One hundred years in Illinois, 1818-1918; an account of the development of Illinois in the first century of her statehood ..

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OF THE

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

One Hundred Years
In Illinois

(1818-1918)

An account of the development of Illinois
in the first century of her statehood, by a
citizen born in the same year as the City of
Chicago, whose grandfather moved into
Illinois the year in which the State was born,
and whose father was born on the same day
and in the same year as Abraham Lincoln.

By

JOHN MCLEAN, M. D.

Peterson Linotyping Company

CHICAGO

1919

To

the Friends of

Today and Yesterday

This Book of Memories

Is Affectionately

Dedicated by

the Author

FOREWORD

The friends of to-day and yesterday, to whom
this book of memories is dedicated, will require
no word of explanation, excuse or apology for the
appearance of this volume.

The casual or curious reader of the future who
may chance to pick up the book in an idle or un-
guarded moment, may wonder how it happened
that a physician permitted the child to live; so,
in view of this possibility, it is considered proper
to say a word or two as a defense against possible
animadversions on my professional character and
ability.

The idea of reducing these reminiscences to
writing originated back in the days when I was
busily engaged in my occupation as surgeon for
the Pullman Company, when, at times, I was
called upon to administer surgical treatment to
as many as twenty or twenty-five persons per day
who had been injured in the works. Some of the
friends who visited at our home during that time,
and to whom I related some of the incidents here-
in set down, were kind enough to say that they
were of such general interest as to deserve a wider
circulation, and to suggest that I have them pub-
lished.

FOREWORD

While I remained at my post as surgeon, I never
found time to make the necessary notes; but as
soon as I was placed on the retired list, I began
getting my materials in shape. This coming to
the attention of the publisher of THE REPUB-
LICAN, a weekly newspaper in Chicago, he asked
the privilege of publishing the story serially in
1918 as a special feature celebrating the one-hun-
dredth anniversary of the admission of Illinois
into the Union. Such an arrangement was made,
which perhaps gave my humble production undue
prominence. However, the friendly commenda-
tions received from readers of THE REPUBLI-
CAN have encouraged me to stick to my original
plan, namely, to print the tales for private circu-
lation among my friends, and thus to leave in
their hands a volume which might be interesting
to them, if not to strangers.

In the preparation of my story for publication,
I have been favored with an abundance of intelli-
gent and sympathetic aid and co-operation. My
nephew, Charles E. Ward, formerly of DuQuoin,
but now practicing law in Chicago, has acted not
only as my amanuensis but as my agent and at-
torney to conduct negotiations for me with the
publishers. I also feel constrained here to record
the fact that Hon. John P. Hopkins, ex-Mayor
of Chicago, now deceased, took a great interest in
my work and helped me secure valuable data con-
cerning the early days of Pullman, where he was

2

FOREWORD

then employed. In addition to these, I have had
valued assistance from Edward F. Bryant, Presi-
dent of the Pullman Trust & Savings Bank, from
Eli C. Tourtelot, a former associate of John P.
Hopkins, from Mrs. Edward Henricks, who in
many ways was closely associated with the devel-
opment of the Town of Pullman, and from many,
many others who have given aid and encourage-
ment to the work.

THE AUTHOR.
April 15, 1919.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I Columbia and the Scotchman ... 7

II My Clan and My Family .... 14

III The French in Illinois 22

IV The British Occupation 31

V Period of American Settlement ... 37

VI Illinois as a Territory 45

VII Migration of the McLeans .... 52

VIII Illinois a Hundred Years Ago ... 60

IX Senator John McLean 68

X The Eventful Year 1830 77

XI The Author Makes His Appearance . . 87

XII A Boyhood Before the War .... 96

XIII The Rise of Abraham Lincoln ... 107

XIV My Student Days 121

XV WAR! 132

XVI The Rise of General Grant .... 142

XVII On the Way to Shiloh 151

XVIII The Battle of Shiloh 160

XIX Invalided 172

XX Back to Private Life . 180

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

XXI In the Medical Profession .... 189

XXII A Great Task Finished 200

XXIII Breaking Old Ties 210

XXIV George M. Pullman ...... 218-

XXV Making the Model Town .... 228-

XXVI Pioneers of Pullman 238-

XXVII The Evolution of Modern Pullman . . 247^

XXVIII Some Men of Pullman 256-

XXIX Just Memories 266

XXX The Pullman of Today 278-

XXXI Retrospection 289

One Hundred Years
In Illinois

CHAPTER I
COLUMBIA AND THE SCOTCHMAN

In our State hymn the following true and beauti-
ful sentiment will be found :

"Not without thy wondrous story,

Illinois, Illinois,
Could be writ the nation's glory,

Illinois, Illinois.

So it also with truth might be said that but for
the sons of Scotland our great beacon light of Free-
dom would not have been lighted on this continent,
and could not have been kept burning through the
storms which, up to now, have spent their fury
upon it, only to fan its holy fire into a brighter and
more enduring glow.

At the close of the Revolutionary War there was
a population here of approximately Zy2 million peo-
ple, of which it is estimated that one-third, or over
a million, were of Scotch ancestry. The flood tide

7

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

of this migration came in the century preceding the
revolution, and was made up of two streams, one
from Scotland, and the other from the province of
Ulster, in Ireland, where large numbers of Presby-
terians from Scotland had sought an asylum against
the persecution directed against them in their na-
tive land for "non-conformity" with the forms of
worship prescribed by the English Parliament for
use in the Protestant Episcopal churches, which
were held to represent the true and only religious
faith of the realm.

Early in his history the Scotchman earned the
humorous characterization to the effect that a
Scotchman is always positive and sometimes right ;
so it was not strange that the hard-headed followers
of the religious doctrines of John Calvin and John
Knox should resent the idea that someone else,
least of all the English, could tell them what they
might believe or how they should worship, whether
standing, sitting or kneeling. With the whole
power of an arrogant, aristocratic government ar-
rayed against them to compel observance of the
state religion which was so distasteful to them, they
found it necessary, just as the Pilgrim Fathers
found it necessary, to seek a more congenial habi-
tation.

The analogy between the Pilgrims and the Scotch
dissenters is remarkable in that both sought relief
from a common oppressor; both fled to near-by
countries — the Pilgrims to Holland, the Scotch dis-

8

COLUMBIA AND THE SCOTCHMAN

senters to Ireland — where, like the children of Is-
rael, they both remained for a generation or two
before entering the promised land, and both ulti-
mately found their way to these inviting shores

Those who came directly from Scotland settled,
for the most part, along the rock-bound coast of
New England, that appealing to them, undoubt-
edly, as being similar to the bleak and forbidding
shores from which they had just departed, but
which had grown dear to them as their home.

The Ulster Scot, or the Scotch-Irish, as they are
erroneously termed, seemed inclined more toward
the South, settling in great numbers in Pennsylva-
nia and in the southern colonies as far south as
Georgia, which bordered on the then Spanish do-
main of Florida. In describing the arrival of this
people, our American historian, Bancroft, says of
them:

"They brought to America no submissive love
for England; and their experience and their re-
ligion alike bade them meet oppression with
prompt resistance. We shall find the first voice
publicly raised in America to dissolve all connec-
tion with Great Britain came not from the Puri-
tans of New England, or the Dutch of New York,
or the planters of Virginia, but from Scotch-Irish
Presbyterians."

In order that the stage may be set properly, even
for such an ordinary drama as the events of my life
may furnish, and in order that the proper atmos-

9

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

phere — as it is termed by the artists — may be cre-
ated so that my patient readers may understand
the rich heritage which I, in common with my
countrymen, received from our hardy ancestors,
and the strong prenatal influences which operated
in my favor, I deem it well to recount briefly some
names and facts in American history which will al-
ways stand to the glory of old Scotland and her
stalwart sons.

Among the pioneer educators in this country
were two celebrated Scotchmen. One was James
Blair, who founded William and Mary College, in
Virginia, in which Thomas Jefferson, author of the
Declaration of Independence, received his educa-
tion; and the other was John Witherspoon, who
made a great university at Princeton, sat in the
Continental Congress, advocated and signed the
Declaration of Independence, and helped frame the
Articles of Confederation. When this country stood
in awe of Great Britain, and our people felt most
keenly her tyrannical oppression, it was Andrew
Hamilton, of Pennsylvania, a Scotchman, who
stood forth at his own peril in defense of the free-
dom of the press and the right of free speech ; and
the firebrand of the revolution, Patrick Henry, of
Virginia, was the most prominent of the large num-
ber of Scots who insisted on independence. In the
Continental Congress which declared independence
there were eleven Scotchmen in the membership of
fifty-six; and in the convention which framed our

10

COLUMBIA AND THE SCOTCHMAN

present Constitution the Scotch were twelve out of
fifty-four. Among the twelve of Scotch ancestry
were Alexander Hamilton, incomparably the great-
est intellect of his time ; James Wilson, recognized
as the greatest lawyer of the convention and after-
ward on the United States Supreme Bench; Rut-
ledge, of South Carolina, second Chief Justice of the
Supreme Court; and William Livingston, of New
Jersey, first Governor of his State. Of the first Gov-
ernors of the thirteen original states, nine were
Scotchmen. The first commander of the American
Navy, John Paul Jones, was a born Scotchman, as
was the brave and fearless George Rogers Clark,
who blazed the way for civilization west of the
Alleghanies and thereby added the Northwest Ter-
ritory to our domain. Of the men who have filled
the great office of President of the United States,
twelve, at least, trace back to Scotland in their an-
cestry, our present chief executive's forebears hav-
ing been Ulster Scots. In the first half of the nine-
teenth century, in statesmanship the Scotch easily
held first place, numbering among the most promi-
nent such representatives as James Monroe, An-
drew Jackson, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, and
John C. Calhoun; in the last half of that century
the laurels of Scotland were supported by Chase,
Elaine, Hay, Cleveland, McKinley and Roosevelt,
the latter's mother being of Scotch descent. It is
not pleasant to record the fact that the leader of the
Confederacy, Jefferson Davis, was of Scotch an-
il

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

cestry, as was their great military leader, the gal-
lant soldier and Christian gentleman, "Stonewall"
Jackson; but these defections, important and seri-
ous as they were, were more than made up by the
loyal services of Grant, McLellan, Buell, McPher-
son and McDowell, all of Scotch antecedents, while
the great leaders of the cause of human liberty in-
cluded such of our people as Garrison, Rankin,
Lovejoy and Beecher. Not only American litera-
ture, but the literature of the world, was enriched
by the contributions of Washington Irving and
Whittier, and the stage is better by reason of hav-
ing supported Macready. In American journalism,
Scotland is proud to name James Gordon Bennett,
Horace Greeley and Whitelaw Reid among its sons
who have reached exalted prominence in that field.
In the scientific world we are satisfied that Fulton
of the steamboat, Stephenson of the locomotive,
Morse of the telegraph, Bell of the telephone, Mc-
Cormick of the reaper, and Edison, the wizard of
electricity, had a generous quantity of Scotch
blood in their veins.

It must be remembered that in the century prior
to the revolution, when the Scotch from the mother
country and from Ulster migrated to this land in
great numbers, they did not have such a wide
choice of location as the empire now presents. At
that time the English speaking civilization of this
continent was confined to a fringe of settlement
along the Atlantic seaboard. Hardy adventurers

12

COLUMBIA AND THE SCOTCHMAN

had pushed west to the Appalachian Mountains;
western New York and western Pennsylvania be-
ing regarded as the extreme frontier, beyond which
was a vast territory little known to the colonists,
occupied and dominated by hostile tribes of bar-
barous Indians. The original royal grants estab-
lishing the colonies had conveyed to the grantees
a specified frontage along the Atlantic coast and a
strip of land of that width back inland to the Mis-
sissippi, which was assumed to be the western
boundary of the English possessions. Up to the
time of the revolution, however, that portion of the
territory between the Appalachians and the Missis-
sippi had not been brought under the control of the
colonies for various reasons, among which were
many contending claims of sovereignty over the
territory in question. All of the territory north of
the Ohio, known as the Northwest Territory, in-
cluding the present State of Illinois, was under
French dominion until 1763, when it was trans-
ferred by treaty to the English ; but it was not then
open to settlement because the king of England is-
sued a proclamation reserving the territory for oc-
cupation by the Indians and forbidding white set-
tlements.

13

CHAPTER II
MY CLAN AND MY FAMILY

In the previous chapter, the introduction to an
account of my eighty years' experience, I thought
it well to sketch briefly the splendid services to this
country which have been rendered by men of the
sturdy qualities of the Scotch people, from whom I
had the honor to spring. The material for that
sketch, while matter of more or less common knowl-
edge to well-informed Scotchmen, had previously
been collected and edited by Hon. Whitelaw Reid
while ambassador to Great Britain, at the Edin-
burgh Philosophical Institution, where he delivered
a brilliant address on "The Scot in America," upon
which address I took the liberty to draw quite
freely for facts. Having recorded some of the
mighty deeds of the mighty men from Caledonia,
it would not be improper at this time, perhaps, to
tell the reader something about my own people.

The Clan McLean is a venerable institution, hav-
ing been in existence now for some seven hundred
years. It was organized under its first chieftain,
under his name Gillean; and his son, of course,
added the prefix Mac when he became chieftain,
indicating, as it does in Scottish nomenclature, a

14

MY CLAN AND MY FAMILY

son of Gillean. Through the seven centuries which
have passed since Gillean and his son, Mac Gillean,
the name has been contracted to its present form
of McLean, of which species there are many speci-
mens in this country, as almost any one can testify.

During the World's Columbian Exposition, held
in Chicago in 1893, there was a reunion of the clan
at which gathered some four hundred representa-
tives, drawn from all parts of the civilized world,
and the assembled clansmen on that occasion were
presided over by Fitz-Roy Donald McLean, the
twenty-sixth hereditary chieftain of the clan. He
was the embodiment of all that a Scottish chief
should be : himself a warrior, a veteran of the Cri-
mea and one of the gallant six hundred who rode
"into the jaws of death" and into deathless glory
and renown at Balaklava. Although he was chief-
tain of the clan by heredity, he won his own spurs
on the field of battle, receiving a commission before
he was twenty years old, from the hand of Queen
Victoria. The last I heard of Fitz-Roy was that
he had been retired as a brigadier-general.

In the early part of the eighteenth century, two
brothers of the clan, John and William, came to
America and settled on the banks of the Schuylkill
river, near Philadelphia. Learning of the more
salubrious climate farther south, and influenced by
the prospect of raising bounteous crops with less
hardships, the brothers were persuaded to move to
North Carolina about the middle of the eighteenth

15

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

century, where they made a permanent settlement
at Orange, later Guilford Court House, where they
lived, loved, fought, and died. My great-grand-
father, John McLean, was a soldier in the Revo-
lutionary War. The battle of Guilford Court House
was fought near the home of my ancestors, and the
story has come down to us of how on that occasion
the men of our neighborhood went into that battle
with their long squirrel rifles, which boded ill for
any redcoat who came within range, for they had
brought from their homes across the sea a smolder-
ing resentment against anything and anybody con-
nected with the regime which had trampled their
rights and liberties into the dust. It was little
wonder that some of the leading spirits of the Revo-
lution were men of undiluted Scotch blood.

It would be unseemly for me to inflict upon my
readers a boastful account of the achievements of
my relatives, but in passing it will doubtless be for-
given if I take sufficient space to record the fact
that several of the family have been in the lower
house of Congress ; two of the family have reached
the United States Senate, one from Illinois, who
will appear later in this narrative, and another now
a senator from Connecticut, George P. McLean,
whose father attended the reunion of our clan dur-
ing the World's Fair; and one has graced the
United States Supreme bench. Another creditable
representative who attended that meeting was Dr.
Donald McLean, of Detroit, Mich., who will be

16

MY CLAN AND MY FAMILY

remembered by the medical profession at large, and
by the people of Michigan of his day, as one of the
most eminent surgeons of his time. Dr. Donald
McLean has been gathered unto his fathers, but
in proof of the fact that the stock has not degen-
erated, and in fairness to the living, it may be stated
that his good and noble work goes on in the person
and practice of his son, Dr. Angus McLean, of
Detroit, a "chip off the old block," who splendidly
sustains the enviable reputation of his father be-
fore him. He is now in France, in the service of
his country, where, I am confident, he and the other
American sons of Scotland, including my only son
and five of my nephews, will acquit themselves in a
way which will prove them worthy sons of worthy
sires.

My father, James Aiken McLean, was born in
the old homestead near Guilford Court House,
N. C., on February 12, 1809, the day which was
hallowed in American history by the birth of an-
other boy, under less congenial circumstances, in
the backwoods of Kentucky, but who, by the grace
of God Almighty, Who moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform, was destined to strike the
shackles of slavery from a downtrodden people and
to prevent the dissolution of the Union. In grate-
ful reverence I pause to write the name — Abraham
Lincoln ! The coincidence of the birth of my father
on the same day with the immortal Lincoln had a
strange sequel in after years in the fact that during

17

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

many of the thirty-three years of my connection
with the Pullman Company as their surgeon the
president of the company was none other than
Robert T. Lincoln, a son of the Great Emancipator,
My grandfather, Robert McLean, when my father
was nine years of age, moved with his family to
"the Illinois country," as it was known, for rea-
sons and under circumstances which will be ex-
plained hereafter. Some of our family remained
in North Carolina, where their descendants live
today on lands which have been in the unbroken
possession of my people for generation after gen-
eration. A letter which I received some time ago
from a distant cousin contained a graphic descrip-
tion of the old homestead which would, perhaps,
be of interest to my readers, and which for that
reason is reproduced here, as follows :

"About the year 1750, at the time of what is known
as the Scotch-Irish movement, John McLean, a native
of the County Ulster, Ireland, moved from the colony
of Pennsylvania to secure for himself and his poster-
ity a home in the wilds of North Carolina. He en-
tered a large tract of land on the waters of Alamance
creek, in what was then Orange, but now Guilford
County. Within sight of this historic stream he built
his house, and it is more of this house than of those
who occupied it, that I wish to write. The exact
date of its erection is not known, but we are certain
that it was built before the year 1767. It is now in
possession of the fifth generation of McLeans de-
scended in a direct line from the original owner, and
is now and has been, during all these years, occupied
18

MY CLAN AND MY FAMILY

as a dwelling. We think that it is the oldest inhabited
house in Guilford County. The house is almost a
quadrangle — three sides — built of yellow poplar logs
sawed about eight or ten inches square, pinned to-
gether at the corners and placed upon a solid rock
foundation. This huge construction was called the
frame and it was then weatherboarded and ceiled, and
was originally painted red. It fronts the east and
has a porch running along both the east and west
sides. The south end is built entirely of rocks and
originally contained a fireplace eleven feet wide, and
so high that a man six feet tall could stand under
the mantel. The front door, a heavy but rather hand-
some affair, was made in two parts, upper and lower.
All of the lumber used was gotten out and prepared
by hand, and shows some very fine and artistic work-
manship. When first built, and for a long time after,
the entire house was in one room and heated by this
immense fireplace. Marshall McLean, the second
proprietor, divided it into two rooms and built a
chimney at the north end. John Marshall McLean,
the third proprietor, built an ell against the front, but
without making any change in the exterior appearance
of the house. Walter H. McLean, the present pro-
prietor, has filled in this large fireplace, extended a
partition in the opposite direction, and thus made
two comfortable rooms with a fireplace in each one,
all from this large fireplace. Notwithstanding all
these changes the outside appearance of the old house
is the same today that it was when the Liberty Bell
sounded in 1776.

"This quaint old house has been the home of the
same family under two local and three national gov-
ernments, under its broad low roof have slept soldiers
of five wars. It had the honor of sheltering Colonel
19

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

William Washington in the Spring of 1781, while
his troops reposed under the tall graceful poplars in
the yard. There are those who can trace their an-
cestry back to this old house now known to be living
in the states of New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia,
North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Texas,
Tertnessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas,
the Dakotas and Washington, and many have been
lost sight of and perhaps living in other states. They
have spanned the continent and among them are
found lawyers, physicians, ministers, teachers, mer-
chants, farmers, mechanics, artisans.

"Such is the history, briefly told, of the old house.
The companions of its early days are all gone, but
the old doorsteps upon which men have trod, when
with knapsack and rifle they left home at their coun-
try's call to endure all the hardships of a soldier's
life, are the same now as then. The same stones are
in the large old chimney around which sat the
mothers, wives and daughters, and with deft fingers
made wonderful fabrics of flax, wool or cotton, while
they anxiously waited for news of the loved ones
far away. The beautiful waters of the Alamance sing
the same song as they ripple over the same stones
now as then. All else is changed. Even the sturdy
oaks and tall, graceful poplars have decayed and
died. Generations have come and gone. Some have
sought homes in the far west, and long since mingled
their ashes with the dust of the prairie. Others have
been laid to rest in the quiet old Alamance church-
yard, and the same Alamance creek, which sang their
lullaby when they lay in their cradles now sings their
requiem as it rushes past their graves. Still the old
house stands as of yore, extending its hospitality to
all who may come. Another and a younger genera-
20

MY CLAN AND MY FAMILY

tion now roam over the old house, peering into the
dark nooks and crannies and wondering what they
were for, exploring the mysteries of the old garret
arid bringing to light the old swords, pistols and
reap-hooks, implements of war and peace, little
dreaming of the hardships endured and the sacrifices
made by the owners of these implements to secure
the liberty and freedom they now enjoy."

21

CHAPTER III
THE FRENCH IN ILLINOIS

The Northwest Territory, including all of the
country around the Great Lakes north of the
Ohio and east of the Mississippi, was patiently
acquired by the French through the gradual ex-
tension of their missions and settlements, begin-
ning with the settlement on the St. Lawrence
River in 1608, which they named Quebec. From
this settlement as a base they steadily pushed
their way into the interior, following the course
of the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes
which it drained. Within three years a settle-
ment was established at Montreal, and by the
middle of the seventeenth century they had
established themselves at the Rapids of the St.
Mary's River, connecting Lakes Superior and
Huron, from which their settlement took its
name, Sault Ste. Marie. Steadily pushing their
outposts into the wilderness, settlements were
soon flourishing at the western extremity of Lake
Superior near the present site of Duluth, and as
far south as Green Bay on Lake Michigan.

In the meantime their headquarters had been
established on Mackinac Island, located in the
straits of the same name, through which the
waters of Lake Michigan flow into Lake Huron.

22

THE FRENCH IN ILLINOIS

It was here, not many years later, that John
Jacob Astor, the founder of the famous American
family of that name, located a trading post on the
island which, for many years afterward, was the
center of the fur trading industry around the
Great Lakes. Father Marquette established a
mission on the mainland north of the island which
was named St. Ignace, and his remains are repos-
ing there today in the quiet little village, which
has changed but little during the two centuries
which have passed since its establishment.

It was at the mission of St. Ignace, in Decem-
ber, 1672, that Louis Joliet delivered to Father
Marquette a message from the Governor of
Canada, Count Frontenac, requesting them to
organize a party and explore to the westward to
locate, if possible, a mighty river said to be some
distance west of Lake Michigan. They started
on their journey in the middle of the following
May, skirting the west shore of Lake Michigan
to Green Bay, from thence up the Fox River to
its headwaters, thence across a portage pointed
out by their Indian guides to the headwaters of
the Wisconsin, down which they propelled their
canoes, reaching the Mississippi on June 17, 1673.
Floating with the current on the bosom of the
great river, they drifted as far south as the mouth
of the Arkansas, and then turned their canoes
for the trip back. On their return trip they were
influenced to ascend the Illinois River to see if

23

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

they could return to the Great Lakes by that
route. When they reached the present site of
Utica, near Ottawa, they found a village of
Indians camped along the shore who called them-
selves Kaskaskias. Marquette established such
cordial relations with these red men of the prairie
that they were loath to let him depart, and did
so only upon his promise to return and establish
a mission in their midst. He then went on to
the mission on Green Bay, which was reached
early in the fall of that year.

A year later Marquette started on his return
to the village of the Kaskaskias in order to. re-
deem his promise, but his failing health and
waning strength made it necessary for him to
disembark often to rest and recuperate. Pro-
ceeding in this way by easy stages, his party
reached the mouth of the Chicago River about
the first of December, when Father Marquette
became so ill that it was necessary to break the
journey here. His faithful and devoted follow-
ers, in order to insure the greatest comfort for
him, built a hut on the banks of the Chicago
River at a point near where Robey Street now
crosses the west fork of the south branch of the
river, the approximate location of which is now
designated by a large cross placed on the site
by the Chicago Association of Commerce. That
was the first habitation built for a white man
in the Mississippi valley. With the coming of

24

THE FRENCH IN ILLINOIS

Spring, Marquette proceeded on his way to his
Indian friends, where he established a mission
and started back, hoping to reach St. Ignace be-
fore he died. He failed to realize his desire,
dying on the return trip near the present site
of Ludington, Michigan.

Marquette and Joliet were followed in 1679
by the Chevalier, Robert de La Salle, with his
faithful associate, Tonti, and the ever-present
representative of the church, in this case Father
Hennepin. It was the dream of La Salle to
establish a chain of forts from Quebec on the
St. Lawrence River around the Great Lakes and
down the Mississippi valley to New Orleans on
the Mississippi, by which the French would con-
trol the great commerce which he foresaw must
be developed along those mighty water routes.
In pursuance of his great scheme, he built a fort
at the mouth of the St. Joseph River on the east
shore of Lake Michigan which he called Fort
Miami, from the name of the Indians in that
vicinity. He then proceeded up the St. Joseph
River to its headwaters, across a portage to the
Kankakee, and down the Kankakee into the Illi-
nois River, reaching Peoria Lake about the first
of the year. Here, near the present site of Peoria,
he built his second fort, which he -named Creve
Coeur (broken heart), in token of the misfortunes
and disasters which had recently overtaken but
had not overwhelmed him. Returning to Mon-

25

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

treal to mend his broken fortunes, he prepared
himself for his attempt to navigate the Missis-
sippi River to its mouth, in which he finally suc-
ceeded, planting the banner of France at the
mouth of the Father of Waters on April 9, 1682,
on which day, by right of exploration, he claimed
all of the territory drained by the great river
in the name of his king, Louis XIV, after whom
he called it the Territory of Louisiana. This
established and constituted the basis of the
French claim to practically all the territory in the
United States between the Appalachian and the
Rocky Mountains.

On his return to the Illinois country he was
stricken en route with illness, which made it
necessary for him to disembark at a point which
is the present site of Natchez, Mississippi, where
a rudely constructed fort, called Prud Homme,
was erected for his protection. His arrival in
Illinois was thus delayed until December, 1682.
During his absence from Illinois the savage and
hostile Iroquois Indians had dispersed the friend-
ly and peaceful Illinois tribes along the river of
that name and had destroyed the fort on Peoria
Lake. This led La Salle to execute the plan
he had contemplated for years, namely, the erec-
tion of a fort on the summit of Starved Rock,
which rises to a height of 125 feet on the bank
of the Illinois River near Utica. This fortifica-
tion was the greatest structure erected by La Salle

26

THE FRENCH IN ILLINOIS

in Illinois, and within a short time there was
located within the sound of its guns 20,000 Illi-
nois Indians, who came there for protection from
the savage Iroquois.

Soon after the erection of the fort on Starved
Rock, Fort St. Louis, so named in honor of his
king, La Salle went to France to report his
achievements to his monarch, who received him
with great cordiality and arranged for him an
expedition which was to sail from France to the
mouth of the Mississippi in order to establish a
colony there. Pursued by persistent misfortune,
the expedition missed the mouth of the Missis-
sippi and landed somewhere on the coast of Texas,
where, after a few years of hardship and priva-
tion, his followers mutinied and he was foully
assassinated by one of his own party early in
1637.

Soon after the death of La Salle the settlers
of the upper Illinois were transplanted to the
Mississippi River, the principal settlement being
made on the Illinois shore just above the present
site of Chester, which was named Kaskaskia, ap-
parently to perpetuate the memory of Father Mar-
quette's mission on the upper Illinois. It has been
suggested that the settlement was made by men
of La Salle's party on their return from the dis-
covery of the mouth of the Mississippi in 1682,
but there is nothing to substantiate this theory.
It is more likely that the removal came about as

27

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

the culmination of the many disasters which at-
tended the attempts of the French to make settle-
ments on the upper Illinois, for about the time
of the settlement of Kaskaskia on the upper Mis-
sissippi, Tonti, the associate of La Salle, is found
in the extreme southern colonies along the Gulf
of Mexico, showing that even that hardy adven-
turer had given up the idea of subduing or paci-
fying the implacable Iroquois Indians. Within
a year after the settlement of Kaskaskia another
settlement was made on the Illinois shore about
four miles south of the present site of East St.
Louis, which was called Cahokia, after a tribe
of Indians in that vicinity. At about the same
time a combined trading post and mission was
established on the Ohio River in Illinois a short
distance from the mouth of the Ohio, near the
present location of Metropolis, which was called
Fort Assumption, but later changed to Fort
Massac, for which Massac County was named, the
derivation of which is not just clear.

The dawn of the eighteenth century found
these thriving French colonies located along the
important waterways, and they were considered
of enough importance in connection with the
French occupation of the territory that a detach-
ment of the colony at New Orleans was sent north
in 1718 under Boisbriant to build an imposing
fortress for their protection. This fort, named
Chartres, was located on the Mississippi River

28

THE FRENCH IN ILLINOIS

midway between Kaskaskia and Cahokia. At the
time it was built it was the most imposing mili-
tary structure on the continent, costing approxi-
mately one million dollars. Within its walls the
flower of French society in New France was wont
to gather, and the fame of its social functions
spread even to Europe. In sharp contrast to the
gay life at the fort was the humble life of the
peasantry which it was supposed to protect. The
male section of this population was made up
largely of trappers who roamed the woods and
navigated the streams in search of furs and pel-
tries. There not being many French women for
them to associate with, it was only natural that
there should be considerable miscegenation with
the natives, which was given the tacit approval
of the church.

Although the rich, alluvial bottom lands of
the valley they occupied constituted the most
fertile portion of the earth's surface, the French
were supremely indifferent to agriculture or any-
thing connected with it. On the other hand, the
English-speaking peoples east of the Alleghanies
were attached to the quiet pursuit of farming,
and, consequently, looked with longing eyes at
the great Mississippi valley which was dominated
by the French. This clash of opposing interests
heralded the approach of the irrepressible conflict
which finally resulted in the French and Indian
War against England and the colonies which

29

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

was concluded by the Treaty of Paris in 1763,
under which the English acquired all of the ter-
ritory east of the Mississippi, and the Spanish all
of the territory west of the Mississippi.

In the wars which had raged between the
French and the English, the Indians always had
been allied with the French, which had engen-
dered a deep-seated animosity between the Eng-
lish and the Indians. Presumably to protect his
people against the expected vengeance of the
English, Pontiac, a chief of the Ottawas, organ-
ized a confederacy of the principal Indian tribes
which resulted in two years of sanguinary warfare
between the native Indians and the encroaching
settlers, which terminated finally with the death
of Pontiac, who was assassinated in the Cahokia
settlement following a drunken brawl with some
of his associates.

Following the Treaty of Paris, the British were
so busy with Pontiac and his followers that no
attention was paid to Fort Chartres for two years,
when on October 10, 1765, Captain Sterling, a
British officer, with a company of Scotch High-
landers, arrived and took peaceable possession of
the fort for the British Government, but there
being no indication of resistance in that quarter
the troops were soon withdrawn. In 1772 Fort
Chartres was undermined and swallowed up by
the Mississippi, thus disappearing with the people
who brought it into being.

30

CHAPTER IV
THE BRITISH OCCUPATION

Upon acquiring by conquest a title to the pos-
sessions of France in America, the British king,
on October 7, 1763, issued a proclamation prohib-
iting settlement by whites beyond the Atlantic
seaboard, the purpose of which was to preserve
the interior of the country for a hunting preserve
for the Indians, thus to gain their friendship as
against the colonists, and to insure a continuation
of the lucrative fur trade of the vast, uninhabited
interior region vaguely known as New France.

To supplement this, Captain Sterling, the Brit-
ish officer who invested Fort Chartres with his
regiment of Scotch Highlanders, issued a procla-
mation from General Gage, dated December 30,
1764, to the effect that the French and Indian
inhabitants might retain their religion and their
lands if they would "take the oath of fidelity and
obedience to His Majesty * * * and act in con-
cert with His Majesty's officers." Thus early did
the mother country show her uneasiness at the
growing power and increasing spirit of independ-
ence which was steadily developing in the colo-
nies. The policy of excluding her own children

31

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

and favoring her erstwhile enemies was continued
up to the last by the English Government, her
last official exhibition of this stupid plan being
an act of Parliament in 1774 which extended the
jurisdiction of the province of Quebec to include
the French inhabitants in the upper Mississippi
valley.

While this policy reconciled the French, to
some extent, to British rule, and secured French
and Indian aid in the early years of the Revo-
lutionary War, it was not sufficient to hold the
French in Illinois. Most of them went to the
settlements across the Mississippi, then under the
sovereignty of Spain, where the French enjoyed
their own religion and customs without restraint,
so that at the beginning of the Revolution there
were fewer French residents in Illinois than there
had been for many years.

That the British policy was an aggravation to
the eastern colonists is shown by one of the rea-
sons specified in the Declaration of Independence
for breaking off relations with the mother coun-
try, as follows: "For abolishing the free system
of English laws in a neighboring province, estab-
lishing therein an arbitrary government, and en-
larging its boundaries, so as to render it at once an
example and fit instrument for introducing the
same absolute rule into these colonies."

The threatened revolution came on apace. On
April 18, 1775, at Lexington, was fired the shot

32

THE BRITISH OCCUPATION

"heard round the world." Then came Bunker Hill
and Ticonderoga and other sanguinary clashes,
until, finally, mankind was electrified by the
powerful Declaration of Independence penned
by Thomas Jefferson, who himself acknowledged
that he had drawn his inspiration from his Scotch
instruction at William and Mary College. That
was the step which could not be retraced by the
men who took it, and, showing that they realized
their personal peril, they wrote, as the concluding
phrase of that famous document, "We mutually
pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and
our sacred honor." The war was on!

In 1777, Lieutenant Colonel George Rogers
Clark, a Scotchman, in command of the military
establishment in that part of Virginia now known
as Kentucky, went to his countryman, Patrick
Henry, then governor of Virginia, with a well
conceived plan to capture the Northwest Terri-
tory, then nominally in control of the British.
Governor Henry gave enthusiastic sanction to
Clark's proposal, helped finance the expedition,
and gave it his official co-operation. Inasmuch
as the document is of such great importance in
the history of Illinois, Governor Henry's order is
given in full, as follows :

Lieutenant Colonel George Rogers Clark:

You are to proceed with all convenient speed to
raise 7 companies of soldiers, to consist of 50 men
each, officered in the usual manner, and armed most
33

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

properly for the enterprise; and with this force at-
tack the British force at Kaskaskia. It is conjectured
that there are many pieces of cannon, and military
stores to a considerable amount at that place, the
taking and preservation of which would be a valu-
able acquisition to the state. If you are so fortunate,
therefore, as to succeed in your expedition, you will
take every possible measure to secure the artillery
and stores, and whatever many advantage the state.
For the transportation of the troops, provisions, etc.,
down the Ohio, you are to apply to the command-
ing officer at Fort Pitt for boats, and during the
whole transaction you are to take especial care to
keep the true destination of your force secret; its suc-
cess depends upon this. Orders are, therefore, given
to Captain Smith to secure the two men from Kas-
kaskia. It is earnestly desired that you show human-
ity to such British subjects and other persons as fall
into your hands. If the white inhabitants of that post
and neighborhood will give undoubted evidence of
their attachment to this state, for it is certain they
live within its limits, by taking the test prescribed by
law, and by every other way and means in their
power, let them be treated as fellow-citizens, and
their persons and property be duly respected. As-
sistance and protection against all enemies, what-
ever, shall be afforded them, and the commonwealth
of Virginia is pledged to accomplish it. But if these
people will not accede to these reasonable demands,
they must feel the consequences of war, under that
direction of humanity that has hitherto distinguished
Americans, and which it is expected you will ever
consider as the rule of your conduct, and from which
you are in no instance to depart. The corps you
are to command are to receive the pay and allowance
34

THE BRITISH OCCUPATION

of militia, and to act under the laws and regulations
of this state now in force as to militia. The inhabi-
tants of this post will be informed by you that in case
they accede to the offers of becoming citizens of
this commonwealth, a proper garrison will be main-
tained among them, and every attention bestowed to
render their commerce beneficial; the fairest pros-
pects being opened to the dominions of France and
Spain. It is in contemplation to establish a post near
the mouth of the Ohio. Cannon will be wanted to
fortify it. Part of those at Kaskaskia will be easily
brought thither, or otherwise secured as circum-
stances make necessary. You are to apply to General
Hand, at Pittsburg, for powder and lead necessary
for this expedition. If he cannot supply it, the person
who has that which Captain Sims brought from New
Orleans can. Wishing you success, I am your humble
servant, . P. HENRY."

In accordance with these instructions, Clark
raised an army of about two hundred men of the
Daniel Boone type, armed with long rifles which
they could use with deadly accuracy, and with
long hunting knives in their belts, by which they
were known and feared as the "Long Knives."
Descending the Ohio river, his first stop was
made at about the present site of Louisville, where
he first announced to his hunter soldiers the
object of the expedition. A few of the more
timid deserted him at this place, leaving Clark
with 150 men in his command, with which he
floated down the Ohio to Fort Massac, where the
flag of freedom was first unfurled in the North-

35

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

west Territory and from which point Clark with
his dauntless followers proceeded overland to
Kaskaskia, which capitulated, July 4, 1778, with-
out the shedding of a drop of blood. Following
this most important victory he next struck at
Fort Vincennes, which was captured with little
more resistance than he met at Kaskaskia. In
this way what are now the states of Illinois,
Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin were
added to the domain of the United States through
the foresight and bravery of a canny Scot.,

36

CHAPTER V
PERIOD OF AMERICAN SETTLEMENT

The immediate result of the achievement of
Clark was the encouragement of immigration into
the Territory he had conquered. Some of his fol-
lowers settled there; others returning to their
homes in Kentucky, told wonderful stories about
the great American Bottoms which they had
visited along the shore of the Mississippi river
in the Illinois country. In those days the means
of communication were slow and cumbersome
and it required weeks, sometimes months, to give
general circulation to a piece of news as important
even as Clark's achievement, but the story was
told until it was generally known throughout the
southern colonies, the population of which was
largely of Scotch origin. So as the years went by
the descendants of the original Scotch settlers
left the homes of their ancestors and poured
through the passes of the Eastern mountain
ranges on their way to the fertile lands in the
Mississippi valley. Theodore Roosevelt, in his
"Winning of the West," has this to say concern-
ing those people :

"Full credit has been awarded the Roundheads
and the Cavaliers: nor have we been altogether blind
37

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

to the deeds of the Hollander and the Hugenot; but
it is doubtful if we have wholly realized the im-
portance of the part played by that stern and virile
people whose preachers taught the creed of Knox
and Calvin. These representatives of the Covenant-
ers were, in the West, almost what the Puritans were
in the North, and more than the Cavaliers were in
the South. They formed the kernel of the distinct-
ively and intensely American stock who were pio-
neers of our people in their march Westward."

The first permanent American settlement in the
Northwest Territory was made by a party which
crossed the Alleghanies, came down the Ohio in a
flat boat called The Ark, which they rowed up the
Mississippi past Kaskaskia to a point on the Mis-
sissippi in what is now the southern part of Mon-
roe county, where they established a settlement
which they named New Design. It was owing to
the fact that the early American settlers went to
the low, fertile timbered lands in Illinois border-
ing on the Mississippi river that these lands were
thereafter referred to as the American Bottoms.

Through Clark's victory, directed and financed
officially by Virginia, the whole Northwest Terri-
tory came into the possession of Virginia by right
of conquest; and in October, 1778, the Virginia
Legislature passed an Act adding the Northwest
Territory to the Virginia domains under the title,
"County of Illinois," appointing Colonel Clark
Military Commander of the whole western terri-
tory, including Kentucky, and Colonel John Todd

38

PERIOD OF AMERICAN SETTLEMENT

Lieutenant-Commandant of the County of Illi-
nois. The military duties of both, however, pre-
vented them from exercising many governmental
functions in the territory, Todd losing his life at
the battle of Blue Licks in 1782 in a conflict with
hostile Indians.

The end of the Revolutionary War came with
the surrender of Cornwallis to General Washing-
ton at Yorktown on October 19, 1781, but the
treaty of peace was not finally signed until Sep-
tember 3, 1783, under which an independent
American nation was created out of our present
territory east of the Mississippi, excepting Flor-
ida, which was still under the jurisdiction of
Spain. At the close of the war the colonies began
agitating their several claims to the territory
northwest of the Ohio river. Out of this agitation
came the agreement that the claimants would all
join in ceding the disputed territory to the gen-
eral government for the general good, the deed of
Virginia, which had the most valid claim to the
territory, being signed September 13, 1786, by
Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe. This terri-
tory thus became the common tie which kept the
colonies together in the critical period between
the Revolutionary War and the establishment of
our present government. That is what civiliza-
tion owes to George Rogers Clark.

The year 1787 gave birth to two historic events
which were of vital importance, not only to the

39

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

colonists but to all the people of the world who
should live thereafter : one was the adoption in the
Continental Congress of the famous Ordinance
of the Territory Northwest of the Ohio river;
the second was the work of the Constitutional
Convention, of which George Washington was the
presiding officer, and which gave to our people
at the conclusion of its labors, on September 17,
1787, our present Constitution, which England's
great statesman, Gladstone, described as the most
wonderful work ever stricken off at a given mo-
ment from the brain and purpose of man. The
ordinance of 1787 was made up of six articles, two
of which, pregnant with mighty purpose, were as
follows

"III. Religion, morality and knowledge being
necessary to good government and the happiness
of mankind, schools and the means of education
shall forever be encouraged. * * *"

"VI. There shall be neither slavery nor involun-
tary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than
in the punishment of crime, whereof the party shall
have been duly convicted.'*

That was the charter of liberty for this beloved
country.

The Constitution, as recommended by the
Convention of 1787, was adopted by a sufficient
number of states in 1788 to put it in force, and the
government for which it provided came into being

40

PERIOD OF AMERICAN SETTLEMENT _

with the inauguration of George Washington as
President on April 30, 1789.

Immediately following the adoption of the
Ordinance of 1787, the Continental Congress had
chosen Major General Arthur St. Clair, a Scotch-
man, as first governor of the Northwest Terri-
tory. Under this authority, St. Clair proceeded
to Marietta, in what is now Ohio, where on July
15, 1788, the first territorial government was or-
ganized. On October 6, 1789, President Washing-
ton wrote to Governor St. Clair as follows: "You
will also proceed, as soon as you can, with safety,
to execute the orders of the late Congress re-
specting the inhabitants at Post Vincennes and at
the Kaskaskias, and the other villages on the Mis-
sissippi." Under this direction all of the settled
southern portion of what is now the State of Illi-
nois was erected into one county, the mother
county of our state, which was named St. Clair
in honor of its founder. Soon after this another
division was made by a line drawn from the mouth
of Mackinaw creek, where it empties into the Illi-
nois river, to Fort Massac on the Ohio river, all
the territory west of the line being called St.
Clair county, and the territory east of the line
was named Knox county.

The orders of Congress to which Washington
referred in his letter to St. Clair were that the
possession and titles of the French who had be-
come citizens should be confirmed. This was for

41

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

the reason that up to this time there had been
practically no civil government in the Illinois
country, it being under the domination of the
military establishment and the church. Local dis-
putes were settled principally by the priest, and
when it became necessary to administer punish-
ment to evil doers the necessary discipline was
administered by the military authorities. What
judicial practice there was, was conducted at Ca-
hokia where the court house, the first public build-
ing in the Mississippi valley was erected in 1716.
This old building may be seen today standing on
the Wooded Island in Jackson Park in Chicago,
just as it stood in old Cahokia for so many years.
In 1795, St. Clair county was divided by a line
running from the American settlement at New
Design east to the Wabash river. The territory
south of this line was named Randolph county in
honor of Edmund Randolph, one of the leaders in
the Constitutional Convention of 1787, and later
Governor of Virginia. When this division was
made, all the records pertaining to the southern
division were removed from Cahokia to Kas-
kaskia.

The dawn of the nineteenth century discovered
a profound change in the settlements in southern
Illinois, not so much as to numbers, however, as
to quality. There had been little if any increase
in the number that were there 35 years before,
when the British took possession of Fort Chartres

42

PERIOD OF AMERICAN SETTLEMENT

and the territory it guarded, from which time the
French population steadily dwindled away, the
French settlers seeking the more congenial sur-
roundings and associations of the lower Missis-
sippi or across the river in the Spanish settlements.
Anglo-Saxon immigration into the Mississippi
valley had been slow, owing to the official opposi-
tion of the British Government, and later to In-
dian troubles which became so serious that Gen-
eral "Mad Anthony" Wayne, an Ulster Scot, was
placed in charge of the military operations against
them. Under his direction the disturbances were
soon quelled, and an agreement was reached in
1795 with the Indians in the Treaty of Greenville,
in which among other provisions, the confeder-
ated tribes ceded to the United States a piece of
land six miles square at the mouth of the Chicago
river, which is now the heart of Chicago. As soon
as this treaty was negotiated, the migration of
whites into the Illinois country began in earnest
and has continued to this day.

From 1800 to 1809, this State lost its identity as
Illinois, because, during that period it was a part
of the territory of Indiana, which was created by
Congress out of the Northwest Territory. Dur-
ing this period many things took place which were
of vast importance in the development of the new
country. In 1803, the great Louisiana territory
was purchased from France, and thereby the west-
ern frontier of the United States was moved from

43

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains.
In 1804, Fort Dearborn was built on the Chicago
River near Lake Michigan, at a point where
Michigan Avenue now crosses the river. In the
same year Lewis and Clark, the latter a brother of
George Rogers Clark, started from Illinois on the
celebrated expedition up the Missouri River to its
headwaters, over the Rocky Mountains to the Pa-
cific, the final result of which was to move the
western boundary of the United States to the Pa-
cific Ocean and to add the territory now included
in the States of Oregon and Washington to our
growing domain.

44

CHAPTER VI
ILLINOIS AS A TERRITORY

In 1809 Congress divided the Indiana territory
so as to make a separate territory out of the do-
main lying west of the Wabash River and of a line
from Vincennes north to the Canadian boundary.
The name Illinois was given the new territory,
and the seat of government was established at
Kaskaskia, the territory including what is now
Illinois, Wisconsin and most of the northern pen-
insula of Michigan. Nine days after the Act of
Congress was approved which created the Illinois
territory Abraham Lincoln was born in Ken-
tucky; and on the same day my father was born
in North Carolina.

The first governor of the new territory was
Ninian Edwards, and the first secretary was Na-
thaniel Pope. The population of the territory
at the time of its organization was about 10,000
persons, exclusive of the Indians. Settlements
had been made in central Illinois some distance
north of the old Cahokia settlement, and up the
Ohio River as far as Shawneetown, which derived
its name from the Shawnee Indians, and which in
its early days was the most pretentious settlement
in the new territory. For many years and up to

45

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

the building of the Illinois railroads, about the
middle of the nineteenth century, it was the point
at which travelers down the Ohio disembarked to
proceed from thence to their new homes in
southern Illinois.

Immigration was again retarded by our second
war with Great Britain, the war of 1812. A favor-
ite mode of warfare on the part of the English
was to stir up the resentment of the American In-
dians against the white settlers, who were artfully
represented as intruders who harbored only ill
will and evil intentions toward the red men. At
that time, the territory between the present city of
East St. Louis and Chicago was nothing but a
beautiful wilderness dominated entirely by the
Indians, who had not yet become reconciled to the
presence of the paleface, the echo of whose ax in
the forests prophesied the ruination of the hunt-
ing grounds. The Indians of northern Illinois,
taking advantage of the solitary situation of the
meager garrison at Fort Dearborn, which had been
established at the mouth of the Chicago River in
1804, planned to exterminate it. This unfriendly
disposition coming to the knowledge of Governor
Hull, Commander-in-chief of the Northwest, then
located with his army at Fort Wayne, he dis-
patched orders to Captain Heald, the Command-
ant at Fort Dearborn, to withdraw with his garri-
son to Fort Wayne. The Captain, instead of with-
drawing quickly and quietly, set about to make a

46

ILLINOIS AS A TERRITORY

deal with the Indians whereby, in exchange for
the munitions and provisions at the Fort, the In-
dians were to furnish guides and escorts for the
garrison to Fort Wayne. After making this agree-
ment and reflecting upon the mischief which
might result from the liquor among his provi-
sions, he had the casks broken and their contents
emptied into the river. This coming to the atten-
tion of the Indians greatly enraged them, one of
their chiefs informing Captain Heald that the
white men would be made to suffer for breaking
their agreement with the Indians. Notwithstand-
ing this warning, the garrison sallied forth with
fife and drum on the morning of August 15, 1812,
to begin their journey to Fort Wayne. They had
proceeded less than two miles along the shore of
the lake when they were set upon by the Indians,
who massacred more than half of the party and
who distributed the remainder among the neigh-
boring Indian tribes as prisoners. The approxi-
mate location of the massacre is marked now by a
bronze monument on 18th Street in Chicago,
near the George M. Pullman home, and just west
of the Illinois Central Railway.

On the day following the Fort Dearborn mas-
sacre, General Hull ignominiously surrendered to
the British his forces at Detroit, leaving the
Northwest Territory in possession of the enemy
with the exception of two forts in Indiana. A few
years prior to this, block houses had been erected

47

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

in Illinois in the neighborhood of white settlers
to which these could repair in case of danger from
the Indians. These rude and simple fortresses
were hastily placed in a state of defense. Prac-
tically defenseless, the situation in the Illinois
country at the beginning of 1813 was anything
but inviting, but during the year the outlook be-
came more encouraging with the victory of Com-
modore Perry on Lake Erie, the recovery of De-
troit, and the decisive defeat of the British and
Indian allies at the battle of the Thames, where
the mighty chieftain, Tecumseh, fell mortally
wounded.

In the following year the famous Indian chief-
tain, Black Hawk, appeared on the scene in the
Illinois territory, making his debut in an attack
upon Prairie du Chien, a settlement on the upper
Mississippi. Out of that conflict the whites es-
caped with a loss of twenty-five and made their
way down the river to St. Louis. Following this
an expedition was fitted out in Illinois under the
command of Zachary Taylor (afterwards Presi-
dent of the United States) which had for its pur-
pose the conquest or annihilation of the unfriend-
ly Indians to the north. This expedition, how-
ever, ended in disaster, and the people of the Illi-
nois territory were greatly pleased when the war
ended at the close of that year.

By the fall of 1812, there had been a total of five
counties organized in Illinois, four of which, St.

48

ILLINOIS AS A TERRITORY

Clair, Randolph, Johnson and Gallatin, were
south of a line drawn from St. Louis to Vincennes.
All the territory north of this line was named
Madison County in honor of President James
Madison. In September, 1812, an election was
held to choose a territorial legislature and a dele-
gate to represent the territory in Congress. The
delegate to Congress chosen in this election was
Shadrack Bond, of St. Clair County, afterward
first Governor of the State of Illinois.

The territorial legislature, consisting of twelve
members, convened at Kaskaskia on November 25
of that year, and it is recorded that the whole leg-
islature lived with one family, boarding and lodg-
ing in one room. Imagine an Illinois legislature
of our day living in one room! The punishments
prescribed by that legislature for crimes and
misdemeanors included the death penalty for sev-
eral different offenses, public whippings, confine-
ments in stocks and in the pillory, branding with
hot irons, imprisonment and fines.

The funds to pay the expenses of the territorial
government were raised by taxation of the fertile
lands in the river bottoms at the annual rate of one
cent per acre. Those who were not so fortunate
as to own bottom lands were assessed seventy-five
cents per hundred acres on their "second rate" or
prairie lands. Under this law the assessments
amounted to about $5,000, only half of which was
paid into the treasury.

49

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

In 1814, Shadrack Bond resigned his position as
delegate in Congress from the Illinois Territory
to take a position as receiver of public money at
Kaskaskia, and was succeeded in Congress by
Benjamin Stephenson of Randolph County. In
1816, Nathaniel Pope, of Kaskaskia, was elected
delegate in Congress. Nathaniel Pope was one of
the ablest lawyers of his time and it was fortunate
for the State of Illinois that he was our delegate
to Congress at the time the Act was passed which
provided for the admission of Illinois as a state.
In the Act as originally drawn, the northern
boundary of Illinois was fixed as an east and west
line tangent to the extreme south end of Lake
Michigan. Judge Pope, recognizing the future
value of a frontage on Lake Michigan, opposed
fixing the boundary as the bill provided and se-
cured thereby an agreement fixing the northern
boundary at its present location. This saved
Chicago, the lead mines of Galena and fourteen
of our richest counties to the State of Illinois.

The Act of Congress providing for the admis-
sion of Illinois as a state became a law April 18,
1818, and in July of that same year a convention
assembled at Kaskaskia to draft the first constitu-
tion. This convention concluded its important
work in about one month, and the first election
under it was held in the latter part of September,
1818. In this election Shadrack Bond was chosen
as the first Governor and Pierre Menard, Lieuten-

50

ILLINOIS AS A TERRITORY

ant-Governor, for terms of four years. Under
that constitution the legislature was all powerful,
and the convention which adopted it apparently
were so well satisfied with their work that they
did not deem it necessary or expedient that the
proposed constitution should be submitted to the
people who were to be bound by it. A reason for
this may be found in the fact that the enabling
Act of Congress had provided that the govern-
ment when formed "shall be republican, and not
repugnant to the ordinance of the 13th of July,
1787," in conformity with which a provision was
inserted in the Constitution declaring that
"neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall
hereafter be introduced into this state," and pro-
viding further for the emancipation of slaves
brought into Illinois from other states. Inasmuch
as the original settlement of Illinois was from the
southern states, it may have been feared by the
men who wrote our first constitution that a ma-
jority of the electorate at that time might be
found in sympathy with the peculiar southern in-
stitution of slavery, and refuse to approve a con-
stitution which abolished slavery in this state. If
such a fear did exist, it was without foundation,
because a contest arose immediately after the
adoption of the constitution which came to issue
six years later, the result of which showed the
anti-slavery party in a majority.

51

CHAPTER VII
MIGRATION OF THE McLEANS

Having set the stage, as it were, in the Illinois
country, let us review the situation in the col-
onies on the seaboard and fix as briefly as possible
the landmarks of history as there recorded. In
doing so we shall find that in the southern col-
onies, including Virginia, the Carolinas and
Georgia, a condition had arisen to which the
descendants of the early Scotch settlers could
not be reconciled. That people originally, like the
Pilgrim fathers, had quit their homes across the
sea because their own liberty had been abridged ;
and this innate love of personal freedom had been
so ingrained in the character of their descendants
that they could not be indifferent to the institu-
tion in their midst which consigned the negro to
perpetual bondage.

It was a strange coincidence that about the
same time the Pilgrims landed from the May-
flower on Plymouth Rock to found the old Bay
Colony, which was later Massachusetts, the first
load of African negroes were unloaded at James-
town in Virginia, to be sold into slavery to the
southern planters, who, as Cavaliers at the Eng-

52

MIGRATION OF THE McLEANS

lish Court, had been taught to regard labor as
beneath the dignity of a gentleman. Thus were
the two irreconcilable elements, which later were
to reach their fruition in the greatest civil war
of history, transplanted to these shores. The
negroes by nature were adaptable to the southern
climate, they were wholly unsuited to the rigor-
ous climate of the north. The northern colonists
were agriculturalists; while the early southern
colonists were anything but that. So it was only
natural that the institution of slavery should take
root and grow in the congenial surroundings of
the south where it had been recognized as a local
institution one hundred years before the Scotch
came.

In communities where slave labor was not ab-
solutely necessary for development of latent re-
sources, a sentiment had grown up by the time of
the American Revolution, after one hundred and
fifty years of slavery, that the institution was a
cancer in our body politic which ultimately must
be removed. It is known, for instance, that
George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were
for gradual emancipation of the slaves, and their
views doubtless would have been written into the
Constitution when it was framed had it not been
for the determined opposition of South Carolina
and Georgia, whose delegates in the convention
served notice that their States would not approve
a Constitution which did not protect slavery. It

53

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

was necessary to have the Carolinas and Georgia
in order to have a Union under the Constitution,
so one of the important compromises of the con-
vention, which afterward was characterized by
William Lloyd Garrison as "a league with the
devil and a covenant with hell/' was agreed upon,
through which the slave trade was extended for a
period of twenty years and the provision known
as the fugitive slave law was included. It was
significant, however, of the general sentiment of
the time that the words "slave" or "slavery" were
not allowed to appear in the Constitution.

Even with the new lease of life which the Con-
stitution gave to slavery, the sentiment of that
time was so strong against the unholy system that
it would have fallen into gradual decay and ulti-
mate dissolution had it not been for the invention
of the cotton gin in 1793 by Eli Whitney, a New
England yankee, who was teaching school in
Georgia and was thus made acquainted with the
great problem in cotton culture of separating the
fiber and the seed. When done by hand, the opera-
tion was slow and laborious to such an extent that
there was little profit in the industry, but Whit-
ney's invention multiplied by fifty-fold the output
of a slave and thereby made the slave more profit-
able and therefore more desirable than he had ever
been before. As weighed against the golden har-
vest he could then produce, the right of the slave
to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness did

54

MIGRATION OF THE McLEANS

not count for much; so the sons and daughters
of the old Covenanters, my people among them,
were brought to an understanding of the fact that
their hopes for emancipation could not yet be
realized, and that they would have to live with the
hated traffic under their eyes if they remained in
that country. The ownership of slaves gradually
produced a social condition under which the cus-
toms in the slave holding communities were be-
coming luxurious; the slave owners, of course,
were exempted from the necessity of labor, and
those of modest means were sorely oppressed by
taxes.

In these parlous times an incident happened
in our family which led to the removal of nearly
all of my people from North Carolina to the great
Northwest Territory, where it had been decreed
that slavery should not exist. My grandfather
had a relative of the name of MacDonald, but who,
because of the fact that there was a dissolute
Irishman in the community of the name of Mc-
Donnell with whom MacDonald was often con-
fused, went to the Legislature and had the Mac
stricken off his name so that he was thereafter
known as Donald. This man could not become
reconciled to the institution of slavery. One day,
when he was in the vicinity of the courthouse, he
saw a public auction where human beings were
offered for sale, "and maidens piled, like car-
cassed hogs, before the buyers' view." It hap-

55

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

pened that he knew an attractive mulatto girl who
was placed on the block and offered for sale. The
liberties which some of the prospective buyers
present took with the girl's person so disgusted
Donald that he went immediately to his home and
had his wife help him prepare for a trip into the
Northwest Territory, to seek a home where he
would not have to witness such sights as he had
just seen. Starting immediately, he made the trip
on horseback through the Cumberland Gap, over
the "dark and bloody" ground of Kentucky, and
on to Kaskaskia, where he took the precaution to
inquire of the Territorial Governor, Ninian Ed-
wards, and others in authority in the Illinois
country, whether Illinois would be a slave state
or free. On being assured that slavery would not
exist in the state, he went on up the old road to
Cahokia and beyond there to a place near the
present site of Greenville, where he settled on a
piece of land in what is now Bond County, which
was so named in honor of Shadrach Bond, the first
Governor of our State. The wife of Donald was
a daughter of William McLean, one of the two
brothers who had moved from the banks of the
Schuylkill River in Pennsylvania to North Caro-
lina. She was born during the last term of George
Washington's administration and lived until into
the administration of Benjamin Harrison, dying
about 1890. Their descendants still live around
Greenville and Decatur in this state.

56

MIGRATION OF THE McLEANS

After Donald had staked out his claim and
erected a cabin to shelter his family, he went back
to North Carolina to get them and bring them
back to God's country. When he returned to
North Carolina he carried glowing accounts of the
great American bottoms and the fertile uplands
which .were waiting in the Northwest Territory.
My grandfather, Robert McLean, was readily con-
verted to the idea and forthwith started with his
family to seek a new home in the new country. I
do not know what determined him to do so, but
it is a fact that he first settled in Indiana, not f^r
from Fort Vincennes. He remained there, how-
ever, only a year or two, and then moved on into
the Illinois country along the trail which George
Rogers Clark had followed between Kaskaskia
and Vincennes, until he came into the neighbor-
hood of a block house in the Jourden settlement,
where he made a permanent settlement in what is
known as Knob Prairie, Franklin county, about
nine miles east of the present site of Benton.

The migration of the McLeans was not an iso-
lated instance, but rather a clean-cut type of a
general movement or exodus from the southern
colonies when it became apparent that the curse
of human slavery had fastened its tentacles upon
the southern seaboard social system. In the latter
half of the previous century, Daniel Boone had
pointed the way out by his exploration and sub-
jugation of the western part of Virginia laying

57

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

between the Blue Ridge mountains and the Mis-
sissippi river, which is now the beautiful state of
Kentucky. The ancestors of Abraham Lincoln,
influenced, I am sure, by the conditions which de-
termined my people to move, had followed Boone
over the mountains ; and it was from these people
that the Great Emancipator drew his early in-
spirations and ideals. Some of those who fled
from a social organization which was unbearable,
made their homes in the Appalachian mountain
range, where their descendants are living unto
this day. The foundation of a great university to
minister to the intellectual needs of this people
has been established at Cumberland Gap, and is
appropriately named the Lincoln Memorial Uni-
versity. In 1917, the anniversary of the birth of
Lincoln was celebrated at the University, at which
were present many noted men who gathered there
to eulogize the kingly rail splitter. As illustrat-
ing the movement which I have described, I take
the liberty of quoting from the speech of Mayor
William Hale Thompson, of Chicago, as follows:

"The grandfather of President Lincoln moved
from Virginia into what is now the State of Ken-
tucky only a few years after Daniel Boone blazed
the way for civilization through this identical
Cumberland Gap, and within a year after George
Rogers Clark had, by conquest, added the terri-
tory north of the Ohio river to the domain of the
United States. The people who thus followed the
early explorers into the new country were hardy,
58

MIGRATION OF THE McLEANS

courageous Americans, descended from the first
white settlers on this continent. It was this pio-
neer stock which peopled the hills and valleys
of the Appalachian range, and it is among their
descendants who still live there that we find the
purest strain of native-bred white men that is
produced in America. It was Abraham Lincoln's
intimate knowledge of this people, their habits of
life and their mental processes which enabled
him to prophecy with such unerring accuracy
that they would be found to sympathize with his
purposes."

59

CHAPTER VIII
ILLINOIS A HUNDRED YEARS AGO

A knowledge of history is indispensable to a
just appreciation and understanding of the
present; for is not today the child of yesterday,
and all our to-morrows the offspring of to-day? It
is for this good and sufficient reason that I
thought it well to review the early history of our
proud commonwealth, in which is written so much
of the nation's glory. What I have thus far re-
corded are facts of history accessible to all — the
beacon lights along the road to civilization in the
Mississippi valley. The narrative now approaches
that period in Illinois which I am able to describe
as being within my experience or as having been
told to me by those who lived in the times which
my story covers. In this connection it is well to
remember that my father was born on the same
day as Abraham Lincoln in 1809, the year which
the Territory of Illinois was created by Congress,
and that he was brought to Illinois, when nine
years old, by his father, who moved into the State
in 1818, the year Illinois was admitted to the
Union.

When Illinois was organized as a Territory in
60

ILLINOIS A HUNDRED YEARS AGO

1809, with the seat of government at old Kaskas-
kia, there were but two organized counties in the
Territory, St. Clair and Randolph, which includ-
ed the entire area of the Territory with a popula-
tion of about 12,000. The Ordinance of 1787 had
provided that not less than three states should be
made out of the Northwest Territory, and a terri-
tory should be eligible for admission as a state
when it attained a population of 60,000. The act
of Congress providing for the admission of Illi-
nois provided for a population of only 40,000,
which was evidently carefully estimated by our
Delegate in Congress, Nathaniel Pope, as the
United States census returns for 1820 show a total
population in Illinois at about 55,000, which is
about one-third the present population of the
ward in Chicago in which I live. Ninety-five per
cent of the population in 1820 was of English
descent, as distinguished from the early French
settlers, and, with but very few exceptions, had
come in from the southern states just as my ances-
tors did. To this day, one may discover in the
dialect and customs of the typical southern Illi-
noisans their extraction and descent from their
southern ancestors.

On December 3rd, 1818, Congress approved the
Constitution adopted by the Illinois Convention
by the passage of a resolution which declared
Illinois to be "one of the United States of
America, and admitted into the Union on an equal

61

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

footing with the original States in all respects."
At that time the State was divided into fifteen
counties, organized in the following order: St.
Clair, April 27, 1790; Randolph, October 5, 1795;
Madison, Gallatin and Johnson, September 14,
1812; Edwards, November 28, 1814; White, Decem-
ber 9, 1815; Monroe, January 6, 1816; Jackson
and Pike, January 10, 1816; Crawford, December
31, 1816; Bond, January 4, 1817; Union, Wash-
ington and Franklin, on January 2, 1818. As may
be observed by a reference to a map of Illinois,
all these counties are in the southern portion of
the state, and at that time all the settlements in
Illinois were south of the 39th degree of north
latitude which crosses the State just north of Van-
dalia. To the north of this line, up to the parallel
of 42 degrees and 30 minutes north latitude, our
northern boundary, there was nothing in the way
of a settlement worth mentioning.

Those who have lived only in the period of ease
and luxury which we are now enjoying can
scarcely appreciate the hardships and dangers of
the early pioneer days. In those days before the
railroads were thought of, all the commerce of
the country worthy of the name was carried on the
navigable waterways in flat boats which were al-
lowed to float with the current down stream or
going up stream were towed from the bank like
a canal boat or pushed along with long poles
operated from the boat. It is true that at the

62

ILLINOIS A HUNDRED YEARS AGO

time of my father's birth, Fulton's steamboat was
in operation on the Hudson River, and, two years
after his birth a steamboat was put in operation
on the Ohio, but it was not until the fall of 1817,
the year before he moved to Illinois, that the
steamboat "General Pike" ascended the Missis-
sippi above the mouth of the Ohio. That was
the key to the development of t}ie Missis-
sippi valley, and from the time that steam power
was effectively employed in transportation the
future of this wonderful country was assured.
Within my life that water borne commerce de-
veloped to its greatest extent, and I have lived
to see it decline to a negligible quantity and to
give way to rail commerce, which had its begin-
ning at the time of my birth.

Overland commerce of that time was even more
cumbersome than water-borne commerce. From
the river settlements like Shawneetown, Vin-
cennes, Kaskaskia and St. Louis, "trails" led back
inland, along which the newly arrived settlers
pushed their way back farther and farther into
the interior. They did not ride in high powered
automobiles, as now, over hard surfaced roads,
but picked their way cautiously through the dense
woods of the river bottoms, carefully avoided the
swampy low lands where their wagons would sink
up to the axles in the soft, spongy ground. They
travelled as a rule in crude "prairie schooners,"
covered wagons drawn by oxen, and as this was at

63

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

once their conveyance and their bed, it fairly
may be said to have been the forerunner of the
Pullman car of to-day.

It was in this primitive fashion that my grand-
father, in 1818, at which time my father was nine
years old, journeyed from Indiana into the Illi-
nois country, choosing a location in a beautiful
prairie in Franklin County as his permanent
home. From a brochure published by Quincy
E. Browning entitled "Franklin County, By One
of Its Sons," I make the following excerpts re-
lating to the early settlement and history of the
county :

"The first settlement of Franklin County dates
back to 1804 when John and William Browning,
Joseph Estes, three brothers named Jordan, and
William Babrey took up their abode and built a 'fort'
two miles southeast of Thompsonville on the farm
occupied in later years by William Elstun. * * *
In 1812, while out gathering wood, Babrey was am-
bushed and killed by Indians. He was the first white
person buried in Franklin County, and his grave is
still to be seen on the site of the old fort. Another
interesting event occurred at this fort. In 1810, the
wife of John Browning gave birth to twin boys,
James K. and William R. Browning. These were the
first white children born in Franklin County."

As originally constituted by the Territorial
Legislature on January 2, 1818, Franklin County
included, in addition to its present area, what is
now Williamson County. It had been succes-

64

ILLINOIS A HUNDRED YEARS AGO

sively an integral portion of St. Clair, Randolph
and White Counties. The home of Moses Gar-
ret, in Frankfort Township, was the first
seat of government and continued as such
until old Frankfort was made the county seat.
In 1839, Williamson County was made out of the
southern portion of Franklin County, and the
county seat of the latter was thereupon moved
to its present location at Benton.

I assume that my grandfather was influenced
to settle in Franklin County by the fact that rela-
tives of his of the name of Aiken had just recent-
ly settled there, going directly from their homes
in North Carolina. A family tradition has it
that the Aikens were originally McLeans but had
separated from the clan and taken up their abode
in a beautiful valley named Eiken, from which
they came to be known as Eikens, which in time
became Aiken. There is no question that the
families were interrelated prior to the time they
came to Illinois, as is indicated in the middle
name of my father and the further fact that the
McLeans and the Aikens appeared in Franklin
County at about the same time.

Among the early settlers in that portion of
the state was a family of the name of Hall, re-
lated to Lyman Hall-, one of the signers of the
Declaration of Independence. These people
originally were from Georgia, but this branch of
the family had moved into Kentucky shortly after

65

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

Daniel Boone had blazed a path for civilization,
and, following the tendency of migration, moved
into Illinois about the time my grandfather did,
settling in Hamilton County a few miles east of
the location of my people. My sister Julia, seven
years older than I, married H. W. Hall of this
family about 1848. This brother-in-law of mine
served as a sergeant in the Mexican War, as a
Colonel in the Army of the Tennessee in the Civil
War, and has five grandsons and a nephew who
are commissioned officers in the present war. At
the time this is written, at the middle of the year
1918, he is still active mentally and physically at
the age of 92. He and his wife had a very happy
and contented and, withal, a very unusual matri-
monial experience. She lived to the good old
age of eighty-seven, passing peacefully away with
the year 1917, during the Christmas holidays. At
the time she died they had lived together through
nearly seventy years of happy married life, rais-
ing a large family of splendid children, among
whom are some of the best and most favorably
known men in southern Illinois, notably Doctor
Andy Hall, of Mt. Vernon. At the time of my
sister's death, she and her husband were main-
taining as a matter of independent choice, their
own little home in which she did all the house-
work.

Colonel Hall, it will be noted, is within eight
years as old as the State of Illinois, which cele-

66

ILLINOIS A HUNDRED YEARS AGO

brates its one-hundredth birthday this year. That
hundred years in Illinois has covered a develop-
ment which is almost inconceivable. If my
younger readers would faintly realize the im-
provement made in that time, let them look at a
present -day map of Illinois and fix their attention
on the line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad
running from St. Louis to Vincennes. One hun-
dred years ago practically all the white in-
habitants of the state lived south of that line; so
that within that hundred years all the farms and
all the towns north of that line have been estab-
lished and settled, including Chicago, Peoria and
Springfield, our State Capital. When the read-
er contemplates further that one hundred years
ago there was not a mile of railroad, not a single
factory, not a mowing machine, not a sewing
machine, not an electric light, not a gas light and
not even a kerosene lamp in all this vast territory,
he will then be approaching the mental attitude
necessary to appreciate the wonderful achieve-
ments and the wonderful advancement made up to
this time. Truly it has been a wonderful age !

67

CHAPTER IX

SENATOR JOHN McLEAN

When Illinois was admitted to the Union it was
entitled under the Constitution to two United
States Senators, but as its representation in the)
lower house was based on population, it was en-
titled only to one representative in Congress, and
remained as one congressional district for four-
teen years after Illinois became a State, or until
about the time that Chicago was organized. Since
that time our population has grown until the state
has twenty-seven members in the I^ower House
of Congress, twelve of which represent constitu-
encies which are wholly or in part within the city
limits of Chicago.

Our first United States Senators were Judge
Jesse B. Thomas, one of the Federal judges of
the Territory of Illinois and who was the pre-
siding officer of the convention which formulated
and adopted the first State Constitution; and
Ninian Edwards, who was Governor of Illinois
during the time it was a territory. Apparently
there was no contest over the senatorships nor
on the governorship, to which Shadrack Bond was
elected without opposition, and in the same way

68

SENATOR JOHN McLEAN

Pierre Menard was elected Lieutenant-Governor ;
but for the honor of representing Illinois as its
sole Congressman in the National House of Rep-
resentatives there was a memorable contest be-
tween John McLean, one of my kinsmen, and
Daniel P. Cook, who was accounted the most
popular man in Illinois, whose claim to that dis-
tinction was strengthened later by the fact that
he defeated Shadrack Bond, in 1824, for the office
of Congressman. McLean defeated Cook in Sep-
tember, 1818, but was defeated by Cook two years
later in another contest for the prize.

John McLean, for whom I was named, was born
in North Carolina on February 4, 1791. He was
raised and educated in Kentucky and moved into
Illinois Territory in 1815, settling at Shawnee-
town where he studied and later practiced law.
The first public office which he held was that of
prosecuting attorney. He was a man of large
physique and commanding figure, and acquired
an enviable reputation as a trial lawyer in which
occupation he attended the sessions of the differ-
ent courts in southern Illinois, thus extending his
acquaintance and influence. That he was a man
of considerable popularity was demonstrated in
his defeat of Daniel P. Cook for the honor of
first representing the State of Illinois in the Na-
tional Congress, taking his seat December 4, 1818,
and serving until March 3, 1819.

The following year he was elected to the Illi-
69

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

nois Legislature, that being the Second General
Assembly, over which he presided as Speaker of
the House during the latter half of Shadrack
Bond's administration. During that session the
question came up of establishing a state bank with
authority to emit or issue bills of credit or its own
money, paying a nominal annual interest. The
part taken by John McLean in that controversy
is told as follows by Davidson and Stuve in their
History of Illinois :

"The legislature were not unadvised of their in-
fatuation. John McLean, subsequently a senator in
Congress, was speaker of the house. He was opposed
to the measure, and his power as a forcible debater
was justly dreaded by the bank men. It is rulable
to debate all important bills in committee of the
whole, that the speaker may participate. To avoid
an arraignment of their bantling by him, the bank
majority resorted to the trick of refusing to go into
committee of the whole. Burning with indignation at
such treatment, he promptly resigned the speaker-
ship, and taking the floor, denounced in scathing
terms the expensive folly of the scheme, presaged the
injurious results which must inevitably flow from its
passage, involving creditors in ruin and the State in
bankruptcy. But it was pre-determined to pass the
bill, which was done over the veto by the requisite
majority. The issues of the bank did not long remain
at par; as their worthlessness became apparent, good
money was driven out of circulation. This was par-
ticularly so with small coins, and it became so difficult
to make change that bills had to be cut in two. By
various steps, they depreciated to 25 cents on the
70

SENATOR JOHN McLEAN

dollar; and with this worthless State currency were
the people cursed for a period exceeding four years.
By the year 1824, the depreciation had the effect to
almost impede the wheels of government."

When Ninian Edwards resigned as United
States Senator in 1824 to accept an appointment
as Minister to Mexico, John McLean was elected
to fill the unexpired term, taking his seat in the
Senate on December 20, 1824. Elias Kent Kane
of Kaskaskia was elected to succeed Edwards,
taking his seat in the Nineteenth Congress for
the term beginning March 4, 1825.

In 1826 the political power of Daniel P. Cook
was broken, he being beaten in that year for re-
election to Congress by Joseph Duncan, of Jack-
son County, with whom my father had served in
Blackhawk's War and who later became Governor
of the State. In his palmy days Cook had de-
feated the strongest men in public life, including
John McLean, Elias Kent Kane and Shadrack
Bond, but he had, by 1826, entered a physical
and political decline which, combined, resulted
in his death about a year after his defeat by Dun-
can. Illustrating how little our average citizen
knows about the history of our state, I will ven-
ture the assertion that not more than one out of
a hundred of our people know that it was for
Daniel P. Cook that our great County of Cook,
in which Chicago is situated, was named.

In the 1826 election in which Cook went down
71

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

to defeat Ninian Edwards, who had resigned as
Minister to Mexico on account of a quarrel with
the Secretary of the Treasury, was elected Gov-
ernor, and John McLean was elected to the Illi-
nois House of Representatives, over which he
again presided as Speaker. He was again elected
in 1828, and again selected as Speaker; but dur-
ing this term he was elected to the United States
Senate for the six-year term beginning March 4,
1829, but died in office on October 14, 1830. His
tomb may be seen today in the old Westwood
Cemetery in Shawneetown, the inscription on the
marble slab reading as follows:

"IN

MEMORY OF
JOHN McLEAN

BORN IN N. CAROLINA, FEB. 4, 1791,
HE WAS RAISED AND EDUCATED IN

KENTUCKY

WHENCE HE IMMIGRATED TO ILLINOIS

IN 1815, WHERE HE HELD A CONSPICUOUS

STAND AT THE BAR AND IN SOCIETY

FOR TALENTS AND A GENEROUS AND

AMIABLE NATURE.
A REPRESENTATIVE AND SENATOR

IN THE CONGRESS OF THE U. S.

FROM ILLINOIS, HE DIED WHILE IN

THE LATTER OFFICE, OCT. 14, 1830

LAMENTED BY ALL."

72

SENATOR JOHN McLEAN

Alexander Parrish, in his Historic Illinois, The
Romance of the Earlier Days, has the following
to say of John McLean :

"John McLean, of Shawneetown, elected to the
Senate in 1824, to succeed Edwards, was in many
respects the most gifted man of his period in Illinois.
Born in North Carolina in 1791, he came to Shawnee-
town as a young lawyer of twenty-three, and was
soon prominent both at the bar and in political life.
Three years later, he was elected to Congress after a
campaign strangely marked by courtesy between
himself and his opponent, Daniel P. Cook. Hitherto
frontier politics had been fought with bitter person-
alities. He was also frequently a member of the
legislature, and once Speaker of the House, but never
forgot to remain a gentleman, even on the "stump."
McLean was a born orator, a large man, finely pro-
portioned, with light complexion, and frank, open
face. Men instinctively felt confidence in him, while
his eloquence swayed them at his will. His death,
which occurred in the very prime of his manhood, at
thirty-nine, was considered a great public loss, and
the legislature, in memory of his signal services,
named a county of the State in his honor.*'

Thus did McLean, the banner agricultural
county of Illinois, get its name. In addition to
being the banner agricultural county in Illinois
and third in the United States, with its products
approximating thirteen million dollars in value
per annum, its chief city, Bloomington, is the
seat of the Northern Illinois Normal. The name
also is perpetuated in McLeansboro, the county

73

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

seat of Hamilton County, but a few miles to the
east of our old homestead located in Franklin
County.

Besides the things heretofore mentioned in this
chapter, John McLean participated in most of the
history-making events of his time. He was a
member of the State Legislature when, in 1820,
the capital was removed from old Kaskaskia to
Vandalia, where it was to remain for twenty
years. On the occasion of the removal of the capi-
tal, all the archives of the state government were
moved from Kaskaskia to Vandalia in one wagon.
Imagine, if you can, and contrast the job of re-
moving our state capital now, and the attending
confusion.

The removal of the capital upstate a distance
of ninety or a hundred miles was a significant in-
dication of the trend of settlement and civiliza-
tion toward the prairie lands of central and north-
ern Illinois. That the removal was but an inci-
dent in a general movement was shown in 1826,
when the first steamboat on the Illinois River
made its appearance, thus heralding the exten-
sion of commerce into the country which had
been for so many years stubbornly held by the
Indians against the increasing encroachment of
the whites.

Hard following upon the admission of Illinois
into the Union, the old French settlements in
southern Illinois along the Mississippi fell into

74

SENATOR JOHN McLEAN

a state of decay; but in 1825 the glories of their
past were recalled when Lafayette visited Illi-
nois on the occasion when he was a guest of the
nation which he had helped to establish. A visit
was made to Kaskaskia where he was entertained
with all the pomp and splendor which could be
shown in those pioneer days. A couple of weeks
later, on his return trip, he paid a visit to Shaw-
neetown, where John McLean was among those
prominent citizens who extended a cordial and
affectionate welcome to the grateful nation's be-
loved guest.

Another of the many public questions which
John McLean helped to settle was the establish-
ment of the Illinois and Michigan canal to con-
nect Lake Michigan with the Illinois River, Con-
gress passing an act in 1827, through which Dan-
iel P. Cook, then in Congress, procured a grant
of approximately a quarter of a million acres of
the public lands in Illinois to aid the state in
constructing the canal. The advisability and feas-
ibility of the improvement had been so impressed
upon the minds of our public men, from Father
Marquette down to and including the contempo-
raries of John McLean, who was then Speaker of
the Illinois House of Representatives, that his
chief political opponent, Daniel P. Cook, was led
to make the enthusiastic prophecy "that in less
than thirty years it would relieve the people from
the payment of taxes, and even leave a surplus

75

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

to be applied to other works of public utility."
The canal was afterward constructed from Lake
Michigan to La Salle, a distance of about one hun-
dred miles. Although in operation it never jus-
tified Cook's prophecy, costing all told about
seven million dollars, and bringing to the state
treasury a total revenue of about ten million dol-
lars, it was, nevertheless, a great improvement,
stimulating as it did the settlement of northern
Illinois and being primarily responsible, as we
shall see, for the construction of the Illinois Cen-
tral Railroad and for the establishment at the
canal's junction with Lake Michigan of our own
Chicago, now the second city of the continent and
destined as I verily believe, to be the foremost
city of the world.

History has accorded his proper place to John
McLean.

76

CHAPTER X
THE EVENTFUL YEAR 1830

Eighteen hundred and thirty, the year in which
Senator John McLean passed to his reward, was,
in my opinion, the most eventful year in the early
history of the state of Illinois, for it was in that
year that Abraham Lincoln moved from Indiana
into Illinois and settled on a farm near the pres-
ent city of Decatur, and the same year witnessed
the conception if not the birth of the city of Chi-
cago. When Lincoln came to Illinois in 1830 he
had just reached "man's estate," .his....t3venty-first
birthday ; and it might be of interest to note just
what he found here at that time in the Illinois
country. A picture of the times, as drawn in the
splendid History of Illinois, by Davidson & Stuve,
is as follows:

"The population of the State in 1830 was 157,447,
having nearly trebled itself during the preceding
decade. There were at this time 56 counties organ-
ized, but those in the northern portion of the State
were mere skeletons and unwieldly in size. A third
of the State, or more, lying between Galena and Chi-
cago, extending southward to the Kaskaskia, the
headwaters of the Vermilion, along the Rock River
and far down into the military tract, constituting at
77

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

present the most densely settled and best improved
portions, was a trackless prairie waste, overrun by
the Sax and Fox, Winnebago, and Potawattomie
Indians. Much of the interior of the south part, and
the country bordering the Embarrass, the Sangamon
and their tributaries, had ceased to be a wilderness.
Into the country of the Sangamon immigration had
for some time thronged. Along the Illinois to Chi-
cago, then just beginning to attract attention, there
were scattered a few settlements long distances apart.
For some years after, the settlers, either in clusters
or separately, continued to hug the outskirts of the
timber bordering the rivers and creeks, or the edge
of groves, scarcely any venturing out on the open
prairies. Along the Mississippi, settlements were
scattered at distant intervals, culminating at the lead
mines on Fever River, where had gathered a hetero-
geneous population from many parts of the world,
numbering about 1,000 souls, nine-tenths being men
engaged in mining."

Galena, so named on account of the rich lead
deposits in the neighborhood, was established
about 1820, and by the year 1830 there were ap-
proximately 2,000 miners employed in the vicin-
ity, and a regular mail service maintained be-
tween Galena and Vandalia, the state capital.
We are indebted to the lead miners of Galena
for one account of the origin of the nickname
"Sucker," which has long been applied to the
Illinoisans. This account has it that a man from
Missouri, on seeing a number of men from south-
ern Illinois getting on a boat at the lead mines
late in the fall, asked them whither they were

78

THE EVENTFUL YEAR 1830

bound and he was informed they were on their
way to their homes in southern Illinois to spend
the winter. "Well," he is said to have replied,
"you fellows remind me of suckers; upstream in
the spring to spawn and downstream in the fall
for the winter."

We have seen that when the Illinois and Michi-
gan Canal was planned it was expected that it
would become the water highway for a tremen-
dous volume of commerce, the tolls from which
would pay not only the expenses of the state gov-
ernment, but would create a surplus in the state
treasury out of which all the needed internal im-
provements of the state could be made. So when
it came to surveying the route of the waterway
it was only natural that attention should be di-
rected to its termini on Lake Michigan and the
Illinois River as favorable spots for the develop-
ment of cities; and we find that the original sur-
vey of the site of Chicago was made by James
Thompson, of Kaskaskia, in 1830, when he also
was engaged in making a survey of the route of
the Illinois and Michigan Canal. At the time
Thompson made his survey of Chicago there were
but seven white families living in this vicinity
outside of Fort Dearborn, which had been rebuilt
some five years after the Dearborn massacre and
destruction of the old fort. The canal had been
advertised to such an extent and the public mind
had been led to expect so much from it that the

79

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

first real estate boom in Chicago was launched
with vigor and resulted in the sale of many town
lots. One of the local histories of Chicago makes
the following statement concerning the influence
which the building of the canal had upon the
origin and growth of the city:

"It is a curious fact that the early growth of Chi-
cago was greatly in accord with the progress of the
canal. The canal may be said to have made Chicago.
When the survey of the site was commenced and
platted, by order of the canal commissioners, in 1829,
there resided upon its site only about a half dozen fam-
ilies, outside the palisades of Fort Dearborn: but with
the prospect of the inauguration of this great work,
population began to pour in freely. The Black Hawk
war perhaps checked it a little, but with the removal
of the Indians, the tide of immigration was resumed.
When in 1835, the first canal loan of $500,000 was
authorized, a new impulse was given to the settle-
ment of the town, and with the additional legislation
of January, 1836, her population swollen to about
4,000, the extraordinary fever for speculating in town
lots still rife, and the actual commencement of the
work, we find the prosperity of the period to culmi-
nate. Shortly after came the great revulsion of
1837, which, with the collapse of the visionary internal
improvement system of the State, two and a half
years later, would have utterly prostrated Chicago
but for the persistency with which the work on the
canal was sustained. As it was, our prosperity was
checked materially for seven years."

Cook County was organized in 1831, and the
"Town of Chicago" was incorporated in 1833; but

80

THE EVENTFUL YEAR 1830

it was not until 1837 that the prospect of estab-
lishing a great city here was alluring enough to
lead the principal inhabitants to incorporate Chi-
cago as a city, which was done on March 4, 1837.
Showing at once how new the city is and what a
wonderful growth it has had in its brief exist-
ence, it is perhaps sufficient to note in passing
that Stephen F. Gale, grandfather of the present
Mayor of Chicago, William Hale Thompson,
helped to draft the first city charter, was the first
fire chief of the volunteer fire department of the
new city, and was one among the twenty-eight
who voted at the first election of trustees held in
the "Town of Chicago" on August 10, 1833. Al-
though he was undoubtedly influenced by the
proposed construction of the Illinois and Michi-
gan Canal, Gale deliberately selected Chicago as
his future home at about the time that James
Thompson surveyed and platted the original site,
and moved here in 1830 from his ancestral home
among the granite hills of New Hampshire.

I have heard his grandson, Mayor Thompson,
say that his grandfather Gale selected this spot
after a careful study of the topography of this
region from which he observed that on account
of the location of the Great Lakes all of the travel
between the settled country in the east and the
new country in the great and growing west would
pass through Illinois at or near the southern end
of Lake Michigan. That his judgment was good

81

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

may be seen today in the fact that all the trans-
continental lines of railway of the United States
pass through Illinois, between Chicago and St.
Louis. Mayor Thompson's mother was born in
the Gale home at the corner of Dearborn and
Washington streets, and was, at the time it was
built, quite a distance from the business section
of the town, then located along the south bank
of the Chicago River. The outer limits of the
city, as platted by James Thompson, were Kinzie
street on the north, Madison on the south, State
street on the east, and Desplaines on the west.
These streets enclosed an area of less than half
a square mile, which is now only a portion of the
central business district of Chicago, the area of
the city having extended until it now covers 200
square miles.

James Thompson returned to Kaskaskia after
he had finished the survey of Chicago, and the
public records of old Randolph County show
that he occasionally held public office and lived
a useful life until 1872, the year of his death. For
forty-five years thereafter his remains lay in an
unmarked grave in old Preston cemetery in Ran-
dolph County, and until Mayor Thompson of
Chicago, after undertaking without success to
awaken the civic pride of the Chicago City Coun-
cil to their duty in the matter, himself erected
and dedicated a fitting monument to the memory
of James Thompson on Memorial Day, 1917. It

82

THE EVENTFUL YEAR 1830

was a matter of great regret on my part that I
was unable to accept an invitation to be present
at the dedicatory exercises in old Preston ceme-
tery, which were attended by many of the promi-
nent men of today, including Dr. Otto L. Schmidt,
president of the Illinois Historical Society, who
concluded his speech on that occasion with these
words :

"In reopening these forgotten pages of Illinois his-
tory, Mayor Thompson has done a duty for the city
of which he is the chief official, a service to the State,
and reveals a sacred interest in the past that we hope
will arouse the latent talents of others to emulate
this public spirited and ideal act."

-* —
Besides the delay in the construction of the

canal, the early growth of Chicago was retarded
by troubles in northern Illinois with the Indians,
who had not exactly had a "square deal" from the
white man. As civilization advanced westward
the red men were driven from one stand to an-
other, until they had a right to question the sin-
cerity and good faith of the treaties we had made
with them and had as often broken.

Finally, in 1804, William Henry Harrison, then
governor of the Indiana Territory, including Illi-
nois, and later President of the United States and
grandfather of another President, made a solemn
treaty with the Indians within his jurisdiction
under which they ceded to the United States the
land they had been nominally holding between

83

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

the Illinois and Mississippi rivers, in considera-
tion for which the Indians were to receive one
thousand dollars per year "in trade." This land
was the habitation and hunting grounds of the
Sacs, Fox and Winnebago Indians, and in memory
of their occupation we find many of their pic-
turesque names in the geography of the region.
Among the Indians who would not be reconciled
to the Harrison treaty was Black Hawk, a war
leader or general of the Sacs and Fox, which
tribes had merged and occupied the beautiful val-
ley of the Fox River in what is now perhaps the
most productive and most valuable dairy section
in the world — that surrounding Elgin, the home
of butter and watches.

By 1830 Black Hawk and his following had
sullenly given way before the steady advance of
the whites until he and his braves were quartered
in a village on the Rock River, near the present
site of Rock Island, where, from an adjacent
height of land, known since as Black Hawk's
Watch Tower, he could see for many miles in
every direction. In^JSSO^ Chief Keokuk concluded
another treaty with the United States in which
it was agreed that he would move all his tribes
west of the Mississippi. Black Hawk would not
agree to this further surrender and nursed his
smoldering wrath until 1832^ when, with several
hundred followers, he recrossed the Mississippi
into Illinois, under the pretext that he and his

84

THE EVENTFUL YEAR 1830

people were merely paying a friendly visit to the
Winnebagoes in southern Wisconsin. Immedi-
ately the alarm was given that the Indians again
were on the rampage, and companies of militia
were hastily raised and mobilized for the purpose
of expelling the intruder and his band of warriors.
This resulted in a prolonged chase and a number
of skirmishes and pitched battles, which, alto-
gether, are known as Black Hawk's War, and in
the course of which the war chief's devoted fol-
lowing were all but exterminated, the "war" end-
ing with the battle of Bad Ax on the Mississippi
River in Wisconsin, where the Indian had en-
deavored to get the remnants of his tribe back
across the river.

My father enlisted and served in this war, and
thus was brought into association with many men
who were then or afterward prominent in the
state or nation. Among these were General Scott,
commanding the United States army; Thomas
Ford and Joseph Duncan, later governors of Illi-
nois; Sidney Breese, later chief justice of the
State Supreme Court; Jefferson Davis, later
leader of the Rebellion; General "Zach" Taylor,
and Abraham Lincoln, later Presidents of the
United States.

The historians, as a rule, have dealt justly with
Black Hawk, allowing that there were two sides
to his controversy; they all agree, in accordance
with the fact, that he was a brave warrior. Some

85

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

go so far as to say that he was wholly justified,
according to his primitive idea of fairness and
justice, in striking back at his relentless pursuers,
and that he was far more sinned against than sin-
ning. Some color is given this contention in the
fact that following his capture he was allowed
to return to Iowa to live out his days in freedom
and in peace. On quitting the beautiful country
which had been the home of his people for so
many years he made this simple and beautiful
speech to those who had conquered and driven
him out: "Rock River was a beautiful country.
I like my towns, my cornfields, and the home of
my people. I fought for it; it is now yours; it
will produce you good crops."
And it has!

86

CHAPTER XI
THE AUTHOR MAKES HIS APPEARANCE

jVly father left the home of his parents when he
was twenty years of age to make a home for him-
self. At that age, which would doubtless be con-
sidered young in these days, he took unto himself
a wife, Lydia Smith, who was then eighteen years
of age, and together they settled on a farm near
that of his father and began life. I have often
heard father tell of their start in life with only a
rifle, a dog, an axe and a few — very few — house-
hold goods. With the rifle he was able to keep
the larder well filled with wild game which
abounded in that new country. The dog treed
coons and tracked the fox and other fur-bearing
animals whose pelts contributed to the wearing
apparel of the family and served as a medium of
exchange with which they purchased powder,
lead, flints (for in those days the rifles were all
of the flint-lock pattern), and such simple, staple
groceries as could be afforded. The axe was the
insignia of advancing civilization, for with it the
lands were cleared of timber, which was worked
up into rails for fences, logs to build house and
barn, rough hewn shingles to cover them, and

87

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

wood for the wide fireplace which served for heat-
ing, cooking and incidentally ventilation, al-
though there was no dearth of that in those pio-
neer cabins.

When my father's family settled in Franklin
County in 1818, the nearest neighbor was eight
miles away. There were no schools nor churches,
nor even any mills where grain might be ground
into flour. There were two methods of pulveriz-
ing or treating grain so it could be made into the
rather coarse but very wholesome bread of that
time.

One method was to punch a square piece of tin
or sheet iron full of holes so that the rough or
jagged edges would stand up on one side like
the grater of the modern housewife. This was
then beat into an oval form and the edges
tacked to a board, leaving the jagged side up.
The ears of corn, which were not allowed to ma-
ture and dry, were rubbed vigorously over the
rough grater thus contrived and cut into small
particles which were caught on a sheet or in a
bucket and placed in the sunlight to dry.

Another method in common use was known as
the stump mill, which was made by leveling the
top of a stump of a green tree, preferably hickory
on account of its toughness and wearing quality,
and excavating a bowl-shape depression in the top
of the stump as far as it could be deepened with
the axe. A fire was then kindled in the depression

88

THE AUTHOR MAKES HIS APPEARANCE

and kept burning for some time for the double
purpose of deepening the depression and burning
off the rough places and splinters left by the axe,
after which the charred wood and ashes were
scraped out, leaving a rude but comparatively
smooth mortar. Then a rude but effective device
for pulverizing the grain was arranged, which,
with the addition of considerable "elbow grease,"
operated on a plan similar to our modern pile
driver. This contrivance was made by taking a
long, lithe, tough, green sapling, called the spring
pole, the large end of which was fastened securely
to the ground at such a distance from the stump
so that the small end of the spring pole would
reach just over the stump ; then a stout forked sap-
ling was set up in a post hole between the fastened
end of the spring pole and the stump, in the form
of the letter Y, in the fork or crotch of which the
spring pole rested with the small, free end di-
rectly over the stump mortar. To this free end a
rude, heavy pestle was attached. The pestle was
made by taking a piece off the butt end of a small
tree, rounding off and smoothing one end for use
in the mortar, and boring a hole through the piece
near the other end through which a wooden pin
about two feet long was driven, leaving an end of
the pin sticking out on each side which could be
grasped in the hands. Now the primitive mill
was ready for operation. A quantity of grain was
placed in the mortar. The "miller," necessarily

89

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

a person of considerable strength (from which
doubtless originated the expression, "don't send
a boy to mill"), grasped the handles of the pestle
and with all his strength plunged the pounding
end onto the grain in the mortar. As soon as the
downward pulling force ceased, the tendency of
the spring pole to straighten itself was instantly
asserted with the result that the pestle was vir-
tually yanked into its normal position suspended
above the mortar. A repetition of this homely
process resulted in crushing the grain to a satis-
factory degree of fineness and in adding strength
to the muscles of the operator. What a boon that
mill would be today to thousands of men of low
physical standards who would, through its use,
acquire health and strength and produce for them-
selves a flour with the necessary amount of rough-
age in it to aid in restoring normal processes in
their digestive machinery. No wonder the human
family is getting weaker while it is growing wiser !
Shortly after my people moved into southern
Illinois, it acquired the appellation "Egypt/'
which has since been applied to that portion of
the state lying south of the 39th parallel of north
latitude. In the early days all the agriculture of
the state was carried on in the southern portion,
especially in the great American Bottom near the
Mississippi, where the soil was loose and easily
cultivated. The open prairies of the central and
northern portions were not so desirable because

90

THE AUTHOR MAKES HIS APPEARANCE

the virgin sod which had laid there undisturbed
for unnumbered centuries was so tough and tena-
cious that it could not be turned with the crude
implements available. On account of this the
more northern settlers depended to a great extent
upon the southern settlers for a supply of grain
for food, and trips to southern Illinois for corn
were of common occurrence. Recalling the days
of Joseph and his brethren when the children of
Israel "and all countries came into Egypt to Jo-
seph for to buy corn ; because that the famine was
so sore in all lands," the similar custom in early
Illinois came to be referred to as "going down to
Egypt for corn." Later it was attempted in some
quarters to make it appear that the appellation
"Egypt" was given southern Illinois because old
Egypt was famed as a place of darkness, and that
the intellectual darkness or ignorance of the
southern Illinois people was similar to it. Those
who urge this explanation of the origin of the
term are in the position of the pot when it called
the kettle black, because they overlook the fact
that as ancient Egypt was the birthplace of civ-
ilization, so our "Egypt" was the birthplace of
civilization in the Illinois country, and it was un-
doubtedly this fact which impressed upon our pio-
neer ancestors the similarity; hence the name.

The year ^§£7^was memorable in the early his-
tory of Illinois, and replete with events of the
most momentous character. In that year the cap-

91

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

ital of the state was permanently located at
Springfield ; it was the year in which Chicago was
organized as a city; the first railroad of the state
went into operation in St. Clair County as a coal
road, with horses for motive power, the first lo-
comotive not appearing until the following year ;
the worst financial panic in the history of the
state occurred in that year, the people reaping the
whirlwind from the wind which had been sown in
the organization of the state banks, against which
John McLean had solemnly warned them; the
great scheme for vast internal improvements at a
total cost of ten million dollars, including a pro-
posed "Central" railroad, was adopted by the state
legislature ; the year is memorable to the cause of
freedom because of the fact that Elijah P. Love-
joy was assassinated at Alton, which marked the
first assault in this state upon the constitutional
rights of free speech and a free press; to James
Aiken McLean and Lydia, his wife, an event of
passing interest occurred in that on the 7th day
of October in that year there was added to their
growing family a son whom they named John, a
name common among my ancestors, and one which
had recently had additional lustre shed upon it
by the member of our family who first represented
Illinois in the Congress of the United States. That
son was none other than myself.

By the time I was born my parents, through
their patient industry and frugality, were among

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THE AUTHOR MAKES HIS APPEARANCE

the moderately well-to-do of their neighborhood.
Father had a goodly sized farm, and it was well
stocked with all kinds of domesticated animals
and fowl, and had a splendid orchard of apples,
peaches and pears, all in bearing. There was noth-
ing unusual in my childhood days ; I simply grew
up as did others in a similar environment. The
schools of that day were what were known as
"subscription" schools, where those who had chil-
dren to educate would subscribe a certain sum, in
keeping with their circumstances and the antic-
ipated benefits, to pay the running expenses of
the school, it being expected that the subscription
would be for a certain sum per scholar. Teachers
were not required to pay for board and lodging
but "boarded around" among the families of the
children taught. The books in use when I first
attended school were Webster's Blue Back Speller
and Pike's Arithmetic. If parents were too poor
to buy the text books, the children were sent to
school with a New Testament, a copy of which
was in every home. There were no maps, charts
or blackboards which are so common in our
schools now.

We had no "store clothes" in those days, such
as we wore being strictly and entirely home made,
even to the materials which went into them. Ev-
ery farmer sowed a few acres of flax and planted
a few acres of cotton. The flax was sowed broad-
cast and needed little or no cultivation, the plants

93

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

being pulled up by the roots when matured and
laid in windrows for drying, after which it was
taken to the barn where the seed were beaten out
on the barn floor with oar-shaped paddles called
flails. After the seed were threshed out, the
plant was exposed to the weather so as to rot the
stalks or woody portions, then dried again and
broken into small bits which were passed over a
comb made of a number of small, sharp pins driven
into a board for the purpose of combing out the
bits of woody fibre. It was then passed over a
hackle which separated the tow from the long
fibre of the flax, placed on a distaff, from which it
was spun into thread, and this in turn was woven
into linen cloth. Cotton was made in a similar
way, the bolls when ripe being gathered from the
plants, the seed separated from the fibre, and the
latter carded into rolls, from which it was spun
into thread and woven into cloth. Wool from the
backs of our sheep was treated in much the same
way as cotton. There was little or no occasion
for dyeing the linens produced from flax, and
they were used in their natural color or bleached ;
cottons, used largely for women's dresses, were
dyed with copperas for greens, indigo for blues,
and turkey red for reds ; woolen cloth, when dyed,
was usually colored with an extract made from
walnut and hickory bark. Shoes were a luxury,
it being expected that one pair per year would be
a plenty. The boys usually had their annual pair

94

THE AUTHOR MAKES HIS APPEARANCE

worn out by the time of the warm weather in the
spring, and went barefoot until time for the reg-
ular fall shoeing, but the girls managed it so they
usually had shoes for Sundays in summer.

95

CHAPTER XII
A BOYHOOD BEFORE THE WAR

"How dear to my heart are the scenes of my childhood,
When fond recollection presents them to view;

The orchard, the meadow, the deep tangled wildwood,
And every loved spot which my infancy knew."

The boy of today with all there is to instruct,
entertain and amuse him, would not be able to dis-
cover in my boyhood much that would interest
him ; but I believe that what the boy of today has
gained in some ways he has lost in other ways,
for I am sure that my boyhood, uneventful and
prosaic as it may have been, was just as much or
more conducive to moral and physical health than
the life of the average boy now. We lived close
to nature, for one reason because we had to ; there
was not much artificiality in those days.

The seasons in their turn brought a variety of
life and action which made our simple life any-
thing but monotonous. In the spring the birds
came from the south and built their nests in the
trees, bushes and grass and regaled us with their
songs throughout the day. The summer with its
heat and its rains would cause the crops to grow
and mature. Then came the autumn when all
the countryside was a beautiful panorama of vivid

96

A BOYHOOD BEFORE THE WAR

and gorgeous colors. "When the frost was on
the pumpkin and the fodder in the shock," when
the harvest was at hand and we placed in the cel-
lar our winter stock of potatoes, apples, smoked
meat§_andLaU ^ Jynds of nuts gathered from the
woods. Then came the winter with the family
gatKered around the fireplace in which the bright
fire danced and crackled and over which our meals
were prepared. Those were the happy days. If
the reader would like a more detailed picture of
our home life at that time, he will find it drawn
by a master in the beautiful poem, "Snowbound,"
by the Quaker poet, John Greenleaf Whittier.

The amusements of that time were in keeping
with the simple life of the people. Thanksgiving
and Christmas were religiously observed and were
usually days of reunion when families would
gather together around a festal board which fairly
groaned with good things to eat. Then there
were recognized holidays including the Fourth of
July and the days when the Circuit Court con-
vened, which was twice each year, spring and au-
tumn. Every man went who could, whether he
had business or not. These occasions were turned
to a good purpose by the pioneers because it was
here more than any other way that they got into
touch with the world outside of their simple
lives. The judge and the lawyers who attended
the sessions of the court usually were intellectual
men, well informed on past and contemporaneous

97

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

history. During the noon recess of the court
either the judge of some lawyer in attendance on
the court would make a public address on the cur-
rent political state of the country. In that way
information was circulated, there being very few
newspapers published at that time and very poor
facilities for circulating them.

The great event of the year, of course, was the
Fourth of July celebration which was always
looked forward to with great expectancy. Bright
and early on the morning of the Fourth, every
member of the family was up and dressed in his
or her best. As the country was only sparsely
settled, celebrations were necessarily a long dis-
tance apart and it was often necessary to travel
many miles to attend a celebration, the method
of traveling according to circumstances being in
ox carts and wagons, on horseback or on foot.
Arrived at the place, a marshal for the day would
be chosen, who was usually a man with imposing
appearance with a voice to match. Under his di-
rection a parade would be formed at the head of
which an American flag would be carried, if a flag
was available, and if not a handkerchief would be
procured that contained the colors of the flag as
near as could be. This would be fastened to the
end of a hickory pole and carried at the head of
the procession. If a fife and drum could be se-
cured the occasion was indeed a gala day. The
exercises, conducted under the direction of a

98

A BOYHOOD BEFORE THE WAR

chairman chosen for that purpose, would include
a prayer by a minister, a reading of the Declara-
tion of Independence and the fervid speech by
some person of note who had been selected as the
orator of the day. These orations would always
include a summary of the events which led up to
the Revolutionary War, an account of the hard-
ships endured by our soldiers during that time,
and an appeal to the audience to guard well the
liberty which had cost so much to obtain. Every
man, woman and child old enough to understand
was inspired on these occasions to do everything
possible to perpetuate this glorious republic; and
thus the spirit of patriotism was instilled in the
minds of the young which influenced them to be
loyal and patriotic Americans. The way in which
our natal day is now celebrated is in sad contrast
with the celebrations when I was a boy : now the
day is given over to sports and amusements and,
in fact, to almost every use except that of teach-
ing the rising generation the origin and the mean-
ing of the day in American history.

The pioneers were honest. With them the
word was as good as the bond. This was im-
pressed upon me by an incident which occurred
before I was quite ten years of age. My father
bought some cattle from his neighbors in the
spring of 1847 and drove them to Wisconsin to
market. One Sunday soon after his return with
the money which he received from the cattle, he

99

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

and mother and the older children went to church
some seven or eight miles distant and left me and
a sister younger than I to look after the house.
After they had gone a neighbor, W. S. Crawford,
came to the house to see my father. I informed
him that the folks had gone to church and likely
would not be back until late in the afternoon.
Crawford then explained to me that the purpose
of his visit was to get $300.00 in cash for cattle
that my father had bought from him to market in
Wisconsin, and that he was disappointed in not
finding him home because he had promised a
neighbor of his to let him have a sum of money
on Monday morning. I knew where father kept
the money and I also knew of his indebtedness to
Mr. Crawford, so I took him into the house, pulled
out an old calfskin covered trunk with no lock on
it, in which my father kept his money. Crawford
and I counted out the amount of his account in
silver and gold coins, the silver being in French
and Spanish and the gold in American coin. Pru-
dent men in those days did not handle £a£££
money, known as wildcat money, because its value
depended entirely upon the solvency of the bank
that issued the bill, which might be good but
which was more likely not. Mr. Crawford took
the money that we counted out and not being
able to find pen or paper with which to execute a
receipt, he went to the fireplace, took out a piece
of hard clay and wrote on a log above the fire-

100

A BOYHOOD BEFORE THE WAR

place, "Ake, I got my money," and underneath
this signed his name, "Bill Crawford." My fa-
ther's name was James Aiken McLean, but for
short his friends called him Ake. When he came
home later I told him that Mr. Crawford had been
there, and he wanted to know if Bill got his
money, in reply to which I called his attention to
the receipt written on the log. He smiled when he
read it but never asked how much I had paid
Crawford, because he had implicit faith in Craw-
ford's honesty just as Crawford had in his hon-
esty.

During my boyhood great strides were made in
the settlement, of the state and in improvements.
The farmers had better houses, better stock, bet-
ter farming implements, better barns, and their
children were better fed, better clothed and better
educated. We had store clothes, boots and shoes,
and rode on leather saddles. Mail routes were be-
ing extended so that all portions of the state were
brought in touch with the outside world ; in fact,
by the time I was ten years old the state had out-
grown its first constitution, and another was
adopted in 1848, in which year the Illinois and
Michigan Canal was finally completed.

Perhaps the most wonderful thing in the devel-
opment of our prairie empire, and the thing
which, more than any other, has aided that devel-
opment, has been the improvement and extension
of the means of transportation. As stated here-

101

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

tof ore, it so happened that the steamboat appeared
at about the time of my father's birth, and the
locomotive appeared at about the time of my
birth; consequently it has been a portion of my
good fortune to observe the growth of the rail-
roads in Illinois from the very beginning, when,
in the year of my birth, the first railroad, operated
with horses as motive power, was built from the
bank of the Mississippi opposite St. Louis, and
within the present city of East St. Louis, a dis-
tance of six miles to the bluffs which now mark
the eastern limit of East St. Louis. This road
was built for the transportation of coal to St.
Louis. In 1838, eight miles of track were laid
from Meredosia in an easterly direction as a part
of the Northern Cross Railroad, which, under the
great internal improvement plan of 1837, was to
be constructed from Quincy on the Mississippi
River, through Meredosia, Jacksonville, and
Springfield to the Indiana State line. It was on
this eight miles of track that the first steam loco-
motive in the Mississippi valley was operated.

On a visit which I made to Springfield many
years ago, the Secretary of State, who was a per-
sonal friend of mine, showed me the record of
the shipment of that locomotive which disclosed
that the engine was lost in transit somewhere be-
tween its place of manufacture in the east and its
Illinois destination.

On account of the fact that the internal im-
102

A BOYHOOD BEFORE THE WAR

provement plans nearly plunged the state into
hopeless bankruptcy, an effective check was placed
on further railroad building by the state, so that
the Northern Cross was built only to Jacksonville,
a distance of about twenty-five miles, which cost
the state approximately one million dollars, and
out of which it realized later one-tenth of that
sum. The next project in point of time was the
construction of the Chicago and Galena road to
connect the new metropolis on Lake Michigan
and the lead mining district around Galena. A
part of this road was finished from Chicago to
Elgin in 1850, which is now a portion of the main
line of the present Chicago & Northwestern.

One of the outstanding features of the internal
improvement dream of 1837 was the construction
of a "central" railroad from the southern terminus
of the Illinois & Michigan Canal to the junction
of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. Like the
other projects of that scheme, a little work was
done on it and it was abandoned because the state
had bitten off more than it could chew, and this
worthy project suffered with the rest. In 1848,
however, the completion of the canal renewed the
agitation for the road with the result that in Sep-
tember, 1850, the Congress of the United States
passed an Act granting nearly three million acres
of government lands in Illinois to aid in building
the road, and, at the same time, made similar
grants to the states south of Illinois so that the

103

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

road might be continued to the Gulf of Mexico.
The Act granted a right of way two hundred feet
in width for the railway through the public lands,
and granted to the state to aid in its construction
the alternate sections of land of even numbers
six sections back from the railway in both direc-
tions.

Under the grant, it was up to the Illinois legis-
lature to establish the route of the main line from
Ottawa to Cairo, and also of the branches which
had been provided for to Chicago and Galena.
Very bitter contentions were engendered in this
way between opposing interests which wanted
the railroad in one location or another; and I
remember that it was expected in our neighbor-
hood that it would be put through on a direct line
from Cairo to Ottawa through Benton to Mt.
Vernon, where the Galena branch would be de-
flected through Greenville, Springfield and Peoria
to Galena ; but the controlling influence in the loca-
tion of the road, as finally agreed upon, was the
question of which proposed route offered the
most and the best available land in the twelve-
mile strip through which the road would operate,
and it was upon this basis that it was located as
at present, some twenty miles west of Benton.

When the legislature convened in January, 1851,
there was a representative on hand from a syndi-
cate of eastern capitalists who offered to build
the road if they could be subrogated to the rights

104

A BOYHOOD BEFORE THE WAR

of the state in the lands granted by the federal
government. The proposal was accepted by the
legislature in consideration of a promise on the
part of the syndicate to pay seven per cent of
the gross income of the road into the state treas-
ury, under which agreement the road has paid
about forty millions of dollars in revenue to the
state since 1855, when theJHlinois lines were prac-
tically compTetecL" From this beginning, the Illi-
nois Central Railroad has developed into one of
the biggest systems in the country, operating now
nearly five thousand miles of railway; and it has
served as a potent factor in the development of
the state and its resources.

So it has happened that during my lifetime the
railroads of the state have been developed to their
present wonderful standard. Be it remembered
that, at the time of my birth, there were no rail-
roads operating in the state ; today there are more
than 13,000 miles of main lines in service which,
with the duplication of mileage in the case of
double track lines and with industrial and yard
tracks, bring the total up to nearly 25,000 miles
of railway tracks, or enough, if laid on the equa-
tor, to reach around the world. That, in my opin-
ion, is not only the most wonderful advance which
we have made, but it has had the most potent in-
fluence in the development of our rich resources,
being virtually the handmaiden of mining and ag-
riculture.

105

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

The thing which, in the early days, pointed to
Illinois as the central or pivotal state of the ter-
ritory between the Appalachian and Rocky moun-
tains was the fact that all of the great navigable
waterways of the upper Mississippi valley border
or impinge upon our favored territory, including
the Great Lakes, the Mississippi, the Missouri,
the Ohio, the Cumberland and the Tennessee.
Add to this imposing array the fact that prac-
tically all the great railway systems of the United
States lead to Illinois, just as, in olden times, all
roads led to Rome, and that the city of Chicago
is the greatest railway center of the whole world,
and it readily will be seen that in transportation
facilities we easily lead in the sisterhood states.
And it is our knowledge of this favored situation
and our quiet confidence that it will be seen and
appreciated by others that convinces the thought-
ful Chicagoan that some day our city, sitting like
a queen by our inland sea at the head of the rich-
est valley in the world, will be the center of the
commerce and industry of civilization.

106

CHAPTER XIII
THE RISE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

The life history of Abraham Lincoln is a his-
tory of the opposition in this country to the insti-
tution of human slavery. Heretofore attention
has been called to the fact that the people from
whom the great emancipator sprung were un-
alterably opposed to the institution, from whom
he doubtless imbibed his early hatred of the sys-
tem. Just before coming to Illinois he made a
trip from Indiana down the Ohio and Mississippi
rivers to New Orleans, where he had his first view
of a slave market. It is said that the sight caused
him to exclaim : "If I ever get a chance I will hit
that institution and hit it hard"! His emancipa-
tion proclamation in later years was the promised
blow which struck the shackles from four million
human beings.

Two years after his arrival in Illinois he was a
candidate for the state legislature, taking a cour-
ageous stand against the proposed building of a
railroad by the state on account of its great cost,
and advocating instead the improvement of the
Sangamon River for water borne transportation
as being "much better suited to our infant re-

107

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

sources." The internal improvement fever, just
then waxing into its greatest strength, was
enough to defeat him. After announcing his
candidacy for the legislature, he enlisted for serv-
ice in the Black Hawk War and was elected cap-
tain of his company. Returning from this service
he reached his home in New Salem, Sangamon
County, less than two weeks prior to the election,
in which, although defeated, he made a very re-
spectable showing.

The following year he was appointed post-
master at New Salem. Correspondence by mail
in those days was not as common as it is now,
for, with money as scarce as it then was, it cost
25c to mail a letter; and consequently Lincoln
had considerable time at his disposal which he
devoted to the occupation of surveying and in
general study.

At the next election of members of the legis-
lature in 1834 he was again a candidate, this time
with greater success, being elected with the sec-
ond highest vote in a field of thirteen candidates.
Among the four members for Sangamon County
elected at that time was John T. Stuart, who was
a major in the Black Hawk War. Stuart was a
lawyer, and had a law library which was ac-
counted the best in that section of the state. Be-
ing greatly impressed with Lincoln's native
ability and honesty, Major Stuart offered him
access to his library, aided and encouraged him

108

THE RISE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

in a study of the law, and later took him into his
office as a partner.

In 1836 Lincoln was again elected to the legis-
lature, and it was in that session that he met
Stephen A. Douglas, elected to the House from
Morgan County. Lincoln was again elected to
the legislature in 1838 and in 1840, serving in the
latter term with Lyman Trumbull of St. Clair
County. He declined a renomination for a fifth
term in the legislature.

While representing Sangamon County in the
legislature, which then met at Vandalia, the ques-
tion came up of moving the capitol further north
to keep pace with the trend of settlement. In the
competition for the new location, he was in charge
of the interests of Springfield, and is credited
with doing some very clever politcal maneuvering
which won the permanent location of the state
capitol.

Lincoln was serving as a member of the legis-
lature at the time of my birth in 1837, and the year
before that had insisted on being recorded against
a resolution passed in the State legislature recog-
nizing the right of property in human beings. A
portion of his protest entered on the Journal of
the House stated it as a part of his creed "that the
institution of slavery is founded on both injustice
and bad policy."

Following his retirement from the legislature,
Lincoln gave his full time to his growing law

109

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

practice, getting back into politics in 1846, when
he was elected to Congress. His rival of later
years, Stephen A. Douglas, was also elected to the
same Congress, but before it convened was elected
to the Senate. The Illinois delegation in that
Congress included Judge Breese and Judge
Douglas in the Senate and O. B. Ficklin, John
Wentworth, of Chicago, and Abraham Lincoln
among the seven members in the House. Hanni-
bal Hamlin, later Vice-President with Lincoln,
was in the Senate from Maine; Daniel Webster
was serving his last term in the Senate from
Massachusetts; Jefferson Davis represented Mis-
sissippi, Thomas H. Benton represented Missouri,
Simon Cameron represented Pennsylvania and
John C. Calhoun represented South Carolina in
the Senate. Among Lincoln's colleagues in the
House was David Wilmot, of Pennsylvania,
author of the famous "Wilmot Proviso" that
slavery should never exist in the territory ac-
quired from Mexico, for which Lincoln boasted
that he voted forty or fifty times.

Consistent with the past and prophetic of his
future, the first set speech Lincoln made in Con-
gress was on the thesis that the Maxican War,
begun early in 1847, "had been unnecessarily and
unconstitutionally commenced by President
James K. Polk." This speech of Lincoln's re-
quired courage of the highest order because at
the time he made it the capitol of Mexico had been

110

THE RISE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

captured, and a few weeks later the treaty was
made which added to the United States territory
equal in area to Germany, France and Spain com-
bined. Lincoln attacked the Mexican War as
covering the ulterior purpose of securing addi-
tional territory out of which slave states might
be created, thus maintaining the historic balance
in the United States Senate between the slave
states and the free states. In referring to Lin-
coln's attitude toward the Mexican War, his sec-
retary and later biographer, John G. Nicolay,
says: "Replying to the Democratic charge that
they (the Whigs) were unpatriotic in denouncing
the war, they voted in favor of every measure to
sustain, supply and encourage the soldiers in the
field."

Upon completing his single term of service in
Congress, Lincoln returned to Springfield appar-
ently with the intention of abandoning politics
and public life to devote himself to the profession
of law. However, he was not to be allowed to
exercise his own desires. He himself is authority
for the statement that "in 1854 his profession had
almost superseded the thought of politics in his
mind, when the repeal of the Missouri Com-
promise aroused him as he had never been before.
In the autumn of that year he took the stump,
with no broader practical aim or object than to
secure, if possible, the re-election of Hon. Richard
Yates to Congress" from the Springfield district.

Ill

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

This contest gained for him a state-wide reputa-
tion as a public speaker and brought him into
direct conflict with Senator Stephen A. Douglas,
who had brought about the repeal of the Missouri
Compromise.

It was supposed when the Federal Constitution
was agreed upon and adopted that slavery had
been disposed of by placing it in process of grad-
ual elimination. It was so viewed by the prom-
inent statesman of that day, but the invention of
the cotton gin spoiled the calculation by making
slave labor immensely profitable, so much so that
the moral issue was overshadowed.

The addition of the Louisiana Territory in 1803
further complicated the situation by bringing in
more fuel for the flames of discord. The first
state admitted from this territory was Louisiana,
which came in as a slave state in 1812. Maine
next applied for admission. The South opposed
the admission of another free state unless a slave
state were admitted at the same time, and asked
for the admission of Missouri as a slave state.
There was a great outburst on both sides of the
question, which was stilled by Henry Clay who,
in 1820, came forward with his famous Missouri
Compromise, which provided for the admission
of Missouri as a slave state, but further provided
that there should be no other slave states formed
north of the parallel 36 degrees 30 minutes north
latitude — the southern boundary of Missouri.

112

THE RISE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

This agreement was observed until the Mexican
War brought in the additional southwestern ter-
ritory now included in California, Utah, Nevada,
Arizona and New Mexico. The discovery of gold
in California in 1848 attracted thousands of set-
tlers there, making it eligible for admission as a
state. From a glance at a map of the United
States it will be seen that the southern boundary
of Missouri, extended to the Pacific coast, would
pass through California near the middle. The ap-
plication of California for admission as a free
state revived the old animosity supposed to have
been forever quieted by the Missouri Compro-
mise ; and this renewed discussion resulted in an-
other series of compromises proposed by Henry
Clay, author of the Missouri Compromise, then
seventy-three years old and serving his last term
in the United States Senate.

In 1854, Senator Douglas introduced a bill in
Congress, afterward known as the Kansas-Nebras-
ka Bill, which provided for organizing territorial
governments in them. Although it had been sol-
emnly agreed between the North and the South
in the passage of the Missouri Compromise in
1820 that no other slave state should ever be cre-
ated north of the parallel 36 degrees 30 minutes,
the provisions of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill left it
for the people of these territories to decide when
ready for statehood whether they would come
into the Union as slave states or as free states,

113

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

thus repealing the time-honored agreement which
had guaranteed that there would be no slavery in
the northern portion of the Louisiana territory.

Lincoln's campaign in behalf of Yates for Con-
gress gradually led him into a general campaign
throughout the state in opposition to the repeal
of the Missouri Compromise, and made him the
candidate of the Whigs for the seat in the United
States Senate then held by James Shields. The
Whigs being in a minority in the state legislature,
Lincoln's candidacy was not regarded seriously,
although he had enough strength to bring about
the election of a Democrat, Lyman Trumbull, who
was opposed to the repeal of the Missouri Com-
promise.

The two years following constituted a period
of political realignment. The Jacksonian Dem-
ocrat party was on the verge of dissolution over
slavery, those in the South contending that Con-
gress had no authority to prohibit slavery any-
where in the United States, while the northern
wing was for recognizing the institution where it
had acquired "vested rights" but opposed its ex-
tension to free territory. It was in a vain at-
tempt to reconcile these extremes that Stephen A.
Douglas evolved his doctrine of local option or
"squatter sovereignty," as it came to be known.
The Whig party, which was born in the campaign
which had resulted in the election, in 1840, of
"Old Tippecanoe," William Henry Harrison, and

114

THE RISE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

in 1S48, of General "Zach" Taylor, and which had
served only as a party of opposition to the Dem-
ocratic party, was hopelessly disrupted over the
paramount slavery issue, the South on one side
and the North on the other. At that time a party
had grown up known as the Know Nothing party
which was the first and original anti-Catholic
party, the forerunner of the later American Pro-
tective Association and the present Guardians of
Liberty and similar organizations. The Know
Nothings also went to pieces on the rock of slav-
ery.

Seeing the need and opportunity for a new
party, Lincoln engaged in the organization of the
Republican party, meeting with a few sympa-
thetic newspaper men in Decatur in February,
1856, to issue a call for a state convention to be
held the following May in Bloomington. Lincoln
was the guiding spirit of the Bloomington con-
vention which marked the birth of the Republican
party in Illinois. I have been told by men who
were present at that convention that on that occa-
sion Lincoln rose to heights of eloquence never
before or never after reached by him in political
discussions. No verbatim report of the speech
was ever made for the reason, it has since been
explained, that the stenographers who were sent
to report the speech were so entranced by his
wonderful effort that they neglected to take it
down.

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ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

The newly organized Republican party placed
in the field that year as its candidate for president,
General John C. Fremont, who received 114 out
of a total electoral vote of 296, showing unmistak-
ably the public sentiment behind the new political
organization. In the national convention in
which Fremont was nominated, Lincoln received
110 votes for the nomination for vice-president,
giving evidence of the fact that he was fast be-
coming a national character. Not being of age, I
was unable to vote in that election, but my father
cast a vote for the first Republican candidate for
president.

James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, "a northern
man with southern principles," was elected pres-
ident. Although the Democratic platform on
which he stood with smug hypocrisy described
this as "the land of liberty and the asylum of the
oppressed of every nation," and glibly declared
for the squatter sovereignty advocated by Sen-
ator Douglas as "the only sound and safe solution
of the slavery question," Douglas evidently was
not considered by the Democrats as "safe" as
Buchanan. Shortly after Buchanan's inaugura-
tion in 1857, the Supreme Court of the United
States handed down a sweeping decision on the
slavery question which held that neither Congress
nor a territorial legislature had authority to pro-
hibit slavery in Federal territory, and declaring
that the Negro "had no rights which the white

116

THE RISE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

man was bound to respect." It may be of interest
in passing to state that the dissenting opinion in
that case was written by Associate Justice John
McLean, who had been on the Supreme Bench
then about thirty years. He was a descendent, as
I was, of the McLeans who settled along the
Schuylkill River.

The senatorial term of Stephen A. Douglas ex-
piring March 4, 1859, the Republican State Con-
vention of Illinois, on June 16, 1858, passed a
unanimous resolution that "Abraham Lincoln is
the first and only choice of the Republicans of
Illinois for the United States Senate as the suc-
cessor of Stephen A. Douglas." In accepting this
nomination, Lincoln made his famous speech de-
claring that "A house divided against itself can-
not stand; this government cannot endure per-
manently half slave and half free." Following
his nomination, he challenged Douglas to a series
of debates, and these were arranged to be held at
seven different places in the months of August,
September and October of that year. The first
debate was held at Ottawa, the second at Free-
port, and the third was held early in September
at Jonesboro in southern Illinois.

Having heard a great deal about Lincoln, and
my people being partisans of his, I determined to
see and hear him. Accordingly, on the day of the
Jonesboro debate, I drove the twenty-five miles
from our home to Du Quoin, the nearest town on

117

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

the Illinois Central, and there took a train to
Jonesboro. The place where the debate was held
was in a grove in the edge of the town, and there
was a large crowd of people out to hear the ora-
torical gladiators, as both men by that time had
national reputations as public speakers. The
crowd in attendance was distinctly a Douglas
crowd, so partisan in character that Judge Doug-
las gallantly and patronizingly bespoke their most
courteous behavior toward his opponent who, he
assured us, was a gentleman in every respect. It
must be remembered in this connection that
southern Illinois was settled almost entirely from
the South, and that a majority of these people
sympathized with the peculiar southern institu-
tion of slavery, while northern Illinois was set-
tled largely from New England and reflected the
political views of that country. The central por-
tion of the state surrounding Springfield was re-
garded as neutral territory in which the Know
Nothing party had its strongest following.

As much as I admired Lincoln and the things
for which he stood, his personal appearance and
address were very disappointing. He was a very
tall man, standing about six feet six inches in his
boots. While Douglas was speaking, Lincoln sat
in a chair that was rather low, and as his feet were
drawn in well toward the chair his knees were
elevated to such a height and at such a sharp an-
gle that it gave him a ludicrous appearance; and

118

THE RISE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN

as he sat there he had a sad, faraway look in his
eyes that gave me the impression that he was
grieving about something and paying no atten-
tion whatever to the argument and eloquence of
Judge Douglas. When the judge finished and
Lincoln was introduced he began to rise out of
that chair, it seemed to me, one section at a time,
until finally he stood head and shoulders above
those around him. If I had been disappointed at
his appearance, I certainly was at his delivery,
for he began his address in a high-pitched, treble
voice, all out of proportion to his massive head
and frame, and accompanied it with rather an
awkward carriage and gesture ; but as he warmed
into his subject, I became unconscious of his ap-
pearance and his voice in the realization that I
was listening to a wonderful message from a great
soul, as, with unerring accuracy, he recalled every
point Douglas had made and demolished it with
his masterful logic. The Douglas supporters who
had come to hear the "Little Giant" (as they
fondly termed him) lay out Lincoln, went home
thinking, and those of us who stood with Lincoln
went home dead-sure that we were right.

At Freeport, a few days prior to the Jonesboro
debate, Lincoln had put the question to Douglas
whether the people of a territory, prior to its ad-
mission as a state, could exclude slavery. When
friends of his to whom he confided his intention
of asking that question tried to dissuade him from

119

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

doing so, pointed out that Douglas would answer
that slavery could not exist in a territory unless
the people desired it, and that such an answer
would win for him the senatorship for which they
were then contending, Lincoln, with that same
far-away look and a quiet smile replied: "Gen-
tlemen, I am killing larger game; if Douglas an-
swers he can never be president, and the battle of
1860 is worth a hundred of this." Lincoln asked
the question at Freeport, Douglas had answered
as expected, and at Jonesboro I had the distinc-
tion of hearing the great Lincoln pick the Doug-
las sophistry into shreds. Since then I have often
wondered if, as he sat there on the platform with
the serious, dreamy look in his eyes, he might be
then looking forward to the "battle of 1860 which
is worth a hundred of this." That occasion I
have always treasured as one of the things of my
life which was worth living for, and, as I decided
shortly after that, worth dying for if necessary.

120

CHAPTER XIV

MY STUDENT DAYS

When I approached the time to determine what
vocation in life I should follow, my mind was
well made up that I would be a doctor. Father
wanted me to stay on the farm and follow the in-
dependent though then somewhat irksome occu-
pation of farmer; but I had no taste for such a
life, and convinced him that he should allow me
to follow my own inclination. It has been said
that when a boy is too lazy to work, too honest for
a lawyer and too wayward for a clergyman, he
should become a doctor. Father probably took
that view of the situation and gave his consent.

My general education when I began the study
of medicine was what had been acquired in the
rural schools in our neighborhood, supplemented
by an attendance at the school in Benton for about
nine months, where there were better and more
extended facilities than we had in the country.
This schooling, together with what general in-
formation I had been able to absorb from reading
everything which came within my reach, consti-
tuted my education at the age of twenty.

In the early winter of 1858, soon after attending
121

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

the Jonesboro debate between Lincoln and Doug-
las, I began a study of medicine and surgery in the
office of Doctor Francis Ronalds, of Benton, who
was my first preceptor. He was himself young in
the profession, having been graduated from Rush
College, in Chicago, in 1856, establishing himself
in Benton, where he continued his practice until
the spring of 1860, when he removed to Grayville,
111., where he died just a few years ago at the ripe
age of eighty, loved and respected by all who ever
knew him. Doctor Ronalds as a man was morally
clean and without a blemish; as a physician he
was conscientiously devoted to his profession,
the night never being too dark nor the way too
long or dreary, nor the weather too forbidding
to deter him from answering the call of distress.
His code of ethics was the Golden Rule. He
never spoke disparagingly of a brother physician ;
never hawked his patient's ailments about town;
and never tried to win patients or practice away
from other doctors. He was a man and a physi-
cian of a type that, unfortunately, is all too
scarce.

I studied in Doctor Ronalds' office during the
winter of 1858-59, and went back to the farm in
the spring to help my father with his work. When
the crops were garnered in the fall, I accepted
employment in a drug store in McLeansboro for
a couple of months to aid me both financially and
in my study of medicine. Then I returned to

122

MY STUDENT DAYS

Benton to resume my study under Doctor Ronalds
and remained with him until he moved away in
1860, when I went into the office of Doctor Isaac
M. Neeley, with whom I studied until I went to
school in St. Louis in the fall of 1860. Dr. Neeley
was a splendid man and a good physician, and
lived to a good old age, passing away not many
years ago in Evanston at the home of his splendid
son, Charles G. Neeley, who will be remembered
as assistant states attorney of Cook County dur-
ing the incumbency of Judge Longenecker, and
later as a judge of the Circuit Court of Cook
County.

While studying in Doctor Neeley's office in the
summer of 1860, the first Republican convention
held in Franklin County convened in the court-
house at Benton. Political feeling was running
very high at that time, and as there were but few
Republicans in Franklin County and as I was
strong in that faith, naturally I took part in that
convention, in which I was honored by being
chosen secretary. It was in the course of that
campaign that I became acquainted with a man,
then of a political faith opposed to mine but who
was destined to become one of the great leaders
of the Republican party and a heroic figure of his
time. I refer to that stalwart American and dis-
tinguished soldier, General John Alexander
Logan, known to his friends as "Black Jack," on
account of his heavy black hair, dark eyes and

123

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

swarthy complexion. Logan lived in Benton at
the time, and was a candidate for Congress on
the Democratic ticket in our Congressional Dis-
trict, then the 9th.

At the solicitation of and on promise of finan-
cial aid by some local Democratic business men,
two young brothers from northern Illinois by
the name of Sellers had recently come to Benton
and established a paper to spread Democratic doc-
trine. It came to the knowledge of some of we
young Republicans that the Sellers boys were at
heart Republicans, that the Democrats had failed
to make good on their promise of support, and
that they owed the boys $600. Thinking it would
be a great political coup to change the policy of
the paper in that hotbed of democracy and south-
ern sympathizers, we young Republicans agreed
to raise the money if the Sellers brothers would
change the policy of their paper to the Republican
cause, which they agreed to do.

The deal was made and a proof sheet was print-
ed when Logan learned that his home paper was
to be turned against him. He was away at the
time campaigning but hurriedly returning to Ben-
ton he gathered some of his political associates
and went down to interview the editors, they
stating later that they were threatened by the
Democrats with violence if they persisted in their
determination to change the policy of the paper.
After supper we Republicans went to the news-

124

MY STUDENT DAYS

paper office where we found the Democrats on
guard, as mad as hornets. While one of our party
interviewed Logan, I went into the typeroom
where I found the Sellers boys frightened nearly
out of their boots. On being asked what had be-
come of the proof sheet one of them pointed to
an old Franklin stove in the room which was not
in use, of course, as it was then mid-summer.
About midnight two of our gang went back to
the newspaper office, and finding the Democratic
guard asleep one of them went in through the
window, got the proof sheets out of the stove and
took it back to the hotel, where our orator and
publicity man, Dick Richardson, wrote a highly
colored account of the proceedings, which narra-
tive, together with the proof sheet, was sent to
the Chicago Tribune, which printed thousands
of copies containing the facsimile reproduction
of the proof sheet and Richardson's narrative.
In that way we were able to make greater political
capital out of the transaction than if we had
secured the Benton paper.

In the fall of 1860 I went to attend lectures and
clinics at the medical school of Washington Uni-
versity in St. Louis. I was influenced in my selec-
tion by the fact that Washington University had
an exceptionally strong faculty in its medical de-
partment. The Professor of Surgery was Doctor
Charles A. Pope, who had studied in Paris under
Valpeau, then reputed to be the greatest surgeon

125

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

in the world. Pope was a splendid lecturer and
an able demonstrator of surgery. The Professor
of Pathology and Medicine was Doctor M. L.
Linton, who had spent some time in Paris under
the tutelage of the great Andral, the best in his-
tory, and who is more often quoted in works on
internal medicine than any other authority. I
remember well his first lecture to our class, the
first sentence of which was, "All disease is the
result of a qualitative or quantitative change in
the blood." The Professor of Physiology was
Doctor J. W. Waters, a logical thinker and a pol-
ished speaker. He was the first one I knew of
who advocated the open air treatment of tuber-
culosis, and that was long before the bacillus of
the disease was discovered. In addition to these
there were many other able teachers, including
John B. Johnson, Professor of Clinical Medicine ;
M. A. Pallon, Professor of Obstetrics and Dis-
eases of Women and Children; W. M. McPheters,
Professor of Materia Medica and Pharmacy; and
E. H. Gregory, Professor of Clinical Surgery and
Surgical Anatomy.

When I began the study of medicine in the late
50's, the science was undergoing a change from
the old antiphlogistic method of treatment to a
saner and more conservative method. Hitherto
the practice had been to administer copious doses
of calomel, jalap, and tartar emetic, to bleed the
patient freely and to put a generous fly blister over

126

MY STUDENT DAYS

the diseased part. When the doctor called on the
morrow, if the patient was not better or mori-
bund, the treatment was given again. In the prac-
tice in my student days, bleeding had been elimi-
nated by well-informed physicians, and the size
of doses had been materially diminished, as had
also the dimensions and severity of the blisters;
and, just contrary to the former practice and its
enervating effect, tonics and stimulants were given
to sustain the patient.

It was required of a student that he read all the
authorities obtainable on the different branches of
medical education and especially on physiology
and anatomy, which were very dry and hard to
learn. The books available had few illustrations
and those were indifferently executed wood cuts.
The other branches were recreation compared to
physiology and anatomy.

When the student tired of studying and trying
to assimilate theoretical knowledge, he was set to
the practical task of compounding medicine, mak-
ing pills, tinctures and ointments. We had no
gelatine capsules, compressed tablets or sugar
coated pills; and we had no temperature ther-
mometers nor hypodermic syringes as now. The
doctors in those days carried their medicine in
pill bags, large enough to hold all their different
remedies.

All the teaching in the medical schools was by
lectures, and a professor in a medical college nec-

127

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

essarily must be a good lecturer. We had six
lectures each day, and it kept the students busy
to keep up. There were six students boarding
where I boarded, and we made a compact that
after supper we would get together, take up
the subjects seriatim, when one of us would state
what he remembered of the lecture and others who
remembered some points that were forgotten by
the speaker would add them. By that means we
got a clear insight into the subject, and at the
same time cultivated the memory.

This grind kept up until after the holidays,
when secession was loudly talked by many of the
students, a majority of them being from the
South. Strange to say, there were no outbreaks
of hostility among the students, due, I think, to
a talk Professor Pope gave the boys when we saw
the storm coming. He was a southern man and a
Democrat, yet he was a strong unionist. He said,
"While the rupture of the Union would be a de-
plorable calamity, we must not lose sight of the
fact that we were gentlemen and had selected
the highest calling known to man." We heard
no more talk of secession for some time, when
one morning Dr. Pope read a note from a student
by the name of Jordan, who was from North Caro-
lina, a candidate for graduation, asking that he be
examined that he might go home and enter the
Confederate Army. Dr. Pope said, "No man will
be examined until the regular time at the close

128

MY STUDENT DAYS

of the school." That put a stop to requests of that
kind, and in a few days Jordan left school as did
some others.

When I arrived in St. Louis to attend college,
political sentiment was at high tide. Lincoln and
Hamlin were running at the head of the Republi-
can ticket; opposed to them were Stephen A.
Douglas and Johnson on the regular Democratic
ticket. Douglas* advocacy of Squatter Sover-
eignty had made him persona non grata to the
Southern Democrats, who stood for the Taney
decision in the Dred Scott case that the people of
a territory could not exclude slavery from its
limits ; and these unregenerated Democrats bolted
the Baltimore convention in which Douglas was
nominated and held a convention in Charleston,
S. C., where they nominated as their candidates
Breckenridge and Lane as straight out slavery
advocates. Another ticket was in the field called
the Native American ticket, at the head of which
was John Bell, of Tennessee, leading the remnants
of the Whig and No Nothing parties. In St.
Louis I heard the burning issues of the campaign
discussed by such oratorical heavy weights as
Stephen A. Douglas, Schuyler Colfax, Francis P.
Blair, John J. Crittenden and a host of lesser
lights.

St. Louis had a large German population which
was, with few exceptions, loyal and Republican
in politics. Word was passed around that loyal

129

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

students might vote if they so desired in the Ger-
man district, so on election day I went down to
the south end of the city and voted for Lincoln
and Hamlin. The election officials in that pre-
cinct were all Germans. They asked me but two
questions, my name and age. I presume, strictly
speaking, it was illegal, but I had the supreme sat-
isfaction of casting a vote in a slave state for my
political idol, Abraham Lincoln, of blessed mem-
ory. The election in the nation at large resulted
in a triumphant victory for Lincoln, who secured
180 electoral votes out of a total of 303, of which
Douglas received only 12, although he had a large
popular vote.

Following the election the feeling daily ran
higher and higher with the result that many peo-
ple left St. Louis bound either north or south as
their sympathies dictated. On December 17, 1860,
a convention in South Carolina passed a resolu-
tion declaring that it had seceded from the Union ;
by the first of February, 1861, six other of the
slave states had declared for secession, and on
February 4th a convention of delegates from these
states was held in Montgomery, Ala., where a
constitution was framed and a government organ-
ized under the name, "Confederate States of
America," of which Jefferson Davis, of Missis-
sippi, was chosen president, and Alexander H.
Stevens, of Georgia, was chosen vice-president.
By the sufferance if not the co-operation of Presi-

130

MY STUDENT DAYS

dent Buchanan, the rebels were allowed to seize
many United States military establishments and
government munitions of war located in the se-
ceding states; but some of these under the com-
mand of loyal Union officers refused thus to aid
and abet the enemy. Among the places which
held out was Fort Sumter, in Charleston harbor,
which was immediately invested by the rebels
with a view to its capture.

131

CHAPTER XV
WAR!

Just one week after the organization of the Con-
federacy, President Lincoln left his home in
Springfield on his trip to Washington to be inaug-
urated chief executive of the nation. Standing on
the car platform, he bade his friends in Springfield
an affectionate farewell. As if in prophecy, he
said to them among other things: "Here I have
lived a quarter of a century, and have passed from a
young to an old man. Here my children have been
born, and one is buried. I now leave, not knowing
when or whether ever I may return, with a task
before me greater than that which rested upon
Washington." In his last few days at Springfield
Lincoln had composed his inaugural address and
carried it to Washington with him. It was an
argument against the fallacious assumption that
two separate governments could be made out of
the nation, and also a powerful plea to the South to
refrain from taking the threatened step. It closed
with these memorable words :

"I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but
friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion
may have strained, it must not break our bonds of
132

WAR!

affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching
from every battle-field and patriot grave to every
living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land,
will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again
touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels
of our nature."

In the month of February, soon after the forma-
tion of the Confederate government, a number of
loyal men in St. Louis met and organized a com-
mittee of safety. Among those who participated
in the movement were Doctor Pope of our faculty,
Doctor Hammer, Captain Nathaniel Lyon, Con-
gressman Francis P. Blair and Henry T. Blow. It
was through the efforts of this organization that
the rebel "Camp Jackson" at St. Louis was broken
up in May following, which action saved St. Louis,
and probably southern Illinois to the Union cause.
In recognition of his loyal and brave services in
this undertaking Lyon was made a Brigadier-
General.

Following the inauguration of President Lin-
coln, events moved rapidly to the inevitable clash
of arms. The morale of our school was so badly
disturbed by the departure of the students, par-
ticularly those from the South, to take up arms
that the term was brought to an end much earlier
than usual, about April 1, 1861.

When I got home to southern Illinois, everybody
was anxiously looking for the next move ; and we
did not have long to wait, for, on the 12th of April,

133

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

at 4:00 A. M., the first gun was fired on Fort Sum-
ter. That, like the firing of the first gun at Con-
cord, in the beginning of the Revolutionary War,
was heard around the world, and was the death
knell of the dogma that one man had the Divine
right to own another man. At first, every person
in the North stood as if stunned by a blow; but
soon they were aroused as if by an electric shock
when Lincoln issued his call for 75,000 volunteers.
All over the Northland the cry went up : "The
Union must and shall be preserved." In every
humble village, town and city was heard the hum
of preparation for war. The merchant left his
counting room, the lawyer his brief, the physician
his patients, the farmer his plow, the carpenter his
plane and saw, the blacksmith his forge, the
teacher his school; every trade, profession and
calling was represented in the army. This was
impressed upon me later when we landed in Padu-
cah, Kentucky. All the citizens left town and as
our General in command had taken possession of a
newspaper office, and wanted some typesetters and
printers, he made a request of a Chicago regiment
in his command, and it was found that there were
more than twenty men in the regiment who knew
the printer's trade. I never heard of a case where
there was not a man at hand for any work, general
or special, that was required, as there was not a
trade nor a calling that was not well represented in
the army. All were volunteers, who did not enlist

134

WAR!

for the paltry pay they received, but there was a
higher motive that actuated them — Patriotism.

I enlisted in the first company raised in our
vicinity, but our organization did not get into the
service until about the first of August, 1861. We
organized our regiment at Sandoval, and elected
Stephen G. Hicks, Colonel; George W. Booth, Lieu-
tenant Colonel; and John B. Smith, Major; and
took a train on the I. C. R. R. (main line) and went
to Camp Butler, near Springfield, Illinois, where
we were sworn into the United States service.
From there we went to St. Louis, detraining on the
Illinois side in the night, and sleeping in the sand.
We had no tents or camp equipage and nothing to
cook.

A very amusing incident occurred there. Early
in the morning a man brought a wagon load of
watermelons in to sell to the boys. They were
hungry and had little or no money; but they
wanted watermelons. A number of them climbed
onto the wagon and would ask the man what a
melon was worth, and while he was talking to this
soldier a number of melons were thrown off by
other soldiers and caught by soldiers on the
ground, who ran off with them. The man began
to take in the situation and realized that his melons
were disappearing, and that he had little money
for them, so he picked up his reins, whipped up his
team and left.

We did not remain there long, being taken
135

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

aboard a boat which landed us at Jefferson Bar-
racks, the United States military post on the Mis-
sissippi river, a few miles south of St. Louis on the
Missouri side, where we were to be furnished with
arms, ammunition and equipment. While waiting
there, the battle of Wilson's Creek, near Spring-
field in southwestern Missouri, was fought, in
which the Union army was defeated and General
Nathaniel Lyon, in command, was killed. On the
day this unwelcome news reached us, I was away
from camp on a fishing trip with a man by the
name of Miller; and on our return, lo and behold!
our camp had disappeared — there was not a man in
sight. There was a boat down at the landing, how-
ever, so we went over to see if we could learn what
had become of our regiment, which we found hud-
dled on the bank of the river near the boat landing.
There was great excitement among the men over
the defeat of our army at Wilson's Creek; one
rumor having it that "Lyon had been killed, and
his army exterminated, and the victorious enemy
were marching on to St. Louis."

Not long after Miller and I had joined the boys
on the river bank, where, it was very apparent, they
were glad to be in such a favorable location for
embarking and getting out of that country, the
14th Illinois regiment marched down to the river,
got aboard the boat which was in waiting and
steamed up the river. It then transpired that the
order to our regiment to embark had been given in

136

WAR!

error, the Orderly from General Curtis, our com-
manding officer, taking the order to our regiment,
the 40th, instead of to the 14th for whom it was
intended. The men of our regiment slept on the
bank of the river that night, and returned next
morning to the camp they had quit so hastily only
the afternoon before ; and it was humorously com-
mented upon at the time that some of our men in
leaving the camp had carried loads alone of which
they could not lift one end on the return the next
morning.

After a further short stay at Jefferson Barracks,
we were ordered to Bird's Point, at the junction
of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, where we re-
mained only a short time and then moved on to
Paducah, Kentucky, where a permanent military
post was established. We went to Paducah by
boat, reaching there some time before daylight,
and, as we had been warned to be on the lookout
there for the enemy, we were transferred to a
wharfboat, which is a floating dock and passenger
and freight station combined, to await the coming
of the daylight. In the interim some of our fel-
lows found a number of barrels of whiskey on the
wharfboat which they opened up in short order
and drew off the beverage that cheers and inebri-
ates in mess-pans, camp kettles and every other re-
ceptacle at hand, passing it around as ice-water.
My readers can imagine the condition of our
troops as they marched (?) ashore in the morning,

137

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

possibly to engage in battle with the enemy. I
can not recall anything in comic opera which
struck me so funny as their serious attempt, under
the circumstances, to present a military bearing.
What added to the humor of the situation was the
*act that the citizens appeared to be terror-stricken
at the approach of the soldiers, and were seized
with an immediate desire to leave town, employing
any and all kinds of conveyances for the purpose,
including drays, wagons, express carts, push carts,
wheelbarrows, baby cabs or anything that would
hold a trunk. Never before nor since have I seen
such a general exodus of inhabitants ; and when I
think of that exhibition of terror at the approach
of our then opera bouffe troop, I can not refrain
from laughing, even to this day. By noon the town
was practically deserted. And so it happened that
our troops, full of bravery and corn juice, captured
Paducah without firing a shot or shedding a drop
of blood, and with no casualties save here and there
"an awful head" following the battle with the
barrels.

We went into camp on the edge of town, al-
though, to this day, I am unable to say whether on
the north or on the south edge. Whether it was
due to the fumes of the liquor which I was forced
to inhale on the wharf boat, or whether I was just
turned around, I have never been able to deter-
mine, but all the while we were there the sun
appeared to me to rise in the west and set in the

138

WAR!

east. Our purpose in going to Paducah was to
establish a military base and a fort to guard the
mouth of the Tennessee river, which emptied into
the Ohio at that point. A marine hospital already
built at Paducah served as the nucleus of our estab-
lishment, and around it we built a^prt which was
named Fort Anderson in honor of the Major of
that name who was in command at Fort Sumter
when it was fired upon. It later was proven that
our mission was not in vain, for later in the war
when Fort Anderson was in command of our Col-
onel, Stephen G. Hicks, with a force of less than
500 troops, mostly negroes, he held the Confed-
erate General Forrest at bay with 4,000 seasoned
troops.

While we were at Fort Anderson, the post was in
command of General Charles F. Smith, a gentle-
man and a soldier. In addition to a few companies
of cavalry and artillery with which I did not come
into contact and which, consequently, I do not re-
member, the command was made up of the follow-
ing regiments and commanders: 9th Illinois In-
fantry, under command of Colonel Mercier; 12th
Illinois Infantry, under command of Colonel John
MacArthur, who became a Major General before
the war was over; 40th Illinois Infantry, under
command of Colonel Stephen G. Hicks; 41st Illi-
nois Infantry under command of Colonel Isaac
C. Pugh; 8th Missouri Infantry, under command
of Colonel Morgan L. Smith, who rose to the rank

139

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

of Major General; llth Indiana Infantry, under
command of Colonel Lew Wallace, later a Major
General, and after the war was appointed to the
position of U. S. Minister to Turkey, but is best
known as the author of many interesting novels,
including the widely read "Ben Hur"; and the
23rd Indiana Infantry, under Colonel Maginnis.

Paducah at that time was a small town of that
class in which many of the well-to-do owned cows
from which the family table was supplied with
milk and butter ; and a number of these left behind
by the fleeing inhabitants were atracted to our
camp by feeding them salt, of which cattle are very
fond; then we got to feeding them and, inciden-
tally, milking them, so that we had a generous
supply of fresh milk. Gradually the people of the
town returned to their homes after they learned
that we were settling down apparently for a long
stay, and that we were not the kind of beasts which
the Apostle John saw rise out of the sea, as de-
scribed in the 13th Chapter of Revelation, which
has been ingeniously construed of late as a pro-
phetic allegory depicting the career of the present
ruler of the German people. Those who returned
were mostly women and children, as many of the
men of military age had gone into the Confederate
army.

While in the camp at Paducah I saw one of the
worst cases of nostalgia, or homesickness, that I
can remember. I suffered an attack of fever late

140

WAR!

in October which laid me up in bed for several
days, and as we had no hospital accommodations at
the time, an empty frame house near by was im-
pressed for such service. While convalescing, a
soldier of the name of Miller came in to visit me
one day, and after fidgeting around a few minutes,
observed that he believed he would go out and cut
some wood for my fire. He had been gone but a
minute or two, during which time I heard two or
three blows of an ax, when he came in and an-
nounced that he had cut his finger. On examina-
tion, I found that his index, or "trigger" finger
and the middle' finger on his right hand had been
hacked in two or three places and almost severed
from the hand. The injury and the surrounding
circumstances indicated so certainly that it was
self-inflicted that I accused him of doing it pur-
posely, which he did not deny. Our camp surgeon
finished the job by amputating both fingers, which
the soldier was willing to endure, with the conse-
quent disgrace, in order to get back home. The
incident was reported to the War Department, and
in due course an order was received discharging
Miller from the service, which created much mer-
riment when read in accordance with established
custom at dress parade that "Lowrie Miller is dis-
honorably discharged from the service for cutting
off two fingers of his right hand. By order of the
Secretary of War." Unfortunately, there were
many such pathetic incidents in the course of the
war.

141

CHAPTER XVI
THE RISE OF GENERAL GRANT

I have always congratulated myself on the fact
that all my military service was in the command
of Ulysses S. Grant, the greatest military genius
this country has so far produced. Although a grad-
uate of West Point and a subordinate officer in the
Mexican War, he had never distinguished himself
particularly in his previous service. When the
Civil War broke out, he was in Galena, Illinois, en-
gaged with his father and brothers in operating a
mercantile business, but forthwith raised a com-
pany of volunteers and offered his services to our
War Governor Yates, who found him useful in or-
ganizing the State forces at Springfield. He was
appointed Colonel of the 21st Illinois Infantry and
had gone to Jefferson Barracks with it when,
through the influence of Congressman Washburne
of the Galena District, he was commissioned a
Brigadier-General and placed in command of the
land forces at Cairo, which, in conjunction with a
fleet of iron-clads under Commodore Foote, were
to drive the Confederates out of Kentucky and
Tennessee.

When the war began, the State executive offi-
cials of Kentucky attempted to adopt a policy of
neutrality, under which they proposed to prevent

142

THE RISE OF GENERAL GRANT

either the Union or Confederate armies from "in-
vading" the State, the practical effect of which
was to relieve the South from defending them-
selves from that quarter, through preventing the
Union forces from crossing the State. While pub-
licly thus pretending neutrality, the same officials
were secretly encouraging the recruiting, under
General S. B. Buckner, of a "State militia" which
was held, however, subject to the orders of the
Confederate Government. The Kentucky Legis-
lature, representing the majority of the people of
the State who were loyal, stood against secession.
In this critical situation, in September, 1861, Gen-
eral Albert Sidney Johnston was placed in com-
mand of the Confederate armies in the West, with
headquarters at Bowling Green, and it devolved
upon him to defend Kentucky, Tennessee and the
Mississippi river.

The assumed "neutrality" of Kentucky was vio-
lated first by the South, General Leonidas Polk
(a graduate of West Point and later Episcopal
Bishop of Louisiana) occupying Columbus, on the
Mississippi, on September 3. Grant, whose com-
mand we had joined at Bird's Point, replied
promptly by sending us into Paducah on Sep-
tember 5, which gave him control of the mouth of
the Tennessee, a river which was navigable into
northern Alabama in the heart of the confederacy.
When General Johnston took command of the
Confederate forces at Bowling Green, he saw the

143

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

strategic value of the position taken by Grant and
at once made a bid for Kentucky sentiment by
issuing a proclamation in which he pompously
offered to respect Kentucky's "neutrality" and
withdraw his army if he could be assured that the
Union commanders would do the same. If he
had any idea he could put anything like that over
Grant, he had occasion very soon to learn that he
had not correctly estimated the man who had a
reputation for doing a great deal of thinking and
smoking but not much talking.

Foreseeing possible attacks via the Tennessee
and Cumberland rivers, the Confederates had
erected forts on them just over the border into
Tennessee, out of respect to Kentucky's pro-
claimed neutrality. This accounts for the loca-
tion of Fort Henry on the east bank of the Ten-
nessee and Fort Donelson on the west bank of the
Cumberland, immediately south of the Kentucky
state line, just eleven miles apart. These forts,
with Columbus on the Mississippi, the head-
quarters of General Johnston at Bowling Green,
and an armed camp at Cumberland Gap, where
Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia converge, con-
stituted Johnston's line of defense, the key to
which were the two river forts. Johnston had in
all about 43,000 troops, indifferently accoutred and
disposed as effectively as was possible over his
line, about 300 miles long.

Opposed to him were General Buell with an
144

THE RISE OF GENERAL GRANT

army of 45,000 at Louisville and General Halleck
at St. Louis, in chief command in Missouri, in-
cluding that part of Kentucky in which Grant
was then operating west of the Cumberland. Buell
and Halleck were of equal rank and both superior
to Grant, who was thus in a position, as it were,
to be ground between the upper and nether mill-
stones.

Having made his position safe at the mouth of
the Tennessee, Grant next proceeded to command
the mouth of the Cumberland, which emptied into
the Ohio river twelve or fifteen miles above the
mouth of the Tennessee, which was about sixty
miles north of the junction of the Ohio and the
Mississippi. What might appear as an anomaly
in nature to anyone not familiar with the topogra-
phy of the country is the fact that while the
mighty Mississippi flows south, the Tennessee and
the Cumberland, a short distance to the east, flow
northward. through Kentucky side by side, at one
place being not more than five miles apart. These
two rivers rise in and drain the southern slopes
of the Appalachian mountain range.

Some time about the first of November, 1861, a
force was sent to occupy the little town of Smith-
land on the west side of the Cumberland river
where it enters the Ohio. Company A, to which
I belonged, and Company F of the 40th Regiment,
two companies of the 41st Illinois, one company
of the 12th Illinois, a troop of cavalry and a bat-

145

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

tery of artillery made up the force, which was in
command of Lieutenant-Colonel A. L. Chetlain,
of the 12th Illinois, with Major John Warner,
of the 41st Illinois, next in command. We had
little to do there aside from guard duty and build-
ing earthworks. It was too cold to do much
drilling.

At Columbus, on high ground overlooking the
Mississippi about twenty miles below Cairo, the
Confederates had erected fortifications which
earned for it the title "Gibraltar of the West." On
the Missouri shore opposite was the little town of
Belmont, also occupied by the Confederates,
against which Grant led a surprise attack on No-
vember 7 and routed the garrison, although his
force was compelled to withdraw under the fire of
the big guns on the heights of Columbus. This
reconnaissance filled Grant with confidence of his
ability to cope with the enemy, and he began im-
mediately to urge General Halleck, his superior
officer, to allow him to lead his forces against
Forts Henry and Donelson. To the suggestion
that these forts could be reduced Halleck replied,
"I can make, with the gunboats and available
troops, a pretty formidable demonstration, but no
real attack."

Grant continued to urge an assault upon the
forts, a part of his plans including an attack from
the water side by the fleet of gunboats then sta-
tioned at Cairo under the command of Commodore

146

THE RISE OF GENERAL GRANT

Foote, with whom General Grant was in close and
cordial co-operation- On January 28, 1862, Grant
urgently wired General Halleck, "With permis-
sion, I will take Fort Henry on the Tennessee."
Halleck, no longer able to withstand the im-
portunities, wired permission. On February 6
Grant had the satisfaction of sending to Halleck
the laconic message, "Fort Henry is ours."

While he had instructions to take and hold
Fort Henry, Grant went further than his instruc-
tions authorized by proceeding to invest Fort
Donelson, eleven miles east of Fort Henry on the
west bank of the Cumberland river. This was a
more serious enterprise. When General Tilgh-
man, commandant at Fort Henry, had seen that he
could not hold out against the Union forces, he
sent his garrison to re-enforce Fort Donelson,
which was under the combined command of
Major-Generals Floyd and Pillow and Brigadier-
General Simon Bolivar Buckner, the latter the
same who was a candidate for Vice-President on
the Gold Democratic ticket in 1896. General
Albert Sidney Johnston evacuated his head-
quarters at Bowling Green in order to send all the
re-enforcements possible "to defend Nashville at
Donelson." There, it was determined, was to be
the test of strength between the forces under Gen-
eral Grant and the forces of General Johnston's
command.

Fort Donelson was in an exceptionally strong
147

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

position for defense; from its position on high
ground adjoining the river, it commanded not
only the water approach for miles but the land
approach as well. As Grant's investing lines be-
gan to tighten around the fort, after the gunboats
under Commodore Foote had been repulsed, the
Confederate generals, relying on the superior
numbers of the garrison, decided to attack the
besiegers. Unfortunately, on the morning the at-
tack was staged, General Grant was some distance
down the river conferring with Commodore Foote
on the plans of what he conjectured might be a
protracted siege. Being informed of the Confed-
erate attack, he hastened to the scene of the action
where he found the Union forces in a state of dis-
order bordering on disintegration. In order to en-
courage his own forces and, as he afterward ex-
plained, to prevent the enemy from sensing his
dilemma, he ordered a charge through which he
regained what had been lost during the day.

That night was a serious one for Grant, and
probably the turning point of his career. He was
in the position of the fellow who had a bull by
the tail who was afraid to hold on and did not
dare to let go. Fortunately the leaders on the
other side were more alarmed than Grant. They
saw themselves settling down to a long siege, cut
off from communication, with ultimate defeat
staring them in the face.

In this extremity General Floyd, whose official
148

THE RISE OF GENERAL GRANT

acts as Secretary of War in President Buchanan's
cabinet had earned for him a Federal indictment
in Washington, which was then pending, opined
that it would not be well for him to be caught at
that time, so he passed the command along to Gen-
eral Pillow, who, in turn, allowed that he also
would be of more service to the Confederacy with-
in the Confedrate lines than he would as a pris-
oner of war in the North. In this way the
command was passed along to General Buckner,
and there being no officer present to whom he
could pass the buck, he assumed command and
immediately, about three o'clock in the morning,
sent word to General Grant that he was prepared
to discuss terms of surrender. Grant replied, "No
terms will be considered except immediate and
unconditional surrender. I propose to move at
once upon your works." General Buckner ob-
jected to the abruptness and lack of courtesy in
Grant's correspondence, but considered that the
best thing which he could do would be to sur-
render, which he did. Accordingly, on February
16, 1862, ten days after the surrender of Fort
Henry, Grant wired to General Halleck, "We have
taken Fort Donelson, and from twelve to fifteen
thousand prisoners." General Halleck immediate-
ly telegraphed to the Secretary of War as fol-
lows: "Make Buell, Grant and Pope Major-Gen-
erals of volunteers, and give me command in the
West. I ask this in return for Forts Henry and

149

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

Donelson." At the same time, he was preparing
to discipline General Grant for his hasty and un-
authorized movements which resulted in the fall
of the two forts.

Washington heeded a portion of Halleck's
recommendation by making Grant a Major-Gen-
eral of Volunteers, although still subordinate to
General Halleck. It was Grant's idea to follow
up the victory at Donelson by starting immediate-
ly in pursuit of General Johnston with his main
army, then retiring precipitately from his head-
quarters at Bowling Green to Corinth, Missis-
sippi, an exhausting retreat of three hundred
miles; but on strict orders of General Halleck,
Grant remained at Fort Donelson, practically a
prisoner, for ten days, which was enough to allow
Johnston to mobilize at Corinth, Mississippi, all
the Confederate troops in the western theater.
Then President Lincoln himself took a hand and
started the movement which resulted in moving
the fleet of Commodore Foote up the Tennessee
river to Pittsburg Landing, together with all the
Union forces which could be spared from Fort
Donelson, under General Grant, who was to wait
at Pittsburg Landing, twenty miles from Corinth,
until General Buell with the Army of the Cum'
berland could join him, when, with their com-
bined forces, they could attack General Johnstor
at the place he was then resting waiting to givf
battle.

150

CHAPTER XVII
ON THE WAY TO SHILOH

On account of the assignment of my company
to guard the mouth of the Cumberland at Smith-
land, I did not take an active part in the cam-
paigns that led up to the capture of Forts Henry
and Donelson. Soon after the surrender of the
latter, however, my company was ordered back
to Paducah, and was detailed to string a line of
telegraph wires from Paducah to Fort Henry,
from thence to Fort Donelson, and from there to
Clarksville, a city in Tennessee on the Cumber-
land river about midway between Fort Donelson
and Nashville. The telegraph line was construct-
ed through Kentucky on the high ground be-
tween the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers, and
took us into a region sparsely populated with a
primitive, uneducated people, few of whom could
read or write. There were no school houses, and
only occasionally a church which the natives in-
variably called a "meeting house." While only a
few of the residents of that territory owned
slaves, the institution was generally approved,
and many of the preachers in those backwoods
meeting houses would be found arguing the di-
vine origin and establishment of human slavery.

151

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

The telegraph line which we constructed was
the first in that country, and served to inspire
the natives with fear, awe and wonder. When
our construction gang was asked by the natives
what the wire was for they replied to the effect
that it was highly charged and that any one fool-
ing with it might get killed. The wire was not
disturbed, and for weeks it served as a means of
communication between our forces advancing on
Corinth and the base at Paducah. We had with
us a telegraph operator named Von Volingberg.
Every evening when we went into camp he would
rig up an instrument, connecting it with our end
of the wire, and furnish us with up-to-the-minute
news from the world. I think it was VonVoling-
berg who, after the war was over, invented the
Duplex table that is now universally used by
telegraphers.

The route chosen for our line took us through
the village of Fungo, where, to my surprise, I
found a very competent physician who had been
graduated from Jefferson College in Philadel-
phia. Learning that I knew something about
medicine, he made my acquaintance and invited
me to his home to take dinner with him. Not
having had an opportunity for a long time to
partake of home cooking, I jumped at the chance,
and was rewarded with a savory, well-cooked
meal and a pressing invitation to return for sup-
per. On my return to the camp in the afternoon,

152

ON THE WAY TO SHILOH

I related my good fortune to Mr. Burlingame, the
man in charge of our construction work, who
asked if he could not be included in the supper
invitation ; so when the Doctor came to the camp
later to get me, I made it a point to introduce
Mr. Burlingame. In the course of their conver-
sation they discovered that a cousin of Mr. Bur-
lingame had been a college classmate of the Doc-
tor, which secured for Burlingame the coveted
invitation.

After we reached the Doctor's home, the con-
versation between him and my friend continued,
and so it fell to me to converse with the Doctor's
wife, who was a very nice appearing lady, aside
from the fact that she went about her work of
cooking the supper with a short stick in her
mouth, which she would remove occasionally to
expectorate, and from which I came to the con-
clusion that she was a "snuff dipper." She had
no cook stove, but followed the primitive method
of cooking at the open fireplace in a portable
oven and in skillets. While heating the oven to
bake biscuits, she removed her snuff stick to spit
in the fireplace, but made a miscue with the
result that it landed in the oven. Covered with
embarrassment she hastily removed the oven, and
I am fully satisfied that she gave it a thorough
cleaning, but the incident rather took away my
taste for homemade biscuits. During the even-
ing meal Burlingame ate voraciously of biscuits,

153

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

butter and honey; and on our return to the camp
while he was still raving about "those delicious
biscuits," I told him what had happened. The
information acted as a strong emetic causing
Burlingame to part with his supper, after which
I explained to him that she had thoroughly
cleaned the oven before baking the biscuits. He
then upbraided me for not telling him that soon-
er, but I reminded him that he hadn't given me
time to make that explanation.

While at Fungo, I was ordered to arrest a gen-
tleman in the neighborhood named Wright who
was accused of having given aid and comfort to
the enemy. It transpired later that he had sold a
boatload of flour the previous autumn in Nash-
ville, but not to the Confederate government ; that
later he had consigned another load to the same
market, but this had been captured by one of our
gunboats and confiscated. Mr. Wright did not try
to evade or resist arrest, but gladly accompanied
me to camp, and, as he was an elderly gentleman,
I walked and let him ride my horse. After a brief
examination, the captain in command of our squad
offered to release Mr. Wright and allow him to
return to his home until Monday morning, at
which time I was detailed to take him to the com-
manding officer at Fort Henry. At his urgent re-
quest, however, Captain Hall and I went home
with him, and we were surprised and delighted
to find such a refined and cultured home in that

154

ON THE WAY TO SHILOH

God-forsaken country. He was a finely educated
New Englander who had lived in New Orleans
and at one time was part owner of the New Or-
leans Picayune. His wife was a refined lady, in-
tellectually far above those around her; in fact,
she was a rose among thorns. We learned inci-
dentally that she was related to Judge Walter B.
Scales, of Mt. Vernon, Illinois, Circuit Judge in
the district in which I lived. After spending a
very pleasant Sunday, I took Mr. Wright to Fort
Henry and turned him over to General Lew Wal-
lace, who released him in short order and had him
returned to his home under a military escort.

When we reached Fort Donelson, I took occas-
ion to call on John A. Logan, hitherto mentioned
as member of Congress from the district in which
I lived. He had entered the service as Colonel
of the 31st Illinois Infantry, and was wounded in
action at Fort Donelson. For his gallant conduct
in that battle, he was made a Brigadier-General
of Volunteers. A story is told of Logan that well
illustrates his indifference to his own safety and
his constant regard for the safety of his men.
On one occasion during battle, he mounted the
breastworks behind which his command was fight-
ing, in order to examine the enemy's position with
his field glasses. While doing so one of his men
scrambled up and took a position at the side of
Logan; and when the latter dropped his glasses
and saw the soldier standing beside him, he im-

155

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

patiently inquired of him, "What are you doing

here, you d fool ? Don't you know you are apt

to get shot?" When I called on him, he had re-
covered sufficiently to sit up in a rocking chair;
and his wife, Mary Logan, who had hastened to
attend him, was busily engaged waiting on the
wounded.

After a short stay at Fort Donelson, I was sent
to Paducah for telegraph supplies, going down
the Cumberland river on the boat which carried
the last load of those wounded at Fort Donelson.
The soldiers were supposed to be taken care of by
some Confederate surgeons who had been cap-
tured, but these gentlemen seemed more interested
in card games than in the suffering around them,
with the exception of the surgeon of a Georgia
regiment named Johnston, who gave all of his
time and attention to the wounded. When we
landed at Paducah, I looked up some of my com-
pany who had been left behind because they were
ill and, finding some of them unfit for military
service, I recommended at the headquarters of
General W. T. Sherman that they should be dis-
charged. I was given the necessary blanks for
discharges and furloughs and ordered to bring the
men into his headquarters, which I did.

Among these was a chronic malingerer who had
apparently become sicker every day as the prob-
ability of active service came nearer, but he im-
proved wonderfully after I suggested to him that

156

ON THE WAY TO SHILOH

he might get a discharge. When I took the men
before a Major in General Sherman's headquar-
ters for examination, I arranged it so that the
malingerer would come last, and asked the Major
to observe his actions before and after separating
him from the service. The pretending invalid
came before the officer on crutches, with great dif-
ficulty, and after obtaining his discharge labor-
iously made his way across the street to a bank
where the paymaster was stationed. As he came
out of the bank on his crutches, a boat whistled
and I said to him, "There's your boat; you had
better hurry." He did; his movements were
gradually accelerated, so that before he had gone
two blocks, he had thrown his crutches away as
so much impedimenta, and was doing a regular
marathon to reach the boat before it cast off.

When I reached Fort Donelson with our sup-
plies, we went ahead with the construction of the
telegraph line to Clarksville, passing, some four
miles from Fort Donelson, the iron works of John
Bell, one of the candidates for president in the
election in 1860. A short distance beyond his
place, we struck a railroad which led into Clarks-
ville, so that all we had to do from then on was
to repair the wires where they had been cut by
the retreating confederates. Soon after we
reached Clarksville, we embarked on a boat which
took us down the Cumberland back to Paducah,
and from there on up the Tennessee river to Pitts-

157

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

burg Landing, where we were to join our com-
mand under General Grant and await the Army of
the Cumberland under Buell. We left our boat
and marched out about three miles on the road to
Corinth to where our regiment was encamped
near the old Shiloh church or "meeting house,"
which was destined to be the scene of one of the
hardest fought battles of the war, and what proved
to be my first, last and only battle.

There was a time, as pointed out by General
Grant, that the Confederacy might have been
split in twain, when immediately after the fall of
Fort Donelson, General Johnston's army retreated
from Nashville and General Folk's garrison evac-
uated Columbus on the Mississippi, both moving
with the obvious purpose of joining their forces
in northern Mississippi to protect the railroads
on which the South must depend for transporta-
tion. Had the Union forces vigorously pursued
the Confederates who escaped from Fort Donel-
son, and had all of Grant's available forces been
sent at once up the Tennessee river, the junction
of the Confederates at Corinth would have been
forestalled, the battle of Shiloh would have been
prevented, the Civil War would have been short-
ened, and thousands of human lives and millions
in treasure would have been saved. As it was,
however, plenty of time was given the enemy to
assemble 40,000 Confederate soldiers, practically
all those in the western theater, at the important

158

ON THE WAY TO SHILOH

railway junction of Corinth in northern Missis-
sippi, where it was our announced purpose to at-
tack them just as soon as Buell with his army
joined us.

It undoubtedly was obvious to Johnston that it
would be better for him to try conclusions with a
part rather than the combined Union forces, and
this suggested the idea of attacking us at the
Landing before we could be reinforced by Buell.
If, by a sudden descent on the encampment at
Shiloh, he could stampede us away from the vicin-
ity of Pittsburg Landing, he would at once de-
prive us of the support of the gunboats and cut
off our only means of retreat — a brilliant military
stratagem, which might have succeeded if exe-
cuted by its able author, but which failed in the
hands of his successor, just a hair's breadth short
of success !

159

CHAPTER XVIII
THE BATTLE OF SHILOH

General Grant was so intent upon the plan to
march upon Corinth and destroy the Confederate
army there under General Albert Sidney Johnston
that it apparently did not occur to him that the
pursued might not wait to be attacked in the place
he had deliberately selected to give battle. As a
tribute to the generalship of Johnston, it must be
frankly admitted that he administered a surprise
to Grant at Shiloh which came perilously near re-
sulting in a disaster to the Union forces and in an
early termination of Grant's military career. The
well-planned attack, however, resulted not only
in the defeat of the Confederate forces but also
in the death of their brave and able leader ; while
Grant's ascending star remained undimmed, the
net result to him being the addition of an abun-
dance of caution to his superb military qualifica-
tions. Never afterward was his command caught
in a trap like they were at Shiloh.

As we have before observed, about the middle
of March, 1862, General Grant began the assem-
bling of his entire command at Pittsburg Land-
ing, on the Tennessee river, as being the point

160

THE BATTLE OF SHILOH

most accessible to Corinth and at which troops
could be unloaded from the transports on which
they were carried up the river. It was at this
place that Buell's command was to join Grant for
a combined attack upon the Confederates assem-
bled at Corinth. As the troops arrived, they were
encamped on the high ground to the west of the
river in the vicinity of the old Shiloh meeting
house, until, early in April, there were five di-
visions in all with approximately thirty thousand
men. No intrenchments nor other precautions
against attack had been provided. The fifth di-
vision, under General W. T. Sherman, with which
our regiment was brigaded, formed the extreme
outpost, resting on the Purdy and Hamburg road
about three miles from the landing, as the crow
flies. Our brigade was the first, composed of the
6th Iowa, 46th Ohio, 40th Illinois and Behr's Bat-
tery, forming the right wing of our division with
Owl Creek to our right. Buckland's brigade was
near and to our left toward the river.

Friday, April 4, 1862, was a warm day. Shortly
after noon there was a rain and hail storm which
cooled the air considerably. Out in front of us
and a little to our left some companies were drill-
ing in a field when we were apprised of the pres-
ence of the enemy in force by the boom of artil-
lery and the rattle of musketry. Following this
all was quiet again, but we felt and knew instinct-
ively that a battle was impending.

161

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

On Saturday, April 5th, there were frequent
exchanges of shots between our pickets and the
enemy, and one man of our brigade was wounded
by a bullet in the hand. That evening we
strengthened our picket guard, and made ready
for the fray, which we now knew was not far off.
I had by this time cultivated a close friendship
with Samuel S. Emery, 1st Lieutenant of Com-
pany C of my regiment, the 40th Illinois, and I
shall never forget our conversation on that night
before the battle. We agreed between us that if
either was wounded and the other was able to do
so he would accompany the wounded man to the
landing and administer an opiate if it became
necessary. After making sure that we were pro-
vided with morphine for emergency use, we fell
into a discussion of personal bravery, in the course
of which he said: "I don't claim to be an exceed-
ingly brave man, but I will do my duty. There is
one thing I do know, and that is I would rather
die doing my duty than to have it truthfully said
of me that I was a coward." Although he had the
heart of a lion, he was not physically strong, and
he was compelled to resign his commission some
six months later and retire from the service. The
last I heard of Lieutenant Emery was that he had
become a prosperous banker in Portland, Maine.

Sunday morning dawned bright and clear, and
gave no hint of the bloody business in hand, but
we did not have long to wait, as the battle was

162

THE BATTLE OF SHILOH

raging furiously before some of us bad breakfast.
This reminds me of an incident which happened
that morning to a couple of soldiers in Company
F, to which, in the absence of its 1st and 2d lieu-
tenants, I was assigned to aid its Captain Sherley.
The previous day these soldiers, Tom Whitting-
ton and Briscoe Bronson, had gotten hold of a
bushel of shelled corn, took it to a water-power
mill on Owl Creek, and, after a lot of hard work
which had given them employment until late Sat-
urday evening, finally got it ground and had car-
ried their grist back to camp, too late to bake any
of it for supper. On Sunday morning they were
hustled out to form in line for battle before they
had anything to eat, and as they were standing
side by side in the line awaiting the oncoming
charge of the enemy, Bronson nudged Whitting-
ton and said, "Tom, we will fight like h — for that
meal, won't we?" And they did! But all to no
purpose, because the impetuous charge of the
Rebels that Sunday morning resulted in the cap-
ture of our camping ground and with it the bushel
of meal.

As indicated, I was acting Lieutenant of Com-
pany F when we went into battle Sunday morn-
ing, and it was my first experience under fire.
It was a bright, clear day and we could see the
enemy, three and four columns deep, marching
toward us. It was a grand sight and one which
thrilled me beyond words, but I do not remember

163

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

that I was frightened. Our regiment was ordered
out in front to meet and check the advance of the
enemy, but we did not maintain that position long
because the opposing commanders attempted
under cover of a ravine to get a force around in
our rear to cut us off from our brigade, which was
being hard pressed in its situation and giving way,
although contesting every inch. When we at-
tempted, under orders, to rejoin our brigade, we
were unable to do so, and turned toward the river,
into a piece of woods through which we marched
until we came to an open field where we halted to
reconnoiter. Here we were joined by a portion
of a company which had become detached from
the 72d Ohio regiment.

While reforming our lines, a Confederate bat-
tery of four guns came into the field, unlimbered
and took a position at the head of a ravine which
we must cross to continue. One gun discharged
a load of grape shot in our direction, one of the
balls inflicting a bad wound in the knee joint of
one of our boys, from the effects of which he died
later. One volley from our regiment put the bat-
tery out of commission, horses and men disappear-
ing as if the earth had swallowed them. At this,
a Confederate regiment came into the field on
double quick time to support the battery, and we
engaged it at long range; but as they were
equipped only with old, smooth-bore muskets
whose load was a round ball and three buckshot

164

THE BATTLE OF SHILOH

only a few of their charges reached us and those
were well spent ; while our rifles were loaded with
one conical ball with which we could create havoc
at a distance of 400 to 500 yards. With these odds
in our favor, we made short work of our oppo-
nents, who soon retreated, and we marched on,
passing the battery on our way which we had
silenced, every man and horse of which had been
killed.

We marched toward the river, in the direction
from which we could hear rapid firing about a half
mile on ahead of us. Reaching the scene of action,
we were ordered to go in and hold the enemy in
check for an hour, or until Colonel Webster could
establish a line of artillery something like a half
mile further back toward the river. Here we were
joined by the 13th Missouri, Colonel Wright
commanding, more than half of whose regiment
was composed of Illinois soldiers, and together
we went into action with a vim, moving up closer
to the enemy under cover of a clump of trees, from
which favored position we repulsed time and
again the advance of a large body of Confederates
numbering more than 3,000. Finally we were
given the order to fall back gradually to the line
of artillery which had by that time been placed
by Colonel Webster. It was then along about
three o'clock in the afternoon, and we had been
fighting practically without cessation since early
morning. Obviously the day was going against us.

165

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

After retreating a short distance further, we
were ordered to lie down. A rebel battery some
distance away began shelling our position. One
man a short distance from me raised his head to
look about when an unexploded shell struck him
squarely in the face and his head disappeared as
if by magic. Seeing that the gunners had our
range perfectly, our officers gave the command
to retreat. Just as we rose and turned to fall back,
I experienced a sensation similar to a severe elec-
tric shock, and "fell back" then and there. An
unexploded shell had struck my boot, which was
new, and ruined it; incidentally, it ruined my
foot also. The shell had struck the ground and
my foot simultaneously, and, as it ricocheted or
bounded away, it struck another soldier just below
the knee, inflicting a wound from which he after-
ward died. The gunner who fired that shot, a
twelve pound ball, was entitled to commendation
for getting two birds with one shot.

The time that I fell was at about the turn of
the battle in favor of the Union forces, for the
reason, I am convinced, that the Confederate
leader, General Albert Sidney Johnston, was re-
moved from his command by the grim reaper. He
had received what was apparently a slight flesh
wound under the knee, but the bullet in its course
had severed a small artery, and he stoically sat
his horse directing the battle, until, from the loss
of blood, he fell fainting into the arms of one of

166

THE BATTLE OF SHILOH

his aids and soon expired. The chief command
of the rebel forces thereupon fell upon General
Beauregard, who was of considerable note as a
military leader because of the fact that he had led
the victorious assault upon Fort Sumter and had
repulsed the Federal forces at the battle of Bull
Run; but he was now up against the real thing.
The situation demanded a Johnston, but the mas-
ter mind was gone, and his successor did not meas-
ure up to the requirement.

When Johnston led his army out of Corinth at
3 o'clock A. M. on April 3d, it was his intention
to engage Grant's outposts before the day was
over, but heavy roads, the result of spring rains,
made it impossible to move his artillery rapidly
enough to permit this ; in fact, he was thus delayed
until the 5th. Our army was spread out in a
slightly concave line reaching from Pittsburg
Landing to Shiloh church, three miles away to
the west. As the enemy was about twenty miles
southwest of us, our formation was toward the
south.

The general plan of the Confederates had con-
templated driving their forces in between us and
the Landing, but they were frustrated in this by
the topography of the neighborhood, the land
being cut up into alternating ridges and ravines
running back from the river. Their operations
according to prearranged plans were further em-
barrassed and prevented by a rather dense growth

167

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

of timber extending back quite a way from the
river and which was broken only here and there
with open fields or clearings, which had the ef-
fect of breaking the battle up into many detached
fights, of which the experience of my regiment
was a good example. In spite of these things
which operated in our favor, by the middle of that
eventful Sunday afternoon the spirited charges
and demoniac fighting of the Rebels had driven
in our outposts half the distance from Shiloh to
the Landing, and, in the turning movement, had
further discouraged our forces by capturing our
Brigadier-General B. F. Prentiss with his whole
brigade.

The fighting continued until sundown, when
Beauregard ordered his forces to cease the attack,
thinking that with a night's rest his troops in the
morning would chase the Yankees into the Ten-
nessee river, having abandoned the attempt to
separate us from our base at the Landing. But
before morning many things happened which
tended to establish the old saw that the "best laid
plans of mice and men aft gang aglee." Grant,
who was at Savannah, six miles down the river,
when the trouble started, was on the field in the
afternoon directing our defense. Buell, who had
been apprised of the attack, had, by forced
marches over muddy roads, reached us by Sunday
night with many regiments of fresh troops, which
were marched to the firing line, where they slept

168

THE BATTLE OF SHILOH

on their arms to be ready to open hostilities early
Monday morning.

So it happened that General Beauregard, who
had already wired advance news of his "great
victory," was surprised Monday morning to be
put on the defensive by the enemy who had been
clearly outfought on the previous day; and, al-
though the Rebels fought bravely, they had to
give way before the superior forces which stead-
ily pushed them back until the Confederates beat
a precipitate retreat to Corinth.

Shiloh was a battle royal. The Confederate
hosts were led by Johnston, Beauregard, Polk,
Bragg and Hardee. The Union brigades were
under command of Grant, Sherman, W. H. L.
Wallace, Prentiss, McClernand and Hurlbut,
while Lew Wallace was at Crumps Landing six
miles up the river with another brigade. In ad-
dition to the loss of Prentiss by capture, our Gen-
eral W. H. L. Wallace was killed in action on
Sunday. The total losses were: Union, approx-
imately 13,000; Confederate, approximately 10,-
000. Of the participation of Illinois in the bat-
tle Davidson and Stuve say:

"Illinois was more largely represented in the
battle than any single state. On its death-smitten
field her citizen soldiers traced in characters of blood
a record of deeds which will be read not only in the
patriotic homes of the broad prairies, but wherever
free institutions have a votary or the honor of the
republic awakes an echo in the human heart.
169

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

"It was upon the troops of Illinois and those im-
mediately associated with them in the first day's
battle, that the enemy dealt his heaviest blows and
received in turn a stroke which rendered his sub-
sequent defeat comparatively easy, both sustaining
a loss hitherto without parallel in the history of the
war. Though our divisions were driven back as the
result of surprise and superior numbers, the advance
of the enemy was finally checked, and when the
gallant cohorts of Buell came to their rescue, were
preparing for offensive operations, and largely
shared in the magnificent cha.ges which subsequently
bore our blood-stained banners triumphant over the
field."

In that Sunday's fighting my regiment bore its
full share. I was afterward informed by my Cap-
tain that after I was wounded and removed from
the field, the regiment fell back to support the ar-
tillery, and that some of our soldiers served the
guns after the regular gunners had been picked
off by the Rebel sharpshooters. The battle raged
thus until sunset, our embattled troops late in the
afternoon making a final and a determined stand
near the Landing, where they were reinforced by
General Nelson, who arrived with a division of
Buell's army, which took a position on the right
of my regiment. In the next day's battle the 40th
fought with Buell's forces.

I have always believed that if our lines at Shiloh
had not been extended so far, and had breastworks
been thrown up for our defense, we could easily

170

THE BATTLE OF SHILOH

have repelled Johnston's army. However, at that
time, it was not considered good military form to
contract lines or erect temporary barricades. Grant
said, "I spoke to my military engineer and he
thought it was not necessary," and further, "The
discipline the soldiers got in that battle was worth
more to them than breastworks would have been."
But I noticed that he took counsel of his experi-
ence and he was never afterward caught in a sim-
ilar predicament. It is reckoned that one man
behind a fairly well constructed defense is equal
to five men assaulting it, and this theory certainly
has been demonstrated in the present war in
Europe.

171

CHAPTER XIX
INVALIDED

When I was rendered hors de combat on the field
at Shiloh, Lieutenant Emery made good on our
mutual pledge of the previous night and ac-
companied me to the Landing, to which I was
carried by him and some other comrades. Arrived
there, we found the surgeons so overwhelmed with
work that I had to wait until night for my turn on
the operating table.

While lying thus helpless at the Landing, I saw
one of the funniest incidents of my career. A
Union cavalry trooper appeared riding at full
speed from the direction in which the battle was
then raging, and running his horse to a point of
land at a considerable elevation above the river
spurred him on and made him jump off into the
swiftly running stream. The horse and rider went
down until the head of the rider was just out of
the water. As the horse rose and began to swim
across the river, it evidently occurred to him that
the bank he had just left was nearer, so he turned
around and started back to shore. Those ac-
quainted with the habits of a horse will know that
in turning in the water his back is almost per-

172

INVALIDED

pendicular. While in that position the rider
slipped off and would have been carried down the
stream had he not caught the horse by the tail
and been thus towed to land. When back on firm
ground, the cavalryman mounted the horse, put
spur to him and rode back like mad in the direction
of the battle. I have often thought how much that
rider owed to that horse for saving him from the
charge of desertion and perhaps making of him
a gallant soldier.

I related that story on a number of occasions
after that, and each time my hearers would look
askance at each other as if to say, "That's a big
one"; so my readers will appreciate the satisfac-
tion I gained in later years in 'securing corroborat-
ive testimony. Dr. Horace Wardner, one of the
brigade surgeons operating at the Landing that
Sunday afternoon, was reading a paper about fif-
teen years later at a meeting of the Loyal Legion
in Chicago, which I attended. The title of his
paper was "Experiences of an Army Surgeon,"
and in it he related the incident just as it is here
set down.

At dusk I was taken aboard a hospital boat, when
the surgeons put the finishing touches upon the
rather rough amputation the shell had done. Dur-
ing the night the wounded on that boat were taken
to Savannah and placed in a brick church there
which had been hastily converted into a hospital.
I fared a bit better than most of my wounded com-

173

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

rades in that I had a cot. The surgeon in charge
objected to me keeping the cot, but as I was ac-
companied by Samuel Martin, a comrade from my
Company, and as we were both well armed, I kept
the cot and was taken on it to a place near the
pulpit. On one side of me was a captain of an
Iowa regiment with one arm amputated above the
elbow, and on the other side a lieutenant of an
Ohio battery with his lower leg amputated.

In about a week, Dr. McCook, of Pittsburg,
walked into the church one morning and asked if
there were any men among the wounded there from
Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky or West
Virginia, as he had hospital boats in waiting at the
landing to take them home. The Lieutenant from
Ohio, lying next to me, spoke up saying that he
wanted to go to Cincinnati, and when Dr. McCook
came over to talk with him, I took advantage of
the occasion to inform the Doctor that I lived in
southern Illinois, and would like to be taken as far
as Paducah, which was on their way. The Iowa
captain said that he, too, would like to go with
them as far as Paducah. Dr. McCook explained to
us that he could not take us unless we got per-
mission from the surgeon in charge. The surgeon
very readily gave his consent, and appeared to be
glad to get rid of us.

The hospital boat was Heaven as compared to
what we had recently gone through, it being pro-
vided with splendid surgeons and nurses, good

174

INVALIDED

food, and everything to make us comfortable. The
trip down the river was really so pleasant that I
regretted having to leave the boat when we
reached Paducah. At this place I again found
myself in church, being taken to an unfinished
building that had been fitted up for a hospital.
Major John N. Niglus, surgeon of the 6th Illinois
Cavalry, was in charge of this hospital, and a
splendid surgeon and man he was. It was in his
institution that I first met Aunt Lizzie Aiken who
had a national reputation as a nurse and as a splen-
did character. She died only a few years ago in
Chicago at a ripe old age, loved by all who knew
her and especially by the old soldiers who had been
fortunate enough to fall under her care when they
were sick and wounded.

Major Niglus was a gruff man of German de-
scent and he would allow nothing to interfere with
his work in restoring the soldiers to health. One
of the soldiers there named Weaver who had been
wounded at Shiloh by a rifle ball passing through
the elbow was in a precarious condition on account
of septic infection, or blood poisoning, being con-
tracted through the wound. It was the practice
of the Chaplain on going to the hospital to inquire
if there were any in a critical condition so that he
could administer spiritual comfort to them. The
Sunday morning after we arrived he came into the
hospital and was informed that Weaver might not
live, whereupon the Chaplain went over to his cot

175

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

and proceeded to cheer him up after this fashion;
"Young man, you are about to die ! Are you pre-
pared to meet your God?" After throwing Weaver
into a fit of nervous excitement, the dominie pious-
ly raised his eyes to Heaven and said, "Let us
pray." While he was on his knees praying, Major
Niglus came to the door and instantly sensing the
situation, strode up to the Chaplain fairly bristling
with indignation, grabbed him by the collar and
yanked him to his feet with an impatient inquiry
as to why he was around there scaring his patients
to death. The Major finished that brief interview
by escorting the Chaplain to the door and lending
him some rough but effective aid down the stairs.
Then he strode back to Weaver's cot, but was too
mad to talk to him and instead came over to me
and read me a lecture because I did not shoot
the Chaplain. Cooling down at length, he turned
to an attendant and said, "Bring Aunt "Lizzie up
here." In a short time she came in smiling, hum-
ming a lively tune, and soon had Weaver out of
the dumps. Weaver ultimately recovered without
losing the arm although it had an ankilosed or
stiffened elbow joint.

After spending three or four weeks in the hos-
pital at Paducah I was taken to my father's home
in Franklin County where I remained for about
four months when I started back to my regiment,
which was then at Memphis, Tennessee. At Ben-
ton I met Captain James J. Dallins who had pre-
176

INVALIDED

viously raised a cavalry company which was at-
tached to the 31st Illinois, the regiment raised by
John A. Logan and of which he was the first
colonel.

Captain Dallins was anxious to raise and com-
mand a regiment, and inasmuch as he was a demo-
crat, wanted me to go to Springfield to intercede
for him with the Governor and Adjutant-General,
who of course, were republicans. I went to Spring-
field with him and there secured the co-operation
of Colonel Jesse Phillips, United States Marshal,
whom I knew quite well. Together we went to see
the state officials and finally to Governor Yates,
who gave him the necessary authority to raise
a regiment. On the way back from Springfield, I
stopped at Du Quoin and wrote a number of let-
ters to friends of mine whom I thought could aid
the Captain, while he went on to Jonesboro where
the companies of his regiment were assembled.
In a comparatively short time he thus raised and
organized the 81st Illinois Infantry of which he
was elected Colonel and immediately took his
regiment into the field. Colonel Dallins was a
brave man, loyal, a good speaker and would have
made a place for himself in the army had be not
been taken oft7 early as he was. He was killed in
action at the siege of Vicksburg.

Following this, I went to Cairo and took passage
down the river to join my regiment at Memphis.
As we were passing Hickman, Kentucky, in the

177

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

night, we were hailed from the shore, and as we
were "rounding to" to make the landing we were
fired upon from the shore, at which we backed out
into the river and steamed away. The shot saved
us and our cargo, for we might have been captured
had the enemy given us time to tie up at the
bank. As it was, we ran down the river a way,
picked up a company of Cavalry and took them
back to Hickman to settle with the rebels who had
fired at us.

On the way down the river from Hickman, we
were fired upon again from Greenville, Mississippi,
but the shots did no damage. After landing safely
at Memphis, we reported to General W. T. Sher-
man, in command of our forces at Memphis, the
warm reception which had been tendered us at
Greenville. Turning to Colonel Wolcott, com-
manding the 46th Ohio, General Sherman said,
"Take your regiment to Greenville and burn the
town." Colonel Wolcott saluted and left the head-
quarters. In a short time he sent to General Sher-
man this laconic report: "I took my regiment to
Greenville as ordered and burned every house but
one which we dedicated to God and left standing."

When I got back to my regiment I found that
through a general order issued by the Secretary
of War I had been mustered out of the service a
few hours previous to my return. Deeply cha-
grined and disappointed, I called on General Sher-
man at his headquarters and told him of my mis-

178

INVALIDED

fortune. He observed in a sympathetic way that
that was a d fool order and not to pay any at-
tention to it, but to write my resignation and he
would endorse it with his recommendation for ac-
ceptance and send it to General Grant at Corinth.
While waiting for action on my resignation he as-
signed me to the task of inspecting flour. On
September 23, 1862, my resignation came through
"approved," with General Grant's signature at-
tached, and that ended my military career.

179

CHAPTER XX
BACK TO PRIVATE LIFE

When I quit the army I lost no time in getting
back into the study of medicine, matriculating in
October, 1862, in Rush Medical College in Chi-
cago. Several things combined to influence me
to select Rush as the school in which I would con-
tinue my studies, among them the fact that my
preceptor was a Rush man; the further fact that
the St. Louis school had deteriorated after the war
began, on account of its location in a secession
state; and because I was influenced by Major
Niglus, with whom I discussed the matter, in
favor of Rush College, which happened to be his
alma mater.

In October, 1862, Chicago was a thriving town
of about 135,000 inhabitants, having an area of
about eighteen square miles as compared with the
present two hundred square miles. I came on the
Illinois Central, it having been only recently con-
structed, and was operating over a single track
built on trestles from Fifty-third street to the foot
of Lake street, the shore of the lake then being
west of the railroad. Since then the shore line
has been gradually pushed back into the lake,

180

BACK TO PRIVATE LIFE

and the "made land" resulting became the subject
of extensive litigation, the Illinois Central claim-
ing that the increment belonged to them, but the
court of last resort held that the railroad company
did not acquire title to all the submerged land in
the lake and limited them to the specific grant
for their right of way.

On my arrival in Chicago, on crutches, I sup-
pose I looked more like a subject for medical aid
than a candidate for dispensing it, but I soon
made my arrangements for entering school and
secured a place to board with a family where Dr.
Emmans, one of my teachers, boarded. When I
entered Rush, Dr. Daniel Brainard was president
and professor of surgery, being recognized as one
of the foremost surgeons of America. He was an
exceptionally good teacher, illuminating his sub-
ject in such a way and making it so plain that the
student got the impression that he was being
reminded of something he knew all the time. The
doctor had a peculiar habit, when amused, of
throwing back his head, opening his mouth as if
laughing, and giving every other indication of
merriment, but never emitting a sound.

Dr. J. Adams Allen was professor of internal
medicine and was exceedingly popular with the
students, who referred to him as Uncle Allen.
He was in the midst of a lecture when the news
came that President Lincoln had issued his Eman-
cipation Proclamation, extending freedom to the

181

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

four million blacks then in bondage. All the steam
whistles, bells and noise-making contrivances
were instantly put in action, until there was such
a bedlam of noise and confusion that one could
hardly think, much less be heard. Professor
Allen waited rather impatiently for a lull in the
commotion, when he said, "Gentlemen, those negro
minstrels are making such a racket that I am
unable to make myself heard," with which he
bowed to the class and retired. At one of his
clinics, a mother of apparently humble station in
life appeared with her little boy, who looked as
if soap and water would do him more good than
medicine. The doctor, suspecting the trouble,
gravely examined the youth's scalp, and, turning
to the mother, said : "Madam, your boy has Pedic-
ulus capiti" (head lice), whereupon the fond
mother cried, distractedly, "Oh! Doctor, will he
die?" to which the doctor replied, "No; he will
recover."

Our faculty also included Dr. R. L. Rea, pro-
fessor of anatomy ; Dr. D. L. Miller, professor of
obstetrics ; Dr. Ephraim Ingalls, professor of ma-
teria medica and toxicology ; Dr. Joseph W. Freer,
professor of physiology and surgical anatomy;
and Dr. E. S. Carr, professor of chemistry. As all
the teaching of those days was by lecture, a man
had to possess two essential qualifications to get
a professorship in a medical school, first, a good
speaker, and, second, a knowledge of his subject.

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The winter was an exceedingly busy one for me
and passed very quickly, and the following spring
I was graduated along with fifty-five others in
the class of 1863. So far as I have been able to
learn, all the boys who were graduated in that
class made good in their practice of their pro-
fession. Not more than four members of the class
still live, and of course all our teachers have long
since been gathered unto their fathers. Early in
last winter, during a slight indisposition for which
I was under treatment in the Presbyterian Hos-
pital in Chicago, I was surprised and pleased to
learn that one of the internes at the hospital was
a grandson of one of my classmates.

After graduation I went to my home near Ben-
ton for a short time, returning to Chicago on
business about the first of June, on which occa-
sion I met A. C. Fuller, then adjutant-general of
Illinois, who informed me that he was organizing
a party of civilian physicians and nurses to go to
Vicksburg to aid the medical corps of the army
in looking after the sick and wounded soldiers,
and stated that he would like to have me join the
party. Not having anything to detain me, I was
glad of the opportunity to be of further service,
and joined his expedition.

We proceeded to Cairo, where we embarked
upon the steamer City of Alton, which was await-
ing us, and went down the river to the vicinity
of Vicksburg, steaming up the Yazoo river to

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ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

Maine's Bluff, where an officer came aboard to
direct the unloading of a part of our cargo con-
sisting of thirty-six tons of fixed ammunition for
the big siege guns. On an inquiry from me how
long the thirty-six tons would last, he informed
me that it would be shot away in three hours, and
suggested that if I could go to Milliken's Bend,
just above Vicksburg, that evening that I would
have an opportunity to see a splendid display of
fireworks, as there would be a general bombard-
ment of the city in the evening.

Soon after this a small steamer approached the
landing to which our boat was tied up, and I was
glad to learn that it was in charge of Captain
Crane, whom I knew quite well, and who was in
command of an invalid camp at Milliken's Bend.
When I told him of my desire to see the bombard-
ment, he courteously invited me to be his guest
at the camp that night. The invitation was eagerly
accepted. On relating my good fortune to Rev.
Dr. Bishop, rector of St. John's Episcopal Church,
of Chicago, who was in our party, he said he would
like to go. so I had the invitation extended to
include him. The good doctor was of the class
who affected to believe that slavery was not quite
as black as it was painted, and that the high stand-
ard of morals of the southern whites would pre-
vent an indiscriminate association of the two
races. He was about to have his eyes opened!

When we went aboard the captain's boat I was
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BACK TO PRIVATE LIFE

not long in discovering that he had two distin-
guished passengers aboard, no less than my old
leader, Major General U. S. Grant, and his ad-
jutant, General John A. Rawlins. General Grant
was characteristically attired in severely plain
dress, consisting o£ a worn, faded blouse, a pair
of trousers that showed hard use, a slouch hat
with no ornament save a military cord, and with
no shoulder straps, spurs or other military insig-
nia of his high rank. The adjutant was simi-
larly dressed, only he wore spurs. Since I was
wounded, the Army of the Tennessee, as Grant's
command came to be known, had cleared the Mis-
sissippi valley of the enemy, except for the Con-
federate forces under General Pemberton, which
still held Vicksburg and through it commanded
the commerce of the Mississippi. In the month
before I visited Vicksburg, Grant had, by Napo-
leonic strategy, cut Vicksburg off from the world,
and was gradually wearing down the resistance
of the garrison.

The invalid camp, under command of Captain
Crane, was on the Louisiana side of the Missis-
sippi, and there were in it about four thousand
negroes of both sexes, all ages and every possible
shade, from ebony to approximate white, and from
kinky black wool to the straight, blonde hair of
the pure Caucasian. Among them was a fair
mulatto girl about 17 years old, very pretty, with
a baby in her arms less than a year old that showed

185

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

practically no indication of negro parentage.
With Dr. Bishop present, I began to question her
in this fashion: "Are you married?" Ans. — "No,
suh." "Whose baby is that?" Ans.— "Dat's mine."
"Who is the father of it?" Ans.— "Marse W— ."
"Who is he?" Ans.— "He am de son of de 'Pis-
copal preacher in ." At this Dr. Bishop threw

up his hands, exclaiming: "I couldn't have be-
lieved it; the half has never yet been told!"

Six mortar boats were moored near the shore
close to Captain Crane's headquarters. At sunset
there was a reverberating crash as the first shell
was sent from one of these mortars on the long
journey to the beleaguered city. In a few sec-
onds another was fired, then another, and another,
until there were six huge shells in the air at one
and the same time, speeding on their mission of
death and destruction. After the last of these
had exploded in the distant city, a brisk cannon-
ade began in the division of General Sherman,
forming the extreme right of Grant's army and
occupying a position just across the river from
where we were watching. The division just be-
yond Sherman took up the song of death, and in
this way it followed the circle of steel which
Grant had thrown around the besieged town, until
all the Union artillery was in action. Then it
was "load and fire at will" until about half past
nine. It was a grand and an awful sight, and,
looking back over the fifty and five years which

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BACK TO PRIVATE LIFE

intervene, I can hardly conceive that it was nec-
essary to expend all that blood and treasure to
convince our brethren of the South that it wasn't
right for one man to own and enslave another.
Mankind was greatly benefited through every war
which has been fought.

The next morning Captain Crane took us back
to the landing where our boat was tied up, and
from there I made a trip to the front to visit some
of my former comrades in arms. In a small tent
down in a ravine I found Dr. I. M. Neeley, in
whose office I had studied in Benton, and who
was now assistant surgeon of the Eighty-first
Illinois. The doctor was very ill and would not
have lived long in the surroundings in which I
found him ; and so I made it my business to go to
General Logan's headquarters and tell him of Dr.
Neeley's condition. His comment was that "the
Secretary of War had issued a fool order that
no commissioned officer should be furloughed
under any circumstances, but (pointing to an am-
bulance) if you can induce the driver to hook
up his mules to that you can take Neeley with
you to the boat and back home." It was not diffi-
cult to induce the driver to help us, and I soon
had the doctor on the boat and on the way back
home. That was my last near view of war. I am
not anxious for another, but I would not shirk
my duty if I thought I could be of service. It
was this feeling that led me to offer my services

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ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

to my country when we entered the European
war.

On the way up the river an amusing incident
occurred in which my new found friend and asso-
ciate, Rev. Dr. Bishop, figured. He had been
preaching one day down below to some wounded
soldiers, and on coming to the upper deck he
found a soldier lying on a cot, face down, for
the reason that he had been badly injured in the
back. The doctor said to him, "My man, did you
hear my sermon to the boys down below?" The
soldier, convalescing and petulant, replied, "I
heard some d — n fool blabbing down there, but
I couldn't understand what it was all about."
Rather taken aback, the doctor kindly inquired if
he could do anything for the soldier, and learned
that he was hungry and wanted something to eat.
The good doctor got him a generous portion of
food and himself fed it to him, after which the
soldier repented, apparently, for his former lack
of courtesy and sheepishly said to Dr. Bishop,
"Now you can go ahead and preach to me as long
as you desire." The doctor told me that out of
that incident he had learned the valuable lesson
never to attempt to preach to a man who has an
empty belly.

188

CHAPTER XXI
IN THE MEDICAL PROFESSION

When I returned from my trip down the Missis-
sippi I engaged in the practice of medicine and
surgery in Du Quoin, on the main line of the Illi-
nois Central, twenty miles west of Benton, locat-
ing there in 1863 and forming a partnership with
Doctor Thomas H. Burgess, who had at that time
been engaged in practice there for many years. I
was exceedingly fortunate in making this arrange-
ment as Doctor Burgess was then ready to retire,
and when he quit the profession a few months
later, I acquired an established practice. The Doc-
tor was a man of no ordinary attainments and a
very good physician. I shall never forget the
kindly manner in which he took me under his
wing, so to speak, and the splendid start which he
gave me in my profession by introducing me to his
patients and friends and in commending me to
them very highly. Later in life he removed to
Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he died at a ripe
old age, and where his descendants are living at
the present.

Two years after I had established myself in
practice at Du Quoin, at the close of the Civil War,

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ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

I took into partnership with me Dr. Charles Carl,
a graduate of a medical college in New York City,
who had practiced in Tamaroa, eight miles north
of Du Quoin, for a number of years prior to the
war, in which he enlisted and served as the Sur-
geon of the 41st Illinois Infantry. Dr. Carl was
a man of splendid intellect, well educated, and a
good physician, but very temperamental and some-
what erratic. We practiced together for only a
year when we dissolved our partnership on ac-
count of his failing health, and he moved to
Bloomington, Illinois, where he developed a can-
cer of the tongue, which necessitated the removal
of that organ and ultimately caused his death.
Dr. Carl died as he had lived, a brave and con-
scientious man.

In 1866 I entered into my next and last profes-
sional partnership with Dr. Warren J. Burgess, a
brother of Dr. Tom Burgess, who had seen army
service as surgeon of the 17th Kentucky Infantry,
with which he served throughout the war. My
business and professional relations with him in
our partnership covering six years were very
pleasant and satisfactory; and during that asso-
ciation we formed a close friendship which lasted
as long as he lived. He had no children and spent
his declining years in the Soldiers' and Sailors'
Home at Quincy, Illinois, where he died a few
years ago.

My practice in Du Quoin was successful from
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IN THE MEDICAL PROFESSION

the start. In my first week's business, I had two
cases of fracture to treat, and as I was singularly
successful in reducing them, I at once acquired
an enviable local reputation as a surgeon. It was
not long before I was appointed surgeon for a
mining company which operated a coal mine at
St. John, a little town on the Illinois Central, a
mile north of Du Quoin. This property was ac-
quired a few years later by William P. Halliday,
of Cairo, a man who was extensively engaged in
commerce on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and
who had through industry, perseverance and
splendid business judgment, gradually worked his
way up from a humble position on a river boat
until he became captain of a boat and later owner
of a fleet which he employed in carrying goods,
wares and merchandise to different stores and
depots which he had established along the two
rivers. The title of "captain" which he acquired
in his river life, stuck to him throughout his re-
maining career. Captain Halliday, in my opinion,
is entitled to the distinction of having done more
to develop industrial and commercial activities in
southern Illinois than any other one man. He
left behind him many monuments to mark his
achievements, among which I may mention his
famous old hostelry, the Halliday House in Cairo,
and Hallidayboro, a prosperous mining town on
the Illinois Central about twelve miles south of
Du Quoin.

191

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

Captain Halliday acquired the mines at St. John
mainly for the purpose of supplying his river fleet
and his depots with coal. In the course of time
the mine on the railroad was worked out and
abandoned, and a new one was opened on Reese's
Creek, about a mile east of the old location. This
mine was the famous old Paradise mine, whose
excellent product acquired an enviable reputation
in the general markets. The old tip house was
still maintained on the main line of the railroad
and a little narrow gauge railroad was constructed
to the mouth of the new mine over which diminu-
tive locomotives hauled the little coal cars just
as they were taken from the mine.

The coal deposits in southern Illinois are in
strata or veins of varying thickness, and the usual
method of mining is to sink a vertical shaft or
opening from the surface of the ground to the
principal vein, approximately six feet thick, en-
countered at depths varying from fifty to five
hundred feet below the surface. The Paradise
mine was different from all others with which I
was familiar, for the reason that it came to the
surface on a gentle incline, cropping out on the
east bank of Reese's Creek. From here it ex-
tended back into Paradise prairie ; hence the name.

After acquiring the mine at St. John, Captain
Halliday conceived the idea that there was oil in
the vicinity, and had some holes drilled west of
the old abandoned mine property to see if he could

192

IN THE MEDICAL PROFESSION

locate it. He did not strike oil, but at a depth
of several hundred feet opened some splendid salt
wells which enabled him to add a large salt pro-
ducing plant to his mining activities. These,
together with the coke ovens and the company
store, combined to make St. John the most in-
dustrious hamlet in the state; but from which,
like the Deserted Village of Goldsmith, the glo-
ries have long since departed, and it is only a
memory in the minds of those who saw it grow
up, blossom and decay. In their palmy days, the
St. John's industries were under the management
of Marion Wright, a bachelor brother-in-law of
Captain Halliday, who will be affectionately re-
membered by a veritable host of friends, who came
to know and love him as a most genial and whole-
souled gentleman. Marion was "one of the boys."
My connection with the mine at St. John led me
into a practice which was very congenial to me,
and served to give me a proficiency in emergency
surgery which determined my life work for me.
For those of my readers who do not understand
coal mining, let me illustrate as follows : Picture
in your mind a pie with its upper and lower
crusts. Allowing that the material inside the pie,
or its "filling," represents the seam or vein of coal
lying underground, the upper crust would repre-
sent a covering of slate called the roof which lays
on top the vein of coal, while the lower crust
would represent a layer of clay on which the coal

193

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

rests. The usual method of mining is to dig out
a space on the under side of the vein of coal ; then
to run drill holes about two inches in diameter
and in a line nearly parallel with the vein to a
depth of four or five feet back from the "face" of
the coal on which the miner is working. Charges
of powder are inserted in these drill holes, the
opening is closed, and the charge is "fired" by
means of a time fuse, which allows the men to get
safely away, and in this way the coal is "shot
down" in fragments, of sizes convenient for load-
ing into the little cars and sending to the mouth
of the mines. Very often in shooting the coal,
the slate roof would be cracked and broken to such
an extent that when the miners returned after the
shot to clear away the coal which had been shot
down and to repeat the operation of mining and
blasting, the loosened slate would fall in large
quantities of great weight, injuring the miners in
varying degrees who were unfortunate enough to
be under the slate when it fell. Consequently, I
had many cases of injuries to treat among the
miners.

It was in that practice that I learned the anti-
septic value of ordinary whiskey. It was in a case
where a patient had received an ugly scalp wound
which I found pretty well filled with coal dust and
dirt, offering a congenial field for the staphylococ-
cus or pus germ. I cleansed the wound as well as I
could, cut away the hair, and sutured the wound

194

IN THE MEDICAL PROFESSION

with silk, that being the only suture material we
had then aside from silver wire. Carbolic acid
had just recently been discovered, and put into
use as an antiseptic, but it happened that there
was none immediately at hand, and seeing a bottle
of whiskey standing near, I poured some of it on
the wound and moistened the dressing with it.
The condition in which I found the wound, and
the lack of a strong antiseptic to cleanse it, indi-
cated the formation of pus; and I was agreeably
surprised next day to find there had been no sup-
puration whatever. My patient informed me he
had watched me pour on the whiskey, and think-
ing that a part of the treatment, had kept the
dressing moistened with repeated applications of
the liquor. In five days the wound was healed,
and I have always attributed the kindly healing
to the antiseptic properties of the alcohol in the
whiskey, a therapeutic fact which I have verified
on many occasions in an extensive practice. I
have learned a great many valuable things in medi-
cine and surgery which are not taught in the
books.

This leads me to observe that there were some
men in the profession who had neither theoretical
nor practical knowledge. I met one of these in
the treatment of a patient who was suffering from
a very severe attack of bronchitis. It was such an
aggravated case that I did not feel justified in
holding out any hope to his family; so when I

195

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

informed them of the gravity of the case, they
inquired if I would object to calling another doc-
tor in consultation. On my assurance that I
would welcome the co-operation, they called in
a local physician, who was a man of splendid per-
sonal appearance and chuck full of assurance, but
who was woefully shy on education and experi-
ence. After he had looked the patient over, we
repaired to a place beyond the hearing of the
family to take up a consideration of the case, when
he inquired of me what I was treating the patient
for. When I told him bronchitis, he looked at me
with a look of mingled pity and scorn and ex-
claimed : "Why, Doctor, this is a clear cut case of
Tizic (meaning Phthisis)." There being absolutely
no grounds for a diagnosis of Phthisis, I inquired
of him what form of "Tizic" he would pronounce
it, and he responded without hesitation, "an in-
flammation of the Tizus gland!" It appearing to
me that nothing would save the patient, and here
was as near to it as could be found, I left the case
with the "Tizic" specialist. The patient died that
night. This doctor reminded me of the other one
who always tried to induce a case of "fits" in his
patients, because, as he explained, he was "hell on
fits."

While I was in Du Quoin, another practitioner
of that variety dropped into town and hung out
his shingle. He drove a diminutive horse hitched
to a large buggy, and one hot afternoon drove out

196

IN THE MEDICAL PROFESSION

into the country to see a patient. When he ar-
rived at his destination, the pony laid down and
died, clearly from overheating. When the doctor
had walked back to town, he came to my office to
discuss his misfortunes, stating it as his belief
that his horse had been poisoned. Seeing an op-
portunity for a little fun, I suggested that he go
back and make a post mortem examination to look
for traces of poison. While he was trudging back
into the country, I took another physician, Doctor
Leman, and our druggist, Allen C. Brookings, into
my confidence, and between us it was arranged that
I should send the new doctor to Brookings, who
would tell him that only recently Doctor Leman
had bought a quantity of gum trage (the trade
name for Gum Tragacanth, a harmless commercial
gum) and had asked Brookings to say nothing
about it. In a few hours, the new doctor returned
from his autopsy, covered with perspiration, and
reported that he had found a suspicious white sub-
stance in the stomach of his dead horse. I agreed
with him that it might be a case of poisoning, and
inquired of him if he had any reason to suspect
that Doctor Leman was jealous of his competition,
and had taken this foul means to set him afoot,
thereby hampering his further activities. Quickly
swallowing the bait, he said that it had occurred to
him, but he didn't know how he would go about
it to ascertain the guilt of Doctor Leman, where-
upon I suggested to him that Leman purchased

197

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

most of his drugs from Al Brookings. The new
doctor went immediately to Brookings' drug store
and inquired if Doctor Leman had purchased any
poison lately. After exacting a promise that his
name would not be used, Brookings told him con-
fidentially that Doctor Leman had recently pur-
chased a large quantity of gum trage. Evidently
not being too well posted on materia medica, the
new doctor was soon circulating stories to the
effect that he had good reasons to believe that Doc-
tor Leman had poisoned his horse with "gum
tragic." Doctor Leman simulated great indigna-
tion when the reports reached his ears, and be-
sides threatening physical chastisement, had word
taken back to the new doctor that he had engaged
an attorney to prosecute him for slander. While
those in on the joke were enjoying the fun, the
new doctor left town between two days, and he
was never heard of thereafter.

It may occur to my readers, as has been sug-
gested to me, that the joke perpetrated on the
pseudo practitioner might be considered by some
persons as being below the dignity of a "regular"
doctor. Perhaps so ; but not to my way of think-
ing. It has been truly said that

"A little nonsense now and then
Is relished by the wisest men."

Although laying no claim to great wisdom, it
has been my rule of life to get all the joy and sun-

198

IN THE MEDICAL PROFESSION

shine possible out of existence. Sorrow and
shadows come unbidden and whether we will it
or no; so I learned long ago not to brood or re-
pine over things beyond my power to change,
believing, with my Presbyterian forebears, that
whatever is to be will be. Benjamin Franklin,
when asked the secret of his vigorous old age, re-
plied, "Be cheerful and keep your bowels open."
Those men, professional or otherwise, who take
themselves too seriously, are not usually of an
extended longevity. I am serenely happy and
contented that at eighty years of age, I am in pos-
session of all my faculties; and this I credit to
fairly good habits and a disposition to be con-
tented with my lot.

CHAPTER XXII
A GREAT TASK FINISHED

Many and pleasant are the fond recollections
still cherished of the score of years which I spent
in the practice of medicine in DuQuoin. It was
there that I acquired a practical knowledge of
medicine and surgery which constituted my life
work, and in the practice of which I was actively
engaged for more than half a century.

It was there on December 27, 1864, that I was
married to Miss Helen Priscilla Ward, a daughter
of Alva Ward, a branch of the New England
family of that name which had found its way
west by easy stages, settling first in Cayuga
County, New York, moving from thence to Cler-
mont County, Ohio, and eventually to DuQuoin
at about the time the Illinois Central was built;
in fact, Guy, George and John Ward, brothers of
my wife, helped build the first house erected in
Duquoin, which was built approximately on the
site of the present residence of Lucius Smith, the
banker. My wife's mother was a cousin of Gen-
eral Don Carlos Buell, whose timely appearance
•with his army at Shiloh saved Grant's army from
almost certain annihilation ; a brother, Guy Carl-

200

A GREAT TASK FINISHED

ton Ward, was a captain in the 12th Illinois In-
fantry; another brother, George, served in the
81st Illinois, the regiment organized and com-
manded by my friend, Colonel James Dallins;
another brother, John B., became a prominent
educator of southern Illinois. There is none
left now of that generation, but there are many
of the succeeding generation and of the genera-
tion following that are living now in Chicago. My
wife Helen lived but a few years, leaving at her
death an infant son, my only child, Guy Marshall
McLean, who is now an officer in the medical
corps of the U. S. Army.

The battle of Shiloh, in which I was wounded,
was a crucial contest, not only as affecting the
career of General Grant but also in the campaign
for possession of the Mississippi valley and con-
trol of the Mississippi river with its then ex-
tensive navigation and commerce. From Shiloh,
the Confederates retreated to their entrenchments
at Corinth, where they were defeated some weeks
later. The year was further made memorable by
the exploits of Admiral Farragut, who ran by
the forts at the mouth of the Mississippi, cap-
tured New Orleans and thereby got control of the
Mississippi up to Vicksburg. By the fall of 1862,
the Confederates held only two places in the Mis-
sissippi valley — Vicksburg and Chattanooga.

The prosecution of the war against secession
had developed so favorably that Lincoln decided

201

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

to make a bold stroke to force the rebel states
into submission to Federal authority. On Sep-
tember 22, 1862, he issued his immortal Emanci-
pation Proclamation in which it was announced,
"That on the first day of January, in the year of
our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-
three, all persons held as slaves within any State,
or designated part of a State, the people whereof
shall then be in rebellion against the United
States, shall be then, thenceforward and forever
free." On the following New Year's Day, in ac-
cordance with his proclamation, the South still
being in rebellion, he issued the promised edict
which struck the chains of slavery from four mil-
lion human beings. The closing paragraph of his
New Year's proclamation was as follows :

"And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an
act of justice, warranted by the constitution upon
military necessity, I invoke the considerate
judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of
Almighty God."

Thus at one stroke the Great Emancipator re-
moved the blot of Slavery from the escutcheon
of Liberty and thereby became immortalized in
the "considerate judgment of mankind" which he
confidently invoked upon his act.

At the time the Emancipation Proclamation
was signed, General Grant's army was settling
down to the siege of Vicksburg, which was
brought to a successful close on July 4, 1863,

202

A GREAT TASK FINISHED

when it was surrendered to Grant, thus freeing
the Mississippi; and on the same day in the
eastern theater of war, Lee's attempted invasion
of the North was repulsed at Gettysburg, Penn-
sylvania, with frightful losses, and he was driven
back into Virginia. Late in 1863, the remaining
Confederates were driven out of Tennessee. From
that time on there was no question as to the ulti-
mate outcome of the titanic struggle, the only
question being the question of time.

In March, 1864, with his task successfully
finished in the West, the conspicuous services of
my old leader, General Grant, were recognized in
his appointment as Lieutenant General of the
United States Army, a rank theretofore held only
by the great generals, George Washington and
Winfield Scott. Grant now moved his general
headquarters to the Army of the Potomac, then
in the field in Virginia operating against the
Confederate army under General Robert E. Lee,
without a peer in the Rebel army since the death
of that Christian gentleman and great general,
Thomas J. (Stonewall) Jackson, who was killed
at the battle of Chancellorsville, where the Union
forces under Hooker received the worst defeat of
the Civil War.

Up to the time Grant took supreme command
of the Union Army no general had been developed
among our forces who was regarded as a match
in military genius for General Lee, commanding

203

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

the Confederate Army in Virginia. Now the
world was to see a battle of giants. Grant, with-
out delay, sent the veterans of the Army of the
Potomac against Lee's seasoned troops in three
pitched battles. The havoc inflicted upon our
army in those engagements at the Wilderness,
Spottsylvania and Cold Harbor checked the ad-
vance of Grant and compelled him to change his
tactics from frontal attacks to flanking move-
ments. Lee, with about half as many men as
Grant, was putting up a masterful defense, and
when the winter set in Lee was intrenched at
Petersburg, which he held until the following
spring.

In 1864, an opportunity was given the people
to approve or disapprove of Lincoln's administra-
tion, for the Republicans in their national con-
vention of that year nominated Lincoln for re-
election on a platform endorsing his administra-
tion and all his official acts and promising "to
prosecute the war with the utmost possible vigor,
to the complete suppression of the rebellion."
The Democrats nominated as their candidate
General George B. McClellan, a Union general
who had failed, as the leader of the Army of the
Potomac, to disperse the rebel forces threatening
Washington. The signal success of Grant had
further embittered him so that he was easily per-
suaded to accept the Democratic nomination on
a platform which declared the war a failure and

204

A GREAT TASK FINISHED

recommended a "convention of the states, or other
possible means, to the end that, at the earliest
practical moment, peace may be restored."

The election in November resulted in a sweep-
ing victory for Lincoln, who was inaugurated into
his second term as President on March 4, 1865.
On that occasion, Lincoln rose to a height of sub-
lime eloquence and pathos equal to anything in
the history of the world. In closing his brief ad-
dress he said:

"Fondly do we hope — fervently do we pray — that
this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away.
Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth
piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years
of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop
of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by an-
other drawn with the sword, as was said three thou-
sand years ago, so still it must be said, 'The judg-
ments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether/

"With malice toward none; with charity for all;
with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the
right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to
bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who
shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and
his orphan — to do all which may achieve and cherish
a just and lasting peace among ourselves, and with
all nations."

Heartened by the triumph of the reelection of
Lincoln and inspired by his second inaugural,
Grant set himself resolutely to the task of break-
ing the resistance of Lee, whose army had been
worn down to less than 50,000. On April 1, Gen-

205

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

eral Phil Sheridan won an important engagement
at Five Forks, making Lee's position at Peters-
burg untenable and compelling him to abandon
the defense of Richmond and to retreat to the
west. He was overtaken a week later at Ap-
pomattox Court House, where he surrendered
what remained of his once splendid army, num-
bering a little less than 30,000. The Clan McLean
was honored with a part in that historic event
in the fact that Grant and Lee met, agreed on the
terms of surrender, and signed the written agree-
ment in the home of Wilmer McLean on April
9, 1865.

Then followed a period of public rejoicing
which reached into every home and hamlet, North
and South, all over the land, but which was
brought to an abrupt termination a few days later
through the tragic removal of the great central
figure of the war and of the age. On the night
of April 14th, President Lincoln sat with his fam-
ily and some personal friends in a box at Ford's
Theater in Washington witnessing the produc-
tion of a comedy entitled Our American Cousin.
It was the first real relaxation which had been
vouchsafed the great heart and mind for four
long weary years. There he sat, the savior of a
people, the savior of a nation, beloved throughout
the country he had saved, when he was shot
through the head by John Wilkes Booth, a men-
tally defective brother of Edwin Booth, the

206

A GREAT TASK FINISHED

great tragedian. The President was carried
across the street to a house where he passed peace-
fully away the next morning, surrounded by his
family and some of his cabinet officers. When
the surgeon announced the end, War Secretary
Stanton broke the stillness and suspense with his
famous reverent exclamation, "Now he belongs
to the ages."

The assassination of President Lincoln was
part of a gigantic plot to overthrow the Govern-
ment by murdering the President and the prom-
iment government officials. Secretary Seward,
in bed with illness, was attacked and would have
been killed had not his attendants overpowered
the assassin. The other features of the hare-
brained scheme failed for one reason or another.
Booth, in making his escape from the theater,
jumped from the President's box to the stage,
but the American flag draped in front of the box
caught the spur of the assassin and threw him
heavily to the stage, breaking his leg, thus mutely
avenging the dastardly deed. The injury so im-
peded the movements of Booth that he was over-
taken in his flight and found hiding in a barn in
Carolina County, Virginia, Refusing to sur-
render, the barn was set fire, and as he was about
to rush out, rifle in hand, to give battle, he was
shot down by Sergeant Boston Corbett. The
other principals in the conspiracy were appre-
hended, tried and executed.

207

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

Lincoln's body was taken to the White House,
where it lay in the spacious East Room until
April 19th, when the public funeral ceremonies
were held and the body was then taken to the
Capitol of the nation he had served and saved,
where it lay in state while thousands and thou-
sands of sorrowing Americans filed mournfully
past in token of the world's bereavement. On
April 21st, a funeral train was started out of
Washington to take his body back to Springfield,
following substantially the route over which he
had come in 1861 to be inaugurated president.
What a contrast between the two occasions and
what strong proof, taken together, they constitut-
ed that the hand of Providence guided our des-
tiny! The journey back to Springfield consumed
twelve days, during which the nation was in
mourning.

That those who read my story may know how
Lincoln was revered by the generation in which
he lived, I quote the following description of his
funeral cortege, taken from the biography writ-
ten by his secretary, John G. Nicolay :

"On April 21, accompanied by a guard of honor,
and in a train decked with somber trappings, the jour-
ney was begun. At Baltimore, through which, four
years before, it was a question whether the President-
elect could pass with safety to his life, the coffin was
taken with reverent care to the great dome of the
Exchange, where, surrounded with evergreens and
lilies, it lay for several hours, the people passing by
208

A GREAT TASK FINISHED

in mournful throngs. The same demonstration was
repeated, gaining continually in intensity of feeling
and solemn splendor of display, in every city through
which the procession passed. The reception in New
York was worthy alike of the great city and of the
memory of the man they honored. The body lay in
state in the City Hall, and a half million people
passed in deep silence before it. Here General Scott
came, pale and feeble, but resolute, to pay his tribute
of respect to his departed friend and commander.

"The train went up the Hudson River by night, and
at every town and village on the way vast waiting
crowds were revealed by the fitful glare of torches,
and dirges and hymns were sung. As the train passed
into Ohio, the crowds increased in density, and the
public grief seemed intensified at every step west-
ward. The people of the great central basin were
claiming their own. The day spent at Cleveland was
unexampled in the depth of emotion it brought to
life. Some of the guard of honor said that it was at
this point they began to appreciate the place which
Lincoln was to hold in history."

The funeral train reached Springfield, Illinois,
on May 3, and the body lay in state in the Capi-
tol for a day, where it was viewed by thousands of
his own people. On the morning of May 4, the
mortal remains of Abraham Lincoln were tenderly
laid to rest in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Spring-
field, where his sacred dust reposes to hallow the
soil of the great State which gave him to the na-
tion, to humanity and to the ages.

209

CHAPTER XXIII
BREAKING OLD TIES

The great Civil War originated over the ques-
tion of which was supreme, a state government
or our National Government; but the dissolution
of the Union was sought by the South because
she didn't want her unholy institution of slavery
interfered with; so slavery, therefore, was the
basic cause of the war. After the South had
forced the war upon us, the farseeing statesman-
ship of Lincoln saw the opportunity to remove
forever the bone of contention; hence the Eman-
cipation Proclamation.

Obviously, war is a terrible thing. Our Union
General, W. T. Sherman, aptly described it when
he said, "War is hell." But there are worse things
than war, and one of these was human slavery, so
civilization was advanced through the war which
freed the slaves. History will show that every
war which has been fought has contributed to
the advancement of civilization ; and the purposes
of the Almighty may be seen clearly running
through the succession of bloody conflicts in
which the human family has engaged since the
dawn of history.

210

BREAKING OLD TIES

I am glad that I had a part in the glorious
achievement of removing the stain of slavery
from our national escutcheon, although it re-
quired the sacrifice of my blood and the blood of
my comrades and antagonists to wash away the
stain. Under the softening and chastening in-
fluence of the fleeting years which have passed
since that horrible nightmare, I look back upon
it without resentment and without bitterness to-
wards those who opposed us. They fought
against advancing civilization, and were fore-
doomed to failure. And now, for our reunited na-
tion, my son and their sons are in the uniform of
our common country, fighting for the preserva-
tion and extension of the eternal principles on
which our Republic is founded.

Besides establishing the perpetuity of the
Union and abolishing slavery, the world was
treated to the wonderful example of how, in a
Republic of free men, a great army could be
quietly disbanded when the occasion for it had
passed. With a grand review in Washington in
which for two days the Union hosts followed
each other with the measured tread of veterans
past the reviewing stand, these men passed from
military to civil life, dissipating the fear that
"the man on horseback" would establish a per-
manent military autocracy to rule the country.
In the next national campaign, my old command-
er, General Grant, was nominated in Chicago by

211

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

the Republicans as their candidate for President,
and triumphantly elected.

Having been left at the death of my good wife
Helen with an infant son who needed the care
and attention that only a woman can give, I con-
tracted my second marriage with Eugenie Paris
at Bloomington, on September 21, 1871. She was
not only all that a mother could be to my son,
but proved a constant source of inspiration to
me throughout the more than two score years of
happy wedded life through which I was blessed
and encouraged with her delightful companion-
ship. She was a woman of sunny disposition,
high ideals and many accomplishments. I never
knew her to turn a deaf ear to a plea for aid or
assistance; and she would deny herself in order
to give to her friends.

A couple of weeks after my marriage, the great
fire occurred in Chicago which destroyed two
hundred million dollars worth of property. It
was thought at the time that the development of
the town was irreparably injured, but it trans-
pired that the fire was a blessing in disguise, be-
cause in its wake came new and better structures.
A new Chicago arose like the phoenix from its
ashes. At the time of the fire the population of
the city was approximately three hundred thou-
sand ; but the city was builded so rapidly after the
fire that the population exceeded a half million
when I came to Pullman.

212

BREAKING OLD TIES

In the interim I continued my practice in Du
Quoin, and it was filled with interesting ex-
periences. Among the surgical cases which I
handled were some injuries incurred in the
bloody vendetta which raged in old Williamson
County just after the Civil War. The feuds
originated in political disputes over questions
arising out of the Civil War, there being a large
proportion of southern sympathizers throughout
our portion of the state. Many men were killed,
maimed and wounded in the course of that local
warfare, and it fell to my lot to treat at least four
victims who had been shot from ambush. My
reader can imagine that it was anything but pleas-
ant or reassuring to ride through a country where
men were engaged in the rather common practice
of shooting at each other from ambush. I
learned afterward that I had had a narrow escape
through being mistaken for one of the hunted.
Fortunately for me, the color of my horse put a
doubt as to my identity in the mind of the gentle-
man who was drawing a bead on me, and the closer
investigation it caused him to make convinced
him that he had nearly shot the wrong man. This
outlawry continued with unabated vigor for sev-
eral years and until Governor Beveridge inter-
posed to put an effectual end to it. It was finally
broken up by two of the leading attorneys of Wil-
liamson County, W. "Josh" Allen and Judge
Hartwell, joining in the prosecution of the ban-

213

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

dits. The young son of Judge Hartwell is now
the Circuit Judge in that Judicial District.

During my practice in Du Quoin I had many
interesting surgical cases which I should like to
describe, but lack of space will not permit. I
will take the time, however, to tell about the case
of a young man whose arm was drawn into the
cogwheels or gears of a lathe, stripping the flesh
from the bones. The case indicated an amputa-
tion at the shoulder, and this was advised by the
two physicians who were first called. The boy
objected, however, to the amputation of his arm,
and wanted me to be called. Seeing that an am-
putation could be performed a few days later if
necessary, I thought I would humor the young
man by experimenting to see if the arm could be
saved. I soon became convinced that there was
a slight chance, and worked to that end. I be-
came somewhat discouraged, though, in the course
of the treatment to find that the wound was sup-
purating and that through exposure flies had been
allowed to lay their eggs in the pus, with the
result that the wound was soon virtually alive
with maggots. On making a close observation
of the wound I discovered that instead of having
a bad effect the little scavengers were performing
a friendly office, clearing the wound of the dead
and threatening tissue, having practically
cleansed the wound. Washing them out with
turpentine and dressing the wound, it was soon

214

BREAKING OLD TIES

in the process of healing. The arm was saved
to the young man but it was a long time before
feeling was fully restored in the injured member.

Along with my profession I took an interest in
local politics, being twice selected by my fellow
citizens to fill the office of mayor. While acting
in that capacity, the town marshal came to me
one day with a report that he was having trouble
with a couple of miners between whom there was
bad blood; that on pay days they would get in
a saloon and after a few rounds of drinks become
quarrelsome and want to fight. I told him to
arrange it, if he could, so that they could have
their fight without disturbing the peace and
order of the community. The next time they got
belligerent, he led them out to an orchard east
of town, where a ring was made and the marshal
appointed himself referee, timekeeper and master
of ceremonies. Taking out his revolver to em-
phasize his words, he informed the crowd which
had followed the fighters that it was to be a
fair fight to a finish and that the first man that
interfered would be shot. Most of those present
knew my marshal, Captain Lycurgus Reese, as a
man who was as good as his word, so when he
called time there wasn't any disposition to in-
terfere with the festivities. The men fought
until one of them was completely vanquished,
and so that old feud was settled once and for all.

As I write these lines, memory fondly recalls
215

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

the names and faces of many dear friends of that
day. A few of them still are in the land of the
living but most of them have joined the great ma-
jority on the other side. I wish I might here set
down the splendid characteristics of each of
them; but if I should attempt to do so, I would
fill more than one volume with memories which
are dear to my heart. What a wealth of golden
memories cluster about these names : Berry Lem-
ing, Al Brookings, Bill Brookings, Theophilus
(Offie) Fountain, Dempsy Fountain, Abe Pugh,
Jake Messmore, Don Onstott, John Beem, Marion
Wright, Joe Solomon, John Bowlin, Major Skin-
ner, S. G. Parks, Henry Horn, Tom Burgess, Billy
Briggs, Charlie Richards, George Wall, Tom
Wilson, John Higgins, Mun Crawford, Tom
Berryhill, Judd Jennelle, Marshall Browning,
Charlie Linzee and many, many others I might re-
call. Of these "Johnnie" Beem, the veteran pub-
lisher of the Du Quoin Tribune, is the only one
of the old guard left in Du Quoin that I can now
remember, but Joe Solomon, Charlie Richards
and Bill Briggs are living in Chicago, and Judge
Wall is living in Evanston. All the others have
passed on.

In the summer of 1881 my wife was in corre-
spondence with a friend of hers of the name of
Crawford whom she had known in Bloomington.
Mr. and Mrs. Crawford were moving to the new
town of Pullman which was then being estab-

216

BREAKING OLD TIES

lished fourteen miles south of Chicago. They
had arranged to take the management of the hotel
then in course of erection at Pullman. Mrs.
Crawford suggested to Mrs. McLean that there
would be a splendid opportunity in the new town
for a good physician and surgeon. My wife be-
came enthusiastic about the matter and insisted
that I investigate it, which I did. My investiga-
tion satisfied me that it would be a good move
for me to make, so in October of that year I went
to Pullman. Crawford and his wife were there
in the hotel which at that time was not com-
pletely finished.

The Hotel Florence, named for the splendid
daughter of George M. Pullman, now wife of the
Governor of Illinois, was the first public build-
ing erected in the town. The Arcade, providing
for most of the business activities of the new
town, was also in course of construction. The
church was also being built. The school house
had not yet been erected, but a school was being
conducted in a building which had been erected
for the Rock Island Depot, but which was never
used for that purpose because the railroad was
not extended to Pullman as it was originally in-
tended it should be. And so it happened that I
was the first physician to settle in Pullman.

217

CHAPTER XXIV
GEORGE M. PULLMAN

About a month after we arrived in Pullman, I
took occasion to call upon George M. Pullman in
his uptown office in Chicago to discuss with him
the possibility of making an arrangement to do
the surgical work resulting from injuries sus-
tained by the workmen in the plant. At that time
there were about 400 men employed in different
capacities in the Pullman works, and as there was
a sure prospect for a great increase in that num-
ber, I went to urge upon him the advisability of
adding this human "repair department" to the
otherwise complete equipment at the plant.

Mr. Pullman was one of the most agreeable and
most democratic men I have met. He received
me very courteously, and listened attentively to
my suggestions, in which I took occasion to tell
him about my experience and ability to handle
emergency surgery of the kind that might be
expected in a great industrial concern like his.
After discussing the matter for some time, and
without reaching an agreement or conclusion, he
launched into a running story of his career which
was intensely interesting to me and which cov-
ered, as I now remember, about an hour and a half

218

GEORGE M. PULLMAN

in the telling. Briefly, the story was about as
follows :

* He was born in Chautauqua county, New York,
in 1831. He had learned the trade of cabinet
maker, and worked at that trade with an older
brother, A. B. Pullman. When he was about of
age, his attention was directed to an advertise-
ment for bids for the building of the mule barns
along the Erie Canal. Feeling that he was able to
handle the undertaking, he submitted a bid and
was awarded the contract, in the handling of
which he was very successful. That constituted
his start in life.

While working on the Erie Canal contract, he
noted in a Buffalo paper that some streets were
to be widened in Buffalo, and that the work was
to be let on contract. Figuring that he could
move houses as well as he could build stables, he
submitted a bid on the Buffalo improvement with
the result that he secured the contract. His work
in Buffalo attracted the attention of the Chicago
people who were at that time contemplating im-
portant changes in the street levels in the down-
town district, and particularly in changing State
street and in raising the abutting property. The
contract for making these changes was awarded
to him, and he moved to Chicago just shortly be-
fore the outbreak of the Civil War.

It was on a trip which he made from Buffalo to
Chicago that the idea originated which, when

219

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

worked out, made Pullman famous. He left Buf-
falo on an afternoon train which reached Chi-
cago the next morning. He explained to me that
he did so because it was cheaper to travel at night
and was also a time saver. There were at that
time, of course, no sleeping accommodations on
trains, so that in order to get any rest at all he
had to dispose himself as best he could in the
stiff, uncomfortable seats then in use on railway
trains. The cars were light, the roadbed was very
rough, the couplings were primitive, and the
motive power was erratic and intermittent, with
the net result that his rest was frequently broken.
As he was trying to get into a position in his seat
to get a little rest, his attention was attracted to
the luggage rack above him, and it occurred to
him that if that could be widened and lengthened
it might be made to provide a place for passen-
gers to recline and rest, and perhaps sleep. That
was the germination of the idea which was finally
evolved into the Pullman sleeper.

Keeping the idea in mind, he experimented
with it while engaged on his Chicago contract.
Securing a couple of old, discarded passenger
cars from the Chicago & Alton railway, he with
his brother, A. B. Pullman, and James Gardiner,
all cabinet makers, set about to transform the old
passenger coaches into sleeping cars, on which
letters patent were applied for and granted. Hav-
ing worked out his idea in a practical way, Mr.

220

GEORGE M. PULLMAN

Pullman found that his greatest difficulty would
be to educate the public into adopting and using
the new convenience, which was regarded with
considerable suspicion as an infernal machine of
some sort.

His Chicago contract finished, he went out to
Colorado where a great boom was in progress on
account of recent discoveries of gold and silver
in large quantities. He had not, however, aban-
doned the idea of getting the world to adopt the
child of his brain, so within a couple of years he
came back to Chicago and built a new sleeper
which he named the Pioneer. That car was built
in 1863, and it may be seen today in the yards out
at Pullman by anyone who is interested in noting
the great advance which has been made in this
one branch of human industry. When the car
was completed, a trial trip was arranged, and sev-
eral distinguished citizens were invited to make
up a party to try out the new invention. Among
these was long John Wentworth, who was so
tall that he had to stoop considerably in order to
get through the door. The trial was eminently
satisfactory to every one concerned, and there-
after the sleeping car became more and more
popular, until today it is a common institution
in American commercial life. It is truly won-
derful to me to reflect that when I was born there
was not a steam railroad in Illinois, all commerce
worthy of the name being water borne; and that

221

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

when I began the practice of medicine there was
not a sleeping car or dining car in operation.

Within a few years it became apparent that the
business of manufacturing and operating sleeping
cars would grow beyond the facilities then availa-
ble for handling the business, which suggested
the formation of a large corporation to exploit,
develop and extend the new Jndustry. This re-
sulted in the formation of thd Pullman Palace Car
Company, which was organized in 1867. , The
first manufacturing plant was established at Pal-
myra, New York. In the early days of the sleep-
ing car, they were not built completely of steel
as they are now, but were then constructed mostly
of wood, with ornate carvings and filigree work.
It was soon found that Palmyra was too far from
the supply of timber, so the plant was moved to
Detroit, then the best market in the country for
forest products. The gradual substitution of iron
and steel for the disappearing wood construc-
tion suggested another move; this time to the
Illinois shore of Lake Michigan, and virtually
alongside the great steel mills upon which the
Pullman industry had to depend for a steady sup-
ply of raw material. So it happened that, as
water seeks its level, the Pullman Company found
its permanent home in the Calumet region south
of the great and growing metropolis of the Mis-
sissippi valley and railway center of the United
States. *-~

222

GEORGE M. PULLMAN

Through a prophetic eye and rare good judg-
ment, Mr. Pullman foresaw that the region chosen
by him for the shops would, before many years,
be the greatest manufacturing district in the
United States. H« called my attention to the fact
that Calumet Lake, adjoining the works on the
east, could be made into an unexcelled, land-
locked harbor and port; that this gave uninter-
rupted water transportation between the iron
mines of northern Michigan and Minnesota, so
that he could buy iron and steel at the lowest pos-
sible prices; that practically inexhaustible coal
fields lay just to the south, thus assuring a con-
tinuing supply of fuel; that the geographical lo-
cation of Chicago made it the logical railway and
transportation center of the Union. Backing his
faith with all that he possessed and staking his
future on the venture, he authorized the purchase
of 4,500 acres of land contiguous to Lake Calumet,
with the purpose in view of erecting there the
Pullman shops, and building a community for his
workmen which would be a model for industrial
communities and a monument to the philanthropy
and genius of its creator.

With his business acumen, George M. Pullman
combined most wonderful aesthetic tastes and
ideals. He had an unerring instinct for graceful
architecture and beautiful landscape effects. I
have never forgotten a statement that he made in
the course of our first conversation when he said

223

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

»x

most earnestly and impressively: "Beauty has
an intrinsic value." This was his central idea in
working out the plans for the town of Pullman.
He had had occasion, prior to that time, to employ
the services of Spencer S. Beeman, a New York
architect, and Nathan F. Barrett, a landscape en-
gineer, in connection with plans for his home and
surrounding grounds. Mr. Pullman was ill at
home while they were engaged in that occupa-
tion, and that gave him an opportunity to discuss
with them the plans for the prospective city on
the shore of Calumet, in the course of which he
directed them to prepare detailed plans for his
inspection the next time he should be in New
York. These gentlemen did not treat the matter
seriously, thinking that the magnificent ideas dis-
cussed by the master builder were only the
chimera of a fevered brain. Mr. Pullman laughed
as he related to me how, on his next trip to New
York, he sent a message to Mr. Beeman request-
ing him to come over to the hotel with the plans ;
how the architect pleaded a previous engagement
and asked if the next morning would answer just
as well ; how, when he found that he was expected
to deliver the plans, he worked straight through
the night making an outline of the ideas which
he had thought were merely delirious dreams;
and how, when the sketch was presented the next
morning, it was found to be a faithful delineation
of the "dreams," requiring but a very few changes.

224

GEORGE M. PULLMAN

After these were made, the plans were approved,
and Messrs. Beeman and Barrett were commis-
sioned to work them out in detail, not only on
paper but on the shore of Lake Calumet, where
the town of Pullman was founded in 1880. It was
in the year following, and before the public
buildings were up, that I settled there.

The town as originally planned included school,
church, library, bank, theater and retail stores in
which almost everything was sold except alco-
holic liquors. I believe Pullman was the first
"dry" town in Cook County, made so by the stern
decree of its founder, whose word was law — and
law of the same kind as that of the Medes and the
Persians. If there was any one institution George
M. Pullman could not tolerate it was the open
saloon. The homes of the workmen were all built
and owned by the company, and leased to the em-
ployees, and this custom prevailed until the Illi-
nois Supreme Court handed down a decision that
the company could not own any more real estate
than was absolutely necessary to carry out the
purposes of the corporation. -' That decision was
the big factor in the subsequent disintegration of
Pullman's Pullman, because under it the company
had to sell the homes which had been maintained
for the workmen, and in this way outside interests
gradually gained a foothold, until now the town
is not very different from other industrial centers
in Chicago.

225

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

Mr. Pullman lived some sixteen or seventeen
years after his town was founded, and, without
reflection on the living, it may be truthfully said
that the soul of the town went out with that of the
great man in whose soul and brain it was born.

In 1887, he invented the train vestibule, now a
common convenience and safety device on every
through passenger train; and in the same year
introduced the dining car to travelers, the pioneer
diner going into service on the Union Pacific
Railroad.

I have said that Mr. Pullman's decisions were
final. That was true, but there are exceptions to
all rules, and I will pause to tell of an incident
where he was influenced to countermand his own
orders. A competent workman in the shops had
rigged out an old buggy with a gasoline engine
and a chain drive on the rear axle — the progenitor
of our modern automobile — and secured the con-
sent of Mr. Pullman to inspect the device. It was
a sultry day in midsummer, with a broiling sun
overhead. Mr. Pullman came out on a train from
the city, getting off at lllth street, where he was
met at the station by the inventor. Together they
got into the horseless vehicle, and rode up to the
north end of the works at about 103d street, when
the gasoline gave out or something happened to
interfere with the working of the engine which,
up to that time, had been doing very well. The
inventor being unable to start it again, Mr. Pull-

226

GEORGE M. PULLMAN

man looked about for means of getting back to
the hotel on lllth street. A telephone call to the
stable revealed the fact that all the conveyances
were out that afternoon in attendance at a funeral,
and there was no conveyance to be had, so he had
to set out on foot through the heat and dust. As
he walked he became warmer, and as his tempera-
ture arose, his temper went with it. Every man
who crossed his path felt his displeasure, and by
the time he reached the hotel he had bodily fired
a number of employees, including some at the
hotel. As he sat on the veranda of the hotel sip-
ping cold lemonade while waiting for his train,
he cooled off perceptibly; and as he was leaving
the hotel to take the train, he rather sheepishly
said to his fiscal agent in Pullman : "I had occa-
sion today to order the discharge of several em-
ployees ; please see that the order is held in abey-
ance until you hear from me further in reference
to it." And that closed the incident.

George M. Pullman died in 1897. Into his com-
paratively short life of 66 years, he had crowded
the activities of a dozen average lives; and
although the master mind is gone, and although
he could not put his soul into the great corpora-
tion which perpetuates his industrial activity, his
spirit and philanthropic purpose still survive in
the free manual training school recently erected
out of his bounty that the children of his work-
men might have an opportunity to fit themselves
for useful occupations.

227

CHAPTER XXV
MAKING THE MODEL TOWN

From the time that the Pullman sleeping car
became an assured success, its creator cherished
the ambition to erect a model town in which his
workmen might dwell in comfort and happiness
in a community where there were no outside in-
terests or influences. To do this required an ex-
tended area of ground under the ownership and
control of a single interest. This led to the
selection of the site in the Calumet region as
offering the largest tract available, with both land
and water transportation at hand.

From my talk with Mr. Pullman I received the
impression that Lake Calumet was a controlling
factor in the selection; and he began building
there with unbounded faith that the surrounding
region would some day be the industrial center
of America. Time has justified his faith.

To acquire the necessary acreage to put his
plans in operation was a delicate undertaking in
itself. Had Mr. Pullman gone into the market
in his own name, he would have defeated his pur-
pose, because the minute it became known he was
a heavy buyer of the Calumet marsh lands, prices

228

MAKING THE MODEL TOWN

would have soared to a prohibitive point. So he
operated through Col. James H. Bowen, and so
skillfully did the latter carry on his negotiations
that he had purchased some 3,000 acres from sev-
enty-five different owners at an approximate cost
of one million dollars before his principal became
known. After that, about 1,500 acres additional
were acquired for future development.

Of the total acreage acquired, about 500 acres
were dedicated as a site for the new town, the
remainder being held for future additions to the
great industrial city which was to grow as other
manufactories located there. The site of the town
was surveyed by Welland F. Sargent, assisted
by William Lee. Mr. Sargent is now, at the time
of writing, Commissoiner of Public Works in Oak
Park, a thriving suburb of Chicago on the west
side.

One of the factors in the location of Pullman
was the fact that the clay on the shore of Lake
Calumet was admirably adapted to the making of
a fine grade of brick. This presented a conserva-
tion project of a double aspect. As the clay was
dredged for brick making, slips were deepened for
the expected water-borne commerce of the future.
Thus did the town of Pullman virtually rise from
the shores of Lake Calumet, the structures being
composed principally of these Calumet brick, the
manufacture of which continued after the town
was built.

229

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

Those familiar with what is known as the Calu-
met region adjacent to Lake Calumet know that
the surrounding land surface is elevated but
slightly above the level of the lake, which made
of that country, before drainage was installed, an
extended marsh. It has been said that the early
settlers after severe rains found their way about
the territory in skiffs. This presented a difficulty
requiring the most skillful engineering to correct
and improve. The problem of sewage and drain-
age was worked out by Benezette Williams, one
of the most competent sewage and drainage engi-
neers of his time.

After the site was established and made ready
for the shops and buildings, the detailed draw-
ings for the public buildings were made by Mr.
Beeman, assisted by Irving K. Pond, a Chicago
architect who has acquired a national reputation
for the quality of his work. The arrangement
of the public buildings and the residential district
was under the direction of Mr. Nathan F. Barrett,
landscape engineer. The combined genius of these
builders produced a model city in the Calumet
marsh which soon became famous throughout the
land.

At the time the town of Pullman was built,
A. B. Pullman, brother of George M., had gen-
eral supervision over all the plants of the Pull-
man Company, and in that capacity had charge
of the building of Pullman. Mr. T. A. Bissell,

230

MAKING THE MODEL TOWN

at that time manager of the Detroit shops of
the Pullman Company, laid out the general plan
and directed the erection of the shops at Pull-
man. I understood he was offered the position of
general manager of the new Pullman works, but
for some reason or other declined it.

All the carpenter work in the building of the
new town was under the direction of Dan Martin,
the first carpenter of Pullman, who became after-
ward the head of the woodworking department in
the shops. The brick and masonry construction
was under the direction of R. E. Moss, whose son,
Edward Moss, still lives in Chicago. Some of the
later brick construction was done by Alex. Mc-
Laughlin, whose sons, William, James and John
P., are still engaged in business in the neighbor-
hood.

The first inhabitant or, rather, the first person
to occupy a habitation in one of the new houses
in Pullman, was E. A. Benson. He was a practical
car builder, and came to Pullman as the first super-
intendent of the erecting shops where the cars
were assembled and the finished product turned
out. Later he became Mechanical Superintendent
of the company. He retired from active service
some time ago, but his son, Harry Benson, holds
a prominent place in the Pullman Company as
Superintendent of the Buffalo shops.

The men I have mentioned thus far were prac-
tical builders and at the head of their several

231

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

professions and trades. In addition to these there
were many others who contributed to the splen-
did result achieved, but whose part in it I am
unable to set down in this biography for lack of
space.

Mr. Pullman generally had in his employ a num-
ber of men who apparently had no specific work
to do or duties to perform. They were not engi-
neers, they were not builders, they were not cabi-
net makers, and they were not captains of indus-
try. I recall that in the early days of the town
of Pullman a Mr. H. I. Kimball became associated
with the company, although I do not remember
that he had a title. I think he had been in the
hotel business in Atlanta, Ga., and I deduced from
that that he occupied a sort of advisory position
with reference to the Hotel Florence in Pullman.
Following him came a Scotchman named Robert
Caird, who was understood to have considerable
authority but no title. These men, and others
like them who followed, with no definite status
in the company, were generally men of education
and of ability which was not related to practical
car building. So far as managing the shops, the
operating division or the town of Pullman was
concerned, they were simply idealists ; and I have
thought at times that Mr. Pullmna retained them
because he thought they might contribute to the
organizaion new and fresh ideas. An individual
of this class never stayed very long, and his suc-

232

MAKING THE MODEL TOWN

cessor was on the job before he left; in fact, the
General had a clever way of pitting these men
against each other so that it became simply a ques-
tion of a survival of the fittest.

At the time of the building of Pullman there
was an office created in the company by Mr. Pull-
man which has survived to the present day, the
title of which is Assistant to the President. In
Mr. Pullman's day, the person who held this posi-
tion was his fidus Achates, and through him Mr.
Pullman maintained a close 'touch and co-opera-
tion between the general offices up town and the
works out at Pullman. If my memory serves me
correctly, the first person to occupy this position
was Colonel W. E. Barrows, who resided at the
Hotel Florence, where he kept in close touch with
the officials at the shops. He was practically man-
ager at the plant during his incumbency. His
title of Colonel was earned in the Civil War, in
which he served in a New England regiment.
After several years' connection with the Pullman
Company, he went back East. The last I heard of
him he was in the manufacturing business in
Philadelphia.

The new town was provided with all of the
idjuncts and attributes of a cultured community,
Aicluding schools, churches, library, theater, bank,
Stores, club and a first-class hotel. The model
homes in the residence portion of the town were
erected, owned and maintained by the company

233

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

in order to maintain uniformity and to prevent
outside interests from intruding into the life of
the town.

The Arcade building, just below lllth street
and east of the Illinois Central tracks, was planned
to be an ideal community center, the pioneer of
its kind in the city of Chicago. In it was located
the bank, the postoffice, the theater, some stores,
a billiard parlor, a restaurant and the public li-
brary containing some 5,000 volumes, established
as a gift from George M. Pullman to the town
which perpetuated his name. The first librarian
was Mrs. F. L. Fake, whose son, Fred L. Fake,
was later a judge of the Municipal Court of Chi-
cago, and is now a practicing attorney residing
in the Hyde Park district.

If there was any one feature of the new town
on which Mr. Pullman prided himself, it was the
little theater in the Arcade. It was beautifully
finished, and was acclaimed the most perfect the-
ater west of New York. The drop curtain was a
work of art, representing a Turkish scene with the
blue Mediterranean in the distance. The theater
accommodated about 1,000 persons and, in the early
days of Pullman, was a distinctive feature of our
social life. It may be remembered by the "old
ones" that at the opening performance in the
beautiful new theater the guest of honor in the
Pullman private box was General Phil Sheridan.
Later, at a luncheon tendered Sir Henry Irving

234

MAKING THE MODEL TOWN

and Ellen Terry by Mr. Pullman at the Hotel
Florence, the eminent English actor paid the mas-
ter builder a glowing tribute for the creation of
the little playhouse; and Lawrence Barrett, the
great American tragedian, is said to have ex-
claimed on viewing the theater that it was "not
excelled in beauty or completeness by any in the
country !"

Some of the best talent in the theatrical world
has "trod the boards" in the Pullman theater, but
in the disintegration of the social life of the town
following the decision of the Illinois Supreme
Court which compelled the Company to relinquish
ownership of all the property not essential to the
"business" of the corporation, the theater fell into
disuse, and does not now even boast the modern
and ubiquitous "movie." The history of the Pull-
man theater is the history of the town as it was
conceived by Pullman, and a comparison of its
condition at present with its palmy early days
shows how far the town has slumped from
the high ideals of George M. Pullman. The spirit
of Pullman has departed, and in its place the spirit
of the Supreme Court's decision is writ large over
everything. Beauty has been sacrificed to Busi-
ness!

In religious belief, the Pullmans were ardent
Universalists. Two brothers of George M. Pull-
man were ministers of that faith, and had degrees
as Doctors of Divinity. The elder of the two,

235

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

Doctor Royal H. Pullman, was totally blind dur-
ing his latter years. The other, Doctor James M.
Pullman, preached the dedication sermon of the
community church erected in Pullman. I am sure
the founder would have been pleased to see the
church occupied by a Universalist congregation,
but he was not of a nature to impose his religious
views on others, so the church was conducted as
a union church available on equal terms for all
the church societies which wanted to use it. The
first regular sermon preached in the new church
was delivered by A. B. Pullman, another brother
to whom reference has already been made.

In the general aspect of the town there was
not a hideous or objectionable feature that I can
remember, but, to the contrary, on every side the
eye was met by pleasing, harmonious effects. In
what is now the northeast corner of Cottage Grove
avenue and lllth street, there was an artificial
lake entirely surrounded by beautiful flowers.
Every street was lined with beautiful, flowering
plants, and the base of each tree was a beautiful
flower bed, purposely so designed by Mr. Barrett
because, as he explained, the flowers were sure to
be watered and the trees thereby would also bene-
fit. Through his foresight, not a tree was lost.

Lest it be thought that I have been somewhat
extravagant in my statements about the beauty
of the town of Pullman as it was conceived and
built by the master builder, it may be well for me

236

MAKING THE MODEL TOWN

to record the fact that George M. Pullman was
decorated by the Italian Government for the build-
ing of the model city. This recognition, coming
from the land where art is renowned, speaks more
eloquently than I could of the fame of our little
community.

The beauty of Pullman has long since departed,
and nothing is left to suggest its former glory
aside from the stately architecture of the original
public buildings and their artistic arrangement.
What a pity it could not be maintained as Pullman
conceived it, to bless the Pullman employees with
health and comfort and to surround their growing
families with those enduring things of life which
educate and elevate the human being. The only
evidence of the wholesome Pullman influence left
is the manual training school, erected out of the
bounty of the founder of the town, and in which
his constructive spirit still lives !

237

CHAPTER XXVI
PIONEERS OF PULLMAN

In handling such a broad subject within the
limits of a single chapter, it will be necessary for
me to forego the inclination and the desire to
record the names of hundreds of dear friends
made in my new field of labor, and to limit my-
self to a very few who will be referred to in con-
nection with institutions in the new town. I
should like to fill a whole book with pleasant mem-
ories of many happy days, and to people those
days with names and faces which pass before my
mind's eye as I write, but the proper limit of my
narrative will not permit of such pleasing rev-
eries.

My friends who knew of our home life in Pull-
man from the time we moved there until the death
of Mrs. McLean will remember that my good wife
kept open house where our friends and neighbors
were ever welcome, and will remember the cheer-
ful atmosphere of hospitality which pervaded
our home and which seemed to radiate from her
presence like perfume from the flower. To the
many of those dear friends whose names do not
appear in my story, I wish to extend assurance

238

PIONEERS OF PULLMAN

that the old ties and times are not forgotten but
are yet treasured and will be cherished to the end.

Soon after my conversation with Mr. Pullman
in his office uptown, I was appointed Company
surgeon to give medical attention to the men
injured in the works. That work did not take
nearly all my time, as there were only a few hun-
dred employed in the works then, so I had time to
engage in private practice, which grew very rap-
idly. In this way I had a splendid opportunity
to extend my acquaintance among the newcomers,
and in many cases I was the entire reception com*
mittee to receive "new arrivals."

While Pullman was in the making, and up to
the time that the town was taken into the City
of Chicago in 1889, I had the honor and the dis-
tinction of presiding over the affairs of the local
school board. So it was that I was brought into
intimate association with the men who had the
making of Pullman, and I will endeavor to intro-
duce a few of these in the order of their appear-
ance in the town, as nearly as I can now remember.

One of the gentlemen who served with me on
the school board and whose genial friendship it is
a pleasure to remember, was Eli C. Tourtelot, who
began his service with the Pullman Company as
an office boy before the town of Pullman was built,
and who continued with the Company for a period
of twenty-three years. When building operations
began on the shore of Lake Calumet, he was sent

239

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

out there as an assistant to a Mr. Brown, whose
duty it was to see that supplies for the workmen
were steadily forthcoming so that building opera-
tions would not be delayed. When the shops were
opened, Mr. Tourtelot became the first paymaster,
and was later promoted to the position of Chief
Clerk in the manager's office under H. H. Hewitt
when the latter was assistant manager. Mr. Tour-
telot left the Company during the World's Fair
in 1893 to go into business for himself, in which
he has achieved success. He lives in Oak Park,
and is at present connected with the Hewitt Mfg.
Co., one of several manufacturing concerns in
which Herbert H. Hewitt, former assistant man-
ager at Pullman, is interested. Mr. Hewitt is now
living in Buffalo, and stands high in the industrial
world as a producer of manufactured brass.

Another gentleman with whom I served on the
school board was Edward Henricks, the first Town
Agent of Pullman, in which capacity he had a
general supervision over the residential portion of
the town, over which he was practically Mayor.
Captain Henricks was a man of liberal education,
having been graduated from the U. S. Naval Acad-
emy, and was related to the Pullmans through his
mother, whose sister was Mrs. Pullman's mother.
The families both came to Chicago from South
Bend, Indiana, where Mrs. Pullman's father,
James Y. Sanger, and Mr. Henrick's father, John
A. Henricks, one of the early settlers of northern

240

PIONEERS OF PULLMAN

Indiana, were associated together in the contract-
ing business under the firm name of Sanger &
Henricks. This firm had the contract to carry the
mails between Detroit and Chicago before the
railroads were thought of. When the Illinois &
Michigan Canal was projected, Sanger & Hen-
ricks bid on the work and were awarded a large
section of the construction work. James Y. Sanger
built the Illinois penitentiary at Joliet. It was
an outgrowth of the relations between George M.
Pullman and the firm of Sanger & Henricks that
he met and married Miss Sanger.

The father of Mrs. Henricks, Noah F. Van
Winkle, was the first postmaster at Pullman and
served in that capacity until the exigencies of
politics, brought about by the election of Grover
Cleveland as President, made it necessary for Mr.
VanWinkle to retire. Going to Florida the fol-
lowing winter, he purchased some land near
Tampa with a view of raising citrus fruits. Re-
turning to Pullman the following year to wind up
his affairs there, he was stricken with apoplexy
and died.

Mr. and Mrs. Henricks spent many pleasant
hours in our home, and the cordial friendship
which grew up between us has been maintained
throughout the intervening years since we first
became acquainted in the early days. They are
now living in retirement in their home in Ken-
wood. Their oldest son, John, is engaged in busi-

241

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

ness in New York City ; their daughter Louise, is
the wife of Wm. M. Ryan, who started with the
Pullman Company as a clerk and worked up to
the position of foreman, after which he severed
his connection with the Company and went into
business for himself as a manufacturer of freight
cars, his firm being the Ryan Car Company, of
Hegewisch, Illinois. He has been very successful
in his business. The youngest son, Lieutenant
Harold Henricks, is in the aviation service with
the American Expeditionary Forces in France.

These old friends have earned the benediction,
"Well done, good and faithful servants." May
they live many years to enjoy their reward !

I have already made mention of the fact that the
first school was taught in the building erected
for the Rock Island depot but which was never
to fulfill that hopeful prophecy because the Rock
Island deflected its line at Blue Island into Chi-
cago for the reason that it could not make a sat-
isfactory arrangement for terminal facilities on
the line first projected. D. R. Martin was the first
teacher in that school, in which he was at first the
whole teaching force of Pullman, and he has re-
mained throughout the years in charge of educa-
tion in Pullman, although he does not now live
in the town.

When our school had developed to a point where
we needed additional teachers, I secured an ap-
pointment for Miss Helen Ferguson, a niece of

242

PIONEERS OF PULLMAN

mine in DuQuoin. This resulted in the family,
consisting of Mrs. Anna Ferguson, her son and
three daughters, moving to Pullman, where the
son, Matthew Ferguson, was employed by the
Company. The son, while delivering a train of
cars to a railroad in Louisville, was killed in a
railroad wreck in Indiana. The daughter Helen
still teaches in the Pullman school, where she
enjoys the reputation of being a most efficient
instructor. Another daughter, Florence, became
the wife of William Lee, heretofore mentioned,
and their children have grown up, married and
established homes for themselves. Henry Lee, a
son of William Lee by a former marriage, is the
owner and publisher of the Calumet Record, a
weekly paper in South Chicago, and was commis-
sioned a Major in the U. S. Army shortly after
this country took up arms against Germany. Mr.
William Lee is at present engaged in engineer-
ing work for the city of Chicago, and the family
lives in the Hyde Park district.

When the beautiful and cozy little theater
which was the pride of Pullman was opened it
was under the management of George W. Hack-
ney, and remained under his direction as long as it
was operated. In addition to the fact that we both
saw service in the Union Army in Illinois regi-
ments, and in addition to our personal relations
through which a firm friendship was established
between us, there was an added bond between

243

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

George Hackney and me consisting of a mutual
friendship with Hon. Henry (Hank) Evans, late
of Aurora, for many years a picturesque and influ-
ential figure in the State Senate and in Illinois
Republican politics. Senator Evans was a brother-
in-law of Jacob Messmore, mentioned among the
old friends in DuQuoin. A bosom friend of Hack-
ney's was William (Billy) Quinn, who became
connected with the office force while E. C. Tour-
telot was Chief Clerk. These two old chums still
live in Pullman, although neither is employed
there.

This reminds me that there are few, very few,
of the pioneers of Pullman who still live in the
town itself. Just now I recall another, Mr. H. G.
Reynolds, who started there as a machinist the
year after I moved there. He is still employed in
the shops, one of the rapidly disappearing few
who began when the Company was established in
Pullman and who can now describe the evolution
of the Pullman Palace Car to its modern steel
form from the ornate and expensive wooden pro-
duction which was first turned out, and who has
seen the model town of 1882 retrograde into the
average industrial center of a great city.

Another of the pioneers of Pullman who was to
me all that a friend could be was Major John L.
Woods, who went to Pullman in 1880 as manager
of the Allen Paper Car Wheel Company, later a
subsidiary of the Pullman Company. Major

244

PIONEERS OF PULLMAN

Woods became at once a leading spirit in the
affairs of the new town. He was the first presi-
dent of the Pullman Athletic Club, which might
be said to be the progenitor of the Pullman Club,
and I served with him on the executive committee
of the athletic club in its infancy.

Major Woods and I had many things in com-
mon. We both saw active service in the Civil
War, and both were inspired in our patriotic im-
pulse from a common source. Although we did
not meet at the time, he was in St. Louis when I
was a medical student there and when the war
broke out. Unknown to each other we attended
patriotic meetings and demonstrations there un-
der the auspices of Congressman Frank P. Blair
and Nathaniel Lyon, who later became a general
in the Union army and was killed at Wilson's
Creek. I am under the impression that Major
Woods was one of the troop under Captain Lyon
which broke up the rebel "Camp Jackson" at St.
Louis. The activities of Blair and Lyon and their
cohorts had the net effect of preventing the State
of Missouri from seceding from the Union. At
any rate, Major Woods began his service under
Lyon and gained successive promotions until he
had acquired the rank of Captain. When the war
ended, he was retired with the rank of Major.

I have always fondly cherished the cordial
friendship which existed between the Major and
me, and the many, many pleasant hours of delight-

245

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

ful association I have enjoyed with him and his
good wife, both of whom were frequent and wel-
come visitors to our home. The Major keenly en-
joyed a game of whist or a little game of "draw,"
and in those light pastimes we sat down with our
friends and neighbors and with distinguished vis-
itors, including ex-Governor Beveridge, Judge
"Mun" Crawford from southern Illinois, and
many others.

Major Woods has now retired from active busi-
ness, in which he was attended with such well-
deserved fortune that he and his splendid wife
are now able to spend their winters in the con-
genial climate of Florida. It was a coincidence
that their only son, Edwin Woods, a splendid fel-
low about the age of my son, died just a short time
previous to the death of my good wife. I hope
that the declining days of my good friends, the
Major and his wife, may be filled with sunshine
and peace. They deserve so much for the good
they have done!

I wish I might continue writing of the old
friends of the early days and those who came after
them, but my space is limited and I have some
further facts of a more general nature to record.
This is not a history of Pullman, but rather a run-
ning account of the growth and development of
Illinois for the past one hundred years as it was
told to me by those who helped make that history
and as I have seen it made.

246

CHAPTER XXVII
THE EVOLUTION OF MODERN PULLMAN

When the town of Pullman was established it
was the sanguine belief of its founder that other
manufacturing concerns would be attracted to the
vicinity. It was for that reason that many hun-
dred acres of land were acquired in excess of the
needs of the car company. I am sure that it was
Mr. Pullman's idea that in the course of time the
whole 4,500 acres would be covered with great in-
dustrial plants, forming a large community built
in harmony with the model city. A few concerns
did locate there, industries which were allied to
the car-building business, but the expected gen-
eral movement to the Calumet region did not
materialize.

Among the concerns which did locate there
was the Allen Paper Car Wheel Company, of
which my good friend, Major John L. Woods,
was manager. This company controlled patents
under which it manufactured car wheels out of
paper. This was done by subjecting layer upon
layer of heavy bristol board to a terrific pressure,
securing a product of great tensile strength and
not subject to the action of heat and cold like iron.
This pressed paper was bolted firmly between two

247

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

steel discs, or outside plates, from under the outer
rims of which the paper "filling" extended one or
two inches, forming a cushion on which the steel
tire was fitted. This wheel was supposed to pos-
sess not only a certain resiliency, but also a tend-
ency to muffle the sound the ordinary iron wheel
makes in passing over the rail joints. The paper
wheel gradually went out of use, and at present
the all-metal wheel is used exclusively.

One of the younger generation of Pullman men
who acquired an enviable standing in the com-
munity was connected with the Car Wheel Com-
pany as assistant to Major Woods. That was
Carl C. Hewitt (not related to Charles and Her-
bert Hewitt), who was with the Allen concern a
number of years, and then went into business in
Pullman for himself. He has lately turned his
attention to agriculture, having purchased some
farming land near Elgin.

The experience of the Car Wheel Company
was the experience of all the manufacturing con-
cerns which located at Pullman. For a time it did
business as an independent concern, but as prac-
tically all of its business came from the Pullman
Company, it became in process of time a sub-
sidiary of the parent company, and was finally
merged into it as a part or a department of the
shops.

The bank was not established at the time the
town was built, but it soon developed that bank-

248

THE EVOLUTION OF MODERN PULLMAN

ing facilities would be needed in the town. At
first the money for the payrolls was taken out
from the city, but as the number of employees
increased this method became more and more
cumbersome and dangerous, and the need of a
local bank was fulfilled by the organization and
incorporation in 1883 of the Pullman Loan and
Savings Bank, of which W. A. Lincoln was the
directing head. Mr. Lincoln was treasurer of the
Pullman Athletic Club, and served on its execu-
tive committee with Major Woods, Edward Hen-
ricks and me. The bank became an important
factor in holding the community interests to-
gether, and has continued to be the stabilizing
institution of the town, as we shall see later.

Very soon after people began to move into
Pullman, a band was organized under the leader-
ship of Jacob Hostrawser, and it will be remem-
bered that for many years the Pullman band was
accounted one of the leading musical organiza-
tions of the State. Public concerts were given in
a stand erected just south of the Hotel Florence
for that purpose, but these were discontinued
many years ago. The Pullman band, as originally
organized, did not seem to fit into disorganized
Pullman. Mr. Hostrawser still lives in Pullman,
where he is employed as head timekeeper.

The development of the Pullman Company from
the industrial side divides itself naturally into
three periods: Early, Middle and Modern.

249

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

Roughly speaking, in point of time, the Early pe-
riod extended from the building of the shops to
about 1889, during which time the old style cars
were built, almost entirely of wood, with ornate
interior decorations and unprotected platforms
at both ends. The Middle period was approxi-
mately from 1889 to 1907, during which time the
cars were constructed largely of wood, but the
ornate interior decorations slowly disappeared,
and the added vestibules were the prominent fea-
ture. The Pullman patents on this feature prac-
tically put the Wagner Company, the only com-
petitor of the Pullman Company, out of business.
The Modern period extended from 1907 to the
present. During this period the standard Pullman
car was a car of all-steel construction, with severely
plain interior decoration. There has recently been
a reaction from this standard, I am informed, and
there is now a tendency in the designing depart-
ment to reinstate wood to a limited extent for in-
terior decoration so as to soften the rather harsh
lines of the steel interiors.

The first resident manager of the Pullman
shops was a man from Ohio of the name of J. H. F.
Wiers. He did not remain long in the position,
and was succeeded by A. Rapp, who, after a com-
paratively short service, severed his connection
with the company, and went to St. Charles, Mo.,
where he was employed in a manufacturing plant
of Mr. C. M. Hewitt, referred to heretofore.

250

THE EVOLUTION OF MODERN PULLMAN

After a few years' absence, Mr. Rapp came back
to Pullman, and was employed until his death as
a designer of car interiors. He was a man of such
friendly disposition that he is remembered af-
fectionately by hundreds of Pullman folk. Fol-
lowing Rapp came Bradley, Spaulding, Stone and
Sessions. It was in the latter's administration
that the modern train vestibule, controlled by
Pullman patents, was brought to a state of service-
able perfection. All these men, I believe, have
gone over the great divide. The next manager
was Harvey W. Middleton, who served during the
World's Fair and the great strike of 1894. Soon
after this he left Pullman, and the last I heard of
him was that he was doing quite well in the rail-
way supply business in Baltimore. Following
Middleton came Arthur M. Parent, who was man-
ager at the time that Mr. Pullman died and con-
tinued as manager until his own death.

It is my impression that Mr. Edward R. Slagle,
who followed Mr. Parent, was the last man who
held the title of resident manager, because we
referred to his successor, Thomas Dunbar, as the
superintendent of the shops. Mr. Slagle was in
the course of time taken to the uptown office of
the company, where he has since been employed
as contracting agent for the company, and Mr.
Dunbar was left in Pullman as superintendent.
The latter started with the company as a lad
working on a planer in the shops, and mounted the

251

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

ladder step by step, until he was head of the
whole works. He is now engaged in business for
himself as head of the Aetna Iron Works. It has
doubtless been noted by my readers that many
captains of industry have been graduated from
the Pullman shops. I enjoyed a most cordial
friendship with Mr. Dunbar, and regarded him
as one of the most capable of the many who came
and went while I was there. It is true that I may
have been partial because he is a Scotchman, but,
aside from that, he is of the staunch type with
whom I like to be "verra thick," as Lauder would
say.

The next superintendent of the shops was Rob-
ert Tinsley, who came to Pullman in the early
90s, if my memory serves me correctly, from the
Grand Trunk Railway in Canada, and took a posi-
tion as a clerk in the accountant's office. His
services were such as to commend him for re-
peated promotions until he was head of the shops.
He did not hold the place long, however, volun-
tarily quitting it to engage in the railway supply
business for himself. He is now in the military
service of the Government, being captain of a
regiment of Engineers in the field in France.

This brings my story up to the present superin-
tendent, Francis M. Gunn, who will be considered
in a subsequent chapter on the Pullman of today.

The Pullman Company, as it was organized, was
supported on a tripod, the legs of which were rep-

252

THE EVOLUTION OF MODERN PULLMAN

resented by the shops, the town and the operating
division. The shops where the manufactured
product was turned out were under the direction
of one man, the manager; all things relating to
the living conditions in the town of Pullman
were under the jurisdiction of another man, the
town agent; and that portion of the business
which had to do with the operation of Pullman
cars on the different railroads of the country was
under the direction of yet another official, whose
jurisdiction was apart from the town and the
shops. All of these activities were co-ordinated
and supervised in the general offices of the com-
pany uptown.

The first town agent, as I have shown, was Cap-
tain Edward Henricks. He was followed by Dr.
James Chasey, a genial gentleman of splendid
personality. He was agent at the time that Mr.
Pullman gave the orders to "fire" a number of
employees, and it was to Dr. Chasey that Mr. Pull-
man gave the order to withhold action until fur-
ther orders. Dr. Chasey was followed in turn by
William J. Appleyard, E. P. Hoornbeek, Henry
A. Sanger and Duane Doty, who was the last of
the town agents. There are many things I should
like to mention in connection with the adminis-
trations of these officials, but I am unable to do so.

The office of president of the company was held
by Mr. Pullman until his death, when the mantle
fell on the worthy shoulders of Robert T. Lincoln,

253

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

son of the Great Emancipator. I am under the
impression that Mr. Pullman named Mr. Lincoln
and Frank O. Lowden, his son-in-law (the present
chief executive of our State), as the executors of
Mr. Pullman's will. In 1911, Mr. Lincoln laid
down the arduous duties of the office of president,
but has continued his connection with the com-
pany in the position of chairman of the board of
directors. Mr. Lincoln was succeeded in the of-
fice of president by John S. Runnells, who had
been general counsel of the Pullman Company
since 1887, and its vice president since 1905.

Those who lived in Pullman from its birth in
the early 80s up to the beginning of the present
century will doubtless recall the fact that as the
Pullman car industry increased and enlarged, the
community life of the town waned in an almost
equal inverse proportion. Each year it became
more apparent that the philanthropic ideals of
George M. Pullman and the elements and condi-
tions governing industrial conditions in the Unit-
ed States were irreconcilable. The town was built
on the theory that it would be possible always to
maintain a close community of interest between
the company and its employees; and while there
was a splendid spirit of harmony for the first few
years, this was dispelled by the rise of the union
labor movement, the practical result of which was
to stifle individuality and to make all the em-
ployees conform to a dead level of wages and pro-

254

THE EVOLUTION OF MODERN PULLMAN

duction. Then came the death of Mr. Pullman,
which removed the guiding spirit of his com-
munity. Then came the final blow in the court
proceedings in which it was decided that the Pull-
man Company could not own and control the
homes of the workmen, the court laying down the
death sentence of the community by holding that
the ownership of the homes was not a proper func-
tion of the corporation under its charter. So it
was by degrees that the model industrial city of
the world was reduced to the common standard of
the ordinary industrial community of a great
city.

255

CHAPTER XXVIII
SOME MEN OF PULLMAN

As I have heretofore said, it would be a pleas-
ure to write a history of Pullman as its various
changes passed before my eyes for a period of
over one generation, and in that history to refer
to the many splendid men and women with whom
I gained an acquaintance which ripened into last-
ing friendships. But that would be a story in
itself, and is not properly a part of the story of
One Hundred Years in Illinois.

Among those who came to Pullman to engage
in business were Wm. A. Briggs and Pratt Net-
tleton, whom I may have influenced to come to
the new industrial community from DuQuoin
where we had all lived on very friendly terms.
These men together opened a store in the Mar-
ket House. Nettleton died a few years after com-
ing to Chicago, and Mr. Briggs sold out the busi-
ness and accepted employment with the Pullman
Company, and is still with the Company, having
grown gray in the service. It is a queer coinci-
dence that the Briggses, the Nettletons, the Lees,
the Fergusons, the Woods, the Henricks, Judge
Fake and many others of us who were neighbors
in Pullman in the old days, now live only short

256

SOME MEN OF PULLMAN

distances apart on the South Side of Chicago,
largely in the Hyde Park and Woodlawn dis-
tricts.

The man who followed in the footsteps of Eli
Tourtelot, who succeeded him as paymaster, and
who was later associated with him in business,
was a bright young Irishman of the name of
Hopkins. He began in a modest capacity, as did
Tourtelot, and worked up to the position of pay-
master. While occupying that position, I called
upon him one day to tell him what I had observed
in the home of one of the workmen who had
become addicted to the liquor habit and who,
through drunken indifference, was neglecting his
family. Hopkins said he would go with me to
see the conditions. He found them as I had
represented, squalid in the extreme and pinched
with poverty, although the man of the house
earned enough to keep his wife and little ones
in comfort, if not in luxury, if he had devoted
his income to that purpose. The paymaster was
visibly touched at the scene, but with a light of
determination shining through his tears, he said,
"I will attend to this case, Doctor." In a short
time I noticed a decided air of improvement
around the home, and meeting the paymaster soon
thereafter, I observed that he must have used
heroic treatment to get such marked results in
such a short space of time, in reply to which he
said to me: "Doctor, with the picture of that

257

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

wife and her little ones in my mind, when I met
that recreant husband I was so angry that I could
not restain myself, and I gave him a good lick-
ing. I knocked him flat, and when he got up I
knocked him down again, and then I reasoned
with him. He promised to reform, and I told
him if he didn't that he was through in Pullman.
I am mighty glad to hear from you that he is
making good, for he certainly has it in him if he
will leave booze alone." The man did make
good, and his home became a veritable paradise
for the family.

The Irish lad? Oh yes! Well, that was the
same John P. Hopkins who afterwards became
Mayor of Chicago and one of the foremost cit-
izens of our community. He and I never did
agree in politics, he being as uncompromising a
Democrat as I was a Republican, but we became
firm friends after that incident, and I have always
since felt that I was honored in having the friend-
ship of a man with a heart like his. He died in
the early fall of 1918, a victim of the influenza
epidemic, lamented by thousands. His death left
with me a keen sense of a personal loss, due per-
haps, to the fact that but a few days before he
was stricken with his fatal malady he called upon
me at my hotel, at which time we had a most en-
joyable visit going over old times. Peace to his
ashes.

I have already made mention of the fact that
258

SOME MEN OF PULLMAN

the first school in Pullman was opened in the
building erected for the Rock Island depot, and
that D. R. Martin was the first teacher in Pull-
man. As the school grew and additional teachers
were added, Mr. Martin remained at the head of
our educational institution. When the school
had grown to be of some consequence, and was
housed in a new and somewhat pretentious build-
ing, the Cook County Superintendent of Schools
wanted us to remove Mr. Martin and appoint
some one to be selected by the Superintendent.
The reason assigned for the change was that our
Principal had been outgrown, and that we needed
a man with more advanced ideas. My answer as
President of the Board to the County Superin-
tendent was that we had found Mr. Martin very
satisfactory; that he had the necessary legal au-
thority to teach, having a teacher's certificate is-
sued by the Cook County Superintendent of
Schools; and that when it occurred to us that
he was unequal to his task we would ourselves
select his successor. That ended the incident.
Time has amply confirmed our judgment of Mar-
tin, for he is to this day the honored and efficient
Principal of the Pullman public school. In the
holocaust at the old Iroquois Theater in Chicago
on December 30, 1903, Mr. and Mrs. Martin suf-
fered the appalling loss of two bright boys, their
only children at that time, in the frightful fire
in which 575 persons lost their lives.

259

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

Many men prominent in the industrial and
political life of Chicago were at earlier periods
in their lives connected with the Pullman Com-
pany. Those of this rather large class whose
names occur to me as this is written are the fol-
lowing :

Alexander Harper, at one time accountant and
time keeper for the Company — the position held
in the early days by Eli C. Tourtelot and John
P. Hopkins — is now the head of an accounting
concern of his own.

J. H. Lucas began as a clerk in the Account-
ant's office in 1890, and gradually rose to the posi-
tion of Chief Clerk to the Manager, and is now
Superintendent of Water Pipe Extension of the
City of Chicago.

One of the skilled mechanics who became con-
nected with the Company in the early days of
Pullman was W. E. Aurelius, a Welshman, who
went into the shops as a roller. Mr. Aurelius
has retired from active service, and is enjoying a
well earned rest, surrounded by a splendid family
which he has reared. One of the boys, Bert, fol-
lowed in the footsteps of his father, which the
father explained to me was against the latter's wish,
as he regarded the work as rather rough for a
lad of today; but the lad had the right kind of
stuff in him, with the natural result that he has
steadily risen until he is a boss in the steel mills
in South Chicago. Another son, Marcus, is Vice-

260

SOME MEN OF PULLMAN

President of the Pullman Trust & Savings Bank,
which fact speaks for itself.

Another gentleman whom it was a pleasure to
entertain as a guest of our home on many delight-
ful occasions was William Anderson, affection-
ately greeted as "Billy" by a large circle of
friends. I remember him first as a gang boss in
the wood machine shop, of which he later became
foreman, and finished his service with the Com-
pany as Foreman of the Lumber Yard. He is
now, I believe, the western representative of the
Pantasote Company, which produces imitation
leathers, and he lives in the new residential dis-
trict south of Jackson Park known as the Jack-
son Park Highlands.

Fred Farr began as a worker on a wood ma-
chine in the same department as Anderson. He
is now engaged in business for himself with the
firm of Farr Bros. & Co., contractors and dealers
in contractor's materials.

Charles J. Nash started as a clerk and worked
up to the important position of Estimating En-
gineer for the Company. He is now the active
head of the Nash Supply Company, dealers in
railway supplies.

Harry Morton also started in a humble posi-
tion as clerk and worked up to the position of
Chief Clerk to the General Manager. He is now
the Vice President of the Dunbar Manufactur-
ing Company, makers of stamped steel products,

261

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

of which concern Thomas Dunbar, former Su-
perintendent of the Shops, is President.

In the palmy days of Pullman as a social cen-
ter, the beautiful Hotel Florence, named for the
daughter of George M. Pullman who is now the
first lady of Illinois, was a mecca for epicures,
the cuisine at that time being in charge of Charles
G. Moore. Tempora Mutantur! Following the
general trend of the migration from Pullman, I
am now living in the Hyde Park district at the
Hotel Windermere, the genial and well-known
proprietor of which is none other than the gen-
tleman of other days whose art I have attested
and tasted at many .a festal board. It was this,
perhaps more than any other one thing, which led
me to take up my permanent residence there
after withdrawing from active practice and quit-
ting the post as head surgeon for the Pullman
Company, a position which I held for a period
of thirty-three years or a year longer than a
generation.

A great many things happened in my career in
Pullman which might interest my readers, but I
haven't the space to indulge the almost irre-
sistible desire to sketch my professional experi-
ences in that congenial field. I must, however,
content myself with the brief statement that my
work for the Company increased as the number
of employees increased, until, when the number
had reached 15,000, it was necessary to have as-

262

SOME MEN OF PULLMAN

sistance to take care of the injured which on oc-
casions ran as high as twenty-five in a single day.
It should be a matter of general interest that
prior to the inauguration by Mayor Thompson of
the policy of closing the saloons of Chicago on
Sunday there were a greater number of injuries
resulting from accidents to take care of on Mon-
day than on any other days of the week. Fol-
lowing the Sunday closing order, Monday be-
came the day of the least number of injuries re-
sulting from "accidents" in the shops. The read-
er may draw his or her own conclusions.

During my long and steady employment as
Company surgeon, I treated surgically approxi-
mately thirty-five thousand cases of injuries re-
sulting from accidents in the shops; and it is a
source of gratification to me that the Company
was never called upon to respond in damages on
account of malpractice or neglect on my part.
I realize there is an element of luck in that re-
markable record, but, luck and all, it is a record
that any practitioner would have a right to be
proud of. And I am!

It has been said, and in some instances with
justification, that corporations are soulless and
ungrateful ; that a man can spend himself and be
spent in their service; and that when the day
comes, as it must in the nature of things, that he
must lay down his active work, that he will then
be thrown out without ceremony. I must chal-

263

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

lenge this indiscriminate indictment, because I
am here to bear witness that it is not always true.
Here is what happened in my case:

From the time of the organization of the town
of Pullman, I attended faithfully to my work as
head surgeon of the Company, never allowing
anything to interfere with my duties. The policy
of keeping open house to our friends brought an
endless procession of welcome visitors to our
home, and through this delightful social intercourse
we had no time to grow rusty or acquire melan-
choly. In this way thirty-one years sped by, at the
end of which time my good wife succumbed to an
illness which had kept her an invalid for the last
few years of her life. Even in spite of the ap-
proaching shadow, she remained cheerful and
hopeful, extending radiant hospitality to our
friends who came to see us. Of course, the home
was never the same after she was taken away,
and I soon noted the development of an indiffer-
ence, if not a positive dislike, for the work which
had been so interesting and absorbing.

Under these circumstances, I was called to the
office of the President of the Company, Mr. John
S. Runnells, who greeted me cordially, and then
said to me in substance: "Doctor, you have
been a faithful employee of the Pullman Com-
pany for a great many years. You were appointed
by Mr. Pullman himself, and served with dis-
tinction throughout his administration of the

264

SOME MEN OF PULLMAN

affairs of the Company and also throughout the
administration of my distinguished predecessor,
Robert T. Lincoln. You are getting old; you
should not have the responsibility and cares of a
surgeon resting on your shoulders, so the Com-
pany has decided to relieve you at an early date
to be fixed by you. Let me add, however, that
in appreciation of your splendid services of
thirty-three years to this Company it has been
decided to retire you on full pay with leave to
spend your declining years wherever and however
you may choose, filled with pleasant recollections
of a well-spent life."

265

CHAPTER XXIX
JUST MEMORIES

In 1884, I was appointed on a reception com-
mittee to meet James G. Elaine and John A.
Logan, the Republican candidates for President
and Vice President, on the occasion of their visit
to Chicago in the campaign of that year. I had
known General Logan for many years, having
lived in the Congressional District in southern
Illinois which he represented in Congress and
having been in service with him in the Union
Army in the campaigns at Forts Henry and Don-
elson, in which he was severely wounded. On
arrival at the hotel where the committee was to
foregather, I was approached by Professor David
Swing, who in his day occupied a place in the
religious life of Chicago such as that now occu-
pied by Doctor Gunsaulus. Originally, Swing
was a Presbyterian, but he became unpopular
with his sect through his inclination to think for
himself and to talk as he thought, and he was
placed on trial for heresy. Although vindicated
in this process of dry-cleaning, he resigned from
the synod and established a church for himself
in Central Music Hall, where he preached to the
largest congregation in Chicago. Professor Swing
was also on the reception committee, and while we

266

JUST MEMORIES

waited for the others to arrive, he entertained
me with a rapid fire of conversation in which he
told the following story which I have always
remembered on account of its incompleteness. It
was as follows:

"One day, while riding in a passenger train, a man
came and sat down in the seat with me, inquiring
if I were a minister of the Gospel. When I stated
that I was, he told me he was in trouble and
wanted me to advise him what to do, in answer to
which I assured him that I would gladly aid him if I
could.

" 'Well,' he said, 'I am a doctor and have established
a splendid business in a neighborhood near a railway
terminal, through which I get considerable practice.
More than that, the president of the railroad is the
father of the girl that I expect to marry. One night
the ambulance stopped outside my office, and a man
was carried in whose leg had been crushed in a rail-
way accident. The nature of the injury indicated
that the leg would have to be amputated. As I was
preparing to perform the amputation, I was horrified
to discover that my patient was none other than my
prospective father-in-law. This fact so perturbed and
unnerved me that I became confused and amputated
the wrong leg. What shall I do?' "

"While I was struggling with his problem, the train
came to a stop, and my companion got off. When the
train was leaving the station, the conductor came to
me and inquired, 'Did you know that gentleman who
sat down by you, Doctor?' I said, 'No; I never met
him before.' 'Well,' he replied, 'you will then doubt-
less be interested to know that he is the most no-
torious gambler in Chicago.' "
267

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

While Elaine and Logan were in Chicago, I
went to their hotel to talk over old times with the
General. In the ante-room of their suite, I found
Mrs. Logan, apparently not in a tranquil frame
of mind. When I inquired what was bothering
her she said that John and Elaine were having
a misunderstanding. When I saw General Logan,
he explained to me that Elaine was determined to
go back East, and that Logan felt that Elaine
could do more good in the West. Elaine followed
his own inclination, went back to New York,
attended the celebrated meeting at which Doctor
Burchard was the chairman and used the famous
phrase, "Rum, Romanism and Rebellion," and
through that lost the Presidency. Had the coun-
sels of Logan prevailed, the current of history
would have been changed.

The general movement of the early population
of Pullman toward Chicago was encouraged by
the suburban train service which was established
by the Illinois Central Railroad during the
World's Fair in 1893 and continued by them after
the Fair closed. Coming at a time when the ap-
proaching disintegration and consequent dimin-
ishing attraction of Pullman as a place of resi-
dence, the steadily increasing attraction of the
residence districts of Hyde Park and Woodlawn
adjacent to Jackson Park, and the transportation
Facilities enjoyed by those districts, consisting
of the Illinois Central suburban service, and the

268

JUST MEMORIES

newly constructed "Alley L," or South Side Ele-
vated Line, combined to attract many of our most
desirable people into that new neighborhood, as
it offered an ideal location to those who wanted
to be "nearer town" and at the same time con-
venient to their business or employment in Pull-
man.

So when in the course of time I moved away
from Pullman, it was only natural that I should
follow that migration into the district where so
many old friends now reside. The location of the
Windermere Hotel across the street from Jack-
son Park, in which the World's Fair was held,
and but a few steps from an Illinois Central su-
burban station, lend to its attractiveness as a place
of residence. Living there has brought me into
delightful association with some of Chicago's
most celebrated personages. For instance, Con-
gressman James R. Mann and wife live there
while in Chicago. "Jim" was Alderman of our
ward when Pullman came into Chicago, and a
brother of his worked for the company many
years. Of course, we are all "pulling" for him in
the contest for the Speakership of the National
House of Representatives, a distinction he has
earned through his distinguished services to his
party and his Government. Success to "Our Jim !"
Another frequent guest is Federal Judge Kenesaw
Mountain Landis, so named on account of his birth
on, or near, the day of the battle of Kenesaw

269

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

Mountain in the Civil War, in which his father
participated. Judge Landis now takes pardon-
able pride in referring to himself as the father
of Captain Reed Landis, an "American Ace" of
your Uncle Sam's flying squadron in France. An-
other resident at the Hotel is Dr. Emanuel Friend,
a prominent physician on the staff of the Michael
Reese Hospital. Another is former Judge George
Trude, a distinguished member of the Chicago
bar. And so I might go on indefinitely, cataloging
those who make up our delightful family at the
Windermere.

My room in the hotel overlooks Jackson Park,
where the greatest of all world's fairs was held in
1893. The magnificent Art Palace of the Fair,
erected as a permanent structure, is still standing
but a short distance from the hotel, a stately re-
minder of the glories of the great exposition. A
little further beyond the Art Palace is the per-
manent structure erected by Germany for use as
the German Building during the Fair, and which
was presented to Chicago at the close of the ex-
position by the German Government as a testi-
monial of her friendship and good will. On ac-
count of our recent unpleasantness with Germany
the building has been referred to of late as the
Liberty Building. Still over beyond this is the
replica of the Convent of La Rabida in Spain,
where the messenger from Queen Isabella over-
took Columbus to inform him that he had been

270

JUST MEMORIES

commissioned to go on his desired voyage of dis-
covery. Outside of these landmarks there are few
reminders of the Fair left; but in memory, I can
see it just as it was — a veritable Dream City — the
like of which for setting and for architectural
grace and beauty and arrangement will never
again greet the eyes of man.

This reminds me of an experience I had on the
day on which the great show was formally closed
to the public. I was on the grounds to feast my
eyes for the last time on the wonders there
wrought by man, when I came across former
Governor Richard J. Oglesby with a party of
friends, among whom I remember General James
Martin. "Well, Uncle Dick," I said, "I hardly ex-
pected the pleasure of meeting you here today."
"Yes, Doctor," he replied, as the tears gathered
in his eyes, "you know that I have spent many
days in this wonderful place, and I could not
forego the chance to come today to bid it good-
bye forever, because you and I will never see its
equal this side of the pearly gates, and" (with
an outburst of enthusiasm) "d — d if I believe we
will see it there !"

One day, during the Fair, I had a call from an
old friend, William Storey, who had operated the
St. Nicholas Hotel in DuQuoin in the old days,
but who had gone to Waterloo, Iowa, to take
charge of a hotel property there. He was in Chi-
cago, he explained, to see the Fair, and asked

271

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

me if I would undertake to start him right. I
agreed to act as pilot, and arranged to meet him
on the grounds in the middle of the day. We
started on our tour of inspection with a ride on
the intramural railway, an elevated traction line
which ran around the grounds. In this way he
got a well defined idea of the arrangement of the
buildings, and the magnitude of the exposition.
Then .we took a trip in wheel chairs down the
Midway Plaisance (the present Midway extend-
ing from Jackson Park to Washington Park),
along which were then located miniature repro-
ductions of foreign scenes such as "Old Vienna,"
the "Irish Village," and the "Streets of Cairo."
Before the latter a dusky piper and a very active
base-drummer wailed and whacked away at a
strange mixture of Oriental and American mel-
odies, the extremes being represented in the oft-
repeated "Hootchy Kootchie" and "After the
Ball." The "Hootchie" was introduced to Amer-
ica through the Fair, but its "soulful" interpre-
tation as rendered by the scantily clad, dusky
maidens of the Nile had to be censored and toned
down for representation to mixed audiences over
here.

We lunched in the German Village, and then
took up a hurried tour of inspection through the
large buildings which housed the machinery, agri-
cultural, manufactures and fine arts exhibits, fin-
ishing that portion of our tour with a trip through

272

JUST MEMORIES

the spacious Art Palace, where the priceless art
treasures of the world were on exhibition. We
dined at the White Horse Inn, and evening com-
ing on, I engaged the services of a Venetian gon-
dolier to row us through the labyrinth of lagoons
in the park. A full moon riding in the sky was
partially obscured from time to time by light,
fleecy clouds which floated across its face. The
electrically lighted dome of the Administration
Building was a blaze of glory and the pure-white,
massive buildings with their countless bas-relief
and mural decorations reflected the illumination
of a million lights. Music, subdued and softened
by distance, floated across the water to us, and lent
its charm to the occasion ; and when we glided un-
der a massive bridge into the basin just south of
the Art Palace, where the celebrated McMonnies
electrical fountain was spouting water of all the
colors of the rainbow, the effect was marvelous
and left my guest almost speechless. As we landed
at the edge of the basin I said to Storey : "Well,
Bill, you ought to have a pretty good general idea
of the Fair by now so that you know just what
portion you would like to view in detail." After
a moment's reflection he replied: "Doc, I came
here with the intention of staying several days,
but I have determined not to do it, because I have
in my mind as the result of our trip today and
tonight the most beautiful picture I have ever
seen. I do not wish to mar the picture or to efface

273

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

it from my mind, but to preserve it, just as I have
it, to my dying day."

During the Fair I became acquainted with a
young French officer who attended the Fair in
an official capacity for his Government, and who
was a guest in my home on many occasions. It
was really enjoyable to hear his ejaculations of
admiration and amazement at the wonders of
the exposition. The big Auditorium Theater, at
Wabash avenue and Congress street, was opened
to the public the year of the Fair, and a historic
extravaganza was staged there entitled "Amer-
ica." Wishing to give my friend a new sensation
as to the scale of magnitude on which Americans
do things, I took him uptown to dinner one eve-
ning, after which we attended the production of
"America." I wish I were able to convey to the
reader the succeeding expressions of awe and
delight which were inspired in the captain as he
devoured the details of the great theater with its
artistic decorations and mammoth stage, and the
progress of the play, in which more than a hun-
dred people were engaged.

It was one of the most enjoyable evenings I ever
spent, and one which I delight in recalling be-
cause of the subsequent career of the young
French officer. Five years later he established
on the White Nile in upper Africa the military
post of Fashoda, the occupation of which by the
French came near causing war between England

274

JUST MEMORIES

and France. Lord Kitchener, in charge of Eng-
lish forces operating in upper Africa, objected
to the French occupation, but the threatened
breach was happily averted through diplomacy,
and the French eventually withdrew. My friend,
Captain Marchand, who became General March-
and, was killed in action in the European War.
The news of his death seemed to me a personal
loss ; and when he died France lost a gallant sol-
dier and a most capable officer.

In the year following the World's Fair the \/
great railway strike originated in the Pullman
shops over the question of making it a "closed
shop," or, of excluding from employment in the
shops all of those who were not members of la-
bor unions. The company contended for the
right to employ help without reference to wheth-
er the persons employed did nor did not belong
to unions. The strike was taken up by union
railway employees in the form of a "sympathetic
strike," in which they refused to handle trains in
which Pullman cars were hauled. Violence was
resorted to in order to prevent others from taking
the positions vacated by the strikers, and at-
tempts were made to prevent, by force, the opera-
tion of trains by persons taking the places of
striking union trainmen.

At this juncture, President Cleveland sent Fed-
eral troops into Chicago to protect mail trains
entering or leaving the city. John P. Altgeld,

275

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

then Governor of Illinois, protested against the
sending of Federal troops into the State unless
requested by the Governor, claiming that it was
an invasion of the sovereignty of the State, for
the Federal Government, unsolicited, to send sol-
diers into the State. In response to Governor
Altgeld, President Cleveland made his celebrated
answer that the contention of Governor Altgeld
had been fought out and settled by the Civil War,
and that consequently there was no need for a
further discussion of the principle involved.

While the strike was at its height, there was a
little card party at my home one evening in which
former Governor John L. Beveridge, Charles M.
Hewitt, D. R. Martin and I participated. While
absorbed in the game, Mrs. McLean came to the
door in a state of nervous excitement, saying that
sounds coming from Kensington, about half a
mile from our house, indicated that a riot was in
progress there. We left our card game, and
stepped out onto the back porch to listen. We
could hear plainly the shouts of an angry mob,
and could see the reflection of a great fire which
we judged was made by burning freight cars.
Then came a loud explosion, indicating that the
burning cars had been loaded with explosives, or
that the mob was using dynamite. After listen-
ing for a few minutes to the noises created by the
riot and disorder, Governor Beveridge said,
"Well, let's go back to our game. Those are not

276

JUST MEMORIES

my cars that are being destroyed, and I presume
that they don't belong to you gentlemen, either."
So we resumed our play.

Largely through the intervention of President
Cleveland, which resulted in putting a stop to
acts of violence, such as that just previously men-
tioned, which acts were ignored or abetted by our
then municipal and state authorities, the strike
finally came to an end, with the understanding
that the shops at Pullman were to be open to both
union and non-union men on equal terms; and
since that time this policy of an "open shop" has
been consistently maintained.

But the town of Pullman never was the same
after the great strike!

277

CHAPTER XXX
THE PULLMAN OF TODAY

There is little semblance of the early glory of
the model industrial community of the world in
the modern industrial locality of the great City
of Chicago which is still known as Pullman.
The great Pullman shops are there; the library
still flourishes as a fountain. of water in a dry
land ; the bank continues to do business at the old
stand, having become the stabilizing influence of
the town in the generation in which its present
head, Edward F. Bryant, has moulded its policies.

In addition to these there is another institu-
tion, new to the vicinity, the spirit of which
harks back to the master builder whose dream of
a model industrial city rose in steel and bricks
and mortar on the shore of Lake Calumet. That
new institution, with a purpose from the heart
and brain of the man who conceived the model
city which will carry on to generations yet un-
born, is the Pullman Free School of Manual
Training, endowed out of the bounty of George
M. Pullman and opened to the children of the
Pullman workmen in 1916.

Provision for this school was made in the will
278

THE PULLMAN OF TODAY

of Mr. Pullman, and it was left to the Board of
Directors named therein to work out the plans
for this lasting memorial. The original board
consisted of Norman B. Ream, Robert T. Lincoln,
John M. Clark, John S. Runnells, Frank O. Low-
den, Charles E. Perkins and John J. Mitchell.
Mr. Perkins died in 1903 and Mr. Ream in 1915;
the former being succeeded by Mr. Chauncey
Keep and the latter by Mr. James A. Patten. Mr.
Clark died in 1918 and his successor has not yet
been named. Mr. Duane Doty was the first sec-
retary of the Board and served until his death
in 1902. He was succeeded by Mr. Charles S.
Sweet, who died in 1912. Since then, Mr. LeRoy
Kramer, and Mr. E. S. Taylor have served in
turn.

In 1908, a tract of land of forty acres, including
the territory between 109th and lllth streets and
South Park avenue and Indiana avenue, was
secured to serve as a campus for the future insti-
tution. Governor Lowden, in his usual thorough
way of doing things, secured the services of a
prominent educator to make a study of similar
institutions in this country and abroad, so that
the most advanced ideas could be incorporated in
the school. The person so employed was Dr.
Laenas Gifford Weld, at that time dean of the
graduate school of the State University of Iowa.
He brought to his new position an educational
experience ranging from that of a grade school

279

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

teacher to that which he acquired as director of
the engineering school of the University of Iowa.

Mr. C. Frank Jobson, architect of the Pullman
Company, made the plans for the buildings, and
on September 26, 1914, the cornerstone of the
main building was laid by Pullman Lowden (now
Lieutenant Lowden, U. S. A.), son of Governor
Lowden and only grandson of George M. Pull-
man. I had the pleasure of being present on that
auspicious occasion, at which Dr. Weld presided,
and addresses were delivered by Colonel Frank
O. Lowden, Thomas Dunbar and Theophilus
Schmid. The school was formally dedicated
September 30, 1915, on which occasion addresses
were delivered by Colonel Lowden, President
Harry Pratt Judson of the University of Chicago,
President Frank W. Gunsaulus of the Armour
Institute, and Dr. Weld.

The purpose of the school is to furnish instruc-
tion, not only in the ordinary branches of ele-
mentary education, but to provide also specialized
training in all the trades employed in the Pullman
shops and in such other useful occupations as
electrical construction and operation, plumbing,
steam fitting, brick laying and other trades.
Courses in domestic science, clothes making,
fancy work, home decorating, graduate nursing
and other subjects of interest to the home maker
are available for the girls of the community.
Children of the Pullman employees are admitted

280

THE PULLMAN OF TODAY

to the school without charge, and at the end of
the second year young men who so desire are
given employment in their chosen trades in the
Pullman Shops, thus identifying it with the
great industrial plant created by Mr. Pullman.
In the main corridor of the central building is a
tablet bearing this inscription:

George Mortimer Pullman

founded this school that the children of
those associated with him in the Town
of Pullman and its enterprises might be
trained in the ideals of clean living, good
citizenship and industrial efficiency,
which were his own inspiration and
through which alone the workman may
hope to attain his true development.

MCMXVI.

The Pullman Library was formally estab-
lished on April 10, 1883, on which occasion the
dedicatory address was delivered by Professor
David Swing in the beautiful Arcade theater.
The Library was opened in the quarters which it
now occupies in the Arcade building, and, though
standards have since changed, the original beauty
of its setting is recalled by the rich woodwork,
the stained glass skylights and the elegant but
now obsolete fixtures with which the rooms are

281

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

adorned. The Library was opened with five
thousand volumes, a gift from Mr. Pullman.

As heretofore stated, the first librarian was
Mrs. Lucy Hall Fake and to her was entrusted
the selection and arrangement of the books;
though she was ably counseled and assisted by
Mr. Duane Doty, formerly superintendent of the
Chicago Public Schools and then Agent of the
town of Pullman. Mrs. Fake retired from the
library in 1889 and was succeeded on October
1st of that year by Mrs. Charles B. Smith who
served with distinguished faithfulness and suc-
cess until September, 1897, when Miss Bertha
Stewart Ludlam, the present librarian, was
appointed.

During the World's Fair in 1893, Pullman was
visited by thousands of people from all parts of
the world. The register of the Library, show-
ing the names of those who have visited it, was
enriched during that period by the autographs
of many of the notable men of that time, and
now constitutes one of the most valuable pos-
sessions of the Library.

Some years after the death of Mr. Pullman,
when Mrs. Pullman had assumed the burden of
its maintenance, the Library was placed under
the supervision of a board of directors which has
ever since conducted its affairs. I was honored
with appointment on this board, on which I have
since served. My present associates on the

282

THE PULLMAN OF TODAY

board are Mr. Ellis Morris, Professor D. R.
Martin, Miss Abigail Hunt, Miss Harriett Sayers,
Dr. L. G. Weld, Mr. E. E. Thompson, Mr. Fred-
erick Moerl, and Mr. James Wares. Miss Louise
Vosburgh and Miss Grace Barbour, both of whom
rendered long and faithful service as members
of this board have been claimed by death.

One of the men of Pullman whose friendship I
cherish, and on whose wise counsel and advice I
have many times depended is Mr. Edward F.
Bryant, the President of The Pullman Trust &
Savings Bank. Some time ago I requested him to
furnish me with information relative to the
prominent part which the bank has taken in the
development of the town. His reply was of
such interest to me that I asked and secured his
permission to use it in my story for the benefit
of others. With those parts eliminated which
were purely personal, his sketch was as follows:

"I came to Pullman from the Merchants' Loan
and Trust Company of Chicago in 1886, and am still
here at Pullman as President of The Pullman Trust
& Savings Bank.

"It has been stated that, generally speaking, busi-
ness and social conditions change at the end of every
generation or about every twenty years; and the con-
trast between conditions at Pullman in 1887, shortly
after the town was built, and in 1907 and thereafter,
is very marked. Mr. Pullman conceived and carried
into execution his idea of an industrial town as a
philanthropic proposition, and at the end of twenty
283

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

years it was found impossible to reconcile a strictly
business enterprise conducted by an incorporated
company with the administration of the Town of
Pullman.

"Under the mandates of the courts we sold at The
Pullman Trust & Savings Bank during the summer
of 1907, for about two million dollars, property that
cost the Pullman Company over four million dollars,
giving the preference of purchase to the occupants of
the houses at the time of the sale.

"The restriction as to the use of the houses sold
for residential purposes only, expired during the
next succeeding ten years, and gradually through-
out the town different houses formerly occupied as
dwellings have been remodeled into stores, so that
the business of dry goods, meats, groceries, drugs,
etc., is no longer centralized in the large Arcade and
the Market Hall, as it was prior to 1907.

"The Pullman industries have developed tre-
mendously beyond any possibilities contemplated by
Mr. Pullman when he started the enterprise in 1880.
Although over four thousand acres of land were in-
volved in the purchases made by him, only about five
hundred acres were set aside for the car shops and
the houses of the town. With the immense develop-
ment of industrial plants along Lake Michigan and
Lake Calumet, from Chicago on the north to Gary,
Ind., on the south, it is now obvious (particularly
since the elevation of the tracks) that all the land
east of the Illinois Central Railroad tracks, from
103d street to 115th street, should have been re-
served for industrial plants only, and that the entire
residential portion of this district should have been
located west of the Illinois Central tracks.

"The conditions today, therefore, as compared with
those of twenty years ago, is that the Pullman car
284

THE PULLMAN OF TODAY

shops and other industries are congested, particularly
at the narrow strip of land between the Illinois Cen-
tral Railroad and Lake Calumet at 115th street, and
that the great development of the business and resi-
dential sections of the community has taken place a
half mile west of the Town of Pullman, on Michigan
avenue and in that immediate vicinity.

"When I first came to Pullman, The Pullman Trust
& Savings Bank, then known as The Pullman Loan &
Savings Bank, was the only bank in this district
Because of the inherent desire in all men to own their
own homes and to pursue the happiness of life ac-
cording to their own ideas, land was purchased by
the Pullman employees for the erection of homes
as near the car works as possible, which, however,
was a half mile west of the Town of Pullman, as
mentioned above. This has resulted in the estab-
lishment of two good sized banks in that district, one
of which, The Roseland State Savings Bank, is under
the same management as The Pullman Trust & Sav-
ings Bank.

"The Pullman Trust & Savings Bank was incor-
porated in 1883, and at the time I came here in 1886
the savings deposits amounted to about $150,000.
Just before the sale of the houses in the Town of
Pullman in 1907 the savings had increased to $2,800,-
000, and at the present time they total about $2,300,-
000. The savings deposits at the other two banks
amount to about $750,000, so that at the end of thirty
years the savings deposits of employees in this dis-
trict held by banks in this locality amount to about
three million dollars.

"In the '80s the Town of Pullman was a segregated

community, having its own form of government, its

municipal functions being under the direction of the

Agent of the Town of Pullman. Today the Town of

285

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

Pullman is simply a locality, such as "Kenwood" or
"Hyde Park," and territorially but a small part of the
Ninth Ward of the City of Chicago.

"Generally speaking, about fifty per cent of the in-
dustrial population are what are usually termed
'Americans/ and the other fifty per cent includes
people from nearly every country under the sun.-

"Having been here since 1886, I have a good rec-
ollection of the "sympathetic strike" of 1887 and the
great "Pullman strike" of 1894, and am fairly familiar
with what few labor disturbances we have had; and,
on the whole, I believe this has been one of the best
industrial communities of the whole country, and the
conditions of safety much greater here than might
be expected."

The profound change which time has wrought
in the life of Pullman is well illustrated in my
own case. My surgical laboratory was built onto
my home, which was located on the corner of
Stephenson and lllth streets, in what was known
in the early days as "officers row," just across
from the big gate of the car works. The location
was found very convenient for the surgical
treatment of employees injured in the shops, and
while there I performed about 35,000 operations,
minor and major. When I left Pullman, I did
not desire to have the bother of looking after my
residence property there, so I arranged through
the bank to sell it to a thrifty Italian. The little
lawn around the house, which Mrs. McLean kept
bright and cheerful with growing flowers and
plants, was soon put into tune with the com-

286

THE PULLMAN OF TODAY

mercial aspect surrounding it by the erection of
a small building to be used as a store, from which
the owner vended his wares to the men as they
entered and left through the big gate. The
Company now maintains a medical department
consisting of a dispensary and hospital within
the big enclosure, under the direction of Doctor
Roy J. DeMotte, with an assistant surgeon and a
nurse, where first aid is given those injured in
the works. It is pleasant to reflect that I have
been succeeded by an alumnus of my alma mater,
Rush Medical College. Doctor DeMotte acquired
his surgical experience as an interne in the Pres-
byterian hospital, which is not far from Rush
college.

Having begun my story with an account of the
achievements of the Scotch in America, it is
fitting that I conclude with a specific illustration
of the success of a Scotchman here, showing how
America and Opportunity are synonymous, and
how a man with the right stuff in him may carve
out his own destiny in this great land of ours.

Six or seven years after I settled in Pullman,
a Scotchman who had been employed as a ship
carpenter in the great yards along the river Clyde
came to Pullman and went to work in the wood
working department. Among his children was a
boy then about ten years old, who began at once
attending the school in Pullman from which he
was graduated at the age of thirteen into the big

287

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

shops, taking up the duties of material boy in the
body building department. His close attention
to his duties soon attracted the notice of his
superiors, and he was taken into the general
foreman's office as office boy. Learning that a
position as stenographer was open, he qualified
for the place by studying nights, and was shortly
employed in the office of the general superintend-
ent. From then on his promotions came with
regularity, and he was in turn record clerk, chief
clerk of the Calumet shops, mechanical inspector,
assistant general foreman of the freight depart-
ment, chief clerk in the engineer's office, assistant
superintendent, until today, the boy from Dum-
barton in Old Scotland, Francis Mackay Gunn, is
superintendent of the great Pullman shops.

288

CHAPTER XXXI
RETROSPECTION

I have lived under all three of the constitutions
of Illinois, adopted in 1818, 1848 and 1870. I have
seen my country engaged in four wars, including
the Mexican War, the Civil War, the War with
Spain and the War with Germany.

In my time our present educational system has
been perfected and our great institutions of learn-
ing have been constructed. The basic law of our
present system was enacted by the Illinois legis-
lature in 1855. Two years later the State Normal
School was established at Bloomington. In 1867
the University of Illinois was established.

I have lived under the administration of twen-
ty out of twenty-seven Presidents of the United
States, and twenty out of twenty-five Governors
of Illinois.

The year in which I was born, Chicago was or-
ganized as a city, and had a population of 4,149.
Within the sphere of my life the city has grown
to be the second in population on this continent
and fifth in the world, with a population of nearly
three million.

When I was born, the people of Chicago hauled
289

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

their drinking water from the lake ; now the water
is delivered into the homes of our people by
means of intakes built several miles out in the
lake, beyond probability of contamination from
the shore, and from where it is conducted through
tunnels under the lake which connect these in-
takes with the pumping stations on shore, whence
it is pumped through 3,000 miles of water mains
into the homes.

When I was born, the most rapid means of land
conveyance in Illinois was the stage coach drawn
by horses. I have seen that succeeded by the
steam locomotive, by the electric motor, by the
automobile, and until now, when these terrestrial
means have become too slow, man has taken to the
air, like a bird, in his flying machine. I can
travel further in an hour at eighty years of age
than I could in a day as a boy.

When I was born, the center of population was
in West Virginia, not a great way from where my
father was born. From there it has moved stead-
ily westward until it is now in Illinois, not far
from the place of my birth.

When I was born, there was not a telegraph
instrument in operation in America, and com-
munication between Chicago and southern Illi-
nois was a matter of several days and an event of
great local importance, involving not only hard-
ship and privation but a risk of life. Now mes-
sages are flashed under the seas and over the earth

290

RETROSPECTION

like lightning, the human element involved im-
peding transmission to such an extent that it re-
quires something like ten minutes to send a mes-
sage around the world.

I don't remember that my mother ever owned
a sewing machine; at any rate, they were not in-
vented until eight years after my birth. I was a
young man of forty before the telephone came
into use, and now there are something like a half
million in use in the city in which I live, enabling
me to talk to my friends at any time of the day;
and, allowing a few minutes to make the required
long distance connection, I can converse with
them hundreds of miles away, no matter whether
they be in New York, San Francisco or elsewhere
in America.

The first steel plow was produced by Harvey
May, Knox County, in the year in which I was
born, but it was not perfected until I was old
enough to use one, and during my life I have
witnessed the introduction of the mower, the
reaper, the selfbinder, and all the other modern
implements which render farming comparatively
easy and much more profitable than it was to the
pioneers. With these aids, the total output of
our thirty-five million acres of farming lands has
grown to a billion dollars' worth annually. Farm-
ers of today, with these inventions at hand and
with railroads everywhere, little realize the hard-
ships endured by the early settlers, and little ap-

291

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

predate what invention has done for those of
these days.

When one reflects that everything done by ma-
chinery now was done by hand when I was a boy,
it will give some idea of the primitive conditions
which obtained in the days of long ago. I have
lived in this state from the time that its people
made everything they used and used everything
they made, until now they make little of what
they use and use only a little of what they make.
It kept my mother busy at the spinning wheel and
the loom and with her knitting in order to keep
up with the requirements of her growing family.
Our "manufacturers" of those days had no sur-
plus to sell in the markets. Since that time Illi-
nois has grown to the rank of third among the
great manufacturing states, and we are now mak-
ing in excess of our own needs and selling to
others approximately three billion dollars' worth
of goods every year.

The meat packing industry was established in
Chicago about the time of my birth, it being re-
corded that about six thousand hogs were killed
and dressed here in 1836, about all of which were
for consumption here. Considered alone that
seems to be a great many hogs, but compared with
the annual killing and dressing of approximately
four million hogs now in our Chicago stock
yards it does not look so big.

My parents thought they were living in an ad-
292

RETROSPECTION

vanced age because friction matches were in-
vented ten years before I was born, but the tallow
dips they used for lights, if accepted as the in-
dex of their advancement, were but puny at-
tempts at illumination as compared to the 100
candle power mazda electric bulb which floods
my apartment with light when I touch the little
button on the wall. How well I remember the old
fireplace, with its andirons and crane, and which
on a winter's evening served the three-fold re-
quirement of a heating plant, lighting plant and a
place to do the family cooking. "Among the
beautiful pictures that hang on memory's wall,"
is one of that old fireplace with the back log
smoldering in its place; with the flames dancing
and leaping up the spacious black throat of the
wide stone chimney; with the haunch of venison
or a wild turkey turning to a rich brown on the
spit ; with the potatoes roasting in the hot ashes ;
with the daily bread of whole wheat baking in
the crude oven near the fire, or the savory hoe-
cake of corn meal turning to a golden brown while
being literally toasted before the blaze ; with the
teakettle singing merrily on the hearth; and,
withal, the family in a semicircle, now advancing
and now retreating with the varying intensity
of heat thrown out from the burning logs, while
from without old Boreas shook his hoary locks
and vented his futile fury upon the solid walls
which held this warmth and cheer.

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ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

Ah ! those were happy days ; but our snug com-
fort of that far away time would be considered
hardship and privation by those of this day and
generation. What a far cry it is from back logs
to gas logs ; from tallow dip to electric light ; from
ireplace to the modern heating plant regulated
by thermostat; from our early crude methods of
cooking to the modern gas range; from our bed-
tick filled with clean, sweet straw to box springs
and hair mattress; from the morning dip in cold
water after breaking a crust of ice which had
formed overnight on the water in the pail, to our
present bathing facilities including plenty of
warm water ; from our homespun, homemade gar-
ments of the same cloth and same pattern, to the
modern retail store with its never ending variety
of materials, colors and fashions; and from the
clumsy, creaking, ox-drawn wagon or "prairie
schooner" to the simple elegance of the Pullman
sleeper or the conveniences and speed of the auto-
mobile.

was born in the first year of the administration
of President Martin Van Buren, a Democrat, and
after eighty years I find myself living under the
administration of Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat.
In the meantime, I have seen political parties
spring up, flourish for a while and then pass into
history unwept, unhonored and unsung, much the
same as the boy's comment on his father's death
who, when asked what the complaint was, an-

294

RETROSPECTION

swered, "There was no complaint; everybody
seemed satisfied."

The only thing in common between the Dem-
ocrat party of Van Buren and the Democrat party
of Wilson is the name. That is the only thing
about the party that endures, and that endures, I
am persuaded, because of its demagogic flavor
which signifies that it is a party of the people. In
1837, the Democrat party stood for a strict inter-
pretation of the Constitution which would pre-
vent the Federal Government from interfering in
the ordinary affairs and business of the citizens
of the several states; in 1918, the Democrat party
stood for a liberal interpretation of the Constitu-
tion which permits the Federal Government not
only to regulate the ordinary affairs and business
of the citizens of the several states, but to com-
mandeer their businesses for state purposes. The
boast of Van Buren was that he took the Govern-
ment out of the banking business; the boast of
Wilson is that he put the Government into the
banking business through the Federal Reserve
Banks. Tempora mutantur! I may be biased in
my judgment, but it seems to me that one prin-
ciple of the Republican party — the eternal prin-
ciple of human liberty on which it was founded —
meant more to humanity than all of the contradic-
tory things the Democrat party has advocated
since Jefferson gave it the name. That is the rea-
son why I have remained steadfastly a Republi-

295

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

can in politics since first hearing Abraham Lin-
coln debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Jones-
boro, Illinois.

Within my time religion has been humanized.
When I was a boy, we were taught that God was
an all-powerful, inexorable, implacable Being
seeking whom he might devour ; that He peopled
the earth with frail human beings, surrounded
them or allowed them to be surrounded by tempta-
tions, and consigned those who were weak enough
to fall before these temptations to eternal suffer-
ing in lakes of fire and brimstone for falling into
the snares set for them. Now we are taught that
our Heavenly Father is the soul of compassion
and that He watches over us with infinite love
and tenderness, and notes our transgressions with
sorrow — not malice — "even as a father pitieth his
children." Without intending irreverence, it
may be said that the God of today is more respect-
able than the one which my ancestors worshipped.
That is only another way of stating an obvious
conclusion that as we become more civilized and
more enlightened, our conception of everything,
including Deity, is on a higher plane.

A doctor's professional experience breeds a
contempt for the old superstitions, and particular-
ly for that one which had Providence taking an
active interest in the trivial affairs of man, with
a specific object in view of the damnation or sal-
vation of the individual. It was a popular notion

296

RETROSPECTION

in my younger days among religiously inclined
persons that death, sickness, and even pure ac-
cidents, revealed a visitation from God as a pun-
ishment for some unrelated moral offense.

Through conscientious preparation for the
practice of my chosen profession, I came to learn
that man is surrounded by conditions over which
he has no control and can exert no influence, and
that his birth, his life and his death are governed
by natural laws which he can not change or mod-
ify, and to which he must conform or pay for his
transgression. These laws operate twenty-four
hours a day, seven days a week, year in and out
for all time, and, like the laws of the Medes and
the Persians, they changeth not. They are the
earthly edition of the law universal, under which
the sun, the moon, the stars and the heavenly
bodies move in their several orbits, and punish-
ment follows a violation of that law, as effect fol-
lows cause, with unfailing certainty. Within
these boundaries man has his comfort and his wel-
fare largely in his own hands, the brain acting as
the engineer of a machine which should last a
long time, barring accidents.

Conforming to these laws as best I could, I
have been rewarded with lease of life much longer
than the average individual, having completed
more than four score years of existence. These
have been years which brought happiness and
contentment, there being just enough in the way

297

ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN ILLINOIS

of sorrow and disappointment to give a just ap-
preciation of the good. Many of these years I
have enjoyed in my noble profession, the purpose
of which is to alleviate physical suffering and dis-
tress and to aid Nature in repairing injuries to
the human machine. I have always tried to put
as much into life as I took out of it, and have en-
deavored to deal fairly and squarely with my f el-
lowmen, in order that I might have their good
opinion and good will. In a letter which I re-
ceived not long ago from a distinguished friend
mentioned in my story, he was good enough to
express this sentiment: "It has been stated that
each epoch of a man's life has its own rewards and
compensations, and you now have the compensa-
tion of retrospection over what has gone before —
a long and useful life."

I think I may say, without boasting, "yes ; that
is true."

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SERSITYOFILLINOIS-UKBANA

C001

KNORED YEARS IN ILLINOIS CHICAGO