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-
gant hall is on Commercial avenue, opposite
Seventh street, and here, as of old, upon the
sacred altars of their sires, the eastern wor-
shipers turned their faces and devotions.
So it is with many of the members, and
their meetings are largely and regularly at-
tended by nearly all the members, and from
here every Christmas goes out to the widows
and orphans of deceased members the holy
remembrances upon that sacred day. No so-

InS

HISTORY OF CATKO.

ciety is more liberal than this in the extent
of its benefactions, and while the gifts go so
bountifully, they are not charity doled out to
those receiving it, but are dues from the so-
ciety to those whose fathers and husbands
were once brothers, and ungrudgingly they
go to all — ^the rich as well as the poor. They
have a fund called the widows' and orphans
fund, that now amounts to something over
$500, notwithstanding the almost constant
drain made upon it. The money and hall
furniture, etc., amounts to over $3,000. At
the burial of any member of Ihe order, the
whole is, when agreeable to the relatives,
taken charge of by the order, and $75 set
apart to the family to defray funeral ex-
penses.

The membership now is 128. Since the
organization, in different years, there have
been received 232 members.

There was at one time two consecutive
years when no death occurred in the mem -
bership or their families, and at the expira-
tion of the two years, and then during three
months, two members and the wife of each
were buried by the organization.

Knights of Honor meet in the I. O. O.
F. hall, on the second and foui'th Tuesday
evenings of each month. While this order
is comparatively a modern one, yet it may be
classed among the most flourishing of the
country. The order throughout the United
States is composed of the Supreme Lodge.
and, as its name indicates, is the supreme
authority over all others. Then the Grand
Lodge, that has a State jurisdiction and
supervision; then the subordinate lodges, and
these are the local ones.

When a member joins this society, a cer-
tificate is issued to him, called a widow's and
orphans' fund certificate, the amount of
which is $2,000. The ages for receiving
new members is between eighteen and fifty

years of age. There are three degrees, called
Infancy, Youth and Manhood, and the last
only is entitled to any benefits. Half -rate
certificates are issued, and upon these only
half -rate assessments are paid and $1,000
only is paid upon death occurring. Assess-
ments only one in twenty days, and the rate
upon each death to those between the ages
of eighteen and forty-five years, $1 ; forty-
five to forty-six, $1.05; forty-six to forty-
seven, $1.10; forty-nine to fifty $1.50.

The present membership of the Cairo so-
ciety is 105, and the enrollment 140.

The society was organized February 24,
1879, with the following charter members:
W. M. Williams, W. R. Smith, Elmer
Krauth, L. H. Saup, James F. Miller, G.
M. Fraser, Henry Baird, C. F. Rudd, N. W.
Hacker, W. H. Axe, James A. Phillis, George

B. Ramsey, Oscar Haythorn, A. G. Royse,
Charles Pink, M. W. Parker, F. F. Gholson,
M. T. Fulton, Thomas B. Farren, W. B.
Pettis, George B. Sergeant, John S. Hacker,
Frank Cassidy, George W. Chellet, Charles
H. Baker, Henry Winters, Charles Ediker, H.

C. Loflin, C. W. Dunning, H. Meyers, Henry
Elliott, P. W. Barclay, R. H. Baird, Ru-
dolph Hebsacker, William Smith, C. B. S.
Pennebaker, J. George Steinhouse, J. G.
Arrington, George W. Yocum, and James
Quinn.

The first officers in the election held by
the society were C. W. Dunning, P. D. ; W. M.
Williams, D.; James F. Miller, V. D. ; James
A. Phillis, A. D. ; Hei'man Meyers, Guide;
C. H. Baker, R.; A. G. Royse, F. B.; Charles
Pink, T.; H. Winters, C. ; R. H. Baird, G. ;
and W. B. Pettis, S.

The present (1883) officers of the lodge are
Samuel J. Humm, P. D. ; Charles Cuning-
ham,D. ; T. B. Holmes, V. D. ; George B.Ram-
sey, A. D. ; R. S. Yocum, R.; A. G. Royse,
F. R.; A. G. Errington, T. ; J. F. Miller,

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

159

Guide; C. B. S.Pennebaker C; Rudolph Heb-
sacker, C. ; Charles D. Young, S.

The trustees are Herman Meyers, Oscar
Haythorn and E. A. Buder.

The deaths among the members since the
order was founded have been James W. Stew-
art, January 31, 1881; S. S. Tarrey, July
3, 1882; James W. Gash, November 2,
1882; Gerge R. Lentz, May, 1883.

The finances of the order are cash, $600,
and in property, $206.95.

The Cairo Casino — A German benevolent
and social society, was organized on the 14th
of December, 1867. As the name indicates,
the order is benevolent, and by various means
distributes its faid, fix'st to the families of
those who have been members, and the sur-
plus to those worthy and in need of their as-
sistance. It is peculiarly a German institu-
tion, as its name further indicates, and the
casinos of America are offshoots of the fa-
therland. While a large majority of the names
of those who founded the Cairo Casino are
German, yet a careful examination of the list
will show names that are American, En-
glish, Italian and French. Among the main
purposes of the club are music, lager beer, wine
and an annual picnic and dancing and that
species of social life so characteristic of the
German race when they meet in family
groups, in which may be found all ages from
the infant to the octogenarian.

The persons who originally met together,
as mentioned above, to organize, are the fol-
lowing: Robert Breibach, Charles Feuchter,
Phillip Laurent, F. M. Stockfleth, Ferdinand
Koehler, Jacob Walter, Charles Helfrick, A.
Korsmeyer, John Scheel, Frank Pohle, Louis
Koehler, Amandus Jaekel, Baltus Reiff, Au-
gust Kramer. William Alba, W. T. Beer
wart

The first officers of the society were Robert
Breibach, President; Charles Feuchter, Vice

President; Phillip Laurent, Treasurer; F.
M. Stockfleth, Sec. ; August Kramer, Assist-
ant Sec.

On June 15, 1873, the society obtained a
regular charter, with fifty- nine regular mem-
bers. Since that date it has lost eleven
members by death and thirty of the charter
members either removed from Cairo or re-
signed their membership. Sixteen new
members have joined, and its present mem-
bership is thirty-four, and of this number
eighteen are active and worthy members of
the society, who were of the charter members,
as follows: Charles Feuchter, Charles Hel-
frick, Herman Schmitzstorf, John George
Keller, Jacob Walter, Louis Herbert, John
Koehler, Herman Meyer, Jacob Kline, John
Reese, Henry Wallschmidt, Henry Hasen-
yeager, Louis Driestmann, Henry Walker,
Leo Kleb, Jacob Goldstein and Jean

Ogg.

Turner'' s Society. — As early as 1856, there
were Germans enough to start in this society,
with a charter membership numbering forty-
five, with Henry Aspern, President, Dr. Kick-
bach, Sec. The society purchased five lots
and erected a high, close fence about the
same, and built cheap, temporary frame
houses as a place of protection to their prop-
erty. These improvements were hardly more
than completed, when the floods of June,
1858, came and washed everything away,
leaving their lots as bare as the old bald
head who ever secured the front seat at a per-
formance of Fisk's Blondes.

The society then rented the third story in
the Springfield Block, where they chuckled,
took swei glass and sang "Wacht am Rhine,"
when the fire came — burned the block and
everything in the world the society had; but
not wholly demoralized, the Turner- Phoenix
rose from the ashes and again purchased lots
on Fifteenth and Cedar streets, and again

160

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

fenced with a high fence and built a plain but
neat building, and when they had the grounds
all improved m good shape (this was in 1861),
the soldiers came and made quite as clean a
sweep of everything belonging to the club as
had the water or fire. And finally, to add
insult to injury — to kill out effectually what
could not, or would not be crushed, the head
society in the United States sent a formal
circular to each member, notifying him that
all Turners must join the Republican party,

when each one returned the circular, sent
back their constitution and charter and dis-
banded, sine die.

One of the original and active, but finally
indignant members, remarked to the writer,
as he finished the above account, that after
the last election, especially in Cincinnati,every
Turner society in the United States. Germany
and Holland, had probably returned their
charters and made things, " donner and
blitsen" all around the sky.

CHAPTEK VIII.

C\IRO— HER <X)NDITION IN 1S(;1-1878-1883— THE EBB AND FLOW OF BUSINESS AND POPULATION

— WAR AND THE PANIC WHICH FOLLOWED— STEAMBOATS— MARK TWAIN— PILOTS— SOME

STEAMBOAT DISASTERS-AND A JOKE OR TWO BY WAY OF ILLUSTRATION, ETC.

IN a previous chapter we brought the so-
cial and political life of Cairo as fully as
we could, to the year 1863, when again the
prosperity of the town had ascended into
another zenith. But the most solid advance-
ment the city has really ever made was from
the latter part of 1859-60 and the early part
of 1861. During this period, there was no
similarly situated town in population, wealth
or manufactories in the world that equaled or
approached Cairo in her commercial im-
portance and glory. The Illinois Central
Railroad had been long enough completed to
begin to manifest her importance in the
commercial world. The road was a young
and mighty giant, and was in the hands of
men who could comprehend the wants of the
great empire to be developed, and with large
and generous ideas, they turned their atten-
tion to the Delta city, and her mingling
waters of the Mississippi and Ohio as they
went singing to the sea. Here was the termi-
nus of the road, as well as the terminus of
continuous navigation in the finest system of

rivers in the world. They saw here the cen -
tral and attractive point for the greatest
scope of country, unparalleled in its wealth of
soil and climate; they saw the rich wilderness
that was to bloom into immeasureable com-
merce and productiveness, and to develop
some day into that superb type of civiliza-
tion that pushes forward the human race —
resources incalculable, and a growth of
wealth immeasureable, all pointing to this
spot as their natural place of meeting and
exchanges. Here were mines, not only inex-
haustible, but ever growing and increasing
in their yield, and not to be dug and delved
for into the primeval rocks that retain the
bowels of the earth, but spread with the un-
sparing hand of Omnipotence over all the
fair face of the earth and the waters. Here
were the greatest rivers the greatest railroad
and the meeting of the three sister States of
Illinois, Kentucky and Missouri.

Was there a young city on the continent
with an equal extent of country tributary to
the coming commercial men of Cairo? Here

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

161

was all Southern Illinois, nearly all of Ken-
tiieky, and all South and a large portion of
Eastern Missouii, all of Arkansas, West Ten-
nessee, Texas and Louisiana, and, in fact,
south to the galf and southeast to the Pa-
cific Ocean, that would come to the Cairo
merchant for their supplies and trade. In
the North there was no rival that might at
all compete with Cairo until Chicago was
reached, and then Cincinnati in the north-
east and St. Louis in the northwest. The
flour, corn, pork, beef, the products of the
dairy, all north of Cairo, from the Allegha-
nies to the Rockies, should come to Cairo
for their natiu'al exchanges, for the cotton,
sugar, tobacco and rice of the South. This
was the natural oi'der of things, and only
the most untoward events could abrogate
this law of God.

The South was rich and prosperous, and
only cared to exchange her gold for every-
thing that was produced north of Cairo. The
North had emerged from the gloom of bank-
ruptcy, and her agriculture and manufact-
ories were beginning to multiply and grow
to the amazement of mankind. The peoj^le
looking to the South for their markets and
the South looking to the North for her sup-
plies and from Maine to the Rio Grande,
fi'om Oregon to Florida, was peace, plenty,
prosperity, happiness. Commerce created the
demand for a line of steamers from Cairo to
New Orleans, and, like all the imperious de-
mands of trade, that want was supplied,
and, commencing, two of the largest steam-
boats were loaded weekly in Cairo for New
Orleans, and in the early part of 1861, tri
weekly steamers were loaded in the same
trade. Here was the commencement of what
was to be, had it not been interrupted, the
natural growth of an incomparable trade and
exchanges. The Ohio boats and the Upper
Mississippi and Missouri River boats would

have been content to contine their trade to
their separate rivers. The growth of this
would have brought the railroads from the
East and the West, radiating from Cairo
like a golden halo, and hence the true and
natural development of the Mississippi Val-
ley would have gone on and on, and the West
would have focused aboiit Cairo. This
obedience to the natijral laws would have
been as beneficial to the larger portions of
this great valley as to Cairo. What a won-
derful world we would have had here ere
this, had this commencement been peacefully
followed out! Ruthless, indeed, was the
hand that struck down this bright hope of
the human race, and the memory of the au-
thors of such ruin deserve eternal execration.
But war. bloody, brutal war, was precipitat-
ed upon the country, and the North and the
South, instead of giving and receiving the
blessing of peace and trade, stopped the flow
of kindness, brotherly love, rich abundance
and happiness, and tiu'ned upon each other
like enraged beasts, and bartered, exchanged
and trafficked in blood and death, and the
infant life of such fair promises was crushed
out under the heel of war and the skeleton
of desolation and unutterable woe took its seat
in every family circle in the South. And the
wai' made millionaires in the North who begin
to bud in the fat army contracts that were
shoveled out to the fortunate, to those who
bribed their way to colossal fortunes. The
South was wounded, maimed,killed and almost
perpetually ruined. The North grew rich,
demoralized, triumphant, fierce and inap-
peasable, and deep beneath the pomp and
show of preternatural glitter and wealth,
was, in fact, but little better ofif from the in-
curable poison and pangs of real suflfering
than was the South.

But the appalling revolution in the Mis-
sissippi country was complete. The com-

162

IIISTOHY or CAIRO.

manding avenues of trade, commerce and
travel had beeo as completely changed as
could have resulted from a change of the
topography of the whole country. The
dreadful blow fell the heaviest upon South-
ern Illinois, Cairo and the Lower Mississippi
River. At first when Cairo was made an
armed fortification and the river blockaded,
the Illinois Central ^Railroad, no longer
taxed to its utmost capacity, carrying the fruits
of industry and peace, was merely an avenue
for the transporation of ai'mies and war sup-
plies. Then the town was paralyzed and
the whole community was thrown out of
employment. After a season, the paymaster
came, and he began to scatter money in im-
mense amounts among the soldiers. Then
what was called business again came into life
and the town was converted into a busy sut-
ler's tent; the camp-followers flooded the
place, the floating population came, the vile
with the good, tent theaters, dives and bells
on earth held high carnival by day and by
night. The contractor, the soldier, the spec-
ulator, the gambler, the thief, the highway
robber — the vicious of every sex, age and
condition, jostled each other in the street
throngs, and plied their vocations defiantly.
And the fools in their heart said " the war
has helped, not hurt, Cairo." They saw the
flow of cheap money, and they shut their
eyes to the avalanche of demoralization.
Eventually, as the war progressed, the river
was opened from Cairo to New Orleans. Once
more Union armies with bristling forts com-
manded the river at all the towns and cities,
and the rebel flying batteries, slipping in
between the fortified points at every oppor-
tunity and firing upon helpless steamers,
and doing small damage as a rule. The
railroads in the South were all destroyed,
and tne demands for transportation for the
army, as well as for a country stripped bare

by war, were immense, and at once steamboat
stock became the most desirable property.
The northern docks and ways were put to
work and the finest and largest boats that
had ever plied the waters were pushed to
completion, and all this was grists to Cairo's
mill. To such an extraordinary extent did
this necessity push the steamboat business,
that for one year the daily average of boats
at the Cairo wharf reached thirty-five, out-
side of the local packets that made daily
trips or more. This was much the condi-
tion of afifairs all over the North; million-
aires sprung into existence, and demoraliza-
tion fed upon the vitals of the country like a
secret consuming fire.

The war was fought and ended, and spec-
ulation and peculation took its place, until it
became a venial misdemeanor to be laughed at
as a joke to speculate in the coffins, grave- stones
and decaying bodies of the dead soldiers, and
in the breathing bodies of their living families
The rich grew richer, the poor poorer, and
the cheap money and the calloused con-
sciences of the nation pursued their reckless
course of evil. The South lay a prostrate
people, without money, without credit, and
often without food; there Government bayo-
nets and negroes were supreme, and the voice
of the people was not the voice of God. The
North was bloated with Government bonds at
thirty-five cents on the dollar, and a cheap
money that flowed through the hands of the
rich as from a ceaseless fountain. There
being no longer fat war contracts, they en-
tered upon still fatter Government railroad
contracts — robbing the Government of its
credit, bonds and lands, in amounts wholly
incomprehensible. And the Northern cities
that were in this current — a current largely
changed from North to South to the East and
West, grew and spread and gathered mighty
powers, and threw out the strong arm of

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

163

railroads, and in a day became wonderful
and magnificent cities.

This is the faintest outline shadow over
which men grew wild, joyous and gleesome,
and sang their pyeans and shouted their ac-
claims, and pronounced the saddest page in
the book of time, a blessed era of unmixed
joy, so good that it beatified the deaths of
the millions who perished in the war and
the many more than millions who worse than
perished.

This sporadic prosperity of all lines of
business in Cairo continued for quite three
years after the close of the war; but this was
the settling of the muddied waters, and at
the beginning of the year 1869, it had about
all passed away and the railroad and river
business was at its ebb. Business was
largely again, as at the commencement of
the war, to be re-organized and started in
accord with the new surroundings. The
population of the town slowly decreased, and
the crush for houses, both business and
private, had changed to occasional empty
ones, and unconsciously Cairo began to get
ready for the unparalleled panic and bank-
ruptcy that was fast coming to the country —
settling day, merely, for the carnival decade;
when business men of the country cried out
for a bankrupt law, by which they could pay
their debts with an oath or two, and the
threshold of these courts presented the mar-
velous spectacle of a rush and crush of busi-
ness men to get to the ear of the court first,
that perhaps exceeded anything the world
ever saw. And an army of a million tramps
marched over all the country, devouring the
people's substance and making no more com-
pensation therefor than do the devastating
grasshoppers. Then Cairo suffered only in
common with pretty much all the country,
but she was less prepared than a few other
places, particularly her rivals that had stolen

the golden -egged goose during the war, and
therefore, instead of merely standing still
during these long, painful years, she lost
much that it took years to replace. Some of
the effects of the war may be understood
better when it is stated that M. B. Harrell
estimated, in the year 1864, that there were
12,000 people in the city. When the town
emerged from the panic, the sanguine only
claimed a population of 6,000, and it is very
doubtful if there were more than 4,000 in-
habitants, if the negro population had been
excluded from the estimate. The war found
Cairo with a population of 5,000 souls and a
solid growth, business and prospects that
could not be mistaken. The war and the
panic left her with about the same popula-
tion, and all business demoralized and pros-
trated. The fifteen years had witnessed her
gilded but unsubstantial zenith and her
dreary nadir. The descent was great, but it
was best that solid bottom should be reached,
severe as the trial was, before stopping. In
1879, after people had been long enough on
" bed rock " to fully realize the situation of
affairs, there started up, once more, a day of
prosperity for the city. Not a spasmodic
jump that makes men dizzy and sets the peo-
ple wild, but a steady, healthy growth that
is always fair and full of promise. A healthy
business set in; new enterprises were started,
and the gradual and permanent increase of
citizenship was soon inaugurated; real es-
tate, while it rose in price but little, yet it
found a market, and those generally wanting
to sell could easily find a cash customer. And
this cheerful state of affairs has continued to
this hour, and from this last and really se-
verest of Cairo's ordeals has come the fol-
lowing permanent and substantial improve-
ments :

The Elevator. — And since this real revival,
there has come to the place many marked

16i

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

and valuable improvements, among which we
may enumerate the elevator, built by the Il-
linois Central road. There is no liner struct-
ure of the kind in the country, and it will
long stand upon the bank of the river as a
conspicuous monument to Cairo's commerce.
It has a capacity of 800,000 bushels and is
so constructed that additional buildings,
doubling its present capacity ,may at any time
be added. It has every modern improve-
ment and the latest appliances for its pur
poses, and cost about $300,000. The men
who projected this magnificent structure are
in a position to know the wants of the local-
ity, and they wei'e not anticipating the prob-
abilities of years, but answering the call of
the present.

The Singer Seiving Machine Company —
Have put up extensive works and are now en-
gaged in adding still more and greater im-
provements. The purpose here is the con-
struction of cabinets for its machines. Its
extensive works at South Bend, Ind., had
become insiiffioient for its purposes, and an
agent was sent out to select a new location.
After a careful examination of numerous
points in the Southwest, Cairo was found to
possess greatly superior advantages over all
other puints. Among the advantages of the
place are:

1st. Lumber can be rafted to the door of
the factory via the Tennessee, Cumberland,
Ohio, Mississippi and Missouri Kivers and
their tributaries at a saving of about $10
per thousand feet over present cost, of
freight to South Bend.

2d. Some of the most important centers of
the Singer Company's trade, such as St.
Louis, Kansas City, New Orleans, Cincin-
nati, Pittsburgh and other points, can receive
finished work by river from Cairo. The
Elizabethport factory, which takes one-quar-
ter of the product of the South Bend works,

can be supplied by river to Pittsburgh, thence
by rail into the company's yards at Eliza-
bethport. Boston, Philadelphia and other
eastern depots can be supplied by the same
route, or by steamer via New Orleans.

3d. Eight railroads enter at Cairo diverg-
ing east, south and west, securing additional
facilities for obtaining lumber and other
supplies at low rates, besides giving the city
unusual advantages as a distributing point.
If desired, finished work can be shipped East,
all rail, at much lower rates than from South
Bend, owing to the competition in rail freights.
The immense quantit}^ of hardware and trim-
mings required by the Singer Company can
be laid down in Cairo from the east cheaper
than in South Bend. Last but not least, the
enormous quantity of cabinet work demanded
by the Em'opean trade can be shipped by
water via New Orleans, and laid down at the
company's Glasgow factory — at which all
machines for the European trade are made —
as cheap as they can now be sent from South
Bend to the American coast.

Immense tracts of hardwood timber sur-
round the city in all directions, and the Sin-
ger Company has already secured control of
the timber on a tract of eighteen square
miles, all of which can be delivered by
wagon at the works — the longest haul not
exceeding six miles.

The Singer factory have secui'ed a factory
site of twenty-four acres, including a valua-
ble river front — and is one of five corporations
owning all the river front surrounding Cairo
on both rivers — and has now one brick build-
ing 80x65, three stories, another 100x70,
another 50x48. These are to be used only
for cutting their lumber and gluing it into
form, the motive power being a double-
cylinder engine and four Babcock & Wilcox
sectional boilers of 75-horse- power each.

The cabinet works proper when completed

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

165

will consist of five buildings, each 60x500 feet
three stories high, with ample space be-
tween for protection, and connected, at each
story self-supporting ridges; all elevatoi's
and stair cases will be on the outside of the
buildings which will be divided by tire walls
every hundred feet. The motive power of
this immense bee-hive of industry will be
supplied by eight Babcock & Wilcox boilers
of 180-horse-power capacity each, and an 800-
horse-power engine. There will be twelve
dry kilns, each holding 50,000 feet of lum-
ber. Employment will be given to 1,000
hands.

Halliday House. — This surpasses a hotel
in all the meaning of that word as applied
to small cities. It is simply a magnificent
hostelry that is one of Cairo's institutions.
It is understood by those who have not vis-
ited it, that it is the old St. Charles Hotel
repaired and fixed up in regal style. It is
much more than this; it is a new hotel, elegant,
substantial, with a complement of every
modern perfection of the most elegant hotels
in even the largest cities of the country.
More massive houses have been built, and
that, perhaps, had more expensive outside
ornamentation or inside filagree work, but
none more solid and wholly comfortable than
this, and this applies as well to the intei-nal ap-
pliances and the furnishing as well as to the
main building. And we have no hesitation in
pronouncing the dining room, with its three
entire sides lit up by spacious windows for
light and ventilation, as the most complete
and cozy that we ever sat down to in a hotel.

The Halliday House stands where the St.
Charles stood, and that is about all the connec-
tion between them. The present proprietor,
Ml. Parker, whose life work and study has
been how to keep the finest hotel, spent a
long time traveling through the different
cities of the country, examining the best

hostelries and noting every valuable late im-
provement or invention in the same, and
when he had obtained all possible informa-
tion in this line the work on the Halliday
House was commenced, and each and every
improvement noted was added without regard
to labor or expense, and when all was fin-
ished, the doors were thrown open to the
public in the full conviction that he had the
completest, if not the lai'gest hotel in the
world.

A Neiv Enterprise. — Taking front rank
among the business enterprises of the city
of Cairo are the market gardening and floral
interests of Mr. G. Des Rocher. This gen-
tleman came to the vicinity of Cairo in 1872,
and on a limited scale, having no capital,
began what has since developed into a lucra-
tive and very attractive business. Two years
later, he leased forty acres of land of the
Cairo City Property Company, and^since that
date he has constantly increased his facilites
for carrying on his immense enterprise. His
first impulse was to supply the city demand
for garden vegetables, but finding that it
was insufficient to his trade, he turned his
attention to Chicago shipment, and has
shipped as much as two car loads of vege-
tables in a day. He gives employment to a
large force of hands of the laboring class
annually, distributing among this class
about $4,000 of Chicago's money, which fact
alone merits the encouragement of every
thinking mind in Caii*o.

Not only has he sought to supply the exist-
ing wants of the people, but knowing well
the science of business, has sought to create
a want, that he might supply it. The better
to accomplish this desire, he added a floral
department to his business, which, while
pi'oducing an income, goes far toward culti-
vating a taste for the beautiful in nature,
offering a resort alike to the young and old,

166

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

where the mind of the matured, laden with
business cares, or fraught with the sorrows
of life, as well as the minds of the young,
occupied with the lighter and more trivial
things, are transported from the beauties of
nature up to nature's God. He has six green-
houses, having an aggregate of 6,000 square
feet of glass surface; these houses, as well
as his extensive hot-houses, are supplied with
a complete system of cisterns and under-
groaad piping, the whole famished with
water from a drive well centrally located. A
matter in connection with his business,
worthy of the attention of the agriculturist,
is his system of converting every particle of
waste vegetable growth into a valuable fertil-
izing medium.

While his enterprise is not a railroad or a
national bank, it is one that requires a bus-
iness energy, a vast amount of actual toil,
and is an important factor in the intricate
list of Cairo's financial resources for which
we think words of commendation are due to
Mr. Des Rocher.

Cotton Oil Mill. — These extensive works
found Cairo the best point in the South or
West for the construction o : a mill for the
production of this oil, that is destined soon
to be one of the great industries of the world.
American invention has pried out the fact
that from the cotton seed — a mere waste
heretofore — can be made one of the very fin-
est oils in the world.

Ice Factory. — This splendid factory was
constructed by an incorporated company, the
leading members of which are Charles Gal-
ligher, George E. O'hara and Frank L. Gal-
igher. The cost of the construction and
fixtures was 150,000, and has a capacity of
fifty tons a day. Although just started, it
Las revolutionized the ice trade here and well
may it have done this so readily, as its work
shows for itself, as they make ice wholly

from distilled water and its superiority over
the natural production is so plain and palpa-
ble that there can be no comparison between
them.

Flouring Mills. — There are two, Galigher's
and Halliday's. Mr. Galigher's is the older
of the two, and yet it is rather a modern insti-
tution, and most extensive and perfect, with
all modern improvements. The Halliday Mill
has just been overhauled, enlarged and sup-
plied with all the latest roller processes. The
extent of this improvement may be inferred
when we state they were put in at an expense
of $40,000, and has a capacity of 600 bar-
rels a day.

Halliday^s Saw Mill is another late and
immense Cairo improvement, said by com-
petent judges to be the completest thing of
its kind in the world, and in this connection
we may mention Halliday's coal dump —
Maj. Halliday's own invention — as the most
complete and perfect thing of the kind in the
country.

Opera House. — The old Athenaeum, a frame^
has been torn away, and one of the neatest
and coziest little theaters in the country has
taken its place. It is the pride of the peo-
ple and the admiration of the actors who
have visited it.

Commission Houses. — The extensive com-
mission houses of Halliday Bros., How Bros.,
J. M. Philips & Co., Thistlewood & Co.,
and the great amount of business transacted
by each, shows that with the many other of
the old and solid pioneer commission mer-
chants here, Caii'o is becoming a very impor-
tant shipping point again.

The patent brick machine of McClure &
Coleman, together with the very large yard
of Mr. Jacob Klein, sufficiently evidences the
fact that such building material in Cairo
finds an extensive market.

No less than six fii-st-class railroads have

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

167

come to Cairo since 1878. A splendid union
depot has been constructed and here are ac-
commodated the Wabash, the SL Louis &
Cairo, the Mobile & Ohio, the Iron Mountain
and the Texas & St. Luuis. The Mobile &
Ohio Railroad has erected at the foot of
Eighth street, a local freight depot that is a
spacious and elegant building. The Alex-
ander County Bank, in its first-class bank
building, is also one of Cairo's very substan-
tial and solid institutions.

Improvements that may be considered as
now started and on their way, and that are
certain to be completed at an early day are,
among many others, the Cairo Public Li-
brary, to b« known as the Safford Memorial
Hall, the grounds of which are on Washing-
ton and Seventeenth streets. This is due, we
believe, entirely to Mrs. A. B. Safford, and
when completed will give Cairo a building
that will stand appropriately to the memory
of her husband, A. B. Safford, deceased.
The wholesale hardware houses, including
about everything made of iron, are Mr. Bross'
and Mr. Woodward's; and in drugs the house
of Barclay Bros., and that of Paul G. Schuh.
There are four wholesale dry goods houses,
the heaviest of which are Goldstein & Rosen-
water, and that of C. R. Stewai-t, the New
York store, Patier proprietor, although a very
young house in business, has already sold at
wholesale $250,000 worth of goods in a year.
The beer bottling, soda and seltzer and min-
eral trade has grown to immense proportions
here recently. Mr. A. Lohr and Henry
Brei^han each have extensive concerns, and a
wide market to supply in this and adjoining
States. Mr. John Sproat carries on the
same, and he adds to this the trade in fresh
butter, eggs and vegetables. He loads his
own cars and sends them to New Orleans,
Mobile and other Southern cities, the seal of
the car only broken when it arrives at its

final destination. No less than three planing
mills are busy preparing the lumber for the
carpenters of Cairo and the surrounding
country, to wit, that of Lancaster & Rice,
Mr. Walters and Mr. Trigg. Mr. Eichohff's
furniture factory and wholesale and retail
esablishment is an institution worthy the at-
tention of house-builders and housekeepers
far and wide.

We only claim here to give a few of the
leading recent improvements in Cairo. There
are many others, all going to show that just
now the city is at last beginning to take its
proper position as a wholesale manufactur-
ing emporium— that it has facilities for
bringing together the raw material and the
factory and the markets where the manufact-
ured goods are to be sold, that is possessed
by few places in the West. Think of it!
here are over thirty thousand miles of tribu-
tary shores upon our navigable rivers, and
already eight railroads are built, with Cairo
as the terminus of the majority of them, and
all this great railroad development is of a
very recent date. In a very short time it
must become as important a railroad point
as it has always been in point of navigable
waters. Soon it will possess the shortest
route to the Atlantic seaboard over the Ches-
apeake & Ohio Railroad, this road forming
one continuous line as soon as a small gap
is completed, and on which the work is being
pushed. In a few months, it will communi-
cate direct ^\ith the City of Me:iico over a
direct line of one continuous railroad from
Cairo to that city. A railroad from here
running a little east of north, is under con-
struction, connecting Cairo with the Toledo,
Cincinnati <fe St. Louis Narrow Guage Rail-
road, and this will give it still another di-
rect New York connection in addition to the
several now possessed.

Steamboats. — Among the many pilots who

168

HISTOKY OF CAIRO.

have stood at the wheel and guided the boat
to the Cairo " throw-out-the-gang-plank
place," was no less a character than the hu-
morist, Mark Twain. It is not certain but
that the wag f/ot his first lesson in spinning
characteristic yarns when he was a cub, list-
ening to the old pilots, while waiting in port,
spin " river yarns," some of which were of
immense size, and some again very amusing,
and when the older heads had run over their
oft-told stock stories and the " kid " was in-
duced to try his prentice hand, and failed
most funerealy, the old fellows laughed out of
sympathy and politeness, and this proved
the boy's ruin. It was a fatal encourag^e-
ment that transformed Mark from what
might have been a valuable and noble
life at the wheel, to a miserable, heartbreak-
ing, continual weeping fountain, and he
never stopped until he has just now bm--
dened the " Father of Waters " with a book
entitled " Life on the Mississippi." A re-
viewer of this book says: " He was born on
the banks of the gr^at stream. The river
shaped the course of his youth and his life
upon its bosom as pilot's apprentice and pi-
lot gave him the Hxperienee and associations
that fitted him when time and opportunity
came to step into his rightful place as a
really great and typical American humorist."
Now, from a long acquaintance with pilots,
we have no hesitation in saying that Mark
might, had he continued with them, have
eventually become not only a pilot, but a
jokist of no mean pretensions. For instance,
we remember on one occasion during the war
of being one of a party seated in a yawl on
our way to one of the new gunboats an-
chored opposite Cairo. The commander of
the gunboat and several officers were of the
party, and those who were guests had been
invited to go on board the boat, as she was
ready to go up the Ohio for a short trial run,

and was going to test a 400-pound gun that
was mounted in the turret. It was a jolly
party, all anticipating a mcst pleasant day.
But the writer noticed one man in the crowd
who was the picture of despair and sullen-
ness. His attention was arrested by the
fierceness of this man's gloomy mood. After
we had reached the vessel and an opportun-
ity presented itself, the melancholy gentle-
man was gradually approached, when at a
point no one else could hear and the ques-
tion asked: "My friend, you seem to be
much troubled ; what's the matter ? " In the
best yellow-back slang, his dark eyes flashed
and between his set teeth (not a false set) he
hissed like an escaping volcano, " Matter!
matter! Helen Blazes! I'm arrested! pressed!
as a pilot on this limpin' Lazarus of an old
gunboat, and Government will only pay
$350 a month for pilots, and I can git five
and six hundred on the boats. Isn't that mat-
ter enough ?" Now here, Mark, was a true
pilot joke, you see, with a $150 to $200 a
month moral in it. You can see for yourself
what you have missed. A half-dozen such
efforts as that and see what your fortune
now would be. Do your own figuring; say six
jokes, $200 per month each, for thirty years.
Any old Cairoite will recognize the follow-
ing in reference to raft life of the early days
on the river: "In the heyday of the steam-
boating prosperity, the river, from end to
end, was flanked with coal fleets and timber
rafts, all managed by hand and employing
hosts of rough characters. Processions of
migthy rafts — an acre or so of white, sweet-
smelling boards in each raft, a crew of two
dozen men or more, thx'ee or four wigwams
scattered about the raft' s vast level space for
storm quarters — and the rude ways and tre-
mendous talk of their big crews, the ex-
keelboatmen and their admiringly patroniz-
ing successors; for we used to swim out a

a^ (S', <^.e cci.^c^,

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

171

quarter or a third of a mile and get on these
rafts and have a ride."

By way of illustrating this keelboat talk
and manners, and that now departed and
hardly remembered raft life, the author
throws in a chapter from a book which he
" has been working on by fits and starts during
the past five or six years, and may possibly
finish in the coiu'se of five or six more." It
is a story detailing some passages in the life
of an ignorant village boy. son of the town
drunkard of the author's time out West.
The boy had run away, together with a slave,
and in floating down the river at high water
and in dead summer time on a fragment of
a raft, they got lost in the fog and passed
Cairo without knowing it. So the boy swims
out to a huge raft in the dark, hoping to
gain the information by listening to the
talk of the men. The odd, rude life of the
raftsmen, as thus witnessed by the boy, is
graphically described. After singing, drink-
ing and dancing, two of the men begin to
quarrel, and the following is a sjjecimen of
the language of one of the men in getting
ready :

" He jumped up in the air three times and
cracked his heels together every time. Ho
flung oS a buckskin coat that was all hung
with fringes, and says ' you lay thar till the
chawin'-up's done;' and flung his hat down,
which was all over ribbons and says, ' You
lay thar till his sufferin's is over.'

" Then he jumped up in the air and cracked
his heels together again and shouted out:

" ' Whoo-oop! I'm the old original iron-
jawed, brass-mounted, copper-bellied corpse -
maker from the wilds of Arkansaw! Look at
me! I'm the man they call Suddeu Death
and General Desolation ! Sired by a hurri-
cane, dam'd by an earthquake, half-brother
to the cholera, nearly related to the small-
pox on the mother's side! Look at me! I

take nineteen alligators and a bar'l of
whisky for breakfast when I'm in robust
health and a bushel of rattlesnakes and a
dead body when I'm ailing! I split the
everlasting rocks with my glance, and I
squench the thunder when I speak! Whoo-
oop ! stand back and giYe me room according
to my strength! Blood's my natural drink
and the wails of the dying is music to my
ear! Cast your eye on me, gentlemen, and
lay low and hold your breath, for I'm 'bout
to turn myself loose!'

" All the time he was getting this off he was
shaking his head and looking fierce and kind
of swelling around in a little circle, tucking
up his wristbands and now and then straight-
ening up and beating his breast with his
fist, saying: ' Look at me, gentleman! I'm
the bloodiest son of a wild cat that lives!'

" Then the man that started the row tilted
his old slouch hat down over his right eye;
then he bent forward with his back sagged
and his south end sticking out far, and his
fists a shoving out and drawing to in front
of him, and so went around in a little circle
about three times, swelling himself up and
breathing hard, and he began to shout like
this:

" ' Whoo-oop! bow your neck and spread,
for the kingdom of sorrow's a coming. Hold
me down to the earth, for I feel my powers
a- working! Whoop! I'm a child of sin, don't
let me get a start! Smoked glass here for all!
Don't attempt to look at me with the naked
eye, gentlemen. When I'm playful, I use
the meridians of longitude and the parallels
of latitude for a seine and drag the Atlantic
ocean for whales! I sci-atch my head with
the lightning and purr myself to sleep with
the thunder! When I'm cold, I bile the gulf
of Mexico aud bathe in it; when I'm hot,
I fan myself with an equinoctial storm; when
I'm thirsty, I reach up and suck a cloud dry,

173

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

like a sponge; when I range the earth, hun-
gry famine follows in my tracks! Whoo-op!
Bow your neck and spread. I put my hand
on the sun's face and make it night on the
earth; I bite a piece out of the moon and
hurry the season; I shake myself and crum-
ble the mountains! Contemplate me through
leather — donH use the naked eye! I'm the
man with a petrified heart and boiler -iron
bowels! Whoooop! Bow your neck and
spread, for the pet-child of calamity's a com-
ing.'"

The narrative goes on to show how a little
black whiskered chap cooled off their rage
and thrashed them both for a couple of
chicken-livered cowards.

That child of Sudden Death and General
Desolation was the missing "link," that
leads us by most plainly marked footsteps
up to the pilot joker, and back to his pre
historic ancestors, the Cave (of Gloom)
Dwellers. No reference here, Mark, to that
settled and incurable gloom that is noted in
the best medical works as characterizing the
wrecked lives of your readers.

But the following very happy description
of high water will be recognized by many
a Cairo "tenderfoot" as a side-splitting joke:

" The big rise brought a new world under
my vision. By the time the river was over
its banks, we had forsaken our old paths, and
were hourly climbing over banks that had
stood ten feet out of water before; we were
shaving stumpy shores, like that at the foot
of Madrid bend, which I had always seen
avoided before; we were clattering through
chutes like that of 82, where the opening at
the foot was an unbroken wall of timber,
till our nose was almost at the very spot.
Some of these chutes were utter solitudes.
The dense, untouched forest overhung both
banks of the crooked little crack, and one
could believe that human creatures had never

intruded there before. The swinging grape-
vines, the grassy nooks and vistas glimpsed
as we swept by, the flowering creepers wav-
ing their red blossoms from the tops of dead
trunks and all the spendthrift richness of
the forest foliage were wasted and thrown
away there. The chutes were lovely places to
steer in; they were deep except at the head;
the current was gentle; under the ' points,'
the water was absolutely dead, and their vis-
ible banks so bluff that where the tender wil-
low thickets projected, you could bury your
boat's broadside in them as you tore along,
and then you seemed fairly to fly."

But altogether Cairo remembers with much
pride the fact that Sam Clemens (Mark
Twain) was at one time among the number
of pilots that belonged to her trade. And
the numerous fraternity here will read his
book with great interest, as it is a story
whose incidents often occurred in the com-
pany of men still at the wheel. While no
other Cairo pilot, perhaps, has gained the
celebrity that has Mark Twain, yet there are
some who have merited a more lasting im-
mortality as great heroes — standing at the
wheel and going down bravely to death in
the sublime act of protecting and saving the
lives of those who were in their safe keeping.
The fraternity of pilots are well known to
most of the people of Cairo. They are a sin-
gular class of men, and their lives have not
been a careless holiday. But it was during
the war the lives of many of them were filled
with terrifying troubles. A couple of in-
stances will illustrate our meaning: On one
occasion, as the fleet was transporting the
troops to Fort Donelson, and^ the stage of
the water and the point in the river had been
reached by the flag -boat, where it was dan-
gerous navigation, the officers of the boat
desired to tie up for daylight, but the mili-
tary authorities demurred to this. It was

HISTOEY OF CAIKO.

173

very dark, and the boat became entangled,
and in backing and starting up she was rnn
into an overhanging tree and the chimneys
knocked down. The usual wild consterna-
tion followed, and the affrighted soldiers
imagined everything bad. But after awhile,
when they found the boat was not sunk in
the bottom of the river, they set about hunt-
ing for the cause of the disaster. In some
way, they learned the pilot lived in Louis -
ville, and this was enough, he was a rebel
and had deliberately conspired to destroy
them all by sinking the boat. In a moment
it was a mob. Now an ordinary mob is the
silliest monster that ever lived, yet a soldier
mob makes a common one appear as Solomon
and Patience enthroned on that historical
monument. The pilot saved his life by se-
creting himself. Of course, the soldiers had
no evidence against the pilot, for none ex-
isted. The truth afterward turned out to be
that he had rung the engineer to go ahead
when he made the mistake and backed.

Another incident happened in the river in
front of Cairo. The small boat, Echo, was
coming down the Ohio River laden with sol-
diers, and struck one of the iron-clad gunboats \
that split her hull and she was hopelessly
wrecked. The wreck floated a mile or so
below town and lies on the Kentucky bar yet.
No lives were lost, but the soldiers at once
jumped to the conclusion the pilot purposely
did it and they howled for his blood. In
fact, the clamor was so great that Wilson
Dunn, the pilot, was arrested and tried by a
court martial. As he was clearly innocent,
it is probable the trial saved his life. The
fact that these gunboats (turtles) had sunk a
number of boals cut no figure with the sol-
diers, and the further fact that the pilot was
an officer of the Government, as true and
loyal and patriotic as ever lived, but he did
not wear an infantry or cavalry uniform and

the idiots therefore believed he was a
traitor.

The present distinguished engineer, J. B.
Eads, was another man who made his start
in life among the Cairo river men. He lived
for some years here, and came here, we be-
lieve, some time in the forties as a member of
the firm of Eads & Nelson. Mr. Eads' his-
tory is so identified with the Mississippi
River that one cannot be given without the
other, his vast enterprises, commencing as
they did in Cairo, have so extended his name
and fame throughout the world.

In a preceding chapter, we gave an account
of the coming down the Ohio River of the
steamer New Orleans, Capt. Roosevelt —
the first boat that ever floated upon Western
waters, A few words in reference to the his-
tory of this historical boat may not be out
of place here. She was built in the Fulton
& Livingston's ship yards, Pittsburgh: ca-
pacity, one hundred tons; was furnished with
propelling wheel to the stern and two masts.
Mr. Fulton at that time believet3 that sails
would be indispensable to a steamboat. The
boat was placed in the New Orleans and
Natchez trade, and continued in this trade
for a short time, when she struck a snag near
Baton Rouge and sunk. The passage of this
first steamboat down the river, making her
landings and obtaining fuel, etc., at an aver-
age rate of three miles an hour, loft in her
wake an excitement that could not have been
exceeded had a flying angel appeared to the
people.

The second boat that ever came by the
doors of Cairo — before the doors were here —
was the Comet, Daniel D. Smith, owner, D.
French, builder. Her machinery was con-
structed on a plan invented by French, in
1809. She descended the river in 1814.
She was only a twenty-five-ton boat. She
reached New Orleans and made two voyages

174

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

to Natchez and return and was then sold and
taken to pieces and her engine and machin-
ery were put in a cotton factory.

The Vesuvius was the third boat built at
Pittsbuvgh, and came down the Ohio, and also
in the year 1814, 'under command of Capt.
Frank Ogden. After reaching New Orleans,
she started to return, July 14, and grounded
on a bar about 700 miles above New Orleans,
where she remained until December 3, when
the waters rising, she floated ofl" and re-
turned to New Orleans. During 1815-16,
this boat continued to make regular trips be-
tween New Orleans and Natchez. She was
first commanded by Capt. Clement, and he
was succeeded by Capt. John De Hart. In
the latter part of 181 6, as the boat approached
New Orleans with a valuable cargo, she took
fire and burned. The hulk was afterward
raised and refitted and ran in the New Or-
leans and Louisville trade until 1819, when
she was condemned.

The fourth boat was the Enterprise, built
at Brownsville, Penn., by D. French, and his
patent engine supplied. This was a seven-
ty-five-ton boat. She made two voyages to
Louisville in 1814, under Capt. Gregg. She
was loaded with ordnances and stores for
New Orleans, and while there, Gren. Jackson
pressed her into the Government service.
The Enterprise loaded and left New Orleans
for Louisville in May, 1815, and arrived at
Louisville safely, making the trip in twenty-
five days. This was the first trip ever made
by a steamboat from between these two
points.

The next boat in order of appearance was
the Washington, constructed by Henry M.
Shreve. The hull was built in Wheeling
and engines at Brownsville, Penn. This
was the first double " decker " ever con-
structed, the cabin being placed between the
decks, and the boilers placed on deck. This

daring innovation made the Washington look
very much as steamboats do now. Tbeu in
French's patent the engines were vibrating,
but Capt. Shreve caused the cylinder to be
placed horizontally. All engines were the
single, low-pressure engines. The great in-
vention of the cam cut- oflf was Capt. Shreve's,
and this was added to the machinery of the
Washington. When thus completed and
launched, the new steamer, not only new in
contraction but in such new and great im-
provements in her machinery, that it leaves
it a question whether Fulton or Shreve was
the greater inventor.

On the 24th of September, 1816, the
steamer Washington passed successfully
over the falls at Louisville, and made a suc-
cessful trip to New Orleans, and returned to
Louisville in November following. While
the boat was lying at the wharf in New Or-
leans, she was visited and carefully inspected
by Edward Livingstone, who was in the
West, determined to assert in the coiu'ts the
exclusive right of Fulton & Livingston to
navigate all the waters of the United States,
a right they claimed under their patents.
After Livingston had inspected the Wash-
ington, he addi'essed Capt. Shreve as follows:
" You deserve well of your country, young
man, but we [referring to Fulton & Living-
ston's monopoly of all the rivers] shall be
compelled to beat you [in the courts] if we
can."

The Washington was compelled by ice to
remain at the Falls all winter and on March
12, 1817, she commenced her second voyage
to New Orleans. On her return she made
thw trip with a full cargo to Louisville in
twenty-five days. And from this time all
historians may date the real commencement
of navigation. The wonderful feat of the
boat produced almost as much excitement as
did the battle of New Orleans. Louisville

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

175

gave a public dinner to Capt. Shreve, and in
a speech he predicted that the trip from
New Orleans to Louisville would yet be
made in ten days. People smiled with gen-
tle incredulity at this, and were willing to
forgive him that or almost anything else for
what he had done. How soon after this it
was made inside of live days Capt. Shreve
lived to see and all the world knows full well.
In 1852, the steamer Shotwell made the trip in
a little over four days. In 1869, the Natchez
and the R. E. Le^ made their celebrated
race from New Orleans to St. Louis. The
record time to Cairo was the fastest ever
made, but some stanch old river men claim
that, including stoppages, etc., the J. M.
White, built by Capt. Swan, a noted
builder of noted boats, made the best record
time ever yet marked between New Orleans
and Cairo.

The most shocking steamboat accident in
the world's history occurred in 1864, when
the steamer Sultana exploded her boilers
just above Memphis, when on her way from
some point in Arkansas to Cairo. There
were, it is estimated. 2,350 souls aboard —
nearly all soldiers — ^^and over 2,000 perished.
It was in the night, and the explosion was
the most terriffic and the wreck the most
complete ever known. The explosion was
followed by fire, which soon consumed the lit-
tle of the wi'eck remaining above water.
Capt. J. C. Swann was killed.

The steamer Majestic, Capt. J. C. Swann
and W. C. Kennett, Chief Clerk, William
Ferree, Chief Engineer, on the 25th day of
May, 1835, just as the wheel turned to round
out from the wharf, exploded her boilers.
She was on her way North, and was crowded
with deck passengers, many of whom were
Germans, and constituted some of the Ger-
mans who settled in and around Belleville,
111. The flues of the larboard boiler col-

lapsed, it is supposed, by the passengers all
passing to the shore or starboard side of the
vessel and thus careening the boat until the
boiler on the opposite side became dry. The hot
water and steam scalded about sixty of ihe deck
passengers, about forty of whom died at once
or within twenty- four hours, and were buried
at Memphis. The injm-ies and fatalities
were confined to the deck passengers, or
those who happened to be there.

Among the survivors of that shocking
catastrophe is William Lornegan, of Cairo,
a gentleman well and long known to the
people of the city. To look at Mr. Lor-
negan we would be inclined to doubt that
he was a real survivor of a steamboat ex-
plosion which occurred over forty-eight years
ago.

The circumstances were these: He
was an infant at that time, a little more than
one year old, and the father, mother and
child constitiited the family. In the wild din
and horror following the <^xplosion, Mr. Lor-
negan ran to the yawl and pulling it up,
jumped in. He then pulled the yawl up to
the deck and the mother, wrapping the baby
in a shawl, tossed it to the father, who stood
up to catch it. The motion of the craft
threw him just at the moment the baby was
started and in this critical instant the father
th ew up his feet and in this way protected
the child's fall and saved it. He then drew
up the yawl and the mother and several
others were soon safely in it. Then there
was a rush of the excited people, and they
would unquestionably have swamped the
yawl except for the forethought again of Mr.
Lornegan, who cut the rope and the craft
floated away. As there were no paddles in
it, the occupants had to trust to the current,
but the boat soon touched a sand bar on the
Tennessee side, and all were safely landed.
The steamer floated a short distance and also

17ti

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

lodged on the Tennessee side, the damaged
boiler repaired and she continued her route
to St. Loiiis.

The fine steamer, J. M. White, referred
to above, was sunk just below Cape Girar-
deau, March 28,1843.

CHAPTER IX

THE CHURCH HISTORY — ST. PATRICK'S — GERMAN LUTHERAN — PRESBYTERIAN — BAPTIST —

METHODIST AND OTHER DENOMINATIONS— THE DIFFERENT PASTORS— THEIR

FLOCKS, TEMPLES, THE CITY SCHOOLS, ETC., ETC.

"How beautiful are the feet of them that preach
the Gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good
things."

THE German Lutheran Church. — This
church was organized in the year 1866,
the Rev. J. Dunsing officiating. There were
between fifteen and twenty members. It was
named the Evangelical Lutheran Emanual
Gemeinde of Cairo. The first pastor, Dun-
sing, officiated from October, 1866, to Oc-
tober, 1869, and was succeeded by Rev.
Gustave P. Heilbig, who remained in charge
until February, 1873. Then Rev. C.
Durshner was placed in charge, and he
remained pastor until January 1, 1879.
During his administration, the congregation
concluded to build a brick addition so as to
enlarge the church facilities and provide a
suitable school room. The entire building
was enlarged and raised, and a brick base-
ment added, and a part of the addition was
fitted up for a store room, arranging the up-
per rooms for the pastor' s residence, etc. The
expense of these additions to the building
was $2,500 on the residence and business
portions of the building, and from $1,000 to
$1,500 expended on the church proper. In
1879, E. Knappe was installed as pastor of
the chvurch, and he remained in the faithful
and efficient discharge of his duties until
November, 1881. Since August, 1882, the pres-

ent able and efficient pastor, Rev. C. Sehuch-
ard has filled the position of shepherdl^to his
flock with signal ability and the great satis-
faction of his people.

The Sunday school of this church is in a
flourishing condition, numbering from sev-
enty-five to one hundred pupils in constant
attendance. The pious pastor of the church
was the Superintendent, assisted by Andrew
Lohr, until 1880, when Andrew Lohr was
elected Superintendent. Mr. Lohr remained
in this position until the present year (1883),
when he resigned, and the present pastor,
Schuchard, again assumed his old place and
continues the Superintendent and manager
of the Sunday school.

The church also has a ladies' society,
called the Freund and Jungfrauen Verein,
that was organized in the year 1871, under
the direction and control of the minister,
Heilbig. The aims and purposes of this or-
ganization are the good of the church and
its flock. It has a membership averaging
sixty good and efficient Christians.

The church grounds are two lots, and were
purchased by the members of the church in
1878, of S. Staats Taylor, agent of the
Cairo Trust Property, at the price of $100
per lot, and is situated on Thirteenth street,
between Washington avenue and Walnut
street

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

ITi

The present board of trustees consists of
H. Schultz and Andrew Lohr.

The basement or brick portion of the
church is noT\ used, the front part as a
school room, and the rear as a parsonage for
the minister, and the entire upper or frame
part of the building is dedicated to church
purposes. There is a fine pipe organ in the
main room, and from the main building as-
cends the cupola, where hangs the church
bell, that in deep, musical tones upon the
holy Sabbath calls the people to " come to
the house of God and worship. "

The Christian Church was organized in
Cairo in May, 1865, the original members
consisting of IVIr. and Mrs. A. B. Fenton, Mr.
and Mrs. S. R. Hay, J. C. Talbott, Mrs.
Gilkey and daughter, Mrs. Sarah Clark, Mr.
R. J. Cundiff, and others whose names can-
not now be ascertained. In the organization,
there were about twenty members. A little
earnest band of devout Christians, planting
the cross of their Master in His vineyard and
consecrating a spot where they could gather
in response to the "come let us worship."
Of all those who constituted that little band
who first assembled together here, but two
are left namely, Mr. J. C. Talbott and Mrs.
Sarah Clark. In 1866, the Cairo City Prop-
erty Company donated the church four lots
on Eighteenth street, between Washington
and Walnut streets, and during the same
year the church building now occupied was
erected. It is a frame, 36x55, and cost
$4,500. The pastors, in the order named,
have" occupied the pulpit: Rev. L. Brown,
of Ohio; John Friend, of Pennsylvania; R.
B. Tremble, of Kentucky. For some years
they have had no regular preaching and no
Sunday school. There are meetings, how-
ever, every Sunday of a social and spiritual
character. The oflficers of the church are:
Trustees, S. R. Hay, G. M. Alden, Charles

Armstrong, J. C. Talbott, Mr. Saul; Elders,
J. R. Hay, William McClosky; Deacons, A.
B. Fenton and J. C. Talbott.

St. Patrick''s — Catholic — is situated on
the corner of Ninth street and Washington
avenue; was built in 1855 by Rev. Father
McCabe, who was its first pastor. The build-
ing is a substantial frame on a rock base-
ment, and cost $3,600, most of which was
collected from the hands employed in the
construction of the Central Railroad during
the years 1853 and 185-4. The basement,
up to 1882, was used as a parochial school.
The lots upon which the building stands
were donated by Col. S. S. Taylor. In the
latter part of 1857, Rev. Father McCabe was
succeeded in the pastorate by Rev. Thomas
Walsh, who, on Sunday, the 15th day of
March, 1861, and while addressing his con-
gregation on the heinousness of the sin of
blasphemy, was suddenly attacked with par-
alysis of the heart, and which in a few
hours terminated in death. His remains
lie buried beneath the altar from which he
loved so well to offer up the holy sacrifice.
May he rest in peace. At this time, Rev. L.
A. Lambert was appointed to fill the vacancy
occasioned by the demise of Father Walsh,
and continued to serve the congregation un-
til October, 1867, at which time, his health
becoming impaired, he received permission
to go to New York. He ia at present in
charge of a parish in Waterloo, in that State.
The bishop at once supplied the spiritual
wants of his people by the appointment of
Rev. P. Brady, who faithfully attended to
the wants of his flock until the latter part of
1869, when he was appointed to another
parish. He is now pastor in the city of
Springfield, 111. Father Brady was imme-
diately succeeded by Rev. P. J. O'Hallo-
ran, who continued in charge until Novem-
ber, 1873, when he was sent to East St.

ITS

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

Louis to take the place of Rev. Francis Za-
bel, who was assigned to the Cairo pastorate.
His parishioners and the citizens of Cairo
generally will bear cheerful testimony to
his worth as a Christian minister, in remain-
ing at this post of duty night and day during
the terrible yellow-fever epidemic of 1878.
At his own request he was, in 1 879, trans -
f erred to a parish at Bunker Hillj this State,
where he now resides.

To supply the place made vacant by
Father Zabel's departure, Rev. Thomas Mas-
terson was sent from Mound City, but the
malarial atmosphere'of Egypt soon made sad
work with a physically delicate constitution.
He left his flock for a more healthful location
in the town of Paris, HI., his present address.
In the latter part of 1882, Rev. J. Murphy
assumed charge and is the present incumbent.
St. JosejMs Catholic Church. — In the year
1870, the Catholic congregation having
wholly outgrown the capacities of St. Pat-
rick's Chui'ch, a few of the leading members
determined to build a new one. This move-
ment was finally made by the Germans for
two reasons: 1st. St. Patrick's Church was
too small for the congregation, and second,
the Germans desired to have a church of
their own, in which they hoped to have serv-
ices in their native language. The princi-
pal movers in this, and those who made the
principal donations for the new church were
Peter Saup, William Kluge, Hemy Lattner,
Valentine Riser, Jacob Klein, George Latt-
ner, Jacob Lattner, Nicholas Veithe, L.
Saunders, William Weber, Joseph Bross,
Joseph Bruikle and William Brendle.

The organization was effected in 1870, and
the church commenced and the building com-
pleted in 1871, being an elegant brick build-
ing, 65x100 feet, and cost $23,000, and is by
far the finest church in the city, and has an
elegant organ.

Father ^Hoffman was the first pastor, and
soon grew in the love and confidence of his
people, until he became a great favorite.
The present pastor is the Rev. Father
O'Hara.

Presbyterian Church. — This church build-
ing was erected in January, 1856. The
Rev. Robert Stewart, through whose efforts
the building had been erected, preached the
dedication sermon. It cost about $2,796.
The three lots upon which it stands were do-
nated by the trustees of the Cairo City Prop-
erty. The funds for building the church were
raised mostly abroad, through the efforts of
Rev. Robert Stewart, who was building agent
of the Alton Presbytery. It was turned over
to the trustees of the first Presbyterian so-
ciety of Cairo, free from debt. The ladies of
the Alton Presbyterian Church donated the
carpet for the aisles, a Bible for the pulpi t
and the chandelier and lamps

This was the first Protestant church
erected in Cairo. A Presbyterian society
was formed on the 9th of January, 1856.
The constitution was signed by the following
members: C. D. Finch, Marion Hall, R. H.
Cunningham, William T. Finch, J. D. Mc-
Coughtry, John C. White, D. Hui'd, Edward
Willett, Frank Shipman, S. Staats Taylor,
H. H. Candee, E. Norton, C. A. Bullock, B.
S. Harrell, Julia A. Harrell and Maria A.
White.

The first board of trustees consisted of
Dr. Coffee, M. Hall, C. D. Finch, Edward
Willett and William T. Finch. The latter
was elected chairman and Edward Willett
Secretary. The church building and prop-
erty and society were fully equipped now,
but there was still no church proper and no
pastor. Steps were taken by the society to
remedy this defect, and Mr, Kenware was
called to act as the first pastor. Mr. Kenware
stayed only eight months, when becoming

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

179

afflicted with a bronchial afiection, he ten-
dered his resignation, Avhich was accepted.

The Rev. A. L. Payson was then called at
a salaiy of $1,000 a year, and accepted. Yet
there was one act necessary to make a com-
plete church, and that was the signing of
the articles of faith and covenant. This
was done, and thus a complete organization
effected, ten persons signing, to wit: Will-
iam T. Finch, Mrs. Rosanna White, Mrs.
Catharine Stewart, Mrs. Maiy Jane Stewart,
Mrs. S. L. Bowers, Miss Harriet A. Paine,
James Degear, Mrs. Sarah Ann Belle w, Mrs.
Lucy A. Leftcowitcb and Mrs. A. P. Ryan.

The Rev. Payson seems, by the church re-
cords, to cut no other figure than being called
and accepting. Possibly he was washed out
in the June flood of that year, and this is
suggested by a resolution of November, 1858,
passed as a feeler, to confer with Rev. A. G.
Martin and ascertain if he would accept a
call at $500 a year. At all events Mr. Mar-
tin accepted the $500 proposition and came
on, and for two years labored faithfully with
his flock. He organized a Sunday school,
which is said to be the first ever organized
in Cairo, but the truth is there was a school
of the kind here in 1848. The first Sunday
of the Presbyterian school there were only
fifteen pupils pi-esent, but since that time it
has grown to more than 300.

Under the ministrations of Mr. Martin,
eleven members were added to the church —
ten of these by letters. This minister re-
signed in January, 1861. The church was
without a pastor until June, 1862. The
war was here, and men's thougths seemed to
run in other channels. But the Central
Railroad had arranged to pass preachers free
to Cairo to hold services, and many came
from a distance and services were tolerably
regular.

An incident in the life of this church, as

well as in the life of Commodore Foote, is
well worth relating: After the capture of
Fort Henry, Commodore Foote returned to
Cairo to cai'e for his wounded and to get ready
for the Fort Donelson fight, and as he sjient
Sunday in the city, as was his wont, he went
to his loved chruch — the Presbyterian — of
which he was a zealous member. On this
particular Sunday the congregation assem-
bled, but the minister who was expected
failed to come. After waiting awhile, the
audience began to grow impatient. At this
juncture the Commodore arose and walked
deliberately to the pulpit, and, making some
remark as to the duty of letting one's light
shine, there, in the full trappings of his uni-
form of war, conducted the services in regu-
lar order. He read his text and addressed
the congregation in a most earnest manner,
and closed the exercises with a fervent and
touching prayer. He died in 1863, as
faithful a soldier of Jesus Christ as he was
of his country. This remarkable incident is
well remembered by many citizens of Cairo
who were present in church on that Sunday
in February.

In June, 1862, Rev. Robert Stewart was
called to attend the spiritual wants of the
congregation, and for two years filled the
place to the great satisfaction of his flock.
Mr, Stewart preached his farewell sermon
November 6, 1864. It was during his pas-
torate that the frame portion of the parson-
age was erected, and he secured this money,
as he had for the church, mostly from
abroad.

January 1, 1865, Rev. H. P. Roberts be-
came the pastor of the church. He had re-
ceived a collegiate education, and when the
war came he went into the army as a Lieu-
tenant; was wounded severely. He served
as pastor for the years 1865-66. He received
a salary of $1,500 per annum, and ceased hi

180

HISTORY OF CAIEO.

connection with the church as its minister in
the early part of 1867.

Rev. Charles H. Foote succeeded him, and
he continued in the position until 1871.

The brick parsonage was erected in 1867,
at a cost of $2,363.70, and in 1868 a line
organ was purchased.

Rev. H. B. Thayer took charge as pastor
in January, 1872, and remained until March,
1875, and he was succeeded by the present
pastor, the Rev. B. Y. George, who has al-
ready been with this chiirch more than seven
years. None of his predecessors gained a
stronger hold upon the affection of his peo-
ple.

In the autumn of 1878, Cairo was visited
by that terrible scourge, the yellow fever.
There were a few cases in August — all fatal.
A number of cases in September, nearly all
fatal, and still more in October, about one-
half of them fatal; several cases in Novem-
ber, but most of them mild. In all there
were about 100 cases in Cairo and about one-
half proved fatal.

In September, INIr. George was in Colum-
bia, Mo., with his family, taking his annual
vacation. When the news reached him that
the disease had broken out again and in a
virulent form in Cairo, and that the town
was in a panic and hundreds fleeing to places
of safety, and that all prudent people who
could get away from the town were doing so,
we say, upon learning this dreadful state of
affairs, he left his family in Missouri and
came here, and remained during the epi-
demic, visiting sick, comforting the dying
and burying the dead.

The whole number of persons connected
with the church during the twenty-five years
of its existence is 372. Mrs. Rosanna White
is the only one out of the original ten mem-
bers that is now living in Cairo.

[We desire to return our thanks to Mr.

George Fisher, from whose extensive history
of the Presbyterian Church we gather the
above data. — Ed.].

Episcopal Church. — There were members
of this church in Cairo from the time or be-
fore the founding of the city. But like the
general Protestant people, the number was
not enough to organize a church body for a
long time, and the history of the Presbyterian
Church shows that these select few would
identify themselves often with some other
church and assist them in the holy work,
awaiting the arrival of enough of their own
to form their separate organization. In this
way the curious fact is several times illus-
trated in the Presbyterian Church that there
would be a reduction in their number in the
face of an increase in the population.

Diiring the early forties, when there were
only four or five families in the place who
were communicants in the Episcopal Church,
occasional services were conducted in a little
chapel in one of the Holbrook houses, by the
Rev. J. p. T. Ingraham, now of St. Louis.
Mr. Ingraham was a resident of Cairo as
early as 1840. Daring all his time here,
there were not members enough to officer a
society even, much less a church, and it was
only at rare intervals that the few people of
that chui'ch met. After the calamity of
1841, the number was so reduced that it was
only when some of their friends would join
them in attendance that they could get
enough together to have even the simplest
chui'ch services. There was a slow increase
up to 1850, when several families came and
once more the early settlers began to look
forward to the day when they would have a
prosperous church here. During these times,
the Rev. Mr. Clark often conducted the
church services.

In the year 1857, a movement was made,
for the members to separate themselves from

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

ISl

the other churches, and by combining to-
gether they hoped to form the nucleus around
which a church would soon grow. And in
the early part of 1858, grounds were secured
and steps taken to erect a church building.
The place selected was the lot on which now
stands the elegant office of the Cairo Trust
Property. A large lot of material was de-
livered upon the ground, such as brick,
stone, lime and other material, when the
flood of June, 1858, came and left such de-
struction in its wake that for the nonce the
project was abandoned.

During the war, Chaplain S. McMasters
who was stationed here, frequently held
services for the congregation in the Presby-
terian Church building, and the congregation
constantly grew and strengthened. Novem-
ber 3, 1852, there was a preliminary meet-
ing held at the office of Col. S. S. Taylor,
and there were present at this meeting Rev.
I. P. La Baugh, S. S. Taylor, Walter Falls,
Capt. McAllister, Charles Thrupp, J. C.
White, H. H. Candee, John Rosenberg, W.
H. Morris, L. Jorgensen, J. B. Humphrey
and others. Rev. La Baugh was made
chairman, and J. B. Humphreys Secretary.
Vestrymen were elected as follows: S. S.
Taylor, Senior Warden; H. H. Candee, Junior
Warden; and J. B. Humphreys, Charles
Thrupp, Capt. Pennock, Col. A. E. "Watson,
AV. H. Mon-is, A. B. Saflford, J. C. White,
R. M. Jennings and Walter Falls, Vestryme n

The second attempt, and a successful one,
too, to build a church was commenced in
1861, the building now occupied on Four-
teenth street, between Washington avenue
and Walnut street. This building cost about
$7,000, and is the most elegantly finished
inside and furnished of any church in the
city. They have an organ costing $2,000.

November 5, 1862, Rev. I. P. La Baugh
was called to the pastorate and accepted, and

for more than two years he continued in
that position, winning the good will and love
of his entire people in an eminent degree.
His successor was Rev. Thomas Lyle, who
was installed as pastor in charge in January,
1864.

In 1863, J. C. White was Senior AVarden,
and H. H. Candee, Junior Warden, and the
Vestrymen were A. B. Safford, J. Q. Har-
man, J. B. Humphreys, W. P. Halliday, A.
M. Pennock, S. B. Halliday, S. Staats Tay-
lor, A. E. WatsoD, W. H. Morris and A. H.
Irvin.

April 25, 3864, there was a re -organization
of the parish, and on November 24 of that
year, the church was completed and conse-
crated by Bishop Whitehouse. And the Ves-
trymen were: Senior Warden, J. C. White;
Junior Warden, H. H. Candee; and A. E.
Watson, A. J. Irvin, J. B. Humphreys. A.
B. Safiford, S. B. Halliday, W. P. Halliday,
H. Lifferts and L. Jorgensen.

Rev. Lyle was succeeded in 1867 by W. W.
Rafter, who, for a little more than one year,
discharged the high functions of his office
with eminent ability and piety.

In 1868, Rev. James W. Cole was called,
and he also remained about one year.

Rev. Edward (loan was his successor. His
pastorate, for three years, the time he was
with his church here, was marked by good
works and a building-up of God's temple.
His administration was eminently satisfac-
tory to the congregation, and the love and
prayers of his flock followed him when he
retired in 1872,

Rev. Charles A. Gilbert was his successor ,
and for five years he labored for God's king-
dom and glory 'among the good people of
Cairo. He was an unselfish, pious and holy
man, and his stay here will long be remem-
bered by his people.

In April, 1877, Rev. M. R. St. J. Dillon

182

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

Lee was called, and at once entered upon his
sacred mission among his people. But in
the midst of his good work he sickened and
died, May 30, 1879.

Rev. D. A. Bonnar accepted the position
of pastor, and was installed in the early part
of the year 1879, where he remained a dili-
gent, faithful and able minister to his flock
until January, 1881, when he resigned.

He was immediately succeeded by Rev. F.
P. Davenport, the present incumbent, and
it is the hope of all that he may be long
spared to his people and the church he loves
so well, and his works are already doing so
much for the cause of morality and religion.

The present officers of the church are: H.
H. Candee, Senior Warden; W. B. Gilbert,
Junior Warden; and M. F. Gilbert, D. J.
Baker, E. L. Manager, Frank L. Galigher,
John H. Janes and Charles Pink, Vestiymen.

A Sunday school was established in 1863,
and H. H. Candee was made Superintendent,
a position that he has held continuously wver
since and still holds, of itself a sufficient
testimony that he is the right man in the
right place. Among the earliest of the Sunday
school teachers were W. H. Morris, Mrs. W.
R. Smith, Miss Josie Taylor (Halliday), Miss
Remington and Mrs. Elizabeth White. From
the first to the present day, the school has
been one of the flourishing and successful
ones of the city. Among its first youthful
scholars are now found some of its most val-
ued teachers, and others have here imbibed
in their young lives their first and deepest
lessons in the simple and sublime story of
the God- Man, and have gone out in the
world bearing testimony to the faith that
■was in them.

The Methodist Church. — Through the kind-
ness and labors of Rev. J. A. ScaiTitt, pres-
ent pastor, we were enabled to gather the
following notes of the coming and building

up of the church in this city. There were
Methodists here as citizens as soon almost as
there was anybody else. In the earliest set-
tlement of the town, when three or four fam-
ilies constituted all there were in the place,
Rev. T. C. Lopas and H. C. Blackwell would
occasionally visit the town and held regular
services and preach to the little flock, liter-
ally in the name of where " two or three are
gathered together." Then Ephraham Joy,
the Presiding Elder, made two visits here, and
on a recent occasion on writing to Rev. Mr.
Scarritt, he gives some of his long- time- ago
impressions of Cairo, and some account of
the early efforts of the church people. He
says in substance: The Cairo Mission was
traveled by Henry C. Blackwell, the circuit
embracing Alexander County. Then Rev.
Lopas was sent to take his place. There
were only six or eight families or members
of the church at this time in the place, and
these were mostly of the transient population.
The first quarterly meeting was appointed
for Cairo, January 1 and 2, 1853, but Brother
Lopas left there about a week before this
and attended a quarterly meeting of the
Thebes Mission, about fourteen miles south
of Jonesboro. As soon as possible, I sup-
plied Cairo with Rev. J. S. Armstrong, who
remained about three months, and then it
was left out for awhile. Efforts were made
to have Rev. Lopas visit it from his Thebes
Mission, but failed. The scheme was then
adopted to have the minister from the ad-
joining work — Thebes or Pulaski or Caledo-
nia — visit Cairo, but these efforts were like,
the Elder says, trying to sit down on two
chairs and slipping between them. The
place was left deserted by the church for
two years. The Elder in the meantime vis-
ited Cairo twice, in April and in August.
He traveled down the country in his buggy.
The appearance of the place on his first

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

183

visit he graphically describes. He says he
carefully counted everything — houses and
boats — in which human beings were livinor.
His recollections are the boats and houses
about equaled each other, and there were but
few of either, and some of the houses
were the merest shanties — the boats mostly
small craft tied to the shore, some in the
water and some on dry land — some lying,
just as the water left them, and others had,
after a fashion, been propped up and were
stranding tolerably level. He again says:
Bishop Ames presided over our conference
in 1852, and visited us at the conference at
Mount Carmel. He told me that he passed
Cairo on his way, and remarked, " I wonder
what we sent a man there for." The Mis-
sion Committee at their next conference gave
it as their opinion that one quarterly install-
ment uf appropriation (for Cairo) should be
refunded, and the Elder says: "I covered it
into the treasury, although I felt that I
much needed it." The two visits referred
to above by the Elder were made during his
first year. He again, in the fourth year of
his office, visited it twice. He says that this
time he came by the I'ailroad. During
that year it was connected with the Pulaski
Mission for quarterly meeting purposes, and
Pulaski embraced what had been Thebes and
Caledonia Circuits. That year. Rev, Hughey
spent most of the year traveling and solic-
iting funds to erect a church in Cairo. He
succeeded well in procuring funds, but could
do but little in building up the congregation.
Elder Joy had secured two lots for the
chui'ch building, and these afterward were
exchanged for those now occupied by the
church by Rev. Hughey. The Elder again
says: " I preached in Cairo dui'ing my visit
in August, 1853. I do not i-emember where
the preaching was — perhaps in some room in
a hotel. In April, 1855, I was there and

preached. The meeting was held in a school-
house, back in the woods. I think this
building has since been used as the African
Methodist Episcopal Church. I think dur-
ing the summer of 1855, O. Kellogg, then in
ttie Jonesboro work, visited the place one or
more 'times, and I corresponded with Bishop
Ames, proposing to connect it with Jones-
boro. I thought the arrangement doubtful,
as a circuit lay between. Bishop Ames con-
sented to the work, but it was not effected."
When the good old Elder comes to the effort
to recall the early Methodist families, he
quaintly says: " I cannot call up any of the
names of the first members. There was the
wife of a hotel keeper — a Pole or Spaniard
or some kind of a foi'eigner — with an unpro-
nounceable name. [This must have been
old Rattlemueller. — Ed.] They called him
for convenience, Martin. [This was where
Mark Twain got his idea when in Eui-ope of
calling each one of his guides Furgeson. —
En.] The two or three families in Cairo
were anxious for regular preaching and I as
anxious to supply them. * * * On one
of my visits, I stopped on a boat (hotel).
The landlord was not a Methodist, but very
clever to us. He told me of one G. who had
been a Baptist, a Methodist and a Presbyte-
rian, and who at one time proposed to be a
preacher. He boarded a long time at this
hotel, and the last the landlord saw of him,
he was wending his way up the levee, carrying
his bundle and said he was hunting a cheaper
hotel. The jolly landlord laughed when he
said he did not know where he could find
such, as he never paid him a cent."

In a letter from Rev. R. H. Manier, we
are permitted to extract the following his-
orical facts: "I was stationed in Cairo in
1856. Brother G. \V. Hughey was my pred-
ecessor. When I took charge, the church
was inclosed and the roof on. The trustees

184

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

were in debt, and the workmen wanting
money. I spent the iirst Sabbath after con-
ference in Cairo, and on Monday following
struck out to raise money. From that time
until the church was finished I was on the
wing. It required $1,200 to pay what was
due and finish the church, I had succeeded
in raising about $800, when the church was
completed and left only S400 in debt, which
we hoped to raise on the day of dedication,
which was early in February, but postponed
on account of small-pox breaking out in a
boarding house on a corner opposite the
church, until the latter part of March. Dr.
Akers preached the dedication sermon — I
cannot recall the text. * * * AVe had
bad luck on the day of dedication. When
Dr. A.kers had only fairly commenced his
sermon, a strong March wind started dowD
the flue, and the coal smoke poured out in
the room and drove the people out, most of
whom went home, and the Doctor finished his
discourse to empty benches. The collection
was an utter failure. I started out again
and did not return until I had the money to
pay off the debt. * * * The member-
ship when I went there consisted, as I now
remember, of S. S. Brooks and family, W.
P. Trunnion and wife, Miss Emma Robert-
son, Sister Martin, Dr. J. G. D. Pettijohn,
Sister Finch and James Degear. "

The pastors in charge and in the order of
their ministering to the congregation in Cairo
were as follows: First regular pastor, G. W.
Hughey, October 1, 1855; R. H. Manier,
1856; J. A. Scan-itt, 1857; Carlyle Babbitt,
1858; G. \V. Jenks, 1859; L. Hawkins, 1860;
J. W. Lowe, 1861; (one year unknown); G.
W. Hughey, 1863, and re- appointed; H.
Sears, 1865; A. M. Brybon, 1866; John
VanCleve, 1867; C. Lothrop, 1868; F. M.
Van Trees, 1869-70; F. L. Thompson, 1871
-72; J. L. Waller, 1874^75; J. D. Gilham,

1876; A. P. Morrison, 1877; W. F. Whit-
taker, 1878-79 and 1880; J. A. Scarritt,
1882, and is the present incumbent.

]VIr. Scarritt is a native of Madison County,
111., boi-n Juno 23, 1827. His parents, Na-
than and Letty (Aulds) Scarritt, both of New
England, came to Illinois in 1820, and re-
sided in Madison County. There were ten
children in the family, Mr. J. A. being the
tenth child. He entered the ministry in
1851, and since that time has belonged to the
conference he joined. He married Harriet
Meldrum; the issue of this marriage was
three children, only one now living — Mrs.
George Parsons, of Cairo.

The Baptisi Church was organized October
26, 1880. Though this church has not yet
completed the third year of its existence, the
causes that led to and are connected with its
institution date back several years. Thei'e
being no records that are accessible, we can-
not speak particvilarly of the work previous
to March, 1877. At the time named above,
the remnant of Baptists in the city was re-
enforced by a few others who came to make
this their home, and after a number of con-
sultations to devise ways and means for the
establishment of some organization that
would be the means, of disseminating Baptist
principles, it was finally determined that a
Sunday school be organized as a nucleus
or rallying point fi'om which to direct other
efforts when the time should be ripe for them.
February 10, 1878. the first session of the
Sunday school was held. Twenty persons
were present — including all ages. Mr.
George W. Strode was elected Superintendent,
which office he has filled to the satisfaction of
the school since that time. Mrs. Joseph W.
Stewart (since deceased) was chosen Sec-
retary and Treasurer. Mr. and Mrs. George
W. Strode, Mr. C. B. S. Pennebaker.
Mr. James W. Stewart, Mrs. O. N. Brain-

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

185

ard and Miss A. Rogers were appointed
teachers. Papers, necessary Sabbath school
helps, and an organ were speedily pro-
cured, and the growth of the school,
though slow at first, was steady and con-
stant, both in numbers and interest; dur-
ing its second year, it received an important
accession to its working force in the persons
of Mrs. and Miss W. C. Augur, of Hartford,
Conn., whose active labors are still enlisted
in the interest of the church and school.
While the Sunday school prospered, hav-
ing reached during its third year an atten-
dance of seventy- five to one hundred, the
question of organizing a Baptist Church was
often and anxiously considered, and October
26, 1880, this long desired object was accom-
plished. After a sermon by Rev. W. F.
Kone, pastor at the First Baptist Church at
Huntsville, Ala., a council consisting of Revs.
W. F. Kone, of Huntsville, Ala., G. L. Tal-
bert and A. J. Hess, of Columbus, Ky., was
convened, and the church duly recognized
according to the custom in such cases. The
charter members comprised the following
persons: George W. Strode and wife, Mrs.
Marj' P. Strode, C. B. S. Pennebaker, Isaac
N. Smith and wife, IVIi-s. Louisa E. Smith,
A. J. Alden and wife, Mrs. B. E. Alden, H.
Leighton, Mrs. Sarah E. Parks, Mrs. M. J.
Dewey, Mrs. Whittaker, Mrs. William Mor-
ton, W. C. Augur and wife, Mrs. Julia C.
Augur, Mrs. N. E. Coster and Mrs. Sarah
S. Stickney — sixteen in all. The new or-
ganization assumed the name, Cairo Baptist
Church. George W. Strode, who had been or-
dained Deacon of the Columbus, Ky., church,
was recognized to the same office in the new
chiu'ch. C. B. S. Pennebaker was chosen
Clerk, which office he still holds. A call was
extended to Rev. A. J. Hess, which he ac-
cepted, generously proposing to visit Cairo
once each month and minister to the chui-ch

without definite promise of compensation un-
til ai-rangements cuuld be made to secure
that object. The upper room of " Temper-
ance Hall " was rented as the regular place
of meeting for the church and Sunday school.

In November following the organization,
Rev. W. F. Kone, who had been granted
leave of absence by his church for that pur-
pose, returned to Cairo and with the assist-
ance of Revs. A. J. Hess, pastor, and G. L.
Talbert, of Columbus. Ky., held a series of
meetings with the church, which resulted in
eight additions by letter and fourteen by
baptism, a success that gave the new church
a very encouraging start on its mission.
About this time, the Baptist General Asso-
ciation of the State came to the assistance of
the church to the extent of secui'ing the serv-
ices of its pastor for one Sabbath each
month, and a few months later the " Clear
Creek Association " of Southern Illinois
promised additional aid, which enabled the
church to obtain the services of Rev. Mr.
Hess for two Sabbaths each month, an ar-
rangement which continued until January,
1883.

The greatest need was a house, and many
plans were conceived and discussed, Jooking^
to the accomplishment of that object. Pend-
ing these discussions, the chiu'ch was visited
by Rev. 1. N. Hobart, Superintendent of
Missions for the Baptist General Association
of Illinois, whose kindly interest was then,,
and has since been, successfully exerted* in
behalf of the work in Cairo. Through his
recommendation, the church was afterward
enabled to secure financial assistance, in the
way of a loan — referred to in another part
of this sketch — which aided it to place its
property in very secure shape. Dr. Hobart's
successor. Rev. E. S. Graham, present Sup-
erintendent of Missions, has also manifested
much interest in the Cairo work, and has.

186

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

done much to enlist the sympathy and assist-
ance of the local and general associations in
its favor.

Failing to secure desirable lots on which
to erect a building, the church, through its
Trustees, George ^\. Strode, Isaac N. Smith
and C. B. S. Pennebaker, accepted the propo-
sition of the Turner Society to sell their
property, three lots, and a neat, well-built
hall, comparatively new, 30x65 feet, with
audience room 30x50 feet, and smaller rooms
at end facing Poplar street. The price
agreed upon was $2, 500. At the time of the
purchase, the church had less than $100 in
its treasury, but with the contributions of its
members, and the generous assistance of
freinds, in the city and abroad, about $1,700
was raised, which, with a loan from " The
American Baptist Home Mission Society,"
enabled the Trustees to pay for the property
before the expiration of the thirty days al-
lowed them by the Tm-ners. During the first
year, including the purchase of property and
necessary changes and ' repairs, more than
$3,000 were expended, leaving an indebted-
ness of $1,300, about $300 of which has
since been paid off, so that the present in-
debtedness is about $1,000.

The church was re -painted, outside and
inside, new pews, pulpit, baptistry, di-essing-
rooms, etc., provided, and other improvements
and furniture added, until their church
home, though still wanting in some respects,
is one of which the members feel justly
proud, when they remember that so recently
they were homeless. In September, 1881,
Rev. W. F. Kone again visited Cairo, and
assisted Rev. A. J. Hess, pastor, in a series of
meetings, resulting in four additions by
letter, and seventeen by baptism — thus in-
creasing the membership to sixty-seven,
a gain of forty-one during the year. In the
following spring, the anxiety and apprehen-

sion on account of the threatened overflow of
the city, and the annoyance from the unusual
accumulation of "sipe" water, had a depress-
ing effect on the chvirch and Sabbath school
work, as well as of the material interests of
many of those interested in it, several of
whom removed from the city, so that until
recently the membership of the church had
not increased in the aggregate, the acces-
sions and losses being about equal. At the
close of the second year, tbe church invited
Rev. A. J. Hess, who had faithfully preached
for it twice each month since the organiza-
tion, to become its pastor for the whole of
his time, but as the aid promised by the as-
sociation was not sufficient to assui'e an
adequate salary from the church, while the
church at Charleston, Mo., the home of Mr.
Hess, was prepared to offer him full support,
he was compelled to decline the jnvitation
from Cairo. This left the Cairo chm-ch
without a pastor from January to May, 1883,
during which time it suffered the usual de-
cline in interest under such circumstances,
though all its social and business meetings
and the Sunday school were promptly at-
tended to by the members. During April,
1883, Rev. A. W. McGaha, of the " Southern
Baptist Theological Seminary," Louisville,
Ky. , was invited to take charge of the church
as pastor, and accepted with the understand-
ing that his labors should terminate with
the commencement of the next session of the
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, in
the event that he should decide to return to
that institution. Mr. McGaha commenced
his labors with the church here the tii'st Sab-
bath in May, and in the short time that he
has been in Caii'o bas exhibited a degree of
earnestness and zeal that has gained the con-
fidence and esteem of all with whom he comes
in contact. Since the 16th of May, he has
been engaged in a series of meetings with

M^'

lyry

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

189

the church, in which he has had the assist-
ance of the Pui'ser brothers, Rev. D. J. and
John F., evangelists, of Mississippi, the
success of whose labors in many other cities
gave promise of a good work in Cairo, which
has been realized. The meetings were held
at the church every afternoon and evening,
from the above date until Sunday evening,
June 9, 1883 — nearly four weeks — resulting
in thirty-six additions to the church; live by
letter, twenty-seven by baptism, three under
watch -care and one awaiting baptism, mak-
ing the total membership at this time ninety-
nine, and three under watch-care. The Sun-
day school has a present average attendance
of about one hiindred and twenty, under the
following officers and teachers:

George W. Strode, Superintendent; C. B.
S. Pennebaker, Assistant Superintendent;
Arthur Lemen, Secretary; AY. C. Augur,
Treasvu-er.

Teachers — George A^^ Strode, Mrs. Mary
P. Strode, Mrs. W. C. Augui-, C. B. S. Pen-
nebaker, Mrs. Carrie S. Hudson (infant
class), Mrs. M. A. Walker, Mrs. Robert
Baird, Mrs. Thomas Wilson, and the pastor's
Glass for study of characters in the Old
Testament, just organized.

All the expenses of the church, including
pastor's salary, are paid from a common fund,
raised by subscription and voluntary con-
tributions of the members.

Though the membership of the church is,
perhaps, weaker, financially, than any of the
other leading societies in the city, the special
efforts it has put forth to build up and per-
manently establish and secure the cause of
the denomination in Cairo, have brought it
prominently before the public, and done
much to acquaint the people with Baptist
faith and practices.

Considering its growth in the past few
years, its present condition and future pros-

pects, it would seem that the Baptists have
at last succeeded in establishing their cause
in Cairo, with a reasonable assurance of per-
manence and prosperity.

The Schools. — In a preceding chapter, we
have told of the incipient efforts in Cairo,
commencing with Glass' first pay-school,
and briefly traced them along in their suc-
cession to the time that the State had pro-
vided for free public schools, which auspi-
cious event occurred in Cairo in the year
1854.

The throwing open the schoolroom doors,
free to all the world of school age, should
mark an era and prove an auspicious hour for
mankind. The admonition, " put money in
thy purse," has out-traveled the electricity,
and long enough been the controlling, cen-
tral idea of all races of men; and the public
free school was the idea, at least, of that on-
ward step to put knowledge in the head.
The world's gains in wealth, and comforts,
and leisure, are necessary first steps to real
education, because this alone is that wonder-
ful law or force that separates the toiler from
the thinker, a line of distinction among most
men not pleasant to contemplate, yet it is
one of the inscrutable laws of God. Good
men dream of ^that better time coming, of
that equality among all, and the obliterating
of all lines that may possibly distinguish all
idea of classes. The foolish believe this not
only possible, but that it is the "open
sesame" to complete happiness. Mental and
social equality are not desirable things, even
were they possible of attainment. Look
about you, and see if it is the order of nature
to make things alike. You will see that the
prefection of the whole is the universal
variety, the endless dissimilarity, the infinite
differences, the impossibility, in short, of
any two things in all nature being exactly

similar, that constitutes the oneness and

1 1

lyO

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

grandeur of the infiuite universe. But men
dream of equality, of a brotherhood of maa-
kind, when they idealize only a similarity,
and this is the perfection for which they
yearn.

The childi-en are the child's school teacher;
the young people educate each other, and
they all have social joys in the communion of
thoughts ripened by observation and experi-
ments. This is the order of nature, and it
never has, nor never will be, changed. For
over seventeen hundred years, the pietistic
schools have been earnestly engaged in edu-
cating the ever-rising generations— sowing
the seeds of knowledge in the young minds
that were to blossom and bear fruit for that
fabled Golden Age that has never come— a
rtopia of which we may di-eam sweet day-
dreams, but never taste. A boy goes to col-
lege, or the academy, and through the cur-
riculum, graduates with high honors, and
sometimes spend the remainder of their lives
rendering praise to their Alma Mater, and
die in the sincere faith that it was the vener-
able President and Professors who educated
them. This innocent mistake comes from the
oversight that it was his Professor that
trained him only, while it was his associates
nearly always, good books, outside of his
school, text books, sometimes, that had done
the real work of education. In other words,
the old train the young, while the real edu-
cation of the young is in the social life, the
intimate and friendly associations of the
young with their equals in age— the contact
of minds with minds, where a nearly com-
plete conhdence and congeniality exists. The
venerable grandsires, in their great interest
and eager love, deliver their maturest
thoughts in epigrams, and "wise saws" to
the loved human kittens, who are, apparently,
all respectful attention, but who are eager for
tbat romp and play with their playmates, and

this again teaches old age a lesson it will not
learn, that it is in the merry shout and rip-
pling laughter of merry childhood that
brings that happy Commission of budding
souls of which comes healthy minds and edu-
cated intellects.

Among the oldest schools in history was
that of Epicurus, in Athens, and that of the
sweet and lovely girl of Alexandria, Hvpatia.
The school of Epicurus was a social club,
that wandered, and lounged, and conversed
in the winding walks and grateful shades of
the gardens: and the gifted and beautiful
girl. Hypatia. from the porches of Alexan-
dria discussed those great and unanswered
questions, "Who am I? Where am I?
Whither am I going?"

This remarkable girl was torn in pieces by
a fanatic mob, for discussing these great
and, so far, insoluble questions; it is to be
hoped that in this nineteeath century blaze
of liberty of discussion, we may not be sim-
ilarly served for asking similar questions, but
concerning the less vital interests of the
soul, but the yet greatest of all temporal
ones, that of education: Where is it? What
is it? Where can it be obtained?

To answer the first of the above questions
intellio-ently, it is essential first to fully un-
derstand the second one — Education, What
is it? All talk about it, and it runs glibly
over the tongue of the youngest and oldest,
the learned and the unlearned, and nine-
tenths of all civilized peoples would stare at
you, were you in seriousness to ask them the
question. The dictionaries all define the
word, and everybody fully understands it,
yet, What is education ? The wi'iter remem-
bers hearing the simple question asked of a
Teachers' Institute, and most painfully does
he recollect that they did not and could not
tell, although there were professors there
who were supposed to be eminent in the

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

191

rjinks of educators. Educators, and not
know what education is! it's something of a
travesty. Had this institute been composed
of very ignorant men, not only ignorant but
unculturetl, each member could have an-
swered the question in a moment, and showed
supreme contempt for the poor fool that
would ask such a question. For more than
seventeen hundred years, the present systems
cr ideas have prevailed in the school room.
We do not mean that the same things are
taught now that were in the olden time, but
that the present system, the cardinal ideas
all through it, are based upon the first
schools founded in Egypt so many centuries
ago, and that at their foundation were one of
the greatest advances of civilization. The
first schools were solely for the purpose of
memorizing the 'precepts and philosophies of
the fathers, in whose sayings were all wis-
dom and all good; in short, it was then a
process of committing to memory and it is
exactly this now. The manner and forms
have all undergone wonderful changes, but
the substance, as found in the school room of
to-day, and those of the long ages ago, are
identical. The earliest educator's supposed
that training the mind was education, and
that, therefore, a training-room was a school;
whereas it is a fact you may commit, were
this a possibility, every book, manuscript and
tradition in the world to memory, and still
you may not be at all educated. Could you
retain them all after they were memorized,
you would have a wonderful storehouse —
mostly trash and rubbish — yet what an inex-
haustible supply of facts, and many of the
greatest thoughts fi-om the busiest and best
brains. Could you separate the wheat from
the chaff in this storehouse, and make a prac-
tical, everyday use of it all, you might be
the best informed man in the world, and still
not educated. But few men, owing to the

general vagueness of their ideas, can draw
any distinction between training and educa-
tion, and hence it is that so few in the world
ever give a thought to the subject of what
real education is. This is an inexhaustible
theme, and we do not purpose to do more
than to look briofiy xipon its most outward
boundaries, in the hope that a hint may be
dropped that will attract the attention of
some mind that will push the investigation
to its final issue.

What is education ? It is getting knowledge.
And what is knowledge? It is the under-
standing of the mental and physical laws.
To yet bi'oaden, and simplify the definition
— to understand the natural laws. We
mean the laws that govern mind and matter.

These terms and definitions must not be
confounded in the mind of the reader, or our
words will be worse than in vain. To most
people it looks like a'very simple, if not con-
tfimptible, proposition to talk about under-
standing the natural laws — laws that govern
mind and matter. Yet this once accom-
plished, and you are possessed of the knowl-
edge of Omniscience, the wisdom of the true
God. Knowledge, therefore, is not the
ability to read Latin, Greek and Hebrew, or
to solve all the problems in mathematics, or
to talk glibly, and give in detail other men's
thoughts. In fact, the fundamental idea of
the college and university is such, that the
most learned man may be truly the most ig-
norant. W^o do not say that of necessity it
is so, but that such a case is possible.
Learning and knowledge — when learning
means memorizing — have so little in com-
mon, that it is simj)ly amazing that, for such
a long reach of time, they could have been
confounded as being synonymous terms. To
think intelligently npnu this subject, the dis-
tinctions between a training-school and a
school for educational purposes, it must be

192

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

borne in mind, are vastly different things.
And that parent only is competent to super-
intend the education of the child, who clear-
ly comprehends what education is.

But we are told, from age to age, that the
school is not created for the purpose of im-
parting knowledge to the child, but to de-
velop and strengthen the mind and show it
how to grow strong; to put the instruments
within its reach, and in after life it may use
them at will; to be a mental gymnasium,
and to criss-cross the mental limbs, so to
speak, with great rolls of muscles of strength,
as are the athlete's arms and limbs developed
in the physical gymnasium. Well, let us
glance at this a moment. Does your child
need be shown how to grow into physical
strength and beauty? Were not those
fathers fools who supposed they could put
their children in strait-jackets, to form
them on a plan better than the strong im-
pulses of their nature ? If exercise in the
way of tasks — and we know of no system of
labor in the world where tasks universal pre-
vails ^s in the school room — if this is the way
to develop the physical, why should a child
ever be allowed to play, but make it work.
The most ignorant "parents well understand
that the very young child put to work is de-
formed in its gi-owth, and often killed. And
yet the healthy young child is a perfect cub-
bear. It looks incredible how long their lit-
tle bodies can endure the apparently most
fatiguing plays. Let the grown man at-
tempt, for a few hours, to follow a romping
boy, and make as many steps, and subject his
body to all the trials of strength and strains
the boy does, and he would fall by the way
exhausted. Yet reverse it, and let the boy
attempt the steady, tiresome labor of the
man, and how soon would he fall and expire.
Watch a half-dozen children, from the wee
toddler to the nearly grown, romping, scream-

ing, shouting their unaccountable delight in
their furious plays, and then reflect for but
a moment, and you will realize that they are
only growing, developing in the natural,
only way they can be developed into strong,
brave men and queenly, beautiful women.
Do you imagine you could build a room, and
hire a teacher, and crowd them in there and
teach them how to develop their physical
systems? True, you know but little about
their physical systems, and may well excuse
yourself on that ground but then you know
absolutely nothing about their mental sys-
tem. And yet you proceed about the rigid
control, and mastery and direction of the
mind, as though you possessed more than
Omniscient wisdom on this one point. To
look upon the young babe in its mother's
arms, is to love at once the blesse4 little
bundle of squirming, idiotic innocence and
angelic purity, for " of such is the [kingdom
of heaven," and yet it is to shudder for the
possibilities of broken parental hearts, and
the unspeakable woe that may yet come of
that innocence and purity, through mistaken
ignorance in its training and education. We
are not extravagant, then, when we say that
the training and education of the coming
generations is the one great, transcendent
subject of life. To be mistaken here is to
risk more than your own life, and the life
and happiness of all you hold dear on this
earth.

The proposition is to us self-evident that
the infant mind can no more be developed
into health and strength by work than can
the body. Either mental or physical work,
to the young and tender, is the highway to
imbecility and deformity. Let the child
play — watching over and so directing it,
without its knowl edge of your doing so, as
to protect and keep it from absolutely injur-
ing itself by thoughtless exposures and in-

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

193

discreet taxings, and yon may laugh at the
doctor and his nostrum'? and his bills to save
the lives of yoiu* childi'en. And if you have
ever spent a day with a child, you will know
that it wants to take its exercise in the open
air, not in the well-warmed schoolroom or
nursery. Every instinct and impulse of the
child as naturally leads it to its mental as to
its bodily development. But one is as much
a play with it as the other. Its young mind
is as active as its precious little body. It
will ask questions until the father or mother
will impatiently beg it to stop or it will kill
them. Is not this the identical result, when
a grown person commences to play with a
child? The adult will tire in a few moments,
and beg to be let alone, when the child feels
it has hardly commenced. It is ordered by
authority, to " be still." Watch the cloud
pass over its bright face as it breathes softly
and tries to obey, when it can no more con-
trol its impulsive yielding to that higher law
than it can stop breathing, and then it turns
to its real schoolmaster, its equal and play-
mate, and, stealing away from the angry face,
they resume the work of physical and mental
growth.

We hold this to be true, and we speak from
experience, that you may commence teaching
your child as soon as it can prattle, always
as play and never as a task, and by the time
it can talkj'plain, you can have it to both
read and wi'ite and sjiell correctly the name
of nearly every one of its playthings and the
articles of fiirnitm'e about the house. We do
not attach any value to this very young play-
education, yet, if it is play that it enjoys
with the keen zest of infancy, it will not
probably hurt it. This can be done with
any ordinarily "bright child, and yet foolish
fathers and mothers will tell you they are
always too biisy to teach their children any-
thing at home. It is not that they are too

busy, but only too ignorant. They are, may-
hap, both graduates of some institution of
learning, and yet so ignorant that they will
undertake to rear a family, when incompe-
tent, really, for the position of caring for
blind puppies.

We champion the cause of outraged inno-
cence and blessed childhood. We would war
to the death upon that monster, ignorance,
whether " learned ignorance " or that more
excusable, inherited and common, if not uni-
versal, kind. We would enact it a capital
crime to task a child. It is simply the most
inexcusable and infernal species of slavery.
It is soul-polluting, and enslaving and de-
grading your own flesh and blood, and where
such a wretched practice prevails, it is mar-
velous that mankind does not relapse into
brutal barbarism. We know of but one
thing meaner, more degrading or infamous,
and that is whipping ,yom' child. In the
schools — we blush for the age of which this
must be written — they call it "corporal pun-
ishment," and flatter themselves that that
great compound word can cover the blotch
and deep damnation of the monster act.

But we stop abruptly in this line of
thought, appalled at the immensity of the
subject, as it grows in the succession of ideas
as they follow each other. Assuming, as we
may, that the most important subject in this
life is the education of the young, we might
be justified in disregai'ding all else, and fol-
lowing these merest hints to their final and
inevitable conclusions, and elaborating them,
at least, in a manner that might make plain
to tlie comprehension of all the views of
the writer. To conviucf intelligent thinkers
that this important institution deserves to be
ever examined and watched, and that it is a
foolish people who sit supinely down in the
faith that the fathers jiossessed all wisdom,
and had so arranged ouv schoolrooms, that

194

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

any further questioning of the system is a
folly, if not a crime. In heaven's name,
No! We would not wi-ite the schools down,
but up. We would correct the wrongs, if
any, and improve and perfect the good. And,
above all, if we have not real schools of true
education, we would never stop until we had
made them such, if this were possible.

The first public free school was commenced
in 1854, in the present Eleventh Street
Schoolhouse. This was a plain, one- story,
one- room, frame building, and one teacher,
and meager as were these school facilities
they supplied the demand of that day, and
continued to do so until 1SG5. In 3S64:, the
three- story brick building on the corner of
Thirteenth and Walnut streets was erected.
It has five rooms, two on each floor, except
the third, which is in one room. The colored
schoolhouse (responsive to the negroes' sen-
sitiveness on the pigment points) was erected.
This is a two-story frame, with four rooms,
and is situated on the corner of Nineteenth
and Walnut streets. Then was erected the
present elegant high school building, on the
comer of Walnut and Twenty-first streets.
This is a three-story brick, and has five
rooms. The School Board has rented a
schoolroom for the past two years. This is
across the street from the high school. The
past school year, the board has employed
seventeen teachers; there were 1,100 pupils;
the highest salary was $1,200 a year, and the
lowest $30 per month. The number of chil-
dren, of ages under twenty one, is, males,
2, 036, females, 2,024; thenum})er of school age
is, males, 1,394, females, 1,447; total, 2,841.
The assessment for school purposes, the present
and past few years, has been $10,000. There
has for some time been but one male teacher in
the white schools — the Superintendent — and
one male in the negro schools. For some
time, the seating capacity iu the school rooms

and the supply of children have been out of
all i^roportion, and the result is that the
primary rooms were so overrun that the
board was compelled to allow only half-days'
attendance, and we make no doubt but this
necessity will result in the discovery that
half a day is a plenty for the little children to
be mewed up in the schoolroom.

The newspapers of the country, of a few
months ago, were laden with dispatches from
Cairo, giving the full details of what were
called the negro raids upon the public
schools. It seems they were not satisfied ro
be alone in their own schoolrooms, and so
they counseled together, and, by concert of
action, met at their 'churches and school-
rooms, and in bodies marched upon the white
schools. Their principal point of attack
seemed to be the hio^h school buildino-. The
motly processions were headed by the most
venerable old gray headed bucks and wenches,
and tapered down to the most infantile, un-
washed, bow-legged picaninnies; and tbey
all said, " I rocken we'uns wants to gradiate
as well as white trash." It all resulted in
nothing more serious than a great annoyance
and interruption to the schools. Some of the
brave girls that were teaching saw the savory
mob a]:)proaching. and barred the doors and
kept them out; while in other rooms they
efiected a lodgment, and proposed to stay.
The writer had the curiosity to interview the
Tax Collector of this school district, and
was informed that the whole tax paid by the
negroes was not enough to pay for the fuel
used in the negro schools. But these young
Solomons of Africa probably would have paid
small heed to that, had it been presented to
them.

Loretfo Academy. — This is a, female con-
vent school, under the auspices of the Sis-
ters of Loretto. It was founded in 1863,
under the superintendency of Mother Eliza-

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

195

beth Hayden, a sister of Bishop Spaulding,
of Kentucky. It cost over 18,000, and when
the frame was up, and ready for inciosure,
it was wrecked by a storm. It was again put
up, and soon was one of the most floui-ishiag
female academies in the country. Four
years ago, the entire building was burned to
the ground, inflicting a great loss, as well as
an interriTption to the school. It was soon
rebuilt, and in the rebuilding it was enlarged
and greatly improved, and has now fully re-
gained its lost ground. This institution of
learning has been much prized by the people
of Cairo, and many of the daughters of some
of the best people have been educated there.
Frei Deufsch Schnle. — This has long been
one of the noted schools of Cairo. To a Ger-
man, the name is quite enough explanation

as to what it is: a free school, for the pur-
pose of teaching German, and without re-
ligious bias. Their building is on Four-
teenth, between "Washington and "Walnut
streets. They have about seventy-five
pupils, and the institution is maintained
wholly by private subscription. This free
school was opened in 1863; its founders and
principal supporters were F. Bross, H.
Meyers, P. G. Schuh, Ed Buder, Charles
Feuchter, Peter Each, Juhn Reese, Peter
Neft', Leo Klepp, Charles Meyner, John
Scheel and Jacob Banning. The house cost
$4,500. and among the largest contributors
to build it were A. B. Saflford and AVill-
iam Schutter. The principal teachers have
been Mr. Apple, Wirsching, Kroeger, and
assistant, Miss Yocum.

CHAPTER X

RA1LK0AD8— THE ILLINOIS CENTRAL— CAIRO SHORT LINE— THE IRON MOUNTAIN— CAIRu .-t ST.

LOUIS— THE WABASH— MOBILE ^^ OHIO— TEXAS \ ST. LOUIS— THE GREAT JACKSON

ROUTE— ROADS BEING BUILT, ETC., ETC.

"Mine eyes, that I might question my con-
ductor." — Longfellow.

IN the opening chapter of the history of
Cairo, we noted that the event of trans-
cendent importance, not only to Cairo but
the entire Mississippi Valley, was the coming
of the first steamboat — the first that ever
stirred the waters west of the Alleghany
Mountains, being the Orleans, Capt. Roose-
velt, which, passing down the Ohio, rode
out into the Mississippi River on the 18th
day of Deceml^er, 1811. Compared with the
floating palaces that have since plowed these
rivers, it was but a rude craft — yet it was a
steamboat — a true type of an immortal hu-

man conception, that was freighted and bal-
lasted with the weal of civilization.

The railroad is but the steamer running on
dry land. But far-seeing minds looked at
the steamboat as it stemmed the current and
the winds with its enormous loads of mer-
chandise, and they thought that wheels could
be made to take the place of the paddles,
and thus the propelling engine would carry
the same precious cai'goes over valley and
plain, hills and mountains that it did on the
water. The great invention of Fulton's had
cast its seed in other men's minds and then
the thought goes on forever; starting like
the little rivulet over the white sand and

196

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

gravel, so insignificant at first that a straw
wonld turn or obstruct its course, yet passing
on and on, and gathering accessions and vol-
ume here and there until it swells into the
great and resistless river, bearing upon its
heaving bosom the Armada of the world as
in majesty it rushes into the great sea that
rolls around all the world. Just so is a great
thought matm-ed, fashioned and grown; it is
the slow growth of ages, perhaps, as it has
gathered accretions from millions of minds.
It comes not springing forth a full gi'own
Phofinix fro n the ashes, but in the nature of
things, the greater the conception the slower
has been its formation; but once the seed has
commenced to germinate, and the warm fruc-
tifying rays from the mind of genius have
touched it into life, nothing can prevent or
check its progress, and it will mature and
bear fruit for the human race and for all
time. What a travesty upon men are all
the Napoleons, Csesars, Alexanders, and all
the warriors, rulers and potentates of the
earth, when stood up beside the serene, the
great Fulton! They are the toads and bats
and vampires — sucking rivers of blood, and
see them picking the shreds of human flesh
from their bloody talons, wiping their beaks
of the fresh stains of quivering hearts, and
behold them blink and shrink back in the
presence of the bright day and sunshine cast
from the peaceful and benign countenances
of these gi'eat men who have lived and
thought and starved and died for the good
of their fellow -men.

When the thoughts of genius burst into
blossom, they till the world with hope like the
spring time, and of this ripened fruit come
those grand advances of civilization that
alone distinguish us from the beasts of bur-
den and prey. A human invention that
started away back in the past ages, by whom
the world will never know generally, has

slowly grown and ripened as minds have ad-
ded to it in the years, until it becomes per-
fected into a living force, is the supremest
production of the earth. It surpasses that
" perfect creature, man," as the gods do the
groundlings. These slow- growing and per-
fected thoughts come rarely and slowly into
this world, but they are the only true mark
and measure of our civilization. And there-
fore, could their history be truly given, with
something of each great mind that played its
rays of light upon the subject, and the work-
ing impulses of that mind, they would be the
most interesting, profound and edifying
words that were ever placed upon paper.
This, indeed, would be history — history
containing philosophy, science, civilization —
all knowledge, all good, all enduring pleas-
ure possible to man. It is present in its im-
measureable effects always, while its causes
are in the " deep bosom of the ocean buried:"
and it is the ignorance and unweeded barbar-
ism yet lingering in mankind that works this
injustice to its true benefactors and great
men, and that has crowned witii laurel
wreaths the butchers and the shams, and
that has told the story of the world's bloody
sacrifices to mean ambition in immortal epic,
and consigned to forgetfulness the works of
genius that are the very sunlight of the
crowning type of civilization.

There is no one thing in the history of Cairo,
or for that matter, the entire State of Illinois,
that exceeds in importance the building of
the Illinois Central Railroad. The idea of
a railroad running from this point to the
north line of the State began to be enter-
tained by a few far-seeing minds almost sim-
ultaneously with the first settlement of the
place.

The Legislature elected August, 1836, was
supplemented by a State Internal Improve-
ment Convention, composed of many of the

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

197

ablest men in the State, which was to meet at
the seat of government simultaneously with
the Legislature. This convention devised a
general system of internal improvement, the
leading characteristics of which were " that
it should be commensurate with the wants of
the people." This convention was an irre-
sponsible body, determined to succeed in its
one object, regai'dless of consequences.
Possibilities were argued into probabilities,
and the latter into infallibilities. The Leg-
islatm-e was duly impressed with the public
sentiment that had been worked up.

A bill for the construction of nine rail-
roads, including $3,500,000 for the Central
Kailroad from the mouth of the Ohio to Ga-
lena, was the largest of these entei-prises,
and the importance of reaching the naviga-
ble rivers at Cairo is well outlined by the
concluding paragraph of the committee's re-
port, which was submitted to the Legislature.
It says : " In the present situation of the
country, the products of the interior, by rea-
son of their remoteness from market, are
left upon the hands of the producer or sold
barely at the price of the labor necessary to
raise and prepare them for sale. But if the
contemplated system should be carried into
effect, these fertile and healthy districts,
which now languish for the want of ready
markets for their pi'oductions, would find a
demand at home for them during the prog-
ress of the works, and after their completion
would have the advantages of a cheap tran-
sit to a choice of markets on the various nav-
igable streams. These would inevitably
tend to build towns and cities along the
routes and at the terminal points of the re-
spective railroads."

The theory of the effect upon the State
that would come from the building of rail-
roads were not dreams, even if their ideas
as to how this consummation was to be

brought about was a huge and almost fatal
blunder.

The improvement convention mapped out
nine railroads, as mentioned, and the Legisla-
ture not only responded fully to their com-
mands, but proceeded to show that its mem-
bers had ideas, too, in regard to the State tak-
ing hold of this beautiful Aladdin's Lamp.
After making all the appropriations called
for, it proceeded to hunt out the small
streams, forsooth, often the wet-weather riv-
ulets, and appropriate money by the thou-
sands to make them navigable rivers, or to
improve them by locks and dams. Because
there was no money in the treasury, they de-
termined to spend money with the most per-
fect abandon. This was reckless legislation
— shocking financiering, but it showed great
energy and industry, and ending in the ap-
parent total destruction of the very objects
and purposes it had in view. The Central
Railroad was scotched, not killed, and soon
new schemes for its construction came in
view; but all of them lacked vitality until the
passage of the act of Congress of September,
1850, granting to the State the munificent
donation of nearly 3,000,000 acres of land
through the heart of Illinois in aid of its
completion. The year 1850 was truly a his-
torical one for the nation. That year wit-
nessed the throes and convulsive tremors at-
tending the great adjustment measures, dur-
ing that long and exciting session of Con-
gress. And amid the exciting struggle for
national life the bill which finally created
the Illinois Central Railroad passed, and, in
the Wefet, gave the people's mind some di-
version from the all absorbing national topics.
At that time the entire railroad in Illinois
consisted of the Northern Cross Railroad
from Meredosia and Naples on the Illinois
River, to Springfield; the Chicago & Galena,
from the former city as far as Elgin, and a

198

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

six-mile track across the American bottom
from opposite St. Louis to the mines in the
bluffs. The essence of the Congressional
act consisted in gi'antiug, not to the road, but
to the State of Illinois, the public lands to
the extent of the even-numbered sections for
the distance of six sections deep on each side
of the track, including the contemplated
trunk and branches of the road from Cairo
to Galena, with a branch to Chicago; for
the lands sold or pre-empted within this des-
ignated twelve- mile strip, enough might be
taken from even-numbered sections for the
distance of lifteen miles on either side of
the tracks to be equal in quantity to them.
The act granted to the railroad the right of
WE}- through public lauds of the width of 200
feet. The construction of the road was
to be simultaneously commenced at its north-
ern and southern termini, and when com-
pleted the branches were to be constructed,
the whole to be completed within ten years,
in default of which, the unsold lands were
to revert to the Government, and for those
sold the State was to pay the Government
price. The minimum price of the alternate
or odd numbers was raised from $1.25 to
$2.50 per acre. Here were 3,000,000 acres
of land given away at an immense profit, as
by this doubling the price of the remaining
half, the gain in time in the sales and the
increase of population of the State are beyond
computation. The land was taken out of
market for two years, and when restored in
the fall of 1852, it in fact brought an aver-
age of $5 per acre. The purposes of Con-
gress in donating this land to the State was
the construction of the raih'oad, and that
the State should use it only for that purpose,
and the Government required the State to
make the road subject always to remain a
public highway for the use of the Govern-
ment of the United States, free from all tolls

or other charges for the transportation of
any troops, munitions, ov other property of the
General Government. This is a plain pro-
vision in the Congressional act, and yet when
the war came, almost upon the completion of
the road, this restriction was construed not
to apply to the rolling stock, but only to the
rails, and, therefore, it only gave the Govern-
ment the right to i)ut its own rolling stock
and run them over the road free, otherwise
it had to pay as well as any private
citizen. The act of Congress contemplated
the extension of the road south from Cairo
to Mobile, and the same provisions were ex-
tended to the States of Alabama and Missis-
sij^pi. This was the substance of the first
subsidy ever made by Congress to aid in the
construction of a railroad, and wise, just and
good as was the measure, it opened a Pan-
dora's box that has well nigh despoiled the
country of its public domain.

At the same session. Congress passed an
act OT'anting to the State of Arkansas the
swamp and overflowed lands unfit for culti-
vation and remaining unsold within i ts borders,
the benefits whereof were extended by Sec-
tion 4, to each of the other States in which
there might be such lands situated. By
this act the State of Illinois received 1,500,-
000 acres more. These lands were subse-
quently turned over to the respective counties
where located, with the condition that they
be drained and used for school purposes.

Mr. Douglas prepared a petition, signed
by the Congressional delegations of all the
States along the I'oute of the road fi-om Mo-
bile north, describing the probable location
of the road and its branches through Illinois
and requesting the President to order the
suspension of land sales along the lines des-
ignated, which was immediately done.

The Legislature oi Illinois was to meet in
January, 1851, and the whole people of the

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

199

State, but especially those along the contem-
plated line and branches, began to discuss
thp probabilities of what that body would do
and what it of right should do. The point
of departure of the branch from the main
line was au open one, and rival towns began
to push forward their claims, and much dis-
cussion and contention pervaded the press of
the State. The La Salle interests wanted
the branch for Chicago taken off at that
point: Bloomington was making a vigorous
struggle in the same way, and unfortunate
Shelbyville, which was a fixed point in the
old charters, feeling secui'e on that point,
also grasped for the branch deflection from
that point, and in the end missed both the
main line and branch. The route proposed
was a direct line from Cairo, making di-
rectly to Mount Vernon and making the sep-
aration at that point, and from Mount Ver-
non the main line to run to Carlyle, Green-
ville, Hillsboro, Springfield, Peoria, Galena
and over to Dubuque. But by this route the
belt of vacant land would have failed to give
the required donation, and hence the author-
ities of the road would not adopt it.

In a previous chapter we have spoken at
some length of several charters obtained
under the name of the Illinois Central, and
the Great Western Transportation Company
and the Cairo City & Canal Company, all
looking to the building or securing the rail-
road as it is now constructed substantially.
All this multifarious legislation was obtained
under what is now known as the Holbrook
regime, and the many chai'ters, amendments,
repeals and re-enactments affecting this sub-
ject came to be known as the Holbrook char-
ters. Holbrook was the chief factotum of
the Cairo Company, and eventually undtsr
the name of a charter for the Great Western
Company he secured for the Cairo City
Company the franchise of the Illinois Cen-

tral Railroad. And in the charter it was
provided that " all lands that may come into
the possession of said company, whether by
donation or purchase," were pledged and
mortgaged in advance in security for the
payment of the bonds and obligations of the
company authorized to be issued and con-
tracted under the provisions of the charter.
By act of March 3, 1845, thf charter of the
Great Western Railway Company was le-
pealed; by an act of February 10, 184:9, it was
revived for the benefit of tbe Cairo City &
Canal Company. The company thus revived
was authorized in the construction of the Cen-
tral Railroad to extend it on from the southern
terminus of the canal — La Salle — to Chicago,
" in strict conformity to all obligations, re-
strictions, powers and privileges of the act
of 1843.'' Holbrook's railroad scheme then
gently took tbe Governor into a quiet partner-
ship, to the extent of authorizing that oflicia)
to hold in trust for the use and benefit of said
company whatever lands might be donated to
the State by the General Government, to aid
said road, subject to the conditions and pro-
visions of the bill (then pending before Con-
gress and expected to become a law) grant-
ing the subsidy of 3,0(X),000 acres of land.
This was a nice scheme to have the grabbing
all done in advance. In the light of the long
years that are past, there can now be but
one construction put upon the " Holbrook
charters." They were not honest, and char-
ity alone may protect the Legislature from
an equally severe judgment by saying they
were ignorant Holbrook in some unaccount-
able way had impressed even such men as
Judge Breese and Gov. Casey that he
was a great and pure financier, and they were
ready to confess they could see no signs of a
cat in the meal tub. The Legislature
seemed to delight in dancing attendance
upon his slightest wishes, and so far as in

300

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

their power, they seemed ready to lay the
State at his feet. But most fortunately for
Illinois, Judge Douglas was alive and at this
time a United States Senator from Illinois,
and he could not be hoodwinked by the
plausible schemes against the vital interests
of his State. Daring the session of the Illi-
nois Legislature of 1849, he appeared be-
fore that body (a special session) and in an
able and effective speech, which he delivered
October 23, he showed the Legislature that
a palpable fraud had been practiced upon it
in its session of the preceding winter in pro-
curing from it this charter; and that had the
bill in Congress met with no delay on ac-
count of this fraud, this vast property would
have gone into the hands of Holbrook & Co.
to enrich those scheming corporators, with
little assm-ance, as they represented no
wealth, and gave no assurances that the
road would ever be built; that Con-
gress had an insuperable objection to
making the grant for the benefit of a pri-
vate corporation. The connection of these
Holbrook companies with the Central Rail-
road in the estimation of Congress, presented
an impassable barrier to the grant But the
same Legislature that had granted the char-
ter refused to repeal it even after it had been
thus exposed by Judge Douglas. Thus mat-
ters stood and the schemers supposed their
triirmph complete until the fact finally was
brought to their attention that Judge Doug-
las would never permit Congress to pass the
bill in any shape whereby • the Holbrooks
could reap all the benefits. Judge Douglas
simply said he preferred the bill should
never pass than that the State and the Gov-
ernment should be robbed, and then no cer-
tainty the road would ever be built. This
was unexpected difficulties for the schemers,
and Holbrnok's genius at once set about the
way of getting up a plausible dodge to

bridge the trouble. Il was ascertained that
Mr. Douglas insisted as a condition prece-
dent that Holbrook & Co. should release to
the State not only their charter, but all
claims to the benefits of the Congressional
enactment. On December 15, 1849, Mr.
Holbrook, as President of the company, exe-
cuted a protest of release to the Governor, a
duplicate of which was transmitted to Mr.
Douglas at Washington. Bat the Senator
declined to accept this as a document of any
value or binding force upon the company of
which Holbrook was Px'esident, as it was
without the sanction of the stockholders or
even the board of directors. While he did
not impute any such motive, the company,
he believed, was still in the condition which
would enable it to take all the lands granted,
divide them among its stockholders and re-
tain its chartered privileges without build-
ingthe road. He was unwilling to give his
approval to any arrangement by which the
State could be deprived possibly of any of
the benefits resulting from the expected
grant. For the protection of the State and
as an assurance to Congress, the execution
of a full and complete lease of all rights and
privileges and a surrender of the Holbrook
charters and all acts, or parcels of acts, sup-
plemented or amendatory thereof, or relating
in anywise to the Central Railroad, so as to
leave the State, through its Legislature, free
to make such disposition of the lands and
such arrangement for the construction of the
road as might be deemed best, was de-
manded .

Judge Douglas' requirements were finally
fully complied with, but only after the effort
had been made to get him to accept an in-
sufficient release and one that, no doubt,
had he accepted, would have resulted in again
bankrupting the State, and perhaps indefinite-
ly delaying the building of the Illinois Central

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

201

Railroad. Then Congress passed the act mak
ing the donation of land. No sooner had the
act passed than did Holbrook in many ways,
among others by letters to parties in Illinois
which were published, set about making
the pretense that his company still was the
only rightful claimants to the land grant,
and had the only charter that covered the
ground on which the road must be built.
In a letter from him, dated New York, Sep-
tember 25, 1850, to a citizen of Illinois, he
said: " I can truly say that I am under ob-
ligations to those who with Gov. Casey
prevented the repeal of the charter of the
Great "Western Railway Company. It was
granted in good faith and under no other
that the State can now grant. * * * i
am now organizing the company to com-
mence the work this fall and put a large part
of the road under contract as soon as possi-
ble. We shall make the road on the old
line, etc. , etc. " This letter was widely pub-
lished, as Holbrook probably designed it
should be. A Chicago paper in the interests
of Holbrook published an editorial, taking
even stronger gi'ounds than did Holbrook,
and almost said in so many words that IMr.
Douglas had been deceived — that he was a
fool, and that now Holbrook & Co. had all in
their hands they would proceed to do the
work and defy IVIi-. Douglas.

The suffering of the people fi'om the in-
ternal impi'ovement swindle had been too
severe and too recent to allow them to be in-
different to these old pretensions of Hol-
brook «& Co. The alarm ran over the State
and iutensitied as the time came for the
assembling of the Legislature that was to have
in its hands the splendid government gift.*

In November, before the meeting of the

*It should he here btatcd that this Great Western CharttT was
the new one ami incliileij at lenst one pr >miDeiit mm in nearly
every county in tlie State, and it was never 8upposed ail these were
influenced by evil designs upon the State.

Legislature, Waiter B. Scates, one of the
new corporators of the Great Western Rail-
road Company of 184^, addressed a letter
of invitation to all his co- corporators, duly
named, to meet at Springfield, January 6,
1851, for the pm-pose of taking such action
as might be deemed expedient for the public
good by surrendering up their charter to the
State, or such other com-se as might be de-
sired by the General Assembly, to remove all
doubts and questions relative to the com-
pany's rights and powers, and to disembar-
rass that body with regard to the disposal of
the gi-aat of land from Congress for the
building of the much-needed Central Rail-
road.

With the opening of the General Assembly
appeared at Springfield Mr. Robert Rautoul,
of Boston, who being the duly accredited
agent of Robert Schuyler, George Griswold,
Gov. Morris, Jonathan Sturgis, George W.
Ludlow and John F. Sandford, of New
York, and David A Neal, Franklin Haven
and Robert Rantoul, Jr., of Boston, presented a
memorial to the Legislatui'e, embracing a
most just and liberal proposition to build the
road. The memorialists stated that they
had examined the act of Congress in refer-
ence to the road, and- had examined the re-
som-ces of the country through which the
proposed road was to pass, and estimated the
cost and time necessary to build the road ; that
they proposed to form a joint-stock com2:)any
of themselves and such others as they might
associate with them, and as they say "includ-
ing among their number persons of large
experience in the construction of several of
the priucipal railroads of the United States,
and of the means and credit sufficient to
place beyond doubt their ability to perform
what they hereinafter propose, etc." They
then offer to perform all the requirements of
the act of Congi'ess under the directiou of

302

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

the State, and to build the road on or before
the 4th of July, 1854. That the road should
be in all respects equal to the Boston & Albany
Kailroad, and conclude as follows:

"And the said company from and after the
completion of said road, will pay to the

State of Illinois annually per cent of

the gross earnings of said road, without de-
duction or charge for expenses, or for any
other matter or cause; provided, that the State
of Illinois will gi-ant to the subcribers a charter
of incorporation, with terms mutually advan-
tageous, with powers and limitations as they
in their wisdom may think fit, and as shall be
accepted by the said company and as will
sufficiently remunerate the subscribers for
their care, labor and expenditure in that be-
half incurred, and will enable them to avail
themselves of the lands donated by the said
act, to raise the funds or some portion of the
funds necessary for the construction and
equipment of said road. "

This memorial, coming as it did from such
eminent and strong financial men, was well
received by the Legislature. The time for
the completion of the road was much shorter
than any one ever had then contemplated, yet
Mr. Kantoul was willing to adjust the con-
tract so as to prevent a failure, not only on
this point, but to give any secui'ity that the
proceeds arising from the lands would be
faithfuly applied to their intended purpose.
It was so fair to all parties concerned that
it was eventually made the basis for the
charter of the railroad. At this time there
was developed over the State an opposition
to turning over to a private corporation the
great donation of laud. Some of the fossils
of the State folly wanted the State to keep the j
land, build the road, pay off the State debt, and |
a hundred other wild and silly schemes were
offered and suggested. Then there is but j
little question but that Holbrook & Co. had !

friends in the Legislature, and their hope lay
in inaction and a refusal to accept the prop-
osition of Mr. Rantoul and the other memo-
rialists. When the bill was introduced, many
amendments were offered, such as requiring
payment" for right of way to pre-emptionists
or squatters on the public land, without re-
gard to benefits, etc. Then there was an op-
portunity for much wrangling over the point
of divergence of the branch from the main
line, but which was finally left with the com-
pany to fix anywhere " north of the parallel
39° 3" of north latitude." Much discussion
was had as to the points in the main line,
and what towns it should touch, but all
intennediate points finally failed except the
northeast corner of Town '21 north, Range
2 east, Third Principal Meridian, from which
the road in its course should not vary more
than five miles, which was effer'ted by Gren.
Gridley of the Senate, and by which the
towns of Decatur, Clinton and Bloomington
were assured of the road.

One of the mysteries that developed while
the railroad bill was lingering, Avas a scheme
for swallowing the road, the State, and much
of everything else, that was absolutely so
startling and unique that its paternity has
always been in doubt. The bold originality
and the unknown paternity of the bantling
gave it something of a kinship to Junius'
letters, with all of Junius' ability left out.
It appeared on every member's table one
morning in January, in the shape of a volu-
minous printed bill for a charter, the pro-
vision whereof, closely scrutinized, con-
tained about as hard a bargain as creditor
ever offered bondsman. It was cooll}' pro-
posed, among other provisions, that the State
appoint commissioners to locate the road,
survey the route for the main stem and
branches and select the land granted by
Congress, all at the expense of the State;

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

203

agents were to be appointed by the Governor
to apply to land-holders along the route who
might be benefited by the road, for sub-
scriptions, also at the expense of the State.

" All persons subcribing and advancing
money for said purpose shall be entitled to
draw interest upon the sums at — ■ per cent
per annum from the day of said advances,
and shall be entitled to designate and regis-
ter an amount of ' new internal improve-
ment stock of this State,' equal to four times
the amount so advanced, or stock of this
State 'known as ' Interest bonds,' equal to
three times the money so advanced, and said
stock so described may be registered at the
agency of the State of Illinois, to the city of
New York, by the party subscribing or by
any other person to whom they may assign
the right at any time after paying the sub-
scription, in proportion of the amount paid;
and said stock shall be indorsed, registered
and signed by the agent appointed by the
Governor for the puipose, and a copy of said
register shall be tiled in the office of the Au-
ditor of Public Accounts, as evidence to show
the particular stock secured or provided for
as hereinafter mentioned."

The donation from the Government to the
State was to be conveyed by the State to the
company, to be by it offered for sale upon
the completion of sections of sixty miles,
the expenses to be paid by the State; the
money was to go to the managers of this ter-
rible railroad, but the State was to receive
certificates of stock for the same; two of the
acting managers were to receive salaries of
$2,500, and the others $1,500, the company
with the sanction of the Governor to pur-
chase iron, etc., pledging the road for pay-
ment, and the road, property and stock to be
exempt from taxation. The bill also em-
braced a bank in accordance with the provis-
ions of the general free banking law adopted

by the State, making the railroad stock the
basijj. It also provided that if the constitu-
tion was amended (which failed to carry)
changing the two-mill tax to a sinking fund,
to be generally applied in redemption of the
State debt, that then the stock registered un-
der the act should also participate in the
proceeds thereof.

This was the scheme, and while the im-
mortality due the inventor, because he has
remained unknown, has been withheld, we
propose to lift the veil and let the author's
name receive the laurel crown. Any one who
will come to Cairo and carefully study Hol-
brook's tracks all around the city, will at
once conclude that nature never made but
one man who could have conceived such a
scheme and launched it at the heads of the
Illinois Legislature, and Holbrook was that
man. There is but one thing about it that
casts the slightest doubt upon its paternity
and that is where he proposes to divide the
salaries with mox'e than one — thi"? is unac-
countable and to some extent incomjirehensi-
ble.

It will be noticed in the quotation that we
give above from the memorialist's proposi-
tion, that they offered, among other things,
to pay the State annually a certain per cent
of the gross earnings of the road without de-
ductions for expenses or otherwise. The.
amount was left blank in their pi'oposition,
and the well understood fact was at that
time they anticipated it would be fixed at ten
per centum of the gross earnings. But after
they had secured substantially the accept-
auce of their projio.sition by the Legislature,
they set about getting this blank tilled in at
as low a tigure as possible. W. H. Bissell
was then a Repi-esentative in Congress from
Illinois, and although he was by profession
a doctor, and not a lawyer, yet these shrewd
capitalists employed him as their attorney,

204

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

knowing it was his great personal popularity
that would serve their purposes much better
than all the legal lore in the world, in the
peculiar business they just then had in hand.
Mr. Bissel left his seat in Congress and at-
tended upon the session of the Illinois Leg-
islature as a lobbyist, and the unfortunate
results to the State were that the State con-
ceded a reduction of three per cent and the
amount was fixed at seven per cent of the
gross proceeds.

In the Legislature, after all manner of de-
lays and procrastinations, until the heel of
the session, Mr. J. L. D. Morrison, of the Sen-
ate, brought in a substitute for the pending
bill, which, after being amended several
times, was finally passed — two votes dissent-
ing — and shortly after, and without amend-
ment, the house also passed it, and thus, on
the 10th day of February, 1851, it became a
law. The final passage of the bill was cel-
ebrated in Chicago by the firing of cannon
and other civic demonsti'ations in honor of
the event.

There was some delay in the connnence-
ment of the work on the road, in conse-
quence of the ruling of Mr. Justin Butter-
field, Commissioner of the Greneral Land
Ofiice, but the President reversed the Secre-
tary's decision and the transfer of the land
was duly made, and in March, 1852, the
contracts were let and the work commenced
and rapidly pushed to completion.

This brings us to the completion of that
important part of the life of a railroad,
namely, the bringing it into existence and
successfully putting it on its feet, or, in
other words, the organization of a chartered
company, under a liberal and just funda-
mental law, and the providing ways and
means that put money into the hands of the
corporation to carry on its work. Ail this
had been done, and the good people of

Cairo had great occasion to rejoice and feel
glad. It was the realization of a long de-
fered hope, where promise had been the
brightest and failure and disappointment the
most complete. The improvement of na-
tional importance, and upon which hung all
Cairo's hopes for the future, was assured.

Much of the credit, and therefore a meed
of praise, for securing the building of this
road, is due to Stephen A. Douglas, Judge
Breese, Hon. David J Baker, Miles A. Gil-
bert, D. B. Holbrook, the old Cairo City &
Canal Company, Judge Jenkins, Justin
Buttertield and many others of Cairo and
other portions of the country. And so far
as we know, all were content to rest their
claims to the honors in the work to the keep-
ing of a grateful posterity except Judge
Breese. The rejoicing over its success had
not abated its first noisy enthusiasm when
the voice of Judge Breese was raised, assert-
ing his exclusive right to the paternity of the
enterprise, and he based his claim to the
credit upon the fact that he had projected
the whole thing in 1835, and that when in
the Senate he had tried to do exactly what
Judge Douglas was afterward enabled to do
by his previous labors. It was a conception
and labor certainly worth the pride of any
man. Visions of fame, immortality and
emoluments and office were easily discover-
able in it.

Judge Breese had been a Senator up to

1849, when he was succeeded by Gen.
Shields. In 1850, Breese was in the State
Legislatui'e. Under date of December 23,

1850, among other things, in a reply to the
Illinois State Register regarding his favor-
ing the " Holbrook charters," he says:

" The Central Railroad has been a con-
trolling object with me for more than fifteen
years, and I would sacrifice all my personal
advantages to see it made. These fellows who

/e^^-L^-^

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

207

are making such an ado about it now, have
been -whipped into its support. They are
not for it now, and do not desire to have it
made because I get the credit of it. This is
inevitable. I must have the credit of it for I
originated it in 1835, and. when in the Sen-
ate, passed three different bills through that
body to aid in its construction. My suc-
cessor had an easy task, as I had opened the
way for him. It was the argument made in
my report on it that silenced all opposition
and made the passage easy. I claim the
credit, and no one can take it from me."

"When this came to the attention of Judge
Douglas in "Washington, he took occasion
to reply, on January 5, 1851, at length, giv-
ing a detailed history of all the efforts made
in Congress to procure the pre-emption or
grant of land in aid of building this road,
saying: "You were the champion of the pol-
icy of granting pre-emption rights for the
benefit of a private company [the Holbrook]
and I was the advocate of alternate sections
to the State." The letter is long and full of
interesting facts in relation to the acts and
doings in Congress relative to the Illinois
Central Railroad. Judge Breese rejoined,
under date of January 21, 1851, through the
columns of the same paper, at gi-eat length,
claiming that besides seeking to obtain pre-
emption aid he was also the first to introduce
"a bill for the absolute grant of the alternate
sections for the Central and Northern Cross
Railroads," but finding no favorable time
to call it up, it failed. " It was known
from my first entrance into Congi-ess that
I would accomplish the measure, in some
shape, if possible." But the Illinois mem-
bers of the House, he asserts, took no
interest in the passage of any law for the
benefit of the Central Railroad, either by
grant or pre-emption. He claims no
share in the passage of the law of 1850.

" Your (Douglas') claim shall not, with my
consent, be disparaged, nor those of your
associates. I will myself weave your chap-
let, and place it, with no envious hand,
upon your brow. At the same time history
shall do me justice. I claim to have first
projected this road in my letter of 1835. and
in the judgment of impartial and disinter-
ested men my claim will be allowed. I have
said and written more in favor of it than any
other. It has been the highest of my am-
bitions to accomplish it, and when my last
resting place shall be marked by the cold
marble which gratitude or affection may
erect, I desire for it no other inscription than
this, that he who sleeps beneath it projected
the Central Railroad."

He also at length cited his letter of October
16, 1835, to John Y. Sawyer in which the
plan of the Central Railroad was fii-st fore-
shadowed, which opens as follows: "Having
some leisure from the labor of my circuit, I
am induced to devote a portion of time in
giving to the public a plan, the outline of
which was suggested to me by an intelligent
friend in Bond County a few days since."

To this Douglas, under date of Washing-
ton, February 22, 1851, surrejoins at con-
siderable length, and in reference to this
opening sentence in the Sawyer letter, ex-
claims: " How is this! The father of the
Central Railroad, with a Christian meekness
worthy of all praise, kindly consents to be
the reputed parent of a hopeful son begotten
for him by an intelligent friend in a neigh-
boring county. I forbear pushing this in-
quiry further. It involves a question of
morals too nice, of domestic relations too
delicate for me to expose to the public gaze.
Inasmuch, however, as you have furnished
me with becoming gravity, the epitaph which
you desire engrossed upon your tomb when
called upon to pav the last debt of nature,

208

HISTOKY OF CAIRO.

you will allow me to suggest that as such an
inscription is a solemn and a sacred thing,
and truth its essential ingredient, would it
not be well to make a slight modification, so
as to correspond with the facts as stated in
your letter to Mr. Sawyer, which would
make it read thus in your letter to me : It
has been |the highest object of my ambition
to accomplish the Central Railroad, and
when my last resting place shall be marked
by the cold marble which gratitude or affec-
tion may erect, I desire for it no other in-
scription than this: He who sleeps beneath
this stone voluntarily consented to become
the putative father of a lovely child called
the Central Railroad, and begotten 'for him
by an] intelligent friend in the County of
Bond."

The question as to " who killed Cock
Robin f " seems to have here stopped, and
Judge Breese probably retired from the
controversy, feeling that he had asserted his
Sparrowship rather prematurely, and that
the " cold marble of gratitude or affection "
may never tell the story just as he fondly
hoped it would. The truth is the student of
the history of Illinois will come to the con-
clusion that Judge Breese never made a
greater mistake than when he entered poli-
tics, and imagined he was a statesman, and
allowed his political disappointments to sour
and cloud his life. His egregious error in
this respect reminds one of the interviews be-
tween Fredrick the Great and Voltaire. They
were great friends, and often Voltaire was
called to the court and entertained for weeks
and months. The king much wanted to
talk to Voltaire because the statesman really
believed his true gi'eatness lay in literature
and poetiy, and Voltaire wanted to talk to
the king because he never doubted that his
own true genius was all in the line of state-
craft and military affairs. And when they

met Voltaire would talk military all the
time, because that was something he knew
nothing about, and the king would with equal
persistence read his poems and talk literature
all the time, because he knew as little of
that as Voltaire did of empire or war. They
would complacently exchange sides, and
leaving those fields in which each stood pre-
eminent, they would talk the most profound-
ly idiotic, and invariably separate, denounc-
ing each other as hopeless idiots, to meet
again in great friendship the next morning
and renew the incurable folly.

Breese, no doubt, believed his talents,
genius and (education made him a great states-
man, and that it was merely rusting out a
great life to chain it to the woolsack. He
probably estimated that Douglas would have
made an estimable Justice of the Peace, but
it was farcical to hoist him over his (Breese's)
head as a statesman. The truth is, the peo-
ple understood Judge Breese much better
than he understood himself, and they put
him exactly where he was best fitted to be,
and he will go into history as an eminent
jui'ist. He made the gi'eat mistake of start-
ing life as a politician, and he reached the
United States Senate, but when he was over-
shadowed there by his junior colleague, the
" dapper little schoolteacher from Win-
chester," and actually defeated for a second
term by a wild Irishman with brogue a mile
thick, he returned to Illinois, heart-broken,
and in desperation accepted a place upon
the bench, where he worked until the day of
his death. His short political life was not
a fortunate one, and, in fact, was pretty
much a mere blunder from beginning to end,
while this judicial cai'eer was brilliant and
eminent.

Judge Douglas was the better poised mind
of the two, yet there is but little doubt he
would have as completely failed on the bench

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

209

as had Breese in politics. He tried a brief
term as Judge, and? realizing his failure, he
got out of it as soon as possible, never to re-
turn. He would have been a great lawyer,
but he never could have made a judge. He
may not have been a statesman, we do not
assert that he was, but if not, he approached it
close enough to be one of the most superb
demagoges the country has produced. We
do not use the word demagogue in an offen-
sive sense. If Douglas fell short of that
breadth and profundity that marks the line
between the demagogue and statesman, then
by what name in heaven's sake shall we des-
ignate all the other little great men of Illi-
nois ? — the political buzzards that have been
with us almost as numerously as the locusts
in Egypt. In short, who is Illinois' great
man, if not Douglas? Who will the histo-
rian of a hundred years hence, when without
bias or prejudice or judgment formed for
him by others or a popular hurrah, will,
with severe discrimination, unmask the
shams and cheap frauds, and dispassionately
examine what each one did do, and strike
the balance sheet and hold forth the results,
without mercy and without fear, we say who
will he name as the suitable irontispiece to
the history of Illinois up to this time. One
thing alone is certain to come pure and
bright from this alembic, and that is the fact
that Illinois to-day owes more to Judge
Douglas than to all her other notorious men
put togethex*. He gave the country the Illi-
nuis Central Railroad, and in the grand
scheme he not only refused to be corrupted,
but he crushed and annihilated the swai'ming
Credit Mobilier robbers that sprung up in al-
most countless numbers all along its path.
They could neither corrupt him, intimidate
him, nor crush him out, and the grand re-
sult is a marvel in the history of legislation
upon this continent, there is no parallel to

this great and benign act. It was the open-
ing wedge to the whole Mississippi Valley
foi the millions of happy, prosperous people,
teeming with content and well paid lives
that have made the rich wilderness truly
to blossom as the rose. And in the honesty
and purity that marked the whole transac-
tion, it stands alone in American history.
He knew that he was a poor man — one who
had served his country, and instead of com-
mencing poor and retiring rich, had com-
menced rich and would retire a pauper,
and that a nod of his head woiild have
put ill-gotten millions in his easy 'reach,
and he stood unflinchingly between the
people's treasiu-e and the ravenous horde,
and every day, every hour, every citizen of
Illinois — nay, more than twenty millions of
the people of the West — are rea})ing the
fruits, enjoying the comforts and realizing,
in some way, the wisdom of his guardianship
of their interests at a critical moment of the
country's life, and before a majority of those
now living were born.

In the year 1852, the necessary survey
having been completed, chiefly by Charles
Thrup, of Cairo, under the direction of Col,
Ashley, Division Engineer, and the timber
having been cleared from the route of the
railroad, the work of construction at the
Cairo end of the road was vigorously com-
menced.

Messrs. Ellis, Jenkins & Co. became con-
tractors, their contracts extending from
Cairo to the north line of Union County.
The law required the work to be commenced
simultaneously at the north and south ter-
mini of the road. The contractors speedily
had about foui' hundred men here at work,
and the heavy timber was cleared from the
track and the work commenced; and other
men were brought by them as fast as they
could be procured, and in the city and above

210

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

the city and on the Cache another force were
soon clearing away the timber, and within
Alexander County there wero between seven
hundred and a thousaud laborers at work.
Cairo was bustling, then, again with busy
life. Ellis, Jenkins & Co. failed and sur-
rendered their work, when Maurice Brodprick
became the contractor, and under his direc-
tion the Cairo levees, nearly as they are now
(except the Mississippi levee), were con-
structed. These were the long- anticipated,
flush times in Cairo once more. The sudden
influx of people trebled at once her popula-
tion, ^ve business an unparalleled activity
and called into existence a number of new
business institutions, particularly doggeries,
groceries, l)oarding-houses and supply places,
etc. Everybody made money. The stores
had all the business their keepers could sat-
isfactorily give attention to; the boarding-
houses were literally running over, and Mose
Harrell declares that after the second " pay
day," every saloon-keeper in town had a gold
fob-chain; an evidence that both bar-tender
and proprietor are raking in the ducats under
a fair and just divide.

Fights at fisticuffs, and arrangements
with " shillalahs," were the favorite past-
time and fun among the levee hands, but as
a general thing they resulted in nothing more
serious than disfigured countenances, or the
temporary enlargement of the phrenological
bumps. Only a single riot, having a fatal
termination, took place in Cairo during the
progress of these improvements. This occurred
during a "pay day." The old foundiy was used
as an ofiice by the contractors, and here they
paid off their hands. The room was crowded
with laborers, eager for settlement, as well as
those who had furnished supplies, etc. They
were so crowded and clamorous, that it was
found difiicult for the clerks to transact the
business, Mr. Stephens ordered them all to

leave the room. Of course they gave no heed
to his order; observing this, he rushed among
them with a bowie-knife, and commenced
cutting right and left, utterly regardless of
consequences. An ax being at hand, one of the
assaulted crowd seized it and seeing that life
and death were the alternatives, aimed a
blow at Stephens, which cleft to the brain.

The work upon the line from here to the
north part of Union County was pushed
vigorously ahead, with the forces distributed
at all the points where the heavy work was
to be done.

On the 7th day of August, 1855, the first
train of cars over the Illinois Central Rail-
road reached the city of Cairo. A locomo-
tive, under the charge of Joe Courtway, draw-
ing a half-dozen platform cars, whereon were
seated about one hundred citizens of Jones-
boro and intermediate points, formed the
train and passengers. Beyond Jonesboro
the road was not finished, but the work was
so near completion, that in a few weeks the
trains were enabled to pass over the entire
main line.

On the 1st day of January, 1856, the first
passenger train, on schedule time, passed over
the Central road from Chicago to Cairo, and
a large delegation of leading people of Chica-
go were the passengers. The people of Cairo
gave them a hearty reception, and literally
Chicago and Cairo — the two extremes of the
State, and the two best located cities in Illi-
nois — shook hands and kissed in mutual love
and admiration. The Chicago visitors were
royally entertained at the "Taylor House,"
and all were glorying over the auspicious event
After spending the day in shaking hands and
looking about the town, they were entertained
in the evening by two large and separate
balls and suppers, at which speeches were
made, toasts drunk, and a generally happy
and hilarious time was prolonged to the end

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

211

of the visitors' stay. Manifestations of kin-
dred feeling over the completion of the road
were to be seen everywhere along the route,
the people correctly believing that the time
marked the commencement of a glorious and
more prosperous era for the Prairie State
and her people.

The Chicago, St. Louis & New Orleans
Railroad, or what was better known as the
"Great Jackson Route," a railroad from Cairo
direct to New Orleans, was, in the year
1882, consolidated and made part of the Illi-
nois Central Railroad, and is now the South-
ern Division of the Illinois Central Railroad,
a continuous line from Chicago to New Or-
leans. Trains are passed over the river at
Cairo by the transfer boat, H. I. McComb.
So complete and perfect is this part of the
work pRrformed, that passengers cross the
river and are speeded on their way north or
south often, without an interruption to their
slumbers.

Cairo & St. Louis Railroad. — Originally,
this was wholly a Cairo enterprise, and it
was started [under very favorable auspices.
The charter was enacted by the Legislature,
February 16, 1865, the incorporators being
Sharon Tyndale, Isham N. Haynie, Samuel
Staats Taylor, John Thomas, William H.
Logan, William P. Halliday and Tilman B.
Cantrell, who, by the terms of the charter,
were " vested with powers, privileges and
immunities which are or may be necessary to
construct, complete and operate a railroad,
from the city of Cairo to any point opposite
the city of St. Louis." The capital stock
authorized was $3,000,000, and which
" may be inci'eased to not exceeding $5,000,-
000." The law makes Sharon Tyndale,
Isham N. Haynie, Samuel Staats Taylor, John
Thomas, William H. Logan, William P.
Halliday and Tilman B. Cantrell the first
Board of Directors, and requires them to

elect officers of the corporation from their
body. Section 5 of the act is in the follow-
ing words: " Nothing contained in this act,
or any law of this State, shall authoi'izo said
company to take, for the uses and purposes
of the company, or otherwise, or to impair
any portion of the levees, or embankment
already constructed or erected by the
Trustees of the Cairo City Property, or by
any person or corporation, under existing
agreements with them, except by the consent
of said Trustees and of the city of Cairo."

This charter is a neat, short, compact,
and yet comprehensive document, and is ad-
mirably suited for the purposes for which it
was intended. It names only two points —
Cairo and some point opposite St. Louis. As
short as it is, it grants every power wanted,
and hampers the company with none of the
usual provisions and directions and un-
necessary minutise in controlling the action
of the company, except vSection 5, which we
give entire, and out of which has arisen some
complications with the city of Cairo. The
municipalities along the line are authorized
to donate lands and subscribe for stock.

S. Staats Taylor was elected President at
the meeting for organization of the charter
directors. In 1874, he was succeeded by
F. E. Cauda, of Chicago.

The municipalities along the line, from
Cairo to Columbia, in Monroe County, voted
$1,050,000 in aid of the enterprise, and the
contract to construct the entire ;line was
awarded to H. R. Payson & Co., of Chicago.
Work was commenced in 1872, at the St.
Louis end, or rather at East Carondelet, and
under many difficulties, pushed to comple-
tion in 1874, to Murphysboro, and the work
stopped. This result came from the inability
of the contracfx^rs to go any further, and they
were thus crippled by the municipalities
latterly refusing to pay their donations. The

HLSTOIIY OF CAIRO.

contractors had invested over $1,000,000 of
their own funds, and failing to get the
money donated, according to the terms of
the vote of the people, they were too much
crippled, or did not feel like risking any
more expenditure iu the enterprise. The
road, so far as built, was at once stocked and
operated, being run from East Carondelet to
East St. Louis — a distance of about five
miles — over the Conlogue road. From the
very first, it was a financial success, as a
purely local road, and much more than paid
expenses. It tapped the very finest country
lying east and south of St. Louis, passing
through ihe southwest corner of St. Clair,
and entering Monroe, and through the center
of this and into Randolph and Jackson Coun-
ties, and ,'giving all this rich and populous
section direct and easy communication with
St. Louis. But the people of Cairo could
not see where this was benefiting them any,
and communication was opened with the com-
pany with a view of extending it, as the
charter specified, to Cairo; and Union
County, being as deeply interested as Cairo,
joined in ofifering inducements to have the
work completed. Alexander County had sub-
scribed $100,000, and the city of Cairo a
similar amount; Union County had sub-
scribed $100,000, and the city of Jonesboro
$50,000. Alexander County and the city of
Cairo paid their subscriptions to the last dol-
lar, and kept their faith; Union County paid
a portion of hers, and Jonesboro paid one-
half, or $25,000 of her subscription; and on
March 1, 1875, the road was completed from
East Carondelet to Cairo, making an entire
line from Cairo to East St. Louis. We may
here remark that Jonesboro, after getting
the road, repudiated the remainder of her
donation, and was sued upon the bonds, and
before the local court of Union County easily
got a judgment acquitting her of the debt;

but the case was removed into the United
States Court, and recently this decision sum-
marily reversed, and the probabilities are she
will have to pay the debt with the accumu-
lated interest. It was a case of voting aid by
the wholesale, and, except Alexander County
and Cairo, repudiation with equal facility
and complacency. Our State constitution
now prohibits the people giving donations to
railroads. It should never have permitted it.
It is vicious legislation, and the corruption
of the people and banishing all sense of
honor from municipalities starts a train of
descent that, in the end, reaches the in-
dividuals who compose the corporate bodies.

The contractors had entered into the usual
obligations, namely, to take the donations,
and in the end the corporation and all its be-
longings as pay for building, and in the end
became the sole proprietors of the road. The
complications arising from the failure to get
the donations, as mentioned, deeply involved
the road in debt, and, as the only way out of
it, on the 7th of December, 1877, Mr. H. W.
Smithers was appointed Receiver of the road,
and at once took possession and operated un-
der the protection of the courts. This, it
seems, was a fortunate appointment, and
under his management he repaired, stocked
and fixed the line in good running order. He
constructed depots, and in East St. Louis
built a round-house with seven stalls, ma-
chine shops and spacious freight and passen-
ger depots. He made of it a very good line
of road, whereas when he took charge of it,
it was in a dilapidated condition from one
end to the other.

The road was sold, under the decree of the
court, in January, 1882, and on February 1,
of the same year, was re-organized, with the
following as the new Board of Directors: C.
W. Schaap, W. T. Whitehouse, S. C. Judd,
L. M. Johnson, E. B. Sheldon, H. B. White-

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

213

house, J. M. Mills and E. H. Fishburn. The
present Board is W. F. Whitehouse, L. M.
Johnson, Ex. Norton, Fred Bross, John B.
Lovington, C. W. Schaap, H. B. Whitehoiise,
Jos i ah H. Horsey and S. Corning Judd.
The officers of the road consist of AV. F.
Whitehonse, President; L. M. Johnson, Vice
President; Charles Hamilton, General Sup-
erintendent; S. Corning Judd, Gen. Sol.;
William Ritchie, Secretary; George H.
Smith, General Freight and Passenger
Agent, and Lewis Enos, Auditor and Cash-
ier. The new organization at once set about
building their own road into East St. Louis
from Carondelet, and this was completed dur-
ing the present year. In the year 1881, the
road "was engaged in completing its line into
Cairo, in accordance with the terms of its
arrangements to build on the strip of land
of the Cairo Trust Pi'operty, on the Missis-
sippi side; a part of that arrangement being
that, for this privilege, it was to keep in re-
pair and raise aud strengthen the levee run-
ning along the Mississippi River, and on the
south of the city. This work was only fairly
commenced, when the city of Cairo went into
court, and prayed an injunction to prevent
the road crossing Washington avenue.
The point where the road comes in contact
with this avenue is some distance north of
the north levee, and where neither a road,
avenue or highway exists, except on the city
plat. No dray, carriage, buggy or dog- cart
or foot passenger will, probably, want to
use that particular portion of Washington
avenue for the next hundred years. The in-
junction was granted, prohibiting the road
from crossing this avenue, and Judge Baker
has made the injunction [perpetual. The
road laade the best temporary arrangement
it could, and has a track on the Mississippi
levee, and in this way is enabled to reach the
Vnion Depot. These complications are un-

fortunate for the road, as it practically cuts
it out of a permanent terminus here, and
prevents it making those contemplated im-
provements, as well as making any solid and
advantageous connecting arrangements with
other roads from Cairo south. It practically
cuts off its Cairo freight business from the
north. And one item of very great impor-
tance to the people and business is, that this
unfortunate state of affairs prevents the road
shipping to this market the Jackson County
coal, that is so much needed here for the
manufactories that may be yet built in Cairo,
as well as for the local and river trade.
Here are altogether a remarkable state of
facts. During all the struggle for existence,
the city extended to it a princely, liberal
hand, and it was the people's money of Cairo
that enabled the projectors to ever build the
road. After it was built, from some griev-
ance not visible in the court papers, she
turns upon and badly cripples that particular
portion of the road in which the town is
deeply interested. There has been short-
sighted management somewhere. The man-
agers of the road, and particularly the con-
tractors, who were saved from hopeless
banki'uptcy by the action of Cairo, when the
other municipalities were repudiating their
donations, must have, at one time, felt very
kindly to Cairo, and the S20(),000 put in
there by the city and county, certainly could
have controlled and brought here the ma-
chine shops, round-house and such other and
valuable improvements as the road has now
made in East St. Louis, and others it will yet
make. In the law the city triumphs, but
where are her gains? Look at the results:
The road has no reliable entrance into Cairo.
During the past twelve months, there were
three months that no train over that road
came into Cairo; yet its trains ran regularly
into East St. Louis, and came down to Hodge' s

214

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

Park, a few miles north of Cairo, the
road all the time doing a good local business,
and the managers showed the writer hereof
their books during the time of the interrup-
tion of trains, and there was no falling off in
the revenues of the road. That left Cairo in
the condition of having given $200,000 to
build a railroad to tap the country in her im-
mediate vicinity, and take her natural trade
away from her very door, and carry all to St.
Louis — a species of commercial suicide, as
the farmers and business men along the line,
from Bodge' 8 Park to St. Louis, were cut off
from Cairo as completely as if the town was
in the moon, and the doors to St. Louis
thrown open to them. A similar policy on
the other roads would soon sow the streets of
the town with cockle and dog- fennel, to
flourish in unmolested glory. The city gave
its best sti'eet to another road, entirely
through the main and business part of the
town, where it now runs its trains to the
great distress of the people, and at the same
time enjoins the Cairo &St. Louis road from
crossing Washington avenue at a place in the
swamps north of the city proper, where that
highway, probably, will never be utilized,
except by ducks and frogs, or, in very dry
seasons, the " lone fisherman."

The Cairo & St.L ouis Railroad has no con-
necting interests here with any other railroad.
It is now a purely local St. Louis 'road,
bringing little or nothing to Cairo, and tak-
ing as little away. A talk with the managers
will at once convince yovithat they feel little
if any interest in the town. When it is so
they can, without any inconvenience, they
run their trains into the place; when they
cannot do this they don't care. At the St.
Louis end, they have running connection with
the Toledo Narrow-Gauge Railroad; $200,-
000 of the people's money has gone into the
enterprise, and now the city and the road are

like the old fellow, when he announced
" Betsy and I are out." They rush into law,
and the outcome is a triumph for the city,
but it. is somewhat like the victory of the
wife, who has her husband fined for whip-
ping her, and while he enjoys himself in jail,
she washes to raise the money to pay his
fine. The lion was taking a drink in the
stream, and some distance below the lamb
was crossing. The lion straightway killed
the lamb for muddying the waters up where he
was drinking. The managers profess pro-
found ignorance of why Cairo should turn
upon and rend her own offspring. The peo-
ple of Cairo generally profess the same ig-
norance, and we know they individually feel
kindly toward the road. They realize that it
should be, and naturally is, one of the most
valuable lines that came into Cairo, and they
regret these unfortunate circumstances that
have nearly neutralized its good effects upon
the town. If there was any serious question to
form the bone of contention, it would be
altogether different, and then the war might
go on, and neither the road nor the people
would grumble. True, people here sometimes
shake their heads, and say, look at our
many great railroads that add their im-
mense values to the natural lines of com-
merce and Cairo, and yet there is no suffi-
cient advance in the city's march forward to
keep pace with these encouraging signs. On
the surface, there are no reasons for this state
of affairs, and yet a look below — where the
real facts lie — might reveal a state of 'affairs
that would make all plain enough.

But these matters will soon be adjusted;
propositions, we are glad to learn, are now
passing, looking to a full settlement, and it
is to be hoped they will be consummated at
an early day, and the road and the city will
be just and profitable to each other.

Cairo Short Line. — This is another Cairo &

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

2 IS

St. Louis Railroad. It was projected and built
originally as a southern line for the Indian-
apolis & St. Louis Railroad, and was built
from East St. Louis to Duquoin, when it
was purchased and became a part of the Illi-
nois Central Railroad. It runs upon the
Central to Duquoin, and there branches off
to St. Louis. It is really the Illinois Cen-
tral Railroad from Cairo to St. Louis, making
the second direct St. Louis & Cairo Railroad.

The Wabash was originally chartered as the
Cairo & Vincennes Raih'oad, the incorpora-
tion bearing date March 6, 1867. The incor-
porators were Green B. Raum, D. Hiu*d, N.
R. Casey, AV. P. Halliday, J. B. Chasman.
A. J. Kuykendall, John W. Mitchell, S.
Staats Taylor, W. R. Wilkinson, John il.
Crebbs, Walter L. Mayo, Robert Mick, Samuel
Hess, George Mertz, V, Rathbone, D. T.
Linegar, Aaron Shaw, James Tackney, W.
W. McDowell, Isaac B. Watts and Isham N.
Haynie. They were authorized to construct
a railroad from the city of Cairo, by the way
of Mound City, to some point on or near the
line between Illinois- and Indiana, at or near
Vincennes. Donations were here liberally
voted, and Gen. Burnside became the gen-
eral contractor, and represented fully the
interests of the capitalists.

In October, 1881, it was consolidated, and
became a part of the Wabash system of rail-
roads, in which management it is now con-
ducted. On the 10th December, 1872, the
road was completed from Vincennes to Cairo,
and a through passenger train arrived in
Cairo, bringing a lai-ge delegation of prom-
inent citizens, among whom was Gen. Burn-
side, who was the chief officer and builder of
the road. The visitors were entertained
royally, and banqueted in the evening.

The original contractors for the entire line
were Dodge, Lord k Co. The city of Cairo
and the county of Alexander had each sub-

scribed and taken S100,CK)0 of stock in the
road, paying therefor in their bonds. Finan-
cial diflSculties of the company compelled
the contractors to stop work in 1869, and
this stoppage continued until 1871, when
Winslow <fc Wilson contracted for. and com-
pleted the work of construction. After the
completion of the road, Messrs. A. B. Safford
and Mr. Morris were appointed Receivers,
and they were afterward succeeded by Messrs.
Morgan & Tracey, who continued in control
of its destinies to the time it passed into the
Wabash system of railroads.

Mobile <& Ohio Railroad. — This road was in
contemplation as a line from Cairo to Mo-
bile, as an extension, in fact, of the Illinois
Central Railroad. In accordance with the
wise provisions of Congress, work was com-
menced at the Mobile end of the road, and
the work completed to Columbus, Ky, and a
transfer boat used in connection with the
trains between this point and Cairo. The
war coming on, not only the work of com-
pleting the road to Cairo was stopped, but it
soon Ceased to be a road at all, as portions of
it were in the hands of the Union forces, and
parts in the hands of the rebels. The i-ails
were torn up, carried away, and often heated
and bent out of all shape. The rolling stock
was destroyed, as well as the most of the
station houses, buildings and shops. After
the war was over, and the people of the
South had again begun the work of recover-
ing their lost fortunes, the enterprise was
taken hold of by captalists, and the work of
rebuilding the line and extending the road
on to Cairo was pressed to completion.

The Texas d: St. Louis Railroad is des-
tined some day to become one of the most
important and valuable of all the roads lead-
ing into Cairo. It will be, when completed,
a direct and continuous line from Cairo to
the Ci*y of Mexico.

216

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

The Texas & St. Louis Bail way Company
have recently concluded passenger and
freight traffic aiTangements with the Illinois
Central Kailroad Company, which is to exist
for a period of fifty years, the essence of
which is that the Illinios Central is to take
complete control of the northern, western
and eastern passenger and freight business
of the Texas & St. Louis, and vice versa the
trade of the Illinois Central, as far as
it pertains to the country traversed by this
new road. The Texas & St. Louis is part
of a system of railway which is to run direct
from Cairo to the City of Mexico, and em-
braces a distance of 2,000 miles; 600 miles
of' the system is already in operation, and it
is said by those who have made a tour of in-
spection, that it is as finely built and
equipped a road as there is in the United
States. It has been built by foreign capital,
not to sell, but as a permanent investment,
and therefore the elegant road and magnificent
equipage. The inclines, for transfer of cars
from Bird's Point to Cairo, are completed,
and a first-class transfer boat is now being
operated. The business for St. Louis will
be done over the Cairo & St. Louis Short
Line. The road bearing the name of the
Texas & St. Louis will open up a vast, rich
country to the trade of Cairo, which has had
heretofore little or no outlnt, and its business
will, doubtless, render it a marvel in point of
financial success. The road runs direct from
Bird's Point, opposite Cairo, to Texarkana,
thence to Waco, thence to Gatesville, and
thence to the Rio Grande, connecting there
with the Mexican Central. Maj. G. B. Hib-
bard, chief contractor, with headquartei-s at
Cairo, is pushing the work with all possible
speed, and he confidently believes the entire
2,000 miles will be completed and in success-
ful operation within two years.

The Iron Mountain Railroad is now a

regular Cairo railroad, by an extension from
Charleston, Mo., to Bird's Point, giving the
town an additional highway to St. Louis and
the South. This is one of the valuable Mis-
souri railroads, and was constructed and
operated for years with the idea that it could
afford to pass within a few miles of Cairo
and ignore its existence. But time, and the
growth and trade of the place, eventually
compelled them to build into Cairo and estab-
lish a transfer boat, and thus reach some of
the rich harvest that awaited their coming.

Here are eight completed first-class rail-
roads into Cairo, and the anticipations of the
next few months are that the Chesapeake &
Ohio Railroad will be added to the Cairo list
of roads, and thus form a direct line from
the city to the Atlantic Ocean at Norfolk, Ya.,
making, by many miles, the most direct road
to the seashore. The value of this line, if
carried out as now contemplated, would be
incalculable to the whole Mississippi Yalley.
It would compel the building of a direct rail-
road from Cairo West to the Pacific coast, or
at least to a connection with the Southern
Pacific Railroad. The Cincinnati & Cairo
Narrow Gauge Railroad is now in course of
construction. The road will run direct from
Cincinnati to Cairo, passing entirely across
the southern portion of Indiana, and have a
length of 220 miles. This will bring a rich
portion of the country to the Cairo trade.

The Toledo & St. Louis Narrow Gauge is
now completed, and the construction of a
branch from some point in Shelby or Edgar
County to Cairo is being rapidly pushed to
completion. This important link is essential
to the filling out of the gi'eat net-work of nar-
row gauge roads that are now being completed
from New York City to the City of Mexico.

Thus may we not now hope that the
commanding commercial position of Cairo
will yet compel the making here of a great

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

217

railroad and transportation and travel center,
that nature evidently intended from the first
it should become. At the least, here is light

and hope ahead for the people who have
toiled and struggled and hoped so long and
so faithfully.

CHAPTER XL

CONCLUSION—THE FUTURE OF

THE CITY CONSIDERED— HER PRESENT
PRESENT CITY OFFICIALS, ETC.

STATUS AND GROWTH—

"While others may think of the times that are gone,
They are bent by the years that are fast rolling on. "

A BRIEF retrospect, and a short sum-
ming-up of Cairo as it is, will con-
chide oxar account of its history; and in this
retrospect we much wish we could answer,
to oiu- own satisfaction, the' oft-repeated
question that the people have propounded to
us in regard to the future of the city: "What
is the city's outlook?" No town site has
been more especially favored by natiu'e, and
few, if any, have been so sorely afflicted with
untoward circumstances. And often the most
heroic exertions in her behalf, by some of
her people here, have re-acted to the apparent
real injury to the prospects of the place.
Her foundation was laid in a Soixth Sea Bub-
ble, by a visionary, impracticable, baulcrupt
corporation that gathered the first people
here rapidly, and then tumbled over their
own air castles and left the people in distress
and despair. In a night, almost, a thrifty
young city of 2,000 liusy, bustling people
was turned into an idle mob, wandering about
the Ohio levee, and ready — and did attempt
— to take by force the fii'st steamer that
touched at the wharf, and appropriate it to
the purpose of taking the many workers, who
bad been thrown out of employment, away
from the place. The officers only saved their
property by hastily drawing out into the
stream. Then, after the levees were built,

the waters came and washed them away, and
drowned out the town, and gloom and desola-
tion marked its tracks. But above, and perhaps
far greater causes of evils that have beset Cairo
all its life, and of which it is not yet wholly
exempt, have been the corporate and private
monopolies that have sucked out much of that
vitality that it so much needed for its own
development. It altogether impresses us
with the fact, that the remarkable natm-al
wealth of advantages of the place have been
among its misfortunes. As in some spots of
the globe the wealth of soil, climate and
vegetable and animal growth are so rank and
profuse, that they overcome the energies of
man, and remain a wilderness, the home of
an u.nparalleled growth of vegetation, filled
with ferocious beasts and poisonous insects.
For instance, the wonderful land of Brazil,
in South America, a scope of country larger
than the United States, and the richest in
climate and soil in the world, so rich and so
prolific, that it defies the puny arm of man
to conquer and become the master of its riot
of power in productiveness of vegetable and
animal life. From the very force and power of
its abundance, it is made as uninhabitable as
are the arid wastes of the sandy desert. In
looking over the short life of the city, we
cannot but be impressed with the fact that
it has been one of its misfortunes in present-
ing so many natural advantages as to temj)t

218

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

the schemers and the unsci'upulous to com-
bine and attempt to gather in to their own,
benefits and advantages that were placed
here by nature in quantities sufficient for al-
most a young empire. Great cities in this
country have not been built by corporations,
backed ;by stringent or powerful laws of the
State Legislatiu'es. They need no combina-
tions, companies or heavy capitalists in their
young and growing days. It wants only the
free play of individual effort, where each
business man may see a hope to realize
wealth and position by his efforts, and to know
that in such a struggle he will not be
crushed by a public or private monopoly.
Hence, Cairo's first calamity was a charter
granted for its building. Cairo, and its past
histor}^, and its destiny, are singular subjects
to contemplate. There is, looking from one
standpoint, no reason why there should not
be as many people and as much wealth here
as there is in Chicago, and, tiu'ning to the
other side of the picture, the wonder arises
why the 10,000 people who are now here
ever came, or stayed when they did come.
It has demonstrated what many wise heads
believed impossible, namely, the erection of
levees and embankments that would protect,
not only against the "highest known waters,"
but against the unparalleled floods of 1882 and
1883. It has been the only dry land along
the river, but it was an island in the waste
of waters, and the overflow of the present year
has demonstrated that it is not alone enough
to keep the water out of the city, but the
merchants and business men are now realiz-
ing that they must keep up communication
with the agricultural communities surround-
ing the place, or business will stagnate, and
hard times will come. Again, the levees
have always presented vexatioiis questions,
that were injurious because unsettled ques-
tions. People have divided upon the policies

to be pursued in reference to grading up the
town and the levees, and continued that un-
settled state of the public mind that has
caused injury to the permanent gi'owth and
especially the manufacturing interests of the
place. A world-wide misapprehension and
a common stock-slander on the extreme South-
ern Illinois, has been in regard to the
healthfulness of this section of the country.
To the citizens, there is the patent fact that
there is no healthier place in the Mississippi
Valley. The general appearance of the peo-
ple, the overflow of the school rooms with
ruddy, chubby-faced, happy children, tell the
whole story as to the health of the people;
but the traveler sees a pond of sipe water,
the low, swampy land about the city, and.
being impressed before he comes with the
common slander, imagines he needs a medi-
cated sponge tied over his nose in order
that he may not breathe in death in passing
hurriedly through the place, and 'he writes
a letter to the great city paper, telling the
world of the dangers that he passed, and the
providential escape he made, in passing
through Southern Illinois. It is immaterial
what the health statistics may show, these
the affrighted slanderer will not see, particu-
larly as they give the He direct to his manu-
factured stories; but if they did, upon the
contrary, show a great death rate here, then,
indeed, would these tables be quoted and re-
quoted the year round, in great, fat display
type, that all the world might see,

Cairo was the natural crossing point for
the immigration and travel east and west,
north and south. This point of crossing, in
the center of the continent, was, by the war
and fother untoward circumstances, moved
300 miles north of this, and the south half
of the Union, for commercial purposes, was
wiped from the map of the country for a dec-
ade or more, and the railroads built, and the

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

219

cities sprung up, and commerce adjusted to
this northern line, until it may now be for-
ever impossible to change it. The very fact
that Illinois penetrated, from the northern
lakes, like a wedge, down into the Southern
States, forming, as Daniel P. Cook argued,
the keystone of the great union of States,
has been turned, in the unfortunate quarrels
of the late war, into a base whereon to place
this end of the State in the same categoiy,
for the unholy sneers and slanders that were
heaped upon all the South, and aided much
in spreading her discredit world-wide. Then,
the city is confronted with such questions
as, Will the rivers continue to mark the
flood line higher and higher, as has been the
case the past two years? If so, indeed, then,
what of the morrow? It is urged that the
constant improvement in draining that is
going on north of us — tile draining, espe-
cially — that in many places is becoming so
universal, and to these are remembered the
fact that the forests are being cleared away,
and that these facts, added to the levees
thrown up at many places as railroad beds,
must cause the waters to continue to rise
higher and higher, until, in the end, there
will be no such things as fencing them out
with embankments. There were features of
the last flood that fail to bear out this rea-
soning. The waters at Cincinnati were five
feet higher than ever known; at Cairo, only
a few inches. Then, the hope and purpose
of the river improvement now going on is to
deepen the bed of the river by naiTOwiug
the current in the shallow and wide places in
the river, and increasing the current (it is
claimed, upon experiments, that this deepen-
ing can be made to an average of twelve
feet), and this increase of current and depth
of the river's bed must lower materially the
flood line of any high waters that may come
down the rivers. The unequaled advantages

of Cairo for nearly all our manufacturing
industries are beginning to be understood
throughout the country. The accessions to
the city in important factories in the
past few years, show that shrewd men see
here the best place in all the West to get the
raw material and the machinery for its fash-
ioning together, and then, when the article
is made, with the easiest and best outlets
to the markets of the world — transportation
that can never combine or pool its business,
to the detriment of the manufacturer or mer-
chant. Then, why are not all the great
manufacturing industries of the country rep-
resented here, crowding the levees of the
Ohio and Mississippi with their "flaming forges
and flying spindles," and the roar and hum
of machinery, and " the music of the hammer
and the saw?" In shoi't, why is not Cairo
the great manufacturing city of America?
Nature has offered illimitable bounties to
bring them here; why have they not come?
Perhaps each one can tigm-e out for himself
the why and the wherefore of this. We
believe the reasons to be partially artificial
(these might be removed), and partly natural.
One thing we may truthfully say of Cairo
and her surrounding countiy: The locality
has never been advertised to the world. A
tithe of the money wasted from time to time,
if it had been judiciously invested in adver-
tising the superior advantages of this sec-
tion of country, would have brought many
more people here than are now citizens.
Men sit ai'ound, and croak about capital com-
ing here. This is not the way cities are
built; but it is the men starting in trade and
commerce; men who are possessed, often,
of small means and great activity and nerve,
that come to a new place, perhaps commence
business in a tent or shanty; that push
along, and eventually erect great business
houses, and great factories, and build rich

220

HISTORY OF CAIRO.

cities. The capitalists will only follow
where these men have shown the way.
We therefore think it probably an unwise act
in the city authorities making so large a dis-
trict of the city as the fire limits for build-
ing purposes. It is very doubtful wisdom to
obstruct the man of small means from build-
ing. A town full of cheap houses is one of
the best indications of coming prosperity. If
they biu-n, they will take their insiirance
money, and only build a better grade of
houses in the place of the old. The man
wants all his money in his business, and it is
only when he feels comparatively rich will
he build fine or extensive establishments.
To sum up the evils that have beset Cairo,
we need only name the floods and fire, epi-
demics and monopolies. These are her main
grievances. To these may be added some
mistaken legislation on the part of the city
authorities, and particularly the grave mis-
take of keeping the filling and grading ques-
tions always open, and in an unsettled con-
dition. This deters men from building, as
well as others from coming here and putting
up extensive manufacturing and commercial
establishments.

It is better to settle it in some way, and let
that be a permanent settlement.

Cairo has passed her greatest trials, and
whilst her triumph, even, has left her behind
in the race with other cities that possessed
hardly a tithe of her natiiral advantages, yet

her prospects just now are far better than
they have ever been before. She has a per-
manent population: they are creating the
wealth that some day will do much toward
building here a city. The wholesale trade
of the merchants has sprung up in a very
few years, and if good wagon roads are made
to all the surrounding country, and kept up,
a few years will mark a splendid and solid
advancement of the town.

The social and intellectual activity of the
community in recent years, is well indicated
by a public free library, that is now prepar-
ing a permanent and beautiful home for
itself, and the two book and news stores of
the city that are so largely patronized by
the people, and the elegant and spacious
Government Post Ofiice and Custom House.

The present city officials are Thomas
W. Halliday, Mayor; Denis J. Foley, City
Clerk; Charles, F. Nellis, Treasurer; L. H.
Myers, Marshal ; W. B. Gilbert, Corporation
Counsel ; Wil Ham E. Hendricks, City Attorney ;
M. J. Howley, City Comptroller; A. Comings,
Police Magistrate. Aldermen— First Ward,
William McHale and Hemy Walker ; Second
Ward, Jesse Hinckle, C. N. Hughes; Third
Ward, B. F. Blake, E. A. Smith; Foui-th
Ward, C. A. Patier, A. Swoboda; Fifth
Ward, Charles Lancaster, Henry Stout;
Street Superintendent, Nicholas Devore; As-
sistant Chief of Fire Department, Joseph
Steagala.

PAET II.

HISTORY OF UION" COUNTY,

\l,

■/«

^ ?

aa^^

PART II.

History of Union County,

BY H. C. BRADSBY.

CHAPTER I,

INTRODUCTION— GEOLOGY— IMPORTANCE OF EDUCATING THE PEOPLE ON THIS SUBJECT— THE
LIMESTONE DISTRICT OF ILLINOIS— ECONOMICAL GEOLOGY OF UNION, ALEXANDER
AND PULASKI COUNTIES— MEDICAL SPRINGS, BUILDING MATERIAL, SOIL,
ETC.— WONDERFUL WEALTH OF NATURE'S BOUNTIES— TOPOG-
RAPHY AND CLIMATE OF THIS REGION, I:TC.

History is philosophy teaching bj' example.

THIS and the two succeeding chapters
include the district composed of Union,
Alexander and Pulaski Counties. The whole
was once Union County, and the first three
chapters bring the history down to the for-
mation of Alexander County.

For school j)urposes — for the purpose of
giving the people a most important education
in the practical life interests — there is no
question of such deep interest as the geolog-
ical history of that particular portion of the
country in which they make their homes.
The peojDle of Southern Illinois are an agri-
cialtural one in their pursuits. Their first
care is the soil and climate, and it is here
they may find an almost inexhaiistible fund
of knowledge, that will ever put money in
their purses. All mankind are deeply in-
terested in the soil. From here comes all
life, all beauty, pleasure, wealth and enjoy-
ment Of itself, it may not be a beautiful

thing, but from it comes the fragrant fiower,
the golden fields, the sweet blush of the
maiden's cheek, the flash of the lustrous eye
that is more powerful to subdue the heart of
obdurate man tlian an army with banners.
From here comes the great and rich cities
whose towers and temples and minarets kiss
the early morning sun, and whose ships, with
their precious cai'goes, fleck every sea. In
short, it is the nom'ishing mother whence
comes oui' high civilization — the wealth of
nations, the joys and exalted pleasures of
life. Hence, the corner-stone upon which all
of life rests is the farmer, who tickles the
earth and it laughs with tbe rich harvests
that so bountifully bless mankind. Who,
then, should be so versed in the knowledge
of the soil as the farmer? What other infor-
mation can be so valuable to him as the mas-
tery of the science of the geology, at least that
much of it as applies to that part of the earth
where he h' t cast his fortunes and cultivates

226

HISTOKY OF UNIOK COUNTY.

the soil. We talk of educating the farmer,
and ordinarily this means to send yom' boys
to college, to acquire what is termed a class-
ical education, and they come, perhaps, as
graduates, as incapable of telling the geolog-
ical story of the father's farna as is the
veriest bumpkin who can neither read nor
write. How much more of practical value it
would have been to the young man had he
never looked into the classics, and instead
thereof had taken a few practical lessons in
the local geology that would have told him
the story of the soil around him, and enabled
him to comprehend how it was formed, its
different qualities and from whence it came,
and its constituent elements. The farmer
grows to be an old man, and he will tell you
that he has learned to be a good farmer only
by a long life of laborious experiments, and
if you should tell him that these experiments
had made him a scientific farmer, he would
look with a good deal of contempt upon your
supposed effort to poke ridicule at him. He
has taught himself to regard the word
" science" as the property only of book- worms
and cranks. He does not realize that every
step in farming is a purely scientific opera-
tion, because science is made by experiments
and investigations. An old farmer may ex-
amine a soil, and tell you it is adapted to
wheat or corn, that it is warm or cold and
heavy, or a few other facts that his long ex-
periments have taught him, and to that ex-
tent he is a scientific farmer. He will tell
you that his knowledge has cost him much
labor, and many sore disappointments. Sup-
pose that in his youth a well-digested chap-
ter on the geological history, that would have
told him, in the simplest terms, all about the
land he was to cultivate, how invaluable the
lesson would have been, and how much in
money value it would have proved to him.
In other words, if you could g' ^ e your boys

a practical education, made up of a few les-
sons pertaining to those subjects that im-
mediately concern their lives, how invaluable
such an education might be, and how many
men would thus be saved the pangs and pen-
alties of ill-directed lives. .The parents often
spend much money in the education of their
children, and from this they build great
hopes upon their future, that are often
blasted, not through the fault, always, of the
child, but through the error of the parent in
not being able to know in what real, practi-
cal education consists. If the schools of the
country, for instance, could devote one of
the school months in each year to rambling
over the hills and the fields, and gathering
practical lessons in the geology and botany
of the section of country in which the chil-
idren were born and reared, how incompar-
ably more valuable and useful the time thus
spent would be to them in after life, than
would the present mode of shu.tting out the
joyous sunshine of life, and expending both
life and vitality in studying metaphysical
mathematics, or the most of the other text-
books that impart nothing that is worth the
carrying home to the child's stock of knowl-
edge. At all events, the chapter in a
county's history that tells its geological for-
mation is of first importance to all its people,
and if properly prepared it will become a
source of great interest to all, and do much
to disseminate a better education among the
people, and thus be a perpetual blessing to
the community.

The permanent effect of the soil on the
people is as strong and certain as upon
the vegetation that springs from it. It is a
maxim in geology that the soil and its un-
derlying rocks forecast unerringly to the
trained eye the character of the people, the
number and the quality of the civilization
of those who will, in the coming time, occuj^y

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

227

it. Indeed, so close are the relations of
the geology and the people, that this law is
plain and fixed, that a new countiy may
have its outlines of history written when first
looked upon, and it is not, as so many sup-
pose, one of those deep, abstruse subjects
that are to be given over solely to a few great
investigators and thinkers, and to the masses
must forever i*emain a sealed book. The
youths of your country may Jearn the impor-
tant outlines of the geology of their country
with no more difficulty than they meet in
mastering the multiplication table or th«
simple rule of three. And we make no ques-
tion that a youth need not "possess one-half
of the mental activity and shrewdness in
making a fair geologist of himself that he
would find was required of him to become
a successful jockey or a trainer of retriever
dogs.

On the geological structure of a country
depend the pm-suits of its inhabitants, and
the genius of its civilization. Agriculture is
the outgrowth of a fertile soil; mining results
from mineral resoiu'ces, and from navigable
rivers spring navies and commerce. Every
great branch of industry requires, for its
successful development, the cultivation of
kindred arts and sciences. Phases of life
and modes of thought are thus induced,
which give to difierent communities and
states characters as various as the diverse
rocks that underlie them. In like manner,
it may be shown that their moral and intel-
lectual qualities depend on materal con-
ditions. Where the soil and subjacent rocks
are profuse in the bestowal of wealth, man is
indolent and effeminate: where effort is re-
quired to live, he becomes enlightened and
virtuous. A perpetually mild climate and
bread-growing upon the trees, will produce
only ignorant savages. The heaviest mis-
fortune that has so long environed poor, per-

secuted L-eland has been her ability to pro-
duce the potato, and thus subsist wife and
children upon a small patch of ground.
Statistics tell us that the number of mar-
riages are regulated by the price of corn,
and the true philosopher has discovered that
the invention of gunpowder did more to
civilize the world than any one thing in its
history.

Geology traces the history of the earth
back through successive stages of develop-
ment, to its rudimental condition in a state
of fusion. The sun, and the planetary sys-
tem that revolves aroand it, were originally
a common mass, that became separated in a
gaseous state, and the loss of heat in a
planet reduced it to a plastic state, and thus
it commenced to write its own history, and
place its records upon these imperishable
books, where the geologist may go and read
the strange, eventful story. The earth was
a wheeling ball of fire, and the cooling event-
ually formed the exterior crust, and in th«
slow process of time prepared the way for
the animal and vegetable life it now contains.
In its center the fierce flames still rage, with
undiminished energy. Volcanoes are outl.its
for these deep-seated tires, where are gener-
ated those tremendous forces, an illustration
of which is given in the eruptions of Vesu-
vius, which has thrown a jet of lava, resem-
bling a column of flame, 10,000 feet high.
The amount of lava ejected at a single erup-
tion from one of the volcanoes of Iceland
has been estimated at 40,000,000,000 tons, a
qiTantity sufficient to cover a large city with
a mountain as high as the tallest Alps. Our
world is yet constantly congealinsr, just as
the process has been going on for billions of
years, and yet the rocky crust that rests upon
this internal fire is estimated to be only be-
tween thirty and forty miles in thickness.
In the silent depths of the stratified rocks

228

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

are the former creation of plants and ani-
mals, which lived and died during the slow,
dragging centui'iesof their formation. These
fossil remains are fragments of history,
which enable the geologist to extend his re- "
searches far back into the realms of the past,
and not only determine their former modes
of life, but study the contemporaneous his-
tory of their rocky beds, and group them into
systems. And such has been the profusion
of life, that the great limestone fonnations
of the globe consist mostly of animal re-
mains, cemented by the infusion of animal
matter. A large part of the soil spread over
the earth's surface "has been elaborated in
animal organisms. First, as nourishment
it enters into the structure of plants, and
forms vegetable .tissue, passing thence, as
food, into the animal it becomes endowed
with life, and when death occurs it retiu-ns
into the soil and imparts to it additional
elements of fertility.

The counties of Union, Alexander and Pu-
laski contain an area of 812 square miles, em-
bracing all that south end of the State from
the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio
Eiver, extending north to the north line of
Union, and from the Mississippi River to the
east line of Pulaski County.

The general trend of the line of uplift .in
this section of country is from northwest to
southeast, and the dip, with -some local vari-
ations, is to the northeastward. Hence the
escarpments on the south and west sides of
the ridges are steeper and more rugged than
those of the north and east. The river bluffs
along the Mississippi are high and rocky,
and are frequently cut up into ragged de-
clivities and sharp summits, and are formed
by the chert limestones of Upper Silurian
and Devonian age, which constitute the more
soiithern extension of the bluffs into Alexan-
der County. Commencing in the northeast-

ern portion of Union County is a sandstone
ridge, which forms the water-shed between
the streams running northward into the Big
Muddy, and those running south into the
Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. This ridge
presents a perpendicular escarpment on its
southern face, indicating it was once a bluff
to some river, although its course is nearly at
right angles to the present water-courses.
Its summit is formed by conglomerate sand-
stone, and its base by the Lower Carbonif-
erous limestone. South of this chain of
bluffs, and extending along the line of the
Illinois Central Railroad, from Cobden to
the bottom-lands of Alexander County, is a
broad beltgf couatiy underlaid by the Lower
Carboniferous limestone, in which the ridges
are less abrupt and the surface so gently
rolling as to be susceptible of the highest
cultivation. There are in this belt an abun-
dance of most elegant springs, and this will
some day be the great blue-grass district
of Southern Illinois, that will equal in
value, for dairy, sheep-growing and the
production of line stock, the celebrated blue
i grass region of Kentucky, if it does not
siu-pass it. All it wants to induce a spon-
taneous growth of blue grass is for the un-
dergrowth to be cleared up and put to past-
ure. Here are water, soil, climate and
rocks tliat clearly indicate what must some
day inevitably come. Men must come, or
grow up here, who understand fully the geo-
logical formations of this belt, to make it one
of the most beautiful, as well as the most
productive, portions of the State.

For nearly eighty years, the people have
lived and farmed this land in their little
patches of corn, wheat and oats, much after
the fashion they would have managed their
farms had they been in the woods of Tennes-
see or "Middle Illinois. Because they could
do quite as well as their neighbors in this or

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

229

the adjoining States, they have been content.
They knew their land would produce wheat
that would command a premium in all the
markets of the world, and that their crops
never totally failed, as they often did in
other places, and they contentedly concluded
it was exclusively a wheat- gi-owing countiy.
The intelligent geologist could have told
them, two generations ago, that their won-
derful soil was better adapted to that better
farming where there are no such things as
evil effects from rains or di'oughts, early
frosts or late springs ; where wealth was
absolutely certain, and where the profits and
pleasui'es of farming' would [make it one of
the most elevating, refining and elegant piu'-
suits of life; where life upon the farm was
divested of that di'udgery and unrequited toil
that too often drive the young men from the
farms to the even more wretched life of a pre-
carious clerkship in the towns and villages.
Farming is much as any of the other pursuits
of life. A certain locality will make of the
farmers the most elegant a^l refined of peo-
ple, and their lives will be siu'rounded by the
comforts and luxuries of the world. Their
sons and daughters will attend the best
schools, and will complete their education
with travels in foreign countries, and thus
attaining that refinement and cultui'e that
will make them the foremost people in the
country. Fortunes are made cultivating
wheat and corn, but only by the hardest work
and closest economy, and such fortunes are
generally gained at the expense of all self-
cultui-e among the families that thus work
their way along their slow, heavy road.
There are few things more pitiable in life
than to go into a family where there is wealth
and ignorant gieed combined — that mockery
of all the civilizing influences that wealth
should bring, and the stupid conviction that
ignorance is adorned by a bank account, and

gentility and sense are only intended for
people who have no money. The truth is,
wealth should always be a blessing to its pos-
sessor; yet how generally is it a curse, be-
cause its acquisition has been at the expense
of that self-cultm-e that the inexorable laws
of nature require at every man's hands.

The Lower Carbonifei'ous limestone men-
tioned above ab a belt extending nearly en-
tirely across Union and through Alexander
to the bottom lands above Cairo, extend into
the northern and northwestern portions of
Pulaski County, and forms gently sloping
low hills, with a fertile soil, a rich, are-
naceous loam. The hills, as is the case in
Union and Alexander Counties, are covered
with heavy timber, consisting principally of
white oak, black oak, pigniit hickory, scaly-
bark hickory, yellow poplar, black gum,
black walnut and dogwood. They slope
generally to the southwest, in the direction
of the nearest stream.

The rich river bottoms along the Missis-
sippi are of an average of nearly five miles
in width, and are as rich in vegetable food
as is the valley of the celebrated Nile in
Egypt. The bottoms were originally covered
with forest trees that often attained to enor-
mous size. Except that these bottoms are
subject to overflow at high stages of water
in the river, there would be no farms in the
world more productive than would here be
found .

The main body of the iipland of Pulaski
County, between Cache and the Ohio Rivers,
is underlaid with Tertiary strata, and may
be called oak barrens. They consist of al-
ternations gently sloping, more or less sharp-
ly rolling or broken ridges. Their soil is a
yellow finely arenaceous loam, which extends
to a considerable depth. The gi'owth in the
central portion, and extending nearly
through the whole width of the county, is

2:5C

HISTORY OF UN^I0:N^ COUNTY.

characterized by an abundance of small,
brushy, bitter oak, an upland variety of the
Spanish oak, a tree which is hardly "found
anywhere farther north, and replaces the
black oak and f black jack. The bitter oak
usually forms a dense underbrush, together
with an abundance of hazel, sassafras and
sumac, with some white oak, black oak
barren hickory, pignut hickory, black
gum, and in some places small yellow poplar.
These oak barrens are only now beginning
to be understood. They were called the
" barrens," and the name indicated all the
people supposed they were good for as agricult-
ural lands. Thrifty settlers avoided them,
and the coon-skin tribe of early settlers were
too often ready to adopt these unfavorable
judgments of these lands, and offer that as
an excuse for their own laziness and igno-
rance of a soil that was really very strong in
all the elements of fertility, and capable of
being made the rich garden spot of Illinois.
But the ipast decade has -brought a revela-
tion to this valuable part of the State, and a
new style of farming has rapidly taken the
place of the old, and the farmers are learn-
ing that for wheat their country is unap-
proachable; that their crops never fail, and
there is hardly anything, either of the North
or the South, but that they can produce to
great profit. A "single instance may suffice
to illustrate our meaning. Only three or
foui- years ago an enterprising farmer, sim-
ply because he was too poor to buy teams
and the modern expensive agricultural imple-
ments, planted sweet potatoes. The yield
was over three hundred [bushels to the acre,
and these he sold for $4 per barrel. This
chance experiment taught the people that
they could raise sweet potatoes in as great
abundance, and of as fine quality, as could
be produced anywhere, and the profits of
this crop were simply immense. Sweet pota-

toes are now a staple product of Pulaski
County, and in a few years, we make no
doubt, the yield will be very large.

There are no true coal-bearing rocks in the
limits of the three counties of Union, Alex-
ader and Pulaski, and hence there is no rea-
sonable expectation of finding extensive or
paying deposits of coal. From time to time,
much labor has been expended in digging
for coal west of Jonesboro, in the black slate
of the Devonian series; but as this slate lies
more than a thousand feet below the horizon
of any true coal -bearing strata, the labor and
means so expended were only in vain. There
are some thin streaks of coal, but it only ap-
pears locally, as it is interstratified with the
shales of the Chester series; but it has
never been found so developed as to be of
any practical value.

The brown Hematite ore exists in Union
and the upper portions of Alexander and the
northwestern part ;^of Pulaski, but so far no
deposit of this kind has been discovered suffi-
ciently extensive -jand free from extraneous
matter to justify mining it and erecting
furnaces for its reduction, and the iron ore
is generally so intermingled with chert, that
its per cent of metallic iron is small.

The sulphuretof lead, or galena, has been
found in small quantities in the cherty lime-
stones of the Devonian series. On Huggins
Creek, on the southwest quarter of Section 1,
Township 11, Range 3 west, it has been
found near Mr. Gregory's. The galena
occurs here, associated with calcspar, filling
small pockets in the rock. If this ore is
ever found in quantities in this portion of
Illinois, it will be in pockets, and it is very
doubtful if it will ever be discovered in suffi-
cient quantities to pay for the digging.

An excellent article of potter's clay occurs
in many localities in the three counties. In
Section 2, Town 12 south, Range 2 west, a very

HISTORY OF UN^ION COUNTY.

231

fine white pipe-clay is found, which is used
by Mr. Kirkpatrick, of Anna, for the manu-
facture ' of common stone- ware, by mixing
with a common clay found near the town of
Anna. This pipe-clay is nearly white in
color, with streaks of purple through it, and
appears, from its^olors, to have been derived
from the striped shales known locally in this
part of the State as " calico rock." Except
for the coloring matter which it contains, this
clay seems to be of a quality suited for the
manufacture of a fine .article of white ware.
The clays of the Tertiary formation are found
in abundance, and they are valuable for the
manufacture of potter's ware, and for years
one variety has been in use at Santa F6. It
is of a gray color, and is sufficiently mixed
with sand to be used without any farther ad-
dition of that material. Before burning, the
ware is washed with the white clay, to im-
prove its color, and the inside of the vessel
is washed with Mississippi mud to improve
the glazing. The white clays near Santa ¥6
are supposed to be well adapted to the man-
ufacture of white ware, but they have not
been properly tested. The white clays result
from the decomposition of the siliceous beds
of the Devonian series. The Devonian sand-
stone found in the northeast portion of Un-
ion County is often quite pure and free from
coloring matter, and is well adapted to the
manufacture of glass.

Those portions of Pulaski and Union
County that are underlaid with limestone
have a rich, light, warm soil, which yields
the most ample rewards for the labor be-
stowed upon it. The southern latitude makes
it favorable to nearly every crop that has
ever been tried upon it, and almost every
year experiments show that its range of pro-
duction is most extensive. Many years ago,
it was discovered that all this portion of Illi-
nois was fertile in the yield of peaches,

apples and the small fruits, and lately it has
demonstrated that in all garden vegetables it
was unsurpassed, and just now it is coming
to light that the barren ridges promise the
best results, the yellow loam being one of
the finest and most inexhaustible soils in the
world. On the wide bottoms of Cache River
is found very superior land, as is indicated
by the timber growth upon it. The low bot-
tom ridges or swells have a black, sandy soil,
which is more or less mixed with clay, and
they produce most bountifully. They are
above the flood level, but are surrounded by
low lands, which are wet and often impassable
and frequently overflowed. One difficulty in
these bottom ridges is pure, healthy water,
but this defect could be supplied by cisterns.
The low lands are very rich, are also very
fertile, but somewhat heavy soil. In the
course of time these will become very valu-
able. The timber is heavy, and is being
rapidly cut out to supply the extensive saw
mills on the railroads and Cache River. The
removal of the timber has a drying efifect on
the soil, and places which a few years ago
were continuous swamps are now becoming
dry, and are capable of growing fine crops of
corn. This influence will be more and more
felt as time goes on, and once the channel of
the river is cleared of obstructions, and the
soil is broken with the plow, large stretches
of now swamp land will be reclaimed and
converted into a tine agricultui'al district.
With this will be correspondingly improved
the health of that part of the country. Some at-
tempts have been made to drain the extensive
cypress swamps of Pulaski County, as well
as in Alexander and Union Counties. Some
years ago, a ditch was cut from Swan's Pond,
situated in Sections 22, 23, 20 and 27, Town-
ship 14, Range 2 east, to Post Creek, which
empties into Cache River, in order to dry
the pond; but those who planned the 'work

•J32

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

were incompetent engineers; the necessary-
preliminary levelings seem not to have been
executed at all, or badly exncuted; for when
the ditch was completed, it conducted the
water the wrong way — that is, from the river
to the pond, instead of from the pond to the
river. Accurate topographical surveys would
readily point out a way to drain the swamp
lands of the Cache River, and thus reclaim
a very large and rich agricultural section.
All over this district is found a soil from
three feet to one hundred feet in depth, that
will never be exhausted by the husbandman.
In even the uplands and in the oak barrens
the subsoil, when taken from a depth of fif-
teen or twenty feet, needs but a short time to
mellow and then produces nearly as well as
the Bui-face soil. The richness of the land,
and the wonderful store of elements of fertil-
ity can, therefore, not be doubted. All that
is needed is to keep it stirred, and as the
skimmed surface is exhausted simply culti-
vate a little deeper, and here is a bank
against which the farmer may draw his
checks that will always be honored. There
is a just mixture of sand in the upland soils
that makes them warm, rich and porous, caus-
ing them to produce an unlimited variety of
vegetation, to defy the droughts as well as
the drowning rains. Hence the too little
known fact that two years ago, when an un-
usually diy summer followed a wet spring,
the crops in neai'ly all the Mississippi Valley
failed, and yet the wheat and corn in the
oak barrens of Pulaski County produced a
good average crop. Corn, we are told by rep-
utable farmers in that district, was raised
that produced forty bushels to the acre, that
was rained on only once between planting
and maturity. No industrious farmer need
be afraid to trust such a soil with his labor;
he may be certain of being repaid, with
large interest; but the tendency to cultivate

over-large tracts, slovenly, proves injurious
to the land, and this great mistake has
caused many to misjudge the land, and even
pronounce it of inferior quality. Here is a
wonderful and only partially developed coun-
try, destined, some time, to be the most
valuable spot on the continent; capable of
producing tobacco, cotton, sweet potatoes,
fruits, garden vegetables, corn, wheat and
blue grass; supplied with magnificent springs
abundantly; the Mecca of the coming farmer;
the home of blooded stock of all kinds, and
eventually a race of people who may take
their places in the front ranks of the splendid
civilization of the Western Hemisphere. The
shiftless half farmei', half coon-skin hunter,
and the slave of ignorance and a life of mis-
guided toil, disease and suffering, will pass
away, as have the red wild men of the forest,
and here will take their places a type of re-
finement, intelligence, cultui'e, enterprise,
wealth and comfort that produces the noblest
races of men and women. Natui'e's bounties
have been poured out upon this land in
boundless profusion, and the evil, so far, has
only come from the plethora of ignorance
that has tried in vain to utilize this excess
of nature's rich profusion, and this has often
given gi'iefs and pain where only should have
come the promised joys. It will, at the
rate intelligence has progressed since the
dawn of history, be a long time yet, perhaps,
before ignorance ceases to afflict mankind.
And it should be borne in mind, that all
pains in this world are the penalties we pay
to ignorance. It is hardly possible for a pang
to come from any other source. The most of
us are incapable of understanding or inves-
tigating nature's laws. Hence, we come
into the world law-breakers, and thus make
of this otherwise bright and beautiful and
joyovis home a penal colony for the children
of men, where we war and struggle for exist-

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

238

ence, and suffer long and die, and the fitful
fever is over, and the unchangeable and in-
exorable laws of God go on, exactly as they
have always gone on without beginning, and
as they will forever without ending

Building Stone and Marble. — The whole
southern extremity of Illinois has an abun-
dant supply of superior building stone, and
some day the quarries will be properly
opened, and then the amount and (quality of
the material they will afford will be better
known. Here will then be a vast and profit-
able industry developed. First in impor-
tance, pefhaps, not only from the thickness
of the formation, and consequently the large
amount of material it will afford, is the
Trenton Limestone, which has outcropped
more extensively on the river blufis below
Thebes than anywhere else. This formation
is about seventy feet in thickness above the
low water level of the river, and consists of
white and bluish-gray limestone, partly in
heavy beds of from two to three feet in thick-
ness. It is generally free from siliceous or
fen-uginous matter, can be easily cut into any
desired form, and is susceptible of a high
polish, and is adaj)ted to various uses as a
marble. It has been extensively quarried at
Cape Girardeau, since the earliest settlement
of the country, both for lime and for the
various purposes for which a fine building
stone is required, and is widely known and
appreciated as the "Cape Girardeau Marble"
along the river. For the consti'uction of
fine buildings and the display of elaborate
architectural designs, this rock has no su-
perior in the West.

The mottled beds of the Upper Silurian
series consists of hard, compact limestone,
and are susceptible of a fine polish, and
make a beautiful marble. The prevailing
colors are red, buff and gray, vai-ying some-
what at different localities. The rock is some-

what siliceous, and consequently harder to
work than the white limestone of the Trenton
group, but it ,will,. no doubt, retain a fine
polish much longer than a softer material,
and the varieties of colors which it affords
renders it well adapted to many uses as an
ornamental stone, for which the other woald
not bo required. Thpse mottled layers vary
from ten to twenty feet in thickness, and
can be most economically quarried where
the overlying strata have been removed by
erosion. For table-tops, mantels, etc., this
is one of the handsomest rocks at present
found in the country.

The St. Louis limestone affords a good
building material, especially the upper and
lower divisions. At the quarries west of
Jonesboro, the rock is a massive, nearly
white, limestone, free from chert, and
dresses well, and in a dry wall will prove to
be dm'able, but splits when used for curbing,
or whenever it is subject to the action of
water and frost. The middle of this division
is a dark gray cherty limestone, that might
answer well for rough walls, but would not
dress well, in consequence of the cberty mat-
ter so generally disseminated through it.
The upper division of this stone quarried
east of Anna, is a light gray, massive lime-
stone, tolerably free from chert, and in qual-
ity similar to the quany rock just west of
Jonesboro.

The best limestone for the manufacture of
quicklime, is found in the upper portion of
the St. Louis groiip, and is extensively quar
ried in the eastern part of Anna Precinct,
and in the edge of the village of Anna,
where several kilns are constantly in opera-
tion. The rock is a crystalline, and partly
o Uitic, light-gray limestone, nearly a pure
carbonate of lime in its composition, and
makes a fine, white lime, similar in quality
to the Alton lime, made from the same for-

234

HISTORY OF UI^TON COUNTY.

mation. Much of Central and Southern Illi-
nois and the South is supplied from these
kilns. The supply of this stone is almost in-
exhaustible.

The Thebes sandstone affords an excellent
dimension stone and material adapted to the
construction of foundation walls, culverts,
etc. It dresses well, and is durable. Some
of the beds are of suitable thickness, and
make good flagstones. All these beds out-
crop along the banks and in the vicinity of
the Mississippi River, and consequently may
be made available, at a small cost, to all the
lower country bordering on the Mississippi
River that is destitute of svich material,
which is the case with the entire country
from Cairo to New Orleans.

Millstones. — The en jrmous masses of chert
rock contained in the Clear Creek limestones
afford, at some points, a buhr stone that ap-
pears to be nearly equal, if not quite equal,
in quality to the celebrated French buhr
stones so extensively used for millstones in
this country. Some of the specimens ob-
tained here seem to possess the requisite
hai'dness an(i porosity, and some millstones
have been obtained from 'the chert beds of
Bald Knob that are said to have answered
a good purpose, and have been used in the
neighboring mills. But these were made
from the rock that had been long exposed at
the surface, and perhaps were not taken f rorn
the best part of that; while the beds lying
beyond the reach of atmospheric influences
have not been tested.

Grindstones. — Some of the evenly-bedded
sandstones of the Chester group, and es-
pecially the lower beds of the series, are fre-
quently developed in thin, even layers, that
could be readily manufactured into grind-
stones. The rock has a fine, sharp grain ^
and if too soft when freshly quarried, would
harden sufficiently on exposm-e to give them

the necessary durability. Some beds of the
conglomerate sandstone also have a sharp
grit, and when sufficiently compact in text-
ure and even bedded will make good grind-
stones.

Mineral Siyrings, at Western Saratoga, in
Union County, were widely known as far back
as the recollection of man reaches in this sec-
tion. In the eai'ly times, it was a noted
" deer lick, " and the deer would gather here
in great numbers to quench their thirst and
feed at their " licks." It was a noted Indian
camping-ground, where they would come and
hunt. That the waters possessed mineral
properties was known to the earliest settlers,
and as early as 1830 people began visiting
the place from Jonesboro and the country
north to Kaskaskia. In 1838, Dr. Penoyer,
who, perhaps, had lived in Union County
some little time, purchased a tract of 160
acres, and proceeded to lay out a city, of
which the springs were to form the center,
and gave it the name of Saratoga. Penoyer
made the mistake of platting his town and
dedicating, in its center, a square to the
public, and this precluded any one from tak-
ing hold of it and developing it as it de-
served. Another error, that was fatal to the
development of the place, was placing upon
the lots so high a price that no one felt they
could afford to invest. However, about 1840, a
man named Bradley purchased a small tract,
and erected a boarding-house. This stood
until 1878, when it was burned. Dr. Penoyer
and a man named Harkness, whom the Doc-
tor had associated with him, built a bath-
ing-house, about forty rods from the spring,
and connected with it by a series of pipes.
This bathing-house was about one hundred
feet long and nine feet wide. This was used
for some time, but gi'adually falling into dis-
use it rotted down. As long as people could
get accommodation, they flocked here in great

HISTORY OF I'NIOX COUNTY.

23")

numbers. They came from all directions,
but especially from the Southern States, Mis-
souri. Mississippi and Louisiana. For many
summers, the boarding-houses, and all who
would accommodate boarders, had all and
more than they could accommodate, and
many were sometimes turaed back by learn-
ing they could not get accommodations. The
price of lots still continued exorbitantly
high, and so wretched were the meager ac-
commodations, people ceased to come, and
the place fell into decay. A spring house,
which was under way, was left to its fate un-
finished, and the timbers now lie around the
spring in a decaying condition. When too
late, the Doctor discovered his mistake, and
had what he called a deed from the public to
himself made, conveying the spring back to
himself. This cui'ious document was signed
by the visitors who, from time to time, were
attracted to the place, and, as legal wisdom
spread among the people, it eventually came
to be looked upon as fraudulent. Armed
with this document, the Doctor set about try-
ing to sell the springs. ' He made a sale to a
St. Louis and also to a Chicago firm, but
when, in each case, the abstract of title was
made out, the trade fell through. At present
the springs are uncared-for in the public
square, and at times the wayfarer comes,
drinks of the Pool of Siloam, and is benefit-
ed. Over one-half of the original town plat,
including the park, lies in the farm of Mr.
Taylor Dodd. The remainder is owned by
a few of the older inhabitants, most of whom
look forward to better times coming for the
place. Dx'. T. J. Rich resides upon part of
the old town plat, and cultivates his fruit
trees where once it was intended to erect
large brick, stone and iron houses.

The property is located in Section 1,
Township 12 south. Range 1 west. It is a
tolerably strong sulphur water, and contains

sulphureted hydrogen, a small quantity of
sulphate of lime, carbonate of soda, chloride
of sodium, and, perhaps, a little alumina and
magnesia. The water is said to be a specific
for dyspepsia and chronic diseases of the
skin. It is also said to be beneficial in cases
of scrofula. The water is strongest during
the dry season of the year, being then less
afi'ected |by the admixture of surface water.

Dr. Penoyer seems to have been a poor
manager, and yet the waters, were shipped
and sold by him, in quantities, to many parts
of the country. For some years he made a
practice of boiling it down and bottling and
peddling it about the country, and shipping
to those wanting it at a distance.

In conversation with Dr. T. J. Rich, the
following additional facts were learned; The
chief ingredients of the water are soda, sul-
phuret, patash and traces of iron and iodine.
The odor which is noted upon drinking the
water is caused by the presence of sulphuret
of hydrogeo; this is said to pass away entire-
ly when the water is allowed to stand an
hoiu' or two.

The Doctor's method of boiling the water
was to take 100 gallons, and boil it until
only one'" remained. This one gallon was
quite thick, and tasted like soft soap-suds,
or very strong soda-water. It was about the
time that the Doctor was engaged in making
this medicine, probablj^ about 1850, that
there was an epidemic of flux. It was very
fatal, and the physicians gave up many cases,
which Dr. Penoyer was able to cure with his
medicine, in every instance in which it was
given a fair trial.

That the water contains ingredients that
are full of strong curative powers in many of
the human ailments, is beyond all reasonable
doubt, and nothing short of Dr. Penoyer' s
folly could have prevented this place from
loner asro becomins: one of the most noted

23G

HISTORY OF UXIOX COUNTY.

health rpsorts in the coimtiy. In many
chronic ailments, and in all skin diseases,
and for old sores, it has, in so many in-
stances, and unfailingly, cured, that it may
be said to be a specific.

Road Material. — An inexhaustible amount
of the very best material for the construction
of turnpike or common roads, abounds on all
the watercourses that intersect the uplands
of this district, and is derived from the
cherty limestones of the Upper Silurian and
Devonian age. It consists of a brown flint
or chert, finely broken for use, and occurs
abundantly, tilling the valleys of the small
streams that intersect the limestones above
named. This has been used at St. Louis for
the manufacture of "concrete stone," and is
found equal to the best English flint for this
purpose. The material with which^ this ex-
periment was made was obtained in Union
County, bat it differs in no way from the flint
found in Pulaski and Alexander Counties.

Next to the immense deposits of coal, the
St. Louis limestone is reckoned one of the
most important formations. It receives its
name from the city where its lithological
character was first studied. Imbedded in
its layers are found Crinoids,* in a profusion
found nowhei'e else in the world. Though
untold ages have elapsed since their incar-
ceration in the rocks, so perfect has been
their preservation, their structure can be de-
termined with almost as much precision as
if they had perished but yesterday.

The soil was originally .formed by the de-
composition of rocks. These, by long ex-
posure to the air, water and frost, became
disintegrated, and the comminuted material
acted upon by vegetation, forms the fruitful
mold of the surface. When of local origin,
it varies in composition with changing ma-

* Crinoidea — An order uf lily-shaped marine auiuials. They
generally grow attached to the hottom of the sea by a pointtd stem,
analagouB to the growth of plants.

terial from which it is derived. If sand-
stone prevails, it is too porous to retain fer-
tilizing agents; if limestone is in excess, it
is too hot and dry, and if slate predominates,
the resulting clay is too wet and cold.
Hence, it is only a combination of these and
other ingredients that can properly adapt the
earth to the growth of vegetation. Happily
for nearly all the Mississippi Valley, the
origin of its surface formations precludes the
possibility of sterile extremes arising from
local causes. And these causes are more
abundant in the south end of Illinois than
in probably any other place in the great val-
ley. The surface of the country is a stratum
of drift, formed by the decomposition of
every variety of rock in its distribution.
This immense deposit, varying from fifteen
to two hundred feet in thickness, requires
for its production physical conditions which
do not exist now. We must go far back in
the history when the polar world was
a desolation of icy wastes. From these
dreary realms of endui'ing frosts, vast
glaciers, reaching southward, dipped into the
waters of an inland sea, extending over a
large 'part of the Upper Mississippi Valley.
The ponderous masses, moving southward
with an irresistible power, tore immense
bowlders from their parent ledges and in-
corporated them in their structure. By
means of these, in their further progress,
they grooved and planed down the subjacent
rocks, gathering up and caiTying with them
part of the abraded material, and strewing
their track, for hundi-eds of miles, with the
remainder. On reaching the shore of the in-
terior sea, huge icebergs were projected from
their extremities into the waters, which,
melting as they floated into the warmer lati-
tudes, distributed the detrital matter they
contained over the bottom. Thus, long be-
fore the plains of Illinois clanked with the

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY

237

din of railroad trains, these ice-formed navies j
plowed the seas in which they were sub-
merged, and distributed over them cargoes :
of soil-producing sediment. No mariner i
walked their crystal decks to direct their
course, and no pennon, attached to their glit-
tering masts, trailed in the winds that urged
them forward; yet they might, perhaps, have
sailed under flags of a hundred succeeding em-
pires, each as old as the present nationalities
of the earth, during the performance of their
labors. This splendid soil-forming deposit
is destined to make Illinois the great center
of American wealth and population. Per-
haps no other country of the same extent on
the face of the globe can boast a soii so
ubiquitous in its distribution, and so univer-
sally productive. And here, on the southern
point of land that forme the extreme South-
ern Illinois, is a soil enriched to an extraor-
dinary depth by all the minerals in the crust
of the earth, and it contains an unequaled
variety of the constituents of plant food.
Since plants differ so widely in the elements
of which they are composed, this multiplic-
ity of composition is the means of gi'owing a
great variety of crops, and the amount pro-^
duced is coiTespondingly large. So gi'eat is
the fertility that years of continued cultiva-
tion do not materially diminish the yield,
and should sterility be induced by excessive
working, the subsoil can be made available.
The cultivation of the soil in all ages has
furnished employment for the largest and
best portions of mankind; yet the honor to
which they are entitled has never been fully
acknowledged. Though their occupation is
the basis of national prosperity, and upon its
progress more than any other branch of in-
dustry, depends the march of civilization, yet
its history remains, to a great extent, un-
written. Historians duly chronicle the feats
of the warrior who ravages the face of the

earth and beggars its inhabitants, but leaves
unnoticed the labors of him who causes the
desolated country to bloom again, and heals,
with balm of plenty, the miseries of war.
When true worth is duly recognized, instead
of the mad ambition which subjugates na-
tions to acquire power, the heroism which
subdues the soil and feeds the world will be
the theme of the poet's song and the orator's
eloquence.

The counties of Union, Alexander and
Pulaski form the extreme south end of the
State, occupying nearly all that point of land
south of the grand chain that extends across
the lower end of the State, and are in height
from 500 to 700 feet, and that make a strong
line of difference in the geological forma-
tions that extend to the bottom lands near
Cairo, as well as exercising a strong influ-
ence upon the meteorological changes that
occur in this district. The timber, soil,
drainage and climate of this district cannot
be excelled. Nature has strewn here rich
and inexhaustible, and formed a land capable
of sustaining a greater population to the
area than any other district in the country.
"When cultivated and tended, as it will be
some day, to its full capacity, there is more
dollars per acre here than, perhaps, in any
other spot on the globe. Only think for a
moment, it is no experiment to make fi'om
$300 to $500 net on a single acre of ground,
and that, too, on land that you can buy at
from $5 to $20 per acre. It is, too, most
fortunately situated as to markets. Markets
that can never be overstocked are at your
door; at least, so near at ihand that transpor-
tation is merely nominal. Cincinnati,
I Chicago and St. Louis, in fact all the North,
I and especially the growing giant, the North-
west Mississippi Valley, whose climate will
make it always come here as the best of cus-
i tomers, and then there is the entire South,

23 8

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY

to the Gulf, that will be perpetual customers
for all youi* corn, hay, flour and all domestic
animals, with railroads to take the perish-
able goods ;vith dispatch to their destination,
and both railroad and the great rivers to take
the bulky and more durable stuff to all the
world. The climate alone is an incalculable
fortune, a perennial fountain of gold, as it
combines the advantages of the North and
the South, enabling yoii to produce the ear-
liest fruits and vegetables of all descriptions,
thus putting you in the mai'ket when com-
petition is impossible, and at the same time
you can grow, to the best advantage, not only
winter wheat, but all the cereals, as well as
compete with any spot in the country in rais-
ing of all kinds of stock. Then, too, you are
equally fortunate in the topography of your
county, both for tillage and for health. The
hills, undulations and rolling bottom lands
giving you the very best natural di'ainage, and
here you will be equally blest with health
and rugged, happy people, as soon as the
heavy timbers in the bottoms and near the
lakes are a little more cut off, and the pene-
trating sunlight, as it always has done and
always will, drives away all malaria and
miasma. Your excellent natural drainage
will protect you from the drowning spring
waters that so often visit the central and
northern portions of the State, and this very
drainage will be almost a specific against the
drouths that sometimes visit nearly all por-
tions of our country with such a heavy hand.
Thpse truths about Southern Illinois
should be widely disseminated. Only see
what wonders have been performed by the
railroads in peopling the treeless, windy,
diy, grasshopper regions that were once
known as the Great American Desert. That
land of alkali, sage-brush, coyotes, cow- boys,
scalping Indians and desolate dogtowns.
Th^y blew their horns, and cried aloud from

the housetops; they advertised, spent thou-
sands of dollars, and have been repaid in
millions. Here is the difference: Northenr
Illinois, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska are situ-
ated in the natural line of travel for the old
Eastern States, and for that wonderful tide
of immigration poui'ing constantly into this
country from Europe, thus this part of Illi-
nois has had her light, so far as emigration
was concerned, hid under a bushel. Her
unapproachable sources of wealth and her
incomparable beauties and advantages have
been unseen and unheeded.

But little or nothing has ever been done to
remedy this evil. On the 9th of last Decem-
ber, a meeting was held in Cairo, composed
of representative men from Alexander, Jack-
son, Johnson, Massac, Perry, Pulaski, Will-
iamson and Union Counties, to consider the
question of organizing an Emigration Society
for Southern Illinois. They concluded to
organize under the corporation law of the
State, with a capital stock of $10,000. They
seemed to realize it as a fact, known to ail
intelligent people in Southern Illinois, that
we have sufi"ered grievously from wi'ong im-
pressions, years ago spread abroad over the
country, with regard to our climate, soil and
general material conditions, the consequences
of which are, we have not attracted the at-
tention of immigrants that our merits de-
served, and these promoters of a community's
wealth and prosperity have passed this sec-
tion by and gone West, and fared infinitely
worse. They go into the arid wastes of the
West, and suffer untold hardships. The
facts are, there is not an emigrant that em-
barks for America that has ever heard of
Southern Illinois; but he puts on his hob-
nailed shoes and starts for the laud of free-
dom and hope, in the firm conviction that
Nebraska, Kansas and the Texas Pan-Handle
are the real United States — the land of peace,

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

33 9!

plenty, hope and happiness. His pockets
are stuffed with glowing literatiu'e extolling
these places, and the cunning railroads have
hired the most brilliant writers to picture, in
flowing and fascinating terms, these places
that catch the swift-coming tide of immigra-
tion. If the outside world does hear anything
from this favored and incomparable section of
country, it is the cheap stock-slander about
" EgyP^ ^^^ i^s darkness and ignorance,"
until frightened simpletons, who swallow
those slanders, are tempted to travel out of
their way, in order to not pass through this
section of " ignorant barbarians. " A silly
lie can always outtravel the truth, particu-
larly when the slandered community treat the
slander with silent contempt, and make no
effort to correct the story and present the
facts. This outside prejudice against this
section must be overcome, and the truth dis-
seminated in its place. Why, if you could,
by some magic, transport this part of Illi-
nois, with every physical fact sm-rounding,
exactly as the facts now exist, the soil, the
production, the facilities for markets, the
health, the climate, everything, in fact, ex-
actly as it is, except the removal, to the
northern or middle portion of the State, the
land that now sells for $10 or $15 per acre,
could not, in three months after the change
in locality, and with no other change, mark
you, be bought for $500 per acre, no, nor for
$1,000 per acre. And then, in a very few
years. Cook County would be the only county
in the State that would equal this section in
population. Immigrants going to a new coun-
try are much like a flock of sheep crossing a
fence. They follow the bell-sheep without
looking to the right or left. Of course, there-
fore, it is more difficult to aiTest their atten-
tion now, and to show them that they are
sadly deceived, and are passing b}', in ignor-
ance, the most favored spot on earth, and

going to not the most favored place, even,
in this Western country. We see the poor-
est country in America, exactly like a quack
doctor, can grow great and prosperous, and
smile at its betters, by simply advertising
itself — using printer's ink. This is the
magic ring — the Aladdin's lamp that brings
wealth and prosperity to its friends and pa-
trons. The ubiquitous, restless, dashing,
energetic, audacious and tireless Yankee of
the North has always keenly realized this,
and has subsidized it to his use and complete
control, and when he got a land-grant for a
railroad, he cared not what the country was
where he built his road and got his lands;
he printed books, pictures, placards, chro-
mos, handbills and " dodgers" by the mill-
ion, and told all the world, and soon con-
vinced it, too, that by coming to him they
were on the only road to an earthly paradise.
Could the outside world be divested of its
unjust prejudices about this locality, and
could the simple truth — the plain, palpable
facts — be made known to them, what a quick
revolution it would produce here — what a
transformation scene would take place.

We have spoken of the advantage of soil,
climate and commerce; we have only spoken
of the soil, climate, agricultural, commercial
and market advantages. In all these you are
not only unequaled, but you are simply un-
apjiroachable. You can laugh at rivalry in
each and every one of these things. In fact,
there is no possibility of rivalry fi-om any
other section for anything you can produce
to the best advantage. Your wheat commands
a royal premium in all the markets of the
world; your corn cannot be excelled in qual-
ity; your potatoes are not only excellent, but
they go to the Northern market at a season
when you can always dictate your own price
per bushel.

The topographical advantages seem to be

240

HISTORY OF UNIOJ^ COUNTY

as little understood by the people as is the
geology of this locality. The geology and
topography of the country are singularly pe-
culiar, the remarkable fact being that these
two features — especially the topography —
place in your hands advantages that will for-
ever exclude competition from any other
section of the country. It is situated just
south of the only true mountain range in
Illinois, the spur crossing the State fi'om the
Ozark Mountains and traceable into Ken-
tucky. This not only protects it fi'om the
severest part of the " blizzards " that visit
every portion of the West each winter, but
it gives it warmth of soil that enables you to
raise early fruits, potatoes and garden veg-
etables, and place them in the markets at
immense advantage. You thus have the
healthy, bracing air of the Xorth. that im-
parts a tonic and vigor to all animal life, as
well as the genial warmth of more southern
localities — combiningr the bracingr Northern
atmosphere and the early fructifying tropical
warmth. Your advantages in this line are
already demonstrated in reference to fruits
and early vegetables of all kinds, and the
same great truths will be some day equally
well demonstrated in regard to another and
vastly profitable industry for the people,
namely, the raising of blooded cattle and the
establishment of creameries and butter manu-
factories. Here is an unexplored mine of
incalculable wealth, where it is again most
fortunate indeed. We know of no point in
the country where a creamery would yield as
much profit on the capital invested as here.
The cold spring waters, pure air and superior
pasturage would make the greatest yield of
butter of the " gilt-edge " quality, and then
you are where you could command the
choicest of the butter trade of the entire
South. And in this respect there is as little
danger of competition from other sections of

the country as there is in your fruits and
vegetables for shipment North. For instance,
Cairo is always ready to pay about 10 cents
per pound more for choice butter than the
Chicago price. They never can make good
butter south of this part of Illinois, and
hence, you are at their door with all the fa-
cilities and advantages of any Northern point
in production, and the immense advantage
of being the favored ones in the valuable
Southern trade. Thus the profits are multi-
plied each way. And is it not plain that if
the creameries of Northern Illinois are a
source of gi-eat profit, both to the factories
and to all the farmers for a wide circuit of
miles around them, would they not be im-
mensely more profitable and beneficial if lo-
cated in Union County? This is not all the
profits that are to be made oflf domestic cattle
here. This disti-ict is the home of the nutri-
tious grasses that enter into the business of
stock-raising — producing these in gi-ea<est
abundance and of the finest quality. Show
the world the truth, just as it exists, and you
will soon see your county filled with graded
cattle, when the industry of butter-making
alone would, of itself, make your people
prospei'ous and rich. Your command of the
great and best mai'kets in the world — the
South for your butter, eggs and poultry, is
one of those peculiar advantages of climate,
soil and topography that makes it a favored
locality. Eggs and butter may yet become
a fountain of more wealth to the county than
are now the wheat and corn of any county in
the State. Thus, this point of Illinois is the
doorway of the world's best markets, particu-
larly the North and the South, where it will
practically always remain without competi-
tion.

One day last winter there was a car-load
of mules and horses that had been pur-
chased in Anna, and were on the switch at

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

243

the depot preparatory to starting to Nebraska,
and while they stood there, the freight train
passed, going South, and had several car-
loads of horses and mules that had been
gathered up in the central portion of the
State for the Southern markets.

A few years ago, some Germans came into
Union County from Pennsylvania, and
among their purchases were some of the old-
est farms in the county; farms that had been
badly cared for, and "skinned" and washed
until they were supposed to be nearly worth-
less. Great gullies had been plowed through
the fields in every direction by the waters,
and the rich soil had disappeared. These
thrifty and industrious people, nothing
dau.nted, went to work, and now the soil is
restored, the gullies and washouts are filled,
and the finest and largest crops every year
are the rich rewards of their careful foresight
and industry. The geologist will tell you
that your land will never wear out under in-
telligent treatment, because there is stored
in the subsoil an inexhaustible source of
wealth — a bank that will never break nor run
away with the deposits, upon which the
farmer may draw checks that will always be
honored, and paid in glittering gold. The
same geologist will tell you that the geolog-
ical formation of a county always determines
the quantity, quality and value of its popu-
lation — not only the numbers of the people
that will some day live upon it, but will pre-
figure their comforts, wealth, enjoyments and
the possibilities of their enlightenment and
civilization. Hence, what is beneath the sur-
face of your land is of the very greatest im-
portance to all.

In Pulaski County is a similar experiment
of what a little intelligent treatment may do
for a farm that had been pronounced worn
out by the " skinning" process of farming,
on the farm occupied by Dr. G .AV. Bristow,

near New Grand Chain. The Doctor has
only required foui* years to convert it into
one of the best f ai'ms in the county, and richer
than it was when the virgin soil was first
turned by the plow.

The past winter fui'nished some remarkable
testimony as to the meteorological advan-
tages this end of Illinois possesses in cli-
matic arrangements. The Northeast, the
West and Southwest — in fact, the entire coun-
try — was visited by some remarkable winter
storms, sometimes termed "blizzards," that
passed over the country, carrying, often, de-
struction to man and beast. In the cattle and
sheep regions of the "West and Southwest,
there was great loss of stock from these
storms. The fierce winds were almost like a
tornado, and they carried the blinding snow
and frost at such a rate as to send the ther-
mometer down from forty to sixty degrees
in a few hours. Several of these storms were
unparalleled in intensity, and so widespread
were they that much stock was destroyed as
far South as Central Texas. The repord of
the thermometer on one of these occasions'
marked 17^ below zero at St. Louis, and 5°
below zero at Dallas, Tex., and at the same
time it barely reached zero in any of this
part of the State south of the north line of
Union County. At no time, dm'ing the entire
winter, did the mark go below zero here,
when it passed below that point six or seven
hundred miles south of this. And during the
cold storms, on more than one occasion, there
was a difference of fifteen or twenty degrees
between this place and any point forty or
fifty miles north of this. This remarkable
state of facts results from the topography
of this part of Illinois. The mountain chain,
six or seven hundred feet high, passing across
the State, just north of this district, forms
a barrier to the tierce winds from the north,
and deflects them to the west or east, or

244

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

raises them so high, that they pass above us
and produce little or no efifect. Then, again,
the great river, leading directly from the
Gulf, forms a complete isothermal line, that
is unobstructed in its course until it strikes
this mountain range, when it stops, and, to
some extent, recoils upon the northern part
of Union County.

These are some of the geological, meteoro-
logical and topographical advantages
Union, Alexander and Pulaski Counties pos-
sess over all other portions of the great and
and rich State of Illinois, and in the

interests of truth and justice, and in vindica-
tion of a long-neglected, misunderstood and
grossly misrepresented portion of our be-
loved native State, we have attempted briefly
to explain the more important facts. To give
the skeleton oulines of such well-established
truths as will enable the people to go look
for themselves, and to continue the investi-
gation in all its detail, and the conclusion in
every case, whether a friend or a prejudiced
foe of this southern end of Illinois, he will
rise from the investigation ready to exclaim,
" the half has not been told."

CHAPTER II.

"For the truth is, that time seemeth to be of
the nature of a river or stream, which carrieth down
to us that which is light and blown up, and sinketh
and drowneth that which is weighty and solid."—
Bacon.

AS to the many different peoples that have
occupied all this portion of the coun-
try, in the long-baried ages of the past, are
questions that have long been, and are now,
of deep interest to archaeologists. How many
different and distinct races; how many cent-
uries intervened between their rise and ex
tinction; what manner of people they were,
and how they came and then passed away —
many of them, perhaps, leaving no wrack
behind, while others built the mounds, the
military posts of defense, the burial monu-
ments, the flint instruments of the chase, and
the varieties of pottery that are dug up here
and there, as the mute but eloquent story of
an unknown people, who here, at some time

PRE-HISTORIC RACES— THE MOUND BUILDERS— FIRE WORSHIPERS— RELICS OF THESE UNKNOWN

PEOPLE— MOUNDS, WORKSHOPS AND BATTLE-GROUNDS IN UNION, ALEXANDER AND

PULASKI COUNTIES— VISITS OF NOXIOUS INSECTS— HISTORY THEREOF, ETC.

in the world's history, lived, flourished,
struggled and died. Could we unravel the
strange, eventful story of these different peo-
ples, what fairy-like legends they would be.
Thus, the busy investigators are digging in
the mounds, visiting the battle-fields and
delving in the burial places, and laboriously
and patiently trying to unravel and gather
up their histories, and rescue them from the
oblivion that has so long rested upon their
memories.

Until within a period considerably less
than a century ago, few, comparatively, of
even the thinking and investigating portion
of mankind, were much concerned about the
question of the antiquity of the race. The
church maintained, through centuries, that
the Bible was the only authentic and trust-
worthy record of antiquity, and maintained,
equally, that itself was the only authorized
interpreter of this record and on this basis

HISTORY OF UNIOX COUNTY

345

certain vague chronology, which did not, in
its various forms, agree with itself by some
three or four thousand years, and this vague
belief as to time, which fixed the origin of
man and of the globe he inhabits at a period
now some six thousand years ago, was gener-
ally accepted as not to be disputed. Now and
again some thinker, bolder than his fellows,
formulated some theory which looked toward
a far greater antiquity for the race. As
early as 1734, Mahudel, and at a later period
Mercatl, ventui-ed the suggestion that the
flints found pretty much all over the globe,
" from Paris to Nineveh, from China to Cam-
boja, from Greenland to the Cape of Good
Hope," were the weapons of the men who
lived " before the flood." But these were
looked upon, when they received any atten-
tion at all, as merely fanciful, not to say
ridiculous, speculations. Even when Buffon,
in 1788, " affirmed again that the first men
began by sharpening into the form of axes
these hard flints, jades or thunderbolts,
which were believed to have fallen from the
clouds and to be formed by the thunder, but
which, said he, ' are merely the first move-
ments of the art of man in a state of nature,'
the simple and just theory, upon the sub-
stantial truth of \^hich all scientific men are
now agreed, was allowed to pass without
notice." Later, Mr. Bouche de Perthes was
virtually laughed at upon the presentation
of an account of his discoveries, and the
theories he deduced from them, to the French
Institute, and it was not until the lapse of
fifteen or twenty years from th^ time when
he first called the attention of that body to
these discoveries and theories that they were
given any serious consideration. Even then,
the attention was not what a purely scientitic
question should have. De Perthes himself
says: " A poi-ely geological question was
made the subject of religious controversy.

Those who threw no doubt upon any religion
accused me of rashness; an unknown archae-
ologist, a geologist without a diploma, I was
aspiring, they said, to overthi-ow a whole
system confirmed by long experience and
adopted by so many distinguished men.
They declared that this was a strange pre-
sumption on my part. Strange, indeed; but
I had not then, and I never have had, any
such intentions. I revealed a fact; conse-
quences were deduced from it, but I had not
made them. Truth is no man's work; she
was created before us, and is older than the
world itself; often sought, more often re-
pulsed, we find but do not invent her. Some-
times, too, we seek her wrongly, for truth is
to be found not only in books; she is every-
where; in the water, in the air, on the earth;
we cannot make a step without meeting her,
and when we do not perceive her it is be-
cause we shut our eyes or turn away our
head. It is our prejudices or our ignorance
which prevent us from seeing her — from
touching her. If we do not see her to-day,
we shall see her to-morrow; for, strive as
we may to avoid hei", she will appear when
the time is ripe." These are very simple
truths, and yet it is only the man who has
the courage to see facts who is also capable
of seeing these truths of reason. The change
froiu that day to this is remarkable indeed.
Neither ridicule nor disbelief is now the por-
tion of the believer in that antiquily of the
race which goes back. of a supposed Biblical
chronology. Even upon the point of that
chronology itself, scientific men and the most
learned theologians alike are almost or quite
ao-reed to coincide with Sylvestre de Sacy,
himself a savant and devout Christian also,
who said: "People perplex their minds
about Biblical chronology, and the discrep-
ancies which exist between it and the dis-
coveries of modern science. They are great-

246

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY

ly in error, for there is no Biblical chronol-
og}'." While this is true of the thinking
people of the world, it is in far less degree
true of the unthinking masses, and the liberal
thinker is even yet looked upon by many as
a sort of monster. This is not, however, a
fact that ought to produce any uneasiness,
since it is the opinion of the thinkers which,
sooner or later, makes the opinion of the
world.

This territory, including the three coun-
ties of Alexander, Union and Pulaski, are
rich in these remains and relics of men of a
time reaching back to the paleolithic and
the neolithic civilizations, or rather of the
slow evolution of civilization in those divis-
ions of the so-called stone age, of which those
" fairy tales of science" that were started
into life dm-ing the past quarter of a century
were written. The mounds, and the great
workshops for the manufacture of flint in-
struments, the battle-grounds and the burial-
places, indicate that some one race of these
stone-age people probably made their na-
tional headquarters in the upper portion of
Alexander County, and from this point they
extended their habitations- and working
places in every direction, into Kentucky,
jVfissouri and- the uppor portion of Illinois.
The most recent " finds " have been so traced
as to plainly point out that from here they
must have traveled into and through Mexico
and into South America, and that in making
this extended voyage they passed directly
southwest from this point, and in returning
they came from the Gulf toward the lower
portion of the Ohio River, on the east side
of the Mississippi, and the improvement
■ made in the few flio t instruments, and again
in the pottery vessels, mark as well the ad-
vances these pre-historic races made as the
course of their slow travels over the con-
tinent. If the cave people were here in these

hills of Southern Illinois, their resorts or
dwelling-places have not yet been discovered,
yet the hunt for them has hardly com-
menced, as the investigations are so far con-
fined to the mounds and the graves, as well
as the flint instruments that are plowed up
in the fields and found nearly everywhere
over the face of the country. The topog-
raphy of the country has, most probably, in-
vited here, at some time, the cave-dwellers.
The action of man himself should be well
considered in seeking the causes which have
brought about the filling of the caves ; for in
many cases they have served as dwellings, as
refuges, as the rendezvous of hunters, as
meeting places or tombs to the earliest popu-
lations of these districts. It is, therefore,
not surprising that they should have left in
them their mortal remains, the fragments of
their daily meals, their weapons, their tools —
in a word, the still simple products of their
dawning industry. Unfortunately, we can-
not always be sui*e that these objects are of
the same date as the bones of extinct species
with which they are found. Accidental dis-
turbances of the soil, occuring at widely-
separated jpeiiods, may have mixed the pro-
ductions of human industry with the bones
of a very difi"erent date. This is evidently
the case in the cave of Fausan (Herault), where
Marcel de Sevres found a fragment of enameled
glass embedded in a skull of Ursus Spelaeus ;
specimens of fire-baked pottery, relatively
quite modern, were found at Bize, by the
same naturalist, side by side with other ves-
sels of unbaked clay and of far ruder work-
manship. Similar facts, which may have oc-
casioned many mistakes, have been observed
in several other caves, among which it is
sufficient for the moment to cite those of
Herm and Auvignac. We cannot, therefore,
always, and as a matter of course, conclude
that the human bones found in company with

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

247

the remains of extinct animals were contem-
poraiy with each other. But doubt is no
longer reasonable when the bones of animals
and those of om- own species, uniformly
mixed, imbedded ;in the same sediment, and
which have undergone the same alterations,
are, moreover, covered by a thick layer of
stalagmite; when objects of a completely
primitive industry occupy the same bed with
bones belonging to extinct species; when the
latter bear the evident marks of human
workmanship; finally, when we find in the
diluviau strata of the valleys manufactured
objects and bones exactly like those dis-
covered in caves of the same date. Now, all
these circumstances occitr together in the
valleys of the Somme, the Khine, the
Thames, etc. , as well as in certain caves of
France, England, Belgimn, Italy, Sicily, etc.
Dr. W. R. Smith, of Cairo, informs us
that he has extensively examined the
mounds, burial-places and workshops of
Southern Illinois, and across the river into
Kentucky and Missouri. He finds within
this scope of country the biu'ial mounds, tem-
ple mounds, altar mounds and mounds of
observation, the distinction in them being
clear and distinct, and he finds many facts
corroborating the belief that the upper part
of Alexander, or the lower portion of Union
County, was the center or gi-eat meeting
place of the surrounding tribes. In the tem-
ple mounds are many evidences that they
were erected by the fire- worshipers. The
Lake Millikin mound, in Dogtooth Bend, is
the third largest mound in size in the United
States. A large number of mounds in th«
western and southern parts of Union, and in
the upper part of Alexander County, are all
bui-ial mounds, and one very large one in
Alexander is composed of chert stone, and
was evidently the point where they manu-
factured their rude implements of industry

and the chase, and, most singularly, it seems,
they carried the flinty chert rock to their
working place instead of moving their work-
ing place to the hills where ihey dug out the
chert used in the manufactm-e. This mound
has every appearance of having been fonned
as chip mounds are formed near the wood
piles where the wood is chopped, and the
chips left to rot and accumulate. The im-
mensity of the works may be imagined when
the workmen's chips would accumulate into a
large-sized mound that would remain through
all these ages, and another most singular cir-
cumstance is the fact that no implements can
be found at these points where they were evi-
dently made. Across in Kentitcky is an ex-
tensive region underlaid with remnants of
pottery, and the grounds about Fort Jefifer-
son seem to have been the main headquarters
for this industry, the bm-ned fragments, in
some places, underlying the thin surface soil
to a considerable depth. In Kentucky and
Missouri, near Cairo, a gi-eat many pieces of
pottery have been found, in a perfect state
of preservation, particularly some perfectly
formed water jugs, that are so true and per-
fect in construction that skilled workmen
who have examined them have believed they
could only have been made upon a potter's
wheel. Dr. Smith suggests that they shaped
or fashioned their flint implements, and were
enabled to chip and break them into the
many forms they did, by means of heat, and
then deftly touching with a wet stick at just
those points which they wished to scale oflf.
It is possible that in this way they made
their flint or chert darts and arrow-heads,
while other rocks show they were shaped by
rubbing and the slow process of fi'iction.

Ethnology has hardly yet begun to be a
science, and yet its progress is sufiicient to
demonstrate that, in the slow progi-ess of
evolution, many millions of years have

348

HISTORY OF rXIOX COUNTY

passed away since man, in some form, ap-
peared upon our continent. But why a
numerous people should appear in the world,
live out their allotted time, and wholly dis-
appear, and in the long course of time be
followed by another and yet a distinct race
of people. Did they come at fixed periods,
think you, after the manner of the seventeen-
year locusts? Evidently not; as the old
law of transmigration of souls would have
to be revived, in order to account for those
long periods of absence of each race from the
earth. In the investigations thus far, these
two points only are established; that is:
That distinct races have come, lived their
brief time upon the earth, and then passed
away eutirely, to be succeeded by another
race of human beings, and this by still an-
other. How many of these have played their
separate parts in this wonderful world's
drama we may never know, and so blended
now are the remains and traces they have
left, that it may be forever impossible to ar-
rive at the numbers of the difierent races,
much less to fix the period of the coming of
the first, or the length of time intervening
between the disappearance of one and the ap-
pearance of the other. Indeed, so little can
we yet positively know, that it may even be
conjectui'ed that one people would come and
displace those they found here, much as the
white man has superseded the Indian, and in
the course of long centuries have driven
them from the face of the earth.

In the northeast part of Pulaski County,
where the river bank is rugged and rocky,
the sandstone rocks have been washed bare,
in the solid rocks are the footprints of three
persons, a man, woman and a child, the child
supposed to have been about six years old.
The impressions of the feet are clear, and
every outline sharply defined, and are sunk
into the rock nearly an inch in depth. They

are ordinary sized feet, and indicate arched
instep and wide and long toes — feet, evi-
dently, that had never been cramped by tight
shoes. The position of the tracks would in-
dicate the man and woman (and it is only
supposed to be a woman's track because
somewhat more delicate and smaller than
the other) stood facing each other, and five
or six feet apart, and the child stood to the
man's lef t^ a few feet. A few feet from these
are plainly marked, on the same rock, tui'key
tracks, and these you can trace where the
tiu-key walked out and circled and returned
by the same way that it came. The surface
soil at one time had covered this rock three
or foui' feet in depth.

Insect Plagues. — At irregular periods, in
nearly ail portions of the world, appear those
extraordinary visitations of insects, that sud-
denly come, and often as suddenly disap-
pear, and we can no more tell from whence
they come than we can tell whither they go.
All of the southern and central portions of
Illinois, particularly this extreme southern
end of the State, received one of these un-
accountable visits this year (1883), in the
foiTu of innumerable caterpillars. They over-
ran the country in immense numbers, and as
they came with the early tree leaves, they
left the apple trees and certain kinds of
forest trees, upon which they fed, as barren
of foliage as the middle of winter. The
forest ti'ees upon which they would feed were
the walnut and sweet gum and the red oak.
The injury these insects caused was not
regularly inflicted upon all the orchards, as
there wei'e places where they did not seem to
go, and thus some orchards escaped their
visitations, while in other localities it is much
feared the trees are permanently injm*ed.
They were called caterpillars, and yet they
were a different variety from the regular old
orchard insect that weaves its web and

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

249

hatches its young to feed upon the leaves,
and more or less of which we have every
year. They were like those noxious insects
that have from time immemorial visited the
world, that are to the insect world much as
the wandering comets to the heavenly bodies.
The sudden appearance, and the no less sud-
den disappearance, of noxious insects, have
given rise to much speculation concerning
their cause. They have been common in all
countries, from the equator to those nearest
the poles. The earliest historians took note
of them. Moses has described the insect
plagues of ancient Egypt, and Greek and
Roman writers furnish graphic accounts of
the ravages of insects in other countries of
antiquity. In times when religious and
superstitious beliefs were stronger than they
are at present, it was generally thought that
insects were sent to various jjarts of the earth
to inflict punishments for the sins of the peo-
ple. It appears certain that the coming of
large numbers of noxious insects has been
accompanied with outbreaks of epidemic
diseases among human beings and domesti-
cated animals. Possibly the climatic condi-
tions that favored the production of these in-
sects were unfavorable to the health of ani-
mals, human beings included. When some
of the vegetation was destroyed, it was but
natural that the physical condition of the
animals that gained their sustenance from
them should be reduced. The sudden de-
struction of vast numbers of insects would be
likely to vitiate the air and to render water
unlit to drink. If we can credit ancient his-
torians, the sudden appearance of large num-
bers of insects, especially of those not com-
mon to the country, was generally accompa-
nied by earthquakes, floods and various other
calamities. No natural connection, of course,
exists between the flight of locusts and an
upheaval of the earth. The early accounts

of insect plagues are generally meager, and
probably very inaccurate.

About the year 141, we are told that " de-
vastation from every variety of the insect
tribe " presaged the outbreak of an awful
pestilence at Rome in that year. In 158, all
the grain in Scotland was destroyed, famine
ensuing. An ecclesiastical chronicler relates
that when the King of Persia was besieging
Nisibin in 260, swarms of gnats suddenly
appeared, and attacked his elephants and
beasts of burden so furiously as to kill or dis-
able most of them. The siege had to be
raised in consequence, a step which ultimate-
ly led to the discomfiture of the Persian
Army. In 406, multitudes of grasshoppers
infested Egypt. They are said to have been
so numerous that the putrifaction of their
dead bodies occasioned a plague in the coun-
try. It is not improbable that locusts are the
insects meant, for we frequently find old
writers calling locusts grasshoppers; and,
besides, there are many instances of the
advent of locusts in a country beino- fol-
lowed by a pestilence. In 1807, after
a shower of blood in England, Grafton
says that there " ensued a great and exceed-
ing number and multitude of flies, the which
were so noxious and contagious that they
slew many people." What might be the nat-
ure of these deadly flies we are unable to
conjecture.

The army of Philip of France, while at
Gerona, in 1283, was attacked by swarms of
flies, the poisonous stings of which were
fatal both to the men and the horses. The
insects are described as being the size of
acorns. Two species have been suggested as
likely, neither of them, however, indigenous
to Spain, viz., the Simulum reptans, a native
of Eastern countries, and Chrj/sops coecu-
tiens, an African fly, which is said to attack
horses. The French Armv lost about four

250

HISTORY OF UNI0:N^ COUNTY.

thousand men, and as many horses, through
the attacks of this insect The plague was
attributed to a miracle wrought by St. Nar-
cissus. In 128'), "a curious worm, with a tail
like a crab," appeared in numbers in Prussia.
The sting of the creatiu'e was fatal to animals
within three days.

Riverius, a medical writer, mentions that
in April and May, 1580, prodigious swarms
of insects obscured the daylight, and were
crushed on the roads by the million. The
species is not indicated, but they were sup-
posed to have risen out of the earth. In 1612,
previous to the outbreak of epidemic pestilence
in Germany, Goelenius relates that " a sud-
den and amazing number of spiders ap-
peared." It is curious that the same phe-
nomenon occurred at Seville nearly a century
afterward. In 1708, just before the plague
broke out in that city, imrpiense swarms of
insects appeared, most conspicuous among
which were spiders. Why spiders in par-
ticular should herald pestilence it is difficult
to understand. In the summer of 1664, the
ditches in England were filled with frogs
and various kinds of insects, the houses liter-
ally swarmed with flies, and ants were so
numerous that they might have been taken
in handfuls from the highways. This abund-
ance of insect life was said to foreshadow
the great plague of London which followed.
Five years later, a remarkable swarm of
"ant-flies" alighted at Litchfield and other
places. They appeared over the city about
noonday, and were so thick that they dark-
ened the sky. On alighting, they "filled
the houses, stung many people and put all
the horses mad." All who happened to be
out of doors had to flee. The market people
packed up their goods and made off, and
those in the harvest field were all driven
home. After remaining on the ground for
three hours, the swarm took flight in a

northerly direction. So many of the insects
were left dead on the streets that their bodies
were swept into great heaps.

In 1679, the little town of Czierko, in
Hungary, was the scene of a curious visita-
tion. During the summer, a winged insect,
of an unknown species, made its appearance,
and inflicted mortal wounds upon men,
horses and oxen with its sting. Thirty-five
men and a great number of animals wore
killed. In the case of the men, the insect
inserted its [sting wherever the skin was un-
protected, i, e., the face, neck and hands.
Shortly after the infliction of the wound, a
tumor was formed. Unless the poison was
extracted at once, the victims died within a
few days. The Poles, it seems, were the
chief sufiferers, on account of their habit of
wearing short hair, and thus exposing their
necks. It is remarkable that the insects
confined their ravages to Czierko, a circum-
stance which caused many people to regard
them as a divine punishment.

Sir Thomas Molyneux, in the " Natural
History of Ireland," gives an account of an
invasion of cockchaflfers, which occurred in
1088. He says: "They appeared on the
southwest coast of the county of Galway,
brought thither by a southwest wind." Pass-
iog inland toward Headford, " multitudes of
them showed themselves among the trees and
hedges in the day-time, hanging by the
boughs, thousands together, in clusters,
sticking to the back one of another, as in the
manner of bees when they swarm. Those
that were traveling on the roads, or abroad
in the fields, found it very uneasy to make
their way through them, they would so ])eat
and knock themselves against their faces in
their flight, and with such force as to smart
the place they hit, and leave a slight mark
behind them. A short while after their com-
ing, they had so entirely eaten up and de-

HISTORY OF UXION COUNTY.

251

stroyed all the leaves of the trees for some
miles about, that the whole country, though
it was the middle of summer, was left as
bare and naked as if it had been the depth
of winter, making a most unseemly, and, in-
deed, frightful appearance; and the noise
they made, whilst they were seizing and
devouring this their prey, was as surprising,
for the grinding of the leaves in the mouths
of this vast multitude altogether, made a
sound very much resembling the sawing of
timber. Out of the gardens they got into the
houses, where numbers of them, crawling
about, were very irksome."

The ensuing spring (1689) brought but
little improvement, for the young of the in-
sect, " lodged under the ground, next the up-
per sod of the earth," did great mischief by
devouring the roots of the corn and grass.
These indispensable crops having failed, the
people were reduced to the necessity of cook-
ing the cockchaffers and eating them, while
the hungry " swine and poultry of the coun-
try at length grew so cunning as to watch
under 'the trees for their falling." The
plague was fortunately checked by high winds
and wet weather, which was so disagreeable
to the insects that many millions of them
died in one day's time. Smoke was also dis-
tasteful to them, and some places were pro-
tected from their ravages by making fires of
weeds and heath. Some years after this,
the dead insects lay in such quantities on
the Galway shore as to form at least forty or
fifty horse loads. In 1697, they reached the
Shannon, and some of them crossed the river
and entered Leinster; but there they were
met by an " army of jackdaws, that did much
damage among them, killing and devom'ing
great numbers. Their main body still kept
in Connaught, and took up their quarters at
a well-improved English plantation, where
they found plenty of provisions, and did a

great deal of mischief by stripping the
hedges, gardens and groves of beech quite
naked of all their leaves. " The cockchaffer,
which is called in Irish Primpelan, still ex
ists in the countr}\

Immediately after the destruction of Port
Royal (Jamaica), in June, 1692, by an
earthquake, great numbers of mosquitoes and
flies appeared. The same thing has been ob-
served after earthquakes and volcanic erup-
tions elsewhere. Thus, in 1783, after a
tremendous eruption of the volcano Skaptar
Jokul, in Iceland, the pastures swarmed
with little winged insects, of blue, red, yel-
low and brown colors, which belonged to a
species until then unknown in the island.
They were not at all destructive, but caused
considerable inconvenience to the haymakers,
who were covered with them from head to
foot. The cause of the sudden appearance
of insects at such times may be the rise of
temperature due to volcanic activity induc-
ing premature development. The so-called
new species may possibly have been one in-
digenous to the island at a remote period,
when its climate was different, some long-
buried larvpe of which the volcanic heat serve
to develop.

In the year 1858, there was a visitation, in
pretty much all Southern Illinois, of the
" army worm. " In places, they almost cov-
ered the face of the earth, and often a person
could not walk along the highway without
crushing them under his feet. They seemed
to be constantly traveling in the hunt of
timothy grass or the wheat fields. They
would leave the grass fields looking much as
though a fire had passed over them, and, if
the wheat had well "headed out," they
would feed upon the leaves of the stalk and
do no harm. In fact, many farmers believed
that, under these circumstances, they were a
benefit to the wheat. Chickens, turkeys,

252

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY

birds and hogs would devour the army worm
in great quantities, yet they came in such
numbers that such enemies made no apparent
impression upon their volume, and farmers
would dig trenches about the timothy and
field of young corn, and then they would
tumble into the trench until it was nearly
full, would hitch a horse to a log and drag
it along the trench, and thus crush them by
millions, and yet, by the time he would thus
go around his field, the ditch would again be
full.

The locusts have made their irregular, and
yet somewhat regular, visitations to all parts
of the State, and this portion of Illinois;
being all heavily timbered, they have come
hero in much greater numbers than in
many other parts of Illinois. They are an
arboreal insect, and although capable of ex-
tended flight, yet they do not care to travel
farther than from tree to tree, at very short

distances. They inflict much injury to
orchards, as well as some of the forest
trees, in the process of depositing their eggs
in the young twigs. They always come about
the middle of spring, when the leaves are
unfolded and the new and tender twigs of
the limbs of the tree are growing. They
select this new growth to bore into and de-
posit their eggs. They find a place, and
bore two holes into the wood, and these holes
circle and come together, this junction al-
ways being toward the body of the tree. Sp
perfectly is the work done, that the twig will
soon break, the leaves will die, and after a
certain time it will fall to the ground, carry-
ing every egg with it, and this falling of the
dead twig is timed exactly to the time when
the egg is ready to hatch out a grub, and
at once it goes into the ground on its thir-
teen or seventeen year trip, according to the
kind to which it belongs.

CHAPTER III.

THE DARING DISCOVERIES AND SETTLEMENTS BY THE FRENCH -THE CATHOLIC MISSIONARIE.S-

DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER— SOME CORRECTIONS IN HISTORY— A WORLDS

WONDERFUL DRAMA OF NI^ARLY THREE HUNDRED YEARS' DURATION, ETC.

"Should you ask me, whence these stones,
Whence these legends and traditions
With the odors of the forests,
With the curling smoke of wigwams,
With the rushing of great rivers

I repeat them as I heard them." — Longfellow.

THE truth of history in regard to the great
Mississippi Valley is only just now being
examined closely by the impartial investiga-
tors, and the facts in relation thereto are slowly
coming to light. For this empire of mag-
nificent proportions, the great powers of the
Old World contended for nearly three hundred
years, and it is a singular fact that these

warlike nations that only struggled for wealth
and empire by the power of the sword, were
in nearly all instances guided and pointed
the way into the heart of the New World, and
the home of the powerful savage tribes by
the missionaries of the Catholic Church, who
carried nothing more formidable for defense
or attack than their prayer books and rosaries,
and the word, "peace on earth and good
will to men." The French Catholic mission-
aries were as loyal to their Government as
they were true to their God. They planted
the lilies of France and erected the cross of

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

253

the Mother Church in the newly discovered
countries, and chanted the solemn mass that
soothed the savage breast, and spoke peace
and good vs^ill, and smoked the calumet with
wild men of the woods.

The settlement of the West and the iivst
discoveries were made by the French, and it
was long afterward the country passed into
the permanent possession of the English; the
latter people wrote the histories and tinged
them from first to last with their prejudices,
and thus promulgated many serioiis errors of
history. Time will always produce the icon-
oclast who will dispassionately follow out the
truth regardless of how many fictions it may
brush away in its course. Thus, history is
being continually re- written, and the truth is
ever making its approaches; and the glorious
deeds of the noble sons of France are becom-
ing manifest as the views of our history are
brought to light, particularly their occupancy
of the valley of the Father of Waters. As
early as 150-t the French seamen, from Brit-
tany and Normandy visited the fisheries of
Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. These bold
and daring men traversed the ocean through
the dangers of ice and stormsto pursue the oc-
cupation of fishery, an enterprise which to-day
has developed into one of gigantic magnitude.

France, not long after this, commissioned
James Cartier, a distinguished mariner, to
explore America. In 1535, in pursuance of
the order, they planted the cross on the
shores of the New World, on the banks of
the St. Lawrence, bearing a shield witb the
lilies of France. He was followed by other
adventurous spirits, and among them the im-
mortal Samuel Champlain, a man of great
enterprises, who founded Quebec in 1608.
Champlain ascended the Sorel Eiver; ex-
plored Lake Champlain, which bears his
name to-day. He afterward penetrated the
forest and found his grave on the bleak

shores of Lake Huron. He was unsurpassed
for bravery, indefatigable in industry, and
was one of the leading spirits in explorations
and discoveries in the New W^orld.

In the van of the explorations on this con-
tinent were found the courageous and pious
Catholic missionaries, meeting dangers and
death with a crucifix upon their breasts, bre-
viary in hand, whilst chanting their matins
and vespers, along the shores of our majestic
rivers, great lakes and unbroken forests.
Their course was marked through the track-
less wilderness by the carving of their em-
blems of faith upon the roadway, amidst
perils and dangers, without food, but pounded
maize, sleeping in the woods without shelter,
their couch being the ground and rock; their
beacon light, the cross, which was marked
upon the oak of the forest in their pathway.

After these missionaries had selected their
stations of worship, the French hunters,
couriers de bois, voyagers and traders, opened
their traffic with the savages. France, when
convenient and expedient, erected a chain of
forts along the rivers and lakes, in defense
of Christianity and commerce.

France, from 1608, acquired in this conti-
nent a territory extensive enough to create a
great empire, and was at that time untrod by
the foot of the white man, and inhabited by
roving tribes of the red man. As early as
1615, we find Father Le Carron, a Catholic
priest, in the forests of Canada, exploring
the country for the purpose of converting the
savages to the Christian religion. The fol-
lowing year he is seen on foot traversing the
forests amongst the Mohawks, and reaching
the rivers of the Ottawas. He was followed
by other missionaries along the basin of the
St. Lawrence and Kennebec Rivers, where
some met their fate in frail barks, whilst
others perished in the storms of a dreadful
wilderness.

254

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

In 1635, we find Father Jean Brebeauf,
Daniels and Gabriel Lallamand leaving
Quebec with a few Huron braves to explore
Lake Huron, to establish chapels along its
banks, from which sprung the villages of St.
Joseph, St. Ignatius and St. Louis. To
reach these places it was necessary to follow
the Ottawa River through a dangerous and
devious way to avoid the Mohawks, Oneidas,
Cayugas, Senecas and Iroquois, fonning a
confederacy as the ''Five Nations," occupy-
ing a territory then known as the New York
colony, who were continually at war with the
Hurons, a tribe of Indians inhabiting Lake
Huron territory.

As early as 1639, three Sisters of Charity,
from France, arrived at Quebec, dressed in
plain black gowns with snowy white collars,
whilst from their girdle hung the rosary. They
proceeded to the chapel, led by the Governor
of Canada, accompanied by braves and war-
riors, to chant the Te Deum. These holy
and pious women, moved by religious zeah
immediately established the Ursuline Con-
vent for the education of girls. In addition
to this, the King of France and nobility of
Paris endowed a seminary in Quebec for the
education of all classes of persons. A public
hospital was built by the generous Duchess
of D'Arguilon, with the aid of Cardinal
Eichelieu, for the unfortunate emigrants, to
the savages of all tribes, and afflicted of all
classes. A missionary station was established
as early as 1641, at Montreal, under a rude
tent, from which has grown the large city of
to-day, with its magnificent cathedral and
churches, its massive business houses, audits
commerce.

The tribes of Huron Lake and neighboring
savages, in 1641, met on the banks of the
Iroquois Bay to celebrate the " Festival of
the Dead." The bones and ashes of the dead
had' been gathered in coffins of bark, whilst

wrapped in magnificent furs, to be given an
affectionate sepulture. At this singular fes-
tival of the savages the chiefs and braves of
different tribes chanted their low, mournful
songs day and night, amidst the wails and
gi-oans of their women and children. During
this festival appeared the pious missionai'ies,
in their cassocks, with beads to their girdle,
sympathizing with the red men in their de-
votion to the dead, whilst scattering their
medals, pictures of oiu* Savior, and blessed
and beautiful beads, which touched and won
the hearts of the sons of the forest. What a
beautiful spectacle to behold, over the graves
of the fierce warriors, idolatry fading before
the Son of God! Father Charles Raymbault
and the indomitable Isaac Joques, in 1641,
left Canada to explore the cotintry as far as
Lake Superior. They reached the Falls of
St. oMary's, and established a station at
Sault de Ste. Mai'ie, where were assembled
many warriors and braves from the great
West, to see and hear these two apostles of
religion and to behold the cross of Chris-
tianity. These two missionaries invoked
them to worship the true God. The savages
were struck with the emblem of the cross
and its teachings, and exclaimed : " We
embrace you as brothers ; come and dwell in
our cabins. "

When Father Joques and his party were
returning from the Falls of St. Mary's to
Quebec, they were attacked by the Mohawks,
who massacred the chief and his braves who
accompanied him, whilst they held Father
Joques in captivity, showering upon him a
great many indignities, compelling him to run
the gantlet throitgh their village. Father
Brussini at the same time was beaten, muti-
lated, and made to walk barefooted through
thorns and briars, and then scotirged by a
whole village. However, by some miracu-
lous way, they were rescued by the generous

HISTORY OF UNI0:N COUNTY

255

Dutch of New York, and both afterward re-
turned to France. Father Joques again re-
turned to Quebec, and was sent as an envoy
amongst the "Five Nations." Contrary to
the savage laws of hospitality, he was ill-
treated, and then killed as an enchanter, his
head hung upon the skirts of the village, and
his body thrown into the Mohawk River.
Such was the fate of this courageous and
pious man, leaving a monument of martyr-
dom more enduring than the Pyi-amids of
Egypt.

The year 1645 is memorable, owing to a
congress held by France and the "Five Na-
tions," at the Three Rivers, in Canada.
There the daring chiefs and warriors and the
gallant officers of France met at the great
council fires. After the war-dance and numer-
ous ceremonies, the hostile parties smoked the
, calumet of peace. The Iroquois said: "Let
the clouds be dispersed and the sun shine on
all the land between us." The Mohawks
exclaimed: "We have thrown the hatchet so
high into the air and beyond the skies that
no man on eairth can reach to bring it down.
The French shall sleep on our softest blankets,
by the warm fire, that shall be kept blaz-
ing all night." Notwithstanding the elo-
quent aud fervent language and appearance
of peace, it was but of short duration, for
soon the cabin of the white man was in
flames, and the foot-prijit of blood was seen
along the St. Lawrence, and once more a
bloody war broke out, which was disastrous
to France, as the Five Nations returned to the
allegiance of the English colonies.

The village of St. Joseph, near Huron
Lake, on the 4th of July, 1648, whilst her
warriors were absent, was sacked, and its
people murdered by the Mohawks. Father
Daniel, who officiated there, whilst endeavor-
ing to protect the children, women and old
men, was fatally wounded by numerous ar-

rows, and killed. Thus fell this martyr in
the cause of religion and progress.

The next year, the villages of St. Ignatius
and St. Louis were attacked by the Iroquois.
The village of St. Ignatius was destroyed,
and its inhabitants massacred. The village
of St. Louis shared the same fate. At the
latter place, Father Brebeauf and Lalle-
mand were made prisoners, tied to a tree,
stripped of their clothes, mutilated, burnt
with fagots and rosin bark, and then scalped.
They perished in the name of France and
Christianity.

Father de la Ribourde, who had been the
companion of La Salle on the Griffin, and
who officiated at Fort Creve Cceur, 111.,
whilst returning to Lake Michigan, was lost
in the wilderness. Afterward, it was learned
he had been murdered in cold blood by three
young warriors, who carried his prayer-book
and scalp as a trophy up north of Lake Su-
perior, which afterward fell into the hands of
the missionaries. Thus died this martyr of
religion, after ten years' devotion in the cab-
ins of the savages, whose head had become
bleached with seventy winters. Such was
also the fate of the illustrious Father Rine
Mesnard, on his mission to the southern
shore of Lake Superior, where, in after years,
his cassock and breviary were kept as amu-
lets among the Sioux, After these atrocities,
these noble missionaries never retraced their
steps, and new troops pressed forward to
take their places. They still continued to
explore our vast country. The history of
their labors, self sacrifice and devotion is
connected with the origin of every village or
noted place in the North and great West.

France ordered, by Colbert, its great min-
ister, that an invitation be given to all tribes
West for a general congress. This remark-
able council was held in May, 1671, at the
Falls of St. Mary's. There was found the

256

HISTORY OF UNIOX COUNTY

chiefs and braves of many nations of the
West, decorated in their brightest feathers
and furs, whilst the French officers glistened
with their swords and golden epaulets. In
their midst stood the undaunted missionaries
from all parts of the country. In this re-
markable congress rose a log cedar cross, and
upon a staff the colors of France.

In this council, after many congratvilations
offered, and the war dances, the calumet was
smoked and peace declared. France secured
here the friendship of the tribes, and domin-
ion over the great West.

Marquette, while on his mission in the
West, leaves Mackinac on the 13th of May,
1673, with his companion. Joliet, and five
Frenchmen and two Indian guides, in two
bark canoes, freighted with maize and smoked
meat, to enter into Lake Michigan and Green
Bay until they reached Fox River io Illinois,
where stood on its banks an Indian village oc-
cupied by the Kickapoos, Mascoutins and
Miamis, where the noble Father Allouez offi-
'ciated. Marquette in this village preaches
and announces to them his object of discover-
ing the great river. They are appalled at
the bold proposition. They say: "Those
distant nations never spare the strangers ;
their mutual wars fill their borders with
bands of warriors. The great river abounds
in monsters which devour both men and
canoes. The excessive heat occasions death."

From Fox Kiver across the portage with
the canoes they reach the Wisconsin River.
There Marquette and Joliet separated with
their guides, and, in Marquette's language,
" Leaving us alone in this unknown land in
the hands of Providence," they float down
the Wisconsin whose banks are dotted with
prairies and beautiful hills, whilst sur-
rounded by wild animals and the buffalo.
After seven days' navigation on this river,
their hearts bound with gladness on behold-

ing, on the 17th day of June, 1673, the broad
expanse of the great Father of Waters, and
upon its bosom they float down. About sixty ■
leagues below this they visit an Indian vil-
lage. Their reception from the savages was
cordial. They said : "We are Illinois, that
is, we are men. The whole village awaits
thee ; then enter in peace our cabins. " After
six days' rest on the couch of furs, and
amidst abundance of game, these hospitable
Illinois conduct them to their canoes, whilst
the chief places around Marquette's neck the
calumet of peace, being beautifully decorated
with the feathers of birds.

Their canoe again ripples the bosom of the
great river (Mississippi), when further down
they behold on the high bluffs and smooth
rock above (now Alton), on the Illinois shore,
the figures of two monsters painted in vari-
ous colors, of frightful appearance, and the.
position appeared to be inaccessible to a
painter. They soon reached the tui-bid wa-
ters of the Missouri, and thence floated down
to the mouth of the Ohio.

Farther down the river stands the village
of Mitchigamea, being on the west side of the
river. When approaching this place its
bloody warriors, with their war cry, embark
in their canoes to attack them, but the calu-
met, held aloft by Marquette, pacifies them.
So they are treated with hospitality, and es-
corted by them to the Arkansas River. They
sojourn there a short time, when Marquette,
before leaving this sunny land, cele-
brates the festival of the church. Marquette
and Joliet then turn their canoe northward to
retrace their way back until they reach the
Illinois River, thence up that stream, along
its flowery prairies. The Illinois braves con-
duct them back to Lake Michigan, thence
k) Green Bay, where they arrived in Septem-
ber, 1673.

Marquette for two year's officiated along

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

257

Lake Michigan; afterward visited Mackinaw;
from thence he enters a small river in Mich-
igan (that bears his name), when, after say-
ing mass, he withdraws for a short time to
the woods, where he is found dead. Thus
died this illustrious explorer and remarkable
priest, leaving a name unparalleled as a
brave, good and virtuous Christian.

Robert Caraiin La Salle, a native of Nor-
mandy, an adventurer from France, arrived
in Canada about 1670. Being ambitious to
distinguish himself in making discoveries on
this continent, he returned to France to so-
licit aid for that purpose. He was made
chevalier, upon the condition that he would
repair Fort Frontenac, located on Lake On-
tario, and open commerce with the savages.
In 1678, he again retui-ned to France, when
in July, 1677, with Chevalier Tonti, his
Lieutenant, with thirty men, he left Rochelle
for Quebec and Fort Frontenac. Whilst at
Quebec, an agreement was made by the Gover-
nor of Canada with La Salle to establish forts
along the northern lakes. At this time he
undertook with great activity to increase the
commerce of the "West, by building a bark
of ten tons to float on Lake Ontario. Shortly
afterward, he built another vessel, known as
the Griffin, above Niagara Falls, for Lake
Erie, of sixty tons, being the first vessel seen
on the Northern lakes. The Griffin was
launched and made to float on Lake Erie.
"On the prow of this ship, armorial bearings
were adorned by two griffins as supporters; "
upon her deck she carried two brass cannon
for defense. On the 7th of August, 1679,
she spread her sails on Lake Erie, whilst on
her deck stood the brave naval commander
La Salle, accompanied by Fathers Hennepin,
Ribourdo and Zenobi, surrounded by a crew
of thirty voyageurs. On leaving, a salute
was tired, whose echoes were heard to the as-
tonishment of the savages, who named the

Griffin "The Great Wooden Canoe." This
ship pursued her course through Lakes Erie,
St. Clair and Huron to Mackinaw, thence
thi'ough that strait into Lake Michigan, thence
to Green Bay, where she anchored in safety.
The Griffin, after being laden with a cargo
of peltries and fiu's, was ordered back by La
Salle to the port from whence she sailed, but
unfortunately on her return she was wrecked.
La Salle, during the absence of the Griffin,
determined with fourteen men to proceed to
the mouth of the Mi amis, now St. Joseph,
where he built a fort, from which place he
proceeded to Rock Fort in La Salle County,
111. La Salle hearing of the disaster and
wreck of the Griffin, he builds a fort on the
Illinois River called Creve CcBur (broken
heart). This brave man, though weighed
down by misfortune, did not despair. He
concluded to retm'n to Canada, but before
leaving sends Father Hennepin, with Piscard,
Du Gay and Michael Aka, to explore the
sources of the Upper Mississippi. They
leave Creve Coeur February 29, 1680, float-
ing down the Illinois Rivei', reaching the
Mississippi March 8, 1680; then explored
this river up to the Falls of St. Anthony;
from there they penetrated the forests, which
brought them to the wigwams of the Sioux,
who detained Father Hennepin and compan-
ions for a short time in captivity; recovering
their liberties, they retiu-ned to Lake Superior
in November, 1680, thence to Quebec and
France. During the explorations of Father
Hennepin, La Salle, with a courage unsur-
passed, a constitution of iron, returns to
Canada, a distance of 1,200 piiles, his path-
way being through snows, ice and savages
along the Lakes Michigan, Erie and Ontario
Reaching Quebec, he finds his business in a
disastrous condition, his vessels lost, his
goods seized and his men scattered. Not
being discouraged, however, he returns to his

258

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

forts in Illinois, which he finds deserted;
takes new courage; goes to Mackinaw; finds
his devoted friend Chevalier Tonti in 1681,
and is found once more on the Illinois River
to continue the explorations of the Missis-
sippi, which had been explored by Father
Marquette to the Arkansas River, and by Fa-
ther Hennepin up to the Falls of St. Anthony,
La Salle, from Fort Creve Cceur, on the Illi-
nois River, with twenty-two Frenchmen,
amongst whom was Father Zenobi and Chev-
alier Tonti, with eighteen savages and two
women and three children, float down until
they reached the Mississippi on F ebruary 6,
1682. They descend this mighty river until
they reach its mouth April 6, 1682, where
they are the first to plant the cross and the
banners of France. La Salle, with his com-
panions, ascends the Mississippi and returns
to his forts on the Illinois; returns again to
Canada and France.

La Salle is received at the French court
with enthusiasm. The King of France orders
foui- vessels, well equipped, to serve him,
under Beaugerr, commander of the fleet, to
proceed to the Gulf of Mexico, to discover the
Balize. UnEoi'tunately for La Salle, he fails
in discovering it, and they are thrown into
the bay of Matagorda, Texas, where La Salle,
with his 280 persons, are abandoned by
Beaugerr, the commander of the fleet. La
Salle here builds a fort, then undertakes, by
land, to discover the Balize. After many
hardships, he returned to his fort, and again
attempts the same object, when he meets a
tragical end, being murdered by the desper-
ate Duhall, one of his men. During the
voyage of La Salle, Chevalier Tonti, his
friend, had gone down the Mississippi to its
mouth, to meet him. After a long search in
vain for the fleet, he returned to Rock Fort,
on the Illinois. After the unfortunate death
of La Salle, great disorder and misfortune

occurred to his men in Texas. Some wan-
dered amongst the savages, others were taken
prisoners, others perished in the woods.
However, seven bold and brave men of La
Salle's force determined to return to Illinois,
headed by Capt. Joutel, and the noble Father
Anatase. After six months of exploration
through the forest and plain, they cross Red
River, where they lose one of their comrades.
They then moved toward the Arkansas River,
where, to their great joy, they reached a
French fort, upon which stood a large cross,
where Couture and Delouny, two Frenchmen,
had possession, to hold communication with
La Salle. This brave band, with the excep-
tion of young Bertheley, proceeded up the
Mississippi to the Illinois forts ; from thence
to Canada.

This terminated La Salle's wonderful ex-
plorations over oiu" vast lakes, great rivers
and territory of Texas. He was a man of
stern integrity, of undoubted activity and
boldness of character, of an iron constitution,
entertaining broad views, and a chivalry un-
surpassed in the Old or New World.

France, as early as possible, established
along the lakes permanent settlements. One
was that of Detroit, which was one of the
most interesting and lovely positions, which
was settled in 1701, by Lamotte de Cardillac,
with one hundred Frenchmen.

The discovery and possession of Mobile,
Biloxi and Dauphine Island induced the
French to search for the mouth of the Mis-
sissippi River, formerly discovered by La-
Salle. Lemoine d'Iberville, a naval officer of
talent and great experience, discovered the
Balize, on the 2d of March, 1699; proceeded
up this river and took possession of the
country known as Louisiana. D'Iberville
returned immediately to France to announce
this glorious news. Bienville, his brother,
was left to take charge of Louisiana during

^*S5i ^

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

261

his absence. D'lberville returned, when
Bienville and St. Denis, with a force, was
ordered to explore Ked River and thence to
the borders of Mexico. La Harpe also as-
cended Red River in 1719 built a fort called
Carlotte; also took possession of the Arkan-
sas River; afterward floated down this river
in pirogues, finding on its banks many thriv-
ing Indians villages. France, in September,
1712, by Letters Patent, gi-anted Louisi-
ana to Crozas, a wealthy Frenchman, who
relinquished his rights and power in 1717 to
the Company of the West, established by the
notorious banker, John Law. Under a fever
of great speculations, great efforts were made
to advance the population and wealth of
Louisiana. New Orleans was mapped out in
1718, and became the important city of
Lower and Upper Louisiana. The charter
and privileges of ' ' Company of the West, "
after its total failure, was resigned to the
crown of France in 1731. The country, era-
bracing Louisiana, was populated by numer-
ous tribes of savages. One of these tribes
was known as the Natchez, located on a high
bluff, in the midst of a glorious climate,
about 300 miles above New Orleans, on the
river bank. The Natchez had erected a re-
markable temple, where they invoked the
''Great Spirit," which was decorated with
yarious idols moulded from clay baked in the
sun. In this temple burned a living tire,
where the bones of the brave were burned.
Near it. on a high mound, the Chief of the
Nation, called the Sun, resided, where the
warriors chanted their war songs and held
their great council fires. The Natchez had
shown great hospitality to the French. The
Governor of Louisiana built a fort near them
in 1714, called Fort Rosalie. ChOpart, after-
ward commander of this fort, ill-treated them
and unjustly demanded a part of their vil-
lages. This unjust demand so outraged their

feelings that the Natchez in their anger
lifted up the bloody tomahawk, headed by
the "Great Sun,'' attacked Fort Rosalie No-
vember 28, 1729, and massacred every French-
man in the fort and the vicinity. During
these bloody scenes the chief amidst this car-
nage stood calm and unmoved, whilst Cho-
part's head and that of his officers and sol-
diers were thrown at his feet, forming a pyra-
mid of human heads. This caused a bloody
war, which, after many battles fought, termi-
nated in the total destruction of the Natchez
nation. In these struggles the chief and his
400 braves were made prisoners, and after-
ward inhumanly sold as slaves in St. Domin-
go-

The French declared war in 1736 against
the Chickasaws, a warlike tribe, that in-
habited the Southern States. Bienville,
commander of the French, ordered a re-union
of the troops to assemble on the 10th of May,
1736, on the Tombigbee river. The gallant
D'Artaquette from 1^'ort Chartres, and the
brave Vincennes from the Wabash River, with
a thousand warriors, were at their post in
time; but were forced into battle on the 20th
of May without the assistance of the other
troops; were defeated and massacred. Bien-
ville shortly afterward, on the 27th of May,
1736, failed in his assault upon the Chickasaw
forts on the Tombigbee, where the English
flag waved, and was forced to retreat, with
the loss of his cannons, which forced him to
return to New Orleans. In 1740, the French
built a fort at the mouth of the St. Francois
River, and moved their troops into Fort As-
sumption, near Memphis, where peace was
concluded with the Chickasaws.

The oldest permanent settlement on the
Mississippi was Kaskaskia, first visited by
Father Gravier. date unknown; but he was
in Illinois in 1693. He was succeeded by
Fathers Pinet and Binetan. Pinet became

263

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

the founder of Cahokia, where he erected a
chapel, and a goodly number of savages as-
sembled to attend the great feast. Father
Gabriel, who had chanted mass through Can-
ada, officiated at Cahokia and Kaskaskia in
1711. The missionaries in 1721 established
a college and monastery at Kaskaskia. Fort
Chartres, in Illinois, was built in 1720; be-
came an important post for the security of the
French, and a great protection for the com-
merce on the Mississippi.' "The Company
of the West " sent an expedition under Le
Sieui* to the Upper Louisiana about 1720, in
search of precious metals, and proceeded up
as far as St. Croix and St. Peters Rivers,
where a fort was built, which had to be
abandoned owing to the hostilities of the
savages.

The French, as early as 1705, ascended the
Missouri River to open traffic with theMissou-
ris and to take possession of the country. M.
Dutism, from New Orleans, with a force,
arrived in Saline River, below Ste. Genevieve,
moved westward to the Osage River, then
beyond this about 150 miles, where he found
two large villages located in fine prairies
abounding with wild game and buffalo.

France and Spain, in 1719, were contend-
ing for dominion west of the Mississippi.
Spain, in 1720, sent from Santa Fe a large
caravan to make a settlement on the Missouri
River, the design being to destroy the Missou-
ris, a tribe at peace with France. This car-
avan, after traveling and wandering, lost their
way, and marched into the camp of the
Missouris, their enemies, where they were all
massacred, except a priest who, from his dress,
was considered no warrior. After this expe-
dition from Santa Fe upon Missouri, France,
under M. DeBoui-gment, with a force in 1724
ascended the Missouri, established a fort above,
on an island above the Osage River,
named Fort Orleans. This fort was after-

ward attacked and its defenders destroyed
and by whom was never ascertained.

The wars between England and France
more or less affected the growth of this con-
tinent. The war in 1689, known as " King
William's war," was concluded by the treaty
of Ryswick, 1697. "Queen Anne's war,"
terminated by the treaty of Utrecht in 1713.
" King George's war "concluded by the treaty
of Aix la Chapelle, in 1748. These wars
gave England supremacy in the fisheries, the
possession of the Bay of Hudson, of New-
foundland and all of Nova Scotia.

The French and Indian wars, between 1754
and 1763. The struggle between England
and France as to their dominion in America
commenced at this period. It was a disas-
trous and bloody war, where both parties en-
listed hordes of savages to participate in a
warfare conducted in a disgraceful manner
to humanity. France at this time had erected
a chain of forts from Canada to the great
lakes and along the Mississippi Valley. The
English controlled the territory occupied by
her English colonies. The English claimed
beyond the Alleghany Mountains to the Ohio
River. The French deemed her right to this
river indisputable. Virginia had granted to
the "Ohio Company" an extensive territory
reaching to the Ohio. Dinwiddle, Governor
of Virginia, through George Washington, re-
monstrated against the encroachment of the
French. St. Pierre, the French commander,
received Washington with kindness, returned
an answer, claiming the territory which
France occupied. The " Ohio Company "
sent out a party of men to erect a fort, at the
confluence of the Alleghany and Mononga-
hela rivers. These men had hardly com-
menced work on this fort when they were
driven away by the French, who took posses-
sion and established a "Fort Du Quesne."
AVashington, with a body of provincials

HISTORY OF UNIOX COUNTY.

2t)3

from Virginia, marched to the disputed ter-
ritory, when a party of French, under Jumon-
ville, was attacked and all either killed or
made prisoners. Washington after this
erected a fort called Fort Necessity. From
thence Washington proceeded with 400 men
toward Fort Du Quesne, where, hearing of
the advance of M. DeVilliers, with a large
force, he returned to Fort Necessity, where
after a short defense Washington had to
capitulate with the honorable terms of re-
turning to Virginia.

On the 4th of July, 1 754, the day that
Fort Necessity surrendered, a convention of
colonies was held at Albany, N. Y. , for
a union of the colonies proposed by Dr. Ben.
Franklin, adopted by the delegates, but de-
feated by the English Government. How-
ever, at this convention a treaty was made
between the colonies and the ' ' Five Nations,"
which proved to be of great advantage to
England. Gen. Braddock, with a force of
2,000 soldiers, marched against Fort Du
Quesne. Within seven miles of this fort, he
was attacked by the French and Indian allies
and disastrously defeated, when Washington
covered the retreat and saved the army from
total destruction.

Sir William Johnson, with a large force,
took command of the army at Fort Edward.
Near this foi't, Baron Dieskan and St. Pierre
attacked Col. Williams and troop where the
English were defeated, but Sir Johnson com-
ing to the rescue defeated the French, who
lost in this battle Dieskan and St. Pierre.

On August 12, 1756, Marquis Montcalm,
commander of the French Army, attacked
Fort Ontario, garrisoned by 1,400 troops
capitulated as prisoners of war, with 134
cannon, several vessels and a large amount of
military stores. Montcalm destroying this
fort returned to Canada.

By the treaty of peace of Aix la Chapelle

of October, 1748, Arcadia, known as Nova
Scotia, and Brunswick, had been ceded by
France to England. When the war of 1754
broke out, this territory was occupied by nu-
merous French families. England fearing
their sympathy for France, cruelly confiscat-
ed their property, destroyed their humble
homes and exiled them to their colonies in
the utmost poverty and distress.

In August, 1757, Marquis Montcalm, with
a large army, marched on Fort William Hen-
r}-, defended by 3,000 English troops. The
English were defeated, and sm'renderd on
condition that they might march out of the
fort with their arms. The savage allies, as
they marched out, in an outrageous manner
plundered them and massacred some in cold
blood, notwithstanding the efforts of the
French officers to prevent them. The mili-
tary campaign so far had been very disas-
trous to the English, which created quite
a sensation in the colonies and in Eng-
land. At this critical period, the illustrious
IVIr. Pitt, known as Lor<l Chatham, was
placed at the helm of state on account of
his talent and statesmanship, and he sent a
large naval armament and numerous troops
to protect the colonies.

July 8, 1758, Gen. Abercrombie, with an
army 15,000, moved on Ticonderoga, defend-
ed by Marquis Montcalm. After a great
struggle, the English were defeated with a
loss of 2,000 dead and wounded.

August 27, 1758, Col. Bradstreet, with a
force, attacked the French fort. Fort Fronte-
nac, on Lake Ontario, took it with nine
armed vessels, sixty cannon and a quantity
of military stores, while Gen. Forbes moved
on Fort Du Quesne, who took it, which fort
was afterward called Pittsburgh, in honor of
Mr. Pitt.

In 1759, the French this year evacuated
Ticonderoga, Crown Point, Niagara. Gen.

364

HISTORY OF UNIOX COUNTY.

Wolf e advanced against Quebec, then defend-
ed by the gallant Montcalm, where a terri-
ble and bloody battle took place between
the two armies. Gen. Wolfe was killed
and a great number of English officers.
When the brave Wolfe was told the English
were victorious, he said he " died contented."
Mont<;alm, when told his wound was
mortal said, "So much the better: I shall
not live to see the surrender of Quebec,''
which city surrendered September 18, 1759,

In 1760, another battle was fought near
Quebec, which drove the English into their
fortifications, and were only relieved by the
Encrlish squadron. Montreal still contended to
the last, when she was compelled to surren-
der, which gave Canada to the English.

Treaty of peace, February 10, 1763. By
this France ceded to England all her posses-
sions on the St. Lawi-ence River, all east of
the Mississippi River, except that portion
south of Iberville River and west of the
Mississippi. At the same time, all the terri-

tory here reserved being west of the Missis-
sippi, and the Orleans territory, was trans-
ferred to Spain. France, after all her la-
bors, toil and expenditures, and great loss of
life surrendered to England and Spain her
great domain in North America. The histo-
ry of France, embracing a term of 228 years,
is replete with interest and with thrilling
events in this country up to 1763. The de-
feats of the French in North America great-
ly led to the establishment of the United
States Government. The accomplishment of
such a glorious end was largely due to the
gallant Frenchmen. As long as the anni-
versary of the American Independence shall
be celebrated, the names of Washington and
Lafayette will ever be remembered by a
grateful people. We can but congratulate
ourselves, as citizens of this great valley,
that owing to the sympathy of France and
her people under the great Napoleon and the
immortal Jeffersou, that we to day are a por-
tion of this grand republic.

CHAPTER IV,

FOLLOWING THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE FIRST PIONEERS— WHO THEY WERE— HOW THEV CAME—

WHERE THEY STOPPED— FROM 1795 TO 1810— CORDELING— BEAR FIGHT— FIRST

SCHOOLS, PREACHERS AND THE KIND OF PEOPLE THEY WERE—JOHN

GRAMMER.THE FATHER OF ILLINOIS STATE-CRAFT. ETC.

'• Yet even these bones from insult to protect,
Implore the passing tribute of a sigh.'' — Gray.

More than two hundred years ago, a large
portion of the territory of the Missis-
sippi Valley passed nominally at least from
under the exclusive dominion of the savage
races and the wild beasts to that of the tri-color
of France and the benign sway of the Catholic
Church. In the year 1673, those bold ex-
plorers, Joliet and Marquette, with their

small company of five white men and thi-ee
Indian guides, floated down the Mississippi
River and within the bounds of the territory
that is now Union County. It is not at all
probable that they rounded to their frail,
light crafts and placed their feet upon the
actual soil of Union County, yet they were
upon our waters, and as they floated down
the " Father of Waters " they took possession
by virtue of discovery, Joliet in the name of

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

265

France and Marquette in the name of his
chiirch. This voyage of discovery resulted
in the French settlement of Kaskaskia, and
afterward of Cahokia — five miles below St.
Louis, on the Illinois side. It is not at all
probable that any of the early Kaskaskia
settlers ever ventured as far away from their
fort and fortifications as to come into the
county, even upon hunting expeditions. The
nest nearest settlement of the white men was
at Fort Massac, on the Ohio Kiver, about
thirty-six miles above Cairo. This was
founded in 1711, and in the course of time
became the only trading point for the earliest
pioneers of the extreme southern limits of
Illinois. It was for many years called
Fort Massacre, and it got this blood-curdling
name from some Indian strategy that re-
sulted in the massa^^re of every man in the
fort. The Indians dressed themselves in
bear skins and appeared on the Kentucky
side of the river, in full view of the fort,
walking and acting like beai's, when the
soldiers and people, after watching their
antics for some time, made up a company,
including the most of the men in the fort,
gathered their guns and crossed tihe river in
skifi's for a great bear hunt. The few per-
sons who did not go in the hunt were gath-
ered upon the river bank watching with ea-
ger interest their friends as they crossed the
river. The moment the Indians saw their
trick was successful, they retired to the brush
from view, and, making a hasty detour,
crossed the river unseen, in a bend a short
distance above, and by a small circuit reached
the fort from the rear and entering when
there was not a soul left, secured the few re-
maining guns and then commenced the mas-
sacre, which only stopped when no white
person was left alive in or about the fort.
They then sacked and burned the buildings.
A few years after, it was rebuilt and called

for a long time Fort Massacre, but in the
coui'se of time it again resumed its original
name, Fort Massac, by which it is known to
this day.

For some years after the trappers, fishers
and pioneers began to skirt with sparse cab-
ins the Ohio River and the Cache River,
Fort Massac was the only point within reach
where these people could resort for the little
trading in those essential supplies of ammu-
nition, etc., that they were compelled to have.
For a long time, too, this place was the land-
ing point for all those pioneers from the
Carolinas, Virginia and Kentucky, that
came down or crossed the Ohio River on
their way to Kaskaskia or Cahokia. At first
this was a route for nearly all the immigra-
tion into Southern Illinois, much of which
came down the Ohio River on batteaus, pi-
rogues and canoes and skifi's, while some
crossed the river at Shawneetown and some at
Fort Massac. In the year 1 797, some years
before any white man had ventured into
what is now Union County, in the hunt of a
permanent home, a colony of Virginians,
numbering 126 persons, landed at Fort Mas-
sac, and pursued their toilsome and tedious
way through the dense forests to New De-
sign. The distance thus traversed was only
about 135 miles, yet the little colony was
twenty-six days on the road, and so great
was their toil and exposure that within a few
months after reaching their destination a
majority of them died. These emigi'ants
may have touched the northeastern portion
of the county on their way through the ter-
ritory to their destination. If they passed
through any portion of Union County, then
they were the first here after the long lapse
of years since Joliet and Marquette had
passed down the Mississippi, and in the
name of France and Papal Christendom
started that tremendous drama that lasted

266

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

for more than ninety years, and in which
France and the chtu'ch were the principal
actors. New Design, in the present county
of Monroe, was established in 178/*, and un-
til the time of the advent of this Virginia
colony, it was the attractive point in the
territory for immigrants. But the news of
the calamities that befel this colony were
carried back to the old States, and for some
years the impression widely prevailed that
all this territory was a mere plague spot
where civilized people could hardly hope to
loner survive a removal to it, and this re-
tarded the heavy immigration that afterward
came.

In the year 1803 — just eighty years ago —
the first white settlement was made in the
territory now comprising Union County.
This feeble colony thus braving the wilds,
the dense forests and its almost impenetra-
ble undergrowth, consisted of two families,
namely, Abram Hunsaker's and George
Wolf's. They had come down the Ohio
River and up the Cache, hunting and fish-
ing, and finally started on an overland route,
intending, it is supposed, to strike the Mis-
sissippi River and ascend the same to the
settlements of Kaskaski a and Cahokia. Those
wanderers camped one night a short distance"'
from where Jonesboro now is, and the next
morning the men found that they had to re-
plenish their meat supply, and they shouldered
their guns and in a few minutes killed a
large and fat bear, and in a little while after
getting the bear they added a fine turkey
gobbler to their store. They were so de-
lighted with the land of plenty, both of game
and excellent water, that they concluded to
rest a few days, and before the few days had
expired the men were busy at work building
cabins in which to house their families and
make this their permanent home. Just
eighty years! How feeble this little begin-

ning of the white man and civilization must
have appeared in the face of the riot of un-
bridled strength of wilderness, the wild
beast and the more deadly and treacherous
savage. For two years, in all that region
then included in Johnson County, these
were the only white settlers. They knew of
no neighbors in the Illinois Territory, and
the nearest white settlements were at Kas-
kaski a and Cahokia, which, for any purpose
of trade or communication, had as well been
at the farthest ends of the earth. For years
they saw no white face except the members
of their own families. They held no inter-
course with their fellow-men; they had placed
behind them the comforts and blessings of
civilization.

There is a tradition, not well authenti-
cated, that in the year 1804 a man whose
name will never now be known, had fixed his
residence in the hills of the northwest part
of the county and here alone he lived for
some years. The story is that he had se-
lected this wild spot that he might hide him-
self from his fellow-men, because at some
time he had committed a great crime and
was a fugitive from justice; that he fled as
soon as he ascertained there had been a set-
tlement in this part of the country, and it
was only by the discovery of his deserted
cabin long after he had gone, and probably
there were some things found, either old
files of papers or something else to give cur-
rency to the stories as to who he was and
why he thus fled from the presence of all
men.

The next year, 1805, David Green came
with his little family and built his cabin in
the Mississippi bottom, about a half mile
north of what is known as the Big Barn.
He was a Virginian, and had been engaged
in navigating the rivers in the early flat-boat
days, and in waiting upon the banks of the

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY,

267

river and hunting for game he came upon
the spot where he afterward lived, and re-
turned to his family and brought them with
him to his new home. It was a long time
before he knew the Hunsakers and Wolfs
were his nearest neighbors.

There was an Indian trail that, as was
generally the case, was following a buffalo
path that passed diagonally across the lower
portion of the State and passed near where
Jonesboro now is but a little to the south.

During even the early part of the eight-
eenth century there were white men passing
up and down the Ohio River, and the govern-
ments that at different periods had posses-
sions had erected [Fort Massac, Fort Wil-
kinson and Fort Jefferson and here were sta-
tioned soldiers, but these were merely guard
posts of armed men for the purpose of keep-
ing the possession and retaining the owner-
ship of the country. And often the Indians
would gather in great force and besiege the
place and bloody battles would ensue, and then
for years the place would be evacuated and left
untenanted. The tenure of these possossions
was frail and uncertain, as they were often
the prizes to contend for among unfriendly
whites as well as with the native savages.

Skirting along the Ohio River from Fort
Massac to the junction of the rivers, there
were temporary settlements or camps of pio-
neers on the banks as early as 1795. At the
junction where Caii'o now is, William Bird,
in company with his parents, remembered in
his lifetime of stopping and camping a
short time at the point where the two rivers
join, but after a rest of a few days the fam-
ily proceeded up the river and settled near
Cape Girardeau. He bearing in mind the
impression the junction of the two great riv-
ers had made, returned, being then hardly
grown, to the place, in the year 1817, and
made a permanent and the first settlement of

Caii-o. Thus during all the early years the
extreme point of land at the confluence of
the two rivers was known as Bird's Point,
and it was only in years after it came to be
known as Cairo, and the name Bird's Point
crossed the river when the Bird family made
their resid«^nce at that place.

James Conyers with his family came down
the river from Kentucky and camped where
Cairo now stands. His son, Bartlett Con-
yers, was then seven years old. He is now
an active, well-to-do man, eighty-five years
old and lives in Menard County, 111.

Through the politeness of Mr. Potter, of
the Argus, we were shown a letter from Mr.
Bartlett Conyers, of June, 1881, in which he
gives some of his recollections of the country
now composed of Alexander and Pulaski Coun-
ties. Among other things he says: "We made
our first halt and went into camp where
Cairo now is. We had moved from Livings-
ton County, Ky. It was then a wilderness,
and wild game, such as turkey, deer, wolves
and bears, was plenty." He says he killed
a number of bears as well as other game in
what is now the city boundaries. He tells
of an encounter he had as follows: " I went
out hunting and had only two balls for m}'
gun. The first shot I killed a very large
bear dead in his tracks; with my second ball
I slightly wounded another. Although I
was but sixteen years old, I thought I could
kill him with my knife, so I followed him
up and went into the fight in earnest, but
after a short tussle in which neither got
much worsted, I beat a hasty reti-eat. The
bear retreated at the same time I did, but
for some strange cause, retreated in the same
direction I did, and only a few feet behind
me, but I soon got out of his way. I then
cut a good, short club and followed'him up,
but was more cautious. I soon came up
with him, and after a little maneuvering hit

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

him a fair lick on the head. I expected to
Bee him fall, buf. all the effect it had was to
make him take right after me again. In this
way we continued the tight foi at least an
hour, when I accidentally hit him on the
back of the head, which knocked him down.
For the first time my knife came in good
play, and I soon finished him. "

Mr. Conyers remembers spending five
years hunting exclusively, and all this time
had only Indians for associates and bed- fel-
lows. He says his father, James Conyers,
located twelve miles from the mouth of the
Ohio in 1805, at a point which was after-
ward America, now Pulaski County. This
was the first white family in that county.
The Indians were friendly and often visited
the house. The next settlement in the coun-
ty was Jesse Perry and family. His place
was two miles above Conyers.' The nearest
settlement to these two families at that time
was one near Jonesboro, in Union County.

Mr. Conyers says they had no communica-
tion with the outside world; each family de-
pended solely upon itself for everything. The
little bread they used was pounded in a mor-
tar or eventually ground on a hand mill,
depending wholly on game for meat, which
was plenty. In 1807, Thomas Clark settled
where Mound City now stands. And in a
short time a man named Humphrey came
and settled where Caledonia now stands.

Solomon Hess next came and settled at the
mouth of what was afterward called Hess
Bayou. A man named Kennedy was living
on Clark's place in 1812, when the Indian
Massacre occui-red. George Hacker was the
first settler on Cache River; he came there
in 1806; soon after, John Shaver settled near
him, and, about the year 1810, Rice and
William Sams located on the Cache. This
includes every soul in all that region prior
to the war of 1812. The people wei'e not

troubled for years in holding elections or
paying any taxes. The war of 1812 stopped
all immigration for some years, and the In-
dians became troublesome, and the citizens,
for self -protection, had to gather together, and
the house of James Conyers was selected for
the rendezvous and converted into a fort or
block-house, and the settlers all " forted "
there.

The Indians had a regular crossing about
one mile above Conyers' place, and it was
here Tecumseh crossed the river when he
went south to incite the Creek and other
tribes to go to war. This crossing may yet
be found, as it is at the mouth of a little
creek about one mile above America.

Mr. Conyers furaishes us some new facts
in reference to the first attempt to settle the
point of land at the junction of the two riv-
ers. His recollection is distinct that it was
a man named Drakeford Gray. He built his
house on posts or stilts, and above the high
waters. During very high water, the build-
ing caught fire and biu-ned. A boat hap-
pened to be passing, and took the people off,
otherwise, there is hardly a doubt they
would have all perished.

The earliest settlements naturally were
made along the Ohio Rivei*, and a short dis-
tance up its tributaries. The pioneer river
men became the pioneer settlers, and the
name of Cache River is a history of itself, of
those who came there and why they came. A
" cache" is thus described in Irving's " Asto-
ria:" "A place for the cache is situated
near a running stream, a circular sod is cut
out and laid aside, a hole is then dug wider
at the bottom than at the top, the earth is
thrown into the stream, the cache filled with
such goods as are to be concealed and the
sod carefully replaced." The earliest set-
tlements, or rather encampments of settlers,
at the mouth and a short distance up this

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

26 9

stream, date back to 1795. In 1809, four
familievS had settled in what is now Dogtooth
Bend. They were named Han-is, Crane,
Wade and Powers. They built a school-
house, the first so far as can be now ascer-
tained in this section of the State. The lit-
tle house was made of a cottonwood tree that
had been split into rails, and the first teacher
was an unknown Irishman. He took his
toddy and shed the light of his birch rods
with no scanty or light hand. One of his
pupils was John S. Hacker, who, it seems, here
laid the foundations for those political tilts
that he was afterwai'd to engage in with
John Grammer. ^lany of the immigrants
into this part of Illinois had fled for safety
to these high hills from the great earth-
quake of 1811. This brought ex-Gov. John
Dougherty, a small child at that time; he re-
moved to near Cape Girardeau and after-
ward to Union County. The earliest settlers
along the river were supplied with salt, iron,
ammunition, etc., by keel -boats. The fol-
lowing description of keel boating was fur-
nished Rev. E. B. Olmstead by Col. John S.
Hacker, who had often acted as bowsiuan in
trips up and down the river: The hull was
much like a modern barge or small steam-
boat; a mast about forty feet high was erect-
ed near the bow, to the top of which a line
nearly two hundred yards long was attached.
The men, with the line on their shoulders,
walked on the bank, drawing the load slowly
against the cuiTent. To the tow line a line
was attached about thirty feet long, called a
stirrup; the end next the boat passed through
a ring on the tow line, so as to be within
reach of the bowman, who' by this means
kept the boat from swinging out, and with a
pole kept it oif the banks. In this he was
aided by the pilot or helmsman at the steer-
ine: oar. This was called c«)rdeling. When
the current of the river was very strong.

warping was resorted to. A line was sent
ahead, fastened to a tree and the boat di-awn
up; as the line was drawn in, another was
paid out and sent ahead. Often two to four
miles was all the advance a day's hard work
yielded. But ten miles could frequently be
made, and when the wind allowed a sail to
be unfurled it proved a blessing to the men.
It required ninety days to make the trip
from New Orleans to Louisville, and forty
men to man the boat. Wages were $100 for
the trip up, and freight was $5 per hundred
pounds. The adventurous and daring navi-
gators saw the beautiful country along the
banks of the river and marked them for their
future homes. Prominent among these was
Capt. James Riddle, of Cincinnati. He was
afterward one of the proprietors of Trinity,
America and Caledonia, and still later of the
Mounds.

In 1816, James Riddle, Nicholas Berth-
end, Elias Rector and Hem-y Bechtle entered
lands extending from below the mouth of
Cache River to the Third Principal Meridian,
and by a general subdivision established
Trinity. No town lots were sold, but James
Beny and afterward Col. H. L. Webb, in
about the year 1817, coumenced a hotel here
and commenced a trading and supply busi-
ness. Goods were shipped here for St.
Louis, and as early as 1818 a town was laid
out on an extensive scale. The propri-
etors were James Riddle, Henry Bechtle and
Thomas Sloo, of Cincinnati, and Stephen and
Henry Rector, of St. Loiiis. The agent of the
proprietors was William M. Alexander, who
then resided at America. The agent of Mr.
Riddle was John Dougherty, whose son Will-
iam is a citizen of Mound City. Mr. Alexander
was one of the extraordinary men of the
early day. A physician of great eminence,
and immediately upon the formation of Al-
exander Cotinty, was elected its first Represen-

270

HISTORY OF UNIOX COUNTY.

tativG in the General Assembly, and was
chosen Speaker of the House. Dr. Alexan-
der was here when Union County did'not ex-
ist; he was here and traversing the entire
county, and was well known to all the peo-
ple in the district when Union County em-
braced all of the now three counties. His
reputation extended throughout the State,
and he was intent upon building a great city
•at or near the confluence of the two great
rivers. Something of what was going on in
the way of city building may be gleaned
from an extract or two of the Doctor's letters.
In one dated ]" Town of America, April 4,
1818," to James Riddle, of Cincinnati, he
says: " The survey and additions will be
completed in probably two weeks; nothing
but a desire to promote the prosperity of the
place could justify us in selling property
which must become erelong of immense
valu^." In another letter dated March 10,
1819, not quite one short year, he says: "The
present is the crisis of its [the town's] fate.
I wish you could be at America and view
with your own eyes the necessity for somo
exertion. Only see what has been effected
by my feeble exertions since the 1st of De-
cember. I say it with difiidence, but I must
say it, if I had not gone there at that criti-
cal time, America must have fallen in a
long sleep. The public mind of the coun-
try was prejudiced against it. I opened
Ohio street as far as Washington, Washington
as far as the public square, a road to Jonesboro
and one to Cape Girardeau. Had all the timber
from the mouth of the creek leveled down
with the earth, set the first example of erect-
ing a house, have so conciliated the good
will of the citizens that they have petitioned
to have America made the seat of justice.
Now all may bid defiance to opposition, but
let us not sleep. What I have said of my-
self is not by way of boasting, but to show

the effect of limited means, to show what
youi* superit)r ability could effect if exerted.
The Commissioners for fixing the seat of jus-
tice were selected by myself, and will of
course be favorable to our views. The con-
dition of its establishment will be the pay-
ment of $4,000 in installments for public
buildings. I have completely abandoned
the idea of making an immediate specula-
tion. We must wait patiently for the im-
provement of the towD. We must dig a well,
build a free bridge over the Cache, so as to
draw the trade of the Dutch in Union Coun
ty Send us down mechanics of all sorts.
As the Legislature has made the County
Commissioners one of the most influential and
respected offices in Ihe State, I shall be a
candidate for that office in Alexander Coun-
ty, which is the name the Legislature has
given the new county. If I am elected, I
will bend the whole county to such improve-
ments as will promote the interests of Amer-
ica. I shall take immediate steps for tne
erection of the public buildings."

William M. Alexander soon left America
and Union County and resided at some time
in Kaskaskia. He was determined to join
his fate to some new Western town that
would grow at once into a great and pros-
perous city, and the fates seemed to pursue
him. America went " to sleep," as the Doc-
tor feared it would in one of his letters, and
he was hardly more than fixed in Kaskaskia
when the capital of the State was moved to
Vandalia, and that old town followed the
fate of its more humble contemporary, Amer-
ica. After residing in Kaskaskia, he went
South and died.

In the year 1809, in the south part of what
is now Union County, the family of Law-
rences, thi-ee in number, and William Clapp,
making four families, settled. They lived
on Mill Creek In a short time after this,

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

271

John Stokes, William Gwinn, George Evans
and Thomas Standard settled in the last part
of the county in what has long been known
as the Stokes settlement.

Hon. John Grammer. — About this time, it
may have been earlier, as the most diligent
search has failed to fix the date, and which is
much to be regretted, there came to this
county John Grammer, the model, the won-
derful, the extraordinary pioneer; the fisher,
hunter, trapper, politician and statesman.
So little was his appearance an index to the
man that he was an old settler before any
one there knew that such a being existed.
His presence was heralded by no star in the
east or west to point him out and say to all
the world " behold the man!" The inferences
from the early records are that he was accom-
panied by his brother William in his com-
ing. It cannot be ascertained what his age
was when he came, or where he was from.
We only know that among the early and re-
markable productions of the county, Johnson
County then embracing all the territory of
Union, Alexander and Pulaski Counties,
was the Hon. John Grammer, who settled in
what is now Union County, a little south of
Jonesboro. He was one of the first offi-
cials in the county, representating John-
son County in the first Territorial Legis-
lature as early as 1812, when there were but
five counties in the State, and the entire Assem-
bly would gather about a good-sized table in
Kaskaskia and talk in a coversational way
for an hour or two, and then join in one of
those exciting games of " crack-loo " for the
drinks, and in this august assembly Gram-
mer was a statesman of the rough diamond,
barefoot persuasion. He was as illiterate as
he was indifferent to fine clothes and per-
fumed soap; as slouchy, careless and xin-
couth in manners mostly as he was reckless
and indifi'erent in the use of the King's Eng-

lish, when pouring forth from the stump one
of his towering philippics. He came
among the early simple hunters and trap-
pers of Union County like an Aurora in
soiled linen or an unshod, burr-tailed colt
from the mountain " deestrict," and he
waked the echoes of the primeval forests, and
as a politician bore down all opposition, as
he rode in triumph into the affections of the
voters and into high official positions. In
the very first election ever held in the coun-
ty he was made a Justice of the Peace, from
which foothold he essayed and accomplished
dizzy flights to higher positions, until he was
elected to the State Senate, which position
he filled time and again, from which vantage-
point his name and fame extended through
the entire State, until " as -John Grammer
says '■ became a by-word from Galena to
Cairo. He was no common man in any-
thing; he was no man's man, bitt strong,
original, honest and incorruptible, he trod
alone, sword in hand, his great life pathway,
with an eye that never quailed and heart for
every fate. He was unlearned in the books,
i but original and strong in intellect. It was
from the rude, simple, illiterate John Gram-
mer that the statesmen of Em-ope learned
that when a legislator is called upon to vote
in a legislative body, if he don't fttlly under-
stand the question, to always vote "no."
This was John Grammer s rule, from which he
never deviated in the Illinois Senate. Nor had
he any of that false pride and silly fear of be -
ing laitghed at that so often makes weaker
minded men assume to know all things
brought before them, and to hide their igno-
rance in silence. This was John Grammer's
cardinal idea of statesmanship; the idea and
practice was his invention or discovery, and
the great Frenchman De Tocqueville, when
studying this government, was attracted to
Grammer, and in his book on American insti-

372

HISTOKY OF UNION COUNTY.

tutions, the Frenchman called the attention
of Europe to it in terms of highest commen-
dation.

What other statesman has America pro-
duced that has been thus handsomely started
on the road to a deserved immortality, to
equal this unwashed, unkempt, illiterate
backwoodsman? Early Illinois produced
many remarkable men, but none so strongly
original, so uncouth, so illiterate, or so in-
teresting as John Grammer. As said before",
he borrowed nothing from the books, and
his illiteracy was so marked that it amounted
to a gift or talent. He borrowed or copied
from nothing. He never hesitated for a word,
for when he wanted one he would coin it
upon the instant. When addressing the
Senate, he would shake his frowsy locks
and point his finger at the chair and exclaim:
" Mr. President, I give you a 'pernipsis' of
that bill. " All other business stopped while he
was giving his promised synopsis. When
thoroughly warmed up, his eloquence was a
Niagara of words, until sometimes his tongue
would trip and he would land souse in a
" tangled priminary," as he always called a
dilemma, when he would appeal to the
brother "siniters" to help him out of the
difficulty, which some of them would always
do, when with unruffled plumes he would
sail away' again so grandly, with such gor-
geous home-made rhetoric as would have
paled the meteoric glories of even Sir Boyle
Roche himself. Something of his greatness, in
fact, lay in his ready aptness in word-coin-
ing and phrase -making, and it was no trav-
esty upon grammar — the science of lan-
guage — when his patronymic was solemnly
recorded as John Grammer, the father of
Illinois true Statecraft, the author of amus-
ing bulls, quaint mistakes and pat phrases
that deserve to live forever in connection
with, his name. The heaviest constitutional

questions had no terrors for him, and when
he found a fellow-senator attempting some
real or fancied innovation upon the funda-
mental laws, he snuffed the battle afar off
and clothed his neck with thunder. Upon
an occasion of this kind, he controlled his
patience as long as he could, when he arose,
and in a voice that pierced the marrow in
members' bones, exclaimed, " You can't do
that. It's fernent the compack! " and the
country was saved, and John Grammer sat
down immortal and to this day in all South-
ern Illinois, when a thing is " fernent the
compack," it is a dead cock in the pit.

Many of the early statesmen in Union
County, in fact in all this then very large
Senatorial district, have been sadly worsted
in their attempts to supersede him among
the voters. They found him wily, tough,
stubborn and full of resources. He under-
stood the people. He did not, when in a
campaign, or any other time for that matter,
array himself in purple and fine linen; nor
did he drive a tandem team of blooded trot-
ters with gold-mounted harness. A log
wagon bull team, trimmed with bark and
hickory withes was the most sumptuous go-
to meetin' rig he ever possessed or used.
And when dressed in his best on such oc-
casions, he Avas generally barefoot, and thus
arrayed it only seemed fo add force and fire
to his vehement eloquence, if his breeches
were rolled up to the knees, and a twist of
tobacco in one pocket and the Democratic
platform in the other. He was Nature's un-
adorned progeny — rather broad and liberal
in his mode of thought, either in politics or
religion, as well as his customs, manners,
morals and habits. Like pretty much all of
his day and time, he would sometimes in-
dulge his appetite beyond stern pm-itan
ideas, but he seldom went so far in this way
as not to keep an eye on the main chance.

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

273

An instance of this is given when on one oc-
casion there was a great political rally, for
the benefit of candidates, down in the north
part of Alexander County, and Grammer was
posted for a big speech. He reached the
grounds some time before speaking was to
commence, and before that hour had arrived
he was out of all condition, and he realized
this so fully that he reported himself sick,
and sought seclusion, where he would soon
brace up ard be all right for the ordeal.
The crowd foolishly gathered about him
densely, when his rival pushed into the
crowd and shouted: " Stand back, men; give
him air!" Grammer rolled his helpless head,
eyed his rival and understood he only
wanted to expose him, and he said: " D — n
you, I understand you. I'll be thar or bust
yet," and so he did, and made one of his
iiiOst effective speeches.

As did all men in those days, he hunted a
great deal. On one occasion he was out in
the rain all day, getting very wet; at night
he hung his powder-horn on one side of the
large open fire-place, so that the large tow
string by which he swung it over his shoulder
might dry. During the night, the " fore-
stick " burned in two in the middle, and
the end flipped up and set the tow string on
fire. It burned off" and the horn fell into the
coals, and soon the sleeping household- was
startled by the explosion, which scattered the
fire all over the room, and even on the bed
where the man and wife slept. The woman
soon brushed and swept up the coals, and all
was safe and serene again. But Grammer
didn't return to bed, but walked the floor in
great distress, his hands clasped across his
stomach. Finally his wife, in great alarm,
asked what was the matter. " Oh, Lord!
Oh, Lord! " exclaimed the poor man; " it is
not the loss of the powder, or the horn. I
could stand all that; but, Sal, suppose it

purtends a sign!" And again and again
the distressed man moaned like the sad, wet
winds.

In the simplicity of his soul, he dreaded
a "sign," a portent from a displeased heaven.
Here was greatness and childish simplicity
and credulity that brings to mind the agony
of fear that is sometimes said to seize the
huge elephant upon seeing a ridiculous little
mouse.

He was a peculiar bundle of wisdom and
weak and childish fears and superstitions; a
medley of strange contradictions; a man
who, perhaps, amid other surroundings,
would never have emerged from the profound
obscurity that surrounded his early life, and
it now strikes the ear of the reader like the
happy fictions of the romance writers, when
they are told that this obscure, illiterate
man, at the first moment an opportunity pre-
sented itself in the State, to ofler his services
as a law-maker to the people, and they read-
ily accepted the offer. How did this silent
hunter, this illiterate recluse, ever come to
know that Illinois had been advanced to a
second grade Territory, and would want, as
early as 1812, the people to elect a Legisla-
ture, to go to Kaskaskia and enact laws, and
fix the governmental machinery that was to
bear aloft the weal and destiny of the young
giant State. He read no newspapers, aud the
obscurity that envelopes the first years of kis
life in these wild woods, indicates that he
held no converse or communication with liv-
ing thing, except with the wild game, to
which he spoke with the keen crack of his
rifle, and its reverberating echoes among the
hills. But when his adopted State called for
statesmen he stepped forth, regal in coon-
skin and deer-skin clothes, and filled the be-
hest and was immortal. No proper history
of Illinois will ever be written which omits
the name of John Grammer. The fu*st Ter-

274

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

ritorial Legislature convened Novembei' 25,
1812, and adjourned December 25 of the
same year. The second session met and com-
pleted its session and adjourned on the 8th
day of November, 1813. A prominent, if
not pre-eminent, member of that body was
John Grammer. He then retired from the
legislative halls for one session, and then
was elected in 1816 again. When Illinois
became a State, he was elected to the State
Senate. In the Territorial times, the Legis
lative Assembly consisted of a Council and
House of Eepresentatives. In the first As-
6eml)ly — 1812 — John Grammer was a mem-
ber of the House of Representatives, repre-
senting one of the five counties, St. Clair,
Randolph, Gallatin, Madison and Johnson,
that then constituted the State. In 1816, he
was elected again, but was promoted to a
member of the Council (now called the Sen-
ate), and was re-elected to the session of the
same body for the session of 1817-18. He
was again elected to the State Senate in
1822-24, and again to the Assembly of 1824-
26, and again re-elected Senator to the As-
sembly of 1880-32, and again 1832-34.
Here was a long service in the legislative de-
partment of the State. The importance
with which he was esteemed is fairly illus-
trated by the fact that, while he was a mem-
ber of the Senate, the first compilation of
the 'Illinois laws was made, and among the
people they were distinguished by the name
of the " Grammer laws. " It is reported that
a certain Judge Block was holding court in
Vienna in the earl}, rude times. Jeptha
Hardin was arguing a case before him, and
when he undertook to fortify himself by read-
ing from a book which he held in his hand,
" What book is that yoa are reading from ?"
demanded Judge Block, sternly. " May it
please the court," said Hardin, blandly, " it
is Chitty on Contracts." "Chitty!" said

the Judge, " Chitty! Take it away, sir! take
it away! What did our fathers fight for ?
Take it away; we will try this case by the
Grammer laws! "

In Stuv6 and Davidson's history of Illi-
nois, John Grammer is mentioned as the
father of Illinois demagogues. This is an in-
justice to that sturdy, honest-minded old
pioneer. The charge is an injustice to his
memory. He simply voted "No," and had
the moral courage to oppose the public craze
of 1837, on the subject of internal improve-
ments, and for this wise stand in defense of
the people he lost the affection of the voters,
and was then, for their first time, defeated at
the polls. Had he been a demagogue, he
would have played the demagogue's part, and
simply trimmed his sails to the popular breeze,
and only have increased his power, not lost it.
The same historj' relates an anecdote of
Grammer, and while it is nut well-authen-
ticated, nor is it, on its face, a reasonable
story, yet we give the substance of it, be-
cause it, to some extent, explains his humble
beginning in life. When he was first elected
to the Legislature— so the story runs — there
was much counseling and financiering in his
own and his neighbors' families as to how a
suit of clothes could be got for him to go to
Kaskaskia in. Eventually, he and family
gathered nuts and carried them to Fort
Massac trading post, and exchanged them
for a few yards of "blue drilling." This
was carried home, and the neighbors called
in to cut and make the clothes. After meas-
uring, tuiming, twisting and stretching, the
cloth was short and finally it was cut into a
hunting shirl and then there was only enough
left to make a pair of high "leggins," and
thus arrayed 'he served his term in the Leg-
islature.

This is something of the life and times
and character of John Grammer — a hiHtorical

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

275

landmark in the early history of Illinois — a
study and a delight for the coming children of
men. He left numerous descendants, but his
scepter of power, originality and invention
passed away forever with the breath from his
body. He was a just man in his judgment
it seems, and wholly fearless in following
the convictions that took hold of him. It
appears that he about equally divided his time
in a rigid and exemplary membership of the
church, and then a jolly, won't-go-home-till-
morning with his good friends and neigh-
bors, and whether it was one or the other, he
allowed no grass to grow under his feet, as
his enez'gy and industry kept even pace with
his quick mother wit, shrewd good sense or
bad grammar. He never made a long speech
in his life, but he never took his seat after
an effort of the kind without having made
just such a speech, particularly in words,

quaint phrases, construction, and sometimes
ideas, as no other man in the world could
have imitated, miich less made. His was a
rich and incomparable vein of originality —
often the most humorous when he felt the
most solemn, as at other times he was as
funereal as a hearse when he fancied his wit
and humor the most sparkling. He always
opened a stumping campaign by announcing
that he believed there were men " more fitner"
for the office than he was, but his friends
would "anommate" him " wherer or no,"
and " thairfore" he would make the race,
and, if elected, would do the best he could;
and thus he would beat his eloquent huzzy-
guzzy and sound his thew-gag down the
banks of the Mississippi and up the Ohio,
till the deep-tangled wildwood echoed his
eloquent refrain, and victory floated out
upon his banners.

CHAPTER V.

SETTLERS IN UNION. ALEXANDER AND TULASKI— LEAN VENISON AND FAT BEAR— PRIMITIVE

' FURNITURE— A PIONEER BOY SEES A PLASTERED HOUSE — HOW PEOPLE PORTED—

THEIR DRESS AND AMUSEMENTS— AVITCHCRA FT, WIZARDS, ETC.— NO LAW

NOR CHURCH- SPORTS, ETC. —GOV. DOUGHERTY— PHILIP

SHAVER AND THE CACHE MASSACRE — FAMILIES

IN THE ORDER THEY CAME, ETC., ETC.

"The sound of the war-whoop oft woke the
sleep of the cradle."

THERE is much of romance in the story
of the first settlers upon this southern
point of Illinois, which is now comprised in
the three counties — Union, Alexander and
Pulaski. The first white men that were here
trod the soil of St. Clair County, then em-
bracing the State— 1790. Then they were
citizens of Randolph Coiinty; then Johnson
County, then Union Covmty. and from the

teiTitory of this last-named county was
formed Alexander County, and eventually'
Pulaski — mostly from Alexander County, but
partly from Pope and Johnson Counties.

The spirit of adventure allured these pio-
neers to come into this vast wilderness. The
beauty of the country gratified the eye, its
abundance of wild animals the passion for
hunting. They were surrounded by an enemy
subtle and wary. But those wild borderers
flinched not from the contest ; even their

276

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY

women and childi'en often performed deeds
of heroism in the land where " the sound
of the war-whoop oft woke the sleep of the
cradle," from which the iron nerves of man-
hood might well have shrunk in fear.
• They had no opportunity for the cultiva-
tion of the arts and elegancies of refined life.
In their seclusion, amid danger and peril,
there arose a peculiar condition of society,
elsewhere unknown. The little Indian
meal brought with them was often expended
too soon, and sometimes for weeks or months
they lived without bread. The lean venison
and the breast of wild turkey thoy taught
themselves to call bread. The flesh of the
bear was denominated meat. This was a
wretched artifice, and resulted in disease and
sickness when necessity compelled them to in-
dulge in it too long, preceded by weakness
and a feeling constantly of an empty
stomach, and they would pass the dull hours
in watching the potato tops, pumpkin and
squash vines, hoping from day to day to get
something to answer the place of bread.
What a delight and joy was the first young
potato! What a jubilee when at last the
young corn could be pulled for roasting ears,
only to be still intensified when it had at-
tained sufiicient hardness to be made into a
johnny cake by the aid of a tin grater.
These were the harbingers from heaven, that
brought health, vigor and content with the
surroundings, poor as they were.

The first settlers along the rivers and
among these hills of Southern Illinois
judged the soil upon their first coming here
by what they knew of North Carolina, Vir-
ginia and Tennessee; and that, with a few
years' cultivation, it would wear out and have
to be abandoned. We now know they were
utterly mistaken in this I'espect. The
grounds, when pastured, soon produced rich
grasses, that afforded pasture for the cattle,

by the time the wood range was eaten out,
as well as to protect the soil from being
washed away by rains, so often injurious
to hilly countries.

The difiiculties these people encountered
were very great. They were in a wilderness,
remote from any cultivated region, and am-
munition, food, clothing and implements of
industry were obtained with great difficulty.
Then, as early as 1810, the merciless savage
had begun to paint himself for war and put
on his tomahawk and scalping-knife, and
there was then only increased danger, toil
and suffering foi' the few and widely separ-
ated settlers.

The furniture for the table for several
years after the settlement of the country
consisted of a few pewter dishes, plates and
sometimes spoons, wooden bowls, trenchers
and noggins, gourds and hard- shelled
squashes, that were brought from the old
States, along with the salt and iron, on pack-
horses. '" Hog and hominy" were the viands
that were served upon this table furniture.
Johnny-cake and pone bread were in use for
dinner and breakfast; at supper milk and
mush was the standard dish. Ask any of
these very old settlers you meet if, in his
)'Outh, he did not have many a scramble, and
often a battle-royal, with his brothers and
sisters, for the "scrapings" of the mush-pot.

Dr. Doddi'idge, in 1824, said in his diary:
" I well recollect the first time I ever saw a
teacup and saucer, and tasted coffee. My
mother died when I was six years old; my
father then sent me to Mai-yland. to school.
At Bedford, everything was changed. The
tavern at which I stopped was a stone house,
and to make the change still more complete,
it was plastered on the Id side, both as to the
walls and ceiling. On going into the dining
room, I was struck with astonishment at the
appearance of the house. I had no idea there

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

279

was a house in the world not built of lo^s;
but here I looked around the house and could
see no logs, and above I could see no joists.
Whether such a thing had been made so by
the hands of man, or grown so of itself, I
could not conjecture. I had not the courage
to inquire anything about it. I watched at-
tentively to see what the big folks would do
with their little cups and spoons. I imitated
them, and found the taste of the coffee naus-
eous beyond anything I had ever tasted in
my life. I continued to drink, as the rest
of the company did, with tears streaming
from my eyes; but when it was to end I was
at a loss to know, as the little cups were
filled immediately after being emptied. This
circumstance distressed me very much, and
I durst not say I had enough. Looking at-
tentively at the grand persons, I saw one
person turn his cup bottom upward and put
his little spoon across it. I observed after
this his cup was not filled again. I followed
ijis example, and, to my great satisfaction,
the result, as to my cup, was the same."

The hunting-shirt was universally worn.
This was a loose frock, reaching half way
down the thighs, with large sleeves, open
before, and so wide as to lap over when
belted. It generally had a large cape, and
was made of cloth or buckskin. The bosom
of this shirt served as a wallet, to hold bread,
jerk, tow for wiping the barrels of his rifle,
or any other necessary article for the warrior
or hunter. The belt, which was tied behind,
answered several purposes besides that of
holding the dress together. Moccasins for
the feet and generally a coon-skin cap were
the fashion. In wet weather, the moccasins
were only a '* decent way of going bare-
footed," and were the cause of much rheu-
matism among the people. The linsey petti-
coat and bed-gown were the dress of the
women in early times, and a Sunday dress'

was completed by a pair of home-made shoes
and handkerchief.

The people "forted" when the Indians
threatened them. The stockades, bastions,
cabins and block-house were furnished with
port-holes. The settlers would occupy
their cabins, and would reluctantly move
into the block-house when an alarm was
given. The couriers would pass ai'ound in the
dead hours of the night, and warn the people
of the danger, and in the silence of death
and darkness the family would hastily dress
and gather what few things they could lay
their hands on in the darkness, and hurry to
the fort.

For a long time after the first settlement,
the inhabitants married young. There were
no distinctions in rank, and but little of fort-
une. A wedding often engaged the atten-
tion of the whole neighborhood, and the
frolic was anticipated by old and young with
eager expectation. This was natural, a its
was the only party which was not accompa-
nied with the labor of log-rolling, building a
cabin or planning some scout or campaign.
On the morning of the wedding, the groom
and his friends would assemble at tlie house
of his father, and they would proceed to
the house of the bride, reaching there by
noon, and hei'e they would meet the friends
of the bride, and a bottle race would ensue,
and the joy of life was in full sway. The
gentlemen, dressed in shoe-packs, moccasins,
leather breeches, leggins, linsey huntinu--
shirts, and all home-made; the ladies dressed
in linsey petticoats and linsey or linen bed-
gowns, coarse shoes, stockings and handker-
chiefs, and all home-made. After dinner,
the dancing commenced, and would generally
last until daylight next morning. About 10
o'clock in the evening, a deputation of youno-
ladies would steal off the bride, and ascend
the ladder to the loft, and passing softly over

280

HISTORY or UNION COUNTY

the loft floor, which was made of clapboards,
lying loose, put the bride to bed. A deputa-
tion of young men would then steal off the
groom, and similarly put him to bed, and
below the dance went on. The next day,
the " infair" went on at the house of the
bride, much as it had at the house of the
groom, and sometimes this feasting and
dancing was continued for days.

A grater, the hominy block, the hand-
mills and the sweep, were the order of the
coming of the mechanic arts in bread-mak-
ing. Pretty much each family was its own
tanner, weaver, shoe-maker, tailor, carpenter,
blacksmith and miller. The first water-mill
was a grand advance in the comforts of civili-
zation. They were often called tub-mills,
and consisted of a perpendicular shaft, to the
lower end of which a horizontal wheel of four
or five feet in diameter was attached.

Amusements are, in many instances, either
imitations of the business of life, or at least
of some of its particular objects of pursuit.
Many of the sports of the early settlers were
imitative of the exercises and stratagems of
hunting and war. Boys were taught the use
of the bow and arrow at an early age, and ac-
quired considerable expertness in their use.
One important pastime of the boys was that
of imitating the noise of every bird and beast
in the woods. This faculty was a very nec-
essary part of education, on account of its
utility in certain circumstances. The imita-
tion of gobbling and other calls of the turkey
often brought these keen-eyed denizens of the
forest within reach of the rifle. The bleat-
ing of the fawn brought its dam to her death
in the same way. The hunter often collected
a company of mopish owls to the trees about
his camp, and amused himself with their
hoarse screaming. His howl would raise and
obtain a response from a pack of wolves, so
as to inform him of their neighborhood, as

well as to guard him against their depreda-
tions. This imitative faculty sometimes was
requisite as a measure of precaution in war.
The Indians, when scattered about in a
neighborhood, often collected together, by
imitating turkeys by day and wolves by night.
And sometimes a whole people would be
thrown into consternation by the screeching
of an owl. Throwing the tomahawk was
another sport, in which many acquired great
skill. The tomahawk, with its handle a cer-
tain length, will make a given number of
turns in a given distance. At one certain
distance, thrown in a certain way, it will
stick in a tree with the handle down, and at
another distance with the handle up. Prac-
tice would enable the boy to measiu'e with his
eye the distance so accurately, that he could
throw the ax and stick it into the tree any way
he might choose. Wrestling, running and
jumping were the athletic sports of the young
men. A boy when twelve or thirteen years
of age, when it was possible so to do, was
furnished with a light rifle, and, in killing
game, he soon could handle it expertly. Then
he was a good fort soldier, and was assigned
his port-hole in case of an attack. Dancing,
quiltings, singing schools and "meetin's"
soon were the amusements of the yoimg of
both sexes. Shooting at a mark was a com-
mon diversion of the men, when their stock
of ammunition would allow ; this, however,
was far from being always the case. The
modern mode of shooting off-hand was not
then in practice. This mode was not consid-
ered as any trial of the value of a gun ; nor,
indeed, as much of a test of the skill of the
marksman. Such was their regard to accuracy
in those sportive trials of their rifles, and in
their own skill in the use of them, that they
often put moss, or some other soft substance,
on the log or stiunp from which they shot,
for fear of having the bullet thi-own from the

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

281

mark by the spring of the barrel. When the
rifle was held to the side of the tree, it was
pressed lightly for the same reason.

The belief in witchcraft was so prevalent
among the early settlers as to be a sore afflic-
tion. To the witch was ascribed the power
of inflicting strange and incurable diseases,
particularly on children ; of destroying cattle
by shooting them with hair balls, and a grreat
variety of other means of destruction ; of put-
ting upon guns spells, and of changing men
iato horses, and after bridlinor and saddling
them, riding them at full speed over hill and
dale, to their frolics and places of rendez-
vous. The power of the witches was ample,
hideous and destructive. Wizards were men
supposed to possess the same mischievous
power as the witches ; but these were seldom
exercised for bad purposes. The powers of
the wizards were exercised almost exclusively
for the purpose of counteracting the malevo-
lent influences of the witches of the other
sex. They were called witch-masters, who
made a profession of curing the diseases in-
flicted by the influence of witches, and they
practiced their profession after the manner
of physicians. Instead of "pill-bags, " they
carried witch balls made of hair, and in
strange manner they moved these over the
patient, and muttered an unknown jargon,
and exorcised the evil spirits. One mode of
cure was to make the picture of the supposed
witch on a stump, and fire at it a bullet with
a small portion of silver in it. This silver
bullet transferred a painful, and sometimes
mortal spell, on that part of the witch cor-
responding with the part of the portrait
struck by the bullet. Another method was
to cork up in a vial, or bottle, the patient's
urine, and hang it up in the chimney. This
gave the witch strangury, which lasted as
long as the vial hung in the chimney. The
witch had but one way of relieving herself

of any spell inflicted on her in any way,
which was that of borrowing something, no
matter what, of the family to which the sub-
ject of the exercise of her witchcrait be-
longed. And thus often was the old woman
of a neighborhood surpi-ised at the refusal of
a family to loan her some article she had ap-
plied for, and go home almost broken-heart-
ed, when she learned the cause of the refusal.
When cattle or dogs were supposed to be un-
der the influence of witchcraft, they were
burned in the forehead by a branding- iron,
or when dead, burned wholly to ashes. This
inflicted a spell upon the witch, which could
only be removed by borrowing, as above de-
scribed. Witches were often said to milk the
cows. This they did by fixing a new pin in
a new towel for each cow intended to be
milked. This towel was hung over her own
door, and by means of certain incantations,
the milk was extracted from the fringes of
the towel, after the manner of milking a cow.
This only happened when the cows were too
poor to give much milk. Once upon a time,
the German glass-blowei's drove the witches
out of their furnaces, by throwing living
puppies into them.

Voudouism was one of the miserable su-
perstitions of witchcraft that was largely be-
lieved in early times. The distinction
between this and the original belief iu
witches is in the fact that it applies wholly
to the negro conjuring. An African slave
by the name of Moreau, was, about the year
1790, hung on a tree, a little south of Caho-
kia. He was charged with this imaginary
crime. He had acknowledged, it is said,
that by his power of devilish incantation,
" he had poisoned his master; but that his
mistress proved too powerful for his necro-
mancy," and this, it seems, was fully be-
lieved, and he was executed. In the same
village, ignorantly inspired by a belief in the

283

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

existence of this dread power of diabolism,
another negro's life was offered up to the
Moloch of superstition, by being shot down
in the public streets. One of the first acts of
the first civil Governor of Illinois Territory,
Lieut. Tod, was an order to take a convict
nec^ro to the water's edge, burn him and scat-
ter his ashes to the touv winds of heaven, for
the crime of voudouism. It was a very com-
mon feeling among the French to dread to
incur in any way the displeasure of certain
old colored people, imder the vague belief
and fear that they possessed a clandestine
power by which to invoke the aid of the evil
one to work mischief or injury to person or
property. Nor was the belief confined to the
French, or this power ascribed wholly to
negroes. The African belief in fetishes, and
the power of their divination, is well known.
Many superstitious negroes have claimed the
descent to them of fetish power ; the in-
fatuation regarding voudouism is itill to be
found among the ignorant blacks and whites.
In 1720, Mr. Eeuault, agent of the " Com-
pany of the West," bought in San Domingo
500 slaves, which he brought direct fi'om
Africa to Illinois. Mankind have been prone
to superstitious beliefs ; there are many per-
sons now who are daily governed in the mul-
tiplied affairs of life by some sign, omen or
augury.

The red children of the forest seem to
have been as ignorant as the whites upon this
subject. The one-eyed Prophet, a brother of
Tecumseh, who, commanded at the battle of
Tippecanoe, in obedience, as he said, to the
commands of Manitou, the G-reat Spirit, ful-
minated the penalty of death against those
who practiced the black art of witchcraft or
magic. A number of Indians were tried,
convicted, condemned, tomahawked and con-
sumed on a pyre. The chief's wife, his
nephew, Billy Patterson, and one named

Joshua, were accused of witchcraft; the two
latter were convicted and executed by burn-
ing ; but a brother of the chief's wife boldly
stepped forward, seized his sister and led her
from the council house, and then returned
and harangued the savages, exclaiming :
"Manitou, the evil spirit has come in our
midst and we are murdering one another. ' '
It is a sad confession to make that no white
man had the sense and courage to thus save
his friends and family and rebuke the miser-
able murders that were being perpetrated in
the name of witchcraft.

For some time this was a country with
"neither law nor Gospel," and for a long
time the people knew nothing of churches,
courts, lawyers, magistrates, Sheriffs or Con-
stables. Every one was, therefore, at liberty
" to do whatsoever was right in his own eyes."
Public opinion answered the place of church
and State. The turpitude of vice and the
majesty of virtue were then far more apparent
than now, and people held these crimes in
greater aversion then than now. Industry
in working and hunting, bravery in war,
candor, hospitality, honesty and steadiness of
deportment, received their full reward of pub-
lic honor and public confidence among these
om'rude forefathers, to a degree that has not
been sustained by their more polished de-
scendants. The punishments they inflicted
upon offenders were unerring, swift and in-
exorable in their imperial court of public
opinion and were wholly adapted for the ref-
ormation of the culprit or his expulsion
from the community. They had no law for
the collection of debts, and yet every man
was rigidly compelled to sacredly keep his
promises. Any petty theft was punished
with all the infamy that could be heaped
on the offender. A man on a campaign stole
from his comrade a cake out of the ashes, in
which it was baking. He was immediately

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

283

named " the bread rounds." This epithet of
reproach was bandied about in this way; when
he came in sight of a group of men, one of
them would call, "Who comes there?"
another would answer, " The bread rounds."
Another would say, "Who stole a cake out
of the ashes?'' when another would reply
giving the name of the man in full. And
this he would hear during the campaign and
after his return home. If a theft was de-
tected, the thief was tried by his neighbors,
and if guilty severely whipped and ordered

out of the country.

With all their rudeness, these people
were given to hospitality, and freely divided
their rough fare with a neighbor or stranger
and would have been offended at the offer
of pay. In their settlements and forts,
they lived, they worked, they fought and
feasted, or suffered together in cordial har-
mony. They were warm and constant
in their friendships. On the other hand,
they were revengeful in their resentments.
And the point of honor sometimes led
to personal combats. If one man called
another a liar, he was considered as having
given a challenge which the person who re-
ceived it must accept, or be deemed a coward,
and the charge was generally answered with
a blow. If the injured person was quite un-
able to fight the aggressor, he might get
a friend to do it for him. The same
thing took place on a charge of cowardice or
any other dishonorable action, a battle must
follow, and the person who made the charge
must fight either the fterson against whom he
made the charge, or any champion who chose
to espouse his cause. This accounts for the
great difference in then and now in speaking
evil of your neighbors.

In a preceding chapter we have given an
account of those who came into the territory
now comprising Union, Alexander aad Pu-

laski Counties prior to the year 1810. and
where the fii'st settlements were made. The
tide of immigration was then checked by the
growing hostility of the Indians toward the
whites, and the prospect of a general war
which did commence in 1812. Indian mas-
sacres and outbreaks commenced in 1811, and
early in 1812 a most shocking butchery of
all the settlers on Lower Cache occurred. A
full account of this will be found in the
chapter on Mound City and Precinct.

Mr, George James came to this part of
Illinois in 1811, and settled west of Jones-
boro, but he had hai'dly fixed his location
when he was warned by the Indians, and he
returned to his old home in Kentucky, and
after the war was over and a peace had been
conquered from the Indians, he returned to
what is now Union County.

Ex- Lieut. Gov. John Dougherty came to
this part of Illinois, in company with his
parents, in the year 1811. Like most of the
immigrants who came to Illinois that year,
they were flying to the hills fi'om the great
earthquakes. John Dougherty was of poor
parents, and when a lad was apprenticed to
a hatter to learn the trade, at which he
worked for some years. He married the
daughter of George James, and lived out a
long life among the people of Soixthern
Illinois, practicing law, and fulfilling the
many arduous duties of a politician and
office-holder. He was State Senator, Circuit
Judge and Lieutenant Governor, besides fill-
ino- several minor positions of trust. His
politics was intensely Democratic until after
the breaking-out of the war. In 1860, he
was a candidate for a State office on what
Judge Douglas called the Danite party's
ticket. This party was known in Illinois as
the " Breckenridge party," and they bitterly
opposed Douglas, because his Democracy was
' ' too weak on the slavery question. " Out of

284

HISTORY OF UNiON COUNTY.

nearly half a million votes, Dougherty got
something over 4,000. The election over, he
issued through a Cairo paper an address to
the world, reading Douglas and his quarter
million of deluded followers out of the
Democratic party, and solemnly warned the
approaching Charleston Convention not to
admit the Democratic (Douglas) Delegates
from Illinois. Mr. Dougherty attended the
Charleston Convention, and, it is said, made,
from the steps of the hotel, after that conven •
tion had dissolved, a most able and fiery
address to the Southern people on the subject
of the state of the country. He ran upon the
Republican ticket for Lieutenant Governor,
and was elected and served out his term with
great fidelity to his party.

When the war of 1812-15 was over, the
stream of Illinois immigration again set in,
and except occasional trouble from Indians,
continued uninterrupted, and we note the
following as the arrivals in what is now
Union County, in the order of their coming:

1812— Thomas D. Patterson, Phillipp
Shaver, Adam Clapp, Edmund Vancil.

Phillipp Shaver was one of the parties that
was in the Cache massacre of 1812, and the
only one who escaped alive. He was badly
wounded by a blow from an Indian's toma-
hawk, and pursued by two savages, and swam
the icy bayou, and on foot made his way to
the neighborhood south of where Jonesboro
now stands.

Thomas Standard, John Gwin, John N.
Stokes, settled in Section 12, Range 1 east, in
the year 1811. Robert Hargrave came the
same year.

1814 — The arrivals included the following
heads of the households and their families:
George Lawrence, John Harriston, John
Whitaker, A. Cokenower, Giles Parmelia,
Samuel Butcher, Robert W. Crafton, Jacob
Wolf, Michael Linbaugh, Alexander Boren,

Hosea Boren, Richard McBride, Thomas
Green, Emanuel Penrod, George Hunsaker,
George Smiley, Daniel Kimmel, Robert Har-
grave, John Whitaker, David Cother, David
Brown, Alexander Brown, Alexander Boggs,
Daniel F. Coleman, Benjamin Menees and
Jacob Littleton.

October 22, 1814, Thomas D. Patterson
entered the northeast quarter, of Section 33,
Township 11 south, range 1 east, the first
entry ever made in the county. C. A. Smith
settled near Cobden in 1815.

Jesse Echols, who was appointed by the
Legislature to fix the seat of justice in Union
County, came to Illinois in 1809, and settled
at Caledonia, and afterward m(;ved into what
is now Union County.

Two brothers, Joseph and Ben Lawrence,
came here on a trapping and hunting expe-
dition in 1807. They were so pleased with
the country that they selected a home on Mill
Creek, and one of them returned to his old
home and brought Adam Clapp and family.

Jacob Lingle, it is supposed, came in 1807.
His son lives west of Cobden. In company
with two other families, the Lingles came
down the Ohio River in batteaus, and landed
near where Caledonia now stands, and slowly
continued their way to their future home in
Union County. Among the th-st settlers in the
eastern and southern part of county was Geoi'ge
Evans and family Then came John Brad-
shaw, and Bradsbaw's Creek bears his name.
In 1808. John McGinnis and family settled
near Mt. Pleasant.

James McLaln was born January 8, 1783,
in Rowan County, N. C, and died May 15.
1870, aged eighty -seven years and four
months. He came to Illinois and settled
near Shawneetown in 1808, and in 1810 came
to what is Union County, and lived here
sixty years. He was for years a Justice of
the Peace, and Associate Judge of the County

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

285

Court, and had long acted as a Constable. In
his last years, he was a pleasant picture of a
bright and cheery old man, who was a friend
to everybody, and nothing more pleased him
than to get a good listener, when he would
tell over by the hour the story of pioneer life
in Illinois, when in the long ago he had to
make trips over all this vast territory that
was then under one jurisdiction. He carried
his hotel with him in his saddle-bags, as
often it was fifty miles or more between
houses. He would stop when darkness over-
took him and stake his horse, and his saddle for
a pillow, bivouac beneath the twinkling stars,

his lullaby the howl of the wolves. Like all
travelers in those days, even on horseback,
he had to carry with him a hand ax, to cut
his way through the dense, tangled under-
growth that often obstructed his way. He
stood upon the banks of the Ohio, and saw
the soldiers on their way to New Orleans to
whip Packenham. McLain was a useful cit-
izen, and much resj)ected by all who knew
him. In his death, there passed away one of
the landmarks that divide the past from the
present. He will long be remembered for
his many sterling qualities and his social
disposition.

CHAPTER VI

ORGANIZATION OF UNION COUNTY— ACT OF LEGISLATUKE FORMING IT— THE COUNTY SEAL-
COMMISSIONERS' COURT— ABNER FIELD— A LIST OF FAMILIES— CENSUS FROM 1820 TO
1880— DR. BROOKS— THE FLOOD OF 1844— WILLARD FAMILY— COL. HENRY
L. WEBB— RAILROADS-SCHOOLS— MORALIZING— ETC., ETC.

''I "* HE act creating Union County bears date
-^ of January 2, 1818. It is entitled
*' An act adding a part of Pope County to
Johnson County, and forming a new county
out of JotuBison County."

Section 1 defines the boundaries of the
new county of Johnson.

" Section 2. And be further enacted, that
all that tract of country lying within the fol-
lowing boundary, to wit: Beginning on the
range line between Kanges 1 and 2 east,
at the corner of Townships 10 and 11 south,
thence north along said range line eighteen
miles to the corner of Towns 13 and 14
south, thence west along the boundary
line between Townships 13 and 14 south, to
the Mississippi River, thence up the Missis-
sippi River to the mouth of the Big Muddy

River, thence up the Big Muddy River to
where the township line, between Towns 10
and 11 south, crosses the same, thence east
along said township line to the place of be-
ginning, shall constitute Union County ;
Provided, that all that tract of country lying
south of Township 13 south to the Ohio
River, and west of the range line between
Ranges 1 and 2 east, shall, until the same
be formed into a separate county, be attached
to and be a part of Union County. "

Section 3 provides that the courts for
the county shall be held at the house of
Jacob Hunsaker, Jr. , until a permanent seat
of Justice shall be established and a court
hoTise erected.

Section 4 provides for the appointment
of Commissioners to fix the seat of justice,

286

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

and, without explaining why, provides for
two sets of these officials. It starts out by
declaring that William Fatridge, James
Bane and Isaac D. Wilcox be appointed
Commissioners to fix the permanent seat of
justice. It then proceeds to say that George
AVolf, Jessee Echols and Thomas Cox are
appointed Commissioners to fix the perma-
nent seat of justice, etc.

The first-named Commissioners are not
recognized as of the old settlers of Union
County, while the other Commissioners are.
And in addition to this, Wolf, Echols and
Cox did proceed at once to fulfill the position
as their report following shows :

To the HonoTabLe the Jusliceg of the Cowitij Court nf

Union :

The undersigned Commissiones, appointed by the
Legislature of Illinois Territory, for the purpose of
designating a seat of justice for said county, report as
follows : That, they met at the time and place men-
tioned in the law establishing said county, and pro-
ceeded to examine and to take into view the most cen-
lal, convenient and eligible spot for the same, that
they have chosen and designated to (your?) Honors,
the northwest quarter of Section No. 30, in Township
12, Range 1 west, and that they have received a deed
of conveyiince for twenty acres, the donation required
by law, to which you are referred for particulars.

They also beg leave to designate and recommend the
center of said donation as the suitable place for the
erection of the public buildings. Given under our
liundsand seals this 2oth day of February, 1818.
(Signed) .1. Echols,

George Wolf,
' Thomas Cox.

The first Commissioners were not residents
of the county of Union, and as the bounda-
ries of Johnson and Pope had been dis-
turbed in order to fix the new county, it is
probable they were to look after any change
that might be necessary to make in these
older counties.

It will be noticed that the first part of the
act describes the boundaries of Union County
exactly as they are now, and it calls this

original boundary lino as including Union
County, and then the proviso goes on to
attach to this county and make a part thereof,
" until a new county is formed," all of what
is now Alexander County, and a large por-
tion of Pulaski County. Union County, there-
fore, extended to the junction of the rivers at
Cairo and the major part of Pulasl^i County
until Alexander County was formed, which
act passed the Legislature March 4, 1819, at
which time Union County assumed exactly
the boundary lines that she now has.

The land mentioned in the report of the
Commissioners above given for a county seat
belonged to John Grammer. On the 25th of
February, 1818, be and his wife, Jviliet, duly
executed a deed donating ' ' to the Justices of
the County Court of Union County," the
following described lands : "Being a part of
the northeast quarter oi Section 30, Town
12, Range 1 west; beginning near the north-
west corner of said section at a stake and a
dogwood tree; thence running south 6 poles
2 links; thence east 18 poles 24 links; thence
south 21 poles 2 links; thence east 28 poles
23 links; thence north 60 poles; thence west
to the beginning." This is the tract of land
that the Commissioners, fixing the county
town, say they, " beg leave to designate,
and recommend the center of said donation as
the suitable place for the erection of the
public buildings."

The county seal when explained, tells how
the county came to be named Union. The
figures upon the seal represents two men
standing up and shaking hands. One of
them is dressed in the old-fashioned shad-
bellied coat and vest, broad brimmed hat,
and long hair. The other is in the conven-
tional ministerial suit. It represents a meet-
ing of a Baptist preacher named Jones, and
George Wolf, aDunkard preacher, mentioned
in another place, asone of two men, first in

HISTOEY OF UNION COUNTY.

287

this county. Jones had been holding a re-
mai'kable series of meetings, and Wolf and he
met, shook hands, and agreed to hold or con-
tinue the meeting, the two joining in the work,
and calling it a Union Meeting. This was
held in what is now the southeast portion of
the county. The seal illustrating this his-
toric incident in the county was designed
and adopted by the County Commissioners in
1850, and it was, it is said, the suggestion of
Gov. Dougherty. The meeting of these pio-
neer preachers that thus became historical,
probably occurred about 1816 or 1817.

A County Commissioners' Coui-t for the new
county was elected, and consisted of Jesse
Echols, John Grammer, George Hunsaker,
Abner Keith and Rice Sams. They met,
organized and held the first court at Hunsak-
er's house, as the law directed, March 2,
1818. The com-t's first official act was to
accept John Grammer' s donation, and name
the town Jonesboro.

Abner Field was Clerk of this court, and
Joseph Palmer was the first Sherifl" of the
county. The Clerk certifies that on the 2d
day of February, 1818, George Hunsaker,
William Pyle, John C. Smith, Rice Sams,
Abner Keith, Jesse Echols and John Brad-
shaw were each commissioned by the Gover-
nor as Justice of the Peace for Union County,
and the oath was taken and they entered upon
their official duties. Robert Twidy was the
first Constable.

The court declared the road leading from
Elvira to Jackson and from Penrod's to El-
vira, public roads, and David Arnold, Will-
iam Pyle, George Hunsaker, Ephraim Voce
and Henry Larmer appointed Road Overseers
and Viewers. Robert H. Loyd was licensed
to open a tavern. The first county order
ever issued was one for $2 to Samuel Penrod
for a wolf scalp. The Constables for the
county were John Wenea, William Shelton,

Samuel Butcher, Samuel Hunsaker and Wil-
lie Sams. This court realized that the main
stay of life was " suthin " to eat and drink,
and with a wise forethought that is to be for-
ever commended, they oi'dered that the price
of whisky should be 12^ cents per half pint;
rum, 50 cents ; brandy 50 cents; dinner, sup-
per and breakfast, 25 cents each; bed, 12|
cents; horse to stand at hay and corn all night,
Zl^ cents.

Thus, the young county was full blown,
and was well started on her future great
career. Courts and officei's were in their po-
sitions, and the roads arranged for, and the
price of meat and drink regulated to a nicety.
Who was here to enjoy all its blessings, fell
the great forest trees and open farms, kill
the wolves and wild animals and tame and
civilize and make habitable for their descend-
ants this great wilderness?

A record of "marks and brands," opened
at once after the county was organized, sh : we
the following were here and were interested
in domestic animals. Jacob Wolf, George
Wolf, Edmund Vancil, William Dodd,
Samuel Hunsaker, Michael Linbough, David
Brown, William Thornton, Wilkinson Good-
win, Edmond Hallimon, Joseph Hunsaker,
William Pyle. William Grammer, Rice Sams,
Abram Hunsaker, Thomas Sams, Benjamin
Menees, John Mcintosh, George Hunsaker,
James Brown, Jeremiah Brown, John Weigle,
Christopher Hansin, Isaac Vancil, R. W.
Crofton, John Cruse, James Jackson, George
Smiley. Joseph Palmer, George James, Rob-
ert Hargrave, John Hargrave, John Hunsaker,
John AVhitaker, Johnson Som^rs, Charles
Dougherty, Joel Boggess, Jonas Vancil,
Emanuel Penrod, John Stokes, Samuel Pen
rod, Cliflf Hazlewoo 1 and John Kimmell.

Those who had entered land that lies
within the county up to and including the
year 1818 were John Yost, Wilkinson Good-

288

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

win, George Hunsaker, William Thornton-
John Huusaker, John Miller, George Law-
rence, Henry Clutts, Christian Miller, James
Mesam, John Harriston, John Kimmell, John
Frick, Edmond Holeman, Adam Clapp. John
Miller, George Devolt, Michael Dillon, John
Grammer, Benjamin Memees, John Miller,
Michael Halhouser, John Hartline, Anthony
Lingle, John Whitaker, Phillipp Shaver,
Phillipp Paulus, William Worthington, John
Bradshaw, John Saunders, John R. McFar-
land, John Tyler, Joseph Waller, Joseph
Walker, A. Cokenower, Andrew Irwin, Giles
Parmelia, Samuel Butcher, Samuel Penrod,
Eobert W. Grafton, Edward Vancil, John
Gregory, Jacob Lingle, Israel Thompson,
Adam Cauble, Jacob Rentleman, Jacob Wei-
gle, George Wolf, Miehean Linbough, Jon-
athan Hasky, Joseph Barber, Lost Cope,
John Cope, Barber, Isaac Biggs. Alexander
Biggs, the Meisenheimers, John Eddleman,
Thomas Mcintosh, Cornelius Anderson, Du-
vall Lence, John Lence, Benedict Mull, Pe-
ter Casper, John Wooten, Anthony Lingle,
David Crise, William Morrison, Robert Crof-
ton, Jacob Hileman, David Miller, A. Cruse,
Abraham Brown, John Knupp, Andrew
Smith, David Meisenheimer, Josej)h Smith,
Thomas H. Harris, Richard McBride, S,
Lewis, Thomas Green, Benjamin J. Harris,
Jacob Trees, Joseph Palmer, Thomas Green,
David Kimmel, Alexander P. Field, Anthony
Morgan, James Ellis, Joseph McElhany
Abner Field, Thomas Deen, Rice Sams, Dan-
iel Spence, William Craigle, David Miller,
George Cripe, Isaac Cornell, Nicholas Wil-
son. Henry Bechtle, Thomas Bechtle, Thomas
Lanes, John Uri, Stephen Donahue, Jacob
Littleton and S. W. Smith.

From the best estimation we have been en-
abled to make, there was here, in what is now
Union County, a population of 1,800 souls.
About one-third of the families were at that
time freeholders.

The official census of 1820 shows a popu-
lation of 2,362. In the year 1830, it had
increased to 3,239; in 1840, to 5,524; in
1850, the population rose to 7,615; in 1860.
to 11,181; in 1870, to 16,518, and in 1880,
to 18,100. The smallest increase was from
1820 to 1830, which was a little over 1,000,
and the largest increase of any decade, from
1860 to 1870, was 5,337. This is ac-
counted for by the fact that it was the period
of the coming of the railroad — a ray of light
let in upon the eternal darkness. The com-
pletion of the Illinois Central Railroad, in
August. 1855, from Anna to Cairo, and
finally to Dubuque, and then on the 1st day
of January, 1856, the time of the first through
train on schedule time, from Chicago to
Cairo, was an era in the county's history.

The tide of emigration here was never in

a strong: and swollen stream, as it was in the

. . . . *

northern portion of Illinois, and yet it was

constant and increasing, as the census re-
turns above given show. The county's growth
has been a slow, yet a steady and healthy
one, and it has never suffered from what is
often a serious condition of affairs in locali-
ties where the rush of people has been very
great, and a sudden turn in affairs would
produce a widespread distress and suffering,
and a turbulent and restless population.

The first marriage nu the county records
was John Murry and Elizabeth Latham, by
John Grammer, on the 26th of February,
1818. On the 7th of April, 1818, John Wel-
don, Esq., certifies that he married James
Latham and Margaret Edwards, on the 2d. of
March. Joseph Painter and Elizabeth Brown
were manned on the 26th of April, 1818, by
George Hunsaker. Samuel Morgan and Re-
becca Casey were married by Abner Keith,
Esq., on the 28th of May, 1818. July 3,
1818, Francis Parker and Catharine Clapp
were married by George Wolf, the Dunkard
preacher, and, by the records, the first min-

HISTORY OF UNTOX COUNTY.

280

ister who performed the ceremony in the
-coiinty. August 6, same year, Allen Crawl
and Catharine Vancil were married by the
same minister. September 24, 1818, John
Rupe and Lydia Brown were married by
John Grammer. December, same year, Eli
Littleton and Ede Hughes were married by
AVolf. This includes the entire list of mar-
riages of 1818, as the record shows.

The next year, 1819, there was quite a
falling oif in the activity of the marriage
market, there being but two weddings the
•entire year. These were David Callahan and
Elizabeth Roberts, February 25, and Isaac
Finley and Polly Hargrave, March 17.

In looking further along in the records, we
lind the Dunkard preacher Wolf had per-
formed four marriages in 1818, and he only
made his returns to the County Clerk in 1820.
His certificate reads as follows: "I did, on
7th of June, 1818. join in marriage, as man
and wife, William McDonald and Mary Mc-
Lane, and Henry Johnston and Nancy Ath-
erton. all of the aforesaid county." Strictly
speaking, the good old Dunkard married the
double couple as men and trives, and not, as
he states, as ''man and wife." But we are
told the marriage return was good and strong
enough, and each couple picked themselves
out of the jumble, and were happy and con-
tent.

The year 1820, however, showed a cheer-
ful state of activity in the line of courting
and marrying. We can account for this be-
cause it was leap year, and the dear girls
were resolved to "make hay while the sun
shines." John Russell and Percy Huston
opened the ball, by marrying on the 3d of
February; Daniel Ritter and Elizabeth Iseno-
gle, March 2; Peter Sifford and Leyah Mull,
February 20; Jacob Hunsaker and Elizabeth
Brown, March 9; A. H. Brown and Sarah
Mathes, June 19; William Ridge and Esther

Penrod, July 30; Abraham Hunsaker and
Polly Price, May 20; George Dougherty and
Rachean Hunsaker, August 3; John Biggs
and Sarah Cope, September 1; William
Clapp and Phoebe Wetherton, September 8;
George Lemen and Susan Lasley, October
2; John Price and Nancy Vancil, Octol^er 5;
John Leslie and Catharine Wigel, and Peter
Wolf and Margaret James, Messiah O'Brien
and Charlott Hotchkiss, Daniel T. Coleman
and Lucy Craft, Samuel Dillon and Margaret
Lingle, December 26.

In the year 1835, the county had the cen-
sus taken, and a careful count showed there
were 4,147 persons in the county — 2,100
males, and the remainder females. There
were forty-seven negroes. Only one person
over eighty years of age, five shoe-makers and
saddlers, one tailor, two wagon -makers, two
carpenters, and one cabinet-maker (supposed
to be a man named Bond), two hatters (one of
whom was James Hodge) eleven black-
smiths, three tan-yards (one Jaccord's,
south of Jonesboro, and the other,
Randleman's, north of the town), twelve
distilleries, two threshing machines, one
cotton gin, one wool-carding machine (Jake
Frick's), one horse and ox saw mill, eighteen
horse and ox grist mills, two water sawmills,
and five water grist mills. Of the shoe-
makers, were John Blatzell, David Spence,
John Thames and Wesley G. Nimmo. The
tailor probably was William Kaley, and
George Krite and David Masters were the
wagon-makers, and John Rinehart was one of
the carpenters.

The venerable Mrs. Mcintosh came to the
county in 1817, settling south of Jonesboro.
Her husband, John Mcintosh and one child,
now Mrs. Malinda Provo, constituted the
family. There were two others. Mrs. Mc-
intosh was a married woman with a child
seven years old when she came to this wild

290

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY

territory. She has lived here sixty-four
years, and her physical strength is unusual,
considering her great age. Her neighbors,
she remembers at first, were John Grammer,
Robert Hargrave, Samuel Hunsaker, Rice
Sums, Thomas Sams, Daniel Kimmel, James
Ellis, George Wolf, Jacob Wolf, Winsted
Davie, Joseph McElhany, John Meuees, Har-
ris Randleman, Willis, Elijah and William
Willard, Geoi'ge Weigle, Wiley Davidson,
David Miller, J. S, Cabb, Jei-emiah Brown
and Mr. Verble.

Her recollection is that the nearest carding
machine, and where they had to go to get
their wool carded, was at Jackson, Mo. — a
trip that it took three days to make. Mr.
Verble had a water grist mill seven miles
southeast of Jonesboro. The only lumber
then was cut with whip-saws. The woods
were full of an undergrowth of the pea vine.
A man named Griffin taught a school near
the spring south of Jonesboro, in a small
log cabin ; af tex'ward Winstead Davie taught
the same school, and then Willis Williard
taught there for some time.

Dr. B. W. Brooks lived about half a mile
south of Jonesboro. He was a man pos-
sessed of a thorough classical education, and
had traveled and mingled with cultured so-
ciety, and read and studied the best authors un-
til he was an accomplished scholar and was a
well-informed physician. His family were
possessed of ample means, and it must have
been a singular impulse for the fascinations
of the wilderness that could have induced
him to woo fortune here and spend his life
among a rough and unlettered })eople. A
strong mind, a finished classical and profes-
sional education, of polished and courtly
manners, when he felt the necessity of so be-
ing, it seems strange that he preferred the
rough and hard life of a pioneer, and was
often ready to lay all his accomplishments

aside, and with the keenest zest enjoy his un-
couth surroundings. He was possessed of a
fine vein of humor, and his practical jokes,
sometimes very rough indeed, were inex-
haustible. He had an extensive practice all
over this part of the country, and his reputa-
tion as a physician was wide and of the high-
est order. He was one of the early County
Commissioners, was a member of the Legis-
lature, and filled numerous minor official
positions. His love of fun and his keen
sense of the ridiculous were evenly balanced,
and it was the delight of his life to get some
Yahoo into a conversation and put the whole
village into a roar over his making-up with
his new acquaintance and so shrewdly would
he quiz the fellow that he would soon con-
vince him that he was a native of the particular
neighborhood that " greeny " had come from,
and finally that they were close blood relatives.
Often he would call a stranger into the tav-
ern and agree to give him $5 to let him
abuse him as much as he pleased for one
hour. The conditions being that if the
stranger tired of his bargain and did not
stand out the hour that he was to give back
the money. It is said he always got his
money back in the course of ten or fifteen
minutes, and sometimes a fight to boot; and
the Doctor would enjoy one about as well as
the other. One of the first Irishmen that
came to Union Covmty had the usual ready
Irish wit and repartee, and he was a great
admirer of Dr. Brooks, and many was the
bout at chaffing that they had when the Irish-
man would come to town. One day the Doc-
tor told him how they caught the wild Irish,
by putting potatoes in a barrel with a bole
just large enough for them to get their hand
in, and they would reach in and grab a po-
tato,and with this in their hand they were tight
and fast. By the time the story was told the
Irishman was fighting mad.

HISTORY OF UXIOJ^ COUXTY

291

In looking over some of Dr. Brooks' old
papers are found the following graphic and
interesting account of the high waters in the
Mississippi: "The Mississippi commenced
rising on the 18th of May, 1844, and con-
tinued rising at the rate of two feet to thirty
inches in twenty-four hours, until the 1st of
June, at which time it stood within eight
inches of the flood line of 1808. By the
10th of June it fell five or six feet, and left
the farms in the bottom all free of water.
The bottom farms had been more or less cov
ered with water except that of Jacob Trees.
On the 11th of June, the waters commenced
to rise again, the flood coming down the Mis-
souri and Mississippi Rivers, and this time
it rose from one foot to eighteen inches in
twenty-four hours. This rise steadily con-
tinued until it overflowed the bottom land in
Union County from eighteen to thirty feet
deep. This was the depth of the water on
- ihe road to Littleton's old ferry, and also to
Willard's landing. Stock, crops, houses and
fences were carried away in th« raging
waters. The people made great efforts to
save their stock, and called to their aid ferry
and coal boats and all floating craft, but
soon they found they could only hope to save
a few of their household effects, and the stock
was left to its fate and the people fled to the
hills. This rise continued steadily until
June 29, when it came to a stand. On the
1st of July it commenced slowly to recede.
This was higher water than that of 1808 by
ton or twelve feet. It was higher than was
ever known, except in 1785, which Beck says
in his history was the highest waters in 150
years. Mr. Cerre, one of the oldest French
settlers of St. Louis, said: 'The flood was
higher by four or five feet in 1785 than in
1844. In 1844. the steamer Indiana trans-
ported the nuns from the Kaskaskia Convent
to St. Louis. The boat recei\'^d them from

the door of Pierre Menard's residence, the
water in front of the house being fifteen feet
in depth. Two hundred people went from
Kaskaskia on the Indiana, and about 300
found shelter at Menard's, while yet others
were sheltered in tents on the blufis. The
loss in the bottoms was at least $1,000,000.
From Alton to Cairo there were 288,000
acres of land overflowed. In Randolph
County is a document soliciting a grant of
lots from the crown of France, and m-ging as
a reason the great flood of 1724, which over-
flowed the village and destroyed it. Great
overflows occurred in 1542, 1724 and 1785,
and in 1844. The Mississippi bottoms are
now very clean, as everything is washed off
and many of the small trees are killed."

Dr. Brooks died September 12, 1845, aged
fifty-three years. His widow, Lucinda
Brooks, survived and died in 1881, 16th of
July, aged eighty- one years.

Mrs. Nancy Hileman came in 1817, with
her father's (George Davis) family. She was
then twelve years old, and for an active,
healthy old lady, her long life here of sixty-
six years tells a strong story in behalf of the
health of Union County.

Elijah Willard came to Union County
in the year 1820, a poor boy, with a scanty
education, and he was the only support of his
widowed mother and three small children.
The coming of this family was the most val-
uable acquisition to the community it prob-
ably over made. At a glance, this boy realized
the imperative wants of a rude people, and
he laid the foundations of society upon which
have been reared the structure we behold to-
day. He was the architect and founder that
converted an almost unorganized and igno-
rant gathering of trappers and hunters into a
commercial and agricultural community, with
all the arts and science of a splendid civili-
zation. Before Elijah Willard came, the

293

HISTORY OF UNIOX COUNTY.

people hunted game for food, and exchanged
peltries and honey for the few articles of
commerce that were necessary to their sim-
ple, scanty lives. He saw that highways to
the world's market were the only road to the
change that must be brought among the peo-
ple, and he therefore obtained leave and built
the tiirnpike across the bottom to the river,
and opened " Willard's Ferry," and showed
the people that they could raise produce and
export it, and that by selling and buying in
the markets they could surround themselves
with all the comforts of life. He not only
pointed out the way. but he worked out his
designs, and by opening the largest and best
farm in the county demonstrated that there
were higher walks in life than baiting bears
and gathering coon-skins. He led the way,
and the people followed, and he lived, short
as was his great life, long enough to see the
merchandise that could once be carried in its
importation on a pack-mule, rise to such pro-
portions that his anmial sales were more than
$100,000. When would the people without
Willard have discovered that the key to civ-
ilization and a powerful community of farm-
ers, merchants, laborers, manufactui'ers, and
the arts and sciences lay in the direction of
the open doors of such markets as St. Louis,
New Orleans, Cincinnati and New York?
And he opened the way. We now look upon
the great change, and how few know to whom
they owe these blessings? In the little more
than twenty years of his active life, he gave the
people ideas and public improvements that
will continue to be invaluable benefits for
generations yet to come. He was the master
spirit of Union County while he lived, and
his influence will be here when we are all
gone and forgotten. How incomparably
greater is such a life than are all the Napo-
leons, Bismarcks or Alexanders that Aver
lived! His life was as different and as much

greater than these men as it is better than the
modern millionaires of the Gould kind who
gather in colossal fortunes by gambling —
pulling down and not building up a people.
He had saved from a small salary $250, and
with this he laid the foundation of the house
of Willard & Co., and had so perfectly reared
the superstructure that at his death his
brother was enabled to carry out his designs.

It would only bespeak on the part of the
people of Union County a just appreciation
of the benefits the life of Elijah Willard
has been to them to place in some of its
public buildings a full-sized portrait of him.
No act could be more appropriate to his mem-
ory. No public expression of gratitude could
be more just.

Willis Willard. — Jonathan Willard, a sol-
dier in the war of 1812, came down the Ohio
River from Pittsburgh, and landed at Bird's
Point in 1817. From here he went to Cape
Girardeau, where he died the same year,
and left his widow, Nancy, with four children
— Elijah, Willis, Anna and William. The
widow with her children came to Jonesboro,
and in great poverty commenced the serious
struggle for life. Elijah was old enough to
commence clerking in a store in Jonesboro,
and in a few years he bought out his employer
and associated with himself his brother Wil-
lis. In 1836, Elijah was made Internal Im-
provement Commissioner for the State of
Illinois. He died in 1848, of consumptiun.

The Williard family is of English origin,
and dates back in this country to the first col-
onists of Massachusetts, Simon Willard hav-
ing landed in Boston in 1634.

Willis Willard was born in Windsor Coun-
ty, Vt., March 20, 1805. He died May
12, 1881. He was but eleven years old when
he came West, and had but little schooling,
and but few opportunities for educating him-
self in this new country. His mother came

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

293

to Jonesboro in 1820, and he was a clerk for
different merchants until he was twenty-one
years old. He took charge of his brother's
business at his death, and rapidly rose to be
the greatest merchant in Southern Illinois.
He continued to merchandise for forty-three
years, and the fame of the house of Willard
& Co. extended over the entire country. He
sold goods and operated extensively in real
estate. At one time he owned 13,000 acres
of land in Union County. He retired from
active business in 1873, the owner of 4,000
acres of the choicest lands in the county, and
other property, making a total of over
$500,000.

For a long lifetime, he was the foremost
man, not only in his county, but in Southern
Illinois, in every enterprise tending to pro-
mote the material and intellectual interests
of the people. He erected many of the best
business and private houses in Jonesboro.
In 1836, he built the first steam saw and
grist mill that was ever in the county. In
1853, realizing the wants of Union County,
he built at his own expense a female semi-
nary in Jonesboro, and sent to Boston and
brought two lady teachers to take chai'ge of
the institution. For years this was a flour-
ishing school, and gave the people excellent
facilities for educating their daughters, with-
out being compelled to send them to the dis-
tant and expensive seminaries of the country.
His enterprise and benevolence went hand in
hand. He was not a politician, and although
often tempted and persiiaded, could never be
induced to accept office; yet, in local politics,
he often took a deep interest, and here, when
he so desired, he wielded a master hand. He
was a consistent Democrat all his life, but in
political friend or foe he respected iionor
and woi-th, and despised all frauds and
shams, and for pretentious demagogues he
had neither respect nor patience.

In 1835, he was married to Frances Webb,
and of this marriage there were eleven chil-
dren, live of whom died in infancy. Henry,
the eldest, who had become a successful mer-
chant in Jonesboro, died in 1865, aged
twenty- eight years.

Willis Willard's princely fortune was the
accumulations that come of those sterling
lousiness qualities and sound judgment that
wronged no man, but tended to aid and build
up all around him. His word was never
questioned, his good advice and ripe judg-
ment was freely extended to all, the humblest
as well as the highest. To his many em-
ployes, he was a most generous master, and
a duty well performed was not overlooked,
but remembered and rewarded. After a life
of unreniittinc: toil and tireless energrv, the
declining years allotted him were spent in
that quiet retirement which he so well had
earned. And when the summons that awaits
us all finally came, he folded in peaceful
content those once strong and bounteous
hands upon a breast stilled of the desires,
hopes, loves and hates of this world, and
went peacefully to his fathers. May his
memory linger for aye, as a benison to the
good people of Union County.

Mrs. Nancy Willard, the mother of Wil-
lis Willard, died February 12, 1874,
aged ninety-nine years ten months and five
days, one of the noblest women that ever
came West. Left poor, with four young chil-
di'en her whole life was her children's, with
a devotion that never ceased, and in the rising
fortunes of her children and grand-children
was her whole life-thought and labor. For
half a century she was widely known as
"Mother Willard," and probably above all
women that ever lived in Union County de-
served that appellation of love. She was
wise, earnest, active and charitable; she was
the friend, the " mother " indeed of all who

294

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

needed aid and comfort. She sought and
cared for the poor orphans with ceaseless
anxiety, and it is said in her just praise that
no human being ever appealed to her for aid
in vain. In every relation of life she was
conspicuous and great; a lovfng mother, a
dear friend, an earnest, good Christian, full
of charity and forgiveness for all. For sev-
enteen years before death, she was blind;
her other faculties were unimpaired. Her
end was peace and joy. She had wanted to
fill out the even hundred years of life, but
the summons came only a few days before
the full century was reached, but she was
ready and willing to go; she had prepared
"or it moie than fifty years before it came.
A long life, a valuable life, a life the world
could but illy have spared. What a sweep
of great events and changes that one life
witnessed. She well remembered the sur-
render of Yorktown, and the rejoicing over
the acknowledgment of our nation's inde-
pendence by Great Britain, in 1783. She was
sixteen years old when our national Consti-
tution was adopted, and thirty -one years old
when Napoleon ceded to the United States
the French possessions in America. She was
forty- two years old when Napoleon was ban-
ished to St. Helena, and fifty-three when La-
fayette visited America. She had seen Illi-
nois grow from a wilderness of wild beasts
and Indians to a great State of over three
millions of people. She had seen those who
saw the Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth
Rock, from the Mayflower. Blessed " Mother
Willard!" Hail, and farewell!

The manner of home life and labor about
the cabins of the early settlers is to some ex-
tent well illustrated by the following account
of a piece of goods shown us by Judge Daniel
Hileman. It is a cotton -linen bed spread,
and made sixty-five years ago in this county
by his mother and sister. "With their own

unaided hands these good women planted the
seed, both of the cotton and the flax, tended,
gathered and did everything in the prepar-
ation of the fiber in order to make it into
cloth, and then wove and bleached it, and
although it is now sixty-five years old, it is
as white as driven snow and soft and strong
of texture, and as smuoth as any goods that
can be made by the best of modern improve-
ments. The nimble fingers that so deftly
spun and wove this now interesting relic
have been still upon their pulseless bosoms
these many years, and, we confess, in con-
templating the piece of goods we were car-
ried back to those ancient days when the
humble cabins of our fathers, each and all
presented these scenes of " the good dames,
well content, handling the spindle and the
flax." This relic, telling its simple story of
the dead, is now more precious than fine
gold; of itself it is a history of the domestic
life of those brave and hardy people who im-
periled their lives in the preparation of this
smiling land of happy homes for us and ours,
and it is hoped that when Judge Hileman's
family can no longer keep and care for this
precious memento it may go into the care of
the Government, the State, or some historical
society, or, perhaps best of all, into the care
of Union County, and be encased in glass,
with a carefully prepared history of it, even
to the minutest details, where it may be kept
as a reminder and a monitor for the genera-
tions to come in the future centuries.

There are not many facts now attainable
by which we are enabled to write the history
of the growth of those ideas that have carried
our people forward in civilization. We can
only guess, mostly, about those important
events that worked strong influences upon
the general mind. They were a people that
made as few records for our study and in-
spection as possible. It seems strange, that

¥il

" "t' "■^•'l''

HISTORY OF UN^ION COUNTY.

297

among all those early pioneers there was so
little care for what their posterity might be
able to learn about them. That there was
no Herodotus to jot down the details of every
movement of the people, and realize that the
most trilling and tiresome details would now
be of intense interest So far as we can now
learn, in the three counties of Union, Alex-
ander and Pulaski, there were only two men
who wrote down their observations and ac-
counts of events that passed before their
eyes — Dr. B. W. Brooks and Col. Henry L.
Webb. Dr. Brooks' papers and records are
scattered, and many, doubtless, lost; and we
almost accidentally came across his account of
the high water of 1844, which we publish else-
where. And we are indebted to Mrs. M. M.
Goodman, of Jonesboro, for some invaluable
reminiscences of Col. Henry L. Webb, which
he had written out concerning the early set-
tlement of what is now Pulaski County, and
for the perusal of which we refer the reader
to the history of that county, in another part
of this work.

The living but seldom realize in what light
their humble lives may be reflected upon
posterity. They know that they are deeply
interested in the story of their fathers, but
they never dream that such will also some
day be the case of their own descendants
about them. To their minds their fathers
were important, great and good men, while
they themselves and their suiToundings are
insignificant and wholly worthless. Hence
tbe vagueness and imperfection of any his-
tory of the human race that can ever be wi-it-
ten. And just here comes in the one great-
est loss to the human race. To know the
true history of mankind is to have nearly all
knowledge; for, indeed, this "history is phi-
losophy teaching by example." It is not the
dates and days of supposed great events that
constitute any part of history. Battles, earth-

quakes, floods, famines, the birth of empires
and the death of kings, are interesting events
to know, but they are little or no part of
true history, because real history is an ac-
count of the human mind — how it has been
affected, what influenced it to march forward
in the path of civilization, or caused it to
recede or stand still and stagnate. It is the
doings of the mind, and not so much the acts
of the body, that constitute history. And
what data has the student now for the gain-
ing of this divine knowledge ? Could such a
book be written, it would be worth a million
times all that ever yet came from tbe print-
ing press. The present century has produced
two or three minds that weie great enough
to grasp this truth, and the work of re-writing
the world's history has now commenced.
And the scant marerials will some day be
worked out and fashioned by great minds.
If we had a complete chronology, or the full
statistics of all the nations that have lived,
there would soon come men who could write
almost the true history — the tragic storv^ of
the ebb and flux of civilization. Hence the
loss, the irreparable loss, of all those details
and statistics about a people that constitute,
not their histoiy, but their chronoloo-y — the
instruments and materials which, in the
hands of a real historian, can be made into
history— a text-book superseding all the
school books, the schools, colleges and uni-
versities in the world. True, with all the
materials ready to hand, no mere chronicler
could then write history, because he must be
a philosoper, indeed, in order to trace cause
and effect upon the general mind; not only
such things as had strong effects, but to go
deep enough to attach cause and effect together,
wherein circumstances or events are to the
ordinary mind, not only widely separated,
but so distant as to apparently have no pos-
sible connection.

298

HISTORY OF UXIOX COUNTY.

By all this disconnected moralizing we
only desire to impress upon the reader that
some time it may be many years after he has
passed away, there will come the future his
torian, who will be prying into the circum-
stances of his times, and even with a sharper
interest than we are now tm-ning over, perusing
and gathering up all the details of those who
have preceded us, and putting it in a story
for the pleasure and instructions of the yet
unborn generations. Preserve old files and
records and papers; then, and yet more, when-
ever there is an accident, an unusual season,
an event of any kind, even trifling circum-
stances, go and do as Capt. Cuttle, " when
found, make a note on't. "

An extended account of the two railroads
passing through TTninn County may be found
in the chapter on railroads, in the history of
Cairo, in another part of this volume. A fact
illustrating how the most trifling circum-
stances sometimes produce important results
is given in the first operations of building
the Illinois Central Railroad. The engineers
had sm'veyed the line just where the road
runs. The people of Jouesboro, that is, a
few of them, became solicitous about the road
not being suiweyed through Jonesboro. A
self-appointed committee of two or three
of the people of that ancient town waited on
the engineer, Ashley, and had an extended
interview with him. They explained what they
wanted, and insisted that from the " pass "
where the road would cross the hills north
of this, a shorter and as good a line could be
found via Jonesboro, as by the sui'vey made.
Mr. Ashley finally agreed that if the town
would pay §50 to defray the expense of a
survey by that route, he would order one
made. The committee reported to the
people, but so confident were they that the
road must touch their town, that they would
not contribute a cent for the survey. They

felt certain the survey as made and this offer
of a new one, was only a weak attempt to
get money from them for nothing. They re-
fused to give the money, and the result is the
town of Anna came into existence, and has
finally outstripped the old town in the race of
life. Had the road been built through Jones-
boro, it is easy enough to believe that it
would have had many more people in it to-
day than there are now in both the towns.
For many years, Jouesboro was the leading
town in Southern Illinois. It has lost that
prestige. It is possible it could not have
kept in the van under any circumstances, but
one thing is certain, had the road been
built there it would have made a thrifty,
rich and prosperous little city. This would
have gi'eatly benefited the whole county, as
it would have tended to bring people here of
energy, capital and enterprise, and the farm-
ers of the county would have kept pace to
some extent with the prosperity of the town.
In the end. Jonesboro lost the Central road,
and in years after subscribed S50,000 to the
Cairo & St. Louis Railroad, that now passes
through the place, but as if fate was against
it, there has sprung up several little towns
about it that more or less divide the trade of
the place instead of helping to build it up.

Schools. — In another chapter we have
spoken at some length of the early schools in
the first settlement of the county. They were
somewhat slow to come, and they did not
seem to grow and floui'ish to any great extent
when they did come.

The law requires that school directors shall
report the number of persons between twelve
and twenty-one years of age who cannot read
and write. The United States census of 18S0,
and the school census, show a strange incon-
sistency on this point. The former report
the number of persons under twenty-one in
the county at 9,878. The school census re-

HISTORY OF rXlOX COUNTY.

299

ports it at 9,564. The school census reports
the number of persons who cannot read and
wi'ite between the ages of twelve and twenty-
one at 130. The Government census reports
this class of persons at 658, the last t^ives
those between the ages of ten and twenty-
one. This is a glaring discrepancy, and we
have no hesitation in adopting the Govern-
ment report as much nearer the truth. Union
County is not any worse in this respect than
the counties of the State generally. Not nearly
so bad as many. For instance, Jasper re-
ports twenty-three illiterates, and the Gov-
ernment reports for that county 534, who can-
not read and write. We do not believe in
compulsory education, and yet we con-
fess it is not a cheering sign to see a large
per cent of illiterates. It is a misfortune for
any people to have very many who cannot read
and wi'ite, but it is a greater misfortune to
the individual sufifererthan the body politic;
but so is it a misfortune to have poor health,
poor teeth or a bald head. It is a misfortune
to have young men grow to maturity without
any of those refinements and polish that make
social life so pleasant, but you cannot legis-
late away the clowns and roughs, though their
presence may mar society never so much. We
have too much law concerning the schools
already and too little education. A compul-
sory school law has been practiced in this
country and in Europe for generations. It
can hardly be said to be an experiment. If
it corrects the evil of illiteracy, and in return
gives us the much greater ills of a paternal
government, where are the benefits? There
are always a class of men who are infinitely
more dangerous to society than are those who
cannot read and write. These are the reform
fanatics, who would legislate away all evils,
and legislate into force all morals. They see
a real or an imaginary wrong esistirg, and
they fiy to the Legislature and call for a police-

man to remedy the wrong. They know no
power for good except the brute force of gov-
ernment. The same class of men a few \ears
ago were in power in most of the governments.
They made the blue laws of New England,
and talked in a heavenly, pious twang, and
burned poor old helpless women for witches,
and murdered hundreds of thousands of other
people for the shocking crime of heresy.
Power in the hands of such lunatics is indeed
a menace to mankind. They have no more
idea of the part and province of a o"overn-
ment than has an enraged bull- dog of human-
ity and justice. It is not a great while since
these fanatics had a compulsory church at
tendence law in Scotland, and policemen ap-
pointed to visit the houses and see that every
one attended. Did they have a doubt, think
you, that they could legislate people into
heaven ? The work of forming strong pater-
nal governments has been going on for six
thousand years, at least, and the supreme
evil that has afflicted mankind in all these
centuries has been over- legislation — too much
law, too much interference with the people,
too many government officials, too much of
governments trying to do what only individ-
uals can do for themselves. Tliat man is not fit
for the noble duty of self-government who
thinks government ever did or ever can legis-
late men either into morals, religion or educa-
tion. That man is insufferably ignorant who
does not know that the only way to make men
good, and to cleanse him from all evils is to
first remove his ignorance. It is ignorance
that has brought into this world all our woe.
An ignorant man is a menace to a community.
But simply to know how to read and write is
not a proof of the absence of ignorance. If
people had the correct ideas of schools and
education, there would not be a child (except
idiots) that would grow to the age of twelve
in the land but that could read and write. It

300

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

is no more trouble to teach any child to do
this than it is to teach it to eat with a knife
and fork. When people's ignorance is re-
moved, they will no more grow children
that cannot read and write than they will
who cannot dress themselves, or talk, or
play the innocent and healthy plays of chil-
dren. A compulsory law to wash the child's
face and comb its hair might now be neces-
sary in say an average of one family to a
coimty. Reading and writing are not edu-
cating; they are simply a species of training
and of themselves of no higher grade than
those of ordinary acts of politeness, cleanli-
ness or decency. An ignorant, savage peo-
ple must have a school, if their children ever
learn to read and wi'ite, but no civilized fam-
ily has to have any such assistance. And
you may mark it well, that the day is either
now here or it is very near, when such a
thing as people sending their children to
school to learn to read and write will be as
unknown as is now the custom of sending
them out to be washed and their heads
cleaned. The reader who feels his own con-
victions outraged by these sentiments is most
respectfully requested to turn back and ex-
amine carefully over again the definition of
the word education. What is it ? Not as the
dictionaries will tell you e from, and duco to
lead. You can get no idea from the defini-
tion you will find in the dictionaries of wbat
the real meaning of the word is. " To
lead from ignorance " is like the old defini-
tion of heat as the absence of cold, and cold,
then, would be the absence of heat. You
might study such definitions a thousand
years and you would not have nearly so good a
definition of heat as the child when it tells
you " it burns." Ask any man you meet

what education is, and the chances are ninety-
nine in a hundred he will tell you so-and-so
is highly educated, because he can read Latin
and Greek, when the facts are a man may
read all the dead and living languages of the
world and still not be educated at all — still
be very, very ignorant. You cannot think,
much less talk, intelligently about education
unless you first know the full and true mean-
ing of the word. Education is getting knowl-
edge, and knowledge is understanding the
mental and physical laws. We start you on
the way of mastering the understanding of
the word education. You can pursue it and
follow it out to its complete understanding if
you so desire.

The School Superintendent of Union Coun-
ty, W. C. Rich, in a report to the State
Superintendent in 18S4, says:

" Irregularity of attendance in country
schools — this can only be met by a compul-
sory act. The object of the free school sys-
tem is to give every child of school age a
common school education, but in the absence
of a compulsory law, the object of a free
school system will never be accomplished."

In Union County there are three brick
schoolhouses, sixty frame houses and eleven
loghouses, making a total number of school-
houses seventy four. One new one was built
in 1882; of these are seven graded schools.
Number of male teachers in graded schools,
10; females, 15. Number of male teachers in
uncrraded schools, 52; number of females, 20;
making the total number of teachers in the
county 97.

Certainly a creditable showing as to both
the number of houses, teachers and pupils in
a county of only a little over 18,000 popula-
tion.

HISTORY or UNION COUNTY,

301

CHAPTER VII.

THE BENCH AND BAR — GOVERNOR REYNOLDS— EARLY COURTS — FIRST TERM AND OFFICERS-
DANIEL P. COOK— CENSUS OF 1818— COUNTY OFFICERS TO DATE— ABNER AND ALEXANDER
P. FIELD— WINSTED DAYIE— YOUNG AND M' ROBERTS— VISITING AND RESIDENT
LAWYERS — GRAND JURIES PUNCHED— HUNSARER'S LETTER —WAR BE-
TWEEN JONESBORO AND ANNA — COUNTY VOTE, ETC., ETC.

"Ambition sighed; she found it vain to trust
The faitliless column, and the crumbling bust."

TN the early organization of a county,
-*- especially away back in the history of
Illinois to 1817, the date of the formation of
this county, the coui'ts, and their short bi-
ennial sessions, the judges, the judges' great.
ness and dignity that those people readily
conceded the judicial toga, the lawyers, as
they traveled over the large circuits, through
the many large and sparsely settled counties,
were objects of much awe and admiration
among the people. Even the Clerks of the
Courts, the Sheriffs, the foreman of the grand
jury, as well as other petty officers about the
court house, who, by virtue of their official
positions, could, on tei-m? of apparent great
familiarity, exchange a few words with the
Judge and the lawyers, were temporarily
greatly enlarged and magnified, and perhaps
envied sometimes by the common crowd.
But soon after the organization of each
county came the local lawyer, the permanent
dweller at the county seat, and thus some of
the glamour that invested the profession of
the law passed away. Their numbers in-
creased, and as law and politics were then
synonymous terms, and they still more mixed
among the people, and coaxed and wheedled
them out of their votes, kissing the babies,
pattfng the frowzled-headed, dirty- faced
youths on the head, talking taffy to the vain
old mothers, hugging, like a very brother.

the voters, and dividing with them their
plug tobacco, and making spread-eagle stump
speeches everywhere and upon all occasions,
and upon the slightest opportunities, and
thus still more of the awe-inspiring great-
ness of the profession passed away. Thus, in
the long process of time, a lawyer came to be
only a human being, and even the high Judge,
as the boy said about the preacher, "nothing
but a man." But the fact remains that in
the early settlement of the State, and in the
formation of the county municipalities, these
legal gentlemen had very much to do in
those initiatory steps that have shaped and
fashioned the destiny of both the State and
the counties that transformed this wilderness
of wild men and wild beasts into the fourth
commonwealth in this cluster of great and
growing States, and from this vantage-point
our State is entered in the race for the tliird
place, then the second place, and then the
great goal of first place in the galaxy of
States. The finger-marks of these founders,
and largely the architects of the early State
polity that has so swiftly led to these as-
tounding results, are to be seen everywhere,
and the meed of praise is justly theirs for
this beneficent foresight, patriotism and un-
yielding integrity that have stood like beacon
lights upon the troubled waters, when the
storms raged and beat upon the ship of
State.

Amonij the earliest of the Illinois lawyers,

302

HISTOKY OF UNION COUNTY.

who at one time lived in the county that then
included what is now Uoion County, was
John Reynolds- -the Old Ranger. The ap-
pellation of Old Ranger was given him for
his great services in the soldiery that fought
the Indians. In the early days, these soldiers
were mounted men, and often they were
designated in their military capacity as
rangers.

Gov. John Reynolds was a native of Penn-
sylvania, and came to Illinois and located in
Kaskaskia in the year 1800. Only eighteen
years after the first American flag had been
unfurled over all this territory, and the land
had become a part and parcel of the posses-
sions of the United States, under Lieut.
Todd, who had been commissioned by Gov.
Patrick Henry to come here, take possession
in the name of the United States, and put in
force aod operation the principles of our
present free and enlightened Government.
Gov. Henry wrote this important document
within hearing of the booming of the guns
of the Revolution. The Governor appointed
a messenger to bear the important commis-
sion to Lieut. Todd, who was fighting the
Indians and British somewhere in the North-
west, and it took the bearer nearly or quite
a year to find Todd and invest him with
the important authority of organizing and
establishing upon an enduring basis the
benign government that now blesses so many
people of the great Mississippi Valley. Thus
it was the soldier, Lieut. Todd, who laid the
foundations of a free government here, and
upon this foundation has risen the grand
superstructure we now behold, and, as before
remarked in this work, a great deal of credit
is due the early lawyers of Southern Illinois,
and among the earliest and mo"3t valuable of
these, to the then young Territory, was John
Reynolds, whose life, after he came here, was
spared to us sixty-five years. He was a re-

markable man in many respects. The writer
hereof first saw him in 1844, and to his boy-
ish eyes the Old Ranger was the one great
man that he ever expected to see. He was
tall, slim, erect, with classical features, soft,
white hair, moderate mutton-chop whiskers
of the same color, with a wonderfully pene-
trating, restless gray eye. It was a warm day,
and he had his coat off, and his shirt collar
unbuttoned, and was battling for Polk for
President. He talked rapidly, and held the
closest attention of the men, women and chil-
dren present, ever and anon appealing per-
sonally and by name to some voter in the
audience, and always addressing him by his
given name, and so adroitly did he manage
this, that by the time he would finish his
speech he had thus appealed to about every
voter in his audience. It was told of him,
that in aboiit every county in Southern Il-
linois he could pass through them on an elec-
tioneering tour, and shake hands with every
voter he met, and call him, by his given
name. His knowledge of men, his ready wit,
his practical, shrewd sense, his big, warm and
generous heart, and incorruptible integrity
both in private and public life, were the
som-ces of his invincible power among the
people. When the least bit embarrassed, he
had a singular way of rubbing his hand down
over his face and at the same time giving his
nose a slight pull. His speeches were some-
what in a familiar conversational manner,
and interjected with side remarks that were
explanatory and often intensely amusing. In
many respects he was admirably equipped
for a great and successful demagogue, and
for sixty- five years he plied his vocation to
such an advantage that he occupied from
time to time nearly all the exalted positions
in the State, as well as Financial Agent of
the State in negotiating the Internal Im-
provement Loan of $4,000,000 to Europe.

HISTORY OF UNIOX COUNTY.

303

It is not proposed here to give a detailed
biography of the Old Ranger, for this is a
familiar subject to all our people. His last
years among us was the happy rounding out
of a well-spent and valuable life. And when
started once upon his favorite^ theme, the
venerable old kindly face would kindle and
flame with recollections of the pioneer times
and people, and his talk became as intensely
interesting as his fund of incident and anec-
dote seemed inexhaustible, and of him and
about him there was current among the people
nearly an equal fund of anecdote. These
the old Govex'nor never referred to in his
conversations, especially that one in refer-
ence to his sentencing, while on the circuit
bench, a man to be hung: "Mr. Green," said
the Judge, addressing the prisoner, " the jury
and the law have found you guilty of murder.
I am very sorry for you Mr. Grreen. I wish
you would send word to your friends down on
Flat Creek that it was the jury and the law,
and not me, that sentenced you to be hung.
What day would suit you best to be hung,
Mr. Green? Well, 1 will do all I can for
you. The law permits me to extend your life
four weeks and I will give you all the time I
can." Then addressing the clerk he said :
* ' Mr. Clerk, I wish you would look at the
almanac and see If next Friday four weeks
comes on Sunday"? " " You see, I don't want
to hang you on Sunday, Mr. Green." And
thus this really sad and afflicting duty of this
kind-hearted official was gotten through with.
Green was duly hung, but his friends on Flat
Creek, as Green exhorted them from the
scaffold to do, always afterward voted for the
Old Ranger unanimously.

The old Governor would often in his
speeches, especially if there were ladies
present, tell the story about his riding along
the road one day in the early time, and coming

and wagon. He finally asked her opinion of
the counti-y. "Oh; well," said the good
dame, " it seems to be good enough for men
and dogs, but is powerful tryin' on women
and oxen."

The first term of the Circuit Court convened
in Union County was in Jonesboro, at the house
of Jacob Hunsaker, May 11, 1818; Daniel
P. Cook, Presiding Judge. A picture of
this pioneer court room and the gathering of
the people in this humble log house of jus-
tice, in their hunting shirts, coon-skin caps,
and generally each man with his shot-pouch
hanging to his side, and early as it was in
the spring, many of them barefoot, and the
others with deer-skin moccasins; when the
grand jury, after being charged by the court
with the affairs of the county and the weal
or woe of litigants or criminals, filed out in
solemn silence in the charge of an officer of
the com't, who conducted them a short dis-
tance in the woods to their grand jury room,
which consisted simply of a log lying be-
neath the old forest trees; and then, after a
hot trial as to whom the meat belonged to of
a certain wild hog that one hunter had shot
and another had captured, to see the petit
jmy similarly file out to another log in
another part of the woods to be "locked up,"
or rather seated on another log to deliberate
on their verdict. We say, this in a picture
would now look curious and very rude in-
deed. And so it was in some respects, and
yet when more deeply studied and under-
stood, it would be seen that there were here
in this log court house, with all its primitive
surroundings, men of ability, education,
and forensic talents, that might have adorned
the most elevated or historical woolsacks in
the world.

Daniel P. Cook will take his place in the
history of Illinois as second to no other man

U ) \7.j1 I

woman who was driving an ox teamin the State except Stephen A. Douglas. He

304

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

came from Missouri to Kaskaskia a very
young man and in very delicate health; stud-
ied law with his uncle, Nathaniel Pope; was
admitted to the bar, and at once took his
position among the great lawyers of his day;
was the Territorial Delegate in Congress,
and framed the measure and passed it
through Congress admitting the State into
the Union; in 1819, was elected Attorney
General of the State, and afterward a mem-
ber of Congress, defeating McLean in a con-
test extending all over Southern Illinois, and
that was conducted by joint discussions, and,
it is said, was never excelled for displaying
great talents, unless it was in the campaign
of Douglas and Lincoln in 1858. In the bill
to admit Illinois, the committee reported the
north boundary line of the State to run due
west on a line parallel with the southern
bend of Lake Michigan, and it is due to
Judge Cook that this was changed to its
present line, and thus the fourteen northern
counties, including the city of Chicago, were
taken from the Territory of Wisconsin. He
showed Congress that the lakes of the North
and constant navigation at the confluence of
the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers must not be
separated by dividing State lines — that
Illinois must be made a Keystone State of
the Mississippi Valley. He then foresaw
would come the great questions between the
North and the South that did come, and his
wise forethought was the architect of the
^Yest and of the Union as we now have it,
and it is highly px'obable that his action here
did more ultimately to preserve the integi'ity
of the union of States in the late civil war
than any other one thing in our history.

Such was something of the magnificent
record of a man who sank into his grave at
the age of thirty-seven years, and who nearly
all his life was an invalid and sufferer. His
bi'ief life, his wonderful achievements, his

lingering death from consumption upon the
threshold of his manhood, are, indeed, "a
strange, eventful story." His was one of
the few lives that adorned the morning of
the nineteenth century, and was a blessing to
American civilization that only ignoble de-
scendants will ever forget or cease to cherish.

At this, the first term of the court, the
Sheriff returned the following grand jury:
James Westbrook, George Woo If, John Riton,
John Weigle, John Mcintosh, Michael Lin-
burg, Thomas Sams, Joel Boggis, Alexander
Beggs, Benjamin McCravens, James Murphy,
John Whitaker, Nicholas Wilson, Samuel
Spi-ood, Rice Sams, David Mclntuff, Benja-
min Worthenton, Adam Clapp, Richard Mc-
Bride, George Godwin, Hemy Lamer, John
Crise, David Penrod, and Owen Evans. John
Whitaker was appointed foreman.

James Evans, Esq., on exhibiting license
from the Superior Court, was admitted as an
attorney at law.

This was then known as the Western Dis-
trict of the Territory of Illinois.

The first day's proceedings were a contin-
uance of the case of Daniel Ritter vs. Joseph
Taylor, action on the case. Letters of ad-
ministration were granted John Bradshaw,
on the estate of Charles Murphy. The case
of Joseph Taylor vs. Thomas Giles, con-
tinued. A judgement taken upon confession
against John Stokes, one of the defendants,
for $1.10.

The grand jury returned into court an in-
dictment against John C. Thomas, felony.
The court disposed of case of " Milly, a black
woman," on habeas corpus, was dismissed.

On the second day, the case of John C.
Thomas, continued for the term. The next
criminal case was the indictment against
Samuel G. Penrod for retailing liquors

The seccmd term of the court was held by
Judge John Warnock.

HISTORY OF TmiON COUNTY.

305

Johnson Renny was, at the September term,
May, 1818, admitted to practice law. At this
term of the court, William Russell is ad-
mitted as an attorney. Mr. E. K. Kane also
appeared as an attorney. At this term, John
Reynolds, the " Old Ranger," appeared as an
attorney.

At a term court, May 13, Richard M.
Young produced license and was admitted
as an attorney. On Tuesday, September
14, 1819, David T. Maddox was ad-
mitted as an attorney. At this term of
the court, Daniel T. Coleman prosecuted his
suit for divorce against his wife, Judah. A
jury was called and the divorce granted.

At April term, on April 10, 1820, Charles
Dunn produced in court a license to practice
law and was duly enrolled. Thomas Rey-
nolds was acting as Circuit Attorney.

April term, 1821, Thomas C. Browne was
the Presiding Judge. David J. Baker appears
as an active and practicing attorney at this
term.

In another chapter, we have given the order
of the organization of the County Commis-
sioners' Court, the platting of the town of
Jonesboro, and the election and appointment
of the county officers, and the commenee-
inent of the work of putting into operation
the county machinery, which constituted the
coxmty's government. When the little county
ship of State was duly launched, it was in
power over the. large territory that now em-
braces Union, Alexander and Pulaski Coun-
ties, and contained a population in 1818 of
2,482 souls, and was in the number of its in-
habitants the fifth county in the State. The
counties outnumbering it were Gallatin, with
3,256 people; Madison, 5,456; Randolph,
2,939; and St. Clair, 4,519. The total pop-
ulation of Illinois at that time was 40,156.

Joseph Palmer, as stated, was the first
Sheriff of the county, and he and the Com-

missioners' Court, upon a settlement, could
not agree, and the court i!laimed he was $260
behind in his payments of money collected,
and they entered judgments for that amount,
and also assessed the State penalty, which
was that such delinquents were to pay twelve
per cent per month from the rendering of
Buch judgments until the judgment should be
paid. The case was in litigation some time,
and finally compromised by the court allow-
ing a part of Palmer's set-offs, and his pay-
ing the remainder. In 1821, George Hun-
saker was the Sheriff of the county. Abner
Field was acting as County and Circuit Clerk,
and his entire salary for performing the
duties of the two offices for one year was $60.
He resigned.

Winstead Davie, at the April term,
1822, of the Circuit Court, was ap-
pointed Clerk, by Judge Browne, Presiding
Judge. And at the March term, 1823, there
appears upon the records the following :
" Winstead Davie having been before ap-
pointed Clerk, in the place of Abner Field,
resigned, he presented his bond as Clerk of
the Circuit and County Court, Recorder and
Notary Public." The bond was approved.
There is no man whose history is more
closely interwoven with the early accounts of
the county, or whose history is more interest-
ing and instructive, than that of Winstead
Davie. A complete story of his life would
read like a well-constructed romance. Born
with physical infirmities' that rendered him
a cripple for life — requiring the constant use
of two crutches — he commenced in poverty
the struggle for existence, and worked out a
career that points him out as • the child of
destiny. He was the crippled, helpless in-
valid child of poor parents, with a large
family of children. It is told of him, that
in hie youth he overheard his parents talking
and lamenting over his affliction and his

306

HISTOEY OF UNION COUNTY

gloomy outlook for the future. They agreed
he would be a burden upon them as long as
he or they lived ; that they would tenderly
care for him as long as they lived, then in-
voke the protecting mercies of heaven, and
resign him to this not very charitable world.
The hearing of this conversation was the
turning point in the youth's life. Every
word had sunk deeply in his heart, and,
young and crippled as he was, he looked
fortune in the face, and resolved that he
would go out into the world and tight his own
battles of life. He commenced to educate
himself, and in a yeai' or two concluded he
was prepared to teach school. It is told of
him that the first house he visited for the
pui-pose of making up his school, the family
saw the poor cripple hobbling toward their
door, and, supposing he was a beggar,
slammed the door in his face, and he was
compelled to turn away. But he persevered,
and became a school teacher. In 1817, he
came to Illinois, and among those rough peo-
ple commenced a school a short distance be-
low Jonesboro. Afterward he was put in
possession of a small stock of goods in Jones-
boro, to sell on commission. For many years
he was Recorder, .County and Circuit Clerk,
and Probate Judge, and he was eventually
able to purchase the stock of goods that he
had been managing on commission. So in-
timately had his life become interwoven with
the courts of the county, that when it came
to adopt the design for the county seal,
it appropriately was formed representing
Davie sitting at a desk writing, showing 'his
crooked and crippled lower limbs, and crossed
and forming an arch above the desk were his
two crutches. It is now to be regi*etted that
this design was ever changed and a new seal
adopted, as was done, and an account of
which appears in the preceding chapter.
When Mr. Davie had purchased the little

store, he then commenced his true career, and
he extended, enlarged and pushed the busi-
ness, successfully fighting his way against
Willis Willard, his brother-in-law, or any
and all competition that could come against
him, and he retired from ofl&ce and gave his
entire attention to his business, which soon
grew to vast proportions. He possessed an
energy, clear, strong judgment and a fore-
sight in all business affairs that were never
at fault. His physical defects were more
than compensated for in his active and pow-
erful intellect, and he amassed great wealth,
and at one time had more employes and de-
pendents than any other man in the county.
His master mind guided and controlled and
managed much of the business affairs of the
county, and hej-e he was even more valuable
to the growing young community than he had
been as an officer and executive in the official
matters of the county. His charity was ex-
pansive and just, and while he ruled with
firm decision and strong emphasis, he scrupu-
lously rewarded merit and never overlooked,
even in his humblest dependents, true worth.
Nature had so equipped him for life that the
very misfortunes that environed him were
converted into stimulants to urge him forward
to the accomplishment of great enterprises,
where others under the same circumstances
would have despaired and turned their faces
to the poor house.

He married Anna Milliard and it is whis-
pered that at this important period of his life
he met the same troubles that attended his
first effort to secure a school. The same old
objection was made, that he was a cripple and
poor, and here again came back and was re-
newed the great resolve of his boyhood, that
he would have a fortune that should equal or
sm-pass that of those who urged these objec-
tions against him, and he did.

Like the generality of cripples, he was

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

30';

very sensitive on the subject, and never al-
luded to it. When it was spoken of by others
in his presence, he would change the subject,
and any attempt to force sympathy upon him
was sternly rejected. On one occasion, after
he had sold a customer a large bill of goods,
and all was satisfactorily settled, the custom-
er commenced the usual story of his sorrow
and sympathy for Davie's misfortunes. Da-
vie made several efiforts to turn the subject,
and when his patience was exhausted he gave
the man a most meaning look and answered,
' ' Yes, yes, but after all it is better to be crip-
pled in the legs than in the head."

Some years ago, Mr. Davie divided the bulk
of his large property among his children and
retired from business life. His great mind
had burned out its strength and brightness,
and a recluse and an invalid he day by day
and now almost hour by houi' calmly awaits
that summons from the high court of God
that will come to us all.

Richard M. Young was among the earliest
lawyers in Union County. He was appointed
pro tern. Circuit Attorney at the March term
of the Circuit Court in 1823. Judge Young
was a bright young man, and had the gift of
fine colloquial powers, and in his intercourse
with men was smooth and urbane, and al-
together an address well calculated to im-
press all he met as a man of excellence and
worth, in which lay the secret of his success,
rather than in the force, vigor and compass
of intellect. His talents were respectable,
and above mediocrity. He was a Kentuckian,
of spare build, rather tall, educated, and a
lawyer by profession. In 1824, he was
elected by the Legislatui'e one of live Circuit
Judges, and assigned to the Second Circuit.
He was elected to succeed Gen. W. L. D.
Ewing in the United States Senate, and
served out a full term, from March 4, 1837,
to March 4, 1843. Samuel McRoberts was

his principal opponent ; Ai'chie Williams
and Gen. Ewing also received some votes,
the former twenty-one and the latter thirteen.
In 1839, Judge Young was appointed by Gov.
Carlin one of the State agents, in connection
with Gov. Reynolds, to negotiate the §4,000,-
000 canal loan, for which purpose they re-
paired to Europe, and their advances of $1,-
000,000 in Illinois bonds to the house of
Wright & Co., of London, proved a heavy loss
to the State. Yet, under party opei-ations, be-
fore his Senatorial term expired, he was made,
February 3, 1842, a Supreme Judge, a posi-
tion which he held until 1847. He died in
Washington in an insane asylum.

Alexander and Abner Field were here at
the very commencement of the county's ex-
istence. They were men of strong charac-
ters, and Alexander Field's long life career
clearly points out that he was no ordinary
man. He took from the very first of his en-
try into the bar a commanding position.
A good lawyer, sound reasoner and a brilliant
orator, either at the bar or on the stump.
He won his way to a large law practice, and
from county otlHces was appointed Secretary
of State December 31, 1828, and with a con-
stant war upon him of rival candidates for
that office, he held it until November 30,
1840. When he became Secretary of State,
he changed his residence to Vandalia and
Springfield, and for years he was one of the
" circuit riders " of the Illinois bench and
bar, and continued to add to his already ex-
tended reputation as one of the celebrated
lawyers of that time that was noted for its
remarkable men. He seems to have been of
a roving, restless disposition. He removed
his home to St. Louis, and for some yeai's
was among the foremost lawyers of that city.
Then he went to New Orleans, and there
made his home until his death, a few years
ago, at an advanced age*

310

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

2>ro tern., Prosecuting Attorney. May, 1842,
John A. McClernand appeared among the
attorneys. In 1842, Thomas Hodges was
Sheriff, S. S. Condon, Clerk, and H. F.
Walker, Coroner. W. A. Denning was Pros-
ecuting Attorney in 1845.

In 1844, Daniel Hileman was Probate
Judge of the county. At September term,
1847, AV. A. Denning was the presiding
Judge; John Grear was County Coroner. In
1849. Thomas Hileman became Clerk of the
Circuit Court. Master in Chancery, and Pro-
bate Judge. The last two offices he has held
ever since, and when he fills out his present
term of office, will have held the positions
thirty-six years — an average life-time. May,
1851, Alexander J. Nimmo was Sheriff, W.
K. Parish, State's Attorney, and John C.
Albright, Coroner. May, 1852, James W.
Bailey was County Clerk. In 1853, Syrean
Davis was Sheriff, John A. Logan, Prosecut-
ing Attorney, W. K. Parish, Judge, A. J.
Nimmo, Sheriff. 1858, M. C. Crawford was
State's Attorney. 1859, Thomas J. Finley,
County Clerk, A. M. Jenkins, Judge, Nimmo,
Sheriff, Hileman, Clerk, and A. P. Corder,
Prosecuting Attorney. 1861, Lorenzo P.
Wilcox, Sheriff. At the May term, 1863,
Thomas J. Finley, Sheriff, and at the Octo-
ber term of the same year, William C. Rich
was the Sheriff. 1864, John H. Mulkey,
Judge, W. C. Rich, Sheriff, M. C. Crawford,
Attorney, and Hileman, Clerk. At May term,
1865, George W. Wall was Prosecuting At-
torney, and A. J. Nimmo. Clerk. 1866, W.
H. Green, Presiding Judge. October term,
1867, M. C. Crawford, Judge, Joseph McEl-
hany. Sheriff. 1869, W. C. Rich, Sheriff.
1871, Jacob Hileman, Sheriff, Jackson Frick.
Prosecuting Attorney, and A. Polk Jones,
Clerk. Jones died about one month after
entering upon the duties of his office for the
third term. The Court appointed Henry P.

Cozby Clerk pro tern., who continued to fill
the place until the election of the present
incumbent, Ed. M. Barnwell. In 1878, there
were elected for this judicial district Judges
Daniel M. Browning, Oliver A. Harker. and
David J. Baker.

Among the attorneys resident of the coun-
ty, we have given an extended account of the
earliest who were here, including Gov.
Dougherty. Succeeding these were M. C.
Crawford, John E. Nail, James H. Smith,
David L. Phillipps, W. A. Hacker, W. L.
Doughert_y, Wesley Davidson, Semple G.
Parks, who is now Judge of the County Court
of Perry County.

W. A. Hacker was a native of this county^
and was educated at West Point. He re-
moved to Alexander County, and died there
a few years later.

W. L. Dougherty was a son of Gov.
Dougherty, and was considered one of the
promising young attorneys of the county.
Wesley Davidson was a school-mate of the
writer of these lines at McKeadrea College.
He was a good, average bright student, but
was impulsive and inclined to be erratic. He
was di'owned a few years ago.

John E. Nail was a common law and chan-
cery practitioner of good abilities. Read
law with J. H. Smith, of Chicago. Located
in Union County, and commenced the prac-
tice of his profession. Married Sarah J.
Dishon.

Alexander N. Dougherty studied law in
his father's (Gov. Dougherty's) office. Was
admitted to the bar in 1863, and died in
Jonesboro in 1878.

W. A. Spann was a native of Union Coun-
ty, now of Johnson County. He has been
twice in the Legislature from his district

W. S. Day is a native of Tennessee. He
came to Union County when very young,
studied law with Judge Crawford, and has

HISTORY OF UXIOX COUNTY.

311

already reached a prominent position at the
bar.

Eobert W. Townes, a native of Illinois,
was admitted to the bar in 1861, and imme-
diately went to the war as Orderly Sergeant
in Company C, Eighteenth Illiaois Volun-
teers. He was soon transferred to the Thir-
ty-first Regiment and made Adjutant thereof,
acting as Acting Adjutant General to Gen.
Logan in the Fort Donelson battle. He
was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. When
he returned from the war, he located in
Duquoin, and engaged in the active practice
of his profession. He was elected Prosecut-
irg Attorney for the Third Judicial District,
and served the term with ability and great
fidelity. He was at one time Secretary of
the Illinois State Senate.

David L. Brooks, a son of Di-. B. W.
Brooks, was a member of the Union County
bar as far back as 1852. He was a very
bright young lawyer. He died in 1845.

Jackson Frick, son of Caleb Frick, was
born in Jonesborn in 1849. He graduated
at Yale College, and was universally consid-
ered a most promising and brilliant young
man. He studied law with Judge Crawford.
He died on the very threshold of his young
life in 1877.

Mathew J. Inscore, a native of Robinson
County, Tenn. Was admitted about 1860,
and has commanded a large practice.

Thomas H. Phillipps, a native of St. Clair
County, 111. His biography will be found in
another column.

William C. Moreland, born in Tennessee,
studied law with Col. Bob Townes, and was
admitted in 1877.

Hon. Sidney Greer is a native of Union
County, studied law with Gov. Dougherty;
was licensed as attorney in 1879, and is now
serving a term in the Legislature as a Repre-
sentative.

David W. Karraker, the present County At-
torney, is a native of Union County, read law
with Gov. Dougherty, and was admitted to
the bar in 1879.

W. C. Rich was admitted in 1880 to the
practice of the law. He has served the peo-
ple as County Treasurer and also as County
Superintendent of Schools.

Hugh Andrews, one of the present practic-
ing attorneys of the county. His biography
will be found in another part of this work.

Jesse Ware is a native of Ohio, and was
licensed as a lawyer in 1857. He came to the
State in 1855, and studied law with Judge
Reeves, of Bloomington, 111. He has served
two terms in the State Senate, commencing
in 1872 and retiring in 1880.

W. B. Maxey came to the county when
three years old, and has lived in Union Coun-
ty. He studied law with W. S. Day and was
admitted to the practice in 3882.

H. F. Bussey, a native of St. Louis, came
to Anna in 1877. He is thirty-one years old;
studied law with M. J. Inscore, and was ad-
mitted in 1881.

Judson Phillipps is a native Illinoisian,
only recently admitted to the bar, and has
opened an ofiice in Anna.

Townsend W. Foster, of Cobden, was ad-
mitted in 1881.

This includes the prominent facts of the
bench and bar of Union County. The rem-
iniscences and anecdotes and remarkable cir-
cumstances of the earliest day of the legal
life of the county are now mostly forgotten,
and are buried with those who were here and
were actors, but have now passed away. Pre-
vious to the organization of Union Couijty,
there was here a community which grew to
more than two thousand people, and were
literally without " law or gospel "—without
schools, churches or officers of the law. Their
courts and police and marshals were only

310

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

pro tern., Prosecuting Attorney. May, 1842,
John A. McClernand appeared among the
attorneys. In 1842, Thomas Hodges was
Sheriff, S. S. Condon, Clerk, and H. F.
Walker, Coroner. W. A. Denning was Pros-
ecuting Attorney in 1845.

In 1844, Daniel Hileman was Probate
Judge of the county. At September term,
1847, W. A. Denning was the presiding
Judge; John Grear was County Coroner. In
1849, Thomas Hileman became Clerk of the
Circuit Court, Master in Chancery, and Pro-
bate Judge. The last two offices he has held
ever since, and when he fills out his present
term of office, will have held the positions
thirty-six years — an average life-time. May,
1851, Alexander J. Nimmo was Sheriff, W.
K. Parish, State's Attorney, and John C.
Albright, Coroner. May, 1852, James W.
Bailey was County Clerk. In 1853, Syrean
Davis was Sheriff, John A. Logan, Prosecut-
ing Attorney, W. K. Parish, Judge, A. J.
Nimmo, Sheriff. 1858, M. C. Crawford was
State's Attorney. 1859, Thomas J. Finley,
County Clerk, A. M. Jenkins, Judge, Nimmo,
Sheriff, Hileman, Clerk, and A. P. Corder,
Prosecuting Attorney. 1861, Lorenzo P.
Wilcox, Sheriff. At the May term, 1863,
Thomas J. Finley, Sheriff, and at the Octo-
ber term of the same year, William C. Rich
was the Sheriff. 1864, John H. Mulkey,
Judge, W. C. Rich, Sheriff, M. C. Crawford,
Attorney, and Hileman, Clerk. At May term,
1865, Georgce W. Wall was Prosecuting At-
torney, and A. J. Nimmo, Clerk. 1866, W.
H. Gi'een, Presiding Judge. October term,
1867, M. C. Crawford, Judge, Joseph McEl-
hany. Sheriff. 1869, W. C. Rich, Sheriff.
1871, Jacob Hileman, Sheriff, Jackson Frick,
Prosecuting Attorney, and A. Polk Jones,
Clerk. Jones died about one month after
entering upon the duties of his office for the
third term. The Court appointed Henry P.

Among the attorneys resident of the coun-
ty, we have given an extended account of the
earliest who were here, including Gov.
Dougherty. Succeeding these were M. C.
Crawford, John E. Nail, James H. Smith,
David L. Phillipps, W. A. Hacker, W. L.
Dougherty, Wesley Davidson, Semple G.
Parks, who is now Judge of the County Court
of Perry County.

W. A. Hacker was a native of this county,
and was educated at West Point. He re-
moved to Alexander County, and died there
a few years later.

Alexander N. Dougherty studied law in
his father's (Gov. Dougherty's) office. Was
admitted to the bar in 1863, and died in
Jonesboro in 1878.

W. A. Spann was a native of Union Coun-
ty, now of Johnson County. He has been
twice in the Legislature from his district,

W. S. Day is a native of Tennessee. He
came to Union County when very young,
studied law with Judge Crawford, and has

HISTORY OF U:n^ION COUNTY.

311

already reached a prominent position at the
bar.

Robert W. Townes, a native of Illinois,
was admitted to the bar in 1861, and imme-
diately went to the war as Orderly Sergeant
in Company C, Eighteenth Illiaois Volun-
teers. He was soon transferred to the Thir-
ty-first Regiment and made Adjutant thereof,
acting as Acting Adjutant General to Gen.
Logan in the Fort Donelson battle. He
was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel. When
he returned from the war, he located in
Duquoin, and engaged in the active practice
of his profession. He was elected Prosecut-
irg Attorney for the Third Judicial District,
and served the term with ability and great
fidelity. He was at one time Secretary of
the Illinois State Senate.

David L. Brooks, a son of Dr. B. W.
Brooks, was a member of the Union County
bar as far back as 1852. He was a very
bright young lawyer. He died in 1845.

Jackson Frick, son of Caleb Frick, was
born in Jonesboro in 1849. He graduated
at Yale College, and was universally consid-
ered a most promising and brilliant young
man. He studied law with Judge Crawford.
He died on the very threshold of his young
life in 1877.

Mathew J. Inscore, a native of Robinson
County, Tenn. Was admitted about 1860,
and has commanded a large practice.

Thomas H. Phillipps, a native of St. Clair
County, 111. His biography will be found in
another column.

William C. Moreland, born in Tennessee,
studied law with Col. Bob Townes, and was
admitted in 1877.

Hon. Sidney Greer is a native of Union
County, studied law with Gov. Dougherty,
was licensed as attorney in 1879, and is now
serving a term in the Legislature as a Repre-
sentative.

David W. Karraker, the present County At-
torney, is a native of Union County, read law
with Gov. Dougherty, and was admitted to
the bar in 1879.

W. C. Rich was admitted in 1880 to the
practice of the law. He has served the peo-
ple as County Treasurer and also us County
Superintendent of Schools.

Hugh Andrews, one of the present practic-
ing attorneys of the county. His biography
will be found in another part of this work.

W. B. Maxey came to the county when
three years old, and has lived in Union Coun-
ty. He studied law with W. S. Day and was
admitted to the practice in 1882.

H. F. Bussey, a native of St. Louis, came
to Anna in 1877. He is thirty-one years old;
studied law with M. J. Inscore, and was ad-
mitted in 1881.

Judson Phillipps is a native Illinoisian,
only recently admitted to the bar, and has
opened an office in Anna.

Townsend W. Foster, of Cobden, was ad-
mitted in 1881.

This includes the prominent facts of the
bench and bar of Union County. The rem-
iniscences and anecdotes and remarkable cir-
cumstances of the earliest day of the legal
life of the county are now mostly forgotten,
and are buried with those who were here and
were actors, but have now passed away. Pre-
vious to the organization of Union Couijty,
there was here a community which grew to
more than two thousand people, and were
literally without "law or gospel "—without,
schools, churches nr officers of the law. Their
courts and police and marshals were only

312

HISTOKY OF UNION COUNTY

public opinion, and a few simple modes of
punishing bad men that were mild, swift,
certain and effective. All crimes above a cer-
tain grade, such as are now here grand and
petit larceny, were punished by banishment,
and others by whipping, and still others by
the contempt and manifest loathing toward
the guilty by the entire community.

The establishing of the new order of things
came strangely to these people. We believe
it was Gov. Eeynolds who tells of an early
court. The grand jury found a true bill
against a man for hog stealing. The jury
had not the assistance of trained lawyers to
write their indictments, and they had no idea
how to word it. They searched among the
records and law books, and finally found an
indictment for murder. They copied this,
merely substituting the thief's name for that
of the murderer, where it occurred in the in-
strument, and depended on an "aside remark"
to the court to explain that that particular
case was hog murder and not human slaugh-
ter. And upon this indictment the man was
tried, convicted, whipped and ordered out of
the country, with as much justice, accuracy,
and with as certain bringing out of the truth
in the case as was ever done in a court where
the most learned and noted lawyer had
drawn all the miserable verbiage and idiotic
iteration and reiteration that would make
a perfect indictment, It is an old story that
necessity is the mother of invention. In
this necessity of this jury was made a true
discovery, but it was allowed to sleep and be
forgotten. Its memory passed away and left
no impression. The reader can see for him-
self the moral force of the incident. It dem-
onstrated that the idea of the old common
law indictment and its technicalities, and
quibs, and quibbles are mere nonsense, and
that their day of usefulness has passed away
centuries ago. The vast intricacies, machin-

ery, subtleties, formalities, red tape and child-
ish puerilities of our ignorant ancestors of
the dark ages — the dreary ages of feudalism
and slavery — are brought down to afflict and
curse the people, and the courts, legislators
and lawyers cling to these barbarisms with a
tenacity that makes our highest courts and
most learned law-makers the objects of the
sneers and contempt of all men of sense. The
result is that the law that should only protect
and guard the people's rights and liberties
is a vast machinery of oppression, outrage
and wrong. The courts are largely the refuge
of scoundrels, and the dread and horror of
good men. Can any man tell why we retain
the grand jury — a secret star chamber — that
is a menace to the rights and privileges of
every good man in community ; with its pre-
miums and rewards to every sneak, coward
and scoundrel in the world to go and stab his
neighbor in the dark and assassinate his fair
name, and make the people foot the bills of
his diabolical acts. This clinging to old bar-
barisms and abominations for centuries are
an index, that cannot be mistaken, that the
majority of men are mere creatures of custom
and habits, and are no more given to look at
things and reflect about them than is a nest
of blind mice.

1818 — The convention to adopt the State
Constitution assembled at Kaskaskia in July.
Adjourned August 26, of same year. There
were thirty-three delegates. The Constitu-
tion was adopted without being submitted to
the people. Approved by Congress Decem-
ber 3, 1818. The members from Union
County were William Echols and John Whit-
aker.

In the State Legislature of the same year
Thomas Cox was Senator, and Jesse Echols,
Representative.

1820— Edmund B. W. Jones, Senator, and
Samuel Omelveny, Representative.

'x^^^aJ

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

315

1822 — John Grammer, Senator; Alexander
P. Field, Representative.

1824 — Alexander P. Field, of Union, was
a Presidential Elector. In 1828 Richard M.
Young was an elector, and in 1852 Edward
Omelveny.

Assembly, 1824-26 — John Grammer was
Senator for Union and Alexander ; John S.
Hacker and John Whitaker, Representatives.

Assembly, 1826-28 — George Hunsaker, Sen-
ator, and Alexander P. Field, Representative.

1830-32 — John Grammer, Senator, from
Union, Johnson and Alexander Counties, and
Joseph L. Priestly, Representative from
Union.

1832-34 — John Dougherty, Representative
from Union.

1834-36 — John S. Hacker, Senator, Brazil
B. Craig, Representative.

1836-38 — John Dougherty, Representa-
tive,

1838-40 — John S. Hacker, Senator, and
Jacob Zimmerman, Representative.

1840-42 — John Dougherty Representative.

1842-44 — John Dougherty, Senator, and
John Cochran, Representative.

1846-48 — John Dougherty, Senator, Mat-
thew Stokes, Representative.

1848-50 — John Cochran, Representative.

1850-52 — Cyrus G. Siramonds, Repre-
sentative.

1852-54 — John Cochran, Representative.

1856-58 — John Dougherty, Representative.

1858-60 — W. A. Hacker, Representative.

1862-64 — James H. Smith, Representative.

1864-66— W. H. Green, Senator, H. W.
Webb, Representative.

1868-70 — John Dougherty, President of
the Senate; Lieutenant Governor.

1872-74— Jesse Ware, Senator, M. J.
Inscore, Representative.

1880 — Sidney Grear, Representative.

In the Constitutional Convention of 1847,

Samuel Hunsaker represented Union County.
In the Convention of 1862, W. A. Hacker
represented Alexander, Union and Pulaski
Counties. In the Convention of 1870, W.
J. Allen represented the same counties.

The following letter will be read with
universal interest, and is an admirable illus-
tration of the ideas of a government as
entertained by our fathers. It is from the
Hon. Samuel Hunsaker, and was written
while in attendance at Springfield upon the
Constitutional Convention of 1847, and is ad-
dressed to Judge T. Hileman.

Springfield. 111., July 17, 1847.

Dear Sir: I received your kind letter of the 10th
Inst, on yesterday, and will proceed to give you all
that I have of interest, though it is but little. We
are moving along but slowly in framing a constitu-
tion for the people. I am entirely disappointed in
my calculations, knowing as I did that I had but
one motive in coming to this convention, and that
was, to do the will of the people in making such
changes as would be conducive to their interests and
promote their future welfare. I reasonably con-
cluded that at least a majority of the members
would feel a like disposition, but, sad and strange to
tell, it appears entirely different, for whenever any-
thing is brought up that looks like retrenchment it
is jumped on by lawyers and doctors and young
politicians and strangled instantly. We have gone
through the executive and legislative reports in
committee of the whole, made some changes, but if
we can get them through the convention as they
are, I think they will do some good, though they
are not according to my mind. The Governor is to
be elected once in four years, salary, $1,250, appoint
his own Secretary, with a salary of $800; the num-
ber of members in the Legislature, seventy-five in the
House and twenty-five in the Senate, with |2 per day
for the first forty-two days, and $1 per day after that ;
10 cents per mile for travel; elections to be on the
first Monday in November, which we of the south are
entirely opposed to, and will use every exertion to
have changed. The report of the Committee on
the Judiciary will come up on Monday, which I
presume will occupy at least a week ; it is very ob-
jectionable, I think, in some of its features; it
creates three Supreme Judges and twelve Circuit
Judges, the Supreme Judges to receive $1,200 and
Circuit Judges $1,000 per annum. I suppose the

316

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

salary would not be much too high, but their num-
ber is too great; it also provides that one term of the
Supreme Court shall be held yearly in each Judicial
Circuit, the Judges, Clerks and all, to be elected by
the people. I have no idea now that we shall get
away from here before September, and when I look
forward and see the amount of business before us,
and look back on what we have done, it appears as
though we would not get through in twelve months,
but I still hope for the better. I still think they
will get tired after awhile, and become willing to do
things up and go home. I think that I shall never
have any desire to be in such a body again, but I
will try to perform my duty faithfully, to the best
of my abilities this time. I am enjoying reasonable
good health. I have lost no time from the House.
Give my respects to all, and accept for yourself my
true friendship. (Signed) Samuel Hunsaker.

A letter from Jonesboro, published in tlie
Cairo Bulletin, of December 9, 1870, tells of
an episode that throws much light on the
loQg-drawn struggle of rivalry between the
towns of Jonesboro and Anna. The letter,
among other things, says : " Yesterday was
a day of intense excitement in Jonesboro and
Anna. It is known that a spirit of opposi-
tion and rivalry exists between the two places.
Two years ago an effort was made in our
State Legislature to submit the question of
the removal of the county seat from Jones-
boro to Anna to a vote of the people of
Union County. This effort failed through
the schemes, etc., of certain parties. The
County Court, at a recent session, ordered
Mr. Keonig, County Surveyor, to prepare
plans and specifications for building a new
jail. The people of Anna, etc., were opposed
to building a jail until the location of the
county seat had been decided by the people
at the ballot box, and prepared a petition,
very numerously signed, to be presented to
the County Court. Yesterday was the day
appointed to receive the report of Mr. Keo-
nig; whereupon Charles M. Willard, Esquire
Bohanan and Mr. Lence came over from
Anna, appeared before the court and asked

permission to present their petition. Per-
mission was granted, and Mr. Willard read
it. Soon as he concluded the reading, the
County Judge fined Messrs. Willard, Bo-
hanan and Lence $50 each, and ordered them
to remain in the custody of the Sheriff until
the tines were paid, for contempt of court.
The Deputy Sheriff immediately marched
them to the jail. Upon arrival at the gloomy,
desolatn and filthy old stone hut, Mr. Wil-
lard, on account of ill health, concluded not
to pass its iron grates, and paid his fine.
Bohanan and Lence, on the contrary, marched
into the felon's cell with a firm step and a
determination to await their fate. When
Mr. Willard returned to Anna and gave an
account of the affair, the excitement beggared
description. ' Let us go over and tear down
the jail and liberate Bohanan and Lence,'
said one. 'Oh, what an ouirage,' said an-
other. ' Did not our fathers fight the Revo-
lution for the right of petition?' was fre-
quently asked. Attorneys left immediately
for Cairo with a petition to Judge Baker for
a writ of habeas corpus in behalf of the pris-
oners."

Of course these martyrs in the " old stone
bastile " wei-e in the end liberated — the ex-
cited people of Anna slept off their anger
and " grim-visaged war smoothed his wrink-
led front," but the rivalry and opposition of
the two towns have kept their fires still burn-
ing brightly upon the watch-towers. In the
matter of moving the coanty seat, Jones-
boro is in possession, and with the "nine
points of law," she has been able to thwart
the plans of Anna thus far.

A little incident in theoflfice of the County
Clerk is deemed worthy of mention: Andrew
Deordoff succeeded Davie as County Clerk
in 1841, and served one term. He was suc-
ceeded by Wilcox, who served one term.
Randolph V. Marshall was then elected

HISTORY OF UNION COUNTY.

317

Clerk, and had served one term, and was so
popiilar that he was re-elected, ar)d just after
he had entered upon his second term he ran
away, and was never heard of again. Judge
Hileman appointed Wesley Davidson to fill
out his term until an election was held, when
Thomas Finley was elected to the office, in
which he remained until 1861, when A. J.
Nimmo was elected, and the next term James
Evans was elected, and the Governor refused
as long as he could to issue Evans' certilicate
of election, because he deemed him disloyal.
Evans' disloyalty, it seems, consisted in be-
ing the Democratic editor of the county at
one time, and a strong and vigorous writer;
he had lashed without mercy the lielknaps,
Babcocks and Dorseys of the other party,
and therefore he was disloyal. Nimmo was
elected Clerk again in 1869, and at the end
of his term William Hanners was elected, and
continued in the office until 1883, when the
present incumbent, J. H. Hilboldt,was elected.

The circumstances attending the sudden
disappearance of Marshall were somewhat
singular. He was a man of pleasant address
and great piety, a leading member of the
church and Sunday school His morals were
considered most exemplary. In some way or
other he came into the possession of a coun-
terfeit 120 bill. He had passed it once and
it was returned to him. He had offered it
to a Jonesboro merchant, who judged it to
be counterfeit. He then passed it upon a
preacher, who was. a book agent, who sent it
to Baltimore, when it was returned and
marked "counterfeit," and again it confront-
ed Marshall. By this time the grand jury
was about to assemble, and Marshall fled.

The following references to all the laws
passed by the Illinois Legislature in refer-
ence to Union County, may prove a valuable
aid to any one desirous of looking up or in
vesligating these subjects:

County to share in proceeds of Gallatin
Salines; L. February 16, 1831, 14; borrow
money to complete coimty buildings; L. Feb-
ruary 1, 1840, 75; A. Deardoff, acts as Coun-
ty Clerk, legalized: L. February 26, 1845,
295; management of school fund; Id. March
3, 321 ; taxes of 1844 remitted in part, ac-
count of loss by high water; Id. February 21,
353; borrow $1,000 to repair court house;
L. February 11, 1853, 234; borrow $2,500,
to build jail; Fr. L.March 4, 1854, 167; bor-
row $5,000 to build courthouse; Pr. L. Janu-
ary 19, 1857, 25; Sheriff discharged from
liability for failing to collect land tax; L.
March 27, 1819, 300; Isaac Worley indicted
for murder, change of venue; Pr. Laws, Jan-
uary 24, 1827, 17; road, America to Vanda-
lia, re-location, L. January 7, 1831, J41; ex-
amination of said road between Jonesboro
and county line south, Pr. L. December 20,
1832-33, 199; same, Jonesboro to Snider's Fer-
ry, a State road, L. February 13, 1835, 122;
same, Manville's Mills to Saratoga, and Jones-
boro to Fredouia, locations, L. February 20,
1843, 252; Champion Anderson, $28.17, for
selling bank property, L. February 7, 1835,
78. School lands, Town 12 — 3, sale of; L. De-
cember 19, 1835-36, 130. Saratoga changed
to Western Saratoga, L. January 21, 1843,297.
Hygean Spjingat West Saratoga chartered; L.
March 1, 1845, 113. County charcoal road
chartered, Pr. L. February 28, 1817, 160. An-
drew Deardoff, $32.67 repaid; Id. February
24, 181; Union Turnpike Co., chartered, Pr.
L. February 12, 1849, 104; Jonesboro Pla|k
Road chartered, Pr. L. February 13, 1851,
112; Amended, Pr. L. February 14, 1855,
467; County Agricultural and Mechanical
Society chartered. Id. January 30, 110; Va-
cated, Pr. L. February 9, 1857, 310; Rand
J. Stacy convicted of larceny, restored; L.
February 24, 1859, 18; Joseph G. Webb re-
stored to citizenship; 2 Pr. L. February 21,

318

HISTOKY OF UNION COUNTY

1867, 812; J. H. McElhaney robbed of
$9,363.68; time of payment extended, L.
March 13, 1869, 337; D. Gow released from
judgment, on recognizance, Id. April 7,
840.

The total vote of Union County, 1880, was
3,418. In 1882 it was 3,160. Hancock's
majority in the county for President, 1880,

was 1,120. The total vote of the precincts
were: Anna, 577; Cobden, 473; Alto Pass,
415; Dongola, 523; Jonesboro, 575; Mill
Creek, 109; Rich, 218; Stokes, 181; Preston,
42; Union, 152; Saratoga, 201; Meisen-
heimer, 112. In the election for Congress-
man, 1882, Murphy (D.) 1954; Thomas (R.)
993; McCartney (Pro.) 86.