Bureau County, Illinois - Chapter 33, 1885

Chapter 33

POLITICAL AFFAIRS GENERALLY - CENBUS OF BUREAU COUNTY - DOUGLAS AND STUART'S RACE TO CONGRESS - THE SIZE OF THE DISTRICT - POST-OFFICES AND POSTMASTERS - Tne VOTE OF THE COUNTY - WOLF HUNTS - BOADS - AN OLD RELIC - H. L. KIN-

THIS county has had rather more than its share of variety in politics. When there were but nineteen votes in the county the first election, there were but five of them Whigs. The others were Democrats and Jackson Democrats. The distinction between a Democrat and a Jackson Democrat was the difference between " a " and "an out-and-outer.'' And it is said, by way of illustration, that an " out andouter" was so intensely for Jackson" first, last and all the time," that his descendants are still voting away for Old Hickory. As the county began to fill.up with settlers, the Whigs began to manifest their strength, and in the early forties it became rather painfully evident to the ' ' Hunkers " and "Barnburners," "Loco-Focos" and Democrats (the latter term including all the others), that the Whigs were a power in the county not to be despised. In 1844 the Democrats began to divide on the slavery question, and the Whigs stuck the closer together when they saw dissensions in the enemy's ranks; this, too, in the face of the fact that originally the northern Whigs had been the original anti-slavery or Emancipation party. This latter party had its origin in the South, among slave-holders, and the northern Whigs attached but a small portion of their party enthusiasm to this branch of the party faith. They rather inclined more strongly, as the cardinal idea of their politics leaned, to Mr. Clay's protective tariff theories. In the National political contests the Whigs, though generally outvoted, yet had sufficient victories, some of them overwhelming, upon the enemy, to keep them in line, and ever eager to take up the guantlet of the Democracy. But it seems from inherent elements in that organization it really commenced to decay, or rather to disintegrate, at least a decade before the death of its great and illustrious leader, Henry Clay. He was strong enough to rally it at all times with an unbroken front - with every appearance of lusty vitality, yet a kind of internal dry rot was upon it, and when his hands were folded upon his quiet breast, it quickly passed away and its ranks were busy finding some flag to enlist under, to renew the fight against the long hated Jackson Democracy. In the meantime the Democrats were quarreling much among themselves; and Democratic bolter's candidates in the Presidential election, were well calculated to further widen the breeches in the ranks. The malcontent Democrats thus began to call themselves Free Soilers, and in this part of the country they took upon themselves the name of the Liberty party.

existence, it was a question of great doubt what party was in the ascendancy in northern Illinois. In fact, all over the State at that time, the Whigs were moving over the face of the land with energy, resolution and confident power. In 1838 John T. Stuart, who now resides in Springfield, and is of the law firm of Stuart, Edwards & Brown, was the Whig candidate for Congress in the Northwestern Congressional District in this State. Stephen A. Douglas was the Democratic candidate. The district extended from the northwestern corner of the State down the Mississippi Eiver to and including Calhoun County, and extended east so as to include Greene and old Morgan Counties, and thence up through McLean County to the northern line. It included probably forty or more counties, which were for the most part thinly settled. The canvass commenced in March, the two candidates traveling often together on horseback, and lasted until the first Monday in August, when the election was held. The voting was viva voce under the old Constitution, so that each man's vote was recorded opposite to his name.

Douglas was in Chicago on the day of the election, and he received so large a vote in Cook County that he had no doubt of his election. He was so elated that when he started for Jacksonville, where he then resided, he took his seat on the front of the stage with the driver, and traveled on down to Lockport, receiving the congratulations of his friends on the way. When he got to the latter place he found that the canal men and hands had voted against him because in the Legislature he was in favor of the ' ' shallow cut," and opposed to a deep canal. Mr. E. B. Talcott was then an assistant engineer on the canal works and resided in Lockport. He engineered the bolt and induced the scratching of Douglas' name from Democratic tickets and substituting Stuart's. This was a discouraging aspect of the case, but as Douglas proceeded southward on his journey he found that this defection did not extend far below Lockport, and that Ottawa and Peru and the residue of the canal regions had given him the usual Democratic majorities. But when he arrived at Peoria, which was then the central point whence the stages converged, he found that the Military Tract was less favorable to him than he had expected, and the belief was there that Stuart was elected by a small majority. It was so close, however, that the result was claimed by both parties, and doubt was not removed until the official returns reached the office of the Secretary of State, which showed that Douglas was elected by eight majority.

Mr. James Matheny, who was at that time a young and very ardent Whig, said he believed '''the Democrats had been cheating us," and if any one would pay his expenses he would saddle his horse in the morning and go to every county seat and examine the pollbooks. Mr. Stuart paid his expenses and he made the examination, traveling over the whole district and examining all the pollbooks. He found quite a number of errors, but they all canceled each other, except in one precinct, where the poll-book showed that in carrying over Stuart's vote from one page where he had a majority his votes were put into the Douglas column on the next page and Douglas' into his. Correcting this mistake the decision of the returns was reversed, and Stuart elected by twelve or thirteen votes. This was done and the facts certified to the Secretary of State, and Stuart got the certificate.

he was elected, and there was no law authorizing amending the returns. He consulted ; Senator Thomas H. Benton on the subject, who advised him not to contest, and said to him that though the House might be largely Democratic he would not probably get his seat, for he had not received a majority of the votes. Moreover, he said a young and aspiring politician could not afford to be counted in when he was not elected. Douglas took his advice and abandoned the contest. Stuart took his seat and was re-elected to the Whig Congress.

Abraham Lincoln had just been admitted to the bar, and when Stuart started for Washington he left his business with Mr. Lincoln, whom he had admitted to a copartnership in his office in Springfield.

Maj. Stuart in the new deal in politics found himself a Democrat, and was elected to the first Lincoln Congress as such, and occupied a Democratic seat in that House for the same number of years that he had a generation before when he came there as a Whig.

Up to the year 1832 there was but one Congressional District in the State. There were two more added at that time, and the territory out of which this county was formed was in the Third District, which embraced all the country north of a line drawn across the State from just south of Quincy to a point on the State Line a few miles south of Danville, excepting the counties of Champaign, Vermillion, and Iroquois, and the district was represented in Congress by William L. May from 1833 to 1838.

Gov. Coles, in bis message to the Legislature in January, 1826, congratulated that body upon the fact thaf. the State then contained a population of 72,817 souls.

In 1850 the Whigs were the masters in Bureau County. They stood with a bold front in every contest with the factions that constituted the opposition. The Whig County Central Committee consisted of Oliver Boyle, Amos Fisher, Ashel Lomax, Alpheus Cook and S. A. Paddock; and the prominent workers through the county were: W. B. Whipple, Milo; James M. Dexter, Indiantown; George M. Badcliffe, Arispe; Jonathan Ireland, Leeper; Amos Whittimore, Concord; James Hambrick, Center; John L. Ament, Princeton; Ezekiel Piper, Selby; Jesse Wixham, Hall; Ezekiel Thomas, Bureau; Increase Hoyt, Dover; H. J. Stacy, Berlin; Wicher Dow, Fairfield; Daniel Hill, Greenville; Tracy Reeve, Lamoille. S. Allen Paddock was their editor, " The Yeoman of the Prairie Land."

The last of the Whig Presidents, Taylor, had died soon after his induction into office, and the Whigs of Bureau had an abiding and active faith in the new President, Fillmore. This year the Whig Congressional Convention in .'Juliet put in nomination Churchill Coffing. He failed of an election, but the county of Bureau stood bravely to its Whig guns. Hon. John Wentworth, Democrat, had entered Congress from this district in 1844, and continued to represent it as long as the county remained in his Congressional District. The size of the Liberty party at one time may be indicated by the fact that not long after Hon. Owen Lovejoy came to the county he was candidate for a local office, and got one vote in Princeton. As a candidate for Congress in November, 1850, the change that came to him is further shown that in the same county he received afterward about 1,800 majority, without ever changing in the least his political principles, for the same office. The vote in Princeton that year was as follows:

As already remarked, when the old parties, or the Whig and Democratic parties, were the dividing lines, the Whig party was in the ascendant in the county. This continued until 1854, when new books were opened, and new parties were make. The Republican party was a child of swift growth and great power. From a single vote for Lovejoy in nearly 350 votes in Princeton, when he was the nominee of the Republican party the majorities reached as high as 1,900 at one time. From this high tide it has slowly decreased, and at the late election the plurality of the national ticket was a little less than 1,000 votes. The following townships were the Republican strongholds: Clarion, Ohio, Walnut, Greenville, Manlius, Dover, Berlin, Princeton, Wyanet, Neponset, Macon, Indiantown, Lamoille, Milo, Wheatland, Concord and Mineral; and the following as a rule sustained by small majorities the Democratic ticket: Westtield, Selby, Hall, Arispe, Leepertown, Gold, Fairfield and Bureau. But these results were not invariable. At the last election (1884) the following townships gave Democratic majorities (all others were Republican) : Greenville (a tie), Westfield, Hall, Selby, Leepertown and Arispe. The names of the nine voting precincts prior to the adoption of townships were Princeton, Tiskilwa, Dover, Lamoille, French Grove, Hall, Brush Creek, Green River and Hazelwood. In 1850 there were not enough inhabitants in Manlius, Gold and Wheatlaud to organize.

While the Democratic party was gaining strength in other portions of the country, it was to a certain extent losing its power in this county over many who had prior to 1844 been good Democrats. And when the Missouri Compromise measures were repealed a shock ran all over the parties of the North, and the Whig party at once acknowledged its dissolution, and thousands of Illinois Democrats were ready to desert their party and attach themselves to some new one more nearly in accord with their views. Hence, the times were ripe, July 4, 1854, for the organization of the Republican party, as was done in Princeton on that day.

In a preceding chapter we have given the official votes of the county at elections at different periods, that will indicate not only the increase of the voting population, but the nature of their party preferences.

In the Congressional election of 1880, the vote of Bureau County on Congressmen was: Hon. T. J. Henderson, Republican, 4104; B. N. Truesdale, Democrat, 2,589; P. L. Kinney, Independent, 388. Total vote, 7,181.

Population. - The first census after the organization of the county was in the year 1840. Total population 3,067. In 1850 it was 8,841; 1860, 26,426, the largest per cent of increase made in any decade of the county's existence; 1870, 34,415, and in 1880 it dropped slightly, and was 33, 189. And of these there are only 156 negroes, and one Indian. Native white 'males over twenty-one years of age, 5,812; foreign males over twenty-one years, 2,929, and forty negroes; total population qualified to vote, 8,781. Thus it may be seen there were nearly 2,000 voters who did not vote at the late election. The population of the county is divided into 17,- 088 males and 16,084 females; of these 26,- 994 are native born and 6,178 foreign born. There were born in Illinois, 18,088; in Indiana, 380; Iowa, 223; Kansas, 70; Kentucky, 128; Louisiana, 12; Maine, 157; Maryland, 144; Massachusetts, 476; Michigan, 173; Minnesota, 26; Alabama, 4; Arkansas, 6; California, 8; Colorada, 5; Connecticut, 136; Delaware, 63; Florida, 2; Georgia, 7; Missouri, 123; Nebraska, 11; New Hampshire, 216; New Jersey, 445; New York, 1,682; North Carolina, 12; Ohio, 1,471; Pennsylvania, 1,966; Rhode Island, 111; South Carolina, 2; Tennessee, 31; Texas, 3; Vermont, 316; Virginia, 107; West Virginia,41; Wisconsin, 80; Dakota, 6; District of Columbia, 2; Utah, 1. Of the foreign population 260 are from Canada; 320 from Denmark; France, 96; German Empire, 1,798; England, 756; Ireland, 1,4)48, and others from nearly every country in the world.

Postoffices. - In previous chapters we have given the history of the first postoffices in the county. In the hunt for information on this subject, as well as all other subjects about the county, we made application to Hon. John Wentworth, of Chicago, the early Member of Congress in the days when this district included nearly all northern Illinois. We had reasons to know that he was the best posted man on many points of the history of northern Illinois now living. After renewed application to him he replied: "lam afraid of my memory; running backfias it does to October 25, 1836, when I first came here. Farmers then and for many years afterward came here with loads of produce to be ex- changed for their home necessities. I was publishing a newspaper, the Chicago Democrat, and I boarded at a public hotel. Our population was small, and we would naturally fall into one another's company of evenings, there being no particular amusements. There were a great many very good farmers in the Paw Grove region, with whom I early became acquainted, and Paw Grove then covered a large tract of country running into Lee and DeKalb Counties, and the farmers in the northern part of Bureau would come into town along with the Paw Paw Grove folks. The Chicago fire destroyed my old Democrat subscription books, and also the old document books which I used during the eight years in which I represented Bureau County in Congress. Therefore, I have nothing to guide my memory as to names. My earliest acquaintance in Bureau County seems to have been in the Lamoille region and thence westward to Windsor. I remember the Fassetts - I think Elisha was the eldest. I early became acquainted with DeGrass Salisbury and his partner, Benjamin L. Smith. They would come often to Chicago for goods, and they would vend the news to the Chicago Democrat. Salisbury was Postmaster and B. L. Smith was in the Legislature in 1844- 46. Then, there were John and Moses Stevens and their families, whom I had known in my native State, New Hampshire. Then the historic Bryant family, and there was a family of Moseleys - very much respected. In the Dover region there were the Rackleys - George and Nathan and others - whom I always held in the highest esteem.

"If I could sit down with some of the old settlers a short time, I probably could remember from fifty to over a hundred families at whose houses I had stopped whilst I was a candidate for Congress. I had a horse and buggy and endeavored to go to all the settle-

"I send you an official statement from an old Blue Book of the names of Postmasters in the County, with the bi-annual receipts from the offices from 1839 to 1858, covering my term." * * * *

"While on the subject of the Princeton postoffice we may as well conclude with such items as we find in our note book concerning this office. The first office where the Princeton people would get their little mail in those days was kept by Elijah Smith, north of Princeton, near the Schugart farm, on this side of Bureau Creek. It was called Greenfield. "When Smith left this place the office was discontinued. Dr. N. Chamberlain then was the next Postmaster, and it was one and a half miles south of Princeton on the Tiskilwa road. Then John M. Gay took the office next, and it moved into the town proper and has remained here since. Gay was succeeded by D. G. Salisbury, Nathan Gray and Sam Limerick, as given above. The successor of Limerick was W. H. Winters, who continued in office until 1856, when C. N. Pine took the office. June 1, 1858, J. M. McConihe became Postmaster. He continued in the place until May 15, 1861, when James H. Smith took the office. 1865, Daniel McDonald took it, and discharged its duties until 1871. Then Miss Ida Lovejoy was appointed and held the position four years, or 1875, when the present Postmaster, J. W. Templeton was appointed, and has held the office continuously since. And in his behalf we may here say, and Bay with truth, that he is an efficient and capable officer, and one, too, that the better the people come to know him the better they like him.

Wolf Hunts. - It was a long struggle with the early settlers to rid themselves of the prairie and timber wolves of this section of the country. These beasts were destructive to sheep, pigs and young calves, and at first they so overran the country that the greatest vigilance was necessary in order to save any of the young stock. As the people of those days made the most of their own apparel, it is apparent the importance they would attach to their few geese and sheep - the sources of their clothing and bedding. The State and the counties entered heartily into the work of exterminating these pests. Wolf traps and poisoned meats were placed, and men and dogs pursued them relentlessly. The counties freely gave bounties for wolf -scalps, and a feature of the early day sports were the great wolf hunts that were organized, in which the people of several counties would form a circle of many miles in extent, and drive the wolves to a common center. Some of these occasions were so great that they became historical events in the early history. C. C. P. Holden, of Chicago, thus describes a wolf hunt in Will County, as well as the operation of the " underground railroad," of which we have given an account, and of the active managers here under their noble leader, Owen Lovejoy:

"Do not let me overlook the great wolf hunt. of 1841. It was a memorable occasion. The boys were left at home, and the heads of families were the participants. The general plan adopted by the hunters was to form a ring or circle, the outer edge of which was to be Joliet, Hickory Grove, Skunk's Grove, Thorn Grove, Beebe's Grove, Yellow Head Grove, Bourbonnais Grove, Todd's Grove, Wilmington, Reed's Grove, and Jackson's Grove. Twelve-Mile Grove, where old "Put" burrowed, was to be the common center where all the hunters were to come simultaneously together in a circle enclosing the grove.

"Early in the morning of that beautiful Indian summer day might been seen horsemen coming from the various settlements, and taking their positions in the grand circle, which it was estimated was more than eighty miles in circumference. Each horseman was armed with rifle or shotgun. They all made for the common center, which they reached at about 4 P. M.

"Thousands of deer broke through their lines, but, as they were after wolves, little heed was paid to them. The wolves they had surrounded with large numbers of deer in the grove. At about that time my father left for his home, which he reached late in the evening, cold, tired, and hungry. Wolf-scalps he had none, and his case was no exception to the general rule. Ever after that it was a hard thing to find anyone who had participated in that grand wolf hunt, which it was claimed would rid Will County of its wolves, and give perfect security to its increasing herds of sheep.

"A little later, in 1843, there was another hunt, not for wolves, however, but for human beings - a hunt, which in its time became national. There had previously been organized and placed in good running order the underground railroad, with a directory second to none for its actual efficiency. Its main line touched Alton, Quincy, Bushville, Galesburg, Knoxville, Princeton, Ottawa, and Joliet, at which points were first-class stations.

"At Joliet the main line curved to the east, taking the route of the old "Sac trail" to La Porte, Ind., and thence by a carefully selected line on to Canada. Its branches entered Jacksonville, Springfield, Peoria, Bloomington, and other noted points. One of its branches took in Chicago, where one of its resident directors lived. Its patrons came wholly from the colored race, who were en route for freedom. The organization which controlled this great national highway was composed of some of the most noted men of their day, among whom were Giddings, Chase, Birney, Lovejoy, Phillips. Sumner, and Greeley. The working directory of the same lived along the line of the road and the branches thereof, which were located principally in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. The local directors for Will County consisted of many of her best men, like Samuel Haven, Ezra Goodhue, Allen Denny, John Atkins, Sr., Elias Haven, Moses Cook, Peter Stewart, Samuel Gushing, and others. These officers were ever on the alert to the end that there should be no delay to passengers who had through tickets over any of their lines. Dr. Charles V. Dyer had charge of the Chicago end, with able assistants. It was in July,

University Of Illinois

1843, that four passengers on one of its trains were overhauled and detained by legal process - three colored men and a colored woman. They were from Missouri and en route for freedom. Four human beings were thus arrested by civil process here in your county while passing through the same, by their owners, who Jived in an adjoining State. These four passengers were slaves, and their owners wanted to take them back to slavery. Think of it! To say that Joliet was excited at the event would be to place it very mild. There was virtually an eruption; the very rocks in her midst seemed to crack open, so great was the shock. But there were cool heads in the directory who had guaranteed to these colored people safety from all harm until Canada was reached, and from the speaker's recollection this promise was made good with but very little delay while in transit.

"The owners were chagrined. The law was on their side and under it they had claimed their property, but the law of human reason as interpreted by the managers of this great highway was greater than the statutory laws of the land. The owners, not to be thwarted, though they had lost their property, were determined to know the reason why, and at once, through their attorneys, took the necessary legal steps to that end. Charges were preferred before the grand jury at the October term of the Circuit Court against several of the managers of the underground road, and true bills of indictment were found against Samuel Haven, Samuel Gushing, and Peter Stewart, for aiding fugitive slaves to escape and for harboring the same. The notable grand jury before whom these charges were brought, and who returned a true bill were as follows: Cornelius C. Van Home, foreman; John Runyan, John Tanner, Jr., Moses Porter, Jr., J. T. Reynolds, William Wigant, Robert Strong, William Rowe, John

Robb, James Walker, Ashur Holmes, Reuben Willard, George Woodruff, Titus S. Abbott, Dennis Kelly, Lyman Meacham, Lucius Robinson, and Horace Messenger. Patrick Ballingall was the State's Attorney. Some of Will County's best men were on the jury, but by the law the indictment was sure to follow.

"The speaker has no knowledge of the final outcome of the case, but thinks the whole matter walked out of court in due time. The court, Jesse B. Thomas, the entire jury, the three that were indicted, Carlos Haven, a witness on the back of the bill of indictment, and Patrick Ballingall, the prosecutor, E. C. Fellows and J. M. Wilson, attorneys for Haven, Gushing, and Stewart, have all gone where colored men as well as white are at rest. And thus ended the most notable hunt ever had in this county."

Roads. - The energy and activity of the people of Bureau County in securing hard roads is manifest in the joy of her people in riding and driving over the many miles of splendid gravel roads they now possess and that are being so rapidly extended in every direction. The people, it seems, fully agreed with that American statesman who said, when asked what would make the country prosperous, answered : "Roads. ' ' What would make it wealthy? "Roads." What would make it happy? "Roads, roads, roads." Thirty years ago Thomas H. Benton said: "Give our children good paths to school, and give the people good roads to market."

In the extent of gravel roads Bureau County to-day is in the proud position of the second county in the State. This we account one of the best and greatest of public benefits yet conferred upon the people of the county. The peculiar soil of this section, the black humus, and its great depths, when thoroughly saturated in the winter and spring, is almost literally an impassable sea of mud. And as if anticipating the eventual necessities of the present race of men who are here, nature has provided within the county's limits an abundant supply of the finest road gravel in the world.

An Old Relic. - The following venerable document was found among the papers of one of the county's oldest families, and explains itself even to the quaint spelling:

' ' SEPTEMBER 15, 1815. This indenter witnesseth that Frances Webb sun of John Webb late of Penselvany hath put hymself and by these presents doth voluntarily put hymself a prentice to Aaron Mercer fuler of harison county State of j Ohio to larn his art trade or mystry and after the manner of an apprentice to serve hyme five years from or after the above date during which time the sade aprentice Shal his master fathfuley serve, his secrets Keepe his law f ule command obay, he shall do no damage to his sade master nor se it done by others without leting or giving notice thare of to his sade master."

"And the sade master use the utmost of his indevors to teach or caus to be taught and instruct the sade apprentice in the trade and mystrey he now profeseth occupieth or followeth and procure and provid for him the apprentice suffishent meat drink and proved washing, loging and apperel fiting for an apprentice decency the sade term, one good fredum soote supposed to be worth thertey dolars, one horse sadel an bridel supposed to be worth sixty-five dolares, one weak in harvest also nine month scooling and for the trew performence of all and every of the sade covenants and agreements wee either of the sade bind ourselves unto the other by these presents," etc.

We have already pretty fully spoken of the first lawyer resident in the county, and members of his family, survivors of whom are still in the county. We find the following interesting items in our note book:

The Kinneys. - Old Simon Kinney was probably the first lawyer to locate in Bureau County, or rather what is now Bureau County. He was originally from Vermont, and a neighbor of the Websters and a warm friendship always existed between Daniel Webster and the Kinney family. In 1839 Webster visited Kinney, and spent some time in this part of Illinois, and invested in Bureau County lands, and improved what is to this day known as the Webster farm, near the county line toward Peru. He presented Kinney a pair of dun colored mares, much better stock than was then common here, and we are told descendants of these animals are yet to be distinguished in the county. It was on this visit West that Mr. Webster made a speech at Peru, from the hurricane deck of a steamboat.

Simon Kinney had become a bankrupt in New York, and then turned his face westward and landed on the Illinois River at Peru in 1833 or 1834, and soon after to where Tiskilwa now stands, where he became a farmer, hunter, politician and lawyer. He was quiet, dignified and gentlemanly in his bearing, and a strong Whig in politics.

Henry L. Kinney was one of the most remarkable men of his day. Compared to his pioneer neighbors he was quite a Monte Christo. At all events, his brain teemed with the vast schemes that started more golden streams than has any other one man since his day here. He was guardian of Pelt I. Brewster, and he and Alexander Holbrook, Dwight Brewster and John Chapman soon turned up as large contractors on the canal, and at once all along the line and extending into this county to Tiskilwa, the name and apparently the exhaustless wealth of H. L. Kinney were as household words. He employed hundreds of men, started up the town, of Peru and Hennepin, and at Tiskilwa he kept an open house and gave every day a great free feed to all who would partake of his hospitality. Here he had another store; while on the river he had his own steamer, the "H. L. Kinney," which he commanded much of the time in person, and where he gathered- troops of- friends and had a royal good time. His style may be known from the fact that even over the good roads of this rolling prairie country, it took four horses to pull him, in his light buggy. He thus showed even the country people that he was no ' ' one horse " arrangement.

He was a man of vast enterprises and great shrewdness, and when he had in hand the greatest work and a vast number of employes, he seemed to ever be at leisure for a royal bout with a few boon companions. It is told of him that he and Fletcher Webster were great cronies, and that when Fletcher was sent out here by his father, to see after his Bureau County farm, that Kinney would go over and help him " bach " and they would frolic and hunt and have a high old time generally. They had raised a very tall pole, and arranged so the man would run up a lantern to the top of it whenever they did not get in before dark, so they could see it for miles around, and when they would discover the light they would go direct, across lots and streams and fences, and thus they found their way home on many trying occasions.

Henry L. Kinney left Bureau County as precipitately as was the collapse of the work on the canal when the funds were exhausted and the State had not the credit to longer prosecute the project. His creditors were numerous and at once noisy; couriers flew from Peru to LaSalle and from LaSalle to Tiskilwa, and so vehement were the creditors that they organized after the fashion of mobs generally, and determined to have their money or blood or at least rapine. They looted at what little property Kinney had left behind, and then they concluded to seize the unfinished canal, and hold that or anything else they could find. Armed with spades, pick-axes, shovels and now and then a squirrel rifle, they began to look tolerably war-like, at least to the women and children. The people who had interests in the protection of all property - canal as well as private property - were finally compelled to resist this movement, and eventually there grew to be an organized force on each side, and as all the early wars were called by some Indian name, this finally came to be known along the line as the Ottawa war. A peace was patched np and it was only some years afterward learned that H. L. Kinney had gone to Texas and had there amassed a fortune in the cattle business. Here, too, he was a man of wide influence and great wealth. He continued in the prosperous walks of life until the late war, when he espoused the Confederate cause, raised a regiment and fought through the war. When tbe disastrous peace came, he, like most other Southern men, was a bankrupt. But still defiant, he would not surrender, and he became a fugitive from the country and turned up soon after in Mexico, where he entered the service of that country, and w»s in command of a force at Saltillo when it was besieged by the enemy. When he found the garrison about to starve, he called for volunteers to follow his lead and cut their way out. At the head of a small band he sallied out and at the very gateway of the walls, almost alone, he was killed, his body being literally riddled with bullets. The end of a feverish, brilliant, dashing life.