Peoria County, Illinois - Chapter 8: Political Economy, 1880

Chapter 8: Political Economy

Counties and County Commissioners - Origin of the System - Towns and Town Supervisors - Origin of the System - First Session of the County Commissioner's Court - Starting the County Government - First Road View - Dram Shops - Ferries and Ferry License - First Jurymen - North and South Roads - Election Precincts - First County Exhibit - First Assessment - Taxes and Tax Payers in 1825.

The present system of County management is so different from that practiced when the County was first organized and until 1850, that a paragraph in explanation is necessary. Management b}- three men, styled the Board of County Commissioners, or County Commissioners Court, is of Southern origin and practice, while the present system by a Board of Supervisors, consisting of one member from each township and division of cities, is of Eastern or New England origin.

County organization originated with Virginia, whose early settlers soon became large landed proprietors, and aristocratic in feeling. In consequence of their large landed interests, they lived apart in almost baronial magnificence on their own estates, and owned the laboring population. Under these circumstances the materials for a town were not at hand, the voters being thinly scattered over a large area of country. County organizations, where a few influential men managed the wliole business of the community, retaining their places almost at will, was in consonance with their recollections or traditions of the judicial and social dignities of the landed aristocracy of England, in descent from whom the Virginians felt so much pride. In 1634, eight counties were organized in Virginia, and the system, extending throughout the State, spread into all the Southern States, and some of the Northern States, unless we except the nearly similar division into " districts " in South Carolina, and that into " parishes " in Louisiana, under French introduction.

Illinois, as already shown, became a County of Virginia on the conquest of the country by Gen. Clark, and retained the County organization. The first settlement by Americans was by people from the Southern States, almost exclusively, who adhered to the customs and practices, social and political, of the States in which they had been born and educated. The men who framed the first Constitution all lived in the southern part of the State. There was not a man in the convention from any part of the commonwealth north of Madison and Crawford counties. The first Legislatures were also made up of men strictly Southern in sentiment, and it is not strange that they engrafted in the Constitution of 1818, and the early laws under it, features in consonance with their ideas of political economy and government. The Countj- system continued in exclusive practice until 1848. Under it the local business was managed by three Commissioners in each County, who constituted a County Court, with quarterly sessions.

While the southern part of the State was settled by people from the Southern States, the northern and central parts were settled, in the main, by people of New England birth and character, who. like their southern neighbors, brought with them the customs, political and otherwise, of the States in which they had grown to manhood. These customs were essentially different fmui those in practice in the south part of the State, and as the Eastern or New England population increased by imlgation, their sentiments and ideas of political economy grew more and more compact; and, consequently, dissatisfied with wiiat they regarded as an arbitrary and ineflBcient system of County management. It was maintained !>)- this people that tlie heavily populated districts always controlled the election of the Commissioners to the disadvantage of the more thinly settled sections; in short, that under that system " equal and exact justice " to all parts of a county could not be secured. Under these iufluences the constitutional provision of 1848 and the subsequent law of 1849 were enacted, enabling the people to vote " for " or " against " adopting the township system. This law, if adopted, erected each township into a kind of independent municipality, and clothed them with the right to regulate their own domestic or internal affairs, and with the further r'ght to be representad in a larger municipal body for the whole county, when the members from the several townships became a County Board of Supervisors. The (juestion was submitted to the people at the election held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, 1849, and while universally approved and adopted in counties where there were a majority of New Englanders and a preponderance of New England sentiment, the plan was unpojmlar, disapproved and rejected where there were a majority of Western and Southern voters. As a consequence both systems are in force in Illinois. Mr. Ballance, writing in 1870, said : " The new plan furnishing more offices than the other, which, to Americans, is an unanswerable argument in favor of any measure, the thing has been so managed that, in a little less than twenty-six years, sixty-six counties have come into the measure, leaving only thirtysix which still stand out and refuse to adopt the system." Peoria county was one of the first to adopt the system, and the records show that the first meeting of the Board of Supervisors was held on the 8th day of April, 18.50.

The township plan originated in Massachusetts, and dates back to 1635. The first legal enactment concerning this system provided that, " Whereas, particular towns have many things which concern only themselves, and the ordering of their own affairs, and disposing of business in their own town," therefore the freemen of every town, or the major part of them, sliall only have power to dispose of their own lands and woods, with all the aj)purtenances of said town, to grant lots, and to make such orders as may concern the well-ordering of their own towns, not repugnant to the laws and orders established by the General Court.

The New England colonies were firsl jjoverned by .-i "General Court," or legislature, composed of a Governor and small council, which court consisted of the most influential inhabitants, and po>sessed and excercised both legislative aud judicial powers, which were limited only by the wisdom of the holders. They made laws, ordered their execution by officers, tried civil and criminal cases, enacted all manner of municipal regtilations ; and, in fact, did all the public business m the colony in which they held.

"They might also," remarks Mr. Elijah M. Haines, in his Laws of Illinois, Relative to Township Organization, " impose fines of not more than twenty shillings, and choose their own 'particular officers, as constables, surveyors for the highways and the like.' Evidently this enactment relieved the General Court of a mass of muiiicipal details, without any danger to the powers of that body in controlling general measures of puijlic policy. Probably, also, a demand from the freemen of the towns was felt for the control of tlieir own home concerns."

.Similar provisions for the incorporttion of towns were made in the fii-st constitution of Connecticut, adopted in 1639. Tiic plan ])roved popular and became universal throughout New England, and came westward with the emigrants, to New York, Ohio and other Western Slates, including Northern Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota.

The fust meeting of the Hoard of County Commi.^sioner's Court was lield on the eighth day of March, the next day after the election. [Mere it is proper to remark that neither one of the three commissioners was chosen from Peoria county, as defined by the act under which it was organized, but from the territory attached for judicial purposes. Of the second Board only one, John Hamlin, was chosen from the county.]

There is nothing on record to show where the Commissioners met, but it is reasonable to presume it was at the house of William Eads. After being " dul}' qualified according to law," the Court was declared organized, and Peoria count}-, with two hundred dollars in the State treasury- to draw on, was launched upon an independent county basis. The first business of the Court was the appointment of clerk, and it was

Mr. Hyde was " duly qualified, " and entered upon the duties of scribe. This record, as are all the old records in the County Clerk's office, is in an excellent state of preservation, and has been carefully kept. It is a six quire volume, plain blue paper binding, a fair qualit}' of paper for the times, but coarse as compared with the paper of modern manufacture. The record was commenced in a very plain hand, and is, in fact, a very handsomely kept transcript of the Court's proceedings. We copy :

Ordered, That a court house be erected on some suitable site where the Commissioners shall designate, of the following dimensions to wit : Twenty feet square and nine feet from the floor to the joists, with a good plank or puncheon floor ; said house to be built of good materials and in a woikmanlike manner.

Ordered, That a Clerk's office be erected of the following dimensions, to wit : Fourteen feet square, with a good puncheon floor to be done in a good workmanlike manner and of good material.

Ordered, That the court house and clerk's office be let out to the highest (lowest ?) bidder, on Saturday, the twelfth day of March inst., at twelve o'clock a. m. The clerk's office to be erected by the 20th inst., and the court house by the 25lh of May next.

Four days later these orders were revoked, and no court house was built until 1836 when the brick structure that preceded the present fine stone building was erected. Until that time the courts were held first, in a small log building, (the Ogee cabin) about sixteen by eighteen feet, that stood on or near the site occupied by the Fort Clark mill ; and afterwards when the population and attendance increased so that the " little old cabin " was too small, in an upjier room of a stone building on Water street. The clerk's offices, in early times, were kept in the cabin residences, of the clerks. " When I came here " - in 1831 - remarks Mr. Ballance, Isaac Waters was clerk of both Courts. He lived in a cabin made of small imhewn logs, daubed with common mud, not half large enough to accommodate his family, and yet he had no other place to keep the few books and papers belonging to the Courts. These he sometimes could not find, and was blamed when, perhaps, he deserved more to be pitied. After the present court house was built (the one recently torn down - Ed.) the clerks and sheriff were accommodated with rooms in the first story. "

The Court then adjourned until the 12th, at 10 o'clock a.m. At this session only two of the Commissioners, Nathan Dillon and William Holland were present.

Ordered, That Abner Eads, Stephen French and Daniel Prince be and they are hereby appointed trustees of the sixteenth section, in township eight north, and range eight east, in the County of Peoria, said section being appropriated for the use of schools.

First 6Band Juk0E8

Ordertd, That the following persons be summoned by the Sheriff to be and appear as grand jurors at the next Circuit Court, to be held on the second Monday in June next, in and for the County of Peoria, to wit ; William Eads, Abner Eads, Alva .Ntoffati, Elijah Hyde, Noah Beacham, senior, William Wright, John Ridgeway, Robert Berrisford. Josiah Fulton, Thomas Camlin, John Phillips, George Ish, David Mathews, Jacob Wilson. Elisha Fish, Isaac Perkins. Nathaniel Cromv.ell. Walter Dillon, William Davis, Alexander McNaughton, George Sharp, Austin Crocker, Augustus Langworthy, Allen Dougherty.

First Traverse Jurors

An order was entered of record, recommending William Smith to the governor as a " suitable person to fill the office of Justice of the Peace in and for the County of Peoria."

Ordered, That the following persons be summoned as traverse jurors, to be and appear at the next Circuit Court, to be held in and for the County of Peoria on the second Monday in June, inst.. at lo o'clock. A. M. : Horace Crocker. Noah Beacham, jr.. Aquila Mnffatt. Henry Neely, William Smith, Charles Love, John Sharp. William Barker, John Cooper. Daviil Hukey. Philip Latham.

Ordered, That the ferry license granted by the County Commissioner's Court of Sangamon and Fulton counties lo John L. Hogardus, authorizing him to keep a ferry across '.he Illinois river opposite the town of Peoria, be entered on the records of this court.

Then follows the written authority of Sangamon and Fulton counties, duly signed by the proper officers. The SaiiLcamon county " order " is certified to be correct by " C. K. Matht;ny, C. C, l)y E. VVrit,'ht. Dept. CFk," and the Fulton county "order" is certified to lie correct by "John Dewey, Clerk, etc." The Peoria roniinissioiiers ordered that the rates of ferriage as established by Sangamon and Fulton counties be adopted. These rates were as follows :

And all other articles not enumerated in the list, in equal and just proportions. And when the lake or river is over its banks, at the first material bend of the creek from its mouth, when a landing can not be had at that place, double these rates.

First Road View

Ordered, That the petitition of sundrj' inhabitants of the county of Peoria praying for the appointment of viewers to view a road leading from the ferry landing opposite the village of Peoria to the old crossing on Sugar creek, near Robert Musick's, be granted, agreeable to the prayer of said petitioners ; and that Samuel Fulton, Alexander McNaughton, and Norman Hyde, be appointed viewers.

Ordered, That Aaron Hawleybe allowed forty-one dollars in paper of the State Bank of Illinois for services rendered the county, and that the treasurer pay the same.

Dram Shop License And Prices

John Barker, on the 8th of June, was authorized to keep a dram shop in the town of Peoria, and that the clerk grant him a license, and take his bond according to law, upon his paying ten dollars in paper of the State Bank of Illinois for the use of the county, and one dollar for clerk's fees. It was further

Norman Hyde tendered his resignation as clerk of the Commissioner's Court on the 8th, which was accepted, and John Dixon was appointed to fill the vacancy.

July 16th John L. Bogardus was appointed to take the census of the county vice Rivers Cormack, who declined the appointment previously tendered.

Hiram M. Curry was appointed Constable. In some places the name of Hiram McCurry appears in the records, but the representative of this name is identical with Hiram M. Curry.

June 8th, the court being in session, an order was entered appointing John L. Bogardus assessor, providing the " Judge of the Circuit Court should give his opinion that the assessment previously made was not valid." At this session the appointment of Mr. Bogardus was confirmed, from which it would seem the Circuit Judge had rendered the opinion that the previous assessment referred to was not valid. The assessment was ordered to commence at once.

Cornelius Brown was licensed to keep a dram shop in the village of Peoria, upon the same terms and was allowed the same rates as Mr. Barker, previously licensed.

Aaron Hawley and John L. Bogardus were recommended to the Guvei nor as suitable persons for appointment to the office of Justices of the Peace.

Frederick H. Countryman and Elijah Hyde were appointed Constables. The Commissioners now reconsidered their first order relating to tax levy and increased the rate from one-half of one per cent, to one per cent.

OrJertd, Tlial the Sheriff of Peoria county be authorized to draw and receive out of the treasury of the Stale of Illinois the sum of two hundred dollars, being the proportion of non-resident land tax allowed said county by the act entitled " An act for forming a new county out of the county land in the vicinity of Fort Clark, approved January 13, 1825."

Then follows this entry : '- Be it remembered that on this 16th day of July, 1825, John Dixon, Esq., appeared in open court and took the oath of office as a justice of the peace in and for Peoria county ; also the oath to support the Constitution of the United States and of this State, and the oath prescribed in the act entitled 'An Act to Suppress Dueling,' approved February 22, 1819."

More Jurymen

The next session of the court was held in September, when the following persons were ordered to be summoned as grand jurymen for the next term of the Circuit Court, which was set for the second Monday in November : Stephen French, Abner Cooper, George Love, Joseph O'Brian, Elias P. Avery, Thomas Dillon, John Dillon. Seth Wilson, John Kline, George Kline, John Hamlin, Archibald Allen, Nathaniel Cromwell. Isaac Perkins, James Latta. Henry Thomas. George Harlan, Isaac Waters. Augustus Longworthy, George Siiarp. William Holland, Josejili Smith. John Phillips. Major Dunahoe.

None of these rei)resentatives of the olden time are known to the people of Peoria county in 1880. If any of them are living, no one here knows where. It is fair to presume that all of them have been gathered to the home of their fathers.

Petit Jurors

Austin Crocker, William Clark, Stephen Carroll, Joseph Ogee, William Blanchard, Elijah Fish, David Matthews, William E. Phillips, George Ish, Josiah Fulton. Jacob Funk, Isaac Funk, Hugh Montgomery, Alexander McNaughton, Allen Dougherty, Nathan Dillon, Walter Dillon, William Davis, William Woodrow, John Somers, Elijah Hyde, Alva Moffatt, William Eads, and Seth Fulton, were ordered to be summoned as petit jurors.

Of these jurors, Jacob Funk was subsequently killed by a merchant of Pekin. Tazewell county, at Coalville, just across the river from I'eoria, about 1830 or 18;!1. He was owing a debt to the merchant, about which there had been several quarrels. The merchant had brought suit and obtained judgment. He waited patiently and often asked Funk to pay the judgment, receiving insolent replies. At last the merchant's patience became exhausted, and he registered an t)ath that he woulil collect the debt. The merchant ordered an execution, and the sheriff, being jjartially cri[>plcd, and Funk a sort of bully, a /)o««« of men was summoned to accompany the sheriff to make the levy, the merchant among them. Funk was a blacksmith, and when the sheriff anil his party arrived at his shop, they found it barricaded and Funk ready to receive them. After some maneuvering Funk came out from behind the bariicadc, mid in the melee which followed the sheriff was jiusIkmI over or knocked down by Funk, when he was shot and killed by the merchant. F'unk was related to the great Illinois farmers of that name.

North And South Roads

September (5. .Tames Barns, James I^atta an<l William Clark were a]>pointed to view the riiail leading,' from Peoria to the south line of the county ; and Stoiihcn French, Elias P. Avtiy ami llinry Thomas were apjiointed to view the road lending from Peoria to the north boundary of the county. At a session of the court, on the sixth of December, these viewers submitted favorable reports, which were accepted, and the roads were ordered to be opened.

Ordered, That William Holland shall receive four dollars in specie, or its equivalent in Slate bank paper, for running, or causing to be run, the exterior lines of the town of Peoria, and making a plat of the same, and the treasurer is hereby required to pay the same.

Road Districts

First Diitrict. - Beginning on the bank of Peoria Lake, between townships eight and nine north, thence west on the line between said townships to the west line of the county ; thence north with said line to the northern boundary of the county ; thence east with said boundary line to the Illinois river ; thence down the same to the place of beginning_

Second District. - Beginning on the bank of Peoria Lake, between townships eight and nine north ; thence west to the west line of the county ; thence south with said line to the Illinois river ; thence up the same to the line between townships twenty-four and twenty-five north, on the east side of the river, strikes the same ; thence east to the third principal meridian ; thence north with said meridian to the north line of township twenty-seven north; thence west to the Illinois river.

Third District - All that tract of country lying east of the Illinois river and south of township twenty-four north, shall constitute the third road district ; ane that Thomas Dillon shall be supervisor of said district. At the December session, the Court ordered that township twenty-four be included in this district.

At the March session, 1826, these road districts were so divided as to increase the number to eight, and so on from year to year as the settlements extended and population increased.

Archibald Claibourne (Clyburn?) was appointed constable for Peoria county. Archibald Allen and Charles Collins were " authorized to keep a ' tavern ' in the town of Peoria, bj- giving the bond required by law and paying ten dollars in paper of the State Bank of Illinois, with the clerk's fees, and that they be alh'wed to charge the same rates allowed to John Barker, and that the clerk be allowed to take their bond and receive the money for the county."

At the December session the treasurer was " ordered to pay William Smith one dollar in State paper for his services as Judge of tlie election in March last." Clerk Dixon was allowed seven dollars and eighteen and three-fourth cents, for stationery, which is the first stationery allowance on record.

On Tuesday, the 6th, Isaac Perkins, Hugh Woodrow and Ezekiel Tevener were ordered " to proceed to view a road, agreeable to the prayer of the petitioners for that purpose, from Peoria, passing the ' Trading post ' and the house of Isaac Perkins, to intersect the Springfield road at or near Prairie creek."

At this term of their Court the Commissioners divided Peoria county and the country subject to its jurisdiction, into three election precincts.

To contain all that part of the country east of the mouth of the LaPage river, where it empties its waters into the Atix Plain ; and it is further ordered that the elections shall be held at the Agency House, or " Cobwebb Hall." And it is further ordered that this precinct shall be known as the Chicago precinct, and that Abner Wolcott, John Kinzie and J. B. Baubien shall be judges of all general and special elections.

Peokia Precinct

Otdtred, That all that tract of country north and west of the Illinois river, and north of township twenty-four and west of the third principal meridian. shiU form tlie Peoria precinct ; that elections shall be held at the Clerk's office, and that Stephen French, Abner Eads and John Phillips shall be judges of elections in said precinct.

Mackinaw Precinct

Ordered, That all the residue of the County shall form the Mackinaw precinct ; that the elections shall be held at the house of Jesse Dillon, and that Isaac Perkins, William Eads and Thomas Dillon be appointed judges of elections in said precinct.

More Constables

Henry Allen was appointed constable, and Darius Holcomb was recommended to the Governor as a suitable person for Justice of the Peace. William Clack was authorized to keep a ferry across the Illinois river, opposite Mackinaw bluff. Francis Bulbonuit, senior, and Francis Hulbonait, junior, were licensed to keep "tavern" at the Trading House, about three miles from the town of Peoria, on the same conditions and subject to the same restrictions as those imposed on other tavern-keepers. A tavern in those da)'s meant more a dram-shop, or a place where liquors were retailed, than tavern or hotel. But no man could keep a tavern at that period in the history of the country unless he kept a bar, and the bar well supplied with liquors.

Squaring Up The Public Accounts

The remainder of this session of the court, excepting some orders relating to the county-seat, was devoted to the examination and allowance of accounts, etc., for the first nine months of the county's existence. Abner Eads was allowed twelve dollars for boarding and guarding No -ma- que, an Indian prisoner charged with murder. Elijah Hyde was allowed seventeen dollars tliirty-seven-nnd-a-half cents for conveying No - ma - que to the Sangamon county jail. William Clark was paid fifteen dollars and ninety cents for "services rendered as per bill on file." Hugh Monlvromery received five dollars and seventy-five cents for guarding No- ma -(jue ; John (irifliii, same services, eight dollars and fifty cents; Augustus Langworthy, five dollars for medical services rendered No -ma -que; Samuel Fulton, sheriff, eighteen dollars and seventy-five cents; Alexander McNaughton, five duUars for viewing road; Josiah Fulton, eight dollars for guarding Noma-inie : Sti'idii'ii French, five dollars and fifty ecnts for services as road viewer; Isaac Perkins, one (lollar as judge of election : James Barnes, three dollars for services as road viewer; William Clark, three dollars for similar .services; Joseph Ogee, six dollars for use of his house for holding Circuit Court ; John Barker, one dollar eighteen and threefourths cents for ferryage ; John Sharp, guarding No -ma -que, four dollars ; William Clark six dollars for same services ; Norman Hyde, two dollars for book for use of liis (iflici- ;is Probate Juilge ; Aichibald Allen for A. (ialitin ; Williiim Lee and Elliott Lee, filutii dollars lor guaiding No -ma - qiit- ; Aijuilla MofTatt. iwn dullar.s for guarding No - ma - que. Total, from March 7th - the day of the election - to December 6th. iiiclud- ing allowances previously quoted, $226.15. To this should be added the per diem of the commissioners, which is not entered this year. Supposing it to be fifty dollars, and the total of expenditures amount to $276.15.

Sheripp'S Accotjnt

Besides the County Commissioners, Sheriff, Coroner and County Clerk, the following officers were sworn into office between the 8th day of March, and 21st day of December, 1825 :

In addition, there were a number of constables and minor officers, but no consecutive register of their names or the date when the}' qualified, was kept.

For justices of the peace there was but little absolute necessity. There was not much marrying in those daj's, sueing nor being sued, nor many fineable offenses committed. From the time the county machinerj" was set in motion on the 8tli day of March, 1825, until the last session of the court in 1826, which was held in December, the amount of fines collected was only sixteen dollars and fifty cents. The people of the different settlements were a kind of law unto themselves, and generally attended to their own business, and gave no occasion for the interference of officei's of the law. The laws of honor prevailed to a much greater extent than in later years, and most of the settlers considered their word as good as their bond. The}' respected the rights, the situation and necessities of each other, and tried to help their neighbors instead of harassing them by " going to law " with them about trifles. These conditions were the foundations of Peoria's prosperity.

As already known, all the country west of Peoria county to the Mississippi river and north to the State line, as well as a jjart of the country east of the Illinois river, was subject to the jurisdiction of the Commissioners' Court, from the records of which we are quoting. In all that immense territory there were only one hundred and twenty-three tax-payers in 1825, as certified by Assessor Bogardus. His report is here appended :

Smith, William. I called on him for the amount ol personal properly. He refused to render the same. As near as I can ascertain, il amounts 10 $150.