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 48
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Section five of this act provided that "the several towns, villages and cities along or near the route of the railroad, in their corporate capacity might subscribe to the stock of said company, or make donations thereto,
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HISTORY OF OGLE COUNTY.
or lend its or their credit to said company to aid in constructing or equipping said road or any division or branch thereof; provided, that no such sub- scription, donation or loan shall be made until the same shall be voted for" by the people of the respective towns, cities and villages.
Section six of the act provided that the clerks of such "towns, villages or city " should call elections to determine whether such town, village or city shall subscribe to capital stock, make donation or loan of credit, on written application of twenty voters, stating the amount and whether sub- scribed, donated or loaned, rate of interest and time of payment, and minutely prescribed the mode of proceeding, by whom bonds voted should be signed, and to the extent taxes might be levied.
THE CHICAGO AND IOWA RAILROAD.
On the same day on which the above amendatory act was approved, " An Act to incorporate the Chicago and Iowa Railroad Company " was also approved. This act provided that "all such persons as may become stockholders in the corporation " should be a body politic and corporate, etc. This company was authorized to locate, construct, complete, maintain and operate a railroad from Chicago to a crossing of Rock River at or near the Town of Oregon, thence through Ogle and Carroll Counties to the Missis- sippi River at Savanna; thence np said river to Galena and the northern boundary of the state. The capital stock was fixed at one million dollars, in shares of one hundred dollars each, and might be increased by the directors to any sum not exceeding five millions.
H. S. Townsend, J. W. White, N. Halderman, John M. Adair, Fred- erick G. Petrie, L. H. Bowen, James V. Gale, David B. Stiles, Jonas S. Meckling, P. B. Shumway and Francis E. Hinckley were made commis- sioners to procure subscriptions to the capital stock of the company. When $100.000 were subscribed, these commissioners were directed to call a meet- ing of the stockholders for the election of directors. The company was authorized to nnite, connect or consolidate with any other railroad "con- structed or which may hereafter be constructed" in Illinois or Iowa. Towns, villages and citizes were authorized to subscribe for stock, make donations or loan their credit to this railroad.
This act authorized the construction of a railroad over substantially the ronte of the Ogle & Carroll County Railroad Company, and is in its provisions practically the same as provided in the amendment to the act incorporating that company.
The Chicago & Iowa Railroad Company was organized soon after its incorporation, by the election of Francis E. Hinckley, James V. Gale, Fred- erick G. Petrie, Elias S. Potter, and David B. Stiles, Directors; and the board organized by the election of Francis E. Hinckley, President, and James V. Gale, Vice President. Thenceforward the work was prosecuted by this company, superseding the Ogle and Carroll County Railroad Company, although the organization of the latter was ostensibly maintained until a somewhat later period.
On the 23d day of April, 1869, Lewis Hormell and seventy others, legal voters of the Town of Oregon, filed an application with the town clerk, for an clection, to determine whether said Town of Oregon should make a donation to the Ogle and Carroll County Railroad Company, of fifty thousand dollars in the bonds of town, payable at the option of the town
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HISTORY OF OGLE COUNTY.
within twenty years, and bearing seven per cent interest, per annum, payable annually. "Said bonds not to be issued, dated or delivered, until said com- pany shall have completed the laying of the track in condition to run trains over the same, with a T rail, weighing not less than forty-five pounds to the yard, from a connection or intersection with the Chicago & North- western Railway, to a point opposite the Village of Oregon, within one half mile of Rock River, and shall have equipped the same with rolling stock sufficient to operate a daily train to and from said Village of Oregon, for the accommodation of freight and passengers; nor until said company shall have released said town for any and all liabilities on account of donations heretofore voted. Said vote to be void unless the first division of said rail- road shall be completed and equipped as aforesaid, on or before the first day of January, A. D. 1870.
The clerk called the election on the 24th day of May, when 153 votes were cast: 152 votes were for the donation, and there was one vote against proposition .
During the Summer and Autumn of 1869, the engineers of the Chicago & Iowa Railroad Company, surveyed and located the road from Rochelle to Oregon, the work of grading was commenced and nearly completed. Just before completing the grade of this road, Henry Keep, of New York, had been elected president of the Chicago & Northwesteru Railroad Company, and when Mr. Hinckley called upon Mr. Dunlap for the iron, the latter gentleman told him he could not furnish it. He only knew those were his orders, and could not tell why they were made. Mr. Hinckley, accompa- nied by Mr. Petrie, immediately went to New York, but Mr. Keep could be induced to give no reason for violating the agreement, further than that it was not to be the policy of his company to foster or enconrage any more branelies.
On the application of Elbert K. Light, James V. Gale, and thirty-five others, legal voters of the Town of Oregon, the town clerk, Wm. Schultz, called another town meeting on Thursday, December 9, 1869, to determine whether said towu, in its corporate capacity, would donate to the Ogle and Carroll County Railroad Company, ten thousand dollars in the bonds of the town, payable ten years from date, at ten per cent interest, upon the fol- lowing conditions, viz .:
Said bonds not to be issued or delivered unless the said company shall accept and re- ceipt for the same as a payment of ten thousand dollars upon the amount of fifty thousand dollars, voted by said town to said company, on the 24th day of May, 1869, and in case said company shall so accept and receipt for the same, said bonds to be deliverable upon the demaud of said company at any time after the same shall be voted, and to bear date of the day of delivery; and when delivered to said company, to be payable absolutely, and to be free from all conditions of forfeiture contained in said vote of the 24th day of May, A. D. 1869, but with the express understanding that the condition as to forfeiture contained in said vote of the 24th day of May, A. D. 1869, shall not be construed to be waived by said part payment, as to the remaining forty thousand dollars, of said amount of fifty thousand dol- lars, heretofore voted as aforesaid.
On the day appointed, E. J. Reiman was elected Moderator; 120 votes were cast as follows: for donation, 109 votes; against donation, 11 votes. This donation was made to aid in paying for the grading of the road from Rochelle to Oregon, which was then partly done.
On the 16th day of December, 1869, the Ogle and Carroll County Railroad Company, by F. G. Petrie, President, and M. L. Ettinger, See- retary, executed its deed of acceptance of the donation and receipt therefor.
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HISTORY OF OGLE COUNTY.
The returns of the town clerk, certifying the results of this election, was filed in the office of the county clerk, July 1, 1871. The bonds under this vote were issued December 16, 1869, by George P. Jacobs, Esq., super- visor of said town, and conntersigned by Win. Shultz, Town Clerk.
The failure, or refusal, of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad Com- pany to furnish the iron and ties for the road delayed its completion, but Mr. Hinckley and his associates at length succeeded in making satisfactory arrangements with Mr. Joy, President of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company for a connection with that road, and for drawbacks, etc., and it was determined to make the connection at Aurora, as the C. & I., by the terms of its charter might make connection with any road between Chicago and the Mississippi River. An appeal was made to the cities and towns along the proposed line of the road for aid. Aurora voted one hnn- dred thousand dollars, Flagg fifty thousand, Mt. Morris and Forreston each seventy-five thousand, Alto, Lee County, thirty-three thousand, and several of the towns between Alto and Aurora twenty-five thousand dollars each, Pine Rock ten thousand dollars, Nashua five thousand dollars. Capitalists in New York were then interested to the extent of advancing a million dollars on a first mortgage, and late in the Fall of 1870 grading commenced in Aurora, and on the thirty-first day of December, 1870, the construction train of the Chicago & Iowa Railroad was run through Rochelle.
The election at Flagg was hotly contested, and the vote for the donation was carried by only nine majority. By the terms upon which the donations was voted, to be entitled to it, the company was required to complete its road " into and through the Town of Flagg" by the first day of January, 1871. As before stated, the train was run to Rochelle at ten o'clock on the night of December 31, but the township line being some four miles beyond Rochelle, and about two miles of track being yet unlaid, the opponents of the donation claimed that the town was released from obligation, and secured an injunction to prevent the issue of the bonds. This is still pending.
Mt. Morris compromised and issned $50,000 of bonds, which are now in process of payment. Forreston refused to issue the bonds voted, and in the course of the litigation which followed was, in the person of its Super- visor, Mr. Tice, imprisoned. but the case was finally compromised, and about $50,000 of bonds were issued, which are now in process of payment. Pine Rock and Nashua issned the amount voted. In some cases the dona- tions were made to the Ogle & Carroll County Railroad; in others to the Chicago & Iowa.
When the road was completed to Rochelle a train consisting of an old locomotive, baggage car and one passenger car, was put on between that city and Aurora, " daily if the snow permitted," and the train "run " one way and " backed " the other. The way " Billy " Ayers used to " play horse," as Charlie Dean expressed it, with the old, leaky, wheezy, demoralized " Advance," and his zealous efforts to keep water enough in her old boiler to prevent an explosion are not yet forgotten.
A few days before the amendment to the constitution of the state, pro- hibiting cities, towns, etc., from making donations to railroads, went into force, and while'efforts to raise money were being made all along the line, on the 23d day of June, 1870, yet another town meeting in Oregon was held to settle this much vexed question. This was called by F. H. Marsh, Town Clerk, on the application of H. A. Mix (2d), Ed. T. Ritchie E. B. Frost and sixty-
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HISTORY OF OGLE COUNTY.
four others, legal voters in the town, to determine whether the town would make a donation to the Ogle & Carroll County Railroad Company of forty thousand dollars in the bonds of said town, payable at the option of the town within twenty years from date thereof. bearing interest at 7 per cent per annum, payable annually, to aid in the construction of the first division of said Ogle & Carroll County Railroad, under the following conditions.
Said bonds not to be issued, dated or delivered until said company shall have com- pleted said first division of said railroad with a T rail weighing not less than forty-five pounds to the vard, in condition to run trains thereon from a connection or intersection with the Chicago & Northwestern Railway, to a point'at and within said town of Oregon, within one half-mile of the east bank of Rock River, and shall have equipped the same with rolling stock sufficient to operate a daily train to and from said town for the accom- modation of passengers and freight, nor until said company shall have released said town from all liability on account of donations heretofore voted, except a donation of ten thousand dollars voted by said town on the 9th day of December, 1869; said vote of forty thousand dollars to be null and void unless said first division of said railroad shall be completed and equipped as aforesaid, on or before the first day of January, A. D., 1871, but in case the same shall be so completed and equipped within the time aforesaid, and said company shall execute and deliver said release, ihen said bonds to be deliverable upon demand of said company, and to bear date of the day of delivery.
The meeting was held on the day above mentioned. E. J. Reiman was elected moderator, and 175 ballots were cast, 163 for the donation and 12 against the proposition. Return was made to the county clerk, July 7, 1870.
The road, however, was not completed as above required, on the 1st day of Jannary, 1871.
The following is a copy of a document on file in the office of the Town Clerk of Oregon, certified to be correct by the Town Clerk, T. A. Jewett, Esq. It is written with a pencil on coarse straw paper, such as grocers use, as follows:
To F. A. MARSH, Town Clerk of Town of Oregon, Ill .:
Sir: Please take notice that I hereby resign the office of Supervisor of said town.
Attest.
MORTIMER W. SMITH.
OREGON, ILL., Dec. 30, 1870.
On page 17, of Book B, of the records of the Town of Oregon is the following :
Town of Oregon, County of ) Ogle and State of Illinois. §
To FRED H. MARSH, Clerk of the Town of Oregon :
Sir: I have the honor to hand you this day my resignation as Supervisor of the Town of Oregon. M. W. SMITH.
Dated at Oregon, this 30th day of Dec., A. D. 1870.
On the same page with the above is the following entry:
Town Clerk's Office, Oregon, Ill.
Board of Auditors met for the purpose of filling the vacancy of Supervisor, caused by the resignation of M. W. Smith. E. S. Potter was appointed to fill the vacancy, and the clerk ordered to give the certificate of appointment to the said E. S. Potter.
Witness our hands this 31st day of December, A. D. 1870.
JAMES H. CARTWRIGHT, J. P. F. H. MARSH, Town Clerk.
Mr. Potter was a director in the Chicago & Iowa Railroad Company, but resigned to accept the appointment of Supervisor.
Mr. Potter filed his official bond bearing the same date-December 31, 1870-with F. G. Petrie and James V. Gale as sureties.
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HISTORY OF OGLE COUNTY.
On page 20, book " B" of the Oregon town records, the proceedings of the annual meeting of the Board of Auditors of the Town of Oregon, held on the 28th day of March. 1871, are signed by E. S. Potter, Super- visor; J. II. Cartwright, J. P. and F. H. Marsh. Town Clerk.
By reference to the terms of the vote by which the Town of Oregon donated $40,000 of bonds of the town to the Ogle & Carroll County Rail- ro.id Company it will be seen that to be entitled to receive them that com- pany was required to have the first division of its road completed and equipped on or before the 1st. day of January, 1871. The road was not completed until the 1st day of April following. The bonds of the town, amounting to $40,000 as voted, were signed by E. S. Potter, Supervisor; countersigned by Frederick H. Marsh, Town Clerk. and bore date Decem- ber 31, 1870. They reached the hands of Mr. Hinckley, President of the Chicago & Iowa Railroad Company, by whom the road was built, who disposed of them.
On the 4th day of April, 1871, at the annual meeting of the Town of Oregon, it was not known to the people of the town that the bonds had already been issued, nor was it generally known that Mr. Potter had been appointed Supervisor in place of Smith, resigned. The road had been completed four days before, and the question " shall the bonds issne," was the real issue in the election of Supervisor and other town officers. The lines were sharply drawu, the friends and opponents of the measure were nearly evenly divided, and the election was an exciting one. The election of Mr. George Dwight as Supervisor, however, was claimed as a victory by those who favored the issue of the bonds on the completion and equipment of the road. Even if it had not been within the time specified by the town on the 23d day of June, 1870, provided it could be done legally under the amendment of the constitution.
At the October (1871) term of the Circuit Court of Ogle County, Justice W. W. Heaton (now deceased) presiding, a bill in chancery was filed by William J. Mix, Hugh Rea, Edwin A. Hinkle, Michael Seyster, John V. Gale, John M. Schneider, James Rea, Isaac S. Woolley, Robert C. Burchell, Robert Rea, James C. T. Phelps and Almira M. Bacon, praying that Elias S. Potter, Frederick G. Petrie, James V. Gale, Michael Nohe, Elbert K. Light, The Ogle and Carroll County Railroad Com pany, The Chicago and Iowa Railroad Company, Francis E. Hinckley. George Dwight, as Supervisor of the Town of Oregon; Frederick H. Marsh, Town Clerk of said Town of Oregon; James H. Cartwright and John Rutledge, Justices of the Peace of said Town of Oregon; the last four named as the Board of Audit- ors of the Town of Oregon; Albert Woodcock, Clerk of the County of Ogle, and the Town of Oregon, be made parties to their bill of complaint, and summoned to answer all matters and things therein contained, and prayed for a writ of injunction to restrain the Town of Oregon trom cansing any tax to be levied for the payment of the ten thousand dollars, or the forty thousand dollars, or any part thereof, or the interest thereon or any part thereof; also to restrain the Board of Town Anditors and their succes- sors in office, from levying any town tax for the year 1871, at their annual meeting, or at any other time, for the purpose of paying the interest on any of said bonds for the year 1871 or 1872. The bill further prayed that the Board of Town Anditors and their successors in office be enjoined and restrained from auditing and allowing any amount as due from said Town of Oregon on any or either of said bonds, either for principal or interest;
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HISTORY OF OGLE COUNTY.
that the Town Clerk and his successors be enjoined from filing any such certificate and from including any amount of principal or interest of such bonds in any aggregate amount of claims against the town; that the Super- visor and his successors in office be restrained from laying before the Board of Supervisors of Ogle County any statement of claims against the town which should include any portion of such bonds or interest; that the County Clerk be restrained from extending any tax upon the collector's book of Oregon to pay any part of the principal or interest of such bonds. The complainants further prayed that Francis E. Hinckley, The Chicago & Iowa Railroad Company, Frederick G. Petrie, The Ogle & Carroll County Railroad Company, "or whoever may appear to be the holders or to have possession of said bonds or any or either of them or any of the coupons attached, may be decreed to deliver up such bonds and coupons to be can- celled, and that the same may be cancelled accordingly."
Attached to this bill is the following endorsement:
STATE OF ILLINOIS, · SS. 22d Judicial District. 5
To the Clerk of the Ogle County Circuit Court :
Ou the filing of this bill let a writ of injunction issue as in said bill is prayed.
August 28, 1871. W. W. HEATON, Judge.
The holders of the $40,000 of bonds issued by Mr. Potter were unknown, but on the 10th day of January, 1873, Eliza Jennings filed an affidavit and petition in the Ogle Circuit Court averring that she was a citizen of the State of Alabama and had been since September 1, 1869, that she was the holder and owner of "twenty of these certain bonds issued by the said Town of Oregon to the Ogle & Carroll County Railroad Com- pany, each being for the sum of one thousand dollars, and that she purchased said bonds in good faith and paid a valuable consideration for the same." Mrs. Jennings prayed that the cause, suit and proceedings, so far as said suit interested or concerned her, and was against her and said bonds issued by said Town of Oregon as aforesaid, might be removed into the Circuit Court of the United States. She also tendered a bond in the penal sum of $500, with Frederick G. Petrie surety, conditioned that she would enter the case in said United States Court on the 22d day of January, 1873. The bond was approved, and the Court, Judge Heaton, presiding, decreed that "this suit and all proceedings therein, so far as it relates to or concerns the defendant, Eliza Jennings, or her interest in said bonds, be removed to the Circuit Court of the United States in and for the Northern District of Illinois," where her case is still pending.
The case was continued in the Circuit Court of Ogle County, except that part removed to the United States Court as above stated, until the special September term, A. D. 1873, when the following entry was made on the judge's docket by Judge Heaton:
October 3, 1873. The Supervisor of the Town of Oregon, by G. M. Dwight, moves for leave to withdraw his answer and the answer of the Town of Oregon. Answers with- drawn. Town of Oregon and George M. Dwight called and defaulted. Leave given defendants to amend answer. Cause heard and decree for complainants for $40,000 and for defendants as to $10,000 of bonds, etc.
At this date (April, 1878) no decree appears of record, and it is impos - sible to state the legal premises upon which the court based its decision. The sworn testimony in the case on file in the courts, presents the follow- ing:
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HISTORY OF OGLE COUNTY.
Ist. That on the first day of June, 1870, the franchise and property of the Ogle and Carroll County Railroad Company, were formally transferred, under the hand and seal of the President thereof, Mr. Frederick G. Petrie, to the Chicago & Iowa Railroad Com- pany.
2d. That Mr. Potter was appointed supervisor in place of Smith, resigned, on the evening of the 3d day of April, 1871 : that his official bond was filed ou the same night with the town clerk, and that both the appointment and the bond were ante-dated to Dec. 31, 1870.
3d. That the bonds of the town for $40,000, also ante-dated Dec. 31, 1870, were signed by E. S. Potter, Supervisor, after his appointment, in the night between the 3d and 4th days of April, 1871, and passed out of the possession of the town officers during the same night.
The road was completed, as before stated, from Rochelle to a point on the east bank of Rock River, opposite Oregon City, April 1, 1871, and regular trains for passengers and freight were put on. The station was located on the south side of the road, leading from Oregon to Pine Rock Township, about half a mile a little south of east of the east end of the bridge at the foot of Washington Street. The location of the road, however, was changed soon afterwards, from Willow Creek Bridge, about three miles from this station to the present line, and January 15, the first work of grading, on the west side of the Rock River, was commenced on Mr. Little's farm, about a mile west of the river. Work on the bridge, located about a mile below the foot of Washington Street, was commenced in July, and the structure was completed, and the cars crossed it for the first time, October 20, 1871. The first passenger train was run to Mt. Morris November 12. On the 28th of the same month, 1871, the road was completed to Forreston. and the people celebrated the event in grand style. When the railroad bridge was completed, trains were discontinued on the old track, from Willow Creek to the station on the east bank of the river, but the removal of the track was enjoined by legal proceedings. The next year, however, a compromise was effec.ed, and the old track on the east side was taken up. The change of location above mentioned was unexpected, and to it perhaps, may be attrib- uted many of the complications and difficulties that have since arisen.
Upon the completion of the road to Forreston, a connection was made with the Illinois Central Railroad, which opened a route from Chicago to Sioux City, Iowa. A contract was made between the two roads, by which the cars of the I. C. R. R. reach Chicago over the C. & I. R. R. New depots were erected along the line in 1872, through passenger trains be- tween Chicago and Dubuque were put on, and the road entered upon a period of good management and general prosperity. The first station agent at Rochelle was David A. Elmore, who soon resigned, and was suc- ceeded by Mr. W. H. Holcomb, who is now the Receiver of the road. The first station agent at Oregon was Frederick H. Marsh; at Mt. Morris, Chas. Newcomer.
In August, 1877, the general freight office was removed from Chicago to Rochelle, where the auditor's office is also located.
KENOSHA, ROCKFORD AND ROCK ISLAND RAILROAD.
This company was organized in 1856, with C. H. Spafford, President. In March, 1857, the contract for the construction of the road from Rock- ford to Harvard was awarded, and work was commenced early in that year, and was completed in November, 1859. It was designed that this road should extend from Rockford to Oregon, thence to Dixon, and the route was surveyed about 1860, and in 1861 various towns, villages and cities
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