McLean County, Illinois - The whole text, 1879 (part 3 of 42)

Towns and cities were exported to the Eastern market by the shipload. There was no lack of buyers. Every up-ship came freighted with speculators and their money.

This distemper seized upon the Legislature in 1836-37, and left not one to tell the tale. They enacted a system of internal improvement without a parallel in the grandeur of its conception. They ordered the construction of 1,300 miles of railroad, crossing the State in all directions. This was surpassed by the river and canal improvements. There were a few counties not touched by either railroad or river or canal, and those were to be comforted and compensated by the free distribution of $200,000 among them. To inflate this balloon beyond credence it was ordered that work should be commenced on both ejids of each of these railroads and rivers, and at each river-crossing, all at the same time. The appropriations for these vast improvements were over $12,000,000, and commissioners were appointed to borrow the money on the credit of the State. Remember that all this was in the early days of railroading, when railroads were luxuries ; that the State had whole counties with scarcely a cabin ; and that the population of the State was less than 400,000, and you can form some idea of the vigor with which these brave men undertook the work of making a great State. In the light of history I am compelled to say that this was only a premature throb of the power that actually slumbered in the soil of the State. It was Hercules in the cradle.

At this juncture the State Bank loaned its funds largely to Godfrey Gilman & Co., and to other leading houses, for the purpose of drawing trade from St. Louis to Alton. Soon they failed, and took down the bank with them.

In 1840, all hope seemed gone. A population of 480,000 were loaded with a debt of $14,000,000. It had only six small cities, really only towns, namely : Chicago, Alton, Springfield, Quincy, Galena, Nauvoo. This debt was to be cared for when there was not a dollar in the treasury, and when the State had borrowed itself out of all credit, and when there was not good money enough in the hands of all the people to pay the interest of the debt for a single year. Yet, in the presence of all these difficulties, the young State steadily refused to repudiate. Gov. Ford took hold of the problem and solved it, bringing the State through in triumph.

Having touched lightly upon some of the more distinctive points in the history of the development of Illinois, let us next briefly consider the

Material Resources Of The State

It is a garden four hundred miles long and one hundred and fifty miles wide. Its soil is chiefly a black sandy loam, from six inches to sixty feet thick. On the American bottoms it has been cultivated for one hundred and fifty years without renewal. About the old French towns it has yielded corn for a century and a half without rest or help. It produces nearly everything green in the temperate and tropical zones. She leads all other States in the number of acres actually under plow. Her products from 25,000,000 of acres are incalculable. Her mineral wealth is scarcely second to her agricultural power. She has coal, iron, lead, copper, zinc, many varieties of building stone, fire clay, cuma clay, common brick clay, sand of all kinds, gravel, mineral paint - every thing needed for a high civilization. Left to herself, she has the elements of all greatness. The single item of coal is too vast for an appreciative handling in figures. We can handle it in general terms like algebraical signs, but long before we get up into the millions and billions the human mind drops down from comprehension to mere symbolic apprehension.

When I tell you that nearly four-fifths of the entire State is underlaid with a deposit of coal more than forty feet thick on the average (now estimated, by recent surveys, at seventy feet thick), you can get some idea of its amount, as you do of the amount of the national debt. There it is ! 41,000 square miles - one vast mine into which you could put any of the States ; in which you could bury scores of European and ancient empires, and have room enough all round to work without knowing that they had been sepulchered there.

Put this vast coal-bed down by the other great coal deposits of the world, and its importance becomes manifest. Great Britain has 12,000 square miles of coal; Spain, 3,000; France, 1,719; Belgium, 578; Illinois about twice as many square miles as all combined. Virginia has 20,000 square miles ; Pennsylvania, 16,000 ; Ohio, 12,000. Illinois has 41,000 square miles. One-seventh of all the known coal on this continent is in Illinois.

Could we sell the coal in this single State for one-seventh of one cent a ton it would pay the national debt. Converted into power, even with the wastage in our common engines, it would do more work than could be done by the entire race, beginning at Adam's wedding and working ten hours a day through all the centuries till the present time, and right on into the future at the same rate for the next 600,000 years.

Great Britain uses enough mechanical power to-day to give to each man, woman, and child in the kingdom the help and service of nineteen untiring servants. No wonder she has leisure and luxuries. No wonder the home of the common artisan has in it more luxuries than could be found in the palace of good old King Arthur. Think, if you can conceive of it, of the vast army of servants that slumber in the soil of Illinois, impatiently awaiting the call of Genius to come forth to minister to our comfort.

At the present rate of consumption England's coal supply will be exhausted in 250 years. When this is gone she must transfer her dominion either to the Indies, or to British America, which I would not resist ; or to some other people, which I would regret as a loss to civilization.

Coal Is King

At the same rate of consumption (which far exceeds our own) the deposit of coal in Illinois will last 120,000 years. And her kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom.

the State. We shall not be humiliated in this field. Here we strike the secret of our national credit. Nature provides a market in the constant appetite of the race. Men must eat, and if we can furnish the provisions we can command the treasure. All that a man hath will he give for his life.

According to the last census Illinois produced 30,000,000 of bushels of wheat. That is more wheat than was raised by any other State in the Union. She raised In 1875, 130,000,000 of bushels of corn - twice as much as any other State, and one-sixth of all the corn raised in the United States. She harvested 2,747,000 tons of hay, nearly one-tenth of all the hay in the Republic. It is not generally appreciated, but it is true, that the hay crop of the country is worth more than the cotton crop. The hay of Illinois equals the cotton of Louisiana. Go to Charleston, S. C, and see them peddling handfuls of hay or grass, almost as a curiosity, as we regard Chinese gods or the cryolite of Greenland ; drink your coffee and condensed milk ; and walk back from the coast for man}^ a league through the sand and burs till you get up into the better atmosphere of the mountains, without seeing a waving meadow or a grazing herd ; then you will begin to appreciate the meadows of the Prairie State, where the grass often grows sixteen feet high.

The value of her farm implements is $211,000,000, and the value of her live stock is only second to the great State of New York. in 1875 she had 25,000,000 hogs, and packed 2,113,845, about one-half of all that were packed in the United States. This is no insignificant item. Pork is a growing demand of the old world. Since the laborers of Europe have gotten a taste of our bacon, and we have learned how to pack it dry in boxes, like dry goods, the world has become the market.

The hog is on the march into the future. His nose is ordained to uncover the secrets of dominion, and his feet shall be guided by the star of empire.

Depth and richness of soil ; per cent, of good ground ; acres of improved land ; large farms - some farms contain from 40,000 to 60,000 acres of cultivated land, 40,000 acres of corn on a single farm ; number of farmers ; amount of wheat, corn, oats and honey produced ; value of animals for slaughter ; number of hogs ; amount of pork ; number of horses - three times as many as Kentucky, the horse State.

Illinois excels all other States in miles of railroads and in miles of postal service, and in money orders sold per annum, and in the amount of lumber sold in her markets.

Illinois is only second in many important matters. This sample list comprises a few of the more important : Permanent school fund (good for a young state) ; total income for educational purposes ; number of publishers of books, maps, papers, etc.; value of farm products and implements, and of live stock ; in tons of coal mined.

The shipping of Illinois is only second to New York. Out of one port during the business hours of the season of navigation she sends forth a vessel every ten minutes. This does not include canal boats, which go one every five minutes. No wonder she is only second in number of bankers and brokers or in physicians and surgeons.

She is fifth in value of real and personal property, in theological seminaries and colleges exclusively for women, in milk sold, and in boots and shoes manufactured, and in book-binding.

She is only seventh in the production of wood, while she is the twelfth in area. Surely that is well done for the Prairie State. She now has much more wood and growing timber than she had thirty years ago.

A few leading industries will justify emphasis. She manufactures $205,000,000 worth of goods, which places her well up toward New York and Pennsylvania. The number of her manufacturing establishments increased from 1860 to 1870, 300 per cent.; capital employed increased 350 per cent., and the amount of product increased 400 per cent. She issued 5,500,000 copies of commercial and financial newspapers - only second to New York. She has 6,759 miles of railroad, thus leading all other States, worth $636,458,000, using 3,245 engines, and 67,712 cars, making a train long enough to cover one-tenth of the entire roads of the State. Her stations are only five miles apart. She carried last year 15,795,000 'passengers, an average of 36£ miles, or equal to taking her entire population twice across the State. More than two-thirds of her land is within five miles of a railroad, and less than two per cent, is more than fifteen miles away.

The State has a large financial interest in the Illinois Central railroad. The road was incorporated in 1850, and the State gave each alternate section for six miles on each side, and doubled the price of the remaining land, so keeping herself good. The road received 2,595,000 acres of land, and pays to the State one-seventh of the gross receipts. The State receives this year $350,000, and has received in all about $7,000,000. It is practically the people's road, and it has a most able and gentlemanly management. Add to this the annual receipts from the canal, $111,000, and a large per cent, of the State tax is provided for.

The Religion And Morals

of the State keep step with her productions and growth. She was born of the missionary spirit. It was a minister who secured for her the ordinance of 1787, by which she has been saved from slavery, ignorance, and dishonesty. Rev. Mr. Wiley, pastor of a Scotch congregation in Randolph County, petitioned the Constitutional Convention of 1818 to recognize Jesus Christ as king, and the Scriptures as the only necessary guide and book of law. The convention did not act in the case, and the old Covenanters refused to accept citizenship. They never voted until 1824, when the slavei v question was submitted to the people; then they all voted against it and cast the determining votes. Conscience has predominated whenever a great moral question has been submitted to the people.

But little mob violence has ever been felt in the State. In 1817 regulators disposed of a band of horse-thieves that infested the territory. The Mormon indignities finally awoke the same spirit. Alton was also the scene of a pro-slavery mob, in which Lovejoy was added to the list of martyrs. The moral sense of the people makes the law supreme, and gives to the State unruffled peace.

With $22,300,000 in church property, and 4,298 church organizations, the State has that divine police, the sleepless patrol of moral ideas, that alone is able to secure perfect safety. Conscience takes the knife from the assassin's hand and the bludgeon from the grasp of the highwayman. We sleep in safety, not because we are behind bolts and bars - these only fence against the innocent ; not because a lone officer drowses on a distant corner of a street; not because a sheriff may call his posse from a remote part of the county ; but because conscience guards the very portals of the air and stirs in the deepest recesses of the public mind. This spirit issues within the State 9,500,000 copies of religious papers annually, and receives still more from without. Thus the crime of the State is only one-fourth that of New York and one-half that of Pennsylvania.

Illinois never had but one duel between her own citizens. In Belleville, in 1820, Alphonso Stewart and William Bennett arranged to vindicate injured honor. The seconds agreed to make it a sham, and make them shoot blanks. Stewart was in the secret. Bennett mistrusted something, and, unobserved, slipped a bullet into his gun and killed Stewart. He then fled the State. After two years he was caught, tried, convicted, and, in spite of friends and political aid, was hung. This fixed the code of honor on a Christian basis, and terminated its use in Illinois.

The early preachers were ignorant men, who were accounted eloquent according to the strength of their voices. But they set the style for all public speakers. Lawyers and political speakers followed this rule. Gov.

Ford says: "Nevertheless, these first preachers were of incalculable benefit to the country. They inculcated justice and morality. To them are we indebted for the first Christian character of the Protestant portion of the people."

In education Illinois surpasses her material resources. The ordinance of 1787 consecrated one thirty-sixth of her soil to common schools, and the law of 1818, the first law that went upon her statutes, gave three per cent, of all the rest to

Education

The old compact secures this interest forever, and by its yoking morality and intelligence it precludes the legal interference with the Bible in the public schools. With such a start it is natural that we should have 11,050 schools, and that our illiteracy should be less than New York or Pennsylvania, and only about one-half of Massachusetts. We are not to blame for not having more than one-half as many idiots as the great States. These public schools soon made colleges inevitable. The first college, still flourishing, was started in Lebanon in 1828, by the M. E. church, and named after Bishop McKendree. Illinois College, at Jacksonville, supported by the Presbyterians, followed in 1830. In 1832 the Baptists built Shurtleff College, at Alton. Then the Presbyterians built Knox College, at Galesburg, in 1838, and the Episcopalians built Jubilee College, at Peoria, in 1847. After these early years colleges have rained down. A settler could hardly encamp on the prairie but a college would spring up by his wagon. The State now has one very well endowed and equipped university, namely, the Northwestern University, at Evanston, with six colleges, ninety instructors, over 1,000 students, and $1,500,000 endowment.

Rev. J. M. Peck was the first educated Protestant minister in tne State. He settled at Rock Spring, in St. Clair County, 1820, and left his impress on the State. Before 1837 only party papers were published, but Mr. Peck published a Gazetteer of Illinois. Soon after John Russell, of Bluffdale, published essays and tales showing genius. Judge James Hall published The Illinois Monthly Magazine with great ability, and an annual called The Western Souvenir, which gave him an enviable fame all over the United States. From these beginnings Illinois has gone on till she has more volumes in public libpalrles even than Massachusetts, and of the 44,500,000 volumes in all the public libraries of the United States, she has one-thirteenth. In newspapers she stands fourth. Her increase is marvelous. In 1850 she issued 5,000,000 copies; in 1860, 27,590,000 ; in 1870, 113,140,000. In 1860 she had eighteen colleges and seminaries ; in 1870 she had eighty. That is a grand advance for the war decade.

The War Record Of Illinois

I hardly know where to begin, or how to advance, or what to say. I can at best give you only a broken synopsis of her deeds, and you must put them in the order of glory for yourself. Her sons have always been foremost on fields of danger. In 1832-33, at the call of Gov. Reynolds, her sons drove Blackhawk over the Mississippi.

When the Mexican war came, in May, 1846, 8,370 men offered themselves when only 3,720 could be accepted. The fields of Buena Vista and Vera Cruz, and the storming of Cerro Gordo, will carry the glory of Illinois soldiers along after the infamy of the cause they served has been forgotten. But it was reserved till our day for her sons to find a field and cause and foemen that could fitly illustrate their spirit and heroism. Illinois put into her own regiments for the United States government 256,000 men, and into the army through other States enough to swell the number to 290,000. This far exceeds all the soldiers of the federal government in all the war of the revolution. Her total years of service were over 600,000. She enrolled men from eighteen to forty-five years of age when the law of Congress in 1864 - the test time - only asked for those from twenty to forty-five. Her enrollment was otherwise excessive. Her people wanted to go, and did not take the pains to correct the enrollment. Thus the basis of fixing the quota was too great, and then the quota itself, at least in the trying time, was far above any other State.

Thus the demand on some counties, as Monroe, for example, took every able-bodied man in the county, and then did not have enough to fill the quota. Moreover, Illinois sent 20,844 men for ninety or one hundred days, for whom no credit was asked. When Mr. Lincoln's attention was called to the inequality of the quota compared with other States, he replied, " The country needs the sacrifice. We must put the whip on the free horse." In spite of all these disadvantages Illinois gave to the country 73,000 years of service above all calls. With one-thirteenth of the population of the loyal States, she sent regularly one-tenth of all the soldiers, and in the peril of the closing calls, when patriots were few and weary, she then sent one-eighth of all that were called for by her loved and honored son in the white house. Her mothers and daughters went into the fields to raise the grain and keep the children together, while the fathers and older sons went to the harvest fields of the world. I knew a father and four sons who agreed that one of them must stay at home ; and they pulled straws from a stack to see who might go. The father was left. The next day he came into the camp, saying : " Mother says she can get the crops in, and I am going, too." I know large Methodist churches from which every male member went to the army. Do you want to know what these heroes from Illinois did in the field ? Ask any soldier with a good record of his own, who is thus able to judge, and he will tell you that the Illinois men went in to win. It is common history that the greater victories were won in the West. When everything else looked dark Illinois was gaining victories all down the river, and dividing the confederacy. Sherman took with him on his great march forty-five regiments of Illinois infantry, three companies of artillery, and one company of cavalry. He could not avoid

Going To The Sea

If he had been killed, I doubt not the men would have gone right on. Lincoln answered all rumors of Sherman's defeat with, " It is impossible ; there is a mighty sight of fight in 100,000 Western men." Illinois soldiers brought home 300 battle-flags. The first United States flag that floated over Richmond was an Illinois flag. She sent messengers and nurses to every field and hospital, to care for her sick and wounded sons. She said, *- These suffering ones are my sons, and I will care for them."

When individuals had given all, then cities and towns came forward with their credit to the extent of many millions, to aid these men and their families.

Illinois gave the country the great general of the war - Ulysses S. Grant - since honored with two terms of the Presidency of the United States.

One other name from Illinois comes up in all minds, embalmed in all hearts, that must have the supreme place in this story of our glory and of our nation's honor ; that name is Abraham Lincoln, of Illinois.

In this age we look with admiration at his uncompromising honesty. And well we may, for this saved us. Thousands throughout the length and breadth of our country who knew him only as " Honest Old Abe," voted for him on that account ; and wisely did they choose, for no other man could have carried us through the fearful night of the war. When his plans were too vast for our comprehension, and his faith in the cause too sublime for our participation ; when it was all night about us, and all dread before us, and all sad and desolate behind us; when not one ray shone upon our cause ; when traitors were haughty and exultant at the South, and fierce and blasphemous at the North ; when the loyal men hei e seemed almost in the minority ; when the stoutest heart quailed, the bravest cheek paled ; when generals were defeating each other for place, and contractors were leeching out the very heart's blood of the prostrate republic : when every thing else had failed us, we looked at this calm, patient man standing like a rock in the storm, and said : " Mr. Lincoln is honest, and we can trust him still." Holding to this single point with the energy of faith and despair we held together, and, under God, he brought us through to victory.

His practical wisdom made him the wonder of all lands. With such certainty did Mr. Lincoln follow causes to their ultimate effects, that his foresight of contingencies seemed almost prophetic.

He is radiant with all the great virtues, and his memory shall shed a glory upon this age that shall fill the eyes of men as they look into history. Other men have excelled him in some point, but, taken at all points, all in all, he stands head and shoulders above every other man of 6,000 years. An administrator, he saved the nation in the perils of unparalleled civil war. A statesman, he justified his measures by their success. A philanthropist, he gave liberty to one race and salvation to another. A moralist, he bowed from the summit of human power to the foot of the Cross, and became a Christian. A mediator, he exercised mercy under the most absolute abeyance to law. A leader, he was no partisan. A commander, he was untainted with blood. A ruler in desperate times, he was unsullied with crime. A man, he has left no word of passion, no thought of malice, no trick of craft, no act of jealousy, no purpose of selfish ambition. Thus perfected, without a model, and without a peer, he was dropped into these troubled years to adorn and embellish all that is good and all that is great in our humanity, and to present to all coming time the representative of the divine idea of free government.

It is not too much to say that away down in the future, when the republic has fallen from its niche in the wall of time ; when the great war itself shall have faded out in the distance like a mist on the horizon ; when the Anglo-Saxon language shall be spoken only by the tongue of the stranger ; then the generations looking this way shall see the great president as the supreme figure in this vortex of historv

It is impossible in our brief space to give more than a meager sketch of such a city as Chicago, which is in itself the greatest marvel of the Prairie State. This mysterious, majestic, mighty city, born first of water, and next of fire ; sown in weakness, and raised in power ; planted among the willows of the marsh, and crowned with the glory of the mountains ; sleeping on the bosom of the prairie, and rocked on the bosom of the sea , the youngest city of the world, and still the eye of the prairie, as Damascus, the oldest city of the world, is the eye of the desert. With a commerce far exceeding that of Corinth on her isthmus, in the highway to the East ; with the defenses of a continent piled around her by the thousand miles, making her far safer than Rome on the banks of the Tiber ; with schools eclipsing Alexandria and Athens ; with liberties more conspicuous than those of the old republics ; with a heroism equal to the first Carthage, and with a sanctity scarcely second to that of Jerusalem - set your thoughts on all this, lifted into the eyes of all men by the miracle of its growth, illuminated by the flame of its fall, and transfigured by the divinity of its resurrection, and you will feel, as I do, the utter impossibility of compassing this subject as it deserves. Some impression of her importance is received from the shock her burning gave to the civilized world.

.When the doubt of her calamity was removed, and the horrid fact was accepted, there went a shudder over all cities, and a quiver over all lands. There was scarcely a town in the civilized world that did not shake on the brink of this opening chasm. The flames of our homes red- - dened all skies. The city was set upon a hill, and could not be hid. AK eyes were turned upon it. To have struggled and suffered amid the scenes of its fall is as distinguishing as to have fought at Thermopylae, or Salamis, or Hastings, or Waterloo, or Bunker Hill.

The early history of the city is full of interest, just as the early history of such a man as Washington or Lincoln becomes public property, and is cherished by every patriot.

Starting with 560 acres in 1833, it embraced and occupied 23,000 acres in 1869, and, having now a population of more than 500,000, it commands general attention.

The first settler - Jean Baptiste Pointe au Sable, a mulatto from the West Indies - came and began trade with the Indians in 1796. John Kinzie became his successor in 1804, in which year Fort Dearborn was erected.

A mere trading-post was kept here from that time till about the time of the Blackhawk war, in 1832. It was not the city. It was merely a cock crowing at midnight. The morning was not yet. In 1833 the settlement about the fort was incorporated as a town. The voters were divided on the propriety of such corporation, twelve voting for it and one against it. Four years later it was incorporated as a city, and embraced 560 acres.

The produce handled in this city is an indication of its power. Grain and flour were imported from the East till as late as 1837. The first exportation by way of experiment was in 1839. Exports exceeded imports first in 1842. The Board of Trade was organized in 1848, but it was so weak that it needed nursing till 1855. Grain was purchased by the wagon-load in the street.

line of wagons along Lake street, while the buyers came and untied the bags, and examined the grain, and made their bids. That manner of business had to cease with the day of small things. Now our elevators will hold 15,000,000 bushels of grain. The cash value of the produce handled in a year is $215,000,000, and the produce weighs 7,000,000 tons or 700,000 car loads. This handles thirteen and a half ton each minute, all the year round. One tenth of all the wheat in the United States is handled in Chicago. Even as long ago as 1853 the receipts of grain in Chicago exceeded those of the goodly city of St. Louis, and in 1854 the exports of grain from Chicago exceeded those of New York and doubled those of St. Petersburg, Archangel, or Odessa, the largest grain markets in Europe.

The manufacturing interests of the city are not contemptible. In 1873 manufactories employed 45,000 operatives ; in 1876, 60,000. The manufactured product in 1875 was worth $177,000,000.

No estimate of the size and power of Chicago would be adequate that did not put large emphasis on the railroads. Before they came thundering along our streets canals were the hope of our country. But who ever thinks now of traveling by canal packets ? In June, 1852, there were only forty miles of railroad connected with the city. The old Galena division of the Northwestern ran out to Elgin. But now, who can count the trains and measure the roads that seek a terminus or connection in this city? The lake stretches away to the north, gathering in to this center all the harvests that might otherwise pass to the north of us. If you will take a map and look at the adjustment of railroads, you will see, first, that Chicago is the great railroad center of the world, as New York is the commercial city of this continent ; and, second, that the railroad lines form the iron spokes of a great wheel whose hub is this city. The lake furnishes the only break in the spokes, and this seems simply to have pushed a few spokes together on each shore. See the eighteen trunk lines, exclusive of eastern connections.

Pass round the circle, and view their numbers and extent. There is the great Northwestern, with all its branches, one branch creeping along the lake shore, and so reaching to the north, into the Lake Superior regions, away to the right, and on to the Northern Pacific on the left, swinging around Green Bay for iron and copper and silver, twelve months in the year, and reaching out for the wealth of the great agricultural belt and isothermal line traversed by the Northern Pacific. Another branch, not so far north, feeling for the heart of the Badger State. Another pushing lower down the Mississippi - all these make many connections, and tapping all the vast wheat regions of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and all the regions this side of sunset. There is that elegant road, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, running out a goodly number of branches, and reaping the great fields this side of the Missouri River. I can only mention the Chicago, Alton & St. Louis, our Illinois Central, described elsewhere, and the Chicago & Rock Island. Further around we come to the lines connecting us with all the eastern cities. The Chicago, Indianapolis & St. Louis, the Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne & Chicago, the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, and the Michigan Central and Great Western, give us many highways to the seaboard. Thus we reach the Mississippi at five points, from St. Paul to Cairo and the Gulf itself by two routes. We also reach Cincinnati and Baltimore, and Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, and New York. North and south run the water courses of the lakes and the rivers, broken just enough at this point to make a pass. Through this, from east to west, run the long lines that stretch from ocean to ocean.

This is the neck of the glass, and the golden sands of commerce must pass into our hands. Altogether we have more than 10,000 miles of railroad, directly tributary to this city, seeking to unload their wealth in our coffers. All these roads have come themselves by the infallible instinct of capital. Not a dollar was ever given by the city to secure one of them, and only a small per cent, of stock taken originally by her citizens, and that taken simply as an investment. Coming in the natural order of events, they will not be easily diverted.

There is still another showing to all this. The connection between New York and San Francisco is by the middle route. This passes inevitably through Chicago. St. Louis wants the Southern Pacific or Kansas Pacific, and pushes it out through Denver, and so on up to Cheyenne. But before the road is fairly under way, the Chicago roads shove out to Kansas City, making even the Kansas Pacific a feeder, and actually leaving St. Louis out in the cold. It is not too much to expect that Dakota, Montana, and Washington Territory will find their great market in Chicago.

But these are not all. Perhaps I had better notice here the ten or fifteen new roads that have just entered, or are just entering, our city. Their names are all that is necessary to give. Chicago & St. Paul, looking up the Red River country to the British possessions ; the Chicago, Atlantic & Pacific ; the Chicago, Decatur & State Line ; the Baltimore & Ohio; the Chicago, Danville & Vincennes; the Chicago & LaSalle Railroad ; the Chicago, Pittsburgh & Cincinnati ; the Chicago and Canada Southern ; the Chicago and Illinois River Railroad. These, with their connections, and with the new connections of the old roads, already in process of erection, give to Chicago not less than 10,000 miles of new tributaries from the richest land on the continent. Thus there will be added to the reserve power, to the capital within reach of this city, not less than 81,000,000,000.

Add to all this transporting power the ships that sail one every nine minutes of the business hours of the season of navigation ; add, also, the canal boats that leave one every five minutes during the same time - and you will see something of the business of the city.

The Commerce Of This City

has been leaping along to keep pace with the growth of the country around us. In 1852, our commerce reached the hopeful sum of 620,000,000. In 1870 it reached $400,000,000. In 1871 it was pushed up above $450,000,000. And in 1875 it touched nearly double that.

One-half of our imported goods come directly to Chicago. Grain enough is exported directly from our docks to the old world to employ a semi-weekly line of steamers of 3,000 tons capacity. This branch is not likely to be greatly developed. Even after the great Welland Canal is completed we shall have only fourteen feet of water. The great ocean vessels will continue to control the trade.

The schools of Chicago are unsurpassed in America. Out of a population of 300,000 there were only 186 persons between the ages of six and twenty-one unable to read. This is the best known record.

In 1831 the mail system was condensed into a half-breed, who went on foot to Niles, Mich., once in two weeks, and brought back what papers and news he could find. As late as 1846 there was often only one mail a week. A post-office was established in Chicago in 1833, and the postmaster nailed up old boot-legs on one side of his shop to serve as boxes for the nabobs and literary men.

It is an interesting fact in the growth of the young city that in the active life of the business men of that day the mail matter has grown to a daily average of over 6,500 pounds. It speaks equally well for the intelligence of the people and the commercial importance of the place, that the mail matter distributed to the territory immediately tributary to Chicago is seven times greater than that distributed to the territory immediately tributary to St. Louis.

The improvements that have characterized the city are as startling as the city itself. In 1831, Mark Beaubien established a ferry over the river, and put himself under bonds to carry all the citizens free for the privilege of charging strangers. Now there are twenty-four large bridges and two tunnels.

of the world's curiosities. It used to wind around in the lower end of the town, and make its way rippling over the sand into the lake at the foot of Madison street. They took it up and put it down where it now is. It was a narrow stream, so narrow that even moderately small crafts had to go up through the willows and cat's tails to the point near Lake street bridge, and back up one of the branches to get room enough in which to turn around.

In 1844 the quagmires in the streets were first pontooned by plank roads, which acted in wet weather as public squirt-guns. Keeping you out of the mud, they compromised by squirting the mud over you. The wooden-block pavements came to Chicago in 1857. In 1840 water was delivered by peddlers in carts or by hand. Then a twenty-five horsepower engine pushed it through hollow or bored logs along the streets till 1854, when it was introduced into the houses by new works. The first fire-engine was used in 1835, and the first steam fire-engine in 1859. Gas was utilized for lighting the city in 1850. The Young Men's Christian Association was organized in 1858, and horse railroads carried them to their work in 1859. The museum was opened in 1863. The alarm telegraph adopted in 1864. The opera-house built in 1865. The city grew from 560 acres in 1833 to 23,000 in 1869. In 1834, the taxes amounted to $48.90, and the trustees of the town borrowed $60 more for opening and improving streets. In 1835, the legislature authorized a loan of $2,000, and the treasurer and street commissioners resigned rather than plunge the town into such a gulf.

Now the city embraces 36 square miles of territory, and has 30 miles of water front, besides the outside harbor of refuge, of 400 acres, inclosed by a crib sea-wall. One-third of the city has been raised up an average of eight feet, giving good pitch to the 263 miles of sewerage. The water of the city is above all competition. It is received through two tunnels extending to a crib in the lake two miles from shore. The closest analysis fails to detect any impurities, and, received 35 feet below the surface, it is always clear and cold. The first tunnel is five feet two inches in diameter and two miles long, and can deliver 50,000,000 of gallons per day. The second tunnel is seven feet in diameter and six miles long, running four miles under the city, and can deliver 100,000,000 of gallons per day. This water is distributed through 410 miles of watermains.

The three grand engineering exploits of the city are : First, lifting the city up on jack-screws, whole squares at a time, without interrupting the business, thus giving us good drainage ; second, running the tunnels under the lake, giving us the best water in the world ; and third, the turning the current of the river in its own channel, delivering us from the old abominations, and making decency possible. They redound about

That which really constitutes the city, its indescribable spirit, its soul, the way it lights up in every feature in the hour of action, has not been touched. In meeting strangers, one is often surprised how some homely women marry so well. Their forms are bad, their gait uneven and awkward, their complexion is dull, their features are misshapen and mismatched, and when we see them there is no beauty that we should desire them. But when once they are aroused on some subject, they put on new proportions. They light up into great power. The real person comes out from its unseemly ambush, and captures us at will. They have power. They have ability to cause things to come to pass. We no longer wonder why they are in such high demand. So it is with our city.

There is no grand scenery except the two seas, one of water, the other of prairie. Nevertheless, there is a spirit about it, a push, a breadth, a power, that soon makes it a place never to be forsaken. One soon ceases to believe in impossibilities. Balaams are the only prophets that are disappointed. The bottom that has been on the point of falling out has been there so long that it has grown fast. It can not fall out. It has all the capital of the world itching to get inside the corporation.

The two great laws that govern the growth and size of cities are, first, the amount of territory for which they are the distributing and receiving points ; second, the number of medium or moderate dealers that do this distributing. Monopolists build up themselves, not the cities. They neither eat, wear, nor live in proportion to their business. Both these laws help Chicago.

The tide of trade is eastward - not up or down the map, but across the map. The lake runs up a wingdam for 500 miles to gather in the business. Commerce can not ferry up there for seven months in the year, and the facilities for seven months can do the work for twelve. Then the great region west of us is nearly all good, productive land. Dropping south into the trail of St. Louis, you fall into vast deserts and rocky districts, useful in holding the world together. St. Louis and Cincinnati, instead of rivaling and hurting Chicago, are her greatest sureties of dominion. They are far enough away to give sea-room, - farther off than Paris is from London, - and yet they are near enough to prevent the springing up of any other great city between them.

St. Louis will be helped by the opening of the Mississippi, but also hurt. That will put New Orleans on her feet, and with a railroad running over into Texas and so West, she will tap the streams that now crawl up the Texas and Missouri road. The current is East, not North, and a seaport at New Orleans can not permanently help St. Louis.

fourth of the territory of this great republic. This strip of seacoast divides its margins between Portland, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Savannah, or some other great port to be created for the South in the next decade. But Chicago has a dozen empires casting their treasures into her lap. On a bed of coal that can run all the machinery of the world for 500 centuries ; in a garden that can feed the race by the thousand years; at the head of the lakes that give her a temperature as a summer resort equaled by no great city in the land ; with a climate that insures the health of her citizens ; surrounded by all the great deposits of natural wealth in mines aud forests and herds, Chicago is the wonder of to-day, and will be the city of the . future.

Massacre At Port Dearborn

During the war of 1812, Fort Dearborn became the theater of stirring events. The garrison consisted of fifty-four men under command of Captain Nathan Heald, assisted by Lieutenant Helm (son-in-law of Mrs. Kinzie) and Ensign Ronan. Dr. Voorhees was surgeon. The only residents at the post at that time were the wives of Captain Heald and Lieutenant Helm, and a few of the soldiers, Mr. Kinzie and his family, and a few Canadian voyageurs, with their wives and children. The soldiers and Mr. Kinzie were on most friendly terms with the Pottawattamies and Winnebagos, the principal tribes around them, but they could not win them from their attachment to the British.

One evening in April, 1812, Mr. Kinzie sat playing on his violin and his children were dancing to the music, when Mrs. Kinzie came rushing into the house, pale with terror, and exclaiming : " The Indians ! the Indians!" "What? Where?" eagerly inquired Mr. Kinzie. "Up at Lee's, killing and scalping," answered the frightened mother, who, when the alarm was given, was attending Mrs. Barnes (just confined) living not far off. Mr. Kinzie and his family crossed the river and took refuge in the fort, to which place Mrs. Barnes and her infant not a day old were safely conveyed. The rest of the inhabitants took shelter in the fort. This alarm was caused by a scalping party of Winnebagos, who hovered about the fort several days, when they disappeared, and for several weeks the inhabitants were undisturbed.

On the 7th of August, 1812, General Hull, at Detroit, sent orders to Captain Heald to evacuate Fort Dearborn, and to distribute all the United States property to the Indians in the neighborhood - a most insane order. The Pottawattamie chief, who brought the dispatch, had more wisdom than the commanding general. He advised Captain Heald not to make the distribution. Said he : " Leave the fort and stores as they are, and let the Indians make distribution for themselves; and while they are engaged in the business, the white people may escape to Fort Wayne."

That which really constitutes the city, its indescribable spirit, its soul, the way it lights up in every feature in the hour of action, has not been touched. In meeting strangers, one is often surprised how some homely women marry so well. Their forms are bad, their gait uneven and awkward, their complexion is dull, their features are misshapen and mismatched, and when we see them there is no beauty that we should desire them. But when once they are aroused on some subject, they put on new proportions. They light up into great power. The real person comes out from its unseemly ambush, and captures us at will. They have power. They have ability to cause things to come to pass. We no longer wonder why they are in such high demand. So it is with our city.

There is no grand scenery except the two seas, one of water, the other of prairie. Nevertheless, there is a spirit about it, a push, a breadth, a power, that soon makes it a place never to be forsaken. One soon ceases to believe in impossibilities. Balaams are the only prophets that are disappointed. The bottom that has been on the point of falling out has been there so long that it has grown fast. It can not fall out. It has all the capital of the world itching to get inside the corporation.

The two great laws that govern the growth and size of cities are, first, the amount of territory for which they are the distributing and receiving points ; second, the number of medium or moderate dealers that do this distributing. Monopolists build up themselves, not the cities. They neither eat, wear, nor live in proportion to their business. Both these laws help Chicago.

The tide of trade is eastward - not up or down the map, but across the map. The lake runs up a wingdam for 500 miles to gather in the business. Commerce can not ferry up there for seven months in the year, and the facilities for seven months can do the work for twelve. Then the great region west of us is nearly all good, productive land. Dropping south into the trail of St. Louis, you fall into vast deserts and rocky districts, useful in holding the world together. St. Louis and Cincinnati, instead of rivaling and hurting Chicago, are her greatest sureties of dominion. They are far enough away to give sea-room, - farther off than Paris is from London, - and yet they are near enough to prevent the springing up of any other great city between them.

St. Louis will be helped by the opening of the Mississippi, but also hurt. That will put New Orleans on her feet, and with a railroad running over into Texas and so West, she will tap the streams that now crawl up the Texas and Missouri road. The current is East, not North, and a seaport at New Orleans can not permanently help St. Louis.

fourth of the territory of this great republic. This strip of seacoast divides its margins between Portland, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Savannah, or some other great port to be created for the South in the next decade. But Chicago has a dozen empires casting their treasures into her lap. On a bed of coal that can run all the machinery of the world for 500 centuries ; in a garden that can feed the race by the thousand years ; at the head of the lakes that give her a temperature as a summer resort equaled by no great city in the land ; with a climate that insures the health of her citizens ; surrounded by all the great deposits of natural wealth in mines aud forests and herds, Chicago is the wonder of to-day, and will be the city of the . future.

Massacre At Fort Dearborn

During the war of 1812, Fort Dearborn became the theater of stirring events. The garrison consisted of fifty-four men under command of Captain Nathan Heald, assisted by Lieutenant Helm (son-in-law of Mrs. Kinzie) and Ensign Ronan. Dr. Voorhees was surgeon. The only residents at the post at that time were the wives of Captain Heald and Lieutenant Helm, and a few of the soldiers, Mr. Kinzie and his family, and a few Canadian voyageurs, with their wives and children. The soldiers and Mr. Kinzie were on most friendly terms with the Pottawattamies and Winnebagos, the principal tribes around them, but they could not win them from their attachment to the British.

One evening in April, 1812, Mr. Kinzie sat playing on his violin and his children were dancing to the music, when Mrs. Kinzie came rushing into the house, pale with terror, and exclaiming: "The Indians! the Indians!" "What? Where?" eagerly inquired Mr. Kinzie. "Up at Lee's, killing and scalping," answered the frightened mother, who, when the alarm was given, was attending Mrs. Barnes (just confined) living not far off. Mr. Kinzie and his family crossed the river and took refuge in the fort, to which place Mrs. Barnes and her infant not a day old were safely conveyed. The rest of the inhabitants took shelter in the fort. This alarm was caused by a scalping party of Winnebagos, who hovered about the fort several days, when they disappeared, and for several weeks the inhabitants were undisturbed.

On the 7th of August, 1812, General Hull, at Detroit, sent orders to Captain Heald to evacuate Fort Dearborn, and to distribute all the United States property to the Indians in the neighborhood - a most insane order. The Pottawattamie chief, who brought the dispatch, had more wisdom than the commanding general. He advised Captain Heald not to make the distribution. Said he : " Leave the fort and stores as they are, and let the Indians make distribution for themselves; and while they are engaged in the business, the white people may escape to Fort Wayne."

seized the savage round the neck with her arms and endeavored to get hold of his scalping knife, which hung in a sheath at his breast. While she was thus struggling she was dragged from her antagonist by anothei powerful Indian, who bore her, in spite of her struggles, to the margin of the lake and plunged her in. To her astonishment she was held by him so that she would not drown, and she soon perceived that she was in the hands of the friendly Black Partridge, who had saved her life.

The wife of Sergeant Holt, a large and powerful woman, behaved as bravely as an Amazon. She rode a fine, high-spirited horse, which the Indians coveted, and several of them attacked her with the butts of their guns, for the purpose of dismounting her ; but she used the sword which she had snatched from her disabled husband so skillfully that she foiled them ; and, suddenly wheeling her horse, she dashed over the prairie, followed by the savages shouting, " The brave woman ! the brave woman ! Don't hurt her ! " They finally overtook her, and while she was fighting them in front, a powerful savage came up behind her, seized her by the neck and dragged her to the ground. Horse and woman were made captives. Mrs. Holt was a long time a captive among the Indians, but was afterwards ransomed.

In this sharp conflict two-thirds of the white people were slain and wounded, and all their horses, baggage and provision were lost. Only twenty-eight straggling men now remained to fight five hundred Indians rendered furious bjr the sight of blood. They succeeded in breaking through the ranks of the murderers and gaining a slight eminence on the prairie near the Oak Woods. The Indians did not pursue, but gathered on their flanks, while the chiefs held a consultation on the sand-hills, and showed signs of willingness to parley. It would have been madness on the part of the whites to renew the fight ; and so Capt. Heald went forward and met Blackbird on the open prairie, where terms of surrender were soon agreed upon. It was arranged that the white people should give up their arms to Blackbird, and that the survivors should become prisoners of war, to be exchanged for ransoms as soon as practicable. With this understanding captives and captors started for the Indian camp near the fort, to which Mrs. Helm had been taken bleeding and suffering by Black Partridge, and had met her step-father and learned that her husband was safe.

A new scene of horror was now opened at the Indian camp. The wounded, not being included in the terms of surrender, as it was interpreted by the Indians, and the British general, Proctor, having offered a liberal bounty for American scalps, delivered at Maiden, nearly all the wounded men were killed and scalped, and the price of the trophies was afterwards paid by the British government.

This celebrated Indian chief, whose portrait appears in this work, deserves more than a passing notice. Although Shabbona was not so conspicuous as Tecumseh or Black Hawk, yet in point of merit he was superior to either of them.

Shabbona was born at an Indian village on the Kankakee River, now in Will County, about the year 1775. While young he was made chief of the band, and went to Shabbona Grove, now DeKalb County, where they were found in the early settlement of the county.

aid to that great chief, and stood by his side when he fell at the battle of the Thames. At the time of the Winnebago war, in 1827, he visited almost every village among the Pottawatomies, and by his persuasive arguments prevented them from taking part in the war. By request of the citizens of Chicago, Shabbona, accompanied by Billy Caldwell (Sauganash), visited Big Foot's village at Geneva Lake, in order to pacify the warriors, as fears were entertained that they were about to raise the tomahawk against the whites. Here Shabbona was taken prisoner by Big Foot, and his life threatened, but on the following day was set at liberty. From that time the Indians (through reproach) styled him " the white man's friend,'* and many times his life was endangered.

Before the Black Hawk war, Shabbona met in council at two different times, and by his influence prevented his people from taking part with the Sacs and Foxes. After the death of Black Partridge and Senachwine, no chief among the Pottawatomies exerted so much influence as Shabbona. Black Hawk, aware of this influence, visited him at two different times, in order to enlist him in his cause, but was unsuccessful. While Black Hawk was a prisoner at Jefferson Barracks, he said, had it not been for Shabbona the whole Pottawatomie nation would have joined his standard, and he could have continued the war for years.

To Shabbona many of the early settlers of Illinois owe the preservation of their lives, for it is a well-known fact, had he not notified the people of their danger, a large portion of them would have fallen victims to the tomahawk of savages. By saving the lives of whites he endangered his own, for the Sacs and Foxes threatened to kill him, and made two attempts to execute their threats. They killed Pypeogee, his son, and Pyps, his nephew, and hunted him down as though he was a wild beast.

Shabbona had a reservation of two sections of land at his Grove, but by leaving it and going west for a short time, the Government declared the reservation forfeited, and sold it the same as other vacant land. On Shabbona's return, and finding his possessions gone, he was very sad and broken down in spirit, and left the Grove for ever. The citizens of Ottawa raised money and bought him a tract of land on the Illinois River, above Seneca, in Grundy County, on which they built a house, and supplied him with means to live on. He lived here until his death, which occurred on the 17th of July, 1859, in the eighty-fourth year of his age, and was buried with great pomp in the cemetery at Morris. His squaw, Pokanoka, was drowned in Mazen Creek, Grundy County, on the 30th of November, 1864, and was buried by his side.

In 1861 subscriptions were taken up in many of the river towns, to erect a monument over the remains of Shabbona, but the war breaking out, the enterprise was abandoned. Only a plain marble slab marks the resting-place of this friend of the white man.

Bills Of Exchange And Promissory Notes

No promissory note, check, draft, bill of exchange, order, or note, negotiable instrument payable at sight, or on demand, or on presentment, shall be entitled to dags of grace. All other bills of exchange, drafts or notes are entitled to three dags of grace. All the above mentioned paper falling due on Sunday, New Years'1 Day, the Fourth of July, Christmas, or any day appointed or recommended by the President of the United States or the Governor of the State as a day of fast or thanksgiving, shall be deemed as due on the day previous, and should two or more of these days come together, then such instrument shall be treated as due on the day previous to the first of said days. No defense can be made against a negotiable instrument (assigned before due) in the hands of the assignee without notice, except fraud was used in obtaining the same. To hold an indorser, due diligence must be used by suit, in collecting of the maker, unless suit would have been unavailing. Notes payable to person named or to order, in order to absolutely transfer title, must be indorsed by the payee. Notes payable to bearer may be transferred by delivery, and when so payable every indorser thereon is held as a guarantor of payment unless otherwise expressed.

In computing interest or discount on negotiable instruments, a month shall be considered a calendar month or twelfth of a year, and for less than a month, a day shall be figured a thirtieth part of a month. Notes only bear interest when so expressed, but after due they draw the legal interest, even if not stated.

Interest

The legal rate of interest is six per cent. Parties may agree in writing on a rate not exceeding ten per cent. If a rate of interest greater than ten per cent, is contracted for, it works a forfeiture of the whole of said interest, and only the principal can be recovered.

Descent

First. To his or her children and their descendants in equal parts ; the descendants of the deceased child or grandchild taking the share of their deceased parents in equal parts among them.

Second. Where there is no child, nor descendant of such child, and no widow or surviving husband, then to the parents, brothers and sisters of the deceased, and their descendants, in equal parts, the surviving parent, if either be dead, taking a double portion ; and if there is no parent living, then to the brothers and sisters of the intestate and their descendants.

Third. When there is a widow or surviving husband, and no child or children, or descendants of the same, then one-half of the real estate and the whole of the personal estate shall descend to such widow or surviving husband, absolutely, and the other half of the real estate shall descend as in other cases where there is no child or children or descendants of the same.

Fourth. When there is a widow or surviving husband and also a child or children, or descendants of the latter, then one third of all the personal estate to the widow or surviving husband absolutely.

Fifth. If there is no child, parent, brother or sister, or descendants of either of them, and no widow or surviving husband, then in equal parts to the next of kin to the intestate in equal degree. Collaterals shall not be represented except with the descendants of brothers and sisters of the intestate, and there shall be no distinction between kindred of the whole and the half blood.

Sixth. If any intestate leaves a widow or surviving husband and no kindred, then to such widow or surviving husband ; and if there is no such widow or surviving husband, it shall escheat to and vest in the county where the same, or the greater portion thereof, is situated.

Wills And Estates Of Deceased Persons

No exact form of words are necessary in order to make a will good at law. Every male person of the age of twenty-one years, and every female of the age of eighteen years, of sound mind and memory, can make a valid will ; it must be in writing, signed by the testator or by some one in his or her presence and by his or her direction, and attested by two or move credible witnesses. Care should be taken that the witnesses are not interested in the will. Persons knowing themselves to have been named in the will or appointed executor, must within thirty days of the death of deceased cause the will to be proved and recorded in the proper county, or present it, and refuse to accept ; on failure to do so are liable to forfeit the sum of tiventy dollars per month. Inventory to be made by executor or administrator within three months from date of letters testamentary or of administration. Executors' and administrators' compensation not te exceed six per cent, on amount of personal estate, and three per cent, on money realized from real estate, with such additional allowance a? shall be reasonable for extra services. Appraisers' compensation $2 pei day.

Notice requiring all claims to be presented against the estate shall btf given by the executor or administrator within six months of being qualified. Any person having a claim and not presenting it at the time fixed by said notice is required to have summons issued notifying the executor or administrator of his having filed his claim in court ; in such cases the costs have to be paid by the. claimant. Claims should be filed within two years from the time administration is granted on an estate, as after that time they are forever barred, unless other estate is found that was not inventoried. Married women, infants, persons insane, imprisoned or without the United States, in the employment of the United States, or of this State, have two gears after their disabilities are removed to file claims.

Fifth. All expenses of proving the will and taking out letters testamentary or administration, and settlement of the estate, and the phgsieians bill in the last illness of deceased.

Sixth. Where the deceased has received moneg in trust for any purpose, his executor or administrator shall pay out of his estate the amount received and not accounted for.

Seventh. All other debts and demands of whatsoever kind, without regard to qualitg or dignitg, which shall be exhibited to the court within two gears from the granting of letters.

The widow if she elects may have in lieu of the said award, the same personal property or money in place thereof as is or may be exempt from execution or attachment against the head of a family.

Assessments should be completed before the fourth Monday in June, at which time the town board of review meets to examine assessments, hear objections, and make such changes as ought to be made. The county board have also power to correct or change assessments.

The tax books are placed in the hands of the town collector on or before the tenth day of December, who retains them until the tenth day of March following, when he is required to return them to the county treasurer, who then collects all delinquent taxes.

No costs accrue on real estate taxes till advertised, which takes place the first day of April, when three weeks' notice is required before judgment. Cost of advertising, twenty cents each tract of land, and ten cents each lot.

Judgment is usually obtained at May term of County Court. Costs six cents each tract of land, and five cents each lot. Sale takes place in June. Costs in addition to those before mentioned, twenty-eight cents each tract of land, and twenty-seven cents each town lot.

Real estate sold for taxes may be redeemed any time before the expiration of two years from the date of sale, by payment to the County Clerk of the amount for which it was sold and twenty-five per cent, thereon if redeemed within six months, fifty per cent, if between six and twelve months, if between twelve and eighteen months seventy-five per cent., and if between eighteen months and two years one hundred per cent., and in addition, all subsequent taxes paid by the purchaser, with ten per cent, interest thereon, also one dollar each tract if notice is given by the purchaser of the sale, and a fee of twenty-five cents to the clerk for his certificate.

Jurisdiction Of Courts

Justices have jurisdiction in all civil cases on contracts for the recovery of moneys for damages for injury to real property, or taking, detaining, or injuring personal property ; for rent; for all cases to recover damages done real or personal property by railroad companies, in actions of replevin, and in actions for damages for fraud in the sale, purchase, or exchange of personal property, when the amount claimed as due is not over $200. They have also jurisdiction in all cases for violation of the ordinances of cities, towns or villages. A justice of the peace may orally order an officer or a private person to arrest any one committing or attempting to commit a criminal offense. He also upon complaint can issue his warrant for the arrest of any person accused of having committed a crime, and have him brought before him for examination.

County Courts

Have jurisdiction in all matters of probate (except in counties having a population of one hundred thousand or over), settlement of estates of deceased persons, appointment of guardians and conservators, and settlement of their accounts ; all matters relating to apprentices ; proceedings for the collection of taxes and assessments, and in proceedings of executors, administrators, guardians and conservators for the sale of real estate. In law cases they have concurrent jurisdiction with Circuit Courts in all cases where justices of the peace now have, or hereafter may have, jurisdiction when the amount claimed shall not exceed $1,000, and in all criminal offenses where the punishment is not imprisonment in the penitentiary, or death, and in all cases of appeals from justices of the peace and police magistrates ; excepting when the county judge is sitting as a justice of the peace. Circuit Courts have unlimited jurisdiction.

Limitation Of Action

Accounts five years. Notes and written contracts ten years. Judgments twenty years. Partial payments or new promise in writing, within or after said period, will revive the debt. Absence from the State deducted, and when the cause of action is barred by the law of another State, it has the same effect here. Slander and libel, one year. Personal injuries, two years. To recover land or make entry thereon, twenty years. Action to foreclose mortgage or trust deed, or make a sale, within ten years.

All persons in possession of land, and paying taxes for seven consecutive years, with color of title, and all persons paying taxes for seven consecutive years, with color of title, on vacant land, shall be held to be the legal owners to the extent of their paper title.

Married Women

May sue and be sued. Husband and wife not liable for each other's debts, either before or after marriage, but both are liable for expenses and education of the family.

She may contract the same as if unmarried, except that in a partnership business she can not, without consent of her husband, unless he has abandoned or deserted her, or is idiotic or insane, or confined in penitentiary ; she is entitled and can recover her own earnings, but neither husband nor wife is entitled to compensation for any services rendered for the other. At the death of the husband, in addition to widow's award, a married woman has a dower interest (one-third) in all real estate owned by her husband after their marriage, and which has not been released by her, and the husband has the same interest in the real estate of the wife at her death.

Exemptions From Forced Sale

Some worth $1,000, and the following Personal Property : Lot of ground and buildings thereon, occupied as a residence by the debtor, being a householder and having a family, to the value of $1,000. Exemption continues after the death of the householder for the benefit of widow and family, some one of them occupying the homestead until youngest child shall become twenty-one years of age, and until death of widow. There is no exemption from sale for taxes, assessments, debt or liability incurred for the purchase or improvement of said homestead. No release or waiver of exemption is valid, unless in writing, and subscribed by such householder and wife (if he have one), and acknowledged as conveyances of real estate are required to be acknowledged. The following articles of personal property owned by the debtor, are exempt from execution, writ of attachment, and distress for rent : The necessary wearing apparel, Bibles, school books and family pictures of every person ; and, 2d, one hundred dollars worth of other property to be selected by the debtor, and, in addition, when the debtor is the head of a family and resides with the same, three hundred dollars worth of other property to be selected by the debtor ; provided that such selection and exemption shall not be made by the debtor or allowed to him or her from any money, salary or wages due him or her from any person or persons or corporations whatever.

When the head of a famil}' shall die, desert or not reside with the same, the family shall be entitled to and receive all the benefit and privileges which are by this act conferred upon the head of a family residing with the same. No personal property is exempt from execution when judgment is obtained for the wages of laborers or servants. Wages of a laborer who is the head of a family can not be garnisheed, except the sum due him be in excess of $25.

Abstract Of Illinois State Laws Deeds And Mortgages

To be valid there must be a valid consideration. Special care should be taken to have them signed, sealed, delivered, and properly acknowledged, with the proper seal attached. Witnesses are not required. The acknowledgement must be made in this state, before Master in Chancery, Notary Public, United States Commissioner, Circuit or County Clerk, Justice of Peace, or any Court of Record having a seal, or any Judge, Justice, or Clerk of any such Court. When taken before a Notary Public, or United States Commissioner, the same shall be attested by his official seal, when taken before a Court or the Clerk thereof, the same shall be attested by the seal of such Court, and when taken before a Justice of the Peace residing out of the county where the real estate to be conveyed lies, there shall be added a certificate of the County Clerk under his seal of office, that he was a Justice of the Peace in the county at the time of taking the same. A deed is good without such certificate attached, but can not be used in evidence unless such a certificate is produced or other competent evidence introduced. Acknowledgements made out of the state must either be executed according to the laws of this state, or there should be attached a certificate that it is in conformity with the laws of the state or country where executed. Where this is not done the same may be proved by any other legal way. Acknowledgments where the Homestead rights are to> be waived must state as follows : " Including the release and waiver of the right of homestead."

In the case of the death of grantor or holder of the equity of redemption of real estate mortgaged, or conveyed by deed of trust where equity of redemption is waived, and it contains power of sale, must be foreclosed in the same manner as a common mortgage in court.

Morses, mules, asses, neat cattle, swine, sheep, or goats found straying at any time during the year, in counties where such animals are not allowed to run at large, or between the last day of October and the 15th day of April in other counties, the owner thereof being unknown, may be taken up as estrays.

No person not a householder in the county where estray is found can lawfully take up an estray, and then only upon or about his farm or place of residence. Estrays should not be used before advertised, except animals giving milk, which may be milked for their benefit.

Notices must be posted up within five (5) days in three (3) of the most public places in the town or precinct in which estray was found, giving the residence of the taker up, and a particular description of the estray, its age, color, and marks natural and artificial, and stating before what justice of the peace in such town or precinct, and at what time, not less than ten (10) nor more than fifteen (15) days from the time of posting such notices, he will apply to have the estray appraised.

A copy of such notice should be filed by the taker up with the town clerk, whose duty it is to enter the same at large, in a hook kept by him for that purpose.

If the owner of estray shall not have appeared and proved ownership, and taken the same away, first paying the taker up his reasonable charges for taking up, keeping, and advertising the same, the taker up shall appear before the justice of the peace mentioned in above mentioned notice, and make an affidavit as required by law.

As the affidavit has to be made before the justice, and all other steps as to appraisement, etc., are before him, who is familiar therewith, they are therefore omitted here.

Any person taking up an estray at any other place than about or upon his farm or residence, or without complying with the law, shall forfeit and pay a fine of ten dollars with costs.

Game

It is unlawful for any person to kill, or attempt to kill or destroy, in any manner, any prairie hen or chicken or woodcock between the 15th day of January and the 1st day of September ; or any deer, fawn, wild-turkey, partridge or pheasant between the 1st day of February and the 1st day of October ; or any quail between the 1st day of February and 1st day of November ; or any wild goose, duck, snipe, brant or other water fowl between the 1st day of May and 15th day of August in each year. Penalty : Fine not less than $5 nor more than $25, for each bird or animal, and costs of suit, and stand committed to county jail until fine is paid, but not exceeding ten days. It is unlawful to hunt with gun, dog or net within the inclosed grounds or lands of another without permission. Penalty: Fine not less than $3 nor more than $100, to be paid into school fund.

Weights And Measures

Whenever any of the following articles shall be contracted for, or sold or delivered, and no special contract or agreement shall be made to the contrary, the weight per bushel shall be as follows, to-wit :

The owner or occupant of every public grist mill in this state shall grind all grain brought to his mill in its turn. The toll for both steam and water mills, is, for grinding and bolting wheat, rye, or other grain, one eighth part; for grinding Indian corn, oats, barley and buckwheat not required to be bolted, one seventh part; for grinding malt, and chopping all kinds of grain, one eighth part. It is the duty of every miller when his mill is in repair, to aid and assist in loading and unloading all grain brought to him to be ground, and he is also required to keep an accurate half bushel measure, and an accurate set of toll dishes or scales for weighing the grain. The penalty for neglect or refusal to comply with the law is $5, to the use of any person to sue for the same, to be recovered before any justice of the peace of the county where penalty is incurred. Millers are accountable for the safe keeping of all grain left in his mill for the purpose of being ground, with bags or casks containing same (except it results from unavoidable accidents), provided that such bags or casks are distinctly marked with the initial letters of the owner's name.

Marks And Brands

Owners of cattle, horses, hogs, sheep or goats may have one ear mark and one brand, but which shall be different from his neighbor's, and may be recorded by the county clerk of the county in which such property is kept. The fee for such record is fifteen cents. The record of such shall be open to examination free of charge. In cases of disputes as to marks or brands, such record is prima facie evidence. Owners of cattle, horses, hogs, sheep or goats that may have been branded by the former owner, may be re-branded in presence of one or more of his neighbors, who shall certify" to the facts of the marking or branding being done, when doner and in what brand or mark they were re-branded or re-marked, which certificate may also be recorded as before stated.

Adoption Of Children

Children may be adopted by any resident of this state, by filing a petition in the Circuit or County Court of the county in which he resides, asking leave to do so, and if desired may ask that the name of the child be changed. Such petition, if made by a person having a husband or wife, will not be granted, unless the husband or wife joins therein, as the adoption must be by them jointly.

The petition shall state name, sex, and age of the child, and the new name, if it is desired to change the name. Also the name and residence of the parents of the child, if known, and of the guardian, if any, and whether the parents or guardians consent to the adoption.

The court must find, before granting decree, that the parents of the child, or the survivors of them, have deserted his or her family or such child for one year next preceding the application, or if neither are living,, the guardian ; if no guardian, the next of kin in this state capable of giving consent, has had notice of the presentation of the petition and consentsto such adoption. If the child is of the age of fourteen years or upwards,, the adoption can not be made without its consent.

Surveyors And Surveys

There is in every county elected a surveyor known as county surveyor, who has power to appoint deputies, for whose official acts he is responsible. It is the duty of the county surveyor, either by himself or his deputy, to make all surveys that he may be called upon to make within his county as soon as may be after application is made. The necessary chainmen and other assistance must be employed by the person requiring the same to be done, and to be by him paid, unless otherwise agreed ; but the chainmen must be disinterested persons and approved by the surveyor and sworn by him to measure justly and impartially.

The County Board in each county is required by law to provide a copy of the United States field notes and plats of their surveys of the lands in the county to be kept in the recorder's office subject to examination by the public, and the county surveyor is required to make his surveys in conformity to said notes, plats and the laws of the United States governing such matters. The surveyor is also required to keep a record of all surveys made by him, which shall be subject to inspection by any one interested, and shall be delivered up to his successor in office. A.

The fees of county surveyors are six dollars per day. The county surveyor is also ex officio inspector of mines, and as such, assisted by some practical miner selected by him, shall once each year inspect all the mines in the county, for which they shall each receive such compensation as may be fixed by the County Board, not exceeding 85 a day, to be paid out of the county treasury.

Roads And Bridges

Where practicable from the nature of the ground, persons traveling in any kind of vehicle, must turn to the right of the center of the road, so as to permit each carriage to pass without interfering with each other. The penalty for a violation of this provision is $5 for every offense, to be recovered by the party injured; but to recover, there must have occurred some injury to person or property resulting from the violation. The owners of any carriage traveling upon any road in this State for the conveyance of passengers who shall employ or continue in his employment as driver any person who is addicted to drunkenness, or the excessive use of spiritous liquors, after he has had notice of the same, shall forfeit, at the rate of $5 per day, and if any driver while actually engaged in driving any such carriage, shall be guilty of intoxication to such a degree as to endanger the safety of passengers, it shall be the duty of the owner, on receiving written notice of the fact, signed by one of the passengers, and certified by him on oath, forthwith to discharge such driver. If such owner shall have such driver in his employ within three months after such notice, he is liable for $5 per day for the time he shall keep said driver in his employment after receiving such notice.

Persons driving any carriage on any public highway are prohibited from running their horses upon any occasion under a penalty of a fine not exceeding $10, or imprisonment not exceeding sixty days, at the discretion of the court. Horses attached to any carriage used to convey passengers for hire must be properly hitched or the lines placed in the hands of some other person before the driver leaves them for any purpose. For violation of this provision each driver shall forfeit twenty dollars, to be recovered by action, to be commenced within six months. It is understood by the term carriage herein to mean any carriage or vehicle used for the transportation of passengers or goods or either of them.

The commissioners of highways in the different towns have the care and superintendence of highways and bridges therein. They have all the powers necessary to lay out, vacate, regulate and repair all roads^ build and repair bridges. In addition to the above, it is their duty to eTect and keep in repair at the forks or crossing-place of the most important roads post and guide boards with plain inscriptions, giving directions and distances to the most noted places to which such road may lead; also to make provisions to prevent thistles, burdock, and cockle burrs, mustard, yellow dock, Indian mallow and jimson weed from seeding, and to extirpate the same as far as practicable, and to prevent all rank growth of vegetation on the public highways so far as the same may obstruct public travel, and it is in their discretion to erect watering places for public use for watering teams at such points as may be deemed advisable.

The Commissioners, on or before the 1st day of May of each year, shall make out and deliver to their treasurer a list of all able-bodied men in their town, excepting paupers, idiots, lunatics, and such others as are exempt by law, and assess against each the sum of two dollars as a poll tax for highway purposes. Within thirty days after such list is delivered they shall cause a written or printed notice to be given to each person so assessed, notifying him of the time when and place where such tax must be paid, or its equivalent in labor performed ; they may contract with persons owing such poll tax to perform a certain amount of labor on any road or bridge in payment of the same, and if such tax is not paid nor labor performed by the first Monday of July of such year, or within ten days after notice is given after that time, they shall bring suit therefor against such person before' a justice of the peace, who shall hear and determine the case according to law for the offense complained of, and shall forthwith issue an execution, directed to any constable of the county where the delinquent shall reside, who shall forthwith collect the moneys therein mentioned.

The Commissioners of Highways of each town shall annually ascertain, as near as practicable, how much money must be raised by tax on real and personal property for the making and repairing of roads, only, to any amount they may deem necessary, not exceeding forty cents on each one hundred dollars' worth, as valued on the assessment roll of the previous year. The tax so levied on property lying within an incorporated village, town or city, shall be paid over to the corporate authorities of such town, village or city. Commissioners shall receive $1.50 for each day necessarily employed in the discharge of their duty.

Overseers. At the first meeting the Commissioners shall choose one of their number to act General Overseer of Highways in their township, whose duty it shall be to take charge of and safely keep all tools, implements and machinery belonging to said town, and shall, by the direction of the Board, have general supervision of all roads and bridges in their town.

As all township and county officers are familiar with their duties, it is only intended to give the points of the law that the public should be familiar with. The manner of laying out, altering or vacating roads, etc., will not be here stated, as it would require more space than is contemplated in a work of this kind. It is sufficient to state that, the first step is by petition, addressed to the Commissioners, setting out what is prayed for, giving the names of the owners of lands if known, if not known so state, over which the road is to pass, giving the general course, its place of beginning, and where it terminates. It requires not less than twelve freeholders residing within three miles of the road who shall sign the petition. Public roads must not be less than fifty feet wide, nor more than sixty feet wide. Roads not exceeding two miles in length, if petitioned for, may be laid out, not less than forty feet. Private roads for private and public use, may be laid out of the width of three rods, on petition of the person directly interested ; the damage occasioned thereby shall be paid by the premises benefited thereby, and before the road is opened. If not opened in two years, the order shall be considered rescinded. Commissioners in their discretion may permit persons who live on or have private roads, to work out their road tax thereon. Public roads must be opened in five days from date of filing order of location, or be deemed vacated.

Drainage

Whenever one or more owners or occupants of land desire to construct i drain or ditch across the land of others for agricultural, sanitary or mining purposes, the proceedings are as follows :

File a petition in the Circuit or County Court of the county in which the proposed ditch or drain is to be constructed, setting forth the necessity for the same, with a description of its proposed starting point, route and terminus, and if it shall be necessary for the drainage of the land or coal mines or for sanitary purposes, that a drain, ditch, levee or similar work be constructed, a description of the same. It shall also set forth the names of all persons owning the land over which such drain or ditch shall be constructed, or if unknown stating that fact.

No private property shall be taken or damaged for the purpose of constructing a ditch, drain or levee, without compensation, if claimed by the owner, the same to be ascertained by a jury ; but if the construction of such ditch, drain or levee shall be a benefit to the owner, the same shall be a set off against such compensation.

If the proceedings seek to affect the property of a minor, lunatic or married woman, the guardian, conservator or husband of the same shall be made party defendant. The petition may be amended and parties made defendants at any time when it is necessary to a fair trial.

When the petition is presented to the judge, he shall note therein when he will hear the same, and order the issuance of summonses arid the publication of notice to each non-resident or unknown defendant.

The petition may be heard by such judge in vacation as well as in term time. Upon the trial, the jury shall ascertain the just compensation to each owner of the property sought to be damaged by the construction of such ditch, drain or levee, and truly report the same.

As it is only contemplated in a work of this kind to give an abstract of the laws, and as the parties who have in charge the execution of the further proceedings are likely to be familiar with the requirements of the statute, the necessary details are not here inserted.

Wolf Scalps

Any person claiming a bounty shall produce the scalp or scalps with the ears thereon, within sixty days after the wolf or wolves shall have been caught, to the Clerk of the County Board, who shall administer to said person the following oath or affirmation, to-wit: "You do solemnly swear (or affirm, as the case may be), that the scalp or scalps here produced by you was taken from a wolf or wolves killed and first captured by yourself within the limits of this county, and within the sixty days last past."

When the reversion expectant on a lease of any tenements or hereditaments of any tenure shall be surrendered or merged, the estate which shall for the time being confer as against the tenant under the same lease the next vested right to the same tenements or hereditaments, shall, to the extent and for the purpose of preserving such incidents to and obligations on the same reversion, as but for the surrender or merger thereof, would have subsisted, be deemed the reversion expectant on the same lease.

Every poor person who shall be unable to earn a livelihood in consequence of any bodily infirmity, idiocy, lunacy or unavoidable cause, shall be supported by the father, grand-father, mother, grand-mother, children, grand-children, brothers or sisters of such poor person, if they or either of them be of sufficient ability ; but if any of such dependent class shall have become so from intemperance or other bad conduct, they shall not be entitled to support from any relation except parent or child.