Knox County, Illinois - The whole text, 1912 (part 22 of 56)

Knox county, Illinois, and her chief city, Galesburg, and also lesser cities . . and towns, are typical American communities in build, socially and education- ;- ally, and in customs, habits and taste as well, and yet, as will be seen by an .: investigation of the facts, a good proportion, probably 50 per cent of the population, is foreign born or the descendants of foreigners, a condition at once a tribute to the power and thoroughness and grace and ease of American assimilation and of nice foreign adaptiveness.

The first Swedish immigations to America date back to 1038-1665, resulting in the founding of New Sweden ("Paradis Udden," or "Paradise Point") on the Delaware river, in the original project of which the king, the great Gustaf Adolph the Second, of Sweden, was interested, but which he was not permitted to consummate, that honor falling instead to his chancellor, the brilliant Axel Oxenstjerna. Between the periods of 1638 and 1665 ten colonization parties were equipped and sent out to the new world, and as late as 1693, fifty-five . years after the arrival of the first party of Swedish immigrants on American soil, there still remained one thousand of them in the settlement of New Sweden. During the existence of New Sweden as a colony of Swedes thirty-five min- > isters or preachers were sent out to it from the mother country to minister to the three churches at Wicacoa, now Philadelphia, Kristina and Racoon, and chief among these preachers was the talented and distinguished Carl Magnus ' Wrangle, of the noble family of Sag and Wachel. This early Swedish settlement, it is true, lost its distinctive identity as such after a period of a third of a century, being by conquest merged into the stronger Holland settlements along the Delaware, these, too, in turn being obliged to give way to the English, but after a lapse of nearly 300 years multiplied evidences of the early presence and influence of the Swedes may be found in the city of Philadelphia and vicinity. :-.--/;. ^.^ ,'.:..

So far as known, the first Swede who came to Illinois was Raphael Widen, who, January 12, 1814, was appointed justice of the peace of St. Claire county by the territorial governor Ninan Edwards and was one of fourteen territorial justices, conducting the affairs of Randolph county from December, i8i8, to May, 1819, and also a member of the fourth and fifth general assemblies, serving as president of the fourth general assembly.

Olof G. Hedstrom came to America in 1825, settling in New York, and in 1833 his brother, Jonas Hedstrom, joined him, the latter, pushing on to Victoria, Illinois, in 1838. G. Unonius, with a little party coming to America in 1841, settled on Pine lake, near Nashotah, Wisconsin. In 1844 a company of fifty Swedish immigrants, with Daniel Larson as leader and spokesman, landed and settled in Boston, Massachusetts, and a second company of sixty immigrants under Larson's leadership came a little later, settling in Campello and Brockton, Massachusetts. Peter Cassell and five families came to America from Sweden in 1845 ^"d settled in New Sweden, Iowa, where his son, Andrew Cassell, and his descendants still live, honored and respected by all, Swedes and Americans alike. '^. '-.'''-'',-"-'- -

,. Between 1665 and 1846 but few Swedes immigrated to America, and such as came arrived not as parties or colonies, but as individual families or singly. However, beginning with 1845 or earlier a wanderlust for America revived in Swedish hearts on the mother soil, and in 1846 large parties and colonies of the sons and daughters of the north again landed on our shores, this time not remaining in the east, as before, but instead resolutely setting their faces toward the setting sun they tirelessly continued their long journey on lake and river by boat and on land by wagon and on foot, until they reached the rich fertile lands of Henry county, in western Illinois, where their guiding star stopped, when they, too, stood still, and, looking around, discovered that this was their Mecca and that they now had reached their long-sought goal.

The Swedish immigrations beginning in 1845, and resulting in the founding of the Swedish Communistic colony at Bishop Hill, Henry county, Illinois, September 26, 1846, is called the Jansonist movement, being inspired by Eric Janson, a religious leader and preacher, who with his followers, because of persecutions, imprisonment and confiscations of property in the homeland, came to America, "the land of the free and home of the brave," that here they might worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience, and without molestation engage in the pursuit of liberty, peace and happiness. Having found \vhat they sought, these courageous, stalwart sons of the north, exponents of the simple life, in hopeful toil and labor subdued the wilderness, tilled the virgin soil, and passing, left to their descendants, a priceless heritage in character, of motive and purpose in life and material wealth as well. Bishop Hill enjoys the distinction of being the first and oldest exclusively Swedish settlement in America, subsequent to the New Sweden settlement of 1638-1665, on the Delaware, and Victoria and Galesburg in Knox, and Andover in Henry county, Illinois, follow it, but the large masses of Swede immigrants coming to these places later than the Bishop Hill settlement found that pioneer American and individual Swede settlers had preceded them, and established an embryo civilization with which to hospitably greet later comers on arrival. All Swedish immigrations, following the Bishop Hill settlement, differ from it too, in that material welfare and advancement, not religious liberty, was the motive. ' : ,..;--::

It will interest readers of the Knox county history, not familiar with the facts, to know that in fifteen of the one hundred and two counties of Illinois, are many communities urban and rural, with so large a population of Swedish citizens, as to warrant calling them Swedish counties. These counties are Cook, Winnebago, Kane, DeKalb, Will, Bureau, Henry, Rock Island, Mercer, Warren, Knox, Peoria, McLean, Ford and Vermillion. Flourishing cities, towns and rural districts, in each of these counties, have Swedes numerically strong enough to make distinct impression upon the body politic, for weal or woe, and since the Swede counties and communities rank high, if not highest in the state in point of wealth, education, refinement and Christian culture, and all that makes for good citizenship, it is conceded that the Swedes as a rule stand for the uplift and betterment of themselves and surroundings. In the counties of Illinois designated as Swede counties are the following communities in which there are large numbers of Swedes: Galesburg, Knoxville, Wataga, Altona, Victoria, Henderson, Galva, Bishop Hill, Cambridge, Nekoma, Kewanee, Geneseo, Orion, Osco, Lynn, Woodhull, Ophiem, Rock Island, Moline, Aledo, New Boston, Keithsburg, Swedona, LaFayette, Toulon, Monmouth, Roseville, Swan Creek, Princeton, Wyanet, New Bedford, St. Charles, Geneva, Batavia, Elgin, DeKalb, Sycamore, Rockford, Peccatonica, Blooming^on, Paxton, Danville, Peoria, Joliet and Chicago - the latter place alone with its suburbs, having an approximate Swedish population of a quarter of a million, and it has been said that starting at Galva, in Henry county, and going west to Keithsburg and New Boston, on the Mississippi river, a distance of fifty miles, a traveler may pass along all the way on soil owned or tilled by a Swede.

Daniel Robertson, the first white settler, came to Henderson, Knox county, in 1828, and in 1830 the county was organized with a population of 230 scant, and in 1836, Geo. W. Gale and company came to the county, organizing Galesburg the following year with a population of about 232. Ten years later, in 1847, 3"d seven years before the advent of the C., B. & Q. railroad in Knox county. Galesburg already had a Swedish population of 20, among whom were John Youngberg, Nels Hedstrom, Andrew Thorsell, a Mr. Modine, Kristina Muhr and Olof Nelson. :^ :. ;''.-.';./ \l : --^

In 1854 the stream of Swedish immigration to Galesburg became most active, continuing steadily until 1880. at which time the Swedish population was at least three thousand five hundred, if not four thousand. Since 1880, there has been no arrival of greater parties of immigrants direct from Sweden to Galesburg, although families as such and individuals have been coming all the while, and still do, and these, together with the natural increase by birth, make the Swedish population of Galesburg, in 1912, easily eight thousand - a figure of no mean proportion, when considered that it constitutes more than a third of the whole population of the city. j. : ' .'..'v/'v.-y .-";,-:

As a rule the Swedes were poor and many penniless on arrival, having either borrowed, perhaps, or spent their all in paying for their passage, and work and wages, therefore, for them, was an immediate pressing need, and hence it was no uncommon experience to greet a company of newcomer Swedes on the depot landing one day, with their wooden chests, bundles, bags and baggage all around them, and the next, after temporarily depositing the women, children and luggage in some friendly home or shelter, find the men already at work, beginning at the first possible moment on American soil, the foundation of success, of home and fortune, through the commendable and sure medium of labor and application.

With rare if any exception, all began American life with common manual labor, at a prevailing low wage, first learned the language spoken, and then through sheer merit and inherent worth, rose to better and more responsible and lucrative position, as farm tenants and farm owners, mechanics and boss workmen or superintendents, clerks, merchants and bankers, or, as official and political men, or in the professions, attained to large and honorable places in the community and vicinity.

Among the industries of Galesburg, either past or present, with which her Swedish citizens have been identified as projectors and owners or as responsible managers and workmen in supplying brain and brawn, in founding and developing them, are the Charles Johnson brick yards, Abraham Nelson furniture shop. Industrial Machine Works, Galesburg Machine Works, the Brown Corn Planter Co., the G. D. Colton Co. foundry; Frost Manufacturing Co., the O. B. Judson Furniture Co., and the C., B. & Q. Railway Company, in all of which the rank and file of workmen were and are Swedes, some of whom attained to enviable prominence in management and conduct of the business - among whom besides the personal names given above, may be mentioned, first, the brothers Charles and William Erickson, for fifty years continuously in the employ of the "Q" railway, and now foremen respectively of the round house, and machine shops, where also their father before them was a trusted workman. Also may be named in this general connection, J. A. Oberg, D. L. Peterson, Claus Anderson, Alfred Lindgren, P. N. Granville, Magnus Holmes, Andrew G. Gabrielson, John Pierson, Andrew Stromstedt, F. T. 'Albert, W. A. Peterson, Claus Thoreen, Peter Olson, John A. Ehn, Magnus Peterson, Frank A. Olson, W. O. Nelson, Andrew P. Gustafson, Aug. Abramson, Peter Swanson, J. A. Renstrom, A. O. Peterson, Andrew Johnson, L. J. Olson, Swen, Peter and Ernest Ekwall, S. J. Johnson, T. W. Peterson, Abram Anderson, A. J. Anderson, F. O. Peterson, C. X. Johnson, S. W. Nystrom, Frank A. Gustafson, J. W. and Claus Ekwall and many others equally deserving of mention if space would permit.

At present out of forty-four grocery establishments doing business in Gales- ' /, burg twenty-one are owned and operated exclusively by Swedes, and in all other lines, too, of mercantile activities one finds a like proportionate per cent in the hands of and owned by Swedes, who by close application, careful and conscientious observance of business principle and frugality, coupled with keen ;-/ knowledge and shrewd forethought, are surely, if yet slowly, accumulating a ;; . - ' competence. Foremost among present day Swede business establishments are ; ' - such houses as the N. P. Nelson Co., dry goods; J. H. Nelson Co., Jarl Young . i- . & Co. and A. P. Wetterberg, clothing and men's furnishings; Swanson & Perce- , ful, Hannah Holcomb, Highlander & Faulks, Johnson & Fagerburg, millinery; -; " A. E. Steinfeldt, jeweler ; Holmes Bros., laundry ; Lindstrum & West and Oscar . ^. Thorelius, druggists; Karl Salzberg, harness and saddlery; A. O. Lindstrum, O. ^; '- P. Wenquist, insurance; Eric Cederoth, W. A. Anderson & Co., shoes; P. B. .' ' ' Anderson, Oscar Johnson, Albert Joneson, J. I. Engstrand & Bro., tailors; A. i;-^;: ,; A. Hallberg, artist; M. W. Olson, dentist; C. G. Johnson, physician; R. J. Wai- ^ ;' berg, attorney; C. A. West, undertaker and embalmer; Duvon & Brown, C. S. ' Peterson & Co., bakery; Lass & Larson Co., C. J. Lindquist, decorators and ~- 'V painters; T. E. Johnson Machine Shop, A. F. Landstrum & Co., Galesburg Ma- -; ;- chine Works, automobile and ga/age; Galesburg Broom Co., David Carlson, ';'.;.; Charles Hawkinson, planing mill; Hoflflund Bros., G. A. Swenson, cigars; W. ; .. M. Stromberg, Hawkinson & Kenyon, confectioners; P. T. Olson, John Dahl- ' ?; berg, Victor Johnson, Carl Carlson, Nels Person, C. E. Youngquist, P. O. -;.';; Munson, C. E. Rundquist, C. N. Munson, A. F. Strandberg, F. O. Munson, : v ' contractors and builders; S. H. Olson & Co., J. H. Walberg, Ericson & Larson, :;.; Galesburg Commercial Union, R. O. Ahlenius, Larsen-Hulgren Grocery Co., . 3 - J. A. Oberg & Son, O. W. Johnson & Bro., J. T. Johnson & Co. and C. M. Burgland and a dozen additional grocery firms, swell, but do not complete, the list of Galesburg's Swede merchants, now actively in business. -. Galesburg's first fire department was organized in 1856, and nine years later, in 1865, an all Swede fire company, called Ericson Engine Company No. 2, numbering sixty men, was formed, captained by O. P. Pearson, and soon after a Swedish fire hose company, captained by D. L. Peterson, was organized. Between these Swedish companies and the other Galesburg fire company, the Tornado, and the Peoria and Quincy companies, friendly but sharp contests of superiority often occurred, leading to a high degree of efficiency and skill, and on two occasions the Swede fire laddies captured from their worthy opponent the prizes of two hundred and fifty and fifty dollars offered the winner. In this day and age Galesburg boasts a paid fire department, but even so the spirit of the old Swedish volunteer fire fighters seems to move a younger and later generation of Swedes, for a respectable number of the personnel of the present department, including its capable chief, Martin Peterson, are Swedish lads, who time and again have demonstrated, like their "landsmen" of old, that they .

Among early Swedish societies in Galesburg was Scandia, a literary or- ' ;>- ganization formed in 1866. Its fii'st president was Louis Peterson, now de-

: With its regiment, Company C went to Pittsburg Landing, and thereafter ^ rj ; participated in the battle of Shiloh, in which engagement Captain Olof S. Ed- ^.. \ vail fell, together with comrades Lars O. Berglof and Carl Samuelson. The :-

General Shelby's brigade and in the assault of Prairie d'Anne and Camden. ' .. At Jenkins Ferry Company C fought in the memorable battle when 4,000 Union ; i soldiers repulsed 20,000 of the rebel force under Kirby Smith's army division, ;- ! ; entailing a loss of 2,000 of the enemies at a cost of 700 Union soldiers. -.. -,

On May 3, 1865, Company C returned to Little Rock, at which time and - ' ': place' it was mustered out of the service. A roster of the rank and file of the ' men composing Company C cannot be given here, but appended is a list of the v' ; officers of the company, all gallant men, heroes in peace or war, all of whom, 7. i' ' so far as the writer knows, with the great majority of their comrades in arms, 1; have responded to "taps", put out the lights and Iain down to well earned, :. peaceful, undisturbed rest. . , -.: ........ %-;-..:

In monetary matters Swedes in Galesburg have taken a proper place in the community corresponding to their character, numbers and influence as a people. Invariably the Swedish householder owns his home, has good remunerative employment or is in business for himself, and independent usually, whatever his vocation or calling may be and in each of the five strong, splendid banks or financial institutions of Galesburg, the Swedes also are given marked recognition in directory boards, and in official and clerical force.

The Bank of Galesburg, an institution with capital surplus and undivided profits of more than four hundred and fifty thousand dollars, deposits in excess of one million and assets beyond a million and a half dollars, organized, mainly capitalized, largely officered and generally patronized by Swedes, is commonly spoken of as the Swede bank. N. O. G. Johnson is its vice-president, P. N. Granville, cashier, and C. E. Johnson, assistant cashier, each of whom are directors too, together with Thomas W. Peterson and Sam. R. Swanson, all Swede men. Hon. M. O. Williamson, a Swede, and formerly treasurer of the state of Illinois, is president of the People's Trust and Savings bank, of which bank, too. Senator C. F. Hurburgh is a director, and Hon. A. W. Berggren for many years has been and still is the efficient and respected vice-president of the Galesburg National bank.

Galesburg is favorably known far and wide as an educational center, and no class of her citizens, not excepting the original settlers who made it a school and college community, have benefited more by its halls and avenues of learning, than her Swedish population. To finish the grade and high school courses, is the general practice of Galesburg young people, and many go on through college and university, distinguishing themselves in scholarship, in professional and higher walks of life, or win fame in the vocational affairs of men.

One cannot, in any true sense, write a sketch of the Scottish born citizens who live, or have lived, in this county without a fairly clear understanding of some of the conditions which in a measure made the Scotchman what he is.

We must bear in mind that Scotland is a small country, in all, less than twothirds the size of Illinois. A large portion is comparatively barren moorland. Farming, however, has always been fairly prosperous, and it is probably true that in no equal area of equally good soil is so much put in and consequently in no similar area is so much taken out.

I It is perhaps needless to say that nearly all the farmers are merely tenants, but to an Illinois tenant this statement is somewhat misleading because many farmers not only spend a lifetime on the same place, but there are families who have occupied the same farm for several generations with a reasonable prospect of continuing to do so.

But while farmers increased, farms did not; and though other industries gave remunerative employment to increasing numbers, yet there remained an unwanted fraction of the people for whom an outlet was needed, and found. Large numbers migrated to the southern end of their own island, while even greater numbers scattered themselves throughout the length and breadth of the British empire, and in business, in science, in literature and even in halls of legislation in England, in India, in Canada ; in short, in every British colony, they seemed to wield an influence out of all proportion to their numerical strength.

-T In America, - the "melting pot" of the nations, - where the Scottish people come into keen competition with the skilled and unskilled labor of two continents, they seem to more than hold their own, and are not often engaged in the most menial tasks which though honorable are not alluring.

There were, no doubt, numerous causes contributing to this way of getting on in the world. As previously stated, their country was small and, on the whole, infertile. Its climate was most capricious. Moreover, for centuries the Scots were on anything but good terms with their richer and much more populous neighbor kingdom on the south. All were more or less lawless ; there was between the two countries what might be called a neutral zone - but which really was a fighting zone. All tangible property belonged to the strongest band of thieves. Such conditions led to much desultory warfare. The Scots, being the weaker numerically, had, in order to hold their own, to become more persistent and more shrewd in their wholesale stealing operations. Besides this noted border warfare, on many occasions the armies of the two kingdoms came together in sanguinary conflict, sometimes on English, but more often on Scottish soil. Eventually, however, the weaker gained their independence, and in an after century under a Scottish king, England and Scotland became one nation, though not exactly one people.

It is possible this almost constant battle with adverse conditions - whether it be of climate, soil, poverty, a pugnacious neighbor Scot or little less pugnacious Saxon from beyond the Tweed - may have been a sort of education, - an education severe certainly, strenuous certainly, but perhaps the only kind suitable to the people, place and time ; and in all the succeeding days, even until now, we see its effects in a dour, canny, self-assertive, self-reliant people.

Perhaps no one thing so influenced and moulded the character of the Scottish people as that great wave of religious reformation which touched and, to some extent, changed the thought of the Christian world. In some countries of Europe, the monarch embraced Protestantism and led his subjects in the same direction; most notably the great Tudor Henry VIII of England gave to noble and peasant alike a slightly changed religious system ; a church in many of its forms resembling that of Rome, but with the Roman pontiff left out. The king himself be- . coming the head of this newly constituted church, his people as a whole, clergy and flock, high and low, meekly acquiesced.

How diflferent in Scotland, where a succession of weak and vacillating Stuarts occupied the throne, and instead of being leaders were led, or rather driven. The idea that the king should be the acknowledged head of the church never became prevalent among the Scottish people. They had bowed the knee in matters of religion to a foreign ecclesiastical autocrat, the yoke became irksome, was discarded, and now they had no wish to substitute a king for a pope. But alas, for the peace of Scotland ! This complete independence of the church from all parliamentary meddling was not to the royal liking. Therefore, the mandate went forth that a uniform ecclesiastical system must prevail from John O'Groats to Lands End, and such system was to be Episcopalian.

Acquiescence, however, did not follow the mandate north of the Tweed. The Scots respected royalty and were firm believers in the monarchical plan of government ; they were Christians, militant Christians, and Episcopacy, prelacy, papacy, were to them almost synonymous terms, and leaving the question of creed entirely out of sight (which, however, they did not do) not only the ministers, but the vast majority of the common people were utterly opposed to any system of church government which recognized any man as supreme head, be he king or bishop.

It is no doubt true that during all the many years of ecclesiastical and doctrinal readjustment, there were in Scotland, in the ministry and laity, excellent leaders. At the same time, there were not only willing, but intelligent followers, men in the full possession of the spirit of intellectual independence, claiming the right of the individual to think, and having thought, to express his convictions. Among those leaders, and chief among them, was he who never feared the face of man, he of clear insight scholar, preacher, statesman, patriot - John Knox - measured, by today's standard, stern, exacting, intolerant, but in his day and generation, liberal. To John Knox, more than to any other man, is Scotland indebted for its excellent system of education. It is not, of course, to be supposed that Knox could look adown the vista of the centuries and see the means supplied whereby every child, poor and rich, would be equally favored with school privileges. Nor is it to be understood that he found his fellow country-men wholly illiterate, for the congregations who gladly heard his preaching and as gladly applauded when he personally took to task his and Scotland's queen, the clever, witty, wayward Mary Stuart, were not dullards. They were the same people who, with Knox and other scholarly leaders, gave to their country that most logical ecclesiastical republican system known as Presbyterianism - a system that in a very large measure compelled them almost to a man, and woman, to acquaint themselves not only with the doctrines, but also with the polity of the church ; and building even better than they knew, this same spirit of doctrinal research, in after years, divided the Presbyterians into sects, the members of each feeling that all were in duty bound to argue the point, with all comers. The writer has, in his boyhood days, heard many earnest and lengthened discussions in which the scriptures, from Genesis to Revelation, were ransacked for quotations which, it was hoped, would overwhelm an opponent.

As to the ministers, they were very largely recruited from the homes of a thrifty, self-denying and comparatively poor peasantry. They were well educated, were invariably college men, so that in their intellectual equipment they had, in their respective communities, no superiors; although, because of the critical spirit prevailing, their parishioners were wont to quote the lines of Burns :

But none the less the minister was ever the chief man in the community, not only on the Sabbath or other holy days, but every day, sharing in the simple joys and comforting in the com.mon sorrows that befell the flock. The schoolmaster, who in very truth was the school master, and the doctor, also college men, ranked just a little lower than the clergy. Strange as it may seem to the man of today, though the minister might know more of Hebrew, Greek and Latin than did his hearers, yet King James' version of the English Bible was almost if not quite as often read, carefully read and clearly understood, by the man at the anvil or plough, as by any D.D. in Scotland or out of it. The shorter catechism, which to the average boy or girl was not short, and anything but a pleasure to memorize, yet memorized it must needs be. However, it is at least a comfort to know that we were not required to understand it.

Such were some of the educative conditions which, for good or ill mentally, morally and theologically, largely moulded the sturdy Scots, who, bidding adieu to poor, but miich loved native land, crossed the ocean, and in the formative period in the history of this commonwealth in some measure assisted in laying a foundation, of which no superstructure needs to be ashamed. They brought with them an inheritance of good physique, good moral fibre, a deeply religious turn of mind, a willingness to work, a passion for saving. The Scotchman is a good neighbor, a good friend, an outspoken, honorable enemy, a patriot in the old home, a patriot in the new; in religion, conservative, in politics, decidedly pro-

There also came with him, or in him, a strange glorification of the virtues of strong drink. Though there were so-called unsociable individuals who eschewed the cheering cup, yet on the whole, the national failing asserted itself and many a transplanted Tam O'Shanter found at hand a Souter Johnny, who gladly with him felt "O'er a' the ills o' life victorious." It is a matter for regret that our peasant poet, while he did not originate the sentiment, yet he is quite largely to blame for its perpetuation, thus, by his genius, making the convival habit almost a virtue. It seems strange that he who on the farm of Mossgiel in his young, ardent manhood and poethood .. r -.:-.;:-...-> :'.--....

In this connection, it may be well to quote the remark of an Altona merchant, who well knew and respected the first generation of Scots. Said he :

The early settlers on these prairies, come from where they might, suffered many privations. The Scots, unused to the excessive summer heat apd the equally excessive winter cold, occasionally, no doubt, wished themselves in the "land of the mountain and the flood," but the wish remained a wish, and as new arrivals came, the loneliness gradually passed away.

Between 1835 and 1855, nearly all of the Scottish people who have been residents of this county arrived, and though they can be found in various sections, yet it is only the northern part of Copley township that can truly be called a Scottish settlement.

And to some it may appear strange that not until the eighties did the Scottish residents of this vicinity, led by a few of the more intense lovers of the "land of brown heath," from themselves into a Caledonian society which enjoyed a short if not uneventful existence.

The annual meetings were, with one exception, held on the anniversary of the birth of Scotland's peasant poet ; he who, by his genius, gave to our Lallan tongue, a name and place in the world's literature. A name and fame which must en- dure seeing that he has in his own beautiful simple words, with a master hand, touched the universal heart. And when we foregathered, we often spoke of the poet's birth, that birth in the "auld clay biggin' " when the "Janwar win' blew hansel in on Robin"; and though the midwinter night might be such

It was an evening of reminiscences, we each and all, who were to the manner born in memory, saw the lonely height and home, the mist-covered mountain, the deep-wooded glen, the far-reaching stretches of unsullied purple heather; and it often seems to the writer that we, who have spent our days, few or many, on this, our most prosaic prairie, can hardly imagine the exquisite pleasure that comes to the average Scot of whatever station when he sees the rural beauties of his native land, when in the words of Burns ',

But in the passing of the older Scots the society lost the enthusiasm of numbers and for some years no meetings were held; but in the late summer of 1904 we and our descendants, in all about one hundred, again came together . at Craig-Knowe farm and had as speaker for the occasion. Rev. Hamilton Spence, who was most assuredly in the spirit on that day, for such winning eloquence, such a masterly mingling of pathos and pleasantry will not be by us forgotten; and as the autumn sun sped toward the glowing west

... By far the larger percentage of the immigrants became farmers, though quite a number engaged in mercantile pursuits, and others, with their well-

- cured for themselves a competence. Back to the soil was not at that time a common cry; however it was to the soil they nearly all went, and they were wise or fortunate in selecting exceptionally good land. It may not have been scientifically, but it was at least carefully farmed, and for many years the crops were sufficiently abundant, and even though prices were low and markets distant the early education in thriftiness which nearly all had inherited or

' acquired in the old home made them "contented wi' little and cantie wi' mair." Nevertheless this constant moneyless condition became monotonous and perhaps exasperating, as this recorded incident will show: Some guid wife had been, perhaps not for the first time, reminded that she ought to be a little 'more saving, and replied: "Oh, it's hain whan ye hae an' it's hain whan ye

: haena ; it's a deil o' a hainin'." The significance of this anecdote is not applicable to the women alone, for the hainin' was necessarily practiced both indoors and out, and it is well known that the women of the settlement were in every true sense worthy helpmeets not only in the saving but also in the making, for were the fathers, brothers, husbands unusually busy in the field a most willing and often a strong hand from indoors kindly came and such were, as a rule, quite as able to grace a harvest field as "ben the hoose."

' neither comfortable nor convenient. They had but few ideas and almost no experience in house erection, and when, with the help of neighbors, they un-

- dertook to build, with logs or even a frame house, they were handling ma- - terials wholly new to them ; and the finished product was not always a thing of beauty or convenience ; but it was a home, it was their own, and these were comforting thoughts ; thoughts that greatly modified their homesickness. The outbuildings were usually of a type even more primitive than the houses, and it has been said that when barn accumulations became troublesome they moved the barn. - :/;>-:?

Postoffices, while not so distant as markets, were not at all convenient, and they were not much needed; letter writing, while not a lost art, was not much practiced. There was nothing very exciting to write about and a more potent reason was the great cost of postage, especially when compared with the average income. It is well known that there were isolated cases where letters remained in the hands of the postmaster for many weeks after they were known to be there solely because of the lack of money to pay the postage. When, as

; in every home, however poor, there was at least one book, the Bible, containing the Old' and New Testaments with Psalms in meter, Scottish version, and its unique worth in private estimation is shown by the fact that it was often referred to in speaking of family worship as "taking the Book."

By far the larger percentage of the immigrants became farmers, though quite a number engaged in mercantile pursuits, and others, with their welltrained hands, well trained by the now almost obsolete apprentice system, se- , cured for themselves a competence. Back to the soil was not at that time a common cry; however it was to the soil they nearly all went, and they were ' ; wise or fortunate in selecting exceptionally good land. It may not have been - . scientifically, but it was at least carefully farmed, and for many years the ; croi)s were sufficiently abundant, and even though i)rices were low and mar- . kets distant the early education in thriftiness which nearly all had inherited or . ac(|uired in the ohl home made them "contented wi' little and cantie wi' niair." Nevertheless this constant moneyless condition became monotonous and perha])s e.\asi)erating. as this recorded incident will show: Some guid wife had .--". been, perha])s not for tlie first time, reminded that she ought to be a little : more saving, and replied : "Oh. it's hain whan ye hae an' it's hain whan ye haena : it's a deil o' a liainin'." The significance of this anecdote is not applicable to the women alone, for the hainin' was necessarily practiced both indoors and out, and it is well known that the women of the settlement were in every ". , true sense worthy heljMueets not only in the saving but also in the making, for : were the fathers, brothers, husbands unusually busy in the field a most willing . : and often a strong hand from indoors kindly came and stich were, as a rule, . quite as able to grace a harvest field as "ben the boose." -

Many of the settlers had been brought u]) in houses in Scotland which were ' neitber comfortable nor convenient. They bad but few ideas and almost no - experience in bouse erection, and when, with the help of neighlwrs. they un- .' dertook to build, with logs or even a frame house, they were handling materials wholly new to them ; and the finished product was not always a thing . of beatity or convenience: but it was a home, it was their own. and these were comforting thoughts: thoughts that greatly modified their homesickness. The outl)uil(lings were tisually of a type even nKjre ])rimitive than the houses, and . it has Ijeen said that when barn accumulations became troublesome they move'l ^ . the barn. !

Postofifices. while not so distant as markets, were not at all convenient, and .' they were not much needed ; letter writing, while not a lost art. was not nnich practiced. Tliere was nothing very exciting to write alxnit and a more potent ,_ reason was the great cost of postage, especially when comjiared with the average incoyie. It is well known that there were isolated cases where letters remained in the bands of the postmaster for man\ weeks after they were known - to be there solely because of tbe lack of money to pay tlie postage. When, as is most likely, such letters were from loved ones in tbe far away liome we can form some idea of the scarcity of ready money. Of course daily newspapers were tuibea'-d of. even weeklies were rare: the magazine for the prairie was . yet to be. Tbe peripatetic book man of other days was missing and missed, but in every home, however i)oor. there was at least one book, the liible. containing .-. the Old and Xew Testaments with I'salms in meter, Scottish version, and its unique worth in private estimation is shown by the fact that it was often re- --. ferred to in s|)eaking of family worshij) as "taking the Book." .

Coming as they did from a land where a community without a church was unknown, it was felt as a peculiar deprivation that they could not, as Pres- ;

For a number of years in a most primitive appearing log structure - used as a schoolhouse - situated on the south side of the Victoria road and some three and one-half miles west of that village, a faithful few, when a minister could be secured, met in public worship. In the course of time a frame building was erected which served as schoolhouse and church, and although the occasional preacher was usually a Presbyterian yet to some of the older attendants it must have seemed rather strange and scarcely the proper thing to do, to invite to preach, as they did, one who had been ordained as a Methodist, or even one as Lyman B. Ferris, who, though respected and loved by the whole community, had never been ordained at all.

Although these occasional meetings were spiritually and socially profitable and enjoyed as such, still the ideal ever present in the thought of the settlement was their own church, their own manse, their own minister - he who would be to the little flock a shepherd indeed. Today, when customs and creeds are equally elastic, it is somewhat amusing to hear of the peculiar experiences, in church affairs, of the iconoclasts of that early day ; for instance, when a certain musical enthusiast induced some of his young friends to join with him in organizing a choir, and having succeeded, they, on a subsequent Sabbath, hymn books in hand, presented themselves before the astonished congregation. The hymn was announced ; there was a murmur of suppressed excitement and one of the fathers in Israel marched out slamming the door, and otherwise letting it be known that he disapproved of such sacrilegious conduct.

Even a day came when it was suggested that an org^n would greatly help in the musical part of the services ; but ere the suggestion became more than such, there were many earnest discussions concerning the sinfulness of the sin ; and one not rigidly sanctimonious member gave them to understand that "tam so and so and' Johnnie so an' so, and' me' we dinna believe in praising God wi' a blaw o' win'." But the hymn book came, likewise the organ, likewise heaven's blessings. And in the estimation of the community no greater blessing could be given than that long hoped for, fervently prayed for, church home.

For although, in April, 1855, Rev. T. S. Vaile and R. C. Matthews, by authority from the presbytery of Schuyler, organized the John Knox Presbyterian church, - the names of the first members of which are herewith given : William Leighton, Janet McCornack, Elizabeth Kelley McCornack, Samuel McCornack, Janet -Tait McCornack, Margaret McGymont, Mary Ann Gordon, James McCornack, John McDowell, Sr., Agnes McDowell, Mary Miller McCornack, Lockhart Leighton, John McKie, Janet Stewart McKie, Robert McCornack, Peter McClymont, John McConchie, Elizabeth McConchie, George Stephenson, Rich-

Trustees elected for one year: Peter McQymont, William McCornack, Andrew McCornack, Peter Gordon, James McCornack. Elected deacon: Andrew ^.. McCornack. ;-

Samuel McCornack, Lockhart Leighton, Richard Stuckey were elected elders. However, it was not until the spring of 1863, that, on land donated by James Cook, the thankful congregation finally realized their* fondest hopes and saw their own church occupying the site whereon had stood the log and frame ._. schoolhouses both of which, by their associations, had been endeared to them. '

The name given was an additional bond that bound as one, the old land and the new. Here for nearly fifty years this Scottish community weekly assembled in public worship. No doubt, during the services many hearts turned to the auld hame, to the auld kirk, where all around the "mossy marbles" mutely marked .. ' where -. - , :. ,-..,-.;- : .-----:-'. '-;.-:. .''..-;.^

The John Knox Presbyterian church, born of the desire of the Scottish immigrants to gather as a body of worshippers, lived its life - a life of blessing to the individual and to the community ; it ceased to exist as a structure, it even ceased as an organization, but its influence has not and shall not cease. Many of the members took their letters of dismissal and allied themselves with the church of their choice in some nearby village; others moved to various parts of the state; others to states farther west; and some, like the old church, ceased to be.

And yet must we not conclude that the spirit which animated the fathers, that spirit which defied militant persecutors, who, with fire and sword for decades, desolated Scotland, has not yet vanished from the land? Are there now none who are willing to make sacrifices, to give life itself that the right to worship God as they choose may not perish from the earth?

In this, an age of readjustment in matters of belief, do the Scots of today forget their duty to the neighbor, be that neighbor in Knox county or in Hindostan ?

Perhaps it is not too much to say that the Scots of today are still fairly Christian in their ideals, fairly Christian in their daily living, fairly Christian in their forgetfulness of the lapses of the yesterday, fairly Christian in their unfaltering faith in the morrow.

Therefore, though the church itself is but a memory, even the original organization beyond human reconstruction, yet may not the scattered remnant collectively or individually, in the words of Tennyson, look trustfully to .......

It must have been, to the remaining few, a day of peculiar sadness, when the purchaser of their old and loved church home began the work of demolition and in truth they might have said, "The past rises before me like a dream.'*

They remembered the daily self-denial on the part of the community as a whole, a self-denial with one principal aim in view. They were willing to bear the inconveniences and discomforts of their poorly built, poorly furnished homes, and in time they gladly realized that the many littles made a meikle, and that meikle became transformed into a church of their choice, and that assuredly was well worth, not a day, but many days of self-denial, and afterwards of hearty thanksgiving.

: and controlled the community; they seemed to share their joys and their sorrows. They shared their toil, and this kindly and mutual helpfulness in some measure grew out of a mutual need, and this in turn developed that spirit of

''' - unfeigned hospitality, which is one of the most pronounced and redeeming traits of the Scottish peasantry ; and though here but a transplanted virtue, it found a congenial environment, so that not only relatives, friends, neighbors, but even the stranger within the gates lacked not of aught which the humble prairie home could grant.

They were equally neighborly in their recreations. As towns, villages and dollars were scarce, they were compelled to furnish their own amusements, and one that was much and often enjoyed was dancing, and it is quite probable that it was indulged in oftener than was recommended by some of those who

. had lost the knack thereof. It also was a transplanted virtue - or vice - as the case may be, and the vicinity seldom lacked some rustic violinist who perhaps

And on other occasions, at social gatherings, the long winter evening was most pleasantly spent at what was locally known as "sang aboot," and the songs were almost invariably reminders of the land where

Or Annie Laurie, Bonnie Boon, Afton Water, Coming Thro' the Rye, John Anderson My Jo, and the parting song seldom failed to have the words: '.'.:-/ r ' All of the.se various amusements - the dance, the song, or what not - were in .' ; their rustic manner as eagerly pursued and as keenly enjoyed as such ever . : could have been under what might be considered more favorable circumstances; ; -: but all were wholly weekday pleasures. When the Sabbath came it was Sab- '-.[-'. bath indeed. If anyone to himself or herself essayed to hum a tune there cer- V" tainly was no hint of ragtime in it. Lips were so trained they could not take ;." - on, on that day, a whistling form; there was in all and over all a Sabbath sol- x' emnity, and, as has been mentioned, for years previous to the erection of the ;./' John Knox church services were held and attendance at public worship was vr not a matter of good weather, good clothes or even of good intentions, but was strictly a religious duty. They brought with them from over the sea some ^. national failings, and may have acquired a few after their arrival, but non-at- ; , tendance at church on the Sabbath day was not one of them. There was, how- .; ever, as shown by the records, an occasional individual who for some reason, ;- or for no reason, absented himself even for years from church, and it being S'^' the duty of the session to advise, admonish, indeed, so far as possible, compel " the recalcitrant member to at least assume the virtue of attending divine serv- / ices, and, by holding the sword of excommunication over the guilty head, an apparent, if not a real change of heart usually took place. I " ... - : ' ..

In the reference on a previous page to the school master it is feared that .; some may have received the impression that he was in his sphere a tyrant, and -«' it is no doubt true that there were, in that profession, men who were patience- :.; less, tactless, overbearing, even cruel, as there are such in all the grades from the prince to the pauper, inclusive, but in their life and life's work they were worthy of honor, respect, love, as earnest, capable, Christian gentlemen ; it is also true that in the schoolroom their word was law, they were clothed with more than a little brief authority, but such authority was simply on a par with that in the home. The phrase, the life's work, may to some appear meaningless when we note that teachers of to-day, in a way, resemble birds of passage, changing schools as they might garments. I well remember the master from whom I received my school training. He had been in the same position for years previous to my school days and for many years afterwards, and from the same school within a short time a teacher voluntarily retired after an incumbency of more than forty years. It is small wonder that the teacher ranked high as a component part of the community, for besides his scholarly acquirements, which were of a high order, he shared with the minister in the moral and spiritual training of the .young. Therefore in the matter of doctrinal soundness he had to be like Caesar's wife, above suspicion ; and it is little less wonder that in all of their world-wide wanderings these teachers never lost sight of many a gifted and longer lived "Geordie Hoo." The pen picture of the "Domsie" by Ian McLaren, while faultlessly truthful, is not at all unique. Many of us can call from memory's "land of used to be" just such another, so that we can most heartily appreciate the beautiful little poem, and bless the author, Dr. John H. Finley, for putting into rhyme and that in our own loved dialect, "The Retirement of Domsie."

The following is a list of people of Scottish birth who are, or have been, residents of Knox county, and, while not strictly accurate in names or dates, is approximately so:

The Negro People

A history of the people of Knox county would be far from complete without some account of the negroes. In fact, when we come to consider the different races that have homes here, the negro race is of scarcely less importance than any other one race. Not perhaps on account of the work it has done or on account of any place it has filled in this county from an economic viewpoint, but rather because its history here is supplemental to conditions and experiences which were at the bottom of a civilization which had been developing in one-half of the whole United States for two hundred years. The influence of negro slavery can be seen in old colonial life of Virginia, Maryland and the Carolinas and wherever that life existed. It may be difficult to imagine that the courtly manners, the quiet dignity, the almost limitless hospitality which characterized the southern colonial gentleman had its origin largely in the unrequited toil of an inferior race. Of course climatic conditions always play a part in moulding the character of a race; but beyond all this, the fact that the institution of slavery gave leisure and therefore refinement to the whole household still remains. The financially successful owners of slaves had much less to do than their northern brethren who not only contended with a more vigorous climate but looked wholly after their own personal matters upon which their subsistence and that of their families depended. The leisure that was enjoyed in the southern colonial home was spent largely in the entertainment of friends. Th social side of life was the principal element in which he lived and the largest contribution that came to this state of existence came from the negro slave. This life had been moulding the southern character for generations.

But let it be said of the negro slave, that the institution of slavery did not inure to the sole benefit of the white men. The negro received a certain benefit -also. Some of them lived on, comparatively, quite intimate terms with their masters and derived much intellectual benefit thereby. And it would seem that in no other way can we account for the phenomenal advancement of the race since the limiting influences of slavery have been removed. The progress of the black man in the United States has been almost as remarkable in the last half century as the progress of the Japanese in Japan and if we consider the races from the standpoint of general improvement and not the military side, we may reasonably give the negro first place. The number of homes that the negroes have made for themselves, the farms that they have acquired, the professions they have adopted, the wealth they have gained, not only as a people, but as individuals (some of them are really wealthy), all speak most hopefully of and for the future of our colored citizens.

This consideration, however, is attended with more or less difficulty. The first comers left little or no record of their doings. Most of them have passed away and those who are still living have rather poor or uncertain memories, so that anything like exact or authentic accounts are hard to get. Generally speaking, the negroes have been unskilled day laborers in this county. Some have been masons, some carpenters, and others contractors. We are pleased to present the following article by Mr. Lewis .C. Carter, one of our most respected citizens of the negro race:

Among the first of the negro people coming to Knox county before the civil war were Harry Van Allen and Susan Van Allen, his wife. They came some time about the year 1840. They were free people and if they were ever slaves.

the writer never knew it. Being the only colored people in Galesburg at that time, they were very prominent. Mrs. Van Allen was a member of the old First church. Mr. Van Allen died some time in the fifties.

Two children were born to them, Mary and Owen Van Allen. Owen Van Allen became a barber, following the trade of his father. He is now living in the west. Mary died some years ago.

Some years after the death of her husband, Mrs. Van Allen was married to Mr. Thomas Richardson, being his second wife. Thomas Richardson was also among the early colored people of Galesburg, He and his first wife, were about the second arrivals in Galesburg of the colored people. Mr. Richardson became a prominent and useful citizen of Knox county. His home was on the corner of West and Ferris streets where the Galesburg Electric Light and Power company's plant now stands. The property passed out of the hands of the Richardsons a few years ago. Mr. Richardson was well known as a good farmer and a very capable teamster. He had eight children, four sons and four daughters and all grew to manhood and womanhood. The boys were Tilford, Samuel, Benjamin and Richard ; the daughters, Angeline, Janet, Clarissa, and Prodine. Farming was the principal occupation of the sons. They were well known in the city and county for years. Samuel owned property in the northwest corner of section nine, Galesburg township. As far as known, all of the first family of children are dead. Some of the grandchildren are living. Alfred Richardson still resides in this city. He has been a trusted night watchman of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad company for many years, and his devotion to duty has given him an enviable reputation. It is said of him that he is known to the tramps who swarm in this part of the state as a man who permits no lounging about the company's buildings or yard. He has served several terms on the police force of the city with equal credit.

The Searles family was one of the largest of the early colored families. The old gentleman, Mr. Francis Searles, was born in Steward county, Georgia, March 8. 1772. He was a white man. His wife. Mrs. Polly Searles. was born in the same county and state and was a colored woman. They left their native state in the year 1847 and came to Galesburg where they made their home until he died, in 1875. For a time they lived on South Chambers street. He bought the old Chappell farm situated one mile northwest of Galesburg, where he was living at the time of his death. His wife followed him a few years after. Their family consisted of three sons and six daughters and they all reached mature ages, and they stood well among their people. James Matteson Searles, the oldest son, was an expert in well-digging and laying sewer. His son George W. Searles was a graduate of Knox college. John Adams Searles, the youngest son, moved to Kansas and settled upon a farm belonging to one of his sisters, where he died last year. The other brother died in 1880. The daughters were Mary Ann, Jane Gensey, Betsey, Sarah, Charlotte and Martha. Four of the daughters are still living and are well along in years. Mary Ann lives on North Henderson street and her name is Richardson. She is the mother of Albert Richardson above spoken of. Charlotte lives at 473 South Chambers street where she has resided since the death of her parents. She was injured in a railroad accident some forty years ago, by which she lost a leg and an arm. She follows the trade of dressmaker and earns her living thereby. The olcier sister runs a nine hundred acre farm in Kansas. She is a widow. The youngest sister, Martha, lives in Chicago. The mother was a liberated slave before the war and the children were all free-born.

Rev. Levi Henderson was the first negro minister of Galesburg. He came in an early day and his home was about No. 423 West Tompkins street. Rev. Henderson built the first colored church in Galesburg, known as Allen Chapel on East Tompkins street. Rev. Henderson was a very devout man.- The writer of this article, at that time a runaway slave boy, had the pleasure of living with him in July, 1863. He died in the '7os and his wife followed him a few years later.

Rev. McGill and his wife, Rachel, were a very venerable couple. Mr. McGill was one of the early pastors of Allen chapel. He was a retired minister of the denomination. He was the father of seven children, two sons and five daughters. One of the daughters is living in Iowa. His son, Isaiah McGill, was well known in Galesburg for many years. He followed the trade of brick mason and plasterer. His son, Hiram McGill, is now living in this city and follows the trade of his father Isaiah.

Many families came from the south during and after the war, which increased the colored population of Galesburg and Knox county very materially. Aaron Welcome and his wife, Sarah, came in 1862. He was a farmer and also followed the carpenter's trade. In 1863 he, with William Webster, John Davis and several others, enlisted in the Union army of the war of the rebellion. There also came the following between 1862 and 1875 : George Fletcher, Thomas Roads and wife, Paul Fletcher and wife, Abraham Murray and wife. Perry Cook and wife, Edward Washington and wife, William Stewart, William Laport, Peter Lawsey, William Elsey and brother, George Owens and wife, John Brown and wife, George Solomon, John Hopkins and wife, Elijah Slaughter and wife, John A. Logan, James Lyons and wife, Moses Jenkins and wife, James Johnson and wife, Andrew Anderson and wife, Thomas Stevens and wife, Elias Fletcher and wife, Jefferson Turner and wife, James McGruder and wife and Dennis Fletcher and wife. Several sons of Andrew Anderson are still living in Galesburg and Charles McGruder, son of James McGruder, is now the janitor of Central Primary school building.

The Gash family constitutes quite a large circle. They came soon after the close of the war. They were Jefferson Gash, Anderson Gash, William Gash, George Gash, Harrison (Tip) Gash, Sarah Gash, Mrs. Craig, Mrs. Waters, Mrs. Brown, Mrs. Williams and George, her husband, and Mrs. Hildridge, being the brothers and sisters of the Gash family.

Among those who came to Galesburg about this time were William Stewart and wife, Levi Johnson and wife (the wife being a sister of the Gashes), Isaac Green and wife, Mrs. Melissa Alexander (later Mrs. Warren, who became a successful nurse), Jesse Hazel and wife, Henry Will and wife and William Davis. Isaac Green died December ii, 1911, at the age of 76 years. He raised a large family. Jesse Hazel was a soldier in the war of the rebellion, was taken prisoner and confined in Libby prison for nine months. He is still a conspicuous figure on our streets. William Davis was also a soldier and a capable plasterer and mason.

Most of the above persons spent Iheir lives in Galesburg and helped to develop the resources of the gity and county in their respective vocations and trades. Though their pursuits were in the common walks of life, yet they were useful and filled a general demand, some as farmers and some as common laborers or mechanics. Most of these people came from Missouri, but Kentucky, Tennessee and Louisiana have each furnished quite a number. Richard Worthington, an old soldier, came from Kentucky. He was very well to do and was supposed to be worth $30,000 to $40,000. He died recently, leaving one son, Richard, Jr., and a fourth wife.

The negroes of the south, as a rule, were better posted on the progress of the war than the poor white people, for the reason that some of their numbers were always with the better educated class of the white people. They were house servants and therefore heard the newspapers read and heard war matters talked over. The information thus acquired was communicated to the colored people on the farms at secret meetings held by the colored people. At these meetings the war situation was pretty carefully considered. The question of freedom was also much talked of. The result of every battle fought, as reported in the southern papers, was soon known to the colored people. They knew the details and whether the victory was favorable to the master or to the slave. The countenances of the white people were carefully observed and if an anxious expression was seen, the colored people knew the news was good for them and bad for their masters, and the reading aloud of the papers told the story. Besides this source of information there could always be found in every community some white man or men who sympathized with the slave, and these men helped to keep the slaves informed of the true conditions and really encouraged them in hoping for freedom as the final result of the war.

All of the above named families became property owners, as well as a number of colored families not mentioned in this article. Out of a population of about twelve hundred colored people, there are about 165 families who own homes. Many of these homes are comfortable and compare favorably with the homes owned by the laboring classes of other races. As it is with the white men, the homes of the colored men improve as their conditions improve and the race generally developes as conditions grow better.

There are two churches in the city of Galesburg belonging to the colored people, the African Methodist Episcopal church and the Second Baptist church. The total value of the two church properties is about $20,000.

I was born on the farm of Winder C. Dingle four miles north of Palmyra, county seat of Marion county, Missouri, and aboat fifteen miles southwest of Quincy, Illinois, on the I5th day of March, 1850. I was the slave of Mr. Dingle, he having purchased my mother about six months before I was born. My mother had been the property of his brother-in-law, Wm. Kelly. Kelly had mortgaged all of his property, including my mother, to a money lender and slave dealer by the name of Bill Thompson. Mr. Kelly lost his property as the result of a fast life and high living. At the request of Mr. Kelly, my mother was purchased by Mr. Dingle. My life on the farm was passed about like the average slave boy of that day. As soon as I was large enough to run about I was kept busy as errand boy. I was also soon large enough to look after the babies, both white and colored. Later I waited upon the table and drove the carriage for my mistress on her visits around the neighborhood. I also looked after the saddle horse. At eight years of age I was put to plowing corn and other field work in general. Mr. Dingle had but a few slaves, three men, Edmond, Bill and Jack. When I was about nine years old Jack was sold south. Soon after Ned, as he was called, was sold to a Dr. Geater in our neighborhood. In i86i Bill died with lung trouble, leaving me the only male slave, except a brother four years old. I had three sisters on the place. There were two other girl slaves.

Dr. Dingle had two daughters and four sons. The sons had to work on the farm the same as boys do in Illinois. He also hired slaves from other farmers. It was through the influence and assistance of one of these hired slaves that I ran away from my owner. The name of this slave was Ephraim Easley, the uncle of William Easley, the porter at the Galesburg Business Men's club of this city. Ephraim owned a horse which he sold to the soldiers for $90. He had married one of the slave girls. On Monday night, July 14, 1863, he took his wife, one of my sisters, the other slave girl and myself and our plow horses and left for the land of freedom. We left our horses in the woods near Quincy all night in the rain. We had ridden the horses (four of them) thus far and there turned them loose, hoping that they would find their way back to the farm, and we learned that they were recovered about a week later.

We arrived in Galesburg Thursday night, July 17, 1863. We did not know where we were going to stop. The bus driver took us to the home of Mr. Henry Bailey, situated on East Ferris street on the lot now occupied by the Swedish Episcopal church. Mr. Bailey proved to be an old acquaintance of us all. He had recently come from Palmyra. I remained there a week. I worked for a Mr. Stowell on the Knoxville road for twenty-five cents a day hoeing corn. I spent my first free money for a hickory shirt, as I had but the one I wore on my back. Shirts were high in those days, the same could be bought now for twenty-five cents. I lived a week with Rev. Henderson, the colored Methodist minister and then with Dr. Chapman, who found me a home on a farm with Cyrus Metcalf, living north of Mr. Chas. A. Hinckley on Farnham street. I went there August 7, 1863, and remained until March i, 1864, when Mr. Metcalf moved to Ontario township onto his brother Michael's farm where I remained for two years. All this time I worked for my board and clothes as I had been disabled the winter of 1863-4 with rheumatism. That winter was a very severe one, the roads were blocked and drifted in every direction and my rheumatism proved to be a very stubborn case for I was in bad shape for several years. Nevertheless, the two years spent in Ontario were exceedingly pleasant and happy ones. I had been given my first opportunity of attending the public schools. I was fourteen years old. January i, 1865, I started to the Ontario school. It was a happy day for me. My mother used to tell me in slavery that in the north black children and white would go to the same school. I could not realize it until I had seen it. I nearly mastered three books the first three months. Three months of schooling a year were all boys got at that time, yet they seemed to get about as much out of it as they do now in nine months or a year. Clothes was not the question in our grandfathers' days. High heeled shoes and peg-leg pants were not known.

Mr. Metcalf moved to Oneida in the spring of 1866 and I hired out to Wm. Stephenson for three months. The remainder of the summer I worked for Henry Leffingwell at Ontario. He was a brother of Dr. Leffingwell of St. Mary's school, Knoxville.

About the middle of August, 1866, I met Mr. S. H. Ferris who lived in Galesburg. He owned a farm at Woodhull. I finally bound myself to him until 1 would be twenty-one years of age. I was to have board, clothing, three months' schooling each year, one dollar a month to buy collars, ties, take my girl to shows and buggy riding, and one hundred dollars at the end of my service. I had to figure some to make ends meet. When I became twenty-one I had overdrawn $2.35 of my monthly dues, so that was taken oflf of my hundred dollars. I took a horse instead of the money. A year later I sold the horse to a Mr. David Cutter for $75. I finally had to take two months' board for pay. That was living high - five years' work for two months' board. All together I obtained twenty-two months' schooling, against nine years' schooling that the average boy gets today. All of my four boys received that or more.

I worked nine months for Mr. Ferris after I was twenty-one. The last of November, 1871, I went to work for Mr. Henry Hitchcock, superintendent of the "Burlington" at Galesburg. I worked for him five years, then went into the gfrocery store of Greene & Dore, June 12, 1876. I remained with that store through five changes of proprietors, covering a period of seventeen and one fourth years. From that house I took up employment with D. C. Raymond & SOB, for whom I have worked over eighteen years, making over thirty-five years in the grocery business.

In 1878, June i8th, I was married to Miss Emily Louisa Alexander, daughter of Mrs. Melissa Alexander, a widow, who came from Palmyra in the fall of 1864. They were the slaves of Walker Loutham of Palmyra. Her brothers, Ralph and John, came with them. Ralph Alexander was one of the first mail carriers in Galesburg, appointed by Hon. Clark E. Carr while he was postmaster. To our union six children were born, four sons and two daughters, Eugene, Estelle. Lewis. Jr.. Eva, Clarence and Harold. At this writing all are living and in good health. The oldest is thirty-two, the youngest eighteen. We purchased our home at i86 West South street of Hon. T. J. Hale in i88i and are living in the same house at the present time. I have always endeavored to lend my influence to every cause that seemed good to me, and to work as far as possible for the improvement of the moral tone of the city, and I am pleased to add that my wife has always been an active associate and worker in all efforts of this kind. . . ./ i/r\ \^''- ^ .ivA'^ .'.v;' ,.: LEWIS C. CARTER.

The fact that Mr. Carter has spent thirty-five years in the grocery business in this city with but one change in location is a strong testimonial to his honesty, ability and courtesy as a salesman and the writer further states that during all those years he has been personally acquainted with Mr. Carter, has found him all that one could expect from a young man who has always displayed the steady perseverance, industry and upright character revealed in the foregoing autobiography. That it is not birth or education alone that makes a man is conclusively demonstrated by the story of Mr. Carter's life.

Though the "song of the toiler" - the cry of an underpaid producing class - the struggle for existence of that overwhelming portion of humanity forced to undergo severe oppression at the hands of the taskmasters, has continued throughout all ages, the present-day labor union is of but comparatively recent origin, and scarcely more than in its infancy.

The history of the past five centuries teems with narratives of gallant efforts made to improve the industrial and social conditions of the working classes; yet little relief obtained earlier than the middle of the igth century when the spirit of united effort through organization took permanent hold upon the world's producers.

Strife, strikes and revolts against the tyranny of taskmasters have existed since time began. Moses, the great leader and emancipator of the Israelites, tells in the book of Exodus of Holy Writ, 1500 years before the coming of Christ, how Pharaoh so oppressed the children of Israel and made conditions so unbearable that the toilers, unable to produce the required quantity of brick, were forced to strike for freedom and flee into a new country. Early historians of England relate wonderful stories of rebellions of the workers against conditions made unbearable by an obdurate employing class. Yet we cannot regard as in any way analogous to the trades union movement of today the innumerable insurrections of subject races, or even the revolts of the tailors' "serving-men," the cotton spinners and others of early England of which the annals of history are full. They were not evoked by any clearly definite body of men, nor did they result in any permanent association of toilers.

The earliest record of any form of orgfanization among the working classes dates back to the early part of the I3th century and even these primitive associations, found chiefly in England and known as Guilds or Eriendly societies, bear but little resemblance to the trades unions of the present generation, largely because of the fact that the membership consisted of both the master and the journeymen in any craft or trade (and sometimes of many trades) and the former always made sure that his interests were not neglected. He frequently presided at the meeting, imposed and collected the dues. and fines, paid out the funds and conducted whatever correspondence was necessar<'. Any attempts on the part of the journeymen to secure increased wages, shorter hours or better conditions were promptly frustrated.

Several things contributed to the journeyman's indifference or lethargy in attempting to bring about any change in the make-up or management of these associations. No master employed any great number of journejTnen - one or two being the rule rather than the exception, and the journeyman looked forward to the time when his ability would permit him to open shop for himself. Hence, there was a constant changing going on and the journejTnan accepted his surroundings for the time being with little thought of bettering his working conditions.

. In the year 1387, however, the "serving men" of the London cord wainers are reported to be aiming at making a "permanent fraternity" in rebellion against the "overseers of the trade," and nine years later the saddlers' "serving men" announced they had a fraternity "time-out-of mind," though the masters declared it was not more than 13 years old, and that its object was to raise wages. In 1415, a law was passed forbidding the "serving men and journeymen" in London to dwell apart from their masters "as they hold assemblies and have formed a kind of association." The masters and the nobility of the nation had always looked upon the toilers as a sort of chattel property belonging to them, and, of course, held sufficient influence with the law makers to control legislation in their favor. On the other hand, the workers had for so many centuries accepted these conditions and toiled on - 14, 15 and even i8 hours a day - caring little else than to serve their masters, that the next fifty years saw only isolated attempts at some sort of separate associations of workers. About the beginning of the next century, however, the masters were aroused to find many "friendly societies" and other organizations solely of journeymen being formed. Moreover, the trouble was not confined to London, and in 1538, we find the bishop of Ely reporting to Cromwell that "21 journeymen shoemakers have assembled on a hill without the town and sent three of their number to summon all the master shoemakers to meet them in order to insist upon an advance in wages, threatening that 'there shall none come into town to serve for that wages within a twelve month and a day, but we woll have an harme or legge of hym except they woll take an othe as we have doon'." ' !

Prior to 1700, however, no continuous association of wage earners existed for maintaining or improving the conditions of employment. The journeymen tailors formed what might be classed the first possible forerunner of the trades union, in England, by organizing a trade society about 1710 to 1720, and between that time and the close of the century a number of other societies of tradesmen were instituted, only to be exterminated later by the passage of the famous "general combination act" in 1799, which forbid any combinations of wage earners in the united kingdom.

Through the efforts of one Francis Place, a member of the common council, a broadminded man, whose sympathies extended to the toiling masses, though he himself was a man of some wealth, this unjust act was repealed in the early part of the nineteenth century and organizations of labor began once more to thrive throughout the kingdom.

The traditional history of the trades union movement represents the period prior to i8io as one of unmitigated persecution and continuous repression. Such unions as claimed an existence before that date possessed a romantic legend of its early days. The midnight meeting of patriots in the corner of the field, the buried box of records, the secret oath, the long terms of imprisonment of the leaders formed the base of many an interesting anecdote told later as the organizations gained strength throughout the land. Even as late as 1834 six Dorchester labor leaders were convicted for the mere act of administering an oath and sentenced to seven years' imprisonment, which action stirred the toilers to still greater demands for justice and the right to associate themselves together for protection. ..; ':

Early in 1829 the fact became self-evident that solidarity among the whole body of wage earners was essential against the combination of employers, and, following a disastrous six months' strike at Hyde, near Manchester, the spinners' societies of England, Scotland and Ireland were invited to send delegates to a conference to be held at Ramsey, in the Isle of Man, in the month of December, 1829. As the result of this conference a "grand general union of the United Kingdom" was established, subject to an annual delegate meeting. John Doherty was general secretary and Thomas Foster and Patrick McGowan were appointed to organize the spinners throughout the United Kingdom. The revenue of the grand union consisted of a tax of a penny a week per member.

In February, 1830, at Doherty 's instigation, a meeting was held at Manchester, consisting of delegates from twenty different organized trades, which resulted in the establishment five months later of the "National Association for the Protection of Labor," the expressed purpose of which was to resist reductions, but not to strike for advance.

About the time of the forming of this association the United Trades Cooperative Journal (a weekly paper devoted to the cause of labor) was launched in London, but was presently brought to an abrupt end by the commissioner of stamps, who insisted upon each copy bearing a four-penny stamp. In January, 1831, Francis Place (the toilers' friend) established a paper called the "Voice of the People," said later to have 30,000 circulation.

After two years' existence we hear no more of this national association, but a builders' union sprang up composed of seven distinct building trades, all separate, yet with centralized authority for defensive and aggressive purposes. This union sent strong demands for shorter hours and more pay to the employers, who got together and decided to refuse the demands. They publicly declared that henceforth no man need apply for work unless he was prepared to sign a formal renunciation of the trades union and all its works. In the very heat of the battle the annual convention of delegates was held at Manchester, lasting six days, at which it was decided to erect a central office building at Birmingham, to be known as "Builders' Guild hall." After a fair start the building was abandoned. The strike failed, as did also two other great strikes at Liverpool and Manchester, and many of the local unions were broken up, causing the disruption of the General Builders' union.

In 1833 Doherty began the agitation for an eight-hour workday, and new unions began to form with some rapidity, until in 1834 Robert Owen organized the "Grand National Consolidated Trade union," the real forerunner of the trades union of to-day.

To-day the British Trades Union congress, organized in 1868, and which corresponds in America to the American Federation of Labor, is the national head or federation of all the unions of the British Isles. Though not so large as the American Federation of Labor, it is a gigantic organization embracing 1,665,000 trades unionists. At the last convention, held at Newcastle-on-Tyne,

England, September 4th to 9th, 1911, there were 521 delegates, and the reports of the secretary showed an increase in membership of 14,418 during the previous year. Daniel J. Tobin and William McFarlane were fraternal delegates to that convention from the American Federation of Labor. The British Trades Union league is the federation of the women's unions and has affiliated about 280,000 women trades unionists. - .- , -,-...: ,;v --.. r'.

; ; The history of the movement in other European countries is very similar to that of England. All went through a period of severe oppression. But today Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, and even Hungary, Bulgaria, Roumania and others have their national federation, embracing almost the entire labor forces in their respective countries. - .'

,"; Then came a closer relationship of the toilers of the entire world, and a convention of national trades federations was formed. Beginning August loth, 1911, the seventh biennial international conference of representatives of national trades union centers was held at Budapest, Hungary. Twenty-seven delegates, representing eighteen nations, and two official interpreters (both union men, each of whom spoke three languages) composed the convention. Herr S. Jaszai of Hungary was chairman and J. Sassenback, representing Germany, was secretary. James Duncan, national secretary of the Granite Cutters of America and first vice-president of the American Federation of Labor, represented North America at the conference. The preceding conference (1909) was held at Paris, and an invitation has been extended to hold the 1915 meeting at San Francisco, when the Panama exposition will be on in that city.

Trades Unions In America

The birth of trades unionism in America occurred in the year 1803, when we find the New York Society of Journeymen Shipwrights was incorporated on April 3rd. The house carpenters of New York city soon followed, as did also a society of journeymen tailors, both of which were organized and incorporated in the year 1806. The aims of these unions at this early date were the shortening of the daily labor time and an increase in wages.

As time drew on the workingmen in other trades began to realize the benefits of organization, and many new unions were formed, not only in New York city, but in Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore and several others of the large cities of America. Then came the idea of a union of unions - the first form of federation in the United States - and in August, 1833, a "general trades union" was formed in New York, binding together in one federation all the local unions of the city. On December 2nd, 1833, occurred what had been advertised in one of the daily papers of New York as a procession of the "general trades union," taking part in which were the following local unions: Typographical union. Journeymen House Carpenters, Bookbinders, Leather Dress- ers, Coopers, Carvers and Gilders, Bakers, Cabinetmakers, Cordwainers, Tailors, Silk Hatters, Stonecutters, Tin Plate and Sheet Iron Workers, Typefounders, Hat Finishers, Willow Basket Makers, Chair Makers and Gilders, Sail Makers and Block and Pump Makers. The parade was an imposing one, with Robert Townsend, Jr., as grand marshal, following which an address was delivered by Ely Moore, who afterwards (during Jackson's administration) became the first labor representative in congress.

January 8, 1834, the General Trades union of Boston was formed, and about the same time a similar organization was instituted in Baltimore. Aside from a few of these large cities, nothing was done in the way of federation until about the close of the civil war.

The earliest federation of any form embracing larger districts than the city was the New England association of farmers, mechanics and laborers, whose first meeting was held in Boston, in 1832, though no records of this meeting are found. Subsequent meetings were held in 1833 and 1834, but after that date we lose all trace of the association. Eleven years later, however, another organization was formed in New England called the New England Workingmen's association. This was not a federation, but a larger association of the individual mechanics and working men of the New England states. Aside from its formation, little was ever heard from it. In the same year (1845) the first national industrial congress was held in New York, with representatives from the unions of all the large cities of the east. Annual meetings were held for the next four or five years, after which it drops entirely out of existence.

From about 1850 to the close of the civil war was a period of autonomous trade organizations on a national basis, while little energy was spent devising or perfecting federations of any kind. The International Typographical union was organized in 1850, the National Trade Association of Hat Finishers, in 1854, the Iron Molders Union of North America, in 1859, the machinists, blacksmiths. Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and scores of others from 1860 to '66.

In 1866 the central unions or trades assemblies of New York and Baltimore issued a call for a national labor congress, and on August 20, 1866, lOO delegates representing 6i labor organizations, met in Baltimore. These delegates came from international, national and local unions and city central bodies throughout the country. Political, industrial and social questions of every hue were brought forth and discussed. The "National Labor union" was formed as the result of this meeting and Chicago was selected as the place of holding the session the following year, at which time more than 200 delegates were in attendance. In 1868 two conventions were held, one in May, at Pittsburgh, and the other in September, at New York. This latter meeting was called principally to discuss the general movement for an 8-liour day. Nothing of special importance transpired at the conventions of 1869, '70 and '71, which met at Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia. At the convention of 1872, held in Columbus, the "National Labor union" felt called upon to enter politics and nominated David Davis, of Illinois, for president of the United States. This action, however, proved the undoing of the National union, for the locals, one by one, withdrew, and the "National Labor union" died out.

activity for support, went to the wall in the financial panic, and wages fell rapidly. An effort to revive the National Labor union at a meeting at Rochester, New York, April 4, 1874, showed no life, and another convention at Tyrone, Pennsyl-; vania, in 1875, met a like fate.

In 1878, however, there began a healthy growth of local unions, central bodies and even national organizations. In i88i a call was published emanating from the central and western states for a convention, which was held at Pittsburgh about the middle of November of that year. This convention was important as laying the foundation of the American Federation of Labor, and was organized with John Jarrett, president of the Amalgamated Association ' of Iron and Steel Workers, as chairman. One hundred and seven delegates were in attendance and an organization was formed to be known as the Federa-. tion of Organized Trades and Labor Unions of the United States and Canada. Samuel Gompers, now president of the A. F. of L., was a member of the first congressional committee ; and at the second convention, held at Qeveland, Ohio, in November, 1882, Mr. Gompers was chosen as president of the federation, which position he has retained ever since. The third meeting was held in New York, the fourth in Chicago, the fifth in Washington. At this fifth session, the tactics of the Knights of Labor, a secret society, organized in 1869, at Philadelphia, by a local union of clothing cutters, was severely criticised and condemned. At the next session, held in November, 1886, the title of American Federation of Labor was adopted and from which point the organization dates the beginning of an aggressive, firm, onward march until today its membership consists of 115 national and international unions, having jurisdiction over approximately 28,000 local unions, 493 local unions having no national heads, 631 city central bodies, 187 federal labor unions, and 38 state federations; representing in all an affiliated membership, September i, 1911, of 1,768,614 trades unionists; gaining 199,723 over the previous year. The four great railroad brotherhoods, the bricklayers and several other trades organizations are not affiliated with the A. F. of L., hence the 1,768,614 members represent but a part of the organized labor movement of America.

The officers of the American Federation of Labor consist of a president, eight vice-presidents, a secretary and a treasurer; all of whom constitute the executive council, empowered to transact official business when the convention is not in session. Samuel Gompers, a cigarmaker, is president; Frank Morrison, a member of Chicago Typographical union, is secretary; and John B. Lennon, a tailor of Bloomington, Illinois, is treasurer. Last year the receipts from all sources were $182,914.96, and the expenditures $175,524.08. The balance in the treasury, September 30, 1911, was $189,579.56. -'-!

The A. F. of L. is divided into departments embracing the building trades department, the metal trades department, the label trades department, and the railroad employes' department; each having a secretary to look after the affairs of his respective department. J ; Vi V-;^ -I - --r -->

As an idea of the extent of the use of the label, 48,234,136 garment workers' labels were used during the year ending September 30, 1911, while the bakery and confectionery workers used 548,210,590 labels during the same period and the cigarmakers, 27,795,900.

The inception and marvellous growth of the railroad brotherhoods above referred to - the engineers, firemen, trammen and conductors - forms an interesting part of the world's labor history.

In 1831 the first steam locomotive tested in the United States was given a tryout on a short road between Albany and Schenectady, in the state of New York, and in 1906, the first great electric high speed passenger engine was tested on almost the same historic ground.

Only a little more than thirty years after the first test, with the country well honeycombed with railroad lines, the few engineers who daily gathered about the little old dingy roundhouse at Marshall, Michigan, instituted a movement from which resulted the first organization of railway employes in America. W. D. Robinson was the leading spirit in the agitation for some sort of banding together for mutual benefit. Others agreed that they should get together somewhere and organize. Invitations were therefore extended a number of engineers ort other roads and a meeting was held at Detroit, Michigan, May 8, 1863, at which an order was founded known as the "Brotherhood of the Footboard." Mr. Robinson acted as chairman. He formulated the obligation and read it to the twelve engineers who had responded to the call, as they stood in a circle with joined hands. The rec6rds of this meeting contain the following:

; "It was motioned and carried that the $10.00 should be paid back to Mr. Robinson and Mr. Shephard which was their initiation fee, and the same has been done.

This was the starting of what today is Division No. i. Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers. A few days later Division No. 2, Brotherhood of the Footboard, was formed at Marshall, Michigan, and the next month the engineers at Galesburg founded a brotherhood in this city.

The name Brotherhood of the Footboard was changed to Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers in 1865. W. D. Robinson was the first grand chief engineer.

On the I4th of May, 1910, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers dedicated a magnificent, up-to-date, absolutely fireproof office and headquarters building in the city of Cleveland, Ohio. This building, erected and owned by the brotherhood, contains over 500 offices, with 132,000 square feet of fioor space, and has on the ground floor an auditorium seating about 1,400 people. It is 15 stories high, built of structural steel with outside walls of white stone and white glazed tile, and stands at the corner of Ontario and St. Clair streets, a magnificent monument to the rapid developments and achievements of organized labor.

Five years after the organization of the first Brotherhood of the Footboard, the conductors employed on the Amboy division of the Illinois Central and the Chicago division of the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy railroad met at Amboy,

The Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen was organized in 1874 at Port Jarvis, New York, and from this has grown the present continent-wide and powerful organization of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Firemen and Enginemen. - --'X. '--"'. / . -;

The Brotherhood of Railway Trainmen, now numbering many thousands, is the youngest of the train-service brotherhoods and was organized at Oneonta, New York, September 23rd, 1883.

The Switchmen's International union, the Order of Railroad Telegraphers, the Order of Railroad Station Agents, the Order of Railway Qerks and other kindred organizations have followed.

From a few miles of wooden track in 1830 the railroad business has grown so rapidly that to-day there are more than 325,000 miles of track in the United States and about 1,500,000 persons engaged in the industry, the greater portion of whom are members of the various brotherhoods. ,.-./. .

Galesburg Lodge No. 62, Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, has the distinction to-day of being the oldest labor organization in Knox county. Its charter, now hanging on the east wall of the Trades Assembly hall, bears the date January i7th, 1865, though its history dates back almost two years prior to that time. ,' ' ':