak planks, lincd between with thick plate iron, to be spiked through with wrought iron spikes. The plans adopted also called for another cell seven by eight feet, to be lined in a similar manner, spiked and nailed together, etc. Each cell was to be fur- nished with good, substantial iron-barred doors, five feet high and eighteen inches wide. Innumerable locks, bars, bolts, etc., were included in the " plans and specifications," with a seeming determination of purpose to secure a jail that would bid defiauce to the worst of characters. But jail-breaking then had not been reduced to a science. Such a jail now would be looked upon as but little better than a pile of brick and rubbish, to be picked to pieces at will.
On the 9th of January, 1846, the commissioners being in session, the matter of the building of the jail was considered, and a blank contract was drawn up by the clerk, stipulating the manner of payment, etc. On the 10th, the contract for building the same was put up at public auction, the lowest responsible bidder to be awarded the contract. Thomas A. Potwin was the successful bidder, the contract being " knocked down " to him at the sum of $1,990. Isaac S. Wooley became Potwin's bondsman. In March, W. L. Ward was appointed to superintend the building of the jail, which was completed during the Summer, and accepted by the commissioners December 9, 1846.
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HISTORY OF OGLE COUNTY.
That jail answered for all needed purposes until 1874, when the pres- ent handsome county prison, inelnding a residence for the sheriff, at the southwest corner of the publie square, was undertaken. In an exterior point of view, this county building is among the handsomest of its kind in the state. Messrs. Damier and Elder, of Chicago, were the contractors and builders, Messrs. Street and Baker, architects. Messrs. Daniel Shotten- kirk, Charles M. Samis and George W. Dwight, of the board of super- visors, were the building committee and superintendents-Shottenkirk, chairman. The briek were from the kilns of Messrs. Hallett & Wertz, one and a quarter miles north of Oregon City. The structure cost $20,000. Henry C. Peak was the first sheriff to occupy the new building after its completion.
The last session of the county commissioners conrt was held on the 30th of November, A. D. 1849, and their last order related to the appoint- ment of commissioners to divide the county into townships, and was in the words following, to-wit :
Ordered, That William Wamsley, Henry Hill and Daniel J. Pinkney be and they are hereby appointed commissioners to divide the County of Ogle into towns, under the pro- visions of the act of the legislature, entitled "Township Organization;" said commissioners being governed in the discharge of their duties by the provisions of said act, and make report accordingly. (Signed)
SAMUEL H. COFFMAN, WILIAM P. FLAGG, WILLIAM WAMSLEY, County Commissioners.
And so passed away the time-honored and economical system of county management by three commissioners.
TOWNSHIP ORGANIZATION.
When Illinois was admitted into the Union as a sovereign and inde- pendent state in 1818, the county system of management by a board of three county commissioners became a part of the organie law, but when the con- stitution of 1848 was adopted, provisions were made for submitting the question of a change from county to township organization to the people of the several counties of the state. The two systems are so entirely different in origin and management, that a brief synopsis of the differences is deemed pertinent in this connection.
Elijah M. Haines, in his "Laws of Illinois, Relative to Township Organization," says the county system "originated with Virginia, whose early settlers soon became large landed proprietors, aristocratic in feeling, living apart in almost baronial magnificence on their own estates, and own- ing the laboring part of the population. Thus the materials for a town were not at hand, the voters being 'thinly distributed over a great area. The county organization, where a few influential men managed the whole business of the community, retaining their places almost at their pleasure, scareely responsible at all except in name, and permitted to condnet the county concerns as their ideas or wishes might direet, was, moreover, conso- nant with their recollections or traditions of the judicial and social dignities of the landed aristocracy of England. in deseent from whom the Virginia gentlemen felt so much pride. In 1834, eight counties were organized in Virginia, and the system, extending throughout the state, spread into all the Southern States, and some of the Northern States, unless we except the
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