Peoria County, Illinois - Chapter 5: Perfecting the Organization - First Election, 1880

Extent of Territory - Population - The First Election - Election Officers - The Old Poll Book - Mixed Orthography - Personal - Pioneer Taverns and Tavern Rates.

Although the law under which Peoria county was organized, as printed in the session laws of 1825, provided that the first election for county oflBcers should be held on the 1st day of March, it was not held, as shown by the poll-book of that election, until the 7th day of March, 182o. At that time there was no county organization north of Fort Clark. All the country west of the Mississippi river and north to the State line, was attached for judicial purposes. In all that district of country, according to a census taken that year by John L. Bogardus, there was a population of onh' 1,236. Estimating five persons to each voter, the usual basis, there were only two hundred and forty-seven voters. There is a probability, however, that the number of voters was something more than that, because of the fact that more than the usual proportion of voters were without families ; or, if they were heads of families, their families were not living in the State, as many husbands and fathers came to Illinois in advance of their families and started homes. Some of them were here for more than a year before their families joined them.

At that first election there was only one voting place or precinct, and that precinct was at Fort Clark, or Peoria, as the place will hereafter be called.

Under the provisions of section four, of the act already quoted, the qualified electors chose Jacob Wilson, Isaac Perkins, and William Smith, as judj^es : and Aaron Hawley and Peter DuMont, as clerks of the election. After the choiie of these officials, the polls were declared open and voting commenced. Jacob Wilson certified on the buck of the list of voters " that William Smith and Jacob Perkins were duly sworn according to law Isaac Perkins certified that " Jacob Wilson was duly sworn according to law," and William Smith certified that "Peter DuMont and Aaron Hawley," clerks of the election, " were duly sworn according to law."

Only that part of the old poll-book which bears the names of the voters, is in preservation. It is musty and brown with age. The jtapcr, a half-sheet of common record size, is coarse, and was ruled by the clerks. The ink with which the names are written, although still jilain, has faded with time. There is no judge's certificate to show the number of candidates, or the number of votes cast for each candidate, but from the proceedings of the first meeting of the Board of County Commissioners, it appears that William Holland, Joseph Smith and Nathan Dillon were elected commissioners, and Samuel Fulton, sheriff.

Out of an aggregate population of 1,236 in Peoria county and the territory attached, only sixty-six votes were cast - at least that is all of which any record exists. The following is a transcript of the poll-book as it is preserved :

" An election held at the house of William Eadi, in the county of Peoria, in the Slate of Illinoii, on the 7th day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty-five.

The orthography in these names, as here quoted, may be widely at fault. The writing is not very plain, besides it is to be inferred that some of the voters were entirely ignorant of letters, as those with French sounding names, and did not know how their names should be written. If they could not spell their own names, the clerks of the election were not to blame if they made some errors in tracing them with a pen.

Of these sixty-six voters, but very few are known to be aUve. The names marked with a * still survive, and have passed the age allotted to man. None of them are under seventy-five years of age. Mr. Fulton is in his eightieth year ; Alva Moffatt about the same ; Aquila Moffatt, seventy-seven, and Mr. Blanchard is in his eighty-third year.

Josiah Fulton and the two Moffatt brothers live near the city of Peoria. Fulton and Aquila Moffatt accumulated property and are well situated in their old days. The generous heart of Alva Moffatt has given to others, younger than himself by many years, the bulk of his accumulations, so that his surroundings are not so generous. But no man is more highly esteemed for honesty, integrity and nobleness of soul than Alva Moffatt, whose home for fifty-seven years has been on the bluff that overlooks the valley wheron has grown the second city in the State of Illinois.

Many others of these first voters accumulated property, but from many of them it took wings and flew away, and they drifted away from Peoriu, out of sight and out of memory. Some became conspicuous in public affairs, and filled various offices of trust and honor. Besides his conspicuity as Clerk of the County Commissioner's Court, and in other capacities, John Dixon became noted as the founder of the city of Dixon, in Lee county. He was born at Rye, Westchester count)'. New York, October 9, 17S4, and died at Dixon, July 6, 1876, in the ninety-second year of his age.

Joseph Ogee, another one of the voters, whose name will appear in other connections, was rather a noted character in his time. He was a regular frontiersman, more Indian by association and habit than white man, and always kept a little in advance of the tide of immigration. In the Spring of 1828, when the settlement began to get too thick for him at Peoria, he pulled up stakes and established himself at the site of Dixon, in Lee county. At that time and until John Dixon got control of the ferry property, it was known as " Ogee's Ferry," which was licensed b}- the Commissioners of Jo Daviess county on the 7th of December, 1829. Ogee was also licensed to keep a " tavern" at that place, and besides fixing the ferry rates, the Commissioners established his tavern prices, as follows :

Ogee was a Frenchman and an Indian interpreter. His wife was a Pottawatomie Indian woman, and hence his cabin and ferry were safe from Indian molestation. But all was not Itappiness in his family. There was a skeleton in the closet, and some months before Dixon bought tlie ferry in April, 1830, a separation was agreed upon between Ogee and his wife. Tlie Indian wife went her way, leaving the husband to act as landlord, landlady and ferryman as best he might. Mrs. Ogee belonged to one of the wealthiest Indian families of the country and was an heiress, owning nearly one-half of Paw Paw Grove, an Indian reservation. After the separation l)ctween herself and Joe, she was regarded as a captivatinij widow, and was not long in finding admirers. After angling around a while, she selected on Job Alcott, another white man, as " best suited to her mind," to whom she was married. When the Pottawatomies were removed to Kansas, she and her husband accompanied them to their new home.

After April, 1830, the name of Ogee's Ferry was changed to Dixon's Ferry ; and when a town was laid out there, it was called Dixon, and from a rope-ferry and half- French and half-Indian tavern, the place came to be a citj' of no mean importance. When Dixon purchased the ferry. Ogee pushed on after the Indians, and was gathered to his fathers in the happy hunting grounds long'ago.