Western Illinois Regional Studies

Fall 1990

Special issue:

The Region 's Communities

WESTERN ILLINOIS REGIONAL STUDIES

Published semiannually by

the University Libraries

and the College of Arts and Sciences

at Western Illinois University

Macomb, Illinois 61455

BOARD OF EDITORS

JAY R. BALDERSON GORDANA REZAB

DONALD W. GRIFFIN ROBERT P. SUTTON

JOHN E. HALLWAS, Chairman

ADVISORY COMMITTEE

DAVID D. ANDERSON, Michigan State University MICHAEL BECKES, United States Forest Service RICHARD W. CROCKETT, Western Illinois University JAMES E. DAVIS, Illinois College RODNEY DAVIS, Knox College ARLIN D. FENTEM, Western Illinois University MYRON J. FOGDE, Augustana College FRANK W. GOUDY, Western Illinois University THOMAS E. HELM, Western Illinois University ROBERT JOHANNSEN, University of Illinois FREDERICK G. JONES, Western Illinois University JERRY KLEIN, "Peoria Journal Star" CHARLES W. MAYER, Western Illinois University DENNIS Q. McINERNY, College of St. Thomas RONALD E. NELSON, Bishop Hill Heritage

Association RONALD E. NELSON, Western Illinois University STUART STRUEVER, Northwestern University ROALD D. TWEET, Augustana College WILLIAM L. URBAN, Monmouth College ELLEN M. WHITNEY, Editor emeritus,

"Journal of the Illinois Historical Society" DOUGLAS WILSON, Knox College

Subscription rates are $4.00 a year for individuals and $6.00 for institutions. Single issues are $2.00. Articles published in WIRSars listed in \.\\q MLA International Bibliography, America: History and Life, and other appropriate bibliographies.

Correspondence about subscriptions, contributions, and books for review should be sent to the Chairman of the Board of Editors, Western Illinois Regional Studies, Western Illinois Univer- sity, Macomb, Illinois 61455. Bibliographic and other information for the Notes and Documents section should be sent to Professor Gordana Rezab at the same address.

WESTERN ILLINOIS REGIONAL STUDIES

Volume XIII Fall 1990 Number 2

CONTENTS

Special Issue: The Region's Communities Donald W. Griffin, editor

Creating a Farm Community: Fountain Green Township, 5

1825-1840 Susan S. Rugh

Illinois River Towns: Economic Units or Melting Pots 21

Robert P. Sutton

The Temperance Movement in Monmouth, 1857-1859 32

William Urban

College Towns and Campus Sites in Western Illinois 46

John V. Bergen

Community Functions in the Late Nineteenth Century: 78

A Photographic Essay Donald W. Griffin

Notes and Documents 95

Reviews of Books 98

Contributors 103

Copyright 1990 by Western Illinois University

Cover: Old Main on the Monmouth College campus, from George Hays, Presbyterians (Nevi York: J. A. Hill & Co., Publishers, 1892), p. 440. The building, which was destroyed by fire in 1907, is discussed in the Bergen article, "College Towns and Campus

Sites in Western Illinois."

REVIEWS OF BOOKS

Cayton and Onuf, THE MIDWEST AND THE NATION: RETHINKING THE HISTORY OF AN AMERICAN REGION By Marcia Noe

United Presbyterian Church, HISTORY OF THE STRONGHURST UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 1889-1989 By John Lee A llama n

Bethel Lutheran Church, CENTENNIAL HISTORY 1890-1900, BETHEL LUTHERAN CHURCH, STRONGHURST, ILLINOIS By John Lee A llatnan

Scott and Kelly, ROUTE 66: THE HIGHWAY AND ITS PEOPLE By Keith A. Sculle

Wallis, ROUTE 66: THE MOTHER ROAD By Keith A. Sculle

CREATING A FARM COMMUNITY:

FOUNTAIN GREEN TOWNSHIP,

1825-1840

Susan S. Rugh

Thomas Gregg's 1880 history of Fountain Green Township reads hke a long list of characters in a play, arranged in order of appearance on the stage. The earliest settler was Ute Perkins who in 1826 arrived on the scene — the timbered banks of winding Crooked Creek on the eastern edge of the Han- cock County's central prairie. More characters followed: John Brewer in 1827, Mordecai Lincoln and Benjamin Mudd about 1830, Jabez A. Beebe and Stephen G. Ferris in 1832, then more men's names, before finishing up with Thomas Geddes in 1836. As in a play, the characters enter singly or in small clusters. Only Gregg's list of first babies born on the frontier hints to the reader of the presence of women, who remain nameless. Wives of the settlers, mothers of their children, they were as much settlers as their husbands. The men may have shouldered the back-breaking work of clearing land, raising cabins, and cultivating corn, but women's tasks were also arduous. They tend- ed stock, fashioned meals from limited supplies of food, provided clothing, and produced commodities for market. They also bore children, whose labor often made the difference between survival and failure in the farm-making process. Establishing a farm on the Illinois frontier required the labor of all family members.'

Like most county histories, Gregg's account (though highly useful), highlights the male settler whose family stands in his shadow. If we bring the whole family into the light of historical scrutiny, we can see more clearly the settlement process in western Illinois. A study of Fountain Green Township shows that Crooked Creek was settled not by lone men, but by families. Many of these families migrated in clusters to the Illinois frontier. Once there they settled in neighborhoods, and created institutions like those they had left behind.

Four migration streams entered Fountain Green Township in the fifteen- year period 1825-1840. Typical of the settlement of Illinois, southerners came first. Two distinct migrant streams can be discerned in the southern settle- ment of the township. The first was led by settlers from Tennessee and Ken- tucky; the second was a more cohesive group of Catholic families migrating from western Kentucky. Soon afterwards, families from western New York, and from the Cumberland Valley of Pennsylvania joined them on the farm- ing frontier along the Mississippi. One might expect a confluence of nor- thern and southern migrant populations in western Illinois' Military Tract. First, settlement took place at the juncture in time when migration from the

5 WESTERN ILLINOIS REGIONAL STUDIES

northeastern United States joined the already established migration from the upland South that characterized the southern portion of Illinois. Second, Fountain Green Township was located mid-state at a geographical juncture, where North and South met in the westward movement of Illinois settlement.^ The history of Illinois settlement has traditionally recognized this bifurcated movement of southerners and northerners to different regions of the state. ^ Along with this recognition has come the realization of differing ways of life that the two groups brought to the lUinois frontier. Recent studies of migration movements have shown the importance of the mid-Atlantic migra- tion to the Midwest. As John Hudson has suggested, these three migrant movements sometimes created "localities where regrouping and cross-cultural mixing took place.'" This study of Fountain Green Township focuses on such a cultural mixing in the settlement period, 1825-1840. By recognizing the different streams of population that migrated to this part of western Illinois, we can see how these regional cultures interacted to form a hybrid farm culture distinctive to the immediate region. This study will first trace the migration of families to Fountain Green Township, and will show how they distributed themselves on the land. Then it will focus on the religious and commercial axes of community interaction in the developing farm culture of the township. Only by studying places like Fountain Green Township, where such cultural amalgamation took place, can we understand the western Illinois settlement experience and the kinds of communities that such an ex- perience engendered.

Southerners Initiate Settlement

It is appropriate to begin with Gregg's first settler, Ute Perkins. In 1826 Perkins and his family settled along a wooded stream at the headwaters of Crooked Creek in the northwest quarter of Section 32, in what was later designated as Fountain Green Township. Perkins seems typical of early set- tlers in his attention to the availability of water and timber when he decided where to settle. Tributaries of Crooked Creek wound through Section 32, making it one of the best-watered sections of the township. The land was hilly near the stream gullies, but leveled out into broad prairie spaces beyond the waterways. John M. Peck's Gazetteer noted that although the area in general was lacking timber, "Crooked Creek furnishes a due proportion of timber and prairie, and a body of excellent land.'" How Perkins obtained title to his land is unclear, although his choice indicates he knew to avoid parts of the township which were assigned to military bounty holders.''

Perkins was patriarch to a clan that spread out over the Military Tract. He and his wife Sarah Gant Perkins were in their early seventies when they arrived in 1826, so the children of their four children who accompanied them extended the clan to three generations of Perkins on the Illinois frontier. Ute's son Ephraim and his wife Rhoda Job, and Ute's daughter Sarah and her husband John Vance pushed eastward another twenty miles into McDonough County. Ute's son William G. and his wife Dicy Rhea stayed in Perkins Set- tlement on Crooked Creek; son Absolom and his wife Nancy Martin joined them not long afterward.'

Rugh, FOUNTAIN GREEN TOWNSHIP 1825-1840 7

Ute was descended from English stock, and is said to have been of medium height, of a Hght complexion, with blue eyes. Ute's father was born in St. George's Parish, Baltimore in 1736, and migrated to Lincoln County in North Carolina's Piedmont region, where Ute was born in 1761. When the Revolu- tionary War broke out, Ute was old enough to volunteer. He carried a ball lodged under his shoulder blade as a souvenir of two short summer cam- paigns in Lincoln County, but his service was a month too short to earn him a pension.*

Sometime between the end of the fighting and the birth of his first son Reuben in 1783, Ute married Sarah Gant of North Carolina. Of Holland Dutch descent, she was described as six feet tall, with a dark complexion, black eyes, and a Roman nose. Sally (as Sarah was known) bore a daughter and two sons before the family moved to Abbeyville in the South Carolina uplands, where their fifth child, Ephraim, was born in 1791. Four daughters and a son (including a set of twins) were added to the family before their last child Hannah was born in 1808 in White County, Tennessee, west of the Appalachians. The spaced moves indicate that the Perkins may have been unsuccessful in either obtaining land or in owning enough land to farm to support a growing family. Likely the moves to Tennessee and on to Illinois were efforts to locate cheaper land.'

More southern families migrated to what had become known as Perkins Settlement. The Brewers, Renshaws, and Days were part of a larger migra- tion of upland southerners who moved westward to Illinois and Missouri in the early part of the nineteenth century. To explain the migration, historians have cited rising land values which made government lands in the West more affordable for farmers who wanted to acquire land on which to settle their children. Antipathy toward slavery was a factor in the decision of many to move out of the southern upcountry to Illinois, which outlawed slavery in 1824.'°

Catholic Families Migrate from Kentucky

The second stream of migrants to settle near Crooked Creek were also from the South, but can be distinguished by their close adherence to the Catholic faith. Like the Perkins family, the Lincoln and Mudd families formed a clan, a sprawHng network of relatedness whose connections by blood tied them together on the land. Mordecai Lincoln clearly was the patriarch of this clan of southern Catholics. He was born in 1771 in August County, Virginia. In 1782 his parents, Abraham and Mary Shipley Lincoln, migrated to the Kentucky frontier. After Mordecai's marriage to Mary Mudd in 1792, he migrated further westward, settling along a fork of the Green River in the Knobs beyond the fertile bluegrass region of the state."

Mordecai was a prosperous farmer in Kentucky, and in 1810 owned over 400 acres of land. Settlers in the region raised corn on the rough cleared ground, and floated the surplus as whiskey downriver on flatboats to New Orleans or Natchez. The family probably supplied themselves with food from a vegetable plot, with maybe a patch of tobacco for personal use. Women

8 WESTERN ILLINOIS REGIONAL STUDIES

cultivated flax which they wove into linen and sold so they could purchase cotton to wear.'^

He and his wife Mary Mudd Lincoln left Grayson County, Kentucky, in the spring of 1828 with four of their six grown children: James, Abraham, Elizabeth, and Martha. Their son Abraham married Elizabeth Lucretia Mudd in 1819, whose older brother Benjamin Edelen Mudd was married to Mordecai's daughter Elizabeth. This sibling pair were part of an extended family, children of Mary's cousin Hezekiah Lincoln Mudd. In addition to Abraham and Elizabeth, Mordecai's unmarried daughter Martha accom- panied her parents. Mordecai, Jr., stayed behind in Kentucky to look after the family business.''

The Mudds and Lincolns were part of a larger migration of Catholic families which began in Maryland in the 1780s. Land enough for large families had grown scarce, and tobacco cultivation had worn out the soil. The postwar depression in Maryland hit small farmers hardest. Those who were tenant farmers often became "desperate debtors." The three most Catholic coun- ties in Maryland lost between a fourth and a third of their population in the two decades 1790-1810. In 1795 Benjamin Mudd's parents Hezekiah and Elizabeth moved to the vicinity of Bardstown, a Catholic settlement thirty- seven miles south of Louisville in search of cheaper land for their family of ten children. By 1811 there were over one thousand families in thirty Catholic congregations in Kentucky. The scenario repeated itself in the 1820s when rising land values sent Catholic families north and west to Indiana, Missouri, and lUinois." In time the Mudd-Lincoln settlement attracted other Catholic famihes from Kentucky: Cambrons, Hardys, and Yeagers. They traveled via the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to Keokuk, Iowa, then overland to Crooked Creek. In 1830 Mordecai Lincoln, Jr. rode horseback from Kentucky."

The southern families, both Protestant and Catholic, who settled along Crooked Creek scattered their farmsteads on the land in an open country settlement pattern typical of families from the southern back country. The virtual absence of hostile Indians in the area did not demand a closely clustered population, and families were used to living on timbered farmsteads out of sight of their nearest neighbor. Families built log cabins, cleared land for corn, and kept herds of swine which ran loose through the timber. Armed with a shotgun, farmers hunted for game such as deer and turkey to supple- ment the family diet of pork and corn dodger.'*

They transported a southern backwoods way of life to Illinois, building cabins in the timber, hunting small game, and cultivating corn. While some of their agricultural surplus was probably hauled overland to Mississippi River towns, a commercial network that reached inland was not yet estabUshed. The southern pattern of subsistence farming, supplemented by trade to dis- tant markets, characterized this early settlement of southerners. Their large families were linked by marriage into clans that extended three generations to form the basis of community on the Illinois frontier. Headed by aged patriarchs, the settlers from the South were enmeshed in a web of relatedness by blood and by marriage.

Hugh, FOUNTAIN GREEN TOWNSHIP 1825-1840 9

The 1830 Federal Census of Hancock County reflects the family migra- tion pattern evident in the southern settlement of Crooked Creek. Eighty- seven households were listed with an average size of 5.66 persons in each. Only four households were all male, and only seven additional households listed no children. There were no female-headed households. The census shows a strong propensity to be related if measured by shared surname. Nearly a third (3 1 percent) of the surnames were shared by two or more households. This, of course, does not count relatedness by marriage, which would raise the percentage of those related."

Of the 463 inhabitants, the male/female ratio was roughly equal, 54 per- cent male and 46 percent female. The age/sex profile of the population shows a preponderance of males aged 20-30, typical of the frontier. Women con- stituted about two-thirds of the size of the male population aged 20-40. Assuming the oldest male was the household head, families were young, with 36 percent of the household heads aged 20-30, and 32 percent aged 30-40. Half as many were aged 40-50, and the remaining 15 percent were 50 to 70 years of age. Hancock County's population of nearly 500 in 1830 was just a fraction of the 13,000 in the Military Tract as a whole.'"

Yankees Found a Town

By the middle of the following decade, the relative homogeneity of this transplanted southern settlement was disturbed by new arrivals from the mid- Atlantic states and the Old Northwest, as northerns began to discover the Military Tract. Although speculators had invested heavily in the military lands in the 1820s, by the 1830s ownership shifted to the local population in the MiUtary Tract." Improved transportation from the North to the Illinois fron- tier, and the expansion of Mississippi River steamboat trade that meant farmers could get their produce to market, were also important factors in attracting northerners to the area. Guidebooks aimed at farmers in the East assured readers that there was plenty of land for them and their children in Illinois.^"

The first Yankee of note to buy land in Fountain Green Township was Jabez Beebe from Hinsdale, Cattaraugus County, in the southwest corner of New York. Born in 1789, Beebe was one of eight children of a Baptist preacher. Beebe's father had been born in New London, Connecticut, and had moved to Chenango County, New York. Jabez Beebe was the third of that name in the family, and was five generations from the Samuel Beebe who had settled in New London, Connecticut, in 1650. The preacher Jabez named his son after himself and his father, and named his eldest daughter Eunice after his mother.-'

Jabez Beebe had moved to Hinsdale in 1825, where he operated a tavern and kept an inn. Part of the Holland Land Company patent, the territory around Hinsdale was hilly and broken upland, with high hills and deep nar- row valleys. The thin soil was of fair to poor quality, and not easily cultivable on rough, steep, terrain. Lumbering was the chief business of the area, with

10 WESTERN ILLINOIS REGIONAL STUDIES

logs rafted down Olean Creek and the Allegheny River to Pittsburgh and Cincinnati."

After less than five years in Cattaraugus County, Beebe left for the Illinois frontier, wintering near Fort Edwards during the big snow of 1830. In the spring he moved to Horse Lick Grove north of Perkins Settlement, so nam- ed for its swampy area fed by underground springs that provided livestock with a ready source of water. Beebe settled on the bounty claim of one Nathan Panhallow, on the east half of Section 28. He had presumably purchased the patent (and three others like it) before he left New York for one thou- sand dollars from Ira Weaver of Pike, Allegheny County (just east of Cat- taraugus County). PanhoUow had earned his 320-acre bounty for service in Sweet's Company, Connecticut 37th Company of Infantry."

Beebe's sister Eunice and her husband Stephen Gano Ferris followed them, setting out from New York with their six children for lUinois in the spring of 1832. The Ferris voyage to Illinois was delayed by low water and it was not until fall that they were able to journey down the Allegheny and Ohio rivers to Pittsburgh. They floated with the current on a flatboat with two other famihes to Cincinnati, then took a steamboat to St. Louis, where they arrived December 1. A small steamboat took them further upriver to Trader's Point, Iowa, a journey of ten or eleven days. Ferris paid sixteen dollars to have his family and belongings ferried across the river to Fort Edwards in a leaky boat on December 13. The next day Stephen and his son John walk- ed the twenty-two miles to Horse Lick Grove, where they hired a wagon and ox team to haul the family and goods across the county. The entire family finally arrived in mid-December, and stayed with the Beebes in a double log house until spring. Beebe then sold Ferris 1 10 acres on Section 28 where Fer- ris improved a farm and constructed a small tannery. ^^

But Beebe and Ferris had larger plans in mind for Horse Lick Grove. Yankees by birth, they carried the New England tradition of town-building to the prairie. On June 8, 1835, they founded the town of Fountain Green, named for the spring bubbling out of the prairie. Participants in the speculative town building boom of the mid- 1830s, Beebe and Ferris doubtless realized the value in changing the name of the town from Horse Lick Grove to Fountain Green. The town was laid out in the southeast quarter of Sec- tion 28 into sixteen blocks of four lots each. Two blocks were reserved for a town square and public park which fronted on a public road named Com- merce Street which ran east and west. South of and parallel to Commerce were Green Street, South Main Street, and half-width Prairie Alley." Just as the southerners distributed themselves on the land in patterns learned from the past, the New Yorkers perpetuated the Puritan ideal of the town as a nucleus of social and commercial ties that bound the community tightly together."

By 1837, Fountain Green was advertised in Peck's Gazetteer 3s a "flourishing settlement" ten miles northeast of Carthage on Section 28. Founder Jabez Beebe held the title of postmaster. The town's commercial establishments are part of legend, which makes it difficult to pin down their date of origin.

Rugh, FOUNTAIN GREEN TOWNSHIP 1825-1840 //

Local histories boasted a blacksmith, a wheelwright, a farrier, and a tinsmith in addition to the general store Martin Hopkins established after his arrival in 1 836. The store would become a center point for the community, drawing local settlers into its commercial network.-'

The town was also the locus of social interaction. Ferris and Beebe, ages forty-one and forty, respectively, headed young families in the process of bearing and raising children. They were about the same age as Ute's and Mordecai's sons, who were surrounded by siblings in an extended family net- work. The Yankees must have depended on the town in the way the southerners relied upon their families in the demanding stage of initial set- tlement. The town provided the social and economic links that family rela- tionships supplied to the southern migrants.

Pennsylvanians Cultivate Wheat

The fourth migrant stream into Fountain Green Township consisted of immigrants from Pennsylvania's Cumberland Valley. Prime among this group in the pantheon of Fountain Green history was Thomas Geddes from Path Valley in Franklin County. Thomas was just over thirty in the spring of 1837 when he and his wife Susan Walker Geddes came to Fountain Green with two small sons. The journey to Fountain Green to a parcel of land he had purchased the year before took just over forty days. The families of both Thomas and Susan were part of a general migration westward from Penn- sylvania. Thomas was one of seven children born to his father's first wife. The oldest printed a Presbyterian missionary paper in Philadelphia; all the rest went west to Ohio, New Orleans, or Illinois. Susan's brother Alexander followed them to Fountain Green the following year. Five years later he mar- ried Martha McConnell, who had come from Pennsylvania with her parents shortly after the Geddes family's arrival.-'

The Pennsylvania migrants left behind a narrow valley originally settled by Scotch-Irish Presbyterians before the Revolutionary War. The contribu- tion of the Scotch-Irish to the troop strength of the Revolutionary War is well-known, and Path Valley's farmers fought under the auspices of the First Battalion of Cumberland County Militia." Path Valley was a produc- tive farming area, with staple crops of corn and wheat. Franklin County farmers sent over 150,000 barrels of flour every year to Baltimore, the source of consumer goods. Sheep grazed the valley, swine provided pork for table and market, and dairying was a major component of the farm economy. Beds of iron ore in the valley added manufacturing to the farm processing industries of mills, tanneries, and distilleries. '° Perhaps the farm families left Path Valley because they felt apprehensive about the manufacturing pro- spects of the valley, but more likely it was because the valley's prosperity made land too expensive for their children.

The Scotch-Irish farmers from Pennsylvania transferred their agricultural practices to the fertile Illinois soil. They cleared land and set about cultivating wheat, the grain which had brought prosperity to the farmers of Path Valley. They carted it to Quincy when the roads were passable, where it was freighted

12 WESTERN ILLINOIS REGIONAL STUDIES

down river on steamboats to St. Louis and New Orleans. The 1830 Hancock County seal depicted a plow and steamboat, reflecting this vision of pro- sperity. By 1837, the design of the seal was changed to a sheaf of wheat. While raising wheat was riskier and demanded more care than growing corn, the returns could be substantial."

The core of emigrants from Pennsylvania were a cohesive group of in- terlocking families with a strong Scotch-Irish heritage. The Geddes, Walker, and McConnell families had lived on adjoining land since the Revolutionary War era in Pennsylvania, and they continued that association through inter- marriage on the expansive Illinois landscape. They left behind a bucolic far- ming community in a valley on the verge of a manufacturing future for the horizontal, sparsely populated Illinois prairie frontier. The limits to farm expansion in Pennsylvania were missing in Fountain Green Township where it must have seemed there was land enough and to spare for one's children and their children. The Pennsylvania emigrants brought with them a wheat- growing tradition which took root in the fertile soil around Crooked Creek."

Families Cluster in Neighborhoods

Regional patterns of family migration ordered the way families situated themselves on the land. Because Fountain Green Township was part of the Illinois Military Tract, formal land entry was not available until 1835. Prior to that time there were complex ways of asserting title to land, ranging from squatting and making improvements, to buying a tax title at auction. As we have seen in the case of Jabez Beebe, a few may have purchased military bounties directly from a veteran or a land agent to acquire clear title. But most settlers along Crooked Creek were probably squatters, making im- provements and saving cash for the time when they could formally purchase their land."

The pace of land alienation in Fountain Green Township supports this hypothesis of a pent-up demand for land. Of the 239 parcels sold in the Township, 199 of them were purchased by the close of 1836. Most of the land was purchased within a few years of the opening of the Quincy Land Office. This rapid pace probably indicates that settlers had been saving cash for such a purchase."

The pattern of land ownership to 1840 reveals distinct clusters of southern and northern settlements in the township. A look at the township map sec- tion by section reveals that southerners settled the southern parts of the township near Perkins Settlement along Crooked Creek (Fig. 1). New Englanders clustered around Fountain Green and throughout the upper two- thirds of the Township. The predominance of the New York group on the map is deceptive, however, because it displays ownership of land, not popula- tion. The New York settlers tended to be wealthier, and owned larger parcels of land than any other group. The map is also biased in favor of New Yorkers because they persisted and more information about their origins is available. The unshaded squares denote lack of knowledge of the origins of the set- tlers, not unclaimed land. It is doubtful, however, that the addition of more

Rugfi, FOUNTAIN GREEN TOWNSHIP 1825-1840

Settler Origin Fountain Green Township Township 6 North, Range 5 West

		Iff	1				r^	EKe55?:
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	...........|. —	™~"— .			^.		N
---<!	- W-	SCHOOL	^-	f i
	LANDS
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South I I

South (Catholic) H

New York | |

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Military Warrants ||^

Origin Unknown [ |

Source General Land Office,

Original Land Entry Records

Perkins Settlement •

Fountain Green •#

Catholic Church t

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Figure 1

14 WESTERN ILLINOIS REGIONAL STUDIES

information would completely counteract the initial clustering patterns displayed here."

But the pattern of land purchase also indicates community consensus and family cooperation. For example, Matthew McClaughry from New York pur- chased the northwest quarter of Section 22 in July 1836, and a year later acquired title to two more quarters in the same section. John Brewer from Kentucky bought title to the northwest quarter of Section 29 in June and October 1835, then bought two, forty-acre parcels in February and December of 1836 to form a contiguous tract of land. Pennsylvanians Thomas Miller and his son William separately purchased large plots of land that formed a contiguous whole on sections 20 and 21. This tactic is especially striking in the case of Ute Perkins' sons, Absalom and Andrew H., and grandson William G., who bought thirteen parcels within a year that, ahhough not completely contiguous, spread a checkerboard of Perkins dominance over sections 31 and 32 in the southwest corner of the township, and extended diagonally into adjacent sections in two other townships." In many cases these purchases were formal recognitions of title by occupancy recognized by the community, but the breadth of acquisition suggests that certain regions of the township were recognized by all as territory set aside for future ex- pansion. Thus the land purchases reflect regional "neighborhoods" in which families clustered in meaningful patterns on the land.

Churches are Transplanted to the Frontier

A prominent feature of the neighborhoods was the Township's two chur- ches. In 1832, just a few years after the main migration to the settlement on Crooked Creek, the CathoHc settlers from Kentucky began building St. Simon the Apostle church. Thomas Lincoln and James Riley, brother of Mary Riley Hardy, did the carpentry work on the chapel. Near the church was a cemetery, deeded to the bishop of St. Louis, which would become the final resting place for the relatives of Abraham Lincoln. The construction of St. Simon perpetuated a frontier church-building tradition learned in Kentucky. The Cambrons had Hkely worshipped at St. Ann's, built in 1799 at Cart- wright Creek, and the Mudds at St. Charles, erected in 1806."

The church was ministered to by a traveling priest who also visited parishes at Warsaw, Quincy, Springfield, and Edwardsville. In 1833 Father Peter Paul Lefevre extended his services from Quincy to the 214 Catholics in Hancock County at Commerce, Warsaw, and Fountain Green. A succession of priests attended the Catholics in Fountain Green as it was included in shifting mis- sionary districts. Father St. Cyr, remembered as the founder of St. Simon the Apostle, ministered to the communicants at Fountain Green in 1837 and 1838 before he was transferred to Kaskaskia for health reasons.'*

The Church of St. Simon the Apostle was a physical demonstration of the success of the Maryland-Kentucky-IUinois Catholic migration. Because the Catholic colony numbered some thirty families, the mission priests serv- ed the Fountain Green group attentively. They made the sacraments available to those who could not yet procure such things as flour and coffee in the

Rugh, FOUNTAIN GREEN TOWNSHIP 1825-1840 15

frontier period. Births, deaths, and marriages demanded the sanctification of priestly ritual, no matter the primitive nature of the surroundings. The settlers must also have been keenly aware that if they were to pass on their faith and cuhure to their children, they required the formal apparatus of the church. As well as a means to perpetuate their family beliefs and tradi- tions, the church must have served as a bonding force for the Crooked Creek families who migrated from Kentucky.

The Pennsylvania families also brought their faith into Illinois. Their forefathers had founded a Presbyterian church upon their arrival in Path Valley in 1769. The log church was replaced in 1832 by a generously propor- tioned frame church. Under the watchful care of Reverend Amos McGinley, the congregation added members every year from 1 802 to 1831. 1 n that year 127 were added to communion, and in 1832, sixty joined the congregation to continue the revival. But by the mid-1 830s, migration of the valley's families westward cut deeply into their ranks. Reverend McGinley reported that "by removal to the West, we lost in one year, thirty-five communicating members.""

Those who removed to the West founded a church in 1840 modeled on the Path Valley congregation. Martha McConnell, a young emigrant from Path Valley, wrote a letter to her aunt which told of the organization of the church on November 27 of that year. Martha's father, James McConnell, and Thomas Geddes were the founding elders, under the direction of Mr. Stewart from Macomb, where McDonough College had just been founded by Old School Presbyterians. The significance of the occasion in the schoolhouse shines through Martha's account: "It was a most solemn time. Oh, it was both solemn new and interesting to me and a time that will not soon be forgotten." The founding members of the church presented their letters of admission brought from Pennsylvania. The names are common to Path Valley and southwestern New York— Geddes, McConnell, Glass, Leal, Foy, and McClaughry.'°

Reverend Stewart preached to the church the last Friday of each month, and stayed the night before at the McConnell home. Efforts were made to find a permanent preacher who would not mind being supported in kind, since money was scarce. But Martha thought Reverend Stewart was "a most excellent preacher . . . and one more like Mr. McGinley I don't think we could have found." She instructed her aunt to tell Reverend McGinley that "our preacher is a very strict old school man which pleases father very much and has a good affect on some of our friends here.""

Their friends in Fountain Green did join to worship with them. The Miller and Spangler families from the Cumberland Valley joined the church as they moved into the community, and settlers from Tennessee and Kentucky whose ancestors were Pennsylvania Scotch-Irish added to their numbers. The McClaughrys and Leals from New York, also of a Scotch-Irish heritage, were quick to join the new church. Adults either presented letters of admission from their former church, or were "examined on [their] knowlledge [sic] of religion and experimental piety" to be received as members. Young people

/ 6 WES TERN IL L INOIS REG ION A L S TUDIES

were also examined before admission. Stewart baptized babies and small children as they enlarged the families of Fountain Green. Thomas and Susan Geddes brought Mary Eveline, Cyrus McAllen, and Laura Ann to be formally initiated into the church during the first few years of its existence.'' The church brought families from varied regions of the United States together to worship in a common tradition. Unlike the Catholic church, which strengthened a regional identity, the Presbyterian church crossed regional lines as families from New York, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee joined to estabhsh a house of worship on the frontier.

A Country Store Centers the Commercial Network

Another central locus for communal culture along Crooked Creek was Mar- tin Hopkin's general store in Fountain Green. Stephen Tyler joined him as partner in 1839, and their records display the commercial and social networks of the farming community. The store offered its customers a wide range of consumer goods: yardage and sewing supplies, clothing and shoes, household items (from tableware to chamber pots), and staples such as coffee, sugar, and saleratus. The farmer could purchase farm tools such as scythes, rifles, bridles, and plows, and could keep up the premises with paint and nails. The store supplied settlers's vices with brandy, whiskey, tobacco (chewing and smoking), tea, and snuff.'"

Nearly all purchases were made in an interlocking system of credit. Although occasionally cash would be applied toward an account, more often families would bring in commodities which would be assigned a value and credited to their account. A survey of transactions for 1838 reveals how this system functioned. In January, Arius Beebe brought in an axe handle to credit his account fifty cents. Abraham Lincoln promptly purchased the handle and an axe for $1.75. A few days later John Day paid $4.96 on his account by bringing in nineteen bushels of corn. In what may have been a prearrang- ed transaction, Stephen Ferris bought the corn on the spot. In addition to corn, farmers brought in produce such as pork, timothy seed, and wheat. Some farmers paid for the purchase with their labor by chopping wood or hauling pork or grain to Warsaw.''

Women, so absent from the official chronicles, are evident in store records as the fruits of their labors enabled the family to purchase what they could not produce. Women churned butter, collected eggs, knit socks, and wove linen from home grown flax to earn their purchases of yard goods, ribbon, and coffee. For example, in May the account of William Gough was credited with $7.50 by twenty yards of flax linen, which was offset immediately by the purchase of eight yards of calico and a pair of combs. In March the Nathan Prentiss account was credited $1 .25 for ten-dozen eggs, and in April seven and three-quarters pounds of butter were applied to the account of Thomas Geddes. Five pairs of knitted socks were worth $2.50 in goods selected from Hopkins and Tyler's shelves. Whether women made these transactions in person is not known, although the selection of goods leads one to believe that they were present.'-

Rugh, FOUNTAIN GREEN TOWNSHIP 1825-1840 17

The accounts reveal the seasonality of farm production, and the participa- tion of families in the farm economy. After a slow period in early winter, the volume of purchases peaked in late spring and early summer with the returns of the winter wheat harvest. Men bought scythes and whiskey, and women stocked up on dry goods to sew clothes for the family. In the fall, farmers brought in tallow to credit their accounts and purchased candle wick- ing so their wives could make good use of the tallow left from slaughtering. Parents purchased primers, spelling books, and shoes for children who had run barefoot in the summer heat.

The records appear to display a chaotic jumble of buying and selling with no distinction as to regional origin. Indeed, the day ledgers show a range of customers. A closer look reveals some clustering, such as a day in June when from the southern neighborhood Abraham Lincoln was there to buy calico, Andrew Perkins brought in six yards of linen, and Benjamin Mudd bought tea and saleratus. In August, John Hardy and James Riley came in together to put cash on their account. There were also distinctions of wealth. A ledger summary shows that Horace Aldrich spent $22.22 over the unspecified time period, a debit over $1 1 .00 more than the amount the next customer accrued. Of the nineteen accounts, six totaled between $10-14, four between $5-9, and seven spent less than $4. The Aldriches, from New York, could afford pearl buttons while others bought steel.'*"

Like a magnet, the store drew farm families in to trade in Fountain Green. In many cases this trade supplemented trips to the larger towns of Warsaw and Quincy, but it provided a ready source of goods. One supposes the shop- pers traded gossip, observations about the weather, and jokes at the store, too. Women were probably a part of this socialization, perhaps escorted by their farmer husbands. Their domestic projects were a key part of the fami- ly economy, and their sale brought them in to visit at the store. Hopkins and Tyler was a site of cultural interaction as well as a commercial nexus.

The families that settled along Crooked Creek in the 1820s and 1830s set the stage for the scenes of history that would follow in Hancock County: the Mormon troubles, the commercialization of agricuUure, the Civil War, and the urban out-migration near the end of the nineteenth century. To return to the idea of settlement as a drama, we can see more clearly the part each group of settlers played in creating a new community. Southerners spread their families out on the land, transplanted a corn economy, and nurtured their faith on new soil. The Yankees founded a town that served as a com- mercial and social center to the rural community. The Scotch-Irish from Penn- sylvania cultivated wheat, extended trade, and founded a church that fused regional cultures. The distinct regional cultures they carried to the township meshed to create a new local farm culture in western Illinois. Only further research will show if this cultural diversity developed into a pluralistic society, or if over time one culture became dominant. That is a story for the next act in the play. For now, we can see more clearly how the community was created, and how the actions of these characters set the story in motion.

WESTERN ILLINOIS REGIONAL STUDIES

Table 1. Families by Regional Origin, 1825-1840 South South (Catholic)

Brewer

Cox

Day

Dill

Duff

Duncan

Perkins

Renshaw

Roberts

Saylors

Williams

Berry

Carrico

Cambron

Gittings

Hardy

Lincoln

Mudd

Riley

Shipley

Yeager

New York

Alton

Beebe

Ferris

Hobart

Leal

McClaughry

Mull

Ostrander

Tyler

White

Pennsylvania

Duffy

Geddes

Glass

Huston

McConnell

Miller

Spangler

Walker

Witherow

Yetter

NOTES

'Thomas Gregg, History of Hancock County (Chicago: Charles C. Chapman & Co., 1880), pp. 819-22. This article is derived from the first chapter of my dissertation (in progress) on farm families in Fountain Green Township, 1825-1875.

'Theodore L. Carlson, The Illinois Military Tract: A Study of Land Occupation, Utilization, and Tenure, Illinois Studies in the Social Sciences, vol. 32, no. 2 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1951), 26.

'The standard sources are Arthur Clinton Boggess, The Settlement of Illinois, 1778-1830 (Chicago: Chicago Historical Society Collection, vol. 5, 1908), and William Vipond Pooley, The Settlement of Illinois 1830-1850 (^uW^un of the University of Wisconsin, no. 220, Madison, 1908). For a multi-stream migration to eastern Illinois, see Douglas K. Meyer, "Persistence and Change in Migrant Patterns in a Transitional Culture Region of the Prairie State," Bulletin of the Illinois Geofiraphicul Society, vol. 26, no. 1 (Spring 1984), 13-29.

'John C. Hudson, "North American Origins of Middlewestern Frontier Populations," An- nals of the Association of American Geographers, 78 (3), 1988, 395-413. Quotation is on p. 396. For a complex analysis of regional migration, see Daniel J. Elazar, Cities of the Prairie: The Metropolitan Frontier and American Politics (New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1970).

'John M. Peck, A Gazetteer of Illinois (\S31), p. 107. For the tendency of southern migrants to settle on timbered land, sec Siyoung Park, "Perception of Land Quality and the Settlement of Northern Pike County 1821-1826," H'estern Illinois Regional Studies, vol. 3, no. I (Spring 1980), 5-21.

Rugh, FOUNTAIN GREEN TOWNSHIP 1825-1840 19

'The township was part of the Ilhnois Mihtary Tract. For an excellent study ot the Military Tract, see Carlson. Also helpftil is Paul W. Gates and Robert Swenson, History of Public Land Law Development (Washington, D.C.; Public Land Law Review Commission, U. S. Govern- ment Printing Office, 1968).

Information about the Perkins family was obtained from Family Group Sheets in posses- sion of Eugene Perkins, Provo, Utah; also from "History of the Perkins Family, 1720-1930," by Lucina Call Perkins and Elizabeth Belcher Bartholomew, (Historical Department, LDS Church, Salt Lake City, Utah). Ute's daughter Sarah and her husband John Vance settled in Job's settlement founded by Rhoda's brother William in 1827. S. J. Clarke, History of McDonough County, Illinois (Springfield: D. W. Lush, 1878), p. 18.

'The physical description of Ute is from the Perkins Family History, p. 2. St. George's Parish was not Catholic, but affiliated with the Church of England, J. Thomas Scharf, History of Baltimore City and County, A/arv/a^/o' (Philadelphia: Louis H. Everts, 1881), p. 918. His military service is listed in his Application for Veteran's Pension, 1 December 1834, copy provided by Eugene Perkins.

"Perkins Family History, p. 2, and Family Group Records, possession of Eugene Perkins.

'"J. M. Peck, A Gazetteer of Illinois (iacksomWk, 1834), p. 309. Boggess, p. 166; Pooley, p. 322.

"Regarding Mordecai's parents, see Orval W. Baylor, Early Times in Washington County, Kentucky (Cynlhisina, Kentucky: The Hobson Press, 1942), pp. 61, 68. For information about Mordecai, Mary, and their children, see Richard D. Mudd, The Mudd Family of the United Slates (Ann Arbor, Michigan: Edwards Bros., Inc., 1951), pp. 694-95, 1042-43, 1063.

'-For the topography of this region of Kentucky, see Willard Rouse Jillson, Pioneer Ken- tucky (Frankfort, Kentucky: State Journal Co., 1934), p. 133. Regarding the marketing of corn, see Thomas D. Clark, Agrarian Kentucky, The Kentucky Bicentennial Bookshelf (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1977), pp. 14, 50-51; also Baylor, p. 68. Local agricultural habits and women's production of flax are discussed in Ellen Eslinger, "The Great Revival in Bour- bon County, Kentucky" (Ph.D. diss.. University of Chicago, 1988), p. 94. Trading flax for cotton is mentioned in Benjamin J. Webb, The Centenary of Catholicity in Kentucky (Charles A. Rogers, 1884, reprinted in Evansville, Indiana, 1973), pp. 82-83.

"Mordecai's son Abraham Lincoln has often been confused in the history of the state with his famous cousin of the same name, the Railsplitter of Sangamon County. President Abraham Lincoln was the son of Mordecai's brother Thomas. Thomas and his brother Josiah also left Kentucky about the time Mordecai migrated to Illinois. Josiah settled in Indiana; Thomas brought his family to Sangamon County. After a few years on Crooked Creek, Mordecai's son James Bradford Lincoln and wife Frances Day (probably the sister of an earlier settler from Kentucky, John Day) left for Sangamon County. See Mudd, above.

"Mudd, 1042-43. For this account of the Catholic migration, I have relied upon Thomas W. Spalding, "The Maryland Cathohc Diaspora," U.S. Catholic Historian, 8(1989), 163, 165, 167. In Illinois there were Catholic settlements in Randolph, Monroe, and Knox counties.

'-Charles J. Scofield, Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Hancock County, vol. 2, (Chicago: Munsell Pubhshing Co., 1921), 225, 1407-08.

""See David Hackett Fischer, Albion's Seed: four British folkways in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), p. 760 for the backwoods pattern of dispersed settlement. For a history of this type of settlement in Illinois, see John Mack Faragher, Sugar Creek: Life on the Illinois Prairie (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979). For a local account see Robert M. Cochran et al., History of Hancock County, Illinois, (Carthage, Illinois: Board of Super- visors, Hancock County, 1968), pp. 13-16.

'M830 Federal Manuscript Census, Hancock County.

"Carlson, p. 68.

"The lands held by speculators became more of a liability than an asset in the face of a slow rate of appreciation, and the assessment of state taxes on land owned by non-residents to fund internal improvements. See Carlson, pp. 50-53, and Gates, p. 265.

-"A.D. Jones, in Illinois and the West (Boston: Weeks, Jordan and Co., 1838) promised the farmer: "He can procure land enough to employ all his boys, and that to the greatest profit, and when they shall become men, he can apportion and settle them all around him, where, with industry and good conduct, they may attain to opulence and respect," p. 249.

"Clarence Beebe, A Monograph of the Descent of the Family of Beebe (New York, 1904), pp. 9, 13-16, 33, 46, 63.

''History of Cattaraugus County, New rorA: (Philadelphia: L. H. Everts, 1879), pp. 425-30. Regarding land quality, see William Wyckoff, The Developer's Frontier: The Making of the Western New York Landscape (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988), pp. 39-40.

WESTERN ILLINOIS REGIONAL STUDIES

'Cochran et al., p. 301; Hancock County, Record of Deeds, vol. 1, 37; vol. 5, 446. ^Gregg, pp. 707-10.

•'One of the many accounts of the town-naming is in Cochran et a!., p. 302. See William D. Walters, "Early Western Illinois Town Advertisements: A Geographical Inquiry," Western Illinois Regional Studies, vol. 8, no. 1 (Spring 1985), 5-15. (A search of the /l//o« Telegraph for 1836 and 1837 did not yield any advertisements for Fountain Green.) The original town plat is in Hancock County Plat Book, vol. 1, 18.

"•Daniel J. Elazar's assessment of midwestern cities is germane here: "The New England tradi- tion of settlement dictated that the frontier be conquered by community groups and that every settled area be centered around a town," Cities of the Prairie, p. 162.

■"Gregg, p. 820; Peck, Gazetteer (\?,ll), p. 205; Cochran et al., p. 302.

^'Norman Geddes, Genealogy of that branch of the Geddes Family which comes from Paul Geddes (Philadelphia, 1895), pp. 34-35; Gregg, p. 973.

-'Fischer, pp. 606-08; History of Franklin County, (Chicago: Warner, Beers & Co., 1887), pp. 183-84.

'"Thomas F. Gordon, A Gazetteer of the State of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: T. Belknap, 1832), pp. 172-74, 293; I. H. McCauley, Historical Sketch of Franklin County, Pennsylvania (Chambersburg, Pennsylvania: D. F. Pursel, 1878), p. 130.

"For a study of the Mississippi River steamboat economy, see Timothy R. Mahoney, River Towns in the Great West, 1835-1860, (Ph.D. diss.. University of Chicago, 1982). The design of the county seals is in the Hancock County Commissioners Court Record Book 1, March 2, 1830, p. 16, and September 6, 1837 (also cited in Gregg, p. 234). Emigrant guides strongly advocated wheat production; see especially Jones, pp. 159-63.

"Franklin County (1887), pp. 604-05.

"The southern part of the Tract was open for entry in 1831 when the Quincy Land Office opened, but it was not until 1835 that the entire Tract was for sale at Quincy. Carlson, pp. 41-42.

"Excluding school lands, 239 parcels in Fountain Green Township were purchased in Quin- cy for the period 1835-1856. All but 14 of this number were sold in the first three years govern- ment land was subject to entry, as follows: 96 parcels in 1835, 103 in 1836, and 26 in 1837. U.S. General Land Office Records, Quincy District, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, Illinois.

"Title information was derived from original land entry records, General Land Office Records (as above). See Table 1, Families by Regional Origin, 1825-1840, for a classification of family names used to make this map. Information about their origins was cumulated from county histories (Gregg, 1880 and Scofield, 1921), the Federal Manuscript Census for 1860, Session Minutes of the Fountain Green Presbyterian Church, and family histories (list available from the author).

'"U.S. General Land Office Records, Quincy District, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, Illinois.

"Vertical File, "Catholics," Illinois State Historical Library, Springfield, Illinois. See also, Thomas Cleary, "The Organization of the Catholic Church in Central Illinois," pp. 105-24, and "A Note on the Catholic Church Organization in Central Illinois," pp. 185-90, both in Mid-America, new ser. vol. 6 (1935). For the Kentucky churches see Webb, pp. 56, 70, 72.

'"Vertical File, "Catholics," and Cleary, pp. 107-08, 111, 119, 187-88.

'"Reverend Alfred Nevin, Churches of the Valley, or, an historical sketch of the Old Presbyterian Congregations of Cumberland and Franklin Counties, in Pennsylvania (PhWaddphia: Joseph M. Wilson, 1852), p. 226.

"Regarding McDonough College, see Jones, p. 12. The letters of Martha McConnell [Walker] were printed in the Hancock County Historical Society Newsletter, vol. 1, nos. 15 and 16 (May and August 1972).

"Martha McConnell, Newsletter, vol. 1, no. 15 (May 1972).

"Session Minutes, Record of Baptisms, Fountain Green Presbyterian Church records.

"'This analysis was based on a survey of transactions the 20th day of each month of 1838 in McClaughry & Tyler, Day Book A (January 17, 1838-August 23, 1840), Illinois State Historical Library, Springfield, Illinois (microfilm copy in Regenstein Library, University of Chicago).

"Day Book A, January 18 and 22, 1838.

"Day Book A, May 22, March 19, April 20, 1838.

'"Day Book A. June 21, August 21, 1838. The summary is found on p. 64, Ledger, Fountain Green, Illinois, General Store, 1830-1847, Illinois State Historical Library, Springfield (microfilm copy in Regenstein Library, University of Chicago). For the Aldrich purchase, see Ledger, p. 60. A more intensive analysis may yield regional differences in purchasing preferences.

ILLINOIS RIVER TOWNS

ECONOMIC UNITS OR

MELTING POTS

Robert P. Sutton

In 1953 Harlan W. Gilmore, in his book Transportation and the Growth of Cities, traced a common economic linkage in the purposes and functions of American towns and cities. He saw urban centers as serving, almost exclusively, an economic function; in particular, they were transportation centers for their surrounding or adjacent areas. Gilmore was sweeping in the chronological scope of his small study of under 150 pages. He covered cities ancient, medieval, and modern. Six years after the appearance of Gilmore's monograph Richard C. Wade likewise explained urban growth largely in economic terms and offered his pioneering analysis of the rise of western cities between 1790 and 1830.'

Although narrower in focus and more analytical than Gilmore, Wade's book was essentially a vindication of the Gilmore thesis. In a real sense. Wade did for the Gilmore thesis what Merrill Jensen's work on the causes and ef- fects of the American Revolution did for the thesis of Franklin Jameson, or what Beard's disciples did for that interpretation of the Constitution. And like Beard, whose work, published in 1913, was not seriously challenged until Robert E. Brown critiqued it in 1956, the Gilmore thesis is still pretty much the orthodoxy, certainly the starting point, of studies of urban history today. There are, however, serious problems with Gilmore's interpretation of urban life in the Mississippi River towns of western Illinois.

Gilmore maintained that urban community classifications must be done on the basis of economic functions. He saw the steamboat and the trunk- line railroad as the most significant causes of the growth of inland cities. This commercial function, he believed, made American cities have "a dif- ferent type of economic relation with the rural areas than was true of Euro- pean cities of earlier eras."' Wade saw the same thing happening. "Nothing," he wrote, "accelerated the rise of the Western cities so much as the introduc- tion of the steamboat."' But these beguiling assertions, while accurate as far as they go, do not go far enough; they beg for another question or two. For instance, why did people come to the city? Why did they get on the steam- boat or railroad in the first place? Herein lies the problem with the Gilmore thesis.

If it can be shown that sizable numbers of the settlers of cities came there for non-economic reasons, that they stayed there for non-economic considera- tions, and that the most striking feature in that city's growth was not just commercial but cultural and intellectual, then the growth of the city

21

22

WESTERN ILLINOIS REGIONAL STUDIES

transcends economics. Towns founded along the Illinois side of the Mississippi River during the Age of Jackson (Quincy, Nauvoo, and Oquawka) reflected the importance of sociological, ideological, and cultural developments, factors more important than trade patterns, jobs, or retail and wholesale business opportunities.

Quincy

Quincy was the brainchild of land speculators John Wood and Willard Keyes who saw the high bluffs some 100 miles north of St. Louis as both ideal for trade development up river after the War of 1812 and as being free from omnipresent flooding along the east bank of the Mississippi River. Also, the farmland adjacent to the site was rich prairie loam and was being open- ed up for distribution as military bounty land to the veterans of that war. The town, started by Wood in 1822 when he purchased 160 acres of what was to become Quincy for $60.00, was made more enticing to Wood and Keyes when in 1825 it was made the county seat of the newly created Adams County. Six years later the Federal Land Office for the western counties of that region was opened there. Consistent with the Gilmore thesis, steamboats in the 1840s and the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad, built there in 1856, made the town the focal point for export traffic down river or up- line to Chicago and for retail distribution to town residents and nearby farmers. Beyond doubt, Quincy fits the pattern Gilmore and Wade depicted: the town was the leading commercial center for the area. In 1841, 1 ,000 steam- boats stopped there and by 1856 the annual count was 2,921 boats tying up at the wharfs. It was the manufacturing and export center to Brown, Schuyler, McDonough, and Adams counties.^

Yet it was the German immigration to the town that accounted for its physical growth and cultural and political flavor. First of all, by 1850 Ger- man immigrants made up 40 percent of the town's population. Next, as Table

1 shows, the Germans were quantitatively the largest population group over time, and they were spread out all over the city in 1850 and in 1870. There was no "Germantown" there, no isolation of immigrant families in ethnic neighborhoods.' The German influence was as pervasive as was their presence. It was the Germans who "stimulated the economy by investing in business and marketing their skills in a variety of jobs."*" They were present in all occupational categories and tended to rise to the same rough percentage as the non-Germans in the professions, skilled, and semi-skilled work, as Table

2 illustrates. They dominated, through the "German vote," both the poHtical parties (Democrats and Whigs and later Democrats and Republicans) in con- gressional and presidential elections. Culturally, the Germans had a profound effect through their Ternverein or Turner associates. These societies, origi- nally an early version of the YMCA, became centers for a rich musical life- seven band and choirs— and a debating club. There were ten German parochial schools and three colleges created by the time of the Civil War. The Germans published three newspapers by mid-century: the Illinois Courier

2,349	635	27
695	261	38
1,776	607	34
1,442	640	44
647	500	77
6,909	2,643	38

Sutton, ILLINOIS RIVER TOWNS

Table 1. German Population in Quincy by Wards, 1850-1870'

Population Percent

Year and ward Total German German

1850

Ward IN^ Ward IM Ward IS Ward 2 Ward 3 Total

1860

Ward 1 Ward 2 Ward 3 Ward 4 Ward 5 Ward 6 Total

1870

Ward 1 Ward 2 Ward 3 Ward 4 Ward 5 Ward 6 Total

'1840 data on place of birth are not included in the 1840 census.

^Ward 1 is divided into three sections in 1850 so it will compare more equally with the population in wards 2 and 3 which are smaller.

Sources: Population Schedules of the Seventh Census of the United States, 1850; Population Schedules of the Eighth Census of the United States, I860; Population Schedules of the Ninth Census of the United States, 1870.

1,952	529	27
2,555	762	30
2,874	1,498	52
2,195	1,712	78
2,593	1,301	50
1,597	411	26
3,766	6,213	45

3,917	1,020	26
3,033	882	29
4,613	1,967	42
4,531	3,245	71
3,962	1,819	45
4,020	1,658	41
14,056	10,591	44

WESTERN ILLINOIS REGIONAL STUDIES Table 2. Occupations of Germans and Non-Germans, 1850-1870

	Percent German	Percent 1850	Non-German
Occupation	1850	1860	1870	1860 1870
Farmer	1.0	0.4	0.7	1.3	1.3 0.3
Professional and	9.0	10.6	22.0	23.1	24.2 22.8
white collar

Skilled 43.7 37.6 33.1 41.8 29.1 24.9

Semi-skilled 5.6 7.2 24.1 7.6 10.6 25.4

Unskilled 40.8 44.2 20.1 26.2 34.8 26.5

Sources: Population Schedules of (he Seventh Census of the United States, 1850; Population Schedules of the Eighth census of the United States, 1860; Population Schedules of the Ninth Census of the United States, 1870.

(printed in German from 1850-61), the Wochenblatt, 1850-55, and The Tribune, 1852-74.

Lastly, the Germans came to this river town not just because of commer- cial considerations. All of the evidence supports the conclusion that they came because of intolerable political conditions in the Fatherland which combin- ed with potato blights in 1846 and 1847 and strict inheritance laws that sub- divided family farms to the point that cultivating such small pieces of land was futile. They were vexed and troubled emigrants or Auswanders who, in the words of Mack Walker, "went to America less to build something new that to regain and conserve something old ... to keep the ways of life they were used to which the new Europe seemed determined to destroy.'"

Nauvoo

Some twenty miles up river from Quincy was the town of Nauvoo. Like Quincy it was the creation of a promoter. Like Quincy it rested its hopes on the expansion of steamboat traffic. And, like Quincy, its growth and character were the result of the immigration of three cohesive, yet distinctly different, ethnic groups — one Yankee, one French, and the last one German.

Nauvoo was originally called Commerce and was a paper town laid out by a mysterious vagabond land speculator and Indian trader Dr. Isaac Galland in the early 1830s. In 1838 Galland was contacted by Mormon Elder Israel Barlow, a refugee from recent violence against the Latter Day Saints in Missouri, about using Commerce as a haven for the persecuted Mormons. Barlow, in turn, led Galland to write to Sidney Rigdon, the acting president of the Mormons, then living in Quincy. Meanwhile, Joseph Smith, the real head and prophet of the Mormon Church wrote to Ridgon from his jail cell

Sutton, ILLINOIS RIVER TOWNS 25

near Independence to encourage Ridgon to do business with Galland— if the good doctor would sell land on credit. So it was that the Mormons in the spring of 1839 purchased 139 acres near Commerce for $5,000.00 and, in addition, purchased 20,000 acres of what turned out to be worthless half- breed lands across the river in Iowa for $38,000.00. Why?

It is apparent that the Mormons by 1839 were not looking for business or commercial opportunities: Rigdon had only $ 1 .75 in the church's treasury. They were desperately in need of a place to live where they would be let alone. They were destitute. Moreover, the site of Commerce was, to any observer, unsuitable for extensive river traffic. Unlike the Quincy site, the bluffs were too far from the river to be used as a town site. The area along the Mississip- pi was a marshy bog, from bluff streams, and a breeding ground for mos- quitoes and malaria. Besides, the Mormons had no capital to invest; the church membership was drawn from the poorer orders of American and English society. So, Smith purchased the land with one dollar down and pay- ment in promissory notes at 8 percent interest."

Joseph Smith himself arrived at the location in the early spring of 1839, took one look at the place and called it Nauvoo, a Hebrew word meaning "beauty and peace," and set to work. What made Nauvoo a town rather than a pipe-dream was ideology — religion — and politics. The first thing Smith did, after drawing a gridiron plat map for an eastern metropolis, was to declare the city the final gathering place for all Mormons for the imminent millenium. It was a Stake at Zion, in Smith's words, and every Mormon had a religious duty, if he or she expected salvation, to settle at Nauvoo without delay. Then Smith would immediately sell them a town lot, loan them money to build a house and buy food and supplies, and together all would await the end of the world.

In the meantime, before that terminal event. Mormons, Smith said, had to focus their energies on more worldly challenges, namely, to prepare for "wars to come" and to build a temple. The response to Smith's ultimatium among the Mormons was phenomenal. By June of 1840 Nauvoo had over 3,000 people and 250 or so log cabins. By 1842 about 5,000 Saints had emigrated from England alone. By 1845 there were, according to the Illinois census, approximately 12,000 inhabitants in the city. Here Smith and his followers had started construction of the temple, established a system of com- mon schools, and, most significantly, gained political independence from the state of Illinois and from the authorities of Hancock County. This last event was made possible by the Nauvoo Charter of 1 841 , a document gained from the legislature in Springfield by a shrewd balance-of-power play by Smith. Simply put. Smith promised the entire block vote of Nauvoo men for either political party if that party would work for the Mormon cause. Both parties outdid themselves to woo Smith and the upshot was the Charter of 1841 that allowed the city virtual independence. By its terms Nauvoo could operate its own law enforcement machinery, raise a militia, and establish its own Registery of Deeds, among other things. All in all, what happened at Nauvoo was the creation of a theocracy. According to Robert B. Flanders,

26 WESTERN ILLINOIS REGIONAL STUDIES

in Nauvoo "the civil officials were an oligarchy of Mormon leaders headed by the Prophet, the government was conceived and operated not as an ex- pression of the popular will but as an instrument of church property.'"

As it turned out, Nauvoo under the Mormons was never developed as a commercial or marketing center. The town's economy was built upon a land bubble. The church, or rather Smith, owned all the land. There were no banks or lending institutions allowed. Money came in with the rush of new set- tlers. Smith sold the land to them or they borrowed money from him, on a mortgage. Smith was the leading retailer, in the Red Brick Store until 1842, imitated by thirty-five lesser merchants, most of them Mormons. But the retailers, like the other small operations there, such as the bakers wheelwrights, cobblers, and blacksmiths, never marketed to the region. The items made were sold only at Nauvoo. What about the steamboats? They, too, did not stop at Nauvoo for commercial reason, but only to drop off new Mormon converts coming up from New Orleans or St. Louis.'"

What happened? The story of the Mormons at Nauvoo is largely focused on the political violence against them from the residents of adjacent IlUnois towns that led first to the murders of Joseph and his brother Hyram in June, 1844, and subsequently to the forced exodus, under threat of extermination by a local "Gentile" army, under Brigham Young in 1846. Often obscured is the failure of Nauvoo to make it economically as a town. New settlers pro- vided enough influx of capital to allow Smith to pay for importing necessities in the first years. But Smith could not resist the impulse for reckless borrow- ing. The end result was over-expansion, compounded by inexperience, and disaster. By 1843 the Mormons had to repudiate or cancel their debts. One illustration sums up their situation. By the spring of 1842 Smith himself was in debt to the tune of $73,066.38." When, during the following three years, calamity followed disaster and the Mormons saw economic and fiscal col- lapse succeeded by violence and the end of their dream of God's Kingdom on earth, they pulled up stakes for another Zion in the West.'-

No sooner had the Mormons vacated Nauvoo than the French Icarians arrived to replace them. Early in 1849 a group of largely French Utopians led by their visionary intellectual Etienne Cabet had leased, then bought. Mor- mon lots on and around Temple Square as well as 450 acres of farmland adjacent to the town. The Icarians wanted to build a community of selfless brotherhood, citizens without private property or money. Indeed, the Icarians were disinterested in commerce or manufacturing. More accurately, the Icarians were from the start economically naive. Their sole income was a modest admissions fee of $100 and the small profit from the sale of whiskey and flour to the nearby towns of Hancock and Keokuk. The colony was only kept afioat by money sent over from Paris from the sale of Cabet's writings — about $25,000 in all. Even with this help, as the financial record for the years 1852 to 1855 indicate, that income never matched expenses."

Rather than worry about economic matters the Icarians devoted themselves to building a Utopia. They adopted a constitution that incorporated advanc- ed concepts of political democracy, universal education, and a high com-

Sutton, ILLINOIS RIVER TOWNS

27

lECETTES

A>>BES	ipforrs	'^,:^'^V^:H;^^•	TOTIUI
1 80 a 1	70 .)OI		"7 "^'T '

			DtPENSES
*>NKB>	< ii-\'iiiifi ( \RFT	Ijl0)(l RE LI 11	'"	VI r'.lll >	tRMTh- :,\ ,>h5	TOT»UI
	2 6.i5 a vm < 35,.	1 QVK) 1 200 I 2<V. I '<oo	: 2<^

Icarian income and expenses. Source: Jules Prudhommeaux, Icarie et son Fondateur Etienne Cabet (Paris: Edouard Comely et Cie, Editeurs, 1907), pp. 282-83.

mitment to cultural attainment. There was a general assembly in which all members had a voice and all adult males a vote. The assembly elected a presi- dent and four officers in charge of directing workshops, the school, farms, and, surprisingly, finances. Families were allocated living quarters in a large apartment complex. Clothing was provided by the society — and was cleaned in a community wash house. Children over four were wards of Icaria and lived apart from their parents during the week in the sturdy Icarian school, buih with granite blocks of the Mormon Temple which was destroyed in a storm in 1852. Throughout the school week teachers brought up the children in a rigorous curriculum of mathematics, history, geography, music, and hygiene. All members of the family, however, gathered for meals three times each day in a large refectory or dining hall. They practiced no organized religion, but met in an informal, and voluntary, fellowship each Sunday after- noon to discuss ethical issues. Their morality was strictly French bourgeoisie: marriage was encouraged, celebacy banned, and adulterers banished.

In the mid-1 850s a serious schism erupted over Cabet's attempt to get himself elected to a lifetime presidency. The community dissolved into name calling factions. Cabet's opponents, unfortunately, controlled the general assembly, and after a protracted fight it expelled him and 180 of his followers in the fall of 1856. They departed immediately and went to St. Louis to create

28 WESTERN ILLINOIS REGIONAL STUDIES

another Icaria at Cheltenham, a nearby health spa. By that time the Nauvoo Icaria was on its last leg, economically. The panic of 1857 further depressed whatever prices they could get from their products. With Cabet gone all in- come from Paris disappeared. Creditors pressed their claims. In 1860, get- ting an estimated $20,000 for the auction of everything they owned as a com- munity, the Nauvoo Icarians packed up and moved west — along the Mor- mon Trek laid out a decade before by their Nauvoo compatriots — to another location on newly opened federal land in southwest lowa.'^

Nauvoo itself quickly filled up with a new wave of German immigrants who, on a smaller scale than at Quincy, duplicated the atmosphere and life style seen twenty years earlier in the larger river town to the south. The tran- sition was dramatic. The Icarians were gone by the spring of 1860. By the arrival of the federal census marshal in the town that fall there were 1,435 people living there. Of the heads of households (317), 41 were French, 8 were English, 2 Scots, 2 from Canada, 1 from Denmark, 8 from Ireland, and 63 were native-born Americans (only 4 from Illinois). All of the rest, 192 heads of households, were from Prussia (39), Austria (14), Bavaria (23), Switzerland (28), and the others (88) from minor towns and principalities such as Ham- burg, Oldenberg, Wittenberg, Baden, Swabia, Bohemia, Freibert, and Bremen."

Oquawka

The town of Oquawka, like Nauvoo-Commerce, was founded by the strange Dr. Galland. What is known of Galland's activities some forty miles north of Commerce is sketchy. This self-proclaimed "Dr." (it is doubtful if he was a physician) was a notorious and fraudalent land dealer among the Saux-Fox tribes in the half-breed lands in eastern Iowa and in 1827 he put up a homestead at "Yellow Banks," the Indian name for Oquawka. The next year he "sold" his cabin and land to twenty-three year old Stephen Sumner Phelps, an enterprising fur trader from Lewistown, Illinois. Bor- rowing $400 from his father to pay off Galland, Sumner Phelps, as he was called, packed up his wife, younger brother William, a few meager posses- sions and a slave he called Nigger Dick and walked the 100 miles northwest to the new home on the Mississippi.'* By the 1830s the Phelps brothers had carved a fur-trading monopoly into Iowa with the Saux-Fox. By 1840 the town, now called Oquawka by the Phelpses, had sixty-one families and twice as many bachelors as single women. By 1850 it had 141 households and an occupational profile of 77 skilled workers, 46 merchants, 41 professionals, and 26 laborers most of whom were migrants from Ohio (23 percent) and New York (15 percent). That year Oquawka, like its sister river towns, was the magnet for foreign born: 13 percent of its heads of households were from Germany, France, England, Ireland, and Wales."

The town itself was platted in 1 836 and for a time its history substantiated the Gilmorc thesis of economic development. Located about halfway bet- ween Rock Island and Quincy it seemed an ideal stopping point for river traffic and a natural distribution center for farm families moving into Hender-

Sutton. ILLINOIS RIVER TOWNS 29

son and Mercer counties. And it might well have gone along in that pattern except for a fatal flaw in the town's early backers — greed. Instead of allow- ing a natural maturation of export-import commerce to grow and underpin the town's economy, its leading citizens (the Phelps brothers and John B. Patterson, the first newspaper publisher) exaggerated its possibilities way out of proportion. They convinced, or seduced, men with money and even the governor of the state Joseph Duncan to put up $50,000 apiece to buy clumps of platted lots. Single lots went for $900 and river sites commanded over $1,000. Even John B. Patterson, who should have known better, promised to commit $600 for a lot."* Reports of the new boom city on the Mississippi appeared in eastern newspapers. Typical of the hyped promotional pitch is this description of Oquawka that appeared in Philadelphia published by S. Augustus Mitchell called Illinois in 1837.

Oquawka, or "Yellow Banks" is a town recently settled. It is situated on the Mississippi River, about midway between the Des Moines and Rock Island rapids, and is the prin- cipal depot for freight between those points. The town is laid out in two sections on an extensive site. The soil is sandy, and the surface, gently undulating, is sparcely covered with a stunted growth of oaks, extending to the bluff, two miles back. Henderson River, a fine stream for milling purposes, passes along the fool of these, and is crossed by a neat and substantial bridge. There are two large warehouses in the town, one store, one grocery, two taverns, and several dwelling houses. There is a good flouring and sawmill about two miles distant and a stream mill is to be erected."

Sale days in the town had a circus atmosphere. Men arrived from Illinois, New York, and New Jersey in a mania that started in July 1836. Three con- struction companies— carpenter gangs— moved at a frenzied pace. They put up a hotel and a saloon and a livery. They built houses. The taverns appeared. But within a year it all stopped. The panic of 1837 caused a rapid recall of loans throughout Illinois. Men could not, or would not, meet their payments. The town froze.-''

During the 1850s with the normal surge of up river steamboat traffic it seemed that Oquawka was given a second chance. But the same founding fathers, probably "snake-bit" by the first fiasco, turned from reckless speculators to timid conservatives. The potential for prosperity on the river was real enough. Reports of Oquawka river traffic by mid-century are im- pressive. In 1847-48 the town shipped 5,200 hogs, 130,148 bushels of wheat, 7,084 bags of flour, 2,250 barrels of pork, 112,555 pounds of butter, and 21,580 pounds of hides. By 1852 exports through the town were valued at $441 J46 retail and imports at $412,880. Houses started going up again and sold for between $123 to $1,000. The waterfront boasted 2,730 feet of grad- ed rock wharfage. A furniture manufacturing firm of John Chickering began operation. There was a distillery, a daguerreotype shop, two new hotels — the elegant American House and the pedestrian Catfish House near the river. Lawyers, physicians, dentists, and druggists opened their practice and shops. ^' What happened? In 1855 the town was offered the chance to imitate Quincy and link up with a trunk line of the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy Railroad. The Oquawka people were asked by the directors of the company to float a bond to help defray construction costs of the connecting line from Monmouth, some thirty miles to the east. They refused. The directors of

30 WESTERN ILLINOIS REGIONAL STUDIES

the CB&Q then decided just to build the line fifteen miles south to Burlington, Iowa, where the citizens were eager to raise the bond money. Then, the Oquawka people realized what they had done and voted to raise $25,000.'^ It was all too late. The railroad was built to Burlington and to its cross-river port in Illinois, Gulfport. Oquawka ended up isolated. The census data from 1860 and 1870 show the dramatic picture of collapse. Oquawka's adult population declined from 88 percent of Henderson County residents in 1860 to only 40 percent ten years later. The town's adult labor force disappeared: in 1860 it was down to 37 percent of the same labor market. While profes- sionals continued to increase in the county, in Oquawka they decHned from 71 percent in 1860 to 24 percent in 1870.^' So, because of a schizoid swing of overzealous promotion to overcautious insularity Oquawka never became the river town that it might have been. It was, figuratively, the moon that never rose.

What can be summarized from this analysis of adjacent Illinois river towns of the mid-nineteenth century? It seems that the Gilmore-Wade thesis, taken at face value with its emphasis on economic considerations focused on com- merce, does not hold up. Quincy's growth was affected greatly by the in- fluence of German immigration. Nauvoo was the story of the religious zeal of the Mormons and the Utopian idealism of the Icarians and in its third stage of growth it was an immigrant entreport reminiscent of Quincy at an earlier time. At first glance Oquawka seems to align itself with the economic patterns of the Gilmore thesis. Its existence rested on its potential as the focal point of river commerce. But the main factor explaining Oquawka's history as a river town, its very failure to live up to its potential, was an emotional shortcoming that afflicted the town's leaders, that strange combination of avarice on one hand and blind insensibility to economic opportunity on the other hand. So, when taken together these river towns show the significance in town growth of the emotional, cultural, and ethnic matters over and above the pocketbook criteria of Gilmore and Wade.

NOTES

'Harlan W. Gilmore, Transportation and the Growth of Cities (Glencoe, 111: The Free Press, 1953); Richard C. Wade, The Urban Frontier: The Rise of Western Cities 1790-1830 (Cam- bridge: Harvard University Press, 1959).

^Gilmore, p. 64.

'Wade, p. 76.

'David F. Wilcox, ed., Quincy and Adams Countv: History and Representative Men (Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Co., 1919).

'Donna Rose Sondgcroth, "German Immigration and Assimilation into Quincy, Illinois 1846-1870" (Master's thesis. Western Illinois University, 1979), pp. 31-47.

^Ibid., p. 13.

'Mack Walker, Germany and the Emigration 1816-1885 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1964), p. 69.

"Robert B. Flanders, Nauvoo: Kingdom on the Mississippi (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1965), pp. 36-37. See also David E. Miller and Delia S. Miller, Nauvoo: The City of

Sutton, ILLINOIS RIVER TOWNS 31

Joseph (Santa Barbara: Peregrine Smith, 1974) and Richard D. Poll, "Naiivoo and the New Mormon History: A Bibliographical Survey," Journal of Mormon History, 5 (1978), 105-23.

"Flanders, p. 103

'"Roger D. Launius and F. Mark McKiernan, Joseph Smith, Jr. 's Red Brick Store. Western Illinois Monograph Series, No. 5, (Macomb: Western Illinois University, 1985), pp. 10-11.

"Ibid., p. 18.

'-Annette P. Hampshire, "The Triumph of Mobocracy in Hancock County 1844-1846," Western Illinois Regional Studies, 5 (1982), 17-33; Roger Launius, "Joseph Smith 111 and the Mormon Succession Crisis 1944-46," Western Illinois Regional Studies, vol. 6, no. 1 (Spring 1983).

"Jules Prudhommeaux, Icarie et son Fondateur Etienne Cabet (Paris: Eduard Comely et Cie, Editeurs, 1907), pp. 282-83.

"Etienne Cabet, Travels in Icaria, Robert P. Sutton, ed. and trans., Introduction, pp. 1-23, 28-30 (Macomb; Western Illinois University, 1985).

"United States Census, Population Schedules, Hancock County, Illinois, 1860.

"■Robert P. Sutton, Rivers, Railways, and Roads: A History of Henderson County, Illinois (Raritan, Illinois: Henderson County Historical Society, 1988), pp. 10-13.

'Tbid., pp. 25-30.

"Ibid., p. 31

"Quoted in Ibid., pp. 31-32.

"Ibid., p. 32.

^'Ibid., pp. 32-33.

^Tbid., p. 39.

^nbid., pp. 77-83.

THE TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT IN MONMOUTH, 1857-1859

William Urban

In the years immediately preceeding the outbreak of the Civil War the for- tunes of the temperance movement in Monmouth, Illinois, generally followed national patterns. Nevertheless, the local movement was not without its interesting variations. Foremost, perhaps, in view of the way movies and television have made a folk hero of Wyatt Earp, is the story of how Mon- mouth temperance advocates ran Wyatt's father out of town. More impor- tant is the manner in which religious fervor and political ambition intertwined with this effort at social reform through prohibition. However, temperance cannot be understood properly in isolation. It was part of a general desire to change society for the better and must be seen in its relationship to women's rights, the abolition of slavery, and political reform. A look back at the history of temperance in Monmouth may help us to understand ways a democratic cuhure seeks to regulate the behavior of its citizens, how pressure groups organize, and why it is so difficult for reform movements to sustain the temporary successes they achieve.

Monmouth had been in existence as a county-seat crossroads about five years when the first ordinance which mentioned liquor was passed on December 31,1 836. The intent of the trustees of the corporation was to raise revenue: "That any person wishing to keep a grocery or tippling shop within the corporation of Monmouth, shall pay into the town treasury the sum of twelve dollars." Five days later they forbade public intoxication or keeping a tippling house open on the Sabbath day. This regulation was not effective. On September 24, 1844, the trustees tried again, ordering that "Each and every place within the limits of the corporation where spirituous liquors are kept for the purpose of vending, selling or giving away in large or small quan- tities as a beverage, are hereby declared to be a public nuisance." This regula- tion failed, too, and three years later, on September 20, 1847, when peti- tioners asked the board of trustees to outlaw the sale of alcoholic beverages again, the trustees asked the public to vote on the matter. The motion was defeated 57-58.

Concerned Monmouth citizens then began to hold mass rallies. In 1848 a "Sons of Temperance" society was formed, with Erasus Rice as president and George W. Palmer as secretary. Rice was a wealthy farmer. Palmer had come from New York in 1845 and served in the Mexican War as 2nd lieute- nant of the Monmouth Dragoons; his wife, Carolyn, led the "Daughters of Temperance." The "Sons" and the "Daughters" of Temperance assembl- ed in great numbers at the Monmouth courthouse on January 13, 1849. On September 18, at another mass rally, the editor of the /I //fl5 offered an anti-

Urban, TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT IN MONMOUTH 33

drinking resolution. Litce other legislation of that era, it permitted individuals to buy liquor in quantity for private consumption, but outlawed sale by the glass. Its ineffectiveness was noted by the grand jury report in July of 1850: "Notwithstanding the County grants no license for retailing Ardent Spirits; yet a large share of the cases the jury finds to be violation of the statute by selling the same by less quantities than proscribed by law." In short, regula- tion at the local level seemed to be a failure.

Temperance leaders were not discouraged, however, because they saw a potential for victory at the state or even the national level. Success there would be vastly more important than in scattered communities, because local op- tion inevitably meant that some communities would choose to sell alcoholic beverages. This would undermine the efforts of good Christians in every near- by township to eliminate the idleness, waste, wife and child abuse, noise, and crime associated with saloons.

Temperance was not a new idea. For decades evangelist preachers had con- nected the conversion experience with private changes in lifestyle, especially with abandoning smoking, drinking, and gambling. However, the effort to change all of society by converting individuals one by one had achieved about all it could expect. In 1849-50 a new program began, one which used public pressure and new laws. Once temperance leaders mastered the techniques of organization and propaganda, they quickly persuaded the public that a serious alcohol problem existed. Support for absolute prohibition began to grow so rapidly that politicians took note both of the evil results of alcohol and prohibition's potential as a campaign issue. When Maine outlawed the sale of alcoholic beverages in 1851, temperance spokesmen persuaded Illinois legislators to pass a similar measure. Then, when the state supreme court declared the "Maine law" unconsitutional, temperance leaders organized mass rallies in support of new legislation.

As elsewhere in Illinois, Warren County's temperance forces were confi- dent of victory. In 1853, in the first election following Monmouth's receiv- ing a legislative charter, Palmer became mayor. Simultaneously, a dynamic young minister, the Reverend R.C. Mathews, became pastor of First Presbyterian Church. On September 9, 1853, 1,100 people gathered to hear Mathews denounce liquor. The parade was led by E.A. Paine, a thirty-seven- year-old West Point graduate and lawyer who was Warren County's represen- tative to the state legislature. He was prominent in the campaign to bring a railroad to Monmouth, to establish an insurance company, and in three years would be one of the six founders of the local Republican party.

Paine's efforts in the legislature were, at best, a partial success. The political parties failed to provide much leadership. In 1854 the Whig party began to melt in the heat of the Kansas-Nebraska dispute. Its middle-class base con- tained the largest block of temperance advocates, but these voters were defec- ting to new parties with clearer stances on the slavery issue. Of these parties, the American party (Know-Nothing) was foremost in wanting to outlaw saloons. However, it was really less interested in curbing alcohol abuse than in curbing Roman Catholic immigration. (Later, in a different context, this

34 WESTERN ILLINOIS REGIONAL STUDIES

was called "Rum and Romanism.") The Democrats had traditionally been attentive to the wishes of voters with a Protestant southern heritage. That meant defending the right to drink while frowning upon noisy celebrations, fighting, and open gambling. Democrats understood equally well that Irish and German Roman Catholics regarded prohibition as an attack on their church. The party could bridge the religious gap by defending the rights of the "common man" to make his own choice about drinking. However, sup- port for Democratic candidates could also be interpreted as support for slavery in the territories. This left voters in a quandary. No one could predict with confidence in which direction public sentiment was moving.

Individual legislators became wary of taking a controversial stand: in authorizing a referendum on prohibition, they placed responsibility on the people themselves for a decision. When the referendum narrowly failed in 1855, they had no enthusiasm for further discussion of statewide prohibition.

The temperance leaders fell back on local option, a program Whigs, Free Soilers, and Know-Nothings could agree on. Nor could any Democrat in the tradition of Jefferson or Jackson object to a community choosing to regulate Hfe as it wished. The city of Jacksonville led the way by banning the sale of liquor locally. Later Monmouth adopted the "Jacksonville Ordinance" specifying that alcohol could be sold only by druggist for medical, mechanical, and sacramental purposes."

The leading role in enforcing a total ban on liquor consumption in Mon- mouth came from the local Presbyterian congregations, especially the two belonging to the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, which held strong views on social issues, especially in opposing slavery and alcohol. In 1857 its assembly instructed congregations to oppose the sale of intoxicating beverages in their communities. David Wallace (whose name adorns the main building at Monmouth College today) and his co-workers, the Reverend James R. Brown and the Reverend Marion Morrison (John Wayne's great- uncle and namesake), were determined to carry out this decree. They were reinforced that year by David Alexander, who moved the Associate Reform Theological Seminary from Oxford, Ohio, to Monmouth. R.C. Mathews joined the college senate. The five made an imposing combination against the forces of evil. Other pastors and several lawyers provided additional support.

The second major force was the emerging Republican party. One of its leaders, Abraham Lincoln, had taken the pledge in 1852. In contrast, lUinois Democrats were led by Stephen Douglas, who was wary of turning down any potential voter's invitation to a drink, lest he seem to have lost the "com- mon touch." As a result, Douglas imbided more than he should. The Democratic stance on drink made it possible for the Republicans to make prohibition a major plank in their 1857 campaign. A.H. Swain, editor of the newly founded Democratic paper in Monmouth, the Review, noted that local Republicans were calling the Democrats "Whiskites ... and everything else mean and dishonorable." Although the Democrats made a sweep of the city offices, electing Ivory Quinby as mayor, Swain realized that similar sue-

Urban, TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT IN MONMOUTH 35

cesses could not be expected if the party remained on the wrong side of such an obviously popular issue.

The Democrats were already in trouble on the Kansas issue. Efforts by southern congressmen and Missouri "ruffians" to impose a pro-slavery con- sitution on Kansas had infuriated many Illinois voters. If that subject re- mained the major topic of discussion into the future, the Republicans would gather up the shattered remains of the Whig party and sweep the Democrats out of office. It was no secret that Whig issues such as a homestead bill, internal improvements, and a railroad to the West were popular locally. A nearby hamlet (Kirkwood) had named itself "Young America" in response to this feeUng. Prohibition was, at the least, a different topic.

Responsible for enforcing the Jacksonville Ordinance were the marshal and three constables. The duties of these officers overlapped, but generally speaking, the marshal had specific responsibilities (sidewalks, roads, stray dogs, arresting law-breakers observed violating city ordinances), while the constables' principal duty was to serve summons for the justices of the peace and to collect fines. One local family was prominent at this level of law en- forcement: the sons of Walter Earp, a semi-retired justice of the peace who died in early 1854. Francis Earp had been marshal in 1855 and Walter C. Earp had been constable since 1852. However, Francis held office only one year and Walter's tenure was marked by occasional excessive violence and repeated failure to account for funds from public auction of confiscated pro- perty. Circumstances made their brother Nicholas (elected constable in 1857) a central figure in the courtroom drama that culminated Monmouth's efforts to impose prohibition in 1858-59.

Nicholas was a man of strong emotions and independent personality. Though never much of a success as a cooper or farmer, he was convinced that fortune and fame were just around the corner. Born in 1813 in Virginia, Nicholas had grown up in Kentucky. In 1845, in hope of economic improve- ment, he moved to Monmouth. Apparently on his advice, his parents, brothers, and sisters brought their families west the next year. Wealth somehow eluded all of them, Nicholas most of all. When the Mexican War broke out, he enlisted as third sergeant of the Monmouth Dragoons and serv- ed until kicked in the groin by a mule. In 1849, when he moved to Pella, Iowa, citizens of Monmouth believed that he had gone to California. Nicholas was a Methodist at a time when that was synonymous with being a "tee- totaler" and, in fact, he was given his middle name (Porter) in honor of an early circuit rider. He returned from Iowa in 1856 and joined the Republican party. He was apparently looking for remunerative employment when the panic of 1857 occurred. At that time he became one of Monmouth's three township constables.

Although the Jacksonville Ordinance limited the sale of liquor to drug- gists, their "patent medicines" were thinly disgused alcoholic beverages. It was no secret that Walter and Nicholas Earp interpreted the law so broadly that their druggist friends were selling liquor "for medicinal purposes" to anyone with ready money. Moreover, the druggists operated according to

36 WESTERN ILLINOIS REGIONAL STUDIES

their own version of Gresham's law: whoever sold liquor most freely set the standard for everyone who wanted a share of the business. Liquor adver- tisements were prominent in the local newspapers (and included one for a store in Burlington). Some individuals sold liquor openly: in the census of 1860 John Frymire listed his occupation as "saloonkeeper." He operated the dry goods store on the square, "Gilbert and Frymire." Just a block away, on the south side of Broadway between A and B streets was a rickety blacksmith's shop called "Garrison Inn." Its owner, James Cowan, was an alderman in 1858. He also sold liquor. Among the places on the fringes of town where one could buy a drink while conducting other business was Jacob Emich's mill.

Many citizens of Monmouth were not against a bit of quiet drinking, but apparently the customers were not quiet. The violation of one law easily led to a disrespect for others. As A.H. Swain put it in the February 12, 1858, Review: "The rowdyism, and drunkenness, and revellings which are carried on in our streets at night, are became next to intollerable, [sic] and the sooner it is suppressed the better it will be for the morals and good name of Mon- mouth." In short, either the town fathers would have to license drinking, thereby making the saloonkeeper responsible for behavior, or drive the ped- dlars of drink out of business. Swain supported Jacob Holt's bid for mayor, certain that he was a man who could carry through the latter program.

As we had seen, the instigator of this particular crusade against drink was David Alexander Wallace, the pastor of the Associate Presbyterian Church (later the First United Presbyterian Church) and president (1856-1878) of the newly established Monmouth College. Not only was Wallace responding to a decree by his church assembly to oppose the sale of liquor, but he had an intense concern for his college students who boarded in private homes throughout the city: the temptations to dissipation were dangerous enough for the young men fresh in from the farm without having them exposed to alcoholic beverages as well. He communicated this concern effectively to the community. In February of 1858 a petition circulated through the community, calling for a public meeting on the subject at the courthouse. The meeting was chaired by Philo Reed, the twenty-seven-year-old editor of Ihe Atlas and a lawyer. The secretary was J.R. Brown of Monmouth College. Addresses were made by R.C. Mathews, G.W. Savage, Reed, and W.R. Love. London- born Savage was fifty-one and had been city attorney in 1854. At the close of the meeting David Wallace made an impassioned plea, urging that a com- mittee of seven men be formed to cooperate with the city authorities "in bringing to justice every offender against the municipal laws in regard to vending spirituous liquors." The motion passed.

The Monmouth Temperance League was formed on March 5, with plans to meet every Friday evening. E.A. Paine was president, Jacob Holt vice- president. Paine was hated by A.H. Swain, who on February 12 had called him "the soldier-button man of West Point notoriety." Paine responded by calling Swain "a willful and malicious liar." The formation of the league seemed to indicate that the Republicans were about to make prohibition the

Urban, TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT IN MONMOUTH 37

principal local issue. It also signaled a change in the way the law should be interpreted, thus perhaps unwittingly making the only Republicans current- ly holding office a target of the reform: township constables Nicholas and Walter C. Earp.

That local officials would be targets of the Democrats as well may be in- ferred from Swain's February 12 editorial in the Review: "The rapidity with which intemperance has increased in Monmouth during the past year should awake and alarm every good citizen." This implies that law enforcement of- ficers were not doing their jobs (in spite of the number of individuals who had been charged with selling liquor illegally in 1857). However, the Earps were small-fry in the local politics, too unimportant to be singled out for public scorn, too insignificant even to be mentioned by name.

On the other hand, the Earps were a well-known family and they had the gift of making firm friends. This was a mixed blessing. The family's ex- perience in law enforcement indicated that there are laws which are not meant to be enforced against one's friends and other upright citizens, but only against those who carry their violations to excess. As constables, Walter C. and Nicholas Earp had been responsible for enforcing a liquor law which a substantial minority of the citizenry disliked. They knew many good citizens of Monmouth who wanted alcohol. In fact, the demand was so great that a friend, William Grant (whose parents had co-signed Walter C.'s bond when he became constable), was opening a new drugstore to serve them.

Such reasoning was not acceptable to State's Attorney James H. Stewart of Oquawka. A Democrat, he was worried about the sudden rise of the Republican party. He saw that prohibition was the movement of the day and he was determined it should not remain the monopoly of the Republicans. In early 1858 Stewart was forty years of age and in his third year of service as prosecuting attorney for the 10th Circuit Court. Spurred on by Wallace's vigilance committee, Stewart convened a grand jury to investigate the sale of liquor. He obtained true bills against fourteen individuals and groups.

The defendants were not newcomers to the court. Some had been charged with selling liquor in previous years. They chose a variety of lawyers: Paine and Griffith, Kirkpatrick and Savage, and James Madden, but young George Luce, the junior partner of the firm Holloway and Luce, whose office was next door to the courthouse, was clearly the advocate of choice. He was ap- parently more combative on the issue of illegal sale of liquor. Nicholas Earp hired him.

John Thompson was circuit court judge in Warren County. He was known as a fair man. Though not a brilliant jurist, he gave every defendant ample opportunity to prepare his case and argue it, and he could be counted upon to clear his crowded docket by granting continuances to whoever asked for one. The courtroom filled most of the upper story of the 50' x 48' building which had stood on the corner of the square since 1837 (and would continue to be used until 1893).

Luce easily obtained a continuance until the October session for Nicholas, whose wife had recently been delivered of a daughter. It was a wise move

35 WESTERN ILLINOIS REGIONAL STUDIES

in any case. On March 29, he had allowed James Pickler to stand trial with a "not guilty" plea. The verdicts of two juries demonstrated to every lawyer present that this was not a good moment to try their luck: every lawyer ask- ed continuances until the next session. Judge Thompson, pressed by time and a full calendar, granted every request. He wanted to get at the more im- portant cases of burglary, rape, passing counterfeit money, and debt.

The prosecution against Walter C. Earp was directed against his failure to deliver money to a widow, a matter which involved the bond which had been co-signed by friends. This suit had been continued for one year, but no longer. He was found guilty. This effectively ended his law enforcement career.

Nicholas Earp did not passively await a similar fate: he took his case directly to the people by campaigning for re-election as constable. Monmouth, like many Illinois communities on the eve of the Civil War, was torn by fierce emotions concerning the slavery issue. In October Lincoln and Douglas would speak to large crowds in Monmouth, Douglas at the square, Lincoln only a couple of blocks from Earp's home (in the 400 block of South B Street). Party lines were breaking down — when Lincoln spoke in Oquawka and Burl- ington, he was introduced by James Stewart. In Monmouth these feelings were so strong that pohtics as usual were impossible. Practical-minded citizens, therefore, organized two artificial parties, the Union ticket and the People's ticket, so that they could concentrate on local issues rather than national politics. (These parties are still in existence: there is no Republican or Democratic local ticket; those begin at the level of state office.) The April 9 comments of "Junius" in the Review made it clear that the Union party was dominated by temperance people who intended to enforce the Jackson- ville Ordinance.

Nicholas Earp ran on the People's ticket. He thus aligned himself clearly with the "Whiskeyites." He received a respectable 204 votes for township constable, against the two top candidates' 234 and thus won an office. However, if that seemed like a vindication of his position, he celebrated his victory only a short while. Newly elected Mayor Jacob Holt (whose home was to be the birthplace of the first national sorority, Pi Beta Phi) called for a permanent vigilance committee of twenty persons to arrest "riotous, disorderly, and intoxicated persons" and asked for a force of four policemen to enforce the laws. He then revised the city ordinances, giving the office of marshal "the same duties as those possessed by constables elsewhere in the state." The city council would henceforth appoint the city officers, in- cluding the marshal and policemen. This did not affect township officers.

If one may judge by the pages of the Review, few people thought much about temperance during the summer and fall of 1858. The Lincoln-Douglas campaign absorbed all local energies. Local Democrats relied on the crudest racism to smear the "Black Republicans." One article in the October 5 Review began thus: "The nigger, Fred Douglass, is not stumping the northern por- tion of this state." The Republicans, for their part, were quick to take of- fense. According to the Review (October 22), the Republicans miscontrued

Urban, TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT IN MONMOUTH 39

some of Stephen Douglas's remarks in Monmouth as an attack on Paine for being "a Har, thief, and scoundrel."

The liquor sellers could still take solace in the fact that the marshal's duties only extended to the city limits. In December a group of township residents petitioned for the creation of a new town adjacent to Monmouth. The city council forestalled this effort on February 16, 1859, by extending the city boundaries one mile in every direction from the center of town. This reduc- ed the area of Nicholas' employment drastically. The township he represented had been largely swallowed up by Monmouth. Immediately 237 citizens signed a petition to divide the town into two communities. Naturally, Nicholas Earp was among the signers. But nothing was done. Monmouth boundaries have changed but little since that date.

Once the election was over, prohibition had ceased to be a party issue. In January Republicans and Democrats came together to found "old- fashioned" Washington Temperance Society. Nathaniel A. Rankin was presi- dent and A. H. Swain sat on the executive committee. R.C. Mathews was a strong supporter. The difference between this society and the others was expressed by one member: "I am of the belief that man may be persuaded by kindness and moral suasion, but I question much whether he can be by coersive laws." Druggist William Grant organized the Howard Lodge of the Independent Order of Good Templers [sic], which met every Tuesday under the motto: "Temperance and Good Morals." His reward was the post of city collector, which he held for the next seven years, then city clerk and coun- ty clerk. In short, every important person in the community was now either pro-temperance or prohibitionist, but the most they could agree upon was that laws should reflect the community will: that the consumption of alcohol beverages be discouraged by restricting its sale, that vendors by punished, and that individual "sinners" can best be redeemed by the combination of religion, rational appeal, and community pressure which temperance societies provided. David Wallace substituted for Mathews as the speaker at one January meeting and won praise even from Swain for his eloquent descrip- tion of the "pecuniary evils" of drink and the benefits which would come to a temperance community. However, he was unable to persuade his waver- ing allies to hold out for total prohibition.

Political realists saw that the community was divided among idealists, pragmatists, and those who defended the right of the individual to drink. Although the first two held the majority, they had too many disagreements for anyone to believe the matter was settled once and for all. The dominance of the moderates was confirmed in April of 1859 when Republican N.P. Rankin won election as mayor and the aldermanic seats fell to Republicans and Democrats who believed in licensing drinking establishments.

Swain accepted the election results with little grace, saying, "We wish the Republicans hereafter to say as little as possible about the 'Whiskey Party' being wholly Democrats." On May 18, in the midst on numerous resigna- tions, the city council appointed as marshal S.F. McBride, who had been beaten in the previous election by Nicholas Earp. Among the four policemen named was Francis A. Earp, Nicholas' teetotaller brother.

40 WESTERN ILLINOIS REGIONAL STUDIES

In view of the tendency of reform movements to peter out, it is surprising that the prohibition effort kept such momentum so long. Nicholas Earp may well have assumed that public opinion would change in his favor. If only he could hold out in court long enough, the prosecution would lose interest. Asking for continuances from a lenient judge seems to have been his strategy (and that of other defendants). It had worked for Walter C. Earp for years. Nicholas might have been successful, too, in his effort to delay conviction, if he and his brother, Walter C, had not been charged with violations of the new, tougher liquor law on March 22, 1859. It is not clear that this new charge was connected with the April election, but it would have been a marvelous campaign issue for the Democrats. Nicholas Earp chose not to seek re-election.

Nicholas appeared in court with his lawyer on March 26, 1859, to plead to the original, continued charges. The Review noted the large number of lawyers present. Nicholas' case was far down the list of defendants, but he was the only person to contest the indictment. Judge Thompson impaneled a jury and called the witnesses. Relying on the testimony of James Madden, Stewart mercilessly tore into Nicholas' defense. Madden was a good witness. Former school commissioner, one of the founders of the railroad company, city attorney in 1857, he was also known to be a friend of the Earp family. Moreover, Stewart's reputation was that of "a careful and pain-staking Pro- secuting Attorney." The jury's verdict was "Guilty in moment and form as charged in both counts of the indictment." Earp appealed for a new trial and "arrest of judgment." Judge Thompson granted the motion.

On March 29 Judge Thompson impaneled a new jury. Stewart presented his evidence. Again the jury found the defendant guilty. Once again Nicholas moved for a new trial. At this point Judge Thompson seems to have suspected that Nicholas was duplicating Walter's delaying tactics. Nevertheless, he agreed to hear the defendant's arguments in two weeks.

The judge heard arguments for a new trial on April 11, overruled Earp's motions, and assessed a $20 fine for each count plus costs. Then, demonstrating that his reputation for being "not a brilliant but a careful judge" was correct, Thompson ordered that Earp "stand committed until fine and costs are paid and pays the court for an appeal to the Supreme Court, which is allowed by the court upon the said defendant entering into bond in the sum of two hundred dollars." The following day the judge issued a "capias" order for Earp's arrest on two new counts of selling liquor. He fined Walter C. Earp $50 plus costs.

The March session was at its close, so the judge could not hear these new charges until the fall. Since the Earp case would serve as a precedent for sentencing the other defendants. Judge Thompson delayed imposing those rulings too. (Obviously, modern complaints about slow justice and over- crowded calendars are nothing new.)

When the fall session of court began on October 25, the Review noted that Judge Thompson spent the forenoon imposing minimum sentences on the defendants William Gardner, William McMillian, William Quinn, John

Urban, TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT IN MONMOUTH

^ ^ . . ^

^ THE PEOPLE of the State df Illinois, "; *.,

^ To the Sheriff of Warren County ©reeling; 1

^ WheiWU, by tl^e,coiukfc^on of oar. Greuk(^urt, held alMoxiiOCTn, in and for the County j

^ of WuTpn, oo the // ^^ day ot\C^/ift<-^ in the year of our Lord, one thousand

Dollar* fine, adjudged by the said Circuit - ^^ Court, which the (aid People, f<>r the u»* of Warren County, obtained by reason of the said judgment, r -^ in faTor of the People of the Slate of Illinois, (or the use of Warren County ; and also for the further ^^ sum of t/t-o-t-e-ilSr ^^L-^'^ Dollars and _4^--f ^ Cent*, cosu of suit,

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■M as appean of record :

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WE THERSEORE COMMAND YOU, That at the goods and chattels, lands and tenements, of T| the said l^yj^ t <f- A-f^(^^ y^ CP^^/C^ '"" '■°** •" ** '"^* ^^ aforesaid

sums of money ; and that you^ure the same ready, is soon as qkay be, to render onto the said People of the State of Illioois, ^cnrdl^^^^.

IIereof rAiL Rot, and maVe n^um of this Writ, with your doing\' ninety days after the dat« ^> hereot n

nrUnrU, .l^j^^^V^VCZi^^^T^ CWrkofooraaid Cwt^jT^ and the seal th«reof, at MoUfaooth, bis / ^ ' day of ^ ^a'tf^^Y — in the T«»r of ow Lord, Od« Tboosaod Eicht Hundred and ftfty *>-i,^-._ '

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Court order to collect $46.50 from Nicholas Earp to pay the fine and court costs following conviction of selling liquor, March 20, 1858. From attic storeroom in the Warren County Courthouse.

42 WESTERN ILLINOIS REGIONAL STUDIES

PI-.-Vl>TT'IFP~S COST

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Co5/5 ^/7/ec^ to defendant, Nicholas Earp, following conviction on the second charge of selling liquor. This was in addition to the $20 fine. From the lee Book oj the Warren County Court.

Urban, TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT IN MONMOUTH

Frymire, John Hudeburg, William and Liberty Gilmore, Patrick Clark and Ellen Dobbins, and Isaac Hanks. When Nicholas' turn came to stand before Judge Thompson, however, he not only had the two old counts to deal with, but policeman A.S. Carr was ready to testify against him on new charges. That apparently got Earp's fighting spirit up. He managed to drag out the hearing for two weeks, but eventually he entered a plea of guilty on all counts. Judge Thompson fined him $10 on each count and costs, then committed him to jail until both fine and costs were paid. However, Earp was quickly on the street again, perhaps never having spent a night in jail. (Although the jail was lined with plates of boiler iron from Cincinnati, with only a small opening for food, it was not effective: at the end of October one man escaped on a Monday and four more the following Wednesday.)

Judge Thompson may have realized that Nicholas Earp was too stubborn to pay the fine and court costs. Therefore, instead of attempting to crush Earp by imprisonment, he ordered Sheriff Smith to seize his property on East Broadway. The lots were sold at public auction at the courthouse door on November 11 to James M. Montgomery for $51.55.

Earp may have met his legal obligations unwillingly, but he knew the law well enough to make it difficult for Montgomery to take possession. When Montgomery offered to buy the lots from him for $800, he accepted quickly and moved back to Pella, Iowa. Walter C. Earp moved away as well.

Stewart moved to Monmouth in 1861 and twenty years later became the Warren County judge. John Thompson served once more as circuit court judge (1864-67) then moved to California and made a fortune. George Luce, still a young lawyer and without roots in the community, left town. Philo Reed volunteered for service in the 83rd Illinois Infantry and fell at the Bat- tle of Fort Donelson. E.A. Paine became a general. Jacob Holt and N.P. Rankin went into retirement within a few years. David Wallace built Mon- mouth College into a thriving insitution of higher education. David Alex- ander left to found a women's college in Assuit, Egypt, which had close ties with Monmouth College until the Nasser era. R. C. Mathews remained in Monmouth and became one of the most successful pastors in the United Presbyterian Church.

The Civil War soon eclipsed the temperance movement in the public mind. Many citizens realized that it was one thing to pass prohibition laws, another to enforce them. Moreover, it was not practical to fight more than one crusade at a time. The cause of Union and Abolition required the assistance of every like-minded person, even those who consumed alcoholic beverages. Temperance speakers again concentrated on the individual, not on the passage of prohibition legislation.

When "the Great Rebellion" was suppressed, temperance once again became a matter of great local concern. In February of 1866 the Monmouth Temperance Society was founded by names now familiar: Jacob Holt, E.A. Paine, R.C. Mathews, David Wallace, and the editors of the two newspapers, Swain and Reed. The president of the society was Harry Hardin. It should be noted, in view of the close connection of temperance views and racial

44 WESTERN ILLINOIS REGIONAL STUDIES

equality, that Frederick Douglass spoke to a spell-bound audience in Mon- mouth on February 21, 1866, in Hardin's Hall.

Nevertheless, temperance efforts were never more than partially successful. Although Monmouth College assured parents of prospective students that Monmouth was a town with "No Saloons, "court records show that anyone who wanted liquor knew where to get it.

NOTES

John Hallwas, Western Illinois Heritage (Macomb: Illinois Heritage Press, 1983), pp. 87-93; Moffet Book (Warren County Library and Hewes Library), I, 15; II, 45-46; II, 64, IV, 88, VII, 155.'

^Arthur Charles Cole, The Era of The Civil War, 1848-1870, vol. 3 of The Centennial History of Illinois (Springfield: 1919), pp. 205-10.

'J.C. Furnas, The Life and Times of the Late Demon Rum (New York: Putnam, 1965), pp. 161-85; Monmouth Review, 9 April 1958; the grand jury report for Warren County in 1850 (to be found in a storage box in the courthouse attic) also noted that there was excessive gambling; Francis Asbury Earp was a member of the Sons of Temperance. Monmouth Atlas, 8 September 1853.

■■The Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church had been formed in the Scotch-Irish union effort of 1782. Although troubled by schism, these enthusiastic Christians were pioneers of the western settlement who founded theological seminaries and colleges. Among their creations was Monmouth College (1856) and the seminary at Oxford, Ohio. The Associate Presbyterian Church was created by protestors who were even more strongly opposed to slavery and the manufac- ture, sale, and consumption of alcohol. W.E. McCuUoch, The United Presbyterian Church and Its Work in America (1925), pp. 28-32; Wallace Jamison, The United Presbyterian Story; a Centennial Study 1858-1958 (Pittsburgh: Geneva Press, 1958), pp. 49f, 58f, 98f; Digest of the Principle Acts and Deliverances of the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church of North America, from 1859 to 1902 (Pittsburgh: United Presbyterian Board of Education, 1903), pp. 287f.

'Monmouth Review, 30 October 1857, p. 2 and 23 October 1857, p. 2. Swain wrote: (The Democrats) "stand in open hostility to the corruption, treason and disunion sentiments of the Black Republicans, who are seeking to overthrow and break down the national Democracy in Warren County and throughout the whole country, and to secure for themselves the spoils of office." Alexander Hamilton Swain was a native of Uniontown, Ohio, born in 1828. When his father died in 1845, young Swain went to work as a printer. Emigrating to Knoxville, he changed his politics to Democratic and abandoned his embarrassing name in favor of the initials, A. H. In 1855 he founded the Review in Monmouth.

The Atlas issues of 1856-1860 being missing, it is not possible to cite the Republican com- ments directly, but Swain often wrote rebuttals to their editorials.

The tendency for the prohibition movement to split along political party lines was a national problem deplored by Ernest Cherrington, The Evolution of Prohibition in the United States of America (Westerville, Ohio: American Issue, 1920), pp. 139-40.

"William Urban, "Wyatt Earp was Bom Here: Monmouth and the Earps, 1845-1859," Western Illinois Regional Studies, vol. 3, no. 2 (Fall 1980); 154-67; William Urban, "Nicholas Earp, Wyait's Father," Real West (May 1989), pp. 30-32, 37-39, William Urban, "The Birthplace of Wyatt Farp," Western Illinois Regional Studies, vol. 12, no. 1 (Spring 1989), pp. 20-43. Francis Earp and broiher-in-law Andrew Jackson Eby were on the arrangements committee lor the September 9, 1853, temperance rally (Moffet Book, II, 46).

The Past and Present of Warren County, Illinois (Chkago: Kett, 1877), pp. 151, 216; Gar- vin Davenport, Monmouth College, the First Hundred Years 1853-1953 (Cedar Rapids, Iowa: Torch, 1953), pp. 25-32, 42-44; H. F. Wallace, A Busy Life: A Tribute to the Memorv of the Rev. David A. Wallace, DD, LZ.D (Greeley, Colorado, 1885).

'Monmouth Review, 19 February 1858, p. 3. The thrust of Wallace's argument may be guessed from the text of a 1881 speech in A Busy Life. pp. 181-203.

"Nicholas is listed as constable in 1857 Galesburg, Monmouth, Knoxville and Abingdon Direc-

Urban, TEMPERANCE MOVEMENT IN MONMOUTH 45

lory (published by McEvoy), living at the corner of Illinois and West (today South B Street and 3rd St.).

"'Monmouth Review, 12 March 1858, p. 3. The Census of 1860 indicates that Grant also let rooms in his building to young lawyers - who should have been able to give him legal advice on the sale of alcohol.

"Portrait and Biographical Album of Warren County, Illinois (Chicago: Chapman Brothers, 1886), pp. 398-99. Stewart was not a handsome man. When he was riding in a carriage with Lincoln and S.S. Phelps of Oqiiawka, a man on the street spoke out loudly," Well, if you can get three uglier men together at one time, I would like to see them." Ralph Eckley, Monmouth Review- Atlas, 24 September 1958.

"Circuit Court Records, E. 31, 33, cases #25 and 26. On March 20, 1858, the grand jury returned a number of indictments for selling liquor.

"Circuit Court Records, E. 216, 218, 236, 239, 241. Walter C. Earp was found guilty by the jury and assessed damages of $97.30 (pp. 24-25, 102, 104).

''Monmouth Review, 9 April 1858. The Union ticket had "to back down and grease." The letter by Junius describing the election is unfortunately filled with so many allusions and elipses that his meaning is not as clear as one would wish.

''Monmouth Review, 1 May 1858, p. 2; the Revised Ordinances of the City of Monmouth, p. 39. These are also printed in the Mo«mow//? /^ev'/eH", 20 August 1858, p. l,and 10 September 1 858, p. 1 , The city council applauded the mayor's active prosecution of liquor violations. Mon- mouth Review, 14 January 1859, p. 3.

'"Monmouth Review, 3 December 1858, p. 2, 14 January 1859, p. 2; biography of Rankin in Portrait and Biographical Album, pp. 215-16.

'Circuit Court Records, E, 216, 218. Walter C. Earp was charged with a similar offense. Judge's Docket, p. 3.

"Circuit Court Records, E. 236. Court costs alone were $26.50 on charge #25 and $43.21 on #26. Stewart earned $10 for each prosecution. Fee Book, E, 420; Portrait and Biographical Album, p. 694, remarked of Stewart that there "were few who escaped punishment while he held the office."

'"Circuit Court Records, E, 257. Philo E. Reed testified in August when the matter was rais- ed once again.

■"Circuit Court Records, E, 304, 313-14. Judgment Docket, pp. 5-7; Free Book, E. 420, show that the court orders to collect payment dated August 19 and 20, 1859; Monmouth Review, 1 April 1859, p. 3; Thompson in Portrait and Biographical Album, p. 692; the disposition of the charges brought against him on April 12 (E, 316, cases #70 and 71) is not clear.

■Circuit Court Records, E, 394 (cases 36 and 37); Fee Book, E, pp. 420-21, indicates that Carr was paid as a witness for thirteen days service for each count, and A. Tailor for thirteen days as witness on charge #37; Monmouth Review, 4 November, 1859, p. 3.

■'William Urban, "The People Versus Nicholas P. Earp," (submitted).

■'Portrait and Biographical Album, pp. 692, 694.

■'Lincoln patiently endured the lectures of temperance groups who complained that Grant drank. Eventually, everyone came to recognize the need for priorities. Temperance thus lost momentum and recovered it only slowly (perhaps because the public had sacrificed so much that it was unready for yet another great crusade, or perhaps because the worst era of drinking excess had passed).

■'Moffet Book, VI, 33. When the Monmouth Ladies Temperance Society was formed June 27, 1872, we again see the names prominent in earlier movements and to Monmouth College. Historical Encvclopedia of Illinois and Historv of Warren Countv (Chicago: Munsell, 1903), II, 798.

■''Ravelings, 1894. Among the prominent bootleggers was Dow Earp, who was bold enough to advertize in the college paper and invite everyone who isn't the sheriff to patronize his establish- ment. Raided in 1 870, he sued the city, eventually w inning both the jury's verdict and the city's appeal to the state supreme court. Moffet Book, VII, 28, 56.

COLLEGE TOWNS AND CAMPUS SITES IN WESTERN ILLINOIS

John V. Bergen

A college town is one in which there is daily awareness of the existence of a college or university, a place where it is hard to avoid the activity associated with school. When people are asked to cite the criteria for identi- fying a college town, the answers vary from a place with noisy and annoying students to a quiet and sedate campus on the hill. Obviously, a host of social, psychological, economic, and physical features combine to create the per- sonality of a college town. The relationship between town and college ranges along a continuum, from places where the institution clearly dominates the life of the town as well as the landscape to places where a little college is lost in urban sprawl.'

Whereas some people have the image of a college town as a place with noisy students, auto congestion, and taverns, many people recognize the im- pressive campus landscape that adds a special dimension to the communi- ty's built environment. In much of small town America, children living near a campus have had the advantage of using the college athletic facilities, hav- ing part-time summer jobs when college students have gone home, sledding on steep slopes near "college hill," enjoying and joining in the homecoming parade. Townspeople, youth and adult, can use the library and visit museums as well as attend athletic and cultural events. Most of these activities and opportunities became significant in small town life during the first half of this century, and most continue today, even though the relatively quiet or peaceful atmosphere of the campus has changed radically with the ubiquitous automobile and a host of other features that have interrupted traditional pat- terns of the first 100 years or more of campus life in small towns and small cities.

The purpose of this study is to focus on the campus as a landscape feature,- to learn where and when these college sites have developed and how they relate to the overall townscape. These include any equivalent of the modern- day junior college (some academies, seminaries, institutes, business colleges, and normal schools) as well as the four-year degree granting college and university. Space limitations preclude the use of cartographic and pictorial views of individual college towns and campus landscapes. However, several geographical descriptions (location and landscape) are quoted from persons who were a part of the communities about which they wrote.

The study features villages, towns, and cities of greater western Illinois, from the establishment in the 1820s of the first pioneer colleges in the state to the time when the commuter college has introduced not only a new con- cept in adult education but also a new and non-traditional landscape. More

Bergen, COLLEGE TOWNS AND CAMPUS SITES 47

specifically, the evolution of college, campus, and college town is presented within a framework of four open-ended time periods: the nineteenth cen- tury before the Civil War; the post-war period; the twentieth century before World War II; and the expansive period since the GI Bill.

1820s to 1860s — Pioneer Settlement and the Classical Denominational College

In the period preceding the Civil War, Illinois communities and their economies evolved from the pioneer log cabin stage to a mid-century period of established wealth and near total occupance of the land. Among the prime concerns of community leaders was the attainment of viability in political, commercial, and educational functions along with the stabilizing influences of religion. To these ends, community access was paramount, although founders of some early seminaries, academies, or colleges believed in the value of isolation from worldly temptation.

The competition for seats of higher education was somewhat different than the competition for county seats.' In the earliest days virtually every little settlement might aspire to attract a college. In an age of town boosterism, many community leaders saw an economic advantage in supporting a col- lege. The idyllic scene of ivory towers far from the temptations of growing cities invited hope to even the smallest of settlements — especially if they could offer a lovely site for a "college hill."

However, it soon became apparent that parents of the boys (and girls) who would attend these pioneer colleges would like to have access by rail and perhaps have available a hotel or inn. Such desires and needs usually gave the county seat towns an advantage over other settlements in attracting a college. In rare cases, the college came with the town founding; in Galesburg, the dedication of the founders brought the railroad, which, in turn, strengthened the cause for adding the courthouse and a whole range of business enterprises. But commonly the college gravitated toward a progres- sive, growing community.

Despite the diverse types of collegiate institutions today, such institutions in the nineteenth century seem more difficult to classify — especially in hind- sight. Both for institutions chartered by the state and for those that never made it that far, local names may often be misleading. Before the appearance of public school systems about mid-century and, in particular, before public high schools, private denominational institutions proliferated by the hun- dreds in villages across the Middle West. It must be remembered that schools and colleges had very small enrollments during the nineteenth century, usually far fewer than 100 students in so-called college campuses where a single "old main" dominated.

A few contemporary reports and several historians of higher education have tried to separate the institutions that offered college-level courses from those that offered only secondary courses.' Unfortunately, for purposes of classification, most early college-level institutions included preparatory schools or departments even in the very small institutions. Whether honest or dishonest in their appellations, the founders have left us with a maze of

48 WESTERN ILLINOIS REGIONAL STUDIES

institutional names; and, school records are often incomplete or unreliable indicators of college status.

The early list includes such basic and traditional names as college, univer- sity, academy, seminary, and institute. For a few years, notably in the 1830s, some institutions originated as manual labor schools (e.g. Knox College). With important exceptions, the titles academy and seminary referred to prep schools or secondary level institutions. The name seminary was often given to schools for young ladies, schools that offered high school and, possibly, early college work. But seminary also encompassed schools where young men were encouraged to concentrate on theological training. Today, seminary most often refers to a graduate-level theological school.

An example of the changing situations among towns and colleges is nicely represented by developments in western Illinois, particularly in the area known as the Military Tract located between the Illinois and Mississippi rivers. Many of the successes and failures common throughout the Midwest can be view- ed in this area, which was settled both by those coming up the rivers from the South and by those who came overland directly from the North including New York and New England.

The first three successful permanent colleges founded in Illinois were established between 1827 and 1829 just to the south and east of the Military Tract: Rock Spring Seminary established in a rural setting (1827) and mov- ed to Alton in 1832 to become Shurtleff College'; McKendree College in the village of Lebanon (1828)''; and Illinois College in Jacksonville (1829), a small city with several special institutions today.' Like so many other schools, these institutions really had few if any true college-level students in the early years, but by persistence they all developed into reputable liberal arts colleges spon- sored by Baptists (ShurtlefO, Methodists (McKendree), and Congrega- tionalists jointly with Presbyterians (Illinois College).

Several other colleges in western Illinois, some of them only briefly opera- tional, can trace their origins to the 1830s and 1840s: Monticello Seminary for Young Ladies (1835) in Godfrey; Canton College (1836) in Canton; McDonough College (1836) in Macomb; Knox College (1837) in Galesburg; Jubilee College (1841) in rural Peoria County; MacMurray first known as Illinois Conference Female Academy (1846) in Jacksonville. Perhaps a dozen college campuses came into being in western and central Illinois, seven of them within the Military Tract (Fig. 1).'

During the 1850s, no less than twenty-five schools with strong collegiate aspirations appeared in Illinois. The survival rate beyond a few years was rather low. Figure 2 shows only those schools that actually functioned in their own buildings on campus sites for at least two or three years and, at times, offered college courses. ■*

1860s to 1900— Experimentation, Innovation, and Diversity

A great variety of collcgiate-lcvel schools appeared throughout the nation in the latter third of the nineteenth century. This was the period following the Federal Land Grant Act (1862), making possible establishment of state

Bergen, COLLEGE TOWNS AND CAMPUS SITES

49

TOWNS WITH COLLEGE CAMPUS SITES 1820s THROUGH 1890s

I I Military Tract • County Seat A College Campus First Established; Pre 1860 Post 1860 X Other Sites Founding Date Claimed by the Earliest Functioning Colleges

Illinois College 1829 Jacksonville McKendree College 1828 Lebanon Shurtleff College 1827 Alton Monticello Seminary 1835 Godfrey McDonougti College 1836 Macomb Canton College 1836 Canton Knox College 1837 Galesburg Jubilee College 1840 Robins Nesl

Figure 1

50

WESTERN ILLINOIS REGIONAL STUDIES

ILLINOIS COLLEGES 1840 TO 1870

COLLEGE

CAMPUSES

ACTIVE

1860

/•?

COLLEGE

CAMPUSES

1870

J

X

Includes schools with 4-year degrees plus schools with 1-3 years of college

Figure 2

Bergen, COLLEGE TOWNS AND CAMPUS SITES 51

colleges for agricultural and mechanical training. Illinois Industrial Univer- sity (University of Illinois) was established in Urbana, but this was more than ten years after the founding of Illinois Normal, now known as Illinois State University. Normal was established in 1857 in a rural area two miles north of the McLean County Courthouse in Bloomington. '" The potential impor- tance of Bloomington in the center of the state and the anticipation of the Illinois Central Railroad inspired the Methodists to organize Illinois Wesleyan University on a hill about one-half mile north of the courthouse."

Especially after 1860, a number of private vocational schools appeared in addition to the traditional colleges offering a classical (liberal arts) educa- tion. It is difficult to classify many of the vocational schools as either distinctly secondary or post-secondary. These include the business or commercial col- lege, the normal school, the collegiate institute, each of which may be con- sidered the counterpart of the twentieth century junior college.

If the nineteenth century business colleges and normal schools were to be classified according to campus site, then they would be a distinct forerunner of today's commuter colleges; however, the nineteenth century commuter student often took board and room in town and returned to the farm on the weekend. Business colleges usually occupied rooms in the second floor of central business district buildings and were much less campus institutions than many public high schools and private academies whose architecturally ornate buildings looked like a college old main. Collegiate institutes may also have aspired to combine a practical education with college preparatory courses and a sprinkling of junior college-level classes, all offered in a residential campus setting.

Normal schools first developed about mid-century and were listed separate- ly from secondary or superior (higher) education.'- By the end of the cen- tury many of these schools had attained college status. In part, this was the result of the rapid rise of public high schools that provided more secondary graduates to advance to normal schools and, in turn, to teach in high schools. In earlier times, normal schools taught primarily the high school courses necessary to train teachers for grammar school. Campus-type normal schools probably deserve to be classified with other classic colleges of the day.

A few institutions entitled college never were post-secondary, and many others had more students in preparatory courses than in legitimate college- level courses. All of these types of institutions by name have been represented in western Illinois. One may be generous in admitting nineteenth century "junior colleges" to the list of college campuses, yet this does account for a number of campus sites and college towns that have seen a fluctuation bet- ween secondary and collegiate education on the same campus and often in the same chartered institution."

1900s to 1940s— The Maturing Campus

From the turn of the century until the World War II period, the success- ful colleges and universities expanded and improved campus facilities. Not only were classrooms, laboratories, and libraries enlarged and modernized,

52 H'ES TERN IL L INOIS REG ION A L S TUDIES

but also Stadiums, gymnasiums, and student unions were added or upgrad- ed to serve the campus and the community beyond. In fact, intercollegiate baseball, football, and basketball competition became an overnight campus tradition. While campus acreage was increased as new structures were add- ed, enrollments generally grew at a more modest rate. Any nineteenth cen- tury old main that may have survived the ravages of fire or the wrecking bar often became either a historic curiosity or a remodeled administration hall, perhaps with a few classrooms retained."

During this period a few private schools failed in western Illinois, some as a result of World War I disruptions and others during the depression. Older established schools with a sizable number of alumni seemed to be bet- ter supported than were newer or small private schools. Lombard College in Galesburg (1851-1930) merged with Knox College; Hedding College in Ab- ingdon (1855-1927) merged with Illinois Wesleyan; and two colleges failed on the same Aledo campus — William and Vashti College (1908-1917) and Illinois Military School (1924-1931), the latter being reorganized under a new name.

The now classic state guides produced in the late 1930s by the WPA (Works Progress Administration) Federal Writers Project capture in narrative form the end of an era. In particular, the college town with its campus landscape had developed slowly but steadily for more than 100 years in the Middle West. These narrative snapshots as well as picture postcards emphasized a serene, peaceful townscape, small town America perhaps at its most satisfying period. '-

1940s to 1990s— Rejuvenation and Rapid Change

During World War II, the typical or traditional ways of campus and com- munity life were severely disrupted. A high proportion of male students left— often abruptly— for military duty, although on many campuses they were replaced by young men assigned to short-term military training programs. Most colleges and universities, including all in western Illinois, survived this forced transition period. In virtually all colleges, campus development was put on hold except for the emergency addition of temporary wartime structures.

Following the war, colleges— notably state colleges and universities— began to change dramatically. No longer were they the refuge for the elite, those who could afford a college education, and those who had special academic talents. The GI Bill helped immeasurably to create a virtual explosion in enrollments. Campus housing reflected that fact in the flood of temporary housing units developed in unneeded military barracks moved from nearby military installations. For example. Western Illinois State Teachers College in Macomb experienced all of these momentous changes including the transfer of barracks from nearby Camp Ellis, deactivated shortly after the war.'*

With the arrival of so many older students, veterans in their twenties, tem- porary housing was needed particularly for married housing units. Dor- mitories and fraternity houses began to overflow, and there came a need to

Bergen, COLLEGE TOHNS AND CAMPUS SITES 53

find rental housing in nearby residential neighborhoods. In a sense, the col- leges, on a much grander scale, were dependent upon the host community housing as had been pioneer colleges before dormitories became an integral part of campus facilities.

Public colleges and universities began an unprecedented growth that seemed to continue unimpeded well into the 1970s. Private colleges benefited, both from the federal assistance programs and from the overflow in public col- leges. The growth continued with burgeoning enrollments resulting from the post-war baby boom. The most rapid expansion occurred in the 1960s when both private and public institutiuons were often guilty of over-building.

How did this affect campus development? In the first place, acreage ex- pansion became necessary to accommodate new housing and new academic facilities. The 1950s saw the spillover of campus into surrounding residen- tial areas by the purchase of dwellings often to be used for special depart- ments or administrative offices, supposedly on a temporary basis until new buildings could be constructed. This practice of campus expansion continued in some places even in the 1970s.

In the meantime, the attempt to accommodate the demand for college education was to be undertaken by a broader network of public junior col- leges, notably during the 1960s in Illinois. This low cost public education, including a large array of vocational technical programs may have precipitated the demise or enrollment decline of some small private colleges. For them it became again — as in the nineteenth century — a case of survival of the fit- test. In this post-war environment, it was often long-time survivors that lost out, whereas in the nineteenth century those colleges that disappeared often died at birth or soon thereafter and usually had single building campuses that may have been turned over to the local public schools.

The rapid arrival of large community colleges introduced a new element in campus design — the commuter college campus. Although some junior col- lege districts were able to acquire and remodel older facilities, most of those in western Illinois eventually created new sprawling "shopping-center" cam- puses (Black Hawk College, Black Hawk College East, Carl Sandburg Col- lege, Spoon River College, and John Wood Community College), and all have developed attendance centers (branches).''

Geographical Patterns in Historical Perspective

The distribution of campuses and college towns in western Illinois shows a historical preference for location in prairie towns and county seats rather than in river towns and non-county seats. Excluding the metropolitan areas of Peoria, the Quad Cities, and Springfield, the long successful college centers are clearly the larger upland prairie towns with 10,000 to 40,000 population today— Jacksonville (25,000), Galesburg (35,000), Macomb (20,000), and Monmouth (10,000). Among more than a dozen smaller county seats in the uplands, only Carthage and Aledo with respective populations of 3,000 and 3,800 have hosted collegiate institutions for any period of time (Fig. 3).

Several other small prairie towns and villages have been college towns for

54

WESTERN ILLINOIS REGIONAL STUDIES

COLLEGE TOWNS AND CAMPUS SITES 1820s TO PRESENT

Campus Extant in 1990

(•! College Continues from 19th Century Origin

:~: College Changed;

Campus Continued

• Community College Since 1960

Defunct College and Campus

X Active Less Than 15 Years * Active 15 to 70 Years

Metropolitan areas include more than one active college campus

Figure 3

Bergen, COLLEGE TOWNS AND CAMPUS SITES 55

a part of their nineteenth century history, i.e., Abingdon (two four-year col- leges), Knoxville, Bushnell, LaHarpe, and Geneseo. At least these towns had reasonably good rail connections to the outside in contrast to Jubilee Col- lege, which was established purposely in remote wooded hills of Peoria Coun- ty but failed during the Civil War. The two largest non-county seat towns in the prairie upland. Canton and Kewanee each with populations of approx- imately 14,000, owe their college connections primarily to the recent develop- ment of community colleges temporarily in town and then in nearby rural campus settings. Except for Quincy and Peoria, the Mississippi and Illinois river towns in western Illinois are quite small and have had virtually no suc- cess in attracting or maintaining institutions of higher education, even in their more prosperous frontier days.

Two upland prairie towns in western Illinois — Jacksonville and Galesburg — were acknowledged as leading college towns by the early 1850s. Jacksonville, with the first degree-granting college (Illinois College), soon became one of the most distinctive small-city hosts to multiple institutions, including two continuing colleges and at least three different state institu- tions for the handicapped. Like much of the southern half of Illinois, Jackson- ville was settled in the 1820s by pioneers arriving via the Ohio, Mississippi, and Illinois rivers; even so, its social and intellectual focus reflected a strong Yankee influence. Galesburg and its Knox College, founded together more than a decade later and almost ninety miles north of Jacksonville, was a Yankee colony settled from the northern route and, incidentally, strongly influenc- ed by graduates of Illinois College who became professors and administrators at Knox College. Because these two remarkable cities were such influential centers of higher educatioin as well as of religious fervor and social innova- tions, they will be described first among western Illinois college towns. The several colleges in Jacksonville and the cluster of colleges in the vicinity of Galesburg will be identified along with many other collegiate experiments, especially in the Military Tract (Fig. 3).

Jacksonville

Illinois College, founded in Jacksonville in 1829, is recognized as the first school in Illinois to offer a legitimate college-level program and a four-year degree. The first two men graduated a few months after the legislature final- ly approved official college charters for four institutions on February 7, 1835. The history of Illinois College is one of the most thoroughly documented, all accounts either supporting or supplementing the monumental centennial history by the college president, Charles D. Rammelkamp.'*

Perhaps no small city in Illinois, or even in the Midwest, has such a rich early heritage recorded by so many contemporary observers as well as by discerning historians and social scientists. In a scholarly treatise, Don Har- rison Doyle has evaluated the successes and failures of a frontier communi- ty that legitimately aspired to become the state capital; and failing that, the city later made the most lucrative offer to become home of the state land grant university but lost in a political decision to Champaign." Jacksonville's

56 WESTERN ILLINOIS REGIONAL STUDIES

achievements, listed in county histories and atlases, were also compiled in 1884-85 by local editor Charles M. Eames, as Historic Morgan and Classic Jacksonville, a book illustrated with lithographs.'"

From the wealth of descriptive material written about Jacksonville and its many institutions, any brief selections are purely arbitrary. Considering townscape and campus, John Mason Peck, himself the founder of another of the first three Illinois colleges," offers narrative scenes of Jacksonville in the mid-1830s:

JACKSONVILLE is one of the largest inland towns in the state, and the seat of justice in Morgan county. It is situated on elevated ground, in the midst of a most delightful prairie. . . .

Few towns exhibit a finer prospect than Jacksonville, from whatever side the traveller approaches. The surrounding prairie country, now in a state of cultivation is beautifully undulating, and uncommonly rich.

Illinois College ... is located . . . one mile west of town. Its situation is on a delightful

eminence, fronting the east, and overlooking the town. . . ."

Peck goes on to describe the college buildings including the main "brick edifice, 104 feet in length, 40 feet in width, five stories high" and "containing 32 apartments for the accommodations of officers and students." Two wings were attached to house faculty families. "The chapel is a separate building, 65 feet long, and 36 feet wide," with classrooms, library, and student rooms as well as a worship center. The college farm "consists of 300 acres of land, all under fence. ..." All of this and more served five faculty and sixty-four students, forty-two of whom were in the collegiate department.-'

This first campus in Jacksonville still serves the same college, now sur- rounded by residential developments and other institutions. As with virtual- ly every campus, buildings have been added and subtracted, some consum- ed by fire. Among the notable changes was the merger in 1903 with Jackson- ville Female Academy, an institution founded in 1830 and functioning loosely as a sister institution to the Congregational-Presbyterian men's college. The town was host to three women's schools at the same time during the 1860s and 18705.'' The Methodists introduced the Illinois Conference Female Academy in 1846 and incorporated it as a college in 1851. Having undergone some five name changes and having become coeducational in 1969, Mac- Murray College occupies a sixty-acre campus on the near east side of town.'-

Galesburg

In some ways, Galesburg as the largest town on the prairies of the Military Tract is a counterpart of the "institutional" and "intellectual" town of Jacksonville. In other ways, each of these two towns has its own special place in the development of higher education in Illinois. The Reverend George Washington Gale planned to integrate town and school in the plat of this colony settlement which had roots in upstate New York. Although a college park was set aside in the center of several western Illinois settlements," only Galesburg has a college placed in the heart of town along with religious, political, and commercial functions.

Knox College was intended as a centerpiece expressing the frontier mis-

Bergen, COLLEGE TOWNS AND CAMPUS SITES 57

sionary zeal of the town's Presbyterian founder. From the beginning the school was to combine the classical and theological study with the practical arts, i.e., allowing students (young men) to do labor in order to offset their living expenses. Founded during the panic of 1837, the school became known as Knox Manual Labor School. Hopefully, its graduates could go out onto the prairie with the message of Christianity and the full understanding of the values of hard work.

Galesburg and Knox College, like Jacksonville and Illinois College, have been the focus of much descriptive and analytical research, not the least of which are the writings of its native son, Carl Sandburg." Dwelling specifically upon the town-college development. Earnest Calkins produced his classic They Broke the Prairie with its telling subtitle, Being Some Account of the Settlement of the Upper Mississippi Valley by Religious and Educational Pioneers, Told in Terms of One City, Galesburg, and of One College, Knox.^^ Herman Muelder has expanded the historical study of Knox College in his well documented. Missionaries and Muckrakers: The First Hundred Years of Knox College. ^'^ Earnest Calkins opens with a uniquely perceptive "Con- temporary Portrait," an essay that is really a marvelous contribution to the social geography of a midwestern town. Although the date is the mid-1 930s, the patterns reflect the past while at the same time anticipating the changes Galesburg and other towns and cities have experienced in the past half century.

In western Illinois, midway between the Illinois and the Mississippi rivers, lies Galesburg. It is one hundred sixty miles from Chicago, forty miles from Burlington, and one hun- dred years from virgin prairie.'"

Galesburg is isolated in the center of a farm region with no larger city within fifty miles. It is practically the shire town of the old Military Tract ... a position as domi- nant as one of 100,000 [population] in the more thickly settled East."

The physical structure and its human content is the result of evolution . . ., shaped by events without . . ., but influenced even more by ferment within. Between them they have made the community something quite different from what its pious founders visioned. It is not the city they intended, nor is it in the hands of their descendants, but much that gives it flavor, its personality, is the result of that initial impetus. Knox Col- lege, the main reason for its existence, is not the literary institution the founders had in mind, but it has imported to the town a certain culture more durable than the rigid piety with which the founders sought so earnestly to stiffen it." Old Main, completed in 1857, has survived the devastation by fire or demolition by wrecking ball which was so common to campuses that developed in the nineteenth century. Likewise, Whiting Hall, home of the Female Seminary, was built north of the park (where the courthouse is now) at the same time as Old Main and served as an official adjunct to the Knox College campus. Whiting Hall has been renovated as a private apartment housing project.

A few blocks east of Knox, a new college arose in 1 850 named the Illinois Liberal Institute by its Universalists founders. The institute was created with the avowed purpose of providing a more liberal education than that afford- ed by Knox College, which in the 1850s was suffering from a denominational controversy involving (in particular) the Presbyterian and Congregational

Ss WESTERN ILLINOIS REGIONAL STUDIES

founders. After its first building burned in 1855, the new school was renamed Lombard University, in honor of its chief benefactor Benjamin Lombard."

Though not the typical Christian college, Lombard relocated with a new main building occupying the more traditional college site on a hill (a very slight eminence) at the edge of town. By the 1920s, the Universalists had decHned in the Midwest and were unable to support Lombard College; thus the college was merged with Knox College in 1930. Carl Sandburg, a hometown alumnus of Lombard, expressed approval of the transfer to Knox College which was now more liberal.'' Lombard is today one of Galesburg's junior high schools.

During the nineteenth century, Galesburg was the home of Brown's Business College, a typical downtown school and part of a chain whose origins seem to have been in Jacksonville. Today Carl Sandburg College, with its auto-access campus on the rural fringe north of town, combines the features of a business college with a whole range of other collegiate and technical programs. Thus, Galesburg continues to be recognized as a college town or college city with its old liberal arts college and new community college.

Today, Galesburg is more often thought of as a railroad town and, sometimes, as a small manufacturing city on the prairie. Its regional impor- tance is expressed today by Sandburg Mall, located on the far north side close to the terminus of a major commercial strip; Carl Sandburg College campus, situated in a semirural setting on the northwest fringe of the city; and the recently added prison "campus" with its bright lights and play fields or courts located on the southwest side. Each of these modern landscape features is immediately accessible to the exits of a limited access highway bypass. This twentieth century orientation of city functions differs greatly from the distinctive focus in the core area of the city — the old churches, Knox Col- lege campus, the square, the courthouse, the city park, the business district, and the railroad stations. Both Sandburg and Calkins would be amazed at what the highway bypass era has done to their old college town and railroad center. '' No longer the relatively compact county seat-college town, Galesburg is like a mini-metropolis in the midst of small town Western Illinois.

Abingdon

Abingdon, about eleven miles south of Galesburg, was a college town for almost seventy years. In fact, from 1855 to 1885, Abingdon was a two-college town." The town had fewer than 1,000 people in the mid-1 850s when the colleges were established and when the Burlington railroad arrived in town. Located in South Abingdon, Abingdon Academy was founded in 1853 by the Reverend Patrick A. Murphy, and was chartered as a college in 1855 under the sponsorship of the Disciples of Christ (Christian) church. An 1865 Abingdon directory notes "that a three-story building, 40 by 60 feet, was erected in 1855 and 1856 on a three-acre square well set with trees."" Anew building costing $40,000 was added in 1868." But Abingdon College floundered in the mid- 1870s, falling into the ownership of its president from 1877 to 1885, when it ceased to function in Abingdon."

Bergen, COLLEGE TOWNS AND CAMPUS SITES 59

In 1885, Abingdon College was united with Eureka College, another strug- gling Disciples school also chartered in 1855 and located in Eureka, the Wood- ford County seat thirty miles east of Peoria. The Christian church obviously could not support two financially strapped colleges only seventy miles apart, so the Eureka trustees, with the approval of the Abingdon College president (and owner), decided to absorb the Abingdon students and four faculty on their campus.'"

Hedding Collegiate Seminary, named for Bishop Elijah Hedding of the Methodist Episcopal Church, opened in November 1855 and was developed on a wooded high ground two blocks east of Main Street.'" The first building was completed in 1857 when the school was chartered as Hedding Seminary and Central Illinois Female College. In 1875 the school was reorganized simply as Hedding College and had become coeducational. In 1895 when the school had some 400 students on campus, Hedding College purchased the Abingdon College main building for their normal and musical programs. However, the old Abingdon campus was taken over by the town high school in 1903. The Hedding campus featured Old Main as the academic center along with a dor- mitory and gymnasium in the early 1900s.'-

Hedding College was unable to compete either with a larger and better financed Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington or with the rise of the Western Illinois State Normal School in Macomb, only thirty-five miles to the southwest. Hedding phased out, dropping to junior college level in the 1920s, and when it failed altogether, students were encouraged to go east to Bloomington and the more successful Illinois Wesleyan University. The two colleges in Abingdon may have disappeared, but their campus sites are still part of the city's educational function. The Abingdon College campus was used as a high school and is now the location of the junior high school. The other campus is occupied by a one-floor elementary school appropriately named Hedding School.

Knoxville

Knoxville was a latecomer in the competition for institutions of higher lear- ning. When Ewing University for Females was opened in 1859, Knoxville was still the Knox county seat, but Galesburg already had two active col- leges plus a female department at Knox; Abingdon had two new colleges; and Monmouth College was functioning on its first campus. No four-year college ever developed in Knoxville, yet it has a rightful claim to having two college campuses during the nineteenth century.

The 1865 village directory identifies Ewing University with a facuhy of five women, a board of trustees made up of twenty-three men, and 105 scholars including 22 in the Collegiate Department and 68 in the Preparatory Department." But the school, housed in a building seventy-feet square and four stories high, lacked an endowment to allow its continued operation and it was transferred to the Episcopal Diocese of Illinois.

The Reverend Charles W. Leffingwell, the new rector who established Saint Mary's School (1868) and remained with it for nearly fifty years, supervised

(50 WES TERN IL L INOIS REG I ON A L S TUD/ES

the remodeling of the old building and the development of a campus with an English Gothic style chapel and a garden-like landscape." Richard Welge, in reviewing historic structures in Knox County, summarized the Saint Mary's campus:

Two different school structures adjoined the chapel. The first [the old Ewing Hall]

was destroyed by fire in 1883. The second fell into disrepair and was torn down after

the school closed during the depression. Still enclosed by the original wrought-iron fence,

the chapel is privately owned."

Knoxville's second campus began in 1876 as Ansgari College, supported by the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Church. It operated for less than ten years with forty to sixty students enrolled each year. The school was reorganiz- ed in 1886 to be the Knoxville Academy and Normal Institute. In the 1890s the property was acquired by the Protestant Episcopal Church and Dr. Lef- fingwell, who had founded Saint Alban's School for boys in 1890. The lat- ter school, which served well until it closed in 1917, was not so successful as its older counterpart. Saint Mary's School. None of Knoxville's private schools offered more than an occasional junior college-level course.''*

Jubilee College Site

One of the most visionary experiments in lUinois higher education was in- itiated in Peoria County by the first Protestant Episcopal bishop of Illinois. Opened in 1840, Jubilee College was founded by Philander Chase (1775-1852) to be a self-sufficient academic community developed on an even grander scale than he had accomplished previously at Kenyon College (founded in 1824) in rural central Ohio. Patterned after the classic European university campus, the two schools were planned for training of missionary priests in a setting far from the worldly ways of nineteenth century urban life.^'

Largely from promotional trips to England, Chase gained financial sup- porters to enable him to purchase a 2,500 wilderness "campus" about fif- teen miles west of Peoria. The produce from crop land and orchards would contribute to a self-sufficient educational and religious community. Chase's dream seemed to be an elaboration of the popular contemporary manual labor schools established by various church organizations such as Knox Manual Labor School (1837) in Galesburg. After suffering a number of early disap- pointments, destructive fires, the death of its charismatic founder and pro- moter, and loss of enrollment at war time, the college was effectively closed by Chase's son in 1862.'*

Although several schools attempted to use the small set of remaining buildings in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, none was very successful even at elementary and secondary levels. •*" In 1934 the buildings and much of the original grounds were donated to the state of Illinois, which, in turn, began the development of a recreational state park. In 1971 the Citizens Committee to Preserve Jubilee College was organized to raise funds to revive carefully several failed attempts to restore the main building and a ninety-acre historical site.

Much has been written about Jubilee College, its history, its founder, and its restoration.-" The immediate campus site is managed by the Illinois Historic

Bergen, COLLEGE TOWNS AND CAMPUS SITES 61

Preservation Agency whose current brochure concisely describes the college campus in its heyday:

By 1850 Jubilee College covered nearly 4,000 acres. Its buildings included several faculty homes, a two-story frame boarding-house, a store, a print shop, and the L-shaped stone building that still stands. . . . Bishop Chase intended to erect two more wings, creating a quadrangle. But short of funds, he abandoned plans for the remaining two wings along with those for an even more elaborate main building. As a result, his half-completed quadrangle became Jubilee's centerpiece. . . . Gothic motifs in Jubilee chapel reflect Bishop Chases's fondness for English Gothic architecture. Its central spire and surrounding lancet windows recall the piety of medieval days. Inside, Gothic-style arches grace the pulpits. . . ."

The building with its chapel overlooks from its south face the peaceful Kickapoo Creek valley, where at one time Chase operated grist and saw mills. Not only did farms managed by his sons supply food for the school and pro- duce for sale but also sheep from the college's large flock could be marketed through Peoria in exchange for eastern-made goods. A post office was main- tained at the tiny village of Robin's Nest (1837 to 1883), which was renamed Jubilee (1883 to 1902) until it was closed. Thus, a college town hardly ex- isted, the park and few nearby residents being served today by a post office six miles away.

Macomb

Macomb was on the college scene very early in the city's history. Only one year after state charters were issued in 1835 for the first three Illinois colleges, McDonough College was chartered to operate under the supervi- sion of the Schuyler Presbytery, a regional organization of the Presbyterian Synod of Illinois. The deed to the college site, dated February 1 1 , 1837, iden- tifies it as "that tract or parcel of land known as College Hill, containing four acres."" The little campus, about seven blocks east and two blocks north of the courthouse, featured a two-story brick building constructed in 1836-1837, supposedly large enough to accommodate 150 to 175 students.

Like so many aspiring colleges, McDonough College was effectively forc- ed to offer only high school courses. The school survived the panic of 1837, but finally succumbed to financial pressures in 1845 when it was sold to a contractor who, in turn, sold it to the Masonic Lodge. The Masons intended to open a Masonic College for Illinois, but this school also failed to materialize. The school and campus were sold again to Schuyler Presbytery, which reopened it in 1849 and enrolled hundreds, this time with a full col- lege program beginning in 1851. It was forced to close in 1855, the property reverting to the Masons because the Presbyterian Synod of Illinois refused to help support another college.'' (They were supporting, in part, Illinois College, Knox College, and Lake Forest College; and another Presbyterian group had opened a college in Monmouth.)

For nearly thirty years McDonough Normal and Scientific College, open- ed in 1865 and chartered in 1867, functioned on the "College Hill" campus as a nonsectarian school. In 1870 the enrollment was listed at 130, about equally divided between male and female. The 1874 report listed 150 students with 4 in the classical course and 1 in the college preparation course. Still

52 WESTERN ILLINOIS REGIONAL STUDIES

classified as secondary in the 1882-1883 report, the school under new manage- ment again reported 150 students with 5 preparing for the classical course in college and 10 preparing for the scientific course. Although still operating as a normal and commercial school, the Macomb institution was not listed under any category in the state and federal reports on secondary and higher education in 1892.^^

When the weather-beaten McDonough College building was razed in 1898 and a greenhouse developed at the site, the remainder of the College Hill subdivision was divided into residential lots." Today, College Street still ap- proaches a "College Hill" from the south, then jogs slightly to pass along the west side of the block where the old building was situated. The greenhouse remained on the "campus" until it, too, was dismantled in the early 1970s.

The old college building had been vacated by I. F. Meyer, owner of what in the 1890s came to be known as Macomb Normal or the Western Illinois Normal School and Business Institute. The school combined with a second normal college moved into a relatively new and spacious building in the cen- tral business district. No longer on a campus, the school was still strongly supported by local citizens, even as its name changed two or three times before it closed permanently in 1907.'"

The approved establishment of a public normal school in west-central Il- linois led first to a contest among towns in the area. Quincy and Galesburg both were interested as were a number of smaller towns including Aledo, Monmouth, and Bushnell. Macomb seems to have been selected not only for its central location in this rural region but also for the absence of an existing campus. After Macomb was chosen, the campus selection commit- tee picked an attractive site overlooking the Lamoine River floodplain on the near northwest part of town.

The 1902 opening of Western Illinois Normal as a tuition-free state in- stitution with magnificent facilities was clearly the leading cause for the demise of the private school in downtown Macomb. During the first decade of opera- tion the new sixty-acre campus on the northwest edge of town functioned with its imposing new "old main" (Sherman Hall). The attractive campus steadily grew with the addition of buildings in 1914, 1919, and 1927 before a systematic campus plan was estabHshed. By 1945 the school's name was Western Illinois State College, and the campus had grown to 190 acres in- cluding a sixty-acre golf course, a feature most little private colleges would be hard-pressed to include on campus."

Today Macomb is the home of almost as many students and as many facilities as exist in all of the other Military Tract colleges combined. The campus has become a truly regional facility not only for visiting groups from the area but also in the establishment of extension services in outlying towns and cities. The campus makes up a large section of Macomb's landscape, and it is difficult not to be aware of the college as the biggest industry in the local area.

Bergen, COLLEGE TOWNS AND CAMPUS SITES 63

Bushnell

Location as an important railroad junction certainly played a major role in the establishment in 1 88 1 of the Western Commercial College in Bushnell. Unlike most business colleges, the Bushnell school actually occupied a small campus with a major classroom building and dormitories. The three-story main building, built by J. E. Chandler, included offices, a reading room, six recitation rooms, twenty dormitory rooms, a chemical laboratory, and a chapel. A commercial building was added just east of the first structure.'*

The school fioundered in the mid- 1880s, and was reorganized in 1888 as Western Normal College and Commercial Institute. The report of the U. S. commissioner of education listed the school in 1891-1892 as a private secon- dary school, with an enrollment in secondary grades of 345 males and 344 females and fourteen instructors; only fifteen students were listed in the col- lege preparatory program." In the early 1890s the college seems to have been the largest of its kind in the state, and it came to be known as Western Nor- mal College. The school's demise was clearly related to the establishment of the state normal schools. But it also lost in competition with other business colleges in larger towns such as Galesburg and Macomb. Two dormitory buildings are the only structures remaining from the old campus, the rest of which has disappeared beneath residential-commercial buildings.

Canton

Canton, IlUnois, was platted in 1825 just two years after Lewistown was established as the Fulton County courthouse town. In a 1967 history of Can- ton Edward R. Lewis, Jr., noted Canton's early entry into higher education by pointing to the town's Yankee pioneers who raised funds for a college building on a donated "College Square," all as part of rehabilitating a town devastated by a tornado in 1835.*° Canton College, founded in 1836, was described in 1839 as geographically superfluous by a writer in The Peoria Register and North-Western Gazetteer even when the town had some 780 inhabitants.

The true cause is probably the fact that the college is in advance of the wants of this portion of the state. There are charters for three in the three adjoining counties, to wit, Canton, in Fulton County, McDonough in McDonough County and [Knox College] Galesburg in Knox. To these add Jubilee in Peoria [County], which will be incorporated at the next session of the legislature; and we have four colleges, all within a easy day's walk of each other. In truth a good pedestrian would walk around the triangle in two days. . . ."

The college seems never to have fulfilled its goal in higher education, funds being insufficient to maintain a sense of permanency. Only in 1838-1839 did the school have a president and he was also a Baptist minister, physician, and druggist. The final blow appears to have been another tornado-like wind storm in July of 1843 when the college building collapsed. With limited funds, the trustees decided they could not compete with Illinois College and Knox College."

College Square ceased forever to be a campus. After a period of use for a very large private residence and as a boarding house, it became part of the Parlin and Orendorff Plow Shop. Having purchased the locally owned

64 WESTERN ILLINOIS REGIONAL STUDIES

Plow Shop in 1919, International Harvester Company removed the old building in the 1950s to make way for expansion in new facilities. Thus the nineteenth century Yankee dream of community culture and higher educa- tion on College Square eventually gave way to a national manufacturing enter- prise which itself has now disappeared from this twentieth century industrial district."

As the largest community in Fulton County, Canton benefited from the presence of a series of business colleges during the late 1800s and early twen- tieth century. Housed in upper floors of buildings in the central business district, no campus sites are associated with Canton Commercial College (1888 into the early 1890s), Harmison Business College (1904-1911), and Lincoln Business College (1914-1917). The programs of these schools were, for the most part, absorbed by the high school commercial department.*'

Canton regained a claim as host to higher education when Canton Com- munity College was proposed in 1958, approved in a Canton referendum in 1959, and opened to students in the fall of 1960. For several years classes were held in the high school; by the mid-1960s the enrollment in day and night classes led to the rental of several former business buildings. In July 1968, Canton Community College was reorganized as Junior College District 534 and renamed Spoon River College. The rural commuter campus, located some four miles southwest of Canton, was opened in 1974.

Monmouth

The Monmouth Academy, established by Presbyterians in 1853, was the only institution in Warren County that ever aspired to college-level training. It is highly unlikely that any of the county's hamlets or small villages would have attracted a college, especially in competition with Monmouth College (chartered in 1856) in the faster growing county seat. Also, by 1855 four col- leges were functioning just across the county line in Galesburg and Abingdon.

A sketch by W. J. Buchanan in 1912 relates the college origins: Monmouth College, like so many of its kind, was evolved from an academy. These

academies were tentative propositions, feelers, forerunners; if the communities were not

ready for the higher institutions, the academies could be continued or abandoned. In

the latter event no serious loss would be incurred."

Although a substantial academy building eventually was located about five blocks north of the courthouse, Monmouth College was moved in 1863 to its new site on a "college hill" about eight blocks east of the public square. The academy and the college were founded by the Associate Presbyterian Church (better known as the United Presbyterian Church of North America) in a town that, for at least a century, was strongly influenced by Presbyterian groups. The school's Presbyterian benefactors were at the time a different national group from those who were involved with Knox College, lUinois College, and McDonough College.""

The railroad arrived in Monmouth in 1855 soon after plans were being laid for the creation of a college from the academy. The new college site on the east edge of town would be an easy walk west to the central business district and to the train station in the southside industrial district."

Bergen, COLLEGE TOWNS AND CAMPUS SITES 65

For nearly thirty years, College Street intersected with Broadway on the campus hill where Old Main (shown on the cover) faced south along the tree- lined College Street. While Old Main lasted until destroyed by fire in 1907, College Street was eliminated about 1893 when city officials decided to rename most of the city streets, supposedly to simplify giving directions. For exam- ple, north-south streets were numbered east from Main Street and lettered to the west. Thus today. Old Main's replacement, Wallace Hall, looks down Eighth Street.

The campus has been expanded from the original location of buildings on the hill to a much larger area in a valley and along its slopes north from the hill. The auditorium-chapel, administration, classroom, and library buildings dating from the turn of the century do not face an inner quadrangle, a campus arrangement developed since mid-century. The main entrance to the brick gymnasium also faces outward — toward the street on the west edge of the campus at the time. Dormitories and fraternity houses line the slopes on both east and west edges of campus, while a student union lies in the valley. During the major expansion period of the 1960s, a new library and a science building were constructed in the valley flat. As colleges expanded rapidly nationwide, enrollment at Monmouth doubled within a few years causing the college to acquire temporary quarters in houses close to campus. Current enrollment, like that in hundreds of small colleges, has retracted to a level more like that of the 1950s. Even with its greatly expand- ed facilities, the Monmouth College campus reflects the traditional midwestern county seat college-town atmosphere, quiet and park-like in the summer, but active and sometimes noisy when the 600 or more students are in residence.

Quincy

When the first serious attempt was made in the 1850s to establish a col- lege in Quincy, the city probably had 10,000 people. The Methodist College, also known as Quincy German English College or just plain Quincy Col- lege, was founded in 1852 but did not open until August 1855. After holding classes in the basement of the Vermont Street Methodist Church, the first college building was constructed on a one-block campus on Spring Street between Third and Fourth streets. The Civil War brought a suspension of classes, the building being used as a military academy and war hospital.''*

By 1865 Quincy College had merged with Johnson College of Macon, Missouri, in order to solve financial problems at both schools. In 1874 the school, still located in Quincy, took the name of Johnson College. However, in 1875 the president agreed to sell the building and campus block to the city to be used as Jefferson School (public grade school), the latter being forced to move because the county needed a new courthouse square (the old courthouse had burned). Johnson College, in turn, purchased the octagonal mansion and estate of the former governor, John Wood. At about the same time Charles Chaddock of Astoria, Illinois, gave the school some $24,000."'

66 WESTERN ILLINOIS REGIONAL STUDIES

On the new John Wood estate campus, the college reorganized under a new name, Chaddock College. From 1876 to 1900, the college offered some work equivalent to a junior college. Having lost out in competition with other Methodist colleges, the school was reorganized to be simply Chaddock Boys School in the twentieth century. It ceased to offer any college work.'°

The twentieth century Quincy College traces its origins to the arrival in 1859 of Franciscan priests charged with establishing a seminary. The school opened in rented quarters but soon moved to a new home on "the Prairie," a block bounded by Vine, Elm, 18th, and 20th streets. Saint Francis Church and Monastery became the focal point for school development. At first. Saint Francis Solanus College served only elementary and high school pupils. With the construction of a distinctive college building in 1 870-7 1 , the school began to grow and was chartered as a college in 1873."

The first college building of 1871 is the present east wing of the main building. During the 1890s, the school added an auditorium-study hall wing to the east wing, built a west wing, and connected the east and west with a central structure topped by a 140-foot tower. In 1917, Saint Francis Solanus College became Quincy College. Since that time the college has undergone periods of campus improvements and expansions including the donation of the old city stadium and other grounds.'^ The college, constricted by sub- division expansion in the twentieth century, now has a typically urban cam- pus with three separate units.

Quincy's widely known Gem City College (or Gem City Business College) traces its origins to 1865, a time when private schools were advertising business courses in countless cities and towns. As was the case in most cities, the business college was often owned and operated by one or a group of enter- prising teachers. After purchasing the original Quincy business school from its owners in 1870, a Professor Musselman renamed it Gem City Business College and successfully expanded its operation into a five-story brick building located in downtown Quincy." Even in competition with modern public com- munity colleges. Gem City College and its counterparts in metropolitan centers survive in non-campus settings.

The Quincy area was one of the later entries into the community college system. In 1974 John Wood Community College was approved, and 668 students were enrolled under a distinctive cooperative agreement with area colleges: Culver-Stockton College in Canton, Missouri; Gem City College in Quincy; Hannibal-LaGrange College north of Hannibal, Missouri; Quin- cy Beauty Academy; Quincy College; and Quincy Technical School. Courses offered in this "common market," plus those in other temporary quarters, prevailed until a thirty-eight acre campus was opened on the east edge of Quincy. The counterpart of old main was established in a remodeled seventeen-year-old brick elementary school building located on South 40th Street. The cooperative agreement continues along with extension classes in several towns of Adams, Pike, Schuyler, Scott, and Morgan counties. The central campus, like those of other community colleges, was planned to be easily accessible by city bus and is near a bypass intersection. '^

Bergen, COLLEGE TOWNS AND CAMPUS SITES 67

Carthage

Carthage College had its origins in Hillsboro, Illinois, where in January 1847 the Literary and Theological Institute was established in the old Hillsboro Academy building. Better known as Hillsboro College, this first Lutheran college in Illinois remained in the south-central Illinois town only five years. The desire for a more "advantageous location" prompted Lutheran synods to approve a move to Springfield where the newly chartered school was entitled Illinois State University. Here it functioned for almost eighteen years amidst periodic financial depressions and continuing theological controversies. '-

Seeking again a rural atmosphere for a liberal arts college, the Lutherans' selection of Carthage in late 1869 was based on an array of local advantages including good railroad connections, community prosperity, proximity to potential field experiences in the natural sciences, and a rich historical lore. The first classes were held for male and female preparatory students in buildings on the public square. The cornerstone for the main college building was laid on May 10, 1871, the prep school moved to the unfinished college edifice, and college-level classes began on the new campus in 1873. Through the years community and college have cooperated during periods of finan- cial difficulty and in periods of expansion.'"

On the occasion of its twenty-fifth anniversary (1895), community leaders joined with Carthage College in issuing a sixty-five page pictorial souvenir extolling:

CARTHAGE AND HER ADVANTAGES Carthage, the county seat of Hancock County, is situated on the highest point in the county, the "Garden Spot" of the state of lUinois. This beautiful little city has long been noted for its wide streets, handsome residences, many churches and temperance prin- ciples. . . ."

In the 1950s Carthage College began to feel a certain isolation from its Lutheran constituency, and in I960 the trustees established a second cam- pus in Kenosha, Wisconsin. By 1964 Carthage College in Illinois ceased to exist and townspeople became involved in the search for a replacement. Rural voters in a multi-county vote rejected narrowly the establishment of a public junior college on the Carthage campus. During the 1960s several midwestern colleges expressed strong interest in taking over the campus.'*

An agreement was reached between community leaders, citizens of Car- thage, state education officials, and the J. R. McCarten Company to establish a Robert Morris College campus in Carthage." As a private junior college, Robert Morris specialized in business-related programs. In the process of modernizing the campus with new dormitories and classrooms. Old Main and North Hall (dormitory for girls) were razed. The campus functioned with a student body reaching more than 1,000 before a decline in the 1980s pro- mpted the trustees to announce in 1988 a decision to abandon Carthage in favor of a metropolitan site in Springfield.*"

Again the campus was put up for sale, and at one time the Carthage com- munity itself attempted to buy it. Eventually it was purchased by a Spanish business group that will operate the Carthage International School. The first

68 WESTERN ILLINOIS REGIONAL STUDIES

Students arrived on the new "old" campus in August 1990. Their first classwork is undertaken at Carl Sandburg Community College Center on the north side of Carthage.

LaHarpe

In 1876 the Illinois Conference of the Methodist Protestant Church founded in cooperation with generous LaHarpe residents a seminary designed to of- fer secondary and post-secondary studies. The original building was erected by citizens for some $15,000, but default by the church conference delayed the opening until 1879. Mr. James Gittings, a wealthy farmer, paid the debts to release the building for its intended use. The school prospered even with small enrollments until fire destroyed the main building in 1888.

School was discontinued while LaHarpe citizens raised funds for a new building constructed in 1891. The school, renamed Gittings Seminary, func- tioned in its one-building campus until forced to close in 1909 because of competition with public high schools and normal schools such as Western Illinois Normal in Macomb. Street maps in the 1890s include College Avenue renamed Second Avenue in 1904, and Seminary Street renamed E Street in I9I2. For some years the seminary building was used for grammar school classes, then as an American Legion Hall before its demolition in 1956."

Aledo

Aledo was the only Mercer County town with a modicum of success in supporting a collegiate institution.*' And the attempts resulted in a highly checkered history with at least five different schools in no less than three distinct sites in town. The town founders speculated on the place of higher education by creating College Avenue in the original plat, and they donated proceeds from the first fifty lots to the establishment of a college or seminary. A brick building was erected for a schoolhouse in the center of town, but when county voters approved moving the courthouse from Keithsburg to Aledo, it was converted to use as a courthouse."

About 1857, Presbyterians and Methodists each established a school on the south and west side of the new county seat town of Aledo. Financial sup- port failed to materialize for the Methodist's Aledo Collegiate Institute even after a stone foundation was laid. The Presbyterian's Mercer Collegiate In- stitute survived into the early 1870s but only as a secondary school.*' The nonsectarian Aledo Academy opened in 1874 and operated until 1878 in a building on South College Avenue; but it could neither attain collegiate status nor compete with the public high school.*'

Aledo eventually did get its college, supported by the estate of a wealthy farmer who had dreamed of establishing a college. William and Vashti Col- lege (1907-1918), was one of the most unusual colleges in western Illinois, if not in its rapid rise and fall, then at least in its unusual name. The college, named for the farmer and his wife, was the dream of William Drury who lived in Mercer County from 1833 until his death at age eighty-eight in 1897. After ten years most of his sizable estate was left for the establishment of

Bergen, COLLEGE TOWNS AND CAMPUS SITES 69

a college on a site determined by the Mercer County town that bid the most for it. Drury had preferred a campus site in Aledo, but the town of Aledo had to bid high ($6,210) to assure the location of the nonsectarian liberal arts and vocational school.*^

A sixteen-acre campus on the northwest edge of town was soon developed with an old main, a dormitory, a gymnasium, a heating plant, and a residence. Even with a well-appointed physical plant, accreditation, and increasing enrollments in both the Drury Preparatory School and the college proper, the school was in serious financial straits. World War I depleted its male student body and it closed abruptly. *'

All attempts to put the campus to good use failed for nearly six years un- til, ironically, the Kansas Military Academy came in search of a ready-made campus to replace their fire-devastated site in Oswego, Kansas. With strong support by Aledo businessmen, the school was chartered quickly as the Il- linois Military Academy. Colonel Clyde R. Terry, as president and owner of the rapidly growing school, contracted in 1927 to use the campus of the defunct Hedding College in Abingdon (Knox County) as an extension cam- pus for grades 10 through 12 and junior college. Attempts to expand with a new dormitory and to operate a summer program in Michigan coincided with the onset of the depression and a decline in enrollments.'*

The board of trustees purchased the school at a bankruptcy sale and reorganized the Aledo campus as Roosevelt Military Academy. The school, named for Theodore Roosevelt, survived the depression and World War II with a good reputation but never undertook programs beyond the secondary level. With declining enrollments in the wake of the anti-military reaction to the Vietnam War, the school closed in 1973. Although Continental Telephone Company used part of the campus for years, two old buildings stand aban- doned and two others have been remodeled for Vashti Village by the Mercer County Housing Authority.

Geneseo and Henry County

Henry County, home of several Yankee and Swedish colony settlements in the nineteenth century, surprisingly has no collegiate institution as a sur- vivor of the period.*' Though pioneers obviously were concerned with educa- tion, no true four-year college ever has been developed in the county. The only active two-year school is Black Hawk College East, whose rural cam- pus is located in the southeast corner of the county between Kewanee and Galva. The absence of college towns in Henry County probably has less to do with the character of early settlers than with its location relative to the cluster of Yankee-inspired colleges in Knox and Warren counties on the south and the move by the Swedish Lutherans of Augustana College to Rock Island a few miles west of Henry County.

Geneseo, in the Green River lowland of northern Henry County, clearly has the strongest claim to having been a college town. The colonizing group, primarily from Genesee County of western New York, early determined to establish a manual labor high school to allow for education much advanced

70 WES TERN IL L INOIS REG ION A L S TV DIES

over the one-room elementary school. In a movement similar to that of Galesburg's Knox Manual Labor College, the Geneseo school came to be known as The Seminary. Though high school-level education was successful and the seminary was integrated into the public system in the 1850s, no at- tempt seems to have been made to introduce collegiate work before the Civil War.'"

By 1870 Geneseo's economic advantages were such that the town became the leading contender in the competition to relocate Augustana College, at the time situated in Paxton in east-central Illinois. Geneseo residents made an offer but later withdrew it after church authorities remained indecisive. The final decision favored a rural campus site between Rock Island and Moline, where the Evangelical Lutheran college and theological school might be even closer to its strong Swedish support."

Surprisingly and suddenly in 1884, Geneseo became a two college town, even changing the name of a major north-south street to College Street. To- day, College Street passes under the railroad to connect the north side with the former campus of Northwestern Normal School (1883 to 1894). For the brief decade of its existence. Northwestern Normal functioned as one of four private normal schools outside the Chicago area of Illinois — Dixon, Macomb, Oregon, and Geneseo. In 1892 the school had an enrollment of 124 in the normal and 34 in the non-professional programs." The school closed in 1894, and the property, purchased in 1901 for a city hospital, is the site of the much enlarged modern Hammond Henry Hospital.

Geneseo churches and the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. cooperated in the establishment of Geneseo Collegiate Institute in 1884." Taking ad- vantage of the shift of business houses away from the original town square toward the railroad a half mile north, the new school occupied a three-story bank building east of the square and, later, erected a substantial classroom building south of the square, in effect making the southeast corner of the public square (or large city park) a part of the school campus. One of the largest of the girls' dormitories is now a historic private residence about three blocks southwest of the park (or campus). A granite boulder in the park displays a plaque commemorating the Geneseo Collegiate Institute, and Atkinson Hall, south of the park, is now the American Legion Hall.

For many of its thirty-eight years (1884-1922), the school offered what might be considered nineteenth century junior college courses, notably the teacher training and commercial courses. Yet, in 1892 Geneseo Collegiate Institute was identified as a private secondary school, with 110 enrolled and with perhaps a dozen in advanced classical studies.'' Unable to compete with public normal schools and high schools, the institute eventually phased out in 1922.

Kewanee

Kewanee, the largest community in Henry County since 1900, seemed to be a logical host for a public junior college during the expansion period of the 1960s. Founded in 1967 with temporary quarters in Kewanee, Black Hawk

Bergen, COLLEGE TOWNS AND CAMPUS SITES 71

College — East Campus (the main campus is in Moline) moved in 1971 to its 102-acre rural campus at the intersection of U.S. Route 34 and Illinois Route 78. Strictly a commuter campus, it lies some five miles south of Kewanee, six miles east of Galva, and just north of the Stark County line.

River Town Campuses

Except for the slowly developing colleges in Quincy, the attempt to create colleges in towns along the Mississippi and Illinois rivers seemed uniquely doomed, at least in Illinois. Antebellum colleges were chartered in Warsaw and Nauvoo but apparently never functioned. College Hill still remains on Warsaw plat maps to show clearly the intended campus site affording a com- manding view of the Mississippi River. Warsaw historians note that an in- stitution was chartered and a president chosen: "A commencement day was appointed [in 1840], and President Perry delivered an inaugural address; but commencement proved also to be its ending, and the Warsaw University ceas- ed to exist.""

About fifteen miles upstream from Warsaw, the Mormons apparently never had the time or funds to develop their University of the City of Nauvoo in- corporated by the state legislature in 1840. Even so, the restoration of old Nauvoo by Mormon groups provides the feeling of a spacious campus repre- senting an unusual venture in religion, education, and community living. Overlooking the old Mormon settlement on the floodplain is Saint Mary's Academy, a Benedictine school that has functioned sporadically since a con- vent was established in abandoned buildings in 1874. Throughout most of its existence, it has been a girls' school with no pretense for providing real college training."'

Other Mississippi River towns experienced briefly the hope of playing host to a collegiate institution, notably in Keithsburg before it lost the courthouse to Aledo and its importance as a shipping point. Schools in towns on the Iowa and Missouri side of the river fared only a little better. Not even in larger towns such as Burlington, Keokuk, and Fort Madison did a college survive more than a few years in the nineteenth century. Culver-Stockton College, founded in 1853 as Christian University in Canton, Missouri, is the principal exception of a four-year college survivor in a small river town. About seven miles downstream, the Baptists established LaGrange Male and Female College in 1857; the two-year college was moved from little LaGrange to Han- nibal in 1929 to continue as Hannibal-LaGrange College.

Likewise, towns along the middle and lower Illinois River seemed unable to support a collegiate institution. Even Peoria never had a continuing suc- cessful collegiate academy in the nineteenth century. In Henry, some thirty miles upstream from Peoria, Marshall College functioned with students for about two years (1855-1857). Downstream or southwest from Peoria, even such notable river towns as Havana and Beardstown harbored no serious attempts to develop higher education.

72 WESTERN ILLINOIS REGIONAL STUDIES

The institutions and towns of western Illinois exemplify a broad range of experiences in the development of a college town mentality. Many of the suc- cessful early colleges have remained on a physical prominence (college hill) in a town, and they are almost always in a county seat that has experienced modest growth. Featured college towns are Jacksonville, Galesburg, Mon- mouth, and Macomb, all on the upland prairie and each unique in personality. Although each town, each college, and each campus has its own special qualities, the varied experiences and the landscapes of western Illinois may be representative of college towns and campus sites throughout the Midwest.

The failure of many collegiate institutions — e.g., those in Abingdon, Aledo, Carthage, Geneseo, Jubilee, Knoxville — cannot be explained easily but seems to have little to do with physical or campus site. The overall cause of the demise of a college may be termed economic but with many and varied com- ponents including financial mismanagement, overconfidence of the founders, loss in competition with similar schools, the small size of the host communi- ty, and the relative isolation of the town from major transportation routes. Some schools merged with others in a more successful location or with a more capable administration. Some sold out to other schools. Others simply disappeared, leaving their building(s) or their campus complex to other uses.

Similarly, the success of older colleges and their host towns such as Knox in Galesburg, Illinois and MacMurray in Jacksonville, Monmouth, Western Illinois University, and Quincy, is attributable to a variety of factors, not the least of which is access. So also the more recent campus sites for com- munity colleges located at or near Canton, Kewanee, Galesburg, and Quin- cy are even more influenced by commuter access. Whatever their ultimate fate, college towns and campus sites in western Illinois, like their counter- parts elsewhere, remain distinctive and dynamic elements in the cultural landscape.

NOTES

'In the results of a survey conducted by the author, many of the respondents noted that classic college towns may be actually university cities such as Champaign-Urbana in Illinois, Iowa City in Iowa, Ann Arbor in Michigan, Bloomington and Lafayette in Indiana, Madison in Wiscon- sin, Lawrence and Manhattan in Kansas, Columbia in Missouri, and Lincoln in Nebraska. In Illinois, Carbondaie, DeKalb, and Bloomington-Normal may be included as university cities, but what of Macomb and Charleston? College town or university city, these state universities have campus facilities far more extensive than those of the small college towns of the past and the present.

'Paul Venable Turner, Campus: An American Planning Tradition (New York and Cambridge: Architectural History Foundation and MIT Press, 1984).

'Not every town in a county could be the county seat. The battle was on to decide the winner, especially in the first half of the nineteenth century. Central location was an overwhelming fac- tor, but direct access to river transportation played a significant role in determining the court- house site. Railroad access also influenced decisions, although the rails most often came after 1850 to a county seat already chosen for its central location or river port site.

'Donald G. Tewkesbury, The Founding of American Colleges and Universities Before the Civil War (New York: Teachers College, Columbia Universitv Contributions to Education, no. 543, 1932; reprmted, Arno Press and the New York Times, 1969); Frederick Rudolph, The

Bergen, COLLEGE TOWNS AND CAMPUS SITES

American College and University: A History (New York: Vantage Books, Random House, 1962); William C. Ringenberg, The Christian College: A History of Protestant Higher Education in America (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Christian University Press and William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1984); Timothy L. Smith, "Uncommon Schools: Christian Colleges and Social Idealism in Midwestern America, 1820-1950," in Indiana Historical Society Lectures, 1976-1977: The History of Education in the Middle West (Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society, 1978); Daniel T. Johnson, "Financing the Western Colleges 1844-1862," Journal of the Historical Society of Illinois, 65 (Summer 1972), 443-53.

'Austin Kennedy DeBlois, The Pioneer School, A History of Shurileff College, The Oldest Educational Institution in the West (New York: F. H. Revell Company, 1900).

-W. C. Walton, "Centennial History of McKendree College," Book 11 in Joseph Guandolo, ed., Centennial McKendree College with St. Clair County History (Lebanon, Illinois: McKen- dree College, 1928), pp. 89-434. This college history includes several good illustrations of the campus.

'Arthur Frederick, Ewari, "Early History of Education in Illinois: The Three Oldest Colleges," Illinois Blue Book, 1929-30, pp. 301-6. '

"John Williston Cook, Educational History of Illinois (Chicago: Henry O. Shepherd Com- pany, 1912). A major part of this volume is devoted to higher education including the develop- ment of normal schools. See as well Ernest G. Hildner, "Colleges and College Life in Illinois One Hundred Years Ago," Illinois History and Transactions (1942), pp. 19-31; Ernest G. Hildner, "Higher Education in Transition, 1850-1870," Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, 56 (Spring 1963), 61-73; Clarence P. McClelland, "The Education of Females in Early Illinois," Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, 36 (Winter 1943), 378-407; Daniel T. Johnson, "Puritan Power in Illinois Higher Education Prior to 1820" (Ph. D. diss.. University of Wiscon- sin, 1974).

'The exact number of institutions may never be defined, in part because historic records are lost, but also because it is so difficult to separate true college-level schools from secondary- level academies and seminaries at specific dates.

'"Charles C. Harper, Development of the Teachers College in the United States: With Special Reference to the Illinois State Normal University (Bloomington, Illinois: McKnight and McKnighl, 1935); Helen E. Marshall, Grandest of Enterprises: Illinois State Normal University, 1857-1957 (Normal: Illinois State University, 1956). See as well "Normal University Centennial," Jour- nal of the Illinois State Historical Society, 50 (Summer 1950).

"Elmo Scott Watson, The Illinois Wesley an Story, /<?50-/950 (Bloomington, Illinois: Illinois Wesleyan University, 1950).

''Cook, Educational History, pp. 214-85.

'^Report of the Commissioner of Education, Annual Reports to the Secretary of the Interior (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1870-1902). See as well Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of the State of Illinois, especially the seventh (1868) through the twenty-fourth (1902). Both the federal and state reports include statistical data on individual schools and colleges organized by type of institution.

"Turner, Campus.

'Illinois: A Descriptive and Historical Guide (Chicago: A. C. McClurg & Co., 1939; revised edition published in 1974). The 1939 guide's portraits of towns in western Illinois will be reviewed and excerpted in a forthcoming paper. These pre-World War II views will be examined in a comparative analysis with those in the Illinois guide revised in 1947, at a time when significant changes had occurred in collegiate and campus development.

"Victor Hicken The Purple and the Gold: The Story of Western Illinois University (Macomb: Western Illinois University Foundation, 1970), pp. IX, 169.

"Not only do community colleges have branch attendance centers (e.g.. Spoon River College in the old Macomb High School building, Carl Sandburg College in Carthage, and John Wood Community College using many facilities in a variety of towns, including the prison at Mount Sterling), but Western Illinois University offers upper-level extension courses on community college campuses.

"*Charles Henry Rammelkamp, Illirwis College: A Centennial History, 1929-1929 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1928); Charles E. Frank, Pioneers Progress: Illinois College, 1829-1979 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1979); Iver F. Yeager, ed., Church and College on the Illinois Frontier: The Beginnings of Illinois College and the United Church of Christ in Central Illinois, 1829 to /(?67 (Jacksonville, Illinois: Illinois College, 1980); Iver F. Yeager, ed., Sesquicentennial Papers: Illinois Co/Zege (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1982).

WESTERN ILLINOIS REGIONAL STUDIES

"Don Harrison Doyle, The Social Order of a Frontier Community: Jacksonville, Illinois, 1825-70 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1978).

■"Charles M. Eames, Historic Morgan and Classic Jacksonville (Jacksonville: Daily Journal, 1885).

-'DeBlois, The Pioneer School.

^'John Mason Peck, A Gazatteer of Illinois, in Three Parts: Containing a General View of the State, a General View of Each County, and a Particular Description of Each Town, Settle- ment, Stream, Prairie, Bottom, Bluff, Etc., Alphabetically Arranged, 2ded. (Philadelphia: Grigg & Elliott, 1837).

-'Ibid., pp. 68-69

^■■Jacksonville Female Academy, Illinois Female College (MacMurray College), and Young Ladies Atheneum.

^'See McClelland, "Education of Females," ed., Cook, Educational History, and Walter E. Hendrickson, Forward in the Second Century of MacMurray College; A History of 125 Years (Jacksonville, Illinois: MacMurray College, 1972).

■"For example, Cambridge has a "College Square" but never anything more than a public school on what is now a park adjacent to the Henry County Courthouse.

^'Carl Sandburg, Always The Younger Stranger (New York: Harcourt Brace, 1953). This is an autobiographical essay with many impressions of life in Galesburg.

^'Ernest Elmo Calkins, They Broke the Prairie: Being Some Account of the Settlement of the Upper Mississippi Valley by Religious and Education Pioneers, Told in Terms of One City, Galesburg, and of One College, Knox (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1937; reprinted, Greenwood Press, Publishers, Westport, Connecticut, 1971, and University of Illinois Press, 1989).

•'Hermann R. Muelder, Missionaries and Muckrakers: The First Hundred Years of Knox College (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1984).

"Calkins, They Broke the Prairie, p. 2.

"Ibid., p. 14.

'^Ibid., p. 2.

"See Reverend Reifsnyder, "Lombard College," in Albert J. Perry, ed.. History of Knox County, Illinois: Its Cities, Towns and People, vol. 1 (Chicago: S.J. Clarke Publishing Com- pany, 1912), pp. 582-87; Lewis B. Fisher, "Lombard College and Ryder Divinity School," ed.. Cook, Educational History, pp. 321-23.

'■•Muelder, Missionaries and Muckrakers, pp. 325-36.

"Calkins, They Broke the Prairie, p. 8, identified three stages in Galesburg's development: wagon and stage coach era; railroad era; and motor car age (as it was in 1937).

'"Hon. Joseph Latimer, "City of Abingdon," in Perry, ed.. History of Knox County, pp. 419-23. Despite its small size, a rivalry existed between the original town laid out in 1836 and South Abingdon, an area platted in 1849 a few blocks south. The two parts were incorporated as a single village in 1857.

"William J. Mourer, ed., Galesburg, Knoxville and Abingdon Directories for The Year 1865 (Galesburg; William J. Mourer Publisher, 1865), p. 108.

'"See the report of the college president Reverend James W. Butler in Seventh Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of The State of Illinois, 1867-1868, pp. 234-36.

"A. P. Aten, "Abingdon," and W. Selden Gale and Geo. Candee Gale, "Knox County," in Newton Bateman, ed.. Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois (Chicago: Munsell, 1899), pp. 924-25.

'"Harold Adams, History of Eureka College (Eureka: Board of Trustees of Eureka College, 1982), pp. 78-82.

''Edgar A. Steele, "Hedding College," ed.. Cook, Educational History, p. 323. Historians of Abingdon and Hedding College claim that "when Abraham D. Swarts laid out the town in 1836 he reserved a tract of land as the site of a college."

"The Sixty-fifth Annual Catalog of Hedding College: A College of Liberal Arts Under the Auspices of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Abingdon, Ilhnois: Hedding College, 1920), p. 12.

"'Mourer, Galesburg, Knoxville and Abingdon, p. 126.

"The Reverend Charles W. Leffingwell was the tireless educator and administrator for the school of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Knoxville for a half century. From his report to the state commissioner of public instruction in 1868 until after World War I, Leffingwell serv- ed Saint Mary's School. And he also developed a boys school in Knoxville. See Leffingwell's notes in History of Knox County, pp. 587-88, plus picture plates of Saint Mary's and Saint Alban's schools.

Bergen, COLLEGE TOWNS AND CAMPUS SITES

^'Richard C. Welge, Remnants of the Nineteenth Century Landscape, Knox County, Illinois (Knoxville, Illinois: Knox County Historic Sites, Inc., 1979), p. 70.

'"'Rosalie Burgess et a!., "Knoxville Through Five Generations" (Prepared for the Knoxville Sequicentennial, 1831-1981). The history includes pictures and text. See especially pages 188-89 on Ansgari College and Saint Alban's School as well as pages 178-84 on Saint Mary's School.

■"Turner, Campus, pp. 110-16, 120-22. Illustrations of Gothic architecture in college buildings include two from Kenyon College, Old Main at Knox College, and a tloor plan and old lithograph of the existing structure at Jubilee College, plus a full-page design for the main building that Bishop Chase was unable to execute.

^*"Jubilee College State Historical Site" (Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 1989).

"For example, about 1907 a thirty-seven page bulletin was circulated to parents of prospec- tive students at "The School at Jubilee" with a statement on its advantages: "This school, a coeducational institution, accommodating fourteen girls and forty-six boys, was opened September 28, 1905 . . . and is accessible b> the Rock Island, Burlington and Santa Fe railroads" (p. 9). "This school, which has completed its second year of successful existence, is upon the founda- tion of Philander Chase ... (p. 37).

'"Reverend C. W. Leffingwell, "Bishop Chase and Jubilee College," Transactions of the Il- linois State Historical Society, 10 (1905), 82-100; Lorene Martin, "Old Jubilee College and Its Founder, Bishop Chase," Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society, 41 (1934), 121-52; Roma Louise Shively, Jubilee: A Pioneer College (Elmwood, Illinois: Elmwood Gazette, 1935); Joan I. Unsicker, "Archeological Explorations At Jubilee College Historical Site," Western Illinois Regional Studies, vol. 3, no. 1 (Spring 1980), 36-45; David Pichaske, The Jubilee Diary: April 10, 1980— April 19, 1981 (Peoria: Ellis Press, 1983); Evelyn R. Moore, "Jubilee College, Philander Chase's Western Seminary," Historic Illinois, 1 (December 1984), 1-4, 11. See as well Bishop Chase's Reminiscences: An Autobiography. Second Edition. Comprising A History of the Principal Events in the Author's Life to A. D. 1847, 2 vols. (Boston: James B. Dow, 1848).

-'"Jubilee College State Historic Site."

'-Much of the history of nineteenth century colleges in Macomb must be derived from newspaper accounts, many of which are available in the Western Illinois University library's Archives and Special Collections section. Some information can be found in articles published as historical reviews in the Macomb Daily Journal. For example, see Cora Harris, "Old Col- lege Opened Here 100 Years Ago," Macomb Daily Journal, 31 August 1938, p. 6.

"From several Macomb Daily Journal articles. See as well John E. Hallwas, "Prairie Town on the Make: Macomb in 1854," in McDonough County Heritage (Macomb: Illinois Heritage Press, 1984), pp. 42-45.

-'Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1874 (Washington, D.C.: Government Prin- ting Office, 1875), p. 600. See as well the commissioner's reports for 1882-1883, p. 472, and for 1892. The Macomb school was not listed in state reports after the early 1870s when it was the McDonough Scientific and Normal College.

""An Old Land Mark: Will Be Removed and a New Green House Erected in Its Place," Macomb Daily Journal, 27 May 1898, p. 3.

■'The history of the Western Illinois Normal School and Business Institute as well as its suc- cessors and competitors from the 1890s to 1907 is to be found primarily in newspaper articles and advertisements during that period. The school occupied upper floors of the Gumbart Building on the south side of the Public Square and the Gamage Building at the corner of North Ran- dolph and East Washington streets. In recent years, the latter structure has been known as the Masonic Temple building.

"See the college catalogs on file in the Archives and Special Collection section of the Western Illinois University Library, and Hicken, The Purple and the Gold.

■'Information on the Western Normal College has been summarized by Curtis Strode in "Spoon River Notebook: Stories About the Spoon River Country." The paper was prepared in January 1971 and is on file in the Archives and Special Collections section of the Western Illinois University Library.

^''Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1892-1893, vol. 2 (Washington, D.C.: Govern- ment Printing Office, 1894). See also the Illinois reports by the state superintendent of public instruction.

'"Edward R. Lewis, Jr., Reflections of Canton in a Pharmacist 's Show Globe: A Comprehensive History of Canton, Illinois and the Important Events in Fulton County (Canton: By the author), pp. 29-30.

"Ibid., p. 6. The quotation is excerpted from Lewis's quotation of a longer article about

WESTERN ILLINOIS REGIONAL STUDIES

the pioneer town of Canton.

''•Ibid., p. 30. Lewis took some ideas and tacts from Mary J. F. Law's History and Reminiscences of School Work in Canton, Illinois (Locally printed in 1894). Mrs. Law was a teacher in the Canton area from her first arrival in 1839.

"'Lewis, Reflections of Canton, pp. 39, 140.

"Ibid., p. 97.

"^W. .1. Buchanan, "Monmouth College," ed.. Cook, Educational History, pp. 325-26.

""For historical reviews of Monmouth College and the town see the following: Francis Gar- vin Davenport, Monmouth College: The First Hundred Years (Cedar Rapids, Iowa: Torch Press, 1953); William Urban, A History of Monmouth College Through its Fifth Quarter Century (Monmouth: Monmouth College, 1979); Jeff Rankin, ed., Born of the Prairie: Monmouth, Illinois— The First 150 Years (Monmouth: Kellogg Printing Company, 1981).

"The "Bird's Eye View of the City of Monmouth, Warren County, Illinois, 1869" by A. Ruger shows these geographical relationships dramatically.

""Carl A. Landrum, Historical Sketches of Quincy, Illinois, rev. ed. (Quincy: The Historical Society of Quincy and Adams County, 1986). "Sketch 42" pertains to "Colleges in Quincy," pp. 193-200; see page 193 for information on the first Quincy College (Methodist institution).

"'Ibid., p. 193.

"ibid.

'Souvenir Committee, St. Francis Solanus Parish and Franciscan Fathers, Quincy, III (Souvenir, Golden Jubilee, 1910). See also the summary by Reverend Silas Barth, "St. Francis Solanus College," ed.. Cook, Educational History, pp. 333-34.

■Landrum, Historical Sketches, pp. 196-200.

■'ibid., pp. 193-96.

'John Wood College catalog.

'William C. Spielman, The Diamond Jubilee of Carthage College, 1870-1945 (Carthage: Car- thage College Historical Society, 1945).

"Spielman gives numerous examples of citizen interest and assistence. Some of the largest benefactors were from other towns.

"Mrs. Duane Penrock, "Carthage and Her Advantages," in A. W. O'Harra, ed.. Souvenir of Carthage College and the City of Carthage (Carthage: Carthage Republican Press, 1895), p. 27. Another essay in the same volume was entitled "An Ideal College Town."

"Robert M. Cochran et al., eds.. History of Hancock County, Illinois: Illinois Sesquicenten- nial History (Carthage: Board of Supervisors, Hancock County, 1968), pp. 82-83.

"Ibid., p. 83. Newspaper articles and school catalogs relate the story of Robert Morris Col- lege in Carthage to 1988.

""In addition to local newspaper articles and national advertising, the sale of the campus was featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education, May 31, 1989. An illustrated article by Gilbert Fuchsberg recounts the problems of Robert Morris College and the difficulties of selling a cam- pus in a small midwestern town.

"'Clare Burr, "Gittings Seminary," LaHarpe Historical and Genealogical Society Newslet- ter, no. 10 (March 1959), 2-3. The article was originally a paper for a high school class in the 1950s when the author was known as Clara Ellen Bradshaw.

"■Millersburg and Keithsburg experienced tleeting attempts to support higher education. The Millersburg Seminary of Learning was founded in 1839, but it floundered before its eventual demise when the county seat was moved literally to Keithsburg. A female seminary operated briefly in Keithsburg after 1857, and in 1864 the Mercer Female College and Branch Normal School struggled and died.

"'Mercer County has had four seats of government since it was organized in 1835. New Boston on the Mississippi River was a temporary seat until a special commission in 1837 selected Millersburg where it remained until 1847 when it was moved to Keithsburg (on the Mississippi). In 1857 the seat was removed to Aledo, which was situated near the center of the county.

"Report of the Commissioner of Education for various years during the 1870s.

"'Carl Cicbhardt, "A History of William and Vashti College, 1908-1917," a paper prepared for a graduate course at Western Illinois University. The paper is on file in the Archives and Special Collections section of the Western Illinois University Library.

""Daniel T. John.son, comp., History of Mercer County, Illinois, 1882-1976 (Aledo, Illinois: Mercer County Bicentennial Commission, 1977). See especially page 430.

"Ibid., pp. 430-31.

""Ibid., pp. 432-33. Also see Illinois Military School, Aledo, Illinois (Aledo: Times Record Co., 1927). This latter is an illustrated sixty-page booklet with statement of purpose and plans

Bergen, COLLEGE TOWNS AND CAMPUS SITES 77

for improvement by Colonel Terry, who, as a former military chaplain, was president and owner of the Kansas Military Academy (1919-1924) and of the Illinois Military School (1924-1931).

"'Ronald E. Nelson, "The Role of Colonies in the Pioneer Settlement of Henry County, Il- linois" (Ph.D. diss.. University of Nebraska, 1969).

""Mary Ida Stone, ed., Geneseo, Illinois: The First 150 Years (Dallas: Taylor Printing Co., 1985). p. 11.

"'Conrad Bergendorf, Auguslana ... .4 Profession of Failh: A History of Augustana Col- lege, 1860-1935 (Rock Island, Illinois: Augustana College Library, 1969), p. 42.

"-Report of the Commissioner, pp. 1904-5. See also the biennial reports of the Illinois

"'Chapman Brothers, Portrait and Biographical Album: Henry County, Illinois (Chicago: Biographical Publishing Company, 1885), pp. 793-94.

""Report of the Commissioner, pp. 1904-5. See also the biennial reports of the Illinois superintendent of instruction during the 1890s.

"Thomas Gregg, History of Hancock County, Illinois (Chicago: Charles C. Chapman & Co., 1880), p. 436. Reprinted in Cochran et al., p. 80.

""Hancock County Historic Sites Committee, Historic Sites and Structures of Hancock County, Illinois (Carthage, Illinois: Hancock County Historical Society and Hancock County Bicenten- nial Commission, 1979), p. 433.

COMMUNITY FUNCTIONS IN THE

LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY:

A PHOTOGRAPHIC ESSAY

Donald W. Griffin

One-hundred years ago communities in western Illinois, as elsewhere in the central and eastern portions of the state and in neighboring Missouri and Iowa, exhibited a distributional pattern determined in large part by the region's basic economy, agriculture.' While there were distortions in the pat- tern due to manufacturing concentrations and locations on rail lines or the Mississippi River, most communities, especially the smaller places, were scat- tered fairly uniformly across the landscape.

The uniform distribution of communities reflected the nature of agriculture and the magnitude of the rural population. Compared with present-day holdings, farms were much smaller, they were considerably more numerous, and the rural population was greater. Indeed, many of the region's counties recorded their largest population totals before the turn of the century.^ Agriculture was geared to mixed farming and most of the day-to-day family needs were met on the farm. Only on occasion were trips made to town to sell produce, purchase goods, or attend a special event.

More so than today, communities functioned as central places in that they provided goods and services to both inhabitants and the people who lived in the surrounding countryside or hinterland. One reason for the number of central place communities was the limited geographic extent of hinterlands. There were virtually no improved roads, and the distance from farm to town (and market)— especially distance measured in time — was relatively short. ^

Because it took a large number of places to serve the rural population, the goods and services provided were similar regardless of a community's size. While the larger places could support specialized functions due to their greater resident population, essential services were the same between places. Typically, even small communities had a dry goods (or general) store, a hard- ware store, and a drug store; a bank; a feed store; a livery and possibly a hotel (or at least a boardinghouse); probably a doctor; and, if on a rail Hne, a grain elevator. In this regard, an Industry functioned to serve the rural population in much the same way as a larger Roseville.'

The photographs that appear on the next several pages depict ubiquitous functions of selected western Illinois central places in the late nineteenth cen- tury. The scenes (mostly posed) are of one or more establishments on the main commercial street, which, in the smaller towns and villages, was typically one block in length. All photographs are from the Archives and Special Col- lections unit of the University Library, Western Illinois University.'

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NOTES

'There were several reasons for selecting the late nineteenth century as the historic setting for this article. The settlement or frontier period in western Illinois had ended several decades earlier and the region's communities were established; agriculture was the dominant economic activity and the total acreage given over to agriculture was similar to present farm holdings; farming was still labor-intensive and agricultural mechanization was some years away; and, out-migration from the rural areas to urban centers here and elsewhere had yet to occur.

Tn 1880 the average size farm in the ten western Illinois counties of Adams, Brown, Fulton, Hancock, Henderson, Knox, McDonough, Pike, Schuyler, and Warren was close to the state average of 124 acres (improved or cropland acreage averaged 100 acres or less). One-hundred years later the average farm size was 353 acres. Equally significant, the number of farms decreased by nearly two-thirds, from 29,758 in 1880 to 10,262 in 1987.

The increase in farm size and the decrease in number of farms resulted in a substantial decrease (out-migration) of the rural population. As the following table illustrates, today only Adams, Kno.x, and McDonough counties have total populations greater than in the 1880-1900 period. In Brown and Schuyler counties, the current population is between 40 and 50 percent of what it was in the late nineteenth centurv.

Population by year

County

1880	1890	1900	1980	1986
59,131	61,888	67,058	71,622	68,100
13,051	1 1 ,95 1	11,557	5,411	5,400
41,240	43,110	46,201	43,687	38.100
35,337	31,907	32,215	23,877	23,000
10,722	9,876	10,836	9,114	8,800
38,340	38,752	43,612	61,607	56.300
27,970	27,467	28,412	37,467	34.800
33,751	31,000	31.595	18,896	18.000
16,249	16,013	16,129	8,365	7.800
22.933	21,281	23,163	21,943	20.500

Adams

Brown

Fulton

Hancock

Henderson'

Knox

McDonough

Pike

Schuyler'

Warren'

'Henderson. Schuyler, and Warren couniies recorded their largest population in 1870 with totals of 12.582, 17,419, and 23,174, respectively.

Sources: Population of the United States at the Tenth Census (Washington, D.C.: Govern- ment Printing Office, 1883); Population of the United States at the Eleventh Cen- sus (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1895); Twelfth Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1900 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Census Office); Tenth Census (Production of Agriculture); Twelfth census (Agriculture, Part 1); 1987 Census of Agriculture, vol. 1, pt. 13 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Priming Office, April, 1989); U.S. Census of Population, 1980 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1982); U.S. Bureau of the Census, East North Central and Local Population Estimates, 1986 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Govern- ment Printing Office, 1988). 'Theoretically, the size of hinterlands was the same for large and small places. The lack of improved roads meant that even the larger communities could serve only a limited geographic area. Consequently, these places functioned more to serve local rather than non-local (rural) needs. It was not until the 1920s that an improved road network made it possible for communities to expand their hinterlands. As a result, the larger cities and towns with more specialized func- tions could serve areas that previously depended upon smaller centers. It also meant that the farm population, with greater access (mobility), could bypass the smaller places and obtain essen- tial goods and services from larger centers, providing the latter with an impetus for growth. The change in the size of central places can be seen in the number of incorporated communities that may be classified as urban, or 2,500 or more population. In the 1880-1900 period, only five communities in the ten-county area had populations of 2,500 or more people, namely, Quincy, Canton, Galesburg, Macomb, and Monmouth. (Warsaw in Hancock County exceeded 2.500 population in 1880 and 1890; by 1900, its population had dropped below that total.) In 1980,

WESTERN ILLINOIS REGIONAL STUDIES

the number of urban communities had increased to fourteen with the addition of Farmington and Lewistown (Fulton County), Carthage and Hamilton (Hancock County), Abingdon and Knoxville (Knox County), Bushnell (McDonough County), Pittsfield (Pike County), and Rushville (Schuyler County).

Sources: Population of the United States at the Tenth Census; Population of the United States at the Eleventh Census; Twelfth Census of the United States Taken in the Year 1900; U.S. Census of Population, 1980.

'Juliet E.K. Walker in a 1982 article on frontier towns in Pike County noted that as new towns developed from 1818 to the 1850s they "showed striking similarities in their occupational structure . . . These occupations had remarkable stability and showed rates that remained cons- tant over time during the frontier period." Juliet E.K. Walker, "Occupational Distribution of Frontier Towns in Pike County: An 1850 Census Survey," Western Illinois Regional Studies, vol. 5, no. 2 (Fall 1982), 147.

T wish to thank Maria Vizdal, archives specialist, for her assistance in reproducing the photographs used in this article. 1 also wish to thank John Hallwas for his comments on a draft of the article.

NOTES AND DOCUMENTS

As this issue of the journal deals with communities in the general western Illinois region, it is appropriate to look at previous journal articles that in one way or another focus on villages, towns, and cities. At the very least, brief annotations of those articles may be useful to scholars and others who wish to better understand the evolution of communities as places within the larger context of regional historic development and change.

Selecting the titles was something of a problem. Obvious (and initial) choices were articles where a community was identified in title such as Clarence A. Andrew's "Illinois City: 150 Years on the Prairie" (Fall 1986) and the special issues on Mormon Nauvoo (Fall 1988) and Bishop Hill (Fall 1989). Still, what may be obvious because of an article's title or its being found in a special issue on a community can be limited in the historic treat- ment of a place. Or, the place is only the setting for a discussion of social, cultural, and related subjects with little (if any) consideration of the com- munity as a geographic entity. The fall 1989 special issue on Mormon Nauvoo is an example of the latter restriction.'

Even the current special issue falls short in giving the reader a complete picture of communities throughout their stages of development. (Such a rigid requirement may be impossible to meet in a journal article.) The articles in this issue provide insights about places at particular periods in their history. The community is more than a static setting; it exists to reflect and to shape events as they unfold.

The preceding is another way of saying that there was a good deal of sub- jectivity in selecting the bibliographic entries. Of the 128 articles published through the spring issue of 1990, only 9 (or 7 percent) are annotated here. Further, of the nine, four deal with one community. Bishop Hill, and three focus on the settlement of particular areas. The order of presentation is by volume and issue. The first issue is out of print, but may be found in local and regional libraries (and in personal collections).

Ronald E. Nelson, "Bishop Hill: Swedish Development of the Western Illinois Frontier," vol. 1, no. 2 (Fall 1978), 109-20 (map, table, and photographs).

The development of Bishop Hill is traced from its founding as a frontier community in 1846, through the assassination of Erik Janson in 1850 and the Depression of 1857, to the colony's dissolution as a communal enter- prise in 1861. The early struggle for survival is described as is the colony's latter success in the early 1850s as shown by the increase in land holdings and the construction of communal buildings.

Siyoung Park, "Perception of Land Quality and the Settlement of Nor- thern Pike County 1821-1836," vol. 3, no. 1 (Spring 1980), 5-21 (maps, table, photographs, and illustrations).

96 WESTERN ILLINOIS REGIONAL STUDIES

The purpose of the article is to assess what early settlers perceived as good farmland. The study area is a tier of seven townships between the Mississip- pi and Illinois rivers in northern Pike County; data are land prices from coun- ty deed records for the period 1821-1836. The settlement pattern is describ- ed and types of deeds and land sales (and their frequency) are discussed. The author concludes that initial land sales were in forest areas, while by 1836 most sales were in the upland prairies; the latter parcels were purchased by Pike County residents.

Gordana Rezab, "Land Speculation in Fulton Country 1817-1832, vol. 3, no. 1 (Spring 1980), 22-35 (map, tables, and illustrations).

The purpose here is to "distinguish between (land) purchases made by coun- ty residents, those executed by local speculators, and those involving out-of- state investors." Land sales and their distribution for the 1817-1832 period are presented. Ms. Rezab concludes that land purchases by non-resident speculators differed from the purchases by the major local speculators such as Ossian Ross. Also, apparently non-resident speculators purchased land where a quick profit was not anticipated.

Juliet E.K. Walker, "Occupational Distribution of Frontier Towns in Pike County: A 1850 Census Survey," vol. 5, no. 2 (Fall 1982), 146-71 (map, tables, and illustrations).

Ms. Walker presents a quite detailed study (with extensive references) based upon the 1850 federal manuscript census occupational listings. Major sec- tions include the origin of Pike County towns from 1823 to 1850, the in- fluence of the Panic of 1837 on town development, occupations of women and diversity of occupational participation, specialized towns such as Perry, commercial activities, and the closing of the frontier. Of particular interest is the table on specific occupations by community.

William D. Walters, Jr., "Early Western Illinois Town Advertisements: A Geographical Inquiry," vol. 8, no. 1 (Spring 1985), 5-15 (map and table).

This article is noteworthy because it depicts the marketing of location, which, as the author notes was "often exaggerated, usually simplistic, and almost always self-serving." Thirty advertisements for western Illinois towns between 1835 and 1836 were examined (most were from 1836). A common characteristic of the advertisements was the promotion of locational advan- tage (real or imagined) due to waterways, roads (the most common), and railroads. The promotional boom ended in 1837.

Clarence A. Andrews, "Illinois City: 150 Years on the Prairie," vol. 9, no. 2 (Fall 1986), 47-59 (map, photographs, and illustration).

The initial focus of the article is on two Mississippi River settlements in Rock Island County, Drury's Landing and Van Atta's Landing. Illinois Ci- ty is introduced as an example of a place that was planned as a permanent settlement. By 1844, Illinois City had a population of 350 to 400 people; to-

NOTES AND DOCUMENTS 97

day, it is probably one-half the higher total. The railroads, which reduced the importance of steamboats (and river landings), did not materialize, and the high hopes of the town's founders did not come to pass.

Ronald E. Nelson, "The Bishop Hill Colony: What They Found," vol. 12, no. 2 (Fall 1989), 36-45 (maps and table).

As indicated in the title, the emphasis of the article is on the character of the social and environmental setting encountered by the first colony settlers.- In 1846 Henry County was still a sparsely populated area, a condi- tion the author attributes largely to the failure of the pre-Bishop Hill Yankee colonies to effectively settle their lands. The delayed settlement appears to have benefited the Bishop Hill Colony. Land was available, and the sparse local population (already familiar with the Yankee colonies) may have seen the Bishop Hill colonists as less strange, and hence, less threatening.

Ronald E. Nelson, "The Building of Bishop Hill," vol. 12, no. 2 (Fall 1989), 46-60 (maps and photographs).

The brief text traces three periods of colony growth, namely, the pioneer period (1846-1848) where the primary purpose was survival; the period from 1 848 to 1 850 when adequate housing was built and an economic base of sup- port created; and, the 1850-1861 commercial period when property was developed. The discussion is supported by numerous photographs of colony buildings and landscapes.

Jon Wagner, "Living in Community: Daily Life in the Bishop Hill Col- ony," vol. 12, no. 2 (Fall 1989), 61-81 (photographs).

This article is of interest because of the descriptions of daily activities that were tied to the colony's communal and commercial functions. The descrip- tions of day-to-day routines were drawn from the colonist's own testimony, observations reported by visitors, and interviews conducted by early resear- chers. The structure of colony life appears to have been stable over the fifteen- year colony period, and included religious services before breakfast and after the evening meal. The contribution of colony women is noted, as are the roles of children (when not in school) and the importance of the family in communal life.

NOTES

'Readers who wish to determine their own list of what constitutes a community can review the ten-year index of articles on pages 73-80 of the fall, 1987, issue of the journal.

The Ronald E. Nelson here (and the author of the first bibliographic entry) is professor of geography at Western Illinois University. The Ronald E. Nelson, who is the author of "The Building of Bishop Hill," is the former executive director of the Bishop Hill Heritage Association.

Donald W. Griffin Western Illinois University

REVIEWS OF BOOKS

THE MIDWEST AND THE NATION: RETHINKING THE HISTORY OF AN AMERICAN REGION. By Andrew R. L. Clayton and Peter S. Onuf. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press, 1990. Pp. 169. $25.

Nearly one hundred years have passed since a young historian from the University of Wisconsin boldly proclaimed to the American Historical Association that the process of settling the frontier had created a nation of democratic individualists.

Though Frederick Jackson Turner has had his admirers and detractors, it is evident that he did achieve one of the objectives he set forth in his land- mark paper: to stimulate historical scholarship on the frontier and its effects on American culture. This influence continues into the last decade of the twentieth century with The Midwest and the Nation.

This book, which its authors describe as "an extended and often speculative essay," resembles a nest of Chinese boxes. The product of a conference held to mark the Bicentennial of the Northwest Ordinance, it examines the way historians have interpreted the rise of the Midwest. Inside this historiography of the Midwest can be found yet another analysis of the way this region has developed from raw wilderness into the most quintessentially American part of our country. And encompassing all of this is an enterprise that the authors describe as a deconstruction of Turner's narrative; they continually reassess his major tenets in light of more recent historical scholarship and emphasize their value in elucidating a regional as well as a national consciousness.

The authors pursue these three lines of inquiry within the scope of a 126-page essay, and the reader is often hard-pressed to follow them as they variously intersect, disappear, resurface, and culminate in conclusions. However, despite the complexity of its organization and the density of its text, The Midwest and the Nation will reward the persevering reader with many important insights into the nature of American historical scholarship as well as into the process through which the Midwest has achieved economic, political, and cultural hegemony.

Cayton and Onuf focus their analysis on six aspects of this process. After showing how the Northwest Ordinance laid the foundation for the democratic, prosperous region the Territory was to become, they demonstrate the ways in which its immigrant settlers incorporated their cultural traditions into their new communities and made them an important part of the new region's identity. They describe the power struggles among various political factions and show how the transportation revolution helped link the Midwest to the national economy and brought prosperity and prominence of the region. They emphasize that the stabilizing effect of religious and reform movements, as well as the accommodation made by conservative agrarian midwesterners to industrialization and urbanization, were also major fac- tors in strengthening the region.

98

REVIEWS OF BOOKS 99

Although they present the rise of the Midwest as a triumph of capitahsm, RepubHcan party pohtics, and middle-class values, Cayton and Onufs work is more than a testament to midwestern hegemony or an expression of regional pride. What makes this book especially interesting and valuable is that it is informed by the post-modern scholar's view that knowledge can never be objective and eternally true; rather, it is subjective and socially constructed, shaped by the political, social, intellectual, and economic environments in which it is formed.

In their introduction, Cayton and Onuf state that one of their goals is to encourage further work in regional studies by providing an account of the way historians have constructed the Midwest as well as an interpretative framework for such scholarship. It is virtually certain that this provocative book will accomplish that goal.

Marcia Noe

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

HISTORY OF THE STRONGHURST UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH 1889-1989. By Stronghurst United Presbyterian Church. Carthage, Illinois: Journal Printing Company, 1989. Pp. 118. $12.50.

CENTENNIAL HISTORY 1890-1990, BETHEL LUTHERAN CHURCH, STRONGHURST, ILLINOIS. By Bethel Lutheran Church, n.p. [1990]. Pp.

28. $5.00.

In 1987, residents of Stronghurst celebrated the 100th anniversary of their town with the publication of a historical work entitled Stronghurst Centen- nial History 1887-1987. The historical consciousness generated in 1987 has continued into succeeding years so that when the Stronghurst United Presbyterian Church and the Stronghurst Bethel Lutheran Church celebrated their 100th anniversaries in 1989 and 1990, their respective congregations decided to produce a pubhcation to commemorate the event.

A committee of church members created both works; thus no single author or compiler is credited with organizing the two books. In actuality, the two publications are very similar in textual format. Both start with a general in- troduction on the history of their church from its beginnings to the present. After the introduction, the bulk of both volumes is taken up with specific sections that describe the social groups of the church, the Sunday school organization, the evolution of church music, and the life histories of individual ministers. Photographs are numerous in both works. Most of the pictures show church building interiors and exteriors along with group portraits of the congregational members.

The Presbyterian book is the better historical publication, but even it has

/ 00 WES TERN IL L INOIS REG ION A L S TUDIES

some problems. Source documentation is sparse in both volumes, but at least the committee for the Presbyterian history cited some newspapers, deed record books, and church minute books where they found a portion of their infor- mation. Descriptions of controversial or deviant behavior by church members are missing from the two works, although the Presbyterian book did men- tion that on June 21, 1904, one member was called before the elders of the church "for intoxication and fishing on the Sabbath" (p. 30). For individuals interested in genealogy and family history the Presbyterians even indexed all the personal names that appeared on the pages of their work.

On the whole, both volumes present an upbeat and non-controversial view of the past. Consequently, academic historians would criticize the publica- tions as lacking both interpretive synthesis and critical analysis. Yet, one should remember that the intended audiences for these works are not history professionals, but rather the immediate members of the church family. The respective history book committees created these printed memory books as visible symbols of the pride they have in their church's achievements over the last 100 years.

John Lee Allaman Raritan, Illinois

ROUTE 66: THE HIGHWAY AND ITS PEOPLE. By Quinta Scott and

Susan Croce Kelly. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1988 Pp 210 Cloth, $24.95. Paper, $17.95.

ROUTE 66: THE MOTHER ROAD. By Michael Wallis. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1990. Pp. 243. $29.95.

Route 66's diagonal between Bloomington and St. Louis roughly delineates the eastern focal edge of Western Illinois Regional Studies. The people, in- cluding western lUinoisans, who influenced and were influenced by the perpetually renowned automobile highway between Chicago and Los Angeles are the chief sources for the interpretations in the two books reviewed here. Each book takes a different approach to arrive at the same point, however. Scott, a photographer, and Kelly, a journalist, acknowledge their affection for Route 66, but assume the academic historian's vantage point to reconstruct the highway's past according to chronological and thematic periods. Photography, including copies of old images as well as Scott's more recent images (beginning in 1978), is an essential part of their history. Sources are footnoted in academic fashion, unlike Wallis's book, which is aimed ex- clusively at a popular audience.

On the other hand, Wallis utilized his acknowledged passion for Route 66 to infuse his journalist's report of present conditions with the spirit of

REVIEWS OF BOOKS J 01

the "Mother Road." Wallis borrowed the term Mother Road from John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, which helped immortalize Route 66, because WaUis agreed that Route 66 nurtured hope and imagination. In keep- ing with the commercial rather than academic purpose of his book, Wallis's work is a collaboration. One of the book's sources is its mostly recent photography, the work of principally four photographers. Other sources are the work of a research team and the editor's field notes. Scott's and Kelly's contrasting acknowledgments are to people who helped formulate but neither made photographs nor did research for the book.

Illinois' treatment in each book exemplifies each book's respective nature. Scott's and Kelly's historical narrative touches on Illinois at appropriate points throughout the text. At the start of the book Illinois is the state whose pave- ment of the route was nearly complete (1924) before it became a federal highway, thus making Illinois' portion of the eventual Route 66 the first ex- tensively paved portion when the route was declared a federal highway (1926). Unswayed by nostalgia, Scott and Kelly do not credit early brick pavement of the highway in Illinois to fulfillment of a public need, but rather to the work of a high public official in the brick business. At the end of the book, Illinois is the place that witnessed the first bypassing of communities, which led nationally to Route 66's eventual demise as a major highway. Wallis treats Illinois as the first state in his state-by-state tour of Route 66. He dramatizes the apparent death of the highway at the start of the Illinois chapter with a description of its highway signs' removal in Chicago in 1977, but concludes on a diametrically opposed note of buoyance in the long life-story of Russell and Ola Soulsby, a brother and sister who operated a gas station in Mount Olive on Route 66 since 1926. The books' contrasting reflective versus roman- tic viewpoints informs the photographic treatments as well. For example, for the Soulsbys, Scott took a position perpendicular to the front and side of their station and made a photographic document in archival black-and- white film of the Soulsbys with subdued smiles. Wallis selected a photograph in vibrant color made from a lively diagonal viewpoint and of Russell with a broad smile.

A consequence of the two different approaches is different information. Although Scott and Kelly explain why the Midwest and the Southwest need- ed Route 66, they underscore the Southwest's greater interest in the highway. The Southwest had a poorer highway system and it was the region whose business people most ardently and consistently promoted the highway. Illinoisans along Route 66 were seldom strong supporters of the Route 66 association, which promoted the highway as a business corridor, according to Scott and Kelly. Wallis's sensitivities unfettered by objectivity led him to an awareness of Route 66's southwestern taproot and resulted in a more elaborate treatment of the highway in that region than the Midwest, especially Illinois, his comparative emotional end of the highway. Wallis's treatment of Illinois is restrained by contrast with the chapter on Oklahoma, depicted as the cradle of Route 66, and New Mexico, Arizona, and California, each of which have more pages than any eastward state. Wallis's instinctual

102 WESTERN ILLINOIS REGIONAL STUDIES

approach fits naturally with the new, nostalgic Route 66 organizations, which sprang up in the late 1980s in nearly every state along the highway. They not only provided information to Wallis, but justify his faith that Route 66's spirit persists. Having completed their research before Route 66 buffs founded an organization in the respective state, Scott and Kelly do not include these organizations. Nonetheless, it is consistent with the authors' distant view that their last mention of a Route 66 organization is the commercial one which quietly disappeared in 1976.

Despite their differences, the books' treatment have much in common. A heavy dependence on oral sources warrants their classification as part of the new social history whose understanding of the common is not generated entirely by statistical historians. Scott and Kelly began research for a book on Route 66's architecture, but were lured from it by the people that worked in the highway's individual buildings. The list of those interviewed, including twenty-eight Illinoisans, has the most entries of any category in Scott's and Kelly's bibliography. Wallis credits fifteen Illinoisans with interviews. Every chapter includes long side-bars of quoted life-stories, with special reference to Route 66, of people who lived and worked along it or promoted it in some way. Incidentally, the inconvenient absence in Scott's and Kelly's original hardback edition of a good map of the highway is overcome in the later paper- back edition with a good map of the major towns in each state on the highway. Wallis has a very helpful map on the inside front and back cover.

Life reverberates in these books from the beginning with the authors' proud admission of an emotional bond to the subject. They share the excitement which characterizes much of the emerging roadside literature, perhaps because it is by authors discovering their favorite roadside subject. Although various aspects of Route 66 await treatment, especially the architecture which Scott and Kelly left as a point of departure, the books reviewed here are consis- tent and therefore useful perspectives on a worthy subject. They should be taken together as but two supplements necessary for a whole history properly comprised of various perspectives. However, it waits to be seen if authors, once published on their favorite roadside subject, will return for other sub- jects and thereby begin to help mature road and roadside studies as a realm of serious scholarship.

Keith A. Senile

Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.

CONTRIBUTORS 103

CONTRIBUTORS

JOHN V. BERGEN, recently retired as professor of geography at Western Illinois University, is the compiler and author o^ Atlas of Johnson County, Indiana, 1820 to 1900. An article on early Illinois maps appeared in the spring 1987 issue of Western Illinois Regional Studies.

DONALD W. GRIFFIN, professor of geography at Western Ilinois Univer- sity, is director of the university's Institute for Regional and Community Studies. Previous articles in Western Illinois Regional Studies have been on various aspects of the Hennepin Canal.

SUSAN S. RUGH is a Ph.D. candidate in American history at the Univer- sity of Chicago. She has published in Chicago History, and has written an article on the Mormon era in Fountain Green Township which will be published in Brigham Young University Studies.

ROBERT P. SUTTON, professor of history and director of the Center for Icarian Studies at Western Illinois University, is the author of several books and numerous articles including The Prairie State: A Documentary History of Illinois (1976) and Rivers, Railroads, and Roads, A History of Hender- son County, Illinois (1988). His most recent research is a book-length study of the Icarian Movement in Europe and the United States.

WILLIAM URBAN, professor history at Monmouth College, is a medievalist whose second field of interest is western history. The author of six books- including a history of Monmouth College — he has also published more than two dozen articles in a variety of historical journals.

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