Full text of "History of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, Illinois"

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LIBRARY OF THE

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

977c39
P42h

I o H o b o

HISTORY

JjJj

XAIER, Union Al POLASRI CODNTIES,

IKL.INOIS.

B33ITEX> ,3Y AAT'IXjIjIJ^Iid: HElTR-y X'ER/R/IIT.

ILLUSTRATE.D

CHICAGO:

O. L. BASKIN & CO., HISTORICAL PUBLISHERS,

183 Lake Street.

1883.

PREFACE.

rpHE history of Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, after months of persistent toil and
-L research, is now completed, and it is believed that no subject of universal public impor-
tance or interest has been omitted, save where protracted effort failed to secure reliable results-
We are well aware of our inability to furnish a perfect history from meager public documents
and numberless conflicting traditions, but claim to have prepared a work fully up to the standard
of our promises. Through the courtesy and assistance generously afforded by the residents of
these counties, we have been enabled to trace out and put on record the greater portion of the
important events that have transpired in Alexander, Union and Pulaski Counties, up to the
present time. And we feel assured that all thoughtful people in these counties, now and in
future, will recognize and appreciate the importance of the work and its permanent value.

A dry statement of events has, as far as possible, been avoided, and incidents and anecdotes
have been interwoven with facts and statistics, forming a narrative at once instructive and inter-
esting.

We are indebted to John Grear, Esq., for the history of Jonesboro and Precinct; to Dr. J
H. Sanborn for the history of Anna and Precinct; to Dr. N. R. Casey for the history of Mound
City and Precinct, and to George W. Endicott, Esq., of Villa Ridge, for his chapter on Agricult-
ure and Horticulture of Pulaski County. Also to H. C. Bradsby, Esq., for his very able and
exhaustive history of Cairo, as well as the general history of the respective counties, and to the
many citizens who furnished our corps of writers with material aid in the compilation of the
facts embodied in the work.

September, 1883 Tjjg PUBLISHERS.

§0

852588

CONTENTS

PART I.

CAIRO.

PAGE.

<^'>I AFTER I.— City of Cairo— The First Steamboat on West-
ern Waters — Great Eartliquake of l.'^ll — First Settle-
ment of Cairo— Hoibrook's Schemes — A Mushroom
( ity and the Bubble Bursted — Early Navigation of
Western Rivers — Capt. Henry M. Shreve, etc., etc 11

CHAPTER II.— Crash of the Cairo City and Canal Company
in 1841 — The Exodus of the People— Pastimes and
Social Life of Those Who Remain — Judge Cilbert —
How a Riot was Suppressed — Bryan Shaunessy —
Gradual Growth of the Town Again — The Record
Brought Down to 1.^53, etc .SI

( HAPTER III.— Cairo Platted— First Sale of Lots— The
Foundation of a City Laid — Beginning of Work on
the Central Railroad — S. Staats Taylor^City Gov-
ernment Organized and Who Were Its Officers — In-
crease of Population — The War — Soldiers in Cairo —
Battle of Belmont— Waif of the Battle-tield— " Old
Rube ■' — Killing of Spencer — Overflow of '58 — Wash
Graham and Gen. (irant — A Few More Practical
Jokes, etc., etc 47

( HAPTER IV.— Decidedly a Cairo chapter— Cairo and Its
Different Bodies, Politic and Corporate — Cairo City
and Bank of Cairo — Cairo and Canal Company — Cairo
, < ity Property— Trustees of the Cairo Trust Property
— The Illinois Exporting Company — D. B. Holbrook
—Justin Butterfield— Recapitulation, etc., etc 67

(HAI'TER v.— The Levees— How the Territorial Legisla-
ture by Law Placed the Natural Town Site Above
C»verflows — First Efibrts at Constructing Levees —
Engineer's Reports on the Same — Estimated Height
and Costs — The Floods — The City Overflowed — Great
Disaster, the f'ause and Its Effects— The Levees are
Reconstructed and They Defy the Greatest Waters
Ever Known 90

CHAPTER VI.— The Press— Its Power as the Great Civil-
izer of the Age — Cairo's First Editorial Ventures-
Birth and Death of Newspapers Innumerable — The
Bohemians — Who They Were and What They Did —
" Bull Run " Russell— Harrell, Willett, Faxon and
Others — Some of the "Intelligent Compositors" —
Quantum Sufficit 126

( HAPTER VII.— Societies: Literary, Social and Benevolent
—The Ideal League — Lyceimi — Masonic Fraternity —
Its Great Antiquity— Odd Fellowship — The Cairo
Casino — Other Societies, etc ISS

CHAPTER VIII.— Cairo— Her Condition -in 1861-187S-1>;.><:;
— The Ebb and Flow of Business and Population —
War and the Panic Which Followed — Steamboat.s—
Mark Twain— Pilots — .Some Steamboat Disasters— And
a Joke or Two by Way of Illustration, etc W'

CHAPTER IX.— The Church History— St. Patrick's— Ger-
man Lutheran — Presbyterian — Baptist — Methodist
and Other Dcnomination.s — The Different Pastors —
Their Flocks, Temples, the City .Schools, etc., etc 17G

CHAPTER X.— Railroads — The Illinois Central —Cairo
Short Line — The Iron Mountain — Cairo & St. Louis —
The Wabash— Mobile & Ohio— Texas A St. Louis— The
Great Jackson Route — Roads Being Built, etc., etc.... 19.5

CHAPTER XL— Conclusion— The Future of the City Con-
sidered—Her Present Status and Growth — Present
City Officials, etc 217

PART II.

UNION COUNTY.

CHAPTER I.— Intro<luction — Geology— Importance of Edu-
cating the People on This Subject — The Limestone
District of Illinois — Keononiical (ieology of Union,
Alexander and Pulaski Counties — Medical .Sprjngs,
Building Material, Soil, etc.— Wonderful Wealth of
Nature's Bounties — Topograi)hy and Cliniato of this
Region, etc "^'i-?

CHAPTER 11.— Pre-historic Races— The Mound-Buildera—
Fire Worshipers — Relics of these Unknown People —
Mounds, Workshops and Battle-<i rounds in Ufllijn,
Alexander and Pulaski Counties — Visits of Noxious
Insects— History Thereof, etc 244

CHAPTER III.— The Daring Discoveries and Settlements
by the French— The Catholic Missionaries— Discov-
ery of the Mississippi River — .Some Corrections in
History — A World's Wonderful Drama of Nearly
Three Hundred Years' Duration, etc 2.5'i

CHAPTER IV.— 1 ollowing the Footsteps of the First Pio-
neers — Who They Were— How They Came— Where They
Stopped— From 179.J to 1810— Cordeling— Bear Fight-
First Schools, Preachers, and the Kind of People they
Were— John Orammar, the Father of Illinois State-
Craft, etc '^^*

CHAPTER v.— Settlers in Union, Alexander and Pulaski—
Lean Venison and Fat Bear— Primitive Furniture— A

CONTENTS.

Pioneer Boy .Sees a Plastered House — ilow People
F'orted — Their Dress and Amusements — Witchcraft,
Wizards, etc. — No Law nor Church— Sports, etc. — fiov.
Dougherty — Philip Shaver and the Cache Massacre —
Families in the Order they I'ame, etc., etc '21o

CHAPTER VI.— Organization of Union County— Act of
Legislature Forming It — The County Seal — Commis-
sioners' Court — Abner Field — A List of Families — Cen-
sus from 1820 to ISSO— Dr. Brooks— The Flood of 1844—
Willard Family — Col. Henry L. Webb — Railroads —
Schools — Moralizing, etc., etc 285

CHAPTER VIL— The Bench and Bar— Gov. Reynolds-
Early Courts— First Term and Officers— Daniel P. Cook
— Census of 1818— County Officers to Date— Abner and
Alexander P. Field— Winsted Davie — Young and Mc-
Roberts — Visiting and Resident Lawyers — Grand .Juries
Punched — Ilunsaker's Letter — War Between Jouesboro
and Anna— County Vote, etc., etc 301

CHAPTER VIIL— The Pre-ss- Finley and Evans, and the
First Newspaper — " Union County Democrat'' — John
Grear— The "Record," "Herald," and Other Publica-
tions—How the Telegraph Produced Drought— Dr. S. S.
Conden— Present Publishers and Their Able Papers, etc. 318

CHAPTER IX.— Military History— "Wars and Rumors of
Wars" — And Some of the (lenuine Article — Revolu-
tionary .Soldiers— Mexican War- Our Late Civil Strife
—Union County's Honorable Part In It— The One Hun-
dred and Ninth Regiment — Its Vindication in History,
etc., etc 82.3

CHAPTER X.— Agriculture— Similarity of Union County
to the Blue Grass Region of Kentucky— Adaptability to
Stock-Raising — Fair Associations — Horticulture — Its
Rise, Wonderful Progress and Present Condition— Va-
rieties of Fruit and Their Culture— The Fruit Garden
of the West— Vegetables — Shipments— Statistics, etc.,
etc 334

CHAPTER XL— Jonesboro Precinct — Topography and
Physical Features— Coming of the Whites— Pioneer
Hardships— Early Industries— Roads, Bridges, Taverns,
etc.— Religious and Educational— State of .Society-
Progress and Improvements, etc- 3.52

CHAPTER XII.— City of Jonesboro— .Selected and Sur-
veyed as the County Seat— Its Healthy Location— Early
Citizens— Some who Remained and Some who Went
Away— First Sale of Lots— Growth of the Town— Mer-
chants and Business Men— Town Incorporated — .Schools
and ( hurches — .Secret .Societies, etc 351

CHAPTER XIII.- Anna Precinct— (ieneral Description
and Topography— Early .Settlement— The Cold Year-
Organization of Precinct— Incident of the Telegraph-
Schools and Churches— Bee-Keei)ing, Dairying, etc.—
Crop Statistics— A Hail-Storm, etc 363

CHAPTER XIV.— City of Anna— The Laying-out of a
Town— Its Name— Early Growth and Progress— Incor-
porated— Fires— Notable Events— Societies, Schools and
Churches— Manufactures— Organized as a City— Hos-
pital for the Insane- City Finances 371

CHAPTER XV.— South Pass, or Cobden Precinct— Its To-
pographical and Physical Features— Early Settlement of
White Peoi)le— Where They Came From and a Record
of Their Work— tJrowth and Development of the Pre-
cinct-Richard Cobden— The Village: What it Was,
What It Is, and What It Will Be— Schools, Churches,
etc., etc 392

CHAPTER XVI. — Dongola Precinct — Surface, Timber,
Water-Courses, Products, etc. — Settlement — Pioneer
Trials and Industries — Schools and Churches — Mills—
Dongola Village : Its Growth and Development— Leav-
enworth— What He Did for the Town, etc 402

CHAPTER XVIL— Ridge or Alto Pass Precinct— Surface
Features, Boundaries, and Timber Grown — Occupation
of the Whites — Pioneer Trials — Industries, Improve-
ments, etc.— The Knob — Churches and Schools— Vil-
lages, etc., etc 410

CHAPTER XVIIL— Rich Precinct— Description, Bounda-
ries and Surface Features — .Settlement of the Whites—
W^here They Came From and Where They Located—
Lick Creek Post office— .Schools and Churches — Caves,
Sulphur !*pring3, etc 414

CHAPTER XIX.— Stokes Precinct— Topography and Boun-
daries — Coming of the Pioneers — Their Trials and
Tribulations— Mills and Other Improvements — Mount
Pleasant laid out as a Village — Churches, Schools,
etc., etc 41'J

CHAPTER XX. — Saratoga Precinct — Its Formation and De-
scription — Topography, Physical Features, etc. — Early
.Settlement— The Wild Man of the Woods— Mills-
Saratoga Village —Sulphur .Springs — An Incident —
Roads and Bridges — Schools, Churches, etc., etc 42-5

CHAPTER XXL— Mill Creek Precinct— Its Natural Char-
acteristics and Resources— One of the Earliest Settle-
ments in the County — Pioneer Improvements — Schools
and Churches— Villages, etc 431

CHAPTER XXII.— Meisenheimer Precinct — Its Surface
Features, Timber, .Streams and Boundaries — Settle-
ment of the Whites — Early Struggles of the Pioneers
— Schools and Schoolhouses— ^Religious — Mills, Roads,
etc.. etc 433

CHAPTER XXIIL— Preston and Union Precincts— Their
Geographical and Topographical Features — Early
Pioneers — Where They Came From, and How They
Lived — The Aldridges and Other " Fir.st Families" —
Swamps, Bullfrogs and Mosquitoes — Schools, Churches,
etc V i^i-'>

PART III.

ALEXANDER COUNTY.

CHAPTER I.— First .'Settlement of the County— The Way
the People Lived — Growth and Progress — Geology and
Soils — The Mound-Builders — Trinity — America — Col.
Rector, Webb and Others — Wilkinsonville — Caledonia
— Unity — Many Interesting ICveuts— etc., etc., etc 44-5

CONTENTS.

PAGE.

( IIAITKK II.— The Act Creating the County— How it was
Named — Some Interesting Extracts from Pr. Alexan-
der's Letters — The rroniinent People — Col. John S.
Hacker — Official Doings of the Courts — County Officers
in Succession — Different Removals of the County .Seat
— Treacher Wofford — etc., etc 4.54

CHAl'TER III. — Census of Alexander County Considered —
The Kind of I'eople They Were — How They Improved
the ( ountry — Who Built the Mills — Dogs Versus Sheep
— Periods of Comparative Immigration — Acts of the
Legislature Efi'ectiug the County, etc., etc 46fi

CHAPTER IV.— War Record— 1812-15— Blaek Hawk War-
Some Account of It, and ('apt. Webb's Company-
Roster of the Company— War witli Mexico — Our Late
Civil War — Politics — Representatives and Other
Officials — John Q. Ilarniou— State Senators, etc. — Some
Slanders Upon the People Repelled, etc., etc 472

CHAPTER V. — Bench and Bar of Alexander County — State
Judiciary and Early Laws Concerning It — Judicial
Courts — How Formed — First Justices of the Supreme
Court — Who Came and Practiced Law — Judges Mul-
key. Baker, I. N. Haynie, Allen, Green, Wall, Yocura,
Linegar and Lansden — Local Lawyers, etc 479

CHAPTER VL— The Precincts of Alexander County— To-
pography and Boundaries — Their Early Settlement —
Dangers and Hardships of the Pioneers — Villages —
Schools and Churches — Modern Improvements, etc 491

PAET IV.

PULASKI COUNTY.

CHAPTER I. — Geology, Meteorology, Topography, Timber,
Water, Soil, etc. — Great Fertility of the Land — Its Ag-
ricultural and Ilortieultural Advantages — What Far-
mers are Learning — Address of I'arker Earle, etc 503

CAAITER II. — Organization of the County— The Facts
That Led to (he Same — Act of the Legislature — Estab-
lishment of the <'ourts— the First Officers — Kemoval
of the Seat of Justice -The Census — Precinct Organi-
zation — Lawyers — Schools, Churches, etc., etc., etc 510

CHAPTER III. — About Early Leading Citizens — tJeorge
Cloud, H. M. Smith, Capt. Riddle, Justus Post— Pulaski
in War— Black Hawk, Mexican and the Late Civil
War— History of the .Men Who Took Part— A. C.
Bartlesou, Price, Athertou — Mr. Clemson's Farm, etc.,
etc 5i;i

( IIAPTER IV.— Agriculture— Early Mode of Farming in
Pulaski County— Incidents— Stock-Kaising— Present
Improvements- Horticulture— First Attempts at
Fruit-* irowing— Apples— Tree Pe<ldlers— Strawberries
—Peaches — Grapes and Wine— Other Fruits, Vegeta-
ble.?, etc., etc .520

CHAPTER v.— Mound <ity— Early History of the Place—
The Indian Massacre— Joseph Tibbs and Some of the

Early Citizens of " The Mounds "—Gen. Rawlings—
First Sale of Ix)ts— The Emporium Company— How
It Flourished and Then Played Out— The Marine
Ways— Government Hospital— The National Ceme-
lery. etc 535

CHAPTEl! VL— Mound (ity— Decline and Death of the
Emporium Company— Overflow of the Ohio in 1858—
Flood of 1802, 1S<>7, 1882 and ISS.'i— leveeing the City
—Bonds for the Payment of the Same— .\ Few Mur-
ders, With a Taste of Lynch Law, etc .553

CHAPTER VIL— Mound City— It Becomes the County Seat
County Officials— Jud,ge Mansfield— Lawyers— F. M.
Kawlings and Others— Jo Tibbs Again— The Press—
" National Emporium "—Other Papers— First Physi-
cians of the City— Schools— Teachers and Their Sala-
ries, etc., etc .561

CHAPTER VIII.— Mound City— Its ( hurch History— Catho-
lic Church— The Methodists, etc.— Colored Churches-
Fires and the Losses whicli Hesultcd— Manufactories
— .Secret and Benevolent Societies— Something of the
Mercantile Business— Population of the City— Its
Officers and Government, etc 570

CHAPTER IX.— Election Precincts Aside from Mound City
—Boundaries, Topographical Features, etc.— Advent
of the White People and their .Settlements— How they
Lived— Progress of Churches and .Schools— Growth

and Development of the County..

PAET V.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

Cairo ; ::

Cairo- Extra 56a

Union County.— Anna Precinct .57

.Tone.sboro Precinct 92

Cobden Precinct 118

Alto Pass Precinct 153

Dongola Precinct 170

Meisenheimer Precinct 182

Stokes Precinct -jgo

Saratoga Precinct 197

Rich I'recinct 204

Union Precinct 209

Preston Precinct ojl

Mill Creek Precinct 212

Anna and Jonesboro — Extra 214

Alexander County.- Elco Precinct 218

Thebes Precinct 228

East Cape Girardeau Precinct 2;!.5

II n ity Precinct 239

Clear Creek Precinct 243

Santa F'e i'recinct 247

r.eeeh }£idge Precinct 249

Lake Millikin Precinct 2.50

CONTENTS.

PAGE.

PiT.AS^Ki County.— Mound City Precinct 251

Villa Ridge Precinct 282

Grand CJiain Precinct 298

Ohio Precinct ^^^

Wetaug Precinct ^^^

UUin Precinct 326

Pulaski Precinct 3^1

Burkville Precinct 3**

PORTRAITS.

Arter, I) ^^3

Casey, N. B 547

Casper, P. H 241

Clemson. .1. Y 9^

Pavie, Winstead 223

Endicott, G. \V • 529

Finch, E. H 151

Oaunt, J. W 259

(irear, John ■'''^^

PAGE.

Hambleton, W. L 565

Hess, John 1^'

Hight, W. A 511

Hileman, Jacob ^31

Hoftner,C ^ ^3

Hughes, M. L ;;••: 277

Leavenworth, E ^1

Mason, B. F ; 295

Meyer, G. F 205

Miller, Caleb ^l-^

Morris, James S ^''^

Paruily, John -157

Ros», B. F -103

Saflbrd, A. B 25

Sanborn, J. H 385

Scarsdale, F. E 169

Spencer, H. H US

Stokes, M 421

Toler, J. M 79

Wardner, H 367

Weaver, John 475

Williams, A. G 493

^^^

HISTOEY OF

EXANDER, UNION AND PULASKI

COUNTIES.

PART I.

HISTORY OF CAIRO,

BY H. C. BRADSBY.

CHAPTER I.

CITY OF CAIRO— THE FIRST STEAMBOAT ON WESTERN AVATERS— GREAT EARTHQUAKE OF 1811-

FIRST SETTLEMENT OF CAIRO— HOLBROOK'S SCHEMES— A MUSHROOM CITY AND

THE BUBBLE BURSTEU — EARLY NAVIGATION OF WESTERN

M. SHREVE, ETC., ETC.

RIVERS— CAPT. HENRY

"And leaves the world to solitude and me." — Gray.

THE earliest settlement of Cairo, on the
promontory of land formed by the junc-
tion of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, dates
back only sixty-six years ago. There are
persons yet living, not only who were born
then, but who can even remember events of
that time with distinctness. But these clear-
headed old people are nearly all gone, and
in a very few years there will be nothing left
us but the traditions of 1817, unless the pres-
ent opportunity is conserved, and the facts
placed in a permanen.t form while it is yet
possible to obtain them from those who not
only saw, but were a part of the long-ago
events that have led to the present changed
condition of affairs. The tooth of time eats
away the living evidences of what occurred
more than fifty years ago with unerring
swiftness.

The life of a nation or city, compared to
time, is but a breath, although it may sur-
vive generations and centurie.'?, and how in-
conceivably brief, then, is the longest space
of a single human life.

Man'rf nature is such that he is deeply
concerned in the movements of those who
have gone before him. Whether his fore-
fathers were wise or foolish, he wants to
learn all he can about them; to study their
customs, habits and general movements.
And while those are yet left who were par-
ticipants in the earliest gathering of a peo-
ple in any particular locality, it is easy
enough to sit down by the fireside and listen
to the story of the father«; of their trials,
their triumphs, their failiues, their ways of
thought and their genei'aj actions; but in a
moment, and before you have had time to re-
flect upon the loss, they are all gone, and the
places that knew them so well will know them
no more forever; and then it is the chronicler,
who puts in permanant form all these once
supposed trifling details, has performed an
invaluable, if not an imperishable, seivice.
The proper study of mankind is man. It is
the one inexhaustible fountain of real knowl-
edge ; and the " man" that is best studied is
your own immediate forefathers or predeces-
sors. To learn and know them well is to

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

know all you can learn of the human family.
To solve the complex problem of the human
race does not so much consist in trying to
study all the living and the dead, as in
mastering, in ^^o far as it is possible, the
chosen few.

Many thousands of years ago, preparations
first began to be made for a habitation for
man upon the very spot now occupied by the
city of Cairo. The uplift of the rocks that
formed the first dry laTi I upon the continent
in and about the Huron region had pro-
ceeded slowlv \.\ their southwesterly direc-
tion for a very long time. This was then a
part of the Gulf of Mexico, and it was slow
and very gradual the uplift went on, and the
waters of the Gulf receded south of the junc-
tion of the two rivers, and the Lower Missis-
sippi River began to form. From Freeport
southward, along the line of the Illinois Cen-
tral Railroad, there is a gi-adual descent to
the valley of the Big Muddy River, in Jack-
son County, where the level of the railroad
grade is only fifty-five feet above that of the
river at Cairo. At that point, there is a sud-
den rise of nearly seven hundred feet, the
only true mountain elevation in Illinois. It
runs entirely across the southei'u portion of
the State, finally crosses the Ohio, in the
vicinity of Shawneetown, and then is [lost
beneath the coal measures of Kentucky.
The forces beneath the surface made this up-
lift, and it is supposed by geologists that
this must have taken place before the Gulf
receded below the present junction of the
rivers.

Caii-o stands upon an alluviiun and drift of
about thirty feet in depth, and while it prob-
ably was many centi:vfies ingathering here so
as to rise above the face of the waters, yet it
has been here a comparatively long time, as
is evidenced by the immense trees of oak,
and walnut, and many others that do not

grow in swamps or grounds that more than
occasionally ovei'flow, and beneath these
great trees that have braved the storms of
hundreds of years has been found the re-
mains, deep in the soil, of other great forests
that had preceded the one found here by the
first discoverers. It takes the geological
seons to prepare the way for man's coming,
and man can only come when the prepara-
tions for his reception are complete.

Mr. Jacob Klein, the brick-maker of Cairo,
and who has carried on this business success-
fully the past nineteen years, determined
three years ago to try the experiment of get-
ting pure water by digging. He has sunk
three wells; the first was sixty-five feet deep
where it struck [a heavy bed of gravel and
promised an abundant supply of water, but
the very dry season of three years ago his
water supply was short. He then had the
second well sunk. This is 100 feet deep,
and, like the first, stopped in the gravel.
Not still satisfied, Mr. K. contracted for
the third Well, to be put down with a two
and a half inch pipe. The contract called
for a well 300 feet deep. The contractor
went down 206 feet and stopped, and then
IMi'. Klein took up the work himself and car-
ried it to 218 feet, when he struck the rock.
A bed of white clay was encountered, five feet
thick, resting upon the rock. Here, clearly,
was once the bed of the river. From the clay,
which is 213 feet below the surface, the strata
are coarse sand and seams of coarse gravel
until the alluvium of the surface is reached.
Mr. Klein reached an inexhaustible supply of
pure, soft water, which stands within fifteen
feet of, the siu-f ace at all seasons of the year,
I and for all pui'poses is as fine water as was
I ever found. It is described to be as soft as
! rain water and clear and cold, and is never
I affected by the stage of waters in ^the river.
It never flows during a long stage of high

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

water, as do the shallow wells when the town
begins tx) fill with sipe water, ^li-. Klein is
satisfied that fron^ten to twenty feet farther
do\^n, which will pass through the rock he
has now reached, will give him a flowing
artesian well, and this improvement he has
in contemplation of making the present or
next year. This is the first real effort ever
made here to get pure well water, and has
demonstrated* the fact that it is beneath us,
in inexhaustible quantities and of the very
best quality.

Without the attention being specially
called to the fact, there are very few people
who would! suppose that the white man had
come almost in what is a subui'b now of
Cairo, and built his fort and fought the
" redskins " one hundred and two years ago;
yet such is the fact. Fort Jefferson is one of
the favorite picnic i-esorts of the people of
Cairo. It is only six miles below here, and
across on the Kentucky shore. To the gay
party starting out for a festival day, it is but
little, if anything, more than merely cross-
ing the river into Kentucky to go to Fort
Jefferson. How many of all oui- people, es-
pecially the young, know, when they wander
about the place, that they are upon historic
ground? Let us tell them something of its
tragic story, and when they next stroll about
in its grateful shades and resting places, let
them look for the fast fading landmarks of
the old fort, and remember that Mrs. Capt.
Piggott and many other noble souls lie buried
there; and also let them recall the heroic
efforts of those, not only who died that ^we
might live, but of those who so heroically
struggled to drive back the red fiends.

This fort was erected by George Rogers
Clark, under the direction of Thomas Jeffer-
son, in 1781. Jefferson was then 'Governor
of Virginia, and, being advised the Spanish
Crown would attempt to set up a claim to

the country east of the Mississippi River,
he took this step to foil the design.

Immediately after the erection of the fort,
Clark was called away to the frontiers of
Kentucky, but was succeeded by Capt. J ames
Piggott.

Immigration to the fort was encouraged,
and several families settled at once in its
vicinity, and for a living proceeded to culti-
vate the soil. For a short time, the settle-
ment flourished. During 1781, however, the
Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians became ex-
ceedingly incensed at the encroachments of
the whites (their consent for the [erection of
the fort not having been obtained), and they
commenced an attack upon the settlers in the
neighboi'hood. The whole number of war-
riors belonging to these tribes at that time
was about twelve hundred, including the
celebrated Scotchman Calbert, whose pos-
terity figured as half-breeds. As soon as it
was decided an attack would be made upon
the fort by the Indians, a trusty messenger
was dispatched to the Falls of the Ohio for
further supplies of ammunition and provisions.

The settlement and fort were in great dis-
tress — at the point of starvation, indeed —
and succor could not be obtained short of the
Falls or Kaskaskia.

The Indians 'approached the settlement at
fii'st in small parties, and succeeded in kill-
ing a number of the settlers before they
could be moved to the fort. Half the people,
both in the fort and its vicinity, were help-
less from sickness, and the famine was so dis-
tressing that it is said pumpkins were eaten
as soon as the blossoms had fallen off the
vines. The Indians continued their mui'der-
ous visits in squads for about two weeks be-
fore the main army of " braves" reached the
fort. The soldiers aided and received into
the fort all the white population that could
be moved.

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

In the skirmishes to which we have al-
luded, a white man was taken prisoner by
the Indians, who, to save his life, exposed
the true state of the garrison. The infor-
mation seemed to add fury to the passions of
the savages.

After the arrival of the main body of the
savages, under Calbert, the fort was besieged
three days and nights. Dvu-ing this time, the
suffering and misery of the garrison were ex-
t'-emely great. The water had almost given
out; the river was falling rapidly, and the
water in the wells receded with the river.
The supply of provisions was qiiite exhausted,
and sickness raged to such an extent that a
veiy large number could not be moved from
their beds. The wife of Capt. Piggott and
several others died, and were bui'ied within
the walls of the fort while the savages were
besieging the outside. It seemed reduced to
a certainty, at this junctui'e, that, unless re-
lief came speedily, the garrison would fall
into the hands' of the Indians and be mur-
dered.

The white prisoner now in the hands of
the Indians detailed the true state of the
fort He told his captors that more than
half its inmates were sick, and that each man
had not more than three rounds of ammuni-
tion, and that the garrison was quite desti-
tute of water and provisions. On receiving
this information, the whole Indian army re-
tired about two miles to hold a council. In
a few hours, Calbert and three chiefs, with
a flag of truce, were sent back to the fort.

When the inmates of the fort discovered
the flag, they sent out Capt. Piggott, Mr.
Owens and another man, to meet the Indian
delegation. The parley was conducted under
the range of the guns of the garrison.

Calbert demanded a surrender of the fort
at discretion, urging that the Indians knew
its weak condition, and that an unconditional

surrender might save much bloodshed. He
further said that he had sent a force of war-
riors up the Ohio, to intercept the succor for
which the whites had sent a messenger. He
gave the assurance that he would do his best
to save the lives of the prisoners, except in
the case of a few whom the Indians had
sworn to butcher. He gave the garrison one
hour to form a conclusion.

The delegates from the whites promised
that if the Indians would leave the country,
the inmates of the fort would abandon it with
all haste. Calbert'agreed to submit this prop-
osition to the council, and was at the point
of returning when a Mr. Music, whose fam-
ily had been cruelly murdered, and another
man at the fort, fired upon him and wounded
him somewhat severely,

The warriors were engaged a long time in
council, and, by almost a seeming interposi-
tion of Providence, the long- wished- for suc-
cor arrived during the time in safety from
the "Falls." The Indians had struck the
river too high up, and thereby the boat es-
caped The provisions and men were hui-ried
into the iort, a new spirit seemed to possess
every one, and active exertions were at once
made to place the fort in position for a stcut
resistance. The sick and the small children
were placed beyond the reach of harm, and
all the women and the 'children of any con-
siderable size were instructed in the art of
defense.

Shortly after dark, the Indians attempted
to steal on the fort and capture it; but in
this being most decidedly frustrated, they
assaulted the garrison and tried to storm it.
The cannon had been placed in proper posi-
tion to rake the walls, so when the " red-
skins " mounted the ramparts, the ^cannon
swept them off in heaps. The Indians, with
hideous yells, and loud and savage demon-
strations, kept up a streaming fii'e from their

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

rifles upon the garrison, which, however, did
but little execution. In this manner the bat-
tle raged for hours; but at last the Indians
were forced to fly fi-om the deadly cannon of
the fort to save themselves from destruction.
Calbert and other chiefs rallied them again,
but the same result followed; they were
again forced to fly, and all further efforts to
rally them proved ineffectual.

The whites were in constant fear that the
fort would be fired by the Indians. This,
indeed, was their gi-eatest fear. At one time
a huge savage, painted for the occasion,
gained the top of one of the block-hoiises and
was applying fire to the roof, when he was
shot dead by a white soldier. His body fell
on the outside of the wall, and was can-ied
off by his comi-ades.

The Indians, satisfied they could not capt-
ure the fort, abandoned the siege entirely,
and, securing their dead and wounded, left
the country. A large number of them had
been killed and wounded, while none of the
whites had been killed, and only a few
wounded. The whites were 'rejoiced at this
turn in affairs, as the number of Indians,
and their ability to continue the siege, were
calculated to terrify them.

AVith all convenient speed, the fort was
abandoned. Many of the soldiers, together
with settlers who had taken refuge in the
fort, moved to Kaskaskia. They proved the
first considerable acquisition of American
population in Illinois. Since then, Fort Jef-
ferson has remained abandoned, and is now
but marked by here and there certain shape-
less moiuids and piles of debris that are in-
distinguishable unless pointed out to the
stranger. But this spot will ever retain a
great interest to Americans, at least as long
as the struggles and privations of those who
pioneered the valley of the Mississippi retain
a place in the memory of the American people.

While it is true that this first attempt of the
white men to make a habitation and a home
within the immediate neighborhood of Cairo
was abandoned and the people dispersed, the
most of them coming to Illinois and making
their homes in Kaskaskia, it was not wholly
a failure in behalf of civilization. The little
band, as brave and true heroes as ever fought
upon the immortal fields of Thermopylae,
had accomplished a great purpose — they had
withstood the murderous midnight attack of
the bloody, yelling fiends and drove them
off. They taught him a bloody lesson, yet
that is the only school a savage will learn in.
This siege and battle were the first great step
in making the shores of these rivers habit-
able, and even though the fort was dismantled
and abandoned, it is quite true it taught the
savage to respect the power of the white
man. It was not a long time after this de-
ciding battle that we find the white man in
his flat-boats, and soon in his keel-boats, in a
small way commencing to carry on that great
commerce that has since so filled the rivers,
and dotted their shores with the pleasing evi-
dences of civilization. This commerce of
the flat-boat, the keel boat and the pirogue,
continued to slowly increase and perform the
scanty commerce of the day, until finally the
steamboat ^ came, bearing upon its decks the
great human revolution, that stands un-
equaled in importance, and that will go on
in its gi-eat effects forevei'.

In 1795, William Bird, then a mere child,
in company with his father's family, landed
at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi
Rivers. This family remained here only a
short time, and then went to Cape Girardeau,
where they resided, and in 1817 William
Bird applied at the land office in Kaskaskia
and entered the land mentioned in another
part of this chapter. This family were the
first white people, so far as can be now as-

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

certained, that "ever put foot upon the spot
now called Cairo.

December 18, 1811. — The anniversary of
this day the people of Cairo and its vicinity
should never forget. It was the coming of
the first steamboat to where Cairo now is —
the New Orleans, Capt. Roosevelt, Command-
ing. It was the severest day of the great
throes of the New Madrid earthquake; at the
same time, a fiery comet was rushing athwart
the horizon.

In the year 1809, Robert Fulton and Chan-
cellor Livingston had commenced their im-
mortal experiments to navigate by steam the
Hudson River. As soon as this experiment
was crowned with success, they turned their
eyes toward these great Western water-ways.
They saw that here was the greatest inland
sea in all the world, but did they, think you,
prolong their vision 'to the present time, and
realize a tithe of the possibilities they were
giving to the world ? They unrolled the map
of this continent, and they sent Capt. Roose-
velt to Pittsburgh, to go over the river from
there to New Orleans, and report whether they
could be navigated or not. He made the in-
spection, and his favorable report resulted in
the immediate construction of the steamer
New Orleans, which was launched in Pitts-
burgh in December, 1811.

Could Capt. Roosevelt now come to us in
his natural life, and call the good people of
Cairo together and relate his experiences of
the day he passed where Cairo now stands,
it would be a story transcending, in thrilling
interest, anything ever listened to by any now
living. All fiction ever conceived by busy
brains would be tame by the side of his truth-
ful narrative. His boat passed out of the
Ohio River and into the Mississippi River
in the very midst of that most remarkable
convulsion of nature ever known — the great
New Madrid earthquake. As the boat came

down the Ohio River, it had moored opposite
Yellow Banks to coal, this having been pro-
vided some time previously, and, while load-
ing this on, the voyagers were approached by
the squatters of the neighborhood, who in-
quired if they had not heard strange noises
on the river and in the woods in the course
of the preceding day, and perceived the
shores shake, insisting they had repeatedly
felt the earth tremble. The weather was very
hot; the air misty, still and dull, and though
the sun was visible, like an immense glowing
ball of copper, his rays hardly shed more
than a mournful twilight on the surface of
the water. Evening di'ew nigh, and with
it some indications of what was passing
around them became evident, for ever and
anon they heard a rushing sound, violent
splash, and finally saw large portions of the
shore tearing away from the land and laps-
ing into the watery abyss. An eye-witness
says: " It was a startling scene — one could
have heard a pin drop on deck. The crew
spoke but little; they noticed, too, that the
comet, for some time visible in the heavens,
had suddenly disappeared, and every one on
board was thunderstruck."

The next day the portentous signs of this
terrible natural convulsion increased. The
trees that remained on shore were seen wav-
ing and nodding without a wind. The voy-
agers had no choice but to pursue their course
down the stream, as all day this violence
seemed only to increase. They had usually
brought to, under the shore, but at all points
they saw the high banks disappearing, over-
whelming everything near or under them,
particularly |many of the siuall craft that
were in use in those days, carrying down to
death many and ;many who had thus gone to
shore in the hope of escaping. A large island
in mid-channel, which had been selected
by the pilot as the better alternative, was

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

sought for in vain, having totally disap-
peared, and thousands of acres, constituting
the surrounding country, were found to have
been swallowed up, with their gigantic
growths of forest and cane.

Thus, in doubt and terror, they proceeded
hour after hour until dark, when they
found a small island, and rounded to, moor-
ing at the foot of it Here they lay, keeping
watch on deck dm'ing the long night, listen-
ing to the sound of waters which roared and
whirled wildly around them, hearing, also,
from time to time, the rushing earth slide
from the shore, and the commotion of the
falling mass as it became engulfed in the
river. Thus, this boat, during the intensity
of the earthquake, was moored almost in
sight of Cairo; practically, it was at Cairo
during the worst of the thi-ee worst nights.

Yet the day that succeeded this awful night
brought no solace in its dawn. Shock fol-
lowed shock, a dense black cloud of vapor
overshadowed the land, through which no sun-
beam found its way to cheer the desponding
heart of man. It seems incredible to us that
the bed of the river could be so agitated as to
lash the waters into yeasty foam, until the
foam would gather in great bodies, said to
be larger than floiir barrels, and float away.
Again, it is still more incredible to be told
that the waters of the two rivers were turned
back upon themselves in swift streams, but
these, and much more, are well-established
facts. It is impossible now to depict all the
wonderful phenomena of this world's won-
der. There were wave motions, and perpen-
dicular motions of the earth's surface, and
there were, judging from eftects, as well as
testimony of those who witnessed it, sudden
risings and bursting of the earth's crust, from
whence would shoot into the air many feet
jets of water, sand and black shale.

Just below New Madrid, a flat-boat belong-

ing to Eichard Stump was swamped, and six
men were drowned. Large trees disappeared
under the ground, or were cast with fright-
ful violence into the river. At times the
waters of the river were seen to rise like a
wall in the middle of the stream, and then
suddenly rolling back, would beat against
either bank with terrific force. Boats of con-
siderable size were " high and dry" upon the
shores of the river. Frequently a loud roar-
ing and hissing were heard, like the escape
of steam from a boiler. The air was impreg-
nated with sulphurous effluvium, and a taste
of sulphur was observed in the water of the
river and the neighboring springs. Each
shock was accompanied by what seemed to be
the reports of heavy artillery. A man who
was on the river in a boat at the time of one
of the shocks declared that he saw the mighty
Mississippi cut in twain, while the waters
poured down a vast chasm into the bowels of
the earth. A moment more and the chasm
was tilled, but the boat which contained this
witness was crushed in the tumultuous
effort of the flood to regain its former level.
The town of New Madrid, that had stood upon
a blufif fifteen or twenty feet above the high-
est water, sank so low, that the next rise of
the water covered it to the depth of five feet.
So far as can now be ascertained, but one
person has put upon record his observations
who saw it upon land. This was Mr. Bring-
•ier, an engineer, who related what he saw
to Sir Charles Lyell, in 1846. This account
represents that he was on horseback near
New Madrid, when some of the severest
shocks occurred, and that, as the waves ad-
vanced, he saw the trees bend down, and
often, the instant afterward, when in the act
of recovering their position, meet the boughs
of other trees similarly inclined, so as to be-
come interlocked, being prevented from
rio-hting themselves again. The transit of the

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

waves through the woods was marked by the
crashing noise of countless branches, first
heard on one side and then the other; at the
same time, powerful jets of water, mixed
with sand, loam, and bituminous shale, were
cast up with such impetuosity that both
horse and rider might have perished had the
swelling and upheaving ground happened to
burst immediately beneath them. Some of
the shocks were perpendicular, while others,
much more desolating, were horizontal, or
moved along like great waves; and where the
principal fountains of mud and water were
throwD up, circular cavities, called "sink
holes," were formed. One of the lakes thus
formed is over sixty miles long and from
three to twenty miles wide, and in places
fifty to one hundred feet deep. In sailing
over the sui'face of this lake, one is struck
with astonishment at beholding the gigantic
trees of the forest standing partially exposed
amid the waste of waters, like gaunt, mysteri-
ous monsters; but this mystery is still in-
creased on casting the eye into the depths,
to witness cane-brakes covering its bottom,
over which a mammoth species of tortoise is
sometimes seen dragging its slow length
along, while millions of fish sport through
the aquatic thickets — the whole constituting
one of the remarkable features of American
scenery.

In that part of the country that borders
upon what is called the "sunk country" — that
is, depressions upon which lakesdidnot form
— all the trees prioi: to the date of the'great
earthquake are dead. Their leafless, barkless,
and finally branchless bodies stood for many
years as noticeable objects and monuments of
the earth's agitation, that was to that terrific
extent as to break them and wholly loosen
from them the supporting soil.

As before stated, the severest shocks were
the first three days, but they lasted for thi-ee

months. In many sections, the people dis-
covered the opening seams ran generally in
a parallel course, and they took advantage of
this by felling trees at right angles, and in
severe shocks even the children learned to
cling upon these, and thus many were saved.

Were we wrong in stating that the coming
of the first steamboat to Cairo was a most
memorable event?

Such, indeed, faintly described, were some
of the smToundings amid which the steamer
New Orleans rode out of the troubled waters
of the Ohio and into the yet worse troubled
waters of the Mississippi Siver. It was
natiu'e's grandest exhibition. It was the
coming of the first steamboat in such awful
surroundings that made such a strange meet-
ing of the excited energies of nature and a
human thought — a silent thought of man's
brain fashioned into a steam engine, propel-
ling a boat by this new idea upon the West-
ern waters! What grandeur, and awful force
and terror in the one, and, compared to it
how feeble and insignificant the human prod-
uct! How one, in its terrific grandeur, could
change the whole face of our country in a
moment, and make the feeble steamboat ap-
pear as insignificant as the cork upon the
storm-tossed ocean. A strange meeting of
the two — those two things in the world which
are so misread, and have been so long mis-
understood by men! When nature puts on
her suit of riot and force and begins the
play of those fantastic tricks, men's souls
are affrighted, and they fall upon their knees
— rthose, often, who never did so before — and
their feeble voices of supplication would ap-
pease the storm or stop the earth's throes.
The unusual display of the forces of nature
appal men, and they worship what they con-
ceive to be irresistible power. Hence, a
country of earthquakes, tornadoes, cyclones
and storms is very religious, and generally

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

full of superstition. A couDtry where lurks
danger and perils upon every hand unseen —
dangers that accumulate like the horrors of
the nightmare — will produce in the human
mind little else than superstition and quak-
ing fears; the horrible di'ead ingulfs them
like a living hell, till the very soul responds
to the hideous surroundings. Man is so con-
stituted, he will bow down and worship what
he fears, especially when it is an unseen, re-
sistless power, displayed in such appalling
force as to enfeeble and dwarf his intellect.

The ignorant squatters along the river —
that is, some of them — had only known that
the first steamboat and the great eai'thquake
had come here together. It was firmly be-
lieved that it was this flying in the face of
God, and making a boat run with " bilin'
water," that caused the earthquake. " Pre-
sumptuous man had boiled the water, when,
if God had wanted it to boil, he would have
so made it. " People had navigated the river
in flat-boats, keel-boats and canoes, and under
these the glad rivers went singing to the sea.
But Jman must come with his fire boat, and
the earth went into convulsions, and ten'or
and desolation brooded over the land. God
was mysterious, and man presumptuous.
The earth indeed trembled when He frowned,
and man must learn to be meek and humble;
he was but as the grass that was mowed down
by the scythe — a breath, a passing vapor.

But even the less ignorant of men — could
he comprehend that in this boat was a great
human thought, a wonderful invention of
man? He could see the weak hands of men
guiding and controlling it. It's a mere toy
and child's play, and he looks at it a moment
in childish curiosity, perhaps smiles ap-
provingly upon it. It's all a momentary
pastime with him. It's too feeble to do more
than receive a passing notice.

Think of it! The thoughts and inventions
of genius are the one only powerful thing
among men — they and their effects alone
endure forever. All else passes away and is
forgotten. In a little while, only the' traces
of the great'earthquake, even, can be found
and pointed out, while the steam engine has
been the first, the great power that has done
more for civilization and human advancement
in the past fifty years than all else combined.
From this one feeble, imperfect boat has
come the world's Armada, that now plows
the waves of every river and sea, until the
busy world upon the waters and its wealth
of nations almost equals that upon land. It
is ever present — ever living — ever growing
in might, power and the welfare of the whole
human family. The earthquake, in its efifects
upon mankind, compared to the engine, was
as the mote to a world — a di-op of water com-
pared to the ocean. No one thing in the his-
tory of the human family has so contributed to
the good of the human race, as the engine be-
cause it opened the way and made possible the
sweeping advance of the past three-quarters of
a century. Remember, since the engine came,
the average of human life has been increased
ten years; man knows now, where he guessed
and feared before. In no century, in all the
world's history, has civilization made such
great strides forward as this. It made possible
all those comforts and necessities we now en-
joy. It has lightened the laboi's and burdens of
men, and given the mind a chance to work. It
has cheapened food, clothing, books and in-
telligence itself, and is gathering momentum
as it goes. "Who may guess, who may dream
of the ^'et benign and good effects to man
that lay hidden in that gi-and and sublime
thought of Fulton's that gave us the power
of steam ?

Then, indeed, what a great, what an im-

HISTOKY OF CAIRO.

mortal thing, was the first steamboat upon
the Western waters! What a temporary
thing was the earthquake that received it!

Had the 18th day of December, 1811, only
been signaled by any one of the three events
above referred to, it would have constituted
it a memoi'able day. But the wonderful com-
bination of events makes it out most prom-
inently in the calendar, as a day calling up
the most vivid and important recollections of
any other in the country's history. Suitable
monuments along the river from Pittsburgh
to New Orleans should be placed sacred to
the memory of Capt. Roosevelt.

As soon as the steamboat New Orleans had
made its successful trip from Pittsburgh to
New Orleans and return, the commerce of
the Western waters really began to grow, and
although it was six years after this success-
ful steam voyage on the Ohio before a steam-
boat attempted the waters of the Upper Mis-
sissippi as far as St. Louis, yet Cairo soon
began to attract the attention of river and
commercial men as an important trans-ship-
ping point.

The steamboat Orleans was furnished
with a propelling wheel at the stern and two
masts; for Fulton believed, at that time,|,that
the occasional use of sails would be indis-
pensable. Her capacity was a hundred tons.

The first appearance of this steamboat
upon Western waters produced, as the reader
may suppose, not a little excitement and
admiration. A steamboat, to common observ-
ers, was almost as great a wonder as a flying
angel would be at present. The banks of
the river, in some places, were thronged with
spectators, gazing, in speechless astonish-
ment, at the puffing and smoking phenome-
non. The average speed of this boat was
only about three miles per hour. Before her
ability to move through the water without
the aid of sails or oars had been exemplified,

comparatively few persons believed she could
possibly be made to answer any purpose of
real utility. In fact, she had made several
voyages before the general prejudice began
to subside, and for some months many of the
river merchants preferred the old mode of
transportation with all its risks, delays and
extra expense, rather than make use of such
a contrivance as a steamboat, which, to their
apprehensions, appeared too marvelous and
miraculous for the business of every-dav life.
How slow are the masses of mankind to
adopt improvements, even when they appear
to be most obvious and unquestionable!

The second steamboat of the West wars a
diminutive vessel called the Comet. She was
rated at twenty-five tons. Daniel D. Smith
was the owner and D. French the builder of
this boat. Her machinery was on a plan for
which French had obtained a patent in 1809.
She went to Louisville in the summer of

1813, and descended to New Orleans in the
spring of 1814 She afterward made two
voyages to Natchez, and was then sold, taken
to pieces, and the engine was put up in a
cotton factory.

The Vesuvius was the next boat in the
record. She was built by Fulton in Pitts-
burgh, for a company, the members of which
resided in New York, Philadelphia and New
Orleans. She was under Capt. Frank Ogden,
and went to New Orleans in the spring of

1814. From New Orleans, she started for
Louisville in July of the same year, but was
grounded on a bar, seven hundred miles up
the river, where she remained until the 3d
of December following, when, being floated
off by the tide, she returned to New Or-
leans. In 1815-16, she made trips, for sev-
eral months, from New Orleans to Natchez,
under the command of Capt. Clement.
This gentleman was succeeded by Capt,
John De Hart, and while approaching New

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

Orleans with a valuable cargo on board, she
took fire and burned to the water's edge.
After being submerged several months, the
hull was raised and refitted. She was after-
ward in the Louisville trade, and condemned
in 1819.

The Enterprise was the next boat in the
West. She was built at Brownsville, Penn.,
by D. French, under his patent, and was
owned by several residents of that place.
This was a small boat of seventy-five tons.
She made two voyages to Louisville in 1814,
under the command of Capt. J. Gregg. On
the 1st of December in the same year, she con-
veyed a cai'go of ordnance stores from Pitts-
burgh to New Orleans. While at the last-
named port, she was pressed into seiwice by
Gen. Jackson. When engaged in the public
service, she was eminently useful in trans-
porting troops, arms, ammunition and stores
to the seat of war. She left New Orleans for
Pittsburgh on the 6th of May, 1815, and
reached Louisville after a passage of twenty-
five days, thus completing the fii'st steam-
boat voyage ever made from New Orleans to
Louisville. But from the fact that the
waters were very high, and she run all the
cut-offs and over fields, etc., this experi-
mental trip was not satisfactory, the public
being still in doubt whether a steamboat
could ascend the Mississippi when the river
was confined within its banks, and the cur-
rent as rapid as it generally is.

Such was the state of public opinion when
the steamboat Washington commenced her
career. This vessel, the fifth in the cata-
logue of Western steamboats, was constructed
under the personal superintendence and
direction of Capt. Henry M. Shreve. The
hull was built at Wheeling, Va., and the
engines were made at Brownsville, Penn.
The entire construction of the boat couiprised
various innovations, which were

suggested

by the ingenuity and experience of Capt.
Shreve. The Washington was the first "two
decker" on the Western waters. The cabin
was placed between the decks. It had
been the general practice for steamboats to
carry their engines in the hold; in this par-
ticular Capt. Shreve made a new arrange-
ment, by placing the boiler of the Washing-
ton on deck, and this plan was such an ob-
vious improvement that all the steamboats
on the waters retain it to the present day.
The engines constructed under Fulton's pat-
ent had upright and stationary cylinders; in
French's engines vibrating cylinders were
used. Shreve caused the cylinders of the
Washington to be placed in a horizontal
position, and gave the vibrations to the pit-
man, Fulton and French used single low-
pressure engines; Shreve employed a double
high-pressure engine, with cranks at right
angles, and this was the first engine of that
kind ever used on the Western waters. Mr.
David Prentice had previously used cam
wheels for working the valves of the cylinder.
Capt Shi'evo added his great invention of
the cam cut-off, with flues to the boilers, by
which three-fifths of the fuel was saved.
These impr vements originated with Capt,
Shreve, but although they have been in uni-
versal use for a long [time, their origin has
not been properly credited to the rightful
inventor.

On the 24th day of September, 1816, the
Washington passed over the Falls of Ohio on
her first trip to New Orleans, and returned to
Louisville November following. While at
New Orleans, the ingenuity of her construc-
tion excited the admiration of the most in-
telligent citizens of that place. Edward
Livingston, after a critical examination of
the boat and her machinery, remarked to Capt.
Shi'eve, "You deserve well of your country,
young man; but we [referring to Fulton

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

and Livingston's monopoly] shall be com-
pelled to beat you [in the courts] if we can."

An accumulation of ice in the Ohio com-
pelled the Washington to remain at the
Falls until March 12, 1817. On that day she
commenced her second trip to New Orleans.
She accomplished this trip and returned to
Shippingsport, at the foot of the Falls, in
forty-one days. The ascending voyage was
made in twenty-five days, and from this voy-
age all historians date the commencement of
steam navigation in the Mississippi Valley.
It was now practically demonstrated, to the
satisfaction of the public in general, that
steamboats could ascend this river in less
than one-fourth the time which the bai'ges
and keel boats had required for the same
purpose. This feat of the Washington pro-
duced almost as much popular excitement
and exultation in that region as the battle of
New Orleans. The citizens of Louisville
gave a public dinner to Capt. Shreve, at
which he predicted the time would come
when the trip from New Orleans to Louis-
ville would be made in ten days. Although
this may have been regarded as a boastful
declaration at that time, the prediction has
been more than fulfilled; for as early as
1853, the trip was made in four days and
nine hours.

After that memorable voyage of the Wash-
ington, all doubts and prejudices in reference
to steam navigation were removed. Shipyards
began to be established in every convenient lo-
cality, and the business of steamboat build-
ing was vigorously prosecuted. But a new
obstacle now presented itself, which for a
time threatened to give an effectual check
to the spirit of enterprise and progression
which had just been developed. We refer to
the claims made by Fulton and Livingston
to the exclusive right of steam navigation on
the rivers of the United States. This claim

being resisted by Capt. Shreve, the Washing-
ton was attached at New Orleans, and taken
possession of by the Sheriff. When the case
came for adjudication before the District
Court of Louisiana, that tribunal promptly
negatived the exclusive privileges claimed
by Livingston and Fulton, which were decided
to be unconstitutional. The monopoly claims
of L. and F. were finally withdrawn in 1819,
and the last restraint on the steamboat
navigation of the Western rivers was thus
removed, leaving AVestern enterprise and
energy full liberty to carry on the great work
of improvement. This work has been so
progressive, that at one time no less than 800
steamboats were in operation on the Ohio and
Mississippi Rivers; and here this mode of
navigation has been carried on to a degree
of perfection unrivaled in any other part of
the world.

In the year 1818, William Bird, now de-
ceased, entered the extreme point of land on
the peninsula formed by the junction of the
two rivers, and known in the Congressional
Survey as the southeast quarter of Section
25, and all of Fractional Section 36, the two
tracts aggi'egating about three hundred and
sixty acres; but for some years the land lay
unimproved and neglected. From this
ownership by Mr. Bird, the locality took the
name of Bird's Point, by which name it was
designated for nearly twenty years.

Shortly after Bird's entry, a company was
formed, at the head of which was a man
named Comegys, and apparently in good
faith set about the work of building a city
here that should anticipate the wants of
men and commerce for all time to come.
They obtained a charter for that purpose,
under the name and style of the "City and
Bank Company of Cairo." This company
foresaw the Illinois Central Eailroad, and
here, so far as the facts can now be gathered,

HISTOKY OF CAIRO.

was the first tangible idea of this great rail-
road put forth to the world. There was no
Chicago then to build a road to; there was
little or nothing in the central or northern
portion of the State demanding highway
privileges and commercial rights, and yet
the idea was formulated that, in the course of
time, was worked out to h most successful issue.
The particulars of this corporation, and its
struggles and its end, are given in another
chapter. Sufficient to say here, that the com-
pany ceased to exist, and had left untouched
the great old forest trees that covered the
town site when first discovered. This first
failure had hardly attracted any public at-
tention to Cairo. The majority who had
come to know the country believed that a
city would arise somewhere here on the pen-
insula, but they were mostly convinced that
it must be built back upon the hills, and not
upon the point that all could see was subject
to frequent inundations. Henry L. Webb
and a few others, therefore, had started, as
far back as 1817, the town of Trinity, at the
mouth of Cache River, six miles above Cairo,
on the Ohio River. This had grown to be a
steamboat landing, and in very early times
the place could boast a boat store, a tavern, a
bar and a billiard soloon, but for ten years
after this first abortive attempt to settle,
" the smoke of no adventurer's hovel gave
gloom to Cairo's canopy," and the unbroken
silence remained with the " neck of the
woods," where the future Cairo was to be.

In 1828, John and Thompson Bird, the
sons of William Bird, made the first improve-
ment here. They selected the spot a few
hundred 'feet south of the present Halliday
House, and, bringing their slaves over from
Missouri, threw up a sufficient embankment
to protect a building which they erected
about twenty-five by thirty-five feet in
dimensions, and in a short time after the^

erected another building, between this and
the river, which was about twenty feet
square, and was placed on piles, as a security
against the water. The first building was a
tavern, and the latter a store, and for several
years it was only the chance flat- boatman that
circumstances compelled to land here and
get a few supplies for his crew that fur-
nished customers to these Alexander Selkirks.
Bacon, whisky and flour were the only com-
modities wanted by any of the customers of
those days. The next season after the Birds
had taken possession, a wood-chopper put up
a shanty near their imjuovement, and in this
he lived and chopped wood, and piled it on
the bank, waiting for some boat to come
along and want it. The wood-chopper made
a very little impression on the big trees
around him, and the Birds had only a small
spot cleared and cleaned off, so as to have a
little breathing room, as well as a place to
receive and pass out the goods they handled.
In 1831, only about five acres had been cut
away, and this lay in a narrow strip along
the banks of the Ohio, and extended no
fui'ther north than to about where is now
Second street. Until 1835, Trinity continued
to be the commanding and promising point.
In this year, Messrs. Breese, Swanwick,
Baker, Gilbert and others began to give the
point their open attention, and they entered
several thousand acres of land, including all
that portion between the two rivers up to
and beyond Cache River. They had in view
the future possibilities of the place as a point
for a city, but having secvu'ed the land, mat-
ters remained quiet for some time. The next
step taken was on the IGth day of January,
1830, when a charter was granted a com-
pany, by the Illinois Legislature, to build
the Illinois Central Railroad.

February 27, 1837. the State of Illinois
passed the General Improvement Bill — better

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

known to the immediate posterity of these
early statesmen as the General Insanity Bill
— which resulted in a wide-spread bankruptcy,
and seriously threatened, at one time, to ruin
the State for nearly all time to come. This
State scheme df making all the improvements
swallowed up all charters that had been
granted to private parties, and, among the
others, the charter for the construction of th6
Illinois Central Railroad; and, as a specimen
of what aji insane State could do, the
Legislatui'e appropriated (not having a dol-
lar, it seems, in the treasury) $3,500,000 for
the building of this last-named road.

On the 4th day of March, 1S37, the Cairo
City & Canal Company was chartered by
the Illinois Legislature. This was the final
act and organization that led to founding a
city here, and of the charter and laws and the
official acts of the company, and their
failures, etc. , we refer the reader to another
chapter, where these matters are given in
their order and at length.

This company purchased, on credit, vast
bodies of land, including the Bird tract, and
pretty much all lands on the peninsula, to
and beyond Cache River. The master-spirit
of the enterprise, as soon as it was success-
fully started, was Darius B. Holbrook, of
Boston. The company, apparently, cared
not what price it agreed to pay for the land;
so the title was secured, that seemed enough.
The daring, and doubtless unscrupulous,
leader of this company, even in those days of
little money and natural economy, seemed to
talk and think of money in sums of never
less than millions. He expected to borrow
immense sums, and stake these over-bar-
gained lands as the security for the vast
amount of money wherewith to improve the
lands and build the city; and, remarkable as
it may be, did so borrow money, and had
arranged for it to be advanced by the million,

sure enough. While such success shows
there must have been method in his madness,
yet his whole idea, after he had secured the
money, was a piece of madcap folly. When
he found it possible to find other men to
furnish the money for him to expend, he was
at once seized with the idea that, with money
enough, he could build a great city, and the
whole thing, when completed, would be as
much of a private piece of property as would be
a large factory, steam mill, or, for that matter,
a block of private residences. His theory
was to se] 1 no property about the town, except
the bonds and stocks. No one could buy a
lot and build upon it and own it. You could
not buy an inch of the city grounds; but you
could buy the bonds, and, upon this insane
idea, he went to Europe and hypothecated
the city bonds to the amount of more than
$2,000,000, and returned to Cairo with the
first installment of this money, and com-
menced the stupendous work upon a stupen-
dous scale. The only parallel to the vast
scheme was the State's craze on the internal
improvement folly. It is amusing to conjec-
ture what Holbrook would have done had he
been backed by a limitless supply of money.
He evidently would have left some wrecks
here, the like of which the world had never
seen, while his cold, selfish, Yankee instincts
would have made a heavy per cent of all the
money that passed through his hands stick
in his fingers. Thus, iu the end, he would
have grown immensely rich; but it is not at
all certain he ever would have erected a town
here.

When he roturned from Europe, he issued
a flaming address — a kind of open letter ad-
dressed to all the world — full of as much
fulsome nonsense and after the style of Na-
poleon's address to his soldiers. It can only
be guessed why he issued these flaming ad-
dresses. He was not seeking purchasers for

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

his town property, for he had nothing to sell,
and the addresses were not got up to draw
renters. The only excuse there can be for
their existence was to brag on himself, and,
in the common slang, "blow his own horn."

If Cairo has had any parallel, either in its
commencement or in much that has occurred
in its history during its progress, we are not
aware of it. Its very first building was a
tavern, its second a store, and then came the
first natural growth — the woodman' s shanty.
Then the next effort was to found a city by
starting a wild-cat bank, and then came Hoi-
brook and his idea of a city and the inhabitants
all stockholders, while he and his company
were the real owners. But Holbrook was at
least in earnest about the building of levees
around the town, to keep out the water. As
soon as be secm-ed the money, he made con-
tracts with S. & H. Howard, J. H. McMurry,
Murphy and others, and these contractors
brought on laborei's here in large numbers.
Many of these brought their families, and,
in hastily constructed shanties and huts, they
went to living, "keeping boarders," and put-
ting on those airs which belong to a city that
has grown in a night. Mr. Walter Falls had
a store on a boat, moored at the levee, but its
capacity for furnishing supplies was wholly
inadequate, and passing boats were called
upon to help fm'nish the people with some of
the necessaries of life. The State also threw
a large number of men here to work on the
Illinois Central Railroad, so that the demand
for flour, bacon and coffee was still increased
to that extent that often loaded flat-boats
would stop here, and sell out the cargoes
they had intended for farther south.

A population reaching 2.000 souls were
thus thrown suddeuly together, and affairs
had much the appearance of one of those
mining towns that jump into existence so
suddenly, and sometimes seem to jump out

quite as quickly. But the people believed
everything was permanent; they, therefore,
proceeded in due form to organize a regular
form of government, and appoint the neces-
sary officers to carry out its edicts. As Jus-
tices of the Peace, Mr. Mai'sh and ]Mr. Mc-
Cord were chosen, and two lawyers decorated
a couple of shanty doors with their shin-
gles; these were Mr. Gass (good legal name)
and a JNIr. McCrillis. A post office was at
once established, and Squire Marsh was ap-
pointed Postmaster. In addition to being
Postmaster, he had to receive and forward all
mails, and in a short time this task was
worth three or foiu* times the whole salary of
the office. A Dr. Cummings hung out his
banner on the outer walls, and called the sick
and afflicted to come to him for quinine and
calomel. The Catholic element, mindful of
their religious obligations, set about the prep-
aration of a place for the public worship
of God. As they were limited alike in means
and building materials, and as they desired
to siibserve only a temporary purpose, they
satisfied themselves with a rough, board-
roofed shanty in the depths of the convenient
woods. In the forks of one of the trees over-
shadowing their unpretending chvu'ch build-
ing, they suspended a bell, and this, every
Sunday morning and evening, rang out
through the deep woods and over the face of
the suiTounding waters the call of " Come,
and let us worship." • Such was the first
organization of municipal, governmental and
church matters in Cairo, as well as the first
lawA'ers. and the first doctor and the first
people. Such was the young city at the
commencemeut of the year 1841. At this
time, the firm of Bellews, Hathaway & Gil-
bert secui'ed a charter for iron works, and
they opened their establishment. It was filled
with all the finest machinery that could be
procured in England. At the time, it ranked

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

among the completest establishments of its
kind in the United States, and as it was run
to its fullest capacity, it gave Jabor to a large
force of men. These works were erected about
where is now the corner of Twelfth street and
the Ohio levee. Near the iron works were
two large saw mills, of great capacity each,
and they were busily at work converting the
big trees of the adjacent forest into lumber
for building jDurposes and railroad timbers.
The company had revived the old City Bank
of Cairo — a bank of issue, and, by law, was
temporarily located at Kaskaskia, and this
money was scattered profusely about the
town. By some favored arrangement, the
money of this wild-cat bank was taken at the
Kaskaskia Land Office, while much better
money from Indiana and Ohio was refused
there. The company had erected a long
frame hotel at the point— its great length,
and its verandas extending fi'om one end to
the other, all painted white, made it a con-
spicuous landmark in approaching Cairo. Its
landlord was a man named Jones, and in
these flush times it was at all times thronged
with the chief men of the town and travelers
awaiting the arrival and departure of boats
to carry them on their intended way. A
planing mill of mammoth proportions was
erected near the corner of Eighth and Com-
mercial streets. Two brick-yards, each sup-
plied with the latest patents for turning out
brick by the many thousand daily, from diy,
compressed earth, were erected. These were
then located in what is called Upper Cairo.
The company had erected a dry dock, at a
cost of over $35,000, and notwithstanding
a heavy force of carpenters were erecting
buildings in every direction, yet, so m-gent
was the demand for houses of any and every
kind, that Col. Falls had moored at the levee
the hull of the steamer Peru, and a IVIr.
Thompson had also brought the steamer

Asia to the wharf for the same purpose. In
short, the entire levee soon became a compact
mass of wharf- boat hotels, stores, residences,
boarding-houses and business places of every
kind. Here was a little busy city on boats
moored to the shore. Everything and every-
where about Cairo bespoke a_marvelous thrift
— all was at high pressure, and the wonder
of the age had come at last. And all over
the land the contagion spread. Along the
rivers, from Pittsbui'g and St. Louis to Xew
Orleans its name grew, and crossing the
Alleghanies and over the Eastern States, and,
pushed by the great banking-house of Wright
& Co., of London, which had taken over
$2,000,000 in the Cairo bonds, and who were
interested in advertising it all over Europe
in the most unqualified and extravagant
terms, until apparently the large portion of
the civilized world looked, at least, and as-
certained where this remarkable young city
was located on the world's map. Never was
more thorough, elaborate or expensive adver-
tising done for any place than that for Cairo.
Flaming prospective views of the city in
splendid lithographs were hung upon the
walls of steamboats, hotels, halls and other
public places, and to all these were added
the potency of a great young State, advertis-
ing, by its legislative acts, this great South Sea
Bubble, or, as Cairo was modestly then
called in the proclamations of Holbrook, the
" great commercial and manufacturing mart
and emporium."

The State had literally bankrupted itself,
and perforce wound up its Utopian schemes.
Its folly had very nearly universally bank-
rupted the entire people. The whole coun-
try was ripe for a panic and contraction, and
the probe of a solid specie basis pricked, of
course, the Cairo bubble, and the crash of
tumbling air castles, and the haK-comj)leted
real ones, carried everything with them, and

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

left the Cairo City k Canal CompaBy
biiried beneath a mountain of debris. We
have already shown the inherent defects
there were in the Holbrook idea of founding
and building a great city, but in a sketch by
M. B. Harrell, published in 1864, he gives
the following as his conclusions as to the
immediate and remote causes of the collapse
of the town:

" There are many causes," he says, "which
contributed to the downfall of Cairo, but the
chief cause alleged is the failui'e of the house
of Wright & Co., London, through whom
the company anticipated continued loans.
But this is by no means the sole cause. The
suspension of work on the Illinois Central
Railroad, the great artery of trade and traffic
upon which so much depended, and the gen-
eral abandonment of the system of public
works inaugurated by the State in 1837,
seemed to affect the piablic at large, and
so seriously enervated the enterprise of Cairo.
And, again, it is directly taught, by the his-
tory of the whole country, that no man, set of
men or corporation, can create and success-
fully conduct such a monstrous monopoly as
that attempted at the contiuence of these
rivers by D. B. Holbrook & Co. Even per-
sonal liberty and freedom of thought were
broucjht in direct antafjconism to this sinofu-
lar undertaking. The proje^it amounted to
no more nor less than an attempt on the part
of these men to build, own and direct a city
at the mouth of the Ohio River. At no price,
in no shape or form, could a resident of this
city, under the Holbrook auspices, become a
freeholder. He could not piirchase, he could
not lease, or otherwise acquire a title in a
single foot of ground within the proposed
city. If he occupied a dwelling, this com-
pany owned it, and consequently he lived in
it only during the pleasiu'e of this * Lord of
the manor.' If ordered to vacate, he could

not quarter himself in a hotel or boarding-
house and bid his persecutor defiance, for
even that was held by the all- pervading
power. No house or hotel anywhere within
the prescribed limits of the corporation could
be erected or destroyed, imless Holbrook ex-
ercised the power of controlling the manner
and means, and designating the time and
place for such erection or destruction. And
his powers, or what is the same thing,
the powers of the Cairo City & Canal Com-
pany, terminated not here. A coi'rupt or an
imbecile Legislature conferi-ed upon that
company the dangerous authority to establish
all the rules and regulations for the govern-
ment of the municipality that a ^Ihyor and a
Board of Councilmen, selected from amongst
the people might, as a body, establish. It
was for D. B. Holbrook, or what is the same,
the Cairo City & Canal Company, to define
offenses and prescribe their punishment; to
declare, by fixing wharfage at a rate that
would amount to a prohibition, that steam-
boats should cease landing at this delta: to
say what style of living or existing should
amount to vagabondage, and affix the penal-
ty; to declare a levy of taxes, and enforce its
collection; and to expend these taxes as he
elected, whether for the advantage of the
piiblic or the fiu-therauce of the aims of his
bantling, the Cairo City & Canal Company.
In short, D. B. Holbrcjok, as the Cairo City
& Canal Company, at a late hour in his
career here, to wit, on the 17th February,
1871, were clothed by the then sitting,
thoughtless or villainous Legislature of
Illinois, with all the powers conferi-ed upon
the Board of Aldei-men of the City of Quincy,
as defined between the First and Forty-fifth
Sections of the charter of that city; an<l these
grants of power the same Legislature con-
firmed for a period of ten years. It is, per-
haps true that he never exercised any legal

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

despotism, or felt any disposition to exercise
it, but the mere reposition of such alarming
privileges in one man, and that man charged
with the control of the material affairs of the
city, could have but exercised a most enervat-
ing and desti-uctive influence upon the proj-
ect in hand, and of itself ultimately insured
the overthrow and destruction of the enter-
prise."

From 1839 to 1841, a little more than two
years of Cairo's first glory, there ^ was spent
here by Holbrook's company, or the founda-
tions laid for spending, the whole of the
$1,250,000 that he had arranged for in
Europe, and when to this is added the actua 1
expenditures made by the State, and the pros ■
pective future expenditure of the $3,500,000
by the State on the Illinois Central road,
the wonder is ^there were not more than two
thousand people gathered here. Nearly every
one of these must have been needed as em-
ployes in the vast enterprises commenced
and projected. When the work was stopped
by Holbrook's company, the two levees run-
ning along the shores of eacli river, joining at
the south end and forming a levee, were com-
pleted, and were of a height and strength then
determined by the company' s engineers to be
amply sufficient for protection from inunda-
tion. The base of the levee was forty feet, a
top width of twelve feet, with an easy descent
on the outside of one foot perpendicularly to
seven feet horizontally. In 1843, Mr. M. A.
Gilbert constructed the cross levee. As said
above, a splendid dry dock and ship -yard
had been established, and, under the super-
intendence of Capt. Garrison, a well-known
river man, the steamer Tennessee Valley had
fceen built, and the iron work for this vessel
had been turned out by the Cairo Foundry
Works, and thus a complete vessel, of first-
class quality, had been fitted out and wholly
completed by Cairo skill alone.

As the existence of Cairo, under Holbrook's
auspices, ran only through about three years,
and as much of that time was exhausted in
the procurement of lands and means to im-
prove them, and in the erection of saw mills
and the opening of quarries and brick-yards
to provide building materials, but few build-
ings were erected, whether for residence or
business houses. According to the best data
to be obtained, we have it represented that
the first building put up by the company was
the additioE to the Cairo Hotel, situated on
the point; then the Bellews House was erected
next; then the machine shops; Holbrook's
spacious residence, on the spot now occupied
by the Halliday House; the planing mills,
and some twenty cottages. These, with a
number of shanties, that stood at the mercy
of Holbrook, as his order to tear them down
at any time would have been like the edict of
a tyrant, were the sum total of Cairo's im-
provements in this line even in this zenith of
her glory. But a great many others were
contemj)lated, and a few had been commenced
before the crash came. An immense stone
foundation, near what is now the corner of
Sixth street and the Ohio levee, was nearly
completed, upon which was to be erected the
" Great London Warehouse, " that was to
eclipse, in point of size, elegance and general
finish, the monster warehouse of like name
in the City of London.

The intentions of Holbrook's company, in
regard to future building operations, is prob-
ably truthfully shadowed forth in the follow-
ing extract from one of the circulars issued
about the time when the prospects for the
town were the fairest:

" The demand for bailding for every pur-
pose and every description, encourages the
company to use all the labor and force which
can be advantageously employed to meet
these apiilieations — in fact, the conclusion is

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

iresistible, that the proper and requisite
number of dwellings and places for business
ai-e only wanting at Cairo to seom-e a popula-
tion equal in number and character to any
town in the West; and it will be evideot to
every one that the advantages which the com-
pany possess for building are very great,
having their own forests of timber, saw mills,
quarries of stone, lime and brick yards, and
every other material required is obtainable
in large quantities, and consequently at a
reduced price ; and eveiy kind of labor which
can be done, to save advantage, by use of
steam power and machinery, will be adopted
by the company and made available."

This is appropriately chapter one of the
history of Cairo. Abortive as the grand

effort, or "splurge," to use a more truthful
description of the occasion, was, it was the
one final effort to lay the foundation upon
which the present superstructure stands. A
generation has passed away since that time,
and of all the struggling, active, busy throng
that were parties to this stirring [and hope-
ful period, there are but very few now left
us to tell over the story, and recall the hopes
and fears and trials and triumphs that ani-
mated their bosoms in those young days of
their lives and of the city's life. The story
is a remarkable one and fiill of interest, and
contains a lesson, when properly 'read, that
none can afford to pass by unnoticed, and that
all may contemplate with pleasui'e and
profit.

CHAPTER 11.

CRASH OF THE CAIRO CITY AND CANAL COMPANY IN 1841— THE EXODUS OF THE PEOPLE-
PASTIMES AND SOCIAL LIFE OF THOSE WHO REMAIN— JUDGE GILBERT— HOW A RIOT
WAS SUPPRESSED— BRYAN SHANNESSY— GRADUAL GROWTH OF THE
TOWN AGAIN— THE RECORD BROUGHT DOWN TO 1853, ETC.

IN the preceding chapter we told of the
first gathering of the people here, and on
what a grand scale they went to work to
build a great city. How the Cairo City &
Canal Company literally took charge of
everything, and, by a profuse display of
money, and work and high wages, it in-
duced many hundreds of people to come and
cast their fortunes with the rising young city;
and how in a moment, when all seemed the
most promising and cheerful, the whole
thing vanished like a pricked bubble, and
leaving nothing but grief and pain for
promised joy to the many himdreds who felt
they had been lured into the wilds by false rep-
resentations, and bitterness and disappoint-

ment took the place of hope and promise'
As already intimated, when the crash came
there had gathered here about two thousand
people, and they were proceeding rapidly to
gather about them all the appliances of civil-
ized and municipal life. A man named T.
J. Gass, mentioned in the preceding chapter,
was teaching the first school in Cairo. It
was a pay school, taught in a hastily con-
structed building near where is now the cox--
nerof Twelfth street and Washington avenue.
But when the failure of the city company
came, everything of a public natiu-e, and
even every private enterprise, stopped, and
the work of depopulating at once set in and
went forward with almost as much celerity as

HISTOKY OF CAIKO.

had its gathering of people the year before.
The post office, Col. Walter Falls, Postmas-
ter, continued. It is said, as an evidence
that the few left here were not writing to
their friends for money to get away, that his
salary often amounted to as much as $2. 15
per^quarter. The Catholic Church, the only
one regularly established here at that time,
continued its work. The foundry tried to
brave the storm, and continued to run when
all else had apparently stopped forever, but
the cross levee was not yet constructed, and
the floods came in 1842, and, on the 22d day
of March of that year, it put out its fur-
naces, and forever afterward partook of the
universal abandonment to quietude and decay.
Col. Falls did continue his store, on his
wharf-boat and his wharf-boat business until
1846 or 1847, when he quitted the town and
removed to a place once called " Ohio City,"
on the Missouri shore, a short distance
below Cairo.

So rapidly did the process of depopulation
go on that in a few months there were not
more than a score of families left. The flam-
ing forges, the flying wheels, the clangor of
machinery and the "music of the hammer
and the saw" had died away, and given place
to a quiet that could not have been far sur-
passed had nature set upon the city the very
signet of eternity .

And now commenced, on the part of those
who held unsatisfied claims against the com-
pany, a legal effort to secure their own.
Judgments were rendered, executions issued,
and every article of movable property left
or abandoned by the company, not excepting
the fine machinery of the mills, shops and
foundries, was seized upon and sold for a
mere trifle under the hammer at public sale.
The dry dock was either cut loose, or the
high waters of 1842 swept it away in the
flood, and as it approached the Kentucky

shore it was seized under an execution for
debt, sold, and taken to New Orleans and
used at Algiers until the war, when the rebels
converted it into one of their first formidable
war vessels.

For more than a year, the Cairo City &
Canal Company, as if overpowered by their
complete failure, appeared utterly careless of
the wreck they had left behind them. The
company had gone and chaos came, and there
seemed to be no one left to look after or care
for its property or its rights here. People
moved into the houses that were deserted at
will, where they had no landlord, no rents,
no taxes, nor no care how soon it fell into
decay or was used piece-meal for kindling the
matutinal fires. The same with the land;
whoever first fancied to take possession and
cultivate any cleai*ed portion, did so without
let or hindi'ance. We have spoken of the
dangerous powers the Legislatui'e had placed
in Holbrook's hands. Upon the sudden dis-
appearance of this autocrat, with his excess
of law and authority, the people were left at
the other extreme, and possession now was
sovereign, and, as a rule, every man was a
law unto himself.

Judge Miles A. Gilbert was the first per-
son to come to Cairo after the collapse, and
act as agent and representative of the com-
pany, to the extent of protecting its property
and his own, of which he had large quanti-
ties, as well as a considerable holder in the
stocks of the company. A detailed account
of what he found here, and the spirit and
moods of the people in their anger at Hol-
brook and his company, could they be fully
given, would read like a Western early-day
romance. And of all the men it was possible
to send here to speak peace to the brewing
storm, and stay the uplifted hands of vio-
lence, he was the only one. His unflinching
integrity, his ripe judgment, and his mild.

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

and firm and fair treatment of all questions
that arose between the people and the com-
pany were productive of results that must
have saved even bloodshed at times, and at
all times it was a protection to the property of
the place, as well as to the angered and out-
raged people who clamored for the pay due
them.

Judge Gilbert may justly be regarded as
one of the active and leading spirits engaged
in the early enterprise of founding the city
of Cairo, and the only one of the early
founders of the city now living. He was
born in Hartford, Conn., January 1, 1810;
came to Kaskaskia, 111., June 8, 1832, with
a large stock of goods; merchandized there
eleven yeai-s; November 17, 1836, married
Ann Eliza Bakei', eldest daughter of Hon.
David J. ^Baker, Sr., at Kaskaskia, 111.
April, 1843, he removed to Cairo, and took
charge of all the property there owned by
the Cairo City & Canal Company, as their
agent. The company had just failed, and a
great number of men, in consequence, thrown
out of employment, were in a wild, ungovern-
able state, making a great noise about their
pay. Judge Gilbert's gi-eat- grandfather was
Abraliam Gilbert, who died at Hamden in
1718, and was the grandson of Josiah Gil-
bert, who, with three other brothers, came
from Norfolk, England, to America in 1640,
and settled near New Haven, Conn. ; so that
Judge Gilbert's lineage is traceable directly
back to the " Gilberts of Norfolk," England,
whose coat of arms bore the motto Tenax
propositi — firm of pni-pose; and there is, per
haps, nothing more illustrative of this trait
of character in Judge Gilbert, in his long,
honorable and active life, or better illustra-
tive of the condition of affairs at Cairo, im-
mediately following the failvu'e of the Cairo
City & Canal Company, than his bold, de-
termined and successful defense of the prop-

erty of the company he came to Cairo to
protect and preserve, as against the enraged
mob of workmen he found fiercely demand-
ing everything, and threatening an open out-
break, and, by mob violence, to seize and
sacrifice all within reach. This was the con-
dition of affairs when Judge Gilbert arrived
in the spring of 1843, and his first work was
to set about the most active efforts to thwart
the threatened mob. Had he reached the
grounds sooner, it is probable he could have
influenced the leaders and prevented an out-
break. Here were a great number of men sud-
denly thrown out of employment; they had
grown clamorous and turbulent, and they de-
termined to break into the company's machine
and carpenter shops, a large building,
150x200 feet in dimensions, and filled with
the most expensive machinery, which was
attached to and formed part of the building,
and in law formed a part of the realty, and
had to be so treated as regards attachments
or executions. The tui-bulents went to Judge
Gilbert, and demanded that he allow them to
enter the building and detach the machinery
and sell it under execution. He had n6
authority to grant the request, and so in-
formed them. They swore they would take
it at all hazards, when he informed them he
was here to protect the property, and he
would do so against friend or foe. The
leaders retired in great anger from the in-
terview, and at once began to gather their
mob. Judge Gilbert, realizing what was
coming, selected four laboring men, upon
whom he could fully rely, hired them and
armed them, and the five men entered the
building and hastily barricaded the doors and
windows as best they could, and took their
respective positions at ^such places as the at-
tacking party would have to approach. They
had hardly had time to do so when the mob,
in gi-eat force, approached the front or main

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

entrance; failing to open this, they tried the
windows, but finding them secm-ely fastened
they procured a ladder. Judge Gilbert, from
the second story window, addressed the
crowd, and his quiet, firm, yet pleasant man-
ner secured their close attention. ITe told
them he was their friend, and not their
enemy; that it would deeply pain him to
hurt or injiu-e any one of them in any way,
but that he had been placed there to protect
the property, and protect it he would, to the
extent of his life. He advised them to go
peaceably home, and await the results of the
negotiations of the President of the com-
pany, who was then in New York, and nego-
tiating for money wherewith to pay every one
of them every cent the company owed them.
He showed them that they were violating the
law, and that, instead of- thus righting their
wrongs, they were putting themselves in the
position to be punished by law; that the law
was his protection; it was with him in his
effort to protect property, and this made his
apparent helplessness and weakness strong
enough to resist and riepel even their over-
powering numbers. He frankly told them
they could not come into the building while
he was alive, and that for them to kill him
in order to get in would be murder, for which
they would be hung. He m'ged them to
peaceably go away, and concluded by in-
forming them that he would kill the ih'st
man who entered the building. This quiet
and sensible talk had a marked influence on
the crowd; the leaders called them away,
and they retired a short distance to hold a
council. After much parleying, and a
bounteous supply of fighting whisky, they re-
turned to the charge, more fiuuous than ever.
They surrounded the building, cursing,
swearing and howling their rage, like in-
furiated beasts, and calling upon each other
to kill Judge Gilbert and his four faithful

companions and take the machinery and con-
tents and destroy the building. The front of
the building was upon or against the levee,
and the rear of it stood about ten feet above
the ground, and here was a large trap -door,
used for the purpose of taking in and pass-
ing out the most curaberseme articles of
goods. The mob succeeded in breaking and
pushing up and open this trap-door, and
then they attempted to "boost" their men up
through this. Judge Gilbert was at the spot
by the time they had the trap open, and again
appealed personally to some of the leaders
and begged them to go away. He showed
them he was armed with firearms and a stout
hickory club, and told them he alone coald
kill them as fast as they could show their
heads above the floor, and informed them he
would certainly do so. Several ventured to
put up their hands and clasp the upper side
of the floor, but a sharp rap from the hickory
club made them quickly take them down
again. Finally, after trying all manner of
means to efifect an entrance, they persuaded
one poor fellow, who was much under the in-
fluence of liquor, to let them push him up
through the floor. He was warned, as he
started up, not to attempt it, but, nothing
daunted, he allowed himself to be shoved
forward. He received a light blow from the
club, and it affected him so little that the
crowd cheered and pushed him the harder.
The club was then rained upon his head fast
and furious, and finally he yelled in agony
to be lowered instantly or he would be killed
sure enough, and he was let down. This
man's dreadful experience sobered him, and
also seems to have had the effect of sobering
the crowd. A feeble effort was made to call
out other volunteers to go up, but to this there
was no response. They began to fall away
in small squads, but the majority lingered
around the building until after dark, when

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

they all left, and quiet reigned supreme once
more. Judge Gilbert and bis four men re-
mained on guard all night, and it can well
be imagined they did not even sleep by
relays. They stayed close upon duty for
several days, until the leaders of the mob
(something they should have thought of tirst)
advised vrith attorneys, and concluded a mob
v^as not the true remedy for their wrongs.

This episode is properly a histoiy of the
trying times in Cairo, but it well answers the
double purpose of illustrating the temper of
the people when Judge Gilbert came here
to take possession of the Cairo City Canal
Company's interests, as well as something of
the iron there was in the Judge's nature, and
which constituted him the right man in the
right place.

Judge Gilbert had the cross levee built in
1843, and had the Ohio and Mississippi
levees repaired, inclosing about six hundred
acres of land, so strong and permanent that
it secured Cairo from inundation during the
great flood of 1844. He remained there for
three years; was one of the original pur-
chasers of the land, from Government, on
which the city is now biiilt; was identified
with all the charter railroads and organiza-
tions of the city, as either Pi-esident, Direc-
tor or stockholder, up to the appointment of
Samuel Staats Taylor as agent of the Trustees
(Thomas S. Taylor and Charles Davis), He
then moved to Ste. Genevieve County, Mo. ,
where he had large landed interests; laid oflf
a town thereon, and called it "Ste. Mary,"
now a flourishing village of several hundred
inhabitants, where he has resided ever since,
and still resides at his homestead, "Oakwood
Villa," situated upon a beautiful hill over-
looking the village, on the banks of the
Mississippi River, with a splendid view of
the river for many miles each way. He has
been an active, energetic man ail his life;

has been for many j-ears, and still is, though
now over seventy-three years of age, one of
the leading and most influential citizens of
Ste. Genevieve County, with a high character
for honesty and integrity, and [n kindness,
hospitality and generosity poverbial among
those who know him. He was elected Judge
of the County and Probate Courts of the
county three successive terms — twelve years
— and so well did he manage the afifairs and
finances of the county and discharge the du-
ties of the ofiice that he was strongly urged
to accept another election to the office, but
declined. In politics, Judge Gilbert, since
the disruption of the old Whig party, has
been a Democrat, but strongly opposed the
secession movement in Missouri. The first
Union resolutions in his county were drav^n
up by him, advocating to "stick to the Union,"
and that "secession would prove the death-
knell of slairery."

In 1800, during the secession excitement
in Missouri, the State Convention was called,
to detei'mine whether Missoui'i should secede
or remain in the Union, Judge Gilbert took
an active part in seciu'ing Union delegates
from his district, against powerful opposi-
tion, and it was largely through the , influ-
ence of his pen and management that Union
delegates were elected from his Congression-
al District. At the Congressional District
Convention, it is said that he sat up all
night, wrote the Union circular address to
the people, got it printed, and had it circu-
lated all over the district by 12-o'clock next
day, and before the secessionists (and
seceders from that convention) had their
circular printed.

Judge Gilbert still holds large interests in
Cairo and Alexander County; has two sons
living in Cairo — William B. and Miles
Frederick Gilbert — practicing law there.
His wife is also still living, and he has one

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

married daughter — Sarah F., wife of Thomas
B. Whitledge, residing with him at Ste.
Mary, and a prominent lawyer of that place.
Judge Gilbert makes frequent visits to
Cairo, and takes great interest in the pros-
perity of the place, and still has a lively
faith in the future greatness of the city.

The presence and control of the company's
interests here by Judge Gilbert was a great
surprise to many who began to look upon
themselves as old settlers. It was the first
intimation that the abandonment had not
been so complete as they had for some time
supposed. "When he had completed the cross
levee, and had so strengthened the others as
to protect the city, even from the extraordi-
nary high waters of the Mississippi in the
year 1844, when Cairo was the only dry spot
from St. Louis to New Orleans, and when
these duties were discharged, he would re-
turn to business that called him to other
places, and, therefore, his government of the
people here amounted to no more than the
mere assertion of the company's title and
possession to moveable property, so the
Cairoites continued to occupy at will the houses
and so much of the land as they pleased,
without rents or question. And they were
soon inclined to hoot at the idea of any one
collecting rent from them. Was it not
enough to live in such a place as Cairo! And
thus they assured each other. Thus occupied,
the property fell far short of furnishing the
means of paying the annual taxes levied
against it. For about thirteen years — from
1841 to 1853 — there was little of change in
Cairo, except that of slow decay.

Mose Harrell is authority for the assertion
that the little handful of people here —
as the shelter they enjoyed, the ground
they cultivated, and the general privileges
they exercised, cost them nothing, — prob-

ably enjoyed themselves. This inference is
strengthened by the recollection that daring-
all this time, they did, or had, but little else
to do, and Harrell, therefore, asserts (he was
one of the jolly crowd) " they enjoyed them-
selves to a degree beyond -ajiy other people,
so far as he knew or could hear or read about. "
In the course of time, after the crash, the mea-
ger population left, of about fifty souls, had
increased to nearly two hundred, and the town
seemed to run to wharf-boats, flats and all
manner of water craft. The business was
nearly all upon the water's edge, and there
was quite a period when it really looked as
though, as soon as the few houses rotted
down, or were used up for kindling-wood,
the entire population and business would
crawl over outside the levee, and become a
real floating city. Here were the gathering
places, eating places, drinking places and the
center of all the fun or excitement. People
wanted to see the steamboats land; they
wanted to go on board, look around, and, by
examining the passengers, recall recollections
of when they were innocent members of the
civilized world.

There were three wharf-boats moored in
front of the town, and, strange as it may
seem, all were doing a fair business, and
some of them made money. The Louisiana,
Henry Simmons, proprietor, lay about oppo-
site what is now Second street; the Ellen
Kirkman, Rodney & Wright, proprietors, was
just below this, and the Sam Dale, T. J.
Smith & Co., proprietors, lay below where
the Halliday House stands. " On the hill,"
as the top of the levee was then called, were to
be found the Cairo Hotel, by S. H. Candee, the
stores of B. S. Harrell and Oliver S. Sayre,
the office of the Cairo Delta newspaper, the
saloon of George L. Rattlemueller, and the
bakery of George Baumgard. The five last-

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

mentioned were all in the buildings erected
by Jones & Holbrook on the ground now oc-
cupied by the Halliday House.

About the total population that was left
here after the exodus, as the names were
furnished us by Mr. Robert Baird, who was
here as early as I83l>, are the following —
premising there are some, of course, thai Mr.
Baird cannot now recall, or has wholly for-
gotten, and further stating the explanatory
fact that, of all the earliest comers of Cairo,
the only persons now living of those who
did not leave the city in its first panic, are
Robert Baird, Nick Devore and Mrs. Pat
Smith — just three persons. Here is the now
imperfect list of the 1839-40 comers: Squire
Marsh, Constable Lee, Dr. Cummings, T. J.
Glass, Mr. Jones, Thomas Eagan, Mrs. Pat
Smith, D. W. Thompson, who had moved
down the hull of the Asia and converted it
into a wharf -boat and hotel, afterward taking
oflf the cabin of the boat and moving it to
Blandville, Ky. , where he made another hotel
of it, which was about the first house in that
place; Hathaway & Garrison, the latter went
to California and grew quite wealthy; Mr.
McCoy, who afterward went to Iowa; Dr.
Gilpin and family, kept a boarding-house
near where is now the corner of Sixth and
levee; Thomas Feely, kept dairy, near cor-
ner of Eighth and levee; Mi'. Adkins, a
butcher; Mr. Ferdon, a carpenter, whose
grown young daughter was afflicted with at-
tacks of occasional insanity. In one of these
moods she wandered off, and some distance
north of town she came to an old, deserted
hut, and as it was night she entered it and
found two deer inside, and, closing the door,
kept them there, and in this strange company
the girl passed the night, unharmed and in
seeming content. The next morning she
stepped out and fastened the door, and re-
porting her adventure to her father, he, in com-

pany with some friends, among whom was our
informant, Mr. Baird, repaired to the hut and
secured the venison; next, a Mr. Lyles, the
father-in-law of Mr. Miles F. Parker, a
citizen of Cairo; Mr. Shutleff, a foreman in
the shops; Tom Brohan, a teamster and con-
tractor; Jacob Weldon and family, his
widow afterward marrying Judge Shannessy;
Isaac Lee, whose son Bill was for many
years a Cairo landmark; John Riggs, a ma-
chinist, left here afterward and went to Cali-
fornia; Ed McKinney, machinist; John Sulli-
van, tailor; Mr. Kehoe, carpenter and kept a
boarding-house; Walter Falls, kept bar at the
hotel and afterward wharf-boat and store;
John Addison, carpenter and boarding-
house; John Wesley, shoe-maker; William
Holbrook and family; Henry Ours, baker and
saloon; George L. Rattlemueller, saloon.

Pat Smith married Miss Hennessy, the
wedding taking place at the residence of
Mrs. Weldon. It was late in the afternoon,
and at the chui-ch door Smith left his new
wife to go along with the crowd, while he
went to get up his cows (he seems to have
alwa}'s had milch cows). He got his cows,
milked, and bethought himself to look up his
wife, and she had gone visiting among her
friends, enjoying herself very much indeed,
and partly to annoy and plague her husband,
and partly for fun; so well did she hide her-
self that it was late at night before he found
her, although he had traveled the town over.
No proper history of Cairo will ever be
written that omits the conspicuous mention
of the name of Judge Bryan Shannessy; nay
more, it must account well for some of his
acts, and much of the remarkable peculiari-
ties of character that possessed him. For
the true history of all people is chiefly in the
candid picturing of the extraordinary or
leading characters, who were among the chief
promoters or factors of that society's exist-

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

ence. By this we do not mean the old notion
of the history of a people, where the histo-
rian had filled his whole duty when he told
all the minutiae of the kings, princes, the
queens and princesses, and how they were
dressed, dined, wined, and the cost of the
latter; how they were sick, or died, or were
buried, or were born, or with other details
ad nauseum. Or of battles, defeats, and
slaughters and sieges; of famines; of chm-ch
dignitaries and State rulers. These things,
during the centuries alone, were history.
Had Voltaire and Buckle not lived, this
might have been so yet, and continued indefi-
nitely.

But now, the history of a people, State or
nation means the common people as well as
the notorious — the history of all alike. Of
course it is impossible to individually men-
tion each of the masses, as this would make
it a mere directory of names, but to portray
the extraordinary characters of those who
were of the masses, who mingled with and
were a part of them, who, as it were, were
the very outgrowth; the immediate develop-
ment of that community itself, is to bring to
the reader's knowledge one of the best and
clearest hints of what the great mass of the
people were, how they acted, thought and
were influenced.

Such a representative we deem Mr. Shan-
nessy to be. He came here with the rush of
1840, as unpretentious and unassuming an
Irishman as th« humblest knight of the wheel-
barrow in all the crowd that were drawn here
by the mighty schemes of the founders of
Cairo. But there was that stuff in him,
sometimes called fate, faith or a star, which
made him shape his course very differently
indeed from the common crowd. He was one
of the very few who did not flee when the
memorable crash of 1841 came, and reduced
the city, in a few weeks, from a prosperous

and busy population of over two thousand to
less than fifty souls, with no work, no busi-
ness, nothing, in short, to do except to oc-
cupy "the deserted houses of the desolate city.
Then Shannessy, like the man who said if all
the world were dead he would go to Phila-
delphia and open a big hotel, he opened a
boarding-house, and in 1853, while but little
better than cockle and jimson weeds had un-
disputed possession here, we find him the
happy lord of a dingy boarding-house, a
saloon, a Squire's shop, a drug store, the
post office and a doctor's ofiice. There was
nothiog else in the place, or he would have
had that. It is said the few natives of the
place thought of calling on him to preach to
them, but when they talked it over among
themselves they got afraid of the fiery thun-
derbolts he would launch at them in all his
seiTQons, mixed with brogue and brimstone.
He continued to hold office all his long life.
When the city had waxed great, he became
Associate County Judge, and he was Police
Magistrate in this city so long that " five
dollars and costs " was as natural to his
tongue and his existence as breath.

He was a shrewd, original, strong-minded
man, who " never went back on a friend. "
This last trait is well told by the story of a
prominent lawyer, who desired to bring a
certain suit, bat felt doubtful about the issue;
80 he went to the Squire and told him freely
his dilemma, and stated what he supposed to
be the facts of the case. The Squire told
him " that sifter would hold water, dead
sure. " The suit was brought, but on trial
the defendant introduced evidence that utter-
ly destroyed every vestige of plaintiff's case.
The court finally gave his decision in an
elaborate and learned opinion, reasoned
about the law, the evidence, the world's his-
tory, the flood, the pandects, the quadrilater-
al and the Schleswig-Holstein difficulty, and

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

concluded by giving judgment, for the plain-
tiff. Everybody was amazed, even the plain-
tiff's attorney. Afterward, to this attorney,
he remarked: " That was a very close case,
very close. The closest case I ever decided
in my life. In fact, I believe the law and
the evidence were both dead against you; but
I never go back on a friend. "

He loved his friends as well as he loved
office, and he believed in being just to them,
and this sometimes made strangers think they
had to suffer. But altogether he was full of
good, kind traits of character. This is evi-
denced by the fact that these outre decisions
never alienated his friends so as to defeat
him at an election. He reared a large family,
of the very highest respectability, and de-
parted this life at a ripe old age and full of
honors, and his fame is growing greener in
the memories of all his numerous friends
than is that of, probably, any other man's.

It was this decade of years in Cairo's life
that it acquired a wide — if not a world-wide
— reputation, as being one of the " hardest '*
places known. Partly, this was owing to the
natural reflex swing of the pendulum that
had been pushed too far the other way by
Holbrook & Co., in their extraordinary
puffing of the place in its first heyday, but
it is doubtful if this was one of the largest
factors that resulted in such gross injustice
to Cairo. The wi-iter distinctly recollects
that the first he ever heard of Cairo and
Mound City' was in the scorching lampoons
that at that time were passing between Mose
Harrell and Len Faxon, on the two rival
towns. Doubtless, like thousands of othei's,
he formed his idea of the two places,
although he knew, of course, they were the
essence of extravagance, from these mutual
attacks. If he stopped to think about it at
all, he must have known that the lanfruajre
was Pickwickian in the extreme; yet, per-

haps, like all the world, who knew nothing
of their own knowledge, he must have sup-
posed they understood each other's weak
points, and made the attacks accordingly.
For instance, the Mound City Emporium
prints the following neighborly notice:

"A number of Cairoites, impelled, per-
haps, by a desire to see dry land — to stand
once more on terra firma — visited Mound
City last Friday, ou the tug-boat Pollard.
They were a cadaverous, saffron-colored lot
of mortals, most terribly afflicted with bad
hats and the smell of onions. These poor
people inhaled the pure atmosphere of our
highlands with an almost ravenous greedi-
ness, and on their wan features would occa-
sionally play a flush of health as they did so
that betokened they were sucking in a flow,
to their physical and spiritual parts, of some
of that strong, buoyant principle of life
possessed by every Mound Cityite. But from
this delightful recuperative process they
were summoned by the tap of the boat bell.
Descending from the elevation our city oc-
cupies to the landing, they boarded the
craft, and then, descending the Ohio to its
mouth, they stopped and made a further
descent of sixteen feet or more, which placed
them in Cairo. A further descent of sixteen
feet could not be made on account of heat,
smoke and the smell of brimstone! That's
just the distance between the two places!"

To this the Times and Delta replies: "The
Buckeye Belle came down from Mound City
last Saturday, having on board quite a num-
ber of people from that delectable village;
but the quarantine officers of our city enforced
the ordinance relative to steamboats landinsr
with sick people on board, and would not
permit her to touch, whereupon, after mak-
ing sundry ineffectual attempts to land at
each wharf-boat, she shoved out into the
river, whei'e all hands set up one indignant

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

yell of defiance, and, 'cussing,' proceeded
back to Mound City, where, we presume, tbe
passengers were remanded back to their re-
spective hospitals."

The Cairo paper thus topographically talks
of its neighbor:

"At last accounts from Mound City, the
principal portion of the inhabitants were
roosting in trees. Some of them sleep with
skiffs by their bedsides. One of these deter-
mined not to be treed, procui'ed two quarts
of 'crow whisky,' some bread and bacon, and
induced one or two inhabitants to go with
him, and they have fortified themselves on
the ' carbuncle,' or mound — the only dry
place in the town — where they intend to
stay until the waters subside.

" The principal occupation of the inhabit-
ants for the past three weeks has been every
half hour to proceed to the river, punch a
stick in the ground at the water's edge, see
how much the water has come up and. then
go home and move their cooking iitensils
and ' steds ' into the second stories of their
houses. Where there are no second stories,
*as we said before,' they 'clum' trees."

From the same source, here are a few re-
marks on health:

" The Mayor of Mound City, in his inau-
gural address, says to the Council: 'It will
soon be your duty to purchase, and fit for
use, a sufficient ground for a public ceme-
tery. It will take half of the town plat for
that pui'pose.' The Mayor means, we sup-
pose, by ' fitting for use,' that portions of the
swamp should be fenced and filled up with
dirt, so as to give it a bottom."

Or this: " We saw a couple betting high
at draw poker the other night. The ante was
two negroes, and the little one had run up
the pot to a cotton plantation and three
stern-wheel boats.

" ' I'll go you the City of Sandoval better,'
said the big one.

" 'I'll see you with Mound City and call
you.' said t'other.

"'Psahw! That ain't money enough,'
said big bones.

" 'Well, I'll take that back, and bet you
a keg of tar and a blind horse.'

" ' That'll do,' said big bones, ' but don't
try to ring in Mound City again, for I want
to play a decent game! ' "

And in this way, for about three years,
the " sparring " in the two papers went on,
never abating in severity or intensity of ex-
pression from the first day, until all that
could be said mean of the two places was
blown upon every wind, and, upon the prin-
ciple of the dropping water wearing away
the hardest stone, so these persistent lam-
poons had, doubtless, their effect upon the
minds of the outside world. Then, to those
who visited and saw the town, there was
that unfinished, half-commenced hole dug
here, and half-formed moiinds thrown up
there, that made up its quota of reasons for
assisting any rising prejudices in the mind
of the beholder, that also aided in creating
prejudices against the place. Then, there
was still another reason for the bad reputa-
tion of Cairo, that is so curious, so extraor-
dinary, that, were it not vouched for by the
best of authority that was here, and knew
whereof it affirms, we could not believe it,
and would give it no notice in these columns.
We again refer to M. B. Harrell, as authority
on this matter, only premising that in much
of the practical jokes he was nearly always
in the thickest of the fray:

" Cairo then, and up to a much later
period, unjustly bore a hard reputation.
Stories of fiendish murders and robberies of
travelers stopping in the place were so cur-

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

rent over the country that the poor Cairoite
who would attempt to contradict or correct
them was laughed and derided into painful
silence. Knowing they could not refute such
a general and well-settled impression, they
' turned tack,' and whenever they saw travel-
ers exhibiting foolish appi'ehensions of per-
sonal danger, they would at once set about
operating upon them. ' just,' as they would
say, ' to get even with them.' For instance:
" Two consumate dandies [being ' dan-
dies,' it seems, was the great crime they were
guilty of] fi'om Pittsburgh, stopped upon one
of the wharf-boats, to await a passage to
New Orleans, they having arrived on a boat
that was bound for St. Louis. At once it
became evident that these young men had
been fed upoa stories of Cairo horrors; but
they tried fo show, nevertheless, that they
could not be scared by anything, however
dreadful. Both had revolvers and bowie-
knives, but that they were unused to them
could be told by the practiced eye of a
Cairoite. These weapons were freely ex-
hibited, and always worn so as partly to be
seen while concealed about their persons.
Diligently did these young men try to im-
press it upon the people that they would be
'ugly customers' in a hand-to-hand encoun-
ter.. To show that they were familiar with
rough life, they would swear voluminously,
and occasionally they would drink brandy,
etc., etc." These were hue subjects for vic-
tims, and the hoodlums of tho village
gathered about them in full force, and then
hours of confidential talk among them would
occur — care being taken that the intended
victims should overhear every word, about as
follows :

"I'll be , Tom," remarked a rough-
looking customer, as he slammed down an
empty boot box beside the counter, "I hain't
had nothin' as has sot so hard onto mv

feelio's as the killia' of that boy, sense the
day I hit my old woman in the breast with
the hatchet. He was a smart boy, and, by

, you know he was; and just to think I

could git mad enough at him, cos he failed
to lift the stranger's wallet, to smash his
skull with a oar, is positive distressin'. But
I'll tell ye, Tom — give us a drink — that boy
"Waxey shall be buried right. The human
left into me will see to that. The cat-fish
fed onto the old woman, but d — n the bite
shall they git of "Waxey. And now, Tom,
have you a longer box than this? Waxey is
five feet long, and this is only four. Hain't
got none, hey? "Well, 'tis little 'gainst a
father's feelin's, but this box must coffin
him. I couldn't do no better, Tom, and you
know it, so I'll go home now and saw off his
legs!"

Taking another di'ink, the distressed fa-
ther (?) shouldered the box, and left the
wharf-boat, chuckling at the efitect his story
had produced upon the strangers.

And now night had gathered around, and
the usual crowd collected at Louis' bar-room,
which, it must be known, was in the store
and adjoining the depository for baggage.
The strangers continued guard over their
baggage, and viewed, with trembling, the
growing multitude. Drinking followed the
arrival of each character, and after several
glasses had been emptied, the following con-
versation ensued, and all for the strangers'
benefit, and so arranged that they could hear
every word of it :

"Well. Boggie, if ever thar war a nicer
time'n last night, I'm not posted. Them two
strangers what we hornswoggled with us, and
who danced with Spike-foot, ain't now 'sash-
aying' around here much. But now, Boggie,
them men fought tigerish, I tell you! I
didn't know, till Bob, here, told me, that we
were a-goin' to mince 'em. I didn't, now.

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

darned ef I did! And of course, jest as soon
as he told me that we war a-goin' to mince
'em, why, I stabbed the old one right in the
small of the back, like. 3e had floored
Wash Wiggins, and I guess was a-chokin' of
Wash, but when he felt my knife ronch
against his spinal bone, why, it diverted his
attention. He cum at me savage; struck out
thickly, and kep' me clear out of reach of
him; but Dave, who had got a swingle- tree,
seein' how matters was, dropped it on the old
one's cranium, and a groan, a gurgle and a
little splash of brains was all there was that
followed. The old man dropped, and I,
thinkin' he might revive and suffer, separ-
ated his jugular and let him bleed some.
But the other, I tell you he was a snorter!
He knocked Clark Ogden clean through the
winder, followed, and before anybody knowed
it, dressed him off confounded handsome.
As we all had nothin' to do, then, but to make
way with this chicken, we at once set about
it. His first cut I give him; the next punch
you made, and then he cut dirt and humped
himself. Zofe, there, caught him near the
river, but havin' no weapons, he just held
him and hollered until weapons was forth-
coming. The swipe that let out his innards
would 'a saved him; but Dave, you know,
stabbed him six times afterward, all over the
breast and body. He fell then, and right thar
I saw him lyin' not more'n an hour ago.
Take the scrape altogether, Boggie," con-
tinued the speaker, casting a meaning glance
at the strangers, " I think it just about as in
terestin' as any we' 11 have 'tween this and the
mornin'."

Such was the substance of the rigmarole
intended to directly affect the strangers, and
it is easy enough to believe the assertion that
they believed every word they heard; and
the further fact that they had seen one of the
desperate men steal a pocket-book from

another's pocket (a pre-arranged affair, too),
all combined, left the two young men ap-
palled with horror. Even this devil-may-care
crowd noticed, from the actions of the young
men, that they had probably carried the joke
too far, and there was danger of them pluQg-
ing into the river in order to avoid the worse
fate they felt certain was in store for them.
It was about decided to explain the joke to
them, but it was dangerous to approach thera
to attempt an explanation, as such an ap-
proach would be a signal for them to jump
into the waters. Fortunately, at this moment
a boat approached and touched at the land-
ing, and instantly the two young men
boarded her, and hid themselves in the cabin
until the boat pulled out. The vessel was on
its way to St. Louis, and they were going to
New Orleans, but so intense was their alarm
that they would have taken a boat for any
point in the world to get away from Cairo.

It is said that a short time after this, a
Pittsburgh paper reached Cairo, in which was
a letter, dated from St. Louis, describing,
with shocking details, the bloody murders at
Cairo, which we have given above, the
writers not only attesting that they saw them
committed, but they had shot dead two of the
murderers themselves, in a perilous effort to
stay the butcheries. The story of the boy
corpse and the short boot box went the rounds
of the papers of the country, and in seven-
leagued boots, the Cairo horrors traveled
about the world. «

We have given an account of this in-
stance pretty fiilly. It was only one among
hundreds, until the horrible stories from
Cairo had been familiarized pretty much over
the civilized world. The Cairo people did
all this, they said, in revenge for the many
gross falsehoods that had been circulated
about them and their town. It was a unique
mode of revenge, and was of doubtful virtue,

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

for the outside world only too readily be-
lieved all tliey thus saw, but more, too, and
it soon fixed itself in the minds of men as a
shocking reality. Here was another cause
of the blighted reputation of the place.
Add this to the causes recited above, and
when tney are combined it is wonderful that
all men did not shun the place as they
would the lepers' grounds. There is but one
strong reason why they did not. Cairo was
the one gateway between the North and the
South, and through here all must pass in
nearly all communications between these two
regions. This forced men to come. Even
the timid and trembling were compelled
thus to face the fearful imaginary dangers of
the place, and when thus forced into the
town, they were like the boy who finally
saw the preacher, and remarked to his mother,
in disgust, "Why, he's nothin' but a man;"
so the Cairo people were found by these com-
pulsory visitors to be nothing but human
beings; as quiet, civil, well-behaved and
honest as any people in the world. But
while a slander flies upon tireless wings.
truth crawls in gyves and hobbles, and while
it is true that " when crushed to earth will
rise again," yet there is no day nor horn-
fixed for the " rising " to be done, and as
" the eternal years are hers," she generally
takes up the most of them in running down
a lie and putting the truth triumphantly in
its place.

[j t,The only school taught here between 1842
and 1848 was a pay school, and only for a
few months, by Mrs. Peplow. In 1848, a
Sabbath school was started. It was held in
the Cairo Chapel — an up-stairs room in the
Holbrook House — but after a few weeks of
meager attendance and listless interests it
permanently closed up for repairs and the
want of patronage. On the 4th of July, 1848,

under the auspices of Mrs. Peplow's school,
the town held its first national celebration.
Dr. C. L. Lind was the Orator of the Day,
and Bailey S. Harrell read the Declaration of
Independence.

This year, too, came the singing-master —
the king of the tuniag-fork, who could read
the " square notes," and who was born with
a hawk-nose, chewing plug tobacco, and had
been forever trying to marry the belle sun-
flower of every school he had taught or at-
tended. This particular one is described as
a " cadaverous, bacon-colored old curmudy-
oen named Winchester. " He left the town
in great disgust, so complete was his at-
tempted school a failure, and it is supposed
Cairo survived this calamity with greater
equanimity than any of her other inflictions;
we have no hesitation in calling his depart-
ure a calamity, because from the above de-
scription it will be seen he had many of the
ear-marks of a gi'eat and good singing-school
master, and yet he could not sing his "squai-e
notes" in Cairo. His experience here may
have given rise to the little legend, "I'm sad-
dest when I sing."

About the only relief to the monotony of
Cairo life began to come as early as 1848, in
the promised revival of the building of the
Illinois Central Railroad. The subject was
stirred more or less at every session of the
Legislatm-e, and when the news would reach
Cairo of what was being done, a tremor of
excitement would pass around, and the wisest
heads would say, "Wait till next spring, and
the engineers will then be along." There
seemed to be no question of the great work
being ultimately done. On this point there
was neither dispute nor argument, but all
questioning turned upon the one pivot,
When ? And here the Cairoites centered their
future hopes. But year by year came and

HISTOKY OF CAIRO.

went, and no engineers showed themselves,
and the hopes and fears of the people would
rise and fall with the seasons.

In the meantime, Cairo grew a little — just
a little more than the natural increase of
population. The few there were here found,
eventually, plenty to do, and the steamboat
trade had gradually gi'own to be of the great-
est importance. In the winter season, par-
ticularly when navigation on the upper rivers
would be stopped by the ice, the people of
Cairo would find themselves overwhelmed
by people, suddenly stopped on their way,
until all houses would be filled to overflow-
ing, and often hundreds of them woald go
into camp, and be 'compelled to wait for
weeks for the breaking- up of the ice and to
resume their journey. Often a boat would
thus land and parties would hire rigs and
thus go on to St. Louis. Sometimes others
would purchase saddle-horses, or a wagon and
team, and depend upon selling for what they
could get when at the end of their journey.
The boats going and coming soon got so they
all touched at this point, and in those days
there were great numbers of people travel-
ing on deck, and these would rush ashore in
great cx'owds for supplies at the baker's,
butcher's and at the boat stores.

Grp,dually, too, Cairo came to be quite
a re-shipping point for St. Louis, and Louis-
ville, Cincinnati and Pittsburgh freights, and
this gave abundant and profitable business
to the wharf -boats. In these and a hundred
ways, business thrived, and money was dis-

tributed among the people sometimes in
plentiful abundance, and there] were hard-
working, attentive business men among them,
and all such not only made a living, but
generally were on the highway to independ-
ence and wealth. The social life of the
place was much like that of the average
small river towns, except the wags and prac-
tical jokers noticed elsewhere, and with this
further and marked exception, they were a
big, warm-hearted, hospitable, independent,
and a mind-youi'-own-business kind of peo-
ple. Perhaps no community was ever more
wholly free from that tea-table, back-biting
species of gossip and slander, and prying
into other people's private aflairs, than were
the people of Cairo. They were a just, gen-
erous and true people, and so marked was
this characteristic from the first, that they
have left their impress in these respects, ap-
parently, upon the town. The first comers
are nearly all gone, the descendants of only
a few remain; and yet, whosoever knows the
people of Cairo well, may count as his friend
many as true people as were ever got
together before in the same sized "commu-
nity.

This concludes the second natural division
in the eras of Cairo's history, to wit, the
decade between the collapse of the Cairo City
& Canal Company and the revival of the
prospects of Cairo by the actual commence-
ment of work on the Central Railroad, and,
therefore, is an appropriate ending of the
chapter.

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

CHAPTER III.

Cairo platted— first sale of lots— the foundation of a city laid— beginning of

WORK ON the central RAILROAD— S. STAATS TAYLOR — CITY GOVERNMENT ORGANIZED

AND WHO WERE ITS OFFICERS — INCREASE OF POPULATION — THE WAR— SOLDIERS

IN CAIRO— BATTLE OF BELMONT— WAIF OF THE BATTLE-FIELD— " OLD RUBE"

— RILLING OF SPENCER — OVERFLOW OF 08- WASH GRAHAM AND

GEN. GRANT — A FEW MORE PRACTICAL JOKES, ETC, ETC.

IN the preceding chapter.s we have traced the
efforts to found and build a city here, and
the social and business life of the people, as best
we could, down to the year 1852. We found
that from 1841 to 1851 — more properly to 1853
— was the long period of stagnation, marked
only by the natural decay of time, and the
small damages that it was possible to accrue to
the place from a succession of high waters in
the rivers. Miserable little levees, about eight
feet high, girdled about the town, winding with
the bends of the stream, or jogged into short
angles, in the language of a Mound City paper
of the earl}- times, the " broken ribs" levee.
From the first attempted founding of the cit}'
by the Cairo Cit}- & Canal Company down
to 1851, the company clung pertinaciously to
Holbrook's first idea of never selling a foot of
the land — only leasing upon the most rigid
and arbitrary terms. The agent and attor-
ney-in-fact of the propeil}' trustees, S. Staats
Taylor, Esq., arrived in Cairo, September, 1851.
He came with instructions and the power to
inaugurate some new and healthy ideas for the
compan}^ and for the good of the people and
the town. But his first and most difficult task
was to obtain peaceable possession of the com-
pany's property. The residents had much of
it in possession, and so long had they occupied
it without landlord, rents or taxes that they
felt encouraged to treat the company's preten-
sions to ownership with indifference and con-
tempt. Then, other parties from the outside

had noticed the apparent abandonment of the
place by the company in 1841, and they
pounced upon the rich flotsam like buzzards
upon a dead carcass, and bj- all manner of
Sheriffs titles, tax deeds, and even bogus
deeds, attempted to secure both possession and
title, some to the whole and some to large por-
tions of the land within the city limits. One
instance, called the ■' Holmes claim," may
serve as an illustration of some of the many
difficulties that the company encountered in
regaining what they had apparently aban-
doned. The company had acquired title to a
large portion of the southern part of the city
by purchase from the heirs of Gov. Bond.
These heirs had made separate deeds, one of
them, Elizabeth Bond, had executed her j)rop-
er deed to her interests in the land and this
deed Holbrook had carelessly carried in his
pocket and neglected to put it upon the record,
until, in the course of time, it was mislaid and
forgotten. Holmes was a brother-in-law of
Miss Bond, and in some way he ascertained
p]lizal)elh's deed was not on record. He went
to Thebes, then the count}' seat, examined
the records, and, being dul}- prepared, at once
placed a deed upon record from Elizabeth
Bond to himself, conve3'ing all her right, title
and interest in Cairo. This conveyance in-
cluded about one hundred acres in the south-
west portion of the city. The corapaii}- ap-
pealed to the courts ; the case went into the
United States Court, and there it stayed for

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

twenty-three years before being finally adjudi-
cated and settled. Five different trials before
juries resulted in three verdicts in favor of the
compan3\ and two in favor of Holmes — as the
boys would sa\-, " the best three in five."
There was no question but the chain in the re-
cord-title was with Holmes, but the compau}'
based their claim and relied wholl}' upon color
of title and seven years' possession and the
payment of taxes.- Upon this claim the Su-
preme Court of the United States gave the
company the land and settled the question for-
ever.

As said, 1851 dawned a new era upon Cairo.
It came to be known that the law had passed
the Congress of the United States that would
at last secure the building of the Illinois Cen-
tral Eailroad, and this was cheering news to the
good people of the town, and of the whole
State. In 1851, the advance guard — the en-
gineers — put in their cheerful appearance, and
bright and early one morning a squad of them
were to be seen trimming out a passage wa}'
in the bush and undergrowth and hoisting flag-
poles here and there, and peeping knowingh'
through instruments, and the children shouted
to each other that the railroad had come at
last. The almost expiring hopes of the older
people were revived to the highest pitch once
more. Yet the onward move of the towu itself
loitered, and, until 1854, there was no change
among the residents, and but few accessions to
the population or improvements of the town.
The causes for this were the difficulties about
the possession and titles above noticed. Here
were three years in the historical life of the
city that may be briefl}- passed over, the real
history-, if any, that was made during that
time, was exclusively concerning the Central
Railroad, and will be found in the chapter giv-
ing an account of that enterprise.

Mose Harrell, in his sketch of Cairo, justly,
we think, insists that for the ••'real commence-
ment of Cairo we are not authorized to go be-

hind that period " (1854). The many years
consumed by monopolies in futile attempts to
build up fhe place, and the greater number of
years of non-action, cannot be fairl}- added to
the real age of the place, as during the whole
of that time public capital and energ\- were
not onlj' not invited to come to Cairo, but ab-
solutely forbidden an}- kind of foothold what-
ever. Fairness, then, will fix the birth of the
cit}' at that exact period when it became
possible and allowable for those essential ele-
ments of prosperity to take hold of the under-
taking, and to operate without fetter or tram-
mel — and not before that period.

The Agent, Mr. Taylor, had finally got such
sufficient possession of the property, and had
platted and laid oft' the town anew, that on the
4th day of September, 1854, the lots were of-
fered for sale. On the morning of that day,
Peter Stapleton purchased the lot on the cor-
ner of Third street and Commercial avenue,
where he at once erected a substantial and per-
manent residence and business house. This
was the first sale ever made of a lot in Cairo ;
it was the first step in the real cit}' building
that has gone on steadily from that day to the
present time. The price paid for the lot was
SI, 250, not far from what the unimproved lot
would be rated at now. This purchase was
soon followed by others, including Mrs. Can-
dee, John Howlev. M. B. Harrell and the
grounds on which were erected the Taylor
House (burned down with several other build-
ings in i8G0). The people were now buying
the lots and building up the town, and it was
no longer Holbrook and his iron-cast monopo-
h" ; and now the good work went on with ra-
pidity, and within a year from the day that
Stapleton purchased his lot, so actively had
the work gone on. that a large number of build-
ings were erected and in the course of erection.
and the streets and avenues come to be well
defined by the buildings that reared their fronts
alons: the streets and at the corners. But

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

at this time no improvements had been erected
on the Ohio levee. The company saw proper
to put restrictions hei'e, and would onlj- stipu-
late that no other building except brick, iron
or stone should be built thereon. All these
front lots wei'e regarded as the valuable ones
of the town. Williams' brick block had been
put up on the levee, and it stood alone until
quite an amount of buildings had been placed
on Third and Fourth streets and Commercial
avenue. Time soon demonstrated the foolish-
ness of these restrictions, as few purchasers, be-
fore becoming acquainted with the city, its busi-
ness, the character and permanency of its pro-
tective embankments, the health of the people,
etc., felt disposed to erect either ver}' fine or
expensive buildings, and these barriers were
brushed away and the lots on the levee put
upon sale upon the same terms as the others
of the town.

Then came the- hosts of eager purchasers, in
response to the word that went out that lots in
Cairo were upon the market without restric-
tions, and upon terms that were regarded as
just and liberal. Another proof, were an}-
proof needed, that no man in New York,
Philadelphia, or London can manage and build
a great city either out here in Cairo or any-
where else, where he is not present and a part
of the community. As seen by the purchase
price of Stapleton's lot, the property was gen-
erall}' placed at a high figure, but when the
property on the levee was thrown, unrestricted,
upon the market, the figures were increased,
and were, in fact, enormously high ; yet the
sales were numerous, the most buying for
improvement, and man}- for speculation, even
at these high figures. Then, indeed, came the
race in putting up buildings — the wants of
builders putting to the test the numerous saw
mills in the county, and calling fi'om abroad
hosts of mechanics and laborers. A great vari-
ety'of business enterprises were inaugui'ated,
business, both commercial and mechanical,

grew apace ; drays and other vehicles rattled
over the wharf and the streets, and the features
of a young and thrifty city began to be visible
everywhere.

In another part of this work we have given
some account of the rather loose and inefficient
general city government that had been adopted
by the people, after the dethronement of the
Czar of all the Cairos, Holbrook. and the tak-
ing of the reins of government into the hands
of the few people left here. Early in 1855, so
rapid had been the growth of the place, and so
apparent the gi'owing necessit}', that the
citizens met in mass convention, in the Central
Railroad depot, and there determined that until
a special charter could be obtained from the
Legislature, that the cit}^ should be incorpor-
ated under the general incorporation laws.

In pursuance of this determination, the fol-
lowing were chosen, at a general election.
Trustees for the ensuing 3'ear : S. Staats Tay-
lor, John Howley, Peter Stapletou, Lewis W.
Young, B. Shannessy and M. B. Harrell.

This board, at once proceeded to put in place
the wheels and pulleys and bauds and cogs of
an elaborate and complete general government.
It enacted voluminous ordinances and fulmi-
nated its edicts. The quiet and health of the
cit}- was their one ambition. Mose Harrell
commenced to stud}-, with avidity, the laws of
hygiene under Shannessy, and John Howley
and Stapletou purchased diagrams and charts
of the Constitution of the United States, with a
view, perhaps, of settling, by a great com-
promise, the questions that were agitating the
wharves and wharf-boats, mails, transfers, etc.
But the people, from some inscrutable cause,
would continue to look upon the whole proceed-
ing as a " good joke," and the ordinances
were not enforced — remained, in a monumental
way, a dead letter upon the journal of the
board's proceedings.

On iSIarch 9, 1856, imperious necessity called
out another eflfort at a cit}' Government —

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

spelled with a big Gr — and anotlier electiou was
held, when, besides a Board of Trustees, a
Police Magistrate was elected, in the person of
Robert E. Yost, Esq. At the first meeting of
the board, Thomas Wilson, Esq., was made
President ; James Kenedy, Marshal ; Isaac L.
Harrell, Clerk; George D. Gordon, Wharf-
master, and all other matters closely scru-
tinized, to put the machinery of the government
into successful operation.

But again, this year, there was not a great
deal of government in active play, except in
the matter of the ordinance department : these
were ably composed, and they did '' sound so
grand " on the river's bank, but with the ex-
ception of a Marshal, to run in a few unfortu-
nates before the Police Magistrate — these two
officers reporting, as their year's work, the
munificent collection of fines, etc., of $355 —
and this was added to the Wharfmaster's year's
report of $331.50 wharfage, making in all, for
those three officers, the munificent sum of
$686.50; of itself, not a verj- enormous salaiy,
but then there were the honors, which may
run the sum total into the thousands.

In addition to the fines and wharfage, the
city this 3-ear derived, from grocer}- and other
licenses, $2,250.50 ; from taxes, 12,325.78.

The entire real and personal property of
the citv then was valued, for the purpose of
taxation, at a fraction over $450,000. There
were twenty-eight licensed saloons in the city,
two billiard saloons, and nine licensed drays.
The records tell the story of how rapidly
a solid and flourishing city was rising out of
the debris of the wreck of 1841, when the City
of Cairo & Canal Company carried all down
in its general wreck and ruin. The music of
the hammer and the saw was heard upon every
side, and to all these was added the cheering
scream of the locomotive whistle, and the
heyda}' of flush times once more began to
come to Cairo.

Before passing again, however, to the

material aflairs of the cit}-, we choose to incor-
porate here the details of the most notable
occurrence that disturbed the quiet or marred
the dignity of Cairo. This was the mobbing
of the desperate negro, Joseph Spencer, which
took place in the autumn of the year 1855. A
citizen of Cairo, George D. Gordon, we believe,
had instituted legal proceedings against the
negro for trespass, and a writ had been issued
for his apprehension. It was served upon him
and he informed the officer that he would be at
the Justice's office in a few minutes. Instead
of quietl}- submitting himself to the law, like a
rational being, he procured a keg of powder,
and with this under his arm he repaired to the
court of justice. This office was in a room on
the first floor of the Cairo Hotel, the upper rooms
being occupied by guests, including many
women and children. Arrived at the Squire's
office, and seating himself upon the keg, and
immersing the muzzle of a cocked pistol far
into the powder, the audacious negro dictated
his own terms to the officer, which were, that
judgment should be instantly pronounced in
his favor, and the suit thrown out of court, or
he would " fire, and blow to h — 11 the building
and every one in it ! " It was evident, from
his wicked eye that he would do as he said,
and scores of unsuspecting persons in the
rooms above would have been blown to atoms.
The hangers-on in the court room, as well as
the officers present, adjourned themselves out
of the doors and windows in rapid confusion.
Word of this infernal outrage being generally
circulated, a lai'ge number of citizens and
strangers gathered, and determined that, at
least, such a dangerous character should at
once leave the city. The negro had a hotel
wharf-boat moored to the shore, where he kept
a tavern of no mean pretensions, and where
many of the sojourners here in their travels
have stopped and been entertained. But the
reputation of the place was becoming infamous,
and circumstances had caused manv to sus-

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

pect that in the name of caring for travelers,
crimes of the deepest cast had long been going
on in Spencer's boat. Strangers had been
known to repeatedl}' stop there and were never
seen or heard of again after going to bed. The
bedrooms ran along the building on either
side, with a hallway in the center, and it was 1
ascertained that under each bed, in every room,
was a trap-door, with the cai'pet so neatly fitted
over this that it could not be discovered with- i
out the closest inspection, and by this arrange-
ment a person could enter, from the hull below,
and pass from one room to the other without
ever going in or out at a room door.

Spencer was waited upon b}' a few represent-
ative citizens and informed of the determination
of the people, and at the same time he was as-
sured that he should be safely conve3^ed across
the river. The negro consented to this, pro-
vided one or two of the delegation, whom he
named, would go in the skiff with him, and to
this they agreed. In the meantime a great
crowd had gathered on the levee above Spen-
cer's boat. Some parties in the crowd, when
they learned that these men were going to cross
the river with the negro, went to them and ad-
vised them not to do so, and thereupon they
declined to go, and then Spencer not only de-
clined to go, but mocked and defied the people
he had so signally outraged. An hours time
was given him for preparation to leave — then
another hour ; but instead of employing the
time for such an end, he used it in preparing
himself for resistance. He now concealed him-
self in his boat and refused to have intercourse
with any one. The crowd grew greatly incensed
and they determined to force the negro to leave
at all hazards. They made a rush for the room
where he was concealed and forced the door,
but he had escaped through his secret trap-
door as they entered. The^' were soon notified,
however, of his whereabouts, by the report of his
shot-gun from another room, the charge of the
gun taking effect in the breast and shoulder of

one of the party, producing a wound of which the
man died some time after. We can find no one
now able to recall the name of this man, he being
almost an entire stranger. He was a river man,
and either a pilot or engineer. When this shot
was fired, the crowd rushed to the room and
broke it open, but the room was vacant ; and
while the assailants were bewildered about the
negro's second strange disappearance, the re-
port of his gun was again heard. This shot
wounded the well-known citizen, Ed Willett,who
was innocently on board the boat, not joining in
the assault, but endeavoring to save the furni-
ture. This last shot enraged the people in an
instant into a fierce mob that cried aloud for
blood and that now nothing else would appease.
The boat was torn from its moorings and towed
out into the river, and in full view of at least
a thousand people set on fire, and in less than
thirty minutes burned to the waters' edge.
But while this work was in progress the desper-
ate and now doomed negro was not idle. He
evidently felt that he must die, but seemed de-
termined to sell his life dearly. Upon those
who towed his boat into the stream, upon those
who applied the torch, and upon those who
filled the scores of skiffs which dotted the Ohio
River, he fired repeated rounds and scarcely ever
without effect. Exhausting his shot or projec-
tiles, he charged his piece with stone-coal and
fired that upon his assailants, as long as the
eager flames allowed him to resist at all. And
now the advancing element had fully shrouded
the upper works of the boat, leaving only a plat-
form on the stern to be enveloped. Many had
concluded the wretched creature had perished
in the flames, and as they were about to turn
from the sickening sight there was a crash
of glass heard in the great bulk of flame. In
an instant afterward Spencer appeared upon
the stern, in full view of the great crowd, and of
[ his wife upon the wharf-boat, and, looking defi-
antly at all, he placed his hand upon his breast
, and leaped headlong into what he then must

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

have considered the '• friendl}^ waters of the
Ohio." Long and anxiously the crowd looked
for his appearance to the surface, but the wa-
ters had closed over him once and forever.
Thus, calling destruction on his own head, per-
ished the desperate negro, Joseph Spencer.

For weeks and months afterward the news-
papers of the country made allusion to the affair
as a '' characteristic mob," giving it more shapes
than Proteus, every writer who took it in hand,
molding it exactly to his own liking. Mose
Harrell, who was an eye witness to the whole
sad affair, and who was daily receiving in his
exchange papers from all over the couutr}^ at-
tempted to summarize the accounts and recon-
cile them all into one straight, consistent story,
and here is the remarkable result :

*' Joseph Spencer, an eminent colored divine,
whose desperate character made him the terror
of the community, and whose deeds of blood
and acts of Christian piety gave him great emi-
nence, was recently killed by a mob in Cairo
under the following justifiable and bloodthirsty
circumstances : Mr. Spencer, while conducting
a prayer meeting on his boat, which was reek-
ing in the blood of his murdered victims, was
shot down by a disguised mob of well known
citizens, who, without premeditation, had assem-
bled shortly after dark on the morning of the
bloody day for the hellish and authorized pur-
pose. These negro drivers, who had just
arrived on a Mississippi steamer, then seized
him while in the act of getting down to a game
of " old sledge" with a distinguished Method-
ist minister from Cincinnati, tied him to a
convenient tree, and there burned him until the
waters of the Ohio closed over him forever.
His boat,"upon which he remained until the last
moment, was then towed to the middle of the
Ohio River, where it sunk against the Ken-
tucky shore, b}' applying the flaming torch to
the cabin.

" A more diabolical and fiendish act of mer-
ited punishment never disgraced a community

of incarnate fiends of high respectability more
signall}' than has this act of damnable but
richly deserved retribution disgraced all con-
cerned in it, not excepting the victim himself,
who was seen at Memphis receutlj^, swearing
vengeance dire against his sanctimonious mur-
derers."

Thus, from Joe Spencer to Eliza Pinkston,
the " bloody shirt" floated in ample folds all
over the North, while the " mud-sills" and the
"corner-stone of slavery," equally ripened
and flourished at the South. And of a nation's
throes, coming of these infinitesimal circum-
stances, a Lincoln's fame was born, and the way
was prepared for that " ambitious 3'outb who
fired the Ephesian dome," to assassinate Lin-
coln in a theater, on G-ood Friday, of 1865 ; and
the hanging of an innocent woman ; and the
second assassination of a President, and the
hanging of an insane man. These are the skele-
ton, surface results, but beneath that ghastly
covering who will ever know, who can ever in his
wildest imaginings conceive the blighted virtue,
the ruined names, the crushed hearts, the
ghastly corpses, the unspeakable agony and
woe, that ran over this people like a consum-
ing conflagration ! It is well for the mental
health of the human race that the charity of
oblivion rests so deeply upon the sickening
story that it ma}' never be told. Joe Spencer
was nothing but a wretched, desperate, igno-
rant and brutal negro, whose life was a constant
menace to all with whom he came in contact ;
yet the century had been preparing the way
for even this vile wretch, and it culminated in
his self-sought destruction into a power for
evil which may run on for 3'et a hundred years.
Nothing is clearer than that it was the right
way, the high and solemn duty of the people
of Cairo to either drive off or kill the danger-
ous, bad negro. They should have done this
long before they did, and if it was necessary to
kill him in order to get rid of him, he was en-
titled to no more considex-ation than a snake

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

or a rabid clog. But when he could stand at
bay no longei*, he placed heav}- irons about his
neck and plunged into the river, with his dead-
ly gun in his hands, and, thus prepared, he
fully determined never to rise again, but his
conjured ghost was impressed into the service
of aiding in the bloody preparations for the
carnival of death that was so soon to follow
after his destruction.

In a preceding chapter, we had occasion to
notice the penchant, the genius rather, of the
young men of Cairo, that was so fully devel-
oped in those dull years following the disper-
sion of the people here in 1841. So ingi-ained
had this become, that now, when the flush
times again came to Cairo, and work and busi-
ness crowded upon them from every side, they
would steal these golden moments whenever
opportunit}' presented itself to again indulge
in their favorite pastime.

The Legislature had organized a Court of
Common Pleas for Cairo, and appointed Isham
N. Haynie, Judge. He came to Cairo to hold
his first term of court, and a court room had
been secured in the Springfield Block. He had
not more than fairly opened the session when
the " boys" opened a similar court in the other
end of the block, and they had all the officials
and paraphernalia of a most August court.
The officer of Judge Haynie's Court would
stick his head out of the window and call a
juror, attorne}', or witness, and so would the
official at the moot court, only the bogus one
would call louder, oftener, and a greater num-
ber of names, and the bailiffs were flying
around the streets summoning witnesses,
jurors and parties to come into court instan-
ter. The bogus grand jury held prolonged
sessions, and as the bailiffs well understood
who to summon as witnesses, and as the jurors
well understood what questions to ask such
witnesses, it was a roaring farce from morn
till night, particularly the revelations the}'
drew out of an old chap whose shebang was

down on the point, and who sold ice principal-
1}'. From day to da^- this immense burlesque
went on. and many names of the best people
began to be compromised ^dly. Judge
Haynie finall}- took notice of the matter, and a
United States Marshal making his appearance
with writs, frightened the " boys" seriously,
and, in fact it resulted in driving several of
them temporarily out of town, until the matter
was finally fixed up in some wa}', and their
thoughtless acts were excused.

A more innocent and comical joke was
worked ofl" by John Q. Harmon and Mose
Harrell. They were both j'oung fellows, and
Mose was clerking in his brother's store — a
place of great resort for the old fellows who
delighted to loaf, and chew tobacco and " swap
lies," and absorb the heat of the stove in cold
weather. To move these fellows from the
warm fire and clear the 8tore-roon» was the
project set about by these boys. Harmon had
got a suppl}' of sand and had it carefull}'
wrapped in a good sized bundle, and seeking
the time when the loafers were thickest about
the store, he walked in with his package in his
hand. He addressed Mose, in a tone that all
could hear, telling him he was going hunting,
that he had all the powder he wanted, display-
ing his three or four pounds of sand, and went
on to tell Harrell that he wanted some shot and
would pay for it in a few days, etc.

" No sir !" said Harrell, " if 3"0U have no
money, you cannot get an}- shot."

"Well," says Harmon, "you need not be so
short about it. I'll pay 3'ou next week."

And from the first the words grew more
bitter and loud, and soon the two quarrelers
had the entire attention of the house. In the
meantime, Harmon had wedged his vra,y close
up to the door of the red-hot stove, when, Lhe
quarrel going on still, he opened the stove
door and bitterly said : " Well, if I can't get
any shot, I don't want any powder !" and
heaved the bundle into the stove. Such a

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

hurried exit — some of them not taking time to
rise from their chairs to run, but tumbling
backward and rolling to the door, and all
were upon the streets in such a frightful race
to get awa}' they did not take time to look
back at the building which every instant they
expected would be blown sky high, until the}'
ran so far they were fagged out. In the
meantim'e, John and Mose were fairly rolling
over the floor in explosions of laughter. It
was several days before the old loafers would
venture within half a mile of Harrell's store.

During the winter of 1857, the city was
specially incorporated by the Legislature, *and
on the 9th day of March following the first
Council, under the charter, met for organiza-
tion and business. The following gentlemen
formed the Council :

Maj'or, S. Staats Taylor ; Aldermen, Peter
Stapletor^ Peter Neff, Patrick Burke, Roger
Finn, John Howle}^, Harry Whitcamp, C. Os-
terloh, C. A. Whaley, William Standing, Cor-
nelius Manly, Martin Eagan and T. N. Graff-
ney.

As the city officers were not elected by the
people at that time, the Council elected John
Q. Harmon, City Clerk ; H. H. Candee, Treas-
urer ; and Thomas Wilson, Marshal.

The Board of Aldermen disapproving of the
work of their predecessors, by a simple resolu-
tion, wiped from the books every general and
special enactment found in force, leaving no
vestige of the old board's wisdom or folly in
operation, save only such enactments as con-
ferred rights or privileges for a specified time or
special nature. The whole city government
was remodeled — an entire new set of ordi-
nances, relating /to ever}' legitimate subject,
being framed and adopted. They assumed all
responsibility, willing to take the credit arising,
or the shower of condemnation following the
new order of things. The charter was broad
and liberal in its provisions, and under it, with
ver}' few and immaterial amendments, the

usual work doubtless of " governing too much"
has gone on smoothl}-^ ever since.

S. Staats Ta3'lor filled the oflflce of Mayor six
times, viz. : During 1857-58-59-60 and 63.

H. Watson Webb was Mayor during 1862,
being elected without opposition. J. H. Ober-
ly in 1869.

In 1864, David J. Baker, one of the present
Judges of the Circuit Court, wa,^ elected Mayor.

During the years 1857-58-59-60 and 61,
John Q. Harmon held the office of City Clerk.
He was succeeded by A. H. Irvin, who held it
seven 3'ears. J. P. Fagan, elected 1868 ; Pat-
rick Mockler, 1869 ; Mockler was suspended
and T. Nail}', appointed to fill out his term ;
John Brown was then elected. N. J. Howley, in
1870, held it four terras ; 1872, W. H.Hawkins;
1875, W. K. Ackley; James W. Stewart, 1876;
John B. Phillis, 1877 ; D. J. Fpley, 1879 ; re-
elected in 1881, and again in 1883.

The following were the City Treasurers in the
order in which they are named : H. H. Candee,
Louis Jorgensen, John H. Brown, B. S. Harrell,
A. C. Holden, Peter Stapleton, John Howley,
J. B. Taylor, who held the office until 1872,
and was succeeded by Robert A. Cunningham ;
in 1875, B. F. Blake was elected ; then F. M.
Stockfleth, and then B. F. Parke ; in 1879, E.
Zezonia ; 1881, Thomas J. Curt.

The City Marshals were Thomas Wilson, D.
C. Stewart, P. Corcoran, R. H. Baird, Martin
Egan, John Hodges, Jr.

In addition to the City Marshals above given
we may mention M. Bambrick, Andrew Kane-
City Attorneys — H. Watson Webb, who filled
the office for four successive terms, and was
again re-elected in 1863 and 1864. In 1871, P.
H. Pope was elected, and re-elected in 1872. In
1873, H. Watson Webb was again elected. In
1875, H. H. Black, was elected, and re-elected in
1876 ; 1877, William Q. McGee ; 1879, W. E.
Hendricks, and re-elected the next term.

Police Magistrates —B. Shannessy, who held
the office successively from 1857 to 1864, Fred-

HISTOKY OF CAIRO.

' 55

oline Bross was elected in 1865. In 1876,
two Police Magisti-ates were elected to this
office. J. J. Bird in 1880 ; Bird resigned and
George E. Olmstead was elected ; in 1881,
Alfred Comings was elected.

In 1863, for the first time the Council pro-
vided for the office of Cit)' Surve3-or, and the
Board elected August F. Taylor to that posi-
tion. Mr. Thrupp has filled the position almost
continually.

In addition to the Mayors above enumerated,
Thomas Wilson filled the office in 1870 ; John
M. Lansden, 1871 ; re-elected in 1872 ; in 1873,
John Wood ; 1874, B. F. Blake ; 1875, Henry
Winters ; re-elected 1877 ; and in 1879, M. B.
Thistlewood was elected and re-elected in 1881.
The present officers just elected, will be found
complete in another chapter.

Cairo was always "diabolically Democratic,"
at least until the " man and brother" from the
cotton-fields and jungles of the South parted
company with the swamp alligators and tooth-
some possoms of that region and came upon
the town like the black ants of his native Af-
rica. The town sits upon that point of land in
Illinois that is wedged away down between
what wei'e the two slave States of Missouri and
Kentucky. So cosmopolitan were the Cairo
people that they were impatient of the bawl-
ings and crockodile tears of the Abolitionists,
and the equally idiotic oaths about the divine
institution of slaver}'. And hence the}' were
equally abused by both sides of the fanatics
and fools. Among other most horrid slanders
that ran their perennial course through the col-
umns of many Northern papers, was the one
that Cairo was ready and eager to mob and kill
every " loyal " man who happened to be found
in the place. One flaming story was added to
the Spencer mobbing, about a little preacher
named Ferree, who attempted to make an Abo-
lition speech in Cairo and was odorously egged,
etc. The whole thing was only one of the man}'
slanders upon Cairo.

In the campaign of 1856, a noted negroite,
from the office of the Chicago Tribune, came to
Cairo to make a Fremont speech. His paper had
published tomes of the Cairo slanders, and
dwelt long and lovingly on the Spencer and
Ferree mobs. After the distinguished orator
arrived in Cairo he ran his eye over the columns
of his paper, of which he carried a file that was
filled with .sectional slanders, and he became nerv-
ous, and actually worked upon his own fears un-
til he began to seriously believe many of his
own published lies. He thought the people would
mob him. He locked himself in his room and
sent for the Republican leaders, and informed
them he was afraid to attempt to speak in Cairo.
These men assured him there was no danger,
but he would not be satisfied until nearly every
leading Democrat in the town had been sent
for, and they all pledged themselves'and staked
their lives upon his entire safety and immunity
from all danger. Then, though still nervous,
he consented to go on with the meeting. When
the hour for the meeting had come the hall was
packed with people, although there were not a
score of Republicans in the place. The speaker,
with his escort, appeared upon the platform,
was introduced and received with hearty cheers.
He commenced his speech, and the attention of
the crowd was close and respectful, and upon the
speaker's slightest allusion to anything patriotic
or of a spread-eagle nature, prolonged cheers
would greet his words. His exordium had been
splendidly pronounced and speaker and audi-
ence were en rapport, and thus encouraged the
orator was rising to the occasion in some of the
most eloquent slanders of the South that ever
greeted eager and lengthened ears, when all
at once, Sam Hall, who sat nearly in the front
row of benches, jumped to his feet, turned
around with his back to the speaker and facing
the audience, and placing his hand significantly
to his hip pocket, in a clear and distinct voice,
said : " I'll shoot the first son-of-a-sea-cook that
throws an egg ! " These words struck the ora-

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

tor's ears like the crack of doom ; his big
speech, even articulation, was frightened out of
him ; he was so nervous that he could no longer
stand, and silence, with an exceptional here and
there men clearing their throats and suppress-
ing the " audible smiles " of those who knew
what the inveterate wag, Sam Hall, meant, was
intense, and the speaker hurriedly passed out
of the rear door of the hall, and made fast time
to his hotel, and was on the first train out of
town, and for weeks the Chicago Tribune wrung
the changes on " Another Cairo Mob — Free
Speech Suppressed," etc.

Among the early and long time institutions
of Cairo was " Old Rube," the innocent ad-
vance guard of the whole " coon " tribe, that
have since been inflicted upon Cairo. Old
Rube was a rather quiet, well-behaved darkey,
who did chores about town, acted as "mud-
clerk " for most of the saloons, was always,
when he could catch an audience or listener on
the street, talking learnedly about the Scriptures,
and had a great weakness for chicken-roosts.
" Old Rube " was a more modest Ethiopian
than his modern kind, at least he never at-
tempted to turn the Cairo white children out
of their schools, and have himself installed in
their places. His extraordinar}' ideas, and his
amusing way of putting them, made him not
only tolerated b}- all young and old of the
place, but they afforded much innocent pas-
time. He was one morning doing his usual
clerking in the new telegraph office, when it
was run by Mose Harrell. The only telegraph
instruments in those days were the old-
fashioned kind, that were wound up, and used
long strips of paper. In sweeping about the
instrument, which was wound up, in some way
he touched it, and it commenced to run down.
He realized what he had done and was greatly
frightened as he saw the weight slowly descend
toward the floor. In some way he got it into
his woolly pate that when the weight struck the
floor an explosion would follow, and he thought

it would blow the whole world into smithereens.
On a full run he started to hunt Mose, and
when he found him, told him what was going
on. Mose in apparent fright, rushed back
with Rube to the office, and just as they entered
the machine had run down and stopped, of
course, just before the weight touched the floor.
He made Rube believe he was just there at
the last moment, and conflrmed the darkey's
idea and enlarged them greatly b}^ showing
him how the explosion, commencing at Cairo,
would have blown awa}' entirely St. Louis,
Chicago, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and in fact all
the leading cities of the world. For the re-
mainder of Rube's life he told over this thrill-
ing stor}- in which he and Mose Harrell were
such conspicuous actors, always adding some
embellishments to the story, and ever}' time
going a little more learnedly into the scientific
intricacies of electricity. In discussing the
Scriptures, he evidently believed that the' story
of Jonah and the whale, and Noah and his ark,
were about the sum total of the whole busi-
ness. He believed it a religious duty to
smoke a strong pipe, because had Jonah
not had his pipe and matches in his pocket,
after the whale swallowed him, and was swim-
ming oflT for a general frolic with the other
whales, he would never have been cast ashore.
Explaining one day on the streets all about
how Noah constructed the Ark, how long it
took him, and how much material there was in
it. The question was asked, ''Where did he
get his nails ? " " Wh}-, in Pittsburgh, of course,
you fool you! Whar could he get 'em if not dar?"
He believed heaven a place made up exclusive-
ly of chicken roosts, and where there was
nothing higher for them to roost upon than a
common rail fence. Every one kindly tolerated
the ignorant and innocent old man, gave him
alwa3'S plenty to eat, and he dressed himself
j'ear in and out with the old clothes of which
he always had an immense supply. In his
young days, he had been one of the innumera-

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

ble servants of George Washington, at all
events he had told the story until he un-
doubtedl}' believed it, and he al\va3-s respect-
fully spoke of him as " Mas'r George." He was
a stanch Republican from the formation of
that part}', and was a regular attendant upon
its meetings in Cairo, j'et his associates and
friends were exclusivel}' Democrats. He never
expected or apparently' wanted to vote, and
sometimes, like perhaps a majorit}' of the white
voters, got his religion and politics so mixed
up that he could not disentangle them. x\nd
often when the question was suddenly sprung
upon him he could not tell " Mas'r Linkum "
from the ark, nor Noah from the whale, but,
to his credit be it said, this mental, political
and religious confusion but rarely took pos-
session of the old man, except after he had
cleaned and righted up, and purified and
sweetened his usual morning round of the dog-
geries. He has long since, if his theories were
all correct, had a touch of experience of those
other worlds, about which while here he talked
so much, and dreamed such vague and incoher-
ent dreams. He rests beneath the willow tree.
1^58 — Cairo Inundated. — For the second
time a widespread disaster overwhelmed Cairo,
and under circumstances in some respects very
similar to that of 1841. But this time it was
water. On Saturday, June 13, 1858, at about
the hour of 5 P. M., the levee gave away on
the Mississippi side of the town, near its inter-
section with the embankment of the Illinois
Central Railroad. For several days previous
it had been predicted b}' many who had closel}'
watched the progi-ess of the flood, and who
were familiar with the character of the levees,
that the town was in constant danger. The
people were warned of the peril ; but lulled into
a feeling of security by the fact that during the
fifteen j-ears past they had escaped sul)mersion,
and by assurances of the reckless that all was
safe, they paid no attention whatever to the
warning regarding it, only as the bugbear of

panic-makers. As a consequence, the flood
came upon many of the people unexpectedly,
leaving them only time to escape with their
lives.

The break, it is now known, resulted from the
defective construction of the works by the un-
principled contractor who made the embank-
ment. The water was more than a foot below the
top of the Igvee, and up to the moment of the
break gave no sign of the coming disaster.
The waters rushed through with a great roar,
carrying with them the embankment in great
sections, and in places with such force and
violence as to uproot trees and stumps in its
course.

A force of 500 men were as soon as possible
placed upon what is known as the " Old Cross
Levee," an embankment running from the Ohio
to the Mississippi in the upper portion of the
city, with the hope that they would be able to
fill up the openings which had been cut on the
line of the streets and stop the flood of this
embankment. But the waters poured in so
rapidly and came with such a strong current
that this attempt was reluctantly but necessa-
ril}' abandoned.

A lady resident, still of the citj' of Cairo,
who was here at the time, gave the writer a
most graphic description of the scenes imme-
diately following the break in the levee. Gen-
erally the women and children only were at
the houses — the men at their business, many
trying to move their goods and perishable arti-
cles to safe places in upper stories, where they
could get these, and 3'et man}- others were out
upon the levees trying in vain to stop the
waters. It was after G o'clock when a man
came galloping down the main street, horse
and rider covered with mud and calling out at
the top of his voice, " The levee is broken —
flee for your lives !" In a few minutes the
waters were seen stealing along the sewers and
low places in the streets, winding about the
houses and the people like an anaconda. The

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

poor women and children were generally wring-
ing their hands and crying in utter helplessness.
She says she saw one poor woman with a piece
of stove-pipe under one arm and a cheap look-
ing-glass under the other, on her way to the
Ohio Levee, followed by a brood of five or six
children, and all weeping in the greatest dis-
tress. Confusion was turned loose, and while
all were in the greatest fear and apprehension,
yet it was those whose houses were low, one-
storied concerns and in low places, that death
to them and their little dependent ones seemed
staring them in the face. Generally those who
were in houses of two stories concluded to stay
at home and were busy moving everything into
the second stor}".

Soon through the streets in great force came
the muddy waters, carrying upon its bosom logs,
fences, trees and lumber, and presenting a scene
that oppressed the stoutest heart ; and night
settled upon the sad scene, and in the darkness
and soon in the water itself, were families mak-
ing their way to the Ohio Levee. By daylight
Sunday morning, there was no dr}^ land to be
seen inside the levees, and bj- noon of that day
the waters inside were of the height of the
rivers. As far as the eye could see the spec-
tator behold naught but a sea of turbid water
and a scene of confusion and ruin.

Some of the one-stor}- buildings in the low
grounds of the town presented only their roofs
above the water ; a few light and frail ones
had left their foundations, and yet a few othei's
had careened, while every building of this
character had been abandoned at an early hour
by their occupants.

In ever}- quarter of the city skiffs, canoes
and floats of every kind plied industriously
from house to house and were engaged in re-
moving women and children, furniture, goods,
etc., to the Ohio Levee. The plank walks were
sawed into convenient sections and used as
floats, and every imaginable species of craft
were improvised for the occasion.

Altogether about 500 persons were driven
from their homes, and the little strip of the
Ohio Levee, the only dr^' spot for miles around,
was crowded with men, women and children,
dogs, cattle, plunder, wagons, cars, etc., from
one end to the other. Every nook and corner
of the warehouses were crowded to excess
with the houseless and their plunder, and the
cars on the railroad track were all similarly
occupied. Many made their way in rafts
and skiffs and also left on steamboats for the
highlands, and many of these stood aloof from
" health and fortune " by making their absence
permanent.

Some families were made destitute by the
flood, but these were so promptly- provided for
by the more fortunate citizens that no real
cases of suffering ensued. Charity was offered
the people from other cities, but the plucky
Cairoites said "No ; we can and are providing
for our own people."

We can get no reliable estimate of the dam-
age financially that the people of the town suf-
fered. Many poor people whose loss in dollars
and cents was small, yet to them it was great
because it was their all. But under the cir-
cumstances, and considering that the visitation
was upon the entire town, and each one lost
more or less, the aggregate was not large, not
near so large in property- as in the disrupting
of established business, the destruction of con-
fidence and the general bad odor it attached to
Cairo's already grievous burdens in this respect.
It was the suffering by the cit}', as a cit}-, that
brought more damage than all the water in-
flicted. The general revulsion that followed,
the depreciation of property, the loss of con-
fidence — these formed a sum of damages that
cannot be estimated in dollars.

There was no perceptible rise in the rivers
after the breaking of the levee, and the waters
began rapidly to recede. In less than two
weeks the city was dry again, and every da}-
the citizens were returning to their homes; logs

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

5»

and rubbish were cleared from the streets,
houses were repaired and re painted, and fences
re-built, and but a few months had passed
when the prominent marks of the flood had
been cleared away — wiped out forever.

The two 3'ears following the submersion of
Cairo formed probabh- the most trying period
of her histor}-. Real estate dropped its former
high figures, and purchasers could buy at al-
most their own figures, but the shock public
confidence had received pi'evented investments,
and business being in a measure deadened, there
was no incentive for improvement strong
enough to move to action those who had for-
merly invested. Rival interests eagerly pro-
claimed the downfall of the city, and confident-
ly predicted it would never attempt to rise
again, and there were many in Cairo and out of
it who were ready to believe the blow had
proved effectually crushing. But the repair-
ing, widening and strengthening the levees and
expending vast sums in this work, soon created
abetter feeling at home and helped to inspire
confidence abroad, and by the end of the sec-
ond year after the overflow, property had about
regained its former value and the business of
the place its accustomed tone; and as time
wore on, and the heights and proportions of
the levees increased, confidence in the habita-
bleness of the locality gained its original
standard.

In 1861, Cairo had recovered wholly from
the overflow, and her population had increased
to a little over 2,000 souls, the census of 18(10
showing a population for Alexander County of
a little over 4,000. The town had recovered
slowly, but its foundations had been solidly
built and the levees had been made the strong-
est and safest in the world.

In April, 18G1, the great civil war was fully
inaugurated. The majority of the people
of Cairo " knew no North, no South, no East, no
West, but the Union, the whole Union, one and
inseparable, now and forever." They had

hoped, up to the last hour, that in some way
the bloody issue would be spared the country
once more. A military company, armed and
uniformed, and composed of nearly all the
young men of the town, met and drilled at
their hall regularly every week. They met one
evening, and after their usual exercises they
engaged in a social meeting and talked over
the then absorbing subject of the war. It was
evident that it was then upon the country.
Lincoln had called for 75,000 troops, and
Seward had proclaimed that it would be fought
out in ninety days. Several of the Cairo braves
made "talks," and the meeting finall}' passed
some " armed neutralit}' " resolutions and ad-
journed. During all that night the incoming
trains were freighted with United States sol-
diers, and when the Cairo soldiers got up in the
morning, the streets and woods were full of
them. And the Cairo companj- never met
again. It is due the Cairo boys to say that
about every one of them joined the Union
arm}-, and, still more to their credit, it is said
tliat every one of them rose to honorable, and
many of them to eminent promotions.
The immediate effect of the occupation
of the place by the militar}- was to check im-
provements and paralyze business. This
largel}- resulted from the fact that some of the
early commandants of the place were ignorant
fanatics, and who proposed to treat ever}'
Democrat as a traitor, and visit all with a
heavy hand. Then, the further fact, that
neither the Government nor troops had any
money here at that time, and the business
means of the city were absorbed in advancing
supplies on credit. But when the Government
commenced distributing money here to the
troops and its creditors, then a far more grat-
ifying condition of affiirs was at once inaugu-
rated. Our merchants, mechanics and laborers
were reimbursed for what they had advanced,
and at once an unusual activity not only
marked every department of business, but new

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

branches of trade were introduced, the old
ones were multiplied and a vigor, which had
never before been felt, characterized the entire
city. Cairo was the great gateway between
the North and the South. It was a military
post of vast importance. Thousands of soldiers
were stationed here, forts erected, and
still other thousands of soldiers were
daily passing through the place. Green-
backs were plenty and morals became scarce.
Many unblushing outrages, which were never
punished, were committed upon citizens by
the demoralized soldiers. But the war adver-
tised Cairo more than had all else in her his-
tory as an important and commanding point
on the continent, and business and capital was
attracted here in an unparalleled degree. And
by the spring of 1863, Cairo was, for the third
time, in the glories of flush times. New houses
were going up on every hand that were always
rented before finished, and, for a village,^ often
at enormous figures ; but the new-comers were
on a race for some place to shelter their fam-
ilies, and they rarely hesitated about the price
of the rent. Everybody was making money,
and spending it freely and lavishly. The evi-
dences of this were well given in the swarms of
gamblers that came here and were busy
plying their vocation, until finally, so systemat-
ically were they robbing the soldiers, that rigid
military orders were issued in regard to them,
and some were put in irons.

Gen. Prentiss came here, we believe, in
charge of the first arrivals of soldiers, and
assumed the command of the post. He was
superseded by Gen. Grant, who was here so
long that he almost became a citizen. He had
his oflSce in the bank building, on Ohio levee,
now occupied as a law office by Green & Gil-
bert. The present old settlers of Cairo all
came to know Grant quite well while he was
here. John Rawlins came here with Grant and
was his factotum in office headquarters, and
"Washington Graham, a citizen and business

man of Cairo, was Grant's factotum outside.
Graham had extensive business ambition, and
he was shrewd enough to know and under-
stand Gen. Grant and quickly formed the
closest intimacy with him. He spent his money
on the General like a prince, and he was soon
the power behind the throne. He bought the
best of cigars b}' the wholesale, and constantly
kept the liquid commissary department at
headquarters abundantly supplied. Wash-
ington Graham, had he lived during the war,
would have, beyond doubt, extended his in-
fluence and power just as Grant was advanced
along the line of promotion. He was a man of
genial nature, strong social powers, and shrewd
sense — exactly- the kind of man who liked to be
the power behind the throne, and wielding that
power, when opportunitj' ofiered. to put money
in- his purse, and to make the fortune of his
friends and pull down remorselessly' his
enemies. He soon became essential to the
Grant party in all its junketing on the rivei's,
and was a member of headquarters' mess on
the steamboat in the expedition to Paducah
and to Fort Donelson. Grant liked him and
his liberal ways from the first of their acquaint-
ance, and when he was stricken down with con-
sumption and went to his friends in
St. Louis to die, it must have seemed to
Gen. Grant a serious aflliction. The
General must have loved all jolly, liberal men.
No man in the world could play his role better
than Washington Graham. Gen. Grant's family
were here for some time with him, and had
living-rooms across the hall from his head-
quarters. At that time the family seemed to
be very plain, unpretending people. Bill
Shuter's extensive establishment was the alma
mater of much of the enthusiastic patriot-
ism of those days, as well as some of the
early strategic movements of the war in the
West.

Among the first military movements of Gen.
Prentiss after he was placed in command of the

U'^^/enuz^^

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

forces at Cairo, numbering 4,800 men, was to
formally demand the arms of the Cairo Guards.
As the compan}' had dissolved into the air im-
mediately upon the coming of the soldiers, the
General could find no one to respond to
his flag of truce demanding an unconditional
surrender of the ordnances. But he found the
keys to the armory, and the deadly weapons of
war were taken possession of in the name of the
United States and turned over to arm the
Union soldiers.

The next and much more important move-
ment was to look out for the steamers C. E.
Hillman and John D. Perry, which he had been
notified by Gov. Yates had been loaded with
arms and ammunition and were on their way
South with their cargoes. When the boats'
reached Cairo they were boarded and brought
to the wharf A large number of arms and
ammunition were'seized and confiscated — a pro-
ceeding, at the time informal, but it was after-
ward approved by the Secretary' of War.

Gen. Grant's first battle in the war was Bel-
mont, Mo., a point nearly opposite Columbus,
K3'., where the rebels were in strong force, and
had detached a small portion of the Columbus
forces to occupy Belmont. Gen. Grant conclud-
ed it would be an immense piece of strategy-
to capture Belmont, and thus relieve that por-
tion of Missouri, and to some extent intercept all
communications between the rebel forces of
Kentucky and Missouri. So a fleet of boats
sailed down the river, and a part of the force
marched down by land from Bird's Point —
the force from the river to land and attack in
front, and the land force to come up in the rear,
and thus pocket the enem}'. The whole scheme
was well devised, and the river force, reaching
the grounds long before the land force, and
so eager were oflBcers and men for blood
and glory, that they at once attacked. The
river forces were under the immediate com-
mand of Gen. Grant. They were hastily
deploved from the boats, a short distance above

Belmont, formed in battle line, opened fire, and
charged upon the enem3''s encampment and
captured it. But the teats were empt}-, mostly,
and all hands were in deep indignation at the
enemy for running awa3' in such a dastardl}'
manner. And the soldiers fell to work ripping
up fhe tents, and prying into the culinar}' affairs
of the enem3''s camp, and exulting over their
easj' victory. Just when they had become
prett}' well scattered over the grounds, the
enemy suddenly' emerged from the woods, and
at short range, opened a galling fire. The ad-
vance of the land forces just then appeared,
and for a few minutes the battle raged fiercely
— the rebels charged, and the Union forces fled
to the boats, and in a dreadfull}' un-dress-pa-
rade fashion, and amid flying bullets the boats
were loaded and steamed back io Cairo. From
the manner in which the boats had been sprin-
kled with shot, from buckshot to birdshot, and
from many of the wounds in the clothes of the
federals, the enemy must have been mostly-
armed with shotguns and fowling pieces. The
land forces continued to return in straggling
squads, to Bird's Point for a week, as some of
them got lost in the river bottoms. The fed-
eral forces had simply walked into a trap that
had been set for them, and the}' escaped b}' the
" skin of the teeth."

An incident of this battle is worth relating.
When the Union forces captured the enemy's
camp, as stated above, the}' found nobody at
home, but they did find a female baby
about three months old, sleeping peacefully on
the bare ground, amid the roar of battle and
the whistling bullets that played thick and fast
all around it. There was no one to claim it,
and a good Caii'o citizen took the babe in his
arms and brought it to Cairo, whei'e it was
taken in charge by Father Lambert, and a
home provided for the little trophy of war.
Nothing could ever be learned concerning the
child, although every exertion was made to do
so. It was duly christened a Christian, and

HISTORY OF CAIEO.

named " Belmont Lambert." The supposition
is, that in the attack and firing upon the camp,
the mother of the child had been killed, and as
the father must have been a rebel soldier, it is
probable he was killed in this battle, or in
some other soon after, and it may be that no
one of this father, mother and babe ever knew
what became of the others. We know nothing
of the history of Belle Lambert, after she was
provided for here in Cairo, as an infant. If
alive now, she is a gi-own woman, twenty-two
years old. What a dream the strange story of
her life must be to her. How she must have
employed heavy hours of her young life in
peering at every lineament of her features in
the glass, trying to discover traces of her un-
known father and mother, and having fixed
them in her mind, as she supposed, how eagerly
would she scan every strange face she met, in
the vain hope, in all this multitude, of finding
the long-lost and ideally formed and loved
mother or father. Is there a mothers heart in
all the world that is not melted at the story of
this lost babe — the little angel waif, found un-
harmed in the midst of slaughter and blood — a
little flower of peace and love, sleeping sweetly
amid all its hideous surroundings.

But to refer again, briefly, to the Belmont
battle : There is a part of that storj' that is
furnished us b}' a prominent and reliable gen-
tleman of Cairo, William Lornegan, who was
acting mate on the transport, Montgomery, that
has never been told in print, and that will some
day be essential to the truth of history. He
says that one afternoon while the Montgomery
was anchored in front of Cairo. Wash Oraham
came on board and ordered the Captain to coal
at once, and drop down to Fort Holt,on the Ken-
tucky side, and that when he received the signal
from the flag-boat he was to swing out into the
stream and follow. The Captain asked Graham
what the signal was to be, and was answered,
"five whistles." Then, for the first time, word
passed around with the crew that they were

going to attack Columbus. Before that, they
supposed the}- were going to be loaded with
soldiers, and take them to Cape Girardeau, as
they had made a trip or two of this kind al-
ready. These troops, it was afterwai'd known,
were to march by land, and come upon Bel-
mont, in conjunction with the water forces, and
the Bird's Point forces. A force had been sent
out from Fort Holt to make a similar detour
upon Columbus from the east. Thus, by three
columns, a land force on each side of the river
and a fleet of transports and two gunboats by
the river, the two places, Columbus and Bel-
mont, were both to be captured. In accordance
with instructions, the flag-boat passed down by
Fort Holt about 4 o'clock, P. M., and gave the
*five-whistle signal, and the fleet of five trans-
ports and two gunboats sailed down the river.
Going about half way to Columbus, the}' round-
ed to and tied up for the night. The next
morning the fleet dropped down in full view of
the Columbus bluflfs, all over which were
mounted the rebel cannon, commanding the
river. About 9 o'clock in the morning, the
forces were disembarked, and were marched
toward Belmont. The gunboats dropped down
a short distance below the fleet, and fired upon
Columbus, the guns from the fort promptly re-
sponding, sending their balls, from the first shot,
closely about the transports — one ball falling
just at the stern of the Montgomery, and splash-
ing the water over the deck. The fleet moved
out from this point, and took a position two
and a half miles further up the river in a safe
bend, and there listened at the progress of the
fight at Belmont. The opening musketry was
not of long duration, and then there was a long
cessation, and the firing again commenced.
Mr. L. tells us that he saw nothing of the fight
at Belmont, and only learned from hearing the
soldiers talk about it, that the enemy threw a
force across the river from Columbus, and re-
newed the fight. He says the first signs he
noticed from the battle-ground was about sun-

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

down, when two soldiers appeared at the boat,
one leading and helping the other, who had
been wounded in the arm. Thej- reported that
the rebels had crossed over from Columbus, and
were " cutting our men all to pieces.' The
transports at once dropped down to the point
where they had landed the night before, so as
to permit our forces, whom the}' learned were
in full retreat before the enemy, to get on'
board. By the time the\- had landed it was
dark, and b}' this time, our forces were coming,
pell-mell — rank and file — officers and privates,
in one indiscriminate mass on board the boats.
In the confusion, some one from the hurricane
deck gave the mate the order to haul in his gang
plank and cast loose. This was only done,
when the Captain of the boat ordered the gang
I)lank run out again, so as to permit the fast-
coming soldiers to get on board. This was
done, and then almost immediately the order
was again given to cast loose, and this was
obej-ed, and the boat steamed up the river.
The whole fleet was on its way, and the banks
of the river were lined with rebels, pouring
a hot fire into the boats. The rebels sent
a battery across a bend up the river, intend-
ing by this movement to capture or sink
the entire fleet. As good fortune would
have it, they only reached their position
just as the boats passed, but so closel}'
had the}- pursued them that they fired a num-
ber of shots at the fleet. Mr. L. thinks that
had the fleet been dela3-ed thirty minutes longer,
the capture of the Union army and fleet would
have been complete. A number of soldiers
were left on the bank, and they made their way
to Bird's Point, as best they could, and for days
and days these stragglers were coming in. Mr.
L. says the fact of our forces not all being able
to get on the boats was painfull}- manifested to
his mind at the time by a conversation he
heard Gen. Logan have with some other officer.
Logan denounced what he called deserting these
men to their fate, and was insisting the fleet

should return and lake them on board. Mr. L.
says when he heard this, he made up his mind
he would swim ashore and walk home, rather
than go back.

Wash Graham seems to have been the acting
Admiral of the fleet, and so far as its actions
were concerned, he managed his part of the battle
with skill and success. Upon the return of the
army to Cairo, everybody seemed to be laboring
for several days under a general kind of nebulous
demoralization. But in a short time the troops
were called back to Cairo, Bird's Point and Fort
Holt, and the most of them put upon transports
and sent to Paducah, Ky. The history of
Grant's expedition up the river and the fights at
Fort Henry, Heiman and Fort Donelson are a
part of the war history of the country, and
are not properly to be considered as an essential
part of the history of Cairo ; although Cairo
was the base from which the expedition started
and on which it relied for material support.
And although it is also true that there are men
still living in Cairo who were in thatexpedition?
and who were boat officers on the boat that car-
ried Gen. Grant, Wash Graham and staff", and
whose recollection of much of the behind-the-
curtain facts that took place on that boat, are
essential to the truth of history, yet we do not
care to lumber the story of the city of Cairo
with them, but to the war historians who are to
come — those who do not care to write a partisan
account of the war, there may be found val-
uable mines of truth among the war survivors
at Cairo.

In another chapter, we give a toleralily broad
insinuation of the kind of men among the first
commandants of the post Cairo had during the
early war times. Col. Boohfort was a crank
and in his dotage ; he was a silly old vicious
creature. threatening everybody — "I'll have you
shot, sir ! Have you shot ! " or in his more
rational moods threatening to put them in irons.
He had a whole company of his own men ar-
rested one day and was going to have them shot

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

as usual, because in ridiug b}- their camp he
heard them singing " My Mary Ann, "' when it
turned out that that was his wife's name. A
Cairo butcher's team ran awaj- one day and at
full speed, the driver trying his best to stop
them, they ran across his parade grounds, and
when the old man saw his sacred grounds thus
sacrilegiously invaded, he screamed at the poor,
helpless driver as far as he could see him, " I'll
have you shot ! Arrest that man ! etc. " The
people, however, soon learned that he was as
vain as he was weak, and they wound him
around their finger by a little fulsome flattery
and bragging on him as being the greatest Gen-
eral in all the world. Yet his presence was a
dreadful affliction to the place. They
greatly feared and despised him, and there
were few in the town but that rejoiced when he
was taken away. His successor was, we believe.
Gen. ^leredith, of Indiana — a soldier and a
gentleman, and better still, a man of good sound
sense. His presence gave cheer and hope again
to the people, and once more men could go and
come from their homes to their business with-
out fear and trembling. The result was, the
business and the prospects of the town were
soon in the most flourishing condition. Then,
some of the commandants of the post in the
town were sometimes cursed with painfully offi-
cious and dishonest Provost Marshals. And
when one of these fellows was in command of
the Provost guards that patroled the city, and
did police duty, he had it in his power and some-
times did perpetrate scandulous outrages upon
private citizens. The}" were blackmailers,
clothed with power to compel terms from their
victims. The people had to appease these sharks
bj- frequent voluntari/ subscriptions to buy pres-
ents from their admirers, in the way of fine
swords, horses, watches, and champagne, cigars
and whisky. These subscriptions were taken
up b}- passing around a subscription paper, and
each man would put down his name and not
less than S5, and thus he paid his tax

to be let alone so that he could carry on his
business. It is incredible how many ways these
rascals could invent to bring men face to face
with the alternatives of blood-moue}', or iron
manacles. A specimen that may illustrate all:
A large lot of rebel prisoners were passing
through town, after the Fort Donelson fight,
and they were standing in front of the business
houses on the levee; the weather was wretched,
and the poor creatures were the picture of dis-
comfort ; they wanted clothing, food, and, es-
pecialh', tobacco. At a tobacco store where
several prisoners had begged a little tobacco,
two or three rebel officers entered "and wanted
some of the weed, and all the mone}- they had
was Confederate bills. The tobacco was^iven
to them, onl}- a few plugs, and the Confederate
money was taken as a curiosity. The Provost-
Marshal a few days after arrested the members
of the firm and fined them $100 for
taking Confederate money. They paid the
bill, and, of course, the Government never saw
a cent of the money. " Oh, patriotism ! patriot-
ism ! what atrocities have been committed in
thy name." Another instance of legal honesty
will suffice for our purpose, without any further
reference to the thousands of others of a char-
acter incomparably worse : An official ap-
proached a merchant and wanted to buy fort}-
or fifty suits of clothes. He said he did not
care what they were so they were cheap, very
cheap, anything, any style, second-hand or
rebel captured uniforms, or anything else that
could be classed as suits. The goods were
promptly got ready for delivery at about §2 50
a suit. The officer looked at them, took them
and instructed the merchant to make out his
bill at §22.50 a suit. And upon his paying in
cash the difference in the real price and the
bill, he received his voucher for the whole
amount.

When the Union forces wrested the Missis-
sippi river from the grasp of the rebels, and
made this orreat hi^hwav again a free channel

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

of travel and commerce, then, indeed, were the
floodgates of prosperity once more opened to
Cairo, and the town as the gateway between the
Mississippi Valley and the South was the busiest
place of its size on the continent. On every
train and on ever}' steamboat the tide of hu-
manity poured through the town. The steam-
boats, freighted to the very waters edge, going
and coming, filled the rivers, and da}- and night
they were struggling and almost fighting for
room at our wharves to load and unload their
cargoes. The Ohio levee, from one end to the
other, was covered with freight in great rows
and piles in bewildering quantities. The marine-
ways and docks from here to Pittsburgh were
building boats as fast as they could, and every
da}', almost, new and elegant ones rounded to
at our wharf, and yet they were wholly inad-
equate to carry the immense merchandise that
was awaiting shipments. The railroads were
taxed until they cried " peccavi ! " And it is a
well-known fact that property amounting to
millions of dollars awaited shipment over the
Illinois Central Railroad, at stations where there
being no room in the depots, it was exposed to
the weather and rotted. To all this there came

a corresponding horde of people to Cairo — per-
manent and temporary sojourners. The hotels,
boarding houses, tenement and everything in
the shape of a house was crowded to suffocation ;
new houses were at once being rapidly con-
structed and the universal cry was for more.
Rents went to fanciful figures, and in a short
time it was impossible to tell how many people
were here. Lots, leases, houses, rents and
nearly all Cairo property went balooning away
in a gay style — sailing up and up as grandly
and to as dizzy heights as a Fourth of July
orator's eagle. As said, the transient pop-
ulation was immense. In 1864, it was even es-
timated, counting the^floating population, that
there were nearly 12,000 people here, although
the vote at that time had never reached a thou-
sand. In other words, the population was
estimated greater then than the census has smce
shown it to be, although the last general elec-
tion showed there were over 1,800 voters. In
other words, the census of 1880 shows a pop-
ulation of a little less than 10,000 people. And it
is estimated now that the actual number of in-
habitants here is a fraction over 12,000.

CHAPTER IV.

DECIDEDLY A CAIRO CHAriER— CAIRO AND ITS DIFFERENT BODIES POLITIC AND CORPoRATE-

CAIRO CITY AND BANK OF CAIRO — CAIRO AND CANAL COMPANY — CAIRO CITY

PROPERTY— TRUSTEES OF THE C.\IRO TRUST PROPERTY— THE ILLINOIS

EXPORTING COMPANY — D. B. HOLBROOK— JUSTIN BUTTEll-

FI ELD— RECAPITULATION, ETC., ETC.

AT a time simultaneous with, or just prior
to, the coming of the nineteenth century,
the delta formed by the jimction of the Mis-
sissippi and Ohio Rivers began to attract the
attention of far-seeing men, as one of the
futiu'e important points upon the continent.
And from the time the fii'st white man's eyes

ever beheld it, 210 years ago, as Joliet and
Marquette and their little party, consisting
of five men besides themselves, floated around
the point of land that forms the extreme
southern limit of Illinois, and with joy and
gladness beheld the beautiful blue Ohio
River, and by this, their marvelous voyage

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

of discovery, placed this great Mississippi
Valley under the segis of France and Papal
Christendom, and thereby inaugurated that
tremendous world's drama that continued
during more than ninety years, in which
France and the Church were such conspicuous
actors; we say, from this date on, the little strip
of land on which the city of Cairo stands at-
tracted the attention of men, and presented
something of its prospective importance to the
entire Christian world. At the time of its
discovery, nearly all nations were more or
less involved in wars of conquest and in-
vasion — those mighty struggles for suprem-
acy in civilization, that were the most im-
portant factors in the present advanced state
of mankind, and especially that splendid
civilization that has been spread broadcast
over the world by the Anglo-Saxon race.
Hence, for more than a century after the dis-
covery of the point of junction of the two
great rivers, situated almost in the center of
the inhabitable portions of the continent of
North America, its transcendent importance,
in a military point of view, were studied and
well comprehended by all the military
powers of Europe. Its wonderful undevel-
oped and almost unclaimed commercial value
and inexhaustible productions were but little
considered until the long Revolutionary war
had been fought out, and peace had begun to
win those triumphs that have resulted in the
present rich and prosperous nation of more
than fifty millions of people.

A lai'ge number of incorporation acts, dat-
ing back even to the TeiTitorial times of
Illinois, have been enacted, and a somewhat
extended notice of these legislative doings
is made of great importance, from the fact
that in the attempt to make laws for found-
ing a city here there resulted the most im-
portant legislation, in both the State Legis-
lature and the Congress of the United States,

for the entii'e State of Illinois, that have
ever been placed upon the statute books;
wise laws, that have brought Illinois from
a sparsely settled, banki'upt and unpromis-
ing waste and wilderness, to the position of
the first State in the Union in many of the
leading agricultiu-al products, as well as in
railroads and all that tends to make a rich,
prosperous and happy people.

On the 9th day of January, 1818, the Ter-
ritorial Legislature concluded the time had
come that imperatively demanded that a city
be founded here, and on that day it passed
an act for the incorporation of the "City and
Bank of Cairo in the State of Illinois;" the
incorporators, consisting of John G. Comyges,
Thomas H. Harris, Thomas F. Herbert,
Shadrach Bond, Michael Jones, "Warren
Brown, Edward Humphreys and Charles W.
Hunter, who had entered a certain tract of
land between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers
and near the junction of the same. This
land included Fractional Sections 14, 15, 22,
23, 24, 25, 26, and the northeast fractional
quarter of Section 27, Town 17 south. Range
1 west, and contained about 1,800 aci*es.
The act of incoi'poration is ushered into the
world by the following grandiloquent stump
speech: " And whereas, the said proprietors
represent that there is, in their opinion, no
position in the whole extent of these "Western
States better calculated, as it respects com-
mercial advantages and local supply, for a
great and important city, than that afi'orded
by the junction of those two great highways,
the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. But that
nature, having denied to the extreme point
formed by their union, a sufi&cient degree of
elevation to protect the improvements made
thereon, from the ordinary inundations of
the adjacent waters, such elevation is to be
found only upon the tract above mentioned
and described. [It must be borne in mind

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

that this is one way of putting it that the
town site only commenced at the north line
of Bird'p land, which was not included in
the town plat.] So that improvements and
property made and located thereon [no sem-
blance of levees then made] may be deemed
perfectly safe and absolutely secure from all
such ordinary inundations, and liable to injury
only from the concurrence of unusually high
and simultaneous inundations in both of said
rivers, an event which is alleged but rarely
to happen, and the injurious consequenijes of
which it is considered practicable, by proper
embankments, wholly and effectually and
permanently to obviate. And whereas, there
is no doubt that a city erected at, or as near
as practicable, to the junction of the Ohio
and Mississippi Rivers, provided it be thus
secured by sufi&cient embankments, or in
such other way as experience may prove most
efficacious for that purpose, from every such
extraordinary inundation, must necessarily
become a place of vast consequence to the
prosperity of this growing Territory, and, in
fact, to that of the greater part of the in-
habitants of these Western States. And
whereas, the above-named proprietors are
desirous of erecting such city, under the
sanction and patronage of the Legislature
of this TeiTitory, and also of providing by
law for the security and prosperity of the
same, and to that end propose to appropriate
one-third part of all money arising from the
sale and disposition of the lots into which
the same be surveyed, as a fund for the con-
struction and preservation of such dykes,
levees and other embankments as may be
necessary to render the same perfectly
secui-e; and also, if such fund shall be
deemed sufficient thereto, for the erection of
public edifices and such other improvements
in the said city as may be, from time to time,
considered expedient and practicable, and to

appropriate the two-thirds part of the said
purchase- moneys to the operation of bank-
ing. And whereas, it is considered that an
act to incorporate the said proprietors and
their associates, viz., all such persons as
shall, by purchase or otherwise, hereafter
become proprietors of the tract above men
tioned and described, as a body corporate
and politic, while it guarantees to all those
who may become freeholders or residents
within the said city the fullest security as
to their habitations and property, will at the
same time concentrate the views and facili-
tate the operations of the said proprietors
and their said associates in rendering the
said city secure from all such inundations as
aforesaid, and in promoting the internal
prosperity of the same. " After this extraor-
dinary line of whereases, the Legislature pro-
ceeds to regularly incorporate the " City and
Bank of Cairo" — the city to be here, at the
junction of the rivers, and the bank tempo-
rarily to be, and transact business in, the town
of Kaskaskia, giving the body corporate the
title of the " President, Directors and Com-
pany of the Bank of Cairo, " requiring John
Gr. Comyges and his associates, within the
space of nine months from the passing of this
act, to proceed to lay off, on such town site,
a city, to be known and distinguished by the
name of Cairo; which shall consist of not
less than 2,000 lots, each lot being not less
than sixty-six feet wide and 120 feet deep,
and the streets of said city to be not less than
eighty feet wide, and to run, as near as may
be, at right angles to each other; that the
price of the said lots shall be fixed and
limited at $150 each, and appropriating the
money arising from the sale of lots as fol-
lows. Two-thirds part thereof, that is to
say, the sum of $100 on each lot sold, shall
constitute the capital stock of the bank;
dividing the capital stock into twice as many

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

shares as there are lots, the one-half of which
shares shall belong to the purchasers of said
lots, in the proportion of one share to each
lot, and the remaining of the shares shall
be the property of the said John G. Corny ges
and his associates, their heirs and assigns, in
proportion to the interest they may hold in
the same respectively; the remaining one-
third part of the piu'chase- money to consti-
tute a fund to be exclusively appropriated to
the security and improvement of said city;
the said Comyges and associates are author-
ized to appoint so many commissioners as
they may deem necessary, to receive sub-
scriptions for the purchase of lots; they are
required, upon any person applying to
make such purchase of subscription, to direct
the person so applying to deposit to the credit
of the Bank of Cairo, in the Bank of the
United States, or in the nearest chartered
bank, one-third of the purchase money, in
three and six months' payments. Then it
provides that no subscription shall be re-
ceived from any person for more than ten of
said lots. When oOO lots have been sub-
scribed for, the Commissioners are to call a
meeting of such subscribers at Kaskaskia, and
elect from their body thirteen Directors, who
were to hold office one year, and then these
Directors are to choose, by ballot, a Presi-
dent; authorizing them to prescribe by-laws
and regulations, and defining the duties of
the officers; the Directors are at once to dis-
tribute by lot among the subscribers, the
niimber each is entitled to receive, anc? to
make deeds therefor upon full and final
payment, and they are imperatively required
to receive all moneys deposited to their credit
in other banks, and thereupon to "commence
their operations as a banking company."
Provision is then made that the total amount
of debts which the bank may at any time
owe shall not exceed twice the amount of

the capital stock actually paid into said bank;
making the bills of credit, under the seal of
the corporation, assignable by indorsement,
as well as making all bills or notes which
may be issued by the corporation, in pay-
ment, though not under seal, binding and
obligatoi'y as upon any private person or per-
sons; the bank is required to make half-year-
ly dividends of profits; requiring each Cash-
ier, before entering upon the duties of his
office, to give bond and security to the amount
of SlOjOOO, and each clerk in the bank to
give, like bond to the amount of .f 2,000; lim-
its the interest on loans made by the bank
to six per cent. It then provides for the ap-
pointment of three of the Directors, a Com-
mittee, to have the charge and management
of all that portion of the purchase moneys
above set apart, and appropriated as a fund
for the security and improvement of said
city; and which fund, or such portion there-
of as the said Committee shall deem proper
and advisable, shall be invested in stock of
said bank, the said Directors being author-
ized and required to add to the capital stock
so many shares as shall be sufficient to take
in the same, at the par value of the stock.
Section 20 explicitly requires that it shall be
the duty of the Directors, immediately after
their election, to appoint tiu'ee persons not
of their own body, but who shall be remov-
able at the pleasure of the Directors, who
shall be citizens of Illinois, and even res-
idents of Cairo, if competent and judicious
persons can be found in the city, who shall
be styled " The Board of Secm-ity and Im-
provement of the City of Cairo," which
board, or a majority thereof, shall, under
the sanction of the Directors of the said
bank first had and obtained, direct and
superintend the construction and preserva-
tion of such dykes, levees and embankments
as may be necessary for the security of the

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

city of Cairo, and every part thereof, from
all and every inundation which can possibly
affect or injiu'e the same; and the erection,
fiom time to time, of such public works and
improvements as the state of such fund will
justify. They ai-e authorized to increase the
cai')ital stock, but it shall never exceed the
sum of $500,000. Section 23 commands
that the corporation shall not at any time
suspend, or refuse payment in'gold and silver
for any of its notes, bills or obligations, nor
any moneys received on deposit in the bank
or in its office of discount and deposit, and
if at any time such default is made, then
the bank shall forfeit 12 per cent per annum
from the time of such demand. The twenty-
foui'th and last section declares this to be a
public act, "and that the same be construed in
all courts and places benignly and favor-
ably."

Such was the gi'and scheme of the Illinois
Territory for founding here a city. To some
extent, it was running counter to the world's
experience, namely, to start the bank and
the embryo city at one and the same time,
and require the bank to build the city and
the city make rich and strong the bank. It
was a species of legislative financial wisdom
that might be likened unto the old saying of
making one hand wash the other. They pro-
longed their vision into their future and our
present time, and dreamed golden day-dreams
of all Illinois — at least all the part of it
soiith of Kaskaskia. They thought, perhaps,
of Romulus and Eome and the she- wolf ; of
St. Petersburg and Peter the Great; of Ven-
ice and her gondoliers, and her soft moon-
light and music; of Alexandi'ia, in Lower
Egypt, with her great forests of masts in her
harbor, and her temples and towers and
steeples and minarets glittering in the morn-
ing sun — the proud mistress of the world, in
wealth, commerce, intelligence, prowess and

glory — and their souls were fired with no
less an ambition than to rival and surpass all
these, and, therefore, to found and build here
a great and eternal city. They knew of the
Egyptian Cairo, lying midway between Eu-
rope, Asia, the Mediterranean Sea and the
north of Africa; of St. Petersbiu-g, where the
Gulf of Finland, , the Black Sea and the
White Sea, the Baltic and the Caspian pour
in their wealth upon *^her, through the Dnie-
per and Dniester, the Neva, the Dwina and
the Volga, with all their ten thousand reser-
voirs, by the help of her great canal system,
giving her a direct navigation of 4,000 miles,
fi'om St. Petersburg to the borders of China.
They looked upon New York and her vast
navigation; upon New Orleans, whose waters
di'ained a great empii'e. They, doubtless,
unrolled the world's map, and 'there noticed
that there are certain points that engage the
attention of mankind; that these^'points are
centers of civilization, and in all time they
have been found where vast bodies of water
meet, and large, populous and fertile terri-
tories converge, giving the most favorable
conditions for colonization, supply and de-
fense. There cannot be a doubt that, in the
estimate they put upon the natural point at
Cairo, they were wholly cori'ect, however
much they may have been mistaken in the
legislative machinery they deemed it wise to
put in motion to start into being the young
city.

John R. Corny ges was the moving and mas-
ter spirit in the inception and origin of the
" City and Bank of Cairo" scheme. He at-
tended upon the Legislature, and unfolded
his vast enterprise in such glowing terms that
that body made haste to grant his every re-
quest. He must have inspired those won-
derfully-constructed " whereases " that were
enacted into a law. And it must have been
his busy brain that conceived the dashing

HISTOEY OF CAIRO.

idea of first founding a wild-cat bank in the
wild jungles, the oozing mai-shes and among
the festive frogs of the Delta, and upon this
South Sea Bubble to lay the foundation of a •
great city, where men should " build for the
ages unafraid. "

This, the earliest effort to start a city here,
to fix a " base whereon these ashlars, well
hewn, may be laid," although so generously
aided by the Territorial Legislature, came to
naught, by the death of Comyges, just as he
was about to visit the capitalists of Europe,
to enlist their aid and interests in the grand
and promising scheme. The company had
entered the land on the old credit system,
and had sui'veyed and platted the town, and
were pushing every department under favor-
ing prospects, when the sudden death of their
organizer and leader, when there was no one
to take his place, spread such general doubts
and dismay among the stockholders, that the
enterprise collapsed and passed away, and
the title to the land reverted to the Govern-
ment.

A pai't of the interest that now attaches to
this original Cairo Company is the record it
made as to the knowledge men possessed
sixty-five years ago, as to the high waters in
our rivers, and how much we have learned by
the intervening experiences between then ana
now. In the prospectus, it stated to the world :
"It remains only to be shown that the want,
in this tract, of sufficient material elevation
presents but an inconsidrable obstacle to its
future greatness. To prove this fact, it be-
comes necessary to advert to the provisions
contained in the charter and the report of
the Surveyor, Maj. Duncan, who, at the re-
quest of the proprietors, undertook to run
the exterior limits and to ascertain the eleva-
tion of the ground; from which report it
will appear that an embankment of the
average height of five feet will secure it

effectually against the highest swells in both
rivers. It may here be proper to state that
much of this tract is already high, and quite
as eligible for warehouses and other build-
ings as many of the most flourishing stations
on the Ohio." They carefully estimated,
from their engineers' reports, that $20,000
would build all the levees around Cairo to
forever secure it against any possible waters
in the rivers.

Cairo City & Canal Company. — On the
4th of March, 1837, the Illinois Legislatui-e
incorporated Darius B. Holbrook, Miles A.
Gilbert, John S. Hacker, Alexander M. Jen-
kins, Anthony Olney and William M. Wal-
ker as a body corporate and politic, under
the name of the "Cairo City & Canal Com-
pany;" giving the usual powers of a charter
company, and to own and hardle real estate,
but providing that " the real estate owned
and held by said company shall not exceed
the quantity of land embraced in Fractional
Township 17, in Alexander County, and the
said corporation are hereby authorized to piu--
chase said land, or any part thereof, but
more particularly the tract of land incorpo-
rated as the city of Cairo, and may proceed
to lay off said land, or any part of the land of
said Township 17, into lots for a town, to be
known as the city of Cairo, and whenever a
plan of said city is made, the company shall
deposit a copy of the same, with a full de-
scription thereof, in the Recorder of Deeds'
office in the C unfy of Alexander. * * *
And the said corporation may construct
dykes, canals, levees and embankiuents for
the sec;u-ity and preservation of said city and
land and all improvements thereon, from all
and every inundation which can possibly
affect or injui*e the same, and may erect such
works, buildings and improvements which
they may deem necessary for promoting the
health and prosperity of said city. And for

HISTORY OF CAIKO.

draining said city, and other purposes, said
corporation may lay off and construct a canal,
to unite with Cache Kiver, at such point of
such river as the company may deem most
eligible and proper, and may use the water of
sa^id river for said canal, running to and
through said city of Cairo, as said company
may direct. * * * * The capital stock
of the company shall consist of 20,000 shares,
and no greater assessment shall be laid upon
any shares in said company of a greater
amount than §100 each share. And the im-
mediate government and direction, of the
affairs of said company shall be vested in
a board of not less than five Directors, who
shall be chosen by the members of the cor-
poration in manner hereinafter provided, a
majority of whom shall form a quorum for
the transaction of business; shall elect one
of their number to be President of the
Board, who shall also be President of the

company.

* * * *

The President and

Directors for the time being are hereby au-
thorized and empowered, by themselves or
their agents, to execute all powers herein
gi'anted to the company, and all such other
powers and authority for the management of
the affairs of the company not heretofore
granted, as may be proper and necessary to
carry into effect the object of this act, and to
make such equal assessments, from time to
time, on all shares of said company as they
may deem expedient and necessary, and
direct the same to be paid m to the Treasurer
of the company; and the Treasurer shall give
notice of all such assessments, and in case
any subscriber shall neglect to pay his as-
sessment for the spice of thirty days due
notice by the Treasurer of said company, the
Directors may order the Treasurer to sell
such share or shares at public auction, after
giving due notice thereof, to the highest
bidder, and the same shall be transferred to

the purchaser, and such delinquent subscriber
shall be held accountable to the company for
the balance. * * * * ^ toll is hereby
granted and established, for the benefit of
said company, upon all passengers an d prop-
erty of all descriptions which may be con-
veyed or transported upon the canal of the
company, upon such terms as may be agreed
upon and established, from time to time, by
the Directors of said company. That the
company shall not be authorized by this act
to erect or construct any dam or dams upon
or across Cache River, for the purpose afore-
said, until they shall first have obtained the
consent of the County Commissioners' Court
of Alexander County, which consent . so ob-
tained shall be entered upon the recoi'ds of
said court; and whenever the route on said
canal shall be located, the company shall
have recorded a plan and description thei*eof
in the office of the Recorder of Deeds and
the office of said County Commissioners'
Court, in Alexander County. The said com-
pany shall be holden to pay all damages that
may arise to any person or corporation, by
taking their land for said canal or any other
invrpose when it cannot be obtained by volun-
tary agreement, to be estimated and re-
covered in 4he manner provided by law, for
the recovering of damages happening by lay-
ing out highways. When the lands, or
other property or estate of any femme-covert,
infant or person non comj)os mentis, shall be
wanted for the purposes and objects of the
company, the guardian of said infant or per-
soni non compos mentis, or husband of such
femme-covert, may release all damage and
interest for and in such lands or estate
taken for the company as they ^might do if
the same were holden by them in their own
right respectively This act shall be deemed
and taken as a public act. It shall continue
in force for the term of twenty-five years

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

from the passage thereof. The final section
requires that -unless §20.000 is expended on
the canal within five years from the date of
the act, it shall be forfeited. In February,
1839, the Legislature amended that act as
follows: " "that the said Cairo City &
Canal Company shall not be obliged, as au-
thorized by its charter, to lay ofi" and con-
struct a canal to unite with Cache River,
should the same be deemed injurious to the
health of the city — and the twelfth section of
said act. which requires a certain amount to
be expended on said canal within five years,
is hereby repealed."

We have given verbatim enough of this
remarkable charter, in its ultimate results
one of the most important that .was ever
gi-anted by the State of Illinois, for the
reader to see for himself that it is one of
two things, namely, either the most amazing
in the complete simplicity of its author's
ideas, or Machiavelian in its transcendant
ability to hide the iron hand beneath the vel-
vet glove. No State document was ever
drafted that could look more innocent, and
at the same time appropriate to itself com-
plete and sovereign and autocratic powers,
in the name of building a canal from the
mouth of Cache River to and through the
city of Cairo to the extreme southern point
of land. If the company ever thought of
building a canal from the mouth of Cache
through the city, they would not only have
to curve it several times on its route, to keep
the canal from running into the river, but
they must have known they would Lave to
erect great and sti'ong artificial levees on
both sides of their canal to prevent both rivers
from rushing from their long-occupied beds,
with an angry roar, souse into the canal. On
the other hand, if they never did contemplate
building the canal, then, indeed, is its mas-
terly shrewdness patent at a glance. Cer-

tainly, even an Illinois Legislature would
have discovered the cat in the meal-tub had
the incorporators gone before them and
asked for a charter to found a city, and,
without any canal attachment, asked for such
complete powers of the right of eminent
domain over private property, real and per-
sonal! If they ever intended to build a
canal, they were soon cured of that hallucina-
tion, as is shown by the amendment of 1S39,
which simply permits the whole canal scheme
to be dropped, and yet leaves all the great
powers that were originally gi-anted the com-
pany intact. So far as can now be ascer-
tained, the company never abused or exer-
cised to the ill of any one these powers con-
ferred by the charter. If there was a pur-
pose Im'king beneath the fair face of the
fundamental law of the new city, it, perhaps,
was not in the idea of its author to use it to
wrong or oppress any private citizen, and it
would only be invoked as a last resort to pro-
tect the vital welfare of the future city.

As stated above, this Caii'o City & Canal
Company charter became a law March 4,
1837, and not March 4, 1838, as probably
the compositor made Mose Harrell say, in a
sketch of early Cairo that he published a few
years ago. The date is important, because
on June 7, 1837, "The Illinois Central Rail-
road Company," which had been incorpor-
ated January 16, 1836, and authorized to
construct a railroad, commencing at or near
the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi
Rivers, and extending to Galena, released all
its rights back to the State of Illinois, con-
ditioned, however, that "the State of Illinois
shall commence the conetruction of said rail-
road within a reasonable |time, and to com-
mence at the city of Cairo and build north
to Galena."

On the 27th day of June, 1837, there was
an agreement entered into between the orig-

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

inal Illinois Central Kailroad, by A. M.
Jenkins, its President, and the Cairo City
& Canal Company, by D. B. Holbrook, its
President, by which it was stipulated the
railroad to be constructed by the Illinois
Central Railroad " shall be commenced at
such point in the city of Cairo as the Cairo
City & Canal Company may fix and direct.
This release of the Central Railroad of its
franchise back to the State was caused by
the wild craze that had taken possession of
the entire State on the great internal im-
provement system, that bo quickly landed the
Commonwealth in bankruptcy, and abruptly
stopped all State progress fox several years.
This was a sad and severe lesson to the
young State, but probably in the end it was
for the best. On the same day of the above
agreement, namely, 20th June, 1837, the Cairo
& Canal Company having obtained, by
purchase, the lands in Town 17 south, Range
1 west, on a portion of which had been laid
out the city of Cairo, mortgaged the entire
property to the New York Life Insurance
& Trust Company, to secvu*e certain loans
and moneys advanced by English capitalists.
The release made by the Illinois Central
Railroad Company was accepted by the
State, on the conditions imposed, and the
State commenced at Cairo the construction
of the railroad, which the railroad company
had been authorized to construct to Galena;
and the Cairo City & Canal Company
pressed forward the improvements it was
making, upon which, up to February 1,
1S40, it had expended, of boiTowed money,
about $1,000,000. It had erected mills,
various workshops atfl houses for its em-
ployees, and there had congregated here about
1,500 souls. But on February 1, 1840, the
great internal improvement system, which
had been inaugiu'atod by the infatuated State
Legislature of 1837, was repealed, and the

work upon the Illinois Central stopped, after
the State had expended, as stated, over
$1,000,000. While the bursting of this
bubble seriously crippled, financially, the
entire people of the State, it was especially
disastrous at Cairo. It was the work upon
the railroad that had brought the people
here, and when not only the State was bank-
rupt, but the Cairo City & Canal Company
was insolvent, the railroad defunct, the
banker of the company in England had
failed, and all work and improvements were
abandoned, the people fled, and desolation
brooded over the town, where now "the
spider might weave, unmolested, his web in
her palaces, and the owl hoot his watch song
in her temples."

On March 6, 1843, the Legislatm-e passed
an act to incorporate the Great Western
Railway Company. "While this was a rail-
road charter, authorizing the construction of
a railroad upon the line of the original
Illinois Central Railroad, yet it was, in fact,
a re-incorporation of the Cairo City &
Canal Company. After the enacting clause,
it says: "That the President and Directors
of the Cairo City & Canal Company (in-
corporated by the State of Illinois) and their
successors in office be and they are hereby
made a body corporate and politic under the
name and style of the ' Great Western Rail-
way Company,' and under that name and
style shall bo and are hereby made capable,
in law and equity, to sue and be sued, de-
feud and be defended, in any court or place
whatsoever, to make, have and use a common
seal, the same to alter and renew at pleasure,
and by that name and style be capable in
law of contracting and being conti acted
with, of purchasing, holding and conveying
away of real estate and personal estate for
the pui-poses and uses of said corporation;
and shall be and are herebv invested with

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

all the powers, privileges and immunities,
which are or may be necessary to carry into
eflect the object .and pui-poses of ^this act, as
hereinafter set forth; and the said corpora-
tion ai*e hereby authorized and empowered to
locate, construct and finally complete a rail-
road, commencing at the city of Cairo,
thence north by way of Vandalia, etc.,"
almost exactly as specified in the charter of
the original Illinois Central Railroad.

This act of incorporation was mei'ely the
grafting into the Cairo City & Canal Com-
pany a railroad franchise, which in no single
clause diminished the original powers of the
Cairo City & Canal Company, but enlarged
and extended them throughout the entire
length of the State. So completely were the
two companies made one, indeed, so fully was
the railroad merged into and absorbed by
the canal company, that the officers of the
city company, including the President and
Directors, were made the officers of the rail-
road by the legislative act. It should be
borne in mind that the State had expended
over $1,000,000 in work upon the Illinois
Central Railroad, and all this was turned
over to the Cairo City & Canal Company
and the Great Western Railroad (all one and
the same thing) and this was turned over to
the new company in the following rather
loose language, in Section 12 of the incor-
poration act: "The frovernor of this State is
hereby authorized and required to appoint
one or more* competent persons to estimate
the present value of any work done, at the
expense of the State, on the Central Rail-
road; also of any materials or right of way;
and whatever sum shall be fixed upon as the
value thereof, by said persons, shall be paid
for by the company, in the bonds or other
indebtedness of the State, any time during
the progress of the road to completion, and
any contract entered into under the seal of

the State, signed by the Governor thereof,
shall be legal and binding, to the full intent
and purpose thereof, on the State of Illinois,"

Section 14, with equal State liberality and
vagueness, goes on to specify that whenever
the whole indebtedness of the company shall
be paid and liquidated, the Legislature of
the State ^ of Illinois, thereafter then in
session, shall have the power to alter, amend
or modify this act, as the public good shall
require, and also that of the City of Cairo
& Canal Company; and the eleventh section
of the act incorporating the said Cairo Citi/
& Canal Company, which limits its charter
to twenty years, be and the said section is
hereby repealed, and this act be and is de-
clared a public act, and as such shall be
taken notice of by all courts of justic ■ in the
State, etc.

Two years after this, March 3, 1845, the
Legislature repealed the act incoi-porating
the Great Western Railroad Company. This
repealing law like all other legislation upon
that subject, was no doubt passed at the in-
stance of the railroad company, or rather of
the Cairo Cit}^ & Canal Company. On its
face, it has the appearance of a design to
give back to the State all its rights and
privileges except those pertaining to the
founding of a city here and the construction
of a canal from Cache to and through Cairo.

But on February 10, 1849, the Legislature
passed another law, which repealed the re-
pealing act, and starts out by saying that
the President and Directors of the Cairo City
& Canal Company, under the name and
style of the " Great Western Railway Com-
pany," chartered Mf^eh 6. 1843, and that
William F. Thornton, Willis Allen, Thomas
G. C. Davis, John Moore, John Huffman,
John Green, Robert Blackwell, Benjamin
Bond, Daniel H. Brush, George W. Pace,
Walter B. Scates, Samuel K. Casey, Albert

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

G. Caldwell, Humphrey B. Jones, Charles
Hoyt, Ira Minarcl. Charles S. Hempstead,
John B. Chapin, Uri Osgood, H. D. Berley,
Hemy Corwith, I. C. Pugh, John J. Mc-
Graw, Onslow Peters, D. D. Shumway, Jus-
tin Butterfield, John B. Turner, Mark Skin-
ner and Gavion D. A. Parks be associates
with said company in the construction of
said railroad, and are empowered and
reinstated, with all the powers and privileges
contained in said act of incorpoi-ation,
and are also subject to all restrictions
contained in said act of incoporation — the
act in force March 3. 1845, which repealed
the charter of the company, to the contrary
notwithstanding. This reviving act then
proceeds to extend the privileges of the Cairo
City & Canal Company in a most liberal
manner. It authorizes them to construct the
Great Western Eailroad from the teiTaina-
tion set forth in the said charter, at or near
the termination of the Illinois & Michigan
Canal to the city of Chicago. Section 3 is
important enough to give it entire, as follows:
"And the right of way the State may have
obtained, together with all the work and sur-
veying done at the expense of the State, and
materials connected with said road, Mng be-
tween the termination of the Illinois &
Michigan Canal and Cairo City, are hereby
granted to said company upon conditions as
follows: Said company shall take posses-
sion of ^said road within two years of the
passage of this act, and as far as practicable
preserve the same from injury and dilapida-
tion; and said company shall, within two
years from the passage of this act, expend
$100,000 in the construction of said road,
and $200,000 for each year thereafter, until
said road shall have been completed from the
city of Cairo to the city of Chicago.

Sec 4. The Governor of the State of
Illinois is hereby authorized and empowered I

to contract with and agree to hold iu trust,
for the use and benefit of said Great West-
ern Railway Company, whatever lands may
be donated or thereunto seciu-ed to the State
of Illinois by the General Government, to
aid in the completion of the Central or Great
Western Railroad from Cairo to Chicago,
subject to the conditions and provisions of
the bill granting the lands by Congi-ess,
and the said company is hereby authorized
to receive, hold and dispose of any and all
lands secui'ed to said company by donation,
pre-emption or otherwise; subject, however,
to the provisions of the eighteenth section of
its charter. [This clause was to the effect
that all lands coming into the hands of the
company, not required for use, security or
construction, should be sold by the company
within live years, or revert to the Govern-
ment.] Provision was then further made that
the Governor should, from time to time, as
the company progressed with the work, des-
ignate in writing the proportion of such
lands donated by Congress to be sold and dis-
posed of.

In order to complete the list of incorpo-
ration acts, that had a direct reference to the
owners and proprietors of the city of Caii'o,
it is proper here to explain that on January
18, 1836, the Legislature incorporated the
Illinois Exporting Company. The act states
that "all such persons as shall become sub-
scribers to the stock hei-eiuafter described,
shall be and they are hereby constituted and
declared a body politic and corporate." It
proceeds to enable the President and Direct-
ors of the company to "carry on the manu-
facture of agricultural products; erect mills
and buildings; export their products and
manufactures, and enter into all contracts
concerning- the management of their prop-
erty. The capital stock is §150,000, and
may be increased to $500,000; meetings and

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

general places of business of the company to
be at Alton ; may select any other place of
business; may erect mills, etc., in any county
in the State, by permission of the County
Commisisoners' Court. James S. Lane,
Thomas G. Howley, Anthony Olney, John
M. Krum and D. B. Holbrook are appointed
Commissioners to obtain subscription to the
capital stock of the company; any one could
become a subscriber by paying $1. Provided,
the provisions of this act shall in no case
extend to the counties of Edgar, Green and
St. Clair, etc., etc.

On September 29, 1846, in consequence of
the general and financial disasters, resulting
from panic and widespread bankruptcy
throughout the commercial world, the pai'ties
interested in Cairo, the mortgagees, judg-
ment creditors, owners in fee and otherwise
interested, after a series of consultations,
agi-eed and did form and create the " Trust
of the Cairo City Property," conveying the
property to Thomas Taylor, of Philadelphia,
and Charles Davis, of New York, as Trustees.

On May 10, 1876, the Trustees of the Cairo
City property, having expended in making
material improvements about Cairo $1,307,-
021.42, of which $184,505.64 was expended
upon the levee running along the Ohio River,
and $149,973.23 upon the levee running
along the Mississippi River, and $70,445.06
upon the protection of the Mississippi River
bank, and $571,534.08 upon general improve-
ments, and $330,553.41 upon taxes and as-
sessments, found themselves unable to pay
two loans obtained from Hiram Ketchum,
of New York — one on October 1, 1863, for
$250,000, and the other on October 1, 1867,
for $50,000, to secure which, mortgages, of
the dates given, had been executed. The
mortgages were, therefore, foreclosed, and
the property of the Trust of the Cairo City
Property sold to the bondholders under the

mortgage, and a new, and the present, trust
was formed, called the Cairo Trust Property,
under the control and management oE Col.
S. Staats Taylor and Edwin Parsons, the
Trustees.

On the 14th of February, 1841, the Legis-
lature passed an act conferring upon the
Cairo City & Catial Company "all the
powers conferred upon the Board of Alder-
men of the City of Quincy, as defined be-
tween the fii'st and forty-fifth sections ol the
charter of that city," and these grants were
confirmed for ten years.

It is possible there were other laws passed
for the benefit of the many charter companies
that depended and hinged upon the Cairo
City & Canal Company, but we have not,
so far, found them. But in all these acts
and doings, one fact is distinctly seen : Many
people believed that it was all, practically,
the work of D. B. Holbrook, and that, as a
rule, up to the time that his path was crossed
by Judge Douglas, the names of D. B. Hol-
brook and the Cairo City & Canal Company
were practically one and the same thing.
He was certainly a man of great activity of
intellect, shrewdness and untiring industry,
and while all conceded him this, yet many
deemed him utterly selfish, and indifferent
to all interests except his own, and that he
was a shrewd and dangerous marplot, who
brought evil to Cairo by his reckless greed
of power and money. In speaking of the
crash that came upon Cairo in 1841, Mose
Harrell, among other things, enumerated, as
the chief cause thereof, to have been the fail-
ure of the banking-house of Wright & Co.,
London, through which continuous loans to
the City Company were anticipated; the sus-
pension of work on the Illinois Central Rail-
road, upon which so much trade depended,
and the general abandonment of the system
of public works inaugurated by the State in

'^.i-

im^

/J i>f^'

m-L^.cM, X-/ix^

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

1837, and he says: " Possibly another reason
was the monopoly of which Holbrook was the
head. Under his rule, no person could be-
come a freeholder in the city; ground there
could not be purchased or leased; all the
dwellings were owned by the company; no
one could live in the city, unless at the pleas-
ure of Holbrook, as even the hotels were the
property of the company. More than that,
the company were empowered (with) all the
rules and regulations for the municipal gov-
ernment, such as a Mayor and Common
Council might establish. The company could
declare a levy of taxes and enforce its col-
lection, and could expend the money as it
chose." In a letter published in the New
York Herald, and of date October 3, 1850,
we extract the following: " In 1835, Mr. D.
B. Holbrook, originally from Boston, pro-
cured from the Legislature of the State of
Illinois his first charter for the Cairo City
& Canal Company, and he also procured a
charter for the Central Kailroad Company,
from Cairo to Galena. He subsequently ob-
tained a third charter, for the Illinois Ex-
porting Company, with authority to carry on
transportation by land and water, and to in-
sure against risks from fii'e and water, and
to carry on manufacturing business gener-
ally. He also purchased and revived a de-
funct bank charter, known as the Cairo Bank,
and one or two others I cannot specify. Mr.
Holbrook at once organized the Cairo City
& Canal Company; took the stock himself,
and had himself elected President; also or-
ganized the Central Railroad Company, by a
nominal payment of -SI per share (which was
never paid in, but a note given in lieu of the
money), and elected himself President. He
also organized the Illinois Exporting Com-
pany, in the same mode; and also organized
the Cairo Bank, and put one of his instru-
ments at the head of it. Subsequently, D.

B. Holbrook, as President of the Cairo City
& Canal Company, entered into a contract
with D. B. Holbrook, as President of the
Central Bailroad Company; and D. B. Hol-
brook, as President of the Central Railroad
Company, further contracted with D. B. Hol-
brook, of the Illinois Exporting Company,
and D. B. Holbrook, as President of that
company, contracted with D. B. Holbrook, as
President of each of the other companies,
that each of said companies might exercise all
and singular, the rights, privileges and
powers conferred by law upon either; by
which all companies were to be consolidated
into one, and exercise the several powers con-
ferred upon each. * * * * jn 1S36,
the Illinois Legislature adopted its mam-
moth system of internal improvement, and
among other enterprises, commenced the
construction of a Central Railroad as a State
work, Mr. Holbrook having surrendered
his charter for that purpose. After having
spent about $1,000,000 on |the road, the
credit of the State failed, and the system was
abandoned. A charter was subsequently
granted bj' the Legislature to the Cairo City
& Canal Company, by which that company
was authorized to construct the Central Rail-
road. At the last regular session of the
Legislatm-e, while a bill was pending before
Congress, making" a grant of land to the
State, in aid of the construction of the rail-
road, a law was passed, transferring to the
said company the right of way, and all the
work which had been executed by the State
at the cost of $1,000,000, together with all
the lands which had been, or should here-
after be, granted by Congress to the State in
aid of the constniction of said railroad.
How this act was passed remains a mystery,
as its existence was not known in Illinois
until Judge Douglas brought it to light in a
speech at Chicago in October last. In that

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

speech, Judge Douglas denounced the whole
transaction as a fraud upon the Legislature
and the people of the State, and declared
that he would denounce it as such in the
Senate of the United States, if an application
was ever made to that body for a grant of
land, whilst the Holbrook charters, and es-
pecially the act referred to, remained in
force."

Tlae letter proceeds to give an account of
how Judge Douglas finally compelled Hol-
brook and his company to execute a complete
release of their charter to the State, and
then says: "But for the execution of the re-
lease by Mr. Holbrook, and the surrender of
all claims to any railroad charter, or rights
and privileges under any act of the Illinois
Legislature on the subject, the grant of land
would never have been ,made by Congi-ess.
Thus it appears that Mr. Holbrook has no
charter for a railroad in Illinois, and no
claims to the lands which have been granted,
unless the State of Illinois refuses to accept
the release, or makes a new grant to D. B.
Holbrook, which, unless its members are
crazy, it is not likely to do. I have deemed
it necessary to make this exposition of the
facts in the case, in order ,that capitalists in
New York and elsewhere may not labor under
eiToneous impressions in regaixl to so impor-
tant a matter, affecting alike the honor of the
State of Illinois and that of Congress."

A full and complete account of the nego-
tiations, correspondence, etc., that ^resulted
in this important transaction, will be found
in another chapter in the account of the
building of the Illinois Central Railroad.
We give here these extracts from the letter of
"An Illinois Bondholder," merely to show
the tenor of the attacks that were in that day
made upon Holbrook, and the wide and pro-
found sensation the appearance of this ex-
traordinary financier made all over the coun-

try. The reader (^can now readily see there
are many historical inaccuracies in the let-
ter, yet, at the time it was published, it was
a strong document, and had evidently been
carefully prepared by some one who had
studied well the subject. It is possible the
writer was a jealous rival of Holbrook's, and
one who conceived that his own success could
only be accomplished by first pulling down
Holbrook and his company. Certainly, there
is too much feeling displayed in these attacks
upon this remarkable man by his cotempo-
raries, to cause all their statements about his
unholy purposes to be now implicitly re-
ceived, and given to the world as attested
facts. A patient and impartial investigation
of the times, and the general circumstances
surrounding D. B. Holbrook and his asso-
ciates in the Cairo City & Canal Company,
leads to the conclusion that they were seek-
ing sincerely to improve the great West, and
to build here in Illinois great cities and rail-
roads, and that neither the glory nor the
blame, nor the wise and beneficial acts, nor
the mistakes of the company properly be-
longed wholly to Holbrook, as were so widely
charged in his day of activity here. His as-
sociates and co-Jncorporators in the Cairo
City & Canal charter were among the most
eminent, patriotic and just men in the State
in their day. They have mostly passed from
earth, and all have ceased from the active
struggles of life, and of Breese, and Casey,
and Judge Jenkins and Miles A. Gilbert, the
only one living, and the many other co-
laborers in the early work of improvements
in Illinois, their untarnished [memories will
ever remain a rich legacy to the people of
Illinois. The finger marks of these men will
ever remain upon the early history of the
i State. Each one of them worked in his own
chosen or allotted sphere, yet in harmony
with his other incorporators, and together

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

they thought out and worked out causes here,
whose effects Avill endiu'e perpetually.

As remarked in the early j)ortion of this
chapter, the act granting the charter of the
City of Cairo & Canal Company was the
first step in attracting the attention of many
of the leading men of the nation to this great
natui'al commercial point, and that attention
once arrested, and the lakes of the North and
the waters of the great rivers at once made
plain the fact that they must be joined
together by railroads, had set busy minds to
thinking how this immense work could best
be done, or, for that matter, done at all.
Men were stiidying the maps with the care
and diligence which warriors give these
things with reference to their marches, re-
treats or battle grounds.

In the latter days of Judge Breese's life,
he claimed that he had promulgated the idea
of a Government land-grant in aid of the
construction of the Illinois Central Railroad.

There is an abundance of evidence that
not only Judge Breese, but that many others
were giving it close attention. But, com-
mencing with Judge Breese, and following
along all the now existing records, lottei's
and publications, we find they, one and all,
fell short in the full completion of the idea
of a land donation in this: They advocated
donating the lands by pre-emption, and not
as in the form the act was finally passed by
Judge Douglas as a direct and absolute
transfer of the title in fee to the railroad,
upon its conforming to the prescribed condi-
tions. Nearly all the people of Illinois bad
discussed the subject in social life, in the
press and in public meetings held in .the
counties along the route of the pi'oposed
railroad, but the pre-emption-donation idea
only prevailed, and the first time the thought
of a direct title in fee was put forth by
Mr. Justin Butterfield, January 18, 1848, in

a public meeting of the citizens of Chicago,
which he had called for the purpose of con-
sidering the feasibility of constructing h rail-
road to connect the Tpper and Lower Mis-
sissippi with the Great Lakes of the North,
and to recommend to Congress that a grant of
lands should be made to the State of Illinois
for that purpose. The meeting was presided
over by Thomas Dyer, Esq. , and Dr. Brainord
acted as Secretary. Col. K. J. Hamilton,
Justin Butterfield, M. Skinner, A. Hunting-
ton and E. B. AVilliams were appointed, by
the chair, a Committee to report resolutions,
and they reported the following, which had
been prepared by Mr. Butterfield. which
were unanimously adopted:

Resolved, That the great and almost in-
credible increase in wealth, population and
commerce of the great valley of the West,
duriiig the last ten years, as clearly exhibited
by oflficial reports submitted to the Congress
of the United States, appears to recjuire. on
the part of that enlightened body, a cori-e-
sponding* attention to its wants an 1 necessi-
ties.

Resolved, That the grant of public lands
by Congress, for the purpose of opening or
improving avenues of commerce in their
State jurisdiction, has been approved by the
wisest and most experienced of our states-
men, and has been eminently beneficial to
the States and the Union.

Resolved, That a railroad, to connect the
Upper and Lower Mississippi with the great
lakes, would be a work of great importance,
not only to the agricultural and commercial
interests of the State, but to all portions of
the United States interested in the commerce
of the lakes and the Western rivers.

Resolved, That, in a military point of view,
as well as for the speedy and economical
transportation of the mails (objects eminent-
ly connected with the general welfai'e and
common defense), such a road would be un-
questionably of national importance, and
therefore deserving of aid from the National
Legislature.

Resolved, That om- Senators and Repre-

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

sentatives in Congress of the United States
be requested to use their best exertions to
secure the passage of a law, granting to the
State of Illinois the right of way and public
lands, for the constraction of a railroad to
connect the Upper and Lower Mississippi
with the lakes at Chicago, equal to every al-
ternate section for five miles wide on each
side of said road.

Upon these resolutions, Mr. Butterfield de-
livered an able address, which he read from
manuscript; from which we make the fol-
lowing extracts: "The locomotive, whose
speed almost annihilates time and distance,
has introduced a new era in travel, in trans-
portation and fn commercial interchanges.
It is in successful operation in most of the
nations of Europe, and in most of the Ameri-
can States, Illinois excepted — a level, cham-
paign country, better adapted by natm'e for
its use than any other State or country of
equal extent in the world. Why we should
be so far behind the age, in the adoption of
this great improvement, it is unnecessary
now to inquire. Suffice it to say, that in the
years 1836 and 1837, when we were compara-
tively weak and feeble in population, in pro-
ductive industry and pecuniaiy resources, we
madly and wildly rushed into a gigantic and
ill-digested system of internal improvements
altogether beyond our ability. We j^rojected
more than thirteen hundred miles of railroad;
we borrowed millions of money, and sowed
it broadcast; our money was soon expended,
and our credit gone; in the great re-action of
1839 and 1840, desolation swept over the
land, and the moldering ruins and crumbling
monuments of public works are all that now
remain of our once magnificent system of in-
ternal improvements. * * * *

" The extent of steam navigation upon the
Mississippi and its tributaries is rising of
16,000 miles, giving a coast of over 32,000
miles, * * a large portion of which is as

fertile as the Valley of the Nile, and capable
of sustaining a population as dense as that
of England, and is now settling and im-
proving with unparalleled rapidity. The
Middle and Eastern States, and many of the
nations of Europe, are the great hives that
are sending forth their swarms to populate
our Western lands; year after year, in ever-
increasing numbers, they come, and truly
demonstrate that ' Westward the march of
empire takes its way.' But who can foresee,
who can calculate, the immense trade, travel
and commerce that will be done upon the
Western lakes and rivers when their banks
and coasts shall be settled with half the
density with which Europe is populated?

" It is proposed to construct a railroad to
connect the Upp^r and Lower Mississippi
with the Great Lakes; this railroad to com-
mence at the confluence of the Ohio and Mis-
sissippi Rivers at Cairo, * * * *

" Cairo is the most favorable point for th e
southern tei'minus of this road, as the navi-
gation of both the Ohio and Mississippi
Rivers, above Cairo, is often obstructed by
ice in the winter and by low water in the
summer; but from Cairo to New Orleans
there is an uninterrupted navigation all sea-
sons of the year. * * * * The i-ailroad
is important to our national defense. I be-
lieve it is regarded by military men, that in
case of a war with a maritime power, like
England, the Gulf of Mexico on the south,
and that portion of our country bordering
upon Canada in the north are our weakest
frontiers; and in the event of such a war, it
will be necessary for our defense to marshal
our naval forces, so as to maintain our mari-
time ascendency in the Gulf and on the lakes.
That it is viewed in this light by the Govern-
ment, may be inferred from the fact that
about three years ago the project of the
United States constructing a ship canal, be-

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

tween Lake Michigan and the Mississippi,
was agitated in Congress, and resulted in
the Secretary of the Navy sending out one of
our most distinguished naval commanders,
and the chief of the Engineer Corps, to in-
vestigate the practicability of the meas-

i-iY^fi ^ "T^ ■^ ■^

" AVe ask the Government to make a dona-
tion of public lands to the State of Illinois,
to aid in the construction of this railroad,
equal to every alternate section, for a space
of five miles wide on each side of it. * * *
"We do not ask for this land to be given to
any private or chartered company, that they
make gain or speculation out of it, but we
ask for it to be donated • to this State, in
trust, to be used in the constiiiction of a
great public work, that will shed its benefits
upon the whole of our common country, that
will bind us together in the golden bands of
commerce, and be om* greatest blessing in
time of peace, as well as our surest defense
in time of war." * * *

The address concludes with the following
sentence : " In the winter season there ac-
cumulates upon the hands of our merchants
produce to the amount of about one-half mill-
ion of dollars, which lies dead-weight upon
their hands for three or four months, until
the opening of the navigation of the lakes.
Our merchants, in the meantime, receive in-
formation by telegi-aph of the rise and fall
of produce, but cannot avail themselves of
the benefits of the lightning, either to buy
or sell. Here the produce is, and must re-
main, under the inexorable decree of nature,
locked up bj the ice. Construct this rail-
road, give Chicago a southern outlet for her
produce in the winter, and it is all she asks."

The resolutions adopted by this meeting,
and the speech made by Mr. Butterfield,
were printed in pamphlet form^ and were
sent to the different counties along the line

of the proposed road, with requests that i)ub-
lic meetings should be held at each county
seat, for the pm'pose of creating a public
sentiment in favor of the Congressional land-
grant project, and of requesting the Illinios
Delegates in Congress to support it. This
work among the people of Illinois, in order
to influence to activity the members of Con-
gress, was necessary and proper, and attended
with much labor and considerable expense,
and the preceding circumstances that brought
both of these about were the following: The
Bank of the United States of Pennsylvania,
located at Philadelphia, had become the
owner of large interests in "Western real es-
tate, as well as a large number of the bonds
of the Cairo City & Canal Company, and the
holder of much of the land of the company
as security for loans advanced. It was, there-
fore, largely interested in Cairo. In the
year 1843, it sent its confidential clerk. S.
Staats Taylor, to the West, to look after its
interests. Mr. Taylor made his head(^uarter8
in Chicago, and had his office, during that
time, with Justin Butterfield. This, prob-
ably, was the main cause of deeply interest-
ing the latter in the railroad project from
Chicago to Cairo. Then, the bank's interests
in the "West caused it to take a deep concern
in the progress of the State of Illinois, and
especially of Cairo and its vicinity, and it
therefore provided the necessary funds to de-
fray these first and necessary expenses. In
fact, it is now well understood that the start-
ing point in the building of the Central road
and the city were made originally a tangible
fact and the expenses defrayed in getting the
law passed by Congress, by the hypotheca
tion of a strip of land in the city of Cairo,
running from river to river, and long known
as the "Holbrook strip." This strip of land
is what is now Tenth street to Twelfth street,
inclusive.

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

Mr. Justin Butterfield was one of the
large-minded, public-spirited men of Illinois,
who was profoundly interested in the de-
velopment and welfare of his adopted State,
and while he did not lay claim to the patern
ity of the advanced idea that perfected the
land-grant to the railroad, and made it such
a great and complete success, yet as he had
stated to his office companion, Col. Taylor,
he bad first heard the idea advanced at some
of the county meetings he had held, and his
active mind was ready to take it at once in its
entirety, to see its value and to boldly and
ably push it forward to its final triumph.
Certainly, the Central road had no better or
abler friend than was Justin Butterfield, who,
singularly enough, was the Commissioner of
the GeneralLand Office during the building
of the railroad, and in that position was con-
stantly called upon to guard the State's, the
road's and the Government's interest in the
matter of the land grant of the road. Prob-
ably for his incorruptible discharge of these
duties, he was savagely attacked in some of
the public jirints, and on April 24, 1852, he
repelled these slanders in an open letter to
the country, which opens with the following
explanatory sentence: " During the past
and present months, various publications
have appeared in the Chicago Democrat
(John "Wentworth's paper), charging J.
Butterfield, Commissioner of the General
Land Office, with having been actuated by
deadly hostility against the Illinois Central
Railroad Company; of unwarrantably delay-
ing and procrastinating the adjustment of
the grant of lands; of attempting to kill the
Chicago branch, by deciding that it should
have diverged from the main trunk at the
junction of the canal and river at Peru, and
that the act of the Legislatm-e, providing
that it should not diverge from any point
north of 39 degrees, 30 minutes, was void;

and of corruptly making various other de-
cisions in the progress of the adjustment of
that grant, adverse to the rights of that com-
pany, from which an appeal was taken to the
Secretary, and Mr. Butterfield overruled in
all his objections; but that things went on
so slowly, that the Directors of the company
laid their case before the President, who at
once wdered Mr. Butterfield to put the whole
force of his office upon the work, if necessary
to its execution; and that after this Mr. B.
changed his whole course of conduct, etc. "

After giving this summary of the charges
against him, he proceeds to say in reply:
" Had these publications been confined to the
scurrilous sheets issued by the notorious
editor of that paper, I should not have
noticed them; bat these falsehoods are told
with such apparent candor and circumstan-
tial detail, that some respectable papers, I
observe, have been imposed upon, and copied
them." He then gives a brief and succinct
history of the grant, and the transactions un-
der it, and then sums up the six distinct
falsehoods in the charges, denies and refutes
j them in detail, and thus concludes his inter-
1 esting letter: " The route of the old Central
Railroad, as established in 1836, was from
i Cairo, via Vandalia, Shelbyville, Decatur,
: Bloomington, Peru and Dixon, to Galena; it
did not touch within about one hundred
' miles of Chicago.

" A project was devised and published, in

the latter part of 1847, for a railroad leading

directly from Cairo to Chicago, and from

thence to Galena, recommending an applica-

'■ tion to Congress for a grant of lands to be

made to the State, in alternate sections, to

aid in its construction. Judge Dickey,

j James H. Collins, Thomas Dyer and hun-

j di-eds of other citizens of Chicago and other

1 portions of the State, will recollect who was

' the author of the project! To whom did

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

the newspapers of that day ascribe it?
"Who, at his own expense, got up and circu-
lated petitions far and wide to Congress
for a donation of lands to the State for this
purpose ? Who called the first meeting that
was ever held in the State on the subject of
a railroad direct from Cairo to Chicago?
An address which I had the honor to make
on that occasion, giving my views of the im-
mense importance of the work and urging
its prosecution, was published and circu-
lated.

" Those who have, for years past, known
my sentiments and humble services in favor
of internal improvements, and especially for
a direct communication between Chicago
and Cairo by railroad, can judge of the prob-
ability of my having attempted to strangle
the project on the eve of its accomplishment!
The charge emanates from one whose name
and character, wherever he is known, is a
sovereign antidote for all the poison he can
distill.

" Although famous at the Capitol, in the
adjustment of ' Congressional stationery,' in
which vocation 'he can't be beat,' he is evi-
dently a great novice in the adjustment of
railroad grants."

Recapitulation. — In their chronological
order, we give the corporation acts, as they
were passed by the different Legislative bod-
ies, that had in view the buildincj of the
city of Cairo, and that are refen-ed to at
length in the preceding part of this chapter.

January 9, 1817 — John G. Comyges and
associates were incorporated by the Territo-
rial Legislature of Illinois, as the "President,
Directors and Company of the Bank of
Cairo," and authorized to build a city upon
the lands entered by them.

January- 16, 1836— D. B. Holbrook, A. M.
Jenkins, M. A. Gilbert and others were in-

corporated by the Legislature of Illinois as
the "Illinois Central Railroad Company."
authorizing the company to construct a rail-
road, " commencing at or near the mouth of
the Ohio River, and thence north, to a point
on the Illinois River, at or near the termina-
tion of the Illinois & Michigan Canal," with
the privilege of extending the road from the
Illinois River to Galena.

February 27, 1837 — Act passed by the
Legislatui-e, of Illinois, " to establish and
maintain a General System of Internal Im-
provement," and "providing for a Board of
Public Works," and directing and ordering
the construction of a raih'oad from the city
of Cairo, at or near the confluence of the
Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, to ^some point
at or near the southern termination of the
Illinois & Michigan Canal, via Vandal ia,
Shelby ville, Decatur and Bloomington, thence
via Savanna to Galena, and appropriating for
the construction of said railroad the sum of
$8,500,000.

March 4, 1837— A. M. Jenkins, D. B. Hol-
brook, M. A. Gilbert and others were incor-
porated as the Cairo City & Canal Company,
and were authorized to pui'chase and sell land
in Township 17 south, Range 1 west, in Alex-
ander County, and to build a city thereon, to
be called the city of Cairo. This act
amended February, 1839.

June 7, 1837 — The Illinois Central Rail-
road Company released and' gave back to the
State the right to constnict " a railroad, com-
mencing at or near the confluence of the
Ohio and Mississippi Rivei"S, and extending
to Galena, conditional, however, that the said
State of Illinois shall commence the con-
struction of said railroad, within a reasonable
time, from the city of Cairo."

June 26, 1837 — Anagi-eement entered into
between the Illinois Central Railroad, by its
President, A. M. Jenkins, and the Cairo City

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

& Canal Company, by D. B. Holbrook, its
President, that the railroad to be constructed
by the Illinois Central Railroad Company
" shall commence at such point or place in
the city of Cairo, as the Cairo City & Canal
Company may fix and direct."

June 26, 1837— The Cairo City & Canal
Company mortgaged its lands in Township
17 south. Range 1 west, of the Third Principal
Meridian, on a portion of which the city of
Cairo had been platted and laid out, to the
New York Life Insurance & Trust Company,
as security for loans secured from English
capitalists.

February 1, 1840 — The act to establish
and maintain a General System of Internal
Improvements, passed February 27, 1837,
was repealed by the Legislatiu-e, and the
work on the Illinois Central Railroad
stopped; building a city here stopped, and, to
complete Cairo's disasters, the company's
banker in London failed, and the Cairo City
& Canal Company were hopelessly bankrupt,
and the nearly fifteen hundred people that
had gathered here dispersed, and desolation
brooded over the land.

March 6, 1843— The President and Direct-
ors of the Cairo City & Canal Company were
incorporated as the Great Western Railway
Company, and authorized to construct a
railroad, " commencing at the city of Cairo,
in Alexander County, 111., and thence north, by
way of Vandalia, Shelbyville, Decatur and
Bloomington, to a point on the Illinois
River at or near the termination of the
Illinois & Michigan Canal," and to extend
the main road to Galena.

March 6, 1845 — The last above-mentioned
act repealed by the Legislature.

September 29, 1846— The bondholders,
creditors and owners of the City of Cairo &
Canal Company franchise, organized The
Trust of the Cairo Property, and all the com-

pany's property in Town 17 south, Rauge 1
west, was conveyed to Thomas Taylor, of
Philadelphia, and Charles Davis, [of New
York, as Trustees of the Cairo City Prop-
erty.

February 10, 1849— The President and
Directors of the Cairo City & Canal Com-
pany, with others, rechartered and rein-
stated as the Great Western Railway Com-
pany, with all the powers conferred by the
act of March 6, 1843, and the Governor of
the State authorized to hold in trust for the
Great Western Railway Company whatever
lands might be donated or thereafter secured
to the State of Illinois b_y the General Gov-
ernment to aid in the construction and com-
pletion of the Illinois Central or the Great
Western Railroad from Cairo to Chicago.

December 24, 1849 — Release executed by
the Cairo City & Canal Company to the State
of Illinois, of the charter of the Great West-
ern Railway Company, upon the condition
that the State would build "within ten years
from January 1, 1850, a railroad from Cairo
to Chicago, and that the southern terminus
should be the city of Cairo.

September 20, 1850 — An act of Congress,
granting to the State of Illinois the alternate
sections of land, for sixteen sections in
width, on each side of the railroad and its
branches, for the construction of a railroad
from the southern terminus of the Illinois &
Michigan Canal to a point at or near the
junction of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers,
with branches to Chicago and Galena.

September 20, 1850 — Release by the Cairo
City & Canal Company of the charter of the
Great Western Railway Company to the
State, and the acceptance of the same by the
State of Illinois.

February 30, 1851 — The act of incorpora-
tion of the Illinois Central Railroad passed
by the Legislature, and providing for the

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

conveyance to Trustees the lands donated by
the General Government to the State.

Jnne 11, 1851 — An agreement between the
Illinois Central Railroad and the Trustees of
the Cairo City Property, for the railroad to
construct and maintain levees around the
City of Cairo, in consideration of conveyance
to the railroad company of certain lands in
the city of Cairo, specifying the levees were
to be about seven miles long, and to inclose
about thirteen hunch'ed acres of laud on the
point.

September 15, 1853 — The city of Cairo
was platted and laid out and recorded by the
Cairo City Property, and the first lot sold to
Peter Stapleton.

October 15, 1853 — Deed executed by the
Trustees of the Cairo City Property, to the
Illinois Central Railroad, for the land speci-
fied in the agreement of the road to construct
and maintain levees.

May 31, 1855 — An additional agreement
entered into between the Cairo City Property
and the Central road, by which the road
agreed to "construct and maintain new pro-
tective embankment, to prevent the abrasion
of the Mississippi levee." This agreement
materially changed that of June 11, 1851.

June 12, 1858 — This new embankment,
constructed on the Mississippi River, gave
way, and the city was inundated.

October 12, 1858- The Illinois Central
Railroad, having restored the levees to the
condition they were in before the overflow,
were informed that the reconstruction of the
levees did not fulfill their agreement, and the
road was notified to widen and strengthen
the works to at least a width of twenty feet
on the top of the levees, with a slope on each
side of one foot perpendicular to five feet
horizontal, and the entire levees to be raised
two feet higher than the old levees.

October 29, 1858~Foi-mal notice given by

the Trustees of the Cairo City Property to
the Illinois Central i-oad, that, in, conse-
quence of the road's failure and refusal to
strengthen the levees, according to their con-
tract, the Trustees would at once proceed to
do the work and hold the railroad company
responsible for the reimbursement of all
costs of the same, with interest.

October 1, 1863 — Mortgage executed, by
the Trustees of Cairo City Property, to Hiram
Ketchum, Trustee, to all the property of the
Trust of the Cairo City Property, as a secur-
ity for a loan of $250,000.

October 1, 1867 — An additional mortgage,
by the same parties last above-named, upon
the same propei'ty, for an additional loan of
150,000.

July 18, 1872 — Suit commenced by the
Cairo City Property against the Illinois Cen-
tral Railroad, for $250,000, money expended
by the city company upon the levees. The
suit was compromised by the payment by the
railroad of $80,000, and the conveying back
by deed to the Cairo City Property, of 397
acres of the 487 acres that had been conveyed
to the railroad, in consideration that the road
would construct protective levees. By this
settlement, the railroad was released from
any further obligations in regard to the
levees.

May 10, 1876— The Cairo City Property,
being unable to pay the loans negotiated in
1863 and 1867, the mortgages were fore-
closed, and the property of the Trust sold to
the bondholders under the mortgage.

January 20, 1876 — A new Trust formed,
called the Cairo City Trust Property, under
which the property is now managed by S.
Staats Taylor . and Edwin Parsons, Trustees.

The finale of all this is, there was much
more legislation than city or railroads con-
structed It is an evidence that the way
cities are built is not by cunning or strong

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

legislative acts, but by strong, enterprising,
busy men; not by powerful, speculative cor-
porations, but by independent individuals;
not by anticipating the incomiug rush of the
thousands who make it a metropolis, and dis-
counting in advance the per capita profits of
their coming, but by voluntary acts of each
one, actinor in ignorance and unconcern of

what the future is or may be of the place —
the busy, enterprising men of small capital
and vast energy. These are the broad and
strong foundations of all great cities that
have ever yet been built in this country. It
is the antipodes, in everything of a movement
to found a city, to be, when completed, the
property of a chartered corporation.

CHAPTER V.

THE LEVEES— HOW THE TERRITORIAL LEGISLATURE BY LAW PLACED THE NATURAL TOWN SITE
ABOVE OVERFLOWS— FIRST EFFORTS AT CONSTRUCTING LEVEES— ENGINEER'S REPORTS ON
THE SAME— ESTIMATED HEIGHT AND COSTS— THE FLOODS— THE CITY OVERFLOWED
—GREAT DISASTER, THE CAUSE AND ITS EFFECTS— THE LEVEES ARE RECON-
STRUCTED AND THEY DEFY THE GREATEST WATERS EVER KNOWN.

IN the preceding chapter we have at-
tempted to give a succinct account of the
many charter and other corporation laws
passed in reference to founding the city of
Cairo, commencing with the first act of the
Illinois Territorial Legislature, of June 9,
1818, and in chronological order tracing
these acts down to date. Following this, in
the natural order, would be a similar account
of the construction of the city's levees, from
the first little rude embankments of William
Bird around his little trading house, to the
present more than seven miles of the finest,
and probably the most solid, protective em-
bankments in the world.

In the year 1828, John and Thompson
Bird brought their slaves over from Missoui-i,
and built an embankment around the hotel
that then was the solitary building in Cairo;
which stood a short distance below the pres-
ent Halliday House. It was a frame build-
ing, about twenty-five by thirty-five feet in
dimensions. This levee seems to have ful-
filled its purposes well, and for years kept
out the waters. The same parties soon after

erected another building, for a store, and as
this was just outside the levee, it was perched
on posts that were high enough to keep it
from the raging waters.

For the particulars of the next attempt to
construct levees we are indebted to the now
venerable Judge Miles A. Gilbert, of Ste.
Mary's, Mo., who gives us his recollections
of the acts and doings of the old City &
Bank of Cairo Company. He says: " John
C. Comyges, the master spirit of this enter-
prise, had just perfected his plans to go over
to Holland, and bring to Cairo a shipload of
Dutch laborers, to build the dykes or levees
around the city, when he was taken sick and
soon died, when the other incorporators,
becoming discouraged, the enterprise was
finally abandoned. In those days (1818), the
public lands were purchased from the Gov-
ernment, under a credit system of $2 per
acre— 50 cents in cash paid, and $1.50 on
timp. If the $1.50 was not promptly paid
at maturity, the land reverted to the Govern-
ment, and the 50 cents per acre paid was
forfeited, and the land became again subject

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

to entry. In 1835, Judge Sidney Breese,
Miles A. Gilbert and Thomas Swanwiok re-
entered these lands, the object being to revive
the old charter of the City & Bank of Cairo
Company, of 1818, which had not yet expired
by limitation of its charter. In order to gain
influence to eft'ect this purpose, Miles A. Gil-
bert and Thomas Swanwick sold an undivided
interest to Hon. David J. Baker, Hon. Elias
K. Kane. PieiTe Mesnard and Darius B. Hol-
brook." [Then follows an account of the
chartering of the original Illinois Central
Railroad, and the Internal Improvement Sys-
tem, and the final release of the railroad
charter to the State. For particulars see pre-
ceding chapter. — En.] " Judge Gilbert in-
forms us that one of the conditions of the
Central's release to the State was, the State
should build a road upon the proposed line
and establish a depot in the city limits, and
the city company was to deed the railroad
t«;n acres of land for depot purposes, which
deed was duly made.

"In 1838, D. B. Holbrook, the President of
the Cairo City & Canal Company, went to
England and negotiated a loan or hypotheca-
tion of the company's bonds, to the amount
of 155,800 pounds sterling. On his return,
he revived and organized the Cairo City
Bank, which was, as required by law, for the
time being, located at Kaskaskia, when work
was commenced at Cairo upon a large and
extravagant scale. Anthony Olney was ap-
pointed General Superintendent. A large
force was set to work, building the levees
around the city.

" Foundries, machine shops, workshops,
boarding-houses and dwellings went up as if
by magic. But in the midst of this general
and cheerful prosperity, the banking-house
of Wright &Co., of London, failed. The im-
mediate cause of the suspension at Cairo
was the failure of Wright & Co. to meet the

di'af ts then drawn on them by the Cairo City
& Canal Company, and that were on their
way to England. Had the failure been ]X)st-
poned sixty days longer, and the existing
drafts been honored, the Cairo Company
could have met all its contracts thereafter
incurred, by a little prudence, and the com-
pany have been made self-sustaining. D. B.
Holbrook made every effort in his power to
raise means to pay and secure those whom
the company owed at Cairo, but distrust had
seized every one, and the result was the com-
pany, bank, and all work su-spended. Fol-
lowing this, recklessness and mob law
reigned supreme" — idleness, rioting, de-
moralization and drunkenness held sway,
and the seethingr, roaring mob were as a den
of mixed wild beasts, where only the fierce
and bloodthirsty passions were manifested or
to be met. Here was the rapidly gathered
together young city, of about two thousand
people, plain laborers mostly, many skilled
mechanics, boarding-house keepers, engineers,
merchants, traders, contractors, and the
women and children. Their incipient city
fringed along the banks of the Ohio Kiver,
where the gi'eat old forest trees had been
felled along the edges of the river bank to
make room for this little border of mosaic
work of civilization in the far West. The
young town was in all its bewildering new-
ness and freshness — that unfinished confusion
on a fresh bank of earth here, a ditch there ; a
rough, stumpy, newly blazed road or trail,
hardly yet cut by its first wagon tracks, lead-
ing nowhere; newly- built houses dotted here
and there as though di-opped at random from
the skies, without reference to their ever tak-
ing their positions in streets or regularity, so
new, too, were they, that a blanket, a jiiece of
cai'pet or a quilt did duty for a door, and upon
every hand were other still newer houses in
every stage of building, fi'om the few half-

9-2

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

hewn logs that lay scattered over the ground
and obstructing the* passage-ways, to those
with the new board roof being nailed on;
workshops, boarding-houses, hotels, foun-
dries, in short, a great city was almost
magically being built in the wild forests,
and simultaneously a great railroad was
being built in the city, and happy and busy
men were working out this apparently inex-
tricable confusion, and bringing order and
symmetry out of disorder, when the crash
came, and hope and confidence fled from the
people; all labor instantly ceased, and whole
families swarmed from their homes, cabins
and tents, after the fashion of angry bees
when a stick is thrust into their hive. Hol-
brook's fair promises were scouted, the law
of the land ridiculed, and pell-mell the mob
commenced an indiscriminate sacking of all
public or city company property. They
mostly must have found but little comfort in
this, as there was little or nothing that could
be converted to private use that would be of
any value, and hence the robberies or appro-
priations must often have been after the
fashion of the soldier, who started on the
march to Georgia, and the first day out dis-
covered the highways and the by-ways, the
fields and the woods were full of bummers,
who were stealing everything as they went.
Piqued at his being behind ^the early birds,
he looked about him for something to steal,
when the only thing he could find left was a
plow. This he shouldered, and in happiness
resumed his march. After tusrscins: in sore
agony and distress under his load of loot for
a few miles, he overhauled his elder patriotic
brother, stranded by the wayside from a
grindstone that he had appropriated a few
miles back. These two patriots, as it ia right
and proper they should be, are now on the
penson list, for permanent disability — not
for wounds received in battle, but for strains

in transporting from the Southern Confeder-
acy the sinews of war.

Mr; Anthony Olney, the Superintendent,
attempted to stay the storm and protect the
property, but soon saw how futile his efforts
were, and he quit serious efforts in that di-
I'ection. He died a short time after this.

Soon those to whom the Cairo City &
Canal Company was indebted began to make
efforts to collect their money by law. They
attached everything they could find belonging
to the company, which was sold at public
sale for a mere trifle. For nearly two years
the place was abandoned by all the repre-
sentatives of the company, and the mob and
the officers of the laws had effectually dis-
posed of all the company's property.

In 1838, just previous to the commence-
ment of the improvements noted above, the
city company issued the following circular:

" The President of the Cairo City & Canal
Company, having made arrangements in
England for the funds requisite to carry on
their contemplated improvements in the city
of Cairo, upon the most extensive and liberal
scale, it is now deemed proper to 'give pub-
licity to the objects, plans and other matters
connected with this great work, in order that
every one who feels an interest or has pride in
the success of this magnificent public enter-
prise, may properly understand and appre-
ciate the motives and designs of the project-
ors.

" The company, from the commencement
determined to withhold from sale, at any
price, the corporate property of the city, un-
til it should be made manifest to the most
doubting and skeptical, the perfect practica-
bility of making the site of the city of Cairo
habitable. This being now fully established,
by the report of the distinguished engineers,
Messrs. Strickland & Taylor, of Pennsyl-
vania, and also by that of the principal en-

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

gineers of the State works of Illinois, the
company are (?) proceeding in the execution
of their ( ?) plans, as set forth in their pros
pectus, viz.: To make the levees, streets
and embankments of the city; to erect ware-
houses, stores and shops convenient for every
branch of commercial business; diy docks;
also buildings adapted for every useful me-
chanical an manufacturing purpose, and
dwelling-houses of such cost and description
as will suit the taste and means of every
citizen — which course has been adopted as
the most certain to secure the destined popu-
lation of Cairo, within the least possible
time. The company, however, wish it fully
understood, that it is far from their desire
or intention to monopolize, or engage in any
of the various objects of entei'prise, trade or
business which must of necessity spring up
and be carried on with great and singular
success in this city; it being their governino-
motive to offer every reasonable and proper
encouragement to the enterprising and skill-
ful artisan, manufactui-er, merchant and pro-
fessional man to identify his interests with
the growth and i)rosperity of the city. When
the company makes sales or leases of prop-
erty, it will be on such liberal terms as no
other toAvn or city can offer, possessing like
advantages for the acquisition of that essen-
tial means of human happiness — wealth.
The President of the company is fully em-
powered, whenever he shall deem it expedi-
ent, to sell or lease the property, and other-
wise to represent the general interests and
aflairs of the company."

This proclamation was the work of the
President, Holbrook, and it was the aims,
hopes, ambitions and intentions of the com-
pany, as he was willing and eager for all the
world to see and know them. In this mani-
festo, Mr. Holbrook feels constrained, in the
name of the company, to say, " that it is far

from their desire or intention to monopolize
or engage in any of the various objects of
enterprise, trade or business, which must of
necessity spring up, etc. " It was only after
the calamitous crash came that people re-
membered there had been anything reallv
said in the President's circular except that
" the President of the Cairo City & Canal
Company, having made arrangements in
England for the funds requisite to carry out
their contemplated improvements in the city
of Cairo, upon the most extensive mid iiberal
scale, etc."

The subject of "funds" was all that caught
the eye of the hopeful comer to Cairo, and
the liberal and extensive works of buildim^-
thfi foundations of the city, that caused the
money to pour out to the people in a golden
stream, were abundant evidences to all the
Avorld that the company had not only got the
money, but were honestly putting it to the
purposes for which they said " they had
secui-ed it " in their circular. But in the
great financial wreck, that carried dowoi such
a wide circle of public and private enter-
prises, and that came like a clap of thunder
from a clouldess sky, the larger portion of
the laborers that suffered from the visitation
looked no further for the source of their woe
than to Holbrook and his circular. And no
doubt that here was the origin of the distrust
of this man and his schemes, that eventually
widely spread, and entered deeply into the
minds of men all over our country, even to
that extent that his usefulness ceased, and
he returned to his Boston home to retire-
ment from his struggles, to privacy and
death.

When Holbrook got the money from Eng-
land, he put his engineers at once to work
to ascertain the wants of the town site in the
way of protective embankments from the
waters of the two rivers that laved the three

HISTOHY OF CAIRO.

sides of its shores, and when they reported,
he put 1, 500 laborers upon this work, which
he was pushing vigorously when the crash
came. The levees along the two rivers had
been regularly made and joined together at
the southern extremity, but the cross levee
on the north, to connect the two levees on
the shores, and thus encircling the entire city,
had not been constructed, and thus, practically,
all the work completed was of little or no
value without the completion of the north
cross -levee.

As stated above, the Cairo City & Canal
Company, and their Superintendent, Mr.
Olney, had abandoned the town and their
property, and, eventually, so did nearly all
the 2,000 people that had gathered here,
and so complete was this exodus that it is
stated less than fifty of them permanently re-
mained. These seem to have been an easy,
devil-may-care class of men, who found
themselves the happy possessors, and for all
purposes of use and occupation, the owners
of a great young city, or the half-finished
ground-plans thereof.

The sudden coming together of what all
the world thought to be a young and prom-
ising great city was equaled only by its sud-
den, almost complete desertion when the
storm of adversity broke upon it.

The completed improvements in the town
were the iron works of Bellews, Hathaway &
Gilbert, which were supplied with the best
English machinery, which were in full oper-
ation, and turning out much valuable prod-
ucts. This institution continued its busi-
ness, running its machinery to its full capac-
ity until the 22d of March, 18-1:2, when the
floods of that year, owing to the unfinished
condition of the levees, washed it away. This
flood at the same time swept away the dry
dock, which had been erected at a cost of
over S35,000, when it was seized by credit-

ors, taken to New Orleans and sold. The
City Company had made a large addition to
the Cairo Hotel, which was thronged with
guests at all times, many of them being
tourists, attracted here by the wide name and
fame of Cairo. Two large saw mills were
turning out building lumber and steamboat
timbers. A three-story planing mill was
running to its fullest capacity. This was
situated on the corner of Eighth street and
the Ohio levee. The steamer Asia and the
hull of the steamer Peru had been moored in
front of the city, and were made into wharf-
boats and hotels. Holbrook had erected a
spacious and elegant residence on the spot
now occupied by the Halliday House. The
company had erected twenty neat and com-
modious cottages during the season of 1841.

Then the numerous shanties, cabins and
pole-huts, together with the unfinished levees
and an unfinished railroad, were the heirlooms
that became the possessions of the happy-go-
lucky fifty people that remained here amid
the general wreck and ruin.

In April, 1843, Miles A. Gilbert was ap-
pointed Agent of the Cairo City & Canal
Company, to take possession, care and gen-
eral control of its property in the city. The
condition in which he found matters upon his
arrival here, the mood and temper and claims
of the people, the lawless spirit of the mob,
and their primitive notions of the vested
rights to everything that their occupancy had
given them, the episodes Mr. Gilbert en-
countered, that drove him to that " last re-
sort of nations," ai-e fully told in the bio-
graphical sketch of him in another part of
this work.

As soon as Mr. Gilbert had vindicated his
right to the possession and control of the
property, he put a force of laborers at work
constructing the cross-levee, from the Ohio
to the Mississippi levee, and this was com-

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

pleted during the year 1843. He also re-
paired, strengthened, raised and leveled
the old levees running along the river banks.
The levees, as now completed, inclosed
about six hundred acres of ground. Their
average height above the natural surface of
the land was between seven and eight feet.

Their efficacy as embankments to keep out
the waters is well told in the following from
Mr. Miles A. Gilbert: " They kept out the
great flood in the Missisippi of June, 1844.
Cairo was the only diy spot in the river bot-
toms to be found between St. Louis and
New Orleans. That season, I had a field of
corn, of many acres, planted inside the Cairo
levee, which gi-ew to maturity and ripened
into a good crop, although the water sur-
rounding the city was about eight feet higher
than the surface of the corn-field."

The flood in the Mississippi River of the
spring of 1844 was historical, and remains
to this day, as marking the extreme height
to which the waters of that river have attained
since its discovery. The writer remembers
standing upon the high blufl's opposite St.
Louis, when the waters of the river stretched
from the base of the hills like a great sea,
and as he looked west over the expanse of
waters, could see no dry land except Monk's
Mound, which was covered with domestic
animals. From Alton to New Orleans, the
river extended from the hills on one side to
the hills on the o})posite side, and probably
averaged in width between fifteen and
twenty miles. The destruction of human
life, the devastation of property, in all this
strip of wide country, for twelve hundred
miles, was appalling. Houses, fences and
buildings of all kinds were washed away, and
a wide track of desolation marked the whole
course of the river— -except within the levee
of the city of Cairo. Here, Miles A. Gril-
bert's field of corn was vigorously pushing

up its heads, to look and smile, perhaps,
upon the angry fljod that surrounded it.
What a triumph for the young city, to fol-
low, as it did, so closely in time upon the
tracks of the financial disaster that had swept
over it, and against which no levees or em-
bankments could protect it! What a laurel
wreath it was for Miles A. Gilbert and his
co-laborers in their heroic determination to
overcome all obstacles, and build a city here!

Fi'om the hour that Mr. Gilbert finished
and inclosed the city with a levee, there
has come to the town no disaster from the
high waters in the Mississippi River; and
yet the highest floods ever known in that
river came while the levees were so con-
structed and finished by INIr. Gilbert, and
before they had been raised to their present
height, which is an average of about twelve
feet above the surface of the ground all
around the city, or, in other words, five feet
in height had been added to the original
levees.

It is a well-established fact that even the
fii'st levees built here would have been an
abundant protection from any waters in the
Mississippi River. While this wonderful
river, in its onward surge to the sea, defies
and baffles the piiny arm of man to guide,
check or control it, yet nature has so arranged
the topography o£ the country, thiough
which tht> river runs between this point and
St. Louis, that its gi'eatest floods can do
no hai-m at Cairo. At Grand Chain, the
river has cut its bed down through the solid
rocks many hundreds of feet, and the great,
water-seamed cliffs stand facing each other,
forming the narrowest point, and the highest
perpendicular rocky bluffs on either side of
any other place in^the Lower Mississippi.
This narrow gorge holds back the water
above, and allows it only to pass through in
such quantities, that the wide bottoms that

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

commence here take them off as fast as they
can come.

While this is true of the Mississippi River,
it is not the case with the Ohio Eiver. The
same Grand Chain crosses the Ohio, and
passes into Kentucky a few miles above here;
yet the river channel has not been so con-
fined by steep, rocky shores, but, upon the
contrary, there is quite a sufficient space for
the waters in uninterrupted [volume,'even at
the highest stages.

But recent experiences teach there has been
a materia] change in the frequency and force
of the high waters, especially in the Ohio
River. The great freshets in the Mississippi
are usually known as the " June rise," and
generally come from the melting snows in
the Rocky Mountain regions, while the Ohio
Eiver is almost wholly influenced by long-
continued heavy rains in the Mississippi
Valley. Since 1860, the drainage of the en-
tire agricultural country in the Valley has
been greatly increased, until lagoons and
marshes and ponds that ouce held the rain-
fall, and • allowed it to pass off only by
evaporation, are now dry and well-tilled
farms. So wide and thorough has general
drainage been inaugurated, in sm-face, and
subsoil and tile drainage, that it must greatly
affect the gathering of the waters to the large
rivers, and is, no doubt, one of the large
factors in producing the change that has
taken place in the annual freshets in our rivers.
Still another alleged influence is the clearing
out of the forests all over tbe country, and thus
taking from the atmosphere and the soil one
large source of gathering and holding back
the waters. But this last theory is somewhat
fuddled by the often- advanced philosophical
idea that the cutting away of the forests re-
duces the rainfall, and heoce the great
droughts which so severely afflict the country
at now frequent intervals. One or the other,

perhaps both, of these theories are false, yet
there is one thing well established, namely,
that a heavily- timbered country always be-
speaks a large rainfall there, while the treeless
desert as certainly tells of a cloudless sky
and no rainfall. So, if the trees do not pro-
duce an increase in the rain, the rain cer-
tainly does increase the tree growth.

When Miles F. Gilbert had completed his
levees around the city of Cairo, in 1843, he
had walled the waters out, and fenced in the
ragged squad of fifty men, women and chil-
dren that constituted the population of the
forlorn city. This tattered remnant of peo-
ple had taken and held possession of the
houses, and the first choice of hut, shanty,
cottage, Holbrook's handsome residence, or
mill, or factory, was to the swift of foot, who,
when the exodus commenced, could get there
first, and acquire ownership by possession.
They evidently looked upon Mr. Gilbert with
some distrust and ill-will, as he was " not
regular" in this; he claimed there were yet
property rights here of the Cairo & Canal
Company, and he further believed in the
majesty and supremacy of the law of the
land. He ^ave his time and labored faith-
fully, never, for a moment, so doubting his
eyes and senses as to lose faitli in the future
great destiny of Cairo. From 1843 to 1851
did he continue thus to "hold the fort,"
and protect the town and build up its inter-
ests. In those eight long years of decay and
dilapidation, the population increased only
from 50 to 200 souls. Except for the
efforts of Mr. Gilbert, there was an interreg-
num here, and a prostration of the hopes of
the lown quite as profound as was the finan-
cial and commercial panic in the country
generally. And all over the West this pros-
tration lasted until the passage by Congress
of the bill for the building of the Illinois
Central Railroad, in February, 1851.

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

April 15, 1851, S. Staats Taylor succeeded
M. A. Gilbert, as Agent of the Trustees of
the Cairo City Property. At that time, only
about fifty acres, along the Ohio River, near
its confluence with the Mississippi Eiver
were cleared. The rest of the grounds were
mostly covered with a dense growth of tim-
ber. The buildings and other improvements
made by the city company, from 1837 to
1842, had nearly all fallen and decayed, or
been removed. Only a few buildings re-
mained, and they were in a tumble-down
condition. The Central Railroad had made
arrangements to commence the construction
of its road, and desiring privileges within
the city of Cairo, and the right of way from
the north to the south limits of the town, on
June 11, 1851, Thomas S. Taylor and
Charles Davis, the Trustees, living in New
"York, entered into a contract with the rail-
road company to construct and maintain
levees around the city. The consideration
paid the railroad, in addition to the right of
way through the city, was 487 acres of land,
this land mostly on each side of the track
and the levees around the city, with certain
tracts extending to the rivers on each side of
the city. This agreement provided that the
railroad company should encompass the city
with a levee or embankment of adequate
height to exclude the waters of the rivers
at any then known stage or rise of the same;
that this embankment or levee should be so
formed or graded as to furnish a street or
roadway, as nearly level, transversely, as
might be deemed proper, of not less than
eighty feet in width, and, beyond the street
or roadway, to slope toward the river, on a
descent of one foot in five, to the natural
surface of the land, which [slope was to have
been continued toward the river, to low water
mark.

As this agreement and contract was event-

ually the most important to the city com-
pany, to the town and to the railroad, and
led finally to misuodorstandings and lawsuits
between the two companies, and to much dis-
cussion and disputes among property holders
in the city, and as they have never been
properly understood by the many interested
therein, we give them hei-e entire, together
with the correspondence arising therefrom
between the railroad, the city company and
the property holders:

" AGREEMENT.

" The Illinois Central Railroad Company,
with the Trustees of the Cairo City
Property. June 11, 1S51.

" Memorandum of an agreement made pro-
visionally, this 11th day of June, 1851. be-
tween Thomas S. Taylor and Charles Davis,
of the first part, and the Illinois Central
Railroad Company of the second part.

"1. It is hereby mutually agreed, that
proper deeds, conveyances and instruments
necessary to secure the performance of this
agreement, shall bo executed by the respect-
ive parties hereto, when prepared in due
form of law and with accurate descriptions.

" 2. It is also agreed, that the site of
Cairo City, substantially as shown on a map
thereof made by H. C. Long, dated June,
1851, and annexed hereto, "shall be estab-
lished by the parties of the first part, and
maintained by them against the abrasion and
wear of the waters of the rivers, and that all
the constructions, of whatever nature, for the
purposes of forming, maintaining and pro-
tecting the site of the city, shall be made by
and at the cost of the parties of the first
part.

" 3. It is agreed, that this site shall be
encompassed entirely by a levee or embank -
mpnt of adequate height to exclude the
waters of the rivers at any stage or rise of
the same now known, to be established, for

100

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

the purposes of this agreement, by the en-
gineers of both parties, which shall be so
formed and graded as to furnish a street or
roadway as nearly level, transversely, as may
be deemed proper, of not less than eighty
feet in width, and, beyond the width
adopted for the level _ street or roadway, to
slope toward the rivers, on a descent of one
foot in five, to the uatiu-al surface of the land
— which slope is to be continued toward the
river, to a point to be selected by the en-
gineers at low water mark; but a level sur-
face (transversely) may be introduced between
the slope of the levee or embankment and
the slope down to the low water mark, in case
the width of the bank between the water and
the levee should make it necessary or expedi-
ent, and it should be so arranged by the en-
gineers of both parties. All of which em-
bankment, or levee, or slopes, and inter-
mediate level, if any there be, shall be
made, formed and graded by and at the cost
of the parties of the second part.

" 4. It is agreed, that the location of the
levee or embankment shall be such as will
supply, from the excavation and removal of
the earth forming the slope to the low water
mark, all the earth necessary for the forma-
tion, grading and construction of the levee
or embankment, with only such variations in
the places as the engineers of both parties
may agree upoQ as absolutely necessary.

" 5. It is agi-eed, that when the levee
street is formed and graded, of a width of
not less than eighty feet on top, and the
slope of the levee wharf formed and graded,
that the same shall be considered as com-
pleted under this agi'eement, and that no
further protection or construction, such as
paving, planking, etc., shall be required of
the parties of the second part; biit all re-
pairs, works or constructions which may
thereafter become essential or necessary for

the preservation, maintenance and rej^air
of the levee or embankment shall be made by
and at the cost of the parties of the second
part; and such as may be essential and neces-
sary for the preservation, maintenance and
repair of the level in front of the levee or em-
bankment, and of the slopes or levee-wharf,
shall be made by and at the cost of the parties
of the first part, except in front of those parcels
of land to be appropriated to the parties of
the second part, extending r,o and into the
waters of the rivers, where the level, slopes
or levee-wharf shall be maintained and re-
paired by and at the cost of the parties of
the second part, but not so far as to dis-
charge the parties of the first part from the
agreement to establish and maintain the site
of the city No. 2.

" 6. It is agreed, that the parties of the
second part may, whenever they may see fit,
lay do\vn, construct and operate a single or
double line of rails, of such form or rail,
gauge and manner of construction as they
may deem judicious, upon or along the levee
or embankment or any part thereof; and
may use the same for the transportation of
passengers, goodf and merchandise, by steam
or other power — subject only to such reason-
able and just rules and regulations, as to
the use of their tracts, as may be made and
imposed by the proper authorities of Cairo
City for the time being, but no rules or reg-
ulations shall be imposed, or if imposed
need be respected, which, in effect, would
essentially eflfectually impair or entirely de-
stroy its right of constructing and operating
the tracks on the levee or embankment.

" 7. It is agreed, that cross-levees or em-
bankments shall be made and maintained by
and at the cost of the parties of the second
part, of adequate height and width for the
purposes proposed for them, which shall
cross from the levee or embankment on the

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

101

Mississippi to that on the Ohio, one of them
on and upon the strip of land marked on the
map A, and the other on the strip of land at
the northern boundary of the city, marked
B; but no public streets or highways are to
be laid out upon these levees or embank-
ments, except to cross the same nearly or
exactly at right angles; and the tracks and
rails laid thereon are not to be subject to any
rules or regulations other than those Avhich
are imposed upon the parties of the second
part by their act of incorporation aod the
laws of the land.

" 8. It is agreed, that the parties of the
second part shall proceed with due diligence
in the construction of the crosslevee or em-
bankment on the lower strip marked A, and
of the levee or embankment below the same,
and entirely around the point of the city, at
the confluence of the rivers, as shown on the
map; but that they may postpone to such
time as they may deem reasonable and
proper, the construction of the cross-levee or
embankment on the upper strip of land,
marked B. and the levees or embankments
to connect with those previously constnicted
on the lower portion of the city.

"9. It is agi'eed, that the parties of the
second part may locate their railroad gfrom
the northern line of Cairo City, upon the
line of the width of roadway [shown on the
annexed map, being 100 feet, to a point to
be established and fixed by the engineers of
the two parties, in the northern line of the
cross strip of land, marked A on the annexed
map, and below and south of that point on
and over all the land colored blue on said
map, to be surveyed and described by metes
and bounds; and also on and over all the
lands colored blue on the annexed map,
above the northerly line of the strip marked
A, on each river to the northerly line of the
city; and also on and over the strip of laud

marked B, including in the preceding de-
scription the station lots, depot grounds and
levee wharves shown on the said map.

" 10. It is agreed, that when the above
location shall have been made according to
law, that the deeds of release and cession
shall be made, executed and delivered by the
parties of the first part, to the parties of the
second part, inthe consideration of the agree-
ment on their part for the construction and
maintenance of the levees, embankments and
slopes above described, of all the lands and
premises to which refei'ence has heretofore
been made, and which are to be particularly
smweyed and accurately located and de-
scribed, to hold the same absolutely in fee
simple, for the uses and purposes of the said
railroad and its business, and for the trans-
portation of passengers, goods and merchan-
dise and the station accommodations, storage,
receipt, delivery and safe keeping of the
same, and for the machine and repair shops,
engine and car houses, turn-tables, water
tanks, and generally for all the wants and
requirements of the railroad service, so \oncr
as the said parties of the second part shall
continue to use, occupy and operate tlie same
for the purposes above intended.

"11. It is agreed, that the parties of the
second part may lay down, maintain and
operate their lines of tracks and rails, upon
the above -described lands, in such manner
and form as they may deem proper; ami mav
use thereon steam, or other power of any
kind, subject only to the general liabilities of
land -owners as to the use of their propt'rtv,
but exempt from any special rules or obliga-
tions imposed or attempted to be imposed by
the parties of the first part, or any and every
grantees or grantee of the Cairo City Proper-

ty.

" 12. It is agreed, that the tracks or lines
of rails of the parties of the second pavt,

102

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

to be laid down on tlie strip of land, of 100
feet in width, running entirely around the
city, shall be laid, as nearly as may be, at
and under each street crossing, upon the
natural level or grade of the land, in order
to gain as much elevation as possible under
the bridges to bo erected by the parties of
the first part, and each at every street cross-
ing, but the grade may vary from the natural
surface at all other points, as the parties of
the second part may see fit.

"13. It is agreed, that the cross streets
are to be located by the parties of the first
part, across and over the strip of land men-
tioned in the preceding article, with a space
of at least 400 feet between them; and are
to be graduated so as to cross the strip of
land on bridges, with at least sixteen feet
above the rails of the parties of the second
part, for the passage of engines, and that no
crossing shall be laid out to cross the tracks
in any other way "than with sufficient space
below it for the passage of engines, and that
no crossing through or upon any of the sta-
tion or depot lands.

" 14. It is agreed, that the parties of the
first part are to build and maintain all
the bridges or street crossings, at their ex-
pense and cost, and that the parties of the
second part ai-e to drain and protect the strip
of land above-mentioned, by sewers, drains,
culverts and fences, at their expense and
costs.

" 15. It is agreed, that the parties of the
second part shall release and convey to the
parties of the first part, all their right, title
and interest of, in and to a certain depot lot
in the city of Cairo, containing ten acres of
land, conveyed to them by the State of
Illinois by deed dated the 24th day of
March, 1851, and also of, in and to all the
roadway of the railroad heretofore located
in the city of Cairo and also conveyed to

them by the above-mentioned indenture, so
far as the same may not be included within
the boundaries of the lands and premises,
which are intended to be conveyed to the
parties of the second part, under this agi'ee-
ment.

" 16. Finally, it is agreed, that in case
of the necessity of any further covenants
or aiTangements, to carry out the pui'poses
of this agreement, or eq^lanatory of the
same, but not essentially to impair or mod-
ify the same, that both parties will proceed
to adjust and execute the same, in the full
spirit of mutual confidence in which this
agi-eement has been negotiated and settled,
and that in the event of any misunderstand-
ing or disagreement of any kind, or in any
way connected with this agreement, its pur-
poses and objects, that the points of disagree-
ment and dispute shall be reduced to writ-
ing, and in that form submitted to the arbit-
rament and decision of three I'efei-ees, to be
chosen in the usual manner. "

This agreement was duly signed by Robert
Schuyler, President of the Illinois Central
Railroad Company, and by T. S. Taylor and
Charles Davis, Trustees of the Cairo City
Property.

In addition to the foregoing vast consider-
ation of lands and privileges granted to the
Illinois Central Railroad Company, 5,000
shares of the Cairo City stock were conveyed
to the order of the Directors of that com-
pany, by the Trustees of the Cairo City Prop-
erty, as appears by the following extract
from a circular published by them in Novem-
ber, 1854, for the information of the share-
holders, and of all others interested, or wish-
ing to become interested therein:

"In the year 1851, the Trustees made the
most advantageous arrangements for the
property, by which they secured the con-
struction of the Illinois Central Railroad,

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

108

from Cairo, as its southern terminus, to
Chicago and Galena; and by which they
also secured the completion of the levees of
the most permanent character, and inclosing
the whole site of Cairo, by the said Illinois
Central Railroad Company, and at its ex-
pense. These arrangements were perfected
by the Trustees, by an authorized expend-
itui-e or issue of 5,000 new shares in the
'Cairo City Property,' and by donations of
the land at Cairo needed for railroad and
other purposes."

On May 31, 1855, the following additional
memorandum of an agreement was made and
entered into between Thomas S. Taylor, of the
city of Philadelphia, and Charles Davis, of
the city of New York, Trustees of the Cairo
City Property, of the first part, and the Illi-
nois Central Railroad Company of the
second part:

" "Whereas, the said parties did, on the
11th day of June, 1851, make and enter into
a certain agreement with each other, relative
to the 'deeding and conveying certain prop-
erty at Cairo, by the said first to the said
second party, and in consideration thereof
for the construction of certain levees and
works, for the protection of the said city of
Cairo from the waters of the Ohio and Mis-
sissippi Rivers, by the said party of the
second part; and

" Whereas, the said deed and conveyances
have been executed, delivered and accepted,
and a part of the levee to be constructed, on
the Ohio River, had been begun and partly
completed, and in other respects said con-
tract remains to be executed; and

" Whereas, for the purpose of obviating
misunderstanding, as well as because re-
monstrances seem to render it expedient, it
has been deemed best to modify the said con-
tract in one or two particulars, as well as to

render more clear its meaning in others;
now, therefore,

" This Indenture icitnesseth, That, for the
consideration named in said agi-eement, and
in consideration of tbe premises, and of $1
by each of the parties hereto paid to the
others, the receipt whereof is mutually con-
fessed, it is agi-eed by the said parties as fol-
lows, to wit:

^^ First. The said second party agrees that
the levee on the Ohio River, now under con-
struction, shall be completed to low water
mark, which has been designated and fixed
by the engineers of both parties, at a point
forty -two feet below the grade line of the
levees, as soon as the condition of the river
will permit, and the paving in front of the
lots of land conveyed by the first parties to
the said second parties, under the agreement
of the 11th of June, required to be done by
the parties of the second part before men-
tioned, shall be prosecuted and completed by
the second pai'ties with all convenient dis-
patch; and the first parties shall, in like
manner, prosecute and complete the pave-
ment in front of the remainder of the said
levee, when completed as above.

" Second. The said fii'st party agrees, that
the completion of the remaining parts of the
levee agi'eed upon and described in the said
agreement of June 11, and the constniction
of which was therein undertaken by the said
second parties, as is herein agreed, but in no
way modifying the s&id original agi-eement in
this respect, except as to the time of con-
structing and completing said levees, and
that upon the condition of the construction
of protective embankments, as hereinafter
agreed.

" Third. The said party of the second part
agree to maintain in good repair the protec-
tive embankment, now existing, from the

104

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

point of the confluence of the Rivera Ohio and
Mississippi to the old cross embankment, to
the height of the newly- constructed levee on
the Ohio River, except so far as the engineers
of both parties shall deem it advisable to
deviate from the present course of the same;
and in case it shall be deemed advisable to
deviate from it at any point, the , new em-
bankment required to be constructed by the
said direction shall be constructed and main-
tained by the said party of the second part,
to the same height and in the same manner as
tliey are a'equired to maintain the present
embaukment.

" The said second party shall and will also
construct and maintain a new protective em-
bankment upon the Mississippi River, from
a point at the westerly end of the old cross
embankment, to be fixed by the engineers of
both parties, upon a location to be determined
by said engineers, to connect with the ti'ack
of the Illinois Central Railroad, at or near
the strip of land marked 'A' upon the map
or plan fixed to said agreement of the 11th
of June, A. I). 1851 ; and the mark to be re-
quired for the construction and i-epair of the
embankments herein mentioned, shall be com-
pleted before. the 1st day of December next.
" Fourth. The embankments above pro-
vided, but which are only provisional and
temporary, sitbstituted for the levees agreed
to be constructed by the said second parties,
shall be maintained and kept in repair by
the said party of the second part, until the
levees by them agreed to be constructed shall
be built in the manner and form as prefaced
in the said agreement of 11th June, 1851.
And the said second parties agree to construct
and complete the said levees as fast as ^the
business of the Illinois Central Railroad re-
quires the extension of the track over and
upon any portion of the bank of the Missis-
sippi River, which is to be protected by such

embankment, whether upon the levee or on
the inner track, and shall in like jnanner
construct a similar levee or levees, upon the
banks of the Ohio, between the land by the
strij) marked 'A' upon the said map or plan,
and the levee already constructed upon the
bank of said river, as the business of the
city of Cairo shall require it, and the parties
of the first part, or their successors, shall re-
quire it to be done.

*******

^^ Eighth. The parties of the second part
shall examine the Mississippi bank, on the
tract of land conveyed to them for a station,
and take all necessary steps to protect the
same from further abrasion until the con-
struction of the permanent levees, according
to the said agreement of the 11th June, 1851,
at their own expense.

" They shall, in like manner, examine and
protect the point of the Mississippi River,
where the abrasion has affected the old em-
bankment, and do what is necessary to pro-
tect it for the same period, at their own ex-
pense.

" They shall also survey the Mississippi
River banks opposite the point nearest the
Cache River, and shall dn at their ex-
pense, what is in the report of the sm-veyors
necessary to protect the same from further
abrasion or inroads; provided such work shall
not exceed in expense the sum of $20,000;
and provided also, all the work herein pro-
vided for, as well as the said provisional
temporary embankment, shall be constructed
under the joint superintendence of the en-
gineers of the two parties, and be proceeded
with as early as practicable."

This agreement concludes by specifying
that the original agreement is to remain in
full force, except where modified by this>

It is then duly signed and acknowledged
by W. H. Osborn, President of the Illinois

IILSTOKY OF CAIRO.

105

Central Railroad, and by the Cairo City
Property.

There were many causes occm-ring, be-
tween the dates of this first and second
agreement, that led, finally, to the adoption
of the additional and explanatory second
agreement between the two interested par-
ties, the leading ones of which are yet the un-
written though important part of the city's
history.

In accordance with the terms of the first
agreement of 1851, the Illinois Central Rail-
road, in a short time after the adoption of
the articles, proceeded about the work of
making new levees, "and to construct these ac-
cording to the terms of the contract.

In order to the better understanding of
the work done by the road, it is proper to ex-
plain that the levees, as completed under
the BUj)ervision of Miles A. Gilbert, were
constructed near the banks of the two rivers,
ai-d circling and coming together at the south
upon the line now occupied by the levee.
The north cross- levee was upon a ridge of
ground commencing near the present Illinois
Central Railroad stone depot (about Tenth
street), and running directly west to the Mis-
sissippi River, inclosing about six hundred
acres. By the contract with the Central
road, the north cross-levee was to be ex-
tended, or caii'ied north, so that the levees
would inclose about thirteen hundred acres
of ground, or to the position substantially as
DOW consti'ucted.

The new levees along the rivers were lo-
cated inside the old levees, and, whei'e prac-
ticable, their dirt was used on the new ones.

The President and Directors of the Illinois
Central Railroad Company were, unques-
tionably, in good faith anxious to fulfill their
contract; construct strong and really protect-
ive levees; stop the abrasion of the natural
bank on the Mississippi side, and fui'ther the

interest of their road and the city, and help
build a great city here. But their work upon
the levees soon began to di'ag; to meet un-
accountable obstructions; to work at loose
pui'poses, and often to assume the appear-
ances of undoing good work that had been
before done, and tearing down instead of
building up. This inexplicable course of
circumstances would often menace the very
existence of the city; greatly astound and
exasperate the Cairo City Property, as well
as the President and Directors of the Central
road.

The secret of these studied wrongs that so
greatly injured the city, and fi'om the evil
effects of some of them it has hardly re-
covered yet, was this: The Chief Engineer
of the Central Railroad — a man named Ash-
ley — and it is alleged other ofiicers, and
among them R. B. Mason, the Superintend-
ent, had conceived a daring scheme of specu-
lation, whereby they purchased a great deal
of real estate in and around Mound City,
and in order to make this valuable they un-
dertook to destroy Cairo, and thereby make
Mound City the actual terminal point of the
road. And Engineer Ashley evidently an-
ticipated that his official position in con-
trolling the work in Cairo would enable him
to carry out this poi'pose.

That such was their cunning scheme, which
Ashley boldly attempted, is strongly evi-
denced by this incident, as well as many
others that occurred in the year 1854, as
follows:

A contractor upon the levee work, named
Dutcher, brought on a force of six hundred
or more laborers to wox'k on the road and
levees, and commenced to cut down the old
levees, and, as he stated, for the purpose
of erecting the new ones. But the new ones
were left with gi-eat gaps, and often there
were long stretches where there were no ap-

106

HISTORY OF CAIEO.

pearance of new embankments going up.
In the meantime, the high waters began to
come down the rivers, and the agent of the
Cairo City Propex'ty began to realize that
Dutcher was exposing the city. He said all
he could to change the course of the work,
but Dutcher would only promise and do noth-
ing. When it became plain something must
be done quickly, IMr. Taylor employed 300
men to work at night, and bank off ,the ris-
ing waters, where the levees had been cut
down. They would go to work in the even-
ing, wheD Dutcher's men would quit work.
After this had gone on two or three nights,
Mr. Dutcher claimed the city company were
interfering with his work, and he abandoned
his contract, and turned adrift his force of
600 men, all of whom, of coui'se, were given
to understand that the city company had
brought about the troubles. On the third
night, when the night laborers repaired to
their work — the waters eveiy moment now
becoming very dangerous — they found their
works and tools in the possession of a mob of
Dutcher's men, and they were vowing and
swearing that no man should do a stroke of
work unless their whole force was also em-
ployed, and paid at the rate of $3 each per
night Such was the emergency, that even to
delay and parley was to sacrifice the town, and
the agent of the Cairo City Property ordered
one and all to go to work. They did so, and
this disastrous mob attack, at a critical mo-
ment, when it could not be resisted, was after
all, the means that saved the city and kept out
the waters. The strip of levee between the
old and new levee was the weak spot in the
works, and so rapidly did the waters come
during the night, that on this place the men
worked for hoiu's in water over twenty inches
in depth. To understand this, it is neces-
sary to state that there was an old levee out-
side of this, and that when the water broke

over the outside levee, it came to the new one
in a swirl or circle, so that the tendency of
the current was not over the new levee. But
so great was the emergency, and, thanks to
the mob, so abundant were the laborers, that
men were placed upon the endangered spot,
and actually so thickly were they crowded,
that human flesh formed an embankment, and
kept back the waters until dirt was placed
there, and the levee made high and stroug
enough to stay the waters. The riotous labor-
ers lingered about the town, often threatening
the men at work on the levees with violence;
openly threatening to bui-n and destroy the
town, and they were several times caught at-
te'mpting to cut the levees and, let in the
water. The regular laborers had aruied, as
well as they could possibly, with pistols and
guns, and one night the rioters fired a num-
ber of pistol shots in the direction of the
workmen, and it is most fortunate that they
did not hit or hurt any of them, for the rea-
son that the laborers had their instruction
to pay no attention to their assailants unless
some of their men were hurt, and in that
event to charge upon them and spare not,
but kill all they came to. Many of the peo-
ple in the town took sides against the com-
pany, and tui-bulence continued to spread and
intensify and grow, and finally the company
telegraphed to St. Louis for a few boxes of
muskets, and when the mob saw these arrive,
and noticed they were taken to the com-
pany's ofiice, the next morning the roads, the
by-ways and the brush, even, were full of
Dutcher's laborers, with their .little bundles
on their shoulders, getting out of town as
fast as they could. Dutcher, when he threw
up his contract, repaired to the nearest hills,
up the line of the railroad, and there awaited
news of the drowning or burning of Cairo,
and vapored and blowed his wrath at the
town, threatening to sue and collect many

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

1C7

millions of dollars damages for interfering
with bis contract work.

There are many other circumstances that
go to establish the fact that Ashley was not
only disloyal to the railroad company that
employed him, but that he was willing to
sacrifice not only Cairo, but the best inter-
ests of the road in his schemes of speculation
and selfishness. So plain did this eventually
become, that the authorities of the railroad
became aware of his tricks, and they per-
emptorily and curtly dismissed him from
their service. Instead of the city company
being sued and made to pay immeasurable
damages for employing this large force of
men to work at night and save the city, the
agent, Mr. Taylor, made out a bill against the
road for every dollar he had expended, and
the I'oad paid it, because it was convinced
that, instead of interfering with Butcher's
contract work, the company, by their agent,
w^as simply doing the work the road had
bound itself, by solemn contract, to do.

Strange as it may seem, this dastardly at-
tempt to destroy the town, and probably all
in it, was not understood at the time by the
people; in fact, many so completely misun-
derstood the daring moves of the unholy con-
spirators, that they not only did not see how
they and theirs had been saved, but they took
sides, and many were vehement partisans of
Ashley and his followers. They believed that
the city company had stood about the town
like a dog in the manger, and refused to let
the railroad build the levees; and when the
arrival of the muskets had dispersed the riot-
ous laborers, and di'iven them in panic away,
there were citizens left to take up their quar-
rel, and threaten the city company.

Another par incident, only on a more ex-
tended scale, was when the United States
Marshal came down from Springfield to serve
writs upon the " heads of the town " — lead-

ing citizens, as it were, who, like pretty
much all of the residents, were defiant tres-
passers upon the company's property, and
the few leaders of whom the company had
commenced ' proceedings against in the
United States Court. When the Marshal ar-
rived, there was a flutter of excitement, and
the mutterings of the threatened storm were
all around the sky. But the Marshal was
quiet and gentlemanly; in truth, he seemed to
be about the only one not heated with great
excitement. He waited upon the parties for
whom he had writs; told them that he was
going up the river for two days, and then he
would return, and they must give bail, or
he would be compelled to perform the pain-
ful duty of putting them in jail. That night,
a meeting of the people was called; some
brave, short speeches were made, and finally
the meeting resolved that the city company
had no right nor title to any property within
the city, and that they would not obey the
writs of the United States Court. Here was
insurrection and civil war! Oi', as it turned
out, a roaring farce, that surpassed the Three
Tailors of Bow Street, when they issued
their proclamation to an astonished world,
and announced that " We, the People of
England, etc."

When the oflScer returned, and the
" rebels " took a second look at him, they
concluded to recognize his writs, and, under
solemn protests, gave bail and escaped the
bastile.

The embankments constructed by the Illi-
nois Central Railroad, under their contract,
did not prove to be protective embankments
or levees. On June 12, 1858, they gave way,
and the city was inundated; this inimdation
was the result solely of the imperfect con-
struction of the embankment. Logs and
stumps had been put in the levees, and this
furnished a route for the waters until the

108

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

dirt became so soft and giving,that it ceased
to be an obstruction to the waters, and the
flood came. This destructive overflow led to
ithe following correspondence between the
Illinois Central Railroad Company and the
Cairo City & Canal Company, and which
furnishes the only complete explanation of
the facts, and the views of the different in-
terested parties at the time that we can now
procure:

July 13, 1858, Charles Davis, Esq., one of
the Trustees, addressed the President and
Directors of the Central road, substantially
as follows: " The recent inundation of Cairo
has particularly directed the attention of the
Trustees of the Cairo City Property to their
agreements with the Illinois Central Rail-
road Company, relative to the construction
and maintenance of levees or protective em-
bankments around the city of Cairo.

" At the time of making those agreements,
the Trustees understood, and have ever since
understood, and have uniformly and repeated-
ly been advised by various counsel, that
these agreements were, on the part of your
company, not only a legal undertaking to
construct levees or protective embankments,
to the extent and in the manner prescribed in
said agreements, but were also a continuing
and perpetual legal undertaking to maintain
the same after they had been constructed.

" The Trustees have received, both from
their beneficiaries and from purchasers of land
at Cairo, very many expressions of regret that
the levees and protective embankments have
proved insufficient for the pui'pose of their con-
struction, and very many statements of great
actual and prospective loss and damage to
such beneficiaries and purchasers, and many
inquiries whether the Illinois Central Com-
pany had performed their agreements before-
mentioned. Their beneficiaries have com-
municated to the Trustees the opinion of said

beneficiaries, that the duty of the Trustees to
the said beneficiaries required them to de-
mand, and by all means in their power to en-
force, a full and continual performance of
said agreements, and urgently request the
Trustees to give immediately, and in the fut-
ure continue to give, their attention to this
matter.

" Without now adverting to any omissions
in the past, the recent inundation has done
much damage to the levees and embankments,
which, under said agreements, it is the duty
of your company to repair. The Trustees
have a telegram from Mr. S. S. Taylor,
dated at Cairo, 6th inst. , informing them
that the sewers were all open, and a portion
of the city dry, so that work on the levees
and embankments could be resumed.

" The Trustees do hereby, in conformity to
the requests of their beneficiaries, and in as-
sertion of their rights under said agreements,
request the President and Directors of the
Illinois Central Railroad Company to repair
the damage which has been done, and also to
perform at once whatever has been omitted
that is required to be performed, under said
agreements for the construction and main-
tenance of levees and protective embank-
ments around the city of Cairo.

"When the Trustees consider the importance
of the performance of these agreements to the
compamy itself, but much more "when they
consider the innumerable and the very heavy
liabilities to which the company is needlessly
exposed by every omission to perform agree-
ments of such general and public concern,
the Trustees can scarcely believe that the
President and Directors of the company will
delay unnecessarily, or even voluntarily
neglect to do all that the company has by
said agi'eements undertaken." ^

To this, under date 15th July, 185^, Mr.
Osborn, the President of the Central I'oad,

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

109

replies, acknowledging the receipt of the let-
ter, and stating " it is the intention of the
company to repair the damage occasioned
by the late freshet to the works at Cairo, as
far as is incumbent upon it under the con-
tracts with your company. I am not aware
of any omission in the performance of the
contract, and do not understand that clause
of your letter which requests this company
to perform at once whatever has been omit-
ted that is required to, be performed under
said agreement for the construction and
maintenance of levees and protective em-
bankments, etc."

Under date 22d, the same month, Mr. Os-
born again writes to Mr. Davis, and among
other things says : " I am desirous to meet
the views and wishes of your shareholders,
but the difficulty is the ready money. Capt.
McClellan^has decided to accept, if not al-
ready done, the proposition of Mr. Edwards,
to whom the price of the unfinished work was
referred, payable, $5,000 upon the 1st day
of September, and the balance (about $(3,000)
on the 1st day of December. If you will be
good enough to postpone those payments un-
til the 15th of January, I will at once give
directions to have a force make the repairs
to the levee and embankments with all prac-
ticable dispatch."

On the same day, by written communica-
tion, Mr. Davis accepted the terms and con-
ditions proposed by Mr. Osborn.

Under same date, S. Staats Taylor, in re-
ply to letter of inquiry from the Trustee, Mr.
Davis, writes: " I would state that, in my
opinion, an embankment twenty feet wide on
the top, with a slope on each side of one foot
perpendicular to five (or even four) feet
horizontal, would be sufficiently strong to
resist the pressui'e of any water that cjuld be
brought against it, provided it was properly
constructed. The late high water at Cairo

has demonstrated that the levees are not hisrh
enough, and to make them safe in this par-
ticular they should be at least two feet (if
not three feet) higher. Where the levees
were up to grade, the water in the Ohio was
within (me foot seven and a half inches of the
top of the levees, and on the Mississippi side
it was still higher, bringing it within a
very few inches of the grade.

" I have reason to believe that the embank-
ment at the place where it bi'oke was ren-
dered weak and insecm'e by logs being buried
in or under it, and a considerable portion of
the new protective embankment, both on the
Mississippi and Ohio Kivers, was con-
structed without the natural sm-face being
properly prepared by grubbing and plowing,
so as to allow the artificial embankment to
amalgamate and firmly combine with the
natural ground. From a neglect to do this,
the water during the late high water perco-
lated, and found a passage in many places in
considerable quantities, between the artificial
embankment, and the natural gi'ound. This
neglect to properly prepare the gi'ound ex-
isted at the time of building the new levee
on the Mississippi last winter, and the ground
was not only not grubbed or plowed, but
largiB stumps were allowed to remain in that
levee, and are there now, notwithstanding my
notification at the time to Capt. McClelland
that they were so allowed to remain there.
The contractor employed by the railroad
company last winter was detected by myself
in bmying large logs in that embankment,
not merely allowing those to remain that had
fallen, when the embankment was to be con-
structed, but actually rolling others in from
other places. When detected, those that
were in view were removed, but as a portion
of the embankment was constructed before
his practices were known, the probability is

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

that others are yet in the embankment, de-
tracting, of course from its strength and
security. "

A communication from 'Mr. S. S. Taylor,
which was read at the meeting of the Trustees
on the 29th September, 1858, is, to some ex-
tent, a semi-official account of the overflow
of the town in 1858, and as such deserves to
be placed upon a permanent record. It is
dated Cairo, September 6, 1858. " After the
last meeting of the stockholders, in Septem-
ber, 1857, our city continued to increase in
population, and improvements continued to
be made, the improvements, owing to the
financial crisis, being fewer in number than
during the previous spring and winter. The
increase in population was, nevertheless,
gi-eater than at any previous period, every
house and structure capable of protecting
population from the elements becoming filled
to repletion. This increase continued dur-
ing the winter and spring, so that at the
municipal election in February last, in which
there was no such particular interest taken
by the people as to bring out a full vote,
there were over [four hundred votes polled,
and at the same time it was known that there
were about two hundi-ed and fifty residents
who did not vote, some by reason of not
being entitled, and others for want of inter-
est.

" It was thus ascertained, with a consider-
able degree of accuracy, that at the time of
the election in February last, we had at least
650 men residents here. It is generally con-
ceded that one in seven of a population is a
large allowance of voters, in many places it
not being more than one in ten. But giving
us the largest allowance, and that may be
proper, inasmuch as in a new place there is
always a preponderance of men, this calcula-
tion will afford us a population of 4,500,
Shortly after this time, some inconven-

ience from the accumulation of water within
our levees began to be felt. This accumula-
tion arose from excessive rains. These rains
interfered somewhat with the filling in and
grading of the Ohio levee, and in the early
part of December we were obliged to close
our sewers, from the waters in the rivers
having risen to a level with their outside
mouths, and, with the exception of a few
days in the early spring, they remained
closed until they were re-opened after the
overflow.

" This state of things continued until, and
was in existence at, the time the breach in
our levees occm'red on the 12th of June last.

"As you are aware, this breach, whereby
the water was first let into the tovni, oc-
curred on the Mississippi, at the point where
the levee on that river leaves the river bank,
on the curve toward the Ohio River, and
about half a mile from the junction of the
two levees.

" At this point where the crevasse fii-st oc-
curred, the levee was very high, the filling
of earth being not less than twelve feet high.

" In the neighborhood of the crevasse, the
soil appears to be sandy, and an undue quan-
tity of that kind of soil may have entered
into the composition of tlie levee at that
point. An inspection of the crevasse also
shows that the groimd was not properly
prepared for the reception of the embank-
ment, it not having been properly grubbed,
as appears by the roots and stumps still
standing in it, in the ground where the em-
bankment is washed off. When the levee
broke, no one was in sight of it, that I can
ascertain. Capt. McClelland, the Vice Presi-
dent and Chief Engineer of the Central Eail-
road and myself had passed over it on foot
within two hours before it occurred, and a
watchman, whose duty it was to look after it,
was over it about twenty minutes before, but

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

Ill

to none of us was there any appearance of
weakness. After leaving the location about
twenty minutes, and being distant less than
one- fourth of a mile, the watchman heard the
roaring of the waters running through the
crevasse, and when I reached it, three- fourths
of an hour afterward, the water was running
through to the full width of 300 feet, and in
an unbroken stream, as if it was to the full
depth of the embankment. The probability
is, I think, that, aided by the stumps and
roots in the embankment, and it is possible
some other extraneous substances, the water
had found its way through the base of the
embankment, and had so far saturated it as
to destroy its cohesion with the natural
ground below, and then the weight of the
waters on the outside had pushed it away.

" As you are aware, when the contracts for
building the different divisions of gthe Illinois
Central road wei-e originally let, in June, 1852,
that for the construction of the lower cross-
levee and the levees below it, on both the Ohio
and Mississippi Rivers, was included in the
letting, and was given out to _Mr. Richard
Ellis. Under this contract, work was com-
menced and prosecuted at various points, on
both the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, from
September to December, 1852, when the con-
tractor failed, and the work was abandoned
until December, 1853, except on that pov-
tion along the Ohio River above the freight
depot. On that section it was continued,
with a view, apparenth', of constructing an
embankment for the accommodation of their
railroad track, rather than for the purpose of
protecting the town from inundation, the em-
bankment having been built in the same
manner as their ordinary railroad embank-
ments. The instructions given by their en-
gineer in charge of their work at the time it
was done were the same as those issued in
other cases for the construction of railroad

embankments, viz., that while the filling
was over four feet, the stumps were not to be
removed, and no grubbing done, and I am
told by the engineer in charge at the time
the work was done that these instructions
were followed, and that the embankments
along the Ohio River, above the freight de-
pot, was thus built without the stumps being
removed or grubbing done. A portion of this
bank, at or near the curve on the Ohio near
the junction of the levee, is quite narrow,
and after our late experience I should think
it was far from being secui'e.

" At the time of the overflow, a very large
portion of our population were obliged to go
away, from inability to procure accommoda-
tions here. Some, who had two-stoi'ied
houses, remained in the upper story, but
most were obliged to desert their dwellings.
The population thus mostly scattered into
the neighboring towns and country, with the
exception of those whoi^rocured accommoda-'
tion on the wharf and flat-boats and barges
at the levee. A large portion of those who
thus went away have already returned ; others
are coming back daily, and if employment to
justify their return can be found, I am sat-
isfied the great bulk of our population will
shortly be back here again. I think our
population ia at least three thousand now,
if not more.

" Early in the last spring, the foundry
buildings took fire, and were entirely con-
sumed. The ["establishment was just begin-
ning to transact a very successful and pro-
fitable business.

" During the last spring, a good ferry was
established between Cairo and the adjoining
States of Missouri and Kentucky, by the
Cairo City Feny Company, and a good steam
ferry-boat fui*nished, which makes regular
trip? between those States and Cairo, bring-
ing ti'ade and produce to it. Before the de-

112

HISTORY or CAIRO.

struction, by the late high water, of the prod-
uce of the farms alonor the rivers, a very
perceptible increase in the business of the
city took place from this cause, and a re-
suscitation of the business of the adjoining
country on the opposite sides of the river
will, by the aid of the ferry, be attended with
a corresponding effect here.

" Portions of the roads in the adjoining
States are so far finished that, by the 1st of
November, we shall have a continuous rail-
road from here to New Orleans, with the ex-
ception of the river travel between here and
Columbus City, sixteen miles from here.
This road is now finished, with the exception
of two gaps, of eighteen and six miles re-
spectively, and these are being rapidly filled.
A steam ferry-boat will commence running
from here to Coliimbus, on the 1st of the
next month, in connection with this road,
and when the road is completed, as it will be
by November 1, we shall be within two days'
travel of New Orleans.

" The first section of the Cairo & Fulton
Eailroad, in Missouri, is now pushed for-
ward with energy, and that portion between
Bird's Landing, opposite here, and Charles-
ton, a village about fourteen miles from the
river (Mississippi), will be in operation by
the 1st of December next Charleston is a
thrivin gvillage, in a well-settled, well-culti-
vated and flourishing section of Missouri,
and our connection with it by railroad will
tend to increase considerably the business
and trade of our town. As you are aware, a
road was cut out along the bank of the Ohio
Eiverto Moimd City last fall, and a bridge •
across Cache River was commenced then, but
has been delayed since by the high water.
The construction of this bi'idge has been
since re-coramenced, and the contractor in-
forms me that it will be ready for use one
week from next Saturday. This will give us

a good road to Mound City, and, by connec-
tion with roads there, will give us free com-
munication with the country and villages be-
yond, and thus give us a good deal of trade
from those quarters.

" In consequence of the great destruction
of property by high water in the country
about us, the farmers have but little to sell,
and this, connected with the general depres-
sion of trade, has made it rather dull here;
notwithstanding which, some improvements
are still going on in our city. The distillery
which was commenced last spring is being
pushed to completion, and will be ready for
operation by the 1st of next month. Two
houses — one a dwelling, twenty-five by forty,
two stories high, the other for a German
tavern, twenty-five by seventy-five, and three
stories high — both commenced before the
overflow, are in process of completion. Two
others, one twenty-five by seventy and three
stories high, have been contracted for and
begun since the overflow, and are nearly
finished; and one other, a dwelling-house,
contracted for since the overflow but not yet
begun.

" The work of macadamizing the Ohio levee,
and building the protecting wall at the base,
has so far advanced, that about one thousand
feet of the wall, extending from the lower
side of Fourth street to the lower side of
Eighth street, has been completed, and for
about six hundred feet in length additional,
the broken rock is placed for about one
hundi-ed and twenty -five feet from the toj) of
the levee. The gi-ading of the levee with
earth, within the same limits, has also been
prosecuted, as the waters in the rivers would
permit. A few weeks of favorable weather
and a favorable stage of water would enable
us to complete the whole of the grading and
macadamizing of the whole of the 1,000 feet
above the passenger depot.

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

113

" Most of tliis rock work was done pre-
viously to January 1, 1858, when the com-
munication with the quarries was interrupted
by ice in the INHssissippi; after this difficulty
was removed, the water was so high as to
cover the quarries, and has continued so un-
til the last week, with a brief interval, dur-
ing which we were enabled to get down two
barge loads of stone, and last week the water
had so far receded at the quarry as enabled
us to make regular trips with the steamb )at
and barges. During the spring and summer,
the water has been too high, most of the
time, to admit of much work on the filling
and grading of the Ohio levee, between the
depots, according to our arrangements with
the railroad company, to complete for them the
unfinished work. But at intervals, we were
enabled to do something, and worked moder
ately, as the weather and water would per-
mit, until, within the last four weeks, when
we have pushed the work vigorously.

" The bank building belonging to Gov.
Matteson has been [completed for several
weeks, but there do not appear to be any in-
dications of an early opening of the establish-
ment, although I am told the note-plates
have all been prepared, the officers engaged
and all other arrangements completed months
ago for the opening. This delay is to be I'e-
gretted, especially as, if the ground had not
been occupied by. Gov. Matteson, or rather if
his declared intention had not gone abroad
through the whole country round about, a
good bank would have been established here
last fall, by Mr. E. Norton, one of our old
citizens, in connection with his brother, the
Cashier of the Southern Bank of Kentucky,
established at Russellville, Ky.

" In conclusion, it is very evident that
had the Illinois Central Railroad constructed
the levees, as they should be constructed, and
not have substituted for them the common

railroad embankments, that this interruption
to the onward pi-ogress of Cairo would not
have taken place. "

Some robust correspondence was inaugu-
rated by the Cairo property owners of
Springfield, 111., after the overflow of June,
1858, and as they discuss some questions
that have been mooted by our people at vari-
ous times, we give extended extracts from
both sides of the discussion.

On the 17th June. 1858, J. A. Matteson,
Johnson & Bradford, R. F. Ruth, John E.
Ousley, W. D. Chenery, H. Walker, T. S.
Mather and fifteen others of the leading
citizens of Springfield, addi-essed a joint- letter
to S. Staats Taylor, " Resident Agent," from
which letter we extract such sentences as
these : " We are apprised most fully of the
great calamity which has befallen Cairo.
Had we supposed such ruin possible, we
could never have been induced to expend the
large amounts of money which we have, nor
could we have used our influence as an in-
ducement for others to do so.

" The large sum of $318,000 has been ex-
pended by ourselves, and others of Spring-
field, in the purchase of property and its
impi'overnent at Cairo; and the people of
Springfield themselves, under the strong as-
surances made to them by the Cairo City
Company, have invested, and induced others
to invest, no less than from S150,000 to
8200,000 in buildings alone.

" By this calamity, which might have been
prevented if the compauy had thrown around
the city such complete protection as they
were bound by interest and by legal con-
tract with purchasers, to do, this property
has been rendered comparatively valueless.
Nothing but prompt action and judicious
plans, on your part, can save your city and
yoiu" property alike, with that of others, from
utter ruin, or at least from such a set-back

114

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

as will require the work of years to regain.
" Already is the sentiment fast gaining
ground upon the public mind that Cairo is
hopelessly ruined. This sentiment must be
at once met, and contradicted at whatever

cost.

* ii^ * * * * *

" We feel that the company are both legal-
ly and vioralhj hound to fully restore those
who have sustained the damage to their
former position before the flood. Independ-
ent of their legal obligations, we deem it to
be the highest interest of the company to
institute thp most prompt and vigorous
measures, not only to restore to those who
have suffered loss, but to so act as to satisfy
the public mind at once that the company
themselves are not disheartened, but that they
are ready, promptly, to do justice to every one
who has sustained damage by the overflow of
water. * * * * In our judgment, the
company should seek to inspire all those who
had made Cairo their home, and who had
made improvements there, however trivial
in amount, that they will be immediately
aided and fully restored to their property.
This would establish confidence against
which no tide could successfully flow. But
this must be done promptly; tnust he done at
once. The people who have settled there
should not be suffered to scatter, if possihle
to prevent it. They should be aided and en-
couraged at once with the idea that the
storm is over, and the floods are past ; they
shall be made good again, and their future
secured beyond a contingency,

" Many of the subscribers to this letter
own stock in the Cairo Hotel Company, and
we think that, as soon as the waters subside,
you ought to rebuild the fallen building, at
least to a point to where the company had
carried it before the levee gave way. * *

" Public sympathy might now be relied

upon to a large extent. Cairo, though worse
afflicted, has been overtaken by a calamity
which has befallen almost every city and
town in the Mississippi Valley to a greater
or less extent. This superior affliction may,
by timely action, be made to bear rather
favorably than otherwise; and the waiers of
public opinion, which now inundate the pros-
pects of Cairo, may be made to subside as
rapidly as those of the Mississippi will retire
now that the storms are past."

The object of this carefully constructed
letter, signed by so many of the leading men
of Springfield, was to get money from the
company to compensate them for damages
sustained.

The company, however, in substance, an-
swers as follows:

"1. There was no such contract ever made.
Honest opinions and conscientious repi-esent-
atious were made, of which the parties pur-
chasing were always able to judge, having
the city of Cairo with all its defenses before
them, and all the agreements with the Illinois
Central Railroad Company lying open for
their inspection.

" 2. Ample confirmation is found here, as
» to the mischievous character of the news-
paper reports complained of.

"3. All that is recommended and more
will be done. See the resolutions adopted at
the meeting of September 29, 1858.

" 4. The gentlemen whose names are af-
fixed to this letter will find their leading views
corroborated by the proceedings referred to
above, though the facts relied upon, the
points urged and the legal questions in-
volved, are very differently understood by the
Trustees and their Counsel.

" 5. The population have not been suffered
to scatter, as will be seen by the report of
the General Agent, and the most liberal
course of action has been recommended by the

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

117

Executive Committee, and authorized by
Si/XK'i votes:'

Other, and, if possible, stronger letters,
were written the company by N. W. Edwards
and also by "William Butler. President of the
Cairo City Hotel Company. Then. July S,
iSaS, Mr. William Butler, President, and
James C. Conklin, Secretary, addiessed a
joint-letter to S. S. Taylor, and in it they
say: " We notice the stockholders of Cairo
City are requested to meet at Philadelphia
on the 15th inst. We presume one of their
objects is to take into consideration the
course of action to be adopted by them con-
cerning the damages which resulted from the
recent flood. In behalf of the Cairo Hotel
Company, we desire they should not only
consider the communication heretofore trans-
mitted by us to you, which was. general in its
character, and had reference, more partcular-
ly, to what might be deemed politic on the
part of the Cairo City Company, but we wish
to propose now, more distinctly for their con-
sideration, the position of the Cairo City
Hotel Company.

" In the publications made by the Cairo
City Company, under date of January 1 5,
1S55, and in their pamphlet issued in 1S56,
various inducements were held out to capi-
talists to invest at Cairo City : and the strong-
est language was used in regard to the sta-
bility and permanency of its levees. It was
said that they would afford a complete pro-
tection from overflow at any stage of water,
however high: that the expense of the levees
was provided for by the Trustees of the City
Property; that it would entirely encompass
the city, and was to be eighty feet wide on
the top. and that an inundation was an
impossibility, and that human ingenuity
had successfully opposed a barrier, even to
the chance of an overflow, and that gigantic
works had marked the Rubicon which even

the mighty- Father of Waters could not
overstep.

These works, it was represented, had
been commenced, and progress had been
made in their construction, ' for tho interests
of property holders." * * * *

These representations were published to
the world, and extraordinary efforts were
made to impress the minds of the community
that Cairo was beyond the reach of any con-
tingency arising from floods, uiltil the con-
viction was well-established, and it was gen-
erally believed that the Cairo City Company
had effectually provided against any danger
that might be apprehended from this source.

The events of the last few weeks, however,
abundantly testify that said embankments
were not seciu*e, that the company had not
fully pretected the interests of property hold-
ers in said city, etc., etc. * * * «

In consideration of the premises, the un-
designed, in behalf of the hotel company,
would respectfully represent to the stock-
holders of Cairo City, that said stockholders
ought to assume the responsibility of said
loss and damage, that this is the just and
reasonable view of the case, and that the
claim of the hotel company is not only
founded upon sound reason and good faith,
but that, by the established rules of law. the
Cairo City Company and their Trustees are
bound to indemnify the hotel company for
all the losses sustained by reason of the in-
sufficiency of the levee to protect the city.

To this the Board of Directors and the
Trustees answer substantially as follows, in
addition to previous answers to similar com-
munications from pai'ties in Springtield:

1. All the promises were prospective, and
founded upon a justifiable belief.

2. And this, their belief, was founded
upon all past experience, upon careful sur-
veys, many times repeated by eminent engi-

118

HISTOHY OF CAIRO.

neers, and upon the testimotiy of unimpeach-
able witnesses. Their expectations were
well-founded, and not unreasonable, as the
adverse parties knetv, and acknowledged by
their acts, for they were able to judge for
themselves, and asked for no other deed than
that which had always been given. And
what, after all, do the Trustees promise in
the publication cited? Only that certain
things "would be done" thereafter; and
that^ when done, there would be no possible
danger from overflow. And they say the
same thing now. They expected the levee to
be completed by the Illinios Central Rail-
road, as promised and paid for ; and they
tried, in every way, to have it done, short
of bi'inging them into a court of law, while
under ovei*whelming embaiTassment; and if
they had fulfilled their undertaking, it is
clear, beyond all question, as tl^e foregoing
documents prove, that Cairo would not have
been flooded in June last, notwithstanding
the unexampled rise of both rivers. * *

4. Under all the circumstances, the fault
being that of the Illinois Central Railroad,
and not of the Cairo City Property or their
Trustees, would this be a just or reasonable
expectation? etc., etc.

The shareholders of the Cairo City Prop-
erty, as per call noticed above, met in Phila-
delphia on the 15th of July, 1858, and,
among other proceedings, passed the follow-
ing resolution:

" Resolved, That the Executive Committee
be requested to confer with the President and
Directors of the Illinois Central Railroad
Company, to ascertain if some arrangement
cannot be made to repair the damage to
Cairo, and if that cannot be accomplished,
then to request the Trustees of Cairo City
Property to authorize the agent, S. Staats
Taylor, to cause the proper repairs to be
made, and to institute legal proceedings

against the railroad company for the amount
expended, and for all damages sustained by
the overflow caused by the neglect of the said
railroad company.

The shai'eholders had appointed an Execu-
tive Committee, to consider matters in refer-
ence to the inundation of Cairo. This com-
mittee held a meeting in New York, and in
their report they say: " Believing that they
could not properly and thoroughly discharge
their duty, under the resolutions referred to,
without a personal examination of Cairo, and
the General Agent, Mr. S. S. Taylor, being
of opinion that a visit by the whole Execu-
tive Committee, or by a sub-committee of this
board, would greatly encourage the people
of Cairo, tned to allay their apprehensions,
and check, if it did not put a stop at once
and forever, to the mischievous falsehoods
and gross exaggerations which, under a show
of authority, and as admissions made by par-
ties deeply interested in the reputation and
welfare of Cairo, were gradually taking pos-
session of the public mind, both at home and
abroad, your committee delegated Mr. Bald-
win, of Syracuse, and Mr. Neal, of Maine,
to visit Cairo, and make such personal inves-
tigation upon the ground as would enable
them to report understandingly upon the
present condition and wants of the city.
* * * And to take such immediate meas-
ures as might, in their judgment, be needed
for the safety of the city, before the whole
board could be brought together. "

When this sub-committee arrived in Cairo,
they looked carefully over the gi'ounds, and
on the 6th of August, 1858, a public meeting
of the inhabitants of Cairo was called, with
a view to a full understanding of all ques-
tions at issue; and of this meeting the com-
mittee said in their report:

" The meeting was large, for the popula-
tion, and very quiet, and the addresses of

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

119

your sub- committee, together with explana-
tions and assurances, in behalf of the share-
holders and proprietors, were well received.
It was stated that shareholders, to the
amount of nearly two millions and a half,
at the par value of the stock, were assembled
at Philadelphia, on the 15th of July, where
they chose an Executive Committee of six,
who afterward chose from their number two,
as a sub- committee to visit Cairo in person,
look into the condition of the city and the
wants of the people, and report at the next
yearly meeting, on the 29th of September.

" The people of Cairo were encouraged to
believe that, if they were faithful to them-
selves, the Tnistees, and shareholders and
proprietors were determined to pursue a
liberal course of action, and they might con-
sider the C. C. P. pledged to the full amount
of all their interests in Cairo to carry out
whatever they believed to be for the advan-
tage of all parties; and the meeting ended at
last with mutual congratulations and assur-
ances that Cairo should not be left to the
guardianship of treacherous friends or un-
principled foes; but to the watchful care of
those who had something at stake in her rep-
utation and welfare. "

The sharp bend in the Mississippi River,
just belc w the north line of the city, throws
the water almost straight across to the Illinois
shore, and the abrasion of this shore threat
ened to cut its way, eventually, entirely across
to the Ohio River, unless in some way con-
trolled. Between the years 1875 and 1880
the General Government expended on the
protective works on the Mississippi, opposite
this city, the sum of $113,351.43. This work
extends along the face of the river bank, from a
point below where the Mississippi River levee
runs away from the river bank at least three-
quarters of a mile, to a point up the river at
least two miles above the upper limits of the

city. When the water is at a low stage in
the Mississippi, the current thrown, as stated,
against the Illinois shore, begins to under-
mine the banks, which are nearly always
perpendicular and composed mostly of de-
posits made by the silt-bearing water of the
river in flood times. This undermining proc-
ess goes on at the surface of the water, un-
til the superincumbent mass of the bank falls
into the river, and is carried away by tho
stream. Then the undermining process
commences again, and proceeds to precisely
similar results. In this way, at this point,
the river has heretofore undermined the
banks of the Mississippi River, dropping
them slowly into the stream, and iinally
digging under portions of the levees and
carrying them away into the river. Here has
been one of the severest problems in the mat-
ter of protecting the city from the waters,
this erosive -action in low water goino- on re-
gardless of any possible heights of levees
placed upon the shores. This abrasion of the
shore has necessitated the building of a new
levee on the Mississippi side, about a mile in
length, which is of an average of twelve feet
high, measuring from the surface on which
it is constructed; is twelve feet wide on the
top, with a slope on its outside of one foot
perpendicular to live feet horizontal, and on
its inside of one foot to two and a half feet,
making an average width of fifty feet; and
its top is fifty-four feet above low water
mark. The average height of the other
portions of the levee, standing on the bank
of the Mississippi River, from its junction
with the new levee on the bank of the Ohio
River, is one foot and three inches above
the high water mark. This is measuring
only to and not including the ties of the
Cairo & St. Louis Railroad track. The
Cairo & St. Louis Railroad has the right of
way along its top, from the Ohio River to a

120

HISTOKY OF CAIRO.

point beyond and outside of where the new
levee makes a junction with the levee owned
by the Trustees. Where this right of way
exists, the railroad company is obliged, by
reservations and penalties in its deed, to
maintain the levee at its original height, of
fifty- three feet and three inches, and to its
original width on top of sixteen feet.

There has been much work done, by the
"United States Government and by the Trust-
ees of the city company, in protecting from
the erosive action of the current the Missis-
sippi River bank. The manner of doing this
was to place large mattresses, made of wil-
lows and tree branches; these were loaded
with rock, and sunk to the bottom, at the
bank where the current was cutting un-
der the superstructure, and upon this mat-
tress was then sunk another one, and another
one on top of that, until a stone wall was
formed for the waters to beat against, extend-
ing from the bottom of the river to above
the surface of the water. There were about
two miles and a half of these stone-anchored
mattress walls conslructed, extending north
from a point nearly opposite [the lower end
of the new levee. On the top of these mat-
tress-walls, medium sized stone were placed
against the bank, to nearly the top thereof,
thus facing the river bank with a stone re-
vetment. Previous to this work being done
by the Government, the city company had
some years ago revetted nearly three-quarters
of a mile in length. So there is now standing,
against the face of the bank of the Missis-
sippi, and extending from a point below
where the levee runs away from the river, up
the river about three and a half miles, to a
point about two miles above the upper limits
of the city, the revetments extending from
the bottom of the river, and up along the
face of the shore from fifty to sixty feet.
There has been here expended $196,806.49,

of which $113,351.43 was by the General
Government.

July 18, 1872, after the Trustees had spent
large amounts of money in widening, raising
and strengthening the levees, and had
brought suit for $250,000 against the Central
road for money thus expended, which suit
was eventually compromised and 397 acres of
the 497 acres were re-conveyed by the rail-
road to the city company, and the payment
of $80,000 in money, and the release to the
Cairo City Property all its original rights to
the collection of wharfage, etc. And the
railroad was released from all obligations in
reference to maintaining and repairing the
levees, except that portion actually occupied
and used by them.

In 1878, in consideration of the vacation of
Levee street, above Eighteenth, by the city,
and the granting of privileges upon the
same to the Illinois Central road, the road
deeded the 100- foot strip, running from
Thirty-fourth street to the point, and parallel
with the Ohio levee to the city.

The City Council recently ordered the
Ohio levee to be raised, commencing with a
raise of two feet at or near the stone depot,
grading to the present height at Second
street, and with this increase of the height of
this levee, the entire levees of the city will
be above the highest water mark ever known.
The Hon. D. T. Linegar, the present mem-
ber of the Illinois Legislature, has secured
the passage of two bills, that are now attract-
ing the attention of the people of Cairo.
The titles of the bills indicate largely the
purpose of the same — the Levee Bill and the
High Grade Bill. The fundamental idea of
the two evidently is to enable the city to raise
the levees and the lots within the city limits
to any height or grade they may wish. We
are informed that the levee bill authorizes
the city authorities, whenever they shall

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

121

deem it necessary for the protection of the
city, to order the owners of any part of the
levee to raise and strengthen the same, in
such manner as the city may think best, and
iipon a failm*e to comply with this order, the
city may proceed and do the work, and sell
the property and pay its bill, and nearly a
similar authority is given as to all lots,
whether they belong to public institutions or
are private property.

The remarkably high waters of 1SS2 and
1883 go to show that probably from one foot to
eighteen inches should be added to the
levees around the city, and, as soon as possi-
ble, revetments extending entirely around and
against the embankments of both rivers, and
thus made strong and permanent, and Cairo
need never fear or di-ead any high water that
can ever come against its bulwarks.

The city has triumphantly passed through
the flood crisis of the two years of 1882-83,
that poured oiit the greatest floods of water
ever witnessed in the rivers at this point;
and it is now a remarkable historical fact
that the only town from the source of the
Ohio River to the mouth of the Mississippi
River, that passed unscathed and unharmed
by the floods, was Cairo. The rivers, north
and south of here, bore devastation upon
their raging bosoms. Pittsburgh, Cincin-
nati, Louisville, New Albany, Lawi*encebui-g,
Shawneetown and many other places have
suffered immeasurably from the high waters
of the past two years. Often, the floods in
the Mississippi have so crippled and confined
the business of St. Louis, that at intervals it
was prostrated. But Cairo, so widely be-
lieved by many to be the worst water- afflicted
city in the United States, has experienced
none of the troubles of the other river towDS.
The past two years, the early spring freshets
have driven thousands from their homes in

Cincinnati, Louisville, Shawneetown and
other places; business houses were flooded
and washed away; and manufacturing estab-
lishments were compelled to "shutdown;"
railroad communication with them was de-
stroyed, and " the widespread distress filled
the land with its wail, and the charity of the
nation was appealed to for aid for the flood
sufferers. With a flood-line marking a height
never before attained by any of the floods of
the past, the citizens of Cairo, while taking
all precautions to keep the great levees which
surround her intact, have transacted their
business, but little disturbed by the threaten-
ing Avatei's. Not a mill nor a manufacturing
establishment of any kind has been " shut
down" for a moment on account of the
tloods, and the Illinois Central Railroad,
which makes connection here with its south-
ern division by a " transfer steamboat " for
New Orleans, has never missed a train, or
been compelled to abandon any of its track
for a single hour. No cry of disti-ess has
ever gone out to the country from the j^eople
of Cairo, but when the last waters were high-
est, and the croakers against Cairo were
loudest, a public meeting of the people re-
sponded to theory for helj) from their neigh-
bors at Shawneetown by a cash subscription
of $1,000. The truth is- -established by the
severest test ever known — that Cairo, the
much maligned and slandered Cairo, is, in
any flood that may or can come down the
rivers, the city of refuge — the place of safety,
and the only reliable one, from St. Louis or
Pittsburgh to New Orleans.

On the 26th of February, 1882, the flood-
line at Cairo was fifty -one feet ten and a half
inches above low water mark. On the 26th
of February, 1883, exactly one year to a day,
the flood-line at Cairo was fifty-two feet two
inches above low water mark In these two

122

HISTOKY OF CAIRO.

unprecedented stages of water, as before re-
marked, Cairo was the only river town that
passed unharmed.

People wonder, and muse, and talji much
about these two years, and their great waters,
and the conclusion is a common one, that it
is the general system of draining in ^11 the
coTintiT north of this, both open and tile
draining, the cutting of the forests and open-
ing the sluice-ways for the surface water,
that has been one great cause of the higher
waters in late years than was ever known
formerly. Again, it is said that the towns
and railroads and other improvements upon
the river banks, tend to confine the waters,
and thus swell the height of its flow; and the
fact is cited that where a few years ago were
ponds and pools of water, sometimes stand-
ing the whole season through, are now often
well-tilled farms, with a drainage so perfect
that no water ever remains more than a few
hours upon any of its surface. It looks rea-
sonable that there is something in these
theories — there probably is — biit the fact
that the waters were higher at the source of
the river than here at the mouth (of the
Ohio), would go far to contradict this theory.
At Cincinnati this year (1883), the water was
five fept higher than ever before known. As
early as the 12th of last February, the rise
in the Ohio had utterly paralyzed business,
and had deprived 20,000 working people of
Cincinnati, Covington and Newport of the
means of livelihood. Five square miles of
Cincinnati were covered with water from one
inch to twenty feet deep. Many lives were
lost, and many millions of dollars worth of
property was destroyed, and along the Upper
Ohio hundreds of thousands of people suf-
fered inconvenience or loss from the wide-
spread river overflows. In the Kentucky
bottoms, opposite Shawneetown, the water
was three and a half feet higher than ever

before known since the settlement of the
country; while at Cairo the water of the year
only exceeded that of last year by three and
a half inches. There must have been other
causes than cutting the trees or draining,
for the floods of this year (1883), one pecu-
liarity of them being that ihoy were re-
stricted to no particular locality, but seem to
have been general, and to extend nearly over
the whole world. The long-continued rainn
in the valley of the Ohio, that fell upon the
frozen and ice covered grounds, where not a
drop was absorbed into the earth, and started
the raging torrent at the fountain-heads,
were the palpable, prime cause of the unusual
waters. In Europe the rain-storm started
that did so much damage here. It flooded
the Theiss and Danube, the Ehine, in Ger-
many, and the Ehone and all the rivers of
France, and sent them, like the Ohio, boom-
ing out of their banks and doing widespread
damage. The course of the storm across the
Atlantic could be distinctly traced to its out-
burst in the region of the Upper Ohio and
the lakes, and spreading rapidly all over our
continent, until every section, often the most
retired villages, far up in the mountains, and
miles away from any lake or river, seemed
scarcely safe. Indeed, one of the most awful
calamities of the long list of disasters of this
year was. that which took place out in the
open prairie near Braidwood, 111., where the
rain had piled up the waters three feet into
a lake, which, breaking through a mine,
drowned the unfortunate miners within.
Every tributary of the Ohio and Mississipj^i
■ Rivers was rising at the same time; the
Allegheny, Monongahela, Licking, Kentucky
and Cumberland were all at flood-tide; the
Wabash was out of its bed, and can-ying de-
struction on its course. The rivers pouring
into the lakes were also raging; the Miami
flooded a large portion of Toledo; the Cuya-

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

123

hoga has twice this year inundated Cleve-
land, and even the Atlantic slope tells the
same sad story, and in the far West it is
again repeated.

We have told of the inundation of Cairo
in 1858. The damage to the property of the
town, except the falling of the hotel wall
(and that was evidently from the imperfect
building of the foundation more than the
water) did not amount to $1,000. There was
not a house, excepting the merest shanties,
that was materially injured. The largest
sufferer, in a pecuniary way, was Bailey Har-
rell, whose stock of goods was injured to the
extent of a few hundred dollars. The people
of Cairo felt no suffering from actual want,
and indeed they refused any outside aid
when such assistance was tendered them.
In one sense, the actual and material injury
to the place was most insignificant and tri-
fling; and yet, in another sense, by a singular
chain of circumstances, it was almost an ir-
reparable calamity to the interests of the city.
In the most exaggerated way it was blown
in the face of all the world, until men
never after heard of Cairo except to
shudder or shrug the shoulders, and
either express the sentiment or believe it,
that its very name meant floods, and drown-
ings, and wreck and ruin. There is not a
xiver-town from St. Louis ^or Pittsburgh to
New Orleans but that has suffered from in-
undations incomparably worse than has Cairo,
and yet their raging waters are hardly passed
away when the people seem to forget it all, and
their calamity is not again whispered until
the next high water and its devastation.

We have shown how trifling and insignifi-
cant was the only overflow Cairo has ever
had since she has been walledabout by her
levees. In contrast to this, look at the fol-
lowing description, by an eye-witness, of the
Upper Ohio in last February:

" The proportions of the calamity that is
upon the j)eople of the Ohio Valley are hour-
ly increasing. There are suffering, desola-
tion and death in each inch of the awful rise
of the river upon a stage of water absolutely
without precedent, and the details of distress
which called for symjjathy in the floods of
Europe, except as to loss ^of life, are largely
repeated in this section to-day. * * * *
For thirty miles, beginning with the upper
suburb of Cincinnati, and ending with Law-
I'enceburg, Ind., twenty-five miles below, the
damage, destitution and distress are unparal-
leled in American history. Below Lawrence-
bm-g, and to Louisville [equally true if he
had said to Cairo — Ed.] the situation is the
same. Beginning with the upper suburb of
Cincinnati, on the Ohio side, are Columbia,
Pendleton, Fulton and , then Cincinnati,
Sedamsville, Riverside, Fernbank, Lawrence-
burg, Aiu'ora, Rising Sun, Patriot, Vevay
and Madison. On the Kentucky side are
the towns of Dayton, Bellevue and Newport,
and Covington, opposite Cincinnati, Ludlow,
Bromley, Petersbui-g, Hamilton, Warsaw,
Ghent, Carrollton, Milton, Westport and
Louisville. At Patriot and Vevay, the river
is five or six miles wide, and at all these
points it simply extends from the Ohio to the
Kentucky hills, covering all the rich bottom
lands. Its average width is from one to two
miles — a sea of yellow waters. At all these
points more or less damage is done. No
statistics are available, but a cool guess
would place the number of people either
homeless or imprisoned, at not less than
50,000. There are 15,000 at Newport alone,
and 5,000 in Lawrenceburg; at Louisville,
New Albany and Jeffersonville, it is in many
respects even worse.

" The east end, up in Fulton and Colum-
bia, has eight feet of water flowing thi-ough
the main street. Many houses have been

124

HISTORY OF CATEO.

swept away, and many more are expected to
follow. If the weather was not warm and
pleasant, the suffering worfld be intense.
The water is five miles wide from Columbia
to the other shore of the Little Miami River,
and all the houses on the bottom have disap-
peared, not even the roofs being visible.
Western avenue, on the western side of the
city, along Mill Creek Valley, has been de-
clared unsafe, and travel on it is stopped.
The American Oak & Leather Company's
tannery, the largest in the world, was sub-
merged at 1 o'clock this morning (February
15). Along Mill Creek Valley are most of
the packing houses. One packer has 3,000,-
000 pounds of meat under water, and from
10,000,000 to 15,000,000 pounds of dry-
salted meats are in the same condition. No
one has dared to make an estimate of the
total loss here (Cincinnati), but they will be
millions."

Of Lawrenceburg, Ind., an official report,
among other things, specifies: " There never
was," so they report, " in all history of the
floods in the Ohio Valley, a city, town or
hamlet so completely at the mercy of the an-
gry element as is Lawrenceburg. For three
days, the citizens ^vere almost without a
morsel to eat. In the lower portion of the
city, everything is destroyed, save the dwell-
ings, and they, of coiu'se, must be badly
damaged. Hundreds of the houses are from
ten to fifty feet under water. The people,
driven from their homes, fled to the public
buildings. All they possessed is destroyed.
We steamed alongside the court house,
woolen mills, churches, furniture factories
and public school buildings. All of the
above-named buildings were crowded with
people rescued from watery gi-aves.

" In the large and more secure residences,
families have been driven to the second and

third stories. On the principal streets, the
water ranges from seven to twenty-five feet
deep. Few of the merchants saved any of
their goods, and although precautions were
taken, yet nearly all furniture is ruined. A
great many houses in low lands have been
swept away, and houses and contents are lost
forever to the owners.

" The damage to factories cannot be esti-
mated. In the city there are a great many
furniture factories, all of which had on hand
large stocks of lumber; in many cases this
has all been swept away.

" The machinery in some, if not all. the
factories and mills, has been badly damaged,
and mostly ruined. The county records have
all been saved, they having been carried to
the top stories of the court house. The rich
and the poor are upon a common level, and
indiscriminately huddled together. In one
part of the court house, death was claiming
its victims, while in another new lives were
being ushered into the world. * * * *
The reports of the condition of the people
have not been exaggerated. In fact, the half
has not been told. The entire city, with a
population of some 5,000, are in want, and
are at the mercy of the public. Distress ex-
tends from one end of the city to the other.
The town has been without communication
with the outside world for days, except by
boats, and no regular packets are running.
The telegraph offices are flooded, and the
wires are down. The telephone office is in
several feet of water. In short, there is not
a dry square foot of ground in the place.

" The situation of the citizens of Law-
renceburg, imprisoned in the conrt house, is
constantly growing more dangerous. Added
to the irregularity of the food supply, and
the crowded quarters, is the possibility that
the court house may collapse, from the un-

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

125

dermining of its foundation by the flood of
waters. Should that occur, the loss of life
certainly will be great."

"We forbear to extend these sad and har-
rowing details, nor have we given the worst
side of the picture, as drawn by correspond-
ents who visited the different towns along
the Ohio Kiver.

While this terrible page of history was
being written of every river town above this
point, Cairo was peacefully and securely pur-
suing her avocations; her railroads making
their regular trips; not a wheel in any of
her factories impeded for even a moment.

The ordinaiy business of the day was

transacted in confidence and safety. No one

was alarmed even in Cairo, except the negroes

and a few nervous and timid "tenderfoots,"

who, when they would go upon the levee and

look out upon the broadest expanse of waters

they had ever seen, would quake, for fear

Cairo's great levees would give way, and no

Noah's ark was at hand to take them in.

^Vhile Cairo was the one dry spot, the city of

refuge to which came the sufferers from

above and from below, the j^fol lowing appeal

to the world's charity was being issued from

nearly every town from here to Pittsburgh :

SuAWNEETOWN, 111., via Evansville, Feb. 24.
To Marshall Field & Co., Chicago:

Our people are overwhelmed with the most ap-
palliiiLc misfortune ever visited upon any locality.
The Ohio River is five feet higher than ever known,
and still rising. Our wealth has gone down with

the angry waves. Hundreds are destitute, penni-
less and suffering. We must have help. The river
is from three to thirty-five miles wide, and carrying
utter destruction before it. The loss in this imme-
diate vicinity will reach $250,000 at least. We ap-
peal to the charitable for assistance in this time of
need. We have been under water for nearly three
weeks, and ' it will take four weeks for it to subside.
(Signed) Swofford Bugs.,

Allen & Harrington,
M. M. Pool,
Thomas IS. Ridgeway,
I. M. Millspaugh, Mayor.

The very next day, February 25, Cairo sent
out the following: " The river was fifty-two
feet one inch at 6 P. M. , and on a stand.
Our levees are holding out splendidly, and
no fears of trouble from that source are ex-
pected."

AVhile Cairo deeply deplored the calami-
ties to her sister towns, and was ready and
did lend a generous and helping hand to the
sufferers, yet why should she not rejoice in
that prudent care and forethought that
placed these strong battling walls around
her, that defied the angry waters, and un-
shaken, stood guard over the peaceful slum-
bers, the lives and the property of her peo-
ple?

The oft-repeated question, can levees be
built that will secure your town against any
water ? has been most triumphantly an-
swered, both in the year 1882 and 1883. It
is no longer a theory nor a guess, but a
demonstration, as plain and strong as Holy
Writ.

126

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

CHAPTER VI.

THE PRESS— ITS POWER AS THE GREAT CIVILIZER OF THE AGE— CAIRO'S FIRST EDITORIAL
VENTURES— BIRTH AND DEATH OF NEWSPAPERS INNUMERABLE— THE BOHEMIANS—
WHO THEY WERE AND AVHAT THEY DID— " BULL RUN" RUSSELL— HARRELL,
WILLETT, FAXON AND OTHERS— SOME OF THE "INTELLI-
GENT COMPOSITORS"— QUANTUM SUFFICIT.

" A history which takes no account of what was said
by the Press in memorable emergencies befits an earlier
age than ours." — Horace Greeley.

IN the order of making settlements in the
Mississippi Valley, it was the hunter and the
trapper, the trader and the merchant, the ham-
let, village or the mushroom cit}^ and then the
newspaper. Here it waited not, like of old, for
that ripened civilization that was supposed to
come of the centuries, that left people hungry,
if not perishing, for that rich, juicy and nutri-
tious mental pabulum that the editor was
always supposed to furnish.

The Press is the Third Estate in this coun-
try — it has been called the palladium of Amer-
ican liberties. One thing is quite certain, that
the wisest and best thing our forefathers did
was to establish a " free press," nominally, if
not actually. True, it is absolutely free so far
as the Government is concerned, but sometimes
it is not so free from militar}- dictation or from
mob rule, and a few instances have occurred,
in the histor}' of the country, where there has
been a foolish, violent and fanatical public sen-
timent, grossly wrong in all its parts, that has
ci'ushed out the truth, and actually suppressed
the only true friend the people had — the local
press. But in return, the press can say it has
committed outrages upon the public quite as
often or oftener than have wrongs been perpe-
trated against it. The averages, say, are even ;
then if two wrongs can make a right, a reason-
able justice has been done, and the great pal-

ladium remains, and the Government did wisely
foresee the eventual wants of mankind in this
respect. And under the benign rays of their
wisdom, the American people enjoy a free press,
and this means free speech, free schools, free
religion, and, supremest, and best of all, free
thought ; for here is where the world has suf-
fered most, because as a man's thoughts are
the highest part of him — that which makes
him the superior to the ox that grazes upon
the hill — it is here that he can suffer infinitely
the most ; where wrongs may be inflicted that
are ineffaceable, incurable and shocking. For
it was thought, and nothing else but thought,
that has produced the present civilization and
all its joys and pleasures — all that marks the
difference in us and those miserable crea-
tures who once were here, owning and possess-
ing all this grand country, and whose mode
and manner of life may all be drawn from the
simple fact that they would bury the live wife
in the same grave with the dead husband.
This is a historic fact, although it occurred
among a prehistoric people. The}' had no
free speech, free press or free thought. They
may have had a strong government, a govern-
ment of iron and lead, and they may have wor-
shiped that government as dutiful children
worship a cruel father, but they have never
had a free thought, except one of the basest
kind, but the fact remains that they were a
despicable people, because the}' had none of
that civilization that eventuates in a free press.

HISTORY OF CAIRO,

127

It was the great invention of movable t3'pes
that has made the present greatness of the
press possible. " The types are." remarked
one of the greatest men the world has pro-
duced, "as ships which pass through the vast
seas of time, and make ages to participate of the
wisdom, illuminations and inventions, the one
of the other ; for the image of men's wits remain
in books, exempted from the wrongs of time,
and capable of perpetual renovation, neither
are they fitly to be called images, because they
generate stili and cast their seeds in the minds
of others, provoking and causing infinite action
and opinions in succeeding ages. We see,
then, how far the monuments of wit and
learning are more durable than the monuments
of power or of the hands. For have not the
verses of Homer continued twenty-five hundred
3'ears or more, without the loss of a syllable or
letter ? during which time, infinite palaces,
temples, castles, cities, have decayed or been
demolished. That whereunto man's nature
doth most aspire, which is immortality or
continuance ; for to this tendeth generation,
and raising of houses and families ; to this
buildings, foundations and monuments ; to
this tendeth the desire of memory, fame and
celebration, and in effect the strength of all
other human desires." The types do infinitely
more than this ; they are men's highest source
of unalloyed enjoyment in this world. They
may be made to contribute more to his real
pleasures than anything else. While they are
the most enduring thing of life, the joy and
pleasures they bring, which they give for the
asking, they give food and pleasure to the
mind. For in life what pleasure equals that of
the acquisition of new truths ? This is not
only the greatest pleasure to the healthy
mind, but it is the most enduring. It is the
perennial fountain of knowledge, where the
thirsty mind may drmk deeply, drink draughts
of which all the nectar the gods ever quaffed
are but puddle water. And it is not alone to

the mind thirsting for the deep draughts of
knowledge that its blessings are confined, but
it gives equally to all — the thinker, the worker,
the idle, the dissolute, the rich, the poor, the
king and the outcast, a3-e, even the wretched
leper to whom the work of the types are all in
this world that can save him from a living
tomb. It is the philosopher's touch-stone, the
Aladdin's lamp, the genial ray of sunshine
that penetrates all dungeons, that will go and
abide forever wherever human life can exist.
In the dingy printing oflSce is the epitome of
the world of action and of thought — the best
school in Christendom — the best church. Here
is where divine genius perches and pauses, and
plumes its wings for those loft}- flights that
attract and awe all mankind and in all ages —
here are kindled and fanned to a flame the fires
of genius that sometimes blaze and dazzle like
the central sun, and that generate and renew
the rich fruitage of 'benign civilization. The
press is the drudge and pack-horse — the
crowned king of all mankind. The gentle click
of its types is heard around all the world ;
thej; go sounding down the tide of time, bear-
ing upon their gentle waves the destinies of
civilization, and the immortal smiles of the
pale children of thought, as they troop across
the fair face of the earth in their entrances and
exits from the unknown to the unknown,
scattering here and there immortal blessings,
that the dull blind types have patientl}- gath-
ered, to place them where they will live forever.
It is the earth's S3'mphon3' which endures, which
transcends that of the " morning when the stars
sang together," and when its chords are swept
by the fingers of the immortals, it is the echo
of those anthems that float up forever to the
throne of God. Of all that man can have in
this world, it is the one blessing, whose rose
need have no thorn, whose stveet need have no
bitter. It is freighted with man's good, his hap-
piness and the divine blessings of civilization.
B}- means of the press, the lowliest cabin equals

128

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

the lordliest palace in the right and authority
to bid enter its portals, . and be seated in the
famil}' circle, the sweet singer of Scotland — the
delightfiill}' immortal Burns — who died at
thirty-seven, and over whose grave his mis-
taken, foolish country-men were relieved of the
poor outcast and sot ; they thought they were
burying an outcast, when the clods that
covered his poor body hid the warm sunlight
of Scotland. Or bid the crowned monarch of
mankind come in, and with wife, children and
friends tarry until bed-time, and tell the real
story of Hamlet ; or Lord Macaulay will lay
aside titles and dignity, and with the poor
cotter's family hold familiar discourse in those
rich resounding sentences that flow on forever
like a great and rapid river ; or Charles Lamb,
whose heart was saddest, whose wit was sweet-
est, whose life was a mingling of smiles and
tears, and let him tell the children and the
grandsires the story of the invention of the
roast pig ; or Johnson, his boorishness and
roughness all gone now, in trenchant sentences
pour out his jeweled thoughts to eager ears ;
or bid Pope tell somethingof the story of man's
inhumanity to man ; or poor, poor delightful
Poe, with his bird of evil omen, croaking,
croaking, " nevermore !" Or Dickins, George
Elliott, Bunyan or Voltaire, or any of the
thousands of others, when all may be fed to
fullness.

Thanks, then, a million times thanks, to our
I dear old Revolutionary sires for giving us the
great boon of a free press. If our Government
endures, and the people continue free, here will
be much of the reason thereof, for, mark you,
freedom, though once never so well established,
will not maintain and prepetuate itself, because
by the laws of heredity that lurks in ever}- man,
more or less, the latent customs or habits or
mental convictions of a barbarous ancestry
leave the seeds of monarchy and despotism.
True, the Americans have this (speaking in
reference to a democratic form of government)

less than any other people in the world ; they
are farther removed from an ancestry that
worshiped under kingly rulers — an ancestry
that perhaps honestly worshiped an autocrat
and that would have almost let out its own
blood, had they known they would produce a
posterity that would cease to worship at the
same shrine, or even emigrate to some foreign
country, and learn to detest and hate all im-
perial pretensions. Hence, we say, the
American people have this tendency to return
to monarchy less than any other people in the
world, and yet even here it is as true now as
when uttered, that " eternal vigilance is the
price of liberty." The press, therefore, is
essential to the perpetuation of free institutions
in America.

That the press can do no wrong, it is not our
intention in the remotest way to assert. So
great an institution, so varied its interests,
so numerous its controllers and its guides, that
it would be a foolish man indeed who would
even hope that it ever would become infallible.
A wise people, therefore, will jealously watch
it, while it is standing upon the. watch-tower,
hunting for the ambitious usurper to catch and
slay him. This is the very genius of free
institutions — vigilance and untiring watchful-
ness upon the part of all.

But it is of the coming of the press, the
printers, the editors, the writers, publishers,
and others brought here in connection with the
press, even including that strange creature,
who always accompanies those pious and verj'
moral gentleman, the " devil," that it is our
purpose to immediately speak. They were
altogether a remarkable set, who published
remarkable papers, and some still more remark-
able articles. They, as has always been the
case everywhere, had their differences, their
quarrels even, but be it said to their credit, no
matter from what cause it came, the disputes
never resulted in anything more serious than a
few bitter paragraphs, and then their injured

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

129

honor was appeased, and the entente cordiale
once more prevailed. Here the whole thing
was like the rise and fall of the Roman empire,
except there was more of them. Cairo reached
the astounding population of 2,000 souls before
an attempt was made to start a paper here—
something that could not possibly happen now,
as probably 300 is the extreme limit that the
l3^nx-eyed printer of this age will allow to
gather together without starting at least one
paper, and often two. In the year 1841, just
when Cairo was in the zenith of her first term
of greatness and just before she fell from that
height and past to her first nadir, that one Mc-
Neer came here and brought a small press and
started a paper. It was in the first flush times
of Cairo, when Holbrook was the master and
autocrat of all, when his company were spend-
ing money by the millions, and were building
everything and doing everything. McNeer was
a stranger to aflfairs, and showed his utter want
of judgment by not asking Holbrook if he
might come. Indeed, worse than this, when
he started his paper he had the audacity to
criticize that great ruler, and he soon acknowl-
edged his error by leaving town and taking his
paper with him. The unholy monster monopoly
had crushed him, and no other daring advent-
urer followed, for the simple reason that in a
few months the dynasty, the town, and every-
thing pretty much about it had gone much
worse bursted and crushed than had poor
McNeer.

In June, 1848, Add Saunders established the
Cairo Delta, neutral in politics, and although
Cairo had only 142 souls, yet the breezy new-
ness of such a thing soon gave him a circula-
tion of 800 copies. But whether because he saw
the storm coming or from what cause we do not
know, he closed the concern in October, 1849,
left Cairo, went to Evansville, and consolidated
with the Evansville Journal.

And then another interregnum occurred in
the newspaper world of Cairo. This continued

until April 10, 1851, when Frank Rawlings, of
Emporium, or Mound City, started the Cairo
Sun here. It was full of good enough Democ-
racy, but was supposed to be really in the inter-
ests of the Emporium City Company, if not
actually started by it. This was a company
started at Mound City for the purpose of break-
ing down Cairo and building the great city at
that point. It was this perhaps as much as
anything else that caused the paper to die of
starvation just one year to a day from the time
of its starting. There are now pretty strong
evidences that this was the true fact in the case,
as, within the year of the paper's publication,
Gren. Rawlings, the father of Frank, had come
to Cairo, and in the name of some tax-titles or
Sheriff's deeds or a combination of these and even
other things, had tried to capture the entire town
of Cairo, or a larger portion of it. An old settler
here still remembers seeing the old General in
solemn state carefully- ride around the city,
taking possession of his demesne. If there
were other instances at all similar to this it
makes it plausible that the good people of Cairo
feared that " my son Frank " was really little
else than a well-got-up sp}-.

Just here it should be noted that it was a
singular fact that the Cairo & City Canal
Company, or perhaps better to sa}' Holbrook,
in all his vast schemes of grabbing after rail-
roads, canals, wild cat banks and the greatest
commercial city in the world and untold mill-
ions of hard dollars from Europe, and what
little else the balance of mankind had, should
never have thought to start a paper in his own
private interest. Was this the fatal spot in
the heel where he was at last wounded unto
death ? A personal organ in those daj^s prob-
ably' had not been tried, but this is precisely
the reason it ought to have suggested itself to
Holbrook.

Cairo Times. — After another reign of silence
from the news world, Len G. Faxon and W.
A. Hacker started the Cairo Times. Hacker was

130

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

the heav}' editor, while Faxon, with a dreadful
long-pointed sharp stick, stirred up the animals.
The paper was a weekly, and of the old bour-
bon barefooted Democrac}- — the kind that
would have cried out to its million readers, at
the outbreak of the war (it never had 300, you
know) to maintain an armed neutralit}' and
save the nation from bloodshed and war.
Hacker had good talents, but he was not a
journalist ; he did not seek to be one. He was
a politician and a lawyer, and he soon retired
from the newspaper to his favorite pursuits.
On the other hand, journalism was as natural
to Faxon as water is to a duck, and there was
but one thing that ev'er prevented him gain-
ing the highest eminence in his profession, and
that may best be designated as general insta-
bility. " He was a fellow of infinite jest," and
a sharp and vigorous pen, but as to using it he
preferred to be with the boys. He made no
professions to profundit}' of writing, but he was
always sparkling and readable. He did not re-
main a very long time in Cairo, but perhaps as
long as he has remained anywhere since he be-
came a Bohemian, and after leaving here he
has drifted about the world and finalh' is now
in Paducah, K}-., where he went in his
regular trade, and after making himself the
master bantam of that town, we believe he
dropped his faber and is now seeking other and
more promising schemes. But it is not worth
while to bid him adieu yet from the profession,
for almost an^' moment j'ou ma}' hear of him
breaking out afresh in some new, strange and
most unexpected journalistic wa\-. But we
have not concluded our account of Faxon in
Cairo 3'et, which we will now proceed to do.
He severed his connection with the Times earl}'
in the year 1855, being with the paper a
little less than one year, and Ed Willett, the
poet, journalist and erratic young man, took
his place. And it was then Hacker & Willett
who were steering the Times along the troubled
waters of the journalistic sea. They continued

the publication until the following November,
when the paper was merged with the Ddta, and
Hacker, so far as we know, retired forever fi'om
the vexations, the trials, the strains and glories
of the editorial life. And as we will say no
more of Hacker in this department, we will dis-
miss the subject of his ability, style and excel-
lence as a writer b}' quoting the remark of
" Mose" Harrell, in a published account of the
press of Cairo in 1864. In speaking of this
very paper that we have just followed to
its grave, he says : " This hebdomadal was
Democratic in politics, ever}' number betraying
the impress of the engaging ponderosity of
Hacker's pen," etc. — the '• engaging ponderosi-
ty"^is rather neat, but of Mr. Hacker in his real
place in life, we will have occasion to speak at
more length when we come to the chapter on
the bench and bar.

Cairo Delta. — On the -ith of July, 1855,
Faxon started this paper. It had but little
politics in it, but it wielded a free lance for
every comer, and poked and prodded and put
on a long-tailed coat and would tread majesti-
call}' around dragging this behind and begging
some man to tread on it. It had onh' a short
existence of four months, when Faxon, dis-
covering what he lacked in Willett, and Willett
discovering certain essential qualities him-
self in Faxon, they wooed and wedded and
joined their two papers together, and this
happy union resulted in the

Times and Delta. — And so anotlier paper
was launched upon the journalistic sea, the
first issue of which was in November. 1855.
It floui'ished finely under its dual title, because
it combined the materials of an almost certain
success in its publishers. The publication con-
tinued until 1859.

Cairo Egyptian. — Established in 1856. bv
Bond & McGrinnis. This was Ben Bond, the
youngest son of the first Governor of Illinois,
who was one of the earliest men to see here in
Cairo great future possibilities. His faith in

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

131

the place perhaps induced Ben to come here
and try the wheel of fortune in what turned
out to be a rash venture. The paper was of
course an uncompromising Democrat in poli-
tics. It could hardly have been anything else
with the name of any one of the numerous
Bond boys to it. The paper soon passed to
the control of S. S. Brooks, and its name
changed to the

Cairo Gazette, and its publication con-
tinued under this rather brilliant newspaper
man for nearly two A'ears. Brooks, when he
closed out his paper interest here, went to
Quinc}^ 111., where he established the Her-
ald, in which he made an extensive reputation,
which reputation, our recollection is, was some-
thing after the style of G. D. Prentice, that is,
in Prentice's double meaning paragraphs.
In 1858, Brooks sold out to John A. Hull and
James Hull, and they continued the publica-
tion until the month of August, 1859, when it
was purchased by M. B. Harrell, who published
the paper until the spring of 1864, when he
sold it out to the Cairo News Company, a Re-
publican concern, organized chiefly by the
efforts of John H. Barton.

Cairo Journal — A German paper, the
first of the kind attempted here, was issued
in 1858. A weekh' paper and the few Ger-
mans there were here to patronize it valued it
quite highl\-, 3'et it lingered in a state of great,
destitution and died after a few months.

Cairo Zeitung. — Its name tells its nativity
This was a semi-weekh" paper, issued from the
office of the Gazette in 1859. It was an am-
bitious little Dutchman, as is evidenced by the
fact that it started in as semi-weekly. It fair-
1}' " donnei'ed de wedder" the first few weeks
of its existence, but it was all to no purpose, it
sickened and died, aged four months, and its
happ3' shade is now in the krout business in
the happy hunting grounds set apart for dead
Cairo papers.

Egyptian Obelisk. — In IRtU. William Hunter

and a few other infatuated souls, concluded
Cairo was ripe to be Christianized by a great
daily Republican paper, to let in some light
upon Egj'ptian darkness. As this was a free
countr}- — all except Cairo, which was inten^^ely
Democratic — no one interfered with their gi-
gantic project, and upon a fixed hour it was
launched upon an astounded world. Its rug-
ged course of life lasted through just two
issues, when its little slippers were put away,
with the consoling I'emark, " whom the gods
love die young."'

Cairo Daily News — A Republican paper, es-
tablished in 1863, b}' a joint-stock compan}',
the head of which company', the writer's rec-
ollection is, was John W. Trover. This was
quite a pretentious, and in many respects, a
paper that was a credit to Cairo. It was prob-
ably the first paper in the town that ever took
the Associated Press dispatches. It had a
general and local editor, and published con-
siderable river and financial news. But its
specialt}' was the army and navv and '• loyalty,"
with a strong penchant for watching the trait-
ors, or which was then the same thing,
the Democrats. It piped its own loyalty, and
the arrant treason of every one who differed
from it. Its first editor was Dan Munn, known
far and wide as a brother of Ben's. Dan was
an offshoot of the remarkable establishment
that flourislied here as a part of the great war
times, known as the house of Munn, Pope &
Munn. To Dan's credit be it said he never
was a journalist. His forte la}- in other direc-
tions, and in a ver}' short time he retired and
was succeeded as editor by John A. Hull,
whose industry soon showed that there was a
marked change in the depai-tment. Hull never
was brilliant, because he did not have much
faith in that kind of editing, and to tliis da}'
we believe that if anything could have made
the News a success, it was the steady -going,
even-tempered mode of editing pursued by
Mr. Hull.

132

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

Before the paper was a 3'ear old, it became
apparent that Trover was rapidly tiring of
footing the deficiency bills, and the ]\^ews com-
pany notified the boys in the office, or at least
action to that eflfect was had, and the usual
process of rats deserting the ship was again
enacted in the world's history.

At one time Birney Mai'shall and James 0.
Durff ran it until the first week's bill for the
Associated Press dispatches came in, when they
declared the great house temporarily closed.
Still others were induced to put in enough
money, and when it had good luck it would
run a week, and then again twenty-four hours
would wind it up. But finally, in 1865, at a
little over the age of two years, and filled with
mere changes and vicissitudes than an}' similar
thing that ever existed, it breathed its last.
It had been dead so long before it acknowl-
edged it that it is doubtful if it ever had any
funeral. Marshall and DurflT both died a few
years ago in Memphis.

Cairo Democrat — By Thomas Lewis, a daily
and weekl}' Democratic paper. The office was
removed from Springfield, 111., to this
place, and the publication of a nine-column
daily paper commenced on the 3d da}^ of
August, 1863.

This was about the first effort to establish a
real metropolitan dail}' paper, giving all, even
the great amount of war news then prevalent
in the country-. It was brought here at great
expense, run with a full force of editors, re-
porters and printers, and was published under
great disadvantages. Cairo was literall}- a fort
of the -Union Ai'my, the town full of soldiers and
under martial law ; provost guaixls were the
police of the town, and a military' man was not
only Mayor and Governor, but supreme auto-
crat, whose will was law even unto death, and
there were only a few of them who doubted his
own abilit}', not onlj' to discharge his military
office, but to edit at least all the Democratic
papers published within the United States.

The result was there was sometimes that kind
of meddling that was exceedingly unpleasant
to publishers. Orders would come some-
times daily, either from the Provost Marshal's
office, or from headquarters, giving directions
how to run the paper, what to publish and
what not to publish. Practically, you were
paying the heavy expenses of a printing office,
and some one else was editing it — such edit-
ing as it was. At times an order would come
—a standing order, mark you — to submit all
matter intended for the paper to inspection,
before it could be printed.

The writer hereof remembers an amusing in-
cident of those strange times. He had written
and published a short, silh' story about a man
who kept a pea-nut stand on the street, and
how he first " knocked down" the profits, and
finally the capital and clandestinely closed his
establishment and crawled under the sidewalk,
just beneath where his store had been, and left
his creditors to whistle. Then went on with a
lot of stuff about how all the first detectives in
the world were put upon the fugitive's tracks,
chartering steamers, railroads, telegraphs,
etc.", and how they peered around and peeked
into the North pole in the pursuit, and how he
lay snoring under the sidewalk all the time.

It is hard to imagine anything more silly to
be put into print, but there may have been
some excuse at that day, from the fact that
some manliad just defaulted in New York for
a large amount, and supposing he would flee
to the uttermost parts of the earth the detec-
tives acted accord ingh\ Whereas, in fact, he
only moved to a new boarding house, and
rested there content. It seems he could not be
found because he 'had not fled.

For this the writer was jerked up and asked
to explain it all. He frankly confessed that it
was wholh' meaningless — confessed upon his
sacred honor it was not a cipher dispatch to
the Southern Confederacy, and was ready to
swear with up-lifted hand, that he thought if

^^id&A

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

13o

Jeflf Davis ever was compelled to read it, or b}'
an\' chance should read it, that it would kill
him in five minutes.

This happ}- explanation closed the doors of
the threatening bastile, with the happy victim
on the outside and not inside.

We cannot here enumerate all the annoyances
that it was possible to and that actually were
thrown in the way of the publication of the
Democrat, but the}' were many, vexatious and
sorely trjMug. But just here we wish distinct-
ly to remark that it was not a universal prac-
tice with the military to act such silly roles.
The commauding officer was often changed,
and it may be said, on behalf of the majority
of them, that they were intelligent and clever
gentlemen, and from all such there was no
more annoyance than from an}' private gentle-
man. Indeed many of them were of that cult-
ured and agreeable kind that all the society
people of Cairo much enjoyed their stay among
them. But when the meddlers did come, their
folly was only the more illy borne by the con-
trast that the others made.

Mr. Lewis is entitled to all the credit that
can come of persistence in the face of such
obstacles as we have named. Of course, there
were many others, but so there are under any
circumstances in starting an enterprise of this
kind.

The paper had a warm support throughout
all Southern Illinois, and a partial support from
both Kentucky and Missouri, but in these two
last-mentioned places there were so few mail
facilities, and there were guerrillas frequently
in those localities, that the circulation of the
paper was in that direction infinitesimal.
Without giving figures, it is probably a fact
that the daily and weekly Democmt, within a
year of the commencement of publication, had,
combined, the largest circulation of any paper
published in Cairo.

The first editor was H. C. Bradsby, assisted
in the local department by C. C. Phillipps. and

John W. McKee. Mr. Bradsby continued in his
position about one year, and having accepted a
position of correspondent of the Missouri Re-
puhUcan and afterward the Chicago Times, re-
tired, and was succeeded by J. Birney Mar-
shall, of Kentucky. Mr. Marshall continued for
some months as editor, and, retiring, was suc-
ceeded by Joel G-. Morgan, who came here for
that purpose, from Jonesboro, 111., and
after a short time Mr. Morgan retired and was
replaced by John H. Oberly.

The paper lived along until 1878, when it
passed into the hands of a joint-stock
company and joined and consolidated with the
Cairo Times. The new concern retained the name
of Cairo Democrat, H. L. Goodall. General
Superintendent, and John H. Oberly, editor.

It was the hope of its friends that this ar-
rangement would relieve both papers of all em-
barrassments and make one strong, self-sus-
taining paper. It was ably and expensively
operated under the new arrangement, and cer-
tainly a common, strong efl!brt was made to
make a paper that would draw to itself a good
support. But after the first month, its very ex-
istence was precarious, and after fifteen
months of heroic struggles it was sold by the
Sheritf, and John H. Oberly became the pur-
chaser, and thus ended the long struggle for
existence by a daily paper in Cairo, the long-
est made by any of the hosts that have come,
flourished their brief hour and expired.

Tlie War Eagle — Was a soldier's paper pub-
lished at Columbus, Ky., by H. L.
Goodall, who moved the entire concern to
Cairo in 1864, and made a vigorous, spicy
little Republican paper of it. It was so suc-
cessful and was attracting so wide an influence,
that parties here induced Mr. Goodall to en-
large his sphere of action, which he did by pur-
chasing a fine outfit for a large office, moving
into new and spacious quarters (from the
Eagle's roost in the barracks). And the en-
larged new paper was the

186

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

Cairo Times — A daily Republican paper,
commenced in the latter part of 1866. The
Eagle was a little unpretentious weekl}', but
the Phoenix that rose from its ashes, was a
large, handsome, well-constructed daily. The
paper was well patronized, but we very much
doubt if Mr. Goodall ever saw the day, after
the first six months, that he was glad of the
change. The Times had none of the Eagles
scream. Maj. Caffrey was its general editor —
a man of considerable ability, a strong Repub-
lican and good fellow. He remained with Mr.
Goodall until politics had ceased to be a feat-
ure, when he sought other pastures. At latest
accounts he was in Kansas City, Kan., pub-
lishing a weekly Republican paper.

The Union — A Republican weekly, started
in 1866, by H. L. Goodall, as a side-show, per-
haps, to his great and flourishing daily. The
editor of this inoffensive political organ was
Mr. Hutchinson. It was soon sold to J. H.
Barton and its publication discontinued.

The Sunday Leader — A literary paper,
started in 1866, by Ed S. Trover, issued every
Sunday morning. There were many marks of
real merit about this periodical. The sole
writer for it was its editor, but he was well
known in the city from his position of local on
the News, where he had made his mark as a
promising boy.

City Item — A little five-column weekly- local
paper, was started into existence in the early
part of 1866, by Bradsby & Field (Bourne).
It was independent in politics and prett}' much
everything else. It was only intended to cir-
culate in Cairo.

This paper was the suggestion of John Field,
who had for a long time been foreman in the
Democrat office, and, leaving that place, he
went to Bradsb}' with his scheme ; that he
would do all the work, Bradsb}' to do the
writing ; to rent a case in one of the printing
offices and hire the press work done. It was
to be all original matter, set solid, and to con-

tain no "ad" more than ten lines long, and no
display advertisements. It was no serious
effort at a paper, and b^' common consent, the
whole com m unit}' looked upon it as a joke,
and. that really was about all there was of it,
and it was perhaps luck}- for the criminal that
this was so. It lived something over a 3'ear
and then quit.

Olive Branch — By Mrs. Mary Hutchinson, a
famil}' paper, with an olive wreath about its
brow. It lived about one year. It commenced
and died in 1867.

Cairo Times. — Revived in 1868, by H. L.
Goodall. A strong daily and weekl}- Repub-
lican paper. Its regular publication continued
until the early part of 1871, when Mr.
Goodall evidently tired of the newspaper busi-
ness in Cairo, wound up his concern, sold out
all Cairo interests and went to Chicago.

Cairo Daily Bulletin — A Democratic paper
started by John H. Oberly, in November, 1868.
J. H. Oberly, chief editor, M. B. Harrell, as-
sociate. The paper started under most favor-
able and promising circumstances, but just as
its promise seemed fairest, the office and con-
tents burned to the ground, and to add to ita
calamities there was no insurance on the con-
cern. This fire occurred in December, 1868,
when the establishment was only a little more
than a month old. An entire new outfit was
immediatel}' procured and the publication re-
sumed, and is to this day still a daily morning
paper.

The reader can hardly imagine what a joy
and relief it is to at last come to one in the
long line that is alive, prosperous and happy.
The long preceding list is so much like a call-
ing the roll of the dead, that the change from
the funeral to the festival is inexpressibly
pleasant.

Mr. Oberly and Harrell continued to push
the paper successfull}- for some years. Its
job department had grown to large proportions
and eventual!}' promised to support well the

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

187

newspaper part of the establishment, but in
1878, matters began to grow perplexed and
embarrassments began to beset the institution.
Among other calamities, the 3'ellow fever had
visited the town and all business was pros-
trate.

About this time the arrangements were made
to lease the office to Mr. Burnett, the present
proprietor. This took effect Jul}-, 1878, and
it is probable the absolute stoppage of the
paper was thus avoided. Mr. Burnett con-
tinued as lessee until January 1, 1881, when
b}' purchase he became the absolute and sole
owner, in which position he has not onh' been
able to make the paper self-sustaining, but has
so carefully attended to matters that it is rapid-
1)- becoming a first-class paying propert}-.

Mr. Burnett has worked his wa}- from "in
charge of the circulation." in March, 1868, to
that of sole owner and proprietor. For two
years he was book-keeper, and was then made
general manager. This position he held until
1867, when he left the office and took employ-
ment in the Illinois Central Railroad office, in
this cit}-, where he remained about eighteen
months. He then returned to the office of the
Bulletin as lessee. The first 3-ear's earnings of
the institution were slightl}' in excess of ex-
penses, even after deducting considerable
necessar}' additional materials ; the second
year was not so good, but by this time Mr.
Burnett had so systematized matters that it
has been eas}* sailing in placid waters since.
It is located on the levee in the proprietor's own
building, and the constant additions and im-
provements being added will soon make it one
of the leading solid institutions of the kind in
the countr}-.

The first few years after Mr. Burnett took
control of the Bulletin, it was edited by M. B.
Harrell, and. when the latter went to Chicago,
the editorial work was done by Mr. Ernst i
Theilecke, who was connected with the office i
for a long time. Mr. Theilecke is now in Lock- 1

haven, Penn., and occupying much the same
position there that he did here.

The present local and assistant writer upon the
Bulletin is Mr. E. W. Theilecke, who has oc-
cupied his present place the last two years.
He is quite a young man, who gives ever}- evi-
dence of usefulness and ability.

In as few words as we could possibly make
it, this is history of one of the very few success-
ful papers of the many started in Cairo. It
leaves this as a demonstration and conclusion :
When the papers of Cairo eventually come in-
to exactly the right hands, they then, and then
only, become permanent and valuable institu-
tions.

Cairo Sun — A weekly Republican paper,
started by D. L. Davis in 1869. After running
it a few months as a weekly, it took the form
of a daily paper, and in this shape in a short
time was sold by Mr. Davis to the Joy Bros.,
who continued the publication until January 1,
1881, when, for some reason best known to the
publishers, they voluntarily killed off the Sun
and started a new paper, the News, which
worked along in fair weather and in foul just
one year, and ceased to exist January 1, 1882.

Radical Republican — Its name indicates its
political proclivities, was issued for a short
time from the Sun office. Its publisher was
Louis L. Davis. It never had much vitality,
and perished in 1880.

The Three States — Colored ; politics un-
known. Died February, 1883.

Gazette — Colored ; W. T. Scott, proprietor
and publisher. A weekly paper that is one of
the few that has not ceased to exist.

Thr Camp Register — A dail}- sheet for sol-
diers raostl}-. Was published during May,
June and Jul}-, 1861.

2'he Daily Dramatic News — Was puljlished by
H. L. Goodall during the winter of 1864-65 in
the interests of Crump & Co., the builders and
first proprietors of the Cairo Athen^um.

Cairo Paper — A vigorous and able Demo-

138

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

cratic paper, established by M. B. Harrell in
1871. Not liking the name, he changed it in a
short time to Cairo Gazette, and thus returned
to his first love in the Cairo papers. In this
style the publication was continued until 1876,
when it was sold by the proprietor and moved
to Clinton, Ky.

Cairo Daily ^r^us— Independent daily pa-
per, by H. F. Potter, publisher, and Walt F.
McKee, editor. Was first issued in its present
form November 15, 1878. Seventeen years
ago, Mr. Potter took possession as owner and
publisher of the Mound City Journal, which
he has conducted from that day to this success-
fully. Eight years ago, deeming his old fields
of operations somewhat circumscribed, and
looking about for an opportunity to enlarge
them, he conceived the happy idea of a combi-
nation of Cairo and Mound City interests, and
so he issued the Cairo Argus and Mound City
Journal, the work being done at the commence-
ment in the Mound City office, with a local
agent and office in Cairo, but no printing mate-
rial in Cairo. In one year after starting this
enterprise he moved his office to Cairo, and
continued the publication, simply reversing the
local office and the printing office as to their
places. After the office was in Cairo a few
months, the title of the paper was changed into
the Argus- Journal, and was still issued at Cairo
and Mound City weekly. Then, as above
stated, in 1878, November 15, he issued directly
the Cairo Daily Argus, and still continues to
publish the Mound City Journal, which, upon
the appearance' of the Daily Argus, resumed its
old name, and, certainly, a very high compliment
to Mr. Potter's foresight, the Journal, through
all its marrying and journeyings, retains every
one of its old Pulaski County friends, and at
the same time had so managed its Cairo patrons
to the weekly paper that when tlie daily was
started it already had its subscription list made
up. 3Ir. Potter's past experience, his good,
strong judgment, his energy and faithfulness to

his business, and his known integrity, deserve
an ever-increasing success in his venture into
a field where so many, so bright and so worth}'
have heretofore nearly one and all completelj'
failed. He well understood all these failures
before he looked toward Cairo as a field of
operations. He had known Cairo as well dailv
for the past twenty years as though he had
been a citizen during all that time. He knew,
personally, all of these men, and had watched
their wrecking, and, doubtless, it is well for him
he had the benefit of others' sad experience, as
it enabled him to la}' his plans the better, and
the caution he has displayed when he was eight
long years in reaching the point of having a
daily paper in Cairo shows a species of method,
determination, sound judgment and persistence
of purpose that is certainly a sufficient guaran-
tee to the people of Cairo that they need not
hesitate a moment in giving his concern their
fullest confidence. We mean by all this that
they need not fear to trust the man or his busi-
ness, and they need not be influenced by the
many failures in the lives of paper ])ublications
they have seen, and, therefore, class the Daily
Argus as being only another one that, in a short
time, is to follow in the already beaten ti*ack of
the many.

His selection of an assistant and editor has
been equally fortunate with his other move-
ments in the establishment upon a permanent
basis of his paper. We refer, of course, to
Walt F. McKee, than whom no more reliable
man lives. He has resided in Cairo since boy-
hood, and during nearly all that time has oc-
cupied responsible and confidential positions
for organizations and institutions, which are
known to give trust only to the most trust-
worthy. Mr. McKee entered the office of the
Argus with but a limited knowledge of the bus-
iness, but as his employer foresaw he would
learn, and he has learned until to-day he is
quite as well informed of the duties of his
position as are those who consider themselves

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

139

the par excellence leaders and teachers in this
most tr3ing and arduous profession.

We gladly dismiss this long column of dis-
mal failures, consisting of over thirt}- papers,
onh' three of which are now living to gladden
the eyes of their friends. But should we drop
the subject and pass to other themes, and say
no more than we have said of the men who
were the actors and doers in this curious news-
paporial world, the list would be but a skeleton,
and not a pleasant one at that.

The Bohemians. — We confess we can find no
other word under which we can group the au-
thors, correspondents, editors, reporters and
contributors, who were of and at one time a
part of Cairo, so well as the one we have
adopted. Could we group these as one fair
picture and show the people who it is that has
come and gone, attracted to Cairo, some of
them, in the hunt of permanent homes and bus-
iness, others brought here as war correspond-
ents at the time when Cairo was the great
central news point in the United States, others
here permanently as the representatives of
man}-, in fact, nearl}' all the great leading
dail}- papers of the countr}-. We sa}', had we
the pen and the necessarj- facts to make this
gx'ouping, the people would rise from the perusal
amazed if not delighted. But the knowledge
of these men by the writer of these lines is
imperfect, as some of them he never knew, and
many others, whom he vividly remembers the
faces and their peculiar cast of mind, their
names have passed out of mind.

The first man nearly in point of time, cer-
tainly in point of fame, who visited Cairo " to
write," was Charles Dickens. He was here in
18-lr2. He took his notes, went home and wrote
JIartin Chuzzlewit. So far as his attempt to
describe Cairo itself is concerned it is like
everything else Dickens wrote — fiction. But
there are some things he said he saw here that
can hardly be in his usual strain of extrava-
gance. For instance, any old settler can tell

you that the first crash in Cairo had come be-
fore Dickens' visit and that like a stricken city
the decimation of people from 2,000 to less
than fift}- had come like a cyclone from a cloud-
less sky. The historian, too, has no hesitation
in telling you that the few left could not oc-
cup3' the houses, and that when the canal com-
pan}- failed they were left with almost nothing
to do. Still there is scarcel}- a doubt that no
matter how bad Dickens found matters, his pen
would have been palsied if he had not " lied
just a little." The writer has not seen the
work in which he tells how Mark Tapley visited
Cairo and had the ague, and how he and his
companion were visited by the leadnig politi-
cian and stump speakers of Southern Illinois ;
how the stump speaker talked in the '• Home-
in-the-Settin'-Sun " st3'le, and then spit over the
prosti'ate Martin, at a crack in the floor ten
feet awa}' and hit the crack, and assured him he
might lie easy on his blanket, as he would not
spit on him, etc., etc. When we read all this
rather coarse kind of stuif as a boy, we thoi^ght
it rather smart and funn}'. Mark and his friend,
it seems, came to Cairo in order to have the
chills — all the way from England. A long dis-
tance to come for what they could have pro-
cured a much stronger article of thousands of
miles nearer home. But the}' were here for
that purpose, says the veracious author, and
while here they described the kind of acquaint-
ances they associated with and formed. Now
any Cairoite can to-day go to London and find,
if his tastes so run, an infinitely worse crowd,
more vile, more squalid, dirtier, and in short
the very abomination and indescribable dregs
of humanity. What a traveler's eyes sees de-
pends upon the traveler, much more than on
what is spread before him, panorama-like as
he moves along. Out of all the Southern Illi-
nois and Cairo people the traveler met and
associated with here, there is not the picture of
one that any here would read and say that is
so-and-so. even Maj. Challop, the Home-iu-the-

140

HISTOEY OF CAIRO.

Settin'-Sun fellow, the leading politician with
whoin the travelers conversed in a very
idiotic fashion ou Grovernment, is an unrec-
ognizable, not known to a living soul ; but when
the traveler walked ashore and describes the
empty building (the}' were certainly here in
1842), and says " the most abject and forlorn
among them was called, with great propriety,
the Bank and National Credit Office. It had
some feeble props about it, but was settling
deep down in the mud. past all recover}'."
That is not a very extravagant picture of the
real case of Holbrook's bank and where it went
to. So deeply was that South Sea Bubble hur-
ried, exploded or evaporated, about the very
time Dickens penned these lines, that its ghost
has never been seen even in the region or at
the hour when " graveyards yawn." And if
Dickens was right about its settling in the mud
and ooze, so be it. One thing is certain, this
is the only real account of what did ever be-
come of that enormous swindle.

The man next in order, and, perhaps, the
next in celebrity, who was at one time a tempo-
rary resident of Cairo, was W. H. Russell, bet-
ter known all over this country as Bull Bun
Bussell, the celebrated war correspondent of
the London Times. He was stationed here in
1861. and because he was an Englishman, or
because he represented the far-off London
Times, or because this country just at that time
was deeply engaged in playing sycophant for
fear of the growl of the English lion, or may-
hap for all these reasons combined, our mast-
fed military commanders in and about Cairo
were doing the very best toadying to this John
Bull that they could conceive of. They must
have supposed that Bull Bun would write to
the Queen, and especially mention the fact that
Colonel or General So-and-so was a great friend
of England, and the only way to keep him in a
good humor and prevent his getting " mad "
and eventually eating Britain's Isle, would be to
recosfnize him or the United States, or both, and

not to recognize Jeff Davis, who was all the
time hanging on a " sour apple tree." For all
this coarse, clumsy, and rather disgusting syco-
phancy, Bussell wrote to the London Times
fairly taking the hide off these fellows, describ-
ing them, giving the names of many of the
most prominent, as coarse, vulgar, ignorant
louts, who smelt of the stables, even through
all their new, cheap tinsel and military toggery.
He criticized unmercifully, and, no doubt,
justly, their display of military knowledge in
every department. In the high privates of the
army he thought he could plainly see the germ
from which a strong army might be made, but
evidently in the commanders he could not
speak of them without thinking of the toady-
ing they had just been giving him, and his
patience was at once goue.

As to the uatives, or the home talent, or
the native casual Cairoites, we may divide
them, for convenience' sake, into the two fol-
lowing natural divisions: the ante-bellum
crowd, and then the remainder to the pres-
ent day.

And of the first, we may designate M. B.
Harrell, L. G. Faxon and Ed Willett as the
three names that always come to the lips
when speaking of the early newspapers.
Certainly, three more distinct characters, in
the same line or profession, never met. They
may be said to have practically been here
together from the veiy first, and of all these,
Harrell, so far as we can learn, was here some
time before the other two were. He must
have been here early in the " forties." His
brother, Bailey Harrell, was one of the very
earliest leading merchants here, and "Mose,"
as he is more widely known than by any other
designation, was, perhaps, a boy about his
brother's store when he was quite young, and
it is reasonable to suppose that he took his
first lessons in composition in copying or
finally writing advertisements for the store.

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

141

We only claim to be guessing at all this, but
if here was where he got his education, then
he went to a school that has been seldom
equalled. In the old files of a Cairo j)aper,
we find an advertisement of B. S. Harrell's
store, and the whole thing convinces us that
either Mose or Bailey wrote it.

There were biit two merchants here, rivals,
and both doing business under the same roof.
One was a Yankee, the other Harrell. The
Yankee brought on a lai'ge stock, and adver-
tised in the Cairo Delta, that he had bought
his stock for cash, and could, therefore, sell
lower by far than any one else. In the very
next paper, Harrell's advertisement appeared,
in these words: "Now, these goods I can and
will sell lower than my competitor, for the
simple reason that I bought them all on
credit, and that, too, without the slightest
intention of ever paying a cent for them. "

Mose was here during the long reign of
idleness, when the whole community was
given over to practical joking and fun of all
kinds. He was the first telegi'aph operator,
when but a single wire stretched its way to
this then outside of the telegraphic world.
He says he was at last relieved from the ar-
duous duties of receiving the two or three
dispatchs that sometimes came daily, " for
shutting up the office" and going courting
one night. It is much more probable tha^
he was discharged for some of his pranks, of
which his supply was inexhaustible, as the
following specimen may show: A boat had
landed on its way fi'om New Orleans to St.
Louis. Among the many deck passengers who
sought the top of the levee for supplies,
bread, bologna, etc., was one poor fellow
whom the boat left. He had failed to reach
the wharf in time to get aboard. He was in
sore distress; his family were on board the
boat, and what would he do? Mose, of
course, met him like a good Samaritan;

showed him the wire and the poles, and ex-
plained that it was made on purpose to send
things to St. Louis. The institution was
new then, and little understood. The man
listened, and begged Mose to send him on at
once. Mose explained to him how he would
have to jump at each pole, and the man
thought he could do it. The dupe was then
prepared for the trip by his friend. The
bread, cheese, bologna, etc., were made into
a pack and carefully tied upon ,his back.
The telegraph-climbers were placed upon his
feet, in order that he might climb to the wire
and get on. But for the life of him he
could not climb the pole; he worked by the
hour, sometimes digging into the pole and
sometimes in his own legs, and only from
sheer exhaustion did he finally give up in
despair. Mose then told him to go up town
and find Corcoran, who was the keeper of the
ladder that was used by the ladies .to climb
with when they wanted to travel by tele-
graph. The poor fellow hunted until he
found Corcoran, and told him what he
wanted. He was informed that the ladder
had been broken the day befoi-e by Barnum's
fat woman going up on it, and finally per-
suaded the dupe that the wire was considered
dangerous ever since the fat woman and her
seven Saratoga trunks had passed over it,
and that he had probably better wait until
another boat came along, and then he could
go to St. Louis in peace and safety.

Mound City at one time — very foolish it
all now looks — concluded to rival Cairo, not
rival, but simply distance and build all the
great city up there. They probably found
some man, as Cairo found Holbrook, and at
it they went, spending money x'ight and left
at an immense rate. \Vhoever was running
Mound City was smarter than the one that
ran Cairo, because, as soon as matters were
under full 'headway, he imported a news-

143

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

paper outfit, came to Cairo, and hired M. B.
HaiTell at a big salary to go up there and
abuse Cairo. Although the salary was large,
Harrell earned every dollar, and more too;
for instance:

" We attended a meeting of the Cairo City
Council Monday night. The room being
well warmed, and a bottle of Fair's Ague
Tonic being provided for each Alderman,
and an ounce of quinine for the Board gen-
erally (from which the Clerk would occasion-
ally take a spoonful). The fever and ague by
which the majority were at the tiiue afflicted,
interfered only immaterially with the buoi-
ness. If anybody wants to see 'great shakes, '
let 'em attend a Cairo Council meeting."

Or this :

" The Cairoites, in imitation of the Yankee
at sea, have provided themselves with a good
supply of soap, so that, if the river over-
whelms them, they can wash themselves
ashore. If they should be compelled to use
it, the town of Columbus, just below, would
be overflowed by an awful nasty sea of soap-
suds."

Or again:

" A fire company has been organized at
Cairo, and where's the necessity for it ? In
case of a fire, just let them knock the plugs
out of the levee sewers, and the river water
will fly all over the village."

Cairo employed Faxon to stand in front of
these projectiles, and do the best he could to
defend Cairo, but this all only resulted in the
two rival towns coming out like the Kilkenny
cats, only so much the worse that there evi-
dently was not so much as the bob-end of a
tail left to either. It was all quite comical
at the time, and no doubt the people of the
two towns looked forward eagerly each week
to see what next was coming. The serious
side of the story was, that often the worst of
these squibs were taken up and reprinted

over the North, as true pictures of Cairo and
Mound City, as drawn by their own people.
Up to the war, this trio, Harrell, Faxon and
Willett, were the Cairo and Mound City
editors. They started papers, changed sides,
and bobbed around, but it was one contin-
uous circle, and generally all on the Cairo
press, and they seem to have indulged, to
their hearts' content, in lampooning each
other and each other's towns, when they hap-
pened to be in dififerent villages.

The compositors of that day seemed to
deem it a duty devolving upon them to fur-
nish their full quota of unaccountable human
beings. They had probably caught the in-
fection fi'om ^either Willett, Faxon or Har-
rell. A few specimens:

A printer who worked here as early as
1848, was said to have been the fastest hand-
pressman of his time in the United States.
He was said to have worked off 800 impres-
sion of a sheet 24x36, on a Washington
hand- press, in two hours and twenty minutes.
This was equivalent to an impression every
ten and two-fifths seconds. It is probably
well there were no other such pressmen, or
there would never have arisen the necessity
fur the perfected Hoe press.

A compositor in the Sun office in Cairo, in
1850, named Frank Urguhart, could set 15, -
000 long primer and brevier in ten hours,
and always got roaring drunk after supper,
but would appear at his case as usual the
next morning, ready to do as big a day's
work as ever. He was wholly worthless,
however. He married a Cairo girl in a short
time after he came here, lived with her two
weeks, then abandoned her and has never
been heard of since.

E. F. Walker a compositor who worked
immediately before and during the early
years of the war, was quite a character.
For six months or more he was planning a

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

143

week's hunt in the neighboring woods of
Missouri. Practicing great economy, he
finally fonnd himself the possessor of $80.
He bought a $1.50 shot-gun, four ounces of
powder and a pound of shot. He then sup-
plie<l his commissai'y department with a half-
dozen pigs' feet, a pound of crackers, two
gallons of whisky, a horse-blanket and a
second-hand wheelbaiTow. Thus equipped,
on the morning of July 4, 1862, he bade the
office boys good-bye, and started for the
ferry-boat. He halted his wheelbarrow be-
fore every saloon on the jlevee, stepped in
to take a drink and bid the boys good-bye.
The ensuing night, he tumbled into the
office, drunk as a lord, swearing he could
not get oflF, because the fenyboat I'efused to
cany his ammunition ! Nest morning, he and
his wheelbarrow were again making the
rounds of the levee. The day again closed
on a drunken Walker. He explained that
the ferry-boat multiplied itself so often, and
ran in so many different directions, he was
afraid he might take the wrong boat and lose
his wheelbarrow. On the third day, he got
drunk again, but, to .the end that he might
start early and sober, he slept all night on
the wharf in his wheelbarrow. The fourth
and fifth days were a repetition of his first
and second, but on the seventh day he kept
himself drunk all day and all night, waiting,
he said, for the arrival of a ferry-boat that
was not given to the insane habit of running
' sideways. ' Early on the morning of 'the
eighth day, he happened to leave his wheel-
barrow and accouterments unguarded Re-
turning to search for them, they were not to
be found. Ed Willett had triindled them
across the wharf boat, and to this day they
lie on the bottom of the Ohio Eiver, where
he dumped them. Walker, having only 40
cents of his $80 left, couldn't secure another
outfit, sobered up, and returned to his case I

again. He was abundantly satisfied with re-
sults, however, and always afterward, when
speaking of festive occasions, would Jdeclare
his ' great seven days' hunt in the Missom-i
bottoms ' the happiest interval of his exist-
ence. AValker was a congenial soul; some-
what en-atic, but always harmless. He has
long since passed over to the happy hunting
ground, for the full enjoyment of which, it is
quite apparent, he was only preparing him-
self in his great hunt here.

In the early days of the war, Jimmy
Stockton, afterward editor of the Grand
Tower Item, was a compositor in M. B. Har-
rell's Gazette office. At the time the officer
in command of the post in Cairo had tried
to suppress the Gazette, and had ordered the
editor to submit all matter to him (a full ac-
count of Avhich we give in another column),
and the way Hai-rell got around the dilem-
ma, so tickled poor Stockton, that he got
more than glorious. He had spent the even-
ing at Dr. Jim McGuire's, and had repaired
to his room rather late, which was on the
fourth floor, just above the composition
room.

The printers reported the following cir-
cumstances: About 11 o'clock at night, a
compositor, working at his case, heard a
whiz, and saw a dark object flit past his win-
dow, which was in the thii-d story. Hasten-
ing down stairs to see what had happened,
what was his amazement to find Jimmy
Stockton, stretched at full length on the top
of a pile of empty barrels, and sound
asleep! While leaning out of the fourth
story window, he had lost his balance; fall-
ing a distance of about twenty feet, he struck
the roof of a two-story addition, and rolling
off, alighted on the barrels and went to sleep.
But for his limberness, he would have been
crushed to a pulp, but no serious injury was
sustained. "Well, now, do you know," said

144

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

Jimmy, when the boys had finally aroused
him and got him down off the barrels, " that
I di-eamed I was on top of a tall ladder; that
a sow uptripped it— and now I come to think
of it, it wasn't all a dream, boys! but where's
that sow — and the ladder?"

The fever of life has passed with poor
Stockton, and" to those who knew him best,
the memory of his big heart and warm soul
will always come sunshiny throughout their
lives.

It was poor old Sam Hart, peace to his re-
mains, who was hard of hearing, and was
always imagining, when he could not hear
what was being said, that the other boys
were talking about him, and over this he was
in constant hot water. He was getting old,
and was very nervous and sometimes peevish.
He would imagine more than enough, but
then the others, perceiving his oddities, would
constantly add to his sources of worry and
vexation. Matters finally culminated in Hart
making up his mind absolutely to challenge
to the death Joe "Wiley, as he appeared to be
about the worst, and was the fittest, in the
old man's estimation, for an example. He
called upon his friend, another 'printer, and
told him his unalterable resolution, and re-
quested his assistance. This was promptly
given, and all the minutiae arranged for the
combat, which was to take place just outside
the Mississippi levee after sundown. Two
immense horse- pistols were procured, and the
parties were to repair to the spot in a" state
of scatteredness, for fear of drawing the at-
tention of the polic^e. It seems all were in
the joke except poor Hart. Parties were
placed for the fight, and Hart was awful
nervous, and he told j^his friend he expected
his time had come. AVhen the weapons were
handed them, it was with difficulty Hart
could hold his in both his hands, so very
nervous had he become. They were ordered

to stand and await orders to fire, but Hart
knew ^he could not hear good, and so, the
moment he got his, he raised it in both
hands andblaz — no, snapped. But matters
were again adjusted, 'and he was told he must
wait for the word to fire. The pistol was
again placed in his hands, and again he pro-
ceeded at once to raise it with both hands,
and fi — no, snap again, and he dropped the
weapon and fled for life toward town. He
told his second two or three different stories
about the matter. First, he was positive
there was a general conspiracy to mui'der
him, and, second, that he saw the police com-
ing, and he thought it all great foolishness,
anyhow.

But of the trio of the original Cairo journal-
ists— Harrell, Faxon and Willetfc. It is diffi-
cult to di-aw any comparison or parallel be-
tween any number of men, all of whom are
wholly unlike. These three men were alike in
this only — they were all writers. The writer
of these lines never knew Willett personally,
yet, in some way, he has formed the opinion
of the man, to the effect that he was purely
a literary man in his nature, and always
thought his chief talent was as a poet, and
hence he wrote poetry for pleasure, and as a
rule it turned out to be mere doggerel, but
that, upon literary subjects, where he some-
times drove his pen with a master's hand,
he always felt he was a mere drudge, debas-
ino- the fine horse Pegasus into the meanest
of dray horses. That he was of a nervous,
sensitive turn of mind, and the rough-and-
tumble bouts that Harrell and Faxon some-
times gave him nearly killed him. Willett
left Cairo before or during the very early
part of the war, and is said now to be on the
staff of the New York Herald.

Of Faxon we know more, both personally
and by reading his writings. His pen
bristled like the "fretful porcupine," and he

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

145

shot the pointed quills sometimes in every
direction. His talents were good, his nature
genial and full of sunshine. He is living
now in 'Paducah, Ky., as stated elsewhere,
and may he be yet spared to develop fully to
the world what we believe to be truly in him
in the way of literary talent.

Of M. B. Harrell it may well be said, there
is no name yet so impressed upon Cairo and
its very existence as his — its mark is, every-
where, and must co -exist with the city. After
a long and thorough acquaintance with him,
we have no hesitation in pronouncing him of
the highest order of talent among the writers
of his day. Of all the hosts that have vent-
ui'ed their editorial fortunes in Cairo, they
found Harrell the Nestor when they came,
and they left him in undisputed possession
of his title and crown.

Mr. Harrell came to Cairo about 1845, a
mere boy, to do errands about his brother's
store and learn to be a clerk, if he developed
talent enough for such promotion. His in-
stincts [took him, at an early day, to the
printing office, and here he went to school,
and soon mastered the business to that ex-
tent that he was an invaluable part of the
office. "When the war broke out, he was
editor and proprietor of the Cairo Gazette,
and quietly continued its publication after
the military had |taken possession of Cairo.

As to some of his experiences at that
time, we permit IVIr. Harrell to tell himself:

" In the early stages of the war, when
nearly every prominent Democrat was in the
Old Capitol Prison, and Logan was watched,
and suspicioned Democratic editors in Egypt
had a rough time of it. I was seated at my
desk in the Gazette office one morning, when
in stalked Col. Buford, attended by an Ad-
jutant, and both of them in the dangling,
jangling war accouterments in which showy
warriors were wont to array themselves. ' Is

the editor in ?' asked the Colonel, in a tone
of voice suggestive of hissing bombs, sword-
whizzes and the spluttering of fired grenade
fuzes. 'He is^ sir,' I replied, with a not-
able tremor of voice; 'I respond to that de-
signation. What is your pleasui'e, sir?' 'I
have this to say to you, sir, and mark me
well, that there may be no misunderstanding.
These are perilous times, sir; we have
enemies at our front, sir, and more cowardly
ones in our rear, even in our midst. Upon
these latter I am resolved to lay a strong
hand. 1 have to say to you, then, that if you
publish anything in your paper that shall
tend to discourage enlistments, encourage
desertions, or in any manner reflect upon the
war policies of the administration, I shall
take possession of youi- office, sir, and put
you in irons.'

" ' I beg to assure you. ' I replied, as soon
as I could command composure enough to
speak at ail, ' I feel no inclination to offend
in that direction; but how can I shape my
editorial labors so as to have a guarantee of
your approval ? '

" ' Submit your matter to me, sir. If I find
it unobjectionable, I'll return it; otherwise,
I'll destroy it.'

" Then, with the bearing of a Scipio — a
' see-the-conquering-herocomes ' gait and
caiTiage — the Colonel and his Adjutant left
the office.

" The next day, and the next, and the day
after that, I laid before the Colonel a great
deal more selected matter than I had pub-
lished during the previous quarter. I clipped
columns of stuff I had no idea of pub-
lishing; tore several leaves from the Census
Eetui-ns of 1860; levied heavy contributions
from the stah.i jokes found in Ayers' Al-
manac; long editorials from the Si Louis
Rejjublican : full pages from De Bow's Sta-
tistical Review of the Southern Cotton Crop;

146

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

'takes' of Ed Willett's newspaper poetry,
and massive rolls of matter that I felt certain
nobody ever had or ever could read without
mental retching, and all this stuff I ' respect-
fully submitted for the Colonel's perusal and
approval.' Palpable as they were, the Col-
onel, evidently, did not ' tumble ' to my tac-
tics. On the evenings of the first and
second days, the installments were duly re-
tiurned, stamped with evidence of approval.
On the evening of the third day, the roll of
copy was returned unopened, but accompan-
ied by the following explanatory and ad-
monitory note.

"Editor Oazette: Finding that a close pre-
supervision of the contents of your paper involves
an expenditure of more paper and labor than I can
bestow, and much more than I anticipated, I return
to-day's installment unopened; exercise your cus-
tomary discretion and allow the latent Unionism in
j'our composition to assert itself, and the result, I
dare say, will be as satisfactory to me as it will be
creditable to j'^ourself .

(Signed) B.

In the early part of the war, Cairo devel-
oped to be just what its very first discoverers
foresaw, namely, that in case of war it would
be the one great, important strategic point —
the key to all the military movements in the
vast Mississippi Valley. Daniel P. Cook, the
Delegate from the Territory of Illinois in
Congress, and who framed the bill for its
admission as a State into the Union, based
his report and his spepch in that behalf,
upon the peculiar position of the Territory,
and as clearly foretold, as did the Avar
demonstrate, that Illinois was the natiiral
keystone State to the gi-eat Northwest. From
the early part of 1863 until the conclusion
of the late war, the whole world looked with
eager interest to Cairo. It was here that all
eyes turned, in the hope of some word that
would decisively settle the great and bloody
questions that were raging so fiercely.

This brought here a swarm of correspond-
ents, men representing at one time nearly every

leading paper in the whole country; and to
give some idea of the magnitude of the in-
crease of news that was fvumished at this
point, it is only necessary to say that from
four to six telegraph operators were found
necessary, and that often and often the news
wires were doubled, and kept busily running
night and day, and then frequently great
rolls of copy were taken from the hook the
next day that it was impossible to pass over
the wires in time for the paper to go to press.
The writer of these lines well remembers
that at one time there were twenty-five men
here who represented these difierent news-
papers, and whose sole business was to allow
nothing to escape them, and send it by light-
ning dispatch to their respective papers.
There were great jealousies and rivalries
among the different representatives of rival
papers. A correspondent would about as
soon die as to allow his rival, or anybody
else, to get up a " scoop " on him while he
slept or closed his ears, and there was an
equal rivalry among the respective papers
backing each one of them. These corre-
spondents, many of them, had instructions to
spare no expense in getting news. " If
necessary to get the latest and important
news, charter an engine or a steamboat, and
draw on this office," was substantially [the
instructions that several of these news-
gatherex-s had. It was the correspondent
who failed to get the latest important news
— no matter how much money he saved — who
was always summarily dismissed. And of
course at that time, in this country, the New
York Herald had the prestige for enterprise
among all the papers. There was no other
institution in the country until the war, that
thought it worth while to try to compete with
James Gordon Bennett; but the war brought
much change iiere as well as in other things,
and made many papers quite as daring in

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

14-;

enterprise as the Herald. One of the pranks
sometimes played by correspondents upon
each other, was to race for the telegraph
office, say just after a battle, and the first
one who got the wire, by the rules of the
office, could hold it until his 'entire dispatch
was sent. They would thus have a tremen-
dous race as to who should get there first,
and then it was an immense joke if he could
hold it until, say, 4 o'clock next morning,
when the morning jDapers all had to go to
press. All the people of Cairo will remem-
ber Frank Chapman, who came to Cairo as
the correspondent of the New York Herald.
This story was told of him: There had been
a battle, and it was ten miles away to the
telegi-aph office. He happened to be
mounted on the fastest horse, and under whip
and spur started as soon as the result of the
fight was known. He was followed Jin full
chase by the others, and it was a break-neck
race; but Chapman got there first, but it was
only by a few moments; in short, he was so
closely followed, that he rushed into the
office (none of them had their dispatches
written out yet), and looking about, the only
thing he saw was a copy of the Bil)le lying
there. He seized that; opened at the fiist
chapter of Genesis, and hastily with his pen-
cil wrote above " To the New York Herald"
and passing it to the operator, said simply,
" Send that," and then sat down leisurely to
write out his dispatch. It is difficult to
imagine what must have been the thoughts
of the news editor of the Herald, when the
Bible was thus being fired at it over the
wires, as it came chapter after chapter; in that
regular order that indicated that probably the
whole book was behind. But when Chapman
had written out his account, he passed that
to the operator, and it is very probable the
first word of the real account of the battle

told the story of the trick to the New York
office.

Poor Frank Chapman! The war over, he
settled down, and tried to make a livinc in
Cairo, by first one thing and then another.
He organized the first Cairo Board of Trade,
and was the first Secretary. Most unfortu-
nately for him he was a splendid ventriloquist.
In 1870, he went to Chicago, and there, after
long suffering and great privations, died.
The Herald had here, and in the field ad-
jacent to this place, at one time or another,
a dozen or more different correspondents.
Among them the writer well remembers I. N.
Higgins, now the editor of the San Francisco
Morning Call. A brilliant writer, and one
of the most genial fellows in the world.
Newt! all hail! Another member of the
Herald force was a Mr. Knox, who has since
traveled pretty much all over the world, and
published several books, one or more of
which were written for the edification of the
youths of the nation, and have earned a wide
and solid fame for him.

Ralph Kelly was the Cairo war correspond-
ent of the New Orleans Picayune ; one of the
most deceiving and one of the most brilliant
and genial fellows that ever graced the town
of Cairo. The writer of these lines had
noticed Mr. Kelly in passing about the
streets, and he was so very odd-lookino- in
his make-up, that he gut to inquiring of
every one he met, Who is that? After a long
pursuit of this kind, he gained the desired
information, and his informant not only
gave the information, but followed it up with
an introduction. Mr. Kelly was of Milesian
extraction (which was plainly to be seen),
and had been reared from early boyhood in
the Picayune office, until he was about as
much one of its fixtm-es as was any other part
of the establishment. His whole life was

148

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

centered there; be knew no other home,
guardian, parents, or, apparently, place to
go, either before or after quitting this world.
He probably did not form twenty intimate or
general acquaintances while in Cairo. In
the presence of strangers, he stood mute, and
sometimes appeared almost idiotic, and if,
under such circumstances, he tried to talk and
make himself intelligible, he apparently only
made matters so much the worse; yet, locked
up in a room with some congenial, well-un-
derstood friend, or place before him pen and
paper and instantly he was much as one in-
spired. To know Ralph Kelly even slightly,
was to read over and over, every day you
were with him, the story of Oliver Goldsmith,
and to recall what Johnson said, when he
called him the " poll-parrot who wrote like
inspiration. "

Ralph Kelly! Have you gone with the
fleeting years, and, like them, gone forever?
If so it be, we would place one little faded
flower to thy memory, typical of as pure a
friendship as ever one being held for another.

E. H. Whipple was the Cairo war corre-
spondent of the Chicago Tribune. We re-
member him as a good-looking, round-faced
young man, full of the energy and wakeful-
ness that always got the latest news, and was
certain it should reach the Tribune before he
would sleep. He seemed to be a very retir-
ing, quiet young man, and much to his
credit it was, too, he did not join much in
the convivialities that marked the existence
of the Cairo life of most of the Bohemians.
Mr. Whipple is now in some way connected
with a detective agency in Chicago, a ad long
since has given his Fabers to his babies for
toys.

L. Curry represented the Cincinnati Com-
mercial. A man of an eventful and a very
sad domestic history. His wife, whom he
married at the age of eighteen, when he was

barely twenty-one, dying with her child
in about twelve months after marriage, un-
der the saddest circumstances. Mr. Curry
was a young man of good education, and had
been reared under the most fortunate circum-
stances. He was an excellent wi'iter, a warm-
hearted and most exemplary young man in
bis habits. He made so few acquaintances
in Cairo — owing to the facts above referred
to — that there are very few people here who
will remember him. His history, after leav-
ing here, is not known to the writer.

Charles Phillips represented the Chicago
Times. He was quite a young man, but his
writings came from his pen rapidly, and as
finished, almost, as a stereotype. His cult-
ure was unusual for one of his age — prob-
ably twenty-four. The writer knows nothing
of his history, except what he saw of him in
Cairo. A more unassuming young man never
lived, and his talents in his chosen line of
profession were of the very highest order.
He was a consistent, practical and conscien-
tious Christian. He was very quiet in his
manners, and his whole nature was such that
he could not intrude his opinions or person.
He died in the early part of 1864, we believe,
at the home of his parents or friends, some-
where near Metropolis, 111., but of this (that
is, the residence of his friends) we are not
certain. He died of consumption; and for
months, befoi'e he left Cairo and went home
to die, we confess it was one of the saddest
sights we ever saw, to see him suffering,
working and wasting away, yet uncomplain-
ingly working on, until his pen fell from his
nerveless grasp, and the young life that
would have been worth so much to the world
went to sleep in death. Charley Phillips,
may your sad and cruel wrongs, sufferings
and untimely taking-off here in this world,
have been a million of million times com-
pensated in the next!

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

149

H. C. Bradsby succeeded Mr. Phillips as
the representative of the Chicago Times, and
also enlarged the duties, and represented the
Missouri Republican. His duties to the lat-
ter were to furnish at least two letters by
mail per week, in addition to duplicating
the Times and Republican dispatches. We
would not further speak of him here, but we
realize a public sentiment will expect it, and
to some extent, therefore, reqiiire it. He had
none of Mr. Phillips religion or morals,
and but little of his culture. He was at
times (very brief) brilliant, but as a rule
was more marked for daring than genius.
It would be difficult to find two men more
the perfect opposites of each other than were
these two correspondents of the Times. Mr.
B. continued to represent his two papers until
after the war was all over, and Cairo had
long ceased to be a great [news point. He
was then, awhile, editing or writing for first
one paper and then another, and at one time
or another edited or wrote for every paper pub-
lished in Cairo during his residence here,
except the Olive Branch. In his writings,
he sometimes made people laiigh, sometimes
stare, and sometimes squirm, and he seemed
ever equally indiflferent as to which result
flowed out from his pen. His character
always seemed an inconsistent one; at one
moment, perhaps, a great egotist, at the next,
the picture of self-humility; and these were
often and often exemplified in his writings.
He had the art complete of making enemies,
and holding them, when once made, perpet-
ually; and his friends, therefore, were never
numerous, but in a jVery few instances firm
and stanch. What education he got (though
nominally a collegiate) was in the columns
of the different papers he worked upon dur-
ing the twenty-five years intervening between
his first experience upon the proofs of a
country press and the present time. He gave

considerable attention, in a scattered, inco-
herent kind of way, to the scientific writers
of the past quarter of a century; and has just
now learned enough to cease to be dogmatic
in his opinions — to believe little and know
less.

W. B. Kerney was a long time in Cairo,
commencing here as the agent of the As-
sociated Press; afterward represented the
Chicago Evening Journal, and then the
Chicago Tribune. He was an odd little
fellow, and quite as clever, when you came
to know him better, as the best of them.
He seems to have been, all his young life,
much given to fall in with isms, and when
once he had given anything of this kind his
approval, he, for awhile, at least followed
it with remarkable devotion. He was an
honest, thoroughly good man in every re-
spect. He was very industrious, and atten-
tive to his bu.siness, and was probably the
most even-tempered man that ever lived.
Nothing could swerve him from the even tem-
per of his way, or provoke him into an angry
retort. He and his good little wife could
almost always be seen together, and it was
beautiful to see the rivalry between them, as
to which could most admire the other. They
were childless, and firm believers in the effi-
cacy of the cold water cure for all the ills of
life. They had been most unfortunate, in
losing .several children dying in infancy.
Upon one occasion, the man and wife were
fcick, and they were doctoring each other with,
water, and eating about an apple each a day.
Fortunately for them both, Dr. Dunning
happened to be called in. He took in the
situation, and ordered a good- sized sirloin
beefsteak, overlooked its preparation, and
made them eat it. To their amazement, they
liked it, and they were soon well — better, in
fact, than they had been for years — con-
tinued to eat good, nutritious food, and the

150

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

last accounts the writer had of them, they had
three or four as fine, healthy childi-en as you
would want to see.

In all this vast amount of newspaper
births and deaths, there were developed but
two men who were pui'ely and only publish-
ers. Men who gave this department their
undivided attention, and depended wholly
upon hiring all the writing that they wanted.
These were Thomas Lewis and H. L. Good-
all. Each had a long career here, and each
gave many evidences that under different cir-
cumstances and suiToundings they might
have built up great institutions. Goodall
could do the best combining and planning,
but Lewis had the nerve for any venture that
promised, even remotely, to pay as an invest-
ment. When Mr. Lewis quit his old favorite,
the Democrat, he seems to have made up his
mind to quit the business, but not so with
Mr. Goodall. He is now in Chicago, and is
still a publisher, and we are more than glad
to learn, at last a successful one. May his
shadow never grow less!

In its proper place, perhaps, but the truth
is, the very last place in the rear column,
was always the best place for " Old Rogers,"
one of the most remarkable tramp printers
even Cairo ever had, with all its hosts of distin-
guished characters in this line. Rogers
was a very good workman, but his habits
were to prefer dirt and filth to fine linen
and the breezes of Araby. He was a
tramp printer, with all the term implies, and
a great deal more, too. He was here about
1S60, and made Cairo a central point in his
rounds. Everybody then knew him, and un-
derstood well that he considered it would be
a hanging crime in himself to be caught
even passably clean in his person, and so-
briety and cleanliness were much the same
thing with old Rogers. Yet at periods, he
had to sober uj) enough to work, but this

necessity never arose as to his habits of per-
son. He was smart, quick-witted, and much
enjoyed telling how he often astonished and
disgusted strangers, and if he was kicked off
a train or boat, he relished telling the cir-
cumstance immensely.

On one occasion, he had just arrived in
Cairo from Evansville, and was surrounded
by Postmaster Len Faxon, Deputy Bob Jen-
nings, Sam Hall, Joe Abell and two or three
others, all anxious to hear Rogers tell some of
his recent experiences. " I'm just in from
Evansville, boys," said Rogers, ",and, great
Caesar, I'm hungry. I was put ashore from
a flat-boat at Golcouda, because, as the crew
said, I was too rich for their blood, and so
I've just footed it all the way from there to
Cairo, and if I've eaten a mouthful in four
days, why, then I've eaten a whole army
mule in the last two minutes. By George,
to come right down to it, boys, I'm starv-
ing."

" Well," said Willett, giving the boys a
wink, " if I was real hungry, I'd call on
Capritz; order a baked bass; a fry of oysters;
a plain omelet, and "

"But," chimed in Rogers, "I ain't got any
money."

" If I were you," said Sam Hall, paying
no attention to Rogers' impecuniosity, " I'd
step into Weldon's; get a porterhouse steak
with mushrooms or onions, some boiled eggs,
milk toast, and "

" Oh, boys, don't," cried Rogers, in evi-
dent agony; "you don't know how you're
torturing me. I'm awful hungry, but I hain't
got any "

" I don't know," interrupted Abell, " but
a good lay-out for a real hungry man would
be quail, nicely browned, on toast; quail on
toast, mind you; a cujd of good, hot choco-
late; white hot rolls, with country butter,
and "

^^^^^i^^

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

153

" Oh, ynra — um — yiim!" muttered Rogers,
laying his hands upon his stomach, and look-
ing as if he would Jtrade his hope in heaven

for even a raw turnip; "oh, boys, "

. " Or," quickly added Jennings, " a cup of
hot coffee — amber-colored Mocha — with gen-
uine cream; a fried squirrel, or baked prairie
chicken; cranberry sauce, of course, and a
rich oyster stew to commence on, would be,
for a real hungry man, mind you, about as
toothsome a "

" Oh, boys, " exclaimed the tortured
Rogers, "hush! hush! for God's sake; for
you'i'e killing me! " And it much appeared
as if, for once in his life, the poor man was
telling' the truth about somethingr to eat.
But an hour later, Rogers was the happiest
man in town. The boys had staked him with
a quarter, and with this he had got a pig's
foot and three 5 -cent di'inks. His hunger
had been appeased, and calling Joe Abell
aside, he asked him, in the strictest confi-
dence, if he knew of a cheap shebang, where
a pig's foot would be considered a legal ten-
der for a glass of whisky.

Among the many different reporters on
the Democrat was one named Beatty, who
will be remembered by the old Cairoites
as a round, red-faced young man. He
commenced his career in this place as
foreman of the Morning News, and was for
some time local, under John A. Hull, on that
paper, and was then transferred to the Demo-
crat. He left Cairo in the early part of
1866, and found employment as a reporter on
the Indianapolis Journal. He died in In-
dianapolis in 1867.

Gen. Schenck was stationed here a good
while, and then seemed to loaf around some
time after his post duties had ceased. Al-
ways, when introduced, he would inform his
new acquaintance that he was a near relative
of Gen. Schenck's, of Ohio. For a longtime.

he had been confidentially telling everybody
in Cairo that he was expecting an important
appointment from the President. He was
watching the papers daily. One day. Gen.
Sheridan and his escort fleet of steamers
came up from New Orleans, and Gen.
Schenek had a grand salute fired from the
forts and all the guns in port, in honor of
the great arrival. It so happened, that same
day and about the same horn* of Sheridan's
arrival, there came news that California had
gone Democratic at an important election
just held. The 'correspondent of the Times
sent a flaming dispatch to his paper, which
was duly published, announcing that Gen.
Schenck was then firing a national salute in
honor of the California victory, Schenck
would, after this, tell over and over again,
how his appointment had just gone to the
Senate and while it was under considera-
tion, the Chicago Times arrived, and, in the
nick of time, forever ruined him. But there
were many worse men in the army than poor
Schenck, and if the correspondent' s si lly joke
did really injure him, he has regretted it a
thousand times.

A reporter named Pratt was for some
time connected with the Cairo papers, com-
mencing with the Democrat, and continuing
longer in that place than anywhere else.
He sometimes wrote little innocent pieces of
poetry, and the whole thing, probably, may
be estimated by the title of one of his pieces,
which was called "A Crack in the Win-
dow." "When business grew dull in Cairo,
Mr. Pratt we believe, went to some point
in IMissouri, and was there a member of the
rural press.

John H. Oberly came here from Ohio, a
young man, and by trade a practical printer.
His first employment was on the Democrat,
as general foreman of the press and job
rooms; and after the retirement of Joel G.

154

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

Morgan from the editorial chair, Mr. Oberly

assumed this position, and for some time at-
tended to both departments, and proving so
successful a writer, he soon quit entirely the
mechanical department, and became the gen-
eral editor. With but limited school advanta-
ges in early life, and having married when
quite young, he was forced to early exertions
for the support of a large young household,and
at the same time prepare himself for those
advances in his trade and profession that he
has achieved. He was blest with one misfort-
une to himself as a journalist; he could talk
naturally well — we mean as a public speaker
— and this soon inclined him to the stump,
politics, and even some pretensions to state-
craft, and he wasted some of the best years
of his school life as a writer, in the State
Legislature, and was afterward, by the ap-
pointment of the Governor, one of the Rail-
road Commissioners for the State of Illinois.
His natural qualifications are good— much
above the average. He is now engaged in
publishing a daily Democratic paper in
Bloomington, III, where, we learn, he is
meeting with merited success. As a public,
off-hand speaker, Mr. Oberly is much above
the average — in fact, frequently strong, brill-
iant and fascinating. This flatter talent
seems to have been natural to him, and he
has put it to much use the past few years,
being called to many parts of the State to
lecture and address public assemblies. For
his real development in either line, his tal-

ents have been too versatile, and in some re-
spects this has been one of his misfortunes,
as the human mind has always been so con-
stituted that to achieve great success, it must
focus upon one- single thing and burn itself
out there, in order to invest it with those in-
tellectual calcium lights that attract the
world's attention. His social qualities and
ties of friendship are strong, lasting and al-
ways as true as steel ; but, on the other hand,
when his ill-will has been once aroused, he
fills the warmest wish of Dr. Johnson, who
said he "loved a good hater." He was always
very popular with the people of Cairo, as is
evidenced by the fact that they gave him
every oflfice, commencing with Mayor of the
city, that he ever asked for. Mr. Oberly
stayed in Cairo much longer than did the
average writers or editors who were here and
have gone; his success while here was, too,
above the average of them; yet, purely as
writers, there were several, at one time or
another, that were his superior in point of
cultivation, in their chosen line, a fact that
leads us to the conclusion, that in the West
the profession has hardly yet been separated
and made a distinct and independent one ;
that is, one where nothing but the most care-
ful training -and preparation can qualify or
enable the candidate to enter and compete
for the high honors that it will, at some time,
bestow,

A reflection that admonishes us to hurried-
ly close this chapter.

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

155

CHAPTER VII.

SOCIETIES: LITERARY, SOCIAL AND BENEVOLENT— THE IDEAL LEAGUE— LYCEUM— MASONIC

FRATERNITY— ITS GREAT ANTIQUITY— ODD FELLOWSHIP— THE CAIRO

CASINO— OTHER SOCIETIES, ETC.

'Behold how good and pleasant it is for brethren
to dwell together in unity." — Psalms, cxxxiii., 1.

THE Ideal League. — We go to school from
the cradle to the gi-ave, and this is one of
the inexorable laws of our being. These
schools or fountains of education are nearly in-
finite in variety, and have little in common save
the imperfections that pervade all. The
schoolmaster and the birch twigs are the
real schools only in name; in fact, it is
doubtful if they are not 2 stupendous and
prolonged mistake that has, to some extent,
blockedthe way of true education. Such old-
fashioned schools were grood trainingf-rooms
but nothing more.

A careful investigation of the controlling
influences of the mind go far to demonstrate
the fact that real education comes with our
plays, our pleasures, our joys and that sweet
social intercourse of congenial spirits, that
is the mark of the highest type of our
civilization. The mind must be developed as
is the perfect physical nature. It is not
hard, dull work that molds the child into
beauty and strength, perfection and grace,
but, on the contrary, too much of this
dwarfs and warps and stunts the young into
ungainliness of person and feature. Btit it
is the happy, light young heart, the hilarious
romp and that sweetest music in all the
world, the rippling laughter of innocent
childhood, that fashions that beauty of per-
sons whose every movement is the " poetry

of motion." The child must have the en-
ergy to play, and play with that abandon
and bubbling joy that gives an exquisite rel-
ish to existence itself. And just so is men-
tal strength and beauty created. It is im-
possible for it to come from the task-master
and the rod. A strong, active, gi-aceful and
well-poised intellect is created only of the
pleasures of life. It is impossible for knowl-
edge to come to the mind in any other way.
This is self-evident when you reflect a moment
upon the fact that to the mind of culture,
the most enduring pleasures of life are the
acquisition of new truths. The activity of
the mind depends upon the degree and in-
tensity of its enjoyment. This i.s its food
and healthy stimulant, and the improvement
and new truths that come to it thus are its
seeds of knowledge, that flourish and grow
into such magnificence and wondrous beauty.
Let us qualify this, lest the superficial may
conclude we mean to say that mental indo-
lence and rest is true education. We
mean exactly the opposite. We mean
that intense mental activity that comes of the
keen zest of mental play-work, of that social
and intellectual life that is made up of the
associations of congenial companions " where
youth and pleasure meet," at the weekly
trysts of the Ideal League in the cozy parlors
of Mr. and Mrs. George Parsons.

The Ideal League was organized March
13, 1883, and although one of the youngest

156

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

institutions in Cairo, yet it is already the j
conspicuous figure in the intellectual and so- i
cial life of the city. As best stated by itself,
" the objects of this association are musical, ^
literary, di-amatic and social enjoyment, the ^
promotion of a spirit of good-fellowship ,
among the members; the attainment of a
higher mental culture, imd a steady growth
and progressiveness toward enlarged useful-
ness. " The officers are as follows : President,
Mr. George Parsons; First Vice President,
Mrs W. F. Macdowell; Second Vice Presi-
dent, Miss M. Adella Gordon; Secretary and
Treasurer, Miss Fannie L. Barclay.

The charter members: Mr. and Mrs.
George Parsons, Mr. and ^Mrs. W. F. Mac-
dowell, Miss M. Adella Gordon, Mr. John
Horn, Dr. J. A. Benson, Dr. E. C. Strong,
Mr. Scott White, Mr. E. C. Halliday, Misses
Mamie and Eida Corlis, Miss Fannie L.
Barclay, Mr. E. G. Crowell, Mr. J. L. Sar-
ber, Miss Hattie McKee, Miss Effie Coleman,
Mr. F. W. Allen, Mr. and Mrs. Henry Wells,
Mr. ^Marx Black, Mr. G. T. Car ens, Mr.
William Burkett, Mr. F. G. Metcalf, Miss
Montie Metcalf, :Mr. George E. Ohara, Mr.
Edward Reno, Misses Phyllys and Katie
Howard, Capt. T. W. Shields, Miss Ella
Armstrong, Prof. G. A. M. Storer, Mr. Guy
Morse, Mr. Henry Hughes, IVIr. W. E.
Spear, Miss Maud Eittenhouse, Mr. Will-
iam Williamson, jMr. William Korsmeyer
and Miss Bettie Korsmeyer.

The members added since the organization
are Mr. Albert Galigher, ISIr. James Lock-
ridge and Mrs. Stephen T. McBride.

The Ideal League has simply supplied a
long- felt want in Cairo. The membership
was wisely limited to forty members, and
this full number was made up almost from
the first meeting. The real founders and or-
ganizers of this pleasant and profitable club
judged wisely when they determined that the

harvest was ripe and ready for the gleaners in
Cairo. The necessity of limiting the member-
ship of the club is easily understood when the
fact is mentioned that the meetings of the
Ideal League are, so far, parlor entertain-
ments, at which there are only limited capaci-
ties.

The work of the Ideal League speaks for
itself, and while it is among the latest efibrts
of forming a literarj- and social club, it is al-
ready crowned with that success that betokens
a long and useful life, as well as a continual
source of pleasure and profit to the young
people of Cairo.

The Lyceum is an older society than the
League, and, so far as we can learn, deserves
thn first place in history, but our investiga-
tors and seekers after facts have thus far
wholly failed to find the essential facts and
dates that will enable us to more than state
it exists, but whether as an intellectual vol-
cano, that is, in a state of activity or not, we
cannot say. So we must content ourselves
with the statement of the fact of its exis-
tence, and, with the farther remark that
Cairo has in all her history to date to some
extent neglected the improvement of this
avenue of social and intellectual life. Cir-
cumstances, and not the absence of an abund-
ance and the best of material, has been the
source of all this. It is to be hoped now,
that this will no longer be the case, as the
subject has the past winter and spring, by a
fortunate circumstance, been brought so
prominently before the people in discussions
in social circles and much more so in the
daily papers.

The Masons — The history of Masonry is
more or less familiar to all the civilized, and,
as the order claims, to many of the semi-civ-
ilized, and even good Masons are to be
found among barbarous peoples. Among its
claimed chief merits and glories are its great

HISTORY or CAIRO.

157

age — the oldest organization in the world,
antedating all sects, religions and even all
organized social life since the coming of
Adam and Eve. Again, it is sometimes
given as the history of its foundation, that,
as its name indicates, it was founded and
organized among the workmen for mutual
protection at the building of that historical
structure — Solomon's Temple. But like
everything else, it has adapted itself to the
inevitable that follows the workings and
growth of the human mind, and now they
have attached to the order well-regulated
benefit associations, and distribute much real
and beneficial charity and aid to fellow-mem-
bers and the widows and orphans of deceased
brethren. The cardinal ideas of Masonry
have, perhaps, always been a high morality
founded on the Bible, and a law of mutual
protection of a brother toward a brother.

A lodge was chartered in 1857, appoint-
ing Charles D. Arter, William Standing, J.
AV. McKenzie, John L. Smith, Robert E.
Yost, C. Stewart and Robert H. Baird as
charter members.

In 1874, the two Cairo lodges — the Delta
and Lodge 237 — were consolidated and
formed under the name of the Delta Lodge.

The order of the Council was chartered
October 5, 1866. The charter members were
J. B. Fulton, J. W. Morris, George E. Louns-
bury, Orlando Wilson, Charles Morris, W.
H. Walker, E. P. Smith, L. Jorgensen,
Most Fobs, L. H. Elbrod, William Stand-
ing, H. Elbrod, E. P. Smith, Charles Minni-
que. Isadore Meiner, E. S. Davis, C. Ger-
ricko, A. Harrick, S. J. Jackson, P. H. Pope,
I. W. Waugh, C. S. Hartough F. F. Dun-
bar, J. C. Guff, H. T. Bridges, S. Hess,
William Perkins, J. Joseph and C. R. Wood-
ward.

The Odd Fellows — The secret societies
above now attach much importance to the

term " ancient," and the very warm stick-
lers for this are the Masons, followed closely
by the Odd Fellows. This last-named order
came to Cairo October 13, 1857. The char-
ter bearing that date is issued to John Green-
wood, Abe Williams, G. W. McKenzie, H.
W. Bacon, John A. Reed, John Antrim and
L. G. Faxon.

At the commencement of the late wai*, Joha
Q. Harmon was the N. G. of the order, and
for some reason unknown to us he returned
the charter in 1861, and the society was no
more a working Cairo institution.

On October the 3d, 1862, the following
parties met and determined to have another
organization efi'ected and the beautiful prin-
ciples of charity to the loved society once
more in full operation here, to wit: F. Bross,
J. S. Morris, H. F. Goodyear, M. Malinski,
C. S. Hutcheson, I. P. McAuley, Joseph
McKenzie and C. M. Osterloh. On the 7th
of the same month, at another meeting, the
following additional members' names ap-
pear on the rolls: John T. Rennie, W. V.
McKee, and A. Halley. After this rest of
nearly ten years, the members, it seems,
went to work, determined to make up for
lost time, and in a little while the member-
ship had so grown that the I. O. O. F. ex-
ceeded any society in the town in point of
membership, and they had fitted up a nice
hall and furnished it well. The society now
is in a flourishing condition, and their ele-